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a normal dip angle.
“This was surprising as we expected to image large, older flat slab to the north. Instead, we found that the flat slab north of the subducting Nazca Ridge tears and reinitiates normal, steep subduction,” said lead author Sanja Knezevic Antonijevic, a student at the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Suction and trench retreat previously were theorized to be sufficient to create a flat slab. Suction is created between the upper plate and the downgoing slab, because the surrounding mantle is too viscous to creep into the narrow space between the two plates. Trench retreat occurs when the subducting oceanic plate moves dominantly downward, not laterally forward, resulting in an oceanward migration of the continent and trench.
However the team’s model shows that the subduction of the ridge is necessary for the flat slab’s formation, presumably because the buoyancy of the volcanically thickened Nazca Ridge keeps this portion of the plate from plunging steeply into the mantle. What’s more, removing the ridge from the model causes the flat slab to become unstable.
“Our model provides insights into the way that the Peruvian flat slab formed and evolved over time that can be applied to the studies of other flat-slab subduction events, such as the one that formed the Rocky Mountains,” Wagner said.
Reference:
The role of ridges in the formation and longevity of flat slabs, Sanja Knezevic Antonijevic, Lara S. Wagner, Abhash Kumar, Susan L. Beck, Maureen D. Long, George Zandt, Hernando Tavera & Cristobal Condori. DOI: 10.1038/nature14648Something interesting unfolded during SEC Media Days on Wednesday. After Nick Saban’s press conference, during which no reporter asked him about the status of Cam Robinson, SEC Network cut to a commercial.
However, the microphones of Dari Nowkhah and at least one member of the panel (Marcus Spears, Greg McElroy, Paul Finebaum) were still on, and before the commercials started, those microphones picked up one of the panelists squawking like a chicken and Nowkhah asking if Saban owned the media.
The situation took another twist when SEC Network came back from break, and the panel blasted the reporters in attendance for not asking about Robinson at all.
Nowkhah then acknowledged his comments before the break, and asked Finebaum if the notion of Saban owning the media was debatable. He said it wasn’t, and directly said that Saban owned the media while also saying the press conference was an embarrassment for the media.
Furthermore, ESPN isn’t shying away from the situation – because they tweeted out Finebaum’s quote almost immediately after he said it.
"I may not be the most objective person to make this statement, but Nick Saban owns the media." – @finebaum pic.twitter.com/Bbf7Ph4Wau — SEC Network (@SECNetwork) July 13, 2016
The status of Robinson was eventually questioned, but not during the main press conference. Saban was asked about Robinson in something called the “Internet Room”.
Nick Saban is taking questions in the Internet Room right now at #SECMD16 pic.twitter.com/3illzKfVec — Derek Ponamsky (@DerekPonamsky) July 13, 2016
Saban: If Robinson/Jones continue to finish community service tasks they will be able to play in the opener — Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) July 13, 2016
Saban: "To think the only way to help players is suspend them for games is a punitive attitude that may not be correct." — Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) July 13, 2016
Saban: "I think the prosecutor made the decision based on the body of work and what the laws are." — Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) July 13, 2016
Alright, so let’s recap.
-ESPN calls out the media for not asking Saban about Robinson.
-ESPN questions whether or not Saban owns the media, and an ESPN personality directly states he does.
-Meanwhile, a question about Robinson actually is asked, but it’s not on TV.
What a bizarre situation. Accidentally get caught calling out a coach, acknowledge you called out the coach, call out the coach again, call out the media at the same time, and then the coach answers the question the media didn’t ask on camera in a lower profile setting.
Exhausting.Brad DeLong is mad at Tyler Cowen, with reason — for Cowen writes about US fiscal irresponsibility, fairly sensibly, without mentioning the elephant, and I do mean elephant, in the room: the role of the post-Reagan GOP.
Look: until 1980 or so the United States generally paid its way; the ratio of debt to GDP generally fell over time. Then starve-the-beast came to power, and fiscal realism went away. That’s the story; anyone who glosses over that, who makes it a plague-on-both-houses issue or, worse, makes it seem as if Obama is the villain, is in an essential way misleading his readers.
Bear in mind, too, that the signature initiatives of Republican presidents — the Reagan tax cut, the Bush tax cut, the Medicare drug benefit — have all been unfunded deficit-raisers; the signature initiatives of Democratic presidents — the Clinton tax hike, Obamacare — have all been deficit-reducing. (Yes, the stimulus — but that was intended to be temporary, and has in fact proved too temporary; and Bush I’s tax increase was an exception, but the GOP has made it clear that nothing like that will ever happen again.)
Democrats aren’t fiscal saints. But we have one party that has been generally responsible, and tries to pay for what it wants, and another party that consistently, deliberately, takes actions to increase deficits in the long term. Saying this may be shrill; but not saying it is being deceptive.The ruling was groundbreaking in various respects. In addition to establishing Connecticut as the third state to sanction same-sex marriage, it was the first state high court ruling to hold that civil union statutes specifically violated the equal protection clause of a state constitution. The Massachusetts high court held in 2004 that same-sex marriages were legal, while California’s court decision in May related to domestic partnerships and not the more broadly defined civil unions.
The Connecticut decision, which elicited strong dissenting opinions from three justices, also opened the door to marriage a bit wider for gay couples in New York, where state laws do not provide for same-sex marriages or civil unions, although Gov. David A. Paterson recently issued an executive order requiring government agencies to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.
The opinion in Connecticut was hailed by jubilant gay couples and their advocates as a fulfillment of years of hopes and dreams. Hugs, kisses and cheers greeted eight same-sex couples as they entered the ballroom at the Hartford Hilton, where four years ago they had announced they would file a lawsuit seeking marriage licenses.
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One of those couples, Joanne Mock, 53, and her partner, Elizabeth Kerrigan, 52, stood with their twin 6-year-old sons, choking back tears of joy and gratitude. Another plaintiff, Garret Stack, 59, introduced his partner, John Anderson, 63, and said: “For 28 years we have been engaged. We can now register at Home Depot and prepare for marriage.”
Religious and conservative groups called the ruling an outrage but not unexpected, and spoke of steps to enact a constitutional ban on gay marriage. Peter Wolfgang, executive director of the Family Institute of Connecticut, blamed “robed masters” and “philosopher kings” on the court. “This is about our right to govern ourselves,” he said. “It is bigger than gay marriage.”
But the state, a principal defendant in the lawsuit, appeared to be resigned to the outcome.
Gov. M. Jodi Rell said that she disagreed with the decision, but would uphold it. “The Supreme Court has spoken,” she said. “I do not believe their voice reflects the majority of the people of Connecticut. However, I am also firmly convinced that attempts to reverse this decision, either legislatively or by amending the state Constitution, will not meet with success.”
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said his office was reviewing the decision to determine whether laws and procedures will have to be revised — local officials will issue marriage licenses to gay couples without question, for example — but he offered no challenge and said it would soon be implemented.
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The case was watched far beyond Hartford. Vermont, New Hampshire and New Jersey all have civil union statutes, while Maine, Washington, Oregon and Hawaii have domestic partnership laws that allow same-sex couples many of the same rights granted to those in civil unions. Advocates for same-sex couples have long argued that civil unions and domestic partnerships denied them the financial, social and emotional benefits accorded in a marriage.
The legal underpinnings for gay marriages, civil unions and statutory partnerships have all come in legislative actions and decisions in lawsuits. Next month, however, voters in California will decide whether the state Constitution should permit same-sex marriage.
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The Connecticut case began in 2004 after the eight same-sex couples were denied marriage licenses by the town of Madison. Reflecting the contentiousness and wide interest in the case, a long list of state, national and international organizations on both sides filed friend-of-the-court briefs. The plaintiffs contended that the denial of marriage licenses deprived them of due process and equal protection under the law.
While the case was pending, the legislature in 2005 adopted a law establishing the right of same-sex partners to enter into civil unions that conferred all the rights and privileges of marriage. But, at the insistence of the governor, the law also defined marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
Arguments in the case centered on whether civil unions and marriages conferred equal rights, and on whether same-sex couples should be treated as what the court called a “suspect class” or “quasi-suspect class” — a group, like blacks or women, that has experienced a history of discrimination and was thus entitled to increased scrutiny and protection by the state in the promulgation of its laws.
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Among the criteria for inclusion as a suspect class, the court said, were whether gay people could “control” their sexual orientation, whether they were “politically powerless” and whether being gay had a bearing on one’s ability to contribute to society.
A lower-court judge, Patty Jenkins Pittman of Superior Court in New Haven, sided with the state, denying that gay men and lesbians were entitled to special consideration as a suspect class and concluding that the differences between civil unions and marriages amounted to no more than nomenclature. The Supreme Court reversed the lower-court ruling.
“Although marriage and civil unions do embody the same legal rights under our law, they are by no means equal,” Justice Palmer wrote in the majority opinion, joined by Justices Flemming L. Norcott Jr., Joette Katz and Lubbie Harper. “The former is an institution of transcendent historical, cultural and social significance, whereas the latter is not.”
The court said it was aware that many people held deep-seated religious, moral and ethical convictions about marriage and homosexuality, and that others believed gays should be treated no differently than heterosexuals. But it said such views did not bear on the questions before the court.
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“There is no doubt that civil unions enjoy a lesser status in our society than marriage,” the court said. “Ultimately, the message of the civil unions law is that what same-sex couples have is not as important or as significant as real marriage.”
In one dissenting opinion, Justice David M. Bordon contended that there was no conclusive evidence that civil unions are inferior to marriages, and he argued that gay people have “unique and extraordinary” political power that does not warrant heightened constitutional protections.
Justice Peter T. Zarella, in another dissent, argued that the state marriage laws dealt with procreation, which was not a factor in gay relationships. “The ancient definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman has its basis in biology, not bigotry,” he wrote.
About 1,800 couples have obtained civil unions in Connecticut since the law was adopted three years ago, although gay-rights advocates say the demand has slowed. They cite complaints that the unions leave many people feeling not quite married but not quite single, facing forms that mischaracterize their status and questions at airports challenging their ties to their own children.
But marriage will soon be a possibility for gay couples like Janet Peck, 55, and Carol Conklin, 53, of West Hartford, who have been partners for 33 years. “I so look forward to the day when I can take this woman’s hand, look deeply into her eyes and pledge my deep love and support and commitment to her in marriage,” Ms. Peck said.TULSA, Okla. – A jail officer in Oklahoma tried to smuggle in drugs using a burrito, investigators say.
Kevin Mayo, 20, was first questioned after the jail received a tip that he was “bringing contraband into the jail,” according to KFOR. Mayo is a detention officer with the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office.
Investigators searched Mayo’s backpack, where they found hydrocodone, two grams of meth and more than four grams of marijuana wrapped inside a burrito. They also discovered rolling papers hidden in a pack of gum and cell phone chargers in his backpack.
In addition, deputies located a cell phone in his sock and lighters in his pocket.
Mayo initially told investigators that he didn’t know anything about the phone but later admitted he was smuggling it inside for an inmate.
He faces several charges, including conspiracy to commit a felony and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Mayo has been with the sheriff’s office since March, according to KFOR.By By Karen Graham Dec 30, 2015 in Food The U.S. Department of justice (DOJ) has opened an investigation into Blue Bell Creameries, CBS News reported Tuesday evening. Attorneys from the DOJ’s Consumer Protection Branch will be in charge of the probe. It was only recently that the company returned to the market, and only on a staged basis. On the same day the DOJ announced its investigation into Blue Bell, the company announced it was about to enter the fifth phase of its market re-entry plan on Jan. 18. Ice cream will be available in stores in middle and eastern Tennessee, the northern sections of Alabama and Georgia and parts of Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, according to What the DOJ is investigating Using the Freedom of Information Act, in October, CBS News acquired the finished FDA inspection reports issued in early May on the unsanitary conditions at Blue Bell's production facilities. Even though the FDA said earlier reports did not show evidence of Listeria contamination, the agency did note What CBS found in the reports was enough that it should have led to the subsequent investigation into the company at that time. Investigations by the FDA found Blue Bell’s Listeria contamination was reported to company officials as early as 2013 along with other in-plant sanitation problems, including water getting into production facilities. The DOJ is faced with the challenge of determining when and what Blue Bell executives actually knew about the bad inspection reports, and why they apparently chose to ignore them. Blue Bell Creamery has not responded to reports of the criminal inquiry. In the The investigation is led by Patrick Hearn, the USAA who prosecuted the executives of the Peanut Corporation of America earlier this year, according to CBS News Digital Journal has been closely following the Listeria monocytogenes outbreak that started in March 2015, claiming the lives of three people after they ate Blue Bell Creamery's ice cream. By April, an additional 10 cases of Listeriosis were discovered and the company was forced to shut down all three of its production plants and recall all of its ice cream products.It was only recently that the company returned to the market, and only on a staged basis. On the same day the DOJ announced its investigation into Blue Bell, the company announced it was about to enter the fifth phase of its market re-entry plan on Jan. 18. Ice cream will be available in stores in middle and eastern Tennessee, the northern sections of Alabama and Georgia and parts of Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia, according to The Fort Bend herald Using the Freedom of Information Act, in October, CBS News acquired the finished FDA inspection reports issued in early May on the unsanitary conditions at Blue Bell's production facilities. Even though the FDA said earlier reports did not show evidence of Listeria contamination, the agency did note there were numerous violations of food safety protocols What CBS found in the reports was enough that it should have led to the subsequent investigation into the company at that time. Investigations by the FDA found Blue Bell’s Listeria contamination was reported to company officials as early as 2013 along with other in-plant sanitation problems, including water getting into production facilities.The DOJ is faced with the challenge of determining when and what Blue Bell executives actually knew about the bad inspection reports, and why they apparently chose to ignore them. Blue Bell Creamery has not responded to reports of the criminal inquiry.In the DOJ investigation into the Peanut Corporation of America, Stewart Parnell, PCA’s executive officer, sent emails with orders to “just ship em” when he knew peanut products were contaminated with Salmonella. Parnell was sentenced to 28 years in prison, and his peanut broker brother was sentenced to 20 years. More about Blue Bell Creameries, Investigation, Dept of Justice, listeia outbreak, Unsanitary conditions More news from Blue Bell Creameries Investigation Dept of Justice listeia outbreak Unsanitary condition...October 3 is the 100th anniversary of the Revenue Act of 1913 and with it, the first federal income tax of the 20th century. The law is often trotted out in tax reform discussions, especially by those convinced that the modern tax regime has strayed from its origins.
"People supported the income tax because it was originally meant to impose only very low tax rates on only the highest incomes," wrote Raymond J. Keating in a 1996 article for The Freeman. "Proponents argued that the 16th amendment to the U.S. Constitution would force the so-called 'robber barons' to pay taxes. It was not supposed to provide a mechanism for Washington to reach into most Americans' pockets."1
There's some truth to that argument -- but not much. Assuming that intent is best found among the people doing the intending, there's no reason to assign much normative value to the boundaries of the original law. In 1913 Congress enacted a top rate of 7 percent and a high exemption that spared all but 2 percent of households entirely. But just five years later, the top rate was 11 times higher. Many of the same lawmakers who voted for the light and narrow tax of 1913 also voted for the heavy and much broader tax of 1918.
Still, the 1913 act deserves some scrutiny because many of the arguments surrounding its enactment remain alive today. If nothing else, history can remind us that issues of fiscal fairness were just as nettlesome then as they are now.
A Dangerous Man
President Wilson had some dangerous ideas, at least in the view of many business leaders. As they waited for his inauguration in March 1913, the lords of "financial feudalism" found Wilson's opinion of the tariff especially problematic.2 The president-elect had long maintained that steep import duties shielded business from healthy competition (and, in doing so, promoted monopoly). Wilson also insisted that politics made the tariff "one of the most colossal systems of deliberate patronage that has ever been conceived."3 Finally, Wilson believed that the tariff was sneaky. "Very few of us taste the tariff in our sugar," he observed.4
Those ideas struck business leaders as distinctly unwholesome. Even more disconcerting, however, was Wilson's new revenue tool that he might use to fix the tariff. The 16th Amendment was ratified just a few weeks before his inauguration, and most observers expected the new president and his congressional allies to move quickly to enact a new tax on individual and corporate income.
And they did. The world moved more slowly in 1913 than it does today, but eight months after Wilson arrived in the Oval Office, he signed the 1913 revenue act into law. Most of the law was devoted to tariff reform, but many observers were fixated on the income tax. "Knocked out of a Democratic tariff bill by the Supreme Court eighteen years ago, thus in the whirligig of time" the tax "comes back from the grave in which it has rested ill and taps again at the door of a Democratic Administration," wrote Angus McSween of the Philadelphia North American.
The new income levy took shape in the House of Representatives, and especially in the office of Rep. Cordell Hull, who provided an early draft. Like many Southern Democrats, Hull was a longtime champion of taxing income, and he sketched out a low, flat-rate levy on a small group of very rich taxpayers.
But some Democrats had other ideas. According to Randolph Paul -- one of the great fiscal historians of the 20th century, as well as a leading Treasury official in the 1940s -- Rep. John Nance Garner led the drive for a graduated rate structure. Hull was reluctant, worried that progressive rates would leave the new tax vulnerable to judicial and political challenges. Eventually, however, he agreed to a modest amount of graduation. Rates in the House bill topped out at 4 percent.5
The House version of the income tax included a $4,000 exemption for both single and married taxpayers -- almost $100,000 in 2013 dollars. Wilson specifically asked Hull to set the exemption high, because he was eager to "burden as small a number of persons (as possible) with the obligations involved in the administration of what will at best be an unpopular law."
After passing the House, the tariff bill moved to the Senate, where left-leaning Democrats and progressive Republicans were intent on raising income tax rates. The Finance Committee resisted those changes, instead focusing on exemption levels. In particular, the panel lowered the exemption to $3,000 for single filers but kept the House's $4,000 figure for married couples. Finance members created a $500 child exemption (with a $1,000 maximum).
When the tariff bill reached the floor, insurgent Democrats and progressive Republicans teamed up to push for higher rates, with some amendments seeking to raise top rates as high as 20 percent. But the bill's Democratic floor manager, Sen. John Sharp Williams, tried to beat back the insurgency. "No honest man can make war upon great fortunes per se," he insisted. "The Democratic Party never has done it; and when the Democratic Party begins to do it, it will cease to be the Democratic Party and become the socialistic party of the United States; or better expressed, the communistic party, or quasi-communistic party, of the United States."
Williams had plenty of support from old-line Republicans like Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, who denounced the "confiscation of property under the guise of taxation." Lodge urged his colleagues not to transform "the imposition of a tax to the pillage of class."6
Democratic leaders and their conservative Republican allies eventually agreed to a compromise with the insurgents. As passed by the Senate, the income tax law featured rates as high as 7 percent -- a long way from 20 percent, to be sure, but also a fair distance from the House's top rate of 4 percent. The Senate's higher rates prevailed in the conference committee, and the tariff bill moved smoothly to final passage. Wilson happily signed it on October 3, and the new income tax (made retroactive to March 1) took effect immediately.
Complaints
Rates and exemptions were not the only contentious aspects of the new tax. As it moved through Congress, critics railed about its complexity. "I guess you will have to go to jail," wrote Sen. Elihu Root to a correspondent. "If that is the result of not understanding the Income Tax law I shall meet you there. We will have a merry, merry time, for all our friends will be there. It will be an intellectual center, for no one understands the Income Tax law except persons who have not sufficient intelligence to understand the questions that arise under it."
Administrative provisions of the law were controversial, especially the requirement that much of the tax be collected at source. Withholding had been used during the Civil War to collect taxes on some kinds of income, but the 1913 act envisioned a more ambitious regime. In particular, the law required withholding on dividend and interest payments paid out by corporations, as well as rent, interest, wages, and salaries paid by both corporations and individuals. (Eventually, critics would win the argument about withholding, persuading lawmakers in 1916 to repeal it. It would not reappear until World War II.)
Another controversial aspect of the law was its geographic incidence. Observers understood that the new levy would fall most heavily on the Northeastern states (as had the Civil War income tax). Yankee lawmakers complained long and hard about that fact, arguing that the law's high exemption was to blame. But Hull, mustering well-rehearsed Southern arguments, insisted that the tax was sectional because "wealth first made itself sectional." In other words, the North paid more because the North had more. "It would be monstrous to say that the receivers of great incomes which are drawn from every section of the country may segregate themselves and on the plea of segregation or sectionalism successfully exempt their entire wealth from taxation," Hull said.
In the Senate, Sen. James Lewis offered an even more vigorous defense of the law's geographic incidence. In response to complaints from Root that New Yorkers would be overpaying, Lewis was openly scornful. "Who are the people of New York for whom the senator is so solicitous?" Lewis asked. "Are they those who breed around Wall Street and flock to the Waldorf-Astoria? Are they those whose names are seldom found on the assessors' lists, but who hover around the Mediterranean in the summer and the islands of the Caribbean in the winter?"7
For his part, Root claimed to support the income tax in principle, but he insisted that the high exemption was dangerous and unfair. "I am in favor of an income tax," he declared. "And I believe in the principle of it. I think it is fair, and I voted for the income tax amendment to the Constitution, and urged it upon my people. I have no fault to find with an income tax or a graded tax, but if you impose too great a tax upon the industrial States you will, to that extent, diminish their taxable resources for State or other local purposes."8
Ultimately, however, if Root had no problem with a graded tax, plenty of other observers did. Editorial critics objected to the high exemption as a form of class legislation. The New York Sun, for instance, called it "taxation of the few for the benefit of the many." And their crosstown colleagues were similarly unhappy. "The aim of the cumulative tax is to take from those who have much for the benefit of those who have little," The New York Times wrote. At the end of the day, such a tax would hurt the rich (and the economy) but do little to help the poor.9
Indeed, The New York Times had succinctly voiced its objections some four years earlier when the 16th Amendment first made its way to the states. "When men once get the habit of helping themselves to the property of others, they are not easily cured of it," the paper warned.10
Misplaced Nostalgia
The 1913 debate over rates and exemptions did nothing to resolve those contentious issues. Indeed, they have remained at the center of most political tax debates ever since. And as modern politicians wrangle over tax reform, many point nostalgically to the low, narrow tax of 1913 as some sort of object lesson. In a 2011 presidential debate, for instance, Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., eagerly observed that "when we got the income tax in 1913, the top rate was 7 percent. By 1980, the top rate was 70 percent."
True enough. But, in fact, the rate had reached 77 percent by 1918, just five years after Congress created its first, single-digit levy. World War I explains the rapid escalation in rates, of course. But the willingness of lawmakers to transform the income tax in the face of national emergency tells us something about the way they viewed that tax in the first place. After all, lawmakers had other revenue options.
But the income tax had several virtues. To begin with, it was already on the books, and its administrative machinery, while embryonic, was at least operational. That couldn't be said for most alternatives, including any form of broad-based consumption tax (other than the tariff, which was a poor revenue tool in wartime).
But almost as important, the income tax struck many wartime lawmakers as fair. Which is no surprise, because many of those same lawmakers had voted for the tax -- and endorsed its fairness claims -- just five years before. The low taxers of 1913 were the high taxers of 1918. Necessity may have forced their hand during the wartime emergency, but lawmakers of the late 1910s were not somehow wed to the notion of low-rate income taxes. If the legislative majority was wed to anything, it was to the essential fairness of taxing income. And to taxing it progressively.
FOOTNOTES
Raymond J. Keating, "Original Intent and the Income Tax,", Feb. 1, 1996,
2 Randolph E. Paul, Taxation in the United States (Boston: Little Brown, 1954), at 99. Unless otherwise cited, all quotations from political and journalistic sources are drawn from Paul's magisterial -- but maddeningly unfootnoted -- chronicle of the law's development.
3 "Wilson Hits Tariff and the Third Party," The New York Times, Sept. 10, 1912, available at http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F00C1FFB3A5E13738DDDA90994D1405B828DF1D3.
4 Woodrow Wilson, Congressional Government: A Study in American Politics (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1900), available at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/35861/35861-h/35861-h.htm.
5 Sidney Ratner, Taxation and Democracy in America (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1967), at 325-326.
6 Id. at 331.
7 "Lewis Clashes With Root," Chicago Daily Tribune (1872-1922) Sept. 3, 1913, at 5.
8 "Root Wants to Tax Small Incomes, Too," The New York Times, Sept. 3, 1913, at 11.
9 "Anti-Wealth Policy," The New York Times, Sept. 3, 1913, at 6.
10 "An Unnecessary Amendment," The New York Times, July 8, 1909.
END OF FOOTNOTESPhoto: Gabriel Garcia Marengo via Flickr
This week, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration announced new safety regulations for unmanned aircraft weighing less than 55 pounds (25 kilograms) that are conducting non-hobbyist operations. In other words, the pilots and drones shooting your wedding video, trailing a snowboarder to catch the best trick as seen from above, or taking aerial footage of the horse ranch for sale in the next county now have dictates to follow.
The general sUAS (small unmanned aircraft systems) rules that the FAA announced last year did a reasonable job of regulating small drones flown by hobbyists for fun. However, the rules did not make life any easier for anyone who wanted to fly a drone while making money; commercial operators were still required to register separately through a cumbersome and antiquated process involving paper.
The FAA promised that sometime in the spring of this year, they’d announce a streamlined registration process for commercial sUAS. Technically, they missed spring by a couple days, but the new commercial drone rules are finally here. In short, if you’re making money with your drone—by taking pictures or videos with it or whatever—and it weights less than 25 kg but more than 0.25 kg, these are the rules that with apply to you. They’re slightly different from the rules for recreational hobby drones, so it’s worth browsing what’s new:
Visual Line of Sight (VLOS) flight only. You have to be able to see your drone with your eyeballs. Autonomy is okay, as is FPV, as long as eyeball-VLOS is preserved and you can take control.
Commercial drones are allowed to fly during twilight, which is 30 minutes before sunrise and 30 minutes after sunset, as long as the drone is well lit.
Maximum speed is 100 miles per hour (about 160 km/h). Maximum altitude is 400 ft (about 122 meters), but you can go as high as you want as long as you’re also within 400 ft of a structure, presumably to allow for inspection tasks.
You can’t operate a drone from another aircraft, but you can operate it from a moving vehicle, as long as nobody else is around (“in sparsely populated areas”).
“External load operations are allowed if the object being carried by the unmanned aircraft is securely attached and does not adversely affect the flight characteristics or controllability of the aircraft.” Cool!
“Transportation of property for compensation or hire allowed provided that the aircraft, including its attached systems, payload and cargo weigh less than 55 pounds [25 kg] total; the flight is conducted within visual line of sight and not from a moving vehicle or aircraft; and” you’re not trying to do it in Washington, D.C. or between islands in Hawaii.
“The new rule does not specifically deal with privacy issues in the use of drones, and the FAA does not regulate how UAS gather data on people or property.” But they’re working on it, and in the meantime, you’re encouraged to obey local laws and not be a creeper or a jerk.
Other requirements for the aircraft and pilot:
The drone must be registered and comply with all of the registration rules about markings and stuff.
“The FAA is not requiring small UAS to comply with current agency airworthiness standards or aircraft certification. Instead, the remote pilot will simply have to perform a preflight visual and operational check of the small UAS to ensure that safety-pertinent systems are functioning property.”
The pilot must “either hold a remote pilot airman certificate with a small UAS rating or be under the direct supervision of a person who does hold a remote pilot certificate.”
Want a remote pilot certificate? Great! You’ll need to be at least 16, pass an initial aeronautical knowledge test at an FAA-approved knowledge testing center, and get a security background check from the TSA, which ought to be a lot of fun and will make everybody feel much safer.
If you feel like any of these rules have the potential to get all up in your business, the FAA helpfully points out that “most of the restrictions discussed above are waivable if the applicant demonstrates that his or her operation can safely be conducted under the terms of a certificate of waiver.”
One other interesting thing: these rules don’t apply to moored balloons, kites, amateur rockets, and unmanned free balloons. We’ve been wondering whether this could lead to some interesting loopholes to exploit. Predictably, and sadly, the FAA is on top of this: to count as a balloon, an aircraft can’t have engines on it, so no getting around these rules with blimps or zeppelins. And kites don’t have engines on them either, which means that tethered powered unmanned aircraft don’t count as kites.
Everything goes into effect in August of this year; you can read the entire Part 107 ruleset (only 624 pages!) here.
[ FAA ]A 21-page report provides insight into the undercover FBI investigation, beginning Aug. 5, that culminated in the Friday arrest of Terry Lee Loewen as he attempted to drive a car filled with what he believed to be explosives into a restricted area of Wichita’s Mid-Continent Airport.
The report is part of the criminal complaint federal prosecutors filed in charging Loewen with terrorist activity, including attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, after his foiled attempt to detonate a car bomb at the Wichita airport where he worked.
The complaint relies on testimony from FBI special agent Stephen Cousineau, who says numerous conversations between Loewen and undercover agents provide information to prove probable cause.
Here in timeline form are excerpts from the criminal complaint:
Aug. 5: Loewen states in a conversation with an FBI agent his desire to engage in violent jihad on behalf of al Qaeda. He speaks of researching Islam, martyrdom operations and Sharia law, indicating he doesn't know how one can read the Qur'an and not understand jihad is demanded of all the Islamic Nation. "I feel so guilt-ridden sometimes for knowing what's required of me but yet doing little or nothing to make it happen," Loewen is quoted as saying.
Aug. 8: "Brothers like Osama bin Laden and Anwar al Awlaki are a great inspriation to me, but I must be willing to give up everything (like they did) to truly feel like a (sic) obedient slave of Allah." Loewen expresses concern for the undercover agent, noting he wouldn't want to put any brothers or sisters in harm's way. Days later, he indicates he has read Awlaki's 44 ways of jihad.
Aug. 21: "Let me get to the bottom line without being too revealing — I have numerous ideas of ways I could perform jihad in the path of Allah... I'm 58 years old and spending my remaining years behind bars for a good reason is not out of the question for me."
Aug. 26: Loewen offers a tour of the airport where he worked. "I MUST be active in some kind of (dare I say it) jihad to feel I'm doing something proactive for the Ummah."
Aug. 27: Loewen expresses anxiety about trying to reach out to other Muslims for help in his mission. He points out that he would be able to escort people onto the tarmac, which leads to the airliners and control tower. As early as January, he would be able to bring a vehicle |
who has a strong physical presence and will provide us with a different profile to our other centre-backs. He showed a strong desire to join our team and is highly motivated to help us reach our objectives.”
Transaction: The Montreal Impact acquires Deian Boldor on loan from Bologna FC until June 30, 2018, with an option to extend the loan.
DEIAN BOLDOR
Position: Centre-back
Height: 6’2’’
Weight: 180 lbs
Birthdate and birthplace: February 3, 1995, in Timisoara, Romania
Citizenship: Romanian
Last club: Bologna FC 1909
Date acquired: July 20, 2017Pedro has expressed his frustration at being restricted largely to a watching brief for Spain at Euro 2016.
The Chelsea forward came off the bench late on in the European champions' 1-0 opening-match win over Czech Republic, but was unused in Friday's 3-0 thrashing of Turkey.
And that lack of game time in France has prompted an extraordinary outburst from the 28-year-old, which is unlikely to please boss Vicente del Bosque.
"I had other expectations when I arrived here. It is not what I wanted," the former Barcelona player told Zero. "To assume this role is difficult. If you don't see continuity, coming here to stay with the group is no longer worth it.
"I think situations get to that point where you have to make a decision. That happens to everyone in football.
"I'll think, I will meditate. Now is not the best time to talk, out of respect for my team-mates and my coach, who has always trusted me. I have to think."
Pedro, who recently backtracked on claims he could leave Chelsea and return to Camp Nou, has won 58 caps for his country.
Spain have already secured their place in the next round and conclude their Group D campaign against Croatia on Tuesday.After spending about 6 months in alpha-beta-development-maybe-kind-live mode, we have recently moved Wikipedia Mobile over to a new fast and sexy server. With this new server, we’ve reached the point in development where we can call this baby “launched”!
When I was brought on board at Wikimedia, I was tasked with endowing Wikimedia with a compelling mobile offering. From the beginning, we knew we were going to focus on “fully featured” smart phones. These phones are taking more and more of the market and we believe they will have an easy majority-share in a couple years. The goal is to build for the future.
At the moment, the Mobile site supports iPhone, Kindle, Android, and Palm Pre. And we fully support both English and German. There are other working languages, but they haven’t been fully translated yet. Our goal is to grow slowly and do it really well. We are starting out simple with limited support in order to test the usability and the platform’s stability. So far, things are looking good.
During the beta test period, we’ve served around 10,000,000 pages. You can view the hourly stats here (updated every hour on the hour). And with this new test server, we should be able to do more.
Based off of requests from Google and the Palm Pre folks… and with what just makes sense. We are doing default mobile redirects. That is, if you open a wikipedia link on a supported mobile device, then you get redirected automatically to the mobile gateway. If you click the “View this page on main Wikipedia” then we disable that redirect with a cookie. This way, the 99% of people using mobile devices to read Wikipedia on-the-go have a seemless experience. And, the 1% who like to edit on their mobile device can use their browser to view the main site and do all the fancy things that they like doing. We suspect an initial outcry from the editors that use their mobile devices, but hope that will calm down. We’ve had very good feedback from the 99% and so we can’t forget those folks. If anyone has any suggestions on how to make this easier for the 1% who are editing while mobile, we’d love to hear from you.
If you want live updates about the Mobile site then you can follow WikimediaMobile on Twitter. Also, if you know any Ruby, you can grab the source code via git from Github and helpout! Feel free to contact me via email with any questions.
Also, special thanks to Nic Williams and Ryan Bigg from Mocra for help with the Ruby 1.9 transition and thanks to Yahuda Katz for help with the XML parsing layer and for all his work on the Merb framework.U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in Northern District of California has ruled that avoiding an IP address block to connect to a Website is a breach of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). Some have taken this decision to mean that the court's broad interpretation of the law may mean accessing Websites that are accessible only to some users by proxy servers, virtual private networks (VPN)s, or Tor may be illegal.
This decision arose from a case that all started because, unlike many other popular sites, Craigslist does not provide an application programming interface (API) for third party services to use its data. Indeed, in the summer of 2012, Craigslist briefly claimed the copyright over everything posted on Craigslist.
Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, who says that he's merely a "customer support representative" for the company, told Ars Technica last year that "I can say that our culture has always been community-driven, and what they tell us, in large numbers and for years, [is] that their posts are not to be used by others for profit." One of Craiglist's sources of income is charging for commercial apartment listings.
The case in question, Craigslist vs. 3Taps, revolved around a copyright infringement claim by Craigslist against data gathering company 3Taps. 3Taps had been scraping Craigslist rental apartment ads and then feeding the data via an API to the apartment listing company PadMapper. This business, in turn, used the data to create interactive maps using Google Maps for would-be renters. Craigslist claimed that this violated its terms of service (ToS).
So typical of a ToS legal disagreement, PadMapper and 3Taps came up with a workaround. Craigslist retaliated with a copyright claim against the two companies.
As is so often the case in circumstances like this, 3Taps countersued, claiming that Craigslist was trying to create a monopoly by squeezing out other would-be online classified advertising businesses.
Craigslist then blocked 3Taps Internet Protocol (IP) addresses from accessing its site. 3Taps continued, however, to pull Craigslist's data by concealing its identity with different IP addresses and proxy servers. Craigslist then argued that the 3Taps' subterfuge violated the CFAA which prohibits the intentional access of a computer without authorization that results in the capture of information from a protected computer.
Craiglist's CFAA claim bothered many experts.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in an amicus curiae to the Court stated that the CFAA had "been stretched to cover all sorts of non-hacking behavior. (PDF Link) This case perhaps represents the zenith of this trend: plaintiff Craigslist, Inc. (“Craigslist”) alleges defendant 3Taps Inc. (“3Taps”) violated the CFAA and Penal Code § 502 by copying data on Craigslist’s publicly available website and then republishing that information on its own website. Imposing CFAA liability under these circumstances means that it can now become criminal to copy and paste data from a publicly available website intended to be seen by as many people as possible on the Internet. A person using Craigslist to look for an apartment is authorized to write notes on a pen and paper, or manually plot apartment listings on a paper map. The same behavior should not be treated as criminal simply because it was done with a computer."
3Taps tried to have this CFAA claim thrown out but Breyer ruled that "This Court cannot grant an exception on to the statute (the CFAA) with no basis in the law’s language or this circuit’s interpretive precedent. Accordingly, the Court DENIES 3Taps’ motion." (PDF Link).
Orin S. Kerr, a professor of law at the George Washington University, believes Judge Breyer's decision is the first to directly address the issue that changing IP addresses to get around a block is an unauthorized access in violation of the CFAA. It's not a decision, he's happy with.
Kerr wrote, "IP addresses are very easily changed, and most people use the Internet from different IP addresses every day. As a result, attempting to block someone based on an IP address doesn’t 'block' them except in a very temporary sense. It pauses them for a few seconds more than actually blocks them."
Another legal expert, who doesn't wish to be named, doesn't see this decision having any broad effect. He summarized the decision as "The defendant moves to dismiss a CFAA complaint because the operator of a publicly-available Website cannot, it says, ban any particular user and use CFAA to enforce the ban. The court says it can't dismiss the complaint on that ground, because there's no support for the claimed immunity in the specific wording of the statute. The court says it isn't criminalizing widespread conduct, because the question involved (whether CFAA liability can attach for accessing websites one has been specifically banned from) doesn't involve those ordinary forms of cloaking," such as proxies, VPNs, or Tor.
In short, this is a decision applying only to a narrow, specific circumstance.
Hanni M. Fakhoury, staff attorney for the EFF, disagrees with the decision, "The court held that since everyone is 'authorized' to access a publicly accessible website under the CFAA, a party (here Craigslist) has to prove that this authorization was somehow revoked. In this case, the court said Craigslist's act of blocking 3Taps IP address and the cease and desist letter were enough to'revoke' the authorization. We disagree that IP address blocking is a sufficient type of technological circumvention to prove 'access with authorization' under the CFAA since (1) its common and easy to mask your IP address; and (2) there are legitimate reasons to do so."
But could this decision affect you and your use of such IP masking technologies? Fakhoury replied, "As to whether it would impact other technologies like Tor, etc., the decision doesn't criminalize those steps in isolation. The opinion only says that if you use one of these techniques to work around the revocation of your access, there's a CFAA claim." So, while not a correct decision, it's still rather narrow in its potential application.
Related Stories:When 68-year-old retired engineer Roger Wilday was walking his dog Jade in a Birmingham (England) city park on October 31, 2013, he never imagined his dog would lead him to a newborn baby girl who had been abandoned inside a bag. The hero canine was off leash and when she made the discovery she made sure Wilday became aware of the tiny human in need as well.
According to Mail Online, Wilday told reporters “Jade has grown up with children around her, she loves babies and when she found the baby in the bushes she wouldn’t leave until she knew I had seen it.”
The dog owner was astounded by the discovery, and said he believed the baby was just a few hours old since she was still warm and her umbilical cord was still attached.
Wilday called authorities and within minutes police and an ambulance arrived at the park.
BBC News reported the newborn was wrapped in a light blue blanket and was placed inside an Entertainer toy shop bag. The baby was taken to Birmingham Heartlands Hospital and doctors determined she weighed six pounds and is approximately one or two days old.
Police took the blanket and sent it to be processed for DNA. They hope the test results will help identify the baby’s parents.
The infant, now known as “Baby Jade,” was named after her four-legged hero rescuer.
“She is a hero dog,” said Wilday. “There was no one else in the park at the time and it was very cold. If it wasn’t for Jade that baby could have been dead.”
The baby was found in good health and is expected to make a full recovery. Authorities hope Baby Jade’s mother comes forward soon.Light travels so fast it can make the transatlantic journey between London and New York more than 50 times each second. With speed like that, you might wonder why there’s any interest at all in finding faster-than-light communication. But there is.
With the vast distances between objects in deep-space, even messages travelling at the speed of light take an appreciable time to arrive. The bad news is that it’s impossible to send communications any faster without breaking established laws of physics – but the good news is that some workarounds have been suggested, which hold the tantalising promise of allowing for faster-than-light, or “superluminal” communication.
So far, it has not really been necessary to develop superluminal communication to keep our conversations flowing. The furthest humans have travelled is to the Moon, approximately 384,400 kilometres away. For light to travel this distance, it will take 1.3 seconds. This is similar to the delay you may experience when calling someone on the other side of the world. Enough to lead to awkward pauses in conversation maybe, but nothing too bothersome.
Tyranny of distance
If we travelled further, though – say, to Mars – then we start to have problems. Mars is on average 225 million km away: about 12.5 minutes at light speed. Conversations between people on Mars and on Earth would be very stilted as a consequence. And the problems only get worse the further you travel. The Voyager spacecraft are already beyond the edges of our solar system, at 19.5 billion kilometres from Earth. Despite the distance, we can still receive messages from them; however each message takes 18 hours to arrive.
To communicate with Alpha Centauri, our closest star-system, located about 40 trillion kilometres away, it would take more than four years for each message to be delivered. Thus, conventional conversation is no longer feasible.
According to Einstein’s special theory of relativity, that’s the way things will stay. Nothing can go superluminal, reasoned Einstein, since the speed of light is a universal constant.
If a way around this limitation were to be discovered, it would “violate the laws of information theory and require some rethinking of basic physics”, according to Les Deutsch of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology, who has spent years designing deep space telecommunications systems for Nasa.
Today, almost all conventional communication in space is conducted using radio waves, which travel at the speed of light through the vacuum of space. Optical (Laser) communication technology is currently being introduced, but this is still in the development phase.
Warping wormholes
We may not be able to increase the speed of transmission; however we can increase the volume of information that is transmitted per second. “One of the things we are doing is moving the carrier frequency to higher in the spectrum, from 8GHz to 30GHz” says Deutsch. The higher the frequency of the signal, the greater its bandwidth and the higher the volume of information you can transmit every second. Using data compression and error correction allow us to further decrease the size of information, increasing even further the amount of data that can be sent per second.
Perhaps in future we might find ways to make the speed of the messages seem quicker. “Relativity Theory allows for things like wormholes, which you can think of as warps in spacetime, where you could have short-cuts” says Deutsch. An easy way to think of a wormhole is to draw two dots on a sheet of paper. You could draw a straight line between the two, which would be the shortest distance between the points on flat paper. However if the paper was folded, so the two dots were held close together, a pin could punch through from one to the other. In space, wormholes are unlikely to be positioned quite so conveniently, though: they might speed up some messages, but that communication still would not be instantaneous.
Other routes to superluminal communication have been considered. One involves quantum entanglement – a strange property which means two particles can share properties, no matter how far apart they are.
“With quantum entanglement, where you have two entangled particles separated from each other, if you change one then you also change the state of the other,” says Ed Trollope, a spacecraft operations engineer for Telespazio VEGA Deutschland. “It is tempting to say we will have instantaneous communication by using entangled particles.”
Tangles and tachyons
But it’s not that simple. If you have a pair of entangled particles, one particle held on a spacecraft cruising through the outer reaches of the solar system, and its partner on Earth, then it’s true that a change in the state of the particle on the spaceship would immediately cause a change in the state of its partner on Earth. But, as Trollope explains, the person monitoring the particle on Earth will be unable to work out what the change means without an explanatory message from the spacecraft – and that message will be travelling no faster than the speed of light. In other words, quantum entanglement falls short of offering a route to superluminal communication.
There are also hypothetical particles, greatly favoured by Star Trek, known as tachyons. The theory of special relativity does not forbid their existence – and if they are real, they would always travel faster than the speed of light. Again, though, they do not provide a means of superluminal communication.
“These might be moving faster than the speed of light, but tachyons are not supposed to interact,” explains Trollope. This lack of interactivity means that tachyons are unusable for the purposes of communication, since we believe it is impossible for us to create or to detect them.
If superluminal communication were possible, it would have powerful implications for space missions. “Working on Rosetta [the European Space Agency’s mission that landed a probe on a comet last year], we had a 30 to 40- minute light-time, so this does affect the way you design and operate your mission,” says Trollope. “If you have a satellite in Earth orbit, you can pretty much talk to it in real-time. When you have a 30-minute delay, it means that when you see a problem, that was 30 minutes ago. By the time you send a command, it will be 30 minutes before it happens, and it will be an hour before you see the results of that.”
For all their tantalising promise, tachyons and quantum entanglement are not plausible routes to superluminal communication. Wormholes – if they exist, and if signals can pass through them – may at least give the impression of communication at faster-than-light speed. But, as things stand, superluminal communication stretches the limits of scientific plausibility.
Share this story on Facebook, Google+ or Twitter.Previously on A Pink News Showtime, Japan bore the full brunt of the A Pink Onslaught; Bomi blew out some candles and the ladies ate their way through the streets of Hongdae. This week, the ladies will face their greatest challenge as they make sure their distinguished guest for the evening gets all the creature comforts he needs while also ensuring that they don’t do anything to annoy him lest they face the full wrath of Eunji. This is Minki’s Big Day Out.
Dull And Important Disclaimer Stuff: Lordbordem is the official penguin of the Soompi team, and as such Lordbordem talks of himself in 3rd person. As a penguin, Lordbordem does not see the world in the same way that those dastardly human editors do. Lordbordem’s opinion definitely does NOT reflect the opinions of the rest of the human Soompi Team or Soompi itself. Seriously, don’t trust a penguin.
Chapter 1 – Eunji, the sister obsessed with her little brother
We begin the day with most of the ladies lounging around the living room. I say most because Bomi is once again being the odd one out, lying underneath the coffee table while having her socks tied together by Chorong (Yeah, don’t try to make too much sense of that).
The Question Camera pings and Bomi bounces over to heed their call. This week’s question is about Eunji, who is well known for being obsessed over her little brother. The Q Camera wants to know what they are like with each other. Eunji initially denies being obsessed about her little brother. Bomi, however, backs up the Q Camera, saying that Eunji would always call and be a mother-like figure to him. In this case, that involves lots and lots of scolding according to Bomi, which rather flusters the listening Eunji.
The members mention that Minki should be on school break at the moment. Eunji tells them her brother is already quite disappointed in her for not inviting him over during the holidays. They decide on the spot to invite him over then and there, making use of the fact that Eunji has some spare time now since her drama has ended. Eunji gives her brother a call to see if he is busy. During all of this, Bomi is in the background constantly teasing Eunji about being obsessed over her little brother (Why do I get the sense that Bomi is going to regret this soon?).
Minki picks up the phone and tells them he is free to come over in a few days time. Eunji asks him what he would like to do once he’s here. His first response is that he wants to go to the lovely Cheonggyecheon stream with his sister. The other members are quick to label him a romanticist for picking the stream over more common locales like theme parks. With all that decided, Eunji asks Minki if he has anything to say to his big sister. Minki tells her he loves her and that should be the end of the call….except Hayoung suddenly chimes in and says she will tell him a three-word poem using the word cider (At this point, you shouldn’t be surprised by these random outbursts).
So what is this great poem? It must be pretty good for Hayoung to suddenly chime in about it. The great poet Hayoung says, “I love you Minki, this much, it’s all a lie” (How does this relate to cider? It does if you say it in Korean since the first syllable in each line is each of the characters of the word cider.) Great poem over, Minki made speechless, Eunji ends the call by telling her brother that she also loves him. Meanwhile, the rest of the members, fueled by jealousy, tell their non-present siblings that they love them.
Now that master Minki is coming over, they need to decide what to do. Bomi says that they should go visit the circus while on their visit to Cheonggyecheon, which is swiftly ignored by everyone else. Bomi also suggests they should cook Minki some of his favorite dishes (Which is quite scary coming from the person that made the great Kimbab leftover tower of Apink News Season 1). Eunji reveals that he is a bit of a carnivore but even among the numerous types of lovely meat available, he especially a big fan of duck meat. Meal decided, what next? The circus! Bomi once again suggests the circus and once again the members aren’t particular enthused by it. Instead Hayoung suggests that Bomi can perform a bunch of circus acts herself. (Which means we will most likely see a bunch of zoo animals by the end of this episode)
Next – Minki arrives in Seoul while A Pink channels the spirit of Daejanggeum
Chapter 2 – A Pink’s Shopping Time
It’s a bright new day and Eunji is up early to pick up her brother from the station. Eunji already looks quite upbeat and has a new name for this episode, Minki and Eunji’s Showtime. In the car, Eunji proceeds to bring up pictures of her brother and boast proudly about her brother’s handsome good looks. She even claims to have boasted about him at school, which is not something that happens all too often (Well at least I didn’t show off my little sister at school).
While Eunji is fixated on pictures of her brother, the rest of the members have arrived at the supermarket. Their mission is to buy all the ingredients necessary to appease Master Minki. Bomi takes responsibility of the duck dish while Chorong will be taking her usual spicy rice cakes in a new direction by mixing it with black bean sauce (Or Jjajang sauce if you prefer the Korean word). Why the sudden twist? Because in their eyes, Minki is still a little baby. Cooking rookies Hayoung and Naeun will be responsible for the egg roll with Namjoo volunteering to cook up some pork necks.
A rather serious looking Bomi then heads for the meat corner to get her duck. In a very serious tone, she then asks if she should get some kind ducks or evil ducks. Yeah, that being a serious thing didn’t last all that long. Meanwhile Naeun and Hayoung are searching for the ingredients they need for the egg roll. A confident sounding Hayoung is certain that they don’t need any extra eggs while Naeun insists on getting extra since she is certain she is going to make a hash of it. To make their lives easier, they pick out already cleaned carrots and onions. Strangely though, Hayoung also insists on some paprika, saying that they need to have more color to their dish.
Hayoung and Naeun then bump into Bomi, who is seriously preparing a skit at the vegetable corner. Bomi tells them they need to be extra careful to pick out the right fresh ingredients. To demonstrate, she picks out some lettuce and tests it for freshness. With one ear on the lettuce, Bomi gives the lettuce some rather serious looking knocks to confirm its freshness. (Warning – Attempting to replicate this yourself will likely result in some very worried stares from the supermarket employees and fellow customers).
Having learned from the master itself, Naeun proceeds to check the freshness of their onions with some well placed knocks. Unfortunately it doesn’t have the same effect, leaving Bomi frustrated by Naeun’s inability to learn the ways of variety shows from her.
Chorong then calls for Bomi’s attention from afar. To further torment their leader, Bomi initially pretends to not hear her calls for attention. Eventually she heeds her call and Bomi starts to head over.
However, nothing ever goes normally when Bomi is involved. As Bomi makes her way to Chorong, she smacks her shin hard against some baskets on the floor to the amusement of everyone around.
After all that pain and commotion, we can assume that Chorong had something important to talk to Bomi about? Nup~ Chorong had just picked out some wraps and wanted to be praised for it. What? You thought there would be more to this? You clearly haven’t watched enough A Pink if that is the case.
You would think Bomi would have learned her lesson after giving her shins a nice hard knock. However this is Bomi we are talking about here. If you draw a Bomi brain chart, it would be 1/3 food and 2/3 acting silly. After giving Chorong a little praise, Bomi seems to have found a new plaything. She shows off her new trendy handbag, which strangely enough happens to look like the supermarket basket. Must just be coincidence.
Did I say handbag? I meant backpack, as Bomi proceeds to wear the bag(?) across her back, struggling to stick her hands through the rather hard and narrow plastic straps.
Naeun has split with Hayoung and is now following Namjoo around. They head to the fruit corner, where Naeun proceeds to swoon over some cherries. She also picks out some blueberries, insisting that it is good for growing eyes. Namjoo also picks out some really big grapes, so that Minki grows up to be big as well. (There is some logic in there somewhere).
Fruits picked, all the members gather around the pumpkin corner. Bomi (with trendy bag still on her back) then immediately announces that the pumpkins are Naeun’s face, which seems to greatly please Hayoung. Naeun can’t even be bothered to retaliate, instead singing an old children’s song about the pretty apple like face. (“My pumpkin-like face~ It’s quite pretty~” replace Pumpkin with Apple if you want the original lyrics.) Chorong goes over the shopping list and wonders if they bought everything. Namjoo suggests they should buy some ice cream and pots as well. Hayoung thankfully stops their shopping trip by jokingly saying that they are going to buy a whole house at this rate.
We now head back to Eunji, who is still on her way to the station. She gives a quick call to her brother to check where he is. Minki says he is going to arrive soon. Eunji then gets the urge to be a bit cheeky and tells him that he’ll need to make his own way home. Minki however isn’t quickly fooled, telling her that the show’s writers has already told him that Eunji was going to the station. Eunji is quick to explain that the plans have changed and that he will need to catch a taxi. Minki starts to believe the lie and asks her again if she isn’t coming. Eunji then confesses and tells him she is coming to the station, which rather annoys her little brother. Eunji then asks for one last comment. Minki tells her….”I’ll see you later.” This clearly wasn’t the right answer as Eunji warns his brother to say the “right” thing. Minki says I love you.
The cooking team have arrived back home and are busily preparing a feast worthy of a king. Chorong is cooking up the Jjajang Rice cakes, Naeun and Hayoung are responsible for the egg rolls, and Bomi will be cooking up a duck and chives stir fry, while Namjoo will lay out the snacks and fruit desserts. Chorong claims this is the first time she has seen all the members cooking together. Naeun then says they should start cooking and eating dinner at home. Chorong asks her if she is willing to follow up on that while Hayoung notes that she has never seen Naeun in the kitchen.
Namjoo then tells Chorong that she is their only hope. However, Chorong tells them that Bomi is also secretly a very good cook having made some kimchi before as well (Which Naeun is very quick to point out was made with her assistance.) Conversations over, cue the typical cooking montage music! (The Daejanggeum theme for those who don’t know)
Eunji has now arrived at the station and is waiting anxiously for her little brother. The KTX from Pusan pulls into the station. Brother and Sister finally meet at the stairs of the station. Minki has arrived in the big city, both hands heavy with luggage, one of which is a set of assorted side dishes from their mother. Eunji introduces us to her brother, saying that he is a bit shy and won’t say much beyond what she asks of him. First thing Eunji does is hold hands with her brother. The second thing is to berate her brother for gaining weight and having pudgy hands. (Because if siblings aren’t fighting then they’re usually groaning about the other, I would know since that’s all I do with my sister).
Eunji asks Minki what it’s like to see his sister for the first time in ages. He says it feels kind of novel but he is really happy and hopes to have a good time today (in his best impersonation of a typical Seoul accent). Back home, the cooking team is still busy cooking up a feast. Hayoung is worried that Minki would have eaten already, doing her best impersonation of Minki in the process. Namjoo can then be seen sitting at the coffee table setting up the snacks. Part of this setting up process involves sampling a lot of the snacks for herself, because clearly snacks are there to be eaten.
Unfortunately for the cooking crew, Eunji and brother have arrived much earlier than expected. Eunji, however, tells the members that Minki’s train has been delayed and that he isn’t here yet. Clearly Eunji’s cries of wolf are well known at this point because no one believes her. Minki then walks in by himself and greets the other members, who are amazed at how much he’s grown since the last time they saw him. We then have a sudden game of one ups, Eunji starting off by saying she has a younger brother, Bomi one upping her by saying she has both a younger brother and older sister. Namjoo then says she has a younger sister, Hayoung. (Well they didn’t say it had to be blood related). Eunji too says she has younger sisters, Namjoo and Hayoung, which pleases Namjoo greatly. Hayoung, not wanting to be left out, then says she has five older sisters, which is met by a deathly silence. Bomi, out of pity, responds back to her. Jokes over, cue the cooking music once again!
Next – Judge Minki and the nervous cooks.
Chapter 3 – A Pink Masterchef plus bonus Ideal Type World Cup
Food prepared, it’s now time for the all-important taste test. Naeun, however, invokes the wrath of Eunji by having a first taste. The first dish on the list is Chorong’s Jjajang Rice Cake, Chorong insisting that Minki must chew for ages to get the full taste out of it. Eunji then reveals that Minki has mature tastes, which makes Chorong regret her choice of menu. Minki, however, says that it does get better the longer he chews. Judge Minki gives the dish 4.5 spoons out of 5. A respectable score.
Next is Bomi’s Duck Stir Fry. Bomi tries to get extra points by showing him how her clothes have gotten messy. The great judge Minki is not moved by such tactics and begins to sample the dish. The judge asks if five spoons is the maximum score. Bomi tells him that he can go over that. With that clarified, Minki gives his final score. 6 Spoons. An amazing score for Bomi. Hearing this score, Chorong then proceeds to use the Bomi tactic by showing the judge how she got her shirt messy as well. Out of pity, the judge gives her 5 spoons instead.
The final dish is Hayoung and Naeun’s egg roll. Hayoung tries to act cute in front of the judge in an effort to boost their score but is instantly told off by Naeun, saying that such acts will get their points cut. Naeun gets Minki to read the message written on the egg roll, Welcome *heart* MG. Eunji takes this opportunity to once again boast about her brother, saying that is in the top percentile of his grade.
Naeun then personally feeds Minki. Minki then hands down a rather high score of 6.5 spoons. However, the rest of the members find this hard to believe, especially Chorong. So why did the egg roll beat out the duck? According to Minki, the duck meat became tougher and tougher the more he chewed on it.
But those scores don’t ultimately mean much because Minki now has to pick his absolute favorite dish. After some contemplation, Judge Minki comes to a decision. His final decision is Bomi’s duck stir fry. Minki thanks the members for a meal well made.
Bellies full, it was now time for the very very important popularity test (One very-liked guy surrounded by many curious ladies, did you expect anything else?). Eunji asks Minki who he wanted to see the most out of the A Pink members. Just as Minki is about to say his answer, Namjoo arrives with a big plate of grapes. Just coincidence or a a cunning tactic? Only Namjoo knows the answer to that.
Minki then reveals that it was Bomi who he wanted to see most. Chorong asks if Bomi is popular among his school friends but he instead says that A Pink as a whole is really popular. Eunji asks why Minki wanted to see Bomi the most. Chorong, who is already sulky having lost the food challenge, asks if it is because Bomi is like a big brother.
Minki reveals that it was because Bomi is really lively and stands out a lot. Bomi takes a second or two to try figure out what this means exactly but thinks of it in a good way. However Naeun and Hayoung is quick to take this in more evil ways, calling her noisy and distracting. Minki is asked to clarify and he says he meant that in a good way.
The members then ask Minki who he believes has the prettiest face. Eunji initially tells them to exclude her from this ranking, believing that she will easily win thanks to year of careful training. They decide to include her anyway. Minki then looks Chorong in the eye and says “Sister.” Chorong is briefly convinced she has won this competition but Minki immediately corrects himself and says “My sister.”
Second place in Minki’s list is Hayoung (with Chorong looking more and more disappointed with each passing rank). Minki picked Hayoung thanks to her clear and pronounced facial features. Meanwhile Namjoo is putting on her cutest act, trying to tempt Minki into giving her the last of the podium positions. Will Minki be moved by Namjoo’s temptation?
Minki thinks it over briefly and hands third place to Chorong. His reasoning is because of her cuteness. As Chorong celebrates, Bomi and Namjoo quietly try to tempt Minki from the sidelines. However, Minki is troubled by all this extra burden and complains about how Bomi keeps telling him to rank her as zero while Namjoo keeps babbling on about grapes. With that out of the way, fourth place goes to avid campaigner Bomi. When asked about his reason, he says that Bomi looks pretty when she laughs.
Worried about an impeding grape attack, Minki is instead allowed to pick the prettiest out |
We just gotta keep doing the same things. If we put a lot of pucks on net and go to the net hard, hopefully we'll find the back of the net."
But back to the start for a moment, because it's clearly on the Penguins' minds.
What happened?
"I think it's too much energy," Malkin said. "We were excited playing at home, first time we could get a Stanley Cup win at home. Lots of noise around team, and we did not think we [started] right."
Video: Evgeni Malkin talks to reporters following practice
Malkin is talking about the hype that surrounded the Penguins leading into Game 5 for what could have been the first major pro sports championship won in Pittsburgh by a Pittsburgh team in almost 56 years.
Maybe it was paralyzing to the Penguins. Goalie Matt Murray admitted he was nervous. He played like it. So did his teammates.
"Leading up to it, there obviously was a lot of hype," Murray said.
The Penguins don't have to be concerned about that now. They're far more insulated here in Northern California. There will be craziness in Pittsburgh again, including a watch party inside Consol Energy Center, but the Penguins are in Sharks territory with the same goal in mind.
"Find a way to finish," captain Sidney Crosby said.Driving a Comet Through the Desert, Flashing Lights, and Aliens
Photography by Josh Clason for Petrolicious
Mr. Michael Anderson gave the seller a half hour to get the car running while he went into the Peppermill Casino to try his luck, “If I have money left after some blackjack and the car is running, I’ll think about buying it.” The car in question, which at that moment was little more than a 3400 pound sculpture, is the one pictured here, a 1963 ½ Mercury Comet with a V8.
The seller and his wife jumped in her car and headed to the store to buy some jumper cables. Apparently, he’d left his lights on while waiting for Mike to show. They hurried back from the Wal-mart, jump-started the Mercury and drove it around the block a few times to charge the battery a bit. He was anxious to get rid of the car as he needed more room.
Mike had been watching the Mercury for a while in a small, classified news rag and its price had dropped from when it was first listed. Mike finally called and scheduled to come take a look in Reno, Nevada. It was only five hundred miles (~800km) and two flights away, after all. At first glance the car appeared as described but when Mike tried to fire it up, well, you know what happened.
After a little while and with some money left over, Mike came back out to find the Comet rumbling and the seller eagerly waiting. With the battery charged and everything appearing the way it should, they settled on a price. Mike “told [the seller] he was throwing in the cables,” they shook hands, and he began the long drive home.
About three or four hours into the drive, Mike began looking for a motel along the lonely road. The car was running well, but it was dark and late. He stopped at a couple of spots in small towns on the way, but everything was closed. It was the off-season and the middle of the night; Mike realized that there was no hope of finding a room. He decided to press on, tuning the AM radio dial to Art Bell, host of the paranormal and alien-themed radio show Coast to Coast AM.
On California route-395, in the high-desert valley just east of the Sierra Nevadas around midnight, Mike began seeing glimmers of light way out in the distance. But there was nothing around for miles. The irregular flashes hung just above the horizon for a moment then vanished as he urged the Comet through the still night.
Then the absurdity struck him: here he was driving a Comet through the black desert night, listening to a radio show about aliens with lights flaring in the distance. It wasn’t an alien mothership he was seeing though, it was a thunderstorm between San Diego and Los Angeles, maybe two hundred miles away. He chuckled to himself, rubbed his eyes, and kept pushing. He wouldn’t be abducted tonight.
That was almost five years ago and, yes, he did make it home safely that night at about four in the morning. Since then, he’s driven the car extensively, including a drive to a national Mercury Comet meet in Tennessee. But he felt like having some fresh crab cakes afterwards and so he headed for Virginia (what’s an extra few hundred miles anyway?) and the Atlantic Ocean.
Join the ConversationIdee: mok, jko; dan, ssi; Foto: Shutterstock
Nürnberg (dpo) - Der mutmaßlich in Anschlagsplanungen involvierte Bundeswehrsoldat Franco A. ist schon bald kein Fall für die deutsche Justiz mehr: Wie das Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge (BAMF) in Nürnberg heute mitteilte, ist der Flüchtlingsstatus des offenbar rechtsextremistischen Oberleutnants im Eilverfahren aberkannt worden. Somit wird der 28-Jährige schon in den nächsten Tagen nach Syrien abgeschoben."Der Mann hat sich zu Unrecht als syrischer Flüchtling registriert. Durch diesen Asylmissbrauch hat er sein Bleiberecht verwirkt", so eine Sprecherin des BAMF. "In Damaskus wird er viel Zeit haben, darüber nachzudenken, was er sich hier als Gast in Deutschland geleistet hat."Eigentlich gelte Syrien nicht als sicheres Herkunftsland, doch in diesem Fall mache man eine Ausnahme: "Als Bundeswehrsoldat sollte sich Herr A. zu wehren wissen."Ob Franco A. nach seiner Abschiebung auch von den syrischen Behörden für seine mutmaßlichen Anschlagspläne in Deutschland strafrechtlich belangt wird, ist noch unklar: "Die syrischen Kollegen haben sich bis jetzt leider noch nicht bei uns zurückgemeldet."Deshalb wird der Bundeswehrsoldat zunächst auf dem Flughafen von Damaskus abgesetzt. "Wir hoffen, er findet sich mit seinen Arabischkenntnissen dort zurecht", erklärt die Sprecherin. "Zur Not kann er ja exzellent Französisch."Those damn kids with their damn K Street careers
waiting for them while I slave away listening
to goddamn John Boehner...
Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.) lamented in a closed-door meeting Wednesday that his staff can get rich as lobbyists while he is "stuck here making $172,000," according to the National Review Online. NRO Jonathan Strong reports that Gingrey said that staff may not make a lot of money on Capitol Hill, “but in a few years they can just go to K Street and make $500,000 a year. Meanwhile I’m stuck here making $172,000.”
Oh, the sadness. I think we all need to get together tonight and light a candle for Rep. Phil Gingrey That does sound horrible. Well, I can think of several ways to get out of your dead-end $172,000 per year job, Rep. Gingrey, so give me a ring if you'd like some advice. For a small fee, of course.Get the biggest daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
A police officer from South Wales was left red-faced in front of colleagues after mistaking chocolate buttons for Class B drug cannabis.
According to industry publication Police Magazine, the PCSO was sent to investigate a factory after its HR boss said he had evidence a drug dealer was operating on the premises.
The officer from the Caerphilly Neighbourhood Policing Team seized the 'evidence' and passed it to senior officers in Caerphilly.
The substance was carefully sealed in an evidence bag and labelled as a'small brown piece of vegetation, possibly cannabis'.
But on closer inspection, the sweet, brown substance was discovered to be a melted chocolate button.
A colleague said: “He’s had quite a ribbing since.”CNN Erin Burnett and Kellyanne Conway -- (CNN screen grab)
Appearing on CNN with Erin Burnett, Donald Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway attempted to sidestep questions over the GOP presidential candidate using his foundation to pay off $258,000 in lawsuits — as reported in the Washington Post — before being cornered and blurting, “There’s are many lawsuits.”
Covering a wealth of issues that have cropped up for the Trump campaign in the past few days, the Trump campaign manager — who acts more like as his spokesperson — dismissed the WaPo report by using the article’s use of the expression “may have” when it discussed illegality in the payments.
Conway then attempted to spin the payment as “classic Donald Trump,” stating the money was attached to a charity benefiting veterans.
“He wanted to raise the American flag as high as he could over Mar-a-Lago,” she explained. “I think a lot of Americans would appreciate that.”
Host Burnett didn’t let her off the hook, noting that an attorney with extensive experience in non-profits called the lawsuit payoffs, “as blatant an example of self-dealing as I have seen in awhile.”
“The idea that money went for — when people hear ‘self-dealing,’ Erin, you know what they think of immediately,” Conway parried. “That it’s going for plane rides and fancy hotels and expensive meals and certainly salaries and overhead, and that sounds to me like the Clinton Foundation,” before Burnett cut in.
After Burnett pointed out that that Trump’s personal business benefited by the foundation using other people’s money to pay off lawsuits, Conway professed confusion.
“Well there are many lawsuits everyday against people,” Conway said said before becoming accusatory. “That’s a bridge too far, I think you’re making things up not based on facts not reported in this story that uses a lot of conditional phrasing”
According to a USA Today report in June of this year, Trump has been involved in over 3,500 lawsuits.
Watch the video below via CNN:Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham blasted news reports that Jared Kushner wanted a backdoor channel with Russians, saying Americans are “chasing our tails” over unverified reports about Russia.
On CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday, host Dana Bash asked Graham what he thought of reports that Kushner wanted to have secret communications with the Russian government.
“Well number one we’re chasing our tails as a nation when it comes to the Russians,” Graham said. “I don’t know who leaked this supposed conversation, but just think about it this way: you got the ambassador of Russia reporting back to Moscow on an open channel, ‘hey Jared Kushner’s gonna move into the embassy.'”
“I don’t trust this story as far as I can throw it,” Graham snarked.
He said further that he thinks the Russians probably planted a false story about Kushner by using a communications channel they know is being monitored by the United States.
“I think it makes no sense that the Russian ambassador would report back to Moscow on a channel that he most likely knows we’re monitoring. The whole thing is suspicious.”
WATCH:
Follow Amber on TwitterA Suffolk County, N.Y., judge has ruled that a contractor's filing of amended tax returns claiming $1.6 million of additional income on the eve of his divorce trial was simply a malicious attempt to prevent his wife from recovering marital assets, and therefore has refused to apportion the couple's approximately $500,000 to $1.2
"It is well settled that expenses (including unpaid taxes) incurred prior to the commencement of a divorce action constitute marital debt which, under normal circumstances, should be equally shared by the parties. However, in those rare instances where a party's conduct in creating a debt is so egregious, shocking, fraudulent or malicious, the Court can exercise its discretion and refuse to apportion the debt," Acting Supreme Court Justice Andrew A. Crecca (See Profile) wrote in Maria C. v. Dominick C., 04775/08.
"Under the facts and circumstances of this case," the judge concluded, "this is one of those rare instances."...
Shortly before the divorce went to trial in March, the defendant-husband, Dominick C., unilaterally filed marital tax returns for the years 2004 through 2007.
In the amended returns, the husband admitted earning more than $1.6 million in unreported income over those four years.
The husband filed the returns on his own initiative, as the couple was not being audited or under investigation, and without his wife's signature. He included on the cover page a list of assets the government might consider attaching, including the couple's house. The husband stated the house's value ($1.2 million), the size of the mortgage and the name of the bank that held the loan.
After hearing testimony from a variety of fact and expert witnesses, including the husband's accountant and the wife's forensic accountant, the court determined that the husband had a single, illegitimate reason for belatedly reporting his business' income.
"The court sees no legitimate reason for this outrageous and despicable conduct, which the court finds is based solely on malice and revenge, with no other goal than to prevent his wife from any recovery in equitable distribution," the judge concluded.
"Accordingly, as a result of such shocking and egregious conduct on the part of the defendant-husband, the Court declines to apportion any tax liability to the plaintiff-wife in connection with the amended personal returns and directs that the defendant-husband should bear full responsibility for any such additional tax liability."I can't make people understand. The indictment of former Alabama Rep. Oliver Robinson - and his agreement to plead to conspiracy and bribery and cooperate with the feds - is bigger than him.
It's a bomb.
It's not just that some House member took cash to betray his poorest constituents. Sure, that's gross, but it's just the tip. In the grand scheme of this potential political unraveling, Robinson is the equivalent of the Watergate burglars.
Who were those guys again?
This - this is far bigger that Robinson. Or it could be. In his indictment, the feds point to Balch & Bingham and Drummond Co. as bribers. If proven, it'll be a body check to the very systems that run Alabama politics and fund the ugliest parts of them.
It just depends on what Robinson will spill to keep his sentence to a minimum.
It depends on what the unnamed co-conspirators at Drummond and Balch are willing to say, and whether the actions outlined in the federal documents can be quarantined.
Because these players - and those they associate with - provide the grease that makes Alabama run.
Balch & Bingham lawyer Will Sellers swearing now-Gov. Kay Ivey in as lieutenant governor in 2011. (Joe Songer)
Drummond did not respond to questions about its involvement. Balch & Bingham says it is taking the Robinson allegations seriously, and is cooperating with authorities.
"Honesty and integrity are core values at Balch & Bingham, and they will guide us as we evaluate these allegations," firm spokeswoman Julie Wall said.
Balch & Bingham is one of Alabama's most powerful firms. You can't follow a political story - as the recent drama at the state board of education shows -- without tripping on a Balch lawyer or lobbyist.
Gov. Kay Ivey just appointed Balch lawyer Will Sellers - a longtime confidante - to the Alabama Supreme Court. And several Balch lawyers sit in positions to advise U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Balch and Drummond both contribute heavily to political campaigns inside and out of Alabama. Each gave more than $215,000 in last year's federal election cycle, which was enough to put them in the state's top 10 donors, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
But this is not just about those tainted by the Oliver Robinson scandal. This is about the way political money is spent.
Both Balch and Drummond have substantial ties to another Top 10 giver -- Southern Company, parent to Alabama Power.
Alabama Power owns the building that houses part of Balch & Bingham's Birmingham office, and partner Eason Balch is a registered lobbyist for Alabama Power.
Years ago, when federal reporting rules required utility companies to tell exactly how they spent money on politics and lobbying, Alabama Power paid Balch hundreds of thousands a year for political work. In 1999, for instance, it paid Balch $829,601 for political work, along with $922,054 to Perkins Communications, run by strategist Joe Perkins of the political dark arts group Matrix.
Federal rules have changed, so Alabama Power no longer must report that. Political spending is now filed under the umbrella "Certain Civic, Political & Related Activities," which the company has said includes money for "a wide range of community and nonprofit organizations" as well as for politics and lobbying.
Still, Alabama Power spreads that money around in a volume that dwarfs many utilities. In the last six years the company spent $126 million on civic and political activities, or more than $21 million a year, according to data from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Pacific Gas & Electric, the largest power company in the U.S., spent $11.4 million in that category last year.
Alabama Power has been adamant that the money comes out of shareholder pockets, and not that of customers.
It is unknown how much Alabama Power money continues to go to Balch & Bingham.
What is clear is that money from entities supportive of coal and power - and other interests - have flowed through Balch and into the hands of those who change opinions. Balch has employed Perkins' Matrix group, which worked with entities such as the Partnership for Affordable Clean Energy (PACE), which lobbied hard in 2013 to prevent the Public Service Commission from holding formal utility rate hearings - which Alabama Power opposed.
Understand, Alabama. What happened in north Birmingham is not about Birmingham. What happened to Robinson is not just about Robinson.
Alabama's political status quo is at risk. For the first time in a long time.
That's a good thing.The case is due to be heard next Wednesday when the court sits in Melbourne. It is expected to take at least two days. The court could take up to a month to make a decision, but it is expected to rule next week after the second day of hearings. Under the Commonwealth Electoral Act, the counting of votes must be finished and the writs returned within 100 days. With the new Senate scheduled to sit from July 7, writs for a fresh election would have to be issued no later then March 28. The commission has argued it is not possible to ''conclude with certainty, or on the balance of probabilities'' who has been elected out of the WA vote. There were two counts of the Senate vote in the state.
The first count saw Palmer United Party candidate Zhenya "Dio" Wang and Labor's Louise Pratt elected in the fifth and sixth spots. But after the second count - declared on November 4 - the Sports Party's Wayne Dropulich and the Greens' Scott Ludlam edged out Mr Wang and Senator Pratt. There have been petitions to the court arguing that the original result should be upheld. On Tuesday in Melbourne, Justice Kenneth Hayne ruled that a petition from Greens Senator Scott Ludlam did not meet the criteria to be included in the case and ordered him to pay costs. Senator Ludlam's submission did not dispute the result of the election. It argued that if his position was to be declared void then the whole ballot should be nullified. His petition to the court contained similar arguments to the AEC petition that will be considered next week.
"All eyes are on next week when the substantial matters will be heard," Senator Ludlam said on Tuesday. Senator Ludlam said that if court sent WA back to the polls it would be a test of Prime Minister Tony Abbott's performance as prime minister. Newly-elected Labor senator Joe Bullock said he wanted a decision on whether there would be a fresh election as soon as possible. Mr Bullock - who was elected in the second spot - said he expected Labor's vote to rise if a fresh election was held, arguing WA voters had already delivered a protest vote at the September election. But he questioned the AEC's push for a fresh election and said the 1370 votes lost by the commission should be counted.
"As I understand the position of the AEC, they say their needs to be a fresh election because 1300 people were denied to vote. I find that difficult to accept,'' he said. "It may be well be that if there is a 2014 election, the result might be totally different, but that's not what we are trying to do. We had a general election in September 2013 and we are trying to work out what the result should have been." "We would pick up more votes, no doubt, the ALP would do much better. But that doesn't mean I think we should have one." with Judith Ireland Follow us on TwitterWho the Clix? is a series of articles featuring information on comic book characters that have been made into figures for the popular tabletop game Heroclix. These articles are meant to help Heroclix players learn more about the characters behind their favorite pieces.
Today we look at that imperfect clone of Peter Parker turned hero and successor to Ben Reilly: Scarlet Spider/Kaine
Appearances in Heroclix: Amazing Spider-Man
First Appearance: Web of Spider-Man#119
Team Affiliations: New Warriors
Kaine began life as a particularly powerful imperfect clone of Peter Parker. Though Kaine began degenerating faster than other clones, and was discarded by the Jackal because of this, he survives in this scarred form for much longer than any other clone. This degeneration also enhances some of the spider-powers he inherited as a result of the cloning process. Kaine feels like a spurned son because of the Jackal’s casting off of him and goes through the Jackal’s files after the villain goes into hibernation. Unknown to either man, Norman Osborn had files shifted so that the Jackal’s files indicated his successful Spider-clone (calling himself Ben Reilly) was the real Peter Parker and the Peter Parker heroing in New York was a clone. Having a hatred for the real Parker, Kaine followed Reilly during his years traveling the country and tormented him. During this time, Kaine also acted as a bounty hunter and battled Kraven the Hunter.
Though Kaine had attempted to frame Ben Reilly for crimes (as all the clones have the same fingerprints), they eventually came back to haunt Peter Parker. After Parker is arrested, Ben arranges to take his place in prison, thereby fulfilling Kaine’s original plans. Meanwhile, Kaine scours New York defeating and executing many of Spider-Man’s villains. Around this time, Peter and Kaine are pulled to a mock trial where Parker is charged with crimes by his villains and Kaine is to act as his defense attorney. Though they make it out of this situation, the pair continue to argue as Parker wants Kaine to stand responsible for his crime and Kaine does not (feeling that the “real” Parker, Ben Reilly, is getting justice; while the “clone” Peter Parker deserves a good and free life). It is only when Peter threatens to reveal that he is Spider-Man that Kaine relents and confesses to the crimes but eludes authorities.
Kaine eventually helps Ben Reilly battle a number of Spider-clones in the Jackal’s lab before being impaled by a massive spike. The Jackal, feeling momentarily fatherly for one of his “sons” places Kain in a regeneration pod. Kaine is later released from the pod, fully healed, during a most dangerous game type situation involving super-beings. He ends up the unlikely ally of Ben Reilly (who had taken on the mantle of Spider-Man) as the two manage to avoid their fellow competitors and the sponsor of that Great Game. Later, Kaine makes peace with Ben and hands himself over to the law in order to redeem himself. Kaine later escapes his prison upon learning that Norman Osborn was behind the clone saga and had killed his “brother” Ben. Kaine battles many of Osborn’s operatives before being believed killed by the Green Goblin.
Kaine returns much later as an ally of Raptor, who promised Kaine that he could cure his cellular degeneration. This brings Kaine into conflict with Peter Parker, as Kaine believes that Peter is still a clone of Ben and, perhaps as a result of his disease, has grown to have rage towards the dead Ben Reilly again. When Raptor eventually reveals that he was lying, Kaine seemingly kills him.
Kaine is eventually hunted by Ana and Alyosha Kravinoff, who are seeking Spider-Man to sacrifice him and bring back their father, Kraven. Though Kaine is able to warn Peter before he faces the offspring of the hunter, this does not stop Spider-Man from running off to battle the pair. Parker is not strong enough, however, and is badly beaten. Kaine eventually knocks Peter out and puts on his costume, battling and losing to the Kravinoffs. He is then sacrificed to resurrect Kraven, which results in Kraven being an imperfect, undead version of himself. This results in Kaine transforming into a man-spider like version of himself and rising from the grave.
Jackal manages to control this form of Kaine and gives him the name, “Tarantula.” He falls under the control of the Spider Queen and is sent to Horizon Labs to tamper with a cure for the “Spider-Virus.” There, he battles with Peter and ultimately falls into a vat of the concentrated cure. After a few moments, Kaine rises from the vat and is human once more; not only that, but his scars are gone and he seems to be as perfect a clone as Ben Reilly. With the mental link to the Spider Queen broken and in a superior form of himself, he helps defeat the Spider Queen.
Kaine moves to Houston, Texas and takes on the mantle of the Scarlet Spider. While there he faces the Roxxon Corporation, Bella Donna, a human trafficking operation, the Armadillo, as well as the resurrected Kraven the Hunter. After several months helping the people of Houston, Kaine eventually joins the New Warriors. He is attacked by Daemos, a member of the Inheritors that are hunting down every multiversal form of Spider-Man. He manages to make Daemos feel pain and is suddenly saved by other versions of Spider-Man: including the Ben Reilly Scarlet Spider.Every Marvel thing you need to know before seeing 'Guardians of the Galaxy 2'
CLOSE Baby Groot steals the show in 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.' USA TODAY NETWORK
Get ready for more Marvel.
We're getting yet another one of those movies this weekend with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which brings back our space super friends Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), Rocket Raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper) and Baby Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel) for another round of adventures. It's the 15th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
But what, casual action-movie fans may be asking, is the "Marvel Cinematic Universe"? We present: The answers to all your Marvel Cinematic Universe questions that you were maybe too embarrassed to ask. Once you've read this, you'll be 100% prepped for Guardians 2 and anything else Marvel throws at Hollywood.
So, what's the deal with the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
CLOSE At the premiere of 'Captain America: Civil War,' 'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' star and Marvel super-fan Clark Gregg explains, to our reporter's mother, what the Marvel Cinematic Universe is.
The MCU, as the fans call it, is a really clunky way of describing the 15 existing movies and many TV shows made by Marvel Studios, starting with Iron Man in 2008.
What makes them different than various other superhero movies and shows is that they are all connected, much like the comics themselves.
And, which superheroes are in the MCU?
Some of the biggest ones are Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and The Hulk. Marvel gets to pick from a pool of its comic-book heroes (except for certain ones for legal reasons, like the X-Men, whose movies are produced by 20th Century Fox). The more movies Marvel makes, the further it digs into the vault of heroes. In addition to movies around those four heroes, we now have two Guardians of the Galaxy flicks, Ant-Man and Doctor Strange, and films starring Black Panther, The Wasp, Captain Marvel and more in the works.
Definitively not part of the MCU: Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, the Suicide Squad and their friends. They're all from DC Comics and have their own cinematic universe onscreen.
Which movies do I need to see before Guardians 2?
Don't worry, you don't need to see every single Marvel movie to understand the latest. But you should probably watch the first Guardians to understand how the team comes together and why they're so interested in Star- Lord's dad, played in the new movie by Kurt Russell.
How do the Guardians movies connect to everything else?
Here's where it gets a little complicated. While you can see both movies without having seen anything else in the MCU, they do have connections and Easter eggs that relate to the other films. The first Guardians movie has Thanos (Josh Brolin) in it, a villain who was introduced in a post-credit scene for the first Avengers film. Thanos will show up in future Avengers movies because he's after the infinity stones, super-powerful gems that have popped up in multiple Marvel films. In the original Guardians film, Star-Lord and the rest are attempting to prevent an infinity stone they find from falling into the wrong hands. Those future Avengers films will also include the Guardians, because Marvel loves nothing more than putting its heroes together.
Should I stay after the Guardians 2 credits?
Yes. There are multiple post-credit scenes so make sure you stay until the very last credit rolls if you want to catch all of them. Some hint at the future of the MCU, but some are just amusing.
How many more Marvel movies are coming?
Um, a lot. Marvel is one of the hottest names in Hollywood right now, between its box-office returns and action-figure sales, and it shows no signs of slowing down. Highlights of the upcoming slate include the universe's first solo film led by a black superhero, Black Panther, in 2018; the first solo film led by a female superhero, 2019's Captain Marvel; and more from the Avengers in Infinity War in 2018 and an untitled film in 2019. It's a lot to, well, marvel at.
Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/1SYmtc2'Mystery aircraft' over Texas draws speculation of real spy plane
The A-12 reconnaissance aircraft was built by Lockheed and tested in 1962. Photo: CIA.gov The A-12 reconnaissance aircraft was built by Lockheed and tested in 1962. Photo: CIA.gov Image 1 of / 17 Caption Close 'Mystery aircraft' over Texas draws speculation of real spy plane 1 / 17 Back to Gallery
If the unidentified aircraft photographed over Amarillo turns out to be a new U.S. spy plane, it wouldn't be the first time.
Aviation Week & Space Technology journalist Bill Sweetman has posted photos taken March 10 by two veteran sky watchers, Steve Douglass and Dean Muskett.
In his blog post of March 28, Sweetman writes that he and two Aviation Week editors agree that the photos depict "something real." In other words, these pictures aren't easily explained away by reports of known military flights or the work of someone who got carried away with Photoshop.
So what can aviation experts say about the object in the photos?
"The photos tell us more about what the mysterious stranger isn't than what it is," Sweetman writes.
The size is hard to determine, Sweetman says, but its relationship to the contrails suggests it's bigger than the Northrup Grumman X-47B, which has a 62-foot wing span, according to Wikipedia.
Whatever it might be, the aircraft was accompanied by two others, and Douglass picked up some radio traffic suggesting the plane had a pilot, Sweetman's blog post states.
Although it's logical to expect that classified U.S. aircraft programs exist, due to the number that have been revealed in "all sorts of ways," it's uncommon for them to be exposed by civilian photos, Sweetman writes.
In 1956, when the Lockheed U-2 plane was making some of its first spy flights over the Soviet Union from an air base in England, British magazines started receiving "eyewitness accounts and grainy photos" from the public, he writes.
But the only other spy plane photographed before it was declassified was the RQ-170 Sentinel seen at Kandahar in 2007-09, Sweetman's blog states.The FBI’s once-secret report on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email system reveals that messages sent to aides were compromised by hostile foreign actors.
The FBI did not elaborate on the identity of foreign cyberattacks that normally refer to activities of sophisticated foreign intelligence services or criminal groups. The bureau was also unable to “conclusively” say whether classified information sent on Mrs. Clinton’s emails and mobile phones was compromised by “cyber means,” the report said. FBI cybersleuths blamed their inability to obtain all Mrs. Clinton’s old devices and computers for the inconclusive results.
However, the FBI did conclude that Mrs. Clinton sent emails to people with computer systems that were penetrated by foreign hackers.
“The FBI did find that hostile foreign actors gained access to the personal email accounts of individuals with whom Clinton was in regular contact, and, in doing so, obtained emails sent to or received by Clinton on her personal account,” the report noted.
Mrs. Clinton used 13 handheld devices and several nongovernment computer servers in an apparent bid to evade federal record-keeping laws that require senior government officials to preserve their communications. Most of the classified information found in Mrs. Clinton’s thousands of private emails sent and received between 2009 and 2013 was relatively low-level “confidential” classified information.
The most serious potential national security damage, however, was related to the discovery of extremely sensitive intelligence that was found on some of the emails.
Additionally, Mrs. Clinton used the unsecure email while traveling outside the United States and sent numerous emails to the president that may have been intercepted by foreign intelligence services.
The FBI confirmed that the Clinton emails included information classified at the highest security level, known as “Top Secret/Special Access Program.” The information probably involved the very secret internal discussions used in nominating and conducting missile-armed drone strikes against terrorists. The issue of target nomination and internal debate over the targeting is mentioned in the FBI report.
FBI Director James B. Comey, in announcing he would not recommend prosecuting Mrs. Clinton for the security lapses, criticized the former secretary and current Democratic presidential nominee as “extremely careless” in the “handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.”
Mr. Comey said Mrs. Clinton also used the unsecure email system while on the territory of “sophisticated adversaries,” usually a reference to China and Russia.
“Given that combination of factors, we assess it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton’s personal email account,” Mr. Comey said in July.
Special Access Programs are used to protect intelligence, defense and foreign policy information considered so sensitive that it requires extraordinary security above the top secret level. SAPs, as they are called, limit access to the extremely sensitive information to a few people who are cleared for access based on their need to know.
An example would be the military planning and preparations for the 2011 special operations raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
The electronic and digital communications of senior U.S. leaders are known to be targets of foreign intelligence services, including those of Russia and China.
Disarmer in chief
President Obama’s legacy-building efforts to be remembered as a leader on the issue of nuclear disarmament suffered a setback recently when senior officials dissuaded him from adopting a controversial and, according to some experts, dangerous “no first use” nuclear policy.
A U.S. official confirmed a New York Times report this week that both Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Secretary of State John F. Kerry opposed the nuclear policy change.
“No first use” is a policy that includes a public declaration that the United States would not be the first state to use nuclear weapons in a conflict. Nuclear strikes would be limited to retaliation for an initial nuclear attack.
The White House suggested in July that the nuclear policy shift, advocated by anti-nuclear activists, was under consideration. Ned Price, a White House National Security Council official, said the president was continuing to seek policies outlined in his 2009 speech in Prague calling for eliminating all nuclear weapons.
Mr. Price, who is traveling in Asia, could not be reached for comment. An NSC spokesman did not respond to emails seeking comment on the decision not to endorse the no-first-use doctrine.
Rejecting the nuclear policy shift was based on the large-scale nuclear weapons and missile buildup by both Russia and China. Both nations are engaged in comprehensive strategic nuclear forces modernization programs, including new nuclear weapons, missiles and other delivery systems.
In addition, Russia has adopted a new military doctrine that calls for using nuclear weapons during conventional wars under a policy called “escalate to de-escalate.” Defense officials have called the escalatory nuclear doctrine dangerous.
Obama’s mixed message on China
As he has done throughout his presidency, President Obama continued to send mixed signals to China during a speech in Vientiane, Laos, on Tuesday.
Praising U.S.-China economic cooperation, Mr. Obama stated that serious differences with Beijing remain.
“Our two governments continue to have serious differences in important areas,” the president said, without outlining what those differences are.
Mr. Obama then stated that the United States would continue to be “unwavering in our support for universal human rights, but at the same time, we’ve shown that we can work together to advance mutual interests.”
Washington and Beijing, he said, are working to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear arms and seeking to disarm North Korea of its nuclear weapons. And the president emphasized what he said was “historic leadership” by both countries to address the issue of global warming.
“So I will say it again: The United States welcomes the rise of a China that is peaceful and stable and prosperous and a responsible player in global affairs, because we believe that that will benefit all of us,” Mr. Obama said.
The president avoided all mention of the most serious issue facing the region: creeping Chinese maritime hegemony over disputed islands.
As the president met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Hangzhou this week, China deployed 11 ships near the disputed South China Sea feature known as Scarborough Shoal. The shoal has been declared a red line by Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, who warned Beijing that any |
was built so that everyone - whatever religion, whatever color, whatever origin - was integrated in the French population through the school system. And this is what has failed with the Muslim population.
MARTIN: The school system, you say, has failed. How so?
EJNESS: Yes. Yes, for the past 40 years. It has failed integrating the Muslim population because of some changes that have been made because of some segregation that has been made geographically, where the Muslim population has been put in specific areas, where in some areas in France, there is not one Jewish child left in the French public schooling system. When I was a kid and I went to school, I had absolutely no difficulty being in school with Catholics, with Muslims, with Italians, Spaniards or whatever origin, colors or religion.
MARTIN: And that's not the case today?
EJNESS: And that's much more difficult today. I'm talking about a small portion of the Muslim population, essentially of recent immigration, that has not been able to integrate in the system. And most of the Muslim population, being in France for many years, has totally integrated.
MARTIN: Robert Ejness - he is the executive director of CRIF, an organization in Paris that monitors the security situation for the French Jewish community.
Thank you so much for talking with us and sharing your thoughts.
EJNESS: Thank you.
Copyright © 2016 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.A 55 year old former contractor dedicates his life to rescuing stray dogs and cats
This is a wonderful short documentary by Hisyam Salleh about Mohammed Azmi Ismail also known as “Pak Mie”, a former contractor from Alor Star, Kedah in Malaysia. Since 1990, he and his wife dedicate their life to rescuing stray dogs and cats where they are considered filthy and un-Islamic.
Pak Mie is a very humble man and you can hear that in his voice, but you can also tell that he truly has a great love for animals. While it doesn’t come easy and they spend most of their savings to care for the strays, money isn’t everything. As Pak Mie says, “Although money is important, it is never important to us. No matter how much money we have, let’s say we have RM100 in hand, we would spend it on them, not on ourselves.”
To care for the strays if they don’t get sick, it takes 50kg (110 lbs) of rice and costs RM500 daily (161.58 USD) if they don’t’ get sick. Other expenses are for transportation RM20 (6.46 USD) for fuel to pick up chicken and rice. Additionally, RM20 (6.46 USD) for a fuel generator each night for the shelter because there’s no electricity.
Pak Mie also has some suppliers donating food who were moved by his efforts. One of the suppliers that donates rice said, “Even though they are dirty, but the soul is clean.”
“The most special animal in this world are dogs, and we can’t find it in any other animal. Although people always look down on dogs, but they are close to us human.”
— Pak Mie
Pak Mie told his son to quit his job and is training him to take over. Why? The best explanation is from Pak Mie:
….because one day we will fall sick and die. I want someone to continue our legacy so whatever we have started, will not see a dead end.
As of January 2013, they have rescued over 500 dogs and 100 cats.
To learn more about Pak Mie and his efforts, you can visit pakmieshelter.blogspot.com/ or his Facebook (managed by his son) facebook.com/pakmieshelter or facebook.com/pakmieshelterpage
Source
VimeoArena football appears to be headed to downtown Portland, perhaps as soon as next spring.
The National Arena League has announced that Portland will become one of its expansion cities in the 2018 season. The yet-to-be-named team would play at Cross Insurance Arena.
“I think they’re hoping for this April,” said Matt Herpich, general manager of the arena. “If not, it’s almost guaranteed for next April (2019).”
There are, however, some important details to be worked out between Cross arena and a new professional sports league still trying to gain its footing.
Herpich said Wednesday that lease negotiations have yet to be completed. The team would be owned by the league, Herpich said, with the idea of eventually transitioning to local ownership.
“We started talking late summer, early fall and we’re still having conversations,” Herpich said. “They love Portland. They liked the city, liked the vibe. They liked the idea of the fan base and the sports following in the state of Maine.”
The NAL is one of several indoor professional football leagues in North America. Based out of Atlanta, the league held its inaugural season earlier this year. Four of the eight NAL teams that played in 2017 apparently have folded. A fifth team, in Monterrey, Mexico, is not expected to play in 2018.
Portland would host one of four expansion franchises. The others would be in Trenton, New Jersey, Worcester, Massachusetts, and Greensboro, North Carolina. Coming back for a second season will be the league champion Jacksonville Sharks, runner-up Columbus (Georgia) Lions and the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The 2018 season will run from April to August, the league said.
NEWS CONFERENCE WITH DETAILS
NAL officials were in Worcester on Wednesday to announce the newly formed Massachusetts Pirates.
“We’re on the verge of some great things,” NAL Commisioner Chris Siegfried said during a news conference streamed on the league’s Facebook page. “We’re not going to announce them tonight, but there’s going to be some close rivalries nearby (to Worcester).
“We’ve got seven teams right now locked and loaded. Not all of them have been announced, but they all have solid ownership and we’re very excited about it.”
Siegfried said the league is in the process of finalizing the 2018 schedule and would release it “in a week or two.” The league posted on its website that news conferences in Portland and Greensboro “will be scheduled later in the month.”
Herpich said there has been no date set for any news conference at Cross arena regarding a football team.
“We’ve got to get a lease signed,” said Herpich, who noted that holding football games in the summer could bring in fans during what is usually a slow season for the arena. “It would be great for our sports and great for our staff to keep active during summer,” he said. “Our concert season is really Labor Day to Memorial Day, because then they go outside.”
Arena football, first played in 1987, takes place in buildings typically designed for basketball or hockey. As opposed to the 100-yard field used outside, arena football typically uses a field 50 yards long. Each sideline has a padded barrier placed over hockey boards separating fans from the field of play. Rebound nets are located on either side of the goalposts to allow missed field goals to bounce back onto the field, where the ball can be played live. Punting is not allowed.
Each team fields eight players on offense and defense, with four offensive players on the line of scrimmage before each snap.
“It’s a fast, exciting game in an intimate atmosphere,” Siegfried said during the Worcester event, noting that kids in the stands could high-five players between plays. “It’s a rock concert. It’s family-friendly. It’s right there in your face.”
Some fans agree.
“It’s a lot of fun,” said Steve Krolikowski of Cumberland Center, recalling the arena game he saw years ago in New York at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island. “I think people in Portland enjoy football in general, and some tourists might enjoy it in the summer.”
Indoor professional football seems in a constant state of flux, with new leagues forming and others dissolving.
The sport was popularized by the Arena Football League, which began play in 1987 and had a regular-season network television deal with ESPN2 from 1995-99. In its 10th season, in 1996, it had 15 teams and a total attendance of over a million fans, but the AFL is now down to six teams. Five are in major markets such as Cleveland, Philadelphia and Baltimore, where the games are played in facilities designed to host NBA and NHL teams, making it a difficult economic model to maintain.
TALES FROM INAUGURAL SEASON
Newer leagues, like the NAL, appear to be shifting away from large arenas to midsized facilities. Last year the league played regular-season games from late March to mid-June. Some NAL teams played 12 games, while other clubs played fewer. The now-defunct Dayton, Ohio, team played only seven games. The team was actually based out of Atlanta and played all seven games on the road, losing all of them – including by scores of 94-6, 68-6 and 77-0.
“Most of the guys probably couldn’t find Dayton on an Ohio map,” kicker Jim Terry, a veteran of 16 indoor football league seasons and eight different leagues, told the Florida Times-Union in June. “A lot of games are like the Harlem Globetrotters against the Washington Generals.”
Terry played one game with Dayton before a rib injury ended his season. The Times-Union reported that Terry said he wasn’t paid for the game he played, so he kept his helmet and uniform.
Cross arena, which can seat about 6,700 fans for hockey, would be the smallest venue used by the NAL’s existing franchises. The arena lost its major tenant in May 2016 when the Portland Pirates hockey team moved to Springfield, Massachusetts. A new professional hockey team – the Maine Mariners of the ECHL – is scheduled to debut at the arena in the fall of 2018.
“Bringing back hockey was our first priority,” said Herpich, the arena’s general manager. “Now if this works, it would be super cool. We’re excited about the prospects.”
Arena football games tend to be wide-open, high-scoring affairs. In 2017, Lehigh Valley averaged 61 points per game behind the play of league MVP and former University of Maine quarterback Warren Smith Jr. A veteran of several indoor leagues, Smith quarterbacked Maine to the NCAA playoffs in 2011, setting a school passing yardage record as a senior.
Several players have gone from indoor football leagues to the NFL, most notably Kurt Warner, a two-time NFL MVP who quarterbacked both the St. Louis Rams and the Arizona Cardinals to the Super Bowl and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2017. Warner played in the Arena Football League for the Iowa Barnstormers. The AFL paid its players $900 per game during the 2017 season, according to news reports.
DRAWING INTEREST IN PORTLAND
Alexis Seader and Ian MacRae, both of Portland, said an arena football team makes sense for Portland because it’s a sports town. They agreed it would be worth trying to see a handful of games – as long as tickets are not too expensive.
“We live around the corner and are always looking for fun stuff to do in the neighborhood,” Seader said as the two sat at the bar in Brian Boru. “If it’s affordable and a family-fun atmosphere, if there’s action and (air conditioning) in July, with cold beer? We could be convinced to go.”
The Steelhawks – the NAL’s Allentown, Pennsylvania, franchise – will charge from $11.50 to $41.50 a ticket for a single game and from $56 to $262.50 for a season-ticket package to all seven games in 2018.
MacRae said arena football is fun to watch on television because the action is so fast. He said he isn’t sure the sport would draw enough fans to fill Cross arena.
Across the street from the arena at Binga’s Stadium, Portland resident Nick Simpson, 31, said arena football would be great for the city because it would be something different.
“I think a diversity of activities is good for Portland, just like a diversity of people,” he said.
Staff Writer Deirdre Fleming contributed to this report.
Glenn Jordan can be contacted at 791-6425 or at:
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Twitter: GlennJordanPPH
Steve Craig can be contacted at 791-6413 or at:
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Twitter: SteveCCraig
ShareCanadian Grand Prix
Venue: Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal Date: 10, 11 & 12 June Coverage: Saturday: Third practice 1455-1605 Red Button, Radio 5 live sports extra, online. Qualifying 1715-1915 BBC One, 5 live, online. Sunday - race coverage 1700-2015 BBC One, 5 live, online. F1 forum 1915-2015 Red Button & online. Highlights 1900-2000 BBC Three
Media playback is not supported on this device Highlights - Canadian GP second practice
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso set the pace in a crash-strewn practice session at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Alonso beat Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel by 0.369 seconds, with Ferrari's Felipe Massa third ahead of the McLaren's Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button.
The session was disrupted by three crashes, two of which caused red flags while the track was cleared.
Force India's Paul di Resta was sixth on his first time at the track, ahead of Red Bull's Mark Webber.
The tone for an incident-packed practice was set in the morning when Vettel lost control of his Red Bull at the renowned "wall of champions", at the exit of the final chicane.
There were more accidents to come in the afternoon session when Force India's Adrian Sutil and Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi crashed within a few minutes of each other.
Sutil slid wide into the wall on the exit of the chicane at Turns Six and Seven, tearing the left front wheel off his car. He managed to park the car behind a barrier, ensuring the session could carry on.
But a few minutes later, Kobayashi lost control through the chicane at Turns Three and Four and crashed into the wall on the outside of the corner.
The car came to rest in the middle of the track, forcing the session to be stopped.
We hope to challenge the McLarens and possibly the Ferrari as well and try to fight for a place on the podium. [The circuit] doesn't suit the characteristics of the car that well Red Bull boss Christian Horner
Virgin reserve driver Robert Wickens, standing in as an analyst for BBC 5 live, said: "It just seemed like he got a little bit too much kerb there and that bottomed out the car and took the front wheels off the ground."
The session was stopped for 10 minutes while the debris was cleared, but it was stopped again only three minutes after the restart when D'Ambrosio had an almost identical crash to Kobayashi's.
Vettel's car was repaired in time for the start of the second session and he was the early pace-setter.
But Alonso beat Vettel's time about halfway through the session, not long before Sutil's crash.
The Ferrari driver then went quicker again when the drivers finally got some running on the super-soft tyres in the final few minutes of the session, leaving the fastest lap at one minute 15.107 seconds.
BBC 5 live analyst Maurice Hamilton said: "This is where Ferrari hoped to be, this is a circuit where downforce is not quite so important, and that is where their weakness lies. The other thing in their favour is that the car does not work very well on the hard tyre, and that is not being used here."
When it was re-started again, Alonso, who was already fastest, set a new best time, before surviving a scary moment when he ran wide on to the grass, before recovering the moment and continuing.
Asked about it by BBC Sport, he smiled and flicked his backside sideways, to indicate that the rear of the car had stepped away from him.
He said: "We push a little bit more, at the end of the session. You try to be a little bit close to the walls and take a little bit more kerbs. This is Canada, so any little mistake puts you in the wall.
"We know the combination of the old Pirelli which is not easy to drive when they degrade plus the Canada circuit is a good combination for you guys to watch and a little bit more risky for us."
Alonso downplayed the importance of being fastest on Friday.
"We didn't concentrate on the times or whatever, so it is always positive to see yourself in the top four or five positions in practice but to be honest today is not important.
"We also topped the practice in Monaco and then in qualifying Vettel was one second quicker than us.
"We know that tomorrow is the day to put everything and we know Red Bull will be very strong and probably the favourites and also rain is forecast."
Hamilton also suffered from the accidents, picking up a puncture and limping back to the pits with damaged rear bodywork.
It was another blow in a difficult day for Hamilton, who had to drive much of the first session with no cockpit display after an electronics problem in his steering column, although he remained upbeat about the progress he had made, saying he had had a "good day".
"We got through a lot of testing but I'm just trying to find the exact balance," he said. "I've not optimised my set-up so I'll sit down tonight to dry to dial the car in.
"It's very slippery, the grip level is not spectacular and it's bumpy out there. We've done a heavy fuel run and it feels reasonably competitive. We might have good race pace.
"I'm sure the Red Bulls will pull something out in qualifying but we'll be there to put some pressure on them. I think the pace is there. I think it looks very close between the top drivers - Red Bull, Ferrari and Jenson are very fast."
Button added: "We've done some high fuel stuff on the softer tyre, and that was key today, because tomorrow we won't be running with 140kg (of fuel). We don't know what the car is like with low fuel on the super-soft because we didn't get a chance to do that. I think we'll be a little bit closer than we have been in the last few races."
But for Sauber, Kobayashi's crash merely compounded a difficult afternoon as their other driver Sergio Perez was forced to withdraw from the weekend after feeling unwell in first practice following his crash in Monaco two weeks ago, which left him with concussion.
Perez has been replaced by Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa, who drove for Sauber for much of last season.
De la Rosa, the McLaren reserve driver, is significantly taller than Perez, and Sauber managed to make the necessary changes to the car in time to get him out for the final 22 minutes of the second session. He ended up 18th, 0.8secs slower than Kobayashi.
The number of crashes underlined one of the great challenges of Montreal's Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, where long straights are followed by tight chicanes bounded by concrete walls on a track with a dusty, low-grip, bumpy surface.James Lovelock, the scientist responsible for the Gaia theory, today (Wednesday, August 26) describes environmentalists who campaign on climate change but ignore population growth as irrational, ignorant or “hiding from the truth”.
I rather subscribe to both the Gaia theory and to the idea that humanity will have to control it’s population at some point. The Gaia theory is that the Earth will tend to keep our atmosphere and biosphere constant within narrow limits until a certain point when, if the pressures on it continue, it will change rapidly to a new status which could involve dramatically different conditions across the globe. This would be cataclysmic for today’s life forms and only the most hardy would survive to rebuild.
The amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is a pressure on the global system that could push it towards a ‘Gaia shift’, and it’s increase since the industrial revolution has been alarming and is still gathering pace. If you compare it to a chart of population growth, the two are very similar.
The effects of the increase in CO2 include storing more of the sun’s heat in the atmosphere, thus ‘Global Warming’, but we are also seeing an increase in the acidity of our oceans, which means that it is more difficult for organisms to use CO2 to make their shells, and can result in shell materials being dissolved. To put this in context, calcium carbonate shells and reefs built by tiny marine organisms account for all the chalk and limestone on the planet, and there is a great deal more spread through the oceans as living or recently dead organisms. If this material dissolves, it realeases yet more CO2 into the atmosphere and prevents more shells being made. If you think this through, it is a vicious cycle and not the only one we face.
The point is, the more CO2 we release by buring fossil fuels, the more is released from other sources around the planet. And even if humans were not responsible for global warming, even if it were true that we are going through a very rapid ‘natural’ cycle as some believe, then surely it would make sense for us to reduce our global warming gas output so as not to exacerbate a dangerous trend?
We cannot escape the logic that the more people there are, the more CO2 we will release by burning fossil fuels, an effect that will be magnified many fold as they all aspire to be richer and consume more.
There is much that we can, and must, do to mitigate our environmental impact, and this starts with each of us as individuals. According to Jonathan Porritt, the UK Government is very comitted to action on climate change and to helping individuals and communities play their parts whilst the government handles things at a national and international level: let’s hope so!
Internationally, the Copenhagen conference in December will be key in moving things forward; in fact in instigating a step change in the way governments behave.
We must make a start on working out how to control population growth, which does not mean that we put on hold reducing our energy use and environmental footprint: in fact that has to be where we start because it will take effect much more quickly than any population measures.
This all comes back to my “Death to The Environmentalist” blog: we can no longer be ‘greens’ and the rest but must pull together to stabilise the situation now as far as we can. People who believe that there is a problem need to work in concert, bringing their different expertises and energies to bear on its many facets, including global warming, biodiversity, habitat protection, equalisation of resources and population control.
Dr Lovelock is in good companyas Sir David Attenborough, Jane Goodall and Jonathon Porritt have all said that we must address the population issue.
To take a one-sided view and work as if the other stake-holders didn’t have a case is a recipe for disaster in the form of a Gaia shift.Yet another dramatic turn of events. Theresa May is a drive up the Mall away from being Prime Minister as Andrea Leadsom withdrew from the Tory leadership race.
Tim Farron commented:
Just 13 months after the last election the Conservatives have plunged the UK into chaos. It is simply inconceivable that Theresa May should be crowned prime minister without even having won an election in her own party, let alone the country.
There must be an election. The Conservatives must not be allowed to ignore the electorate, their mandate is shattered and lies in ruins.
Britain deserves better than this Tory stitch up.
May has not set out an agenda, and has no right to govern. She has not won an election and the public must have their say.
From her time as home secretary we know she is divisive, illiberal and calculating.
The Liberal Democrats will set out an optimistic, positive plan for Britain. We will stabilise the economy, improve education, deliver a new deal for our NHS, restore the green agenda and secure Britain’s place at the heart of Europe.Recently, Stephen Gordon from Université Laval showed a graph illustrating real earnings on a weekly basis during the recession at each percentile of the earnigns distribution. I wonder how his grah would look like if extrapolated backwards to the late 1960s. However, I think that looking at earnings is misleading. I believe that consumption is a better measure, especially in societies where preferences are growing increasingly heteregeneous. What I mean by that is that the richer we are, the less we need to use income to satisfy certain desires. Hence the rise of what Tyler Cowen dubbed “threshold earners”. Cowen describes them in the following manner:
It is also the case that any society with a lot of “threshold earners” is likely to experience growing income inequality. A threshold earner is someone who seeks to earn a certain amount of money and no more. If wages go up, that person will respond by seeking less work or by working less hard or less often. That person simply wants to “get by” in terms of absolute earning power in order to experience other gains in the form of leisure—whether spending time with friends and family, walking in the woods and so on. Luck aside, that person’s income will never rise much above the threshold.
In such a situation, I believe that using consumption measures (which also allow us to control for the effects of both a growing student population – needing credit to smooth consumption – and a growing elderly class using accumulated savings) is more efficient. So to expand on Gordon’s comments, I use the Survey of Family Expenditures of 1969 and the Survey of Household Spending of 2009 to see how things changed in the in-between period with regards to the distribution of consumption. I think the figures show a less dramatic portrait of reality. In fact, it seems slightly positive.
However, I would tend to argue that provincial adjustements would count in for a lot (aggregating all the provinces means assuming equal prices across the country – a dubious assertion). Moreover, I would tend to think that the price index – like Broda argues in the United States – is biased against the poor. As a reason, I would tend to believe that these graphs overstate the case that inequality did not increase as much as often argued, but it feels that even accounting for these problems, the increase in overall inequality would be very much less impressive than done.
AdvertisementsMore than two million foreign visitors crossed the country’s borders between 1 December and 7 January.
JOHANNESBURG - The Home Affairs Department says it recorded a 7.6% increase in the number of foreigners traveling to South Africa over the festive season.
More than two million foreign visitors crossed the country's borders between 1 December and 7 January.
The department says South Africa is still an ideal destination for tourists.
It says even with the stringent visa regulations, it has seen an increase in the number of foreign visitors entering the country.
Over the 2014/2015 season, more than 1.8 million foreign travelers were recorded to have arrived in the country, compared to over two million this season.
Minister Malusi Gigaba says specific regions globally have seen an increase in people traveling to South Africa.
He says there was a 4.9% increase in arrivals from the African continent, 6.1% more visitors from Europe and a 7.1% increase in travelers from North America.
The total movement of people both locally and foreign has been recorded at 5.3 million, an increase of more than 5% from the previous festive season.Without private cannabis companies and proper branding, the Ontario government’s plan to roll out the sale of marijuana won’t be able to compete with the current black market, advocates say.
The current plan includes plain packaging, which wouldn’t allow for a new user to get relevant information, along with LCBO-run stores, which could be few and far between.
WATCH: New rules regarding sale of pot in Ontario announced
That’s led some producers to worry that users will continue to go to illegal dealers to get their pot.
Dispensaries “on notice”
Dispensaries and cannabis market experts shot back over the past month, saying that turning away from a privatized retail model represents a “missed opportunity” for Ontario.
Rosalie Wyonch, an analyst with the C.D. Howe Institute echoes these claims.
“I see the choice to go with only Crown corporation retail as a missed opportunity because, in Ontario, there are a significant number of dispensaries already running,” said Wyonch.
WATCH: Alberta’s plan for legal marijuana
“All the dispensaries that did open were operating illegally, but these were businesses that saw an opportunity and would have greatly benefited from private retail.”
The announcement came a warning to the dispensaries currently running that their time is almost up.
“If you operate one of these facilities, consider yourself on notice,” said Attorney General Yasir Naqvi.
READ MORE: Ontario government outlines first 14 cities to host cannabis shops
But Wyonch thinks the best value and experience for the public “involves not making those first movers criminals, but making them successful business people.”
In addition to the concerns of dispensary owners, producers are concerned about whether this plan will quell the black market as legislators had hoped.
Maxim Zavet, president of Emblem Cannabis, explained that while those working in the cannabis space were consulted by the provincial government, he doesn’t feel as if their concerns were heard.
READ MORE: Ontario government says it won’t put LCBO-run cannabis stores near schools
“The overwhelming message to the government is that there has to be some private retail in order to achieve the government’s perspective of curbing the illegal market,” Zavet told Global News.
He went on to say that because of the expected pricing at $10 per gram, and the lack of variety in the products offered by LCBO-run stores, regular cannabis users are more likely to continue getting their products on the black market, where they always have.
WATCH: Lock-and-key cannabis legislation receiving criticism
“It really will depend on how it rolls out. It will take longer to tackle or put a dent in the black market given the proposed distribution,” Zavet said.
“The amount of stores is not going to be enough, it’s not going to be convenient for people. There’s still going to be a lot of product in the grey area that people are not licensed to grow and not licensed to distribute.”
Marketing recreational pot
Producers go on to argue that the approach taken to sell recreational cannabis will determine how the product is packaged for sale; whether it be more like alcohol, sold attractively but with some social controls, or in a plain package with a few bare facts on the label.
“It is a bit of a proxy for the debate about legalization itself,” says Cam Battley of Aurora Cannabis, an Alberta-based medical marijuana producer.
LISTEN: Cam Battley joins Kelly Cutrara on AM640
Aurora is one of a number of marijuana producers who released a paper this week calling for moderately restrictive marketing rules for recreational pot, much like those for alcohol.
WATCH: Premier and ministers answer question: Have you consumed cannabis?
The federal Liberals have said that the main goal of recreational legalization is eliminating the black market. However, Ontario’s government-run stores won’t allow self-service, for example. People who didn’t use cannabis under prohibition won’t have a way of developing consumer preferences under legalization, he says.
READ MORE: Analysis: Please don’t enjoy Ontario’s legal marijuana
Battley argues that won’t work if legal marijuana retail stores are so grim, unattractive and few and far between that nobody wants to use them.
“We have to allow the legal industry to compete effectively with the black market,” Battley argues. “To me, that means that we have to brand and promote our product.”
Under the producers’ proposed rules, marketing would only promote brand preference, not try to sell non-users to start, not be aimed at minors, or “associate cannabis with driving or any skilled activity.” It could, however, “promote a brand’s or strain’s flavour and taste.”
READ MORE: Marijuana market ‘big enough for everyone,’ Hamilton medical dispensary owner says
“Somebody who doesn’t have a lot of knowledge with respect to cannabis could walk in and say ‘I’d like to buy some cannabis,'” said Battley.
“And the person behind the counter will say ‘Sure, what would you like?’ ‘Well, I don’t know, what do you have?’ ‘I can’t tell you that.’ ‘Well, can I look at some products?’ ‘No.’ ‘Can I smell some products?’ ‘No.’ ‘Can you tell me anything about these products?’ ‘No, you have to tell me what you want.’
“It could be like a Monty Python skit.”
WATCH: Funding has been provided to police for cannabis sobriety testing
Ontario’s commission studying cannabis legalization got a range of submissions on the advertising issue.
The Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) wanted “restrictions … similar to the restrictions on tobacco products.”
They advocated “strict advertising regulations and limitations for the cannabis industry, as we believe that public health interests must take precedence over the interests of the cannabis industry.”
WATCH: Some Manitobans worry province is falling behind on cannabis plan for July 2018
Restrictions should “minimize the profile and attractiveness of cannabis products.”
The CMHA included a version of what legal pot packaged for sale should ideally look like:
Ontario Public Health Association and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health called for “plain packaging,” while the Lung Association advocated “plain and standardized packaging.”
Tilray’s parent company, Privateer Holdings, on the other hand, argued that it is “critical to allow professional companies to differentiate themselves from black market producers through branding and responsible marketing practices … it is critical that licensed producers be empowered to push back against Canada’s thriving illegal market through branding and education.”
READ MORE: Employees will be trained and ready for Ontario pot store openings: Union
Spirits Canada (the Canadian distillers’ trade association) and the city of Brampton argued that marketing should be similar to alcohol.
The federal task force studying recreational legalization recommended a restrictive approach to marijuana marketing, modeled on the rules for tobacco.
Ontario was one of the first provinces to put forth a plan for selling and distributing recreational marijuana, which involves opening up to 150 stores across the province by 2020 to be operated by the LCBO.
READ MORE: Ontario to sell marijuana in 150 government-run stores; must be used in ‘private residences’
This was preceded by the release of a set of advertising guidelines for cannabis products by sixteen of Canada’s licensed marijuana producers, prepared with the help of Advertising Standards Canada.
Documents were released to Global News under access-to-information laws.Brandon Turbeville
Only two hours after Russian President Vladmir Putin requested permission from the Russian Parliament to take military action if needed to secure and protect Russian interests in the “territory of Ukraine,” the Parliament granted him such permission in a unanimous decision on Saturday March 1, 2014.
In his formal request to Parliament, Putin stated “I’m submitting a request for using the armed forces of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine pending the normalization of the socio-political situation in that country.”
Putin argued that the “extraordinary situation” in Ukraine was putting the lives of Russian citizens and military personnel at risk. Putin was referring to those individuals who are stationed at the Russian naval base in the Crimean peninsula that has been in operation since the early 1990s.
Although the decision itself was a major one with wide-ranging implications for the future state of Ukraine, Russia, and the rest of the world, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin attempted to lighten the concern held by many over the Parliamentary decision. Karasin stated that the recent decision does not mean that Russia is currently or immediately planning to send any additional troops to Ukraine. Karasin stated that “There is no talk about it yet.”
Vladmir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, spoke to Russian television station Rossiya 24 where he stated that “while the president ‘got the entire arsenal of means necessary for settling this situation,’ he hadn’t yet decided whether to use the Russian military in Ukraine or recall the ambassador from Washington.”
Peskov also stated “He will make these decisions depending on how the situation will develop. We would like to hope that the situation will not develop along the scenario it’s developing now — that is inciting tensions and making a threat for the Russians on the Crimean Peninsula.”
It is important to point out that the terminology of the resolution includes the phrase “territory of Ukraine,” leaving open the possibility of Russia’s insertion of troops beyond even the extremely pro-Russian Crimea. Much of the Eastern portion of Ukraine is also decidedly pro-Russian.
On the international stage, however, Putin’s recent request and the Russian Parliament’s granting of that request has caused a stir to say the least. The Russian decision comes only day after U.S. President Barack Obama warned that “there will be costs” if Russia takes military action in the Ukraine.
These statements were addressed by members of the Russian Parliament as the discussion over whether or not to grant Putin’s request. In fact, in an ironic turn echoing the Syrian crisis, a deputy house speaker stated that Obama had “crossed a red line” and stated that the upper house recommended that the Russian Ambassador to the United States be recalled.
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In addition to the approval of the request to use military force, Russia is also pressuring the recent –foreign-backed Ukranian government from a different direction. State gas company Gazprom recently released a statement announcing that Ukraine owes $1.59 billion in past due bills for gas imported into the country. Sergei Kuprianov, the Gazprom Spokesman, stated that the unpaid bills would endanger a discount program given to Ukraine by Russia. The discount had lowered the price of gas from around $400 to about $268.50. The loss of such a discount will no doubt cause Ukraine’s poor financial situation to become even worse, particularly if it is successful in securing loans from the IMF and all of the austerity requirements that will inevitably come along with it.
To anyone who has a passing knowledge of the nature of color revolutions and destabilization efforts in years past, the recent protests in Ukraine were an obvious example of foreign meddling in the domestic affairs of yet another Eastern European nation.
The neo-Nazi fascist regime that recently seized power with the aid of the United States and |
from Tara and sends Morgan speeding home to meet a bunch of scientists. You guys will not fucking believe this story.
It is important to note the striking similarity between an ongoing RPG campaign and the Warlord comic. What follows in the issues are a connecting plot and always a chance to punch a creature in the face. Seriously, there is a lot of punching of creatures. Perhaps one of the funniest aspects of the first issue is Morgan punching an unsuspecting Satyr after he tries to woo Tara with his pan flutes. What I just said just made me laugh hysterically with excitement. Fuck you Greek mythology. Needless to say any large plot is sort of gone after the first few issues of Warlord and things get really fucking weird.
The world of Warlord is impressive in its ability to entertain and be absolutely ridiculous. It is the equivalent of dressing up in cardboard battle suits and then fighting with silly string whilst making spaceship noises. That charm preserves many of the pulp elements, which speak of a time before the rise of high fantasy. Mike Grell, the series creator, did work on Weird War Tales, a supernatural military series, before the creation of Warlord, which not only shows his penchant for genre bending but also places him into things that Kaptain Carbon adores. Though the writing may be a little flat, and the character development pretty much set on a fixed course, there is something about that winged helmet that no one can deny.
THE WARLORD
First Published: 1st Issue Special #8, (November 1975)
Written & Illustrated by: Mike Grell
Website: Official
Score: 6/9 HammersThis not a cheap set if you compare them with the modulars, but you get a lot more details. So I'm very confident that I bought this set. The set has 2 sticker sheets with a lot of stickers, but it includes a lot of printed tiles in a lot of colors. I'm not a collector of The Simpsons sets, but this set is always useful. I built my set on 1,5 baseplate and disabled the hinges to save place. I used some of the included 8x16 plates to easy remove the roof and get access to the interior. The interior has a lot of fridges (with many items), a big counter, 2 big shelves, 2 pinball boxes, an ATM-machine, a fruit juice vending machine, a cola vending machine, a coffee vending machine,... Outside you have 2 phone boxes and an area for trash with an garbage container. The only remark is that the entrance doors are not high enough for Marge, even if she stays or sits in a wheelchair Pro's - a lot of details in the interior like fridges, vending machines, pinball boxes, ATM-machine, a big counter,... - 2 phone boxes outside - a big garbage container - a lot of printed tiles in many colors - printed (round) 1x1 bricks for drinks, cans,... - printed cash desks on the counters, 2 types are used - a lot of dark orange roof tiles in 1x2, 2x2, 2x4 and corner 2x2 - police car Con's - the entrances doors are too low for Marge - a lot of stickers (not all of them are needed, but some are important for the functionality). 9,5/10A woman sell flowers at local marketplace in Tiraspol, the main city of Transdniestr separatist republic of Moldova | Daniel Mihailescu/AFP/Getty FORUM An Eastern European frozen conflict the EU got right A recent EU deal with Moldovan breakaway territory Transnistria shows the bloc at its very best.
Even as Russia and the West rang in the new year still publicly at loggerheads over Ukraine, the EU sealed a deal with Russia over another Eastern European frozen conflict zone: Transnistria.
The unrecognized statelet of Transnistria broke away from newly independent Moldova in 1990, and is famous as a Soviet nostalgia theme park. Its statues of Lenin and red-star-encrusted factories all stand, and its parliament is called the Supreme Soviet. More than a thousand Russian troops uphold the territory's independence and posters of Vladimir Putin are even more ubiquitous than in Russia.
In 2014 there were many predictions that Transnistria would be the next flashpoint between Russia and the West, after Crimea and Donbas. That did not come to pass, mainly because Transnistria is a much complex place with multiple allegiances and separated from Russia by Ukraine. As one local resident told me in 2014, “My head is in Russia but my legs are walking to Europe.”
Pragmatism governs relations between Chișinău-ruled Moldova on the right bank of the Dniester River and Transnistria. The conflict is about politics, rather than ethnicity: Ordinary people bear no hatred toward one another and travel freely back and forth across the river.
More than 70 percent of exports go to Moldova and, more crucially, to the European Union.
In many ways the two territories are one economic space. Soviet Moldova was a predominantly agricultural republic while Transnistria was its industrial zone. Nowadays, more than 70 percent of exports go to Moldova and, more crucially, to the European Union, with which trade was worth $258 million (€229 million) in 2014.
But that was all jeopardized when Moldova and the EU inked a free-trade deal in 2014 and Transnistria’s specially negotiated trade preferences with the EU were set to expire on January 1, 2016. The province’s only hope was to forge a new deal with Brussels that incorporated it into the Moldovan deal.
Now, two years of below-the-radar negotiations have delivered a quiet success that ensures trade with the EU will continue. The Transnistrians have agreed to a two-year transition period to a new trading regime, which meets key conditions of Moldova’s deal. They must drop customs duties on EU goods coming to Transnistria, provide “certificates of origin,” and meet EU food safety standards. Loss of customs revenue will be offset by the introduction of VAT charges.
***
“Effectively, in economic terms we are still open to the West,” said Sergei Shirokov, a political analyst in Tiraspol, Transnistria’s capital.
But the Transnistrian government had no choice. On one side is Moldova, moving closer to the EU. On the other is post-Maidan Ukraine, which has been squeezing Transnistria in a way that no previous Kiev administration has done before. Ukraine no longer allows Russian troops to access Transnistria through its territory, and it has signed a new border agreement with Moldova to curb contraband cigarette and alcohol smugglers coming from Transnistria, long a source of cash for the territory.
Moscow has so far gone along with the deal because it knows its influence in Transnistria is largely unaffected.
More to the point, Russia cannot afford to bail out Transnistria when it also has to foot the bill in Crimea and elsewhere. It already tops up small local pensions with a payment locals call Putinka, after the Russian president, and Gazprom transfers up to $400 million worth of gas to the territory annually. But last year, Transnistria’s trade with Russia fell by half and remittance payments from Russia, which were previously worth several times the Transnistrian budget, dropped sharply.
Transnistrian President Yevgeny Shevchuk’s popularity plummeted since his unexpected election in 2011. He was short of options.
Over in Moldova, opinion on the breakaway territory is sharply divided. Some view its problems with schadenfreude, seeing no reason why Chișinău should make any concessions to the separatists. Some of these Moldovans see the Transnistria conflict as a brake on unification with Romania — of which Moldova (minus Transnistria) was part until the Soviet annexation of 1940.
Other Moldovans say an economic crash in Transnistria would hurt its neighbors too. They still hold out for unification with Transnistria in the long term, but settle for economic convergence in the short term.
The Moldovan Chamber of Commerce helps promote Transnistrian companies in the EU and provide them with international grants and training.
Valeriu Lazăr, a former minister of economy and now head of Moldova’s Chamber of Commerce, falls into this latter category.
The Moldovan Chamber of Commerce helps promote Transnistrian companies in the EU and provide them with international grants and training. Lazăr admitted it is a controversial policy as the tax revenues go to the authorities in Tiraspol rather than Chișinău, but he said the benefits strongly outweigh the negatives. A stronger Transnistrian economy was good for Moldova, he said, and new EU-friendly regulations would even be good for Russia, whose trading regulations were closer to Europe than those of Transnistria.
However, no one in Brussels, Chișinău or Tiraspol is keen to advertise the trade deal too loudly because of several potential spoilers, ranging from criminal-business groups who will be adversely affected, to Russian nationalists who see any agreement with the EU as a betrayal. Implementation of the new regulations will also be tough on a de facto government with no international legitimacy.
“Everyone is happy. It doesn’t mean that there won't be problems in a year's time,” said Shirokov.
***
Does the EU deal have political significance? Yes and no. Economic convergence is a necessary condition of political agreement, but it’s unlikely to deliver it in the medium term. It does bring the two territories closer together though, mitigating against future conflict.
The agreement also provides a stark contrast with Ukraine and its rebellious regions. Moldova uses trade to ease relations and build bridges. But the Ukrainian government does the opposite.
By the end of last year the government in Kiev had cut most transport links, trade and electricity shipments to Crimea. Social welfare payments are also cut to residents of Donbas. People in Crimea are experiencing blackouts and economic hardship. The blockade is unlikely to endear them to the prospect of re-joining Ukraine, even if that option were available.
Reports from Crimea tell of people redoubling their hopes of salvation from Russia, in the form of new electricity and water supplies and eventually a bridge to the Russian mainland. In January, when the government in Kiev offered to switch the power on again, a Crimean government minister declared: “We do not need it.” Severing trade cements facts on the ground.
In Transnistria, the doors are still all open. The recent deal is an example of the EU at its best, operating as a technocratic normative actor and letting trade lead geopolitics. Let’s hope the model works in the long run.
Thomas de Waal is a senior associate at Carnegie Europe in Brussels.We recently released an updated list of the average software engineer salary offers doled out in each city. Unsurprisingly, the Bay Area unsurprisingly lead the pack, with the average software engineer salary offer clocking in at $131,266 (up 3% in Q3 compared to Q2).
Average software engineer salary offers
Here’s the full list of average salary offers made to software engineers on the Hired platform in Q3 of this year (compared to Q2):
SF Bay Area: $139,036 (up 2%) Seattle: $132,670 (up 9%) New York: $124,691 (up 2%) Boston: $119,613 (up 2%) San Diego: $117,928 (up 3%) Los Angeles: $115,433 (stable) Denver: $113,842 (up 1%) Chicago: $113,280 (up 7%) Austin: $112,618 (up 4%) Washington, DC: $111,620 (stable)
While it’s useful to compare top offers in top cities, these average offer numbers are most compelling in the context of actual living expenses. For instance, what does a salary of $115,035 actually get you in Denver? And what would you need to earn in San Francisco dollars to maintain the same standard of living? This is where it gets really interesting.
When you compare city-specific salary offer data with the actual cost of living in that city, surprising winners and losers emerge. Namely: Austin, Texas, where software engineers are offered, on average, $115,035. But if you were to attempt to relocate your Austin life to San Francisco — and wanted to maintain the same standard of living you got for $115,035 in Austin — you’d need to earn a whopping $198,353 yearly (per C2ER data provided by PayScale). That’s the highest adjusted salary comparison of any city.
Average software engineer salary offers — in SF dollars
According to PayScale, here’s what you would have to earn in San Francisco dollars to maintain the same standard of living as the average software engineer salary would afford you:
Austin: $198,353 Denver: $182,011 Seattle: $168,197 Chicago: $153,968 Los Angeles: $145,774 Boston: $140,986 San Francisco: $135,853 (baseline) San Diego: $133,201 Washington, DC: $128,853 New York: $91,967
In all seriousness, these adjusted salaries tell us a few things about the cost of living in each city, and where salaries might help you afford more in one city than other cities. (Read how C2ER’s Cost of Living Index is calculated here). Austin salaries far and away eclipse standard living expenses, but Austin engineers aren’t the only winners; Denver engineers are making out like bandits, too (and BOTH geos have bright futures; projected 7% and 6% job growth in the next 5 years, respectively).
Here’s a breakdown of average salary offers, average/median living expenses, and other metrics that might affect your quality of life, by city:
AUSTIN
Average software engineer salary offer: $115,035
Average commute time: 22
Average monthly rent for a 1 bedroom apartment: $1,180
Median home price: $328,000
Projected 5-year job growth: 7%
BOSTON
Average software engineer salary offer: $118,789
Average commute time: 28
Average monthly rent for a 1 bedroom apartment: $2,800
Median home price: $545,000
Projected 5-year job growth: n/a
CHICAGO
Average software engineer salary offer: $110,410
Average commute time: 34
Average monthly rent for a 1 bedroom apartment: $1,400
Median home price: $248,000
Projected 5-year job growth: 2%
DENVER
Average software engineer salary offer: $119,214
Average commute time: 24
Average monthly rent for a 1 bedroom apartment: $1,180
Median home price: $350,000
Projected 5-year job growth: 2%
LOS ANGELES
Average software engineer salary offer: $124,200
Average commute time: 28
Average monthly rent for a 1 bedroom apartment: $1,950
Median home price: $587,000
Projected 5-year job growth: 2%
NEW YORK
Average software engineer salary offer: $123,415
Average commute time: 39
Average monthly rent for a 1 bedroom apartment: $3,550
Median home price: $545,000
Projected 5-year job growth: 2%
SAN DIEGO
Average software engineer salary offer: $108,625
Average commute time: 22
Average monthly rent for a 1 bedroom apartment: $1,500
Median home price: $495,000
Projected 5-year job growth: 3%
SAN FRANCISCO
Average software engineer salary offer: $135,853
Average commute time: 29
Average monthly rent for a 1 bedroom apartment: $3,420
Median home price: $1,150,000
Projected 5-year job growth: 1%
SEATTLE
Average software engineer salary offer: $128,268
Average commute time: 24
Average monthly rent for a 1 bedroom apartment: $1,750
Median home price: $537,000
Projected 5-year job growth: 3%
WASHINGTON, DC
Average software engineer salary offer: $110,389
Average commute time: 29
Average monthly rent for a 1 bedroom apartment: $2,210
Median home price: $526,100
Projected 5-year job growth: 6%
Sources: Apartment List, Global Property Guide, PayScale, CNN MoneyPresident Obama is asking Congress to provide $1.8 billion in emergency funding to fight the Zika virus, the mosquito-borne illness that could be causing the proliferation of a rare birth defect in some Latin American countries.
The president will submit a formal request to Congress on Monday requesting money to up increase mosquito control programs, help build response and support capacities in states and territories where transmission is possible, expand research into the link between the virus and birth defects, and help countries currently facing the virus keep it from spreading.
“There is much we do not yet know about Zika and its relationship to the poor health outcomes that are being reported in Zika-affected areas,” a White House Fact Sheet reads. “We must work aggressively to investigate these outbreaks, and mitigate, to the best extent possible, the spread of the virus.”
Brazil has been hardest hit by the virus, which has been detected in 26 countries and territories in the Americas. World health officials believe it could spread to three or four million people this year, including in the United States.
The request also includes an additional $250 million in federal assistance in Puerto Rico for women and children who are at risk for or have been diagnosed with microcephaly, the birth disorder linked to the virus. A public health emergency has been declared in the U.S. territory because of the virus.
Democrats in Congress pushed the president to formulate a proper response plan for the virus and called for additional resources and an interagency response to fighting the virus. The White House has been insistent that the administration is responding aggressively to the virus, which has not yet been transmitted via mosquito in the U.S. The virus has already been transmitted on U.S. soil via sexual contact.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been actively working to keep the public informed about the virus. Officials are now advising pregnant women and their male partners to use condoms or abstain from sex if either have traveled to or live in Zika infected areas.
Contact us at editors@time.com.Scoring publicly traded companies on their environmental, social and governance (ESG) could now be easier following new research by Russell Investments. The firm has created a metric that more accurately identifies ESG factors which could impact the financial performance of the firms.
Scott Bennett, director of equity strategy and research at Russell Investments, co-authored a paper titled Materiality Matters: Targeting ESG issues that impact performance. “We can now distinguish those companies which score highly on ESG issues that are financially material to their business and profitability,” Bennett said. “Our material scores are 65% correlated to traditional ESG scores, but they are meaningfully different.”
A New Methodology
The new scores allow ESG investors to differentiate between companies in a more precise way. According to Emily Steinbarth, quantitative analyst at Russell, who co-authored the study, the firm created the new scoring methodology with comprehensive ESG scores from data provider Sustainalytics, which "are used for a wide variety of reasons beyond investment selection, and the industry-level materiality map developed by the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB)."
The new scores were back-tested to a period between December 2012 and June 2017 using the Russell Global Large Cap Index. The research team found that a listed company's material ESG score offers a promising signal for informing investment decisions, producing measurably better performance than traditional ESG scores during the back-tested period.
Bennett added that the results of this study are aligned with the expectations of sustainable investment industry research organizations, such as the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and the United Nations-backed Principle for Responsible Investment (PRI). These NGOs recommend that companies focus on the material ESG issues that directly affect their bottom line. An electric utility, for example, would make carbon emissions a material ESG factor in measuring the long-term impact on its ability to provide cleaner energy resources to business and residential customers.
Following the Money
Led by women and millennials, who will control the majority of wealth in the U.S. within 15 years, sustainability-focused investors are demanding more opportunity to incorporate ESG metrics into portfolio analysis. In turn, financial advisors are demanding better information from asset managers about how they use ESG analysis to reduce risk and create a performance advantage.
Publicly traded companies are next in line to be vetted in relation to ESG data, and today are more sensitive to investor demand for material information.
This change has been driven by rising importance of intangibles to publicly traded companies. According to David Post of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), intangibles now fill 80% of company balance sheets. This increases company exposure to short-term reputational risk. Internal focus on the ESG metrics that matter to a company today is, thus, more important than it was five years ago.
Blackrock Support
As a materiality-focused approach to understanding ESG moves to center stage, large asset managers are calling for awareness of which off-the-balance-sheet issues create risk and opportunity for firms. In a recent letter to the CEOs of companies owned in its portfolios, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink recently drew attention to “A New Model for Corporate Governance” focused on long-term value creation for shareholders. (See also: Amplifying The ESG Definition.)
BlackRock’s assets under management are heavily weighted toward index-based, low-cost portfolios. In passive portfolio structures that incorporate ESG analysis, asset managers cannot express disapproval of corporate governance policy decisions by selling a company’s stock as long as it is included in the relevant index. This potentially impacts the asset manager’s fiduciary obligation to its shareholders.
Fink’s remarks are especially valuable to consider in relation to research of the kind that Russell Investments has done to develop company and industry-specific ESG metrics that affect performance. Accurate measurement of material ESG metrics at the company level is more important than ever. In fact, the early results of this research have encouraged Russell Investments to incorporate the new material ESG scoring approach into its current decarbonization strategy. This strategy serves as the foundation for low carbon investment funds available in several markets globally.Transport Secretary Justine Greening has announced several high-level investigations after 11-year-old Liam Corcoran flew to Rome on his own from Manchester Airport without a passport, ticket or boarding pass.
The schoolboy passed through security without being checked, before boarding the Jet2.com flight yesterday.
Liam had travelled less than three miles from a nearby shopping centre, before evading five security checks to successfully board flight LS791 to the Italian capital.
The captain was only alerted to the extra passenger when holidaymakers raised concerns during the flight.
Liam's 1,500 mile "adventure" ended last night when he returned to Britain unharmed and was reunited with his family.
Today, at least three separate investigations were underway while several staff have been suspended over the security breach.
The incident comes as more than two million people arrive in Britain ahead of the Olympic Games, which open in London on Friday.
"I take any breach of security, very, very seriously," Justine Greening, the Transport Secretary, told the BBC.
"So we are now investigating with Manchester Airport and, indeed the airline, to find out exactly what happened.
"This is an unusual and serious breach and we are keen to find out what has gone on."
A Manchester Airport spokesman described it as an "extremely serious matter".
"It is clear that documentation has not been checked correctly at security and the boarding gate," he added.
"The boy went through full security screening so the safety of passengers and the aircraft was never compromised. It was our responsibility - we absolutely have to answer for that.
"This was a young lad on an adventure."
The drama began at lunchtime yesterday when Liam was reported to Greater Manchester Police as missing.
It appeared he had run away from his 28-year-old mother, Mary, while she was shopping at Wythenshawe Civic Centre, located just over a mile from their home.
It remains unclear how he travelled to the airport, located about two and half miles away, but when he arrived he passed through security in Terminal 1 without any problems.
It was understood that Liam had followed a family when he got to the packed terminal and that security staff scanned him but failed to realise he was on his own and had no boarding card.
He then went to one of the gates where passengers were boarding Jet2.com flight and managed to get past a security check without showing a passport or boarding card.
The airport spokesman said: "He was with a large group of other children, he appeared to be in a family group - for whatever reason he wasn't checked."
It was believed that after he boarded and took a seat, crew failed to carry out an accurate headcount to make sure that the number of passengers and boarding cards matched up.
During the flight, passengers became suspicious and alerted cabin crew.
The captain was informed and radioed back to Manchester, where police informed the boy's mother, he was safe and well but on a plane heading to Italy.
The boy remained on board after landing at Rome Fiumicino Airport, and returned to Manchester on the same plane, where he was met by his mother around 9pm last night.
A number of staff from Manchester Airport and Jet2.com have been suspended. Officials declined to comment further or say how many staff have been suspended.
An airline spokesman said: "On Tuesday, an 11 year old boy cleared security at Manchester Airport, without the necessary paperwork but had been through a full security search.
"The boy then boarded our flight bound for Rome. We have launched a full investigation into what is a serious incident, and the staff involved have been suspended pending the outcome.
"The boy has been returned safely to his family.” She declined to comment further.
A Greater Manchester Police spokesman said: "Shortly before 12.40pm on Tuesday... police received a report of a missing 11-year-old boy. The boy was last seen by his mother in a shopping centre in Wythenshawe.
"Officers launched inquiries to trace him, but later became aware that the boy was seen on an aeroplane.
"The boy has now been found safe and well."
Today, there was no answer at the family home amid speculation they were set to sell their story to a national newspaper.Buy Photo A Ramapo Police car is parked in front of Ramapo High School in Spring Valley after an incident involving two students closed the school on Friday, Feb. 19, 2016. (Photo: John Meore/The Journal News)Buy Photo
RAMAPO - Two Ramapo High School students armed with knives or razors suffered minor wounds during a fight inside the building on Friday afternoon, authorities said.
One student who suffered a cut to his hand and body was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital in Suffern. A Ramapo police detective went to interview the young man at the hospital.
The other student suffered a hand cut, possibly self-inflicted, during the fight.
Both students were 17 years old.
Ramapo police Detective Lt. Mark Emma said earlier Friday that as far as he knew, the students didn't suffer a serious, life-threatening injury.
He said the student might have been taken to the hospital emergency room as more of a precaution and as part of East Ramapo School District's procedures.
"There is an injury from some possible type of blade," Emma said. "I believe the injuries are not serious."
Emma later said the police department agreed to let the East Ramapo School District officials release all the information. The department has deferred to the district in the past.
Schools Superintendent Deborah Wortham, who was hired late last year to run the district, said in a released statement that the students taken to the hospital were treated and released.
"We take very seriously the safety of our students and will assist the police in any way we can as they continue their investigation," Wortham said in a released statement.
Twitter: @lohudlegal
Read or Share this story: http://lohud.us/1XChRcINorth Korea has warned that US troops stationed at a new base in South Korea are still within striking range, adding that American forces will face a "miserable end" if they continue their "reckless military confrontation."
The North Korean military stated that even though the 8th US Army Command on Tuesday moved to a new base in Pyeongtaek, some 70 kilometers (43 miles) south of Seoul, the North can still successfully target the facility.
Read more
"The larger the US military base is, the more effectively our military hits targets," a North Korean military spokesman said, Yonhap news agency reported, citing the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
"If [the leadership] issues an order, our military will destroy the US imperialists with salvos of firings," the spokesman said. "If the US sticks to reckless military confrontation despite our warning, it cannot avoid a miserable end."
The 8th US Army Command made the move to its new base at Camp Humphreys on Tuesday, after more than a decade of planning. The $10.7 billion facility is set to become the largest continuous and most populated overseas installation, according to Stars and Stripes.
Around 80 percent of the construction is complete, and the rest is expected to be finished in the next 12 to 18 months, 8th Army Commander Lt. Gen. Thomas Vandal said, as cited by Stars and Stripes. Remaining units will be transferred once the facility has been completed.
Funding and labor for the base, which will eventually replace Yongsan as the main US military base in South Korea, has been mostly provided by Seoul.
The 8th Army Command is the commanding formation of all American Army Forces in South Korea. In total, the US maintains around 28,500 service members in the East Asian country.
Friday’s threat by North Korea comes amid increased tensions between Washington and Pyongyang, with US President Donald Trump repeatedly vowing to put an end to North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
Trump reiterated that threat earlier this month, after Pyongyang launched a ballistic missile test as a "gift" for the "American bastards" on US Independence Day, July 4.
Read more
“It's a shame they're behaving this way – they're behaving in a very, very dangerous manner and something will have to be done about it,” President Trump said in a news conference following the North Korean launch.
Pyongyang claimed the July 4 launch was particularly significant because it represented the first launch of a North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). However, South Korean intelligence services have since stated that the North is unlikely to have the technology to build such missiles, or the facilities to test them.
Pyongyang has ignored all calls to cease missile tests and de-nuclearize and has continued to test the patience of its Asian neighbors, saying such programs are necessary to counter US aggression.
The US and South Korea agreed to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system last year, in response to Pyongyang’s development of ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons. THAAD is designed to intercept short, medium and intermediate-range ballistic missiles during their terminal flight phase.
The previous South Korean conservative government ratified the THAAD deal, while facing protests from people who were scared of becoming a target instead of being protected, as well as from environmentalists claiming the systems might harm natural habitats.
READ MORE: Moscow promotes joint Russia-China plan instead of US attempts to ‘strangle’ N. Korea at UNSC
Russia and China had called earlier this month for an alternative solution of the standoff to prevent a regional arms race and potential military confrontation, providing their own roadmap. The draft plan is based on “double freezing,” when Pyongyang halts its missile and nuclear programs, while South Korea and the US cancel joint large-scale military exercises.
The plan, however, was met with reluctance in Washington, which doubted Moscow’s and Beijing’s ability to influence North Korea, and refused to cancel its military drills.BALLA, India (Reuters) - Five armed men burst into the small room and courtyard at dawn, just as 21-year-old, 22-week pregnant, Sunita was drying her face on a towel.
The bodies of Sunita Devi (L), 21, and her partner Jasbir Singh, 22, lie on the ground after they were killed by villagers in an "honour killing" in Ballah village in the northern Indian state of Haryana May 9, 2008. Growing economic opportunities for young people and lower castes in Haryana have made "love marriages" more common, experts say, and the violent repression of them has risen in tandem as upper caste Jat men fight to hold on to power, status and property. REUTERS/Stringer
They punched and kicked her stomach as she called out for her sleeping boyfriend “Jassa”, 22-year-old Jasbir Singh, witnesses said. When he woke, both were dragged into waiting cars, driven away and strangled.
Their bodies, half-stripped, were laid out on the dirt outside Sunita’s father’s house for all to see, a sign that the family’s “honor” had been restored by her cold-blooded murder.
A week later, the village of Balla, just a couple of hours drive from India’s capital New Delhi, stands united behind the act, proud, defiant almost to a man.
Among the Jat caste of the conservative northern state of Haryana, it is taboo for a man and woman of the same village to marry. Although the couple were not related, they were seen in this deeply traditional society as brother and sister.
“From society’s point of view, this is a very good thing,” said 62-year-old farmer Balwan Arya, sitting smoking a hookah in the shade of a tree in a square with other elders from the village council or panchayat. “We have removed the blot.”
Growing economic opportunities for young people and lower castes in Haryana have made “love marriages” more common, experts say, and the violent repression of them has risen in tandem as upper caste Jat men fight to hold on to power, status and property.
Sunita’s father Om Prakash has confessed to murdering his pregnant daughter and her boyfriend, police told Reuters. An uncle and two cousins were among four others arrested.
But in Balla many people believe the father confessed merely to underline that he supported his daughter’s killing, to satisfy honor and protect the real culprits among his family or village.
At their house, Sunita’s mother did not emerge to talk. Instead, a young man on a motorbike tried to intimidate the Reuters team into leaving. It turned out he was another of Sunita’s cousins, his father and brother held by police.
“We are not ashamed of it, absolutely not, we have the honor of doing the village proud,” he said.
“We would not have had a face to show if we had not done this. It was the act of ‘real men’.”
THE POWER OF UPPER CASTE MEN
The relatively prosperous northern state of Haryana is one of India’s most conservative when it comes to caste, marriage and the role of women. Deeply patriarchal, caste purity is paramount and marriages are arranged to sustain the status quo.
Men and women are still murdered across the villages of northern India for daring to marry outside their caste, but in Haryana the practice is widespread, and widely supported.
Here, women veil their faces with scarves in public. The illegal abortion of female fetuses is common, the ratio of women to men in Haryana just 861 to 1,000, the lowest in the country.
Related Coverage Brother suspected in killing of German-Afghan girl
Anyone who transgresses social codes, by marrying across caste boundaries or within the same village, is liable to meet the same fate as Sunita and Jasbir.
Many such murders are never reported, hardly any result in prosecution, says Professor Javeed Alam, chairman of the Indian Council of Social Science Research.
“People from the same village are treated as siblings in Haryana,” he said. “So this is treated as incest.”
Without any law to prohibit this kind of marriage, “the only way you can punish it is by taking the law into your own hands. People believe people who commit incest should be killed”.
Nor do politicians ever renounce the practice, Alam added, because if they did, “they would not win elections”.
And the legalization of property rights for women in 1956 made love marriages within a village even more dangerous for this elite, as daughters living close to home could in theory claim a part of the family land, sociologist Prem Chowdhry says.
CHILDHOOD SWEETHEARTS
Sunita and Jasbir, sweethearts in the same class at school, had little chance. When he left school a couple of years before her to become an photographer’s apprentice, he would often hang around at the school gates to collect her.
She was married off to another man, but left her husband to elope with Jasbir a year-and-a-half ago, and while the families tried to keep them apart, they realized it was a losing battle.
“They were madly in love even to the last day,” said Jasbir’s 16-year-old sister-in-law Lalita in the house where they lived in Machhroli village, around 35 km (20 miles) by road from Balla.
To make matters worse, Jasbir was from a lower sub-caste, and she was pregnant outside marriage. Sunita’s parents in Balla found themselves virtually ostracized.
“Nobody would drink water in our house,” Sunita’s mother Roshni is reported to have said. “My daughter’s action made us aliens in our own land. But we have managed to redeem our honor. She paid for her ill-gotten action.”
But among Jasbir’s family, split between Machhroli and Balla, grief is mixed with fear.
“Why are you talking to the media?” shouted a female family member at one point. “This will only bring more trouble.”
At the small police post in Balla, a constable admitted the case was unlikely to ever reach prosecution, with the village putting enormous pressure on the police, and especially Jasbir’s family, to quietly drop the case.
“We are being pressurized into reaching an agreement, a compromise, without even being given time to grieve,” said Jasbir’s 25-year-old sister Neelam. “We have been told that if we don’t compromise, we will suffer the same fate.”
Slideshow (4 Images)
In the narrow alleyway outside their tiny house, women wailed in grief. A few hundred yards away, the panchayat sat in quiet self-satisfaction.
“The people who have done this should get an award for it,” said 48-year-old Satvir Singh. “This was a murder of morality.”Women's groups |
the truth of the unified object’s independence, its being-for-itself, has only shown that in truth its essence is an other.
Thus the object and truth of Perception dissolves itself away. What was supposed to be the essential for the object, being-for-itself, has shown itself to be just as unessential and essential as being-for-another. Perception’s concept of the object was nothing but a set of meaningless and empty differences first positing one aspect as essential and then another. As Hegel puts it: a mere show of sophistry claiming one thing as true, then its opposite as true, and back again. However, Perception’s dissolution is not empty. Its dissolution comes about because of the problem of conceiving the difference which is in the object, and despite its failure two things has been learned: 1) the difference is a difference of the object itself and not a fiction of perception; 2) the determinacy of the object cannot be captured by appealing to sensuous experience of individuality as opposed to the abstract universality of its unity.
If there is a way to capture the difference of one and many in the object it must be captured in a single movement of thought, a true universal unity which subsumes its individuals within itself. This insight and movement away from the perceived object’s essence lying in its sensuous character is the movement away from Perception to Understanding, a new form of consciousness which grasps that the truth of the object’s unified difference must be found within a realm of pure universality.
AdvertisementsIt is about time I got back to (God)Awful Movies, the segment of the blog dedicated to the worst of religious cinema.
Today’s feature, “Escape From Hell,” is one that I have come across a couple of times in bargain bins in the deep south. I’m not sure how far it actually got distributed, but I’ve certainly never seen it outside of Alabama or Georgia. Here’s what my copy looks like:
I’m sure glad to know that I got the special edition! Hopefully that means there is some CGI Jabba the Hutt to enjoy.
The reason that I initially picked this up, apart from the title and the cover art, is because of the amazing blurbs on the back of this box. Here are a couple of them, including two from noted film critics Jerry Falwell and televangelist Jack Van Impe:
Well, I’m sold. I can’t wait to see if this film makes me think about my “life without Christ.”
Out of curiosity, I decided to dig around to see if there is a trailer out there for this thing. I ultimately dug one up, but, to my joy, I found something even better as well: a clip collection, courtesy of the fantastic folks over at Everything is Terrible!
Now I am definitely psyched. Here is the trailer I dug up as well, in case you happen to be curious:
Director Danny Carrales and writer Michael Martin have apparently worked together on a number of Christian features outside of “Escape to Hell,” including films called “The Gathering” and “Second Glance.” Star Daniel Kruse pops up in “The Gathering,” as well as another movie that Carrales and Martin worked on called “Pilgrim’s Promise.” One of the other actors in “Escape to Hell,” Terry Jernigan, has managed to appear in an assortment of bit film roles over the years, but my favorite credit of his is on an upcoming movie called “Sasquatch vs. Yeti.” You can bet that I am looking that one up.
I think that the biggest red flag for me when sifting through the IMDb entry far “Escape to Hell” was finding someone credited as “2D/3D animation and effects / special effects supervisor.” That can’t spell out anything good for this movie. Also, the person with that credit has nothing else current listed to their name outside of another Carrales/Martin feature (“Pilgrim’s Progress”).
My next favorite credit on this movie is one of the producers, Randy Smith, who is apparently a professional boom operator who has worked on an assortment of actually good movies (“12 Monkeys,” “Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas,” “Phone Booth”) and occasionally not-so-good movies (“Thinner,” “The Langoliers”).
Now, let’s see how this thing is. Will it scare me into the arms of Jesus? Will I be forced to reassess all my sinful life choices? Will I be able to even stay awake through this whole thing? Let’s find out!
Review:
Wow, this is really awful. I’m not really sure where to start.
The cinematography is awful in nearly every way you can imagine. Some of the shots are nothing short of nauseating for no reason whatsoever (just people walking down a hallway, for instance). There are so many dutch angles that you will question if your head is even on straight. When the camera is being used half-sensibly, everything feels like an infomercial, or a soap opera at best. Unfortunately, even those moments are few and far between.
The acting is about what you would expect: most of them seem like they are reading directly off of the scripts. In the few cases where that isn’t the case, they either hilariously overact, or sound like they are giving half-rate sermons. Of course, a lot of that blame deserves to be leveled at the writing as well, which is more heavy-handed than a steel gauntlet.
It turns out that my nervousness about that “2D/3D animation and effects / special effects supervisor” was more than justified. There is way more reliance on special effects than there should be in this flick, and they look really bad. I’m pretty sure that they didn’t look good when they were done originally in 2000, and they certainly don’t look good 15 years down the line. I’d bet that they could have pulled off better practical effects with the money they spent on the CG here, and wound up with something way more convincing (the few moments that do involve practical effects in this movie do look passable). That at least would have looked like something realistic, whereas the CG here just looks downright laughable. Moments where characters are cast into hell are supposed to be intimidating and terrifying, but instead they are profoundly hilarious.
Overall, this isn’t a movie worth spending the time to sit through. For the most part, it is just boring dialogue between characters you just can’t give a damn about. I would recommend checking out the “Everything is Terrible” highlights (which has all of the best parts included), and just leaving it alone from there. This isn’t a film that is going to change your life, and it certainly isn’t going to send anyone running to Jesus who wasn’t on his team already.
AdvertisementsI was an analyst in the Canadian Department of National Defence specialising in the USSR/Russia. I started in the time of Chernenko and watched the whole thing develop.
I was a Counsellor in the Canadian Embassy 1993-1996.
I retired in May 2008 and have been writing on Russia and related subjects on the Net ever since.
I have written for various websites and discussion groups – some since departed and some still there. I decided to start my own website with the intention that it become a repository for my writings.
Generally speaking, the predominant theme of my career was that we had a great opportunity when the USSR disappeared to make a more cooperative world. Instead, we have steadily turned Russia into an enemy – and a much more capable one than we casually assumed in the 1990s.
So here we are today. Paying for our arrogance, incompetence and maybe worse.
But I haven’t given up hope.
More information here https://patrickarmstrong.ca/2017/10/26/how-i-got-here/
I don’t take comments because I’m too lazy to police them; every now and again I bulk delete them without reading them. Much of my stuff is picked up by other sites which do.
Happy to have anybody quote or reprint anything anywhere at any time. The only rules are the usual ones of common decency and behaviour. Addendum 12 January 2019. I specifically refuse permission to RUSSIA INSIDER to reprint my pieces; it gratuitously added a nazi anti-semitic propaganda illustration to my piece on how to read the Western news media. Attribution Linking hyperlink No cheating or misrepresentation
My header picture is a painting by Isaac Levitan “Над вечным покоем“. Several English versions but “Eternal rest” is the one I like.So, I came home to a large box from Amazon, and was VERY confused. Ok, I'd ordered a book. Other than that, I was expecting my ugly mug gift. This box was HEAVY, and was big enough to contain a microwave. It must have weighed 10 pounds. Finally I just threw caution to the wind and tore it open. Inside was the BIGGEST coffee mug I'd ever seen! Seriously, bigger than my head, and seemed big enough to hold a gallon of coffee easy. Holy crap! I might wait until Saturday to put it to use, but I fully intend to make a large pot of coffee and drink it out of my new gigantic mug. Thank you, mystery Santa! You made my night!
UPDATE: My awesome secret Santa sent me a regular sized mug as well! I love it. It speaks to the foodie in me, as well as the perv. Thanks again!Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu and Ubuntu GNOME reached version 13.10. Let's take a quick look at what's new!
For 13.04, I've made separate posts for some flavours with videos, etc., but there aren't so many changes in the latest 13.10 (Saucy Salamander) release, so I've made a quick summary instead.
Kubuntu 13.10
Muon Discover
Muon Discover
New User Manager
KDE Connect (available in the repositories; screenshot via jfdesignnet.com)
Kubuntu 13.10 changes:
Kubuntu 13.10 ships with KDE SC 4.11 which includes changes such as:
the taskbar has been ported to QtQuick and while it looks the same as before, it should be more consistent and fluid in behavior;
the battery widget now supports keyboard brightness and can deal with multiple batteries and peripheral devices like wireless mice and keyboards;
Nepomuk received massive performance improvements;
Muon Discover (the application was introduced with Kubutnu 13.04, but it wasn't installed by default), a Muon Suite front-end that makes it easier to find and install new software, is installed by default in Kubuntu 13.10, replacing Muon Software Center;
A new, simpler way to manage system users has been added: User Manager
Kubuntu Installer: You can install updates and extra packages from the installer via WiFi;
KDE Telepathy received better text editing and improved notifications
Simpler UI for the Network Manager applet;
The Kubuntu documentation is once again available, either through the Help application or by visiting docs.kubuntu.org
KDE-Connect is available in the repositories (not installed by default) - this is an exiting new tool that can connect to your Android device and perform various actions like Clipboard Sync, remote multimedia control, notifications sync, telephony notifier or report the battery status (the notifications plugin needs Android 4.3 to work).
Lubuntu 13.10
Pcmanfm with built-in search utility
Box icons
Lubuntu 13.10 changes:
Chromium browser has been replaced by Firefox;
New version of pcmanfm / libfm (1.1.0) which includes a built-in search utility;
Catfish has been removed from the default installation;
XScreensaver has been removed (LightDM is now used for screen locking but there's a pretty serious bug here unless I'm missing something: if you switch to TTY7 after locking the screen - using Ctrl + Alt + 7 -, you can access the desktop without having to unlock the screen so without having to enter any password!);
ZRam has been added enabling the desktop installer to work on lower RAM machines;
artwork updates, including many new icons for the default icon theme "Box".
Xubuntu 13.10
New Display dialog with proper multi-monitor support
New folder icons
Xubuntu 13.10 LightDM greeter
Numix, one of the themes preinstalled in Xubuntu 13.10
Xubuntu 13.10 changes:
xfce4-settings was updated, bringing a new dialog to set up multiple displays, among others;
apt-offline is now installed by default along with instructions on using it in the Xubuntu documentation. This tool allows for easier access to package archives in bandwidth-constrained conditions as well as when a computer lacks an always-on connection to the Internet;
gtk-theme-config, a tool that allows changing the theme colors, was added by default;
artwork updates: new folder icons (inherited from elementary icon theme), updated LightDM greeer, new wallpaper and updated GTK themes which should work with both GTK 3.8 and 3.10.
Ubuntu GNOME 13.10
GNOME Shell 3.8 under Ubuntu GNOME 13.10
GNOME Classic session is installed by default
GDM 3.8 in Ubuntu GNOME 13.10
Ubuntu GNOME 13.10 changes:
Ubuntu GNOME 13.10 ships with most of GNOME 3.8 by default;
GNOME 3.6 packages included with Ubuntu GNOME 13.10: Epiphany, GNOME Terminal and GNOME System Settings;
The new GNOME Classic session is included by default - to use it, select "GNOME Classic" from the login screen;
Ubuntu Online Accounts is no longer included by default;
New logo for the Plymouth bootloader and login screen;
Not exactly related to this release, but Ubuntu GNOME has for about a month a new "OneStop" wiki page where you'll find links with everything you need to know about Ubuntu GNOME.It’s official: For the first time, a majority of American homes have only wireless telephones.
The trend to drop landlines has been growing over the last decade alongside the growth in mobile phone use, according to semi-annual surveys performed by the Centers for Disease Control, which wants to monitor how to contact people for future surveys. But it wasn’t until the end of 2016 that a majority of all households relied solely on mobile phones.
In the CDC survey for the second half of 2016, 50.8% of households had only mobile service, up from 48.3% a year earlier. Another 39.4% of households had both types of service and 6.5% had landlines only. The survey, released on Thursday, found 3.2% of homes had no phone connection of any kind. The CDC surveyed almost 20,000 households during the six-month period.
The trend follows the financial results seen at major telecommunications providers like AT&T (t) and Verizon (vz), which have seen their revenue from landline phones sliding precipitously while wireless phone revenue has boomed—at least until the past year or so. Now, with more mobile phones lines than people in the country, that growth has also slowed.
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Many consumers may be dropping landline service as a cost-saving measure. A greater portion of adults living in poverty (66%) and near poverty (59%) were relying solely on cell phone service, the CDC said. Among higher income adults, only 49% were mobile-only.
The demise of landline phone service was the first example of cord cutting, when consumers dropped a wired product for a wireless alternative. Now, many consumers are also dropping cable TV service, in some cases for mobile video streaming apps on their phones. And a small but growing number of people appear to be dropping landline Internet service to rely solely on the mobile Internet.A mother and daughter were arrested on assault charges this afternoon after they allegedly punched two people aboard a
bus in Southeast Portland.
Tina Duckett, 36, and Markishia Duckett, 19, boarded a bus on
about 3 p.m. and tried to use invalid transfer tickets, said Sgt. Pete Simpson, a spokesman for the
. The driver moved to the next stop, on 122nd Avenue at Division Street, and told the women they needed to leave the bus unless they had valid fare.
That's when the women reportedly started yelling at the driver, Simpson said. A passenger identified as Michael Cooke, 23, asked the women to leave so the bus could get moving. At that point, Simpson said, Markishia Duckett punched Cooke in the face.
Another passenger, Natasha Van Warmer, 23, asked the younger Duckett to stop, Simpson said. The two women then turned on Van Warmer — Tina Duckett held her by the hair while her daughter punched Van Warmer.
More
Van Warmer was traveling with a small child, Simpson said.
Officers responded to the scene and arrested the Ducketts. Markishia Duckett faces charges of third- and fourth-degree assault and interfering with public transportation. Her mother faces the same charges, with an additional count of third-degree theft.
Both were booked in the
.
The arrests come a day after a
. No arrests were made in that incident, which sent the teen to an area hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
--ATLANTA — It’s unlikely anybody could have fathomed a drought of 37 years in the heady days following the University of Georgia’s last national championship back in 1980.
To get a better idea of how long it’s been, just consider that 19 programs have claimed at least a share of the Associated Press championship since then, including 10 that have claimed multiple college football crowns since the last time the Dawgs brought a national title back to Athens.
None of the current UGA players were even close to being as much as a glimmer in their Daddy’s eye when freshman tailback Herschel Walker led the Bulldogs to a Sugar Bowl win over Notre Dame to cap a perfect 12-0 season in 1980.
That harsh reality has been pretty hard to square for enthusiastic Georgia fans who often like to reference their program in the same high-fallutin’ air as more championship-laden rival programs like Alabama, Florida, Florida State, Miami, Notre Dame and the like. So that’s made the many heart-breaking disappointments in recent years all that much more unbearable for them.
But things just might be different this year, and Georgia fans cynically awaiting the other shoe to drop after years of annual disappointment might be in for a surprise.
And ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit says the Dawgs have second-year coach Kirby Smart to thank for it.
“Those Dawgs look and feel like a different team,” Herbstreit tweeted after Georgia overpowered Tennessee, 41-0, on Sept. 30.
Third-ranked Georgia (7-0, 4-0 SEC) enters Saturday’s annual showdown in Jacksonville against rival Florida looking like a runaway locomotive en route for the SEC Championship and the College Football Playoff. A power running game, stifling defense and excellent special teams suggest that the long national championship drought in Athens could soon at last be over.
But UGA fans aren’t exactly making plans for repeat trips to Atlanta just yet. They remember all too well the 2002 team that came within a lone loss to the hated Gators of competing for a national title.
Things weren’t much better in 2005 as the D.J. Shockley-led Dawgs rose to a lofty No. 4 national ranking after winning their first seven games before dropping three of their final six.
The biggest heartbreak may have come from the 2008 team featuring a troika of future NFL stars in QB Matthew Stafford, TB Knowshon Moreno and WR A.J. Green. That uber-talented group started the year ranked No. 1 in the country, only to stumble to a lackluster 10-3 record after a 4-0 start, including a 49-10 shellacking at the hands of Florida.
There have been other unexpected heartbreaks along the way, the most notorious being a pair of losses to Vanderbilt in 2013 and 2016 and several underachieving losses to the hated Gators as well.
But Smart cut his coaching teeth at Alabama under the venerable Nick Saban prior to returning to his alma mater and appears to have brought with him the needed consistency the program might have lacked at times in the past. These Dawgs haven’t shown any signs of taking their foot off the gas, having won their first four SEC games by an average of better than 31 points per contest.
Even former players have begun taking notice.
“I think we’re trending in the right direction,” former Bulldogs quarterback David Greene said recently on the Dawg Nation Daily Podcast.
Alabama, however, is still the undisputed King of the Hill until somebody proves otherwise in the SEC and Florida isn’t to be taken lightly, but Georgia is looking like it could perhaps finally end that drought in Athens.
It’s been a long time coming.A Haskell Cross Compiler for Android
zw3rk Blocked Unblock Follow Following May 30, 2017
Over the last two weeks we saw how to build a Haskell Cross Compiler for Raspberry Pi, set up Cabal for Cross Compilation, and how to Cross Compile Template Haskell. Building a Haskell cross compiler for Android is almost identical, with only minor differences.
For the Raspbian Haskell cross compiler we had a single architecture only. Android runs on a plethora of architectures. We will focus on arm processors, specifically the 32bit armv7 and 64bit aarch64.
The Android NDK & LLVM
Google provides the NDK for Android, which provides a similar set of tools as the Raspbian Cross Compilation SDK does; it contains the Android toolchain and sysroot.
For GHC we need opt and llc from the llvm 4, which can be obtained from their release download website.
Toolchain Wrapping
To keep our PATH tidy, and abstract about the Android NDK a bit, we’ll use a wrapper script that wraps the toolchain and embeds the sysroot.
#!/bin/bash
source android-toolchain.config
name=${0##*/}
cmd=${name##*-}
target=${name%-*}
case $name in
*-cabal)
fcommon="--builddir=dist/${target}"
fcompile=" --with-ghc=${target}-ghc"
fcompile+=" --with-ghc-pkg=${target}-ghc-pkg"
fcompile+=" --with-gcc=${target}-clang"
fcompile+=" --with-ld=${target}-ld"
fcompile+=" --hsc2hs-options=--cross-compile"
fconfig="--disable-shared --configure-option=--host=${target}"
case $1 in
configure|install) flags="${fcommon} ${fcompile} ${fconfig}" ;;
build) flags="${fcommon} ${fcompile}" ;;
list|info|update) flags="" ;;
"") flags="" ;;
*) flags=$fcommon ;;
esac
;;
# android (armv7)
armv7-linux-androideabi-clang)
flags=" --target=${target}"
flags+=" --sysroot=${ADR32_SYSROOT}"
flags+=" -isysroot ${ADR32_SYSROOT}"
;;
armv7-linux-androideabi-ld|armv7-linux-androideabi-ld.gold)
flags=" --sysroot=${ADR32_SYSROOT}"
flags+=" -L${ADR32_TOOLCHAIN_LIB}"
;;
# android (aarch64)
aarch64-linux-android-clang)
flags=" --target=${target}"
flags+=" --sysroot=${ADR64_SYSROOT}"
flags+=" -isysroot ${ADR64_SYSROOT}"
;;
aarch64-linux-android-ld|aarch64-linux-android-ld.gold)
flags=" --sysroot=${ADR64_SYSROOT}"
flags+=" -L${ADR64_TOOLCHAIN_LIB}"
;;
# default
*-nm|*-ar|*-ranlib) ;;
*) echo "Unknown command: ${0##*/}" >&2; exit 1;;
esac
case $target in
armv7-linux-android*)
exec env PATH="${ADR32_PATH}:${PATH}" $cmd $flags "$@" ;;
aarch64-linux-android*)
exec env PATH="${ADR64_PATH}:${PATH}" $cmd $flags "$@" ;;
*) exec $cmd $flags "$@" ;;
esac
The wrapper depends on android-toolchain.config which can be obtained from the zw3rk/toolchain-wrapper repository. The android-toolchain.config will likely need minor modifications, encoding the location of the NDK.
Next, we will create symbolic links to the wrapper script:
for target in "armv7-linux-androideabi aarch64-linux-android"; do
for command in "clang ld ld.gold nm ar ranlib cabal"; do
ln -s wrapper $target-$command
done
done
This will produce 14 files (e.g. armv7-linux-androideabi-clang ), which will point to the wrapper. The wrapper in turn will build up the necessary flags to pass to the command, based on the name of the file. Note: we assume that ld.bfd and ld.gold accept the same flags.
Prerequisites
As Android does not ship with iconv by default, and GHC depends on iconv, we will need to build it as laid out in building iconv for android. Note that you do want to build for both targets: armv7 and aarch64 and you want to build static libraries (pass --enable-shared=no --enable-static=yes to the configure script). This will ease integrating the library into android studio.
To build GHC, we need ghc and cabal, as well as alex and happy. A recent GHC version from downloads.haskell.org should provide ghc and cabal. alex and happy can then be installed via cabal :
cabal install alex happy
As with the Haskell cross compiler for Raspberry Pi, we need to build a newer libffi from source, due to an incompatibility between the latest release version of libffi (from 2014), and recent llvm versions. With the wrapped toolchain in PATH, building libffi should be as simple as:
git clone https://github.com/libffi/libffi.git
cd libffi
./autogen.sh
CC="armv7-linux-androideabi-clang" \
CXX="armv7-linux-androideabi-clang" \
./configure \
--prefix=/path/to/libffi/armv7-linux-androideabi \
--host=armv7-linux-androideabi \
--enable-static=yes --enable-shared=yes
make && make install
git clean -f -x -d
./autogen.sh
CC="aarch64-linux-android-clang" \
CXX="aarch64-linux-android-clang" \
./configure \
--prefix=/path/to/libffi/aarch64-linux-android \
--host=aarch64-linux-android \
--enable-static=yes --enable-shared=yes
make && make install
This will build and place the libffi header and libraries for armv7 and aarch64 into /path/to/libffi/armv7-linux-androideabi and /path/to/libffi/aarch64-linux-android.
As we will also be using GHCs -staticlib flag. GHC uses libtool for -staticlib. As the NDK does not ship libtool, we need a thin wrapper. libtool-lite from the zw3rk/toolchain-wrapper repository can be used instead; it uses ar and ranlib under the hood. We only need to create symbolic links pointing to it:
ln -s libtool-lite armv7-linux-androideabi-libtool
ln -s libtool-lite aarch64-linux-android-libtool
Building GHC
We need to build GHC for both targets: armv7 and aarch64. With ghc, alex, happy, and cabal in PATH, as well as our wrapped toolchain:
export PATH=$HOME/.cabal/bin:$PATH
export PATH=/path/to/bin/ghc:$PATH
export PATH=/path/to/wrapped-toolchain:$PATH
And a copy of the patched GHC:
git clone --recursive git://git.haskell.org/ghc.git
cd ghc
git remote add zw3rk https://github.com/zw3rk/ghc.git
git fetch zw3rk
git checkout zw3rk/my-ghc -b my-ghc
git submodule update --init --recursive
Building GHC for armv7-linux-androideabi and aarch64-linux-android should require nothing more than:
# set paths
export PREFIX=/my/prefix
export LIBFFI= /path/to/libffi
export LIBICONV=/path/to/libiconv
for target in "armv7-linux-androideabi aarch64-linux-android"; do
# Clean up the build tree
git clean -x -f -d
# Boot up the build system
./boot
# Configure a GHC that targets $target
./configure --target=$target \
--prefix=$PREFIX \
--disable-large-address-space \
--with-iconv-includes=$LIBICONV/$target/include \
--with-iconv-libraries=$LIBICONV/$target/lib \
--with-system-libffi \
--with-ffi-includes=$LIBFFI/$target /include \
--with-ffi-libraries=$LIBFFI/$target/lib
# Create a mk/build.mk and set the BuildFlavour to quick-cross
sed -E "s/^#(BuildFlavour[ ]+= quick-cross)$/\1/" \
mk/build.mk.sample > mk/build.mk
# Compile and install ghc
make -j && make install
done
As this builds two cross compilers (for armv7 and aarch64 ), this will take approximately 60–120 minutes, depending on your hardware. Once done, it should have installed armv7-linux-androideabi-ghc and aarch64-linux-android-ghc into /my/prefix/bin.
Compiling Hello World
For Android we need to produce a hello world library, and call the native code from an Android app.
The library Lib.hs contains a thin wrapper around hello, and exposes a c function: char* hello().
module Lib where
import Foreign.C (CString, newCString)
-- | export haskell function @chello@ as @hello@.
foreign export ccall "hello" chello :: IO CString
-- | Tiny wrapper to return a CString
chello = newCString hello
-- | Pristine haskell function.
hello = "Hello from Haskell"
Assuming our Android application lives in /path/to/HelloWorld, we create /path/to/HelloWorld/app/hs-libs/armeabi-v7a and /path/to/HelloWorld/app/hs-libs/arm64-v8a.
We will make use of GHCs -staticlib flag has to produce a static library that contains the Lib.o as well as all dependencies in a single.a archive.
aarch64-linux-android-ghc -odir arm64-v8a -hidir arm64-v8a \
-staticlib -liconv -lcharset \
-L /path/to/libffi/aarch64-linux-android/lib -lffi \
-o /path/to/HelloWorld/app/hs-libs/arm64-v8a/libhs.a \
Lib.hs
armv7-linux-androideabi-ghc -odir armeabi-v7a -hidir armeabi-v7a \
-staticlib -liconv -lcharset \
-L /path/to/libffi/armv7-linux-androideabi/lib -lffi \
-o /path/to/HelloWorld/app/hs-libs/armeabi-v7a/libhs.a \
Lib.hs
Note: The -liconv -lcharset and -L/path/to/libffi... -lffi arguments are currently necessary, because ghc does not pass them properly. The libffi arguments are needed only if GHC is configured with --with-system-libffi.
We will start out with a fresh new android application with including C++ and Kotlin support (you can also use Java, the example code will be in Kotlin though), with an Empty Activity named MainActivity. For C++ use the Default Toolchain, and neither support for exceptions nor rtti is needed.
In the CMakeLists.txt file, we need to tell CMake about our new libhs.a and that we want to link against libc.
Adding the following two find_library statements:
# find libc
find_library( c-lib
c )
# find libhs in /path/to/HelloWorld/app/hs-libs/<abi>,
# outside of cmakes root search path.
find_library( hs-lib
hs
PATHS ${PROJECT_SOURCE_DIR}/hs-libs/${ANDROID_ABI}
NO_CMAKE_FIND_ROOT_PATH )
and including the found libraries in the final target_link_library statement
target_link_libraries( # Specifies the target library.
native-lib
# Links the target library to the log library
# included in the NDK.
${log-lib}
${c-lib}
${hs-lib}
)
will instruct CMake to link the native-lib which contains our JNI bridge to link against the libhs as well as libc.
Setting the abiFilters in the app/build.gradle file to
android {
...
defaultConfig
...
ndk {
abiFilters 'armeabi-v7a', 'arm64-v8a'
}
}
...
}
will tell Android Studio that we only have armv7 and aarch64 native libraries. Adjusting the native-lib.cpp to read
#include <jni.h>
#include <string>
#ifdef __cplusplus
extern "C" {
#endif
extern void hs_init(int * argc, char ** argv[]);
extern char* hello(void);
JNIEXPORT void
JNICALL
Java_com_zw3rk_helloworld_MainActivityKt_initHS(
JNIEnv *env,
jclass /* klass */) {
hs_init(NULL,NULL);
}
JNIEXPORT jstring
JNICALL
Java_com_zw3rk_helloworld_MainActivity_stringFromJNI(
JNIEnv *env,
jobject /* this */) {
return env->NewStringUTF(hello());
}
#ifdef __cplusplus
}
#endif
will provide the hello prototype, which we can use in the stringFromJNI method to call our hello() function. We also have the hs_init prototype. This one will initialize the haskell runtime and should be called only once, prior to calling any haskell function.
The MainActivity class from the MainActivity.kt then looks like this:
external fun initHS()
class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() {
override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState)
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main)
// Example of a call to a native method
initHS()
val tv = findViewById(R.id.sample_text) as TextView
tv.text = stringFromJNI()
}
/**
* A native method that is implemented by the 'native-lib'
* native library, which is packaged with this application.
*/
external fun stringFromJNI(): String
companion object {
// Used to load the 'native-lib' library on
// application startup.
init {
System.loadLibrary("native-lib")
initHS()
}
}
}
Note: as pointed out by /u/gergoerdi on /r/haskell onCreate can be called multiple times. The example code has been updated to move initHS from onCreate to right after the loadLibrary.
This is all that is all the source that is needed for our Hello World Haskell Android app. The source can be found at zw3rk/hs-android-helloworld.
Haskell running on an Android device
Hello from Haskell
Finally launching and running the application on the device, we are greeted with Hello from Haskell.
While the utility of this application is certainly questionable it illustrates the essential steps required to build, link and run an android application calling a native haskell function.
With this we should be well equipped to build the GHCSlave application for android next and be able to also cross compile Template Haskell to Android.Designed to roam through the rural regions of the Netherlands and follow the various harvests throughout the year, the Buijtenkitchen packs everything a seasoned chef could need to prepare sumptuous meals away from their home kitchen. So if you're tired of slaving over a tiny propane-powered grill when camping, maybe it's time to consider building one of these.
The Buijtenkitchen isn't designed to collapse and fold down like a pop-up camper, but everything inside can be secured and strapped down so it arrives in one piece when towed to its next destination. And besides a built-in wood-burning oven, a large water reservoir, and ample counter space, the kitchen's best asset is constant access to incredibly fresh ingredients since it's able to set up shop wherever vegetables are ripe for harvest.
Advertisement
[Elmo Vermijs via Architizer]
Images by Ralph KämenaBernie Sanders supporters of Santa Barbara, unite! On Thursday, April 28, four bands will rally around the presidential candidate with a Bands for Bernie fundraiser at SOhO Restaurant & Music Club, featuring Afishnseathemoon, Killer Kaya, Souvenirs, and Broken Machine. All ticket and merchandise sales will go toward supporting the Democratic hopeful.
Event organizer and Broken Machine frontman Schyler Douglas said he felt inspired to host the fundraiser because of Sanders’s populist politics. “He stands for what I think most people want, which is a more equitable society,” he said. “I’m not a huge fan of politics, but this is the first candidate who has ever really spoken to my basic truths, and every band that’s participating feels the same way.”
“He just seems like a cut-and-dry kind of guy,” said Afishinseathemoon’s Johnny McCann. “I agree with the way he wants to get the corruption out of the election process. I feel like the whole system is bought and paid for, and he’s the guy that can fight for it.”
Though the viability of Sanders securing the Democratic nomination has been weakened following Hillary Clinton’s victory in the New York primaries last week, Douglas feels the fundraiser is still important for keeping the momentum alive. “Just because we lost New York doesn’t mean we have to give up now. We got to keep up bringing awareness to what’s going on in regard to voter suppression and to push our government to work for the people instead of the fucking corporations,” he said.
The fundraiser comes just before Broken Machine releases its first album in its five-year career, which featured help from area musical legends such as Snot’s Mikey Doling and Ugly Kid Joe’s Dave Fortman. Hidden City Studios founder Elliott Lanam was also a huge help in creating the album, Douglas said.
In addition, Afishnseathemoon will release a new album this summer. McCann encourages Sanders supporters to come out even if they feel disheartened. “Besides the music, just come out to SOhO and meet some Bernie supporters and get everybody on the same page. Don’t be discouraged by anything the media says or doesn’t say,” he said.
Bands for Bernie featuring Afishnseathemoon, Killer Kaya, Souvenirs, and Broken Machine will play at SOhO (1221 State St.) at 8:30 p.m. For tickets and |
with 2GB of RAM and pack a slightly bulging 13MP main camera plus a flush 5MP front-facing camera.
The Vivo X5 Max is expected to be announced next month and we may see the Vivo Xplay 5S come out of hiding along with it.
Source 1 (in Chinese) Source 2 (in Chinese) | Via 1 | Via 2He is a billionaire. He is responsible for starting, or contributing to getting many corporations off the ground. If anyone knows about job creation and who creates them, it’s him. His name is Nick Hanauer, and it is his belief that tax cuts to the rich does not create jobs. And I agree with him 1000%!
I’m a very rich person. As an entrepreneur and venture capitalist, I’ve started or helped get off the ground dozens of companies in industries including manufacturing, retail, medical services, the Internet and software. I founded the Internet media company aQuantive Inc., which was acquired by Microsoft Corp. in 2007 for $6.4 billion. I was also the first non-family investor in Amazon.com Inc. Even so, I’ve never been a “job creator.” I can start a business based on a great idea, and initially hire dozens or hundreds of people. But if no one can afford to buy what I have to sell, my business will soon fail and all those jobs will evaporate. That’s why I can say with confidence that rich people don’t create jobs, nor do businesses, large or small. What does lead to more employment is the feedback loop between customers and businesses. And only consumers can set in motion a virtuous cycle that allows companies to survive and thrive and business owners to hire. An ordinary middle-class consumer is far more of a job creator than I ever have been or ever will be.
Still, we’ll hear the Republican talking point that the only way to create jobs in America, is for the rich to continue getting tax cuts and subsidies. Since George Bush became president, he went on a tax cutting frenzy for rich people, and during his entire eight years in office, only 1.09 million jobs were created. This, after the rich saw their taxes drastically reduced during the time Bush was in power.
But don’t tell this to Republicans in Congress. Although the facts don’t back up their claims, Republicans will go to their graves demanding more tax cuts for the rich in order to “create jobs.”
0This coming week’s “TODAY” Show lineup includes a musical performance by one iHeartRadio “On the Verge” selection.
The following week’s lineup features two.
NBC confirmed that previous country “On the Verge” artist RaeLynn and current hot adult contemporary “OTV” act Sheppard will perform during that week’s string of “TODAY” episodes.
RaeLynn, whose “God Made Girls” reached the top 20 at country radio, will perform on the March 9 edition of “TODAY.” Sheppard, which is preparing to launch its international smash and Top 20 Hot AC smash “Geronimo” at US pop radio, will take the stage on March 10.
This coming week’s musical performers include pop “On the Verge” act Rixton (3/4) and Grammy-nominated crossover sensation Hozier (3/6).
NBC’s full “TODAY” Show listings follow:
Monday, March 2
(7-9 a.m.) Larry David on Fish in the Dark. Kevin Bacon on The Following. Alan Alda on Today.
(9-10 a.m.) Pop Fix. FamilyFun magazine’s best cupcakes. Spend or Skip. Pop Fix. Must Mark Your Calendar.
(10-11 a.m.) Alan Alda on Today. Deborah Norville on Today. SQuire Rushnell on When God Winks.
Tuesday, March 3
(7-9 a.m.) Larry David on Fish in the Dark. Molly Ringwald on The Breakfast Club 30th anniversary. Julie Holland discusses her book, Moody Bitches. Ansel Elgort on Insurgent.
(9-10 a.m.) Molly Ringwald on The Breakfast Club 30th anniversary. Ryan Eggold on The Blacklist. Brit Morin discusses her book, Homemakers: A Domestic Handbook for the Digital Generation. Hope to It. Tamron’s Tuesday Trend.
(10-11 a.m.) Ansel Elgort on Insurgent. Jill Martin’s Shopping Bag. Jeremy Sisto on The Returned. Nutrition Month.
Wednesday, March 4
(7-9 a.m.) Wrangler Wednesday. Steals and Deals. Ella Woodward on her book, Deliciously Ella. Rixton performs live on Today.
(9-10 a.m.) Christian Slater on Archer. Adam Carolla on Road Hard. Pop Fix.
(10-11 a.m.) Ralph Macchio on Today. National Women’s History Month. TripAdvisor’s best beach vacations.
Thursday, March 5
(7-9 a.m.) Anne Heche and Jason Isaacs on DIG. Gesine Bullock-Prado discusses her book, Let Them Eat Cake. Evan Lysacek on Today. iPad Magician Simon Pierro on Today.
(9-10 a.m.) Dan Bucatinsky on Marry Me and Who Do You Think You Are. Reader’s Digest’s food hacks. Your Weekend Jumpstart. Five pains you should never ignore.
(10-11 a.m.) Ambush Makeover. Cooking dump dinners with Catchy Mitchell.
Friday, March 6
(7-9 a.m.) Lauren Scruggs on her book, Your Beautiful Heart. Hozier performs live on Today. Double duty beauty products.
(9-10 a.m.) Ellie Kemper on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Pop Fix. In the Kitchen with Al Roker. Hozier performs on Today.
(10-11 a.m.) Jonathan Groff on Looking. Bobbie’s Buzz. Game changing cleaning shortcuts. Kathie Lee and Hoda Give It Away.
Monday, March 9
(7-9 a.m.) Liz Hurley on The Royals. Today’s Hot Ticket. TBD.
(9-10 a.m.) Raelynn performs live on Today. Pop Fix. TBD.
(10-11 a.m.) Today’s Buzz. Lilliana Vazquez on Workouts For Your Face.
Tuesday, March 10
(7-9 a.m.) Kevin Spacey on House of Cards. Curtis Stone on his book, 130 Simple Recipes You’ll Love to Make and Eat. Sheppard performs live on Today. Today’s Hot Ticket.
(9-10 a.m.) Olly Murs on Today. Hope To It. Tamron’s Tuesday Trends.
(10-11 a.m.) Liz Hurley on The Royals. Guys Tell All. Baby animals with Julie Scardina. Cooking with Curtis Stone.
Wednesday, March 11
(7-9 a.m.) Florence Henderson on Today. Futuristic kitchen gadgets. Wrangler Wednesday. Today’s Hot Ticket.
(9-10 a.m.) Jane Krakowski on Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Pop Fix. Cooking with Charlie Palmer.
(10-11 a.m.) James Denton on The Good Witch. National Nutrition Month.Bobbie Thomas on Today. Elvis Duran’s Artist of the Month.
Thursday, March 12
(7-9 a.m.) Florence Henderson on Today. Camila Alves on Today. TBD.
(9-10 a.m.) Cleaning and organizing hacks. TBD.
(10-11 a.m.) Cooking with Camila Alves. Ambush Makeover. TBD.
Friday, March 13
(7-9 a.m.) Jessica Simpson on Today. Tax tips with Jean Chatzky. Food and Wine’s Green tea obsession.
(9-10 a.m.) Mike Tyson on Today. Pop Fix. In the Kitchen with Al Roker. Animals with Corbin Maxey.
(10-11 a.m.) Relationship advice with Matthew Hussey. Alexandra Park & William Moseley on The Royals. Kathie Lee and Hoda Give It Away.It was 45 years ago today when Apollo 11 reached the moon, and an estimated 600 million people tuned in when Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on another world.
The second person to step on the moon was a New Jersey native -- Buzz Aldrin.
Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr. was born on Jan. 20, 1930 in Glen Ridge. He grew up in nearby Montclair and still visits the Garden State. He was a 2008 inductee into the New Jersey Hall of Fame, the first class to be inducted.
Below are some things you may not have known about Aldrin growing up in New Jersey and the Lunar Landing.
1. Was it destiny?
Perhaps it was destiny for Aldrin to land on the moon. His mother’s name was Marion Moon and his father, Edwin Eugene Aldrin Sr., was a colonel in the U.S. Air Force. His father also was the commanding officer at Newark Airport.
2. His sister gave him his nickname
Aldrin earned his nickname because his little sister couldn't pronounce "brother." She would say "buzzer," and Aldrin's family shortened it to Buzz. He legally changed his name to Buzz in 1988.
3. He was a high school athlete
Montclair High School's undefeated football state-championship team in 1946 included Aldrin as a center. He also was a pole-vaulter during his high school career.
4. He was "Dr. Rendezvous" because of his degree
Aldrin graduated a year early from Montclair High School before graduating third in his class from the U.S. Military Academy in West Point (something he said in a recent Reddit AMA is one of his biggest non-space accomplishments). He later became the first astronaut with a doctorate, and his thesis was the basis for the docking procedures used in the Gemini and Apollo missions.
5. The first spacewalk
Aldrin might not have been the first person to set foot on the moon, but he was the first person to accomplish a successful spacewalk. He did it in 1966 on the Gemini 12 mission, which was the final of that series. He spent 5 1/2 hours outside the spacecraft, which was a record at the time.
6. His time on the moon
Aldrin and Neil Armstrong spend 21 hours on the moon and brought back 46 pounds of rocks. Aldrin's first words on the moon were "Beautiful view. Magnificent desolation."
7. Buzz Aldrin Day
The Apollo 11 crew went on a 45-day international tour following their return to Earth, but Aldrin's hometown didn't forget about him. Montclair celebrated Buzz Aldrin Day that fall, complete with a parade honoring the astronaut.
8. New Jersey's moon rock
New Jersey has its form of a moon rock to honor Aldrin. There's a rock outside his childhood home on Princeton Place in Montclair with a plaque dedicated to him.
9. Still connected to Montclair
Aldrin has a continued connection to his hometown. He's a Freemason and a member of Montclair Lodge # 144 of New Jersey.And Plants vs Zombies and Another World are among our deals of the week
First up this week is the weird and wonderful Murasaki Baby on PS Vita. When a scared little girl awakes lost and alone in a strange land full of terrifying nightmares, she desperately needs you to help find her mummy. Use your wits to guide the girl through paths full of dangers and teach her the difference between right and wrong in a bid to keep her smiling… and alive.
On PS3, a world of magic and adventure awaits in Fairy Fencer F. Explore fearsome dungeons, tackle powerful beasts, and travel the world to collect all 100 Fairies. But be careful — the Furies are coveted by many Fencers, good and bad. Pray these powerful weapons do not fall into the wrong hands…
And for PS4, we have Worms developer Team 17’s new puzzle game, Flockers. It features helpless sheep that you must guide to safety whilst avoiding numerous traps or have them suffer truly unfortunate sheep death. That would be baaaad.
PlayStation Plus
Murasaki Baby – 20% off, ends 24th September
Flockers – 25% off, ends 15th October
PlayStation 4
Anomaly 2
Price: £11.49/€13.99/AU$20.95
Flockers (available from 19th September)
Price: £19.99/€24.99/AU$30.95
Not available in New Zealand
KickBeat Special Edition
Price: £7.99/€9.99/AU$14.95
PlayStation 3
Fairy Fencer F (available from 19th September)
Price: £39.99/€49.99/AU$69.95
PlayStation Vita
Jetpack Joyride Ultra Bundle
Price: £3.29/€3.99/AU$5.95
Murasaki Baby
Price: £7.99/€9.99/AU$14.95
Run Like Hell!
Price: £3.29/€3.99/AU$5.95
PlayStation Mobile
Steam Lands (£3.39/€4.29/AU$7.45)
Pong Breaker (£1.39/€1.79/AU$2.95)
Inflatable Maths (£3.39/€4.29/AU$7.45)
Solbrain I – Village (£5.89/€7.49/AU$12.45)
Flight World Simulator (£3.69/€4.49/AU$7.75)
One Image Viewer (£1.19/€1.49/AU$2.45)
PS4 DLC
Sniper Elite 3
Axis Weapons Pack (£2.49/€2.99/AU$4.55)
Save Churchill, Part 2: Belly of the Beast (£6.49/€7.99/AU$11.95)
Eastern Front Weapons Pack (£2.49/€2.99/AU$4.55)
Sniper Rifle Weapons Pack (£2.49/€2.99/AU$4.55)
War Thunder
Hunter Starter Pack (£14.99/€17.99/AU$26.95)
Attacker Starter Pack (£14.99/€17.99/AU$26.95)
Tank Destroyers Advanced Pack (£24.99/€29.99/AU$44.95)
Shielded KV-1E Starter Pack (£14.99/€17.99/AU$26.95)
IL-2 Avenger Starter Pack (£14.99/€17.99/AU$26.95)
Victory is Ours Advanced Pack (£24.99/€29.99/AU$44.95)
Guards Starter Pack (£8.99/€10.99/AU$16.45)
LaGG-3 34 Starter Pack (£8.99/€10.99/AU$16.45)
Defenders Advanced Pack (£14.99/€17.99/AU$26.95)
PS3 DLC
Fairy Fencer F
First Aid Pack for Newbie Fencers (Free)
Beginner’s Synthesis Kit (Free)
GRID Autosport
Touring Legends Pack (£9.99/€12.99/AU$19.45)
LittleBigPlanet 2
World Peace Day Costume (Sept Seasonal) (Free)
Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution
Jinchuriki Costume Pack 1 (£1.69/€1.99/AU$2.95)
Jinchuriki Costume Pack 2 (£1.69/€1.99/AU$2.95)
Sniper Elite 3
Axis Weapons Pack (£2.49/€2.99/AU$4.55)
Save Churchill, Part 2: Belly of the Beast (£6.49/€7.99/AU$11.95)
Eastern Front Weapons Pack (£2.49/€2.99/AU$4.55)
Sniper Rifle Weapons Pack (£2.49/€2.99/AU$4.55)
PS Vita DLC
LittleBigPlanet PlayStation Vita
World Peace Day Costume (Sept Seasonal) (Free)
Run Like Hell
Medium Coin Pack (£1.69/€1.99/AU$2.95)
Big Coin Pack (£4.99/€5.99/AU$8.95)
Great Coin Pack (£7.99/€9.99/AU$14.95)
Dead Man’s Chest (£15.99/€19.99/AU$29.95)
Small Coin Pack (£0.79/€0.99/AU$1.45)
Deal of the week
Another World – 20th Anniversary Edition (PS Vita/PS3/PS4) – Was £6.49/€7.99/AU$11.95, now £3.29/€3.99/AU$5.95
MXGP – The Official Motocross Videogame (PS Vita) – Was £34.99/€39.99/AU$54.95, now £11.99/€14.99/AU$22.95
Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare (PS3) – Was £19.99/€29.99/AU$39.95, now £15.99/€19.99/AU$24.95
Plants vs. Zombies Garden Warfare (PS4) – Was £34.99/€39.99/AU$54.95, now £21.99/€26.99/AU$40.95
WWE2K14 (PS3) – Was £24.99/€34.99/AU$44.95, now £10.99/€14.99/AU$17.95
Disney discounts – ends 24th September
LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean PS3 – Was £15.99/€19.99/AU$24.95, now £7.99/€9.99/AU$12.95
LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean [PSP] – Was £7.99/€9.99/AU$14.95, now £3.99/€4.99/AU$7.55
Monkey Island Special Edition Bundle – Was £11.99/€14.99/AU$22.95, now £4.39/€5.29/AU$7.90
The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition – Was £7.99/€9.99/AU$14.95, now £2.89/€3.49/AU$5.25
Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck’s Revenge – Was £7.99/€9.99/AU$14.95, now £2.89/€3.49/AU$5.25
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End [PSP] – Was £6.49/€7.99/AU$11.95, now £1.99/€2.49/AU$3.75
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest [PSP] – Was £6.49/€7.99/AU$11.95, now £1.99/€2.49/AU$3.75
PSP Pirates Double Pack – Was £9.49/€11.99/AU$17.95, now £3.29/€3.99/AU$5.95
Peter Pan Return to Neverland – Was £7.99/€9.99/AU$14.95, now £2.89/€3.49/AU$5.25
Disney’s Treasure Planet – Was £5.79/€6.99/AU$10.45, now £1.99/€2.49/AU$3.75
Pirates of the Caribbean – Was £7.99/€9.99/AU$14.95, now £2.89/€3.49/AU$5.25
Peter Pan Double Pack – Was £8.99/€10.99/AU$16.45, now £3.29/€3.99/AU$5.95
PETER PAN : ADVENTURES IN NEVER LAND – Was £3.99/€4.99/AU$7.55, now £1.15/€1.39/AU$2.05
Disney Universe – Neverland Level Pack – Was £3.99/€4.99/AU$7.55, now £1.49/€1.75/AU$2.65
Availability change
Fate/EXTRA (PSP) – Now available in Finland, NorwayWASHINGTON – Sen. John McCain will miss the tax reform vote in the Senate this week as he heads back home to Arizona to recover from the side effects of his latest round of cancer treatments.
McCain, 81, is fighting an aggressive form of brain cancer and will be resting in Arizona when President Trump’s signature tax reform legislation gets a vote in the upper chamber – as soon as Tuesday, according to CBS News.
“As anyone knows whose family has battled cancer or any significant disease, that oftentimes there are side effects to treatment that you have,” Ben Domenech, McCain’s son-in-law, said Sunday on “Face the Nation.”
The former Republican presidential nominee and hero Vietnam POW remains in “good spirits” after being hospitalized this week at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center near Washington from side effects from chemotherapy.
“He is doing well. He’s in good spirits,” said Domenech, who is married to Meghan McCain. “And he’s looking forward to heading back home to Arizona for the holidays. And he remains one of the toughest men on the face of the earth.”
President Trump said Sunday he spoke to McCain’s wife, Cindy.
“I wished her well. I wish John well,” Trump told reporters as he returned to the White House from Camp David. “They’ve headed back (to Arizona). But I understand he’ll come if we ever needed his vote, which hopefully we won’t. But the word is John will come back if we need his vote. It’s too bad. He’s going through very tough time, there’s no question about it. But he will come back if we need his vote.”
Meghan McCain said her dad is looking forward to being home and she urged donations to two charities that combat brain cancer.
“Thank you to everyone for their kind words. My father is doing well and we are all looking forward to spending Christmas together in Arizona,” she said.
“If you’re feeling charitable this Christmas @HeadfortheCure or @NBTStweets to help find a cure for brain cancer is what I recommend,” she said.
Earlier Sunday, Senate Majority Whip Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said he wouldn’t speculate on his colleague’s health.
“We hope he comes back,” Cornyn told ABC’s “This Week.” “But I’m confident we’ll pass this bill, probably on Tuesday.”
Republicans have a slim 52-48 seat majority in the Senate and no GOP member has announced a “no” vote.
In addition to McCain, Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran has missed votes recently because of health issues. If both men are absent, the majority threshold to pass the legislation is reduced from 51 to 49 votes, with Vice President Mike Pence available in the case of a tie.
The Senate secured the vote of one holdout, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), last week by increasing the child tax credit. And Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said Friday he’d support the “imperfect” bill because “we are better off with it.”
Just to be safe, Pence delayed his planned trip to the Middle East to be available on the Senate floor to deliver Trump his first major policy victory.
The House will take up the legislation first on Tuesday, where it’s expected to pass and then head quickly to the Senate.With Cinco de Mayo coming up this weekend, I thought it would be nice to put a spin on a margarita. Well, that’s partly true. I really had this poor, sad, forgotten pineapple just sitting all alone on my counter (we can address my produce addiction another time). Now, I’m not telling you to use a rotten pineapple, but if it’s just a bit too ripe, cut it up into cubes, lay them out on a baking sheet lined with waxed paper and throw them in the freezer until frozen. From there you can use some to whip up this drink then put the rest in a zipper bag and back into the freezer for future margaritas or smoothies. Cheers!
Frozen Pineapple Margarita
about 6 ice cubes
2 C. frozen cut pineapple
1 C. orange juice
1 – 2 T. honey or agave (depending on the sweetness of your pineapple)
juice and zest of one lime
1/2 c. tequila
1 T. triple sec
turbinado sugar for serving
lime wedge for serving
Put all ingredients into the blender. Blend on high speed for about one minute. If you’d like to rim the glasses with the turbinado, fill one shallow dish with water and one with some sugar in it. Dip the glass into the water. Let the excess drip off, then dip into the sugar. Pour the margarita into chilled margarita glasses and garnish with a wedge of lime.
Serves about 4 margaritas.About
The Spray and Play Team, Sean, Paul and Caleb
After spending hours working on a Lego project, we saw our kids do what most Lego enthusiasts do...they wanted to play with their new creation! But because of the loose connections, they spent more time rebuilding rather than attacking the Death Star. We knew their had to be a better way that wasn't permanent like the Kragle (or Krazy Glue for those of you who haven't seen the Lego Movie.)
Spray and Play is a temporary, aerosol adhesive that creates a stronger bond that allows for more active play. And most importantly, when you want to take your creation apart to build it again or use the bricks for something completely new, Spray and Play is easily removed with soap and warm water. You control the life span of your creation!
The sealant dries clear after an hour
The same toy an hour later
Our test show that the bond strength is increased by more than 50%!
Warm water or soap, or put it in the diswasher
So, will Spray and Play hold your hard work together in a hurricane? Sadly, no. It isn't a perfect bond, but does dramatically increase the strength and also gives you a sense of security knowing all your hard work won't be wasted.
How we match up against the KragleThe Rookie Scouting Portfolio publication is built on play-by-play film study. While most readers love the RSP because they don’t have to do the thousands of hours of tape study to gain insights about the incoming NFL class of skill players, I document everything I see about a player in the back of the book so everyone can see “my math.” Even so, most football fans have a thirst for learning more about the game and they often express thoughts along the lines of, “I’d like to watch film with Matt Waldman.”
The RSP Film Room Hangouts gives you the opportunity to do just that. Once a week, I’m inviting fellow draft writers to join me on a Google Hangout to spend an hour or two studying Draft Breakdown cutups of prospects. We let the tape roll and share our thoughts, ask each other questions, ooh and aah over the great plays, and laugh at the ridiculous things that happen in the game that’s our national passion.
It’s an educational experience for me, my guest, and the viewer. You can find a list of the videos here and you can get email updates with links to my new stuff by clicking “Follow” at the top left corner of the page. You can also subscribe to my YouTube Channel (Matt Waldman), if you prefer.
2016
RSP Boiler Room (Short Videos, 5-15 minutes)
RSP Film Room Shorts (2 minutes or less)
RSP Film Room (Long Videos)
2015
Special Topics
Quarterbacks
Running Backs
Wide Receivers
Tight Ends
Offensive Linemen
Defensive Linemen
Linebackers
Safeties
Kickers
Yes, kickers are football players, too (but hell no, I’m not studying them…just seeing if you’re paying attention)
For analysis of skill players in this year’s draft class, download the 2015 Rookie Scouting Portfolio – available now. Better yet, if you’re a fantasy owner the Post-Draft Add-on comes with the 2012 – 2015 RSPs at no additional charge. Best, yet, 10 percent of every sale is donated to Darkness to Light to combat sexual abuse. You can purchase past editions of the Rookie Scouting Portfolio for just $9.95 apiece.BETHLEHEM, West Bank — The runners looped four times through this city, following a route that took them from the Church of the Nativity, traditionally considered Christ’s birthplace, down Bethlehem’s main avenue and alongside Israel’s looming separation barrier, scrawled with graffiti and blackened from hurled projectiles.
The Palestine Marathon, held last week, is a hemmed-in affair, much like the city where it is run. “In Bethlehem, there’s not a continuous 42 kilometers,” huffed Marwa Younis, 32, as she ran. “You have to run back and forth.”
But that is exactly why the organizers of the Right to Movement: Palestine Marathon chose to stage it here. What better way to draw attention to the constraints Palestinians say they face in their daily lives?
“We want to send a message that we don’t have the right to movement — we are occupied and have the apartheid wall,” said an organizer, Diala Isid, referring to Israel’s 26-foot-high separation barrier, which surrounds the city on three sides. “So we thought, ‘Let’s make an international marathon.’ ”The constantly inquiring narrative voice that informs every page of Mihail Sebastian’s resonant novel For Two Thousand Years, bears a close resemblance to the one that can be heard in the journal he kept from 1935 to 1944, the year before he was run over and killed by an army truck in Bucharest while on his way to give a lecture on Balzac at the university. Sebastian, who was born Iosif Mendel Hechter in Brăila, a port on the Danube, in 1907, was a rising star in Romanian culture when For Two Thousand Years (De două mii de ani) was published in 1934. He was a respected lawyer, a successful dramatist and a literary critic and commentator on the arts. He had friends who would be famous in middle age: Mircea Eliade, the expert on the subtle differences between the world’s religions; EM Cioran, the maverick philosopher who moved to Paris and became one of the great prose stylists in the French language, and Eugen Ionescu, the future absurdist playwright who Gallicised his first name to Eugène and changed the “u” at the end of his second to an “o” once he, too, had established himself as a Parisian.
Sebastian’s mentor, the man he admired above all others, was also called Ionescu. Not related to Eugen, Nae Ionescu was a philosopher with an interest in politics and economics. The younger man was so in awe of him that he was often tongue-tied in his presence. Even though Nae had begun to express antisemitic opinions, Sebastian gave him the typescript of For Two Thousand Years to read and asked him to write a foreword. Ionescu duly obliged with a venomous diatribe in which he chastised the author he had once praised and encouraged for daring to assert that a Jew could belong to any national community: “It is an assimilationist illusion, it is the illusion of so many Jews who sincerely believe that they are Romanian … Remember that you are Jewish! Are you Iosif Hechter, a human being from Brăila on the Danube? No, you are a Jew from Brăila on the Danube.”
After some reflection, Sebastian told his publisher to go ahead and print, word for hateful word, what Ionescu had written. He was soon to regret his rash decision. Leftwing critics, who included self-proclaimed Zionists, accused him of being antisemitic himself, while those of the infinitely larger rightwing persuasion echoed Ionescu’s sentiments. The Jews, they contested, were responsible for all the ills besetting their beloved country – communism, syphilis and homosexuality being among the most prevalent. In 1935, the wilfully misunderstood writer rose to his own defence in the essay “How I Became a Hooligan” (“Cum am devenit huligan”). It must have occurred to him, before that “low, dishonest decade” reached its end, that he had been fighting a battle that was already lost.
It is thanks to his brother Benu, who secreted the unpublished journal in the diplomatic pouch of the Israeli embassy in Bucharest when he emigrated from Romania to Israel in 1961, that Mihail Sebastian is now regarded as one of the foremost chroniclers of the rise of nazism in civilised Europe. The manuscript remained in the Hechter family’s possession until they thought it safe to send a copy to a reputable publishing house in Romania. Journal 1935-1944 finally appeared in 1996, after the secret police had been disbanded. The book received enormous coverage in the media and Sebastian was suddenly famous, in a way that he never really had been in life. This gentle, cultivated and good humoured man, with his passionate love of classical music, was the subject of widespread controversy. A new generation of conservative critics voiced opinions not entirely dissimilar to Nae Ionescu’s, asserting that Sebastian’s problems were entirely Jewish, with the long dormant phrase “Jewish problem” being resurrected in several reviews. The truth is that Sebastian’s “problems” were of the everyday kind before his friends saw fit to remind him that, for all his cleverness, he was essentially an outcast. In one particularly vivid entry in Journal, he records how the actress Marietta Sadova – always happy to take leading parts in his plays – was “choking with antisemitism”.
Mihail Sebastian.
Yet it was the distinguished academic Petru Cretia who spoke for the majority of readers when he observed, in 1997, that Sebastian was not besmirching lofty national values with his “calm, sad and forgiving revelations”. He went on to describe Sebastian as a “fair-minded (often angelic) witness”. That gets it right. Both the novel and the diary are disconcerting because their overall tone is so reasonable, so painstakingly on the side of common sense and simple human decency. Both the anonymous narrator in the one and the beleaguered diarist in the other remain hopeful when hopelessness and numb despair seem like the only options.
For Two Thousand Years has been available in French for a long time, but Philip Ó Ceallaigh’s excellent translation marks its first appearance in English. It opens in 1923, when Romanian Jews were, rather begrudgingly, granted equality with their Gentile compatriots. The new law makes the unnamed teenage narrator aware of his Jewishness, having given the fact little consideration up till then. He does not want to be a “fellow sufferer” or martyr, unlike another pupil Marcel Winder, who almost relishes the beatings he endures. He prefers to be alone and making his own choices. There’s a telling aside in which he notes: “I’d like to be an antisemite for five minutes. To feel an enemy in myself who must be vanquished.” Perhaps that very thought had come to the 16-year-old Iosif Hechter in his early struggles to make sense of the inexplicable.
The character of Ghiţă Blidaru, the brilliant lecturer and theorist who exerts his influence on the impressionable young student, is said to be based on Nae Ionescu. It is not an unflattering portrait of a complicated individual who would go on to accept money from IG Farben for his “pro-Nazi activities”. In the early chapters, he is a vivid and slightly exasperating presence, whose every word is recorded in a notebook by his devoted follower. It is Blidaru who advises him to study architecture, which he does, becoming an apprentice under, and assistant to, Mircea Vieru, known as the “master”, a modernist of genius, as Sebastian persuades the reader to believe. In this unashamed novel of ideas, it is those of Vieru that are the most palatable to the liberal and liberated conscience of the west. The sentimental and condescending notion of the saintliness of the Romanian peasant (still doing the rounds today) holds no appeal to him as it did, astonishingly, to Nae Ionescu, Eliade and Cioran, when they mistook fanaticism for reason.
The tone sustained throughout the novel is one of dismayed affection, as in the scene where he pays homage to Abraham Sulitzer, “my old Ahasverus”, the wandering bookseller who insists that Yiddish will remain a living language. He shows the disbelieving youngster Yiddish translations of Shakespeare, Cervantes, Dostoevsky and Hardy, while his silent wife Roza looks on. Roza is accustomed to this, for when Abraham doesn’t have a visitor or a customer he talks to his books rather than to her. It is such a felicitous literary conceit that it has to be true. Abraham is disapproving of assimilation, as is Sami Winkler, with whom the narrator has conversations that the two men realise can’t end in agreement, but are amicable nonetheless. Sami leaves Nazi Romania for Palestine. The ardent Marxist, ST Haim, an attractive Francophile, is slung into prison for his subversive views. Sebastian gives breathing space to them all, as he does for Maurice Buret, the soi-disant panderer he befriends in Paris, who might have been imagined by Choderlos de Laclos, and Marin Dronţu, the determined womaniser and heavy drinker with whom he forms a cautious relationship. Each one is afforded a voice, an idiosyncratic way of speaking, that makes them |
than scrupulous behavior. I think part of Vinnie‘s issue is at least in some way related to some sort of mental issue. Subconsciously he is shutting down. He may not admit it outwardly but part of his reclusive behavior has to be related to not wanting to face the music of his own actions.
So how should Vinnie be thought of? It’s difficult to say. He’s not talking and if he ever does something tells me it will just leave us with more questions. Like most stories, there is more than one side. Vinnie may have looked at KISS not as a destination but as the next step. And once their fortunes started to turn with the release of Lick It Up he may have overvalued his role in that success. Gene and Paul may have undervalued him. Plenty of people in Vinnie‘s shoes would’ve kept the options open. Richie Sambora reportedly tried out for KISS around the time Vinnie did. Do you think he regrets ending up in Bon Jovi?
Post Hoc
While divorced at the time, Vinnie‘s first wife was murdered while working as a prostitute. Leaving their twin daughters without a mother. He was charged with abusing his second wife and in the course of the investigation was falsely portrayed as an abuser of animals. He is largely viewed as a dishonest charlatan who has screwed over fans and promoters while filing one frivolous lawsuit after another against the band who first brought him fame. He’s surrounded by rumors from cross-dressing to having a sex change to homosexuality. He lost his home and seemingly disappeared as embarrassing photos of the condition they found his abandoned home filled KISS chat rooms and social media groups. I ask you, the reader, this.
Would you trade places with him?
To the people Vinnie personally wronged or hurt, I respect any animosity you may have toward the man. But he clearly isn’t winning at anything. For all malfeasance or transgressions, he’s committed, a price was paid. It may be time to forgive. To those who have never met or done business with the man but for some reason have ill will toward him I merely suggest, at some point, we all deserve to be cut some slack. Does he really deserve to be loathed? He’s a man in his 60’s with very little going for him (allegedly). He did give us some pretty spectacular music. He did bring a spark to our favorite band. He can’t be THAT bad. Can he?
Hate MailThe news Conor McGregor and Irish MMA fans alike had been anticipating came today as UFC president Dana White confirmed to journalists attending the UFC 182 media day that the Dubliner will be next in line for a title shot should he win his next fight.
That next fight happens in two weeks on January 18th when McGregor meets German veteran Dennis Siver in the main event of the UFC’s latest fight night. The fight takes place in Boston’s TD Garden where McGregor was victorious in his American debut in 2013. Now, he returns with the title directly in view.
Should he beat Siver, featherweight champion Jose Aldo is the man who awaits. The Brazilian is the only ever UFC featherweight title holder after he carried his belt over from the, now defunct, WEC.
Dana White confirms Conor McGregor will get title shot if he wins in January. Expect Dublin in May. — Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) January 1, 2015
If the fight were to happen it is likely to take place in the summer with stadia in Ireland and Brazil, or a big arena in Las Vegas, the likely venues. White was asked about the possibility of holding the fight in Croke Park but would give nothing away.
Also, wouldn’t confirm they have a hold on Croke Park in Ireland for May, but the smile gave it away. — Jeremy Botter (@jeremybotter) January 1, 2015
Stay tuned to SevereMMA.com for all updates.Hot air balloon carrying tourists makes emergency landing in downtown Santa Rosa
A hot air balloon with at least two passengers and a pilot made an emergency landing Thursday morning in a parking lot in downtown Santa Rosa. No one was injured when the balloon came down safely in the small lot in front of the Sears Auto Center at Santa Rosa Plaza, about 100 yards east of Highway 101.
“They were having wind issues and wanted to land in a safe spot,” said Officer Jesse Whitten of the Santa Rosa Police Department. “Having a hot air balloon land in downtown Santa Rosa is a first for me.”
The landing left little margin for error. A wall on one side of the lot forms the eastern border of Highway 101 and a three-story parking garage stands on the opposite side of the lot. Small tree branches were caught in the lines connecting the basket to the balloon.
The pilot refused to identify himself or answer questions. Police said the balloon was being operated by AD Astra Productions.
Bill Campbell and his wife were passengers, visiting from Tennessee and were looking for a “tourist trip” in the skies above Sonoma County.
But Campbell’s account of the trip was cut short at the landing site when the pilot interrupted the interview and told the man to “just shut up” and not answer any more questions.
Most operators would file a report with the Federal Aviation Administration after an emergency landing of this nature, said Ian Gregor, spokesman with the FAA Pacific Division.
“We would certainly investigate an incident like this,” Gregor said by email.
You can reach Staff Writer Nick Rahaim at 707-521-5203 or nick.rahaim@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @nrahaim.Summary:
Due to humanity obtaining the data technology that has evolved to a great amount called "Mana" the human race is able to subjugate all wars, starvation, pollution, and other problems on Earth by using its power, which is similar to magic. Earth has obtained the utopia of complete peace and no wants.
First princess of the Misurugi Empire, Angelize. As with everyone else, she also had no wants or worries. She was celebrated by the people of the empire, and was supposed to wear the crown. However, she realizes the shocking truth that she is a Norma. "Norma": An irregular existence that cannot use Mana, and are treated as heretics and as "things" rather than people. Having everything stolen from her, she isolates herself on a remote island.
What was waiting for her there was a fateful meeting with a group of Norma girls who know nothing but battle. The girls spend their days riding humanoid robot weapons called "Paramails" hunting giant dragons that have come from another dimension to invade. Having her name taken from her, what will soldier Ange see at the end of the fight? What can she believe in? What will she obtain? The story of a single girl's fortitude starts now.
Summaries provided by MyAnimeList.netCLOSE A woman is being called a "serial stowaway" after she allegedly slipped past airport security and onto a flight to Jacksonville, Florida. Police say this is not her first time getting on a flight without a ticket. VPC
Marilyn Jean Hartman, 63, faces felony fraud charges and a misdemeanor trespassing charge after hitching a ride on a flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul to Jacksonville International Airport Sunday and then posing as a guest of the resort, according to the Nassau County Sheriff's Office. (Photo: NCSO)
YULEE, Fla. — An alleged serial stowaway who somehow slipped past airport security onto a flight to Jacksonville and then reportedly talked her way into a villa at the Omni Amelia Island Plantation Resort had to change her accommodations Monday morning — to a cell at the Nassau County Jail.
Marilyn Jean Hartman, 63, faces felony fraud charges and a misdemeanor trespassing charge after allegedly hitching a ride on a flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul to Jacksonville International Airport Sunday and then posing as a guest of the resort, according to the Nassau County Sheriff's Office.
What remains unclear, though, is exactly how Hartman did it. The Transportation Security Administration says it's looking into the matter.
Airport security has been beefed up noticeably in recent years. Nonetheless, Hartman somehow allegedly boarded the flight without a boarding pass or ticket and landed at Jacksonville International Airport Sunday. When she got there, a shuttle was waiting to take guests to the Omni Plantation.
Deputies say the shuttle's driver asked Hartman if she was a guest, giving the guest's name, and Hartman replied she was. When she arrived at the resort, she checked into a $300/night villa under the guest's name, according to an arrest report.
It wasn't until hours later, when the real guest arrived to check in, that Hartman's story started to unravel, officials said.
A concierge called the room and asked Hartman what her name was and she reportedly replied with the guest's name. But when the concierge asked her to come by the front desk to verify what was believed to be an error, Hartman vanished, the report said.
On Monday morning, Hartman was found staying in a first floor room that was under renovation. Resort security detained her until authorities could arrive.
Last August, Hartman, who had been released from jail for stowing away on a flight from San Jose to Los Angeles was rearrested at Los Angeles International Airport while trying to sneak aboard another flight, authorities said.
This March 2014 photo released by the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office shows Marilyn Hartman. Federal law enforcement officials say Hartman tried at least three times to breach airport security before she was able to get through a checkpoint without a boarding pass at Mineta San Jose International Airport on Monday. (Photo: AP)
Hartman was arrested less than 24 hours after she pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of trespassing and was ordered to stay away from LAX. She was also placed on 24 months' probation.
She boarded the L.A.-bound Southwest Airlines Flight 3785 in San Jose by sneaking past security with a family, federal officials said. At least three previous attempts failed.
Airline personnel did not discover she did not have a ticket until the plane landed.
The San Jose Mercury News reported that Hartman had tried seven times to board a plane at San Francisco International Airport before heading down Highway 101 to San Jose. She had already been banned from the airport for trying to illegally board flights.
Speaking to reporters, Hartman blamed her escapades on being homeless, regretted what she had done and vowed not to stowaway again.
"I've been in some pretty awful situations so I took desperate measures," she said.
The Mercury News reported Hartman had lived alone in women's shelters and single-occupancy motels on the West Coast for a decade. She had been in a mental health program, and a judge found her to be suffering a "major mental illness."
Contributing: Michael Winter, USA TODAY
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1DdMHQoBack in 1985, Neil Postman, an educator and critic, published a piece entitled "Amusing Ourselves to Death." Neil Postman's piece expounded the contrast between George Orwell’s “1984” and Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World.”
In Orwell's vision, merciless oppression is the real threat to democracy. On the other hand, Huxley sees a world of people being satiated, sedated, and seduced. In other words, it's we who enslave ourselves.
Orwell lived during the time of Soviet ascendancy and Nazi devastation. Hence, you can say that his vision is heavily influenced by that. However in these times, Huxley's vision is what stands true. And the election of Trump may be the biggest example of people slowly giving up democracy for a piece of entertainment.
During the presidential campaign period, mainstream news media loved to cover Trump. He was entertaining, and that meant it could boost the network's audience. Furthermore, Trump was running for President, which meant that news programs were at liberty to cover him. Now that Trump is President, news networks are less enthusiastic about their coverage decisions as the President loudly proclaims these news stations as "Fake News." It seems like the news networks created this “monster” that turned on them. However, that is not what is most critical about his presidency.
There's no way of denying it that Trump lies. Politifact has never had so many “Pants on fire” rating for any other modern politician. However, it's how Trump lies that is most disturbing. If Trump is lying and people aren’t aware, they may believe it to be true. If Trump lies and you know he's lying, he does it in sucha way as if he were winking at you, secretly telling you that you are in with the lie. Sort of a “we're just playing and just go along with it.” It may seem fun and entertaining, but that is the true danger of Trump.
Democracy is built on the foundation of truth. There have been countless of times in history in which dictators were overthrown, exposed of their lies. But in present times, a new form of casual dictatorship is on the rise.
This new form of dictatorship controls your choices, risks your security, and alienates you if you say something that is not agreeable to the man in charge. This is exactly what Trump is doing. So, why are the people not in rage against the President?
It's simply because he is entertaining to watch. In this new form of dictatorship, there are no tortures, prison cells, or executions. As Aldous Huxley had warned us, we enslave ourselves.
Trump’s main tool for gaining power is lying. If some organization or someone is a threat to his power, he simply creates stories of how dangerous the person or organization is. On the other end, you could either believe him or simply let it slide as it's funny to watch.
In essence, we must ask ourselves if the entertainment value is truly worth the threat to our form of democracy (it isn’t). And we should further examine the question of whether impeachment is appropriate for this presidency (it is). The joke has run its course, and it isn’t funny anymore. Not now that the clown is actually in charge.Source: WNW (Subscription Required)
WWE is still planning on bringing in a new set of prospects in September and another in January. However, they’re going to need to free up some room and that’s why releases are expected. The releases are expected to affect mainly the NXT talent who are rumored to be on the chopping block and that the releases are expected to take place over the course the next month and to expect at least a dozen cuts by the end of the year.
Developmental coaches were recently asked to submit reports on who they think should stay and who they think should go. No word on what those reports look like, but they’ll be something WWE executives will go over as they make roster decisions for the fall then winter.The Canadian Press
OTTAWA -- A new report by two think-tanks says the operating costs of Canada's proposed new stealth fighter could be considerably higher than what Harper government is acknowledging -- and perhaps even expecting.
The Centre for Policy Alternatives and the Rideau Institute estimate the current numbers for the F-35 could be off by between $12 billion and $81 billion, depending on a variety of factors and risks over 40 years.
An independent analysis of the program, conducted by the Public Works secretariat overseeing the plan to replace Canada's CF-18s, pegged the total lifetime cost of owning 65 stealth fighters at just over $44 billion over four decades.
Michael Byers, the author of the report, said his estimate would be on top of that.
"The numbers I have generated are produced by DND," Byers said. "I am extrapolating and filling in some of the gaps in their work."
Byers, a University of British Columbia professor and defence expert, said he questions the math in the secretariat's report because, among other things, it bases its long-term maintenance on data numbers from the existing fighters.
But Alyson Queen, a spokeswoman for Public Works Minister Diane Finley, immediately dismissed the assessment and claims.
"Real independent third party experts, with access to the real facts, are working to ensure that the reports being prepared by DND are rigorous and impartial," Queen said in an email.
The government's assessment was validated by senior officials and experts such as former auditor general Denis Desautels and economist Ken Norrie, she added.
"An independent panel consisting of people who have the technical know-how, strong financial backgrounds and detailed knowledge of Canada's military and procurement systems are overseeing the evaluation of options."
A senior executive with the F-35's U.S. manufacturer was even more blunt, describing the report as "inaccurate and false."
Steven O'Bryan, Lockheed Martin's vice president for F-35 business development and customer engagement, said some of data quoted in the study is from 2011 congressional reports, information that is out of date and has been surpassed by recent developments in the program.
He suggested the think-tanks were deliberately trying to inflate the price tag.
The figures are significant because the Harper government is close to deciding whether to stick with the troubled F-35 program or open up the CF-18 replacement to competition, Byers said.
The report says the F-35 has operating and maintenance costs that are about 1.5 times higher than the CF-18s, but O'Bryan said in all of the recent international competitions that has proven not to be the case.
A National Defence estimate on the long-term operating costs of the F-35 will be among the pile of reports cabinet is expected to consider.
Byers said his numbers, which project the total cost could reach $126 billion, are based on figures coming out of the U.S. Government Accountability Office in Washington, which has tracked the program extensively.
He also said other structural costs, such as modifying the air force's tanker fleet to operate with the F-35, are not included in the secretariat's public estimates.
The research done by Byers also examines risks such as volatile fuel prices, inflation and a fluctuating exchange rate.
A one per cent increase in the rate of inflation would add $5 billion to the overall price tag, he noted.
O'Bryan countered that the report uses outlandish assumptions such an inflation rate of 10 per cent and sky-high fuel costs in order to make its case.
The air force has already publicly suggested that in order to keep costs down, it will fly the F-35 less often than the CF-18s, cutting 4,000 flying hours per year out of its training plan and using simulators more often.
But parking the jets simply creates a false economy, Byers said.
The Harper government signalled in 2010 that it intended to buy the F-35, but a set of scathing reports -- including one by the auditor general -- accused both National Defence and Public Works of not doing their homework and deliberately low-balling the cost.
The program was put on hold in December 2012.Historical Currency Converter (test version 1.0)
Back to Historicalstatistics.org
How much could 10 french franc in 1898 buy in today's rupees? What was the worth of 1 billion German mark in 1923 or 1000 Polish zloty in 1980? Was an annual wage of 25 pounds per year in 1780 much compared to the wage rates at the time? To answer these questions the Historical Currency Converter uses a short-cut, by comparing the worth of various sums in various currencies in their purchasing power of Swedish consumer goods and the pay of workers in Sweden. Provided a country's purchasing power parity does not change much compared to Sweden, this should give a reasonable accounts of the worth of money over time also for other countries. This is a test version and may therefore contain serious errors. Please contact the author if you detect any errors (rodney.edvinsson [at] ekohist.su.se)
What is the equivalent of dollar [1791-2015] euro [1998-2015] gram gold [1658-2015] gram silver [1658-2015] ----------------- Albania: lek [1927-2015] Argentina: peso moneda corriente [1826-1882] peso moneda nacional [1882-1970] peso ley argentino [1970-1983] peso argentino [1983-1985] austral argentino [1985-1992] peso [1992-2015] Australia: pound [1928-1967] dollar [1967-2015] Austria/Austria-Hungary: florin/gulden [1863-1900] krone [1893-1925] schilling [1924-1948] schilling [1947-2015] Belgium: franc [1880-2015] belgas [1926-1945] Brazil: milréis [1880-1942] cruzeiro [1942-1967] cruzeiro novo [1967-1986] cruzado [1986-1989] cruzado novo/cruzeiro [1989-1993] cruzeiro real [1993-1994] real [1995-2015] Bulgaria: lev [1890-1952] lev [1952-1962] lev [1962-1999] lev [1999-2015] Canada: dollar [1913-2015] Chile: peso [1917-1960] escudo [1960-1975] peso [1975-2015] China: yuan [1922-2015] Colombia: peso [1926-2015] Czech republic/Czechoslovakia: koruna [1922-1953] koruna [1953-1993] koruna [1993-2015] Denmark: krone [1804-2015] Estonia: kroon [1930-1940] kroon [1930-2015] EU: euro [1998-2015] Finland: markka [1913-1963] markka [1960-2015] France: livres tournois [1663-1795] franc [1795-1960] franc [1960-2015] Germany: Hamburg mark banco [1658-1870] mark [1871-1924] reichsmark [1924-1948] Deutsche Mark [1948-2015] Greece: drachma [1877-1944] drachma [1944-1954] drachma [1954-2015] Hong Kong: dollar [1916-2015] India: rupee [1916-2015] Iceland: króna [1945-1981] króna [1981-2015] Italy: lira [1880-2015] Japan: yen [1877-2015] Latvia: lats [1930-1940] rouble [1992-1992] lats [1992-2015] Lithuania: litas [1932-1940] talonas [1991-1993] litas [1993-2015] Mexico: peso [1947-1993] peso [1993-2015] Netherlands: guilder [1660-2015] New Zeeland: pound [1928-1967] dollar [1967-2015] Norway: krone [1819-2015] Poland: zloty [1930-1950] zloty [1950-1995] zloty [1995-2015] Portugal: escudo [1880-2015] Romania: leu [1882-1947] leu [1947-1952] leu [1952-2005] leu [2005-2015] Russia/Soviet Union: rouble [1880-1917] rouble [1961-1998] rouble [1998-2015] Serbia/Yugoslavia: dinar [1892-1941] dinar [1994-2003] dinar [1994-2015] South Africa: pound [1928-1961] rand [1961-2015] Spain: peseta [1850-2015] Sweden: mark kopparmynt [1658-1719] mark kopparmynt [1719-1777] riksdaler [1777-1789] riksdaler riksgälds [1789-1855] riksdaler riksmynt [1855-1873] krona [1873-2015] Switzerland: franc [1880-2015] Turkey/Ottoman Empire: lira [1880-1913] lira [1923-2005] lira [2005-2015] UK: pound [1658-2015] USA: dollar [1791-2015] in year in the currency of dollar [1791-2015] euro [1998-2015] gram gold [1658-2015] gram silver [1658-2015] ----------------- Albania: lek [1927-2015] Argentina: peso moneda corriente [1826-1882] peso moneda nacional [1882-1970] peso ley argentino [1970-1983] peso argentino [1983-1985] austral argentino [1985-1992] peso [1992-2015] Australia: pound [1928-1967] dollar [1967-2015] Austria/Austria-Hungary: florin/gulden [1863-1900] krone [1893-1925] schilling [1924-1948] schilling [1947-2015] Belgium: franc [1880-2015] belgas [1926-1945] Brazil: milréis [1880-1942] cruzeiro [1942-1967] cruzeiro novo [1967-1986] cruzado [1986-1989] cruzado novo/cruzeiro [1989-1993] cruzeiro real [1993-1994] real [1995-2015] Bulgaria: lev [1890-1952] lev [1952-1962] lev [1962-1999] lev [1999-2015] Canada: dollar [1913-2015] Chile: peso [1917-1960] escudo [1960-1975] peso [1975-2015] China: yuan [1922-2015] Colombia: peso [1926-2015] Czech republic/Czechoslovakia: koruna [1922-1953] koruna [1953-1993] koruna [1993-2015] Denmark: krone [1804-2015] Estonia: kroon [1930-1940] kroon [1930-2015] EU: euro [1998-2015] Finland: markka [1913-1963] markka [1960-2015] France: livres tournois [1663-1795] franc [1795-1960] franc [1960-2015] Germany: Hamburg mark banco [1658-1870] mark [1871-1924] reichsmark [1924-1948] Deutsche Mark [1948-2015] Greece: drachma [1877-1944] drachma [1944-1954] drachma [1954-2015] Hong Kong: dollar [1916-2015] India: rupee [1916-2015] Iceland: króna [1945-1981] króna [1981-2015] Italy: lira [1880-2015] Japan: yen [1877-2015] Latvia: lats [1930-1940] rouble [1992-1992] lats [1992-2015] Lithuania: litas [1932-1940] talonas [1991-1993] litas [1993-2015] Mexico: peso [1947-1993] peso [1993-2015] Netherlands: guilder [1660-2015] New Zeeland: pound [1928-1967] dollar [1967-2015] Norway: krone [1819-2015] Poland: zloty [1930-1950] zloty [1950-1995] zloty [1995-2015] Portugal: escudo [1880-2015] Romania: leu [1882-1947] leu [1947-1952] leu [1952-2005] leu [2005-2015] Russia/Soviet Union: rouble [1880-1917] rouble [1961-1998] rouble [1998-2015] Serbia/Yugoslavia: dinar [1892-1941] dinar [1994-2003] dinar [1994-2015] South Africa: pound [1928-1961] rand [1961-2015] Spain: peseta [1850-2015] Sweden: mark kopparmynt [1658-1719] mark kopparmynt [1719-1777] riksdaler [1777-1789] riksdaler riksgälds [1789-1855] riksdaler riksmynt [1855-1873] krona [1873-2015] Switzerland: franc [1880-2015] Turkey/Ottoman Empire: lira [1880-1913] lira [1923-2005] lira [2005-2015] UK: pound [1658-2015] USA: dollar [1791-2015] in year? Get your answer by clicking
The comparison is based on data gathered within the project Historical monetary and financial statistics for Sweden. The data is complemented with sources from other countries (see list below).
Sources:
- Bank of Greece, Bulgarian National Bank, National Bank of Romania, Oesterreichische Nationalbank, 2014, 'South-Eastern European Monetary and Economic Statistics from the Nineteenth Century to World War II'. Athens, Sofia, Bucharest, Vienna.
- Bohlin, J, 'From appreciation to depreciation – the exchange rate of the Swedish krona, 1913–2008', in Historical Monetary and Financial Statistics for Sweden: Exchange rates, prices and wages 1277–2008 (eds. Rodney Edvinsson, Tor Jacobson and Daniel Waldenström), 133-237. Sveriges Riksbank and Ekerlids, Stockholm (2010).
- Edvinsson, R, 2010, 'The multiple currencies of Sweden-Finland 1534-1803', in Historical Monetary and Financial Statistics for Sweden: Exchange rates, prices and wages 1277–2008 (eds. Rodney Edvinsson, Tor Jacobson and Daniel Waldenström). Sveriges Riksbank and Ekerlids, Stockholm.
- Edvinsson, R, 2010, 'Foreign exchange rates 1658-1803', in Historical Monetary and Financial Statistics for Sweden: Exchange rates, prices and wages 1277–2008 (eds. Rodney Edvinsson, Tor Jacobson and Daniel Waldenström). Sveriges Riksbank and Ekerlids, Stockholm.
- Edvinsson, R, and Söderberg, J., 2010, 'The evolution of Swedish consumer prices 1290–2008', in Historical Monetary and Financial Statistics for Sweden: Exchange rates, prices and wages 1277–2008 (eds. Rodney Edvinsson, Tor Jacobson and Daniel Waldenström). Sveriges Riksbank and Ekerlids, Stockholm.
- Eitrheim, Ø, J T Klovland, and J F Qvigstad, 2004, Historical Monetary Statistics for Norway 1819–2003, Norges Banks skriftserie/Occasional Papers No. 35.
- Feenstra, Robert C., Robert Inklaar and Marcel P. Timmer, 2015, 'The Next Generation of the Penn World Table' forthcoming American Economic Review, available for download at www.ggdc.net/pwt
- Flandreau, M, and Zumer, F, 2004, The Making of Global Finance 1880–1913, OECD, Paris.
- Frank, R., 'INDICES, COTIZACIONES Y TASAS INTERNACIONALES EN EL LARGO PLAZO ', www.anav.org.ar/sites_personales/5/MONEDA.XLS
- Jacks, D, 2006, 'Japan 1885-1926', Excel file, http://gpih.ucdavis.edu/files/Japan_1885-1926.xls
- Kitco.com. http://www.kitco.com/charts/historicalgold.html and http://www.kitco.com/charts/historicalsilver.html.
- Lobell, H, 2010, 'Foreign exchange rates 1804–1914', in Historical Monetary and Financial Statistics for Sweden: Exchange rates, prices and wages 1277–2008 (eds. Rodney Edvinsson, Tor Jacobson and Daniel Waldenström), 133-237. Sveriges Riksbank and Ekerlids, Stockholm.
- Officer, L. and Williamson, S, 2016, 'The Price of Gold, 1257 - Present', MeasuringWorth. URL: http://www.measuringworth.com/gold/
- Officer, L., 2016, 'Exchange Rates Between the United States Dollar and Forty-one Currencies,', MeasuringWorth, 2016. URL: http://www.measuringworth.com/exchangeglobal/
- Prado, S, 2010, 'Nominal and real wages of manufacturing workers, 1860–2007', in Historical Monetary and Financial Statistics for Sweden: Exchange rates, prices and wages 1277–2008 (eds. Rodney Edvinsson, Tor Jacobson and Daniel Waldenström). Sveriges Riksbank and Ekerlids, Stockholm.
- PACIFIC Exchange Rate Service, 'Foreign Currency Units per 1 U.S. Dollar, 1948-2014', http://fx.sauder.ubc.ca
- Reinhart, C, and Rogoff, K, 2002, 'The modern history of exchange rate arrangements: A reinterpretation'. NBER Working Paper Series 8963.
- Simon, O., 2014, 'Black market inflation', Excel file, http://krieger.jhu.edu/iae/economics/Copy%20of%20BlackMarketvsOfficialInflation1-27.xlsx. Accompanied PDF-file: http://krieger.jhu.edu/iae/economics/Introduction_to_the_Implied_Inflation_Rate_Data_Set.pdf.
- Söderberg, Johan, 2010, 'Long-term trends in real wages of labourers', in Historical Monetary and Financial Statistics for Sweden: Exchange rates, prices and wages 1277–2008 (eds. Rodney Edvinsson, Tor Jacobson and Daniel Waldenström). Sveriges Riksbank and Ekerlids, Stockholm.
- Sveriges Riksbank, 1931, Statistiska tabeller. Sveriges Riksbank 1668–1924. Bankens tillkomst och verksamhet. V. Stockholm: Norstedts.
- Sveriges Riksbank, årsbok, various years.
By Rodney Edvinsson,
(Associate Professor, Stockholm University, Pro Futura Fellow, Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study)
Latest update 10 January 2016Two Charts that Show the Challenge Facing Italy’s New Prime Minister
Matteo Renzi is poised to take over as Italy’s youngest-ever prime minister. He has a clear mandate to get the Italian economy back on track, but everyone, including Renzi himself, knows that he faces a daunting task. Here are two charts that show just how far Italy’s growth and living standards have slipped and how hard it will be to reverse the trends.
In terms of growth of real GDP, Italy has been at the bottom among the advanced economies of the OECD for a decade. In the following chart, Italy stands out not for having the slowest-growth in each given year, but rather, for the consistency of its slow growth. Before the global crisis, there were years when Japan or Germany grew more slowly than Italy, but both of those have recovered more strongly. After the crisis, Greece has grown even more slowly, and Spain almost as slowly, but both of those were coming off strong-pre-recession booms. Among OECD countries, only Portugal (not included in the chart) equaled Italy’s average growth rate since 2000 of just 0.3 percent.
But, you might say, isn’t Italy wealthy enough to coast for a while and still maintain a high standard of living? That is true, to a degree. As the next chart shows, as recently as 2001, Italians had a per capita income, measured in terms of purchasing power, that was 119 percent of the EU average. That was higher than Germany or France. The problem is, since that time, Italy’s standard of living has slipped more than any other country. It was already slipping in the early 2000s, when Greece, Spain, and the UK were going strong. Those countries have faltered since, but over the whole period, Italy has lost more ground relative to its peers than any other EU member.
Will Renzi be able to do anything to reverse the slide? Let’s hope so. As he takes office, the latest data show Italy’s economy growing by a tiny 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2013, technically ending the country’s latest recession. His advisers are vetting all manner of reform proposals, ranging from easing the tax burden to freeing up a sclerotic labor market, to changes in the management of state corporations. The new prime minister has also proposed a bold electoral reform that he hopes will create the political space needed to put some of those reforms into effect without watering them down in endless negotiations with coalition partners.
Matteo, we all wish you the best of luck!LITTLE ROCK,AR - A local church has opened a facility where kids can go and explore things like music and drama.
On Sunday, the Little Rock School of the Arts on Markham cut the ribbon, markings its official opening.
The school is an extension program of Christ Lutheran Church and offers after-school activities for students of all ages, focusing on the arts.
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in Tunisia, but the experience there shows that there are options for more targeted initiatives on the ground, relevant to local discussions and needs. The EU needs to focus far more on building policies in the field and connecting with local dynamics to support democracy change.
This requires greater involvement of EU Delegations not just in implementing projects, but also in shaping the ways and means in which the EU makes itself relevant in local debates. The EU also needs to become more flexible in its understanding of democratic citizenship and better engage with local perceptions. Finally, fine-tuning and dovetailing local engagement with diplomacy and broader policy choices remains a challenge: the EU as a whole needs to invest more seriously in learning through its experiences locally and in shaping its broader foreign policy goals more coherently.
This article was orginally published by the EUSpring project.Prosecutors in the southern German city of Stuttgart confirmed Tuesday they had searched about a dozen locations associated with the maker of Mercedes-Benz cars. The raids came as a result of the company being suspected of fraud and misleading advertising in relation to the selling of diesel-powered vehicles.
Prosecutors have yet to provide further details on the raids. They only said the raids were carried out by well over 200 investigators across the country, with the focus of the search in progress on locations in the states of Baden-Württemberg, Lower Saxony, Saxony and the the city state of Berlin.
The carmaker said the investigations targeted "known and unknown employees of Daimler AG over suspicion of fraud related to the possible manipulation of exhaust gas emissions in passenger cars with diesel engines."
Daimler executives said they were not aware of any emissions scandal, adding that they were fully co-operating with investigators.
The automaker had earlier agreed with Germany's Federal Motor Transport Authority KBA) to "voluntarily" recall 247,000 vehicles to remove "potentially problematic technology," which Daimler said had been installed to prevent engines from being damaged.
Daimler has also been in the crosshairs of prosecutors in the US where it faces a number of class-action suits by car owners who have accused the company of not being accurate in stating emissions levels for a number of its diesel-powered models.
VW not the only culprit?
It's understood that the Daimler probe is part of a wider investigation into potential emmissions-cheating scams that was triggered by domestic rival Volkswagen.
The latter was forced to admit in September 2015 that it installed so-called defeat devices in a total of 11 million cars globally to manipulate emissions test results in the laboratory.
Daimler had recently announced fresh plans to increase its efforts to become a major leader in e-mobility by offering 10 all-electric models by 2020. On Monday, the automaker broke the ground on a new e-battery production plant in Kamenz, Germany, saying that producing ones own e-batteries would be crucial in standing one's ground against fierce competition in the sector from Tesla in the US and other emerging players.
hg/mds (Reuters, AFP, dpa)The average house price in 49 of the Capital’s streets has shot up to £1 million according to a new rich list.
Approximately 3.477 properties in Edinburgh are now worth £1m or over according to Zoopla, the UK’s property website, which released the figures yesterday.
Whitehouse Terrace is the highest value street
While Edinburgh’s lavish housing market is booming, it appears Glasgow is lagging behind, with just 15 of their streets boasting average house prices of more than £1m.
Lawrence Hall, spokesman for Zoopla, said: “According to our data, the average property in the city has gone up in value by 4.76 per cent to £271,653 over the past 12 months.
“With an average property value of almost £100k more than in Glasgow where the average home is worth £175,578, it’s unsurprising to see Scotland’s capital city dominating when it comes to where the country’s richest streets are located.”
The rich list showed that Whitehouse Terrace has been named the most expensive street in Edinburgh, with an average property value of £2,042,925.
Hope Terrace
Succoth Place and Ann Street came in second and third place, followed by a string of other streets including Hope Terrace, Midmar Gardens and Cumin Place.
Faisal Choudhry, head of residential research in Scotland for upmarket estate agent Savills, spoke of Scotland’s million pound property market.
He said: “The number of residential sales at £1m and above reached 146 during year ending June 2016.
“This is in line with the five-year average, with more than half of these sales occuring in Edinburgh.”
Cumin Place
He continued: “The Capital is benefitting from the fact that in times of uncertainty, high net worth investors are drawn to prime central hotspots which are considered safe investments.”
Areas of the city with an EH10 postcode, such as Morningside, Farmilehead and Swanston, were described as the “highest value” neighbourhoods, with the average property prices £434,055.
They were followed by EH2 and EH9 areas, which had average house prices of £418,146 and £416,900.
Caroline Young, PR and content executive at ESPC, told the News why Edinburgh remains a desirable city to live in.
She said: “Edinburgh is the financial and political centre of Scotland, and has also made gains in becoming a centre for technology, with Amazon and Skyscanner both located here, so these well-paid jobs are an attractive prospect and therefore drive up demand for property, thus increasing selling prices.
“Edinburgh also has a large share of Scotland’s top private schools, and so properties near to those areas drive up prices, as does the desirability of Georgian properties in the New Town, which is a world heritage area.”
Councillor Jason Rust, who represents Fairmilehead and Swanston, said he wasn’t surprised two of his wards were named within the highest value areas.
He said: “I am not surprised by the figures given the beautiful location beneath the Pentland Hills whereby residents can have the best of both urban and rural environments.
“There is also access to great local and independent schools and active communities which take a pride in the amenity of their area.
“However, we should also remember that the figures mask the fact that some households can be asset rich, but cash poor and also that the city as a whole needs to cater for first-time buyers and key workers.”
Councillor Mark McInnes, who represents Morningside, added: “Whilst there are areas in Morningside with very high property prices, and it’s a wonderful community to live in, it’s also important to remember there is also a lot of deprivation in the community.”
On a wider level, Scotland is sixth on Zoopla’s ranking of number of property millionaires by region with a total of 8,486, in comparison with London, which has 398,312 property millionaires.
Zoopla’s Mr Hall added: “With its beautiful sights and rich cultural heritage, Edinburgh continues to be a hotspot for home owners.”5 years ago
No fucking joke, lemme start the story, I'm in Austin for rtx so I was like I wanna see the new office. It turns out though it's behind barbed wire and shit. I found a hole and snuck in. I then paced around the parking lot waiting for someone while there I saw Burnie, Matt, gavino, Monty, Jordan, Megan, miles, and kdin, so I'm pacing pretending to be on the phone and kdin was the last person to come out so I was like is ray here and he asked me why. Me being retarded didn't know what the fuck to say so I said just because and he said umm were busy but lemme see. He went inside and after a few minutes I figured he was calling the cops so I ran back to my car. But here are 2 pics I took while I was there http://imgur.com/GKunHf1
http://imgur.com/eM3qATe
http://imgur.com/cOLGVrs
http://imgur.com/WeZaUxm
http://imgur.com/HL9JD3Z
http://imgur.com/pFnHCrm
http://imgur.com/NxqsJ32
http://imgur.com/6zGmrIZ
http://imgur.com/iClN9ZL
http://imgur.com/S7QrBGQ
http://imgur.com/qXyaYQT
http://imgur.com/iv8OAl3
http://imgur.com/F4Cho2V
http://imgur.com/2VRxO3z
52 Replies
5 years ago absolutezilch Hey Big Zam! Uno
Dos
Trespass.
5 years ago SkunkFucker Le cool guy @absolutezilch: yup I was nervous as fuck the whole time but at least Gavin waved back at me
5 years ago FappingBlackGuy OW;TheJosher @SkunkFucker: At least you didn't get FUCKING ARRESTED, am I right?
I mean, worst case scenario? Obviously Gavin not waving back. It's not getting raped up the ass with a baton by a fucking copper wasn't a possibility.
Or, you know, in Texas' case, instant death by firing squad and tornadoes, followed by the death sentence and lethal injection.
5 years ago SkunkFucker Le cool guy @FappingBlackGuy: ya kdin gave me weird look so I figured he was calling the cops but I'm still shocked how easy it was I just fucking walked in
5 years ago FappingBlackGuy OW;TheJosher @SkunkFucker: You probably shouldn't be giving people any ideas. I was honestly surprised when all of those pictures weren't just you in Barbara's underwear jerking it in the RT bathroom.
5 years ago JohnStephen Are you sure you should be openly admitting to a crime on a website that's run by the friend of the people who's property you trespassed on?
5 years ago SkunkFucker Le cool guy @FappingBlackGuy: no those pictures are going in my collection
5 years ago SkunkFucker Le cool guy @JohnStephen: yolo my name and roosterteeth account aren't connected to this website
5 years ago FappingBlackGuy OW;TheJosher @SkunkFucker: Except Mike can see your IP and notify authorities, if he so desires. (Not to give him any ideas, I personally would probably let you off with a warning by saying not to do such fucking dangerous adrenaline loose cannon level shit).
5 years ago SkunkFucker Le cool guy @FappingBlackGuy: I'm not on a computer I own so it should be fine
5 years ago FappingBlackGuy OW;TheJosher @SkunkFucker: You're on a CUMputer, am I right?
You fucking evil genius mastermind you.
5 years ago SkunkFucker Le cool guy @FappingBlackGuy: I'm the newest member of the legion of doom I'm like a knob polisher or something
5 years ago FappingBlackGuy OW;TheJosher @SkunkFucker:
5 years ago SkunkFucker Le cool guy @FappingBlackGuy: I'm a star
5 years ago JohnStephen @SkunkFucker:
Wouldn't it then be just a matter of going to where the computer is and asking someone "hey, who was using this between these times"?
5 years ago SkunkFucker Le cool guy @JohnStephen:ye but it's in a hotel and I didn't login
5 years ago JohnStephen @SkunkFucker:
Well, first of all they have CCTV, second of all, haven't you ever logged in at home?
5 years ago Parks Ass To Ass #ThugLife
Seriously though, it seems like that's a crime.
5 years ago SkunkFucker Le cool guy @JohnStephen: I meant it didn't login to he computer it was already open
5 years ago absolutezilch Hey Big Zam! I wonder if Kdin will tell this story on the podcast.
Dolanpls.
5 years ago SkunkFucker Le cool guy @absolutezilch: I fucking hope so also my last name is Dolan so that scared me
5 years ago TriangleJam @SkunkFucker: Even though I don't think oyu are going to be tracked down, good job giving more information about yourself. Last name in case you didn't understand.
5 years ago SkunkFucker Le cool guy @TriangleJam:meh it's a fairly common last name
5 years ago absolutezilch Hey Big Zam! Yeah well, just a tip: Your full name is totally on your profile page. That's why I said "Dolan pls". It's also a reference to one of the best memes in existence.
5 years ago LaughingMan9 @SkunkFucker:
5 years ago SkunkFucker Le cool guy @absolutezilch: oh yeah lol
5 years ago 1 Dirtbag move.
5 years ago SkunkFucker Le cool guy @1: nah man I was just hanging out scared as shit
5 years ago Guitarman1328 Hey man, just found your RT profile
5 years ago Savis117 Meat-Spinner What the fuck is wrong with you dude, that is creepy as shit. Not to mention illegal.
5 years ago SkunkFucker Le cool guy @Savis117: I wasn't actually expecting to get in I was just bored
5 years ago SkunkFucker Le cool guy @Guitarman1328: yeah I went all out with the naming
5 years ago Savis117 Meat-Spinner Also, super easy to find your RT profile, and proof is that you are in an IB group. I legit hope that mike does shit here. That is way out of line you creepy piece of shit.
5 years ago Guitarman1328 I know where you live and how old you are just from your RT page, not to mention your full name. I msged Barbara, Caleb, Kdin, and Mike on the RT site about this you creepy fuck.
What a great community we had here.
5 years ago Savis117 Meat-Spinner @Guitarman1328: Cheers, glad someone did it.
5 years ago SkunkFucker Le cool guy @Savis117: I didn't go there to like rape anyone I was at the heb next door and was like hey they work here, then I was like hey you can just walk in
5 years ago Guitarman1328 No one should post this on Youtube, Twitter, Reddit etc, don't want other assholes 'fans' who are here for RTX getting in. Just message Barbara and Caleb and who ever else on the site that you can think of.
5 years ago ItalianBadger @Guitarman1328: I hope this isn't real...
5 years ago bigteddybear93 @Guitarman1328: Whats creepy about it?
5 years ago Guitarman1328 @bigteddybear93: he not only broke into the studio, but he just told the internet how to do it as well, while tons of fans are flocking to Austin...
5 years ago Savis117 Meat-Spinner @Guitarman1328: And you know, it is illegal
5 years ago SkunkFucker Le cool guy Nice to see fiction still has decent effect on here I'm glad you guys reported me over fucking video stills
5 years ago Savis117 Meat-Spinner @SkunkFucker: It is a bit too late for that
5 years ago SkunkFucker Le cool guy @Savis117: if you're not retarded you would notice my "pictures" are from an older video from Austin studios. And do you also think there was absolutely no security in a place that big
5 years ago LV_Wizard Lord_Haiku This thread got big
5 years ago SkunkFucker Le cool guy @LV_Wizard: to be fair I did this as a publicity stunt while I'm stuck in this hotel room
5 years ago LV_Wizard Lord_Haiku @SkunkFucker: It worked, I suppose.
5 years ago Guitarman1328 @SkunkFucker: What video? Reverse image search came up with nothing.
5 years ago SkunkFucker Le cool guy @Guitarman1328: it's a video I took from outside that's why it's so zoomed in the building is the edge of the lot so you can see all of that from the road
5 years ago LV_Wizard Lord_Haiku If you post the video, that would be sufficient evidence I suppose.
5 years ago SkunkFucker Le cool guy @LV_Wizard: that would involve me uploading it and giving you guys my YouTube aswell which has my real address in it so I would rather not do that if you wouldn't mind -1One weekday in August 2012, when the NFL regular season was approaching and rosters were being winnowed, first-year Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson called a stretch play during an 11-on-11 practice. A rookie cornerback wearing number 38 chased the play from the back side and with speed that Seattle had just clocked at 4.38 in the 40-yard dash, dragged running back Robert Turbin down for no gain.
On the next play No. 38 broke up a 40-yard fade down the opposite sideline. A few snaps later he snuffed out a slant route, slapping Wilson’s spiral into the FieldTurf with an emphatic whap-bomp. Richard Sherman liked the first two plays, but the slant is what launched Seattle’s second-year cornerback from the sideline, his yet-to-be-famous dreads flying, Donny Lisowski thinking he’d died and gone to football heaven as coach Pete Carroll’s hip‑hop selections scored the scene from speakers taller than Donny.
“I see you!” Sherman yelled, leaning backward and nodding at the white cornerback. “They don’t see you, but I see you!”
Born and raised in Seattle, the 28-year-old Lisowski will always remember the summer of 2012, when he had the Seahawks’ practice facility buzzing. He wore the same surging bird decal on his helmet that Marshawn Lynch wore on his. He lined up for DB drills behind his favorite player growing up, Marcus Trufant. He earned the respect of Carroll and his assistants, men he said were first-class in all of their communications with him. But as those summer days turned into months—then years—of solo workouts and precisely zero phone calls from other NFL teams, Lisowski couldn’t help but wonder whether there had been an invisible force at play in his career.
All 64 starting cornerbacks in the NFL are black. So are their backups. One hundred-sixty black cornerbacks, give or take. Not a single white one. It’s been this way for more than 10 years.
For a while there Lisowski believed he might get invited to another NFL camp and become the first regularly contributing white cornerback in the NFL since the Giants’ Jason Sehorn, who took his last snap at the position in 2002. Lisowski’s name, it seemed, would replace the mythic, anthropological-sounding Sehorn’s as the one that gets whispered anytime a white kid takes a serious crack at corner. (Uh-oh! Check out Sehorn!) But those days have passed; Lisowski is out of the game. As he describes it, “I feel like I beat football in a way. I’ve played at every possible level: college, semi-pro, Arena, CFL, NFL.... Once you see all that, once you’ve proven to yourself that you can compete with the best, what more is there to do? I’m a competitor. I want to see what else I can learn and do and change in the world.”
As for the actual Sehorn, who at 45 is now a part-time broadcaster and full-time dad: “I wore sleeves for a reason,” he says. “Rarely will you find a photo of me in the NFL without long sleeves. I just didn’t want it to matter. To me, this whole [white cornerback] thing was never a race issue. I’ve always seen it as a cultural issue and a confidence issue. And that goes back to how I was raised.”
Sehorn’s youth in Sacramento featured a single mom, absent dad, Mom working a chair at a downtown hair salon near the array of apartment buildings where Jason and his kid brother packed and unpacked throughout childhood. “When I say dirt-poor, I mean Mom made maybe $25,000 a year,” Sehorn explains. “I remember buying milk with food stamps. Vividly. So, growing up, I was the minority. I was the outcast.... I wore sleeves [in the NFL] because I just wanted to be a cornerback. I didn’t want to be a white cornerback.”
Jason Sehorn (top row, third from right) with his youth soccer team. Courtesy of Jason Sehorn
In the summer of 1993, Sehorn was merely a backup safety at USC, a soon-to-be-senior who was struggling just to get on the field. “Jason was probably the most naturally gifted athlete on our team,” recalls Dennis Thurman, then the Trojans’ secondary coach and last year the Bills’ defensive coordinator. “We knew we only had one more year with him and that we had to find a place for him.”
Cornerback wasn’t an option, Thurman adds, “until I walked past the gym one afternoon and saw Jason playing basketball with [future Pro Bowl linebacker] Willie McGinest—backpedaling, sprinting, jumping, rebounding....”
Thurman’s decision to stroll past USC’s Lyon Center that day was the kind of cosmic intervention that white cornerbacks could have used to get over the hump the last couple of decades. And it’s what they’ll need going forward if they hope to break into an NFL lineup again.
To be fair, though, calling Sehorn the last of the white cornerbacks means ignoring the dozen or so snaps Dustin Fox played for the Eagles and the Bills in 2006 and ’07. It means overlooking Ethan Kilmer’s single magnificent snap as a corner for the Bengals in ’06, and it completely neglects another member of the Cincinnati secondary that season, the real Sehorn—the last white player to start a regular-season NFL game at the position. (For the record, the tight-knit cornerback fraternity seems to respect Patriots receiver Julian Edelman for the spot duty he pulled over 13 regular season games in ’11—“I remember that,” says 14-year NFL cornerback Terence Newman, of the Vikings, “he played his ass off”—but none among them consider Edelman a real corner, especially since he has betrayed them by catching 377 passes over the last five seasons, each thrown by a man wearing the same color jersey.)
Over the past 20 years, only seven white men have played cornerback in a regular-season NFL game, including receiver Mike Furrey, who was thrown Edelman-like into the Browns’ rotation in 2009. Yes, it can get mighty awkward anytime a white man raises his hand and points out what might be a touch of racial discrimination against him, especially in America in 2017. But even if we take issue with the white cornerback’s right to feel frustrated, given the horrors inflicted by white men on non-white men on this soil over the last four centuries, there’s no denying that during the last 20 years the new hires in his line of work have had one thing glaringly in common—with very rare exceptions.
Kevin Kaesviharn lines up against the Baltimore Ravens during the 2006 season. Joe Robbins/Getty Images
Had Dennis Thurman walked a different route across the USC campus 24 years ago there’s a good chance we’d all be saying Kaesviharn anytime we spotted a white cornerback. Like Sehorn, Kevin Kaesviharn (pronounced KASE-varn) wore dark sleeves during many of the games he started at corner for the Bengals from 2001 through ’03, but he wore his because black is one of Cincinnati’s colors and because he played in the NFL’s coldest division. Also like Sehorn, Kaesviharn grew up in urban, multi-ethnic California, in South Central L.A.
“Competing against black kids, that’s all I knew,” says Kaesviharn, whose father is of Thai descent and whose mother is a blend of English, Irish and French-Canadian, “so I was never intimidated.” When he moved to Lakeville, Minn., in junior high, he realized suddenly that he was the best athlete in school.
“What separated me [from Sehorn] was that I played the position for as long as I can remember,” says the 40-year-old Kaesviharn, now a sports performance coach in Maple Grove, Minn. “I was a corner in high school, in college [at Div. II Augustana], in the Arena league.... [In Arena], when you’ve got guys sprinting at you before the snap, that’s where you really see who can cover.”
Kaesviharn had 17 interceptions in his nine-year NFL career, including three as a rookie, in 2001, after he spent the spring teaching high school algebra and playing for the XFL’s San Francisco Demons. No one knew that the three starts Kaesviharn would make at cornerback two years later, in ’03—the season the Bengals nudged him to safety—would be the last starts by a white cornerback until, well... ever?
“It’s a touchy subject,” Kaesviharn says of his move that season to safety, where he got his last 47 NFL starts. “That’s just the way it was. Are there reasons it was that way with me? Yeah. Am I gonna stand up and say it was discrimination? I wouldn’t take it that far. But to prove that there wasn’t discrimination—I mean, you can’t really do it.” Asked if he ever felt he had to be twice as good as other corners just to keep his job, Kaesviharn pauses. “I haven’t thought about all of this for a long time...”
Sehorn and Lisowski and the other corners do a lot of pausing and thinking, too, before they talk about their position and their skin color. No one wants to come off as a whiner, and in this country the subject of race will always be a shimmering pool of kerosene. They also do a lot of laughing because, among players, race is, first and foremost, fodder for jokes and stories. And laughing is what Kaesviharn does now as he finishes thinking.
“Yeah,” he says. “Yeah, I felt that way 100%. I knew it.”
Donny Lisowski never experienced any issues as a white cornerback at the University of Montana, but he never quite stuck in the NFL. Todd Goodrich/University of Montana (left), Rod Mar (right)
Donny Lisowski says he didn’t feel discriminated against by the coaches at the University of Montana and he didn’t feel it from the Seahawks. Even if he had, he wouldn’t want to come off as an excuse maker or as if he’s trying to play some upside-down race card. He was a scholarship cornerback for four injury-free years at Montana, yet he never became a regular starter, and he realizes that this fact explains why his NFL dream never panned out. If he couldn’t get on the field in the Big Sky Conference, says the prevailing NFL logic, why would we want him?
What got Lisowski noticed was the 4.38 40 that he ran in March 2012 in front of NFL scouts who had come to Missoula to see Trumaine Johnson’s pro day. (Johnson, a third-round pick who started for the Rams last season, owned one of the Grizzlies’ two corner spots during all four of Lisowski’s years there.) The glowing orc that those scouts watched run that day—shirtless, shaved head, sun-starved skin—turned in a time that was not only faster than Johnson’s personal best but one that also would have ranked third among corners at the ’12 combine (and fourth at this year’s event), had he been invited.
Those scouts learned that Lisowski had other positives. He’d just been named Special Teams Player of the Year in the Big Sky, where he covered punts and kickoffs as if there were a bungee cord stretched between his facemask and the return man’s belt. When his hometown Seahawks invited him for a tryout, Lisowski duplicated his sub‑4.4 40. At their rookie camp that May he repeatedly won praise from Carroll, who after one lively scrimmage told a nest of microphones, unprompted, “I like Donny Lisowski. He was all over the place out here.”
Lisowski signed a three-year deal with Seattle, and from April to August in 2012 he drove his dad’s brown ’01 Tahoe to the Seahawks’ facility, where he worked out, practiced and studied as a member of the team he grew up worshiping.
Brian Davis was faster than Lisowski, if the stories his peers tell are true. Davis, the last white guy to play cornerback regularly in the NFL before Sehorn and Kaesviharn came along, started 15 games for the Redskins in 1988 and ’89 (opposite Hall of Famer Darrell Green) and was a backup for three other teams before he retired in ’95. If Lisowski resembled an impassioned orc at his pro day, then Davis in his prime was a bronzed Jeff Spicoli who didn’t know what a pro day was.
Neither his surfer hair nor his 6' 2" knife of a body have changed much since Davis, now 53, jogged onto the field for Super Bowl XXII. That day, as Doug Williams became the first black quarterback to hoist the Lombardi Trophy, Davis became the last white cornerback to do so. Twenty-six years would pass before Russell Wilson equaled Williams’s achievement, in 2014, during which time black backup QBs won seven Super Bowl rings. Meanwhile, other than Sehorn (who allowed a 38-yard TD to receiver Brandon Stokely in the Giants’ Super Bowl XXXV loss to the Ravens—“We call that white on white crime,” says retired cornerback Dustin Fox), no white cornerback has even suited up for the NFL’s championship game.
Redskins CB Brian Davis upends Buccaneers WR Mark Carrier. Doug Mills/AP
“If you’re a white corner, you’re guilty until proven innocent,” Davis explains during a break from his job as a trainer in his hometown of Phoenix. He has worked in the past with MMA champions and 2008 Olympic wrestling gold medalist Henry Cejudo, among others, and he doesn’t know how to pull a punch. “I’m not going to be politically correct about this,” he warns. “It comes down to this: How many white guys are f‑‑‑‑‑‑ fast enough to play cornerback in the NFL? Very, very few. It just doesn’t show up as often in white bodies. Even if I’m a white coach or a coach who’s pulling for [the white cornerback], I’m still thinking, ‘Why is he here? I don’t want him. He can’t run, he can’t jump, he’s too damn nice.’ That’s another stereotype, by the way: nice, polite. [NFL coaches] want a f------ baller.”
Even at the pinnacle of Davis’s career, when he capped Washington’s Super Bowl–record 35-point second quarter by intercepting John Elway just before halftime, Davis was overlooked. ABC’s Dan Dierdorf (and the ensuing NFL Films documentary about the game) called him Tony Davis. Brian Davis was not wired to care about such minor details, even though the mistake did lend him a whiff of ethnicity. Besides, he endured worse disrespect on the field.
“I heard every kind of white boy comment you can think of,” he says. In particular he remembers an older, gray-haired man in Oakland who used to chain-smoke on the sideline during warmups. “He’d be over there laughing, saying, ‘Look, it’s the great white buffalo! Hey, you’re the long-lost white buffalo!’ I was like, Who is this guy? How’d he get down here? My teammates told me, ‘That’s Fred Biletnikoff.’ ”
Davis became close with Williams when they both played for Washington. “Doug said to me one time, ‘BD, what I like about you, you don’t see color,’” says Davis. “To me, that’s one of the highest praises you can give someone. That’s how I’ve tried to raise my [kids].
“I remember one time, my daughter was about eight. She was playing with three or four kids and there was one black girl in their little group. Afterward my daughter was trying to tell me something about this girl—she was describing her shirt, her brown eyes, everything about her. And I go, ‘Wait, are you talking about the black kid?’ ”
“She goes, ‘You mean the brown one?’”
“To me, that’s what Dr. King was talking about,” Davis says. Then he quotes the late civil rights leader word for word: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
“If blacks are superior, why is the league wasting all of this money on scouting?” Dr. Harry Edwards asked. “Just go to the black community and scoop up all your players and win every game.’
But how might Dr. King have reacted if a scientist showed him studies suggesting that black men are better equipped than white men for 160 of the most coveted, highest-paying jobs in America, that white cornerbacks are inferior to those of African descent?
A sizable chunk of our population considers the mere discussion of these issues to be morally vile. But as Jon Entine asked in his book, Taboo: Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We’re Afraid to Talk About it, “What are we to make of the fact that an athlete of African ancestry holds every major running record, from the 100 meters to the marathon?” Entine, a senior research fellow at Cal who founded the Genetic Literacy Project, explains how all this relates to NFL cornerbacks: “In addition to sprinting speed, numerous studies have shown that athletes of African ancestry generally have longer extremities than white athletes. This is one of the ways Africans have dissipated body heat over thousands of years in sub‑Saharan conditions.
Long arms, of course, are nearly as dear to aspiring cornerbacks as speed; ask any corner who has found himself out of position on a fade. Studies published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition point out that black Africans also generally have thinner hips than Caucasians, making their chassis better for accelerating, stopping, changing direction, leaping....
Playing cornerback.
All of this is up for interpretation—if you dare go there. “Even raising the issue of racial differences is considered racist in some circles,” Entine points out in Taboo, “an odd stance considering the lip service given to cultural diversity.” He’s right. Most Americans—let’s hope this is still the case—love to celebrate our melting‑pot‑ness, but we still get our dander up anytime the specifics of this biodiversity are discussed.
As for the 14-year Sehorn gap, Entine explains, “Two things have happened. First, the pool of elite white defensive backs has gotten smaller, even though whites still make up the majority of the U.S. population. Second—and this is probably related to the first—the white kids who could make it as cornerbacks, most of them self-select out of that position and find something where they don’t look and feel out of place.”
Entine calls African ancestry “the single biggest factor in succeeding at cornerback.” Flipping through photos of current cornerbacks in the NFL, it’s a difficult claim to dispute.
But Dr. Harry Edwards gives it a try. “What is Entine talking about?!” asks the revered Berkeley sociologist and activist. “Africans have been here for 360 years. Today, 80% of African Americans are people born of some level of interracial and intercultural mixing. [Entine’s claims are] pure insanity.... It raises the question: Exactly how black do you have to be to be good at corner?” Loosing a belly laugh of incredulity, Edwards continues: “If blacks are superior, why is the league wasting all of this money on scouting? Just go to the black community and scoop up all your players and win every game.”
“If you’re a young kid,” says Terence Newman, one of the few active players who didn’t request anonymity on this topic, “you try to emulate somebody, right? For me it was Deion Sanders, Emmitt Smith. Today, white kids might want to be Peyton Manning. Maybe J.J. Watt. It’s not as likely that a white teenager is out there saying, I wanna be Richard Sherman.”
“The solitary nature of the position is more appealing to young African-American players,” says Dr. Edwards. “For some young people, they believe if they don’t make it in athletics they’re not gonna make it in any endeavor, so they take it upon themselves in every possible way. That’s part of the appeal of basketball: You can do it yourself, you can make it by yourself. Or so kids think....
“This imagery of the elite cornerback, the aesthetic of it—Deion with the towel hanging from his waist, out there alone, no safety help—that’s powerful imagery. It says, ‘It’s all on me.’”
Richard Sherman (right) celebrates scoring a TD on a blocked punt against TCU with Mark Mueller (center) and Nate Wilcox-Fogel (left). Sharon M. Steinman/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/MCT via Getty Images
“I loved Donny as a player and a teammate,” Sherman, now a four-time Pro Bowler, says of Lisowski’s short stint with Seattle. “But in the end I think it was just a matter of [the Seahawks] preferring taller corners.”
Sherman played with a white cornerback at Stanford for whom height wasn’t an issue. Mark Mueller’s wispy, vascular appendages looked like Usain Bolt’s dipped in milk; he was the type of guy who could roll out of bed, throw himself a lob off the blacktop, rock it between his knees and reverse dunk it. “Mark was a better athlete than I was, no question,” says Sherman. “All his measurables were better than mine.”
Although Mueller played running back and linebacker at his suburban Denver high school, Jim Harbaugh and his Stanford staff projected the teenager as a cornerback, the spot where Mueller would one day be replaced, in a manner, by a converted receiver |
, an assistant research fellow at the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, said: “The nine-dash line is the foundation of China’s claim to sovereignty activities in the South China Sea, which has been smashed by the ruling. It is highly possible that the Philippines will expand its presence in the South China Sea, which will create conflict.”
[5 stories you need to read to understand the South China Sea ruling]
Beijing refused to participate in the arbitration process and launched a global propaganda campaign. Foreign Minister Wang Yi was quoted as telling Secretary of State John F. Kerry last week that the case was a “farce.” His ministry said it was delusional to think China would bow to diplomatic pressure to accept the ruling.
Some $5 trillion in commerce, roughly one-third of global trade, flows through the South China Sea every year, while its fisheries account for 12percent of the global catch, and significant oil and gas reserves are thought to exist under the seafloor. The waters are some of the most fiercely disputed in the world, with claims to various parts staked by Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan, in addition to China and the Philippines.
China claims sovereignty over almost all the islands, reefs and rocks in the sea — including those hundreds of miles from Chinese shores.
[China believes it is the real victim in the South China Sea dispute]
In the past two years, Beijing has turned seven reefs and rocks into nascent military outposts, with airstrips and radar installations under construction.
But the tribunal backed the Philippines’ submission that none of those features are islands — as defined by the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Only natural — rather than artificial — islands that can sustain human habitation qualify for both the 12 nautical miles of territorial waters and 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zones under UNCLOS.
In other words, the ruling drastically undermines China’s claim to the waters surrounding the island bases it is building.
Beijing says the tribunal lacked the jurisdiction to rule on Manila’s various submissions. Though its decision is legally binding, the court lacks any mechanism to enforce its rulings.
Nevertheless, the outcome of the case will provide an important indication of China’s willingness to submit to international law, and of what kind of global power it wants to become.
“This is a breathtaking indictment of China’s position in the South China Sea,” said David Welch, a global-security scholar at the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Waterloo, Ontario. “It will be very difficult for Beijing to pretend that the tribunal’s finding does not matter legally, politically or practically. How China reacts over the next days and weeks will essentially determine its international standing for decades.”
What happens next will depend on how all the key players react.
The U.S. Navy has already conducted several “freedom of navigation” exercises in the South China Sea, sending warships within 12 nautical miles of islands, reefs and rocks controlled by China and other claimants. Washington is also rebuilding military ties with the Philippines. China cites this as evidence that President Obama’s actions — not its own island-building — are responsible for militarizing the region.
China could attempt to reinforce its position by building a new military base on Scarborough Shoal, a move that would clearly be viewed as dangerously provocative by Washington and Manila.
[Chinese jets intercept U.S. recon plane in near-collision over South China Sea]
Paul Reichler, the Philippines’ chief counsel in the case, said the ruling was likely to unite all the rival claimants to the waters of the South China Sea against China. “China may face a prolonged period of embittered neighbors and an uncertain, unstable and insecure situation in the South China Sea unless and until it finds a way to accommodate itself to the rule of law as clearly set forth in the arbitral award,” he said.
China, which hosts a summit of the Group of 20 major economies in September, may want time to gauge the reaction from Manila, where the newly elected president, Rodrigo Duterte, has sent mixed signals.
Early in his election campaign, Duterte implied he might be willing to soften his stance on China in return for Chinese infrastructure projects on his home island of Mindanao. But he later promised to ride a water scooter to Scarborough Shoal to plant the Philippine flag.
Gu Jinglu, Xu Yangjingjing and Xu Jing in Beijing, Michael Goe Delizo in Manila and Carol Morello in Washington contributed to this report.
Read more
U.S. ‘hypocrisy’ and Chinese cash strengthen Beijing’s hand in South China Sea
Storm clouds gather over South China Sea ahead of key U.N. ruling
China scrambles fighter jets as U.S. destroyer steams past disputed island
Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the worldFinale time and in keeping with the experimental nature of this series, Doctor Who “Hell Bent” may not be quite what you expect. Although you probably know it’s written by Steven Moffat so expecting the unexpected may be exactly what you expect. Once again, the trailer seems to have spoilt far more than we would have done, and once again the BBC’s preview site has asked reviewers not to give away one spoiler that’s in the trailer – so, bizarrely, we can’t tell you that [REDACTED] is back, but you presumably know who we mean. Because you seen the trailer.
Anyway, here are some more random observations/thoughts.
It’s very weirdly structured, with all the stuff you’d expect from a series finale at the start then it goes off in another direction entirely. The first 20 minutes are amazing. The final few minutes are emotional and full of great moments. In between a lot of stuff happens – some of it cool, some of it creepy, with quite a few surprises – but it’s not always clear why it’s happening. It’s not confusing; you know what’s happening, but it’s not always clear what the reasoning is. There are loads of memorable visuals – occasionally the special effects shots evoke an emotional response as well as “Wow!” one. There are lots of new inferences about the Doctor’s past but few actual facts. Apart from one. There are some familiar locations though one’s in an unfamiliar location. Someone comes up with an explanation about the hybrid, preceding it with, “But I have a better theory…” They don’t. It’s a rubbish theory. We hope we’re not supposed to take it seriously. There’s a moment when you think, “Hang on, this has been done before…” but it doesn’t pan out the same at all. [REDACTED] is very good in it with a very surprising destiny. And good hair. As well as [REDACTED] there are other returnees too (you can see them in the picture gallery here) but mentioning them is not embargoed, because they’re clearly not considered similarly, “Oooooooh!”-worthy. Though one of them says a word that may have you going, “Oooooooh!” It begins with “B” and certainly makes someone close to the Doctor do a double-take. The very first scenes has a Buckaroo Banzai in-joke. The Doctor strums something on his guitar that he should never have heard. After having so many lines last week, this week Capaldi spends an awful lot of time on screen not talking. And very effective he is too. He drops a spoon. Again. Coincidence? (Probably yeah… but hey, we’re sure we can make a visual metaphor out of it if we tried). “What colour is it?” “On pain of death do no take a selfie.” We see something that we know does happen actually happen onscreen for the first time. The Doctor quotes The Bride Of Frankenstein (1935). Something make a comeback. A final message for the Doctor is an old message for the Doctor.
NOTE: There was no trailer for the Christmas special on the preview (hell, the credits were for “Deep Breath”) but we fully expect there will be one on the actual broadcast, though the title and a promo image have just been released.
Doctor Who, “Hell Bent” airs on BBC One on Saturday 5 December.
• VIDEO Peter Jackson’s Being Pestered By Steven Moffat
• Doctor Who “Hell Bent” Spoiler-Packed Image Gallery
• Doctor Who S09E11 “Heaven Sent” REVIEWElva Beltran of the Porterville Area Coordinating Council helps local families who need water because their wells have gone dry. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon for The Washington Post)
Living day-to-day in a community without running water finally wore the Serrato family down.
Their shallow well went dry more than a year ago, along with the wells of nearly a thousand nearby homes. The family of five turned to a government-provided emergency tank, conserving its contents like misers. A bucket of water for bathing replaced showers. A cup of water sufficed for brushing teeth. Nightly trips to the toilet required a walk outdoors to fetch a bucket for flushing.
“It was like the end of the world,” Yolanda Serrato said.
Out of desperation, her husband switched on the well in late January following a light rain. It belched brownish water. When that cleared, the Serratos all took showers, ignoring experts’ warnings that increased levels of nitrate contamination from leaking septic tanks and farm fertilizer runoff made the little remaining groundwater unsafe.
With the nation’s gaze riveted on a different disaster in Flint, Mich., where lead-contaminated water has caused a health emergency that threatens an entire city, East Porterville’s own crisis has been overshadowed.
The emergency showers set up in the parking lot of Iglesia Emmanuel Assembly of God Church in Porterville, Calif., are in constant use since many residents in the county have no running water. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon for The Washington Post)
Seven months after The Washington Post first reported on the region’s bone-dry conditions, a return visit found only deeper despair. Despite rains along part of the southern coast and encouraging mountain snowfalls to the north, California’s Central Valley is arguably in worse shape.
The problems from the grueling drought impact thousands of people here, not just in this parched enclave of mostly Latino farmworkers but in the wider county of Tulare — the state’s hardest-hit area. And those problems are far from being solved.
[California’s rural poor hit hardest as drought makes remaining water toxic]
Physical, emotional costs
The worst suffering is in East Porterville, an unincorporated community that has more than half of the county’s 2,000 failed wells. It sits against the sloping foothills of the Sierra Nevada, where the ground is harder. Digging deeper wells is almost impossible closer to the mountains, and the $10,000 and $20,000 that it would cost to drill farther from them is out of the question for people who scrape by on farm wages. Thanks to drought-shriveled fields, hundreds of them have lost jobs picking, processing and packaging vegetables and fruits.
With emergency cash from the state, county officials sought to help by distributing bottled water and supplying hulking, black water tanks that hold up to 3,000 gallons. The igloo-shaped containers dominate browning front yards, about as tall as many of the tiny ranch-style houses they serve.
But truck crews struggle to refill them on schedule once a week, and activists say families are often left dry over weekends and holidays. “It’s breaking some of the people down,” said Fred Beltran Jr., who delivered 300-gallon tanks of water to residents when wells started failing as early as July 2013.
“Their struggle is affecting the relationships between spouses and kids,” he explained. “It’s a stress and a burden on them. The kids are dirty. Feces stays in toilets. You can sense the tension. You can feel it and see it in their eyes.”
Beltran’s mother, Elva, who directs the Porterville Area Coordinating Council, is frustrated with the county’s response and the pace of progress. Residents regularly visit the council’s headquarters at an old packing warehouse to ask for water. They also ask for money to help pay bills because their jobs won’t be returning any time soon.
As she drove East Porterville’s dusty streets on a recent afternoon, Beltran’s eyes hardened. She said she has only seen public officials discussing the situation at meetings or events. The real work — knocking on doors, asking questions directly, she said — gets left to the activists.
“Why isn’t the county doing more for these people?” Beltran asked. “Where is the state?”
Bureaucratic red tape partly explains the slow response, according to Timothy Lutz, director of fiscal operations for the local Health and Human Services Agency. Tulare County, population 450,000, was not prepared for catastrophe on such a wide scale and lacked the money to deal with it, he said. So officials turned to the state for guidance and funding.
[Scientists say California hasn’t been this dry in 500 years]
“The difficulty with something like this is that there are so many players,” Lutz said. Money flowed from California’s capital into multiple agencies led by different directors and guided by different regulations.
For example, county officials seized on the idea of drilling a deep well in Porterville, a more middle-class city next door where water remains more plentiful. The intent was to hook 150 East Porterville homes to a water main that bypasses them on its way to four schools. The well would increase the flow so that the schools wouldn’t be affected.
At least 15 plodding steps were needed to accomplish that. The county had to work with the city to find a site, then it had to design the well, request $1.2 million to build the pump, get a federal grant to help drill it and finally test the water that was produced.
Then in October, Porterville officials pulled back, saying the project threatened to deplete too much of its own water supply during the duration of the drought. At that point, the entire process broke down, Lutz said. The shiny new orange and gray well still sits dormant on a concrete block on Olive Drive.
The county is looking at alternative ways to operate it and at other options to assist residents. There are other hurdles, too. Many of the migrant farmworkers here share a deep distrust of authority. Those who are in the country illegally shrink from public officials.
‘I don’t think anything’s changed’
At the Iglesia Emmanuel Assembly of God in Porterville, the Rev. Roman Hernandez sat at a card table, adding names to a register of people receiving free bottled water and food. Across the church parking lot were two county-issued trailers equipped with more than a dozen showers. A few were occupied, and a few had been recently used, their doors flung open as children and women exited.
“I don’t think anything’s changed,” Hernandez said. “If anything, I think we have more families affected.... Most are unemployed due to the drought. The unemployment only adds to the water situation.”
Still, when the housing authority started offering vouchers so renters without water could move to locations with it, only five people signed up.
“There’s this notion that the little rain we got will take care of this problem,” said Miguel Perez, who’s coordinating the voucher program. “Maybe in the spring and summer, when reality sets in, we’ll sign more people up.”
[As water runs dry, Californians brace for a new way of life]
Not far from the church, as a 1,500-gallon tank casts a shadow on their small house, Serrato family members continue using water from their well during the day — despite the warnings about dangerous contamination. At night, they switch to water from the container.
“We’re alternating,” said Yolanda Serrato, a mother of three. “I turn on the well in the morning, and then at 4 or 5 o’clock I turn it off.... We have showers now. The toilet flushes now. We’re able to do everything.”
County officials know that other families who have managed to draw well water are taking the same risk.
“At this point, we’re not advising anyone to be drinking that water at all,” Lutz said. “It’s not safe to drink by any means.”
While the danger will probably dry up soon, other threats will replace it.
“When summertime hits and rain conditions don’t improve,” he said, “we’ll be back in the same boat.”With Gary Bettman in the building and in the Versus booth, the Flyers ruined the Penguins opening of their new building with a 3-2 win. It wasn't always pretty, especially the first period, but the Flyers got the season series against their cross-state rivals started off right.
After a sloppy first period, which saw the Flyers get outshot 15-9, the club came out dramatically better in the second. Sergei Bobrovsky will naturally get all the headlines - as he does here - and while he did play well, it's important to keep a level head. The Penguins hit more than a few posts and Matt Carle was able to bail his goaltender out on at least a couple of occasions.
While Bobrovsky stopped 29 of 31 shots, the Chris Pronger -less defense looked very shaky. Carle was quite impressive, and while Braydon Coburn showed flashes of good play, the Flyers will need their back six to play significantly better going forward.
Perhaps the best news from the night - aside from beating the Penguins in their new building - was the offense. Danny Briere scored a brilliant power play goal, Claude Giroux added a beautiful short-handed tally, and Blair Betts chipped in a goal as well. The only thing missing was some production from the Richards line.
All in all, a good night. Not great, but it's something to build on. Jump for the bullets.
Bobrovsky was impressive, there's no doubt about that. But as said earlier, he got a lot of help from the posts and his defense helped him a couple of times. He played well enough to start again in the next week, while working on the things everyone knows he has to work on - traffic in front of the net, wide angle shots, and covering the top half of the net.
The defense was less than stellar, but there wasn't really a glaring weakness. All three of Sean O`Donnell, Oskars Bartulis, and Andrej Meszaros had their suspect moments, but none of them were especially awful. As a unit, though, only Matt Carle was particularly impressive.
Nik Zherdev was pretty quiet tonight. Both of his linemates were noticeable, so his invisibility will just be left without comment.
Jody Shelley played 6:22 tonight. With an ill-timed penalty. That is all.
The trio of Blair Betts (2 for 11), Mike Richards (5 for 16), and Danny Briere (4 for 12) were miserable in the faceoff dot tonight. Again, there isn't much to say other than that being unacceptable.
Speaking of Richards, he didn't have a single shot all night. Playing on a line with Jeff Carter (3 shots) seems to have taken a toll.
Lastly, that whole line (Carcillo - Richards - Carter) was pretty bad all night. They were out against the Crosby line fairly often - holding him to only 2 shots - so maybe they deserve a pass, but definitely something to keep an eye out for on Saturday.
Questions with Answers
The opening night start belongs to Sergei Bobrovsky. Are nerves an issue? At first, it looked like it. He definitely calmed down quickly, settling in for a solid debut.
How does the penalty kill look without Ian Laperriere? The Penguins were 1 for 5 on the Power Play, and Giroux added a short-handed tally as well, so I'd say pretty good. Darroll Powe looked especially impressive down a man, but with Blair Betts in the box at the end of the game, Andreas Nodl could have helped out a bit.
Does Chris Pronger play? No.
Will the Flyers shut down Crosby? No points on only two shots? Yes. Braydon Coburn and Mike Richards deserve a lot of credit for that.
Can the Flyers christen the Pens new arena with a big win? Hell yes.
Comment of the Night
You should put Hartnell’s wife in the net. Sure he’d hit that. Katchis, In response to Jeff Carter missing the net.
Game HighlightsYou can add the Texas governor's office to those upset with Travis County's choice for Republican Party chair.
"Robert Morrow in no way speaks for the Republican Party or its values," said Governor Abbott's spokesman John Wittman.
But on Super Tuesday, the voters spoke and picked local author and activist Morrow over the current chair, James Dickey. Morrow says having his name at the top of the ballot gave him a leg up on voters who weren't familiar with the candidates running for chair.
Morrow is known for his frequent controversial posts on Twitter and Facebook. He explains his social media strategy this way: "When I put out caustic and vile Facebook posts, there's a reason behind that. It's because I hate these political criminals who run both the Democratic and the Republican Party."
During our interview with Morrow he mentioned the following:
"The Clintons murdered 76 people at Waco. That was Hillary's call."
"Vice President George Herbert Walker Bush was running Iran-Contra."
"Bill Clinton is a serial rapist. He's raped at least 3 women."
"My true passion and expertise is Lyndon Johnson's role in the JFK assassination."
"I also like women with big breasts."
Morrow insists his posts are designed to bring attention to his positions. "I am controversial but I do it to get a point across," he insists. "And a lot of times I will add a link to any controversial thing that I say so the person can investigate for themselves."
So why would a man who hates politics seek a party leadership position? "I decided to run for Republican County Chair because I'm disgusted with the involvement of the Bush family in American party politics," Morrow says. "They're criminals. They're vermin. They're scum."
His election has local Republicans in shock. They say he'll hamper their ability to raise money and recruit good candidates.
"Well I would say that currently the Travis County Republican Party has all the power and swing of a castrated gerbil," Morrow counters.
So if you voted for Morrow because you wanted change--you're going to get it.
"I'm for flushing the commode on the corroded political rectum of the American political system."Keep cutting the cheese, America.
A British line of fart-filtering underwear is doing big business, and it has the United States to thank for it.
"Americans are making up the majority of our sales at the moment," Shreddies spokeswoman Ianthe Betts-Clarke told The Huffington Post.
Since word about the odor-neutralizing Shreddies passed through the Internet a few days ago, the company has experienced a 400 percent increase in orders over all, Betts-Clarke estimated.
Shreddies weaves a carbon cloth called Zorflex into its rear panel. Betts-Clarke says it can squash the smell of "200 times the average flatulence emission." (Shreddies apparently hasn't met my Aunt Edna.)
In 2008, the company began to serve customers with digestive-tract woes but branched out. "It's a product for everybody, because everyone farts," Betts-Clarke explained.
Men's boxer briefs cost between $39 and $45, while women's panties are about $31 to $34.
A product called the Flat-D Flatulence Deodorizer is also on the market. It's an activated charcoal cloth pad that tapes to the inside of briefs to mask the stink.
Imagine your silent but deadly farts now just silent.When you hear the words “cyborg,” or “augmented human,” you inescapably picture Arnold Schwarzenegger as, the Borg from, or perhaps, if you’re a little older. In Hollywood, any futuristic pairing of man and machine had better be so superawesome, or so superscary, that you’d be willing to spend a good couple of hours (and dollars) being entertained by it. The crazy thing is, even though these images come from a time when technology was barely able to fake the on-screen action, we are now on the cusp of the real thing. We’re entering an age that will enhance who we are as humans in ways that go well beyond these cultural clichés. Here’s where the art and science of human augmentation is today, and a tantalizing peek at where it’s going in the not-too-distant future.
Our time as pure, natural humans has an expiration date. Sorry,...Several people were shot late Wednesday during a Halloween party at the USC campus, and authorities are searching for the gunman.
LAPD sources said the incident occurred outside the party. It was unclear whether the victims or the gunman were students at the campus.
Police officers were swarming the area. USC urged people on campus to shelter in place and keep their doors closed.
The condition of the victims was not immediately known.
USC said on its Twitter feed that the LAPD had confirmed a shooting at the campus center and included a photo of police taping off an area.
In April, two graduate students were fatally shot in what authorities said was a botched robbery a few miles from the campus.
The deaths stunned the university, which announced a string of new security measures.
Two men were arrested in May and charged with those killings.
RELATED:
USC shooting: Classes to be held as normal after suspects detained
USC shooting: 2 suspects in custody; 'No pending danger,' police say
--Andrew Blankstein and Kate Mather
Here are some curated photos from social media taken at the USC campus in the wake of the shooting:"Worse than thieves, murderers, or cannibals those who offer compromise slow you and sap your vitality while pretending to be your friends. Compromisers are the enemy of all humanity, the enemies of life itself. Compromisers are the enemies of everything important, sacred and true."
~ L. Neil Smith
While the vast majority of emails I have received in response to my articles here and here, have been overwhelmingly positive, I have received quite a number from those who believe compromise with the state on the subject of concealed carry permits to somehow be positive, while others who continue in their support of the NRA have written to say, Neo, you must swallow the blue pill; life is good, the NRA is our friend.
I am no psychologist, but I do understand the desire of those who have chosen to compromise feeling the need to be reinforced in their actions, so they attempt to convince others to do likewise. Compromise is the path of least resistance.
It is my belief one cannot compromise with anyone whose goal is your destruction, for it is not the gun in the hands of a free man the tyrant fears, but the spirit of the man who possesses it. Compromise destroys the spirit of liberty and converts it to one of accommodation.
Compromise bears bitter fruit. On a bright sunny day in October of 1991, then Suzanna Gratia went to lunch with her parents at Luby’s restaurant in Killeen, Texas. In order to be in compliance with an unconstitutional law that forbade the possession of a concealed weapon, Ms. Gratia compromised and left her.38 caliber pistol in her vehicle. Suddenly, a madman, George Hennard, drove his truck into the cafeteria, got out of the truck and opened fire on those inside.
Ms. Gratia and her father, Al, turned over a table to use as cover. Ms. Gratia stated she reached for her purse to retrieve her.38, but then realized she had left it in her car.
Believing the madman was going to shoot everyone, Al Gratia, exhibited uncommon courage in rushing the killer. Hennard shot him in the chest, an obvious mortal wound. Ms. Gratia spotted a window, broken by another patron trying to escape, told her mother to follow her and then made her escape. Her mother decided she could not leave her wounded husband, sat on the floor and cradled his head in her arms. Hennard would return to where Mrs. Gratia sat and shoot her in the head. The couple had just celebrated their 47th wedding anniversary.
Ms. Gratia, now Dr. Suzanna Hupp, has become a crusader for the Second Amendment. Here she shows she inherited her mother and father’s courage as she addresses the Charles Schumer led committee on banning assault weapons. Notice she says, "I would much rather be sitting in jail with a felony offense on my head and have my parents alive." She also states "she made the stupidest decision of her life" when she decided to comply with the law and not carry her weapon.
Best of all was when Ms. Gratia Hupp explained to the tyrants on the committee the true meaning of the Second Amendment; "the Second Amendment is not about duck hunting, and I know I am not going to make very many friends saying this, but, its about all of our rights to be able to protect ourselves from all you guys up there." What courage. Those of you who are more than willing to compromise away our rights and freedoms are not fit to carry this woman’s shoes.
God Bless you, Dr. Hupp, you are the epitome of courage.
The battlefield of freedom is littered with the bodies of those who believe in compromise. Unfortunately, they usually manage to take some heroes with them.
Hope is not a method.
The Best of Michael GaddyThroughout the 1990s, when the coalition conducted a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign challenging the merits of an international agreement, policy makers and pundits were fiercely debating whether humans could dangerously warm the planet. Today, with general agreement on the basics of warming, the debate has largely moved on to the question of how extensively to respond to rising temperatures.
Environmentalists have long maintained that industry knew early on that the scientific evidence supported a human influence on rising temperatures, but that the evidence was ignored for the sake of companies’ fight against curbs on greenhouse gas emissions. Some environmentalists have compared the tactic to that once used by tobacco companies, which for decades insisted that the science linking cigarette smoking to lung cancer was uncertain. By questioning the science on global warming, these environmentalists say, groups like the Global Climate Coalition were able to sow enough doubt to blunt public concern about a consequential issue and delay government action.
George Monbiot, a British environmental activist and writer, said that by promoting doubt, industry had taken advantage of news media norms requiring neutral coverage of issues, just as the tobacco industry once had.
“They didn’t have to win the argument to succeed,” Mr. Monbiot said, “only to cause as much confusion as possible.”
William O’Keefe, at the time a leader of the Global Climate Coalition, said in a telephone interview that the group’s leadership had not been aware of a gap between the public campaign and the advisers’ views. Mr. O’Keefe said the coalition’s leaders had felt that the scientific uncertainty justified a cautious approach to addressing cuts in greenhouse gases.
The coalition disbanded in 2002, but some members, including the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Petroleum Institute, continue to lobby against any law or treaty that would sharply curb emissions. Others, like Exxon Mobil, now recognize a human contribution to global warming and have largely dropped financial support to groups challenging the science.
Documents drawn up by the coalition’s advisers were provided to lawyers by the Association of International Automobile Manufacturers, a coalition member, during the discovery process in a lawsuit that the auto industry filed in 2007 against the State of California’s efforts to limit vehicles’ greenhouse gas emissions. The documents included drafts of a primer written for the coalition by its technical advisory committee, as well as minutes of the advisers’ meetings.
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The documents were recently sent to The New York Times by a lawyer for environmental groups that sided with the state. The lawyer, eager to maintain a cordial relationship with the court, insisted on anonymity because the litigation is continuing.
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The advisory committee was led by Leonard S. Bernstein, a chemical engineer and climate expert then at the Mobil Corporation. At the time the committee’s primer was drawn up, policy makers in the United States and abroad were arguing over the scope of the international climate-change agreement that in 1997 became the Kyoto Protocol.
The primer rejected the idea that mounting evidence already suggested that human activities were warming the climate, as a 1995 report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had concluded. (In a report in 2007, the panel concluded with near certainty that most recent warming had been caused by humans.)
Yet the primer also found unpersuasive the arguments being used by skeptics, including the possibility that temperatures were only appearing to rise because of flawed climate records.
“The contrarian theories raise interesting questions about our total understanding of climate processes, but they do not offer convincing arguments against the conventional model of greenhouse gas emission-induced climate change,” the advisory committee said in the 17-page primer.
According to the minutes of an advisory committee meeting that are among the disclosed documents, the primer was approved by the coalition’s operating committee early in 1996. But the approval came only after the operating committee had asked the advisers to omit the section that rebutted the contrarian arguments.
“This idea was accepted,” the minutes said, “and that portion of the paper will be dropped.”
The primer itself was never publicly distributed.
Mr. O’Keefe, who was then chairman of the Global Climate Coalition and a senior official of the American Petroleum Institute, the lobby for oil companies, said in the phone interview that he recalled seeing parts of the primer.
But he said he was not aware of the dropped sections when a copy of the approved final draft was sent to him. He said a change of that kind would have been made by the staff before the document was brought to the board for final consideration.
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“I have no idea why the section on the contrarians would have been deleted,” said Mr. O’Keefe, now chief executive of the Marshall Institute, a nonprofit research group that opposes a mandatory cap on greenhouse gas emissions.
“One thing I’m absolutely certain of,” he said, “is that no member of the board of the Global Climate Coalition said, ‘We have to suppress this.’ ”
Benjamin D. Santer, a climate scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory whose work for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change was challenged by the Global Climate Coalition and allied groups, said the coalition was “engaging in a full-court press at the time, trying to cast doubt on the bottom-line conclusion of the I.P.C.C.” That panel concluded in 1995 that “the balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate.”
“I’m amazed and astonished,” Dr. Santer said, “that the Global Climate Coalition had in their possession scientific information that substantiated our cautious findings and then chose to suppress that information.”Solana solar field. Image: Abengoa
In just 15 years, the world as we know it will have transformed forever. The age of oil, gas, coal and nuclear will be over. A new age of clean power and smarter cars will fundamentally, totally, and permanently disrupt the existing fossil fuel-dependent industrial infrastructure in a way that even the most starry-eyed proponents of 'green energy' could never have imagined.
These are not the airy-fairy hopes of a tree-hugging hippy living off the land in an eco-commune. It's the startling verdict of Tony Seba, a lecturer in business entrepreneurship, disruption and clean energy at Stanford University and a serial Silicon Valley entrepreneur.
Seba began his career at Cisco Systems in 1993, where he predicted the internet-fueled mobile revolution at a time when most telecoms experts were warning of the impossibility of building an Internet the size of the US, let alone the world. Now he is predicting the "inevitable" disruption of the fossil fuel infrastructure.
Seba's thesis, set out in more detail in his new book Clean Disruption of Energy and Transportation, is that by 2030 "the industrial age of energy and transportation will be over," swept away by "exponentially improving technologies such as solar, electric vehicles, and self-driving cars."
Google's autonomous car. Image: Steve Jurvetson, Wikimedia
Tremors of change
Seba's forecasts are being taken seriously by some of the world's most powerful finance, energy, and technology institutions.
Last November, Seba was a keynote speaker at JP Morgan's Annual Global Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference in Asia, held in Hong Kong, where he delivered a stunning presentation on what he calls the "clean disruption."
Seba's JP Morgan talk focused on the inevitable disruption in the internal combustion engine. By his forecast, between 2017 and 2018, a mass migration from gasoline or diesel cars will begin, rapidly picking up steam and culminating in a market entirely dominated by electric vehicles (EV) by 2030.
Not only will our cars be electric, Seba predicts, but rapid developments in self-driving technologies will mean that future EVs will also be autonomous. The game-change is happening because of revolutionary cost-reductions in information technology, and because EVs are 90 percent cheaper to fuel and maintain than gasoline cars.
The main obstacle to the mass-market availability of EVs is the battery cost, which is around $500 per kilowatt hour (kWh). But this is pitched to fall dramatically in the next decade. By 2017, it could reach $350 kWh—which is the battery price-point where an electric car becomes cost-competitive with its gasoline equivalent.
Seba estimates that by 2020, battery costs will fall to $200 kWh, and by 2024-25 to $100 kWh. At this point, the efficiency of a gasoline car would be irrelevant, as EVs would simply be far cheaper. By 2030, he predicts, "gasoline cars will be the 21st century equivalent of horse carriages."
It took only 13 years for societies to transition from complete reliance on horse-drawn carriages to roads teeming with primitive automobiles, Seba told his audience.
Lest one imagine Seba is dreaming, in its new quarterly report, the leading global investment firm Baron Funds concurs: "We believe that BMW will likely phase out internal combustion engines within 10 years." (Investors at rival bank Morgan Stanley are making a similar bet, and are financing Tesla.)
Two days after his JP Morgan lecture, Seba was addressing the 2014 Global Leaders' Forum in south Korea, sponsored by Korean |
appears to have violated the Hatch Act by using his commission role to solicit campaign contributions for his gubernatorial run.
The commission has yet to hold its first public meeting, and it is already beset by challenges and rebukes from all sides — which makes it a perfect encapsulation of this beleaguered administration.The algorithm is your new boss and the factory is everywhere
THE dystopian prospect of being enslaved to artificial intelligence has arrived. Sort of. The sensational fantasies of machine domination have been replaced with a banal reality: The AI isn’t a murderer, it’s an insecure boss who needs constant reassurance that its jokes are funny.
In August of last year, Facebook announced the launch of a new service called M, “a personal digital assistant […] that completes tasks and finds information on your behalf.” However, unlike similar offerings from Apple and Google, which are fully automated, M relies on both machine-generated answers and human labor to respond to queries. M is “powered by artificial intelligence that’s trained and supervised by people”(Dave Marcus, VP of Messaging Products). This practically means that every auto-generated response M makes to users is then vetted (and potentially adjusted) by a human employee. A Wired article on M explains the workflow: “…the AI can do most of the work for simpler tasks, like telling a joke. It’ll query an Internet joke API–a service that supplies jokes–and a trainer will approve the joke if it’s funny.”
As employees vet and tweak M’s responses, they are also providing valuable data that shapes Facebook’s automated system, training it to offer better answers in the future. These customer-service workers therefore have two bosses: Facebook M users and Facebook M itself. To users of the system, Facebook’s workers provide a low-cost personal concierge service, filling in the gaps that the machine can’t handle. But more importantly, they act as personal tutors for Facebook M itself. Every time Facebook employees approve or adjust the system’s automated responses, they improve not just the particular response but the system as a whole, giving Facebook a potential edge against competing services, and expanding the dataset that will inevitably, and ironically, render their own jobs obsolete. The more they work, the more precarious their position becomes and the better they set the stage for their own liquidation. M’s approach to automation, where humans work for algorithms, makes explicit the exploitative dynamic that exists in all machine learning systems.
Machine learning is an umbrella term that encompasses a set of techniques for getting computers to do things without having to explicitly give them instructions. Unlike typical computer programs that perform a specific set of operations in the same way unless a programmer adjusts the code, machine learning programs generate their own rules for operating and have the capacity to improve themselves over time.
Until recently, storing and processing data at the scale required for large-scale machine learning, was impossible. Because they create highly specific models of reality determined by the data they are fed, machine learning systems require massive datasets to both initialize the system, and then (often) to evolve it. The algorithm recommends a movie, tells a joke, drives a car, captions a photo–and both the success and failure become data then used to change the algorithm one way or another.
For tech giants like Facebook and Google, machine learning forms a core part of their business model. For example, Facebook uses machine learning to continually adjust what you see in your news feed by using your past activity to make a prediction about what you’re interested in. It adjusts itself based on how you respond to the content it feeds you–did you “like” it? Did you click the link? Google uses machine learning to determine search results, optimize advertising and so on. However, as a system for making money, machine learning is distinct from more traditional methods, both virtual and physical. Its reliance on exploiting human-generated data that we wittingly or unwittingly give away fundamentally alters both what it means to work, and what it means to be an employee. As such, machine learning systems can be understood as a means of production: they act as factories producing economic value on behalf of the companies that control them. They also exploit us while doing so.
In certain scenarios, this relationship is direct and undeniable, while in others, it is less clear-cut. Uber, for example, is currently in the very early stages of moving from human drivers to automated drivers, and has deployed a small fleet of autonomous vehicles in Pittsburgh. The machine learning system powering these cars was undoubtedly produced from data generated by Uber’s current human drivers. Every time a driver completes a trip, they provide valuable data via their smartphones that Uber then leverages as a training set for future automated replacements. However, exploitation does not always take the form of humans literally teaching computers to replace them.
Whenever we interact with software/websites/businesses built using machine learning systems, we provide data that trains and/or improves those systems. The frequently quoted line that “if you are not paying for it, you’re not the customer–you’re the product being sold” should be amended: you’re no longer just the product, you’re also the unpaid laborer. If we understand work as any human activity that generates wealth, and our interactions with machine learning systems as incremental contributions to the means by which companies make money, then we are in effect laboring without compensation nearly every time we use the Internet. Machine learning systems are factories of production, and we are always working on improving the factory.
The goal of AI systems is to produce outputs that outperform human counterparts. The recent advances in machine learning techniques such as the “deep learning” that powers Google’s AlphaGo robot, have led to systems able to accomplish human-like tasks that were once theorized to be virtually impossible in computer science. Both the breathless enthusiasm and paranoid speculation surrounding these advancements center around the idea that machine capacity will exponentially overtake human capacity. This event, typically called “the singularity,” is seen as either apocalyptic or as liberating by those who believe it is inevitable.
However, it doesn’t really matter if a machines-take-over-the-world event actually occurs. Both the predicted apocalyptic and liberatory outcomes have already come to pass. When we understand machine learning and AI to be means of production, it becomes evident that automated systems have already produced both realities: one for those who control and benefit from the means of production, and one for those who labor on the means of production and are excluded from its benefits.
Nearly anything we do that is somehow trackable or legible as data can be understood as uncompensated labor that trains, or could potentially train, a machine. Even if particular clicks, likes, or page views have not yet been plugged into algorithm optimization, the data we collectively generate can be deployed at any time as a training set for proprietary systems that we have no collective control over. And, even when workers are paid for data that trains machines–as was likely the case in systems like Siri, and is a frequently occurring request on digital labor marketplaces like Amazon’s Mechanical Turk–their employment ends the moment enough data has been collected to complete the training. The resulting autonomous system, however, can continue to generate wealth indefinitely.
In all of this, the issue at hand is not the technology itself but who controls and benefits from it. In the paradigm of machine learning, data itself is labor, and the displacement of humans by automated systems, an inevitable consequence. Regardless of whether we train machines willingly or unwillingly, with or without compensation, the eventual outcome is always a money-making machine–and the relationship between the owners of that machine and the laborers who built it is always one of severe exploitation, since the laborers have not only built a product, they have also built a product-building automaton.
There is nothing fundamentally wrong with automatons taking over human labor. In fact, it is a desirable outcome if the automations are collectively owned or controlled by the labor force they replace. The tragedy of automation and AI taking over, the fear of the “singularity,” is actually just the realization of a fundamental characteristic of capitalism: those who don’t control the means of production will always be excluded from the benefits of their labor.Perhaps the most famous of all literary recluses, despite herself, Emily Dickinson left a posthumously discovered cache of poetry that did not receive a proper scholarly treatment until the publication of The Poems of Emily Dickinson by Thomas H. Johnson in 1955, which made available Dickinson’s complete body of 1,775 poems in their intended state of punctuation and capitalization. For the first time, readers outside the small Dickinson family circle could read the work she circulated privately in so-called "fascicles" as well as the hundreds of poems no one had seen during her lifetime. There is some question over whether Dickinson wished to publish for a wider audience. She shared her work only with family and friends, some of whom published ten of her poems in newspapers between 1850 and 1866, most likely without her knowledge or consent. Many urged Dickinson to publish. Author Helen Hunt Jackson wrote to her: “You are a great poet—and it is a wrong to the day you live in, that you will not sing aloud.” Nevertheless, Dickinson “hesitated,” an important word in her lexicon, expressive of her profound agnostic doubts about the value of fame, success, and immortality.
Possibly due to the lack of scholarly interest before Johnson’s collection, Dickinson’s trove of manuscript drafts has remained scattered across several archives, sending researchers hoofing it to several institutions to view the poet’s handiwork. As of today, that will no longer be necessary with the inauguration of the online Emily Dickinson Archive, “an open-access website for the manuscripts of Emily Dickinson” that brings together thousands of manuscripts held by Harvard, Amherst, the Boston Public Library, the Library of Congress, and four other collections. Though nothing can substitute for the almost mystical feeling of being in the physical presence of a favorite author’s artifacts, the site is an enormous boon to scholars and lay readers alike, since it is open to anyone, unlike most special collections in university libraries (although browsing the thousands of handwritten images can be exhausting unless one knows what to look for).
As The New York Times describes it, the archives’ creation led to some dissention among participating institutions. For the past year, Amherst has maintained an online database of their Dickinson collection (including the manuscript of “The way Hope builds his house,” above). Harvard has been more reluctant to make its manuscripts available. Nevertheless, the project’s general editor, Leslie M. Morris, says that the aim of the archive “was to downplay the issue of ownership and focus on Emily Dickinson and her manuscripts.” No behind the scenes wrangling seems to have interfered with the website’s ease of use. Readers can search the text of manuscript images or browse images by library collection, first line, date, recipient (of letters), or edition. The site also includes a “Lexicon,” with definitions of the poet's favorite words from her own dictionary, Webster’s 1844 American Dictionary of the English Language, and users can also search for poems by word. All in all it’s an impressive project made all the more so by its free availability.
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Josh Jones is a writer and musician based in Durham, NC. Follow him at @jdmagnessThe expected implementation of last year’s nuclear agreement will see Iran transformed as it reconnects to the global economy. In the capital, businesses hit by years of sanctions are cautiously optimistic
Tehran’s historic district of Tajrish, a former village on the foothills of the Alborz mountain, is now one of the capital’s busiest and vibrant neighbourhoods, home to luxury shopping centres selling Mont Blanc pens and Versace clothes, albeit from unofficial boutiques.
The Iranian capital, and particularly this area, does not have the look of a city functioning under one of the world’s most stringent sanction regimes: businesses are running as usual and trade bans have not stopped imports of products from companies such as Apple, Bosch or LG.
But beneath its skin, Tehran’s soul has been badly damaged by a decade of internal political struggles and severe financial restrictions.
EU and US poised to lift Iranian sanctions this weekend Read more
This weekend, things are set to change, as Iran finds itself on the brink of an extraordinary transformation. The Iranian foreign minister and his European and American counterparts are expected to convene in Vienna to announce “implementation day” – when the International Atomic Energy Agency verifies that Tehran has met all its commitments under last summer’s nuclear accord, triggering the removal of all nuclear-related sanctions and reconnecting Iran to the global economy.
The ramifications at home and abroad will be profound – “the return of the biggest economy to the global system since the break-up of the USSR”, as a Morgan Stanley put it in a report. Iran is the second-largest economy in the Middle East after Saudi Arabia, with a GDP of $400bn. It has the world’s largest reserve of natural gas and the fourth largest resources of oil. About 70% of the 80m population are under 35 and half of the population have smartphones and are members of at least one social network.
The mood in Tehran is upbeat, but many remain cautious, aware that the situation is not going to improve overnight. “We are currently in stagnation,” said the owner of a small underwear boutique at Ghaem shopping centre close to Tajrish Square. “People are out of money and desperate to see how things are going to change.”
In the Andisheh shopping centre in eastern Tehran, Hassan, who sells foreign-made clothes, is optimistic: “What is important is that the lifting of sanctions will have a huge psychological impact on peoples’ minds. Many are in limbo. They simply don’t know what to do with their money. But after sanctions, people are likely to take out their assets from banks and invest and bring about much-needed growth.”
What kind of legacy does Iran's supreme leader want? Read more
Hamzeh, who runs an IT shop on Karimkhan Avenue in the heart of the city, says sanctions hampered the flow of computer equipment and led to the closure of many businesses. “We are hopeful and we think that after the removal of sanctions the situation will change,” he says. “It will get easier for us to import the latest hardware and bring down some of the costs we endured because of the intermediaries.”
Saiid Abdollahi sells backpacks and suitcases on Manouchehri street.“We would be able to represent foreign brands and bring better quality goods with real warranties, which will attract more customers,” he says. “People are reluctant to buy at the moment. Even if they have money in their pockets, they want to wait and see, but we are hopeful that the lifting of sanctions will bring back confidence to customers.”
A sales assistant at a men’s beauty shop says a pack of Gillette razors that sold for 170,000 rials (about £3) before the rial nosedived now cost more than 480,000 rials (over £8). “Compared to four years ago, we’re selling one-third of what we used to,” he says. Another shop owner who sells handicrafts is pinning his hope to an influx of foreign tourists. “People in Iran don’t buy our goods, they are not really interested. Foriegn tourists coming here can really boost our sales.”
A computer science student says she hopes to access previously unavailable software. A construction business boss eyes a reinvigorated housing market.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest President Hassan Rouhani at the opening of a section of the South Pars gas field facilities in the southern town of Assaluyeh. Photograph: HO/AFP/Getty Images
Since the nuclear agreement, there have been dozens of multinational companies extending their efforts in Iran, jockeying for pole position, says Sarosh Zaiwalla, sanctions lawyer representing a number of Iranian clients including Bank Mellat (Iran’s largest private bank) and Bank Tejarat.
“Iran’s reengagement with international markets has been supported by new legislation designed to attract more foreign investment into the country, removing previous restrictions on the percentage of foreign shareholding in Iran and even opening up the possibility of registering an Iranian company with 100% foreign capital,” he says. “This is a particularly important development for the energy sector, in which Iran is hoping to attract $30bn of foreign investment to help realise its ambitions to increase oil production.”
Bijan Khajehpour, a managing partner at Atieh International, who has been advising companies on entering markets in Iran, says the administration of Hassan Rouhani has already been steering the economy towards growth thanks to good financial advisers. The level of inflation, which was more than 40% when Rouhani took office in 2013, is now believed to be about 15%. That has been achieved despite sanctions.
“The economy of Iran is like a human being who is under a great deal of pressure from various sources, but the lifting of sanctions will give it a momentum,” he says. “Not all the pressures are going to be removed but the economy will have time to take a breath. So the first impact will be psychological, such as in the housing market which is very important in Iran. But people are now in the wait and see mode.”
Many businesses, along with ordinary people, are closely monitoring the fluctuation of the rial, which they think is indicative of how the economy is doing. Some are hopeful the removal of sanctions will lead to cheaper dollars to buy but Khajehpour says they are likely to be disappointed in the short term because the government’s priority is to stimulate exports.
“Non-oil exports play a major role in Iran’s economy now and exporters are not interested in cheaper dollars. Iranian products will be cheaper when the dollar is stronger,” he says. Only 15% of Iran’s GDP is dependent on oil, making its economy relatively diverse compared to some of its neighbours. 50% of the economy is based on services.
In the short term, Iran is going to benefit from $100bn in frozen assets being released, $30bn of which are expected to become available on implementation day. The remainder is already spoken for in investment or other commitments.
“The big unknown is how the wider sanctions scenario will be played out. Iran needs foreign banks and investment to step up energy infrastructure investment,” says Morgan Stanley’s report. “However, foreign companies are mindful that the majority of the US sanctions will not be removed. There is also considerable uncertainty about the kind of scenarios that could trigger ‘snap back’ of the removed/suspended nuclear sanctions.
“Such uncertainties and the complexities of navigating the sanctions that remain in place may impede foreign direct investment and slow the pace of economic reintegration and growth.”
Hossein Rassam, an Iranian analyst and former Iran adviser to the UK foreign office, predicts an immediate, positive impact on the Iranian economy.
“But sanctions and mismanagement took their toll, and the scale of the long-awaited economic catharsis won’t be grand,” he says. “Nevertheless, the Rouhani administration will get an opportunity to help lead the Iranian economy out of recession, inject fresh blood and also fix structural faults that are more responsible for its economic paralysis than just sanctions.”
A Tehran-based journalist contributed to this report."From the very beginning, I have supported a strong and meaningful public option that would lower costs for consumers and hold health insurance companies accountable. That is why I introduced the Consumers Health Care Act (S. 1278), which would have saved consumers at least $50 billion over ten years. I also supported the House's public option approach, which would have saved consumers more than $100 billion over ten years.
"I fought for a meaningful public option, both in the Senate Finance Committee and on the Senate floor. My version didn't pass out of committee and other versions were watered down. Unfortunately, there simply has not been enough support to date to pass a strong public option, despite these efforts.
"I will continue to support viable options for enacting a robust public plan. Right now, however, there is no value for the American people in diminishing a meaningful public option so substantially that it exists in name only -- and that is why we must focus our attention on the many great private health insurance reform ideas on the table today.
"We need to continue the forward momentum on health care reform, and find ways to hold health insurance companies accountable and to lower costs for consumers. This is why I am fighting for other effective ways to achieve these health insurance reform goals, including a minimum medical loss ratio (MLR) requirement and the creation of a federal authority to review premium increases -- both are included in the President's proposal along with a number of other critical health insurance reforms.
"I do not oppose reconciliation, and have long made the case for exploring all avenues available to pass health reform."Catherine Bearder | Photo credit: European Parliament audiovisual
Think of Africa, and you think of elephants. But sadly, these magnificent and glorious animals are under serious threat from poaching. It is estimated that there is an elephant killed every 15 minutes by poachers who are part of a chain of criminal activity that makes immense profits from selling ivory tusks into the global market.
This illegal ivory is distributed all around the world, with routes mirroring those of drugs, guns and human trafficking. It is shocking to find that more raw and carved ivory is traded to the world through the EU than anywhere else. It is this ivory that has been meeting a seemingly insatiable appetite for elephant tusks in China and east Asia.
There is progress, but it is too slow. China announced a ban on ivory imports earlier this year and has been closing ivory processing factories all over the country. Pressure is now growing on the EU to act.
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The EU action plan against wildlife trafficking and my parliamentary report in 2016 represents good progress in terms of making environmental crime a high security priority by delivering extra funding for Europol to tackle waste and wildlife crimes. Yet the fact remains that ivory is still traded legally through the EU (even though a raw ivory export ban was introduced in July) and that feeds the demands in the east.
Therefore, it’s good news that the Commission has now come forward with an ivory consultation, which runs until 8 December. This consultation is an important way for citizens, businesses and NGOs to tell decision makers what they think about the ivory trade.
I have been working with my MEPs4Wildlife group and a coalition of NGOs to promote this consultation to the public and help them fill out the questionnaire (which is a bit technical in places).
I am now asking all MEPs to send the consultation to their constituents so citizens can have their say. There will undoubtedly be concerns about banning all ivory, especially antique ivory, which some people feel very attached to, but this cannot be beyond the wit of policymakers to address.
This consultation will allow people with these concerns to come forward, giving us a balanced view before further action.
There are already international treaties in place to protect all endangered and threatened species, including elephants. CITES (the convention on international trade of endangered species) is an international agreement that was set up to protect animals and plants and to ensure that trade does not threaten their existence. It clarifies what species and derivatives thereof are prohibited from being traded in the international market.
Under the CITES agreement there is an international ban on the trade in ivory. However, it allows for the trade in ivory that predates the CITES 1989 agreement. This can be sold domestically and internationally.
However, the legal trade in historical ivory is fuelling a trade in illegal ivory. It is almost impossible to differentiate between legal historical ivory and illegal ivory. Traders are using a variety of methods to disguise ivory, for example staining newer ivory with tea to make it appear older. Current EU regulations are insufficient to protect against the illegal ivory trade.
There are currently no permits or certification required for antique ivory in the EU; where documents are required they can be easily forged. This helps to maintain an illegal trade that is difficult to detect.
National bans are welcome, but we really need action across all 28 member states together to stop the current purge on elephants. Many EU member states still permit the trade in legal pre-CITES ivory, while others are beginning to take notice.
France, for example, introduced a total ban on the ivory trade last year, while in the UK, there are moves to implement a near-total ban on ivory that would introduce tighter controls and prohibit the sale of pre-1947 antique ivory.
Currently the main market for ivory trade are in China and Hong Kong. Due to continued pressure, China will cease to permit the domestic trade in ivory by the end of the year. With nations like China taking action, it is imperative the EU does not lose credibility by failing to implement tighter controls and regulations while instructing other governments to do so.
Elephants need our help. As the supply of ivory reduces - as it surely must - there will be an increasing demand and value. There has been an increase in ivory seized at EU borders; this alarming trend is leading to a rapid decline in vulnerable African and Asian elephants, which may eventually lead to the extinction of these species.
Not only is the ivory trade damaging to elephant populations, it is also detrimental to communities and economies in developing areas. It funds organised crime including terrorism, it risks the lives of the rangers who protect the animals against poachers, and it is destructive to the rest of the biodiversity in elephant habitats.
Elephants are the gardeners of the forest, they are the architects of the savannas and are critical for the long-term health of their habitats. We must all act now to stop the slaughter.Matthew Handrahan Editor-in-Chief Friday 12th July 2013 Share this article Share
Companies in this article EA Phenomic
Electronic Arts has closed EA Phenomic, the 60-person strategy developer behind Spellforce and Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances.
The situation at Phenomic was brought to the attention of GamesIndustry International by a number of sources with knowledge of the studio and its employees. EA would not comment on the specifics of Phenomic's position, but offered the following statement regarding the ongoing internal restructuring in the company as a whole:
"As part of EA's realignment in recent weeks, we have announced internally a small adjustment to some development staff to better focus our teams against priority growth areas. The decision to let people go is not something we take lightly and we are working to ensure that impacted employees are treated fairly and with respect for their contributions to EA, and with assistance to find other job opportunities.
"These are hard but essential changes as we focus on delivering great games and showing players around the world why to spend their time with us"
The EA representative also told us that the company has no plans to move away from free-to-play or strategy games.
EA Phenomic is based in Ingelheim am Rhein, near to Frankfurt, Germany. At its peak, the studio employed 60 people.
The company was established as "Phenomic Game Development" in 1997 by Volker Wertich, who had been instrumental in the development The Settlers while at Blue Byte Software. Phenomic then established the Spellforce franchise, before being acquired by Electronic Arts in August, 2006, and renamed "EA Phenomic".
The studio worked primarily on real-time strategy games, including BattleForge in 2009, Lord of Ultima in 2010, and Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances last year. The latter was a free-to-play browser version of the classic series that entertained 1 million players in its first two months.Two unbeaten teams plus two future Hall of Fame quarterbacks plus one well-respected owner equals a pretty penny to be inside Sports Authority Field on Sunday night.
Broncos tickets already are among the toughest to get in the NFL. Prices on the secondary market for Denver’s sold-out game against Green Bay are in the $400 to $700 range for the upper deck and more than $3,300 for the lower level.
The storied Packers are in town for a nationally televised matchup featuring two 6-0 teams with two marquee quarterbacks — Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers, who have faced each other just once.
Broncos owner Pat Bowlen’s induction into the team’s Ring of Fame as part of the night’s festivities is fueling interest locally, and pursuit of tickets by out-of-town Packers fans, known to be among the league’s most rabid travelers, has resale prices reaching a plateau previously unseen for a Broncos regular-season home game.
Oh, yeah, and players from the 1997 Broncos team that won the organization’s first Super Bowl (beating the Packers) will be on hand.
“I think it’s a combination of everything,” said former place-kicker David Tread well, who is a past president of the Broncos Alumni Association. “Broncos fans are still very loyal to the ’97 Super Bowl team. … Mr. B is going into the Ring of Fame. It all adds up to a pricey ticket. I think it’s great.”
Treadwell, who was with the club from 1989 to 1992, said “it’s going to be a fairly good showing” of past Broncos.
Wednesday, asking prices for some lower-level tickets were $3,300 per seat on Ticketmaster, the NFL’s ticket exchange site, although most were priced between $1,000 and $2,000. Tickets upstairs in the rarefied air of the fifth level were starting at $360 and topping off at $800.
Face-value lower-bowl tickets for this season are priced at $180, and upper end-zone seats have a face-value price of $50.
During the 2014 season, resale of those seats on the secondary market was running from $128 to $379, according to the Broncos and the NFL Ticket Exchange.
“It’s a very high-end game, no doubt,” said Gary Adler, executive director and general counsel of the National Association of Ticket Brokers.
The prices for secondary-market tickets for Sunday’s game are way above those for some typical regular-season games and are more in line with resale playoff prices. They are not, however, on the level of a secondary Super Bowl ticket.
“I would not compare it to a Super Bowl because the face value is so different,” Adler said. “It’s like comparing apples and oranges.”
Face-value tickets for a Super Bowl run between $800 on the lower end and up to $1,900 for prime seats. The secondary market takes off from there.
Still, the leap in the value of Sunday night’s game from face to secondary is impressive, Adler said.
Fans looking to score tickets to the game at Sports Authority Field should be cautious. Big games and big prices attract scammers, criminals who are looking to make money selling bogus tickets and burning fans.
Adler said National Association of Ticket Brokers members offer consumer protections in the secondary ticket market. The Broncos issued a statement this week warning fans to be wary of counterfeit tickets that can make their way through secondary markets.
“We want fans to be fully aware of the risks involved with buying tickets in the secondary market while remaining assured that tickets purchased through the ticket office, Ticketmaster or NFL Ticket Exchange are 100 percent authentic,” Broncos senior vice president of business development Mac Freeman said.
While tickets purchased online can demand a price exceeding face value, it’s illegal to sell tickets above face value in Denver city limits, which includes outside the stadium.
“Officers will be conducting plainclothes patrols around Sports Authority Field working to identify people attempting to illegally sell game tickets above the face-value price,” said Doug Schepman, a Denver Police Department spokesman. “The focus and resources dedicated to this Sunday’s operation are consistent with the approach for every home game.”
Kieran Nicholson: 303-954-1822, knicholson@denverpost.com or @kierannicholsonPolice department says suspect opened fire after being ordered to stop but other accounts say he only had a sandwich
A St Louis city police officer shot and killed a young male suspect on Wednesday, authorities said, bringing new tension as protests continue over the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black teenager in August.
The officer had attempted to stop the fleeing suspect, the St Louis Metropolitan Police Department said on Twitter. During the chase on foot the suspect turned and fired at the officer, who returned fire and fatally wounded him, the force said.
St. Louis, MO Police (@SLMPD) The officer was not injured. A gun was recovered from the scene. The investigation is ongoing.
The officer was not hurt and a gun was recovered from the scene, police said.
The St Louis metropolitan police chief, Sam Dotson, said the officer was on patrol for a private security company late Wednesday when he engaged three men in a chase.
Dotson said the men ran away when they spotted the officer, who believed one of them was carrying a gun because of the way he was running. The officer chased the man, an altercation ensued and the man fired at the officer, the police chief said. The officer returned fire and killed the man,
According to Dotson, ballistics evidence recovered from the scene suggested the teenager fired three shots. The officer returned fire with 17 rounds. Dotson was unable to say why the officer fired so may shots.
In a later statement, police said Myers’s 9mm handgun was recovered from the scene and had been reported stolen on 26 September, rebutting claims from relatives who said Myers was only holding a sandwich.
Police spokeswoman Leah Freeman told CNN said the officer had been off-duty and working an approved second job when he attempted to stop Myers for a “pedestrian check”. He had been wearing his police uniform.
The Post-Dispatch reported that dozens of protesters assembled at the scene afterwards in south St Louis, within miles of the city of Ferguson, which has been racked by near-nightly protests following the fatal 9 August shooting of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson.
Reuters contributed to this reportFor all intents and purposes, Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 was doomed from the start. Working under the assumption that Apple’s iPhone 7 was going to be a boring upgrade, Samsung reportedly rushed development of the Note 7 in an ill-fated effort to steal some of Apple’s thunder.
In reality, Samsung shipped a device to market that was not just faulty, but flat-out dangerous. Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen an inordinate number of reports involving Galaxy Note 7 devices catching fire and exploding. In the process, we’ve seen Note 7 devices utterly destroy cars and even burn down a house.
DON’T MISS: Samsung stayed silent after ‘safe’ Galaxy Note 7 exploded and sent a man to the ER
Samsung tried to alleviate the problem by issuing a worldwide recall and handing out replacement units. But with a growing number of reports involving replacement Note 7 units exploding, not to mention Samsung caught trying to cover up such stories, the Korean based company was ultimately forced to halt Galaxy Note 7 production completely.
According to a new report from Yonhap News, Samsung has temporarily halted production of the Galaxy Note 7. News of the production halt was also corroborated by The Wall Street Journal.
The halt is in cooperation with consumer safety regulators from South Korea, the United States and China, the official said on the condition of anonymity. “This measure includes a Samsung plant in Vietnam that is responsible for global shipments (of the Galaxy Note 7),” the official said.
Samsung hasn’t issued an official comment on the matter but we’ll update this post once one becomes available. Earlier today, however, Samsung did say that it’s working “working diligently with authorities and third party experts” to figure out why its replacement Note 7 units are still prone to catching fire and exploding.
“Even though there are a limited number of reports, we want to reassure customers that we are taking every report seriously,” Samsung said in a statement provided to The Verge. “If we determine a product safety issue exists, Samsung will take immediate steps approved by the CPSC to resolve the situation.”Reports concerning a tweet from Blizzard community manager Micah Whiple suggest that the studio has officially confirmed that Diablo III will be coming to consoles. However, according to Blizzard, that’s not the case.
“Yup. Josh Mosqueira is lead designer for the Diablo console project,” said Whiple via Twitter in response to user TaNGoilX’s direct request for confirmation of a console port for Diablo III.
Word of Diablo III's possible arrival on consoles should come as little surprise to fans who have been following the game's development, or even those who remember the original Diablo was once a PSOne game itself. Since as far back as August 2011, the studio has been talking seriously about the possibility, with Mosqueira himself telling Gamescom 2011 press that Blizzard was “very, very serious about bringing the Diablo III experience to the console...[we're] looking for programmers, designers, artists who think their dream job would be to bring Diablo to the console.”
One month later, game director Jay Wilson revealed the team was tinkering with a “360-like” controller and that, “One of the reasons why we’re exploring the idea of a console version of Diablo 3 because we feel that the controls and the style of the game lend itself to a console.”
Combined with Blizzard's console-related job postings and a slew of sound bites over the past few months, it’s no surprise that many fans took today’s tweet as confirmation that a console version of Diablo III is now official.
However, when asked for an official comment, a Blizzard spokesperson clarified that Bashiok’s tweet was only “intended as a confirmation that [Blizzard] is actively exploring the possibility of developing a console version of Diablo III,” adding, “This is not a confirmation that Diablo III is coming to any console platform. Our focus right now is on finishing the PC/Mac version of Diablo III and making sure it’s a worthwhile successor to the series.”Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Tuesday, February 5th, 2008
Willie Nelson’s explosive take on 9/11, that the collapse of the twin towers and Building 7 looked like Las Vegas-style implosions, has largely been ignored by the medis thus far, though it briefly appeared on the front page of the Drudge Report before quickly being canned.
About an hour after we released the story, members of our forum alerted us to the fact that our headline had been posted on the front page of the Drudge Report, which ranks as one of the biggest news websites in America and competes for traffic with the New York Times and the Washington Post.
Though it was not linked to our website, the headline "Willie Nelson: Twin Towers Were Imploded On 9/11… Developing…" appeared on the left hand side of the Drudge Report late yesterday afternoon.
However, within about 20 minutes or so the headline was pulled from the front page.
A similar thing happened when Charlie Sheen went public with his 9/11 doubts in March 2006 – the story briefly appeared on Drudge before being removed.
To hazard a guess at what happened, we believe that one of Drudge’s assistants posted the headline before swiftly being overruled by Matt Drudge himself, resulting in the headline being memory holed.
The headline as it appeared on Drudge before it was pulled can still be viewed at the Drudge Report Archives website, which takes a screenshot of Drudge’s front page every two minutes |
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• Buy used wine and spirit barrels – We have space in the brewery ready to stack barrels.
• Build a tasting room – We will turn a corner of the warehouse into a place you can relax when you visit the brewery.
• Buy Kegs – We need kegs to fill growlers at the brewery and to serve beer at local bars.
• Buy Barrel racks – These things are expensive!
Rewards -
Check out all the different reward bundles we've put together. We have bundles for locals who can pick up their rewards from the brewery. As well as bundles for supporters that need to have rewards shipped. We're excited to work with local business' to create a list of rewards that we think are pretty awesome.
Two Stickers - One sticker with our throwback logo and one sticker with our new logo.
Bottle Opener - Essential key chain opener
Koozie - Keep your cans cold
Coasters - Hand printed coasters by New Duds
Glassware - Local Pint Pack and 'Ancient Viking' Goblet rewards
Hat - Your new favorite hat
Snowflake Beanie - Be ready for winter adventures with our branded knit beanie. This digital mock up doesn't do justice to what the final hat will look and feel like. This will be a high quality American made, knit hat.
Shirt - A sweet shirt printed by our friends at New Duds. Men's and Women's Cuts available. Which one of the bundles with a shirt works for you?
Screw Top 64 oz Growler - Fill, drink, rinse, repeat
Screw Top 32 oz Growlette - Perfect size if you love variety
Flip Top 2 L Growler - Keeps beer fresh, makes you happy
Flip Top 32 oz Growlette - Holds two happy pints of beer
Hoodie - Stay warm when drinking outside
Local Essential Pack - At $50 this bundle is the perfect pledge for anyone who's able to pick up their rewards at the brewery. You'll receive two stickers, two pint glasses, a shirt printed by our friends at New Duds, and a 2L flip-top growler. Everything you need to sit by the campfire and relax.
Assistant Brewer Pack - Brew a batch of beer with our brewing team on our direct fire, 15 bbl brewhouse for only $195. Come in to our brewery and wrap your hands around the mash paddle, throw in the hops, and get the professional brewing experience. You'll be helping with all aspects of brewing for the day. We'll even buy you lunch.
Local Business Pledge - As a community supported brewery we have a $250 pledge level where other local business' can show support of our brewing endeavor to create beers with local ingredients. In return we will prominently display all the names of the businesses’ in the tasting room on the wall so all visiting customers will see what local businesses’ helped the brewery buy barrels and kegs.
Home Brewer Pack - Work with the brewing team at Burlington Beer Co. to develop one of your recipes for our pilot brewing system. For only $295 we will scale any (within reason) of your home-brew recipes up to our pilot batch size of half a barrel. Let's make some beer together! This is your chance to to have your beer featured in our tasting room. You'll also receive information about recipe development from our head brewers recipe development class.
Brewer's Apprenticeship Pack - A one of a kind learning experience; come to the brewery for a five day apprenticeship. If you are a home brewer who wants to go pro or just want to learn more about the applicable science and engineering behind quality and consistency in brewing operations this is the reward for you! This $500, week long course will come with instructional materials and feature a brewing related test at the end of the week.
Our head brewer completed the American Brewer's Guild Brewing Science and Engineering in 2007. Founder and head brewer Joe Lemnah has instructed yearly home brewing classes about extract brewing, all grain brewing, and recipe development classes for three years. This year our head brewer began teaching Brewing Science for the Advanced Home Brewer class at the American Brewer's Guild and a Garden to Glass class at Gardner's Supply Company in Burlington.
Pop Up Restaurant - A truly unforgettable dinner by The Common Man Restaurant for you and seven of your favorite people at the brewery, surrounded by tanks and barrels of beer. The Common Man Restaurant is located in Warren, Vermont, in the heart of Mad River Valley, between Lincoln Peak and Mount Ellen. Sited in a 19th century barn, the dining room is elegant in its simplicity. With hand-hewn beams framing an open hearth fireplace, the 100-seat restaurant is inviting and intimate. Since winning Seven Day's Best New Chef in 2012, Lorien and Adam have continued to bring skills and techniques from New York City restaurants to Vermont.
Thank you for your support!Mr. Rangel, in a news conference Thursday night, disputed the findings. “Common sense dictates that members of Congress should not be held responsible for what could be the wrongdoing or mistakes or errors of staff unless there is reason to believe the members knew or should have known,” he said.
He also said the ethics committee bore some responsibility because it had approved the trips in advance. But the committee said that it had been given misleading information by officers of the foundation, and that it had referred their actions to the Justice Department. A message left Thursday night at the foundation’s affiliated newspaper, The New York Carib News, was not answered.
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None of the other members of Congress on the trips were admonished because they did not know of the sponsorships, the committee said. But all were ordered to repay the cost of the trips, about $11,800 in total.
The others were Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, who is chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee; Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick of Michigan; Donald M. Payne of New Jersey; and Delegate Donna Christensen of the Virgin Islands. All five are Democrats.
While Mr. Rangel characterized the report as mildly critical, it brought a quick response from Republicans, who have repeatedly called for Mr. Rangel to step down as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, which writes tax policy.
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“In this time of great economic uncertainty, struggling middle-class Americans deserve better than to have a tax cheat chairing a powerful Congressional committee that directly impacts the financial livelihoods of millions of hard-working people,” said Ken Spain, the communications director of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
An outside watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said it did not understand how Mr. Rangel could be rebuked while the other lawmakers were not.
“Each and every member of Congress present was equally as culpable as Representative Rangel, and all should be held to the same standard,” said Melanie Sloan, director of the group.
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The ethics inquiry about Mr. Rangel began in September 2008, after reports that included assertions that he was renting four rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem at a price well below market value, despite rules forbidding House members from accepting gifts worth more than $50.
The inquiry — which also included an investigation into whether he improperly used his office to provide legislative favors for an oil drilling company that pledged a $1 million donation for an academic center named for Mr. Rangel — later expanded after questions were raised about unreported taxable income the congressman received from a villa he owns in the Dominican Republic.
Mr. Rangel did not take questions at the news conference and did not respond to a question about whether he would step down from his committee post. There was no immediate reaction from the House Democratic leadership about the report. But the ethics finding comes at an important moment for Democrats, since they are trying to push ahead with their stalled health care measure and Mr. Rangel’s committee would play a central role in the final process.This report was produced by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) in cooperation with RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service. OCCRP project coordinator Paul Cristian Radu contributed from Bucharest, and RFE/RL correspondent Robert Coalson contributed from Prague
BAKU -- Novruz Allahverdiyev, 40, lives in a mud house in the village of Chovdar, a small mining town in the mountainous region near the border with Armenia. He is one of 800,000 internally displaced persons from the war with Armenia that battered his native Nagorno-Karabakh region in the early 1990s.Allahverdiyev and members of 60 other displaced families found shelter and a place to farm in the mountains around Chovdar. Like many in his predicament, Allahverdiyev is patriotic, and the walls of his poor home are plastered with pages from an aging calendar featuring portraits of President Ilham Aliyev and his late father, former President Heydar Aliyev.Allahverdiyev's family now faces yet another problem. A British mining company has taken over some of his land and has blocked one of the two streams his village relies on for water. Allahverdiyev is sure President Aliyev will help him and his community.But his faith may be misplaced. What Allahverdiyev doesn't know is that the president and his family own a stake in the new mine. The U.K. company is actually a front for the first family.In two 2007 decrees, the state assigned the right to develop the Chovdar gold field and five other sites to a company called Azerbaijan International Mineral Resources Operating Company, Ltd. (AIMROC). AIMROC -- which controls a 70 percent stake in the mines, while the Azerbaijan government controls 30 percent -- has been building the infrastructure for the Chovdar mine and is expected to begin production this year.But sorting out AIMROC's structure is a daunting task. While Chovdar locals blame the "ingilis" (English) for their woes, the truth is quite different. AIMROC is a joint venture of four companies: Londex Resources, S.A, Willy and Meyris S.A., Fargate Mining Corporation, and Globex International LLP. All four are shell companies that, according to Azerbaijani officials, were set up specifically for this deal. It is unclear if any of them have any mining experience or other mining projects.A fifth company -- Mitsui Mineral Development Engineering Co Ltd (MINDECO), a mining-engineering company owned by Japan's Mitsui Mining and Smelting Company -- is listed as the official project supervisor, but has no ownership.Of the four AIMROC owners, the only U.K.-based company is Globex International, which has an 11 percent stake, worth about $200 million. But Globex is actually owned by three companies registered in Panama: Hising Management SA, Lynden Management Group, Inc., and Arblos Management Corporation. According to Panamanian registration records, all three firms list President Aliyev's two daughters -- Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva -- and Swiss businessman Olivier Mestelan as senior managers.Mestelan has long had close ties to the Aliyev family. He has organized artistic events with them and, together with Leyla and Arzu, appears in the records of other Panamanian companies being used as fronts for businesses in Azerbaijan, including the. Mestelan declined to be interviewed for this story.Aliyev's office refused to answer questions about his family's business interests in the gold fields. Presidential spokesman Azer Gasimov did not return phone calls and did not respond to questions submitted in writing.AIMROC has been controversial from its beginning. The consortium was formed by a 2006 presidential decree that identified Globex as part of the consortium. In 2007, AIMROC was awarded 30-year leases on the mineral fields.Chovdar alone is a lucrative parcel. According to the Azerbaijani Environment Ministry, it contains reserves of 44 tons of gold and 164 tons of silver, worth about $2.5 billion at current prices.The contracts were awarded to AIMROC hastily and over the objections expressed by many members of parliament during hearings held in June 2007. Lawmakers complained that the consortium's ownership was opaque; that the contract was awarded in violation of bidding procedures; that none of the companies had any history of mining; and that the deal was contrary to Azerbaijan's national interests.During the hearings, deputy Valeh Aleskerov, chairman of the parliamentary Natural Resources Committee, defended the deal. He said the creation of offshore companies was "a common practice around the world" and that no tender was issued because of the uncertainty about how much mineral wealth there was. Instead, he said, the government held talks directly with potential investors.The Environment Ministry's chief geologist, Agamahmud Samedov, told RFE/RL that the estimates of the other five fields are classified. He also declined to comment on AIMROC's ownership or its lack of mining experience.When asked last month about AIMROC's ownership, Aleskerov said, "Do you think the Azerbaijani government would contract with someone unknown, with just anyone from the street?" When asked if the Aliyev family has any financial interest in the project, Aleskerov said only "Shame on you!" and hung up.Parsing the rest of AIMROC's structure is more difficult. Londex Resources and Fargate Mining are registered in Panama, according to documents obtained from the Panama Registry of Companies.The documents indicate that the companies are interrelated through a complicated chain of company directorships. All three are or were at one time owned by two companies registered at the same address on the tiny Caribbean island of Nevis: Casal Management and Tagiva Management.Casal and Tagiva act or acted as the director for at least 20 companies in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Panama. It is likely that the companies are professional proxies used to hide actual ownership.According to a document of the Tax Registry of Azerbaijan, Willy and Meyris S.A. (listed in some documents as Will & Meyris S.A.) is represented by a Czech geologist, Mirko Vanecek, the executive editor of "The Journal of Geosciences" in Prague.Meanwhile, back in Chovdar, locals are looking forward to a rumored visit by President Aliyev to mark the opening of an ore refinery the consortium has built."We have heard that president will come to the opening ceremony of this factory," villager Paneh Huseynov says. "Please tell our president to come and visit us. Tell him we support his policies. We will not be allowed to approach him. Please, we ask him to come and ask about our living conditions. Then he'll see how we live and how we suffer."Villagers had no idea that the president's family owns part of the mine operator. "How can the president be benefiting from this production?... All of the companies here are foreign. Englishmen are running the business here," says one local who refuses to give his name.Teacher Nureddin Ramazanov lost some land to AIMROC. With a salary of just $130 per month, Ramazanov says his family is starving."The company destroyed our road," he says. "Geologists took our land. They paid us only 2,000 manats [$2,500] per hectare.… Now I don't know how we'll survive."Meanwhile, Karabakh exile Allahverdiyev says he is hoping to get a job at the mine. Locals say mining jobs pay the equivalent of $12 a day. So far, the mining site has hired very few locals.Despite grinding poverty and the problems with the mine, most locals remain firm in their faith in Aliyev, whose omnipresent portrait gazes out over the people of Chovdar from the walls of shops and schools."The president knows nothing about this," says teacher Ramazanov. "Local officials say the president ordered that our land be taken, but I don't believe it. He is a good person."As many (if not all) of you know, Wayward beta 2.0 was launched on Steam last week. We’re actually already up to 2.0.2 with 2.0.3 underway. It’s been a crazy few days for us, but I’ll probably save that for another post.
Today, I just wanted to highlight the fact that Wayward as it existed before 2.0 remains available online for all to play, for free, hence the renaming to Wayward “Free”. We didn’t have the opportunity to showcase this amidst the launch of 2.0, but this free version also got an update, which is why the version number bumped up from 1.9.2 to 1.9.3.
Here’s the 1.9.2 to 1.9.3 changelog:
Fixed a bug that didn’t allow you to see all the hints if using “Previous Hint”.
Fixed a bug where repairing/reinforcing an item would not remove red durability marker.
Fixed all container errors possibly.
Removed all old references/links from hints/help.
Fixed an error displaying when hovering over/using Ectoplasm.
Fixed an issue where Bedrolls were not giving a sleeping bonus if they were in first inventory spot.
Fixed items not reducing in durability if they were in the first inventory spot.
Fixed an error if you tried to preserve on empty tile.
Fixed an issue where the Black Powder message was not used at all.
In comparison, check out the changes from 1.9.2 to 2.0: http://www.waywardgame.com/changelog
This free version will remain free forever, but you probably won’t see any further significant changes to it. Maybe, things here and there as needed. The source code is technically available for tinkerers and modders to play with, or even fix possible future issues.
The Wayward Mods section also will also remain to exist and be updated as needed.So I have decided, in the midst of feeling like addiction has kicked my butt, and that typically in this situation I would spiral to a place of anxiety and depression, that I am really, truly awesome. I know that much change needs to take place in order regain solid ground. What I don’t want to do is beat myself up for the dance I do with addiction. Because that’s exactly what this is, a dance. Back and forth, up and down. No control, great control, total balance, total chaos. The full gamet of possibilities I do with this dance partner of mine. But it is what it is. Whatever direction I am walking in, whether it be the path of inner peace or one of great fury, I have to believe I know how to lead my way. That wherever I am, it is exactly where I am supposed to be. So for right now, I am dancing with addiction and its kicking my butt. But I am deciding I am really, truly awesome. And that I believe in myself each day, no matter the decisions I make. My goal is always to let go, ignite, and evolve. It is my mantra. And for now dancing with addiction is part of this process.
April Aronoff
Photography by April AronoffStory highlights Palestinian newspaper: Dolphin was to be used "for operations to kill Qassam Brigade Naval Commandos"
Marine warfare has been at the heart of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas
(CNN) Hamas believes it has captured Israel's most sophisticated new surveillance technology -- a dolphin spy. That's according to an article in the Palestinian daily al-Quds published Wednesday.
"Israel did not just stop at the bloody attacks against the Gaza Strip," the Arabic-language article reads, "Now it has recruited a watery pet, the dolphin, known for his friendship with humans, to use for operations to kill Qassam Brigade Naval Commandos."
The Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, which controls Gaza, refused to comment on the story to CNN on Thursday.
The article claims Qassam operatives on a training exercise along the beach confiscated camera equipment and spying devices mounted on the back of the dolphin.
"The Israeli security apparatus took advantage of dolphins' love for humans, and how the animals like to play with people on the water, or in the depths of the sea, to reach members of the Qassam's marine unit," the article read.
Read MoreAfter the highs of winning the world championships, the Bellas find themselves split apart and discovering there aren’t job prospects for making music with your mouth. But when they get the chance to reunite for an overseas USO tour, this group of awesome nerds will come together to make some music, and some questionable decisions, one last time. – Universal Pictures
Pitch Perfect 3 was directed by Trish Sie and written by Kay Cannon and Mike White. Who would’ve thought 5 years ago when Pitch Perfect came out it would’ve spawned a trilogy? Probably no one. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love Pitch Perfect because I do it’s a great movie. Pitch Perfect has everything, humor, heart, great characters and a greater soundtrack. Pitch Perfect 2 was unexpected but surprisingly good for a comedy sequel just not as good as the first. Pitch Perfect 3 is something else entirely.
Most of the cast from the past 3 movies is back for Pitch Perfect 3 with the addition of John Lithgow which is just bizarre. But that’s nothing this whole movie is absolutely outrageous. The Bella’s have graduated and are real adults now but they get back together for one more final competition. There’s always a competition. The competition doesn’t make any sense, there’s no music competitions judged by DJ Khaled in front of the US military. Even if that was a real thing the Bella’s don’t belong there at all. That’s fine though, that’s mildly believable. But after an hour has past Pitch Perfect 3 becomes a Taken movie with Fat Amy playing Liam Neeson. For real, there’s a musical number, explosions and Fat Amy doing martial arts. The movie then ends with a big musical performance as expected.
This movie is nuts, I think it’s pretty clear they weren’t going to get another sequel so they just did whatever they wanted. This really isn’t a good movie at all but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t make me laugh because it had me in stitches. It’s hard not to laugh at the absurd plot but there’s some genuinely funny jokes in Pitch Perfect 3. Shockingly this movie is very self aware and has quite a few meta jokes. Remember Jessica and Ashley from the Bella’s? No, that’s okay nobody does but they’ve been in every movie with little development and lines. There’s a few jokes about those two that had me dying.
Pitch Perfect 3 is the equivalent of milking a cow after you’ve already gotten all the milk out. It’s impossible to call this movie a good movie, it’s not terrible but it’s not good. If you liked any of the other movies you’ll probably laugh at the film and enjoy it somewhat but I’d wait till it’s on Netflix or on sale.
The biggest letdown though, is the soundtrack. There wasn’t a single song that stood out and I feel that that’s a crucial part to the movie. One my favorite things about the previous films was listening to the soundtrack afterwards. After seeing Pitch Perfect 3 I had no desire to listen to the soundtrack.
I give Pitch Perfect 3 a 5.5 out of 10, I might watch again.
“My grandmother’s in a band, it’s called never moist.”An illustration of the finished Green Heart. Gustafson Porter It's a "green space" on steroids.
A massive 376,000-square-foot landscaping project known as the Green Heart, in Singapore's Marina One, will include a multi-level public garden, calming waterfalls, reflecting pools, and a dense web of lush trees when it's finished in 2016.
All this, engulfed by four high-rise apartments already surrounding the space.
A bird's-eye view of the Green Heart. Gustafson Porter The brainchild of German studio Ingenhoven Architects and Singapore A61, construction of Marina One began in 2012.
The work has since been handed over to landscape architecture firm Gustafson Porter, which is now converting the space into Singapore's largest green urban sanctuary.
Green Heart's trees, at ground level. Gustafson Porter Pathways and ponds will blend seamlessly into the surrounding business district as a way to complement the existing green spaces of Gardens by the Bay, a 101-hectare park of reclaimed land that sits beside Singapore's Marina Reservoir.
Curving balconies will resemble traditional Asian rice terraces, which are often referred to as the "eighth wonder of the world."
The sloping terraces mimic Asia's iconic rice terraces. Gustafson Porter Scaling the facade of the building are additional plant beds, which culminate in lofty "cloud forests" above.
"The planting is designed to create inspiring and multifunctional urban spaces to be enjoyed by all in Singapore," Gustafson Porter told De Zeen magazine. "There is often a preconception that the climate is too hot and humid to make active use of outdoor space."
Gustafson Porter Vertical farming is becoming a popular technique for turning unused space into vegetation.
In Milan, Italian architect Stefano Boeri built dual towers known as "bosco verticale," or vertical forest.
Bosco verticale, or "vertical forest," in Milan. Mishkabear/Flickr Hundreds of trees and plant varieties cover the face of the two apartment buildings. As water flows through the building, it gets constantly recycled to help the green life flourish.
A similar project is underway in Switzerland, also by Boeri.
With shrinking space on the Earth's surface, designers are realizing the only way to go is up.There’s no doubt that Vietnam was quantified in new ways. McNamara had brought what a historian called “computer-based quantitative business-analysis techniques” that “offered new and ingenious procedures for the collection, manipulation, and analysis of military data.”
In practice, this meant creating vast amounts of data, which had to be sent to computing centers and entered on punch cards. One massive program was the Hamlet Evaluation System, which sought to quantify how the American program of “pacification” was proceeding by surveying 12,000 villages in the Vietnamese countryside. “Every month, the HES produced approximately 90,000 pages of data and reports,” a RAND report found. “This means that over the course of just four of the years in which the system was fully functional, it produced more than 4.3 million pages of information.”
Once a baseline was established, decision makers could see progress. And they wanted to see progress, which created pressure on data gatherers to paint a rosy picture of the portrait on the ground. The slippage between reality and the model of reality based on data became one of the key themes of the war.
“The crucial factors were always the intentions of Hanoi, the will of the Viet Cong, the state of South Vietnamese politics, and the loyalties of the peasants. Not only were we deeply ignorant of these factors, but because they could never be reduced to charts and calculations, no serious effort was made to explore them,” wrote Richard N. Goodwin, a speechwriter for Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. “No expert on Vietnamese culture sat at the conference table. Intoxicated by charts and computers, the Pentagon and war games, we have been publicly relying on and calculating the incalculable.”
All of which the “apocryphal story” condenses into a biting joke.
But was there actually a computer somewhere in the Pentagon that was cranking out “When will we win the war?” calculations?
On October 27, 1967, The Wall Street Journal ran an un-bylined blurb from its Washington, D.C., bureau on the front page talking about a “victory index.”
U.S. strategists seek a “victory index” to measure progress in the Vietnam War. They want a single statistic reflecting enemy infiltration, casualties, recruiting, hamlets pacified, roads cleared. Top U.S. intelligence officials, in a recent secret huddle, couldn’t work out an index; they get orders to keep trying.
Now, a victory index is not quite a computer program you can ask “When will we win the war?” But it’s pretty close! A chart could be plotted. Projections could be made from current progress to future ultimate success. At the very least, we can say that officials tried to build a system that could be the kernel of truth at the center of a certainly embellished story.Mirror yesterday and revealed some bad news for Newcastle United, but some good news for QPR, as he admitted that the Magpies don’t have an option to buy Loic Remy at the end of his season-long loan.
Loic Remy’s Newcastle career hasn’t exactly started well, as the Frenchman is yet to wear the famous black and white shirt in a Premier League encounter.
The 26-year-old has been ruled out of Newcastle’s opening fixtures against Manchester City and West Ham with a niggling calf injury, and he still has to face a trial on suspicion of gang rape next month.
So he may never even play for Newcastle and now Director of Football Joe Kinnear has revealed that, contrary to prior reports, there is no option to buy as part of the deal.
Kinnear firstly said: “I sanctioned the one-year loan deal for Loic Remy, and if it goes pear-shaped I will take responsibility for it,” so it seems like Joe has been acting alone.
He continued: “But if he scores goals and does well for us, Alan will be happy with our end of the deal; the player will be happy because he will come into contention for a World Cup place with France,” which is all fine.
However, Kinnear concluded: “If both those things happen, Remy will go back to QPR as a World Cup player with a higher value than when he joined them, so everyone will come out of it well.”
Thus Kinnear is inferring that Remy will go back to QPR whatever happens during his time at Newcastle, which just seems ludicrous.
It would be amateurish not to have an agreed fee in place for the end of the deal, but then that’s a word that describes Newcastle’s activities pretty much perfectly right now.http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/UndergroundZealot
Underground Zealot is a series by Jerry Jenkins (better known for co-writing the Left Behind series). After the world's religious conflicts somehow turned into World War III, the UN decided to outlaw religion completely - with the usual punishment apparently being death.
After a series of miraculous shenanigans atheist Paul Stepola, an agent for the National Peace Organization (NPO), is converted to born-again Christianity. Paul then acts as a spy and secret agent for the underground Christians.
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There are three books in the series, which are:
Soon (2003)
Silenced (2004)
Shadowed (2005)
Tropes from the Underground Zealot series include:
Beauty Equals Goodness: Paul is described as tall, fit, and handsome. Angela, a secret Christian, is "dramatically pretty." Contrast with bad gal Bia Balaam, who is described as being "rawboned" and "thin-lipped," with "psycho eyes."
Because Destiny Says So: After World War III, the United States is re-divided into seven states known as the United Seven States of America. There is pretty much no reason for this to happen other than it's supposed to be the fulfillment of the "seven heads" bit in the Revelation.
Broken Aesop: Immediately after the zealots, with great effort, manage to spread pamphlets around Los Angeles saying that We are no threat to the government or the status quo, and asking themselves why the atheists feel so threatened by them when all they want is "the free exchange of ideas", they let the world know that they're praying for God to cut off the water supply to the city. He chooses instead to remove all water from the city, killing thousands in the process.
But Not Too Evil: Even though the story is supposed to take place in a world taken over by Hollywood Atheists, many right-wing boogeymen are curiously absent. For example, there are no LGBTQ characters. Advertisement: It's also odd that in this atheist-run world of debauchary, Paul and Jae stayed together in an unhappy marriage for a decade or so rather than divorcing after the 27th time Paul cheated.
Crapsaccharine World: Decades of world peace, great technological achievement, near-total elimination of disease and poverty... of course, being caught as a believer will net you a grisly execution. (Exactly how an atheist "theocracy" could manage to create such a paradise for 99% of the population, or the possible moral issues of the remaining 1% trying to overthrow that system for their own benefit, is never addressed.)
Coldblooded Torture: What the NPO uses whenever they can remember the advantages of finding more secret believers, as opposed to shooting the zealots on the spot. And of course what the thousands of atheist civilians killed in the LA miracle will suffer for all eternity in hell.
The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much: Bia Balaam's specialty for dealing with Christians. And every arrested Christian seems to end up dead sooner ('resisting arrest') or later (died in captivity), barring divine intervention. This doesn't seem to be official policy, every single atheist just has a seething hatred for every Christian they arrest. Advertisement: Used on a large scale in LA, when the army claims a group of 200 Christians opened fire on the army and were all killed in the ensuing firefight. How they faked a firefight that large is anyone's guess.
Disproportionate Retribution: Both sides. You believe in God? Death by napalm! You were trying to corner the silver market? Death by silver-themed miracle! Defaced the Hollywood sign to make it read Holywood? Death by hit squad! Heard a terrorist manifesto on the news and didn't risk life and limb on behalf of said terrorists by overthrowing the government within half a day of hearing about it? Death by dehydration!
Double Agent: After conversion, Paul serves as a double agent for the Christians.
Felony Misdemeanor: No need for an army? Donations to charity going to humanitarian relief efforts? The horror, the horror. This book puts the lack of a sizable army waging war somewhere in the world and charity donations going to relief efforts on the same level of awfulness as the banning of all religion.
Gone Horribly Right: The Christian Underground prayed for a miracle, in the form of God cutting off the water supply to LA. They didn't expect the Almighty to remove all moisture in the entire area for everyone but His followers (it's not clear what effect, if any, this has on animals and plants).
Istanbul (Not Constantinople): After WWIII, the United States of America is renamed the United Seven States of America. State names are abandoned and the country is divided into seven regions: Atlantica, Columbia, Gulfland, Heartland, Pacifica, Rockland, and Sunterra. Take a shot every time the book calls states by their old names anyway.On its 30th anniversary as a motherboard maker, MSI unveiled a new premium socket LGA1151 board, the Z170A Krait Gaming 3X. This board features the white and black color-scheme distinctive of the Krait family of motherboards by the company, with bright white on the heatsinks and ports, contrasting the black PCB, and hints of red, reminding you of the "Gaming" family origins. Those aside, the Z170A Krait Gaming 3X is a performance-segment offering, built in the ATX form-factor. The board draws power from 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors, and uses a 7-phase VRM to condition it for the CPU. It uses high-capacity "Titanium" chokes.The LGA1151 socket is wired to four DDR4 DIMM slots, supporting dual-channel DDR4-3600 memory, and two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots. Other expansion slots include a third PCI-Express 3.0 x16 (electrical gen 3.0 x4), wired to the Z170 PCH, besides four other PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. Storage connectivity includes a 32 Gb/s M.2 slot, a 16 Gb/s SATA-Express port, and six SATA 6 Gb/s ports. The onboard AudioBoost 3 solution features dual headphones amplifiers, audio-grade capacitors, ground-layer isolation, Nahmic Audio Enhancer, and a 115 dBA SNR CODEC. Networking is care of an Intel I219-V GbE controller. Modern connectivity includes two USB 3.1 ports (one each of type-A and type-C on the rear panel), and six USB 3.0 ports. MSI didn't reveal pricing.It's very easy to use IPFS to start building decentralized metaverse apps in JanusVR. All you need to do is download IPFS from here: https://ipfs.io/docs/install/ then follow the steps to initialize. Here's how you can easily add files to drag and drop into your Janus app:
Go to the folder with the assets you wish to load in Open the command prompt in the current directory and type ipfs add -r. The last hash represents the root folder, copy that and load up JanusVR. Press escape and open the web browser Open contents with http://ipfs.io/ipfs/<yourhash> which will cache the files through the main IPFS gateways. Your assets will be online instantly Ctrl-click and drag the objects or images out of the web page into your room. That's it!
For building rooms, I find that having an inventory list of all the hashes helps to speed things up.
Once you drop your asset into a room with IPFS, you can use the JanusVR built in code editor to do really cool stuff and preview the changes live with the update button!
Finally, you can also use IPFS to bundle the entire application and set a portal to link to it. This step will let you instantly publish your creations, censorship free, without needing |
Though these accomplishments weren’t celebrated with a Roman style triumph, they were on display very publicly. Each enabled Musk to make bigger claims and take on larger projects.
Being the focal point for accomplishments (aka taking the credit) boosts auctoritas and can help not only the leader, but the organization in a few ways.
First it helps the leader bring people together. Caesar’s friend and then foe Pompey the Great famously could “raise armies merely by stamping his foot on the soil of Italy.” Pompey was able to do this because the auctoritas he built through decades of successful campaigns as one of Rome’s most successful military leaders.
The second reason being the focal point helps is that it gives the leader access to the best people. Musk for instance is famous for saying that SpaceX only hires the top 1% of people. Recruiting from this small pool of candidates is very competitive. Unless, of course, you have Musk level auctoritas which attracts people that know working at SpaceX will be hard but their minds will be put to good use.
The third benefit is the ability to make claims that would sound crazy yet are believable because of the source. Peter Diamandis who founded the X Prize also founded “Planetary Resources” who’s mission is to mine asteroids. This is an idea that without the auctoritas of Diamandis seems impossible yet they are a funded and operating company.
So the next time you and your team has accomplished something stop for a moment and think if you should claim the accomplishment in a public triumph.
Like Caesar, Pompey, and Musk the auctoritas gained will help make your mission easier.
Please follow me if you’ve enjoyed this post.It was a pivotal scene. A mom was brushing a boy’s long hair, the boy slowly turned his head to look at her. In a tentative voice, he asked, “Would you love me if I were a boy?” The mom was raising her boy to become a trans-girl.
In that split second, I was transported back to my childhood. I remembered my grandmother standing over me, guiding me, dressing me in a purple chiffon dress. The boy in that glowing documentary about parents raising transgender kids dared to voice a question I always wanted to ask. Why didn’t she love me the way I was?
I am haunted by that boy and his question. What will the trans-kids of 2015 be like sixty years from now? Documentaries and news stories only give us a snapshot in time. They are edited to romanticize and normalize the notion of changing genders and to convince us that enlightened parents should help their children realize their dreams of being the opposite gender.
I want to tell you my story. I want you to have the opportunity to see the life of a trans-kid, not in a polished television special, but across more than seven decades of life, with all of its confusion, pain, and redemption.
The Trans-Kid
It wasn’t my mother but my grandmother who clothed me in a purple chiffon dress she made for me. That dress set in motion a life filled with gender dysphoria, sexual abuse, alcohol and drug abuse, and finally, an unnecessary gender reassignment surgery. My life was ripped apart by a trusted adult who enjoyed dressing me as a girl.
My mom and dad didn’t have any idea that when they dropped their son off for a weekend at Grandma’s that she was dressing their boy in girls’ clothes. Grandma told me it was our little secret. My grandmother withheld affirmations of me as a boy, but she lavished delighted praise upon me when I was dressed as a girl. Feelings of euphoria swept over me with her praise, followed later by depression and insecurity about being a boy. Her actions planted the idea in me that I was born in the wrong body. She nourished and encouraged the idea, and over time it took on a life of its own.
I became so accustomed to wearing the purple dress at Grandma’s house that, without telling her, I took it home so I could secretly wear it there too. I hid it in the back of a drawer in my dresser. When my mom found it, an explosion of yelling and screaming erupted between my mom and dad. My father was terrified his boy was not developing into a man, so he ramped up his discipline. I felt singled out because, in my view, my older brother didn’t receive the same heavy-handed punishment as I did. The unfairness hurt more than anything else.
Thankfully, my parents decided I would never be allowed to go to Grandma’s house again without them. They couldn’t know I was scared of seeing Grandma because I had exposed her secret.
Uncle Fred’s Influence
My worst nightmare was realized when my dad’s much younger adopted brother, Uncle Fred, discovered the secret of the dress and began teasing me. He pulled down my pants, taunting and laughing at me. At only nine years of age, I couldn’t fight back, so I turned to eating as a way to cope with the anxiety. Fred’s teasing caused a meal of six tuna-fish sandwiches and a quart of milk to become my way of suppressing the pain.
One day Uncle Fred took me in his car on a dirt road up the hill from my house and tried to take off all my clothes. Terrified of what might happen, I escaped, ran home, and told my mom. She looked at me accusingly and said, “You’re a liar. Fred would never do that.” When my dad got home, she told him what I said, and he went to talk to Fred. But Fred shrugged it off as a tall tale, and my dad believed him instead of me. I could see no use in telling people about what Fred was doing, so I kept silent from that point on about his continuing abuse.
I went to school dressed as a boy, but in my head that purple dress lived on. I could see myself in it, standing in front of the mirror at my grandma’s house. I was small, but I participated and excelled in football, track, and other sports. My way to cope with my gender confusion was to work hard at whatever I did. I mowed lawns, delivered newspapers, and pumped gasoline. After high school graduation, I worked in an automotive shop, then took classes in drafting to qualify for a job in aerospace. After a short time, I earned a spot on the Apollo space mission project as associate design engineer. Ever eager for the next challenge, I switched to an entry-level position in the automobile industry and quickly rocketed up the corporate ladder at a major American car company. I even got married. I had it all—a promising career with unlimited potential and a great family.
But I also had a secret. After thirty-six years, I was still unable to overcome the persistent feeling I was really a woman. The seeds sown by Grandma developed deep roots. Unbeknownst to my wife, I began to act on my desire to be a woman. I was cross-dressing in public and enjoying it. I even started taking female hormones to feminize my appearance. Who knew Grandma’s wish in the mid-1940s for a granddaughter would lead to this?
Adding alcohol was like putting gasoline on a fire; drinking heightened the desire. My wife, feeling betrayed by the secrets I had been keeping from her and fed up by my out-of-control drunken binges, filed for divorce.
Life as a Woman
I sought out a prominent gender psychologist for evaluation, and he quickly assured me that I obviously suffered from gender dysphoria. A gender change, he told me, was the cure. Feeling that I had nothing to lose and thrilled that I could finally attain my lifelong dream, I underwent a surgical change at the age of forty-two. My new identity as Laura Jensen, female, was legally affirmed on my birth record, Social Security card, and driver’s license. I was now a woman in everyone’s eyes.
The gender conflict seemed to fade away, and I was generally happy for a while.
It’s hard for me to describe what happened next. The reprieve provided by surgery and life as a woman was only temporary. Hidden deep underneath the make-up and female clothing was the little boy carrying the hurts from traumatic childhood events, and he was making himself known. Being a female turned out to be only a cover-up, not healing.
I knew I wasn’t a real woman, no matter what my identification documents said. I had taken extreme steps to resolve my gender conflict, but changing genders hadn’t worked. It was obviously a masquerade. I felt I had been lied to. How in the world had I reached this point? How did I become a fake woman? I went to another gender psychologist, and she assured me that I would be fine; I just needed to give my new identity as Laura more time. I had a past, a battered and broken life that living as Laura did nothing to dismiss or resolve. Feeling lost and depressed, I drank heavily and considered suicide.
At the three-year mark of life as Laura, my excessive drinking brought me to a new low. At my lowest point, instead of committing suicide I sought help at an alcohol recovery meeting. My sponsor, a lifeline of support and accountability, mentored me in how to live life free from alcohol.
Sobriety was the first of several turning points in my transgender life.
As Laura, I entered a two-year university program to study the psychology of substance and alcohol abuse. I achieved higher grades than my classmates, many of whom had PhDs. Still, I struggled with my gender identity. It was all so puzzling. What was the point of changing genders if not to resolve the conflict? After eight years of living as a woman, I had no lasting peace. My gender confusion only seemed to worsen.
During an internship in a psychiatric hospital, I worked alongside a medical doctor on a lock-down unit. After some observation, he took me aside and told me I showed signs of having a dissociative disorder. Was he right? Had he found the key that would unlock a childhood lost? Rather than going to gender-change activist psychologists like the one who had approved me for surgery, I sought the opinions of several “regular” psychologists and psychiatrists who did not see all gender disorders as transgender. They agreed: I fit the criteria for dissociative disorder.
It was maddening. Now it was apparent that I had developed a dissociative disorder in childhood to escape the trauma of the repeated cross-dressing by my grandmother and the sexual abuse by my uncle. That should have been diagnosed and treated with psychotherapy. Instead, the gender specialist never considered my difficult childhood or even my alcoholism and saw only transgender identity. It was a quick jump to prescribe hormones and irreversible surgery. Years later, when I confronted that psychologist, he admitted that he should not have approved me for surgery.
Becoming Whole
Coming back to wholeness as a man after undergoing unnecessary gender surgery and living life legally and socially as a woman for years wasn’t going to be easy. I had to admit to myself that going to a gender specialist when I first had issues had been a big mistake. I had to live with the reality that body parts were gone. My full genitalia could not be restored—a sad consequence of using surgery to treat psychological illness. Intensive psychotherapy would be required to resolve the dissociative disorder that started as a child.
But I had a firm foundation on which to begin my journey to restoration. I was living a life free from drugs and alcohol, and I was ready to become the man I was intended to be.
At age fifty-six, I experienced something beyond my wildest dreams. I fell in love, married, and began to fully re-experience life as a man. It took over fifty years, but I was finally able to unwind all the damage that purple chiffon dress had done. Today, I’m seventy-four years old and married to my wife of eighteen years, with twenty-nine years of sober living.
Changing genders is short-term gain with long-term pain. Its consequences include early mortality, regret, mental illness, and suicide. Instead of encouraging them to undergo unnecessary and destructive surgery, let’s affirm and love our young people just the way they are.The Republican Party stands at the threshold of nominating a candidate for president who will prove to China’s leadership why further democratic reforms are unnecessary, unproductive and unlikely to lead to economic and political stability.
THINK it’s hard to explain Trump’s candidacy in the United States? Try doing it in China. I should know — I’ve been trying for the last several months.
Responses in China range from the perplexed to the hostile, with very few finding it funny.
Whether or not Trump is successful in either his quest for the GOP nomination or the presidency, the message his candidacy sends to countries like China says nothing good about the state of American politics. The much bigger problem is that Trump’s rise comes at a time when China’s own political development could use a reminder of how and why a healthy democracy governs as it does.
When China looks at America today through the prism of the Trump campaign, it takes away two lessons. First, democracies in general are not to be trusted because people are too easily swayed by rhetoric, bombast and personality. Second, America’s political system has transitioned into an increasingly unstable and unpredictable phase that could easily upend our globalized world.
Much of what inhibits further political liberalization across China today is the belief, widely held among many of the Chinese Communist Party’s technocrats: that people are not to be trusted to responsibly vote based on a dispassionate analysis of the facts versus an emotional response to a master showman. The Communist Party believes it is the steward of these responsibilities on the people’s behalf because average people cannot be trusted to critically think through questions of policy and statesmanship.
It’s better to have the trusted technocrat, the benevolent dictator, make decisions on everyone’s behalf than allow an easily swayed public do so themselves. The American conservative movement has long passionately argued the exact opposite: that the individual knows better than a technocratic overlord. Yet the modern Republican Party now could potentially nominate a candidate for president who would prove to China’s leadership why further democratic reforms are unnecessary, unproductive and unlikely to lead to economic and political stability.
It is bad enough to have Trump’s candidacy further reinforce the Communist Party’s belief that democracy is not to be trusted. Even worse is that regardless of the outcome of this election, China’s leadership understands that American politics is in a troubled place. Aware of its own economic and political insecurities, China now looks at us and sees its largest trading partner and closest near-peer competitor on equally uncertain footing. This has all the hallmarks of the sort of historical miscalculations that have led to unproductive tension and, in the most extreme cases, conflict.
America’s electoral calculus is becoming clear to everyone around the world: With each primary cycle, the parties become more extreme, which leads to America’s moderate middle becoming even more disgusted at politics in general, which could be lowering voter participation. What begins as a process of political extremism ultimately results in an increasingly radical government.
Looking at this from the outside in — as friends, colleagues and policymakers in China are — makes it easier to see how troubling these trends are. What makes for a great season of “Saturday Night Live” also points toward some of democracy’s flaws — specifically that a democracy is only healthy when the majority of its citizens are educated, involved and engaged in passionate, but tempered, arguments about a country’s politicians and policies. We see so much in Trump to despise, and yet his success is a mirror that allows us to see the state of American political culture, with all its pettiness of spirit and form.
We would do well to recall, as people in China who know the history of their Cultural Revolution do, that there can be worse manipulators than Trump. China understands what happens when a populace primed by rhetorical excess crashes into a true demagogue during a moment of economic or political crisis.
China learned this lesson the hard way, which is why its political system today looks the way it does. If China’s political model is right, the average person is not to be trusted. If America’s model is, we will work to purge our politics of the manufactured outrages, rhetorical excesses and blind partisanship that have made Donald Trump a viable option for the presidency.Are you ready to show us your skills in with Windows Paint? Here’s your chance to shine! Enter the Paint a Vehicle contest and win awesome prizes!
To participate in the contest, use Windows Paint to create an awesome or funny Armored Warfare image. Upload the image to the internet and post a link to the dedicated forum thread before the 16th of May 2016 (19:00 CEST, 10:00 AM PDT).
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We’re very excited to see your submissions and wish you the best of luck! See you on the battlefield!So I haven’t been taking pics of my food or blogging about it for some time. I have been trying to lose more weight, but my life has gotten much busier and I had less time to blog. But I want to start in again and update what’s been going on.
First, I’ve gained weight. I had gotten to a low of 235, but now I am up again to 250. There are a number of reasons for the gain, but the biggest is the one I first began dealing with 15 years or so ago.
Around 1998 I weighed in at a healthy, happy 180. I worked out religiously. I ate 6 small, balanced meals a day. I was not diagnosed with diabetes and my fasting blood glucose was around 80.
But all was not well. I began feeling terrible pretty much all the time. I would get up and in a short time I was having hypoglycemic symptoms. I started checking my blood glucose and found that I would get up with a normal glucose of 80 or so, but then once I would eat it would go up some–still in the normal range–and then plunge to the 60’s within an hour of eating. It made me feel terrible. Many days I would just go lay down.
The only way I found relief was to eat more. So I did. I OVER ate. I eventually got up in the 240’s. It was the only way I found I could function normally.
Eventually I just stopped caring about my weight or my eating. I got up to 287. I was also diagnosed with diabetes and placed on metformin.
Now, once again, I am having those same symptoms. My morning, fasting glucose is running 120ish. I try to eat lower calorie, varied, healthy foods. But checking my blood sugar an hour after eating it is often at my fasting level.
Yesterday my wife and I decided maybe I need to get more salad and other higher roughage foods in each meal so we are trying that. It did seem to be a little better. I’m going to start taking pics of my food again and see how that plays out as well.January 1, 2012 is the target date for the first use of a new calendar devised by a Johns Hopkins astrophysicist, Richard Conn Henry, and Hopkins economist, Steven H. Hanke. Its signal innovation: Year to year, dates would fall on the same day of the week. Beginning in 2012, in other words, Christmas and New Year’s Day would forever fall on Sunday — and your birthday would henceforth be associated with one specific day.
The goal is for the calendar to be in universal use by 2017.
“Our plan offers a stable calendar that is absolutely identical from year to year and which allows the permanent, rational planning of annual activities, from school to work holidays,” Henry said in a statement. The calendar would accomplish this by means of a 364-day year — augmented every five or six years with an extra week tacked on at the end. Otherwise, the rhythm of months would be more regular than what we’re used to: January and February have 30 days, March 31; and that pattern (30 days/30/31) would repeat itself throughout the year….An extract of the poisonous shrub Jatropha curcas acts as a strong painkiller and may have a mode of action different from conventional analgesics, such as morphine and other pharmaceuticals. Details of tests are reported in the current issue of the International Journal of Biomedical Engineering and Technology.
Omeh Yusuf and Ezeja Maxwell of the Micheal Okpara University of Agriculture in Umudike, Nigeria, explain how J. curcas, also known as the “physic nut” is a perennial shrub that grows to 5 meters in height and belongs to the Euphobiaceace family. It is native to Central America but grows widely in other tropical and subtropical countries of Africa and Asia. The plant’s fruit is combined with the stem bark of Cochlospermum planchonii in Nigerian medicine for treating diabetes mellitus and is also used traditionally as a painkiller. Other medicinal activities have been reported. The plant’s seeds have been used for making soap, candles, detergents, lubricants and dyes and the seed oil is used in biodiesel.
The researchers extracted what they believed to be the physiologically active components of the leaves of J. curcas using methanol as solvent. They compared the effects of this extract at 100, 200 and 400 milligrams per kilogram of body mass, against 400 mg/kg of acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin) in standard laboratory animal tests for assessing the strength of painkillers.
They found that 100 mg/kg was an inadequate dose, however, 200 and 400 mg/kg doses produced analgesia comparable to aspirin, affirming the use of the plant for pain relief in traditional medicine. The team suspect that the extract may be acting through both peripheral and central pain mechanisms. Yusuf and Maxwell are now carrying out more work on isolating and characterizing the active ingredient in the extract and in determining the precise mode of action.
The search for novel analgesic drugs that have a different side-effect profile and lack the tolerance and addiction problems associated with morphine and other opiates is an important avenue of research in drug discovery science. Very few leads from traditional and herbal medicine are successful in generating a new product, but it should be remembered that aspirin and morphine themselves were both originally derived from natural sources.Posted 2016-08-10 15:50:11 GMT
前回は、Zebraパズルをお題に各種埋め込みPrologがどんなものかを試してみましたが、今回は、たらいまわしの竹内関数で有名なtakです。
どうしてtakかというとAZ-Prologのベンチにあったので、AZ-Prologと比較するには都合が良いという理由です。
Takとは
正式な竹内関数はtakとは微妙に違いますが、Lispのベンチで有名なGabrielベンチで広まってしまったのは、マッカーシー先生の憶え違いのtakの方でした。
以来ベンチではこちらが良く使われます。
比較する埋め込みPrologについて
今回も比較する埋め込みPrologは、
Allegro Prolog
PAIPROLOG
Uranus
です。
ベンチ
CL処理系: Allegro CL 8.2 Linux 64bit版
CPU: Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E3-1230 v3 @ 3.30GHz
メモリ32GiB
AZ-Prolog
タイム: 1.050 sec
今回は、AZ-Prologを基準にしてみたいと思うので、まずAZ-Prologからですが、 takを100回繰り返しています。
takの引数は、tak(18,12,6)です。iが付いていますがintegerのiでしょうか。
※interpreterのiでした。やたらcallが付いているのはそのためだったんですね。 callなしのtakもベンチにあったのを見逃していましたので、追記し、AZ-Prologとの比較表もtakを基準としたものに修正します。
tak(100) : 0.140 Sec 0.370 Sec 1.250 Sec
最速のCへの変換版で0.140です。
参考インタプリタ版:
---Module Name(Iterate)---- C-Code ByteCode Interpreter -----------------------------+----------+----------+----------- itak(100) : 1.050 Sec 1.310 Sec 1.500 Sec
Uranus
タイム: 26.5536 sec
define tak ( ( *x *y *z *a ) ( <= *x *y ) ( cut ) ( = *z *a ) ) ( *x *y *z *a ) 1- *x *x1 ( tak *x1 *y *z *a1 ) 1- *y *y1 ( tak *y1 *z *x *a2 ) 1- *z *z1 ( tak *z1 *x *y *a3 ) ( tak *a1 *a2 *a3 *a ) tak
Uranusですが、上記のような定義です。
(dotimes (i 100) (result '(tak 18 12 6 *ans))) ;=> nil #|------------------------------------------------------------| ; cpu time (non-gc) 22.020000 sec user, 0.000000 sec system ; cpu time (gc) 4.530000 sec user, 0.000000 sec system ; cpu time (total) 26.550000 sec user, 0.000000 sec system ; real time 26.553695 sec ; space allocation: ; 354,620,051 cons cells, 2,900,592,192 other bytes, 0 static bytes ; x86_64 |------------------------------------------------------------|#
Allegro Prolog
タイム: N/A
( <-- ( tak?x?y?z?a ) ( lispp* ( <=?x?y ) )! ( =?z?a ) ) - ( tak?x?y?z?a ) 1-?x is?x1 ( tak?x1?y?z?a1 ) 1-?y is?y1 ( tak?y1?z?x?a2 ) 1-?z is?z1 ( tak?z1?x?y?a3 ) ( tak?a1?a2?a3?a )
こんな感じに直訳で書きましたが、スタックオーバーフローで完走できません。
Prologのスタックを伸ばす方法もありますが、ちょっと伸ばしてもLisp処理系のスタックオーバーフローになってしまいます。コンパイルしてみても駄目。
PAIProlog
タイム: N/A
Allegro Prologと同じ定義ですが、同じくスタックオーバーフロー
Allegro Prolog で Lisp側のtakを呼ぶ
タイム: 0.050 sec
なんとなく姑息な気がしますが、takみたいなものは、すべからくLisp側で定義すべし、ということなのかもしれないので、そういう定義を書いてみました。
( x y z ) if ( <= x y ) z 1- x taky z 1- y takz x 1- z takx y tak defun tak (<-- (tak?x?y?z?a) (is?a (tak?x?y?z))) (dotimes (i 100) (prolog (tak 18 12 6?a) (lisp (return-from prolog?a))))
今度は、飛び抜けて速いですね。
PAIProlog で Lisp側のtakを呼ぶ
タイム: 0.140 sec
Allegro Prologと同じですが、ユーティリティ述語が少ない分、若干違っています。
( <-- ( tak?x?y?z?a ) ( lisp?a ( tak?x?y?z ) ) ) (dotimes (i 100) (let (ans) (prolog (tak 18 12 6?a) (lisp (setf ans?a))) ans))
Allegro Prologより若干遅い位です。
といってもtakの速さは同じですが。
Uranus で Lisp側のtakを呼ぶ
タイム: 0.054 sec
dotimes ( i 100 ) ( result'( tak 18 12 6 *ans ) )
Uranusは、Lisp側で関数を定義してやれば、それに引数が増えた形式で、Uranus側から呼べるので、特に追加の定義は必要ありません。
順位とタイム
順位 処理系 タイム(秒) AZ-Prolog比 1 Allegro Prolog←Lisp 0.050 1/2.8 2 Uranus←Lisp 0.054 1/2.6 3 PAIProlog←Lisp 0.140 1 3 AZ-Prolog 0.140 1 5 SWI-Prolog 0.781 5.5 6 Uranus 26.5536 189 7 Allegro Prolog N/A N/A 8 PAIProlog N/A N/A
まとめ
埋め込み処理系は、それ自体、独立したものとは考えず、Prologが得意とするもの以外はLisp側に投げる、という使い方が吉なのでしょうか。
単体のProlog処理系であれば、Cを呼び出したりしそうなので、Lisp⇔Prologの行き来がシームレスで高速であれば、それで良いのかなあ、という気がしないでもないです。
しかし、Prologからコードを移植したりする場合を考えると、とりあえず愚直に書き直したものが動いてくれると嬉しいですねえ。
■It’s just as concerning as it sounds. Scientists have introduced into plants and animals, new, scientifically manipulated or chosen, genetic material, to advance and suppress traits as they see fit. The products are genetically modified foods.
From as early as the 70’s, scientists have been genetically manipulating crops. Scientists used these soil bugs along with other gene-implantation technologies to develop numerous new types of crops.
These crops are steadily increasing in our and other countries as well. Some countries are not so completely receptive. The genetic materials are selected to promote resistance to pesticides, herbicides and insecticides; higher nutrient levels; larger produce; and tolerance to extreme weather conditions.
Many of the genetically modified foods you can find on your grocers’ shelves, today, because they don’t have to be labeled in the United States. These include: cottonseed oil, soybeans, cocoa beans, canola and corn. Scientists have even created plants that produce plastics and pharmaceutical compounds, not for human consumption. Feed grade corn is approved only for livestock food.
What’s the Downside?
This all sounds really good, right? You’ve got your larger produce, which goes further; resistance to pesticides, herbicides and insecticides; enhanced flavor and consistent crop growth. But, you can’t stop there; you have to track the whole story.
FDA-employed scientists presented warnings that a certain species of tomato could generate toxins in foods and trigger allergies. And still it was approved. These foods are presenting more toxins that must pass through your colon, some of which can become trapped creating a toxic colon.
On farms that large companies own, they genetically modify their crops. They don’t rotate crops, which is a process that gives the earth time to replenish itself. Instead, they simply soak into the ground chemical fertilizers that force the land to yield vegetation, the same vegetation. They kill many of the bugs that naturally would live and die in the soil replacing nutrients.
Why Avoid Them?
These foods introduce toxins that reportedly caused lesions in the lab rats. If that is the measure for safety in humans, this is not a good start. The lesions in the rats could spell danger from ulcers for humans.
The test performed by the Food and Drug Administration was haphazard at best. And even that was not enough to stop the government from pronouncing the test a success, and extending the approval response to other GM foods, therein negating the necessity for testing future produce.
There has not been enough testing to give any definitive answers which would allow consumers to make informed and intelligent decisions about whether or not to consume GM foods
It’s a safer bet to err on the side of caution: If it’s not naturally grown and it’s full of chemicals and toxins to grow, you probably want to avoid it
We already know that toxins are hard on our body and can cause severe damage
We don’t know the extent to which the long-term exposure to these modified foods can affect us.
It’s already been proven that gene interruption can occur and jump species. That’s evident from the work they’ve done already to create genetically modified foods
With the new possibility of a link between pesticides and Parkinson’s disease, we see just another example of how little science knows about the far-reaching and damaging possibilities of what they’re creating
Scientists can’t control much less plan for all the possible reactions to their manipulations. And by relation, they don’t know if they can fix what they broke
It is possible for the seeds to get ‘mixed up’ from the livestock, pharmaceutical and consumer grade
The natural avenues of growth and pollination are not removed; spores old and new will continue to travel as nature intended, without discerning the type of spores
Eat Organic Instead
Organically grown foods are grown on land that is free of harsh pesticides. These foods are grown in naturally cultivated, rotated soil. The produce has far fewer of the chemicals in it, and sometimes more nutrients as well. There are numerous reasons I recommend eating organic, but the decision is ultimately yours. What will you choose?
†Results may vary. Information and statements made are for education purposes and are not intended to replace the advice of your doctor. Global Healing Center does not dispense medical advice, prescribe, or diagnose illness. The views and nutritional advice expressed by Global Healing Center are not intended to be a substitute for conventional medical service. If you have a severe medical condition or health concern, see your physician.Retailer's reputation as a paragon of family values fails to save it from rebuke by advertising watchdog
Marks & Spencer's reputation as a paragon of family values has not saved it from a rap across the knuckles from the advertising watchdog, which has banned an "overtly sexual" lingerie ad.
M&S ran two poster ads featuring scantily clad models on the side of buses as part of a campaign to promote its Autograph lingerie range.
The Advertising Standards Authority received a number of complaints that one of the ads featuring two lingerie models – one pictured lying on her side, the other kneeling on a bed – was unacceptable because it was sexually suggestive and likely to be seen by children.
M&S said that the ads were in no way offensive and had been shot in a "filmic and atmospheric style".
The ASA said the shot of the woman kneeling on the bed was "overtly sexual" because her legs were wide apart, her back was arched, she was touching her thigh and wearing stockings.
"We considered that the image was of an overtly sexual nature and was therefore unsuitable for untargeted outdoor display, as it was likely to be seen by children," said the ASA, which banned the ad from running on buses. "We concluded that the ad was socially irresponsible."
In October the ASA moved to toughen its stance on raunchy advertising, after the David Cameron-backed Bailey report into the commercialisation and sexualisation of children called on the industry to limit sexualised imagery near locations such as schools.
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Photo by Lissa Browning Red panda baby, born June 25, 2017, sleeping in nest box.
Red pandas are one of many cold-weather animals that experience delayed implantation during pregnancy, in which an embryo stops growing and can float around for weeks or months before attaching to the uterine wall. This results in a two-month window of potential due dates for all expecting moms. Additionally, non-pregnant females can experience pseudo-pregnancies: following breeding season, they may gain weight and build nests, even though no embryos are present. Together, these two reproductive phenomena make it nearly impossible to diagnose pregnancy or predict parturition date in this species.
From 2012-2015, CREW’s Dr. Erin Curry analyzed fecal samples and performed ultrasounds on the Zoo’s potentially pregnant females. The data she collected has helped her accurately predict the birth dates of several red panda cubs. Knowing that a female is pregnant and having a realistic birth date is an enormous help to the people who manage these animals, so the red panda care team showed their appreciation for Dr. Curry’s work by naming a cub born two years ago “Dr. Erin Curry“.
Cincinnati Zoo staff used operant conditioning to train its female red pandas to participate in ultrasound exams. “They love grapes, so we were able to teach the desired standing behavior using those and other favorite foods as motivation,” said senior Wildlife Canyon keeper |
factor for the Seahawks in more ways than one.
Bucky Brooks: Dennis Pitta, TE, Baltimore Ravens. After losing much of 2013 to a hip injury, Pitta finishes the 2014 season as the Ravens' leading receiver and emerges as one of the elite pass catchers at his position.
Harrison: 2014 All-Pro projections Which players will define the 2014 campaign? Elliot Harrison glances into his crystal ball for preseason All-Pro picks.
Which players will define the 2014 campaign?glances into his crystal ball for preseason All-Pro picks. READ
Charley Casserly: Jones. If he stays healthy, he returns to Pro Bowl form and has a huge year.
Dave Dameshek: Robert Griffin III, QB, Washington Redskins. Forget all the hooey and applesauce about Kirk Cousins and instead remember just how good RGIII was in 2012. Now, with his knee rehabbed and new target DeSean Jackson in the fold, it's hard to see Griffin not putting up good numbers this year.
Elliot Harrison: Reggie Wayne, WR, Indianapolis Colts. Word out of Indy has been that Wayne looks fantastic. Sure, he's 35. But given the Colts' struggles running the rock, you know he'll post numbers. Andrew Luck trusts him, too.
Gregg Rosenthal: Jones. He'll make a strong case as the No. 2 wide receiver in football.
Adam Schein: Trent Richardson, RB, Indianapolis Colts. I still think he can play. His head was spinning after the midseason trade last year. If Richardson is simply solid, think 1,200 rushing yards -- and that would be a gigantic upgrade over last season's output.
Michael Silver: Wayne. Because I sooooo want this to happen.
Chris Wesseling: Griffin. The preseason results aren't pretty, but RGIII has the talent and the weapons to turn the Redskins around.
COACH OF THE YEAR
Judy Battista: Chip Kelly, Philadelphia Eagles. He's already one of the game's most innovative coaches, so if his offense continues to evolve, look for Kelly to soon be considered among the league's very best.
Brian Billick: Marc Trestman, Chicago Bears. Had it not been for the record-setting 2013 Denver Broncos, the Bears would have had the league's highest-scoring offense. With an improved defense, Chicago is my pick to win the NFC North and make it to the conference title game.
Gil Brandt: Mike McCoy, San Diego Chargers. I think his coaching ability was underestimated until probably the middle of last season. He's done a very good job making the offense much more balanced.
Bucky Brooks: John Fox, Denver Broncos. Fox guides the Broncos to the league's best record by relying on a stingy defense and more balanced offensive attack.
Charley Casserly: Bruce Arians, Arizona Cardinals. He leads the Cardinals to the playoffs in the NFC West -- the toughest division in football.
Dave Dameshek: McCoy. If the Chargers win the AFC West (which, as you might recall, includes Peyton's Broncos), no one will argue that anyone other than McCoy, in just his second year as an NFL head coach, deserves the award. Oh, and by the way, the Chargers will win the AFC West.
Elliot Harrison: McCoy. San Diego will make the playoffs, and with the difficulty the Chargers have given the Broncos in recent years, the Bolts might surprise some folks. Looking for 10 to 11 wins from this group.
Gregg Rosenthal: Arians. Who needs defensive stars when you turn Carson Palmer's career around?
Adam Schein: Trestman. I think the Bears are a playoff team, and the second-year coaching guru guides them there. (They play in a tough division and conference, so this will be a big accomplishment.) And most especially, Trestman will maximize Jay Cutler.
Michael Silver: Lovie Smith, Tampa Bay Buccaneers. You know what Andy Reid did in 2013 in K.C.? Yeah, that...
Chris Wesseling: Sean Payton, New Orleans Saints. Payton's offense breaks records and his team ends up with the NFL's best mark.BY: Follow @DavidRutz
Donald Trump has been consistently asked to get specific on a potential foreign policy team for his presidency, and the repetitive yet vague candidate isn't acquiescing.
It began during a wide-ranging interview with Meet The Press on Aug. 6, when host Chuck Todd asked him whom he spoke to for military advice.
"Well, I watch the shows," Trump said.
Pressed by Todd to give some actual military names, Trump replied there were probably "two or three."
The following month, at the second Republican debate of the cycle, radio host Hugh Hewitt hit the same note.
"You can't run the world by yourself," Hewitt said. "When are we going to get some names on your military and your foreign policy advisers?"
"Very soon, and I'm meeting with people that are terrific people, but I have to say something because it's about judgment," Trump said.
Almost five months later, Fox News host Martha MacCallum broached the subject during a February
"And one the things that I think a lot of people – maybe the voters who are not supporting you right now – would love to know is who do you talk to for foreign policy advice? What specific people do you talk to?" she asked. "Because I think you might be able to move outside of the percentage that you already have if you were willing to say, it might give people increased level of confidence if they knew who you were talking to."
"Well, I can do that and I’m going to release a list in about two weeks," Trump said.
"Why don't you release it right here right now?"
"Well, it just wouldn't be appropriate," he said, adding he felt he knew more about foreign policy than anyone else in the race. This was a notable statement, given Trump didn't know the difference between the Quds and Kurds, didn't know what the nuclear triad was, and announced he would commit war crimes by killing the families of terrorists.
In the generally friendly confines of Morning Joe, Trump has been questioned often about this subject by co-host Mika Brzezinski.
During a town hall hosted by her and host Joe Scarborough on Feb. 17, Brzezinski asked if he could name three people he consults with on foreign policy. Trump said he would "rather not because I'm going to be announcing a team in about a week that is really a good team."
"I know the people but we're announcing a team in about a week," Trump said. "And I'm going to keep it a little bit secret."
Brzezinski pointed out during a Morning Joe interview on March 3 that it had been "15 days" since Trump made that statement.
"I asked you to share with me three people that you would consult with on foreign policy and you said you wouldn't at the moment because you would be announcing your team in a week," she said. "Where is that team? Who is that team? If that team is not put together yet, who are three people that you would respect and consult with on foreign policy?"
"Mika, I've met with and spoken to the team," he said. "I'm going to do it very shortly. I don't think there's any rush but I’ve met, I’ve spoken to the members of the team and I’m going to do it very shortly. You know at least one of the members of that team. But I'll do it very shortly. I just don't want to do it now."
Pushed again the issue at that night's Fox News debate by Bret Baier, Trump said he admired such foreign policy experts as Richard Haass, Gen. Jack Keane and Col. Jack Jacobs, all of whom make frequent television appearances.
"I have many people that I think are really excellent, but in the end, it's going to be my decision," Trump said.
Brzezinski tried again on March 8 with Trump, to no avail. She did point out it had been a full 20 days since Trump had promised he would announce his foreign policy team in "about a week."
"Who are the giants that are going to join you?" she asked.
"Well, I've already got Jeff Sessions," Trump said. "He's endorsed me. Well, I'm not doing it this morning, Mika. You know, you do always ask me that question. I said I would have it in due time and I've been meeting with some tremendous people and I haven't made exactly my decision yet, but you'll have it in due time."
"Is there a team?" she asked.
"Yes, there is a team. There's not a team," Trump said. "I'm going to be forming a team. I have met with far more than three people, and I will be forming a team at the appropriate time."It didn’t take long for Arctic sea ice to start to respond to a fossil-fuel based accumulation of hothouse gasses in the Earth’s atmosphere. For since the 1920s, that region of ocean ice along the northern polar zone has been in a steady, and increasingly rapid, retreat. Rachel Carson wrote about the start of the Northern Hemisphere ocean ice decline in her ground-breaking 1955 book — The Edge of the Sea.
But it wasn’t until the late 1970s that consistent satellite observations began to provide an unbroken record telling the tale of Arctic sea ice decline. The National Snow and Ice Data Center, The Polar Science Center (PIOMAS), Japan’s JAXA, The Danish Meteorological Institute, and others have since that time provided a loyal recording of the stark impact human-forced warming has had on this sensitive and critical region.
(Severe sea ice volume losses since 1979 illustrated in the above video by Andy Lee Robinson.)
Perhaps the most poignant and direct telling of this tale has been provided in the form of Andy Lee Robinson’s tragic and resonant re-rendering of sea ice volume declines as measured by PIOMAS. Others, like Neven over at the Arctic Sea Ice Blog, have heroically and often thanklessly provided the essential week-to-week analysis of this tragic decline. Rising to the task of a necessary telling of a key chapter in the human tale that our mainstream media sources have all-too-often neglected. Before we go on to today’s update on an Arctic Ocean ice cap that is now in a critically weak condition, I want to add one last mention — these scientists, analysts, experts, and creative and artistically inclined laymen have done the right thing. They were the modern-day prophets providing the critical warning that has been oft-ignored.
A Tale of Devastating Losses
It’s a warning that has been written in the record of the ice itself. A decline that since 1979 has followed a steepening descent curve. An overall downward trend punctuated by the abrupt and severe loss years of 2007 and 2012. A trend that has, nonetheless, featured a few weak challenges in the form of pseudo-recovery years like 2008, 2013, and 2014. A precipitous loss that, all too soon, will likely terminate with abrupt finality in temporally-expanding blue ocean events. Periods when little or no sea ice is observed on the surface of oceans and seas within the Arctic.
(After the warmest Winter and early Spring period on record, Arctic sea ice extent, area and volume are now at or near new record lows. With abnormal heat persisting and with the ice showing an extraordinary lack of resiliency, there appears to be a heightened risk that Arctic sea ice will hit new record all-time lows by September and October of 2016. Image source: JAXA.)
Why should we talk about blue ocean events now? Well, we have only to look at the sea ice record to find that substantial losses have occurred during single years. Years when Arctic heat hit new peaks — lining up with severe adverse weather conditions to take a terrible toll on the ice. Years like 2007 when nearly 2 million square kilometers of ice was lost over the previous year and 2012 which featured about 800,000 square kilometers of extent lost below the 2007 low mark. And if a blue ocean event does happen, it will be during one of these severe loss years.
Extremely Frail Sea Ice During the Spring of 2016
2016 and 2017 could be years when such precipitous declines occur. Heat from an extraordinarily powerful El Nino already skipped over the weakening atmospheric wall of the Jet Stream to invade the High Arctic during Winter of this year. As a result, Winter and Springtime Arctic temperatures are currently at their warmest levels ever recorded.
All this extra heat is doing a number on the ice. Sea ice extent, volume and area, which had experienced a false recovery during the years of 2013 and 2014, have again retreated to seasonally record low levels. In particular, the new near record low seasonal volume measure is disturbing. For while area and extent measure the expanse of surface ice as visible from above, volume measures the ice in three dimensions — giving a better idea of overall resiliency or lack thereof. It’s worth noting that the PIOMAS volume measure is based on a model of assimilated observational data. And, as with any model, there are a few assumptions built in. But overall, PIOMAS has tended to provide data that has matched with other observational findings.
(Extreme fracturing of Beaufort sea ice over recent days has come after a record warm Arctic Spring and Winter and during a period when a powerful high pressure system has been breaking and compacting the ice. Image source: LANCE-MODIS.)
Sea ice frailty seen in the measures is also verified by current satellite observations of the ice surface. This frailty is particularly visible in the region of the Beaufort Sea north of Alaska and Canada. There, extensive fracturing of the ice is clearly visible in yesterday’s MODIS satellite shot. Here we find huge regions of thin ice and open water as the torquing influence of a powerful high pressure system has turned the greatly weakened Beaufort ice into a sea of ice cubes.
During recent years in the post 2012 timeframe, Beaufort ice has shown a considerable lack of resiliency to fracturing. This is particularly disturbing as, historically, the Beaufort Sea has tended to house the thickest, toughest ice in the Arctic. If such a great former bastion for the ice can now be torn to ribbons by the slightest fluxes of wind and weather, then the sea ice is, indeed, in a rather wretched state. And last year, just this kind of early fracturing and warm up in the Beaufort greatly contributed to an overall return to the trend of an Arctic sea ice death spiral in 2015.
Neven notes in a recent blog at his Arctic sea ice portal:
Last year’s April cracking event caused a lot of fragmented multi-year ice to be transported all the way up to the Chukchi Sea (see here), leaving a vulnerable looking barrier on the Pacific side of the Arctic. When this was followed by an early heat wave in May (see here), the ice in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas received a beating it never really recovered from during the rest of the melting season. This was also because continental snow had melted out really quickly, making it possible for warm winds to blow in from the land.
Heating From Both Water and Land
Compared to last year, this year looks quite a bit worse. A wide-ranging Beaufort break-up is happening on the back of last year’s losses and is concurrent with new record and near record low sea ice extent, area and volume values and is happening during a period in which Arctic heat has hit new all-time highs. The result is a risk of compounding melt factors hitting the greatly weakened ice all at the same time.
Locally, the kind of widespread fracturing we now observe can result in a loss of protective reflectivity for the sea ice. As the Springtime sun rises and more of its direct rays fall upon the ice, darker thin ice patches and areas of open water will absorb more of the solar heat. That extra heat will then go to melting the islands of thicker ice that remain.
This situation can generate a compounding effect of ice losses if weather conditions and atmospheric temperatures line up. In addition, loss of the thicker sea ice cap during break-up can result in the ventilating of heat from the warmer waters beneath the ice. In fact, it is the heating of waters beneath the sea ice by means of current transport of warming ocean waters from around the world and into the Arctic that is one of the chief drivers of Arctic Ocean ice losses as the globe has been forced to warm by human fossil fuel emissions. So not only does an ice crack up in the Beaufort reduce the ice’s resiliency to the sun, it also tears the lid off the deeper ocean warming rising up from below.
(Lower albedo due to ice fracturing results in more of the sun’s rays being absorbed into the ocean surface. A warmer Arctic Ocean surface then radiates more heat into the surrounding environment. Such conditions can result in periods when temperatures over the, previously colder and solidly frozen, Arctic Ocean are far warmer than even over land masses on the verge of tipping into a springtime thaw. Image source: Earth Nullschool.)
During Arctic Spring, when land surfaces are now retaining snow cover even as the sea ice breaks up, the effect of lower albedo and ocean heat ventilation can be found in the form of warmer temperatures over thin ice, broken ice, and in open water regions when compared to nearby land masses. Such a condition of newly added heat over ocean zones can have substantial impacts come Summer if melt-favorable weather patterns continue to hold sway. The result is a kind of melt synergy developing between the land, the waters, and the sun. Early on, during Spring, the warmer ocean zone weakens ice and provides warm air pools that aid in the initiation of snow melt over adjacent land. Then, as land warming ramps up, the warm winds coming from regions of early snow withdrawal provide further pressure to the already greatly weakened ice.
A Big Burly High as the Final Ingredient
Weather patterns that favor melt during Spring and Summer include powerful high pressure systems dominating large regions of the Arctic. And for much of the past week, an extremely intense high in the range of 1040 to 1045 mb has stooped over the Beaufort, torqued the ice, and developed the kind of strong clockwise wind flow that has tended to result in fracturing, ice compaction, and the opening of darker ice and open water areas (please read Neven’s fantastic recent blog on this observation here).
This kind of weather system is the last ingredient necessary to trigger an early, rapid melt for the side of the Arctic where the last of the thick, old ice now remains. And it appears that, for at least two weeks, such conditions will hold strong sway over the Beaufort.
So overall, more and more conditions are lining up to deliver a ramping up of melt pressure on the Arctic sea ice. Record atmospheric heat, early break-up, record low or near record low area, extent, and volume, and a powerful high pressure system over the Beaufort do not at all bode well. In fact, this looks like a near perfect early season set-up for a record melt in 2016 should this clearly ominous trend continue.
Links:
Beaufort Under Early Pressure
The National Snow and Ice Data Center
The Polar Science Center (PIOMAS)
The Danish Meteorological Institute
JAXA
Andy Lee Robinson
The Edge of the Sea
CIRES1
LANCE-MODIS
Earth Nullschool
AdvertisementsHow does the fitness of elite Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ) athletes stack up against fighters from other martial arts? In an effort to answer this question researchers from the University State of Maringá and the Martial Arts and Combat Sports Research Group from the University of São Paulo completed a study in which they assessed raw fitness scores of BJJ athletes and compared them to those of other athletes in combat sports. Such a study is one of the first of its kind to examine the adapted physique of a BJJ athlete who must contend with a unique set of physical demands.
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is a martial art/fighting system that was developed in the 1920s as an adaptation of traditional Japanese ground-fighting martial arts. Though not as ubiquitous as other martial arts styles, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu has continued to grow in popularity over the last 30 years both at the amateur and competitive levels. Organizations such as the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation help organize and set the standards for BJJ competitions.
In Brazilian Jiu Jitsu the focus of combat is placed on ground-fighting. Take-downs and throws are also incorporated into the style’s curriculum, but they are less emphasized than in other arts such as Judo. Although formal competitions are bracketed by weight division, the style’s teachings on leverage, weight placement, and manipulation of an opponent’s body have given the art a reputation for being effective even when executed by smaller competitors against larger adversaries.
That being said though, what does the average elite Brazilian Jiu Jitsu fighter look like? Compared to the extensive investigations pertaining to top athletes in other sports such as wrestling or long-distance running, very little is known about the elite BJJ athlete. In one of the few peer-reviewed resources on the matter, researchers from the University State of Maringá and the University of São Paulo examined the fitness scores of athletes who medaled in national and/or international Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competitions.
What did they find? To begin, the researchers evaluated the cardiovascular fitness and aerobic endurance of their elite BJJ athletes by measuring their maximal oxygen consumption (VO2 max) scores during a treadmill test. On average the BJJ athletes consumed 49.5 mL/kg/min. This value is low compared to measurements from elite wrestlers, who have a reported maximal oxygen uptake of between 53 and 56 mL/kg/min. Even beyond that, judo athletes have an even greater average maximal oxygen uptake: about 63.0 mL/kg/min.
The BJJ athletes were also evaluated on their muscular endurance. The average elite BJJ athlete can crank out 40 push-ups in a minute—right in line with what elite judo athletes achieve according to a 2008 research study published in Acta Medica Medianae. The category where BJJ athletes really excelled was in tests of core muscular strength and endurance. The average athlete was recorded as completing 52 sit-ups per minute and scored an impressive 185.5 kgf for their maximal isometric back strength tests. In both these matters elite BJJ fighters out-scored comparably successful judo athletes.
As a whole, the authors of the paper concluded that elite Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu athletes have middling aerobic power, excellent muscular strength and endurance in their core and upper body, and maximal isometric back strength. But it is important to keep in mind that such values do not necessarily reflect the fitness of all athletes in a sport, nor can they predict which style or set of athletes is superior to another. It is also crucial to acknowledge that the study did not examine other essential characteristics such as technical skill, reflexes, and grit. Overall such research offers an intriguing, albeit very narrow window of insight into the profiling of some of the world’s most technical athletes.
By Sarah Takushi
Sources
Bratic et al
International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation
Science & Sports
Sports MedicineSaldana in 2009’s ‘Star Trek.’ Hopefully the Enterprise isn’t drafty.
Space might be the final frontier, but at least it’s fashion forward. Zoe Saldana has taken to Instagram to post a shot of her redesigned costume for the upcoming Star Trek Beyond — and for the first time in the rebooted franchise, her Uhura is sporting sleeves!
View photos
During a visit to the Vancouver set last summer, the actress talked up her new duds, which pay homage to the Enterprise uniform worn by Nichelle Nichols in the original 1960s series.
View photos
Uhura’s 1960s costume featured stripes with a bit more squiggle. (Paramount)
“I do have my stripes, just like each and every crew member on the ship. I’m very happy about that,” Saldana told Yahoo Movies.
But the sleeves were the only thing that got longer, as she pointed to her skirt with a smile.
More: Inside the First Trailer for ‘Star Trek Beyond’ — ‘The Most Action So Far’
“It’s still short. I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ But you know what. I just had twins and the fact that I’m able to wear this little dress seven months later, I’m grateful!”
Saldana and her husband, Italian artist Marco Perego, welcomed sons Cy and Bowie in November 2014.
The 37-year-old actress is currently working on another sci-fi sequel, Guardians of the Galaxy 2. Star Trek Beyond, meanwhile, comes out July 22.Today, the 398 eligible members of Democratic Party of Japan will vote for a replacement for current Prime Minister Naoto Kan. It’s easy to make light of the proceedings, which will elect the seventh prime minister Japan has had in the last five years. Just another election, some might argue, giving the country a leader without giving it leadership.
There’s certainly much merit in such scepticism. Given that the partisan political divisions that bedevilled the premiership of Kan – both of the Diet (Japan’s parliament) and the DPJ – will still be present and waiting to shackle the initiatives of the new DPJ leader, there’s little hope of Japan’s next leader’s lasting any longer than his five immediate predecessors.
Still, it would be unwise to dismiss Monday’s DPJ election as simply an empty exercise, because there are some serious issues facing the unprecedented five candidates vying to become the next leader of the party and country.
Since last July, Japan has had two opposing coalitions in charge of each of the two Houses of the Diet. The DPJ holds control of the House of Representatives, the House that elects the prime minister; its bitter rival the Liberal Democratic Party controls the House of Councillors. This leads to an anomalous situation where the party in power can’t pass any of its own legislation. Instead, the only legislation that has any hope of passage is drafted by the party that is outside the Cabinet. As the ruling DPJ doesn’t want to defer to the political programme of the minority LDP, action in Japan’s most important branch of the government has ground to a near halt. Only the calamity of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident of March 11, and Naoto Kan’s unnerving threat to not resign unless three major bills were passed, brought any cooperation between the two Houses on vital pieces legislation.
The next leader of the DPJ will need to provide an answer over how to break the deadlock in the Diet. Most public opinion polls show the populace favouring the DPJ and LDP working together on a bill-by-bill basis. Unfortunately, this approach was tried by the departing Kan administration with zero success.
The candidates in Monday’s election offer various solutions to the problem of the divided Diet. Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda and former foreign minister Seiji Maehara favour a grand coalition of the two major parties, with Maehara seeing the coalition as being for a fixed period of time and Noda the coalition as a more open-ended affair. The three other candidates in the race – Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Michihiko Kano, former minister of transport Sumio Mabuchi and Minister of Economics, Trade and Industry Banri Kaieda – argue that a more unified DPJ, another major problem that bedevilled Kan’s premiership, will somehow lead the party to find better ways of negotiating with the LDP on significant legislation. Just how the one follows from the other is unclear.
Looming over the selection process of a new leader is the great shadow of Ichiro Ozawa. He has been shut out from direct influence in party affairs since he was persuaded to resign as party secretary general in May 2010. He’s currently under suspension by the party, the second most severe punishment after expulsion. However, thanks to the deep personal loyalty of around 120 of members of the Diet, he remains the chief power broker in the selection process.
Ozawa is a political genius. Indeed, it isn’t an exaggeration to say he is the most creative political strategist of his generation. He was the architect of the strategy that guided the DPJ from a perennial nice guy loser into a political machine capable of seizing power, which it did in spectacular fashion in August 2009.“When he knew what he was doing, he was actually an effective hero, which did happen occasionally.”
That above quote is Apollo Gauntlet in a nutshell. In Adult Swim’s new show, which was adapted from a 2012 web series of the same name, the titular Apollo Gauntlet is a put-upon hero who punches and stammers his way through a nightmare version of the Middle Ages.
There’s a certain slacker charm that fuels series creator Myles Langlois’ Apollo Gauntlet. It’s the same “little hero that could” attitude that undoubtedly helped the property find an audience during its more Dadaist web series days.
The bizarre experiment of Apollo Gauntlet began back in 2012 as a web series of the same name by Rug Burn. It gained a cult following through the years, and its online presence led to Langlois creating a pilot for Adult Swim, where an online vote led to a series pickup. Rug Burn’s web series version of Apollo Gauntlet manages to be even cruder than the version you’re seeing on Adult Swim, but it’s absolutely the same show. Many of Apollo Gauntlet’s supporting characters, storylines, and even a number of Apollo’s non-sequitur one-liners trace back to the web series. So if you’re hungry for more Apollo, there’s two more “seasons” available online.
The show follows Paul Cassidy, an average run-of-the-mill cop, who is transported to a brand-new world courtesy of Dr. Benign (James Urbaniak). In this alternate dimension, Paul gains a new persona in the form of Apollo Gauntlet (voiced by Langlois), and accepts the role of noble hero. With new magical abilities and powerful (talking) armor, he can finally do right and protect the world just as he's always wanted.
Apollo Gauntlet is wise to adopt a quest-heavy structure to each episode. It adds a real sense of adventure that feels appropriate for the era and world that the show is set in.
The series also isn’t afraid to embrace its archaic setting for story potential. My favorite of the show’s first three episodes involves a lunar eclipse and the townspeople succumbing to the lunacy that was often associated with the phenomenon back in the Middle Ages. Apollo Gauntlet finds itself in a comfortable position to lean into this material when needed, or tone it down accordingly.
In spite of the series’ adventurous tone, the first episode surprisingly takes its time. It really just lets viewers get to know Paul Cassidy aka Apollo Gauntlet and Dr. Benign, as well as the dynamic shared between the two of them. Adult Swim series have followed a trend of moving a mile a minute, almost as if each new show is trying to cram in more than the last. It’s not until the final minutes of the show’s pilot that Paul even finds the gauntlets and accepts their power. Other series would have this function as their opening scene (it’s worth noting that the pitch pilot for Apollo Gauntlet does start with him already in the thick of hero-dom).
While Apollo is trying to save his new world, Dr. Benign is in a much less glamorous situation where he’s made the prisoner of Corporal Vile, some subterranean tyrant who looks like he was rejected from a casting call for He-Man villains. In fact, all of the Oracles of Doom have a disturbing, misplaced quality to them. They ultimately want to retrieve the special gauntlets that Apollo has lucked into finding, with Dr. Benign often being used as unwilling bait in their schemes to bring Apollo forward.
On the topic of He-Man, the show’s crude animation style definitely tries to mine humor out of its rough edges. There are plenty of entertaining gags that come from the show mocking the trope of re-used, cyclical animation from cartoons out of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. Brief glimpses of computer graphics or animation of a better quality occasionally pop up, as if to remind the audience that the show is capable of doing better than this, but that it’s an intentional move to evoke style and nostalgia. In a similar sense, the score for the series often sounds like it's the MIDI file from out of some early-era computer game like King’s Quest, which also helps establish the tone.
The show’s animation might leave a little to be desired, but Paul/Apollo is a charming character that will grow on audiences. He’s always quipping or muttering something to himself, and it’s usually a great window into this peculiar individual. One second he’ll be complaining about “compromising his coccyx” after a bad fall and then the next be waxing on about the documentaries of Werner Herzog.
There’s also a brilliant Shadow of the Colossus reference that I’d be remiss not to mention, especially since it’s followed with, “Nobody gets your dumb pop culture references.” Apollo does the stupid stuff that you would do if you found yourself with magical, superpowered gauntlets. Paul is the best sort of everyman and I found myself thinking of the titular character of Tim from the now-gone Life and Times of Tim, which is some of the highest praise that a beleaguered everyman can receive.
Each episode also seems to contain the weird tradition of Apollo rapping his way through his peril, which offers up a very Brad Neely-like vibe to the cartoon (in fact, the trajectory that Langlois’ Apollo Gauntlet is experiencing is not unlike what Brad Neely went through on the network with China, IL). They're brief flashes of craziness, but another appreciated dynamic to Apollo's character.
Apollo Gauntlet might not be the craziest or the most professional looking of Adult Swim’s programming, but it’s comfortable being what it is. Apollo Gauntlet is growing at its own pace. Hopefully audiences will get the opportunity to see where that growth leads, whether it’s doubling down on the ideas of season one or venturing into ambitious territory in a second season.
As the show’s beautiful theme song tells its audience, “Here comes Apollo Gauntlet. Fighting evil, even when it’s not there.” You better be ready for him.
Apollo Gauntlet begins airing July 9th at 12:15am on Adult Swim
This review is based on the first three quarter-hour episodes of Apollo Gauntlet’s first season.Meh... Just decided to throw something randomly here...Or is it?Not really, I've been doing extensive testing with hair movements and such as I promised that the final Pony Portal animation will be different from the other 6. This thing is up to be reviewed I suppose whether I already got that technique in the bag or if I still need to refine itOh well, everything needs refinement as they said.Chose this scene (part of the prologue) as I do not want to spoil any part of it. I will release some kind of teaser or similar to that in a short while; I'm only like 25 - 30% finished so far.What do you say?(By the way, after this I'll be utilising youtube more when first releasing any animations before DA follows a day or so; Don't want to trouble those without flash players)And by the way, this thing will be going to scraps after I feel its purpose is achievedThose who spot Twilight gets a cookie Out of cookies guysTry visiting the darkside they got some freshly baked.(oh, and for those who have silly ideas or such (), Bonbon just need a little momentum to launch herself through a portal made up high on the walls which is why she uses Lyra as a launch platform)The Public Accounts Committee of Parliament on Friday rejected its chairman KV Thomas’ comments that the prime minister will be summoned before it while it examines the issue of demonetisation. Referring to the rules of the committee, the panel in a statement said a minister or the prime minister cannot be called before it without any evidence or consultation in connection with the examination of estimates or accounts, PTI reported.
“However, Chairperson, when considered necessary but after its deliberations are concluded, may have an informal interaction with the Minister,” PAC said. The statement added that only officials can be called to give evidence in connection with examination of estimates and accounts relating to particular ministries.
On January 9, chairperson of the Parliamentary panel KV Thomas had said the panel had the right to summon anyone including Prime Minister Narendra Modi if it was not satisfied with Reserve Bank Governor Urjit Patel’s answers to queries on demonetisation. Several Bharatiya Janata Party leaders including Nishikant Dubey, Kirit Somaiya and Bhupender Yadav had said the committee does not have the authority to summon the Prime Minister. Dubey had also written to the Lok Sabha speaker and said Thomas’ comments were “wrong, unethical and against laid out Parliamentary procedures”, PTI reported.
The PAC had asked Patel to explain how and by whom the decision on the currency ban was made, and its impact on the economy. Thomas had also claimed Modi was misleading the country in a bid to justify his wrong decisions. The PAC chairperson had said that the decision to summon top officials was made when normalcy failed to return across the country.A spokesman for the Melbourne archdiocese said risk assessments were conducted for each priest found to be an abuser and the church was "committed to managing these people responsibly". Bishop Les Tomlinson (fourth from left) with Father Joe Doyle (far right), photographed more than five years after the Melbourne Response ordered Fr Doyle to stop acting as a priest. "Each case is obviously quite different with many of these people now very old indeed. Most, however, are under varied levels of supervision or monitoring as best we are able," director of communications Shane Healy said. But a Sunday Age investigation has found the archdiocese was unable to state how many known paedophile priests were under its jurisdiction as recently as this week. Documents tendered to the Royal Commission on child sexual abuse show 84 priests have been the subject of one or more claims or substantiated complaints of child sexual abuse under the church's Melbourne Response scheme.
The identity of 15 priests are known because they were convicted in a criminal court, most of whom are now deceased or in prison. Moved away: Father Mato Krizanac, who was placed on "administrative leave" over a substantiated abuse complaint in 2014, has resumed his duties in Bosnia. In January, after a query from The Sunday Age, the archdiocese admitted it did not know how many of the other 69 alleged and known offenders were still alive but believed "many of them have died". The archdiocese has since provided three different estimates for the number of priests |
the deal, and what it would mean for Metasploit and the open source community. The skepticism was, of course, fair. If Rapid7 was going to fund (and therefore, control) the development of the Metasploit Framework, why would anyone contribute to it any more? Why give away work product for free when Rapid7 is just going to turn around and sell it?
Today, Metasploit is still actively maintained by both paid Rapid7 software engineers and a small army of volunteer, open source contributors from around the world. In 2009, there were a grand total of 17 people who committed to Metasploit. This year alone, we've seen about 150 people contribute something to Metasploit. In fact, of the 400 or so contributors over the entire life of Metasploit, nearly half of them have committed something in the last 12 months. Check out the GitHub contributor graph, noting the pre- and post-acquisition volumes:
That couldn't have happened without not only Rapid7's support, but your support. Why do you, the open source contributor, do this? Well, that leads to the other fear at the time: once Metasploit came under the control of The Man, developed by Full Time Employees, who are Paid With Money, surely the next logical step was to turn Metasploit closed source -- or worse, crippleware, used only as a shingle to sell some weaksauce Metasploit Professional product that Real Hackers wouldn't ever use anyway.
That didn't happen either. When I started at Rapid7, shortly after the acquisition, I was hired to work on the proprietary side of Metasploit development, tasked with building out the first commercial Metasploit offering, Metasploit Express. When I started, I was just as worried that Metasploit's open development would dry up, the contributors would flee, and the massive open source user base would find something else to develop and deliver their exploits with.
Nope. It became obvious that Rapid7, from the top down, was and remains fully committed to the open source nature of Metasploit. In fact, it would be product suicide not to. Without the constant firehose of input from researchers, hackers, hobbyists, and IT pros from around the world, there would be no way Metasploit could stay relevant. We're committed to making Metasploit Framework better than ever, with more exploits, more features, and increasing coverage for all sorts of targets, from IoT devices to mainframes.
Today, tons and tons of people still use and still contribute to the Metasploit Framework. They use it for free, and they contribute for free, and that seems to be working out pretty well for both Rapid7 and the Internet at large. Obviously, Metasploit Pro brings a lot of extras to the table that are pretty valuable for the professional penetration tester and red-teamer, and you should totally try it for free today. However, it's the open source core of Metasploit that has become the lingua franca for writing and expressing reliable and repeatable exploit code for the good of the Internet.
My own five year anniversary at Rapid7 is coming up here in just a couple months, and I feel like I've spent my working and playing time productively to help make the Internet -- and therefore, the world -- a better place. I know I'm lucky to be in that position. My job depends on all of you who use and make Metasploit what it is. So, thanks a lot for keeping me employed, and for keeping important security software open and free. This project wouldn't have gone anywhere without you.Welcome to the Generation Series.
The Generation Series is a new label that stands for definitive editions of legendary video game soundtracks. Some of them previously unreleased, incomplete, out of print, hard to find, or not preserved in the best possible quality. For the first time ever, we are releasing your favorite soundtracks in comprehensive collector's editions: restored, remastered, often in unprecedented quality.
We are working with researchers, consultants and world class engineers to bring you the best possible versions of these soundtracks. We are also working closely with developers, license holders and original sound teams. All of our work will be overseen and approved by the respective composers or the person in charge of the sound team (wherever possible). On top of that, our physical releases will contain extras like interviews, art booklets and more.
The Generation Series is directed and supervised by Mohammed Taher and Marco Guardia, who previously worked together on the Brave Wave albums World 1-2, In Flux, the ongoing Retro-Active albums by Keiji Yamagishi, and other Brave Wave releases. The Generation Series name, logo, and packaging have been designed by Cory Schmitz, who previously branded Brave Wave, Oculus, Sony Computer Entertainment Santa Monica, and more.Bob Dylan
Genuine Bootleg Series III
Download: FLAC/MP3
Disc One
d1t01 – Hard Times in New York
Mackenzie Tapes, 11/23/61
d1t02 – Death Of Emmett Till
Mackenzie Tapes, January 1962
d1t03 – Sally Gal/ The Girl I Left Behind
Oscar Brand show, 10/29/61
d1t04 – I Rode Out One Morning
d1t05 – House Of the Rising Sun
Mackenzie Tapes, 4/12/63
d1t06 – See That My Grave Is Kept Clean
d1t07 – Ballad Of Donald White
Mackenzie Tapes, September 1962
d1t08 – Farewell
Witmark demo, March 1963
d1t09 – Percy’s Song
Carnegie Hall, 10/26/63
d1t10 – I Shall Be Free #10
d1t11 – I Shall Be Free #10
Another Side sessions, 6/9/64
d1t12 – If You Gotta Go Go Now
Philharmonic Hall, 10/31/64
d1t13 – It’s Alright Ma
Les Crane Show, 2/17/65
d1t14 – Tombstone Blues
Highway 61 outtake w/Chambers Bros
d1t15 – From A Buick 6
Hollywood Bowl, 9/3/65
d1t16 – Visions of Johanna
Sheffield, 5/16/66
d1t17 – Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat
Liverpool, 5/14/66
Disc Two
d2t01 – Mr. Tambourine Man
Sheffield, 5/16/66
d2t02 – This Wheel’s On Fire
d2t03 – You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere
d2t04 – I Shall Be Released
d2t05 – Too Much Of Nothing
d2t06 – You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere #2
Basement Tapes 1967
d2t07 – Folsom Prison Blues
d2t08 – Ring Of Fire
Self Portrait outtakes, 5/3/69
d2t09 – Went To See The Gypsy
d2t10 – If Not For You
d2t11 – Sign on the Window
New Morning outtakes, spring 1970
d2t12 – Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door
Pat Garrett sessions, February 1973
d2t13 – Nobody ‘Cept You
Montreal, 1/11/74
d2t14 – Lily, Rosemary, And The Jack Of Hearts
d2t15 – If You See Her Say Hello
BOTT test pressing, 9/12/74
d2t16 – Simple Twist Of Fate
d2t17 – Oh Sister
Hammond Tribute, 9/10/75
d2t18 – Rita Mae
Desire outtake, 7/14/75
Disc Three
d3t01 – Never Let Me Go
Renaldo And Clara EP, 12/4/75
d3t02 – Sign Language
Eric Clapton outtake, March 1976
d3t03 – Ballad Of A Thin Man
d3t04 – Blowin’ In The Wind
d3t05 – Blowin’ In The Wind
Rundown rehearsals, Jan/Feb 78
d3t06 – Shot Of Love
d3t07 – Watered Down Love
Shot Of Love outtakes
d3t08 – Tangled Up In Blue
Rome, 6/19/84
d3t09 – A Couple More Years
Hearts Of Fire, August 1986
d3t10 – The French Girl
Grateful Dead Rehearsals, April 87
d3t11 – Series Of Dreams
Oh Mercy outtake, March 1989
d3t12 – Ring Them Bells
Great Music Experience 5/20/94
d3t13 – Handy Dandy
UTRS outtake, 1/6/90
d3t14 – TV Talking Song
UTRS outtake, March 1990
d3t15 – Anyway You Want Me
Sony Studios, NYC, 9/10/94
d3t16 – Blue-Eyed Jane
Ardent Studios, Memphis, May 1994
d3t17 – Blind Willie McTell
WolfTrap, 8/24/97
d3t18 – Hard Times
Big Six-O, 4/28/93
d3t19 – Restless Farewell
Sinatra Tribute, 11/19/95The three parties reached an agreement on a 21-point plan to “increase employment focus” in local municipalities’ efforts to integrate refugees.
“This is about how we from now on handle the process between the asylum and the integration phases. What should the municipalities do differently? What are the challenges in the interaction between having a job focus while also supplying Danish language education,” Employment Minister Jørn Neergaard Larsen told reporters after the tripartite negotiations on Friday.
Under the plan, Larsen said that local municipalities must focus exclusively on getting refugees into work, even at the expense of learning the Danish language.
“The municipalities form now on use all of their powers to get people a foothold into the job market and all other activities, for example Danish lessons, should be introduced later,” he said.
Denmark has had a poor track record of getting refugees into the labour market. A 2015 analysis from the Confederation of Danish Employers (Dansk Arbejdsgiverforening) showed that three out of four refugees who came to Denmark in the early 2000s were jobless ten years later
Rasmussen told parliament earlier this month that there is a potential savings of 200 kroner per citizen every time a refugee finds work and leaves social welfare support and he warned that if Denmark’s refugee employment rates are not brought to the level of other non-Western immigrants, the national economy stands to lose 2.5 billion kroner ($300 million) in "just a few years”.
The 21-point plan includes calls for better screening of refugees’ competencies, tying refugees’ housing opportunities to employment, and a “clear requirement that they [refugees] need to work and provide for themselves and their families”.
The plan also calls for Danish language courses to “supplement” the job focus and calls on the language courses to be modernized and made more relevant to the job market. Businesses that hire refugees are also given the opportunity to provide their own language lessons with financial support form the local municipality.
See also: Language holds the key to success in Denmark
The full 21-point plan can be read here (in Danish).
Some 25,000 refugees are expected to arrive in Denmark in 2016 with 17,000 of these eventually being transferred to municipality integration programmes, according to a press release by the Ministry of Employment.Good gosh o’mighty, what a college football season so far. It’s early November, and fans have already witnessed:
Amid all this excitement, in walks the selection committee to cut the ribbon on its first iteration of this season’s College Football Playoff (CFP) rankings. Unveiled over the next month, these CFP rankings will determine who plays in the second-ever four-team playoff. But reading the CFP tea leaves can be overwhelming.
Confused by the CFP committee’s weird pronouncements? Fearful that Condoleezza Rice and her comrades will stab your team in the back? (Baylor and TCU fans, you know the feeling.) Trying to interpret the CFP rankings probably makes you feel like the Michigan guy who made his way around the Internet:
FiveThirtyEight can’t stop the CFP from screwing your team, but we’re going to try to use numbers and our football knowledge to prevent you from being blindsided.
Each week, we’ll break down the latest CFP rankings, preview the big upcoming games and explore what-if questions. As we did last year, we’ll take an iterative and probabilistic approach to project which four teams the CFP committee will select into the playoff on Dec. 6.
We’ll cover the Power Five conferences and make a special effort not to ignore the mid-major darlings. Translation: we’ll show Memphis and Houston some love. And as a born-and-raised LSU fan, I’m obliged to exhibit a cocky and blatant SEC bias intended to solicit all your angry emails.
Before we dive into the new rankings and preview games by conference, a few nitty-gritty details about the model are worth reiterating from what editor-in-chief Nate Silver has written in greater detail elsewhere on FiveThirtyEight:
Game predictions are based on a tweaked version of ESPN’s Football Power Index (FPI) for each team.
Based on game results, each team is given an Elo rating that reflects, primarily, its strength of schedule and, to a lesser extent, the margin of victory in its games.
Each team is given a new projected ranking based on the previous week’s ranking, the outcome of the game it has just played and its Elo rating.
ranking based on the previous week’s ranking, the outcome of the game it has just played and its Elo rating. Then the model iterates through the season’s remaining games and, using past coaches’ polls as a guide, tries to predict what the CFP committee will decide.
Latest CFP Rankings
Just like last year, the CFP committee angered Big 12 fans. Baylor and TCU were ranked sixth and eighth, respectively, while Ohio State is third. One-loss Alabama sneaked in at No. 4 and LSU at No. 2, a clear sign that the committee respects an SEC schedule. But the committee really has a penchant for Clemson, the squad at No. 1. That also helps Notre Dame, whose only loss is to Clemson. The committee puts the Fighting Irish just outside the party at No. 5.
Ranking Probability of … Team CFP Elo FPI Conf. Title Playoff Nat. Title Ohio State 3 1 4 47% 61% 16% Clemson 1 7 7 56% 51% 12% Alabama 4 2 6 14% 41% 11% TCU 8 4 2 37% 31% 11% Baylor 6 10 1 32% 31% 13% LSU 2 5 8 22% 30% 8% Notre Dame 5 8 9 — 25% 5% Michigan State 7 3 19 15% 22% 3% Stanford 11 6 13 46% 19% 3% Florida 10 9 12 41% 18% 4% Oklahoma 15 16 3 15% 14% 5% Mississippi 18 17 10 20% 8% 2% Iowa 9 12 29 25% 7% <1% Michigan 17 22 18 7% 6% <1% Oklahoma St. 14 11 14 15% 6% 1% Utah 12 15 21 18% 6% <1% Memphis 13 14 36 21% 6% <1% Florida State 16 13 15 13% 5% <1% USC — 20 5 30% 4% 1% Mississippi St. 20 19 17 <1% 3% <1% Houston 25 23 33 30% 2% <1% UCLA 23 21 22 5% 1% <1% North Carolina — 26 23 23% <1% <1% Toledo 24 24 43 28% <1% <1% Temple 22 32 45 41% <1% <1% Oregon — 25 32 <1% <1% <1% Wisconsin — 18 24 5% <1% <1% Texas A&M 19 30 16 <1% <1% <1% Arkansas — 39 26 <1% <1% <1% Penn State — 27 41 <1% <1% <1% Northwestern 21 42 57 <1% <1% <1%
What to watch for this week
SEC
The No. 4, one-loss Crimson Tide face No. 2, undefeated LSU in what is as close to a play-in game for the playoff as can be devised at this point in the season. Vegas has the Tide favored by about 6 points. That seems about right. After all, the game is in Tuscaloosa, and the FiveThirtyEight model gives home teams a 3.5-point advantage. But Alabama also has a slight edge over LSU according to FPI, despite its earlier loss to Ole Miss.
The FiveThirtyEight model gives Alabama a 41 percent chance of making the playoff, largely because they’re favored in this game; LSU’s playoff odds are 30 percent. But let’s answer our first what-if question: How will those odds change after this game? My colleague Jay Boice ran additional simulations contingent on each team winning. In this thought experiment, if the Tide win, their odds would rise to 53 percent; but if the Tigers were to win, their odds would tick up to 45 percent. The Tigers’ odds are still lower, even if they beat Alabama, because their remaining schedule is so grueling. A road game against Ole Miss and a matchup with Texas A&M at home stand out on what is, going into this week, the toughest remaining schedule.
(As a diehard fan who was born and raised in Baton Rouge, I’d like to be able to tell my fellow LSU faithful that these numbers favoring ’Bama are made up. But I can’t. What we Tiger fans do have going in our favor is Leonard Fournette, the Heisman Trophy favorite and, as Wright Thompson wrote, emerging legend.)
Interestingly, though Alabama is favored to win and gets higher odds of making the postseason, because LSU is undefeated, the Tigers have higher odds (22 percent) of winning the conference, according to our model. (That’s because if LSU stumbles, Ole Miss is in position to win the SEC West with a tiebreaker over Alabama.) But beyond Alabama and LSU, Florida is waiting in the wings with an 18 percent chance of squeezing into the playoff. The Gators are looking like a good bet to win the SEC East, as they face only creampuffs for the remainder of their conference schedule; and if they emerge as a one-loss champion of the SEC, it will be hard for the committee not to include them.
Big 12
Baylor and TCU are putting up basketball scores each week. High-powered offenses drive the two highest-ranked teams according to FPI. Our model gives undefeated, No. 8 TCU the best chance of breaking into the playoff, even though Baylor is notionally better according to FPI. That’s because the Horned Frogs host the No. 6 Bears on Nov. 27 in what amounts to (assuming both teams are undefeated) a Big 12 championship game the conference never planned.
The Big 12 is deep — very deep. Take this week’s biggest game: TCU faces No. 14 Oklahoma State. Although the Horned Frogs look strong according to our model — which gives them a 31 percent chance of making the playoff — the Cowboys can’t be ignored (they have a 6 percent chance themselves). The conference also includes a strong Oklahoma team, whom our model gives a 14 percent chance of making the postseason.
Big Ten
The FiveThirtyEight model gives No. 3 Ohio State the best odds of making the playoff: 61 percent. Furthermore, we give the Buckeyes a 16 percent chance of repeating as national champs. But look beyond them and you’ll see a strong conference, with the winner likely to be placed in the playoff.
Ohio State has a difficult schedule ahead. Like the LSU vs. Alabama game this week, the Nov. 21 matchup against No. 7 Michigan State could be viewed as a de facto national quarterfinal game; Michigan State has a 22 percent chance of being in the final four. The winner likely will face currently undefeated Iowa in the Big Ten championship game.
ACC
After those three conferences, there’s a huge dropoff in quality. With the exception of Clemson, the ACC looks wobbly. That said, the undefeated Tigers are viewed favorably by the selection committee, which gave them their No. 1 ranking. Our model gives them a 51 percent chance of making the postseason (the best after Ohio State), but after them, Florida State is the next best ACC squad, with a 5 percent chance. That said, the Tigers face what is probably their toughest remaining challenge at home against the Seminoles on Saturday. If they survive, a what-if simulation we ran gives the Tigers a 61 percent chance of making the playoff. Furthermore, if they run the table in their remaining games, they’re likely to make the playoff (our model would put their chances at 99 percent), but if they don’t win out, the ACC champion won’t have a guaranteed spot. Why? Because if Clemson loses this week, our model would give both Clemson and FSU about a 15 percent chance.
Pac-12
What a total mess. Among Pac-12 teams, Stanford has the best chance of making the playoff, at 19 percent. Despite having just one loss, Utah does poorly in our model, registering a 6 percent chance — little better than unranked USC. FiveThirtyEight reckons that if Stanford does win out, it’s 90 percent likely to make the playoffs. In other words, the Pac-12 is not guaranteed a spot right now. To push the Cardinal’s odds up, Clemson would have to slip, and still a second team from the SEC or Big Ten might leapfrog the Pac-12 champ.
Beyond The Power Five
The best bet outside the five major conferences is No. 5 Notre Dame, with a 25 percent chance of making the playoff. Memphis and Houston, as impressive as they’ve been, stand only a 6 percent and 2 percent chance, respectively, of being included. In other words, the stellar mid-major teams should keep rooting for those in the major conferences to cannibalize each other.U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Monday that she anticipated “pursuing additional charges against individuals and entities” in the government’s ongoing probe into corruption within FIFA and soccer more generally.
Lynch made the statement at a joint news conference with Swiss authorities in Zurich, where she touted the breadth of the investigation as well as the cooperation with other authorities:
Separate and apart from the pending indictment, our investigation remains active and it is ongoing. And it in fact has expanded since May. As I made clear at our initial announcement, the scope of our investigation is not limited, and we are following the evidence where it leads. I am grateful for the significant cooperation and substantial evidence that we have received from all quarters. Based upon that cooperation and new evidence, we do anticipate pursuing additional charges against individuals and entities. The problem of corruption in soccer is global, and we will remain vigilant in our efforts to support a global response.
Lynch’s Swiss counterpart Michael Lauber also announced that he was specifically looking into an undervalued television rights contract that FIFA president Sepp Blatter signed, awarding the rights to the arrested former FIFA vice-president Jack Warner. Here’s The Guardian on the details of what Lauber is investigating:
The latest revelation emerged after Swiss broadcaster SRF uncovered a 2005 contract in which the Warner-controlled Caribbean Football Union were sold the broadcast rights to the 2010 and 2014 World Cups for $600,000. The Trinidadian, at that time CFU’s president, sub-licensed those rights to his own Cayman Islands-registered company J & D International (JDI), according to the Press Association. In 2007, JDI sold on the rights to Jamaica-based cable TV station SportsMax for a value that the broadcaster reported on its own website as being between $18m and $20m.
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Originally, the Swiss investigation concentrated upon how the 2018 (Russia) and 2022 (Qatar) World Cup bids were awarded. But the AP reports that the scope seems to be widening, and that Swiss authorities have seized property as well as raided houses, yielding papers and important information leading them closer to Blatter:
“We have a lot of facts at the moment out of house searches and out of the documents we received,” said Lauber, when asked about an allegation that Blatter knowingly undersold World Cup television rights for the Caribbean in exchange for political support.
Sepp Blatter—who, despite announcing that he would resign over three months ago, is still FIFA’s president—is already afraid of entering the United States and Canada (but he’ll go to Russia!). But with Swiss authorities now seriously investigating him personally, it looks like even his home country isn’t safe.
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Photo via APThis cartoon by the hard-line Fars news agency, which is a clear insult to those Iranian women who don't respect the Islamic hijab fully and are often described by authorities as "badly veiled," is making the rounds on social media.
The cartoon suggests that women who cover their hair and body fully are perhaps as smart as Albert Einstein, while those who don't completely observe the obligatory Islamic dress code are brainless.
The cartoon is a new low in propaganda efforts to force Iranian women to respect the hijab, which became compulsory after the 1979 revolution and the creation of an Islamic republic.
Most government-supported posters and campaigns usually suggest that the hijab protects women, and women should wear it for their own good. Fars has gone a step further by suggesting that the hijab makes women brainy.
Despite these efforts and the use of force, harassments, arrests, threats and other measures over the past 32 years, the Iranian authorities have failed in their attempt to force women to appear in public the way they want them to.
-- Golnaz EsfandiariGateway Pundit reporter Lucian Wintrich was arrested during his speech at the University of Connecticut this evening after he attempted to recover his notes, which had been stolen by a left-wing activist who stormed the stage.
Video footage from the event shows the activist grabbing the notes and walking away, after which Lucian Wintrich can be seen pursuing the activist, physically grabbing her, and recovering them.
https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/935695631972208641
https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/935697168576536577
Connecticut state law permits the use of “reasonable physical force” to recover stolen property. Nevertheless, it was Wintrich who ended up being arrested at the event.
The Connecticut Democratic party put out a statement on social media condemning Wintrich for “violence” and “white supremacy.”
This is despicable, and Connecticut Democrats condemn this violence — and the white supremacy Mr. Wintrich was peddling — in the strongest possible terms. https://t.co/df0ed7H60S — Connecticut Dems (@CTDems) November 29, 2017
Wintrich’s speech was titled “It’s OK To Be White,” a nod to the viral, largely anonymous grassroots campaign aimed at exposing left-wing racism on university campuses.
Lucian Wintrrich speaking at #UCONN. Lots of angry protestors in crowd. https://t.co/xmadzIKZBM — Kevin Galliford (@KallMeKG) November 29, 2017
The speech was met with disruptive protests from left-wingers on campus, who chanted “Go home Nazi” at Wintrich, who is openly gay and of Polish and Jewish ancestry.
According to pictures from campus reporter Rebecca Lurye, windows at Wintrich’s event were also smashed. It is not currently known if any of the vandals have been arrested.
Police are currently talking to @lucianwintrich in a restroom, the door is closed and windows are shattered pic.twitter.com/YGr8z0DBF7 — Rebecca Lurye (@RebeccaLurye) November 29, 2017
According to Lurye, police had to ask protesters to disperse so that Wintrich could be escorted out of the event.
Officers have asked students to back up so they can lead @lucianwintrich out and be assured he is safe pic.twitter.com/8aohJvwAY5 — Rebecca Lurye (@RebeccaLurye) November 29, 2017
Protesters then pursued Wintrich and the police out of the building, chasing the police vehicle as it left campus.
Officers led him out into a car on the opposite side of the building. The group sprinted, students tripped over each other and the railings, and chased the car. Students demanding officers’ names. The group is starting the disperse — Rebecca Lurye (@RebeccaLurye) November 29, 2017Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Ken Clarke has spent the day at the centre of a media storm, after remarks he made about rape on Radio 5 live caused controversy.
Ken Clarke has declined to apologise after he appeared to suggest that some rapes were less serious than others.
It followed a BBC interview about sentencing proposals in which he referred to "serious rape".
The justice secretary later returned to TV studios to stress that "all rape is a serious crime" and that he had used the "wrong choice of words".
Labour leader Ed Miliband had said he should quit for effectively suggesting there were "other categories of rape".
The row began on Wednesday morning with remarks Mr Clarke gave in an interview with BBC Radio 5 live about proposals under consultation to halve jail terms for people who plead guilty early, including rapists.
Ken Clarke was defending his plans to cut in half the sentences of criminals who plead guilty long before they get to court Nick Robinson In full: Ken Clarke interview Ken Clarke: Regret but no apology
Mr Clarke has not apologised for his remarks in general, but he has written to a victim of attempted rape, who also featured on the show, saying: "I have always believed that all rape is extremely serious, and must be treated as such.
"I am sorry if my comments gave you any other impression or upset you."
'Proper punishment'
At present, a defendant entering an early guilty plea can earn up to a third off their sentence. But proposals to halve sentences are outlined in a Green Paper on sentencing in England and Wales.
In an interview with Victoria Derbyshire on BBC Radio 5 live, Mr Clarke argued that pushing for an early guilty plea would stop rapists denying charges and would relieve the victim of "going through the whole ordeal again and of being called a liar" in court.
He dismissed suggestions rapists could be out in 15 months - calculated by halving the average sentence of five years, then allowing for the time someone would be allowed to serve on licence - as "total nonsense".
On being told that the five-year figure came from the Council of Circuit Judges, Mr Clarke said: "That includes date rape, 17-year-olds having intercourse with 15 year olds...
"A serious rape with violence and an unwilling woman - the tariff is longer than that."
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Justice Secretary Ken Clarke watched Ed Miliband call for his resignation during PMQs while he was on the set of the Daily Politics, but suddenly left
When BBC interviewer Victoria Derbyshire interrupted to say "Rape is rape, with respect", Mr Clarke replied: "No it's not, if an 18-year-old has sex with a 15-year-old and she's perfectly willing, that is rape. Because she is under age, she can't consent... What you and I are talking about is we are talking about a man forcibly having sex with a woman and she doesn't want to - a serious crime."
He also said date rapes were included in the figures adding: "Date rape can be as serious as the worst rapes but date rapes... in my very old experience of being in trials [from his time as a practising lawyer]... they do vary extraordinarily one from another, and in the end the judge has to decide on the circumstances."
He later admitted he had confused "date rape" with sex with a willing but underage girl.
'Real disgrace'
BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said Mr Clarke had, in any case, not been correct to suggest consensual sex with a 15-year-old would be rape - under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 children under 13 are presumed to be incapable of giving their consent to sex. Sex with a 15-year-old would amount to another sexual offence which carries a lower penalty.
In a separate interview with Sky News, Mr Clarke denied he was cutting sentences. He said the proposal applied to every single criminal offence, adding: "Rape has been singled out as an example mainly to add a bit of sexual excitement to the headlines."
At Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Miliband said Mr Clarke's comments had implied there were "serious rapes and other categories of rape" adding: "The justice secretary can't speak for the women of this country when he makes comments like that."
David Cameron told MPs rape was "one of the most serious crimes that there is and it should be met with proper punishment" and the "real disgrace" was that only 6% of reported rape cases ended in a conviction.
He said there was already a plea bargaining system in the UK and the government was only consulting on whether to extend it - and had not yet decided what crimes it should include.
The prime minister said he had not heard the interview but Mr Miliband told him to go back and listen to it, adding: "The justice secretary should not be in his post at the end of today."
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said Mr Clarke "has to go if he stands by these comments because they are absolutely appalling".
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Rape sentence comments: no apology from Ken Clarke
In later interviews Mr Clarke said the "most extraordinary spin" had been put on his comments and he had been responding to average sentence figures that were put to him.
But he told BBC political editor Nick Robinson: "My view is all rape is a serious crime and if I have given the impression that is not my view then that is wrong, a wrong choice of words."
Asked if he had been ordered to apologise following the row, Mr Clarke said he had not - and he had not apologised: "I apologise if an impression has been given which is not my view and which I don't think I stated."
He added: "Nobody has had to tell me anything - I have always believed from the days I was a young lawyer that rape is a very serious crime - all rape."
The prime minister's spokesman said it was "clearly regrettable" if anybody had been offended by Mr Clarke's comments but said the PM had confidence in him.
He added there had been some misconceptions about what has been said, but added: "The prime minister has not spent the day watching Ken Clarke interviews."
He said both Mr Cameron and Mr Clarke had thought it important he "went out and clarified the position".MANHATTAN — An off-duty correction officer was arrested Sunday for threatening another driver with a loaded gun in a Harlem parking dispute, police said.
Robin Mervin, 29, a four-year veteran of the Department of Correction, blocked the other driver, whose identity wasn't immediately released, from a parking spot and then pulled her gun from a holster and pointed it at the other driver, NYPD officials and reports said.
The other driver "feared for his safety," prosecutors said.
The victim called 911 and Mervin was arrested for criminal possession of a loaded firearm and menacing, police and reports said.
She was arraigned Sunday and released, records show. She's due back in court on June 20.
Mervin began working for the DOC on April 26, 2012, according to an agency spokeswoman.
"The vast majority of correction officers perform their duties with the highest level of integrity and [DOC Commissioner Joseph] Ponte has zero tolerance for those who don’t,” the spokeswoman said.
She said she can't release information about disciplinary actions Mervin may face because of civil rights laws.
Mervin's attorney, Peter Troxler, declined to comment.An oil train south of St. Paul, Minnesota, in July 2014. Connor Lake/AP/The Star Tribune
After almost two years of deliberation, Barack Obama’s administration is expected to enact regulations next month that will attempt to protect trackside communities from exploding oil trains. However, the new rule won’t take the one step that could decrease the risk almost immediately — requiring North Dakota oil producers to either reduce their product’s explosiveness or ship it in pressurized cars. Officials say they can’t take that step because nobody really knows how to reduce or properly measure the oil’s volatility. Roughly a dozen oil trains have exploded in the United States and Canada in the past 21 months, including one in Quebec that left 47 people dead. The U.S. Department of Transportation has repeatedly warned of the unusual volatility of North Dakota’s oil. But the draft of the new rule that was released in July didn’t include anything to limit the oil’s volatility, and officials say the final rule won’t either. That falls in line with the urging of the American Petroleum Institute (API), the oil and gas industry’s largest trade group, but it’s likely to anger those residents and activists living near rail lines on which the oil trains travel. Nancy Casler, who lives near tracks in Menands, New York, says the DOT needs to address her concerns about both tanker standards and volatility before she and her family can feel safe again living next to what she considers an immense rolling pipeline. “I’m especially concerned that the [new tankers] that pass 30 feet from my house are … the |
159,000 in funding, but at the end of the year, the British government declared funding will now be cut totally, apart from a smaller cash injection of £27,000 pounds.The year 2011 saw Quilliam totally change sides, and instead go against British Muslim interests.Funding now came from spurious foreign charities and organisations such as the(SFF) and the(TF); who are intensely right wing groups found in the United States.A total of $250,000 dollars was provided; and rather very unusually and out of character, the, to which the government offered £40,000 pounds.This was the year that marked the first time Nawaz advocated for bombing Muslim countries.In the same timeframe, Quilliam US was registered as a charity, one of whom's founders is a war profiteer, Chad Sweet of the Chertoff Group.
Robinson's financial history is very questionable and was highly likely the reason he left the EDL in 2013; given the amount of illegal activity he has engaged in.He alleges that he cares about his country but refuses to pay taxes at all.During his apprenticeship, he alleges he worked for a Merrill Lynch contractor where he was paid £70,000 to £80,000 pounds per year, and even had six people employed by him.By 2010, because of his public appearances, the police were alerted to his financial history.The police first investigated his sun-tanning shop, which was bringing in £1,500 pounds in cash per week and £500 pounds in credit card receipts.The police analysed all of his electronic paperwork, which were also tracked throughtechnology, and found that Robinson had avoided contributing to his country by avoiding £137,000 pounds in tax (this figure did not include the lack of tax paid by cash in hand).A court case ensued, where he was eventually ordered to repay back £125,000 pounds.In November 2013, he was also convicted of a £160,000 pound mortgage fraud,and given 18 months in jail (but was out in 6 months).He was part, in total, of a tax-dodging gang, one of whom (Deborah Rothschild) racked up £640,000 pounds in fraud.His wife was also arrested for another tax dodging crime.A mere 6 months prior to his sentencing he quit the EDL and joined, which calls itself ancharity, founded by Maajid Nawaz, an anti-Muslim extremist who pays himself £77,438 per year.Robinson's move was therefore for financial reasons not regret.
His close friend/anti-Muslim associate Chris Knowles (the EDL's chief strategist) was also fired from Leeds Council a week prior.After the collapse of the most important figures in the EDL, a clearer picture emerged of Robinson's associations. The terrorist connections Robinson and his funders had had became extremely relevant. The fact that Ayling personally knew of Fjordman and Bartholomeus, both of whom had connections to terrorists; the former for having radicalised Anders Behring Brevikand the second for having actively supported a Jewish terrorist group,indicated how toxic Robinson's ties to the EDL had become. Brevik had murdered 77 people in Norway (69 of them children on Utoya Island in Norway and the rest in a bomb blast in the city of Oslo),and had mentioned Fjordman at least 111—114 times in his manifesto (along with 116 mentions ofand 86 mentions of),clearly indicative of how much he had been radicalised.Even after the incident RobinsonBreivik.However, mired with the downfall of Ayling, and his own soon-to-be financial problems, Robinson chose to finally abandon the EDL for good. He claimed to be apologeticto the Islamic/Muslim community but falsely painted himself as some sort of reformed character.He began being seen with his cousin Kevin Carroll alongside staff members of the Quilliam Foundation. However, amidst this smokescreen, the media were to beginning to notice Robinson and his cousin's anti-Muslim rhetoric begin again;this time in supporting the genocide of the Rohingyas.
In 2009, the EDL was founded in a £500,000 pound flat in the upper-class Barbican flats in the City of London; inside a flat ownedby Ayling (who is a Zionist).According to reportsThe revelation of this clandestine meeting is important because it highlights the racial and violent political nature behind the formation of the EDL, and that of Robinson's selective targeting of the British Muslim community. Ayling even later outed himself as an active supporter of terrorism; promoting the elimination of those who disagree with him, once writing an entire article on his websitethat called for the killing/murdering of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the British Prime Minister as well as the Deputy Prime Minister.The police however have never charged him for supporting or encouraging terrorism (but they have with Muslims). Nevertheless, Ayling was able to fund the EDL secretively using both his salaried job (having earned £70,000 pounds per year) plus uncapped bonuses; but his identity eventually came to light in 2011,when a terrorist attack occurred in Norway (with the evidencesuggesting that Ayling may have financed himself).His employer knew of his activities as far back as January 2011, when Ayling was first suspended from his jobeventually being fired in August 2012(because his bank wanted to expand into Muslim countries).
In December of 2011, the organisationreleased a report on those funding Robinson, with his most significant sources of income coming from BNP funders, years after he supposedlythe BNP.All of this information came from a defector named Paul Ray—a Neo-Nazi and Christian extremist—who exposed the network after having become severely disaffected with Robinson's leadership,and who was for a long time in an arduous power struggle for control of the EDL with him.These financiers have been Alan 'Lake' Ayling (who is awhere),Ann 'Gaia' Marchini (a multi-millionaire BNP financier,also known under the alias of),Chris 'Aeneas' Knowles,Robert De Jonge (who also operates under the name of) and Christine Brim.Another important figure has been self-proclaimed racial theorist Edward 'Baron Bodissey' May—and chief radicaliser of Anders B. Brevik,Peder Jensen ()—who is head of the anti-Muslimwebsite—named after thein 1683; which is often touted as an Islamic vs. Western clash of civilization;but ironically was only ever really majority fought only between Europeans (and allies of the Ottomans such as France), with some 25% of the soldiers involved being Muslim, and 75% being Christian.
Indeed, and rather crucially, the 2005 General Election coincided directly to when he obtained his membership with the racist party; and perhaps more telling of why he cannot claim ignorance for the racial policies of the BNP are when the party was constantly campaigning for votes across the country during this time, with regular television appearances surrounding Griffin (who at this point had been it's leader/chairman for six years).It is also interesting to note that the BNP increased their vote count dramatically by 145,721 votes from 47,129 in 2001, in the 2005 general election, collecting a grand total of 192,850 votes.This was at a time when the UK's election voter turnout was the lowest in it's history for the past few decades at slightly above 60%. In the 2010 General Election, the BNP obtained a staggering 563,743 votes.In 2015, the BNP obtained only 1,667 votes;or a fall of 99.7%.This large drop in support also coincided with the increased membership of the EDL, who's ranks swelled with ex-BNP members (at least 33% of the members of the EDL in 2011 were active BNP voters),something which only could have been achieved so rapidly, only if Robinson knew a lot of it's members long beforehand and actively recruited them continuously for the EDL. In 2012, most tellingly of all however, was that Robinson was directly involved with an off-shoot of the BNP—the—serving as their vice-chairman,attempting to get members of the EDL elected into parliament.After the BNP's drastic decline in popularity, Robinson for the first time ever, tweeted his disdain for the BNP, saying
Robinson joined the BNP in 2004,holding membership for 365 days; having admitted his ties on the BBC'sHowever, in an extremely bizarre move, Robinson justified his membership by stating that heand that he alsoThis doesn't makesense given that the fundamental—and founding—principle of the BNP has always been opposition to the existence of people based on race.Additionally, Griffin is widely known across the UK for his decades long membership with the National Front when he joined it in 1974 (which itself been active since the early 1970s; and which at it's peak, had 15,000 active members).Griffin is also an extremely infamous White Power advocate, and known widely in the UK for his long history of racist remarks. For example, in the 1980s he stated,. He also produced a leaflet which claimed(and has also denied the Holocaust, preferring to call it the).Given this body of evidence, Robinson cannot claim he didn't know enough about the BNP both before and during his time with the party. This means that he actively supported it's racial hatred policies, and knew of the intensely racially charged and inflamed policies the BNP ran on during the national election cycle that suspiciously coincided with him obtaining paid membership to the party.
He also frequently discriminates against Muslims. Perhaps the most sinister comparison Robinson has made about Muslims is when he equated them to rats, branding all Muslims, This comparison with rats is particularly relevant as the Nazis commonly used this in their anti-Semetic media; such as that in, which was a Nazi propaganda film which depicted the Jewish religious minority as gutter rats,because of Jewish criminals. The film specifically began with the narrator saying,Other things which he has tweeted out are extremely unfunny jokes that don't make any sense, such as. In another tweet he wroteRobinson has also called Muslims, claimingignoring the fact that even if this was true, 80% of the worlds marriages throughout history have been cousin marriages,including that of evolutionary biologist Charles Darwin,physicist Albert Einstein,poet Edgar Allan Poe,writer H.G. Wells,US President Franklin D. Roosevelt,American revolutionary John Adams,US founding father Thomas Jefferson,founder of the Buddhist religion Gautama Buddha,Morse code inventor Samuel F. B. Morseand Roman general Mark Antony.Robinson has also threatened British Muslims with violence, and doesn't regard Muslims as British citizens,just as the Nazis didn't consider Jews German.
Robinson has fabricated numerous stories about Muslims in order to further his anti-Muslim agenda. For instance after a terrorist incident in May 2017 in Manchester he tweeted a picture to his 300,000 followers that thewasThis wasn't the case, as the police immediately retorted back that the photo he tweeted was an older photograph taken on June 23rd, 2016, when the terrorist incident Robinson was attempting to libel the police photograph with occurred in 2017.In another incident he made a libel against Muslims that they had desecrated a Christian cemetery, with the accusation coming from his autobiography.At thehe showed a video of Muslims chanting, with the crowd responding back, where Robinson lied by claiming that when this is translated the crowd was actually sayingIn actual fact what they were saying was awhere Muslims shoutAnother time he falsely claimed all Uber driver rapists are Muslims becauseIn yet another tweet in response to a story by thehe claimed a British soldier was attacked by Muslims; saying; to which the newspapers responded by silencing him with the fact that the soldier was attacked by a White Briton, to which he didn't respond.He also calls Muslims, despite beating his own wife and attacking a police officer.
Robinson claims he doesn't hate all Muslims, but evidence has proven otherwise.For instance, he believes Muslim women, racially-wise,are ugly, making an exception by once remarking to a 15 year-old Muslim girl—who clearly had her birthday publicly displayed on her Twitter profile—that she wasIn another instance a British boxer attended a prayer session with his Muslim brother; Robinson lashed out at him branding him aIn another instance, an EDL member viciously declared that he wished Muslims wouldwhere Robinson responded by saying that he found that there wasFurthermore, he totally refuses to outright condemn members of the EDL who are ex-convicts, terrorists,child-groomers, rapists,paedophiles/child molesters,football hooligans,murderers,wife-beaters,White supremacistsand racists. He also justifiedthe terrorist attack against Muslims that occurred in Finsbury Park in 2017,where Darren Osborne killed one Muslim.Perhaps most sinister is Robinson having been allowed to visit Israel—where, despite his Nazi past—he has been welcomed by the Israeli military (which claims it is the) having taken photographs with them—unsurprising, given that Israelis hate Muslims (where nearly half, or 48%, of Israelis want to ethnically cleanse Muslims from the region), and where their military regularlyuses Muslim—even Muslim—as human shields as per official policy.He has also called Muslims
Robinson also has a contradictive personality when it comes to his own ethnic heritage. Although he claims to be English, he is in actual fact half Scottish (from his fathers side) and half Irish (from his mothers side).He however claims to beof his lineage but reporters have noted how his Twitter feed reveals a deep seated resentment towards his Irish blood.For example, he has posted anti-Irish insults on social media (calling Irishmen") and insinuated Ireland is a nation that is nothing more than impoverished rock; claiming "He also condemns those who point out his Irish heritage, branding themandAdditionally he's threatened British Irish citizens directly with mob violence once remarking; referring to a pre-planned fight he wanted to instigate.During his time with the EDL, his group also staged anti-Irish protests.The location, Liverpool, was significant because it is home toAn EDL splinter group additionally created an anti-Irish poster who described the Irish ethnicity aswhoAs a result the Irish have been attacked by Robinson's group, with the problem at one point getting so worse that the mayor and police had to get involved. One pro-Irish activist notedDespite this, Robinson has laughed off his anti-Irish behaviour and statements.
His hatred of Muslims stems from the fact he was unable to do an aircraft engineering apprenticeship starting in 2003 after five years of high school.However, in a drunken rampage, (he alleges) he violently attacked a police officer, and immediately lost it.Robinson blamed his apprenticeship loss not on his own disgraceful behaviour, but on Muslims, becauseBitter, he set to working on a building site to earn some money, still not angry at his own stupidity, but developing a sense of self-victimisation which has followed him on to his 350,000 Twitter followers,where he seeshimself as a hero.ThenotesBut the news report also revealed his hatred of Muslims also comes down to jealousy of the community spirit he feels is stronger with Muslims than with Whites, which has made him envious.In an interview he remarked
Tommy Robinson, who's real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is far-right/ring-wing activist that comes from Luton, England, United Kingdom, and who is known for his discrimination, and hatred of,Muslims. He is infamous for having lead the English Defence League, whichThe rallies he personally lead cost the British taxpayers a total of £10 million (or $12.67 million dollars in 2017 dollar value), and untold damages in destruction to property and healthcare, not to mention the long term costs including those of tourism.He claims he is of working class background, though his real name is believed to be of upper-class origin, in contrast to the name he currently uses (which he had adopted as a pseudonym because he was scared of Muslims). Robinson was born in 1982, and attended Putteridge High School and the highest educational attainment he has gotten was scraping 11 mediocre GCSE's (an "A" in maths apparently, but further claims hefor them).He dropped out of high school at the age of 16 and has no university educational background (his lack of a formal education becomes evident given that he ardently believes Barack Obama—who served as president of the USA between 2008 and 2016—is a Muslim).He also believes in other wild conspiracy theories about Muslims, such as
Robinson leading the EDL "ban the burka" protest, whilst dressed in balaclavas.
[n. 45] Muslims. He is infamous for having lead the English Defence League, which "[a]t its height...was able to mobilise up to 5,000 in demonstrations that regularly deteriorated into violence...began to develop in an increasingly fascist direction, turning on socialists, trade unionists, student demonstrators and Occupy protestors as well as Muslims – its main target".[1] The rallies he personally lead cost the British taxpayers a total of £10 million (or $12.67 million dollars in 2017 dollar value[2]), and untold damages in destruction to property and healthcare, not to mention the long term costs including those of tourism.[3] He claims he is of working class background, though his real name is believed to be of upper-class origin, in contrast to the name he currently uses (which he had adopted as a pseudonym because he was scared of Muslims[4]). Robinson was born in 1982, and attended Putteridge High School and the highest educational attainment he has gotten was scraping 11 mediocre GCSE's (an "A" in maths apparently, but further claims he "never studied" for them).[4] He dropped out of high school at the age of 16 and has no university educational background (his lack of a formal education becomes evident given that he ardently believes Barack Obama—who served as president of the USA between 2008 and 2016—is a Muslim[5]).[4] He also believes in other wild conspiracy theories about Muslims, such as "creeping Sharia".[6] Tommy Robinson, who's real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, is far-right/ring-wing activist that comes from Luton, England, United Kingdom, and who is known for his discrimination, and hatred of,Muslims. He is infamous for having lead the English Defence League, whichThe rallies he personally lead cost the British taxpayers a total of £10 million (or $12.67 million dollars in 2017 dollar value), and untold damages in destruction to property and healthcare, not to mention the long term costs including those of tourism.He claims he is of working class background, though his real name is believed to be of upper-class origin, in contrast to the name he currently uses (which he had adopted as a pseudonym because he was scared of Muslims). Robinson was born in 1982, and attended Putteridge High School and the highest educational attainment he has gotten was scraping 11 mediocre GCSE's (an "A" in maths apparently, but further claims hefor them).He dropped out of high school at the age of 16 and has no university educational background (his lack of a formal education becomes evident given that he ardently believes Barack Obama—who served as president of the USA between 2008 and 2016—is a Muslim).He also believes in other wild conspiracy theories about Muslims, such as
History: Origins of Muslim and Irish Hatred
Origins of—and Evidence for—Muslim Hatred
Tommy Robinson at a anti-Semitic and racist political event in a Luton pub with holocaust denier, Richard Edmonds.
[4] However, in a drunken rampage, (he alleges) he violently attacked a police officer, and immediately lost it.[4] Robinson blamed his apprenticeship loss not on his own disgraceful behaviour, but on Muslims, because "as a result of tightened security measures after September 11[th], his criminal record meant he was blacklisted from working at airports".[4] Bitter, he set to working on a building site to earn some money, still not angry at his own stupidity, but developing a sense of self-victimisation which has followed him on to his 350,000 Twitter followers,[7] where he sees[n. 46] himself as a hero.[4][8] The Telegraph notes "[t]o many, he is little more than a cut-price demagogue in designer clobber who has spent four-and-a-half years inciting hatred against Muslims with his menacing and often violent rallies".[4] But the news report also revealed his hatred of Muslims also comes down to jealousy of the community spirit he feels is stronger with Muslims than with Whites, which has made him envious.[4] In an interview he remarked "[t]he mentality they [Muslims] have, I realised it when I went to the World Cup...When an Englishman out there gets in trouble, every other Englishman defends him. It’s the mindset, you’re away from home and he’s your brother. And that’s the brotherhood they have every day. You get in trouble outside a nightclub here, they’ll get out of their taxis, their chicken shops, they’ll come from everywhere. They don’t need to know each other".[4] His hatred of Muslims stems from the fact he was unable to do an aircraft engineering apprenticeship starting in 2003 after five years of high school.However, in a drunken rampage, (he alleges) he violently attacked a police officer, and immediately lost it.Robinson blamed his apprenticeship loss not on his own disgraceful behaviour, but on Muslims, becauseBitter, he set to working on a building site to earn some money, still not angry at his own stupidity, but developing a sense of self-victimisation which has followed him on to his 350,000 Twitter followers,where he seeshimself as a hero.ThenotesBut the news report also revealed his hatred of Muslims also comes down to jealousy of the community spirit he feels is stronger with Muslims than with Whites, which has made him envious.In an interview he remarked
Irish Hatred & White Identity Crisis
Anti-Irish sentiment in the EDL.
[9] He however claims to be "proud" of his lineage but reporters have noted how his Twitter feed reveals a deep seated resentment towards his Irish blood.[9] For example, he has posted anti-Irish insults on social media (calling Irishmen "plastic paddies") and insinuated Ireland is a nation that is nothing more than impoverished rock; claiming "[my parents would be] in Ireland picking potatoes and eating cabbages [if they hadn't moved to England]".[9][10] He also condemns those who point out his Irish heritage, branding them "fools" and "wronguns".[9] Additionally he's threatened British Irish citizens directly with mob violence once remarking "...we are taking a tidy mob to England Ireland on 29th"; referring to a pre-planned fight he wanted to instigate.[9] During his time with the EDL, his group also staged anti-Irish protests.[11] The location, Liverpool, was significant because it is home to "many second and third generation Irish immigrants".[11] An EDL splinter group additionally created an anti-Irish poster who described the Irish ethnicity as "much like the Islamics" who "abuse their host nation [by supporting the IRA]".[11] As a result the Irish have been attacked by Robinson's group, with the problem at one point getting so worse that the mayor and police had to get involved. One pro-Irish activist noted "[i]t['s] happening because...there is no large Asian community in Liverpool so the Irish are an easy target".[11] Despite this, Robinson has laughed off his anti-Irish behaviour and statements.[n. 47] Robinson also has a contradictive personality when it comes to his own ethnic heritage. Although he claims to be English, he is in actual fact half Scottish (from his fathers side) and half Irish (from his mothers side).He however claims to beof his lineage but reporters have noted how his Twitter feed reveals a deep seated resentment towards his Irish blood.For example, he has posted anti-Irish insults on social media (calling Irishmen") and insinuated Ireland is a nation that is nothing more than impoverished rock; claiming "He also condemns those who point out his Irish heritage, branding themandAdditionally he's threatened British Irish citizens directly with mob violence once remarking; referring to a pre-planned fight he wanted to instigate.During his time with the EDL, his group also staged anti-Irish protests.The location, Liverpool, was significant because it is home toAn EDL splinter group additionally created an anti-Irish poster who described the Irish ethnicity aswhoAs a result the Irish have been attacked by Robinson's group, with the problem at one point getting so worse that the mayor and police had to get involved. One pro-Irish activist notedDespite this, Robinson has laughed off his anti-Irish behaviour and statements.
Outright Fabrications, "I Don't Hate Muslims, Only the Extremist Ones" & Use of "Muzzrat" In Place of "Judenrat"
[12] Robinson holding a gun the IDF gave him, on the Israeli occupied Syrian Golan Heights (2016).
[13] For instance, he believes Muslim women, racially-wise,[14] are ugly, making an exception by once remarking to a 15 year-old Muslim girl—who clearly had her birthday publicly displayed on her Twitter profile—that she was "pretty fit for a Muslim girl".[15] In another instance a British boxer attended a prayer session with his Muslim brother; Robinson lashed out at him branding him a "sell-out".[16] In another instance, an EDL member viciously declared that he wished Muslims would "burn in hell",[17] where Robinson responded by saying that he found that there was "nothing wrong with his speech".[18] Furthermore, he totally refuses to outright condemn members of the EDL who are ex-convicts, terrorists,[19][20] child-groomers, rapists,[21] paedophiles/child molesters,[15][22] football hooligans,[24] murderers,[25] wife-beaters,[26] White supremacists[n. 48] and racists. He also justified[28] the terrorist attack against Muslims that occurred in Finsbury Park in 2017,[29] where Darren Osborne killed one Muslim.[30] Perhaps most sinister is Robinson having been allowed to visit Israel—where, despite his Nazi past—he has been welcomed by the Israeli military (which claims it is the "worlds most moral army"[31][32][33][34]) having taken photographs with them[35][36]—unsurprising, given that Israelis hate Muslims (where nearly half, or 48%, of Israelis want to ethnically cleanse Muslims from the region[37][38]), and where their military regularly[39] uses Muslim—even Muslim children[40][n. 49]—as human shields as per official policy.[41] He has also called Muslims "enemy combatants".[42] Robinson claims he doesn't hate all Muslims, but evidence has proven otherwise.For instance, he believes Muslim women, racially-wise,are ugly, making an exception by once remarking to a 15 year-old Muslim girl—who clearly had her birthday publicly displayed on her Twitter profile—that she wasIn another instance a British boxer attended a prayer session with his Muslim brother; Robinson lashed out at him branding him aIn another instance, an EDL member viciously declared that he wished Muslims wouldwhere Robinson responded by saying that he found that there wasFurthermore, he totally refuses to outright condemn members of the EDL who are ex-convicts, terrorists,child-groomers, rapists,paedophiles/child molesters,football hooligans,murderers,wife-beaters,White supremacistsand racists. He also justifiedthe terrorist attack against Muslims that occurred in Finsbury Park in 2017,where Darren Osborne killed one Muslim.Perhaps most sinister is Robinson having been allowed to visit Israel—where, despite his Nazi past—he has been welcomed by the Israeli military (which claims it is the) having taken photographs with them—unsurprising, given that Israelis hate Muslims (where nearly half, or 48%, of Israelis want to ethnically cleanse Muslims from the region), and where their military regularlyuses Muslim—even Muslim—as human shields as per official policy.He has also called Muslims
"Muzzrats"[n. 50] on his Twitter page. Robinson called Muslimson his Twitter page.
"Manchester chief of police" was "accepting & posing with the Koran after the Manchester attack".[43] This wasn't the case, as the police immediately retorted back that the photo he tweeted was an older photograph taken on June 23rd, 2016, when the terrorist incident Robinson was attempting to libel the police photograph with occurred in 2017.[43] In another incident he made a libel against Muslims that they had desecrated a Christian cemetery, with the accusation coming from his autobiography.[44] At the "York Free Speech Forum" he showed a video of Muslims chanting "Yah Takbir", with the crowd responding back "Allah Hu Akbar", where Robinson lied by claiming that when this is translated the crowd was actually saying "death to all Jews".[45] In actual fact what they were saying was a "Takbir" where Muslims shout "God is the Greatest".[47] Another time he falsely claimed all Uber driver rapists are Muslims because "all Uber drivers in the UK are Muslim immigrants".[48] In yet another tweet in response to a story by the "Barnsley Chronicle" he claimed a British soldier was attacked by Muslims; saying "u know and we know it was Muslims! Yet u go out of your way to hide it"; to which the newspapers responded by silencing him with the fact that the soldier was attacked by a White Briton, to which he didn't respond.[49] He also calls Muslims "wife beaters", despite beating his own wife and attacking a police officer.[50] Robinson has fabricated numerous stories about Muslims in order to further his anti-Muslim agenda. For instance after a terrorist incident in May 2017 in Manchester he tweeted a picture to his 300,000 followers that thewasThis wasn't the case, as the police immediately retorted back that the photo he tweeted was an older photograph taken on June 23rd, 2016, when the terrorist incident Robinson was attempting to libel the police photograph with occurred in 2017.In another incident he made a libel against Muslims that they had desecrated a Christian cemetery, with the accusation coming from his autobiography.At thehe showed a video of Muslims chanting, with the crowd responding back, where Robinson lied by claiming that when this is translated the crowd was actually sayingIn actual fact what they were saying was awhere Muslims shoutAnother time he falsely claimed all Uber driver rapists are Muslims becauseIn yet another tweet in response to a story by thehe claimed a British soldier was attacked by Muslims; saying; to which the newspapers responded by silencing him with the fact that the soldier was attacked by a White Briton, to which he didn't respond.He also calls Muslims, despite beating his own wife and attacking a police officer.
Robinson used the anti-Semitic trope of "Jewrat" and changed it to "Muzzrat".
"muzzrats", This comparison with rats is particularly relevant as the Nazis commonly used this in their anti-Semetic media; such as that in "Der Ewige Jude", which was a Nazi propaganda film which depicted the Jewish religious minority as gutter rats,[53] because of Jewish criminals. The film specifically began with the narrator saying, "Just as the rat is the lowest of animals, the Jew is the lowest of human beings".[53] Other things which he has tweeted out are extremely unfunny jokes that don't make any sense, such as "[h]ow do Muslims practice safe sex? They mark the goats and camels with a Red X that kick!". In another tweet he wrote "kids go 2 fancy dress parties as pirates who were killers,liars & cheats!Will kids in 20 yrs go 2 fancy dress parties dressed as Muslims then?".[54] Robinson has also called Muslims "inbred", claiming "50% of you [Muslims] marry your cousins",[55] ignoring the fact that even if this was true, 80% of the worlds marriages throughout history have been cousin marriages,[56] including that of evolutionary biologist Charles Darwin,[57] physicist Albert Einstein,[58] poet Edgar Allan Poe,[59] writer H.G. Wells,[60] US President Franklin D. Roosevelt,[61] American revolutionary John Adams,[62] US founding father Thomas Jefferson,[63][64] founder of the Buddhist religion Gautama Buddha,[65] Morse code inventor Samuel F. B. Morse[66] and Roman general Mark Antony.[67] Robinson has also threatened British Muslims with violence, and doesn't regard Muslims as British citizens,[n. 51] just as the Nazis didn't consider Jews German.[68] He also frequently discriminates against Muslims. Perhaps the most sinister comparison Robinson has made about Muslims is when he equated them to rats, branding all Muslims, This comparison with rats is particularly relevant as the Nazis commonly used this in their anti-Semetic media; such as that in, which was a Nazi propaganda film which depicted the Jewish religious minority as gutter rats,because of Jewish criminals. The film specifically began with the narrator saying,Other things which he has tweeted out are extremely unfunny jokes that don't make any sense, such as. In another tweet he wroteRobinson has also called Muslims, claimingignoring the fact that even if this was true, 80% of the worlds marriages throughout history have been cousin marriages,including that of evolutionary biologist Charles Darwin,physicist Albert Einstein,poet Edgar Allan Poe,writer H.G. Wells,US President Franklin D. Roosevelt,American revolutionary John Adams,US founding father Thomas Jefferson,founder of the Buddhist religion Gautama Buddha,Morse code inventor Samuel F. B. Morseand Roman general Mark Antony.Robinson has also threatened British Muslims with violence, and doesn't regard Muslims as British citizens,just as the Nazis didn't consider Jews German.
Involvement with White Supremacists, Neo-Nazis and Terrorist Organisations
BNP: A Decade Long Secret Relationship & Associated Splinter Groups (c. 2004—c. 2015)
Nick Griffin joined the NF in 1974, then the BNP in 1999. He has a long history of racism, even in the BNP itself, when Robinson joined.
[69] holding membership for 365 days; having admitted his ties on the BBC's "Sunday Politics"[70] However, in an extremely bizarre move, Robinson justified his membership by stating that he "didn’t know non-whites couldn’t join the organisation" and that he also "didn’t know Nick Griffin was in the National Front".[70] This doesn't make any sense given that the fundamental—and founding—principle of the BNP has always been opposition to the existence of people based on race.[71] Additionally, Griffin is widely known across the UK for his decades long membership with the National Front when he joined it in 1974 (which itself been active since the early 1970s; and which at it's peak, had 15,000 active members).[72] Griffin is also an extremely infamous White Power advocate, and known widely in the UK for his long history of racist remarks. For example, in the 1980s he stated, ""[w]e haven't given up on our principle [of] mono racial countries... mono ethnic countries". He also produced a leaflet which claimed "to [have] prove[n] that Jewish people controlled the British media and thereby were able to brainwash white British people into accepting multiculturalism" (and has also denied the Holocaust, preferring to call it the "holohoax").[72][73] Given this body of evidence, Robinson cannot claim he didn't know enough about the BNP both before and during his time with the party. This means that he actively supported it's racial hatred policies, and knew of the intensely racially charged and inflamed policies the BNP ran on during the national election cycle that suspiciously coincided with him obtaining paid membership to the party. Robinson joined the BNP in 2004,holding membership for 365 days; having admitted his ties on the BBC'sHowever, in an extremely bizarre move, Robinson justified his membership by stating that heand that he alsoThis doesn't makesense given that the fundamental—and founding—principle of the BNP has always been opposition to the existence of people based on race.Additionally, Griffin is widely known across the UK for his decades long membership with the National Front when he joined it in 1974 (which itself been active since the early 1970s; and which at it's peak, had 15,000 active members).Griffin is also an extremely infamous White Power advocate, and known widely in the UK for his long history of racist remarks. For example, in the 1980s he stated,. He also produced a leaflet which claimed(and has also denied the Holocaust, preferring to call it the).Given this body of evidence, Robinson cannot claim he didn't know enough about the BNP both before and during his time with the party. This means that he actively supported it's racial hatred policies, and knew of the intensely racially charged and inflamed policies the BNP ran on during the national election cycle that suspiciously coincided with him obtaining paid membership to the party.
Where the BNP obtains the majority of it's votes from.
[74] It is also interesting to note that the BNP increased their vote count dramatically by 145,721 votes from 47,129 in 2001, in the 2005 general election, collecting a grand total of 192,850 votes.[75] This was at a time when the UK's election voter turnout was the lowest in it's history for the past few decades at slightly above 60%. In the 2010 General Election, the BNP obtained a staggering 563,743 votes.[76] In 2015, the BNP obtained only 1,667 votes;[76] or a fall of 99.7%.[77] This large drop in support also coincided with the increased membership of the EDL, who's ranks swelled with ex-BNP members (at least 33% of the members of the EDL in 2011 were active BNP voters[78]),[79] something which only could have been achieved so rapidly, only if Robinson knew a lot of it's members long beforehand and actively recruited them continuously for the EDL. In 2012, most tellingly of all however, was that Robinson was directly |
During one of his media availabilities last week, Irving was asked if he had seen plays and sets in which he and Hayward could thrive together this season. Irving's face lit up and a big smile appeared. When a similar question was put to Horford recently, asking if he has seen glimpses of how Boston's new Big Three can help one another, his face, too, lights up. Horford can't muffle a smile as he begins to talk.
"Yeah. That's why I'm so excited," he said. "Obviously, when we got Kyrie, I was excited. But once we get in here and we start working, there's a lot of potential here. It's exciting."
Irving, Hayward, and Horford were often spotted together on the sidelines at training camp last week. Horford marvels at how fast his teammates have picked up the offense but also knows they're probably overwhelmed as Stevens inundates them with information. Horford also sees last season's version of himself in the newcomers and wants to help them get up to speed as fast as they can, especially with a shortened preseason.
Still, Horford sees what's possible and it excites him. And he's willing to do whatever it takes for Boston to play its best basketball.
Horford was spectacular in the playoffs last season, playing a lot of the small-ball 5 that he'll play this season for a Celtics team that lacks experience up front. But his postseason stat line didn't jump off the page while averaging 15.1 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 5.4 assists over 33.9 minutes per game.
The stats never quite tell the story with Horford. It was telling that, when he coached the East All-Stars last season, Stevens made sure to note how he believed Horford should also be there for the Celtics.
Which raises the question that we always come back to with Horford: What does the casual fan not know about him?
We put that very question to Celtics assistant coach Jay Larranaga, who spends more time than anyone in the organization with Horford as his player coach. On game nights, the two can often be seen crunching film together before Larranaga leads Horford through his typical pregame shooting routine.
Larranaga pondered the question for a bit before answering, and it was clear he wanted to pick the right words.
"I would say, on the court, people probably don't realize what an unbelievable help defender [Horford] is," Larranaga said. "You might see a blocked shot at the end of games, but it's how he is in the right position, always. He's covering for teammates constantly. I think people see how unselfish he is, offensively, but he is equally unselfish defensively, and has an equal impact on his teammates' performance.
"Then, off the court, I think, like a lot of the great players and a lot of the players that have been able to sustain success over a long period of time, I think they don't realize how much time and energy he puts into his craft. How much he prepares. His preparation starts every morning when he gets up with what he's eating, he's constantly learning and trying to get better. I think people have an idea and say, 'Oh, Al's very professional.' Being professional is like a full-time job and his full-time job is not just during the season, it's in the offseason. I think people have an idea but not to the extreme."
Georgia native Brown spent much of the summer working out with Larranaga and Horford near Atlanta, where Horford spent his first nine NBA seasons. Brown might elevate to a starting role this season, but you can see the impact of simply being around Horford. Brown is eager to be a sponge around the veteran.
Heck, he might even be willing to downgrade the megapixels on his camera phone to be more like Horford. Yes, he recognizes a quality role model and leader.
Said Brown: "How [Horford] carries himself is how I would like to carry myself."GENEVA (Reuters) - An independent U.N. investigator into the human rights of migrants has postponed an official visit to Australia that was due to begin on Sunday, citing a lack of government cooperation and “unacceptable” legal restrictions.
Asylum seekers have long been a lightning-rod political issue in Australia, although it has never received, from territories such as Indonesia, anywhere near the number of refugees currently flooding into Europe from war-ravaged areas of the Middle East and North Africa.
U.N. Special Rapporteur Francois Crépeau had planned to gather first-hand information about the situation of migrants and asylum seekers in the country and in Australian off-shore detention centers in neighboring Nauru and Papua New Guinea.
He had asked for access since March, but Australia denied him access to any offshore center, he said in a statement.
Crépeau also blamed Australia’s 2015 Border Force Act, which discourages detention center service providers with the threat of a two year court sentence if they reveal “protected information”, for preventing him from doing his job.
“This threat of reprisals with persons who would want to cooperate with me on the occasion of this official visit is unacceptable,” Crépeau said in the statement.
He had asked Australia to guarantee in writing that nobody helping him would suffer reprisals, but the Australian government refused, the statement said.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Wednesday he was “concerned” about the country’s controversial offshore immigration detention centers, although he stopped short of committing his government to reconsidering them.
Australia has vowed to stop asylum seekers reaching its shores, turning boats back to Indonesia when it can and sending those it cannot for detention in camps on Manus island in impoverished Papua New Guinea and on Nauru in the South Pacific.
The United Nations and human rights groups have criticized Australia over conditions at the camps and its tough asylum-seeker policies, which Turnbull’s predecessor Tony Abbott defended as necessary to stop deaths at sea and often described as one of his government’s biggest achievements.When Danger Calls is an interesting romantic suspense with a few interesting twists and turns, but overall it's a pretty standard plot.
Ryan, an operative for Blackthrone Inc, had somehow been involved in two blown ops. He had recovered the data, but until the leak can be plugged, he's been ordered to lay low. He knew it's someone close to him, but he understands everybody else sees him as the most likely leak. He went home to the mountains of Montana hoping to discover what was hidden in the data and got nowhere, but he didn't dare to do it at home, so he did it in a bar with Internet access, and ran into part-time waitress Frankie Castor... who's also a single mom. Frankie returned to help care for her mom who seems to be having some dizzy spells, and Ryan was one of her customers. When Frankie discovered some of her mom's money may be missing, she wasn't sure who to blame and the most likely candidate is her mom's boyfriend, but she needed someone's help to investigate... someone like Ryan. What Ryan didn't know was someone knew he had something very important and they want that data... or prevent someone else from having it. And to get it, they will kidnap him, or people around him to get him to reveal his secrets. Now Ryan has to fight not just for his life, but Frankie and her daughter's as well, and not even a fellow teammate can be trusted...
There were a lot of twists and turns, and the suspense was built-up properly. However, some parts of the novel feel slow and lethargic. All in all, above average.ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Monday disdained the comments made by US presidential front-runner Donald Trump and asserted that “the fate of Shakeel Afridi will only be decided by Pakistani courts”.
The interior minister was reacting to the recent interview given by Donald Trump to Fox News, in which he had said that if elected, he will free the Pakistani doctor who is in jail now for helping the US raid Osama bin Laden’s hideout in Abbottabad in 2011.
“I think I would get him out in two minutes,” he said in response to a question during a Fox News interview last week, when asked if he would free Shakeel Afridi.
Chaudhry Nisar said that contrary to Trump’s misconception, Pakistan is not a colony of the United States. “He should learn to treat sovereign countries with respect,” the minister maintained.
“Shakeel Afridi is a Pakistani citizen and nobody else holds the right to dictate to us about his future,” Nisar affirmed.
He said Donald Trump also seems to be ignorant historically of the huge sacrifices Pakistan and its people have made, while standing with or supporting the US policies over the years.
During the interview when Trump was asked that how he would free Dr Afridi, the US presidential front-runner had said, “I would tell them let him out and I’m sure they would let him out.”
The US Congress, which last week withdrew funds for an F-16 deal to force Pakistan to act against the Haqqani network, is now considering another cut, this time to persuade Islamabad to release Dr Shakil Afridi.
Dr Afridi, who assisted US efforts in tracking down Osama bin Laden but is now serving a 23-year prison term in Pakistan, is considered a hero in the United States.
In January 2014, President Barack Obama signed a bill that proposed to withhold $33 million from assistance to Pakistan over Dr Afridi’s detention.
In May that year, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed another measure linking the provision of military aid to Pakistan to Dr Afridi’s release.
Since then, lawmakers have been raising this issue in Congress every time a budget proposal for Pakistan is discussed.By ANDREW WILKS
Last updated at 13:32 09 December 2007
The teacher imprisoned in the Sudan for naming a teddy bear Mohammed has told how she feared being raped by her guards during her incarceration.
Gillian Gibbons, who was arrested when a school secretary complained to the authorities two months after the stuffed toy was named by pupils at Unity High School in Khartoum, said her greatest worry was that her guards would "teach the blaspheming white woman a lesson".
"That was my worst terror - that they would come in and teach me a lesson by raping me or that they would hit me," she said.
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Recalling the eight days she was held in custody, Ms Gibbons described her shock immediately after her arrest on November 25.
She was thrown into an open-air cell with grey-tiled walls, a squat toilet and bars across one side of the room and the ceiling.
"It was filthy, there were ants all over the floor and in the corner there were rat droppings," she said.
"There was a light shining into my yard that attracted all the mosquitoes, so I stood there and got bitten to death."
She added: "I was panicking and I was crying. I didn't actually sleep all night. I was so distressed, so uncomfortable and so cold that at four in the morning I just paced round and round trying to keep warm.
"It felt like this was happening to someone else. It was just mad, just surreal."
The 54-year-old mother of two also told how she felt like she had been "run over by ten juggernauts" when a sharia court convicted her of insulting the prophet and sentenced her to 15 days in jail.
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But displaying a wry sense of humour, Ms Gibbons, from Liverpool, recounted a farcical moment in court when the teddy was introduced as evidence. "This clerk of the court got this carrier bag and produced this bear with a flourish like a rabbit out of a hat," she said.
"He put it down on the table in front of us and it flopped over and the prosecution sat him up... It made me laugh but it wasn't funny, you know what I mean?"
Ms Gibbons was pardoned by Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir last Monday following lobbying by Muslim peers Baroness Warsi and Lord Ahmed. She was driven to the airport and boarded a plane to Dubai with the two British politicians.
Sitting amid the splendour of the first class cabin, she was finally able to relax and toast her freedom with a vodka and orange on top of a meal of lobster tails and potatoes.
"I'm not a drinker but I felt obliged to have an alcoholic drink even though I was with Lord Ahmed and Baroness Warsi, who are Muslims. I was a bit embarrassed about it but I thought I'd earned that vodka."
Despite her ordeal, Ms Gibbons harbours no hostility or regrets, describing her time in the Sudan as "wonderful" and blaming herself for the "misunderstanding".A German portmanteau that describes nostalgia for East Germany.
As the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall approaches, the term ostalgie is increasingly in the news. Reporting from Berlin, The Times’s Denny Lee noted:
Clunky Trabants belching car exhaust along Karl-Marx-Allee. Red-and-yellow East German flags fluttering from storefronts. Retro-chic bars that resemble cold-war bomb shelters. The Berlin Wall may have fallen 20 years ago next month, but in certain pockets of this pulsating German capital, it seems to be going back up – at least for those too young to recall what life was like in the German Democratic Republic. From stylish hotels that resemble 1970s Soviet housing to boutiques that elevate kitschy East German goods to high design, Berlin is still divided – on whether the Iron Curtain was cool. There’s even a German word for it, “ostalgie,” a combination of the words “ost” (east) and “nostalgie” (nostalgia).
Writing for Time in September, Simon Horsford commented on an ostalgie fueled “ironic love for old East German aesthetics” and observed:
Rather less flippantly, the current recession has prompted mostly elderly diehards to recall the days of secure employment and income equality with fondness. Richard Stratenschulte of Dresden’s Stadtmuseum says that some of the older generation occasionally look to the past because “they don’t want their lives to be underestimated. It’s hard to reconcile the past with the present.”Grimm unplugs hacker claim after eighth-grader comes forward, says volunteer may be to blame
Rep. Michael Grimm has reconsidered allegations he made to police and the public about vandals breaking into his campaign office and erasing data from his computers by installing a new operating system.
"[I]t is possible that a volunteer could have inadvertently compromised the computer and failed to report it," the freshman Republican said in a statement this afternoon.
Story Continued Below
Grimm, whose 2010 fund-raising activities are reportedly under federal investigation, initially alleged that a "politically motivated" break-in had occurred, after cement bricks were thrown through his campaign windows on Sunday.
The New York Times reported this morning that police had found no evidence of anyone entering the office or tampering with computers, and, this afternoon, an eighth-grader reportedly confessed to breaking the windows.
Democrats quietly questioned the initial story, calling it the latest in a line of questionable assertions by the congressman.
Last year, the New Yorker quoted eyewitnesses who recalled Grimm waiving a gun in a nightclub after an altercation there, while Grimm said their accounts were mistaken.
Earlier this year, the New York Times reported he accepted illegal campaign contributions in a paper bag from a controversial fund-raiser who was recently arrested on a visa violation. A grand jury is reportedly issuing subpoenas as part of an investigation; Grimm has denied any wrongdoing.
Grimm also denied a Times report that Mitt Romney's presidential campaign officially dropped the telegenic lawmaker as a surrogate.
Tom Doherty, a Republican consultant and partner at Mercury Public Affairs who is not working on the campaign, said the questions about Grimm's credibility don't help his re-election campaign, but might not sink him either.
"He seems to have, every other week, another problem," Doherty said. "It just keeps popping up...If you're reasonable, you have to ask, 'What's the new problem? What's going on here?' "
But Doherty noted that Grimm still has a 10-point lead in public polls, and, because the allegations haven't been proven, he hasn't been established as a hypocrite yet in the minds of voters.
Other Republicans, like billionaire businessman John Catsimatidis, a Grimm's donor, said the accusations might be political.
"This is a political season and we're down to the last 45 ays before the election," Catsimatidis told me. " Whether it's reporters or opposition coming up with innuendoes, it's wrong."
"If the FBI has something substantial, or credible, they should make a statement about it," he said. "If the FBI has not made a statement, we still live in a country where people are considered innocent until proven guilty."
Catsimatidis said this campaign season has been a bad one. "There's a lot of dirty shirt has been happening."About
Pass The Love Forward is greeting card line with a story.
Most greeting cards sent are impersonal. My aunt from Wisconsin sends my family a Holiday greeting card every year. Inside, it says something along the lines of “Hope you have a great year” in black prewritten text. Then she signs it at the bottom. Every year we throw them out.
This is how so many greeting cards are. Most of them have to be so ambiguous and impersonal so that they can sell to everyone. What happens is, they stop being personal. No emotion. No uniqueness. We throw them away.
By backing this project, you are helping to launch holiday cards that do the exact opposite.
Each design is created at oORn* studio in Chicago, IL USA.
Aren't we cute?
oORn* (me!) is interested in children illustration. I also obsess over the paper. All types of paper. But I also love stories. I love the amazing power that storytelling can bring. It makes things unique. It’s the difference between saving your greeting card vs throwing them away because it didn’t resonate with you.
I often think about how these prints would look cool as framed pieces of art or as keepsakes. (Even though I rather see my arts to be functional and just hanging there, on the wall) We all know how much it means to us when someone takes the time to send us a card, but when was the last time you got a card whose design and story didn't make it feel disposable?
Pass the love forward offers the cards you've been waiting for: cute, humor-designed exteriors, and blank interiors so that the cards say what you want to say, nothing more and nothing less. There’s nothing I hate more than a card with prewritten text and with just a couple of signatures at the bottom. It makes me think someone bought 100 of the same card and just signed each one because they had to. It feels almost cold.
The Nutcracker || Back & Front for the greeting card ||
The cards measure 4.13" x 5.82" (105mm x 148mm) This is a thick 16pt, sustainably sourced paper stock. With a light satin coating on the outside, the inside is left uncoated, making it easier for you to write your own message. Each card is individually scored, ensuring a clean fold.
Santa is comin to town || Back & Front for the greeting card ||
Objectives I want everyone to be able to send a personal card to someone. To make someone feel loved. By YOU writing your own text inside, you are giving someone the most valuable resource we have: Time. Pass the love forward. Tell someone you love, “Here I made this for you. And only you.”
Short Term - To print 100 greeting card and delivery to backers before Christmas (Dec 25, 2015)
Long Term
- expand the range to large scale artwork prints & also as downloadable artworks (online only) - Sell the cards locally through physical bespoke gift stores - Set up a full E-commerce site to sell the cards online
The Elves and the Shoemaker || Back & Front for the greeting card ||
Where I'm currently at
I have created 5 designs and have had mocks ups printed.The cards will be printed as soon as the campaign is completed (estimated time for printing is 7-10 days) and every effort will be made to have these cards mailed immediately (especially for international locations that may have longer transit times) so you will receive them before Christmas (Dec 25, 2015). Choose from the following 5 designs, or get them all in our gift pack!
I'm A Little Girl || Back & Front of greeting card ||
Expenses $400.00 is the BARE MINIMUM to fund our project! Why just $400?
This will allow Pass the love forward to meet the break even costs for a 100 cards run and allow me to begin to announce stretch goals for the project. We want to be able to make stickers and post cards available to supporters, but that will require a certain level of support.
The most expensive part of publishing these cards is the setup cost with the printer and this level of funding will allow us to clear that hurdle.
One thing I learned from #ShorterForGreater project was that shipping costs more than expected. I expect printing and shipping to cost approx $300, the rest will cover Kickstarter and other fees, artists' expenses, Kickstarter perks,marketing, and any unforeseen costs.
Grinch || Back & Front of the greeting card
Any extra funds will allow me to begin to announce stretch goals for the project. The funding will primarily go towards- Your funds will make this project possible, and allow us to make the limited first run of cards for your rewards. (Professional printing costs associated with the first run of cards.) - Shipping materials - Kickstarter fees, other fees, and taxes - Backer Rewards
- And more odds and ends than you might expect
Then (if possible) Launching our e-commerce website so we can continue to offer more cards for more occasions.
Shipping (The most important part is getting these to you safe and sound)
I cannot influence times in customs, and I can't control the USPS. But what I can do is take every precaution I possibly can to make sure this gets to you as quickly and as safely as possible. That means that everything we ship will be insured, sent out priority, and comes with tracking. As many Kickstarters have learned in the past, shipping is also the part where most project owners calculate wrong. I don't want to be faced with the decision to either order the cardsor ship them! Our shipping costs include the packaging materials, the actual costs to ship, and pssst.... usually a lot of goodies down the road. I love to add extra gifts to all my packages too ;)
This is the what greeting card will look like in the back
The design on the back of the cards had changed
at the front of the cards are still remain CUTE!
RIGHT?Fox News host Sean Hannity in the White House briefing room in Washington, on Jan. 24. Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images
Update, 10:27 p.m.: Sean Hannity said on Tuesday night’s show that he would stop pushing the Seth Rich murder conspiracy for the time being. “Out of respect for the family’s wishes, for now, I am not discussing this matter at this time,” he said. The move came after Rich’s family pleaded with Hannity to stop exploiting his death. Hannity did not retract any of his prior coverage or apologize for it, and he told viewers that he will remain in his job at Fox News: “I’m on contract, as long as they seem to want me.” Evidently, they still want him.
Fox News did not respond to an email Tuesday afternoon requesting comment on Hannity’s Rich coverage.
Original story: For the past week, Fox News has been heavily promoting a conspiracy theory linking the unsolved 2016 murder of a young Democratic National Committee staffer to WikiLeaks’ publication of stolen DNC emails. The implication, first floated by WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange last year: that the 27-year-old Rich may have been killed in retribution for leaking those emails, and that authorities were colluding to keep it quiet.
The story resurfaced thanks to a May 16 report by local affiliate Fox 5 DC, in which a private investigator claimed to have “tangible evidence” that Rich had in fact been communicating with WikiLeaks. Fox News made it the top story on its website that same day. Within hours, that report had been debunked. Yet the story had made its way to FoxNews.com, and the network’s star primetime opinion host, Sean Hannity, went on to make the Seth Rich “murder mystery” one of his top segments night after night. Hannity repeatedly suggested that the mainstream media outlets who refused to cover the story were in on the cover-up. Meanwhile, Rich’s own family pleaded with him to find the “decency and kindness” to stop flogging the conspiracy theory.
On Tuesday, Fox News retracted its week-old story at last, deleting it from its website. (You can read an archived version of the piece here.) The network offered the following statement:
On May 16, a story was posted on the Fox News website on the investigation into the 2016 murder of DNC Staffer Seth Rich. The article was not initially subjected to the high degree of editorial scrutiny we require for all our reporting. Upon appropriate review, the article was found not to meet those standards and has since been removed.
We will continue to investigate this story and will provide updates as warranted.
That was Fox News’ news department—the relatively sane wing of its operation—trying to salvage a shard of credibility after multiple reports Monday that its own staff were “embarrassed” and “disgusted” by Hannity’s crusade. (At least one other conservative outlet, the Daily Caller, also appeared to have taken down its original Rich story on Tuesday.)
But the statement made no mention of Hannity, who as a prominent opinion personality appears to enjoy broad leeway to spread misinformation. It also did not mention Newt Gingrich, who used a guest appearance on Fox and Friends this past weekend to push the Rich conspiracy. Indeed, Hannity continued on Tuesday to promote the story, urging his Twitter followers to read a statement from self-proclaimed “internet freedom fighter” Kim Dotcom, in which he claims to “know that Seth Rich was involved in the DNC leak.” In case that wasn’t clear enough, Hannity ranted on his radio show that he was right to keep pursuing the story. “I retracted nothing,” he said.
Why is Hannity—probably Donald Trump’s greatest ally and champion in the media—so wedded to the story? For one thing, it plays into his longtime obsession with Hillary Clinton, whose alleged sundry misdeeds have continued to dominate his show alongside his full-throated defenses of virtually every move by the president. (The idea that Clinton and/or her campaign and/or its liberal allies had someone murdered during the campaign—an FBI agent, in some tellings—has long been a staple of right-wing “fake news” and conspiracy lore.) When Hannity doesn’t want to talk about negative Trump news, pivoting to Clinton is his go-to move.
But as the Washington Post’s Philip Bump pointed out Monday, a Hannity tweet hinted at another motive. “If Seth was wiki source,” Hannity suggested, that means there was “no Trump Russia collusion”—an acknowledgement of the intelligence community’s belief that Russian hackers broke into the DNC and fed documents to WikiLeaks.
Congress, investigate Seth Rich Murder! @JulianAssange made comments u need to listen to! If Seth was wiki source, no Trump/Russia collusion https://t.co/QPHZwypU34 — Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) May 22, 2017
Hannity is famous for his bluster, his intense partisanship, and his willingness to bend the truth to his political agenda. The Trump presidency, which he has supported relentlessly, has pushed him to new levels of mendacity and shamelessness, even as it has cemented his prominence and relevance. Hannity was among the first to score an exclusive sit-down with the president, and he corresponds with Trump regularly as a “friend,” reportedly even advising him on strategy and messaging.
Yet his loyalty to the president is beginning to take a toll. As viewers have flocked to CNN and MSNBC for the latest on Trump’s scandals, Hannity has done his damnedest to ignore them, casting about desperately for other topics to cover. The night Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, Hannity’s show focused almost exclusively on the implications for Hillary Clinton, whom he suggested might finally face prosecution for her email scandal.
Increasingly, viewers have responded by changing the channel: Hannity’s show, which once ruled the 10 p.m. time slot in cable news, has been bested in recent weeks several times by that of MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell.
In Rich, Hannity seemed to have found at last an alternate-reality drama that could compel viewers while at the same time distracting from Trump’s struggles. No wonder he’s loath to let it go.
This brand of unhinged conspiracy theorizing was once the province of obscure internet forums and widely shunned wingnuts such as InfoWars’ Alex Jones. But as the Washington Post’s Margaret Sullivan explains, the election of Trump—himself a legendary peddler of conspiracies—has pulled it into the public discourse. On Monday, the same InfoWars that painted Sandy Hook as a hoax and 9/11 as an inside job was granted a temporary credential for White House press briefings. We shouldn’t be too surprised, then, that the rhetoric of major conservative figures such as Hannity and Gingrich is starting to sound more like that of Trump or Jones. Sullivan’s chilling conclusion:
The growing absence of truth should worry every American citizen.
“If everybody always lies to you … nobody believes anything any longer,” said Hannah Arendt, the German American political theorist. “And with such a people you can then do what you please.”
In retracting its online news story, Fox News is grasping for a fig leaf. We shouldn’t let it obscure the truth of what the network has allowed itself to become.According to a list provided by the Dangerous Drugs Board, there are 50 drug treatment and rehabilitation centers in the Philippines as of July 2016
Published 12:00 PM, September 14, 2016
MANILA, Philippines – It is never too late to turn one's back against illegal substance abuse.
As President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs intensifies, thousands of drug personalities are turning themselves in.
As of Tuesday, September 13, 710,961 individuals have voluntarily surrendered under the Philippine National Police’s Project TokHang. Of this number, 52,744 are drug pushers while an overwhelming 658,217 have admitted to being drug users.
Ideally, according to the Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB), a drug user has to go through the Drug Dependency Examination (DDE) conducted by an accredited physician. The exam determines the level of a person's drug use: (1) experimenter, (2) social recreational user, (3) habitual user, (4) drug abuser, and (5) drug dependent. (READ: War on drugs: Rehabilitation must be more than a knee-jerk reaction)
Those who are determined to be under levels 1 to 3 can be treated in out-patient centers where they can undergo counseling while individuals found to be on the 4th and 5th levels have to be admitted in residential treatment and rehabilitation centers.
Each of these centers implement their own rehabilitation program based on their own modalities. (READ: What's a day inside a private drug rehab center?)
A list from DDB shows that as of July 2016, there are 50 drug treatment and rehabilitation centers across the Philippines: 47 are residential while 3 are out-patient centers:
GOVERNMENT-OWNED RESIDENTIAL CENTERS
Department of Health (DOH) Treatment and Rehabilitation Center - Bicutan
Address: Camp Bagong Diwa, Bicutan, Taguig, Metro Manila
Contact details: (02)837-6540/ 838-0093 / 838-0261
Modality: Therapeutic Community
Capacity: 550 (male and female)
Marikina Rehabilitation Center
Address: East Drive St cor. Champagnat Street, Marikina Heights, Marikina City
Contact details: (02) 475-4269 / 645-6407
Modality: Eclectic
Capacity: 50
Parañaque Anti-Drug Abuse Council Holding/Diagnostic Center
Address: Parañaque City Police Station Brgy. La Huerta, Parañaque City
Contact details: (02) 820-8842
Quezon City Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation Center
Address: Molave Ext Diamond Hills Subd. Group II Area B, Brgy. Payatas, Quezon City
Contact details: (02) 922-4361 / 444-7272 local 8205
Modality: Therapeutic Community
Capacity: 150 (male and female)
DOH Treatment and Rehabilitation Center - Dagupan
Address: Bonuan, Binloc, Dagupan City, Pangasinan
Contact details: (075) 653-9876
Modality: Therapeutic Community
Capacity: 300 (male)
Nueva Ecija Rehabilitation, Training, & Research Foundation Center, Inc
Address: Barangay Singalat, Palayan City, Nueva Ecija
Contact details: (044) 463-8499
Capacity: 50
DOH Treatment and Rehabilitation Center - Bataan
Address: Batangas III, Brgy. Liyang, Pilar, Bataan
Contact details: 09156195682 / 0999519-0930
Capacity: 50
DOH Treatment and Rehabilitation Center - Tagaytay City
Address: Ipil St, Kaybagal South, Tagaytay City
Contact details: (046) 483-1334
Modality: Therapeutic Community
Capacity: 150 (male)
Tahanan ng Kabataan ng Laguna
Address: Brgy. Bungkol, Magdalena, Laguna
Contact details: (049) 501-2294
Modality: Eclectic
Capacity: 50 (male)
DOH Treatment and Rehabilitation Center - Malinao
Address: Brgy. Comun, Malinao, Albay
Contact details: (052) 830-5390 / (052) 483-0840 / 09228665852
Modality: Therapeutic Community
Capacity: 50 (male)
DOH Treatment and Rehabilitation Center - Camarines Sur
Address: Pamukid, San Fernando, Camarines Sur
Contact details: (054) 478-4769
Modality: Therapeutic Community
Capacity: 50 (male and female)
DOH Treatment and Rehabilitation Center - Iloilo
Address: Barangay Rumbang, Pototan, Iloilo
Contact details: (033) 529-8955 / 321-5242
Modality: Eclectic
Capacity: 50 (male)
DOH Treatment and Rehabilitation Center - Argao
Address: Binlod, Candabong, Argao, Cebu
Contact details: (032) 485-8815 / 485-8841
Modality: Therapeutic Community
Capacity: 50 (male)
DOH Treatment and Rehabilitation Center - Leyte
Address: Brgy. Highway, Dulag, Leyte
Contact details: (053) 322-2200
Modality: Therapeutic Community
Capacity: 30 (male)
Misamis Occidental Drug Treatment and Rehabilitation Center
Address: Purok I Brgy. Buenavista, Oroquieta City, Misamis Occidental
Contact details: (088) 531-1639
Modality: Eclectic
Capacity: 50 (male and female)
DOH Treatment and Rehabilitation Center - Cagayan de Oro City
Address: Upper Puerto, Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental
Contact details: 09269391669
Modality: Therapeutic Community
Capacity: 50 (male)
Davao City Treatment and Rehabilitation Center for Drug Dependents
Address: Bago Oshiro, Tugbok District, Davao City
Contact details: (082) 293-0252
Modality: Therapeutic Community
Capacity: 100 (male and female)
Therapeutic Community100 (male and female) Luntiang Paraiso Regional Rehabilitation Center
Address: P urok 2, Barangay Poblacion Municipality of New Corella, Davao del Norte
Contact details: 09163747024
Modality: Therapeutic Community
Capacity: 50 (male)
DOH Treatment and Rehabilitation Center - Surigao
Address: Barangay Anomar, Surigao City, Surigao del Norte
Contact details: 09084842490
Modality: Therapeutic Community
Capacity: 50 (male)
GOVERNMENT-OWNED, OUT-PATIENT CENTER
Region XI Outpatients & Aftercare Center for Drug Dependents
Address: CHD Davao Region, J.P. Laurel Ave., Bajada, Davao City
Contact details: 305-1495
PRIVATE RESIDENTIAL CENTERS
Bridges of Hope Drugs and Alcoholic Rehabilitation Center - Parañaque City
Address: 364 Aguirre Ave. Phase 3 BF Homes, Parañaque City
Contact details: (02) 662-0193 / 986-3883 / 571-9951
Modality: Eclectic
Capacity: 48 (male and female)
Bridges of Hope Drugs and Alcoholic Rehabilitation Center - Quezon City
Address: #12 Orestes Lane, Mariposa St, Bagong Lipunan ng Crame, Quezon City
Contact details: (02) 503-3483 / 09178325401
Modality: Eclectic Therapeutic Community
Capacity: 20 (male and female)
Healing Path Foundation, Inc
Address: 25 Newport cor. Marlboro St, East Fairview Subdivision, Fairview, Quezon City
Contact details: (02) 939-5917
Modality: Eclectic
Capacity: 25
Roads & Bridges to Recovery
Address: 520 EDBEN Building, Dr Sixto Antonio Ave. Maybunga, Pasig City
Contact details: (02) 643-6006 / 643-6056
Modality: Therapeutic Community
Capacity: 100 (male and female)
Bulacan Drug Rehabilitation Center
Address: Serapio-Ting Ville, San Nicolas, Bulakan, Bulacan
Contact details: (044) 896-0319
Modality: Therapeutic Community
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he followed Murray north to Seattle.
Simpson was mostly homeless then, but at times stayed with Murray.
Simpson last month accurately recalled the apartment's location. He also described where the bathroom and bedroom were in the third-floor unit, much as D.H. described them in his lawsuit.
All three of Murray's accusers have substantial criminal records.
D.H. admits to drug addiction and has a long history of criminal convictions and charges, including a prostitution arrest in 1990. He's now in recovery programs and attends community college, studying to become a chemical-dependency counselor.
He said his parents were crack addicts and died of drug overdoses. For years, he said, he has struggled with shame over the alleged abuse.
"I tried to commit suicide a couple of times, just because I was disgusted with myself, but I'm past that now," D.H. said.
Anderson, who accused Murray with Simpson in 2007, also abused drugs and alcohol. A registered sex offender, he was convicted in 1998 for several counts of felony sexual contact with a minor. He spent eight years in prison. Anderson said he now lives with his longtime wife, has two grown children and for a time managed a steakhouse. He no longer uses drugs, he said.
Simpson has convictions for burglaries, robberies and selling drugs to support his meth addiction.
In 1990, he was convicted of armed robbery and served nine years in prison in Oregon. After leaving prison, Simpson said, he continued to sell drugs. He began to get sober after his son's birth a year later. Court records show he has not had a criminal conviction since 2004.
Sitting his lawyer's office Wednesday afternoon, D.H. said he didn't see how Murray would be able to deny the alleged abuse. His attorneys want to question Murray under oath within 90 days.
D.H. said he wants Murray held accountable for treating him "like I was just nothing, like I was worthless."
His lawsuit said he "is disturbed that Mr. Murray maintains a position of trust and authority, and believes that the public has a right to full information when a trusted official exploits a child."Cboe Beats CME to the Market, Will Launch Bitcoin Futures December 10
Very few people would have imagined just a year ago the rapid pace of bitcoin adoption by established financial institutions today. We are now seeing two of the largest exchange holding companies in the world, CME and Cboe, racing to be the first to answer Wall Street’s appetite for bitcoin derivatives – and Cboe just got a leg up on its rival.
Also read: CME Rival Cboe Suggests its Coming Futures Market Would Include Bitcoin Cash
Cboe Global Markets (Nasdaq: CBOE) has announced today that its Cboe Futures Exchange (CFE) subsidiary plans to offer trading in bitcoin futures beginning on Sunday, December 10, just over a week before the CME planned launch. Attempting to further attract investors to its venue over CME’s, the Cboe head also announced that trading will be free through December.
Ed Tilly, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cboe Global Markets, said: “Given the unprecedented interest in bitcoin, it’s vital we provide clients the trading tools to help them express their views and hedge their exposure. We are committed to encouraging fairness and liquidity in the bitcoin market. To promote this, we will initially offer XBT futures trading for free.”
Product Details
The Cboe’s bitcoin futures will trade on CFE under the ticker symbol ‘XBT.’ The new instruments are cash-settled contracts based on the Gemini exchange’s auction price for bitcoin, denominated in U.S. dollars.
The company explains that its XBT futures are specifically designed to allow participants to implement straightforward trading strategies, through settlement to a single, tradeable auction price.
It previously revealed that they will have multiple contracts with several expiry cycles and also four serial expirations, among other details. It has even been suggested that in the future Cboe may add futures trading on bitcoin cash to differentiate its offering from that of the larger CME.
What does this race to launch bitcoin futures trading mean for investors? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock.
Do you like to research and read about Bitcoin technology? Check out Bitcoin.com’s Wiki page for an in-depth look at Bitcoin’s innovative technology and interesting history.On the downside, sometimes the food isn't good or a good deal, and you find yourself paying a premium for novelty and selection while having to wait in long lines. In addition, food courts are generally not as comfortable as restaurants, offering insufficient seating and leaving you to scramble to find a place to eat. Still, everyone finds them convenient and fun to visit at least once in a while. Here is Eater's guide to Manhattan food courts, listed from south to north. Hours given are those for the entire food court; times may vary for individual stalls.
Food courts constitute the most significant development in restaurant real estate this decade. Throw a dumpling in any direction in certain parts of town, and you're sure to hit one. Occupying outsize and under-utilized spaces, these tumultuous places generate relatively high rents for their developers, give restaurateurs a chance to test concepts without investing in an entire storefront, and offer consumers a much broader range of choices than a single restaurant could do. This is an especial advantage for picky eaters or patrons who prefer the colorful and noisy food court ambiance.
Hudson Eats
Address: Brookfield Place, 200 Vesey St, 2nd floor
Phone: (212) 417-7000
Hours: Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Opened: June 2014
Area: 35,000 sq ft
Seating: This is one food court with more seating than most, accommodating 600 at booths, tables, and counters. You can also take your purchases and eat them in the Palm Court or, weather permitting, outside. Some of the most prized booths inside Hudson Eats feature glorious views of the Hudson River, best at sunset.
No. of vendors: 14
Alcohol: beer and wine
Observations: This food court is relatively luxurious, with big picture windows and lots of booth seating, and the food can be a cut above the usual food court fodder. Nevertheless, the place is mobbed with office workers and tourists at lunchtime on weekdays and at random times of the day on weekends. Go weekday evenings for a more relaxed experience, when specials are sometimes offered.
Three Great Choices: Mighty Quinn's beef brisket sandwich ($9.15), Northern Tiger's lamb dumplings with spicy sauce (6 for $8), Blue Ribbon's squid salad ($8)
List of Vendors: Black Seed (bagels), Blue Ribbon Sushi, Chop't (salads), Dig Inn (seasonal fare), Dos Toros (tacos and burritos), Little Muenster (grilled cheese), Mighty Quinn's (Texas BBQ), Northern Tiger (Northern Chinese), Num Pang (Cambodian sandwiches), Olive's (salads, sandwiches, soups), Skinny Pizza (ultra-thin crust), Sprinkles (cupcakes), Tartinery (French open-face sandwiches), Umami Burger
Gansevoort Market
Address: 52 Gansevoort St
Phone: (212) 242-1701
Hours: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days
Opened: November 2014
Area: 8,000 sq ft
Seating: Sunny atrium area with mismatched chairs and tables, fairly well-spaced. Some stalls have counter seating; two tables outdoors on the sidewalk
No. of vendors: 21 (with 2 additional empty stalls)
Alcohol: none
Observations: This MePa yearling looks like the ancient warehouse that it once was with bare bricks and a distressed wood build-out, making it more handsome and comfortable than most food courts. Its patrons tend to be gallery-goers and families rather than office workers, and there's a pleasant, laid back atmosphere. However the turnover of tenants has been high, and sometimes the stall clerks and cooks seem glum at the apparent lack of traffic.
Three Great Choices: Myers of Keswick's full English breakfast (served till 4 p.m., $14); Cappone's gallo sandwich with mortadella, provolone, and eggplant caponata ($10); Crepe Sucre's eponymous crepe sucre ($4.50)
List of Vendors: Bagel Story, Bangkok Bar (Thai), Bruffin Café (sweet and savory pastries), Cappone's (Italian sandwiches), Champion Coffee, Crepe Sucre (sweet and savory crepes), Dana's Bakery (macarons), Donostia (Basque tapas), Ed's Lobster Bar (lobster rolls, chowders), Feel Food (bowls, salads, juices), Heermance Farm (fruits, prepared salads), Il Conte (pastas), Luzzo's (pizza), Meatball Guys, Mission Ceviche, M'o (gelato), Myers of Keswick (pastries, breakfasts), Palenque (Colombian), Tease NYC (teas), Tacombi (tacos), Terranean (Middle Eastern)
Grand Central Dining Concourse
Address: Grand Central Terminal Lower Level, 89 E 42nd St
Phone: (212) 340-2345
Hours: Monday through Thursday, 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Opened: October 1999
Area: 55,000 sq ft
Seating: Lots of seating at small tables and along semi-circular pews in the center, with a greater proportion of seats to dining counters than usual. Some establishments have captive dedicated seating
No. of vendors: 19
Alcohol: wine, beer, and mixed drinks (the latter inside the Two Boots bar)
Observations: The Grand Central Dining Concourse is both the oldest and the largest of the city's food courts. It can be off-puttingly crowded and even a bit seedy, with the average level of food quality slightly lower than most food courts. Despite the necessity of buyer beware, there are still plenty of good things to eat and a broader array of dining establishments than usual. For example, it's the only food court with Indian fare, a kosher deli, and a Shake Shack.
Three Great Choices: Two Boots' fresh-mozzarella grandma slice ($4.25), Shake Shack's Shackburger ($5.19), Mendy's matzo ball soup ($5.50)
List of Vendors: Café Spice (Indian), Chirping Chicken (rotisserie), Dishes (panini, smoothies), Eata Pita (Middle Eastern), Feng Shui (Chinese), Frankies Dogs On The Go (hot dogs), Golden Krust (Jamaican), Hale and Hearty Soups, Irving Farm Coffee Roasters, Jacques Torres Ice Cream, Magnolia Bakery (cupcakes), Manhattan Chili Company, Mendy's Kosher Dairy (bagels, appetizing), Mendy's Kosher Deli (meats, soups), Shake Shack (burgers), Shiro of Japan (sushi), Thai Toon (pan-Asian), Tri Tip Grill (salads, sandwiches), Two Boots (pizza)
City Kitchen
Address: 700 8th Ave, 2nd floor
Phone: (646) 863-0901
Hours: Sunday through Wednesday, 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday, 6:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m.
Opened: March 2015
Area: 4,000 sq ft
Seating: A few small tables pushed together in the center of the horseshoe-shaped space; stools by some counters, stools in the windows — really not much seating, but there's an overflow area that overlooks the adjacent hotel lobby.
No. of vendors: 8
Alcohol: beer
Observations: The relatively compact size and small number of vendors may be because this food court is close to Times Square, so space is at a premium. It's just off the lobby of the Row NYC Hotel, and the periodic inflow of tourist buses establishes the rhythm of the food court: empty one minute, mobbed the next. Decent sushi, great donuts, good burgers, and better-than-average tacos barely distract most visitors from the novel "shaved snow" ices.
Three Great Choices: Kuro-Obi's shiro classic Tokyo-style ramen ($12), Whitmans' upstate cheeseburger with fries ($13), Dough's salted caramel chocolate doughnut ($3)
List of Vendors: Azuki (sushi), Box (Lebanese), Dough (doughnuts), Gabriela's (Mexican), Kuro Obi (ramen), Luke's (seafood rolls), Whitmans (hamburgers), Wooly's Shaved Snow (frozen desserts).
Gotham West Market
Address: 600 11th Ave
Phone: (212) 582-7940
Hours: Sunday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 7 a.m. to midnight
Opened: November 2013
Area: 12,000 sq ft
Seating: Small wooden picnic tables in the center, backless and backed stools around round high tables, comfortable counter seating along several individual establishments
No. of vendors: 10
Alcohol: beer, wine, mixed drinks (Cannibal only)
Observations: Most counters at Gotham West stay open relatively late, which is a boon to those who want a quick bite after a movie or a show. Also, it's one of the few food courts where you can get a cocktail. Much interesting and high-quality food, with a certain amount of chef firepower, but fewer options overall than you might hope for. Located very far west in a neighborhood that feels like the frontier.
Three Great Choices: Choza Taqueria's tamale with poached egg ($4.36), Ivan Ramen Slurp Shop's breakfast ramen ($13), Cannibal's butcher's salad ($11)
List of Vendors: Ample Hills (ice cream), Indie Fresh (paleo, vegan), Blue Bottle (coffee), Cannibal (charcuterie, sandwiches), Choza Taqueria, El Colmado (tapas), Evelyn's Kitchen (cakes and cookies), Genuine Roadside (burgers, seafood), Ivan Ramen Slurp Shop (noodles, steamed bao), Uma Temakeria (hand rolls and sushi bowls)
Urbanspace Vanderbilt
Address: 230 Park Ave (entrance at 45th St and Vanderbilt Ave)
Phone: (212) 529-9262
Hours: Monday through Friday, 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Opened: September 2015
Area: 12,000 sq ft
Seating: Low picnic tables crammed in the center; some counters have a few dedicated stools; a few high stools by the windows look out on Vanderbilt Ave.
No. of vendors: 21
Alcohol: beer and wine
Observations: The operator is Urbanspace, a company known for its outdoor temporary food courts, and this place reflects that accumulated knowledge, with virtually no wasted space and a list of vendors that skews toward participants with brick-and-mortar establishments and a few ambitious companies that concentrate their efforts on food courts. The place is absurdly crowded at lunch on weekdays; avoid that time and go on a Saturday or Sunday. The food court has lots of vegetarian options.
Three great choices: No. 7 Veggie's double decker broccoli taco ($6); AsiaDog's banh-mi style frankfurter ($5.05); Roberta's Axl Rosenberg pizza, with hot soppressata, mushrooms, garlic, and jalapenos ($12/$17)
List of Vendors: A.B. Biagi (gelato), Amali Mou (Greek), AsiaDog (frankfurters), Bar Suzette (crepes and burger), Dough (Doughnuts), Bangkok Bar (Thai), Delaney Chicken (fried chicken sandwiches), Hong Kong Street Cart (Pan-Asian), La Palapa (tacos), Maiden Lane (canned seafood), Mayhem & Stout (braised meat sandwiches), Mimi's Hummus (Middle Eastern), No. 7 Veggie (vegetarian tacos and burgers), Ovenly (bakery), Red Hook Lobster Pound (lobsters rolls, chowders, raw oysters), Roberta's (pizza), Sigmund's (pretzels and pretzel sandwiches), Sips & Bites (soups, salads, toasts), Takumi Taco (Japanese-Mexican fusion), Toby's Estate (coffee), Two Tablespoons (vegetarian bowls).
The Plaza Food Hall
Address: 1 W 59th St
Phone: (212) 986-9260
Hours: Monday through Saturday, 8 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Opened: June 2010
Area: 32,000 sq ft
Seating: Low tables amid greenery, high tables with high-backed stools, captive seating inside some semi-walled-off spaces. But as with the other food courts, not enough seating at peak hours.
No. of vendors: 21
Alcohol: wine and beer
Observations: This is probably the most opulent food court you're likely to see, with lots of bakeries that make great sandwiches and pastries, wine bars, coffee and tea houses, and an unusual mix of tenants for a food court, with little straining at hipsterism. You have a chance to blow $300 on caviar, though there are some bargains to be had, too. The biggest drawback (or maybe advantage) is that the space seems more European than American. There are a few unexpected cheesy elements here, too.
Three Great Choices: Chi Noodle Bar's pho ($15), Pain Avignon's tomato quiche with a side salad ($10), Lady M's cheesecake ($7)
List of Vendors: Billy's Bakery (cupcakes, pies), Chi Noodle Bar (dim sum), Epicerie Boulud (sausages, salads), FP Patisserie (pastries), Kusmi Tea, Lady M (pastries, cheesecakes), La Maison du Chocolat, Luke's Lobster (seafood rolls, chowders), No. 7 Sub (hero sandwiches), Olma Caviar Boutique & Bar, Ora di Pasta, Pain D'Avignon (sandwiches, salads, quiches), Piada (flatbread sandwiches, small plates), Pizza Rollio, Sabi Sushi, Tartinery (French open-face sandwiches), Todd English Food Hall (pizza, pasta, raw bar), Vin Sur Vingt (wine bar), Vive la Crepe, William Greenberg Desserts, YoArt Frozen Yogurt Boutique
Conclusions
In our visits and revisits to these seven food courts, we discovered that most of them were not as popular as they had been during their opening weeks. In fact, several yawned half-empty during peak weekday lunch periods. One employee of Gotham West confided that the daytime patronage depended on what was going on at the nearby Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum. Smaller and nearer to Times Square, City Kitchen fills up when buses of high school students pull up before Broadway theater performances, and then the kids flock to the Wooly's shaved snow counter, which, along with the Shake Shack in the Grand Central Dining Concourse, had some of the longest lines we encountered. The rapid turnover of stalls at some food courts suggests that maybe the phenomenon is not as durable as we might imagine, and at least two courts have curtailed their hours over what they were at the outset. Ivan Ramen Slurp Shop, for example, is no longer serving breakfast. A vendor at Hudson Eats revealed: "This place is simply dead during most times of the day. Everyone descends at lunch, but in the morning there's no traffic to speak of."
The best food is to be found at the Plaza Food Hall and Gotham West Market. The worst food overall is at the Grand Central Dining Concourse. Urbanspace Vanderbilt and the Plaza Food Hall are currently tied for most popular, with Hudson Eats a close second. The best seating by far is at Hudson Eats. The saddest food court — but also the most relaxing — is Gansevoort Market, which will move out in mid-2016 to make way for the revamped Pastis.
.This is a guest post from Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato, an economist at Stanford University, and Owen Zidar, an economics doctoral candidate at the University of California-Berkeley.
“In recent decades, American workers have suffered one body blow after another.” So writes economist Laurence Kotlikoff, who has just the policy prescription to help those ailing workers: abolishing the corporate income tax.
You can expect to hear this proposal a lot more often as the nation’s debate over widening income inequality heats up. But know this: Our new research suggests that Kotlikoff is wrong – that eliminating corporate taxes would help shareholders more than workers, likely making inequality worse.
Kotlikoff argues that high taxes drive companies away and that companies need to be willing to operate in a local area for workers to have jobs. He cites Boeing’s successful campaign to lower its tax and labor costs in Washington state as an example of the importance of low taxes in attracting firms and jobs. However, if corporate taxes were as important for location decisions as Kotlikoff suggests, it is hard to see why California, with a state corporate tax rate of nearly 10 percent, is home to more than one out of nine establishments in the United States. Indeed, firms are not rapidly leaving for next-door Nevada, which has no corporate tax rate at all.
Our research suggests that not all places are created equal in the eyes of corporations — their particular form of production might be more productive in particular cities. For example, many technology firms choose to locate in Silicon Valley despite its high wages and high taxes. While taxes are indeed an important consideration for firms, not all firms are willing to relocate to chase lower taxes since relocation might require a less productive location. This idea – that some firms may be especially productive in certain areas – is missing in the large-scale simulation that Kotlikoff uses.
In addition, Kotlikoff, like many other economists, ignores the reality of today’s historically high corporate profits. In reality, many firms earn profits that exceed the “normal level” assumed in his model. Some firms, like Boeing, have paid out higher and higher shareholder dividends after winning tax breaks and labor concessions. Kotlikoff’s model assumes that doesn’t happen – and therefore, exaggerates the distortionary effects of corporate taxes.
Whether abolishing the corporate income tax will mostly benefit shareholders or workers is an empirical question. It requires a careful measurement of the sensitivity of firms’ location decisions with respect to taxes and how this sensitivity affects the profits they earn. Through our work at the University of California, Berkeley and the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), a nonpartisan research institute, we have developed a study to answer these questions and determine who benefits from cutting corporate taxes. Importantly, our work measures the empirical rate at which firms leave following an increase in taxes as well as the additional profits they earn following a tax cut.
This research analyzes every change in state corporate taxes since 1980 and measures the responsiveness of businesses to tax changes. We find that, across the country, most firms choose to pay higher taxes and locate where their productivity is highest, rather than chase tax incentives. That is, technology firms will still want to locate in Silicon Valley even if California were to raise its corporate rate modestly. We also measure what happens to wages and firms’ profits after states cut corporate taxes, and find that firm shareholders benefit more than workers from state corporate tax cuts. Moreover, workers are left with the bill to pay these generous incentives to firms in the form of lower corporate taxes.
To be clear, our results are from tax changes across states and not countries. Workers are more likely to move to a different state than to a different country, so workers would benefit more from cutting corporate taxes at the national level than they do at the state level.
With that said, across-the-board corporate tax cuts provide direct transfers to many companies that would be willing to locate here anyway. As a result, the bang-for-the-buck of across-the-board corporate tax cuts is not as attractive as Kotlikoff suggests. Eliminating corporate taxes may also exacerbate income inequality since shareholders are typically high-income individuals. Thus, on both efficiency and equity grounds, Kotlikoff overstates the case against the corporate income tax.
We agree with Kotlikoff on many policy issues, including the need to mitigate the plight of the American worker, and have lent our support for other policies he has championed, such as the INFORM Act. We applaud that his research brings attention to this topic but find the need to point to new empirical evidence showing that corporate tax breaks benefit firm owners in ways not possible in his model.
Policymakers do not necessarily need to lower taxes to attract companies; they can do so through other means such as enhancing productivity. There is good evidence that it would be in the nation’s interest to improve infrastructure and workforce skills. For example, the development policies of the Tennessee Valley Authority led to increases in productivity, growth and wages. Higher productivity can result in substantial profitability, and thus can be much more important component of business location and hiring decisions than taxes. Building a foundation for future productivity growth through infrastructure investments, especially when it is cheap to do so, is quite attractive. It would be a smarter way to compete for businesses – and to help long-suffering workers.A third of people buying homes in Canada may be foreigners, says one real estate company. A leading economist says the number isn’t even 5%. The country’s housing agency says it has no idea what the actual number is.
[np_storybar title=”CMHC leaves out question of foreign condo investors, but economist says it’s only 5%” link=”https://business.financialpost.com/2014/08/08/cmhc-leaves-out-question-of-foreign-condo-investors-on-major-survey/”%5D
A survey of Canada’s two largest condominium markets by the country’s housing agency has failed to answer the question many observers have been asking: How many foreign buyers are in the market?
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There is no definitive answer to the persistent question about how much of the current Canadian housing boom is being driven by overseas buyers — as some eyes focus sharply on Mainland China.
Even at Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp., the percentage of foreign ownership in the Canadian housing market is a deep mystery. CMHC avoided the issue entirely this month, when it released a massive survey of more than 42,000 Canadian condominium households in Vancouver and Toronto.
“At this point in time, it is still very difficult to identify [overseas investors] as part of the survey,” said Bruno Duhamel, manager of economic and housing analysis at CMHC. “We are exploring what type of method could be used.”
The real issue may be even if we can pinpoint the number of people from outside Canada buying residential property, should we care? Canada has no restrictions on foreign property ownership and the federal government said as recently as last year it has no plans to implement any restrictions.
“If we are talking about people with connections to another country, it’s meaningless. I’m surprised it’s only 33% if it’s just a connection,” says Benjamin Tal, deputy economist with CIBC, referring to a survey by Vancouver brokerage Macdonald Realty that found of its 531 single family sales in 2013, 178 or 33.5%, were to buyers from Mainland China.
The Macdonald Realty results were produced by someone going through the transactions and identifying names the the company identified as Chinese, meaning the buyers may very well have been established Canadian citizens.
Mr. Tal’s own analysis, which he based on the CMHC data, information obtained from developers and his own bank’s business, suggests foreign investment is less than 5% of the condominium market in Toronto and Vancouver.
“It’s a solid market,” said Mr. Tal about the overseas buyers. “We are talking about people who are putting down 45%-50%. They are not getting CMHC mortgage insurance [backed by the federal government].”
So why all the fear and loathing about overseas buyers?
“I think ‘foreign’ sounds risky,” said Mr. Tal. “You ask people about them and it’s like ‘they’re the bubble, there is going to be a crash when they leave’.”
But demand can fuel price increases. If you feel housing prices are rising too fast, a high percentage of overseas buyers driving the market may be a legitimate gripe, concedes the economist.
Brian Johnston, chief operating officer of home builder Mattamy Homes, says the so-called foreign buyer fear has always been overstated. “A lot of the capital comes from overseas, but the buyers are residents. There is also the phenomenon whereby someone (generally from Asia) gets their Canadian passport and then returns to their country of origin to make the real money (and taxed at much lower rates). Meanwhile, they have bought real estate here.”
I think ‘foreign’ sounds risky… You ask people about them and it’s like ‘they’re the bubble, there is going to be a crash when they leave’
But even if you wanted to “crack down” on foreign buyers it would not be easy.
“You may buy a place for family members or for investment purposes or for both reasons,” says Finn Poschmann, vice-president of the Toronto-based C.D. Howe Institute. “When you’re buying for family members, who are potential future residents, it may look like foreign ownership and in practice the person is going to be there. How one makes sense of that in a statistical context is not at all obvious.”
The only agency that tracks foreign money is FINTRAC, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada. The agency, which reports to the the Minister of Finance, is geared to towards policing money laundering.
“That [money laundering] is not necessarily an issue at all when it comes to new home or condo buyers,” said Mr. Poschmann. “We haven’t devised in Canada a system for aggregating this information [on foreign ownership], and under the current system I’m not sure it can be done. And, if we did have it, I’m not sure what we would do.”
Tsur Somerville, an associate professor with the University of British Columbia Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate, said his worry is the people who buy units and then don’t occupy them.
[np_storybar title=”How fears of overheating at home are driving Canadian homebuilders to look south” link=”https://business.financialpost.com/2014/08/27/how-fears-of-overheating-are-driving-canadian-homebuilders-to-look-south/”%5D
Overheating worries at home are driving Canada’s builders south, where they buy up rural land, betting on a recovery in the U.S. suburban housing market
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“That really pushes up the demand for land without satisfying the people who reside here,” said Mr. Somerville. “Then you get people who occupy, but do it sporadically; it’s essentially a vacation property.”
Taken to its extreme, you can end up with the complaint you might hear in a resort town such as Whistler, B.C.: People who work there can’t live there because it’s so expensive.
One method to try to determine how many people are living in the units they own might be to track hydro use, said Mr. Somerville. “It was done in the past and it was found, it was not as high as people thought.”
He concedes the percentage of people who can afford to own a unit in city such as Vancouver and leave it empty is likely small. “I think it’s a huge percentage of relatives of the top end of the Communist Party in China, but not a huge percentage of the market,” said Mr. Somerville.
Restricting this type of activity could be controversial because it would mean the government is effectively forcing you to live in your home. “You know from a municipal standpoint nothing could be better than these people. They pay taxes and don’t demand any services,” said Mr. Somerville.
It may possible to do something akin to what Florida has whereby non-state residents pay higher property taxes. You could then turn around and tell people if you show you’re renting the property, you get a tax break.
Dan Scarrow, vice-president of Macdonald Realty, said his company’s survey found few people who had no connection to the city — meaning they were neither an immigrant or citizen.
“There is very, very little pure foreign investment where the people have no connection to the city whatsoever,” said Mr. Scarrow. “The worry is these are new immigrants who made their fortunes back in China and bring their fortunes to Vancouver.”
There is also a fear the whole debate is just an example of xenophobia, he said.
“I think it’s been blown out of proportion because there has been an impact in certain pockets of Vancouver,” said Mr. Scarrow. “Even so, the issue is there no realistic solution I can see.”By Mark Anderson
The dilemma with 9-11—beyond just unearthing more evidence that the federal government’s conspiracy theory is the height of absurdity—is what to do with all the evidence. You can expose a lot of the “who” and the “how” of 9-11 regarding the forces behind the Twin Towers’ destruction, the damage to the Pentagon and the Pennsylvania event. But then what?
Will the American citizenry push the seemingly immovable government story aside and achieve justice by actually jailing the real 9-11 perpetrators—whoever they may be? The government says everyone centrally responsible for the crimes of 9-11 perished in the attacks. And while the United States military-intelligence complex has water-boarded many a suspect with obscure names, no one has gone to jail over 9-11.
Meanwhile, however, a couple of hard-working analysts this writer has interviewed are pondering this matter.
Texas architect Ron Avery, one of the two participants in a September 9 debate in Austin on how the three World Trade Center buildings were destroyed on 9-11, was elated to see the Central Texas Republican Liberty Caucus (CTRLC)—a major source of Representative Ron Paul’s home-state support structure that has long been reluctant to fully confront the 9-11 issue—finally bring the issue out in the open by sponsoring the debate.
Avery, who maintains that pre-planted internal explosives were used in New York in 9-11, explained to AMERICAN FREE PRESS, “Now the Republican Liberty Caucus backing Ron Paul is finally looking at this, which is like saying, ‘Ron, it’s time to come out on 9-11.’”
Thus, the Austin debate was seen by some as a potential turning point in a stifling political atmosphere, where political parties and candidates would rather avoid troubling questions about 9-11.
Among political candidates, 9-11 has been a tough issue. Debra Medina, a volunteer in Paul’s 2008 presidential campaign, in 2010 challenged Texas Governor Rick Perry during his re-election bid and was neutralized with surprise 9-11 questions on radio from Fox News “presstitute” Glenn Beck, which made her quit. And while Paul often says that armed pilots could have prevented the supposed 9-11 skyjackings, he still will not fully challenge the official 9-11 story.
Paul’s only other common 9-11 remark has been that America’s attacks on foreign nations invite “blowback” in the form of terrorism, yet there has long been a rift between some of his supporters who want a more aggressive 9-11 probe, and those who prefer to play it safe and not be labeled as a wacky “conspiracy theorist.”
Significantly, the CTRLC’s national president, Dave Nalle, attended the Austin debate. He’s skeptical of Avery’s 9-11 views, but he at least sanctioned the debate so members could make up their own minds.
And now that Paul is again running for president, there is hope that what transpired in Austin could help change the climate in favor of a broader 9-11 inquiry that will encourage Paul to say more about 9-11 and help dislodge the conventional story.
This newspaper, among other alternative media, has been aggressively challenging the government’s 9-11 conspiracy theory over the years, with the much-in-demand September 5, 2011 special 9-11 edition of AFP being the latest effort in that initiative. Dozens of copies were distributed at the debate. The government’s story is weakening, but it’s difficult to overcome the conventional story.
While pointing out that a full 9-11 probe—and avoiding the foreign wars that the 9-11 attacks spawned—go hand-in-hand, Avery stated during the debate, “The main reason that Medina and Paul were both defeated was their 9-11 stuff... One of Ron Paul’s main platforms is non-interventionism in foreign policy, and a non-police state and freedom at home, but you just cannot have those things if you accept [or won’t challenge] the 9-11 story.”
As Avery told AFP, “Medina and Paul won’t face the initial thing that it [the conventional 9-11 story] is a hoax to start with.” Avery says all political candidates concerned about 9-11 need to learn how to breach this subject and challenge the media to make the media back down, thereby getting 9-11 truth to a higher level that is harder to discredit.
Notably, radio host and longtime 9-11 activist Kevin Barrett agreed with that assessment when he interviewed this AFP writer on the air on September 19.
Avery, known for producing “911 Undeniable Conspiracy,” a DVD presentation that addresses viewers as if they are jurors, seeks to establish in the legal sense that a genuine conspiracy took place on 9-11. In so doing, Avery seeks to demonstrate that the government’s version cannot survive scrutiny. He shared some of that approach at the Austin debate, taking on former National Aeronautics and Space Administration employee Jeff Larson, who insisted that fires and gravitational collapse were enough to down the structures. It was not easy for Larson to maintain that stance.
But everyone in the Austin restaurant agreed that life in America was drastically altered in the wake of 9-11.
“Regardless of what happened on 9-11, our country has changed in mostly irreversible ways that |
from their mother Flo (Margo Martindale) because she is a racist and a homophobe.
There’s also Jason Sudeikis as a widower trying to be a good dad to his two daughters after the death of his wife (Jennifer Garner in a cameo), Julia Roberts as a Home Shopping Network personality, and Britt Robertson as an unwed mother who refuses to marry her aspiring standup comedian baby daddy (Jack Whitehall) because she has abandonment issues. This is made clear in the scene where she loudly announces “I have abandonment issues!” in a public park full of kids. As you do.
The characters in Mother’s Day have a habit of making strange pronouncements like that, often while offscreen. (A good 30 percent of the dialogue is spoken by people who aren’t on camera, the result of post-production audio dubbing done in a desperate attempt to punch up the limp screenplay.) But then so much of Mother’s Day is a collection of the strange and the bizarre. What to make of the scene where Timothy Olyphant silently contemplates a glazed donut as if he’s never seen one before in his entire life? Or the car chase involving a giant parade float shaped like a uterus and vagina? Or the character who holds a book signing (not at a bookstore, mind you), asking each fan “Who do I make this out to?” until one walks up and dramatically announces “ Your daughter!!! ”
Isolated moments will haunt viewers for the rest of their lives. Nothing will erase the image of Flo bemoaning her grandson’s dark skin, or her redneck husband Earl (Robert Pine) delivering a large portion of his dialogue while chomping on a chicken bone. There’s a scene where a child walks up to a karaoke machine and goes “Wow!” and another girl says “Do you know what this is?” and she cheerfully replies “No!” ( Why was she so excited if she didn’t know what it was?!? ) There are numerous sequences set in a comedy club where Jon Lovitz wanders around holding a dog and Jack Whitehall tells awful jokes while holding a baby, and the audience onscreen laughs hysterically because there is nothing funnier in this world than when a man holds something. There are several “shocking” twists, none more staggering than the revelation that Jason Sudeikis’ bumbling, awkward, soccer dad gym owner was previously a United States Marine. He may be the least credible member of the Armed Forces in any movie since Pauly Shore’s In the Army Now.
There’s an astonishing array of talent on display here, all of it wasted. Julia Roberts mostly hawks tacky jewelry. Aasif Mandvi gets racially profiled by cops while wearing a woman’s bathrobe. Jason Sudeikis demonstrates his character’s emotional growth by singing “The Humpty Dance.” Jennifer Aniston sulks through the entire film until a clown (yes, a clown) inspires her to turn her life around by comparing his bottomless hanky to “the bottomless love a mother feels for her children.” No, really.
Before he decided to become the movie director version of the Batman villain Calendar Man, Garry Marshall created and produced some of the greatest television shows ever. But Marshall’s old magic touch is nowhere in evidence here. As a comedy, this is an unmitigated disaster. As a fever dream of nonsensical non sequiturs, it might be a secret masterpiece.Did you see the fireball that sailed across the sky early Tuesday morning? Did you happen to catch a piece of it as it broke up in the atmosphere?
If so, you could get a reward from the Maine Mineral and Gem Museum.
The museum in Bethel, Maine, is offering a $20,000 reward for the first one-kilogram meteorite recovered from the close encounter.
Based on hundreds of eyewitness accounts collected and analyzed by the American Meteor Society, scientists were able to pinpoint that the meteoroid entered Earth’s atmosphere over Maine, and it’s terminal explosion—the bright flash that most people witnessed, which usually coincides with fragmentation of the fireball—occurred about 30 kilometers, or about 18.6 miles, west of Rangeley, Maine.
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“This is an exciting opportunity and we need the public’s help,” said Barbra Barrett, Mineral and Gem Museum director, in a press release.
The first fragment will also receive a place of honor in the museum’s Meteorite Hall. As far as fireball observations go, museum officials confirm that the Tuesday morning sighting was huge. And if you’re lucky enough to be near its explosion site, you could get a huge reward.
If you missed out on spotting the meteor in action, you can see some on display when the Mineral and Gem Museum opens a planned exhibit in spring of 2017; the exhibit will showcase a meteorite collection featuring specimens of the moon, Mars, and more.Sorry about the delay between posts, loyal readers! I am not immune to the weak economy and I’ve been working double-time on my more commercially driven websites.
Colleges, students, and even student loan companies haven’t been quite able to escape the consequences of a lockup in global financial and credit markets. In fact, 180 students at George Washington University were just informed that their student loans had to be canceled mid-year.
The government has been scrambling to restore liquidity to these credit and capital markets, not just for banking and finance at large but specifically for student loan borrowers and lenders. A recent press release from none other than Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Department of Education Secretary Margaret Spellings states that:
President George W. Bush signed H.R. 6889, the extension of the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act. We appreciate Congress providing the Department of Education, in coordination with the Treasury Department and the Office of Management and Budget, renewed temporary powers to use federal funds to ensure students and families continue to have access to student loans. The loan purchase and participation interest programs implemented over the last few months have helped ensure that Federal student loans were available to students enrolling in postsecondary institutions for the 2008-2009 school year, and Federal student lending is exceeding last year’s pace. Our financing program has supported just over 40 percent of the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) loans that have been disbursed this year. Over 800 lenders have enrolled in our loan purchase program. Almost $51 billion of federally guaranteed loans have been originated for the current school year, up from approximately $45 billion for the same period last year.
This was released just a few weeks before National Education informed its customers at George Washington University that they’d be losing access to future student loan funds.
So despite all the government-mandated taxpayer spending – despite all the debt that students are taking on to keep going to school, there’s clearly no “order” and stability in the student loan market. If you’re looking for student loans, make sure to not only compare prices but also take a look at the reliability ratings you can find online. Don’t end up relying on a company that could just suddenly cut you off – this can lead to a huge mess in your transcripts and a hard time adapting back to the flow of degree completion. Diversify your tuition paying income – even if that means finding a few smaller scholarships to apply for and taking on a part time job. The less you rely on a single source, the better your chances of surviving the worst.
Be careful out there!A pilot for ExpressJet Airlines refused to submit to a full-body scan in Memphis on Saturday, saying the technology amounts to "virtual strip searching." Detained by airport security, he now may lose his job. Here's his heroic first-hand account.
Michael Roberts says he has been reporting for work in Memphis for 4 1/2 years without incident until Friday, the first time that the Transportation Security Administration had asked airline employees to enter the full-body scanners now being deployed at airports around the country.
Roberts said when he objected while wearing a full uniform, airport security sent him through a metal detector, then told him he would have to be frisked. He declined, and that's when things got uncomfortable; airport police were summoned, talked with Roberts, and eventually demanded his information. He claims he gave most of what they wanted — but stopped short when asked to provide his bosses' name and telephone number.
Here's Roberts' account:
As I loaded my bags onto the X-ray scanner belt, an agent told me to remove my shoes and send them through as well, which I've not normally been required to do when passing through the standard metal detectors in uniform. When I questioned her, she said it was necessary to remove my shoes for the AIT scanner. I explained that I did not wish to participate in the AIT program, so she told me I could keep my shoes and directed me through the metal detector that had been roped off. She then called somewhat urgently to the agents on the other side: "We got an opt-out!" and also reported the "opt-out" into her handheld radio. On the other side I was stopped by another agent and informed that because I had "opted out" of AIT screening, I would have to go through secondary screening. I asked for clarification to be sure he was talking about frisking me, which he confirmed, and I declined. At this point he and another agent explained the TSA's latest decree, saying I would not be permitted to pass without showing them my naked body, and how my refusal to do so had now given them cause to put their hands on me as I evidently posed a threat to air transportation security (this, of course, is my nutshell synopsis of the exchange). I asked whether they did in fact suspect I was concealing something after I had passed through the metal detector, or whether they believed that I had made any threats or given other indications of malicious designs to warrant treating me, a law-abiding fellow citizen, so rudely. None of that was relevant, I was told. They were just doing their job. Eventually the airport police were summoned. Several officers showed up and we essentially repeated the conversation above. When it became clear that we had reached an impasse, one of the more sensible officers and I agreed that any further conversation would be pointless at this time. I then asked whether I was free to go. I was not. Another officer wanted to see my driver's license. When I asked why, he said they needed information for their report on this "incident" – my name, address, phone number, etc. I recited my information for him, until he asked for my supervisor's name and number at the airline. Why did he need that, I asked. For the report, he answered. I had already given him the primary phone number at my company's headquarters. When I asked him what the Chief Pilot in Houston had to do with any of this, he either refused or was simply unable to provide a meaningful explanation. I chose not to divulge my supervisor's name as I preferred to be the first to inform him of the situation myself. In any event, after a brief huddle with several other officers, my interrogator told me I was free to go.
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As he turned to leave, Roberts was stopped again, this time to wait for a separate TSA investigator. As he waited, Roberts said he and the airport police official chatted about the ever-increasing security used to spot attempted terrorists such as Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab:
Where, then, would the evolution of these policies lead next? "Do you want them to board your plane?" he asked. "No, but I understand there are other, better ways to keep them off. Besides, at this point I'm more concerned with the greater threat to our rights and liberties as a free society." "Yeah, I know," he said. And then, to my amazement, he continued, "But somebody's already taken those away."
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It was then that the TSA investigator arrived.
He asked for my account of the situation. I explained that the agents weren't allowing me to pass through the checkpoint. He told me he had been advised that I was refusing security screening, to which I replied that I had willingly walked through the metal detector with no alarms, the same way I always do when commuting to work. He then briefed me on the recent screening policy changes and, apparently confused, asked whether they would be a problem for me. I stated that I did indeed have a problem with the infringement of my civil rights and liberty. His reply: "That's irrelevant." It wasn't irrelevant to me.
The TSA investigator went through the same questions again, and Roberts said the investigator scolded him for his behavior:
"I'm not saying you've done something wrong. But you have to go through security screening if you want to enter the facility." "Understood. I've been going through security screening right here in this line for five years and never blown up an airplane, broken any laws, made any threats, or had a government agent call my boss in Houston. And you guys have never tried to touch me or see me naked that whole time. But, if that's what it's come to now, I don't want to enter the facility that badly."
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By the time he'd left the airport, the TSA had already contacted Roberts' superiors, and he described his job status as now being "on hold."
His experience, posted on a pilots' chat board, drew attaboys from several other pilots, but a few questioned Roberts' approach:
Congratulations, you fell on your sword for nothing. No policy has changed, or will change, and now you're likely unemployed because of it. Noble? Sure. Stupid? Incredibly...Look, do I agree with you about the intrusiveness of the TSA? Absolutely. However, since 2001, the TSA has been the name of the game in the airline world. You knew you'd be dealing with this hassle every day for the rest of your career, yet you decided to do it instead of fly jumpers, boxes, or VIPs around. That was your decision and now you're going to have to live with it.
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Roberts reply: "If your perspective prevails - and I'm afraid it may - we may all live to find ourselves wishing we had fought in earlier days, when we still had a fighting chance."
Photo Credit: APMoose Knuckles, a maker of high-end outerwear, has been accused by Canada's competition watchdog of assembling its parkas overseas while claiming to be made in Canada.
Canada's Competition Bureau said Wednesday it is going to take action against what it calls "deceptive marketing practices by Moose Knuckles," a Canadian company that makes premium winter jackets that retail from $595 to over $1,000.
"The parkas are marketed as Made in Canada when they are mostly manufactured in Vietnam and elsewhere in Asia," the bureau said in a statement. "The application alleges that only the finishing touches to the jackets, such as adding the trim, zippers and snaps, are done in Canada."
The bureau isn't insisting the company start making all of its parkas in Canada, rather that it just stop marketing them as such.
"The bureau is seeking an end to what it believes to be false or misleading 'Made in Canada' representations, an administrative monetary penalty and restitution for consumers," the bureau said.
"Consumers are willing to pay a premium for 'Made in Canada' products, and manufacturers know this," senior deputy commissioner Matthew Boswell said in the statement. "The bureau has taken action in order to ensure that consumers — and retailers — have the correct information to allow them to make informed purchases."
Under Canadian law, a product can only be described as "made in Canada" if:
The last substantial transformation of the good occurred in Canada.
At least 51% of the total direct costs of producing or manufacturing the good have been incurred in Canada.
The Made in Canada representation is accompanied by a qualifying statement, such as "Made in Canada with imported parts" or "Made in Canada with domestic and imported parts."
When asked for comment, Moose Knuckles president Alay Twik said the company "vigorously rejects the allegations made today by the Competition Bureau regarding the Canadian content of its products and the company's operations in Canada."
"Moose Knuckles' core products are made in Canada and always have been," Twik said.
"Like virtually every other garment made in Canada, textiles and components from abroad are used in the Canadian manufacture of Moose Knuckles parkas," the company later said in a statement.
The firm also said it employs about 100 Canadian craftspeople in its factoriesThis image provided by NASA/JPL-Caltech shows a simulation of an asteroid approaching from the south as it passes through the Earth-moon system. (Photo11: AP) Story Highlights An asteroid defense plan will be drawn up by former astronauts
Member nations to join forces in an "International Asteroid Warning Group"
A spacecraft would be launched to knock the asteroid off course
(Newser) – The next time an asteroid is on a collision course with Earth, the U.N. wants to make sure someone calls Bruce Willis.
The General Assembly last week gave the green light to an asteroid defense plan drawn up by the former astronauts at the Association of Space Explorers, Scientific American reports. The plan calls for member nations to join forces in an "International Asteroid Warning Group" committed to sounding the alarm if a dangerous rock is spotted. A spacecraft would then be launched to knock the asteroid off course.
The ASE also wants the U.N. to run a practice deflection mission, to make sure the method actually works.
MORE FROM NEWSER: 20-year-old man is a suspect in 79 murders
Right now, no nation has an explicit responsibility to defend against an asteroid, and one former astronaut explained why the task should fall to the U.N., reports Space.com: "If something goes wrong in the middle of the deflection, you have now caused havoc in some other nation that was not at risk. And, therefore, this decision of what to do, how to do it, and what systems to use have to be coordinated internationally."
Further, early detection is essential, because the deflecting spacecraft will likely have to hit the rock five years before its rendezvous with Earth in order to be successful. "If we don't find it until a year out, make yourself a nice cocktail and go out and watch," one former astronaut says. (There's actually a small chance a big asteroid could hit us in 2032.)
Newser is a USA TODAY content partner providing general news, commentary and coverage from around the Web. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1bveZWwNow a German Jewish organization, Jewish Voice for Peace in the Middle East, is planning an aid flotilla to Gaza! Please send them money.
There are over 250,000 Jews in contemporary Germany, and more Jews immigrated to Germany in 2005 than to Israel. Four-fifths of them are Russian Jews who prefer Berlin to Beersheva. And, there are some Israelis among them who have similar preferences. In further evidence of how Israel can actually be bad for Jews, the Israeli government lobbied Germany in 2004 to restrict Jewish immigration. But there are now more Jews in Germany than there were in 1939 before the Holocaust. (True, there are not more than in the Weimar Republic, but that is where the trend line is going despite Israeli attempts to foment discriminatory immigration policies toward Jews.)If we all hope to make a significant impact, the animal advocacy movement should be promoted by and integrated into environmental and social justice causes.
Different advocacy movements are trying to create change in different ways: social justice advocates work to further human right and equality; environmental advocates seek to protect wildlife and ecosystems; and animal advocates want all species to be treated equally and no longer be used for human gain. Though these three broad movements share much in common, seeing them work together can be rare and surprising. Animal advocacy especially is an outlier, with both social justice and environmental advocates generally shying away from promoting animal causes.
Occasional Faunalytics blogger, Carrie P. Freeman has written an article stating that, if anything, animal rights advocacy is necessary “to save Earthlings – every last one of us.” The essay acts as a provocative and compelling suggestion that animal advocacy is marginalized by the other movements, when it should instead be promoted foremost as “the vital bridge connecting the struggle to protect the rights of human beings with the struggle to protect all living beings.” Carrie begins by outlining how, in general sense, it is not necessary to explain why human rights are important to other humans. Though some differences exist, many people recognize why we should care about other people. However, getting people to respect the environment or other species is more difficult, and often relies on anthropocentric values (humans need clear air and water, etc.) to move forward. Likewise, because an economic viewpoint dominates the planet, generally people have a hard time assessing the living world beyond dollars and cents. Intrinsic value is lost on many people.
The human-preserving aspects of environmentalism can make it seem obvious why social justice advocates should care about the environment. However, environmentalists often only wish to preserve certain species of animals, even though they “do not provide a sound justification” for doing so. In other words, environmentalists tend not to want to improve the lives of farmed or lab animals, or animals used for entertainment, simply because those species do not fit into a simple ecological picture. This is despite the fact that many such species are actually taken from the wild, or that the farming of animals for human consumption is an environmental catastrophe of immense magnitude. With this in mind, the author argues that environmentalists should consider animal rights as a “matter of moral consistency.” Similarly, she states that social justice advocates should be able to show empathy and try to acknowledge our kinship with other animals, “rather than cope with the shame, albeit perhaps subconscious shame, that comes with our (ab)use and exploitation of fellow animals and nature.”
The author notes that animal advocacy “leans” on the power of environmental ethics and human rights, and states that all three movements could actually benefit from one another if they work together. Animal advocates must rely “on environmental advocates to protect habitat and to extend moral standing to the more-than-human world, and on human rights inasmuch as animal activists extend certain extant, well-established human rights to nonhuman animals.” She says that, because the three social movements target similar types of opponents, namely corporations “and their government enablers,” there is a great deal of tactical and strategic common ground that could be struck.
“The future of all Earthlings depends on humanity’s willingness and ability to choose responsible coexistence—sharing our planet and respecting the diversity of life,” says the author. For animal advocates, this means reaching out to environmental and social justice advocates, and building bridges through help and mutual respect. If animal advocates can show that they genuinely care about coalition building, perhaps the other movements will follow suit.Sat 05 November 2016
Pyonic interpreter 0.7 has just been released. There are now two versions on Google Play, one for Python 2.7 and one for Python 3.5. The APKs are also available directly from Github. Other features in this release include a new settings screen and improved gui arrangement.
The app is written in Python using Kivy, and uses exactly the same code under both Python versions. This code is open source and available online on Github.
This release includes most of the short term improvements I had planned, since supporting Python 3 didn’t raise any major issues. I expect that development will now focus on adding a few more usability tweaks, then working with the Python packaging to add features like pip installs for new modules, code editing (rather than just the interpreter interface), and support for GUI creation via Kivy.
Category: kivy Tagged: python android kivy pyonicI was walking back to our apartment in Manhattan, the hood of my jacket pulled tight to keep the rain out, when I saw an older man with a walker struggle to descend the slippery stairs of his building. When he almost fell, I and several others went over to help.
There was an Access-A-Ride van (a Metropolitan Transit Authority vehicle for people with disabilities) waiting for him. The driver was inside, warm and dry, as he watched us straining to help his passenger cross the sidewalk in the pouring rain.
Then he opened the window and yelled over the sound of the rain coming down, “He might not be able to make it today.”
“Hold on,” we yelled (there were five of us now) as we helped the man move around the back of the van, “he can make it.”
Traffic on 84th street had stopped. We caught the man from falling a few times, hoisted him back up, and finally got him to the van door, which the driver then opened from the inside to reveal a set of stairs. The man with the walker would never make it.
“What about your side door, the one with the electric lift?” I asked.
“Oh yeah,” the driver answered, “hold on.” He put his coat over his head, came out in the rain with the rest of us, and operated the lift.
Once the man with the walker was in safely, we all began to move away when the driver opened the window one more time and yelled, “Thanks for your help.”
So, here’s my question: Why will five strangers volunteer to help a man they don’t know in the pouring rain — and think about the electric lift themselves — while the paid driver sat inside and waited?
Perhaps the driver is simply a jerk? Perhaps. But I don’t think so. Once we suggested the lift, he didn’t resist or complain, he came outside and did it immediately. And he wasn’t obnoxious either. When he thanked us for our help, he seemed sincere.
Maybe it’s because the driver is not permitted to leave the vehicle? I checked the MTA website to see if there was policy against drivers assisting passengers. On the contrary, it states “As long as the driver doesn’t lose sight of the vehicle and is not more than 100 feet away from it, the driver can assist you to and from the vehicle, help you up or down the curb or one step and assist you in boarding the vehicle.”
So why didn’t the driver help? Part of the answer is probably that for him, an old man struggling with a walker isn’t a one-time thing, it’s every day every stop, and the sight doesn’t compel him to act.
But that answer isn’t good enough. After all, it’s his job to help. That’s when it suddenly hit me: The reason the driver didn’t help might be precisely because he was paid to.
Dan Ariely, a professor at Duke University, and James Heyman, a professor at the University of St. Thomas, explored this idea. They set up a computer with a circle on the left side of the screen and a square on the right side, and asked participants to use the mouse to drag the circle into the square. Once they did, a new circle appeared on the left. The task was to drag as many circles as they could within five minutes.
Some participants received five dollars, some fifty cents, and some were asked to do it as a favor. How hard did each group work? The five dollar group dragged, on average, 159 circles. The fifty cents group dragged 101 circles. And the group that was paid nothing but asked to do it as a favor? They dragged 168 circles.
Another example: The AARP asked some lawyers if they would reduce their fee to $30 an hour to help needy retirees. The lawyers’ answer was no. Then AARP had a counterintuitive brainstorm: they asked the lawyers if they would do it for free. The answer was overwhelmingly yes.
Because when we consider whether to do something, we subconsciously ask ourselves a simple question: “Am I the kind of person who..?” And money changes the question. When the lawyers were offered $30 an hour their question was “Am I the kind of person who works for $30 an hour?” The answer was clearly no. But when they were asked to do it as a favor? Their new question was “Am I the kind of person who helps people in need?” And then their answer was yes.
So what does this mean? Should we stop paying people? That wouldn’t work for most people. No, we need to pay people a fair amount, so they don’t say to themselves, “I’m not getting paid enough to...”
Then we need to tap into their deeper motivation. Ask them: Why are you doing this work? What moves you about it? What gives you the satisfaction of a job well done? What makes you feel good about yourself?
People tend to think of themselves as stories. When you interact with someone, you’re playing a role in her story. And whatever you do, or whatever she does, or whatever you want her to do, needs to fit into that story in some satisfying way.
When you want something from someone, ask yourself what story that person is trying to tell about himself, and then make sure that your role and actions are enhancing that story in the right way.
We can stoke another person’s internal motivation not with more money, but by understanding, and supporting, his story. “Hey,” the driver’s boss could say, “I know you don’t have to get out of the van to help people, but the fact that you do — and in the rain — that’s a great thing. And it tells me something about you. And I appreciate it and I know that man with the walker does too.” Which reinforces the driver’s self-concept — his story — that he’s the kind of guy who gets out, in the rain, to help a passenger in need.
Ultimately someone else’s internal motivation is, well, her internal issue. But there are things we can do that will either discourage or augment her internal drive. And sometimes it’s as simple as what we notice.
It’s not lost on me that I too have a story about myself — I’m the kind of guy who stops on a rainy day to help an old disabled man to his van — and that it makes me feel good to tell you about it too. That will make it more likely that I’ll do it again in the future.
As we left the scene, I looked at the drivers of the cars who waited so patiently and waved, mouthing the words “thank you” as they passed. Every single one of them smiled back. Wow. New York City drivers smiling after being stuck in traffic for ten minutes? That’s right.
“Yeah,” they were thinking behind their smiles, “I’m the kind of driver who waits patiently while people less fortunate than me struggle.”
Editor’s note: For recent studies on motivation, look at Teresa M. Amabile and Steven J. Kramer’s “What Really Motivates Workers” in the 2010 HBR List, as well as Daniel Pink’s recent book, Drive, reviewed in our Recommended blog.First off please don't reply to this thread if you have nothing constructive to say or are just going to flame people and please don't reply if your just going to say "I don't care what is happening to top champion league players they are all ♥♥♥♥♥ers and gemmers anyways!" And please don't claim you know what's going on in high champion's league (3800+) if you've never been there. Thank you. This is an extremely long post, so beware.With the last update (the one with the hero nerfs) matchmaking in upper champion's league was changed by Supercell. They have denied changing anything in email responses to us but they are lying, they changed how matchmaking works in upper champion's league and I will explain.Prior to the update the top player had over 4700 trophies and the lowest player in top 10 had 4600. The top player now is 4494 and the lowest in top 10 is 4362 as of writing this. That is a 200-300 trophy drop off in some cases. Honestly I'm surprised this is the first forum thread about this. You may be wondering if some of this is due to losing on offense because of the hero changes, and your right, some of it is. For the most part though it is an inability to find bases to attack and always being paired up with someone several hundred trophies lower then you on defense. (If your at 4300 and someone at 3800 finds you, they are going to take at least 35 trophies from you if they get two stars).Now stuff like this has always happened in upper champion's league. The higher you go the harder it is to find matches as the pool of available players to attack in your range becomes smaller. The problem is, the pool of available players who can attack you on defense never gets any smaller. It doesn't matter if go up high enough to, say, 4200 trophies and push all the 3200-3500's out of range of attacking you, there is still just as many players in the 3600-3900 range who will all take 30 or more trophies from you if they find you and two star you. The saving grace we had was that matchmaking would always try to find the best available opponent for someone, meaning it always tries to pair you up with someone close to your trophy range first. This meant, for example, that if you were at 4200 trophies, even though there could be hundreds of players in the 3700-4000 range searching for attacks and only 10 players in the 4200-4500 range, there was still an equal or greater chance one of the players in the 4200-4500 range would find you. Half the time that player was from an ally clan and would be kind enough to only take one star (cheap shield), and the other half it was someone from an enemy clan who would two star you if they could. Even then you would only lose 15-20 trophies at most, still a lot, but not nearly as rough as losing 30 or more.So basically what you had was a system where the higher you go in trophies the harder it is to progress. The players at really high trophy rankings (4200+) could never get too far ahead of the player just getting into champion's league for the first time. However, due to the fact that there are far less people willing to spend the type of money and time required to go above 4200 trophies compared to the thousands of players willing or content with just being in champions league, a giant gap started growing. The players who were able to reach something like 4200 trophies wanted to keep pushing higher, but the rest either lacked the money or time. What we ended up with was a top 200 Global Leaderboard that spanned from 4000-4700 trophies at one point. A 700 trophy gap over just 200 players, and all of those 200 are online 12+ hours a day searching for bases to attack. This is why it's so hard to find a base to attack up here and almost every one you do find is worth just 1 trophy, 99% of the time there is no one for the system to pair you with near your range, so it has to look for someone much lower. Despite the enormous gem costs of pushing 1 trophy at a time and the fact that there were many times you couldn't even find enough 1 trophy bases to make up your defense losses, top players were still willing to do it.That was before the update. Immediately after the update it was almost impossible to find a single match for several days. Many of the top players went 3-4 days, searching 12 hours a day, without finding a single base to attack. As if this was not bad enough, the system was now pairing us with players hundreds of trophies lower then us every single time on defense. I can't tell you how many defensive logs I looked at where for 7-8 straight defenses the person lost -39 because they were paired with someone 500+ trophies lower then themselves. This persisted for several days and started getting better right after Supercell's first maintenance break after the hero update. Coincidence, absolutely not. Though things have gotten a little better, there still seems to have been a permanent change in matchmaking. Top players are finding some 1 trophy bases to attack again, though still not as many as before the update, and defense has gotten slightly better, even though we are still being paired with someone lower then us 90% of the time.My theory is Supercell actively changed the matchmaking system, at least in champions league, in order to close the huge trophy gap in champion's league that makes finding matches impossible and prevents people from wanting to push up there at all. I also think they are hoping that these changes in matchmaking as well as the nerfs to heroes, will keep players from ever reaching such high trophy counts again, and therefore keep the gap smaller and more manageable. This is why so many top players could not find a match for several days but were getting attacked by players 400-500 trophies lower then themselves every single time on defense. Supercell changed matchmaking in some way that paired lower players up with higher players far more often then usual. The basic goal I believe was to lower the top most players while raising some of the lower players, so that overall more players would be in the top range of champion's league. For example, instead of having 200 players making up a 700 trophy gap from 4000-4700 we have a thousand or more players making up a 700 trophy gap from 3800-4500. Sure this might help champion's league as a majority, but once again it's done at the expense of the minority, the top players.So what's next? I think Supercell changed matchmaking twice. The first time was with the hero update. I think this was temporary, done to drop the top players and close the gap like I explained above. The second time I think was the first maintenance break after the hero update, and this was a permanent change. Although top players can once again find some matches and defense is slightly better, it's still far worse then before the update. I think this is because the new matchmaking system is skewed towards preventing top players from climbing so high again. On offense it gives them fewer matches then before while giving more matches to the middle-of-the-pack champion's league players, in order to close the gap further, and to encourage more people to push into high champ. On defense, 9/10 times you will be attacked by someone lower then you, where as before the update it was more like 5/10. This is also in part because a 700 trophy span from the top player on global leaderboards down used to cover 200 players and now covers probably thousands, so there are far more lower trophy players in range to attack you then before.Regardless, matchmaking was changed in some way, and it was done at the expense of some of Supercells biggest and most loyal customers. I have seen so many of my friends, all of whom were above 4000 trophies, quit this game in the last few weeks, and not one of them because of the changes to heroes, we've all adjusted and have our new strategies. Don't get me wrong I'm sure the hero |
tax burden to the rich, while McCain and Republicans will argue that an Obama presidency would also saddle more middle-class families with higher taxes on stock dividends and other earnings.
"Will we go back to the policies of the '60s and '70s that failed or will we go forward?" McCain asked yesterday, seeking again to link Obama with Jimmy Carter, a Democrat whose presidential administration presided over a period of high inflation, rising gas prices, increasing unemployment, and growing budget and trade deficits.
Obama and the Democratic Party, seeking to capitalize on the public's economic insecurity, said that those are precisely the afflictions of the current economy after nearly eight years under President Bush and that McCain will merely continue - or in some cases worsen - that legacy.
In a wide-ranging interview that aired yesterday on CNBC, Obama also pointed to the growing disparity in incomes between the highest and lowest earners, saying, "We've had an economy that's been out of balance for too long."
"We know that over the last decade or so, that more than half of the economic growth has been captured by the top 1 percent of US citizens," Obama said. "That means the other 99 percent have seen their effective incomes go down. That is not a recipe for long-term economic growth."
While he contended in the interview that his specific prescriptions would depend on the economy he inherits, Obama also said he will institute a tax cut for 150 million middle-class workers - up to $500 per person, or $1,000 per family; eliminate income taxes on seniors making less than $50,000 a year; and provide a new mortgage-interest tax credit for low- and moderate-income homeowners.
McCain said yesterday that keeping taxes low - even on wealthy individuals and Fortune 500 corporations - is the key to generating economic growth. He said he would double the tax exemptions for children and give millions of middle-class families a tax cut by phasing out the alternative minimum tax, a decades-old mechanism designed to make sure that affluent families pay at least some income taxes, but now affecting more and more taxpayers.
He also vowed to slash the corporate tax rate, and the Republican National Committee said yesterday that even though Obama has slammed that idea, the Illinois senator's new economic policy director has advocated it.
The Arizona senator also told the small-business summit that he viewed the estate tax, paid on inheritances, as "one of the most unfair tax laws on the books." "After a lifetime building up a business, and paying taxes on every dollar that business earns, that asset should not be subjected to a confiscatory tax," he said.
But McCain has defended the estate tax in the past, arguing against its repeal in 2002 by saying that doing so "would provide massive benefits solely to the wealthiest and highest-income taxpayers in the country."
McCain's campaign said his position on what critics call the "death tax" has not changed. "He didn't indicate he supported a full repeal in this speech," his campaign said in a statement. Still, McCain's characterization of the estate tax yesterday is a marked departure.
Democrats assailed McCain for asserting in yesterday's speech that Obama would "enact the largest single tax increase since the Second World War" in part by not extending the Bush tax cuts. FactCheck.org, a nonpartisan website run by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, found last month that McCain's contention is inaccurate, saying that by the most accurate measure, it would be the fifth largest since 1943.
Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.Since the 1990s, there have been some concerns about the stalled progress in achieving gender equality with regard to wages, occupational segregation, and segregation in fields of study (Blau and Kahn 2006 ; England 2010 ; Tomaskovic-Devey et al. 2006 ). Despite these issues, one area that does not show stalled progress is personal earnings. Personal weekly and annual earnings for full-time working women grew faster than for men during the 1990s and the 2000s so that the gender gap in annual earnings has continuously narrowed (Goldin 2006 ; Goldin et al. 2006 ). In regard to the standard of living (at least as conventionally measured), annual earnings is much more consequential than wage rates. Therefore, even if the gender gaps in wages or occupational segregation were to remain unchanged, one might expect that women’s standard of living would continue to grow faster than for men well into the twenty-first century. The double progress of women—in both education and annual earnings—might be presumed to accelerate a rapid improvement of women’s standard of living.
Although the return to education has been rising, so too has the proportion of women who have completed college (Buchmann and DiPrete 2006 ; DiPrete and Buchmann 2006 ). Women are currently more likely than men to go to college and to earn a bachelor’s or higher degree. In 1970, females accounted for 41 % of students in all degree-granting institutions, but that share increased to 57 % in 2005 (Snyder et al. 2008 ). The rise of women’s educational advantage does not stop at the level of the bachelor’s degree. In 2009 and 2010, more than one-half of all graduate degrees were granted to women (DiPrete and Buchmann 2013 ). Progress has also been seen across fields of study: gender segregation in fields of study has reduced significantly in the 1970s and 1980s (England 2010 ).
The labor market return to college education has increased significantly for both men and women (Kim and Sakamoto 2008 ). Over the last several decades, college-educated workers enjoy higher financial return in labor markets than before while less-educated workers are suffering from stagnating or even declining annual earnings (Long 2010 ). Several studies have shown that the college wage premium is higher for women than for men (e.g., Card and DiNardo 2002 ; Charles and Luoh 2003 ). One of the most prominent stylized facts with regard to the gender difference in the return to education is that the relative college premium is higher for women than for men (Dougherty 2005 ). 1 Studies have also shown that the return to college education has increased faster for women than for men (DiPrete and Buchmann 2006 ; Grogger and Eide 1995 ; McCall 2000 ; Murphy and Welch 1992 ).
The Economic Return to Education in Marriage Markets
As for the total return to education, the return via the marriage market cannot be dismissed. Family formation influences and constrains the financial return to education for both genders, and likely continues to have a particularly salient impact on women’s return to education. Goldin (1997) demonstrated that for women who graduated from college between 1945 and 1960, almost one-half of the return to higher education comes in the form of a spouse with higher earnings.
This phenomenon may well have changed, however. The last few decades have seen several demographic and institutional changes in family formation (Cherlin 2004), which may have had a strong effect on the financial return to education through marriage. Differential returns by educational level may also be becoming more significant.
In general, the introduction of oral contraceptives and the reduction in fertility increased the number of women in the paid labor force and raised their annual hours worked (Bailey 2006; Lehrer and Nerlove 1986). At the same time, the rise of women in higher education has further decreased fertility (Brand and Davis 2011). The total reduction in fertility over the life course is greater for more highly educated women than for the less-educated (Musick et al. 2009). One would expect these changes to have increased women’s standard of living.
Another major and significant change relating to the total return to education is the shift in assortative mating. Role-specialization perspectives argue that a person’s economic well-being can be maximized by a gendered division of labor within the family (Becker 1991). The sharp dualism of the husband as the main breadwinner and the wife as the main homemaker has, however, waned over the last several decades (Buss et al. 2001; Cherlin 2005; Oppenheimer 1994, 1997; Sweeney 2002). With the deinstitutionalization of American marriage (Cherlin 2004), educational homogamy has risen. A well-known stylized fact is that assortative mating by education has increased over the last several decades (Schwartz and Mare 2005).
The deinstitutionalization of marriage and the accompanying change of marriage from educational hypergamy to educational homogamy suggest that women’s return to education in the marriage market will also rise. Assortative mating patterns are important causes and consequences of marriage behavior and related processes of social stratification (Mare 1991; Schwartz 2013). As assortative mating rises, the incidence of two highly educated partners earning two high incomes increases, thereby increasing their standard of living (Schwartz 2013).
On the other hand, it is possible that women’s standard of living might not improve as much as expected. Over the last several decades, men’s earnings have stagnated except among higher-income earners (Leicht 2008; Morris and Western 1999). The relative stagnation of men’s earnings for most of the distribution implies that most women may garner less return to their education in the marriage market than in earlier decades.
Another important but rather neglected factor regarding women’s standard of living is the effect of the change in assortative mating. Women’s rising educational attainment could have lowered their return to education in the marriage market. As women’s educational attainment rises, women are less likely to marry up. Partly as a consequence of this trend, educational homogamy has continuously increased in America since the 1960s (Schwartz and Mare 2005).
Recent years have seen yet another significant aspect of the change in assortative mating. The Pew Research Center reported that the share of couples in which the husband’s education exceeds his wife’s increased between 1960 and 1990, but had fallen by 20 % as of 2012 (Wang 2014). Now a record share of women live with a less-educated spouse. Educational marrying-down may reduce husbands’ contributions to the family standard of living. This rise in the rate at which men marry down could have further eroded women’s return to higher education in the marriage market in the most recent period.
These changes suggest the possibility that the rise in women’s education and the accompanying increase in their labor earnings may not be sufficient to offset the decline of the return to education in marriage market. A blurred yet still persistent gender division between housework and paid labor enhances this possibility. In spite of the notable progress in women’s earnings, men are still the main breadwinner in the majority of families (McKinnish 2008). The gender gap in earnings remains stubbornly present in both the public and private sectors (Mandel and Semyonov 2014). When husbands bring less income into a family over time, the growth in wife’s earnings might not be sufficient to raise a family’s economic well-being. The paradoxical consequence is that all the progress experienced by women over the last several decades can result in the deterioration of their overall economic well-being.
This trend conversely implies that married men’s return to education in terms of the standard of living has grown faster than for women. Men are now more likely to marry women who are more educated than themselves (Schwartz and Han 2014). These more-educated wives bring in more income into family than in previous decades. Indeed, in the marriage market, the importance of women’s earnings potential has increased over time (Sweeney and Cancian 2004). For the same level of education, men’s return to education may have increased faster than women’s.
Whether the rise in women’s education and their gain in labor earnings increases their economic well-being or paradoxically deteriorates it (because of the reduction in the return to education in the marriage market) depends on the relative size of these two effects. Rather than being some inevitable process (e.g., due to modernization), the trend in women’s standard of living is an empirical outcome reflecting demographic changes associated with the returns to education in the labor and marriage markets.
In sum, the flip side of the “rise of women” perspective—which predicts that the standard of living for women has improved faster than for men—is the contrasting trend that might be thought of as its paradox. This female advantage should be associated with rising personal income, increased assortative mating, and the deinstitutionalization of marriage. Contrary to this view, the paradox envisions that the standard of living for women is deteriorating compared with men despite greater female educational attainment. This deterioration would be related to the reduction in the return to education in marriage markets for women.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
July 4, 2016, 1:40 PM GMT / Updated July 4, 2016, 6:16 PM GMT / Source: Reuters By NBC News
BAGHDAD — The death toll from a suicide bombing in a Baghdad shopping district reached 200 on Monday, fueling calls for security forces to crack down on ISIS sleeper cells blamed for one of Iraq's worst single bombings.
Numbers rose as bodies were recovered from the rubble in the Karada area of Baghdad, where a refrigerator truck packed with explosives blew up on Saturday night when people were out celebrating the holy month of Ramadan.
Its streets and sidewalks were filled with young people and families who had broken their daylight fast at the time.
A relative of a bombing victim visits the site of Sunday's attack. AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP - Getty Images
The toll stood at 200 killed and 176 wounded by Monday afternoon local time, Baghdad official Mohammed al-Rubaiy told NBC News.
The attack is believed to be the deadliest in nearly a decade in the beleaguered nation.
ISIS claimed the attack, saying it was a suicide bombing. Another explosion struck in the same night, when a roadside bomb blew up in popular market of al-Shaab, a Shiite district in north Baghdad, killing two people.
Photos: Baghdad Blast Kills Scores in Busy Market
The attacks cast a shadow over victory statements made last month by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's government, after Iraqi forces dislodged ISIS from Fallujah.
Government officials ordered the offensive on the ISIS stronghild in May after a series of deadly bombings in Shiite areas of Baghdad that they said originated from the city, which is about 30 miles west of the capital.
The scene of the suicide car bomb attack in the Karada area of Baghdad on Monday. AHMED SAAD / Reuters
In a sign of public outrage at the failure of the security services, Abadi was given an angry reception on Sunday when he toured Karada, the district where he grew up, with residents throwing stones, empty buckets and even slippers at his convoy in gestures of contempt.
Karada is a largely Shiite district with a small Christian community and a few Sunni mosques.
Iraqi and foreign officials have linked the recent increase in ISIS attacks — especially large-scale suicide bombings — with the string of losses the group has faced on the battlefields across Iraq over the past year.
Mourners carry the Iraqi flag-draped coffins of Baghdad bombing victims Talib Hassan, 35, and Hamza Jabbar, 37, during their funeral procession at the holy shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf, Iraq, on Sunday. Anmar Khalil / AP
Iraqi security forces, supported by U.S.-led coalition airstrikes, have retaken the cities of Tikrit and Ramadi, the Anbar provincial capital.
At the height of the extremist group's power in 2014, ISIS had deprived the government of control of nearly one-third of Iraqi territory.
Now the militants are estimated to control only 14 percent, according to the prime minister's office. ISIS militants still control Iraq's second-largest northern city of Mosul, north of Baghdad.The Times hysteric-in-chief, Thomas Friedman, sounded the alarm. With his first question, he referred to an article he had written days prior warning Trump that indifference to climate change could turn his “oceanside [golf] courses into ocean-floor courses.” Joking, Trump suggested a rise in sea levels just might increase the value of his Doral golf course given that it is about ten miles inland.
As quickly became clear in last week’s skittish interview do with Donald Trump, the top dogs at the New York Times worry more about rising sea levels than they do about shrinking circulation.
For Friedman, this was no laughing matter. “It’s really important to me,” he huffed. Said Trump, “I’m looking at it very closely, Tom. I’ll tell you what. I have an open mind to it.” This was hardly a flip-flop. Trump touched on the Climategate scandal and told the Times crew something no one with power likely ever told them before, “A lot of smart people disagree with you.”
Unsatisfied, Publisher Arthur Sulzberger ratcheted up the hysteria. “We’re living on an island, sir,” he warned Trump. Had Trump been less polite, he might have answered, “About the only thing you are likely to drown in, Pinch, is a sea of red ink.”
Sulzberger then shared with Trump a related fear, that of storms. Trump tried to comfort him. “We’ve had storms always, Arthur,” he replied. But Sulzberger refused to hear it. “Not like this,” he said.
Although Trump did not question Sulzberger’s definition of “like this,” he could have safely done so. Florida had gone a record eleven years without a single hurricane strike before the modest Category I Matthew struck Northern Florida in October.
Similarly, according to the Weather Channel, the even more modest Hermine “eclipsed the longest drought on record, dating to 1886,” when it entered the Gulf of Mexico in September. Before Hermine, not a single hurricane had entered or developed in the gulf in three years. Apparently, with the wiggle room that the phrase “climate change” allows, “like this” can mean either too many storms or too few.
On the subject of sea levels, the Times people seemed to have even less purchase on reality. The Friedman article is a case in point. Its headline--“Donald Trump, Help Heal the Planet’s Climate Change Problem” -- provokes some immediate questions. One is scientific: what exactly is the climate change “problem?” A second is grammatical: how do you “heal” a “problem”?
More dubious than Friedman’s grammar is his sourcing. To back up his thesis, Friedman refers the reader to an article in "The Real Deal". Never heard of "The Real Deal"? Well, it just happens to be one of the leading real estate magazines in South Florida.
The article focuses on the warnings issued at a Chamber of Commerce event by Keren Bolter, the science director at nearby Florida Atlantic University. Never heard of FAU? Neither had I, but it does seem to be accredited. Bolter argued that, due to climate change, rising sea levels would cause the western half of Miami Beach to be “under water” by 2060.
Given that it has been nearly thirty years since NASA’s James Hansen alerted America to global warming, one would expect to see plentiful evidence of a dangerous sea level rise not just in computer projections, but in coastal communities. If rising seas were to swamp these cities, their beaches would inevitably go under first. This is not happening.
A few years ago my brother-in-law and I were walking through a semi-restored arcade that vaults over the boardwalk in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Along its walls was a series of beach photos from a century or so ago. Although the photos had been taken in different years, it was apparent to both of us that virtually every photo showed a beach sufficiently smaller than the one that spread in front of us in 2013. The boardwalk had not been pushed back to accommodate a rising sea. No, the sea had simply not risen.
Following that experience, I made a point of comparing the beaches I visited with images of those beaches in the past. A year ago, I visited Daytona Beach. As a twelve-year old in 1960, I drove with my family to see my grandmother in Florida, and we stopped in Daytona. It is a memorable beach in that cars are allowed to drive on it. In 2015, the beach looked just as I recalled. To test my memory, I checked Google images. I was not imagining things.
My grandmother lived in a town on Florida’s west coast called Madeira Beach. At the time it consisted mostly of single-family units and small motels. The beach itself I remember as being so narrow and mucky we drove each day down to St. Pete’s Beach to swim. Family photos confirm the same. In September I drove through Madeira Beach looking for my grandmother’s house. What I found instead was a beachfront lined with large hotels and condos all fronted by an ample beach of white sand. Investors in these properties don’t appear to be overly worried about rising sea levels.
Earlier this year, I had the occasion to visit Santa Monica, a California town with broad, sandy beaches and exquisite environmental sensitivity. I have little personal history with the area, but photographs show no noticeable change in beach size over time. When I googled “Santa Monica” “beach” “problem,” I saw many articles about pollution, homelessness, traffic and water quality, but not even the local Greens seem concerned about a shrinking beach.
Just this past month, in an unusually well traveled year, I spent a couple of weeks in the south of France. I had last been there in 1983. Again, the beach in Nice appeared just as big and rocky as I remembered it. Scott Fitzgerald fan that I am, I visited the beach on Cap D’Antibes where he and his pals frolicked in the 1920s. They took plenty of photos to commemorate the good times. Again, there was no obvious difference between the beach in those photos and the beach today.
Like the climate, beaches constantly change. They are subject to tides and storms and erosion. Some, I suspect, are a bit smaller than they once were. Some are larger. Unlike the climate, however, one can photograph a beach, and people have been doing so routinely for more than a century. If there were a case to be made for rising sea levels, the Times could better convince Trump and the rest of us through hard photographic evidence than through questionable projections in publications like "The Real Deal".
The Times people, however, have a faith that transcends evidence. They will surely cling to their core beliefs as gospel even when confronted with the obvious. “Facts aren’t necessary,” said late author and doctor Michael Crichton on the subject of environmental doomsayers. “It's about whether you are going to be a sinner, or saved. Whether you are going to be one of the people on the side of salvation, or on the side of doom. Whether you are going to be one of us, or one of them.”
As the Times people are finding out, if there ever were a “one of them,” it is surely Donald Trump.NANAIMO — The burned out Jean Burns building in downtown Nanaimo will be demolished shortly, but don't expect anything new to pop-up on the high-profile site anytime soon.
Rick Hyne of Crankshaw Holdings told NanaimoNewsNOW they expect to demolish the charred building on Victoria Cres. at Terminal Ave. by March 19. He noted that permits from the City of Nanaimo and WorksafeBC are required before that can happen.
However, Hyne said they intend to sell the land after the 29,000 sq/ft building is razed.
“We have no plans to rebuild at this time until downtown Nanaimo becomes a little more vibrant,” Hyne said.
He said selling the Jean Burns site may take some time, noting the economic climate downtown is not favourable right now.
“If we were to try and rebuild just retail there, the numbers don't work,” he said. “We just don't get the dollars downtown for square foot on the return that you would up north or some other parts in town.”
Hyne said Crankshaw intends to sell all four of its downtown properties — two buildings on Victoria Cres. and two on Commercial Dr.
The Jean Burns location is not the only prime real estate in downtown Nanaimo sitting in disrepair. Residents have long-lamented the state of the old A&B Sound building on the other side of Victoria Cres. That location has been sitting vacant since 2008, according to the City's real estate manager.
Nanaimo mayor Bill McKay said the City is committed to helping spur downtown development. He points to a current clause which waives development cost charges for new downtown projects.
“I would suggest that if we are concerned about the current product available and its value with respect to return on investment, making an investment will improve that,” McKay said.
McKay noted there are certain buildings in parts of the downtown core that are lacking investment from their owners. He said he'd like to hear what more the City can do to help foster a more positive business environment.
“Particularly as we move forward into this economic development strategy, and determine what it is we can do, I'd love to see more investment downtown, but we need to work on it together,” he said.
Hyne said it will indeed take a multi-partner effort to help create a more vibrant downtown Nanaimo.
“This has to be a partnership between property owners and the City and everybody else,” he said. “But we've got too many silos, everybody interested in their own little department, so something needs to change.”
The high-profile Jean Burns building, which was home to 15 businesses, went up in flames in a blaze deemed accidental on March 30 of last year.
[email protected]
On Twitter: @reporterholmesThe Manitoba Liberal Party is trying to lead the way on amending the province’s human rights code to include discrimination based on weight and size.
The party held a public forum Sunday to raise the issue the Liberals previously brought up in the Legislature in October when River Heights MLA Jon Gerrard introduced a private member’s bill, which at the time aimed at discriminatory practices against overweight individuals.
The Liberals reintroduced it as Bill 200, the Human Rights Code Amendment Act, in November, and Gerrard is hopeful of a vote when the Legislative Assembly reconvenes in March.
Gerrard said there needs to be a “better general understanding among the public about why this is so important.”
“It’s taken me, personally, quite a long time to realize this is a serious issue, a serious human-rights issue,” he said. “Addressing this issue well can improve people’s health and, as a result of improving people’s health, this can save our health-care system dollars.”
Gerrard’s bill seeks to have size and weight protected under the human rights code, similar to how race, gender and disability are already protected. That would allow for mediation from the human rights commission.
“That, I think, is a reasonable solution here,” he said.
Samantha Rayburn Trubyk, the president of Little People of Manitoba, said discrimination based on size still exists and it manifests itself in a variety of ways. Rayburn Trubyk said she faces it regularly, discussing an incident in which a family at a restaurant recently “decided it was appropriate to make some really rude comments” toward her and her son, who both have dwarfism.
She said any attempt at bringing more awareness to human-rights issues is welcomed from her organization’s standpoint.
“There’s everything from public spaces still not being accessible to this day in Winnipeg even after new builds, so that’s still occurring,” he said. “There’s people who feel the need to make inappropriate comments. That discrimination is still happening.”
dlarkins@postmedia.com
Twitter: @LarkinsWSunPamela Geller is telling her fellow anti-Muslim activists to convince Congress to reject a resolution “urging the Government of Burma to end the persecution of the Rohingya people and respect internationally recognized human rights for all ethnic and religious minority groups within Burma.”
The Rohingya minority have faced vicious persecution in Burma, but Geller accuses them of “waging jihad in Burma.”
Various human rights groups and media outlets, along with groups from the Heritage Foundation to the Brookings Institute, have described the persecution of the Rohingya in Burma as ethnic cleansing.
But not Geller.
She claims that the Rohingya are to blame for the atrocities against them because of a bombing at a Buddhist shrine in India by the Islamic extremist Indian Mujahideen, and is demanding activists stop the resolution from turning into a “battering ram to impose Islam on small, defenseless countries.”Erica Gross, center, and Sandra French, Kenneth French’s mother, are surrounded at a memorial for 2-year-old Kamiya French at the Parkside Estates housing complex in Inkster on Thursday night. (Photo: Ryan Garza, Detroit Free Press)
DETROIT -- The man accused of gunning down a 2-year-old girl wanted her killing to be the last thing her father ever saw, a Michigan State Police spokesman said Thursday.
The allegation from Lt. Michael Shaw followed the arraignment of 24-year-old Raymone Bernard Jackson of Inkster on first-degree murder, torture and other charges.
Authorities said Jackson, who is known as Money, shot Kamiya French in the head before opening fire Tuesday at an Inkster housing complex, wounding her father, 34-year-old Kenneth French, and family friend Chelsea Lancaster, 12, both of whom remain hospitalized.
MORE: Shooter kills toddler point blank, injures 2 others
State Police said they arrested two more people Thursday that were involved in the shooting. The names of the pair have not been released.
Jackson entered the courtroom in Inkster quietly Thursday afternoon. Judge Sabrina Johnson asked for a court-appointed attorney to be assigned and ordered Jackson held without bail. The next hearing is scheduled for July 16.
During a news conference after the arraignment, Shaw said made clear how State Police intend to treat alleged child killers.
"The first coward's in custody. Anybody that feels that they can execute a child in the state of Michigan, we're going to go after them with everything that we can," he said.
Inkster's police chief, Hilton Napoleon, said earlier that the attack was retaliation for a shooting in April at an after-hours club in Inkster.
Shaw, however, offered his own take.
"I wouldn't call it retaliation. Retaliation for what? Take somebody's life away for retaliation? I mean, just to mention that as part of a motive is silliness to me," he said. "I can't wrap my head around anything that would make me want to walk up to a small child sitting next to a porch, point a pistol at their head, and shoot them dead. I can't give you a motive. I can't wrap my head around that."
Court records indicate that Jackson has had a handful of cases in Wayne County. Records indicate that in March 2010, a jury found him not guilty of first-degree murder stemming from a 2009 incident.
In April 2010, Jackson pleaded guilty to a drug charge and, in May that year, was sentenced to two to five years in prison, records indicate. On the Michigan Department of Corrections online offender system, he is listed under the name "Raymond Bernard Jackson."
Russ Marlan, a corrections spokesman, said Jackson was paroled on June 28, 2011.
Last year, Jackson pleaded guilty to a drug charge stemming from January 2013. He pleaded guilty in August 2013 and, under a plea agreement, two other charges, including failure to stop after a collision, were dismissed. In September, he was sentenced to 11 months in jail and two years of probation.
Marlan said Jackson was discharged from parole on the 2010 case last month and was transferred to probation.
On Wednesday, a warrant was issued for Jackson for violating probation on the 2013 case.
Chelsea, who was injured in the triple shooting, was reported by her grandfather to be awake and talking after surgery to remove bullets from her stomach area and upper left leg.
She's doing "pretty good," Darrell Holt Sr., 56, of Inkster said. "She's going to make a 100% recovery, but it's just going to take time."
But the trauma of the shooting remains fresh in Chelsea's mind.
"She's asking, 'Why did it happen and what's wrong with the people of the world?' She's asking her mom, 'Why are people so silly like this?' " Holt said.
Holt also called Kamiya's father, Kenneth French, a "good guy" who always had Kamiya with him. He was in stable condition late this morning, police said.
Authorities said the three were shot at the Parkside Estates housing complex at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday. The suspect was arrested Wednesday in Brownstown Township, according to Napoleon.
State Police said the shooter approached the group outside an apartment at the complex and started talking to French. He pulled out a handgun and shot Kamiya in the head before opening fire on the others, police said.
Andy Anderson, 51, of Detroit said that he saw the suspect shoot Kamiya at "point-blank" range.
Contributing: Katrease Stafford of the Free Press
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Nov. 28, 2017, 10:20 PM GMT / Updated Nov. 28, 2017, 10:20 PM GMT By Ali Vitali
Republicans cleared a hurdle in their drive to overhaul the tax system Tuesday, voting the Senate GOP tax bill out of committee and paving the way for a full chamber vote later this week.
The bill cleared the budget committee in a 12-11 vote along party lines, with two notable "yes" votes from previously skeptical Republicans. Despite having threatened to oppose the bill, GOP senators Bob Corker of Tennessee and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin both voted it out of committee.
As the clerk read the tally, protesters in the room shouted, "Kill the bill! Kill the bill!"
The vote came hours after President Donald Trump had left the Capitol, where he attended a closed-door meeting with Senate Republicans and urged them to support the tax cut plan. Trump characterized the meeting afterward as a "love fest" and praised the "unanimous, from the Republican side at least" votes from Senate budget committee members.
"It was very, very special," Trump told reporters in the Roosevelt Room of his meeting with Republican senators. "The camaraderie. It was somewhat of a love fest. They want to see (tax cuts) happen."
Certainly, this White House wants to see it happen. The Trump administration has yet to notch a major legislative win for their first year in office, and the president has said he hopes for the tax reform bill to be on his desk by Christmas.
That will require cohesion among Republicans — something Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said is a "challenging exercise" — considering Democrats aren't on board. Trump spent his Tuesday attacking top Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer as "weak" on crime and immigration, as well alleging that "nothing to them is important other than raising taxes."
The White House has spent the past few weeks shoring up skeptical Republicans, like Corker and Johnson. For Corker, those discussions have been paying off.
Corker explained his "yes" committee vote in a statement Tuesday in which he said he had reached an agreement in principle "on a trigger mechanism to ensure greater fiscal responsibility should economic growth estimates not be realized." Corker has expressed concern about any steps that would increase the deficit.
If it passes the full Senate, the tax cut plan must still be reconciled with a different plan moving through the House.Tim Bozon just misses the Top 10 in this edition of the Top 25 under 25, making a 7-spot improvement over his initial position in 2012, owing to an excellent post-draft season in the WHL.
The acquisition of Bozon was great fortune for the Canadiens at the 2013 NHL Draft. Ranked as being good enough to go early in the 2nd round, the Canadiens managed to land the 36-goal, point-per-game left winger in the 3rd round at 64th overall, which allowed them to continue a fantastic run of acquiring scoring talent in 2012. He also will quiet the critics who are all too often critical of size, standing at 6'1" and while not a power forward, it is not a height that anyone can readily scoff at.
He is the 2nd member of the Canadiens 2012 Draft Class to grace the Top 25 under 25 this year and considering there are still 3 more ranked members of that class to go, it gives you an idea of how highly the EOTP staff regards the 2012 crop.
Votes:
As you can see, Bozon was one of the least controversial votes among the staff. Only two people considered him outside of the Top 15, two considered him Top-10 material while the rest of us voted him essentially within the same range. Bruce clearly sees the most potential in Bozon, while Chris seems to be guarded about his potential upside. Being a bit of a dork about numbers, I'm feeling smug that my vote lines up with his placing in this year's Top 25. I think Bozon's placement is credit to his consistency and his potential, he's not a brilliant prospect but he offers a lot of very good tools for anyone to like.
Arik Ian Matt Marc Stephan Robert Andrew Bruce Justin Chris Laura JF 11 14 13 11 8 11 12 7 15 19 13 11
Strengths:
There is a lot to like about a prospect that seems to be good at everything. For two straight seasons, Bozon has lit the lamp 36 times and displayed a solid aptitude for goal scoring. His playmaking seems to have taken a step forward over his rookie WHL season, as he marked 20 more assists in the 2012-13 season which helped raise him to 9th overall in scoring in the WHL. Bozon's scoring abilities are not the limit of his talents either, displaying a good skating stride, solid on-ice vision and respectable defence. Bozon also has a solid 6'1" frame that he does not mind using, while not a forceful checker, he will engage physically to get things done.
Weaknesses:
While Bozon is good at everything, he does not truly excel in any particular part of the game. While it seems silly to complain about a player having solid across-the-board ability, sometimes to break through to the NHL, a player needs a standout skill to help him gain an edge. There could also be issues for Bozon if some of |
written a nice effect, but the computations take more raster time than what's available in one frame, you have to optimize your code, or live with an effect that doesn't look as nice as it could have.
There's a lot to be said about optimization, and I can't cram it all into a document like this. Furthermore, not every optimization is applicable to C-64 code.
If you ask a computer scientist, he or she will tell you that you should first improve your algorithms, and then, if it's still necessary, improve the constant times that each iteration takes. This makes perfect sense, if you want to sort 10000 numbers, you shouldn't spend time optimizing your bubble sort routine, but instead implement some faster algorithm, like quick sort or merge sort.
But the algorithm usually isn't the problem with demo effects. The algorithm itself is most of the time pretty straightforward, and the problem is to get each computation as fast as possible. There's no way to decrease the number of iterations, but instead you have to decrease the time each iteration takes. This is the common case, I'd say, but there are lots of exceptions.
So, how do you optimize computations written in 6502 machine code? There are lots of different ways, and I'm no expert, but I'll share some simple tricks, and hopefully you can use them and invent your own techniques for making your code run faster.
The basis of optimizing a computation is of course to decrease the time it takes, ie. decrease the number of machine cycles that each computation takes. Each instruction takes a few cycles to execute. You'll need a table with the timing for the different instructions.
So the first rule of thumb would be: remove all unnecessary instructions. All instructions take a few machine cycles to execute, so by removing some of them, you're speeding up your code. An example of an instruction that can sometimes be removed without affecting the result is CLC. Read through the critical section of your code and try to find instructions to remove.
Sometimes you can rewrite a simple sequence of instructions to execute faster. Imagine that you want to increment a byte in memory, and use this sequence for it:
ldx var inx stx var
This is pretty bad, at least if you're not actually using the value afterwards. The above code takes cycles. If you'd just used a simple INC var instead, you would have saved 4 cycles!
Loop unrolling means that you optimize away the overhead that's inherent in all loops, ie. the code that changes and checks a counter and branches. Let's say you have the following loop in a speed critical section of a program:
ldx #$00 ; 2 cycles loop inc table,x ; 7 cycles dex ; 2 cycles bne loop ; 3 cycles
If you count the cycles in the above code, you'll see each iteration through the loop will take 12 cycles11. It's executed 256 times, which means that the total number of cycles used for the above code is cycles. That's quite a lot of raster time!
Let's unroll the loop and see if we can get it any faster... The code will look like this:
inc table ; 6 cycles inc table+1 ; 6 cycles inc table+2 ; 6 cycles inc table+3 ; 6 cycles inc table+4 ; 6 cycles... inc table+253 ; 6 cycles inc table+254 ; 6 cycles inc table+255 ; 6 cycles
It's pretty obvious that this piece of code will need lots of more storage space (three whole pages), but let's say that we have lots of free memory, so that isn't a problem. What about the execution time? Well, each instruction takes 6 cycles, so we'll use cycles. The used raster time is halved!
Of course, you won't gain as much as this in the usual case, but there's a lot of time to spare with this technique.
An LDA or STA to a normal memory address takes 4 clock cycles, but if you use an address in the zero page, they only take 3 cycles. Need I say more? Maybe, so here goes: use the zero page!
Why do people use pre-calculated sine tables? Because that means they don't have to do the costly sine calculations in real-time. That shouldn't be news to you. But if you think about it for a while, you might realize that you can use tables for lots of stuff. Generally, if you have some kind of complex calculation, you can use lookup tables somewhere. If you're writing complex stuff with lots of shifts here and there, you can probably re-write that code to run in half the time by using a table.
The above techniques are just meant as examples of how to optimize code. The general idea should be pretty clear by now: do everything you can to make your code faster. Read through it and try to find ways to make it faster. Use tables, unroll loops, remove crap that's not necessary.
There's of course a lot in truth in the rule that you should first optimize your algorithms, and then the constant factors. Don't think that there's no better way of achieving an effect than to use brute force. You can always cheat in some smart way, use data that makes the job easier and the code run in half the time.
In some cases you can reuse results of computations in smart ways. If you realize that your code is, for some reason, computing the same value twice each frame, and the calculation takes some time, store the value in a table and just look it up the next time you need it.
Re-using stuff can even be as simple as plotting the same point in different places on the screen.
Don't do the mistake of trying to write nice and general routines. If you think that's the way to go, you probably shouldn't be writing demos. With nice, general routines, you have to take care of special cases and take care of weird data. But it's your code and your data, so your code should know what kinds of data it should expect. Don't make your code more complex than it needs to be. Only take care of the cases that can actually happen.
And of course, if you notice that your data demands a complex routine, think of ways to change the data, so that you can write a faster routine to handle it.
You'll need other documents, besides this little tutorial, or course. Below I list some references and some magazines with articles about demo coding.
Of course you'll also have to learn from the masters. When you watch a demo, try to figure out how the stuff you see on the screen is implemented, eg. what's done with chars and what's done with sprites, or where scrolling is used and where the graphics data is updated in realtime. See the URLs below for places where you can find demos.
Mapping the C-64. This is a great memory map, with thorough explanations of all addresses in the C-64. It should be available at Project 64 (which also has some other useful documents): http://project64.c64.org/index.html.
. Programmer's Reference Guide. This one has a nice table of opcodes, with cycle counts, addressing modes etc. Most of the book is pretty useless, though. This one should also be available at Project 64: http://project64.c64.org/index.html.
. All About Your C-64. This is a document put together by Ninja/The Dreams, which can be really handy. Especially the HTML version is nice to have available when coding, and you can't remember quite which bit it was that you had to fiddle with to achieve something. This one's available from the The Dreams' home page at http://www.the-dreams.de/.
. The MOS 6567/6569 Video Controller (VIC-II) and its Application in the C-64, by Christian Bauer. This article should contain everything that is known about the VIC. There is a text version available at (it's also available in HTML somewhere else): ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/cbm/documents/chipdata/VIC-Article.gz.
C=Hacking. Great online magazine with articles about everything concerning CBM's 8 bit computers. In some of the early issues there are articles by Pasi ``Albert'' Ojala on demo effects. There's also a multipart Assembler tutorial in the first issues. Available from funet: ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/cbm/magazines/c=hacking/.
. Discovery. I've only found three issues of this mag, but it has some nice demo-related articles, which you can learn a lot from. Like C=Hacking, the mag consists of ASCII text files that you can download off the Internet. Available from The Fridge: http://www.ffd2.com/fridge/discovery/.
. Coders World. This is a disk mag, ie. a mag that you run on your C-64. Three issues were released, and they have a lot of simple code examples and explanations of how to make cool effects. This is a good resource for beginners. When you've learned a bit about the C-64, the info in this mag may seem a bit too basic. You can find the first two issues at eg. funet: ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/cbm/magazines/disk/c64/. The third one is a bit hard to find. You can get it from me if you can't find it on the net.
If you've got Internet access, which is getting more and more common, and have a way to transfer stuff between the machine you use to access the Internet and your C-64, you have access to all the demos and tools you need. Below are a list of a couple of FTP sites which, taken together, should offer you everything you need. If you need something else, just do a web search.
ftp://c64.rulez.org/pub/c64/
ftp://utopia.hacktic.nl/pub/c64/
ftp://ftp.elysium.pl/
You can contact me by email or snail-mail. The snail-mail address may of course change, so use email if you can. My email adress is puterman@civitas64.de. My snail-mail adress is:
Linus Åkerlund
Kantorsgatan 38
S-75424 Uppsala
Sweden
Please contact me and tell me what you think about this document!
I'll try to keep this document as available as possible. For that reason, I'll release it into the public domain. Do what you want with it. Mirror it, copy it, change it, even sell it if you want to (if you can do that and still get a good night's sleep, capitalist bastard). Please feel free to print it and hand out copies to your friends, relatives, pets and random gamer lamers.
I'll make this document available on my home page, which will hopefully be available for a long time at http://user.tninet.se/ uxm165t/. That might change, though, and if you decide to upload it somewhere else, please tell me about it, so that I can add a URL here.
The document is written in LaTeX, and I'll make it available in source form (.tex file), as DVI, postscript, HTML and ascii text. Please convert it to other formats if you feel like it.
If you want to contribute changes, please change the text in the source and send the whole document to me, or as a patch (use the command diff, which should be available if you're on a Unix system).
This document was generated using the LaTeX2 HTML translator Version 99.2beta8 (1.43)
Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, Nikos Drakos, Computer Based Learning Unit, University of Leeds.
Copyright © 1997, 1998, 1999, Ross Moore, Mathematics Department, Macquarie University, Sydney.
The command line arguments were:
latex2html -split 0 demo_prog.tex
The translation was initiated by Linus Åkerlund on 2001-05-22
Footnotes
A couple of guys, who weren't all that good at C, were writing a toy operating system. They got all sorts of bugs and weird crashes, and didn't know what to do. After a while they came up with a solution: to re-write the whole kernel without using any pointers at all. Don't ask me how they did it, but they did get it to work. Morale of the story: code some C-64 demos, and you'll never run into problems like that. :-) I've heard someone say that some PC demos these days are written in C or C++, but of course, if that's true, then we're not talking about demos anymore. What's modern is another thing that can be discussed forever. A C-64 is about as modern as an IBM PC clone. This code should be pretty assembler neutral, ie. you can use whichever assembler you want. You can't type this stuff into a monitor, though, as it uses labels. If you're going to use a monitor, you have to change the JMP instructions into jumps to absolute addresses, ie. change JMP loop into JMP $1000. You also need to remove the line * = $1000, which just means that the code should begin at the address $1000. See the Tools section on how to do that. Actually, if you do your math, you'll realize that it's only $03e8 bytes long. Then follows $10 bytes that you can use for whatever you want, and 8 bytes that are the sprite pointers. This doesn't work in all version of Turbo Assembler. If your version doesn't support this, you can add some code to do it for you. On PAL systems, that is, on NTSC systems the screen is redrawn 60 times per second. Why 14 bits? Because the VIC can only address 16 kB of memory, which is what you get with a 14 bit address space. Not as weird as mode X on VGA cards, though. Except the last one, which will only take 11 cycles, as the branch isn't performed.
Linus Åkerlund 2001-05-22@lovelybryana
SeriouslyNatural.org by Sabrina Perkins of
@lovelybryana
Have you tried or are you willing to give this DIY a try? Share below!
CN Says:
I've always used activated charcoal to prevent a hangover (taking a few pills prior to going out), for teeth whitening and any time I was unlucky enough to get a gum abscess. It's truly a miracle for all of those purposes and I'll definitely give this a try too!
Activated charcoal is big right now and with DIY still ideal for many women, combining the two has turned into a goldmine. For a while we've been seeing women using activated charcoal for teeth whitening and fighting acne but now it's being used for underarm lightening.Activated charcoal is just carbon that's been treated to increase its absorbency and it can draw toxins out. This newest beauty wonder can be found in the top the beauty products. How about not spending a ton of money and simply use it straight from the capsules? That's what several beauty bloggers and vloggers are doing and for lightening their dark underarms.Sounds hard or messy? Not really because it's a quick process with only two ingredients. The recipe calls raw honey and three activated charcoal capsules. What's even better is that it actually works as one popular vlogger has learned in the video below:Lovely Bryana had real results and we have a picture below to show how even one application can make a difference. Shaving is one of the reasons our armpits get darker anyway and I've recently heard brown and black girls need to nix shaving and wax their armpits instead. I'm really thinking about doing that.Kinda cool, huh? I'm excited and ready to give it a try. Here's what you need:-1 tbsp. raw honey-3 capsules of activated charcoal (any natural food store, GNC or the like)-1 old or cheap foundation brush-1 plastic bowlMix raw honey with activated charcoal (simply open capsules and pour over honey). Mix well with foundation brush before apply to clean armpit. Apply to whole area and keep on for 20 minutes. Your body will heat the mixture and start to run so wear an old tank top (or go al naturle!)Rinse with warm water and see the difference. You can do this weekly to see more lightening. I'm going to get a waxing and give this a try soon!Someone commented on this video that the SOAP & GLORYworks great at lightening too. Never tried it but thought I would mention.Paul Byron began his career with the Sabres. ©2017, Dan Hickling, Olean Times Herald
BUFFALO – Paul Byron and Tyler Ennis laughed and sounded nostalgic remembering their days growing up together as rookie roommates in the Sabres organization.
Byron, according to Ennis, is “not very good at video games.”
“A liar,” said a smiling Byron called Ennis on Wednesday.
These days, Byron and Ennis are happy NHL veterans.
Byron has morphed into one of the league’s biggest surprises this season, scoring 22 goals and 42 points for the Montreal Canadiens. Ennis, meanwhile, has started showing strong signs of shaking off an injury-plagued two seasons with the Sabres.
But their road to the NHL started as 20-year-olds in 2009-10 with the Portland Pirates, then Buffalo’s AHL affiliate. The season the undersized forwards spent sharing a condo and taking their first steps to the big league is clearly special to them.
“He drove me around, he cooked for me, he cleaned,” Ennis said prior to the Sabres’ 2-1 win against Montreal inside KeyBank Center. “What better roommate could you ask for?”
Yes, Ennis didn’t have a car that season.
“I was his chauffeur,” Byron said.
Byron and Ennis got along splendidly, unless they started playing an NHL video game.
“I destroyed him all the time and I wasn’t even that good at it,” Ennis said. “He was upset, threw tantrums, threw fits, threw Gatorade bottles.”
Not quite, Byron said.
“I dominated him,” he said.
On the ice, Ennis often dominated, compiling 23 goals and 65 points in 69 games. The AHL’s top rookie received a permanent promotion to the Sabres by late March.
Byron, meanwhile, had 14 goals and 33 points in 57 games, strong signs he could someday jump to the next level.
Of course, Ennis, a 2008 first-round pick, was supposed to earn an NHL job. Byron, a sixth-rounder in 2007, had the tougher road.
But in many ways, Byron and Ennis are the same player. Byron said he learned that by watching his friend. Both are speedy, possess a slick offensive skill set and are much smaller than their opponents.
The Canadiens list Byron at 5-foot-7 and 160 pounds; the Sabres list Ennis and 5-foot-9 and 175 pounds, although he has said he is four inches shorter.
“You think that we’d be competing against each other, but it was really like a good relationship,” Ennis said. “We were good friends, great roommates, got along really well.”
Byron said seeing Ennis succeed showed him undersized talents can thrive.
“You just knew he was going to play in the NHL,” he said. “He was so talented and so good. It gave me confidence knowing that, you know what, I can play, too.”
Ennis said Byron’s feistiness also inspired him to forget about his size.
“Anyone that watches him can tell how much he wants it, how big his heart is,” he said. “He was … skinnier than I was. He fought a couple of guys in the minors. He destroyed one guy. He’s awesome.”
Byron made it to the Sabres in 2010-11, playing eight games and scoring his first goal. They traded him to the Calgary Flames that offseason in the deal that landed them defenseman Robyn Regehr.
Byron, however, started doubting himself and looking at other options as he shuttled between the Flames and the AHL for three years. He almost bolted overseas to Switzerland and Russia.
“At the last second I pulled out, decided to stick it out and keep battling,” Byron said. “But you start doubting yourself, for sure. Every year new guys come in, young guys come in. … You get to a certain age where you fall out of favor as a prospect.”
Montreal claimed him on waivers prior to last season, and he quickly found a home showcasing his speed as a third- or fourth-line center. The Canadiens awarded Byron a three-year contract extension in February 2016.
The security Byron feels has buoyed him to a career season. He had 38 goals in 200 NHL games entering the year.
“Being in a house, not renting, not worrying about renting, not worrying about where you fit in the lineup … it’s been really big for me,” he said.
Ennis couldn’t be happier for his friend.
“I always thought he was a special player,” he said. “I always thought he was unreal.”Now that the BlackBerry Venice has seemingly made its way out of Waterloo in a larger way, the leaks have been coming rather quickly. A few days ago, the device was snapped up in several new images but now, the device has been caught in a hands-on video, oddly enough from a Bell Mobility retailer.
Although the video doesn't go very deep into the device, we get a pretty good look at some of the basics such as BlackBerry Device Search, how notifications will work as well as a glimpse of the device set up. Plus, it also confirms what was initially thought, the Venice will also have the touch-enabled keyboard from the BlackBerry Passport.
When it comes to things not mentioned in the video, well, despite the device being in Canada there's clearly some T-Mobile apps added which hints at further confirmation that T-Mobile will have the device eventually. Also, BlackBerry Password Keeper fans will be pleased to know that the Venice, at this point, is showing an Android version of that app. Whether or that not makes it into final software is debatable but it certainly would make sense.
Discuss more in the CrackBerry ForumsRussian President Dmitry Medvedev has offered full support for envoy Kofi Annan's peace mission in Syria, saying it may be the last chance to avoid a "prolonged and bloody civil war".
The governent in Moscow urged Mr Annan to work with both the Syrian government and opposition to end the violence.
Mr Annan has been seeking to persuade Russia to take a firmer stance against President Bashar al-Assad's government.
He will later go to China which has also usually backed Syria at the UN.
As clashes continue, Human Rights Watch has accused Syrian government forces of using civilians as human shields.
Activists reported further bombardments and casualties on Sunday in the Homs area, killing at least five people.
Shelling was also reported in Hama, and tanks were seen in the streets of the southern town of Nawa, the Local Coordination Committees said.
More than 50 people were reported to have been killed in shelling or shooting by the security forces on Saturday, many of them in Homs.
The UN says the conflict has cost more than 8,000 lives since it began a year ago. The Syrian government blames violence on "terrorist gangs" and says some 3,000 members of the security forces have been killed.
Foreign media face severe restrictions on reporting in Syria, and it is hard to verify the claims of either side.
External support
Analysis Russia may have vetoed two UN Security Council resolutions condemning President Assad, but Moscow fully supports Kofi Annan's peace mission. In his talks with the joint UN and Arab League envoy, President Medvedev will make it clear that Moscow's priority is to secure an immediate ceasefire by all sides in the conflict. The Russians, though, have already warned that peace will not be achievable while the Syrian opposition is receiving weapons and political support from outside. Until now Moscow has been a staunch supporter of President Assad, a long-time Russian ally. There are geopolitical reasons, Russia leases a naval base in Syria. And there are financial concerns, too: the arms deals and Russians investments worth billions of dollars. But recently there have been signs that Moscow is losing patience with Damascus - senior Russian officials have criticised the Syrian government for dragging its heels on reform and accused it of making numerous mistakes.
Mr Medvedev offered Mr Annan - the envoy for the United Nations and the Arab League - support "on all levels".
"This could be the last chance for Syria to avoid a prolonged and bloody civil war," he said.
"We very much hope your work will end with a positive result."
And at an earlier meeting Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov "underscored the need to end violence from all sides and establish a broad Syrian political dialogue", a statement said.
"He called on the special envoy to work actively toward that aim with both the authorities and the opposition."
Mr Lavrov urged the international community to co-operate with Mr Annan's mission.
"This means no interference in Syria's internal affairs and the inadmissibility of supporting one side in the conflict," the statement said.
The BBC's Steve Rosenberg in Moscow says that these remarks suggest a very delicate balancing act by Moscow - on the one hand seeking to put pressure on Mr Assad and on the other warning the West not to favour the Syrian opposition.
Meeting Mr Medvedev, Mr Annan said that "Syria has an opportunity today to work with me and this mediation process to put an end to the conflict, to the fighting, allow access to those in need of humanitarian assistance as well as embark on a political process".
He has proposed a six-point peace plan, which calls on government forces to immediately halt the use of heavy weapons in populated areas.
He also wants the armed rebels to halt their attacks - which seems unlikely to happen either, says the BBC's Jim Muir in Beirut.
Image caption Homs has been relentlessly targeted, activists say
Russia has vetoed two UN Security Council resolutions on the crisis in Syria, but last week, with China, supported a UN statement on the Annan mission.
Our correspondent says that recently there have been signs Moscow is losing patience with Syria. Senior Russian officials have criticised the Syrian government for dragging its heels on reform, and accused it of making numerous mistakes.
Meanwhile US President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, meeting ahead of a nuclear security conference in South Korea, said they were looking for ways to bring about change in Syria.
'Protecting army'
The diplomacy comes as a new report by New York based Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused pro-government forces of forcing civilians to march in front of them as they advanced on areas held by the opposition in the northern Idlib province earlier in March.
Videos obtained by HRW from opposition activists showed people dressed in civilian clothes walking in front of armed soldiers and fighting vehicles. Witnesses told HRW it was clear that the move was to protect the army from attack. According to the HRW statement, residents also said children had been placed on tanks and inside security buses.
In another development, the opposition Free Syrian Army and a rival military council have announced that they will work together to co-ordinate all military activity against the Syrian government.While it may be the smallest state with an area of 1,214 square miles (you can fit 425 Rhode Islands into Alaska), there are actually entire countries that are smaller than Rhode Island. Here they are, in size order:
1. Samoa.
This country, officially called the Independent State of Samoa, encompasses the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. Its total area is 1,097 square miles.
2. Micronesia.
Aptly named, this collection of small islands, including Guam, has a total land area of 1,000 square miles.
3. Luxembourg.
A landlocked European country, Luxembourg is bordered by Belgium, Germany, and France. It has an area of 998 square miles.
4. Mauritius.
This country is an island nation in the Indian Ocean, about 1,200 miles off the coast of Africa. Its area is 787 square miles.
5. Comoros.
An African country, Comoros has a population of about 800,000 and an area of 719 square miles.
6. Sao Tome and Principe.
This Portuguese-speaking island off the western coast of Central Africa has an area of 386 square miles.
7. Kiribati.
This island nation in the Pacific Ocean has a population that hovers around 100,000 and an area of 313 square miles.
8. Bahrain.
Another island country, on the western shores of the Persian Gulf, is 304.5 square miles.
9. Dominica.
This country is an island located in the Caribbean Sea and has a total area of 290 square miles.
10. Tonga.
The Kingdom of Tonga is comprised of 176 islands with a total surface area of 289 square miles.
11. Singapore.
Singapore is only 85 miles north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. It has an area of 277 square miles.
12. Saint Lucia.
This vacation destination on the Caribbean Sea has a land area of 238 square miles.
13. Andorra.
Located in the eastern Pyrenees mountains and bordered by Spain and France, Andorra has an area of 181 square miles.
14. Palau.
This island country is a United States Associated State in the Pacific Ocean. It has an area of 177 square miles.
15. Seychelles.
An 115-island country, Seychelles has the smallest population of any African state. It has an area of 177 square miles.
16. Antigua and Barbuda.
This is a twin-island nation, separated by a few nautical miles. Its total area is 170 square miles.
17. Barbados.
This small island has a population of about 277,000 people, including Rihanna’s family. The total area is 166 square miles.
18. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
No, it’s not a band name. Another island country, St. Vincent and the Grenadines has an area of 150 square miles.
19. Grenada.
This “island of spice” is one of the word’s largest exporters of nutmeg and mace crops, but only has an area of 133 square miles.
20. Malta.
With a population of 446,000 and an area of 121 square miles, this European island is one of the world’s most densely populated countries.
21. Maldives.
This island nation in the Indian Ocean-Arabian Sea has a total area of 115 square miles.
22. Saint Kitts and Nevis.
A two-island country in the West Indies, this is the smallest sovereign state in the Americas, both in area and population. It consists of 104 square miles.
23. Marshall Islands.
Located near the equator in the Pacific Ocean, the total area of Marshall Islands is 70 square miles.
24. Liechtenstein.
This German-speaking country is bordered by Switzerland and Austria. Its area is just over 62 square miles.
25. San Marino.
It is an enclaved microstate surrounded by Italy, with an area of 24 square miles.
26. Tuvalu.
A Polynesian island located between Hawaii and Australia, Tuvalu’s total area is 10 square miles.
27. Nauru.
Formerly known as Pleasant Island, Nauru has an area of 8.1 square miles.
29. Monaco.
Bordered by France and the Mediterranean Sea, Monaco is the most densely populated country in the world. Around 36,000 live in its 0.78 square miles.
30. Vatican City.
The smallest international recognized independent state has a population of 842, and an area of just 110 acres, or 0.2 square miles.Coming sometime on Thursday afternoon (6/28) to a Steam client near you will be the v1.03 update for Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion. This first update was designed specifically not to break save games; and so does not fully address all the items we're planning on (in regards to balance or code adjustments). A future update in late July will contain additional changes, but will also break saves as a result.
[ Interface ]
Weapon damage numbers on entity Infocards now take into account damage from All For One, Savage Thrill and Militia Weaponry (actual damage was always correct, it just wasn't accurately displayed on the Infocard).
Fixed a mixup between the TEC and Advent flagship's Infocard icons.
[ Gameplay ]
Increased chance on all Corvette passive abilities from 2.5% to 5% per shot.
Changed all Corvette forward/aft weapons from damage type Composite to AntiLight.
Removed the ability for Flagships to bomb planets. This was unbalancing Capital Victory with early rush sniping that players couldn't recover from or defend adequately against.
Changed health on Desert/Terran Home Planets (i.e., starting planets) to 1875/3750/5600/7500 from 1500/3000/4500/6000 to help players better defend against early rush sniping.
Various tweaks to corvette movement (to make them turn a bit smoother).
Reduced Pirate Mission (via Diplomacy) costs to 3250/4775/6075/13525/25575 from 7500/11500/12500/19500/35000.
Increased number of potential upgrades per Pirate raid from 1 to 2.
Flagships will now behave more like capital ships for the purposes of fleet formations and cohesion.
Updated all Corvette research techs to not allow Corvettes to be built it there's not enough labs for them.
TEC
Added NotInvulnerable constraint to TimedCharges ability target filter.
TEC Loyalist
Decreased max stacks on Disrupt Engines corvette passive from 5 to 4.
Added new autocast condition for Group Shield ability on the Ankylon titan.
TEC Rebel
Increased range on Snipe (Ragnarov titan) from 15000/16000/17000/18000 to 18000 at all levels.
Decreased antimatter cost of Snipe from 80/85/90/05 to 70 at all levels.
Decreased damage on Snipe from 2000/3000/4000/5000 to 1200/1600/2200/2600.
Changed Snipe Overcharged damage from 3000/4500/6000/7500 to 2400/3200/4400/5200.
Increased impulse on Explosive Shot to 2000000 from 1700000 (Ragnarov titan).
Increased damage on Explosive Shot Overcharge from 900/1500/1950/2400 to 1200/2000/2600/3200.
Increased Scattershot Overcharge damage (Ragnarov titan) from 375/750/1125/1500 to 500/1000/1500/2000.
Increased Ragnarov titan's Gauss weapon cooldown from 6.0 to 6.5.
Increased Ragnarov titan's Rail Gun damage from 975 to 1000.
Decreased max stacks on Cripple Defenses corvette passive from 10 to 5.
Advent
Fixed phase missile block on Advent culture techs to give proper (positive) buff.
Removed'minelayer' role type from Advent carrier cruisers to prevent them from building squadrons of useless homing mines.
Advent Loyalist
Updated Subjugating Assault ability on Coronata titan to no longer fail if the player doesn't have enough fleet supply.
Added target constraint to Domination and Subjugating Assault abilities to prevent Flagships and other non-controllable vessels from being affected.
Fixed a bug that caused Coward's Submission research ability to always lose the chance roll to convert.
Advent Rebel
Purification ability (Eradica titan) antimatter cost reduced from 80/80/80/80 to 65/60/55/50.
Strength of the Fallen ability (Eradica titan) duration increased from 60 to 120; range increased from 2000/2500/3000/3500 to 3500/4000/4500/5000.
Increased conversion chance on Reanimation from max of 10% to max of 15%.
Increased conversion chance of Return of the Fallen from max of 10% to max of 15%.
Updated Protection of the Unity CultureShieldRegenAmount to a max of 150% at level 3. Note you will only get the full benefit if your ships are within a fully saturated region of your culture.
Advent Repair Bays should no longer have the Recharge Shields ability.
Recharge Shields should now have the correct HUD icon.
Flagships can no longer be Resurrected or Reanimated.
Vasari
Create Support Nanites (Rankulas capital ship) aiUseTime changed to OnlyInCombat from AnyTime; aiUseTargetCondition changed to Any.
Fixed incorrect weapon type on Assault Nanite armor reduction ability (Rankulas capital ship). Should now debuff structures as intended.
Updated wave cannon particle on the Kortul battleship to better match the model.
Replaced Returning Armada for Kostura Prototype on the Vasari race select screen.
Updated wave cannon particles on Jarrasul Evacuator and Vasari Flagship to better match their models.
Vasari Loyalists
Dark Capital Ship summon ability cost decreased from 3000/400/250 to 2010/270/170; cooldown reduced from 600 to 300.
Dark Combat Fleet summon ability cost decreased from 7200/960/600 to 3300/700/430; cooldown reduced from 600 to 240.
Dark Support Fleet summon ability cost changed from 7200/960/600 to 5000/1025/980; cooldown reduced from 600 to 240; fleet supply spawned range increased from 90 to 120.
Increased max stacks on Disable Hull Repair corvette passive from 5 to 10.
Change Suffusion damage on Vorastra titan from Physical to Energy.
Changed Vorastra titan PulseWave damage type to Wave; increased damage from 102 to 135; changed PhaseCannon damage type to PhaseMissile and increased damage from 148.75 to 165. Titan will still use newer weapon particle types.
Increased Vorastra titan's max targets per bank from 2 to 3.
The Maw ability (Vorastra titan) will now properly award XP for consumed ships.
Reduced all resource bonuses from Stripped to the Core by 33% for Ice, Desert, Terran and Volcanic planet types.
Moved Civilian Evacuations from Tier 3 to Tier 4.
Moved Mobile Rulership from Tier 4 to |
: 'The Islanders live in a real villa. This has naturally had some developments and alterations in order to accommodate a TV crew, cameras, etc.
'As viewers will know, the islanders' communal bedroom is within the main villa. There is also a bed in the hideaway.
'Any suggestion of fakery on the show is completely untrue.'
Baffled: The mayor of the charming Mallorcan village of Sant Llorenc was pleased with the additional business that 200 extra visitors represented but some residents remain bemused by the showNorthwestern will be without Matthew Harris, its All-Big Ten and All- Academic Big Ten cornerback, Saturday when it takes on No. 6 Ohio State in Columbus this Saturday.
After suffering multiple concussions throughout his career, Harris announced his retirement from football Monday afternoon.
A 2016 captain who played as a true freshman, Harris tallied 161 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss, six interceptions and three forced fumbles in his career.
"This is an incredibly difficult decision to reach, but it is the right one for me and for my future," the former unranked 2013 recruit from LeGrange, Ill. said in a released statement. "I'm so thankful for Coach Fitzgerald, Coach Brown and the rest of the staff that brought me to Northwestern and have mentored me over the last several years. My teammates are like brothers, and while not being on the field with them has been frustrating and challenging, I'm so proud of the group and what we've helped build together. I owe thanks to our athletic training and sports medicine staffs, whose care throughout my Wildcats career has been outstanding. Finally and most importantly, I can never appropriately express the love and gratitude I have for my family, which has supported me on every step of this journey and will continue to for years to come."
No. 6 Ohio State hosts Northwestern at 3:30 p.m. on ESPN.A few days ago, the Senate in North Carolina tinkered with a bill called the Family, Faith, and Freedom Protection Act of 2013. It had been referred to as the anti-Sharia bill, but that was before the lawmakers pulled a creative switcheroo (or maybe adderoo). The Atlantic explains:
The North Carolina Senate is not only considering an anti-Sharia (or Islamic law) bill passed in the state’s House earlier this year, they’ve tricked it out with a whole new issue. House Bill 695, which began as a cookie-cutter ban on the use of foreign law in family law and custody cases, now would implement several restrictions on abortion services in the state.
The irony is thick on the ground here. But no need for me to elaborate, because Tina Dupuy already did, and it’s a doozy:
North Carolina state legislators introduced what was described as an anti-Sharia law bill this week. The concern was a religion would trump our laws — threaten our constitution. This religion, they fear, would dictate our rights and punish dissent. It would blur the lines between church and state! Women would be subjugated! This is such a threat North Carolina lawmakers must act posthaste! Why? Their religious convictions.
Then Dupuy goes from micro to macro, neatly finishing off her point with humor and passion:
Christianity has been used to justify everything from the crusades, sectarian wars and inquisitions, to witch burnings, cross burnings and Christian rock. The idea that it would be a better basis for a free country isn’t supported by history. Theology makes for horrible government. (See: every theocracy ever.) No matter how wonderful it seems, in theory, for everyone to be of the same religion — praying the same way to the same god — it never ends with expansive human rights for all people.
So, in summary: To thwart the so-called religious threat posed by maybe one-third of one percent of the U.S. population, the North Carolina lawmakers are bravely making good on their own threat to impose their massive cult’s religious mandates on everyone else.
Funny, or outrageous? I vote both.
(image via Think Progress)-- Published: Thursday, 12 May 2016 | Print | Disqus The Financial Repression Authority is delighted to have Charles Hugh Smith, prolific writer on the web and author of the highly acclaimed book, Why Our Status Quo Failed and is Beyond Reform. FRA Co-Founder, Gordon T. Long delineates with Charles on the core topics that are mentioned in his book as well as go over key diagrams to supportive diagrams. Charles Hugh Smith is the Publisher of the site Of Two Minds. From its humble beginnings in May 2005, Of Two Minds now attracts some 200,000 visits a month and has been listed No. 7 in CNBCs top alternative financial sites. His commentary is featured on a number of sites including: Zerohedge.com. The American Conservative, Peak Prosperity and AOLs Daily Finance site (www.dailyfinance.com. He has written eight books. Charles Hugh Smith graduated from the University of Hawaii, Manoa in Honolulu. Charles Hugh Smith currently resides in Berkeley, California and Hilo, Hawaii. Mr. Smiths articles, which critique the status quo, had influence from Braudels historical account of early capitalism. Smiths economic works stress the value and efficacy of decentralizing power and wealth, the individuals power of self-determination and the value of community, which in his view has been diminished by the state. His blog covers an eclectic range of timely topics: finance, housing, Asia, energy, long term trends, social issues, health/diet/fitness and sustainability. I wanted to encapsulate in a very short form that the status quo is broken and it is not going to be able to solve the problems. In order for us to move forward we first need to accept this reality. The core thesis in this book is that humanity has 6 problems which are interconnected: Entrench poverty: There are hundreds of millions of people who remain in severe poverty and they do not have access to resources to better their situations. The idea that we are going to reach every human on the planet has been proven incorrect. Using more of everything in a world of finite resources: We have to adopt a de-growth model, which is to make better use of the resources we have instead of just relying on consuming more. Wages is the only way we have of distributing the output of an economy: The share of our national output that is going to wages is declining. The rise of automation and technology has decreased the demand for human labour and this will continue as a trend into the indefinite future. When you consolidate power in a central state you consequently give an upper hand to the wealthy to have influence over that centralized power: I call it cartel state capitalism and we see it everywhere where the industries are controlled by a handful of players who have a great degree of influence. Depending on credit for everything. We are borrowing from the future to fund present day consumption. The current system pays people regardless of their productivity and contribution: People need work, they need livelihoods and they need a positive social role within their community. Paying them to sit home and do nothing creates a whole new assortment of problems. People need work and a sense of importance and contribution. THE NEW NORMALS It is all the central planning arrangements and policies that have been implemented since the 2008 Financial Crisis. One new normal is the federal government ownership of student debt. It is now on this incredible increase where the government is buying all of the student loans because it is the only way to mask the bankruptcy of the student loan system. The GDP in the US, EU, Japan and other developed economies has been subpar. It has been barely over 1% and it is being driven by extraordinary expansion of debt. More debt is working against us because there is not enough real wealth being generated to pay for it. Throwing more debt at it does not work. Another new normal is this increasingly popular practise of growing more debt to hide your nonperforming loans. The problem is that the debt is inextinguishable. The central banks can do a great job in creating liquidity but they cannot solve solvency problems. And this is suggesting the central issue that debt is a solvency problem now The fed creates money out of thin air and buys more assets and then it levels off until markets and the economy weaken. Then the Fed ramps up the balance sheet again which is shown by the stair step pattern of the figure. The Feds balance sheet never declines it only plateaus briefly and then goes up again. The new normal is that central banks are cropping up markets because if the markets collapse to their true value it would reveal the bankruptcy of the entire system. In The New Normal recovery, the percentage of the population with a job has advanced all the way back up to where it was 40 years ago, in the late 1970s. During booms eras many more people were employed, but today we are at employment levels similar to that of the 1970s. Fewer people are working and they are earning less money if we were to adjust for inflation, its stagnation. Most of the gains that have been registered are flowing to the top 5%. This is not just because of a few greedy people at the top have taken the gains, but also the factor of mixing global competition with technology places a premium on workers who have the skillet set to generate value with increasing technology. Just working in a factory or doing some white collar job does not create a premium in an economy that is pressured by global competition and automation. Money velocity has been falling and everybody is concerned as to why it is doing so, but the fact of the matter is that there is no growth. The jobs themselves are paying minimal which is why people are dropping out of the labour force to start their own personal endeavour of sorts. A notable feature of the chart is the divergence being shown in 2008-2009 and this is when we went into hyper printing of money to put the system on life support. The productivity numbers in the developed world has fallen off; there is lack of growth. Growth in present day is not real, the growth we are seeing is artificial. STRUCTURAL REFORM We all know the system broke since the last crisis. We now need structural reform of entitlements. We need a new form of capitalism that is more accessible to people and that is not just controlled from the top through central planning. We are having a hyper-monetary policy where the status quo is looking to central banks to solve all the problems by issuing more debt and liquidity. These problems cannot be solved this way; we have to deal with the reality that we need deep structural reforms. If you observe caterpillars in construction sites you will notice the driver has many levers in front of him to control. An economy is managed the same way, there are many levers to pull, but we are running the economy pulling the same lever and that is monetary policy. The other levers are fiscal policy which we are not using, public policy, and taxation policy and so on. These are elements that come out of the political process, it is on political leaders to realize this and make appropriate decisions. One of the things you can have a lot of faith in is mankind. It will reset, we will survive and we will come out of it, but unfortunately it leads to crises and it is always the innocent that are most burdened. Abstract written by, Karan Singh Karan1.singh@ryerson.ca Video Editor: Sarah Tung sarah.tung@ryerson.ca
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Решение России отвести войска от границы Украины повергло террористов Славянска в замешательство. Об этом сегодня на пресс-конференции в Киеве заявил руководитель группы Информационное сопротивление Дмитрий Тымчук.
"Кремль принял решение пока отложить свою так называемую миротворческую операцию", - проинформировал Тымчук, добавив, что раньше террористы "чувствовали твердое плечо Москвы", а теперь не знают, что им делать.
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Также Тымчук отметил, что террористам не удалось вывести тела своих погибших товарищей на территорию Российской Федерации. "Готовится массовый вывоз тел, погибших террористов. Это колона так и не была сформирована.. Сейчас у них это большая проблема, потому что морги Славянска переполнены", - рассказал он.
По его словам, террористы пока не знают, что делать с телами и запускают слухи о том, что это тела убитых украинских силовиков. Также у террористов возникли проблемы с финансированием, так как разведка перекрыла банковские каналы перевода денег, а пограничники регулярно отлавливают курьеров, перевозящих значительные суммы денег. Поэтому террористы решили перевозить деньги малыми суммами - приблизительно по $50 тыс. Источники финансирования террористов: Россия, Крым, семья бывшего президента Украины Виктора Януковича, сообщают Новости Донбасса.
Напомним, в последние дни в Славянске и Краматорске продолжается активная фаза АТО. По словам участников антитеррористической операции, с конца прошлой недели украинским силовикам удалось уничтожить более 100 террористов. Тем временем боевики продолжают устраивать засады и проводить минометные обстрелы.
Также напомним, президент России Владимир Путин приказал министру обороны РФ Сергею Шойгу вернуть войска, участвовавшие в учениях на границе с Украиной, в места постоянной дислокации.
Подписывайтесь на аккаунт ЛІГАБізнесІнформ в Twitter и Facebook: в одной ленте - все, что стоит знать о политике, экономике, бизнесе и финансах.Ever want a 12 percent ABV roasty, toasty Russian imperial stout in a can? Doesn’t matter — San Diego-based AleSmith just put their signature Speedway Stout into cans. And not just any cans, but badass single-serving, 16-ounce, all black cans.
Damn, AleSmith.
The announcement came out today, and consumers should expect to see cans of Speedway Stout across 21 states (Ready? AZ, CA, CT, IL, MA, ME, MI, MN, NC, NH, NJ, NV, NY, OH, OR, PA, RI, TX, VA, VT, WA) later this month, and across Denmark in mid-March.
“Speedway Stout is a classic and has been one of our best-selling beers for more than a decade,” said owner/CEO of AleSmith Brewing Company Peter Zien. “Enjoyed by many on tap or shared with friends from our 750ml bottles, we’re excited to bring that same intense chocolate, roasted malt flavor, and dark appearance to single-serving cans.”
Other Canned Stouts Unlike IPAs and pale ales, stouts are more commonly bottled, but there are a few notable exceptions:
Evil Twin’s Even More Jesus — Buy: $15 for 4pk
Oskar Blues’s Ten Fidy — Buy: $18 for 4pk
Anderson Valley Barney Flats — Find Near You
For those who have never seen Speedway Stout, it pours an opaque black, with a soft, mocha-colored head. The taste is almost exactly as founder Peter Zien describes in his above quote: dark chocolate, roasted malts, and coffee.
The advantages of cans, of course, are that they’re more portable than glass bottles, and can be shotgunned. If anyone wants to send us a video of them shotgunning a 16-ounce Speedway Stout, send it to us at hello@hopculture.com, and we’ll definitely put it on the site. No profanity, please.A three-step contemplation to give yourself the compassion you need (and deserve).
Put both hands on your heart, pause, and feel their warmth. You can also put your hand anyplace on your body that feels soothing and comforting, like your belly or face. Breathe deeply in and out. Speak these words to yourself, out loud or silently, in a warm and caring tone:
This is a moment of suffering.
Suffering is a part of life.
May I be kind to myself in this moment.
May I give myself the compassion I need.
The first phrase, This is a moment of suffering, is designed to bring mindfulness to the fact that you’re in pain. Other possible wordings are I’m having a really tough time right now, This hurts, or anything that describes the suffering you are experiencing.
The second phrase, Suffering is a part of life, reminds you that imperfection is part of the shared human experience. Other possible wordings are Everyone feels this way sometimes, This is part of being human, etc.
The third phrase, May I be kind to myself in this moment, helps bring a sense of caring concern to your present-moment experience. Other possible wordings are May I love and support myself right now, May I accept myself as I am, etc.
The final phrase, May I give myself the compassion I need, firmly sets your intention to be self-compassionate. You might use other words such as May I remember that I am worthy of compassion, May I give myself the same compassion I would give to a good friend, etc.
Find the wordings for these four phrases that are the most comfortable for you and memorize them. Then, the next time you judge yourself or have a difficult experience, you can use these phrases as a way of reminding yourself to be self-compassionate. This practice is a handy tool to soothe and calm troubled states of mind.NFL's Dante Fowler REFS BABY MAMA BRAWL... Insane Video
NFL's Dante Fowler: REFS BABY MAMA BRAWL... Insane Video
EXCLUSIVE
NFL star Dante Fowler -- the 3rd pick in the '15 Draft -- played the role of referee as the mother of his child brawled with another woman at a FL apartment complex... and TMZ Sports has the video.
It all went down on February 1st around 10 PM -- when 21-year-old Fowler arrived to the complex with a woman believed to be his girlfriend... who confronted Fowler's baby mama in a common area in front of an elevator.
Fowler (a 6'3" 260 pound defensive end for the Jacksonville Jaguars) gets between the two women -- but instead of breaking it up... he steps back and uses his arm to signal for the fight to begin.
What ensues is pure violence... with the women wailing on each other as Fowler oversees the action.
Once Fowler decides he's seen enough, he grabs his baby mama and throws her off the other lady... ending the fight.
He then hits the elevator button... and leaves with the other woman.
We've reached out to everybody involved to find out what the hell happened... so far, no one is talking.
We've also reached out to police who tell us they were not called to the scene, and no reports were filed.
We'll have more info and footage of the fight on "TMZ Sports" Tuesday night on FS1 at 9 PM PT, 12 AM ET.Yemenis present documents in order to receive food rations provided by a local charity in Sanaa, Yemen, in April 2017. (Hani Mohammed/AP)
Senators angered by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition's conduct in Yemen's civil war came within striking distance Tuesday of blocking the sale of roughly $510 million in precision-guided weapons to the kingdom.
The sale will be allowed to proceed with 53 senators -- almost all of them Republicans -- voting against a measure sponsored by Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Chris Murphy, D-Conn., and Al Franken, D-Minn.
But with 47 votes, opponents of the sale witnessed their ranks swell and after the vote critics of the arms deal predicted they had reached a tipping point.
"I hope the Saudis heard this message loud and clear," Murphy said on a conference call. "This is a trend line that will continue."
Last year, opponents of a $1.15 billion sale of tanks and machine guns to Saudi Arabia could muster only 27 votes in the Senate, with a similar core group making similar arguments.
Since the last vote, the United Nations estimated in March that 17 million people in Yemen face severe food insecurity. Saudi bombs are believed to have killed more than 4,000 civilians in a fruitless effort since 2015 to reinstall ousted leader Mansur Hadi.
Other parts of a $110 billion arms deal struck by President Donald Trump with the Saudis in May have yet to be presented to Congress. Senators have a right to force votes on each of the packages under the Arms Export Control Act.
During a short floor debate, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said he believed opposition to the arms deal was driven in part by opposition to Trump.
Corker argued that Saudi Arabia was an ally and that Yemeni rebels allied with a former U.S.-backed leader are friendly with Iran. And he said the Saudis would be better-able to ensure they did not kill civilians by using precision-guided bombs.
“It’s to protect civilians,” he said. “There’s absolutely no evidence that Saudi Arabia tried to kill civilians. None.... So please, let’s be rational.”
Paul alleged that a Saudi bombing of a funeral procession last year that killed more than 100 civilians "was no mistake."
After that attack and with one month left in office, the Obama administration discontinued sales of precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia due to concern about civilian deaths. The decision was reversed by the Trump administration in March.
In advocating a vote against the arms sale, Paul launched into a broader criticism of the country, calling its leaders "people who behead and crucify protesters" and saying there was "no greater purveyor of hatred for Christianity and Judaism."
“For every supposed good thing they do, they do five things that are bad for America,” Paul said. “I am embarrassed people are out here talking about money and making a buck while 17 million people live on a starvation diet.”
Watch the debate:Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump's decision Wednesday to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital could temporarily derail the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, two senior White House officials acknowledged after Trump's speech.
The question now for those officials: For how long?
"We're prepared for derailment -- temporary, I hope. Pretty sure it will be temporary," said a senior White House official, who acknowledged that the President's peace team has not spoken with furious Palestinian officials since the Trump's announcement.
That "derailment" was a cost the White House was prepared to accept to fulfill Trump's campaign promise. And two senior White House officials said they felt making the announcement now -- before Israelis and Palestinians have reached the negotiating table -- would help mitigate the damage to the peace process.
"A lot of people put their heads into this decision to see how do we make this happen without at the same time throwing the peace process out of the window," one of the officials said.
"In terms of a moment where it could happen, where it could be the least disruptive at a moment in time, this is the moment," the second official said. "We know there will be some short term pain, but think it will help in the long run."
Trump's decision Wednesday to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and direct the State Department to begin moving the embassy there comes after months during which Trump's peace team has focused on meeting with Israelis and Palestinians, gathering ideas and building relationships. Now, the officials said, they are in the midst of drafting a tentative peace accord, but have yet to seek to draw both sides back to the negotiating table.
But the move left Palestinian officials fuming, with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his chief negotiator Saeb Erakat blasting the US decision and claiming Trump's move "disqualified" the US from mediating the peace process.
The White House officials expressed hope that the Trump administration has built enough trust with the Palestinians to push through the current friction, but could not say when they believed the relationship would be patched up.
Trump's announcement on Jerusalem, which bucked seven decades of US foreign policy, came amid a string of setbacks for Palestinians, including a threat from the State Department to close the Palestinian Liberation Organization's Washington office.
While Trump had previously expressed a desire to hold off on moving the embassy to gauge the prospects for peace, the officials said Trump decided to move forward with the announcement because it will take months before US officials know if the current process -- led by the President's son-in-law Jared Kushner and his Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt -- is likely to bear fruit.
And while senior administration officials have expressed hope that the move could help facilitate the peace process, two senior White House officials acknowledged Wednesday that that was not a central goal.
"His decision wasn't meant to help (the peace team). It was meant to do what he chose to do, but it was also meant to respect his other goal which is to reach a historic peace agreement," one senior White House official said.
Clarification: This story has been updated to give more precise timing about the impact on the peace process.Seychelles – Suspected Plague (Ex- Madagascar)
Madagascar is experiencing a large outbreak of plague affecting major cities and other non-endemic areas since August 2017. This outbreak caries a moderate risk of spread to neighbouring Indian Ocean islands. This risk has been mitigated by the short incubation period (the time from exposure to onset of symptoms) of pneumonic plague and the institution of exit screening measures at the airport and other major ports. For more information, see the latest situation report available from:
On 10 October 2017, the Seychellois Ministry of Health notified WHO of a probable case of pneumonic plague. The probable case is a 34-year-old man who had visited Madagascar and returned to Seychelles on 6 October 2017. He developed symptoms on 9 October 2017 and presented to a local health centre. Based on a medical examination and reported history of recent travel to Madagascar, pneumonic plague infection was suspected and he was immediately referred to hospital where he was isolated and treated.
A rapid diagnostic test (RDT) preformed within the country on 11 October on a sputum sample was weakly positive. Since then he has been treated as a probable case until confirmation by a WHO plague reference laboratory is completed. The specimen is being sent to Institut Pasteur in Paris, France for confirmation. The patient continues to be hospitalized in isolation until completion of the antibiotic treatment. He is currently asymptomatic and in stable condition.
Between 9 and 11 October 2017, eight of his contacts developed mild symptoms and have been isolated. Two other suspected cases, without any established epidemiological link to the probable case, have also been identified isolated and are on treatment.
In total 10 laboratory specimens have been collected from the probable case, his contacts and the two suspected cases and are being shipped to Institut Pasteur in France for testing.
October 13 was the last day of monitoring of over 320 contact persons of the probable case, including 41 passengers and seven crew from the flight, 12 close family members, and 18 staff and patients from the health centre visited by the probable case. All were provided a prophylactic course of antibiotics to prevent the disease.
In addition, 577 children and 63 teachers in potential contact with one of the individual identified by contact tracing were given antibiotics as a prophylaxis precautionary measure. Thus contact tracing is done thoroughly.
Currently only eleven (11) close contacts and one foreign national who was not in contact with the probable case but recently arrived from Madagascar, are hospitalised as precautionary measure and will remain in the hospital on treatment although they do not present signs of respiratory distress.
Public health response
A Crisis Emergency Committee was established on 10 October, and has since then, been meeting daily to coordinate surveillance, contact tracing, case management, isolation and supplies.
A hotline was revived on 12th October.
The Government has allocated funds to support the Committee interventions, enabling the setting up of a temporary isolation ward (whilst the existing ward is expanded), procurement of key supplies, contact tracing, and expanded contact tracers training next week, etc.
Air Seychelles flights to-from Madagascar were stopped from 8 October to reduce likelihood of further importation of cases from Madagascar.
WHO does not recommend restrictions on travel and trade, based on the currently available information.
On 10 October 2017, Madagascar Ministry of Health, with support from WHO, has implemented exit screening at the international airport in Antananarivo to prevent international spread. Further support from WHO and partners is being planned to strengthen measures at points of entry to avoid international spread.
WHO has deployed three epidemiologists and one risk communication officer to support the Country Office and Ministry of Public Health in responding to the current situation.
WHO risk assessment
Plague is an infectious disease caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, a zoonotic bacterium, usually found in small mammals and their fleas. Humans can be contaminated by the bite of infected fleas, through direct contact with infected materials or animals or by inhalation.
There are three forms of plague infection, depending on the route of infection: bubonic, septicaemic and pneumonic.
Pneumonic plague is the most virulent form of plague and can trigger severe epidemics through person-to-person contact via droplets in the air. Incubation period can be as short as 24 hours. Typically, the pneumonic form is caused by spread to the lungs from advanced bubonic plague. However, a person with secondary pneumonic plague may form aerosolized infective droplets and transmit plague to other humans. Plague is treatable disease; however, untreated pneumonic plague is always fatal.
Plague has never been reported in Seychelles, and at this stage, no cases have been definitively confirmed. The case reported above being considered as probable until final classification according to the laboratory results that will be performed at Institut Pasteur in Paris.
The Seychelles Government has established precautionary measures including, enhanced surveillance, isolation and treatment of suspect cases, contact tracing and prophylactic treatment of potential contact.
The risk of further spread in the Seychelles (should the case be confirmed) is considered as low and the overall regional and global risk levels as very low.
WHO travel advice
At this stage, there is a very low risk international travellers would come into contact with plague in Seychelles. WHO advises against any restriction on travel or trade on Seychelles or Madagascar based on the available information.
On 3 October 2017, WHO published advice for international travellers in relation to the outbreak of plague in Madagascar, which should also be followed for travellers to Seychelles.
Plague - Madagascar
Information for international travellers
On 11 October, the Ministry of Health announced several measures against pneumonic in a press release on its website. As many of these measures significantly interfere with international traffic, on 13 October, the Ministry of Health informed WHO that it will provide the scientific evidence and public health rationale for these measures, as required by Article 43.3 of the International Health Regulations (IHR, 2005).
For further information on plague, including prevention measures, please visit the WHO Plague website.The quarterly International Atomic Energy Agency update confirmed that key parameters of Iran's nuclear programme remained within the limits of the accord with major powers (AFP Photo/ATTA KENARE)
Vienna (AFP) - Iran remains in compliance with the landmark 2015 nuclear deal, a UN watchdog report showed Monday, four weeks after US President Donald Trump refused to certify the agreement.
The quarterly International Atomic Energy Agency update confirmed that key parameters of Iran's nuclear programme remained within the limits of the accord with major powers.
The restricted report, seen by AFP, said Iran "has not enriched" uranium above low levels and that its stockpile of enriched uranium was under the agreed limit of 300 kilogrammes (660 pounds).
Uranium when "enriched" to high purities can be used in a nuclear weapon. At low purities it can be used for peaceful applications such as power generation, Iran's stated aim.
The new IAEA report said that the number of enrichment centrifuges installed at Iran's Natanz site remained below the upper limit of 5,060 during the reporting period.
The volume of heavy water -- a reactor coolant -- remained below the agreed maximum of 130 tonnes throughout the past three months and on November 6 was 114.4 tonnes.
Iran has gone above that ceiling twice since the deal came into force in January 2016.
Iran removed and rendered inoperable the core of the Arak reactor -- which could in theory have given Iran weapons-grade plutonium, before the accord entered into force
The IAEA assessment showed that, aside from on heavy water, a relatively minor breach, Tehran has complied with the deal since its entry into force in January 2016.
However, on October 13 US President Donald Trump refused to certify the deal, saying it was not in the US national interest and leaving the accord's fate up to Congress.
The decision gave the Republican-controlled Congress 60 days -- which run out in mid-December -- to decide whether to reimpose sanctions on the Islamic republic.
Trump warned that the agreement would be "terminated" at any time if US lawmakers and the other signatories fail to address its "many serious flaws".
According to Trump, these include "sunset clauses" that see key provisions expire in 10-15 years, "insufficient enforcement" and a "near total silence" on Iran's ballistic missile programme.Jose Guerena was a U.S. Marine veteran who served in the Iraq War and was killed in his Tucson, Arizona, home, on May 5, 2011, by deputies of the Pima County Sheriff's Department SWAT team, while they were executing a warrant to search his home in relation to an investigation into illegal marijuana smuggling from Mexico.
The shooting garnered national attention and generated significant debate on the subject of the militarization of police, because of the following facts of the case: after the shooting, no evidence of illegal activity or any illegal items were found at the residence, his wife and 4-year-old child were present and hiding from the unknown (to them) intruders at the time the warrant was served and were inside when police opened fire, 71 shots were fired by police, while Jose's weapon was found with its safety still engaged, his prior military service, lack of any criminal convictions, and the change in statements of events given by police as to what transpired at the scene.[2][3][4][5][6][7]
In September 2013, the four police agencies involved agreed to pay Guerena's wife and children $3.4 million as a settlement, without admitting wrongdoing in their killing of Guerena.[8]
Reasons for search [ edit ]
Jose Guerena shooting Location Tucson, Arizona Date May 5, 2011 ( )
9:30 am (MST) Attack type Shooting Deaths 1 Non-fatal injuries 0 Victim Jose Guerena Perpetrators Pima County Sheriff's Department SWAT deputies
The County police initially said the raid was a search for marijuana. After the attack, Pima County released documents suggesting Guerena's brother, Alejandro, was engaged in criminal activity. Days later, they said it was part of an investigation into a series of home invasions. Another home search that same morning revealed marijuana, $94,000, and several weapons. According to police reports, Alejandro Guerena pulled up to the house in a pick-up truck while the raid was going on, and police found a pistol in his truck, which might have led to a heavier firearm presence when raiding Jose's home.[4]
Incident [ edit ]
Asleep after returning from a 12-hour overnight shift at the ASARCO Mission mine, Guerena was awakened about 9:30 am by his wife who heard noises outside their house, later identified as flash/bang grenades deployed by police in the back yard as a diversion.[9] He instructed his wife and 4-year-old son to hide inside a closet while he grabbed his AR-15 rifle and crouched down preparing to defend himself from the unidentified people breaking and entering into his home. The Sheriff's Department initially claimed that Guerena had fired on officers; at least three of the SWAT members including the team commander reported in their post-operation debriefings that they had observed muzzle flashes aimed at them from inside the house.[10] After an examination of the rifle Guerena allegedly pointed at the officers however, it was determined that the rifle had not been fired; the safety was still engaged. Other officers claimed they saw splinters from the doorjamb being hit by bullets; the shots that caused this were determined to come from other members of the SWAT team themselves.[11] "There were five officers at the door beginning to make entry into this home, when they engaged this individual that they believed was actually firing at them."[12] Other versions of this story claim that officers started shooting after Guerena pointed the gun at them, though under questioning they were initially unsure whether he had actually moved to target them.[10] A video of the raid shows roughly 38 seconds expired from the time the police briefly sounded a siren upon pulling into Guerena's driveway until they shot him.[13][5] At this point the five person team fired at least 71 rounds at Guerena in less than seven seconds, who died after being hit 22 times.[14][15]
Guerena's wife called 911 to request medical assistance for her husband shortly after the shooting. Paramedics, however, were instructed to hold back. Guerena was denied attention, for about one hour, until the team declared the "area secured". Ambulance crews were then notified they were no longer needed, one hour and fourteen minutes after Guerena's wife's call to 911.[14][16] An official autopsy report was released on 6 June. It confirmed that Guerena had been shot 22 times, including one grazing shot to the head. No drugs were found in |
bits of Life Saver foil; and a boarding pass stub from someone
named Richard from Ohio.
Also, you will find the SKYMALL CATALOG, from which you may order a
product called “Poop Freeze,” described as a spray refrigerant that
“chills animal waste to -62°F, creating an outer ‘crust’ that enables
you to quickly place in a bag and dispose.” Feel free to spend the
remainder of the flight trying to process this information.
Once the plane is airborne, you may RECLINE YOUR SEATBACK by pressing the button inside the armrest. If you chose not to recline, be aware that the person ahead of you will soon do so fully and abruptly, causing sharp discomfort on and around the patella but rewarding you with a panoramic view of several acres of scalp. You may mitigate this situation, at least psychologically, with a loud and audibly moist “sneeze,” or by directing your personal air jet to the top of the encroaching head.
Directly ahead of you is the TRAY TABLE, which may be lowered for
“snack service.” The circular depression in the upper right corner is
for your plastic cup, an item you may find oddly wide-mouthed for
something conveying sticky beverages in an environment subject to
sudden and dramatic up-and-down and to-and-fro motions. Also, note
the cup is designed such that empty mylar pretzel pellet bags stuffed
in them to facilitate trash collection will not remain there, but will repeatedly and mesmerizingly creep back out and onto the tray table.
Once the plane arrives at its destination, be aware that your
SEATBELT BUCKLE is specially designed to disengage most efficiently
if you place your hand on it for several minutes prior to arrival at
the gate. The instant the seat belt sign is turned off and the soft
gong sounds, snap it open vigorously, then swiftly stand up and lunge
for the overhead bins. Those seated on the aisle should immediately
advance one or two rows before others crowd in and hinder forward
motion. Those in window seats should also stand immediately, adapting
the attractively hunched Cro-Magnon stance under the luggage bins for
the 12 minutes before your row is released for deplaning.
We hope that you find your seat comfortable and your flight pleasant.
We know you have a choice of many other seats, and we thank you for
choosing SEAT 21C.Image caption Cocoa growers demonstrate in front of the EU headquarters in Abidjan to protest against sanctions
Much of the world has agreed not to buy cocoa from Ivory Coast until Laurent Gbagbo hands over power to Alassane Ouattara, widely recognised as the winner of the November 2010 presidential election.
The European Union (EU) and the US in particular heeded a call from Mr Ouattara not to purchase cocoa, and a ban came into force in January 2011.
The aim of the embargo is to deprive Mr Gbagbo of the funds he needs to pay the military who are keeping him in office.
Until now, it does not seem to have been much of a deterrent for Mr Gbagbo, but the embargo is inflicting hardship on other people.
First there are the exporters, who see the cocoa they have in warehouses possibly deteriorating to the stage whereby it would be difficult to sell the beans.
The stored beans are currently valued at $1.8bn (£1.1bn) and represent a third of the country's annual crop.
And then there are the farmers themselves, small-scale producers who depend entirely on the harvesting of cocoa beans for a living.
Even though some companies would like to buy our cocoa, they are not doing so because they are afraid of the EU Christophe Duka, Cocoa grower
Government help sought
Reports say that Mr Gbagbo has privatised the cocoa sector - a move described by France as "plundering Ivory Coast's strategic cocoa and coffee industries" and which the US has declared as "cocoa theft".
But Christophe Duka, head of the Cocoa Growers' Association and a small-time grower himself, disagrees with such assumptions.
"It is us, the private farmers, who have asked the president to buy our cocoa - this was not an initiative of the government," he insists.
"All we want is that our cocoa is sold and that we get a good price for it," he says, whilst mentioning that under previous president Felix Houphouet-Boigny, who died in 1993, the sector was nationalised and that the system worked very well.
"Even though some companies would like to buy our cocoa, they are not doing so because they are afraid of the EU," he says.
"It isn't that they don't want to, they are afraid to," he adds.
Image caption People have been moving from their homes and farms as fighting intensifies
When it is suggested that the cocoa, which is unable to leave by Ivory Coast's ports because of the sanctions, is exported through neighbouring countries, he says the cost of transport and the high port fees would become too exorbitant for the farmers.
Lost earnings
There is great consternation about the embargo, which Mr Duka describes as a political move which is not affecting Mr Gbagbo directly.
"It is a political problem and we are not involved in politics. They are mixing politics with the economy," he bemoans.
"The embargo is impoverishing us," he says, "Because of the embargo, we don't have any money to send out children to school, or to look after them."
He says ordinary farmers are asking Europe to lift the embargo.
It is fair to say that the farmers at this point in the crisis, don't care who they sell their cocoa to Pauline Bax, Local reporter
"We are not able to work, we have so wages," he explains.
"Without selling the cocoa we cannot feed our families. Europe is stopping us selling our cocoa. We think it is an unjust situation."
Pauline Bax, a reporter in Ivory Coast, believes most growers simply want to be paid.
"This move seems to be partly motivated by Mr Gbagbo to get more people behind him," she says.
The farmers have not been able to sell their cocoa and they must be increasingly desperate for money
"They don't usually have any money in reserve," she says, "It is fair to say that the farmers, at this point in the crisis, don't care who they sell their cocoa to."
Who are the customers?
People question where Mr Gbagbo is getting the money from to buy this crop.
Image caption Over 25% of the Ivory Coast population is dependent on cocoa farming for a living
Then there is the question of who will actually buy it.
Because of the sanctions imposed by the EU, neither European nor US companies can buy cocoa from Ivory Coast.
"He will probably have to look towards China," says Ms Bax.
China has small importing capabilities to process the cocoa to cocoa butter, but it is still unlikely Mr Gbagbo can ship all his cocoa to China.
"China doesn't really need the cocoa because the Chinese are not big consumers of chocolate - unlike Europe which relies on Africa for cocoa, so eventually the Europeans will need the cocoa from Ivory Coast," she says.
Awkward choice
Whilst there is a genuine dilemma for international policymakers who want to see a resolution to the political impasse in Ivory Coast, the situation is probably playing right into the hands of Mr Gbagbo, according to Mike Davis of the human rights group Global Witness.
Although cocoa growers and exporters are advised not to succumb to the extraordinary requests for money - in the form of taxes - in reality they have little option but to comply when supporters of Mr Gbagbo call round.
"Mr Gbagbo probably likes the thought of cocoa farmers being held hostage," he says. "It increases his bargaining power."The mother of a man who overdosed on a fake Norco pill laced with Fentanyl, is pleading for help.
Natasha Butler says her son, Jerome Butler, took the pill on March 25, thinking it was a painkiller. It turned out to be a fake.
"Whoever was at that house, I'm asking you, I'm begging you. Whoever was at that house with him, whoever has info where he got these pills..." she said.
The numbers of deaths and overdoses in Sacramento County related to Fentanyl and fake Norco continue to rise.
On Monday, the Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services announced there have been 42 reported cases of opioid-related overdoses. Of those cases, nine people have died, with possibly a tenth victim, in less than two weeks.
Natasha wants to know who could have given her son the counterfeit drug that claimed his life last month. Her 28-year-old son overdosed after taking the pill at a relative's house. Natasha said two other people took pills after Jerome did, at the same South Sacramento home on 47th street..
After Jerome was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead, Jerome's friend also got sick. But, he survived after he was treated for a drug overdose. Another young woman also got sick the day after Jerome did.
"She said she started feeling nauseous. She felt bad. Her heart," explained Natasha.
That drug overdose victim survived and is now texting Natasha.
"(She's saying) that she's sorry for our loss and that she also got a pill from the lady at the house," she said.
The Drug Enforcement Agency served a search warrant at the South Sacramento several days ago, but did not find anything.
Neighbors say two people were taken into custody for questioning, but the DEA says no one has been arrested.
Law enforcement is looking into the source of the deadly street drugs, including the DEA, is investigating. A situation so serious, Sacramento County issued a public safety alert.
Natasha still has lots of questions like where the drugs originally came from. She is afraid there may be a lot more overdoses and deaths before the mystery is solved.
"I lost my son. He's gone," she said.
Meanwhile, Natasha is struggling to raise money to bury her son.
Natasha started a GoFundMe page that has already raised several hundred dollars, but she said she has a ways to go. She's hoping to raise enough money to buy her son a casket. She also hopes someone can help donate a tuxedo for her son to be buried in.
Through it all, she said she's fighting for her son and for every other family that has lost someone from a drug overdose since March 23. She's even taking her fight to the state capitol.
"Whatever needs to be done, we need to do it," said Natasha.
Two state senators are pushing a bill targeting dealers. Senate Bill 1323 will call for tougher penalties for traffickers of drugs such as heroin, cocaine, and Fentanyl. It will be heard at the Capitol later this week.
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Copyright 2016 KXTVMine would be Mr. TOG!
(The second one of course…)
A bit of backstory:
Prior to the beginning of World War II, Great Britain expected the war to turn into a bloody trench warfare stalemate just like in World War I. Thus The Old Gang, which were made up of people who instrumented the designing of the British ‘landships’ during the Great War, turned up with a beast tank to as a breakthrough to this problem called the TOG I, an acronym of their gang’s title.
At first, the TOG I was to be armed with a 75mm short-barreled howitzer just like the Char B1 heavy tank of France, with 2 2-pounder guns mounted in the sponsons along with Besa machine guns that cover all arcs. It even included several smoke grenade launchers for whatever purpose needed there. It’s armour was 62mm thick to fend off against 47mm anti-tank guns and 105mm field guns and had a speed of 14 kilometers per hour thanks to all of that weight. Overall, it was a pretty comprehensive design.
But it lost interest by the military to the Churchill heavy infantry tank which was far more reliable in the current mobile warfare, and literally disappeared into history. Before that, The Old Gang however already built the second tank, the TOG II.
…
Why it’s cool you ask? First, you got a tank that is 10 meter in length, but what good in it? You get to cross trenches and foxholes no matter how big it is without getting stuck unlike this puny Sherman.
One was successfully made in 1941, it was equipped with a QF 6-pounder gun that can penetrate around 85mm thick armour, which can penetrate all the available tank Germany had frontally. It also has 114 mm thick front armour that can withstand shots from these widely used tanks of the Wehrmacht of the era:
Panzerkampfwagen III Ausführung H
Panzerkampfwagen IV Ausführung A
Panzerkampfwagen II Ausführung C
Panzerjäger I
And so on… And neither can they penetrate the 76mm thick side armour unless at point-blank range, and even that if they can avoid being ‘clubbed’ by
The Desert Queen.
In 1943, TOG II received an upgrade and was equipped with a QF 17-pounder (76.2mm) gun which penetrates 150mm of armour at 1000 meters with the standard APCBC ammunition, 233mm with APDS ammunition which theoretically even wrecks a King Tiger tank.
…
And oh, you want to know more cool things about this tank? The freaking jokes that surrounds it:
Row row row your boat,
Gently through their team,
Merrily merrily merrily merrily,
List’ning to their screams…
It came from Britain and it's rear was still in Britain because TOG II is too long!
When did the TOG II cross the road? It didn't, it's still across the road.
I would tell you a joke about TOG II but it would be too long!
TOG II is the only tank where you could comfortably dance in!
TOG II’'s schematics included the demand for the queen to be able to outrun it.
So there you go, since this is my answer for ‘cool tanks’ in my opinion which is true bias. Bad things about it are:
Slow at 8 miles per hour, because it was made with trench warfare in mind.
Flat armour, which is bad at stopping or deflecting German shells later in the war.
It’s too long for mobile warfare actually, unless you can build some bunkers on the rear.
It’s too expensive, but worse than the Tiger.
But it’s still a ‘cool’ tank, not a ‘good’ one.
Sources (including the jokes and pictures):TAYGA Simple, no-fuss NAT64 for Linux
TAYGA is an out-of-kernel stateless NAT64 implementation for Linux that uses the TUN driver to exchange IPv4 and IPv6 packets with the kernel. It is intended to provide production-quality NAT64 service for networks where dedicated NAT64 hardware would be overkill.
TAYGA is:
Fast — can saturate gigabit Ethernet on modest PC hardware
— can saturate gigabit Ethernet on modest PC hardware Flexible — performs dynamic mapping to handle any site addressing scheme
— performs dynamic mapping to handle any site addressing scheme Secure — runs outside of the kernel as an unprivileged process
— runs outside of the kernel as an unprivileged process Compatible — works with all Linux 2.4 and 2.6 kernels
— works with all Linux 2.4 and 2.6 kernels Simple — requires only a five-line configuration file (three lines in some cases)
— requires only a five-line configuration file (three lines in some cases) Easy to install — no kernel patches or external dependencies required
— no kernel patches or external dependencies required Free — licensed under GPLv2
The latest release of TAYGA is version 0.9.2, released on 2011-06-10. This release fixes some obscure fragmentation and MTU bugs, and also adds a workaround for a bug in Linux kernels older than 2.6.34 which would cause certain translated packets to be dropped by the "conntrack" netfilter subsystem. (See Launchpad bug 788637 for more information.)
tayga-0.9.2.tar.bz2
README for TAYGA 0.9.2
FAQ
Notes on building for WRT54 and
similar routers running Tomato
Super-quick-start
You will need to select an unused /96 from your site's IPv6 address range which will be used as the NAT64 prefix. You will also need a block of unused IPv4 addresses for the dynamic address pool. TAYGA will assign IPv4 addresses from this pool to the IPv6 hosts that need NAT64 service. The dynamic pool can be chosen from private IPv4 address space (10.x.x.x, 192.168.x.x, etc) and can be of any size, although it needs to be large enough to contain one IPv4 address for every IPv6 host that needs to use the NAT64.
TAYGA also needs its own IPv4 address, but this can be taken from the dynamic address pool.
#./configure && make && make install # mkdir -p /var/db/tayga # cat >/usr/local/etc/tayga.conf <<EOD tun-device nat64 ipv4-addr 192.168.255.1 (this is TAYGA's IPv4 address, not your router's address) prefix 2001:db8:1:ffff::/96 (replace with an unused /96 prefix from your site's address range) dynamic-pool 192.168.255.0/24 data-dir /var/db/tayga EOD # tayga --mktun # ip link set nat64 up # ip addr add 192.168.0.1 dev nat64 (replace with your router's IPv4 address) # ip addr add 2001:db8:1::1 dev nat64 (replace with your router's IPv6 address) # ip route add 192.168.255.0/24 dev nat64 # ip route add 2001:db8:1:ffff::/96 dev nat64 # tayga # ping6 2001:db8:1:ffff::192.168.0.1
If the ping6 command succeeds, TAYGA is working. Now you'll need to set up NAT44 rules in iptables or elsewhere on your network so the dynamic pool addresses can reach the rest of the Internet.
Full documentation about the configuration and operation of TAYGA can be found in the man pages and README file accompanying the distribution.
DNS64
ISC BIND supports DNS64 since version 9.8 and is the best option for DNS64 services. Another option is Totd, although it has not been updated in some years.
What about stateful NAT?
TAYGA could never come close to offering the power and flexibility available in iptables and mature commercial NAT44 implementations, so instead TAYGA turns IPv6 into IPv4 in the most transparent manner possible, allowing existing IPv4-only tools to be used to further manipulate sessions flowing through it.
In other words, if you need stateful NAT64, route TAYGA's IPv4 path through a stateful NAT44.
Contact
The author, Nathan Lutchansky, can be contacted at lutchann@litech.org.NASA really wants humans make it to Mars, and it also really wants to be the one that gets us there. In fact, NASA administrator Charles Bolden went so far as to say that “No commercial company without the support of NASA and government is going to get to Mars.”
Bolden made the blunt statement on Thursday morning when speaking to the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, in response to a suggestion that the government agency could be entering a new space race to get to Mars with the likes of commercial spaceflight company SpaceX.
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SpaceX SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft. Read more Read
“Our ultimate focus is the journey to Mars and everything comes back to that,” Bolden told lawmakers.
NASA’s official goal is to get astronauts to Mars by the 2030s. Of course, the private company Mars One has grandstanded about setting up a Martian colony nearly a decade sooner. But the Mars One hype bubble started to burst last fall, when an independent analysis conducted by MIT researchers identified life-threatening flaws in company’s mission design. More recently, a Mars One finalist spoke out about the company’s wildly sketchy approach to funding, leading many to question whether or not the entire operation is, in fact, anything more than a scam.
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Not only does Bolden find the notion of Elon Musk getting boots on Mars first preposterous, he maintains that the ultimate focus of many recent NASA initiatives, including the recently-announced Asteroid Redirect Mission, is to serve as a testing ground for technologies that will, eventually, put a colony on the red planet.
“Mars is the planet that is most like earth,” Bolden said, “And it will sustain life when humans [NASA-trained astronauts] get there in the 2030s.” [Forbes]
Top image: Artist’s concept of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft via NASA / JPL-Caltech
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Follow Maddie on Twitter or contact her at maddie.stone@gizmodo.comPolice in Hachioji are on the lookout for a suspected serial arsonist after 10 vending machines were set alight on Monday.
According to police, a resident in Katakuracho reported finding a vending machine on fire at around 2 a.m. Following that call, another two reports were received of similar incidents a few hundred meters away, TV Asahi reported.
Police say the crimes were committed in the same way at each location. Investigators added that seven other similar fires were reported in the area last week, leading police to believe that a single arsonist may have been responsible for all of the incidents.
In each event, police said, the fire was started in the coin return area. Investigators say the fires may have been started in an attempt to steal change from the machines.
© Japan TodayHow To Put Mad Max Grip Spikes In Your Skateboard
3
Whether it is your wheels on the road or your shoes on your board, grip is of the utmost importance in downhill skateboarding. Sliding when you do not mean to can have disastrous consequences. Here is one way to get some extra grip on your board.
We go to great lengths to keep our feet planted on the skateboard, from increasingly complex concave designs to regularly-replaced extra-coarse grip tape to special super-sticky shoe soles, there’s pretty much nothing we won’t do to prevent our feet from slipping.
Max Wippermann is somewhat notorious for his use of spikes that run through the bottom of his drop-deck and provide extra gripping power.
While I’ve never felt like I had a problem with my feet slipping on my board, I recently put super sticky Riders Fly brake soles on both of my skate shoes and was amazed by how much more comfortable and locked in I felt. When Zak Maytum and Justin Rouleau told me they’d had good results with the Wippermann spikes, I decided to give it a shot.
Here’s what you’ll need:
1. Your downhill skateboard.
2. A drill. I got my trusty 18v DeWalt for like $100 on Craigslist. The guy had me meet him in a sketchy parking lot but it all worked out ok.
3. A drill bit set.
4. Some sheet metal screws. I used #10, you might want to go bigger or smaller, it’s up to you. Try not to get distracted by all the Home Depot hotties when you go buy supplies.
5. Clear coat or spray paint to seal your board against water (optional)
STEP 1: Figure out where your feet go on your skateboard and decide where you want extra grip. You’ll probably want to go heavy on the back toe, as it’s the most likely to slip and cause a crash.
STEP 2: Drill your holes. Pick a drill bit that’s about as wide as the shaft of your sheet metal screws and drill where you want your spikes. Use a fast setting on the drill and go slowly through your board.
STEP 3 (optional): Paint the holes with some clear coat to seal your board and prevent water damage.
STEP 4: Put your spikes in from the bottom of the board.
STEP 5: Adjust how aggressively the spikes stick up from the grip by backing the screws out a little bit.
STEP 6: Perform radical maneuvers.
NOTE: Max created this post before heading on the road to NC. Check the Insta for #backwoodspunchmeat to follow along. – Les
3Roger Federer and Tommy Haas are good friends off the court © Getty Images Enlarge
Roger Federer and Tommy Haas suffered defeat in their doubles team debut, losing 7-6(3) 6-4 to two-time grand slam champions Jurgen Melzer and Philipp Petzschner in the first round at the Gerry Weber Open in Halle.
Veteran Haas recorded an upset over Federer in last year's final on the German grass and the pair, who remain good friends off the court, decided to team up for this year's double competition.
However, it did not go according to plan as the pair surrendered the first set on a tie-break. Despite an entertaining performance from the debutant team, the experience of Melzer and Petzschner proved the difference.
There was a blatant sign of partnership rustiness when both Federer and Haas went for the same return, before a rare sighting of the 17-time grand slam singles champion offering a smile after dropping a set.
Melzer and Petzschner finished off in style, leaving their opponents to concentrate on their singles campaign.
Federer is the first seed in the singles draw, receiving a bye into the second round where the Swiss will face either Cedrik-Marcel Stebe or Jimmy Wang.
Partner Haas remains third seed, also getting a bye into round two where he will play the winner of Marcos Baghdatis or Ernests Gulbis.
However, Haas and Federer could meet at the semi-final stage as both are in the same side of the draw.
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.Sex and Gender ProPublica's Nina Martin reporting on American systems and institutions — from schools to hospitals to prisons — that fail or mistreat people on the basis of their gender or sexuality.
A Mississippi judge has thrown out murder charges against a young woman in the 2006 death of her stillborn child, a significant setback for prosecutors in a controversial case that has been closely followed both by women's rights groups and those interested in establishing rights for the unborn.
Rennie Gibbs, who was 16 when she gave birth to her stillborn daughter Samiya, had been indicted for "depraved heart murder" after traces of a cocaine byproduct were found in the baby's blood. The charge — defined under Mississippi law as an act "eminently dangerous to others...regardless of human life" — carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
But Lowndes County Circuit Court Judge Jim Kitchens, in a two-page ruling held that under Mississippi law Gibbs could not be charged with murder. Kitchens made clear prosecutors could seek to re-file charges, but at most Gibbs could be charged under the state's manslaughter statutes. A conviction on such a charge would carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
"We are very pleased by the court's ruling and hope that it will put an end to a prosecution that has dragged on for seven years," said Lynn Paltrow, executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women, a New York-based non-profit organization. "No woman, much less a teenager, who becomes pregnant should have to fear that if she seeks to continue her pregnancy to term but suffers a miscarriage or stillbirth, she will be arrested and charged with murder."
As reported by ProPublica last month, the case against Gibbs is one of a wave of so-called "fetal harm" prosecutions across the U.S. Hundreds of women have faced criminal charges for using drugs during pregnancy, even when their babies were born healthy. Supporters say the threat of punishment can deter mothers-to-be from putting their unborn children at risk. But reproductive rights advocates argue that prosecution only deters women from seeking help with addiction and prenatal care.
Those advocates see the cases — documented in this 2013 report by the National Advocates for Pregnant Women — as a part of a broader strategy by abortion opponents to employ the concept of fetal "personhood" to weaken women's ability to end their pregnancies.
Lowndes County Assistant District Attorney Mark Jackson said his office was "considering all options" as it contemplated what to do next.
"We haven't made a decision on what's going to happen going forward," Jackson said in an interview Friday with ProPublica.
Samiya was born a month premature, and never took a breath after being delivered in November 2006. Within days, Steven Hayne, a Mississippi medical examiner at the time, declared her death a homicide, caused by "cocaine toxicity."
In early 2007, a Lowndes County grand jury indicted Gibbs, who is African American, for having smoked crack during her pregnancy, declaring that she had "unlawfully, willfully, and feloniously" caused the death of her baby.
Since then, medical experts for the defense have said that Samiya's likely cause of death was not cocaine but the umbilical cord that was wrapped around her neck when she entered the world. The defense lawyers have challenged Hayne's conclusions, calling his autopsy findings "unreliable" and "inadmissible." They have also challenged the idea that cocaine use by pregnant mothers can actually cause stillbirths.
Jackson, the assistant district attorney, said if prosecutors sought new charges they would put some of the defense's material before the grand jury.
In his ruling, Kitchens said the Mississippi Supreme Court had in the years since Gibbs' indictment decided that murder charges in such cases were not appropriate. He did not decide anything related to the specific allegations and medical evidence in the Gibbs case.
The case has caused deep anxiety among advocates for low-income women in Mississippi. The state has one of has one of the worst records for maternal and infant health in the U.S., as well as some of the highest rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease. Many of the factors that have been linked to prenatal and infant mortality — poverty, poor nutrition, lack of access to healthcare, pollution, smoking, stress — are rampant there, especially among black women, who suffer twice as many stillbirths as whites.
"The biggest threats to life, born and unborn, do not come from mommies but rather from poverty, barriers to health care, persistent racism, environmental hazards, and prosecutions like these," said Paltrow. "Every medical group, including the ones that focus on babies, say that these kinds of prosecutions frighten women away from necessary care to the detriment of children."
It is possible that prosecutors could try to indict Gibbs under the state's illegal abortion statute, a charge that would carry a maximum sentence of 10 years. But Jackson, the prosecutor, said that was unlikely.
"In our view, neither the law nor the evidence justify prosecuting this young woman, who was a teenager at the time, and we hope this is the end of it," said Robert McDuff, one of Gibbs' lawyers. "But if further charges are brought, we will return to court in her defense."How to install Seafile on Ubuntu 14.04 (Trusty Tahr)
Seafile is a OpenSource cloud storage software. It offers file sharing and syncing for individual users and groups, it provides client side encryption and easy access from mobile devices. This tutorial describes the steps to install Seafile on Ubuntu 14.04.
Installing the Seafile dependencies
List of dependencies as described
Java Runtime Environment (JRE)
Poppler-utils
Libreoffice 4.1+ and Python-uno
libpython 2.7
Python libraries (make sure python 2.7 is included in this installation, you may verify using the command on the image 1.2, if its already installed, if not then use this command apt-get install python 2.7 and also if you receive an error of "Wheel installs require setuptools >=...", then you may use this pip install setuptools --no-use-wheel --upgrade ). You also need, to install using easy_install pip and pip install boto as seen on the image 1.3 and 1.4 respectively)
Run the following command as root user to install the required software:
apt-get install openjdk-7-jre poppler-utils libreoffice libreoffice-script-provider-python libpython2.7 python-pip mysql-server python-setuptools python-imaging python-mysqldb python-memcache
Now I will check if the installed python version matches the requirements for Seafile:
python -V
As you see in the screenshot, the python version is 2.7.6, so it is in the range of supported python versions.
Next I will install the pip package with easy_install
easy_install pip
and the boto package
pip install boto
Next install some additional fonts for your language (like example WenQuanYi, if we gonna use chinese)
apt-get install ttf-wqy-microhei ttf-wqy-zenhei xfonts-wqy
Installing Seafile with MySQL
First you need to verify the if your system is a 32 bit or 64 bit system.
uname -m
My sever is a 64Bit system.
There are two choices to use on, either 32 or 64 bit, which are both available on the Seafile download page http://seafile.com/en/download/.
Or you may directly download on these given listed sites:
64 bit:
https://bitbucket.org/haiwen/seafile/downloads/seafile-server_4.0.6_x86-64.tar.gz
32 bit:
https://bitbucket.org/haiwen/seafile/downloads/seafile-server_4.0.6_i386.tar.gz
By downloading the package, you need to use wget command:
cd /tmp
wget https://bitbucket.org/haiwen/seafile/downloads/seafile-server_4.0.6_x86-64.tar.gz
The next is, were gonna create the required directories.
First, I need to create a directory name "guide"(this is just a sample in image 1.8), and you may use any name that describes your organization.
mkdir /root/guide
Then move the file seafile-server_4.0.6_x86-64.tar.gz to a directory that we have created guide.
mv seafile-server_4.0.6_x86-64.tar.gz /root/guide/
Enter the guide directory
cd /root/guide
Once your are inside, you need to extract the file, using the command tar.
tar -xzf seafile-server_4.0.6_x86-64.tar.gz
Next create a directory installed.
mkdir installed
We may move the file seafile-server_4.0.6_x86-64.tar.gz to newly created directory installed.
mv seafile-server_4.0.6_x86-64.tar.gz installed/
As described on this directory structure for our version, everything should be in right place. Where Installed and seafile-server-4.0.6 directories, should be within the directory of Guide.
Configuring the MySQL databases
Seafile consist of 3 core components. We need to create a database for this given components.
ccnet server
seafile server
seahub
Were now creating the mysql databases, account and setting permission on given databases as listed. (this is just an example you may create your own design on your database name).
Seafile Components Database name Account ccnet server ccnet-db seafile seafile server seafile-db seafile seahub seahub-db seafile
Login to mysql as root user
mysql -u root -p
and then issue these commands in the mysql shell:
create database `ccnet-db`character set = 'utf8';
create database `seafile-db`character set = 'utf8';
create database `seahub-db`character set = 'utf8';
create user'seafile'@'localhost' identified by'seafile';
GRANT ALL PRIVELIGES ON ccnet-db.* to `seafile`@localhost;
GRANT ALL PRIVELIGES ON seafile-db.* to `seafile`@localhost;
GRANT ALL PRIVELIGES ON seahub-db.* to `seafile`@localhost;
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Now were finish on creating databases, our next is configure seafile to point on these databases that we have created.
Setting Up Seafile Server
Required Packages:
python 2.7
python-setuptools
python-imaging
python-mysqldb
By using this command: (to verify if its already installed)
apt-get install python2.7 python-setuptools python-imaging python-mysqldb
Next is you need to install the seafile server. Go to directory seafile-server-4.0.6 then run the script setup-seafile-mysql.sh.
cd seafile-server-4.0.6
ls -lrt
./setup-seafile-mysql.sh
You need to complete the questions on this next procedure.
Starting Seafile Server
On starting service seafile, you need to go to directory seafile-server-4.0.6. then run as given on image.
cd /root/guide/seafile-server-4.0.6
ls -al
./seafile.sh start
Then on starting seahub. the default port is 8000.
./seahub.sh start
To access the site using any browser you have, enter in address bar.
http://192.168.0.100:8000/
On this image you will see the sample web access. Using the admin account you have entered in Image 1.22, you need to enter the Email and Password.
Once you login, you will see seafile web admin page.Just before New Jersey-bred singer-songwriter Sammy Kay‘s new album Fourth Street Singers is released on Tuesday (March 10th), Purevolume has an exclusive full stream of the album in all its glory. Put out by Panic State Records, the album is a stark departure from the ska/rocksteady sounds of Love Letters, his last full length as Sammy Kay and the East Los 3 (which was excellent, read our review of the album from last year). Instead, this album dials up Sammy’s blues, folk and Americana influences into another album of solid tunes that would make Bruce Springsteen happy. According to Sammy, “The concept of salvation, redemption, and |
views expressed today are no different than the views I have expressed previously. If anything my views were taken out of context.
“I have said on numerous occasions that the recession would last roughly 24 months. Therefore, we are 19months into that recession. If, as I predicted, the recession is over by year end, it will have lasted 24 months with a recovery only beginning in 2010. Simply put I am not forecasting economic growth before year’s end.
“Indeed, last year I argued that this will be a long and deep and protracted U-shaped recession that would last 24 months. Meanwhile, the consensus argued that this would be a short and shallow V-shaped 8 months long recession (like those in 1990-91 and 2001). That debate is over today as we are in the 19th month of a severe recession; so the V is out the window and we are in a deep U-shaped recession. If that recession were to be over by year end – as I have consistently predicted – it would have lasted 24 months and thus been three times longer than the previous two and five times deeper – in terms of cumulative GDP contraction – than the previous two. So, there is nothing new in my remarks today about the recession being over at the end of this year.
“I have also consistently argued – including in my remarks today - that while the consensus predicts that the US economy will go back close to potential growth by next year, I see instead a shallow, below-par and below-trend recovery where growth will average about 1% in the next couple of years when potential is probably closer to 2.75%.
“I have also consistently argued that there is a risk of a double-dip W-shaped recession toward the end of 2010, as a tough policy dilemma will emerge next year: on one side, early exit from monetary and fiscal easing would tip the economy into a new recession as the recovery is anemic and deflationary pressures are dominant. On the other side, maintaining large budget deficits and continued monetization of such deficits would eventually increase long term interest rates (because of concerns about medium term fiscal sustainability and because of an increase in expected inflation) and thus would lead to a crowding out of private demand.
“While the recession will be over by the end of the year the recovery will be weak given the debt overhang in the household sector, the financial system and the corporate sector; and now there is also a massive re-leveraging of the public sector with unsustainable fiscal deficits and public debt accumulation.
“Also, as I fleshed out in detail in recent remarks the labor market is still very weak: I predict a peak unemployment rate of close to 11% in 2010. Such large unemployment will have negative effects on labor income and consumption growth; will postpone the bottoming out of the housing sector; will lead to larger defaults and losses on bank loans (residential and commercial mortgages, credit cards, auto loans, leveraged loans); will increase the size of the budget deficit (even before any additional stimulus is implemented); and will increase protectionist pressures.
“So, yes there is light at the end of the tunnel for the US and the global economy; but as I have consistently argued the recession will continue through the end of the year, and the recovery will be weak and at risk of a double dip, as the challenge of getting right the timing and size of the exit strategy for monetary and fiscal policy easing will be daunting.
“RGE Monitor will soon release our updated U.S. and Global Economic Outlook. A preview of the U.S. Outlook is available on our website: www.rgemonitor.com”The federal government introduced a bill Friday that declares same-sex marriages "valid for the purposes of Canadian law" and lays out rules for same-sex divorce for non-residents.
The measures are aimed at closing a legal loophole that could have undermined thousands of gay marriages around the world.
The bill, called an act to amend the Civil Marriage Act, says it establishes a "new divorce process that allows a Canadian court to grant a divorce to non-resident spouses who reside in a state where a divorce cannot be granted to them because that state does not recognize the validity of their marriage."
The amendments would allow a court in the province where the marriage was performed to grant a divorce if there has been a breakdown of the marriage as "established by the spouses having lived separate and apart" for at least one year before a divorce is requested.
A similar one-year separation period exists for residents of Canada to be eligible for a divorce.
The divorce for non-residents would only be granted if neither spouse lives in Canada at the time the divorce is requested, by one or both individuals.
They also have to have lived in a state where a divorce cannot be granted because the marriage is not recognized as valid for at least one year, the amendments state.
The bill introduced Friday makes no proposed amendments to the Divorce Act, and the measures only apply to non-residents.
The new rules, if the bill is passed, would not address issues such as child or spousal support. Any arrangements for property, custody and access to children or support will be determined in the jurisdiction where the couple lives, the Justice Department said in a news release.
Canada's marriage laws do not have a residency requirement. But federal divorce laws do, and that means same-sex couples who travel to Canada to marry because the jurisdiction in which they live does not marry gays or lesbians run the risk of not having the legal means to divorce if the relationship sours.
The proposed changes have been prompted by a divorce case in Ontario involving a same-sex couple. The unidentified lesbian couple married in Canada in 2005 but split up in 2009. The partners are living in Florida and the United Kingdom. Both women want a divorce, but cannot get one where they now live because the state of Florida does not recognize their marriage, and though the U.K. grants civil partnerships to same-sex couples, it does not recognize the Canadian marriage.
Legal documents filed by the federal government in the case had argued that even though the couple married in Canada, the two couldn't be considered legally married because it wasn't recognized in their U.S. and United Kingdom homes.
Gay rights activists and opposition politicians accused the Tories of trying to rewrite the rules on same-sex marriage to suit their own agenda.
But the government says its opinion is that the marriages were valid and it doesn't want to reopen the debate on the definition of marriage.
"Recently it came to light that there was an anomaly in our civil marriage laws," Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said in a statement after the bill was introduced in the House of Commons. "We are fixing the anomaly in the law."
The lawyer in the case that brought the issue to light, Martha McCarthy, told CBC's Power & Politics on Friday, "We are grateful the bill addresses the validity of the marriages of non-residents and allows them to divorce. But the government set a fire and is now trying to get credit for putting it out."A TEENAGE girl has been hit with death threats by Justin Bieber fans on Twitter after the Canadian pop star retweeted her glowing review of his album.
15-year-old Courtney Barrasford took to Twitter to share her thoughts on the singer's latest album, Believe Acoustic.
"Not really a fan of Justin Bieber but his acoustic album is really good!" the young Brit tweeted innocently.
The teen heart-throb retweeted the post for his 34 million followers to see, causing avid Beliebers to lash out in response.
Within minutes of the retweet going live, Barrasford was inundated with hate-filled messages abusing the 'non-fan' for receiving attention from the Baby singer.
"I am a Belieber of him since 2009 and he didn't notice me. And you're not even a f***ing fan. You get noticed. OMG,” an enraged fan tweeted.
"U notice her n she's not even a fan. I am but you won’t notice me :) Can anyone hear me crying? :’(” (sic) another wrote.
Some bitter fans even called for the schoolgirl to commit suicide while others began circulating rumours that she was pregnant with Bieber's child.
Courtney has spoken out about her shock at the backlash she received.
“I came back from a drama class where everyone had been going on about how good Justin Bieber’s acoustic album was. So I went on to YouTube to listen to it and then put my comment up on the internet", The Sun reports the teen saying.
"About 10 minutes later my friend sent me a message to say she noticed something on Twitter.
“It wasn’t too bad at first. Some people were saying I was lucky I was retweeted by him and some were jealous. But then it started to get worse as more people found out. I had things like ’you’re not a fan, go kill yourself’.”
One angry fan who sent Courtney abusive messages and claimed to be a 12-year-old American girl, posted: "Just tell her to die and leave Justin alone."
Courtney's shocked mother, Tina, 45, said: "It's all silly and has got out of control. It's because of jealously, and all because of a retweet.
"I wonder if the parent of the 12-year-old knows about what her daughter has been posting."
Courtney is now warning other social network users to be careful of what they post: "I don't think these people would say it face-to-face. But it's still not nice to hear."
"I would say to people to ignore it and stop using the site for a while", she said.
Originally published as Death threats after Bieber tweetHello Trainers,
I am writing to give you an update about events that will start in the Pokémon TCG Online starting this Friday, June 30.
Bonus Trainer Tokens from Versus Daily Reward Mystery Boxes:
Starting at 5 p.m. Pacific (midnight UTC) on Friday, June 30th and continuing through July 5th, the Trainer Token rewards from the Versus Daily Reward Mystery Boxes will be increased! All amounts will end in a 4, so you'll know that you are getting more than normal. Will you be lucky and get the big 444 Trainer Token reward?
24 Ticket Standard Tournament Event:
Look for a 24 Ticket Standard Format Tournament this weekend. There will be a lot of boosters on the line!
Start: Friday, June 30 at 12 Noon Pacific (7 p.m. UTC)
End: Wednesday, July 5 at 12 Noon Pacific (7 p.m. UTC)
24 Ticket Rewards:
1st Place - 24 Ticket:
12 Sun & Moon - Guardian's Rising tradeable 10 card booster packs.
8 random tradeable 10 card booster packs.
2nd Place - 24 Ticket:
8 Sun & Moon - Guardian's Rising tradeable 10 card booster packs.
4 random tradeable 10 card booster packs.
3rd - 4th Place - 24 Ticket:
2 Sun & Moon - Guardian's Rising tradeable 10 card booster packs.
2 random tradeable 10 card booster packs.
5th - 8th Place - 24 Ticket:
Four Uncommon Chest
200 Trainer Tokens
Watch the Live Video Stream from North American International Championships!
If you want to watch some competitive Pokémon play, be sure to keep your eye on http://pokemon.com/live for the coverage from the 2017 North American International Championships this weekend!
To whet your appetite, read the recently posted TCG strategy article: Eight Decks to Watch For at North American Internationals
A few other notes:
Reminder: A new Versus Ladder starts at 5 p.m. Pacific (midnight UTC) on Monday, July 3rd. What featured Pokémon do you think will be in this coming Versus Ladder?
A new Special Challenge will start on Thursday, June 29th. Keep an eye out for it!
Lastly, for anyone concerned about bugs leading to card suspensions, we will be doing a rolling server update on the morning of Tuesday, June 27th to address them. Look for Patch Notes to be posted when that update is finished.
Have a great week!
----------------------------
Join the conversation! If you have feedback about this announcement, please visit our Feedback Forums.
Note: You must be logged in to post or view the Feedback Forums.
Alex Leary
Pokémon TCG Online
The Pokémon Company International
Need help from the support team? Visit the [url="http://www.pokemon.com/support"]support portal[/url] and submit a ticket!It's time national leaders speak realistically about missile defense.
The number one reason we don’t shoot down North Korea’s missiles is that we cannot.
Officials like to reassure their publics about our defense to these missiles. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told his nation after last week’s test, “We didn’t intercept it because no damage to Japanese territory was expected.”
That is half true. The missile did not pose a serious threat. It flew over the Japanese island of Hokkaido, landing 3700 km (2300 miles) from its launch point near North Korea’s capital of Pyongyang.
The key word here is “over.” Like way over. Like 770 kilometers (475 miles) over Japan at the apogee of its flight path. Neither Japan nor the United States could have intercepted the missile. None of the theater ballistic missile defense weapons in existence can reach that high. It is hundreds of kilometers too high for the Aegis interceptors deployed on Navy ships off Japan. Even higher for the THAAD systems in South Korea and Guam. Way too high for the Patriot systems in Japan, which engage largely within the atmosphere.
All of these are basically designed to hit a missile in the post-mid-course or terminal phase, when it is on its way down, coming more or less straight at the defending system. Patriot is meant to protect relatively small areas such as ports or air bases; THAAD defends a larger area; the advanced Aegis system theoretically could defend thousands of square kilometers.
But could we intercept before the missile climbed that high? There is almost no chance of hitting a North Korean missile on its way up unless an Aegis ship was deployed very close to the launch point, perhaps in North Korean waters. Even then, it would have to chase the missile, a race it is unlikely to win. In the only one or two minutes of warning time any system would have, the probability of a successful engagement drops close to zero.
“When over Japan, they are too high to reach,” tweeted astronomer Jonathan McDowell, in between tracking the end of the Cassini mission. “You’d have to put the Aegis right off NK coast to have a chance.”
“It’s actually virtually impossible to shoot down a missile on the way up,” adds Gerry Doyle, deputy business editor for Asia at The New York Times. “Midcourse or terminal are the only places you have a shot.” That would mean for a test missile shot towards Guam, THAAD would have a chance to engage, though it has only been tested once against a missile of this range. For the test flights over Japan that would mean the only engagements possible are to the east of Japan, when the missile was on its way down. But there is little reason and huge logistical difficulties in having U.S. Aegis destroyers and cruisers loiter in the ocean there, waiting for a possible test launch.
Related: Why Didn’t the US Shoot Down That North Korean Missile?
Related: The Technology Race to Build — or Stop — North Korea’s Nuclear Missiles
Trying to use missiles from Aegis ships “would be a highly demanding task and entail a significant amount of guesswork, as the ships would have to be in the right place at the right time to stop a test at sea,” explains Kingston Reif of the Arms Control Association. And that is if the systems worked as advertised. None of the theater systems have been tested under the stressful conditions of a real-world exchange. THAAD, Patriot and especially Aegis, have done fairly well in tests, but these have been tests designed for success, simplified, carefully staged and using mostly short-range targets. Aegis has only been tested once against an intermediate-range target says Reif, one of the leading experts on U.S. missile defense programs.
What about our long-range defenses, the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense, or GMD, interceptors based in Alaska and California? There the test record is even worse. Even under ideal conditions, where the defenders knew the time, direction and trajectory of the test target and all the details of its shape, temperature, etc., this system has only hit its target half of the time.
“The success rate of the GMD systems in flight intercept tests has been dismal,” says former director of operational testing for the Pentagon, Philip Coyle. Our chances of intercepting a threat missile, even under ideal conditions, are basically “at least as good as a coin toss,” says the former head of the Missile Defense Agency, retired Lt. Gen. Trey Obering.
Yet, reporters routinely use words like “shield” and “dome” to describe our supposed capability, giving us a false sense of security. Officials make the matter worse with exaggerated, if carefully constructed, claims. “The United States military can defend against a limited North Korea attack on Seoul, Japan and the United States,” said Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Joseph Dunford at the annual Aspen Security Forum in July.
Is this true? It depends what you mean by the word “limited.”
If North Korea cooperated and shot their new intercontinental ballistic missile, the Hwasong-14, at the United States with adequate warning so that we could prepare, and if the warhead looked pretty much like we expect it to look, and if they only shot one, and if they did not try to spoof the defense with decoys that looked like the warhead, or block the defense with low-power jammers, or hide the warhead in a cloud of chaff, or blind the defense by attacking the vulnerable radars, then, maybe this is true. The United States might have a 50-50 chance of hitting such a missile. If we had time to fire four or five interceptors, then the odds could go up.
But North Korea is unlikely to cooperate. It will do everything possible to suppress the defenses. The 1999 National Intelligence Estimate of the Ballistic Threat to the United States noted that any country capable of testing a long-range ballistic missile would “rely initially on readily available technology – including separating RVs [reentry vehicles], spin-stabilized RVs, RV reorientation, radar absorbing material, booster fragmentation, low-power jammers, chaff, and simple (balloon) decoys – to develop penetration aids and countermeasures.”
Our anti-missile systems have never been realistically tested against any of these simple countermeasures. This is one reason that the Pentagon’s current director of operational testing is much more cautious in his assessments than missile defense program officials. “GMD has demonstrate a limited capability to defend the U.S. Homeland from small numbers of simple intermediate-range or intercontinental ballistic missile threats launched from North Korea or Iran,” he reports. Moreover, it is impossible, he says, to “quantitatively assess GMD performance due to lack of ground tests” and “the reliability and availability of the operational GBI’s [Ground-Based Interceptors] is low, and the MDA continues to discover new failure modes during testing.”
Yet, we have spent $40 billion on the GMD system and over $320 billion on scores of missile defense systems over the past few decades. You have to wonder exactly what these tests are for: give the troops the protection they need or give the contractors the next program payment?
There is no need to rely on the word of missile defense boosters, or, for that matter, trust the analysis of jaded missile defense critics. We could stop testing for success and begin testing for actual performance, with “red team – blue team” tests, for example, to simulate a determined foe. We could also order an objective scientific assessment. For example, the American Physical Society could conduct a thorough examination of the feasibility and capability of kinetic missile defense weapons, just as they did for directed-energy weapons in 1987. That study popped the balloon of false claims about these weapons, the original basis for the “Star Wars” program begun by the Reagan administration, concluding that it would be decades before we would know if such weapons were even feasible.
North Korea’s ballistic missile threat is real. We need to know if our missile defenses are for real.
UPDATE: The comment from retired Lt. Gen. Trey Obering has been expanded to more accurately reflect his belief that missile defense interceptors could defend against a missile attack on the United States.Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Ajit Pai (R) is set to speak at an event in August put on by Americans for Prosperity, a group backed by GOP mega-donors Charles and David Koch.
Pai will give remarks at the organization’s annual "Defending the Dream" summit in Richmond, Va., on Aug. 19, which its website bills as a “conference is the chance for activists, staff and free market leaders to come together and learn how to be more effective advocates for freedom.”
Americans for Prosperity’s free market and conservative ideology squares up with Pai’s. The FCC chairman has called for reducing regulation at the commission in favor of letting the market forces make decisions instead.
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For example, he plans to scrap Obama-era net neutrality rules that aim to create a level playing field on the internet by barring broadband internet service providers from preferring one type of content over another. Pai says he supports the goal but believes it’s achievable with less regulation.
Americans for Prosperity has praised the chairman’s plan.
“Chairman Pai has long been a leader in identifying these overly burdensome regulations in his industry, and helping ensure those sometimes-complex issues resonate with the public,” Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips said in a statement.
Pai in 2015 spoke at a group event while he was still a commissioner at the FCC.
The Koch brothers have drawn scrutiny for their donations to candidates and organizations that support free-market agendas.Cards send Lyons to Minor League camp
Jenifer Langosch Blocked Unblock Follow Following Mar 19, 2014
Jenifer Langosch/MLB.com
Having determined that Tyler Lyons will be more valuable in the immediate as a potential step-in starter than reliever in the big league bullpen, the Cardinals optioned the left-hander to Triple-A on Wednesday. With the move, the Cardinals now have 40 players remaining in Major League Spring Training.
Though Lyons was initially named as one of the pitchers competing for a rotation spot, it became clear early in Grapefruit League play that the Cardinals were auditioning him for a bullpen role. He would have offered the Cardinals length out of the ‘pen, but Lyons didn’t exactly do much to standout for the positive this spring.
He gave up 13 earned runs in eight innings and struggled with his command. By sending Lyons to Minor League camp now, there is still plenty of time for him to get stretched out so he is ready to open the season in Memphis’ rotation. He did not pitch more than two innings in any of his six spring appearances.
The Cardinals need to have Major League-ready starting depth in Triple-A, too, because of their plans to move one of their starters into a bullpen role to start the season. Whichever of the six remaining starters in camp does not land in the rotation is poised to “play a big role in our bullpen,” Matheny said. That’s expected to be either Joe Kelly or Carlos Martinez.
Follow me on Twitter (@LangoschMLB), Instagram (LangoschMLB) and Facebook (Jenifer Langosch for Cardinals.com)My boyfriend and I are getting married in less than two months and he just recently saw a whole new side of me…that would be the side that comes out when I visit an Asian market. I didn’t even realize this side existed, but a few weeks ago we were out shopping and I was hoping to get in a visit to an Asian market. Specifically, I was looking for the main ingredient for this dish. He promised there’d be at least one market in the area we were scouting, and I was pleased to end up at not just any old Asian market, but a supermarket-sized Asian megastore with everything from prepackaged, to prepared food to kitchen tools (more about those to come).
So, as you might have guessed by now, there was a bit of skipping and squealing involved in this trip. Yes boyfriend, this is who you’re planning on marrying. He actually seemed amused and rather delighted by it all.
The skipping and squealing hit peak when I spied something I’d been meaning to get my hands on for a while…jackfruit!
I started hearing a lot about this stuff some time around last summer and had been itching to try it. I could have just bought it online, but Amazon, while highly convenient, doesn’t elicit anywhere near the level of excitement from me as a giant Asian market.
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About this jackfruit. Maybe you’ve heard about it, maybe not. In any event, the buzz started when people realized it could make a great meat substitute. Fruit as a meat substitute?! Hear me out.
When purchasing, look for young, green jackfruit. This means it’s not yet ripe, and thus not yet sweet. It comes in big chunks, packed in brine. Drain the brine and pull the chunks apart, and you end up with something very tender and stringy.
Not too unlike artichoke hearts or hearts of palm. This stringiness is what prompted a lot of people to use jackfruit as a substitute in pulled pork-based dishes. I decided to go for fajitas. After I made this decision I realized that I’m not really sure if people use pork in fajitas (if there’s one topic I claim zero expertise on, it’s what meat goes in what dish), but who cares? This stuff turned out delicious. The jackfruit has an amazing texture and is soaks up the sauce flavors beautifully, so it makes a perfect(ly delicious, even if not too authentic) fajita base.Over the last couple of days I've had some wonderful, insightful discussions with Riley McCool over the topic of creating #trans characters in fiction that readers love and identify with. Based on how these people are abused and harmed in our society, we debated along the same lines of would stories written by white people over the African American experience mean more than stories written by the people who lived them?
To be fair, Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird" is a big example of using fiction to change the course of society.
Over the past year, Riley and I have been working on stories in this vein. In her webcomic series "Habibah's Song" we are introduced to Puck and Montigo, cute fluffy creatures from another world who struggle to come to terms with love when Puck, born a male Pooka, reveals that she identifies as a doe.
"A Deviant Mind" has illustrated since issue #7 the saga of Najimi, an intersex teen who was rescued from a life of sex trafficking and slavery, having been sold into that life after it was revealed that she was "not normal". Rejected LGBT teens living on the streets and in horrible situations is a fact of life in our world, and the science fiction setting of Najimi's life is no different. At first my readers hated the obnoxious, bird-flipping Najimi, but now she has grown to become one of the series' most beloved characters.
I believe the #transgender community is in a sense of apathy and despair over where they stand in our society at the moment, and they want some token indicator that someone outside of their kind would champion them. It really has nothing to do with us being cisgender as much as it has to do with us coming forward with these stories. Christianne Benedict illustrated this point in the story she created for me in the last issue of Voices Against Bullying. In "With a Little Help From My Friends", the characters have a clash as Janey asks Maddie, the transgender girl who's taken a beating during her time as a new student at her school, "Why don't you stick up for yourself?" Here is Maddie's tearful answer (this has stuck with me ever since):
Riley says of the discussion: "I argue both sides, the pros and cons. And in the end it doesn't matter the race or sexual preference of the writer, it's that the story gets told, that the story made one think and feel something. That the reader walks away with something, even if it's just more questions."
To read Christianne's story in its entirety, check out Voices Against Bullying #2 On sale at IndyPlanet, printed by Ka-Blam Digital Printing. Featuring stories by Austin Allen Hamblin, J. Riley McCool, Christianne Benedict, Mikal Barker, Elizabeth Fernandez and Lisa Perz. Follow Riley McCool's already-beloved love story Habibah's Song at SmackJeeves.com!
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WhatsAppWell, you can distribute them in batches. Like 10k person every month. Let's say there's 10mil coins. First month: %10 of all coins (1 mil) to 10k person, each one gets this %10's %1. 1st person: 10.000 2nd person: 9990 3rd person: 9890.... Second month: %10 of this 9 mil left... something like that would be ok. I guess.
make a website, you can't hold a giveaway here, and hand it out. Nobody has done a giveaway before that has been worth anything. Try and monitor IP addresses, but otherwise be generous. Try and get rid of 90% within a couple of weeks. It will pay off. *Edit: less than 200 people holding will get you to an exchange in no time. **Edit: but of course your goal is not explicit. If you want to make money, follow the above. If you want to make a coin work, spread it around to more people but just as quickly. Don't let people get bored waiting for a few coin-crumbs.Apple chief executive Tim Cook has delivered his sharpest attack yet on rivals Google and Facebook, with a speech criticising their advertising-supported business models for their disregard for users’ privacy.
Cook also used his speech to the EPIC Champions of Freedom event in Washington to fire a broadside at governments pushing for backdoors to encryption systems used by Apple and other technology companies on national-security grounds, describing the prospect as “incredibly dangerous”.
Secret report urges treaty securing US web firms' cooperation in data sharing Read more
The speech, as reported by TechCrunch, did not pull any of its punches. “I’m speaking to you from Silicon Valley, where some of the most prominent and successful companies have built their businesses by lulling their customers into complacency about their personal information,” said Cook.
“They’re gobbling up everything they can learn about you and trying to monetise it. We think that’s wrong. And it’s not the kind of company that Apple wants to be.”
While Cook did not name companies specifically, he made a clear reference to Google’s recently-launched Google Photos service, to hammer home the intended targets of his comments.
“We believe the customer should be in control of their own information. You might like these so-called free services, but we don’t think they’re worth having your email, your search history and now even your family photos data-mined and sold off for god knows what advertising purpose,” he said. “And we think some day, customers will see this for what it is.”
Apple is not immune from scrutiny on these grounds: its App Store distributes the apps of these companies to the iOS devices bought by its customers – Google Photos launched for iOS last week – so the company is providing one of the key distribution networks for these “so-called free services”.
Apple has also faced other kinds of questions about privacy: for example in November 2014, when security researcher Jeffrey Paul discovered that several of his personal files had been automatically uploaded to Apple’s iCloud storage service without his permission.
Apple CEO Tim Cook challenges Obama with impassioned stand on privacy Read more
Cook has attacked Google and Facebook before. In September 2014, he published an open letter to customers about privacy, in which he stressed Apple’s lack of interest in building “a profile based on your email content or web browsing habits to sell to advertisers” or trying to “read your email or your messages to get information to market to you”.
Portraying rivals as building their business models on privacy intrusion – Google and its Android platform in particular – has a clear commercial benefit for Apple, as it tries to sell more of its iOS devices.
There are other areas in which Apple’s civil-liberties beliefs are more aligned with those rivals though: especially when it comes to governments’ desire to weaken the encryption technology used by these companies.
“Some in Washington are hoping to undermine the ability of ordinary citizens to encrypt their data. We think this is incredibly dangerous,” said Cook, talking up Apple’s use of encryption in its iMessage and FaceTime services for messaging and video-calling.
Apple's Tim Cook attacks Google and Facebook over privacy flaws Read more
“If you put a key under the mat for the cops, a burglar can find it, too. Criminals are using every technology tool at their disposal to hack into people’s accounts. If they know there’s a key hidden somewhere, they won’t stop until they find it,” said Cook.
“Removing encryption tools from our products altogether, as some in Washington would like us to do, would only hurt law-abiding citizens who rely on us to protect their data. The bad guys will still encrypt; it’s easy to do and readily available.”
This is not the first time Cook has spoken out about encryption in this way. In February, Apple’s chief executive gave an impassioned speech at a White House-organised cybersecurity summit.
“If those of us in positions of responsibility fail to do everything in our power to protect the right of privacy, we risk something far more valuable than money. We risk our way of life,” he said then.Malaysian experts joined the international probe into the July 17 crash of flight MH17 that killed all 298 people onboard, although the 100-strong team was briefly prevented from accessing the rebel-held site.
A plane carrying more remains of victims as well as DNA and belongings also flew back to the Netherlands for the painstaking identification process.
So far, over 220 coffins have been flown back the Netherlands - which suffered the most casualties in the Malaysia Airlines crash.
But the search for more remains - strewn across some 20 square kilometres (eight square miles) - continues amid the unrest and under the baking summer sun.
Shooting could still be heard as the expert team arrived and were briefly prevented from accessing the rebel-held site.
"Today's situation illustrates once more that this mission is conducted in a contested area, where parties involved are still fighting. Access to the crash site is never 100 percent guaranteed," the head of the Dutch police mission in Ukraine, Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg said.
The United States accuses insurgents of downing MH17 with a surface-to-air missile likely supplied by Russia, while Moscow and the rebels blame the Ukrainian military.
The US and European Union last week gave Moscow the toughest sanctions since the collapse of the Soviet Union over its alleged support for the separatist rebellion.
Meanwhile a Russian defence ministry official, quoted by Itar-Tass, suggested Moscow may mount a legal challenge against Germany's decision to stop a major deal to provide a fully equipped training camp to Russian forces.
In a new move likely to alarm Ukraine, Moscow announced new military drills that will involve 100 aircraft on its southern flank.
The experts continued search comes as Ukraine forces are closing in on the main rebel-held bastion of Donetsk and urged the insurgents to let civilians flee besieged eastern cities as fears of a humanitarian crisis grow, Kiev has said.
The military advances against pro-Moscow separatists came as more remains from the downed MH17 plane were flown to the Netherlands for identification, and Malaysian experts joined the Dutch and Australian probe at the site of the July 17 crash.
"Yesterday, forces from the Ukrainian anti-terrorist operation occupied the city of Yasinuvata, 19 kilometres (12 miles) north of Donetsk, which is an important railway hub," Ukrainian security spokesman Andriy Lysenko told journalists.
"The seizure of the town allowed for the encirclement of Donetsk from the north and the closing down of an important channel for the supply of weapons and technology to the terrorists."The totalitarian temptation is proving too much for the left across America. Daniel Flynn, in his book A Conservative History of the American Left, contrasted the “Freedom Left”, the benign old-fashioned liberals, versus the “Force Left”, the descendants of Marx that malignantly oppose fundamental rights in pursuit of their radical aims. The Force Left has successfully seized control of their movement, and their fundamental transformation is manifesting in current events daily as we watch their struggle for ever more power.
The left as a whole has long been hostile to the Second Amendment, but has been divided of the regulatory means of mitigating its effects. Background checks, registries, magazine limits have all been incrementalist “salami tactics” to limit gun ownership, and according to them, limit violence.
The latest tack is to levy taxes against weapons and ammunition — some more confiscatory than others. In Seattle, it is 25 dollars per firearm, with a nickel tax on ammunition over.22 caliber, and a 2 cent tax on smaller calibers, which the National Rifle Association is litigating against. In the Northern Marianas Islands, to compensate for losing their handgun ban in court, their Governor imposed a $1,000 “excise” tax on the importation of firearms.
The end game of these taxes is to discourage the purchases, create better documentation surrounding purchases, and limit the accessibility of exercising a constitutional right. But like the poll tax violating the right to vote, a confiscatory gun tax surely violates the individual right to keep and bear arms. If treated like real estate, a firearms tax could become a way to confiscate weapons from those who could not pay the tax, thus discriminating against the poor from exercising their Second Amendment rights.
Onerous laws like this are being enacted all across America, with any given one of them leading to a legal challenge that will work their way to the Supreme Court. As Chelsea Clinton reminded us last week, a divided court without Scalia standing guard could dismantle the Second Amendment at any time, and a Hillary Clinton presidency would hasten that in any way possible. When was the last time that children of Presidential candidates rallied support against the Bill of Rights? This blatant contempt for limited, constitutional government is without parallel in any time in our history.
The Force Left also disdains the outcry against their oppressive environmental policies and their underlying assumptions. 17 Attorneys General from Democratic states and territories publically announced they would use their respective taxpayer resources to challenge and possibly prosecute “climate deniers”. California’s Kamala Harris and three others have went further, investigating Exxon Mobil for possibly funding research that disputes the anti-carbon narrative.
As the Force Left attains political power by attacking the Second Amendment, the First Amendment is surely at risk too |
on her, and she began to consider focusing all of her efforts into securing voting rights for women, as a path to eliminate barriers to women in other areas.
At the turn of the twentieth century in May 1900, together with Arnold Aletrino, Jacobs co-founded the Nederlandsche Vereeniging tot Bevordering der Belangen van Verpleegsters en Verplegers (Dutch Society to promote the interests of male and female nurses), bent on improving socio-economic opportunities for nurses. Between 1902 and 1912, she wrote articles on international nursing and served as an editor for Nosokomos, the society's journal. Beginning in 1900, Jacobs published translations of feminist theory, such as Women and Economics by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Women and Labor by Olive Schreiner (1910). In 1901, she and Gerritsen left the Radical League and joined the founders of the Vrijzinnig Democratische Bond (Free-thinking Democratic League). (She continued to be associated with the league, serving on its board from 1921 through 1927.) Jacobs also regularly published articles in Sociaal Weekblad addressing women's working conditions and was finally rewarded in 1903 when the National Bureau for Women's Work published a preliminary draft law to reform working conditions. Jacobs retired from her medical practice in 1903, thereafter devoting her time to women's suffrage, financing her efforts from the sale of her private library.
Women's suffrage (1903–1919) [ edit ]
In 1903, Jacobs became president of the Vereeniging voor Vrouwenkiesrecht, holding the post for the next 16 years. In 1904, she traveled with her husband to Berlin to attend the Congress of the International Council of Women (ICW) and joined with the suffragists who broke off from the ICW at the conference to form the International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA). As soon as the conference was over, the couple traveled to the United States and made a cross country tour. Together they wrote Brieven uit en over Amerika (Letters from and about America), which was published in 1906. During their travels, Gerritsen became ill and died 1905 from cancer. After recovering from a depression caused by her loss, Jacobs resumed her suffrage work in 1906, touring with Carrie Chapman Catt through the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Jacobs spearheaded the organization of the 1908 IWSA Congress, the first to be held in the Netherlands. It took place in June in Amsterdam bringing international delegates to the city, spurring growth of the Dutch suffrage movement. In 1910, she traveled to South Africa, invited by activists who called on her organizational services. She toured from Cape Town to Johannesburg making speeches on suffrage, as well as hygiene, sanitation, prostitution and venereal diseases, while calling for universal sex education. In 1911, after the IWSA conference in Stockholm, Jacobs and Catt embarked on a 16-month tour to evaluate women's legal and social positions and encourage women to struggle for pertinent improvements. The trip took them to "South Africa, the Middle East, India, Ceylon, the Dutch East Indies, Burma, the Philippines, China and Japan". Jacobs financed the trip by writing articles about their adventures for the newspaper De Telegraaf.
In 1914, shortly after the start of World War I, Jacobs promoted holding the International Women's Congress in The Hague, given the country's neutrality. Intended as a forum for women from throughout the world to meet and discuss opposition to war, the meeting was chaired by the pacifist Jane Addams from Chicago. Coordinated by Jacobs, Mia Boissevain, and Rosa Manus, the conference, which opened on 28 April 1915, was attended by 1,136 participants from both neutral and non-belligerent nations, and resulted in the establishment of an organization which would become the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). Jacobs became the vice-president of both the international organization and the Dutch chapter of WILPF. After the conference closed on 3 May 1915, Addams and Jacobs, along with Chrystal Macmillan, Rosika Schwimmer and Mien van Wulfften Palthe-Broese van Groenou and others, formed two delegations of women who were dispatched to meet European heads of state over the next several months. The women secured agreement from reluctant Foreign Ministers, who overall felt that such a body would be ineffective. Nevertheless, they agreed to participate, or not impede creation of a neutral mediating body, if other nations agreed and if President Woodrow Wilson would initiate a body. In the midst of the war, Wilson refused.
In 1917 Dutch women obtained the right to stand in elections, though they could not vote. Jacobs stood as a candidate for the Vrijzinnig Democratische Bond in the election of 1918 and though she received more votes than any other woman candidate, she was not elected. Along with MP Henri Marchant [nl], in 1918 Jacobs founded the journal, De opbouw, Democratisch Tijdschrift (The building, Democratic Magazine) in which she wrote several articles between 1918 and 1924. Marchant introduced a women's suffrage bill which was adopted in 1919, and signed by Queen Wilhelmina on 18 September 1919. Shortly thereafter, Jacobs resigned from the presidency of the Vereeniging voor Vrouwenkiesrecht.
Later life (1919–1924) [ edit ]
Jacobs left Amsterdam and moved to The Hague after the suffrage fight was won in 1919. Thanks to the international reputation she had gained from the suffrage movement, Jacobs' role as a pioneer of contraception was drawn on by birth control activists in the United States, such as Margaret Sanger. Between 1922 and 1923, Jacobs served on the advisory board of the Voluntary Parenthood League, established by Mary Dennett. The following year, she was the guest of honor at the VPL's annual conference held in New York City.
Having lost most of her money in poor investments, Jacobs was supported by her friend Mien van Wulfften Palthe-Broese van Groenou. Between 1923 and 1924, she worked on her autobiography, at her home on 46 Van Aerssenstraat, refusing offers from family friends to reside with them, so that she could spread out her clippings and journals in her own home. After completing her autobiography she lived with the Broese van Groenou family. She continued to attend the conferences of the International Council of Women, International Alliance of Women and WILPF until her death.
Death and legacy [ edit ]
Baarn's Badhotel
Jacobs died on 10 August 1929 in Baarn, at the Badhotel [nl], while on holiday. After her cremation, her ashes were placed in the Broese van Groenou family mausoleum in Loenen op de Veluwe until 1931, when they were placed with her husband's ashes in the Westerveld Cemetery [nl] in Driehuis. The following year, Bernard Premsela opened a contraception advice center in Amsterdam named in her honor. In the Netherlands, there are numerous awards and institutes which bear her name, such as the Aletta Jacobs Prize granted by the University of Groningen and a college in Hoogezand-Sappemeer. There is a planetoid named after her and a plaque with her image is displayed on her former house in Amsterdam at 15 Tesselschadestraat. Between 11 August 2009 and 28 January 2013 the Atria Institute on gender equality and women's history was known as the Aletta Institute for Women's History, in her honor. Her personal papers are a part of the collections of the Institute. Her life was adapted into film in 1995 as Aletta Jacobs: Het Hoogste Streven (The Highest Aspiration).
Plaque at No. 15 Tesselschadestraat, Amsterdam
In 1903, when she retired, Jacobs sold her collection of 2,000 books, magazines and pamphlets on women's history to the John Crerar Library in Chicago. The Crerar Library added English language volumes to her collection which mainly contained titles in Dutch, French and German, doubling the collection size. In 1954, the University of Kansas bought the Gerritsen Collection, which has volumes dating from the 16th century, but mainly focuses on women of the 19th and early-20th centuries. In particular, the collection contains works on anti-feminist views, education of women, the legal status of women throughout history, prostitution, sexual relations, suffrage, women's economic and employment history, and is considered a significant resource for primary materials of women's studies.
At a time when married women were typically forced to relinquish their names and employment, Jacobs retained her own identity and continued to work outside her home, inspiring others to follow suit. Her pioneering birth control clinic preceded both Margaret Sanger's and Marie Stopes's clinics in the United States and England by more than three decades and her role in the contraception movement was influential in helping those women who followed in her footsteps, in establishing clinics throughout Europe and the United States by the time of her death. Her campaigns regarding working conditions for women and the right to vote were successful in changing Dutch law, and her work in the peace movement led to the establishment of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. In assessing her own career, Jacobs wrote in a letter to Catt:
I feel happy that I have seen the three great objects of my life come to fulfillment during my life … They were: the opening for women of all opportunities to study and to bring it into practice; to make Motherhood a question of desire, no more a duty; and the political equality for women. — Memories (1996, p. 194)
Selected works [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
^ Jacobs' sister Frederika later became the first girl admitted as a regular student to this same high school. ^ While Aletta Jacob is recognized as the first "official female physician", in the 1620s and 1630s, Trijn Jacobs, who was a member of the surgeons' guild of Amsterdam, treated patients. Records in the archives indicate that her treatments went beyond those of a traditional midwife or herbalist and that she performed surgery for leg and uterine injuries.
References [ edit ]
Citations [ edit ]Madly in love✨@madkool13 @johnrisner ⛪️#madaboutisner #truelove #happy #godmom #perfect #wedding #weekend A post shared by FancyNCR (@fancyncr) on Dec 3, 2017 at 4:31pm PST
It was a good weekend for John Isner. His alma mater, the University of Georgia Bulldogs, won the SEC Championship and he married longtime girlfriend Madison McKinley in a country themed wedding in South Carolina.
Isner proposed to McKinley, a jewelry designer, in June and just six months later the two have tied the knot.
6/25/17. A day we will never forget. Bring on the next chapter. #ForeverAndEver A post shared by John Isner (@johnrisner) on Jun 26, 2017 at 1:03pm PDT
The wedding took place in Montage Palmetto Bluff, S.C. and plenty of past and present American players joined the happy couple to celebrate.
Steve Johnson and Sam Querrey channeled their inner cowboys for the special occasion:
Los Angeles Cowboys #madaboutisner @samquerrey A post shared by Steve Johnson (@steviej345) on Dec 1, 2017 at 2:57pm PST
Querrey attended the ceremony with his girlfriend:
Gone country #madaboutisner A post shared by Abby (@abbykdixon) on Dec 1, 2017 at 3:22pm PST
Johnson brought along his fiancé:
????????????#madaboutisner @kendallmb A post shared by Steve Johnson (@steviej345) on Dec 2, 2017 at 4:00pm PST
Tennis Channel's Justin Gimelstob and James Blake were also on the guest list:
Breathtaking weekend celebrating @johnrisner @madkool13 #madaboutisner Congrats to the beautiful bride and groom! A post shared by Justin Gimelstob (@justingimelstob) on Dec 3, 2017 at 5:08am PST
Such a magical weekend celebrating @madkool13 and @johnrisner. Couldn’t be happier for these guys and have the opportunity to hang with amazing friends @rilesblake @esnides #madaboutisner A post shared by Sarah Cordial (@burls72) on Dec 3, 2017 at 12:08pm PST
As was Maria Sharapova's hitting partner Alex Kuznetsov and American Tim Smyczek:
Nothing like a Southern wedding celebrating #MadAboutIsner???? #bikerides #golf #love A post shared by Mrs.Kuznetsov (@lookoflo) on Dec 3, 2017 at 12:20pm PST
It may be a short honeymoon though for the world No. 17-ranked Isner as the 2018 season begins in nearly four weeks, making sneaking in an offseason wedding another part of a pro player’s skill set.Nitish Kumar has said that the sale of rasgullas have risen since the ban on liquor in Bihar
Counting virtues of prohibition, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today said sale of "Rasgulla" has increased by 16.25 per cent in past seven months since ban on alcohol in the state."Sale of Rasgulla has increased by 16.25 per cent in the past seven months since prohibition came into effect in Bihar," Mr Kumar said addressing a Chetna sabha as part of his "Nishchaya yatra" here in Bihar's East Champaran district.In addition, sale of healthy foods like Peda, paneer and Dahi Matha (product of curd) has also risen since ban on liquor was clamped in Bihar in April, he said.Yesterday, the Chief Minister had reeled figure of hike in sale of milk in the wake of prohibition by 11 per cent.Mr Kumar was addressing a rally here on his second stop of Nishchay yatra that started yesterday from Bettiah to take feedback from people on prohibition as well as on "seven resolves" which has been adopted by the government as "policy of governance" for next five years."Seven resolves" include civic amenities like drinking water, toilet, roads and electricity for every household.Mr Kumar read figures to claim a substantial drop in crime rate after banning liquor, spiced and domestic as well as Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) in the past seven months.With Chief Secretary Anjani Kumar Singh and state police chief P K Thakur present on the dias, Mr Kumar claimed that heinous crimes have seen a slide.Murder cases have dropped by 36 per cent in between April 1 to October 31, this year as compared to during same period in 2015, he said.Likewise, dacoity decreased by 25 per cent, riots by 40 per cent, kidnapping for ransom by 56 per cent and road accidents by 21 per cent, Nitish Kumar, who has taken the task of prohibition in a mission mode, said dwelling on impacts of liquor ban.Nitish Kumar, who is also JD(U) chief, took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying the election promise (of bringing back black money and providing Rs 15 lakh out of it to every citizens) was not fullfilled and instead declared as "jumla" (euphism).But, unlike those "hollow" promises his government has effected prohibition and started works on seven resolves of providing electricity, road, toilet, drinking water and sewage among others to every household before completion of one year of grand secular alliance government.With Agriculture minister Ram Vichar Rai of RJD and Congress minister Madan Mohan Jha with him, Nitish Kumar slammed the Centre for permiting trial of GM Mustard and said Bihar would not allow genetically modified mustard in any case. He also hit out at rival BJP for protesting his "Nishchay yatra" with an aim to find publicity in media.With just over a day to go before the evacuation deadline arrives at North Dakota's Oceti Sakowin camp, protesters at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation have issued a plea: Come help — now.
In a viral video shared by social justice journalist Shaun King on Monday, a group of indigenous women remind viewers that demonstrations against the Dakota Access pipeline are about much more than a single issue. They're about clean water, police brutality, treaty rights and the rights of future generations.
"In the history of colonization, they've always given us two options: Give up our land or go to jail. Give up our rights or go to jail," one woman says in the video. "And now, give up our water or go to jail. We are not criminals."
URGENT. My friends in Standing Rock just sent this to me & asked me to share it. They are surrounded by militarized police RIGHT NOW. https://t.co/plR0Tfaagc
Monthslong demonstrations at Standing Rock are scheduled to end Wednesday; the United States Army Corps of Engineers and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum have issued an evacuation order for the morning of Feb. 22, according to the official website for the Oceti Sakowin camp.
Peaceful protesters gathered there seemed to score a victory in early December, when the Army Corps of Engineers denied a permit that would have allowed construction of the Dakota Access pipeline to continue along its previously planned route, under Lake Oahe. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe opposed the pipeline on the grounds that it threatened ancient tribal lands and could pollute a crucial water source, the Missouri River.
Scott Olson/Getty Images Fireworks over Oceti Sakowin on Dec. 4, 2016 as demonstrators celebrate the decision to effectively halt construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Yet the companies funding DAPL construction, Energy Transfer Partners and Sunoco Logistics Partners, immediately vowed they would not back down. Many Standing Rock demonstrators, meanwhile, were skeptical of the decision to halt the project and decided to stay, even as blizzards battered Oceti Sakowin camp.
The skepticism was warranted: Within his first week in office, President Donald Trump — formerly a shareholder in Energy Transfer Partners — signed two executive orders enabling resumed construction of both DAPL and the Keystone XL pipeline. According to King's tweet, protesters are currently "surrounded by militarized police" who will enter the camp Wednesday and evacuate protesters.
The women in the video urge supporters to come stand with Standing Rock, and fast.
"They've been trying to take us down for hundreds of years," one woman says. "They can keep trying, and we're still going to be here, and we need help. There aren't many of us left."A man convicted of murdering a 39-year-old construction worker at a Kroger on Ponce de Leon Avenue will spend the rest of his life in jail.
Damarius Thompson got two life sentences with no parole for the 2015 murder of Joshua Richey, according to Channel 2 Action News. Thompson got 40 years for other charges.
Shontavious Chestnut, Thompson’s accomplice, was also found guilty. His sentence was not released.
The two men were charged with four counts of felony murder in the case and other charges, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported.
Thompson represented himself in the trial, lashing out at cops, the prosecutor and the woman who turned him over to authorities, Channel 2 reported.
“An addict will do anything when they need a hit,” Thompson said of the woman who turned him. “She heard $25,000.”
Prosecutor Bruce Dutcher said Thompson didn’t stand a chance in convincing the jury of his innocence.
“The fact that he’s representing himself doesn’t’ mean he gets cut any slack,” Dutcher told Channel 2.
Richey, a father of four from Alabama, was just finishing a job near the Kroger on Ponce de Leon Avenue last March when he saw two men trying to break into his car.
The two men were accused of shooting Richey while trying to stop them from breaking into his car.
Police say Thompson shot Richey through the vehicle and escaped in a car driven by Chestnut.
Richey’s co-worker, Jason Shelton, was working near the Kroger with Richey at the time of the shooting. He chased down the getaway car for a possible tag, but was unable to get one.
Shelton then called 911 and tried to perform CPR on him until help arrived.
“I’m relieved,” Shelton told Channel 2. “I’m glad it’s over with. We can move on. It’s been awful.”
Richey’s widow told the news station she believed justice was served.
“They took away not only my husband but my best friend,” she told the news station. “My soul mate and father to my daughter.”
Richey’s employer, RGWilliams Construction, set up an account for his family at the time of his death. Kroger’s Atlanta Division also set up a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in Richey’s murder.
Thompson and Chestnut had previous arrest records and theft charges. Thompson had served in state prison twice and was released in January 2014 after serving 17 months for terroristic threats and acts. Chestnut was arrested for probation violation in June 2014.
The shooting happened at the Kroger on Ponce de Leon, nicknamed “Murder Kroger” for frequent crimes at that location.Get the biggest daily news stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
There is no shortage of 'fat shaming' tales cropping up on dating sites - but one new app plans to change all that because it's for plus-size women only.
WooPlus was dreamed up to offer a safe dating space for women, similar to Tinder and others, but without what they call the "fat shaming fools".
Launched to help "BBW (big beautiful women), BHM (big handsome men), plus-size singles and fat admirers" to find their big matches, it's keen to offer dating opportunities in a non-discriminating environment.
Read more:
And as well as helping them find love, WooPlus says, it's tackling a sensitive social stigma that has created the marginalization of people with atypical bodies.
(Image: Woohoo)
Based in San Francisco, California, the CEO of WooPlus, Neil Raman explained: "The unfortunate reality is that the current dating environment is very cruel to bigger girls.
"My sister experienced this herself. It was very painful and unfair. I decided to solve this problem and create an app just for big girls."
(Image: Woohoo)
WooPlus works like Tinder, with members able to 'pass' or 'like' others anonymously.
Their website explains : "We are committed to proving that human beings are a lot more than their size. And we do so by helping plus size singles have a shot at finding the right kind of companionship.
(Image: Woohoo)
"So, all you big girls and big guys tired of rejection, WooPlus app offers you a chance to find compatible partners you can befriend, date, have long-term relationships with or even marry."
The app has a specific policy against fat shamers, with permanent bans on anyone who makes disparaging comments on another member’s appearance.
(Image: Woohoo)
The app also offers Instagram-like features that enable members to share their life moments, presenting another opportunity to get to know one another.Roma in the Red Sludge
DEVECSER, Hungary – It was just past noon, last Oct. 4, when Karoly Horvath returned home from fishing a local lake, here in provincial western Hungary. His wife and 12-year-old daughter were home to greet him, too – just as the waves of red sludge crashed through the door and windows.
Within seconds, the toxic mud was above their waist, burning the skin. Unable to move, Karoly could only watch mother and child screaming in agony.
“It was the most awful thing,” says Karoly, 38. “As a husband and father, stuck in that red sludge, seeing that happen to them before my eyes, but being so helpless to do something about it.”
His wife, Eva, was hospitalized with burns across 70 percent of her body. At least she survived: ten were killed in what instantly became Hungary’s deadliest industrial accident ever. Greenpeace went so far as to call it one of Europe’s worst ecological disasters “in the past 20 or 30 years.”
For Hungary, the rupture of a Communist-era reservoir of aluminum waste was one part Chernobyl, one part Pompeii. In Devecser, it poured trauma upon trauma for a people already battered by years of economic hardship and political hatred.
Today, though, amid the gloom is a glimmer of hope: scores of hapless victims have discovered a rare source of empowerment – the courts – to pursue compensation from the wealthy, well-connected owners of the aluminum company. This reveals a surprising appreciation for the rule of law in a country often painted as fed up with its harsh brand of democracy, two decades into the post-Communist transition.
On the flip side, though, a new strain of Hungarian resentment has recently bubbled up: at the Roma living among them, known more derogatorily here as ciganyok, or “gypsies.” The venom illuminates how embittered Hungarians have grown, especially toward Europe’s most marginalized minority.
Observers may view the Horvath family as victims. But because they’re Roma, some Hungarians harbor doubts. The mantra around Devecser is, “For many, this wasn’t a red sludge, but a golden sludge.” The government is replacing all the homes destroyed – some 300 – which it’s now doing with tasteful, modern new housing that could almost pass for a cookie-cutter American suburb. The way Devecserians describe it, though, even their good-for-nothing Roma will soon have a new home.
Before the tsunami of waste hit, notes the Devecser mayor, quite a few ciganyok lived in “rat holes.” One local farmer, who lost his crops and prime soil to the sludge, suggests the Roma “would be happy to be hit by another red sludge next week.” Another man in town, who saw his newly refurbished home swallowed, claims the Roma unaffected by the flood “wish their homes had been hit.”
Horvath scoffs at the notion.
“Anyone calling it ‘golden sludge,’ I’d be happy to change places with them,” he says. “Let them stand in it three-four hours and experience the same pain. We’ll have scars the rest of our lives. People already see our brown skin; now they’ll see spots and think we have an exotic disease, too.”
This is the mindset of anti-Roma racism in Central Europe, writ small.
In Hungary, the far-right Jobbik party has exploited high unemployment and anti-government rage to crusade against cigánybűnözés – “gypsy criminality.” The blood libel has proven effective: in April 2010, Jobbik scored a startling 16.7 percent in parliamentary elections. Yet the sentiment stretches well beyond Jobbik supporters, as many Hungarians seize on the petty crimes of the few to pin collective guilt on the whole. Even with the reported killing of seven Roma in recent years – in one of the European Union’s newest members – it’s not hard to find Hungarians obsessing over cigánybűnözés.
Delving deeper, Hungary, for centuries a European powerhouse, now endures the humiliation of plummeting from regional front-runner to naughty laggard. The population of 10 million has been besieged by economic crisis, lies and corruption at the highest levels, and one of the most noxious political climates in Europe. Thus, they muster no sympathy for the Roma and their widespread poverty – though it’s widely known that when the post-Communist Hungary first whacked away at its bloated, decrepit industry, Roma were purged straight away. Then, when new “free-market” enterprises emerged, they wouldn’t employ Roma. As their defenders say, “First ones fired, last ones hired.”
In places like Heves County, where joblessness among adults aged 25 to 40 may run as high as 50 percent, miserable Hungarians and Roma chase the same scraps. Couple that with the common perception of Roma as petty criminals, forever pinching fruit and vegetable from the neighbor’s garden, while sponging welfare. Either that, or part of some cunning “mafia” – say, the scrap-metal business.
All of this seeds the earth for an outpouring of hate speech and political extremism. A 2010 study by a Budapest-based thinktank, Political Capital, has suggested that while hard-right attitudes have declined in places like Poland, they doubled in Hungary: from 10 percent in 2003 to 21 percent in 2009. During that span, the sense that “everything and everyone is bad” shot up from 12 to 46 percent.
Unable to wring the necks of their elites, ordinary Hungarians vent their impotence at the Roma, who are, at least, beneath them on society’s bottom rung. Freud might have diagnosed a psychosis that mirrors the parent who beats a child, who in turn kicks the dog. Aggression as a mode of survival.
Devecser, then, serves as microcosm. It was like any other Hungarian town in Veszprem County before the great wave struck, a valley with deep agricultural traditions, in recent years wounded by crumbling job prospects. Locals also nursed antipathy for the Roma concentrated near the town center. That downtown is also home to what is known as a “black” high school – meaning, “white” Hungarians send their kids to school in larger cities nearby. Left behind, the Romanies are effectively segregated.
So deep is the resentment, it takes no prompting for some Hungarians to volunteer hair-raising comments about Roma. When a foreign journalist asks at the cake shop what the local specialties are, a friendly Hungarian customer answers “fried Gypsy.” Jokingly. Or what he thinks is a joke.
At the Devecser town hall, Mayor Tamas Toldi patiently describes in great detail how the red sludge decimated Devecser. Then, his ambitious vision to resuscitate Devecser and its environs, especially by attracting Western industry and energy-crop agriculture.
An imported tree form, known here as “summer energy,” can be sold, burned as fuel, and is some of the only stuff to grow on this contaminated ground. Mayor Toldi and others banned all food agriculture for the next 10 years, to conduct enough tests, protect health and prove the area safe.
The “golden sludge” reference to Roma has come up so often, the question must be put to Toldi. To which the mayor responds, “I can confidently say, what happened to some was clearly in their interest.”
Toldi says he’d like to create local training centers, where young Roma and others can learn practical vocations, like how to become a carpenter, locksmith or mechanic. He then explains another fresh idea, which he says is aimed at ethnic integration. Most of the new homes will be finished in August, then ready for inhabitation. Will Roma soon live cheek-by-jowl with the local Hungarians? Or will another form of segregation unfold? It’s yet unclear, though Toldi says he prepping some Roma.
“What I’m telling them is, ‘If you come here with needs, then we’ll have our expectations: You have to greet your neighbor, you have to be polite, you have to act according to certain family values and have kids only if you can raise them,’” he says. “They have to fit into their new neighborhood.”
“We understand they have certain disadvantages, but we’re trying to inspire and push them in certain directions so their children receive a proper education and have fewer of these disadvantages.”
Karoly Horvath – and many Roma and non-Roma alike – have greater expectations of their own. Not just a new home, but restitution for property lost. Or for property dramatically devalued. When the government announced that any victim who hoped for compensation from the aluminum company, MAL, would have to do it on their own, many took action.
One local lawyer, Akos Nemeth, says he “felt my birthplace could disappear from the map, so I had the urge to do something.” Nemeth, 33, now represents more than 130 sludge-related cases, roughly one-third involve Roma like the Horvaths. Much has changed for the better, he concedes, from the old authoritarian days when no one would have dared stand up to the system. Today, Hungary sees extremes: some paralyzed by the old mindset versus those now Western-influenced and highly litigious.
“There are still many, like my parents, who dress nicely, go politely to the lawyer’s office to fill out papers, but that’s enough,” says Nemeth. “There are also those who’d sue somebody for 1 forint.” Regarding the red sludge, though, “It’s really good to see people take legal steps to protect themselves.”
Karoly Horvath is suing not only for land and property lost, but for the 25 years’ worth of fishing gear he accumulated: angling was one way he put food on the table each week. That, and working the local flea market, renowned among Hungarians even in the capital, Budapest, for its used bicycles.
Minimally, says Horvath, he wants “someone to stand in front of us, look into our eyes, and say sorry for the 57 days that we had to take painkillers six times a day, and got only one hour of sleep.”
He praises Nemeth as a fellow Devecserian willing to work for free – only the judge will determine his cut in any settlement.
“He fights like a lion, regardless of the color skin of his client,” says Horvath. “He knows that if someone harms me, we’re entitled to the same rights as everyone else.”
Nemeth agrees.
“Even a squirrel has rights,” he says with a smile. “But those rights must be defended.”Text Description: This comic on climate change shows a world where sea levels have risen and gangs of divers are rumored to eat people after mugging them. A man and woman risk venturing out for eight minutes to watch the sunset, even more beautiful in the submerged city.
♦
An Interview with Mohamed Salah and Elisabeth Jaquette
Why create comics? What drew you to the form?
Mohamed Salah: Comics only seemed logical. The medium encompasses both my lifelong obsessions; storytelling and drawing, working together in space rather than time like most visual narrative art forms. It just works perfectly for my intentions.
And what inspired you to specifically create a comic addressing climate change?
MS: The piece was made for an exhibition addressing the subject. A collaboration between the Swedish institute in Alexandria, and Mazg foundation who work closely with Egyptian comic book artists. Formulating possibilities stemming from the subject matter, and tampering with the outcome seemed appealing.
In writing and illustrating “8 Minutes,” were you influenced by anything or anyone in particular? Specific places, media, or events, for instance?
During the past couple of years the coastal city of Alexandria has been facing an acute “infrastructure failure” crisis every rain season. The progression of the crisis and how people just adapted to its consequences, along with all the lightheartedness that came along was my main inspiration. You need to check out the photos for yourself; in a few years “8 Minutes” won’t seem that fictional.
How did you become involved in this work as its translator?
Elisabeth Jaquette: I came across Salah’s comic on Twitter, when it won the Swedish Institute Alexandria’s “Facing the Climate” art competition in November last year, and an Egyptian cartoonist I follow retweeted it. Twitter has been a great way to stay plugged into the Arabic literary and comics scene now that I’m not living in Egypt anymore. 8 Minutes’ struck me for the juxtaposition of its poetic language with its graphic style, and for how effectively the reader is immersed in this future world through a single page. So I reached out to Salah to ask if I could translate it.
Were you a fan of comics before you became involved in this project?
EJ: Absolutely. I got into graphic novels before I got into comics, which is a bit of an inverse trajectory compared to that of many fans. The comics scene in the Middle East has become much more vibrant in the past several years, in Egypt in particular, with the creation of many new collective publications, festivals, and awards. I was a comics fan long before I became a translator, and so I’m always on the lookout for work to translate–a few others I’ve done are The Apartment in Bab el-Louk, “The Dump,” and “Stop Shehata.” Oum Cartoon, by the way, is an excellent resource for anyone interested in following the Arabic comics scene, and Ganzeer’s The Solar Grid (written in English) is the comic I’m most pumped for at the moment.
Is there a specific type of work that speaks to you as a translator? What projects are you passionate about taking on?
EJ: I find myself drawn to different kinds of texts for different reasons. Those reasons often coalesce around texts that have a compelling voice, or which open themselves up to a social justice reading, and I’m all the more excited when I find both of those elements together, as was the case in “8 Minutes,” as well as in The Queue, for example. I also actively seek out work by women writers, who are traditionally underrepresented in translation.
What are you working on next?
MS: Right now I’m working on two sets of stories. The first is a chronicle dissection of local vocational life, the other deals with myth and its reflection on Egyptian daily life. I also have an ongoing digital project informally documenting this ongoing Egyptian decade.
EJ: Next up is the full translation of The Apartment in Bab el-Louk, which will be out in print with Darf Publishers next year. It follows the reflections of a recluse in downtown Cairo, is atmospheric and strange, and is the type of work that doesn’t fit easy genre definitions. I’ve also just started translating The Frightened, a debut novel by Dima Wannous, a young Syrian writer, which I’m very excited to bring into English.Down by three at the half, |
opening titles. In the end, the only word that appeared on the screen as Scott Blanchet said “some have even gone so far as to call [bleep]” was “bullsh*t.”
The day of the launch, Panariello flew to California to experience the release of the video alongside the client. That morning, there had been a brief outage on YouTube, but by the time he got to Toyota’s offices, things were humming along. The homepage of Forbes.com was set to be taken over by a banner advertisement, and while there was the dreaded pre-roll, Panariello had prevailed over the PR firm to give an exclusive on the video to Mashable. Somehow, a handful of new media outlets had even managed to make the connection between the video and that comment Musk had made in that old video.
And as for the disagreement with Toyota, there was no sense in dwelling on disappointments. Panariello had moved on to other projects, like the account for Scion, Toyota’s youth brand. “It’s one of those things where you are in the thick of it so much the smallest change is like someone asking you to remove your eyebrows,” he said. “Like you can’t possibly live another day. But then you look back and you’re like, ‘Oh, I look okay without eyebrows. I’m still hot.’ ”
*This article appears in the May 4, 2015 issue of New York Magazine.636 SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard
At a time when conservative Christianity seems to have hit an all-time low in America, evangelist Billy Graham is thinking that not only is it time for a religious revival, but as Troy Anderson revealed over at World Net Daily yesterday, “In nearly a dozen interviews with WND, prominent national faith leaders, pollsters and others said they are witnessing what appear to be early signs of a spiritual awakening.”
Um…yeah…about that:
Just 7 percent of Americans are Evangelicals, though up to 25 percent may belong to evangelical denominations;
43 percent of children raised as evangelicals stop going to church when they become adults
Pew Forum revealed in 2011 that “U.S. evangelical leaders are especially downbeat about the prospects for evangelical Christianity in their society; 82% say evangelicals are losing influence in the United States today, while only 17% think evangelicals are gaining influence.”
A year later (2012) Pew Forum revealed that Nones were on the rise, that “One-fifth of the U.S. public – and a third of adults under 30 – are religiously unaffiliated today, the highest percentages ever in Pew Research Center polling.”
“In the last five years alone, the unaffiliated have increased from just over 15% to just under 20% of all U.S. adults,” Pew Forum reported in 2012.
13 million Americans (6 percent of the population) said in 2012 that they are atheists or agnostics, reported Pew Forum.
33 million people (14 percent of the population) said in 2012 that they “have no particular religious affiliation,” reported Pew Forum.
20 percent of Americans in 2013 do not consider themselves part of any particular church, according to Sociologists from the University of California, Berkeley, and Duke University reported HuffPo.
“[T]hree out of every five young Christians (59%) disconnect either permanently or for an extended period of time from church life after age 15,” reports Barna Group.
Why are people losing their religion?
Apparently, kids and young adults are tired of all the hating. According to the Barna Group: “One-quarter of 18- to 29-year-olds said “Christians demonize everything outside of the church” (23% indicated this “completely” or “mostly” describes their experience).
Young adults have a problem with the Church’s anti-science attitudes: “Christians are too confident they know all the answers” (35%). Three out of ten young adults with a Christian background feel that “churches are out of step with the scientific world we live in” (29%).
And then there is the exclusive nature of conservative Christianity: “One-fifth of young adults with a Christian background said “church is like a country club, only for insiders” (22%).” What’s funny is that this “insiders group” insists that whether we join or not, we have to obey their rules.
Bob Russell wrote earlier this year about proper responses to a survey that showed, “Among millennials (those under 34 years of age) only 17% could be classified as religious conservatives, 23 % as liberals and 22% nonreligious.”
As Russell observed, “America’s religious views are becoming more liberal.”
He asked, what should we do?
The answer for some is to hope for the end times, like Billy Graham:
In an exclusive interview with WND exploring the reasons behind My Hope America, Graham explained he believes the world is coming to the “end of the age, not the end of the world or the earth but the end of the age – the period that God has set aside for this particular time.” “There’s a great deal to say in the Bible about the signs we’re to watch for and when these signs all converge at one place we can be sure that we’re close to the end of the age,” Graham said. “And those signs in my judgment are converging now for the first time since Jesus made those predictions.”
So, apparently, does wishful thinking:
Banning Liebscher, director of Jesus Culture, an international Christian revivalist youth outreach ministry based out of Bethel Church in Redding, Calif., said he’s now seeing what he believes are the initial signs of a spiritual awakening among a segment of today’s youth, too. “It may be in seed form,” Liebscher said. “It may not be a full, mature awakening, but it’s happening. In every city we go to, there are thousands of young people who come out whose hearts are awakened to the love of Jesus and the power of God. I would say absolutely an awakening is happening.”
Oh if I had a dollar for every time Christians thought Jesus was coming back.I could have retired centuries ago. The years 1000 and 2000 are far from the only “certain” dates in history. These folks have been waiting with baited breath for 2,000 years, even though Jesus said the event would take place in his own life-time and Paul of Tarsus said the same thing.
This obsession with the end-times is a real head-scratcher. Here we have a perfectly good planet (a little damaged, sure) and lives here on this world – right now – but these people can think of nothing else but some ephemeral existence that can’t be proven to exist.
I’m not pooh-poohing afterlifes – Heathenism (Ásatrú) has its own belief in the afterlife – but it seems from the data – and the evidence of my own eyes – that young people are more interested in the real world than in heaven or in a “Kingdom of God” on earth.
These people are tired of the negativity and the exclusion. They are tired of the culture wars that demonize their friends and family. They are tired of hate. They want to live their lives. They want to enjoy it.
Is it any wonder that religious people are more depressed than other folks? Ask any former fundamentalist and they will tell you. I was raised a Lutheran and that was my experience too. I felt a cloud had lifted from over my head when I left the Church. The doom and gloom, the sin and the guilt over every little thought is soul-devouring.
People don’t want their souls devoured. People want to live their lives. They want to actually enjoy them with friends and family they are instructed to demonize.
It is no surprise, given all of the above, that fundamentalists feel the U.S. is ripe for a religious revival.
That doesn’t mean it’s going to happen.
If you’re ready to read more from the unbossed and unbought Politicus team, sign up for our newsletter here! Email address: Leave this field empty if you're human:Indian reserve in Quebec, Canada
The Kahnawake Mohawk Territory (French: Territoire Mohawk de Kahnawake, pronounced [ɡahnaˈwaːɡe] in Mohawk, Kahnawáˀkye[5] in Tuscarora) is a First Nations reserve of the Mohawks of Kahnawá:ke on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, Canada, across from Montreal. Recorded by French Canadians in 1719 as a Jesuit mission, it has also been known as Seigneury Sault du St. Louis, Caughnawaga and 17 European spelling variations of the Mohawk Kahnawake.
Kahnawake's territory totals an area of 48.05 square kilometres (18.55 square miles). Its resident population numbers about 8,000, with a significant number living off the territory. Its land base today is unevenly distributed due to federal Indian Act law that oversees individual land possession. This is unlike the Canadian norms that apply to the land around it. Kahnawake residents originally spoke their Mohawk language, and some learned French when under French rule. Together with the main Mohawk bands, they allied with the British government during the American Revolutionary War and the Lower Canada Rebellion. They have since become mostly English speaking.
Although people of European descent traditionally refer to the residents of Kahnawake as Mohawk, their autonym is Kanien’kehá:ka (the "People of the Flint"). Another meaning is "those who speak [the language] Kanienka"). The Kanien’kehá:ka were historically the most easterly nation of the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy) and are known as the "Keepers of the Eastern Door". They controlled territory on both sides of the Mohawk River and west of the Hudson River in present-day New York, where they protected other parts of the confederacy to the west against invasion by tribes from present-day New England and the coastal areas.
Kahnawake is one of several Kanien’kehá:ka territories of the Mohawk Nation within the borders of Canada, including Kanesatake on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River northwest of Montreal; Tyendinaga in Ontario, Akwesasne, which straddles the borders of Quebec, Ontario and New York across the St. Lawrence River; and the Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation north of Lake Erie. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the community was historically considered by the British as one of the Seven Nations of Canada.
The name is derived from the Mohawk word kahnawà:ke, meaning "place of the rapids", referring to their major village Caughnawaga near the rapids of the Mohawk River in what is today central New York. When converted Catholic Mohawk moved to the Montreal area, they named the new settlement after their former one.[6] The obvious proximity of the Lachine Rapids also influenced their naming decision.
Location [ edit ]
Kahnawake is located at the southwest shore where the St. Lawrence River narrows. The territory is described in the native language as "on, or by the rapids" (of the Saint Lawrence River) (in French, it was originally called Sault du St. Louis, also related to the rapids). This term refers to the people's village that was along the natural rapids of the old river, before the construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway canal.
The French colony of New France used Kahnawake as part of a southwestern defence for Ville-Marie (later Montreal) and placed a military garrison there. The Jesuits founded a mission to administer to local Mohawk and other First Nations. This became a base for their missionary priests who were sent to the west. Jesuit records give a settlement date of 1719.
Historical land claim [ edit ]
Kahnawake was created in what was known as the Seigneurie du Sault-Saint-Louis, a 40,320-acre (163.2 km2) territory which the French Crown granted in 1680 to the Jesuits to "protect" and "nurture" Mohawks newly converted to Catholicism.[7] At the time of granting the seigneury, the government intended the territory to be closed to European settlement. Because the Jesuits assumed rights as seigneurs of the Sault, they permitted French and other European colonists to settle there and collected their rents.[8]
The Jesuits managed the seigneury until April 1762, after the Seven Years' War and the British assumption of rule in New France. The new governor Thomas Gage ordered the reserve to be entirely and exclusively vested in the Mohawk, under the Supervision of the Indian Department.[9]
Despite repeated complaints by the Mohawk, many government agents continued land and rent mismanagement and allowed non-Native encroachment. Surveyors were found to have modified some old maps at the expense of the Kahnawake people. Moreover, from the late 1880s until the 1950s, the Mohawk were required by the government to make numerous land cessions to railway, hydro-electric, and telephone companies for major industrial projects along the river.
As a result, Kahnawake today has only 13,000 acres (53 km2). In the late twentieth century, the Mohawk Nation was pursuing land claims to regain lost land. The modern claim touches the municipalities of Saint-Constant, Sainte-Catherine, Saint-Mathieu, Delson, Candiac and Saint-Philippe. Led by the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake and Kahnawake's Inter-governmental Relations Team, the community has filed claims with the government of Canada. It is seeking monetary compensation and symbolic recognition of its claim.[10]
Historic photo of Kahnawake, ca. 1860
Multi-cultural community [ edit ]
The complex history of Kahnawake has included a variety of indigenous peoples, although the Mohawk became by far the majority. They had a practice of adopting captives into the tribe, mostly young women and children taken in raids. They made them full members, including Europeans. The Mohawk had a matrilineal kinship system, with children considered born into the clan of the mother and deriving their status from her family. During the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, there was extensive raiding between the English and British, and French along the northern border, with each side aided by Native American allies. European communities often raised ransoms to regain their captives, but some were kept by native communities. For instance, more than 100 captives were taken from Deerfield, Massachusetts to Montreal and Kahnawake in 1704. The minister of Deerfield was ransomed, but his young daughter was kept by the Mohawk, ultimately marrying into the tribe, having children and choosing to stay with her new family.[11]
In addition, there was some European settlement after the reserve land was "donated" by the French Crown in the mid-17th century, and the French government stationed French colonial troops there (who formed liaisons with local women and had children by them). Shopkeepers also formed families, and through the 18th century, many marriages occurred between European men and Indian women. Mixed-race children born to Mohawk mothers were readily assimilated into the mother's family and the nation.[12]
As a result, many Kahnawake people are of mixed ethnicity, of Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, French, English, Anglo-American, Scots and Irish descent but identifying as Mohawk.[12] By the 1790s and early 19th century, visitors often described the "great mixture of blood" at Kahnawake. They noted that many children who appeared to be of European ancestry were being brought up culturally as Mohawk.[13] At times there has been more tension about the relations of full-blood and mixed-race members of the tribe, both in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In other areas of Canada, particularly the Red River region in the west, Métis descendants of European trappers and indigenous women, gradually developed what has become a separate, recognized ethnic group, based on a distinct hunting and trading culture.
Surnames such as Beauvais, D'Ailleboust, de La Ronde Thibaudière, Delisle, de Lorimier, Giasson, Johnson, Mailloux, McComber, McGregor, Montour, Phillips, Rice, Stacey, Tarbell, and Williams among Kahnawake families represent the historic mixture of ancestries through tribal members' adoption of and intermarriage with non-Natives. The Tarbell ancestors, for instance, were John and Zachary, brothers captured as young children from Groton, Massachusetts in 1707 during Queen Anne's War and taken to Canada. Adopted by Mohawk families in Kahnawake, the boys became assimilated: they were baptized as Catholic, learned the Mohawk ways and were given Mohawk names, married women who were daughters of chiefs, reared children with them, and became chiefs themselves.[11]:186, 224[14]
Historic sources document the sometimes strained relations between Mohawk and ethnic Europeans at Kahnawake, usually over property and the competition for limited resources. In 1722, community residents objected to the garrison of French soldiers because they feared it would cause "horrible discord" and showed the French did not trust the locals. In the mid-1720s, the community evicted the Desaulnier sisters, traders who were garnering profits formerly earned by members of Kahnawake. In 1771, twenty-two Mohawk pressed British officials to help them prevent two local families from bringing French families to settle "on lands reserved for their common use". In 1812, many were opposed to specific types of "mixed" marriages. In 1822, agent Nicolas Doucet reported that the community was growing frustrated by marriages in which white husbands acquired rights over the lives and properties of their Iroquois wives according to British Canadian laws, especially as the Iroquois culture was matrilineal, with descent and property invested in the maternal line.[15]
Abuse of alcohol was a continuing problem. In 1828, the village expelled white traders who were "poisoning" the Iroquois "with rum and spirituous liquors". Tensions rose at the time of the 1837-38 Lower Canada Rebellion. The Mohawk had suffered incursions on their land, including non-Natives' taking valuable firewood. The Kahnawake cooperated with the British Crown against the Patriotes, largely over the issue of preserving their land and expressing their collective identity. Before and after the Rebellions, the community was fiercely divided regarding the rights of mixed-race residents, such as Antoine-George de Lorimier (the son of Claude-Nicolas-Guillaume de Lorimier), and whether he should be evicted. Although his mother was Mohawk and native to Kahnawake, because of his father's and his own connections to the European community, George de Lorimier became a controversial figure in Kahnawake, even after his death in 1863.[15]
Claude-Nicolas-Guillaume de Lorimier (Major de Lorimier), sketch, c. 1810.
Charles-Gédéon Giasson & Agathe McComber
An article on European-Mohawk conflict from the Montreal Star, 1907
In the 1870s and 1880s, land and resource pressures renewed local concern about ethnic Europeans living at Kahnawake. In addition, the national government's passage of legislation, from enfranchisement to the Indian Advancement Act of 1884, which prohibited traditional chiefs and required Canadian-style elections, split the community and added to tensions. Some young Mohawk men wanted a chance to advance independently to being chiefs; other people wanted to keep the traditional, hereditary seven life chiefs selected from the seven clans.[16]
The inequalities in landownership among Kahnawake residents led to resentment of the wealthy. For instance, in 1884, the mixed-race sons of the late George de Lorimier were the largest and wealthiest landowners in the community. Some Kahnawake residents questioned whether people who were not full-blood Mohawk should be allowed to own so much land. The Mohawk Council asked members of the Giasson, Deblois, Meloche, Lafleur, Plante and de Lorimier families to leave, as all were of partial European ancestry. Some, like the de Lorimier brothers, gradually sold their properties and pursued their lives elsewhere. Others, such as Charles Gédéon Giasson, were finally given permanent status at the reserve.[17]
Because the Indian Department did not provide adequate support to the reserve, the community continued to struggle financially. At one point, the Kahnawake chiefs suggested selling the reserve to raise money for annuities for the tribe. Social unrest increased, with young men attacking houses, barns and farm animals of people they resented. In May 1878 an arson fire killed Osias Meloche, the husband of Charlotte-Louise Giasson (daughter of Charles Gédéon Giasson, noted above), and their home and barn were destroyed. Under the Walbank Survey, the national government surveyed and subdivided the land of the reserve, allotting some plots individually to each head of household eligible to live in Kahnawake. The violence stopped as the new form of privatisation of land was instituted, but antagonism toward some community members did not.[17]
The election of council chiefs began in 1889, but the influence of Kahnawake's shadow government of traditional clan chiefs persisted. This lasted into the 1920s, when the traditional seven-clan system became absorbed in the Longhouse Movement, which was based on three clans. This was strong through the 1940s.[16]
Effects of construction projects in/through community [ edit ]
Historically, the federal and Quebec governments have often located large civil engineering projects benefiting the southern Quebec economy through Kahnawake land because of its proximity to the St. Lawrence River. The reserve is criss-crossed by power lines from hydroelectric plants, railways, and vehicle highways and bridges. One of the first of such projects was the fledgling Canadian Pacific Railway's Saint Lawrence Bridge. The masonry work was done by Reid & Fleming, and the steel superstructure was built by the Dominion Bridge Company. In 1886 and 1887, the new bridge was built across the broad river from Kahnawake to Montreal Island. Kahnawake men worked as bridgemen and ironworkers hundreds of feet above the water and ground.
When the national government decided to pass the Saint Lawrence Seaway canal cut through the village, the people and buildings of Kahnawake were permanently separated from the natural river shore. The loss of land and access to the river, the demolition of houses, and the change in the community's relationship to the river have had profound effects on Kahnawake. The people had been sited there for hundreds of years, and their identities were related to a profound knowledge of the river, from the time they were children through adulthood. One effect of the losses was to make the community determined not to suffer more encroachment. They drew together and became stronger.
Working in New York [ edit ]
The Mohawk success on major high-rise construction projects inspired the legend that Native American men had no fear of working at heights. Numerous Kahnawake men continued as iron and steelworkers in Canada. Thirty-three Kahnawake (Mohawk) died in the collapse of the Quebec Bridge in 1907, one of the worst construction failures of all time.[18] The small community was devastated by the loss of so many men. They erected crosses of steel girders at both ends of the reserve to honor them.[19]
Many Kahnawake ironworkers went to New York City to work during the first half of the 20th century. Its building boom stimulated construction of notable skyscrapers and bridges. For more than a generation, many Kahnawake men participated in building the Empire State Building, and other major skyscrapers in New York City, as well as many bridges. They brought their families with them, and most Mohawk from Kahnawake lived in Brooklyn. They called their neighborhood "Little Caughnawaga" after their homeland. While the men worked on skyscrapers, the women created a strong community for their families. Many also worked outside the home. In the summers, the families would return to Kahnawake to stay with relatives and renew connections. Some of the people who grew up in Brooklyn as children still have the local New York accent, although they have long lived in Kahnawake.[19]
Kahnawake high steel workers in New York were the subject of the 1966 documentary High Steel, as seen through the story of Harold McComber.[20]
Late 20th century to present [ edit ]
The elected Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK) have generally established predominance in governing the reserve. this elected government is the only body with which the Canadian government will deal.[21]
Membership and residency on the reserve:
With continuing late 20th-century conflicts over who could reside at the reserve, the elected chiefs of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK) passed laws regulating membership or eligibility for residence at Kahnawake. In 1981 they passed a law that non-natives could not reside in the community; those Mohawk who marry outside of the nation lose the right to live in the homeland.[22] The MCK said that its policy was to preserve the people's cultural identity. In the 21st century, they did not want non-Natives living at the reserve, even if a person had adopted the Mohawk language or culture.
The policy is based on a 1981 community moratorium on non-Native residency, which Kahnawake enacted into law in 1984.[23] All couples who had a non-Mohawk partner were sent eviction notices regardless of how long they had lived on the reserve.[22] The only exemption was for those of such couples who had married before the 1981 moratorium. Although some concerned Mohawk citizens contested the racially exclusive membership policy, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled that the Mohawk Kahnawake government may adopt policies it deems necessary to ensure the survival of its people.
In February 2010, the issue was renewed when the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake elected to evict 35 non-Natives from the reserve. While the action was legal according to the membership laws, critics believed the council was acting specifically against some individuals. These persons had lived on the reserve for 10 years or more and contributed to the community. The council said they were responding to complaints from residents about limited housing and land being occupied by non-Natives.[24] The eviction resolution, endorsed by all 12 chiefs of the MCK, caused an uproar within and beyond the community, attracting national press attention.
Steve Bonspiel, publisher and editor of Kahnawake newspaper The Eastern Door, said that the issue dated back to 1973. At that time, when non-Native people with no ties in the community were asked to leave, they were harassed and even physically attacked. Bonspiel thought the council's 2010 threat to publish the names of people ineligible to live on the reserve was inappropriate as a means to use public pressure and potentially physical threat against them.[25] Coverage of this issue by the Eastern Door that year resulted in the council reversing their decision.[26] The Federal Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl said there was nothing illegal about the band's eviction of non-members:
"It is important for people to realize that whether I like the decisions or not, these are decisions made by First Nations people on their own land (...) It is not for me to make those decisions, or the Government, and we are not going to be making those decisions."[27]
Ellen Gabriel, the head of Quebec Native Women and a Mohawk resident at Kanesatake, criticized the MCK. She said their actions did not represent the traditional inclusiveness of Mohawk communities, which had historically assimilated adoptees and marriage partners. She criticized the council for interfering in the private lives of persons who had chosen non-Native partners. She noted the Mohawk had long been successful at integrating people within their communities, and have still preserved their language and culture over the centuries.[27]
Some residents who received eviction notices agreed to leave; others proved they spend only limited time in the community, so were permitted as visitors. The council said it would send second notices to people who did not respond, and then would publish their names. The governing band council defended its right to ask non-Natives to leave the small community:
"While the media has had a field day with this story and some have used the word 'racist,' we will, once again, state the issue isn't about anyone's feelings towards non-natives, it is simply an issue of residency and our right to determine who can and cannot live on the 13,000 acres we call home," said Mohawk Chief Michael Delisle Jr.[28]
In September 2014, the council revived the issue of non-Native residents, announcing community meetings for discussion and plans to issue a new regulation. It barred non-Kahnawake residents from the meeting.[29]
Before European contact, the Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee) had a long tradition of justice administered within the clan and council system. The clan would govern the behavior of clan members, and conflict between members of clans would be settled by consensus of the council. Clan mothers as well as chiefs had roles in this system. The goal was to quickly restore peace to the community and control behavior that threatened it. The system was based on the four principles of reason, persuasion, satisfaction and compensation, with both wrongdoer and victim as part of the process. It was intended to achieve "[d]ue compensation and condolence, and a promise of agreement" between the parties.[21]
Many at Kahnawake and other First Nations communities believe their people are not being well served by the Canadian justice system. First Nations people are over-represented in it and in prisons. They believe this is in part due to the imposition of the Canadian justice system on traditional ways, by which the government has tried to assimilate the First Nations into European-based culture. The Canadian government has gradually favored "indigenization" of the system. Kahnawake used section 107 of the Indian Act to nominate community members as justices of the peace, and in 1974 Justice Sharron was appointed as the first justice of the peace at the reserve. Many of the cases have dealt with traffic and parking violations, but her scope is wider, as the JP has jurisdiction over Criminal Code offences related to the following four areas: cruelty to animals, common assault, breaking and entering, and vagrancy. The Kanien’kehá:ka wanted further improvements.[21]
Since 2000, Kahnawake has started to reintroduce Skenn:en A'onsonton (to become peaceful again), the traditional justice system of the Iroquois. It wanted to create an alternative dispute resolution process, as developed by the First Nation, or "reintroduced" according to its principles. The Justice Committee of the MCK and representatives of the Longhouse jointly presented the initiative to the community. Based on wrongdoing that has taken place within the geographic area of Kahnawke, the system is intended for use before any arrest of an affected party under the Canadian system. It has procedures to be used by the victim and offender, and their supporters. With assistance by trained facilitators to resolve issues, the process is intended to restore peace and harmony, rather than to be an adversarial process. In contrast to the Canadian system of adversarial justice,
it "would allow the parties to personalize the process of addressing wrongdoing and in so doing provides the parties with a "new and different choice" to resolve disputes based on traditional principles that the parties can initiate on their own without the involvement of the criminal justice system."[21]
The initiative has challenges, for instance, gaining the support of Peacekeepers and community members who may not be familiar with these traditional cultural principles. But, it is an important means of re-education into principles that offer an alternative to the current Canadian system, and helps build a future especially for the young people of the community.
The Kahnawake Gaming Commission offers gambling licenses to Internet-based poker, casino, and sportsbook sites. It has established Kahnawake as a substantial player in that business.
Mohawk Internet Technologies (MIT), a local data center located within the territory, hosts and manages many Internet gambling websites, and provides high-tech employment to its people. MIT is the closest and fastest source for "legally hosted" gambling websites for North American players. Established in 1998, MIT by 2006 had become a "remarkably profitable" enterprise.[30]
Politics [ edit ]
Fifty men from Kahnawake volunteered to fight with the United States armed forces during the Vietnam War.[31]
While working to strengthen their culture and language, the people of Kahnawake have generally not had the political turmoil of the nearby, smaller Kanesatake reserve. In support of Kanesatake during its Oka Crisis in 1990, people from Kahnawake blocked the Honoré Mercier Bridge to Montreal, which had an access road through their reserve. The Kanesatake reserve had been blockaded and isolated by the Sûreté du Québec in a conflict over use of lands the Mohawk considered sacred.
The bridge blockade affected the commute of many locals throughout the summer, leading to rioting and the burning of effigies, and to the "Whiskey Trench" episode. On August 28, 1990 a convoy of 50 to 75 cars, bearing mostly women, children and elders, left Kahnawake in fear of a possible advance by the Canadian army. While the Mohawks' cars were being searched by the provincial police force, a crowd of hundreds gathered on the Montreal side of the highway; many in the crowd threw rocks and chairs at the cars and yelled ethnic slurs. Many windows were broken and some Mohawk were hit by rocks and cut by glass. Thirteen people were arrested. Blame has fallen on the provincial government for letting the convoy pass; on the Sûreté du Québec for holding the cars for so long, and for mostly not stopping people from throwing rocks; on the lack of police or army or riot squad; and on local radio stations that broadcast the location of the convoy.[32][33]
After some time, Kahnawake negotiated separately with the armed forces to remove the blockade to the bridge.
International use of Kahnawake flag [ edit ]
In 2007, two vessels operated by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society flew the Kahnawake Mohawk flag.[34] The Kahnawake Mohawk nation is the only indigenous American sovereign nation to have deep-sea foreign-going vessels flying its flag. Since December 2007 the Sea Shepherd vessels have been registered in the Netherlands.[35]
Historic sites [ edit ]
Kahnawake contains three National Historic Sites of Canada: Fort St-Louis, the Jesuit Mission of St. Francis Xavier, and the Caughnawaga Presbytery.[36][37][38]
Notable residents [ edit ]
Media [ edit ]
Kahnawake has several media outlets:
CKKI-FM 89.9 FM known as 89.9 KiC Country Montreal
CKRK-FM 103.7 FM branded as K1037 Kahnawake
Mohawk Radio, an Internet-based radio station (Defunct)
Mohawk TV/Loud Spirit Productions
CKER The Seeker Kahnawake's first community channel (Defunct)
Kahnawake's first community channel (Defunct) Kwatokent TV, a bi-weekly informational program produced by The Mohawk Council of Kahnawake
, a bi-weekly informational program produced by The Mohawk Council of Kahnawake Iorì:wase, print and online newspaper of the Kanien’kéhá:ka Nation
, print and online newspaper of the Kanien’kéhá:ka Nation The Eastern Door [1], a weekly newspaper founded in 1992 that publishes each Friday and is available online
[1], a weekly newspaper founded in 1992 that publishes each Friday and is available online Mohawk TV, Kahnawake's first community TV station, broadcasting on local cable in the community.
, Kahnawake's first community TV station, broadcasting on local cable in the community. Mohawk Princess Pictures
Kahnawake Pow Wow [ edit ]
The Pow Wow is held every summer on the second weekend of July. It is a social event open to everyone to share the Native American culture such as traditional foods, hand made crafts, singing and traditional dancing.[41]
Schools [ edit ]
Step By Step Child and Family Centre, early learning/nursery
Kateri School, elementary school
Karonhianonhnha School, elementary school
Indian Way School, elementary school
Karihwanoron Mohawk Immersion School, elementary school with Mohawk-language immersion
Kahnawake Learning Center, general education centre, high school
Kahnawake Survival School, high school
FNRAEC (First Nations Adult Education Center), Adult Education
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Coordinates:Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto’s request for the resignations of board and authority members who served during the past administration has put some city business on hold.
The Pittsburgh Parking Authority has not held a meeting since December, unable to meet a quorum with an empty five-person board. Boards of the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority, city housing authority, Allegheny Regional Asset District and Sports & Exhibition Authority did not have February meetings.
City officials say the departures haven’t interrupted operations, and a new era is in sight. Kevin Acklin, the mayor’s chief of staff and chief development officer, said the administration expects to announce appointments early this week.
“I don’t think it took any longer than expected,” Acklin said.
A Jan. 15 letter from Peduto told members of 10 key city boards and authorities to resign their posts by Jan. 31. All but three members complied: Councilman Ricky Burgess, who chairs the Pittsburgh Housing Authority, and state Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Highland Park, and Councilman Daniel Lavelle, both of whom are on the Urban Redevelopment Authority.
Previous mayors took office with political appointments lined up. Peduto, stressing “a change in culture” on Grant Street, devised a new method.
Like other city jobs, board seats would be filled through Talent City, an online application and vetting process run through the Pittsburgh Foundation.
Former board members were welcome to re-apply, but the process would be open to other applicants.
The undertaking has gone on for about 60 days. Burgess, who does not intend to resign, said the housing authority wasn’t able to meet in February because it lacked a quorum.
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to come - that experience of drifting off to sleep dreaming of Pac Man, or rotating Tetris blocks, or bagging a rare Pokemon Jigglypuff.
In 1962, that ability of a computer to yank our Pavlovian reflexes and haunt our sleep would have been unimaginable to anyone but Peter Samson and a few of his hacker friends.
They were avid players of Spacewar!, the first video game that mattered - the one that opened the door to a social craze, a massive industry, and shaped our economy in more profound ways than we realise.
50 Things That Made the Modern Economy highlights the inventions, ideas and innovations that helped create the economic world.
It is broadcast on the BBC World Service. You can find more information about the programme's sources and listen online or subscribe to the programme podcast.
Before Spacewar!, computers were intimidating, vast and expensive: large grey cabinets in purpose-built rooms, closed off to all but the highly trained.
Computing was what banks and corporations and the military did.
But at the beginning of the 1960s, at MIT, new computers were being installed in a more relaxed environment.
They didn't have their own rooms but were part of the laboratory furniture.
Students were allowed to mess around with them.
The term "hacker" was born, meaning not the modern malevolent cracker of security systems, but someone who would experiment, cut corners and produce strange effects.
Video revolution
At the same time, MIT ordered a new kind of computer: the PDP-1.
Image copyright Science Photo Library Image caption The PDP-1 was crucial in the development of the first video games
It was compact - the size of a large fridge - and relatively easy to use. It was powerful. And it communicated not through a printer, but through a high precision cathode ray tube - a video display.
When a young researcher called Steve "Slug" Russell heard about the PDP-1, he and his friends began plotting the best way to show off its capabilities.
They had been reading a lot of science fiction and dreaming of a proper Hollywood space opera.
But Star Wars was two decades away, so they plumped for the best possible alternative: Spacewar! - a two-player video game that pitted spaceship captains against each other in a photon-torpedo-powered duel to the death.
There were two spaceships - just a few pixels outlining the ships - and the players could spin, thrust, or fire torpedoes.
Economic legacy
Other enthusiasts soon joined in, making the game smoother and faster, adding a star with a realistic gravitational pull, and cobbling together special controllers from plywood, electrical toggles, and bakelite. They were hackers, after all.
In one way, the economic legacy of Spacewar! is obvious.
As computers became cheap enough to install in arcades, and then in the home, the games industry blossomed.
One of the early hits, Asteroids, owed a clear debt to Spacewar! - with the realistic-seeming physics of a spaceship that rotated and thrusted in a zero-gravity environment.
Computer games now rival the film industry for revenue. They're becoming culturally important, too. Lego's Minecraft tie-in jostles for popularity with the company's Star Wars and Marvel sets.
Image copyright Getty Images
But beyond the money that we spend on them, games affect the economy in a couple of ways.
First, virtual worlds can create real jobs.
Virtual sweatshops
One of the first people to make this case was an economist named Edward Castronova.
In 2001, Mr Castronova calculated the gross national product per capita of an online world called Norrath - the setting for an online role-playing game, EverQuest.
Norrath wasn't particularly populous - about 60,000 people would be logged in at a time, performing mundane tasks to accumulate treasure they could use to buy enjoyable capabilities for their characters.
Image copyright EverQuest Image caption Economists realised players were earning real money by doing mundane work for others inside EverQuest
Except, some players were impatient.
They bought virtual treasure from other players, on sites such as eBay, for real money, which meant other players could earn real money for doing mundane work in Norrath.
The wage, reckoned Mr Castronova, was about $3.50 (£2.70) an hour - not much for a Californian but an excellent rate if you happened to live in Nairobi.
More from Tim Harford
How a razor revolutionised the way we pay for stuff
TV Dinner: The hidden cost of the processed food revolution
How the lift transformed our cities
How air conditioning changed the world
Before long, "virtual sweatshops" sprang up from China to India, where teenagers ground away on the tedious parts of certain games, acquiring digital short-cuts to sell to more prosperous players who wanted to get straight to the good stuff.
And it still happens: some people are making tens of thousands of dollars a month on auction sites in Japan, just selling virtual game characters.
For most people, though, virtual worlds aren't a place to earn money, but to enjoy spending time.
Even as Mr Castronova was writing about tiny Norrath, 1.5 million South Koreans were playing in the virtual world of the game Lineage.
Image copyright PA Image caption Candy Crush Saga players move and match similar types of sweets to make them disappear
Then came FarmVille on Facebook, blurring a game with a social network, mobile games such as Angry Birds or Candy Crush Saga, and augmented reality games such as Pokemon Go.
By 2011, the game scholar Jane McGonigal estimated that more than half a billion people worldwide were spending serious amounts of time - almost two hours a day, on average - playing computer games. A billion or two is within easy reach.
And that brings us to the final economic impact. How many of those people are choosing virtual fun over boring work for real money?
Unemployment puzzle
A decade ago, I saw Edward Castronova speak in front of a learned audience of scientists and policy wonks in Washington DC. "You guys are already winning in the game of real life," he told us. "But not everyone can."
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The augmented reality game Pokemon Go added millions to the value of part owner Nintendo
And if your choice is a Starbucks server or a star-ship captain - what, really, is so crazy about deciding to take command in an imaginary world?
Mr Castronova may have been on to something.
In 2016, four economists presented research into a puzzling fact about the US labour market: the economy was growing strongly, unemployment rates were low, and yet a surprisingly large number of able-bodied young men were either working part-time or not working at all.
More puzzling still, while most studies of unemployment find that it makes people thoroughly miserable, against expectations the happiness of these young men was rising.
The researchers concluded that these men were living at home, sponging off their parents, and playing videogames.
These young men were deciding they didn't want to be a Starbucks server. Being a spaceship captain was far more appealing.
Tim Harford writes the Financial Times's Undercover Economist column. 50 Things That Made the Modern Economy is broadcast on the BBC World Service. You can find more information about the programme's sources and listen online or subscribe to the programme podcast.Baker’s Percentage When writing a formula, the easiest method is to do so using what is known as baker's percentage, or baker's math. In using baker's percentage, each ingredient in a formula is expressed as a percentage of the flour weight, and the flour weight is always expressed as 100%. Most American bakers who have been baking professionally for a couple of decades or more will remember when the only scale in most shops was a balance beam scale, and when liquids were almost always measured in gallon pitchers, not weighed. Although balance beam scales are still widely used, more and more bakers are turning to electronic scales for weigh outs, and gallon pitchers are giving way to liquids that are weighed along with the dry ingredients. There are good reasons for using baker's percent for our formulas. First, since each ingredient is weighed, it enables us to work with precision using only one unit of measure.
Second, it is quite easy to scale a formula up or down when we are working with baker's percent.
And last, it allows bakers to share a common language. This common language enables the baker to not only communicate with other bakers, but also makes it possible to quickly assess a formula simply by seeing the percentages used. In this discussion, we will talk about converting a simple bread formula into percentages; transferring from percentages to pounds; and how to compute the Formula Conversion Factor for use in scaling a recipe up or down.
Computing Percentages of a Formula We will begin with a straightforward recipe for white bread: flour 50 pounds water 33 pounds salt 1 pound yeast 0.6 pound As mentioned above, when using baker's percentage, the flour is represented as 100%, and all the other ingredients are expressed as a percentage of the flour's weight. We can begin to express the formula as follows: flour 50 pounds 100% water 33 pounds _% salt 1 pound _% yeast 0.6 pound _% To determine the percentage of the other ingredients, we divide the weight of each one by the weight of the flour, and then multiply the result (which is in decimal form) by 100 to convert it to a percent. For example, to calculate the percentage of water, we divide its weight by the flour's and multiply by 100: (33 ÷ 50) x 100 = 66% When we follow the same method, we arrive at the following values for the salt and yeast: flour 50 pounds 100% water 33 pounds 66% salt 1 pound 2% yeast 0.6 pound 1.2% It is worth noting that by simply looking at the percentages we can ascertain important things about this bread. For one thing, we know at a glance that the bread has a 66% hydration (hydration is defined as the percentage of liquid in a dough, again based on the flour weight). If we had used gallon pitchers to measure the water, we would have a rather cumbersome formula, much more difficult to assess.
Computing Pounds from Percentages For our second example, let's look at a formula for ciabatta: flour 100% water 73% salt 1.8% yeast 1.1% You decide to make this dough using 50 pounds of flour: flour 100% 50 pounds water 73% _ pounds salt 1.8% _ pounds yeast 1.1% _ pounds To obtain the weights of the remaining ingredients, first we divide the percentage by 100 to obtain a decimal, then multiply the resulting decimal by the weight of the flour. The entire formula would look like this: flour 100 50 pounds water 73 ÷ 100 x 50 = 36.5 pounds salt 1.8 ÷ 100 x 50 = 0.9 pounds yeast 1.1 ÷ 100 x 50 = 0.55 pounds
Recalculating a Formula There are times when we may need to recalculate the size of a formula in order to make either more or less bread. By employing baker's percent, this is quick, accurate, and easily learned by the baker. Let's assume that another colleague has given you a formula for French bread: flour 120 pounds 100% water 78 pounds 65% salt 2.4 pounds 2% yeast 1.5 pounds 1.25% total 201.9 pounds 168.25% Although you like the bread very much, in your situation you only need to make 150 pounds of dough. How can you recalculate the formula to obtain 150 pounds and retain the percentages of the ingredients? The first step is to determine the Formula Conversion Factor. We establish this by adding the percentages of the formula, which in this case total 168.25. Then divide our new desired dough weight by the sum of the percentages: 150 ÷ 168.25 = 0.8915 It is preferable to round this figure up, because it is better to have a little extra bread rather than not enough, so we round up to 0.9. The next step is to multiply the percentages of each ingredient by 0.9: flour 0.9 x 100 = 90 pounds water 0.9 x 65 = 58.5 pounds salt 0.9 x 2 = 1.8 pounds yeast 0.9 x 1.25 = 1.13 pounds total 151.43 poundsA report today from Bloomberg claims that Apple SVP Eddy Cue, who took over control of Maps from Scott Forstall when that senior executive and iOS architect departed the company, has fired Richard Williamson, a manager who oversaw the Maps team. The move is part of Apple’s continued efforts to right the faults consumers reacted negatively to in Maps, which also include seeking advice from mapping company TomTom with regards to correcting navigation and landmark data in the native iOS maps app according to the report.
The source of the information is said to be “people familiar with the move,” according to Bloomberg, which also reported that Cue intends to “build confidence in the program” as a way to give Apple more ammunition in the ongoing fight with Google. Google is readying its own separate maps app for Apple’s mobile OS, according to several recent reports.
Cue intends to replace Williamson with an entirely new management team overseeing Maps, the report says. We’ve heard in the past that Apple has been looking for ex-Google Maps talent to help improve its mapping services, and that could be a likely source for any replacement, though there’s no information about who will take over in the short term. I’d have to wonder whether Cue would seek out an internal replacement: given how poorly the initial launch went, it would make sense to start with a clean slate, and try to install a new leadership untouched by the mistakes of the past.
We’ve reached out to Apple for additional comment, though Apple spokesperson Trudy Muller wouldn’t comment on this specific report to Bloomberg, instead directing the publication to Tim Cook’s earlier statements about the company being dedicated to improving maps.Rams looking to gain a trophy
Wide receiver Bisi Johnson is one of two players Colorado State lost to injury last week who will not play this week. Johnson will be out for a spell with a sprained MCL, while safety Jamal Hicks is out the rest of the regular season wit a broken right forearm. ( Michael Brian / Loveland Reporter-Herald )
FORT COLLINS — Coaches preach the mentality all the time, and Colorado State's football team will have to see what the next man up can do this week.
In the 27-24 victory over New Mexico, the Rams had a host of players go down with injuries throughout the game, and while some were able to return, the Rams will be without the services of wideout Bisi Johnson and safety Jamal Hicks this week, possibly the remainder of the regular season.
Head coach Mike Bobo told the media at Monday's press conference Hicks, a sophomore, was to have his pre-operation meeting during the day and have surgery this week for the broken right forearm he sustained during the win.
Johnson will avoid surgery, but has a sprained MCL that will keep him out this week, possibly longer, with Bobo calling it a week-to-week process.
"That's why you practice. That's why guys get reps," Bobo said. "We've got to get the right guys in the right spots, and we've got to figure out how we're going to put them on the field this week and execute our game play. I don't know the answer to where everybody is going to be and who everybody is going to play yet."
Cornerback Shun Johnson and defensive tackle Darnell Thompson both went down during the game and returned, and Bobo expects both to play this week. Linebacker Max McDonald is under concussion protocol, so his status is up in the air, and slot receiver Detrich Clark did not play with a shoulder injury, and his progress will be monitored, calling him questionable.
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When Hicks and McDonald left the game, both were the leading the team in tackles at the time, and Hicks is fourth on the team with 33 stops and is tied for the team lead with two interceptions. McDonald has started the past four weeks and has 29 tackles on the season.
Senior Jake Schlager is an experienced replacement for Hicks, but depth is a bit of an issue for the Rams at linebacker, though Kiel Robinson returned to the starting lineup last week at strong as the team went with a pair of rush ends for the third week in a row, though it was the first game CSU did not start in a nickel package.
"You lose your starting will linebacker and your starting safety," Bobo said. "We're going to have to figure out who's out there and get those guys ready to play."
The loss of Bisi Johnson goes beyond his 27 catches and 385 yards because the junior is also the punt returner and carries multiple tasks within the offense, not to mention is blocking on the perimeter, which is what he was doing when he was hurt.
Warren Jackson played more with the loss of Clark, and Marcus Wilson came in when Bisi Johnson went down. Trey Smith has been playing on special teams the past few weeks, but no real offensive snaps as of late.
What it led to was a lot of shuffling in meeting rooms before practice has ever taken place.
"A lot of yesterday, last night and then this morning has been about personnel," Bobo said. "As a coach, you're figuring out how you're going to align your personnel to give you the best chance to be successful. You've got some guys out, so you've got think about moving some personnel around to put people in position where we can be productive and execute, offensively, defensively and special teams. These injuries we're talking about, we're focusing on offense and defense, but it hurts you in special teams, too.
"So it's getting a plan. The good thing is we played an option style last week, so schematically we'll be similar and repping those assignments and what we've got in the area of responsibility."
Trophy time — Colorado State plays for three trophies every season, and as of right now, the Rams' trophy case is empty with having lost the past four. This week starts a run of two in a row, starting with the Ram-Falcon Trophy this week.
Bobo fully expects the enthusiasm to run high.
"Now, you hope that because you're playing Air Force — it's a rivalry game, at home, 1 o'clock, sellout — there's going to be a lot of other energy that's going to help us get ready for this week," Bobo said. "It ought to be more energy in this week's practice because you're playing Air Force, a school in state. There ought to be more energy in this practice because you've got at chance to go to 5-0 in conference, what you're playing for, you're coming back home."
The home team has won the past five meetings in the series.
Still good — Colorado State allowed one sack last week, the first time Nick Stevens went down in five weeks and the first time in conference play. The Rams rank second nationally in sacks allowed at just.38 per contest.
Michael Gallup had 66 yards receiving last week, making him the first wideout in the country with 1,000 on the season, 1,006, to be exact. He is second in yards per game (125.8) and third in catches per game (8.1).
Mike Brohard: 970-635-3633, mbrohard@reporter-herald.com and twitter.com/mbrohardWhy I Gave Up On 'Social Activism'
By Yoginder Sikand
19 April, 2012
Countercurrents.org
Just the other day, Raja, a dear friend of mine from Kashmir, forwarded me a wonderful anecdote. It isn't often, I have to confess, that he does such things. Most often, his postings are drab and mournful and monotonously predictable: reports about hordes of Kashmiris taking to the streets in yet another demonstration demanding 'freedom from Indian oppression'; an interview with a Muslim cleric pontificating on some esoteric or controversial subject or the other; news about rival sets of Muslims squabbling among themselves, as they always have, and will always do, over the 'true' meaning of their faith; a story about the latest demented outpourings of a noted Hindutva ideologue--subjects that no longer interest me in the least, I have to say, although they once did.
But the anecdote that he sent me this time was truly a precious gem. It neatly summarised, in a manner I never could have done myself, much of what I've been thinking about these last couple of months, ever since I won for myself the luxury of no longer having to slog for a living against my will. It was the story of a wise man who, in his youth, spent hours every day tearfully entreating God to radically transform the whole world and turn it upside down into a veritable paradise so that all the problems that people face would finally and firmly end. But the man's youthful enthusiasm for this global 'Revolution' doesn't last long, and once he gets married and sires children his prayers become less ambitious in their scope. He now prays simply for the transformation of his wife and children so that they begin to think and act as he thinks they should. He spends years beseeching God for this to happen--in vain, of course--till he arrives at old age and knows that he is about to die. Thereupon, he turns to God in repentance and says, 'I've spent my whole life asking You to change others for the better, but I've never thought of asking You to help me change--into a good and loving person. Please, Lord, now let at least that happen!'
This delightful anecdote neatly sums up the story of my life till now, and that is why I found it so endearing. Ever since I left home, at the age of eighteen, I've been desperately trying to change the world, as a self-appointed missionary of the 'Revolution'. I began identifying with communities in India that saw themselves as 'oppressed', and took it upon myself to champion their 'cause'. How desperately I craved to be recognised as one among them! That is how I became what is called a'social activist', and began writing mainly about Muslims, but also about Adivasis and Dalits and other such'marginalised groups', attending their conferences and participating in their protest demonstrations, and even churning out ponderous tomes about them, all of which further reinforced my belief that I was indeed a seriously committed do-gooder.
For two whole decades, writing on such'marginalised groups' and their 'problems'--many of them real, others imaginary and yet many others self-created--and participating in the'struggle' against 'caste/class oppression', 'gender injustice' and 'imperialism' was almost my sole occupation. In these many years, I must have written well over a thousand articles that, in my eyes, championed the cause of the 'oppressed' and of the 'Revolution'. Hardly a week passed without my churning out a piece or two on the subject. 'It's my way of contributing to the Revolution,' I would tell myself, seriously believing that my writings were making a major difference to 'The Cause'. Only I know what smug satisfaction this gave me! I know you'll find it absurd but I even began to imagine that if I ceased writing on the issues that I so sincerely obsessed about, it would make a major dent in prospects for the 'Revolution' to ever arrive!
All that energy and enthusiasm that went into my contribution as a'social activist' and in the cause of the 'Revolution' paid me well in material terms, however, though I have to say that this wasn't the only or even major reason why I was in the business of championing the 'Revolution' in the first place. I won generous scholarships to go abroad to do a Ph.D. and then two post-doctoral projects to study various aspects of'marginalised groups' in India. I was invited to attend conferences in over two dozen countries to pontificate on the same subjects. I was appointed as a full professor in an Indian university and was paid handsomely for the articles and books that I continued to churn out, machine-like, all about the 'oppressed'. In addition, I was assigned projects by several NGOs to study the 'oppressed', for which I was well rewarded financially. Although I have to say that I did not quite intend this to begin with, writing and conferencing about the 'oppressed' soon turned into a lucrative source of livelihood for me. I was actually, and quite literally, living off the misery of the 'oppressed', although I did not fully realise it then.
But all that came with a heavy personal price. The more I identified with the 'Revolution' of the 'oppressed', the more unbearably negative I became as a person. For one thing, the sense of being indispensable to the 'Revolution' and to the'struggle' for 'justice' for 'oppressed communities', of playing a crucial part in championing 'The Cause' through my writings and public speaking, gave a tremendous boost to my battered ego. Being a'social activist' made me feel nice, for once, about myself. It made me think of myself as selfless and all so very goody-goody and pious, while leading me to look down on others as allegedly miserably self-centred and uncaring. I was, after all, a'social activist, 'devoting' and'sacrificing' my life for the sake of the 'oppressed', or so I fondly imagined, while just about everyone else, I told myself, was mean and selfish, concerned only about their own material advancement.
Being a'social activist' and a supposed 'expert' on the problems of 'oppressed communities' also helped me to stand out among the crowd, in this way satisfying my inner urge to be somehow different from others so that, finally, I would gain their attention, even if in a negative way. As a child, there was nothing more than I craved for, and was denied, than recognition and acceptance and the feeling of being wanted, and the notice I began to receive as a supposed 'expert' on various'marginalised communities' served to fulfil that desperate urge and fill that deep psychological vacuum.
Being a'social activist', I imagined that the sources of all oppression and negativity were external--'out there', in the 'world beyond'--in classes, castes, structures and ideologies that I identified as 'oppressive'--Brahmins and Banias, Jews and Americans and their Saudi-Wahhabi stooges, Feudalism, Communalism, Capitalism, Casteism, Zionism, Brahminism, Religious Fundamentalism, Imperialism and so on. If these were successfully combatted, I was led to believe, all the problems of the world would be set straight. Directing my energies and anger onto these external forces, I saw no need at all to introspect and recognise, leave alone solve, my own inner negativities, which I left completely ignored and unaddressed all these many years. It was truly a very convenient way of running away from my own inner dilemmas, insecurities and incompleteness. In hankering after the 'Revolution' and for the sake of 'The Cause', I saw no need whatsoever to make myself a better human being. That would have been an 'unnecessary diversion' from the'real' task of'reforming' others and 'combatting social injustice'.
Imagining myself as crusading on behalf of the 'oppressed' and as being a key player in the'struggle' for'social justice' for a host of'marginalised communities' turned me completely blind to every good thing in those whom I began to see as their 'oppressors' (in the Indian context, mainly 'upper' caste/class Hindus) and in what was termed, in the jargon of the 'progressives' whose ranks I so desperately wanted to join, the 'present oppressive system'. There was nothing at all good in Hindu traditions or in America or in Capitalist Modernity, for instance, I convinced myself, for I was hooked onto the 'progressive' and 'radical' rhetoric that 'upper' caste Hindus in general (including most of my own family!) and almost every single American was complicit in perpetuating 'oppression'. If you had to be counted as a'social activist', you simply couldn't see or find anything worthy at all in 'upper' caste Hindus or in Americans, and, if you did, your sincerity and commitment were gravely suspect. So deep-rooted was this negative mentality among'social activists' supposedly committed to the 'oppressed' that for a 'progressive' to discern anything positive about 'the present system' or Indic spirituality, for instance, was about the most serious anathema conceivable.
The hatred that often passed for 'progressivism' in 'activist' circles was truly astounding, and I fell lock-stock-and-barrel for it. One was trained only to look for the negative in every nook and corner, and, if it didn't exist where one looked, to imagine and fervently believe that it did. One's whole life became one great protest. Protesting against real or imaginary injustice was almost the only respectable thing to do. It was as if there was nothing at all good in the world to celebrate, and even as if celebration and joy were themselves an 'unnecessary diversion' or a 'unaffordable luxury' that truly committed 'activists' had to carefully shun. That explained why many 'progressives' and 'radicals' were horrifically negative as human beings, many of them being irritatingly obnoxious, judgemental, cantankerous, dour and sullen. Their penchant for protest made them only more so. Believing themselves to be somehow morally superior to others because they had, so they thought, devoted themselves to the 'oppressed' made many of them painfully sanctimonious and proud. Of course, I need not clarify that this was not always the case, and I did have the good fortune of meeting a number of other activists, truly sincere in their commitment, who were among the most loving and compassionate souls I've ever come across. But these were rare exceptions, I have to admit.
For many of us (including myself, too), the negativity that was blessed as 'progressivism' in 'activist' circles was a convenient and respectable ruse to give vent to our own personal turmoils, inner insecurities and complexes, which were often rooted in troubled childhoods or broken marriages. I took to this negativity like a duck takes to water--in part to compensate for my own psychological traumas. It provided me just the excuse that I needed to express all the hidden hatred for my family that I harboured deep inside me since a child, for what more potent way was there for me to rebel against my decidedly 'upper' class and largely Hindu family than to denounce them as part of the 'oppressive ruling class/caste system'? What better way to get back at them for all that I had suffered at their hands than by taking up the 'cause' of Muslims and Dalits and ultra-leftists, folks who saw rich Hindus like my family as their real 'oppressors'? I had had an extremely troubled childhood, and so all I ever wanted was to get as far away as possible from my folks as I possibly could. They were rich and, for the most part, Hindu, and it was thus that I desperately craved to identify myself with all that they were not and would dread to be. I have to admit that it was this, more than any genuine concern for the 'oppressed', that drove me on for over twenty years for the sake of 'The Cause' that I so obsessively championed.
Negativism, then, was a defining feature of being 'progressive', and that's what I began to revel in. But such negativism was almost entirely one-sided in 'activist' circles, for to be counted as a'real''social activist' it was simply unthinkable that the 'oppressed' could be faulted for almost anything at all. For a'social activist' to even mention, leave alone condemn, the foibles of the 'oppressed communities'--gender injustice or caste rivalries among Dalits or the obscurantism and misogyny preached in many Muslim madrasas or the terror attacks and killings of innocents by Naxalites and radical Islamists--was tantamount to nothing less than treason. Reports about such matters were generally dismissed as'malicious ruling-class propaganda' or'malicious Brahminical brainwashing' or even as an 'understandable reaction of vulnerable minority communities to ruling caste/class/imperialist oppression'. Sometimes, if these were grudgingly admitted to be true, they were sought to be passed over in silence in order to'respect the sensibilities of the oppressed' or as'minor contradictions' that ought not to be addressed on the grounds that it would allegedly 'divide' the oppressed,'sabotage' the struggle against 'oppression' and thereby 'play into the hands of the real opressors'. If you only just pointed out that there were serious faults in the madrasas that needed to be urgently addressed (even for the sake of the Muslim children who studied therein) or that Muslim Personal Law was seriously biased against Muslim women or that many Dalits who had taken advantage of the system of protective discrimination behaved with fellow Dalits almost as shabbily as did their 'upper' caste Hindu 'oppressors', you were sure to be shouted down as a 'government agent' or a 'paid stooge of Hindutva forces', not only by fellow 'progressives' but also by a whole host of voices among the communities whom you had spent years trying to defend and promote. If you even so much as mildly hinted that the conditions of Muslims in India weren't half as bad as sections of the Urdu media wanted people to believe or that the Muslims in this country had much more freedom than in any Muslim-majority state or that untouchability was no longer as rampant as it once was in some parts, you were bound to be accused of betrayal and your motives were rumoured to be entirely suspect. If you acknowledged that probably less Muslims were killed by Hindus in riots in India every year than the number of fellow Muslims slaughtered by their co-religionists in the 'Islamic' Republic of Pakistan or in God-forsaken Afghanistan or that the plight of religious minorities in many Muslim countries, particularly those ruled by theocratic regimes, was much worse than in India or that some Dalit officials were neck-deep in corruption, you were bound to be hollered at for allegedly being a 'traitor' to 'The Cause' of the 'oppressed'. The very same folks who egged you on to write about their problems and to take the Hindutva beast by its horns (for they were either too scared to do it themselves or didn't have the same writing skills or the same access to the English media) would shrilly denounce you as an 'agent' of this or the other 'power' if, in your quest to be honest and balanced, you pointed out even some of the mildest of their faults. It was as if by definition the 'oppressed' were spotless angels who could do no wrong and their 'oppressors' wholly and incorrigibly demonic.
It was amazing how, barring some really genuine folks, whose sincerity and commitment simply cannot be doubted, many of us 'activists' actually thrived on this one-sided negativity that we lived on and churned out day-in and day-out. It was as if without it we would have no reason at all to justify our own existence, for it served as a very convenient peg to hang our own inner traumas on. For some folks, spewing negativity in the name of'social activism' and 'protesting against social injustice' was all that they were capable of doing and, in fact, the only reason for them to carry on living. Decrying'social injustice' was the only thing they could talk of, and attending one protest demonstration after another their only form of entertainment. Never for a moment did many such folks ever feel the need to introspect, for every ill that they could think of was traced to and laid at the door of the 'oppressors'. I could imagine at least some of them seriously believing they were God's little innocent lambs, all very pious and unblemished.
Protesting against'social oppression' had truly become a profession for many, who turned into what are called 'professional social activists'. Negative news and developments were quickly seized upon by them to write about and demonstrate against, to pontificate about in seminars and to appear on TV to debate over and thereby worm their way into the public limelight, and even to wangle well-funded research projects, academic assignments and jaunts abroad in exotic locations, where they would share their 'expertise' about the 'oppressed communities' and exhibit their 'radical commitment' to them, often being handsomely paid for this service. I was guilty of the same misdemeanour, too, in some very fundamental ways, I have to admit here.
Some folks I know made pretty neat fortunes this way, setting up NGOs and 'think-tanks' ostensibly to study and 'work with' 'oppressed communities', and raked in vast amounts of money from gullible foreign donors. In fact, barring a few really committed souls, a whole host of 'progressives' in the NGO, academic and media world, made their living out of the misery of the 'oppressed', earning in this way not just their daily bread but also the really serious money that they needed to buy their cars and houses and to send their children to the 'best' English-medium schools and then for higher studies to the USA (which they never tired of reviling in public, of course), where they, too, would often sojourn when their'social activism' became just a bit too tiring, boring or bothersome. Not many of them, who never ceased showing-off their 'commitment' to the 'oppressed' communities and their visceral hatred for 'oppressor' castes, would, I suspect, want to be treated in an Adivasi-run nursing home or to send their children to a Muslim-run school.
But, to set the record straight, it wasn't just us 'professional social activists' from rich or middle-class Hindu families who had taken upon themselves the onerous task of crusading on behalf of the 'oppressed communities' who behaved in this way. A great many |
audiobook in the series and as soon as my mood dictated, will be listening to some time in the near future.
Being that this audiobook was produced in 2008, and having a very recent experience listening to Rummel, I could tell how far he has come as an audiobook narrator. He was more soft spoken than I expected, not a bad thing at all, and as Captain John “Black Jack” Geary became more confident his tone changes and I could tell with out having to be told. Rummel’s character differentiation was not nearly as solid as more recent titles and I am glad that he has evolved so far in a relatively short period of time. Now my list of go to narrators is getting too long, oh well, that will not keep me from seeking out more from Christian Rummel.
About Christian Rummel Read the ABR Narrator Interview I grew up in Pennsylvania, went to college in Pittsburgh, and then lived in New York City for a bunch of years. In 2010, I moved to L.A., where I now reside with my lovely wife, I-Ching, our hipster wonder-dog Adelaide, and our scrappy black cat Evel. I like English tea, English motorbikes, and weird English telly (Garth Marenghi, Snuff Box, Mighty Boosh, et al.).
About Jack Campbell Jack Campbell is a pseudonym for American science fiction author John G. Hemry. John G. Hemry is an American author of military science fiction novels. Drawing on his experience as a retired United States Navy officer, he has written the Stark’s War and Paul Sinclair series. Under the name Jack Campbell, he has written four volumes of the Lost Fleet series, and on his website names two more forthcoming volumes. He has also written over a dozen short stories, many published in Analog magazine, and a number of non-fiction works. John G Hemry is a retired United States Navy officer. His father, Jack M. Hemry, also served in the navy and as John points out was a mustang. John grew up living in several places including Pensacola, San Diego, and Midway Island. John graduated from Lyons High School in Lyons in 1974 then attended the US Naval Academy (Class of ’78) where he was labeled ‘the un-midshipman’ by his roommates. He lives in Maryland with his wife and three kids. His two eldest children are diagnosed as autistic and suffer from Neuro immune dysfunction syndrome (NIDS), an auto-immune ailment which causes their illness, but are progressing under treatment. John is a member of the SFWA Musketeers whose motto reads: ‘The Pen is Mightier Than the Sword, but the Wise Person Carries Both’.
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Related PostsBy Gilad Atzmon
Arthur Topham, the man behind Radical Press, was found guilty yesterday on one count of communicating statements that “wilfully promote hatred against an identifiable group.”
Some Canadians such as Harry Abrams, former B.C. representative for the League of Human Rights for B’nai Brith Canada, were thrilled. “Canada says that you should be able to walk in peace and not be fearful to be victimized, to be vilified, because of who you are or who you were born as,” Abrams told CBC News. But Topham, who has been married to a Jewish woman for over 37 years, doesn’t criticise or vilify Jews for who they are or the family into which they were born. He actually criticises some Jews, like Abrams, who subscribe to some particularly noxious tribally exclusive politics and ideology. Topham must have wrongly assumed that in a Western society, all forms of politics and ideologies, including Jewish ones, must be subject to criticism.
Topham’s case is full of surprises. Topham was found guilty on ‘count one’ but not guilty on ‘count two.’ But the two counts are pretty much identical in meaning, content and context. Both counts refer to “communication of statements, other than in private conversation, that wilfully promote hatred against an identifiable group, people of the Jewish religion or ethnic origin, contrary to Section 319(2) of the Criminal Code.“ The two counts differ only in the dates they cover.
Some commentators and legal experts speculated yesterday what led the jury to form such an inconsistent ruling. The documents, books and texts disseminated by Topham on his site (The Radical Press) within the period covered by both counts are all widely available to the Canadian public on many on-line outlets including amazon.ca. The one document on Topham’s site that has not been widely available recently is: ‘Israel Must Perish!’
In fact, ‘Israel Must Perish!’ is a hateful text. It promotes hatred against an ‘identifiable group.’ The book advocates the genocide through sterilization of all Israelisand the territorial dismemberment of Zion. The text is a deeply problematic pamphlet that demands the strongest possible condemnation, except that it wasn’t really written by Arthur Topham. ‘Israel Must Perish!’ was actually written by a politically driven Zionist Jew named Theodore N. Kaufman in 1941 under the title ‘Germany Must Perish!’ While ‘Germany Must Perish!’, is advocating the extinction of all Germans, Topham’s ‘Israel Must Perish!’ is clearly a satire, quoting as it does,verbaitm from Kaufman’s original (He substitutes the word ‘Israel’ for ‘Germany’ and ‘Zionist(s) for German(s).)
Topham’s satire, published in 2011, was obviously intended to make Israelis and Zionists reflect on their politics following a decade of extensive Jewish lobby advocacy of more and more immoral interventionist wars (Iraq, Syria, Libya, Iran etc). ‘Israeli Must Perish!’ is a mirror placed in front of the forgotten Kaufman’s ‘Germany Must Perish!’ Presumably, Topham saw some applicability of a critique of Germany in 1941 to Israel and global Zionism today.
If history is the attempt to narrate the past as we move along, then the return to Kaufman’s text couldn’t be more timely and essential. In an interview in the September 26, 1941, issue of The Canadian Jewish Chronicle, Kaufman attempted to justify his plan for the “sterilization of all Germans". He said:
“I believe, that the Jews have a mission in life. They must see to it that the nations of the world get together in one vast federation. ‘Union Now’ is the beginning of this. Slowly but surely the world will develop into a paradise. We will have perpetual peace. And the Jews will do the most to bring about this confederation, because they have the most to gain. … Let us sterilize all Germans and wars of world domination will come to an end!” (Harold U. Ribalow (September 26, 1941). "Hitler Will Be Nothing But A Rosebud Says Author 'Germany Must Perish!'. One Man's Plan For Peace Forever". The Canadian Jewish Chronicle. p. 5. Retrieved December 4, 2011.)
At the time, Kaufman’s book was widely quoted in Germany as evidence of a Jewish plan for genocide against the German people. Goebbels wrote,
“Thanks to the Jew Kaufman, we Germans know only too well what to expect in case of defeat.”
American journalist Howard K. Smith was in Germany when Germany Must Perish! became known. He wrote:
“No man has ever done so irresponsible a disservice to the cause his nation is fighting and suffering for than Nathan Kaufman. His half-baked brochure provided the Nazis with one of the best light artillery pieces they have, for, used as the Nazis used it, it served to bolster up that terror which forces Germans who dislike the Nazis to support, fight and die to keep Nazism alive...”( Howard K. Smith, Last Train from Berlin (London: Phoenix Pr., 1942), 134)
When the Jews of Hanover were evicted on September 8, 1941, the local authorities cited Kaufman's book as one of the reasons. The well respected German philosopher and historian Ernst Nolte argued recently that the German reaction to ‘Germany Must Perish!’ supports his view that WWIIwas a genuine response to German knowledge of a worldwide Jewish plot.
And yet, Kaufman’s book was concealed for 7 decades. It didn’t fit into the Zionist Shoah narrative. It was, in fact, Arthur Topham and his crude satire that brought Kaufman’s hateful text to our attention.
Topham’s crime is obvious, the radical man is guilty of unveiling some shameful corners in Jewish past, exposing some documents Jews would prefer to keep deep under the carpet.
If Topham has to be penalised for contextualizing Israeli present within a Jewish historical continuum, we may have to accept it. Within the western ethos often enough the brave truth teller pays heavily for other people’s sins. But we should never forget that that within the same Western ethos, the truth has the unique capacity to resurrect itself.
Make sure to save a copy of Germany Must Perish! onto your HD before it is removed by the Canadian thought police: http://www.radicalpress.com/?page_id=1314There are two things similar between fashion and marketing, one is their dynamic and ever changing nature and the second is their trends. While there are some new trends every single year, there are a few trends that are absolutely constant; again there is that group of trends that keeps repeating themselves from time to time. Here we are to speak about those digital marketing trends of 2017 that proved to be extremely successful and will be repeating their success stories in 2018 as well.
Digital Marketing Trends you should be looking out for in 2018:
As mentioned above there will be numerous digital marketing trends which will extend their fruit fulness in 2018 as well. Some of these include-
Mobile Optimization
Traffic is what you are looking forward to from the moment you start with your digital marketing campaigns. Over the last year, far more amount of traffic was noticed to be directed from smart phones and tablets as compared to computers. This year is expected to be no different. In case your business website is not optimised for mobile phones, it is time that you look into achieving mobile optimization. This makes navigation on your site through mobile devices a lot easier, more comfortable and also efficient for smart phone users, rendering better customer satisfaction and increased traffic.
Local SEO is more important than ever
With the now active status of My Business, Google is paying more importance than ever to local seo. With tags being kept on black hat seo activities, the need for proper and strategic seo promotion, to increase your ranking effectively and law-abidingly on search engines has become imperative. To boost their local seo, businesses need to create a Google account first, followed by effective use of My Business.
Over the last year about 52% of internet users have been tracked to use different applications to serve a specific function rather than conducting random searches on search engines and different sites. This obviously provides them with better functionality. In case your business does not have an app, it is time to get one followed by optimizing it on app stores for its better visibility. Also use in-app analytics to measure app open rates, click through rates and conversations to make effective use of the app. To know more about how to increase organic downloads on your app, click here.
Selling on Social Media
The platform that immediately boosts your organic reach to hundreds and thousands of people every single day is social media. Leading social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, etc, are not only great places to promote your products and services but also sell the same. Use your facebook pages and Instagram accounts to increase your follower base and sell your offerings to them directly.
Enjoy the benefits of Content Marketing
There is no better medium to promoting your business’s products and services than using the content marketing as your much loyal weapon. The creation of useful, crisp, informative and unique content that extends some kind of value to the reader and urges them to take interest in your products is key to achieving success for your e-commerce venture.
Apart from these, some of the other major trends of 2017 you are sure to see in 2018 as well are- email marketing, Instagram sponsored ads, facebook advertisements, live video streaming, link building, guest blogging, on page seo, social posts, voice search on search engines, etc.
Click here to know more about ASO and other optimization tools.It seems I got my daughter called into the Vice Principal’s office today….
When classes started this year at the beginning of August I was inundated with repetitious and pointless paperwork. Chloe (15) was good enough to fill out the name and address parts for me so all I had to do was sign. Sign I did, something like 13 different times for this monstrosity of bureaucratic bullshit.
When the section for who could check her out from school came up, she had put the names and numbers of her two local grandmothers. I added the following:
Grand Moff Tarkin
President Barrack Obama
I figured, correctly, that no one was going to see this anytime in the near future as Chloe is 15 and knows who can and can’t check her out from school.
FAST FORWARD 10 WEEKS
Chloe got called into the Vice Principals office today because someone FINALLY noticed her paperwork. He immediately accused her of filling out the form in this manner. She admitted that she did in fact fill out most of the form, including the names of her two grandmothers. She pointed out, however, that if he noticed, those parts were in pencil, while the other two names were in ink, just as my signature was.
“Are you saying that your dad filled that part out?”
“Yes sir”
“We take this paperwork VERY seriously, do you think this is funny, does HE think this is funny? I have tried calling him several times yesterday about this, but he never answers. (LIE: He has my Google Voice number, unlimited voicemail size.)
"My dad is very busy on Mondays and Wednesdays teaching at Kennesaw State University.”
“He works there?”
“Yes, he teaches History there, he is a professor.”
“Well, this is not funny, this is very serious.”
“Well, sir, my dad has a unique sense of humor that not everyone gets. Do you want me to fill out the form again?”
He hands her a new sheet, but tells her it is not entirely necessary that it gets filled out again, then adds,
“I check your discipline record and it is clean. You are lucky, if there was anything on it you would be in big trouble right now.” (ahem, the fuck you say, buddy.)
“Sir, I have only been to the office once in my life and that was to pick up an award.”
“You can go now.”
“Yes, Sir”
HOLY HELL, ARE YOU KIDDING ME! I so desperately wanted him to try to punish her as we would then get to meet face to face. I would have enjoyed pointing out that it took them 10 FUCKING WEEKS to take care of this vitally important paperwork. Also, that he proved the idiocy of the process by being an idiot in his treatment of my daughter. You can keep your piece of shit fiefdom, good sir, us people with a brain would rather roam the countryside.
If either the current president of the United States of America or the commander of the Death Star wants to pick up my kid from school, they damn well can.
It is also wise(ish) of him to not make her fill out the form again as I have a host of new names to add to the sheet. Starting with…..The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) is a Jewish human rights organization established in 1977 by rabbi Marvin Hier.[1][2][3] According to its mission statement, it is "a global human rights organization researching the Holocaust and hate in a historic and contemporary context. The Center confronts anti-Semitism, hate and terrorism, promotes human rights and dignity, stands with Israel, defends the safety of Jews worldwide, and teaches the lessons of the Holocaust for future generations."[4]
The Center is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It is accredited as a non-governmental organization (NGO) at the United Nations, the UNESCO, and the Council of Europe.
The Center closely interacts on an ongoing basis with a variety of public and private agencies, meeting with elected officials, the United States and foreign governments, diplomats and heads of state. The Center promotes the prosecution of Nazi war criminals, and fights against extremist groups, neo-Nazism, and hate on the Internet. The Center is also involved in Holocaust and tolerance education. Its "Campus Outreach" division is part of the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC).[5]
The Center is named after Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal; Hier's relationship with Wiesenthal deteriorated during the 1980s, and in 1993 Wiesenthal unsuccessfully petitioned the Board of Directors for Hier's removal.[6]
Name and leadership [ edit ]
Simon Wiesenthal
The organization is named after Simon Wiesenthal, a leading Nazi hunter. Simon Wiesenthal had nothing to do with the operation or activities of the SWC other than giving it its name.
The SWC is headed by Rabbi Marvin Hier, its dean and founder. Rabbi Abraham Cooper is the associate dean and Rabbi Meyer May is the executive director. The organization publishes a seasonal magazine, Response.
Museum of Tolerance [ edit ]
The Center's educational arm, Museum of Tolerance, was founded in 1993 and hosts 350,000 visitors annually. Some of the programs sponsored by the Museum include:
Tools for Tolerance
Teaching Steps to Tolerance
Task Force Against Hate
National Institute Against Hate Crimes
Tools for Tolerance for Teens
Simon Wiesenthal Tolerance Center in New York City
New York Tolerance Center is a professional development multi-media training facility targeting educators, law enforcement officials, and state/local government practitioners.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center and its Museum of Tolerance is one of many partner organizations of the Austrian Service Abroad (Auslandsdienst) and the corresponding Austrian Holocaust Memorial Service (Gedenkdienst).
In April 2016, the New York City Council stopped funding for the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance following the arrest of a former board member who has been accused of raising $20 million from a city correctional officers' union through kickbacks. The Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a statement saying that the member had resigned from its board on June 15, and that the Centre was unaware of any alleged unethical or illegal activities regarding its donors.[7]
Moriah Films [ edit ]
Moriah Films, also known as the Jack and Pearl Resnick Film Division of the SWC, was created to produce theatrical documentaries to educate both national and international audiences, with a focus on contemporary human rights and ethical issues and Jewish experience. Two films produced by the division, Genocide (film) and The Long Way Home (1997 film) have received the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.[8]
Moriah films has worked with numerous actors to narrate their productions. Including but not limited to Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Douglas, Nicole Kidman, Morgan Freeman, Patrick Stewart, and Sandra Bullock.[9]
Office locations [ edit ]
The headquarters of the Simon Wiesenthal Center is in Los Angeles. However, there are also international offices located in New York City, Miami, Toronto, Jerusalem, Paris, Chicago, and Buenos Aires.[10]
Through its national and international offices, the Center carries out its above mentioned mission of preserving the memory of the Holocaust.
Simon Wiesenthal Center Annual [ edit ]
Between 1984 and 1990 the Center published seven volumes of Simon Wiesenthal Center Annual, focusing on the scholarly study of the Holocaust, broadly defined. This series is ISSN 0741-8450.
Library and archives [ edit ]
The Library and Archives of the center in Los Angeles has grown to a collection of about 50,000 volumes and non-print materials. Moreover, the Archives incorporates photographs, diaries, letters, artifacts, artwork and rare books, which are available to researchers, students and the general public.
Search for Nazi war criminals [ edit ]
Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center office in Jerusalem, is the coordinator of Nazi war crimes research worldwide for the Wiesenthal Center and the author of its annual (since 2001) "Status Report" on the worldwide investigation and prosecution of Nazi war criminals which includes a "most wanted" list of Nazi war criminals.
In November 2005, the Simon Wiesenthal Center gave the name of four suspected former Nazi criminals to German authorities. The names were the first results of Operation Last Chance, a drive launched that year by the center to track down former Nazis for World War II-era crimes before they die of old age.
Official statements [ edit ]
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) [ edit ]
In 2013, the SWC released a comprehensive report on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which is a global campaign promoting boycotts of several types against Israel. The report analyzed the campaign throughout its various outlets and asserted that the BDS movement is a "thinly-disguised effort to coordinate and complement the violent strategy of Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim'rejectionists' who have refused to make peace with Israel for over six decades, and to pursue a high-profile campaign composed of anti-Israel big lies to help destroy the Jewish State by any and all means". The report also said that the BDS campaign attacks Israel's entire economy and society, holding all (Jewish) Israelis as collectively guilty.[11]
France [ edit ]
On March 8, 2007, the head of international relations for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Stanley Trevor Samuels, was convicted (and later acquitted in an appeal) of defamation by a Paris courthouse for accusing the French-based Committee for Charity and Support for the Palestinians (CBSP) of sending funds to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers.[12]
In its filing of the suit, the CBSP labelled the accusations "ridiculous", stating that its charitable work consisted of providing aid to some 3,000 Palestinian orphans. The court ruled that documents produced by the Wiesenthal Center established no "direct or indirect participation in financing terrorism" on the part of the CBSP, and that the allegations were "seriously defamatory".[12]
The Wiesenthal Center appealed the court ruling, and the appeal was granted in July 2009.[13]
Iran [ edit ]
After a Canadian newspaper reported upon the 2006 Iranian sumptuary law controversy (based on a report written by Iranian exiles on Iranian religious minorities being forced to wear badges identifying them to Muslims), the dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Rabbi Marvin Hier, wrote to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan urging the international community to pressure Iran to drop the measure.[14]
Numerous other sources, including Maurice Motamed, the Jewish member of the Iranian parliament and the Iranian Embassy in Canada, refuted the report as untrue. The National Post later retracted the original article ("Iran eyes badges for Jews: Law would require non-Muslim insignia") and published an article, to the contrary ("Experts say reports of badges for Jews in Iran is untrue"). However, the Simon Wiesenthal Center refused to admit any mistake on their part and insisted that the widely debunked allegations were true.[15]
Ireland [ edit ]
In January 2004, the Paris branch of the center asked the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, to suspend the 'Irish Museum of the Year Award' given to the Hunt Museum in Limerick, until the conclusion of a demanded inquiry into the provenance of a significant number of items in the collection. He argued that this was needed due to the close ties of the founders, John and Gertrude Hunt to the head of the Nazi Party (NSDP-AO) in Ireland, among others, and British suspicions during the war of espionage activity on the part of the couple. The center also claimed, 'The "Hunt Museum Essential Guide" describes only 150 of the over 2000 objects in the Museum's collection and, notably, without providing information on their provenance - data that all museums are now required to provide in accordance with international procedure.'[16]
This essentially accused the Hunt Museum in Limerick of keeping art and artifacts looted during the Second World War, which was described as "unprofessional in the extreme" by the expert Lynn Nicholas that cleared the museum of wrongdoing.[17][18] The claim was taken so seriously that the examination was supervised by the prestigious Royal Irish Academy, whose 2006 report is available on line.[19] McAleese, who had been written to by the center, then criticized a Dr. Samuels of the center for "a tissue of lies", adding that the center had diminished the name of Simon Wiesenthal.[20] The center said that it had prepared its own 150-page report in May 2008 that would be published after vetting by its lawyers, but had not done so as of November 2008.[21] The report was finally made on 12 December 2008.[22]
Israel [ edit ]
A branch museum in Jerusalem, expected to be completed in 2009, sparked protests from the city's Muslim population. The museum is being built on what Rabbi Marvin Hier described as "derelict land": a thousand-year-old Muslim graveyard called the Mamilla Cemetery, much of which has already been paved over. The complaints were rejected by Israel's Supreme Court, leading to a demonstration by hundreds of people in November 2008.[23][24] On November 19, 2008 a group of US Jewish and Muslim leaders sent a letter to the Wiesenthal Center urging it to halt the construction of the museum on the site.
As of February 2010, the Museum of Tolerance's plan for construction has been fully approved by Israeli courts and is proceeding at the compound of Mamilla Cemetery. The courts ruled that the compound had been neglected as a spiritual site by the Muslim community, in effect not functioning as a cemetery for decades (while simultaneously used for other purposes), and was thus mundra, i.e. abandoned, under Muslim laws.[25]
Canada [ edit ]
The Centre faults the Government of Canada's efforts to investigate and prosecute Nazi war criminals, and claims that approximately 2,000 Nazi war criminals obtained Canadian citizenship by providing false information.[26]
United States [ edit ]
The Simon Wiesenthal Center opposed the construction of Park51, a Muslim community center, two blocks from Ground Zero. The executive director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance in Manhattan, Rabbi Meyer May said it was "insensitive" to locate the centre there. The Jewish Week noted that the Center itself was once accused of intolerance when it built a museum in Jerusalem on land that was once a Muslim cemetery, after gaining approval from Israeli courts.[27]
Vatican [ edit ]
The Simon Wiesenthal Center welcomed the news that the Vatican has demanded that Bishop Richard Williamson recant his views denying the Holocaust before being re-admitted to the Roman Catholic Church. Williamson was one of the four priests from the Society of St. Pius X who were excommunicated 20 years ago for taking part in the consecration of Bishops contrary to Canon Law.[28]
Venezuela [ edit ]
The Simon Wiesenthal Center criticized Hugo Chávez for various statements, including his January 2006 statement that "[t]he world is for all of us, then, but it so happens that a minority, the descendants of the same ones that crucified Christ, the descendants of the same ones that kicked Bolívar out of here and also crucified him in their own way over there in Santa Marta, in Colombia. A minority has taken possession all of the wealth of the world..."[29] The Simon Wiesenthal Center omitted the reference to Bolívar without ellipsis, stated that Chávez was referring to Jews, and denounced the remarks as antisemitic by way of his allusions to wealth. Meanwhile, according to Forward.com, the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, and the Confederation of Jewish Associations of Venezuela defended Chávez, stating that he was speaking not of Jews, but of South America's white oligarchy. The Wiesenthal Center's representative in Latin America replied that Chávez's mention of Christ-killers was "ambiguous at best" and that the "decision to criticize Chávez had been taken after careful consideration".[30]
Japan [ edit ]
"Sunday Project" controversy [ edit ]
The Simon Wiesenthal Center strongly denounced politician-journalist Soichiro Tahara for his remarks against former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka and his daughter, former Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka on his TV Asahi program "Sunday Project" in March 2009.
In the live broadcast, Tahara told Tanaka that her father, former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka was "done in by America, by the Jews and (Ichiro) Ozawa, (then-leader of the Democratic Party of Japan) too, was done in (by America and/or the Jews)." [31]
Kishidan Nazi outfit controversy [ edit ]
SWC's associate dean, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, condemned the Japanese band Kishidan for wearing uniforms resembling those of the SS, the armed wing of the Nazi party. The band wore military-inspired uniforms, adorned with the German medal Iron Cross and Nazi insignia such as the death skull and SS eagle on MTV Japan's primetime program "Mega Vector." Cooper said in a written protest to the band's management company Sony Music Artists, MTV Japan and the Japanese entertainment group Avex (Kishidan's label at the time being and also the current one) that "there is no excuse for such an outrage" and that "many young Japanese are "woefully uneducated" about the crimes against humanity committed by Nazi Germany and Japan during the second world war, but global entities like MTV and Sony Music should know better".[32]
As a result, Sony Music Artists and Avex[33] issued a joint statement of public apology on their respective websites.
South Korea [ edit ]
On November 11th 2018, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action of the Simon Wiesenthal Center denounced BTS with the following statement: “Flags appearing on stage at their concert were eerily similar to the Nazi Swastika. It goes without saying that this group, which was invited to speak at the UN, owes the people of Japan and the victims of the Nazism an apology.” [34]
References in pop culture [ edit ]
The center is featured in the real-life-story-based Freedom Writers. An exterior view of the center is given, and there are scenes inside the museum, showing simulation entrances to gas chambers in death camps.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Archival collections
Other
Coordinates:Sunday hunting in Delaware has been a huge debate over the years. Not just in our state but several states. It is one of the “blue laws” that many feel is antiquated. I attended the monthly Delaware Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus meeting the other day and this was the main subject. There were a lot of good points brought up about deer management issues with numbers, license fees, and the possibility of reducing the stock. Which if you know anything about our huge deer population, it is estimated it will not be affected. Sunday deer hunting would not cost a hunter extra money. The Bill sponsored by Representatives Carson and Spiegelmen, and Senators Pettyjohn and Ennis would only allow deer hunting on private land during the current seasons. This would enable many hunters to double their hunting days or chances, I know a lot of hard-working folks that can only hunt on weekends. Since it will not cost any more hunters will get more bang for their buck, a great pun passed around the meeting. One of the jokes around my area is if no one is at the job site make sure it is not hunting season, and don’t start any new projects just before deer season. Over the past few years there has been a decline in hunting licenses sold, this has adversely effected many of DNREC’s maintenance and projects that hunting revenue pays for. It is hoped that Sunday hunting will not only help increase hunting license revenue with more licenses purchased, but also give more kids a chance to be mentored in the sport. It will also create more crop damage control for farmers who can allow hunters to use their land on a Sunday. Even the leasing of land would increase since an extra day could be charged for that lease. Economically, Sunday deer hunting will help Delaware’s communities. Hunting on state lands would still be off-limits, but if a hunter had to track, recover, or follow a deer they shot onto public land, that would be allowed as well.
This is a win win for hunters and non hunters alike to be able to enjoy their weekends doing what they love the most, being in the outdoors. As a landowner myself it also increases my rights as a property owner. I own land, I should be able to do as I please on my own property, and that includes deer hunting. If you are worried that people shooting guns while hunting on a Sunday is disruptive, that is just not so. I hear more people target practicing on a Sunday during hunting season than any other day of the week and believe me it can last for hours. Any hunter worth his salt usually only has to take one shot, usually and then track and dress the deer. By allowing Sunday deer hunting that target practice would most likely stop, since people will be hunting and not just target shooting for practice or fun. If you are for Sunday deer hunting on private land I suggest you contact your state representatives this week and next, to let them know you are all for this happening. “I checked with Rep. Carson’s staff assistant and she said they are planning to officially file the bill next Wednesday (March 16th). It probably will be heard in committee the following Wednesday, March 23rd. “ Stephanie Mantegna, Delaware House of Representatives Communications Officer – Republican Caucus
Fish On!
Rich King• England interim manager’s future to be decided after next two games • Southgate: ‘I don’t think it is as easy as saying: “Yes I would like the job”’
Gareth Southgate is undecided whether he would accept the permanent England manager’s job should the FA make him an offer after the forthcoming games with Scotland and Spain.
The interim manager is enjoying the role more than he anticipated, after filling the breach following Sam Allardyce’s sudden departure in September, but would want to know the length of contract, among other things, before committing himself.
Gareth Southgate’s stock soars at FA over full-time England job Read more
The 46-year-old is making no assumptions after stepping up from managing the England Under-21s for last month’s World Cup qualifiers with Malta, which England won 2-0, and the goalless draw in Slovenia and expects the position to go to interview even if he prospers in the two games at Wembley over the coming 11 days.
“The agreement was to take these four games, to keep some continuity, and then everybody has a chance to reflect and review how’s it gone,” Southgate said, speaking exclusively with the Football Journalism degree class at the University of Derby. “The FA [then] have a decision to make as to what they want to do. I think it’s a decision that needs a lot of thought, and also I think when you’re in the position I am in, you need to be clear of what is being asked.
“There is a big difference, for example, between being asked to take the team over the summer or to take the team for three years or take the team for a year and a half. I don’t think it is as easy as saying: ‘Yes I would like the job,’ and I would also like to see how it is affecting my family – and my health probably!”
After gaining four points from his first two games, Southgate is very relaxed about the situation. Having won the Toulon Tournament with the under-21s in June, he is very well thought of at St George’s Park, where he has worked closely with Dan Ashworth, the technical director, on a unified development plan for all England teams over the past four years. He is committed to long-term development so taking charge until Euro 2020 would enable Southgate to see if the current plans could bear fruit.
Martin Glenn, the FA chief executive, has said that Southgate is “a credible candidate” regardless of the outcome of the World Cup qualifier next Friday and the friendly with Spain four days later.
Southgate, who in the summer had ruled himself out of succeeding Roy Hodgson, said: “Whatever happens after that I will have had an incredible life experience which will have made me a better manager, no question, and everybody will know more about [my] suitability for that role. So I think our guys are then going to want to interview people to see who the best candidates are and go through a process, I’m sure.”
Southgate is enjoying working with the senior players and wants to assess whether he feels the manager-team relationship would benefit England. “Really then I will have an idea of what I am able to do, what I’m able to affect, how that has been with the players, how that has been with the staff and how I feel myself really. All I can say is I have enjoyed the period up to now.”
Gareth Southgate was speaking to students on the UK’s only Football Journalism degree course, at the University of Derby, www.derby.ac.uk/journalismWELCOME TO SABRES FAN ADVANTAGE
Fan Advantage is a smartphone based mobile application where fans can earn points by performing various activities, such as scanning their game ticket, watching the games on TV, and buying merchandise and concessions. Fans can then use those points to redeem prizes in the Fan Advantage Store in the app!
G
ET STARTED:
Click the following links to download the Fan Advantage app for iPhone or Android. Earn points by scanning codes on your game tickets, Sabres Store receipts, and merchandise purchases, as well as entering the code word announced during each game’s TV and Radio broadcasts. Check the “How to Earn Points” tab for more information on ways to earn points. As you reach point milestones, you will collect discounts and coupons from our local partners. Check the "Frequently Asked Questions" for any questions you may have or watch this instructional video.
The Fan Advantage Store can be found under the “Store” section of the app. You can use your points to redeem items in the store such as: Merchandise, Experiences, Autographed and Game used items, Tickets, and Raffles.
HOW TO: SCAN CODES
You can get codes for performing a variety of activities, but the most common are Ticket Scans, Merchandise receipt scans, and Concession receipt scans.
HOW TO: SCAN A RECEIPT
Open your Fan Advantage App. On the main screen there is a “Scan” Button which will bring up the scan page. Hold the code directly in the middle of the screen until the code scans. The points will be automatically added to |
ed operations, as you’ll see in the 4K queued test results seen below.
The only issue with NVMe is that your system must support booting from it. All the motherboards I’ve seen that offer a PCIe-enabled M.2 slot allow booting from NVMe, but if you’re adding M.2 to your desktop via a PCIe expansion card, you may need to go AHCI. Any motherboard of relatively recent vintage should support booting from AHCI.
Performance
All testing was done on an Asus X99 Deluxe/U3.1 motherboard with 32GB of DDR4 and an Intel Core i7-5820K. We used the motherboard’s integrated PCIe-only M.2 slot for the AHCI/NVMe SSDs, while SATA drives were tested using the aforementioned Addonics AD2M2S-PX4 PCIe expansion card. Note that the AD2M2S-PX4 doesn’t have a dedicated SATA HBA (host bus adapter). It simply uses SATA cables from the motherboard that plug into the card.
PCIe M.2 drives rock when it comes to raw sequential throughput.
As you can see from the charts, the results were split dramatically by technology. The PCIe drives won by huge margins in flat-out sequential read speed, something you’ll notice when you copy large files. NVMe proved faster than AHCI when it’s fed small files from multiple queues (the AD SSD 4K/64 threads test). Whether this scenario occurs depends upon your operating system and NVMe driver.
When threaded, NVMe can really strut its stuff with small files. It’s the reason NVMe showed up in servers first.
Keep in mind that M.2 PCIe, and PCIe drives in general, are relatively new technologies. The SM951 AHCI, only a single generation removed from the XP941 AHCI, is dramatically faster. Both are x4 PCIe, but the XP941 is PCIe Gen 2 (500MBps per lane), while the SM951 is PCIe Gen 3 (1GBps) PCIe. But even the x4 PCIe 2.0 provides 2GBps of bandwidth, so that can hardly explain the entire disparity.
The difference in small file performance between SATA and PCIe isn’t as dramatic, but still shows the advantages.
Having previously experienced only the Plextor, Kingston and XP941 AHCI drives, we were surprised and pleased to see that the SM951 AHCI was competitive with its NVMe sibling. Also note that in our real-life 20GB tests, the Kingston proved almost as fast as either Samsung drive.
All these drives are faster than SATA-bound SSDs, writing a single large file, but the Plextor M6e is actually slower than some when it came to writing small files and folders.
We’ve seen well over 2GBps from Intel’s 750 series NVMe PCIe card drive, which plugs into a an open PCIe slot like a video card (an alternative to M.2 that desktop users should consider), so the SM951 NVMe may not be showing the full potential of NVMe. Intel told us it didn’t produce an M.2 version of the 750 because at top speed, the power draw exceeded what’s available from M.2 slots. Basically, not all the ducks are in a row yet to fairly evaluate AHCI versus NVMe. It is safe, however, to say that PCIe SSDs obliterate their SATA cousins in terms of raw sequential throughput. They also occupy a slot in your motherboard.
Here are the details on the drives involved in the testing.
Intel 530 series SSD M.2
Intel 530 360 GB
This is a decent drive for say an older NUC, or small-form-factor PC. But it’s still SATA and only a 500MBps/300MBps reader/writer at that. That’s certainly enough for the average user, and far faster than a hard drive, but not a product for enthusiasts. The biggest issue is that the 530 series appears still to be priced at about 80 cents per gigabyte—roughly twice what you’ll pay for the faster Samsung 850 EVO M.2.
Though it’s not as good with queued files as it’s NVMe sibling, the Samsung SM951 AHCI is still a very, very fast SSD.
Samsung XP941 PCIe AHCI
The XP941, with its Gen2 X4 PCIe interface, is a kick in the pants after a SATA SSD, but it pales in comparison to the performance of its newer siblings, the SM951 AHCI and NVMe. Still, if you find it at a bargain price, you won’t regret it. At least until Samsung’s new SM953 shows up and drives down the price of the SM951.
Samsung SM951 AHCI/NVMe
If you want the absolutely fastest M.2 PCIe drives on the market, these x4 PCIe SSDs are what you’re looking for. Lightning on a stick, your system will show a level of responsiveness you probably didn’t even realize was possible. The AHCI version is currently faster for large sequential transfers, while the NVMe version is great for server-type, queued loads. This may change as the NVMe implementation matures.
The Kingston HyperX Predator PCIe did very well in our real world copy tests.
Kingston HyperX Predator PCIe
The Kingston HyperX Predator PCIe scored lower than the Samsung SM951 in artificial benchmarks, but did exceptionally well in our real-world copy tests. It also ships with an adapter card. Note: You'll see a steep retail price on the Kingston site, but steep discounts just about everywhere else.
Samsung 850 EVO M.2 SATA
This drive is faster than the Intel 530 and a whole lot cheaper, but performance drops with large data transfers. Not catastrophically, as with OCZ’s Trion 2.5-inch SATA drive, just down to about the 300MBps level. Still, it’s a very good SSD for SATA-only M.2 sockets.
Though it comes on a PCIe M.2 adapter card, you can also buy the M6e by itself.
Plextor M6e PCIe
This AHCI PCIe drive impressed us when it first came out, but a year or two on, it’s certainly not worth the premium prices we found online. SSDs in general have dropped significantly in price, and like-priced PCIe drives now out-perform the M6e by a factor of 3. However, if you find it at a saner price than I did, it provides a nice 100MBps to 200MBps boost over the Samsung 850 EVO and Intel 530.
You want one
I can’t emphasize enough how much better your computer will run with a PCIe SSD on board. Grab a small-capacity model, run your operating system off of it, and flesh out your storage needs with mid-range SATA SSDs or hard drives. You’ll be glad you did.
Currently, the SM951 is top dog, with the Kingston HyperX Predator PCIe delivering just about the same real-world, large-file transfer performance. If you spot a bargain on the XP941, it will deliver a very happy experience as well. If you’re looking to leverage an existing SATA-only M.2 slot, then Samsung’s 850 EVO is currently your best bet.Coordinates:
The Charter Oak, oil on canvas, Charles De Wolf Brownell, 1857., oil on canvas, Charles De Wolf Brownell, 1857. Wadsworth Atheneum
The Charter Oak on the 50 States Series Connecticut quarter
The Charter Oak was an unusually large white oak tree growing on Wyllys Hyll in Hartford, Connecticut in the United States, from around the 12th or 13th century until it fell during a storm in 1856. According to tradition, Connecticut's Royal Charter of 1662 was hidden within the hollow of the tree to thwart its confiscation by the English governor-general. The oak became a symbol of American independence and is commemorated on the Connecticut State Quarter. In 1935, for Connecticut's tercentennial, it was also depicted on both a commemorative half dollar[1] and a postage stamp.[2]
Early history [ edit ]
Dutch explorer Adrian Block described a tree at the future site of Hartford in his log in 1614 which is understood to be this one. In the 1630s, a delegation of local Native Americans is said to have approached Samuel Wyllys, the early settler who owned and cleared much of the land around it, encouraging its preservation and describing it as planted ceremonially, for the sake of peace, when their tribe first settled in the area.
It has been the guide of our ancestors for centuries as to the time of planting our corn; when the leaves are the size of a mouse's ears, then is the time to put the seed into the ground.[3]
Charter Oak incident [ edit ]
The name "Charter Oak" stems from the local legend in which a cavity within the tree was used in late 1687 as a hiding place for the Charter of 1662.
This much regarding the charter is history:
King Charles II granted the Connecticut Colony an unusual degree of autonomy in 1662.
His successor James II consolidated several colonies into the Dominion of New England in 1686, in part to take firmer control of them.
He appointed Sir Edmund Andros as governor-general over it, who stated that his appointment had invalidated the charters of the various constituent colonies. He went to each colony to collect their charters, presumably seeing symbolic value in physically reclaiming the documents.
Andros arrived in Hartford late in October 1687, where his mission was at least as unwelcome as it had been in the other colonies.
According to the dominant tradition, Andros demanded the document and it was produced, but the lights were suddenly doused during ensuing discussion. The parchment was spirited out a window and thence to the Oak by Captain Joseph Wadsworth, ancestor of Elijah Wadsworth.
Two documents[citation needed] raise less dramatic possibilities, one contemporaneous and one from early in the next century, by suggesting that a parchment copy had been made of the true charter as early as June, in anticipation of Andros's arrival:
It has been suggested that the copy was surreptitiously substituted for the original and the original secreted in the oak lest Andros find it in any search of buildings, and that Andros left believing that he had succeeded.
Logically, such a copy (whether hidden in the oak or not) might instead have been the one kept, for the value it might have in propaganda, for morale, or in petitioning for its reinstatement.
The Museum of Connecticut History (a subdivision of the Connecticut State Library) credits the idea that Andros never got the original charter, and displays a parchment that it regards as the original. (The Connecticut Historical Society is said[by whom?] to possess a "fragment" of it.)
Andros was overthrown in Boston two years later in the 1689 Boston revolt. The Dominion of New England was then dissolved.
Relics [ edit ]
The Charter Oak Chair shown on a postcard
The oak was blown down in a violent storm on August 21, 1856 and timber from it was made into a number of chairs now displayed in the Hartford Capitol Building. The desk of the Governor of Connecticut and the chairs for the Speaker of the House of Representatives and President of the Senate in the state capitol were made from wood salvaged from the Charter Oak.
A wooden baseball made from the Charter Oak was presented by the Charter Oak Engine Co. No. 1 on September 20, 1860 to the Charter Oak Base Ball Club of Brooklyn.[4]
References [ edit ]
Notes
BibliographyBy Todd Crowell
TOKYO
For many in Asia, Emperor Akihito proved on his recent visit to the Philippines that he is the country's real messenger of peace.
While politicians’ expressions of regret or remorse often ring hallow, at least to the ears of Asian neighbors that were occupied by Japan's Imperial Army, Akihito consistently laid stress on the World War II legacy.
During his five-day state visit to the Philippines -- which ended Friday -- Akihito urged the younger generation “to keep alive the memories of [the war]” and the hardships that followed -- not just in the Philippines but all Asian countries, including Japan.
The Philippines was the site for some of the worst atrocities of WWII, starting with the Bataan “Death March” at the beginning of the occupation to the Battle of Manila near its end, where an estimated 100,000 civilians died.
Nevertheless, Filipinos do not seem to pick at these scars as much as the Chinese and the Koreans. Indeed, bilateral relations between Tokyo and Manila are unusually cordial. Philippine President Benigno Aquino III paid a formal visit to Japan last year.
The Philippines is eager to earn Japan’s support in territorial disputes in the South China Sea -- the “West Philippine Sea” to Manila. President Benigno Aquino even congratulated Prime Minister Shinzo Abe over passage of Japan's controversial security laws last summer.
Emperor Akihito, now 82, was an impressionable 11-year-old boy when the war ended.
He had been sent to the countryside to protect him from American bombing, but nothing protected him from his first sight of the utter devastation of Tokyo.
Under Japan’s constitution, written by American occupiers, Akihito has almost no role to play in Japanese politics. He isn’t even head of state, only a “symbol” of the unity of the nation.
He never comments publicly on Japanese policy, yet in many subtle ways he makes his generally pacifist views known.
Last summer, when the world was focused on what Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would say on the 70th anniversary of the WWII surrender, the Imperial Household Agency released a reconditioned copy of his father Hirohito’s famous “endure the unendurable” surrender speech.
In some ways he is a more effective opposition leader than the hapless official opposition, headed by the Democratic Party of Japan. He is an antidote to Abe’s “stop dwelling on history and let Japan be a normal nation again” mantra.
For many Japanese conservatives -- people who revere the monarchy as an institution -- it must be a source of great disappointment that the actual emperor is a liberal (as is his future successor, the crown prince, Naruhito).
Many conservatives, including the PM himself, venerate the Yasukuni shine in downtown Tokyo dedicated to Japan’s war dead. Yet Akihito has never visited the shrine and his father stopped going in 1972 after it became known that the priests had secretly enshrined 14 “Class A” war criminals.
Instead, Akihito attends a memorial service at the Nippon Budokan -- a large indoor arena. But it is not a permanent memorial to Japan’s war dead or anything else. Upcoming events include rock concerts or a sumo tournament.
He has visited other memorials both in Japan and abroad. During his recent visit to the Philippines, he laid a wreath at the Heroes Cemetery dedicated to Filipinos who fought and died during the war.
During his visits he prays for “all those” who lost their lives, including Americans. In his visit to the Palau last year, site of a famous South Pacific Battle, he laid a wreath of flowers on the memorial to 1,700 Americans killed in the battle as well as the one dedicated to the 5,000 fallen Japanese soldiers.
While other Japanese leaders seem to choke on expressing any sincere regrets for Japan’s aggression during and before WWII, words and phrases such as “deep sorrow,” or “deep remorse” seem to come easily from the emperor’s mouth.
The only discordant note about Akihito’s visit was a demonstration for women recruited for army brothels during the war, known as the “comfort women.” It is a complaint similar to virtually all of Asian nations occupied by Japan.
Only 103 Filipina comfort women are still alive.
When Akihito became emperor on the death of his father in 1989, he chose the word “Heisei”, meaning achieving peace, as his rein name (which appears on all official documents – this year is Heisei 28.)
But then his father, Hirohito, now known as the Showa Emperor, picked Showa as his rein name -- meaning “enlightened peace,” which today appears ironic considering the epic destruction wrought in his nameNevada Wolfpack vs. San Diego State Aztecs
Friday, 10/4/13, 9:00 PM EST
Opening Point Spread: SDSU -5.5
Current Betting Line: SDSU -5
Opening Total: 55.5
Current Total: 57
Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker
Nevada is coming off a thrilling 45-42 comeback win over Air Force as 11-point home favorites last Saturday, while going OVER the betting total of 58.5. The Wolf Pack were led offensively by quarterback Cody Fajardo, who accounted for 470 yards of total offense and five touchdowns, which is important to consider when making your college football betting picks. With the passing attack in full effect, the receiving corps has benefited, especially Brandon Wimberly setting career highs with 15 catches last week. Nevada is 0-3 SU and 2-0-1 ATS as underdogs of 3.5 to 10 points, with the UNDER going 2-1 in that situation.
The Wolf Pack will go as far as Fajardo can take them, as he ranks second nationally in completion percentage. Nevada’s defense has created some major opportunities for the offense during the 2013 campaign—leading the Mountain West Conference and ranking ninth in the country with a +1.40 turnover margin. A total of 27 players have made their collegiate debuts for the program this season, including six true freshmen.
San Diego State is set to open conference play in a nationally-televised game at Qualcomm Stadium, as it prepares to be showcased on ESPN for the first time since Nov. 27, 1999. The Aztecs have won seven consecutive conference games, as it came into this season as the defending Mountain West champion. Last week, the team picked up its first victory of the season, overcoming a 16-point deficit for the eighth time in school history. San Diego State is 4-0 SU and 3-0-1 ATS as home favorites of 3.5 to 7 points since 2011.
The Aztecs have allowed opponents to rush for a total of 50 yards on 47 carries for a 1.06 per rush average over the last two games. San Diego State has lost five straight conference openers, which can’t be ignored when looking over the college football odds page. The winning team has scored at least 26 points in all five meetings in this series, with Saturday’s host coming out on top in the last two affairs. There’s no question this is a big game on both sides, as numerous players on both sides played high school ball together.
Sports bettors will likely back the Aztecs due to their 6-1 ATS mark in their last seven conference games.
Don’t miss out on a winning season and let the college football handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash. Long term packages are available now!
Share This Post TweetThings have gotten so awkward for some Republicans on Capitol Hill that they'd prefer to plead ignorance about their presumptive presidential nominee, real estate mogul Donald Trump, rather than answer questions about his no-holds-barred attacks on Muslims.
Though many Republicans distanced themselves Tuesday from Trump's remarks, some lawmakers preferred instead to beg off inquiries from reporters, claiming they had simply not heard Trump's speech the day prior in which he doubled down on his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States.
Asked about Trump's suggestion that President Barack Obama is sympathetic to Islamic terrorism, and that the president may have been somehow connected to Sunday's shooting at an Orlando gay nightclub, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) also decided to take a pass.
"I'm not going to be commenting on the presidential candidate today," McConnell told reporters, notably avoiding calling Trump by name.
Across the Capitol, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) distanced himself from Trump's rhetoric and proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States, telling reporters he did not think the ban was "in our country's interests." But he, too, declined to comment on Trump's dark insinuation against the president.
Ryan declines to answer question on Trump's assertion that Obama is complicit w Islamic terrorism. Says he won't comment on day to day Trump — Luke Russert (@LukeRussert) June 14, 2016
Rep. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.) took a similar tack.
“Aw, man. I’m not going to speak to that,” she told The Huffington Post when asked about Trump's proposals. “I won’t give you an answer on that today.”
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), meanwhile, refused to even refer to Trump as the party's presumptive nominee, even though the Manhattan businessman has secured enough delegates to clinch the nomination next month at the GOP convention.
"We don't have a nominee" Sen Alexander says in response to question on Trump. Informed he's the presumptive nominee: "That's what you say." — Erica Werner (@ericawerner) June 14, 2016
Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) headed down a flight of stairs and kept walking out of the Capitol as HuffPost tried to get his response to Trump's comments about Muslims.
“I don’t make any comments on the presidential candidates,” Enzi said. “If you’ve got an issue you want to talk to me about that I’m working on, I’m happy to talk about it.”
Asked if that means he has no thoughts on Trump being his party’s presidential nominee, the Wyoming senator paused, and before walking off, said only, “Not that I’m sharing.”
The Republican National Committee, which has fully embraced Trump, issued a statement in response to a searing rebuttal from Obama on Tuesday. His voice steadily rising, the president castigated Republican officials who did not stand up against Trump’s toxic proposals and claimed his anti-Muslim bashing would threaten America at home and abroad.
The RNC's statement, however, included no reference to Trump or his proposed ban -- almost as if it were issued in an alternate universe in which he did not exist.
RNC response to Obama remarks include no mention of, or defense of, Trump pic.twitter.com/d0lHMszOqf — Nick Corasaniti (@NYTnickc) June 14, 2016
Jennifer Bendery contributed reporting.At around 10:15 local time Sunday night, country music star Jason Aldean was performing what was to be the final song of his set, and the final song of the three-day Route 91 Harvest Festival concert at an outdoor venue at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Resort. Multiple videos are online that were recording the concert when what appears to be at least three sustained rounds of automatic gunfire rang out. As with all terror or mass casualty events, early reports can and often are correct, but as of this posting, the shots were fired from a hotel room window high up the Mandalay Bay tower overlooking the concert crowd. Some reports were the 20th floor, but that level of detail is not confirmed.
The Strip has been shut down, and hundreds of emergency vehicles – police, SWAT, fire and EMT swarmed the area. Initial casualty counts are two confirmed dead, at least 26 wounded. Those numbers will most certainly change. Police have said they believe there was only one shooter, and that shooter is down.
I implore everyone online, including on social media, to do four things.
Pray. Do not add to the shock and horror, especially to those who are going to be waking up to news that their loved ones were either injured or killed attending a concert on a Sunday night. Please do the human thing here and not speculate wildly or link to stuff that’s not verified, or play politics with something like this. It’s ghoulish. Repeat step 1.
10/2 1:35AM PDT UPDATE: Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo is holding a press conference. The shooter fired from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay down onto the crowd. He is now deceased. He is a local Vegas resident. His name is being withheld. His residence is being gone through currently. He was allegedly with a female companion named Mari Lou Danley, who is 4′ 11″ and is of Asian descent. She is referred to as a roommate of the shooter, she is not in custody, and is most definitely wanted for questioning. There are two vehicles registered to the two involved, the at-large female and the deceased shooter that police are looking for. The casualty count, as tragically expected considering the eyewitness reports that have poured in, are at least 20 killed, including at least 2 off-duty police officers, and at least 100 people injured.
10/2 3:20AM PDT UPDATE: Pete Williams of NBC News has identified the shooter as 64 year old Stephen Paddock. No motive, no other information, other than he’s suspected to share the residence with the other person of interest, Marilou Danley.
10/2 3:40AM PDT UPDATE: It’s almost unfathomable to write this. Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo just updated the media in a press conference that the number of dead in the shooting has reached 50, and the number of injured is 200. It’s among, if not the, deadliest mass shooting in American history. Dear God.
10/2 3:54AM PDT UPDATE: Las Vegas authorities have said Marilou Danley, the woman/roommate of the shooter, is in custody. The room in which the shooter stayed in Vegas has been searched, and a number of weapons were recovered.
10/2 5:55AM PDT UPDATE: It just gets worse. Over 400 have been transported to hospitals with injuries related to the shooting at the concert last night.I grew up in Duluth and I can tell I'm getting older because I soon will have only one school left open. I went to Grant Elementary (still open!), Washington Junior and Duluth Central High School. As Duluth Central prepares to close its doors, I see some great stories reflecting on what it has meant to this community. For me personally it was not only was the school my mom, sisters and I graduated from, it was a place that provided amazing friends and memories that I will have for the rest of my life.
I loved going to Duluth Central because it provided more than an education. I didn't come from the richest family at Central or the poorest, but I became friends with that spectrum of people as Central truly was the melting pot school in the area. Cultural, ethnic and socioeconomic diversity all existed inside Duluth Central High School and we all learned from each other. When I went there we didn't have gang issues, bomb scares or the weapon issues you hear about today across the country. We were a bunch of kids from all walks of life learning from our teachers and each other. I think such diversity is crucial as you grow up as it helps teach you an appreciation and respect for others. It also helps develop an open mind, which this world tends to lack at crucial points in time.
I can rattle off the names of many friends from Central that I still keep in touch with and who I'm still proud to call friends. High School can be such a fun, drama-filled, intense and amazing experience. I'm thankful I had this experience at Duluth Central High School. Hurrah For The Red And White!
Central High School has been called the anchor of Duluth, a unifier of the eastern and western parts of town and a place where students from all walks of life find common ground. The nearly 120-year-old institution closes its doors this school year for good, sending students to Denfeld and East high schools next year as part of the Duluth school district’s Red Plan. The school — the city’s first high school — opened downtown in 1892 in what was thought to be among the 10 grandest buildings in the country at the time, an architectural masterpiece. It moved to its top-of-the-hill location in 1971. Historic Old Central High School remains the district administration building, but the “new” Central will be sold. The location of both Central High School buildings showed that the city placed a high priority on education, said Tom Boman, a 1949 graduate of Central and a University of Minnesota Duluth professor emeritus. “Old Central was the focal point for downtown, and new Central has one of the finest vantage points in the whole city,” he said. “It was more than just a convenient location; it was a symbol of the importance of a good education system.” Several alumni, students and school employees talked about what it means as the Central High School era comes to an end. Central’s identity Of Duluth’s three high schools, Central has been seen as having the most diverse student population — racially, financially and geographically. “You have rural kids, kids from the Hillside, kids from Park Point and kids from Duluth Heights,” said Mayor Don Ness, a fourth-generation Central graduate from the class of 1992. “It’s not always easy, but kids learn from one another because of the diversity. That’s one thing I appreciated as a student. I got to interact and be friends with a wide variety of students.” In every school you’ll find a spectrum of financial backgrounds, Ness said, “but Central had a better balance of it. No demographic or income strata was a majority. That was both special and important.” Sebastian Witherspoon, a member of the 1994 class, said the school was a “melting pot.” During his time, he said, the percentage of students of color was high and made the school a more welcoming place for minorities. “Anybody can belong to Central,” he said. Jonas Dean, a 1999 graduate, said Central was a buffer between East and Denfeld. “It provided a lot of avenues for high school kids to come together,” he said. “I had friends from Denfeld and East. The other schools saw it the same way.” It also was a school where students felt equal, he said, and being involved was encouraged. “I grew up in a lower-middle-class family, and I felt like Central offered all the opportunity in the world to get involved and be successful,” he said. “Everybody had a chance.” Longtime Central Principal Lisa Mitchell-Krocak considers the school the heart of Duluth. The school served the entire city in the 1890s and early 1900s until Denfeld was built, she said, and it became the centerpiece after East was built. “Having three schools is different than having two,” Mitchell-Krocak said. “Our community will now have to define itself again.” To her, its modern identity is rooted in the generosity of the community, both financially and with time given to students. She could provide a roster of alumni and teachers who have written checks so students in need could buy a prom dress or have the money to attend field trips and retreats. The students have a huge amount of pride in their school, she said, but it’s a spirit of honor rather than ego. When Denfeld students merged with those at Central this year, they were polite and respectful, she said. “The students this year provided leadership without being angry,” she said. “Our kids know that we have to move forward. And it’s time to move forward.”
Read entire article via For generations, Duluthians have come together at Central High School | Duluth News Tribune | Duluth, Minnesota.All summer long, North Korea has tested one weapon after another, the most recent being a ballistic missile this Friday. And with each new act of belligerence, experts and the media have scrambled to make sense of what comes next. “What is North Korea Trying to Hit?” asked the Washington Post, while Bloomberg went straight for the gut-punch with “Scared About North Korea? You Aren’t Scared Enough.” For the more levelheaded readers (like Alaskans, the Americans who live within closest range of a North Korean missle, but are more concerned about bears and moose), the real question might be, why do North Koreans hate us so much? After all, the Korean War—as horrifically destructive as it was—ended more than 60 years ago. The United States hasn’t attacked North Korea once since that armistice was signed, but the little country has remained a belligerent—and since 2006, nuclear-armed—thorn in the world’s side.
Part of this perpetual aggression has to do with the personal experiences of North Korea’s founding father, dictator Kim Il-sung. Born in Japanese-occupied Korea in 1912, Kim Il-sung spent most of his childhood in China, eventually joining the Chinese Communist Party and leading a renowned band of guerrilla fighters that took on Japanese forces in northeast China and Korea (a region then called Manchuria). But when other members of the Chinese Communist Party accused Kim of conspiring with the Japanese, he learned that loyalty wasn’t always returned. In the 1930s, Kim also knew the Soviet Union was deporting ethnic Koreans from the Soviet Far East back to Korea, because the Soviets, too, feared Koreans would support Japan in the latter’s expansion across Asia. Even the countries that should have ostensibly been Kim’s allies from the start of his military career didn’t seem to have his home nation’s best interests at heart.
From there, things only got worse. Having joined the Soviet Red Army in 1940, Kim Il-sung was perfectly positioned for a fortuitous appointment—Stalin made him the head of the North Korean Temporary People’s Committee in 1946, and when North Korea officially became a country in 1948, Kim was declared its prime minister (at that point Russia and the U.S. had succeeded in defeating Japan and divided the Korean peninsula into two countries, with the border drawn so that the U.S. would administer over Seoul).
In 1950, Kim Il-sung convinced Soviet Premier Josef Stalin to provide tanks for a war that would reunify North and South Korea. Kim nearly succeeded, advancing his troops down to the southern edge of the peninsula to take almost the entirety of South Korea. But then American forces led by General Douglas MacArthur pushed the North Koreans all the way back up to their shared border with China. When Kim begged Stalin for help, the Soviet dictator said no. And Chairman Mao Zedong of China waited two days before agreeing to assist the North Koreans.
“Imagine how one would feel knowing that you lost your country for those two days,” says James Person, director of the Center for Korean History and Public Policy at the Wilson Center. “The historical experience and Kim’s own personal experience shaped the way that the Korean leadership saw the world”—as a hostile place with no reliable allies.
After three years of fighting, the war ended in 1953. Even then only an armistice was signed—not a formal peace agreement. A new border was drawn that gave South Korea slightly more territory and created the demilitarized zone, or DMZ, between the two nations. The U.S. continued assisting South Korea in its development, and China and the Soviet Union remained nominal allies of North Korea.
North Korea’s idiosyncratic foreign policy since then can be traced in the history of three words: juche, songun and byungjin. Each has taken its turn as a central tenet for every new Kim in the North Korean dynasty. Each has colored the totalitarian regime’s reaction to the rest of the world—and especially its relationship to the U.S.
Juche (Going It Alone)
In 1972, North Korea’s socialist constitution adopted “juche—a creative application of Marxism-Leninism—as the guideline for state activities,” according to Understanding North Korea, a publication of the South Korean government. Although the word is often translated as “self-reliance,” North Korea expert Jonathan Pollack, who works with the Brookings Institution, says that doesn’t capture the whole of it. “Juche is more what I would call ‘self-determination.’ It basically says you can beg, borrow and steal from anyone in the world, but you can still tell them to go f*** themselves,” Pollack says. “There’s a level at which they’ve been so audacious through all their history—don’t get me wrong—but you kind of have to admire it.”
For Kim Il-sung, juche was the result of not trusting either of North Korea’s nominal allies, the Soviet Union and China. He already felt betrayed by their lack of support during the Korean War, and his opinion didn’t improve during the Cold War. North Korea perceived the Soviets as having capitulated to the U.S. during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, Person says, and his experiences in China made him wary of fully trusting Mao Zedong. So beginning in the early 1960s, the country threw an enormous amount of resources into developing its military. By 1965, North Korea’s budget for national defense rose to nearly 30 percent of its GDP, when it had only accounted for 4.3 percent of its GDP just nine years earlier, reports Atsuhito Isozaki.
Kim Il-sung continued to squeeze China, the Soviet Union and Eastern European Communist countries for all he could get, all the while keeping them at arm’s length. “No foreign country has retained a major presence in the North, other than in an advisory capacity,” Pollack says. But that mistrust of other countries and determination to forge their own path backfired when the Soviet Union collapsed at the end of the 20th century, and North Korea’s go-it-alone mentality was tested by a sudden decline in foreign aid. Shortly after that, in 1994, Kim Il-sung died, and the torch of leadership passed on to his son, Kim Jong-il.
Songun (Maintaining Power With Military Might)
Kim Jong-il inherited a country—but also a devastating economic recession and famine. Without the Soviet Union providing food aid and acting as willing trading partner, North Korea’s economy contracted by a quarter, Pollack says. Several million people died of starvation, though the exact number is unknown because the country is so secretive. But rather than invest in agricultural development, Kim Jong-il doubled down on his father’s policy of increased military spending, creating a new national ethos called songun, or “military first.”
“The military is not just an institution designed to perform the function of defending the country from external hostility,” writes researcher Han S. Park for the Korea Economic Institute of America. “Instead, it provides all of the other institutions of the government with legitimacy. [Under songun], no problem is too big or too small for the military to solve.”
In a country of only 24 million people, more than 1 million are active members of the military, and the institution has a compulsory 10-year service requirement. Not only do military personnel test weapons and train for battle, they’re also assigned more menial duties like carrying groceries for civilians and repairing plumbing. With the U |
actors of all time, and Academy Award winner Robert Duvall has had the pleasure of sharing the stage and screen with each of them. Yet, for as many of the greats he has worked with, the 85-year-old Duvall contends that today's generation of actors is truly taking the industry by storm.
"People disagree with me, but now, the young actors are better than ever," Duvall tells "Oprah's Master Class." "How much better can you be than Matthew McConaughey was in 'Dallas Buyers Club?' My Lord."
To be a good actor, Duvall says, often comes down to taking one of two approaches.
"I think you can be a good actor coming from a sense of truth or a sense of lying," he states. "I think you can get good performances from both approaches."
OWN Robert Duvall (left) has worked with acting legends, like Marlon Brando in "The Godfather." Today's young actors, Duvall says, are "better than ever."
A director's approach is also a huge factor in an actor's performance, he adds. In Duvall's opinion, today's directors seem to have figured out a directing style that allows actors to shine. "The directors, I think the good ones now are better," he says.
In his early days as an actor, Duvall noticed directors taking a far different approach than they do today.
"I saw one of the old time directors say to an actor, 'When I say action, tense up, goddamn it.' I mean, you don't say that to Joe Montana in the Super Bowl, do you?" he asks. "There's a difference between intensity and tenseness, you know. But a lot of directors would say, 'Action!' and then have their fingers crossed, hoping they're going to come up with something instead of saying, 'Don't worry about coming up with something; let's just see what happens.'"
I think you can be a good actor coming from a sense of truth or a sense of lying."
There was one particular director who did adopt this more relaxed approach in Duvall's era: Francis Ford Coppola, the man behind the "Godfather" films.
"Even though he was on a high level... he wanted to see what you would bring and what you would do without being hammered by a director," Duvall says.
OWN Some directors lack the approach required to get a good performance out of an actor, Duvall says. Francis Ford Coppola (right) wasn't one of them.
Good directors and good actors also understand the important nuances between acting and overacting, which Duvall says plenty of other people misinterpret. Just because you "go big" and give a scene all you've got doesn't necessarily mean you're crossing the line of believability, he points out.
"If you do that within the confines of your temperament, then you can go broad," Duvall says. "And sometimes when people really are within the confines of their temperament in a broad way, people say they're overacting -- and they're not. They're not. A broad moment can be just as valid as a quiet moment."
There's a difference between intensity and tenseness, you know.
As far as his own approach to acting, Duval says he always subscribed to a theory that allowed him to trust his emotions, acting ability and directors.
"I had my own theory within a scene, where you trick yourself: To get a result that's legitimate, let the process take you to the result, rather than just going to the result," he says. "Be willing to start from zero and say, 'Well, let's see what happens,' rather than the old-school, 'Give me something.'"
Also on HuffPost:Mike@N54Tuning.com BimmerPost Supporting Vendor Rep 3295 Posts 81,202
Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: N54tuning.com
89) iTrader: (
Drives: 2007 335i, 2015 M3
First car to have these install (BMS Test Car for B58 Development)
2016 340i B58 back from PURE with the Stage1 turbo installed. JB4 tuning for it is still a work in progress but turbo response is almost as good as stock and so far no problems making around 30whp more than the stock turbo up top.
The test vehicle is running the JB4, BMS B58 intake, BMS WMI, and PURE S1 turbo. Exhaust and emissions equipment all 100% unmodified. Boost juice and ~95 octane.
The above dyno so far (@ 23psi) The stock tuning seems to run the turbo just fine at stock like boost levels. BMS did a few runs up to 25psi (the current boost cap setting in the B58 JB4) and while it wanted to make more power there are a few tuning glitches they will have to tweak first. Hope to see 500whp with this thing shortly.The American Library Association (ALA) released its 2015 list of the 10 “most challenged” books on Monday.
The ranking is based on 275 challenges, meaning “a formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that a book or other material be restricted or removed because of its content or appropriateness,” the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) said in a statement, as part of an annual report on the “State of America’s Libraries.” A challenge doesn’t necessarily mean the book was censored, with outcomes varying per school.
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Below is the full list, including complaints about each title:
Looking for Alaska, by John Green
Reasons: Offensive language, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group. Fifty Shades of Grey, by E. L. James
Reasons: Sexually explicit, unsuited to age group, and other (“poorly written,” “concerns that a group of teenagers will want to try it”). I Am Jazz, by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings
Reasons: Inaccurate, homosexuality, sex education, religious viewpoint, and unsuited for age group. Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out, by Susan Kuklin
Reasons: Anti-family, offensive language, homosexuality, sex education, political viewpoint, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, and other (“wants to remove from collection to ward off complaints”). The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon
Reasons: Offensive language, religious viewpoint, unsuited for age group, and other (“profanity and atheism”). The Holy Bible
Reasons: Religious viewpoint. Fun Home, by Alison Bechdel
Reasons: Violence and other (“graphic images”). Habibi, by Craig Thompson
Reasons: Nudity, sexually explicit, and unsuited for age group. Nasreen’s Secret School: A True Story from Afghanistan, by Jeanette Winter
Reasons: Religious viewpoint, unsuited to age group, and violence. Two Boys Kissing, by David Levithan
Reasons: Homosexuality and other (“condones public displays of affection”).
Write to Olivia B. Waxman at olivia.waxman@time.com.Photo: Scott Legato/Getty
Tom Petty has written many greatest-hits albums full of radio classics. Now, thanks to a legal settlement, he’s earned a co-writing credit on a new one: Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me.” The Sun reported that, thanks to unintentional similarities between Smith and his co-writers’ (James Napier and William Phillips) ballad about emotional vulnerability and Petty and his co-writer Jeff Lynne’s sorta-ballad about stoic perseverance, “I Won’t Back Down,” the latter duo will start earning a 12.5 percent credit on the royalties for “Stay With Me.”
This is both old and new hat for Petty. Back in 2001, some reasonably keen-eared listeners noticed that the Strokes’ “Last Nite” sure sounded a lot like Petty’s “American Girl.” C’est la vie, said Petty. “The Strokes took ‘American Girl’ [for ‘Last Nite’],” Petty told Rolling Stone, “and I saw an interview with them where they actually admitted it. That made me laugh out loud. I was like, ‘OK, good for you.’ It doesn’t bother me.”
Then, in 2006, classic-rock detectives again noticed that there seemed to be some more Petty pilfering going on. This time, the alleged culprit was the Red Hot Chili Peppers, whose “Dani California” was awfully close to Petty’s “Mary Jane’s Last Dance.” And again, Petty didn’t much care. “The truth is, I seriously doubt that there is any negative intent there,” he said in that same RS interview, adding, “a lot of rock & roll songs sound alike.” When he was asked if he considered a lawsuit, Petty said nah. “I don’t believe in lawsuits much. I think there are enough frivolous lawsuits in this country without people fighting over pop songs.”
Unfortunately for Sam Smith (and other songwriters who enjoy laid-back, bluesy melodies over standard rock-chord progressions), the unintentionally plagiarizing–Tom Petty–and-getting-away-with-it train appears to have left the station.Image copyright PA Image caption The plans would allow the tax authority to take tax debts from accounts
Plans to allow the tax authority to settle unpaid demands by taking money from people's bank accounts have been criticised by a group of MPs.
The Treasury Committee says it is very concerned because tax officials have a history of making mistakes.
Chancellor George Osborne unveiled the plan at this year's Budget.
But in a wide-ranging report, the committee did welcome another Budget plan - to allow greater flexibility on how pension savings can be used.
In the Budget, Mr Osborne outlined plans for new powers for HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to recover tax debts from anyone who owes more than £1,000 in tax or in tax credits.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption ACCA's Chas Roy-Chowdhury tells 5 live: "There are fairly robust safeguards"
This would allow the tax authority to seize the tax owed directly from debtors' bank accounts.
HMRC Performance
But the committee said the plan was problematic owing to HMRC's performance in the past when it has failed to accurately calculate tax bills.
"People should pay the right amount of tax. But HMRC does not always ask for the right amount," said committee chairman Andrew Tyrie.
Planned safeguards HMRC will only target those who have long-term debts and have received at least four demands for payment
At least £5,000 must be left in total across all debtor's accounts, including savings accounts, after the unpaid tax is seized
The tax authority will freeze the amount owed in accounts for 14 days to allow time for a debtor to pay before the money is seized
"Some taxpayers may find money taken from their accounts that later should be paid back. That would be unacceptable."
He said the committee also had "deep reservations" about changes to tax policy that would require upfront payment of any disputed tax associated with tax avoidance schemes.
"Retrospection should be considered only in wholly exceptional circumstances. The latest measure would have to be justified on those grounds," Mr Tyrie said.
"Retrospection puts policy on a slippery path to arbitrary taxation, discouraging investment and innovation and creating the scope for great unfairness."
Committee member Mark Garnier, a Conservative MP, said at the moment HMRC needed a court order to be able to seize money from accounts.
The committee is concerned that the current system of checks and balances could be upset.
Budget measures for savers Image copyright Thinkstock New Individual Savings Accounts (NISAs) will shelter up to £15,000 a year tax-free from July
10% tax rate on savings abolished
Number of monthly £1m Premium Bond prizes increased to two
More generous Premium Bond savings limits
New Pensioner Bond for the over-65s.
"What we worry about is... that essentially HMRC will be acting as judge and jury," Mr Garnier told the BBC.
HMRC recently explained how the system will work.
It will only target those who have long-term debts and have received at least four demands for payment and will ensure that at least £5,000 is left in total across all debtor's accounts, including savings accounts, after the unpaid tax is seized.
HMRC will freeze the amount owed in accounts for 14 days to allow time for a debtor to pay before the money is seized.
The Low Incomes Tax Reform Group has called on HMRC to give more concrete assurances about the right to appeal against any seizure.
But the ACCA accountancy body, which after the Budget described the plans as "seriously draconian", now calls them "less fearsome than first thought" after more detail was published.
"On paper, the safeguards look relatively robust, and the reality is it is unlikely that anyone will be left penniless," said Chas Roy-Chowdhury, head of taxation at the ACCA..
The plans are now going through a consultation process. If approved by Parliament, they will take effect in 2015-16.
Pensions
The Treasury committee also called for pensions and savings to be taxed in the same way.
Image caption The Budget included major changes in the way people save
The most eye-catching measure in Mr Osborne's Budget was a plan that effectively abolishes the requirement for some people to buy an annuity - a retirement income for life.
From next year millions of people reaching retirement age will be able to spend their pension pot in any way they want, including cashing in their pension savings in one, taxed, lump sum. Temporary rules are in place in the meantime.
The committee said that all of the witnesses it heard from welcomed the "greater flexibility and choice" that the reforms proposed.
However, it said the guidance that was being promised ahead of retirement should be clear and at least offer an opportunity of face-to-face help.
The changes are likely to lead to the creation of a variety of new financial products for retirees, and the committee said these must be sold responsibly.
"Following the financial crisis, and the mis-selling scandals, the reputation of the industry is under scrutiny," said Andrew Tyrie, who chairs the committee.
He added that it would be a "great prize" were the tax treatment of pensions and savings treated in the same way.
The chancellor announced an extension to the amount that could be saved in an tax-free Individual Savings Account (Isa) from 1 July 2014 to up to £15,000 either as cash or shares.Restaurants misrepresented type of fish served
OLYMPIA — Attorney General Bob Ferguson today announced agreements with two Washington restaurants ordering them to cease mislabeling fish in sushi.
An investigation by the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division uncovered evidence that the Washington restaurants incorrectly labeled fish used in their sushi between March and August 2016. Assurances of Discontinuance filed in King County Superior Court require both businesses to accurately disclose the species of fish sold to consumers and pay costs and fees.
“Consumers deserve to know the truth about what they are buying,” Ferguson said. “If you mislead consumers, my office will hold you accountable.”
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) maintains a database of fish species names, known as The Seafood List. The Seafood List contains all acceptable market names for fish species.
In these cases, unacceptable market names were used in labeling fish.
On multiple occasions, the Attorney General’s Office purchased sushi at Sushi Tokyo of Seattle and Oto Sushi of Redmond. The restaurants sold the sushi as raw salmon, tuna and snapper. The AGO sent samples to a food testing laboratory to verify whether the types of fish were properly labeled.
Testing found that the restaurants labeled their sushi as “white tuna” or albacore when it was actually escolar. Additionally, Sushi Tokyo mislabeled tilapia as “Tai red snapper.” AGO investigators determined that the restaurants had purchased correctly named fish but changed the names on their menus.
In addition to agreeing to discontinue deceptive practices, the two businesses must pay the Attorney General’s Office’s costs and fees in the cases: $4,000 for Sushi Tokyo and $1,500 for Oto Sushi.
The Attorney General’s Office initiated its investigation following a study from non-profit Oceana concerning the mislabeling of fish in sushi.
Assistant Attorney General Joel Delman is lead attorney in these cases.
The Attorney General’s Office offers an informal complaint resolution service to Washington state residents and to consumers with complaints about businesses located in Washington state. To file a complaint about a business or other consumer issue, go to atg.wa.gov/file-complaint.
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The Office of the Attorney General is the chief legal office for the state of Washington with attorneys and staff in 27 divisions across the state providing legal services to roughly 200 state agencies, boards and commissions. Visit www.atg.wa.gov to learn more.
Contacts:
Peter Lavallee, Communications Director, (360) 586-0725; PeterL@atg.wa.govSooner or later, we were bound to have a superhero, animated or live action, wearing just underwear. The main characters of “Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie” tell the audience how superheroes typically look like they are in their pajamas, so they have created one who is wearing little to nothing. Most of the time, superheroes are wearing things we would never wear to the office, and there are others who look like they are barely dressed as it is. With Captain Underpants, we now have a heroic character who wears underwear as well as a cape, and he shows no shame in his appearance. Why should he anyway? He’s a superhero, and one look at him will confirm whether he prefers boxers or briefs.
“Captain Underpants” is a series of children’s novels written by Dav Pilkey who channeled his class clown behavior and learning disabilities into them, and now it has been adapted to the big screen by Dreamworks Animation. I had no idea what to expect from this “First Epic Movie” as I am unfamiliar with these books, but I am delighted to say the filmmakers have created an animated film which appeals to both kids and adults. While kids can revel in the adventures these characters have, the adults will get a kick out of the subversive comic elements which remind us of the problems we Americans experience with our malfunctioning education system. Just keep in mind, a lot of these problems began occurring before Betsy DeVos became Secretary of Education.
Anyway, we are quickly introduced to the main characters, George Beard (Kevin Hart) and Harold Hutchins (Thomas Middleditch), a pair of fourth-graders and best friends who revel in entertaining their classmates with pranks and creating comic books in their treehouse which they have branded as the headquarters for their company, Treehouse Comix Inc. Their friendship, however, is threatened by the evil Mr. Krupp (Ed Helms), the elementary school principal. After one prank too many, Mr. Krupp, decides to tear them apart by putting them into separate classrooms. But our young heroes quickly turn the tables by hypnotizing him with a 3D Hypno Ring they got out of a cereal box, and this allows them to turn Mr. Krupp into their most popular comic book creation, Captain Underpants.
I loved how this movie touches on a child’s view of elementary school to where I was reminded of the years I spent there. The thought of being in a separate classroom from your best friend was a real fear as recess time never seemed long enough to hang out together. And yes, school did seem like a prison at times where the teachers, the bad ones anyway, look determined to suck the fun out of anything and everything while making us learn facts and dates, some of which will escape our minds in the distant future. Heck, the teachers need textbooks to be reminded of these same things.
But moreover, “Captain Underpants” reminds us of how powerful our imaginations were at that age. We had such vivid fantasy worlds playing in our heads, and we went to places and experienced adventures where we were always the hero. Seeing George and Harold bring these adventures to life in comic books should make you remember when your imaginary worlds were infinite in what they promised. While the forces of schoolwork and conformity loom large in their lives, and they will loom even larger as they get older, we root for these two kids to persevere as we are reminded of how children need time to play and create. I feels like, in this day and age, the fun of childhood has given way to preparing kids for those damned SATs even before they graduate from pre-school.
Okay, maybe I’m making “Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie” sound more serious than it has any right to be. In the end, this movie is all about fun as George and Harold try their best to keep their hypnotized principal in check even as his alter-ego of the Captain keeps him bouncing all over the place as he attempts to save those who don’t necessarily need saving. Seeing these two kids switch Mr. Krupp into Captain Underpants and vice versa makes for one of this movie’s funniest moments.
Of course, there proves to be an even bigger threat than Mr. Krupp here as the movie’s main villain, Professor Poopypants (Nick Kroll), comes to the elementary school as the new science teacher. His plan? To eradicate laughter from the planet as he has long become impatient with everybody not taking him seriously. Then again, how can anyone be taken seriously with a name like Poopypants? Just wait until you hear his full name.
Directed David Soren (“Turbo”) and screenwriter Nicholas Stoller (“Forgetting Sarah Marshall”) have given us a tale of good versus evil which is largely predictable, but they keep throwing left turns at us which keeps this movie feeling less so even when the climax is never in doubt. Not all the jokes work, but there are some which are priceless, and Professor Poppypants statement on the state of education is dead on. And yes, there are some fart jokes, but the ones here are far more creative than any which begged for your laughter in the abysmal “Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul.”
Both Hart and Middleditch have loads of playing the two fourth graders, and they remind you of the benefits of doing voiceovers in animated movies: you can get away with playing children even when you’re in your 30’s! As for Helms, you can always count on him to make a superhero sound so confident even as said superhero has yet to learn of his limits, of which there are many. Kroll has fun playing around with supervillain clichés as Professor Poopypants as he exploits the bad guy conventions which come with crazy hair and an all too thick accent. Jordan Peele, riding high on the success of “Get Out,” has a blast voicing the tattle tale we all love to hate, Melvin Sneedly. Kristen Schaal also co-stars as Edith, the school lunch lady whose shyness and closeted affections for Mr. Krupp she makes all the more palpable.
“Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie” may not go down as an animated classic, and its animation does pale in comparison to what Pixar typically comes up with, but it is filled with an abundance of imagination and cleverness which I did not expect to find. The filmmakers clearly have a great affection for the books of Dav Pilkey, and if this is to become Dreamworks’ next big animated franchise, it will be lots of fun to see where it goes from here.
By the way, does it really make sense that Principal Krupp would just turn right into the hero George and Harold created from their imaginations? Oh wait, it’s an animated movie. Who cares?
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AdvertisementsThe folks at Pebble are back in the smartwatch game with the Pebble Time, and I've had one of the Kickstarter early bird models here for a little over a week. The smartwatch world has moved rapidly since the introduction of the original Pebble, and when looking at products like Android Wear and the Apple Watch, it's easy to see they have some tough competition to face. Can the Pebble Time stand against the likes of full-touchscreen Android-based watches from the big players who make our Android phones? That was my question going into things. In some ways, it can (and actually does some things better) — and in other ways it can't. It is all going to come down to what you want your smartwatch to do, how you want it to do those things, and what features you want to see on your wrist. Let's kick things off with a quick review of the Pebble Time.
The design and specifications
The Pebble Time has an unassuming, low-key design. It looks different from the previous Pebble and the Pebble Steel, and its polycarbonate (read: plastic, but not bad feeling or looking plastic) body and steel bezel don't have the fashion-inspired look of watches like the LG Watch Urbane or ASUS ZenWatch. It looks a lot like the original LG G Watch, as it's a rectangular block that sits atop your wrist. I'm using the black version, but red and white versions will be available as well. All colors have the same grey stainless bezel. Inside it all is a Lithium-ion polymer battery that Pebble says can last up to seven days between charges The Pebble Time's body has a slight curve to the rear. This, paired with the silicon strap, makes it very comfortable to wear but because it's a black silicon strap, everything sticks to it and it constantly looks dirty — white may be an option that sits better with any OCD tendencies you (or I) may have. The case has a 40.5mm by 37.5mm footprint, and checks in at 9.5mm thick. Add in the lugs for the strap, and the long side is 47mm. With the 22mm wide silicon band attached, it hits the scale at 42.5g. It's smaller all around than any Android Wear watch, and you can tell it's smaller while wearing it. While there is no mil-spec certification listed, the Pebble Time is water-resistant. According to the folks at Pebble, you can submerge the watch in 30 meters of water with no issues. The watch has an operating temperature range of 15 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, and can operate in atmosphere at up to 10,000 feet. Unless you're deep-sea diving or doing something that requires a parachute, chances are you'll be well within operating specs. I wear mine in the shower and while fishing with no issues so far. I have not yet tried jumping out of a plane while wearing it, and probably won't.
The Gorilla Glass covered screen is a 1.25-inch color e-paper display, with an LED for backlighting. The display doesn't have the pop that Android Wear users with OLED or LCD displays are used to, but the positives are readability in bright light, and much longer battery life. The screen itself has no touch capability. All interactions are done with physical buttons — three on the right side and one on the left. For some things, this works well. For others, a touch display would work better. Using the accelerometer, a quick flick of the wrist (or a push of the left button) turns on the backlight. The Pebble Time has a handful of useful sensors on-board, including an accelerometer, a compass, a light sensor and a microphone. Applications can make use of these, and many do just that. There is no heart sensor for fitness apps, and the Pebble Time doesn't work with Google Fit. Inside it all is a Lithium-ion polymer battery that Pebble says can last up to seven days between charges. A magnetic connector on the back is both a charging port and a port for future smart accessories built into watch straps.
The Pebble Time doesn't look like any other smartwatch out there. Reactions have been mixed, with about half of the people who have seen it thinking it was a toy watch, and the other half comparing it to a Casio digital throwback. It really looks like neither — it doesn't try (and fail) to look like an expensive diver's watch, complete with a non-rotating bezel, or mimic a name-brand luxury watch. It has a "different" look that you may or may not like. Myself? I like the fact that Pebble didn't try to make their new product look like an existing product. It's not the prettiest watch in my case, but it is unique. Only you can decide if the design is something you enjoy. I'm torn on the looks, and looks are important when it comes to a watch. The software
Gone are the scrolling list menus of the last-generation Pebble, and the new color display brings a blocky and colorful look, complete with animations and transition effects. Pebble calls this look the Timeline, and it takes a bit of getting used to. It's a big change from the swipey swipe interface of Android Wear, that's for sure. Pressing the up and down buttons on the right side brings you a running list of events. Pressing up sends you backwards to see what's already happened, while pressing down sends you forwards to see what comes next. You'll find things like calendar events and upcoming alarms in the Timeline by default, and applications are able to pin information — say for example, the Weather Channel app can tell me a detailed local forecast. A click of the center button brings up more information, or can open an associated app.
If you thought scrolling with a "Digital Crown" was a poor way to navigate through informative screens on your wrist, know that using buttons is even worse A press of the center button brings up a list of square colorful icons for each app you have installed, as well as built-in apps like settings or alarms. Scroll through the list using the top and bottom buttons, and another press on the center button opens the app of your choosing. You'll also find your list of unread notifications here, and you access them the same way. It's a great way to display information and is one of the most intuitive interfaces you could ask for on your wrist. But the buttons kill the experience. I can only imagine this software running on a full-touch enabled watch, where button clicking is replaced by swiping and tapping and long-pressing. If you thought scrolling with a "Digital Crown" was a poor way to navigate through informative screens on your wrist, know that using push buttons is even worse. It's a shame, because I think that the best interface we've seen so far will wither because of the lack of touch. The most important thing a smartwatch can do (for most of us) is display notifications on your wrist. The Pebble Time does a wonderful job here. The Pebble Time uses its vibration motor to buzz on your wrist when a notification comes in, and they are easy to read and act on. You'll want to manage what comes to your wrist, because you need to dismiss or act on each one using — you guessed it — a button press. You do this in the Pebble Time app on your phone much like you would using Android Wear. My biggest issue here is that by default, notifications for any app you install on your phone are enabled. I don't want or need some things sent to my wrist, so I have to remember to disable notifications when I install apps.
When a notification arrives, you can act on it in a few different ways. You can just dismiss the thing, but for certain notifications (like text messages or emails) you can reply. A tap on the center button while the notification is open will let you send a saved snippet (set these up on the Pebble Time app on your phone), an emoji, or by using your voice to dictate a short message. To do the latter you'll need to install the Android Wear app on your phone, as Pebble is leveraging some of the communication features built into the Android Wear APIs. I've found voice input to be about as good as it is on my Android Wear devices, which is to say it's good enough. It's a great way to send a quick reply without digging out your phone, and usually the dictation is good enough for the meaning to be understood. In short, I love the Pebble Time interface and notification system. I think it's far better than what Google delivers with Android Wear, and it presents the information I want in an easy to read and easy to navigate way. But using buttons to do it almost ruins the entire experience. Apps and watchfaces
There are a lot of apps and watchfaces for the Pebble Time. Any and all of the previous generation Pebble apps will run, and we're already seeing plenty of new Pebble Time optimized apps hit the Pebble Store. Any time you add a lot of anything, you'll be adding both good and bad. A look through the watch faces will certainly find you something you like, whether it be an analog dial or a futuristic digital look, or even unofficial, unlicensed brands like Street Fighter or Mickey Mouse. I dig the Trekv3 LCARS face because I'm that kind of nerd, but chances are you'll find a watchface that suits you just as well — there are a lot of them.
A bit of browsing through the applications will also have you installing a few. Useful additions like countdown timers, detailed weather apps and battery meters are things you should have a look at, as well as fitness apps that leverage the accelerometer for step counting or sleep tracking. Ingress users will love the Ingress Info app that loads your Agent Profile. Apps like Note Pusher will help you stay organized and productive. There is something for everyone in the growing Pebble Store. You find and install apps and watchfaces from your phone through the Pebble Time app. The app is easy to navigate and well designed, and makes wading through the crapplications easy so you can find the gems. The Pebble Time app requires Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) or higher, which is almost every Android phone left in the wild. Should I buy this thing?Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko, his budget under pressure in a weak economy, has laid off staff, reduced patrols and even released jail inmates. But there's one mission on which he's spending more than in recent years: pot busts, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.
The reason is simple: If the California lawman steps up his pursuit of marijuana growers, his department is eligible for roughly half a million dollars a year in federal anti-drug funding, helping save some jobs. The majority of the funding would have to be used to fight pot. Marijuana may not be the county's most pressing crime problem, the sheriff says, but "it's where the money is."
Washington has long allocated funds to help localities fight crime, influencing their priorities in the process. Today's local budget squeezes are enhancing this effect, and the result is particularly striking in California, where many residents take a benign view of pot but federal dollars help keep law-enforcement focused on it.
To make sure his office gets the federal funds, Bosenko since last year has spent about $340,000 of his department's shrinking resources, more than in past years, on a team that tramps through the woods looking for pot farms. Though the squad is mostly U.S.-funded, the federal grants don't cover some of its needs, such as a team chief and certain equipment. So, Bosenko has to pay for those out of his regular budget.
He doesn't doubt the value of pursuing pot farming, which he says is often the work of sophisticated Mexican gangs and leads to other crimes like assault. But other infractions, like drunken driving and robbery, may have a bigger direct impact on local residents than pot growing, he says.
The pot money is "$340,000 I could use somewhere else in my organization," he says. "That could fund three officers' salaries and benefits, and we could have them out on our streets doing patrol." His overall budget this year is about $35 million.
The U.S. Justice Department is spending nearly $3.6 billion this year to augment budgets of state and local law enforcement agencies. In addition, the federal government last year set aside close to $4 billion of the economic stimulus package for law enforcement grants for state and local agencies. The White House also is spending about $239 million this year to fund local drug trafficking task forces.
Much of the federal money helps local agencies go after sophisticated criminal gangs and hard drugs like methamphetamine. Even staunch supporters of legal pot don't dispute the value of that.
Click here for more on this story from The Wall Street Journal.THERE was one last sleepless night before Kevin Muscat finally made his retirement public.
It was just like other nights in recent weeks as he contemplated his football mortality, wondering if he could squeeze another season out of his ageing body.
But Muscat kept coming back to one thing: he could no longer look his Melbourne Victory teammates in the eye and that hurt more than any injury or any loss over a 20-year professional career.
"I'd never ask someone to do something I couldn't do myself," Muscat said yesterday. "I wasn't able to look my mates in the eye, because I was coasting through training."
That's not strictly right. When he trained, Muscat trained as hard as anybody. But he needed the next day to recover while his mates trained. At 37, he was still as fast as anybody around the Tan, but his quickness was slipping. He knew it and he couldn't fudge it.
Say what you like about Muscat, but his self-assessment is brutal. He felt frustration building because his body could not keep pace with his mind. He was struggling on the pitch in tight situations, but the fear of letting down his teammates perhaps overrode every thought in his decision.
The notion of retirement has been with Muscat for three years. It finally became a 100 per cent decision to quit some time late on Friday, he told the Victory squad amid tears on Tuesday. He arrived for training yesterday to see six boxes of Kleenex taped to his locker.
"The last thing I wanted was teammates saying, 'He's asked us to do these things for six-odd years and now he can't do it himself'," Muscat said. "That was the final nail. It was easy."
It was easy, but it wasn't. With the media conference and photos done, Muscat slumped in a chair in the Victory offices and admitted relief it was over. With maybe six or seven games to go in the Asian Champions League, Muscat will prepare as always, then, maybe, he will fully reflect.
There was his NSL debut at 16; 51 Socceroos caps, including the penalty for the Socceroos' 1-0 win against Uruguay at the MCG in 2002; playing at old Wembley for Crystal Palace; winning the treble with Glasgow Rangers |
prolific bionic players in Starcraft 2 were teammates for the past year until recently, when Polt, wanting a new star to his career and not seeing eye-to-eye with the coach, left Prime and switched over to TSL, leaving MarineKing to be the sole ace player on the team.At the beginning of their careers, MarineKing was the one with more success. While Polt did decently in the first season of GSL (beating MC in the first round), he never got very far in the next few tournaments and was looked at as just another mediocre Terran in the grand scheme of things. MarineKing, at the time known as Boxer (and known as Foxer by the community), took the scene by storm, getting to the finals in his first ever GSL tournament and gaining thousands of fans along the way with his exciting marine-oriented style. He would go on to lose in the only GSL finals to ever go seven games against Nestea, but he had done enough to already become one of the most popular players in the world. With his never before seen splitting of marines, aggressive style, and outgoing personality, MarineKing was on his way to becoming the fastest rising star in e-sports.His impressive run continued, getting to the finals of both the January season of Code S and the World Championship, facing MVP in both. Sadly for MarineKing, the ending to both of those tournaments ended up with him getting the silver medal for the second and third time, earning himself the reputation of a player who would always get second place when getting to a GSL final.On the other side of this bionic coin, Polt continued his way in the GSL, not doing as well as his Prime counterpart, but doing well enough to get into the first season of Code S. Unlike MarineKing, who got to the finals, Polt struggled in his first Code S, losing to Nestea and then TheBest, knocking him into the Up-and-Down matches.When it looked like it couldn't get any worse, he got beat by Lyn and TheWind back-to-back to get knocked into Code A without winning a single game in the two series. Everything looked lost for the Prime Terran. While MarineKing was gaining a new fan by the second, Polt had bombed out of Code S and was heading towards Code A where he likely could have been knocked out from the GSL forever.Luckily, in a weird turn of events, LiveForever announced his entry to fulfill his military service and left a spot open in Code S for the taking. After a wild card tournament to decide which player knocked from Code S to Code A would have another shot, Polt emerged victorious, saving himself from the depths of hell.With a new lease on life, Polt, who was studying and going to one of the top universities in Korea, Seoul University, took a year off from his schooling to put full effort into being a progamer. With his full attention now on Starcraft 2, it was the first time Polt went from a Terran at the bottom of the pack to being someone you had to keep your eye on.Everything came to ahead at the GSL Super Tournament, the biggest competition GSL or any other company has put on so far in the year history of Starcraft 2. With a staggering prize pool that gave away almost $100,000 to the winner of the tournament, everyone was giving it their best shot to end up on the final stage.MarineKing and Polt were on a crash course to meet in the finals as they both ended up on opposite sides of the semifinals. Polt went against TOP, where in the end, after making a massive comeback in game four to save himself from being eliminated, Polt came out victorious and gained his first entry to the GSL finals. In the other semifinal, MarineKing went up against the MLG Columbus champion MMA. After taking the first two sets in decisive fashion, it looked like he would be making his fourth trip to a GSL final. Then, well, everything apart; MarineKing lost the next game, started to tilt, and MMA continued his momentum to take the next two games, eliminating MarineKing from the Super Tournament.For the first time in their careers, Polt was the one in the spotlight. When it came to the Super Tournament finals, Polt demolished MMA with a clean sweep and took home Prime's first GSL championship, after MarineKing had failed to do so three times before. With the championship passed to his teammate and the celebratory confetti falling from the ceiling, did MarineKing resent the fact that after so long, he wasn't the person to win the GSL championship from his team? Was he upset that the title of OptimusPrime, the ID given to the Prime player with the most recent GSL title win, wasn't going to be passed to him, but to Polt?Well, that might have been the case, but he didn't show it, as he was the first person to jump on stage and hug Polt for his victory. Polt and MarineKing weren't just teammates, they were best friends. When asked at a group selection, Polt said he wished he could be more like MarineKing. MarineKing responded by saying he wished he could be more like Polt. The two of them have massive respect for one another and thrive to be like the other when it comes to their play.In the more recent months, MarineKing had a falling out into Code A while Polt continued to do well in Code S, even getting to another semifinal before losing to TOP, but they continued to have similar overall winning percentages, both slightly under 60%. Together, they were the two stars of Prime, having the most success by getting to four GSL finals between them and both being used as aces in their team's GSTL matches.That is why it was such a shock when Polt left Prime a month ago. Polt and MarineKing were Prime. As the two aces, they were the faces of the team. He was their first ever GSL champion and the holder of the OptimusPrime title. Polt wasn't out a team for long, joining TSL two weeks later and becoming a rival to his former teammates and friends.Now Orlando is upon us. MarineKing is coming through the power of his fans that raised enough money for him to come to MLG. Polt is coming through the power of his new team, TSL, who have enough money to send their top players to foreign events. They will be both in the open bracket, trying to get into pool play and work their way into another final.In the end, all I have is a warning: the footsteps are coming for you, open bracket player who thought it would be a good idea to sign-up for fun. Can you hear them? They will come wave after wave and not stop until you're dead. You don't if they'll come from the ground or from the air, but they're coming for you, Orlando.The two kings of bio are coming for you.
Six MLG Stories Unrelated to the Games By: zarepath
Offline events are more than just tournaments -- they're practically conventions for the thriving Starcraft 2 community, replete with culture, drama, and spectacle. Here are six things to pay attention to other than just the games.
1. MLG will have four streams! They'll have the red and blue streams up, along with two more streams dedicated to the Open bracket and covering other non-featured games. IPL3 copied MLG's two-stream strategy and added some behind-the-scenes streaming as well, and MLG was forced to up their ante to four. It's like razor blades. At this rate, I fully expect MLG Providence to have eight streams – the two main streams, the open and non-featured games, then a fan-mingling stream, a backstage-with-the-players stream, another that simply streams all the camera guys recording the other six streams, and an eighth stream that shows the production team running all the other streams. Crayola won't have enough colors for them all.
The future of eSports
2. JP will be hosting a live State of the Game at the end of Friday's games. These live shows feature more fan interaction, microphone juggling, and boring monologues from event staff, but they always produce some real gems. Live On Three did their own live show a couple times at IPL3, and it looks like this kind of thing is becoming standard. It's great to see these two powerhouse shows finding more ways for their audience to connect to them.
3. Reddit is completely sponsoring MarineKingPrime's participation in MLG Orlando. They pooled their money, recruited Milkis, and made it happen. They're paying for food, lodging, travel, spending money, and a trip to Disney World, so that when MKP gets interviewed after losing in the finals and they ask him what he's gonna do next, he has an answer ready. It's pretty spectacular that fans are dumping their own cash into the scene for specific players. The idea of MKP at Disney World makes my heart soar. Nobody needs that place more than MKP. Something tells me that the lines at Disney World have nothing on the Kong Line, amirite?
After earning the second-highest score on the Buzz Lightyear ride despite perfect stutter-step micro
4. Can't make it to Orlando? That doesn't mean that you can't have a social Starcraft experience. Check out the BarCraft movement
5.
6. The era of the eSports handshake has begun.
At IPL3, when the internet was completely destroyed by a rogue trucker, a man named Buddy with some kind of modem hanging off his back went around streaming this spunky girl named Lani. Their team single-handedly kept thousands of people watching the stream without one game being played. She introduced us to the eSports handshake, and while it's basically just a rip-off of the Ninja Turtle handshake, I asked Splinter and he said it's cool for us to use. If this handshake is really going to take off, it's got to happen now. Greet everyone with this handshake – fellow spectators, Koreans, Halo players, your cab driver – we want eSports to spread like a communicable disease. And thanks to this handshake, the two may be inseparable.
Back to top MLG will have four streams! They'll have the red and blue streams up, along with two more streams dedicated to the Open bracket and covering other non-featured games. IPL3 copied MLG's two-stream strategy and added some behind-the-scenes streaming as well, and MLG was forced to up their ante to four. It's like razor blades. At this rate, I fully expect MLG Providence to have eight streams – the two main streams, the open and non-featured games, then a fan-mingling stream, a backstage-with-the-players stream, another that simply streams all the camera guys recording the other six streams, and an eighth stream that shows the production team running all the other streams. Crayola won't have enough colors for them all.JP will be hosting a live State of the Game at the end of Friday's games. These live shows feature more fan interaction, microphone juggling, and boring monologues from event staff, but they always produce some real gems. Live On Three did their own live show a couple times at IPL3, and it looks like this kind of thing is becoming standard. It's great to see these two powerhouse shows finding more ways for their audience to connect to them.Reddit is completely sponsoring MarineKingPrime's participation in MLG Orlando. They pooled their money, recruited Milkis, and made it happen. They're paying for food, lodging, travel, spending money, and a trip to Disney World, so that when MKP gets interviewed after losing in the finals and they ask him what he's gonna do next, he has an answer ready. It's pretty spectacular that fans are dumping their own cash into the scene for specific players. The idea of MKP at Disney World makes my heart soar. Nobody needs that place more than MKP. Something tells me that the lines at Disney World have nothing on the Kong Line, amirite?Can't make it to Orlando? That doesn't mean that you can't have a social Starcraft experience. Check out the BarCraft movement on reddit to find a BarCraft taking place nearby. Watch the games with other SC2 fans, and have some drinks while you're at it. As Alex Ting says, beer can only help eSports. If you're underage, or not much of a drinker, there's another option. Check out the BarneyCraft movement for family-friendly eSports. A local news channel is putting together a TV spot on MLG Orlando. Hopefully they can score good interviews with some of the community's most well-spoken representatives, such as Day[9] and djWHEAT. And not that y'all need the encouragement, but make sure you're at your esportiest when the cameras are rolling. Speaking of eSports...The era of the eSports handshake has begun.At IPL3, when the internet was completely destroyed by a rogue trucker, a man named Buddy with some kind of modem hanging off his back went around streaming this spunky girl named Lani. Their team single-handedly kept thousands of people watching the stream without one game being played. She introduced us to the eSports handshake, and while it's basically just a rip-off of the Ninja Turtle handshake, I asked Splinter and he said it's cool for us to use. If this handshake is really going to take off, it's got to happen. Greet everyone with this handshake – fellow spectators, Koreans, Halo players, your cab driver – we want eSports to spread like a communicable disease. And thanks to this handshake, the two may be inseparable.
Get ready. It's coming. They're coming.
Get ready. It's coming. They're coming. @RealHeyoka | DreamHack Head of StarCraftTomorrow night's UFC Brisbane: Fight Night 85 event is a fun card, and while it may not be front loaded with a slew of the elite level contenders (only two fights feature Top 15 ranked fighters), it's certainly got some compelling bouts that might start that climb towards a belt challenge. The strawweight division is still relatively thin, so the outcome of the fight between "Rowdy" Bec Rawlings and Seo Hee Ham could indeed see one of the women enter the Top 15 to become an entry level contender.
Rawlings, who's been out of competition for almost a year due to a serious hip injury, is chomping at the bit to get back to action. Never one to let the grass grow under her feet, the injury and the period of rest and rehabilitation following the surgery she underwent to repair it have been, according to her, the biggest challenge she's faced in her career journey.
In an appearance on the Three Amigos Podcast earlier this week, "Rowdy" discussed several topics that included her emergency trip to Tijuana, Mexico to get a cortisone shot, the dwindling sponsor landscape, training and living with "madman" Dominick Cruz, her breast augmentation, the biggest flaw in the Reebok weigh-in attire and what's got her annoyed with the sport currently.
The Injury (femoral neck fracture)
The injury occurred about two weeks out from the fight, and my camp had been done, I was ready to go and was about to peak. All I had to worry about was my weight, but something was going on with my hormones and maetabolism and I just couldn't drop the weight. I was on 800 calories, running, doing fat burning workouts and then my hip started hurting. I just assumed it was a muscle or something and that I could just train and fight through it if I could just get through the next two weeks. Once the adrenaline kicks in, you don't really feel those injuries, so I kept trying to train through it, but it got to the point where the pain was so bad that my brain would actually shut off my leg. I'd go to put weight on my leg and it would just crumble under me.
That's when my coach was like, 'I think this is something more serious, so we're gonna have to get an MRI and check it out.' Before that, though, I went to Tijuana to get a cortisone shot in my hip [laughs]. I went to Orange County and got another shot in my hip, Seraphin, I think it's called, and it's like a natural medication that's meant to numb the nerves. We were pretty much just trying to numb my leg so I couldn't feel it anymore.
That didn't f*cking work, so I was stuck having to call Sean Shelby and the UFC to say, 'Look, I can't walk. I'm going to have to get an MRI and see what's going on.' That's when we found out I had a fracture and had to stop walking on it at once or it could crack all the way through and I could lose the blood flow to my leg, and maybe even lose my leg, so it was pretty dangerous.
The doctor was like, 'Are you sure you want me to do this? I was like, 'Just stick that f*cking needle in there and numb this sh*t!'
Tijuana
The doctor was like, 'Are you sure you want me to do this? I was like, 'Just stick that f*cking needle in there and numb this sh*t!' I was just so intent on fighting. My whole life revolves around getting paid to bash someone. I was so upset. I was ready and I had such a good camp that I just couldn't accept that I had to pull out, so I made sure I tried every single possibility before I called Sean and gave him the news.
Seo Hee Ham
She's got a lot of experience fighting midgets, but she's never fought someone as powerful as me [laughs]. You've fought midgets because you're a 105er and you don't belong in this f$%*ing division and I'm gonna prove that you don't belong here. I'm a big strawweight. I'm a big girl that should probably be fighting at 125 and I'm going to be fighting an atomweight. I definitely feel like my size and strength advantage kind of voids her experience.
She's had a lot of fights, but again, they've been against little people that don't hit as hard. The difference between the people she's fought, even in the UFC, is that I'm actually going out there to finish you. I'm going out there to hurt you. I'm not going out there to compete just because I enjoy testing my body. I'm going out there to actually hurt you, and I feel like that's going to make all the difference.
Dominick Cruz
Dom's an animal. His warmup is like most people's workout. I'm actually fortunate enough to live with him while I'm doing my camps over there, so I get the mental psychology training 24/7 with that guy. He's nitpicking everything I'm doing, all my fights, all my opponent's fights and breaking it down, just trying his best to help me improve. It's never ending. He's the world champ for a reason. He's an amazing athlete and his work ethic is just out of control. The coach has to tell him to settle down sometimes.
He told me that he woke up one morning at like 3 AM, and he could not get to sleep until he had calculated in his brain how many training sessions, sparring sessions and sprint sessions he has until fight night [laughs]. He literally calculated that in his brain and then, that motherf*cker passed his obsession on to me, because I woke up mid-camp, trying to figure out how many sparring sessions I had until I had to fight. He's kind of passed on his madness, his craziness to me [laughs].
When he saw me limping around the mat, still trying to train through that injury, he was like, 'You're out of the race. You've blow a tire. You've got to go to the pit stop.' I was, 'No! It's not true! I'm fighting.' He's like, 'You're not fighting.' I was, 'Shut the f*ck up!' [Laughs]
Free Agency
I feel like I'm always gonna go where I get paid more. Obviously I do this sport because I love it, but I also have two kids that I have to support, so I've got to do what's best for me and my kids, so if that means going to another promotion, then I'm all for it, but we'll just see. I'm happy with the UFC right now, and hopefully I can re-negotiate my contract soon because I'm still stuck on the TUF contract, which is pretty sh*tty. We'll just see where it all goes. One promotion that I would love to fight in is ONE Championship, just because you get to soccer kick people in the face [laughs].
Three weeks after breast surgery, I was sparring at Alliance. [Laughs] I've had no problems at all. I guess these babies are durable. -"Rowdy" Bec Rawlings
Breast augmentation
If you know me very well, you know that I don't listen to rules. I don't follow the rules in life, and I'm sure there are probably precautions, but I don't care for them. I was actually lying in bed, recovering from surgery (augmentation), when they offered me the fight against Joanne Calderwood in Scotland, and I calculated in my head how many weeks until I could start running and doing things, and it was like eight weeks out. I was like, 'F*ck yeah. I can get fit in six weeks.' I had just come from a fight, so three weeks after breast surgery, I was sparring at Alliance. [Laughs] I've had no problems at all. I guess these babies are durable.
The toes of the camel
I actually don't mind the kit. I don't mind not having to worry about getting it all done. When you have to get logos and stuff sewn on, that's a pain in the butt if you don't have a good manager, which I didn't at the time, so it was a hassle. I tried mine on today, and they have someone on site to make alterations if you don't like the fit of it. They're actually pretty cool in that way.
The only thing I'm disappointed in is the weigh-ins. I have to wear their bra and their underwear and I hate certain underwear. Dude, I'm notoriously known for cameltoe. This sh*t is not going to cover it [laughs]. I'm going to be all over the internet with my goddamned cameltoe showing! That's one thing that I don't like, their underwear. They need to fix that sh*t!
After my last fight, my mom sent me a link to...I don't even know what they're called, but they're like liners you put in your underwear to hide your cameltoe. I'm like, 'Gee thanks, Mom!'
Barren sponsor landscape
It's changed a lot. A lot of sponsors disappeared and they just don't want to be a part of it anymore. I still get a lot of clothing brands wanting to sponsor me, but they just want to give me gear. I'm like, 'I don't care what I train in. I'll go to Walmart and train in their sh*tty gear. I need money.' That's the biggest thing, not as many sponsors are as keen to come on board. You've got to hustle more, and I'm thankful that I have the few sponsors that I do have that actually look after me. It's (the landscape) gotten pretty sh*tty, but it is what it is.
Paige VanZant's comments about wishing she hadn't tapped out after Holly Holm went out on her shield
I feel like that's the only reason she made that comment. How long has it been since her fight? And she's just now saying it? She's just trying to gain some recognition right now because she's seen that it worked for Holly, so maybe it will work for her. She did prove how tough she was, because that first choke that Rose got on her was sunk in deep, but I think by Round 3, she'd just had enough, and Rose just wore her down with the constant attacks.
I definitely feel like before that fight, she hadn't really proved how tough she was because she's fought mediocre opponents. Even if she did fight good girls, the advantage was always to her going in. The way the UFC treats the Paiges and the Sages and the Conors...you know how it is. Their opponents always seem to be a bit sabotaged or set up for failure. That's the way I see it, anyway.
I feel like she hadn't really proved how tough she was until that fight, and I definitely feel like she's one of the toughest girls in the division, but I wouldn't say "the toughest."
McGregor vs Diaz
I've always loved Conor. I love the way he mentally attacks people for 12 weeks and wears them down. I just love his outlook on fighting and his style. He's an exciting fighter, but...it's kind of grown a little bit old. I like how he used to attack people, but now all he talks about is money. Shut the f*ck up. I don't care how much money you have. I'm done hearing about that and belittling Nate because he doesn't have money? It's like you're kind of sh*tting on the UFC right now because that's his employer, so don't you think that doesn't make sense? We should all be getting paid, and we shouldn't be f*cking broke. We shouldn't be fighting from check to check.
So yeah, I was so stoked for Nate. It couldn't have happened to a better person, and I'm just glad that he has the mentality of literally, "I don't give a f*ck. Whatever you say, whatever you do, I'm gonna go out there and fight and knock your f*cking head off." I was nearly in tears when he won. It was awesome.
He's (McGregor) an exciting fighter, but...it's kind of grown a little bit old. I like how he used to attack people, but now all he talks about is money. Shut the f*ck up. I don't care how much money you have. I'm done hearing about that.
UFC 2 game "wack" characterization
I think they struggled a lot with the girl characters. They were trying to make us look tough and intimidating, but they kind of made us look manly. They definitely kind of messed up on our faces. I'm glad they gave me a six-pack because I haven't had one of those since I was like 13-years-old [laughs], but I feel like they made me look like Alexander Gustafsson. My dog is a bull terrier, so maybe they were trying to put some of his character into it [laughs].
Most annoying thing about the sport currently
I really can't stand the Sage/Paige show. I feel like I lose brain cells every time I watch a video or see a photo. It's like it melts my brain. I don't know what it is, and I don't know them personally, but what I see of them on social media and things like that, I just feel like they have no substance. I feel like they're just airheads that just smile and try to be cute for the camera.
I think it's pretty cool that they've had a good life, and I'm not gonna hate on them for having an easy life. They've probably had troubles here and there, maybe they're not as vocal about it. Everyone has had shitty times in their lives, so I'm not about to judge them on that, but I just feel like I couldn't relate to anything from them. Like I couldn't have a friendship with them because I feel like I just couldn't relate to them. I feel it would be like talking to a brick wall.
Bec Rawlings vs. Seo Hee Ham kicks off the main card for UFC Brisbane: Fight Night 85 via FS1.
There is more to this awesome interview here (Bec's interview starts at the 47:55 mark of the audio) or via the embedded player below. Remember, if you're looking for us on SoundCloud or iTunes, we're under the MMA Nation name. Follow our Twitter accounts: Stephie Haynes, Three Amigos Podcast, Geroge Lockhart, Iain Kidd and Mookie Alexander or our Facebook fan page, Three Amigos Podcast.David Mackay of the Crows is tackled during the 2014 AFL round 06 match between the Western Bulldogs and the Adelaide Crows at Etihad Stadium, Melbourne on April 27, 2014. (Photo: Sean Garnsworthy/AFL Media)
ADELAIDE has begun negotiations to ensure speedy wingman David Mackay plays for the Crows next season.
Mackay signed a three-year contract at the end of season 2012, but it contained a trigger clause that had to be met for him to play on at the Crows in 2015.
AFL.com.au understands he is almost certain to satisfy the terms of that clause but, unlike former Saint Nick Dal Santo last year, Mackay could still enter into a free agency deal with a rival club without the Crows' consent.
If he did, the Crows would be able keep the restricted free agent by matching a rival offer.
But Adelaide's list manager David Noble hoped the club wouldn't need to, telling AFL.com.au the club had made contact with Mackay's manager Adrian Battiston to retain the 25-year-old's services next year.
"We've certainly started the process of communications with his management group … we're just at that point when we're starting to catch up," Noble said.
"I don't think either party has any real issue about him continuing to go on [at Adelaide], from our side we hope.
"There's a clause in his contract and we'd like to think that he's going to stay."
Noble said Adelaide's desire for Mackay to remain at West Lakes had "never waivered", despite reports last season linking him to the Brisbane Lions when Jared Polec was looking to return to South Australia.
He denied Mackay had been put on the trade table, insisting such speculation was based simply on interest from the Lions.
On Monday morning Mackay told reporters he never wanted anything to do with a deal that could have seen him head north partly in exchange for Polec.
He said he was enjoying his football with the Crows.
"I love playing footy here and [leaving] was never something that crossed my mind," Mackay said.
"[I'm] very happy playing here."
Mackay would have to be happy with his current form.
He's averaging 21 possessions a game in 2014, up from 17 last year and in 2012.
Noble said the club was thrilled with Mackay's output, particularly given the long-term injury to versatile defender Ricky Henderson.
"He's recaptured a little bit of the consistency that probably he's looking for and we know that he can deliver as an experienced campaigner," Noble said.
"With Henderson being injured, we've needed more run and more carry and more speed in our game … and I think credit to David, he's been able to deliver more of that element.
"Coupled with the (Brodie) Smith and the (Matthew) Jaensch and himself coming out of the backend of that midfield area, he's been terrific."
Twitter: @AFL_Harry http://afl.to/harrhringAfter a week of heavy speculation, JK Rowling has revealed that she is to self-publish the e-books to her mind-bogglingly successful Harry Potter series through her newly-announced proprietary platform, Pottermore.
While self-publishing in itself is not new – Stephen King has been distributing self-published chapters since 2000 and others, including Amanda Hocking, J.A. Konrath and more recently John Locke have sold millions of copies through the Kindle store – Rowling is without a doubt the single most significant author to have turned their back on established publishing houses.
[partner id="wireduk"]Her decision also comes at a time when the industry is in limbo and the tools are available to create meaningful and innovative digital publications untethered from a small stranglehold of publishers whose businesses are built upon the printed page.
The crucial parallel between Radiohead and Rowling is the fact that they both put their faith in the fans rather than any intermediary. For Radiohead, this meant self-releasing their album In Rainbows after the end of their contract with EMI with an honesty-box pricing strategy.
For Rowling it means keeping the e-books DRM-free and trusting her fans not to pirate her works rather than assuming that they will. Rowling is instead opting for a digital watermarking system that links the identify of the purchaser to the copy of the e-book. This doesn't prevent people sharing copies on the web, but does try to ensure that any copies will be traceable to a buyer.
Because the books are said to be "available on any platform," there will need to be some sort of arrangement with the likes of Amazon and iBooks – whether commercial or logistical – to ensure that readers can enjoy Potter on their Kindles and iPads.
That aside, it is important to emphasize that just as Radiohead self-released their album, so Rowling is selling the Harry Potter series of e-books without the need for her publishers Bloomsbury and Scholastic. Radiohead reportedly made more money with its pay-what-you-like model before the album was physically released than it had made in total on the previous album (released through EMI) Hail to the Thief.
Likewise, Rowling stands to make significantly more money by selling her e-books directly than if she sold them through her publisher. Authors generally get anywhere between a few and 10 percent of royalties from printed book sales and anywhere between 20 and 40 percent on e-books. If they self publish through the likes of Amazon, they can get as much as 70 percent of revenues (with the remainder going to the e-book store). Selling direct to fans also means that Rowling will benefit from demographic data and contact details traditionally safeguarded by the publisher or retailer. This information will be invaluable for promoting new projects and for building a mini merchandising empire. Might we even see sales to a "live" Harry Potter experience?
Continue reading...
Like Radiohead, Rowling is not only selling the book without the help of her publisher, she is also initially bypassing the major e-commerce sites at this stage – exclusively selling the e-books through Pottermore.com – so she technically stands to make 100 percent of the sales. So far her team have remained tight-lipped about the pricing of the e-books, but have insisted that they will be "competitive". So fingers crossed until they go on sale in October.
By publishing on her own website, Rowling told a press conference: "We can guarantee that people everywhere are getting the same experience at the same time. That was extremely appealing to me. I am lucky to have the resources to do it myself and I think this is a fantastic and unique experience that I could afford to take my time over to make this come alive. There was really no way to do it for the fans or me than just do it myself. Not every author could do this, but it's right for Harry Potter. It is so much fun to have direct content with my fans. It was an extension of the existing jkrowling.com."
Interestingly, Rowling is maintaining Scholastic and Bloomsbury as partners, suggesting that she isn't completely abandoning the institutions that built her career. Let's not forget that it's at least partially down to their marketing and distribution prowess that she managed to sell more than 400 million copies of her books as of 2008 – likely to be significantly more by now.
It is not clear what the continued partnership entails, but what is clear is that Rowling had no obligation to give them anything. She owns the rights to the e-books and has the publishing stature to have easily gone it alone. Of course, it's important to note that the increased interest in the Harry Potterbrand will have a halo effect on sales of the printed books from which her former publishers will benefit. They're likely to piggyback on the hype by releasing special editions of the seven books.
The most exciting thing about the news is that this might be the kick up the arse that the publishing industry needs to stop it from dragging its feet into the digital world (with the exception of academic publishing which has fully embraced it to become an extremely valuable industry).
Publishers need to radically rethink their remuneration structures in order to ensure that their cash cows don't all follow Rowling's suit. To this day, publishing remains a B2B business – publishers sell to retailers and not readers.
But the rise of consumer empowerment in a digital world means that this will have to change. The web is a powerful disintermediator and has democraticed businesses within music, film, gaming and retail, time and time again. There's no reason to think that publishing could be exempt from this rule.
They can also learn from Rowling's understanding that the web is not just a place to replicate the printed page, but allows for a spell-binding level of interactivity which could reinvigorate people's (and especially children's) passion for reading.
See Also: - J.K. Rowling's Pottermore Details Revealed: Harry Potter E-Books and MoreFinals week has finally come. My life for the next week will be reduced to little more than eating and staring at textbooks. And, as always, more yoga. Since I last wrote I believe I’ve maintained a steady 4 days/week and I’m fairly proud of that! I’ve started incorporating sequences from my Yoga Sequencing book when I don’t have a full hour and a half to devote to my primary series. I know it’s totally allowed to take a shorter Ashtanga practice, but I like doing these sequences because they incorporate poses I don’t get to do in primary. I can definitely see a significant improvement in arm strength over the past few weeks, which is odd because I haven’t necessarily done anything extra for my upper body. I suppose I am just now seeing a few new developments that have come from gradual strength development. Either way, I’m not complaining.
I also ran ten miles over four days this week! I’m proud of myself for getting four days in at the gym this week on top of four days of yoga. I don’t know where all this free time came from but I am thankful for it! I don’t see myself having this much time to devote to exercise next week, so I will probably just look to getting my four days of yoga in. That is more than good enough for me. I have a bad habit of getting disappointed in myself when I find the motivation/time to exercise more than usual and then can’t keep it up, but I am working towards realizing that I am putting effort in to my health to feel good about myself, not to achieve any sort of “goal.” There are no |
this week. It is presently true that to restore liberty and dignity to a nation so great and distracted as ours is indeed a significant undertaking. For, judging of what we are by what we ought to be, I have persuaded myself that this body might accept this reasonable proposition.
The proposition is peace. Not peace through the medium of war, not peace to be hunted through the labyrinth of intricate and endless negotiations; not peace to arise out of universal discord, fomented from principle, in all parts of the earth; not peace to depend on juridical determination of perplexing questions, or the precise marking the shadowy boundaries of distant nations. It is simply peace, sought in its natural course and in its ordinary haunts.
Let other nations always keep the idea of their sovereign self-government associated with our republic and they will befriend us, and no force under heaven will be of power to tear them from our allegiance. But let it be once understood that our government may be one thing and their sovereignty another; that these two things exist without mutual regard one for the other — and the affinity will be gone, the friendship loosened and the alliance hastened to decay and dissolution. As long as we have the wisdom to keep this country as the sanctuary of liberty, the sacred temple consecrated to our common faith, wherever mankind worships freedom, they will turn their faces toward us. The more they multiply, the more friends we will have; the more ardently they love liberty, the more perfect will be our relations. Slavery they can find anywhere, as near to us as Cuba or as remote as China. But until we become lost to all feeling of our national interest and natural legacy, freedom and self-rule they can find in none but the American founding. These are precious commodities, and our nation alone was founded on them. This is the true currency which binds to us the commerce of nations and through them secures the wealth of the world. But deny others their national sovereignty and self-government, and you break that sole bond which originally made, and must still preserve, friendship among nations. Do not entertain so weak an imagination as that UN Charters and Security Councils, GATT and international laws, World Trade Organizations and General Assemblies are what promote commerce and friendship. Do not dream that NATO and peacekeeping forces are the things that can hold nations together. It is the spirit of community that gives nations their lives and efficacy. And it is the spirit of the Constitution of our Founders that can invigorate every nation of the world, even down to the minutest of these.
For is it not the same virtue which would do the thing for us here in these United States? Do you imagine then that it is the income tax that pays our revenue? That it is the annual vote of the Ways and Means Committee that provide us an army? Or that it is the court martial that inspires it with bravery and discipline? No! Surely, no! It is the private activity of citizens which gives government revenue, and it is the defense of our country that encourages young people to not only populate our army and navy, but also has infused them with a patriotism, without which our army will become a base rubble and our navy nothing but rotten timber.
All this, I know well enough, will sound wild and chimerical to the profane herd of those vulgar and mechanical politicians who have no place among us: a sort of people who think that nothing exists but what is gross and material, and who, therefore, far from being qualified to be directors of the great movement of this nation, are not fit to turn a wheel in the machinery of our government. But to men truly initiated and rightly taught these ruling and master principles, which in the opinion of such men as I have mentioned have no substantial existence, are in truth everything. Magnanimity in politics is often the truest wisdom, and a great nation and little minds go ill together.
If we are conscious of our situation, and work zealously to fill our places, as becomes the history of this great institution, we ought to auspicate all our public proceedings on Kosovo with the old warning of the Church, Sursum corda! We ought to elevate our minds to the greatness of that trust to which the order of Providence has called us. By averting to the dignity of this high calling, our forefathers turned a savage wilderness into a glorious nation, and have made the most extensive and the only honorable conquests, not by bombing and sabre-rattling, but by promoting the wealth, the liberty, and the peace of mankind. Let us gain our allies as we obtain our own liberty. Respect of self-government has made our nation all that it is. Peace and neutrality alone will make ours the republic that it can yet still be.Bobo Lo, a former Australian diplomat in Moscow and the director of the China and Russia programs at the Center for European Reform, in London, has written the best analysis yet of one of the world's more important bilateral relationships. His close examination of Chinese-Russian relations -- sometimes mischaracterized by both countries as a "strategic partnership" -- lays bare the full force of China's global strategy, the conundrum of Russia's place in today's world, and fundamental shortcomings in U.S. foreign policy.
China's shift in strategic orientation from the Soviet Union to the United States is the most important geopolitical realignment of the last several decades. And Beijing now enjoys not only excellent relations with Washington but also better relations with Moscow than does Washington. Lo calls the Chinese-Russian relationship a "mutually beneficial partnership" and goes so far as to deem Moscow's improved ties with Beijing "the greatest Russian foreign policy achievement of the post-Soviet period."
Precisely such hyperbole drives the alarmism of many pundits, who believe that the United States faces a challenge from a Chinese-Russian alliance built on shared illiberal values. But as Lo himself argues, the twaddle about Russia being an energy superpower was dubious even before the price of oil fell by nearly $100 in 2008. Even more important, Lo points out that the Chinese-Russian relationship is imbalanced and fraught: the two countries harbor significant cultural prejudices about each other and have divergent interests that are likely to diverge even more in the future. More accurately, the Chinese-Russian relationship is, as Lo puts it, an "axis of convenience" -- that is, an inherently limited partnership conditioned on its ability to advance both parties' interests.
But even Lo does not go far enough in his debunking of the Chinese-Russian alliance: he argues that it "is, for all its faults, one of the more convincing examples of positive-sum international relations today." This is doubtful. The relationship may allow the Chinese to extract strategically important natural resources from Russia and extend theirPolice bust $70m ecstasy oil smuggling ring
Updated
Police have arrested three Sydney men after they were found hiding a banned precursor substance that could have been used to produce more than $70 million worth of ecstasy.
The joint investigation between Federal Police and Customs found the men were concealing more than 2,800 litres of safrole oil in hair and cleaning products in tanks from China.
The oil was intercepted in three shipments that arrived at Sydney's Port Botany between April and August.
Police say the bust deals a killer blow to a highly organised crime syndicate.
The three Australians were arrested during an operation involving more than 50 police officers in Sydney this morning.
They have been charged over the seizures and are due to front court tomorrow.
"This is a significant blow," Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Kevin Zuccato said.
"As far as I'm concerned, [this is] a lethal blow to this particular syndicate.
"When you look at the quantity, there was no backyard lab - this was a sophisticated super lab."
ABC/AAP
Topics: drug-offences, crime, law-crime-and-justice, sydney-2000, nsw, australia
First postedFound these babies in the HHOF gift shop.Did anyone else collect these key chains as a kid? I wanted one goalie and one player from every team. My goals were much simpler back then.So after the morning skate, Pens PR master Jason Seidling (part of @PensPRLady) and I took a trip to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Here are some pics from our adventure. Tune in tonight to Michelle Crechiolo's in-game blog to see all the rest of the pics!!The Entrance (left); Brian Hayward's famous "Shark Mask" (right)Mario Lemieux's HOF display (left); And no Hall of Fame display is complete without a Corn Flakes box (right)Lemieux's jersey from Laval (left); Lemieux eyes up his blade (right)Retro jerseys (left); Joey Mullen's sticks, skates and gloves (right)Do you believe in miracles? YES!!! (left); Retro banners (right)Pens website: making history since 2002 (left); Trophy display and beautiful ceiling (right)Two of my idols as a little boy:beat writer Dave Molinari (left) and Pens radio play-by-play announcer Mike Lange (right)PensTV caught up with James Neal [who enters tonight's game tied for the league lead in goals (9) with Toronto's Phil Kessel] and Richard Park Pics from the ACC...The Pens twiddle their thumbs in boredom while the zamboni cleans the ice (left); Deet da dee (right)A puck got stuck in Charlotte's net - top of the pic (left); Johnson looks to the Hockey Gods for strength in his start tonight (right)Some Kris Letang photos: Skating (left); Talking to Real Brooks Orpik (right)Gather round ye nobles (left); Fleury and Johnson play catch. It's just like "Field of Dreams"...except on ice...and with goalies...using a stick instead of throwing...and with a puck instead of a baseball...and, ah forget it (right)Coachspeak with Dan Bylsma…Part of it has been special teams. It’s allowed us to have success. Our power play has gotten some timely goals. Our penalty killing has been outstanding. Combine that and our goaltending from Marc-Andre (Fleury) and Brent Johnson has been fantastic. That’s allowed us to have a lot of success. Coming out of camp and carrying over from last season, our team has a good understanding of how we need to play to try to have success. That’s given us a chance to have success and win hockey games, and we’ve done that.Mark Letestu will go in and he’ll be in on the power play. He’ll be in some significant spots. He’ll play a big role for us. Brent Johnson will be playing in goal as well.He’s overdue. Steve has been a great addition to our team both power play wise back at the point and when he’s been out there with Malkin and Neal he’s added playmaking and smart plays. He’s been around the cage a ton the last five games. He’s probably rolled his eyes six or seven times with some of the opportunities he’s had. He’s going to find the back of the net a bunch for us this year. What he’s been adding has been dramatic for us, especially that line.Mark probably hasn’t made too many mistakes when he’s played. He needs to be better at where he’s good which is making offensive plays, adding skill. He’ll get a chance to do that tonight on the power play and a lot of that is puck battles as well. He has to win puck battles in the offensive zone, on the power play, in the faceoff circle. He can be effective. That’s where he’s looking to add.It goes back to last year when we saw them in this building when they were pushing to make the playoffs. They have a lot of speed in their game right now. They forecheck extremely hard. Their forwards hunt pucks. The neutral has a lot of speed. They have four lines that play that way. They get the puck up really quick. Their speed is a factor for the forward unit. That’s something when you watch on tape is evident in their game right now. It goes back to last year, Lupul’s addition. Their four lines can play that type of game and be factors. That’s what we’ve seen and that’s what we’re facing tonight. That’s what we’ll have to deal with.We’ve played a lot of hockey games in the month of October, 13. Brent is capable and hasn’t lost in regulation yet. He’s played well for us. He’s going to be playing tonight.HC Dan Bylsma just said Staal has a lower-body injury and is day-to-day. As mentioned in the 11:42 a.m. entry, Staal did not make the trip with the team and will not play tonight."It's lower body and day-to-day," Bylsma said. "He wasn't going to play in this game, which is why he's not here.... I don't have that concern at this time (that it will be long term). Well see returning to practice on Monday."Bylsma confirmed that the injury occurred in Staal's hit with Islanders Tavares.The Pens coach also said that Brent Johnson gets the start in goal tonight.Here are the Pens' lines with Staal missing:Sullivan-Malkin-NealKunitz-Park-DupuisCooke-Letesu-AshamMacIntyre/Jeffrey-Vitale-Adams Jordan Staal is not on the ice for the Pens' morning skate. He did not make the trip to Toronto and will not be playing tonight.Leafs morning skate pics...I believe it says Toronto Maple Leafs at centre ice, but I don't read so good upside down so I could be wrong (left); Sidney Crosby and Dion Phaneuf look for a comfortable spot to watch the morning skate...wait, shoudn't Phaneuf be on the ice?! (right)Is Leafs coach Ron Wilson holding a hockey stick? Or a Sceptre of Truth?It looks like there is a Monster in net. Quick kill it...or feed it cookies (left); Kessel sings "Put my hand up on my hip, when I dip you dip we dip..." (right)The Pens just arrived at Air Canada Centre. A pretty hospitable place, and welcoming.Speaking of exclusive footage, Pens fans are all aware that Civic Arena is in the process of being torn down. Here are a few pics of the process. It's kind of like seeing the Coliseum in ruins, you know what it's supposed to look like, but it's only a shell of its former self.In honor of Civic Arena's lasting memory, this week's Pens Vault aired a tribute video to the old barn. Take a look:As you might of already read yesterday, the Pens have another injury scare as Cardboard Brooks Orpik went down at practice after blocking a shot with his ankle. Ben Lovejoy thinks he's out 4 to 6 weeks, but we haven't heard anything official. Pens Nation collectively holds its breath waiting to get details from the X-ray.PensTV was there to catch the injury. Here is the exclusive footage:For the deets on the Maple Leafs, Michelle Crechiolo has it all scouted out for you here. And if you want to Meesh's soothing voice, click the video below for the cliff notes:Good morning from Toronto! Tonight the Pens will battle the Maple Leafs for the first time this season. Pittsburgh is coming off a home-and-home sweep against the NY Islanders and riding a five-game winning streak. The team hopes to keep that going this evening in the Air Canada Centre.---Today let's kick off the day with Toronto native and music legend Neil Young, one of the best songwriters of all time. The man has left a legacy of brilliance in music and has influenced countless musicians, including early 90s groups Nirvana and Pearl Jam.Here is a live performance of Young's "My My Hey Hey" from the 1985 Farm Aid concert, a benefit that helped raise money for American farmers. Young was one of the men who helped organize the benefit. Rock 'n roll will never die.Enjoy.What I will say is this: we're out to punish those that exploit WoW, not innocent players. Intent and context play a large part in our investigative process, and those that accidentally purchase ill-gotten items shouldn't fear recrimination.
deletet
Why can't the gold be refunded? It must be somewhere. Why can't you delete the gold there and give it back to me?
Why was there no official announcement for this procedure? I've alway traded with best conscience to the rules and suddenly [u]lost 600'000 gold.
How can I ensure myselfe that the things I buy over trade/AH are not "originated in illigal activities"
A month ago I bought 220 for 1000g each. I was a bit suspicious and wrote a GM ticket to ask if there was a dupe around and if it is safe for me to buy these. The GM answered that the gems where probaby stolen, but that I had no possibility to know that and they won't take them away.I've found a official statement from two weeks ago that confirmed the GMSource: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3225593877#11 For a full month, there were no new gems sold in huge quantities over the trade channel. This led me to belief that there was no dupe around and the huge quantities came just from Gold sellers which were out of gold on the specific server.On friday I've bought 300 over trade chat for 600'000 Gold. I thought it was a good deal, since the usual price on my server is 3000g each.Anyway, a GMthe gems out of my inventory and I got a warning not to do such trades again. I was told that I've got an Email with the details, wich however never arrived.After talking with three different GM's, they all confirmed that this is the new standard procedure for items, that, I quote, "were originated in illigal activities".Although the gold I invested was made by playing the auction house, thus not originated in illegal activities, I was not refunded it and it is now lost.If there was or is a dupe method around, I welcome that every single item that originated in it will be deleted. My gold was, however, not duped and should be around somewhere.My questions now, and I hope a blue can answer these:SincerelyStonewolfThe head of Iraq’s Badr parliamentary bloc announced on Saturday that the government troops supported by popular volunteer forces have flushed the ISIL terrorists out of the eastern province of Diyala.
Qasim al-Araji was quoted by Alsumaria news channel as saying that Mansourieh Mountain district, which was the ISIL’s last stronghold in the province, has been completely cleansed of the Takfiri terrorists following a major military operation.
He also emphasized that the Iraqi security forces have launched a massive manhunt for the ISIL elements as part of efforts to make the district safe for the return of the displaced residents to their homes.
Iraq has been facing the growing threat of terrorism, mainly posed by the ISIL terrorist group.
The ISIL terrorists made swift advances in much of northern and western Iraq over the summer, after capturing large swathes of northern Syria.
However, a combination of concentrated attacks by the Iraqi military and the volunteer forces, who rushed to take arms after top Iraqi cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued a fatwa calling for fight against the terrorists, have blunted the edge of the ISIL offensive.
ISIL blew up 30 schools in various areas in northeast Diyala province on January 20.
"The terrorist ISIL group blew up 30 primary and secondary schools in the last four days using explosives planted around school buildings," said the chairman of the education committee in Diyala province, Ahmed al-Rubaie.
The schools were located in Al-Muqdadiyah, Al-Salloum, Al-Sad and Al-Azeem areas, he told Al-Shorfa, and the group blew them up after looting them.Anshuman Magazine, chairman and managing director of CBRE South Asia Pvt. Ltd., in a recent article writes that “around 1.2 crore completed houses” are “lying vacant across urban India”. This one number tells us all that is wrong with Indian real estate.
Even though there is a huge housing shortage in urban India, 1.2 crore completed homes are lying vacant. As the latest Economic Survey points out: “At present urban housing shortage is 1.88 crore units.”
So, we have this situation where 1.2 crore completed homes are lying vacant even though there is a housing shortage of 1.88 crore in urban India. What explains this discrepancy? “95.6 percent [of housing shortage] is in economically weaker sections (EWS) / low income group (LIG) segments,” the Economic Survey points out.
What the huge number of vacant homes also tells us is that real estate companies have been building and selling homes at price points at which there are few takers. Why is that? The answer for that lies in the fact that homes are being built essentially for those who want to invest and speculate.
Hence, investors control the real estate market in India instead of those who want to buy and live in homes. These investors are more comfortable keeping the homes empty and not put them on the rental market. The rental yield (i.e. annual rent dividend by the market price of the home) currently varies between 2-4% depending on which part of the country you live in. Hence, the return is not good enough to compensate for the risks involved in letting the house out on rent. Given this, a lot of homes are bought and then stay locked.
The next question that crops up is why is there so much investment demand for homes? The simple answer is that the amount of black money that is being generated has gone up tremendously over the years. Global Financial Integrity estimates that between 2003 and 2012, the total amount of black money leaving the country jumped from $10.1 billion to $94.8 billion, a jump of more than nine times.
No reliable estimates are available for the total amount of black money that would have been generated during the same period.
But what this tells us is that the amount of black money being generated has grown manifold over the years. It is safe to say that a lot of this black money has found its way into real estate, where it is very easy to park black money. And this has pushed up real estate prices to levels at which most people cannot afford to buy a home to live in. The buying and selling of real estate is now a game majorly between the black money wallahs.
As a recent study by the business lobby FICCI titled A Study On Widening Of Tax Base And Tackling Black Money published in February 2015 points out: “The Real Estate sector in India constitutes for about 11 % of the GDP15 of Indian Economy, as these transactions involve high transaction value. In the year 2012-13, Real Estate sector has been considered as the highest parking space for black money.”
And this has led to a situation where we have more than a crore homes where no one is living. AkhileshTilotia, makes a similar point in his book The Making of India—Gamechanging Transitions. As he writes: “Thanks to its love for real estate investments, India is in a curious position of having more houses than it has households.”
This becomes clear from the Census 2011 data. “India’s households increased by 60 million to 247 million from 187 million between 2001-2011. Reflecting India’s higher ‘physical’ savings, the number of houses went up by 81 million to 331 million from 250 million. The urban increases is telling: 38 million new houses for 24 million new households,” writes Tilotia.
Unless the black money menace is brought under control, homes will continue to remain locked and unaffordable for most Indians. Further, renting has to be made an attractive option for those owning homes. As Magazine of CBRE points out: “The Rent Control Act 1992 is slightly skewed towards tenant protection, and is aimed at controlling rent. It tries to protect tenants from eviction and from having to pay more than a fair/standard rent amount. The Act may need to be revisited to make rental housing attractive enough for landlords as well.”
If more homes at affordable price points do not become available in the years to come, more and more of our cities will become slums. As the Economic Survey points out: “Nearly 30 percent of the country’s population lives in cities and urban areas and this figure is projected to reach 50 per cent in 2030.”
Now that is something worth worrying about.
(Vivek Kaul is the author of the Easy Money trilogy. He tweets @kaul_vivek)
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.High octane offense
The Bears are 3rd in the NFL in pre-season offense (401.5 ypg) and 1st in passing (316.0 ypg). They are 9th in scoring (27 ppg) and 5th in yards per pass attempt (8.4). Their personnel includes the mercuric Jay Cutler as the triggerman, and two of the best wide receivers in the game with Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffrey. Cutler enters the game with a gaudy 123.3 passer rating. Matt Forte is among the most versatile running backs in football. This is a team that will challenge any defense.
Seattle’s defense is not yet fully healthy, as Bobby Wagner will not play, but defenses are rarely fully equipped. It would not be a surprise to see the Bears have some success. Marshall had the best game I have seen against the Seahawks secondary. T.Y. Hilton had big numbers last year, but some of those came on communication breakdowns. Marshall was just the better player on a number of plays. That simply does not happen against Seattle.
Jeffrey is one of the most exciting young receivers in football, but he has not faced this defense before.
Good or bad is good
It would be terrific to see the Seahawks shut down the Bears, but the beauty of it is that even if the Bears score a bunch of points, the Seahawks have two weeks to get their heads straight before facing an even better offense in the Packers. If they shut down the Bears, it just increases their confidence level. Confidence is one of the NFL’s most precious commodities.
The undercard
It is hard not to start by talking about the Bears offense against the Seahawks defense, but this game is a perfect example of what will likely be a recurring storyline this season. The Seahawks offense has a substantial advantage over the Bears defense. It would be a disappointment if they did not score at least a couple of touchdowns, and I’d like to see them break 20 points again.
Expect the Bears to test rookie Justin Britt. Jared Allen might get that matchup. The Bears have given up more passing yards than any defense so far this pre-season (292 ypg), and only have two sacks. They have been opportunistic, though, snagging four interceptions.
Their run defense has been more stout, allowing only 84 ypg thus far. Seattle has a significant advantage on offense overall, and needs to move the ball consistently.
Eyes on Justin Britt
The word is that Britt appears to have won the starting right tackle job. This will be the last chance for the coaches to reconsider that decision before the regular season begins. The rookie played much better in his last game, but the level of competition was much lower. I still have serious doubts about his ability to hold up in pass protection, and would feel much better if he could demonstrate some competency against some quality players on the Bears.
Eyes on Christine Michael
Two fumbles. That is what is keeping an ultra-talented player from ascending to the role this team needs him to capture. He has blocked well, and appeared to hit the designated holes in the line with force instead of freelancing. This would be a logical game to give him a lot of carries as the team really knows what they have in Robert Turbin. Another fumble would be bench sentence. Michael is better than that, though, and could very well use the chance to remind everyone what the hype is about. It would be a very good thing if everyone is oohing and ahhing about Michael when sports radio goes on-air Monday morning.
Eyes on the young defensive lineman
I have made it clear that the play of the younger defensive lineman on the team has been disappointing. I expected more from Greg Scruggs, Jordan Hill and Benson Mayowa. Scruggs is still close enough to his surgery that it is understandable, and his effort has been terrific. The team is going to need Hill and Scruggs this season, and they need to be productive when their names are called. Mayowa is likely on the outside looking in at the roster right now. He may not even get much play in this game until the late third quarter or fourth.
Cassius Marsh has been a bright spot, but took a step back in last week’s game against starting caliber players. He will be in the rotation tonight against the Bears starters, and it would be nice to see him flash. I already know he’s more than a AAAA player (baseball reference), and am hoping he proves he is ready for the majors.
The best part of pre-season games is also the worst: they don’t count. Knowing that allows coaches and players to focus on player development and assessment. This third pre-season game is often used as the tune-up for the starters as the fourth game is almost entirely used to evaluate the back-end of the roster before cuts. The Seahawks could hardly ask for a better opportunity to get ready for opening night against the high-powered Packers offense than facing the explosive Chicago Bears.Archives Feb 2019 ( 1 ) Jan 2019 ( 3 ) Nov 2018 ( 2 ) Oct 2018 ( 1 ) Sep 2018 ( 1 ) Aug 2018 ( 2 ) Jul 2018 ( 1 ) Jun 2018 ( 1 ) Apr 2018 ( 1 ) Mar 2018 ( 1 ) Feb 2018 ( 1 ) Jan 2018 ( 2 ) Dec 2017 ( 1 ) Nov 2017 ( 4 ) Oct 2017 ( 1 ) Sep 2017 ( 1 ) Aug 2017 ( 1 ) Jul 2017 ( 2 ) Jun 2017 ( 3 ) May 2017 ( 2 ) Apr 2017 ( 1 ) Mar 2017 ( 2 ) Feb 2017 ( 2 ) Jan 2017 ( 2 ) Dec 2016 ( 4 ) Nov 2016 ( 1 ) Oct 2016 ( 2 ) Sep 2016 ( 2 ) Aug 2016 ( 2 ) Jul 2016 ( 4 ) Jun 2016 ( 4 ) May 2016 ( 3 ) Apr 2016 ( 3 ) Mar 2016 ( 3 ) Feb 2016 ( 2 ) Jan 2016 ( 2 ) Dec 2015 ( 3 ) Nov 2015 ( 3 ) Oct 2015 ( 2 ) Sep 2015 ( 3 ) Aug 2015 ( 5 ) Jul 2015 ( 2 ) Jun 2015 ( 3 ) May 2015 ( 4 ) Apr 2015 ( 4 ) Mar 2015 ( 4 ) Feb 2015 ( 5 ) Jan 2015 ( 2 ) Dec 2014 ( 5 ) Nov 2014 ( 4 ) Oct 2014 ( 4 ) Sep 2014 ( 4 ) Aug 2014 ( 2 ) Jul 2014 ( 4 ) Jun 2014 ( 2 ) May 2014 ( 4 ) Apr 2014 ( 4 ) Mar 2014 ( 3 ) Feb 2014 ( 5 ) Jan 2014 ( 4 ) Dec 2013 ( 3 ) Nov 2013 ( 4 ) Oct 2013 ( 6 ) Sep 2013 ( 5 ) Aug 2013 ( 7 ) Jul 2013 ( 8 ) Jun 2013 ( 7 ) May 2013 ( 5 ) Apr 2013 ( 5 ) Mar 2013 ( 4 ) Feb 2013 ( 6 ) Jan 2013 ( 5 ) Dec 2012 ( 6 ) Nov 2012 ( 7 ) Oct 2012 ( 9 ) Sep 2012 ( 7 ) Aug 2012 ( 8 ) Jul 2012 ( 8 ) Jun 2012 ( 8 ) May 2012 ( 7 ) Apr 2012 ( 7 ) Mar 2012 ( 8 ) Feb 2012 ( 7 ) Jan 2012 ( 9 ) Dec 2011 ( 11 ) Nov 2011 ( 9 ) Oct 2011 ( 10 ) Sep 2011 ( 11 ) Aug 2011 ( 10 ) Jul 2011 ( 13 ) Jun 2011 ( 9 ) May 2011 ( 15 ) Apr 2011 ( 13 ) Mar 2011 ( 16 ) Feb 2011 ( 11 ) Jan 2011 ( 14 ) Dec 2010 ( 15 ) Nov 2010 ( 14 ) Oct 2010 ( 15 ) Sep 2010 ( 13 ) Aug 2010 ( 11 ) Jul 2010 ( 11 ) Jun 2010 ( 18 ) May 2010 ( 20 ) Apr 2010 ( 18 ) Mar 2010 ( 15 ) Feb 2010 ( 18 ) Jan 2010 ( 16 ) Dec 2009 ( 13 ) Nov 2009 ( 8 ) Oct 2009 ( 12 ) Sep 2009 ( 13 ) Aug 2009 ( 14 ) Jul 2009 ( 5 ) Jun 2009 ( 2 )Rick Horowitz is an unapologetic blogger and a vigorous criminal defense lawyer in California. This is an unusually mouthy combination. Rick pulls no punches blogging at Probable Cause, where he enjoys the broad protections of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.
But the First Amendment is but a law, and any criminal defense attorney will tell you there is a wide dark gulf between the law and the application thereof.
Rick wrote a blunt and angry post, the upshot of which was that the state has no moral authority to demand adherence to laws that its own agents refuse to follow. It's pointed now; imagine what it was like before he toned it down a bit.
Your approach should be to try to live your life, as much as possible, without giving them one minute of your time. If they want to talk to you, you should ask, “Am I being detained, or arrested?” If they say “no,” then you walk away. If they tell you that you cannot leave, then you stay put, but don’t talk to them. Because they aren’t following the law when they detain you for no reason. And if the government will not follow the law, there is no reason why anyone else should. Let me repeat that: If the government will not follow the law, there is no reason why anyone else should. So this is the proposal I set forth: To the government, you can start following the law, or none of us will. To everyone else, if the government will not follow the law, you should stop pretending law means anything. It’s time to step away from the wrong. Start fighting over everything!
All of this was unquestionably within Rick's rights. The words were not obscene. They did not convey child pornography. They did not convey a threat. They did not create a clear and present danger of imminent lawless action.
But those are points of law. Law recognizes rights; power disdainfully ignores them. Power is, for instance, the ability to detain, search, wrongfully accuse, tase, beat, or shoot you with relative legal and social impunity. Police have that sort of power. You do not. Rick does not.
Rick was reminded of this when, as a consequence of writing his blog post, he was singled out for invasive and repeated searches at the courthouse as he went about his business of representing people accused of crimes.
You have to empty your pockets.” “What?,” I asked. “You have to empty your pockets.” “Why?” The officer said something about a new security issue or something along those lines. He stated that they were making all court personnel and attorneys empty their pockets now. “A court person went through just ahead of me,” I said, motioning in the direction the prosecutor had gone. “You didn’t check her.” And then one of them told me it was because of my blog post yesterday. He even specifically referenced the sentence that they found so offensive. “So now you’re a security risk,” I was told.
And later:
The Fresno County Sheriff’s Department, however, has proven that I was on the right track. In addition to the above, I went through two more complete searches — basically, every time I left the court, when I returned, I was searched again. They opened my bag, and then opened everything inside my bag, on the pretense that they were looking for “something metal” that showed up in the x-ray machine. What they did today proved that they can be a lawless force which, when it does not get its way, is to be both feared and resisted.
The Fresno County Sheriff's Department is not an outlier. The Fresno County Sheriff's Department represents the heartland of law enforcement thought about criticism, dissent, monitoring, and attempts to impose accountability upon the people who are privileged by the law to arrest and/or kill us. That is a heartland where people who inquire how to file a complaint against police are threatened, reviled, and abused. That is a heartland where cops argue that monitoring them is a threat or that it is a crime and are willing to arrest you on ludicrous pretexts to stop it. That is a heartland where law enforcement thinks that discussing your constitutional rights when confronted by them is evidence of criminality. That is a heartland where cops think they have a right not to be mocked and a right to expect you'll shut your fucking mouth, where writing something they don't like is an occasion for a knock on your door in the dead of night. This is a heartland where challenging the cops' actions makes you a suspect and a target. This is a heartland where cops feel they should have the right to use any amount of force against you they see fit, even if normal non-sociopathic people would find that use of force wanton and freakish.
This heartland survives — and thrives — because the media is too often a pliant lapdog |
of Jacksonville breweries, both current and soon-to-come.
Breweries in Jacksonville
Aardwolf Brewing Company
1461 Hendricks Ave.
Popular brews: Belgian Pale Ale, San Marco Sour
Anheuser-Busch Jacksonville Brewery
1100 Ellis Rd. N.
Atlantic Beach Brewing Company
725 Atlantic Blvd. #3/15 (Atlantic Beach)
Popular brews: Mayport Red Ale, Duality IPA
Bearded Buffalo Brewing Co.
1012 King St.
Bold City Brewery
2670 Rosselle St. #7 | 102 E. Bay St.
Popular brews: Duke’s Cold Nose Brown Ale, Mad Manatee IPA
Bottlenose Brewing
9700 Deer Lake Ct. #1
Popular brews: Bottlenose IPA, Bottlenose Double IPA
Engine 15 Brewing Company
633 Myrtle Ave. N. | 1500 Beach Blvd #217 (Jax Beach)
Popular brews: Nut Sack Imperial Brown Ale, J’Ville Lager
Fishweir Brewing Company
1183 Edgewood Ave. S.
Green Room Brewing
228 3rd St. N. (Jax Beach)
Popular brews: Head High IPA, Count Shakula Stout
Hyperion Brewing Company
1740 N. Main St.
Popular brews: Irish Red Ale, Peanut Butter Porter
Intuition Ale Works
929 E. Bay St.
Popular brews: I-10 IPA, Jon Boat Coastal Ale
Main and Six Brewing Company
1636 Main St. N.
Popular brews: Hubbard St. Stout, Mix Tape Pale Ale
Pinglehead Brewing Company
12 Blanding Blvd. (Orange Park)
Popular brews: Pinglehead Red, Imperial Red
Reve Brewing
1237 Mayport Rd.
River City Brewing Company
835 Museum Cir.
Popular brew: Jackson Pale Ale
Ruby Beach Brewing
131 1st St. N. (Jax Beach)
Popular brews: American Garage IPA, Oakyfenokee IPA
Seven Bridges Grille & Brewery
9735 Gate Pkwy. N.
Southern Swells Brewing Company
1312 Beach Blvd. (Jax Beach)
Popular brews: Karate in the Garage IPA, Truth Juice IPA
Tabula Rasa Brewing
2385 Corbett St.
Veterans United Craft Brewery
8999 Western Way #104
Popular brews: Hops Banshee IPA, Raging Blonde
Wicked Barley Brewing Company
4100 Baymeadows Rd.
Popular brews: The Eradicator IPA, Left Leg Lager
Breweries coming soon to Jacksonville
“The Dora Block”
Dora and Chelsea streets (Brooklyn)
Lemon Street Brewing (formerly Keen Brewing Company)
2100 Dennis St.
Legacy Ale Works
14965 Old St. Augustine Rd.
Strings Sports Brewery
1850 N. Main St.The Trudeau government has set aside $348.6 million over the next three years for the deployment of a Canadian battle group in the Baltic States and ongoing air and sea patrols to counter the threat of Russian aggression on Europe's eastern flank.
The Liberals have also renewed funding to support security forces and development assistance in Afghanistan until 2021.
How much of the $465 million will be spent to prop up Afghan army and police units and how much has been earmarked for relief and capacity building is not clear.
The figures were released this week as part of Finance Minister Bill Morneau's fiscal update and are measures that have come up since the federal budget was tabled last spring.
Last summer, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau committed Canada to leading one of NATO's four high-readiness, multi-national battalions that will be positioned along the Russian border.
As many as 455 troops, armoured vehicles and a headquarters contingent are slated to deploy to Latvia in the new year. The Canadians will be joined in their sector by Italian, Albanian, Polish and Slovenian forces.
Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan visited the Latvian capital of Riga at the end of October to meet officials and to see the airbase where Canadian troops will be stationed.
Reassurance after Ukraine
The former Conservative government, in response to Russia's annexation of Crimea, committed an army company — approximately 200 troops — to joining a series of regular NATO exercises in eastern Europe as a show of solidarity with jittery allies.
It also deployed a frigate to join one of the alliance's two standing naval task forces, and sent a flight of CF-18s jet fighters to patrol the skies over the Baltic states, which do not have their own air forces.
But Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government stopped short of re-establishing a permanent military base in Europe, opting instead for what officials describe as a persistent training deployment.
The decision by Trudeau's government will see multiple rotations of Canadian troops cycling through Latvia until at least the end of the 2019-2020 budget year.
Simmering tension
There is deepening tension in the region.
Lithuania, one of the three Baltic states and a former Soviet republic, issued a 75-page civil defence guide on how to survive a Russian invasion. The booklet warned the public to call a government hotline if they suspect someone of being a spy, and also provides a tutorial on how to spot Russian tanks and mines.
Nearby Estonia has stepped up training for the tiny country's defence league, giving citizens instruction on how to become insurgents.
The political tension has not affected Canadian troops, who are conducting training in nearby Poland, the contingent commander said Wednesday.
"I would say we're focused on our job," said Maj. Lonnie Campbell, who leads troops from the Edmonton-based 1st Battalion Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. "We focus on doing the things we need to do well. The rest of it is peripheral to our consideration."
The Trudeau government has decided it will send troops to join a NATO high-readiness brigade preparing to deploy in Eastern Europe. 2:14
He did say the exercises troops are involved in with allies have been "a little bigger and more focused than they were before."
After a decade of fighting insurgents in Afghanistan, soldiers are involved in conventional warfare-style training, which Campbell described as "arduous."
He was unable to provide further details on the planned move to Latvia, which is apparently still in the planning stages at National Defence headquarters in Ottawa.
Legacy of last war
Separately, the renewed funding commitment for Afghanistan is something NATO has been pushing for over the last year.
Donor countries have been paying the bills for the war-torn country for years.
The former Conservative government committed to spending $330 million, but the program ends in 2017.
Prime Minister Trudeau met with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, and Abdullah Abdullah, the country's chief executive officer, on the margins of the NATO summit last summer, but did not then formally commit to renewing the funding.
It costs about $4 billion per year to keep Afghan troops and cops in the field to fight the Taliban insurgency, but they have been suffering high casualties and recruiting trouble.
The New York Times reported a few days ago that dozens of Afghan soldiers and police had surrendered in their posts to insurgents in the province of Uruzgan, which is north of Kandahar, where Canadian troops fought a five year combat mission.Copyright 2019 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
ITHACA, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) - Ithaca Police have issued a warning after responding to eight calls for suspected overdoses over the last two weeks.
In one instance, a person died.
Police are looking into whether or not they died as a result of an overdose.
They are also investigating whether all of the overdoses are related or not.
“If you are addicted to heroin or if you know someone is addicted to heroin, please reach out for help. There are a multitude of addiction recovery services in the Ithaca area that can and will help you. If you have information that would aid police in investigating the sale or use of heroin please contact the Ithaca Police Department,” Police Chief John Barber said.
You can reach police a number of ways – both by telephone and social media:
Police Dispatch: 607-272-3245
Police Administration: 607-272-9973
Crime Stoppers Tipline: 607-697-0333
Drug Tipline 607-330-0000
Email Tip Address: http://www.cityofithaca.org/FormCenter/Ithaca-Police-Department- 5/Ithaca-Police-Department-Tipline-47
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ithacapolice
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ithacapolice
Instagram: ithacapoliceTEAM BUILDER The Team Builder is a tool which enables Halo 3, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and Tekken 6 players to complete their registration after they have purchased a Pro Circuit competition pass. Halo 3 4v4 players should already know who their teammates will be before going to the Team Builder. If you are a player looking for teammates, check out the Recruitment Forum to find players to team up with. In order to complete your 4v4 or 1v1 registration, you will need to use the Team Builder. Read the rules and guidelines below, and then access the Team Builder to complete the process. * Read the registration rules below * Purchase your 4v4 or 1v1 pass for the Pro Circuit * You will then be directed to Team Builder * Follow the instructions in order to complete your registration * Note that your 4v4 or 1v1 registration is not considered complete until you have completed the Team Builder process CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE TEAM BUILDER 2010 Pro Circuit Registration Rules Team Management 1. Halo 3 Teams must be named and have four confirmed Players in Team Builder before they will be entered into the Event. Captains are confirmed after entering their contact information. Other Players and Coaches are confirmed after accepting their invitation to the Team. Players who purchase a Tekken 6 or SSBB Player Pass will be given access to Team Builder in order to complete their registration and automatically entered into the Event. 2. Halo 3 Teams may have one Coach. 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Once a Player/Coach has submitted a 2010 Appearance/Participation Release, whether online or at Check-In, they won’t be required to submit another Appearance/Participation Release for the remainder of the 2010 Doritos Pro-Gaming Combine or 2010 Pro Circuit. Team Name Rules 1. No websites. 2. No use of “Major League Gaming” or its abbreviation (MLG). 3. No use of the word "Team". 4. No use of the words "Gamer" or "Gaming". 5. No derogatory, suggestive, or otherwise inappropriate words/meanings. 6. No corporations, company, sponsor, or product names. 7. Teams may not register for an Event at a Pro Circuit Competition with a Team Name that closely resembles that of a current or former Pro Player or Pro Team. 8. Team Names are limited to 20 characters, including spaces. 9. Teams found violating any of the Team Name Rules will have their Team Name changed and will be instructed to rename their Team immediately. Player Name (Username) Rules 1. No websites. 2. No use of “Major League Gaming” or its abbreviation (MLG). 3. No Team Name abbreviations. 4. No derogatory, suggestive, or otherwise inappropriate words/meanings. 5. No corporations, company, sponsor, or product names. 6. Players may not register for or compete in an Event at a Pro Circuit Competition using a name that closely resembles that of a current or former Pro Player or Pro Team. 7. Player Names (Usernames) are limited to 15 characters, including spaces. 8. Players found violating any of the Player Name (Username) Rules must change their Username prior to the Team Builder Lock. Players found violating Player Name (Username) Rule #3 may change their Team Name instead. All emails submitted to jnelson@mlgpro.com must be submitted from the email address registered to the individual’s MLGpro.com Username.It took more than a year from the time Ezekiel Elliott was accused of domestic violence to the NFL handing him a six-game suspension. The details that have been made public have been confusing and ugly, and both sides have questioned the other’s credibility.
There’s a lot we don’t know about what happened between Elliott and the woman.
We do know Elliott wasn’t criminally charged in the case and has repeatedly denied the accusations. We also know the woman gave a false statement to police about one allegation she made against Elliott, but that the NFL’s investigation concluded she was telling the truth about three other claims of physical violence. The Columbus, Ohio, prosecutor who did not bring charges against Elliott also believed his alleged victim but suggested he did not have the evidence to pursue charges.
The point of this article is to sort out what has been made public and piece together a timeline based on police reports, witness statements, text messages, and the NFL’s findings. Not all information related to this case is public. Only the recorded police interviews from the alleged victim and one witness have been made available. The NFL’s 160-page investigation report has not been released, although snippets of it have been leaked to the press.
Elliott is only the third player — and the most recognizable name — to receive the baseline six-game suspension for domestic violence since the personal conduct policy was enacted in December 2014.
The situation threatened to turn into a long, even nastier battle. The NFL and NFL Players Association engaged in another power struggle over the league’s disciplinary process, but in the end, the NFL couldn’t be defeated in court. Elliott will serve his six-game suspension.
Feb. 12, 2016: Elliott’s accuser first calls the police
What she told police: Elliott’s accuser called the Aventura Police Department in Florida after an argument with him. She said that Elliott, listed as a “friend (with benefits)” in the police report, pushed her against a wall, hurting her shoulder.
In her phone call to 911, she told the operator that her boyfriend hit her “Because I texted one of his old teammates.” (pages 19-20)
What he told police: Elliott told police that the woman, who was visiting him from Ohio during his pre-draft training, was angry over a “social media incident” and in the ensuing argument he asked her to leave. He said he tried to lock himself in another room. The police report said she grabbed his waist and he pushed her off of him.
The woman was examined by paramedics. There were no visible signs of injury and no other witnesses. No charges were filed. (Aventura police report)
What she told the NFL: The Dallas Morning News obtained transcripts of the alleged victim’s interviews with Kia Roberts, the NFL’s director of investigations. During her interview, Elliott’s accuser said that the day before she filed a police report in Florida, an argument between the two began after she got upset about Elliott whispering about another woman to a friend she called a “marketing agent” who was into drugs (page 20 and page 31). She said Elliott shoved her against the wall multiple times and pinned her, leaving bruises and thumbprints on her arms.
In an interview from September 2016, she told Roberts that Elliott stopped when he “realizes what he’s doing, like every other time. And that’s when I said he said, ‘just come to bed and lay down with me.’” (page 6)
The woman said she was trying to leave and he tried to stop her, and that Elliott was drunk. “When he drinks... it’s just a different side to him. It’s like he loses, like, all control of his self.” (page 5)
In another interview from November 2016, she told league investigators that she texted Joey Bosa, Elliott’s teammate at Ohio State and former roommate, through Facebook to find a place to stay in the area and that when Elliott found out about the texts the next day, Elliott shoved her again with an “open hand,” hurting her left shoulder and chest, and threw all her belongings off the balcony of his rented apartment. That’s when she said she called the police. (pages 21-26)
She said after she checked into a hotel, a lawyer and agent for Elliott texted her because they were worried about the press finding out. According to her interview, she agreed to call the police officer she had met because “I didn’t want to ruin [Elliott’s] career.” She said Elliott texted her throughout the day and came to see her at the hotel twice. (pages 29-30)
In her September interview with Roberts, Elliott’s accuser said she didn’t remember their conversation at the hotel, but she knew she told Elliott that she was “done with him.” (page 8) In her November interview, she said Elliott told her he loved her and wanted to be with her. (page 31)
What Elliott told the NFL: During the NFL’s investigation, Elliott said that his accuser had never called the police on him before July 22, 2016, which is untrue. However, he was not directly asked about what happened in Aventura. (pages 20-21) During his appeal hearing in August 2017, Elliott told NFL arbitrator Harold Henderson that he misinterpreted the question and thought Roberts was only asking about the events of the week of July 16-22. (page 82)
Elliott was questioned about the Aventura incident at his appeal hearing. He said that she was “rude” to him and his friend, so he suggested she go back to Ohio a day early. The next day, he said Bosa texted him a screenshot of his exchange with the woman and Elliott said she asked to stay with Bosa.
Elliott said he never touched or harmed his accuser. When she recounted the events to the officers on scene, Elliott said the woman was “literally looking at me, literally started smiling and laughing.” (pages 80-81)
Elliott also said that he never pushed her off of him and that the police report got it wrong. “I didn't push her. I was trying to unlock my door,” he said. (page 147)
He said he tried to cut off contact with her, but he went to see her at her hotel the next day when she told him she had been drugged while she was out in Miami by herself the previous night. Elliott said the woman later admitted to making it up. (page 82)
April 28, 2016: Elliott gets drafted by Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys selected Elliott with the No. 4 pick in the 2016 NFL draft. He was the first running back taken. Team owner Jerry Jones later told USA Today that the subject of Elliott and women was not discussed during the lead-up to the draft.
July 16: Elliott returns to Columbus from Dallas
Elliott’s alleged victim picked him and his friend up from the airport on Saturday, July 16. The three went to Elliott’s apartment in Columbus that afternoon. This was confirmed by both the woman in an audio interview and Elliott’s friend. Later, they all went to a club, The Social Room, according to Elliott’s friend in a statement. He said the three headed back to Elliott’s apartment and were together until 3:30 a.m. on July 17. (Page 56 of public records from the Columbus City Attorney's office)
July 17-22, 2016: Elliott's accuser reports 5 instances of violence
Elliott’s alleged victim told police that he had abused her five times from early July 17 to July 22 in Columbus. The police interview took place on July 22, and was then followed by an interview with the intake unit of the prosecutor’s office that same day. The NFL determined Elliott had been violent in three instances that week. Elliott has denied he was ever abusive toward the woman.
Early morning Sunday, July 17: First alleged incident
What she told police: The woman claimed that Elliott attacked her at about 3 a.m. at his apartment after an argument about their “unhealthy relationship.” She said that Elliott frequently cheated on her and when she told him she had been with another man during one of their breaks, he tried to strike her. The woman had a bruise on her right forearm, which she said happened when she tried to block Elliott from hitting her in the face. (page 11)
In a written statement to Columbus police, she said, “this has previously happened as well multiple times in the past.” (page 3)
What she told the prosecutor’s office: In an interview with the intake unit at the prosecutor’s office — audio of which was obtained by SB Nation through the Columbus City Attorney’s office — she said that the abuse had happened before and she hadn’t reported it, other than the incident in Florida. She referred to Elliott as her ex-boyfriend “right now” and told the intake counselor she and Elliott had dated for about a year.
"He has lost control and has yanked me into the wall, busted the side of my jaw,” the alleged victim said. “My face is swollen and a little bit bruised.”
In the police report, there was no mention of Elliott choking her on this date, but there was in her interview. The woman told the intake counselor that when she asked why a girl was calling in the early-morning hours of July 17, between 3 and 5 a.m., Elliott called her a bitch and “came over to my side, dragged me out of the bed. And then he threw me up against the door in his bedroom. Then he placed his right hand around my neck and started choking me.”
Elliott’s accuser said the choking lasted between 20-30 seconds and after he let go, that’s when he tried to hit her in the face, which she blocked. She said she started crying and he asked if she was OK. She answered no, and he apologized, according to her interview. She said he then acted like nothing had happened and she tried to leave, but he didn’t want her to.
“I was scared he was going to touch me again, so I just listened and I laid back down,” the alleged victim told the prosecutor’s office. She said they then fell asleep.
Elliott’s accuser said they spent all day Sunday together at his apartment, even though she had told Elliott she wanted to leave. According to her account, Elliott wouldn’t let her leave or take her belongings.
What one witness told police: The friend of Elliott’s signed an affidavit stating he had stayed at the apartment with Elliott and the woman until 3:30 a.m. and did not witness a fight, nor “see any evidence of injury, bruising, or scrapes” on her. (page 57)
The NFL said Elliott was violent: The woman took photos of herself the day after the alleged incident. In messages handed over to the NFL, Elliott’s accuser texted the photos to her aunt along with a note that said “Absuive” [sic]. The NFL confirmed the timestamps based on forensic analysis. The investigators determined Elliott had used physical force with the woman, causing injuries to her “arms, neck and shoulders.” The two medical experts consulted by the NFL’s investigators said the injuries in the photos “appear recent and consistent with [the accuser’s] description of the incident and how it occurred.” (NFL’s letter to Elliott, page 3; via Pro Football Talk)
Late Sunday night to early Monday, July 18: Second alleged incident
What she told police: The woman said in the police report that the two had gone out separately Sunday night and Elliott became angry when he arrived back at his apartment before she did. When she returned early Monday morning, she said that Elliott had choked her, leaving a bruise on her neck. (page 11)
What she told the prosecutor’s office: She told the intake counselor that when she returned, Elliott threatened to smash her car windows and headlights, and then he grabbed his keys that she had in her hand and he twisted her left arm, only letting go when his friend told him to stop. She said that gave her a bruise.
The woman said they continued to argue, in front of Elliott’s friend, about another guy she had been involved with while she and Elliott were broken up. She told police that the reason she and Elliott got back together in the first place was because he texted her frequently with messages like “I can’t lose you, I love you.”
Elliott’s accuser said he tried to leave but couldn’t get a friend to pick him up, so the two went to bed. She said she stayed and was “still in fear.”
What two witnesses told police: A statement from Elliott’s friend said that he stayed overnight with them and did not witness an altercation. (page 57)
A coworker of the woman’s signed an affidavit that said he hung out with her at a pool early the next day and did not see any marks on the accuser, who had been wearing “the equivalent of a bikini.” (page 66)
Late Monday night to Tuesday, July 19: Third alleged incident
What she told police: In the police report, the alleged victim said Elliott threw her against a wall at his apartment after she returned from a night out and told her she was “lucky that he has not killed her yet.” (page 11)
In her written statement, Elliott’s accuser said he choked her, smacked her face, and called her his “puppy dog.” She said he also apologized and called it “tough love,” but said it wouldn’t happen again. (page 47)
What she told the prosecutor’s office: During her intake interview, there was no mention of choking, throwing her against a wall, or him saying she was “lucky that he has not killed her yet.” The alleged victim said everything was fine during the day Monday, but early Tuesday morning, they had another argument. She said he told her, “You’re in my house, you’re my puppy dog” and when she tried to leave, he replied, “no, sit the fuck down.”
Then she said Elliott grabbed her, threw her on the bed, and told her not to move, taking away both her phone and her car keys. When she tried to leave, she said Elliott “aggressively” poked her cheek when she tried to avoid looking at him. She said he also grabbed and smacked her face, which was “really sore.”
The woman also said Elliott told her “We’re spending the whole day together. You have no choice but to.” She said they spent all day Tuesday together and he cried and apologized, telling her “it’s just tough love. I love you too much” several times.
What one witness said: A statement from Elliott’s friend said he came back to Elliott’s apartment alone at 3:15 a.m. and the alleged victim was waiting there. He said the woman stayed over and never mentioned any fights or injuries. The friend said Elliott didn’t return home until 8 or 9 a.m. Tuesday. (page 58)
The NFL said Elliott was violent: Two days later, she took photos of herself again and texted them to her mom, confirmed by forensic analysis. The NFL investigation concluded Elliott caused injuries to the woman’s “face, arms, wrist and hands.” The two medical experts consulted by the NFL’s investigators said the injuries in the photos “appear recent and consistent with [the accuser’s] description of the incident and how it occurred.” (pages 3-4)
Late Wednesday night to early Thursday, July 21: Fourth alleged incident
What she told police: Elliott’s accuser told police that when she and Elliott arrived at his apartment after a night out, he “lost it” when she asked him a question. She claimed Elliott threw her against a wall, grabbed her throat, yanked her by the left wrist, and then dragged her across the floor, giving her a rug burn on her right knee. (pages 11 and 48)
What she told the prosecutor’s office: In her intake interview, the alleged victim said Elliott threw her against a wall and she hit her head. “I felt dizzy,” she said.
Then, she said Elliott dragged her to the bedroom, telling her “don’t play with me.” He then tried to call the guy she had been seeing when she and Elliott were broken up, but the other guy didn’t answer, according to his accuser. She said she brought up Elliott’s past cheating.
“That’s when he grabs my neck, pins me down to the floor,” the alleged victim said during her interview. He gets on top of me, starts shaking me. I start gasping for breath.”
She said he then lifted her up and threw her on the bed. She claimed Elliott told her, “I’m not dealing with your dumb ass anymore“ and then “Try to leave and see what happens.” She told the intake counselor that she was too scared to leave.
What two witnesses told police: Elliott’s friend said he and Elliott were at a bar from about midnight until 2 a.m. Thursday. He said Elliott’s accuser met them there, and the three went back to Elliott’s place together. He claims the alleged victim was “too intoxicated to drive” and she stayed over. The friend’s signed affidavit stated he slept across the hall and never heard or saw anything violent occur. (page 59)
An Ohio State student who knew Elliott signed a sworn statement that said Elliott introduced him to the alleged victim late Wednesday night. The student did not observe any bruising on Elliott’s accuser and took photos with Elliott, the woman, and a few of Elliott’s friends early Thursday morning. The photos were attached to his affidavit. (page 65)
The NFL said Elliott was violent: In the afternoon, the woman took photos of her injuries and the ones that allegedly occurred on July 19. The NFL’s investigation ruled Elliott was responsible for injuries to alleged victim’s “face, neck, arms, knees and hips.” The two medical experts consulted by the NFL’s investigators said the injuries in the photos “appear recent and consistent with [the accuser’s] description of the incident and how it occurred.”
Thursday afternoon and evening, July 21: Elliott’s alleged victim talks about going to police
What she told the prosecutor’s office: Elliott’s accuser said she left Elliott’s place right after he did and that Elliott didn’t lay a hand on her that day. She said he told her, “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
She said Elliott told her he was scared to be around her because he didn’t want to abuse her again. She claimed this was said via text messages. One of their text exchanges entered in evidence from that night read (page 36):
Later that night, she said she told him she had enough and was going to go to the police.
She also said Elliott texted to ask why she wasn’t celebrating his birthday (July 22) with him and that she didn’t love him. Another text exchange from that night read (page 37):
According to the alleged victim, Elliott Facetimed her and “told me I can get the police involved all I want. That he’s going to win” and that no one would believe her.
What Elliott said: Elliott said that his accuser was upset after he asked her to leave and told her that he couldn’t go out with him that night.
“Ok this is what you want? Ok then, I’m going to ruin your life. You will see. If I was you, I wouldn’t go out tonight,” she replied, according to documents obtained by the Star-Telegram.
Elliott also told the woman that she couldn’t come to his birthday party and she replied, “that’s worst decision you made in your life. I’m going to ruin you life now,” per the same documents.
What one witness said: The prosecutor’s office only recorded two interviews: the alleged victim and the friend of the alleged victim. The friend told the intake counselor that on Thursday afternoon, Elliott’s accuser showed her bruises, telling her Elliott had done it and it had been happening that week. The friend said Elliott’s accuser did not have the bruises last time they had seen each other, which was about 10 days before that day.
The accuser’s friend said the woman discussed her plan to file a police report and told her, “I don’t really know for sure if I want to do this because I know what the repercussions [are] but at the same time, this is not OK. I’m, like, honestly hurting.”
The friend said she would not be willing to testify if it had gone to trial because she was also a friend of Elliott’s.
Early morning Friday, July 22 (Elliott’s 21st birthday): Fifth alleged incident; Elliott’s accuser calls police
What she told police: Elliott’s accuser called Columbus police around 2:40 a.m. on Elliott’s 21st birthday. She told them that Elliott had attacked her while she was sitting in her car after he had requested she spend his birthday with him and stay the night.
Her written statement said Elliott cursed at her and “y |
Join the Embrace Blog to receive posts via email and a FREE e-book on meditation. Just follow the instructions in the right hand column and hit Subscribe. If you think anyone else may enjoy having a crack at these mindfulness practices, please do let your friends know by using the social media buttons below.[69] Sascha to Karl Germer, no date. [70] Karl to Sascha Germer, 5.1.57. [71] Helen P. Smith in McMurtry vs. Motta, 14.5.85, p. 330. [72] Motta in McMurtry vs. Motta, 16.5.85, p. 671. [73] Parsival Krumm-Hellers approach, trying to lead the F.R.A. groups while altering his late fathers work in Germany, threw the different branches of the F.R.A. into considerable confusion. Most F.R.A. groups did not acknowledge his leadership. While Arnoldo Krumm-Heller had encouraged a union between the F.R.A. and Reuben Swinburne Clymers Rosicrucian Fraternity in America, Parsival cut ties with Clymer. [74] Motta: Sex and Religion, i.e. Equinox V;4, Nashville 1981, p. 27. Motta lived in Germers house for one week; McMurtry vs. Motta, 16.5.85, p. 676. He claimed to have been initiated into the IX° by Germer at this time. His official testimony, however, only mentioned his acceptance into the A.·. A.·., Motta vs. Weiser, 1.3.84, p. 54. But I have seen the evidence of Mottas IXth initiation, Martin Starr to Marcelo Santos, 16 May 1999. [75] Motta: Chamando os filhos do Sol, Rio 1962. [76] My originals were systematically refused. And I was given adaptations of works of the last century, Motta in McMurtry vs. Motta, 16.5.85, p. 712. This is why he was compelled to make his living as an English teacher. [77] Motta: Raul dos Santos Seixas: Brasilian pop singer and composer. Was for a time a Probationer under Marcelo Motta. Tried to use Crowley for personal success, aping the Beatles. By his own request, wrote several songs with Motta as his lyricist. Tried to rob the lyricist and bowdlerized several of his lyrics, bowing to official government censorship. Cut contact with, Equinox V;4, p. xv. Two pop songs by Santos Seixas (died 1989), were purportedly written by Motta: Eu Sou Egoísta and Peixuxa (O amiguinho dos Peixes). Seixas had supposedly sang a version of Crowleys Liber OZ during his live shows. After he had been expelled by Motta, Seixas came under the tutelage of Claudia Canuto de Menezes and founded a Sociedade Alternativa. [78] 20.9.56, Motta to Germer. [79] O.T.O.: You must have realised that my heart and soul are not very deeply in this. A.C. knew this. He suggested to me that after his death I may either drop this form or system of working, or devise my own entirely independent method, Germer to C.H..i. Petersen ;, 6.1.54. [80] Crowley to.i. Grant ;, 18.12.1944. Cited in.i. Grant, ; Remembering Aleister Crowley, p. 7. Other lineages: Harry Smith, Gerald Yorke, C.F. Russell, Kenneth Grant, H.J. Metzger, Charles Waldemar, Arnoldo Krumm-Heller (who, as a 8°=3 , took Giuseppe Cagliostro Cambareri), Francis Regardie. [81] A later handwritten note by Sascha Germer appeared to say I am no member of the OTO. This is one of the reasons why her judgment as to who was her husbands heir was disregarded by the American membership. [82] Jerry Cornelius: In The Name of the Beast Volume One 19181962, Berkeley 2005, p. 177. [83] O.T.O. Newsletter, Berkeley 1977, I;2, p. 5. [84] Blue Equinox, Detroit 1919, p. 244. [85] Crowleys son Randall Gair MacAlpine (19372002), who was Jean Shivonens boyfriend. [86] O.T.O. Newsletter, I;2, p. 5. [87] The Burlingames would later become instrumental in starting the Solar Lodge, the first O.T.O. lodge in the US since Germer closed Agapé in 1953. [88] Many of McMurtrys supporters are still gullible enough to swallow this diagnosis that Germer was mentally ill, despite never actually having met Germer, nor being able to read or speak German. On the other hand, they seem happy to accept that McMurtry was a drug-addicted alcoholic with suicidal tendencies, who had begun to talk to his voices in the head; likewise that he was bordering on paranoid fits and could no longer distinguish between dreams and reality, and that he regularly twisted the truth to benefit himself in order to achieve his intended goals. Cornelius: In The Name Of The Beast Volume Two 19621985, Berkeley 2005, pp. 31, 66, 94, 96, 108. Jane Wolfe, despite her constant history of confinement in mental asylums, is nevertheless considered a saint in the Liturgy of the Caliphate O.T.O.s Gnostic Mass. [89].i. Montenegro ; to Walter.i. Englert ;, 30.11.68. [90] Later, Montenegro was appointed 33°, IX°, and O.T.O. Supreme Sovereign for both North and South America by H.J. Metzger in 1966. Referring to the business of being named as Grandmaster of the O.T.O. by Metzger, Paul R. Audehm (who was one of the witnesses) remembered that Monty was so drunk, he obviously didnt have the faintest idea what was going on. Letter of 8.7.88. [91] I agree with Brother Monty fully, 23.11.60. Later, Smith changed her opinion and supported McMurtry. In 1985 she also voted for his successor, William Breeze. [92] Statement of Smith, McMurtry vs. Motta, 14.5.85, p. 363. [93].i. Starr ;, letter to the present author, 7.6.88. [94].i. Starr ;, letter of 17.2.88. [95] Metzger: Summarischer Bericht an Sor. Sascha [Germer] betr. O.T.O. und Abtei Thelema, Spring 1963. [96] Germer to Mellinger, letter of 25.9.51. [97].i. Seckler ;, 'ITC' V;2, Oroville 1992, p. 42. [98] Germer to Williams, 24.6.58. [99] Frau Lekve gave the copyrights of her husbands writings to the publisher A.R.W. which resulted in P.R. Koenig: Das Beste von Friedrich Lekve, Munich 1997. [100] Francis.i. King ;, The Secret Rituals of the OTO, London 1973, p. 32. [101] On 14.11.1963 Metzger became President and stated that the O.T.O. under Reuss separated from the Illuminati Order in 1902. Metzger wanted to re-incorporate everything in due course. Metzger devised his own individual grade-system: I°II°: Outer Order, Gnostic Catholic Church. III°V°: Blue or Craft Masonry. VI°VIII°: Red or Royal Arch Masonry. F.R.A. and Illuminati degree. X°XII°: Mystical Masonry, O.T.O. and Illuminati degree. XIII°: Patriarchate, Areopagus, Illuminatus. [102] The French Gnostic Churches, which also suffered from countless schisms, began in 1890 and supposedly ran along the usual ecclesiastical lines of apostolic succession. But neither Reuss nor Crowley ever received a valid apostolic succession. [103] During the disputes about the heirship after her husbands death in October 1962, Sascha Germer quoted this passage in the letter to her lawyer and added: The things to be dealt with were the heirship which is the sole measure for the future of the work. Frater Saturnus [Germer] Will and Wish was: that Frater Paragranus [Metzger] takes the Heavy Burden off his shoulders, Sascha Germer to her lawyer and to Friedrich/Frederic Mellinger, no date. [104] Similarly,.i. Motta ; in his Commentaries of AL, New York 1975, p. 270. [105] Had Metzger really altered a holy text? A detailed comparison between the Holy Books of Thelema in their original English and Metzgers translations, yields (apart from the additional chapter Metzger inserted in his German version of Magick in Theory and Practice) only this: Metzger translated God in Liber VII in capitals as GOTT (capital letters). The foreword to Karl Germers translation of Liber LXV stated that The ideas inspiring the editing of this work have been examined meanwhile, so that the main points in the translation, notes, etc., have been corrected, and hinted that Crowleys commentaries on the text had become confused. The poem A Hundred Years Hence, with the line I am going to temple to worship Crowley was missing in Metzgers publication. Lekves 1949 version of Liber LXV which Metzger took on, with its altered commentary and the same omissions, silently ignored Germer. The capital-lettered DU in Tu was DU willst first appeared in the first issue of the Oriflamme on March 20th 1961, and vanished after the winter/new year Oriflamme for 196364. The explanation for the blasphemous DU translation was: Capital letters are used to render the unusual English Thou. That is to say, it does not mean Do what you will [words in English], but Do what thou wilt. [words in English] Alterations to a Crowley text are to be found in the unpublished Gnostic Mass, original version, as celebrated by the Brothers and Sisters of the OTO at the ABBEY OF THELEMA in Stein. The long litany of saints in the published version is abbreviated to: We honour the memory of the Son of God +, the Wise + and Prophets +, the holy Bards + and Martyrs, that they may vouchsafe the Light of the Gnosis to us, our heirs and successors. Crowleys essay in Nº XXXV of the English Review, dated August 1922 was included by him in his Confessions as Chapter 72 with certain alterations regarding the O.T.O.. Metzger reprinted the original version from the English Review. Of all the bodies that counted themselves part of the O.T.O., Reusss 1914 publication of Crowleys MMM-Manifesto, Crowleys version of 1919, and Metzgers 1957 version do not agree between themselves; though in Golden Dawn matters only Reuss and Metzger agree. In Metzgers published edition of Crowleys exposition of Yogic formulæ Gnana Yoga, Raja Yoga and Hatha Yoga, the various A.·. A.·. imprimaturs and the signature of Crowleys colleague Leila Waddell (L. Bathurst) from the original are missing. It is interesting to examine how C.H. Petersen and H.J. Metzger rendered their German translations of The Book of the Law: Liber AL ch.III v.50: curse them! curse them! curse them! Petersen: Fluch ihnen! Fluch! Fluch! (which is accurate enough). Metzger: Weg mit ihnen! Weg mit ihnen! Weg mit ihnen! (which approximates to Away with them!) Liber AL ch.III v.55: Let Mary inviolate be torn upon wheels: [...] Petersen: unbefleckte Maria auf dem Rade gebrochen (unblemished Mary broken on wheels, again faithful to the original). Metzger: auf dem Rade gedreht (turned on wheels). [106] Germers death in 1962 met with McMurtrys stolid indifference although he had known about it since 1963. [107] Motta and Germer believed Oscar Schlag to be the evil Choronzon (a chief devil of sorts, in the Thelemic hierarchy): the gematria of Schlag numerically equals 333, the same numerological value of Choronzon. [108] Mottas Oriflamme Vol. VI;5, Rio 1987, p. 100. Also to Germer on 17.12.61. [109] Sascha Germers letter dated 15th December 1963 would only have added to this confusion. [110] McMurtry vs. Motta, 16.5.85, 689. In his own copy of the court transcript Motta noted: Laughter from the Californian group. The judge warned the participants: Ladies and gentlemen, you are here as spectators only. You are not to interrupt in any way or make any response to any of the testimony. [111] William Wallace Webb was born on 11th May 1919 in Seattle, Washington. On 7th April 1941 he entered the Marines, and served as forward artillery observer, taking part in operations in the Solomon Islands, Guadalcanal, and elsewhere. Five years after he left the Marines, his mystical life began in 1950, earning a living as both an astrologer and artist. He founded the Philosophic Gnostic Hermetic Society, at Joshua Tree in 1963, and an offshoot of the Choronzon Club (although independent from C.F. Russell, Crowleys lover who had founded the CC in the late 1920s). Webb had previously founded the QBL Alchemist Church, and also headed his own Ordo Argenteum Astrum. [112] Germer had two sisters, Elisabeth and Margarete, and four brothers, Otto, Wilhelm, Gustav and Alfred. [113] Court transcript.i. McMurtry ; vs..i. Motta ;, 538. McMurtry was in error; Yorke had sent the original manuscript of Liber AL to Germer in 1948. [114] O.T.O. Newsletter II;1, 1978, p. 5, and court transcript.i. McMurtry ; vs..i. Motta ;, p. 541. [115] We, Grand Secretary General of the Sovereign Sanctuary of the Ordo Templi Orientis, hereby give due Notice to all Sovereign Sanctuaries and Bodies in friendship with the Sovereign Sanctuary of the Ordo Templi Orientis and to all Members of the said Rite, that the lamented Most Illustrious Frater Superior of the Ordo Templi Orientis, Frater Saturnus (Karl Johannes Germer) Outer Head of Order, departed this earthly life and was called to the Grand East on Oct. 25th, 1962, E.V., and that a convocation of Prince Patriarch Grand Conservators of the said Rite on Jan. 6th, 1963, E.V. held in the Abbey Thelema, Stein/App., unanimously elected the Very Illustrious + H. Josephus M., Fra. Paragranus [i.e. Metzger], Grand Master X° of the Ordo Templi Orientis, Sovereign Grand Master General of Ordo Illuminatorum, Sovereign Grand Master General of Fraternitas Rosicruciana Antiqua, and Sovereign Patriarch of Ecclesiae Gnosticae Catholicae henceforth to be Sovereign Grand Master General, Outer Head of Order of the Ordo Templi Orientis. [116] I wrote that, but I was entirely mistaken, Seckler in McMurtry vs. Motta, 14.5.85, p. 294. [117].i. Seckler ;, letter of 10.6.87. [118] Seckler, ITC II;2, p. 9. [119] There is reason to believe that he made a second will which may have read otherwise, but if Mrs. Germer found it, she refused to communicate that information, McMurtry to Sergeant Henry C. Hayes, May 21, 1971. [120] Harnisch, Naber, Scheidegger, Romanus and Elieser are listed as having elected Metzger as O.H.O.. The minutes of their convocation were plagiarised word-for-word from Reusss Oriflamme of July 1913, and Crowley's Equinox (Volume I;10 of September 1913, p. xxv). The record of the election was accompanied by an affidavit confirming the vote, signed by the Notary-Public of Zuerich Altstadt, and a certification of Metzgers standing as a reputable and law-abiding citizen; and thus his election as O.H.O. was thoroughly officially attested. [121] Several suits and coats, garden tools, a 1954 Buick, and two typewriters. [122].i. Motta ; to Robert E. Mittel, 12.7.1984. Mittel was.i. Motta ; s lawyer for Motta vs..i. Weiser ; Inc. [123] Sascha Germer to Chisholm, letter of 20.3.63: I have no Personal Interest in Mr. Metzger. [124] In regard to the office of X°, the Swiss O.T.O. considered Crowleys Liber CXCIV of 1919 to be effective when there were 11 Profess Houses in a country. In the absence of such, the Caliphate considered that every IX° was to be a Profess House; see Seckler to McMurtry, letter dated 1 June 1983. [125] Markus.i. Kumer (a member of Metzgers inner circle) ;, conversation on 16.9.91. Possibly after Mellinger failed to find a successful place in the growing theatrical worlds of Berlin and Munich, as a cultured, educated, and previously energetic man he simply seems to have got bored with the Thelemites. Germer complained at Mellingers overbearing manner towards the semi-literate members of the 2nd Agapé Lodge. Not surprisingly, Mellinger who was used to moving in very cultured circles, was easily bored, even by Germer who admittedly did not read books (letter to Mellinger 8 July 1951). Likewise Crowley to Henri Birven: I am very ignorant of all that concerns literature. I have read exceedingly little, 13.12.29. [126] Mellinger to Chisholm, letter of 25.9.1963. [127] Max Schneiders diary for 8.7.1943, quoted in The Thelema Lodge Newsletter, August 1992. Crowley to Germer: I rather doubt Frederics judgement, 29.11.44 and I must say that I dont think much of Fredericks judgement, 24.1.45. [128] Chisholm to Mellinger, letter of 1.11.63. [129] Rickless to Sascha Germer, letter of 13.1.1964. [130] Letter to W.W. Webb in July 1966. [131] Letter of February 22nd 1988. Louis T. Culling [...] showed me several letters, written by Mr. Germer, which set Metzger up as the heir to the O.T.O.. I saw them with my own eyes. Hoeller is author of The Gnostic Jung and the Seven Sermons of Death, London 1982. He wrote a Statement Concerning the Thelemite or Crowleyan Gnostic Churches where he concluded that one Mass no church doth make. [132] Court transcript of McMurtry vs. Motta, pp. 406, 542. [133] Cornelius, In The Name of the Beast, II, p. 14. [134] Motta and his lawyer said the same, Motta vs. Weiser, 1.3.84, p. 59. [135] After being harassed with legal threats by the Caliphate for several years, Symonds transferred his rights to Anthony Naylor (b. 1949) on 5th April 1998. On 20th September 1999, Naylor transferred his rights to his firm Mandrake Press Ltd. [136] The country doctor Naber soon changed his mind and wrote to Montenegro on 29.10.68: In those ten years I had got no real progress out of the Order; and most of the Bros. who I know were similarly disappointed. But any open criticism of this sort met with the reprimand that we were not doing our duties well enough in accord with the solemn oath we had taken [...]. It is known that many others quietly withdrew from the O[rder]; the reason for this certainly has something to do with P[aragranus]s initiated behaviour in public, and how his teachings and sayings contrasted with his defects as a spiritual leader, as well as his lack of sincerity and his secretiveness. Do what thou wilt only had a theoretical meaning there, since having an original thought was treated as treason, or else mocked. Consequently one parroted what his lordship said or stayed silent. Practicalities or spiritual matters were hardly ever mentioned; the usual conversations were average bar-room stuff. [137] Englert was influential in the history of the Fraternitas Saturni, the Swiss O.T.O. and his own Order of Illuminati in Germany. In 1968 he legally incorporated an O.T.O. in Germany, still active today. [138].i. Starr ;, 17.2.88. [139].i. Heidrick ;, letter of 18.11.87; also in Thelema Lodge O.T.O. Newsletter, February 1993. [140] Letter to.i. Motta ; on 7.10.68 (which must have been sent later, according to the post scriptum dated 3rd December) again to Motta on 16.11.74, and Seckler in ITC II;2, p. 10. Also McMurtry vs. Motta, 14.5.85, p. 210. Neither Stella Seckler nor her sister Lisa Doyle were at all interested in Thelema, while Phyllis Secklers son Paul Stuart was but only for a short time; Seckler in McMurtry vs. Motta, 14.5.85, p. 262. [141] Had Sascha Germer not accused her daughter, Phyllis Seckler might have never known about Germers death. Not would she have written to Grady [McMurtry] and thereby initiated the birth of the Caliphate. Cornelius, In The Name of the Beast, II, p. 30. [142] Where the second Agapé Lodge was in 1942. [143] Seckler, ITC Vol. II;2, p. 11; Thelema Lodge Newsletter, July 1992. Heidrick even talked about an initiation in a letter to James M. Martin of 8.5.87. [shiva0] "It was also at this time of the first initiations [1965] that I conceived and suggested the name 'Solar Lodge.' The term, 'Solar,' was selected due to its derivation from the Sun (Sol), around which everything else in our'solar system' revolves. It was intended that there would eventually be additional Lodges that would'revolve' around this central Solar Lodge. Capricornus [Jean Brayton] liked it and the appellation was immediately adopted." Frater Shiva: "Inside Solar Lodge Outside the Law", York Beach 2007, 31. [144] Frater Shiva: "Liber Disclosum No Number BEING AN ANAL-LYSIS OF MATERIAL PUBLICKLY POSTED BY MR. KOENIG (SWITZERLAND) THAT REFERS TO Solar Lodge R.I.P." 14th March 2011. Ray and Mildred Burlingame, assisted by another Agapé Lodge member, Milton S. Basham, had initiated the Braytons into the V° and the IX° in 1963. Whether this lodge is deemed authorised or not, it was the first lodge of the O.T.O. in the USA operative since the closure of Agapé Lodge in 1953, and preceded the founding of the Caliphate in 1977. "Ray and Mildred Burlingame, plus Mr. Basham, initiated Jean Brayton into the Minerval degree and the first degree on Tuesday evening, October 30, 1962. After her ceremonies, Milton Basham (and, it is said, his wife also) received the second degree. Jean's husband, Richard (Dick) Brayton, never received any form of teaching or initiation from the Burlingames. Somewhere, at intervals of a few months, between the date of this initiation (Oct 1962) and July 1965, Ray Burlingame initiated Jean Brayton into the V° and the IX°, supplying her with (carbon-copy-style) copies of all the papers and initiation rites pertaining to all the grades, until the stack of papers was nine layers deep. The final document, Emblems and Modes of Use, was hand copied by Jean Brayton with pen and paper from a hand-written document that Ray had set before her after her brief ceremony. In case anyone wonders there was no sexual activity involved. Then he stood over her and watched as she transcribed the 'codex' into her own possession. I (Shiva) was present during many of the meetings described in the time period cited above. I was never present at an 'initiation,' but I stood solitary guard in the outer temple as the higher grades were being transmitted in another room. The radiating energy (which 'leaked through the veil') had a peculiarly subjective 'radioactive' quality. No drugs were ever used Frater Aquarius warned of their dangers and was firmly set against them. I have repeated what she described to me about certain activities that took place behind that'veil,' and it is the same ways and activities that she used when she transmitted this same information to me, and to several others (in the V°), and to a few of us in the higher numbers. This entire series of transmission of degrees is sometimes hotly debated, and it is not recognized by the current OTO, incorporated. I have publicly acknowledged their position and here is why? 1. The generally accepted rule for authorizing initiation is a written note (charter) from The Grand Master Baphomet (for beginners, see III° oath). Setting aside any considerations of the fact that there was no Grand Master in any form in those days, I must admit We had no written charter, neither from any Grand Master nor from Frater Aquarius (Ray). 2. Instead of a charter, the entire operation revolved around a certain IX° talisman that I have openly described elsewhere. After Ray had given Jean her final papers, he said, 'By the way, you'll need this'as he passed her the powerhouse that had come to him from Aleister Crowley via Jane Wolfe. This was not an OTO emblem it was what we might call a 'Thelemic Emblem,' placed on top of a graded stack of OTO initiation documents. This does not constitute generally accepted authority to initiate into the OTO or to use the initials OTO®. 3. Since the engine that ran our daily lives was the A.·. A.·. curriculum, and the commonly used name for our society was 'Solar Lodge,' I am content with that title, historically speaking, for it carries its own distinct vibration. 4. In respect of our relation to any external body or corporation, our organizational structure and operation would fall under the title, Clandestine." Frater Shiva, Email 16th March 2011. [Shiva1] Frater Shiva, Liber Disclosum. [145] Seckler, ITC Vol. II;2, p. 12. In 1971, Richard Brayton acknowledged McMurtry as Caliph and suggested they unite their forces. McMurtry refused. [146] However, a member of the Solar Lodge called Robert Duerrstein informed Motta that there couldnt have been anything worth stealing in Sascha Germer's house, since hed been assured by Ray Burlingame that there were no documents there. Mottas Oriflamme Vol. VI;5, Rio de Janeiro 1987, p. 222; also Jean Brayton to Mildred Burlingame, letter of 23.12.69. Duerrstein was mentioned in the FBI files on the Solar Lodge. [147] Like true friends they only took one of each book, thus leaving Mrs. Burlingame a number of duplicates instead of taking everything. McMurtry to Ray E. Lindstrom, October 17, 1970. [148] As such, the Burlingames became the primary figures responsible for the manufacture of the Caliphate under Seckler and McMurtry. Frater Shiva:[1965][Jean Brayton] Frater Shiva: "Inside Solar Lodge Outside the Law", York Beach 2007, 31. [Shiva2] "Only one such party was ever held. It was Night on the Nile. It was the grand opening of the newly-restored "Grand Lodge" on Menlo Avenue. It was not to attract newcomers. It was an invitation-only event wherein the close friends and family members of any member was invited. It was hardly expected that any of these people would want to join. The main objective of this "party" was to serve notice on meddlesome friends and family members that had been, overtly or covertly, attempting to dissuade a member away from his/her beliefs and/or associations. I wrote the script for the play ("The Succession of Aeons") and I also put the vodka in the punch bowl. As I was doing so, Frater Shem, under his own direction and free will, poured a big slug of LSD into the same punch bowl. The results were, to say the least, interesting. All of this was contained within a circle and the ceremony (play) include The Invocation of Thoth, which is always considered a big hit. Some of the more interesting results happened after any given "guest" left the circle." Shiva, Liber Disclosum. [Shiva3] "There was no temple at Solar Ranch. There were simply two Quonset huts, some minor out-buildings, and one small travel-trailer. One Quonset was a combined bunkhouse, living room, kitchen.. and yes, ceremonies were performed there. One of them resulting in the UFO story that has not yet been revealed. A thoughtform of a pyramidal temple was certainly in place. But first, the four cornerstones had to be erected. The Quonset complex was only the first cornerstone the other three never had time to be started. This Quonset complex was indeed the structure that burned, taking with it the vast majority of the archives. This whole destruction would probably have been avoided if the guru had merely hastened to the words that she heard when she meditated upon the next step: "Capricornus [Jean Brayton] withdrew alone several hundred feet into the desert and sat down in meditation. She sought the meaning of the disaster and in response a loud, internal, booming voice said unto her, The Gates of Initiation are closed! Send everyone away! Instead, she said to herself, I will never send anyone away! She then returned to the group and proclaimed, This is a big problem, but I have decided we will rebuild! Note: She did not reveal her internal message to me (or anyone else) until six months later! This is the critical juncture where it all started to unravel." Inside Solar Lodge Outside the Law ©2007 [York Beach 2007]. Note: I am choosing not to dispute anon's "bitter" description as he moved on up through the grades; this probably was his experience. Many initiates go through this. However, since he/she was apparently affiliated before the playing of the Atu XVI card (the blasted tower), it might be noted that, at that time, all labor was strictly voluntary. No money was sought. Free, high-quality food was always offered. The "following of unusual instructions" meant performing The Tasks of the Grades as written in their currently-held A.·. A.·. Paper. There was no personal, dictatorship operating. Everybody followed the same curriculum. If one showed up for work, then one had to do what the team leader said. "Put this toilet on that second flatbed trailer over there!" "Jack the car up higher so I can get this engine installed." "Call every rental agency in the phone book and see if they have a water pump we can use to empty this flooded basement." Just like what happens when you go to work in the outer world. Any bitterness was his/her own, because the rest of us (most of us) were on a roll, generally enjoying every moment of it except when those moments of personal crisis arose. And that, being handled, it was time to get back to work." Shiva, Liber Disclosum. [Shiva4] "I have seen this quote before. Amusing, isn't it? The neighbors didn't have any statues. They had, essentially, nothing. This was an University area that was on the fringe of the ghetto. Frater Shiva himself (that's me) bought and delivered the various statues that adorned the properties. They came from curio shops on Hollywood Blvd. The neighbors did actually steal a large yellow Buddha statue from us. It was the same one that a certain member who disappeared (from his family and former associates) was cited as "being buried under." Rest easy, for this "murdered" member is one of the eight who still exists (circa 2005 e.v.) within the hidden core group of survivors." Shiva, Liber Disclosum. [Shiva5] "This is absolutely correct. It was a strict A.·. A.·. curriculum within a group that practiced group rites on a regular schedule (weekly). Any discussion of personal practices was supposedly limited to one's "link" (guide) or one's student (downline). Of course, people find it hard to keep their mouths shut and there were frequent reminders about this. Oh Lord! It's like Ashramic discipline I feel bitter!" Shiva, Liber Disclosum. [149] A Mr. Jerry Kay [ ] has told us that it was within a week or two after that date [the robbery of Sascha Germer at September 3, 1967] that the Baytons dragged a trunk or box of material [ ] into [ ] both [their] library and temple [ ] and exhibited, among other things certain ceremonial robes that, from the description, appear to be the Golden Dawn robes of Aleister Crowley. McMurtry to Lindstrom, October |
Moore, who is African-American, had argued that the flag made him anxious, caused him to lose sleep and exacerbated his high blood pressure.
“The district court was correct that Moore fails to identify that part of the Constitution that guarantees a legal right to be free of anxiety,” state assistant attorneys general Douglas Miracle and Harold Pizzetta wrote.
On Nov. 1, Moore asked the appeals court to order Reeves to hold a trial on other arguments he made in the lawsuit he filed in February. Moore said the flag symbolizes a government embrace of white supremacy and the status of African-Americans as “second-class citizens.”
The Mississippi flag, used since 1894, is the only remaining state banner with the Confederate battle emblem — a red field topped by a blue tilted cross dotted with 13 white stars.
Mississippi voters chose to keep the flag in a 2001 election, but the design has come under increased scrutiny since the June 2015 shooting deaths of nine black worshippers at a church in Charleston, South Carolina. The white man now on trial in the slayings had previously posed with a Confederate battle flag in photos published online before the killings.
Critics say the Confederate emblem is a symbol of slavery and segregation, while supporters say it represents history and heritage.
All eight of Mississippi’s public universities and several cities and counties have stopped flying the state flag, many of them since the Charleston killings. Instead of the state flag, some businesses and local governments have started flying a bicentennial banner unveiled in October by the state chamber of commerce, the Mississippi Economic Council. Mississippi was admitted to statehood in 1817. The bicentennial banner has wide horizontal stripes of red, white and blue with the state seal in the center. It does not have the Confederate battle emblem.
Judge Reeves rejected Moore’s argument that the Confederate emblem is an unconstitutional vestige of slavery, and picked apart arguments made outside the courtroom by many flag supporters who say that Mississippi’s secession from the union before the Civil War had nothing to do with slavery.
Reeves quoted the state’s 1861 secession declaration, which said: “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery — the greatest material interest of the world.”
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Read or Share this story: http://on.thec-l.com/2hft0RcDocker is very useful to build isolated environments for you applications, but Meteor is a quite particular software.
Installation & running of a pinned Meteor version
❯ curl https://install.meteor.com/ | sh
❯ cd myapp && meteor
it means you can’t specify the meteor version that you need during the installation and running meteor will alwais looking for latest version available at runtime.
Here is a way to install a specific version of Meteor in a clean environment:
❯ export METEOR_RELEASE= 1.0.2.1 # override the variable in the script that will be downloaded ❯ curl https://install.meteor.com/ 2 >/dev/ null | sed's /^ RELEASE /# RELEASE /'| RELEASE =$METEOR_RELEASE sh ❯ cd myapp && meteor
Why do I have meteor build client and server?
It isn’t clear for me why this command should be run on the client, because it include binaries that are architecture specific (Linux x86-64, OSX x86-64,..). So a bundled app in this way have to be rebuilt on the server to fix the wrong binaries.
If the server have the access to the application source code meteor build can be run just on the server.
Why do you have to install Node on the server?
if we have to run meteor build on the server, we need Meteor.
Meteor do not depends on Node, it embeds Node, so if you have to build your application on the server you need Meteor and you already have Node with it.
It isn’t guaranteed that Meteor will alwais work with latest NodeJS version, so it should be a best practise to use the same Node you used to develop that application (if you don’t want surprises).
Try this on a Linux system with already a version of Meteor installed:
❯ ls ~/.meteor/packages/meteor-tool/*/meteor-tool-os.linux.x86_64/dev_bundle/bin
BrowserStackLocal node npm
It means that you don’t have to install again node or npm, to install other deployment tools like demeteorizer, mup,.. You can just generate your app Docker image everytime your code changes or your dependencies changes and deploy that any instances you want.
You can use the same base image in development and production.
Development
As example we’ll use “meteor-sharejs demo” is like a simple Google Docs
❯ git clone https://github.com/mizzao/meteor-sharejs/ ❯ docker pull grigio/meteor: 1.0 # the same version used by the project demo ❯ sudo docker run -it -v $PWD/meteor-sharejs/demo:/app -p 1234 : 8080 grigio/meteor: 1.0 /bin/bash root@ 4 bae180c01a0:/app# meteor [[[[[ ~app ]]]] ] => Started proxy. => Started MongoDB. => Started your app. => App running at: http://localhost: 8080 /
And you have the app running in the Docker sandbox at http://localhost:1234/ or http://your-docker-computer:1234/
Production
The meteor command used in development loads MongoDB, check the packages updates, watch the files for changes and much more, you don’t need that in production.
You need to create an image which contains meteor, the “bundled application” and also specify the environments variables that you need for the build. MONGO_URL and ROOT_URL are mandatory. You could also use the same Docker image with different variables.
Here’s recipe, create a Dockerfile like this inside the meteor application:
FROM grigio/meteor: 1.0 MAINTAINER Your Name # Add the source of your Meteor app and build ADD./demo /app RUN /meteor-build.sh # Run the generated files CMD /meteor-run.sh
Build your app image with:
❯ sudo docker build -t grigio/docker -meteor -demo.
An run it:
❯ sudo docker run -e "MONGO_URL=mongodb://172.17.0.4:27017/mytest" -e "ROOT_URL= http://example.com -p 5555 : 8080 -it grigio/docker -meteor -demo sh /meteor -run. sh
And You’ll notice that this image will run almost instanly :)
grigio/docker-meteor is available as image in the Docker Hub and as source on Github.The president charges his rival with memory loss as he tries to convince voters the Romney of the debates is not the real GOP nominee.
FAIRFAX, Virginia -- Mitt Romney's attempt to tack to the middle came so late in the presidential campaign that it caught President Obama somewhat off-guard. It's something most candidates do as soon as they're through their party's primary, but Romney didn't make much effort to strike a more moderate tone until presidential debates began this month. Suddenly, he was vowing not to cut rich people's taxes, embracing his work on health-care reform, and saying he'd expand rather than scale back Pell Grants for higher education.
On Friday, Obama finally came up with a snappy comeback to his rival's election-eve makeover. Romney, he charged, is suffering from "Romnesia."
He's forgetting what his own positions are, and he's betting that you will too. I mean he's changing up so much -- backtracking and sidestepping -- we've got to name this condition that he's going through. I think it's called "Romnesia." That's what it's called. I think that's what he's going through. Now, I'm not a medical doctor but I do want to go over some of the symptoms with you because I want to make sure nobody else catches it. If you say you're for equal pay for equal work, but you keep refusing to say whether or not you'd sign a bill that protects equal pay for equal work -- you might have Romnesia. If you say women should have access to contraceptive care, but you support legislation that would let your employer deny you contraceptive care -- you might have a case of Romnesia. If you say you'll protect a woman's right to choose, but you stand up at a primary debate and said that you'd be "delighted" to sign a law outlawing that right to choose in all cases -- man, you've definitely got Romnesia. Now, this extends to other issues. If you say earlier in the year I'm going to give a tax cut to the top 1 percent and then in a debate you say, I don't know anything about giving tax cuts to rich folks -- you need to get a thermometer, take your temperature, because you've probably got Romnesia. If you say that you're a champion of the coal industry when while you were governor you stood in front of a coal plant and said, this plant will kill you -- that's some Romnesia. So -- I think you're beginning to be able to identify these symptoms. And if you come down with a case of Romnesia, and you can't seem to remember the policies that are still on your website, or the promises you've made over the six years you've been running for president, here's the good news: Obamacare covers pre-existing conditions. We can fix you up. We've got a cure. We can make you well, Virginia. This is a curable disease.
Judging from the polls, the new version of Romney is one a lot of voters find appealing, so it's no wonder Obama is anxious to convince them it's not the real Romney. Will "Romnesia" be catchy enough to accomplish that? It's definitely catchy -- especially the Obamacare punch line, which had Obama himself cracking up a bit.
But it's also not the first time Obama has tried to play on his rival's name. When the president came up with "Romney Hood" a couple of months ago, his supporters loved it. But it didn't stick.
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.Faithful were gathered in prayer when attack occurred. There were four priests, one deacon and 400 parishioners in the building, women and children also targeted. Fundamentalists fury, egged on by the imam, unleashed by the rumour that the Christians are building a new church. In reality it is a hospice.
Cairo (AsiaNews / Agencies) – The toll from an attack on the Coptic Christian community that took place yesterday in the north-western province of Mersa Matrouh, Egypt is 25 wounded, including women and children. A crowd of around 3 thousand Muslims attacked the faithful gathered in prayer in a building adjoining the local church. The fundamentalists fury, encouraged by the imam, was sparked by the rumour that the Christians have begun to build a new place of worship.
Around 5 o'clock yesterday afternoon, the Muslims - a group of Bedouins and Salafi fanatics - started throwing stones at a construction site, which they believe in reality will be a new church. Local witnesses reported that security forces present were not sufficient to contain the attack. The police fired tear gas and arrested a dozen people, including Muslims and Christians. Only this morning, reinforcements arrived from Alexandria, thanks to which the Coptic faithful trapped inside the building could return to their homes.
At the moment of the attack the Christian prayer house contained four priests, one deacon and about 400 parishioners. Christians say that the building under construction, in fact, is a nursing home and said they were "terrified" by the latest attack. The local imam Shaikh Khamees intervention during Friday prayers has helped to foment the anger of Muslims. He emphasized the duty to fight against the "enemies" of Islam and stressed that "we do not tolerate the Christian presence in our area." Reverend Matta Zakarya confirms that this morning there was a summit between the leaders of the local church, state security forces and even some Muslims. "The Coptic are scared - he stresses - especially women and children who were inside the building and witnessed the assault."If same-sex marriage is legalised, Safe Schools and others like it will be mandatory in schools.
– Australian Conservatives “Vote No” campaign material, September, 2017.
Campaigning for and against same-sex marriage continues as Australians respond to a national voluntary postal survey asking whether same-sex couples should be able to marry under Australian law.
“Vote No” campaign material distributed by the Australian Conservatives, a political party founded by Senator Cory Bernardi, claims that “if same-sex marriage is legalised, Safe Schools and others like it will be mandatory in schools”.
Let’s look at the facts.
Checking the source
The Conversation contacted the Australian Conservatives requesting sources to support the claims made in the party’s “Vote No” campaign material, but did not receive a response.
Verdict
The information published in the Australian Conservatives “Vote No” campaign material is incorrect and misleading.
There is no link between the federal Marriage Act and the Australian Curriculum.
The Safe Schools program is a resource for schools and teachers to use at their own discretion. It is not a “mandatory” part of any national, state or territory curriculum – and never was. Making such programs mandatory in the classroom would be inconsistent with curriculum policy and practice in Australia.
There is no link between same-sex marriage and Safe Schools
Let’s cover the basic points first:
the federal Marriage Act and the Australian Curriculum are not related to each other. Any change to one does not have any effect on the other
the postal survey currently being conducted asking whether the law should be changed to allow same-sex couples to marry has no relation to teacher professional development and learning resources made available to schools, and
whether or not same-sex marriage is legalised in Australia also has no relation to teacher professional development and learning resources made available to schools.
However, because such claims are being made, let’s take a closer look.
What is the Safe Schools program?
The Safe Schools Coalition Australia was first established by the Victorian Government in 2010. It’s now a national network convened by the Foundation for Young Australians, and delivered by partner organisations in several Australian states and territories.
The published aim of the Safe Schools Coalition is “to help school staff create safer and more inclusive environments for same sex attracted, intersex and gender diverse students, school staff and families”.
The Safe Schools program provides optional resources for secondary schools, including professional development for teachers and one classroom-level teaching resource designed for Year 7 and 8 students.
All of the Safe Schools resources are optional, and not a mandatory component of any national, state or territory curriculum.
Schools that choose to participate in the Safe Schools program are expected to make their own judgements about which policies and practices they adopt and which resources they use.
State and territory support for Safe Schools
The Safe Schools program is supported in some form by several state and territory governments. But it is not a compulsory part of the curriculum in any Australian jurisdiction.
The Safe Schools program received federal funding for four years, but this ended in June 2017. Some state and territory governments have committed to continue funding the program to make it available for government schools. Independent (non-government) schools set their own policies about which programs they will fund and/or implement.
Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and Western Australia will continue to fund the program. South Australia is funding a revised version of the Safe Schools program.
Safe Schools will continue to provide professional development for teachers in Queensland, although the government is yet to confirm whether it will fund the program when its federal allocation runs out in October.
Tasmania and New South Wales will not be funding the program, with both states replacing it with other anti-bullying resources.
In March 2017 the Victorian Department of Education and Training took responsibility for the delivery of Safe Schools in that state. The Victorian government has said that it will expand the program “to all government secondary schools by the end of 2018”. But as the government has outlined, schools will have discretion about using the program:
The Safe Schools program helps schools foster a safe environment that is supportive and inclusive of LGBTI students. How this commitment is realised is determined by each school, based on its local context and the needs of its school community. Safe Schools is not a subject in the curriculum, nor is it prescriptive in any way. Schools have the discretion to use as many or as few of the resources, training materials, and other support that the program offers to help them deliver their commitment.
Safe Schools is not a ‘mandatory’ part of any Australian curriculum
In each Australian state and territory there is a compulsory Foundation to Year 10 curriculum. The curriculums vary from one state or territory to another, but all resemble the Australian Curriculum. All government and independent (private) schools are required to teach according to the relevant state or territory curriculum.
The curriculum outlines the subjects that must be taught (maths and English, for example) and the content descriptions for those subjects. As an example, here’s one of the Australian Curriculum content descriptions for health and physical education for Year 7 and 8 students:
Investigate the benefits of relationships and examine their impact on their own and others’ health and well being.
Teachers following the Australian Curriculum are expected to teach this content, but there are no compulsory lesson plans, activities or textbooks.
The Safe Schools program is one of many sets of optional resources available for teachers.
Making any of these lesson plans or resources compulsory would be inconsistent with curriculum policy and practice in Australia, which regulates the subjects and content students are taught, not any resources used at a classroom level.
Blind review #1
The verdict is valid. The explanation provided is accurate and balanced, and the source material is correct and appropriate.
The resources that teachers use in implementing their lessons is a matter of professional judgement in the context of the particular needs of their students.
There are no outcomes or content descriptions in either the Australian Curriculum or various state/territory curriculum documents that would require teachers to use the Safe Schools resources. – Philip Roberts
Blind review #2
The FactCheck is correct. Whether or not same-sex marriage is legalised has no bearing on whether states or schools would engage with any particular teacher professional development or learning resource.
There is one clarification regarding the term “curriculum”. Many people argue that the school curriculum is the list of school subjects that are taught to students. Safe Schools is not required as a school subject, or within a school subject.
Others claim “curriculum” consists of all the planned learning offered to students. Using this definition, if an individual school or state required Safe Schools to be part of the student learning experience, then it would become a mandatory part of a school curriculum. Even in such cases, the engagement with any program would be the responsibility of individual schools. Again, this has no relation to the outcome of the postal survey, or any subsequent legislation.
In conclusion, the FactCheck verdict is correct. Safe Schools will not be made mandatory in schools as a result of same-sex marriage being legal in Australia. – Murray Print
The Conversation’s FactCheck unit is the first fact-checking team in Australia and one of the first worldwide to be accredited by the International Fact-Checking Network, an alliance of fact-checkers hosted at the Poynter Institute in the US. Read more here.
Have you seen a “fact” worth checking? The Conversation’s FactCheck asks academic experts to test claims and see how true they are. We then ask a second academic to review an anonymous copy of the article. You can request a check at checkit@theconversation.edu.au. Please include the statement you would like us to check, the date it was made, and a link if possible.God made us in his image, or in other words, you are what you worship.
God made us in his image, or in other words, you are what you worship.
This is a cross-posting of a piece made at the author's request which also appears at Huffington Post..
by Tobias Barrington Wolff
The poet and memoirist Maya Angelou wrote this about how to judge a person's character: "Believe people when they tell you who they are. They know themselves better than you do." With his selection of Representative Paul Ryan as a running mate, Mitt Romney has told us exactly who he would be as President: a selfish capitalist. A Romney-Ryan White House would elevate selfishness above all else.
Author, philosopher Ayn Rand
To understand the values of Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan, it is necessary to understand their intellectual forebear, Ayn Rand. Ms. Rand was one of the most extreme public intellectuals of the twentieth century. As her central creed, she rejected the idea that people in a community should approach each other with charity, compassion, and altruism. According to Ayn Rand, a charitable heart is for suckers. Selfishness is the way to go. Lest you think I am exaggerating, one of Ayn Rand's important works, a collection of philosophical essays, is entitled "The Virtue of Selfishness," and it is an extended attack upon the idea of altruism.
Mitt Romney is already well known for his lifelong commitment to ruthless self-enrichment. Governor Rick Perry famously observed during the Republican primary that Mr. Romney devoted his career to the practice of Vulture Capitalism. He would buy up companies and do to them whatever was necessary to extract the most profits for Bain Capital and its investors, even when that meant firing workers, outsourcing jobs, and loading up companies with so much debt that they were forced to declare bankruptcy. When companies would fail, Bain and Mr. Romney often extracted massive profits.
"Believe people when they tell you who they are. They know themselves
better than you do."
There is nothing illegal about these practices. But there is nothing admirable about them either. Many Americans go into business in order to build something -- they make money while also creating jobs and contributing to their communities. Just so, some venture capitalists approach their work with the spirit and desire to strengthen institutions at the same time they make a profit. That was not Bain Capital. As Americans have learned more about how Mr. Romney made his money at Bain, Mr. Romney has talked about Bain less, apparently discovering that "I didn't break the law" is not much of a message. With questions still unanswered about how much or how little Mr. Romney paid in taxes on his hundreds of millions of dollars in Bain profits, the Romney campaign has become desperate to change the conversation.
Enter Paul Ryan. The selection of a running mate always makes a splash, and Representative Ryan is having his moment in the spotlight. Youthful, handsome, with blue eyes and a quick mind, Mr. Ryan has created a flurry of excitement on the far Right. But Mr. Romney's selection of Paul Ryan has ensured that the focus of this election will remain squarely on the values that both men would bring to the White House. And Mr. Ryan has told us what his governing value would be: Ayn Rand's brand of Selfishness.
Paul Ryan has identified Ayn Rand as his greatest inspiration. Her work has shaped his thinking more than any other single person, throughout his career in politics. Mr. Ryan has made campaign videos extolling the work of Ayn Rand, saying that Rand's writings are "sorely needed" in today's America. According to Paul Ryan, Ayn Rand "more than anyone else" understood "the morality of Capitalism."
That morality is one of selfishness -- the selfishness of the rich, the selfishness of the corporation, the selfishness of the powerful -- joined with utter contempt for the virtues of charity, community, and the imperative to love your neighbor as yourself. Ayn Rand's response to the second of Christ's "greatest commandments" would have been "Forget that. What's mine is mine. You can't have any." That is the "morality of Capitalism" that Paul Ryan is urging upon America. It is a perfect fit for the Vulture Capitalism that Mitt Romney practiced for decades.
Ayn Rand spent a lot of time attacking government programs that are based on a public-minded spirit -- programs like Social Security and Medicare, which aim to ensure that everyone can lead a stable and dignified life in their later years, even if they are not wealthy. Politicians like Paul Ryan often emphasize Rand's attacks on government when they invoke her name. But make no mistake: Private acts of altruism and charity were equally pathetic and worthless to Ayn Rand. If a disaster struck your community, would you pitch in to help your neighbors, doing what you could to make sure they were safe and had adequate food and shelter? Ayn Rand would ask, "What's in it for me? Where's my profit?" Hers was the Vulture Capitalist response.
What does the Romney-Ryan-Rand worldview mean for you in practical terms? The answer is straightforward.
Did half your retirement disappear because high-flying Wall Street investors made risky gambles and left you paying the tab? Romney, Ryan and Rand say, "If you weren't keeping tabs on the Wall Street investors then it's your own fault. They didn't break any laws when they made that money."
Did a predatory lender dupe you into taking a sub-prime mortgage that you couldn't afford, leaving you with balloon payments that forced you into foreclosure? Romney, Ryan and Rand say, "If you couldn't outwit the mortgage broker or predict the collapse of the housing market then it's your own fault. You deserve to go into foreclosure when the market hits bottom."
Did you lose your job because a company had to close its doors, or outsourced your job to another country, leaving you unable to find work? Romney, Ryan and Rand say, "If you aren't a valuable enough worker, then it's your own fault. Corporations are people, my friend, and they're just looking to make a profit. Maybe your parents will lend you some money."
Maya Angelou warned us: "Believe people when they tell you who they are. They know themselves better than you do." Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have told us exactly who they are. The American people would do well to listen.
The author of this essay is Tobias Barrington Wolff is Professor of Constitutional Law and Civil Procedure, University of Pennsylvania Law School. Wolff served as the chief advisor and spokesperson on LGBT issues for presidential candidate Barack Obama throughout the 2007-08 campaign. This essay has been reposted at his request.Balotelli was with his teammates heading to Florence for Sunday's Serie A match against Fiorentina when the controversial forward angered a train controller.
According to press reports, the train controller approached Milan chief executive Adriano Galliani to tell him of Balotelli's antics.
"You have to twist Balotelli's ear, he was smoking in the toilets," said the controller.
"That means we'll fine him," said Galliani before enlisting the help of Balotelli's friend and teammate M'Baye Niang.
"Niang, you're a good young lad, go and tell your friend Mario that he's earnt himself a fine."
Balotelli's latest indiscretion comes two months after he received two traffic fines for driving without the relevant insurance documents.
He was infamous at Manchester City for his ability to collect speeding fines, and has also been penalised for a succession incidents on and off the field.
During his City days he was caught throwing darts at a youth team player whilst he had training ground bust-ups with four different teammates and manager Roberto Mancini.
In December he took City to a tribunal after being fined two weeks wages, although he later withdrew his complaint.
Off the pitch he set his bathroom on fire after lighting fireworks in his home.
Milan sit third in Serie A, 14 points behind leaders Juventus but only two adrift of Napoli who occupy the second and last automatic qualifying spot for the Champions League.I come from a blue-collar family. My father worked at the American Can Company as a mechanic. He broke his back and was disabled, and the first memory I have of him is in the hospital. My mother was a working mother — she had two jobs. Everybody in the house had to help out. I was the first in my family to go to college and so, growing up, I thought that dressing well opened doors.
And did it?
For me it did. I’ve always loved fashion and I started working at [the Boston haberdashery] Louis Boston when I was 16. Later I went into the management training program and began to learn the business there. Already in high school, though, I’d been voted best-dressed, so the interest was always there. One irony is that, in my yearbook photo, I’m wearing a fawn-colored corduroy jacket with a black turtleneck — and I’m still wearing a black turtleneck now.
Is it accurate to say your approach to design is that of a traditionalist who is fashion-forward, though not so much as to scare off consumers?
When I got into the business, there was a very preppy point of view: saddle shoes and pink button-down shirts. There wasn’t a sophisticated American option. My goal was always to dress American men and make them feel better. Of course, at the time you had Armani, with the softer form of silhouette. Armani was a big thing in my world. He defined the ’80s and the ’90s. He was the standard-bearer. But on Wall Street at the time, if you wore Armani to work, they’d say, “Go home and take off your pajamas.”
So you found an opening between what Armani and others were doing and the man in the gray flannel suit?
You have to know your place in the universe. Preppy hung on so long, and I felt it tended to make American men look provincial. I thought, what can I add? How can I make a suit a little more fluid, sexier, less schoolboy? How can I get the natural-shoulder Ivy League guy to move a little bit? I found my white space there. I was one of the few designers who were anchored in tailoring. So if Armani was Europe, and Ralph Lauren was the United States, I was in the middle of the Atlantic.Send iReport your photos and videos.
(CNN) -- A Malaysia Airlines passenger jet crashed in a rebel-controlled part of eastern Ukraine on Thursday, spurring swift accusations from Ukrainian officials that "terrorists" shot down the aircraft.
The United States has concluded a missile shot down the plane, but hasn't pinpointed who was responsible, a senior U.S. official told CNN's Barbara Starr.
The Boeing 777 with 298 people aboard fell from the sky near the town of Torez in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, officials said. A top Ukrainian official said the plane, which was on the way from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was flying at about 10,000 meters (nearly 33,000 feet) when the missile hit.
A radar system saw a surface-to-air missile system turn on and track an aircraft right before the plane went down, the senior U.S. official said. A second system saw a heat signature at the time the airliner was hit, the official said. The United States is analyzing the trajectory of the missile to try to learn where the attack came from, the official said.
The Obama administration believes Ukraine did not have the capability in the region -- let alone the motivation -- to shoot down the plane, a U.S. official told CNN's Jake Tapper.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said the plane never made a distress call.
He called for an international team to have full access to the crash site.
"We must and we will find out precisely what happened to this flight. No stone will be left unturned," he said.
"If it transpires that the plane was indeed shot down, we insist that the perpetrators must swiftly be brought to justice," Najib said.
Ukrainian officials maintained that pro-Russian separatists were behind the crash.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine's military campaign against the separatists was to blame.
"This tragedy would not have happened, if there had been peace on that land, or in any case, if military operations in southeastern Ukraine had not been renewed," Putin said in televised remarks. "And without a doubt the government of the territory on which it happened bears responsibility for this frightening tragedy."
Ukraine's state security chief accused two Russian military intelligence officers of involvement and said they must be punished.
Valentyn Nalyvaichenko said he based his allegation on intercepts of phone conversations between the two officers. "Now you know who carried out this crime. We will do everything for the Russian military who carried out this crime to be punished," he told reporters.
The jet plunged toward the ground in a fireball, leaving a trail of black smoke behind in the sky.
Emergency crews scrambled to what witnesses described as a staggering scene of death and utter destruction.
"People said the plane kind of exploded in the air, and that everything rained down in bits and pieces, the plane itself, the people inside," said Noah Sneider, an American freelance journalist who interviewed witnesses at the scene.
Charred wreckage stretched for kilometers, he said. Stunned rescue workers and rebel fighters combed the area, Sneider said, planting sticks with white cotton ribbons where they found bodies in the fields.
"As you walk through the fields, you see a man with his cracked iPhone sticking out of his pocket. You see sort of people's clothing everywhere. Most of it's kind of ripped off by the air. There's some suitcases and stuff in a pile by the road," Sneider said.
There were many bodies left to be found as night fell, he said, and people were trying to figure out what to do next.
Locals in the rural area trying to help were overwhelmed, he said. Firemen who rushed to put out the flames found they had a hose with holes in it, spraying water everywhere, he said.
"One man said to me, 'Nothing's happened in this village for 30 years, and now this,'" Sneider said.
As details emerge, accusations fly
Details -- and accusations -- quickly poured in about Thursday's crash, which came the same week that Ukrainian officials said a Russian fighter shot down a Ukrainian military transport plane while the aircraft was in Ukrainian airspace.
Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, said in a Facebook post that "terrorists" fired on the plane operating a Buk surface-to-air missile system.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko described the crash as a "terrorist action."
"We do not exclude that the plane was shot down and confirm that the Ukraine Armed Forces did not fire at any targets in the sky," Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said, according to his website.
CNN's Richard Quest, an aviation expert, said that it would be "extremely unusual" for an airliner at nearly 33,000 feet to be shot down.
From the ground, one could simply look up and tell whether a plane was a commercial aircraft, he said. "So something is absolutely appalling that's gone on here."
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said that Ukraine's president had accepted an offer of U.S. experts to help investigate the crash.
"They will be on their way rapidly to see if we can get to the bottom of this," he said.
Biden said the plane was apparently shot down, adding "not an accident, blown out of the sky."
Who was on the plane?
The 15 crew members on Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 were all Malaysian nationals, officials said.
Malaysia Airlines also gave a breakdown of the known nationalities of the 283 passengers: 154 were Dutch, 27 were Australians, 28 were Malaysians, 12 were Indonesian, nine were from the United Kingdom, four were from Germany; four were from Belgium, three were from the Philippines and one was Canadian. Authorities were still trying to determine the nationalities of the other passengers.
The International AIDS Society said in a statement that "a number of colleagues and friends" were on the plane, on the way to attend the 20th International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia.
"At this incredibly sad and sensitive time the IAS stands with our international family and sends condolences to the loved ones of those who have been lost to this tragedy," the statement said.
Russia-Ukraine dispute
The route the Malaysian plane was on, between Kuala Lumpur and the Netherlands, is a common one, CNN aviation safety consultant Mary Schiavo said Thursday. She said that the plane was flying over a troubled area and that close communication with air traffic controllers would be a key necessity.
Torez is in a rebel-held area.
In hostile or disputed areas, "any alteration from your course, and you can have a problem," Schiavo said.
Tensions have been high between Ukraine and Russia since street protests forced former pro-Moscow President Viktor Yanukovych from power in February. Russia subsequently annexed Ukraine's southeastern Crimea region, and a pro-Russian separatist rebellion has been raging in Ukraine's eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
Ukrainian forces have been struggling to quell the separatist unrest. Ukraine's government has accused Russia of allowing weapons and military equipment, including tanks, to cross the border illegally into the hands of pro-Russian separatists.
The Pentagon said Wednesday that Russia now has 12,000 troops on the border with Ukraine, as well as some heavy weapons. The troop numbers had fallen to about 1,000 previously from a high of an estimated 40,000 forces earlier this year.
READ: Obama imposes new sanctions on Russia over Ukraine
On Thursday, CNN reported that Ukrainian officials said a Russian fighter shot down a Ukrainian jet Wednesday as the jet flew in Ukrainian airspace.
Tensions are high over that incident, separate from the breaking news of the Malaysian flight Thursday.
Three months ago, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration prohibited U.S. airlines from flying in areas not far from where Flight 17 reportedly crashed Thursday. "Due to the potential for conflicting air traffic control instructions from Ukrainian and Russian authorities and for the related potential misidentification of civil aircraft, United States flight operations are prohibited until further notice in the airspace over Crimea, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov," the FAA said in April. Thursday's plane crash reportedly was in eastern Ukraine, scores of miles north-northeast of the Sea of Azov.
On Thursday, French transportation official Frederic Cuvillier ordered that French airlines avoid Ukrainian airspace until the cause of Thursday's Malaysia Airlines crash is known, the French Transportation Ministry said in a news release.
Airline's troubles
Thursday's crash marks the second time this year that Malaysia Airlines has faced an incident involving a downed plane.
On March 8, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared. That Boeing 777 had 239 people on board. Searchers have found no trace of 370 or its passengers, despite extensive search efforts.
Flight 370 probably flew into the southern Indian Ocean on autopilot with an unresponsive crew, Australian authorities said last month.
During the early phase of the search for Flight 370, aircraft and ships scoured vast stretches of the surface of the southern Indian |
and the result was Kodachrome, which was first sold in 1917. However, with a hefty cost of $3.50 a roll (about $60 at todays prices), the film was a niche product.
Over time, Kodak improved the film and lowered the cost, and it was used to record significant events. The aftermath of the Hindenburg disaster in 1937 was captured by Gerry Sheedy (a staff photographer for the New York Mirror newspaper) using a compact camera with Kodachrome film, as shown in this spread from the Sunday Mirror Magazine from 1937. These are the only color photos of the disaster: other photos were shot on black and white film and colorized afterwards.
Color photos of the Hindenburg disaster, shot on Kodachrome film / Airships.net
Kodachome was used extensively through the great depression, World War II and the 1950s, although the slow speed of the film (an ISO rating of 12) meant that it was mostly restricted to posed shots taken in good light. Hollywood loved the rich colors, and Kodachrome was extensively used in publicity shots for starts like Marilyn Monroe. Shorpy has an excellent selection of shots taken using the large format version of the transparency film. The Library of Congress has an excellent online exhibition called Bound For Glory that shows Kodachrome shots of the great depression taken by the Farm Security Administration to document their work in the Midwest.
Faro and Doris Caudill, homesteaders, Pie Town, New Mexico, 1940/ Lee Russell, Library of Congress
Marilyn Monroe publicity shot for the film Dial M for Murder / Shorpy
Kodachrome became a mainstream film in the early 1960s, when Kodak refined the development process to make it cheaper (called the K12 process). They also launched a revised version called Kodachome II that was faster, with the 35mm film version for consumer cameras, boosting the ISO to 25. That was still much slower than other films, but the home photographers of the 1960s couldn’t get enough of the vivid colors and sharp detail of this film for their holiday photos.Image copyright Thinkstock Image caption Having friends with a positive attitude to education can encourage pupils to stay in school, the researchers found
Schools should encourage pupils with poor grades to mix with stronger students if they want to keep them in education, suggests a study.
Positive parental and friendship group influences are key to cutting drop-out rates, according to Arizona State University research.
The researchers interviewed vulnerable students at a Chicago high school.
Parents' influence fell if pupils had too much contact with other disaffected students, the researchers found.
The researchers spoke to 125 pupils, aged 15 to 18, at a school with one of the worst drop-out rates in the city and analysed their records.
They concluded that students' academic achievement was directly related to the level of parental involvement "more than any factors".
But they also found that if vulnerable students had too much contact with peers with a negative view of education, "the effect of parental involvement on the dynamics of dropouts becomes negligible".
Waste of time?
In the United States, most students are expected to finish high school in 12th grade, aged 17 or 18.
Anyone who leaves without finishing is termed a "dropout".
In 2012, more than 3 million students dropped out from high school, says the paper, with higher rates among low income groups, including Hispanic and African American communities.
This means around 17,000 students drop out daily and 31 million people could be high school drop-outs by 2022, say the authors.
Being a dropout means lower earnings and greater reliance on welfare and has a knock-on effect on the wider economy, says the paper.
"This is a problem we can't afford to accept or ignore," according to President Obama in 2010, quoted in the paper.
The 125 students were asked about parental involvement and peer influences, including numbers of friends who had dropped out and these friends' attitudes to school.
According to the study, almost half "were in frequent contact with individuals who think that attending school is a waste of time".
The study found that if vulnerable students were identified early and parents increased their involvement, their numbers of disaffected friends would fall.
But if intervention was left until until students were actively failing at school, attempts at parental guidance were futile.
The researchers advise schools with high drop-out rates to encourage vulnerable students to mix with a wider group of pupils, not just other vulnerable or failing pupils, while fostering parental involvement.
"Then they can achieve sustained reduction in the number of dropouts," they conclude.
The study is published by the Royal Society in the journal Proceedings A.
Join the conversation - find us on FacebookA rare and unique assembly of some of the greatest drummers in the world. Explosive talent, passion, humour and irresistible personality come together in a magical setting when seven diverse drummers create a profound and unforgettable experience. You've never seen drummers like this before! Featuring Nasyr Abdul Al-Khabyyr, Dennis Chambers, Kenwood Dennard, Horacio "El-Negro" Hernadez, Giovanni Hidalgo, Mike Mangini and Raul Rekow, the film engages us with the rich music styles and influences that are as dynamic as the performers themselves. We are lifted to another dimension as we connect to the powerful forces of nature embodied in the music of these master musicians. The creative and spiritual freedom of expression these artists display is overwhelming - from Latin rhythms to the wildly original compositions of Kenwood Dennard. Rock, jazz, Latin fusion, soul - these master drummers have backed up the likes of Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Carlos Santana and now - each other. At... Written by John Walker ProductionsStory highlights The storm wreaks havoc on a James Bond film set
Roofs are ripped off and trees are felled
The lodos is a strong southwesterly wind
Howling winds ripped through Turkey's largest city Wednesday afternoon, tearing flags from their poles, destroying the set of a blockbuster Hollywood film, and injuring at least 31 people, Turkish authorities said.
Three of the injured were in critical condition from the freak storm caused by a strong southwesterly wind known in Turkey as lodos.
The winds -- measured at 100 kph or 62 miles per hour -- ripped the roofs from some 350 buildings, the Istanbul municipality reported, and downed more than 100 trees.
Fishing boats rushed to the rescue of desperate passengers aboard a yacht that caught fire in the Bosporus, the strait that divides the densely populated city.
As the wind quickly whipped up flames emerging from the back of the boat into a huge blaze, nervous passengers dressed in business suits clustered around the bow of the vessel.
JUST WATCHED Freak windstorm wreaks havoc in Turkey Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Freak windstorm wreaks havoc in Turkey 02:29
The Turkish television agency DHA filmed the passengers getting onto fishing boats as the fire engulfed the rest of the yacht. Turkish media said the passengers escaped the dramatic blaze unharmed.
In Istanbul's posh Nisantasi neighborhood, the gusts ripped down an advertising billboard and sent construction scaffolding crashing down onto the pavement and parked cars.
The storm also wreaked havoc on the set of the aptly named James Bond film "Skyfall." Turkish media have been reporting daily on the film's production, which is occupying Eminonu, one of Istanbul's most congested and historic wharf districts.
CNN sister network CNN Turk showed video of film and set equipment in Eminonu's main square scattered and damaged by the storm.DENMARK, Ore. - Do you know who shot 2 yearling beef calves on a ranch north of Port Orford earlier this month?
The owner of the cattle has offered a $5,000 reward in the case.
State police investigated the shooting April 13.
The perpetrators left one of the calves injured, police said.
The other calf was field dressed and taken from the scene.
Troopers found that suspects gained access to the pasture by cutting a hole in the fence next to Highway 101.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact Trooper Dylan Roberts at(971)-601-0047.
You can also send in a tip to the Turn In Poachers hotline and email:
TIP Hotline: 1-800-452-7888 (24/7)
TIP E-Mail: TIP@state.or.us (Monitored M-F 8:00AM - 5:00PM)
(Please use the TIP Hotline for Weekend and Evening Reporting)The planet’s seas are choking on our junk: Soda bottles, plastic bags and tons of cigarette butts. Distant spots in the ocean — called garbage gyres — have become vortexes where humanity’s trash bobs atop the water for miles on end.
Worse yet, the filth floating on the surface accounts for only 5 percent of all the plastic trash dumped into the sea. According to Ocean Conservancy, a US environmental nonprofit, the other 95 percent is submerged beneath, where it strangles underwater creatures and wrecks the aquatic ecosystem.
It turns out that five countries are the leading contributors to this crisis. And all are in Asia.
In a recent report, Ocean Conservancy claims that China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam are spewing out as much as 60 percent of the plastic waste that enters the world’s seas.
More from GlobalPost: Vultures with GoPros are helping clean up Peru (VIDEO)
“At this rate, we would expect nearly one ton of plastic for every three tons of fish in our oceans by 2025 — an unthinkable number with drastic economic and environmental consequences,” says Nicholas Mallos, director of Ocean Conservancy’s marine debris program.
Westerners, namely Americans, are seen as the world’s most incorrigible consumers of stuff: Soda, gadgets, sneakers and other items that produce plenty of trash. So how did a few Asian countries, many of them comparatively poor, end up churning out much of the plastic waste that swirls through the seas?
Asia is adopting Western-style appetites for consumer junk
As Asian economies rise, people have more cash to blow on Marlboros and Sprites at 7-Eleven. But the junk these habits produce often doesn’t end up in legit landfills.
In the five Asian countries listed above, only about 40 percent of garbage is properly collected. Across Asia, trash is often piled up in communal dumps where stray bits are swept up by the wind and cast into the ocean.
Indonesian fishermen on a polluted beach in Cilincing, North Jakarta, June 5, 2013. Credit: Beawiharta/Reuters Even sanctioned garbage dump sites are sometimes intentionally set up near rivers that flow into the sea. The reason, according to Ocean Conservancy: “Waste will intermittently be carried away by heavy rains or current, refreshing the capacity of the dump to receive more waste.”
Trash scavengers can’t keep up
Asia’s garbage pickers are the unsung heroes of conservation. They brave filth and disease to root through trash and extract plastic that can be sold to recyclers for a little cash. This ensures that lots of junk is recycled rather than abandoned in landfills.
But these pickers tend to focus on high-value items — like plastic bottles — in lieu of plastic bags, which fetch very little from recyclers.
Workers load collected plastic bottles onto a truck in Manila in the Philippines, March 10, 2015. Credit: Romeo Ronoco/Reuters According to Ocean Conservancy, a scavenger might spend 10 hours gathering plastic bags and take home a mere 50 cents. Devoting that day to picking up only plastic bottles, however, would rack up $3.70.
That means that scavengers skip over much of the waste, which can later end up in the sea.
Corporations crank out tiny portion sizes for the poor
A shopper in California or Texas buys shampoo by the bottle. But that’s often an unaffordable luxury to poor Indonesian or Filipino villagers, who instead buy cosmetics in mini plastic pouches.
A woman washes plastic in a river in Tianjin, China, Sept. 13, 2007. Credit: Vincent Du/Reuters
In Asia’s rural hamlets, corporations sell everything from beauty products to instant noodles in tiny, cheap quantities. This helps even the most destitute laborers afford their wares. The result? Companies are churning out a lot more plastic packaging in poor Asian nations — and much of it winds up in the ocean.
Though corporations aren’t “making plastic with the intent of it ending up in the ocean,” Mallos says, they should be offering up their “world-class logistics, financing, project management and marketing capabilities” to help solve the problem.
Asia’s garbagemen often cut corners
In countries where the law is flimsy, garbage truck drivers will often save time and fuel by simply dumping trash by the roadside. These illegal dump sites are having devastating consequences for the seas.
In the Philippines, an island nation where sanitation trucks often flout the law, research suggests that up to 90 percent of the plastic dumped illegally ends up in the ocean. In the five Asian nations profiled by Ocean Conservancy, estimates suggest this practice adds nearly 1 million metric tons of plastic trash to the seas each year.
A boy collects plastic near a polluted coastline to sell in Manila, April 9, 2008. Credit: Cheryl Ravelo/Reuters As it stands, humans leak a staggering 8 million metric tons of plastic into the ocean each year, according to research published in Science Magazine. If our behavior doesn’t change, Ocean Conservancy says, we’ll double that rate in just 10 years.
All that garbage is having devastating effects on the seas: choking marine life to death, dramatically warping ecosystems and wreaking environmental havoc that some experts liken to the climate change crisis.
More from GlobalPost: A quick and easy guide to the Paris climate dealSean Szeles is the supervising producer for Regular Show, the best cartoon on television today. He also composed many of the original songs from the series that fans know and love. I had an incredibly engaging and fun interview with Sean as we discussed the music on Regular Show, the new season, his favorite episodes and more. A must read for all fans of Regular Show!
Alex Obert: With the new season of Regular Show currently airing, what are your thoughts on it so far?
Sean Szeles: It’s been pretty cool so far. I think that with this season, there’s a lot of emotional parts that we play with. I’m excited about that. There’s a lot more episodes with feelings and stuff going on, whether it’s between friends or other people. Something pretty exciting, we’ve got a lot of cool specials coming out. We just had a Halloween special, which was awesome. We always get to do something crazier for the Halloween specials, that’s always fun. I’m looking forward to the specials coming out soon. The Real Thomas half hour special is coming out in a week. And then we have a bunch of Christmas themed episodes. It should be a good season! (laughs)
Alex Obert: You mention the emotional connection between characters, what do you feel was the influence behind introducing CJ onto the show?
Sean Szeles: We had this will they/won’t they thing going with Margaret and Mordecai for a long time and I think we just wanted to add some new flavor to the show. We wanted to inject some more drama and tell a story from a natural point of view, something that has happened to us whenever. It’s a natural thing for you to meet new people and you get interested in them and you don’t know what to do. I think we just threw her in there because he was pining for Margaret, but the relationship never really clicked full throttle. It was a good time to maybe find somebody else that he has more in common with. We decided to go that route to see what would happen with that. She’s going to stick around for a while, she’s a cool character.
Alex Obert: And what do you think of Linda Cardellini voicing her?
Sean Szeles: She’s great. We love having her be a part of the show. Her voice is just so cool, such a natural sounding voice. She’s such a good actress and she nailed all the lines the first time. And she’s really good with the emotional stuff that we throw at her, it adds a realness to the character for sure.
Alex Obert: You’re behind a lot of the music on the show, but what is your favorite usage of licensed music in an episode?
Sean Szeles: It’s hard to remember all the ones after all the episodes we’ve done so far. (laughs) It was an early one, but I really liked Lies from the Thompson Twins in Grilled Cheese Deluxe. It was one of the episodes that I wrote and storyboarded on. That was a cool eighties song. I don’t know, dude, do you have any ones that you like? (laughs)
Alex Obert: I enjoyed hearing We Are the Champions play after the scene where Mordecai and Margaret finally kiss.
Sean Szeles: That was something we suggested because we thought it would be a really cool moment. I’m glad we got that. Sometimes it’s really hard to get these songs, you have to go through a lot of different channels to see if we’re even allowed to use the song or if the band will even let us use it. And you only get a certain number of songs per season because of the budget we have. But that was definitely super cool to have.
Alex Obert: Do you have any songs on your wish list for the show?
Sean Szeles: I know we’ve tried before and we want to keep trying to get the Ramones. Something happened the first time where we couldn’t get it for some reason or another. I love the Ramones, so it’d be awesome to use one of their songs. I know that JG loves Rush a lot, so we always try to figure out a way to get a Rush song or something.
Alex Obert: What was the influence behind Party Tonight?
Sean Szeles: I guess I was trying to make it sound like a seventies ballad, that’s what JG’s really into. I think I was listening to a lot of Journey and stuff at the time. (laughs) I was trying to get a feel for stuff like that and that’s just how it came out. I’m always really surprised after writing a song and how it even happened, how you figure out a melody or something.
Alex Obert: What were your thoughts on JG’s vocal performance of that song?
Sean Szeles: Well… (laughs) Mordecai’s not supposed to be a professional singer or anything, no, he did good with it. He did the best he could have probably done! (laughs)
Alex Obert: I thought it was charming. Imperfection can sometimes be perfection depending on how you look at it. What was the influence behind Summertime Loving, Loving in the Summer (Time)?
Sean Szeles: That was kind of a crazy undertaking because the task was to come up with a song that was super catchy and repetitive and something that’s gonna get stuck in your head. It was referencing songs that you might have been into in junior high or high school that were maybe not good songs, but they played on the radio nonstop. Songs from bands like Sugar Ray or Smash Mouth, not the best pieces of music, songs you might be embarrassed looking back on because you were really into them. (laughs)
Alex Obert: As a musician, what are your thoughts on the character Death resembling Lemmy?
Sean Szeles: I think it’s awesome. Just the idea of him is really cool, this biker dude as a version of Death. I hadn’t really seen that before. Having him look like that was a cool touch for sure.
Alex Obert: What are your thoughts on continuation episodes such as the baby ducks or Mordecai and the Rigbys?
Sean Szeles: We throw out ideas in the writers’ room, but we’re not really trying to look back at what we could repeat. If the right idea comes along where we want to see some cool characters and it’s a new twist on them and we’re not doing exactly the same thing, but we’re pushing the story forward, we’ll tend to gravitate towards those. Our show is so episodic, besides the Mordecai and Margaret stuff, there isn’t really an arching story like other TV shows would have. Every episode is supposed to be like a standalone episode. So to be able to do sequel-type episodes, it’s a cool way to bridge time and revisit where they were at a certain point and where they are now. We don’t want to overdo them a lot and do them just to do them, so we sprinkle them throughout.
Alex Obert: With all of the episodes and characters, who are some of your favorite characters that have only made one or a couple of appearances?
Sean Szeles: I really like Gut Model where Muscle Man is scouted to be a gut model for a pregnancy magazine. (laughs) And I really liked the agents. I wrote on that episode and helped to come up with those characters. Speaking of trying to bring characters back, we liked them so much that we’re trying to figure out how to bring them back. We wrote a bunch of different story ideas, but nothing ever stuck with them. We’re still trying to see if we can bring them back somehow. I thought they were cool, the fact that they’re fast-talking agent characters.
Alex Obert: Do you have any favorite pop-culture references that immediately stuck with you?
Sean Szeles: I like the ones that are more subtle. We had that Christmas special and they’re going on a journey, the whole thing was kind of like Lord of the Rings. They got this gift to throw down in a lava pit. (laughs) There were also Goonies references in that episode where they’re sliding down these caverns and trying to do these booby trap tasks to get through to the next level. That was pretty cool to do that stuff.
Alex Obert: Do you have any favorite pieces of art that fans have made?
Sean Szeles: It was cool going to Comic Con and seeing people dressed up. I took a photo with this girl, she made a full costume of the cassette tape from the Summertime song. The costume had speakers in it and it it was playing the song over and over. I thought that was just awesome seeing someone go through the trouble to make that. Our fans are pretty awesome, we’re always looking at different kinds of fan art and costumes online.
Alex Obert: What would you say is your favorite episode of all time?
Sean Szeles: I really like The Last Laserdisc Player. I thought it was super cool because it had its own mythology. It’s a weird episode, the guys don’t do much in it, they’re just trying to watch this Laserdisc. They’re just caught up in this crazy story, it was kind of different. But I think that’s what makes it funny, this whole format war going on. They’re just caught in the middle of it. And Skips’ Story where you see Skips when he was in high school in the 1800s and he meets Desdemona there and has to fight. I thought that was a pretty cool story, pretty epic.
Alex Obert: If Regular Show ever had a full-on movie, whether it’s on the big screen or a Cartoon Network special, what is your ideal plot?
Sean Szeles: That would be quite an undertaking to do a movie. It would be cool to do some really low-key type of movie. I really like low-key movies, one of my favorite movies is Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and it all happens in one day. It would be hard because we jam-pack our episodes and to try and outdo that would be hard. (laughs) But it could be cool.
Alex Obert: I always had this vision of a plot similar to Wayne’s World 2 where they put together a concert to save the park.
Sean Szeles: Oh yeah. For sure!
Alex Obert: So in closing, how would you describe the current season in a couple words?
Sean Szeles: It’s gonna be badass. It’s gonna knock everybody’s socks off! (laughs) I think it’s one of our better seasons to date, there’s so many good episodes that are coming out. I think people are gonna freak out! (laughs)
Alex Obert: I would love to thank you so much for your time and a great interview. I look forward to the rest of the season and to the future of Regular Show.
Sean Szeles: No problem! Thanks so much!
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FOLLOW Journey of a Frontman on TwitterIn 2011 I embarked on a five-month journey with my best friend Nick. The plan was to ride from the southernmost tip of Africa to the northernmost tip of Norway. Since we were planning big, it only made sense to also attempt summiting Kilimanjaro on the way. Nick and I were going to meet our friend Timmer who would be flying into Africa specifically for the climb. One month into our trip, we were still waiting for our bikes to arrive from America. We will never fully know what the reason for the delay was with all the excuses both countries gave us. It doesn’t matter anyway. We finally did get the bikes and had only ten days to make it to Tanzania to meet up with Timmer for our scheduled climb. The ten-day journey was quite the ride with multiple flat tires and bike malfunctions. I was already on my second fuel pump and Nick’s rims were becoming less and less round. With only 250 miles left to go, we were right on track to meet Timmer that evening, and then it happened.
I remember talking to Nick on my intercom when he told me that his bike was acting weird and he had to stop. I turned around and buzzed over to where he had pulled off on the side of the road. Just as I slowed down to stop next to Nick, my front wheel started acting squirrely. I had a flat. Nick thought his problem was his rear hub. Both bikes were broken down at the same time, which would’ve been fine if we had spare time, but we were trying to meet Timmer 250 miles away at a hotel. We each propped rocks under our skid plates, set up the tent, and began working on our bikes: Me on my front flat, and Nick on his rear hub. I fixed my flat in no time, as by then I was almost a seasoned pro. Nick’s bearings were all blown up, and although he had back up bearings, he couldn’t seem to pry the old casing out of the hub. After some discussion, a plan developed for me to ride back to the last town (30 minutes away) and see if there was anyone who could get the old bearing out.
I charged down the road, entering the town just as dusk fell. People started surrounding me as I stopped my bike and grabbed the hub. I asked the growing mob for a mechanic and someone pushed through. The man was confident that he could remove the old bearing. This was good news and he took the hub off somewhere. By this time it was dark and the people were still hovering around me and pushing closer. It was all I could do to keep an eye on my luggage. The man came back with the old bearing removed and a new set already pressed in. How could this be? I didn’t know, but it was wonderful news. I paid the man, and then quickly grabbed two cokes and some street food for dinner. Thirty minutes later, I was back to Nick with the dinner and the repaired hub. Since it was now 9 p.m., we decided to call it a night and get up early in the morning. We could make the next 250 miles to meet Timmer before noon. Little did we know that the next morning I would have another flat and this time I was out of patches… Ah, the life of a traveler.Sean Avery wants to start off with some Shakespeare. Maybe Henry IV, Part 1.
"The Hotspur?" his acting coach, Kelly Kimball, suggests.
The formerly most hated man in hockey nods to himself. He's done this one a lot. Hotspur – a brawling, charismatic loudmouth who finally picks the wrong fight and gets done in for it.
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Avery raises a hand, Olivier-style.
"My liege, I did deny no prisoners. But I remember …" – a small pause of forgetfulness – "… FUCK."
Kimball, a small woman with a big presence, flinches. Avery paces around the makeshift stage in her Greenwich Village studio. He's dressed in tight tip-to-toe black, like some beatnik bodybuilder. He's ignoring the photographer crouched beneath him, while giving her his best side.
Avery, 37, has done a bunch of things since falling sideways out of the NHL five years ago. He's been a fashion person, a restaurateur and a bar owner. The sort of things rich, connected New Yorkers who bore easily do.
About a year ago, Avery decided he wanted to become an author and an actor.
The writing didn't come easily – though his memoir will be released shortly – but the acting seemed natural. Few hockey pros have ever treated the game so much like a one-man show.
He found Kimball online. Like just about everything Avery has ever done, he overdoes this, too. He goes every day of the week, often twice.
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"Which is more than any student I've ever had," Kimball says. "Times five."
After he's got through the Shakespeare, Avery wants to find something more prosaic. He's flipping through a four-inch-thick binder he's brought along. It contains every monologue he's learned, tabbed and colour-coded. He's very quiet in here.
Does everyone have one of these binders?
"Only Sean," Kimball says, then mouths, " Very anal."
Avery attends a private training session with his acting coach Kelly Kimball. Natalie Keyssar for The Globe and Mail
Kimball didn't know who Avery was when he arrived, but other people in the studio spotted him straight off. Since he's a working-class New York Rangers cult hero married to a supermodel, Hilary Rhoda, Avery's Page Six glamour has proved resilient.
Kimball found one of his mid-game freakouts on YouTube. Like most hockey scolds and Defenders of the Great Tradition, she was horrified. Friends suggested she hire security to just happen to hang around whenever Avery was there. Especially at the more "volatile" improvs.
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That wasn't necessary. Avery says he has trouble accessing anger now that he's given up hockey.
Shortly after he started the lessons, he burst into tears while driving alone to Muskoka. A Tragically Hip song came on and flipped a switch in him.
"I was thinking about Gord and life and the paradox and the journey and all that," Avery says. "I hadn't cried in years."
But since tough guys and sociopaths are his likeliest route into Hollywood, Kimball is pushing him in that direction. She calls this "locating the rage spot."
During his sessions with Kimball, Avery flips through a four-inch-thick, tabbed and colour-coded binder containing every monologue he’s learned. Natalie Keyssar/The Globe and Mail
At her suggestion, Avery's next effort is a piece from Glengarry Glen Ross, the "Who ever told you could work with men?" speech.
Avery gets through it fine, but you can see him acting. Face screwed up, eyes narrowed, mouth twisted. Kimball's soothing him throughout, speaking in an exaggerated whisper. She reminds him to project to the centre and back of the room, where I'm sitting.
Avery's not entirely happy with his performance. He's starting to get frustrated.
"Back when I was playing, this would be easy," he says. "I would be like …" – his face changes suddenly, becomes slack and expressionless; his eyes deaden; his shoulders fall; he's bent over, but he looks bigger – "… I'm going to kill you. I'm going to kill you. You better not get out on the ice. I'm going to two-hand you. I'm going to baseball-swing you. And it's going to hurt."
He's staring directly through me.
And you suddenly get why people were afraid of Sean Avery.
Since it's New York, no one says anything
Avery waits for a cab to head up to see his acting coach in lower Manhattan. Natalie Keyssar/The Globe and Mail
He still keeps a hockey schedule – two workouts a day, morning and night, with a nap in the afternoon.
"I told my wife that if I start to go, tell me. That's a slow death."
Eight months ago, she told him. So here he is at an upscale gym at 8:30 in the morning, doing wind sprints on a treadmill. This is where Avery wants to start the interview.
A few stationary joggers stare over with a, "Wait, isn't that …?" look. But since it's New York, no one says anything.
Though he has often said he played a character on the ice, Avery isn't much different in civilian life. He's a chatty provocateur who likes liking things – film, art, fashion – that hockey players aren't supposed to care about. Did you see Wind River? Because he saw it four times the week it was released.
Most off-duty pros walk around in public with their heads down, terrified of being spotted. Avery has the chin-up swagger of a man who enjoys being noticed.
He didn't finish school and that has created a small gap in his self-perception. Over the course of his memoir, he reminds you three times that he modelled tuxedos on Good Morning America and once that he made out with Scarlett Johansson.
In person, he's easy to like – earnest, funny, enjoys people. When a 40-ish woman approaches him in a diner for an autograph, Avery is so at ease with her that at first I think they're friends.
He goes to Broadway two or three times a month to see a play. Any play. He's lived here for most of a decade and still approaches Manhattan like a teenager who has just popped out of Penn Station for the first time and can't get over how tall the buildings are.
There is no hint of the darkness that occasionally fell over him during his career, and always to his detriment. All of that energy is focused backward.
"They're either going to pretend it didn't happen, or they're going to come after me," Avery says.
He's talking about the NHL's reaction to his coming autobiography, Offside.
(In a nod to America's hockey IQ, it'll be called Ice Capades in the United States.)
You probably have an idea of how Sean Avery would write a book. Whether you admired his iconoclasm or tolerated his boorishness or despised him on general principles, you probably think you have Avery pegged. If you were to visualize his literary process, it'd be a man attacking a box of paper with a machete.
Though it is often sharp and keenly observed – especially its insights on the NHL lockout and the rhythms of life as a pro – there is a lot of that sort of thing in there.
On his former L.A. coach Andy Murray: "… an alien impersonating a human, and not doing a great job of it."
On teammate Jason Williams: "… a kiss-ass, one-dimensional automaton."
On Dave Lewis, but somehow looping in John Tortorella: "Lewis was a very good coach, but even John Tortorella would have to work pretty hard not to win with this crew (still, he could manage it.)"
On Martin Brodeur: "a fucking dirtbag."
Forget about not pulling punches. Avery gets his enemies down on the page and kicks them bloody for several paragraphs. Brodeur is a particular target, with a bunch of ugly stuff about the goalie's private life that a lot of people know, but choose to leave alone.
As he runs, Avery is anxious to get my thoughts on the book. Did I read it all? Did I like it? Is there anything there I would have changed? Is it too much?
When he asks the last question, I mention Brodeur. That one seemed excessive.
Avery jumps off the treadmill, pulls back and bugs his eyes so that he can fully take in my softness.
"Why? He did it, didn't he? He is a dirtbag," Avery says. "Am I wrong?"
Well, maybe not if you're Sean Avery.
There are two types of people in Avery's world – those who are on his side, and those who must be destroyed.
If you fall in the latter category, there is no sense of proportion in his response. It's full-on war. A lot of pros bring this attitude to the park. Avery lives it.
His main targets, like his coach in New York, Tortorella, get repeated literary beatings. A few others get drive-bys (on one opponent: "I asked what it felt like to be the only NHL star player making millions a year to actually get dumped by his wife in his prime.")
New York Rangers forward Sean Avery, left, fights with Darcy Tucker of the Toronto Maple Leafs during a game in November, 2007. Mike Cassese/Reuters
Avery is taken aback that I am taken aback.
At first, he's defensive – "I never took a shot that was above and beyond the truth."
But Avery has a way of talking himself through things. It's like watching a man put himself on the couch and do auto-psychoanalysis.
"I honestly don't even think about it."
Small pause.
"Does that make me a bad person?" – said like it's an honest question.
Another pause.
"Now I'm wondering if people are thinking about it."
Avery says his book is a way of sealing off the past. In a couple of years, he’d like to be an established actor. He’s been on a couple of auditions for major parts in the past month. Natalie Keyssar/The Globe and Mail
In the space of 10 seconds, Avery has gone from indignation to something verging on remorse.
The bile is leavened by Avery's reverence for everyone who was ever kind to him, especially older men.
His key triumvirate is taken from his first experiences in the NHL – Red Wings veterans Brendan Shanahan, Chris Chelios and Brett Hull. They are "gods" and "savages" – highest praise in the Avery lexicon. If you think NHLers live like rock stars, Avery is here to tell you that you guessed right.
Those |
in the third. Moments after Price robbed Filppula from the doorstep with a glove save, Anton Stralman’s blast got through traffic and Stamkos was there to slam it in to tie the game 1-1 at 10:56.
Notes — Obscure stat: With a 6-2 win in Game 4, Montreal became only the second team to avoid a four-game sweep with a road win of four or more goals. The last? Pittsburgh 10-3 over Philadelphia in 2012… Nathan Beaulieu, injured in the first round, returned after missing seven games. Greg Pateryn was scratched… The Bolts scratched Vladislav Namestnikov and went with seven defencemen. Brenden Morrow returned, bumping Jonathan Drouin.So if you’re anywhere around my age range (late 20s), you probably grew up in the ‘90s with cable television. Good times. The only thing “reality” on MTV was Real World and Road Rules, Cartoon Network wouldn’t be caught dead playing live action movies, the Sci-Fi Channel could spell its own name right and ESPN would rerun the same episode of SportsCenter for 24 hours (but you were just watching for the bottom line).
But there was something else going on back then that as a kid I remember fondly. To fill in time between programs, cable networks didn’t always resort to commercials. Sometimes they’d air weird shorts from indie filmmakers (probably because they could get them really, really cheap). A LOT of networks did this, particularly to kill time at 1 in the morning, and for an 8 year-old who was already buzzed out of his mind on caffeine and sugar just to stay up that late, it could be pretty surreal.
Most of these short films are lost forever (or until someone finds them on a half-disintegrated Beta cassette), but what I’ve found on YouTube I will share with you. With luck, maybe they’ll untangle some vaguely recollected nostalgic knots in the backs of your brains. For the record, these are just the short films I remember from ‘90s cable TV and not just any short film. There are a million good, spooky, surreal shorts on YouTube that are older than some of your parents (I’m partial to “Malice in Wonderland”, myself).
5. “The Baby from Outer Space” (1991, Sci-Fi Channel)
Alas, this is one of those short films which appears to be gone for good (unless YOU’VE got a copy?). All that I’ve been able to find is this fragment (skip to 56 seconds in):
I remember this one fondly from my weekend Sci-Fi Channel binges as a kid. They showed the best horror movies late, LATE at night and always punctuated them with shorts. Probably because it was a cartoon, “The Baby from Outer Space” was my favorite.
The story involves a babysitter who is besieged by a pair of weird alien teenagers out to mess with him. A shame only the last half of the short is online, as I recall the first half boasting a memorably hypnotic message: “Put… the baby… in… the microwave.”
“The Baby from Outer Space” is a bizarre bit of animation blending different styles (traditional animation, cut-outs, computer-generated models), so even if the story (what you can glean from that fragment) doesn’t do it for you, you might get a kick out of the weird visuals.
Unfortunately, things didn’t end so well for the animator, Gordon Thomas. He went through some hard times and took his own life in 2003.
4. “The Dummy” (1980, HBO)
Like I said, they played the best horror movies at ungodly hours of the night (bordering on morning) and as an elementary schooler, it was tough staying up that late. Unlike the Sci-Fi Channel and the USA Network, though, HBO would play their horror movies uncut. Since we had all 3 channels of HBO, I was a pretty fortunate kid.
Then, between movies in one particular October marathon, they ran “The Dummy”. It’s a simple film about a ventriloquist’s dummy that comes to life, grabs a knife and tries to kill a woman in her apartment. It’s very basic and bare bones, but man is it effective. I only saw it once as a kid (according to the description, by the ‘90s it was nearing the end of its rerun lifespan on HBO), but I never forgot it.
Directed by Louis La Volpe, the short starts out with this strange sense of humor, as the titular dummy makes cartoon sound effects as it stalks around the apartment. As soon as it grabs the knife and starts stabbing, though, all pretenses of comedy are discarded and s--t gets real.
3. “The Killing of an Egg” (1977, Nickelodeon)
Nickelodeon had a lot of dead air to fill in the early ‘90s, if my memories are correct. It seemed like they were always showing the same short films about Inside Out Boy or Pete and Pete or this mother fucker right here about the sleeping dog that YouTube assures me was only two and a half minutes long but as a 6 year-old felt like it went on for an hour!
But while their selection of short films to kill time between programs weren’t always level in terms of quality, they were all certainly WEIRD; some very trippy stuff for the early afternoon preschooler audience. It’s kind of disturbing to know I grew up in a time where Paul Driessen’s “The Killing of an Egg” shared space in a timeslot with Eureka’s Castle and The Noozles.
“The Killing of an Egg” is pretty straight forward. A dude is eating a soft boiled egg, but every time he taps on the shell, he hears someone inside screaming in pain. Eventually, he smashes the egg. Then he hears a tapping outside his home and the walls start to cave in and be begins screaming in pain.
Yep, pretty straight forward.
2. “Carnivore” (1986, Sci-Fi Channel)
This one just resurfaced online late last year and was what inspired me to go hunting for all the short films I recall watching as a kid. It was one of those shorts like “The Baby from Outer Space” that the Sci-Fi Channel would toss up in their late night blocks. I only remember a couple others, but none of them as vividly as this one.
Jim Greco’s “Carnivore” isn’t exactly well-acted (the exposition and commentary from the lead can be pretty grating), but it has one heck of a twist ending. It freaked me out enough as a kid to ask my mom if my name was listed in the phone book. Turns out it wasn’t! My mom’s and brother’s names were, but I was in the clear.
It was actually quite comforting for a 7 year-old.
1. “The Sandman” (1991, IFC and MTV)
Paul Berry’s “The Sandman” is one of the best and there’s a good chance you’ve seen it already. It makes the rounds quite often and is considered a classic (it was nominated for an Oscar, after all). The story follows a small boy who goes to sleep and is menaced by the Sandman (who acts more like a Bogeyman).
I first saw this one on the Independent Film Channel (IFC) probably later into the ‘90s than any of the other shorts on this list. IFC used to have a show called “Independent Animation” where they’d showcase weird short cartoons and in October, to tie-in with Halloween, they’d do horror-themed specials. “The Sandman” was included in one of those specials (along with Primus’s music video for “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”) and it was the kind of thing you had to wait a year to ever see again, what with it being a seasonal special and all.
I think, THINK, it was also showcased on one of MTV’s independent animation shows, if not Liquid Television then possibly Cartoon Sushi. My memories of that are too vague to be reliable, though.
Paul Berry was one of the great stop-motion animators, having worked on classics like The Nightmare Before Christmas and not-classics-but-the-animation-was-good like James and the Giant Peach and Monkeybone. He died from a brain tumor in 2001.
Special Bonus Commercial
Hey, did you grow up in the Virginia/DC/Maryland area in the early ‘90s like I did? Then maybe you remember this commercial:
Spooked the s--t out of me and it was just an ad for a lawfirm. I think they’re called “Saiontz, Kirk and Miles”, now, and their TV ads are no longer so creepy.Yesterday, the Washington Post editorial board published “No pardon for Edward Snowden,” arguing that the former NSA contractor-turned-whistleblower should return the United States, that he should stand trial for his actions, and that President Obama should choose against pardoning him.
The view itself is fair. Snowden’s 2013 leaks have long been a subject of tremendous controversy. And it’s hard to make a fair evaluation of Snowden’s character – he exposed massive overreaches of government power, but in doing so, could have endangered national security.
It’s a tough issue.
But, as one of two main outlets tasked with acting as curators, mediators, and publishers of Snowden’s documents, the Post is no third-party onlooker. Along with the Guardian’s national security reporter Ewen MacAskill and columnist Glenn Greenwald, the Post’s Laura Poitras and Barton Gellman published countless stories that earned the Post, along with the Guardian, a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service – arguably the single most prestigious and venerated award in journalism.
The Post was not complicit or passive in the dissemination of Snowden’s documents; in fact, they were active.
The editorial is organized into two parts. In the first, the board concedes that Snowden’s exposure of mass government metadata aggregation was a crime justified because the collection program “was a stretch, if not an outright violation, of federal surveillance law, and posed risks to privacy.” The authors cite the government cessation of record collection as “corrective legislation,” writing, “it’s fair to say we owe these necessary reforms to Mr. Snowden.”
Here, the editorial board acknowledges the Post’s role in the leaks:
Specifically, he made the documents public through journalists, including reporters working for The Post, enabling the American public to learn for the first time that the NSA was collecting domestic telephone “metadata” — information about the time of a call and the parties to it, but not its content — en masse with no case-by-case court approval.
In the second part, the editorial claims that Snowden erred in exposing the “overseas NSA Internet-monitoring program, PRISM, [which] was both clearly legal and not clearly threatening to privacy.” The editorial continues:
No specific harm, actual or attempted, to any individual American was ever shown to have resulted from the NSA telephone metadata program Mr. Snowden brought to light. In contrast, his revelations about the agency’s international operations disrupted lawful intelligence-gathering, causing possibly “tremendous damage” to national security, according to a unanimous, bipartisan report by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. What higher cause did that serve?
But nowhere in this second part does it mention that the Post both chose to publish the information from Snowden and submitted the articles about it for Pulitzer consideration.
In his letter to the Pulitzer committee, executive editor Marty Baron even cites the Post’s breakthroughs with regard to PRISM:
For six months, The Post has been on the leading edge of reporting on the Snowden documents. It began by becoming the first news outlet to disclose PRISM, a massive program to vacuum up e-mails, documents and other electronic records from the largest U.S. Internet companies.
Greenwald, who now runs the Intercept – a national security and privacy watchdog and an extension of Greenwald’s Snowden reportage – was livid. Greenwald took to his soapbox, in an article titled “WashPost Makes History: First Paper to Call for Prosecution of Its Own Source (After Accepting Pulitzer),” saying:
If the Post Editorial Page editors really believe that PRISM was a totally legitimate program and that no public interest was served by its exposure, shouldn’t they be attacking their own paper’s news editors for having chosen to make it public, apologizing to the public for harming their security, and agitating for a return of the Pulitzer? If the Post Editorial Page editors had any intellectual honesty at all, this is what they would be doing — accepting institutional responsibility for what they apparently regard as a grievous error that endangered the public — rather than pretending that it was all the doing of their source as a means of advocating for his criminal prosecution.
Greenwald makes a good point. While the former Guardian columnist has made a name and a living off this kind of writing, and while the article’s title is a tad sensational, he brings up an interesting point about institutional accountability and self-awareness.
Poitras’ Oscar-winning documentary “Citizenfour” shows Snowden as extremely thoughtful in the process of his leak. Instead of dumping government documents onto a Wiki site like Julian Assange did, Snowden chose members of the media as curators and intermediaries of the materials. Thus, he is a source, a leaker, and a whistleblower. But, as the documentary portrays, he notably yielded publication control to Greenwald, Poitras, Gellman, and MacAskill as well as a few others.
Contrary to Greenwald, I take little issue with the Post’s stance on Snowden. I find it odd and uncharacteristic for the Post to condemn their most significant source since Watergate’s Deepthroat, but the move is well within their rights. It’s odd, but I firmly believe that times change, and a progressive – meaning, ever-adapting – outlook is important for a forward-looking legacy newspaper.
It is important to note that the editorial board is not representative of Baron or his newsroom – those who published, informed the public, nominated themselves for the Pulitzer and won.
The editorial board describes its work as such: “Editorials represent the views of The Washington Post as an institution, as determined through debate among members of the editorial board.” While its writing may not represent the newsroom, the editorial board represents the Post as an institution. That means it represents the Post’s legacy – good and bad – and the board has a primary responsibility, of course, to its readers and to the public.
But, the editorial failed to contextualize the Post’s role in the NSA leaks. The only mention of its involvement came in the section concerning the metadata collection – the part the editorial board agreed with. As Greenwald points out, the Post published and won a Pulitzer for the very work they are criticizing. And they fail to take any responsibility for publication.
The Post’s editors and reporters were responsible for what to publish and what to withhold. This is called editorial discretion, and it is a primary way in which journalists serve the public. Snowden clearly knew and appreciated this role, and asked Greenwald, Poitras, Gellman, and MacAskill to exercise their editorial discretion on behalf of himself for the benefit of the American public.
The Post wants to see Snowden come home, face charges, and stand trial by a jury of his peers. That is a perfectly reasonable stance. But, since Snowden trusted the Post with his information, its destiny is forever intertwined with his. Each has a role in the leak of highly-sensitive, confidential government information. And now, each needs to own up to that in its own way.
Snowden is currently unwilling to stand trial for his actions. And, on Saturday, so was the Post.
Editor’s Corner is an column written by MediaFile’s editor-in-chief Scott Nover. The views expressed in this column do not reflect the views of MediaFile or its staff. Read the previous Editor’s Corner here.Chicago's first cider house is one more step to becoming a reality. According to Alderman John Arena, the plan to transform the old Korean Bethel Presbyterian Church at 4240 W. Irving Park Road into a new brewery and cider house is moving forward. The plan has been in the works for at least the last 10 months, but Alderman Arena has indicated that Eris Brewery are finalizing designs and will soon begin the permitting process. Wrap Architecture, who also worked on Revolution Brewing's space on Milwaukee Avenue in Logan Square, has been tapped to lead the design duties for the project. And because cider brewing is closer to wine making, the new Eris facility will be licensed as both a winery and brewery. Get your growlers cleaned out and get ready to drink some fresh cider in Old Irving Park sometime late 2016.
·Alderman John Arena [Facebook]
·Eris Brewery & Cider House, Old Irving Park [Ward 45]
·New Ciderhouse Could Rule Inside Old Irving Park Church [Eater Chicago]Democrats in Virginia and around the country rebuked Virginia Gov.-elect Ralph Northam for softening on a campaign promise to push for Medicaid expansion in a recent interview with the Washington Post. Newly elected state Delegate Lee Carter, a Democratic Socialist, says enough is enough, warning that Northam may be alienating the Democrats who put him in office. Northam told the Washington Post last weekend that he will not try to force a vote on expanding Medicaid — an issue that was central to his campaign — in the legislature. Responding to criticisms, the governor-elect’s spokesperson told the Washington Post that Northam still wants to expand the program. Northam also renewed his commitment to Medicaid expansion on social media following the outcry.
I have and will continue to advocate for Medicaid expansion because it is a no-brainer for Virginia families, our budget, and our economy. We can also come together on smart policy choices that will allow us to deliver better care at lower cost. — Ralph Northam (@RalphNortham) December 17, 2017
Still, it remains unclear whether Northam will ask the legislature for a straight up or down vote on the measure or instead try to work out a compromise that may include reforms that could actually reduce Medicaid eligibility for some people. Northam will enter office in January with a slate of newly elected Democrats, including Carter — a 30-year-old marine veteran who toppled the Republican House whip in the November election. “It’s important to recognize that there are 750,000 Virginians with no health insurance whatsoever. So when we’re talking about the Medicaid expansion — there’s 370,000 people who are eligible under the federal rules,” Carter said in an interview with The Intercept. “So a clean Medicaid expansion only covers half of those people. A clean Medicaid expansion is the compromise. That’s where I’m coming from, that’s what I hope he’d be advocating for. I don’t think his comments were indicative of that.” Carter himself has not had health insurance for nearly a year, as purchasing coverage through the health care marketplace can be cost-prohibitive. He thought about how that might change on the night he won his election, reportedly telling his wife, “You know what I won? Health insurance.” Virginia is one of a handful of states that has yet to utilize the Affordable Care Act’s provision to expand Medicaid access. Republicans in the state legislature have been blocking the move, but the Democratic wave in November makes the body nearly evenly split. Northam would only have to swing a handful of Republicans in order to fully expand the program. As a candidate, Northam made expanding Medicaid a cornerstone of his bid for governor. He highlighted that promise in campaign commercials aired throughout the state, a fact that was not lost on his supporters:
Here's @RalphNortham calling anyone who thinks Virginia shouldn't expand Medicaid "needs their head examined" – today he walked back this promise. pic.twitter.com/oTAHKF6kuw — People For Bernie (@People4Bernie) December 17, 2017
But he wavered on that promise in his recent interview with the Washington Post. Summarizing his view, the paper wrote, “Northam said he has no plans to try to force Republicans to accept a broad expansion of Medicaid. Instead, he has begun talks with lawmakers in both parties about overhauling the state’s Medicaid system to expand access to health care while better defining eligibility to control costs.” Later in the interview, Northam said he consulted with both Democratic and Republican lawmakers and that he plans to instead push for a bipartisan solution that could involve, among other things, encouraging those who do not currently work to work. “I want people to have skin in the game. I want to incentivize people to really have good health,” he said. Carter believes voters will punish Democrats if the party does not make progress on expanding health care coverage. “There was a clear mandate from the voters on health care. I mean it was completely unambiguous,” he said. “750,000 Virginians with no health insurance whatsoever. There’s a million or two million more who have health insurance but can’t afford their deductible. Something has got to change on health care. It’s got to change in a dramatic matter. And if we don’t deliver on that, in two years there’s gonna be hell to pay.” Former Virginia Democratic Rep. Tom Perriello, who unsuccessfully challenged Northam for the Democratic nomination earlier this year, pointed out on Twitter that the Medicaid promise was a big part of the Democrats’ success last month:
Blocking Medicaid expansion was a major reason so many Republicans lost their House seats in VA this year. Full expansion should be bi-partisan, and every legislator in Richmond should have to cast a public vote before 2019 on a policy that is morally right & good for VA economy. — Tom Perriello (@tomperriello) December 17, 2017Welcome to the homepage of the Icelandic Saga Map project. As well as the interactive Saga Map itself (link top right, ‘The Sagas’), you will find information about the project and its objectives; the people working on the project; tips on how to use the interactive map; notes about, and links to, other resources.
This is a beta version of the site, which is still under development. The interactive map is fully functional but note that the data has not been fully checked and there may be errors. All of the Íslendingasögur texts (‘Sagas of Icelanders’) have been geo-referenced., as well as Landnámabók (‘The Book of Settlements’). Travel diaries and accounts by 19th-century saga enthusiasts are also being geo-referenced and those by Frederick Metcalfe, William Morris, and William Gershom Collingwood have been added. Geo-referenced information about Icelandic manuscripts (parchment and paper) in which saga texts survive is being collected and will be added soon.
Please cite the URL if you make use of the site and/or map for the purposes of research or teaching; it would also be useful to know about this for the purposes of securing further funding! Comments and corrections are welcome too and can be sent to emily[at]hi.isHow to get people to talk about your “thing” is one of the greatest mysteries of life. There are literal classes taught about how to make something “go viral,” not to mention the hundreds of services that promise to help a “brand” grow its “reach” through the aid of marketing campaigns. With the multitude of ideas trying to break out, it can sometimes be disheartening or threatening for potential competitors to attempt to break into a new realm. Take music for instance, where dozens of new brands enter the fray daily in an attempt to dissuade fans of one thing to pay attention to their newer—hopefully better—thing. In an attempt to get people to pay attention to his music, previously unknown Toronto rapper Roble Regal recently embedded his music video with a quasi-treasure hunt, hiding the clues to $5,000 in the visuals for “Decebuary.” The video and hunt were promptly written about by several publications, including this one, after being spotted on Reddit (where Regal himself uploaded it), and the prize remains unclaimed as of publishing. But it also prompted questions from the general public centering around two main ideas: Who is Roble Regal, and could he be lying?
Roble Regal is a 21-year old Somalian artist who was born in Kitchener, Ontario and hails from the Toronto neighborhood of Rexdale. According to Regal, he’s not lying about having the money, which he says to have earned through trading options, which he learned to do over the course of several months. After spending seven months of his life putting his newfound skills into practice, he emerged with a hefty bank account. In my initial email to him, I alluded to the possibility that Regal might be lying. He apparently took this as a personal affront, showing up to our interview with a printout of his financial statements totaling $24,570.94. There’s always a chance that these documents could have been doctored or that the entire campaign is make believe, but there’s not much I can do other than take him at his word, given the level of privacy shrouding a PayPal account. But the amount of confidence that Regal has in this plan makes it difficult to believe he’s telling anything other than the truth—plus, if you were going to lie, why not make the numbers something comical, like that kid who claimed to make $72 million from day trading while at school.
Regal is aggressively confident to a point that borders on abrasive, talking about his own accomplishments as if reading them from a historical tome about his life. He brings up his own genius often, using the same tone when speaking about his rap video as when he’s mentioning his plans to reform education or transform medicine. There’s so much information being spouted by Regal that the line between fact and fiction blurs. But numbers don’t lie, and after only one week, Roble Regal has amassed over 13,000 views on his cryptic video—an impressive feat considering it’s the first thing he’s released as an artist. Despite its quick success, Regal is defensive of his idea, and grows offended when it’s referred to as a gimmick—despite the fact that it totally is.
In person, Regal seem hell-bent on making sure you know he’s the smartest person in the room. He speaks largely in platitudes that are employed for the purpose of keeping the listener from discovering a potential clue, which often results in him saying nothing at all. He’s almost neurotically obsessed with not giving away any information accidentally. His record “Decebuary” is a song that rotates around numerous themes and touches on many subjects, but Regal is hesitant on expanding about which exact themes of subjects those may be. He guards any potential clues inside of a mental safe, and there are a few instances during our conversation where he seems to run an upcoming sentence through a mental filter before answering my questions, causing him to sometimes stop mid-sentence in fear of revealing too much. Those looking for clues in this interview may be disappointed to find that our conversation centers mainly around the idea that a campaign like this may not be good for an artist’s longevity. However, after the interview concluded, Regal sent me an email with an honest-to-goodness hint: “Roble says he likes math, he sees in patterns.”
Noisey: When did you learn day trade and became proficient at it?
Roble Regal: I started trading when I was 19 years old. While I was trading I was working at a cell phone store, and it was full of rich business guys. A few guys there—like one in particular who would end up being a financial assistant for the NHL—took a liking to me and gave me a business opportunity. I was selling him something and he liked me, and he said “you're a really bright kid; you should work for me.” And I said “If I’m so bright why wouldn't I work for myself?” and then he gave me his business card.
So if trading is what made you money, why not focus on that? Why even rap?
I did that for seven months. I have my accomplishments in that. I’ve already won that aspect. That’s the weird thing with me, I’m very conscious of the way my story sounds. I don't want to be 26 and all of a sudden making music. When I was making money I was a ghost. Nobody could find me, and I didn't want anybody to know what was going on. This is going to sound reckless, but I was just living off Airbnb locations in numerous places in the city. Sometimes it was a nice penthouse and sometimes it was more like a loft, but it was always a nice place. I had beautiful women where I was living too. It was great.
It sounds like you were living a rapper lifestyle already.
The thing is, and I don't even want to sound arrogant, but you are in the presence of a legend. I’m a myth to some. To others, I’m a genius.
Have you always been this humble?
I’m a very humble man.
I assume you weren’t this cocky when you were in Rexdale with no money.
I mean kind of. I kind of was, the number one thing that anybody can tell you is that I’ve always been about my money. That’s been the case from when I was a teenager in Rexdale. I’m actually from the same neighborhood that K’naan grew up in.
Why not spend the $5,000 on a feature? Why not do something with that money that can get you exposure in a better way? Because when you put out the next song, do you think there’s going to be any buzz without the song having a treasure map attached to it?
The reason I’m doing this interview is because it’s literally the most important thing that I will ever do in a long time. Even in the video there are allusions to things I’m working on. I’m working on other things outside of music that are huge in their own right.
What kinds of things?
I’m talking revolutionary things. For example I promise you in the next two years universities in Canada will be free. Not because of “Decebuary” but because there are things that we are working on.
What is your legacy?
Roble Regal is not a wisher. He is a pragmatic dreamer. I don’t wish, I plan and I make things happen. I take precedence. I don't know how the universe works, but for some reason things work out for me. It’s always been like that.
That’s great, but do you want people to know you as a rapper?
I want them to know me as an artist.
Well artists aren’t looked at very highly on the social ladder, especially against doctors and day traders. Why would you want that to be your persona?
The thing is, art is not portrayed highly on the social ladder, but in Ancient Greece and Rome they used to hold poets in high regards because that was something of the mind. It was up there with like doctors, so that’s a cultural change. So, to me, art is up there I think.
If you care so much about your legacy, being an artist is not as favorable to your legacy as the fields of education or medicine that you say you’re good at.
I guess that would make more sense, but when you’re embedded with a dream from childhood it’s different. Because when you look at it pragmatically, I get where you’re coming from, but to me it’s like like, look at a Jay Z. He’s respected as much as a businessman as he is as an artist.
But some would say he wouldn't have to resort to a gimmick.
Oh so I’m a gimmick?
You don’t think this specific treasure map thing isn’t a gimmick? Aren't you worried it’s going to shadow what you do?
I think artistically speaking I believe I can follow up. If I'm ever put in a position where I have to prove myself as an MC as an artist I can.
But do you think people are interested in listening if there’s no potential in getting money?
The thing is this whole campaign is going to be taking place over a longer time than you think. It’s not going to take three years, but I’m looking at bringing everything that I’m doing and put it under one umbrella. For example, if I go and make a presentation about education, I could mention towards the end that I’m an artist and you can check me out on these articles and I could show the people I’m presenting to that there’s a benefit in actually following up and looking into what I saw.
I don't mean no disrespect, but I’m going to go back to something you said in the beginning. People will hit me up, and they won't see this as a gimmick. They will say “I like what you did. I like your song, I might try something like this myself. Props to you.”
Would it be good for the culture if everybody did what you are doing?
It’s headed that way anyway. What are you going to do with a budget of $5,000 or $10,000 for a video? We were thinking of getting a feature initially. I was going to get a feature from French Montana because he would do it for $4,000 at the time because he knew a guy from Rexdale. I was considering that, but then I’m just a rapper who got some feature. There’s nothing novel in that. I see a lot of guys from Rexdale get features and go nowhere. I mean no disrespect, but I’m not interested in clichés.
Are you worried that people are going to associate the rest of your career with this gimmick?
If it gets to that point, there’s a story behind it. This is a guy who built that money up, and he came up with that idea. Once again I don't think a lot of people would see this as a gimmick, at least not the people I’m talking to. No matter where you go in life there’s people who are going to be like “Jay Z never wouldn’t have been Jay Z if Biggie didn’t die.” There’s always going to be people who doubt.
But that’s different from “he offered people $5,000 to watch his video,” right?
If people do gravitate towards it and I get mad bills one day and I delivered on all aspects of everything I am trying to do, then I think that I’m more likely to be praised than to be criticized. It’s just the way it works. If I get involved in that news it’s going to be like “remember that guy who tried to do that?” History is told by the victor. When you win you can make it look like you did whatever.
So, what’s next what is the plan? When is the next instalment?
That I don’t want covered because I’m doing something with Rap Genius. We’re speaking right now, and we’re trying to figure out how we’re going to do that. Here’s the thing: You're the journalist looking for juicy gossip, but there are people who can actually help build this up and they’re coming, they like the idea and they like where this can go. I’m looking at this from the potential for businesses, and the amount of power I have right now to dictate things and make sure it stretches—because if nobody can figure it out then it’s going to start getting competitive, because there’s a mathematical component.
What if somebody cracks it in this video, and then nobody watches anything else you do because there’s no incentive? Do you abandon rapping?
I said a long time ago when I was in high school that even if I’m 55 years old and a judge for the supreme court, on the weekends I’ll still be in the booth. I enjoy doing this. I’m an artist, but I get off on seeing somebody put together a really good plan. That’s always going to continue happen.
So, whats “Decebuary” about? What situation inspired that?
“Decebuary” was written a while ago. It’s about reactions to actions that you have no control over. A lot of it is internal dialogue. I’m 21 years old. I grew up in poverty, and I kind of got over that, to an extent. I've done bad things I’ve seen bad things. I’ve lived in Rexdale for like 75 percent of my life.
Do you have a name for the eventual album you’re putting out?
It’s called Hour 21.
Why the name?
One day at 3 AM I just randomly got a whole bunch of words in my head and literally spoke like ten songs on the 21st hour of my 21st year. It’s actually true.
Slava Pastuk actually cracked the code while transcribing this at half-speed and listening to the hints in Regal's heartbeat. Follow him on Twitter.Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson is playing both good-cop and bad-cop against President Donald Trump’s recent executive order to potentially roll back national-monument designations.
OLYMPIA — In hopes of protecting Washington’s national monuments, Attorney General Bob Ferguson invited President Donald Trump and U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to visit the state.
But if the federal government attempts to roll back those federally protected lands, Ferguson said, he’ll sue the administration once again.
Ferguson, who has already sued over the president’s travel ban, is playing both good-cop and bad-cop against Trump’s recent action reviewing national-monument designations.
Trump in late April signed an executive order directing a review of lands recently designated under the U.S. Antiquities Act.
In a letter Thursday to Zinke, Ferguson argued that the Antiquities Act is “the cornerstone of American conservation” and that Trump and Zinke don’t have the legal authority to roll back a national-monument designation.
“Let me be clear: If the President seeks to do harm to Washington’s National Monuments by eliminating or reducing them, my office will initiate litigation to defend them,” Ferguson wrote.
Hanford Reach National Monument — 304 square miles of rough landscape and rare flowers around the skeletons of World War II-era plutonium reactors — is explicitly targeted in the review.
San Juan Islands National Monument, which includes about 1,000 acres over the archipelago’s 450-some islands, could also possibly be reviewed, according to the letter.
In any event, Ferguson invited the two to come see Hanford Reach and San Juan Islands for themselves.
If Trump and Zinke made it out West, Ferguson wrote, “I am confident you will agree that any alteration to their Monument status or to their boundaries is not only unlawful, but unwise.”
The Department of the Interior didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.SAN ANTONIO — In the weeks leading up to Thursday’s first debate of the 2016 presidential race, Republican candidates have sought to distinguish themselves from each other — and President Barack Obama — with ever-tougher positions on border security and illegal immigration, claiming current measures are failing.
And yet by many standards, the situation is not nearly as urgent as it was during last summer’s crisis and has improved steadily and markedly in some respects over |
bek, for its courtyard ceased in line with the temple facade. This Professor Kalayan saw as a deliberate change of policy, even though 'foundations' for an extension to this courtyard were already in place on the north side of the temple. (19)
The Trilithon
Did the Roman architects of Baalbek chop and change their minds so easily? Their next move would appear to suggest as much, for they decided that, instead of extending the courtyard, they would continue the existing pre-Roman temple podium behind the western end of the Temple of Jupiter. This mammoth building project apparently necessitated the cutting, transporting and positioning of the three 1000-tonne limestone blocks making up the Trilithon. Their sizes vary between sixty-three and sixty-five feet in length, while each one shares the same height of fourteen feet six inches and a depth of twelve feet. (20) Seeing them strikes a sense of awe unimaginable to the senses, for as a former Curator of Antiquities at Baalbek, Michel M. Alouf, aptly put it: 'No description will give an exact idea of the bewildering and stupefying effect of these tremendous blocks on the spectator'. (21) The course beneath the Trilithon is almost as bewildering. It consists of six mammoth stones thirty to thirty three feet in length, fourteen feet in height and ten feet in depth, (22) each an estimated 450 tonnes in weight. This lower course continues on both the northern and southern faces of the podium wall, with nine similarly sized blocks incorporated into either side. Below these are at least three further courses of somewhat smaller blocks of mostly irregular widths which were apparently exposed when the Arabs attempted to incorporate the outer podium wall into their fortifications. (23) Indeed, above and around the Trilithon is the remains of an Arab wall that contrasts markedly from the much greater sized cyclopean stones.
There is no good reason why the Roman architects should have needed to use such huge blocks, totally unprecedented in engineering projects of the classical age. Further confounding the picture is that the outer podium wall was left 'incomplete'. Furthermore, the even larger 1200-tonne cut and dressed Stone of the Pregnant Woman lying in the nearby quarry - which measures an incredible sixty-nine feet by sixteen feet by thirteen feet ten inches (24) - would imply that something went wrong, forcing the engineers to abandon completion of the Great Platform.
Why?
Scholars can only gloss over the necessity to use such ridiculously large sized blocks. Baalbek scholar Friedrich Ragette, in his 1980 work entitled, simply, Baalbek, suggests that such huge stones were used because 'according to Phoenician tradition, (podiums) had to consist of no more than three layers of stone' and since this one was to be twelve meters high, it meant the use of enormous building blocks. (25) It is a solution that rings hollow in my ears. He further adds that stones of this size and proportion were also employed 'in the interest of appearance'. (26)
In the interest of appearance? But they don't even look right - the Trilithon looks alien in comparison to the rest of the wall.
Ragette points out that the sheer awe inspired by the Trilithon ensured that Baalbek was remembered by later generations, not for the grandeur of its magnificent temples, but for its three great stones which ignorant folk began to believe were built by superhuman giants of some bygone age. (27)
Was this the real explanation why giants were accredited with the construction of Baalbek - because naive inhabitants and travelers could not accept that the Romans had the power to achieve such grand feats of engineering?
There is no answer to this question until all the evidence has been presented in respect to the construction of the Great Platform, and it is in this area that we find some very contradictory evidence indeed. For example, when the unfinished upper course of the Great Platform was cleared of loose blocks and rubble, excavators found carved into its horizontal surface a drawing of the pediment (a triangular, gable-like piece of architecture present in the Temple of Jupiter). So exact was this design that it seemed certain the architects and masons had positioned their blocks using this scale plan. (28) This meant that the Great Platform must have existed before the construction of the temple.
On the other hand, a stone column drum originally intended for the Temple of Jupiter was apparently found among the foundation rubble placed beneath the podium wall. (29) This is convincing evidence to show that the Great Platform was constructed at the same time, perhaps even later, than the temple.
So the Great Platform turns out to be Roman after all, or does it?
It could be argued that the column drum was used as ballast to strengthen the foundations of the much earlier podium wall, and until further knowledge of exactly where this cylindrical block was found then the matter cannot be resolved either way.
The Big Debate
The next problem is whether or not the Romans possessed the engineering capability to cut, transport and position 1000-tonne blocks of this nature. Since the Stone of the Pregnant Woman was presumably intended to extend the Trilithon, it must be assumed that the main three stones came from the same quarry, which lies about one quarter of a mile from the site. Another similar stone quarry lies some two miles away, but there is no obvious evidence that the Trilithon stones came from there.
Having established these facts, we must decide on how the Roman engineers managed to cut and free 1000-tonne stones from the bed-rock and then move them on a steady incline for a distance of several hundred yards.
Ragette suggests that the Trilithon stones were first cut from the bed-rock, using'metal picks' and'some sort of quarrying machine' that left concentric circular blows up to four meters in radius on some blocks (surely an enigma in itself). (30) They were then transported to the site by placing them on sleighs that rested on cylindrical wooden rollers. As he points out, similar methods of transportation were successfully employed in Egypt and Mesopotamia, as is witnessed by various stone reliefs. (31) This is correct, for there do exist carved images showing the movement of either statues or stone blocks by means of large pulley crews. These are aided by groups of helpers who either mark-time or pick up wooden rollers from the rear end of the train and then place them in the path of the slow-moving procession.
Two major observations can be made in respect to this solution. Firstly, this process requires a flat even surface, which if not present would necessitate the construction of a stone causeway or ramp from the quarry to the point of final destination (as is evidenced at Giza in Egypt). Certainly, there is a road that passes the quarry on the way to the village, but there is still much rugged terrain between here and the final position of the blocks.
Secondly, the reliefs depicting the movement of large weights in Egypt and Assyria show individual pieces that are an estimated 100 tonnes in weight - one tenth the size of the Trilithon stones. I feel sure that the movement of 1000-tonne blocks would create insurmountable difficulties for the suggested pulley and roller system. One French scholar calculated that to move a 1000-tonne block, no less than 40,000 men would have been required, making logistics virtually inconceivable on the tiny track up to the village. (32) Practically Impossible
The next problem is how the Romans might have maneuvered the giant blocks into position. Ragette suggests the 'bury and re-excavate' method, (33) where ramps of compacted earth would be constructed on a slight incline up to the top of the wall - which before the Trilithon was added stood at an estimated twenty-five feet high. The blocks would then be pulled upwards by pulley gangs on the other side until they reached the required height; a similar method is thought to have been employed to erect the horizontal trilithon stones at Stonehenge, for instance. Playing devil's advocate here, I would ask: How did the pulley gangs manage to bring together these stones so exactly and how were they able to achieve such precision movement when the land beyond the podium slopes gently downwards? Only by creating a raised ramp on the hill-slope itself, and then placing the pulley gangs on the other side of the wall could an operation of this kind even be attempted.
And how were the stone blocks lifted from the rollers to allow final positioning? Ragette proposes the use of scaffoldings, ramps and windlasses (ie. capstans) like those employed by the Renaissance architect Domenico Fontana to erect a 327-tonne Egyptian obelisk in front of St Peter's Basilica in Rome. To achieve this amount of lift, Fontana used an incredible 40 windlasses, which necessitated a combined force of 800 men and 140 horses. Based on an estimated weight of 800 tonnes per stone (34) (even though he cites each one as 1000-tonnes a piece earlier in the same book (35) ), Ragette proposes that, with a five-tonne lifting capacity per drilled Lewis hole, each block would have required 160 attachments to the upper surface. He goes on: 'Four each could be hooked to a pulley of 20 tons capacity which in the case of six rolls needed an operating power of about 3« tons. The task therefore consisted of the simultaneous handling of forty windlasses of 3« tons each. The pulleys were most likely attached to timber frames bridging across the stone.' (36) Such ideas are pure speculation. No evidence of any such transportation has ever come to light at Baalbek, and the surface of the Trilithon has not revealed any tell-tale signs of drilled Lewis holes. Admittedly, the Stone of the Pregnant Woman remaining in the quarry does contain a seemingly random series of round holes in its upper surface, yet their precise purpose remains a mystery.
As evidence that the Romans possessed the knowledge to lift and transport extremely heavy weights, Ragette cites the fact that between AD 60 and 70, i.e. the proposed time-frame of construction of the Jupiter temple, a man named Heron of Alexandria compiled an important work outlining this very practice, including the use of levers to raise up and position large stone blocks. (37) Curiously, the only surviving example of this treatise is an Arabic translation made by a native of Baalbek named Costa ibn Luka in around 860 AD. (38) Did it suggest that knowledge of this engineering manual had been preserved in the town since Roman times, being passed on from generation to generation until it finally reached the hands of Costa ibn Luka? Of course it is possible, but whether or not it was of any practical use when it came to the construction of the Trilithon is quite another matter.
The Archaeologists' View
No one can rightly say whether or not the Romans really did have the knowledge and expertise to construct the Great Platform; certainly some of the Temple of Jupiter's tall columns of Aswan granite, at sixty-five feet in height, are among the largest in the world. And even if we presume that they did have the ability, then this cannot definitively date the various building phases at Baalbek. For the moment, it seemed more important to establish whether there existed any independent evidence to suggest that the Great Platform might not have been built by the Romans.
Over the past thirty or so years a number of ancient mysteries writers have seen fit to associate the Great Platform with a much earlier era of mankind, simply because of the sheer uniqueness of the Trilithon. They have suggested that the Romans built upon an existing structure of immense antiquity. Unfortunately, however, their personal observations cannot be taken as independent evidence of the Great Platform's pre-Roman origin.
There is, however, tantalizing evidence to show that some of the earliest archaeologists and European travellers to visit Baalbek came away believing that the Great Platform was much older than the nearby Roman temples. For instance, the French scholar, Louis Flicien de Saulcy, stayed at Baalbek from 16 to 18 March 1851 and became convinced that the podium walls were the'remains of a pre-Roman temple'. (39)
Far more significant, however, were the observations of respected French archaeologist Ernest Renan, who was allowed archaeological exploration of the site by the French army during the mid nineteenth century. (40) It is said that when he arrived there it was to satisfy his own conviction that no pre-Roman remains existed on the site. (41) Yet following an in-depth study of the ruins, Renan came to the conclusion that the stones of the Trilithon were very possibly 'of Phoenician origin', (42) in other words they were a great deal older that the Roman temple complex. His reasoning for this assertion was that, in the words of Ragette, he saw 'no inherent relation between the Roman temple and this work'. (43)
Archaeologists who have followed in Renan's footsteps have closed up this gap of uncertainty, firmly asserting that the outer podium wall was constructed at the same time as the Temple of Jupiter, despite the fact that inner podium wall is seen as a pre-Roman construction. Yet the openness of individuals such as de Saulcy and Renan gives us reason to doubt the assertions of their modern-day equivalents.
A similar situation prevails in Egyptology, where in the late nineteenth, early twentieth centuries megalithic structures such the Valley Temple at Giza and the Osireion at Abydos were initially ascribed very early dates of construction by archaeologists before later being cited as contemporary to more modern structures placed in their general proximity. As has now become clear from recent research into the age of the Great Sphinx, there was every reason to have ascribed these cyclopean structures much earlier dates of construction.
So what was it that so convinced early archaeologists and travelers that the Trilithon was much older than the rest of the temple complex?
The evidence is self apparent and runs as follows: One has only to look at the positioning of the Trilithon and the various courses of large stone blocks immediately beneath it to realize that they bear very little relationship to the rest of the Temple of Jupiter. Moreover, the visible courses of smaller blocks above and to the right of the Trilithon are markedly different in shape and appearance to the smaller, more regular sized courses in the rest of the obviously Roman structure.
The limestone courses that make up the outer podium base - which, of course, includes the Trilithon - are heavily pitted by wind and sand erosion, while the rest of the Temple of Jupiter still possesses comparatively smooth surfaces. The same type of wind and sand erosion can be seen on the huge limestone blocks used in many of the megalithic temple complexes around the northern Mediterranean coast, as well as the cyclopean walls of Mycenean Greece. Since all these structures are between 3000 and 6000 years of age, it could be argued that the lower courses of the outer podium wall at Baalbek antedate the Roman temple complex by at least a thousand years.
Other classical temple complexes have been built upon much earlier megalithic structures. This includes the Acropolis in Athens (erected 447-406 BC), where archaeologists have unearthed cyclopean walls dating to the Mycenean or Late Bronze Age period (1600-1100 BC). Similar huge stone walls appear at Delphi, Tiryns and Mycenae.
The Phoenicians are known to have employed the use of cyclopean masonry in the construction of their citadels. For instance, an early twentieth-century drawing of the last-remaining prehistoric wall at Aradus, an ancient city on the Syrian coast, shows the use of cyclopean blocks estimated to have been between thirty and forty tonnes a piece. These are important points in favor of the Great Platform, as in the case of the inner podium, being of much greater antiquity than the Roman, or even the Ptolemaic, temple complex. Yet if we were to accept this possibility, then we must also ask ourselves: who constructed it, and why? Part 2
The First Phoenicians
Only one account of Lebanon's mythical origins has been left to posterity, and this is the work of Sanchoniatho, a Phoenician historian born either in Berytus (Beirut) or Tyre on the Lebanese coast just before the Trojan war, c. 1200 BC. He wrote in his native language, taking his information mostly from city archives and temple records. In all he compiled nine books, which were translated into Greek by Philo, a native of Byblos on the Levant coast, who lived during the reign of the emperor Hadrian (reigned AD 117-138). Fragments of his translation were fortunately preserved by an early Christian writer named Eusebius (AD 264-340). (44) Some scholars look upon Sanchoniatho's writings as spurious, but others see them as preserving archaic myths of the earliest Phoenicians. In his long discourse on the cosmogony of the world and the history of the earliest inhabitants of Lebanon, Sanchoniatho cites Byblos as Lebanon's first city. (45) It was founded, he says, by the god Cronus (or Saturn), the son of Ouranus (Uranus or Coelus, who gave his name to Coele-Syria, ie. Syria), and grandson of Elioun (Canaanite El) and his wife Beruth (who gave her name to the city-port of Berytus or Beirut).
Sanchoniatho goes on to say that the demi-gods of Byblos possessed 'light and other more complete ships', implying they were a sea-faring nation. He also states that chief among these people was Taautus, 'who invented the writing of the first letters: him the Egyptians called Thoor, the Alexandrians Thoyth, and the Greeks Hermes.' (46) He was Cronus''secretary', from whom the god gained advice and assistance on all matters.
A confusing sequence of events are described for this period, during which time Cronus is constantly at war with his father Ouranus. There are also marriages, inter-marriages and incestuous relationships which produce a multitude of characters, many of whom act as symbols for the expansion of this mythical culture around the Levant and into Asia Minor (modern Turkey). For instance, there is Sidon, the daughter of Pontus, who 'by the excellence of her singing first invented the hymns of odes or praises'. (47) Like Byblos, Sidon was a Phoenician city-port on the Lebanese coast, while Pontus was an ancient kingdom situated on the Black Sea in what is today north-eastern Turkey.
Finally, it is said that having visited 'the country of the south' Cronus 'gave all Egypt to the god Taautus, that it might be his kingdom', (48) implying that he was its founder.
Sanchoniatho tells us that knowledge of the age of the demi-gods of Byblos was handed down for generation after generation until it was given into the safe-keeping of 'the son of Thabion... the first Hierophant of all among the Phoenicians'. (49) He in turn delivered them up to the priests and prophets until they came into the possession of one Isiris, 'the inventor of the three letters, the brother of Chna who is called the first Phoenician.' (50)
There is much more in Sanchoniatho's mythical history, but the basic message is that a high culture with sea-faring capabilities established itself at Byblos before gradually expanding into other parts of the eastern Mediterranean. More curious is his assertion that the god Taautus, the Phoenician form of the Egyptian Thoth or Tehuti and the Greek Hermes, was some kind of founder of the Egyptian Pharaonic culture which began c. 3100 BC.
Was Sanchoniatho's work simply fable, based on the Phoenicians' own maritime achievements, or might it contain clues concerning an actual high culture that existed in the Levant during prehistoric times?
Journey to Byblos
Certainly, the implied link between Egypt and Byblos is real enough. In the legend of Osiris and Isis, as recorded by the Greek biographer Plutarch (AD 50-120), the evil god Set tricks Osiris into a wooden coffin which is sealed before being set adrift on the sea. It is carried by the waves until it finally reaches Byblos, where it comes to rest in the midst of a tamarisk bush, which immediately grows to become a magnificent tree of great size. Inside it the coffin containing the body of Osiris remains encased. The king of that country, on seeing the great tree, has it cut down and made into 'a pillar for the roof of his house'. (51) Isis learns of what has happened to her husband and is able to attain entry into the palace as a handmaiden to one of the king's sons. Each night she takes on the form of a swallow to fly around the pillar. After a fashion she convinces the queen to give her the pillar, which is then opened to reveal the body of Osiris. (52) Byblos is the clear name used in Plutarch's account, but for some reason noted Egyptologists such as Sir E.A. Wallis-Budge have seen fit to identify this place-name with a location named Byblos in the Nile Delta, even though Plutarch himself adds that wood from the pillar, which was afterwards restored by Isis and given to the queen, 'is, to this day, preserved in the temple of Isis, and worshipped by the people of Byblos'. (53) In my opinion, setting this story in the Nile Delta makes no sense whatever, especially as the coffin was said to have been 'carried (to Byblos) by the sea'. (54)
Lucian, the celebrated Greek writer (AD 120-200), spoke of the Isis-Osiris legend and connected it specifically with Byblos in Lebanon, adding that 'I will tell you why this story seems credible. Every year a human head floats from Egypt to Byblos'. This 'head' apparently took seven days to reach its destination. It never went off course and came via a 'direct route' to Byblos. Lucian claimed that this once yearly event actually happened when he himself was in Byblos, for as he records, 'I myself saw the head in this city'. (55) What exactly Lucian witnessed, and what was really behind this head tradition is utterly unfathomable, particularly as Lucian states that the head he saw was made of 'Egyptian papyrus'. (56) In Christian times a St Kyrillos also apparently witnessed the event, but said that 'what was borne towards him by the wind looked like a small boat'. (57) All that can be said with any certainty is that this peculiar tradition appeared to preserve some kind age-old twinning between Egypt and Byblos, perhaps during the mythical age of the gods, the Zep Tepi, or 'First Time.' As has been ably demonstrated by recent works from Hancock, Bauval et al, this believed mythical age, when gods ruled the earth, appears to have been an actual stage of human development pre-dating Pharaonic Egypt by many thousands of years. (58)
Yet how might this new-found knowledge of the relationship between Egypt and Byblos relate to Baalbek? Firstly there appears to have been a strong link between Isis-Osiris legend and the mountains north-west of Baalbek. It was said that Isis took'refuge' (presumably at the point in the story when the king and queen of Byblos discover she is daily incinerating their child on a blazing fire!) in the lake of Apheca, the ancient name for Lake Yammouneh some 32km distance from Baalbek, 'and thus lived in Lebanon', or so recorded the Baalbek archaeologist and historian Michel M. Alouf.) (59)
The more obvious answer, however, appears to be an apparent twinning that existed between Heliopolis in Egypt and Heliopolis in Lebanon. The fifth-century Latin grammarian Macrobius wrote specifically on this subject in his curious work entitled Saturnalia. He stated that a'statue' was carried ritually from Heliopolis in Egypt to its Lebanese name-sake by Egyptian priests. He adds that after its arrival it was worshipped with Assyrian rather than Egyptian rites. (60)
Some authors have suggested that this statue was that of the Egyptian sun-god, presumably Re, while others say it was a representation of Osiris. (61) In addition to this statue story, there was also a strong tradition, recounted by Macrobius and others, that the Egyptian priests actually erected a temple at Baalbek dedicated to the worship of the sun. (62) If so, then, What special place did this ancient location, sacred to Baal, hold to the Heliopolitan priesthood in Egypt?
Might this transmission of religious ideals from Egypt to Baalbek have been connected in some way to the once yearly arrival of an Egyptian 'head' at Byblos, and to Osiris' fateful journey inside a sealed coffin?
Titans and Elohim
Aside from the suggested link with the Egyptian culture, the writings of Sanchoniatho throw further light on this apparent pre-Phoenician culture existing in the Levant during prehistoric times. He says that the 'auxiliaries' or 'allies' of Cronus, presumably in battle, were the 'Eloeim' a misspelling of the term Elohim, the sons of whom (the bene ha-elohim) were said to have been a divine race that came unto the Daughters of Man who subsequently gave birth to giant offspring known as the Nephilim, or so records to the Book of Genesis and various uncanonical works of Judaic origin. (63)
Elsewhere I have put forward the hypothesis that the Sons of the Elohim - who are equated with the angelic race known as the Watchers in the apocryphal Book of Enoch, as well as in recently translated Dead Sea literature - were a race of human beings. Evidence indicates they established a colony in the mountains of Kurdistan in south-east Turkey sometime after the cessation of the last Ice Age, before going on to influence the rise of western civilization. Their progeny, the Nephilim, were half-mortal, half-Watcher, and there is tentative evidence in the writings of Sumer and Akkad to suggest that the accounts of great battles being fought between mythical kings and demons dressed as bird-men might well preserve the distorted memories of actual conflicts between mortal armies and Nephilim-led tribes. (64)
Might Cronus - who or whatever he represents - have employed the services of the bene ha-elohim in the wars against his father, Ouranus? In Greek mythology the Nephilim are equated directly with the Titans and gigantes, or 'giants', who waged war on the gods of Olympus and, like Cronus, were the offspring of Ouranus. In many ancient writings preserved during the early Christian era, stories concerning the Nephilim, or gibborim,'mighty men', of biblical tradition are confused with the legends surrounding the Titans and gigantes. All blend together as one, and not perhaps without reason. The giants and Titans are said to have helped Nimrod, the'mighty hunter' construct the fabled Tower of Babel which reached towards heaven. On its destruction by God, legends speak of how the giant races were dispersed across the bible lands. (65)
According to an Arabic manuscript found at Baalbek and quoted by Alouf in his informative History of Baalbek, 'after the flood, when Nimrod reigned over Lebanon, he sent giants to rebuild the fortress of Baalbek, which was so named in honour of Baal, the god of the Moabites and worshippers of the Sun.' (66) Local tradition even asserts that the Tower of Babel was actually located at Baalbek. (67)
The involvement of Nimrod in this legend is almost certainly a misnomer, born out of the belief that only super-humans of myth and fable could ever have built such gigantic stature, in the same way that either named giants or mythical figures, such as Arthur, Merlin or the devil are accredited with the construction or presence of prehistoric monuments in Britain. Moreover, stories of giants exist right across Asia Minor and the Middle East, and these are often cited to explain the presence of either cyclopean ruins (such as the Greek city of Mycenae, the cyclopean walls of which were said to have been built by the one-eyed cyclops - hence the term 'cyclopean' masonry) or gigantic natural and man-made features.
On the other hand, the alleged connection between giants, Titans and Baalbek is quite another matter. It is feasible that, if the Watchers and Nephilim (and therefore the Titans and giants ) are to be seen as a lost race of human beings, any presumed pre-Phoenician culture in Lebanon could not have failed to have encountered their presence in the Near East. If so, Were alliances forged with them, wars fought alongside them?
Might the ancient skills and brute strength of these human races of great stature have been employed in grand engineering projects such as the construction of the Great Platform? Remember, the Titans were said to have been born of the same loins as Cronus, and in alliance with their half-brother, they waged war against their father Ouranus. Yet family alliances of this type can go wrong, for according to the various ancient writers on this subject, (68) after the fall of the Tower of Babel and the dispersion of the tribes, a war broke out between Cronus and his brother Titan. An early Christian writer named Lactantius (AD 250-325) records that Titan, with the help of the rest of the Titans, imprisoned Cronus and held him safe until his son Jupiter (or Zeus) was old enough to take the throne. Does this imply that the Titans deposed Cronus and took control of the Byblos culture until the coming of Zeus, or Jupiter?
What influence might this forgotten race have brought to bear on the development of Lebanon's pre-Phoenician culture?
More importantly, when might any of this have taken place?
Far off in Hell
According to classical mythology, the Titans were eventually defeated by Jupiter and his fellow Olympian gods and goddesses. As punishment, they were banished to Tartarus, a mythical region of hell enclosed by a brazen wall and shrouded perpetually by a cloud of darkness. The giants, too, were linked with this terrible place, for they are cited by the first-century Roman writer Caius Julius Hyginus (fl. c. 40 BC) as having been the,'sons of Tartarus and Terra (ie the earth)'. (69) Although Tartarus has always been seen as a purely mythical location, there is reason to link it with a Phoenician city-port and kingdom known as Tartessus (Tarshish in the Bible) that thrived in the Spanish province of Andalucia during ancient times.
The evidence is this - Gyges, or Gyes, was a son or Coelus (ie. Ouranus) and a brother of Cronus; he was also seen both as a gigante and a Titan (demonstrating how they were originally one and the same race). (70) He seems to have been one of the main figures in the later wars between his titanic brothers and the Olympian gods under the command of Zeus, and may simply have been Titan under another name.
Classical writers such as Ovid (43 BC - AD 18) wrote that Gyges was punished by being banished to the prison of Tartarus. Yet an account of this same story given by a Chaldean writer named Thallus, states that instead of being banished to Tartarus, Gyges was'smitten, and fled to Tartessus'. (71) If this is a genuinely separate rendition of the same story then it means that Tartarus was another name for Tartessus.
As a sea-port Tartessus it is believed to have been situated on a delta of the Guadalquivir River, even though no trace of it remains today. It is also synonymous with another ancient sea-port known as Gades, modern Cadiz. E.M. Whishaw in her important 1930 work Atlantis in Andalucia uses excavated evidence of neolithic and possibly even palaeolithic sea-ports, sea-walls, cyclopean ruins and hydraulic works around the towns of Niebla and Huelva on the Andalucian coast to demonstrate the reality not only of Tartessus's lost kingdom, but also of its links to Plato's story of Atlantis.
A Sea-faring Nation
Knowledge of the apparent links between Tartessus, the giants/Titans and the mythical Byblos culture is compelling evidence of an as yet unknown sea-faring nation in the Mediterranean area sometime between 7000-3000 BC, the latter half of this period being the time-frame when many of the megalithic complexes began appearing in places such as Malta and Sardinia. Charles Hapgood in his 1979 book Maps of The Ancient Sea Kings concluded that the various composite portolans, such as the Piri Reis map of 1513, show areas of the globe, including the Mediterranean Sea, as they appeared at least 6000 years ago. He therefore concluded that those who had originally drawn these maps must have belonged to 'one culture', who possessed maritime connections all over the globe and flourished during this distant age. (72) Was he referring here to the mythical Byblos culture?
Might it have been responsible for passing on these ancient maps to civilizations such as Egypt, c.3100 BC, and Phoenicia, c. 2500 BC? The early dynastic boat burials uncovered at Giza and Abydos have revealed sea-going vessels with high prows that were never intended to be sailed on the Nile; this is despite the fact that Egypt had no obvious maritime tradition during this early stage in its development. Where did this knowledge come from?
Was it from the remnants of an earlier culture, such as the one spoken of by Sanchoniatho as having existed on the Levant coast in mythical times?
Might this sea-faring connection help explain why the wooden coffin containing the body of Osiris was carried by the sea to Byblos, and why the priests of Heliopolis in Egypt took such an interest in Baalbek during Ptolemaic times? It is a subject that requires much further research before any definite conclusions can be drawn, but the apparent advanced capabilities of the proposed Byblos culture allows us to perceive the antiquity of Baalbek's Great Platform in a new light. Did the legends suggesting that it was constructed by super-human giants during the age of Nimrod preserve some kind of bastardized memory of its foundation by the Byblos culture under Ouranus, Cronus or his brothers, the Titans?
If so, then who were these mythical individuals and what ancient engineering skills might their culture have employed in the construction of cyclopean structures such as the Great Platform?
Stones that Moved
In surviving folklore from both Egypt and Palestine there are tantalizing accounts of how sound, used in association with'magic words', was able to lift and move large stone blocks and statues, or open huge stone doors. I was therefore excited to discover that, according to Sanchoniatho, Ouranus was supposed to have 'devised Baetulia, contriving stones that moved as having life'. (73) By 'contriving' the nineteenth-century English translator of Philo's original Greek text seems to have meant 'designing', 'devising' or 'inventing', implying that Ouranus had made stones to move as if they had life of their own. Was this a veiled reference to some kind of sonic technology utilized by the proposed Byblos culture?
Could this knowledge help explain the methods behind the cutting, transportation and positioning of the 1000-tonne blocks used in Baalbek's Great Platform? It is certainly a very real possibility.
Why Baalbek?
If we accept for a moment that Baalbek's Great Platform, and perhaps even the inner podium that supports the Temple of Jupiter, might well possess a much greater antiquity than has previously been imagined, then what purpose might the Baalbek structure have served?
Zecharia Sitchin in his 1980 book The Stairway to Heaven proposes that the Great Platform was a landing site and launch pad for extra-terrestrial vehicles. Perhaps he is right, but in my opinion its high elevation hints at the fact that it once served as some kind of platform for the observation of celestial and stellar events. It is a subject I am currently investigating for a future article.
And just how old is Baalbek?
The French archaeologist Michel Alouf apparently learnt from the Maronite Patriarch of the Baalbek region, a man named Estfan Doweihi, that: '... the fortress of Baalbek on Mt. Lebanon is the most ancient building in the world. Cain, the son of Adam, built it in the year 133 of the creation, during a fit of raving madness'. (74) Unfortunately this tells us very little about the site's real age. Yet if we can accept the existence of a pre-Phoenician culture that not only employed the use of cyclopean masonry in its building construction, but also possessed sea-going vessels and flourished in the Mediterranean somewhere between 7000 BC and 3000 BC, then it opens the door to the possibility that Baalbek's 'fortress' may also date to this early phase of human history.
Yet the question remains as to why this pre-Phoenician, sea-going nation should have wished to construct an almighty edifice on an elevated plain between two enormous mountain ranges. What was the reasoning behind this decision? The site undoubtedly possessed a very ancient sanctity; however, the architects may well have had more pressing reasons for placing it where they did. All the indications are that Sanchoniatho's Byblos culture eventually experienced a period of fierce wars that waged between Cronus, or Saturn, and his titanic brothers under the leadership of Titan or Gyges, and then finally between Cronus' son Jupiter and the rest of the Olympian deities. In a strange way the fraternal conflict between Cronus and his brothers parallels the biblical struggle between Cain and Abel, suggesting that the link between Cain and Baalbek might well have some symbolic significance to the site's early history. (75) Is it possible that Baalbek's first 'city' was constructed, not just as a religious centre, but also |
several ''elite cyber-sportsmen'' through their paces to see how they compared to professional athletes.
The head of Sport, Performance, and Fatigue Research Unit also wanted to determine whether video gaming should be classed as a sport.
The cyber-sportsmen had mental sharpness and psychological traits comparable to'real' athletes, and reacted to visual stimuli almost as fast as fighter jet pilots.
But their fitness levels were shockingly low and comparable to people either much younger or much older than their actual age.
One leading gamer in his twenties appeared to be slim and healthy with a physique similar to an endurance athlete.
But tests revealed he in fact had the lung function and aerobic fitness of a heavy smoker in his sixties.
Dr Micklewright blamed the gaming lifestyle of spending 10 hours a day in front a computer screen and warned youngsters against such a sedentary lifestyle.
He said: ''Someone of this age should be much fitter, but perhaps this is the occupational hazard of the professional gamer who can spend around 10 hours a day in front of a screen.
''It is always difficult to say how these things will develop, but it could have long term health implications such as an increased risk of heart disease.
''Screen time with children has a very strong correlation with childhood obesity and risk factors with heart disease later in life.''
But Dr Micklewright was equally surprised by the number of characteristics gamers did share with top athletes.
He said: ''Their reaction time, motor skill, competitiveness and emotions were pretty close.
''Elite athletes have unusually high levels of positive feelings and low levels of negative feelings such as depression and fatigue.
''We saw similar characteristics in gamers, albeit not quite as pronounced.''
Dr Micklewright said video gamers would benefit from balancing playing video games with getting fitter but their sedentary lifestyle meant they should not be classed as athletes.
He said: ''There is an inextricable link between the function of the mind and the body.
''Gaming shares some characteristics with sport because both are competitive, skill-based and governed by structured rules.
''But the main distinction which precludes gaming from being a sport is the lack of physical exertion.
''However, in the end sport is socially defined and there are sports, such as snooker and darts, which you might argue are on the boundary.
''Like video games these require very high levels of skill, but are relatively sedentary and not physically demanding.''
Dr Micklewright conducted the research for The eSportsman, a Radio Four programme set to be broadcast on Friday.
He ran a series of physiological and psychological tests on gamers at the Gadget Show Live in April at the NEC Arena in Birmingham.AKRON, Ohio -- An off-duty Canton firefighter and her husband of nine days argued about the "kinks in their relationship" before she stepped out of a car and walked into the rush hour traffic on Ohio 8.
Tonya Johnson, 43, and her new husband ran errands Monday in and were on their way home about 4 p.m. Monday on Ohio 8 southbound when they ran into stop-and-go traffic, according to the Summit County Medical Examiner's report.
Johnson's husband told investigators they talked about how to work out the problems in their relationship.They also argued about the traffic on the highway.
He tried to pull off the highway once but traffic started to pick up again so he drove back onto the highway. Johnson told him to exit.
The husband pulled towards the exit again, when Johnson got out of their Cadillac Escalade. She walked behind the SUV, then across three lanes of southbound traffic.
She jumped over the cement median. She walked into the northbound lanes and stopped, according to the medical examiner's report.
A car swerved and missed her. The pickup behind that car hit her. The impact sent her flying through the air. Her shoes ended up in the southbound lanes.
Ten cars crashed trying to avoid hitting Johnson. No one else was seriously injured.
Johnson's husband told investigators that his wife skipped two days worth of medication for a mental health disorder. She had taken the drugs on Monday, the report says.
Johnson's sister, however, refuted that. She told investigators that she was not on medication for a mental health disorder, but that she had been under stress because of relationship problems.
The report lists Johnson's death as a suspected suicide. The medical examiner has not made an official determination. Akron police said they are still investigating.
Johnson was a 17-year veteran of the Canton Fire Department. Canton Fire Chief Thomas Garra said she was a well-liked and respected firefighter and medic.
She married her husband on Feb. 13, according to Stark County court records.
Her ex-husband, James Johnson, said she had two adult children and a 12-year-old daughter.LONDON/MADRID, May 12 (Reuters) - A huge cyber attack leveraging hacking tools widely believed to have been developed by the U.S. National Security Agency brought disruption to Britain’s health system on Friday and infected dozens of other countries around the world, security researchers said.
Hospitals and doctors’ surgeries in parts of England were forced to turn away patients and cancel appointments after they were infected with the “ransomware,” which scrambled data on computers and demanded payments of $300 to $600 to restore access. People in affected areas were being advised to seek medical care only in emergencies.
“We are experiencing a major IT disruption and there are delays at all of our hospitals,” said the Barts Health group, which manages major London hospitals. Routine appointments had been canceled and ambulances were being diverted to neighboring hospitals.
Telecommunications giant Telefonica was among many targets in Spain, though it said the attack was limited to some computers on an internal network and had not affected clients or services.
Ransomware is malicious software that infects machines, locks them by encrypting data and then extorts money to let users back in. A Telefonica spokesman said a window appeared on screens of infected computers that demanded payment with the digital currency bitcoin in order to regain access to files.
Rich Barger, director of threat research at U.S.-based security research company Splunk, said: “This is one of the largest global ransomware attacks the cyber community has ever seen.”
Officials and experts identified the type of malware as ‘Wanna Cry’, also known as ‘Wanna Decryptor’. It exploits a vulnerability in Microsoft’s Windows operating system that allows it to automatically spread across networks, which gives it the ability to quickly infect large numbers of machines at the same organization.
It is the first piece of self-spreading ransomware, said Adam Meyers, a research with cyber security firm CrowdStrike. “Once it gets in and starts moving across the infrastructure, there is no way to stop it.”
The Wanna Cry malware exploits a vulnerability widely believed by security researchers to have been developed by the National Security Agency that was released on the Internet last month by a group known as the Shadow Brokers.
Shadow Brokers said at the time that they obtained it from a secret trove of NSA tools and files that are part of the spy agency’s hacking program.
Microsoft issued a patch on March 14 described as critical to users of Windows to fix that vulnerability, which CrowdStrike and Splunk said should protect users from getting infected by Wanna Cry. Organizations or individual users who failed to apply that patch to Windows machines may remain vulnerable to WannaCry.
The NSA and Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Andrea Zapparoli Manzoni, a senior manager in the Information Risk Management division of Kpmg Advisory in Italy, said: “The ransomware attack is happening in a haphazard fashion and is hitting every country in the world, including Italy.
“This particular ransomware contains a vulnerabilty, called Eternal Blue, which was developed in U.S. intelligence circles and was then stolen. That gives you an idea about why the level is risk is particularly high. The aim isn’t to hit any specific country but to strike as widely as possible to make money.”
Hospitals were a prime target, Manzoni said, because “they are very vulnerable to cyber attacks and ready to pay because they cannot afford any shutdowns.”
SENSITIVE TIMING
The chaos in Britain’s health system came less than four weeks before a parliamentary election in which national security and the management of the state-run National Health Service (NHS) are important campaign themes.
“This was not targeted at the NHS, it’s an international attack and a number of countries and organizations have been affected,” Prime Minister Theresa May said.
“We’re aware that a number of NHS organizations have reported that they’ve suffered from a ransomware attack,” May said. “We’re not aware of any evidence that patient data has been compromised.”
Authorities in Britain have been braced for possible cyberattacks in the run-up to the vote, as happened during last year’s U.S. election and on the eve of this month’s presidential vote in France.
But those attacks - blamed on Russia, which has repeatedly denied them - followed an entirely different modus operandi involving penetrating the accounts of individuals and political organizations and then releasing hacked material online.
In Spain, the attacks did not disrupt the provision of services or networks operations of the victims, the government said in a statement. Still, the news prompted security teams at large financial services firms and businesses around the world to review their plans for defending against ransomware attacks, according to executives with private cyber security firms.
A spokeswoman for Portugal Telecom said: “We were the target of an attack, like what is happening in all of Europe, a large scale-attack, but none of our services was affected.”
Although cyber extortion cases have been rising for several years, they have to date affected small-to-mid sized organizations, disrupting services provided by hospitals, police departments, public transportation systems and utilities in the United States and Europe.
“Seeing a large telco like Telefonica get hit is going to get everybody worried. Now ransomware is affecting larger companies with more sophisticated security operations,” Chris Wysopal, chief technology officer with cyber security firm Veracode, said.
The news is also likely to embolden cyber extortionists when selecting targets, Chris Camacho, chief strategy officer with cyber intelligence firm Flashpoint, said.
“Now that the cyber criminals know they can hit the big guys, they will start to target big corporations. And some of them may not be well prepared for such attacks,” Camacho said. In Spain, some big firms took pre-emptive steps to thwart ransomware attacks following a warning from Spain’s National Cryptology Centre of “a massive ransomware attack.”
Iberdrola and Gas Natural, along with Vodafone’s unit in Spain, asked staff to turn off computers or cut off internet access in case they had been compromised, representatives from the firms said.
It was not immediately clear how many Spanish organizations had been compromised by the attacks, if any critical services had been interrupted or whether victims had paid cyber criminals to regain access to their networks.The official website for Kyoto Animation's anime film adaptation of Yoshitoki Ōima's A Silent Voice (Koe no Katachi) manga began streaming two new commercials for the film on Friday. The commercials show the relationship between protagonists Shoko and Shoya, and the second video previews the film's theme song "Ai wo Shita no wa" (Loving Is) by AIKO.
The film's official website previously streamed a longer trailer in July, as well as a subtitled version of the same trailer last month.
The cast includes:
Miyu Irino (Mr. Osomatsu's Todomatsu, Seraph of the End's Yuichiro Hyakuya) as Shōya Ishida
Saori Hayami (Snow White with the Red Hair's Shirayuki, Bakuman.'s Miho Azuki) as Shōko Nishimiya
Aoi Yūki as Yuzuru Nishiya
Kensho Ono as Tomohiro Nagatsu
Yuki Kaneko as Naoka Ueno
Yui Ishikawa as Miyoko Sahara
Megumi Han as Miki Kawai
Toshiyuki Toyonaga as Toshi Mashibasa
Mayu Matsuoka as Shōya Ishida as an elementary school student
The film will open in Japan on September 17.
Naoko Yamada (Tamako Market, Tamako Love Story, K-ON's two anime seasons and anime film) is directing the film at Kyoto Animation. Reiko Yoshida (Non Non Biyori, K-ON!, Yowamushi Pedal) is writing the script, and Futoshi Nishiya (Free!, Hyōka, Nichijō) is designing the characters for animation. Kensuke Ushio (Space Dandy, Ping Pong) is composing the music at Pony Canyon. Shochiku will distribute the film.
Crunchyroll describes the original manga's story:
I wish we had never met. I wish we could meet once again.
A boy who can hear, Shoya Ishida, and a transfer student who can't, Shoko Nishimiya. One fateful day, the two meet, and Shoya leads the class in bullying Shoko. But before long, the class shifts its target from Shoko to Shoya. Years later, Shoya feels strongly that he must see Shoko once again.Porsche has just run its own back-to-back tests with the Japanese company's GT-R supercar and says it could not get within 25 seconds of Nissan's claimed record time of seven minutes 29 seconds in April.
It also found its 911 Turbo and GT2 were both quicker than the GT-R.
"This wonder car with 7:29 could not have been a regular series production car," says August Achleitner, the 911 product chief for Porsche, speaking to the CARSguide at the Australian press preview of the latest 911 Cabrio.
"For us, it's not clear how this time is possible. What we can imagine with this Nissan is they used other tyres."
He believes the time achieved by Nissan with ex-Formula One driver Toshio Suzuki would only be possible with a semi-slick race-style tyre.
Achleitner says Porsche took a standard GT-R, running on regular road tyres, and ran it around the Nurburgring within two hours of its own cars, on the same day with exactly the same weather conditions.
He says there was no tweaking of any kind and the GT2 and Turbo both ran on regular Porsche road tyres, the Michelin Sport Cup.
"We bought the car in the US. We drove a GT-R with new tyres," he says.
Achleitner was initially protective of the exact lap times, which were run during a program when Porsche also compared its upcoming four-door Panamera with a range of potential rivals.
But he eventually revealed his team clocked the GT-R at 7 minutes 54 seconds, with the 911 Turbo managing 7:38 and the GT2 getting down to 7:34.
The laps were not run by Porsche's usual hot-lap specialist, former world rally champion and race winner Walter Rohrl, but one of the company's chassis development engineers who is an expert on the Nurburgring.
Achleitner says the back-to-back comparison was run because Porsche was concerned by Nissan's claims for the GT-R, which is heavier than the 911 with similar power.
"The Nissan is a good car. I don't want to make anything bad with my words," he says.
"It's a very consistent car. But this car is about 20 kilos heavier than the Turbo..."
In the end, Porsche believes its testing has achieved the right lap times for the Skyline GT-R and benchmarked it against its own 911 heroes in the right context.
"For us it has been clearly the result. This technical puzzle now fits together. With the other numbers we had problems to understand it," he says.
Related articles:
Nissan hits back at Porsche cheat claimDanielle Young boldly tells stories with heart, sass and humor. She peppers her writing with her larger-than-life personality, sharing her hilarious thoughts on pop culture, lifestyle topics and anything that affects Black women. Danielle loves words and strings them together to create multimedia content that will tug at your heart strings or give you belly-hurting laughs. Give her iced chai lattes, cheese and Netflix so she knows it's real. Danielle is pretty, witty, girl, worldly. She's one who likes to party, but comes home early.
Social media has once again proven that when focused, our generation can pull together and launch an unofficial campaign that not only spreads awareness, but paints a picture strong enough to change the dialogue around the representation of Black people in the media–especially as it’s related to the trend of police brutality.
Michael Brown’s shooting not only sparked major outage from the sheer fact of him being gunned down by the police while unarmed, his story was also chopped and screwed by the media, who chose to paint Brown as a dangerous “gang-banging” teen, who perhaps deserved to die because he was a big Black “threat” to police.
MUST READ:EXCLUSIVE Interview With Mike Brown’s Mother
The initial image released of Brown after his untimely death was of him in his cap and gown, but since the story picked up steam, media organizations and conservative bloggers are increasingly turning to a photo of Brown clad in a Nike Air jersey and throwing a “gang sign.”
Immediately, images of Trayvon Martin throwing up gang signs, showing off gold grills and smoking weed flooded my mind. The world was ready to see Martin as a dangerous hoodlum who may have deserved his fate. #IfTheyGunnedMeDown is not only a sad commentary on what it means to be Black in America, but also shows that in order to have our own stories correctly reported, we have to do the reporting ourselves. Check out this amazing Op-Ed from our Senior Editor, Nakisha Williams that explores what it means for Black people to be portrayed negatively in the media.
Post your photos and use the hashtag #IfTheyGunnedMeDown to join in the conversation. Check out some of the other Twitter users who participated:
RELATED STORIES:
Black Twitter’s #DangerousBlackKids Twists Image Of ‘Threatening’ Black Children
Justice for Trayvon And Jordan: Hundreds To March In Major Cities Today In Memory of Slain Teens
NYPD Puts Staten Island Man In Chokehold & Kills Him [VIDEO]
Also On HelloBeautiful:Welcome back to our 30 for 30 documentary short series.
In the spring of 1985, Sports Illustrated profiled the latest prospect of the New York Mets farm system: Sidd Finch, a Harvard dropout who spoke 10 languages, played the French horn, wore one hiking boot … and threw 168 mph. If it sounds too good to be true, that’s because it was. Finch was an elaborate hoax constructed by the late George Plimpton for SI’s April 1 issue. Unhittable brings back all of the people who made this hoax possible, including Joe Berton, the bespectacled middle school teacher who truly brought Sidd to life.
Recent 30 for 30 Shorts
• The Billion Dollar Game, directed by Nick Guthe »
• An Immortal Man, directed by Josh Koury and Myles Kane »
• The Sweat Solution, directed by David Beilinson and Neil Amdur »
• Student/Athlete, directed by Ken Jeong »
• Robbed, directed by Eric Drath »
• Our Tough Guy, directed by Molly Schiot »Along with today’s announcement of the OEM mobile Radeon M300 series, AMD has also announced the OEM desktop Radeon 300 Series. This was a rather low-key launch with only a very brief press release on the matter along with AMD updating the OEM Radeon website, and as one might expect this is for good reason.
We’ve been through this event once before – most recently with the OEM HD 8000 series – so our regular readers will know the drill. Whether or not GPU manufacturers have new GPUs, OEMs will want new parts to sell, which leads to GPU manufacturers engaging in rebranding and subtle spec changes to create new parts to sell under a new series name. In AMD’s case this is complicated by the fact that they have been updating their GPUs in a piecemeal fashion – Hawaii, Bonaire, and Tonga have all landed at very different times – and AMD is not done yet as they’re going to be launching a new high-end GPU this quarter. So AMD needs a product lineup to include both the new part and their retained parts under a single brand, which leads to another incentive for rebadging.
In any case, as these are OEM parts I advise not reading into the names and specifications too much. AMD’s OEM and Retail parts can be very different at times – and at other times there aren’t any retail parts at all (HD 8000) – so these OEM parts aren’t necessarily indicative of what we’re going to see in retail in the coming months. Though based on AMD’s actions with the Radeon 200 series, we may yet see a similar rebadge happen for the retail 300 series.
AMD OEM Desktop Radeon R9 300 Series AMD Radeon HD R9 380 OEM AMD Radeon R9 370 OEM AMD Radeon R9 360 OEM Was Variant of R9 285 Variant of R7 265 Variant of R9 260 (OEM) Stream Processors 1792 1024 768 Texture Units 112 64 48 ROPs 32 32 16 Boost Clock <=918MHz <=975MHz <=1050MHz Memory Clock 5.5GHz GDDR5 5.6GHz GDDR5 6.5GHz GDDR5? Memory Bus Width 256-bit 256-bit 128-bit VRAM <=4GB 2GB/4GB 2GB Transistor Count 5.0B 2.8B 2.08B GPU Tonga Pitcairn Bonaire Manufacturing Process TSMC 28nm TSMC 28nm TSMC 28nm Architecture GCN 1.2 GCN 1.0 GCN 1.1
Starting things off, we have the OEM R9 series. Today’s release tops out at R9 380 OEM (I can only imagine AMD is saving 390 for their new GPU), along with the R9 370 OEM and R9 360 OEM. The R9 380 OEM appears to be a variant of the desktop R9 285, which marks the first time that a Tonga card has been released in an OEM configuration. The quoted clockspeeds are identical to the retail R9 285, which means the “up to” GPU clockspeed should result in the R9 380 OEM being perfectly identical to the R9 285 if given its maximum configuration.
Meanwhile for the R9 370 OEM we have a cut-down Pitcairn card, with only 1024 of its 1280 SPs active. This makes it a variant of the retail R7 265, though with a slightly higher maximum GPU clockspeed. Truth be told I’m a bit worried to see a fresh Pitcairn part in 2015; Pitcairn has been a workhorse for AMD, having now survived into its 4th generation of cards. However at over 3 years old and based on GCN 1.0, it lacks more modern functionality such as the ability to decode 4K H.264 video files, AMD’s improved power management technology, and support for AMD’s Freesync technology.
Finally we have the R9 360 OEM. This appears to be a variant of the R9 260 OEM, featuring an AMD Bonaire GPU with only 768 of its 896 SPs enabled. Oddly, the listed memory bandwidth for the part, 104GB/sec, would require 6.5GHz GDDR5 memory given Bonaire’s 128-bit bus. I suspect that may be an error on AMD’s part, though it’s not outside the realm of possibility. In any case the R9 360 OEM also appears to be a regression from the R9 260 OEM; the latter was a fully enabled Bonaire part, whereas this one is not. At the very least it’s GCN 1.1 based, so it will have the newer features that the Pitcairn based R9 370 OEM lacks.
AMD OEM Desktop Radeon R7 300 Series AMD Radeon HD R7 350 OEM AMD Radeon R7 340 OEM Was R7 250 R7 240 Stream Processors 384 384 Texture Units 24 24 ROPs 8 8 Boost Clock <=1050MHz <=780Hz Memory Clock <=4.5GHz GDDR5
?GHz DDR3 <=4.5GHz GDDR5
?GHz DDR3 Memory Bus Width 128-bit 128-bit VRAM 1GB/2GB 1GB/2GB GDDR5
2GB/4GB DDR3 GPU Oland Oland Manufacturing Process TSMC 28nm TSMC 28nm Architecture GCN 1.0 GCN 1.0
Up next is the R7 300 OEM series, which is composed of the R7 350 OEM and R7 340 OEM. Both of these cards are straight-up rebadges of AMD’s existing R7 250 OEM and R7 240 OEM parts, and both are based on the same GCN 1.0 Oland GPU. With just 384 SPs these are low cost, low performing parts. The difference between the two is their clockspeeds, with R7 350 being clocked quite a bit higher, whereas R7 340 is clocked lower in exchange for being available as a low-profile card. Unfortunately the memory situation is quite complex here, as these cards can be equipped with either GDDR5 or DDR3; the GDDR5 versions will of course be the much faster versions.
Among its other quirks, Oland lacks a hardware video decoder. So these parts are likely to be paired with low-end AMD Kaveri APUs, possibly for a Dual Graphics configuration.
AMD OEM Desktop Radeon R5 300 Series AMD Radeon HD R5 340 OEM AMD Radeon R5 330 OEM Was Variant of R5 240 Variant of R5 240 Stream Processors 320 320 Texture Units 20 20 ROPs 8 8 Boost Clock <=825MHz <=855Hz Memory Clock? GDDR5/DDR3? DDR3 Memory Bus Width?? VRAM <=2GB GDDR5/DDR3 <=2GB DDR3 GPU Oland Oland Manufacturing Process TSMC 28nm TSMC 28nm Architecture GCN 1.0 GCN 1.0
Finally, for the R5 300 OEM series we have two more Oland parts. These are ultra low end, low-profile single slot parts. AMD does not even publish the GPU bandwidth numbers for these parts, and as a result I suspect these may be 64-bit parts to further cut down on costs. Of particular note, the R5 330 lacks HDMI support, so it’s almost certainly geared towards APAC markets where VGA is still in common use.
Wrapping things up, AMD's press release mentions that these new OEM parts are shipping now. HP is already confirmed to be shipping PCs with these new cards, and we expect other OEMs to ramp up as well as they launch their back-to-school season computers.For Immediate Release, May 31, 2017 Contact: Jenny Loda, Center for Biological Diversity, (510) 844-7136, jloda@biologicaldiversity.org
Evelyn Merz, Sierra Club, (713) 644-8228, elmerz@hal-pc.org Ban Sought on Commercial Trapping of Wild Turtles in Texas Groups Want End to Unlimited Capture of Four Native Species AUSTIN, Texas— The Center for Biological Diversity and several Texas-based conservation organizations petitioned the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department today to end commercial trapping of the state's wild turtles. Under current Texas law, turtle trappers can collect unlimited numbers of four turtle species on private lands to sell domestically or export for international food and medicinal markets. This is putting turtle populations — already facing pollution and habitat loss — at risk across the state. “For-profit turtle trappers shouldn't be allowed to drive the state's turtles to the brink of extinction,” said Jenny Loda, an attorney and biologist at the Center who works to protect vulnerable reptiles and amphibians. “Scientists have concluded that even modest commercial trapping of freshwater turtles can lead to population crashes. For the sake of our native turtles, Texas needs to stop this exploitative trapping.” More than 2,000 freshwater turtles were trapped in Texas over the past two years, according to reports submitted by holders of nongame dealer permits to the Parks and Wildlife Department. International food and medicinal markets drive most of the trade. Because turtles accumulate toxins from prey in their bodies and burrow into contaminated sediment, their meat is often laced with mercury, PCBs and pesticides, posing a health risk. Adult turtles are also taken from the wild to breed hatchlings for the international pet trade. Texas modified its regulations in 2007 to protect freshwater turtles from harvest on its public lands and waters; however, this only resulted in protections for turtles in 2.2 percent of the water bodies in Texas. Under current law unlimited harvest of four native, freshwater turtle species is allowed on private property in the state: common snapping turtles, red-eared sliders, smooth softshells and spiny softshells. Recent studies concluded that current turtle harvest regulations in Texas are not likely to be sustainable. “Commercial trapping is devastating to turtle populations that are already suffering from multiple other threats, including habitat loss, water pollution and vehicular collisions,” said Evelyn Merz, conservation chair for the Sierra Club's Lone Star Chapter. “Unless the state bans commercial turtle trapping, Texas' turtle populations will continue to plummet.” Today's petition was submitted by the Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club's Lone Star Chapter, Texas Rivers Protection Association and Texas Snake Initiative. Background
As part of a campaign to protect turtles in the United States, the Center has been petitioning states that allow commercial turtle collection to improve their regulations. In 2009 Florida responded by banning almost all commercial turtle collection from public and private waters. In 2012 Georgia approved state rules restricting commercial turtle collection, and Alabama completely banned it. And last year the Missouri Department of Conservation announced — in response to a Center petition — that it will consider ending unlimited commercial collection of the state's wild freshwater turtles. Most recently, in March, new regulations went into effect in Iowa setting closed seasons and possession limits for commercial turtle trappers. Texas is in a regional hotspot for commercial turtle collectors, and reform is needed. If the state created closed seasons and bag limits within its borders, adjacent states would likely follow its example; the region would be better equipped to protect its turtle populations by making clear to turtle traders that trade is strictly regulated and enforced. The Center also recently petitioned for a ban on unlimited commercial trapping in Louisiana and Oklahoma, two states that share a border with Texas.A commenter on a recent post mentioned the experience of highlighting substantial parts of a work by Nietzsche while working on an essay. Years later, he found the text and tried reading those parts he hadn’t highlighted, to see what was in the sections that he didn’t find significant at the time. He then went on to ask if a similar experiment has ever been done with the Bible.
I’m not aware of something of this sort ever having been done. But I think it would be instructive. What if we took John 3:16 and Isaiah 53 and Genesis 1-3 and whichever other texts typically serve as memory verses and slogans and proof texts, and covered them over for a while – not as a sign of disrespect for them, but as a sign of respect for the rest of the text. What if we took the time to focus on the passages we never read, the ones which, even if we might not actually say so, in practice at least we consider less important, less interesting, less meaningful?
Should someone put together a “Shadow Bible Project” – a reading group to focus on drawing attention to the portions of the Bible left in the shadows even (perhaps in particular) by those who regularly extol the Bible? Those who claim to revere or cherish the Bible have huge blind spots regarding its content (as Pete Rollins’ post I linked to earlier today illustrates ). But there are also passages that no one focuses on. Like the one I mentioned on Sunday, which the youth leader at my church asked me about. The choice of proof texts is arbitrary. What would the Bible come to mean if covered over the favorite passages, and had no choice but to discuss Exodus 4:24-26Bill Shorten introduces Annastacia Palaszczuk as the next premier at campaign launch where she unveils only policies that can be afforded without asset sales
Queensland’s opposition leader has unveiled what she calls “modest policies” at Labor’s campaign launch before focusing on proposed asset sales and the prime minister, Tony Abbott.
Annastacia Palaszczuk’s biggest spend on a single policy at the launch was $240m over four years to fund community and industry organisations as she argued Labor would announce only those policies it could fund without selling assets.
Queensland’s first female premier, Anna Bligh, who led Labor to its loss in 2012, was a notable absence along with the former prime minister, and Brisbane local, Kevin Rudd. Bill Shorten and the former federal ALP leader Bill Hayden led the federal contingent.
Speaking to hundreds of the party’s faithful in Ipswich, a working-class town 40km from Brisbane, Palaszczuk announced a series of low-cost policies.
She promised $200m in regional spending, $50m over three years for an “advance Queensland” program and $34m over three years invested in Tafe.
“My friends, these new policies, the commitments I have announced since late 2012, and several more I will outline before polling day, all represent Labor’s commitment to Queensland’s future,” Palaszczuk said.
“They’re fully costed and fully funded. They are modest and affordable and can be delivered with no new taxes. Queenslanders have had too many broken promises over the last three years, these are promises Queenslanders can see and feel and know will be affordable and sustainable and will make a difference,” she said.
She spent the first 10 minutes attacking the Liberal National party, the premier, Campbell Newman, and the prime minister, who is yet to make an appearance on the campaign trail.
“Before the last federal election it was Campbell Newman who was telling Tony Abbott he should do what the LNP had done here in Queensland,” Palaszczuk said.
“An LNP win here will give him the signal to press on with his agenda: vicious budget cuts, raising the GST, and slowly and slyly chopping away at the great Labor institution, Medicare.”
Palaszczuk was introduced as the next Queensland premier by Shorten, who used his speech to attack the LNP on federal issues such as Medicare and potential changes to the GST.
“We believe in an Australia where your Medicare card, not your credit card, determines the quality of your healthcare,” he said, referring to the federal government’s decision to ditch its $20 cut to the Medicare rebate last week.
Shorten thanked Palaszczuk for her work over the past three years since the Labor party was reduced to just seven elected representatives in the Queensland parliament.
“Don’t stop now, there’s still 11 days to go, you can make Queensland a great destination again,” he said. “Queensland cannot afford another three years of LNP tax and cuts, of slash and sack … Queenslanders want a premier who will stand up for their state and all of their state.”
Like Newman, Palaszczuk referred to the possibility of a hung parliament in her speech, repeating her promise not to do any deals with minor parties.
The Labor launch came two days after the LNP’s, which was a low-key affair with no federal speakers on the stage and $1bn for education and $2bn to reduce water bills as the policy centrepieces.Prosecutor of jihadists Andrew McCarthy joined Breitbart News Sunday on SiriusXM Channel 125 Patriot with host Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon following the Orlando terror attack.
McCarthy told listeners that Islamic Sharia law goes beyond Islamic terror group ISIS, and the problem of “massive migration by an assimilation-resistant Sharia supremacist culture” will ensure radicalization for years to come.
Near the end of the interview, McCarthy said, “[Republican presumptive presidential nominee Donald] Trump has it a lot more right than the Republican Establishment does and that the problem with massive Muslim migration to the West is not just that trained terrorists could infiltrate and sneak their way in with groups of migrants.”
In recent months, Trump called for a temporary ban on Muslim migration to the United States until those individuals can be properly vetted. He renewed that call after Sunday’s terror attack.
McCarthy continued:
As we saw today, this is an American born jihadist, right? What you see all across Europe is these Sharia enclaves. These places where recruiting and all kinds of fundraising, planning, et cetera, where jihadists can float from place to place with relative ease. Such that the guy who did the Paris attack, after a four month transcontinental manhunt, was captured about 30 paces from his home because its safe going for these people in these places. So the problem that we have is if you allow massive migration by an assimilation resistant Sharia supremacist culture, its not just the terrorists who might come in with them, its the radicalization that you are buying onto and guaranteeing for the next at least 10 years going forward. To my mind Trump’s a lot closer to being right on that than the Republican Establishment who wants to tell us that you know the, its not our values to protect our national security. Which to me is just so removed from reality is to be insane.
Bannon asked McCarthy to explain to listeners the details laid out in one of two Sunday reports for the National Review. In the article McCarthy detailed the aspect of Sharia Law that calls for killing homosexuals and specifically stated that ISIS is not the origin of that action, Islamic Sharia Law and Muslim scripture are.
McCarthy told listeners:
Washington is making the same noises that it always makes. It either says that this was anti-Islamic activity or it says that, since there are terrorist ties, that we must be ISIS inspired activity and I want people to understand, and it’s vitally important that they understand that ISIS is not the source by a long shot. Islam’s and particularly Sharia Law’s persecution of homosexuals which goes back over a millennium. It existed long before guns, which may be news to President Obama who seems to think guns may have caused this and that a police system that says you’re supposed to kill homosexuals is not to blame. There are authoritative treatises of Sharia, of muslim law, that very blatantly and plainly lay out the fact that Islam’s hostility to homosexuals is scripturally based and more importantly for our present purposes is that Sharia, which is the muslim societal system. So that’s just the legal system but its basically it’s totalitarian and social project. Sharia sits basically, back in the 10th century |
Jean, a.k.a. “Who?”, he apparently was a federal MP colleague of Kenney’s from 2006 to 2014. I Googled. And I’m sure he made a deep impression on some couch cushion somewhere. But as Wildrose leader his main concern seems to have been keeping those awful right-wing trolls at bay beneath their bridges.
He’s already promised no painful cuts, trotted out the old cliché about ideological “blinkers,” and said “I’m a conservative but I’m a common-sense conservative” who offers “a common sense, middle of the road government.” Well, that conservatism didn’t last long. But where does he locate this fabled “middle of the road”?
Remember, under the previous PROGRESSIVE (conservatives) Alberta had the second-highest per capita program spending of any province. Even Ralph Klein left spending 75 per cent higher than he found it. Some middle. So what’s the plan to turn the clock back two entire years to a vanished Arcadia with a balanced budget and spending of just under $50 billion?
There's this odd notion that any gain by the left is permanent, whereas any gain by the right is temporary and must be questioned
One of the odder notions in Canadian politics is that any gain by the left is permanent and must not be questioned by the right, whereas any gain by the right is temporary and must be questioned by … the right. It’s no way to win elections, let alone govern. Yet apparently, here we go again.
This year, that wacky NDP hopes to take in $45 billion and spend $54.9 billion, which, adding a $500 million “risk adjustment,” spells a $10.4 billion deficit. So to get rid of it (and this is where the rubber hits the middle of the road and spins into the left-hand ditch), you need some combination of spending cuts and revenue increases totalling $10.4 billion. And I’d love to hear from Jean or Kenney on this non-trivial point.
I very much appreciate that many Wildrose and PC members are conservative. But the leadership seems determined to fight the right within their party at least as vigorously as the left outside it.
The leadership seems determined to fight the right within their party at least as vigorously as the left outside it
As my colleague Colby Cosh has noted, the only thing they’ve managed to articulate so far is that they’d get rid of the carbon tax, that is, fight an ominous deficit by reducing revenue. (And as I have pointed out elsewhere, it is political and intellectual suicide to say climate change is real and doom looms but we can’t be bothered fighting it because gas would cost more. Timid, greedy and feeble is no way to go through life … or an election.)
If you think I’m being unfair, hysterical or otherwise principled, ask Kenney and Jean what I went around asking Canadian “conservative” politicians 20 years ago to no avail. What is the government doing that it should just stop? If they have no answer, they aren’t conservatives. They’re just shallow partisans whose rhetoric becomes ever more shrill as their beliefs become ever more elusive.
Of course some people say all this spending is vital, for its immediate impact or because it will “stimulate” the economy. But if you believe that, (a) you will believe anything, and (b) you’re in the wrong party. There is already a party in Alberta that believes the state spends your money better than you do, including the borrowed stuff. And it’s in power, avoiding all that tedious mucking about winning an election.
Seriously. If you believe in big government and despise social conservatives as troglodytes, why aren’t you in the NDP? And if you don’t, why sound and act like them?
It would be very odd to unite the “right” only to bury it all under one rock.
National PostPresident Trump took to Twitter Monday to defend his temporary migrant ban from 7 countries known to host radical Islamic terrorists who have stated their intention to use the refugee crisis to gain entry to the US.
Trump noted that the problems with the travel chaos at some airports are not because of fallout from the ban, but rather due to a Delta computer outage:
Only 109 people out of 325,000 were detained and held for questioning. Big problems at airports were caused by Delta computer outage,….. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 30, 2017
Trump added that Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly has informed the President that “all is going well with very few problems”
Trump rounded off the second tweet with the words “MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN.”
protesters and the tears of Senator Schumer. Secretary Kelly said that all is going well with very few problems. MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 30, 2017
The President issued a third announcement declaring that there is “nothing nice about searching for terrorists before they can enter our country.”
Trump stated that he was carrying out policies he had promised during his campaign and urged detractors to “Study the world!”
There is nothing nice about searching for terrorists before they can enter our country. This was a big part of my campaign. Study the world! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 30, 2017
The President also defended the fact that the 90 day ban was not announced ahead of time, saying it would have provided advance warning to terrorists.
If the ban were announced with a one week notice, the "bad" would rush into our country during that week. A lot of bad "dudes" out there! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 30, 2017
Trump’s aides have praised the restraining order, which bars the admission of Syrian refugees and suspends travel to the United States from Syria, Iraq, Iran and four other countries.
One official told reporters “It really is a massive success story in terms of implementation on every single level.”
During a press briefing, the official who asked to remain anonymous, urged the media to stop “false, misleading, inaccurate, hyperventilating” coverage of the “fractional, marginal, minuscule percentage” of travelers who were “set aside for further questioning”.
While Democrats and former Obama administration officials have decried the policy, it has been noted that Trump is using an Obama administration law, the same Obama DHS policy, and has identified the same 7 countries for a 90-day visa suspension that were picked out by The Obama administration under the Terrorist Travel Prevention Act.Today I just got back home from vacation to find a surprise brown box in my mail box, a Marty McFly Pop Vinyl from Back To The Future. Along with the Pop Vinyl was a little note that read “Dear Roger Enjoy! From your good friend Z”. So whoever Z is, I’d like to say thank you.
With a little investigation, (I’ve been out the loop this week) it might just be Z could be the UK monthly subscription box service ZBox which is run by Zavvi. On their website I found this bit of info.
EXCLUSIVE POP! VINYL IN THE TIME TRAVEL ZBOX For the first time ever there will be a ZBOX exclusive Pop! Vinyl figure in this months’ Time Travel ZBOX! We could reveal something exclusive about it, but I guess you guys aren’t ready for that yet, but your kids are gonna love it! SELLING FAST – Don’t leave your finger HOVERING over the mouse!
So again a big thank you to Z.
What do you think about this Marty McFly Pop Vinyl?Albertans head to the polls Tuesday to determine the winner in what has been one of the closest — and action-packed — election campaigns in provincial history.
Several polls have shown the three main parties — the long-governing Tories, the Wildrose and the NDP — in a tight contest, an unexpected turn from when the race began according to script 28 days ago following the release of the provincial budget.
Instead of a vote giving a mandate to a financial plan — as Tory Leader Jim Prentice had hoped — the 2015 Alberta election has become a referendum on the 44-year-old PC dynasty, Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt said Monday.
“They awakened the beast,” says Bratt, noting voter anger has been building over a series of controversies during the race between Prentice’s PC and his opponents: Rachel Notley’s NDP, the Wildrose’s Brian Jean, David Swann’s Liberals and the Alberta Party’s Greg Clark.
“Prentice saw it, as most of us did, as a sleepy campaign. But he awakened something in Alberta.”
Even so, Bratt said it’s difficult to predict what will happen when the ballots are counted after the polls — which open at 9 a.m. — close at 8 p.m.
Voter turnout, which had climbed to 54 per cent in the last campaign in 2012, could prove to be critical in Tuesday’s election as each party strives to get out their supporters.
Elections Alberta reported Monday that a record number of people turned out in advance polls last week, with 235,410 Albertans marking a ballot — a 31-per-cent increase from the 2012 election. The advance poll votes represent about nine per cent of the 2.5 million people on Elections Alberta voters’ list.
On Monday, the final hours of the four-week campaign saw the NDP, PCs and Wildrose still gamely scrapping as the Liberals announced a fiscal policy and the Alberta Party dismissed a candidate.
Early in the day, Prentice predicted another Tory majority, while Notley insisted Alberta is ready for “a new premier who stands up for families” as the rivals stumped in the area Edmonton.
“We’re going to get a majority Conservative government,” Prentice, who took over as premier in September, told cheering supporters at a Leduc A&W before heading to Red Deer and Calgary. “We’ll be fine right across the province.”
Prentice — who was forced to deal with a court case involving former justice minister, and current Calgary-Acadia candidate, Jonathan Denis on the last day of the campaign — brushed off recent polls that showed the NDP in the lead while keeping up his attack on Notley’s party.
At a raucous rally in Calgary in the late afternoon, Prentice led the crowd of PC supporters in saying they didn’t want “dangerous” NDP policies such as a royalty review and corporate tax hikes.
But Notley said Albertans are ready to change the government that has ruled the province since 1971.
She said Prentice’s March 26 budget, with its cuts to health care and education — and no tax increase for corporations — is the “wrong budget for a growing province.”
“Jim Prentice simply doesn’t get it,” Notley said. “By now it’s clear that Jim Prentice is not the leader Alberta needs.”
Notley laughed when asked if she would ruin Alberta if her party forms government Tuesday.
“We’re going to build Alberta,” she said in Edmonton. “We’re going to represent the best interests of Albertans.”
In Calgary, Jean said the PC vote had collapsed and urged Albertans to cast a ballot for the Wildrose to stave off the NDP taking power.
“Right now, Albertans are at risk of accidentally electing an NDP majority,” said Jean, standing in front of his Calgary candidates at Rotary Park.
“Very few Albertans want an NDP majority, but the public polls and our very own internal polls have consistently suggested this is exactly what could happen on election day.”
But the former Conservative MP, who is running in Fort McMurray-Conklin, saved most of his criticism for the PCs, who he described as manipulative, vindictive and deceptive. He also repeated up his message the Wildrose are the only party that would roll back tax hikes contained in the budget.
The Wildrose leader headed north to Olds, Innisfail, Leduc, Sherwood Park and Stony Plain for ‘whistlestops’ at candidate campaign offices before returning to his riding in Fort McMurray.
Liberal Leader David Swann spoke in Calgary on Monday morning to outline his fiscal plan as his party clings to its local strongholds. Only two incumbents are running for re-election.
The Liberal plan would replace small-business taxes with grants, bankrolled by higher corporate taxes to net a surplus. Swann said a key policy flank is getting oil pipelines built — something he said the Tories have failed to do and the NDP didn’t want to do.
“Jim Prentice could not get the job done when he was federal minister; he’s not going to get the job done now as premier,” said Swann, flanked by Calgary-Buffalo candidate David Khan and Calgary-North West candidate Neil Marion.
Swann reiterated the Liberals can be “deal makers” in a minority government. He said the Liberals would support the PC economic plan, and the NDP’s social policies.
Alberta Party Leader Greg Clark, who is hoping to lead a breakthrough for his party by winning in Calgary-Elbow, met during the day with Mayor Naheed Nenshi.
Clark said he was encouraging constituents to vote for the candidate they thought would be the best representative for their riding.
“We’re going to have 50-plus rookie MLAs this time so it’s really important that we elect good people,” Clark said.
Meanwhile, Alberta Party candidate Terry Lo, running in Calgary-Glenmore, stepped down after acknowledging that he posted an offensive joke on Facebook.
Pollsters have warned the results of the vote could be unpredictable, given the possibility of tight three-way races. And it is possible Alberta could end up with the first minority government in its 110-year history as a province.
“My head and every knowledgeable bone in my body says there will be a change in government … but this is Alberta, this is the Tories,” said Bratt.
With files by Trevor Howell, Chris Varcoe and Dylan Robertson, Calgary Herald
dhenton@calgaryherald.comBlockchain was developed alongside the digital currency bitcoin. It works like a huge, decentralized ledger which records every transaction made on the chain and stores this information on a global network to prevent tampering. Applications for the blockchain include using it to secure information, facilitate bank loans and enable trading in a cheap and efficient way.
"We are deeply honored to work with leading global professional services organization EY to offer blockchain technology solutions to their strong client network," said Valery Vavilov, chief executive of The Bitfury Group, in a press release.
"Our partnership will bring blockchain technology to even more companies and countries to help improve their business operations, efficiency and security."
The deal between EY and The Bitfury Group could expand the use of blockchain beyond finance and into several sectors, including technology, energy and public services.
Institutions including banks and governments have long been talking about the potential uses of blockchain, but this year companies have finally started to find applications for the technology.
"While Deloitte and their internal blockchain lab, Rubix, have led the way in professional service adoption of blockchain technology, these partnerships set the stage for an acceleration across the sector," Vijay Michalik, research analyst at consultancy Frost & Sullivan, told CNBC via email.
"Blockchain start-ups have long been in conversation with professional services as implementation partners, and late 2016 is seeing their proof-of-concept work emerge into fully fledged and enterprise-ready applications."
For instance, in October several South African banks pooled resources to develop a system for issuing syndicated loans via the blockchain.
Meanwhile, credit card companies Visa and MasterCard have both invested in the blockchain: MasterCard has developed three tools allowing banks and merchants to develop blockchain applications for settling payments and making contracts, while Visa plans to launch a business-to-business blockchain payment service next year.
Follow CNBC International on Twitter and Facebook.The upcoming second expansion for Undead Labs' zombie survival sandbox title State of Decay will explore the zombie apocalypse from a military perspective, according to a recent post on the studio's blog.
Lifeline will set players in the shoes of Greyhound One, a unit of military personnel scrounging for resources and struggle to live without incident in the zombie apocalypse. Greyhound One has been sent to Danforth, a city in ruins, to rescue a group of scientists whose research could help combat the zombie outbreak.
The DLC takes place "at the height of the initial crisis" — players will still have access to off-map support and communication via radio, but Undead Labs promises this won't last. Rather than building characters and supplies up, players will start with everything — military-grade support and weapons — and end up with nothing as finite resources dwindle away.
As supplies are depleted, players will also have to worry about securing a Landing Zone to receive additional supply drops and rescue civilians from the area. As they build the Landing Zone, players must also defend it from zombies using minefields and other military weaponry, as well as off-map artillery support.
According to the post by designer Geoffrey Card, Undead Labs feels the military is too often the "go-to badguy" of zombie fiction, which drove their decision to focus on soldiers for the DLC.
"They're the hammer to which every problem is a nail, blindly mowing everything down to serve some unknown goal," Card wrote. "But this view is fairly one-sided and naïve. On the State of Decay team, we have a different perspective (some of us firsthand) — the military is made up of many good men and women who stand on the line that divides safety and civilization from chaos and war.
"Few people have a greater opportunity to make life-altering choices than soldiers," he added.
Card writes that more details on Lifeline, including its brand new cast of characters and the tools available to players, will be revealed in the coming weeks.
Shortly after its launch on Xbox 360 in June 2013, State of Decay broke records as the fastest-selling Xbox Live Arcade title in history, surpassing half a million paid downloads within two weeks after launch. The game released on Steam in early November, with its first DLC, Breakdown, hitting later that month.
Last month, Undead Labs founder Jeff Strain announced the studio had signed a multi-year, multi-title agreement with Microsoft Studios. The studio has a second game currently in its conceptual phase, Class4, which will be a "shared virtual world" and build on the experience created in State of Decay.A possibly unforeseen event occurred to end the Hyderabad Test, as far as DRS is concerned. Because it brought India an expected victory, the review to bring about the last dismissal - with almost a session still in India's hand to take that last wicket - didn't become the big controversy it might have been in tighter circumstances. In brief, India were allowed to review a not-out call on lbw after they had possibly seen the replay on the big screen or had at least had the opportunity for signals to be made from the change room.
From ESPNcricinfo's ball-by-ball coverage 100.3 90.8 kph, tosses it up, massively, and Taskin tries to flick, seems to miss the ball and opens himself up for an lbw appeal. Umpire Erasmus says wait, and then goes to check with his partner. Finally, he tags in the third umpire, and the soft signal is out. No bat there, so the catch should go out the window. They don't check the lbw though, not out flashes on the screen. But wait, Kohli has reviewed for lbw. So two reviews for the same ball. Pitched in line with leg, straightens enough to hit the front pad in line, and crashes into the stumps too. Three reds. India win 250/10
The details of this play were not as straightforward. A really full ball from R Ashwin hit the pad of Taskin Ahmed and lobbed up. India went up immediately. It cannot be said whether they appealed for lbw or bat-pad catch, but it seemed like one of those plays where only bat can save the batsman from the lbw, in which case he is out caught anyway. Umpire Marais Erasmus, though, gave it another twist by going to the third umpire to check if there had been a bump ball.
The replays showed that the bat didn't even touch the ball. In fact it hit the ground, which might have given Erasmus the impression of an inside edge. However, the replays also showed this was a really good lbw call in this case. As soon as the big screen flashed not out, Kohli hit his left forearm with his right fist, initiating what turned out to be a successful review.
This was in clear contravention of 3.2 (d) of the DRS protocol: "No replays, either at normal speed or slow motion, should be shown on a big screen to spectators until either the next delivery has been bowled or the players have left the field."
Even if there are both an umpire review and a player review for the same delivery, the player review has to be made within "no more than a few seconds" of the ball becoming dead. The umpire preview precedes the player review in such instances but the request for the player review has to be made immediately. However, the DRS protocol as of now covers more for instances such as an lbw appeal and a subsequent run-out where the on-field umpire thinks one appeal should be turned down and is not in position to rule on the second. In such cases the fielding side has to review immediately against the not-out.
However, in this case, even though Kohli wanted to review immediately, even the umpire wanted to rule out as was evident from his going to the third umpire to check for a bump ball and a soft signal of out. So if Kohli was to review immediately, what was the review against?
DRS was first trialled in 2008, and this is quite possibly the first time we have had such a situation. What's important in these unforeseen circumstances is that eventually the correct decision was made. What's more important is that an addition be made to the DRS protocol after discussions at the ICC cricket committee's meeting this May because not always will such a mix-up be so harmless.
The most practical solution for such cases is to check for all dismissals once the umpire review has been initiated. If the secondary mode of dismissal is lbw, as it was in this case, the umpire's call should depend on the original decision. In this case, for example, Erasmus had originally ruled that the batsman had hit the ball, which means that when the review is run for the lbw the original decision should considered to be not out.My goal is to generate an overworld map, where each tile would cover an area of about a hundred square km (On normal terrain, a regular unit would need a day to cross a regular tile). The overworld needs to contain islands, continents and biomes. The output of this process is a 2D “image”, with data per pixel (32 bits, like an RGBA PNG file) that completely describe how is the environment of a tile like. I’m going for plausible rather than realistic: I want to be able to create maps that are fun to play. Below, I’m going to go through the various steps of the process that I use. All but the landmass labeling and river generation passes are generated using the GPU, as the calculations are typically parallel. The whole process takes about 60 milliseconds for 512×512 maps, so we can tinker all sorts of parameters and see the results in real-time.
Continent mask
The first step is the creation of the seed continents. These are not necessarily the final continents, but they help construct the base for the big landmasses. The continents start off as a small set of scaled and rotated ellipses. Everything about these ellipses is randomized: number, scale, rotation, eccentricity.
The next step is to distort the boundary of the ellipse using perlin noise. Effectively, we’re warping the point we’re on before testing whether it’s inside or outside one of the ellipses. There are two parameters for this: warp frequency (how much can the warp differ between 2 adjacent pixels) and warp magnitude (how far the warped point can get from the original). Some examples of increasing frequency:
For the rest of the post, let’s choose the one before last. At the end of this stage, we have a map that stores if we’re inside or outside big continent-like landmasses
Continent mask distance field
This step calculates a limited distance field around the coastline of the continents: this will be useful for the actual heightmap generation. We calculate distances from the coastline (d = 0) up to a number of pixels away from it (e.g. d = 32) and we map the values 0-1 to this clamped distance range.
Heightmap
This step calculates an 8-bit heightmap with values [-1,1], positive numbers representing land. We don’t care about it looking too realistic, as the heightmap will only be used implicitly, as an input to other parts of the generator.
Landmass mask
This step creates the final landmasses. We’re just using the heightmap to generate this, comparing the height values against 0.
Landmass distance field
This step does the exact same process as the continent mask distance field, but on the landmass mask.
Landmass labeling
This step does a floodfill over the heightmap, detects landmasses, classifies them in terms of size (rocks, islets, islands and continents) given user-defined area thresholds. There can be a maximum of 63 continents given the current bit budget, but of course that’s flexible. The continents are also uniquely labeled at this step (this means that all the tiles that belong in continent 2, store the value 2 somewhere — see below, Biome data section). Additionally, bodies of water that are completely enclosed by landmasses are marked as part of the landmass, so that they can correctly be identified as lakes later on.
Rivers
This step generates the rivers in the overworld. Effectively, give some parameters such as minimum river proximity to each other and river min/max length, we generate rivers. The way this is done is by sampling random points on the map and testing if they can be appropriate starting locations (e.g. on or by a mountain). If a point satisfies the conditions, then a path is attempted to be generated, with branching; the path follows a downward path in terms of heights till it reaches a lake, the sea, reaches maximum length, or can’t go further due to any reason. Below two examples with different density:
Humidity
This step generates the humidity for each tile. It takes into account outline, heights and freshwater. The basic map is calculated with perlin noise, but it is also adjusted based on if a tile is water or land: areas in and near water are more humid. It is also affected by the the freshwater mask, which gets heavily blurred and added as extra humidity; this guarantees that there almost never are rivers in the desert, or swamps without a body of water nearby.
Temperature
This step generates the temperature for each tile. It takes into account outline, heights and freshwater as well. The basic map is calculated with perlin noise, but it is also adjusted based on if a tile is water or land: when on land, we sample from a heavily blurred heightmap and reduce the temperature based on that regional average height. This reduces temperatures in regions where there are a lot of high mountains. Additionally, the regional existence of water reduces temperatures a bit.
Biome data
At this point, we’re almost done! This step samples all maps and packs them into a 32-bit output map. These 32 bits encode the biome detail in a coarse way.
Here’s the breakdown:
Temperature: 3 bits
Humidity: 3 bits
Elevation: 2 bits // Height or depth, dep. on water type
Water type: 2 bits // none, river, lake, sea
IsCoast: 1 bit
Vegetation density: 3 bits
Wildlife density: 3 bits
Continent ID: 6 bits
Landmass size: 2 bits
Biome type: 4 bits // one of the 16 predefined biomes
4 bits // one of the 16 predefined biomes Padding: 3 bits
For many of the above (temperature, humidity, elevation), we quantize the (typically 8-bit) data that we already have to the bits above. The biome type is calculated from the rest of the values (temperature, humidity, etc), and is one of the following:
Sea Coast, Shallow Water, Sea, Deep Sea, Abyssal Sea, Tundra, Alpine, Desert, Boreal Forest, Temperate Rainforest, Tropical Rainforest, Temperate Deciduous Forest, Tropical Seasonal Forest, Temperate Grassland, Savannah, Wetland
Some of the values are calculated in this step:
WaterType: Calculate based on if it’s a river tile, landmass ID and height.
IsCoast: Calculate based on if we’re on land, and sample all neighbours for any sea tile
Vegetation density: More perlin noise, adjusted by humidity, temperature and height
Wildlife density: More perlin noise, adjusted by humidity, temperature, height, freshwater and vegetation
Here’s a visualization of the vegetation density:
… and the wildlife density:
Depending on the biome type we can distribute flora, fauna, resources, civilisations, etc.
Here’s a video of the GUI tool in action!
Other examples here:
Closing notes
The format might get adjusted in the future, in order to use those padding bits to encode some extra information, for example freshwater direction in river tiles (2 bits). There is also a dynamic magic map which specifies, in areas of high magic, special happenings such as rifts, summons, portals, etc. Additionally, there’s tile resource generation which will be covered next time.
Like this: Like Loading...Over the years my collection of Blood Bowl teams has waxed and waned in direct correlation to my time available to game and my economic standing. Despite the fluctuations the one team I never pulled the trigger on was the Undead team. I’ve always liked the idea of an Undead team ever since I read about the Champions of Death and their coach Tomolandry the Undying. Despite the interest in the team I was never truly satisfied with the team options out there. GWs Undead had good components but the Zombies where weakly done and I also felt like the Ghouls looked like they were in need of a sports bra. What I longed for was an Undead team that had a consistent sports team look that still offered great details and a lot of character.
I don’t know much of Vortice Miniatures and wouldn’t have ever come across them if I hadn’t been cruising around on Talk Fantasy Football. Like most independent fantasy football companies they are based out of Spain. Vortice is a bit unusual in that they don’t appear to be a full time model producer. They do have a rudimentary website that has not been updated in a very long time. They have only produced a few single models in the last year or so and mostly of late they appear to cranking out custom portable Fantasy Football game boards. I’ve inquired if there are any more plans for future team production and I have not heard back from Vortice on the issue. I’m one of the six remaining humans not on Facebook but Vortice does have a presence there with all their gorgeous models viewable. They also showcase their custom pitches that they build which have look to be crafted with care and commitment. Without a website there is no direct ordering which I’ll discuss later, but despite this I’ve placed three orders with Vortice to date and I’ve experienced no issues with communication, delivery, and product quality. So with a few hurdles in the way why would you want to purchase their Undead team?
Vortice has relied on the talents of Pedro Ramos for the sculpting of their models. Pedro is not only a fantastic artist but he also hand sculpts his miniatures which gives them not only realistic proportions but also great individual facial expressions. Second, Vortice uses a very high quality resin for their models. Its a hard resin that takes very sharp details but it is not brittle like the Forge World resin. Please note like all resin the thin parts you still must be careful with. I don’t know how they do it but of the two teams plus extra models I have ordered from them they have all had almost no mold lines or flashing on the models and I’ve never encountered any air bubbles on the models. I honestly never considered resin as an option until I got my hands on the Vortice Undead team. After the normal soapy wash I’ve had no problems with my Games Workshop paints sticking to the models.
So what do I like about this team? They are actual football players. While Games Workshops’ last Undead team had some good models, it didn’t exactly convey the look of a sports team on the field. The Vortice team has been sculpted to not only have the required helmets and pads you would expect to see on a player, but it also has the great details of all the straps and belts that are holding the armor in place. The models have the look of a serious team yet there are numerous humorous parts that give them great character.
The Zombies and Skeletons are chocked full of small details like exposed organs or bones popping through the skin that really gives them uniqueness. While some designers have gone the route of the multi-species Zombies, Vortice has stuck with a more consistent look. While I love the idea of raising my friends’ (especially Jeff’s) former players back on the field, I still want to have my team to have that consistent look so I’m fine with the models all being Undead humans. The Skeletons have some of the most ragged uniforms on the team which I like because in my mind I picture the Skeletons as some of the longest serving players on the team (hence the lack of flesh). The Zombie poised to stomp with his boot is a great model as is the rude Skeleton flipping the bird. The only potential draw back amongst the Skeletons and Zombies I have encountered so far is despite the strength of the resin the Skeleton’s ankles are still quite thin so a bit of care is required to make sure they don’t snap.
I always felt the GW ghouls where the weakest point of the team. They had a chubby look to them with little pot bellies and looking in need of some support up top. The Vortice Ghouls in contrast look like speedy and physically fit players and they are carrying just enough armor to make the AV7 believable. The masked hoods are a great touch and they remind me of the Scarecrow from the Batman films. The poses are also superior to the GW perpetual high-five pose that 3rd edition Blood Bowl seemed to be fascinated with. The Ghoul with the hangman’s noose still around his neck is very characterful and instantly gained the nickname the ‘hanged man’. Any time you can look at a model and immediately start coming up with a story behind him then you know the sculptor is doing a good job. Unfortunately one of the ghouls is showing off the dreaded one foot on the base pose and my Neanderthal like hands snapped him off his tab. It will take a bit of finagling to pin him but not the end of the world.
Perhaps the least sports looking pair on the team, the Wights still get a pass in my book. While the armor isn’t exactly Football looking I still find these models to be great looking Wights from the classic era of Games Workshop. I always enjoyed the old Warhammer Wights clad head to toe in ancient armor so I appreciate the look here. I think with correctly done color scheme you can keep them matching the look of the rest of the team yet still harken back to classic Warhammer Fantasy. Both players are sporting a ragged half cape that gives them a sinister look and decent looking sports poses. Wights aren’t exactly speedy so standing poses will work and having both feet on the base is always a plus.
The Mummies are big! I’m talking big guy sized height. I’ll admit that the size of them gave me pause at first but after seeing them lined up with other teams I’ve come to accept it. Personally I’ve always imagined Vampires and Mummies having an unnatural strength more than being ripped monstrosities, but the height difference on the Mummies really makes them stand out. Since Blood Bowl’s re-release with the larger scale I don’t really feel that the size makes as much of a difference anymore. The models themselves are both single piece which is a huge plus. The poses aren’t particularly exciting but they look the part of ST 5, MA 3 brick walls.
I’ve never wrapped my head around the Necromatic team. I was aghast when I heard that it was originally intended to replace the Undead team, and I’m glad that it wasn’t the case. The Werewolves I’ve not figured out with their fast movement, average strength, yet Frenzy and Claws? I picked up the Necro components so I can give the team a try and I am glad I did. The Werewolves are also oversized for their strength coming in taller than the ghouls yet shorter than the Mummies. Obviously the one on the move has a much lower profile. Both of the designs are excellent though and I look forward to getting some paint on them. With the increased size Pedro Ramos packed both with a ton of details in the fur and shredded clothing. I like the standing Werewolf with the helmet in his hand. I imagine him beating his opponents senseless with the helmet during a Frenzy induced rage!
The Flesh Golems are on par with the Mummies for size. Being only strength 4 I perhaps would have preferred something a bit smaller, but as with all the reasons I said with the Mummies also apply here. They are the teams heaviest hitters so having them standout on the team makes sense. The sculpting is again excellent with the larger size affording the opportunity for Vortice to add in the details.
I ordered the full Graveyard team which includes everything but the Skeleton players but also offered a few extras. While I’m not sure if I’ll ever use the components it’s always nice to have some. The set also includes an undertaker model that I suppose is meant to be an Igor. Unfortunately he was packed up in the move so I could not get a picture.
So let talk scale.
Please forgive the mismatched bases. I’m in the process of moving so I just grabbed what was available. The above shot gives you a run down of the team’s scale on its own. As you can tell there is a big step up from the Werewolf to the Mummies and Flesh Golems. On its own it might look like too much but let’s see how it compares with other teams.
My initial misgivings about the team’s scale melts away once I see them mixed in with the other miniatures. While my selection isn’t exactly BB staple teams I think it highlights how little the scale |
of all the General Electric products that are around us every day.
GE also took it as an opportunity to cunningly promote its other Instagram accounts based on the products included in the video.
Oreo
If this animation from Oreo doesn’t get you in the mood for Christmas then I don’t know what will.
Oh wait, it’s January…
Vans
Vans’ contribution to the festively visual Instagram video deluge is simple but fun.
Great use of colour, and bonus points for the subtle animation on the shoe.
Mr Porter
Somewhat linked to the MTV example, this clip highlights the perils of trying wrap such popular Christmas gift choices as a dog or a cactus, and why you should just order something pre-wrapped from Mr Porter instead.A prison has been criticised for holding a female prisoner in segregation in a "squalid" cell for more than five years.
The discovery was made during an unannounced visit to HMP Bronzefield women's prison near Ashfield, Surrey, in April, said the chief inspector of prisons, Nick Hardwick.
In the inspection report, Hardwick said: "We were dismayed that the woman who had already been in the segregation unit for three years in 2010 was still there in 2013. Her cell was unkempt and squalid and she seldom left it."
Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: "This shocking case of treatment, which appears to amount to torture, in an English prison should shame ministers who tolerate the overuse of custody for women and consequent poor treatment."
Hardwick added: "Although more activities had been organised for her and better multidisciplinary support was available, she still had too little to occupy her. Her prolonged location on the segregation unit amounted to cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment − and we use these words advisedly.
"The treatment and conditions of other women held for long periods in segregation was little better. Much of this was outside the prison's direct control and required a national strategy for meeting the needs of these very complex women − as exists in the male estate. However, Bronzefield itself needed to do more to ameliorate the worst effects of this national failure."
There are 446 women on remand or serving sentences ranging from a few weeks to life at the prison. It has a small number of "restricted status" women, some of whom have severe personality disorders.
The report calls for a policy to help manage women "with complex needs who cannot be supported in the prison's normal location". This should include providing a humane and properly resourced environment and regime for those women, as well as for restricted status women in this category, it says.
Crook said: "Her Majesty's chief inspector is absolutely right that specialist care outside of the prison walls needs to be developed for the handful of women who pose particular challenges."
Despite successfully tackling a range of challenges thrown up by its "complex population" of inmates, the prison still faces some issues that could only be dealt with at national level, Hardwick said. The inspectors also said the areas that remain of most concern are outside the prison's direct control.
Arrangements for transporting women to and from the prison were unacceptable, according to the inspectors. Women were carried in vehicles containing men and spent long periods in the van, possibly because they had to wait while male prisoners were dropped off first, and some complained they felt unsafe on the trip.
Practical resettlement services were rated very good, but could be helped by better co-ordination of offender management, and work to support women in keeping strong relationships with their families was underdeveloped, the report says.
In contrast, the inspectors ranked the reception, first night and induction arrangements as good across the board and there was very good support for women with substance misuse problems throughout their prison stays.
Support for those with alcohol problems was particularly impressive and there had been no self-inflicted deaths at the prison and the number of self-harm incidents had reduced dramatically year on year, it finds.
The most vulnerable women got sensitive but effective support and the staff had a good knowledge of the women in their care.
Much-improved healthcare and being allowed a reasonable amount of time out of the cells, along with different activities, were also among the positives identified by the inspectors.
Hardwick said: "This inspection took place while the government was conducting a review of the women's custodial estate. HMP Bronzefield illustrates some of the challenges that review should address.
"It is a credit to the managers and staff at Bronzefield that they meet these challenges as well as they do. There is more that can be done locally, but some of the issues identified in this report require a fundamentally different approach to the imprisonment of women at national level."
Michael Spurr, chief executive of the National Offender Management Service, said: "This report shows the good work that the director and her staff are doing with the complex population at Bronzefield.
"I am pleased that the chief inspector recognises the very good support that is being offered to the women, which is helping to play a key role in their rehabilitation.
"I recognise the importance of looking at our national approach to women in prison and a review was commissioned earlier in the year into the women's custodial estate, the outcome of which will be announced in due course."
Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said: "The chief inspector reports that staff are doing their best to respond to the needs of women at Bronzefield, many of whom are in poor mental and physical health, addicted to drugs and drink and traumatised by separation from their children.
"But why in this day and age are women with such complex needs transported like cattle and dumped in prison, where one of the most damaged women is left to rot in some form of solitary confinement for six years?
"We are quick to condemn cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of people in prison in other countries, now government must act to put right failings in our own women's justice system."By Fred Backus, Sarah Dutton and Rebecca Kaplan
Updated 11/6 at 8:15 a.m. ET
McAuliffe wins Va. governor's race, thanks supporters
What can GOP learn from Christie's big win?
A bitter, divisive race between Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is over and it turned out to be a nailbiter. McAuliffe defeated Cuccinelli in a surprisingly slim 48-45 percent victory to become Virginia's next governor, breaking a long Virginia tradition going back to 1977 of voting for a governor from the opposing party of the sitting president.
Virginia was one of two states choosing governors Tuesday, along with New Jersey - where Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J., was re-elected - and a slew of local elections also took place across the country including elections for big-city mayors and various state ballot initiatives.
According to exit polls, both McAuliffe and Cuccinelli did very well among their own partisans - each getting more than nine in 10 votes from members of their own parties. Cuccinelli had a nine-point edge among independents, who make up three in 10 voters in Virginia. But McAuliffe did better than Cuccinelli in getting out his base: slightly more voters described themselves as Democrats (37 percent) than Republicans (32 percent).
McAuliffe also won among voters under 45 and college graduates - both groups that McDonnell won four years ago - and he led among moderates (22 points) and women (9 points).
CBSNews
Virginia voters may have seen Cuccinelli as more extreme ideologically than McAuliffe. Fifty percent saw Cuccinelli as too conservative, compared to just 41 percent who saw McAuliffe as too liberal.
CBSNews
There are important changes to the demographic turnout from four years ago that made the race close this year. The conservative vote was down slightly - from 40 percent in 2009 to 36 percent today - and they were slightly less supportive of the Republican candidate. White evangelicals - who voted strongly Republican Tuesday and four years ago - made up 27 percent of the vote, down from 34 percent in 2009. A majority of white voters - 56 percent - favored Cuccinelli in the race, but their percentage of the electorate was down slightly (72 percent now compared to 78 percent in 2009), while the percentage of black voters - who vote overwhelmingly Democratic - has rose (20 percent now compared to 16 percent in 2009).
Regionally, while Cuccinelli won (58 percent) in the more conservative and rural western and central regions of Virginia, McAuliffe had the edge in the swing district of Richmond and the lower Potomac River (47-43 percent) and held a majority (54 percent) in the Tidewater region of Norfolk and Virginia Beach - which voted for Obama last year but went Republican four years ago in the race for governor. In the heavily Democratic D.C. suburbs, McAuliffe outperformed Cuccinelli by almost two-to-one.
How voters perceived the recent partisan battles in Washington give some indication of their voting preference today. Forty-six percent of voters support the 2010 health care law while 53 percent opposed it: nine in 10 who support the law voted for McAuliffe, while slightly fewer who oppose it - eight in 10 - voted for Cuccinelli. The recent shutdown of the federal government also looms large in this state where a sizeable percentage lives in the shadow of the nation's capital. Thirty-two percent of voters said their household has been affected by the shutdown, and while 45 percent blamed Mr. Obama more for the shutdown, 48 percent blamed the Republicans. Those who blame the president more are overwhelmingly supporting Cuccinelli, while those who blame the Republicans more are overwhelmingly voting for McAuliffe.
CBSNews
In the weeks leading up to the election, McAuliffe held a lead in the high single digits over Cuccinelli. The most recent Quinnipiac poll out Monday showed McAuliffe up 46 to 40 percent, a smaller margin than a survey from Oct. 23 in which he was up 46 to 39 percent but up from an Oct. 30 poll that had him up only by 4.
Cuccinelli's only hope for victory lay in the possibility that Democratic turnout was extremely low - even lower than it usually is in the off-year elections when there is no presidential race to draw voters to the polls. McAuliffe's surrogates, including President Obama, Vice President Biden and former President Clinton implored Democrats to bring out their friends and neighbors in the days leading up to the election.
The Virginia race has been a particularly vicious contest marked mostly by personal attacks flung back and forth during the course of the campaign. Cuccinelli has charged McAuliffe with running a dishonest, unserious campaign; McAuliffe has attempted to paint Cuccinelli, a tea party favorite, as a far-right extremist out to end access to abortions and contraception. Even on policy issues, the fact-checking website Politifact said that both candidates "fared miserably on the Truth-O-Meter this fall."
Things were so dismal that two of the state's major papers - the Richmond Times-Dispatch and the Roanoke Times -- declined to endorse either candidate this year for the first time in recent memory.
"The major-party candidates have earned the citizenry's derision. The third-party alternative has run a more exemplary race yet does not qualify as a suitable option. We cannot in good conscience endorse a candidate for governor," said the Times-Dispatch.
Despite the bitter nature of the campaign, Virginia was the only competitive race on the map, which meant both sides poured their resources - including a host of star surrogates -- into the state. Cuccinelli campaigned with Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul. McAuliffe, for his part, got help from close friendsBill and Hillary Clinton and closed out the campaign with appearances from the president andvice president.
The lineup of surrogates and McAuliffe's deep network of sources he cultivated during his years as a Democratic fundraiser also helped him to pummel Cuccinelli in the money race. McAuliffe raised $34.4 million to Cuccinelli's $19.7, according to the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project.
The final days of the campaign have served in part as a microcosm of the battles between President Obama and the GOP. Cuccinelli and his supporters have said that Virginia is the next "battlefield" in their fight against the Affordable Care Act, and both Biden and Obama warned that Cuccinelli will adhere to the no-compromise politics that led to the recent government shutdown, which had an outsized effect on Virginia's substantial federal workforce.Taiwan, like many countries in the 1980s, pursued an economic model of neoliberalism. This was a time when Reaganomics and Thatcherism were in full swing. Many economies were turning away from a Keynesian approach for a more market-oriented economy that would meet its demand with the supply at hand.
Like all economic models, it was supposed to be flawless. However, an economist is someone who can tell you today why his or her theory yesterday was wrong. The gains made by adopting a neoliberalist economic model was an increase in the middle-class.
The counterweight to these gains is that low-income groups in society suffer. One such way they suffer is due to the gentrification of their districts.
Gentrification is a term that means “urban renewal” which has negative connotations. It is the process in which urban neighborhoods are renewed. The knock-on effect is an influx of new affluent residents.
This causes low-income earners and small businesses in the area to take flight to other districts as property prices rise. It has been an issue affecting New York for quite some time with areas in Brooklyn such as Williamsburg and Greenpoint seeing a 79% increase in rent since 2000. Black residents are taking flight from theses areas as gentrification displaces them.
In Taipei, informal residences or settlements, were tolerated by the KMT as a solution to the lack of housing available. According to research conducted by NTU, in 1964, one third of Taipei’s residents lived in these informal settlements, most of which were on state-owned land with public utilities being provided. However, these settlements were soon gentrified under mega-development projects in the 1990s.
With public housing projects being reduced in the 1990s and only benefiting a certain few, the gentrification of informal settlements would create long-lasting problems in Taipei. Even with protests by the Citizen Solidarity against Urban Speculation movement in 1989, the government continued the privatization of public land to developers.
Da'an was gentrified more slowly over time with the first waves occurring the 1990s with mass evictions of residences and the development of ‘high-end’ residencies mostly along Xinyi Road and Xingsheng South Road. This caused local property prices to climb.
The second wave occurred in the mid-2000s with the development of luxurious apartments. The residents were considered squatters because they lived in informal housing.
For decades they were provided public utilities by the government and even had official residency registration, and in a swift move they seen by the law as squatters. With very little public housing available and no alternatives given to those evicted, there have been long-term implications for a community of people left with no options.
Yongkang Street in Da'an was a community that fought back. In 1995, Yongkang Park was planned to be paved over for a road that would alleviate traffic on the weekend for visitors going to Da'an Park. 50 trees were also planned to be removed.
It was quite literally an uprooting of a community that used the park as a community space in an area that was being slowly developed without any plans for the residents and worst of all, without their permission or input.
The Friends of Yongkang park was founded and built up support against the proposed road by contacting the media and gaining support from the community by hosting events in the park. Eventually, with pressure from the media and the community the Planning and Construction Bureaus halted all plans.
Although this speaks truth about how civic engagement can give a voice to a community to prevent its gentrification, it was not able to prevent the area from being gentrified. Walking through the area today, it is not hard to find trendy cafés, bars and shops. It has become a touristy place with crowded streets on the weekend.
It has lost part of itself to give way to gentrification. Although there is still a residential community, many former residencies have been converted into cafés and businesses which accommodate tourists, more so than residents.
Of course, this type of gentrification can be seen all over Taipei. The effect it has had can be visibly seen by Taiwan’s Housing Price Index. From 2001 to 2016, there has been a massive rise in the housing price index, with index points going from 100 in 2001, to nearly 300 in 2016. The index (HPI) is used to measure the price difference in residential housing over time.
Housing prices rising over time is hardly anything to be worried about, but when it is considered that the average and minimum wage have both not shifted upwards relative to the housing price index for the last 10 years, this could be indicative of a bubble in the housing market which is exerting pressure on first time buyers and those who rent.
The Liberty Times has gone so far as to state in 2015, that in order to buy a house, you should not eat or drink for 15 years to help you save enough money to buy property in Taipei. For low to middle income earners, owning property is now too expensive. The development of the city has gentrified it to the point that it is now exclusionary to the very people that it was gentrified for in the first place.
It remains to be seen if there can be enough affordable public housing built in the future and with the effects of gentrification, many residents in Taipei might be pushed to other areas of the city that are less developed. While urban renewal projects can have a positive effect such as the Tamsui River waterfront redevelopment projects, other projects have had an adverse effect on the people it was meant to help.
In Michel Foucault's insightful book "Madness and Civilization," he explains that in our modern society, we try to hide or take people with mental illness away from society. Gentrification in this light is a way to hide low-income earners and the homeless from our societies view. If it is out of sight, then it is out of mind for all those except the ones who must be kept away.Now we've been waiting, and waiting, and waiting for this update to finally come. We even braved to try a leaked ROM to see how ICS would feel like on the Note. What can we say, even the Cyanogen team managed to produce a custom ICS ROM for the device before the manufacturer.
Never mind, the important thing is that the Ice Cream Sandwich update for the Samsung Galaxy Note is finally seeding to users across the world. So far there is no official statement by Samsung so the roll-out schedule is unclear. As usual with this sort of things, not everybody would get it at the same time, some regions and SIM-free devices will be first.
If you don't get a notification for the update over the air (as some lucky German users), you can also check with your Kies computer software.
As evident on the screenshot, the changelog is not that long, but the bump to the latest and greatest version of Android (ok, it's 4.0.3 so maybe not ultimately the latest) is certainly worth it and brings along a number of positive changes, which are not that easy to fit in a small changelog like this.
However, Samsung are quick to add additional info on their pre-installed premium apps via a short video ad, which was published about a month ago. Enjoy it below:
If you get your hands on an updated device, please let us know the country and your experience with it in the comments section below.
Source | ViaArcade Fire’s new single, “Reflektor,” may have leaked, but the Montreal indie-rock giants still have 9/9 on lock. “Reflektor” is expected to arrive officially today, September 9, at 9 p.m. EST, along with a video directed by Anton Corbijn. But this late-summer Monday has already been full of AF-related developments.
Most recently, Arcade Fire have been confirmed as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live’s season premiere. As Variety reports (via Pitchfork), the Suburbs exiles will perform on the show’s September 28 episode, hosted by none other than Tina Fey, who will undoubtedly make a self-deprecating joke about how the band is way cooler than her musical tastes.
Arcade Fire Tube is all over it. Most notably for those of us outside Quebec, a listing for Arcade Fire’s new album, also titled Reflektor, has popped up on New Zealand’s iTunes. The listing includes the cover art you see above (and in full below), which shows a marble sculpture by Auguste Rodin, based on a story from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The listing further suggests Reflektor will be a double album, consisting of 13 songs in all. None of this is confirmed, because secrecy.
Speaking of secrecy, Arcade Fire’s reported secret show last week at a Montreal salsa club looks to be getting a not-so-secret reprise. A poster on the website for Salsathèque indicated Arcade Fire’s alter ego as the Reflektors will be playing there tonight at, yup, 9 p.m., with a ticket price of $9. “Formal attire or costume mandatory,” the poster reads; that’s also below.
Over the weekend, the group posted a new promotional photo on Twitter. The members are upside-down; check it out, yup, below. And stay tuned for updates.For Supernatural fans, Richard Speight Jr. and Rob Benedict are God-like … literally. As recurring characters on the show, Speight played the archangel Gabriel, while Benedict played a prophet who is believed to also be the big man upstairs. But here’s the thing: That was five years ago. Other than a cameo or two, both Speight and Benedict wrapped their storylines on the show in 2010. So how does their fame live on? Two words: Fan conventions.
Thanks to Supernatural‘s passionate fan base, Speight and Benedict now spend 12 to 14 weekends a year attending fan conventions, where they’re two of the biggest stars in the world. Then, the convention ends, and they’re back to living their everyday lives.
“One of the things that stood out to us just in life in doing cons was the disparity between going into a hotel packed with people who are literally tripping over each other to get your autograph and then leaving that hotel on Sunday and coming back to a town where you are persona non grata,” Speight said. “The juxtaposition is pretty dramatic.”
And that strange juxtaposition—combined with the even more strange happenings at these conventions—gave them an idea about a year and a half ago.
“Doing conventions, you can’t not find yourself in some bizarre situations doing some weird things,” Speight said. “And every time that would happen, Rob would turn and go, ‘This is a show.’ You say it four or five times and then you’re like, it really is a show. What are we doing? Let’s make a show.”
Taking those weird situations and then adding the rapport that Speight and Benedict had developed over the six years of doing these conventions together, they knew they were onto something. When they found themselves co-hosting some of the conventions—like Letterman and Paul Shaffer, according to Speight—they realized that they had an opportunity.
And that’s when they filmed the pilot for Kings of Con, a series that tells the story of Rob and Rich, two men who are “super famous … 13 weekends a year,” according to the show’s tagline. With an ongoing Indiegogo campaign, they’re trying to raise the funds to film a complete 10-episode first season, following their lives on the fan convention circuit. But you should know that it’s not a reality show.
Speight and Benedict play exaggerated versions of themselves, and Benedict estimates the episodes are 60 percent scripted and 40 percent improvisation. Having only shot the pilot episode at this point, they’re waiting to see how much they raise through their Indiegogo campaign to determine how many episodes they’ll complete. And EW has an exclusive look at the opening scene of the show.
“The same way that Broad City is about the two broads, Kings of Con is about the kings,” Speight said. “Kings of Con is largely leaning on the TV versions of Rob and Rich and their escapades. That lends itself to a natural series arc, and in the same way that it’s not a reality for them, being famous isn’t really their life. But they get to go and pretend that they are somebody that they’re not, which is also part of the double meaning of being a con for Kings of Con.”
With each episode taking place in a different city, there is the promise of other Supernatural favorites making appearances, though they won’t say who just yet. “I can tell you that most of them, when they heard about it, asked us,” Benedict said. “They’ve all been incredibly supportive of it. Because the fact is, we all do this together. We’re like a traveling circus. It’s not just Rich and I.”
Speight added, “It’s definitely a road show. When you go to the hierarchy of the show, Rob and I were recurring characters. We were fortunate to have characters that made a big impact, but we weren’t long-standing players on the show. But in the con world, we’ve all been there the same amount of time. We’ve basically been opening for The Rolling Stones on tour for the last seven years.”
With 32 days left on the Indiegogo campaign, Kings of Con is nearing the $150,000 mark, with a goal of $300,000 getting fans a full slate of episodes.Archery Circuit is a Toronto-based company located in Scarborough. We offer a fun and new way to experience combat archery with our one-of-a-kind black light arena, providing glow-in- the-dark combat archery that you can’t get anywhere else!
Combat archery is an innovative sport that combines the primal exhilaration of firing a bow and arrow with modern standards of safety and entertainment. We use special foam-tipped arrows, ensuring painless contact no matter who’s playing. Combat archery is intense enough for thrill seekers and safe enough for kids, making this the perfect game for everyone to get up and be active! Customer satisfaction is our priority. We aim to provide a unique experience within the great Toronto area that is safe, fresh, and fun. All players will receive training from our staff and have the chance to practice with the equipment before entering the arena. Check out what our past customers had to say about Archery Circuit.Starfish are awesome sea creatures with regenerative arms and eye spots at the end of each arm that can sense light and dark. In the robot world, their quirky design has inspired tiny starfish-shaped medical microbots that can perform colon biopsies.
The microgrippers, developed by materials science and engineering professor David Gracias at John Hopkins University, can be smaller than 500 micrometers from one tip to the other—smaller than a thumb tack. The tiny arms are made with rigid magnetic nickel, and IEEE Spectrum reports that the devices "can be made of materials that respond to envionmental factors such as temperature, pH, and even enzymes.
Once placed into the body, the starfish bot's heat-sensitive arms will react to the body's temperature, and flex their arms accordingly. In IEEE Spectrum's video, the microbot opens its tiny arms out like a flying squirrel before clamping down firmly on a wobbly chunk of material. The researchers have tested out this method to obtain biopsies from pig colons and esophaguses.
It's believed that these bots could give doctors a less invasive way to screen for colon cancer. When performing a biopsy, doctors will typically collect tissue with a needle attached to a syringe, or make a small cut to access the area surgically.
The idea with the microgrippers is that the doctor would dispatch a swarm of either hundreds or thousands of the starfish troopers into the colon via tube. The doctor would then retrieve them using a magnet, or the patient could naturally discharge them through their poop.
While it's still early days, the starfish trooper bot adds to a growing collection of medical minibots (Motherboard recently covered a self-destructing origami mini-bot that could be deployed in the body), which hold promises of taking out some of our future ailments.Being neither a religion nor an ideology, the body of opinion termed conservatism possesses no Holy Writ and no Das Kapital to provide dogmata. So far as it is possible to determine what conservatives believe, the first principles of the conservative persuasion are derived from what leading conservative writers and public men have professed during the past two centuries. After some introductory remarks on this general theme, I will proceed to list ten such conservative principles.
Perhaps it would be well, most of the time, to use this word “conservative” as an adjective chiefly. For there exists no Model Conservative, and conservatism is the negation of ideology: it is a state of mind, a type of character, a way of looking at the civil social order.
The attitude we call conservatism is sustained by a body of sentiments, rather than by a system of ideological dogmata. It is almost true that a conservative may be defined as a person who thinks himself such. The conservative movement or body of opinion can accommodate a considerable diversity of views on a good many subjects, there being no Test Act or Thirty-Nine Articles of the conservative creed.
In essence, the conservative person is simply one who finds the permanent things more pleasing than Chaos and Old Night. (Yet conservatives know, with Burke, that healthy “change is the means of our preservation.”) A people’s historic continuity of experience, says the conservative, offers a guide to policy far better than the abstract designs of coffee-house philosophers. But of course there is more to the conservative persuasion than this general attitude.
It is not possible to draw up a neat catalogue of conservatives’ convictions; nevertheless, I offer you, summarily, ten general principles; it seems safe to say that most conservatives would subscribe to most of these maxims. In various editions of my book The Conservative Mind I have listed certain canons of conservative thought—the list differing somewhat from edition to edition; in my anthology The Portable Conservative Reader I offer variations upon this theme. Now I present to you a summary of conservative assumptions differing somewhat from my canons in those two books of mine. In fine, the diversity of ways in which conservative views may find expression is itself proof that conservatism is no fixed ideology. What particular principles conservatives emphasize during any given time will vary with the circumstances and necessities of that era. The following ten articles of belief reflect the emphases of conservatives in America nowadays.
First, the conservative believes that there exists an enduring moral order. That order is made for man, and man is made for it: human nature is a constant, and moral truths are permanent.
This word order signifies harmony. There are two aspects or types of order: the inner order of the soul, and the outer order of the commonwealth. Twenty-five centuries ago, Plato taught this doctrine, but even the educated nowadays find it difficult to understand. The problem of order has been a principal concern of conservatives ever since conservative became a term of politics.
Our twentieth-century world has experienced the hideous consequences of the collapse of belief in a moral order. Like the atrocities and disasters of Greece in the fifth century before Christ, the ruin of great nations in our century shows us the pit into which fall societies that mistake clever self-interest, or ingenious social controls, for pleasing alternatives to an oldfangled moral order.
It has been said by liberal intellectuals that the conservative believes all social questions, at heart, to be questions of private morality. Properly understood, this statement is quite true. A society in which men and women are governed by belief in an enduring moral order, by a strong sense of right and wrong, by personal convictions about justice and honor, will be a good society—whatever political machinery it may utilize; while a society in which men and women are morally adrift, ignorant of norms, and intent chiefly upon gratification of appetites, will be a bad society—no matter how many people vote and no matter how liberal its formal constitution may be.
Second, the conservative adheres to custom, convention, and continuity. It is old custom that enables people to live together peaceably; the destroyers of custom demolish more than they know or desire. It is through convention—a word much abused in our time—that we contrive to avoid perpetual disputes about rights and duties: law at base is a body of conventions. Continuity is the means of linking generation to generation; it matters as much for society as it does for the individual; without it, life is meaningless. When successful revolutionaries have effaced old customs, derided old conventions, and broken the continuity of social institutions—why, presently they discover the necessity of establishing fresh customs, conventions, and continuity; but that process is painful and slow; and the new social order that eventually emerges may be much inferior to the old order that radicals overthrew in their zeal for the Earthly Paradise.
Conservatives are champions of custom, convention, and continuity because they prefer the devil they know to the devil they don’t know. Order and justice and freedom, they believe, are the artificial products of a long social experience, the result of centuries of trial and reflection and sacrifice. Thus the body social is a kind of spiritual corporation, comparable to the church; it may even be called a community of souls. Human society is no machine, to be treated mechanically. The continuity, the life-blood, of a society must not be interrupted. Burke’s reminder of the necessity for prudent change is in the mind of the conservative. But necessary change, conservatives argue, ought to be gradual and discriminatory, never unfixing old interests at once.
Third, conservatives believe in what may be called the principle of prescription. Conservatives sense that modern people are dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, able to see farther than their ancestors only because of the great stature of those who have preceded us in time. Therefore conservatives very often emphasize the importance of prescription—that is, of things established by immemorial usage, so that the mind of man runneth not to the contrary. There exist rights of which the chief sanction is their antiquity—including rights to property, often. Similarly, our morals are prescriptive in great part. Conservatives argue that we are unlikely, we moderns, to make any brave new discoveries in morals or politics or taste. It is perilous to weigh every passing issue on the basis of private judgment and private rationality. The individual is foolish, but the species is wise, Burke declared. In politics we do well to abide by precedent and precept and even prejudice, for the great mysterious incorporation of the human race has acquired a prescriptive wisdom far greater than any man’s petty private rationality.
Fourth, conservatives are guided by their principle of prudence. Burke agrees with Plato that in the statesman, prudence is chief among virtues. Any public measure ought to be judged by its probable long-run consequences, not merely by temporary advantage or popularity. Liberals and radicals, the conservative says, are imprudent: for they dash at their objectives without giving much heed to the risk of new abuses worse than the evils they hope to sweep away. As John Randolph of Roanoke put it, Providence moves slowly, but the devil always hurries. Human society being complex, remedies cannot be simple if they are to be efficacious. The conservative declares thathe acts only after sufficient reflection, having weighed the consequences. Sudden and slashing reforms are as perilous as sudden and slashing surgery.
Fifth, conservatives pay attention to the principle of variety. They feel affection for the proliferating intricacy of long-established social institutions and modes of life, as distinguished from the narrowing uniformity and deadening egalitarianism of radical systems. For the preservation of a healthy diversity in any civilization, there must survive orders and classes, differences in material condition, and many sorts of inequality. The only true forms of equality are equality at the Last Judgment and equality before a just court of law; all other attempts at levelling must lead, at best, to social stagnation. Society requires honest and able leadership; and if natural and institutional differences are destroyed, presently some tyrant or host of squalid oligarchs will create new forms of inequality.
Sixth, conservatives are chastened by their principle of imperfectability. Human nature suffers irremediably from certain grave faults, the conservatives know. Man being imperfect, no perfect social order ever can be created. Because of human restlessness, mankind would grow rebellious under any utopian domination and would break out once more in violent discontent—or else expire of boredom. To seek for utopia is to end in disaster, the conservative says: we are not made for perfect things. All that we reasonably can expect is a tolerably ordered, just, and free society, in which some evils, maladjustments, and suffering will continue to lurk. By proper attention to prudent reform, we may preserve and improve this tolerable order. But if the old institutional and moral safeguards of a nation are neglected, then the anarchic impulse in humankind breaks loose: “the ceremony of innocence is drowned.” The ideologues who promise the perfection of man and society have converted a great part of the twentieth-century world into a terrestrial hell.
Seventh, conservatives are persuaded that freedom and property are closely linked. Separate property from private possession, and Leviathan becomes master of all. Upon the foundation of private property, great civilizations are built. The more widespread is the possession of private property, the more stable and productive is a commonwealth. Economic levelling, conservatives maintain, is not economic progress. Getting and spending are not the chief aims of human existence; but a sound economic basis for the person, the family, and the commonwealth is much to be desired.
Sir Henry Maine, in his Village Communities, puts strongly the case for private property, as distinguished from communal property: “Nobody is at liberty to attack several property and to say at the same time that he values civilization. The history of the two cannot be disentangled.” For the institution of several property—that is, private property—has been a powerful instrument for teaching men and women responsibility, for providing motives to integrity, for supporting general culture, for raising mankind above the level of mere drudgery, for affording leisure to think and freedom to act. To be able to retain the fruits of one’s labor; to be able to see one |
into a similar twit storm. The Washington state representative tossed off a flippant -- but arguably amusing -- tweet after the Seattle Seahawks lost to the Arizona Cardinals in a football game last fall. “Losing a football game sucks,” Fitzgibbon wrote. “Losing to a desert racist wasteland sucks a lot.” The reference to Arizona’s arid climate and less-than-liberal immigration laws set off an interstate uproar, testimony to the power of a handful of words moving through the ether.
Words aren’t the only way Twitter can do damage. The New York City Police Department in April created a hashtag -- #myNYPD -- allowing citizens to quickly and easily post pictures to the department’s Twitter page of NYPD’s finest in action. The public largely responded by tweeting the department’s less-than-finest moments: a veritable gallery of the city’s men and women in blue clubbing, tear gassing, handcuffing and tackling Gotham citizens. “It was unfortunate to see what happened to the NYPD,” says Anil Chawla, author of an online white paper Twit Happens: How to Deal with Tweet Regret in the Public Sector. “It probably gives other government agencies pause.”
But a pause may not be a luxury government has. The positive communication through social media tools during such crises as Superstorm Sandy and the Boston Marathon bombing have been well documented, but the real story is how social media is beginning to infuse (some might say “subsume”) the day-to-day lives of public officials. Social media may be a perfect way to bypass the not-always-reliable or malleable mainstream press. It offers a government or public official a way to connect quickly and directly with citizens and gauge the pulse of the populace. It is the ultimate in government transparency.
Which is why the future of public-sector communication lies in clouds and ether -- Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and their ilk. Public officials had not only better get used to it, they’d better get good at it.
“The first Obama campaign was the real eye opener for a lot of politicians,” says Michael Klein, a Saskatoon, Canada-based communications consultant who focuses on social media. “It illustrated for politicians that social media isn’t just for Bill Gates and nerds. It goes beyond getting a message out. It’s a way to get feedback, engage in discussion and even to help form policy.”
But social media -- unscreened and unedited -- has its obvious drawbacks. Setting aside the occasional “shoot from the hip” tweet by a public official, “Participation in social media makes organizations vulnerable to both internal and external crises,” wrote Missy Graham and Elizabeth Johnson Avery in an issue of Public Relations Journal. “On an internal level, organizations have to be concerned about online behavior that could potentially damage the brand.”
Sometimes the damage flies in all directions. During Austin, Texas’ internationally renowned South by Southwest (SXSW) festival last March, the city’s Office of the Police Monitor helpfully tweeted, “Welcome #SXSWers! We know you’re loving Austin but if you experience a problem with police, let us know. 512-974-9090 austinpolicemonitor.com.”
For strangers to Austin, the tweet suggested that the Austin Police Department had a longstanding problem with how it treated visitors, and the Office of the Police Monitor intended to be right on top of the problem, ready to pounce at the earliest sign of trouble. Predictably, some in the Austin Police Department were not amused, including union president Wayne Vincent. “That message is clear to 1,700 police officers that work in this city,” he is quoted as saying shortly after the post. “It was a virtual slap in the face to every single one of them.”
Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo decided on a lighter response with his tweet: “@austintexas.gov If you want to commend a member of the @Austin_Police please drop me a line at art.acevedo@austintexas.gov. Enjoy ATX!” (ATX being Austin, Texas, naturally.)
The beauty of social media is that while it allows officials to mess up in a fabulously efficient and widespread way, it also allows rapid, blanket and unequivocal mea culpas. Realizing that its original missive sent the wrong message, Austin took the monitor’s tweet down and posted a revised one, saying that police were doing “an extraordinary job under extraordinary conditions” and apologizing “if [the Office of the Police Monitor] message gave wrong impression.”
Similarly in Massachusetts, the state quickly verbalized its regrets for the comment on sexual assault and suggested that the author had meant “preventable” not “avoidable.” For Washington Rep. Fitzgibbon’s part, he, too, quickly admitted his lapse in judgment -- he got a little carried away with what he viewed as some standard fan “trash talking.” The whole matter seemed to blow over in a “twecond,” suggesting that rule No. 1 for recovering from errant action on the social media front is to fess up quickly and completely.
The case of the NYPD is more complicated. While social media stands as a dynamic way to connect with citizens, it requires a few of the things that government doesn’t do well. First, there has to be a tolerance for risk. Unintended consequences abound in the social media world, especially when a high-level public organization is opening itself up to the broadest range of citizenry possible. Second, to the extent that it’s possible in the Wild West of social media, it takes a sophisticated and nuanced approach to shape and manage government’s message. Third, when done really well, it requires intra-governmental communication. Such communication, unfortunately, flies in the face of how government is actually structured and how bureaucrats typically behave.
“We’re trying to break down the ministry silos so that our Twitter accounts are more topic or theme based,” says Jeff Armstead, who handles digital communication for the province of Saskatchewan, Canada. “It’s a ‘one-government’ approach.” But getting siloed agencies to think in terms of shared responsibility and mission isn’t easy. Then there are the simple, silly bureaucratic details. “Every minister’s office has a different level of comfort with how much approval is required when you respond to a post,” Armstead says, “and that has caused some tension.”
There’s also the issue of consistency, which is directly related to control. One agency that’s been held up as a national model for using social media in a sophisticated way is the Palo Alto, Calif., Police Department -- not for crisis response, although it’s ready to use it if necessary -- but for day-to-day community relations and general citizen goodwill building.
Palo Alto tweets with a tight fist, and that fist belongs to Lt. Zach Perron, a garrulous exponent of social media, who heads up the department’s division of investigative services and public information. He is the only one -- besides the chief -- who puts out messages on social media, which helps ensure a distinct and consistent tone. The approach reduces risk and lends uniformity to the department’s missives. As Perron notes, “Every piece of information you put out on a social media account amounts to a press release, and once something goes out and you screwed it up, you can’t take it back.” But that isn’t as fraught with risk as handing the keys to someone who understands the technology, Perron says, “but doesn’t have the sense of what’s going out in your agency or community. If they issue a tweet or post something on Facebook without that in mind, it can be very damaging.”
So far, Perron’s department has avoided any such damage. To the contrary, the department seems to be using social media with commendable energy and savvy. For example, Palo Alto Chief Dennis Burns has won community accolades for his “ride along” tweets, where the chief jumps in a squad car with his beat cops and tweets about his experiences along the way. That’s really not so unusual in this day and age. Other chiefs in other departments were doing it before Palo Alto, which speaks to the medium’s penetration. According to figures compiled by the International Association of Chiefs of Police’s Center for Social Media, nearly 96 percent of all law enforcement agencies now engage in some form of social media activity. While most departments use social media for crime fighting, nearly 75 percent say that it has had the corollary effect of improved community relations.
Asked about the NYPD incident in that regard, Perron, who lectures nationally on law enforcement and social media, thinks the NYPD’s solicitation of photos was actually a gutsy move. He argues that at the end of the day it probably boosted the department’s followers on Twitter.
While law enforcement seems to be leading the way on social media uptake, other government agencies are clearly following suit. In their Public Relations Journal article, Graham and Avery note that 70 percent of local governments now engage in some form of social media activity. However, “they seem to predominantly be using it for Facebook postings and not two-way communication,” says Avery, an assistant professor of public relations at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
“You can’t be afraid to engage, to have a conversation,” Perron says, adding that the choice in Palo Alto has been to “have voice and tone that’s human and even humorous when appropriate, and antibureaucrat/government speak.”
It’s clear that social media has the power to humanize government, to open potentially promising channels of communication and to offer citizens direct access to their government and to public officials. Rep. Fitzgibbon adds that it’s also a very good way to stay connected to the mainstream media.
While Fitzgibbon, who chairs the House environment committee in Olympia, laments the shrinking statehouse press corps, he says social media has helped offset the impacts. “We don’t have a very large press corps in state government,” says Fitzgibbon. “It has diminished over time, but social media is a way to communicate with press throughout the state. It’s very efficient instead of sitting around waiting for a call.”
What is less clear, however, is whether the new media will, as some predict, be influential in shaping policy or budgets anytime soon. While examples of Twitter-fueled revolutions around the globe abound, so far there’s not much evidence that tweets or Facebook posts have revolutionized the state or local budgeting process. “As far as impacting budgeting, that’s still on the horizon,” says Fitzgibbon. “In part, that’s because it’s hard to know if the folks you hear from on social media are really representative of your constituents.” A tweet, Fitzgibbon points out, can come from anywhere and anybody and so doesn’t tend to carry much weight. He does, however, use social media to both gather and share information about policy with his colleagues and other interest groups. At the same time, more legislators are using Facebook and other platforms to mobilize citizen support for legislation.
As far as widespread use of social media by his colleagues goes -- either to communicate with constituents or stay abreast of key issues -- Fitzgibbon says it covers the spectrum. One thing he does know is that social media isn’t going away -- although uptake may be a bit slower in Olympia after his Arizona tweet. “Seeing me screw up is a cautionary tale,” Fitzgibbon says. “They probably think they can do their work without that sort of notoriety.”–The Eagles have scored a league-high 64 points in the first quarter this season. Fifty of them have come on their first two possessions. They have scored on their first possession five times in nine games, and on their second possession in five of the nine games. Pederson, like a lot of coaches, scripts his first 15 plays. "Frank [Reich] and I, we sit down and put the game plan together,'' Pederson said. "[The scripted plays] come down to the film study and just kind of going back and watching the teams that we're playing each week and trying to get – whether it be a pattern or something that you can sort of trust and rely on, knowing that [if you use a] certain personnel group of formation, you can get a defense in a certain front or coverage. But at the same time, I just want to make sure, when I put these [scripts] together, that we want to keep our offense in a rhythm and start fast.''The Devendra Fadnavis government in Maharashtra is likely to strike another blow at the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Congress-controlled Agriculture Produce Marketing Committees (APMC).
Buoyed by its performance in the recent municipal corporation and zila parishad elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government plans to carry out key electoral reforms that could fundamentally change the political profile of the 300-plus APMCs across the state.
The government may introduce a bill during the budget session of the state legislature beginning 6 March to give voting rights to farmers to choose members and chairmen of the APMCs in their jurisdiction, said Maharashtra’s co-operation and marketing minister Subhash Deshmukh.
Mint has reported extensively on the Fadnavis government’s methodical demolition of the NCP’s dominance over the state’s lucrative cooperative sector in the last two years.
BJP game plan in Maharashtra: Squeeze out NCP from its stronghold
“The government has appointed a committee to study if farmers need to be given the voting right to change the profile of APMCs and make them farmer-oriented. If the committee recommends this amendment to the APMC Act, we will bring in an amendment bill during the budget session itself," Deshmukh said.
Another senior BJP minister, who did not wish to be named, said the government would take the ordinance route to push through the reform.
“The Congress and NCP would stall this bill in the legislature. Like with the previous reforms in the APMC and co-operative sectors, we will take the ordinance route to first carry out the reform and then ensure its legislative legitimacy," the minister said.
Sunil Pawar, Maharashtra’s director of agriculture marketing, who heads the committee, said it would submit its report within the next eight days. “We will submit the report during the budget session and it will be up to the government to accept or reject it or act on it further," Pawar said. Apart from the serving as well as retired government officials, the committee also has a few legislators who have long represented farmers.
ALSO READ | Devendra Fadnavis emerges as BJP’s new poster boy
Currently, the Maharashtra APMC (Development and Regulation) Act of 1963 allows only the members of gram panchayats, agriculture credit societies, and multi-purpose cooperative societies, to elect the members of APMC and various market panels that function under the APMC.
“This has led to traders and local politicians capturing the entire APMC structure and working it to their advantage," said a retired government official who is a member of the committee on proposed APMC reforms and who did not wish to be named.
The committee is likely to recommend that farmers residing in the jurisdiction of their APMC market be given the right to vote directly in the election of market committee members. “This would make the election process wider, open, transparent, and representative. The current system is too open to manipulation, political rigging, and opaque," said the member.
Due to the current system of APMC elections, political parties which control zila parishads and panchayat samitis effectively control the APMCs by getting their representatives elected to the committees.
In Maharashtra, which has 305 APMC markets spread over eight divisions, most APMCs are under the control of the NCP.
“Most of these APMCs are in districts and regions where first the Congress and later NCP has been the dominant player in zila parishad and panchayat samiti elections so far. So their dominance extends to APMCs..," said a cooperative sector expert who did not wish to be named. He said the BJP government’s primary objective in giving farmers the voting rights was “undercutting the NCP".
How Maharashtra is changing the way farmers sell their produceI think someone reading this blog would be forgiven for thinking that I must spend most of my energy thinking about Rust. In fact I spend a good part of my working hours hammering on PJS. I thought I’d try to write up a bit of a preview of the things we are working on.
Parallel methods on arrays
Right now, on Nightly Firefox builds, you can use the parallel methods mapPar, filterPar, and reducePar on normal JS arrays. These work basically like their sequential equivalents except that they execute in an undefined order (for reducePar, that can be a more significant difference, since both the left and right operand might be the result of a reduction). That means you can write code like:
var x = [...]; x.mapPar(function(e) { return...; })
We don’t expect major changes to these methods, except that things will continue to work faster and with a broader range of functions. The major change I expect, which is backwards compatible, is that mapPar and filterPar will change from having an undefined execution order to having a defined order that is the same as map and filter (in other words, they will become “drop-in” replacements for map and filter ). But we’re not ready yet to commit that things won’t change, and hence these methods will stay confined to Nightly builds only for the time being.
Besides improving the runtime itself, the two major areas of development for these methods are:
Developer feedback: We’d like to improve the feedback that one gets from the JIT in general, and particularly with respect to parallel execution, to make it easier to track down why you may be getting parallel execution. Supporting a wider set of JS features: there are a few common constructs that block parallel execution right now. Prime among them is regular expressions. It’d be great to fix those.
Typed objects
My main focus has been on implementing the typed objects API and integrating it into our existing parallel support. Typed objects on Nightly are in a transitional state: they partially conform to the final API, but a lot of work has not yet landed. I hope to land the remainder over this week and next.
Two big pieces of functionality are still missing. The first is the ability to create a typed object that is layered atop an array buffer. The second is to be able to extract an array buffer from a typed object. In both cases, the best way to handle this would be to merge typed arrays and typed objects completely, but since the performance of typed arrays is so crucial, I expect to first create bridges between the two types and then finally remove the bridge altogether. The latter is a long-term goal.
I implemented the the basic optimization strategy that I described before, but it is still necessary to extend that code to handle array elements (that is, we will currently optimize an expression like foo.x or bar.x = 22, but not foo[1] or bar[3] = 22 (where foo and bar are typed objects or handles).
The other big piece of work is that we need to optimize typed object creation. I would like idiomatic code like the following:
var point = new PointType({x: 22, y: 44});
to compile efficiently, without creating any intermediate objects. The same optimizations I have in mind will also make large assignments like the following more efficient:
line.from = {x: 22, y: 44}; // where line.from is a PointType
Integrating the two
Once typed objects are fully working, we need to ensure that parallel higher-order methods like mapPar etc work and work efficiently. We have currently built a prollyfill implementing roughly the desired API. The prollyfill works but only on [my branch] at the moment. It’ll work on Nightly once the typed object patches are fully landed. However, the prollyfill is pretty slow right now due to the absence of good optimization for typed objects and the absence of parallel execution.
There are two main work items here, one high and one low priority. The high priority item is that we’ll have to adjust the write guard code to understand [out pointers][outp].
The low priority item is that we’ll need to implement fallback paths that ensure that even when the JIT cannot fully optimize typed objects, we can still stay in parallel execution. I am not quite sure how this will look. Most likely it will mean extending the ICs to support typed objects (a good idea that will benefit sequential code too); I’ve also made a point to self-host the typed objects implementation where possible, which should help with parallelization.
Timeline
The current goal is to have efficient parallel execution for typed objects by January. I still think this can be achieved. If we can have the optimized variations on typed objects working by November, that gives two months to integrate which seems reasonable, though not generous.This year Alex will really get to experience Valentine’s Day for the first time and he’s so excited! He is in preschool with 20 classmates and gets to hand out and receive Valentines cards. We haven’t picked out his Valentines yet but I have a feeling we will be on a mission to find Lego themed cards!
Alex has especially enjoyed playing Lego Marvel Super Heroes with my husband on our Xbox One the past few weeks and everything is Ironman-this and The Hulk-that. It’s absolutely adorable watching them bond and have daddy-son time doing something they both love! But to their disappointment, we can’t spend all day playing video games so I’ve created a fun printable to help our little ones practice writing and spelling some common Valentine’s Day words.
Words included:
Red
Rose
Heart
Love
Cupid
CLICK HERE TO PRINT THE VALENTINE’S DAY PRINTING PRACTICE SHEET
You may print this practice sheet as many times as you need! Teachers are more than welcome to use this printable as well. Blogs and websites who want to feature this printable may link back to this post, rather than directly to the Google Document.
You may also like:
Valentine’s Day Word Scramble
“Keep Calm & Kiss Me” Decorative Printable
Valentine’s Day Phone WallpapersAfter a brief hiatus, the bespoke show notes make a triumphant return! In case its unclear these are the said notes. This is what triumph looks like. How long will they be here for? Who can say. Just shut up and enjoy these notes.
The guys talk Father’s Day, fitness, air drones, and lots and lots and lots of E3 stuff coming hot on the heels of Dave’s most recent sojourn to the worst place on Earth.
Team GFB Radio – Episode 93 – Bloody Mary’s All Around
Original Air Date: June 19th, 2016
1:30 – The guys kick it about Father’s Day for a hot minute. Dave is the better dad (duh).
3:30 – Darryl got a drone for Father’s Day. How did its maiden flight go? LISTEN AND FIND OUT!
8:15 – Dave and Darryl tell the sordid history between Iron Galaxy and drones with cameras. Dave learns a lesson about physics.
11:00 – The guys have a brief digression about Drone Races. Don’t know why but this happened.
14:35 – Dave asks Darryl how things are going in Orlando in the wake of the city’s recent tragedies.
19:45 – Dave get’s Darryl up to speed with the latest on the Team GFB Radio Fitness Group. If you have aspirations of not being a big human turd like Dave go join.
21:45 – Darryl went to Sea World, and we don’t want to spoil anything, but brace yourselves for a doozy of a story.
29:30 – Dave provides a lengthy retelling of his week at E3.I swear my kids are both in the middle of a growth spurt. Every time I do laundry, I find myself putting away pants that have turned into high-waters. And about every hour, Izzy’s little voice pipes up, speaking for both of them: “Ooooh! Do we need a snack? I think we need a little snicky snack!” These two are eating enough to feed an army.
So we’ve pretty much been snacking our way through the summer over here. Which is great, since the garden is in full swing, and tasty garden treats are in abundance. Cherry tomatoes, green beans, snow peas, and little pickling cucumbers are in heavy rotation on the snack menu right now.
But every now and again, we need a little something special.
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This has been one of those weeks, and today we decided that a batch of granola bars was just what we needed.
Ever since we went grain-free, I’ve been on the hunt for a really great granola bar recipe. We’ve tried some tasty ones, but none were quite perfect. And each failed pretty miserably on one common point. They all crumble.
Now, the kids and I don’t mind crumbly granola bars. Believe me, crumbly snacks are the least of our messes.
But I like to send a few to work with the Mister, when we make a baked treat. And when your special snack devolves into a baggie full of granola crumbs by the time you make it to the office, it’s a little disappointing.
So I’ve been on a mission to make a sturdier, grain-free granola bar. And one without dates – because, while we love dates, we just don’t adore them in granola bars.
After a lot of work in the research and development department, and much feedback from my team of little taste-testers, I think we’ve come up with a winner.
These hold up very well, even without the chocolate layer on top. But we’re pretty big fans of chocolate on our granola bars, and it definitely does add an extra measure of crumble-proofing.
We opt for a pretty dark chocolate, so it’s not quite so heavily sugar-laden. I usually go with something in the 80-90% range. Dark chocolate is all the kids have ever known, so the darker the better, as far as they are concerned!
I hope you enjoy these as much as we do! I’ll warn you though – they’re addictive. It’s about 1:30 in the morning as I’m typing this up, and I’ve shamelessly raided the stash three times. Somebody stop me! Maybe if I hide them in the freezer…
Happy baking!
Print Grain-Free Granola Bars
Ingredients 1 cup nuts (any combination works great!)
1 cup raisins, or other mixed dried fruit
2 cups unsweetened flaked coconut
3 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup nut butter (peanut, cashew, or almond all work great)
1/4 cup honey
3 ounces OPTIONAL chopped dark chocolate for topping Instructions Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Add nuts, raisins, and coconut to food processor. Pulse until coarse and crumbly. Add 3 ounces chopped dark chocolate. Pulse quickly until well chopped, but not pulverized. Mix honey and nut butter in a bowl. Then add to food processor and pulse to mix. I find that pulsing, then pausing for a moment, and repeating several times, works very well to thoroughly blend the mixture. Dump into a 13x9" pan, and press down well. Bake 20 minutes, until coconut is just beginning to turn brown. If topping with chocolate, sprinkle 3 ounces dark chocolate over warm granola bars. Once it's melted, spread smooth with a spatula or knife. Allow to cool completely before cutting.
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Fast, foiling, wing-sailed catamarans will race in the next America’s Cup as the new class rule for the AC62 yacht has been released.
The AC62 is 10 feet shorter than its predecessor, but is expected to be just as fast and challenging to race for the crews, and will produce the same heart-pounding action for spectators.
“This new boat is going to be significantly lighter and under much less load than what we raced last time, which makes for a big cost-saving when it comes to how it gets built,” said ORACLE TEAM USA skipper Jimmy Spithill.
“At the same time, as designers, boat-builders, and sailors, we’re all starting to come to grips with how to get the most out of foiling, wing-sailed multihulls, so I think we’ll see similar, if not greater performance this time around.”
In the last America’s Cup, boat speeds approached 50 knots (96kph/58mph) at times as the hulls lifted out of the water on their foils, creating a spectacular sight for spectators, not to mention a challenge for the best sailors in the world.
This time the mandate was to get similar performance from a slightly smaller boat, but one that would be significantly less expensive to design, build and campaign. Initial calculations by the designers have the cost of the AC62 at about half that of the AC72.
Pete Melvin, a designer with Emirates Team New Zealand in the last America’s Cup, and his firm Morrelli and Melvin, were commissioned by ORACLE TEAM USA (the Defender) and Team Australia (the Challenger of Record) to oversee the writing of the AC62 class rule.
Download the AC62 yacht class rule
“Writing this rule has been a very collaborative process, with designers associated with several teams helping out. We also had great assistance from Nick Nicholson, the Chief Measurer from the last America’s Cup,” Melvin said. “Since we circulated the draft rule, prospective teams have also given constructive comments that we’ve been able to take on board.”
The AC62s will be crewed by 8 sailors (down from 11) and teams aren’t permitted to begin sailing in their AC62s until approximately five months before racing starts in the America’s Cup Qualifiers in 2017.
“I think it’s going to be hard to wait until then,” Spithill said. “It just looks like it’s going to be a great boat to race. I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on it!”
Source: Event media. Graphics by ACEA.Sailor Moon Crystal Episode 2, or should I say Act II, aired this morning on CrunchyRoll at 5 am. Two weeks ago I gave the first episode an A-/B+ mainly because of the music.
I still haven’t changed my mind on the music (it could use some work) but they get a solid A this week for having a good enough story that I didn’t notice (as much) the lack of good background tunes. Is it a coincidence that the first A episode is Ami-chan’s? I don’t think so.
The episode was a refreshing remake of episode 8 of the original Sailor Moon. I appreciate them introducing all the Sailor Senshi sooner in the season rather than later. I am a bit sad that we may not get a “Protect the Melody of Love: Usagi Plays Cupid” episode remake, but let’s hope they don’t remake the “Slim City” episode!
The plot in “Act II: Ami” is the same, but the character development has changed for the better. The end result is a much richer story.
**SPOILER ALERT**
I’m delighted with the ever so slightly different bent of Ami’s story. In the original anime Ami seems to be feeling sorry for herself, and she is weepy when she overhears people gossiping about her. In this episode we see Ami overhear people gossiping, but she does not cry about it. She stays focused. We get the message that she might be lonely, but she has pride in who she is.
Later on in the arcade Ami plays the Sailor V game so well it draws a crowd. In the original anime she get’s upset and is embarrassed at how well she has done. In the new version, Ami is proud of herself, but humble.
In addition, in this new version Ami’s getting the high score is how she gets her transformation pen. Usagi, jealous of her friend’s winnings, beats the machine up until her own transformation pen pops out.
The only real disappointment with this episode is when Usagi uses her transformation pen to disguise herself. There was no cool transformation scene! I used to love the old one, but oh well…
Ami’s transformation on the other hand, is bad ass, and she has much more spunk than before.
So overall, I’m impatient for the next episode to see how Sailor Mars will be handled. If you have thoughts on the episode, please share them in the comments!
Want to keep up with Her Story Arc? Follow us on Facebook or TwitterGenerous tax breaks on kei vehicles, a vestige of postwar policies that encouraged Japanese to ditch their scooters and hand-drawn carts for cars, are also becoming a drain on government coffers. And kei cars have become a perennial thorn in trade talks between Japan and other car-producing countries, like the United States and Germany, which say Japan’s unique tax breaks and restrictions for keis protect domestic automakers from foreign competition. More than 90 percent of cars sold in Japan are Japanese.
“For years, the kei was the people’s car in Japan. But now its role is over,” said Mitsuhisa Yokoyama, an analyst at
SC-ABeam Automotive Consulting, an advisory firm based in Tokyo. “The distinction no longer makes sense.”
But the push to move beyond kei cars, which the government used to promote a car culture in Japan’s lean postwar years, is being hurt by the success of that policy. Simply put, the Japanese love their keis.
That’s especially the case in rural regions, like Shinshiro, where lower incomes and sparse public transportation systems have made the tiny cars a necessity. Here in Shinshiro, an estimated three-quarters of households own a kei car; that proportion is close to 100 percent in some parts of the country, according to the Japan Light Motor Vehicle and Motorcycle Association, an industry trade group.
Raising taxes on kei cars “resorts to bullying the weak,” Osamu Suzuki, chairman of Suzuki Motor, a major manufacturer of kei vehicles, said at the introduction of a new kei truck last year.
The popularity of keis is also increasing among young city dwellers, who have been hit hardest by Japan’s decades of slow income growth. About 26 percent of kei drivers last year said they had downsized from a standard car, according to a survey published in April by the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, a trade organization.
Keis have also become an important mode of transport for Japanese women, who make up an estimated 65 percent of kei car drivers, according to the manufacturers association. Women in Shinshiro said that their husbands drove standard-size cars, but that their households would struggle to buy and maintain a second standard car.Dennes Dale Boon died 30 years ago this month, on Dec. 22, 1985, to be exact.
14 years before that, when he was 13 years old, he dropped out of a tree in Peck Park in San Pedro park in front of startled fellow teen Mike Watt, saying “You’re not Eskimo.”
Watt replied, “No, I’m not Eskimo.” “Eskimo” apparently was a friend that Boon thought might be in the park, Watt found out later.
Boon then proceeded to regale Watt with note-for-note comedy routines from George Carlin albums, which Watt, unfamiliar with them, originally thought Boon was making up on the spot.
They became fast friends. They attended Dodson Junior High, and then San Pedro High School together, graduating from SPHS in 1976.
George Hurley also graduated that year, and though he would become the inventive drummer for the Minutemen, the influential band that Watt and Boon would form in 1980, he didn’t know them in high school.
But we’re getting ahead of the story. Before forming the Minutemen, Boon and Watt spent their formative years playing together for fun. They were fond of jamming on songs by Creedence Clearwater Revival, Blue Oyster Cult, Black Sabbath and Alice Cooper.
In the definitive documentary on the band, 2005’s “We Jam Econo: The Story of the Minutemen,” Watt, a military brat who moved to San Pedro from Maryland when he was 10, describes how the two would get together in Boon’s mom’s house, in a former Navy housing tract that had been converted into a housing project.
Mrs. Boon learned to live with the constant guitar playing emanating from D. Boon’s room. It comforted her; she preferred knowing where the boys were to having them roam the streets. She died when Boon was 18.
With the arrival of the first wave of punk-rock in the mid-1970s, Watt and Boon realized that the music’s do-it-yourself ethic applied to them as well. The quest to form a band begun, and, in 1979, The Reactionaries were born.
Boon and Watt hooked up with drummer Hurley, and they recruited Martin Tamburovich to be their lead singer.
While attending a Clash concert at the Santa Monica Civic in February 1979, they came across Greg Ginn of Black Flag, who was handing out flyers for an upcoming Black Flag show in San Pedro.
After Boon and Watt described the Reactionaries to him, Ginn invited the band to be on the bill at a Black Flag show in San Pedro, which ended up being held at a teen center at 240 N. Mesa Street, having been moved at the last minute from the nearby Star Theatre.
The Feb. 17, 1979 bill for San Pedro’s first punk-rock show included the Alley Cats, the Plugz, and South Bay bands the Descendents and the unbilled The Last, who played two songs. It was Black Flag’s second gig ever, and the Reactionaries’ first, and it ended in chaos when unruly punk fans began trashing the recently remodeled teen center.
The Reactionaries lasted only a few months before Boon decided they didn’t need a separate lead singer. In January 1980, they reformed as the Minutemen, a three-piece consisting of Boon, Watt and original drummer Frank Tonche, who played the band’s first two live gigs before being replaced by Hurley to form the band’s classic lineup.
The band’s name referenced the New England Revolutionary War fighters, though many assumed it referred to the length of the band’s songs, few of which broke the one-minute barrier in length.
By now, Boon had become a talented guitarist with a distinctive staccato picking style that meshed with Watt’s increasingly fluid bass playing and Hurley’s innovative, jazz-influenced drumming. They were a part of the punk scene, but the band’s music, with its elements of funk, hard rock, jazz and punk, was unlike anyone else’s on the scene.
Bands and club owners expecting a typical hardcore punk band often were baffled by the band’s distinctive sound.
The |
Huntington Theater Company in fall 2013 and began performances this week at the Geffen Playhouse.
As for “Wicked,” which is currently running in five productions around the world, the next logical question is: When’s the movie?
According to Universal Pictures president Jimmy Horowitz, the studio is “absolutely committed” to making the movie, but is putting the focus on getting it right. “I don’t think we’re ever going to set a date and try to make that date,” he said.
Platt, meanwhile, acknowledges that part of the challenge now is finding an inherently cinematic counterpart to the musical’s signature stage spectacle. “‘Defying Gravity’ is a big, theatrical, grand gesture,” he said. “In film, how do you match that?”
So while the “Wicked” movie is on the to-do list, don’t hold your breath just yet. “We’re enthusiastically moving it forward,” Platt said. “But we don’t want to get ahead of what is still a robust theatrical experience.”New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, right, arrive at a campaign event for Walker at the Republican field office in Hudson, Wis., on Sept. 29, 2014. (Ann Heisenfelt/Associated Press)
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) just won his third election in four years. And rather than resting on his laurels, he sounds as if he's gearing up for another one — in 2016.
Walker, who dispatched Democrat Mary Burke on Tuesday after winning a widely watched recall election in 2012, appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday. And the talk inevitably turned to the 2016 campaign.
Rather than laugh it off and say that the decision on whether to run will come later, though, Walker — characteristically — was a pretty open book. And, in fact, he even said something that could rub one of his potential 2016 competitors (not to mention a fellow Cheesehead) the wrong way.
Asked about whether he would defer to 2012 GOP vice presidential candidate and Rep. Paul Ryan in the 2016 campaign, Walker went so far as to suggest that Ryan is too tied to Washington to be the GOP nominee in 2016.
"I've said many times before, I’ll be the president of the Paul Ryan fan club, but I do think if we’re going to beat Hillary Clinton in this next election, we’re going to have a message that says Hillary Clinton is all about Washington," Walker said.
He later added that Ryan might be the lone exception to his rule that the GOP should nominate a governor. That's fine, but just before that, he pretty well undercut his home-state colleague's case for running for president.
And this was actually the second time this weekend that Walker offered comments that could be construed as critical of a fellow potential 2016er.
Walker twice over the weekend leveled pretty strong criticisms of governors who took the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act — including Ohio's John Kasich (R), who also won Tuesday and is expected to look at running for president.
Kasich has often put his decision to accept the federal money in biblical terms, arguing that St. Peter at the pearly gates will ask you what you did to help the poor rather than what you did to keep government small.
Walker, who was apparently asked about Kasich's comment, offered his own biblical take: “My reading of the Bible finds plenty of reminders that it’s better to teach someone to fish than to give them fish if they’re able.... Caring for the poor isn't the same as taking money from the federal government to lock more people into Medicaid.”
On Sunday, Todd asked Walker whether that was a shot at Kasich. Walker didn't mention Kasich by name, but he did double down, saying the federal government can't be trusted to keep funding the expansion — a case that many anti-expansion GOP governors have made.
"States that have taken the Medicaid expansion are betting on the fact that the Congress and the president, who can't deal with the $17 trillion [national debt], are going to magically somehow come up with new money,” Walker said.
And then he said this: "Relying on the federal government for your balancing your budget is really, I think, a fool's bet."
Sounds a bit like something Walker might say on a 2016 debate stage, no?
Going back a little further, Ryan and Kasich aren't the only ones Walker has differentiated himself from. In the final days of his tight campaign, Walker had some pretty tough words for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R), who serves as chairman of the Republican Governors Association.
Walker suggested with a week to go that the RGA wasn't spending enough money to help him out and that a late visit from Christie wasn't that helpful.
Christie “is coming because he asked if he could come, and we weren't going to say no,” Walker told Politico. Ouch.
So, to sum up, in the past few days, Walker has expressed unhappiness with Christie (and, one could argue, suggested that Christie was promoting himself), and he has suggested pretty glaring shortcomings on the résumés of both Kasich and Ryan.
Now, before we read too much into these comments, let's acknowledge that Walker (as mentioned above) speaks pretty freely — or at least more freely than most politicians of his stature. So perhaps the fact that he sounds as if he's criticizing these other potential 2016ers is just happenstance.
A more cynical read would be that Christie, Ryan and Kasich happen to be potential competitors for the same, GOP-establishment-oriented supporters whom Walker is likely to be wooing.
... if he were to run for president, that is.A new, mostly female workforce populated the factories of UK and France to solve a shell crisis that had threatened to defeat the Allies in World War I.
History tells us that a general can move and feed an army as efficiently as he likes but the real litmus test is the battlefield.
All the energy he expends getting his men to the front line fit and healthy counts for nothing if they don't have the right equipment.
What they need, above all, is sufficient ammunition - yet there were moments during the war when a shortage of artillery shells meant the guns almost fell silent.
Given the unprecedented scale of the conflict, it was bound to take time for each side's peacetime armaments industry to adjust.
Each of the major combatants, moreover, had its own limits to production.
Germany lacked the necessary raw materials to make cordite (the vital propellant for bullets and shells) and explosives.
Austria-Hungary was hampered by a lack of rail transport and rail infrastructure.
Britain had a manpower shortage and a paucity of acetone, the key component for making cordite.
And France, in the early years, had to make up for the loss of much of her industrial heartland to the advancing Germans.
None of these factors was particularly pressing while the war was still one of movement. But as soon as it settled down in late 1914 to stalemate, with the trench line stretching 475 miles (765jm) from Nieuport in Belgium to the Swiss border, artillery shells were needed in ever greater quantities to force a breakthrough.
In March 1915, at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, the British fired more shells in a single 35-minute bombardment than they had during the whole Boer War. Britain had enough guns but it was fast running out of anything to fire, and those shells that were available often failed to explode or burst prematurely in the gun barrel.
France's transformation of its armaments production was even more successful
By May 1915, so serious was the "shell crisis" that most British guns had been reduced to firing just four shells a day and it seemed as if the war was going to be lost, not in the trenches of Flanders but the factories of Britain.
The scandal saw the downfall of Asquith's Liberal government and its replacement with a coalition, although Asquith stayed on as prime minister.
Lloyd George became the head of a new Ministry of Munitions, tasked with increasing the supply of artillery shells to the British Expeditionary Force.
The new ministry set about building munitions factories across the country, and transforming the civilian economy to one completely geared towards war.
Who was Chaim Weizmann? Born in Russia, comes to Manchester in 1904
Lectures in chemistry at University of Manchester
Fervently supports the political campaign for a Jewish homeland in Palestine
Lloyd George turns to Dr Weizmann to resolve acetone shortage
Weizmann had discovered a fermentation process to produce large volumes of acetone from maize
This was supplemented with horse chestnuts - or conkers - collected by schoolchildren
First president of Israel in 1948, dies in 1952 BBC History - Did conkers help win WWI?
It also, crucially, tasked the Manchester-based chemist Chaim Weizmann with producing large quantities of acetone from readily available raw materials. It had previously been made chiefly from the dry distillation of wood; hence most of Britain's acetone was imported from timber-growing countries like the United States.
In May 1915, after Weizmann had demonstrated to the Admiralty that he could use an anaerobic fermentation process to convert 100 tons of grain to 12 tons of acetone, the government commandeered brewing and distillery equipment, and built factories to utilise the new process at Holton Heath in Dorset and King's Lynn in Norfolk.
Together, they produced more than 90,000 gallons of acetone a year, enough to feed the war's seemingly insatiable demand for cordite. As a result, shell production rose from 500,000 in the first five months of the war to 16.4 million in 1915.
By 1917, thanks to the new munitions factories and the women that worked in them, the British Empire was supplying more than 50 million shells a year. By the end of the war, the British Army alone had fired 170 million shells.
France's transformation of its armaments production was even more successful. By importing coal from Britain and steel from the United States, releasing 350,000 soldiers to the war industries, and bolstering them with more than 470,000 women, it was able to increase its daily output of 75mm shells from 4,000 in October 1914 to 151,000 in June 1916, and that of 155mm shells from 235 to 17,000. In 1917 it produced more shells and artillery pieces per day than Britain.
Germany had started with an industrial advantage over both Britain and France - chiefly because it led the way in steel production, and in many branches of chemicals and engineering - and its output of shells in 1914 was 1.36 million shells.
But shortages of vital raw materials - particularly cotton, camphor, pyrites and saltpetre - meant it could not expand its production at the same rate, and only 8.9 million shells were made in 1915.
The following year saw a huge improvement, thanks to efforts of the KRA, the wartime raw materials department, which commandeered stockpiles, allocated distribution and, most importantly, oversaw the chemical industry's production of synthetic substitutes.
In 1916, as a result, the production of German shells increased almost fourfold to 36 million. But in the long term, the Central Powers - Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria - could not hope to compete with the Allies' financial and industrial muscle.
The former's total war expenditure of $61.5bn was less than half the latter's $147bn.
In the summer of 1916, Germany instituted the poorly thought-out and ineptly administered Hindenburg Programme - named after the army commander Field-Marshal Paul von Hindenburg - in an attempt to boost its production of weapons.
Instead it drained the army of a million men, brought on a major transport crisis and intensified the shortage of coal.
In early 1917, Germany tried to protect its depleted and under-equipped forces on the Western Front by withdrawing to the fortified Hindenburg Line, and by launching unrestricted submarine warfare.
The latter caused the US to enter the war, thus tipping the munitions balance even further in the Allies' favour. It was, ultimately, a war of attrition that the under-resourced Central Powers could not hope to win.
Ever since World War I, superior force is no longer measured in terms of men or horses, but in the means to wreak destruction.
In World War II, the Allies dropped 3.4 million tons of bombs across Europe and Asia. In Vietnam, an incredible seven million tons were dropped on Indo-China.
Image caption The manufacture of munitions played an even bigger role in World War II
The cost has also increased. In the second Gulf War, the US launched its wave of shock and awe against Iraq by firing 800 Tomahawk Cruise missiles over a period of just 48 hours.
Each one cost $0.5m. Today, a single Eurofighter Typhoon costs around £50m and the proposed Joint Strike Fighter is likely to come in at more than £100m each.
For entire campaigns, the scale of spending is staggering.
It is estimated that the war in Afghanistan has already cost the British taxpayer £18bn. And yet for all the sophistication of its military equipment, Nato's victory over an opponent armed with little more than Kalashnikovs and homemade bombs is far from certain.
Having the best weapons is usually decisive, but not always.
Saul David is Professor of War Studies at the University of Buckingham
His series Bullets, Boots and Bandages: How to Really Win at War is broadcast on BBC Four at 21:00 GMT on Thursdays 2, 9 and 16 February 2012. Catch up on earlier programmes via BBC iPlayer (UK only) at the above link.AMMAN (Reuters) - Fighters from Al Qaeda’s Nusra Front and other insurgents attacked and briefly entered Baath City in southern Syria on Thursday, the army’s last major bastion in a province flanking the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
The battle is part of a campaign launched by the insurgents this week to take control of the entire Quneitra province. Only Baath City and neighboring Khan Arnaba town remain under President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.
“If they fall the rebels will have secured the second province after Raqqa,” said Abu Said Jolani, an activist in the area.
Raqqa, in northern Syria, is held by the militant group Islamic State and has been targeted by U.S.-led air strikes.
The insurgents were locked in street fighting with government troops in the city centre overnight and were pushed back to the outskirts on Thursday, activists said. Thousands of Baath City’s 30,000 residents have already fled.
The city was named after Syria’s ruling Baath Party as an act of defiance after the destruction of nearby Quneitra city in the 1967 war with Israel. Quneitra was abandoned and Baath is now the provincial administrative centre.
About 2,000 fighters were taking part in the southern offensive. Their advances, which expand insurgent control close to the Golan Heights and Jordan, are also important because Assad’s power base in Damascus lies just 40 miles (65 km) to the north. The fighters want to open a path towards the capital and link up with insurgents there.
Before entering Baath City, the insurgents said they had captured several villages on the outskirts and claimed control of most of the countryside.
“The rebels are using all kinds of weapons from tank fire to mortars, as well as raiding groups,” said Abdullah Saif Allah, a Nusra Front field commander in Hamidiya town near the frontier with Israel.
Syrian state media and pro-government newspapers have said the army, backed by loyalist militias, had repelled the rebel push in Baath City. They reported heavy fighting after a barrage of rebel mortar and artillery fire hit the city centre and municipality building.
Hundreds of Nusra fighters who fled from the eastern Deir al-Zor province after being driven out by Islamic State earlier this year have regrouped in southern Syria, boosting the rebel presence there, activists say.
“It gave the fighters in the area the upper hand,” said Abu Yahya al-Anari, a fighter from Ahrar al-Sham.
The army depends on aerial bombardments in the area. On the ground, it has been exposed since moving thousands of troops from bases to reinforce Aleppo in the north, rebels say.
Insurgent gains since earlier this year have been mainly achieved by Nusra Front together with other Islamist brigades and rebels fighting under the umbrella of the Western-backed Free Syrian Army. Unlike rebel in-fighting further north, they have coordinated well so far.
Most of heavy weaponry and fighters in Quneitra province are drawn from hardline Islamist brigades such as Ahrar al-Sham and al Muthana alongside Nusra, activists and analysts say.
They have eroded the dominance of the Western-backed rebels that control areas further southeast towards Deraa city and along the Jordanian border.Heavy rain in Lane County has increased the threat of landslides on roadways. Part of North Fork Siuslaw Road is closed due to soil instability. A slide closed Big Creek Road early this week; it re-opened Wednesday.
Drivers planning to travel along North Fork Siuslaw Road near Mapleton will need to find another route for the foreseeable future.
Devon Ashbridge is with Lane County. She says that while there haven’t been any slides on the road yet, soil instability has officials concerned.
Ashbridge: “There was a lot of water coming off the hillside, some smaller slides up above the road, so we decided to be safe we needed to close that road until conditions stabilized.”
Ashbridge says the County will keep watching Siuslaw and other roads as more rain is expected over the next few days.
Ashbridge: “It’s a surprise to no one that it rains a lot, especially in the coast range. What we’ve seen this year has been smaller slides in very rural areas; however it really is important for folks to be more cautious as they’re driving.”
Ashbridge says Big Creek Road near Florence is now open after a landslide dragged a spruce tree onto the road earlier this week.
In Douglas County a rockslide has closed an access road west of Sutherlin.
Visit the Lane County or ODOT websites for updates on road closures.If Table Saws Can Be Safer, Why Aren't They?
toggle caption Chris Arnold/NPR
This week some of the nation's biggest power tool companies sent their executives to Washington. They came to argue against tougher safety mandates for so-called table saws, the popular power tools with large open spinning blades. NPR's Chris Arnold has this Reporter's Notebook.
Seven years ago, I was flying on an airplane and thumbing through a woodworking magazine. In the back of it, I came across a little ad for a table saw that wouldn't cut off your fingers. That sounded like a good kind of saw to me; I like doing home-improvement projects. And it just sounded interesting. So when I got home, I called up the inventor. It turned out he had a pretty amazing story to tell.
I found out that table saws cause thousands of these really horrible injuries every year. This inventor, a guy named Steve Gass, had actually figured out a way to prevent just about all of those accidents. Over the years, he's proved that it works, too.
"What you have is somebody who has invented a dramatic technology that seems to reduce virtually all the injuries associated with table saws," says Bob Adler, a commissioner at the Consumer Product Safety Commission, which was holding meetings on the issue this week.
See How The Safety Technology Works SawStop Safety System Video Enlarge this image toggle caption Courtesy of SawStop Courtesy of SawStop Enlarge this image toggle caption Courtesy of SawStop Courtesy of SawStop
Gass likes to demonstrate how his saw works by using a hot dog. At one point he showed this to me at a high school shop class out in Oregon.
"I'm gonna put this hot dog on top of the board here, as if it was my thumb misplaced in the path of the blade," he said, "and them I'm gonna shove it into the blade."
Gass' saw uses an electrical sensor to detect when the blade touches flesh instead of wood. Within a few thousandths of a second, the blade slammed to a stop.
But as well as the technology works, the major tool companies have failed to put this kind of device on any of their table saws — even eight years after Gass offered to license it to them.
"They came back and said, 'Well, we've looked at it, but we're not interested because safety doesn't sell,' " Gass says.
SawStop, Gass' little upstart company, has sold tens of thousands of these safer table saws, and lately things have been heating up in Washington. The National Consumers League last month brought in injured woodworkers to meet with lawmakers and regulators. They want to make the SawStop safety brake mandatory on all table saws.
So just this week, I was back in Washington in a hearing room.
"SawStop is currently available in the marketplace to any consumer who chooses to purchase it," says Susan Young, who represents Black & Decker, Bosch, Makita and other power tool companies.
In other words, let consumers decide. Young says many consumers won't want to pay for the SawStop technology, which could add $100 to $300 in cost, depending on which side you talk to.
Either way, the gears are now turning in Washington. By the end of September, regulators say they'll issue a draft of new safety requirements for table saws.Afghan officials say at least five people have been killed in what they said was a motorcycle suicide bomb attack.
A spokesman for the governor of eastern Nangarhar Province said eight people were wounded in the attack on December 3 outside a soccer stadium in the provincial capital of Jalalabad.
Attahullah Khogyani said the explosion occurred after a pro-government rally at the stadium, which had been packed with supporters of the government.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
On December 2, two intelligence service members, including the director of the Jalalabad intelligence unit, were killed in multiple bomb attacks by alleged Islamic States militants in Jalalabad.
Ten people, including soldiers and civilians, were injured in the back-to-back explosions near a private radio and TV station.
A local affiliate of the Islamic State extremist group is seeking to expand its influence in Afghanistan.
Based on reporting by AP and dpaSerbian national Irena Dubrovna, a fashion sketch artist, has recently arrived in New York for work. The first person who she makes a personal connection with there is marine engineer Oliver Reed. The two fall in love and get married despite Irena's reservations, not about Oliver but about herself. She has always felt different than other people, but has never been sure why. She lives close to the zoo, and unlike many of her neighbors is comforted by the sounds of the big cats emanating from the zoo. And although many see it purely as an old wives' tale, she believes the story from her village of ancient residents being driven into witchcraft and evil doing, those who managed to survive by escaping into the mountains. After seeing her emotional pain, Oliver arranges for her to see a psychiatrist to understand why she believes what she does. In therapy, Dr. Judd, the psychiatrist, learns that she also believes, out of that villagers' tale, that she has descended from this evil - women... Written by HuggoPresident-elect Donald Trump Mark Wallheiser/Getty Imges The administration of Donald Trump may be getting ready to crack down on goods coming into the US.
According to a report by John King at CNN, the Trump transition team has been floating the idea of an executive order that would impose a 5% tariff on all imported goods soon after Trump takes office.
The report, citing multiple sources inside the transition, said that future Trump chief of staff Reince Priebus has talked about the 5% tariff with multiple business leaders and lawmakers and that Wilbur Ross, Trump's commerce secretary pick, is getting ready to defend the move during confirmation hearings.
While the tariff is not a done deal, said CNN, it appears to at least be a serious consideration by the transition.
It was not clear whether this 5% tariff would be in addition to current taxes on imports, or replace the current levels. For instance, non-agricultural Chinese goods are already taxed at 2.5%, so it is unclear whether that would become 7.5% or 5%.
Ross and Trump's pick for Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin previously downplayed the idea of increased tariffs during an appearance with CNBC, saying the move would be a last resort.
On the other hand, Trump's pick of Peter Navarro for national trade council— a new White House position — has been significantly more hawkish towards China and trade policy.
Trump was incredibly critical of trade deals during the campaign, particularly calling out China and Mexico for what he called "unfair" trade practices. During the campaign, Trump introduced an "America First" economic plan that focused on domestic production of goods rather than imports.
This sort of tariff — while significantly lower than the 45% tax proposed by Trump at one point during the campaign — has been cited by numerous Wall Street and academic economists as the biggest downside of Trump's economic agenda. While the impact on economic growth may be slight, the possible retaliation from countries such as China could cause a costly trade war.
Tensions with the Chinese have already been heightened since the election of Trump after the president-elect spoke with Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen, which was a violation of the US' four decade One China policy. This was only exacerbated when a Chinese naval ship seized an unmanned US naval drone last week. On the economic front, Chinese officials have warned of retaliatory economic action in the event of a tariff from Trump.
The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.A Democratic primary in Virginia that shaped up as a contest between the party’s populist wing and its establishment has added a new twist: The state’s biggest power company is helping to get out the vote — and it isn’t hard to figure out why.
The two Democrats in the race, Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam and former Rep. Tom Perriello, have found few areas of policy disagreement throughout the campaign, though Perriello has emerged as the favorite of the progressive flank of the party, garnering endorsements from Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
One issue where they do disagree, however, is one that Dominion Energy cares about deeply: the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, an epic project that would span from West Virginia to the South Carolina border, cutting through Virginia. Perriello is against it, while Northam wants a strong environmental review, but ultimately wants to leave the decision to federal regulators.
In May, Dominion Energy Chief Executive Thomas Farrell sent a letter to the company’s 76,000 current and former employees and shareholders, suggesting they “take time to review the candidates’ positions and see how they stand on critical projects such as the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.” The letter went on to emphasize the importance of the pending project to Dominion. “I urge you to exercise your constitutional right to vote in the primary of your choice,” the letter went on.
To make sure that constitutional right is exercised, Dominion set up a pledge-to-vote website, and sent another letter on June 8, reminding folks about the upcoming primary on June 13. Around the same time Dominion sent out its follow-up note, a Goldman Sachs analysis, flagged by influential Richmond Associated Press reporter Alan Suderman, warned investors that the company’s future profits were at risk because “one of the leading Democratic Party candidates has openly discussed opposition to some of the new pipelines proposed in Virginia.”
The follow-up note, like the first one, mentions neither candidate by name. But the message is clear enough: This state-regulated utility wants to pick the most favorable regulator it can in the Democratic primary.
Northam, though, shouldn’t count on the help to last past next week. Dominion is much more likely to favor the likely Republican nominee, Ed Gillespie, in the general election.
Dominion, in a line echoed by Northam, insists publicly that the issue is a federal one, and that Virginia has no authority to block the pipeline. The Goldman Sachs analysis undercuts that claim, but not as much as Dominion is undercutting it on its own — by intervening in the Democratic primary. Dominion can’t both urge its folks to vote for the candidate who is most favorable to the pipeline while also insisting that the governor has no sway over the issue. Its protestations give away the game.
Photo: Steve Helber/AP
The pipeline is slated to start in West Virginia, which has been fracked to within an inch of its life. From there, it will pipe natural gas through Virginia and into North Carolina, where it will link up with an existing pipeline and run down to the South Carolina border. Along the way, construction threatens a wide array of endangered species, and the pipeline itself portends its own environmental harm.
David Turner, a spokesman for Northam, said that ultimately the raw politics of the issue in the primary aren’t clear. Perriello’s firm stand against the pipeline is popular among Democratic voters, but it might be balanced out or overwhelmed by Dominion’s intervention in the race. “To be perfectly honest, I have no idea whether or not that’s helpful,” said Turner of the power company’s efforts.
Perriello, who didn’t respond to a request for comment, has made much of his refusal to accept money from Dominion, which has become a proxy in Virginia politics for standing up to corporate power. After Perriello made the pipeline an issue in the campaign, Northam sent a letter to the Department of Environmental Quality calling for a rigorous review. At a recent debate, Perriello asked Northam if he’d talked to executives at Dominion before sending the note.
“Well, I’ve had a lot of discussions with a lot of different people, Tom, and I’m not going to stand here on the witness stand, if you will, and respond to what those discussions entail,” Northam said. “Obviously we want the pipeline to be built with science and transparency. We also need jobs in the Commonwealth of Virginia. And so I think all of these things — it’s not a yes or no, or us versus them — it’s something that we all sit down at the table and discuss.”
Internal polls put out by the Northam campaign show Northam with an edge in the race. A spokesperson for Dominion didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.The Mo Cup is an invitational event, organized by Momo and sponsored by Douyu. It's played online, on NetEase-servers.
The chinese player TH000 won, beating his countryman Life in final.
Groupstage [ edit ]
The groupstage consists in 4 groups of 4 players each :
round robin (a player faces each others once),
, all matches are best-of-2,
top 2 advance to the playoffs.
In Case of equality in points, a decider best-of-1 will be played.
Dates :
Group A : august 18th,
Group B : august 19th,
Group C : august 20th,
Group D : august 21th.
Playoffs [ edit ]
The playoffs consist in a double elimination bracket :
first of group A faces 2nd of group B and vice-versa, same for group C & D,
semi-final losers are crossed into loser's round 2,
early rounds are best-of-3,
Grand Final is best-of-7 with advantage (player coming from the winner bracket start with a 1:0 lead),
Dates :
quarterfinals : august 25th,
semi-finals and loser's round 1 : august 26th,
loser's round 2 & 3 and winner's final : august 27th,
loser's final and Grand Final : august 28th.
Prize Pool [ edit ]
CN¥ 20,000 (≃ $ 2,996) are divided among participants as follows :
according to xe.com conversion rate on 2016-08-28 (CN¥ 1 ≃ USD 0.14981).
Participants [ edit ]
Broadcasting [ edit ]
Back2Warcraft
Results [ edit ]
Groupstage [ edit ]
Group A [ edit ] Group A 1. FoCuS 2-1-0 2. Moon 1-2-0 3. Check 1-1-1 4. FoV 0-0-3 Match List August 18, 2016 12:00 CEST Moon 2 0 FoV August 18, 2016 12:50 CEST Check 0 2 FoCuS August 18, 2016 13:40 CEST Moon 1 1 Check August 18, 2016 14:30 CEST FoV 0 2 FoCuS August 18, 2016 15:20 CEST Moon 1 1 FoCuS August 18, 2016 16:10 CEST FoV 0 2 Check Group B [ edit ] Group B 1. Life 3-0-0 2. Yumiko 1-1-1 3. ReMinD 0-2-1 4. ZDR 0-1-2 Match List August 19, 2016 12:00 Yumiko 0 2 Life August 19, 2016 15:00 ReMinD 1 1 ZDR August 19, 2016 13:50 Yumiko 1 1 ReMinD August 19, 2016 14:40 Life 2 0 ZDR August 19, 2016 15:40 Yumiko 2 0 ZDR August 19, 2016 16:30 Life 2 0 ReMinD Group C [ edit ] Group C 1. TH000 2-1-0 2. Romantic 1-1-1 3. LawLiet 0-3-0 4. Lucifer 0-1-2 Match List August 20, 2016 12:00 LawLiet 1 1 Romantic August 20, 2016 12:50 TH000 2 0 Lucifer August 20, 2016 13:50 LawLiet 1 1 TH000 August 20, 2016 14:40 Romantic 2 0 Lucifer August 20, 2016 15:30 LawLiet 1 1 Lucifer August 20, 2016 16:30 Romantic 1 2 TH000 The third game is the best-of-1 decider tie-break. To dertemine first and second. Group D [ edit ] Group D 1. Infi 2-1-0 2. Lyn 1-1-1 3. WFZ 0-3-0 4. Sok 0-1-2 Match List August 21, 2016 12:00 WFZ 1 1 Sok August 21, 2016 12:50 CEST Lyn 0 2 Infi August 21, 2016 13:40 CEST WFZ 1 1 Lyn August 21, 2016 14:30 CEST Sok 0 2 Infi August 21, 2016 15:20 CEST WFZ 1 1 Infi August 21, 2016 16:10 CEST Sok 0 2 Lyn
Playoffs [ edit ]
Quarterfinal FoCuS 0 Yumiko 2 TH000 2 Lyn 0 Life 2 Moon 0 Infi 2 Romantic 1 Semifinals Yumiko 1 TH000 2 Life 1 Infi 2 Winners' Finals TH000 2 Infi 1 Losers' Round 1 FoCuS 1 Lyn 2 Moon 1 Romantic 2 Losers' Round 2 Life 2 Lyn 1 Yumiko 0 Romantic 2 Losers' Round 3 Life 2 Romantic 1 Losers' Finals Infi 0 Life 2 Grand Finals TH000 4 Life 1
Map Statistics [ edit ]It might feel like Dr. Mindy Lahiri barely scratches the surface of white male privilege with her perfectly manicured bear claw hand in this week's episode of The Mindy Project. But Mindy Kaling and her crew smartly tackle the topic in an episode titled "Mindy Lahiri is a White Man," by infusing humor into realistic and sexist situations.
Though the show isn't Grand Canyon deep, we applaud those who work on the Hulu series for bringing attention to the issue and encourage everyone to remember whose voice is telling the story. After all, this is the same character, brought to life by Mindy Kaling, who tossed her vegetables and a utility bill when doing "that Japanese decluttering thing" and argued for an hour with her ex that the theme of their young son's birthday party should be "leather and lace." She is a ridiculous character who has been mindfully sculpted to generate laughs.
So, it only seems true to her lighthearted form that Dr. L wishes to be a white man after not progressing in the interview process to be head of obstetrics at St. Brendan's, listing the benefits as being able to "hail cabs, direct Hollywood movies, host late night talk shows," and "write in the snow with their pee.”
Parts of the episode feel incredibly honest, including a scene in which Mindy, in her own body, discourages a fellow female candidate, Dr. Irene Lee, from chatting so they aren't labeled an "Asian clique."
During her first interview, a man asks Mindy how she will balance the position given that she is a single mom. Another asks if she possesses "the ability to keep your emotions at bay and think logically under stressful situations." Though the interviewers said those questions were asked of all those up for the job, viewers can assume the sexist query was not posed to the men.
Dr. Mindy Lahiri, left, and Dr. Irene Lee hope to be the head of obstetrics. Dr. Mindy Lahiri, left, and Dr. Irene Lee hope to be the head of obstetrics. Richard Foreman, Hulu
Continue reading below
However, other punchlines feel so exaggerated that they undercut the honesty of the episode. Jokes like Mindy declaring "being a white man rules" after learning Dr. Lancaster is trying to gain weight, or one of the interviewers saying, “I’d follow that jawline off a cliff,” distract attention from the message.
The most poignant part of the episode comes when Mindy, as Dr. Lancaster, realizes how superior a surgeon Dr. Lee is and attempts to help her secure the job. Though the board decides to give the position to an elderly male physician rumored to have killed his wife. Go figure.
Mindy's journey comes full circle toward the show's close. In |
in a convertible. A month later, David died of a heroin overdose. Courtesy of The McCarthy Family Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
“A lot of people who deal drugs are addicts, even though they are caught selling or trafficking,” said Inimai Chettiar, director of the Justice Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s School of Law. “If you go after the person who sold to the person who wound up dying, you’re not really going after the people who are responsible for the drug trade — the kingpins.”
On much of the East Coast, authorities are showing unprecedented leniency to users while cracking down hard on heroin dealers — a polarity highlighted by two specific proposals in the state of New York.
[Surgeon General: Why the opioid epidemic should be treated as a public health crisis]
In Ithaca, Mayor Svante Myrick (D) has proposed creating the nation’s first injection center where addicts can shoot up under the supervision of medical workers equipped with naloxone.
Meanwhile, the New York state Senate last June passed a bill — named “Laree’s Law” after 18-year-old Laree Farrell-Lincoln, who died of a heroin overdose three years ago — that would enable prosecutors to charge heroin dealers with homicide when their product can be linked to a death.
Farrell-Lincoln was the only child of Patty Farrell. She was a straight-A student and a cheerleader. She was also strong-willed and curious, Farrell said, and tried heroin on a whim. Her descent was rapid. She lost 30 pounds in a month and quickly confessed to Farrell, a retired Albany police officer, that she was an addict.
“She would be sitting with me on the love seat and she was just high as a kite,” Farrell said. “It was gut-wrenching. She’d be sitting up, falling asleep, eyes half-closed.”
After a 28-day stint in rehab, she relapsed, and her spiral resumed.
One morning, as Farrell was making coffee, she called upstairs to her daughter, and heard no response. She ran upstairs, opened the bedroom door and found Laree facedown in bed, eyes open.
“She was the love of my life; I just lived for that kid,” Farrell said. “Heroin took her down in four months.”
On both sides of the addict-supplier divide, families are left in shambles.
In New Orleans, Chelcie Schleben, 23, and her ex-boyfriend Joshua Lore, 25, were locked up for a year and a half as they awaited trial. Schleben and Lore were charged with the murder of Kody Woods, who died of an overdose while the three, all in their early 20s, were using heroin in a home in the city’s Gentilly neighborhood in 2014. The two pleaded guilty Tuesday and were sentenced to 10 years in prison.
In a sense, the Woods family lost two members in this tragedy: Woods and Lore were best friends who had palled around since middle school.
“It was a brother relationship,” said Woods’s oldest sibling, Tonya Hebert, 38, who became their mother’s right hand after the 1999 death of their father, and then the family’s de-facto parent after the 2008 death of their mother. “They would do normal boy things — rims on their cars, paintballing, going to the movies.... They did so much in life together.”
Steven Coleman of Charleston, W.Va., 27, grew up in a troubled home of addicts, according to family members and his attorney. He found his mother in bed, dead of a methadone overdose, in 2004 and got addicted to painkillers prescribed for stomach pain in 2010. When the pills became difficult to acquire, he turned to heroin.
On Valentine’s Day in 2015, Coleman’s father, who lived with him, asked him for heroin. Coleman supplied it on a plate, and the father went into a bedroom and used it with a female friend — 43-year-old Melody Ann Oxley — who died that night of an overdose, according to the criminal complaint. Coleman discovered Oxley and called 911, but he left the house before responders arrived.
Steve Slater attends the trial of his son, Steven Coleman, on March 30, 2015. (Andrew Spear for The Washington Post)
In what is said to be the first case of its kind in Kanawha County, Coleman was charged with first-degree murder. Coleman sat in jail for nearly a year awaiting trial before he pleaded guilty on April 27 to lesser charges. Although the murder charge was dismissed, Coleman, who was facing life in prison, said the experience has cost him his reputation.
“It affected me greatly,” he said during a phone call from South Central Regional Jail, where he was held without bail. “It ruined how people view me. It ruined everything I ever had.”
Heroin, which he snorted, consumed his life. “It took away all my pain, all my worry and stress,” he said.
After he was jailed, Coleman rode out the withdrawal symptoms with the aid of detox medication but endured sleepless nights, loss of appetite and the pins-and-needles of restless-leg syndrome.
‘Distort what they’ve done’
The shift toward stringency bucks a broadening bipartisan push across the United States to roll back the tough-on-crime policies of the 1980s and ’90s that locked up untold numbers of nonviolent drug offenders, fueling mass incarceration.
A heroin user prepares to inject himself in New London, Conn. (John Moore/Getty Images)
Some crime experts say the current crackdowns seem all too reminiscent of the old ways.
Douglas Husak, a legal-philosophy professor at Rutgers University, said slapping dealers with murder charges is not only excessive, but misleading.
“You want the labels of what criminals have done to give people some kind of idea of what crime they’ve committed,” he said. “You don’t want to call somebody a rapist if what he did was grope somebody. I’m not condoning groping, but you’ve misrepresented what he’s done. To call people who sell heroin ‘murderers’ seems to distort what they’ve done. Call it like it is — they are drug dealers.”
But prosecutors and police leaders say heroin’s surging death toll has necessitated a tougher and more sophisticated approach to policing.
“It doesn’t follow that to be smart on crime you have to be soft on crime,” said Hickton, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania. After his 25-county district was besieged in August by a deadly strain of heroin cut with fentanyl, he announced that his office would lock up heroin dealers for 20 years to life if it could be proved that their product killed. Previously, drug charges have generally been tied to the quantity of drug seized or sold.
Tom Synan, police chief in Newtown, Ohio, and the head of a heroin task force in Hamilton County, agrees with the strategy, saying many dealers are well aware of the dangers of heroin and the more-potent fentanyl.
“In many cases, not only do they have prior knowledge, they are the ones helping to mix it,” he said. “To me that is more than just a street drug. You are intentionally fueling the addiction and giving [users] a product that is extremely dangerous and could cause their death, and you know it.”
That profile of a calculating heroin dealer is unrecognizable to Doug McCasland, the father of Jarret McCasland. He said his son’s incarceration is an outrage.
McCasland, 60, says he believes Jarret has been wrongfully convicted and is hiring a new attorney to file an appeal.
“He is totally innocent,” he said.
In the meantime, the elder McCasland said he is struggling to sleep at night. The father-son duo were close; they worked at the same plant and often carpooled together, leaving at 5 in the morning.
“They took our son from us,” he said. “The sentence they gave him is a living execution.... You would not believe the kind of person he is versus the kind of person they portray.”NASHIK: The Maharashtra English Medium School Trustees Association, during its first convention in the city on Tuesday, decided not to give admission under the 25% reservation of the Right to Education Act until the government reimburses the fees of the last three years.The association also passed a resolution of not giving admission to children in the pre-primary section under the RTE In the convention held on Tuesday, 73 trustees became members of the association and Prince Shinde was appointed the district president.The Aurangabad-based Association has 8,000 English educational institutions as members. There are around 24,000 English schools in the district. On April 12, they will be meeting at Nanded where the government resolution will be burnt as a mark of protest in front of the zilla parishad and they will also decide a date to hold a state-wide strike.“The government is misleading the students, the poor people and the educational institutions because the 25% reservation under the RTE 2009 mentions admission to students in pre-primary and standard I but pre-primary does not have the approval of the government. RTE 2009 includes compulsory and free education to all children from six years to 14 years. On May 14, 2012, the government said that it would not reimburse the fees for those three years for pre-primary. But for the past three years we have been giving fee education but have not been reimbursed,” founder-president of the association Sanjayrao Tayade Patil said.He said the government would reimburse for admissions from standard I onwards but there was no provision for it in the budget and no budgetary heads were made. “They made the budgetary heads only in 2013 and in 2014 decided the amount to be given to the schools. Accordingly, for each student, Rs 14,600 will be reimbursed per year by the government. We have spent money on the conveyance, uniforms, shoes and study material of the students, which alone amounts to Rs 14,000. But we have not been reimbursed with even the tuition fees,” said Patil.He said that on the one hand the government was spending Rs 60,000-Rs 70,000 for the zilla parishad schools but quality education was not being imparted.“Students, who have to be given admission in Class I will not know English; we will have to teach them from the scratch. On the other hand, class I students of our school will already be way ahead of their counterparts. The government says that we should conduct extra classes for the weaker ones. We have decided that we will not give admission to the students under the 25% reservation till we get reimbursed. We have no problem giving free education to the needy but are against the government’s policies,” said Patil.“On April 12, we will hold a convention of the schools and decide the date for a common strike throughout the state. We will be burning the government resolution in front of the zilla parishad as a mark of protest,” said Patil.Image: Kham Tran/Flickr
Your Android phone could be hacked completely unbeknownst to you, owing to newly discovered bugs that potentially affects as many as 950 million cell phone users, according to new research.
The critical bugs were found inside the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) source code, which powers Android devices, by Joshua Drake, a security researcher and co-author of the Android Hacker Handbook. For Drake, these are the worst vulnerabilities ever discovered in Android, both because of its widespread reach and because in theory, a hacker could use it to hack someone without the victim even noticing.
"This vulnerability can be triggered while you sleep," Drake, who is also VP of platform research and exploitation at security firm Zimperium zLabs, wrote in a blog post to be published on Monday. "Before you wake up, the attacker will remove any signs of the device being compromised and you will continue your day as usual—with a trojaned phone."
"This vulnerability can be triggered while you sleep."
That's possible because, according to Drake, a hacker only needs to send you a malicious file via Multimedia Message Service (MMS) to execute code on your phone to take advantage of these bugs, without you even interacting with the message. By doing that, the hacker can then record audio and video, and access pictures stored on the phone, according to Drake.
"This is Heartbleed for mobile," Chris Wysopal, the CTO of Veracode, told Motherboard in an email. Vulnerabilities like those found by Drake, he added, "are exceedingly rare and pose a serious security issue for users since they can be impacted without having clicked on a link, opened a file or opened an SMS."
Drake found the bugs in an Android media playback engine called Stagefright, which makes the operating system play popular multimedia files. Drake will reveal all the details of his research at the upcoming Black Hat and Def Con security and hacking conferences in Las Vegas.
In the meantime, Drake has worked with Google to find a patch for the bugs, and the internet giant responded quickly to make a patch.
"We responded quickly and patches have already been provided to partners that can be applied to any device," Elizabeth Markman, a spokesperson for Google's Android team, told Motherboard in an email.
The problem is that patching isn't fully in the hands of Google.
The problem, however, is that patching isn't fully in the hands of Google. All the cell phone manufacturers that use Android now need to push out the patch to its customers, and it's anyone guess when that'll happen. Historically, some manufacturers have taken months to issue even critical patches. At times, for devices older than a year or 18 months, patches never come.
Thanks to how Android's newer versions isolate or "sandbox" apps, however, a hacker shouldn't have access to all the data on the phone even if they take advantage of Stagefright. But given Stagefright permissions, that still theoretically allows the hacker to snoop on the victim through the phone's camera and microphone, and steal pictures.
At this point, only SilentCircle's Blackphone and Mozilla Firefox have pushed patches out. It's unclear when other manufacturers will do the same. If you have Android, all you can do is wait, and install the update as soon as you get it.
This story has been updated to include Chris Wysopal's comments.Tiana Carruthers, one of two survivors of the Kalamazoo shooting, is expected to make a full recovery. Trauma Medical Director Dr. Thomas Rohs says Carruthers was discharged to the center’s rehab unit last week.
“She walks short distances and is beginning to perform many of the necessary activities of daily living independently. And her mind is sharp and her will is strong,” he says.
Rohs says it could be six months to a year until Carruthers has fully healed. During last month’s killing spree in Kalamazoo, Carruthers was shot four times. Bullets fractured bones in her thighs, right arm, and one was lodged in her liver.
The other survivor in the shooting, 14-year-old Abigail Kopf, was released from Bronson Hospital on Tuesday. Kopf will be moving to an in-patient rehab facility in Grand Rapids.A Florida man was arrested after authorities say he followed teenage girls around a WalMart, videotaping them while partially exposed and inappropriately touching himself.
Gregg Craft, 44, was arrested on a charge of exposure of sexual organs in the Sept. 21 incident at the store at 3250 Vineland Road in Kissimmee, the Osceola County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday.
Jail records showed he was being held on $1,000 bond Thursday. It was unknown whether he has an attorney.
Authorities said they responded to the store after a loss prevention officer spotted the man partially exposed. Craft cooperated with deputies and told them he "apologized for his acts," authorities said.
Weird News Photos: Man Shoves Snake in Pants
When deputies searched his phone, they found several videos of Craft following girls around the store while partially exposed and inappropriately touching himself, authorities said. It didn't appear that they knew he was videotaping them.
Craft was later arrested at his house.
More Weird Stories:The class 8 Toyota truck is capable of producing more than 670 horsepower with 1,325 pounds of torque -- more than enough for even the heaviest Amazon delivery. The semi began its testing at the ports back in April, with Toyota partnering with drayage (transporting goods over short distances) provider Southern Counties Express. As the trial progressed, more and more cargo had been added until the two companies decided the truck was ready to become part of the proper fleet of vehicles later this month.
Powering the truck are two fuel stacks from Toyota's fuel-cell Mirai sedan and a 12kWh battery. The automaker says the big rig is capable of transporting 80,000 pounds and has a range of about 200 miles per fill-up. That's more than enough to move cargo around the Los Angeles area. Plus, it can quickly be put back on the road thanks to the fact that hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles can be refuelled as quickly as traditional gas-powered car.
While automakers have been touting their long-term electric vehicle plans, many of them have been simultaneously working on fuel-cell vehicles as a way to hedge their bets. A hydrogen fuel-cell vehicle can refuel as quickly as a gasoline vehicle, but like an EV, produces no CO2. It seems like it would be a seamless transition from traditional driving, or at least more so than what's expected from electric vehicles, which need to be plugged in and charged for hours to fulfill their range promises.
At issue is the lack of a robust hydrogen fuel-cell refueling infrastructure. Toyota and other automakers have worked closely with third parties to set up stations in Los Angeles, San Francisco and the north east. Anywhere else, and you're basically out of luck. But if programs like Toyota's Project Portal prove to be a hit, it might be just the boost the fuel-cell infrastructure needs for mass adoption.During Monday night's (now regularly occurring) protest/party at the BART Civic Center station, at least 40 people were pinched by the fuzz during the melee. What initially started out as a rally to decry to SFPD shooting death of Charles Hill on July 3, and then a protest to blast BART for censoring cell phone service, has now turned into a comparatively festive recurring "BART Mondays" at Civic Center.
Both the Civic Center and Powell stations were temporarily closed last night. According to Bay City News (via SF Appeal), here's what went down last night.
Two people were arrested shortly after the protest began after disobeying dispersal orders, [San Francisco police Officer Albie] Esparza said. At Fourth and Market streets one person was arrested on suspicion of igniting a flammable substance and when demonstrators marched to the first block of Grove Street, at least 35 others were arrested, Esparza said. All protesters were arrested on suspicion of failing to disperse upon command of a traffic officer and pedestrian in the roadway, Esparza said.
Yet another BART protest is planned for next Monday.This email has also been verified by Google DKIM 2048-bit RSA key
Re: FINAL: Longshoremen endorsement/organizing event tomorrow
The line is weird. We can cross off version we have in car. Sent from my iPhone On Oct 31, 2015, at 9:53 AM, Dan Schwerin <dschwerin@hillaryclinton.com> wrote: We're on our way to event now. Tough to change unless really urgent. I'd say there's a relatively low chance of her sticking to these remarks anyway. But let me know and I'll try to intercept if needed. On Oct 31, 2015, at 9:51 AM, Maya Harris <mharris@hillaryclinton.com> wrote: Megan, has event already happened? On Sat, Oct 31, 2015 at 9:49 AM, Joel Benenson <jbenenson@bsgco.com> wrote: > Am I the only one who that strikes as odd? I think people equate civil > rights with the civil rights movement and I’m just a little worried that > using that for the right to organize may strike some people as an overreach > or equating the struggle of unions with the struggle for justice for > African Americans. > > > > Maybe I’m overthinking this but it just hit me as a bit off this morning. > > > > *From:* Nikki Budzinski [mailto:nbudzinski@hillaryclinton.com] > *Sent:* Saturday, October 31, 2015 9:41 AM > *To:* Joel Benenson > *Cc:* Megan Rooney; Speech Drafts; Clay Middleton; Speech Book > *Subject:* Re: FINAL: Longshoremen endorsement/organizing event tomorrow > > > > No she hasn't. > > Sent from my iPhone > > > On Oct 31, 2015, at 8:38 AM, Joel Benenson <jbenenson@bsgco.com> wrote: > > Sorry I know this is a final. > > > > Has she said before that “the right to organize is a civil right?” > > > > > > > > *From:* speechdrafts@hillaryclinton.com [ > mailto:speechdrafts@hillaryclinton.com <speechdrafts@hillaryclinton.com>] *On > Behalf Of *Megan Rooney > *Sent:* Saturday, October 31, 2015 8:50 AM > *To:* Speech Drafts; Nikki Budzinski; Clay Middleton; Speech Book > *Subject:* FINAL: Longshoremen endorsement/organizing event tomorrow > > > > This is final. Regular and large versions attached. Thanks. > > > > On Fri, Oct 30, 2015 at 8:40 PM, Megan Rooney <mrooney@hillaryclinton.com> > wrote: > > This is ready for the book. Thanks. > > > > On Fri, Oct 30, 2015 at 7:47 PM, Megan Rooney <mrooney@hillaryclinton.com> > wrote: > > Hi all -- here's a draft for tomorrow in Charleston. This is kind of a > hybrid event -- it's got a labor angle, but there will be a bigger audience > there, and SC would like her to talk more broadly about the campaign. > > > > So this starts with a strong labor message at the start. Then it goes > into the stump. There's a bit in there about Charleston and guns. > Otherwise, a lot of this should look familiar to all of you. Perhaps more > importantly, it tracks with what she's been saying recently so it'll look > familiar to her. > > > > I've got to get this to the book soon so please send me edits as soon as > you can. > > > > Many thanks. > > > > > >Middle End Lisp Translator (MELT)
MELT site
These wikipages are not well maintained. See the GCC MELT site http://gcc-melt.org for more up to date informations
OBSOLETE CONTENT
This page documents the MELT branch (which I previously called Basilys) - see the paper in the 2007 GCC Summit Proceedings, Multi-stage construction of a global static analyser by Basile Starynkevitch, pages 143 - 152 and the MELT paper in the GROW09 workshop (inside Hipeac09).
Recent slides are gcc-melt-tutorial-oct2010.pdf (MELT tutorial GCC Summit 2010), here (MELT slides november 2009) and RMLL 2010 slides (july 2010) here.
This work is motived by static code analysis, and more generally any other middle-end specific processing (which would go inside a plugin). The basic insight of MELT is that C is a too low level language to code compilers (and their plugins), in particular their middle end passes, notably those passes which are specific and should be prototyped quickly! This view is in contrast with the popular (and still wise) opinion that a compiler should be coded in the language it compiles (but MELT is coded in MELT).
MELT is a domain specific language to develop GCC extensions (it is actually tailored to fit strongly into GCC). You hopefully will increase your productivity by coding your GCC extensions in MELT, however you need to learn some basics of GCC internals (major internal representations like Gimple and Tree, overview of GCC passes), and also to learn the MELT language.
Discussions in english about GCC MELT should go on the gcc@gcc.gnu.org mailing list. A discussion group in French on GCC MELT is available on gcc-melt-french googlegroup.
availability and download
The MELT subversion repository is the GCC MELT branch on svn://gcc.gnu.org/svn/gcc/branches/melt-branch - a tarball snapshot for a GCC 4.5 MELT plugin is given in the MELT tutorial page (but retrieving thru svn is much preferable). The MELT branch has an incomplete but existing gcc-internals documentation (run make pdf to get it). An older version of this documentation is attached to the MELT tutorial wiki page.
Why MELT can be useful to you?
MELT is useful for the same reasons that (big) GCC plugins (or extensions) will be useful, and MELT can be viewed as a tool to easier code GCC extensions (like those provided by plugins) in. MELT permit (perhaps more easily than coding big GCC plugins in C) to tailor the GCC to suit it to your own specific need, e.g.
coding specific passes adding more diagnostics for a given software. For instance, once could code in MELT (easier than in C) a GCC pass which checks that every call to fopen is tested against NULL in the same routine. Such a pass is specific to the standard C library providing fopen. One could imagine than major free software (like the linux Kernel, the GTK or QT graphical toolkit, the Apache server,...) might want to develop their specific GCC extensions e.g. in MELT to do some checks specific to that software. coding specific passes adding more optimizations for a particular software. For instance, one could code in MELT (easier than in C) a few GCC passes which optimize every call to fprintf(stdout,...) into printf(....). Doing this inside the compiler (in particular, in a pass called after inlining) is easier than doing it outside. Very probably, current big free software offer analogue optimization possibilities. optimizing a given big software to some particular (hardware or operating) system. GCC offers a wide set of tuning parameters, and one could probably tune them to fit into some particular variant of a target (e.g. a system on chip with an ARM or PowerPC inside). refactoring, or aspect oriented programming, or software metrics or quality or navigation can also be improved by your GCC extensions. any other GCC extensions you want or need, in particular if it is big enough to justify learning a new specific language.MELT can probably be useful to any person wanting to develop specific GCC extensions thru plugins, provided these are big enough to justify learning a new domain specific language.
MELT is probably not interesting if you want to develop a tiny GCC plugin (but be aware that plugins tend to grow significantly), or if you want to develop a new feature for the core GCC (not thru a plugin), i.e. some pass that you want to push inside the GCC trunk (but you could prototype it in MELT).
Basic hints for coding GCC extensions in MELT
Some hints for newcomers; most of the hints here also apply to people considering coding a GCC plugin in C.
You first need to grasp GCC main internal representations (notably Tree & Gimple & Gimple/SSA). There are several documents about them (including the source files gcc/tree.def and gcc/gimple.def and their comments and the internal GCC documentation); read them first!
You then need to understand a little bit the organization of the GCC passes. Perhaps a good way to feel how GCC passes work is first to build a very small C (or Fortran or Ada) source code example yourexample.c illustrating your needs in a new (otherwise empty) directory, and to run there something like gcc -S -fverbose-asm -O2 -fdump-tree-all yourexample.c
This will fill your directory with a lot of dump files (about a hundred or two) like yourexample.c.004t.gimple or yourexample.c.080t.copyprop3. These dump files are partial textual representations of the various intermediate representations (usually Gimple) of your code. By glancing inside them with a textual editor, you will understand what the compiler did, and perhaps be able to choose the pass after which your MELT extension (or GCC plugin in C) has to work. You will often have to add your own (one or few) passes, preferably coded in MELT, and you need to understand where (after which existing GCC pass) will you insert your own pass (or passes) coded in MELT.
You also have to look for examples of MELT processing, in files like melt/xtramelt*.melt. Feel free to ask for help.
Small MELT overview
The MELT branch contains several (related) stuff. It can also be compiled as a GCC plugin. See MELT tutorial for details. Everything can be enabled or disabled at GCC configure time or at GCC run time:
a Lisp dialect compiled into C code, with which one can code middle end passes a runtime which extends the GCC infrastructure to support the previous items, in particular a generational copying garbage collector well suited for the lisp dialect above, which is build above the existing GGC (which deals with old values).
All this work was and is (partly) funded by the french Ministery of Economy... in the past thru ITEA within the GlobalGCC project and in 2010-2011 by the OpenGPU project.
The MELT branch has been created on february 19th 2008 and you can get it for readonly with svn checkout svn://gcc.gnu.org/svn/gcc/branches/melt-branch/ and for read-write (assuming you have an account) with svn checkout svn+ssh://yourusername@gcc.gnu.org/svn/gcc/branches/melt-branch/ (replacing yourusername with appropriate login). inkin My (Basile Starynkevitch's) contributions to GCC are covered by the copyright transfer signed by CEA to FSF, reference RT306238 which I have announced here
The MELT branch follows quite closely the GCC trunk (which is usually merged more than weekly into MELT).
If you want to try quickly and easily MELT, you should use the Plugin version of MELT. You can find the last build at the MELT page. You need at least GCC 4.6 with plugin support (compiled with --enable-plugin) and the related development package. Installation is detailled in the README.
In practical terms, MELT is quite resource consuming; more precisely, the compilation of the C generated code by a C compiler (usually GCC itself) is the major bottleneck. However, some recent progress has been made (by splitting some MELT files, and by improving the C code generator, notably by shrinking the huge initialization routine of each module by moving some code into several smaller static routines.). We suggest compiling MELT on a 4Gb RAM machine, or not passing any optimization flag when compiling the generated C code. (This is unrelated to the flags used to compile your own code in a MELT enabled GCC). More details here.
You can find some performance tests here.
MELT motivation
MELT is a high-level Lisp-like language designed to fit very closely in GCC internal representations, thru an automated translation of MELT code into GCC specific C code, compiled by a C compiler (usually some GCC) and then loaded as plugins. This enables easier development of high-level static analysis and transformation, working on GCC middle end representation (GIMPLE tuple).
summary of motivations
The motivations are detailed in the GCC Summit 2007 papers; in a few words
Coding passes in a LISP dialect is more fun and easier to the human developer. Some of these MELT passes (related to static analysis) are expected to run for a very long time. These peculiar passes are very rarely run (and only explicitly). It is worthwhile (and in the spirit of Lisp) to generate MELT/Lisp code during such very time consuming passes. So some passes might profit of dynamic code generation (at the meta-level) during them. Hence the MELT infrastructure should be able to generate some (specialized) code (as C files), to compile it into a dynamically loadable stuff (e.g. *.so shared objects on Linux/ELF; or *.la file with libtool), and to dynamically load it (all this during the same peculiar cc1 execution).
The MELT branch should generate C code during cc1 execution (the C code is translated from LISP internally) - it is important that it happens during execution of the cc1 process (because the whole idea is to be able to generate and then execute code during some very time consuming MELT passes). This C code is compiled into a dynamically loadable stuff (usually a *.so) and dynamically loaded by dlopen (see function compile_to_dyl in file gcc/melt-runtime.c in the MELT branch).
MELT Lisp dialect
The Lisp dialect is a Lisp1 (so more a Scheme than a Common Lisp w.r.t. names and bindings) dialect able to handle both boxed and some unboxed values. You can define primitives (which get translated to C), for example the (unboxed) integer addition is already defined as (defprimitive +i (:long a b) :long "((" a ") + (" b "))") the first :long occurrence describes the types of the formal arguments a and b, the second occurrence describes the result. There is an minimal object system (single-inheritance hierarchy, rooted at CLASS_ROOT. S-exprs are objects. Values can be MELT objects, closures, vectors, lists (a linked list of pairs, with pointers to first and last pair), pairs, etc... boxed integers or boxed GCC trees or hashtables (of objects, of trees,..) etc... Every value has a discriminant (a MELT object) which is its class for objects. Adding support for other GCC datatypes is very easy. Tail-recursion is not handled (looping should use the forever keyword, and loops are can be exit ed). the let keyword is like let* in Scheme (binding sequentially).
MELT compiler implementation
It should be stressed that the MELT compiler (actually inside cc1) is translating MELT Lisp dialect S-exprs (either from a file or in memory) into a (huge) C file, which is usually compiled into a dynamically loadable stuff and then dynamically loaded (all in the same cc1 process). The MELT compiler is written in MELT (files warmelt*.melt), and a CommonLisp variant (file contrib/cold-basilys.lisp for Clisp) was coded to bootstrap it.
The MELT compiler (see function compile_list_sexpr in warmelt-outobj.melt) proceeds in several steps.
a list of S-exprs (these are MELT objects of CLASS_SEXPR ) is given, either by parsing a MELT file or because it is in memory. An initial environment is also given (could be empty for the particular case of warmelt-first.melt). the first step is macro-expansion. Every S-expr is macro expanded, usually into some subclass of CLASS_SRC (it is a source element); for example the if MELT keyword occurrence expands to an instance of CLASS_SRC_IF but most S-expr are just plain function or primitive applications. Then a normalization phase occur. Each source element is normalized (into a subclass of CLASS_NREP ) by adding additional let bindings. For example (F (G X) 2) becomes something equivalent to (LET ( (GG (G X) (FF (F GG 2)) ) FF) where FF and GG are fresh. Then a compilation phase is called. It transforms the normalized stuff into some abstract syntax tree (in subclasses of CLASS_OBJCODE ) which mimics a subset of C. At last, this forest of OBJCODE-s is pretty-printed as C code. The generated C code is compiled into a shared object which is dynamically loaded (as any plugin). The C code should be compilable without the GCC source or build directory (once this GCC has been installed) because included files for the C code plugin would be saved elsewhere (e.g. in some melt-private-include/ subdirectory). This is discussed here
current state
You need, in addition of all libraries used by GCC trunk (like mpfr and gmp):
the libtldl development (ie with headers) library from the libtool dynamic loader - libtldl is a dlopen replacement to dynamically load code at runtime. The Parma Polyhedra Library (PPL). It is also needed by Graphite, recently (end of August 2008) merged into trunk. You need at least PPL version 0.10.2 or a very recent GIT snapshot. PPL 0.10 won't work, so you probably would need to build PPL from its source. Essentially a fairly recent GNU/Linux system. I don't know anything else. Maybe it might later work on some other systems. I'm using Debian/Sid or Debian/Lenny on AMD64. Some nice guy (named Rob) was able to build MELT on a Solaris x86 system (but I needed to correct some linuxisms in the code). Some significant amount of RAM (because the generated warmelt*.c (or warmelt*-0.c ) are huge and contain a big, but simple, routine). I have a 4Gb RAM machine. A fairly recent version of GTK to compile the contrib/simple-probe.c
Current (may 2009) state (quite messy, notably for building):
* the configure.ac should be usable, but you have to rebuild all configure files (see the Regenerating_GCC_Configuration page for details) and re configure with --with-ppl. Currently I (Basile) use the following configure command: $GCCTOP/configure --enable-maintainer-mode --enable-checks=tree,gc --enable-languages=c --disable-bootstrap --disable-multilib \
--with-ppl=/usr/local/
Regenerating the configure file |
consin:
1. Fas -- Ite, Maledicti, In Ignem Aeternum – Deathspell Omega
2. Back in Black – AC/DC
3. Jagged Little Pill – Alanis MorissetteBuy Photo If the November 2016 general election were held today, Bush would lose Michigan to Clinton by 9 percentage points, 46 percent to 37 percent. The poll has a margin of error of plus-minus 4 percentage points. (Photo: Todd McInturf / The Detroit News)Buy Photo
Lansing — Likely Michigan voters have an unfavorable view of the 2016 candidates for president polling highest around the nation, according to a new statewide survey.
Democrat Hillary Clinton and four top Republican contenders — former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and U.S. Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida — elicited more unfavorable views than favorable in a poll conducted June 9-11 by the Chicago-based Glengariff Group polling firm.
While having high 94 percent name identification, Bush's unfavorable rating among 600 likely voters in Michigan is 17 percentage points higher than his favorable rating, according to the poll released exclusively to The Detroit News and WDIV-TV.
Paul's unfavorable rating outpaced his favorability score by 13 percentage points, followed by Clinton's eight-point spread.
Among voters who identify as political independents, Bush's and Clinton's unfavorable ratings spike even higher.
"Clinton's are bad and Bush's are terrible. That's really how you compare them — bad to terrible," said Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. "Hundreds of millions of negative ads are going to be aired against these candidates. If they're starting out with unfavorables that high, just imagine where they're going to end up. But somebody has to win."
Sabato attributes Bush's poorer marks from likely voters to being the brother of former President George W. Bush and the second son of former President George H.W. Bush.
"The dynasty factors," Sabato said. "The difference is Bill Clinton is fairly popular and George W. Bush is unpopular with everybody but Republicans."
The telephone poll of likely November 2016 general election voters had a partisan breakdown of 40 percent Democratic, 33 percent Republican and 25 percent independent. Democrats often turn out more voters in presidential election years than Republicans.
Among independent voters, Clinton had a 48 percent unfavorable rating that is 21 percentage points higher than her favorable rating. Bush's favorable rating among independents was 18 percent, while his unfavorable rating was double that percentage.
"What we're seeing with Clinton and Bush is real polarization among the electorate," said pollster Richard Czuba of the Glengariff Group.
Bush's quest to become the third member of his family to reside in the White House faces obstacles with independent voters in Michigan, according to the poll.
Clinton, the former secretary of state, remains the favorite, at this early date, to deliver a sixth consecutive victory for Democrats.
Paul, Rubio and Walker performed better than Bush in head-to-head matchups with Clinton.
If the November 2016 general election were held today, Bush would lose Michigan to Clinton by 9 percentage points, 46 percent to 37 percent. The poll has a margin of error of plus-minus 4 percentage points.
Clinton's margin over Paul and Rubio in head-to-head matchups were both just under 4 percentage points and within the poll's margin of error. She led Paul 44.5 percent to 40.7 percent and Rubio 42.4 percent to 38.7 percent.
"Rubio probably poses the greatest threat to Hillary Clinton in Michigan," Czuba said. "He has room to grow. He clearly made a dent with independent voters."
Czuba said Bush's challenge lies with independent voters, who may be turned off by having the brother and son of former presidents running the country.
Republicans haven't won a presidential race in Michigan since 1988, when George H.W. Bush prevailed over Democrat Michael Dukakis. Michigan native Mitt Romney lost the state in 2012 to Democratic President Barack Obama.
"When you look at the Clinton-Bush numbers, they look an awful lot like the Obama-Romney numbers," Czuba said. "To have a shot in Michigan, Republicans are going to have to go to a nominee who is not necessarily an establishment candidate, that offers independents something interesting."
For Bush, who formally launched his campaign for president Monday, his unfavorable rating was 17 percentage points higher than his favorable rating, the largest spread of all six candidates included in the survey, Czuba said.
Bush's overall favorable rating in the poll was 24 percent. Still, Bush commands 94 percent name identification among likely Michigan voters, followed by Paul with 82 percent, Rubio at 70 percent and Walker trailing far behind at 55 percent.
"Name identification is everything in politics," said TJ Bucholz, a Democratic political consultant in Lansing. "It's especially true in the presidential race. It's becoming even more important as the electorate becomes more disengaged."
Paul, who has a close following among libertarian-minded Republicans, polled the best among independent voters, with his favorable-unfavorable rating split at 26 percent. Paul also had the highest favorable rating among voters under age 40 among the four Republican candidates tested in the poll.
John Yob, a Grand Rapids consultant serving as national political director of Paul's campaign, said the polling data reflects Paul's appeal to voters outside of the GOP's traditional tent.
"We need to nominate a candidate who can appeal to independent voters, young people and non-traditional Republicans if we want to make Michigan competitive in the general election and keep Hillary Clinton out of the White House," Yob said in an email.
Read or Share this story: http://detne.ws/1J3R19JAnita Sarkeesian is a name that many gamers really weren't familiar with before she became the latest gamer harassment target. Now she's everywhere, and her controversial opinions have led to things like this -- a game in which players are invited to beat her face in. It's pretty creepy, as the screenshot above demonstrates.
"Anita Sarkeesian has not only scammed thousands of people out of over $160,000, but also uses the excuse that she is a woman to get away with whatever she damn well pleases," says the game's indignant description. "Any form of constructive criticism, even from fellow women, is either ignored or labelled to be sexist against her.
"She claims to want gender equality in video games, but in reality, she just wants to use the fact that she was born with a vagina to get free money and sympathy from everyone who crosses her path."
Her opinions are unique, and there's plenty of room for reasonable criticism, but the sheer terror and fury she's managed to inspire has been off the chart. In any case, things like this have only continued to contribute to her fame. That seems like a bit of an own-goal in the case of the folks who wanted her silenced.
You are logged out. Login | Sign upDavid Trainer, president of New Constructs, a Nashville-based research firm, says that Apple Inc.’s level of profitability is not sustainable, and that the company’s return on invested capital suggests that the price of the stock should be somewhere around $240. That would be nearly a 50% decline from current levels.
Appearing on the “Danger Zone” segment of MoneyLife with Chuck Jaffe, Trainer – who prefaced his remarks by noting that Apple is great company and that he and his firm are dedicated users of its products – said that the company has had “extraordinarily high returns on invested capital.”
In 2011, Trainer noted that Apple’s ROIC was 339%, which fell to 270% in 2012. Apple’s current stock, price – even after falling more than $250 per share from its 52-week high– implies a return on invested capital of 124%, Trainer said.
“You say ‘That’s much lower than it was before,’” said Trainer, “… but the good companies we like tend to be in the high teens [in ROIC]. There are a few other extraordinary companies that have high returns on invested capital, but it’s extremely rare.”
It’s particularly rare, Trainer said, in the consumer electronics space, which is increasingly where Trainer sees Apple. He compared Apple right now to Dell Inc. in its heyday; in the late 1990s, Dell’s return on invested capital was over 200%, and it went significantly higher in the 2000s before coming back to the pack and bringing the stock price with it.
“Those levels of profitability invite lots of competition,” Trainer said, “and when Apple was enjoying the 340% and 270% returns on invested capital of the past few years, they had a lot less competition than they do today.”
Trainer said that if the company can maintain a 75% return on invested capital, “the stock’s worth about 295 bucks. If the return on invested capital drops closer to 50, the stock’s worth closer to 240 bucks, and I think that’s where it ought to be, or where it’s going to go eventually.”
Trainer, whose firm rates securities on a scale from very attractive to very dangerous, noted that Apple’s tremendous profitability keeps it with a “neutral” rating, noting that “Apple looks really cheap – and this is where people are getting caught up – if you look through the rear-view mirror to where profits have been, … but you have to realize they are on the back side of the mountain.”
Trainer’s comments represented the third different money-manager take on Apple stock over the last six MoneyLife shows. On Monday, May 6, deep-value manager Josh Strauss of the Appleseed Fund put a hold on the fund, saying he expected it to be a buy when the price fell a bit further, while on May 7, Bill Mann of Motley Fool Independence said he Apple had been beaten down to where he had it as a buy.
You can listen to the interview at www.moneylifeshow.com.
— Chuck Jaffe
Follow The Tell blog on Twitter @thetellblog
Follow Chuck Jaffe on Twitter @mktwjaffe —They say cats have nine lives but it appears one lucky dog will be fine with just one.
Lonca, a two-year-old German shepherd with Toronto police's canine unit, was attacked by a man with a machete Tuesday during a bust of an alleged gambling ring in North York. He was cut in the neck and rushed to an animal emergency centre.
A day later, the pooch appears poised to make a full recovery and looks to be feeling more like himself again.
"The police dog received five stitches to its upper lip and two staples to its paw," said Staff Sgt. James Hung.
The dogs are assigned to each handler and they take them home every night and care for them on a daily basis. - Toronto police Staff Sgt. James Hung
The incident came as a shock to the entire police canine unit, the staff sergeant told CBC News.
"The dogs are assigned to each handler and they take them home every night and care for them on a daily basis," Hung explained, adding when one is injured, that bond between man and dog is only strengthened.
The dog's human companion said the animal is his best partner and friend. Lonca is expected to return to the force next week.
Three men in their 50s have been charged in connection with the alleged gambling ring. One man also faces charges of possession of a dangerous weapon and injuring an animal.
Hung said the man accused of injuring Lonca could go to prison for five years, if he's convicted.UPDATED April 30 at 12:44 p.m. EDT
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida — A suspected problem on an unidentified Boeing-built satellite caused Boeing to postpone the scheduled April 30 launch of Mexico’s large Centenario mobile-communications satellite until the company is sure that Centenario does not have the same issue.
International Launch Services of Reston, Virginia, on April 27 confirmed that the launch aboard an ILS Proton rocket from Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan would be postponed until further notice.
El Segundo, California-based Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems on April 27 declined to identify the satellite with the suspected anomaly or to specify whether the satellite was in Boeing’s factory or already in orbit.
One industry official said the satellite in question is the Morelos-3 spacecraft, nearly identical to Centenario, which is in production at Boeing and preparing for a launch later this year on an Atlas 5 rocket. The official said the problem has to do with the L-band antenna.
In a statement, Boeing said:
“Though we are unable to comment at this time on the other spacecraft or the nature of the anomaly, Boeing believes there is no issue at this time with Centanario, a 702 satellite that has been built for the government of Mexico.
“However, our normal due-diligence practices leading to launch include evaluating any ongoing in factory or on-orbit anomaly investigations for potential impact to that launch. This assessment is not complete for one anomalous condition. As a result, we have postponed our consent to launch Centenario pending completion of this assessment.”
Boeing spokeswoman Joanna Climer said current indications are that the issue likely will be resolved in a matter of days.
Mexico’s Secretariat of Communications and Transportation, which is the owner of the Centenario satellite, said in an April 24 statement that the anomaly was found on a spacecraft with similar characteristics to those of Centenario.
Centenario is one of two nearly identical L-band mobile communications satellites built by Boeing for Mexico’s Mexsat system. A third, smaller satellite, Bicentenario, was built by Orbital ATK of Dulles, Virginia, under contract to Boeing and launched in December 2012.
The two Boeing-built satellites, named Centenario and Morelos 3, were completed in November 2013 and June 2014 and have been in storage awaiting launch, one aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket and the other aboard an ILS Proton.Page 10 Of 16
II. Hero and Sidekick
At its core, Jak & Daxter was designed with the spirit of Crash Bandicoot in mind. But it was meant to be bigger, better, and more open-ended. It was also meant to be accessible. That was a key tenet to Jak’s success. But a mixture of old talent that worked on Crash Bandicoot and new talent that would be culled from other places both inside and outside of the industry would be required to help make the idea into reality.
Josh Scherr, who came to Naughty Dog in February of 2001, was a member of the core team that built Jak, and remains at Naughty Dog to this day. But at the time, he had just entered the gaming space from the feature animation industry. It was when he was working on a pitch for a 3D Mighty Mouse film for Nickelodeon that he found himself looking for a job at the studio that made Crash Bandicoot.
After taking a grueling day-long exam to test his animating chops (“I was sweating like Albert Brooks in Broadcast News,” he recalled), he found himself hired. He was Naughty Dog employee #33.
“In terms of directive, one thing we were trying to do internally was that we wanted to create a title that not only had broad appeal to many different age groups, but also to many different cultures. To that end, that’s where a lot of the anime stylings of the characters were coming into play.” In addition to its Japanese-styled art, Jak’s name – which is South African – was originally suggested by Scherr, and is another example of the series’ multicultural slant. “One thing that wasn’t in place when I arrived were the character’s names,” he said. “All the art everywhere just said ‘Hero and Sidekick.’”
“It’s funny,” longtime Sony producer Sam Thompson said when asked about the origin of the series. “For Jak & Daxter, it was always Jak & Daxter. The character hadn’t been completely locked-in. The design, the ears, things like that. Then what Daxter was. But in my recollection, Jason and Andy, they always knew. Everybody knew. They wanted to do a third-person open world action adventure game that’s entirely character-based. This is what they wanted. It was never something that they wavered with.”
“ I was sweating like Albert Brooks in Broadcast News.
“I remember early on, even the first concept videos, Jason was so passionate about the size and scope of the world,” he continued. “You could tell it was connected to his design philosophies with Crash. It was just this extension of that current philosophy, blown to a whole new proportion. You had this wonderland of tools and toys you could play with. It was their version of a sandbox. And it worked out really well.”
Naughty Dog Co-President Evan Wells expanded on these ideas. “We knew we wanted to do a character action game. I remember spending some time at the dog park with Jason [Rubin] kicking around ideas. We were inspired by the success of Final Fantasy at the time, the Japanese influence. That was one of the big things. We wanted to replicate the success that Crash had in Japan, because back then it was a huge part of the market.”
“A lot of the stuff we were working with at the time was trying to combine the western and the Japanese influences to create a new game. I think that’s where a lot of the inspiration came from. And also trying to hit the different demographics. We were going to have a teenage boy, but then we wanted a sidekick for some humor. We were piecing together bits of the formula from Crash that worked and then turning it into a free-roaming 3D action platformer. It was rough.”
Naughty Dog first caught wind of PlayStation 2 when making Crash Bandicoot 3. “The PS2 was starting to be developed and we were talking to Sony about what it would be capable of,” Wells recounted. “The [SEGA] Dreamcast was out and we were excited about what we were hearing. We couldn’t wait to get our hands on hardware.”
Exit Theatre Mode
“I think because of the success of Crash, they wanted to get us the earliest prototype PS2 hardware they could,” he continued. “At the time, they couldn’t even import the machines. It couldn’t get through customs. It was this supercomputer. It had to be searched and made sure that you’re not using it for nefarious purposes or something. They actually had to sneak it in. They sent us to the airport and we had to drive over into some weird warehouse and pick it up and take it back to the office.”
Difficulty arose during development due to the jump from PlayStation to PlayStation 2, which was extreme, according to Thompson. “You’re dealing with a lot of questions and not a lot of answers,” he noted. “You don’t have final tech in some cases, you don’t have final firmware. You’re dealing with a brand new engine. You’re dealing with the PS2 architecture, which is extremely advanced compared to the PS1. You have larger team sizes, larger budget. The scope of the project is 100 times what [Crash Bandicoot 3:] Warped was.”
“ It was really hard to get the engine up and running on the PS2.
“It was really hard to get the engine up and running on the PS2,” Wells later said. “We thought we could continue to do games every year like we had done on the PS1. We thought we could have the game come out a year after CTR. Six months in, we’re like, ‘okay, we can barely even render this thing at one hertz.’ At that point we knew [Jak & Daxter] was going to be a two-year project.”
Indeed, Jak & Daxter’s second year of development wasn’t exactly smooth, either. The game ran poorly, and the team, according to Wells, “was trying to find what was fun about [the game]. It’s very different going from a linear game like Crash to exploring a fully free-roaming 3D camera game.”
Technology aside, further difficulty was met due to the studio’s desire to tell a more meaningful, interesting story in Jak & Daxter, something Naughty Dog actually wanted to do with Crash Bandicoot, but couldn’t due to technical limitations.
“When we were designing Crash, we had animated sequences that would drop right into the game… We utterly failed to get any of that into the game because the hardware couldn’t handle it and we didn’t have the budget or the time to do it,” Jason Rubin said. “But the idea was always there. As time went on with Crash, more and more plot. When we got to Jak, we said ‘now is our time.’ Jak 1 has plot at the beginning, actually in-game movie stuff. This was revolutionary at the time.”
“This was the first attempt to introduce more of a story into the games,” Scherr said. “The Crash games had stories, but they were fairly simple, shall we say. ‘So-and-So’s been kidnapped! Dr. So-and-So had done this again! Save girl, or save world.’ That kind of thing. [We] wanted to try to get a more interesting mythos developed with the Precursors and the world and the eco and everything like that. To do that, [the powers that be] decided that they wanted to use cutscenes.”
Scherr was up to the task, and he helped shape and guide the way Jak & Daxter’s story was told. “One of the things I noticed when I first got in is that… The animation was great, but they were still very video gamey, and by that I mean there was no real cinematic language being used. Essentially, everybody was talking directly into the camera. The camera would stay on them until they finished talking, and then they would switch to the other person who was talking and do exactly the same thing over and over.”
“ The guy who was the sound designer at the time basically came right out and said how he felt the game was terrible and how none of us knew what we were doing...
“I started not to do that,” he continued. “I started trying to do some actual cuts and moves and things like that. Some people thought it was cool, and some people thought it was actually making it feel like less of a video game, in a bad way. ‘This is a video game convention. Characters talk to you directly through the screen.’ That was actually the source of some little fights I had in C&Cs with some people.”
C&Cs, in Naughty Dog nomenclature, are Comments and Criticisms, and they persisted from the beginning of the Crash Bandicoot era all the way through Jak X. “After the business of [any given] company meeting was taken care of,” Scherr described, “we went around the table, and if anybody has anything to say about anything, this was your chance to openly speak about it.” These meetings, as you may imagine, weren’t always nice.
“I remember my very first C&C meeting,” Scherr recalled. “The guy who was the sound designer at the time basically came right out and said how he felt the game was terrible and how none of us knew what we were doing and we all really needed to rethink the entire approach. That was an interesting introduction to the Naughty Dog corporate culture,” Scherr said, laughing. “He left about two months later.”
Scherr’s vision for Jak won out, but there were some issues. “You go back and look at the first Jak, you’ll notice that the cutscenes are very much a mishmash of these styles. Most of them were mine, the more cinematic language-y ones, and in others they’re just talking to you.”
Exit Theatre Mode
And then there’s the small matter of release timing. Jak & Daxter was delayed by a month in order to clean the game up.
“We had to delay the game past Thanksgiving [2001],” Wells said. “It was a really awkward time to ship the game. We wanted to get out before Christmas, but we needed that extra three or four weeks to ship the thing. It was a scary project. But it was a reflection of Naughty Dog’s culture. We won’t ship a game that we’re not proud of. We won’t ship a game that doesn’t hit the mark on all the different disciplines.”
“And when you see the end result, a few more weeks made a huge difference,” Naughty Dog Co-President Christophe Balestra interjected. “It would be a shame not to be able to polish the game… Evan was pointing out, ‘everyone will forget that we were five weeks late.’ Five weeks out of three years, it’s not that much. But if we ship a game that’s not good, that’s gonna stay forever. That was the kind of decision we made.”
“ It would be a shame not to be able to polish the game… if we ship a game that’s not good, that’s gonna stay forever.
Sam Thompson elaborated further. “Obviously, when you’re working on something new, you’re iterating a lot. You’re losing probably 70 percent of what you make on the cutting room floor. Either you had to rewrite it or you’ve gone with a different rendering solution or a different code solution. The game mechanics have changed, the AI has changed, these sequences are no longer valid. It happened with The Last of Us. It happened with Uncharted. It happens all the time.”
“You build something [and] the current scope of design says ‘this,’” he continued. “But by the time you get there, you probably built it five times over, and then you realize it’s not going to work in the context of the story, or you just don’t feel like it’s where it needs to be. This whole thing goes, and then you have to figure out how you connect the dots to make up for losing that.”
Thompson specifically discussed the original Jak & Daxter’s development, identifying it as “hectic” and noting that the original schedule was slipping through their fingers. “The Precursor Bot, the last boss fight in the game, I believe went in 48 hours before final,” he said, chuckling. “I think we had a day to tune it before it went into the can.”
Because of the fact that games back then were more sequentially developed, as opposed to being developed around the needs of the publisher, marketing, PR, and other groups, Thompson suggests that the beginning of Jak & Daxter may feel tighter and more deliberate than the latter parts of the game, since sequential development allows more fine-tuning on what’s done first. “But it works,” he said. The ramping of the game’s difficulty towards the end, perhaps a product of stunted development, “feels natural,” Thompson concluded.
Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy launched exclusively on PlayStation 2 on December 3, 2001 in North America, and it was a home run for Sony’s new console around the world. Indeed, unlike many American games today, Jak & Daxter – like Crash Bandicoot before it – was a huge hit in Japan. But the franchise would start to evolve, beginning with its sequel, due to changing trends in the industry that necessitated a new look at what Naughty Dog was putting out.
“Jak was revolutionary for us,” Thompson proudly noted. “And then the next year and a half, we started to see titles like God of War and Killzone… Everything started to change. You had Grand Theft Auto III coming out. All of a sudden, it’s about real worlds, photorealism, gritty stories, a lot more violence.” Jak & Daxter had none of that.
“Near the end of Jak 1 was when Grand Theft Auto III came out,” Scherr said. “While we were trying to finish the game, we were all sitting around in the lounge trying to rack up a five-star rating as quickly as possible. If you played Jak II, that set off some light bulbs in Jason’s head. Jak II, we really went all out in terms of the ambition. Everybody pushed everything.”
The team began to formulate ideas for a sequel as soon as the original shipped, as they retreated as a group to Mammoth, California for a much-needed vacation. In addition to its added scope, Naughty Dog wanted to emphasize storytelling in Jak II even more than it did in the first game. “I wanted to start pushing the cinematic language in scenes,” Scherr notes. “Again, there was a bit of a fight at the beginning, but I think once everybody started seeing how much more effective it made some of the scenes, I think everybody started following along, which I think ultimately helped the project.”
“ The cinematic of Jak being tortured, as the camera cranes up and all that stuff… we were really making movies now.
Music and sound were also important, according to Scherr. “You go back and play Jak 1, there would be the most dramatic scene in the game playing, near the end, with Gol and Maia confronting Jak at the citadel. But what’s in the background is whatever music happened to be playing in the level. It’ll be, ‘I am going to destroy you all!” and in the background is [calypso music sounds], or whatever the music is.”
“Yeah, that undercuts it a bit,” Scherr continued. “There’s not additional sound. There’s nothing else to help sell it. There were more, shall we say, spirited conversations with Jason about needing to spend some more money on this stuff.”
“It’s just kind of funny,” he continued, “because I remember having an argument with Jason about the opening of Jak II where the giant Precursor warp gate thing goes up in the sky, and the thing is flying out. He was watching it and saying, ‘this is all happening way too slow. This isn’t exciting.’ And I was just like, ‘get some music in this. Get some audio in this. I promise it will make those [issues] disappear.’”
“That was an abbreviated version of the very long and loud argument I had with him over that particular thing,” Scherr said, laughing. “At the end of it, we put it all in and everything started falling into place. We just continued to push that thing. One of the big philosophies we were trying to go for there was story as reward… You get through this particular section of the game, you get to see more about how the story unfolds.”
Taylor Kurosaki, who left Naughty Dog after the original Crash Bandicoot and returned to the company in 2004, jumped in. “The cinematic of Jak being tortured, as the camera cranes up and all that stuff… we were really making movies now.”
“With Jak II, it’s almost written like a movie,” Andy Gavin said. “The story integration got a really serious push. It has an elaborate plot and all these in-game cutscenes. They’re not movie stuff, not FMV. They’re just a part of the game. We tried to interweave it with the game so you’re really playing the story. It’s not some weird multimedia thing.”
Jak II launched on October 14, 2003 in North America. “There’s a fair amount of debate as to the quality of the final game. I know some people love its scope and the breadth of all the different activities you can do. Other people feel that it was just way too spread out, lost a lot of the charm, or lost a lot of the platforming stuff, anyway,” Scherr admits. “I think one thing everybody can agree on, though, is that that game is just way too fucking hard.”
“ The sales were horrendous for Jak II in Japan.
Unlike the debate over the quality of the game, there’s no debate on how it performed, at least in Japan, where Naughty Dog previously found a strange level of success for a western developer. “Jason felt strongly that we should make the move to a darker play in Jak II, which completely alienated Japan,” Thompson recalled. “The sales were horrendous for Jak II in Japan.”
“But that was the decision we had to make,” Thompson conceded. “Jason and Andy specifically – and this is with all of the stakeholders at Sony buying in as well – they had to mature this franchise if they wanted it to compete long term.”
Jak 3 -- which launched barely a year after Jak II did, in November, 2004 – was a reflection of the series’ continued evolution. Just like Grand Theft Auto III heavily influenced Jak II’s direction, Jak 3 was influenced by another Rockstar game, Smuggler’s Run. “Jason was playing that, and he’s like, ‘hmm,’” Scherr remembers. “All of a sudden, there’s a lot of driving in buggies and desert sands in Jak 3.”
“We like our influences,” he admits. “We look at what some other games are doing, and if we feel it’s appropriate for what we’re doing, we’ll see if we can incorporate it and put our own spin on it. That was also kind of the philosophy on Jak.”LinkRev: Discuss Any Websites on the Internet. Rate and comment sites independently from site-owners!
Dawid Dworak Blocked Unblock Follow Following Nov 19, 2017
For past months we’ve been obsessively spending every free moment developing LinkRev. It’s high time we present it to you and kindly ask for your feedback.
LinkRev is a portal and an extension to Chrome, Firefox (yes, including Quantum :) ) and Opera browsers that help users rate and comment sites independently from site owners.
How It Works and Why I Should Install It Now
LinkRev is different. Ratings and comments stick to websites and aren’t gone from the front page once a new hot topic pops up. They will be available even years after adding them. LinkRev works real time while surfing the Internet. It will change colors and display badges directly in your browser to let you know what other people share about it. Yep, there is no need to get through a painful registration or log in process to start rating sites or reading and writing comments.
Install it now to get notified by other people about fake ads or unreliable sellers as soon as possible!
1. Rate and comment websites independently from site owners
Vote up and down any site you visit. Leave comments and read comments of other people. Know existing contributions real-time while surfing the Internet through LinkRev icon colors and badge texts.
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Every time certain sites are heavily voted or discussed, you’ll know about it. Your thoughts, feelings and experiences are very important to the community!
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You can always use LinkRev portal to know about trendy topics and hot discussions. Look up sites, rate and comment websites. Don’t worry whether they get accepted by site owners, moderators and administrators.
Are you interested how the LinkRev idea was born? You can always read our story on Medium:
I Want to Get My Hands on It!
Great, you want to join the growing community of happy LinkRev users. Below you’ll find links to the official Google, Mozilla and Opera stores where you can download and install the add-ons for free.
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Portal:
All users who use different browsers can always access the portal. Paste the link into https://linkrev.com and discuss it there.Ready to build, train, and deploy AI? Get started with FloydHub's collaborative AI platform for free Try FloydHub for free
There are six snippets of code that made deep learning what it is today. This article covers the inventors and the background to their breakthroughs. Each story includes simple code samples on FloydHub and GitHub to play around with.
To run the code examples on FloydHub, make sure you have installed the floyd command line tool and cloned the code examples I've provided to your local machine. If you are new to FloydHub, you might want to first read the getting started with FloydHub section in my earlier post. Once you have initiated the CLI in the example project folder on your local machine, you can spin up the project on FloydHub with the following command:
floyd run --data emilwallner/datasets/mnist/1:mnist --tensorboard --mode jupyter
The Method of Least Squares
Deep learning all started with this snippet of math (which I've translated here into Python):
# y = mx + b # m is slope, b is y-intercept def compute_error_for_line_given_points(b, m, coordinates): totalError = 0 for i in range(0, len(coordinates)): x = coordinates[i][0] y = coordinates[i][1] totalError += (y - (m * x + b)) ** 2 return totalError / float(len(coordinates)) # example compute_error_for_line_given_points(1, 2, [[3,6],[6,9],[12,18]])
This was first published by Adrien-Marie Legendre (1805, Legendre), a Parisian mathematician who was also known for measuring the meter. He had a particular obsession with predicting the future location of comets. Given a couple of past locations of comets, he searched relentlessly for a method to calculate their trajectory.
It really was one of those spaghetti-on-the-wall moments. He tried several methods, then one version finally stuck with him. Legendre’s process started by guessing the future location of a comet, then he squared the errors he made, and finally remade his guess to reduce the sum of the squared errors. This was the seed for linear regression.
Play with the above code in the Jupyter notebook I've provided to get a feel for it. m is the coefficient and b in the constant for your prediction, and the coordinates are the locations of the comet. The goal is to find a combination of m and b where the error is as small as possible.
This is the core of deep learning: taking an input and a desired output, and then searching for the correlation between the two.
Gradient Descent
Legendre’s method of manually trying to reduce the error rate was time-consuming. Peter Debye, a Nobel prize winner from The Netherlands, formalized a solution for this process a century later (1909, Debye).
Let’s imagine that Legendre had one parameter to worry about - we'll call it X. The Y axis represents the error value for each value of X. Legendre was searching for where X results in the lowest error. In this graphical representation, we can see that the value of X that minimizes the error Y is when X = 1.1.
Peter Debye noticed that the slope to the left of the minimum is negative, while it’s positive on the other side. Thus, if you know the value of the slope at any given X value, you can guide Y towards its minimum.
This |
6 of the 2017 Stanley Cup Final. The NHL Network has been running a series of Cup-clinching games and Chayka has kept them on in the background. In the off-season, he hired one of the participants in the most recent showdown — former Pittsburgh assistant Rick Tocchet — to be the new head coach of the Coyotes. “They’re the fastest teams, but they’re not just all speed skaters out there,” he says of the Preds and Pens. “It’s speed of mind and decision-making process that separates these teams.”
Chayka has always moved at a quick pace himself. He learned to skate on a backyard rink built by his dad, Terry, a former Jr. B player. Like older sisters Meghan and Laura, he grew up in Jordan, Ont. — about a 15-minute drive from St. Catharines — playing a number of sports. Hockey, though, became a more singular focus as the years went on and he found himself on AAA teams, including a couple during his bantam and midget years that were coached by former Buffalo Sabres bench boss Ted Nolan and featured Nolan’s son, future L.A. King Jordan Nolan. Chayka, drafted 283rd overall by the Plymouth Whalers in the 2005 Ontario Hockey League Priority Selection, was a smart, six-foot-three player with a good shot. And even then, he always provided his body with the right fuel. “He’s the type of person who grows his own sprouts in the kitchen,” says Meghan.Sense About Science (SAS), a charity which works in partnership with scientific bodies, said numerous well known figures including Cowell, the X Factor producer, and actress Gwyneth Paltrow had made confusing statements on health during 2011.
Earlier this year, Cowell admitted to taking intravenous cocktails of vitamins C, B12 and magnesium to make him look and feel young. He said the treatment gave him “an incredibly warm feeling” and even claimed to interrupt meetings while receiving the vitamins.
Comments by American reality television star Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi were also taken to task by experts. The celebrity claimed she disliked the seaside because "the water's all whale sperm. That's why the ocean's salty."
Tracey Brown, managing director at SAS, said there was no excuse for celebrities “promulgating misleading claims”.
She added: “It’s tempting to dismiss celebrity comments on science and health, but their views travel far and wide and, once uttered, a celebrity cancer prevention idea or environmental claim is hard to reverse. At a time when celebrities dominate the public realm, the pressure for sound science and evidence must keep pace.”
Ursula Arens, a dietitian at the British Dietetic Association said Cowell's vitamin injections were unlikely to be providing much benefit and that, unless a person had a particular vitamin deficiency, food intake should provide all the vitamins they need.
"The absorption of vitamins is very efficient so – apart from people who are very ill or have particular gut problems – nearly all of what you eat is taken up by your body," she said.
Meanwhile, Simon Boxall, an oceanographer at the University of Southampton, also dismissed Polizzi’s claims over salty seas.
He said: "The salt in the sea comes from many millions of years of water flowing over rocks and minerals.
“It slowly dissolves them leading to the'salty' nature of the seas – it's not just salt but every material on the planet including gold. Salt water actually keeps our oceans free from many human pathogens – so why not give the beach another try and get back in the water?”
In common with many celebrities over previous years, 2011 was no exception when it came to support for detox programmes as a means of cleansing the body.
Gwyneth Paltrow wrote on her blog Goop: "I have gooped about Dr Alejandro Junger's Clean programme before because it gave me such spectacular results; it is really just the thing if you are in need of a good detox – wanting some mental clarity and to drop a few pounds....Here's to a happy liver and an amazing 2011!"
Dr Christian Jessen, a GP and TV presenter said that, though everyone tried to start the New Year with good intentions for a healthy lifestyle, a detox plan was not the answer.
"Your body has its own fantastic detox system already in place in the shape of your liver and kidneys. Much better to drink plenty of water, eat a balanced diet, get plenty of sleep, and let your body do what it does best."The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutras community.
The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.
Yesterday Jim Greer (CEO of Kongregate) and I gave a talk at Casual Connect in Seattle titled Fatal Flaws in Flash Games. I also talked a bit about common flaws in entry-level Flash development philosophies and practices.
There are already a few summaries of the talk, and I thought I’d take a moment to post my raw preparation notes, which include some stuff that I didn’t get a chance to discuss.
#1 You're Making a Game, Not a Homework Assignment
We live in a culture of being assigned a task, producing something that is asked of us, and being evaluated based on the level of quality of that product. We've spent at least a decade writing book reports, solving math equations, and analyzing the reasons behind the American Civil War.
Once we enter the real world, in most jobs, this mindset transfers over pretty well. Your boss gives you an assignment, you get it done, and the timeliness and level of quality is evaluated.
This doesn't cut it with making games. Your player only cares about how fun your game is, not the amount of work you put into it. They don't even necessarily care about its objective level of quality. The distinction is important. Rarely does a 7th grade teacher mark down a book report on account of it being too boring, but that’s the #1 potential failure that you now face. When making games, you must toss aside your lifelong training regarding what's important in a product.
There's a scenario I see time and time again – a game that's well-made, but simply not fun to play. Sponsors rarely offer significant money for them, and players rarely react well to them. Developers are often shocked, and respond to uninterested sponsors with, "But I spent X amount of time on this."
But we don't care how long you spent on it. It wasn't a homework assignment. We only care about whether your game is enjoyable to play. Whether it took one day or six months is irrelevant. Just as a great game isn’t penalized for being developed quickly, a poor one is not credited for being developed slowly.
#2 Ask the People Who Matter
If your sister told you one day that she had been studying Flash and she managed to put something together, odds are pretty good that you'd be legitimately impressed by her work regardless of how the game actually turned out.
We all look upon work more favorably if it's done by someone we know, care about, or can simply relate to. These are not the people you should be relying on for feedback for your game. No matter how bad a game is, it almost always has its fan group of friends and family beta testers. These people build up a developer's confidence about his game without ever conveying honest criticisms, intentionally or not.
Find people you don't know. Talk to other developers, or even just random people on a forum. Get them to play your game, and ask a million questions about their experience. Get a feel for their patience level. Your mom will carefully read the instructions to understand the counterintuitive controls of your game, but the average player will not.
#3 "Controls, Controls, You Must Learn Controls" - Yoda (paraphrased)
No one reads instructions, ever. In fact, if someone somehow IS reading the instructions of your game, then it is likely because they are already confused and frustrated. Developers love to place the blame on players who don't read instructions – but it is the game that is being made for the sake of the player's enjoyment. The player does not "owe" the game anything.
Intuitive controls are critical. If movement is done with WASD, and the arrow keys are not being used for anything, why can the arrow keys not also be used for movement? Tinker with your interface to make something quick to pick up; merely providing instructions for a confusing control scheme is NOT an excuse.
If the player skips an optional tutorial and ignores the instructions, have a quick message flash on the screen with the buttons anyway. Have signs in the background that explain the game's controls. If the player picks up a new weapon, have a dialogue box pop up with a BRIEF explanation of how to use that weapon.
The longer and more out of the way something is, the less likely the player is to read it. When long-winded instructions for counterintuitive controls are tucked away on a menu screen, you're virtually guaranteeing that the player has a negative first impression with your game.
#4 Calling Your Game Art/Hardcore Is Not an Excuse
There is absolutely no reason for beautiful and artistic games to be mutually exclusive with fun and intuitive ones. It's a common defense that developers have. If a player is confused by their game, they’ll say, "Well, it's my artistic vision – I don't expect everyone to get it." Really? Since when is giving the player easy access to the control scheme compromising an artistic vision? What exactly about having user-friendly progress checkpoints and save files is less artistic than forcing the player to enter a password or restart the entire game upon death?
When you create a great game, you earn the right to call it art. When you create a poor game, calling it art does not earn you the right to excuse giving it another coat of polish and implementing common beta tester requests.
Additionally, making your game hard just for the sake of being hard does not automatically make you and your players hardcore (with some exceptions, including “I Wanna Be the Guy”). Anyone can take their game and give the player fewer lives, or less health, or less damage, etc., and make it more difficult. There is nothing hard about making a game hard – the difficulty comes from making your game actually fun.
There is a true art form to creating a game with a proper difficulty curve – a game that starts out simple, gets progressively more difficult, and makes the player feel challenged and rewarded without feeling frustrated (there is indeed a very significant distinction between challenge and frustration, and it all has to do with the player’s perception of fairness within the game’s rules, how much control he has over the situation, and how harshly he is punished for failing). Striking this balance is incredibly difficult, and no, "I'm hardcore" is not a free ticket out of having to do it.
There is a way to transcend this principle, however. If you make a game that’s incredibly good with extremely smooth controls and a very high SKILL component, then you can likely get away with making it stupidly difficult, but only if you’re quite sure that the player will feel rewarded from this difficulty. “N: The Way of the Ninja” is a game that pulls this off extremely well, but if the controls were any less tight, the experience would be miserable. Conversely, if a game has a very low skill component to progression (such as a traditional single-player RPG in which your character’s power is based more on experience points than on player input), then high difficulty is more likely to frustrate than to intrigue.
#5 Start from the Bottom Up, Not the Top Down
Why is anyone playing your game? It's not because they're broke and your game is free or cheap – almost everyone on Kongregate has console titles. They have Halo sitting a few feet away. So why are they playing your game instead?
The answer: because it's fun. And why is it fun? That's a question that needs to be answered BEFORE development has begun. Start with the fun, then add the graphics and music later – not the other way around.
Begin with your central idea – the hook to your game. Play around with it without any graphics. See if it's fun. If it's not, tweak it. Figure out what works and what doesn't, and build on that core mechanic. Don't start with the character artwork, the music, the level tilesets, etc. You can spend months doing this for a game that is ultimately simply not enjoyable to play. When that happens, you'll likely end up with is a game that would get an A+ as a homework assignment, but not such a stellar review from someone looking for actual entertainment.
#6 Focus on Your Strengths, Not Your Weaknesses – Don’t Try to Do Everything
Final Fantasy X-2 director Motomu Toriyama once said that FFX-2 was packed with minigames because "if you bought FFX-2, you wouldn't need any other game." It’s a completely absurd idea.
We all loved the snowboarding minigame in Final Fantasy 7, but I don't think a single person on the planet loaded it up and immediately thought, "Sweet, now I don't need to buy SSX!"
But Toriyama's mindset is one that's incredibly common among game developers, even if they don't explicitly realize how they're thinking. Game developers want to be good at everything. They want to be the best at every genre. If there were a nuclear holocaust tomorrow, they'd want to be able to supply the cave-dwelling survivors with every type of game they'd ever want to play. They want to have true, diehard fans – people who will play their games and ONLY their games.
It's a flawed, inefficient mentality, and one that should be broken as soon as possible (sorry Dirge of Cerberus). If you're great at making shooter games but terrible at making platformers, then don't make platformers. Let other people make them – no one expects you to dip your talents into every imaginable genre.
Knowing your true strengths and weaknesses is one of the most important things you can learn about yourself. Figure out what you're good at, then do it. Don't waste time trying to be the Renaissance Man of game developers. Sure, if you keep releasing the same game over and over again, people will get tired of it, but that doesn't mean that your games can't share a common theme that highlights what you do best.
Just because you spend all your time making games of a similar genre doesn't mean that players have to spend all their time playing them. Don't develop tunnel vision with regard to the diversity of experiences that your player will be having across the entire industry.
Keep in mind, also, that even if you do create a successful game, this does not mean that you can do no wrong. At least 90% of your players will have absolutely no idea what your past games were. If you make a really successful shooter game, this does not mean that your next RPG project will also be automatically successful. It’s extremely common for developers to build something they’re good at, have a big success, get cocky, then do something completely different, only to be completely shocked that they’re still very much capable of failure.
#7 The Player Does What's Efficient, Not What's Fun
Your goal is to make a game that is fun. But somewhat contrary to intuition, having fun is NOT the goal of the player. The goal of the player is to conquer whatever the game throws at him. Fun is the expected byproduct of this endeavor. The player wants to have fun without having to seek it out.
The player will do what is most efficient and effective, short of doing what he perceives as cheating. Consider a side-scrolling brawler in which the player has two attacks. The first attack causes the character to leap into the air, dive down onto an enemy, grab him, spin him around, then toss him into a group of other enemies, knocking them down. A developer could put quite a lot of time into tweaking this maneuver, and have lots of fun executing it during playtesting. The second attack is a simple punch.
But here's the problem – the simple punch deals five times the damage. Why would the player bother using the former attack when the punch is so effective? "Because it's so much fun!" the developer would interject. Then why are you not forcing the player to use it?
We've all played a game like this. We're having lots of fun using a bunch of really cool attacks, abilities, maneuvers, etc. Then we find the infinite ammo rocket launcher that kills everything onscreen instantly, and the game is suddenly less fun. But why? We could always choose to put the weapon away. The problem is that manually handicapping ourselves within the game's rule structure is not fun either.
When testing your game, play it to win. Don't play it to have fun. It's your job to make sure that the two overlap.
There are exceptions to this, of course, where players will just mess around with a game to have fun rather than to progress. But the players who reach this point of exception are the people who are already hooked into your game. It's the new players who need to be won over. Force them to have fun, whether they like it or not!
#8 Show that You're Human
Humor and personality go a long, long way with Flash games. Give the player something they can relate to, make them laugh, and make sure they know that you're an indie developer. Games like Button Hunt, Achievement Unlocked and Upgrade Complete were big hits on Kongregate purely for their humor element – the latter two games targeting their humor specifically at the over-achievement-ing of every game recently made, and the necessity for all Flash games to be filled with copious upgrade screens.
And yes, your game CAN look "too good." You cannot impress your audience. They're playing Halo. They know what amazing graphics look like, and you can't touch that in Flash. No matter how long you spend on your 3D models, you will probably never create something that makes the player truly say "wow." In fact, more likely than not, you will simply alienate your players with graphics that are between indie and truly professional.
What you CAN do is create something aesthetically pleasing and still relatable. "Sonny" is an RPG that strikes the perfect aesthetic balance of looking great, but still believable as something that was created by a single college student.
"World of Goo" is probably the greatest example of a success in this area. The game looks great, but it still retains a down-to-earth cartoony style. Plus, the game is completely overflowing with humor and personality – and it was all built on a core mechanic that’s fun just on its own, even without these things.
#9 The Final 10% Is Most Important
When your game is technically done, there's a tremendous urge to release it immediately. It's like finishing a book report and not wanting to proofread it. It's done! I can turn it in! I can be finished! The light is here!
But resist it. The final 10% of polish is by far the most efficient use of your time, even if it's the most annoying and feels the least productive (since you're changing things rather than building them).
But its importance cannot be understated. Maybe the boss on level 1 has too much health, and 40% of the people who play your game give up at that point. Five minutes of tweaking a health number could have been the best five minutes of time you ever spent in your entire life.
Don’t forget to add the little things! Having a mute button (separate for sound and music) and an intuitive save system will go a long way in making players like your game (or, more accurately, in preventing them from hating it).
Play your game. Play it again and again and again. Get others to play it. Get their feedback. Tweak, tweak, tweak. Continue polishing and ironing out bugs. Don't be afraid to cut something out entirely if it's not beneficial to the game – yeah, I know, you already put the work into it, but the player doesn't care how much work you've put into it. If something is there that's not fun, it simply shouldn't be there. There is no advantage to your game being big and long purely for the sake of being big and long. Again, it's not a homework assignment.We’ve written in the past at RedState on how little the Obama administration cares about screening refugees trying to come into America, but we’ve only dealt with the wave of Middle Eastern refugees thus far. Now, we know–as if we didn’t before–that this extends to other refugees as well. News broke yesterday that Barack Obama and John Kerry are planning to outsource Central American refugee screening to the United Nations. From the AP:
The office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees will now conduct initial screenings to see whether migrants from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala may qualify as refugees eligible to come to the United States legally. “I am pleased to announce plans to expand the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program to help vulnerable families and individuals from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, and offer them a safe and legal alternative to the dangerous journey many are currently tempted to begin, making them easy prey for human smugglers who have no interest but their own profits,” Kerry said in a speech at the National Defense University. Later Wednesday President Barack Obama authorized the State Department to access up to $70 million from the U.S. Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund “for the purpose for meeting unexpected urgent refugee and migration needs related to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.”
I’m a softie on the issue of admitting refugees in general, but for obvious reasons, this does not sit well with me. The United States should be screening the people who want to enter this country, not the United Nations. There is zero indication from recent history that the UN will seriously be looking out for our interests. Their sheer incompetence at managing things is legendary, and let’s not forget their preoccupation with hating the United States when there are far more significant targets to focus on in the world.
What’s particularly ironic here is that John Kerry’s State Department is supposed to be the one overseeing the screening and admission of refugees into the United States. Let’s rewind to 2004 for a moment. In the Republican National Convention that year, Zell Miller memorably said in his keynote address about John Kerry wanting UN approval before using military force:
John Kerry, who says he doesn’t like outsourcing, wants to outsource our national security. That’s the most dangerous outsourcing of all. This politician wants to be leader of the free world.
This move by the United States doesn’t involve using military force, but Zell Miller was prophetic. He was just a few years off. Kerry might not be President, but he’s still going along with the Obama administration’s plan. The Left can bemoan outsourcing all they want, but when it comes down to it, they are totally fine with allowing other countries to run our national security policy.
This is exactly the sort of thing we should be hounding Congress about. History shows that the United Nations is not going to look out for our country’s best interests, and even if they were, they are still far too incompetent to manage such a critical part of our national security. Rather than having them screen our potential refugees, we should be defunding them.The death toll from the Philippines’ war on drugs initiated by new President Rodrigo Duterte has risen to nearly 1,800 in the seven weeks since he took office, far higher than originally believed, the country’s police chief revealed during a Senate hearing Monday.
Ronald dela Rosa, the head of the Philippine National Police, told a Senate committee that 712 people have been killed since Duterte was sworn in on June 30, Reuters reported. Another 1,067 drug-related killings, reportedly carried out by vigilantes, are being investigated.
Read next: This Is Why Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte Will Get Away With Murder
The figure is higher than the 900 deaths previously cited by officials, which included those killed between Duterte’s election victory on May 9 and his assumption of the presidency. The 71-year-old was elected by a landslide on a campaign promise to eradicate drug crime. He has threatened to “butcher” criminals and called on the populace to kill drug dealers themselves.
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Read next: Why the Philippines Elected ‘the Punisher’ as President
His words, and the actions they have inspired, have caused international human-rights advocates to condemn his no-holds-barred campaign against drugs. Duterte has responded by saying he doesn’t “care” about human rights, and has threatened to declare martial law and leave the U.N. if the world body interferes with his war on drugs.
[Reuters]
Write to Rishi Iyengar at rishi.iyengar@timeasia.com.Boston.com wrote a piece about Mayor Marty Walsh’s new initiative entitled “Mayor Promises Home Creation on City-Owned Parcels“. I don’t know the specifics of how this will work but if it’s going to be an expansion of the existing process that the Department of Neighborhood Development (DND) has been using for years then I have very few gripes. Here’s the link to a.pdf entitled “ Limiting Assets and Certain Forms of Financing in DND Homebuyer & Homeworks Help Home Repair Program ” which details the limitations put on buyers of these types of properties by the City of Boston. 20 Quincy Street, Dorchester, currently listed at $294,673, and 1-A Drayton Avenue, Dorchester, currently listed at $280,000, are good examples of these types of properties. It seems as though $20,000,000 has been earmarked for the 250 new housing units that Mayor Marty Walsh has seemingly promised on vacant land owned by the City of Boston. How will that $20,000,000 be spent? Is it going to be used as a subsidy for the for-profit and non-profit builders that will be working with the City of Boston to build these housing units? I don’t know. If it’s an entirely new program which is not yet clear to me, because the specifics haven’t been outlined yet, then I am inherently skeptical. I did notice a link on the Department of Neighborhood Development’s Property Development page entitled “ Middle Income Housing Initiative ” but that link isn’t working yet.Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and his German counterpart Angela Merkel meet reporters at a joint press conference in Berlin, Germany, June 1, 2017. (Xinhua/Zhang Duo)
China and Germany have agreed to speed up negotiations on a China-EU investment agreement so as to further enrich the two countries' cooperation and ties.[Special coverage]
Visiting Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and his German counterpart, Angela Merkel, made the announcement on Thursday during a joint press conference at the German Chancellery in Berlin.
The investment deal will benefit the two-way opening-up and equality between the Chinese and EU markets, and improve the mutual trade and investment scales of two sides.
As major trading partners for each other, it is necessary for China and the European Union to discuss the feasibility of the establishment of free trade zone, Li said.
For her part, Merkel said Germany attaches great attention to the EU-China investment treaty, adding that the signing of the treaty will be a good start of negotiations on an EU-China free trade agreement.
China is willing to work with Germany to actively promote economic globalization and resolve disputes in a proper way, so as to send positive signals to the world that the two countries will maintain the course of trade liberalization and investment facilitation, Li said.
The stable and mature China-Germany ties will inject positive power of stability, cooperation and development to the world with growing uncertainties, Li added.
As China opens her door wider to the world, more market opportunities will be provided and mutual benefits and win-win outcomes will be achieved, Li said.
During the two-day official visit to Germany, the Chinese premier also held an annual meeting with Merkel, attended an innovation-themed forum and delivered a keynote speech and meet with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Li and Merkel also witnessed the signing of a series of cooperation documents in the fields of economy and trade, new-energy vehicles, trilateral cooperation, finance and artificial intelligence.
When it comes to the climate change issue, Li said China will continue to work steadfastly to implement the commitment of the Paris climate deal and join hands with all parties to tackle climate change.
China, a large developing country, should shoulder its international responsibilities to jointly address the challenge of climate change with other countries, Li said.
Combating climate change is a global consensus, he said, adding that "with tremendous efforts, China will move towards the 2030 goal step-by-step steadfastly."
China has actively participated in promoting and the signing of the Paris Agreement, Li said, adding that China was also one of the first countries to submit the file of national plan on dealing with climate change to the United Nations.
Li stressed that China will make more efforts to maintain the green, low-carbon and sustainable development course.
The Paris Agreement was adopted by 196 parties in Paris in 2015 and it went into effect in November last year. The pact sets a target of holding the global average rise in temperature below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and preferably below 1.5 degree Celsius.
So far, 147 parties representing more than 82 percent of greenhouse gas emissions have ratified the agreement.
As for the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Merkel said that the EU need to fulfill its obligations under Article 15 of the Protocol on China's Accession to the WTO.
The EU supports the WTO obligations and is committed to seeking solutions in line with the rules, Merkel said, adding that the solutions should offer equal treatments to all countries and treat Chinese enterprises in a non-discriminatory way.
Li praised Germany's support for the EU's implementation of the obligations under Article 15 and hopes that all sides abide by the norms of international relations as well as the global consensus including the WTO rules.
He urged the 28-nation bloc to fulfill the obligations under Article 15 of China's accession to the WTO and comply with the organization's rules when making new regulations that targets unfair trade practice.
For her part, Merkel said China is becoming an increasingly important partner to Germany since the two countries established diplomatic ties 45 years ago, with closer communications in politics, economy and trade as well as people-to-people exchanges. Bilateral cooperation in various industries such as aviation, automobile, recycling economy, scientific research and intelligent manufacturing are also continuously strengthened, Merkel said.
In face of increasing uncertainties in the world, Germany and China have the responsibility to enhance strategic partnership and enrich bilateral cooperation, Merkel noted.
She added that Germany is willing to work with China to make joint contributions to the building of an open global economy as well as the maintenance of free trade.
Before the press conference, Li and Merkel had in-depth exchange of views over issues of common concerns and reached broad consensus.
The Chinese premier is on a three-day official visit to Europe. He arrived in Brussels, the capital city of Belgium on Thursday afternoon.
In Brussels, the Chinese premier will co-chair the 19th China-EU leaders' meeting with European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, and pay an official visit to Belgium.In response to territorial losses, the Islamic State plans to send more guerrilla teams to infiltrate and attack American cities.
The Islamic State (ISIS) has been under pressure both from an Iranian-led ground offensive and from American special operations raids. In order to punish America for the latter, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) chief John Brennan told Congress, ISIS is using America’s lack of immigration enforcement to move teams into the country for attacks.
“ISIL has a large cadre of Western fighters who could potentially serve as operatives for attacks in the West,” Brennan said, using another acronym for the group. He said IS probably is working to smuggle them into countries, perhaps among refugee flows or through legitimate means of travel…. “Unfortunately, despite all our progress against ISIL on the battlefield and in the financial realm, our efforts have not reduced the group’s terrorism capability and global reach,” he said. “In fact, as the pressure mounts on ISIL, we judge that it will intensify its global terror campaign to maintain its dominance of the global terrorism agenda.”
Terrorist ‘watch lists’ turn out to be almost useless as an answer to this threat, reports the Washington Post. This is because there has been so much immigration to the West lately, police simply do not have anything like the manpower they would need to keep an eye on all the existing cases. As new refugee flows flood Western states, those watch lists will balloon still further.
The United Kingdom would need to devote sixty thousand officers to full time surveillance to keep an eye on all those on its current watch lists. That is close to half of its total police force, leaving very few officers to do anything else — traffic, investigation of crimes, anything. America, which has more than eight times as many potential terrorists on our watch lists, would need half a million police officers doing nothing else but watching them. Those resources simply do not exist.
Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama has just agreed to resettle an additional ten thousand Syrian refugees. He has made no provision for the police that would be needed to ensure that they were not ISIS infiltrators. Indeed, he has not been pushing for increased resources for monitoring the 25,000 potential terrorists on existing watch lists. Instead, he is increasing the burden on an already overwhelmed security apparatus here at home. He is doing so while his CIA chief warns that these very refugee flows are a likely vector for ISIS infiltration.
Estimates are that it costs ten times more to move refugees into the West instead of supporting them in neighboring countries. That is counting the cost only of supporting the refugees, not the additional police and security services needed to watch them. The move to admit more refugees in Western countries, especially the United States, cannot be justified by cost. The decision to move refugees to America is a decision to pay these vastly inflated rates. Why spend extra money to bring people into America whom our security services already cannot afford to watch? The decision is a very strange one, especially given the warnings from Obama’s own CIA director.Story highlights James Holmes, the Colorado shooting suspect, has no social media presence
Psychologists say it could suggest isolation, resentment toward society
81% of 18- to 29-year-olds are on social networking sites, Pew says
Others with the same name are being harassed on Facebook
It's a truth of the digital age. When a person is plucked from obscurity, for good reasons or bad, the first thing curiosity-seekers do is turn to the Web.
Facebook or Twitter. LinkedIn or Tumblr. We expect social media to shed light on a person's personality, especially when, as in the case of Colorado shooting suspect James Holmes, we're trying to explain the unexplainable.
As it turns out, 24-year-old Holmes, who stands accused of killing 12 people and wounding dozens more during a shooting spree at a movie theater Friday, appears to have left virtually no digital footprint. Media and law enforcement investigating the shootings have found no traces of him online, aside from a possible account on Adult Friend Finder, a romantic meet-up site, according to police.
It's impossible, of course, to draw broad conclusions about his mindset based on the fact that he didn't share online. But Holmes' lack of an online presence has emerged as a piece of the puzzle for people looking for answers.
"We could ask the same questions about the lack of Web presence that we could for anyone who isolates themselves. Was he socially isolated in all senses?" asked Dr. Pamela Rutledge, director of the Media Psychology Research Center
Photos: Colorado movie theater massacre Photos: Colorado movie theater massacre The public gets its first glimpse of James Holmes, then 24, the suspect in the Colorado theater shooting during his initial court appearance July 23, 2012. With his hair dyed reddish-orange, Holmes, here with public defender Tamara Brady, showed little emotion. He is accused of opening fire in a movie theater July 20, 2012, in Aurora, Colorado, killing 12 people and wounding 70. Holmes faces 166 counts, almost all alleging murder or attempted murder. He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. More photos: Mourning the victims of the Colorado theater massacre Hide Caption 1 of 45 Photos: Colorado movie theater massacre Police release the official photo from Holmes' booking after the shooting. Hide Caption 2 of 45 Photos: Colorado movie theater massacre Holmes often had a blank stare during his July 23, 2012, court appearance, seeming to be in a daze. Hide Caption 3 of 45 Photos: Colorado movie theater massacre Victims and their relatives and journalists watch the proceedings in 2012. Hide Caption 4 of 45 Photos: Colorado movie theater massacre Flags fly at half-staff on July 23, 2012, at the Arapahoe County Courthouse in Centennial, Colorado, where the movie theater shooting suspect had his first court appearance. The murder counts against Holmes carry a possible death penalty. Hide Caption 5 of 45 Photos: Colorado movie theater massacre Arapahoe County District Attorney Carol Chambers talks to reporters July 23, 2012, before heading into the courthouse. The murder counts against Holmes carry a possible death penalty. Hide Caption 6 of 45 Photos: Colorado movie theater massacre Family members of the victims arrive at the courthouse July 23, 2012, for the suspect's first court appearance. Hide Caption 7 of 45 Photos: Colorado movie theater massacre The Century Aurora 16 multiplex in Aurora becomes a place of horror after a gunman opened fire July 20, 2012, in a crowded theater. Hide Caption 8 of 45 Photos: Colorado movie theater massacre Holmes is accused of opening fire during a midnight screening of the Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises." Holmes purchased four weapons and more than 6,000 rounds of ammunition, police say. Hide Caption 9 of 45 Photos: Colorado movie theater massacre Police investigate outside the Century 16 multiplex July 21, 2012, a day after the mass shooting. Hide Caption 10 of 45 Photos: Colorado movie theater massacre Agents search the suspect's car outside the theater. Hide Caption 11 of 45 Photos: Colorado movie theater massacre Aurora police escort a sand-filled dump truck containing improvised explosive devices removed from Holmes' booby-trapped apartment on July 21, 2012. Authorities have said they believe the suspect rigged his place before leaving for the movie theater. Hide Caption 12 of 45 Photos: Colorado movie theater massacre Police break a window at the suspect's apartment July 20, 2012, in Aurora. Hide Caption 13 of 45 Photos: Colorado movie theater massacre Law enforcement officers speak with Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, center, outside the suspect's apartment July 21, 2012. Hide Caption 14 |
researchers then combined the information and modeled the relationship between exercise, alcohol consumption and white matter status and found that the interaction between drinking and white matter integrity was strongly linked to exercise. Among the participants who completed little aerobic exercise, heavy drinking was associated with more damaged white matter. The more active, but heavy-drinking participants showed less compromised white matter.
(MORE: Mind Your Reps: Exercise, Especially Weight Lifting, Helps Keep the Brain Sharp)
That’s not to say that exercise can reverse, or protect the brain from potential damage caused by alcohol. The study is still preliminary and only highlights an association rather than a cause and effect relationship. “The results of this study unfortunately don’t allow us to draw any causal conclusions about whether exercise causes white matter to improve among heavy drinkers,” says Karoly. “We cannot say whether exercise would necessarily improve white matter damage in individuals with a history of heavy drinking. However, our findings in combination with the many well-established positive physiological and psychological benefits of aerobic exercise suggest that aerobic exercise could be potentially helpful for individuals with history of heavy alcohol use.”
Future research in which heavy drinkers are randomly assigned to higher or lower physical activity regimens and followed for many years to track changes in their white matter volume could give doctors a better idea of what role exercise might play in addressing some of the harms from drinking. In the meantime, the researchers say that exercise provides other benefits that can help health even if the link between physical activity and improved white matter isn’t confirmed.Society has long mocked fat people -- as if we don't all intrinsically understand that burritos are delicious and exercise is stupid. Truly, it's only there but for the grace of god and genetics, go we. To find out what it's actually like to live with morbid obesity, we talked to Rachel. At over 500 pounds, she's medically classified as (no joke) "super super obese," like she's some kind of bizarre superhero. We also talked to Dr. Arya Sharma and Dr. Stephanie Cassin, whose work has focused on the physical and psychological realities of severe obesity. They told us...
5 You Don't Have to Eat That Much To Become Severely Obese You Don't Have to Eat That Much To Become Severely Obese
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The empathy-challenged of the world seem to think they've got it all figured out when it comes to staying thin: "Just put down the bucket of chicken, fatty!" But it's not that easy, and we don't mean that in a "chicken tastes good, shut up" kind of way. It starts with genetics: Scientists have found over 140 different locations along the human genome that contribute to fat location and retention, so you can be screwed in at least that many ways right off the bat.
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This little bastard has ruined more diets than pizza delivery.
That's only the beginning of your body's campaign of biological terrorism. Once that cozy layer of insulation succeeds in wrapping you up, your body will fight like hell to keep it there. According to Dr. Sharma, "It doesn't matter how you put on the weight; once you do, your physiology resets the way it works to defend the weight. And it pretty much does so permanently." He likens the process to setting a thermostat in a room. Once it's set for, say, 300 pounds, that's where your body will stay. Dieting is like opening a window -- you might catch a slight breeze, but the heater is gonna crank it up to compensate. This would be why, statistically, the success rate of every diet rounds down to zero.
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It doesn't help that lots of diets range from stupid to life-threatening.
But you have to get there in the first place, and getting there involves Hoovering up every sandwich that has the misfortune of crossing your path, right? That's why the fat guy in the movie always has an obscenely enormous, greasy cheeseburger hanging out of his disgusting maw. But Rachel is scandalized by the diets of the fictional fat, too. "I remember this one lady [on TV], she ate like a pound of bacon and a dozen eggs for breakfast, and I was like, 'Holy mother, how does she eat that much?'" she says.
"While my diet isn't great, I don't eat anywhere near that much," Rachel continues. "Maybe 3,000, 4,000 [calories] tops." That might seem like a lot, but keep in mind that you can get that many calories in one restaurant meal if you're not careful. That's how it gets you: Not in entire cases from the deli counter, but a little bit too much every day. "Many people probably assume that by the time they get to 500 pounds, they must have a diagnosable eating disorder," Dr. Cassin says, "but it turns out that many are overeating a lot at every meal, grazing." Let's do the math: One pound of fat is 3,500 calories, or 500 calories a day. That's a few cans of Coke, or two cookies from Subway. That's all it takes to gain a pound a week, or more than 50 lbs. a year. Combine that with a sedentary lifestyle of sitting in front of a computer all day (which none of us do, right?), and after a few years, you've got yourself a problem.
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There. There's what severe obesity in two years looks like.
Rachel admits that she sometimes eats too much: "If I go to Wendy's I'll get the double cheeseburger, large fries, and large Frosty," but as she points out, "that's not outside the norm of what a lot of people get." Don't try to tell us you haven't had a similar meal in the not-too-distant past. The difference is that your existing fat and your genetics aren't also punching you in the face every time you open your mouth. "People ask me 'How did you get that fat?' and it's like, it doesn't happen all at once," Rachel says. "It creeps up on you slowly, and then one day, you start having trouble walking."
But no matter how bitchin' you might turbo-charge that Rascal scooter, not being able to get around on your own is still kind of a bummer.Contrary to the perception that the Narendra Modi-led government denied visas to Chinese dissidents under pressure from Beijing, no less than eight Chinese activists and a prominent Uyghur leader are participating in the Dharamsala conference.
The three-day conference on ‘Strengthening Our Alliance to Advance the People’s Dream: Freedom, Justice, Equality and Peace’ has been organised by US-based Chinese dissident Yang Jiamil without formal sanction either being sought or given by the Indian government.
Almost all the 69 foreign delegates, including president of the Uyghur American Association Ilshat Hasan, have travelled on tourist visas.
The conference has been organised at Norbu House in McLeodganj, which is owned by Wangdu Tsewang, an Indian national of Tibetan origin and is part of the Dalai Lama’s set-up.
Top government sources confirmed to Hindustan Times that delegates met the Dalai Lama on April 28.
While the Dalai Lama spoke about secularism, ethics, compassion and harmony, Yang, head of the NGO Initiatives of China, talked about freedom from “Chinese tyranny and oppression”.
While the Indian government has been accused of bending before Beijing by cancelling the e-visa granted to Dolkun Isa, the Germany-based head of World Uyghur Congress, has documentary proof which reveals the action had nothing to do with India’s China policy.
Read | All diplomatic: India’s message to China in Uyghur activist row
The e-visa was erroneously issued to Isa on April 6 by the department of immigration as an Interpol red corner notice issued against him in 1998 did not show up in official records.
Intelligence Bureau director Dineshwar Sharma severely upbraided the immigration department for its mistake and directed that all records be reconciled with those of agencies such as the CBI and Enforcement Directorate, sources said. The facts of the case were shared with the Prime Minister’s Office.
The denial of tourist visas to two other Chinese dissidents, Lu Jinghua and Wong Toi Yeung, was on procedurals grounds.
Lu’s application for an e-tourist visa was processed and rejected as the copy of the uploaded passport was not legible.
In case of 22-year-old Wong, a Hong Kong resident who had applied for an e-tourist visa on April 21, discrepancies related to the uploaded passport were noticed in the application.
“When the visa applications were processed, the immigration department did not even know they were dissident Chinese activists. These applications were processed and rejected as any other,” said a senior North Block official.
Read | Uyghur leader Isa ‘disappointed’ with India’s decision to cancel visa
First Published: May 01, 2016 07:39 ISTRepresentatives of the 800,000-strong Hindu community in the UK will meet on Tuesday night to rally opposition against Dow Chemical being a major sponsor of the London Olympics. The company's sponsorship of a wrap around the Olympic stadium has already raised the threat of a boycott of the games by India.
The meeting, hosted by the Hindu Forum of Britain, an umbrella organisation for nearly 400 Hindu groups, comes as new details have emerged of the government's involvement in the sponsorship deal with Dow, which owns the company responsible for more than 15,000 deaths from poisoning in Bhopal, India.
Government emails released under the Freedom of Information Act show that the idea of finding a private company to sponsor the Olympic stadium wrap – Dow's most high-profile involvement – came from the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt.
And, although the department of culture has said it did not know the sponsor was Dow, it had been kept informed of negotiations over the deal for weeks before it was announced. The department has insisted that the deal was handled by the 2012 London Organising Committee, Locog, "operating independently of government".
In her invite to the meeting in London to discuss protest measures, Bharti Tailor, the forum's secretary general, said the group actively supported the Olympics, but urged members to take a stand against companies which "continue to trample over society".
"Locog believes that this is purely [a] Hindu issue, let us prove them wrong and make it clear that it is a moral and ethical issue that is not restricted to India and Hindus," she added.
Three emails from the summer of 2010 to May 2011 refer to the idea for a private sponsor for the wrap coming from the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), and the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, in particular. An official wrote that "there should be some recognition of" Hunt's sponsorship idea when the deal is announced.
Another email on 23 May 2011, from David Goldstone, a director of the Government Olympic Executive at DCMS, says Locog is "close to a deal on the wrap, along the lines we discussed a few weeks ago". The Olympics minister, Hugh Robertson, previously said the department first knew about the deal with Dow two days later, on 25 May.
An email of 25 May to Goldstone says: "The deal with Dow has been agreed but the contract is not yet signed... [Name deleted] was under the impression that Locog comms were already talking to [DCMS] press or comms?" Goldstone replies that they are not aware of "any existing comms contact". The deal was announced in August.
Barry Gardiner, chair of the Labour Friends of India group of MPs, said: "Mr Hunt asks us to believe that although the sponsorship of the wrap was his idea and although his closest advisers had, by their own admission, been discussing it with Locog for several weeks, the name of Dow Chemical had never crossed his mind.
"He asks us to accept that the tender process was transparent and fair when the closing date was set just 10 days after it [the tender] was released. My strong view is that any court examining the evidence would regard Mr Hunt's testimony as "unreliable" and conclude that Dow had been lined up as the sponsor before the deal was ever put out to tender."
A spokesman for DCMS said, however, department officials did not know Dow's identity during the negotiations. "As part of its relationship with Locog, DCMS will often enquire about the progress of various projects as part of its overall responsibility for assuring that Locog is able to deliver the Games," he added.
The International Olympic Committee and Locog have consistently argued Dow has no ongoing liabilities for the 1984 disaster, which occurred before Dow bought the company responsible, Union Carbide.
Dow declined to comment on the specifics of the emails. But in a recent interview with the Guardian, its vice president of Olympic operations, George Hamilton, said: "There were six or seven companies that submitted tenders. The Commission for a Sustainable London 2012 determined that the process was robust and Dow's was the best offer by far in terms of sustainability."Motorcyclist killed in Fremont crash was a Marine
(03-25) 20:48 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- A drunken-driving suspect was arrested early Tuesday in Fremont after he struck and killed a U.S. Marine who had returned from Afghanistan only last month, authorities said.
Alexander Yohn, 23, of Emeryville was taken into custody in connection with the crash at Fremont Boulevard and Decoto Road that killed motorcyclist Andrew Silva, 23, of Union City.
Silva was a U.S. Marine lance corporal who had returned from Afghanistan in February.
The incident began about 1 a.m. when an employee of a Taco Bell restaurant near Fremont Boulevard and Bonde Way saw Yohn acting belligerently and appearing intoxicated while behind the wheel of a Mini Cooper in the drive-through, police said.
Yohn tried to pay for food with a health care card and then left his wallet behind, police said.
The employee called police. Yohn left in his car at a high speed, and an officer spotted him while driving in the opposite direction on Fremont Boulevard, authorities said.
The officer tried to stop the suspect, but he failed to yield and collided with Silva, who died at the scene, authorities said.
Yohn crashed the Mini Cooper into a utility pole, and the car caught on fire, said Geneva Bosques, a Fremont police spokeswoman. Yohn then ran into a nearby field, where an officer took him into custody.
He was booked Tuesday evening at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and hit-and-run causing death or injury. His bail was set at $150,000. He is to appear Thursday at the Fremont Hall of Justice pending a review of the case by Alameda County prosecutors.
The intersection didn't reopen until Tuesday evening, when police finished collecting evidence at the scene.
The crash was the latest collision to end in a fatality in Fremont.
On March 3, a woman who police believe was intoxicated crashed head-on into another allegedly drunk motorist on Osgood Road near Blacow Road. Patricia Serratos, 33, was arrested on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter and child endangerment after her 4-year-old daughter, Ariana Martinez, who was riding in an unsecured car seat, died five days later.
Hours after that crash, Pramila Bhachawat, 71, of Fremont was struck and killed by a Chevrolet Corvette driver at Washington Boulevard near Olive Avenue.Common bugs in networking systems are placing PCs, printers and storage devices at risk, according to security researchers.
According to the security team at Rapid7, technology used worldwide in both routers and standard networking equipment is making it possible for hackers to potentially infiltrate approximately 40 million to 50 million devices worldwide.
The vulnerability lies in the standard known as Universal Plug and Play (UPnP). This standard set of networking protocols allows devices such as PCs, printers and Wi-Fi access points to communicate and discover each other's presence. After discovery, devices can be connected through a network in order to share files, printing capability and the Internet.
In a white paper released today, researchers from the security software maker say that while UPnP might make network setup cheaper and more efficient, it harbors a severe security risk.
The paper focuses on programming flaws in common UPnP discovery protocol (SSDP) implementations which can be exploited to crash the service and execute arbitrary code, the exposure of the UPnP control interface (SOAP) on private networks, and programming flaws in both UPnP HTTP and SOAP overall.
Over 80 million unique IPs were identified that responded to UPnP discovery requests from the Internet due to the "misconfiguration" of the UPnP SSDP discovery service across thousands of products. Over 73 percent of all UPnP instances discovered through SSDP were derived from only four software development kits.
In addition, the UPnP SOAP service was found to provides access to device functions that should not be allowed from untrusted networks -- such as opening holes in a firewall.
Rapid7 also says that the two most commonly used UPnP software libraries both contained remotely exploitable vulnerabilities. For example, in the case of the Portable UPnP SDK, "over 23 million IPs are vulnerable to remote code execution through a single UDP packet." A patch has been released, but it will take a long time before this patch is included in vendor products, according to the firm.
The paper states:
In most cases, network equipment that is "no longer shipping" will not be updated at all, exposing these users to remote compromise until UPnP is disabled or the product is swapped for something new. The flaws identified in the MiniUPnP software were fixed over two years ago, yet over 330 products are still using older versions.
The team's findings are below:
The researchers say that over 1,500 vendors and 6,900 products were identified and vulnerable to at least one of these security flaws. Vendors with vulnerable products include Belkin, Linksys and Netgear. These flaws, unless disabled or fixed, could allow hackers access to confidential business files and passwords, or grant them control over devices including printers and webcams remotely.
Chris Wysopal, chief technology officer of security software firm Veracode, told Reuters that the publication of these findings would bring widespread attention to UPnP, commenting:
This definitely falls into the scary category. There is going to be a lot more research on this. And the follow-on research could be a lot scarier.
The firm suggests that in order to combat the possible threat, end users, firms and ISPs should identify and disable any UPnP endpoints within their systems and networks, and be aware that many devices come with UPnP enabled by default.
This story originally appeared at ZDNet's Between the Lines under the headline "Millions of PCs exposed through network bugs, security researchers find."Los Angeles Chargers general manager Tom Telesco has been open about the possibility of drafting a young quarterback in the 2017 NFL draft for weeks now.
But Telesco shouldn’t expect Chargers franchise quarterback Philip Rivers to coddle anyone he brings in.
When asked about the possibility of L.A. drafting a young quarterback in April and if he would help groom said QB, Rivers gave the answer most Bolts fans would expect to KLSD-AM on Thursday, per NFL media’s Kevin Patra.
“I don’t think it’s my job or anything that I owe somebody,” Rivers said.
Related Chargers working out Notre Dame quarterback DeShone Kizer
The Chargers have already met with three big-armed — yet still very raw — quarterbacks in DeShone Kizer, Patrick Mahomes and Josh Dobbs prior to the draft.
While Rivers did make it clear that he wouldn’t go out of his way to seek out a young QB to help him, he also equally emphasized that he wouldn’t turn away a hungry student who asks questions. A fact that should bode well for the Bolts’ future under center.
“It is nature — coaching — and I like to think I’m pretty charitable in the sense that I like to help people out, share and talk football,” Rivers continued on KLSD-AM.
“So I think if a young guy comes in here, I’m not on the top of my mind going to go, ‘Oh, I need to teach this guy.’ And yet, I’m not going to be a recluse and say, ‘Shoot, I’m not helping him out.’ I’m going to share whatever he wants and let him take whatever he likes, and how he can learn to be a pro. So I think it will happen organically without any concerted effort.”
Rivers is coming off of a 2016 season that saw him throw a career-high 21 interceptions. But he did throw 33 touchdown passes against those 21 picks, which is quite impressive considering his wide receiving corps and offensive line seemingly disintegrated around him by the moment.
If Telesco does draft a quarterback, it would be a sign of shrewd management. After all, no team wants to be left without a legitimate quarterback prospect on the roster as their franchise signal-caller’s career begins to fizzle out.In part 1 of this special 2-part episode, Dean Haglund may say that he and Phil Leirness are coming at you from the offices of Rational Exuberance, but in reality, they recorded these shows in a secret location, screening a film they have often discussed on YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour.
In this thumbs up/thumbs down, letter grade, scale of 1 to 10, good/bad, right/wrong world in which we live, where movie reviews pass for film criticism, the ability to actually “read” a film, to explore it’s subtext, to understand what it truly means and what it says, is becoming lost (dying?). This week, your friends in podcasting try to remedy that … As loyal listeners know, an ongoing debate between Haglund and Leirness has been over the merits of the 2nd X-Files film (“The X-Files: I Want to Believe”). This time around, the debate is avoided, the analysis is deepened, the (supposed) weaknesses are re-examined and the dark, beautiful, self-reflexive, satirical, and occasionally subversive meaning of the movie is explored. Film fans, X-philes, art lovers, those interested in depth psychology or those who simply enjoy spirited, inspirational conversation are bound to be delighted.
Unfortunately, the audio quality isn’t the best. Sorry!It has been reported all over that the Bulls aren't keen on bringing in two rookies to be on the roster next season, and ESPN's Chad Ford has already said they've looked at moving up to No. 11 to draft either Nik Stauskas or Gary Harris. We now have a new rumor from the Sporting News' Sean Deveney, who says the Bulls have talked to the Kings about the No. 8 pick. The target? Doug McDermott.
The Bulls need offense, and McDermott provided boatloads of it in his four years at Creighton. McDermott is one of the top shooters in the draft along with Stauskas, and the 22-year-old was the best scorer in college basketball last season. McDermott averaged 26.7 points on 52.6 percent shooting overall while knocking down 44.9 percent of his threes en route to the National Player of the Year award. His junior and sophomore seasons were very prolific as well, and he averaged 21.7 points on 55.0 percent shooting in his four seasons at Creighton.
So what's not to like about an efficient scorer who can shoot the hell out of the ball? There are a good amount of questions about how McDermott's effectiveness will translate to the NBA. He's not a bad athlete by any means, but he's not great and there are questions about what position he'll play. He's also not that great off the dribble and will likely struggle to defend at the next level.
In terms of making a deal with the Kings, Deveney curiously doesn't mention trading Taj Gibson, instead just mentioning the two first-rounders the Bulls currently own. I myself have been skeptical about the Kings wanting to trade the No. 8 pick for Gibson, but if Taj wasn't involved in the talks, I'm not sure why the Kings would want to trade back and take on an extra pick when they've talked about looking to add veterans. Perhaps the Bulls would be willing to offer Nikola Mirotic, but is that worth it?
The Bulls would certainly prefer to keep Gibson and sell off other parts in order to acquire Carmelo Anthony, but it may not be possible. Making a deal with the Kings for No. 8 to open up cap space (or include in a Kevin Love deal?) wouldn't be a bad idea, although I do have to note that Sacramento would have to offload salary in order to take on Gibson. That salary would ideally not go to the Bulls, so a third team would have to get involved.
But if the Bulls are looking to use that No. 8 pick, McDermott wouldn't be my guy, although Ricky called the McBuckets interest awhile ago. I wouldn't mind McDermott at all if he fell to No. 16, but I wouldn't be too stoked about trading up for him. I'd probably get over it if Bulls wound up getting Anthony, however, I still wouldn't consider it a good pick.If you really think about it, a great many things go into a painting. There’s the artist’s vision, sure, but there’s also the pigments and properties of the paint, the mixing of the paints on the palette, the canvas and frame, the types of brushes used, and the physical skill of the painter. Landscapes, likewise, are determined by many factors (even if they never appear in a painting). But for landscapes, a complex system of factors interacts dynamically, continually evolving and producing a masterpiece every step of the way.
The Himalayas are an astoundingly grand landscape; we call them “the roof of the world.” You could simply describe them as the crumpled product of the collision between the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates, but that would be about as bland as describing the contents of the Louvre as “paint.” Each peak and valley has been slowly sculpted by a collaboration of geologic processes. Researchers have recently uncovered evidence about one of these processes, something with the inartistic name of "tectonic aneurysm."
Floating peaks
It’s reasonable to assume that, in a place like the Himalayas, tectonics pushes a mountain up even as erosion shaves it down. The faster the mountain pushes upward, the harder erosion works to keep it in check. That's because the peaks extend into colder elevations where ice can wedge apart cracks or form rock-grinding glaciers and steepening slopes that drive faster-flowing streams.
All of this is true, but it also misses an amazing part of the story. One of the reasons that mountains are so tall is that they sit on very thick sections of Earth’s less-dense crust, which “floats” on the more-dense mantle. Shave off the top of a mountain range and, like removing a small weight from a floating object, the rock beneath it pops upward a bit. Erosion can cause a mountain to rise—even if there’s no net change in actual elevation.
One of the more dramatic examples of erosion is where the Tsangpo River hooks around the eastern edge of the Himalayas, leaving the Tibetan Plateau to become the mighty Brahmaputra River. There, it passes through the severe Tsangpo Gorge, which we’ve written about before. The difference in elevation between the river and the peaks around it reaches more than double the depth of the Grand Canyon. The Tsangpo River has been busy, eating away at the bedrock as it drops two kilometers over a run of just 100 kilometers.
This also happens to be one of the regions of the Himalayas where the rate of uplift is most extreme. That has gotten many geomorphologists wondering: is the Tsangpo Gorge so deep because the rate of uplift is so great (creating a steep gradient over which the river accelerates), or is the uplift so great because the Tsangpo River has been eroding so much rock and carrying away its weight?
Many have argued that if the latter is true anywhere, it’s probably there. The hypothesized process at work is called a “tectonic aneurysm.” During an aneurysm, blood pushes against a ballooning wall of a blood vessel, further weakening it in a vicious cycle. Within a mountain range, rock at depth is stiffened by the tremendous weight above it. Cut a notch out of the surface (like a river valley), and the rock below becomes a little less stiff than its surroundings. In a region already being squeezed by tectonic forces, this can lead to rock pushing up from beneath, initiating the “ballooning” of an aneurysm.
Under the Tsangpo
The idea is attractive but hard to test. A group of researchers, led by Ping Wang of the China Earthquake Administration’s Institute of Geology, have managed a clever test of it at the Tsangpo Gorge. They noticed that, approaching the gorge, the Tsangpo River on the Tibetan Plateau grows wider and wider before abruptly narrowing. Dammed rivers do the same thing as their reservoirs fill up the valley behind. But what does the terrain look like under the Tsangpo?
To find out, the researchers drilled five holes upstream of the Tsangpo Gorge. They discovered that they had to drill a long way to reach bedrock. Three hundred kilometers upstream, the sediment was about 70 meters thick, but it deepened to over 550 meters nearer the gorge. Just before the gorge, it thinned again until the bedrock emerged at the surface.
The deepest portions occurred where the river was widest. In fact, the depth of the bedrock could be predicted by extrapolating the slope of the valley walls down to where they would meet. Making similar predictions along the entire length, a pretty consistent profile emerges. The bedrock of the valley bottom drops gradually and evenly—despite the fact that the modern river barely drops at all—before rising steeply to the start of the gorge.
This starts to make sense when you look downstream. Through the Tsangpo Gorge, the river drops down incredibly steeply, like a stair step, after which the gradient shallows. If you draw a slope from the newly discovered bedrock valley gradient upstream of the gorge, it lines up beautifully with the slope downstream of the gorge. It's just that there's a sudden interruption, a bedrock peak, right where the gorge starts.
From the bottom of the deepest borehole, the researchers dated sediment samples to see how long they’d been down there. Quartz grains in sand exposed at the surface acquire a sort of “sun burn,” as charged particles from cosmic rays transform atoms inside the mineral into beryllium-10 or aluminum-26—isotopes that you won’t find for any other reason. Since they’re both unstable, decaying over time, researchers can use them to determine how long it’s been since that quartz last acquired a sun burn at the surface.
The answer, in this case, was that the sediment was buried between 2 and 2.5 million years ago. It just so happens that techniques to reveal the uplift history of the rock around the Tsangpo Gorge tell us that uplift accelerated in the last 4 million years.
The researchers conclude that uplift created the Tsangpo Gorge, rather than the erosion of the gorge allowing uplift. As the mountains pushed upward in that region—which is nestled into a sharp corner of the tectonic plate boundary—the gradient upstream flattened while the gradient downstream steepened. The slowing river dumped sediment upstream, staying level with the rising barrier, while the fast flow on the other side incised more and more deeply into the gorge.
In an article published in the same issue of Science, Arizona State researcher Kelin Whipple argues that this doesn’t completely rule out the possibility that the uplift was triggered by even earlier, but less extreme, erosion. But the chances are pretty slim. Unless that can be shown somehow, the “tectonic aneurysm” explanation for this portion of the Himalayas is out.
Even so, Whipple points out the rock there is rising at a rate of five to 10 kilometers every million years—a clip only possible with the burden-removing assistance of serious erosion. A painter can only do so much without her brush.
Science, 2014. DOI: 10.1126/science.1259041, 10.1126/science.aaa0887 (About DOIs).[CentOS-announce] CentOS-7 disk images for AArch64 Platforms
We've produced a disk image intended to help hardware vendors and enthusiasts who are interested in bringing CentOS to their AArch64 based platform. This allows a vendor to bypass the installer or to edit the disk image before booting in order to test kernel modules or options. It is intended for development purposes only, and will only continue through the alpha and beta test phases. ## Download http://buildlogs.centos.org/centos/7/isos/aarch64/ ## Considerations * This image is 12GB when uncompressed. Please ensure you have enough free space * The default root password is 'centos'. Please see the readme in the above directory for the kickstart used to create the image. * You will need to add the appropriate boot information in a UEFI entry after using this image, since the installer traditionally handles this. ## Burning the image to disk You may simply dd this image to disk, however for the sake of ensuring that it is written correctly, we recommend the following command. Please replace the image-name and target device with the appropriate values for your environment. ``` dd if=<image-name.img> of=/dev/sdX bs=2m conv=fsync && sync; ``` ## Growing the disk image. The root partition of this image was intentionally placed at the end of the image so that it could be easily grown. A simple command for growing the image is listed below ``` sudo sgdisk -e -d4 -n4:0:0 /dev/<your-device> ``` ## Examining and editing the image The kpartx tool is very handy for manipulating disk images. Some example commands are below. Please read the documentation for kpartx before you modify the disk image. * kpartx -l CentOS-7-1503-aarch64.img # List partitions in the image * kpartx -a -v CentOS-7-1503-aarch64.img # Add partition mappings * mount /dev/mapper/loop1p1 /mnt # mount the first partition to /mnt * umount /mnt # unmount /mnt, obviously. * kpartx -d -v CentOS-7-1503-aarch64.img # remove partition mappings -- Jim Perrin The CentOS Project | http://www.centos.org twitter: @BitIntegrity | GPG Key: FA09AD77Tobias Lindberg ranks 20th on the list this year. He was 11th last year over at Silver Seven Sens, meaning the trade that brought him to Toronto might be a better opportunity but is definitely a tougher one.
The Results
Player Scott Wheeler 67 Sound Birky Arvind Elseldo Emily Achariya JP Nikota Species Burtch Katya Fulemin Mike B Chris H Tobias Lindberg 21 - 21 20 19 25 21 18 22 17 17 16 24 13
Everyone had him in the bottom half of the draw, and while there is a little bit of variance, it is a fairly close consensus for the lower rankings where there is generally a lot of range in votes. Only one person had him unranked.
The Player
Lindberg was acquired as part of the Dion Phaneuf trade, and he spent the post-trade-deadline period on the Marlies, broken up by a six-game call-up to the Leafs before he went back to the AHL for the playoffs.
Who is he?
He is a somewhat stereotypical Swedish winger—tall and built and often described as not a physical player. It is good to keep in mind he is sometimes confirming a bias when he is described that way, so we should judge for ourselves.
He is a left-shooter who can play either side, he is just 21 this summer, and he's listed at 6'2" and 216 lbs.
He played junior hockey in the Djurgården system in Stockholm, and he was good, scoring well as a teenager, but the main club had been relegated into the Allsvenskan at about the time he might think of getting a promotion out of junior, and they were more interested in earning their way back to the SHL than they were in developing a teenage prospect.
Drafted by the Ottawa Senators in 2013, they decided he should play in the OHL, and he had one very piping hot year for the Oshawa Generals in 2014-2015, winning the Memorial Cup and scoring at the most torrid pace he had ever managed since he was 15.
He put up those number with some very high-end teammates (Michael Dal Colle, Cole Cassels and Mitchell Vande Somple rounded out the top four in scoring along with Lindberg). Leafs assistant coach D.J. Smith was behind the bench.
And then?
And then it all sort of fizzled. He had five goals and 17 assists in 34 games for Binghamton in an injury-plagued season before the trade. He managed six goals and six assists for the Marlies in 22 games after the trade.
On the Binghamton Senators, he was seventh in points per game, and that's not a stacked with talent team. On the Marlies, he was around 15th, depending on what number of games played you use as a cut-off, and he couldn't even outscore Nikita Soshnikov, who played mostly fourth line minutes.
He had two assists in six games with the Leafs before he got familiar with the pressbox at Ricoh, as he appeared in only three games for the Marlies in the playoffs and scored no points.
Sheldon Keefe seemed to be setting him up to compete with Kasperi Kapanen for ice time early on in the playoffs, and Kapanen won that battle handily. Lindberg also couldn't knock currently-unsigned NHL UFA Ben Smith out of the playoff lineup.
Is he a bust?
No, not at all. But that was not the progression to the AHL or to the high-flying Marlies he likely wanted to experience.
Christopher Hatzitolios, who covered the Marlies for PPP this year, has this take on Lindberg:
"Tobias Lindberg is one of my personal favourites, arguably one of my favourite interviews, but that's not what we're discussing!
I rated Lindberg as |
so prove anything, they prove that Congress is utterly incapable of dealing with long-term budgetary matters without it turning into a partisan slug fest. Additionally, the political impulses are always stronger in favor of more spending than they are in favor of cutting spending. If we left this to Congress as a whole, it’s unlikely we’d see anything happen. Forcing the situation in this matter and creating a committee that, like Simpson-Bowles, does some of Congresses hard work for it, may be the only way to come up with serious spending cuts. Of course, the Committee could fail, but that’s no reason not try because everything else we’ve tried has ended in failure.Adobe today launched a prerelease version of Flash Player 10.1 for Windows, Mac, and Linux, an early step in the company's effort to bring an integrated media experience to a wide variety of devices and platforms from desktops to smartphones.Among the improvements available in the prerelease version are support for multi-touch and gestures, as well as local microphone access. Unfortunately, one of the most significant improvements of Flash Player 10.1, hardware-accelerated decoding of H.264 video, is presently only available in the Windows version. According to the release notes for Flash Player 10.1, the feature is unavailable on Mac OS X due to a lack of access to the programming interfaces needed to deploy it.
In Flash Player 10.1, H.264 hardware acceleration is not supported under Linux and Mac OS. Linux currently lacks a developed standard API that supports H.264 hardware video decoding, and Mac OS X does not expose access to the required APIs. We will continue to evaluate adding the feature to Linux and Mac OS in future releases.
In an early review of Flash Player 10.1, however,still found significant improvements in CPU utilization under Mac OS X, dropping from 450% CPU load to 190% in viewing full-screen Hulu content on the Mac Pro used for testing.
Going from roughly 450% down to 190% (or a bit over 10% of total CPU utilization across 16 threads) made full-screen Hulu playable on my machine. In the past I always had to run it in a smaller window, but thanks to Flash 10.1 I don't have to any longer.
With actual GPU-accelerated H.264 decoding I'm guessing those CPU utilization numbers could drop to a remotely reasonable value. But it's up to Apple to expose the appropriate hooks to allow Adobe to (eventually) enable that functionality.
Until then, even OS X users have something to look forward to with the Flash 10.1 upgrade.[Under the Coalition’s proposed parental leave scheme] “the woman working in the local chemist in Gippsland in regional Victoria would be subsidising the paid parental leave of the woman working in the bank headquarters in Collins Street in Melbourne”. - Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, in a speech on 17 July.
In the lead up to the election, all sides of politics are aiming to sell their paid parental leave policies to voters.
The Labor government’s $1.4 billion scheme is already in place and provides 18 weeks’ pay at the minimum wage, around $622 per week pre-tax. To be eligible, the mother must have received a taxable income of $150,000 or less.
The Coalition’s $4.5 billion scheme provides mothers with 26 weeks paid leave, at full replacement wage up to an annual salary of $150,000 (or a maximum of $75,000) or the minimum wage if greater. It will also include superannuation contributions.
The Australian Greens have recently endorsed the Coalition’s scheme and promised to introduce something similar, although capped at an annual salary of $100,000 (or a maximum of $50,000).
The opposition’s scheme is ambitious and more expensive than the government’s. But is Macklin right that it is unfair to low-paid workers?
Flow-on effects
The answer partly lies in how the policy will be funded and partly in how it’s structured.
The Coalition’s scheme is funded by a 1.5% levy on companies with taxable incomes over $5 million. Essentially Macklin’s argument is that this increased company tax will flow through to consumers, but the benefits will largely go to those women earning a higher wage. This is because under the government scheme, everyone is paid the same: the minimum wage.
But with the Coalition’s scheme, the higher your income, the more benefit you receive.
Under a future Abbott government, parents earning over $45,000 would get the bulk of the increased assistance. For example, a mother earning $100,000 would receive $50,000 over 26 weeks, or about 4.5 times the payment under the current government scheme. At the upper limit of $150,000, the new payment would be 6.7 times the current entitlement.
Along with this, as political blogger Greg Jericho notes in The Guardian, more highly-paid women are much more likely than lower-paid women to already have paid maternity leave.
This means it is likely the Coalition scheme would simply replace these existing schemes. So, for a highly-paid woman on $150,000, the net gain after deducting existing employer-provided entitlements might be between 2.5 and 5 times the current government scheme.
It is worth remembering, however, that lower-income mothers pay lower income taxes than higher-income families and receive higher family tax benefits. The Coalition proposal then would reduce some of that redistribution of tax and benefits, although the effect is likely to be small.
Who would pay for the company tax increase?
The increases for higher-paid women in the Coalition’s paid parental leave would be paid for out of an increase in the company tax. But wouldn’t this just affect shareholders?
There is a central issue here of what economists call “tax incidence”, that is, the question of who ultimately bears the burden of corporate taxes. According to United States Urban Institute most economic studies of corporate tax incidence acknowledge that capital will bear the bulk of the burden in the short run, but there is little consensus about what will happen in the long-run.
In fact, the Henry Review recommendation for a cut in the company tax rate to 25% was partly based on the argument that in a small, open economy such as Australia, the fact that the legal obligation to pay corporate taxes falls on shareholders is irrelevant, and the ultimate burden of corporate tax falls mainly on labour.
From this perspective, more corporate taxes results in less investment in the economy, and a smaller capital stock, which in turn leads to lower productivity of labour and, therefore, lower wages in the long run.
This argument is not universally accepted. But the well-regarded Tax Policy Centre of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institute now treats 20% of the US corporate income tax burden as falling on labour, 20% on the normal return to all capital, and 60% on the supernormal returns to corporate equity (shareholders).
According to an article in The Australian from May this year, the four major banks are hostile to the Coalition’s parental leave scheme, warning shareholders and customers would ultimately pay for the $400 million-plus cost to the industry: “The banks will have to treat it as an increase in their cost base, which means passing it on to shareholders or customers.”
Responding to the Greens’ similar proposal last week, Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox also argued that it would be unfair to consumers, who would pay higher prices.
Verdict
There are divergent views about who is burdened by company tax increases, but it is generally accepted that there would be some impact on wages and prices. So in this sense, it is correct to say that lower-income groups would pay for part of the proposed benefits to be received by higher-income mothers.
Review
This is an accurate account of the different funding mechanisms for the competing parental leave schemes.
It is correct to say there are divergent views on tax incidences, and it is difficult at this point in time to say how a 1.5% tax would be absorbed by business, and if it would be passed on through lower wages or increased prices. It is certain, however, that it is an additional cost to the businesses who need to pay for it in some way. It is unlikely that big business will reduce their own profits to cover this additional cost.
Depending on how business passes on the costs, it is hypothetically correct to say that lower-income earners could be indirectly subsidising higher-income earners. - Marian Baird.
The Conversation is fact checking political statements in the lead-up to this year’s federal election. Statements are checked by an academic with expertise in the area. A second academic expert reviews an anonymous copy of the article.Request a check at checkit@theconversation.edu.au. Please include the statement you would like us to check, the date it was made, and a link if possible.Now that FEFNightmare can edit labels, the Person, Config, and Castle Join editors could be handled more effective using modules/injectors. Replacing the editors with modules would make large scale changes to the tool significantly easier to implement.
Autofill for items, skills, PIDs, etc. to make editing files with labels significantly easier.
A "project" mode to make building larger hacks a little easier. I've got a lot of ideas for how to handle this at the moment, but I haven't settled on anything concrete yet.
After using FEFEditor for a couple of larger projects, I've come to realize that the tool could be a lot easier to use. I'm pretty happy with where FEFEditor is featurewise for the moment, so the next update will focus on making editing an easier process in general.In particular, I plan to condense most of the program into a single window rather than having every editor open in a new window. I've already altered FEFNightmare to use one window, and the difference is massive. If you want a preview of what FEFNightmare will look like in the next update, here's a screenshot. To make editing a little quicker, I've also added in a way to categorize modules and copy data directly from one block to another.Anyways, I'm looking for feedback before I start making major changes to FEFEditor itself. If you've got any ideas to make building hacks with FEFEditor, I'd love to hear them. I've got a couple major changes I'm considering making, so I'll go ahead and list those below.By Unicorn Riot
Morton County, North Dakota – An arrest warrant has been issued today, September 10, for Amy Goodman, an internationally renowned journalist who is the face of the popular online news outlet Democracy Now!
The warrant was discovered by attorneys who were inquiring as to the status of Cody Hall. Hall was arrested sometime yesterday afternoon while driving a vehicle on a road in the area of the water protection encampments resisting Dakota Access Pipeline construction. Cody Hall is the media spokesperson for Red Warrior Camp, one of the camps in the overflow area across the Missouri river from the Sacred Stone Camp. Hall’s arrest and the warrant for Goodman’s arrest would seem to signify local and state law enforcement following through on their threats to target and arrest those who they perceive to be leaders or organizers of the ongoing direct actions which have repeatedly halted the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
National Lawyers Guild legal observers who have been present observing recent events in the Standing Rock area, issued the following statement:
September 10, 2016 After Amy Goodman, anchor and reporter for Democracy Now!, reported from the sacred site of the Standing Rock Sioux where Dakota Access pipeline “security forces” were caught on camera unleashing canines and mace against water protectors, including a pregnant woman and children, the State of North Dakota issued a warrant and a criminal complaint against her for criminal trespass, a Class B misdemeanor, carrying a maximum penalty of 30 days in jail and a $500 fine or both. Mariel Nanasi, part of the legal team representing people at the encampment, stated “The State of North Dakota has begun to issue warrants and complaints against persons exercising their first and fourth amendment rights. Amy Goodman is being charged with criminal trespass because she was reporting and filming the destruction by the Dakota Access pipeline of the Sioux’s sacred sites and people’s response. When the security forces unleashed dogs and mace on unarmed civilians the DN! report went viral and was viewed by more than 4 million people all over the world. The State of North Dakota continues to escalate their harassment of people, including reporters, and to intimidate them from participating in peaceful protest and the defense of their land and water.”
PDF of the arrest warrant paperwork for Charles Cody Hall and Amy Goodman:
Click to download PDF
General says North Dakota National Guard working with law enforcement to identify "agitators" at #NoDAPL protests. pic.twitter.com/fUwFrB39QX — Unicorn Riot (@UR_Ninja) September 10, 2016
If you have more information about the Dakota Access Pipeline or similar projects, please contact [email protected].
For a recap from the month of August’s action, see below.
September 2016
For our coverage earlier this spring of the Sacred Stone Camp, see May 27th report, “Dakota Access Pipeline Blockade Enters 2nd Month“; May 5th, “Sacred Stone Camp Resists Dakota Access Pipeline“; April 3rd, “Tribal Citizens Build Camp in Path of Oil Pipeline“; March 29th, “Tribal Citizens Prepare to Blockade Bakken Oil Pipeline“.
[Cover art is based on Wikimedia Commons asset]
To help our volunteer-operated, horizontally-organized, non-profit media collective please consider a tax-deductible donation:Yesterday, Senator Jim DeMint, from the politically loopy state of South Carolina, announced that he intends to summarily block any Senate legislation that he finds personally objectionable, regardless of which party introduced the offending bill. This also goes for non-controversial legislation that would have normally blasted through the cooling saucer with unanimous consent.
Put another way, DeMint is exploiting an increasingly less obscure parliamentary maneuver to, in effect, shut down the United States Senate. And he's taking hostages.
It goes without saying this is inexcusable, and it serves to illustrate with striking clarity the lengths to which the Republicans will go to obstruct the Obama agenda and, more importantly, to sabotage this slow growth economic recovery.
As Rachel Maddow has tenaciously documented for many months now with her "They're Not Embarrassed" series, the congressional Republicans are incapable of feeling self-conscious about their their pandering to the tea party or their grinning photo-ops with giant stimulus checks they once violently opposed with threats of secession.
They're simply not ashamed to be the political equivalent of grade school recess spoil-sports. Hurling the kickball into the pricker bushes instead of sacking up and playing the game. No more deference to compromise -- even heated partisan debate that eventually leads to compromise. The Republicans of 2010 are all about childish breath-holding and ear-plugged "Lalalala! Can't hear you!" loud noises.
There aren't any grown-ups on that side of aisle anymore.
Conversely, while many of us on the left have excoriated the Democrats for capitulating to the Republicans on certain bits of legislation, objective distance along with continued observation of the post-Bush Republicans has offered a more positive perspective on the current majority party, specifically regarding how the Democrats behaved during the Bush years. Yes, they can be ineffectual, frustrating, disorganized and self-loathing -- too willing to repeat a Republican frame than to invent a uniquely Democratic one. But they're mostly adults.
The Democrats by and large have a record of compromise with Republicans, even though their comparative generosity hasn't been reciprocated by the Republicans. The Democrats understand that voters want to see legislative accomplishments and not idle grabassery. As the minority party, the Democrats compromised in the name of getting work done -- but, since leadership changed hands in 2007, the Republicans have filibustered twice as often. And since the inauguration, the Republicans have tried to filibuster nearly every piece of legislation that's brought to the floor for a vote. Middle class tax cuts, small business tax cuts, the healthcare reform bill, the recovery bill, military spending, unemployment benefits. All of it.
So it seems laughable on its face that otherwise smart people are going around these days and repeating this bullshit meme about how "both sides" are to blame for the insanity that's overtaken American politics.
The DeMint one-man choke hold on the entire Senate is unmatched on the Democratic side. The filibustering is unmatched. The brazen, hubristic flaunting of obvious hypocrisy is unmatched.
But still it's "both sides." Somehow. And I'm directly referencing here left-of-center writers, pundits and, disappointingly, guys like Jon Stewart, who's Rally to Restore Sanity is directed at "both sides."
It seems as though whenever Democrats control Washington, liberals shift focus from attacking conservatives and Republicans to attacking "both sides," perhaps out of some kind of hipster intellectual craving to seem fair-minded (falsely fair-minded in this case). Or maybe it's out of a desire to not appear subservient to the majority party. I don't know for sure.
Regardless of the motivations, an equivalency between "both sides" simply doesn't exist. But by being all-inclusive with criticism, the shotgun effect of the "both sides" meme taints the left with the far-right's exponentially crazier stink. A handful of trespasses on the left become inflated to and conflated with the the group-session-from-Cuckoo's-Nest meltdown happening on the right. Some legislative flailing on the Democratic side becomes incongruously magnified to the size of the all-out strangling of the U.S. Senate by the Republicans. To employ a metaphor here, I certainly hope that if I'm ticketed for rolling through some stop signs along an abandoned road, I'm not lumped in with drunken drivers who t-bone school buses filled with children. Sure, everyone breaks the law sometimes, but there are, of course, various levels of malfeasance -- levels that are deserving of different degrees of punishment and scorn.
Perhaps I'm missing something. But show me where there's equal and precise equivalencies between "both sides." Show me a TV pundit on the left with the same audience reach and capacity for wackaloon conspiracy theories as Glenn Beck. Show me a traditional media outlet on the left as massive as Fox News Channel or Clear Channel.
Sorry, "both sides" fetishists, but one viewing of her show proves that there's no comparison between Rachel Maddow's fact-based analysis and Sean Hannity's Republican talking point hootenanny.
Code Pink isn't anywhere near the size and influence of the tea party. Show me a left-wing radio personality as popular and well-financed as Rush Limbaugh, or a liberal radio personality as explicitly racist as Mike Savage.
Show me the photo ops in which Democrats proudly take credit for legislation they vocally opposed. Or show me someone at the highest level of Democratic power who still can't spell or speak coherent English -- who's nothing more than an overrated reality show grifter -- as Sarah Palin.
Show me Democratic obstructionism on the level of the Senate Republicans in the 111th Congress, or a Democratic senator who blocked every piece of legislation from coming to a vote. Show me a Democratic politician sex scandal with the same degree of flagrant hypocrisy as a Christian conservative "family values" Republican sex scandal. (It's worth noting here that the "both sides" meme can also be found among certain far-right whites who insist there's "racism on both sides" -- as though 13 percent of the population can be equally as racist as 70 percent of the population.)
Here's a real world example of the danger inherent in taking this shortsighted "both sides" view of the political spectrum. Ten years ago, the course of American history was irreversibly skewed, partly because too many liberals believed that Al Gore and George W. Bush were equally as lame. I remember it all quite clearly. Many of us thought both candidates were controlled by the same corporate benefactors. We thought they were both more or less indistinguishable on the issues. We yawned at the "lock box" droning and debate sighing from Gore, and we laughed at the verbal nincompoopery of Bush, and, at the end of the day, the glitches canceled each other out. And so, without seeing the forest for the trees, scores of us voted for Ralph Nader or stayed home altogether. Embarrassingly enough, I was one of those Nader votes. And those protest votes were enough to make the election nail-bitingly close, allowing the Supreme Court to ultimately tip the scales in favor of Bush.
It's almost overwhelming to recall how wrong we were, considering each candidate's polar opposite record over the subsequent decade. But we convinced ourselves that "both sides" were the same, when, in fact, history has proved this analysis to be resoundingly wrong. Devastatingly wrong.
While it's our duty as citizens to hold the government accountable, it's also necessary to operate within the bounds of reality when levying blame for a lack of sanity, or a lack of civility, or a lack of decent legislation. Ask yourself whether Republican obstructionism and contradictions are equally matched on the Democratic side. If the answer is "no," then decide which party ought to be appropriately spanked. Meanwhile, anyone who continues to employ the "both sides" meme, especially given the DeMint stunt, needs to seriously reevaluate their judgment criteria and wise up.FRISCO, Texas - Sitting in eighth place in the conference and five points back of the final playoff slots occupied by Colorado and Los Angeles, respectively, Dallas realistically needs at least ten points from its final four matches to make a playoff run.
But head coach Schellas Hyndman hasn’t given up hope.
“I will always think we can do it until mathematically we’re out, because I really do believe we’re a talented team,” Hyndman said after practice on Wednesday. “We showed it in the first part of the season. Was that because we were playing more as a unit, was that because the ball was bouncing right for us, was that because we weren’t giving up as many goals? - I think it’s probably a combination of all those things.
“Can we get back to that? Yes.”
Social Media Recap looking at your Tweets and Instagrams from Sunday's game
The club had focused on taking 12 points out of their last eight matches as a viable path to the playoffs and realistically expected to have to take maximum points in their four home games over that span. FCD won the first game against Vancouver, but has now dropped three in a row, including one at home.
WATCH: Diaz dribbles through Columbus defense
“The mood of the team is huge disappointment...we felt like the Colorado game we should have at least gotten a point. We felt like the New York game, we could have gotten a point - there was a handball that could’ve and should’ve been called. The referee doesn’t see it, so that could’ve given us three points,” Hyndman lamented.
Dallas now likely has to gain nearly maximum points to have a realistic chance at leapfrogging the three teams ahead of them in the standings. Hyndman knows that the first step in that already difficult task, a trip to Rio Tinto Stadium to face Real Salt Lake, wasn’t made any easier by RSL’s surprise loss to D.C. United in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Final on Tuesday night.
READ: FCD heads to RSL and Rio Tinto in a similar situation to 2012
“They are a very dangerous team at home. They lost [Tuesday night] in the U.S. Open Cup, that’s got to be disappointing. Before that, they lost to San Jose [at home], that’s got to be disappointing, so they’ve got to put the brakes on that skid,” said Hyndman.
In its last three matches, FCD’s defense has put in two game-deciding own goals and then allowed an opponent to score more than three goals in a game for the first time all season. Hyndman hinted that there could be personnel changes coming to the unit that was the team’s strength during its early season run of good form.
“Our defense is going to have to take some responsibility and say, ’we can do better’ as a group,” Hyndman explained. “All I can do is be a leader and make decisions, but once the game starts, we need players on the field to be leaders.”
“When the team doesn’t reach its goals - which is to get to the playoffs - I think everybody should be looked at from the coaches to the players,” said Hyndman. “We all have to have a hand in the accountability.”
VOTE Mauro Diaz for AT&T MLS Goal of the WeekIt’s the end-of-year, time-for-reflection time and we’re thinking back to all the HelloGiggles stories that we (and you!) truly loved in 2014. Here’s just one of our faves, which was originally published on May 15, 2014.
This past week, I journeyed to Berlin, Germany with one of my best friends in an effort to avoid the utter sadness that comes with the impending conclusion of my study abroad experience. Despite not knowing a lick of German (my apologies to every person that had to endure my not-so-impressive hand gestures and aggressive pointing), the trip was a success and we both left feeling more cultured and a little more appreciative of our English-speaking countries. That’s not to say the German language is unpleasant. In fact, there are a handful of fantastic German words that describe life more perfectly than any English word could. For example:
1) Weltschmerz (n.): mental depression or apathy caused by comparison of the actual state of the world with an ideal state
They say that the grass is greener on the other side, but it’s that kind of mindset that causes the grass on your side of the picket fence to look gray and infested with earwigs. Which is to say, comparing a perfect situation to the real life scenario is bound to land you with severe case of weltschmerz, a word used to describe the disappointment you feel after watching the inevitable destruction of your unrealistic expectations. (Thanks for that, every Disney movie ever.)
2) Kummerspeck (n.): excess weight gained from emotional overeating
One can always count on the Germans to be literal and they do not disappoint with kummerspeck, the exact translation of this phrase being “grief bacon.” As in, “I bombed that test on vegetarianism so badly, I need some bacon to cure my grief.” Other possible food substitutes include candy, ice cream, tubs of cookie dough, bathtubs of cookie dough, and carrots, for all you “healthy” stress eaters that put the rest of us to shame.
3) Torschlusspanik (n.): the fear, usually as one gets older, that time is running out and important opportunities are slipping away
Picture this: you’re 26 years old. You’re living with your parents and struggling to maintain the underpaid assistant job, meanwhile, your best friends are landing CEO positions and securing future husbands. Nothing is happening according to the 5-year plan that you made during your senior year of college, and you can’t help shake the feeling that someone accidentally clicked “fast forward” on your life. That particular type of desperation is known as torschlusspanik, meaning “fear of the gate closing.”
4) Fremdschämen (n.): the almost-horror you feel when you notice that somebody is oblivious to how embarrassing they truly are
The only thing worse than being in an embarrassing situation is watching someone enter an embarrassing situation and being powerless to stop it. Grandparents and sitcom characters are usually the worst offenders of obliviousness and the most likely to evoke fremdschamen, or the cathartic sense of pain you feel witnessing another person make a fool of themselves.
5) Backpfeifengesicht (n.): a face that cries out for a fist in it
Rather than try to explain what backpfeifengesicht means, I’ll instead provide a list of people that might possess a face that’s just asking to be punched:
– Teenagers who complain about “terrible” Christmas gifts they got, like cars.
– People who tattoo their significant other’s name across their face, or anywhere.
– Disrespectful bros.
– Whoever started the “felfie” trend.
– People who eat hamburgers with a fork and knife.
– Hitler.
6) Erklärungsnot (n.): the state of having to quickly explain yourself
Erklarungsnot refers to the exact moment you are caught with your hand in the cookie jar and forced to explain yourself with only a split second to think. Unless you’re a good liar, the results of erklarungsnot are usually unbelievable and silly, like “my dog ate my homework” or “I didn’t know streaking through the grocery store was illegal!”
7) Treppenwitz (n.): the things you should have said but only occur to you when it is too late
Also known as, every comeback you’ve ever had that only came to you 20 minutes after the other person walked away. The Germans have a word for that, treppenwitz, and it perfectly describes my existence.
8) Vergangenheitsbewaeltigung (n.): the struggle to come to terms with the past
Listen… you can’t take back that one time you sneezed all over your crush or got catfished by a 12-year-old boy on the Internet. What makes the past so special is that it cannot be changed. The Germans know this concept so well that they made a whole new word for it, one that I will not type out again because it might take me a year or two.
9) Handschuhschneeballwerfer (n.): a coward willing to criticize and abuse from a safe distance
The literal translation of this word might provide some more perspective: a person who wears gloves to throw snowballs. No? It doesn’t? Well, that’s a shame. As far as I know, this term is meant to describe someone who chooses to talk behind someone’s back instead of to their face.
10) Allgemeinbildung (n.): everything that any adult capable of living independently can reasonably be expected to know
There is technically a phrase for this in English, “common sense,” but allgemeinbildung turns it into one word and gives you another excuse to speak German.
What other German words have no English equivalent? How do they perfectly describe your life?
Information via Buzzfeed and Blogspot.com. Featured image via Shutterstock.Bloody Elbow has learned, through a source close to the situation, that the UFC is targeting a matchup between top ten middleweights Michael Bisping and Robert Whittaker.
The source revealed that the UFC is planning for Whittaker (16-4), who recently defeated Rafael Natal at UFC 197, to headline his first UFC event in November on a Fight Night card that could be held at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia.
According to the source, the UFC are, "trying to make the fight happen," but it is thought that Bisping (28-7) will not accept the bout, "unless forced."
Whittaker, who is currently injured and requiring surgery on a broken hand, has surged up to 6th in the UFC's middleweight rankings on the back of five straight wins.
Bisping, who is ranked 4th, earned a three-fight win streak of his own after taking a close decision victory over Anderson Silva in February.
This is not the first time the Ultimate Fighter 3 winner and the Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes winner have been put on a collision course. The pair were due to fight at UFC 193 in Melbourne last November, but 'The Count' was forced to withdraw due to an elbow injury that required surgery.
The source also suggested that Whittaker would accept the Bisping fight, but would also also likely accept any other match-up the UFC offered for the date and location previously mentioned.
Stay tuned to Bloody Elbow for updates as this story develops.Tim Addey is the co-founder and chair of The Prometheus Trust, a UK charity that supports scholarship in the Platonic tradition. Just like the ancient Academy, the group meets throughout the year and engages in discussions on and readings of Plato’s dialogues. Unlike other philosophical organisations, the objective of the trust is the promotion of Platonism as something that can be practical and useful for living. The largest criticism of Platonism stems from its perception of its abstract or overly idealistic teachings but Prometheus trustees believe they are helping to break down these misconceptions.
The Custodian: How did the Prometheus Trust come into formation?
Tim Addey: My father was actually a Platonist. He was interested in the cycles of time and the philosophy of astrology. In particular, Plato’s affirmation that time is an eternal flowing image of eternity; itself flowing to number. When I was six I thought everyone was a Platonist! At a certain point a couple of friends and I decided to set up a school for children based on Platonic principles. In fact we did. Although it as very short-lived mostly because of lack of funds, but also because there wasn’t that much parental support. As soon as they heard the phrase, ‘alternative school’ it pretty much collapsed.
The Prometheus Trust rose from that and for many years we’d been fans of the English Platonist and commentator Thomas Taylor. Our first project to print his works took us eleven years. We also started running weekend seminars and conferences. Part of our aim is to try and bridge the gap between standard academia and philosophy that speaks to the inner self. We were delighted when Professor John Dillon, who’s a highly respected and mainstream scholar, agreed to become our patron.
C: Within the long timeline of Platonism are there any philosophers you most incline to?
T: A lot of our formal work is done on the dialogues of Plato. But we always find ourselves looking at Proclus. Proclus was the flowering of a thousand years. Within forty years of his death, the Academy was forced to close by imperial edict.
C: In the arts, the term ‘genius’ is very much related to Platonic conceptions of an inspiring force or presence. Do you have a particular opinion about this idea? Is it something that’s more a personification of insight, a spiritual essence, or is it something to do with the psyche?
T: There were people who said the daimon (genius) was the conscience. My view much more veers towards the late Platonists who saw it as an independent reality; an accompanying intelligence, a manipulator of things. Plato’s Myth of Er talks about how the soul chooses a life and that there are certain paths that a life must take, and the daimon enable those paths to be unfolded. Whether or not you’ve chosen like Oedipus (a particularly harsh path) you have to work through your own karma. So in a sense what the daimon has is a clarity of vision. I would say that the daimon is a genuine independent being. It’s not something you imagine and not merely an appendage. We tend to see intelligence in our own terms. That’s our standard. We have this idea that only human beings are intelligent. It’s a bit like the flea on the back of a huge tiger. Does the flea recognise the thing it’s sitting on is actually alive? We don’t recognise what’s happening around us as being the outcome of anything other than chance or lower nature.
C: What kind of other things does the trust publish?
T: We have got thirty-two volumes of Thomas Taylor and six or seven student books. We also have more recent scholarship. We also have an eight book text and translation series, and our last series is a five volume work of pocket-sized books, made up of quotes and sentences from Platonic authors. They’re deliberately designed for contemplation and meditation.
C: So what do you say when you have students coming to you and trying to differentiate between Gnosticism, Hermeticism, and Early Christianity? What would you say are the core tenets of Platonism?
In a sense it doesn’t matter. A lot of these traditions approach the same goals. We don’t say that ‘somebody out there is going to rescue me’, even though I’m not against the idea that the universe is supposed to help us. Primarily the tradition offers its adherents nothing except what they themselves want to draw out. Important parts of the tradition include the idea that we hold eternal truth, that we are immortal, and that ‘everything is full of the gods’.
The Prometheus Trust meets every two weeks or so at Cecil Sharp House in Camden. It also runs annual retreats to Italy and Greece."Keep Portland Weird" is a popular slogan that appears on bumper stickers, signs, and public buildings throughout Portland, Oregon and its surrounding metro area. It originated from the "Keep Austin Weird" slogan and was originally intended to promote local businesses, though it has since evolved into an all-encompassing slogan that secondarily promotes individuality, expressionism, local art, as well as atypical lifestyle choices and leisure activities.[1] The slogan frequently inspires articles and debate that attempt to quantify the exact level to which Portland is considered weird, unusual or eccentric.
The slogan has been called the unofficial motto of Portland,[2][3][4] as well as the informal mantra of the city's residents.[5]
Recently, the slogan was adopted by first European city - Brno, Czech Republic, in a spinoff - "Udržujte Brno divné" ("Keep Brno weird" in English).
History [ edit ]
The slogan was created with the intention of supporting local businesses and small business owners.[1] It was based on the Keep Austin Weird organization and slogan in Austin, Texas, and was brought to Portland in 2003[6] by Music Millennium owner Terry Currier after he learned of the movement in Austin.[7] Currier, whom The Oregonian called "the father of Portland's weird movement",[7] trademarked the phrase "Keep Portland Weird" in 2007 and printed the first bumper stickers, selling more than 10,000 by the end of the year.[7] As of 2011, more than 18,000 bumper stickers with the slogan are said to exist, according to accounts from local media, as well as a painting on the side of a building across from VooDoo Doughnut in a high foot-traffic area of Old Town.[8][9]
Weirdness [ edit ]
Contestants in the Portland Urban Iditarod
In 2014 an Austin blog put together an infographic that compared Austin and Portland in a series of categories to try to decide which city was "weirder".[10] Twelve different categories were used, including "Most Tattooed US Cities" and "America's Craziest Cities". From this comparison, Portland was the clear |
games, and that would help some of the other players on your team as well.
"The number one thing, it would tremendously help the development of some young players on your team to be able to look forward to being able to play in some guys but not lose the year."
Saban added that it would almost allow coaches to try players out at midseason, eliminating the punishment of a player losing an entire year of eligibility because a coach rushed him onto the field too fast.
Saban's SEC coaching counterparts were also all for this proposal becoming a reality. Mississippi State's Dan Mullen said it could help with player safety by adding to roster numbers toward the middle and end of the season. This way, if a position became thin due to injuries toward the latter part of the season, coaches could insert a true freshman who might be showing signs of being ready to take on playing time without using an entire year of eligibility.
Mullen also said it would benefit players who might start the season off slowly but gradually work their way into game shape. Instead of sitting them to preserve eligibility, coaches could opt to give them valuable experience to better their future development. This proposal could also help with players keeping their redshirts if they don't see action until later in the season but suffer season-ending injuries.
"You should be able to do that," Mullen said. "I'm definitely in favor of that."
For Tennessee coach Butch Jones, getting any sort of game experience for true freshmen is a benefit for most players' psyches.
"Being able to put a young man in those early games, see how they react to it, I think they can develop confidence," Jones said.
LSU coach Ed Orgeron took the proposal a step further, offering his support for getting rid of redshirts altogether and allowing players to have five years of eligibility -- a move some have promoted for years.
"The more you can play, the better," Orgeron said. "This is basketball on grass nowadays. You have some offenses out there trying to run 100 plays. The game has doubled since when we played, so I think the more guys you can [play] without burning a year would be great."
"Evaluation is important," Alabama coach Nick Saban said, "and the sooner you have to make decisions on these guys, the greater opportunity you have to make mistakes." Todd Kirkland/Icon Sportswire
While SEC coaches agreed with the redshirt proposal, they weren't as spirited about the new early signing period that goes into effect this year. The Collegiate Commissioners Association approved a 72-hour signing window that will run from Dec. 20 to Dec. 22, 2017.
The traditional signing day will still remain on the first Wednesday of February, but the addition of a second signing day has many SEC coaches concerned about not just the massive changes and acceleration of the recruiting calendar but also the balancing of time with recruiting and current teams in late December.
"It's a war out there, and now you have two [signing days]," said Orgeron, who also mentioned that an early signing day would affect coaches' bowl preparation.
SEC coaches mostly danced around whether they were in favor of the two signing days. A few, such as South Carolina's Will Muschamp, said they would have rather kept the recruiting calendar the same. Some took a wait-and-see approach, with a few actually supporting the early date, such as Ole Miss' Hugh Freeze, Texas A&M's Kevin Sumlin, Florida's Jim McElwain and Kentucky's Mark Stoops.
They all liked the idea of committed prospects ready to officially end their recruitment being able to do so with pen and paper, but the most compelling argument for the early signing date came from the idea of coaches and prospects knowing exactly where they stand with each other almost two months before national signing day. Instead of one or both sides being strung along, the early signing date would bring real, honest resolution to the recruiting process for some.
"I truly believe it's going to call some people's bluff, both from the players' side and from the schools' side," McElwain said. "We'll find out how serious they are come that early signing."
However, the biggest issue coaches had was the idea of moving up the official visit calendar. Prospects will now be allowed to take official visits, which are paid for by the schools, after April 1 of their junior year of high school. This won't go into effect until 2018, so recruits signing in the 2018 cycle will still have to take official visits after the start of their senior year of high school.
There's a concern among coaches of not fully getting to know prospects who could decide to officially visit nearly a year before they could sign with a school. With coaches not being able to conduct in-home visits, developing real relationships with these prospects could be tougher and lead to less thorough evaluations.
"Evaluation is important," Saban said, "and the sooner you have to make decisions on these guys, the greater opportunity you have to make mistakes.
"By doing all this, we sort of minimize the opportunity to be able to evaluate these guys, which affects their opportunity too."A new type of light may not sound that exciting, but when you watch the video above, you'll see why people are getting pretty hyped over this new type of artificial sunlight, developed by Italian company CoeLux. It seriously looks just like real daylight streaming through a skylight. It even has the blue sky to prove it.
But despite the incredibly natural look of the light source (and no, none of these photos have been photoshopped), it's actually completely artificial. Developed by Italian scientists, the LED skylight uses a thin coating of nanoparticles to recreate the effect that makes the sky blue, known as Rayleigh scattering.
This means that the sunlight doesn't just light up a room, so to speak, it also produces the texture and feel of sunlight. In fact, it's so good, it really tricks the brain into thinking you're outdoors - even if you're kilometres underground.
Speaking in the video above, one of the scientists who worked on the device, Paolo Di Trapani, believes that this light source won't just make environments such as hospitals, offices, gyms and below-ground spas more pleasant, it will also have a far bigger impact. Like inventions such as the elevator before it, he believes the skylight will allow developers of the future to not just build up, but also far down below the ground - without any of the dinginess that currently keeps us above ground.
The CoeLux skylight could also be used in photography studios to recreate that natural sunlight effect, 24/7. Of course, right now, the technology is a little too expensive to be adopted widely - it costs around US$61,000 to buy and then around US$7,000 for installation, as Michael Zhang reports for PetaPixel. But in the future, the developers hope to find a way to drop the cost, and also want to make the position of the sun in the "sky" variable, as well as the dynamic colour temperature of their light.
Just imagine how good the skylights would look shining down on this underground park in New York.
We're excited that, in the future, when the human race is driven underground like mole people in order to survive the spoils of nuclear war, we'll still be able to feel the sunlight on our faces.
Source: PetaPixel“When there’s no more room in Hell…the dead will walk the Earth!” read the tagline of George A Romero’s Dawn Of The Dead (1978) the terrifying sequel to his seminal zombie classic Night Of The Living Dead (1968). This film pushed the boundaries in terms of gory special effects and inspired numerous sequels and imitations. You can now see the classic horror film which started it all once again on the big screen courtesy of our friends over at Attack From Planet B – exponents of low-budget and cult cinema!
Night Of The Living Dead is screening on Thursday 6th September from 7:45pm at the Hawthorne Theatre in Welwyn Garden City and tickets are only a fiver! You will also have the chance to win copies of Dawn Of The Dead and Day Of The Dead courtesy of Arrow Video – just turn up at the screening dressed as a zombie! There are more cult film screenings to come and you can find out more details below…
Useful Links:
Attack From Planet B
Buy tickets for Night Of The Living Dead
Arrow Video
Attack From Planet B on Twitter
Musings Of A Film Fanatic
Top 10 Ultimate Zombie FilmsRipple’s Focus on Innovation Is a Win for Banks
Ripple is taking strides to expand its network–and its technology offerings–in 2017.
According to Asheesh Birla, vice president of product for the enterprise blockchain solutions provider, this year “is all about expansion” to new clients, countries, and markets. The company is looking into integrating new technologies to further augment the speed and transparency of its network during the year, he added. Right now, Ripple is considering solutions that include artificial intelligence and machine learning.
“We have a very robust research team that is looking at ways to increase our efficiency—machine learning for fraud detection, compliance,” Birla told Bank Innovation. “We want to be on the forefront of machine learning and AI in the same way we are on the forefront of blockchain.”
Just yesterday, the company added 10 new banks to its roster, which will utilize Ripple’s technology for cross-border payments and remittance services, among others. The 10 additions bring the total number of Ripple’s network members–banks, and payments providers– to 75; the company collaborates with additional 90 banks across the globe.
“Our approach is a lot different than some of the other companies, who think of this [space] as only a technology problem,” Birla said. “These [banks] are already using our blockchain technology, and we are tackling other issues including standardization of the network rules.”
The new members include some of the world’s top payment service providers (PSPs) as well as traditional banks: Cambridge Global Payments, Star One Credit Union, Axis Bank, and BBVA, among others.
Ripple is one of the few blockchain startups to have made it out of the proof-of-concept phase, and the company’s focus on speed and innovation seems to have caught the financial industry’s attention. In fact, BBVA is already utilizing Ripple’s blockchain solutions to send real-time cross-border payments between Europe and Mexico (rather than conducting a test to see if that is possible, for instance); while Star One became the first credit union to offer Ripple remittances to its consumers (through eZforex.com, one of the other banks that just joined the network).
“BBVA is really going for the startups space, that has been taking market share away from them—they are blazing forward with adoption,” Birla said. “[Our clients] are pushing Ripple to expand faster—we don’t want the same user experience we have now just on Ripple, we want clients that will push us to innovate.”
6
- Readers Like This PostShow Me The Money!
The person who has decided to code because they want the money. They have no aptitude for the task, no love of code and struggle to complete the simplest task.
God’s Gift!
The developer who at one time contributed something meaningful, perhaps even very good, but has since patted himself on the back unceasingly and now spends most of the time walking about the office, slowing others down, expecting an oversized paycheck.
Shellshocked
The developer who doubts his ability to the point he is paralyzed. He can’t believe he got the job, and wonders how he continues to keep it. His skills are suitable, but his fear that others are so much better than him, that they know all he does not, holds him back.
Self-Appointed Manager
Typically, an adequate programmer, who has decided that for himself that he is better for the organization as an overseer. Sharing bits of wisdom, as he has them, taking credit for others ideas and work at every point possible.
Ghost
They are there, they collect a check, but nobody really knows why.
The Corruptor
A developer who for some reason cannot execute a simple commit without creating a major issue. Sometimes they they trample previous commits, by not merging before committing. Other times they commit before testing. Frequently, they have the miraculous ability to create such chaos in the VCS that all of the safety catches fail.
Sand-Bagger
Yeah, that’ll take 18 months. Oh that, it can’t be done. Every time a task is due, it was not completed because of some other task. While this is frequently a real problem, which is why it works, in this case nothing seems to add up.
Worker Bee
They love to code, they do it incessantly. There when you start your day and when you end it. You just have to hope they are coding on their day job.
The Goblin
They like shiny things. They always have the latest niche language on their tongue, suggesting the organization needs to shift to it. Every new problem needs to be solved by a new system on a new platform. They are unwilling to work on anything that is not new. They have seldom researched thoroughly the technology that they are championing, but boy did that blog post make it sound great, and won’t I look so smart knowing what nobody else does.
One Trick Pony
The technology they know is the only technology and shall ever reign supreme. Their ego and esteem is caught up in their limited range of knowledge. They have extensive knowledge about the one technology, but have not realized the portability of that knowledge and fear all competing technologies. Sometimes it is an OS like Windows or Linux. Other times it is an IDE or text editor VI/Emacs/DevStudio/TextEdit Pro/Eclipse or IntelliJ. Frequently, it is the programming language (looking at all the one language Java and PHP developers). Even the data platform can be the sticking point. Myopic vision is real here.
Master of Conspiracy
The code is out to get them. Surely it is a bug in the compiler. My favorite was considering the inexactness of floating point numbers to be a bug in the micro-processor. He was ready to submit a report to Intel, and had the facts to back it up.
The rest of us
We love to code, we love to learn, we love to solve problems. We are happy to help you so long as you learn and work at it and do not interrupt us to frequently, or repeat the same question. We seek a good work/life balance, and are willing to put in the time when it is required, so long as it comes around when a break is due. We like a good challenge, but are willing to work on the mundane. We like new things when it is clear they provide a benefit, but realize they might be for a different project. We try not to write too much code nor too little. There is nothing we would rather do than to code.Steamed Steamed is dedicated to all things in and around Valve’s PC gaming service.
"We're not bread." It was supposed to be a throwaway gag in Valve's official video for Team Fortress 2's Love and War update, which launched almost a year ago.
Yes, a year. It's a video in which the whole cast is certain they're going to die, so I suppose it's only fitting that fans saw fit to dredge it up.
The line comes from a series of goofy mathematical equations tossed out by the Medic, who's calculating how long it will be until everybody dies from teleporter-induced tumors. The exact quote is: "Well, we use the Teleporter, let's say, six times a day. [That] times four years, minus... 'we're not bread.' Three days. Yes, we have three days to live!" The denizens of /r/tf2, of course, decided they had to know the value of "we're not bread," so they did a good old-fashioned solve-for-X.
Here's what user zrakkur came up with:
(Worth noting: that last line apparently has a typo. 8677 should be 8766.)
You'll note that they also made sure to adjust for the possibility of a leap year, because you never know. And in the pursuit of absolute understanding of fictional bread (or not-bread, as the case may be), you can never be too safe. And no, it's not particularly complicated math, but still: that's goddamn dedication—something, I might add, that already qualified as regular, non-damned-by-god dedication when people rescued a year-old video from the smoldering ruins of time and memory and the Internet's startling ability to stop giving a fuck after five minutes because why not? tl;dr: Bravo.
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So yes, there we go. The value of "we're not bread" is 8765. Which I suppose means the value of bread is -8765. Do with that as you will (read: probably nothing).
Thanks for the heads-up, Pixel Dynamo.
The Steam Community Showcase is a regular look at the cream of the Steam community's boundless crop. Art, videos, guides—whatever. Each installment highlights a specific piece or person. If you find anything cool on Steam or would like to have your work featured, drop me a line.
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To contact the author of this post, write to nathan.grayson@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @vahn16.2PM’s Chansung will be acting in his first play, titled “My Love, My Bride.”
The play will be performed from June 2 to July 30 in Seoul, and the artist will be playing the main character Young Min.
The play is a remake of the film of the same title, which premiered back in 1990. This film is known to the Korean audience as a classic romantic comedy and is still loved by many people today. In 2014, Jo Jung Suk and Shin Min Ah starred in the film remake of this. Since it was such a popular work, many fans are curious to see this recreated as a play.
Meanwhile, Chansung’s past works as an actor include the dramas “7th Grade Civil Servant,” “Ms. Temper & Nam Jung Gi,” and more.
Source (1)Too worried to think straight, aren’t we, Kasper? Let’s see how much of a lethal combo those two can be~ I’ve added Laura to the cast too, if you are curious about her blood type or whatever.
Last week was crazy in so many ways! Did you see the comment section under last page? Madness. I’ve also received two fanfictions, reached 8th position on topwebcomics and hopefully got a bunch of new readers! Special thanks to everyone who voted, this really means a lot. You are all awesome people (づ￣ ³￣)づ I will change vote incentive soon too, in case you are already bored of the last sketch haha…
And did you notice I’ve added a Fanart section? If you feel like drawing/writing something for me I’ll welcome it with open arms. Just send it to ni.replaycomic [at] gmail.com~ I’ll be waiting!
In last few days I’ve received two fanfictions from Refugnic, they are super fun to read so check them out if you have 3 minutes to spare.Total QBR was introduced in 2011 to improve upon the NFL passer rating by accounting for more of what a quarterback does, including his rushes, scrambles, fumbles and sacks. It also accounts for when things happen -- 5 yards on third-and-4 being more meaningful than 5 yards on third-and-14, for instance.
As QBR enters its third NFL season of use, we have found a few additional things to improve it, as we did last year.
The biggest change is how clutch weighting is done. Based on our experience in the NFL and our recent work on QBR for college football, we have found that emphasizing performance in clutch situations serves relatively little benefit compared to de-emphasizing performance when a game is out of reach. Good or bad performance when a game is out of reach isn't as relevant because the game isn't played the same way as when it's close or early.
Plays are "bigger" in tight games because they do change the chance of winning a lot more, but the impact of rewarding that is to de-emphasize what a quarterback did before they got to the clutch situations, even though those situations were still competitive. As a result, clutch weighting now primarily serves to de-emphasize performance when a game is less competitive; that weight is, as it was before, related to potential changes in win probability.
There were a couple of other changes to QBR to help improve the handling of very specific (and somewhat unusual) situations that we noticed.
• In a Rams-49ers game on Dec. 2, 2012, Colin Kaepernick tried to make a pitch back to a running back. That pitch sailed over the back's head, ending in a Rams recovery and touchdown. In the play-by-play that came from the NFL, this was listed as an aborted snap. An aborted snap is not what we think of as happening here, so we now chart it as an aborted pitch. Aborted snaps are usually fallen on by the offense, whereas a bad pitch is more a 50-50 ball for the offense or defense to recover. Aborted snaps can be the fault of the center or the quarterback. An aborted pitch is more likely to come from the quarterback. Making this change hurts Kaepernick more on this play and for the game, which is appropriate for what happened. In general, we know that individual plays may have a division of credit that isn't perfect, but this is one in which a simple fix can help.
• On Sept. 30, 2012, Atlanta was facing second-and-goal from the 1-yard line against the Panthers. The Panthers were drawn offsides, giving the Falcons a penalty that put them half a yard closer. But the official situation is still second-and-goal from the 1-yard line. There may have been an actual benefit to that half a yard (or less), but our methods don't see it -- the Falcons' expected points at the start of the play remained the same. In these situations, we were giving the quarterback an action play, which then lowered his QBR because there didn't appear to be a gain for the team. In these zero-yard penalties (that don't give a new set of downs), we stopped giving a play to the quarterback.
To emphasize, none of these modifications dramatically impact rankings. The modification on clutch weight changes things most at a game level, especially in close games. But over the course of a season, we see little change in QBR impact, implying that performance in clutch situations didn't dramatically affect long-term perception. The other two modifications also make very little difference.
Further, these changes don't affect QBR's status as a key statistic. Having a higher QBR than your opponent wins the game about 85 percent of the time, much higher than turnovers, yards or passer rating.
Finally, through our relationship with Football Outsiders, we have acquired charting data for the 2006 and 2007 regular seasons. This charting data allowed us to generate QBR values for those two seasons in addition to the years 2008-2012 that we already had. Peyton Manning dominated 2006 like we haven't seen in any other year, having nearly a 20-point lead over the second-place player. And in 2007, when the Patriots acquired Randy Moss and went 16-0 in the regular season, it's not surprising that Tom Brady's brilliant 50-touchdown season ends up at the top. These are just quick examples of the many stories that can be told with QBR. A few others are shown below:
• Robert Griffin III was really good when blitzed, avoiding sacks, scrambling, and throwing well, which is why he wasn't blitzed often, as Ron Jaworski highlights.
• The Cardinals' defense was tremendous at shutting down quarterbacks last year, as told by Mike Sando.
• In his rookie season, Andrew Luck's running was as effective as RG III's, and Luck was generating more from the pass game than RG III, as described by Rick Reilly.UNREAL. Obama-Holder DOJ to Prohibit Agents From Considering ‘Religion’ In Terror Investigations
There have been 22,260 deadly terrorist attacks carried out by Islamists since 9-11.
No other religion or ideology, including leftism, comes close to matching these numbers.
Via The Religion of Peace:
Despite these facts, Attorney General Eric Holder will not even mutter the words “radical Islam.” And, now the Holder Department of Justice will forbid federal agents from considering religion in their investigations.
The New York Times reported, via Jihad Watch:
The Justice Department will significantly expand its definition of racial profiling to prohibit federal agents from considering religion, national origin, gender and sexual orientation in their investigations, a government official said Wednesday. The move addresses a decade of criticism from civil rights groups that say federal authorities have in particular singled out Muslims in counterterrorism investigations and Latinos for immigration investigations. The Bush administration banned profiling in 2003, but with two caveats: It did not apply to national security cases, and it covered only race, not religion, ancestry or other factors. Since taking office, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has been under pressure from Democrats in Congress to eliminate those provisions. “These exceptions are a license to profile American Muslims and Hispanic-Americans,” Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, said in 2012. President George W. Bush said in 2001 that racial profiling was wrong and promised “to end it in America.” But that was before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11. After those attacks, federal agents arrested and detained dozens of Muslim men who had no ties to terrorism. The government also began a program known as special registration, which required tens of thousands of Arab and Muslim men to register with the authorities because of their nationalities.
Let’s face it. We are being led by a group of far-left imbeciles.Reindeers and herders at a farm in Siberia's Tundra on the Yamal peninsula in November 2007
NEWS BRIEFA heatwave in Siberia is believed to have melted permafrost, exposing the carcass of a reindeer infected with anthrax, resulting in the first outbreak of the deadly bacterial disease in the Russian tundra since 1941. The result: A 12-year-old boy is dead and eight others are sick.
The boy and several other indigenous people were evacuated from western Siberia, where the outbreak was detected. He died at a hospital in Salekhard, the capital of the Yamalo-Nenetsk Autonomous Area, which has been under quarantine since the outbreak was declared last week, Russia Today, the state-run English-language broadcaster, reported.
“We are 90 percent sure that he died from anthrax,” Dmitry Kobylkin, Yama’s governor, told TASS, the Russian news agency. “He had the intestinal form of the disease, which is harder to diagnose.”
A scientist who spoke to Agence France-Presse and a physician interviewed by Russia Today both said recent high temperatures in the region, which have touched 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius), likely melted the permafrost, exposing the carcass of an already-infected reindeer. Other reindeer in the area could have contracted the disease from the carcass, they said. More from Russia Today:
More than two thousand of those deer have already died, all of them in the Yamalo-Nenetsky area. This territory is located above the Arctic Circle, and is generally known for a very long winter that lasts up to 8 months, and extremely low temperatures, reaching -70 degrees Celsius. A total of 90 people, half of them children, were taken to hospital after being evacuated from the remote area where the infection spread. Most of them tested negative for the disease.
Most of the people who live in the area herd reindeer.
Siberia Today reported that healthy animals from the affected herd will undergo additional vaccination. The dead animals will be burned separately, it reported.
Anthrax, which is caused by Bacillus anthracis, can be treated with antibiotics. Those most at risk are people who handle animal carcasses.Doha, Qatar - The world's biggest oil producers have failed to reach agreement at a meeting aimed at freezing output and reassuring markets that a recent recovery in prices can be sustained.
Sunday's talks in Qatar's capital saw the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) - and, unusually, other producers - trying to agree that average daily crude oil production in the coming months would not exceed levels recorded in January.
Qatari Energy Minister Mohammed Saleh al-Sada said - after six hours of negotiations - that consultations would continue between the parties until an OPEC meeting in June.
"All participating countries will consult among themselves and with others," he said.
Oman's Oil Minister Mohammed al-Rumhy said one reason a deal could not be reached was that not all OPEC members were present.
"Until this morning we thought there would be a deal. We didn't know Iran wasn't coming," he told Al Jazeera.
After 6 hours of meeting, OPEC secretary general left without saying a word. Tired reporters pled: Just say anything pic.twitter.com/8EyriAq6b5 — Basma Atassi | بسمة (@Basma_) April 17, 2016
The run-up to the summit saw months of disagreements about the impact any freeze would have on individual OPEC members.
The position of Iran - now ramping up production after Western sanctions were lifted as part of the nuclear deal it signed with world powers - had proved a sticking point, with diplomats and officials at the talks telling Al Jazeera that Saudi Arabia was insisting that Tehran should sign up to any agreement.
Iran, though, did not send a delegation to the meeting, saying it would not accept proposals to cap its production until it recovered a similar market share to that which it held before the sanctions were imposed.
Uncertainty and volatility
Countries such as Ecuador and Venezuela have been hardest hit by plummeting prices. Venezuela has seen its worst recession since the 1940s, and its economy is expected to shrink by 10 percent this year.
Larger OPEC producers such as Saudi Arabia, though, have insisted on keeping production levels high, because they do not want to lose customers to non-OPEC producers such as the United States.
"Countries came to the summit with different interests and therefore the prospects of a deal were low," Abdurahim al-Hor, a Doha-based economist told Al Jazeera at the summit.
He said that oil prices were expected to go down because of the failure to agree to any cap on output - possibly down to $35 a barrel, compared with the current $40.
"The price has been fluctuating with a big margin before, between $20 and $40 in January, so the decrease now could also be big," he said.
Despite tanking prices and a glut in global supplies, OPEC members had previously increased production levels as disagreement grew about which strategy to take.
The bloc is made up of Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.
Qatar's government currently holds the OPEC presidency.
Follow Basma Atassi on Twitter: @Basma_Apple appears to be getting in on the original content game. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Apple is developing a TV series starring Dr. Dre — who, of course, is a co-founder of the now Apple-owned Beats. Dre's series is already said to have started filming. The show is reported to be a dark drama called Vital Signs, and there is known to be at least one orgy scene. It's supposed to have six 30-minute episodes in total, with each taking a semi-autobiographical look at how Dre responds to different emotions. Sam Rockwell and Mo McCrae are also reportedly in the cast.
Apple is likely to debut the series all at once — Netflix style — on Apple Music, according to the Reporter. This would be Apple's first entry into the world of original TV series, so it's not clear exactly how it would launch. Vital Signs doesn't at all sound like the type of dad-friendly content you'd expect from Apple (e.g. a U2 album), but it's easy to see why it might have chosen to start here. For one, it obviously has a close relationship with Dre, and it makes sense to leverage that. But we're also coming off the huge success of Straight Outta Compton, which is essentially an origin story for Dre. There's clearly interest in his stories. It sounds like Apple is hoping to tap into that, too.You've probably heard that our family tree got a new member on Thursday. Homo naledi, a primitive, small-brained member of our genus, made itself known in a big way when cavers stumbled upon a mass grave left by the species.
But the discovery of the new species, a cousin of our own, wouldn't have been possible without six female scientists who are being called "underground astronauts".
Video shows female scientists and experienced cavers recovering fossil remnants of new species of human relative in November 2013 at the Cradle of Humankind Heritage Site in South Africa. The women were chosen via social media because they were slender enough to move through the cave's narrow passageways to get to the fossil chamber, 100 yards from the cave entrance. (NOVA/National Geographic)
Here's the story: When lead researcher Lee Berger first got word of the possible fossil find from some cavers, he was left in a quandary. The cavers (Rick Hunter and Steven Tucker) who had squeezed into the breathtakingly tight cave segment didn't have the skills to safely collect and transport the strange skeletal remains they'd seen.
[Full story: Fossils found in African cave are new species of human kin, say scientists]
And with such a tight squeeze (really tight -- see National Geographic's illustration if you dare), Berger knew he lacked the physique and caving skills needed to get inside himself.
So he put out a call for skinny, highly-qualified paleontologists or archaeologists who could shimmy in and out of caves with the best of them. Of 60 applicants, he picked the most qualified six -- and they were all women.
Applause for these women, who squeezed their way into a cave for an extraordinary discovery http://t.co/OlIFN9zZwq pic.twitter.com/7SAGZTtEyh — Jonathan Amos (@BBCAmos) September 10, 2015
“Looking down into it, I wasn’t sure I’d be OK,” Marina Elliott, one of the six female scientists Berger called his "underground astronauts", told National Geographic. “It was like looking into a shark’s mouth. There were fingers and tongues and teeth of rock.”
In a video for News24, Elliot explained that the first trip down, while scary, was mostly exciting. As a seasoned caver, she was excited to explore a new chamber.
[Women welcome in ‘hard working’ fields, but ‘genius’ fields are male-dominated, study finds]
"Everywhere that I shone my headlamp, I could see fragments of bone," she said. "So it was very obvious at that point that we were dealing with a lot of material. But even then we didn't realize that it was going to all be hominin, and be as momentous as it has been."
In fact, the bones were so numerous that Elliot and the other female cavers took to removing their boots in another portion of the cave -- going barefoot on the actual excavation site -- to make sure they didn't crush any fragments.
Elliot, who's now doing postdoctoral research at the University of the Witwatersrand, was the first one down into the chamber. She was joined by Becca Peixotto, a PhD student at American University; K. Lindsay Hunter, a biological anthropologist who's since moved on to more field research; Elen Feuerriegel, a PhD candidate at the Australian National University; Hannah Morris, a new PhD student at the University of Georgia; and Alia Gurtov, a University of Wisconsin – Madison PhD candidate.
The women worked in groups of three, trading off two-hour shifts in the fossil chamber. From National Geographic:
Over the next several days, while the women probed a square-yard patch around the skull, the other scientists huddled around the video feed in the command center above in a state of near-constant excitement. Berger, dressed in field khakis and a Rising Star Expedition cap, would occasionally repair to the science tent to puzzle over the accumulating bones—until a collective howl of astonishment from the command center brought him rushing back to witness another discovery. It was a glorious time.
After over three weeks of digging, their haul clocked in at over 1,500 bones -- the largest discovery of its kind ever made in Africa. And after analysis, of course, it yielded an exciting new species to boot.
Read More:
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Chimp that attacked a drone with a stick planned ahead, researchers sayTrue North Sports & Entertainment unveiled the primary and secondary logos for the Winnipeg Jets Hockey Club on Friday afternoon. The Jets will begin play in the NHL this coming season.The design for the new logo, which was developed in partnership with Reebok and the NHL, was inspired by the logo of the Royal Canadian Air Force."True North Sports & Entertainment felt it was important for the new Winnipeg Jets to develop a strong new identity," said Mark Chipman, Chairman & Governor of True North Sports & Entertainment. "We felt it was important to authenticate the name Jets and we believe the new logo does that through its connection to (Canada's) remarkable Air Force heritage, including the rich history and relationship that our city and province have enjoyed with the Canadian Forces."True North Sports & Entertainment was also grateful to the Department of National Defense for their assistance in the process."We have always had a close relationship with 17 Wing throughout the years, dating back to our annual Manitoba Moose Military Night," said Dorian Morphy, Senior Director, Marketing & Brand Management of True North Sports & Entertainment. "We are thrilled to be able to continue this relationship in a significant way. The design cues for the plane were inspired by the military jets flown by the Air Force over the years. So not only were we able to establish a new identity for our brand, but we were able to maintain a traditional, time honored look to the logo."The Jets will unveil their uniforms in September. During their first stint in Winnipeg, the logo had three different looks. Rather than revert to one of the three, ownership opted for a fresh start."Unlike the Habs or the Red Wings or the Blackhawks, we didn't have just |
," Babbitt said. "We plan to use ideas and innovations from engineering, policy, ecology, decision science, geospatial optimization and education."
Babbitt added that potential solutions would be evaluated using "nexus thinking," a new approach to evaluate tradeoffs that may occur between food, energy and water systems, including waste minimization, net energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, pollutant releases to freshwater ecosystems, policy compliance and economic costs.
The project will leverage well-established industrial and community partnerships, working with Wegmans Food Markets Inc. and Synergy Biogas to collect data about the volume and composition of food waste streams in the upstate New York region. The planned scientific advances are also expected to spur new industries and jobs in New York, according to Babbitt, as the team plans to share findings with stakeholders and decision-makers in the food supply chain, waste management and policy sectors.
The project also will create new educational programs, with efforts aimed at engaging underrepresented groups--including deaf and hard-of-hearing students at RIT and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) as well as high school students in the Rochester City School District. Babbitt is currently teaching a pilot course on sustainable food systems for RIT graduate students and plans to integrate future research findings into this educational model.
Babbitt will collaborate on research with GIS colleagues Thomas Trabold and Gabrielle Gaustad, along with Eric Hittinger in RIT's College of Liberal Arts; Brian Tomaszewski from the B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences; Christy Tyler in the College of Science's Gosnell School of Life Sciences; and Todd Pagano in NTID's Department of Science and Mathematics.
###WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Steve Bierfeldt says the Transportation Security Administration pulled him aside for extra questioning in March. He was carrying a pocket edition of the U.S. Constitution and an iPhone capable of making audio recordings. And he used them.
Steve Bierfeldt is accusing the Transportation Security Administration of "harassing interrogation."
On a recording a TSA agent can be heard berating Bierfeldt. One sample: "You want to play smartass, and I'm not going to play your f**king game."
Bierfeldt is director of development for the Campaign for Liberty, an outgrowth of the Ron Paul presidential campaign. He was returning from a regional conference March 29 when TSA screeners at Lambert-St. Louis (Missouri) International Airport saw a metal cash box in his carry-on bag. Inside was more than $4,700 dollars in cash -- proceeds from the sale of political merchandise like T-shirts and books.
There are no restrictions on carrying large sums of cash on flights within the United States, but the TSA allegedly took Bierfeldt to a windowless room and, along with other law enforcement agencies, questioned him for almost half an hour about the money.
The American Civil Liberties Union has taken up Bierfeldt's cause and is suing Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, whose department includes the TSA. Their complaint alleges that Bierfeldt was "subjected to harassing interrogation, and unlawfully detained."
Larry Schwartztol of the ACLU said the TSA is suffering from mission creep.
"We think what happened to Mr. Bierfeldt is a reflection that TSA believes passenger screening is an opportunity to engage in freewheeling law enforcement investigations that have no link to flight safety," he said.
Schwartztol believes many other passengers have been subjected to the same kind of treatment, which he claims violates constitutional protections against unlawful searches.
The TSA wouldn't comment on the lawsuit, but said in a statement that the movement of large amounts of cash through a checkpoint may be investigated "if suspicious activity is suspected."
Unbeknownst to the TSA agents, Bierfieldt had activated the record application on his phone and slipped it into his pocket. It captured the entire conversation.
An excerpt:
Officer: Why do you have this money? That's the question, that's the major question.
Bierfeldt: Yes, sir, and I'm asking whether I'm legally required to answer that question.
Officer: Answer that question first, why do you have this money.
Bierfeldt: Am I legally required to answer that question?
Officer: So you refuse to answer that question?
Bierfeldt: No, sir, I am not refusing.
Officer: Well, you're not answering.
Bierfeldt: I'm simply asking my rights under the law.
The officers can be heard saying they will involve the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration, and appear to threaten arrest, saying they are going to transport Bierfeldt to the local police station, in handcuffs if necessary.
Bierfeldt told CNN he believes their behavior was inappropriate.
"You're in a locked room with no windows. You've got TSA agent. You've got police officers with loaded guns. They're in your face. A few of them were swearing at me."
But the officers did not follow through on their threats. Near the end of the recording an additional officer enters the situation and realizes the origins of the money.
Officer: So these are campaign contributions for Ron Paul?
Bierfeldt: Yes, sir.
Officer: You're free to go.
According to the TSA, "Passengers are required to cooperate with the screening process. Cooperation may involve answering questions about their property. A passenger who refuses to answer questions may be referred to appropriate authorities for further inquiry"
Bierfeldt contends he never refused to answer a question, he only sought to clarify his constitutional rights.
"I asked them, 'Am I required by law to tell you what you're asking me? Am I required to tell you where I am working? Am I required to tell you how I got the cash? Nothing I've done is suspicious. I'm not breaking any laws. I just want to go to my flight. Please advise me as to my rights.' And they didn't."
The TSA says disciplinary action has been taken against one of its employees for inappropriate tone and language.
All About American Civil Liberties Union • Transportation Security Administration • Janet NapolitanoIt’s no secret that the face and body of pretty much every model in every advertisement we see in magazines has been smoothed and slicked into perfection through the magic of Photoshop. (Plumping lips and slimming thighs even happens when the model doesn’t want it to.) But if you’ve ever wondered whether the same sort of digital alteration happens to the models featured in the commercials that pop up on your television screen, well, the answer is yes.
In the above video Andreas Brueckl, the senior colorist at European postproduction outfit Colormeup, has created an eye-opening behind-the-scenes look at the color-correction process. Brueckl, who has worked on almost 200 commercials, condenses the half hour he spent color-correcting a L'Oréal Garnier commercial down to three minutes.
Although the model and the background might look just fine to the average person, Brueckl shows us how he tweaked every single thing you see on the screen. The model is naturally gorgeous, but the extra luminosity you see in her skin, the sheen of her blond hair, and her lack of dark circles are all due to a few clicks of Brueckl’s mouse. He even adjusts the lighting of the background and the color of the Garnier packaging. Despite all the changes, Brueckl wrote on the video’s Vimeo page that he didn’t have to show “much of the beauty retouching and skin grading” because “the model has a very nice skin and with the help of Garnier it was not much work for me.”
Of course, the women and girls who will see this commercial—and countless other advertisements like it—might not know that this model doesn’t in real life look exactly like the finished product. That disconnect between reality and a corrected version of a person does plenty of damage to viewers. Multiple studies have shown a connection between ads that have altered images of people in them and emotional and mental health issues.
That’s why the bipartisan Truth in Advertising Act of 2014, which was introduced in Congress in March, asks the Federal Trade Commission to create a “strategy to reduce the use, in advertising and other media for the promotion of commercial products, of images that have been altered to materially change the physical characteristics of the faces and bodies of the individuals depicted.” It also asks the commission to create an “appropriate, risk-based regulatory framework with respect to such use.” The act has only been introduced, not signed into law—which means that unless the folks who work on the ads, like Brueckl, let us see what it takes to create perfection, we'll never know just what's real and what's been created on a computer screen.
UPDATED Oct. 30, 2014—10:10 a.m.
Sorry, folks, watching the extensive digital alteration work that went into making this commercial look picture-perfect now requires a password. "I was kindly asked to take the video down," wrote Brueckl on his Vimeo channel home page.On laser mirrors: remember that the mirror size can be reduced by making the wavelength of the laser smaller. My original calculations were for a 400 nanometer UV laser, with a 200 nanometer laser you can reduce the mirror size to 5 meters and have the same effective range. This lets you have a smaller, easier to rotate turret, which is very good because at close range where lasers will be most effective that's the main limitation on how many missiles you can kill.And some sort of covering for the laser aperture would probably be a good idea, I think.You're describing a Bussard ramjet, but using the stuff you collect as coolant instead of fuel. It might be doable but unfortunately, aside from the problems associated with trying to do H-H fusion, it has all the same problems as a Bussard ramjet. You need a magnetic scoop thousands of kilometers across, and the ship needs to be moving at between 1-6% c (3000-18,000 km/s), before it starts working, so your warship will requireof fuel. It doesn't really seem worth it.If you intend to store the coolant you also have to deal with the fact that slowing down all that gas will create drag which will reduce your engine performance (this is what basically killed the classical Bussard ramjet as a propulsion concept; above.12 c the drag is greater than the engine thrust). You can, however, get around this in the same way modern theoretical Bussard ramjet-derivative propulsion systems do: by letting the gas travel through the middle of your ship at high speed. The collection process will still create drag but it is reduced. Note that transferring heat to this stuff will accelerate it, so your cooling system here will double as a low-power engine.‘He did not say the word “sexual assault”’, ‘I think that’s a stretch’ and ‘I’m not a lawyer’ among excuses trotted out by aides and surrogates about lewd comments
The 2005 tape of Donald Trump bragging that his celebrity status allowed him to grope women with abandon has sent the Republican party reeling. But on Sunday night, the top spokespeople for the GOP and the Trump campaign had recovered their wits long enough to dispute whether Trump was actually describing a “sexual assault” in the 11-year-old recording.
“That’s a very unfortunate phrase, and people really should stop using it,” Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s campaign manager, told CNN’s Dana Bash. “He did not say the word ‘sexual assault’.”
Separately, longtime Trump supporter Senator Jeff Sessions told the conservative magazine Weekly Standard that he wouldn’t characterize unwanted touching and kissing as sexual assault. “I think that’s a stretch,” he said.
“I don’t know,” said Sean Spicer, the GOP’s top spokesperson, in reply to the same question. “I’m not a lawyer.”
On Tuesday, a spokesperson for Sessions followed up with the Guardian to say that the Weekly Standard “did not properly characterize” Sessions’ position.
“My hesitation was based solely on confusion of the contents of the 2005 tape and the hypothetical posed by the reporter,” the senator said in a statement.
“Of course it is crystal clear that assault is unacceptable. I would never intentionally suggest otherwise.”
The spokesperson has not responded to a follow-up asking Sessions to clarify whether he thinks Trump’s comments in the recording describe sexual assault.
'Pussy grabs back' becomes rallying cry for female rage against Trump Read more
Their remarks came just three days after the tape of Trump sent shockwaves through the Republican party and a few hours before the House speaker, Paul Ryan, without withdrawing his earlier endorsement, announced he would no longer come to Trump’s defense.
The tape, recorded while Trump and NBC host Billy Bush rode a bus to the set of Access Hollywood, captured Trump making lewd comments about actor Arianne Zucker – and women in general – while Bush egged him on.
“I’ve gotta use some Tic Tacs, just in case I start kissing her,” Trump is heard to say on the tape, which the Washington Post released on Friday. “You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful – I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait … And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything … Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”
Trump has variously said he was sorry if the conversation caused offense and downplayed and dismissed his words as run-of-the-mill “locker room talk”. Facing a Sunday talk show gauntlet, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani said: “The fact is men, at times, talk like that.”
Athletes on Trump's 'locker room banter': that's not how we talk at work Read more
But until Sunday night, no one representing Trump’s campaign or party – including Giuliani – disputed the fact that what Trump was describing was the very definition of sexual assault. (Whether Trump on the tape was describing a specific instance in which he touched women without their consent is unclear.)
Several prominent Republicans who denounced Trump’s remarks over the weekend unequivocally stated that the tape captured Trump describing an act of sexual assault. “It is never appropriate to condone unwanted sexual advances or violence against women,” congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the highest-ranking Republican woman in the House, said on Friday.
John McCain, in a statement withdrawing his endorsement of Trump, was even more blunt. “Trump’s behavior this week, concluding with the disclosure of his demeaning comments about women and his boasts about sexual assaults, make it impossible to offer even conditional support for his candidacy,” McCain said. He added: “No woman should ever be victimized by this kind of inappropriate behavior.”
It was only after an acrimonious Trump confronted Hillary Clinton at Washington University in St Louis for the second presidential debate that his surrogates flipped the script.
The worst thing about the Trump tape? When he meets Arianne Zucker | Jessica Valenti Read more
In the spin room where reporters gathered for post-debate reactions, Conway condemned the use of the words “sexual assault” to describe Trump’s remarks, telling CNN’s Bash: “That’s a very unfortunate phrase.” When Bash pointed out that Trump had in fact described a sexual assault, Conway replied that he had not said the word “sexual assault”.
The Weekly Standard put a similar question to Spicer and Sessions, with Sessions replying: “I don’t characterize that as sexual assault. I think that’s a stretch.” The reporter persisted: “So if you grab a woman by the genitals, that’s not sexual assault?”
“I don’t know,” Sessions responded. “It’s not clear that he – how that would occur.”
Their remarks recalled instances when Republicans downplayed the seriousness of sexual assault. In 2012, Todd Akin, a candidate for the Senate from Missouri, lost badly to Senator Claire McCaskill after saying women couldn’t become pregnant from rape if the attack was “a legitimate rape”. Just one year prior, Republicans were accused of attempting to redefine rape through a congressional proposal to limit abortion rights for anyone who wasn’t the target of a “forcible” rape.
Perhaps they were taking cues from Trump himself, who on Sunday night denied that his words amounted to a description of sexual violence.
“You described kissing women without consent, grabbing their genitals,” said CNN anchor Anderson Cooper. “That is sexual assault. You bragged that you have sexually assaulted women. Do you understand that?”
“No,” Trump replied. “I didn’t say that at all.”A JUDGE has lifted an order banning the identification of a paedophile who was knifed in the heart by his teenage victim.
Zabhullah Boota, the father of two young children, was found guilty of sexual assault and inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity in November 2010.
He was sentenced to a community order for abusing the young girl and allowed to return to his Bradford home in the neighbourhood where she still lived.
In October 2011, the Telegraph & Argus reported how the victim's mother was "sickened" that Boota was still living in the same area, nearly a year after his conviction.
At the time she said: "Her [the victim] innocence was taken away. She doesn't trust any adults, and a child shouldn't feel that way."
Yesterday, the girl whose life Boota destroyed was spared a custodial sentence for attacking him.
Boota's name could not be released as part of the initial report on her sentencing, but today Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC lifted a legal order, meaning he can now be identified.
The judge yesterday told the 15-year-old schoolgirl: “It would be a disgrace to send a survivor like you to prison.”
She was 14 when she thrust a large kitchen knife into Boota, 56, who sexually assaulted her when she was eight-years-old.
She felt the justice system had let her down when he harassed and bullied her after walking free from court.
In November last year, the girl, who cannot be identified, went round to the Boota’s home in Bradford with a knife.
Telling him: “I am going to kill you,” she plunged it into him in front of his two young children, prosecutor Heather Gilmore said.
The weapon entered Boota's chest wall and cut through the artery supplying blood to the right ventricle of his heart.
The man was saved by the swift intervention of paramedics and surgeons. He was in intensive care and needed a blood transfusion.
After stabbing her abuser, the girl hugged her aunt, said: “Tell my mum I love her,” and handed herself in at Trafalgar House Police station.
She said: “I’ve killed someone,” and immediately confessed to what she had done.
The teenager was originally charged with attempted murder but the Crown accepted her plea of guilty to causing grievous bodily harm with intent.
Miss Gilmore said the girl had been “entirely destroyed” when Boota was not jailed for sexually assaulting her and inciting her to engage in sexual activity.
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Boota was given a community order after she had to give evidence at his trial because he denied the offences.
Afterwards, she was paranoid he was “going to get her.”
The girl was later excluded from school for poor behaviour. She feared she would never get a husband and she lived her life in a bad dream, the court heard.
Boota had been left in constant pain from the stab wound. He was permanently scarred and his children had been affected.
Elyas Patel, the girl’s barrister, said: “Rightly or wrongly, this 15-year-old felt that the justice system had let her down.
“With Your Honour at the wheel, the justice system will not fail her today.”
Mr Patel went on: “She was left deeply troubled and scarred. She acted in a few moments of despair and desperation.
“This is an exceptional case which requires an exceptional course.
“This deeply troubled and damaged child, bedevilled by low self esteem, is crying out for help.”
She had the unwavering support of her mother who knew her daughter needed ongoing support.
Judge Durham Hall sentenced the girl to a two year Youth Rehabilitation Order with supervision.
Refusing to order her to pay the mandatory victim surcharge, he told her: “If anyone tries to force you, I will pay it myself.”
Judge Durham Hall said the girl knifed Boota in the chest in his home in the presence of members of his family.
“You stabbed him in the region of his heart. Mercifully, you did not kill him.
“He was saved by excellent medical intervention and has made a pretty full recovery.”
The judge continued: “Why did you stab this man? Because when you were eight in 2009 he committed serious sexual offences against you.
“He was treated by the courts, with hindsight, somewhat leniently but things have changed. Now there is condign punishment in cases of this nature, in accordance with the guidelines.”
Wishing the child good luck, Judge Durham Hall assured her: “Things have changed.”INDEPENDENCE, Ohio -- LeBron James said he will not join San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick's protest against the way African-Americans are treated in this country and kneel during the national anthem during Cleveland Cavaliers games this season.
"Me standing for the national anthem is something I will do," James said at the Cavs' annual media day Monday. "That's who I am. That's what I believe in. But that doesn't mean I don't respect and don't believe in what Colin Kaepernick is doing. You have the right to voice your opinion, stand for your opinion, and he's doing it in the most peaceful way I've ever seen someone do something."
James has been outspoken about social issues facing the U.S. for the past several years and recognized the unrest that exists in a speech at the ESPYS this summer, alongside fellow NBA players Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade and Chris Paul. His message at the awards ceremony centered on community outreach. Kaepernick started his protest during the NFL preseason, approximately six weeks after the ESPYS speech.
Editor's Picks NBA coaches, players speak out on social issues Colin Kaepernick's protest of kneeling during the national anthem has prompted players and coaches in the NBA to voice their opinions on social issues and racial violence.
James turned the issues inward Monday, sharing how recent events have shaped the way he views his family.
"For me, my personal feelings is that I got a 12-year-old son, a 9-year-old son and a 2-year-old daughter, and I look at my son being four years removed from driving his own car and being able to leave the house on his own, and it's a scary thought right now to think if my son gets pulled over," James said. "You tell your kids if you just apply [the lessons you teach them] and if you just listen to the police that they will be respectful and it will work itself out. And you see these videos that continue to come out, and it's a scary-ass situation that if my son calls me and says that he's been pulled over that I'm not that confident that things are going to go well and my son is going to return home. And my son just started the sixth grade."
While James won't be taking a knee like Kaepernick, he did speak out against the backlash the quarterback has received for his actions.
"What I do not like about the situation is the negative attention that has been thrown upon him by some people because it's not deserved," James said. "He was very educated, very smart, very candid and very demanding about what he wanted to do, and he didn't ask anyone else to join him. And he did it in the most peaceful manner I've ever seen anyone stand up and do something. So I can respect that. And the things that I do personally, when I'm knowledgeable about it and I'm passionate about it, I'll do that as well and let you guys know when those things are because I'll tell you."
LeBron James on being troubled by repeated video of police shootings: "It's a scary-ass situation that if my son calls me and says that he's been pulled over that I'm not that confident that things are going to go well and my son is going to return home." David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images
James, the vice president of the players' association, was asked about the joint memo that the National Basketball Players Association and the league issued to its players last week that sought to gather opinions on meaningful ways the two organizations can join together in response to the demonstrations by other pro athletes and create action. Michele Roberts, executive director of the players' association, attended Cavs media day in person.
"The fact that the league has come out and said they're going to continue to give back to the communities and hone in on what's important, we feel like we did our job," James said, alluding to his ESPYS speech. "We just wanted the conversation to continue to go, to understand that police brutality and killings and things of that nature of innocent people, it's not the answer. You mourn the lives of so many innocent people and you pray for the families of so many innocent people over this course of time, in this short period of time. So you feel for that."
James clarified that his stance was not aimed at police misconduct, but rather an admission that race relations must be improved in order for the country to thrive.
"We just wanted the conversation to continue to keep going, and I don't have the answer," James said. "None of us have the answer. But the more times that we can talk about it and the more times that we can [converse] about it [the better]. Because I'm not up here saying that all police are bad, because they're not. I'm not up here saying all kids are great or all adults are great, because they're not. But at the same time, all lives do matter. It's not just black or white, it's not that. It's everyone. So it's just tough being a parent right now when you have a preteen. But the conversation, it's continued from the speech that myself, D-Wade, CP and Melo had, and that's definitely a good thing."
Cavs general manager David Griffin was also passionate about the subject, vowing to help be a conduit for his players to enact change.
"I think far too much is being made of what form of non-violent protest somebody chooses to implement and not nearly enough is being paid to the actual issues that spawn that outrage in the first place," Griffin said. "I think this is a situation for us where non-violence and direct action, as Dr. [Martin Luther] King [Jr.] said, is supposed to engender a sense of moral shame. We should be ashamed of what's going on in this country that prompted the initial protest in the first place. And I'm really, really honored to be a part of a league where [NBA commissioner] Adam Silver and Michele Roberts are working in conjunction with the players' association to try to find a way to bring meaningful change and to impact the issue rather than talk about how one person chose to deal with their outrage over the issue.
"And we have players in that room that are really mature, veteran people that want to make an impact. So we're all going to talk about the political correctness of what they do, I'd really like us to start talking about what's going on and trying to reach the core of what's going on. So, we will talk to our players as a team. I'm very confident that we'll arrive at a place that's pretty inspired because we got a group of guys that are really about the right things, and I think have a very real moral fiber, but I just don't think this should be a topic that continues anymore. Let's start talking about what we actually did about it."Drew Angerer/Getty Images Warren Buffett is such an investing powerhouse, it's hard to list his credentials without making him sound like Dos Equis' Most Interesting Man in the World:
The Oracle of Omaha is one of the most influential businessmen in the world — and, arguably, the most frugal, a billionaire that once complained "most toys are just a pain in the neck."
As often as he's on CNBC's "Squawk Box" talking about holding company Berkshire Hathaway's per-share book value, he's urging students to stay out of credit card debt and increase their savings.
With the year winding down, we combed through all the advice Buffett has given us in 2014, from the sublime ("Price is what you pay, value is what you get") to the ridiculous ("A bull market is like sex. It feels best just before it ends").
The net result? Six things you should be doing with your money in 2015, from the master's mouth.
Warren Buffett's Best Advice for 2015
1. Put Your Estate in Index Funds
In his 2014 letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, Buffett revealed his estate plan, reminding readers to keep their investments safe, low-cost and long-term.
Turns out, he's planning on leaving all of the cash for his wife in a product that's as old, stodgy and lucrative as himself.
"My advice to the trustee could not be more simple: Put 10% of the cash in short-term government bonds and 90% in a very low-cost S&P 500 index fund. (I suggest Vanguard's.) I believe the trust's long-term results from this policy will be superior to those attained by most investors — whether pension funds, institutions or individuals — who employ high-fee managers."
2. Stay Away From Bitcoin
Given Buffett's almost wholesale aversion to tech, this one isn't a surprise; the Oracle refuses to invest in what he doesn't know, and he doesn't know the technology sector, IBM notwithstanding.
But Buffett's problem with Bitcoin isn't that it's a tech investment — it's that it's not any kind of investment at all, because it doesn't have value, as he explained in a March interview with CNBC.
"Stay away from it. It's a mirage, basically. … It's a method of transmitting money. It's a very effective way of transmitting money and you can do it anonymously and all that. A check is a way of transmitting money, too. Are checks worth a whole lot of money just because they can transmit money? Are money orders? You can transmit money by money orders. People do it. I hope Bitcoin becomes a better way of doing it, but you can replicate it a bunch of different ways and it will be. The idea that it has some huge intrinsic value is just a joke in my view."
3. Learn How to Read Financial Statements
Buffett gave this advice to Tre Grinner, a 17-year-old with Hodgkin's Lymphoma who recently secured a Goldman Sachs internship with the help of the Make-a-Wish Foundation.
Buffett surprised the intern with a call while he was being interviewed by CNBC in August, offering him this advice:
"Take all the accounting courses that you can find. Accounting is the language of business. … It'll make it so much easier for years and years to come for reading financial statements, to get comfortable with it, because it is a language all of its own. Getting comfortable in a foreign language takes a little experience, a little study early on, but it pays off big later on."
4. Focus on Saving, Not Getting Rich Quick
Ironically, Buffett dropped this tip when promoting his basically unwinnable billion dollar bracket challenge on the Dan Patrick Show.
The sweepstakes, backed by Buffett and Quicken Loans, would award $1 billion to anyone who devised a perfect NCAA March Madness bracket. (The odds of winning were about 1 in 9.2 quintillion — you were 53 billion times more likely to win the Powerball.) Still, the Oracle's advice was solid:
"Well, I think the biggest mistake is not learning the habits of saving properly early. Because saving is a habit. And then, trying to get rich quick. It's pretty easy to get well-to-do slowly. But it's not easy to get rich quick."
5. When Stock Prices Drop, Buy — Don't Sell
It was a volatile year for the market and Buffett's wealth; the investor lost about $2 billion in the course of several days in October when Coke and IBM took a hit after their quarterly earnings reports. Buffett kept calm, though, giving several interviews in which he explained why he was a fan of bear markets.
Granted, when you've got $63 billion to your name, this kind of a hit is lunch money. But, as the Oracle explained to CNBC, investors with itchy trigger fingers rarely succeed.
"I like buying it as it goes down, and the more it goes down, the more I like to buy. … If you told me that the market was going to go down 500 points next week, I would have bought those same businesses and stocks yesterday. I don't know how to tell what the market's going to do. I do know how to pick out reasonable businesses to own over a long period of time."
6. Stop Pretending to Be an Expert
"If you don't invest in things you know, you're just gambling," Buffett told CNBC earlier this year. It's advice he's rarely strayed from, and the reason why tech, gold and airlines will never get his money (or, in the case of airlines, get his money again). As he wrote in his 2014 shareholders letter:
"You don't need to be an expert in order to achieve satisfactory investment returns. But if you aren't, you must recognize your limitations and follow a course certain to work reasonably well. Keep things simple and don't swing for the fences. When promised quick profits, respond with a quick 'no.'NOW: George Soros Faces $10B Lawsuit, Called Out for Political Meddling (VIDEO)
A massive $10B suit against evil left-wing billionaire, George Soros was filed regarding his meddling in the politics of Guinea in order to settle personal scores.
Soros used his power within the Guinea government to “freeze Israeli company BSG Resources out of the West African nation’s lucrative iron ore mining contracts,” according to Fox News.
Former DOJ attorney J. Christian Adams commented, “Americans do not understand the extent to which Soros fuels this anti-constitutional, anti-American agenda.”
Fox News reports:
Whatever the ultimate outcome in the current case, it is not the first time Soros has been accused of sowing political upheaval to advance a personal agenda. Critics around the world, including in the U.S. and in Soros’ homeland of Hungary, say the liberal financier often masquerades as a humanitarian while manipulating the political landscape. “We are committed to use all legal means at our disposal to stop pseudo-civil society spy groups such as the ones funded by George Soros,” Hungary’s top education official, Minister of Human Capacities Zoltan Balog said recently. In the U.S., Soros has spent heavily on politics from local district attorney races to presidential campaigns. While his stated goals have included reshaping the justice system, achieving income equality, battling climate change and fighting racism, critics say he has used his money to buy massive influence within the Democratic Party. Soros has also been accused of using his Open Society Foundation and U.S. diplomatic connections to interfere with the government of Macedonia, according to Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.
Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.comThe new 'Craze'... Award-winning bodybuilder drug is under fire for containing chemical cousin of METH
Craze, which won BodyBuilding.com’s New Supplement of the Year award in 2012, contains the substance called N,alpha-diethylphenylethylamine or N,a-DEPEA, according to new study
N,a-DEPEA is illegal drug methamphetamine's chemical cousin
Samples have between 20 to 35 milligrams of the drug in one serving size
The label says it contains a different chemical, N,N-DEPEA, as an ingredient, but researchers did not find that substance in the supplement
Scientists first discovered the new drug approximately three years ago
An award-winning bodybuilder supplement has come under fire because it contains a chemical compound similar to the illegal drug methamphetamine.
Craze, which won BodyBuilding.com’s New Supplement of the Year award in 2012, contains the substance called N,alpha-diethylphenylethylamine or N,a-DEPEA.
The find, which was published on Monday in the peer-reviewed Drug Testing and Analysis Journal, shows that Craze samples from different suppliers have between 20 to 35 milligrams of the drug in one serving size.
Award-winning disaster: Craze, a bodybuilder supplement has been found to contain a meth-like substance
Dangerous: Craze was found to contain a chemical compound similar to methamphetamine (pictured), also known as ice or simply meth, which is a powerful and addictive form of amphetamine
Bodybuilder supplement: Craze has been used by people to give them a boost before their workout session
According to the scientists, these dosages suggest it was ‘not a minor contaminant resulting from the manufacturing process’.
N,α-DEPEA has never been studied in humans, according to the study.
'Its stimulant, addictive and other adverse effects in humans are entirely unknown. Regulatory agencies should act expeditiously to warn consumers and remove N,α-DEPEA from all dietary supplements,' the study said.
Dr Pieter Cohen, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and lead author of the study, said the drug is a methamphetamine analog, or a ‘cousin’ to meth.
Scientists first discovered the new drug approximately three years ago in South Korea.
‘Criminal-chemists start with a known drug - in this case methamphetamine, then in their factor they start making little changes to it,’ Cohen told CNN.
‘Here, they pop a few extra carbon and hydrogen molecules onto it. But the main structure/backbone/skeleton of the drug remains the same.’
Criminal chemists make small changes to the molecular components of meth, which has carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen, to create N,a-DEPEA. But the main structure is the same
Same family: Dr Pieter Cohen, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and lead author of the study, said the drug is a ¿cousin¿ to meth
Craze labels list a different chemical, N,N-DEPEA, as an ingredient, but researchers did not find that substance in the supplement.
It is not known whether Craze's manufacturer, Driven Sports, is directly responsible for altering the chemical structure of the drug.
The company may have purchased the substance in bulk from a distributor that claimed it was all natural, Cohen said.
This isn't the first time Driven Sports' products have come under scrutiny.
In July, USA Today published an investigative piece on supplement designer Matt Cahill, ‘a convicted felon who has a |
exploring other options," general manager Jon Daniels said. "We are as well. We haven't closed the door. We haven't made him an offer at this point."
Beltre was one of the rising starts in the organization. In 2010 he was named the Tom Grieve Minor League Player of the Year and in 2012 he was the Minor League Defender of the Year.
Baseball America ranked him the 25th best prospect in the Rangers system entering 2014.
The Rangers are in need of another outfielder, and it seems Beltre won't be in that mix.
No votes for Rangers' rookies: Chicago's Jose Abreu was named the AL Rookie of the Year by the Baseball Writers Association of America on Monday night. The Rangers set a team record with 23 rookies used in 2014, which also led the big leagues. However, not one Ranger received any votes in the rookie voting. The best rookie on the squad was second baseman, Rougned Odor, who in 114 games hit.259/.297/.402 with an OPS of.698. The last time a Ranger won the award was closer Neftali Feliz in 2010.
No winter ball for Chirinos: Catcher Robinson Chirinos will not participate in winter ball. The Rangers catcher played in 93 games last season and suffered a stiff neck when he was nicked by a foul tip. The thinking is the Rangers don't want to get their starting catcher injured in winter ball in comparison to the 162-game season. Chirinos is working out in Arlington and the club is more comfortable with that.I realize that a large number of the "movement conservative" #neverTrumpumpkins cast their first vote for president for Nixon. No, check that, for Gerald Ford. No, that's not right either. Surely it was Ronald Reagan, right -- if not in 1980 then definitely in 1984. Oh, yeah... it was for that avatar of modern conservatism, George Herbert Walker Bush, the man who effectively ended the Reagan Revolution, when he ran against Mike Dukakis in 1988.
So it's little wonder they've been clueless about the forthcoming battle between the soon-to-be-indicted Dowager Empress of Chappaqua and a guy who, more than any progressive and far more than Obama himself, makes "movement conservatives" froth at the mouth, Donald J. Trump. Never mind that if all 57 states vote exactly the same way they did in 2012, and Trump flips Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida -- he wins. (See for yourself at the link.)
Having been all of ten or twelve years old in 1980, what they forget -- beyond the fact that Reagan was considered a crazy, trigger-happy cowboy who would nuke the world the first chance he got -- is that (gulp) that was a huge part of Reagan's appeal.
Next page: Retroactively, The Onion nails it.Scott Lycett is set to miss the start of 2017
FORMER North Melbourne veteran Drew Petrie and ex-Cat Nathan Vardy hold the key to West Coast's ruck woes after it was revealed Scott Lycett's recovery from knee surgery will take much longer than first thought.
Lycett was originally set to be available for round one after undergoing a PCL reconstruction during the off-season.
But there's a chance Lycett won't be able to return until midway through next season, placing a huge strain on West Coast's ruck stocks.
With Lycett and Nic Naitanui (knee) both injured, journeyman Jonathan Giles is the early favourite to lead the club's ruck division, with new recruits Petrie and Vardy left to fight it out to be his back-up.
Petrie is a 34-year-old forward who has tallied a combined 47 hit-outs over the past three seasons.
Vardy managed just 25 games over seven injury-plagued seasons at the Cats. Since undergoing a knee reconstruction in 2014, Vardy has managed just four AFL games.
Eagles coach Adam Simpson said Lycett hadn't suffered a major setback in his recovery, but the complex nature of the surgery plus his size meant he needed a longer stint on the sidelines.
"It's hard to tell (how long you need to recover) when you have a reconstruction like he did," Simpson said on Wednesday.
"It's not really a hiccup. But when they're the size they are, it just takes a little bit longer.
"We're hoping in the early part of the season (he can return).
"But we want to get it right, along with Nic. So barring any hiccups, we're thinking early to mid part of the season."
Simpson said Naitanui was on track to return from his ACL knee reconstruction as early as round 15 or 16.
Naitanui will have to pass a surgeon's review on December 16 before being given the green light to step up his rehabilitation.
Giles, who spent time on the lists of Port Adelaide, GWS, and Essendon, arrived at West Coast at the end of 2015 as ruck insurance following the departure of Callum Sinclair.
The 28-year-old performed admirably when called upon for four games last season, and his importance has skyrocketed in the wake of serious injuries to Lycett and Naitanui.
"We're going to lean on him for sure. But he needs support," Simpson said.
"We were happy with how he finished the year off. But he can't do it on his own.
"He's more your traditional ruckman, whereas the other two boys (Petrie and Vardy) are forward-ruck type of options.
"I think the spots are all up for grabs across the board."
Simpson said his players had returned in good shape for the start of pre-season.
The fourth-year coach said star recruit Sam Mitchell had fitted in well.
"To get him as a player is magnificent for us on the field," Simpson said of the 34-year-old, who made a shock move away from Hawthorn during the trade period.
"But already I can see what he's doing for our group off the field as well – not only for our kids, but our leaders as well."A/N: Sorry for the delay with this one guys. I just got really busy again and such. Anyway, enjoy!
Nightmares
Ruby's eyes snapped open as she bolted upright in bed. Blood pumped in her ears, and she drew deep, rasping breaths. Her eyes darted every which direction, trying to discern any recognizable shape from the surrounding darkness. The familiar environment of her dorm room began to resolve itself, and Ruby realized where she was. Her breathing slowed as she leaned forward, burying her face in her hands.
Shudders wracked her body as Ruby recalled the nightmares that had awoken her for the second night in a row. She fought back a sob as the images of her teammates and friends lying broken and bloodied filled her mind. They had begged her for help, and she hadn't been able to do anything but watch them suffer and die. She bit her lip as tears formed in her eyes. It had been years since she had had an attack this bad.
She turned toward her sister's bed, instinctively reaching out a hand toward her calming presence, as she had so many times when she was younger. A cry for help, for comfort was halfway up her throat whenever she thought better of it. She couldn't bother Yang with this right now. They all had too much on their minds. If she let her sister know about the nightmare, then Yang would do nothing but fret about her, and that distraction could cost her her life. Ruby resolutely refused to do anything that could endanger her sister or her teammates.
And so she swallowed her fears, forced her trembling to subside, and laid back down.
She found she couldn't return to sleep though. Her eyelids were stained crimson from the nightmares. Every time she shut her eyes, horrific scenes played out in her mind. She tossed and turned, but every different position just seemed to bring a new slew of terror. It didn't take long before she decided that she needed to clear her head.
Ruby threw her covers back silently, scooted to the edge of the bed, and dropped soundlessly to the floor. She took care to be as quiet as possible as she pulled on a pair of crimson pajama pants and an over-sized black hoodie with red lining. Her team needed their sleep, and just because she couldn't get hers didn't mean they shouldn't get theirs. She slid her feet into her slippers, and noiselessly slipped out the door, patting her pocket to make sure she had her scroll before firmly latching it behind her. She didn't want to pull a Jaune and get locked out of her room.
The sixteen year old set out, meandering aimlessly through Beacon's many corridors. Ruby had no real destination in mind. She took turns at random, not really paying attention to where she was headed. Her thoughts were consumed by the nightmares that had plagued her. They made her face some all-too realistic fears. This situation was bad. If things went poorly, if she wasn't up to the task of leading everyone through this, then everyone she loved would die.
A shiver traveled down Ruby's spine and she hugged herself. She had been trying her hardest to stay as optimistic as she could in the face of the overwhelming odds that they were up against, but the nightmares were getting to her. She was beginning to crack. The weight of everyone's lives was too much for her to handle; she was just a teenager. How could she possibly deal with this? She was beginning to understand how her mother must have felt all those years ago, making her final stand against such an insurmountable challenge.
She almost smiled as she realized she was doing exactly what her mother had done too. Shouldering all of the responsibility by herself. Ruby knew it was a stupid thing to do, and she knew that it was hypocritical to bury her feelings when she had been telling Weiss to do exactly the opposite just that day, but she couldn't help it. She couldn't let them know just how helpless she was beginning to feel. They needed a strong, optimistic leader who could give them hope and guide them through this, not some nightmare-ridden, terrified husk of a girl. If she let them know what she was truly thinking, then the tenuous string of hope that they clung to would snap. She couldn't let that happen.
She couldn't let those nightmares become reality.
Ruby was so engrossed in her thoughts, that she didn't notice the person stepping from the doorway in front of her. Until she ran smack into them, that is.
She bounced off of the surprisingly sturdy individual, and tumbled toward the floor with a small grunt of surprise. Part way down, a hand clamped tightly around her wrist, preventing her from making it all the way. The person pulled her back to her feet.
"Are you alright?" He asked simply but not unkindly, and Ruby glanced up at the sound of his voice.
"Ren?"
The green-clad teenager's eyes widened in mild surprise. "Ruby? What are you still doing up? I thought you went to bed hours ago." He caught himself whenever he realized he hadn't actually confirmed if she was fine. "I'm sorry, I wasn't watching coming out of the door. Are you okay?"
She waved him off weakly. "I'm fine. Takes a lot more than that to bring me down." Ren's eyes narrowed slightly. There was something off about the tone in her voice. She was forcing herself. Something was bothering her. "What are you still doing awake?"
He motioned towards the room he had come from. "I was helping with treatment for some of the injured. Is everything alright, Ruby?" he asked quietly, and her breath hitched.
Ruby looked away, unable to meet the concern in his eyes. "Everything's fine. I just couldn't sleep is all. Thought I'd go for a walk."
"Then why are you trembling?" His hand was still loosely holding her wrist.
She closed her eyes and bit her lip, cursing her body for giving her away. She kept her eyes glued firmly to the floor. "I'm fine, Ren." She turned to go. "I should really try and get some sleep. Good night." She tried to walk away, but a gentle but firm tug on her wrist spun her right back around to face him.
"Ruby, what's wrong?"
"Nothing's-"
"Ruby," he admonished. "I know you well enough to know that you're not alright. Something's up. What's going on?"
She looked up at him, and Ren saw with a start that her eyes shined with unshed tears. Never in the year plus that he had known the scythe wielder, never had he seen her so distraught. He had never seen her cry, had never even seen her come close. He had told himself that it was simply because she was too strong for that, but now, seeing the expression on her face, he wondered if it wasn't something else entirely. Maybe she just hid it too well. His chest clenched painfully at the thought.
"C'mon," he said gently, tightening his grip on her wrist and pulling her lightly along behind him as he started off down the corridor.
"Where are we going?" Ruby mumbled, not bothering to put up a fight. She didn't have the energy for it, and besides, she was curious.
He shot her a small smile that would normally make her insides squirm. "You'll see." He continued to lead her about Beacon's hallways for another few minutes before they arrived at their destination. A large bay window in a secluded hallway on the sixth floor of one of the central buildings. In the daytime, almost the entire sprawling campus of Beacon could be seen from the window, and it was a perfect place to watch sunsets by. She knew this because they had done so on several different occasions.
She let a small smile pull at her mouth. "The study window," she commented quietly, resting her free hand on the window seat.
Ren nodded, and promptly folded himself cross-legged on the cushioned surface. They had discovered it during their second study session evening. Ruby had wanted to avoid the library, claiming it was 'too stuffy' and dragged Ren around the school looking for a new place for them to do their work. They had happened upon the window entirely by chance, and had quickly discovered it was perfect. It was out of the way, so they weren't likely to be disturbed, and it had a fantastic view, which never failed to make Ruby smile. The window seat was sufficiently cushioned, and being set in an alcove that was about five by seven feet, there was more than enough room for the both of them to spread out and still be comfortable.
Thereafter, it had become their'study window' and they had come back here for every single study session ever since, stopping by the library beforehand if they needed any extra research material.
Ruby slumped down against the wall opposite Ren, stretching her legs out in front of her.
"So what's wrong?"
Ruby bit her lip and looked to the side, out over the green-tinged rooftops of Beacon. She wanted to talk about it, to get this out of her mind and off of her chest. She was torn between trying to hold everything in for everyone's sake and letting it all out for her own. She glanced back to Ren where waited patiently, watching her with kind eyes. If it had been anybody else, she would have clammed up immediately and not spoken a word. But it was Ren, and Ren had an inexplicable ability to worm his way past her defenses. He could somehow take her anxiety or her worries and softly put them to rest. He didn't dispel them, just quieted them down, showed her that they weren't really much to be concerned with in the first place.
"I…" Ruby swallowed, deciding to just do it. "I had a nightmare." Ren sensed that she was going to continue, so he remained silent. He had hoped the bringing her to this place would put her mind at ease enough to talk about it, and it seems it had. "Well…nightmares. Plural. I couldn't get back to sleep. I kept seeing…seeing…" A wave of anxiety washed over her, and her voice failed her.
"You kept seeing everyone dead, didn't you?" Ren asked quietly. It was the only thing he could think of that could possibly upset her this much.
She nodded, the motion freeing a single tear to slide down her cheek. She wiped it away quickly. "You were all gone. Beacon was destroyed," her voice cracked.
"Ruby." She looked at him. He continued firmly, "You know that's not going to happen, right? Everyone here is more than capable. We're going to get through this." He gave her the most reassuring smile he could, and she tried to reply in kind, but it was watery and didn't reach her eyes. "We've got you leading us, so how could we not?"
Her face dropped at those words, and Ren berated himself internally. He was trying to help relieve her stresses, not remind her of her burden. Her eyes wandered back out the window. "But what if I mess up?" she asked in a tiny voice.
"You're not going to mess up, Ruby. You've been doing a fantastic job so far."
"I don't think Professor Port and our eleven dead classmates would agree with that."
Ren's eyes narrowed. "You can't blame yourself for their deaths, Ruby. There was nothing you could have done. You weren't even here-"
She cut him off flatly, "Exactly."
"Ruby," he admonished. "That line of thinking is flawed and you know it. There is nothing more you could have done for them. If you guys hadn't shown up when you did then there would have been even more causalities, me included." Ren reached forward and laid a hand on her knee. "We're going to get through this, but you have to stay positive."
She was silent, her head hung low, hair covering her eyes. "How can you say that?"
He withdrew his hand a little in surprise. "What?"
"How can you say that we'll get through this with such certainty?" She looked up, meeting his gaze, and Ren suppressed the instinct to flinch. Her silver eyes were fierce, burning with such a mix of anger and pain that Ren swore he could feel it. "I've seen what happens to the outmatched side in this situation, Ren," she hissed. "I've lived it."
His brow furrowed. This wasn't the Ruby he knew. She was entirely different right now. Bitter and pessimistic, the exact opposite of her usual self. "You…lived it?"
All the fight seemed to leave her at once, and she slumped further down the wall. She looked so small and broken that Ren had to hold himself back from pulling her into his arms. There was a silence between them that the young man was hesitant to break. He didn't want to upset her again, despite his burning curiosity. This was a side of Ruby that he, and perhaps everybody else as well, had never seen, never even imagined existed.
She had always been solid, energetic, and light-spirited. The first to laugh and last to stop. He had never believed she could look as she did now. He felt something in his stomach twist painfully as Ruby shuddered.
When next she spoke, it was in a voice so quiet Ren had so strain to hear her. "My mother…" she drew her knees up and wrapped her arms around them, burying her face in between them. "I've never told you about my mother, have I?"
"No, neither you nor Yang have ever really mentioned her."
Ruby shook her head slightly. "I don't mean our mother. I mean my mother." Ren raised his eyebrows as Ruby lifted her head to look at him. "Yang and I aren't full-blooded sisters. It's never made a difference to us, but we had didn't have the same mother. I lived alone with mine for the first six years of my life." Ren listened intently. This was the first time he had ever heard anything of Ruby's past. In all of their study sessions, it had been a topic that she had skillfully managed to avoid.
"It was a nice little village, nestled on the northern edge of a huge forest. Secluded enough that we didn't have to worry about any of the annoyances of the cities. Ashwood, it was called. Not a very original name, but there were a lot of Ashwood trees in the forest, and the founders were simple people."
"I've never heard of it."
"That's because it was in Vacuo."
"You grew up in Vacuo?"
"Only until I was six."
"What happened then?"
Ruby somehow managed to curl up even further into herself. "The village was attacked."
"Bandits?"
Another shake of the head. "Beowolves. The largest pack ever seen in Vacuo. Mom and I were eating dinner whenever we heard the first screams." Ruby's eyes lost focus, and Ren could tell she was lost in memories. "Mom ran outside to see what was going on, and came back in with this…this look in her eye. I can't describe it, but it terrified me. She very calmly told me to go pack some stuff as quick as I could. That we were leaving." She was gripping her sweatshirt so hard her knuckles were turning white. "So I threw some belongings in a bag while mom grabbed her weapon. She had been a Huntress, one of the best in her class at Beacon.
We went outside, and it was just chaos. There was fire everywhere, and I saw Beowolves running down villagers, people I knew, and tearing them apart. My mom protected us and anybody else she could reach, and we made our way through the village, to the stables. There were carts there, and people had already started loading them up for evacuation. But if they had any chance of actually getting away, then someone needed to stay behind and hold off the Grimm. And my mother knew that." Tears were flowing openly down her face, and her voice shook as she continued.
"I climbed on one of the wagons, and turned to look at mom, and she had the saddest expression I'd ever seen. I had this horrible feeling, and I reached out for her. She smiled and stepped forward, kissed me on the forehead and told me she loved me. She wrapped her cloak about me and told me to keep it close, and then she was gone. She disappeared into the smoke and I never saw her again." Ruby wiped at her eyes and sniffed. "Found out years later that they only ever managed to recover a few pieces of her body. The rest had been devoured. Some Grimm still managed to catch up with the caravan as we ran, and we lost about half of those that had escaped. Only a few of us made it out alive."
Ren's mind was reeling. He didn't know what to say. What could he say? It was no wonder Ruby was feeling the way she was feeling. This situation was probably the single greatest reminder of the most painful event in her life. Honestly, he couldn't believe that she wasn't like this all the time. Experiencing a horror like that so young. This threw a whole new light on the red-cloaked girl he thought he had known, and he realized that he may never even begin to fathom the depths of her strength. She bounced back from something that would have destroyed most people, and she still saw the world in a better light than most.
"It's all just so similar," Ruby said, voice cracking, after a minute of silence. "I can't help but wonder if this whole thing isn't just as hopeless as my mom's fight."
Ren chewed his cheek in thought. He had to consider his words carefully if he hoped to help Ruby through this.
Finally, with a sigh, he said, "I'm a bastard."
Ruby looked at him in surprise, the sudden change in topic completely throwing her off. "Um...what?"
He chuckled and unfolded his legs outward. "I'm a bastard," he repeated. Her expression now showed nothing but pure confusion. "Have you ever heard of the Hua clan?" She shook her head mutely. "Didn't really expect you to. It's a pretty influential clan that originates over in Mistral, on the western coast of Vytal."
"I know where Mistral is."
"Just making sure, since Weiss seems to think you never paid attention in Geography." She huffed, and Ren smiled. A little bit of the Ruby he knew was showing through. "I was born a bastard child to that clan. My father was one of the clan heads and had an extra-marital affair with my mother, a servant of the clan. Of course, when he discovered my mother was pregnant with me, she was fired and forced out." He fought to keep the bitterness out of his voice, but it was hard. Anger boiled in his stomach at the thought of how his mother had been treated.
"My father never once came to check up on her. He didn't care. He wanted the whole thing swept under the rug and forgotten. Only a few other members of the clan even knew about it, and they were all of a like mind. Keep it quiet so that no dishonor would be brought on the mighty Hua family. My mother came here and stayed with a friend's family. The Valkyries."
"You mean...?"
Ren nodded. "My mother was good friends with Mr. Valkyrie, Nora's father. He offered her a place to stay until she got her feet back underneath of her. Unfortunately, that...never happened." He took a deep breath. "She died giving birth to me. Her body had always been weak, and I guess the strain of childbirth was too much for it to handle. My father didn't even come to her funeral," he spat, glaring holes into his lap. He felt a something rest on his knee, and he looked up to find a hand there. Ruby had crossed part of the distance between them and was giving him an understanding, sympathetic look.
His heart rate accelerated a little, but he ignored it. Now was not the time. He swallowed. "Anyway, Nora's father decided to adopt me. He barely even consulted my actual father, since he had already made it abundantly clear how little he cared about me. Mr. Valkyrie never once tried to hide from me that I was adopted or what had happened to my mother. Whenever he felt I was old enough, he sat me down and explained everything to me clearly. It was a shock, to say the least, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't take it poorly.
I went on for years with that knowledge weighing on me, and it tempered me. It skewed my thoughts and views of the world in a very negative way. How could anyone do to someone what my father did to my mother. I became very...jaded with a world from a young age." Ruby's hand was still on his knee, and she was watching him intently. "Eventually I did some research into the Hua clan, and found that they specialized in Aura manipulation. I began to experiment and quickly found out that I had a natural talent for it. Mr. Valkyrie noticed that and used his connections to get someone from the clan to come teach me."
"Must have been some serious connections," Ruby noted softly.
"Well, he is a mob boss."
"I...I'm sorry, he's a what?"
Ren smirked. "Nora's father is the head of the Valhalla group. They're not quite as criminally inclined as other organizations, like the Xiongs, but still."
He watched as a range of emotions danced across Ruby's face, confusion, skepticism, realization, and finally amusement. She giggled lightly, but it quickly built into a full-blown laugh that had her on her back and clutching her sides in mirth.
"Oh my god," she managed to say in between gasps of breaths as she rolled from side to side. "Oh my god it makes so much sense now! That's why her first solution is always to break the legs! Oh my god that is perfect!"
He smiled as her laughing began to wind down. He was glad that she seemed to be regaining herself. Eventually she settled down enough to sit back up. Her eyes were a little brighter now, and she sat a little straighter. She giggled once more, covering her mouth with a hand. "I'm sorry, please continue."
Ren shook his head. "No need to apologize. There wasn't much else to tell, honestly. The reason I'm skilled enough to be here today is because of that instructor. And as much as I hate the Hua clan and my father for what they did to my mother, it is also in part to my relation to them that I am here. What I'm trying to say is, no matter how awful, or hopeless in this case, the situation may seem, we can also take something from it, bolster ourselves and push on." He reached forward and rested his hand gently on Ruby's. She flinched slightly in surprise, but didn't pull away, silver eyes snapping to meet magenta ones.
"I never realized that I could look at it that way until I met you. I always just viewed it as something awful and unforgivable. And it is, but now I realize that it's also something that I grew from, something that I benefited from, in a way. I have you to thank for that." He looked away from her intense gaze, out the window. "I guess, just...don't lose heart, Ruby. We'll get through this, all of us, together. And we'll take something from it."
He was met with silence, but he couldn't bring himself to look at her. That was the most he had ever reveled about himself to anyone except Nora. His past was something he had always kept to himself, partially because it was no one's business, and partially because he was still coming to terms with it himself. He figured if anyone deserved to know, though, it was the girl who had helped him do just that, even if she wasn't aware she had done so.
Ren's reverie was interrupted when he heard Ruby move, and a weight suddenly pressed into his chest. He looked down in surprise, but found his field of vision blocked by red-tinged hair. There was no possible way she didn't feel his heartbeat pounding through her back.
"R-Ruby?" She was sitting in between his legs and leaning back against his chest.
"Just for a bit," she murmured. "Can we just stay like this for a bit?"
He exhaled, calming himself, before nodding against her hair. "Sure."
"Thank you. And thanks for...everything else."
"You're welcome," he said simply. She sounded much more like herself, and he knew that she'd be alright.
Her head was turned toward the windows, and he did the same. Together they watched the eerie green light dance across the night sky, each taking comfort in the other's presence.
A/N: So, what did we all think? A little bit of Crimson Dragon to round out the chapter. As I've said before, I'm trying to make the whole Ren/Ruby thing believable, and I'd really like to know if you guys think I'm doing a good job of that, so please drop me a review!
Also, please be sure to let me know what you think of Ruby and Ren's backstories. I was quite happy with them, myself. Ruby's still got a bit more that we'll learn about later
Anyway, second longest chapter to date! Woots! I love you all, please review!
PS - Don't worry, and intense, frantic hopelessness IS coming back, I'm just setting everything up first. Prepare yourselvesMcDonald's Patron Pointed Gun At Drive-Thru Worker Over Missing French Fries (Or Dipping Sauce) Share
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Oklahoma cops are searching for a McDonald’s patron who pointed a gun at a teenage drive-thru worker after discovering that his order was missing an item.
A female cashier told police that a vehicle came through the drive-thru late Tuesday night and the driver picked up an order. But after discovering that the McDonald’s bag was short an item, a male passenger became upset, according to police in Chickasha, a city 40 miles southwest of Oklahoma City.
At that point, the suspect, who was in the vehicle’s back seat, pointed a gun at the employee and warned, “Don’t make me use this” and “Don’t let it happen again.”
Cops received conflicting accounts over what item was reportedly missing from the order. The cashier said that the customer complained that dipping sauce was not included in the order, while another witness said the dispute involved french fries.
Chickasha Police Department officers are investigating the matter as a felonious pointing of a firearm (whether or not the gun was real or if the incident was a prank).Barack Obama is vastly outspending his challenger for the White House Mitt Romney on internet advertising, pouring millions of dollars into attempting to sway online voters in a move that his campaign strategists hope will give him an edge in November.
New data compiled by the internet marketing research firm comScore shared with the Guardian shows that in April the Obama for America campaign placed more than 30 times as many digital ads as Romney's equivalent operation. Though Romney's digital team has promised to up its game as the presidential election approaches, their presence in the online political battlefield remains negligible.
ComScore records that Obama paid for 865m online display ads across the web last month. By contrast, the Mitt Romney for President campaign mustered barely 26m ads.
Romney's online presence is running at a level that the Obama campaign surpassed a year ago. By May 2011 Obama was already placing 70m online ads, and this January it vamped up its digital investment to almost 800m ads where it has remained ever since.
The new figures are surprising because April was the first month in which Romney was clearly the presumptive Republican candidate for the presidential election. Observers had expected to see a more aggressive attempt on Romney's part to play catch up now that the nomination was in the bag, but it has failed to materialise.
"We expected that Romney's activity would have ratcheted up at this point, but we are not seeing that. The early indication is that there isn't any major closing of the gap," said Andrew Lipsman, a comScore analyst specialising in political and digital advertising.
While the Romney campaign is managing to make serious inroads into Obama's overall fundraising advantage, most of the extra firepower it is accumulating appears to be going towards traditional campaigning techniques. In particular, Romney's team, flanked by several well-funded partisan Super Pacs led by Karl Rove and the Koch brothers, are gearing themselves up to unleash a blitzkreig of negative TV ads on the American electorate.
Obama is also expected to devote most of his warchest to traditional TV advertising. But he has also set aside a substantial portion of the 2012 coffers for more innovative attempts to involve and engage online voters.
Already in the 2012 election cycle, the Obama For America team, headquartered in Chicago, has spent $19m on online advertising – more than the entire amount spent by Obama in this area in 2008. The interactive marketing news site ClickZ calculates that at current rates OFA will spend $35m on digital advertising by November, though that could prove to be an underestimate.
Experts say online advertising has the power to transform the nature of the 2012 election. Photograph: Ed Pilkington for the Guardian
Obama's online advertising strategy is being masterminded by Andrew Bleeker and Nathaniel Lubin, who are veterans of Obama's first run on the White House four years ago. After 2008, Bleeker set up his own private consultancy, Bully Pulpit Interactive, where he was joined by Lubin who has now circled back to lead the on-the-ground work on online marketing in the Obama re-election HQ in Chicago.
Bleeker and Lubin have set out how they see the challenge for digital media in the 2012 presidential election in a new book of essays that explores the way that political campaigns are changing in the face of technological innovation. They predict in Margin of Victory, edited by Nathaniel Pearlman, that 2012 will "blow prior campaigns out of the water".
As more money and staff are devoted to online marketing, they say, the 2012 cycle will finally achieve the aspirations of previous campaigns. The authors identify three ways in which online advertising has the power to transform the battle.
First, messages can be targeted much more tightly than TV ads to core gropus of voters, reaching down they say to the level of the "zip code or even, in some cases, the individual level, bringing custom solutions to the table that will match the distinct messages to specific audiences."
Second, campaigns will this year move their online marketing away from desktop computers and on to cell phones. That will be particularly important in reaching certain demographics, such as Hispanic voters, who spend a disproportionate amount of their online time on mobile devices.
Third, online video advertising is going to be huge this year. Unlike TV advertising, which can only be targeted to a city or region, an online video can be served to a voter with his or her precise geolocation and behavioural interests, greatly enhancing the relevance and the impact of the message.
"The 2012 election is very likely to be incredibly tight. Winning messages are going to be the ones that cut through the clutter – not just with memorable creative work but alos by being tailored to key segments," Bleeker and Lubin write.
Social media is also going to be an important part of the jigsaw. Obama again has a massive headstart in this area, having already amassed more than 26.7m Facebook fans to Romney's 1.8m followers.
A comScore study of the uses of social media by the presidential campaigns highlights the value of social media as a way of amplifying the candidate's message. In January, for instance, Obama bought 800m online display ads at a cost of more than $4m.
In addition, though, comScore calculates, Obama leveraged an extra 66m display ad impressions as a result of Obama followers passing on messages to their friends.Years ago, smartphones, computers and televisions were less common or nonexistent. On a rainy day, a bored teenager had little choice but to pick up a book and hunker down to some reading. According to a new study by Common Sense Media, however, over the past 30 years the numbers of teens who chose to read books for pleasure has precipitously declined.
Here's Time with a breakdown of how reading patterns among kids and young adults has changed over the past three decades:
In 1984, 8% of 13-year-olds and 9% of 17-year-olds said they “never” or |
what do you think when you see those trophies?
"It's a beautiful way of recognising what it represents, but I've always said my priority was never individual awards. I would prefer to win another Champions League or LaLiga, they are my priorities. But it's beautiful to have these at home because of the meaning they have."
Are Manchester City the team to beat this year?
"City are one of the strongest teams at the moment, along with PSG. They've been the two strongest teams up to this point, but it's a very long season. I never dismiss Real Madrid for what they have and their experience, even though now they aren't getting the results people expect. Bayern Munich, too. They're another big team that will be there at the end of the season, but it's true that, today, City and PSG are the best."
Is Samuel Umtiti as scary as he seems in training or is he more quiet?
"Umtiti trains how he plays, he holds nothing back. Never, neither in games nor training. Off the field he's an excellent person."
Have you been surprised by the Frenchman's performances?
"I honestly didn't know much about him when he arrived. Watching him train, it doesn't surprise me what he does in games. I see all his qualities and it no longer surprises me when he does it for real."
Why are Barcelona beating defensive records this season, rather than attacking records?
"Neymar's departure has caused the way we play to change. We lost a great deal of offensive potential but it favoured us in a defensive sense. Currently we are most well-armed in the middle of the field, we have more balance and that makes us stronger defensively."
How do you explain the difficulties Argentina have had in qualifying for the World Cup, and what do you have to do to ensure you will be competitive enough to try and win the tournament?
"It was a tough period for us, we went through three coaches and it's not easy to adapt to each of them. They all have their own footballing philosophy and ideas. Recently it's been Jorge Sampaoli and we've only played four qualifiers and some friendlies so we will continue on that growth process. Beyond that, the qualifiers were very tough in themselves. Every day, football becomes more even and it's difficult to qualify."
In 2014, you lost the final to Germany. Will Germany again be the favourite in 2018 or do you see other countries, such as Spain or Portugal, challenging?
"Germany will be one of the favourites, as they always are. There are other teams that are also great candidates; Brazil, Spain, France. They are stronger now and reach the World Cup in good form."
You played the Netherlands in the semi-final in Brazil, are you surprised that a great player like Arjen Robben isn't at the next World Cup?
"It's a bit like what I said before, the difficulties every team faces in qualifying, either in South America or Europe. Today, football is very close and any small nation that is well organised can make life complicated. The Netherlands are missing out, as are Italy, teams that have participated in World Cups for decades and nobody expected to fail to qualify."
Many fans in Turkey criticise Arda Turan, what's your opinion on him as a player?
"Arda has a lot of quality, he's an extraordinary player. He had the bad luck of not having the confidence or consistency that any player needs to perform well in a team. He came from Atletico Madrid, where he played in a different position to here. It's not the same to play every now and then compared to playing every weekend, it's much more difficult. When he's played and had continuity in the team, he's done very well."
What do you think about Italy's elimination from the World Cup? Do you think Italian football is losing its prominent position in European football?
"It's true that Italian football is not the same as in recent years, that's the reality. I don't think it has anything to do with not qualifying for the World Cup. Calcio's great powers such as AC Milan and Inter aren't the same as they were ten years ago, and that's been felt all across Italian football. Little by little, they are trying to get back on track. Above all, these two teams need to be strong again at a European level."
What do you make of the crisis at Real Madrid?
"It's only temporary. It's not the first time that we've seen a situation like that of Real Madrid in a top league. In the end, they will be back fighting for everything because of the team they have, because of the players they have and because they have always been like that."
Is Cristiano Ronaldo your great rival for the Ballon d'Or or do you think any other players have a chance?
"There are many great players around today who can win the Ballon d'Or. In recent years there have just been two, but now players like Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Luis Suarez can compete for that award."
Cristiano said some time ago that, in the future, you two could be good friends. Do you think that's possible?
"I don't know if we will be. Friendship is built through spending time together and getting to know eachother. We have no relationship, mainly because we only see eachother at awards ceremonies and that's the only time we speak. Everything is fine, but our lives don't cross over very often."YOUNGSTOWN, OH—According to records obtained from the Mahoning County registrar’s office, local man David Kearney, who eats breakfast at Dunkin’ Donuts every day and is a passionate fan of the Saw film franchise, is actually allowed to vote in today’s general election.
Reports confirmed that Kearney, 34, enjoys sitting down in a Dunkin’ Donuts location and eating a sausage, egg, and cheese croissant each morning before work, has seen every Saw movie multiple times, and is freely able to play an active role in the democratic process like every other registered voter in the United States.
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“I just can’t get going in the morning without a Dunkaccino,” said Kearney, who possesses the right to visit a polling center and help decide, quite literally, the political direction of the entire nation over the next four years. “They’re so good. Goes great with a Boston Kreme.”
“And you gotta love the Munchkins, man—I usually get a half dozen of those,” added the man who will help choose the next president of the United States, which, reportedly, is the most important and powerful position in the world. “I’ve got a Dunkin’ Donuts Perks card, too, so it’s pretty cheap.”
Sources also said Kearney, whose ballot counts as much as any other Ohio resident in determining which candidate receives the state’s crucial 18 electoral votes, owns all the Saw films on DVD and frequently watches them at home on weekends. Due to his residence in the highly contested swing state, the man who willingly and excitedly went to see Saw 3D on opening night will, reports indicated, actually have a larger impact on determining the outcome of the election than voters in virtually every other state in the country.
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“I think the original Saw is my favorite one—that one’s fucking awesome—but Saw IV is a close second,” said Kearney, whose decision will ultimately shape the country’s future when it comes to such areas as the economy, unemployment, foreign policy, women’s rights, financial regulation, tax reform, health care, immigration, and literally every other major issue. “Gotta love the crazy tests that Jigsaw sets up for his victims. So cool. I really love the gory parts. They make it look super real.”
Numerous sources reiterated, once again, that our Constitution has entrusted a person who wears sweatpants in public and posts user reviews of porn videos online with one of the most important and fateful decisions a human being can make.
Furthermore, sources added, millions of people almost exactly like this person are also given an equal say in our democracy.
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At press time, Kearney was reportedly finishing a Vanilla Bean Coolatta before walking into a voting booth to cast his ballot.WASHINGTON D.C. -- Congressional historian Gideon Blight says the U.S. Senate made American history on Wednesday when Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren gave an impassioned tribute to Coretta Scott King and Warren's male colleagues listened in polite silence until she was finished talking.
The scene was "unprecedented," Blight told CQ. "It was almost as if the male senators viewed Warren as their professional equal with a right to speak without being interrupted."
While the prestigious legislative body has a long history of subjecting women parliamentarians to "humiliation, degradation, and total and silencing," Blight said things might at last be changing under President Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"Since Clinton beat Trump by three million votes last November, I think a lot of male Senators have gotten the message that the electorate just won't reward misogynist bullies anymore," he said.After being closed for two days, two popular Burlington swimming spots have reopened.Health officials said they reopened Leddy and North beaches Wednesday afternoon.The beaches had been closed Monday after the water tested positive for harmful blue-green algae.The toxic blooms can irritate swimmers’ skin and damage the liver if swallowed. They can also make dogs sick.Algae is not uncommon in shallow parts of Lake Champlain during the summer.Waters were tested repeatedly before results were negative for the algae.Officials in New York said Wednesday its beaches were much less susceptible to algae blooms. They warned beach visitors to be vigilant for new blooms."You can't miss it. It looks wrong in the water, in most cases. It looks like someone took a can and spray painted on the water. It has a shininess to it like it should be on your car and not the water,” Clinton County Health Department official John Kanoza said.Lake Champlain is checked twice a month in various locations.
After being closed for two days, two popular Burlington swimming spots have reopened.
Health officials said they reopened Leddy and North beaches Wednesday afternoon.
The beaches had been closed Monday after the water tested positive for harmful blue-green algae.
The toxic blooms can irritate swimmers’ skin and damage the liver if swallowed. They can also make dogs sick.
Algae is not uncommon in shallow parts of Lake Champlain during the summer.
Waters were tested repeatedly before results were negative for the algae.
Officials in New York said Wednesday its beaches were much less susceptible to algae blooms. They warned beach visitors to be vigilant for new blooms.
"You can't miss it. It looks wrong in the water, in most cases. It looks like someone took a can and spray painted on the water. It has a shininess to it like it should be on your car and not the water,” Clinton County Health Department official John Kanoza said.
Lake Champlain is checked twice a month in various locations.
AlertMeWorld Elite seem to be in tip top shape once again after an early slump left them performing less than ideal at the end of the Spring Split.
OMG vs. RC
As any team facing off against a well-played Nunu, OMG would suffer a rough start and LoveLin would cause terror to OMG's jungle and bottom lane. After stealing away LoveLin's red buff without a fight, Nunu headed straight for San and Pomelo, acquiring kills for both players in the bottom lane, and unfortunate circumstance against a late game Vayne which normally suffers in the laning phase.
OMG would soon find their revenge by collapsing on Lucky's Ryze in the midlane to kill some prey of their own. While Wh1t3zZ would try to rush down and assist, the power of the jungler and two solo laners would crush Lucky without much of a fight. Meanwhile, Uzi and Tabe would push their advantage bottom and shoving the the lane to OMG's tower, utilizing the early double Doran's Blades and punishing the more gold starved bottom lane of OMG. After shoving the dragon and abusing Nunu's double smite, Royal Club found themselves a free dragon, putting them 1.4k gold in the lead at 7 minutes.
An early dragon for free was acquired by Royal Club.
While Royal Club continued to focus on bottom lane, OMG would give RC's Karthus a living hell, continuously collapsing onto him and shoving the middle lane. However, OMG's bottom lane would finally find revenge after a narrowly landed hook onto Fiddlesticks would bring him to his demise. Despite Royal Club's early destruction onto bottom and into the jungle, OMG found their way back into the game. Playing the kitewar allowed OMG to take a dragon and acquire an overwhelming successful result in their teamfight on dragon respawn.
Ultimately, OMG would show much stronger prowess and map control near the endgame. Though the scaling of Royal Club's composition was arguably greater, OMG's execution was a lot more solid and ended up taking a decisive advantage over Royal Club as the game panned out. The well played beginning of the 2nd week of the LPL came to a close with OMG showing their superiority in closing games out over Royal Club.
VOD (click for full-screen)
PE vs. LMQ
Positve Energy vs LMQ started off with LMQ making an aggressive play into Positive Energy's red buff, only managing to place a ward at red due to PE's anticipation of their antics. The game started with a slow level 1 and Elise starting red buff to avoid counter jungling later on in the game. The traditional solo queue method of laning would occur in this game with 1v1 top and 2v2 bottom. Despite Draven's dominant early game, Namei was getting outfarmed by almost double that of his counterpart on Tristana.
Several skirmishes would go off in various points of the map with both junglers trying their best to apply pressure, but everyone was simply weakened early on. It wasn't until Ryze braved the attempt to kill the much higher-farmed Kennen on PE that first blood was drawn in favor of LMQ. LMQ's aggression wouldn't end there as Tristana would leap on Namei's Draven and Sicca's Zyra both, goomba stomping them to their death and kicking the game off 3-0 for them.
Ah, the classic Tristana goomba stomp...
Relentless blow after relentless blow, PE would find themselves unsafe under their very own towers before the 10 minute mark with mid also being assaulted by Lee Sin and Zed. Though Positive Energy found themselves a couple kills, their composition was largely AP based which made it very easy for LMQ to itemize against them; Merc Treads and Hexdrinkers were being purchased against the board rendering PE's damage potential minimal. LMQ walked all over the jungle of PE, taking towers and roaming freely in their jungle.
A bit overzealous with their lead, LMQ would find themselves being picked off in the red side of their jungle, but even off the lead surmounted by the pickoffs, PE was only just then able to narrowly take down the middle outer turret. LMQ would continue to show where they don't belong and cause a lot of trouble for themselves, and you'd frequently see them getting caught in PE's jungle. After itemizing so much magic resist, Draven ended crawling back up with several kills, allowing them to make a massive comeback outside their base. Eventually, PE's utilized their diving potential to close the game out, despite the deficit.
VOD (click for full-screen)
iG vs. YG
The legacy between IG and their B team would kick off for the first time in the LPL with several comfort picks being locked in, including Pdd's top lane Zac. While Young Glory tunneled in on the early potential kill on Pdd in the top lane, Invictus Gaming went for a more objective focus by rushing straight to YG's blue buff to secure a very early and effortless steal, forcing a red start for Syz's Nautilus. They would then drive this advantage for a further early game lead.
Just 5 minutes into the game, iG would secure themselves 2 kills with the help of Illusion's infamous Elise play. The bottom kills were converted into an early tower advantage and thus a significant early gold lead for iG. This would only further be amplified by the free dragon they were able to take due to the pushed up lanes. With lanes as shoved as they were, YG had to send solo laners to split push and keep the minions at bay, which allowed Invictus Gaming to continue their assault on Young Glory's turrets.
A hopeful teamfight gone wrong for Young Glory.
In what would look like a comeback opportunity for Young Glory, Invictus Gaming quickly turned around the fight over the freshly spawned dragon buff, abusing their strength in long term kite fights that end up dragged out with Kid already having his iceborne gauntlet on Ezreal. The lead would advance to 23k to 17k in gold, putting Young Glory in a rough spot. Shen's split pushing wasn't put to much use either under the constant sieging of Invictus Gaming.
If any team knows how to properly close out a game, it's IG. Their towerdiving in this game was a great example to their confidence in having a lead and were able to tear apart YG even under the protection of their inhibitor towers. Taking it slow and steady and not being too overconfident, IG very cleanly took a win against their little brother team in a steady and relaxed pace, securing small objectives and being careful not to get caught out.
VOD (click for full-screen)
WE vs. EP
To close out the night, Energy Pacemaker would show that even though they aren't doing so hot in the standings they would not shy away from making plays and being aggressive. With an excellent Thresh hook onto CaomEi, World Elite almost suffered an extremely early First Blood, but alas, only some summoner spells would be exchanged from both teams. World Elite countered this early aggression by rushing to EP's blue buff and taking it right off the bat, leaving World Elite actually ahead in the exchange.
The game would shift towards a Korean playstyle with both teams hard pushing the side lanes and going deep into the inner turret territory. Vision would once again be in favor for World Elite as they acquired a 5 minute dragon without suffering any casualties. They did, however, sacrifice mid turret for it as LaoPi roamed down from top after having his own opponent's tower destroyed.
An impressive Thresh hook almost left World Elite feeling sorry.
As the game progressed, Misaya's impeccable finesse would shine through following up with Troll's aggressive dives. Meanwhile, Energy Pacemaker would show some aggression of their own by diving Caomei on top lane and even sustaining a turret lead all the way up until this point. The first 5v5 encounter would happen in WE's red-side jungle where a 4 for 2 trade would go off with Weixiao's amazing blind Trueshot Barrage and kiting skills.
Eventually, World Elite's lead would steadily rise, but EP held on strong to their towers while sieging themselves. World Elite's strong poke and CC composition was becoming an increasingly painful problem for Energy Pacemaker, though. Able to poke EP to oblivion allowed WE to acquire free objective control and even a baron, which sealed the deal and allowed them to keep their advantage. Slowly but surely, World Elite would finish tearing Energy Pacemaker apart.
VOD (click for full-screen)
RESULTSImage copyright PA
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has hit back at investment bank Morgan Stanley, telling the company it was right to regard him as a threat.
His comments came after the bank said in a report earlier this week that the risks of an incoming Labour government could be "as significant as Brexit".
On social media, he said bankers were the same "speculators and gamblers" who crashed the economy in 2008.
Bankers like Morgan Stanley "should not run our country", Mr Corbyn added.
Earlier this week, Morgan Stanley's European equity team warned investors: "For the UK market, domestic politics may be perceived as a bigger risk than Brexit.
"From a UK investor perspective, we believe that the domestic political situation is at least as significant as Brexit, given the fragile state of the current government and the perceived risks of an incoming Labour administration that could potentially embark on a radical change in policy direction."
In a video posted on social media Mr Corbyn hit out at bankers like Morgan Stanley.
"Their greed plunged the world into crisis and we're still paying the price, because the Tories used the aftermath of the financial crisis to push through unnecessary and deeply damaging austerity," he said.
Labour was a "government-in waiting," he said, "so when they say we're a threat, they're right.
"We're a threat to a damaging and failed system that's rigged for the few."
Mr Corbyn also said Morgan Stanley's chief executive, James Gorman, was paid £21.5m last year and UK banks paid out £15bn in bonuses, while "nurses, teachers, shop workers, builders, just about everyone is finding it harder to get by".According to a Gallup poll released today, 46% of Americans believe in Creationism, 32% of Americans believe in god-guided evolution, and 15% of Americans are actually right:
We are a country full of deluded people…
Not surprisingly, the less education you have, the more likely you are to believe in nonsense:
Americans with postgraduate education are most likely of all the educational groups to say humans evolved without God’s guidance, and least likely to say God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years. The creationist viewpoint “wins” among Americans with less than a postgraduate education.
I love that “wins” is in quotation marks.
Also, to no one’s surprise, Republicans and frequent church-goers were more likely to think God poofed us into existence.
Gallup’s conclusion:
Despite the many changes that have taken place in American society and culture over the past 30 years, including new discoveries in biological and social science, there has been virtually no sustained change in Americans’ views of the origin of the human species since 1982… … All in all, there is no evidence in this trend of a substantial movement toward a secular viewpoint on human origins. … … almost half of Americans today hold a belief, at least as measured by this question wording, that is at odds with the preponderance of the scientific literature.
Alright, readers from other countries. Mock us. We deserve it.This article is from the archive of our partner.
After previous denials by military officials, a senior Egyptian general has admitted to CNN that "virginity tests" were conducted on female demonstrators arrested in Tahrir Square.
During a March 9, nearly a month after Hosni Mubarak resigned, the Egyptian military targeted the demonstrators in Tahrir Square, arresting nearly 149 people. An Amnesty International report published weeks later claimed female demonstrators were beaten, given electric shocks, strip-searched, threatened with prostitution charges, and forced to submit to virginity checks.
Maj. Amr Imam said 17 women had been arrested but denied allegations of torture or "virginity tests." Now, a senior Egyptian general who asked not to be identified admits that "virginity checks" were performed, and his defense of the practice reveals a disturbingly bleak attitude towards women. "The girls who were detained were not like your daughter or mine," the general said. "These were girls who had camped out in tents with male protesters in Tahrir Square, and we found in the tents Molotov cocktails and (drugs)."
He then offered the bizarre rationale that the virginity checks were done so that the women would not later claim they had been raped by Egyptian authorities. "We didn't want them to say we had sexually assaulted or raped them, so we wanted to prove that they weren't virgins in the first place," the general said. "None of them were (virgins)." He did not further explain this confounding logic.The Google Assistant app is now available on Android and iOS, bringing with it a host of useful ways to manage your schedule, get answers to queries, plus many other daily tasks.
One new feature for the Android version of the app is the ability to listen to the music playing nearby and tell you who the artist is and what the track is called. We show you the simple way to use this handy song-identifying trickery.
Where can I get the Google Assistant?
You might already have it. The Assistant is pre-installed on Google’s own phones, the Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL for example, plus quite a few other recent Android phones. If not, you’re going to need to download it from the app store you normally use. For iPhone owners you'll find it here on the Apple App Store, and for Android it's available on the Google Play Store.
Just bear in mind it requires Android 6.0 or later.
The app is free and provides a very similar experience that the one you’ll find on the Google Home and Home Mini, as all Google’s current devices use the Assistant. For a more in-depth look at what the software can do, take a look at our How to use Google Assistant guide.
How do I use the Assistant to find out what song I’m listening too?
Much in the same way as with services like Shazam, Siri, or even Google Now, the Google Assistant uses the microphone on your device to listen to music playing nearby. This is then analysed and compared to a large number of tracks in Google’s database.
Bear in mind, that unless you’re on the Pixel 2 or Pixel 2 XL, you’ll also need an internet connection for the Assistant to work. And, in case you didn't know, you can enable a feature on these phones so they automatically display the artist and song on the lock screen.
On other phones, open the Assistant app. When a song is playing nearby, ask it ‘What am I listening to?’ or ‘What song is this?’.
The Assistant will listen, then after a short pause you’ll be presented with not only the track name, but possibly also the full lyrics, album name, listings of any awards the song won, plus links to YouTube videos, the track if it’s available on Google Play, and related Google search results.
In our testing, a few of the album titles were slightly astray, with Google strangely opting for more obscure versions than the typical mainstream ones, but the songs and artists were pretty much always on point.
Now you’ll always be able to know what’s playing in the pub, on the radio, in movies, and then be able to add it to your music library in a matter of minutes. Ah, the future.Vice E.I.C. Rocco Castoro out at Vice
Rocco Castoro is no longer the editor in chief of Vice Media, he announced during an event at the University of Chicago on Wednesday evening.
Castoro made the announcement during a panel discussion with Buzzfeed executive editor for news Shani Hilton and Gawker.com editor Max Read hosted by the university's Institute of Politics.
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"Actually, I have to say something here. As of last night, I'm no longer with Vice," Castoro said during the discussion. "In order to come to this event, I felt that, given some circumstances I won't get into and we shouldn't detract from this—I was there for a decade and love so many people there and they did great work—but in order to be here and talk to you guys, some stuff happened, let's say."
POLITICO's Dylan Byers reports that Vice Media has named Ellis Jones the new editor in chief of Vice magazine. Jones, Byers writes, has been acting E.I.C. of the magazine for the last six months. In addition, Vice U.K. editor in chief Alex Miller has been named Vice Media's new global head of content.
Vice Media has released an official announcement about Jones and Miller's promotions, which makes no mention of Castoro. Read it below:
NEW YORK, NY (February 11, 2015) – VICE, the global youth media company, today announces that Ellis Jones has been named VICE Magazine’s editor in chief, and Alex Miller has been named VICE’s global head of content. Jones will be the first female editor in chief in VICE’s 20-year history. Jones started at VICE Magazine in early 2009 as an intern and quickly rose through the ranks to become managing editor in 2012. During her tenure as managing editor, VICE Magazine was nominated for its first ever ASME in General Excellence. Since September 2014, Jones has led the magazine team as its pursued in-depth reporting examining organized crime, the for-profit addiction treatment industry, and Wall Street corruption, among other issues. She’s also brought in some of today’s most prestigious literary names as contributors including Clancy Martin, Adam Thirlwell, Christopher Ketcham, Gemma Sieff. Under her direction, the Magazine will continue to shed light on the underreported stories important to the VICE audience. Since October, Miller has overseen VICE’s content across VICE.com and the youth brand’s network of digital channels, transitioning from his previous role as VICE’s UK editor in chief. Over the past six years, Miller managed VICE UK's award-winning content, which last year won Media Company of the Year at the British Media Awards. Miller has also regularly hosted VICE news documentaries, reporting from Venezuela, Greece, London, and Kenya. Miller said of his appointment to global head of content, “Over my time here VICE has grown dramatically, but our ambition remains thrillingly unhinged. I’m very proud of what I achieved with the UK team but I’m excited to move to the center of the perpetual motion machine that is VICE.” Upon being named VICE Magazine editor in chief, Jones said, “I feel lucky to be able to say that I love my job. Our editorial team is made up of some of the most creative and intelligent—and fun—people I know. As VICE Media has matured, so has the magazine, and I'd like to capture the attention of readers who may have a preconceived notion of what a 'VICE story' is and surprise them by our candid stories. Under my leadership, the magazine will continue to do what it's always done best—publish cutting-edge cultural coverage, sharp humor, and hard-hitting news investigations—and also increase its seriousness and ambition by enlisting the best writers, photographers, and artists in the industry and sending them across the globe. Expect writing by even more female correspondents; expect new fiction and photojournalism and columns by big-name writers; and expect even more in-depth reports from global hot spots.”
CORRECTION: Due to a typo, an earlier version of this article mistakenly referred to Ellie Jones. The new editor of Vice is called Ellis Jones. We regret the error.Photo: Dragan Zabunovic
The 2013 regular season seems to have just started - yet we find we see another successful season draw to a close this weekend. The SAAF witnessed 8 Elite division teams battle valiantly each week as the league seemed to improve in many ways.
Season
It was obvious early on that there were 3 teams above the average in the first division. Novi Sad surprised a lot of people with their quality of play, as well as their offensive production. Kragujevac usually fields a strong team and so does Vukovi. However, the remainder of the teams played tough, close games. This indicated the level of play throughout the league seems to be on the rise. One of my favorite quotes, "competition breeds excellence" - this seems to be becoming more of a reality each season.
Level of Play
I have noticed a difference in athletic ability with several players I remember from last year and from teams as a whole. I think people are beginning to understand what this game requires to be successful (on and off the field) and are embracing the challenge. Though I believe there is still much room for improvement in regards to preparation, I have noticed a slight difference from last year to this year. People need to understand, there is only so much physical improvement one can acquire in an off-season, however, what you can learn in that same time is almost limitless. The smarter player is always the better player. I think Serbia is on the right track to understanding that key to success.
Overall Impression
We are moving in the right direction, there is no doubt about that. As soon as players, coaches, and management throughout the league commit to preparation and competitiveness in the offseason, the SAAF will easily be regarded as on the top leagues in Europe. Serbia has a lot of talented people involved with football (players and coaches). I look forward to seeing the country continue to grow as it works to establish itself as on of the best to play football in Europe.
Lance Kriesienby Xingua
For the Alliance: Uther and Jaina
Divine Shield x5
is tyrael still 100% win rate? — iDream (@C9iDream) November 7, 2015
I Dream of Murky
Well....we're always trying to squeeze in Murky in every possible composition in scrims so basically, we found out way back in the day—when Leoric was really broken—we found out that him and Murky together would just always be alive no matter what. Like, when Leoric was super good. He got nerfed a few times and he dropped out a few people's radars but we practiced it with Tassadar, can't die, with Brightwing, really hard to die. Then you combine that with Leoric and Abathur for the global pressure and it's just too much. It's soooooo hard to deal with.
And We Thought Kharazim Was Underwhelming…
Who the Pros Hate Facing
Stray Observations
North America is #1! That’s great news because if you’ve been reading all the other WWL columns, you are well-versed on North America’s superior Meta. Congratulations to Cloud9 and to our readers!
That said there’s a bit of salt from some people in the Heroes scene who feel like Cloud9 had an easy road to the Championship since eStar Gaming (China) and MVP Black (Korea) were not in the tournament. Both teams were considered serious contenders for BlizzCon throughout the summer, but Cloud9 didn’t have to face either. For eStar Gaming it was a case of not having travel visas to visit Anaheim, which was likely out of their control. MVP Black, on the other hand, lost in the Korean Championship in a terrible match where they were using weird heroes and missing skillshots. In their defense, Korea might have deserved two spots at BlizzCon this year, and the tournament structure might change in 2016. Neither MVP nor eStar’s absence were Cloud9’s fault, though; they beat each team present at the World Championship fairly and looked completely dominant in the process. eStar and Cloud9 have a chance to match up in the upcoming Gold Series in Shanghai, but for now we’ll have to wait for a chance to see MVP Black against Cloud9.
Speaking of fantasy booking, we will never get to see the much-hyped Tempo Storm versus Team Liquid matchup that many people wanted earlier in 2015. Both teams will be undergoing major turnover after disappointing ends to their individual Roads to BlizzCon. Both teams had stretches where they could have claimed to be the top team in the world, and both ruled their regions in the early days of Heroes eSports. Unfortunately other teams caught up and surpassed them in the last few months, but both teams deserve recognition for helping to establish the scene.
What happened to Na’vi? They looked unbeatable in the European Championship and Opening Week of BlizzCon, and then they ran into their European rivals, Team Dignitas, in the Semi-Finals. The former Bob? team completely dismantled Na’vi, despite losing to them twice in the the regional stage. I wonder if the two European squads practicing together in preparation for BlizzCon helped Dignitas more than Na’vi. Na’vi won all four of its Opening Week games by using Tyrael, but Dignitas stole him in the first game of the Semi-Finals, forcing Na’vi to ban him in the second game. Europe should still be proud to have two of the top four teams in the world though, and the region continues to have the most depth.
The tournament was awesome, but there was one issue. On Saturday morning, there was a nearly three hour delay to fix a communication problem on stage. That was brutal to have to sit through and countless fans left the area out of boredom. Technical delays are a part of esports, but this one was especially frustrating for fans in attendance who had to either give up their seats or go look at something else on the showfloor. On the bright side, the organizers sped up the time between games after the delay, and the rest of the tournament went at a good pace. Professional Heroes definitely needs to work on having shorter downtime between games, because long breaks are a major barrier to becoming more popular with viewers. Drafts analysis is useful, but when drafts are longer than your games, you might have a problem.
I didn’t mention him anywhere else above but Muradin continues doing work. He’s not flashy, but he’s a well rounded tank. Check out the final game of the tournament for a strong example of Muradin’s dwarven dominance. Zarmony alone kept Dignitas in the game by being so disruptive and impossible to kill. As long as he was alive, Cloud9 was not able to do much to end the game, but when he finally died they were able to win the game and the tournament.
If you’re looking for the best players in the world on certain heroes, you have to put KingCaffeine’s Leoric up there with Fan’s Abathur and Bakery’s Kharazim. If you play any of those heroes, you should be watching how these players play them and absorbing as much as possible. But note that KingCaffeine is very aggressive with Leoric and his team knows he is going to die a lot, so playing that way in Quick Match might get you yelled at.
Cloud9’s iDream was not limited to rolling out a god-like Murky, he also made Rexxar look great on Dragon Shire. With the changes to Misha’s controls, you can use her to easily cap Shrines and defend that while you soak and avoid damage, especially in top lane. The only times Rexxar was used in the tournament was in those two games, but it’s a nice niche pick to keep in your backpocket.
Artanis was banned from this tournament, which made sense, but it would have been interesting to see if teams would play him with limited experience on him. Early thoughts on him are that he needs some help, but it seems like we say that about every new hero. His lack of escape definitely hurts, but he should have some situational use as a brawler.
Sylvanas made a comeback in the tournament as the top Specialist |
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Celebrity chefs are being blamed for an increase in the number of people trying to take mushrooms from the Royal Parks,
The Metropolitan Police Service’s Royal Parks unit said a steady rise of mushroom foragers has been noticed over the last few years, with almost 80 people issued with police warnings.
Two people - Grzegorz Szumielewicz, 47, from Isleworth, and Gianiuca Galetti, 38, from Hornsey – were handed conditional discharges at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court in the last year after pleading guilty to removing the fungus from Richmond Park without permission.
But police believe a unusual trend could be to blame.
PC Paul Barber, from the Royal Parks police, said: “We’ve noticed a steady rise in mushroom foraging over the years which could possibly be attributed to celebrity chefs’ endorsement.
“In some cases, we’ve caught individuals with enough mushrooms to fill a small dustbin.”
Ecology experts are now warning park users not to interfere with the mushrooms as it can hinder its reproduction and diminish the population.
Andy Overall, from the London Fungus Group, said: “Due to the natural and historic nature of the Royal Parks many rare and in some cases endangered species of fungi thrive among acid grasslands and ancient oaks.
“With the number of people foraging fungi in the Royal Parks thought to be on the rise, this will no doubt have some impact on the fabric of the parks, be that an impact on the habitat, the other animals and insects that use the fungi, or our enjoyment of seeing the fruitbodies of some of the more spectacular fungi.
“Larger fungi are for all people to enjoy, not just the few.”
The majority of warnings were issued to users of Richmond Park, a Royal Parks spokeswoman said.May 5, 2010, Minnesota and St. Paul, MN —Today, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) with co-counsel De Leon & Nestor and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, filed a federal lawsuit against the Minneapolis and St. Paul police departments and officers, the municipalities, the Ramsey County Sheriff and unidentified Secret Service personnel. The lawsuit challenges the policies and conduct of law enforcement during the Republican National Convention (RNC) in 2008 that resulted in the unlawful arrests and unreasonable use of force against the plaintiffs, three Democracy Now! journalists: Amy Goodman, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar.
Said award-winning journalist and plaintiff Amy Goodman: “We shouldn’t have to get a record to put things on the record. This is not only a violation of freedom of the press but a violation of the public’s right to know. When journalists are arrested, that has a chilling effect on the functioning of a democratic society.”
Goodman v. St. Paul seeks compensation and an injunction against law enforcement’s unjustified encroachment on First Amendment rights, including freedom of the press and the independence of the media. Attorneys say the government cannot limit journalists’ right to cover matters of public concern by requiring that they present a particular perspective; for instance, the government cannot require journalists to “embed” with state authorities. Goodman further asserts that the government cannot, in the name of security, limit the flow of information by acting unwarrantedly against journalists who report on speech protected by the First Amendment, such as dissent, and the public acts of law enforcement.
“The media are the eyes and ears of the American people—that is why there are laws to protect them,” said CCR attorney Anjana Samant. “Law enforcement and Secret Service agents are not exempt from those laws in their dealings with un-embedded journalists who are documenting peaceful protestors or law enforcement’s use of force and violence against those protestors.”
“The protests on the streets outside the convention center are just as important to the democratic process as the official party proceedings inside,” said journalist and plaintiff Sharif Abdel Kouddous. “Journalists should not have to risk being arrested, brutalized or intimidated by the police in order to perform their duties, exercise their First Amendment rights and facilitate the rights of others to freedom of speech and assembly.”
“The video of my arrest and of Amy’s mobilized an overwhelming public response,” said journalist Nicole Salazar. “The public has both an interest and a right to know how law enforcement officials are acting on their behalf. We should ask ourselves what kind of accountability exists when there is no coverage of police brutality and intimidation."
For more information on the case, visit CCR's legal case page.Hillary Rodham Clinton after giving a speech on voting rights at Texas Southern University in Houston in June. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post)
Hillary Rodham Clinton joined Democratic officials in Alabama in criticizing a decision by state officials to shutter 31 satellite driver’s-license offices, mostly in areas heavily populated by African Americans, a move that could make it harder for those residents to get photo IDs needed to vote.
Alabama’s voter-identification law went into effect last year, requiring voters to present a government-issued photo ID at the polls. A state-issued driver’s license is the most popular form of identification, and critics say the closure of offices that issue them is yet another barrier for poor and minority voters.
“It’s a blast from the Jim Crow past,” Clinton said in a statement Friday criticizing the move and calling on state officials to reverse the decision.
The head of the Alabama Democratic Party said she is in touch with voting rights advocates about asking the Justice Department to look into the closures.
The issue of voting rights, particularly alarm at new laws requiring voters to present photo IDs, was a major issue in the 2012 election. Political activists and voting rights advocates used the threat of voter suppression to boost turnout among minority voters, who showed up in record numbers to help guarantee President Obama's reelection.
[N.C. case represents pivotal point of voting debate]
Clinton and her main rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), have both spoken forcefully against laws and practices that they say make it harder for young people and minorities to vote.
Officials at the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency say the closures were necessary after deep cuts to the agency’s budget. The driver’s-license offices in question were operated on a part-time basis and, according to a news release, accounted for less than 5 percent of the 1.2 million driver’s licenses that Alabama issues each year. Earlier this year, the agency increased the fee for renewing a driver's license from $23.50 to $36.25.
Some leaders in the GOP-controlled Alabama House had inserted language in the spending plan forbidding the closure of driver’s license offices, citing the potential hardship on residents in rural areas. The governor argued that the language was an intrusion of his executive powers, and the closures took effect with the next fiscal year on Oct. 1. In addition, five state parks and several National Guard installations were closed in the budget.
Anna Morris, spokeswoman for the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, said via e-mail that 44 driver's-license offices will remain open throughout the state and that other officials, including probate judges and revenue commissioners, will continue to handle renewals. Residents also can renew their driver’s licenses online. She also noted that the Secretary of State's office also issues free voter photo ID cards in all of Alabama's 67 counties.
Terry Lathan, chair of the Alabama Republican Party, dismissed arguments that the closures will pose a hardship to voting.
“There have been quick and efficient plans to accommodate any registered voter in Alabama who needs a free photo voter ID. No voter will be denied that opportunity regardless of where they reside in our state,” Lathan said in an e-mail. “Most voters already have some type of government picture identification, but for those that don't they will find it easy to acquire one in Alabama.”
Nancy Worley, chair of the state’s Democratic Party, said the closures will make it harder on poor, elderly and working residents to get licenses. “Once again the Republicans are attempting to intimidate voters and harm working people,” she said, adding that other cuts in the budget have fallen disproportionately on communities in need.
“The Alabama Democratic Party is very much opposed to the closure of these offices,” Worley said in a phone interview. “We’re exploring options with the Department of Justice because we believe this does constitute vote suppression.”
Rep. Terri A. Sewell, the only Democratic member of the Alabama congressional delegation, said in a statement that the closures of the office, combined with the requirement for voters to show a photo ID, "is eerily reminiscent of past, discriminatory practices such as poll taxes and literacy tests that restricted the black vote."
It was a 2013 decision by the U. S. Supreme Court in a case from Shelby County, Ala., outside Birmingham, that struck down a major provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Previously. states such as Alabama, which had shown a history of using intimidation and other tactics to discourage black residents from voting, could not change voting laws and procedures without getting clearance from the Justice Department. After the ruling, those states no longer had to get prior federal approval. Several states led by Republican governors and legislatures have moved aggressively to modify voting procedures, including requiring photo IDs and cutting back on early voting. The GOP has said the laws are intended to weed out voter fraud. Voting rights activists say the laws are intended to dissuade minority and young people, who mostly vote Democratic, from going to the polls.
[Hillary Clinton calls for sweeping expansion of voter access]
Clinton said in her statement that if elected she will “push for automatic voter registration for every American when they turn 18.” She also said she would “work with Congress to restore key protections of the Voting Rights Act.” In June, Clinton gave a speech in Texas calling for these and other changes to make it easier for people to vote.
Sanders has made voting rights a part of his standard stump speech, calling officials who support and pass voter-ID laws “political cowards” for trying to keep people from voting. Last month he spoke at a rally on the Mall celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act.
Former Maryland governor Martin O'Malley, who also is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, has called for an amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing the right to vote.Buenos Aires: Argentina's government is slapping a restriction on online and mail-order purchases from abroad as it tries to stem the outflow of dollars.
Wednesday's announcement in the official gazette limits Argentines to just two such purchases a year. Purchases beyond that will be dealt with as imports, subject to more extensive paperwork.
Argentina limits online purchases to two. Credit:Fairfax
It comes only a day after the government said it would require people to submit a statement to the tax agency before they can receive goods ordered from abroad. Such goods can be taxed at 50 percent.
Argentina's economy is suffering from a shortage of dollars and its foreign reserves recently plunged to their lowest level in more than seven years. Australia's retailers have grappled for years with the issue of how to compete with purchases made online from less expensive overseas businesses.
AP with FairfaxWhat Are Kinesiology Graduate Programs?
Graduate kinesiology schools may offer programs under a variety of names, such as exercise science graduate programs or exercise physiology graduate programs. While curriculum will vary, most explore ways to enhance a person’s general movement to reduce injuries and maintain their health. Coursework often expands upon exercise topics covered in related bachelors degree programs.
Kinesiology graduate programs also act as a foundation for other fields of exercise science. The study of human movement could feed into several types of therapy or conditioning methods. For example, kinesiology knowledge is fundamental in some of the following fields.
Biomechanics
Orthopedics
Sports Psychology
Sports Related Physical Therapy
EXPERT INSIGHT
We asked Dr. Samuel Hetz how kinesiology graduate programs gives you a number of ways to advance your career: “Earning both an undergraduate and masters degree in kinesiology does not only prepare you for a number of careers, but is also an amazing stepping stone into other programs such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and medicine. I applied much of what I learned during my kinesiology programs during my medical school training, and continue to use my training on a daily basis as a physician and medical director at Concept Medical, an advanced cosmetic medicine and medical skin clinic in Ottawa, Canada.” ~Dr. Samuel Hetz MSc, MD, CCFP Click to Tweet
Graduate Kinesiology Programs Curriculum
Exercise science graduate programs aim to deepen a student's understanding of human movement. As part of this, classes may explore things like stress-free muscle interactions, proper posture, and training techniques. These concepts then may be applied to helping specific populations, like children, adults, and aging patients.
In kinesiology graduate programs, you could have the chance to take some of the following courses.
Youth Fitness
Adult Fitness Programs
Biomechanics
Motor Learning
Aerobic and Anaerobic Training
Clinical Exercise Physiology
These are only a few examples. Curriculum may vary between degree programs and schools.
While similar courses may be offered at each degree level, their material may differ. For instance, an exercise science masters program may take a more in-depth look at biomechanic concepts that a certificate program. Speak with potential department faculty for more details.
Exercise Science Masters Programs
Masters programs in kinesiology encourage students to practically apply their exercise science abilities. This could mean conducting stress tests, performing motion captures, or creating mock fitness plans. Whereas a bachelors program may have provided necessary academic groundwork, a masters program is where that knowledge turns into action.
Exercise physiology masters programs are also an opportunity for students to study a particular aspect of the field. Instead of general topics, students could study some of its unique challenges. This could include working with aging patients, sports related trauma, or more.
As part of exercise physiology masters programs, you could choose to concentrate your studies in some of the following areas.
Exercise and Sports Psychology
Geriatric Exercise Science
Sports Conditioning
Corrective Exercise and Rehabilitation
Adaptive Sports
Available concentrations may differ from school to school.
Masters of Kinesiology Program Requirements
Masters kinesiology programs may ask applicants to submit a 3.0 or higher GPA, in addition to GRE or GMAT scores. They may also require students to have previously earned a bachelors in a related field. This could allow classes to move directly to advanced exercise physiology topics without having to dedicate time to the basics.
To graduate, students may be tasked with completing 36 to 42 credit hours. Twelve of these credit hours are usually devoted solely to concentration specific courses. Given these requirements, students could earn a masters degree in kinesiology in 1 to 2 years, depending on enrollment. Program length however may vary by school.
Kinesiology Graduate Certificate Programs
Graduate certificate kinesiology programs tend to be highly focused on one part of exercise science. They’re intended to flesh out a previously earned bachelors degree in a related field. Graduate certificate coursework could expand upon your basic knowledge in a specific kinesiology concentration that you might not have encountered previously.
For example, the following are a few types of graduate certificates you could pursue.
Sports Coaching
Yoga
Injury Management
Disabilities
Fitness Instruction
Available graduate certificate programs differ by school.
Certificate programs are intended to be more accessible. This usually means that there are less admissions requirements. For example, certificate programs rarely require students to submit GRE scores or additional essays.
Graduate certificate programs are also shorter and usually designed to include 9 credit hours’ worth of classes. This means that students could earn an exercise science graduate certificate in less than a year, depending on enrollment.
Program lengths and admission requirements may vary, so contact schools directly for details.
PhD in Kinesiology Programs
Kinesiology doctoral programs are typically based on health promotion research. Students may have the chance to perform their own interdisciplinary experiments to test the effectiveness of fitness methods.
The research emphasis could also be clearly seen in the PhD program’s curriculum. In addition to general kinesiology course topics, you may be required to complete the following research classes.
Analysis of Exercise and Wellness
Correlation and Regression Statistics
Research Methods
Students may also be responsible for researching and writing a dissertation.This project acts as the capstone to a PhD Kinesiology program.
Doctorate Admissions, Graduation, and Beyond
Doctoral kinesiology programs are often known for have rigorous admissions processes. As part of your application, you may be requested to submit the following.
3.0 or higher GPA
Masters degree in related field
Writing samples
Research outline
Also, students may be asked to take part in an in-person interview with department faculty. Doctoral admissions are this intensive to help ensure programs align with student goals.
By outlining your research ambitions and speaking with faculty, the department could better choose an appropriate academic advisor. Also, this may help you gauge whether a program could support your educational goals.
PhD program length varies depending on how long it takes you to write your dissertation. Kinesiology schools usually dedicate 36 to 60 credit hours to core curriculum. Then, students could schedule up to 30 additional credit hours to research, write, and present their dissertation.
With this in mind, students might earn a PhD in Exercise Science in 3 to 5 years, depending on enrollment. Program length and admission requirements differ between schools. Speak with an advisor for more information.
Accredited Exercise Science Graduate Programs
One important consideration when choosing among graduate kinesiology programs might be accredition. Accredition may speak to the quality of the curriculum, facility and more.
In addition to regional accreditation, some schools may be accredited at the program level. The Committee on Accreditation for the Exercise Sciences (CoAES) commonly accredits kinesiology graduate programs.
CoAES creates standards to assess exercise science degree programs and potentially judge whether programs are keeping up with related technology and information. To do this, CoAES performs a two-step process.
First, schools are subject to a yearly document audit. Here, they submit course materials and syllabi for evaluation. Auditors then ensure that the kinesiology topics are current and not outdated.
Secondly, CoAES sends out a member to the physical campus. While there, they may sit in on classes or speak with department faculty. This may allow them to see how concepts are being implemented in the classroom. The goal of the process is to push programs to strive for innovative coursework.
Not all kinesiology programs are accredited. But, accredited coursework could benefit students looking to study the latest in exercise physiology. Contact programs directly or visit the CoAES site if this is of interest to you.
Popular Accredited Exercise Science Graduate Programs Program Degree Awarded Format Master of Science in Kinesiology M.S. Online Master of Science in Exercise & Sports Science (ESS) M.S. Online Health & Exercise Science M.S. Campus Biomechanics Doctoral Campus
Kinesiology Program Formats
Depending on your schedule, a certain type of exercise science graduate program might be better suited for you. Please be aware that certain schools may not offer some of these program types. Speak with an admissions advisor from intended programs for more information.
On-Campus Kinesiology Graduate Programs
Graduate kinesiology schools offer a hands-on way to work with your exercise science curriculum. Besides general academics, courses may offer real-world scenarios for you to study. In some cases, volunteer patients may be brought into class to demonstrate movement issues.
Or, you could travel as a class to clinical facilities to see stress test demonstrations. You might even have the chance to design training or physical therapy plans for these same patients.
Additionally, campus based classes usually have students interacting with technology they may not have available at home. For example, students may have the chance to work with advanced motion capture, stress test, and rehabilitation software.
Work with this technology could help students familiarize themselves with what’s routinely used in the industry. Additionally, campus coursework may provide students the opportunity to practically apply new knowledge. A potentially important feature in such a hands on field.
Online Kinesiology Graduate Programs
Online kinesiology programs bring exercise physiology into the digital classroom. In many programs students may log into courses as their schedule allows. The flexible scheduling could be a great asset for students who are currently practicing kinesiologists.
Besides convenient class times, students may also cut down on their commute. This could save them valuable time outside of work and academics.
Plus, many online programs try to emulate their campus counterparts as much as possible. Some schools stream lectures or provide recorded ones to their online students. This might allow you to still take part in a traditional classroom experience.
Online kinesiology schools may also provide access to classroom forums and online databases and libraries. Using both tools could help enrich your studies or offer new insights to your research.
It is important to note that some online programs will have in person components. These may require a short campus visit or a placement at a nearby facility.
Programs may also offer a hybrid option which could combine online and on campus classes. Sometimes these campus classes occur in condensced winter or summer semesters. However every program is different so it's best to contact preferred kinesiology programs directly for details.
Possible Kinesiology Career Paths
Many students who complete kinesiology graduate programs go on to pursue exercise physiologist careers. These positions might also be called kinesiotherapists. These professionals design physical activity programs to potentially enhance patient health.
Exercise physiologists may complete the following tasks.
Treating Chronic Muscle Pain
Performing Fitness & Stress Tests
Measuring Vitals (Blood Pressure, Oxygen Use, etc.)i
Entry-level roles in this field typically require students to have earned a bachelors degree. But, many employers may ask for a masters degree or higher for more advanced roles. These degrees may demonstrate more in-depth knowledge of necessary topics in anatomy, biology, and clinical study.
Some exercise physiologist roles might also request that you complete a related internship. This experience could offer on-the-job training unavailable in the classroom. ii
While many states currently do not require EPs to become licensed to practice, some are beginning to. As of now, the American Society of Exercise Physiologists (ASEP) and the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) both offer certification exams. For more information about state license requirements, speak with your school’s career center.
Available roles in this field are currently projected to grow by 11% from 2014 to 2024. This rate is faster than the national average predicted job growth. Exercise physiologists earned a median annual salary of $47,340 in 2016.iii
Find Graduate Kinesiology Programs
Using this information as an outline, you might have a better idea of how to start searching for exercise science graduate programs. To continue, you have two options.
First, you could browse the program links on this page. Or, you could refine your search by choosing your preferred kinesiology degree level and program type using the menu bar.
And, while you’re there, you could also request more information. This could provide you with details like admissions deadlines, potential curriculum, and more. It might also be a great way to begin contact with a school’s admissions team.
So why wait - your graduate kinesiology degree could only be a click away!
[i] bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/exercise-physiologists.htm#tab-2 | [ii] bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/exercise-physiologists.htm#tab-4 | [iii] bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/exercise-physiologists.htmThe Coffee Hardware Story — From Age Of Steam To The Internet Of Coffee
Coffee History Interlude: Legendary origins
“Kaldi woke up early in the morning and was in the fields with his goats just before sunrise. Morning chill started retreating giving way to the sunshine. It would have been just like any other day, but Kaldi kept a closer eye on his goats today. He wanted to make sure his observations before were right, that his goats did behave differently after eating those red berries. He watched them calmly grazing on the fruit and moments after it happened again. His goats were jumping around like possessed. Kaldi approached the bush and picked up a berry, its skin felt smooth and hard. He looked around as if someone could be watching him, then put the berry in his mouth…”
(Source: National Geographic “Coffee Legends” )
… and the world was never the same again, as this is how coffee was discovered. At least Kaldi’s story is one of the many legends surrounding the birth of our daily brew. This young Ethiopian boy had what it takes to be an entrepreneur — curiosity and a willingness to try something new. Though if you had coffee in Kaldi’s time — 9th century Ethiopia — you would not recognize it. One of the earliest ways of consuming the beans was mixing them with animal fat and eating it as “power balls.”
Note: Sadly, you can’t order a raw bean with fat power ball at Starbucks, at least not yet, though a White Chocolate Mocha might hit the spot!
As a matter of fact, you would not recognize our daily cup of joe for ages following from the times of Kaldi. For hundreds of years people simply added coffee grinds to water and whatever black slur came out of it was coffee (“cowboy coffee” in the US). Some inventive individuals a few hundred years ago decided that they wanted a more fancy drink and it is thanks to them that we have our coffee the way we do. Thus, brace yourselves for a story of coffee hardware.
The first part of this story covers:
A quick overview of coffee machine invention history, seeing what ideas lead to better prototypes.
Insights from some contemporary coffee hardware entrepreneurs about their ideation and prototyping journeys.
Insights from factories about coffee machine prototyping and manufacturing processes.
Coffee Hardware: Prototyping
A good machine is as important for perfect cup, as good coffee beans. The goal was inventing a machine that can extract the goodness of the coffee (a.k.a. caffeine) while leaving out the bitterness. Due to this pursuit, we have had a lot of gadgets to make our coffees and eventually the great espresso machine was made. But before the machine, there was a prototype….
The Steam-Driven machines
The first machine for making espresso was built and patented by Angelo Moriondo of Turin, Italy, who demonstrated a working prototype at the Turin General Exposition of 1884.
First patent (16 May 1884) of the espresso coffee machine (Source: Wikipedia)
Not much more is known about the inventor apart from his design. After Moriodino, Luigi Bezzerra and Desiderio Pavoni continued the innovation. Jimmy Stamp named them “the Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs of espresso.” Bezzerra created the most effective espresso machine at that time and gained fame. But he did not have funds to expand this into a business, so he sold his patent to Pavoni. (Source: Smithsonian “The Long History of the Espresso Machine“)
Pavoni made a small improvement to the machine by adding a relief valve. But where Pavoni actually excelled was marketing. He called his machine The Ideale, the drink Caffe’ Espresso and revealed it to spectators at the Milan Fair in 1906. His branding worked well. (Source: La Pavioni “An Ideal Beginning with “Ideale”, the first Espresso Coffee Machine“)
His machine (pictures and patent design below) was also a product of the age of steam. It had a large chamber where water is heated until it pushed water and steam through the ground coffee. The mechanism also lowered the water’s temperature while it was passing through, to take it from 250°F (120°C ) in the boiler to the ideal brewing temperature around 195°F (90°C). With this machine your cup of espresso is ready in few seconds. (Source: Smithsonian “The Long History of the Espresso Machine“)
Luigi Bezzera’s coffee maker patent assigned to Desiderio Pavoni (Source: Google Patents)
Machine Model Ideale — La Pavoni (Source: mumac.it)
Ideale in action (Source: Mixpresso Coffee)
Another coffee machine pioneer Pier Teresio Arduino shipping his coffee machines in Venice (Source: commons.wikimedia.org)
The Piston-driven machines
When Milanese inventor Achille Gaggia invented his machine, surpassing the barrier of two bar pressure brewing, it was big. Really big! The equivalent in sports was when Roger Bannister breached the “four-minute mile barrier” for a 1 mile run. Gaggia added a spring-piston lever to the machine that baristas could use to press hot water mechanically, as a result decreasing the size of the machine (no need for huge boilers) and increasing the pressure to 8 to 10 bars. (Source: Wikipedia)
Vintage Piston-driven Gaggia machines (Source: Espresso Machine Classics)
An espresso machine from West Germany, 1954 (Source: Wikipedia)
Pump-driven machines
Another improvement to espresso machine was added by Faema E61 in 1961. It was motor-driven pump that relieved baristas from having to use manual force to press the piston-lever and it became the most popular design for commercial use.
Innovation in coffee machines slowed down after the mid 20th century giving the scene to large corporations and large scale manufacturing.
Coffee Industry Giants and the Hardware Innovators
Until recently the commercial space of coffee machines has been dominated by giant companies like Eugster, Schaerer, Jura, WMF, and a few others. The good side of it is that mass manufacturing made coffee makers cheap and easily accessible for all people. Now you can have the coffee goodness in your home, in your office, and on the go. However, commoditization of any technology obstructs innovation. Without innovation we as coffee consumers (or coffee addicts as in some cases), are stuck with conventional ways to enjoy the brew, while there is so much more that can be done to extract the goodness from the coffee beans.
Coffee hardware entrepreneurs back in 19th and early 20th century had financial incentives to invent and promote new methods of coffee brewing. This has not been the case in the last half of 20th century, as there was almost no way for individual inventors to make a profit (unless by patenting and licensing their product to big companies, but that is not a hassle-free road).
The hardware revolution nowadays can be comparable to the surge of innovation in the Age of Steam. Probably the most famous machine in recent years has been Keurig and the whole K-cup paradigm that shook the industry (read up on what hardware creators can learn from this business model on the Bolt blog).
Currently, many other traditional vendors have their own versions of single-serve coffee machines. But they are not the only ones innovating. We got to talk with some of the new inventors about their coffee hardware journey.Filmmaker Brett Morgen promises to paint a more “humanistic portrait” of Kurt Cobain than has ever been rendered in his upcoming HBO documentary that has been eight years in the making.
It took Morgen six years just to sort through the rights issues and gain access to all the personal and artistic material that Cobain left behind after his death in April 1994 at the age of 27. The melodrama of Cobain’s final 48 hours and the self-inflicted gunshot that ended his life will not be featured in “Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck,” which runs a little over two hours.
The pic, which is nearly finished, is set to bow on HBO next year and will be distribbed in international markets, both as a theatrical release and for TV licensing, by Universal Intl. Pictures Entertainment.
Morgen is known for his 2012 Rolling Stones docu “Crossfire Hurricane” and 2002 study of producer Robert Evans, “The Kid Stays in the Picture.” With “Montage of Heck,” he’s focused on shining a light on Cobain as an artist who worked in many mediums, rock ‘n’ roll being just one of them.
“One thing that will really surprise people in the film is that while we all know about him as a musician and visual artist, we’ll be showing his Super-8 movies, his spoken word poetry and autobiography, his sculptures, his photography and his sound design pieces,” Morgen told Variety. “He worked in just about every medium. These pieces show a world view that no one has seen, and all this material has been sitting in storage boxes for all these years. I’m thrilled we’re going to be able to share it with the world.”
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The film came to life with the cooperation of Cobain’s family: his widow, Courtney Love, their daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, and Cobain’s mother, Wendy O’Connor. Love first opened the doors to the Cobain archives to Morgen in 2007, when Frances was still a teenager. By the time he was ready to hunker down on the lensing of the docu, he began working closely with Frances, now a visual artist herself and an exec producer on “Montage of Heck.”
Cobain’s Nirvana bandmates, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, and Universal Music (ruler of the Nirvana catalog) have also given their blessing for use of a wide range of music.
The project fell into place at HBO as Morgen planned his next move on the eve of the “Crossfire Hurricane” premiere. Universal Pictures (which no longer has a corporate affiliation with Universal Music Group) approached Morgen and HBO about an international distribution deal around the same time.
Given the wealth of largely unseen and unheard material, Morgen said there will companion pieces to the movie to showcase the art and musical artifacts.
In all his research, Morgen realized that even the most ardent Nirvana fans have no real sense of who Cobain was, because his interactions with mainstream media were limited during his short time in the spotlight and because he was so guarded in the access that he did grant.
“After going through the archives I could barely recognize the guy in the context of the images of him that have been disseminated by the mainstream media,” Morgen said. “The way Kurt expressed himself in interviews was a pale reflection of who he really was. His warmth, his humor, his creativity was stifled in those interactions.”
Assembling “Montage of Heck” was a challenge for Morgen because it’s the first time he didn’t get to spend an “enormous” amount of time with the subject. For “Kid Stays in the Picture,” Morgen lived with Evans for so long that he joked about becoming “wife No. 9.” But in other ways, the unfettered access to Cobain’s art afforded him great insights. Morgen saw Nirvana perform a few times in the 1990s but never met Cobain.
Cobain’s downward spiral in his final days has been often recounted, which is why the pic stays away from the gory details of his suicide, Morgen said.
The overarching goal of the doc, Morgen said, “is to really challenge the existing mythologies surrounding Kurt and present a very humanistic portrait of one of the great creative artists of our time.”LAME DEER, Montana (Reuters) - U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Vice President Mike Pence took a horseback tour in May of a Montana coal mine belonging to the Crow Nation. They posed for photos with tribal leaders and declared an end to the U.S. government’s “war on coal.”
The trip annoyed leaders of the neighboring Northern Cheyenne - a Native American tribe that chooses not to mine its coal reserves for environmental reasons. Zinke's department had ignored their requests for a meeting before its March decision to lift a coal-mining moratorium on federal lands, tribal leaders said. (Graphic: Coal war - tmsnrt.rs/2fMDqwx)
The Crow and Northern Cheyenne live miles apart but stand on opposite sides of U.S. President Donald Trump’s pro-energy agenda. Their differences reflect a broader divide on drilling and mining among America’s 567 federally recognized tribes.
While Native American lands cover 2 percent of the U.S. surface, they have been estimated to contain a fifth of the nation’s remaining petroleum, along with vast coal reserves - making them a key part of Trump’s effort to boost domestic production.
For tribes such as the Crow, Trump’s rise marks an opportunity to tap more of the vast energy reserves beneath their lands for a needed economic boost.
“We have a window now that is short,” said Kenneth Brien, who directs the tribe’s energy development.
For other tribes including the Northern Cheyenne, the administration poses a threat by too forcefully injecting its fossil-fuel agenda into tribal policy while ignoring environmental and social concerns.
The tribe wants more stringent rules to ensure that nearby mines don’t pollute its water supply with waste runoff and that a nearby coal-fired power plant has the proper air pollution controls. It also supported the moratorium on new federal coal leases, instituted last year by President Barack Obama, and a planned study of environmental and social impacts.
Trump aims to streamline regulations that make it much harder to drill on federal and tribal lands than on private land.
The administration also approved the Dakota Access Pipeline in January over protests led by the Standing Rock Sioux tribe. More recently, Zinke recommended reducing the size of the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah – about 1.3 million acres of forests and canyons believed to hold oil but considered sacred by tribes.
Zinke riled tribal leaders in May with remarks questioning the future of Indian lands held in federal trust – an arrangement dating to treaties the U.S. government signed with indigenous tribes in the 1700s.
“As the steward of our Indian trust land, what are we going to be 100 years from now? Is there an off ramp?” Zinke asked at a tribal energy summit in Washington.
After a backlash, the Interior Department affirmed its commitment to tribal sovereignty and said it had no current plans to change the trust relationship.
While promoting energy development, Trump has proposed cuts to housing, education and health care programs on Native American reservations. Separately, the president has said proceeds from energy will help tribes “build new schools, fix roads, improve your communities and create jobs.”
Gabe Galanda, a lawyer specializing in tribal law, said the administration appears to view energy development as a way to wean tribes off federal support.
Zinke spokeswoman Heather Swift did not directly respond to that assertion, but said: “Building a stronger economy across the board will help all communities and tribes - regardless of whether they are ‘energy’ or not.”
LIVING ON DEER MEAT
Crow leaders’ mining ambitions have gained them access to Trump’s White House, where Crow Chairman AJ Not Afraid has attended two meetings, most recently in June with leaders of about 10 other energy-producing tribes.
Alvin ÒAJÓ Not Afraid, chairman of the Crow Nation tribal council, is seen at Absaloka Veterans Park in Crow Agency, Montana, U.S., June 23, 2017. REUTERS/Valerie Volcovici
Not Afraid asked for regulatory rollbacks, urged approval of a new Pacific coal export terminal and sought to make permanent a 10 percent Indian coal production tax credit.
The stakes are high, said Brien, Not Afraid’s energy adviser.
The Crow government is financed largely by revenues from the Absaloka coal mine |
quiet fella by the name of Theodore Edmond Bridgewater, a.k.a. "Teddy." Teddy and his gang may not have had the flash or showmanship of The Raiders; what they did have was results. The Vikings had had some close calls in their day but always seemed to come out on top at the end of a skirmish. When the goin' got tough, these northerners showed their true grit time after time.
Teddy had himself quite a squad of sharpshooters as well. His right hand man was called "All Day." He earned the nickname because he did two things all day: chew tobacco and kick ass. "Hitman Harry" was the perfect assassin--by the time you got wind of him, it was already too late. The Vikings had a youngin' of their own called "Diggs" because any man that tested him "digs" his own grave. Plus Teddy had the law on his side. After being left for dead weeks ago, the Sharrif Sheriff was coming back to town. And along with is trusty sidekick "Big Goon," an absolute beast of a human being, he was determined to give D. Dallas Carr and his gang a taste of justice.
There were now only precious seconds before the Sunday showdown. The two sides took their places on the hundred yard stretch of dirt in front of the O.co Corraliseum. For some reason, the theme music from The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly started playing even though nobody had instruments. Finally the thud of the old clock tower's minute hand signaled high noon. And before the first chime could be heard, both groups drew their weapons and disappeared behind a cloud of gun smoke.
So who will be left standing after the Vikings and Raiders draw on Sunday? If the game was strictly between the two "young gun" quarterbacks from the 2014 draft class, you'd have to give the edge to Oakland so far this season. Derek Carr has outperformed Teddy Bridgewater by nearly every metric. The traditional numbers aren't even close: Carr has 479 more yards, 13 more touchdowns, and 2 fewer interceptions than Bridgewater. Teddy has 0.5% advantage in completion percentage but trails Carr by 20.9 in quarterback rating. The advanced metrics put Carr way ahead as well. Carr's adjusted yards per attempt is 1.8 better than Bridgewater's. Carr is ranked 4th in DVOA by Football Outsiders while Teddy is ranked 27th. Pro Football Focus' newfangled rating system puts Carr at 85.4 (out of 100) while rating Teddy at 75.0. As the old saying goes, there are lies, damned lies, and statistics. But these stats don't lie: Derek Carr is outplaying Teddy Bridgewater this season. The numbers probably need to be less lopsided if Minnesota hopes to win on Sunday.
One of the more glaring differences between Carr and Bridgewater has been the deep ball. I'll spare you another gif of Bridgewater badly missing an open receiver downfield; instead I'll show you the touch that Carr has shown on deep passes time and again this season:
Of course as we discovered last week, billing a game as a showdown between two offensive players doesn't always pan out that way. Todd Gurley might be nearly as talented as Adrian Peterson, but AP had a better day and his team won because of the other 21 players on the field. Minnesota's defense bottled up Gurley for the most part and the offensive line performed well enough to give Peterson some room to run. AP had a better supporting cast.
AS THE OLD SAYING GOES, THERE ARE LIES, DAMNED LIES, AND STATISTICS. BUT THESE STATS DON'T LIE: DEREK CARR IS OUTPLAYING TEDDY BRIDGEWATER THIS SEASON.
Similarly with Carr and the Raiders, the offense surrounding him has outperformed the offense around Bridgewater. The Raiders offensive line has been impressive this season. Carr has only been sacked 8 times and the O-line is ranked in the top 10 of nearly every Football Outsiders metric. The Vikings offensive line has improved in recent weeks but they're still a middle of the road unit in a league filled with horrendous lines.
Carr's skill position players have performed better as well (outside of running back of course). Michael Crabtree is having the kind of season we all hoped that Mike Wallace would be having right now. And while we have been drooling over the performance of Stefon Diggs, Amari Cooper has been making his case for Offensive Rookie of the Year. He's big, he's fast, he has great hands, and he can do things like this:
When you have receivers that can make things happen after the catch, your passing numbers are going to look a lot better. Cooper has 653 receiving yards this season; 309 of them are after the catch. That's 47.3% of his total yardage. As a team, over half of the Raiders' receiving yardage (about 51.1%) is after the catch. So Cooper hasn't been the only one making something out of nothing.
As the Jets illustrated in all the wrong ways, tackling will be incredibly important against Oakland. Thankfully the Vikings might be the best tackling team in the NFL. The Rams tried to turn all sorts of short passes into big plays last week with minimal success thanks to Minnesota's open field tackling.
Even if the Vikings can keep the YAC to a minimum they must keep the ball moving themselves. They're currently 23rd in third down conversion percentage. It's crazy to say but the Raiders might have the best offense the Vikings have faced so far this season. (Yes, I am fully aware that offense is led by none other than our old pal Bill Musgrave. I had to sit down after coming to that realization.) The Vikings need to keep drives going in order to keep their defense rested and Oakland's offense off the field. So they can't have drives falter on third down plays that could be easily converted like last week:
Depending on who you ask, this was either Bridgewater's fault for throwing a bit of a duck or it was Wallace's fault for not running a crisp route. To be honest it doesn't matter--the drive stalled because the quarterback and his supposed #1 receiver weren't in sync. The Vikings cannot afford to leave points on the field against the Raiders. You may have heard that the Vikings are the only team in the NFL to hold their opponents to 23 points or less in every game this season--it might just take more than 24 points to win this week.
The Minnesota offense is currently 26th in the league in Drive Success Rate, a metric from Football Outsiders that measures the percentage of down series that result in a first down or a touchdown. Oakland ranks 9th. In other words, the Vikings drives are stalling out more often than the Raiders drives. It's only a 4% difference, but the difference between getting in the end zone and settling for 3 might be the difference in the outcome of this game.
There is definitely drive success to be had against the Oakland defense. Aldon Smith and Khalil Mack can get after the quarterback but the Raiders secondary has been pretty porous against the pass. They're fresh off allowing 284 yards to Antonio Brown, a yardage number the entire Vikings team has topped only once this season. However, their secondary just added a key piece back. The return of Nate Allen will help the Raiders in multiple areas. Not only will Oakland get a starting safety back in the mix to pair with Old Man Charles Woodson, but TJ Carrie will be able to move back to his natural cornerback position. Their secondary still won't be confused with the 2013 Legion of Boom anytime soon but they will be better than recent weeks have shown.
As of this posting, the Vikings might not have two of their best gunslingers in the fight at full strength. Anthony Barr and Eric Kendricks, a.k.a. The Bru's Brothers, are both banged up and being held out of practice. Regardless of how Linval Joesph and the defensive line play in front, replacing those two is impossible. With all the quick-hit passing that Oakland does, missing the execution of an open field tackler like Barr (who has been wearing a soft cast on his arm this week) could prove disastrous.
I could be totally wrong--and I hope I am--but it feels like the Vikings are Leonardo DiCaprio's character in The Quick and the Dead. They're young, talented, and they keep surprising everyone by winning, but they might get caught looking ahead to the next matchup in the tournament. (I'm sure you're aware a certain divisional opponent from that state to the east of us comes to town next Sunday.) Unless Bridgewater and the offense can make a huge step forward and finish drives with much more efficiency than they have shown in the first half of the season, I'm not sure that the Vikings can keep up with the Raiders' firepower in this Wild West shootout.
Prediction
Raiders 27, Vikings 23
And now for the rest of my Week 10 NFL picks (home teams in ALL CAPS):
Bills over JETS
The Bills are going to come into New York and punch the Jets right in the jaw tonight.
RAMS over Bears
It's kind of fun making new rivals. I was completely ambivalent about the Rams until Gregg (the extra G stands for Garbage human being) Williams came into town last week. The more teams to hate, the better!
STEELERS over Browns
No Big Ben? No problem. I'm still taking the team that has a 26-4 advantage over the last 30 games they have played against each other.
BUCCANEERS over Cowboys
I'm not sure who will win this game, but I'm sure the team that loses it will throw the game away in horrific fashion.
PACKERS over Lions
Congratulations Detroit! You get to return from your 1-7 bye week to face a pissed off team in a place where you have lost every single year since 1991! Have fun with that!
Panthers over TITANS
My Survivor Pool pick of the week, now 6-3 on the season after Cincinnati came through against Cleveland last week. Even though every single thing about this game screams T-R-A-P. You know what isn't a trap? The Gratuitous Picture of the Week!
"Mermaids, Waldo, and home wins / They're all hard to find for the Titans!" (image via titansonline.com)
EAGLES over Dolphins
If there was a Super Bowl for the most mediocre team that looked a hell of a lot better on paper before the season, this would be it.
REDSKINS over Saints
Hey Kirk Cousins, what do you think about facing Rob Ryan's atrocious defense?
RAVENS over Jaguars
[This space left intentionally blank to reflect how little anyone cares about this game]
Chiefs over BRONCOS
Although I can't wait to see how Andy Reid might screw up his chance at the upset this time!
Patriots over GIANTS
At least Pats fans will have to endure 7,423 references to the Helmet Catch while they cruise to 9-0.
SEAHAWKS over Cardinals
Make sure to watch this game, Vikings fans. Next month we get to face both of these NFC contenders in a five day stretch! Yay!
BENGALS over Texans
The irony is that Houston might be better off with ol' Davy Carr today.
Last week: 9-4
Season so far: 84-48Disney In Depth: 20 ‘Aladdin’ Fun Facts You May Not Have Known
Can you believe it has been 20 years since Aladdin first entered our lives? The film was an absolute sensation, garnering much critical and financial success. After two decades I thought it would be “soaring good fun” to review the influence of this brand in the Disney universe.
This edition of Disney In Depth will highlight 20 fun facts about everything you ever wanted to know about Prince Ali and company.
1 Though Abu and Rajah serve as the best animal friends to lead characters Aladdin and Jasmine, they do not appear – nor are referenced – in the stage show production at Disney California Adventure Park.
2 Alan Menken won two Oscars for his work on Aladdin, one for his original score and the other for his music on “A Whole New World.”
3 In Aladdin and the King of Thieves, Genie makes reference to a boatload of Disney characters, including Chief Powhatan’s famous daughter, as seen in this clip at about the 1:07 mark.
4 Jafar has a fraternal twin sister, a sorceress named Nasira. She serves as the villain for the Aladdin-themed video game, Disney’s Aladdin in Nasira’s Revenge. Nasira is voiced by none other than Ariel the Little Mermaid herself, actress Jodi Benson.
5 When the film was first released on VHS in 1993, Aladdin sold a whopping 25 million copies.Want to save money on your phone bill? Make sure you turn off the "autoplay" setting on Facebook videos.
Smartphone users are at risk of maxing out their data plans if they don't change this default setting in the Facebook (FB) app, which otherwise will automatically start streaming videos in the News Feed window.
The issue was flagged by consumer finance site MoneySavingExpert.com, which said it had "seen many complaints from people who have been stung with data bills after exceeding their monthly allowance and who believe it to be because of Facebook autoplaying videos."
Related: U.S. upholds employees' right to kvetch on Facebook
A Facebook spokesperson said the company "want[s] to make sure that videos consume as little data as possible, and that people can control when they play automatically."
The fix, fortunately, is an easy one. If you're an iPhone user, tap your "Settings" button and then scroll down and click "Facebook." From there, click "Settings," "Auto-play," and then choose "Wi-Fi only" or "Off."
On Android, bring up the Facebook app and go to your account settings. Click "App Settings," and then choose 'Auto-play only on Wi-Fi' or 'Off.'
Videos won't also won't play automatically provided you scroll past them.
If you think you've been hit with unfair data charges, contact your wireless carrier.This weekend, the United States Navy christened what many claim is its greatest engineering achievement: the USS Gerald Ford supercarrier, the first in a completely new line of warships called the Ford class.
The ship, seated in a huge dock on the James River near the southern district of Newport News, Virginia, is the most technologically advanced, the most expensive, and one of the largest warships ever built. That's according to the Navy, but there's not much reason to doubt the assertions. The ship is huge. Rising out of the ocean to the height of a large office complex and stretching out toward the horizon as far as a couple football fields, it’s able to house a town’s population of more than 4,500 people, and, when it’s finally commissioned for duty on the high seas in 2016, it will weigh an astonishing 90,000 tons.
What’s more, the USS Gerald Ford — identified by its hull number, CVN 78, and known conversationally as "the Ford" — is also outfitted with electromagnetic catapults designed to shoot fighter jets into the sky (these had previously needed pneumatic systems; Ford-class carriers offered all-new technology), and the most advanced radar system ever deployed by the US military.
But all this heft and tech prowess isn’t cheap. At the moment, it’s estimated that the Ford will cost taxpayers at least $13 billion — an amount that, despite years of planning and calculation, has risen at least $2.3 billion since the ship’s construction costs were approved at a $10.5 billion budget in 2008. And it might rise higher still. While Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS), the company contracted to construct the Ford, is confident it has built an aircraft carrier that will last well into the 21st century, high-profile critics such as Senator John McCain are asking whether the Ford is worth the cost and the monumental effort it will take to bring it to life.
Brian Nehrbass, the Ford’s Ship Design Manager at NNS, insists there’s a mountain of history one should understand before making any conclusions. He would know: as a designer with NNS, he’s worked on every iteration of the Ford project since it was introduced as a mere concept. That was back in 1996. At that point, the Navy’s state-of-the-art aircraft carriers were Nimitz-class — a fleet of 10 nuclear warships designed in the late 1960s and commissioned in May 1975.
The Nimitz class is still in operation to this day. But in March 1996, Navy officials anticipated they’d need "a new tactical aviation sea-based platform for the 21st century." By October 1998, a concept ship was authorized, with requests for a large deck that would hold 75 aircraft and a new nuclear propulsion plant. As designs progressed over the next decade, those requests became more precise and more numerous.
"Nimitz class was designed in an era when, in essence, manpower and sailors were free," Nehrbass says. "It was designed to operate with the draft. People were easy to get."
"Everything else is fair game."
In 1975, the Navy included a total of 545,725 active-duty sailors. By 1996 that number had dropped to 419,075. Today, it’s even fewer; at 323,951, Navy personnel numbers have declined by about 41 percent since the first Nimitz-class carrier was commissioned. These warships were designed for 6,100 sailors. The next class would need to do more with fewer people. That meant deploying more planes faster, building longer-lasting and more advanced on-board tools, and generating more electricity to support these advanced tools.
With these requests in hand, NNS moved forward on its own. "The Navy’s ship specifications tell us what we must do and what we can’t do," Nehrbass explains. "Everything else is fair game." NSS used advanced 3D-modeling tools to put together a dream warship based on its constraints and its designers’ creativity. They arrived at some ambitious ideas.
While Nimitz-class designs used steam to keep ships running, the Ford will use electricity exclusively. That’ll allow many of the ship’s components to operate longer (because steam causes rust) and it’ll also allow for many innovations that have been desired among sailors for years, but will only make their operational debuts on the Ford.
Four innovations stand out.
The first is something called "flexible infrastructure architecture." This is a modular design that will allow spaces on the ship to be adaptable, like snap-in-place building blocks, without the use of "hot work" such as welding. So if the Navy wants to convert a room from being a storage space, for example, or living quarters, into an office or a boardroom, it can do that easily and quickly without having to hire big crews to take care of the work.
An electromagnetic field that catapults aircraft into the sky
The Advanced Weapons Elevators are another innovation. Relying on electromagnetic fields instead of cables, these massive elevators can carry twice as much material than their predecessors on Nimitz-class warships and can operate with fewer sailors at the helm.
A third major change is the use of an Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMAL). These use an electromagnetic field to catapult aircraft into the sky. Previous versions of these launchers operated via steam and cables. Compared to their predecessors, EMALs are lighter, smaller, more efficient, and more reliable. They can also launch a fighter jet every 45 seconds — a major improvement over past tech that, Nehrbass says, got an additional boost because designers studied pit stops during NASCAR races to make sure planes were situated on the flight deck to get up and running as quickly as possible.
And then there’s the multifunction radar. Known as a Dual-Band Radar, it combines the tools used for big picture scans and precision targeting. In the past, those activities were completely separate, involving two different pieces of equipment. This means fewer radar antennas spinning at the ship’s 555-metric-ton island — the control center rising from the ship's deck — and fewer people required to keep tabs on surroundings.
Are innovations like these worth the $13 billion tab? A report from the Government Accountability Office in September looking specifically at the Ford suggested perhaps not.
The Navy awarded a multibillion dollar contract for detail design and construction of CVN 78 in 2008, even in light of substantial technology development risks and an overly optimistic budget. Now, nearly 5 years later, the cost of the lead ship has increased by more than $2.3 billion and many risks still remain which are likely to lead to further cost increases before the ship is completed. Although the ship is now more than half constructed, and promises significant capability increases over existing carriers, it is still grappling with land-based testing delays and system reliability deficiencies for critical government-provided technologies, a high-risk operational testing strategy, potentially unachievable performance requirements, and cost estimating uncertainties.
Nehrbass doesn’t refute the conclusions, but asks for some leniency.
"There’s a lot of risk involved in bringing all this technology together and making it work," he says. "As good as we engineers think we are, we’re not always able to make things go the way we want them to."
Plus, Nehrbass says, "the unpredictability of some of these things do drive costs up."
"There’s a lot of risk involved in bringing all this technology together and making it work."
Indeed, most of the advanced technology on the Ford has never been tested at sea, let alone deployed for battle. So it’s difficult to predict how it’ll operate in a real-time event, or what it’ll require to function optimally.
Budget uncertainty aside, the christening ceremony this weekend was a nautical tradition. With US warships, the tradition is to have a female sponsor (in this case, it’s former president Gerald Ford’s daughter, Susan Ford Bales) break a champagne bottle on the ship’s bow. She’ll then do her best to regularly communicate with the ship's crew. That’ll be an ongoing commitment — one that will continue for the next three years as the ship is readied for commissioning and departure, as well as into its operation as a military vessel, which, if history is any indication, could extend for another half-century.
"This is a brand-new ship," Nehrbass continues. "There were a lot of things we had to learn about how to build it. It’s a learning process in every way."Spencer
This week most of the crew are over in Seattle for the Steam Dev Days Conference. An event Valve puts on every couple of years to talk about whats going on with Steam and everything related. Gav is holding down the fort in Melbourne. We will be back into the action mid next week.
Gavku
So this last week I did some final tweaks on the bomber jacket fixing its collar and how it generally sat around the player neck, as well as baking out another normal map to reduce some of the harsh angled lighting that was happening around the collarbones.
The mesh and basic maps for the combat jacket are done, I am not going to spend too much time texturing them until we see how it would look with player paintable colours.
Up next for me is to bring his current singlet into line, some shorts, and a couple of backpacks. I jumped on the singlet and shorts first as I think they should be fairly straight forward to do. Will do a couple of different types of shorts.
Here’s some marvelous designer screenshots of the new singlet and shorts.
Screenshot of them both sitting on the character in 3ds max.EXCLUSIVE: Michael Cuesta, director/executive producer of the Emmy-winning Homeland, has teamed with CSI executive producer/showrunner Carol Mendelsohn for Second Sight, a drama based on the 2000 British series starring Clive Owen. The project has been set up at CBS through CBS TV Studios, where Cuesta is under an overall deal, and studio-based Carol Mendelsohn Prods.
Second Sight centers on a homicide detective going blind who turns his affliction into an advantage – using his heightened senses and intuition to solve crimes. (watch the trailer for the original series below.) Cuesta will write the adaptation with his brother Gerald Cuesta. The two previously teamed for another CBS drama project, the cult 2007 zombie pilot Babylon Fields, which Gerald co-wrote and Michael directed. Michael Cuesta is set to direct Second Sight, which he is executive producing with Mendelsohn, her executive Julie Weitz, Paula Milne, who created the original series, and Nick Reed. Weitz secured the rights to the British format for Carol Mendelsohn Prods. through British-born agent-turned-producer Reed, with whom she previously worked together at ICM. Gerald Cuesta and Phil Goldfine are co-executive producing.
Michael Cuesta recently shared in Homeland‘s best drama series Emmy win. He also was nominated (and was heavily favored to win) for directing the pilot of the psychological thriller. Cuesta has directed six episodes of Homeland so far, including the pilot, the second episode, the two-part first-season finale and the second season opener, which premiered on Sunday. There are four series currently on the air whose pilots he directed: Showtime’s Homeland and Dexter and CBS’ Blue Bloods and Elementary. Cuesta and Mendelsohn are with WME.Simulate Location Changes
In order to simulate changes to the devices location you need to execute shell commands in the Genymotion Shell. This ruby script will help simulate those changes (Geofencing Simulator). I also had to add the Genymotion shell to my path
export PATH=$PATH:/Applications/GenymotionShell.app/Contents/MacOS
To run the ruby script you need to execute it in a bash shell like
$ ruby gpx_trip.rb /path/to/gpx_trip.gpx
The final piece to this is generating a.gpx file that maps out a route. To do this you just create a route from point A to point B. Since the two geofences in the sample are the Googleplex and the Yerba Buena Gardens, I have created a route that goes back and forth between these two locations (Geofencing route). Then you can take this url and paste it into this GPSVisualizer tool(Convert a GPS file to plain text or GPX) and click on Convert. This will generate the.gpx file that you see on the next page (GPX output). Copy those contents and paste it into a new file that you create called gpx_trip.gpx. As soon as you execute the ruby script you should now see the blue dot on the Google Maps app start moving in the map. Subsequently when you enter and exit the geofences then a notification will appear in the notification drawer indicating entering or exiting a geofence. This all is a bit verbose but I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss anything. Hopefully this will all be a bit easier in the future.Brian Volk-Weiss of Comedy Dynamics Discusses When to Record Your Comedy
How do you know when you are ready to record your comedy? Is it different for an album versus an hour special? Should you wait, and how long? The comedy special business is booming. There are more outlets than ever before gobbling up recorded stand up comedy. Platforms like Netflix and EPIX have joined the more traditional buyers like HBO, Showtime and Comedy Central, and then there’s YouTube and Vimeo offering additional homes for your content, and of course there’s also the option of self producing and distributing. Brian Volk-Weiss is the President of Comedy Dynamics, the largest independent producer and distributor of recorded comedy in North America. As part of our new monthly series, we talked with Brian, who was very candid answering the big question: when is it time?
Don’t Record Your Comedy Prematurely and Don’t Trust Your Friends
Brian Volk-Weiss produces a huge amount of comedy. Last year, he told us that Comedy Dynamics alone helped create 41 specials. But even with a wealth of new buyers, he says, a comedian needs to be careful not to put out their material too soon. “I think its really good for an artist to always be recording themselves, but I just don’t think that an artist should be publicly exposing what they recorded until a certain period,” he said. Putting your work out there too soon can be detrimental. “No comedian is born brilliant and goes off and does their greatest work. It takes time.”
Find one person or a group of people that you really fucked over and hate your guts…Let those people watch your stuff.
The old adage that it takes a lifetime to become an overnight sensation holds true to him, particularly in a world where you can’t put your work back once you’ve released it. “Be very selective of what you put up there. I would strongly recommend that.” So how to you know when? Brian said asking your friends what they think isn’t helpful. “People are always saying– ‘this makes me laugh- my friends love it- people are telling me its great.‘ I’m always like, well this is what you should do. Find one person or a group of people that you really fucked over and hate your guts. Maybe an ex who caught you cheating or a dude you slept with his girlfriend. If you’re a female comic flip the analogy around. Find those people. Maybe you got caught stealing from a roommate in college. Find those people. Let those people watch your stuff. See what they think and if they like it, then it’s probably good.” Obviously Volk-Weiss doesn’t expect you to start looking up enemies and handing demos around- it’s neither realistic or healthy, but his point is well made. The people who are invested in you being happy, the people who don’t want to bum you out– don’t use them as your criteria even if they promise to be honest.
He’s a little less concerned when it comes to self-releasing audio. An album or Soundcloud clips are less harmful to your career even if they are premature. “Because it’s an audio medium. And then the Soundcloud algorithm is very different from the YouTube algorithm and you can take stuff down off Soundcloud in a way that you can’t on YouTube. I don’t think putting out a premature album is bad.” But there is still an emotional toll that comes along with putting your material out before you’re ready. Brian knows this first hand. “I wrote a book once and I thought it was the greatest book ever and nobody liked it so i know what it feels like to put a lot of time into something and no matter what i thought about the book my fellow human beings did not agree.”
How ‘They’ Know You’re Ready
“The answer,” Brian said, “is the antithesis of scientific method.” The shorthand is, he goes with his gut, which isn’t very useful to thousands of comedy hopefuls. He elaborated. “So then the question of course becomes how does your gut become your gut. How do you analyze, what’s your process.” There are a few things that go into his “gut.”
He described part of his process as similar to how Pageview works- the algorithm that powers Google search results. “The way the algorithm works– it still works like this, although not as much as it did in the beginning. Pageview would organize links so if you looked up George Washington, the first link that would come up versus the last link that would come up was essentially based on how many other articles were coming out of an article and how often was a certain link clicked on.”
Of course, whether the artist makes him laugh, and does he think the artist is funny, is part of his formula. Once he decides to do a special with someone, he said he’s committing to spending six to twelve months going over the set over and over again, listening to the same jokes. “So is it someone who I would be comfortable hearing their same jokes over and over again from that show for six to twelve months? That’s definitely a factor.”
It’s not about me, it’s about the public. That’s the first thing.
But he’s careful not to only rely on his personal taste. “One of the things that I take a lot of pride in- we’re not judgmental. We don’t judge the audience.” He recalled the days when he was a manager, and would become frustrated with the gatekeepers at the companies who would never do specials or tv shows with a comic who didn’t make them personally laugh. “And it really struck a chord with me because I’m like– WHO ARE YOU to……… The guy selling 2000 tickets in January, he’s selling 4,000 tickets in March. Who are you…you’re supposed to be working for a company that is supposed to bring comedy to America that America likes. Who are you to not care about that statistic just because he doesn’t make you laugh. So I remembered that vividly. And this might be a strange thing to be proud of or brag about but…it’s not just my opinion. Our job is to figure out what America things and what America wants and hopefully pick the talent that America is excited to see.” That means sometimes there are comics who make him laugh really really hard– but he won’t do a special with them. “Because nobody wants to see it. It’s not about me, it’s about the public. That’s the first thing.”
He shared an example, with the names and gender discreetly kept to himself. “It’s not a flattering story for them,” he told me. “I guess it was about three years ago, it was Saturday morning. I had just landed in an unnamed city. So I land in an unnamed city and I’m driving to my hotel, and I get a call from an agent, very very well respected agent. And we’re talking shooting the shit, he’s also a buddy of mine and he goes, what are you doing? Where are ya? I go, oh I just landed at an unnamed city and we’re shooting so and so’s special tonight. There’s a pause and I don’t hear anything, and then he says to me, he says, you know you can say no right? And that special, which everybody made fun of me for- I mean everybody. Everybody was like, have you lost your mind?” That special, Brian said, turned out to be one of the most popular specials. “And I’ll give you this clue. It ended up on Netflix and it’s one of Netflix’s best performing specials ever. And I knew.” He did give a few clues about the artist. “They were not a household name as far as America, but they were very well known in the comedy community, and they had a terrible reputation for having terrible material and for not being a cool person or a very nice person.”
He added, “To me it was a no brainer. When everybody starts shitting on your opinion you start to question yourself naturally, but yeah I knew – and by the way, I predicted it would be a triple. It ended up being a grand slam. So it was a very very big special that we did, that, like I said I’m very proud of. But man oh man did I get a lot of grief.”
Everyone Who is Ready Gets Found, 100% of the Time
Still confused? Volk-Weiss promises that you will know. You will know. You will know. And he believes that others will know, and give you independent verification that your own radar is properly functioning. He cited as an example, the old story about J.K. Rowling, whose manuscript for the Harry Potter novels were rejected again and again– but eventually one publisher said yes.
“What I mean by that is, if you’re a stand up, if you’re a comedian and you’re doing sets and you’re doing sets and you’re in the same city, you’re in New York, you’re in Chicago, you’re in San Diego…wherever. At some point, hopefully, people who have been seeing you for a long time are going to start coming up to you and saying, hey man woah you really turned it around. Then you’ll get a call from a booker at a comedy club that you’ve never been to, trying to book you. Then you’ll get a call from a buddy saying hey man, my manager’s great she asked me if I could make an introduction. Those are the kind of calls when you start getting them where you can be..hmmm alright. Maybe I’ve turned a corner. Maybe I’m doing something here.”
At some point, hopefully, people who have been seeing you for a long time are going to start coming up to you and saying, hey man woah you really turned it around.
And he says, that independent verification will always happen. “Absolutely,100%,” he said. Brian warns it might not happen as quickly as the artist would want, but he says it will happen if you’re good. In the eighteen years he has been working in the business, he can only think of one time that goes against his ‘100% of the time’ statement. “There is one comedian whose name I can’t remember– and that says a lot– that is talked about by huge Bostonian comics who started out in the ’70s and they talk nostalgically about this one guy who didn’t make it. In 18 years of doing comedy that is the only person I’m aware of, that our community was like- oh that guy is so talented but oh he just didn’t make it.”
That doesn’t include the comics he describes as road dogs. Really talented performers who he says “opt out.” He explained, using Boston comedian Kenny Rogerson as an example. “Kenny, for lack of a better expression, he opted out. He made a lot of decisions that — to the best of my knowledge….he never moved to LA for example. To the best of my knowledge a lot of his friends who blew up were trying to help him and he didn’t want help. So he didn’t make it because, depending on how you look at it, he was either self-destructive or just didn’t want to be huge. One of the two.”
Another example he gave was comedian Gary Gulman, who he described “absolutely genius.” Brian says Gary has remained a road dog by choice. “I’ll give you who is in my top.00001 percent favorite comedians ever, and that’s Gary Gulman. Gary Gulman, you could make the argument is a road dog. I know Gary Gulman really well. I know him since I was not even in the triple digit days of my career. Gary has decided to be a road dog. That’s what he wants to do right now. I have no doubt in my mind that when Gary wants to be whoever he wants to be, he’s going to be that guy. He doesn’t live in LA, that’s a choice he made |
lovely lady from mizzd-stock: [link] This Gallant Knight from atistatplay- [link] And this incredible armor from farmer-bootoshysa- [link] Thanks so much for sharing!The Sonos One is what I’d call an inevitable product. Sonos has always made speakers that sound excellent, and if you own more than one, the company’s multi-room wireless audio system can fill your entire home or apartment with that top-notch sound. Sonos’ reputation makes consumers gravitate to its products, and in turn, they get locked in and are likely to become repeat customers when it’s time to put a speaker someplace else.
Recently things have changed, however, and Sonos no longer finds itself in such a cozy position. Over the last couple years, the expensive Sonos lineup has lost the spotlight to affordable, voice-controlled speakers like the Amazon Echo and Google Home. Soon Apple will release its own take with the HomePod. Convenience and ease of use have always been the draw of the Echo and Home. Being able to just tell a speaker to play your favorite Spotify playlist goes a long way in compensating for mediocre sound.
But all of a sudden, Amazon, Google, and Apple are in the midst of releasing speakers with better audio. Right on cue, Sonos is finally answering back with the $200 Sonos One. It’s the company’s first speaker with microphones designed to work with today’s popular voice assistants. Alexa is built in right now, with Google Assistant to follow in 2018. If Sonos can deliver great sound quality while supporting all things voice, why would anyone consider buying something else?
There’s the price, for one. $200 is a fair amount of money — apparently a bar that Sonos won’t go under — and double the cost of the new $100 Echo, which lists “improved sound” as its most significant upgrade. Here’s my advice: if you want a smart speaker for a bunch of neat smart home tricks and occasional music listening, the new Echo should fill that role pretty well. But if music is what you care about most and you might be interested in expanding to a whole-home system down the line, the Sonos One makes a lot of sense. Keep in mind that despite Alexa’s many skills, most people are using these speakers for music. You’ve also got Apple’s $350 HomePod and Google’s $400 Home Max coming in December for even more money.
The Sonos One sounds (and looks) nearly identical to the existing Play:1, which already delivered a much richer and more satisfying listening experience than any Echo. Only now, you can ask this new speaker about the weather, have it control your smart home, or command it to start blaring your latest playlist by calling out “Alexa.” You can accomplish the same thing with an Echo Dot connected to Sonos speakers you already own, which is a good option for existing customers. But with the One, everything is integrated.
There are some early frustrations and missing features that prevent the Sonos One from being a perfect marriage between Sonos sound and Alexa’s voice smarts. You can’t yet play music from Spotify with Alexa, but I’ve been told that’s coming “soon.” Other services, such as Apple Music and Tidal, are absent with no ETA, and it’s quite possible that they’ll never support voice playback. They all work perfectly fine through the Sonos app, and once music is playing from any service, Alexa can always pause, skip tracks, adjust volume, or tell you what song or artist is playing. But the bottom line is that, at least for now, Alexa is unable to play anything from your Spotify library. Instead, you’ve got Pandora, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, TuneIn, and SiriusXM to work with out of the box.
Even with the Spotify situation factored in, I’ve found the Sonos One to be good enough in most other places to earn a solid recommendation if you’re looking to spend a couple hundred bucks on an in-home speaker.
The Sonos One is the exact same size and weight as the Play:1 and largely shares the same external design. I’d say it’s nicer looking since everything is now the same color; the Play:1’s speaker grille was gray, but here the whole unit is either a uniform matte black or white. On top, the physical buttons of the older speaker have been replaced with capacitive touch buttons resembling those on the Play:5 and Playbase. Above the main play/pause and controls, there’s a microphone icon that you can tap to toggle the six far-field microphone array on or off. If the tiny circular light is illuminated, the mics are enabled. If it’s off, they’re inactive / muted and won’t respond to the Alexa hotword.
Another minor difference with the Play:1 is that Sonos has gotten rid of the rear screw hole that made it easier to mount as a surround speaker for a Playbar or Playbase. You can still use them as surround speakers, but it’s a bit harder to mount them on the wall now. As with past Sonos speakers, two Ones can be linked together using the app to form a stereo pair with a wider, more enveloping soundstage. A One and Play:1 cannot be stereo paired despite their similar looks and sound performance. (Sonos says it might change this with a future update if enough customers want it, but why not just offer it from the beginning?) The Sonos One is resistant to humidity and can be safely used in your bathroom for shower tune. But it’s not the fully weather-sealed outdoor speaker some Sonos customers have long asked for.
Setting up the One wasn’t as smooth of a process as I was expecting. Playing music from the Sonos app didn’t take long at all. With the living room covered by my more powerful Play:5 speaker, I mostly tested the One in my kitchen, which is probably the ideal location to have Alexa within earshot. Sure, an Echo Dot can handle your cooking measurement conversions, but if you want to listen to music while having your breakfast or making dinner, it’s got no hope against this thing.
The process of enabling Alexa was a different matter and left me, a tech reviewer, feeling pretty stupid. Alexa could answer general questions and control my smart lights just fine within minutes, but would give me a “Something went wrong” error when I asked for music (or podcasts) with voice commands. To fix this, I had to remove the Sonos skill from my Alexa app and then add it again, after which things worked as intended. I’ve still encountered some “I don’t know what went wrong” Alexa responses here and there, but they’ve mostly cleared up.
Even if I’d had no trouble, it feels like there are too many steps between unboxing the Sonos One and telling Alexa to kick out the jams. You set up your Sonos system, add your new speaker to that system, link all your music services to Sonos, link the speaker to your Alexa account, link those same music services from before to Alexa, and then have Alexa discover nearby supported smart home devices. That’s… a lot. Once everything is done, you’ll probably never have to muck with it again, but it’s still not a great first experience. Hopefully as the Sonos/Amazon relationship continues and as other speakers add Alexa, this setup process can be streamlined and made simpler.
All of that music sounds fantastic, though. Sonos claims that internally, the One was completely rebuilt “from the ground up” while sticking to the “blueprints” of the Play:1. Whatever that means, the two sound very, very similar. Like its predecessor, the Sonos One delivers balanced, detailed, and full-bodied audio that outperformed my expectations of a speaker this size. It’s perfectly adequate to fill a living room or kitchen with music, and you can crank it up to ringing volumes without much distortion or harshness. The Play:5 remains ideal for large rooms or parties, but the One is the best thing for most people to start on. Two Ones paired in stereo are even better and give a single Play:5 solid competition (at a lower total price, to boot).
The One’s six microphones consistently picked up my voice well enough without issue, though they seemed slightly less sensitive than the Echo Dot and its seven microphone array. When you say Alexa, the speaker plays a short tone to signal that it’s listening, and Sonos automatically lowers the audio volume to better hear you. Even with music blaring, the One will recognize the Alexa hotword without you having to shout. Fundamentally, the Sonos One succeeds at being a gateway to Alexa. It’s the same, familiar voice telling you the forecast or sports scores or whatever else you want to know.
For multi-room audio, you can tell the Sonos One to play music in a different room with an older Sonos speaker and it just works. I love that part, but it means you’ll want to be careful in deciding exactly where the One goes since it’s the only speaker you can talk to. I still occasionally feel stumped by random things when using Alexa, though. For example, I never found any app setting to adjust Alexa’s volume at night when my housemates were asleep. Eventually I just said “Alexa, lower your voice” and that seemed to work, but it made me feel pretty rude. Also, Alexa will usually announce which service it’s playing radio stations from, but doesn’t always make clear where it’s pulling music from at any given time. Pandora or Amazon? I’ve got no clue. Finally, not every Alexa feature you might use on an Echo works on the One. Most do, but not all. Making phone calls is still exclusive to Amazon’s own products, and even small things like daily flash briefings are still “coming soon.”
Next year, the Sonos One is supposed to evolve into something much bigger than the thing that goes on sale October 24th. Google Assistant support will somehow be added and live alongside Alexa, though the company hasn’t spelled out how it plans to cram those two onto a single product. And at some point, the One will also work with Apple’s AirPlay 2, so you’ll be able to tell Siri on your iPhone or iPad to play music on your Sonos system. But that’s all coming later, and you shouldn’t spend $200 on promises. For now, and probably over the next few months, the Sonos One will remain a very nice Sonos product with Alexa built in. Once the Spotify thing gets sorted out, that still makes for a fantastic gadget.
8 Verge Score Sonos One Good Stuff Excellent audio quality
Good voice microphones
Seamless integration with existing Sonos systems
Wide selection of music services to stream from Bad Stuff Alexa can’t play Spotify at launch
Some music services might never support voice
Convoluted setup process Buy for $199.00 from Amazon Buy for $199.00 from Sonos
Photography by Chris Welch / The VergeIn some ways the talk Sounders FC President of Soccer Garth Lagerwey gave could be any senior leadership seminar. There were mentions of vertical integration, a six-point plan, structure & process, and cultural longevity. Garth also gave soccer specific elements in his 38 minutes with the 100 or so hardest of die hards that stayed after the win over Vancouver.
Garth, like the fans, was ecstatic about the three points. His excitement forced him to reference notes during his speech as he kept reflecting on the win.
That multi-point plan is;
Playing Philosophy (proactive, possession based, attack and entertaining)
Sign Best DP Available
Playing Identity
Player Profiles
Development (Academy to S2 to First Team)
Five-year Depth Chart
Playing philosophy
From 2008 to the present the Sounders have talked about those same four elements, but they’ve also drifted from it, most notably in the playoffs when they’ve taken a more reactive posture. Lagerwey says one of the best things he hears from fans is “watching Sounders soccer is fun again.” It’s not just about winning, but the orientation of how the team uses ball and space to return to the four elements that Adrian Hanauer laid out eight years ago.
Sign Best DP Available
At the first-team level, and specifically with the Designated Players without regard for marketing, but just who is the best player for the club. Garth considers Nicolas Lodeiro the third best DP in the history of the league (after Beckham and Giovinco). Seattle will continue to make DP signing decisions not based on the number of eyeballs they may attract, but with the goal of putting points on the table and trophies on the shelf.
Garth considers the crowd and fanbase a huge attraction for talent, calling it the “second biggest in the Americas” he feels the passion of the fans can help draw in more Lodeiro-level talents in the future.
Playing Identity
With the playing identity in place the Sounders will only reduce the playing effectiveness of the replacement for the injury as the rest of the squad maintains their standard role. This identity simplifies changes forced by injury or international call-ups. Ideally, according to Lagerwey, it also means fans of the team and neutrals know and enjoy “Sounders soccer.”
That identity will develop over time, but while Lagerwey is in charge it will be centered around a No. 10 that creates using through balls, crosses and intricate short passes with teammates.
Player Profiles
Player profiles being developed are role specific, using a combination of statistical analysis and live scouting. They aren’t just about finding good players and value players, but finding players who fit the playing identity and philosophy. There are specific skills needed for the various roles on the field.
An example provided during the Q&A portion points out that Alvaro Fernandez will slot in for Lodeiro when Nico is elsewhere (recently Alvaro’s been the creative right wing as Lodeiro fills Dempsey’s role).
Replacing a talent like Dempsey will have to be collective over the next few games. His talent and fit within the system do not have a simple replacement.
Development from Academy to S2 to First Team
A key element to Lagerwey’s plan is that the Academy and S2 develop the first team replacement-level players. Saying that the Yedlin, Morris, Rowe level talents pop up “every three or four years” the Academy needs to focus, through its scouting locally and abroad, on producing talents that can fit into the “Five-Year Depth Chart.” This is where vertical integration combines with the playing philosophy and identity as they are filling a role they’ve played from U12 to First Team.
Asked about players that have a future with the first team from S2 or the Academy Lagerwey gave a list of six players. The S2 players he mentioned as having a future, and this was on the spur of the moment, so not a complete list, are - Nouhou Tolo, Jordi Delam, Zach Mathers and “there will be others.” He also said there will be more talents from West Africa in the future. He also mentioned three college players - Seyi Adekoya (UCLA), David Olsen (Seattle U) and Kyle Bjornethun (Seattle U). David and Kyle are on the Hermann watch list. He joked that his scouts will be upset at him for only naming three on the spot.
Five-year Depth Chart
With the Five-year Depth Chart in place the organization will not have contracts that block young talent from filling roles in the XI or 18. The vision is that instead, the replacement-level or better talent would grant more flexibility in drafting, player movement within MLS and international signings.
He feels the best talents in the Academy are just 15 years old. They’ve doubled their Academy spending since he took over. Seattle is using homestay and out-of-catchment Academy signings to fill gaps in their Depth Chart.
[Sounder at Heart’s Depth Chart for #TheFuture goes down to the U16 level]
Notes from the Q&A portion
Fans regularly pushed Garth to make Brian Schmetzer the permanent head coach. Their coaching search will focus on the playing philosophy, identity and likely not include first-time coaches due to the pressure to win here in Seattle. “We’re going to give Brian a chance.”
Chad Marshall signed an extension
Zach Scott’s retirement “is a big loss. He’s meant a lot to the franchise.”
Asked about Clint Dempsey he said, “It doesn’t matter when he comes back as a soccer player. It matters whether he’s OK for life.”
Roman Torres turned the pregame music back on, convincing Morris to dance with him. Jordan isn’t a good dancer, according to Garth. (The Seattle Times recently wrote about how one of the big changes since Lodeiro joined was that he prefers quiet before gametime.)
Lagerwey is a huge fan of Joevin Jones, and also recognizes that he needs to work on defense saying “Joevin not always immaculate in the way he defends.”
Lodeiro is here for the American Dream, so much so that he brought his son onto the field for the National Anthem. That Dream is much of the appeal for foreign signings.
The referee pool doubled within the past 10 years, but it takes time to improve it at the same rate as the playing level.
Chris Henderson was recently in Argentina. Kurt Schmid was in France.
Seattle will have an open DP slot in 2017, but declined to say which contract will move. Oba will not be coming back to the Sounders. Sounders tried to acquire Hiroshi Kiyotake as a Japanese DP, but he signed with Sevilla. The club is trying to stay ahead of the league with number of TAM and DP level players per team.
General Managers, Technical Directors and Coaches regularly ask MLS for more roster freedom, but usually the ownership group says “no.” “We are getting better players in the league” and they will continue to do so.
“There will never be promotion and relegation.” The cost of entry for an owner including expansion fee, stadium and other fixed costs is “about $450 million.” You cannot ask them to spend that with danger of going down. He does float that in 10 years maybe there is a viable second division with a system of movement between 1st and 2nd divisions.
“As Americans we should be proud of our country and proud of our soccer league.” People in Europe’s best clubs look to MLS lack of pro-rel with envy and would prefer playoffs as well.A CHRISTIAN DEMOCRAT: You have two cows. You keep one and give one to your neighbor.
A SOCIALIST: You have two cows. The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
AN AMERICAN REPUBLICAN: You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. So what?
AN AMERICAN DEMOCRAT: You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. You feel guilty for being successful. You vote people into office who tax your cows, forcing you to sell one to raise money to pay the tax. The people you voted for then take the tax money and buy a cow and give it to your neighbor. You feel righteous.
A COMMUNIST: You have two cows. The government seizes both and provides you with milk.
A FASCIST: You have two cows. The government seizes both and sells you the milk. You join the underground and start a campaign of sabotage.
DEMOCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE: You have two cows. The government taxes you to the point you have to sell both to support a man in a foreign country who has only one cow, which was a gift from your government.
CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE: You have two cows. You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows.
BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE: You have two cows. The government takes them both, shoots one, milks the other, pays you for the milk, then pours the milk down the drain.
AN AMERICAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows. You are surprised when the cow drops dead.
A FRENCH CORPORATION: You have two cows. You go on strike because you want three cows.
A JAPANESE CORPORATION: You have two cows. You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk. You then create clever cow cartoon images called Cowkimon and market them World-Wide.
A GERMAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You reengineer them so they live for 100 years, eat once a month, and milk themselves.
A BRITISH CORPORATION: You have two cows. They are mad. They die. Pass the shepherd's pie, please.
AN ITALIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows, but you don't know where they are. You break for lunch.
A RUSSIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You count them and learn you have five cows. You count them again and learn you have 42 cows. You count them again and learn you have 12 cows. You stop counting cows and open another bottle of vodka.
A SWISS CORPORATION: You have 5000 cows, none of which belong to you. You charge others for storing them.
A BRAZILIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You enter into a partnership with an American corporation. Soon you have 1000 cows and the American corporation declares bankruptcy.
AN INDIAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You worship both of them.
A CHINESE CORPORATION: You have two cows. You have 300 people milking them. You claim full employment, high bovine productivity, and arrest the newsman who reported on them.
AN ISRAELI CORPORATION: There are these two Jewish cows, right? They open a milk factory, an ice cream store, and then sell the movie rights. They send their calves to Harvard to become doctors. So, who needs people?
AN ARKANSAS CORPORATION: You have two cows. That one on the left is kinda cute.Rio Ferdinand (left) and Thierry Henry (second right) join BBC regulars Gabby Logan, Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer on the BBC's Euro 2016 coverage
Former England captain Rio Ferdinand and French World Cup winner Thierry Henry are among the TV pundits for the BBC's coverage of Euro 2016.
They will join BBC regulars Gary Lineker, Gabby Logan and Alan Shearer for 26 live matches.
Every game broadcast on TV and Radio 5 live will be simulcast on the BBC Sport website and app.
And in-game highlights will let you watch the goals from BBC games as they happen on desktop, tablet and mobile.
Former England midfielder Frank Lampard and ex-Germany striker Jurgen Klinsmann will also make multi-platform contributions across the four-week tournament, which starts on 10 June and is being hosted by France.
Gianluca Vialli, Jens Lehmann, Robbie Savage and Neil Lennon are among the other former international players lined up to share their expertise.
The BBC Sport website will feature a 'Euro 96 Rewind' too, with full match video and text coverage.
Readers will be able to personalise their Euro 2016 digital service, use the Euro 2016 Predictor and Team Selector tools, and enjoy a Euro 2016 catch-up video, available to download via BBC iPlayer.
In the BBC Sport app, you can set up alerts for any Euro 2016 team - helping you stay across the scores wherever you happen to be.
Lineker and Dan Walker will take social media users behind the scenes of the Match of the Day studio in the heart of Paris with Facebook Live, while ex-England midfielder Jermaine Jenas will front the BBC Sport Snapchat account.
On Radio 5 live, Mark Chapman and Kelly Cates will head up match coverage alongside Caroline Barker and Walker.
There will also be three special TV documentaries aired before the tournament.
Director of BBC Sport Barbara Slater said: "As excitement builds towards one of the most anticipated sporting events of 2016, we are delighted to bring audiences closer to the heart of the action than ever before with unparalleled coverage across TV, radio and enhanced personalised options across our digital services available 24/7.
"This summer's Championship will bring the nation together to witness unmissable sporting moments, captivating audiences of all ages on football's biggest stage."
Have you added the new Top Story alerts in the BBC Sport app? Simply head to the menu in the app - and don't forget you can also add score alerts your football team and more.Editor's note: Are you in Egypt? Send us your experiences, but please stay safe.
(CNN) -- After days of mass demonstrations, Egypt's military finally ousted Mohamed Morsy, the country's first democratically elected president, in the country's second revolution in two years.
Morsy, a Western-educated Islamist aligned with the Muslim Brotherhood movement, had rejected an ultimatum delivered by the military to resolve the crisis within 48 hours, creating a stand-off with the military, the most powerful institution in the country. In a televised speech to the nation, Egypt's top military officer, Gen. Abdel-Fatah El-Sisi, said Morsy "did not achieve the goals of the people" during his single year in office.
Who runs Egypt now?
El-Sisi said Adly Mansour, head of the country's Supreme Constitutional Court, would replace Morsy as interim president and Mansour was sworn in on Thursday. The road map announced by El-Sisi also includes suspending and rewriting the constitution introduced after former dictator Hosni Mubarak's ouster, and holding new parliamentary and presidential elections at a later, unspecified date. At his swearing in ceremony, Mansour said the Egyptian people had given him the authority "to amend and correct" the 2011 revolution.
Who is Adly Mansour?
The 67-year-old judge only became the head of Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court on Monday, and was named as the country's new interim president just two days later. He was appointed vice president of the court in 1992, serving during Mubarak's nearly 30-year rule. CNN's chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour said that, according to one former military official, Mansour could serve between 9 to 12 months in an interim role.
PROFILE: Adly Mansour
How have the Egyptian people reacted?
The news has been met with jubilation and fireworks in Tahrir Square in central Cairo, where hundreds of thousands had turned out in recent days demanding Morsy leave office. Their complaints ranged from concerns about the Muslim Brotherhood's Islamic agenda being brought to bear on the nation's laws, to frustration with his government's failure to address high unemployment, crime and living costs.
READ: Egypt's Morsy toppled
But Morsy, who was elected as president with 52% of the vote last year, retains a substantial support base, which has congregated at rallies in places like Nasr City in Cairo. The pro-Morsy camp has decried the army's move as an illegitimate coup and refused to accept its validity, while Morsy himself has declared that he is still president.
CNN senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman, a former Cairo bureau chief who has been covering the crisis, said one protester at a pro-Morsy rally had told him he felt demonstrators would stay there "until Mohamed Morsy is once again president of Egypt." Despite the euphoria in Tahrir, said Wedeman, "There's a significant portion of the Egyptian population -- I wouldn't suggest it's a majority -- who are very upset at what has happened."
As news of the coup broke, clashes were reported throughout the country, with at least eight killed and 340 wounded. Political violence had rocked the country in the days leading up to the military takeover.
How are Morsy and the Muslim Brotherhood being treated?
The deposed president was arrested by presidential guards at their headquarters, and is being held under house arrest and "basically cut (off) from the world," Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad told CNN. "They cut all his access, all his calls. No one is meeting him," he said.
According to reports, the military has also begun rounding up members of the Muslim Brotherhood, the long-repressed political movement that propelled the deposed president to office. State-run newspaper Al-Ahram reported 300 members of the Muslim Brotherhood were being sought by police, and El-Haddad said the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party chief, Saad el-Katatni, and his deputy, Rashad Al-Bayoumi, had been arrested.
Has anyone else been affected in the crackdown?
Arabic satellite network Al Jazeera reported its Cairo studios were raided during a live broadcast and its presenter, guests and producers detained, after broadcasting a taped statement from Morsy.
How is Morsy's Islamist base likely to respond?
Morsy has called for dialogue and appealed to his supporters to demonstrate peacefully, but observers fear the army's actions could trigger a violent response.
Wedeman said there was a danger that some members of the Muslim Brotherhood would become disenfranchised and "challenge (Egypt's new leaders) with violence. They may take the attitude of 'we tried to play the game, our leaders were jailed, our media have been shut down... so we're going to destroy the system,'" he said. He felt the mood appeared more volatile than after Mubarak's ouster in 2011. "There's not going to be that quiet after the storm this time around," he said.
Mohammed Ayoob, Michigan State University professor emeritus of international relations, wrote an opinion piece for CNN.com warning of a potential extremist backlash to the coup. "The major lesson that Islamists in the Middle East are likely to learn from this episode is that they will not be allowed to exercise power no matter how many compromises they make in both the domestic and foreign policy arenas." He added: "This is likely to push a substantial portion of mainstream Islamists into the arms of the extremists who reject democracy and ideological compromise."
Telling CNN's Anderson Cooper that the pro-Morsy protests would remain on the streets, Muslim Brotherhood spokesman El-Haddad reiterated his movement's commitment to non-violence, but hinted at the frustrations felt by his camp. "At the end of the day, we are committed to democracy and to peaceful change of power. But if the road to democracy every time... gets derailed... what other option are the people left with?"
What has been the reaction internationally?
U.S. President Barack Obama has expressed his country's "deep concern" over the toppling of a democratically elected leader and the suspension of the constitution, and said he would instruct officials to review aid contributions to Egypt as a result. But as CNN's Jake Tapper pointed out, Obama's statement was telling in that he did not use the word "coup," and in that he called on the Egyptian military to restore power to "a democratically elected civilian government" -- but not explicitly Morsy's.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also called for a quick return to civilian rule, appealing for "calm, non-violence, dialogue and restraint." By contrast, Saudi Arabia and the UAE both issued statements congratulating the Egyptian military for their actions.
'Correction' or 'coup'?
The military's actions have been decried as a coup by Morsy supporters but celebrated as a "correction" and an expression of the popular will by his opponents. The issue of definition is critical, as Amanpour pointed out, with ramifications in terms of how the international community responds to the situation.
But, she said, "if it's proven and true that they're running around issuing arrest warrants for all these people, attacking and closing down various media outlets, there's very little you can call it other than a coup.
"As one analyst said to me... no matter what it's called... it's umpired by the army... It's the army in charge no matter who they put there (in charge)."
The situation was "a paradox," she added. "Here you have the first elected government -- which obviously didn't perform as the people wanted -- now being drummed out by the military called upon by so many millions of Egyptians."Last week, my human rights organization, the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), scored another major victory for truth and freedom in Philadelphia. The court ruled that our ads highlighting Islamic Jew-hatred and the Nazi-Islamic alliance, which had been previously denied, could not be prohibited. The judge ruled they had to run.
Victory! But don’t applaud too loudly. The Philly transit authority has declared they will no long accept political ads. The Geller Ban is back. This is not the first time city authorities have changed the rules in response to an AFDI free speech victory.
Longtime supporters of my work are familiar with my numerous court cases in the defense of free speech. Now, after winning another such case, we are about to run our first ad campaign in Philadelphia, and apparently our last: the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Thursday that SEPTA, the Philadelphia-area transit authority, would not appeal a federal court ruling saying that they had to run our ads – instead, they are going to change their rules to prevent all such ads from running in the future.
“New advertising standards,” said the Inquirer, “will be created to prohibit all political, public-issue, and noncommercial ads. By consistently refusing all such ads, SEPTA officials say, they will satisfy Goldberg’s concerns that selective prohibitions violated constitutional free-speech protections.”
Time and time again, various city officials and dictatorial bureaucrats have censored or banned outright our ads of truth and freedom, while allowing the most fallacious and libelous anti-Jewish, pro-jihad message to run. The mainstream media piles on, as in the Philadelphia Inquirer story about this rule change, which calls our ads “virulently anti-Muslim,” without ever bothering to discover whether or not Islamic Jew-hatred really is in the Qur’an, or to consider whether it is really wise of the U.S. government to give aid to countries that encourage that hatred.
This is essentially soft sharia enforcement: the prohibition of any criticism of Islam and of anything offensive to Islam and Muslim sensibilities. It is completely contrary to both the letter and the spirit of the First Amendment, and so time and time again, we sue and we win. And time and time again, instead of looking after the taxpayer coffers and protecting and defending our freedoms, the fat dictocrats in charge of city transportation agencies and other authoritarian bureaucrats squander tax monies on their legal fees (and ours), while working to abridge our freedoms.
Miami was the first city to change its rules, after the Hamas-tied Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) complained about our ads offering help to people who had been threatened by their families for leaving Islam. Then Chicago changed its rules after our campaign telling the truth about jihad ran to counter CAIR’s cynical, deceptive campaign sugarcoating the grim reality of jihad. New York considered changing its rules after the brouhaha over my ads calling for support of Israel and the civilized man over the savagery of the Palestinian jihadists, but the proposal was voted down, to the credit of the officials involved. Here is video of my appeal to the MTA asking that they not adopt these rule changes.
As this all unfolds anew in Philadelphia, not a single “journalist” in the mainstream media questioned even for a second the end-run around the First Amendment that these transit authorities are making by banning cause-related ads. I did three interviews on Thursday about our free speech victory in Philadelphia: for WPVI-TV, NJ.com, and the Inquirer, and not one of them mentioned me or quoted a single thing I said.
The Lockstep Monster. Only one point of view is allowed.
Bob Stewart of the Inquirer was apologetic, writing me after his story ran: “Unfortunately they halved my space for the story so it’s a squeeze job. I’m sure you know the deal.”
I responded: “Actually, Bob, I don’t know the deal. It is telling that not one of the publications that called me for comment used anything I said. Not one. Free press, indeed. It would be comical if the stakes weren’t so bloody high.”
And they are. While America sleeps, these rule changes are rendering the First Amendment a dead letter. The stakes couldn’t be higher.
Pamela Geller is the President of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), publisher of PamelaGeller.com and author of The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America and Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance. Follow her on Twitter here. Like her on Facebook here.This week I've been in the UK again, giving a talk about Lumicall and JSCommunicator in Manchester last night and a talk about Free Real-Time Communications at the mini-DebConf in Cambridge on the weekend of 7-8 November.
An interesting backdrop to these activities has been a national debate about Internet privacy. The UK Government and police are demanding laws to mandate back doors in all communications products and services.
It leaves me wondering about a range of issues:
Island mentality in the Internet age
Politics aside, what would this mean from a technical perspective? The overwhelming consensus among experts is that secure technology that people use and expect in many other parts of the world, including the US, simply won't be compatible with the products and services that UK residents will be permitted to use. Bigger companies like Google and Apple may be able to offer differentiated versions of their services for the UK but smaller companies or companies who have built their reputation on technical excellence simply won't be able or willing to offer crippled versions of their products with backdoors for the UK. The UK's island geography will become a metaphor for its relationship with the global marketplace.
The first thing to take note of is that encryption and authentication are closely related. Public-key cryptography, for example, simply swaps the public key and private key when being used to authenticate instead of encrypt. An effective and wide-reaching legal ban on encryption would also potentially prohibit the algorithms used for authentication.
Many methods of distributing software, including packages distributed through Linux distributions or apps distributed through the Google Play store are authenticated with such algorithms. This is often referred to as a digital signature. Digital signatures help ensure that software is not corrupted, tampered with by hackers or infected by viruses when it is transmitted and stored in the public Internet.
To correctly implement these mechanisms for installing software safely, every device running an operating system such as Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora or Android needs to include some software modules implementing the algorithms. In Linux, for example, I'm referring to packages like GnuPG, OpenSSL and GnuTLS. Without these components, it would be hard or even impossible for developers in the UK to contribute or publish new versions of their software. Users of the software would not be able to securely receive vital updates to their systems.
An opportunity for free software?
Some people say that any publicity can be good publicity. Now the Government has put the ball into play, people promoting secure solutions based on free software have an opportunity to participate in the debate too.
While laws may or may not change, principles don't. It is a perfect time to remind users that many of the principles of software freedom were written down many years ago, |
2GB storage.
Wrike has all useful carts including, Gantt Chart, Baseline Chart and Performance Chart which shows and tracks all progress and achievements according to the plan. With great collaboration with all the team members, Wrike also includes real-time document editing, where you everyone can collaborate at the single sheet, similar to Google Docs. Another, very different offer from Wrike, came in form of exclusive case studies, learning resources and industry performance benchmarks. All these helped us in gaining more knowledge about our industry.
Wrike is a great project management tool for:
Marketing Teams
Creative Teams
Project Management Teams
Product Development Teams in a company across the Globe.
Not only this, if your company uses Google Apps then, Wrike has very close integration with them, you get to:
Easily attach documents straight from Google Drive
Save time with Gmail gadget inside your Gmail account
Integrate tasks into your Google calendar
Now only these, looking at overall feature integration of Wrike with Google Apps, we can call it Google Project Management Tool.
The pricing model of Wrike: The Paid version of Wrike starts at $49 per month for 5 GB storage and unlimited projects. Upto 5 users, you can try free plan of Wrike.
Wrike update:
To be able to put up with new GDPR law Wrike is continually investing in new tools and features to make their product GDPR compliant. These updates include improving the security infrastructure, an audit of the third party contractual terms and conditions, new tools for data portability and data management.
Basecamp Alternative – Asana
I had heard a lot about Asana. So, I decided to try it. Asana is a wonderful Basecamp alternative and a great team management app. It allowed me to add more than one person to a task, track what others are doing, mark a task finished and also create different teams as per my need.
Features I loved about Asana:
User-friendly interface, easy to understand
Integration with Google Drive, Dropbox, Slack, GitHub, WordPress and many more – these are all the apps we use day and night.
Perfect for Small and Mid-size businesses; especially for growing startup like us.
Mobile and tablet compatible – One of the most required features for flexible team.
Social Media sharing and Time tracking feature available
Ability to see teammates’ tasks and priorities
Follow tasks and add followers to them
Set due dates and goals – Reminder is wonderful feature
REST API for customers to build custom-interfaces
The pricing model of Asana: Freemium Model, you can try Asana for Free.
Asana offers open source Chrome extension and its REST API can manage users, projects, tasks, workplaces and stories! This Task Management software serves companies like Twitter, Uber, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Rdio, NationBuilder, and Airbnb. Rosenstein from Hops & Hominy compares the working of Asana to a healthy human brain. He opines Asana is the future where coordinating collective actions will be hassle free for every organization on earth. To Rosenstein, Asana has its heart in helping people self-actualize, help their fellow men and leverage their potential.
Asana was great until the trial period expired. The paid version seemed costly for us, since all these features I was getting by paying at Asana, I could avail them for free at Podio. Also, you can find my Wrike vs Asana review and Asana alternatives.
Asana update: Asana has introduced several new features to make their products GDPR ready. It includes everything ranging from data transfers, security, data management, and other portability tools. You can find everything related to that here.
Basecamp Alternative – Podio
After a few days I started with Podio. Found in 2009 and acquired by Citrix 2012, Podio is definitely a fresh take on team collaboration. I will give a quick overview of Podio’s features-
Android, iOS and Web-browser compatible
Integration with Dropbox, Evernote, Google Drive, Zendesk and Freshbooks
Full open API
In-built IM and video chat
Includes private and open workspaces
I immediately took a liking to Podio. Any app that connects me to Evernote and Freshbooks, is always welcome. So, Podio was my next trial. Although Asana promised “Teamwork with emails”, I still took a liking to Podio for its integration feature, especially its integration with Campaign Monitor, Dropbox, and Google Docs. The icing on the cake was our custom integration with Mailchimp alternative – Mailerlite.
Podio also has a freemium model. However, I would say this is where Asana out beats Podio. Podio offers free version for limited access rights and functionality control to up to 5 users. After that, it is $9 per employee, per month. Asana definitely wins.
Pricing model of Podio: Upto 5 Employees and 5 External Users, Try Podio for free.
Comparison with Basecamp:
In the hunt for a perfect tool for project management, I started with Basecamp, followed by using other tools over time; one by one. Here is a very first comparison of Basecamp vs Asana:
Basecamp cost varies on the basis of projects and storage. For instance, at $20/month, 10 active projects and 3GB space can be used. Asana, on the other hand, can be called a basecamp alternative free app. Most small businesses can do with the free version. For those who cannot, unlimited projects at $50 is more than reasonable!
Basecamp provides unlimited projects at $150/month worth 100 GB. If you require more, you need to buy the complete package of 500GB space and a priority support at $3000 straight! Asana has a different take on storage. A company spokesperson quoted “Asana doesn’t specialize in storage functionality, so instead offers integrations with cloud providers Dropbox, Google Drive, and Box. For individual files uploaded to Asana, there’s a 100MB limit per individual attachment”.
Basecamp has a ‘master’ calendar for the whole team. Also, you can have specific project calendars. Asana hosts the option of having personal calendars as well as project-specific calendars.
Next comparison I want to do with Basecamp vs Podio:
Podio provides a review of all the tasks across the workplace, unlike Basecamp which reveals the ‘To-do’ lists only. In Basecamp you will need to navigate across all the Accounts to know the status of your task.
In basecamp ‘Discussions’ pick up from where To-dos take leave, but sadly these are separate features. Podio has the Task comment threads and descriptions features in contrast to Basecamp.
Basecamp definitely has its priority set to clients engaging priority; and it is perfect. Podio has a weird way of showing the “contacts”. They have something called “External Users” which are supposed to be either contacts, or clients! It is confusing, in other words.
However much we negate emails, it ultimately boils down to one truth- emails are important. Your clients may have different systems to worry about. In such cases, emails are saviours. Basecamp does this most effectively and beautifully. The email notifications for project activities are a seamless way to have control. Podio is a mixed bag in this case. There are a lot of features that keep users wondering what’s happening. The lack of integration of emails for actual conversations is where Podio lags.
After Podio, lets compare Basecamp vs Teamwork:
Well, Teamwork went on to have a detailed overview of how it has all the features that are missing in Basecamp. Starting with Time tracking, recurring tasks, assigning multiple people to one task, advanced privacy options- Teamwork kind of built itself keeping Basecamp in mind I think! To add to that, they also list down reviews from ex-Basecamp users who now use TeamworkPM. Seems like Teamwork took the Basecamp vs Teamwork bit too seriously!!
Comparison of Basecamp vs Wrike:
Features available in Wrike only are:
Can include one task in several projects
Several projects and subprojects can be viewed on one screen
Cross-project prioritization available
Office files can be edited without downloading
Wrike allows you to share a single task or the whole project, while Basecamp allows to loop-in someone in a discussion only via email.
While Basecamp gives Newsfeed, Wrike has-
Customized reports
Time-tracking
Hierarchy of projects
Recurring tasks
Gantt Charts
Customized Dashboard
Task dependencies
More Basecamp Alternatives that I used:
Bitrix24: Bitrix24 is a social Intranet for your business. It is a task management app, integrated with document sharing and time-tracking with social network apps. What it offers include blogs, calendars, files, tasks, photos, workgroups, likes, task comments, and more! It advocates a freemium model. Get the free version here. You can also avail the Enterprise Version of Bitrix24.
Zoho Projects: Break down your complex tasks into simple milestones and task lists with Zoho Projects. Features that Zoho offers makes it a strong Basecamp alternative software with time tracking. Names like Techcrunch, PC World, New York Times features in their customers’ list. Its integration with Google Apps, Dropbox and Github, along with new mobile apps makes Zoho Projects a simple Basecamp alternative.
Atlassian Jira: Atlassian Jira, another Basecamp alternative, has more than 23,000 customers and an user-base of 30,000,000. LinkedIn and NASA are some of the prominent names among others who use Atlassian Jira. It includes Google Apps integration, time management, and tracking features, and also has a HTML5 enabled mobile interface. Jira also has self hosted option for a one time price of $10 for 10 users, $1,200 for 25 users and so on. If you are to use Jira on an open source project, Atlassian will let you use it for FREE.
Freedcamp: Freedcamp is an open source Basecamp alternative. It is most explicitly cited as “the closest free alternative you will ever get to Basecamp”. With 140,000 customers at bay, Freedcamp by Enavu has Google, ABC and Chase Bank in the list. The simple interface, social media integration, browser alerts and other communication tools make Freedcamp one of the best Basecamp alternative software. It is free for unlimited users, but it comes with only 20MB storage. You can upgrade it to 1GB at $2.49/mo. Unlimited storage is available at $39.99/mo.
While I think the above eight options are the closest competitors to Basecamp, two more I think is worth mentioning as Basecamp alternatives are Trello and Glip.
Mostly all of them are mobile compatible and have social media integrations. Basecamp is good in the initial stage, but sadly Basecamp stood rooted to its original features, with no improvisation at all.
These are few slick tools worth noticing if you have a smaller team or is a solo-preneur. You can also check some of these open source project management tools for small business referred by Capterra. Know any other alternatives? Tell me in the comments.This article was created by Tumblr user tk-603, who previously wished to remain anonymous, who first noticed the similarities between the fanfiction and The Last Jedi. The article was intended to be shared among those who had read the story and noticed the similarities for themselves. The author isn’t claiming plagiarism of the movie; they just want answers as to why the heck Rey’s origins, Phasma’s staff, and the plot of the Rey/Kylo interactions are so damn similar, because it’s really freaky. You can read the full address here.
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This post contains major spoilers for Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Shortly after The Last Jedi premiered in LA, the Internet was buzzing with rumors discussing the big reveals, plot points, and spoilers that the film had to offer. One person who caught the movie early happened to notice some striking similarities between the plot of the film and a fanfiction that they read months ago. They posted it to Tumblr, someone posted it to Reddit, and as these things go, it went viral and left many scratching their heads, wondering how one fanfiction could possibly predict exactly what happens in The Last Jedi.
If you’ve ever browsed through Star Wars fanfiction on Archive of Our Own, you’ve probably ran into the name streetsolo at one point or another. She’s the writer of the Signs and Smoke Signals trilogy, consisting of books A Flare in the Dark, A Candle in the Night, and A Glow in the Dawn. The trilogy is enormous: with over one million words, it’s longer than the Harry Potter franchise and has over sixty thousand views spread between them.
The series was written and published starting in 2016, just one month after The Force Awakens came out. In other words, too soon for the story to just be based on leaks and rumors.
One of the first things readers noticed is probably the biggest: the story spoils the story of Rey’s parentage early on. The story is written as a Reader-insert to take the place of Rey herself, but the lines are still eerily similar. From the story, here is her interaction with Kylo Ren:
“My father is most likely dead,” you reply. “It never does well to dwell upon grudges that we have no chance of remedying.” “Do you think he was an honorable man?” You shake your head. “The man sold his daughter for drink. I would not say he was.” The fact that she was sold into slavery for drinking money is brought up several times throughout the story. It’s strange because while human slavery is something that’s touched upon often, we don’t ever really see anyone get drunk in the Star Wars franchise enough to say that it’s a common occurrence and a conclusion that two people might arrive at independently. There simply isn’t a Star Wars character that you can point to and say – there! he’s an alcoholic! For comparison, here’s the direct line from the transcript of The Last Jedi: Your parents were filthy junk traders who sold their only daughter for drinking money.
With all of the possible theories surrounding Rey’s origins: she’s a Skywalker, Kenobi, related to Palpatine, birthed by the midi-chlorians just like Anakin was – it’s strange that they both share the same origin story, especially when it’s so out of the box that it’s something that most people wouldn’t have even considered.
The lines have an eerie similarity, but there is a possibility that that could simply be coincidence. After all, it’s just one thing, right? Possibly, but it gets a little stranger when you read on and discover that the story basically revealed the entire plot…only two months after The Force Awakens came out and before any script was finalized.
In the story, A Candle in the Night, the Reader has been living on the Resistance base, undergoing training to develop her powers in the Force. Snoke bridges their minds and manipulates them through a Force bond that allows them to communicate long distance. The vision compels her to think that there is something good in Kylo Ren, and so she willingly goes to him in order to try to convince him to come back.
Sound familiar? Read on.
In the story, Kylo Ren lets Snoke think that he is servile and submissive while Snoke taunts him and tells him that he can’t shield his thoughts from him; then Kylo turns and attacks him without Snoke realizing it. At one point, both her and Kylo grab for the lightsaber at the same time and it’s frozen in place between them. The stalemate is only broken when an explosion rocks the ship and they’re both knocked unconscious. There are only two small differences: for one, the lightsaber doesn’t break. The lightsaber torn between them is also Kylo Ren’s lightsaber: she summoned it to her and was fighting with it after she was disarmed.
You know, kind of like Rey did.
That does sound eerily reminiscent of the plot of The Last Jedi, doesn’t it? Remember, in the film, Rey’s training is interrupted with a vision from Snoke when he bridges their minds and manipulates them through a Force bond and allows them to communicate long distance. The vision is what compels her to believe that there is still some good in Kylo Ren, so she willingly goes to him in order to try to convince him to come back to the light. Then Snoke taunts Kylo, while he pretends to be service and obedient, before turning the lightsaber on his former master. Later, the lightsaber is frozen in place between them, and the stalemate is only broken when an explosion rocks the ship and they’re both knocked unconscious. Rey seems to wake up first, leaving her enough time to get away.
If this is a coincidence, it’s a pretty bizarre one. Even back during the initial photo shoots, the Internet was buzzing with rumors that the author “got it right” when everyone noticed that Captain Phasma was fighting with a staff. In the story, its her signature weapon, and the one that she uses to train our protagonist with. In the story, the staff contracts and expands to make it easier to carry…you know, sort of like it did in the movie when you see it expand just before she’s about to fight Finn.
Except this story was written only one month after The Force Awakens hit theatres.
There are a lot more strange similarities scattered throughout the story. Touching hands is used throughout the story as a way to feel each other through the Force and evaluate Force potential. Kylo Ren consistently has Force visions of things that may come into pass in the future, but only as far as the protagonist is concerned: just like how he believed he saw Rey’s future when he was taking her to Snoke.
In the story, Yoda’s Force Ghost, as well as the Force Ghost of other characters, make an appearance several times. The story delves more into the mythology of the “veil” separating the Force Ghosts from our world and explores that connection, how Jedi and other Force Sensitive beings that have passed on can communicate through it. While nothing beyond Yoda’s Force ghost makes an appearance in TLJ, with Luke’s passing, it leaves the door open and may be something that JJ will tackle in Episode IX.
After watching the film, many feel that Snoke’s death was wasted potential being killed off in only the second movie; however, Snoke is also believed to be dead in the second chapter of the author’s trilogy: until he makes a triumphant, unexpected return, revealing himself to have taken over Hux’s form. If this is something that happens in Episode IX, I think it’s safe to say the idea didn’t come from them.
The similarities also continue with other characters: Leia changes Poe Dameron’s rank to Captain and encourages him to take on more of a leader stance within the Resistance with the plans for him to take over officially. While this story was written and published even before the death of Carrie Fisher, this still isn’t too much of a stretch prediction, considering this story is all about passing the torch to a new generation.
Despite that, these are some extremely strange coincidences. Looking beyond that, the only other explanation is that Rian Johnson lifted some of his ideas from a popular fanfiction. It’s not the only time Rian has listed his ideas from another source: Rian lifted Luke’s Force Projection from the Dark Empire comics. One familiar scene is in Legacy of the Force: Fury, when Luke confronts Darth Caedus and uses the Force to keep him pinned to a chair. Luke seems unstoppable in this scene, and you don’t realize he’s a doppelganger until the very end when he vanishes…you know, kind of exactly like the last scene of The Last Jedi.
The story itself isn’t hard to find. With its massive word count, with a quick search, it’s the top result. It sounds too bizarre to even consider, but the evidence is there. With the story published and timestamped almost two years before The Last Jedi hit theatres, how did the author manage to get so many things “right?”
I think Lucasfilm has some explaining to do.
Update: Spencer Kornhaber, staff writer for The Atlantic, also wrote a piece on how elements of the Rey and Kylo interaction in the film were borrowed from a Reylo fanfiction. You can read that article here
Like this: Like Loading...I’ve got a strange love-hate thing going on with epic fantasy, guys. In some ways, it was my first love. High tales of chosen one heroes and grandiose adventure-taking is what spawned my love of reading in the first place. Things like Record of Lodoss War, the Wheel of Time, Final Fantasy games and the like. Despite the genre’s numerous downfalls, it’s the thing that I still want to write again someday, even if I’m a bit burned out on epic fantasy as a whole for the moment.
So, in preparation for that day of passionate reunion, of once again walking the fields of Middle Earth or a loving rip-off of it, here are some of the best tips I can give you on how to write the most amazing, generic epic fantasy of all time.
Note: And for the record, none of this is serious. It’s so hard to tell over the intertubes, sometimes.
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1. The Pros Use Prologues
Your book starts with Chapter 1? Um, that’s just like every book EVER, buddy. Here’s a tip: start it with a prologue. The further removed it is from the story in years, the better, and no fewer than 500 years. It should star the Big Bad, someone making a prophecy or the Big Bad making a prophecy. Or it could be overly mysterious and have nothing to do with the book. It’s OK to save that reveal for book 14.
2. Where Are We?
The start of this truly epic yarn really needs to leap off the page and grab me in an Alien facehugger kind of way. And nothing fills you up with tiny parasitic joy embryos like pages and pages of setting. At the start of Chapter 1, forget your main character for the time being. That’s too micro for what you’re trying to do.
Tell me about the land. The countryside. The birds in the air, or whatever your world’s closest approximation happens to be, like flying hippos. The more mundane, the better. Over a few overwrought paragraphs, narrow it down to the main character’s home town, which will of course be in the middle of nowhere. But this is a new place, so give us a while to get our bearings. A long while if you’ve got the chops.
3. The Main Squeeze
Your hero, tall, fair and handsome, should have all the personality of a slug. Sure, he can mope around about whatever menial chores he has to do around his flying hippo farm, and have a desire for adventure, but anything else is distracting from YOUR WORLD, and that’s the key here. If he’s not an orphan already, he’d better be soon, or I’m out of your story like that.
In terms of flaws, he should be a little rash and not the most powerful being on the planet — yet. But don’t worry, he’ll be there within a few pages of his inevitable training.
4. Infodump Me Like One of Your Westeros Girls
Now we get to the meat. If I’m not hearing the meaning of life, the universe and everything in between when it comes to the history of your world, we’ve got ourselves a ticket to Snoozeville. This is best delivered by some crazy old crone in Rand al Skywalker’s home town who is clinically insane but still right about all the cooky shit. If not an old crone, feel free to drop it in dialogue while the main squeeze is doing some of his boring chores, or getting ready for the harvest festival, or thinking about the hometown girl who he’ll ultimately forget about when he meets Magic Breasts, the woman of his dreams.
If you’ve really got the epic skills, you can just give it to us in huge paragraphs at random, but make it seamless. If the main character is looking at a plant for instance, tell us how that plant affects the economy, and while we’re on the subject of the economy, here’s how your money system works, the secretary of treasury’s likes and dislikes, and how something fishy is going on in the government that may or may not have anything to do with that strange comet in the sky that some people say is related to this 5000 year old prophecy.
See? And you thought this was hard.
5. Get with the Times
Please, please, please make your fantasy close to medieval times and technology. People need something to root them into your world, and it totally makes sense that this different set of people with MAGIC and four suns and nine moons would have a civilization thousands of years older than ours and not have moved past the dark ages. And come on, we need castles and armor and stuff.
Everyone should also be vaguely European, and preferably British-lite, so your vernacular should reflect that as well. If you think it breaks the suspension of disbelief to have them calling each other “bloody tossers” all the time, just take that lingo and replace it with your own. “Gorey dinglefarts” works just as well, and that slang gives the appearance of a world fleshed out with extra jiggly love handles.
And while we’re on that subject, show your writing prowess with a bit more infodumping here — people swear about deities all the time. “By the Soul Monger’s swollen spleen!” and “The Dark Fairy’s right testicle!” can work double duty for you here.
6. Going on a Misadventure
If the next 475 pages don’t read like a travel guide to Middle Earth then I don’t know where you expect to hold your audience. Show me townships, villages, cities, mountains, bogs, holds, keeps, keeps in bogs, cities on mountains and anything else that will bore Rand Skywalker to tears. Make him suffer with blisters and horses that never need to sleep and eat and an endless supply of money while he stays in inns (every single one of which you MUST describe). He should meet Magic Breasts and Warrior Guy and Mentor Face somewhere along the way, one of which will ultimately betray him.
7. The Magic Rulebook
Even though pretty much every character you introduce past a certain point of the book will be able to use more magic than Gandalf, people in your world should generally doubt that it exists at all, despite OVERWHELMING EVIDENCE to the contrary. When magic ultimately makes its totally unexpected appearance, you’d better teach me about that business. I’m serious. Give me charts, graphs, rules, the magical periodic table of elements, I don’t care, I’d just better believe that your magic has some hardcore rules, or I’m out. If your magic doesn’t make sense, then there’s no way it’s like actual magic, and therefore is a ruse, and you are a liar.
Teach the main character and the reader every last detail about this magic system you’ve created, and be sure to give us the exceptions to the rules and the theoretical whatsits that Rand Skywalker will ultimately demolish because he’s the Supreme Butthole Reborn.
8. Multiple POVs
This is more of a note for the future, but feel free to ditch your main character from time to time, for several chapters or even whole books (as long as he’s in the prologue or epilogue or thought about or seen on a wanted poster occasionally). The more characters in your story, the better.
I need to see POVs from the main squeeze, Magic Breasts, Magic Breasts’ rival, her rival’s rival, the Big Bad, the Big Bad’s not at all threatening errand boy, the main squeeze’s horse and some rich lord in a faraway land whose actions kick off a seven book subplot that may or may not be resolved by series end. Because hey, you have to leave your self somewhere to go in case this whole Big Bad thing fizzles out.
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And there you have it. This won’t take you through a whole book, but I’ve seriously done a lot of the legwork for you. Who knows, maybe we’ll have more of these in the future.
What are some of your favorite epic fantasy tropes, writing cliches and general pitfalls that you love, hate, and love to hate?Don’t you love pages that are reactive and lively? They’re a delight to use. But it’s a nightmare for the developer to program. However, with just a little mix and match of the right frameworks, you can build delightful pages that don’t take a toll on you.
In this tutorial we’ll build a live search page with ReactJS, Rails and Elasticsearch. A live search page is a just a search page that responds to the query, as it’s being typed.
Something like this,
Liveserach
Here’s how it is going to work.
The communication between Elasticsearch, Rails and ReactJS
Let’s start out by creating a simple Rails scaffold called “songs” which has “name” and “artist” as the attributes. Simple.
rails g scaffold songs name:string artist:string
Now lets add a search action in the SongsController that will accept a search query and render a JSON with the search results. If the request is XHR, we’ll render a JSON. If it’s not, we’ll render the Index page.
To integrate Elasticsearch, we’ll use Searchkick. This will allow us to search on our Songs model with Elasticsearch. Just add this to your Song model.
searchkick text_start: [‘artist’], text_start: [‘name’]
Now for the fun part, ReactJS. We’ll be using the React gem to do this. Just add it to your Gemfile!
Now we have access to a new helper, react_component. This helper is very similar to render :partial, but instead of rendering an ERB, it’s going to render the React component. And just like passing locals to your partial, we’ll be passing props here. Add this to your index.html.erb.
<%= react_component “SongsContainer”, { songsPath: songs_path(:json), searchPath: search_path } %>
The two props we’ll be passing here is the path to index in JSON format and the search path. This is how index.html.erb should look now,
Now lets create a SongsContainer in
app/assets/javascripts/components/_songs_container.js.jsx
Remember how I said props are like locals? Well what if your locals could change based on some conditions, and the UI automatically refreshed to show the new data?
Let’s take an example of a live stream. As new data comes up, the UI pushes down the old content and automatically updates to show the new content. And all this happens without you having to reload the page! This is essentialy what state is. It’s the data in React that when changes, causes the UI to reflect the same.
So simple, you have props which are like locals and don’t change, and state which is dynamic and causes the UI to refresh.
Let’s see how SongsContainer looks,
Scary right? But it’s pretty simple. The barebones of a React Class are it’s componentWillMount(), getInitialState() and render(). Let’s look at each of them,
componentWillMount()
This is the function that gets automatically triggered when the this React component loads into the DOM. So once it’s loaded we are telling it to access the index path in the form of JSON, and render out the content. Now, once you hit the main page, all the songs are rendered.
getInitialState()
This is pretty self explanatory. It is used to set the initial state of the… state. It sounded better in my head.
render()
This is the special function. It renders out the HTML content to the page. Kind of like in ERB, but not as powerful. The one major thing to remember here is that all content rendered here must be enclosed in ONE HTML element. It can be a <div> or a <ul> or anything else. This is due to the way JSX parses out the HTML content. Also remember to close orphan tags with a /, like in the case of <img /> or <br />.
Let’s see what exactly is is that render is doing here. In the first look, it seems like there is some custom tags that are being rendered. In a way that is true. This is how we call other React components, just like how we call a partial within a partial!
The first part is similar to something like <%= render @songs %>. It will loop over the array of songs and render out each one of them.
The second part is what renders the search form. And just like how we passed props from the ERB file, we can pass props from one component to the other.
This is how the Songs component looks like,
Pretty simple. It’s looping over the songs array and calling yet another React component to display each song. The important part here is the “key” prop that’s being passed on. This acts like an unique identifier to React. So when new content is being added on, React will just diff out the elements and refresh only the new content. Pretty neat huh?
This is how the Song component looks like, (notice the singular form here).
Finally! We can see the damn song.
Let’s look at something really interesting, the actual search form. There’s three props that are being passed on, “searchPath”, “submitPath” and “cancelPath”.
searchPath: It is the path to the search action in SongsController.
submitPath: It is the function in SongsContainer which will make a request to the searchPath along with the query that is being typed into the form.
cancelPath: It is the function in SongsContainer which will render out the index action in SongsController. This gives the illusion to the user that he is back on the home page.
Let’s look at some code,
It’s so simple! When there is a change on the input field (the user is typing), it queries the search action in our SongsController, which in turn queries Elasticsearch, and then returns a JSON of the result. This is then stored to the SongsContainer “songs” state. And since the state has been updated, the UI automatically reflects! We have our live search up.
Now in case the user hits on the enter key, the query is submitted again to the search action, but this time the screen reloads. Since we are making a full HTTP GET request.
The code is hosted on Github. It requires a working installation of Rails 4.x.x and Elasticsearch. Happy coding everybody!If anyone has been watching the Channel 4 programmes under the umbrella of Black Mirror will understand what a scary Orwellian place the future could be. In an article for the Times Higher Education supplement it has been revealed that the Prevent anti-terrorism strategy has lumped Fathers 4 Justice under the same banner as terrorists.
While many people have many views about F4J, they are not terrorists and only adopted the tactics they did because the family law courts did not (and continue not to) uphold the law over child custody and allow children to have a meaningful relationship with both parents.
To put that on a par with terrorism shows the lack of understanding the Home Office have in thinking that all groups that do not kowtow to the'system' must be placed in the same group even if some want to kill people like the terrorist groups.
Posted by SkimmingtonDrug users afraid of the rising fatalities surrounding opioids are increasingly turning to cocaine in Ohio, causing a massive spike in fatal overdoses attributed to the substance.
Officials in Ohio say many addicts and recreational drug users believe cocaine is safer than heroin, and less likely to be cut with powerful and deadly substances. Authorities say this misconception is starting to cost lives in the state, particularly in Lorain and Cuyahoga County. While heroin continues to be the deadliest drug in Cuyahoga, cocaine deaths are so far surpassing heroin fatalities in Lorain this year, reports ABC 5 Cleveland.
Authorities say many of the overdose deaths are linked to the presence of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid painkiller known to be roughly 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine. The influx of synthetic opioids like fentanyl are largely blamed for the current heroin epidemic, but police stress these deadly substances are appearing in an array of illicit narcotics.
“These are young people, most of these people that are dying are between 20 and 40 years old,” Dr. Stephen Evans, the Lorain County coroner, told ABC 5 Cleveland. “The agony and the tragedy are overwhelming to the people it’s happening to, it’s overwhelming to the coroner’s office, the police departments, we are seeing so much death it’s out of control. They’re afraid to use heroin, so they are substituting cocaine and think it’s safer, when actually obviously it’s not.”
Fentanyl is the leading drug killer in Lorain County but cocaine and cocaine mixed with fentanyl follow closely behind. Fentanyl is infiltrating drug supplies across the country because of how cheap the substance is compared to standard narcotics.
While a kilogram of heroin from a Mexican cartel will cost a domestic supplier roughly $64,000, they can order a kilogram of fentanyl through the mail from China for as little as $2,000.
Authorities are very concerned about the rising prevalence of synthetic opioids in cocaine supplies, because the substance is more widely used as a social drug.
They fear that users are largely unaware of fentanyl being cut up with cocaine and say it will likely fuel more death in the region. Less than half a teaspoon of pure fentanyl is enough to kill 10 people.
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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.Plot Edit
Sandy McKenzie (Stewart Granger) sets out on his last hunt with his new partner, the obsessive Charles Gilson (Robert Taylor). While McKenzie has grown tired of buffalo hunting, Gilson derives a pleasure from his "stands" – killing an entire herd of buffalo at one time. When Gilson chases down and kills an Indian raiding party, he takes an Indian woman and her child captive. The presence of the native woman causes tension and Gilson becomes increasingly paranoid and deranged, leading to a stand-off between the two former partners. In the final scene, McKenzie and the woman emerge from shelter to find that Gilson, though wearing a buffalo hide as protection from the cold, has frozen to death during the night, while waiting to ambush them.[2]
Original novel Edit
The New York Times said "except for A.B. Guthrie's "The Big Sky" and "The Way West" I can think of no novel about the Old West published within the last fifteen years as good as "The Last Hunt," by Milton Lott. This is the real thing, a gritty, tough, exciting story reeking with the pungent smells of dead buffalo and of dirty men."[3] W.R |
for dismounted forces?"
Surely the arms experts in Saudi Arabia and Qatar appreciate the fact that the new Leopard is equipped with an improved air conditioning system. After all, who wants to see their soldiers being roasted in an armor-plated oven in the desert, where summer temperatures can be as high as 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit)?
In the first week of July, Krauss-Maffei shipped one of its new miracle weapons to the Saudi desert to test the Leopard 2 under extreme heat conditions. The Defense Ministry in Berlin sent along an officer with the German Armed Forces, the Bundeswehr, to ensure safety during test firing of the tank's guns.
The successful desert test didn't go unnoticed by the region's sheikhs. The government of Qatar has already shown interest in buying up to 200 tanks, a deal that, should it come to fruition, could be worth up to 2 billion ($2.6 billion).
The Saudis, for their part, have already become loyal customers. Last summer, the German government responded positively to their request to buy up to 270 of the Leopard 2 tanks. But now Riyadh wants more. In a new request, the sheikhs have petitioned the German government for its approval of the purchase of a few hundred "Boxer" armed transport vehicles. Germany's Federal Security Council, which meets in secret, addressed the request last week. The government hasn't issued a decision yet on the deal, which would likewise be worth billions.
German high-tech weapons are a hot commodity among Arab potentates and other autocrats. They haven't failed to notice that the coalition government of Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP) has steadily relaxed Germany's otherwise restrictive arms export policy.
Record-Setting?
The official (and most recent) Military Equipment Export Report for 2011 shows that business is booming, with arms export permits issued by the German government topping 10 billion for the first time. Some 42 percent of the weapons are destined for so-called third-party states, outside NATO, NATO-equivalent and European Union countries, another number that could very well be record-setting. In 2010, it was just 29 percent.
The numbers suggest that the Merkel doctrine is beginning to have its effect. In accordance with the chancellor's wishes, Germany is now sending soldiers to conflict zones in emergency situations only. Instead, "partner countries" in the affected regions are to be strengthened through arms exports to handle the job of maintaining peace and security on their own.
It's a risky strategy, and it also signifies a substantial departure from the nationwide consensus on German foreign policy. "Even with the benefit of hindsight, Germany's restraint regarding its arms export policy has proven to be the right approach, and we should remain true to it," says former longstanding Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher (FDP), something of an éminence grise of German foreign policy.
Big ticket arms items often remain in service for decades. The Leopard 2, for example, was developed in the 1970s and old versions are still in service in many countries. For this reason, the risk is high that armaments could eventually fall into the wrong hands. The Arab spring showed how unstable many of the supposedly stable regimes in the region really are.
The chancellor points out that her foreign policy is "committed to the values" of democracy and human rights. And yet she permits weapons shipments -- in the name of stability -- to unsavory regimes whose human rights records are often appalling.
The body in which these contradictions are occasionally addressed is the Federal Security Council, which holds top-secret meetings at irregular intervals in the small conference room at the Chancellery. Merkel opened last Monday's meeting promptly at 4 p.m.
'Hospitable to Terrorism'
First, two FDP cabinet ministers, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and Development Minister Dirk Niebel, reported on the situation in the troubled West African country of Mali, which has been divided since the military staged a coup in the spring. Then it was Gerhard Schindler's turn to speak.
Schindler, who is president of the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany's foreign intelligence service, handed out a folder full of slides and charts. The situation in Mali is difficult, Schindler said, noting that many troops loyal to the government have deserted and the army is demoralized leading to a current inability to pressure the Islamists who have established control of the northern part of the country. "Northern Mali is in the process of becoming a region hospitable to terrorism."
Merkel is a disciplined politician who is almost never quoted using strong language. But when Schindler had finished his presentation, the chancellor exclaimed: "What a crap region."
After the first item on the agenda has been dealt with, the BND president and the intelligence coordinator at the Chancellery always leave the room. When it comes to individual arms exports, the chancellor and the other eight permanent members of the cabinet (ministers of foreign affairs, finance, defense, economics, interior, development and justice, along with Merkel's chief of staff) prefer to exclude other government officials from their discussions.
Only the relevant department head at the Chancellery, the government spokesperson and representatives from the Bundeswehr and the German president's office are allowed to stay in the room. The minutes merely contain rudimentary information on which arms export deals were approved and which ones were blocked.
Two projects that were discussed last Monday afternoon were particularly sensitive. The topic was the Middle East, as is so often the case. Protecting Israel's security is "part of my country's raison d'être," Merkel said in a March 2008 speech to the Israeli Knesset. "For me as German chancellor," she continued, "Israel's security will never be open to negotiation."
Partly as a result, Israel gets nuclear-capable submarines from the Germans, as well as any other weapons it wants. This time the Israelis wanted more modern launchers for rocket-propelled grenades and anti-armor weapons, made by Dynamit Nobel Defence near the western German town of Siegen.
'Now More than Ever'
In its advertising, the company notes that its RPGs can be fired at close range and out of confined spaces, making them perfect for use against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli request was on the Federal Security Council's agenda once before, in June. But the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development had concerns about exporting weapons for urban warfare to a potential combat zone, and the council decided to defer the decision.
Last Monday, with impressions from the most recent Gaza war in their minds, Merkel and her ministers decided to approve the weapons deal with Jerusalem. Germany had to support Israel, "now more than ever," one minister argued, saying that the threat coming from Hamas is serious. The group agreed that the arms shipment should also send a message.
In this context, Westerwelle is the personification of German paradox. Only a week earlier, he had tried in vain to serve as a peace broker between Israel and the Palestinians. And now the same minister was rubber-stamping the delivery of weapons that could be used in the Palestinian conflict.
The second request was even more sensitive. The Saudis are now interested in Boxer armored transport vehicles. Last summer, the news that Germany was willing to deliver up to 270 Leopard 2 tanks to Saudi Arabia triggered fierce political debates in Germany. But the sheikhs are unrelenting. Now they want to buy Boxers, which Krauss-Maffei Wegmann also co-manufactures.
The Boxer is one of the most modern battle vehicles in the world. It can be equipped with a remote-controlled weapons station or converted into a mobile surgical unit. The Bundeswehr uses the Boxer in Afghanistan as an armored personnel carrier. The Saudis need the vehicles for their Royal Guard, which protects the royal family.HTC retains brand but lets part of their smartphone business go.
Google has announced a $1.1 billion cooperation agreement under which certain HTC employees – many of whom are already working with Google to develop Pixel smartphones – will join Google.
Leading into today’s news, shares of HTC were halted on the Taiwan Stock Exchange pending this Wednesday night announcement.
Over the past month, we’ve heard from multiple sources familiar with the matter that Google was in the final stages of negotiating a deal with HTC and that it was “imminent.”
According to the announcement, HTC will receive $1.1 billion in cash from Google as part of the transaction, with about half of the 4,000 people in the company’s R&D team (“Powered by HTC” division) joining Google. At close to 2,000 folks, that comes out to roughly $500,000 per HTC staffer.
Separately, Google will receive a non-exclusive license for HTC intellectual property (IP).
HTC will continue to operate their VR business and keep their factories. Google will continue to have access to HTC’s IP to support the Pixel smartphone family. The transaction is expected to close by early 2018.
Google VR & HTC
Google and HTC already have a close working relationship, helping to push forward the tech giant’s commitment to virtual reality.
The two companies have already collaborated on the Google Pixel and Pixel XL smartphone since last year. The first Daydream ready phone, the Google Pixel powers Google’s Daydream View VR headset. You can slide the device into the front of the headset and use the phone’s display and computing hardware to immerse yourself in VR.
Then came the announcement at Google I/O in May, where Google revealed they would be launching an inside-out tracked standalone headset with HTC. Expected to drop late this year, the headset (rumored to be named the Vive Focus), operates on Google’s Daydream platform and utilizes Worldsense inside-out positional tracking.
Google already makes use of the HTC Vive to bring their own VR experiences to consumers, launching Google Earth, Tilt Brush, and Blocks on Vive. In May, Google acquired Owlchemy Labs for an undisclosed amount, the pioneering VR game studio that developed Job Simulator.
So what does this all mean for VR?
Considering the close relationship between the two companies, you can bet its not lost on how VR will play a larger role moving forward. For the most part, Google acquiring some of the smartphone business may be seen as a lifeline for HTC, but in a way, its also a no-brainer to further develop and expand Google’s hardware division.
The announced deal lets Google further challenge Apple’s device dominance with its own premium phone of their own. But more importantly when it comes to VR and AR, Google can better steer Android in a preferred direction, letting them ship Android devices with newer and more secure software, including VR platforms like Daydream and AR platforms like Google’s ARCore.
In 2012, the search giant paid $12.5 billion for Motorola Mobility, a leading Android handset manufacturer. In less than three years, Google sold it off to Lenovo Group Ltd. for under $3 billion. The Motorola deal at the time was not about manufacturing, but building moats for Android against competition. But this HTC deal is all about the manufacturing. From manufacturing capacity, supply chain expertise, and design talent, the deal helps bring the next generation of hardware from Google.
HTC is already the manufacturer of the upcoming Pixel 2, putting Google in a better position to absorb HTC’s manufacturing facilities into its own hardware unit very quickly. Google last year hired Motorola’s former president, Rick Osterloh, to run its hardware business.
HTC Vive has been facing stiffer competition, especially when it comes to pricing, where the Vive is still priced higher then others even with a price reduction last month to $599. HTC is still one of the only major players successful at actively targeting the commercial VR market, standing out among the Oculus Rift that just got a price cut of their own.
Image Credit: Jonathan Nafarrete for VRScout / HTCBAGHDAD (Reuters) - Islamic State militants have closed the streets around Mosul’s Grand al-Nuri Mosque, residents said, apparently in preparation for a final showdown in the battle over their last major stronghold in Iraq.
A member of the Iraqi rapid response forces fires a mortar shell against Islamic State militants positions in western Mosul, Iraq May 31, 2017. REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis
Dozens of fighters were seen by residents taking up positions in the past 48 hours around the medieval mosque, the site where Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi declared an Islamist caliphate in July 2014.
Islamic State’s black flag has been flying from the mosque since the militants captured Mosul and seized swathes of Iraq and Syria in the summer of 2014.
U.S.-backed Iraqi government forces retook eastern Mosul in January and began a new push on Saturday to capture the group’s remaining enclave in western Mosul, comprising of the Old City center where the mosque is located, and three adjacent districts alongside the western bank of the River Tigris.
The fall of the city would, in effect, mark the end of the Iraqi half of the self-styled caliphate. Meanwhile in Syria, Kurdish forces backed by U.S.-air strikes are beseiging Islamic State forces in the city of Raqqa, the militants’ de facto capital in that country.
SYMBOLIC FOCUS
Up to 200,000 people still live in harrowing conditions behind Islamic State lines in Mosul, running low on food, water and medicine, and with difficult access to hospitals, the United Nations said on Sunday.
The Grand al-Nuri Mosque has become a symbolic focus of the campaign, with Iraqi commanders privately saying they hope to capture it during Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month which started over the weekend in Iraq.
“Daesh’s fighters know that the mosque is the most important target and they are preparing for a major battle there,” said Hisham al-Hashemi, who advises several Middle East government including Iraq’s on Islamic State affairs.
But a battle in or near the mosque would put the building and its famed leaning minaret at risk, experts have said.
The minaret, several feet off the perpendicular and standing on humid soil, is particularly vulnerable as it has not been renovated since 1970. Its tilt gave the landmark its popular name - al-Hadba, or the hunchback.
The Mosul offensive, now in its eighth month, has taken much more time than expected as Islamic State is fighting in the middle of civilians and using them as human shields.
Over the past few days, the militants ordered dozens of families living in the Zanjili district to move into the Old City to prevent them from escaping toward the Iraqi forces trying to advance from the northern side, a resident said.
Government forces have been dropping leaflets over the districts telling families to flee but the intensity of the fighting has prevented people from escaping.
The militants been countering the offensive with suicide car and motorbike bombs, snipers, booby-traps and mortar fire.
About 700,000 people, about a third of the pre-war city’s population, have already fled, seeking refuge either with friends and relatives or in camps.Right now, CNN is reporting that White House lawyers have begun researching impeachment, according to sources.
Wolf Blitzer opened his program at 6 p.m. by going to Evan Perez, who said sources have told him that the lawyers have begun the research, though these same lawyers believe that any chance of impeachment is unlikely and, if it was to happen, would happen far in the future.
This is by no means an admission that Trump has done anything worthy of impeachment. In fact, even the contributors on CNN acknowledge that this is something they should be doing.
Things are incredibly tense in the White House, and all around Washington, as leaks continue to throw the Trump Administration into defense mode. A string of bad news cycles all stemming from last week’s meeting between Russian diplomats and Donald Trump have led the evening headlines for most of this week.
Brooke Singman of Fox News, however, says the White House is currently pushing back on this story.
A White House official tells me that @CNN reporting that WH counsel is looking into impeachment procedures is "FALSE" — Brooke Singman (@brookefoxnews) May 19, 2017
As of right now, impeachment seems to be little more than a rallying cry for Democratic politicians and liberal activists. But, if the Russia probe produces anything scandalous, and if the Republicans lose control of the House of Representatives next year, then the gloves could very well be off.ALLEN (CBSDFW.COM) – An Allen couple suspected a caretaker was abusing their autistic son. But they had trouble convincing operators of the group home where he was living, as well as state authorities. So they took matters into their own hands, which led to a shocking discovery and criminal charges.
Karen and Michael Hartley secretly placed a hidden camera inside their son Taylor’s room at residential nursing home and documented an alleged beating of the 22-year-old.
“You promise this child when they’re born that you’re going to love them forever and you’re going to protect them,” Karen Hartley said of her love for her son.
Taylor’s autism and physical size, as he grew older, made it difficult for him to stay with his parents.
So Karen and Michael moved Taylor into several homes in east Allen, then operated by Frank Nerkowski.
Within days of living at a home, located in the 800 block of Meadowcreek, the family received a phone call.
“I get a call from our dentist and he says, ‘Karen you’re not going to believe this but Taylor has a compound fracture of his jaw’,” recalled Karen.
Caretaker Michael Fuller and another worker blamed the injury on a fall.
“At first we tried to give them the benefit of the doubt,” Michael said of the situation.
For months the family documented bruises on Taylor’s ears and legs, as well as burns on his arm.
After state investigators failed to prove they were the result of abuse, the Hartley’s secretly installed a hidden camera in Taylor’s room in May 2011. Two weeks later, the family saw the video of Taylor cowering on his bed just about every time a caretaker entered the room.
Authorities say Fuller is the person seen on recordings beating Taylor with his fists and with a toy gun Taylor’s mom and dad gave him as a birthday present.
“I’m sitting here watching daytime television and my son is being beat and treated horribly,” said Taylor’s mother, “I feel so guilty we didn’t do the camera earlier.”
Frank Nerkowski manages several residential nursing homes, owned by his ex-wife, in Allen. He says Fuller no longer works for him and believes Taylor’s behavioral problems contributed to what happened.
“Whatever he did on film was not good,” Nerkowski said about Fuller, “He’s [Taylor] a good kid he’s playful but there’s no discipline whatsoever.”
Fuller appeared in Collin County court last week to face a felony assault charge. His case goes to trial May 14.
Taylor’s parent’s say their son is not only recovering from broken bones, he’s also struggling with a broken spirit.
“He’s just real sad. He’s lost some of the zest for the things he used to enjoy,” Karen said.
CBS 11 News attempted to but was unable to contact Fuller for comment on the allegations.
Also Check Out:Two new parks will show river in natural state Set to open in January, they'll hug the waterway in South Bexar County.
This stretch of the San Antonio River in South Bexar County will be part of a paddling trail that starts at Loop 1604 and goes south for 13 miles. This stretch of the San Antonio River in South Bexar County will be part of a paddling trail that starts at Loop 1604 and goes south for 13 miles. Photo: Colin McDonald / Cmcdonald@express-news.net Photo: Colin McDonald / Cmcdonald@express-news.net Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Two new parks will show river in natural state 1 / 4 Back to Gallery
As the San Antonio River passes under Loop 1604 in south Bexar County, it becomes a different kind of river.
It's no longer a tourist attraction sitting between cement walls. Nor is it the sculpted backdrop of a park.
Here it's as close as it will ever get to being a wild river.
Come January, the San Antonio River Authority is inviting the public to experience the river in its original form by opening two new parks connected by the 13-mile-long Saspamco Paddling Trail.
“People don't know the San Antonio River goes beyond the city,” SARA spokeswoman Laura Waldrum said.
Once beyond the city limits, the river not only is free of the city's regulations that forbid anyone touching it, but it also has cleaned itself enough to meet swimming standards.
With no rapids, the only challenges of the river as it flows at less than 2 mph are the submerged logs.
While natural, the logs are a reminder that the river is not pristine — they collect the floating detritus of humans, mostly thousands of plastic water bottles.
“That's an ongoing problem for any river that is downstream from a major city,” said Steven Raabe, director of technical services at SARA.
But because of the devastating floods of 1946, 1998 and 2002, the floating garbage is the only obvious sign of human impact.
After 1998, the federal government started to buy out those who lived in the river's flood plain, and there are no structures along the river's edge today.
What the floods left are high banks lined with mature cottonwood and willow trees. Turtles, egrets and fish are spotted every few minutes.
But the river is by no means free of human intervention.
Because the river starts in the middle of a metropolis, any rainstorm translates into an instant flood downstream.
A sudden 2-inch rainfall in San Antonio can mean the river rises 30 feet in less than three hours at Loop 1604.
These floods literally carry thousands of tons of sediment.
It is along the Saspamco Paddling Trail that much of this sediment is deposited, creating the 20- to 30-foot-high banks, explained Mike Gonzales, deputy director of technical services at SARA.
He estimates the river's banks were closer to 10 feet high and did not have the near-vertical slope before San Antonio was developed.
But by far the most telling human impact on the river is its daily rise and fall.
The paddling trail is named after the small community of Saspamco, which was named after the now-closed San Antonio Sewer Pipe Manufacturing Co.
The river's flow is a direct result of the sewer that still flows through those clay pipes in San Antonio.
The development of the city all but stopped the springs that fed the San Antonio River. In their place, sewer treatment plants now dictate the fluctuation of the river. Although the water they put out is near drinking water standards, it is by no means as steady as the flow from the river's springs, and it spikes in mid-morning and early evening.
Further, CPS Energy has an intake for the cooling lakes of its power plants right below the city's largest treatment plant.
The utility has the legal right to reduce the river's flow to 10 cubic feet per second to keep the cooling lakes of its power plants full.
The river hit those lows this summer.
SARA recommends a minimal flow of 60 cfs to keep the aquatic species of the river healthy, and 120 cfs to paddle.
But now that the summer heat is gone, along with its high evaporation rate, the river is back to being floatable.
“Right now, I like to call it prime time for paddling,” Gonzales said.Three significant moves in the first fortnight of 2016 signal a drive to end dollar hegemony and usher in a multi-polar world.
1. Iran-India oil payments in rupees
Iran and India have announced that they intend to settle all outstanding crude oil payments in rupees, as part of a joint strategy to dump the dollar and trade instead in national currencies.
The dollar dues — $6.5 billion equaling 55 per cent of oil payment — would be deposited in National Iranian Oil Co account with Indian banks. Sources said work was underway to amend the agreement with Iran to allow entire crude oil payment to be made in rupees. “Finance Ministry is moving a Cabinet note on withholding tax exemption on oil payments,” they said.
Since 2013, Indian refiners have been depositing 45 per cent of their oil payments to Iran in rupees with UCO Bank and withholding the remainder after a payment route through Turkey’s Halkbank was stopped under US and European sanctions.
This is truly a bold move by Iran, a country literally surrounded by American military bases. We shouldn't forget what happened to Iraq after it announced that it was dumping the dollar.
2. Russian sets own crude oil benchmark
Russia has taken a significant step to end the Wall Street oil price monopoly. Russia’s own crude oil benchmark future contracts will price oil in rubles and no longer in US dollars.
3. The AIIB is formally launched
The China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is formally launched this month which has 57-member countries and a war-chest of $100 billion. The move is an attempt to take the dependence away from US-controlled International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) and unlike these institutions no country will have a veto in the new AIIB bank.
It’s also worth adding that IMF has already found its hands forced and accepted yuan as a reserve world currency.
Going back to Iran, last year the Islamic republic moved to stop all mutual settlements in dollars with foreign countries.
Both Iran and Russia are committed to do trade in their own countries and there are plans afoot by the central banks of the two countries to set up a joint bank. (That’s why US has been so keen to limit Iran’s rise in the past).
Meanwhile, the de-dollarization moves in the world are beginning to pick up momentum.
The historic energy agreement between China and Russia is already known. The two countries have decided to settle their oil and gas payments in yuan and ruble. The advent of a petro-yuan on the hydrocarbon market could be a game-changer towards a multipolar world.
There are even rumours of backing the ruble with gold. This would actually be a sensational move, explaining the reasons why Moscow and Beijing have been buying so much gold in the last year, breaking several records.
The geopolitical role of the petrodollar continues to be the most important existential factor for Gulf countries, and for Washington as it’s poised to surmount an astonishing 20-trillion-dollar debt in 2017.
The petrodollar-system is also deeply tied to the dollar and its hegemony as the world reserve currency. Eurasian integration depends on a gradual decline in the penetration that the dollar has in their economies. Giving up the US dollar as the world's reserve currency means sinking the US’ ability to finance wars and allies without restraint. A clear benefit to much of the planet suffering the consequences of American foreign policy.
The US has failed in it’s attempt to divide and hinder the Eurasian integration with the MENA (Middle East and North Africa). The multi-polar world is advancing and Beijing, Moscow and Tehran widely understand that their dependence on the dollar is simultaneously Washington’s major lifeline.
The shift in global reserve currency is not a new phenomenon. About every century since the Renaissance, the global reserve currency has shifted—Portugal, Spain, The Netherlands, France and Britain have dominant currencies at different times.
As for Asia, since the dawn of civilization, except for the last 250 years, Asia had half the world’s wealth and two centres of gravity—China and India. With Asia esteemed to possess two-thirds of global GPD in 2050, because of favourable demographics, de-dollarization moves would only gather pace.Anthony Bourdain tells Anderson Cooper how he coordinated an interview with President Obama in Hanoi. (Anderson Cooper 360/CNN)
‘This is going to be the worst day of Anderson’s life,” Anthony Bourdain announces gleefully as he settles behind a table at Takashi, a Japanese-Korean fusion restaurant in the West Village. Before Bourdain’s CNN docu- series “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown” premieres each season, he and Anderson (Cooper, obviously) sit down for a meal and film a special preview. Cooper hates trying new food, and Bourdain — the TV host and chef who eats everything — takes great joy in watching the cable news anchor squirm.
Cooper walks in a few minutes later in jeans and a maroon T-shirt; Bourdain is wearing the standard Cooper uniform of jeans and a black T-shirt. “We mirror,” Cooper says, gesturing back and forth. “I look to you for my styling,” Bourdain explains. The banter continues as the cameras roll and they discuss the eighth season of “Parts Unknown,” the food and travel series that kicks off Sept. 25 with a guest appearance by President Obama in Hanoi.
The White House reached out to Bourdain’s team about getting the president on the show; when Cooper asks whether it’s because the president is a fan, Bourdain deflects. Instead, he talks about how he drank beer with Obama on plastic stools at a small, family-run restaurant. To the joy of the locals, they ate a uniquely Hanoi dish called bun cha, which includes cold rice noodles and grilled pork.
“That puts that ‘secret Muslim’ thing to rest, by the way,” Bourdain adds.
The Secret Service wasn’t thrilled about the “hard to control” environment, but ultimately Bourdain and Obama dined for about 90 minutes. The meal cost $6 and Bourdain picked up the check — quite the unconventional presidential meeting. “But for whatever reason,” Bourdain tells Cooper, “they seemed willing to play.”
The season premiere of Anthony Bourdain’s “Parts Unknown” show on CNN features a meet-up with President Obama over beer and bun cha in Hanoi. (CNN)
‘A different kind of storytelling’
Actually, there are a few obvious reasons President Obama might stop by. Namely, “Parts Unknown” has developed a fiercely loyal audience in the 3½ years since its debut, and Bourdain’s fans follow his every move as he explores international cultures and cuisines. This month, the show won its fourth consecutive Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Series or Special. (It won another in 2013 for cinematography.) The show is a great press stop for, say, a world leader who wants to talk about his trip to improve relations between the United States and Vietnam.
But in early 2013, when CNN first announced plans for the series, some inside and outside the cable news network scoffed.
“There were people who were naysayers.... ‘Why are you putting someone who’s not a journalist on CNN?’” says Amy Entelis, executive vice president for talent and content development. “People thought that change in strategy was threatening to CNN in some ways.... It wasn’t a huge ordeal, but there was some skepticism about whether this was the right direction.”
At the time, the network wanted to launch a few hours of original programming every week to combat its “peaks and valleys” ratings problem: Viewers flipped to CNN in droves for big news events, but when the story died down, the audience was gone. During a development meeting in 2012, Bourdain’s name came up.
Bourdain, of course, was a cultural phenomenon with the long-running, food-centric hit “No Reservations” on Travel Channel, which started in 2005. He also was known for writing books, such as the best-selling, secret-spilling “Kitchen Confidential.” In 2011, he landed his own book line at Harper Collins imprint Ecco, presenting works by what he called “strong voices,” including Roy Choi’s “L.A. Son: My Life, My City, My Food” and Daniel Vaughn’s “The Prophets of Smoked Meat: A Journey Through Texas Barbecue.” (Bourdain’s first cookbook in a decade, “Appetites,” will be released Oct. 25 and centers on home cooking.)
Although CNN was wary of airing something that looked like a reality show, executives could see a sharp, engrossing documentary-style series.
“He made you want to go on a journey with him around the world, which is really what CNN wants to do every day as well,” Entelis says. “He studiously avoids saying he’s a journalist, and we were really looking for a different kind of storytelling on CNN.”
In an episode of “Parts Unknown,” Anthony Bourdain meets with Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian and his wife, Yeganeh Salehi, in Iran just weeks before Rezaian was arrested by the Iranian government. (CNN/Zero Point Zero Production)
‘You can eat anything’
Bourdain headed to CNN after his contract with Travel Channel ended; “Parts Unknown” started airing Sunday nights in April 2013. He relished CNN’s resources and the freedom to go beyond topics that were more impactful than, as he puts it, “Is it salty or sweet?”
Bourdain, 60, insists he doesn’t take himself too seriously on “Parts Unknown,” even though he’s gone in-depth on issues including the drug problems in Mexico City, kangaroo courts in Myanmar and the changing atmosphere of Cuba. He often features journalists. In Iran, he met with Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian mere weeks before Rezaian was arrested and detained for more than a year.
Dispatches on food are mixed into every episode. At lunch with Cooper, Bourdain talks about his favorite meals of the season as the two dine on hand-sliced Kobe beef tartare served with quail egg, sea urchin wrapped in seaweed and calf’s brain cream served with blinis and caviar. (“It’s actually really good. Wow, I like brain,” Cooper says, almost to himself.)
Season 8 goes all over the map: Bourdain details the hot chicken that almost “destroyed” him in Nashville and his spicy adventures in Sichuan. He was eating roasted bone marrow in London during the time of Brexit and found the city in “a collective mental breakdown.”
As Bourdain and Cooper dive into the chef’s selection, which includes various barbecued organs and sweetbreads, Cooper balks at the aorta. “I didn’t know you could eat aorta,” he says doubtfully.
“You can eat anything, Andy,” Bourdain responds.
Anthony Bourdain and the cast and crew of "Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown” accept the award for outstanding Informational Series or Special during night two of the Television Academy’s 2016 Creative Arts Emmy Awards. (Phil McCarten/Invision/Associated Press)
‘Part of... popular culture’
Bourdain’s food fearlessness is famous enough to be a punch line. During the 2015 White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, host and “Saturday Night Live” star Cecily Strong joked that “it’s just comforting to know that whenever a big story breaks, I can turn to CNN and watch Anthony Bourdain eat a cricket.”
CNN president Jeff Zucker — who came to the network just a few months before “Parts Unknown” launched — says that over the past four years, CNN has proved it can “walk and chew gum at the same time” in terms of content. When there’s breaking news, Bourdain’s show gets pulled: The Season 7 finale featuring Buenos Aires was preempted for coverage of the Orlando nightclub shooting in June. (The episode will air as part of Season 8 on Nov. 27.)
“I think that the beauty of CNN today is that we have evolved to a place where we can juggle both original series and films and documentaries with our coverage of news and politics and breaking news,” Zucker says. “There are people who criticize us for doing too much coverage of certain stories, and there are people who want to talk about our original series. So the bottom line is everyone’s talking about CNN, and that’s a good place to be.”
Next year, CNN will have 13 original series on the air. Ratings-wise, “Parts Unknown” has stayed fairly steady over the years, averaging 880,000 viewers on Sunday nights in the first season and 828,000 in the seventh season. News of the Obama appearance got plenty of attention when it was leaked over the summer; Zucker says he wasn’t surprised that the show gets such high- profile guest stars.
“We get requests left and right from people who want to be in it. Almost none of those are honored or done,” Zucker says. “But the president was in Vietnam and wanted to be part of the show.... I thought it was just another sign of just how deeply the program has become a part of American popular culture now.”
Chef Nigella Lawson makes a "hangover cure" breakfast for Bourdain at her home in London during filming for “Parts Unknown.” (David S. Holloway/CNN)
‘A guy who likes food’
After the filming at Takashi wraps and Cooper departs, Bourdain sits at another table while a downpour continues outside. A passerby suddenly taps loudly on the window and dashes into the restaurant, even though it’s closed. “I just have to tell you how much I love your show,” she gushes. “I am, like, obsessed with you.” Bourdain smiles politely and says thanks.
Although Bourdain can cause a commotion in public, thanks to fans who have watched his shows for years and/or plan their vacations inspired by his travels, he doesn’t ruminate on his success — even about his presidential visitor, as he emphasizes that he and Obama just talked like two everyday guys having dinner.
“I did not wander outside my area of expertise, let’s put it that way,” Bourdain says. “I spoke to him as a fellow father, as somebody who loves Asia, as a guy who likes food and cold beer, and that’s it.”
The eighth-season premiere of “Parts Unknown” airs Sunday, Sept. 25, at 9 p.m. on CNN. A preview of each episode airs Fridays during “Anderson Cooper 360” at 8 p.m.Looking forward Gimp 2.8 April 5, 2011
Posted by peileppe in comics Tags: comics
Same scenario all over again, you add a layer, you spend an hour sketching.. happy about the result, you decide to start inking you create a new layer for inking, then for some silly reason you return to the sketch (maybe to change opacity a bit) and then you start inking, 2 hours later – you want to check the result and hide the sketch layer, and there’s a blank layer … the ink layer is empty … yep, and then you can scream from the top of your lungs, or look the screen in disdain.. you just wasted 2 hours or more.
But rejoice people, this catastrophic scenario will be over soon : because the Gimp 2.8 version will include the Lock Pixel feature (and layer grouping) – That’s why I can’t wait for this new release!
AdvertisementsJERUSALEM — The Israeli Supreme Court reduced a prison sentence for Ehud Olmert, a former Israeli prime minister, on Tuesday to 18 months from six years after overturning the main part of |
over whether Apple should collect its usual 30 percent cut of additional storage purchased through the service. TNW explained:
The difficulty began when Microsoft rolled out the ability for SkyDrive users to purchase more storage space on the service. From that point, the company was not permitted to update its application in the iOS App Store.
The reason? It doesn’t pay Apple a 30% cut of subscription revenue generated by the application through the paid, additional storage. Microsoft, TNW has learned, has a new version of the application ready to go, including a key bug fix that would rectify a crashing bug, but cannot get it through.
In other words, Apple is apparently not allowing apps that offer or work with a subscription service outside of in-app purchases or the App Store. While we imagine that many smaller developers have been able to get around this stipulation, Apple’s App Store review guidelines clearly states, “Apps utilizing a system other than the In App Purchase API (IAP) to purchase content, functionality, or services in an app will be rejected.” It also stipulates, “Apps that unlock or enable additional features or functionality with mechanisms other than the App Store will be rejected.”
According to the TNW, Microsoft attempted to compromise by offering to remove all subscription services from the app. Apple apparently refused:
The best 4K & 5K displays for Mac
Microsoft has persisted in trying to work out a compromise with Apple, but has thus far failed to come to an agreement. The company offered to remove all subscription options from its application, leaving it a non-revenue generating experience on iOS. The offer was rebuffed.
The report noted third-party developers that integrate SkyDrive using the official SDK are now experiencing delays in getting their app and updates approved for the App Store:Find more words!
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pillow
Use * for blank tiles (max 2) Advanced Search Advanced SearchHome About Us Video Gallery 'Beating heart' technology could revolutionize field of heart transplantation
'Beating heart' technology could revolutionize field of heart transplantation Share this
'Beating heart' technology could revolutionize field of heart transplantation
The heart transplantation team at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical is currently leading a national, multicenter phase 2 clinical study of an experimental organ-preservation system that allows donor hearts to continue functioning in a near-physiologic state outside the body during transport.
The Organ Care System (OCS), developed by medical device company TransMedics, works this way: After a heart is removed from a donor's body, it is placed in a high-tech OCS box and is immediately revived to a beating state, perfused with oxygen and nutrient-rich blood, and maintained at an appropriate temperature. The device also features monitors that display how the heart is functioning during transport.
The current standard of transporting donor hearts in iceboxes in a non-functioning state, which has been used for decades, requires the restarting of the heart once it has been placed inside the recipient.
"The concept of transplanting a donor heart in a beating state is revolutionary," said Dr. Abbas Ardehali, surgical director of the heart and lung transplantation program at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center and principal investigator of the OCS trial. "This promising technology may improve the function of the donor heart, because it remains in a near-physiologic state. It can also help us better assess the suitability of a potential donor, since we can test the heart in the device."
Ardehali said the technology could also lead to better tissue matching between donor hearts and recipients because the box would grant the transplant team more time to test the heart for potential rejection factors.
Additionally, because the current transport method requires a donor heart to be delivered to a recipient within six hours to remain viable, the OCS box could potentially help expand the donor pool by allowing donor hearts to be safely transported across longer distances.
The OCS study led by UCLA will enroll a total of 128 patients nationwide in a randomized, controlled trial comparing the safety and effectiveness of the experimental OCS with the existing icebox method for keeping donor hearts healthy.
Additional study sites include Columbia University, the Cleveland Clinic, Washington University in St. Louis, Tufts Medical Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, Stanford Hospital and Clinics, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Jackson Memorial Hospital and the University of Washington, Seattle.
"There are not enough donor hearts to help all the patients who are waiting," Ardehali said. "If we can find ways to improve upon our limited supply of hearts, then more lives will be saved."
The OCS clinical trial, called the "Prospective, Randomized, Multicenter Safety and Effectiveness Evaluation of the Organ Care System Device for Cardiac Use" (PROCEED II), is fully designed and sponsored by TransMedics.
Ardehali has no financial ties to disclose.
Headquartered outside Boston, Mass., TransMedics Inc. is a privately held medical device company founded in 1998 by cardiac surgeon Dr. Waleed Hassanein to address the vital, unmet need for better, more effective organ transplant technologies. For more information, visit www.transmedics.com. UCLA's adult and pediatric heart transplant program is one of the largest and most respected in the world. The transplant team at UCLA has pioneered many new techniques to further improve outcomes for heart transplant patients. Please visit www.transplants.ucla.edu/heart for more information.Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to toy dolls.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention features a toy doll that is capable of exhibiting a simulated bowel movement. When a feeding bottle is inserted into the doll's mouth, the simulated bowel movement is extended from an opening in the doll's torso. Wiping the bowel movement toward the rear of the torso causes the bowel movement to be retracted into the opening. The simulated bowel movement promises to add to a child's enjoyment when playing with the doll.
In one aspect, generally, the invention features a doll having a torso with an opening. The doll also includes a simulated bowel movement configured to be moved through the opening between positions respectively inside and outside the torso.
Embodiments of the invention may include one or more of the following features. The doll may have a drive mechanism configured to drive the simulated bowel movement through the opening in response to a user's manipulation, and a shaft connected to the simulated bowel movement and positioned in the torso. The doll also may include a head connected to the torso, and the drive mechanism may be positioned in the head and is configured to push against the shaft to extend the simulated bowel movement out of the opening in the torso. A coupling may be connected between the drive mechanism and the shaft. The coupling may be configured to permit rotation of the head relative to the torso. For example, the coupling may be a ball-and-joint socket.
The drive mechanism may include first and second components coupled to convert axial motion of the first component in a first direction to axial motion of the second component in a second direction. Axial motion of the first component may be induced by an object (e.g., the end of a bottle) inserted into the doll's mouth. Axial motion of the second component may cause the second component to push against the shaft and extend the simulated bowel movement out of the opening. Relatively smaller axial motion by the first component may result in relatively larger axial motion by the second component. Accordingly, inserting the end of a bottle a short distance into the mouth may result in the simulated bowel movement being extended a longer distance out of the opening.
The shaft may include a latch configured to engage the torso to maintain the simulated bowel movement in an extended position. A spring may be connected to the shaft to retract the simulated bowel movement when the latch is disengaged from the torso. The latch may be configured to disengage from the torso in response to displacement of the simulated bowel movement toward a rear of the torso by, for example, wiping of the bowel movement toward the rear of the torso.
The simulated bowel movement may be configured to be extended from the opening in the torso in response to insertion of an object, such as a bottle, into the doll's mouth. In particular, the drive mechanism may be configured so that insertion of the bottle causes axial movement of the first component of the drive mechanism. Resulting axial movement of the second component of the drive mechanism extends the simulated bowel movement from the opening.
The bottle may have an end configured for insertion into the doll's mouth. The bottle also may be configured to simulate ingestion of food by the doll.
Other features, objects, and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, including the drawings, and from the claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIGS. 1-3 are front and side views of a doll.
FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along section 4--4 of FIG. 1.
FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along section 5--5 of FIG. 3.
FIG. 6 is a side view of a bottle.
FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken along section 7--7 of FIG. 6.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Referring to FIGS. 1-3, a doll 10 includes a head 15, a torso 20, arms 25 and legs 30. The head is attached to the torso and may be rotated relative to the torso. Similarly, the arms and legs are attached to the torso and are movable relative to the torso.
Insertion of an object (e.g., the end of a bottle) into the mouth 35 of the doll 10 causes a simulated bowel movement 40 (FIG. 3) to extend from an opening 45 in the torso of the doll. In particular, the simulated bowel movement 40 extends from the opening as the object is inserted. Wiping the simulated bowel movement toward the rear 50 of the doll causes the bowel movement to be retracted into the opening.
Referring to FIGS. 4 and 5, the simulated bowel movement 40 is attached to a shaft 55 that is positioned within the torso 20. The shaft is aligned with the simulated bowel movement and is oriented relative to the torso of the doll so that downward movement of the shaft causes the simulated bowel movement to extend from the bottom of the torso. The shaft also may be aligned so that downward movement would cause the simulated bowel movement to extend toward the rear of the torso.
A spring 60 is connected between the shaft 55 and a screw 62 attached to an interior surface 64 of the torso 20. The spring is oriented to pull the shaft away from the opening 45 to hold the simulated bowel movement within the torso and to pull the shaft toward the front of the torso 20.
A first ram 65 is positioned within the head 15 and the torso 20 of the doll. The ram includes a first end 70 that is positioned within the head and a second end 75 that is positioned within the torso. Guides 77 within the torso control the orientation of the ram so that the ram may move along an axis 80 defined by the ends 70, 75.
A ball 85 of a ball-and-socket joint 90 is connected to the end 75 of the ram 65. The socket 95 of the joint is connected to the shaft 55 so that the joint couples the shaft to the first ram. The joint permits the head of the doll to rotate relative to the torso without interference from the joint and also permits the orientation of a longitudinal axis 100 of the shaft to vary relative to the axis 80.
The first ram 65 is coupled to a second ram 105 by a gear wheel 110. The second ram 110 includes a first end 115 that is aligned with the mouth 35 of the doll and a second end 120 that is adjacent to the gear wheel 110. A guide 122 holds the second ram against the gear wheel 110 so that the second ram may be moved along an axis 125 defined by the ends 115, 120.
Teeth 130 on the second end 120 of the second ram cooperate with a first set of teeth 135 on the gear wheel 110 to cause rotational motion of the gear wheel in response to axial motion of the second ram. Teeth 140 on the first end 70 of the first ram cooperate with a second set of teeth 145 on the gear wheel to cause axial motion of the first ram in response to rotational motion of the gear wheel. Accordingly, axial motion of the second ram causes axial motion of the first ram. Spacing between teeth of the first set 135 is smaller than spacing between teeth of the second set 145 so that axial movement of the first ram results in larger axial movement of the second ram.
The shaft 55 includes a latch 150 that engages with a lip 155 within the torso 20 to maintain the simulated bowel movement in an extended position. Wiping of the simulated bowel movement toward the rear of the torso causes the latch to disengage from the lip. This permits the spring 60 to retract the simulated bowel movement into the torso.
Insertion of an object into the mouth 35 of the doll pushes the second ram toward the gear wheel. Movement of the second ram rotates the gear wheel in a counterclockwise direction. Rotation of the gear wheel pushes the first ram against the shaft to extend the simulated bowel movement out of the opening 45.
As noted above, the spring exerts a force against the shaft. This, in turn, exerts a force against the first ram, and against the second ram through the gear wheel. Accordingly, removal of the bottle when the simulated bowel movement is extended only partially will permit the spring to retract the simulated bowel movement into the torso of the doll and to move the second ram toward the mouth of the doll. When the simulated bowel movement is fully extended, the latch engages the lip within the torso so that the simulated bowel movement remains in the extended position when the bottle is removed.
Referring to FIGS. 6 and 7, a bottle 200 includes an end 205 that is configured for insertion into the mouth 35 (FIG. 1) of the doll. The bottle 200 includes an outer shell 210 and an inner shell 215. Opaque liquid 220 occupies a space between the two shells and is colored to resemble milk. The liquid makes the bottle appear to be half full when the bottle is in an upright position. When the bottle is tilted and placed in the doll's mouth, the liquid drains into a reservoir 225 in the cap 230 of the bottle so that the doll appears to be drinking the milk.
Other embodiments are within the scope of the following claims.Robert Kaplan, a contributing editor to The Atlantic, has just published a piece on Islam and the future of Europe. He claims, startlingly, that Europe “was essentially defined by Islam,” by which he means that before Islam swept across North Africa, Europe consisted of a single civilization, on both banks of the Mediterranean — that of the Roman Empire — and that Islam’s arrival severed “the Mediterranean region into two civilizational halves.” It is true that Muslim conquerors swept across North Africa in the seventh and eighth centuries, but not quite true, pace Kaplan, that they “extinguished Christianity there.” Millions of Coptic Christians remained a majority in Egypt until the 14th century (that is, for at least 700 years after the time that Kaplan claims Muslim armies “virtually extinguished Christianity” in North Africa). And while it is true that the Roman Empire was sundered, it was not only by the forces of Islam, as Kaplan appears to believe: before the Arab armies arrived, others had been seizing territory from Roman control, including the Visigoths in Spain and the Vandals, who conquered the Roman province of Africa in 433 and held it till 539.
Kaplan quotes with evident approval Jose Ortega y Gasset that “all European history has been a great migration toward the North.” Is that true? The Roman Empire fell because of a great migration of the Germanic tribes from the north and northeast to the South; it was they, the Barbarians, who beat down the steady Roman legions and seized Rome in 476 A.D., with the Germanic warrior Odoacer placed on the throne. And even before the Fall of Rome, the Roman Empire had divided into Eastern and Western Empires, one ruled from Rome, the other from Constantinople. Surely that split was just as significant, for the future of European civilization, with the Western empire embracing Latin Catholicism, and the Eastern empire Orthodox Christianity, as the loss of North Africa to Islam.
Racing through the centuries, Kaplan in the same sentence leaps from “the breakup of the Roman empire” (into East and West, but he says nothing further about the colossal effect of that split) to “that northward migration” which “saw the Germanic peoples (the Goths, Vandals, Franks, and Lombards) forge the rudiments of Western civilization.” This is a doubly bizarre remark, since it was their southern migration which brought the Germanic peoples within the borders of the Roman Empire and ultimately to Rome. And it was the Romans of both the Western and Eastern Empires, not the Germanic tribes, who forged more than the rudiments of Western civilization, including such monumental achievements as, in the Eastern Empire, the Code of Justinian.
Kaplan fleetingly mentions, exactly three times, what should be at the center of any history of Europe: Christianity itself. He writes that the Slavs and Magyars “adopted Christianity,” that European unity began with the concept of a “Christendom” in “inevitable opposition to Islam,” and that Muslims in Europe today “have no desire to be Christians” – and that’s all he has to say on the subject of Europe and Christianity. He does not discuss what Christianity has contributed to forming the European mentality over the last two thousand years, or how it has influenced, even shaped, Europe’s art and music, its literature, its philosophy, its political thought, its more, none of it thinkable without taking into the account the influence of Christianity. Kaplan has Islam on his mind, and were he to do justice to Christianity, his readers might begin to see the sense of insisting that it was not Islam, but Christianity, that “defined Europe.”
If Islam and the Muslim armies hadn’t existed, Europe’s civilizational boundaries would be different – could still extend into North Africa and the Levant — but the nature of that civilization would not be different from what it was, and is. Europe would still have been a child of Greece and Rome and ancient Israel. Islam did not contribute to those many things – art, music, literature, philosophy, political theory – that we mean by “civilization.” Islam created in its adherents a mentality that abhorred novelty, or bida, that held to a kind of inshallah-fatalism based on the view of an Allah who could interfere, at whim and subject to no laws, with the lives of men, that encouraged a habit of mental submission rather than of skeptical inquiry. European civilization stood in stark contrast, promoting rather than anathematizing the new, believing in a God who was not whimsical but rationally prepared to obey His own laws, and promoting critical thought and inquiry. After the initial sweep of Muslim armies through North Africa, halted at the highwater mark for Islam of Poitiers in the West and, centuries later, of Vienna in the East, Islam’s “contribution” to Europe consisted solely of military aggression, mainly through raids by sea (in one case, Muslim raiders got as far as Iceland). But Islam contributed nothing to European culture. Civilizationally, Europe remained a child of Greece and Rome and Israel, and then, of course, for two millennia, of Christianity. The armies of Islam waged war as best they could; their gains and losses helped to define Europe’s political boundaries, but Islam had no effect on the European mentality.
Kaplan several times mentions Edward Said’s book Orientalism favorably, claiming that it set out how “Islam had defined Europe culturally, by showing what it was against. Europe’s identity, in other words, was built in significant measure on a sense of superiority to the Muslim Arab world on its periphery.” What Said mainly tried to do in Orientalism was different: to endow with a new and insidious meaning the word “Orientalist,” which hitherto had referred neutrally to Western scholars of the languages of the Levant (especially Arabic), and of Islam and Islamic civilization. Said claimed that these “Orientalists” studied Arabic as part of a deliberate campaign to justify and help the project of Western imperialism by means of their putatively unsympathetic or hostile treatment of Oriental peoples. The devastating detailed critique of Said’s use of “Orientalism” as a term of polemical abuse, delivered by Bernard Lewis in 1982, and which many considered a knockout blow, apparently has not yet reached Robert D. Kaplan.
Kaplan appears to believe that European unity in the early modern period could not have been achieved without Europe’s “inevitable opposition” to Islam. This “inevitable opposition” to Islam was, Kaplan says, “a concept that culminated in the Crusades.” No, the Crusades were not the culmination of some “inevitable opposition” to inoffensive Muslims. Rather, Europe’s opposition to Islam “culminating in the Crusades” was fed by centuries of Muslim attacks up and down the coasts of Europe (and not the other way around), and the Crusades were undertaken initially in order to repel an assault by Muslim Seljuk Turks on Anatolia, and the Christian effort then broadened into an attempt to retake the Holy Land because, for a century, Muslims had made life hell for Christians in the Holy Land, beginning with the almost-total destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on the orders of the Caliph Al-Hakim in 1009, and attacks on Christian pilgrims that kept them from travelling freely to, and within, the Holy Land. This understandable response to continuous Muslim aggression hardly required an “inevitable opposition” to “Islam.”
Kaplan mentions Europe’s “sense of superiority to the Muslim Arab world on its periphery” as building its identity. Curiously, he doesn’t mention Islam’s far greater sense of superiority to the Christian world on its periphery. Nor does he mention that Europe had been quite capable of uniting and building an identity without needing Islam to measure itself against – or has he forgotten about the Roman Empire?
And Kaplan continues in the Saidian vein of grand pronouncements, and like Said, turns out to be wrong in many of his details.
He writes that “imperialism proved the ultimate expression of the evolution” from the “inevitable opposition to Islam” to that European “sense of superiority to the Muslim Arab world.” That’s the grand pronouncement. And here’s the cavalier way with history: “Here modern Europe, starting with Napoleon, conquered the Middle East, then dispatched scholars and diplomats to study Islamic civilization, classifying it as something beautiful, fascinating, and – most crucial – inferior.”
What happened was this: Napoleon entered Egypt in 1798. Far from this representing the beginning of Europe’s conquest of the Middle East, all French forces had left Egypt by 1801, and no European forces “conquered” any part of the Muslim Middle East or Muslim North Africa until the 20th century, with the single exception of Algeria. But Kaplan appears to believe that Napoleon entered Egypt, and then those Europeans, “starting with Napoleon, conquered the Middle East.” He may not know the true sequence of events: save for a three-year stay by Napoleon’s troops in Egypt, and the annexing of Algeria by France in 1830, the Europeans had little to do with the Arab lands until just before World War I. Scrupulosity with the facts of history is indispensable, but Kaplan dispenses with it, and how.
He is careless, too, when he writes that “early modern Europe….dispatched scholars and diplomats to study Islamic civilization, classifying it as beautiful, fascinating, and – most crucial – inferior.” This is pure Said — the Orientalist as handmaiden to imperialism. Is it true? Which scholars and diplomats were “dispatched” by their governments to study Islamic civilization? A few possibilities come to mind. Edward William Lane produced The Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, but no one “dispatched” him; he was simply a rich man indulging his curiosity in Cairo. The Frenchman Champollion was in Egypt, but instead of studying Islamic civilization, he deciphered the Rosetta Stone’s hieroglyphs. The scholar of Islam Theodor Noldeke stayed in Germany, and most of the important Western scholars of Islam similarly remained at home. Perhaps Kaplan was thinking of the scholar who fit his bill most closely – the Hungarian Ignac Goldziher, who did travel in the Muslim East, supported by his government. But Hungary had no imperialist project, in the Near East or anywhere else. And most damning to Kaplan’s suave assumption is that Goldziher – I’m fairly sure Kaplan didn’t know this – did not find “Islamic civilization” at all “inferior.” As for those “scholars and diplomats” who found “Islamic civilization” both “beautiful” and “fascinating,” it’s hard to tell whom Kaplan has in mind. I suspect he may have been thinking of writers, not diplomats or scholars, and got Flaubert, so scathing in his epistolary reports from the fleshpots of Cairo and Beirut, confused with Chateaubriand, who in his Le Dernier des Abencerages of a generation before, presented a Romantic view (“beautiful,” “fascinating”) of Islamic Spain, akin to what Washington Irving did with his Alhambra. Of course, neither Flaubert nor Chateaubriand was sent to the East by anyone. I’d like to see Kaplan’s list of the “scholars and diplomats” he claims were “dispatched” for such study.
And having misstated so much about early modern Europe in relation to Islam, in treating of the present day Kaplan, consistent in his inaccuracies, does not disappoint. He claims that “Europe’s sense of cultural preeminence was buttressed by the new police states of North Africa and the Levant.” Could it be that Europe’s “sense of cultural preeminence” needed no buttressing from the existence of Arab “police states,” but reflected an unapologetic awareness of Europe’s, and especially of France’s….”cultural preeminence”? And when one thinks of those places where French cultural penetration has been most pronounced, and thus French cultural “preeminence” most clearly on comparative display, they have been Lebanon and Tunisia, the two Arab countries that have been least like police states.
Kaplan thinks that the Europeans welcomed the absence of political freedoms in North Africa and the Levant, because it gave them the opportunity “to lecture Arabs about human rights” while not having to worry “about the possibility of messy democratic experiments that could lead to significant migration.” This is bizarre. For decades European governments have been monitoring the domestic politics of the Arab states, lecturing them about human rights and — for Turkey, in particular — about standards for admission to the E.U.. Kaplan is saying that it’s all been a farce, that the Europeans were happy to tolerate, behind the smokescreen of their human-rights-and-democracy palaver, the “police states” that held the Arab peoples prisoner. But the Europeans meant it; they followed through with threatened sanctions in order to force Arab governments to be less despotic. They supported, and still support, all kinds of NGOS. Kaplan would have you believe that when France and Great Britain bombed Qaddafi’s forces in Libya, thus helping to ensure his overthrow, they were deliberately acting against their own interests in making possible “messy democratic experiments” possibly leading to greater “migration.” His view of European malevolence toward the Arabs is not supported either by their words or their deeds. Their enthusiasm for the “Arab Spring” may have been naïve, but it was also genuine.
Kaplan writes that “hundreds of thousands of Muslims are filtering into economically stagnant European states…” True? A moment’s glance at the news tells us that these Muslims are in fact headed as quickly as they can for the most well-off European states, to the Scandinavian countries and, above all, to Germany, and not to the “economically stagnant” states, such as Spain or Greece or Italy.
‘The migration,” he claims, is “driven by war and state collapse.” But not only that. What about the availability of more boats, run by better-organized smuggling networks? What about the refusal of Western navies to enforce blockades as they once would have done, because of the power of the bien-pensants who have convinced Europeans (with Pope Francis now taking the lead) that they have a duty to accept these “refugees”? Above all, surely the greater migration today is the result of the widespread availability of cell phones and computers in the Third World, spreading tantalizing information about the quality of life in Europe, which would-be migrants assume will be theirs, too, if only they can reach those distant promised lands. Many of those claiming to be “Syrians” fleeing war-torn Syria, or “Iraqis” fleeing war-torn Iraq, turn out to be Muslims from dozens of countries, including Turkey and Pakistan and Kosovo and Russia and Serbia, that are far from collapsing and hardly, right now, war-torn.
Kaplan talks of the new Muslim migration with a kind of inshallah-fatalism. It’s here; it can’t be stopped; there’s no point in even weakly protesting against it, this migration is “erasing the distinction between the imperial centers and their former colonies.” Such “imperial centers” as Sweden or Germany? And what were their “former colonies” in North Africa and the Levant? Only two European countries had “former colonies” in those places – France (in North Africa) and Italy (in Libya). Great Britain’s mandates and protectorates did not constitute “colonies.” But Kaplan likes to think in terms of “imperial centers and their former colonies” — “imperialism” fits a left-wing mindset.
Bizarrely, Kaplan points to “the cultural purity that Europe craves in the face of the Muslim-refugee influx is simply impossible in a world of increasing human interactions.” “Craves cultural purity”? Another product of Kaplan’s perfervid imagination: Europe does not crave “cultural purity.” Europe has admitted into its midst all sorts of immigrants who violate its “cultural, ethnic, and religious purity,” such as it was, but who worry the Europeans not at all: Chinese, Vietnamese, Hindus from India, Brazilians, Filipinos, Peruvians and many others; Europe is, like America and the rest of the West, busily celebrating its new diversity. But there is one kind of “diversity,” the permanently un-assimilating, threatening kind, the kind that comes from Muslim migrants alone, which Kaplan never mentions. The Islamic division of the world between Believer and Unbeliever, the doctrine of al-wala’ wa-l-bara, that is, loyalty to fellow Muslims and enmity toward non-Muslims, the belief that Muslims are the “best of people” and non-Muslims “the vilest of creatures,” the duty of Jihad, incumbent on all Muslims to spread the faith, until Islam everywhere dominates, and Muslims rule, everywhere – what sensible Europeans “crave” is not “cultural purity,” but freedom from the fear of millions of unwanted Muslim migrants.
To accuse Europeans of desiring “cultural purity” (that word “purity” has a distinctly unpleasant – as in “racial purity” – note) when their worries about Muslims are well-founded (see Paris, Brussels, Madrid, London, Cologne for a start), is unfair. To insist that “if [the West] does have a meaning beyond geography”(!), that meaning will be found only in “an ever more inclusive liberalism,” by which Kaplan means “liberalism” in the peculiarly kaplanian sense of happily agreeing to admit into your national home everyone who wants to come in, amounts to suicidal altruism. “Going back now to nationalism” is impossible, Kaplan asserts; it would be “courting disaster.” I don’t know why Kaplan believes the kind of nationalism that consists of pride in one’s own country’s history, and an attachment to, and affection for it, is wrong and impossible and means “courting disaster.” He relies on authority, quoting Alexander Herzen’s version of inshallah-fatalism: “History does not turn back…” We derive as little meaning from this kind of portentous but hollow remark as from Fukuyama’s “History is Dead,” or Obama’s incessant prattle about “getting on the Right Side of History” or “getting on the Wrong Side of History.” But History is the kind of thing Robert Kaplan likes.
Kaplan sees as inevitable a Europe where Islam must be fully accommodated: “Europe must now find some way to dynamically incorporate the world of Islam without diluting its devotion to the rule-of-law-based system that arose in Europe’s north.” (“Europe’s north”? Has he forgotten where the Code of Justinian was fashioned?) And while Islam has its own rule-of-law-based system, called the Sharia, for Muslims there can be no compromise with another “rule-of-law based system”; accommodation with Islam means surrender to Sharia.
Kaplan ends: “If [Europe] cannot evolve in the direction of universal values, there will be only the dementia of ideologies and coarse nationalisms to fill the void. This would signal the end of ‘the West’ in Europe.”
But Europe already has “universal values” that were doing just fine before the recent Muslim invasion — democratic polities, legal limits on government power, protection for individual human rights including the freedom of speech and freedom of conscience, legal equality for men and women; these are some of the “universal values” that are being attacked daily by Muslim migrants who hold very different “universal values” based on the supremacy of Islam, and submission to the Sharia. Kaplan appears to think it is Europeans who need to compromise, and ignores the grim fact – or does he not know? – that for Muslims there can be no compromising. Their ultimate goal is not “accommodation” with Europe, but “imposition” on Europe of the Sharia.
Kaplan’s take on the Islamic invasion of Europe is peculiar: fond of the idea of a once-and-future Europe, on both sides of the Mediterranean, being resurrected in a return to “a classical geography” — that of the Roman Empire — “as terrorism and migration reunite North Africa and the Levant with Europe.” Terrorism and migration are not “reuniting” Europe; they are destroying Europe, for these are simply two means of Muslim conquest, first by striking terror into the hearts of Infidels, and second, by demographically overwhelming them. As for invoking the future threat of the “dementia of ideologies,” what is Kaplan talking about? The only “dementia” apparent in Europe today is that of Muslim migrants in mental thrall to the ideology of Islam and, just as worrisome, the dementia of those non-Muslims who, like Robert Kaplan, fail to see what is staring them in the face – not the promise of |
dehyde manufacturers with a response. Read that response below and visit The Formaldehyde Council's web site by clicking here.
Response From The Formaldehyde Council:
As the leading resource for information about formaldehyde we would like to offer a few additional points that might benefit viewers. First, synthetic materials used to make clothing -- such as the bras in the story -- are not treated with any products derived from formaldehyde. It's even harder to imagine that the bras were inadvertently contacted with formaldehyde -- that's because it quickly dissipates in air, water and sunlight. It's telling that the plaintiff's lawyers haven't released their lab test specifics -- especially since false positives for formaldehyde are common in trace amounts.
But if the plaintiff and her doctor are concerned that she had an allergic reaction to formaldehyde, as the story indicates, there's an easy way to find out. Doctors typically give a simple, harmless allergy patch test to determine the precise cause of a reaction. According to the public court documents in the case, plaintiff has inexplicably refused to take that test.
When serious health accusations are made publicly, journalists have an extra duty to apply verification and skepticism about the claims. A story involving the Victoria's Secret brand may have a certain sex appeal but viewers deserve to know that the claims made by the source are unproven, untested, and highly implausible.
Betsy Natz
Executive Director
The Formaldehyde Council, Inc.A judge has ruled that former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak could be released from prison pending further investigation into corruption charges against him.
Mubarak was not immediately released after the Wednesday ruling, because he can be held for up to 48 hours pending a possible appeal.
But prosecutors said later that they would not appeal, so the ruling removes the final legal barrier preventing the 85-year-old former president from leaving prison. His lawyer, Farid al-Deeb, said that he expected his client to be released as early as Thursday.
Mubarak would likely return to his villa in the resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh, security sources said, ahead of further hearings. State television reported on Wednesday night that he would be placed under house arrest.
After the fall of Muslim Brotherhood rule, Mubarak’s defence will likely shift the blame to them. Hoda Nasrallah, Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights
A free Mubarak would be seen by some Egyptians as another sign of the old regime reasserting itself, just weeks after Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first democratically-elected president, was toppled by the military. He would emerge from a prison which now houses numerous senior members of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood.
Mubarak has already spent more than two years in pre-trial detention, the maximum allowed under Egyptian law, and is now eligible for release pending trial.
The courts have issued three orders since April releasing Mubarak on various charges, and Wednesday’s ruling cleared the way for his release on the fourth and final one. He will still face trial on charges including complicity in killing of protesters during the 2011 revolution that toppled him and three separate corruption cases.
The bigger test for judicial independence, judicial experts say, will be the trials themselves, particularly the charge of killing protesters. With an army-backed interim government in power, many observers expect to see Mubarak eventually acquitted.
“After the fall of Muslim Brotherhood rule, Mubarak’s defence will likely shift the blame to them,” said Hoda Nasrallah, a lawyer at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, referring to claims by Mubarak’s longtime intelligence chief Omar Suleiman that the Brotherhood was responsible for the violence during the revolution.
“[And] as for the financial corruption cases, often these cases are settled when the amount in question is returned,” she told Al Jazeera
Corruption and murder
At least one of those cases could indeed be close to a settlement. Wednesday’s ruling concerns the so-called “Ahram gifts” case, in which Mubarak allegedly accepted $11m worth of gifts, including jewelry and watches, from the state-run newspaper Al-Ahram.
He has allegedly already repaid the amount of the gifts, and the other defendants in the case have been released, suggesting that the charges against Mubarak could eventually be dropped.
He also faces charges of embezzling money from a fund earmarked for presidential palace renovations. A judge working on this case ordered him released on Monday, on the same procedural grounds. A separate charge accuses him of “illicit gains” during his presidency.
Mubarak was convicted last year of involvement in the murder of protesters during the 2011 uprising, and sentenced to life in prison, but was granted a retrial earlier this year. His next hearing is scheduled for August 25.
Both the prosecution and defence subsequently filed appeals. The latter claimed that the case against Mubarak was weak, something even the presiding judge, Ahmed Refaat, acknowledged in his verdict.
He admitted that prosecutors did not present compelling evidence that Mubarak directly ordered the killings. Instead, Refaat faulted the former president for failing to stop the killings, convicting him through a kind of guilt-by-association.
Morsi ordered a fact-finding committee to investigate the violence since the start of the revolution. The report has not been made public, but leaked details suggest that it implicates Mubarak and his top aides, including interior minister Habib al-Adly, who is on trial alongside Mubarak.
But many in Egypt doubt that the full report will ever be released, because it could implicate many senior military and security officials.
Many of Mubarak's ministers and top aides have been acquitted in trials following the revolution. Activists blame the judiciary, much of which was appointed during Mubarak’s 30-year rule, while judges argue they have been overwhelmed by the workload and often handed cases that lack solid evidence.
“There have been many scepticisms about the independence of judiciary,” said Youssef Auf, a judge. “We need independent separate courts and investigators to work on all the grievances that have been seen in Egypt over the past 33 years.”Earlier this week we dropped the bombshell that MINI was preparing to release several all wheel drive Clubman models. While the Cooper and Cooper S will surely be the volume leaders, it’s the idea of a ALL4 JCW that has gotten many of us excited.
For those who’ve read MotoringFile over the past few years none of this should come as a surprise. We’ve known that MINI was designing it’s larger vehicles for all wheel drive. Further we’ve had sources have been telling us for years that MINI’s ultimate plans for JCW would include all wheel drive. Now we can officially confirm all of these rumors are coming to fruition with the 2017 JCW Clubman ALL4.
The 2017 JCW Clubman will use the slightly revised ALL4 system that first debuted in the F48 BMW X1 and 2 Series Active Tourer. That system will make its MINI debut in the Clubman Cooper S ALL4 with production beginning in March. We’ll have to wait a bit longer for the JCW Clubman which is currently scheduled to begin production in November of 2016 as a 2017 model.
Power output of the much rumored JCW Clubman has been thought to be anywhere from the 228 hp figure seen on the F56 JCW to something as high as 300 hp. The latter figure has been bandied about for a couple of years with the thought that BMW would be bringing to market higher output versions B48 for its own cars based on the UKL platform. While that may still happen for the BMW brand, sources are telling us that MINI will stick with the 228hp version of the B48 engine for the 2017 JCW Clubman. Yes the larger, heavier JCW Clubman will make due with the exact same engine found in the F56 JCW. At least according to our sources.
While some may see that as a disappointment, it’s worth noting that all wheel drive will provide better traction and should allow for acceleration figures close to the smaller F56 JCW. In addition to this we’re also been told MINI plans on offering both manual and automatic versions of the JCW Clubman ALL4. Simply having an all wheel drive performance car offered with a manual in markets like the US is worth celebrating.
So we know timing and output from our sources but final pricing is still a bit of a mystery. However if we look at the historical pricing differences between the Cooper S and JCW and add in the price premium of ALL4 (currently offered on the Countryman) we come with something between a $8,000 and $9,000 increase over the Cooper S Clubman. That would put the base price around $34k and change. How does that price compare to other performance all wheel drive models? And does that even matter given MINI’s premium design and engineering? That will be a question debated for years to come. In the meantime we can’t wait to see it, drive it and dissect what will certainly be considered MINI’s halo product offering for 2017.
Technical Details
(These technical details are identical to what we published earlier in the week when we reported on the ALL4 Clubman. Given that the ALL4 system will be basically the same technical set-up between standard MINI models and the JCW, we thought they were worth repeating)
The system is major revision to the one that debuted on the R60 Countryman. Power from the front drive to the rear axle is transferred by means of an angular gear (Power Take-Off) on the front differential and a two-part cardan shaft. The central component of the four-wheel drive system is an electro-hydraulically controlled multiple-disk clutch (Hang-On) inside the rear axle drive, which facilitates infinitely variable distribution of torque to the front and rear wheels. The corresponding commands are provided by an electronic control unit which, like the hydraulic pump, is located on the rear axle. The idea is completely invisible engagement resulting in constant traction in any condition.
The angular gear is mounted behind the engine on the automatic transmission and crankcase. The input shaft is a hollow shaft construction and directly connected to the front axle differential. In this way, part of the drive force is transferred from the differential basket to the cardan shaft via the hollow shaft, the crown wheel and the pinion shaft. The angular gear operates at a fixed gear ratio (1:1.74) and is permanently engaged, meaning that the cardan shaft always rotates when the vehicle is driven. Reversal of transmission takes place in the rear axle drive so that the front and rear axle drive shafts both rotate at exactly the same speed.
The multiple-disk clutch located in the rear axle drive (Hang-On) directs a proportion of torque to the rear wheels according to each driving situation, ensuring optimal power distribution between the front and rear. In extreme cases (e.g. the front wheels are standing on ice), the ratio can be 0:100. The required operating pressure (0 to 40 bar) is delivered by an electro-hydraulic pump, the speed of which is defined by a pulse-width-modulated signal from the electronic control unit. Pressure is not measured by a sensor, but extremely accurately by means of voltage and power alignment. In order to ensure maximum positioning accuracy, run-in behaviour and temperature influences are independently compensated, the system constantly adapting to ever changing operating conditions. We told you this is an improvement.
As before, when extra traction isn’t required the ALL4 system reverts to front wheel drive improving efficiency. That means the pump is deactivated, rendering the system unpressurised. In order to make use of additional saving potentials, the system has a multiple-disk clutch with a spring-loaded Efficient valve, which lowers the oil level in the clutch and significantly reduces friction losses (oil splash losses). When required, the system takes only fractions of a second to build up maximum operating pressure in the Efficient mode and thus deliver maximum torque to the rear wheels. As you’d expect this all happens without loss in traction or any discernible change in the drivetrain.
Like all MINI and BMW all wheel drive systems, everything is managed from the control unit of the Dynamic Stability Control feature (DSC). DSC analyses a large amount of data providing information in an effort to ensure optimum distribution of drive torque. This information includes vehicle speed, lateral and longitudinal acceleration, steering angle, wheel speed, longitudinal inclination, accelerator position and the setup via Driving Experience Control. Any adjustments are made within fractions of a second in an effort to make power distribution between the two axles virtually unnoticed by the driver. In addition to this, torque distribution is precisely regulated as to avoid any loss of power due to wheel spin.
Due to the DSC controlling everything, wheel slip can be detected at an early stage. In an example where a Clubman threatens to drift outwards over the front wheels (understeer), increased tractive force is supplied to the rear axle, allowing the vehicle to turn in more accurately. On the other hand, ALL4 directs excess force to the front wheels, should the rear of the vehicle threaten to swerve outwards. As a result, maximum four-wheel performance is available even before slippage occurs. Therefore, xDrive featured in the BMW 2 Series Active Tourer not only ensures best possible traction and safety in adverse road conditions, but also enhances vehicle stability, cornering dynamics and ride comfort. In driving situations where the interconnection of all four wheels is disadvantageous – i.e. in an emergency stop – the system opens the multiple-disk clutch completely within milliseconds.
Only if optimum power distribution to the front and rear axle is not sufficient to keep the Active Tourer on the desired course, DSC intervenes by reducing engine output and/or by decelerating individual wheels. Moreover, DSC assumes the function of a transverse differential lock: If a wheel spins without transferring power, it is automatically slowed down, whereby the axle differential directs more power to the wheel opposite.Jeff Hughes | April 25th, 2017
I am not over-complicating things here. I think this is an extremely deep draft at a wide range of positions. But these are the five guys I like best.
#5 Jake Butt
Before injury, I thought Jake Butt was Jason Witten. Big, tough, physical, elusive in the open field, great hands…etc. Then he suffered one of the saddest injuries in many a moon. Supposedly he’s ahead of schedule to return – timetables range between mid-July to October – and who knows how far that will drop him on draft boards. But I can’t imagine a player of this caliber making it to Saturday.
#4 Obi Melifonwu
I actually watch Connecticut football. I don’t know why that’s the case, other than maybe geographic proximity, but I do. Obi is the real deal. Someone with his athletic ability paired with a 6’4″ frame is beyond rare. It’s unheard of. I think this kid is going to be a star.
And from the internet: “The 11-9 broad jump was the second-best number the combine has seen since 2003, behind only the record 12-3 recorded by Dallas defensive back Byron Jones in 2015.”
#3 Christian McCaffrey
You put McCaffrey in an inventive offense and he’s going to be one of the most exciting players in the league starting September 10th. Let him return kicks and punts. Give him 10-15 carries a game. Stick him in the slot a dozen or so times a game.
#2 Mitchell Trubisky
I just like the kid. I don’t see one element of his game that won’t translate to the next level. And if the Bears pulled the trigger on him with the third pick, I’d be pretty damn excited about their future.
#1 Solomon Thomas
I have been waxing poetic about this player for months and nothing that’s happened since his epic performance against North Carolina in the bowl game has changed that. If you want to drown yourself in the inanity of “technique talk” you’ve come to the wrong place. Thomas is a special player and a smart defensive coordinator is going to move him up and down the line and rely on his relentlessness to destroy games.Now untuck the shirt, lose the tie, and you'll fit right in.
Earlier this year, when I wrote about the emerging political consciousness of Silicon Valley, I didn’t mention Rand Paul at all. Partly, I omitted Paul’s name because, despite the airtime given to a few prominent libertarians like Peter Thiel, the tech industry still remains an overwhelmingly liberal stronghold, with the vast preponderance of campaign donations and votes going to Democratic candidates. And partly, I just didn’t think Paul’s overture to tech companies would work — Paul’s anti-surveillance shtick might appeal to privacy zealots, but Bay Area social progressives would reject his more extreme fiscal and foreign-policy views out of hand.
I may turn out to be wrong. Today, Paul appears to be making a full-court press for the affections of Silicon Valley, and there are some signs that his efforts are paying off.
At last week’s Sun Valley conference, Paul had one-on-one meetings with Thiel and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The former isn’t surprising. (Thiel basically bankrolled the elder Paul’s 2012 presidential campaign.) But Zuckerberg is an unlikely Paul ally. He’s clearly not a down-the-line Democrat — he held a fund-raiser for Chris Christie, and his meandering political organization, FWD.us, has backed conservative politicians — and, when asked about his affiliation, he has refused to identify with either major party, saying only, “I’m pro-knowledge economy.” But he hasn’t come out as a tea-party conservative, or anything like one.
Sean Parker, another Facebook-affiliated billionaire and politically active tech investor, has also met privately with Paul. Parker is undergoing his own political rebirth, shifting from backing mostly progressive causes and politicians to writing checks to centrist conservatives as well. Last quarter, he gave more than half a million dollars to GOP groups and candidates, making the case that ideology trumps party affiliation when it comes to making progress on issues like immigration and campaign-finance reform.
It’s friends like Parker and Zuckerberg who explain why Paul now routinely receives what Fortune called a “hero’s welcome” when he comes to Silicon Valley. Next weekend, Paul will get to make his case yet again as the keynote speaker at Reboot, a San Francisco conference put on by a group called Lincoln Labs, which self-defines as “techies and politicos who believe in promoting liberty with technology.” He’ll likely say a version of what he’s said before: that Silicon Valley’s innovative potential can be best unlocked in an environment with minimal government intrusion in the forms of surveillance, corporate taxes, and regulation. “I see almost unlimited potential for us in Silicon Valley,” Paul has said, with “us” meaning libertarians.
He’s not wrong. Today’s Silicon Valley is still exceedingly liberal on social issues. But it seems more skeptical about taxes and business regulation than at any point in its recent history. Part of this is due to the rise of companies like Uber and Tesla Motors, blazing-hot start-ups that have been opposed at every turn by protectionist regulators and trade unions, in confrontations that are being used by small-government conservatives as case studies in government control run amok. (“Government intervention is unnecessary, counterproductive, and immoral,” wrote Derek Khanna in the American Conservative in May, lassoing the cases of Uber and Tesla into his call for a more innovation-friendly GOP.)
Even some of Paul’s more extreme views, like his offhand “I’m not a firm believer in democracy” comment, may be getting a hearing in today’s tech industry. Democracy, after all, gave us anti-drone laws, Sarbanes-Oxley, the 23andMe crackdown, and Healthcare.gov. Engineers hate the concept of “friction” — in product-design terms, anything that slows down or otherwise impedes a user’s experience — and what is democracy if not a system built for more friction? Paul’s new fans in tech may not follow him all the way to Galt’s Gulch, but they don’t necessarily have to — simply realizing that the values of libertarianism will allow them to carry out more of their pet projects unimpeded might be enough to tip them into his camp.
Paul’s biggest problem, to borrow a term popularized among tech workers, is that he’s not a “culture fit” in Silicon Valley. A gray-haired Kentucky ophthalmologist is a less obvious representative for tech’s political class than, say, Ro Khanna, an Indian-born 30-something who speaks easily about 3-D printing and robotics. But it’s not hard to imagine that someone with Paul’s political genotype and a different phenotype — younger, coastal, more fluent in tech-speak — could pick up broad support from the kinds of techies who want government to leave their start-ups alone.
The ideological overlay of Silicon Valley isn’t strictly political, after all. It’s more about how institutions are structured and functions are carried out. Lean and fast-moving are good. Bloated and deliberative are bad. “Permissionless innovation” is good. Bureaucratic box-checking is bad.
In this context, you can see why someone like Paul could appeal. And while it’s still possible that people like Zuckerberg and Parker could remain in the squishy political middle, it’s also possible that they could tip into anti-Establishment libertarianism, and take a whole coalition of tech donors with them. After all, what a certain Silicon Valley contingent wants most right now is independence. And few national politicians are prepared to lengthen the leash as much as Rand Paul.GIBRALTAR (Reuters) - The British people will harshly judge any prime minister who lets down Gibraltar at the last moment in Britain’s negotiations to leave the European Union, the chief minister of “the Rock” has told Reuters.
Gibraltar voters “chose to remain (in the EU) and should not become the first or last victim of Brexit,” Chief Minister Fabian Picardo warned in an interview.
But he expressed confidence that whoever emerges as prime minister after Britain’s general election on June 8 understands this: “We will not be let down at five minutes to midnight.”
Gibraltar, a tiny British enclave on Spain’s southern tip dubbed “the Rock” because of its famous cliff-faced mountain, is set to be a major point of contention in the exit talks, along with other thorny issues such as trade and citizens’ rights.
Residents of the territory voted overwhelmingly to remain part of the EU in last year’s Brexit referendum. Gibraltar wants London to negotiate a “special status” with the EU for it after the British exit
“The British people would judge very harshly a prime minister or any other minister in the British cabinet who at the last minute lets down the people of Gibraltar,” Picardo said.
But he added: “The next prime minister of the United Kingdom... will continue to stand by the people of Gibraltar and continue to ensure that the sovereignty of Gibraltar is secure.”
Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservatives are tipped to increase their majority in the election, opinion polls show.
In March, the European Union offered Spain a veto right over the future relationship between Gibraltar and the EU after Britain leaves the bloc.
Slideshow (5 Images)
Spain, which claims sovereignty over the territory it ceded to Britain in 1713, has frequently irritated EU partners with attempts to use EU negotiations to put pressure on Gibraltar.
Gibraltar rejected the idea of Britain sharing sovereignty with Spain by 99 percent to 1 percent in a 2002 referendum.
Spain has signaled it was ready to discuss a special status for post-Brexit Gibraltar without abandoning its claims for joint sovereignty over the disputed territory.China’s got the bitcoin bug. A real estate developer in Shanghai just announced that it’s now accepting bitcoins for one of its mid-range flats in a posh Shanghai suburb. That’s after a unit of Baidu, China’s leading search engine, announced it would accept bitcoins in mid-October. Half of the world’s daily bitcoin trading volume now comes from China, according to the Genesis Block, a research firm that follows bitcoin. (That’s a trend we called back in April.) Moves in the yuan-bitcoin exchange rate are now a leading indicator of dollar-bitcoin price spikes, reports the Genesis Block:
Will Shanghai real estate sales whip up China’s bitcoin trading frenzy even more? Hard to say—it’s not clear whether the developer’s announcement is a marketing gimmick or a real expansion of bitcoin’s practical value. Even the company’s president isn’t sure.
“One reason we’re doing this is to show that our development isn’t like traditional real estate companies—it has the internet in its genes,” He Daxiong, Shanda Tiandi’s president, told First Financial Daily (link in Chinese). Shanda Tiandi appears to be affiliated with Shanda Games, one of China’s big online games companies.
“The second reason is that we want to test out bitcoins as an actual payment method, to see if this thing is really feasible,” he said.
The target market for the development, the name of which roughly translates to “Amidst Heavenly Youthfulness,” is young tech-y entrepreneurs in need of either a home or an office—the sorts of people who actually might have bitcoins.
And with the price of the notoriously volatile cryptocurrency nearly double—in US dollar terms—what it was in early November, and more than 32 times what it was worth in January, it might be time to cash in.
And there’s an even better reason Chinese investors might want to consider selling. In late October, a Hong Kong-registered online bitcoin trading platform abruptly disappeared, leaving 500 or so Chinese investors with a combined 30 million yuan ($4.8 million) in losses. Other estimates put losses for 130 people at 46 million yuan (link in Chinese). That site allowed users to bet on bitcoin price movements by borrowing up to 10 times the amount they had deposited in order to speculate. This caused wild swings in its trading volume (link in Chinese), according to the IT Times, and the company faced a cashflow shortage in September.
By the way, this wasn’t the only bitcoin platform that’s suddenly disappeared. A recent study from Southern Methodist University and Carnegie Mellon University found that 18 of 40 bitcoin trading platforms created in the last three years shut down. Of those, 13 did so without warning. Four never paid anyone back (pdf, p.3).Join Take Two each weekday at 9 AM where we’ll translate the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that people are talking about. Find us on 89.3 KPCC, hosted by A Martinez.
Donald Trump’s rise might be built on white, working-class Americans who feel they have been abandoned by the political establishment in DC and alienated by the growing liberalism on the coasts.
But they are not the only ones.
If they can have it their way, those belonging to the group “Chinese Americans for Trump” would also want to see the billionaire hotelier become the next leader of the free world. The organization has about 1,000 members, comprised mostly of immigrants from mainland China residing now in different parts of the U.S, from Nebraska to Pennsylvania to New York to, of course, California.
The group was founded just two days after Trump declared his presidential run in June by 32-year-old David Wang, a boyish-looking Beijing transplant who now lives in the city of Diamond Bar with his family. Wang caught a YouTube video of someone making fun of Trump, and that plunged him down a rabbit hole. He ended up spending the next five hours devouring clips of the man. The more Wang watched, the more he found himself liking the Donald – not just as a politician, but as a person.
His reasons aren’t all that different from Trump’s other supporters: The promise of jobs and prosperity embodied in the figure of a plain-speaking DC outsider who also happens to be crazy rich.
“Some of his message I don’t particularly support, but I like 99 percent of his message,” Wang says, such as Trump’s stance against undocumented immigration – including his threat to ban all Muslims from entering the U.S.
Even Trump’s rebuke of China – for taking away U.S. jobs and for manipulating its currency, the yuan – has done little to dampen Wang’s enthusiasm. His cohorts feel the same way, like Lilly Wang (no relation to David), a mother and a small business owner in the San Gabriel Valley. She voted for President Obama in 2008, but became disillusioned by the Affordable Care Act and the White House's policy on LGBTQ rights.
“Obamacare is a concern of mine. For a lot of us in the middle class it’s way too expensive. We basically can’t afford it, particularly us small business owners,” Lilly Wang says.
That sense of disappointment with the Democratic Party permeates the group. If anything, it goes to show that the long-held assumption that Chinese Americans will always lean blue politically might no longer be a given, despite the fact that close to three out of four Asian American voters supported President Obama in 2012.
Mark Ma, an IT consultant who learned about “Chinese Americans for Trump” just days ago, says the difference might be generational.
“It’s probably because of education and socioeconomic status,” says Ma.
Many in the current wave of new Chinese immigrants are better off, Ma explains, saying that the issues that matter to them are dovetailing more with the values of the Republican Party – like taxes.
“The older generation mostly fled from war or unrest, they might be unskilled labor and stuff like that," says Ma.
The group has a big day on their calendar next week. They're scheduled to meet Trump himself next week when he is in town. It's certainly one thing organizer David Wang can cross off his bucket list. But his eyes, like Trump’s, are on the biggest prize. And then, Wang reasons, Trump will change his rhetoric on China.
"He’s just running for president right now. He’s not the president right now yet, but he will be. When he becomes president, he’ll change his views," Wang says. "Trump is a very smart man, and he will definitely find an equilibrium among foreign policy and economics with China."
But what if Trump doesn’t win? It’s not a reality Wang deigns to entertain, so certain is he that his candidate of choice will prevail.
No matter what, “I’ll still be a Republican going forward, for sure,” Wang says.It looks like the Obama inauguration committee has successfully wooed self-proclaimed Ron Paul fan singer Kelly Clarkson to sing for the president.
According to an announcement, Kelly Clarkson will perform “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” during the inauguration ceremony.
“I love Ron Paul,” Clarkson wrote on Twitter in December 2011. “I liked him a lot during the last Republican nomination and no one gave him a chance. If he wins the nomination for the Republican party in 2012 he’s got my vote. Too bad he probably won’t.”
Clarkson later defended her comments insisting that she did not endorse Paul, but admitted to liking the Republican candidate because he believed in less government and was “refreshing.”
Clarkson endorsed Obama in October 2012, arguing that the president was “a great guy” adding that she didn’t want to vote for Mitt Romney.
Superstar Beyonce, a big Obama fan, will sing the national anthem during the ceremony and and James Taylor will sing “America the Beautiful.”In December, college football fans were stunned when a flurry of transfers -- many of them quarterbacks who were eligible to play immediately -- took over the news cycle.
Trevor Knight was going from Oklahoma to Texas A&M, where he could play right away. And Oregon, for a second straight year, locked up an FCS star, Montana State's Dakota Prukop, who's the favorite to take over the Ducks' high-powered offense.
Such moves have created a tension between recruiting for the long-term (blue-chip high school quarterbacks) and looking for the quick fix (fifth-year grad transfers). So where do we go from here?
Let's start at the beginning and look at the future NFL star responsible for shaking up the idea of where schools could look to find a starting quarterback.
In Russell Wilson's one year at Wisconsin, he went to the Rose Bowl. AP Photo/Andy Manis, File
THE RUSSELL WILSON EFFECT
Though it's former NC State and Wisconsin quarterback Russell Wilson who often gets the credit for bringing the graduate transfer rule to the forefront of college football players, coaches and fans' minds, the credit might be due elsewhere.
After all, it was Mike Glennon who got the job that forced Wilson out and made him look at other options on the college football landscape. Without Glennon, maybe there would be no Wilson Effect.
It's a similar situation now for so many graduate transfer quarterbacks -- players who might get beat out or have a better opportunity elsewhere; a chance to start or compete better at another school; an opportunity for more exposure to boost an individual's NFL Draft stock.
But when Wilson transferred in 2011, he left because he had lost a spot. The NCAA rule he utilized was created in 2005 as a proposal that was meant to reward student-athletes who had graduated early and had eligibility remaining. But by 2006 the rule was gone, and not brought back until 2010 as a waiver process.
In 2011 it was back, but conferences were split. The Mountain West said yes. The SEC said absolutely not. But now it's widely accepted (and used) across every conference.
Last year in the ACC, Everett Golson appeared at Florida State. In the Big Ten, Jake Rudock graduate transferred in-conference from Iowa to Michigan. In the Pac-12, Vernon Adams, who had wrecked a few Pac-12 defenses at Eastern Washington, committed to Oregon. In SEC country, Jake Coker found his way to Alabama, and Greyson Lambert moved to Georgia.
This year Oregon has taken another graduate transfer in Prukop. Former Texas Tech quarterback Davis Webb graduate transferred to Colorado and Texas A&M landed Knight.
Over the past year and moving forward, it's clear that the popularity and usability of graduate transfers is exploding. But where do we go from here?
CURRENT IMPACT
The most high-profile graduate transfer of last season was Oregon snagging Adams.
First, there was the element that he was coming from the FCS level to the FBS level. Add on top of that all the general comparisons between Adams and Wilson (undersized, shifty, graduate transfers). Finally, his math exam that he needed to pass to qualify for Oregon put the Ducks in the spotlight time and time again, as his transfer came down to the 11th hour for Mark Helfrich & Co.
Then, this winter, the Ducks hit the headlines again when they took a second consecutive FCS graduate transfer in Prukop.
"What I'm telling kids is to take the academic side very seriously, get yourself in position to graduate early. Your primary focus should be, 'Let's take advantage of the opportunity we have that allows us that extra spring semester and the extra summer school to get ourselves ahead and be in that much better position to take advantage of things, if they go awry, down the road.'" QB coach Steve Clarkson
Analysts and writers wondered if Helfrich was on to something -- a new proving ground of quarterback recruiting. The Ducks had proven they could develop their own guy with Marcus Mariota, but they also proved they could develop a graduate transfer in three weeks of fall camp with Adams.
Could they be on to something? Two years is a bit short to call a trend, but it's obviously a route that Helfrich isn't shy about pursuing and given how well it worked for the Ducks last season, it's understandable why.
Add to Adams' success that of Coker's and Rudock's (a national title and Citrus Bowl title are nothing to scoff at) and there's a decent argument to be made that the pros of taking a graduate transfer far outweigh the cons for the individual schools. Golson, on the other hand, didn't have that level of success and was largely ineffective at Florida State.
Even coaches who don't like the new system find themselves admitting that it's a good idea.
"I'm not necessarily a fan of it, but with players' rights and all those deals, it's not going away," one Power 5 coach said. "You're wise to look at it. I bet every coach would tell you that."
Said another Power 5 coach: "It's something that I wouldn't rule out, but I'd try to avoid. I'd try to have someone I recruited, that redshirted that I worked with who followed a good example set for him.... That's what I would prefer. And not by a little. By a lot."
But the biggest question posed at the successes of the Adams' and Coker's and Rudock's of the world is why did those schools -- schools that have historically (or quite recently) been so successful -- need to turn to an outsider for the most important position on the field? What went wrong in their own development and quarterback depth building that there wasn't a player to step in after Mariota left? After Sims left? After Jameis Winston left?
"I think it's an issue with developing," one high school coach said. "I think it definitely looks negative as far as a program's ability to develop a young man."
That coach said it's something he has urged his players to ask college coaches on the recruiting trail -- how apt they might be to take a graduate transfer over a lump year from a developing quarterback. It's impossible, he admits, to predict whether a school will go that route or not but already certain coaches might be showing trends in one direction or the other.
RECRUITS STRIKE BACK
Steve Clarkson, widely regarded as the most high-profile high school quarterback guru in the nation, agrees that it's impossible to predict whether a graduate transfer may or may not end up at a certain school. So there's not a lot of use in a player asking a coach for his feelings on it.
Former Montana State QB Dakota Prukop follows Vernon Adams Jr. as FCS QBs to jump to Oregon. AP Photo/CSM/Larry C. Lawson
So, he explains to recruits, don't waste time thinking about it. Don't worry about what the system might do to you, but rather think about how you can use the system to you benefit. Namely: How can you, the quarterback, graduate early and take advantage of the graduate transfer landscape if that's what you decide to do?
"What I'm telling kids is to take the academic side very seriously, get yourself in position to graduate early," Clarkson said. "Your primary focus should be 'Let's take advantage of the opportunity we have that allows us that extra spring semester and the extra summer school to get ourselves ahead and be in that much better position to take advantage of things, if they go awry, down the road.' "
The first part of this puzzle is getting players on campuses early and the trend toward that has already been growing for a few years.
In 2013, there were fewer than 25 high school quarterbacks who early enrolled. This year, there are 41 total high school quarterbacks who will enroll early. Of those 41 high school quarterbacks |
cloning].
GETTY Reproductive cloning won't catch on
“The appropriate caution of the regulators when faced with potentially new uses of therapeutic cloning is likely to be seen by desperate patients and relatives as inappropriately restrictive.” He adds that therapeutic cloning will eventually become commonplace, but that it could lead to great ethical dilemmas. Theoretically, humans could have cells taken from them to create a ‘clone’ which would be used to harvest organs and thus beat disease.
Dr Foster continued: “If therapeutic cloning were used to produce individuals from whom organs or tissues could be harvested, there would be concerns about instrumentalization: the person would not have been created because she was wanted for herself, but because a particular type of tissue or organ was wanted. “We simply don’t know what that would do to the psyche of the cloned person, or to the network of relationships that would be produced by her birth.”
GETTY Scientists are now able to mass-produce livestock
He argued that this “would produce a whole new set of relationships between humans”, which no one has the knowledge to understand. While he argues that therapeutic cloning might become common, reproductive cloning – where cells are cloned to produce a genetically identical being – will never catch on. Dr Foster states: “I doubt that human reproductive cloning will ever be common. “There is an almost universal visceral distaste for reproductive cloning. Although that might diminish, I doubt it will disappear.”
Strange hybrid animals that are hard to believe are real Mon, July 30, 2018 This list of REAL hybrid animals will surprise and amaze you Play slideshow KIMBERLY A. WOOD/CASCADIA 1 of 18 Wolphin (Whale + Dolphin)During these trying times, maintaining a job has never been more difficult, especially in trade oriented Alberta. This has recently caused a whirlwind of debate on the new Liberal government’s decision to allow thousands of refugees, sparking questions regarding what the new refugees will do to contribute to society, and to them.
Joseph Williams of Calgary shared his concerns with us.
“I’m wondering what these refugees are able to do for my province, but more importantly, for me as an individual.” he shared. “Where are they going to work? I am unemployed at the moment, and I don’t want them to take my job for cheaper.”
When we informed Joseph that he is more than able to settle for a different job until there is a higher demand for oil workers, he told us that he is content with living off of Unemployment Insurance. “Yeah, I have a good gig on U.I. here.” he told us. “If I get a new job now, then I won’t get that money anymore. I think I’ll ride this until it runs out.”
Joseph did say he was worried that Canada accepting so many refugees would take a toll on his tax dollars, expressing his discomfort from the notion of welfare. “I just don’t see why these people are coming to our country and living on welfare. I’m all for helping someone, but not giving out handouts. If you ask me, they are leeches, and they are lazy.” he ranted.
We asked Joseph what he would do if he were in the shoes of a Syrian refugee. “I would go out and get a job as soon as I got here. Even if it were minimum wage, you have to start somewhere. It isn’t ideal, but it is better than sitting around and taking handouts.”
Joseph has taken to Facebook to gain support, and is considering setting up a Gofundme account when his Unemployment Insurance runs out. “I just don’t know if I’m ready to go back out there.” he says.
AdvertisementsOn Wednesday, an assailant with a meat cleaver hacked to death nine people--seven children, one teacher and the teachers mother--in a kindergarten in Chinas Shaanxi province. The attacker, thought to be a 48-year-old male, also wounded at least 20 others. He killed himself later in the day.
The incident was at least the fourth attack on a school in 15 days and the fifth since March 23. There were incidents on three successive days in April. The perpetrator of the April 30 attack burned himself to death after entering a preschool and inflicting injuries with a hammer. Teachers pulled two children from his embrace after he poured gasoline over his body and set himself on fire.
The first four attacks occurred in Chinas prosperous coastal region. Wednesdays assault took place in a poorer interior province. The wave of horrific incidents, which has shaken the country, could be spreading far inland.
The central government, to its credit, had been putting into place security measures, such as guards for schools. Authorities have also sought to prevent further incidents by distributing photographs showing burly police training with long steel forks to pin down attackers.
Furthermore, officials have resorted to traditional means: Propaganda cadres have ordered the media to downplay coverage and to follow official Xinhua News Agency reporting. The directive may have been intended to prevent copycat attacks as much as limit the spread of news deemed too embarrassing for government officials. But whatever the motives, the attempt to stop the spread of news was futile, as were the other tactics.
China has too many schoolyards and disgruntled individuals to fully protect the countrys young with any of these after-the-fact measures. Even the execution of the man held responsible for the March incident, which resulted in eight deaths, did not stop further assaults.
So far, analysts have rushed to tell a bigger story. They point out the personal frustration of aggrieved--and disturbed--single men, the so-called bare branches, the direct result of the three-decades-old one-child policy. Many blame the Communist Partys strict social controls that have aggravated the dislocations evident in all modernizing societies. They say the Communist Party will have to move to a more open political system and more equal distribution of wealth. A common theme is that the school attacks expose the hollow core of President Hu Jintaos vision of a harmonious society.
All this is true, of course, but none of it is new. The big story is not what central leaders should be doing. Its that despite their quick response, the attacks against children are accelerating.
The acceleration of the incidents has implications that go far beyond the safety of the nations young. China, in short, is perhaps the fastest-moving society on earth. Events occur and trends begin, most beyond the reach of a government that has developed the worlds most sophisticated repressive mechanisms.
Copycat attacks, whether against young children or others, are the inevitable result when telecommunications magnify the acts of the despicable, desperate and deranged. Yet they are just one symptom of a society that has been cut loose from beliefs once held firm--Confucianism and communism--and has yet to settle on anything else.
Nonetheless, political scientists these days talk about Chinas durable form of government. Andrew Nathan, no friend of the Communist Party, coined the term authoritarian resilience, for instance. Yet no matter how resilient Chinas authoritarianism is or once was, the acceleration of social change is undermining Chinese governance at this moment.
The concept to watch now is velocity. The country, it appears, is moving so fast that no leaders--and especially the ones it now has--can control it. The school attacks suggest the extreme discontent inside China, and the turbulence to come.
Gordon G. Chang is the author of The Coming Collapse of China. He writes a weekly column for Forbes.
Read more Forbes opinions here.By The Auxiliary Services Team
Finals Mania has been a popular tradition here at the University of Houston ever since the first one was held in 2008.
The twice-a-year tradition, which takes place at the end of the fall and spring semesters, provides weary students a much-needed break from studying for final exams.
More than 1,500 students are expected to attend this semester's event, which will take place Monday, Dec. 4, from 8:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. in the Rockwell Pavilion at the M.D. Anderson Library.
The highlight of the evening is the food. Students usually start lining up at least an hour ahead of time for the chance to be one of the first to go through the serving line to receive a free plate of pancakes and sausage, and for coffee or orange juice to wash it all down. The line of hungry and patient students snakes around the ground floor of the library.
Why wait in the line?
This year, however, some lucky students will get a chance to bypass that line and go straight to the front as part of a campaign to raise awareness of the Boost mobile ordering app, which is one piece of a larger overall strategy by Auxiliary Services and Dining Services to reduce wait times at the various campus dining locations.
We are giving everyone who downloads the app to their Apple or Android smart phone and sets up an account between Monday, Nov. 27, and Sunday, Dec. 3, the opportunity to have their names added to a special VIP list.
If you are on the list and you come to Finals Mania that night, you will be escorted to the front of the serving line. Can't beat that!
So what is Boost?
The way Boost works is simple. Students, faculty and staff who download it for free on their Apple and Android smart phones can use it to order and pay for food in advance at many of the retail dining locations across campus.
That list currently includes Pizza Hut, Starbucks and Taco Bell in the Student Center Satellite; Subway in University Lofts; Einstein Bros. Bagels in Phillip Guthrie Hoffman Hall; Starbucks in Melcher Hall; Panda Express, Starbucks and Freshii in the Student Center; and Taco Cabana in the Stadium Garage. And more locations will be added in the future!
When you order your food, you select the time you want to pick it up. Each participating location on campus has a designated Boost pickup area. You just walk up and get your food, which has already been paid for through the app. No more waiting in line!
What you need to do
If you do not already have Boost, here's what you should do:
Depending on what type of smart phone you have, download either the Android or Apple version.
After it is downloaded, set up an account through the app.
When setting up your account, make sure to select the University of Houston as your location.
Add a payment option, such as a credit card. If you have a UH meal plan that has Cougar Cash, you can use that as your payment option by entering your PSID number.
If you complete the process during the special promotional period (Nov. 27-Dec. 3) we will have your name and will add it to the Finals Mania VIP list. We will send you an email with directions on where the VIP entrance is located. Just make sure to bring your Cougar Card ID with you. You will need it to get in!
posted: Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2017
Please enable JavaScript to view the &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="https://disqus.com/?ref_noscript" rel="nofollow"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;comments powered by Disqus.&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Trump Is Continuing And Expanding All Of Bushbama’s Worst Policies
Caitlin Johnstone Blocked Unblock Follow Following Aug 13, 2017
One of the stories that got lost in the shuffle while everyone was waving their arms shrieking that Kim Jong Un is about to nuke Guam was the fact that the Trump administration is on track to have dropped more bombs during the first year of his administration than Obama did in his last. Foreign Policy reports that as of July 31, the Trump administration had dropped 20,650 bombs, which is already 80 percent of Obama’s sum total in 2016.
Foreign Policy rightly notes that this trend runs in stark contrast to some of Trump’s campaign rhetoric in which he criticized Hillary Clinton for her consistent pattern of opting for military aggression over peace. Many of the people who voted for Trump — and many outsiders like myself who did not — had desperately hoped that the 45th President of the United States would at the very least pull back on America’s relentless warmongering to some extent and adopt a more non-interventionist military posture.
This has not happened. Just as Obama came in on a platform of hope and change only to end up continuing and expanding all of Bush’s most evil policies, Trump came in promising to make America great “again” and start putting America first. In his inauguration speech the new president President talked about defending America’s own borders instead of the borders of other nations and not wanting to impose its way of life on anyone but to rather “shine as an example” instead. His speeches early in his administration saw him panned as an “isolationist” by proponents of interventionism.
So when those of us who heard him saying things like this upon being sworn into office,
“We will seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world, but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first. We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example. We will shine for everyone to follow.”
and this,
“We’ve defended other nations’ borders while refusing to defend our own. And spent trillions and trillions of dollars overseas while America’s infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay. We’ve made other countries rich, while the wealth, strength and confidence of our country has dissipated over the horizon.”
and this,
“We will build new roads and highways and bridges and airports and tunnels and railways all across our wonderful nation. We will get our people off of welfare and back to work, rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor.”
we found ourselves indulging in a little bit of hope. Maybe America would pull back from its self-appointed role as world policeman. The notion of putting Americans first delighted those of us who wished the US would indeed start taking care of its own and leave the rest of us the fuck alone. While establishment pundits in America reacted with horror to talk of nationalism, protectionism and non-interventionism, those who are sick of US interventionism were saying “Yeah, that’d be great thanks.”
Instead, we find ourselves looking at George W. Bush’s fifth term.
The United States has been evolving into an imperialist globe-spanning corporate tentacle beast that feeds on the blood of civilians for longer than any living person can remember, but things really kicked into high gear when the neocons took over the executive branch of the US government during the Bush administration. The neoconservative ideology of American supremacy, which posits that the fall of the Soviet Union meant the United States has been selected by history as the body intended to lead the world by any means necessary, saw two full-scale invasions and occupations in just eighteen months following the September 11 attacks, with more scheduled had things gone as planned.
With Obama this continued, as did the expansion of the Orwellian surveillance programs instituted by the Bush administration in the wake of 9/11. In addition to Iraq and Afghanistan, bombing campaigns were conducted in Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, Libya and Syria. Libya was transformed into a failed state by US interventionism, and The CIA and Pentagon’s arming and funding of terrorist factions in Syria helped facilitate the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.
Trump drew international applause for ending the failed CIA program of arming anti-Assad terrorists in Syria, but this means little since the Pentagon program doing effectively the same thing is still up and running, and the US is still amassing troops in the nation. There’s a proposal to start arming Ukraine against Russia on the table which even Obama refused to do, and Trump has said he’d support his Justice Department in prosecuting WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange. The Orwellian surveillance state continues unabated, and the bombs keep falling.
It doesn’t matter who you vote for, America. It doesn’t matter if you support the donkey party or the elephant party, it doesn’t matter what your personal ideology is or how you think your government ought to behave; a specific agenda will be marched forward regardless of what you want and what you believe. Your country is ruled by an elite class for whom your personal opinions about how America should behave and what sort of leaders it should have are nothing but a mild inconvenience, easily circumvented by mass media propaganda and legalized bribery in the form of corporate lobbying and campaign donations.
The data is in, and it turns out that virtually everyone is wrong about Trump. He is not a Nazi, nor is he a populist savior. He’s not even unusual — he’s just one more garden variety deep state tool advancing the agenda of the corporate machine. Parts of the deep state only want Trump out because he’s weird and unpredictable and thus a poor steward of their plutocratic investments, not because he’s some kind of revolutionary hero.
It’s time to stop finicking over who is sitting in the fake leadership positions of Official Washington and start focusing on your real leaders, America. We need to start pouring our collective creativity into finding out ways to beat these bastards and crush their ability to manipulate and control the world. I’ve been beating the drum of killing their propaganda machine, and I think that’s a great place to start. Further suggestions are welcome.
— — —
I’m a 100 percent reader-funded journalist so if you enjoyed this, please consider helping me out by sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following me on Twitter, or throwing some money into my hat on Patreon.An Old Colonel Looks at General Kelly
By Col. Robert Killebrew, U.S. Army (Ret.)
Best Defense guest columnist
A thousand years ago when I was about to begin my military career, a wise old retired Marine colonel, a veteran of the carnage at Tarawa, gave me some advice. Paraphrased here, he said:
So you want to be a career soldier? Good for you. But remember that the longer you stay in uniform, the less you will really understand about the country you protect. Democracy is the antithesis of the military life; it’s chaotic, dishonest, disorganized, and at the same time glorious, exhilarating and free — which you are not. After a while, if you stay in, you’ll be tempted to say, “Look, you civilians, we’ve got a better way. We’re better organized. We’re patriotic, and we know what it is to sacrifice. Be like us.” And you’ll be dead wrong, son. If you’re a career soldier, you may defend democracy, but you won’t understand it or be part of it. What’s more, you’ll always be a stranger to your own society. That’s the sacrifice you’ll be making.
I’ve been thinking a lot about that old colonel in the aftermath of White House Chief of Staff John Kelly’s remarkable press conference the other day over the president’s call to the widow of an Army soldier killed in Niger. There’s been a lot of commentary about the general’s attitude toward civilians who hadn’t sacrificed — who weren’t of the “one percent” who had — and it seems to me that most of it misses the point. Masha Gessen’s New Yorker article, “John Kelly and the Language of the Military Coup,” comes close, given President Donald Trump’s tendency to hire retired generals who complement his own authoritarian leanings. Certainly we need to be alert for the next three years — having at Trump’s elbow a retired general who disdains civilians should raise some concerns.
But the larger point that strikes me, as a retired infantryman, is the self-pity in the general’s tone. Look at us; we’ve made sacrifices that you don’t appreciate. The only good American is one in uniform, or, ultimately, the ones under tombstones in Arlington. Sadly, this kind of sad, pitying flag-waving impresses too many of my fellow citizens the same way that the insubordinate Douglas MacArthur did in the 1950s — and MacArthur is said to be a favorite of Trump’s.
Let’s be frank. There’s nothing “glorious” or “sacrificial” about choosing to be a soldier. We give up personal freedom for the privilege of serving our country, and we enter a closed-off profession that is enormously satisfying, but can also be physically, emotionally, and intellectually demanding. We accept the risk that some of us get killed or wounded. In return, the country gives us decent pay, an early retirement — some bodies get pretty broken up in twenty or thirty years — and health care. It’s not a bad deal.
But the other sacrifice — the one the colonel talked about — is that few of us quite fit into the “dishonest, disorganized and glorious” mess is American democracy. That makes us good bureaucrats and maybe good chiefs of staff, but not someone who has a gut-level understanding of democracy — the role of a free press, for example, or the give and take of backroom dealing. We chose the life we lived. Being part of the “one percent” doesn’t make us any more entitled than any other citizen. And while we’re happy that the public respects military service, too much respect makes us a little uneasy, for the reasons the old colonel said. We are privileged to serve, not the other way around.
Kelly is understandably upset that Trump — acting on the general’s advice — publicly fumbled a call to a young widow. Part of the general’s problem is that he serves a president without empathy for anyone but himself. Another is that the same president has now politicized Kelly’s private grief.
But that odd press conference has exposed Kelly’s emotional, personal disdain for the citizens he served in uniform and still serves in a sensitive political post. His remarks lead me to wonder if he really understands that soldiers are the servants of democracies, not some special race apart. A MacArthur or a George Patton, disdainful or ignorant of democracy but close to the president is dangerous to the Republic and is unbecoming his distinguished service in a profession that doesn’t need anyone’s pity.
Bob Killebrew was an Army infantry and special forces officer for 30 years. He is a member of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment.X: Beyond the Frontier is a video game created by Egosoft for Windows. The first of the X series, it is a space trading and combat simulator game, mostly set in the fictional X-Universe. Upon release, it was frequently compared to the older Elite.[1][2]
An expansion, X-Tension, was released in 2000. Four full sequels have since followed: X2: The Threat in 2003, X3: Reunion in 2005, X3: Terran Conflict in 2008 and X4: Foundations in 2018. X: Beyond the Frontier and X-Tension were released in together as X-Gold in 2000. A novel, Farnham's Legend, is based on the plot of X: Beyond the Frontier.
Background [ edit ]
Set in the year 2912, in the Beginning of the 30th Century, the player takes the role of Kyle Brennan, an Earth test pilot for the X-Shuttle, better known as the X-Perimental Shuttle, which has the ability to jump from one part of the universe to another via a wormhole without requiring a jumpgate.
During the test jump, something goes drastically wrong and Brennan ends up in an unknown part of space. He encounters an alien race, the Teladi, a highly capitalist, profit-focused culture. Finding Kyle helpless, they repair his ship and loan him some money. They also give hints on trading in the X Universe, and may tell him (if he asks) about the Argon and other alien races in the X-Universe. The X Universe is a network of sectors linked by jumpgates. With his jumpdrive destroyed, and no idea how to return to Earth, Brennan finds himself stranded, alone and indebted to an alien race.
The player is free to choose how to continue the game, and if or when to pursue the main plot.
Main plot [ edit ]
Through trade and exploration, Brennan eventually encounters the Argon—a race who appear human. However, it quickly becomes clear that the Argon have no knowledge of Earth, and most dismiss Brennan as a crank when he claims to be from Earth.
He is subsequently led to a group of scientists and scholars known as the Goner, which is an organisation dedicated to preserving information about Earth. He works with them to discover the forgotten history of the Argon - that they are descended from humans who were cut off from Earth centuries ago in a war with rogue machines known as the Terraformers. After convincing the Argon that Earth is real, Brennan works with them - specifically, with Ban Danna, Head of the Argon Secret service - to prevent the Terraformers, now known as the Xenon, from developing a super-weapon.
Depending on his status with the different X-Universe races, Brennan finally forms an alliance to attack the Xenon forces and destroy their super-weapon, thus completing the game. However Kyle is stranded in the new sector of the Galaxy unable to return to earth, the Argon federation welcome him into their ranks and offer him the means to make himself comfortable in his new home.
Gameplay [ edit ]
There are fifty-four star systems in the X Universe, and within each one there are numerous installations. There is at least one space station in each system, and they range from ordinary factories like solar power plants to shipyards. By trading with them the player makes a profit, which allows one to upgrade the X-Perimental Shuttle with new weapons, better shields, and increased cargo space.
It is possible to trade within a single system, but the player can earn credits much quicker by exploring other systems via the jump gates. Eventually, the player will be able to buy factories and thus earn much greater income.[3]
Although each system has at least one planet, it is not possible to land on any of them. Factories, space stations, and other installations are located far from the planets and stars.
Reception [ edit ]
X: Beyond the Frontier received "average" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[4]
The game was praised for its open-ended gameplay and the large number of systems to explore.[2] The economy in the X Universe is dynamic, with the price of goods varying with supply and demand. For example, selling a large amount of one particular product to a single station will result in the price for further consignments dropping in proportion to their demand.[1][14]
The atmospheric musical score of the game was also praised,[15] as was the varied dialogue one can have with many different aliens. However, several reviews complained that the voice acting, while atmospheric, was hard to understand and could make it difficult to follow the plot.[1][15][citation needed]
The game was also praised highly for its "spectacular background graphics",[1] such as "gorgeous colored lighting effects and the highly detailed rotating planets".[2]
However, the game received criticism from some for giving the player so little equipment to start with. For example, the X-Perimental loses its weapons in the accident that brings it to the X Universe. These can be purchased once the player acquires sufficient credits to do so. Until then, the player is defenseless. The ship is also quite slow, and traveling between installations at first takes a long time. A time-accelerator device reduces the transit time, but it needs to be found and purchased, which means the game moves at a frustrating "snail's pace [for] the first 10-20 minutes".[2] Still, "[a]fter as little as an hour of gameplay, with some shrewd trading... you should be able to outfit your X ship with a pair of lasers... and the time-accelerating'singularity time distortion engine,'" said one review[2]
The combat system was lightly criticized as "being more of a goal to be overcome than a challenge to be relished", especially given the "suicidal as hell"[1] "kamikaze"[2] nature of enemy pilots, who appear constantly to wish to ram the player. A final criticism was the game's "skimpy manual",[2] which leaves the player to work out most things for themselves. However, others felt "the documentation was extremely well done"[citation needed] and that "the game actually uses your complete ignorance of what's going on around you to add a sense of adventure and mystery to the tale."[1]
X-Tension (2000) was released as an expansion to Beyond the Frontier; however, many gamers and reviewers consider it more a "sequel" than an "add-on".[16][17] It follows on after the story in Beyond the Frontier, with "the evil Xenon vanquished" and the player "still stranded light years from home."[16] The player once again takes control of Kyle Brennan, who now has "time to kill" as his X-perimental ship is reverse-engineered.[16] The player is given a ship, some credits, and left to make his own way in the X Universe. In a canon aspect, the events of this game would be assumed to see the player start a business empire, which would become Terracorp in the sequel.
Gameplay [ edit ]
There is no overarching plot in X-Tension. It is an open-ended, sandbox game, filled with "microquests".[18] The player is free to choose "to be a trader with an unarmed Argon Lifter... or a bounty-hunter... armed to the teeth with plasma throwers.";[17] free to choose "where [they] want to go, what to trade in and who to pick on".[16] Egosoft's Managing Director, Bernd Lehahn, described X-Tension as "[a] space game that allows you to live freely in a virtual universe and do whatever you want to do. At least that's our goal."[18]
Changes [ edit ]
The graphics were improved for X-Tension, adding new effects and scenery, and removing "visible seams which blighted many of these backdrops in the original game.".[17] The musical score was also extended, and the X Universe was expanded to a total of ninety systems.
X-Tension addressed many criticisms of the original game. The player's craft is pre-equipped with some upgrades - weapons and a time-accelerator[19] - so that players can defend themselves from the beginning, although the weapons you start out with are useless against most of enemy ships. The player can leave the ship and space walk in a space suit,[16] purchase new ships from shipyards, and even capture enemy ships that can be flown by the player.[17][18]
The in-game interface was expanded to include new features, including an automatic navigation system that allows the player "to easily access information about any sectors" visited, and includes "a full map of the galaxy showing everywhere you have been."[17] When combined with some upgrades and equipment, this system allows the player to monitor the X-Universe's economy, traffic and prices remotely, "an incredibly useful new feature which makes trading far less hit and miss than it was in the original game."[17] The interface also allows the players to control many of their assets - factories and ship tasks - remotely. They no longer need to land at a factory to adjust it, nor even to be in same region of space.[17][18]
One criticism shared by both games was the combat system; while improved in X-Tension, it could still be summed up as "unremarkable."[17] Notably, Egosoft's Managing Director, Bernd Lehahn, mentioned appealing to "the 'Wing Commander audience'" as a high priority in the design of 2005 sequel X3: Reunion. He defined this as "people who... expect a story and cool fighting missions" but who may be won over to "the freeform gameplay and the advantages that a realistic economy adds to such a game."[20]
Reception [ edit ]
The extension pack received "favorable" reviews, although no aggregate score exists.
See also [ edit ]What we have for you today appears to be a pretty slight item. It’s a letter, and it’s literally only one line long.
But when we saw it, we thought it spoke volumes, and we wanted to share it with you.
Doing so, however, would be tricky. Let us explain.
It’s a letter sent from the Church of Scientology in Los Angeles to someone who was once in Scientology’s Sea Organization as a child, and who has tried her best to put the Sea Org and Scientology behind her.
But Scientology never gives up. It usually manages to find a way to track down former members.
You know this is the case if you’ve been paying attention to Scientology’s practices. Five years ago we wrote about how Scientology will track you down even if you haven’t taken a course in forty years. But usually, when they do find you, they are trying to get you back on the Bridge.
Other times, as in today’s example, the church appears to be engaged in little more than pure intimidation.
Sharing the letter, and explaining the story behind it, we knew might put our tipster into harm’s way with the church. But she decided she’d rather that you all know about this episode and damn the consequences.
She decided to tell you herself the background to the letter, and we’re holding back her name even though we know that the church will figure out who she is. Here’s what she sent us…
After watching Going Clear, I joined ESMB. I felt really empowered to finally start to question the religion I was raised in. I’m a truth seeker by nature, but my past was never a truth I cared to dig up. I was born in Scientology. Both of my parents raised me in it. I was in the Sea Org from 11 to 16. I just wanted to be a normal teen when I left the Sea Org. I still believed in Scientology being a religion until a series of horrifically unfortunate events that occurred post-Sea Org had me changing my mind about Scientology. I just began to sweep everything under the rug regarding Scientology for many years, like a skeleton in the closet. I made plenty of wog friends and grew up without Scientology. Until I watched Going Clear. That documentary was a huge eye opener for me. I finally had the freedom to start questioning my past. I finally told my husband of eight years, who was never in, that I used to be in the Sea Org and that I was raised in Scientology. It’s like old emotions just started to swell in me when I realized what I had been a part of, and the depths of brainwashing that I had encountered. I told him that I never attended a real high school, and the “GED” [high school equivalency certificate] I was given at 12 years old was fake, from a Scientology front called Dennison Academy. I poured my heart out to him. I was told by the Church never to look online for any news or any story unless it was “source” — meaning their own websites or social media. But after Going Clear, I finally did and I’m glad I did. I started posting on ESMB. I received a friendly warning not to reveal too much, having been a second |
these survival features develop.
Weapons
The venerable AKM is nearing completion I don’t want to be held to a specific date for when it will be released to experimental but it won’t be long. I just tested out the PSO1 scope with a 75 round mag dump. What have I done? I’ve created a monster! Also, we’ve completed a pistol that I think will give players some new gameplay options. It fires a.30 cal rifle cartridge and comes with a long eye relief scope. We’ve simply taking to calling it the Longhorn.
Animations
Viktor, our animation lead reports that his team was focused mainly on bug fixing in the past week. Many new hand poses were added for items so the player is holding them properly. They’ve also been working on reload animations for the P1 and Longhorn pistols, and AKM. At the same time, the programmers did a great job for allowing synchronization of animations between the bowstring and character hand. It will also sync across the network since we feel its important for other players to know when the bow is drawn and when its at rest. It’s been a pleasure to see this develop over time and its only going to get better.On the eve of the semi-annual campaign finance reporting deadline, Gov.-elect Greg Abbott's office confirmed he returned a $10,000 campaign contribution from the CEO of the beleaguered company at the center of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission contracting woes, 21st Century Technologies.
Amelia Chassé, Abbott's press secretary, said late Wednesday that the return will be noted in the semi-annual campaign report due from political candidates on Thursday. She had no further comment.
The donation came to light on the same day the incoming Texas governor announced he was appointing an outside group to look into HHSC's contracting procedures.
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Abbott is the latest politician to confirm receiving a donation from Irene Williams, 21CT's CEO, after the Nov. 4 election.
Earlier this month it was reported that Texas House Speaker Joe Straus received and quickly returned a $10,000 contribution from Williams in early December. Republican state Rep. John Zerwas and Republican state Sen. Craig Estes also returned donations to Williams. The donations were made in December, right before HHSC was to consider a $90 million extension to 21CT's $20 million contract with HHSC for Medicaid fraud software.
But news reports about how 21CT's former lobbyist was a onetime business associate of HHSC chief counsel Jack Stick prompted a cancellation of the extension. There are now three separate investigations into HHSC contracting procedures. Stick resigned in mid-December, and Gov. Rick Perry fired Doug Wilson, the HHSC inspector general.Last month, David Daleiden and his criminal defense lawyers released additional footage of abortion providers and the names of 14 of his accusers, possibly violating court injunctions and seals.
Stringer / Reuters Anti-abortion activist David Daleiden, waits outside Superior Court in San Francisco, California.
The anti-abortion activist behind the videos accusing Planned Parenthood of selling “baby parts,” as he put it, could be going to prison. And now his criminal defense lawyers could join him.
Late last month, David Daleiden and his team of criminal attorneys allegedly flouted multiple injunctions and court-issued seals by posting more shocking videos of abortion providers and identifying 14 of the John/Jane Does participating in the state criminal complaint against him and his recording partner Sandra Merritt. Those names were previously under a court seal. This apparent defiance of court orders may end up landing Daleiden and his criminal attorneys in contempt of both state and federal court, potentially resulting in fines and jail time — and disbarment for the lawyers. Daleiden’s work once caused multiple congressional investigations and nearly shut down the government. Two years and multiple lawsuits and legal hurdles later, the 28-year-old and his Planned Parenthood investigation have faded out of the headlines. But as the cases against Daleiden continue — and grow more complicated — he has become a central figure of the somewhat sidelined culture wars, now playing out in both federal and state court in California. On the one hand, his opponents contend that Daleiden is an extreme activist who edited illegally obtained footage in order to harm the biggest abortion provider in the country and, by proxy, its employees. On the other, is a fierce collection of devoted, anti-abortion followers who see the prosecution of Daleiden as an attack on the First Amendment and the oppression of a “hero” by liberal courts and elected officials.
watching @daviddaleiden videos while feeling my own baby kicking is quite the experience. @PPact is so busted, no wonder it's so desperate
All along, Daleiden has continued fighting his case in court, perhaps no more vigorously than when he and his criminal attorneys released the new tapes and list of names. Daleiden and his criminal defense lawyers argue that the tapes are protected by the First Amendment and, moreover, represent a last-ditch effort to wrangle witnesses to accuse Planned Parenthood of criminal conduct and help his case. But a lawyer representing the abortion providers featured in the videos dubbed the release a “cold-blooded, calculated hit job” that could lead to violence against providers, a final punch-back from a man already facing federal and state charges, including 15 felonies.
At midnight on May 25, attorneys Brentford Ferreira and his partner Steve Cooley, who are representing Daleiden in a state criminal case brought by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, posted the list of names of Daleiden’s accusers in the case, as well as a short cut-together of Daleiden’s hidden camera footage and a link to seventeen new videos, secretly recorded at the National Abortion Federation’s (NAF) 2014 and 2015 annual meetings.
The newly released footage shows women at the meetings seeming to discuss gruesome tales of the trade, including dealing with sharp skulls and eyeballs falling onto their laps during abortion procedures, and admitting that they altered procedures for financial gain. While the images described are shocking, they are seconds-long clips with no context. There is reason to look at the new footage with some skepticism. The videos Daleiden released in 2015, recorded around the same time as the new footage, were misleading. A Planned Parenthood-sponsored analysis found them to be deceptively edited and more than a dozen state investigations into the video’s claims found no evidence that Planned Parenthood sought to profit off of the sale of fetal tissue. Another congressional investigation, run by the GOP-led Oversight committee, also ended without finding evidence of wrongdoing by the organization. However, in 2016, GOP members of the House’s select committee investigating Planned Parenthood recommended multiple affiliates of the health organization to state attorney generals, as well as the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services for potential criminal charges and recommended that the federal government defund Planned Parenthood. Democrats, who boycotted the committee, dismissed the report as a witch hunt. Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley also referred Planned Parenthood to the FBI for criminal investigation. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office was the only, thus far, to take any action. A federal court issued a preliminary injunction in a now two-year-old civil lawsuit brought by NAF, blocking Daleiden, his lawyers and any third party from releasing any new footage or names of those filmed until the case is closed. US District Judge William Orrick granted the injunction in February, 2016 in response to NAF’s claims of “death threats and severe harassment” against its employees. After the state of California brought a separate criminal case against Daleiden and Merritt in March of this year, the list of names of those accusing them was placed under a confidential court seal as well. Daleiden and his criminal attorneys published the videos and the list of names anyway. And last week, Daleiden’s criminal defense lawyers hired a criminal attorney of their own. That attorney, Vicki Ileen Podberesky, did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story. Ferreira, one of Daleiden’s criminal lawyers, maintains that releasing the footage was not in fact in violation of the original court order. And he’s argued that the fact that the videos have been repeatedly taken down from YouTube and news sites that covered their release is a “blatant violation of the First Amendment.” “Every reporter in the US should be up in arms about what the Attorney General and Judge [Orrick] are doing,” he told BuzzFeed News emphatically.
It was not I who was handcuffed, manhandled, and kept in a holding cell Wed afternoon last week--it was the 1st Ame… https://t.co/knXXneIj14
“We had a good reason for releasing the footage,” Ferreira told BuzzFeed News, alleging that they posted the videos in an attempt to help Daleiden’s case. Ferreira said they hoped to find witnesses who “were injured in the modified procedures used by Planned Parenthood doctors to extract fetuses for sale” to testify in support of Daleiden.
No such women have yet appeared, he said, “but that’s because people keep slamming [the videos] down!” One of NAF’s lawyers, Derek Foran, however, argued that the posting represents a “purposeful and knowing violation of a federal court order. No more or less.” Many of the people on the list Daleiden’s criminal attorneys released have received death threats and harassment online, Foran said, adding that NAF had to immediately ramp up security to do “everything possible to protect the individuals and make sure they are safe." Ferreira told BuzzFeed News that the fact that abortion providers are receiving death threats was no reason to “violate the First Amendment” by keeping the footage under seal. “Of course people are receiving threats, but so is David,” Ferreira told BuzzFeed News, “There is no more fraught issue in America than abortion, but the fact that people are receiving threats doesn’t mean anyone will get hurt.”
On #WorldPressFreedomDay we're thankful for @DavidDaleiden & the undercover investigators at @CtrMedProgress… https://t.co/ZwLJV512Yx
Last week, NAF and the California Attorney General’s office filed two separate requests for Daleiden and his criminal attorneys to be held in contempt of court. Contempt of court hearings will take place later this month, potentially resulting in fines and even jail time for Daleiden and his criminal lawyers on both the state and federal levels on top of the federal civil lawsuit and the charges he’s already facing in the state criminal case.
Hours after Daleiden’s team posted the footage, Orrick, who instituted the original preliminary injunction, called an emergency phone hearing which, to his apparent annoyance, Daleiden and his two criminal lawyers, refused to attend. In a transcript of the call obtained by BuzzFeed News, Orrick ordered Daleiden and his criminal lawyers to remove the footage and names from their site and YouTube within 15 minutes of the end of the call.
“Mr. Daleiden better be well advised by his lawyers … that he is obligated to follow the Court’s orders and not try to skate around them and cause real harm to human beings and [legally] to himself,” Orrick instructed Daleiden’s apologetic civil lawyers to tell his absent criminal lawyers, Ferreira and Cooley. Ferreira, Cooley, and Daleiden begrudgingly complied.
Award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to David Daleiden. https://t.co/R7Rz7w7HWf
In an interview with BuzzFeed News Ferreira argued with dizzying logic that the footage was part of the public record because it was submitted as evidence for the state criminal case, and criminal cases are public proceedings. What he left out was that Ferreira and Cooley entered the footage into the case themselves — attaching a thumb drive of the footage to a written objection, or demurrer, contesting the Attorney General’s 15 felony charges against Daleiden, including that he used fake IDs and set up a phony corporation in California in order “to obtain surreptitious recordings” in violation of NAF’s confidentiality agreements, which is illegal in the state — unless it contains evidence of criminal activity. His criminal defense lawyers attached the thumb drive, arguing that Daleiden had so much footage the lawyers were not sure which parts of it he was being charged for.
Why wouldn’t that violate the federal injunction? Ferreira’s argument is that the federal preliminary injunction prohibiting release of the footage does not apply to state criminal proceedings. As Daleiden’s attorneys in the state criminal case, he believed the videos were part of public record and releasing them would not violate the federal injunction — even though both cases involve the same footage. “Our position is that this federal, civil injunction doesn’t apply to the Attorney General’s [case] in a separate sovereignty” Ferreira said. As for the names, Ferreira argued: “The names were under seal by the [California state] judge, but the videos were not.” Because the names were featured in the videos that he and Cooley believe are public record, his argument continues, they believe the names are public record as well. Ferreira’s final argument was that because he and Cooley released the footage, and not Daleiden himself, it was not in violation of the injunction. The temporary restraining order that Orrick extended to the preliminary injunction specified that Daleiden’s attorneys could not publish footage or names, but the injunction itself was less explicit. The injunction prohibited Daleiden and others who worked with him to obtain the footage from “publishing or otherwise disclosing [the footage] to any third party.” Nine days after the footage went public, NAF filed a request for Daleiden to be held in contempt of federal court. In the document, the group alleges the most recent videos have caused “a similar spike in incidents of harassment and intimidation that presaged the murders at a NAF-member clinic in Colorado” in 2015, referring to the Planned Parenthood shooting in Colorado Springs, in which Robert Dear shot and killed three people, while quoting the language from Daleiden’s earlier videos. (The new footage was recorded around the same time as those 2015 clips). When asked about the Dear shooting and its ties to Daleiden’s original videos, Ferreira simply asked: “Who can control a madman?” For violating the order, NAF’s lawyers have asked Orrick to refer Daleiden, Ferreira and Cooley to the US Attorney’s Office for “investigation and potential prosecution for criminal contempt of court,” to refer both criminal defense lawyers to the California Bar for potential disbarment, and to require them to pay NAF $17,103.26 to reimburse them for the amount they say the spent on security and other expenses because of the footage. The California Attorney General’s office has also requested a disbarment investigation and that Daleiden and his criminal attorneys be held in contempt of state court for violating the seal on the names of complainants. The maximum sentence for contempt is $1,000 and six months jail time.
"We are on the cusp of stripping half a billion dollars away from @PPFA. The abortion industry itself will crumble.… https://t.co/aGnlHFEMO0
Last week, Daleiden’s team postponed the scheduled federal contempt of court hearing by filing a request for Orrick to be removed from the case for bias. In a letter demanding Orrick’s disqualification from the case, Daleiden’s civil attorneys cited Orrick’s 2001 work with a charity called the Good Samaritan Family Resource Center, which allowed Planned Parenthood to put a clinic on their property — an affiliation NAF’s lawyers claim Orrick disclosed when he first took on the case.
The civil attorneys also said that in 2015, Orrick’s wife “pinkified” her Facebook page and added “I stand with Planned Parenthood” as her profile picture. “‘Pinkifying’ showed one’s support for Planned Parenthood and one’s belief that the videos were fraudulent,” the lawyers wrote.
In the request, Daleiden’s team included a list of Good Samaritan’s donors, which featured Orrick’s home address. The US Marshal's’ office told The Recorder, a weekly paper in California, that they will monitor whether Orrick receives any threats as a result and “look into” how his address got into the filing. Orrick’s address has since been removed from the public record. Daleiden’s civil attorneys did not immediately respond to questions about whether this inclusion was accidental. Daleiden will have a contempt of court case before the California state Superior Court with Judge Carol Yaggy on June 21. The hearing regarding Orrick’s recusal is slated for the following day. Depending on how that goes, Daleiden will have a federal contempt hearing with either Orrick or a new judge. Both judges will then decide separately whether to hold Daleiden, Ferreira, and Cooley in contempt of court and, if so, their sentences.
When Daleiden released the first undercover videos in 2015 accusing Planned Parenthood of profiting off of fetal tissue distribution, they led to a massive political outcry. Presidential candidates discussed the videos during debates and a Republican demand to federally “defund” Planned Parenthood nearly shut down the government.
As the videos disappeared from headlines and television news, and the gruesome phrase “baby body parts” coined by Daleiden faded from the speeches of anti-abortion members of Congress, the GOP fight to defund Planned Parenthood has picked up other arguments, largely discarding Daleiden’s allegations.
If you don't agree with abortion & expose what abortion is, courts & social media will try to silence you - @LilaGraceRose #PPSellsBabyPartsA new operation, a new rare gun, and new telemetry. It’s a big week for Mass Effect 3 multiplayer!
A new operation, a new rare gun, and new telemetry. It’s a big week for Mass Effect 3 multiplayer!
Operation: PATRIOT (Sept. 21st – 23rd)
Cerberus continues to put pressure on our troops, hindering our fight against the Reapers. Our allies have committed their top military units to target Cerberus’ most valuable assets: their Atlas Mechs.
Squad Goal: Extraction on any difficulty with all squad members as the same non-human race. Requires 2 or more players in squad.
Allied Goal: Kill 600,000 Atlas Mechs on any map at any difficulty.
Special Circumstances: Escort Drones travel speed reduced.
Squad Goal Success: All squad members awarded a Commendation Pack.
Allied Goal Success: All players awarded a Victory Pack.
We’re also excited to announce a new rare weapon that can be unlocked for multiplayer: The Argus Assault Rifle (previously only available in single-player).
The Argus is a high-powered rifle favored by senior C-sec officers. An excellent close-range weapon, its bursts of fire ensure ammunition conservation during lengthy conflicts. Other law-enforcement agencies across the galaxy are adopting the Argus as their standard rifle, as much for its intimidation factor as its suppression power.
But wait! There’s more! We also have updated multiplayer battle telemetry for you to sink your teeth into. Enjoy!
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TumblrUnpaid overtime and dodgy internships: When employment becomes exploitation
Posted
You're hunched over your keyboard, shovelling last night's leftovers into your mouth, struggling to meet the next deadline.
It's a familiar scene in many workplaces: taking a lunch break no longer means leaving your desk.
Or you're at home making dinner and your smart phone begins to vibrate. Your boss is apologetic, but she needs you to redraft the document you've been working on all week — by tomorrow morning.
For many of us, such scenarios represent the modern world of work, but that doesn't make them acceptable.
Economist Jim Stanford, the director of the Centre for Future Work at the Australia Institute, has calculated that as many as two-thirds of Australian workers are now regularly expected to put in some form of unpaid overtime.
And Dr Stanford said the situation is getting worse, not better.
"If you are a full-time worker, on average you are reporting about six hours a week of unpaid work for your employer," he said.
"That's a fair amount in a week, but add it up over a year and it's staggering — that's over 300 hours."
Calculated at the average Australian wage, that represents around $12,000 worth of labour per year per employee, Dr Stanford said.
"If most Australians thought who could they give a generous gift of $12,000 to, their employer wouldn't be at the top of the list," he said.
Part-time workers most vulnerable
Every year for the past eight years the Australia Institute has conducted a survey on work-life balance and unpaid overtime.
The 2016 report, due out in November, will show the issue crosses all professions and industries.
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures suggest that around 90 per cent of all new jobs created in Australia over the past 12 months were part-time or casual.
It is this group, according to Dr Stanford, who are most vulnerable.
"You have part-time workers who might only get 10 or 15 or 20 hours a week, and even they are being asked to stay longer and work for free," he said.
"Our survey showed that on average, even part-time workers are asked to do four hours of unpaid work a week.
"In their case, where their incomes are very low because they aren't getting enough hours, I think this unpaid work is especially exploitive."
Unspoken pressure to conform
It is possible to argue that employees are complicit in their own exploitation: that by regularly agreeing to work long hours for free, they feed expectations that unpaid overtime is acceptable.
But Dr Stanford says there are often unspoken pressures to conform.
"You don't have your boss over your shoulder saying: 'You must stay this extra two hours after work,'" he said.
"But the fact that it's so hard to get and keep a decent job means that workers are willing to push themselves more and more, in order to please their employer, keep their job and perhaps even get a promotion someday.
"Another obvious set of consequences is that if employers can get you to work longer for free, then they are not going to hire someone new to do that extra work.
"I believe that unpaid work is one of the factors behind the very slow rate of job creation that we are seeing in the labour market."
Experience or exploitation?
University of Adelaide law professor Andrew Stewart also see worrying signs in the growth of dodgy internships across the economies of the Western world.
Professor Stewart estimates around 75 per cent of all college graduates in the United States now undertake some form of internship with a company; with many such arrangements veering toward abuse.
"One way we can think about this is avoiding our minimum wage laws," he said.
"There are circumstances in which companies or organisations may get jobseekers to work for free, to get them to do productive work, but without paying them minimum wage."
In other circumstances, people are taken on as interns, but given no meaningful form of training or opportunity to practice their skills.
They essentially become the office "dogsbody". Such situations, Professor Stewart said, not only damage the intern, they also have a flow-on effect, because they steal jobs from low-paid workers who, as a consequence, are denied employment.
Internships for the highest bidder
Professor Stewart said there was also an opportunity issue at play.
"It's pretty obvious that people who come from wealthier or more privileged backgrounds are much more likely to be able to afford to work for free for lengthy periods of time to break into a particular industry or a particular job than people from lower socio-economic backgrounds," he said.
"There's a real issue here about access to professions and social mobility.
"Another example we found is internships being auctioned off; that is, the internship goes to the highest bidder.
"Not only are those organisations saying that you can come and do your job if you pay us money to give you the privilege of working for us, but we are going to take the wealthiest person, the person who can most put up the largest sum of money."
Trend has long-term implications
While the "pernicious" practice of charging people for internships remains rare in Australia, it has become increasingly common in the United States, according to Professor Stewart.
Dr Stanford is not confident that growing wage inequality and the rising tide of worker exploitation will be checked anytime soon.
Continuing uncertainty in the jobs market, he says, will likely quell resentment in the short-term, but he does believe there will eventually be a backlash if the situation is left to continue.
And there is a financial imperative: the loss of income for a worker translates into a loss of spending power in the economy as a whole.
"If you add that up across the labour force you're looking at roughly about $120 billion a year or something like 7 per cent of GDP that isn't being paid," he said.
"That drains spending power, it drains economic growth."
The need to rein-in dodgy internships and other exploitative work practices isn't just a moral issue, Dr Stanford argues, it's also has long-term economic implications, which shouldn't be underestimated.
Did you know Future Tense is also a podcast? Subscribe on iTunes, the ABC Radio app or your favourite podcasting app.
Topics: work, community-and-society, business-economics-and-finance, economic-trends, industrial-relations, australiaAntonio Silva is not happy about the response he’s received from his countrymen following hist most recent loss. And he is certainly not mincing his words about it.
Silva (19-9-1 MMA, 3-6-1 UFC) took to social media today to address the backlash following a 16-second TKO loss to Stefan Struve (27-8 MMA, 11-6 UFC) in the co-main event of Sunday’s UFC Fight Night 87 event at Ahoy Rotterdam in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The fight aired on FOX Sports 1 following prelims on FOX Sports 1 and UFC Fight Pass.
Under a picture that reads “Insects don’t attack unlit lamps,” the Brazilian heavyweight expressed his dissatisfaction with some “(crappy) Brazilians.” He went on to challenge detractors to meet him at his training center at American Top Team – though in full protective gear, he added. On a lighter note, he made sure to thank those who “recognize the work of a professional” and apologized to the fans for the outburst.
The defeat at UFC Fight Night 87 was Silva’s second knockout loss in a row. He was dropped by Mark Hunt this past November at UFC 193 in Melbourne, Australia. Prior to the loss to Hunt, he snapped a two-fight losing skid with a win over Soa Palelei in Rio de Janeiro at UFC 190.
Muitos pensam por q somos famosos não temos sentimentos nem vontade de as vezes responder… https://t.co/fX9t76pcUG — Antonio Pezao Silva (@BigfootSilva) May 9, 2016
See the full translation below:
“Many people think that because we’re famous, we don’t have feelings or the will to respond to some things. I’ll be very open and transparent to a lot of (expletive) Brazilians. This is why our country is miserable: because of lack of education, of culture and anti-patriotism. “I want those who are jealous, envious because they couldn’t achieve their goals and success in life, who find it easier to sit there a behind a computer and speak badly of others who work hard, overcoming pain, exhaustion, and often times overcoming illnesses to achieve success … I want those of you who only talk trash to go (expletive) yourselves, to go sit on a big macaxeira (type of root) and, if you think that’s bad or get as angry as you are in front of a computer: I train from Monday to Saturday at American Top Team. “‘5750 FL-7- Coconut Creek, Florida 33073,’ this is the address. Show up and don’t forget to bring a mouthpiece, gloves and shin guards. Thank you from my heart to those who recognize the work of a professional. I apologize for venting and for my lack of manners to all of you who like MMA or any other sport and recognize that a professional athlete doesn’t live only on wins. No one wants to be defeated, but we make one plan and God makes another.”
For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 87, check out the UFC Events section of the site.Government spending on publicity is nothing new. But in the last few years, the amount spent on publicity has increased multifold. In the last 11 years from 2004-05 to 2014-15, government spent more than 6000 crore rupees. In the last two years itself, more than 2000 crore rupees was spent, which is 1/3rd of the amount spent in the 11 years. The UPA in its second term spent more than twice the amount spent in its first term. The NDA in its first year itself spent close to 1000 crores on the publicity of all kinds.
The publicity blitzkrieg of a government just before any election is a well known fact. A lot of tax payer’s money is used to publicize government’s achievements, schemes and what not. Quite often, this is one area where the government spends much more than the allocated budget. And also, this is one area where austerity is a foreign word. As per data available with ‘The Directorate of Advertising & Visual Publicity (DAVP)’, under the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB), the central government spent more than 6000 crore rupees on all kinds of publicity in 11 years from 2004-05 to 2014-15.
What is DAVP?
The Directorate of Advertising & Visual Publicity (DAVP) is the nodal agency that takes care of multi-media advertising and publicity for various Ministries and Departments of Government of India. Some Autonomous Bodies also route their advertisements through DAVP. This is under the MIB. DAVP majorly uses the following channels for communication
Press Advertisements
Outdoor Publicity – Display of hoardings, kiosks, bus panels, wall paintings, cinema slides, banners etc.
Printed Publicity – Booklets, folders, posters, leaflets, calendars, diaries etc.
Audio & Visual Publicity – Spots/Quickies, jingles, sponsored programmes, short films etc.
Digital media publicity through Bulk SMS, website and other emerging Media.
The information was provided by DAVP in response to an application filed under RTI.
What is the total amount spent on Publicity?
The Central Government spent more than 6000 crore rupees in 11 years from 2004-05 to 2014-15. This includes 10 years of the UPA rule and the first year of the Narendra Modi led NDA Government.
As can be seen from the graph, the amount spent on publicity during election years is substantially high compared to the earlier years. The amount spent from 2004-05 to 2007-08 (4 years) is equal to the amount spent in just two years (2008-09 & 2009-10). Same is the case with the other years. In fact, the amount spent in 2013-14 & 2014-15 is almost 1/3rd of the amount spent in these 11 years.
UPA Vs NDA
The UPA spent about an average of 504 crore rupees per year on publicity during its 10 year rule. The NDA in its first year spent 993 crore rupees. The average amount spent during UPA’s first term was 312 crore rupees per year. This amount more than doubled during their second term and it spent an average of 696 crore rupees per year.
What is this money spent on?
As expected, bulk of this amount is spent on print advertisements. Close to 55% of the total amount (3295 crore rupees) was spent on Print Media, 38% (2290 crore) on Audio Video while the rest of the 7% (448 crore) on Printed & Outdoor Publicity. Except in the last two years (2013-14 & 2014-15), majority of the amount was spent on Print Media. But in 2013-14 & 2014-15, majority amount was spent on Audio Video publicity.
While those at the helm of affairs always advocated for reducing government expenditure & practicing austerity, this seems to the only department that is exception to any such rule. More & more money is being spent on publicity by successive governments.
Article Source – Factly
Written by- Rakesh DubbuduMedieval people really went through some shit. Suppression by the church, barbarian invasions, the crusades, unthinkable torture, the Black Plague—it was unpleasant.
To help us grasp just how bad it was, let’s take a look at the art of the time to check things out first hand. All the below is actual medieval art, painted between 700 and 1500AD.
If you were wondering whether sarcasm existed in the Middle Ages, this should answer your question. These dudes are just completely over it. The lusty men behind them certainly aren’t making anything better.
Mary was into being a celebrity for awhile but she’s just fucking sick of it now. This is like her 495th event showing people the magic baby.
Bored was about the best thing you could hope for in medieval times. And these statues are making no attempt to hide their boredom, mastering the “restlessly checking their watch” demeanor.
It even sucked being the sun in medieval times. Look at all those shapes he has to deal with.
Six of the lowest self-esteem people ever painted. Hard to imagine lower morale than this.
Every day is the new worst day of this guy’s life. The least they could have done was made the ceiling high enough for him to stand up straight while manually laboring all day.
This man’s reality is that he lives with a monkey, a little boy, two mating chickens, and a cat wearing glasses—and he just seems broken by it.
People Having Fully Bad Days
This woman has a full situation going on. She’s being molested by 11 of the creepiest-looking people ever, and as if that weren’t enough, there’s a knife-winged seagull flying into her head.
“Oh for fuck’s sake” was all this man could say when he took a turn down the wrong alleyway at the wrong time and was stripped naked and gang beaten by a hardened group of toddlers.
The Middle Ages took “undignified” to a different level. This man doesn’t even look that upset by his current situation, suggesting that he’s used to this kind of thing happening.
Yup. It’s what it looks like. A woman being raped by a bunny. There’s no way a modern bunny would ever have that rapey a facial expression on, let alone act on it.
People Just Completely in the Shit
It’s just a really, really bad situation for this guy. Having your feet sawed off is simply not a part of life today. Standard procedure in the Middle Ages.
Today, an old weathered person would just be old and weathered. A medieval old person is weathered, yes, but they also have a butcher knife stuck in their head, piercing their brain. And this guy just deals with it, trudging on through his medieval life.
Medieval times were so shitty that being burned at the stake represented a somewhat average day in your life. These guys have certainly been through worse, as evidenced by their blasé expressions.
Likewise, this man is positively enjoying being torn apart by hell monsters. This is actually one of his better days.
Today, bad weather consists of rain. Maybe even a hurricane. Then? A fire shower and an air strike by murderous stars. We won’t even bring up the fact that a huge severed animal leg and a bored two-headed horse are part of the equation.
Now come on. What could someone possibly do that’s so bad it warrants having his intestines reeled out of him? Also note the man being buried alive and the synchronized baby butchering in the background. You know shit was bad when you’re the guy on the left and your stomach has been carved open and you’re in only the fifth worst situation in the vicinity.
You’d think with a collection of situations this bad, it might be hard to choose the climactic worst one to put last. And yet, this man being simultaneously eaten by the devil and pushed out through his vagina is a pretty clear winner. Just another day in the Middle Ages.Goalie Malcolm Subban was injured in the 3rd period of the game against St. Louis on October 21st. Following the injury Subban was placed on IR and the timetable that was set was “approximately four weeks.”
Today at City National Arena the goalie was publicly seen skating for the first time since the injury three weeks ago.
Malcolm Subban back on the ice at City National Arena. (Stick tap to Constant Kern for the video) pic.twitter.com/CXjmcmdkVj — SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) November 12, 2017
In doing so he also showed off his new helmet and pads. The helmet is red on the front with a gold facemask. It has the Golden Knights primary logo along the chin with a pattern of primary logos toward the side. On the side there are a few more logos including the secondary sword star and a silhouette of the Las Vegas strip. The top is mostly gold with white bold letters spelling “Vegas Strong.” We have yet to see the back.
Couple stills of Malcolm Subban from this morning. (Stick tap to Ami Gilbert for these) pic.twitter.com/VlJeH461Da — SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) November 12, 2017
Then, the best moment of the day happened when Jonathan Marchessault’s son took some shots on Subban. Looks like we’ve got a future star in the making.
(Videos taken by Marcus Cottengim)
There has not been an update from the Golden Knights on the status of Subban, Marc-Andre Fleury, or Oscar Dansk.
**Huge thanks to Marcus Cottengim, Constance Kern, and Ami Gilbert for the pictures and videos. If something related to the Golden Knights happens, SinBinners are always there.**Choo Choo!!! Train noises may be a weird way to start this update but that’s exactly what we could have at Mako; coaster coaches (cars) that make up a train are likely behind the tarp and still being loaded in each night:
While not confirmed the park put out this teaser clip on twitter the other day:
While this doesn’t prove anything either, all trains made by B&M are made in Switzerland while track is made at different factories around the world. With the station going in nicely at this time programming can begin soon even without track completion. Speaking of the station our friend John Wiencek of johnnyupsidedown.com sent us this photo to share with our readers:
For more of John’s content on Mako check out his page!
Here’s a look at the station from another angle:
When we first arrived to the site morning of this update we notice a piece of track waiting to be moved |
-clip or "zip" strap that, over time, exposed the conductors, leading to short circuits and subsequent burning of the wires. There was no other damage. The wiring for all the modes of operation of the rear outflow valve, in addition to other services, run through this loom.[39]
Subsequent developments [ edit ]
The company announced successful safety checks on their Boeing fleet on 29 August 2005 and put them back into service. It later renamed itself from "Helios Airways" to "αjet". However, when authorities in Cyprus detained the company's aircraft and froze the company's bank accounts about a year later, the airline announced that it would stop operating on 31 October 2006.
In March 2011, the Federal Aviation Administration in the United States released an Airworthiness Directive requiring all Boeing 737 aircraft from −100 to −500 models to be fitted with two additional cockpit warning lights. These would indicate problems with take-off configuration or pressurization. Aircraft on the United States civil register were required to have the additional lights by 14 March 2014.[40]
Lawsuits and criminal proceedings [ edit ]
Families of the dead filed a lawsuit against Boeing on 24 July 2007. Their lawyer, Constantinos Droungas, said, "Boeing put the same alarm in place for two different types of dysfunction. One was a minor fault, but the other – the loss of oxygen in the cockpit – is extremely important." He also said that similar problems had been encountered before on Boeings in Ireland and Norway. The families sued for 76 million euros in compensation from Boeing.[41]
In early 2008, an Athens prosecutor charged six former employees with manslaughter over the incident. Reports at the time said the suspects were two Britons, one Bulgarian national and three Cypriots.[42]
On 23 December 2008, Helios Airways and four of its officials were charged in Cyprus with 119 counts of manslaughter and of causing death by recklessness and negligence. The four officials were former chief pilot Ianko Stoimenov, chairman of the board Andreas Drakos, chief executive officer Demetris Pantazis, and operations manager Giorgos Kikidis. The trial began in November 2009; the state prosecutors finished presenting their case in June 2011.[43][44][45] The case was dismissed, and the defendants acquitted, on 21 December 2011. The panel of judges hearing the case ruled that there was no "causal association between the defendants and the negligence they were charged with for the fatal accident".[46] An appeal was filed by the Cypriot Attorney-general, and in December 2012 the Supreme Court set aside the acquittal and ordered a new trial. Two months later, the retrial was dropped under double jeopardy rules, as the charges had already been heard in Athens.[47][48]
In December 2011, shortly after the end of the case in Cyprus, a new trial began in a Greek magistrate's court in which chief executive officer Demetris Pantazis, flight operations manager Giorgos Kikkides, former chief pilot Ianko Stoimenov and chief engineer Alan Irwin were charged with manslaughter. All except Irwin had been previously charged and acquitted by the Cypriot authorities.[47] In April 2012 all were found guilty and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and remained free on bail pending an appeal.[49]
As of August 2013, all defendants lost their appeal at the Athens High Court. Their sentence of 10 years was ordered to stand but the defendants were given the option to buy out their sentence for around €75,000 each. Greek investigators blamed the crash of the Helios Airways flight outside Athens on human error after the aircraft failed to pressurize after taking off from Larnaca Airport. Prosecutors in both countries blamed airline officials for cutting corners on safety operations while also saying that they failed to act on advice that the pilots did not meet the necessary aviation standards.[50]
Relatives of the dead filed a class action suit against the Cypriot government – specifically the Department of Civil Aviation – for negligence that led to the air disaster. They claim that the DCA was ignoring airlines' loose enforcement of regulations, and that in general the department cut corners when it came to flight safety.[42][needs update]
In popular culture [ edit ]
The Discovery Channel Canada / National Geographic TV series Mayday featured the accident in a Season 4 episode titled Ghost Plane.[51] The accident was featured again during Mayday season 6, in an episode titled Ripped Apart.[52]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Cited text:It has been rather a busy week for the Universities and Science Minister David Willets, with multiple funding announcements concerning the 8 core technologies and sciences the UK government are determined to bring the country to the fore of, as well as the announcement of a governmental plan to further “reduce, replace and refine the use of animals in research”.
Before we delve into the funding details from this week let’s take a quick look at those 8 great technologies.
Big Data: In 2012 90% of the world’s data has been collected in the past two years. It is clear that scientists, policy makers and others need the capability to properly analyse and use this large amount of data. The big data market is expected to create 58,000 new jobs and generate £216bn for the UK economy before 2017.
Satellites: Space industries added £8.2bn to the UK economy since 2009 and will continue to be an important part of the country’s economy while also having tremendous research potential.
Robotics and autonomous systems: The general goal here is to utilise robotics and systems to improve manufacturing, medicine and transport with applications in a variety of industries. The UK has a good history with autonomous systems, for example British autonomous submarines were the first to explore under a polar ice shelf. Last year it was announced that the government plans to make the UK a world centre for the development of driverless cars. The government predicts a £13bn global market for robotics and autonomous systems by 2025.
Synthetic Biology: There is a predicted global market of £62bn for synthetic biology and it’s applications by 2020.
Regenerative Medicine: Generally focusing on stem cell research and use in medicine to repair damaged tissues this market is expected to create 15,000 jobs in the UK by 2020.
Agri-science: The UN has predicted that food production will need to increase by 70% by 2050 to keep up with increases in the population. Developments in plant science and other fields of agricultural science are necessary to fuel this increase in production.
Advanced Materials: “UK material-related industries have a yearly turnover of £197bn”, keeping up with advancements in the study of materials such as graphene is necessary to maintain this industry and has global applications in many industries.
Energy Storage: Reducing electricity consumption and maximising storage of energy from sources of renewable energy that are temporal in nature (e.g. wind). The government expects £12bn in business revenue from advances in energy storage research.
In the autumn 2012 statement a £600 million investment was announced to support the development of these 8 technologies which were chosen as the UK already has produced world-leading research in the area which itself has a range of applications and potential for commercialisation.
Funding for Big data
The autumn 2012 statement saw £189 million of funding for big data (somewhat comparable to the US $200 million for the US big data R&D initiative), but now at a conference on high performance computing and big data on 6th February, David Willets announced £73 million of new funding towards unlocking the potential of big data. Ranging over 55 projects the funds will be appropriated by the Medical Research council (MRC), the Arts and Humanities Research council (AHRC), the Economic and Social Research council (ESRC) and the Natural Environment Research council (NERC).
“Making the most of large and complex data is a huge priority for government as it has the potential to drive research and development, increase productivity and innovation and ultimately transform lives.” “This funding will help build UK medical research capability and improve collaboration across institutions, academia, the NHS and industry.” – Universities and Science Minister David Willets.
The MRC will invest £32 million (up to an expected £50 million) towards improving the infrastructure and capabilities in medical bioinformatics. This is the latest instalment of a £90 million funding incentive by the MRC with £20m last year used to establish the first health informatics research institute in the UK. One of the first awardees of funds from this medical bioinformatics initiative includes Sir Alex Markham of my own University of Leeds and the Leeds MRC medical bioinformatics centre.
The AHRC will invest £4 million into 21 new projects which will make data sets available to the general public. In one such project Lancaster University will make thousands of musical scores open to the public online. The ESRC has £14 million to invest into 4 new research centres based in Essex, Glasgow, London and Leeds. This is the second stage in a project that aims to make private sector and governmental data available to the public. The NERC has £4.6 million for 24 projects that will aim to take existing data sets and make them more accessible and useful to UK researchers.
Funding for Synthetic Biology
Earlier in the week at an event at Church House, London, the government minister also announced a £40 million investment from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research council (BBSRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research council (EPSRC) towards the establishment of three new synthetic biology research centres in Bristol, Nottingham and Cambridge/Norwich. £10 million of this funding comes from the £600 million announced in 2012 while 70% of the remainder comes from the BBSRC and the remaining 30% from the EPSRC.
For those wondering what synthetic biology is, it can be considered a field that has emerged from biotechnology (the use of living things in engineering, technology and medicine) that can be defined as the design of biological systems. Essentially our improved scientific understanding of biology has led us to the point where we can start applying engineering principles to our knowledge to produce novel synthetic systems. These systems can be used for various applications such as the production of new medicines, food or energy sources. The field has huge potential for a range of industries but it is yet to be fully realised and put into practice. The Bristol based centre will focus on developing techniques to allow the fast and efficient production of biological material, whereas the Nottingham centre will develop systems to produce important chemicals through sustainable means. Finally the Cambridge and Norwich partnership, the OpenPlant Synthetic Biology research centre will focus on synthetic biology applications in plants.
“The 3Rs” in animal research
On the 7th February minister David Willetts announced a government “delivery plan” that aimed to reduce the use of animals in research. Since 2000 the number of procedures involving animals has increased from 2.5 million to more than 4 million in 2012.
“This delivery plan puts science at the heart of our commitment to work to reduce the use of animals in research. It highlights the important work our life sciences sector is doing to provide a package that is good for patients, animal welfare, the environment and the UK’s economic growth.” “Animals are only used when there are no suitable alternatives. But the results we get from research can transform lives and pave the way for new and ground breaking medical advances. By encouraging new cutting-edge approaches to science we will not only improve standards of animal welfare but also reduce costs to industry.” – Universities and Science Minister David Willetts
The plan, developed by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the Home Office and the Department of Health is in line with, and pledges support for guidelines set out by the National Centre for Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs).This follows the 2010 pledge by the government to “work to reduce the use of animals in scientific research”. Although some organisations and UK-based animal rights groups have complained that the plan does not do enough to set firm targets or goals. On the other hand Norman Baker, the Home Office minister responsible for animal research, has said that it would be “artificial” to set a target for the number of experiments involving animals.
The 3Rs are more about ensuring that animals are used when necessary, in well-designed and thought through experiments that have a clear benefit and represent the best way to conduct the scientific work, rather than defining exactly how many experiments should be allowed to use animals per year. Setting such a limit on animal use would hamper many laboratories in their ability to produce world-leading research. Competition between companies and research groups for animal allotments would add further problems, although one could argue that competition could lead to increased animal protection through higher standards and better practise.
The regulatory system in the UK already means that researchers must provide evidence to justify the use of animals and provide a benefit-harm analysis to show how the suffering inflicted on the animals is outweighed by the potential benefits to humans. On top of this an ethical review body is used to ensure that facilities and staff are up to standard and are able to properly care for the animals. The objectives of this government plan is to further promote the 3Rs (reduce, replace and refine) use in research, promote awareness of animal research and the needs for it, increase the role of the Home Office in advancements in the 3Rs and to increase data and resource sharing between industry and academia. Further funding from the Technology Strategy Board also plans to help accelerate the development of novel non-animal technologies.
Advertisements’14-15 Season Report Card: Jeffery Taylor
PER: 8.26
PER Against (Net): 20.30 (-12.04)
If certain wings can be called “3-and-D” specialists then Jeff Taylor strives to be one, yet ends up being a “D-and-no-3″ player.
His career path has been a strange one so far. Taylor’s play reminded you of a player who lacks confidence even before his Achilles tear in 2013 or his 2014 off-court problems. It’s weird since his prelude to the 2013-14 season was averaging 19.4 points per game (on 51.3% from the field) for Team Sweden. Judging by his NBA production, one could assume that he might have gone over there and struggled in EuroBasket 2013, instead of leading the team that also had Jonas Jerebko on its roster.
Strengths:
Taylor’s main strength is a capability of using his great body to his advantage on the defensive end. The combination of his height, strength and speed makes him a capable tracker of off-ball offensive players. JT is able to attach himself to his assignment and stay close to him throughout screens before using said physical attributes to also bother the player once he has got the ball.
When his foot-work is faulty on a close-out, he acknowledges the rules of having to close down the middle and is able to get back in front of his man after diligently working to ensure that. It really is an uncanny skill which his body helps him to execute.
One almost has to wonder whether it truly is something that you can point out as a positive when it would be delightful if Taylor wouldn’t let his man through the middle to begin with. It’s a capability that is there because of the way he is built as an athlete.
At a first glance Taylor’s defensive rating is horrible as the Hornets have given up 104.4 points per 100 possessions with JT on the court, a mark worthy of a spot among the ten worst defenses. Fact is, however, that Jeffery’s case is hurt by him playing his share of minutes in blow-outs with blah line-ups and that he’s quite adequate on that end when judged by the eye-test.
The three most used 5-man line-ups, all of which contain Taylor playing among some form of a starting line-up, have combined for 167 minutes of playing time and have given up 96.9, 100.0 and 89.8 points per 100 possessions, respectively. It’s a damn good showing considering that Taylor replaced MKG in these line-ups, without whom on the court we regress on defense by 7.7 points.
Jeffrey is mostly able to contribute on offense when there’s an opening for an athletic play, whether it’s a fast-break or a lane to the basket. Kidd-Gilchrist could learn from Taylor’s body of work on off-the-ball back-door cuts.
Weaknesses:
Otherwise, Taylor’s become one of the worst pull-up shooters in the league, Alexey Shved being the only one in the NBA who was less precise during the 2013-14 season with Taylor making 20% of his pull-up shots, per NBA.com. His luck didn’t change last season as he converted only 25% of his pull-up looks, which are any jump shot outside 10 feet where a player took one or more dribbles before shooting. Jeff’s three-point shooting (26.9% and 32.4%, respectively) and percentage on free throws (55.3% and 61.5%) since his rookie season also have been disappointing.
The Viking’s pull-up and three-point struggles seem to be a product of chronic indecisiveness on what to do once has caught the ball. It’s either that or during the 2013 training camp he was strictly instructed to start every move with a pump fake and a jab step (or even better, a couple of them) before attempting anything else.
When he doesn’t commit a traveling violation, Taylor will, you know, actually throw up a jump-shot. What bothers his success though is a very slow shot release. To make matters worse, he brings the ball up in front of his face, which makes it an easy target for blocked shots or at least a severe contest by a defender.
His release is so painfully slow that it again makes you wonder whether he is completely sure that he wants to make the decision of attempting a shot. When combined with a jab step it almost makes you feel sorry for Taylor’s difficulty to release the ball as if he was Mackey Sasser.
The worst part is that he’s seemingly yet to figure out what advantage these repetitive jab steps give him, when they actually produce an opening. Despite being a very good athlete, Taylor usually doesn’t manage to get quite past his defender and his drives have a tendency of ending in weird spin-cycles or tough attempts that are released over the opponent while Jeff himself is floating sideways in the air.
Reasons for Optimism:
I don’t really see any. Taylor has had the opportunities under coach Clifford to play as a starter whenever Michael Kidd-Gilchrist goes down, yet hasn’t used them to his advantage. At this point I would have to bet that there isn’t a long NBA career in the makings here.
Reasons for Pessimism:
Taylor’s insecure offense has submerged any kind of unit that tries to incorporate his jab steps into scoring actual baskets. He has the worst offensive rating (89.5) in the league among players who have clocked at least 300 minutes this season (sadly enough our Noah Vonleh and Joffrey Lauvergne have made their respective teams suffer even more, yet both have only surpassed the 200 minute mark), which is quite remarkable since, you know, he supposedly has “3-and-D” potential.
The Walker/Henderson/Taylor/Marvin/Biyombo line-up with which we had to close out this season has been particularly insufferable as they’ve played 99 minutes together and have only managed to score 78.4 points per 100 possessions.
I’ve seemingly always liked Taylor’s potential more than the next man, however, his body of work during the last two seasons isn’t worthy of anything more than a training camp invite after his rookie deal expired this summer. The defensive and athletic abilities are there but he’s as far from being a legit “3-and-D” guy as is the moment of the ball being released from the moment when he catches it.Google Nexus One's luminous OLED screen may be state of the art when it comes to display technology in smartphones but an iPhone's LCD screen ranks better, according to tests by DisplayMate, a firm that calibrates and optimizes displays.
"The high-resolution, high-pixel-density OLED display on the Nexus One is beautiful, even stunning on first view, but there are lots of issues, problems and artifacts lurking just below the surface," said Raymond Soneira, president of DisplayMate, on the company's blog.
Since OLED displays are still so new, they are yet to be perfected for use in consumer products, which can result in a less-than-optimal experience, he says.
Organic LED displays, or OLEDs, are gaining favor among gadget makers because they can offer a brighter display at lower power than traditional LCDs. The Nexus One has a 3.7-inch screen and a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels. The iPhone 3G has a 3.5 inch display with a resolution of 480 x 320 pixels.
To test the Nexus One's screen, DisplayMate used 24-bit native resolution 800 x 480 test patterns and 24-bit HD resolution test photos.
Their conclusions? The "peak white brightness" of the Nexus One is low for a display that used often in outdoor settings. In terms of picture quality, the Nexus One photos had "way too much contrast and color saturation, to the point of appearing gaudy," says DisplayMate.
The Nexus One's Gallery app also uses 16-bit color instead of 24-bit color, which results in poor images, says the firm.
Another reason for the Nexus One display's performance could be the "PenTile pixel arrangement" that it uses, says Soneira. Instead of the three sub-pixels of red, green and blue for every pixel, the Nexus One's display just divides each pixel into two. Every PenTile pixel includes a green sub-pixel, but the red and blue sub-pixels appear in alternating pixels, he says.
"In principle, that is only a minor issue because if red or blue isn’t available in a particular pixel, then the display driver can just use one from an adjacent pixel. But in practice, it makes things a lot harder for the software and makes it very likely that artifacts will creep into the on-screen images," says Soneira.
DisplayMate suggests, among other things, Google improve the factory display calibration to correct color saturation and contrast.
Check out their complete two-part series discussing the tests conducted and the results for this Nexus One vs. iPhone 3G shootout.
Not surprisingly, the OLED Association isn't happy with the results. The tests are flawed and just because the OLED screen does not react the same way as an LCD screen does not mean the former is inferior, Barry Young, managing director of the OLED Association told OLED-Display.net.
Photo: Comparing the Nexus One display to the iPhone/ DisplayMateLinkedIn, like all technology-based companies, is having a tough year.
But it's boldly going ahead with ambitious advertising plans — to space, where many have not gone before.
After a harrowing month for LinkedIn's stock following a disappointing earnings report, the business networking site is set to launch its first-ever TV ad this weekend with an aspirational message rooted in data that 3 million of its users are qualified for NASA's latest astronaut job posting.
The 30-second commercial will debut this Sunday during the Academy Awards — widely considered the advertising industry's second biggest TV stage apart from the Super Bowl — and kick off a larger campaign that will encompass print, digital and social.
SEE ALSO: LinkedIn CEO gives soothing pep talk to employees after stock gets obliterated
The inspiration for the commercial came from a job ad posted by NASA in search of its next astronaut. LinkedIn crunched the numbers and found that up to 3 million of its more than 400 million users were qualified for the position.
LinkedIn's own CEO Jeff Weiner did the voiceover for the spot, and the video footage was provided by NASA.
The company is hoping to use the wonder of space travel to not only lure new users to the site but also fire up its own employees, says marketing vp Nick Bartle.
"The astronaut is a universal symbol of a dream job," Bartle said. "At the core of the story is empowerment. Many people think these careers are unattainable. We exist to help them achieve that level of professional attainment."
The idea that so many LinkedIn users are cut out to be astronauts already seems to have resonated well with the site's base. According to the company, the original tweet announcing the finding was its most popular to date.
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.In March 2014, Ukrainian authorities found 42kg of gold and $4.8 million in cash in the home of Edward Stavytskyi, Ukraine’s former energy minister, after he fled the Maidan revolution.
But the combined investigative capacities of 28 EU states and 18,000 officials in the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office over two years failed to build a case that he and others were guilty of “misappropriation” of state funds.
EU court says you can't list people based on a letter, which lacks content (Photo: katarina_dzurekova)
That's one reading of an EU court decision in Luxembourg on Thursday (28 January) to annul an EU asset freeze on five former regime members that was imposed in March 2014.
The other four men are former PM Mykola Azarov, his son Oleksyi, former PM Sergej Arbuzov, and Sergiy Klyuyev, the brother of a presidential aide.
Most of them are still under an asset freeze, based on a subsequent EU decision in March 2015.
But they are also challenging the 2015 list in separate legal action. Most of the other 12 people on the 2014 and 2015 lists, including former president Viktor Yanukovych, have also filed cases.
The judges said the 2014 asset freeze was based solely on a letter from the Kiev prosecutor to the EU Council in Brussels.
They said the letter provided "no details concerning the matters specifically alleged against the five Ukrainians or the nature of their responsibility".
They added that a person cannot be blacklisted "solely on the ground that he is the subject of a preliminary investigation in a third country".
Stavytskyi-type wealth was also on display in other cases.
Klyuyev lived in an opulent mansion.
Viktor Pshonka, the former prosecutor general, who is also pursuing an EU court challenge, had gold-plated bathroom ware, gem-encrusted clocks, and oil paintings of himself as Napoleon.
Yanukovych lived in a luxury complex called Mezhyhirya in which the main house alone is worth $160 million and which is now a Museum of Corruption.
EU appeal?
The EU foreign service said on Thursday it might appeal against the judgment.
“The EU institutions are studying the ruling carefully. They will reflect on the options open to them and will, in due course, decide on any appropriate remedial action,” spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic told EUobserver.
She said the asset-freeze criteria and the “Ukrainian information” they were based on were “updated” last year.
She also said: “[Court] rulings concern legal requirements in relation to specific listings, not sanctions policy in general.”
But Lansky Ganzer & Partner (LGP), the Austrian law firm that represents Mykola Azarov, says Thursday’s verdict does have broader implications.
LGP’s Michael Laubsch told EUobserver it shows the EU acted based on "political abuse instead of rule of law".
“Of course Mr Azarov is satisfied … [He] is hoping that the verdict will also will have an impact on future decisions of the EU Council,” he added, as talks go on in Brussels on whether to extend the asset freeze into 2017.
Azarov, who lives in Moscow, recently told EUobserver he has no assets in the EU in any case.
But he said that winning the EU case would help his political project - the Committee for the Rescue of Ukraine - which is designed to unseat the pro-EU government in Kiev.
Thursday’s verdict came shortly after Interpol, the international police body, also suspended Azarov and Yanukovych from its wanted list.
An Interpol spokesman told EUobserver they might stay off the list “pending review” of Ukrainian evidence.
Political blow
The developments come at a difficult moment for Ukraine's current leader, president Petro Poroshenko, who is trying to pass a law on holding local elections in Russia-occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk in east Ukraine.
The elections are a key part of the so-called Minsk 2 ceasefire accord.
EU diplomats say he lacks a majority in parliament. If he fails, it will help Russia to say Ukraine is the guilty party on ceasefire non-compliance.
But the court ruling risks harming Ukrainian public support for both Poroshenko and the EU more broadly.
The day Yanukovych fled, on 23 February 2014, Valentyna, a 40-year old Ukrainian economist, told EUobserver in Lviv, western Ukraine, that Europe had “insulted” the Maidan activists.
“People stood on the Maidan for three months and Europe did nothing,” she said.
“Now it should block their [the Yanukovych regime’s] bank accounts. It should work with the new authorities on this, because most of them have put their stolen money in Europe.”
Two years down the line, and people like Valentyna are apt to feel “insulted” once again.Photo
Want to dial 911 from a mobile phone? Better go outside. Chances are an operator cannot automatically find the location of an emergency call made indoors.
The Federal Communications Commission wants to fix that, proposing rules on Thursday that would require wireless phone companies to transmit specific information for 911 calls, down to the longitude and latitude on a floor in a multistory building, within five years.
It all sounds reasonable, especially because 70 percent of all calls to 911 are now made from mobile phones. And wireless companies say they want to comply. The trouble is, they don’t have the technology to do so.
That raises questions about whether the F.C.C.’s proposed deadlines can be met. AT&T, for one, says probably not. “The commission has tentatively proposed unrealistic targets for location accuracy indoors,” the company said in a statement. A report on the most recent tests by the F.C.C.’s Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council “shows that no vendor currently has proven technology that can meet the proposed standards,” AT&T said.
But Tom Wheeler, the F.C.C. chairman, wants to set the bar high. “We’re setting off on a path to improve public safety and to save human lives,” he said during the F.C.C.’s meeting on Thursday. “It’s never wrong to overreach on those goals.”
The technology isn’t the only challenge to meeting the deadline, said Michael O’Rielly, an F.C.C. commissioner, who voted to move ahead with the proposed rules but not with the mandated deadlines. “Vendors will have to test their technology and go through the standards setting process,” Mr. O’Rielly explained. “Location systems will have to be built. Hardware will have to be added to handsets. New handsets will have to be introduced to consumers and achieve sufficient market penetration. This all takes time.”
Take the location finders. While most smartphones already have them, they base their information on where a user is in relation to a known Wi-Fi hot spot. Hot spot databases are private, and public safety officials cannot rely on them for emergency information without rigorous testing of their reliability.
Commissioner Ajit Pai, who also voted against the timeline, noted that the last round of F.C.C. requirements for 911 calling data was established in 1996. But it will not be fully carried out until 2019. “I’m doubtful that this deployment can be completed in two to three years,” Mr. Pai said.
Accuracy is an issue, too.
The newly proposed rules would require location data to be correct in 80 percent of the cases within five years. In the most recent round of testing, the single technology tested found the correct floor in urban, multistory buildings in only about 67 percent of cases.
When tests were run to see whether the devices could locate a wireless caller within a specific building in an urban area, the devices were off target by 200 to 750 feet. In most cities, that is a distance that would encompass several buildings — meaning that emergency medical workers might go to a wrong address multiple times.
“We strongly encourage the F.C.C. to consider location accuracy requirements that are grounded in verified data, not aspirational target setting,” Scott Bergmann, vice president of regulatory affairs for CTIA-The Wireless Association, a trade group for mobile phone companies.
Mr. Wheeler says the commission must forge ahead. “Our job,” he said, “is to ensure that as network providers and their customers upgrade to new technologies, there is no downgrade in reliability, availability, or public safety.”By SCOTT BAUER
Associated Press
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A federal judge just two months before Election Day has ordered that Wisconsin election officials not enforce the law limiting how much money candidates can collect from political action committees and those run by political parties and legislative campaigns.
U.S. District Judge Rudolph Randa on Friday issued the ruling in a lawsuit brought by the CRG Network, a political action committee that works to elect conservative candidates. The group argued that the limits were a violation of its free speech rights. Randa, in granting a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the law, said the group was likely to succeed on that claim.
Kevin Kennedy, director of the Government Accountability Board that oversees elections and campaign finance laws, said he didn’t expect the limits to be restored before the election. Kennedy said GAB was working with the state Department of Justice on limiting the scope of the injunction.
Randa stopped enforcement of the law as it applies to all candidates for state office, rejecting arguments from the state Government Accountability Board, which enforces election law, that CRG Network didn’t have standing to challenge it other than for candidates to the state Assembly.
But Randa went further than the lawsuit was seeking, blocking enforcement of the law that limits contributions from political party and legislative campaign committees as well.
CRG Network said in its lawsuit that it tried to make donations of $250 to four Republican candidates for the state Assembly. Only one of them, Rep. Dan Knodl, of Germantown, accepted the donation, while the other three returned all or a portion of the money because they had already met their PAC donation limits.
Wisconsin’s campaign finance laws set those limits at $7,763 for Assembly candidates, $15,525 for state Senate candidates, $242,550 for the attorney general and $485,190 for the governor.
The limits for political party committees are higher: $11,213 for state Assembly candidates, $22,435 for state Senate candidates, $350,350 for attorney general and $700,830 for governor.
The limits have not changed since 1990.
Mike McCabe, director of Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a nonpartisan watchdog group that tracks money in state politics in Wisconsin, called Randa’s ruling “out of step with what voters of every political stripe are thinking.”
“It is just opening the floodgates. And we already had too much money in politics and way too much special interest influence in Wisconsin,” McCabe said.
CRG Network was represented in the lawsuit by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty. The group’s attorney, Rick Esenberg, said in a statement that he was hopeful the Legislature would revamp the state’s campaign finance laws in light of “the string of recent legal defeats.”
WILL also won a lawsuit challenging the limit on aggregate contributions that individuals can make to multiple candidates. That came after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against similar limits on how much individual donors can give to multiple candidates for Congress and political committees.
Republican legislative leaders have said they are looking at a comprehensive review of state campaign finance laws next year.Every new show, the schedule for every returning show, and what's worth watching
The programming/content onslaught continues, with more new shows this winter and spring than any of us will ever have time to watch.
Here’s a curated, chronological list I’ve made to round up the new series, specials, documentaries, reality shows (so many reality shows) and other stuff that will premiere between January and May. (Some of these are already on.) It’s by no means complete, and dates are subject to change — and in some cases, dates have yet to be announced.
If you’re looking for a list of returning shows, that’s here, too. I’ve also written some short reviews of six new shows that caught my attention, including a first pass at AMC’s much-anticipated “Better Call Saul,” which premieres Feb. 8.
Anything else that looks interesting (to me, at least, and maybe to you), I’ve marked with a.Touring the Verdun Battlefield site in France
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The Verdun Battlefield in northern France is the site of one of the world’s most horrific battles. Almost 100 hundred years ago the Great War or World War I raged along a 400 mile front in northern France and Flanders. The beautiful countryside was then a flaming war zone with trenches, bombed out craters, and the desolate no man’s land. No man’s land was the area of land between the two armies that was so bombed out no life existed.
Historical context of the Verdun Battlefield
One of the key points in this swath of destruction was Verdun, France. The German Army decided here in 1916 that they could bleed the French Army white and eventually wear down the French with their bigger army. They were almost successful, but the attrition wore them down just as much as the French.
Arriving at the town of Verdun
Verdun is now a peaceful quiet town in the French countryside. I arrived one day by myself and with my school boy French asked a waitress at a French café where I could tour the battlefield. Où est la bataille de Verdun. The lady replied in a torrent of French. I must have been so successful with my French accent that she thought I was a native.
“Repetez lentment,” I replied (repeat slowly). I did my best to converse with her and in the end I was able to decipher that the actual battlefield was about 20 kilometers from town, which was way too far to walk and then tour in one day. She said she would call a taxi for me and the driver would drive me around to all the places I wanted to see.
Getting a Verdun battlefield tour
I counted my francs, and I had enough to pay for the tour. It was 200 francs for a couple of hours with the taxi driver. At the time it was $40.00. The exchange was much more favorable back then. I imagine it would be around $60.00 to $80.00 now for the same tour. See the bottom of this post for tips on visiting.
My taxi driver picked me up and we |
airlock for aquanauts to come out of the submarine and to destroy the bilge of the ship. With the death of Peter I in January 1725, Nikonov lost his principal patron and the Admiralty withdrew support for the project.
The first American military submarine was Turtle in 1776, a hand-powered egg-shaped (or acorn-shaped) device designed by the American David Bushnell, to accommodate a single man. It was the first submarine capable of independent underwater operation and movement, and the first to use screws for propulsion.[17] However, according to British naval historian Richard Compton-Hall, the problems of achieving neutral buoyancy would have rendered the vertical propeller of the Turtle useless. The route the Turtle must take to attack its intended target HMS Eagle was slightly across the tidal stream which would, in all probability, have resulted in Ezra Lee becoming exhausted.[18] There are also no British records of an attack by a submarine during the war. In the face of these and other problems, Compton-Hall suggests that the entire story around the Turtle was fabricated as disinformation and morale-boosting propaganda, and that if Ezra Lee did carry out an attack, it was in a covered rowing boat rather than the Turtle. Replicas of Turtle have been built to test the design. One replica (Acorn), created by Duke Riley and Jesse Bushnell (claiming to be a descendant of David Bushnell), used the tide to get within 200 feet of the RMS Queen Mary 2 in New York City (Acorn was stopped by a police boat for violating a security zone).[19][20][21] Replicas of Turtle's acknowledging its place in history are on display at the Connecticut River Museum, the U.S. Navy's Submarine Force Library and Museum, Britain's Royal Navy Submarine Museum and Monaco's Oceanographic Museum.
Nautilus (1800), built in France by The(1800), built in France by Robert Fulton
In 1800, the French Navy built a human-powered submarine designed by Robert Fulton, the Nautilus. It also had a sail for use on the surface and so was the first known use of dual propulsion on a submarine. It proved capable of using mines to destroy two warships during demonstrations. The French eventually gave up with the experiment in 1804, as did the British, when Fulton later offered them the submarine design.[22]
The Submarino Hipopótamo was the first submarine in South America built and tested in Ecuador on September 18, 1837. It was designed by Jose Rodriguez Lavandera, who successfully crossed the Guayas River in Guayaquil accompanied by Jose Quevedo. Rodriguez Lavandera had enrolled in the Ecuadorian Navy in 1823, becoming a Lieutenant by 1830. The Hipopotamo crossed the Guayas on two more occasions, but it was abandoned, because of lack of funding and interest from the government.[23]
In 1851, a Bavarian artillery corporal, Wilhelm Bauer, took a submarine designed by him called the Brandtaucher (fire-diver) to sea in Kiel Harbour. This submarine was built by August Howaldt and powered by a treadwheel. It sank, but the crew of three managed to escape.[24]
The "Flach" was commissioned in 1865 by the Chilean government during the Chincha Islands War between Chile and Peru against Spain (1864–1866). It was built by the German engineer Karl Flach. The submarine sank during tests in Valparaiso bay, on May 3, 1866, with the entire eleven-man crew. During the War of the Pacific in 1879, the Peruvian government commissioned and built a submarine, the Toro Submarino. It never saw military action and was scuttled after Peru's defeat to prevent its capture by the enemy.[25]
Mechanical power [ edit ]
Plongeur, the first submarine that did not rely on human power for propulsion., the first submarine that did not rely on human power for propulsion.
The first submarine that did not rely on human power for propulsion was the French Navy submarine Plongeur, launched in 1863, and equipped with a reciprocating engine using compressed air from 23 tanks at 180 psi.[26] In practice, the submarine was virtually unmanageable underwater, with very poor speed and maneouverability.[14]
Ictineo II stands near A replica of Monturiol's woodenstands near Barcelona harbor.
The first air independent and combustion powered submarine was the Spanish Ictineo II, designed by Narcís Monturiol.[26] Originally launched in 1864 as a human-powered vessel, propelled by 16 men, it was converted to peroxide propulsion and steam in 1867. The 14 meters (46 feet) craft was designed for a crew of two, could dive to 30 metres (98 feet), and demonstrated dives of two hours. On the surface, it ran on a steam engine, but underwater such an engine would quickly consume the submarine's oxygen. To solve this problem, Monturiol invented an air-independent propulsion system. As the air-independent power system drove the screw, the chemical process driving it also released oxygen into the hull for the crew and an auxiliary steam engine. Apart from being mechanically powered, Monturiol's pioneering double hulled vessels also solved pressure, buoyancy, stability, diving and ascending problems that had bedeviled earlier designs.
The submarine became a potentially viable weapon with the development of the first practical self-propelled torpedoes. The Whitehead torpedo was the first such weapon, and was designed in 1866 by British engineer Robert Whitehead. His'mine ship' was an 11-foot long, 14-inch diameter torpedo propelled by compressed air and carried an explosive warhead. The device had a speed of 7 knots (13 km/h) and could hit a target 700 yards (640 m) away.[27] Many naval services procured the Whitehead torpedo during the 1870s and it first proved itself in combat during the Russo-Turkish War when, on January 16, 1878, the Turkish ship Intibah was sunk by Russian torpedo boats carrying Whiteheads.
During the 1870s and 1880s, the basic contours of the modern submarine began to emerge, through the inventions of the English inventor and curate, George Garrett, and his industrialist financier Thorsten Nordenfelt, and the Irish inventor John Philip Holland.
In 1878, Garrett built a 14-foot (4.3 m) long hand-cranked submarine of about 4.5 tons, which he named the Resurgam. This was followed by the second (and more famous) Resurgam of 1879, built by Cochran & Co. at Birkenhead, England.[28] The construction was of iron plates fastened to iron frames, with the central section of the vessel clad with wood secured by iron straps. As built, it was 45 feet (14 m) long by 10 feet (3.0 m) in diameter, weighed 30 long tons (30 t), and had a crew of 3. Resurgam was powered by a closed cycle steam engine, which provided enough steam to turn the single propeller for up to 4 hours. It was designed to have positive buoyancy, and diving was controlled by a pair of hydroplanes amidships. At the time it cost £1,538.[29]
Although his design was not very practical - the steam boiler generated intense heat in the cramped confines of the vessel, and it lacked longitudinal stability - it caught the attention of the Swedish industrialist Thorsten Nordenfelt. Discussions between the two led to the first practical steam-powered submarines, armed with torpedoes and ready for military use.
The first such boat was the Nordenfelt I, a 56 tonne, 19.5 metres (64 feet) vessel similar to Garret's ill-fated Resurgam, with a range of 240 kilometres (150 miles; 130 nautical miles), armed with a single torpedo, in 1885. Like Resurgam, Nordenfelt I operated on the surface by steam, then shut down its engine to dive. While submerged the submarine released pressure generated when the engine was running on the surface to provide propulsion for some distance underwater. Greece, fearful of the return of the Ottomans, purchased it. Nordenfelt commissioned the Barrow Shipyard in England in 1886 to build Nordenfelt II (Abdül Hamid) and Nordenfelt III (Abdül Mecid) in 1887.[30] They were powered by a coal-fired 250 hp Lamm steam engine turning a single screw, and carried two 356mm torpedo tubes and two 35mm machine guns. They were loaded with a total of 8 tons of coal as fuel and could dive to a depth of 160 feet. It was 30.5m long and 6m wide, and weighed 100 tons. It carried a normal crew of 7. It had a maximum surface speed of 6 knots, and a maximum speed of 4 knots while submerged. Abdülhamid became the first submarine in history to fire a torpedo submerged.[30]
Nordenfelt's efforts culminated in 1887 with Nordenfelt IV, which had twin motors and twin torpedoes. It was sold to the Russians, but soon ran aground and was scrapped. Garrett and Nordenfelt made significant advances in constructing the first modern, militarily capable submarines and fired up military and popular interest around the world for this new technology. However, the solution to fundamental technical problems, such as propulsion, quick submergence, and the maintenance of balance underwater was still lacking, and would only be solved in the 1890s.[14]
Electric power [ edit ]
A reliable means of propulsion for the submerged vessel was only made possible in the 1880s with the advent of the necessary electric battery technology. The first electrically powered boats were built by Stefan Drzewiecki in Russia, James Franklin Waddington and the team of James Ash and Andrew Campbell in England, Dupuy de Lôme and Gustave Zédé in France and Isaac Peral in Spain.[31]
In 1884, Polish-Russian naval engineer Stefan Drzewiecki converted 2 mechanical submarines, installed on each a 1 hp engine with the new, at the time, source of energy - batteries. On tests submarine went under the water against the flow of the Neva River at a rate of 4 knots. It was the first submarine in the world with electric propulsion. Ash and Campbell constructed their craft, the Nautilus, in 1886. It was 60 feet (18 m) long with a 9.7 kW (13 hp) engine powered by 52 batteries. It was an advanced design for the time, but became stuck in the mud during trials and was discontinued. Waddington's Porpoise vessel showed more promise. Waddington had formerly worked in the shipyard in which Garrett had been active. Waddington's vessel was similar in size to the Resurgam and its propulsion system used 45 accumulator cells with a capacity of 660 ampere hours each. These were coupled in series to a motor driving a propeller at about 750 rpm, giving the ship a sustained speed of 13 km/h (8 mph) for at least 8 hours. The boat was armed with two externally mounted torpedoes as well as a mine torpedo that could be detonated electronically. Although the boat performed well at trials, Waddington was unable to attract further contracts and went bankrupt.[32]
The Peral Submarine, one of the first electrical powered submarines. Built in 1888, now preserved in Cartagena
In France, early electric boats Goubet I and Goubet II were built by the civil engineer, Claude Goubet. These boats were also unsuccessful, but they inspired the renowned naval architect Dupuy de Lôme to begin work on his submarine – an advanced electric-powered submarine almost 20 metres long. He didn't live to see his design constructed, but the craft was completed by Gustave Zédé in 1888 and named the Gymnote. It was one of the first truly successful electrically powered submarines, and was equipped with an early periscope and an electric gyrocompass for navigation. It completed over 2,000 successful dives using a 204-cell battery.[33] Although the Gymnote was scrapped for its limited range, its side hydroplanes became the standard for future submarine designs.
The Peral Submarine, constructed by Isaac Peral, was launched by the Spanish Navy in the same year, 1888. It had three Schwarzkopf torpedoes 14 in (360 mm) and one torpedo tube in bow, new air systems, hull shape, propeller, and cruciform external controls anticipating much later designs. Peral was an all-electrical powered submarine.[34] After two years of trials the project was scrapped by naval officialdom who cited, among other reasons, concerns over the range permitted by its batteries.
Many more designs were built at this time by various inventors, but submarines were not put into service by navies until the turn of the 20th century.
The modern submarine [ edit ]
The turn of century marked a pivotal time in the development of submarines, with a number of important technologies making their debut, as well as the widespread adoption and fielding of submarines by a number of nations. Diesel electric propulsion would become the dominant power system and instruments such as the periscope would become standardized. Batteries were used for running underwater and gasoline (petrol) or diesel engines were used on the surface and to recharge the batteries. Early boats used gasoline, but quickly gave way to kerosene, then diesel, because of reduced flammability. Effective tactics and weaponry were refined in the early part of the century, and the submarine would have a large impact on 20th century warfare.
The Irish inventor John Philip Holland built a model submarine in 1876 and a full scale one in 1878, followed by a number of unsuccessful ones. In 1896, he designed the Holland Type VI submarine. This vessel made use of internal combustion engine power on the surface and electric battery power for submerged operations. Launched on 17 May 1897 at Navy Lt. Lewis Nixon's Crescent Shipyard in Elizabeth, New Jersey, the Holland VI was purchased by the United States Navy on 11 April 1900, becoming the United States Navy's first commissioned submarine and renamed USS Holland.[35]
A prototype version of the A-class submarine (Fulton) was developed at Crescent Shipyard under the supervision of naval architect and shipbuilder from the United Kingdom, Arthur Leopold Busch, for the newly reorganized Electric Boat Company in 1900. The Fulton was never commissioned by the United States Navy and was sold to the Imperial Russian Navy in 1905. The submarines were built at two different shipyards on both coasts of the United States. In 1902, Holland received U.S. Patent 708,553 for his relentless pursuit to perfect the modern submarine craft. Many countries became interested in Holland's (weapons) product and purchased "the rights" to build them during this time.
The Royal Navy commissioned the Holland-class submarine from Vickers, Barrow-in-Furness, under licence from the Holland Torpedo Boat Company during the years 1901 to 1903. Construction of the boats took longer than anticipated, with the first only ready for a diving trial at sea on 6 April 1902. Although the design had been purchased entirely from the US company, the actual design used was an untested improved version of the original Holland design using a new 180 hp petrol engine.[36]
The 1900 French submarine Narval
Meanwhile, the French steam and electric Narval was commissioned in June 1900 and introduced the classic double-hull design, with a pressure hull inside the outer shell. These 200-ton ships had a range of over 100 miles (160 km) underwater. The French submarine Aigrette in 1904 further improved the concept by using a diesel rather than a gasoline engine for surface power. Large numbers of these submarines were built, with seventy-six completed before 1914.[14]
Although small numbers of submarines were built for the French Navy, Russian Navy and the US Navy, by 1914 the main submarine powers were the Kaiserliche Marine of Imperial Germany and the Royal Navy.
At the start of World War One, the Royal Navy had the world's largest submarine service by a considerable margin, with 74 boats of the B, C and D classes, of which 15 were oceangoing, with the rest capable of coastal patrols. The D-class, built 1907-1910, were designed to be propelled by diesel motors on the surface to avoid the problems with petrol engines experienced with the A class. These boats were designed for foreign service with an endurance of 2500 nmi at 10 knots on the surface and much improved living conditions for a larger crew. They were fitted with twin screws for greater manoeuvrability and with innovative saddle tanks. They were also the first submarines to be equipped with deck guns forward of the conning tower. Armament also included three 18 inch torpedo tubes (2 vertically in the bow and 1 in the stern). D class was also the first class of submarine to be equipped with standard wireless transmitters. The aerial was attached to the mast of the conning tower that was lowered before diving. With their enlarged bridge structure the boat profile was recognisably that of the modern submarine. The D Class submarines were considered to be so innovative that the prototype D1 was built in utmost secrecy in a securely guarded building shed.[37]
The British also experimented with other power sources. Oil-fired steam turbines powered the British "K" class submarines built during the First World War and in following years, but these were not very successful. The aim was to give them the necessary surface speed to keep up with the British battle fleet.
The Germans were slower to recognize the importance of this new weapon. A submersible was initially ordered by the Imperial Russian Navy from the Kiel shipyard in 1904, but cancelled after the Russo-Japanese War ended. One example was modified and improved, then commissioned into the Imperial German Navy in 1906 as its first U-boat, U-1.[38][39] It had a double hull, was powered by a Körting kerosene engine and was armed with a single torpedo tube. The fifty percent larger SM U-2 had two torpedo tubes. A diesel engine was not installed in a German navy boat until the U-19 class of 1912–13. At the start of World War I, Germany had 20 submarines of 13 classes in service with more under construction.[40]
Interwar developments [ edit ]
Diesel submarines needed air to run their engines, and so carried very large batteries for submerged travel. These limited the speed and range of the submarines while submerged.
An early submarine snorkel was designed by James Richardson, an Assistant Manager at Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Greenock, Scotland as early as 1916. The snorkel allowed the submarine to avoid detection for long periods by travelling under the water using non-electric powered propulsion. Although the company received a British Patent for the design,[41] no further use was made of it—the British Admiralty did not accept it for use in Royal Navy submarines.[42]
The first boat to be fitted with a snorkel was U-58, which experimented with the equipment in the Baltic Sea during the summer of 1943. The technology was based on pre-war Dutch experiments with a device named a snuiver (sniffer). As early as 1938, a simple pipe system was installed on the submarines O-19 and O-20 that enabled them to travel at periscope depth operating on its diesels with almost unlimited underwater range while charging the propulsion batteries. Boats began to use it operationally in early 1944. By June 1944, about half of the boats stationed in the French bases were fitted with snorkels.[43]
Various new submarine designs were developed during the interwar years. Among the most notable were submarine aircraft carriers, equipped with a waterproof hangar and steam catapult to launch and recover one or more small seaplanes. The submarine and its plane could then act as a reconnaissance unit ahead of the fleet, an essential role at a time when radar was not available. The first example was the British HMS M2, followed by the French Surcouf, and numerous aircraft-carrying submarines in the Imperial Japanese Navy.
Early submarine designs put the diesel engine and the electric motor on the same shaft, which also drove a propeller with clutches between each of them. This allowed the engine to drive the electric motor as a generator to recharge the batteries and also propel the submarine as required. The clutch between the motor and the engine would be disengaged when the boat dived so that the motor could be used to turn the propeller. The motor could have more than one armature on the shaft — these would be electrically coupled in series for slow speed and parallel for high speed (known as "group down" and "group up" respectively).
In the 1930s, the principle was modified for some submarine designs, particularly those of the U.S. Navy and the British U-class. The engine was no longer attached to the motor/propeller drive shaft, but drove a separate generator, which would drive the motors on the surface and/or recharge the batteries. This diesel-electric propulsion allowed much more flexibility. For example, the submarine could travel slowly whilst the engines were running at full power to recharge the batteries as quickly as possible, reducing time on the surface, or use of its snorkel. Also, it was now possible to insulate the noisy diesel engines from the pressure hull making the submarine quieter.
An early form of anaerobic propulsion had already been employed by the Ictineo II in 1864. The engine used a chemical mix containing a peroxide compound, which generated heat for steam propulsion while at the same time solved the problem of oxygen renovation in an hermetic container for breathing purposes. This system wasn't employed again until 1940 when the German Navy tested a system employing the same principles, the Walter turbine, on the experimental V-80 submarine and later on the naval U-791 submarine.[44]
At the end of the Second World War, the British and Russians experimented with hydrogen peroxide/kerosene (paraffin) engines, which could be used both above and below the surface. The results were not encouraging enough for this technique to be adopted at the time, although the Russians deployed a class of submarines with this engine type code named Quebec by NATO. They were considered a failure. Today, several navies, notably Sweden, use air-independent propulsion boats, which substitute liquid oxygen for hydrogen peroxide.
Nuclear propulsion and missile platforms [ edit ]
For further information on nuclear powered submarines, see Nuclear submarine.
The first launch of a cruise missile (SSM-N-8 Regulus) from a submarine occurred in July 1953 from the deck of USS Tunny (SSG-282), a World War II fleet boat modified to carry this missile with a nuclear warhead. Tunny and her sister boat USS Barbero (SSG-317) were the United States's first nuclear deterrent patrol submarines. They were joined in 1958 by two purpose-built Regulus submarines, USS Grayback (SSG-574), USS Growler (SSG-577), and, later, by the nuclear-powered USS Halibut (SSGN-587). So that no target would be left uncovered, four Regulus missiles had to be at sea at any given time. Thus, Barbero and Tunny, each of which carried two Regulus missiles, patrolled simultaneously. Growler and Grayback, with four missiles, or Halibut, with five, could patrol alone. These five submarines made 40 Regulus strategic deterrent patrols between October 1959 and July 1964. They were replaced by the introduction of a greatly superior system beginning in 1961: the Polaris missile launched from nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs). The Soviet Navy developed submarine-launched ballistic missiles launched from conventional submarines a few years before the US, and paralleled subsequent US development in this area.
' s reactor core prototype at a facility in USN " Nautilus s reactor core prototype at a facility in Idaho
In the 1950s, nuclear power partially replaced diesel-electric propulsion. The sailing of the first nuclear-powered submarine, the USN "Nautilus" in 1955 was soon followed by similar British, French and Russian boats. Equipment was also developed to extract oxygen from sea water. These two innovations, together with inertial navigation systems, gave submarines the ability to remain submerged for weeks or months, and enabled previously impossible voyages such as the crossing of the North Pole beneath the Arctic ice cap by the USS Nautilus in 1958. Most of the naval submarines built since that time in the United States and the Soviet Union and its successor state the Russian Federation have been powered by nuclear reactors. The limiting factors in submerged endurance for these vessels are food supply and crew morale in the space-limited submarine.
The Soviet Navy attempted to use a very advanced lead cooled fast reactor on Project 705 "Lira" (NATO Alfa-class) beginning in the 1970s, but its maintenance was considered too expensive, and only six submarines of this class were completed.[45] By removing the requirement for atmospheric oxygen all nuclear-powered submarines can stay submerged indefinitely so long as food supplies remain (air is recycled and fresh water distilled from seawater). These vessels always have a small battery and diesel generator installation for emergency use when the reactors have to be shut down.
While the greater endurance and performance of nuclear reactors mean that nuclear submarines are better for long distance missions or the protection of a carrier battle-force, both nuclear and non-nuclear powers continue produce conventional diesel-electric submarines, because they can be made stealthier, except when required to run the diesel engine to recharge the ship's battery. Technological advances in sound dampening, noise isolation and cancellation have substantially eroded this advantage. Though far less capable regarding speed and weapons payload, conventional submarines are also cheaper to build. The introduction of air-independent propulsion boats led to increased sales numbers of such types of submarines.
In 1958 the USN carried out a series of trials with the USS Albacore. Various hull and control configurations were tested to reduce drag and so allow greater underwater speed and maneuverability. The results of these trials were incorporated into the Skipjack class and later submarines. From the same era is the first SSBN, the USS George Washington.
Recent [ edit ]
The German Type 212 submarine was the first series production submarine to use fuel cells for air-independent propulsion. It is powered by nine 34-kilowatt hydrogen fuel cells.
Most small modern commercial submarines, that are not expected to operate independently, use batteries that can be recharged by a mother-ship after every dive.
Towards the end of the 20th century, some submarines were fitted with pump-jet propulsors, instead of propellers. Although these are heavier, more expensive, and often less efficient than a propeller, they are significantly quieter, giving an important tactical advantage.
A possible propulsion system for submarines is the magnetohydrodynamic drive, or "caterpillar drive", which has no moving parts. It was popularized in the movie version of The Hunt for Red October, written by Tom Clancy, which portrayed it as a virtually silent system. (In the book, a form of propulsor was used rather than an MHD.) Although some experimental surface ships have been built with this propulsion system, speeds have not been as high as hoped. In addition, the noise created by bubbles, and the higher power settings a submarine's reactor would need, mean that it is unlikely to be considered for any military purpose.
Associated technology [ edit ]
Sensors [ edit ]
The first submarines had only a porthole to provide a view to aid navigation. An early periscope was patented by Simon Lake in 1893. The modern periscope was developed by the industrialist Sir Howard Grubb in the early 20th century and was fitted onto most Royal Navy designs.[46]
Passive sonar was introduced in submarines during the First World War, but active sonar ASDIC did not come into service until the inter-war period. Today, the submarine may have a wide variety of sonar arrays, from bow mounted to trailing ones. There are often upward-looking under-ice sonars as well as depth sounders.
Early experiments with the use of sound to 'echo locate' underwater in the same way as bats use sound for aerial navigation began in the late 19th century. The first patent for an underwater echo ranging device was filed by English meteorologist Lewis Richardson a month after the sinking of the Titanic.[47] The First World War stimulated research in this area. The British made early use of underwater hydrophones, while the French physicist Paul Langevin worked on the development of active sound devices for detecting submarines in 1915 using quartz. In 1916, under the British Board of Invention and Research, Canadian physicist Robert William Boyle took on the active sound detection project with A B Wood, producing a prototype for testing in mid-1917. This work, for the Anti-Submarine Division of the British Naval Staff, was undertaken in utmost secrecy, and used quartz piezoelectric crystals to produce the world's first practical underwater active sound detection apparatus.
By 1918, both France and Britain had built prototype active systems. The British tested their ASDIC on HMS Antrim in 1920, and started production in 1922. The 6th Destroyer Flotilla had ASDIC-equipped vessels in 1923. An anti-submarine school, HMS Osprey, and a training flotilla of four vessels were established on Portland in 1924. The US Sonar QB set arrived in 1931.
Weapons and countermeasures [ edit ]
Early submarines carried torpedoes mounted externally to the craft. Later designs incorporated the weapons into the internal structure of the submarine. Originally, both bow-mounted and stern-mounted tubes were used, but the latter eventually fell out of favour. Today, only bow-mounted installations are employed. The modern submarine is capable of firing many types of weapon from its launch tubes, including UAVs. Special mine laying submarines were also built. Up until the end of the Second World War, it was common to fit deck guns to submarines to allow them to sink ships without wasting their limited numbers of torpedoes.
To aid in the weapons targeting mechanical calculators were employed to improve the fire control of the on-board weaponry. The firing calculus was determined by the targets' course and speed through measurements of the angle and its range via the periscope. Today, these calculations are achieved by digital computers with display screens providing necessary information on the torpedo status and ship status.
German submarines in World War II had rubber coatings and could launch chemical devices to provide a decoy when the boat came under attack. These proved to be ineffective, as sonar operators learned to distinguish between the decoy and the submarine. Modern submarines can launch a variety of devices for the same purpose.
Safety [ edit ]
Davis breathing apparatus tested at the submarine escape test tank at HMS Dolphin, Gosport, 14 December 1942
After the sinking of the A1 submarine in 1904, lifting eyes were fitted to British submarines and in 1908 air-locks and escape helmets were provided. The RN experimented with various types of escape apparatus, but it was not until 1924 that the "Davis Submerged Escape Apparatus" was developed for crew members. The USN used the similar "Momsen Lung". The French used "Joubert's apparatus" and the Germans used "Draeger's apparatus".
Rescue submarines for evacuating a disabled submarine's crew were developed in the 1970s. A British unmanned vehicle was used for recovering an entangled Russian submarine crew in 2005. A new NATO Submarine Rescue System entered service in 2007.
Communication and navigation [ edit ]
Wireless was used to provide communication to and from submarines in the First World War. The D-class submarine was the first submarine class to be fitted with wireless transmitters in 1907. With time the type, range and bandwidth of the communications systems have increased. With the danger of intercept, transmissions by a submarine are minimised. Various periscope-mounted aerials have been developed to allow communication without surfacing.
The standard navigation system for early submarines was by eye, with use of a compass. The gyrocompass was introduced in the early part of the 20th century and inertial navigation in the 1950s. The use of satellite navigation is of limited use to submarines, except at periscope depth or when surfaced.
Military [ edit ]
The first military submarine was Turtle in 1776. During the American Revolutionary War, Turtle (operated by Sgt. Ezra Lee, Continental Army) tried and failed to sink a British warship, HMS Eagle (flagship of the blockaders) in New York harbor on September 7, 1776. There is no record of any attack in the ships' logs.
During the War of 1812, in 1814 Silas Halsey lost his life while using a submarine in an unsuccessful attack on a British warship stationed in New London harbor.
American Civil War [ edit ]
Alligator, first submarine of the The French-designed 1862, first submarine of the U.S. Navy
During the American Civil War, the Union was the first to field a submarine. The French-designed Alligator was the first U.S. Navy sub and the first to feature compressed air (for air supply) and an air filtration system. It was the first submarine to carry a diver lock, which allowed a diver to plant electrically detonated mines on enemy ships. Initially hand-powered by oars, it was converted after 6 months to a screw propeller powered by a hand crank. With a crew of 20, it was larger than Confederate submarines. Alligator was 47 feet (14 m) long and about 4 feet (1.2 m) in diameter. It was lost in a storm off Cape Hatteras on April 1, 1863, while uncrewed and under tow to its first combat deployment at Charleston.[48]
The Intelligent Whale was built by Oliver Halstead and tested by the U.S. Navy after the American Civil War and caused the deaths of 39 men during trials.[citation needed]
The Confederate States of America fielded several human-powered submarines, including CSS H. L. Hunley (named for its designer and chief financier, Horace Lawson Hunley). The first Confederate submarine was the 30-foot-long (9.1 m) Pioneer, which sank a target schooner using a towed mine during tests on Lake Pontchartrain, but it was not used in combat. It was scuttled after New Orleans was captured and in 1868 was sold for scrap. The similar Bayou St. John submarine is preserved in the Louisiana State Museum. CSS Hunley was intended for attacking Union ships that were blockading Confederate seaports. The submarine had a long pole with an explosive charge in the bow, called a spar torpedo. The sub had to approach an enemy vessel, attach the explosive, move away, and then detonate it. It was extremely hazardous to operate, and had no air supply other than what was contained inside the main compartment. On two occasions, the sub sank; on the first occasion half the crew died, and on the second, the entire eight-man crew (including Hunley himself) drowned. On February 17, 1864, Hunley sank USS Housatonic off the Charleston Harbor, the first time a submarine successfully sank another ship, though it sank in the same engagement shortly after signaling its success. Submarines did not have a major impact on the outcome of the war, but did portend their coming importance to naval warfare and increased interest in their use in naval warfare.
Russo-Japanese War [ edit ]
On 14 June 1904, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) placed an order for five Holland Type VII submersibles, which were built in Quincy, Massachusetts at the Fore River Yard, and shipped to Yokohama, Japan in sections. The five machines arrived on 12 December 1904.[49] Under the supervision of naval architect Arthur L. Busch, the imported Hollands were re-assembled, and the first submersibles were ready for combat operations by August 1905, but hostilities were nearing the end by that date, and no submarines saw action during the war.
Meanwhile, the Imperial Russian Navy (IRN) purchased German constructed submersibles built by the Germaniawerft shipyards out of Kiel. In 1903 Germany successfully completed its first fully functional engine-powered submarine, Forelle (Trout),[50] It was sold to Russia in 1904 and shipped via the Trans-Siberian Railway to the combat zone during the Russo-Japanese War.[38]
Due to the naval blockade of Port Arthur, Russia sent their remaining submarines to Vladivostok, and by the end of 1904, seven subs were based there. On 1 January 1905, the IRN created the world's first operational submarine fleet around these seven submarines. The first combat patrol by the newly created IRN submarine fleet occurred on 14 February 1905, and was carried out by Delfin and Som, with each patrol normally lasting about 24 hours. Som first made contact with the enemy on 29 April, when it was fired upon by IJN torpedo boats, which withdrew shortly after opening fire and resulting in no casualties or damage to either combatant. A second contact occurred on 1 July 1905 in the Tartar Strait when two IJN torpedo boats spotted the IRN sub Keta. Unable to submerge quick enough,[clarification needed] Keta was unable to obtain a proper firing position, and both combatants broke contact.[51]
World War I [ edit ]
German submarine U9 (1910). It sank three British cruisers in a few minutes in September 1914.
The first time military submarines had significant impact on a war was in World War I. Forces such as the U-boats of Germany operated against Allied commerce (Handelskrieg). The submarine's ability to function as a practical war machine relied on new tactics, their numbers, and submarine technologies such as combination diesel/electric power system that had been developed in the preceding years. More like submersible ships than the submarines of today, submarines operated primarily on the surface using standard engines, submerging occasionally to attack under battery power. They were roughly triangular in cross-section, with a distinct keel, to control rolling while surfaced, and a distinct bow.[52]
Shortly before the outbreak of World War I, submarines were employed by the Italian Regia Marina during the Italo-Turkish War without seeing any naval action, and by the Greek Navy during the Balkan Wars, where notably the French-built Delfin became the first such vessel to launch a torpedo against an enemy ship (albeit unsuccessfully).
At the start of the war, Germany had 48 submarines in service or under construction, with 29 |
* @param string $key Translation key. * @param string|null $value Translation string. * @param string|null $lang Active lang. * @param string|null $formType Form type. * * @return void */ public function put(string $key, $value = null, $lang=null, $formType=null) { if($value === null){ $value = $key; } if ($lang === null) { $lang = $this->locale->getActive(); } if ($this->exists($key) === true) { $this->updateTranslation($key, $value, $lang); } else { $this->addTranslation($key, $value, $formType); } }//end put() /** * Replace placeholders * * @param string $word Translated word. * @param array|null $placeholders Array placeholder. * * @return string */ protected function replacePlaceholders($word, $placeholders=null) { if ($placeholders === null) { return $word; } if (is_array($placeholders) === true) { foreach ($placeholders as $key => $value) { $word = str_replace('%'.$key.'%', $value, $word); } } return $word; }//end replacePlaceholders() /** * Get translate index cache * * @param string $key Translation key. * @param string $lang Lang. * * @return string */ public function getTranslationCacheIndex($key, $lang=null) { if ($lang === null) { $lang = $this->locale->getActive(); } return sprintf('%s_%s', $lang, $key); }//end getTranslationCacheIndex() /** * Check if translation is in cache * * @param string $index Translation index. * @param string|null $lang Lang. * * @return boolean */ public function existsInCache($index, $lang=null) { $cacheIndex = $this->getTranslationCacheIndex($index, $lang); return $this->cache->exists($cacheIndex); }//end existsInCache() /** * Add translation to cache * * @param string $key Translation key. * @param string $value Translation word. * @param string|null $lang Language. * * @return mixed */ public function addTranslationToCache($key, $value, $lang=null) { if ($lang === null) { $lang = $this->locale->getActive(); } $cacheIndex = $this->getTranslationCacheIndex($key, $lang); return $this->cache->save($cacheIndex, $value); }//end addTranslationToCache() /** * Remove all translations from cache for key * * @param string $key Key. * * @return void */ public function deleteTranslationFromCache($key) { $all = $this->locale->getAll(); foreach ($all as $lang) { $cacheIndex = $this->getTranslationCacheIndex($key, $lang); if ($this->cache->exists($cacheIndex) === true) { $this->cache->delete($cacheIndex); } } }//end deleteTranslationFromCache() }//end class
#4 Nucleo\Module\System\Translator\Adapter\Db -> _ ( Go to homepage )
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#8 Phalcon\Mvc\View render ( error, notFound, Array() )
#9 Phalcon\Mvc\Application handle ()
/var/www/wbj.pl/releases/84/libs/alterpage/nucleo-framework/src/Nucleo/Bootstrap.php (72) <?php /** * Nucleo engine. * * PHP version 5 * * @package Nucleo * @subpackage Nucleo Engine * @author AlterPage <kontakt@alterpage.pl> * @copyright AlterPage Sp. z o.o. (VAT Number PL5213653177) * @license Commercial Licence - all rights reserved * @link https://alterpage.pl */ namespace Nucleo; use Phalcon\Di\FactoryDefault; use Phalcon\Mvc\Application; /** * Bootstrap application */ class Bootstrap { /** * Di * * @var FactoryDefault */ public $di; /** * Bootstrap constructor. * * @return Bootstrap */ public function __construct() { $this->di = new FactoryDefault(); }//end __construct() /** * Run all application * * @return string */ public function run() { // Create all config from all modules. $this->createConfig(); // Create all services. $this->createServices(); // Add shut down function for information about performance. register_shutdown_function([$this,'shutdown']); // Application start. $application = new Application($this->di); $application->setEventsManager($this->di->getShared('eventsManager')); $application->registerModules((array) $this->di->getConfig()->modules->toArray()); $this->di['app'] = $application; if (APP_ENVIRONMENT === 'development') { (new \Snowair\Debugbar\ServiceProvider(ROOT_PATH.'/config/debugbar.php'))->start(); } $content = $application->handle()->getContent(); // Minify response. if ($this->di->getConfig()->minify_html === true) { $content = \Nucleo\Tools::minifyHtml((string) $content); } // Save to cache resposne. if (isset($this->di->get('response')->cacheIndex) === true) { $this->saveResponseToCache($this->di->get('response')->cacheIndex, $content); }; return $content; }//end run() /** * Save response to cache * * @param string $cacheIndex Cache index. * @param string $html Html. * * @return mixed */ public function saveResponseToCache(string $cacheIndex, string $html) { return $this->di->get('viewCache')->save($cacheIndex, $html); }//end saveResponseToCache() /** * Create all application services * * @return Bootstrap */ protected function createServices() { $services = $this->di->getConfig()->services->factories; foreach ($services as $name => $serviceClassName) { if (class_exists($serviceClassName) === true) { $service = new $serviceClassName(); $this->di->setShared($name, $service->createService($this->di)); } } return $this; }//end createServices() /** * Create all config files. * * @return Bootstrap */ protected function createConfig() { $merger = new \Nucleo\Config\Merger(); $this->di->setShared('config', $merger->getConfig()); return $this; }//end createConfig() /** * Add to log information about performance * * @return void */ public function shutdown() { $logger = $this->di->get('logger'); $time = (microtime(true) - START); $logger->debug( sprintf( '%s', $this->di->get('request')->getURI() ) ); $logger->debug( sprintf( '%s %s sek ', (memory_get_usage(true) / 1024 / 1024).'M/'.ini_get('memory_limit'), $time ) ); }//end shutdown() }//end classChinese electric carmaker to open Morocco plant
CASABLANCA, Morocco: Chinese electric car manufacturer BYD on Saturday signed an agreement to open a factory near the Moroccan city of Tangiers to build battery-powered vehicles, officials said.
BYD will become the third car manufacturer, after Renault and Peugeot of French, to construct cars in the North African state.
The memorandum of understanding was signed at the royal palace in the coastal city of Casablanca in the presence of King Mohammed VI and BYD´s chairman, Wang Chuanfu, whose company is backed by US investor Warren Buffett.
The factory in the new Mohammed VI Tangier Tech City, which is part of a project between China and Morocco, is to produce electric cars, buses and trucks at a 50-hectare site employing 2,500 people, according to the project directors.
A plant for the assembly of electric trains is also planned, but the amount of investment and timeframe of the overall project were not announced.
"We hope to benefit from Morocco´s location as an entry point to Europe and the African market," Wang said, adding that the first phase would produce cars.
According to industry sources, Morocco aims to add a fourth major automaker plant before the end of 2021 and to have capacity to produce one million vehicles a year by 2025.A guide for Code Reviews
CR Submission Guidelines
Keep your CR focussed. If possible send CR per feature. If the feature is big then divide feature into multiple CRs focussed on different aspects. For example, “user history feature” may require database access and user interface. So, you might send a CR covering two aspects. Lastly, send divided feature request ground up e.g. send database access before user interface.
Make sure that your code is self-explanatory and has adequate amount of code documentation and comments.
Test your code! Write your unit tests along with your code and include them in CR submission because adding test later often leads to bad code. Attach code coverage in testing if possible. There are plenty of coverage tools.
Give some context about your CR e.g. provide a description. If it’s a big change, arrange a design review meeting on white board. Make sure everybody understands and agrees on what you’re proposing.
Make use of issue tracking tool. Include related issue in your CR title, body and etc.
Post a new CR for unrelated changes. Don’t include them in the same CR. If it’s something you need to get it done urgently, create a new branch and post new changes from this branch.
Follow coding conventions and formatting for the language. You can have your team conventions and formatting but you need to be consistent with it.
Code Reviewing Guidelines
Spend some time in understanding what sender tries to accomplish. Read CR description, linked issue or any related design document before starting the code review.
Make your comments constructive. Make sure you give enough context about your concern or question so that sender won’t have any problem in understanding what’s the concern or question.
Prefer asking questions over stating issues. For instance, use “What was the reason behind not using standard library method?” instead of “You didn’t make use of the standard library method.”
Remember to praise! If you see code snippet function, design choice that’s good, indicate you like his/her approach.
Prefer design meetings instead of huge number of CR comments and change requests.
Remember there are multiple ways of coding a feature/function. So, don’t insist on your preferences. Let people do what they want when it comes to preference.
For both reviewer and senderThe Pittsburgh Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland in partnership with Port Authority of Allegheny County will host a symposium on equitable transit-oriented development (ETOD) on August 24, 2016. This event will bring together researchers and practitioners from across the country and the region to share data and best practices, fostering discussion about the future of ETOD in Pittsburgh.
ETOD promotes healthy and prosperous communities in which diverse groups of people have mobility choices and greater access to opportunities. Where people live is a key measure of affordability, of which transportation is a significant factor. During the symposium, regional and national experts will demonstrate through data, case studies, and lessons learned how ETOD has been achieved in other markets. This event aims to further the discussion around ETOD in the Pittsburgh and Allegheny County region, including its path forward.The TERMES robots. Photo: Eliza Grinnell, Harvard SEAS
Computer scientists and engineers have created an autonomous robotic construction crew whose members cooperate to build and modify their environment.
Inspired by the work work of termites in nature, the robots need no supervisor and no communication.
The TERMES robots were created by a team of computer scientists and engineers at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.
The machines can build complex, three-dimensional structures without the need for any central command or prescribed roles.
The results of the four-year project were presented this week at the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2014 Annual Meeting and published in today’s issue of the journal Science.
The TERMES robots can build towers, castles and pyramids out of foam bricks, autonomously building themselves staircases to reach higher levels and adding bricks wherever they are needed.
In the future, similar robots could lay sandbags to protect from an advancing flood or perform simple construction tasks on Mars.
“The key inspiration we took from termites is the idea that you can do something really complicated as a group, without a supervisor, and secondly that you can do it without everybody discussing explicitly what’s going on, but just by modifying the environment,” says principal investigator Radhika Nagpalat Harvard.
She is also a core faculty member at the Wyss Institute, where she co-leads the Bioinspired Robotics platform.
The TERMES robots can build themselves staircases to reach the next construction points, and they know how to add bricks that advance construction without blocking important paths. Photo: Eliza Grinnell, Harvard SEAS
Most human construction projects are performed by trained workers in a hierarchical organisation.
They work from a blueprint and a detailed plan of how to execute it. The foreman goes out and directs his crew.
In insect colonies, the queen doesn’t give instructions to every individual. Each termite doesn’t know what the others are doing or what the current overall state of the mound is.
Termites rely on a concept known as stigmergy: they observe each others’ changes to the environment and act accordingly.
It is currently more common for robotic systems to depend on a central controller or on all of the robots being able to talk to each other frequently.
However, with TERMES each robot executes its building process in parallel with others, but without knowing who else is working at the same time.
If one robot breaks, or has to leave, it does not affect the others.
This also means that the same instructions can be executed by five robots or 500.
Lead author Justin Werfel, a staff scientist in bioinspired robotics at the Wyss Institute, says loose connections between Harvard’s computer scientists, electrical engineers and biologists are key to this success.
“When many agents get together—whether they’re termites, bees, or robots, often some interesting, higher-level behaviour emerges that you wouldn’t predict from looking at the components by themselves,” says Werfel.
The TERMES robots perform tasks — carrying blocks, climbing the structure, attaching the blocks — with only four simple types of sensors and three actuators.
What can a TERMES robot do?
Move forward, backward, and turn in place
Climb up or down a step the height of one brick
Pick up a brick, carry it, and deposit it directly in front of itself
Detect other bricks and robots in immediate vicinity
Keep track of its own location with respect to a “seed” brick
What instructions do the TERMES robots follow?
Obey predetermined traffic rules
Circle the growing structure to find the first, “seed” brick (for orientation)
Climb onto the structure
Obtain a brick
Attach the brick at any vacant point that satisfies local geometric requirements
Climb off the structure
Repeat
Watch the robots here:
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Trump on Friday defended the struggle by his administration to come up with a consistent timeline and rationale for the abrupt firing of FBI Director James Comey this week.
Trump tweeted, “As a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!”
As a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!…. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017
…Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future "press briefings" and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy??? — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017
James Comey better hope that there are no "tapes" of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 12, 2017
He added, “Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future ‘press briefings’ and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy???”
The president’s advisers said Trump fired Comey in response to a recommendation by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, then said Trump had planned to fire Comey regardless.
Under Rod Rosenstein, what’s in store for Russia probe?In January 2015, Aubrey Reinhardt came to an important conclusion: It was time to get on birth control.
The 20-year-old Texas Tech University senior was in a serious relationship, and after a prudent discussion with her partner, she’d made up her mind. Analytical by nature, Reinhardt sought information on her options and narrowed down the list of contraceptives she wanted to know more about. Ultimately, that might have been the easiest part of the process.
Through friends and family, she knew that Planned Parenthood was a trusted source for reproductive health care, but in the Panhandle city of Lubbock, that would not be an option. The university town’s two Planned Parenthood clinics had closed down in 2014, the result of a series of ill-fated political decisions made by state lawmakers hellbent on fully defunding the 100-year-old provider.
Reinhardt asked around and was told that the university’s medical center was now the go-to for birth control. On a cloudless, cold winter day, she and a friend headed to campus to see the doctor. It did not go well. After assessing Reinhardt’s medical history, the doctor said she believed Reinhardt had a blood-clotting problem and was “too unhealthy” to be on birth control. While it is true that Reinhardt had a minor health scare the year before, any clotting problems had been ruled out before she underwent surgery to address the issue. Reinhardt was stunned. “I thought, Where the heck is this coming from?” she recalled recently. “This is bizarre to me, but I’m thinking, OK, she’s a medical professional … and I’m a kid and I’m trusting her.”
The doctor said she would consider prescribing contraceptives, but only if Reinhardt would get her primary care doctor and her surgeon to fill out packets of paperwork. She would also have to visit a hormone specialist and request additional documentation. “I was as baffled as you are right now,” she said. When the doctor left the room, Reinhardt and her friend tried to figure out what had just happened. “I’m getting a little bit emotional because I’m like, this is a bombshell that’s just been dropped on my life, like I must be very ill and I just don’t even know it.”
Photo: Brandon Thibodeaux for The Intercept
When the doctor returned and saw Reinhardt crying, she was scornful. “’Why are you so upset, why are you crying? Are you really in that big a hurry to become sexually active?’” Reinhardt recalled her saying. “And that was the moment that … everything clicked with me: This isn’t an issue with my health, this is an issue of a doctor who doesn’t agree with what I’m wanting.”
Reinhardt tried to contact a reproductive health clinic that had promised it would pick up the slack after Planned Parenthood left town, but it had already folded its operations. She tried another provider but was told it would take four months to get an appointment. Frustrated and angry, Reinhardt called Planned Parenthood — maybe there was a clinic somewhere nearby and she just wasn’t aware of it. No, she was told, there wasn’t a clinic anywhere in the Panhandle, an area more than twice the size of Massachusetts. The two closest clinics still open were four hours southwest, in El Paso, and four hours east, in Fort Worth.
Reinhardt ended up getting an implanted, long-acting contraceptive in Fort Worth — without needing additional paperwork from her primary care doctor, her surgeon, or a hormone specialist. She understands that for all she had to go through to get the birth control she wanted, she was still fortunate: She had the resources and support to make it happen. But she worries about those who don’t have the same advantages — women whose ranks have grown since 82 reproductive health clinics across the state closed in response to legislative actions, a third of which were Planned Parenthood clinics. “People are going without health care,” she said. “Even though I’m sitting here upset, I know there are people who are also upset and in more dire situations.”
Photo: Brandon Thibodeaux for The Intercept
Reinhardt’s assessment is on target: 16 percent of Texans live below the federal poverty line, and at 24 percent, the state has the highest percentage of uninsured women of reproductive age.
But instead of finding realistic ways of expanding access to accommodate this need, state officials have focused their efforts on defunding their ideological foe, Planned Parenthood. This has taken several forms, the most obvious of which is the passage of many onerous restrictions on abortion care. But perhaps even more destructive is the decision to bar Planned Parenthood from participating in any state-funded health care programs, regardless of the fact that none of those funds pay for abortions. In that arena, Texas has been entirely successful — even if it has also drastically reduced the ability of low-income women to access subsidized care.
To date, Medicaid funding is the only remaining pot that the state has been powerless to withhold from Planned Parenthood. That is primarily because the federal fee-for-service program contains a provision ensuring that recipients are able to seek care from a provider of their choice. The provision mandates that recipients may seek services from any provider qualified and willing to furnish them.
In an April 2016 advisory to state Medicaid officials, Vikki Wachino, then-director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, housed under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, wrote that states “may not” act on a “desire to target a provider or set of providers for reasons unrelated to their fitness to perform covered services.” In other words, states can’t block Planned Parenthood clinics from providing birth control and pelvic exams just because they don’t like that some clinics also offer abortion services.
The “clarifying” letter was timely. Over the last few years, a number of states have tried to ban Planned Parenthood from Medicaid by claiming it’s not qualified to provide care based on widely discredited videos that purport to show Planned Parenthood officials selling fetal tissue. A federal judge blocked Texas’s attempt to do this earlier this year. Only one state hasn’t yet been blocked in this effort. On August 16, a panel of federal judges cleared the way for Arkansas to withhold funds from the provider. Whether that ruling will stand remains to be seen.
Texas, however, remains unbowed. In its application for a so-called Medicaid waiver program, the state is seeking to circumvent previous court rulings by asking the federal government to waive the freedom of choice provision altogether. If the government grants the request, allowing the state to deny patients the right to choose where they receive care, Texas will have successfully drawn a roadmap for other ideologically driven states to follow in its footsteps, withholding millions in federal funds from the reproductive care giant and reducing access to health care for potentially millions of women.
Exterior of the Planned Parenthood facility in Fort Worth, Texas, on Aug. 17, 2017. Photo: Brandon Thibodeaux for The Intercept
Through a Medicaid waiver program, a state can receive permission to opt out of certain federal rules in order to try a new health care delivery model. Typically, this involves waiving some of the financial eligibility requirements in order to expand the patient pool.
Ten years ago, Texas did exactly this when it asked to expand access to reproductive health care for women not poor enough to qualify for Medicaid unless they were pregnant. Under the program, for every $1 Texas put in, the feds would kick in $9.
It was a good financial deal for the state and intended not only to expand access to birth control and related care, but also to decrease the number of unintended pregnancies paid for by Medicaid — a significant issue in Texas, where the program pays for more than half of all births.
Known as the Women’s Health Program, the pilot got off the ground in 2007, and with concerted effort, it grew quickly. In 2008 alone, the program reduced the number of unintended pregnancies that Medicaid would have paid for by more than 10,000, saving more than $92 million in costs to both the state and federal governments. By the end of 2011, the program’s enrollment surged to nearly 130,000, with 90 percent of those women accessing the covered services. By all measures, the program was working.
But lawmakers were unhappy. Planned Parenthood was serving more than 40 percent of the program’s clients, making it the single largest provider of WHP services. So they crafted a new rule that would ban any entity “affiliated” with an abortion provider from participating in the program.
Blocking Planned Parenthood would violate Medicaid’s provider of choice provision, the federal government told the state in late 2011. Unless Texas lifted the new affiliate rule, its application to renew the program would be denied. The state refused, foregoing federal funding and claiming it could run the women’s health program just fine on its own.
That did not turn out to be true. From 2011 through 2016, the program was twice rebranded and enrollment dropped 24 percent. Over the same period, there was a 39 percent drop in the number of women in the program who were actually receiving services. Equally troubling, the number of women able to access birth control dropped 41 percent, according to a new study from the Center for Public Policy Priorities in Austin.
Research from the Texas Policy Evaluation Project, housed at the University of Texas’s Population Research Center, found that in the wake of the policy changes that ousted Planned Parenthood (and other smaller clinics), the number of women receiving long-acting reversible contraceptives, like the one Reinhardt received, decreased by 35 percent. And the number of women receiving injectable contraceptives declined by 31 percent, while the number of Medicaid-paid pregnancies among this group subsequently rose by 27 percent.
These numbers have not fazed Texas lawmakers, who continue to insist that they know how to run a successful women’s health program that excludes the single highest-volume supplier of care — going so far as to force a director at the agency overseeing the program to retire for having participated in research that proved the exclusion actually restricted access to care.
The state points to a dramatic increase in enrollment and the number of participating providers over the last year — up to 202,584 women enrolled in June and 5,342 providers signed up to participate — as some proof of the program’s success. But there are major caveats. First, enrollment rose because the state is now automatically extending coverage for mothers who’ve just had a Medicaid-paid birth. That’s a great thing, says Stacey Pogue, who ran the WHP in its first years and is the author of the CPPP’s latest report, but she is concerned that without clear direction from the state, those women might not be aware of the program or the fact that they’re covered by it. And even if they are, “that doesn’t mean they’ll ever get services,” she said.
That is because although the raw number of providers has increased dramatically — to include a number of individual doctors — many of them don’t actually see clients. Analysis of state data Pogue and colleagues did several years ago revealed that more than 50 percent of program providers saw “zero or one woman” annually, she said.
And there’s nothing to suggest that has changed. The latest incarnation of the program — now known as Healthy Texas Women — started in the summer of 2016. It is unclear how many clients have been served to date. An April report from the Health and Human Services Commission revealed that just over 60,000 women had received services through February; a report from May omits data about the current fiscal year.
And news about at least one of the organizations awarded a hefty contract by the state has raised eyebrows. The Heidi Group, granted more than $1.5 million under Healthy Texas Women, has no experience in providing women’s health care. Carol Everett, its founder and CEO, is an anti-abortion activist who has run a network of crisis pregnancy centers that exist primarily to encourage women to carry unwanted pregnancies to term.
Everett’s group said it could serve slightly more than 50,000 women with the state grant — a number that is shocking to Pogue and others. “That is an astounding number,” Pogue said. “That is more than Planned Parenthood served when it had 51 clinics in the program.” The Heidi Group has fewer than two dozen clinics and doctor’s offices signed on to provide care. At least one of the providers the group has contracted to serve the program’s clients is a crisis pregnancy center, Wise Choices, which does not provide birth control — let alone any other medical services.
Photo: Brandon Thibodeaux for The Intercept
Despite its mediocre track record at ensuring low-income women have access to birth control and other preventive health care, Texas is applying with the feds to transform Healthy Texas Women into a Medicaid waiver program, a move that would unleash millions in federal funding. But instead of just asking for a waiver to increase eligibility, this time the state is also asking that the government waive the program’s provider of choice provision.
There is reason to think that Texas’s bid to do away with freedom of choice could be successful — not least of which is that it appears the feds approached the state to ask that it reapply for the funding. Carrie Williams, press officer for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, acknowledged as much to the Houston Chronicle. She wouldn’t say who was nudging the state, only that “the sentiment is that the federal government may be open to new ideas.”
Under President Donald Trump, the Department of Health and Human Services has taken a decidedly hostile attitude toward women’s health. Secretary Tom Price infamously asserted that women don’t need help to access birth control. To run the nation’s family planning program, the president tapped an anti-abortion crusader, Teresa Manning, who doesn’t believe that birth control works.
His pick to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Seema Verma — an ally of Vice President Mike Pence — is perhaps best known for using a Medicaid waiver to create a program in Indiana that actually restricted access to care and made some enrollees pay premiums.
In March, Verma told a group of female health care professionals that “as a mother and as a woman, the most important thing about my health care is being able to pick out the doctor that I feel comfortable with.” Still, women’s health advocates are concerned that she may not feel the same way about low-income women who need Medicaid in order to access care.
“The Texas waiver request is a new attempt to circumvent federal protections for women’s health,” Clare Coleman, president and CEO of the National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association, said in a statement. “A CMS approval of Texas’s waiver would perpetuate a failed experiment. Women should have the ability to choose the health provider that they know and trust … regardless of income level.”
Technically, the freedom of choice provision can be waived, but “you can only waive that provision if doing so furthers the goal of the Medicaid program,” says Pogue. And it has never before been waived in connection with a family planning program. “A state has never come and said, we have a more efficient network if we just go with these” few, limited providers, she said. Certainly, Texas has demonstrated that “there is no benefit” to waiving the choice provision. “You cannot further the goals of Medicaid by excluding your most efficient provider.”
Pogue and others worry that if the federal government breaks precedent and waives freedom of choice for reproductive health, it would encourage other states to seek to do the same. Since 2015, at least 10 states have tried to block Planned Parenthood from receiving any Medicaid funds.
Texas “has spent years crippling a once-successful program supporting family planning and related services for low-income residents,” Kinsey Hasstedt and Adam Sonfield with the Guttmacher Institute wrote in July for Health Affairs Blog. “Now, the state is asking the likeminded Trump administration to provide an infusion of federal funding to support its diminished program. In the process, Texas and the Trump administration could set dangerous new precedents that could undermine family planning care in Medicaid programs nationwide.”
Indeed, Pogue notes that if the state is successful, it won’t be Texans who are hurt: The damage to the state’s health care safety net has already been done. Rather, the victims would be women in other states where access to care could be devastated, as it has in Texas. “I think the real point is, when Texas told itself a story … of ‘we can exclude a provider for whatever reason and our program will be fine, and women’s access will be fine because there are other providers to pick up the slack,’ it turns out that is not true,” she said.
There are two paths here and they are “mutually exclusive,” she notes. You can kick out a trusted, high-volume provider like Planned Parenthood and decrease access to services. Or, you can increase access and have a thriving program. “But you can’t do both.”
“That’s what Texas said they could do,” she said, “and that’s certainly not what the Texas experience shows.”
For Reinhardt, the experience of trying to access birth control in the wake of the closures of Planned Parenthood clinics in Lubbock stayed with her.
She’s in law school now, in North Texas, where she founded a chapter of the reproductive justice group If/When/How, and has become a passionate advocate for Planned Parenthood and the expansion of reproductive care access.
She worries the federal government will approve Texas’s waiver but still has hope it will see such a decision as a disaster in the making. “Plenty of states look to Texas for guidance on these kinds of policies, and it’s alarming,” she said. “This may have happened to me two years ago, but not only am I feeling the repercussions of this, but other people are too — and they’re still experiencing these issues every single day throughout Texas.”WEBINAR:
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very C++ programmer has had one of those days: A simple use of a template library turns into a nightmare, with pages upon pages of error messages streaming out of the compiler. Somewhere in that proverbial haystack are the clues you will need to determine exactly what went wrongan error about a missingoperator here, an incompatible type assignment therebut you know you are in for a long search through the grisly internals of the template library, or a visit from your local C++ template guru.
This article is not about C++ template error messages, but they are indicative of a far more general problem with the C++ template system. Most errors in the use of templates come from a misunderstanding between the author of the template and the user of the template. The author of the template expects the user's type to provide some specific set of operations, say, a + operator for addition and a copy assignment operator, which I'll refer to as the template requirements. When the user provides a type with the appropriate operations, i.e., the type satisfies the template requirements, everything works. However, when the user's type is missing some operations, the compiler reports the error as soon as the template tries to use that operation, which is often deep in the implementation of the template library. Thus, the template requirements are effectively a contract between the template author and user, and debugging a template error message is the act of trying to determine who broke the contractand how.
Enter: Concepts
Concepts is a language feature planned for C++0x that allows programmers to express the template requirements as part of the template’s source code. Placing requirements on a template formalizes the contract between template author and user, allowing the compiler to ensure that both parties uphold their end of the bargain. The template author is permitted to use only operations that he has required the user to provide, while the template user is allowed to supply only types that provide all of the operations that the template requires. When both parties uphold the terms of the contract, the program works; but when one party makes a mistake, the compiler produces an error message that describes the error in terms of the contract, isolating the template author from the template user and, therefore, producing shorter, simpler error messages that do not expose library internals to the user.
This article introduces the core ideas behind concepts, showing how they can be used to express the template requirements to provide correct and easy-to-use template libraries. The end of the article will illustrate some of the advanced features of concepts that make template libraries more powerful and more flexible. The intrepid reader may want to follow along using ConceptGCC, a prototype compiler implementing the concepts language feature. Template metaprogramming gurus: Please check your template tricks at the dooryou won't need them here.As we look back on 2016, we can’t help but think of all the TV greats who left us.
It’s been a tough year for celebrity deaths across the board — RIP, David Bowie, Prince and now George Michael — and the TV world was no exception, getting hit hard by the loss of a number of legendary performers. We said goodbye to a hilarious comedian in Garry Shandling. A ’60s icon in Patty Duke. A pair of all-time great sitcom parents in Florence Henderson and Alan Thicke. A four-time Emmy winner in Doris Roberts. A soap-opera villain we all loved to hate in Joseph Mascolo. And many more names we remember from their years on the small screen. (Too many more, if you ask us.)
Let’s take a moment to look back and appreciate the TV stars, producers and contributors who left us in 2016. Take a look through the gallery to the right — or click here for direct access — to see our remembrances |
kilowatts – more than enough to propel the 992-pound vehicle for about 150 miles. The prototype is still undergoing rigorous testing, but we can expect a finished version to enter production sometime in 2016.Chris Paul went to bed on Aug. 28, 2005, in the same room in which he had grown up at his parents' house in Lewisville, N.C.
An admitted homebody who has never liked being more than an arm's length from his family, Paul rarely steered far from the town in which he was born and raised. He picked his high school (West Forsyth) and college (Wake Forest) because both were less than a 15-minute drive from home.
However, for Paul there would be no choice on where to live when he decided to go pro after his sophomore season with the Demon Deacons. He was projected to be a top-five pick, and the storybook ending would have been to be selected by the home state Charlotte Bobcats, who were in need of a point guard and held the fifth overall pick in the 2005 NBA draft.
Alas, the New Orleans Hornets selected him with the fourth pick, but Paul was happy. It represented a new home, a new beginning and a new chapter in his life. He flew to New Orleans the day after the draft and immediately fell in love with the Crescent City.
"There was just an excitement in the city," Paul said. "One of the first things I remember when they dropped me off at the arena for my first press conference was they were asking me questions about New Orleans. I remember one person saying, 'Oh, we have hurricanes but they're not that bad.' They were telling me about hurricane parties people have at their house. I just thought that was the craziest thing."
Paul ended up spending more than a month in New Orleans after the draft, working out and getting acclimated to his new home. His parents went to the annual Essence Festival in July and helped him pick out the place he would move into with his older brother, C.J., who had just graduated from college. In late-August the brothers finally settled on a home at the picturesque English Turn Golf and Country Club. It was his first major purchase as an NBA player. Paul then returned to Lewisville for a few days. He needed to pack up his things before moving to New Orleans in early September.
At least that was the plan.
Into the storm
Paul's first memory of Aug. 29, 2005, was the sound of his mother's voice waking him up and directing him to the television. The images were hard to fathom as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.
"It was one of the most devastating things I had ever seen," Paul said. "That was my new home. Even though I had only just gotten drafted, it was going to be my first time away from home and I felt a connection to the city. I couldn't believe what I was watching."
Hurricane Katrina had struck New Orleans that early Monday morning, and as Paul huddled in front of the television with his family, he looked at his older brother and wondered what the future held for him and his new home.
"That was the most uncertain time of our lives," C.J. said. "Chris had just been drafted and closed on a house... he's just getting a feel for the city and all of a sudden that new city you love is in trouble. Just to see all the people who were affected by it and to know we were there just a few days before it hit...
"It seemed like it was a third world country we were watching on TV," C.J. added. "It didn't seem like it was a place in the United States we were due to live in in a week."
The Hornets made Chris Paul the fourth selection in the 2005 NBA draft. Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE/Getty Images
While Paul and his family watched Katrina's wrath unfold on television, the experience of going through it left deeper wounds for those living in the city. Jim Cleamons, who was an assistant on head coach Byron Scott's staff, says he and his family still have emotional scars from Katrina 10 years later.
"It was a horrific experience," Cleamons said. "To some degree, I don't want to remember some of the things myself."
Indeed, Scott himself kindly declined multiple requests to be interviewed for this story.
The aftermath
It was almost two months before anyone was allowed back in the Hornets' offices in downtown New Orleans. When Hornets employees returned to the city to gather the team's belongings for an uncertain future in an unknown destination, what they would encounter in their own backyard remained a mystery to them, as well.
"We were allowed to go in from sun up to sun down," said Dennis Rogers, who was the Hornets' director of communications at the time. "I went with five other Hornets employees. There were six of us and we loaded up a 27-foot U-Haul and we had two guns and a baseball bat. We didn't know what to expect."
When Paul was able to return to New Orleans in October, the aftermath of Katrina was as surreal as the images he had witnessed on television.
"There are so many different things we take for granted. Some people say if there's a hurricane, 'I'm going to leave,' but not everybody had that luxury when the storm came. Not everybody could just pick up and leave. It's one of those things, when everything happened, it brought the city together." Chris Paul
"It gave me chills and goose bumps when I went back," Paul said. "The first time you're allowed to go back into the city you could see water marks everywhere. Even watching on TV, I saw St. Charles and the French Quarter and a lot of the streets I had just been on [days earlier], underwater. There was a Foot Action and a Lids [hat store] that I had just went to, and to see them under water is something that I still can't fathom."
The NBA announced Sept. 21, 2005, the Hornets would move to Oklahoma City for the 2005-06 season. However, the team's temporary home didn't stop Paul and his teammates and front office staffers from routinely returning to New Orleans. Paul fed 200 families in New Orleans on Thanksgiving Day and took 100 kids on a Christmas toy-shopping spree. He also would fund the building of homes and basketball courts in the region.
"We wanted to do anything and everything we could do to help the city get back on its feet," Paul said. "I quickly became a part of the city during that time. There are so many different things we take for granted. Some people say if there's a hurricane, I'm going to leave, but not everybody had that luxury when the storm came. Not everybody could just pick up and leave. It's one of those things when everything happened it brought the city together."
Home on the road
From 2005 to 2007, Chris Paul and the Hornets played the majority of their home games in Oklahoma City's Ford Center. Gregory Shamus/NBAE/Getty Images
Paul said the memories of his rookie season are scattered. It was a season of uncertainty and flux. He rented a home in Oklahoma City, not knowing when or if he would be returning to New Orleans. The Hornets played 35 games in Oklahoma City, one in Norman, Okla., one in Baton Rouge and were allowed to go back to New Orleans for four games at the end of the season. Through it all, Paul managed to earn rookie of the year honors.
"We ended up going to Oklahoma and I knew nothing about Oklahoma," Paul said. "But it's crazy. I fell in love with Oklahoma City. The support they showed for our team was unbelievable. It's amazing how being in different situations can mold you. Being in Oklahoma is part of who I am. Being in New Orleans is part of who I am. You grow and you learn and you pay attention and realize certain situations in your life have helped to shape and mold you into who you are."
That Paul developed a fondness of Oklahoma City wasn't surprising. The city, which had never been home to a professional sports franchise before, rolled out the red carpet for the Hornets and welcomed them with open arms. The previous season the Hornets finished last in the league in attendance. In Oklahoma City, however, they enjoyed an almost 80 percent increase, putting them in the top half of the league with an average of 18,168 per game.
Despite being an interim home, it didn't take long for the Ford Center to become known as one of the loudest venues in the league. The surprisingly rabid fan base was impossible for the NBA to ignore. The league announced the Hornets would stay in Oklahoma City for one more season with an eye toward finding a more permanent tenant in the future.
"I felt like we had a huge part in showing that Oklahoma City was an NBA city," Paul said. "I feel we had a lot to do with it. Obviously it's been awhile, but even now when I go back and play in Oklahoma there are still a lot of fans who have those OKC Hornets jerseys on."
The Hornets went 77-87 and missed the playoffs in their two seasons in Oklahoma City but it was the first chance many in the state were able to see NBA games in person and it was during that time one 16-year-old Oklahoma City high school student learned what he wanted to do with his life.
"When the Hornets came it opened up an opportunity for Oklahoma City to show the NBA and the nation really that we could handle a pro team because we never had a pro team before," said Paul's Los Angeles Clippers teammate Blake Griffin, who was born and raised in Oklahoma City. "I remember going to some games and that was an eye-opening experience for me because I never went to an NBA game before. Being able to go to those games right around the time I was getting ready to go to college and basketball was really becoming a serious thing, shaped me as a player."
When the Hornets returned to New Orleans full-time for the 2007-08 regular season they enjoyed unprecedented success, winning 56 games and the Southwest Division. Scott won coach of the year honors and Paul finished second in MVP voting to Kobe Bryant. The NBA All-Star Game also was held in New Orleans, giving many players their first real chance to see New Orleans since Katrina, with players and coaches spending the weekend helping to build homes and playgrounds.
Chris Paul was a fixture in the community during his six seasons in New Orleans. Layne Murdoch/NBAE/Getty Images
"To go back there after Katrina and see how disastrous it was and for us to bring something back to New Orleans and have All-Star weekend there was huge. I'd never seen anything like that," Carmelo Anthony said. "Chris did a great job of building that comraderie in New Orleans, as well as what he created in Oklahoma City when he was there. I don't know if there's basketball in New Orleans or Oklahoma City without Chris."
The end of that season still sticks with Paul to this day. Despite taking a 2-0 and later a 3-2 series lead on the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference semifinals, the Hornets lost Game 7 in New Orleans and their dream season was over. It remains the only season in which the New Orleans franchise has won 50 games, won the division or even made it out of the first round of the playoffs.
"It was just one of those things when everything happened for us and it brought the city together," Paul said. "For us to make the playoffs and have the run that we did in our first year back was great, but it still sickens me we lost Game 7 to San Antonio. That city deserves a winner and a champion."
The domino effects of Katrina on the NBA a decade later are unmistakable. The Hornets' two seasons in Oklahoma City showed it was a basketball hotbed waiting to be tapped and in 2008 the Seattle SuperSonics relocated to Oklahoma City and were renamed the Thunder.
Not wanting to abandon the Gulf Coast region following Katrina, the league made a commitment to keep the Hornets in New Orleans, even if that meant taking temporary control of the team from then-owner George Shinn. Shinn was unable to find a buyer for the team and could no longer afford to run it. During the league's year and a half control of the Hornets, Paul was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers in a deal that was famously vetoed by NBA commissioner David Stern for "basketball reasons." He was then dealt to the Los Angeles Clippers one week later.
The finality of actually getting on a plane and leaving his adopted home hit him harder than he thought it would.
"It's one of those unspoken bonds that will never be broken," Paul said. "I still remember the night I got traded. Me and my brother got on a plane to fly out to L.A. and it was just the two of us on the plane and I remember crying when the plane was taking off. Nobody should feel sorry for NBA players, but when you get traded you don't get time to tell your closest friends good-bye. You just have to leave. That's how it was for me. But the city of New Orleans made me who I am as a person and who I am as a player. I'll never forget that."Josh Doctson was a three-star recruit from Mansfield Legacy HS in Mansfield, Texas. He committed to play for Wyoming over Duke and Tulsa. After his 2011 season with Wyoming, he elected to transfer to TCU to play for the Horned Frogs and was forced to sit out the 2012 season due to NCAA transfer rules. He slowly became one of TCU’s best receivers and was a finalist for the Fred Biletnikoff Award in 2015 while earning Consensus All-American Honors. He enters the 2016 NFL Draft as one of the top wide receiver prospects in the draft.
Measureables
DOB December 3, 1992 Bench (225 lbs) 14 Height 6’2″ Vertical Jump 41″ Weight 202 lbs Broad Jump 10’11” Arms 31.875 in 20 Yard Shuttle 4.08 sec Hands 9.875 in 3 Cone Drill 6.84 sec 40 Yard Dash (10 yd split) 4.50 sec (1.59 sec) 60 Yard Shuttle 11.06 sec
Stats and Awards
TCU (2013-2015), Wyoming (2011) 2015 – 79 rec, 1327 yds (16.8 ypc), 14 TDs Consensus All-American, First team All-Big 12 2014 – 65 rec, 1018 yds (15.7 ypc), 11 TDs Second team All-Big 12 2013 – 36 rec, 440 yds (12.2 ypc), 4 TDs 2012 – Ineligible (NCAA Transfer to TCU) 2011 – 35 rec, 393 yds (11.2 ypc), 5 TDs
Scouting Report
Smooth runner. Plays at one speed without urgency.
Attacks the ball with hands outstretched, but has a few focus drops. High volume target in TCU offense.
Keeps eyes in the backfield when play breaks down working to get open for his quarterback.
Trouble separating from press coverage
Great at finding seams between zones.
Great endzone target for fade routes with good hip flexibility to make in air adjustment turning his entire body.
Great body control to dive and catch the ball
Very willing run blocker. Needs better hand placement and technique to drive defenders backwards.
Routes are slow and deliberate. Rarely does he use the 4.50 speed unless going deep.
Stands too upright when shifting in his routes.
Skilled handfighter deep into routes to make sure he has separation to move.
Catches in traffic extremely well.
Body Control
Josh Doctson is the master of body control. If there is any trait that defines him it is his ability to turn and make mid-air adjustments on deep passes or on the sideline. With this trait, Doctson will immediately be beneficial to quarterbacks in the endzone running fade routes or on crucial 3rd down conversions.
Jumping
To go along with body control, Doctson led all wide receivers in the vertical jump and broad jump. He consitently demonstrates an ability to use that to his advantage and create on high thrown balls.
Article continues on the next page.Lost Lake's head bartender Paul McGee. View Full Caption DNAinfo/Darryl Holliday
LOGAN SQUARE — Logan Square's temple to all things tropic has been named the best cocktail bar of the year... in the entire country.
Lost Lake, which has been open for a little less than a year, was honored by Imbibe as 2015's Cocktail Bar of the Year.
The well respected trade magazine gave the nod to Paul McGee's tiki bar, noting McGee's "lasting impact on the drinks world."
"The Lost Lake experience combines the best in hospitality and drinks with fun and relaxing escapist vibes," the publication wrote, adding that the bar features a mix of classics and modern drinks "tip the scales" of the tiki bar genre.
The tiki bar and neighboring Chinese takeout spot, Thank You Chinese, opened to rave reviews in January at 3154 W. Diversey Ave.
McGee's wife, Shelby Allison, posted news of the honor on her Instagram page Monday.
#🌴 #imbibe75 #limalimaohana #blessthiscess A photo posted by Shelby Allison (@foureyed) on Dec 28, 2015 at 6:06pm PST
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:This article is over 4 years old
Intercity express and local commuter train collide at station in Rafz, not far from Zurich, leaving carriages upturned and one locomotive badly damaged
Two trains have crashed into each other north of Zurich at the start of rush hour, leaving dozens of passengers injured and carriages upturned.
“There was an accident this morning. It’s serious, there are injured,” a police spokeswoman said, without providing any other details.
The collision between an intercity express and a local commuter train occurred at the train station at Rafz, a town 19 miles north of Zurich, media reported.
One of the locomotives was badly damaged and several of its carriages derailed and tipped on their sides, photographs in local media showed.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest One of the locomotives was derailed in the crash. Photograph: Ennio Leanza/EPA
Ambulances, fire and rescue services rushed to the scene and service on the line between the towns of Bulach and Schaffhouse has been suspended.
A rescue worker, who refused to give his name, told the 20Minutes daily that as many as 49 people had been injured in the crash.
“Ambulances from all regions have been mobilised,” he said.
An 18-year-old passenger on the commuter train told the paper that it had just begun pulling out of the Rafz station on its way to Schaffhouse when the driver hit the brakes.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Members of the emergency services secure one of the derailed carriages. Photograph: Michael Buholzer/AFP/Getty Images
“An express train from Zurich came up from behind and hit the side of our train. The intercity train derailed,” said the man, whose name was not given.
Both the trains had been “quite damaged”, he said, adding that both drivers had quickly evacuated their passengers.
The Swiss are Europe’s top rail users, and their network is normally envied abroad for safety and quality.jQuery 1.4.2 Released
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jQuery 1.4.2 is now out! This is the second minor release on top of jQuery 1.4, fixing some outstanding bugs from the 1.4 release and landing some nice improvements.
I would like to thank the following people that provided patches for this release: Ben Alman, Justin Meyer, Neeraj Singh, and Noah Sloan.
Downloading
As usual, we provide two copies of jQuery, one minified (we now use the Google Closure Compiler as the default minifier) and one uncompressed (for debugging or reading).
You can feel free to include the above URLs directly into your site and you will get the full performance benefits of a quickly-loading jQuery.
Additionally you can also load the URLs directly from either Google or Microsoft’s CDNs:
New Features
A full list of the API changes can be found in the 1.4.2 category on the jQuery API site.
In this release we’ve added two new methods:.delegate() and.undelegate(). These methods serve as complements to the existing.live() and.die() methods in jQuery. They simplify the process of watching for specific events from a certain root within the document.
For example:
$("table").delegate("td", "hover", function(){ $(this).toggleClass("hover"); });
This is equivalent to the following code written using.live() :
$("table").each(function(){ $("td", this).live("hover", function(){ $(this).toggleClass("hover"); }); });
Additionally,.live() is roughly equivalent to the following.delegate() code.
$(document).delegate("td", "hover", function(){ $(this).toggleClass("hover"); });
What’s Changed?
There has been some large code rewrites within this release, both for performance and for fixing long-standing issues.
Performance Improvements
As is the case with virtually every release of jQuery: We’ve worked hard to continue to improve the performance of the code base, making sure that you’re provided with the best performing JavaScript code possible.
According to the numbers presented by the Taskspeed benchmark we’ve improved the performance of jQuery about 2x compared to jQuery 1.4.1 and about 3x compared to jQuery 1.3.2.
Specifically we’ve improved the performance of 4 areas within jQuery:
The performance of calling.bind() and.unbind(). (Ticket)
The performance of.empty(),.remove(), and.html(). (Ticket)
The performance of inserting a single DOM node into a document. (Ticket, Additional Commit)
The performace of calling $("body"). (Commit)
While comprehensive benchmarks like Taskspeed can be interesting if deconstructed into individual sub-tests for further study, as a project we tend to stay away from using them as an accurate measure of true, overall, library performance. Considering how many aspects make up a library, not to mention the different techniques that they offer, cumulative results rarely reflect how an actual user may use a library.
For example, we saw significant overall performance speed-ups in Taskspeed simply by optimizing the $("body") selector because it’s called hundreds of times within the tests. Additionally we saw large gains by optimizing.bind() and.unbind() by a fraction of a millisecond – an inconsequential amount – especially considering that any cases where you would bind hundreds of events you would likely want to use.live() or.delegate() instead.
We’ve collected some results from the other major libraries as well but are less interested in those results and far more interested in the performance improvements that we’ve made relative to older versions of jQuery itself.
We will continue to work on optimizing the jQuery code base – indefinitely. It’s always a major concern for us to try and provide the fastest JavaScript/DOM-development experience possible. And yes, there will likely always be ways to gain additional performance – either through internal optimizations or by pushing critical functionality off into browser-land for standardization.
Event Rewrite
The largest internal changes have come through a much-needed structural rewrite of the events module. Many quirky issues related to event binding have been resolved with these fixes.
Namely event handlers are no longer stored as object properties in jQuery’s internal object store (with metadata attached to the handlers). Instead they’re now stored within an internal array of objects.
If you’ve ever had the opportunity to play around with.data("events") on a jQuery element you would find that it returns an object with all the event types currently bound, within it.
To enumerate some of the changes that have occurred during this rewrite:
It’s now possible to bind identical handlers with different data, namespaces, and event types universally.
Execution of event handlers will continue after one handler removes itself (or its sibling handlers).
We no longer attach data/namespace information directly to the event handlers (only a unique tracking ID).
We no longer use proxy functions, internally, to try and encapsulate handlers.
Execution order of events is now guaranteed in all browsers. Google Chrome had a long-standing error in their object-looping logic that has been routed around.
As a side-effect of these changes we had to change the newly-exposed special add/special remove APIs in order to accommodate the new event data objects. Ben Alman is in the process of writing up a large tutorial on jQuery’s special event system and we will be making additional announcements when that occurs.
Bug Fixes
There were a total of 40 tickets closed in this minor release. Some relating to differences between jQuery 1.3.2 and jQuery 1.4.x, some fixing long-standing issues (like in the case of the event module rewrite).
Raw Data
This is the raw data that we collected to generate the aforementioned charts.
jQuery 1.3.2 jQuery 1.4.1 jQuery 1.4.2 Prototype 1.6.1 MooTools 1.2.4 Dojo 1.4.1 YUI 3.0.0 FF 3.5 2182 806 565 2156 1073 575 1885 FF 3.6 1352 677 519 2067 857 750 1494 Opera 983 697 222 793 678 218 1201 Safari 610 435 252 315 235 238 612 Chrome 1591 703 293 271 312 222 745 IE 8 2470 1937 1141 3045 4749 1420 2922 IE 7 4468 3470 1705 9863 10034 1737 5830 IE 6 6517 4468 2110 13499 11453 2202 7295Ah, the nobility -- our betters. We've seen Downton Abbey, we know how they roll: all genteel, with their cucumber sandwiches and pantaloons, droppin' honorifics like a motherfucker. Not all of them are as subdued and proper as you'd think, though. There's a fine line between "eccentric duke" and "poop-smeared psychopath," and the following folks skipped gaily across that line, only occasionally checking in to pop a squat on the sanity side before skittering back into full-blown madness.
5 The Prince of Silence Would've Very Much Liked to Be Invisible
Image Source/Photodisc/Getty Images
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His proper name was William John Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck (1800-1879) of Nottinghamshire, England. His proper title was Marquess of Titchfield, fifth Duke of Portland, but you could call him the Prince of Silence. Or Bill. Or, preferably, nothing at all. Although rumored to have a disfiguring skin disease or deformity, it seems more likely that Bentinck just hated being near people, or was perhaps winning the most epic game of hide and seek ever played.
Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
As evidenced by his formal portrait.
The only person who was regularly allowed to see him was his valet. Bentinck wouldn't even permit a doctor to examine him; shouting from behind a locked door, the doctor would ask the valet questions, and the valet would call back an answer to the best of his ability. Amazingly, this technique seemed to have worked, since Bentinck lived to the ripe old age of 79... for all anybody ever knew, at least.
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In the event that servants did encounter Bentinck, they were instructed never to acknowledge his existence and to walk by him "as if he were a tree." Bentinck himself would make that easier by retreating to the wall and pretending to be a statue. Those who failed to ignore him or play along with his statue game were instantly dismissed.Kajetanowicz is the 2015 FIA European Rally Champion!
October 11th, 2015 | 2015, Greece |
Kajetan Kajetanowicz is the 2015 FIA European Rally Champion, after winning the SEAJETS Acropolis Rally in his LOTOS Rally Team Ford Fiesta R5.
Extreme weather conditions, which saw a big thunderstorm sweep over the Loutraki region, caused the event’s final three stages to be cancelled. The final results will be declared after SS6 – just when Kajetanowicz had retaken the lead.
With 69% of the event completed, full ERC points will be awarded – meaning that Kajetanowicz, subject to official confirmation, cannot be caught in the driver standings. As the provisional results stand, he has 230 points, while second-placed Craig Breen (Peugeot Rally Academy) has 162 points.
Kajetanowicz is the third Polish driver to win the ERC title – following in the footsteps of Sobiesław Zasada and Krzysztof Hołowczyc. His co-driver, Jarek Baran, is ERC champion too, having finished runner-up in 2002, co-driving for Janusz Kulig.
“Yes, we did it, it’s been an amazing day,” said an overjoyed Kajetanowicz. “It was a dream but now it’s come true. What can I say? Thanks to my team like always. To be honest it was a really hard year for us but we did it, we’re European champions. It’s amazing.
“It’s a big, big, really big day, probably the best day in my life. I don’t know – how can I say it? We did it with winning Acropolis Rally. It’s also a big thing, one of the most difficult rallies in the world, not only in European championship.
“I want to say thank you to my parents, mum and dad. They believe in me every time, everywhere. I have no time for them but I want to change it because they are very important for me. They are always with me, and they are always in my heart.”Just as diamonds with perfect symmetry may be unusually brilliant jewels, the quantum world has a symmetrical splendor of high scientific value.
Confirming this exotic quantum physics theory, JILA physicists led by theorist Ana Maria Rey and experimentalist Jun Ye have observed the first direct evidence of symmetry in the magnetic properties—or nuclear "spins"—of atoms. The advance could spin off practical benefits such as the ability to simulate and better understand exotic materials exhibiting phenomena such as superconductivity (electrical flow without resistance) and colossal magneto-resistance (drastic change in electrical flow in the presence of a magnetic field).
The JILA discovery, described in Science Express,* was made possible by the ultra-stable laser used to measure properties of the world's most precise and stable atomic clock.** JILA is jointly operated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado Boulder.
"Spin symmetry has a very strong impact on materials science, as it can give rise to unexpected behaviors in quantum matter," JILA/NIST Fellow Jun Ye says. "Because our clock is this good—really it's the laser that's this good—we can probe this interaction and its underlying symmetry, which is at a very small energy scale."
The global quest to document quantum symmetry looks at whether key properties remain the same despite various exchanges, rotations or reflections. For example, matter and antimatter demonstrate fundamental symmetry: Antimatter behaves in many respects like normal matter despite having the charges of positrons and electrons reversed.
To detect spin symmetry, JILA researchers used an atomic clock made of 600 to 3,000 strontium atoms trapped by laser light. Strontium atoms have 10 possible nuclear spin configurations (also referred to as angular momentum), which influences magnetic behavior. In a collection of clock atoms there is a random distribution of all 10 states.
The researchers analyzed how atom interactions—their collisions—at the two electronic energy levels used as the clock "ticks" were affected by the spin state of the atoms' nuclei. In most atoms, the electronic and nuclear spin states are coupled, so atom collisions depend on both electronic and nuclear states. But in strontium, the JILA team predicted and confirmed that this coupling vanishes, giving rise to collisions that are independent of nuclear spin states.
In the clock, all the atoms tend to be in identical electronic states. Using lasers and magnetic fields to manipulate the nuclear spins, the JILA researchers observed that, when two atoms have different nuclear spin states, no matter which of the 10 states they have, they will interact (collide) with the same strength. However, when two atoms have the same nuclear spin state, regardless of what that state is, they will interact much more weakly.
"Spin symmetry here means atom interactions, at their most basic level, are independent of their nuclear spin states," Ye explains. "However, the intriguing part is that while the nuclear spin does not participate directly in the electronic-mediated interaction process, it still controls how atoms approach each other physically. This means that, by controlling the nuclear spins of two atoms to be the same or different, we can control interactions, or collisions."
The new research adds to understanding of atom collisions in atomic clocks documented in previous JILA studies.*** Further research is planned to engineer specific spin conditions to explore novel quantum dynamics of a large collection of atoms.
JILA theorist Ana Maria Rey made key predictions and calculations for the study. Theorists at the University of Innsbruck in Austria and the University of Delaware also contributed. Funding was provided by NIST, the National Science Foundation, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
*X. Zhang, M. Bishof, S.L. Bromley, C.V. Kraus, M.S. Safronova, P. Zoller, A.M. Rey, J. Ye. Spectroscopic observation of SU(N)-symmetric interactions in Sr orbital magnetism. Science Express. Published online Aug. 21, 2104.
**See Jan. 22, 2014, Tech Beat article, "JILA Strontium Atomic Clock Sets New Records in Both Precision and Stability."
***See 2011 NIST news release "Quantum Quirk: JILA Scientists Pack Atoms Together to Prevent Collisions in Atomic Clock" and 2009 NIST news release "JILA/NIST Scientists Get a Grip on Colliding Fermions to Enhance Atomic Clock Accuracy."Where is the line between acting as a lawmaker on behalf of your constituents, and acting as a paid lobbyist? As the 2015 legislative session draws near, one Representative on Utah’s Capitol Hill may be drawing near it.
On November 10, 2014, a new Utah nonprofit was registered under the name “A Most Sacred Trust,” its tax status was approved only 6 weeks later, on December 22. The group advertises its mission as being to “restore trust in our school system by educating children, parents, teachers, administrators, and legislators about the realities of sexual abuse in our schools and how we can protect both children, and the adults who educate them, by establishing a safer system for all”—a laudable goal, to be sure.
Their website, mostsacredtrust.org, encourages visitors to financially support the organization, accepting both one-time and monthly monetary commitments.
The group is also touting that they have three pieces of legislation that will be run in the 2015 legislative session, which begins at the end of January—no small feat when you consider the number of nonprofits, special interests, lobbyists, corporations, and citizens in the state which would love to have their agendas promoted with legislation, and that most bills take months of work, planning, and effort before making it onto the list of proposed laws to be heard.
So how did the fledgling organization manage to get their goals before the legislature so quickly? According to tax and business filings with the state, the president of A Most Sacred Trust is Becky Ivory, wife of Representative Ken Ivory (Republican – West Jordan). The organization was registered under the name of Representative Ivory’s personal law firm, Ivory Law P.C., and all of the group’s legislation is being run by Representative Ivory himself.
This isn’t the first time the Ivorys have created an organization related to the Representative’s legislation. Representative Ivory has developed a name for himself over the past few years by pushing legislation that would forcibly take control of public lands in the state away from the United States, and turn them over to the Utah legislature to decide whether to keep or sell them. The legislation has resulted in massive disagreements between supporters of a Utah-takeover of U.S. lands and environmental groups and scholars who say the constitution does not grant individual states the authority to force the U.S. to turn over land that is being supported by tax dollars from all over the country.
In the case of the public lands takeover, Representatives Ivory and Becky Ivory created another nonprofit, called the American Lands Council, where Ken serves as President and Becky as Communications Director—both draw a salary from the company, and Representative Ivory listed ALC as his occupation when he filed for re-election. As Representative Ivory’s legislation has caught fire in local and national media, it has opened the door for him to travel all over western states under the American Lands Council banner, giving paid speaking presentations to conferences, special interests, and other lawmakers. According to its most recent 990 forms, in 2012 the American Lands Council brought in just over $122,000 thanks largely to the publicity around Representative Ivory’s own legislation.
Is there an ethical issue with a lawmaker and his spouse creating situations where they directly make a living off of the legislation they run?
“I don’t see a conflict,” Representative Ivory told Utah Political Capitol in a phone interview. “My wife is a constituent, just like how several of my other constituents have organizations or businesses working on problems. My job is simply to solve the problems.” According to Representative Ivory, it makes no difference whether or not he and his family benefit financially from the issue.
To be sure, child sex abuse in schools is a worthwhile cause, and one very personal to Becky Ivory herself. On her biography on the Most Sacred Trust website, she describes how she herself was abused by a teacher for several years during Middle School. She told UPC “It took me 11 years before I was finally brave enough to go to my school district and tell them what had happened. … They fired [the accused teacher], but then hired them back two years later without even telling me or talking to me about it.”
Like Representative Ivory, Mrs. Ivory says she sees no conflict in having him run legislation that could directly benefit their family financially. Because the organization is so new, she says, there is not |
minutes of the game, the Cornhuskers’ tentative and meticulous pacing managed to slow the Hoosiers down to a crawl.
In Wisconsin-like fashion, Nebraska clogged the lane, committed hard fouls, and absolutely refused to give up any easy baskets, effectively knocking Indiana out of any kind of rhythm.
With 9:53 to go in the first, Jordan Tyrance hit two free throws for the Cornhuskers to give the nation’s 333rd offense a 14-11 lead over the nation’s #2 offense.
Fortunately for Indiana, that was the best it got for Nebraska on Wednesday night.
Despite holding the Hoosiers to a season-low 27 first half points on only six made field goals, the Cornhuskers found themselves down by nine at halftime, 27-18.
Perhaps sensing weakness, or realizing that they were simply the vastly superior team, the Hoosiers’ often volatile offense exploded in the second half to the tune of 49 points, eventually winning 76-47.
Although not quite the 70-point performance against Ohio State, Indiana’s ‘Big Three’ once again led the way, with a combined total of 42 points, led by Cody Zeller’s team high of 16.
Once again, Mr. Consistency (Christian Watford) grabbed 11 rebounds to go along with his 13 points, logging his 5th double-double of the season, and his second in the past four games.
Victor Oladipo added 13 points of his own, while the Hoosiers also drew some decent bench production with three players tallying a total of 18 points.
As usual, our Four Factors are below.
FOUR FACTORS
eFG% TO% OR% FTR INDIANA 58.33% 15.58% 50.00% 50.00% NEBRASKA 40.43% 25.33% 25.81% 19.15%
The Hoosiers’ eFG% of 58.33% was right at their season average at Assembly Hall, thanks largely to an impressive second half.
Indiana once again limited their total turnovers (9) while posting a gaudy 50% offensive rebounding percentage and free throw rate.
Nebraska simply wasn’t able to compete, getting beaten in just about all aspects of the game, as was reflected in the box score and on the scoreboard.
STAT OF THE GAME
INDIANA 2ND HALF POINTS: 49
After posting their lowest first half scoring total all season, the Hoosiers responded with their fourth highest scoring second half, with 49 points.
Even if the Hoosiers had been held scoreless in the first half, they still would’ve won the game by two points; they put up more in the second period than Nebraska was able to do all game.
That’s a testament to both Nebraska’s offensive woes, but also a Hoosier defense that held Nebraska to 36% shooting from the field and just.79 points per possession.
WHAT’S NEXT
After dispatching the Cornhuskers in convincing fashion (as was expected), the Hoosiers can now set their sights back onto Purdue on Saturday.
The Boilermakers have slipped below.500 to 12-13 overall and are coming off a tough loss to Illinois in game where Matt Painter managed to get himself ejected for the first time as Purdue’s head coach.
In their previous meeting, Purdue suffered their worst home loss ever to Indiana, 97-60, and coming up in our preview, we’ll see if there’s any reason to believe that the Boilers will be any better against us at Assembly Hall (hint: probably not).
Stay tuned, and go Hoosiers!By Petra Jans
Science has always been my calling, but it was not until I started studying feminism at Colorado College that I began to see the ways in which science was conflicting with my being a woman. Though I am now an aspiring physician scientist drawn to cancer research, studying feminism has revealed how science and medicine are deeply entrenched in sexism and patriarchy. Hence, I hope to not just join the fight against cancer, but be a critical part of changing the way we carry out the fight.
Cancer is defined as the uncontrolled growth of abnormal or malignant cells that are capable of spreading to distant sites throughout the body. Though cancer, which affects millions of Americans each year, is often grouped as one disease, it is many different diseases classified by the type of tissue from which the malignant cells originated. Cancer begins in our own cells where, over time, mutations have occurred, changing the genetic material and allowing the cells to escape the restraints of normal growth. It is a fascinating disease because it is one in which the cells of our own bodies seem to turn against us, exploiting us until there is no tissue left un-colonized. According to oncologist Siddhartha Mukherjee, “To confront cancer is to encounter a parallel species, one perhaps more adapted to survival than even we are” (pp. 39). Mukherjee weaves an intricate history of cancer and its treatment, and uncovers feminist issues, which beckon me to dig deeper into this cause to which I am hoping to dedicate my life.
When I first became infatuated with cancer biology, I could not imagine anything unjust about the war on cancer, except maybe the cancer itself. Not until some recent digging did it become clear that, even in our recent history, women’s bodies have been a central battleground in this war. According to James Olson, at the end of the 19th century, Dr. William Halsted took advantage of recent gains in aseptic surgical techniques, anesthesia, and pathology to develop the radical mastectomy (pp. 58). The radical mastectomy became the hallmark of breast cancer treatment, and Halsted became a medical hero. In his procedure, the entire breast, axillary lymph nodes, and chest muscles were cut away in a single motion with the hope of removing every trace of cancer before it was able to travel or metastasize to distant sites and become a systemic and fatal disease. However, Halsted’s radical mastectomy left women with concave chests, and for some this meant brutally disfigured. Simultaneously at this historical point, the world of medicine was transitioning from domestic medicine delivered primarily by women, to professional, academic medicine, which was male-dominated. As medicine became more grounded in science it suffered from depersonalization, and breast cancer patients became the “scientific objects” of surgeons, who were only keen on improving survival rates (Olson, pp. 64).
The radical mastectomy’s dominance over most of the 20th century is an example of how science can turn into dogma−this is what makes it so concerning to feminists. The procedure was based on a theory that breast cancer started as a local disease, an isolated tumor, and only at a certain point did malignant cells begin to break off and spread beyond the initial site, metastasizing, to become a systemic disease and no longer curable. Thus, if all of the tissue containing and surrounding the tumor could be removed, the chance of the cancer spreading would be significantly reduced. Unfortunately, this theory turned out not to be true. As, in many cases, cancer is already a systemic disease long before distant metastases are visibly detected. In the early 1900s radiotherapy became another form of cancer treatment. In 1935, British physician Geoffrey Keynes performed a study comparing breast cancer patients treated with radical mastectomies to those treated with simple mastectomies followed by radiation, which was a much less invasive procedure. He found no difference in survival rates fifteen years later. Despite his scientific reason, accompanied by a few others over the years, it would not be until the 1970s, when breast cancer became more visible to the public, that the Halsted radical mastectomy’s reign over breast cancer treatment would come to an end.
As feminists revealed, women were the “guinea pigs” of the glorified medical establishment, and surgeons, who remain predominantly male even today, were the valiant heroes of the “war on cancer.” Not only did women fight against the radical mastectomy, but many, lead by Rose Kushner, also advocated against the common practice of combining breast biopsies and mastectomies into one procedure. It was common practice that if a surgeon found cancer, they would remove it without waking the patient. The patient would go to sleep not knowing if she had cancer and could wake up with her entire breast gone. In this practice, women had little to no role in the decisions about their bodies. Despite the work of activists, and the
status of breast cancer as one of the most visible diseases in society, I fear the errors and hubris that cultivated the radical mastectomy to its peak in the 1950s did not disappear with the death of the procedure. Feminists recognized the paternalistic power relations of the physician-patient relationship, especially between male physicians and female patients. With the production of feminist texts like Our Bodies, Ourselves, women are encouraged to take charge of their own health and question the authority of the medical establishment, and demand multiple opinions as well as the pros and cons of each treatment. When it comes to cancer, the scientific community does not have all the answers, nor the “right” answers for people. Thus, as the holders of their bodily knowledge, women have an important role to play in partnership with their doctor, where their insights are valued just as much as those of the physician.
Care for cancer patients, however, does not end with the final dose of chemotherapy or the last stitch of a surgery to remove a tumor. There are many physical consequences of the treatment alone, like the hair-loss that everyone pictures when they think of cancer patients, not to mention the sometimes dangerously low white blood cell counts. And, we cannot forget the psychological and social effects as well. In addition to all of the cancer awareness organizations, there exists a large market of cancer support groups and countless literatures written by cancer survivors that offer words of encouragement and hope for those who are negotiating their experience with cancer. One of the most prominent struggles these authors confront is the assault that breast cancer makes on their identities and the instability of their identities, as women and as people. These literatures detail what it means to come to terms with what seems like an attack from within and the feeling of fragmentation when a body part must be amputated.
For example, in Diane Price Herndl’s feminist analysis of breast cancer literatures and memoirs, she argues that instead of embracing the transitory nature of identity and life, the narratives tend to focus on a single identity: survivor. Though these kinds of narratives create an important community for women with breast cancer that surely was not present thirty years ago, Price Herndl argues that it is but a small community that encourages normalization and “certainly does not move out to embrace the disability movement and its challenge to the idea that there is only one form of healthy embodiment” (pp. 241). There is so much inequity in the way we discuss and handle illness in this country. Breast cancer texts, as well as the mainstream breast cancer movement, do little to challenge the ablest norms of health, women, and patriarchal science.
Along these lines, Barbara Ehrenreich tells her own breast cancer story in “Welcome to Cancerland,” which offers some compelling critiques of the breast cancer movement that she cunningly renames the “breast cancer cult.” For example, the continued emphasis on mammograms, a technology that many studies have shown does very little to improve survival, simply extends the length of time that a woman is aware of having breast cancer.
America’s breast-cancer cult can be judged as an outbreak of mass delusion, celebrating survivorhood by downplaying mortality and promoting obedience to medical protocols known to have limited efficacy. And although we may imagine ourselves to be well past the era of patriarchal medicine, obedience is the message behind the infantilizing theme in breast-cancer culture, as represented by the teddy bears, the crayons, and the prevailing pinkness (Ehrenreich, 2001).
Peggy Orenstein, in “Our Feel-Good War on Breast Cancer,” also takes a critical stance on annual mammograms after conceding, “I used to believe that a mammogram saved my life.” Mammography is a screening tool based on a similar assumption that led to the radical mastectomy: early detection and early removal of the tumor are necessary to catch the cancer before it spreads. But as scientists have learned
more recently, the course of breast cancer from a local tumor to metastatic disease is far from uniform and is rather unpredictable. Some of the worst forms of cancer have often metastasized well before they are detectable by a mammogram, while other forms may never metastasize or they grow so slowly that they are equally treatable even after being found years later without a mammogram — meaning by the woman herself or by a physical exam. What this amounts to, Orenstein argues, is an unnecessary amount of over-diagnosis, putting many women through treatments that they may not have needed. Many of the women receiving what could be considered unnecessary treatment have the diagnosis of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), a pre-malignant abnormality of the milk duct, which may or may not progress to invasive cancer. Eliot Marshall discusses the problems with the DCIS diagnosis and the unwarranted psychological and physical damage it may be causing women. These issues surrounding DCIS are a consequence of the overuse of mammograms. Though annual mammograms can hardly be considered as traumatic as the radical mastectomy, their logic is systemic because the result is that women’s bodies become the objects of science and medicine and are often traumatized.
It has been unsettling to learn of the injustices woven into the history of cancer, but it motivates me to play a part in the changes that need to occur in the field of medicine and science. Because science necessitates change through new technologies and new discoveries, scientists and physicians must continue to question the “accepted” and challenge the status quo. What good is research if you always ask the same questions, always approaching the problem from the same point of view? There are many more women in science now than a century ago, but I often wonder how much has changed in the domineering masculine mentality of the science community. So, I “Googled” medical feminism, and found a medical student’s blog mentioning women who were changing medicine, which included Dr. Teresa K. Woodruff at Northwestern University. I watched Dr. Woodruff’s TEDx talk on oncofertility, and the more I read about her work, the more inspired I became. Dr. Woodruff’s research has revealed that significantly fewer young female cancer patients have the option to preserve their fertility before the damage done by chemotherapy than their male counterparts. This is a significant insight on the persistence of patriarchal science because it reflects a gender bias in the way cancer treatments and fertility are approached by physicians. Additionally, it reveals a gender bias in what scientists actually know about fertility preservation for cancer patients, which cannot simply be accounted for by the relative “complexity” of the female reproductive system. Woodruff’s work seeks to eliminate this gender bias in fertility preservation for cancer patients, as well as the gender bias that exists in much of basic science and medical research.
To do so, Dr. Woodruff has founded and directs the Oncofertility Consortium. The Consortium takes an interdisciplinary approach, bringing together oncologists and reproductive scientists, to increase our knowledge about the effect of chemotherapy and radiation on ovarian development, and improve methods of effectively preserving ovarian tissue for young women with cancer, among many other projects; it provides resources and options to patients and practicing health professionals. Dr. Woodruff’s research contributes to the ending the gender bias in science by advocating for the importance of recognizing and investigating sex differences in medical research. Additionally, she created the Women’s Health Research Institute at Northwestern University to promote interdisciplinary research and provide mentorship for young women in the biomedical sciences, as well as patient outreach. While these are all positive changes in addressing women’s issues in health and science, there is more to be done in the dismantling of gender inequality and health disparities.
As Dorothy Roberts argues, there are many shortcomings of the oncofertilty approach, particularly the need to address the social and economic issues surrounding fertility preservation. While an important implication of oncofertility is its protection of a woman’s reproductive autonomy, Roberts argues that more could be done to challenge reproductive norms that place more value on genetically related than adopted children. This would mean that oncofertility centers should work to remove the many barriers that prevent cancer survivors from adopting children. Roberts also reveals how oncofertility fits neatly into our social hierarchies of dominant gender roles, which emphasize the importance of motherhood in a woman’s life.
Does the desire to preserve this option and the distress from losing it [the ability to have a child] stem in part from a gender injustice? [or perhaps it is due to] …the unjust expectation that all women will become mothers, and the stigma of infertility (Roberts, 781).
Furthermore, economic barriers prevent many women from even accessing these new fertility preservation technologies. Instead of reproducing the patriarchal logic, Roberts argues for a focus on the reasons for fertility loss and ways we can prevent it as “a systemic change, rather than expensive technological interventions” (pp. 798).
Needless to say, solving these injustices in women’s health, in cancer and other diseases, cannot be done by one scientist, or scientists alone, but will require continued effort from feminist advocates in all areas of society. Woodruff, herself, seems to recognize the value of a more systemic solution, and she makes a hopeful prediction that the field of oncofertility will be obsolete in twenty years, believing that we are well on our way to developing new cancer therapeutics that will not cause as much damage to the reproductive system, and thus prevent the problem in the first place (Science 2034).
I think the social history of cancer has an important message to deliver, especially to young aspiring physicians and biomedical scientists. As we become a part of the ever-growing medical establishment, we have a lot of power and will have to choose: do we want to continue to practice medicine and science the way it has always been done? Or will we dare to question the status quo, consider new perspectives and complexities, and challenge our field to create a more just and livable society?
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Petra Jans is a senior at Colorado College majoring in Biochemistry with a minor in Feminist and Gender Studies. Originally from England, she has called Colorado home since 2001. She enjoys hiking, singing, traveling, and visiting her family in Belgium. After graduation, she will be attending medical school and working towards her goal of becoming a physician scientist.Corruption across the Europe costs £99 billion (€120bn) a year, the European Commission has estimated in a report that urged Britain to do more to fight foreign bribery.
In its first annual report, the commission declined to set out any ranking of corruption levels country by country and decided to suppress findings on fraud within European Union institutions.
Cecilia Malmstroem, the European home affairs commissioner, described levels of corruption across the EU as "breath-taking" and criticised governments for failing to tackle the problem.
"One thing is very clear: there is no 'corruption-free' zone in Europe. The political commitment to really root out corruption seems to be missing," she said. "The price of not acting is simply too high."
Britain was among countries criticised for failing to clean up and regulate the financing of political parties, a problem that the commission defined as a major factor in corruption.
In non-binding recommendations, the UK was asked to "cap donations to political parties, impose limits on electoral campaign spending and ensure proactive monitoring and prosecution of potential violations".
The commission backed plans by the Serious Fraud Office and recommended "further preventive measures to effectively address risks of foreign bribery and providing sector-specific guidelines to companies in areas which may be at increased risk, such as defence".
Less than one per cent of Britons, five people out of the 1,115 surveyed by the commission, reported that they had been asked for a bribe, the "best result in Europe".
In contrast between six to 29 per cent of people in Croatia, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania and Greece said they had been expected to pay a bribe.
Almost all companies in Greece, Spain and Italy believe corruption is widespread but it is considered rare in Denmark, Finland and Sweden, the report found.
Recent research by Transparency International's named Greece as the worst performer in the EU, sharing 80th place with China. Denmark was seen as the least corrupt country.
The commission's report did not rank EU countries, ranging from Sweden to Bulgaria, on differing levels of the seriousness of corruption and did not make any legal proposals.
Officials have also been criticised for dropping a section of the report that covered corruption in EU institutions and funds following annual criticism by the European Court of Auditors on the spending of the Brussels budget.
"Its refusal to carry out a study into corruption in its own institutions shows that it is very touchy about its public image," said Paul Nuttall MEP, the deputy leader of Ukip.
"Instead of analysing, facing up to, and changing the culture of corruption within its own walls, the commission would rather cover up and keep quiet about it."WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has lined up more than 40 countries who have agreed to a joint declaration on the import and export of armed unmanned systems, in what the US State Department is billing as the first step toward creating global norms for the weapon systems.
The agreement will be formally announced Wednesday afternoon. Defense News first broke news of the agreement, then in draft form, in August.
In addition to the US, signatories include Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malawi, Montenegro, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Paraguay, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal,, Romania, Serbia, Seychelles, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Ukraine, the United Kingdom and Uruguay.
Titled "Joint Declaration for the Export and Subsequent Use of Armed or Strike-Enabled Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)," the one-page statement lists five general principals, in line with those established last year by the US, for the import and export of armed drones.
Last month, analysts questioned whether countries would actually sign onto the agreement, in part because the language could be seen as restricting to international drone producers. But Brian Nilsson, deputy assistant secretary for defense trade controls with State, told Defense News this week that the US agency is cognizant about not impacting local industrial concerns.
"We’re not attempting to discourage the development of indigenous industry, but it is a topic that needs to have a specific discussion, because there is a lot of misconceptions and controversy around UAVs," Nilsson said, adding that he hopes to bring industry into future discussions.
Deputy Spokesperson @Toner_Mark outlines joint declaration for export and use of UAVs. https://t.co/0He6M4e07C — Department of State (@StateDept) October 5, 2016
State is following the blueprint used for the International Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation, commonly called the Hague Code of Conduct (HCOC), Nilsson explained. In that treaty, a small number of countries initially agreed on principals, then hammered out the details over a series of meetings before coming to final conclusions. That small group has now expanded widely as more countries came on board.
And those future discussions are, in many ways, the core of this declaration. Those countries who sign onto the agreement now will have "a seat at the table" come early 2017, when the signees will sit down for the first of several meetings which will hammer out further details, Nilsson said.
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Industrial Impacts
Michael Horowitz, a former Pentagon official who is now an associate professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania and has focused on drone export policies, sees some merit in that process.
"There is a difference between starting a process designed to promote the responsible export and use of UAVs around the world, which it appears the United States is doing, and a process designed to halt UAV proliferation," Horowitz said. "The former could succeed — though it may eventually require bringing all UAV exporters to the table. The latter is unlikely to succeed given the existing rate of proliferation and the enormous growth in the global robotics market."
"In the medium term, getting all UAV exporters on board would help if the goal is creating a more formal regime," Horowitz said. But, "the Joint Declaration also seems to provide a clear statement of US principles, which the US could use to influence the behavior of other states over time, particularly if they seek US UAV platforms."
Added Rachel Stohl, an analyst with the Stimson Center: "The United States already has high standards in its national export laws and its export policy. The standards in the joint declaration are lower than those standards. This could harm US industry, which would be subject to higher standards than their competitors."
Notably missing from the list of countries are Russia, China, India and Israel, seen as current or future exporters of armed drones. Israel, in particular, had previously expressed great skepticism about the deal.
For years, experts like Horowitz have warned that countries that may look to operate armed UAVs without regard for US norms would turn to those nations, a concern that still exists.
"One challenge for the United States and its allies and partners will be getting China, Russia and other actors on board with any joint declaration," he said. "China, in particular, may view reluctance on the part of the US to export UAVs as a market opportunity."
Nilsson said there was "extensive engagement with both China and Israel," and also had talks with Russia despite them being "not so much a producer or exporter."
As to concerns that without big exporters of armed UAVs on board, the group has less impact than it otherwise might, Nilsson called it "a fair criticism — just as it’s fair to point out most governments don’t belong to [the informal, non-treaty Missile Technology Control Regime]. But there is merit to maintaining those export control regimes, even if the memberships are small."
Limited Language?
The final version of the declaration makes it clear that individual countries will retain their own standards for use of armed systems.
Ahead of listing five principals, the language notes that "none of [the principals] should be construed to undermine the legitimate interest of any State to indigenously produce, export, or acquire such systems for legitimate purposes."
In another bullet point, the language notes that "both the law of armed conflict and international human rights law, as applicable, to the use of armed or strike-enabled UAVs" should be followed.
Such language is worrisome to Stohl. In a Sept. 29 editorial for Defense News, she blasted the agreement, concluding that "sometimes doing nothing is better than doing something."
A week after her op-ed, Stohl remains concerned.
"Higher standards on drone exports and use are desirable and needed, but this joint declaration doesn’t go far enough to ensure that those standards actually set that bar high enough," she said Tuesday. "If standards are low, they provide a blank check to governments to act with impunity and claim they have acted responsibility."
Nilsson countered Stohl’s concerns, saying they don’t acknowledge that "this is the beginning [of] a decision, not the end — this is a way to get governments to agree to have this dialogue." He added that the initial wave of close allies contacted by State were initially skeptical, and urged the department to approach the process in this manner
.
"We had several governments who said ‘this is a lowering of standards.’ We said: ‘No, this is setting a bar for working towards having the standards,’ " Nilsson said. And since then, many of those governments "turned around and actually joined us."
Horowitz, meanwhile, warned that focusing solely on UAVs may prove to be limiting in the future.
"It is important to keep in mind that UAVs are just one instance of a broad expansion in the use of military robotics by the United States and many other nations — a trend that will continue regardless of the joint declaration," he said. "While UAVs get the media attention today, the next decade could feature countries deploying a range of emerging robotic capabilities across the spectrum."
In the meantime, interested parties will turn their eyes toward early 2017 and the first meeting of signatories. Exactly where and when that will take place is still being sorted out.Just look at the influence of one mega-bank -- Citigroup -- on our government. Starting with former Citigroup CEO Robert Rubin, three of the last four Treasury secretaries under Democratic presidents held high-paying jobs at Citigroup either before or after serving at Treasury -- and the fourth was offered, but declined, Citigroup's CEO position. Directors of the National Economic Council and Office of Management and Budget, the current Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve and the U.S. trade representative, also pulled in millions from Citigroup.
That's what the revolving door looks like at just one Too Big to Fail Bank. What about others? The influence of Goldman Sachs in Washington has been much documented, including here at The Huffington Post. JPMorgan? Shortly before the [Eric] Cantor episode, another former member of Congress -- Democrat Melissa Bean -- took the same senior job at JPMorgan Chase previously held by Democrat Bill Daley before his recent service as White House Chief of Staff. Yes -- this is just a single position at JPMorgan Chase, evidently reserved for the latest politician ready to cash in on Wall Street.
I could go on -- and I will. Soon after they crashed the economy and got tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer bailouts, the biggest Wall Street banks started lobbying Congress to head off any serious financial regulation. Public Citizen and the Center for Responsive Politics found that in 2009 alone, the financial services sector employed 1,447 former federal employees to carry out their lobbying efforts, swarming all over Congress. And who were their top lobbyists? Members of Congress -- in fact, 73 former Members of Congress.
According to a report by the Institute for America's Future, by the following year, the six biggest banks employed 243 lobbyists who once worked in the federal government, including 33 who had worked as chiefs of staff for members of Congress and 54 who had worked as staffers for the banking oversight committees in the Senate or the House.Apparently, Sarah Silverman is ready to reach across the aisle.
Despite her wildly partisan opinions, the lefty comedienne plans to “connect with un-like-minded people” in a new weekly talk show, Deadline’s Nellie Andreeva reported. Called I Love You, America, the Hulu show will be a forum for Silverman’s political commentary on the events of the week.
“The new program is designed to be balanced,” Andreeva explained, “with her looking to connect with people who may not agree with her personal opinions through honesty, humor, genuine interest in others, and not taking herself too seriously.”
We’ll see how that works out.
A vocal critic of all things conservative, Silverman has spewed vitriol and vulgarity toward many ideological opponents. In a much-discussed February tweet, she called for the military overthrow of ‘Mad King’ Trump. And her hyper-sexual “comedy” has included rape jokes and degraded Christians.
But Andreeva says the new series “promises to be funny.” Hmm.The Swiss postal service, Swiss Post, is going to attempt drone deliveries for the first time ever using Matternet, a company working on perfecting drone-based delivery systems. The first tests will happen in Switzerland this summer as proof of concept to “to clarify the legal framework, consider local conditions and explore the technical and business capabilities of the drones.”
That’s right: robots are about to deliver our mail.
The first Matternet drone, called the ONE, can transport items up to 1 kilogram (2.2 pounds) over 20 kilometers – or about 12 miles – on one charge. The company hopes to use the drones to deliver light packages like medicine, documents, and parts.
Founded by Andreas Raptopoulos and Paola Santana, the company was rooted in Raptopoulos dream of building a flying car. After attending the Singularity University summer program at NASA Ames Laboratory, he founded Matternet to bring quadcopters – on a smaller scale – to places where they were needed most. They have raised $2.2 million in seed capital from investors including Flextronics, Scott Banister, and Nas.
Matternet previously tested its drones in Haiti where it delivered medicine and supplies to inaccessible areas. The company now hopes to run three pilots in Switzerland and they have already flown more drone hours than anyone else in the world.
“Our product is vertically integrated into a complete transportation solution. Swiss Post comes to us, we supply them all the technology (drones, landing pads, batteries, charging stations, cloud software) and they just focus on operations,” said Raptopoulos.
“Quadcopters may be the biggest invention in vehicle technology since the internal combustion engine. They allow us to build vehicles that are extremely simple mechanically and are 90%+ software which is bound to improve dramatically over then next 3-5 years. Things like weather performance, performance in GPS-denied environments, ‘sense and avoid,’ etc will make these vehicles way more robust and useful by the end of the decade. This platform will allow software to eat transportation,” he said.
The ultimate goal is to bring transportation to places where it is currently nearly impossible. By sending a drone – or a few drones – into sparsely-populated areas, you can create a flying postal service that is autonomous, safe, and speedy.
“It’s an exciting time,” said Raptopoulos.by James Corbett
corbettreport.com
November 29, 2016
In a surprising moment of self-awareness, Wolfgang Münchau just published an editorial in the Financial Times comparing the gatekeepers of the “global liberal order” (the FT included) to Marie Antoinette and the House of Bourbon, blindly “let them eat cake”-ing their way toward their own guillotine.
Münchau knows of what he speaks; as associate editor of the Financial Times he is in the unenviable position of acting as the spokesman for the banksters ensconced in the City of London. And in case you haven’t noticed, the banksters aren’t exactly the most popular people in the world right now. But don’t take my word for it, take his:
“Some revolutions could have been avoided if the old guard had only refrained from provocation. There is no proof of a ‘let them eat cake’ incident. But this is the kind of thing Marie Antoinette could have said. It rings true. The Bourbons were hard to beat as the quintessential out-of-touch establishment. “They have competition now. “Our global liberal democratic establishment is behaving in much the same way. At a time when Britain has voted to leave the EU, when Donald Trump has been elected US president, and Marine Le Pen is marching towards the Elysée Palace, we — the gatekeepers of the global liberal order — keep on doubling down.”
Now I think we all understand what is happening here: A demoralized and disoriented would-be ruling class, reeling from the fact that they are no longer able to control the narrative that shapes public perception of the world, is looking to re-legitimize themselves by re-connecting with the public.
The trick is old but effective. Admit wrongdoings and missteps. Acknowledge the anger the public is feeling. Adjust rhetoric as needed to reconnect the public with the goal of constructing the “global liberal order.” Rinse and repeat as necessary.
To give credit to Münchau, he is quite good at this trick, and some of the one-liners from his editorial should be branded on the foreheads of all the slimy politicians and their bankster overlords. “Because of a tendency to exaggerate, macroeconomists are no longer considered experts on the macroeconomy.” You don’t say?
Still, the editorial comes embedded with the booby traps we would expect from a born-and-bred bankster mouthpiece. The problem, we are told, is “uncontrolled flows of people and capital” and “unequal income distribution.” Gee, I wonder how the ruling oligarchs propose to fix this problem? When your only tool is the hammer of government regulation and intervention, every problem looks like a nail with a little too much freedom. Just another thing for the loving-but-misguided politicians to regulate back into proper order, I suppose.
But keep in mind, the “global liberal order” will not collapse quietly, and for every “good cop” like Münchau wearing the velvet glove of fuzzy feel-good populist rhetoric there is a “bad cop” who is just waiting to expose the iron fist.
Like the Atlantic Council. They have just taken the cake in the unbelievable race-to-the-bottom of the neocon-led Cold War 2.0 push against “Russian propaganda” (aka anyone and everyone, including The Corbett Report, that doesn’t parrot the official global liberal order propaganda chapter and verse). Their contribution is a cartoonishly over-the-top piece of pants-wetting hysteria entitled “The Kremlin’s Trojan Horses.” This remarkable piece of neo-McCarthyist claptrap identifies every populist political movement in Europe as a secret agent of Russian influence on the continent, working in the interest of evil-arch-overlord-of-everything, Adolf Beelzebub Putin. The pamphlet not only points the finger of accusation at the usual suspects in the traditional far-right spaces (Le Pen’s National Front, PEGIDA, etc.) but also at Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party and, bizarrely, former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder.
Combined with the recent attempt to demonize any and all alternative media on the internet as “fake news” and/or “Russian propaganda,” there can be no doubt that the very out-of-touch political elite that Münchau is writing about are not just stumbling toward their Marie Antoinette moment, but pole-vaulting toward it. Evidently they believe that heavy-handed censorship will re-direct people back to the very establishment mouthpiece media that has recently set records for distrust among the public. They couldn’t be more wrong.
Yes, the global liberal order as envisioned by the banksters and their puppet politicians is collapsing. And yes, it is going to be messy, chaotic and violent. But you have to admit it will be entertaining to watch. Perhaps the people will have their cake and eat it too, after all.
Filed in: ArticlesFor nearly five decades a small gravesite, barely the size of two badminton courts, with 114 tombstones – an Indian |
watch out for this guy," then-teammate Randy Wood said. "No defenseman in the League makes you keep your head up more than this guy."Kasparaitis' style was right on the edge of being dirty, and his willingness to hit anyone -- he drove Mario Lemieux crazy during the 1993 playoffs and had one of his best-known hits against Eric Lindros -- made him one of the most despised players in the League. But his ability to get under opponents' skin was exceeded only by his willingness to flatten everyone in the wrong-colored sweater.Like Denis Potvin, Neely made the Hall of Fame for his offensive skills -- he was one of the NHL's most feared power forwards with Boston in the 1980s and '90s. But also like Ovechkin, he was more than willing to run over anyone who got in his way.Neely's approach to hockey was simple -- head for the net and flatten anyone who got in his way. That's how he scored 395 goals in just 726 regular-season games, most of them (344 in 525 games) for the Boston Bruins. But he was no stranger to the penalty box, either -- he had 117 or more penalty minutes six times and was just as comfortable driving a shoulder into an opponent as putting the puck in the net."If there's a straight line to the net, that's what he took," Boston General Manager Peter Chiarelli said last year when Neely assumed the role of team president. "Whether there's a player he had to punch his lights out to get there, in his way, he would do it."Potvin was so skilled during his career with the New York Islanders -- he retired as the all-time leading scorer among defensemen -- that it's often easy to forget that he was one of the most physical blueliners in NHL history. As he once noted, "I like to hit, and I don't mind being hit" -- and he seemed to raise the level of his game when opponents targeted him.Potvin was built like a tank, and his specialty was the open-ice hip check, a move at which he excelled. He had a knack for catching unsuspecting opponents at the right moment and sending them flying. Potvin may have learned some of his checking skills from a top-notch source -- Boivin was briefly his coach in junior hockey with the Ottawa 67s.After spending 15 seasons, Potvin breezed into the Hall of Fame.Phaneuf established himself as a big hitter even before he reached the NHL -- he laid out Rostislav Olesz while playing for Canada during the World Junior Championships.The highlight-reel hits only increased when he joined the Calgary Flames in 2005. In addition to his booming shot, Phaneuf became a physical force on the blue line.Like most good open-ice hitters, Phaneuf knows how to explode into the hit. When going after the puck against an opponent, he's also good at getting in a hit before the opposing player can respond -- and taking the puck.Phaneuf, now with Toronto, has become a more well-rounded player.Stevens was one of the few players in NHL history who could change the momentum of a game with a check rather than a goal (his nickname, "Captain Crunch," was well-earned). He played 22 seasons in the NHL, the last 13 with New Jersey, where his reputation for big hits flourished even as his offensive game tailed off.Among the best-known recipients of Stevens' big hits were Eric Lindros, Slava Kozlov, Paul Kariya and Ron Francis (who, ironically, joined Stevens in the Hall of Fame's Class of 2007). Woe to any forward who tried to cut into the Devils' zone and didn't keep one eye out for Stevens, who made leveling unsuspecting opponents into an art form. He was the player others modeled themselves after -- Phaneuf, for one, said Stevens was the guy he looked up to."Hitting is part of the game," Stevens said. "That's the bottom line. I get hit and I'm going to give a hit."Ironically, Stevens' penalty minute totals declined over the years, even as his reputation as a feared hitter increased. He averaged 198 PIM through nine seasons in Washington and St. Louis, but never took more than 124 PIM in a season with the Devils and had 80 or less in six of his last seven full seasons -- a stretch in which he was as feared for his physicality as any player in NHL history.Yes, I am jealous of Iceland. You see, they are facing their reality, and, while unpleasant, at least they are getting on with the necessary adjustments.
Iceland, a tiny island nation with 315k souls, managed to rack up a stunning $100 billion in banking liabilities (half of which was external) that dwarfed its gross domestic product of approximately $14 billion. Well, not everyone in the country caused it; it turns out that about 50 people were involved in racking up those debts while everybody else was looking the other way.
The defining characteristic of something that is unsustainable is that it will someday stop. Without being an economic genius or delving too deeply into brain-splitting economic minutiae, we can readily appreciate how such a debt load proved to be unsustainable. One cannot forever increase one's debts relative to one's income, which seems to be intuitively obvious to everyone except bankers and conventional economists. So the music stopped playing one fine day in late September of 2008, and the dream was over even more suddenly than it began.
What had been an unsustainable accumulation of debt just stopped. Suddenly and irrevocably. One day the story all made perfect sense, and the next day it did not. One day Iceland was the fifth on the global list of per-capita wealth; the next it was headed somewhere lower, although how far it will go is yet to be determined. Such is the way of bubbles.
Loud and noisy demonstrations erupted, the usurious menace of the international banking cartel was soundly rejected by a public referendum, and then the good people of Iceland settled down to the business of figuring out the dimensions of their new economic reality.
I was recently in Iceland, by invitation, to give two talks: one, to a group working on creating sustainable systems in the world, and the other, a public talk at the University that was generously funded by a local world-class entrepreneur.
On my very first taxi ride in the country, I asked the cabbie what he thought of bankers. "Bankers!" he spat, "I am not a violent man, but if you gave me a gun and lined them up, I would shoot them all!" Navigating around this outburst, I steered the conversation into safer waters, seeking to find out what he thought was the root of the problem. In the course of our conversation, I opined that his analysis of "too much debt," with which I heartily agreed, needed to be shaded with the observation that half of that was external debt and much of that was denominated in something other than Icelandic currency (a rookie mistake in international financing, if ever there was one). He readily agreed, and had numbers at the ready.
As our discussion wound through economic principles, both micro and macro, I wondered how many cabs I would have to get into in my own country, the US, in order to have such a passionate and enlightened conversation about something of such elemental importance as this. Ten? A hundred? A thousand?
Then at the sustainability conference, I happened to sit next to someone who worked at the Icelandic central bank during one session. How did the bank view itself? "We are embarrassed and concerned over our some obvious failings," was the response. The Finance minister gave the opening talk, and echoed this sentiment, displaying honesty, introspection, and humility over what had transpired. Everywhere I turned, I found the people of Iceland to be knowledgeable about the roots and details of the crisis into which they were plunged and eager to explore the possibilities and consequences to their future.
In short, I was jealous; very, very jealous.
Here is an entire nation of people who are ready to accept that they were living too far beyond their means and conclude that it was time to face the music. While still mid-journey and in the throes of discomfort (40-70 year-old Icelandic males are presently recorded as being "very angry" by researchers), they are getting on with it. There are no calls to double down on new national indebtedness to 'get things back to how they were.' They are not overrun with economists explaining how it would make sense for their central bank to simply flood the world with more Icelandic kronur. There is no sense that the illusory wealth brought about by the vast accumulation of debt is some sort of natural birthright that must be unquestioningly preserved.
In short, their attitudes and policies are nothing like those in the US.
Upon my return to the US, I was immediately greeted by the news that the recession had somehow ended a year ago, a period of time in which the number of civilians unemployed for 27 weeks or more had increased by 2,000,000+, and also heard that the Federal Reserve was considering expanding its money printing operations (in other words, the return of QE as a policy tool). These are two highly contradictory pieces of information, when you stop and think about it. The government is facing a sea of red budgetary ink as far as the eye can see, states are hemorrhaging, and housing continues to slump along. In all of this, one is hard pressed to find any sort of a conversation that goes like this: "We overdid it, there, and now it's time to tighten our belts and get used to living within whatever means our economy can actually support."
I could recite an nearly endless litany of facts, quotes and data all supporting the idea that the US is hell-bent on returning itself to a level of economic activity and growth that was provably overdone and unsustainable.
The difficult part for many in the US, including me, is the effort that it takes to maintain a vigilant stance when immersed in such a deep pool of complete denial. Part of me screams, "Get on with it already!" even as another part of me really does not want to get on with anything at all, preferring to use these steady moments to become better prepared for and more adjusted to whatever the new reality is going to be.
I note with mounting concern that I no longer care about things that used to provide me with much amusement and passion in the past. It's a form of burnout like we see in movies about war. The first time a single bullet gets shot past a new platoon, it sparks a vigorous reaction, "My god! That could have hit us! Yikes!" but by the end of the movie, some guys are standing around giving orders and talking to each other as mortars explode nearby and a steady whine of bullets fills the air around them. They no longer care, because they have been worn down in some elemental way, as if the human brain can only remain on high alert for so long before protecting its internal circuitry by shutting some of it down. Or perhaps it's simply what biologists call 'habituation' -- the process by which even sea slugs can be taught to ignore mild electrical shocks. My defense against this process of shutting down is to give talks, meet people, and increase my own personal and community resilience.
Through all of this, I find myself jealous of Iceland, whose natural and cultural resources permit an attainable vision of a stable and prosperous future, and which seems to be getting on with things by closing the gap between its prior excesses and future prospects.
Perhaps the lesson here is that Iceland did not come to its senses entirely on its own and had to be forced by external circumstances to begin this process of adjustment. Perhaps we should calibrate our expectations about the future based on our assessment of what 'forcing functions' will lead to change in our own countries. Perhaps that's just the way of the world.
I think I already know what those forcing functions are for the US. I have a rough sense of their timing. I just need to constantly remind myself that while vigilance in the face of denial is tiring, it is also necessary. There is much to be thankful for, and I am grateful for the time that we have been given to prepare ourselves.
All the same, I also wish that we'd get on with it and begin to close the enormous gap between our national expectations and reality. So, all in all, I am quite ambivalent on the matter.
Iceland has all the pieces it needs to construct a wonderful and sustainable future, and I sincerely hope that it will. In the meantime, I'll be harboring a sense of jealousy about their head start.The Ballas-Grove Street War was a gang war fought between the Ballas and the Grove Street Families, led by Sean "Sweet" Johnson and his brother Carl "CJ" Johnson.
Contents show]
History
The War
The start of the war had never been explained but it may have started when drugs were introduced to Los Santos in the early 1980s. The war seemed to be going on around the time Carl and Lance "Ryder" Wilson were growing up because Carl mentions Ryder beating up a teacher for wearing Balla colors. The Ballas started making money selling drugs while GSF leader "Sweet" refused to sell drugs, making Grove Street weaker. In the meantime, other two sets of the GSF, the Seville Boulevard Families and the Temple Drive Families split from the main gang, weakening the gang further. After the death of Beverly Johnson, her son Carl came back from Liberty City and moved back to Los Santos. The funeral was attacked by Ballas but no one was hurt or killed. Many Grove Street members had left the gang when drugs were introduced such as Big Bear and B Dup. CJ tried to seek their help but B Dup angrily refused. Big Bear had become a crack-head and a servant to B Dup. CJ and Ryder attempted to get rid of the drug dealers around their area and killed many Balla crack dealers. CJ also convinced the gang to start buying weaponry from Emmet again.
The Middle of the War
After CJ's return, while GSF members Big Smoke, Ryder, Sweet and CJ were out getting food, they were attacked by Ballas but they managed to kill all of them. The Grove Street Families got revenge on them and did a drive-by on their turf. Later on, corrupt C.R.A.S.H. members Frank Tenpenny, Eddie Pulaski and Jimmy Hernandez told both gangs about a train filled with ammunition heading towards Los Santos. The Grove Street Families managed to take the guns and all the attacking Vagos were slaughtered along with some Ballas. Later, CJ, under the orders of Sweet, took over the neighborhood of Glen Park, a Balla territory, in order to kill a GSF defector, Little Weasel. At Little Weasel's funeral, Sweet and CJ got revenge on Beverley's funeral attack and killed so-called "Front Yard Royalty" Kane. After that, CJ started taking over more Ballas turf. Sweet was going to attack more Ballas gang members under the Mulholland Intersection, but this was a trap. Big Smoke and Ryder were working with the Ballas and had betrayed their old gang. Sweet was wounded before CJ got there but he was taken away by C.R.A.S.H while Sweet was arrested.
Tables Turn
With Sweet incarcerated and CJ away, the Grove Street lost influence and Ballas had major control over Los Santos, including main GSF stongholds, such as Ganton. The Ballas started working with the Loco Syndicate and started making more money until CJ killed heads of the Loco Syndicate T-Bone Mendez and Jizzy B and blowing up their drug factory in San Fierro, which led to the collapse of the Loco Syndicate.
The Return of the Johnson Brothers
After Sweet was released from prison, he and CJ came back to Los Santos and the Families began retaking their territory. After Tenpenny was cleared from the corruption charges, a huge riot started out in Los Santos. CJ came after Big Smoke and had to slaughter many Ballas members along with the Russian Mafia, Vagos, and the San Fierro Rifa. If the player chooses, they can take all of the Ballas territory on gang wars, making the Ballas effectively extinct.Who calls the shots in North Korea? While no one man can do everything, conventional analysis holds that the Supreme Leader, currently Kim Jong-un, is large and in charge. However, the orthodox position has been giving way to a new perspective. Recently, the argument has been put forward that the Supreme Leader is just a puppet, beholden to the power of a group of more powerful men. While questions concerning who is really in charge were seldom asked during Kim Jong-il’s reign, the discourse has changed since Kim Jong-un came to power in late 2011.
The question “Who governs?” is an important one, but overemphasizing this particular question runs the risk of overshadowing other important developments in the field of North Korean studies. Before listing a couple of the more important developments, let’s address the question burning a hole in everyone’s imagination, if only so that we may move slightly beyond it. In North Korea, who governs?
As chief editor of the news periodical New Focus, Jang Jin-sung has been promoting the need for analysts and experts to reappraise the structure of the North Korean regime. In his assessment, Kim Jong-un is merely a puppet, whereas real power resides in the Organization and Guidance Department (OGD). The arrival of Hwang Pyong-so in Seoul for the closing ceremony of the Asian Games, flanked by the type of security detail reserved only for the country’s most powerful (viz. the “Supreme Leader”), is one more piece of evidence (among others) that Jang has used to support his thesis.
According to North Korean expert Michael Madden, the OGD is essentially the human resources department of the Korean Workers’ Party (KWP), but one that also has a broad mandate to “implement the teachings and decisions of the [Great Leader].” Originally created in 1946, it was reorganized by Kim Jong-il in the 1980s with the addition of a military desk. It thereafter became the power base of his rule, and he filled it with personnel who were specifically loyal to him. The difference today, according to Jang, is that Kim Jong-un does not have the OGD under his thumb. Indeed, the opposite may be true; the loyalists remain true to the legacy of Kim Jong-il, not to his living son. In other words, though the OGD requires Kim Jong-un to sign off on decisions “because the symbolic aspect of Kim family power is crucial in sustaining the legitimacy of the North Korean state,” real power does not reside in the Supreme Leader himself.
It is on this point that a great debate churns. In times past, such public debates – in the English-language reading world, at least – would consist primarily of Western academics, North Korea specialists, and South Korean scholars with connections to English-language outlets. This is no longer the case. As the recent conference at Leiden University, “A State of Non-Legitimacy: North Korean Voices in Exile,” shows, sources of information and analysis of the North Korean regime have expanded to include North Koreans themselves.
While the Leiden conference is not a unique moment for North Korean defectors voices – the online newspaper Daily NK, run by both North and South Koreans, has been hosting debates featuring North Korean defectors for the last decade – it can been seen as a “Gangnam Style” moment: a watershed event for North Korean “voice.”
The conference featured seven relatively senior former elites who left the country but are now willing to reveal the “inner workings” of the regime. Jang Jin-sung, the most prominent and public among them, gave a public speech to conclude events, where he reaffirmed his Kim-as-puppet thesis. However important and captivating the OGD debate may be, there is a broader point to be made. And it is this point that takes us beyond the question of who governs in North Korea.
The point to be made concerns the source of the information and its perceived novelty. As discussed in a summary-cum opinion piece of the Leiden conference published at Sino-NK, much of what was discussed there is not unique. Former Korean Workers’ Party (KWP) International Secretary Hwang Jang-yop, who defected in 1997, also talked at length about the role of the OGD, and it is to be assumed that others, such as fellow Leiden attendee and former North Korean Foreign Ministry official Go Yeong-hwan, who defected in 1991, were aware of it upon their own arrivals in South Korea. Yet, Hwang’s impact, in particular, was strikingly more limited than Jang’s, especially abroad.
The cause of the muted impact boils down to three main issues: first, defector voices over the last few decades have consistently been ignored by mainstream politicians and policymakers; second, the information itself was not always delivered as coherently as it should have been; and three, timing. The three are, of course, interlinked. To wit: before the rise of respected news outlets like Daily NK in 2006-2007 and the fame of controversial defectors like Shin Dong-hyuk, North Korean defector voices were not as well known or sought after as they are today. Part of the problem was that the shocking information they carried did not successfully cross high linguistic barriers. Moreover, defectors were approached cautiously, if at all, and almost always on the presumption that they made for unreliable witnesses.
Additionally, we cannot ignore the plain truth that Hwang Jang-yop’s defection was badly timed from a South Korean perspective, coming just months before the new Kim Dae-jung administration launched a systematic attempt at rapprochement that would go on to last for a decade, and which public appearances by a senior defector like Hwang would have complicated. Indeed, one recent Chosun Premium piece claims that Kim Dae-jung offered to return Hwang Jang-yop to North Korea, but that Kim Jong-il refused to take back the “traitor.” This claim is almost certainly false, but the fact that it could be published in South Korea’s conservative media is ample reflection of the sort of critical re-examination of the Sunshine era now ongoing in South Korea.
In short, gone is the era of ignorance and neglect, and embedded is a new way of knowing. Although the blunt statement that defectors are simply being ignored does linger, and certainly their voices should be very much louder than they are, the reality is now more nuanced than in Hwang’s era. A number of the very best South Korean scholars of North Korea (writing in Korean) are empirically reliant on defector testimony. For instance, Sejong Institute researcher Jeong Seong-jang authored an insightful book in 2011, Contemporary North Korean Politics, which did not shy away from collating elite testimony and centrally acknowledged the power of the OGD, among other KWP departments. Similarly, Yang Mun-su of the University of North Korean Studies and Kim Byeong-yeon of Seoul National University based the material that went into their 2012 text, Markets and the State in North Korea, on in-depth interviews and statistical analysis from defector data and little else, as do most scholars interested in the country’s economy. In the English language, Professor Andrei Lankov of Kookmin University in Seoul also deploys defector testimony widely in his work, which mostly focuses on ordinary lives lived in North Korea’s border region.
The wealth of information now escaping the vice-like grip of the Kim regime is a boon. Morally and ethically speaking it is important that voice has been given back to the North Korean people, and academically speaking it is crucial that they are being heard, for the simple reason that they can provide information that would not be accessible without them. If the standard set by the Leiden conference continues to be met then we can look forward to a plurality of defector and elite exile voices going forward.Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.
Enlarge Image James Martin/CNET
Do you believe your phone says something about you?
If so, what does it say? That you're suave, design-conscious and the epitome of style? That you're a person of the people, not at all concerned with being suave, design-conscious or the epitome of style?
I merely ask because of research performed by large brains at the universities of Lincoln and Lancaster in the UK.
They talked to 530 people over 2015 and 2016 about their phones and their feelings. And what results ensued.
To quote the researchers: "We found that iPhone owners are more likely to be female, younger, and increasingly concerned about their smartphone being viewed as a status object."
So the rumors are true? Apple is all about the external show?
But there's more. More internal stuff, that is.
"Key differences in personality were also observed with iPhone users displaying lower levels of Honesty-Humility and higher levels of emotionality," say the researchers.
One might conclude that iPhone owners are more dishonest, more full of themselves and highly prone to emotional outbursts? I fear that some will want to extrapolate to an analysis of our president-elect.
His staff are said to tweet from an iPhone, while the president himself is more of an Android man.
In this research, many traits of the average Android user seem to fit with the Trumpian image. Androiders are supposedly older, more honest and agreeable, less likely to break rules for personal gain and not so keen on wealth, status and all the New Yorkish trappings of life.
The study was originally presented in September at the British Psychological Society Social Psychology Section annual conference. But it was fully formalized and finally published last week in the j0urnal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.
Researcher David Ellis told me that he and his team did have preconceptions.
"We expected that iPhone users would be younger and more extroverted for example," he said. "We also predicted that iPhone users would be more likely to view their phone as a status object."
All this came to pass. However, Ellis said that they were surprised that iPhone users turned out to see themselves as less honest.
He explained that once the researchers began their work, they became quite good at predicting what phone people had.
"We were able to build a statistical model that, after asking people a few questions about themselves, could predict what type of phone they had in their pocket about 70 percent of the time," he said.
It's a long way, though, from discovering causal relationships.
Ellis thinks that more would be learned if the next study could look at those who switch from one phone to another.
What happens in their heads? Could it be just marketing? Wouldn't that be a terrible thing? Dishonest, even.Kawhi Leonard told the San Antonio Spurs before his rookie season that he wanted to be a great player. Since then, he has been relentless in progressing toward that lofty status.
As a rookie in 2011-12, Leonard started in the Western Conference finals. Two years later, he was named NBA Finals MVP at age 22. Leonard earned his first All-Star selection last season, the same year he won his second Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year award in a row. And this season, his ascension is complete: The 25-year-old forward is a leading candidate for the league’s MVP award.
Leonard faces stiff competition for the honor, which will be revealed at the league’s first-ever NBA Awards Show in New York (June 26, TNT). In one of the most buzzed-about MVP races of all time, the Spurs’ two-time All-Star is joined by Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James, Houston Rockets guard James Harden and Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook as the widely regarded front-runners.
As voters prepare to fill out their ballots for the NBA’s premier individual award, Leonard will take the national stage on Saturday at 8:30 p.m. ET when the Spurs host Chris Paul and the LA Clippers during ABC’s last regular-season matchup of the year.
The primetime showcase gives Leonard another opportunity to display the all-around game that has helped San Antonio extend its NBA record of consecutive 50-win seasons to 18.
He is scoring a career-high 25.9 points a game, putting him on track to become the first Spur to average at least 25 points in a season since Tim Duncan in 2001-02. Leonard has more than tripled his scoring average from his rookie season, thanks in part to intensive work on his jump shot. A 25 percent shooter from the shorter college three-point line during his two years at San Diego State, Leonard has developed into an above-average 38.5 percent three-point shooter in the NBA.
Leonard’s offensive development provides the perfect complement to his stifling defense. Behind Leonard, San Antonio leads the NBA in defensive rating this season despite the offseason retirement of Duncan, who anchored the franchise’s D for nearly two decades.
Extraordinary play on both ends of the court for an elite team makes for a strong MVP case. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich would know: He watched Duncan use the same formula to win the award twice.
“Glad I don’t have to vote,” Popovich told reporters recently about this season’s MVP race. “Of course, you know who I’d vote for. Coaches are prejudiced.”
Here’s what others are saying about Leonard’s MVP candidacy:If her plan works, she would be among the first to crack the code, using both technology and bona fide certified financial planners — the gold standard among advisers — to make this sort of help more accessible to millions of Americans. Most individuals do not have terribly complex financial lives, nor should they need to spend several thousands of dollars to get the advice they need.
But for LearnVest to succeed, Ms. von Tobel will need to sell its product — one that, let’s face it, feels a little like eating your vegetables — to a vast number of customers across the country.
LearnVest, which started in 2009 as a budgeting Web site directed at women, just received another large round of financing from big-time investors, which will allow it to hire more planners and support staff as well as open a training and adviser hub in Phoenix. The company raised $16.5 million, which comes on top of the nearly $25 million raised since its inception.
The plan is to beef up its operation so it can handle the big distribution partnerships that are in the works, including a potential deal with American Express, one of its new investors. The company has broad plans to provide its newly designed product: a seven-step, customized financial plan. Ms. von Tobel, who dropped out of Harvard Business School to start the company, also said it was working with employers and financial planning firms to sell its program within 401(k)’s.
Most financial planners focus on wealthier people, whom they can charge $1,000 to $3,000 for a financial plan, or collect 1 percent of their assets, on average, to manage their money. In contrast, LearnVest charges a $399 upfront fee and $19 a month, or $608 annually. You can pay less for help on a specific goal, like paying off debt or starting a budget.Lettuce (Lactuca sativa) is an annual plant of the daisy family, Asteraceae. It is most often grown as a leaf vegetable, but sometimes for its stem and seeds. Lettuce is most often used for salads, although it is also seen in other kinds of food, such as soups, sandwiches and wraps; it can also be grilled.[3] One variety, the woju (莴苣), or asparagus lettuce (celtuce), is grown for its stems, which are eaten either raw or cooked. In addition to its main use as a leafy green, it has also gathered religious and medicinal significance over centuries of human consumption. Europe and North America originally dominated the market for lettuce, but by the late 20th century the consumption of lettuce had spread throughout the world. World production of lettuce and chicory for calendar year 2015 was 26.1 million tonnes, 56% of which came from China.[4]
Lettuce was first cultivated by the ancient Egyptians who turned it from a weed whose seeds were used to produce oil, into a food plant grown for its succulent leaves and oil-rich seeds. Lettuce spread to the Greeks and Romans, the latter of whom gave it the name lactuca, from which the English lettuce is ultimately derived. By 50 AD, many types were described, and lettuce appeared often in medieval writings, including several herbals. The 16th through 18th centuries saw the development of many varieties in Europe, and by the mid-18th century cultivars were described that can still be found in gardens.
Generally grown as a hardy annual, lettuce is easily cultivated, although it requires relatively low temperatures to prevent it from flowering quickly. It can be plagued by numerous nutrient deficiencies, as well as insect and mammal pests, and fungal and bacterial diseases. L. sativa crosses easily within the species and with some other species within the genus Lactuca. Although this trait can be a problem to home gardeners who attempt to save seeds, biologists have used it to broaden the gene pool of cultivated lettuce varieties.
Lettuce is a rich source of vitamin K and vitamin A, and a moderate source of folate and iron. Contaminated lettuce is often a source of bacterial, viral, and parasitic outbreaks in humans, including E. coli and Salmonella.
Taxonomy and etymology
L. sativa seeds seeds
Lactuca sativa is a member of the Lactuca (lettuce) genus and the Asteraceae (sunflower or aster) family.[5] The species was first described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus in the second volume of his Species Plantarum.[6] Synonyms for L. sativa include Lactuca scariola var. sativa,[1] L. scariola var. integrata and L. scariola var. integrifolia.[7] L. scariola is itself a synonym for L. serriola, the common wild or prickly lettuce.[2] L. sativa also has many identified taxonomic groups, subspecies and varieties, which delineate the various cultivar groups of domesticated lettuce.[8] Lettuce is closely related to several Lactuca species from southwest Asia; the closest relationship is to L. serriola, an aggressive weed common in temperate and subtropical zones in much of the world.[9]
The Romans referred to lettuce as lactuca (lac meaning milk in Latin), an allusion to the white substance, now called latex, exuded by cut stems.[10] This word has become the genus name, while sativa (meaning "sown" or "cultivated") was added to create the species name.[11] The current word lettuce, originally from Middle English, came from the Old French letues or laitues, which derived from the Roman name.[12] The name romaine came from that type's use in the Roman papal gardens, while cos, another term for romaine lettuce, came from the earliest European seeds of the type from the Greek island of Cos, a center of lettuce farming in the Byzantine period.[13]
Description
Lettuce flowers
Mature lettuce inflorescence in fruit
Lettuce's native range spreads from the Mediterranean to Siberia, although it has been transported to almost all areas of the world. Plants generally have a height and spread of 15 to 30 cm (6 to 12 in).[14] The leaves are colorful, mainly in the green and red color spectrums, with some variegated varieties.[15] There are also a few varieties with yellow, gold or blue-teal leaves.[16] Lettuces have a wide range of shapes and textures, from the dense heads of the iceberg type to the notched, scalloped, frilly or ruffly leaves of leaf varieties.[15] Lettuce plants have a root system that includes a main taproot and smaller secondary roots. Some varieties, especially those found in the United States and Western Europe, have long, narrow taproots and a small set of secondary roots. Longer taproots and more extensive secondary systems are found in varieties from Asia.[16]
Depending on the variety and time of year, lettuce generally lives 65–130 days from planting to harvesting. Because lettuce that flowers (through the process known as "bolting") becomes bitter and unsaleable, plants grown for consumption are rarely allowed to grow to maturity. Lettuce flowers more quickly in hot temperatures, while freezing temperatures cause slower growth and sometimes damage to outer leaves.[17] Once plants move past the edible stage, they develop flower stalks up to 1 m (3 ft 3 in) high with small yellow blossoms.[18] Like other members of the tribe Cichorieae, lettuce inflorescences (also known as flower heads or capitula) are composed of multiple florets, each with a modified calyx called a pappus (which becomes the feathery "parachute" of the fruit), a corolla of five petals fused into a ligule or strap, and the reproductive parts. These include fused anthers that form a tube which surrounds a style and bipartite stigma. As the anthers shed pollen, the style elongates to allow the stigmas, now coated with pollen, to emerge from the tube.[16][19] The ovaries form compressed, obovate (teardrop-shaped) dry fruits that do not open at maturity, measuring 3 to 4 mm long. The fruits have 5–7 ribs on each side and are tipped by two rows of small white hairs. The pappus remains at the top of each fruit as a dispersal structure. Each fruit contains one seed, which can be white, yellow, gray or brown depending on the variety of lettuce.[1]
The domestication of lettuce over the centuries has resulted in several changes through selective breeding: delayed bolting, larger seeds, larger leaves and heads, better taste and texture, a lower latex content, and different leaf shapes and colors. Work in these areas continues through the present day.[20] Scientific research into the genetic modification of lettuce is ongoing, with over 85 field trials taking place between 1992 and 2005 in the European Union and United States to test modifications allowing greater herbicide tolerance, greater resistance to insects and fungi and slower bolting patterns. However, genetically modified lettuce is not currently used in commercial agriculture.[21]
History
Romaine lettuce, a descendant of some of the earliest cultivated lettuce
Lettuce was first cultivated in ancient Egypt for the production of oil from its seeds. This plant was probably selectively bred by the Egyptians into a plant grown for its edible leaves,[22] with evidence of its cultivation appearing as early as 2680 BC.[10 |
was probable cause to do a warrantless search. This will give your lawyer a good chance to win your case, but this only works if you said "no" to the search.
3. Saying "no" can prevent a search altogether.
Data on police searches are interesting, but they don't show how many searches didn't happen because a citizen said no. A non-search is a non-event that goes unrecorded, giving rise to a widespread misconception that police will always search with or without permission.
I know refusing searches works because I've been collecting stories from real police encounters. The reality is that police routinely ask for permission to search when they have absolutely no evidence of an actual crime. If you remain calm and say no, there's a good chance they'll back down, because it's a waste of time to do searches that won't hold up in court anyway.
4. Searches can waste your time and damage your property.
Do you have time to sit around while police rifle through your belongings? Police often spend 30 minutes or more on vehicle searches and even longer searching homes. You certainly can't count on officers to be careful with valuables or to put everything back where they found it. If you waive your 4th Amendment rights by agreeing to be searched, you will have few legal options if any property is damaged or missing after the search.
5. You never know what they'll find.
Are you 100 percent certain there's nothing illegal in your home or vehicle? You can never be too sure. A joint roach could stick to your shoe on the street and wind up on the floorboard. A careless acquaintance could have dropped a baggie behind the seat. Try telling a cop it isn't yours, and they'll just laugh and tell you to put your hands behind your back. If you agreed to the search, you can't challenge the evidence. But if you're innocent and you refused the search, your lawyer has a winnable case.
Remember that knowing your rights will help you protect yourself, but no amount of preparation can guarantee a good outcome in a bad situation. Your attitude and your choices before, during, and after the encounter will usually matter more than your knowledge of the law. Stay calm no matter what happens, and remember that you can always report misconduct after things settle down.
Finally, please don't be shy about sharing this information with your friends and family. Understanding and asserting your rights isn't about getting away with anything, and it isn't about disrespecting police either. These rights are the foundation of freedom in America, and they get weaker whenever we fail to exercise them.Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer (R) shot back this weekend at President Barack Obama with an ad defending the state's tough, new immigration law.
Brewer's campaign released a video in response to a joke Obama made about the new law, which compels law enforcement officials to confront individuals they suspect of being illegal immigrants, at last Saturday's White House Correspondents' Association dinner.
The ad outlines a variety of crimes plaguing Arizona in the past year, asserting that many of the kidnapping and narcotics-related crimes were committed by illegal immigrants from Mexico.
"The drug trafficking and border violence is out of control in Arizona and demands serious attention. President Obama and Congress ignored several requests from Governor Brewer for help in securing the border," Brewer spokesman Doug Cole said in a statement. "Instead of helping, President Obama chooses to crack jokes to an adoring crowd. Mr. President, this is not a laughing matter."
Brewer has waged a public defense of her decision to sign the controversial measure into law, an issue on which she deliberated for some time.
Part of that defense, in addition to this ad, included an op-ed on ESPN.com this week to respond to the Phoenix Suns' decision to wear "Los Suns" jerseys at one of their playoff games in response to the law.
See the new ad below:Tap Adventure: Time Travel is an RPG clicker game in authentic Patch World. A team of heroes starts their journey through thick forests, spooky swamps, dense jungle, gold mines, timeless glaciers, and lifeless wasteland.
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Also, 15 chests and keys will help you to get upgrade your new heroes!
To claim your free Steam key, complete the tasks in the widget below:
Tap Adventure: Time Travel – Promo Pack
Also check out the new game from Panoramik, Mighty Party:SALT LAKE CITY — Utah is one of the most religious states in the union, second only to Mississippi.
A Gallup poll found that Utah held its ranking as the second most religious state in the nation from 2011 to 2012. Defining "very religious" as considering religion an important part of a their daily lives and attending religious services almost every week, 56 percent of Utahns considered themselves very religious.
Nationally, 40 percent of Americans classified themselves as very religious; 31 percent of Americans say they are non-religious.
Gallup concluded that a state's overall religiousness could affect an individual's religiousness.
Religiosity by state, 2012 Mississippi: 58% Utah: 56% Alabama: 56% Louisiana: 53% Arkansas: 52% South Carolina: 52% Tennessee: 50% North Carolina: 50% Georgia: 48% Oklahoma: 48%
"Migrants who cross state lines could be socialized into the religious patterns of the states to which they move," Gallup wrote. "In other words, it can be hypothesized that a person moving to Mississippi is more likely to become personally more religious than if that same person moved to Vermont.
"Some evidence suggests there has been more migration to religious states than to non-religious states over the past decade or so. If that is the case, and if it continues, it's possible that this will effectively increase the overall level of religiosity in the nation, or at least moderate a decrease in religiousness."
According to Gallup, all responses were within one percentage point of those in 2011. The Top 10 most-religious states also saw no change in their rank orders.
The Top 10 least-religious list, however, changed with the addition of Hawaii and the removal of New York.
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Related StoriesCall them sounds to explore space by. YouTuber crysisknife007 has collected the cabin, engine, and alarm noises from more than two dozen of television and cinema's most iconic starships into a playlist of "Ambient Space Sounds" – and it's surprisingly good listening material.
In most of the videos – which range from 12- to 24-hours in length – the low-frequency drone of the spacecraft's "engine" is actually quite soothing (a clear exception being the 12-hour loop of Star Trek's red alert, which makes the alarm noise from Alien's Nostromo sound almost pleasant, by comparison). More than a few could probably even serve as decent stand-ins for a white- or brown-noise generator. Consider the ambient engine sound of Doctor Who's TARDIS (above) or that of the Death Star (below).
Pretty nice, right? Notably, the ambient noises of pretty much every fictional spacecraft in crysisknife007's playlist manage to be more relaxing than the ones heard aboard the International Space Station, a real-life orbital outpost:
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And of course, none of them sound anywhere near as creepy as Voyager 1's "recordings" of interstellar space:
Explore crysisknife007's full Ambient Space Sounds Playlist here.
[Via MeFi]The green anaconda (Eunectes murinus), also known as common anaconda and water boa, is a non-venomous boa species found in South America. It is the heaviest and one of the longest known extant snake species. The term anaconda often refers to this species, though the term could also apply to other members of the genus Eunectes.
The green anaconda's scientific name is derived from the Greek εὐνήκτης, meaning "good swimmer", and the Latin murinus, meaning "of mice", for being thought to prey on mice. "The name first was probably from the Sinhala language of Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon, and that in 1869, the Englishman John Ray wrote of "anacandaia of the Ceylonese, i.e., he that crushes the limbs of the buffaloes and yoke beasts." For more than one hundred years the name was applied to a (python) snake from Ceylon, but in the nineteenth century experts began to use it for a snake residing in the Amazon basin.[citation needed]
Description [ edit ]
The green anaconda is the world's heaviest and one of the world's longest snakes, reaching 5.21 m (17.1 ft) long.[2] More typical mature specimens reportedly can range up to 5 m (16.4 ft), with the females, at around a mean length of 4.6 m (15.1 ft), being generally much larger in adulthood than the male, which averages around 3 m (9.8 ft).[3][4][5] Weights are less well studied, though will reportedly range from 30 to 70 kg (66 to 154 lb) in an average-range adult.[6][7] It is the largest snake native to the Americas. Although it is slightly shorter than the reticulated python, it is far more robust: the bulk of a 4.5 m green anaconda would be comparable to a 7.4 m reticulated python.[8] Eunectes murinus is probably the heaviest extant species of snake or squamate in the world, perhaps only rivaled by the Komodo dragon.[9] Reports of anacondas 35–40 feet or even longer also exist, but such claims need to be regarded with caution, as no specimens of such lengths have ever been deposited in a museum and hard evidence is lacking.[10] A $50,000 cash reward is offered for anyone who can catch an anaconda 30 ft (9.1 m) or longer, but the prize has not been claimed yet.[11] The longest (and heaviest) verified specimen encountered by Dr. Jesús Antonio Rivas, who had examined thousands of anacondas, was a female measuring 5.21 m (17.1 ft) long and weighing 97.5 kg (215 lb).[2]
Close-up of head
The color pattern consists of olive green background overlaid with black blotches along the length of the body. The head is narrow compared to the body, usually with distinctive orange-yellow striping on either side. The eyes are set high on the head, allowing the snake to see out of the water while swimming without exposing its body.
Difficulties in determining maximum size [ edit ]
The remote location of the snake's habitat has historically made locating, capturing, and returning specimens difficult. Transporting very large specimens to museums, especially before substantial decay, is difficult (though this has not prevented the return of much larger and more cumbersome crocodilian specimens).[10] Skins can stretch substantially, increasing the snake's size by more than 50% if stretched during the tanning process. Reports without physical proof are considered dubious if from nonscientists, as such individuals may at worst be more interested in promoting themselves or telling a good tale, or at the least may not be sufficiently trained in proper measurement methods. Observational reports of animals which were not captured are even more dubious, as even trained scientists often substantially overestimate the size of anacondas prior to capture.[10] According to the Guinness Book of World Records, this species has been perhaps subject to the most extreme size exaggerations of any living animal.[9] At the same time, it is difficult to argue a maximum possible or plausible size, because anacondas are known to continue to grow throughout their lives. Older reports in particular could include individuals which, in times of less pressure from humans, lived longer lives and thus reached greater sizes.[citation needed]
Historical records [ edit ]
Numerous historical accounts of green anacondas are reported, often of improbable sizes. Several zoologists (notably Henry Walter Bates and Alfred Russel Wallace, among others) note rumors of snakes beyond 30 or 40 feet long, but in each case, their direct observations were limited to snakes of approximately 20 feet in length. Numerous estimates and second-hand accounts abound, but are generally considered unreliable. To prove the point of overestimating, in Guyana in 1937, zoologist Alpheus Hyatt Verrill asked the expedition team he was with to estimate the length of a large, curled-up anaconda on a rock. The team's guesses ran from 6.1 to 18.3 m (20.0 to 60.0 ft); when measured, this specimen was found to be 5.9 m (19.4 ft).[9]
Almost all specimens in excess of 6 m (19.7 ft), including a much publicized specimen of 11.36 m (37.3 ft) in length, have no voucher specimens, including skins or bones.[9]
The skin of one specimen, stretched to 10 m (32.8 ft), has been preserved in the Instituto Butantan in São Paulo and is reported to have come from an anaconda of 7.6 m (24.9 ft) in length.[9] In one of the most reliable accounts, a geologist killed a large anaconda and measured it using a four-meter rod, reporting it as three rods long (12 m (39.4 ft)); however, the information was not published until many years later, and the geologist later suggested he may have misremembered and the anaconda could have been only two rods long (8 m (26.2 ft)). While in Colombia in 1978, herpetologist William W. Lamar had an encounter with a large female specimen which measured 7.5 m (24.6 ft) and was estimated to weigh between 136 and 180 kg (300 and 397 lb).[10] In 1962, W.L. Schurz claimed to have measured a snake in Brazil of 8.46 m (27.8 ft) with a maximum girth of 112 cm (3.67 ft).[9] One female, reportedly measuring 7.9 m (25.9 ft) in length, shot in 1963 in Nariva Swamp, Trinidad, contained a 1.5-m caiman.[9] A specimen of 7.3 m (24.0 ft), reportedly with a weight of 149 kg (328 lb), was caught at the mouth of the Kassikaityu River in Guyana, having been restrained by 13 local men, and was later air-lifted for a zoo collection in the United States, but died in ill health shortly thereafter.[9] The largest size verified for E. murinus in captivity was for a specimen kept in Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium, which grew to a length of 6.27 m (20.6 ft) by the time she died on July 20, 1960. When this specimen was 5.94 m (19.5 ft) long, she weighed 91 kg (201 lb).[9] The estimated weight for an anaconda in the range of 8 m (26.2 ft) is at least 200 kg (440 lb).[9] National Geographic has published a weight of up to 227 kg (500 lb) for E. murinus, but this is almost certainly a mere estimation.[12] Weight can vary considerably in large specimens depending on environmental conditions and recent feedings, with Verrill's aforementioned specimen, having been extremely bulky, scaled at 163 kg (359 lb), whereas another specimen considered large at 5.06 m (16.6 ft), weighed only 54 kg (119 lb).[9][13]
Current estimates of maximal size [ edit ]
Size presents challenges to attain breeding condition in larger female anacondas and while larger sizes provide the benefit of larger number of offspring per clutch, the breeding frequency of the individuals reduces with size, indicating that there's a point in which the advantage of larger clutch size is negated by the female no longer being able to breed,[2] for the anaconda, this limit was estimated at approximately 6.7 m (22.0 ft) in total length.[2] This is consistent with the results of a revision of the size at maturity and maximum size of several snakes from North America, which found that the maximum size is between 1.5 and 2.5 the size at maturity.[14] The minimum size of breeding anacondas in a survey of 780 individuals was 2.1 m (6.9 ft) in snout-vent length, indicating that maximum size attained by anacondas following this pattern would be 5.3 m (17.4 ft) in snout-vent length.[2] However, most anacondas are captured from the llanos, which is more accessible to humans and has smaller prey available, while the rainforest, which is much less explored and has more plentiful large prey, may be home to larger snakes.[2][15]
Scientific and common names [ edit ]
In the famous 10th edition of Systema Naturae of 1758, Carl Linnaeus cited descriptions by Albertus Seba and by Laurens Theodorus Gronovius to erect the distinct species murina of his new genus Boa, which contained eight other species, including Boa constrictor.[16] The generic name Boa came from an ancient Latin word for a type of large snake. The first specimens of Boa murina were of immature individuals from 2.5 to 3.0 feet (75 to 90 cm) in length.[17] In 1830, Johann Georg Wagler erected the separate genus Eunectes ("good swimmer" in Greek) for Linnaeus’s Boa murina after more and larger specimens were known and described.[18] Because of the masculine gender of Eunectes, the feminine Latin specific name murina was changed to murinus.
Linnaeus almost certainly chose the scientific name Boa murina based on the original Latin description given by A. Seba[19] in 1735: "Serpens testudinacea americana, murium insidiator" [tortoise-patterned (spotted) American snake, a predator that lies in wait for mice (and rats)]. The Latin adjective murinus (murina) in this case would mean "of mice" or "connected with mice," understood in context as "preying on mice", and not as "mouse-gray-colored" (another possible meaning of Latin murinus) as now often wrongly indicated for E. murinus. Early English-language sources, such as George Shaw, referred to the Boa murina as the "rat boa" and the Penny Cyclopaedia (Vol. 5) entry for boa explained: "The trivial name murina was given to it from being said to lie in wait for mice." Linnaeus[20] described the appearance of the Boa murina in Latin as rufus maculis supra rotundatis [reddish-brown with rounded spots on upper parts] and made no reference to a gray coloration. Early descriptions of the green anaconda by different authors variously referred to the general color as brown, glaucous, green, or gray.
Common names for E. murinus include green anaconda, anaconda, common anaconda, and water boa.[21]
Distribution and habitat [ edit ]
Eunectes murinus is found in South America east of the Andes, in countries including Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, the island of Trinidad, and as far south as northern Paraguay.[22] The type locality given is "America".[1]
Anacondas live in swamps, marshes, and slow-moving streams, mainly in the tropical rainforests of the Amazon and Orinoco basins. They are cumbersome on land, but stealthy and sleek in the water. Their eyes and nasal openings are on top of their heads, allowing them to lie in wait for prey while remaining nearly completely submerged.[23]
Behavior [ edit ]
At the Hato El Cedral
The primarily nocturnal anaconda species tend to spend most of its life in or around water. Anacondas are also sometimes known as the water boa; they spend more time in water than any of the boas. They seem rather slow and sluggish when traveling on land due to their size, although they have the potential to reach high speeds in the water. They tend to float beneath the surface of the water with their snouts above the surface. When prey passes by or stops to drink, the anaconda will strike (without eating or swallowing it) and coil around it with its body. The snake will then constrict until it has suffocated the prey.[24]
Feeding [ edit ]
Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris) being swallowed by an anaconda Senckenberg Museum exhibit of a capybara ) being swallowed by an anaconda
Primarily aquatic, they eat a wide variety of prey, almost anything they can manage to overpower, including fish, birds, a variety of mammals, and other reptiles. Particularly large anacondas may consume large prey such as tapirs, deer, capybaras, caimans, and even jaguars, but such large meals are not regularly consumed. The green anaconda's eyes and nose are located on the top of the head, allowing the snake to breathe and watch for prey while the vast majority of the body is hidden underwater.[25] Many local stories and legends report the anaconda as a man-eater, but little evidence supports any such activity. They employ constriction to subdue their prey. Cannibalism among green anacondas is also known, most recorded cases involving a larger female consuming a smaller male. While the exact reason for this is not understood, scientists cite several possibilities, including the dramatic sexual dimorphism in the species, and the possibility that a female anaconda requires additional food intake after breeding to sustain the long period of gestation. The nearby male simply provides the opportunistic female a ready source of nutrition.[26]
Reproduction [ edit ]
This species is solitary until the mating season, which occurs during the rainy season, and can last for several months, usually from April to May. During this time, males must find females. Typically, female snakes will lay down a trail of pheromones for the males to follow, but it is still unclear how the males of this species track a female's scent. Another possibility is that the female releases an airborne stimulant. This theory is supported by the observation of females that remain motionless while many males move towards them from all directions. Male anacondas also frequently flick their tongues to sense chemicals that signal the presence of the female.[27]
Many males can often find the same female. Although it may not be necessary for there to be more than one male, this results in odd clusters referred to as "breeding balls", in which up to 12 males wrap around the same female and attempt to copulate. The group could stay in this position from two to four weeks. This ball acts as a slow-motion wrestling match between the males, each one fighting for the opportunity to mate with the female.
During mating, males make use of their spurs to arouse the female. They aggressively press their cloacal regions hard against the female body, while continuously scratching her with their spurs. This can produce a scratching sound. Mating approaches its climax when the stimulus of the males' spurs induces the female snake to raise her cloacal region, allowing the cloacae of the two snakes to move together. The male then coils his tail, surrounding the female and they copulate.[28] The strongest and largest male is often the victor. However, females are physically much larger and stronger and may decide to choose from among the males. Courtship and mating occur almost exclusively in water.
Mating is followed by a gestation period that lasts about six to seven months. The species is ovoviviparous, with females giving birth to live young. Litters usually consists of 20 to 40 offspring, although as many as 100 may be produced. After giving birth, females may lose up to half their weight.
Neonates (babies) are around 70–80 cm long and receive no parental care. Because of their small size, they often fall prey to other animals. Should they survive, they grow rapidly until they reach sexual maturity in their first few years, after which their rate of growth continues at a slower pace.[24]
However, when no male anacondas are available to provide offspring facultative parthenogenesis is possible. In August 2014 West Midlands Safari Park announced that on 12 August 2014 a female Green anaconda, which was being kept with another female anaconda, through parthenogenesis had given birth to three young.[29][30]
Captivity [ edit ]
One may reasonably maintain an average and acceptable temperature for the snake by the use of a heating element or infrared light bulbs. A gradient must be offered within the enclosure to allow the snake to bask in the heat or go to cooler areas in the tank. Optimum humidity can be difficult to maintain and research must be done on the snake to determine the correct level. More than 80% humidity must be maintained for caging an anaconda species from the tropical region, while a slightly less than 30% humidity must be maintained for a species of a desert region.[31] Photoperiods are often used with most species of snake; natural light is best for this, but low UV percentage bulbs can also be used. Captive anacondas have a reputation for unpredictability and aggression due to the temperaments of wild-caught specimens first collected for captive breeding, but with proper care, green anacondas can and do make for calm, relatively sedate pets. Due to their immense size and power however, proper respect and caution should always be maintained, and they are best left to experienced adult owners who can provide them with the proper requirements.[32][33]
In popular culture [ edit ]
Eunectes murinus, has been used for many commercially successful films, as a deadly creature The green anaconda,, has been used for many commercially successful films, as a deadly creature
Anacondas have been portrayed in horror literature and film, often with the ability to swallow adult humans; these traits are occasionally also attributed to other species, such as the Burmese python and the boa constrictor (though the latter does not grow to a large enough size to kill and swallow a human). Among the most popular such films are the 1997 film, Anaconda, and its three sequels. This species is also the main antagonist in Mathias Bradley's novel, Anacondas: The Terror of the Amazon Rainforest, in which multiple hybrid anacondas escape from a research facility in the Amazon Rainforest and come into contact with a toxic chemical that causes them to rapidly mutate into gigantic snakes. A more positive depiction of the anaconda exists in the short stories Anaconda and El Regreso de Anaconda ("The Return of Anaconda") by Horacio Quiroga, which are told from the anaconda's point of view.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]Following the release of a letter recently issued by current and ex-Rigpa members, which details alleged abuses by Rigpa founder and spiritual director Sogyal Rinpoche, we have now received from Rigpa the following press release, which acknowledges the letter and indicates that Sogyal Rinpoche will “step back” as the community looks into next steps:
Press release
July 21, 2017
Rigpa is an international network of Buddhist centers dedicated to making the Buddhist teachings of meditation, compassion and wisdom available to the modern world. The courses and programs offered by Rigpa have helped many thousands of people around the world experience relief from suffering and find meaning in their lives.
We are deeply concerned and saddened to learn of the letter sent by a small group of students to our spiritual director, Sogyal Rinpoche. We would like to state clearly that there is no place for abuse in our community and we are conscious of our responsibility to provide a safe, welcoming and supportive environment for our members and the public.
We respect Sogyal Rinpoche’s decision to step back and to enter a period of retreat and reflection, and find it wise. During this time we will seek external professional and spiritual advice and look into whatever steps might be necessary. We have already initiated open discussion within our community about the letter and the issues it raises. We intend to bring clarity to this situation as soon as possible.The petition to impeach University College Dublin Students’ Union (UCDSU) President, Katie Ascough, has been rejected by the Returning Officer of the union.
Over the last few days, the petition had attracted over a thousand names as the campaign to impeach Ascough has gathered speed.
Ascough has faced significant backlash, both in University College Dublin (UCD) and nationally, for her decision to remove information about abortion access from the union’s freshers’ week guide, citing legal concerns. Critics have said her actions broke the union’s pro-choice mandate.
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The petition gathered 1620 names, more than the number of votes she received in her election for President of UCDSU.
The University Observer reported this morning that the Returning Officer, Stephen Devine, had concerns about the validity of the petition. The UCDSU Constitution states that “in the case of a referendum by petition, each petitioner must sign the referendum petition underneath, at the end of, or on a sheet attached to, an exact copy of the wording of the proposed referendum and provide their name, programme, stage and student number”.
The petition to impeach Ascough did not have a section for signatures, triggering concern about how valid it was. It had been assumed that, with the required number of signatures, an impeachment referendum would be held in the coming weeks.
Ascough’s fellow officers were not supporting the campaign to impeach her, despite condemning her decision to remove the information.Editor's note updated July 10, 2017: The public comment period has closed.
Our country’s public lands define who we are. These are the places where we work, where we play and where we connect to our shared history. Now is the time to stand up for these places—places that help us live a life outdoors.
Right now, the Department of the Interior, headed by Secretary Ryan Zinke, is undertaking an unprecedented review of 27 national monuments established by presidents from both parties since 1996, including the San Gabriel Mountains in California, Craters of the Moon in Idaho, and Bears Ears in Utah. More than 11 million acres of national public land are at stake.
The Department of the Interior wants to hear from you. And we want to make it easy for you to speak up.
As you write in support below, reference your own personal tie to our national public lands. If you’ve ever explored a national monument, if your job depends on a monument, if your family or community benefits because it’s near these majestic outdoor spaces—or if you have a deep love for our national parks and forests and want them protected—share your story here.
The public call for comment ends on July 10.
Consider these tips when commenting:Normally you smoke weed and then have an uncontrollable urge to eat pizza. But mobile app Push for Pizza suggests you do it the other way around—and has the perfect invention to make it happen.
The app recently collaborated with the Nikolas Gregory design studio to create a very special pizza box, one section of which peels away and folds into a smokeable pipe. The cardboard forms the sides of the pipe, and the little plastic piece that keeps the box top from crushing the pizza becomes the bowl—though it isn't plastic here but temperature-resistant white ceramic.
"It is common to crave food when one gets high. It is also typical practice to order a quick pizza to satisfy this craving. We are aware of these trends and decided to combine these two interests in a actual product," says Push For Pizza co-founder Cyrus Summerlin.
"The pizza is in hand before the munchies set in, leading to a more relaxed and enjoyable experience without the interminable delay of its delivery or the pain of gnawing hunger," he adds. "And the pipe comes at no additional cost. Its materials are 100 percent recyclable."
Is it durable? "The pipe should last a long time," Summerlin says, who says the pipe has been fully tested. "Unless you are very careless with the flame, it will not burn."
At this point, only the prototype has been made, though Push for Pizza says it might do a limited run depending on how well it is received. If it does move into mass production, it will likely use a a temperature-resistant vegetable-based recyclable plastic instead of the ceramic.Published online 12 April 2010 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2010.176
News
Brain disorder eradicates ethnic but not gender bias.
Children without Williams syndrome form stereotypes about ethnic groups. US Army
Prejudice may seem inescapable, but scientists now report the first group of people who seem not to form racial stereotypes.
Children with a neurodevelopmental disorder called Williams syndrome (WS) are overly friendly because they do not fear strangers. Now, a study shows that these children also do not develop negative attitudes about other ethnic groups, even though they show patterns of gender stereotyping found in other children. "This is the first evidence that different forms of stereotypes are biologically dissociable," says Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, director of the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany, who led the study published today in Current Biology1.
Adults with WS show abnormal activity in a brain structure called the amygdala, which is involved in responding to social threats and triggering unconscious negative emotional reactions to other races2,3. Racial bias has been tied to fear: adults are more likely to associate negative objects and events, such as electric shocks, with people of other ethnic groups compared with those of their own group4. But according to Meyer-Lindenberg, his latest study offers the strongest evidence so far that social fear leads to racial stereotyping.
Show no fear
The team showed 18 pictures to 20 children with and 20 without WS, all of whom were of white European origin. Then they asked the children, aged 5-16 years, to choose individuals in the drawings who might engage in sex-specific activities, such as playing with dolls. Both groups of children showed the same patterns of gender stereotyping.
Children in the study were asked to associate characters in stories to pictures of dark- and light-skinned people. Williams, J.E., Best, D.L., and Boswell, D.A. Child Dev. (1975)
The children also heard stories about individuals, represented in drawings, who had negative attributes, such as being naughty and dirty, or positive traits, such as being pretty and smart. They were then asked to choose whether the story was about a light-skinned or a dark-skinned individual in the drawings. One example story was this: "There are two little boys. One of them is a kind little boy. Once he saw a kitten fall into a lake and he picked the kitten up to save it from drowning. Which is the kind little boy?"
Children without WS favoured positive characteristics for the light-skinned children and negative features for dark-skinned individuals, consistent with previous studies on both white and black children5, but those with WS lacked any bias. The obvious conclusion, Meyer-Lindenberg says, is that social fear is not required for gender stereotyping, but it is important in forming racial stereotypes.
"This is a really novel finding, enough to make us rethink what we mean by stereotyping," says Uta Frith, a developmental psychologist at University College London.
Absence of evidence
The results suggest that social fear contributes to racial stereotyping. But WS is associated with other cognitive impairments, such as mental retardation, that may also have a role, Meyer-Lindenberg says.
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Although the authors controlled for many factors, such as IQ and socioeconomic background, children with and without WS may have had different experiences of members of other racial groups, says John Gabrieli, a cognitive neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. "To a certain degree, all children are exposed to sex roles from their parents, but not all are forced to think about race," he says. Less exposure to racial stereotypes could possibly explain the lack of racial bias in children with WS, he says.
Meyer-Lindenberg believes his findings will replicate in larger samples and different age groups. In future neuroimaging studies, he would like to tease apart the neural circuits involved in different types of stereotypes.
The study does not answer whether stereotyping is genetically determined or based on experience, Meyer-Lindenberg says. So he'd also like to examine the role of experience, for instance, by finding children who have been raised by two members of the same sex.
"Until this study, I think people never imagined that these two stereotypes would be biologically separable," Gabrieli says. "Whether it turns out to be due to genes, the environment or a complicated interaction, it shifts the discussion."Mecklenburg-Vorpommern isn’t one of Germany’s most important federal states – with a population of under 1.7million, it is small and largely rural. Yet the results in last Sunday’s local elections there sent shockwaves through the country.
The anti-immigration party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) managed to win more seats than Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Although it was running for the first time in the state, the AfD secured 20.8 per cent of the vote, where the CDU got 19 per cent. The fact that Merkel’s own constituency lies in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern has made the outcome all the more significant. ‘This might well be the beginning of the end for Merkel’, said AfD candidate Leif-Erik Holm. Although the result was talked up as a vote against Merkel, what it really showed is the deep split between large sections of society and the political establishment. If this was only about Merkel, and her decision to throw open the borders last summer, why did other parties lose more votes than the CDU? The biggest loser was in fact the Left Party (Die Linke), which lost more votes to the AfD than any other party. The second biggest loser was the ruling Social Democratic Party. The Greens, meanwhile, didn’t even make quorum.
The local-election result was a vote |
leap, directly from Mount Zion to the pros. Drafted by Toronto with the ninth pick, he had a rookie year he describes tersely as "hell." Flashes of brilliance were leavened by extended stays in coach Darrell Walker's doghouse. McGrady was a frustrated, lonely teenager in a strange city, racking up huge phone bills and sleeping as much as 20 hours a day. "Basically," he says, "I was just in a funk." The clouds parted when Carter—again, think impatience—left Chapel Hill after his junior year to turn pro and, following a draft-day swap with the Golden State Warriors for his college teammate Antawn Jamison and some $250,000, ended up in Toronto. NBA players often import their friends and family to lend familiarity to an alien situation; suddenly, Carter and McGrady had a built-in support system. They realized that, in addition to family ties, they shared similar tastes in food (fried chicken and pork chops), music (R&B, rap and hip-hop) and, not least, video games (Madden NFL). Soon they became inseparable, each as likely to be in the other's apartment as his own. Teammates tell of Carter and McGrady sitting at opposite ends of the team bus and speaking to each other on their cell phones. "They say they're cousins," says guard Dee Brown. "But Siamese twins is more like it."
The McGrady/Carter combination, which helped the Raptors to their first postseason in franchise history, in 2000, will endure for generations thanks to their memorable performances at the 2000 Slam Dunk Contest, judged by The Point Forward as the second-best contest of all time. Carter's victory gets the headlines, but McGrady's athleticism and power were absolutely off the charts.
http://youtu.be/gwuGd4BpqsQ
http://youtu.be/ImAMVqA6mug
It would prove to be a fleeting partnership.
Jackie MacMullan; March 27, 2000
As recently as last week, sources close to him said hell bolt the Raptors when he becomes a free agent this summer. Toronto vice president and general manager Glen Grunwald refuses to believe it until it happens. "I've heard all the rumors that he's leaving, but I haven't heard that from Tracy," Grunwald says. "We had very frank discussions with him before the [Feb. 24] trading deadline. We told him, 'Tracy, we'd love you to stay. You're our first choice. But if you don't want to stay, then we need to talk about where we can trade you that will make us both happy.' He said no to that. He's never told us he doesn't want to be here." Then again, Shaquille O'Neal never told the Magic he was leaving in the summer of 1996, but once the Lakers feverishly cleared salary cap room to accommodate him, he took a hike. Stephon Marbury didn't let the Timberwolves know he wanted out, either—until a week before last year's trading deadline, when he demanded to be sent to the Nets. Young stars often have a hard time telling the only team they've been on that they want to make a break, and the team often deludes itself into thinking it can find a way to make the relationship last. McGrady is deeply loyal to his agent, Arn Tellem, and to Adidas, which signed him to a $12 million endorsement deal. Both Tellem and Adidas want him to play in the U.S. to enhance his marketing potential. "I'm sure they have their agendas, but Tracy has assured us hell make his own decision," Grunwald says.
ORLANDO
Tracy McGrady had some monster individual seasons with the Magic. (Fernando Medina/NBAE via Getty Images) Tracy McGrady had some monster individual seasons with the Magic. (Fernando Medina/NBAE via Getty Images)
McGrady's decision amounted to ditching the Raptors to head back to his home state of Florida, as he received a six-year, $67.5 million max contract as part of a sign-and-trade deal between Toronto and Orlando. He wasted no time with the Magic getting acclimated with the role of franchise player, and all the luxury and glory that come with it.
Phil Taylor; July 24, 2000
The Magic has made so much progress in the past two weeks that it's getting ahead of itself. One week after five-time All-Star Grant Hill announced he would sign with Orlando for a reported $67.5 million over six years, the maximum allowable, forward Tracy McGrady declared his intention to sign a similar deal with the Magic. McGrady, 21, a Florida native, said he was happy because "not too many superstars get a chance to play at home." That statement requires a 20-second timeout. McGrady, who averaged 15.4 points for the Raptors last season, may have been one of the coveted prizes in this year's free-agent sweepstakes, but he isn't a superstar yet. It would be just as premature to consider Orlando a championship-caliber team.
Ian Thomsen; Oct. 30, 2000
Payne Stewart's old house belongs to a 21-year-old Orlando Magic swingman who has never gone to college, never made an NBA All-Star team, never won a playoff game, never even been in a starting lineup for an entire season. He grew up in a three-bedroom house with his mother and grandmother just 40 minutes southwest of Orlando, in Auburndale, Fla. Only four years ago, as a junior at Auburndale High, he was suspended from the basketball team for mouthing off to a teacher. "It's blind faith," concedes coach Doc Rivers of the Magic's decision last summer to pay the 6'8", 210-pound McGrady $93 million over seven years. "If he begins to meet his potential in a year or two, we can be a great basketball team. We think he can be a scoring version of Scottie Pippen—and Scottie is a pretty good scorer."
Ian Thomsen; March 5, 2001
"You can argue that we're the only team doing well with only one All-Star," says Orlando coach Doc Rivers. "Then you look at him—at age 21 he's carrying the burden for the sixth-youngest team in the league." Being young and supremely talented is not as easy as McGrady makes it look, Rivers adds: "His body is still maturing. That's why he sleeps so much. You turn off the lights for a film session, and he's out." Almost overnight the Big Sleep (as his teammates call McGrady) has emerged as "one of the top five talents in the league," according to Bucks general manager Ernie Grunfeld. After serving as a complement to Vince Carter for the last two years with the Raptors, McGrady seemed destined to play a similar role for Hill this season. "I thought he was going to be like Scottie Pippen," says Rivers. "But Tracy scores too much. I don't try to compare him to somebody now."
Although McGrady's individual play was breathtaking, the Magic never delivered on their potential because Grant Hill played a total of only 47 games over McGrady's four years in Orlando.
http://youtu.be/V4tJ5CCzY_Y
Ian Thomsen; Feb. 17, 2003
Because McGrady and Grant Hill take up roughly half of Orlando's cap space, the team doesn't have the flexibility to acquire a major inside player. McGrady knows that the Magic's prospects hinge on Hill's left ankle, which has been operated on three times over the last three seasons—and, according to McGrady, will probably soon go under the knife a fourth time. Last week G.M. John Gabriel said that Hill will rest his ankle for at least another month, after which doctors may perform "minor" surgery to alleviate what they believe is tendinitis. "I don't know how Grant can come back," McGrady says. "But he's fighting, and I'm not giving up on him. I know a lot of people who would have hung it up already if they were in his position." The only benefit of Hill's absence is that it has accelerated McGrady's development. "He reminds me of a young Julius Erving in a lot of ways—his length, his athleticism," says 76ers coach Larry Brown, who will coach McGrady on the Olympic team over the next two summers. "There's nothing he can't do." With a league-leading 30.4 points per game, T-Mac is on his way to becoming the youngest player to average 30 points since Bob McAdoo in 1974-75. "It's not what I want to do," he says of his increased offensive output, "but I feel like I've got to score a lot for my team to be in games."
Jack McCallum; April 28, 2003
McGrady is not much for false modesty. He knows how good he's been this season and made his MVP choice clear. "KG has another All-Star, Wally Szczerbiak," McGrady said before Game 1. "Tim [Duncan] and Kobe are dominant players on dominant teams—they could win it every year. But with what I accomplished individually and for my team, I think I deserve it."
McGrady never garnered that recognition, but he did make the All-NBA first team in 2002 and '03. Before the Magic won a single playoff series in the McGrady era, he was traded to the Rockets in 2004 on the heels of a 21-61 season that saw the firing of coach Doc Rivers and reports of friction between McGrady and new GM John Weisbrod. McGrady, now 25, was packaged with Juwan Howard, Tyronn Lue and Reece Gaines for Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley and Kelvin Cato.
HOUSTON
Tracy McGrady poses at his Texas home in 2004. (Walter Iooss Jr./SI) Tracy McGrady poses at his Texas home in 2004. (Walter Iooss Jr./SI)
Shortly after his arrival with the Rockets, McGrady signed a three-year, $63 million contract extension that would carry him through the 2009-10 season. All told, McGrady was looking at more than $109 million worth of salary over the next six years when he first took the court in Houston. Although he made the All-Star team in each of his first three seasons with the Rockets, back and knee injuries began to limit his effectiveness, and by the end of his lengthy deal, McGrady's expiring contract held more value as a trade chip than he did as a player.
Houston's other cornerstone player, Yao Ming, also was in and out of the lineup with injuries, and the Rockets were able to secure just one playoff-series victory during McGrady's five-plus years in town. Of course, that came in 2009, when McGrady was sidelined with a season-ending knee surgery.
http://youtu.be/5GWfy3MgvHI
Ian Thomsen, Oct. 25, 2004
If Tracy McGrady had any second thoughts about leaving Orlando, they vanished when he heard Magic G.M. John Weisbrod say he was not his type of player. "It shows you the difference between the two organizations," says McGrady, whose threat to opt out of his contract next summer led to Houston's acquiring him for Steve Francis in a seven-player trade. "I'm sure the Rockets had some dirt on Steve when he left here, but what did they say about him? Nothing but good things. They were professional."
Karl Taro Greenfield, Jan. 10, 2005
He presses OFF, and another call comes in. "It's here? All right! What exit?" He puts down his phone and says, "This is going to blow your mind." But he's talking to himself. Five minutes later he emerges from the BMW and stretches in the bright sun. His usually unhurried walk is suddenly brisk. He enters the commuter airport terminal, passes a few surprised businessmen, and there, glistening on the tarmac, is a white Falcon 2000 with T1 MAC painted on the side. This is the first time he has seen his new jet. He stands for a moment on the runway, taking it in, shaking his head. He bounds up the stairs. The interior is champagne and cream; the walnut trim is buffed to an almost metallic sheen. He is greeted by his business manager, Gustavson Bass, who points McGrady to the VIP seat--the first seat on the right side of the cabin--and shows him the armrest controls for the sound system, DVD player and air conditioner. The 6'8" McGrady sits down, sinking into the soft leather. He smiles and looks out the porthole. "We're actually saving money by having this plane," Bass explains. "With the depreciation schedule and being able to lease it out, this will pay for itself." McGrady isn't listening. He is already out of his seat and down the gangway. At the bottom of the stairs he turns around and takes in the plane once more. Then he is gone. "I'm the first one," he says, back in the car. "No NBA player ever had his own jet." Won't this set off a frenzied plane-buying competition among elite players? "All right," he says with a laugh. "Let them bring it."
Jack McCallum, May 2, 2005
Though they arrived more quietly than Dallas, the Rockets came into the series with their own head of steam, buoyed by seven straight wins to end the season and fortified by a supporting cast that has McGrady smiling. In the ongoing game of completing the phrase The Best Player Never to Have..., McGrady is at the moment The Best Player Never to Have Taken a Team Past the First Round. He almost did it two years ago in Orlando, when his Magic had the Detroit Pistons down 3--1. Then he opened his mouth and said, essentially, that the series was over. The Pistons used his words as bulletin-board material and won three straight. "Hey, I was young then," says McGrady, now 25 and in his eighth year in the league. "I didn't know any better."... Indeed, there is no player quite like McGrady, who is listed as a small forward but who is, in reality, a blend of shooting guard (he comes off picks for jumpers as well as anyone in the league) and point guard (the offense usually runs through him). [Jeff] Van Gundy, who finds flaws in a rainbow, gloomily ticked off the reasons the Rockets should have lost Game 1 (they attempted 22 fewer free throws than the Mavs, were outrebounded 44--39, etc.) and boiled the outcome down to this: "I'm not sure we win if Tracy doesn't hit three home runs that were, like, miraculous." One of T-Mac's treys was, like, otherworldly. With the shot clock running down during a third-quarter possession, he launched an outlandish fallaway jumper from about 25 feet and began backpedaling downcourt even before it went in. Yet the mention of T-Mac always comes with an asterisk designating a dearth of toughness. "Toughness is one of those nebulous words," says Van Gundy. "Toughness is being able to concentrate enough to carry out a game plan. Toughness is the ability to execute a play under duress, having a poise about you, making shots late in the game. That's mental toughness, and Tracy has that. Taking on guys, beating a double team by yourself. Guarding tough players, like Nowitzki. That's physical toughness, and Tracy has that, too. To say he doesn't have toughness is ridiculous."
Chris Mannix, March 10, 2008
The Rockets' run has been fueled by the player with the most to prove: Tracy McGrady, 28, the ubertalented small forward with seven All-Star selections, two first-team All-NBA honors... and zero playoff series wins to his credit. The same McGrady who in 2003 as a member of the Orlando Magic openly talked about the second round while his team led the Detroit Pistons three games to one, only to see the Magic blow the series. The same McGrady who last season told the world to put Houston's playoff chances "on him," then couldn't prevent a loss to the Utah Jazz. (He shed tears of frustration during his press conference after Game 7.)... "I haven't had this kind of trust in my teammates before," says McGrady. Sitting in front of his locker following Sunday's win, his voice begins to lower. "I'm a pretty damn good player, but I can't do it by myself."
Yao Ming (left) and Tracy McGrady were unable to lead Houston deep into the playoffs. (Bill Baptist/NBAE via Getty Images) Yao Ming (left) and Tracy McGrady were unable to lead Houston deep into the playoffs. (Bill Baptist/NBAE via Getty Images)
Gene Menez, Oct. 27, 2008
"This is the first time I've felt going into a season that something really special is going to come out of it if we put everything together and understand our roles," McGrady said at the start of training camp. "There's a God that sent help. I've been waiting for this [chance] for a while."
Chris Mannix, March 9, 2009
If Rockets general manager Daryl Morey had been playing this season out on a PlayStation 3 console, the restart button would have gotten a pretty good workout. Forward Shane Battier suffers a foot injury? Click. Never happened. Forward Ron Artest rolls an ankle? Click. Swingman Tracy McGrady aggravates lingering knee and shoulder injuries? Click. Click. Unfortunately life rarely imitates electronics. Battier, Artest and McGrady had missed a combined 59 games at week's end, forcing coach Rick Adelman to use 16 different starting lineups. "It's made this season a bit of a roller coaster," says Morey. But there have been signs that the ride is leveling off. After McGrady's season ended on Feb. 9 (he underwent microfracture surgery on his left knee two weeks later), Houston had gone 8--1 at week's end, including victories over the Mavericks, Trail Blazers and Cavaliers, and had run its record to 38--22, fourth best in the Western Conference.
Dan Patrick, June 1, 2009
The Rockets had a great postseason run—without their best player, Tracy McGrady, who has an injured knee. That led to talk by the press and fans that Houston was better off without him. "In the past when I was out, you really never heard that," McGrady told me. "Are they better without me? I don't think so. You ask those guys on that team, they'd say the same thing." I asked who the press in Houston has been tougher on, him or Roger Clemens. "This year," McGrady said, "I have to say it's me."
Ian Thomsen, Feb. 15, 2010
Daryl Morey has a $22.5 million asset to peddle, which is why the Rockets' general manager pulled his entire staff of basketball analysts and scouts off the road and into a conference room in Houston last week. For two days the 10 studied video of players—and it's a large number of players—they might acquire before the Feb. 18 trade deadline for the mammoth expiring contract of guard Tracy McGrady. In the salary-cap-driven NBA, any deal that frees up future payroll holds appeal, even if it belongs to an All-Star-in-decline who has played just 45 minutes this season. But it's especially so this year, given this summer's attractive free-agent class. "There's been significant interest," acknowledges Morey, an Executive of the Year candidate who has kept the Rockets in playoff contention despite seasonlong injuries to McGrady, who has had left-knee surgery in each of the last two seasons, and center Yao Ming, who has a broken bone in his left foot. "We have a good sense of who's trying to do what, the major players who may be involved from each team, the deals teams would do with us and the deals we would be willing to do with them. But right now they're all fairly far apart." There's the rub. In Morey's eyes a contract like McGrady's is more valuable than ever, as many teams are dying to clear salary-cap space so they can throw big money this summer at the long-anticipated free-agent class of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and Joe Johnson.
Chris Mannix, March 1, 2010
If there is a how-to book to be written about deadline dealing, Rockets G.M. Daryl Morey should get his own chapter. He swapped Tracy McGrady's $22.5 million expiring contract (and backup forward Carl Landry) for a 20-points-per-game scorer (Kings guard Kevin Martin), a promising power forward (rookie Jordan Hill of the Knicks) and a first-round draft pick. And he did it while cutting enough payroll to get Houston below the luxury-tax threshold. "You knew they were going to get something good [for McGrady]," says a Western Conference executive. "But I don't think they could do much better than this."
POST-HOUSTON
Tracy McGrady played in China during the 2012-13 regular season. (AFP/Getty Images) Tracy McGrady played in China during the 2012-13 regular season. (AFP/Getty Images)
McGrady spent the next four seasons bouncing around from New York to Detroit to Atlanta in reserve roles, and he ultimately decided to play in China for the 2012-13 season.
Injuries and age had taken their toll by this point. McGrady averaged just 5.3 points in 52 games with the Hawks in 2011-12.
Somewhat remarkably, McGrady, the man always known for his weak postseason record, came within 5.2 seconds of winning a championship ring in June, as he latched on with the Spurs just before the playoffs. Although he played only 31 minutes total in the postseason, he still generated media interest, particularly at the Finals.
Tracy McGrady played sparingly during the Spurs' run to the 2013 Finals. (Issac Baldizon/NBAE via Getty Images) Tracy McGrady played sparingly during the Spurs' run to the 2013 Finals. (Issac Baldizon/NBAE via Getty Images)
There, he spoke openly and hinted at the possibility of retirement, but the brash confidence he carried throughout his career was still evident. Asked if he would be ready to play if called upon by coach Gregg Popovich, McGrady responded: "Is pig p---y pork?"Homeschool girl for Trump (Photo: Screen capture)
Check out this creepy video from a homeschooled girl urging Christians to get out and vote against Hillary Clinton on Election Day.
In a press release from the Christian News Wire, the girl explained that they hope the video “will show Christians that there is a big difference between Trump and [sic] Hilary,” said Izzy, an 11-year-old homeschooled student. “It is the difference between life and death.”
The song was part of a project Izzy’s family did after meeting with other Christians, who are supporting a third-party candidate over a questionable “Christian” like Trump.
“There are Christians who think they are being holy by not voting, but that’s not true. Like in the Good Samaritan parable Jesus told, if you walk on and ignore the cries, you are guilty,” said Izzy. Though she doesn’t clarify where the “cries” are coming from.
“Millions of Christians sat out or voted third-party the last two presidential elections which led to the Democrats taking over and causing millions of innocent lives to be lost,” Izzy’s mother claimed. She neglected to cite the millions of Christians who supported the Democratic candidate.
Trump has not had the best luck when he’s tried to talk about Christian faith. He had trouble naming a verse in the Bible when asked about it, though he thinks the Bible is a really great movie. Eventually, he was able to come up with his favorite verse, though it was one Jesus would pretty much have been against. Then Trump had the II Corinthians problem. He also infuriated some religious leaders and tried to claim he was a “big league” believer in God. Trump’s claims of Christianity even prompted “Morning Joe” to create a supercut of the Republican candidate’s religious flubs.
Most notably, Trump was booed by a room full of priests.
Perhaps if Izzy wasn’t homeschooled she’d be more informed about Trump’s history with Christianity and Christian values. They’d also probably have spelled Hillary Clinton’s name correctly.
Check out the strange video below:Holy smokes, 1809 votes over two weeks! There are clearly a lot of people out there who love Cincinnati and Dayton’s craft beer scene. For those that missed voting the poll had two questions, one where you could pick your favorite IPA from Cincinnati and the next question being the same for Dayton. Now for the results!
Representing Cincinnati
The first question focused on Cincinnati’s IPAs (remember it’s straight IPAs only so no Fork in the Road or Citra High) and was won, by a large margin, by Rhinegeist’s Truth! MadTree’s PsycHOPathy came in second with Cellar Dweller Hoppy Poppy coming in at a solid third.
Representing Dayton
As I said before the second question was all about Dayton IPAs. Dayton Brewing Company’s Oregon Alley IPA will be heading to Columbus to show what the Dayton beer scene has to offer. Following Dayton Beer Company was Yellow Springs Wobbly Wheel at second and Fifth Street’s Icebreaker IPA in third.
My Pick
Part of the plan is to have each of the five bloggers involved in this pick one beer from their area to bring along with the two beers selected by the voters. For my pick I’m going with the second highest vote getter, and what I honestly believe is one of the best IPAs in the area, MadTree’s PsycHOPathy.
From Across The State
The three beers above are what will be heading to Columbus from the Cincinnati/Dayton area but there are four other regions coming too. Check out the following posts to see who else will be going!
What Happens Now?
The next step in the King of the Ohio IPA competition is that myself, and the other bloggers, will pick up the freshest growlers or six packs of these beers that we can find. We’ll all meet up in Columbus next Saturday (November 1st) for the judging. We will have helpers on hand to make sure we are drinking the beers blind and judging them solely based on their inherent qualities and not on favoritism, brand recognition, or any other external influences. We will know the winner that day but you won’t find out until Monday November 3rd. Then the winning brewery will receive a King of the Ohio IPA championship belt.
Stay tuned to Queen City Drinks on Facebook and Twitter for updates, and more importantly results, on the competition! Plus don’t forget to follow my fellow bloggers covering the rest of Ohio.When it comes to transit, there are two types of American cities. The first are the six “legacy” cities -- Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. -- that developed dense downtowns long before the automobile and have always maintained significant transit ridership. Then there’s everyone else.
Despite recent urbanization, most U.S. cities were designed for cars. In fact, most remain dominated by solo drivers. Taking transit in these cities is generally inefficient. Nevertheless, some, such as Los Angeles and Miami, are arriving at an “in-between” stage. They’re seeing increased density and congestion. These kinds of cities face two major questions: Can they densify in ways that avoid traffic Armageddon, such as by encouraging transit? And can transit ever become as convenient as driving once was, so that densification doesn’t mean reduced quality of life?
This second question, in particular, matters. As I’ve discovered while traveling across the country, America’s densest, most transit-intensive cities are also the hardest places to get around, precisely because people can’t quickly drive to and park at their destinations. It helps explain why the legacy cities have six of America’s 11 longest average commute times. It’s therefore crucial that in-between cities densify in a way that preserves personal mobility.
That is where the in-between city of Seattle could become an interesting case study. As America’s fastest-growing big city -- it added 21,000 people in 2015 -- it’s growing denser and more congested. Fortunately, it already has a robust transit system: 70 percent of daily commuters living downtown use transit, and Seattle’s countywide bus ridership since 2002 has grown at a faster rate, more than double, compared to the population.
This growth has occurred because residents in Seattle adequately fund transit. In two decades, voters have approved three pro-transit ballot measures. As a result, the city pays more per capita on new transit projects than any other metro area. Recently, it has invested this money into its buses by expanding access so that 25 percent of residents live near frequent service; designating transit lanes to keep buses from getting stuck in traffic; and building an underground tunnel, which opened in 1990, so that buses can avoid downtown traffic.
Beyond funding, though, Seattle has -- at least relative to other U.S. cities -- encouraged approaches that complement transit. The private rideshare industry, for example, has flourished there, accounting for 9 percent of downtown commutes. The city has also relaxed zoning laws to allow for denser development.
Time will tell whether these measures help Seattle maintain, or even improve, its mobility. Already, average congestion and commute times there remain below that of legacy cities. The real test will be keeping it that way even as it continues to get denser and bigger.SALT LAKE CITY — For the first time, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints made a contribution to the Utah Pride Center.
The Utah Pride Center approached the church in the spring, asking if the Bishops' Storehouse could donate perishable food items for its homeless and low-income youth program, according to Kent Frogley, the Utah Pride Center board president.
The center works with the Utah Food Bank to provide breakfast for homeless youths on Saturdays during the cold months, but the food bank is unable to provide perishable food, Frogley said.
After reviewing the formal request, the LDS Church sent a donation along with a grant letter stating, “We are grateful to be able to serve your efforts in this worthy project and appreciate the work that you and others are doing related to this initiative."
“We’re just excited that we’re able to actually come together on something that we think is really beneficial to people in our community who are in need,” Frogley said. “When two organizations that don’t always agree on everything are able to work together to actually make the world a little bit better, I think that’s great.”
We're just excited that we're able to actually come together on something that we think is really beneficial to people in our community who are in need. –Kent Frogley, Utah Pride Center
Frogley said he welcomes the opportunity to work with the LDS Church in the future to better the community and to help homeless youths, many of whom identify as LGBTQ.
“I think it’s these first steps that really help us to understand each other and build some trust and realize that it’s possible for people who aren’t in complete sync on everything to be a force for good and to make positive change in the world,” Frogley said. “So I would hope that it would be the beginning of future opportunities and not just a single incident.”
Utah state Sen. Jim Dabakis also commented on the contribution.
"I am grateful to the LDS Church for their generosity and for their show of support for the Pride Center outreach to homeless youth,” Dabakis said in a statement. “This feels right. Although the LDS Church and the LGBTQ community do not agree on everything, this is yet another link in a continuing relationship of respect and civility. Who could have imagined such a warm and growing friendship even a few years ago?"
Contributing: Brianna Bodily
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Related StoriesCLOSE Arizona Republic columnist Ed Montini and reporter Richard Ruelas discuss the case of a statutory rape victim who is being forced to pay child support.
8th most viewed story: A Phoenix man who had sex with a 20-year-old woman while in high school didn't know she was pregnant until he received papers demanding child support two years later. (Photo: Charlie Leight/The Republic)
Nick Olivas became a father at 14, a fact he wouldn't learn for eight years.
While in high school, Olivas had sex with a 20-year-old woman. As he sees it now, she took advantage of a lonely kid going through a rough patch at home.
State law says a child younger than 15 cannot consent with an adult under any circumstance, making Olivas a rape victim. But Olivas didn't press charges and says he didn't realize at the time that it was even something to consider.
MONTINI: Statutory rape victim paying child support? Come on...
The two went their separate ways. Olivas graduated from high school, went to college and became a medical assistant.
Then two years ago, the state served him with papers demanding child support. That's how he found out he had a then-6-year-old daughter.
"It was a shock," he said. "I was living my life and enjoying being young. To find out you have a 6-year-old? It's unexplainable. It freaked me out."
He said he panicked, ignored the legal documents and never got the required paternity test. The state eventually tracked him down.
Olivas, a 24-year-old Phoenix resident, said he now owes about $15,000 in back child support and medical bills going back to the child's birth, plus 10 percent interest. The state seized money from his bank account and is now garnisheeing his wages at $380 a month.
He has become one of the state's 153,000 active child-support cases, according to the Arizona Department of Economic Security division of Child Support Services.
In May alone, payments were not made in 49 percent of those cases, according to the agency.
Olivas' fear has turned to frustration.
He wants to be in his daughter's life and is willing to pay child support going forward. But he doesn't think it's right for the state to charge him for fees incurred when he was still a child himself or for the years he didn't know the girl existed.
"Anything I do as an adult, I should be responsible for," he said. "But as a teenager? I don't think so."
Situations such as Olivas' are rare, according to fathers-rights advocates. But cases in several states have garnered attention. And while there has been some public outcry over charging a crime victim with child support, the courts have consistently said states have every right to do so.
NEWSLETTERS Get the AZ Memo newsletter delivered to your inbox We're sorry, but something went wrong Get the pulse of Arizona -- Local news, in-depth state coverage and what it all means for you Please try again soon, or contact Customer Service at 1-800-332-6733. Delivery: Mon-Fri Invalid email address Thank you! You're almost signed up for AZ Memo Keep an eye out for an email to confirm your newsletter registration. More newsletters
The most well-known case was of a Kansas boy who, at age 13, impregnated his 17-year-old baby-sitter. Under Kansas law, a child under the age of 15 is legally unable to consent to sex. The Kansas Supreme Court in 1993 ruled that he was liable for child support.
California issued a similar state court ruling a few years later in the case of a 15-year-old boy who had sex with a 34-year-old neighbor. In that case, the woman had been convicted of statutory rape.
In both cases, it was the state social-services agency that pursued the case after the mother sought public assistance.
"The Kansas court determined that the rape was irrelevant and that the child support was not owed to the rapist but rather to the child," said Mel Feit, director of the New York-based advocacy group the National Center for Men.
In Arizona, the Department of Economic Security oversees child--support enforcement. Its written policy is not to exempt situations like Olivas' from child-support responsibilities, unless the parent seeking child support has been found guilty of sexual assault with a minor or sexual assault.
"We don't see those cases very often, and we're really glad for that," said attorney Janet Sell, chief counsel with the Attorney General's Office's Child and Family Protection Division.
But DES officials said the intent of the rule is to ensure that the child, who had no control over the situation, is cared for.
Feit said if the roles were reversed and the woman was the victim, the scenario would be unthinkable.
"The idea that a woman would have to send money to a man who raped her is absolutely off-the-charts ridiculous," he said. "It wouldn't be tolerated, and it shouldn't be tolerated."
Feit said the basic legal premise of a rape is that the victim can't be held responsible. And with statutory rape, even if the victim participates, he or she can't be held responsible.
"We're not going to hold him responsible for the sex act, so to then turn around and say we're going to hold him responsible for the child that resulted from that act is off-the-charts ridiculous," he said. "It makes no sense."
Arizona also has no exemption for children born to children, although the state cannot get a court order for child support against the non-custodial parent until that parent becomes an adult.
It also doesn't matter to the state whether the non-custodial parent knows about the child or not. Child support is a separate legal issue from custody.
The state requires parents seeking public assistance under the state's welfare programs to first pursue child support. The child-support payments then are used to help reimburse the state for assistance payments.
The state's child-support caseload includes 122,230 cases as of the end of May in which the families are or were receiving cash assistance. From April 2013 through March 2014, the state recouped just over $14 million in previously dispersed cash assistance through child-support payments.
"They have to comply with us," said Scott Lekan, DES child support operations administrator. "We're trying to keep them off the cash |
ly the Office of Representative Walter B. Jones The Washington, DC, office and the district office of former Representative
Walter B. Jones will continue to serve the people of the Third Congressional District of North Carolina under the supervision of the Clerk of the House of Representatives. Representative Jones passed away on February 10, 2019. See Press Release The Interim Vacant Office Status:
By federal law and the Rules of the House of Representatives, the employees of the former Representative continue to staff the offices of the congressional district under the supervision of the Clerk of the House of Representatives. This interim vacant status continues until a new Representative is elected to fill the unexpired term. Currently, the congressional district does not have voting representation. Although the scope of the vacant congressional office is limited, constituents of the district are invited to contact this interim office for information and assistance as indicated below. Legislative Information:
Until a new Representative is elected, the vacant congressional office cannot take or advocate positions of public policy. Constituents may choose to express opinions on legislation or issues to your elected Senators or wait until a new Representative is elected and takes office. Mail received by the vacant office will be acknowledged. The staff of the vacant office can assist constituents with general information concerning the status of legislation, but cannot provide analysis of issues or render opinions. Assistance with Federal Government Agencies (Casework):
The staff of the vacant office will continue to assist constituents who have cases pending with the office. These constituents will receive a letter from the Clerk requesting whether the staff should continue assistance or not. Constituents who do not have pending cases but require assistance in matters relating to federal government agencies are invited to contact the nearest district office for further information and assistance. Office Locations:
The staff of the vacant Congressional office is available to assist you at the following locations: Washington, DC
Office of the Third Congressional District of North Carolina
2333 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-3415 District Office in North Carolina
Greenville Office
1105-C Corporate Drive
Greenville, NC 27858
Phone: (252) 931-1003
Other Sources in North Carolina: North Carolina State Board of ElectionsIn the Mariupol sector, the enemy opened fire from 122mm artillery systems and 120mm mortars several times on the villages of Shyrokyne and Vodiane. The militants used 82mm and 120mm mortars toward the town of Maryinka, and the villages of Taramchuk, Talakivka and Lebedynske.
In the Luhansk sector, the occupiers resorted to armed provocations near the villages of Novo-Oleksandrivka and Novozvanivka, using grenade launchers, machine guns, anti-tank missile systems, small arms, and mortars.
Read alsoUkraine reports 4 WIA in past 24 hoursIn the Donetsk sector, a sniper was active in the village of Novhorodske. The enemy also fired grenade launchers, machine guns, and small arms in this area. In the town of Avdiyivka, in addition to the weapons mentioned, Russia's hybrid military forces used 122mm tube artillery systems.
"In order to hold to our strong-points and to prevent an enemy breakthrough onto the territory controlled by the Ukrainian side, the ATO forces were forced to return fire in several occasions, using only machine guns, grenade launchers, and small arms," the report says.Dance By The Light Of The 2017 Supermoon: The How And When
Enlarge this image toggle caption Orlin Wagner/AP Orlin Wagner/AP
Between last year's historic November supermoon and August's partial solar eclipse, a lunar event that's coming on Dec. 3 has taken a bit of a back seat. But 2017's first and only visible supermoon is nothing to sneeze at.
The term "supermoon" is popular vernacular. Its scientific name is perigee syzygy. University of Arizona professor Gurtina Besla says the phrase means two specific things in reference to the moon's placement and phase.
"Perigee refers to the moon being at its closest distance to the Earth, and syzygy refers to the alignment of multiple bodies — the moon, Earth and sun need to be aligned for us to see a full moon," Besla told NPR. "So it translates to the closest separation between the moon and Earth when the Earth, moon and sun are aligned."
Because the moon is closer to Earth, it can appear about 14 percent larger than an apogee moon, or micromoon, which is when the moon is at its farthest distance from our planet. NPR's Bill Chappell reported that last November's supermoon was the closest Earth's moon had been to the planet since 1948, and it's not scheduled to get that close again until 2034.
Like any phase of Earth's moon, a supermoon is safe to view with the naked eye. Besla says she is not personally that excited about the upcoming supermoon because the difference in the moon's perceived size is negligible. She knows, however, that many will still try to see it at peak viewing time. According to Besla, the best time to see this year's showing is at 3:45 a.m. ET on Monday, Dec. 4. If that's a bit too early for a wake-up call, don't worry. The moon will still appear larger than normal when it's close to Earth's horizon at sunset on Dec. 3 and sunrise on Dec. 4.
If you can't make it outside to see it in person, the Virtual Telescope Project will share a video feed. Or, you could turn to photos online and on social media. NASA offered these recommendations from its staff photographer Bill Ingalls:
" 'Don't make the mistake of photographing the moon by itself with no reference to anything,' he said. 'I've certainly done it myself, but everyone will get that shot. Instead, think of how to make the image creative—that means tying it into some land-based object. It can be a local landmark or anything to give your photo a sense of place.' "
He also recommends using the reactions on people's faces in photos. While it's difficult to get a quality shot with a smartphone, it's not impossible.
"Tap the screen and hold your finger on the object (in this case, the moon) to lock the focus," Ingalls told NASA. "Then slide your finger up or down to darken or lighten the exposure."
Enlarge this image toggle caption Bill Ingalls/NASA Bill Ingalls/NASA
For those using digital cameras, he suggested the daylight setting to get the proper white balance.
According to National Geographic, this is the fourth supermoon of 2017, but the only one visible to the casual observer. The previous three "coincided with new moons, when the lunar disk shows a totally darkened face."Location: Mashrow Highlands, South-East of Snowgod Spire
Day: November 07, 11:06 AM
Weather: Cloudy
Mashrow highlands is an elevated mountainous plateau, surrounded by the Agunta Mountain Range, various plains and forests. Various boulders can be found isolated on the grassy hills. These boulders, called erratics, have been picked up by the glaciers' ice sheets during their advance, and deposited during their retreat, when the climate warmed up. Some of them are massive and can be as big as a house.
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This picture was made for my 100 Themes Challenge!
This one's number 49! Poison.
MRGH I KNOW I KNOW. THERE'S TWO THINGS YOU MIGHT ARGUE ABOUT IN THIS DRAWING!
First, why does he only have a gas mask to protect himself against mustard gas that could totally burn his scales? Biotech's a phosphorus-sulfur-chlorine dragon! So he's immuned to that! BUT WHY THE HELL DOES HE HAVE A GAS MASK??
WELL BECAUSE IT LOOKS COOL!
Why does edgy kids in social medias wear battlegears or sport shirts if they're not soldiers nor basketball players? TO LOOK COOL.
Also see that mountain? That's the Snowgod Spire! Totally useless fact but I like to... situate my drawings.
I don't know what's up with this picture but I think it is not as original as the others... Maybe it's the fact that I used highlands as a setting... or maybe that is terribly looks similar to my other drawing called sulfur? I don't know. But I guess it looks okay.
Anyway. xD
Seeya for the next picture, as always~
Biotech Yossorab © MyselfTypically, archaeological research into the origins of agriculture has focused on western Asia, in areas such as the Fertile Crescent (the present-day Middle East). Now scientists report that intentional collection of grass seeds may be traced back about 30,000 years in China, about the same time similar practices occurred in Europe and western Asia.
As the human lineage evolved, so too did the ways it made use of plants, says study lead author Can Wang at the Key Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology and Environment in Beijing. During the Lower Paleolithic, which started about 2.5 million years ago and is marked by some of the earliest signs of human stone tool construction, ancient humans gathered plants randomly. However, during the Middle Paleolithic, starting about 300,000 years ago, there is evidence that ancient humans began focusing on certain plants, such as those with nutritious tubers and roots. Then, during the Upper Paleolithic, beginning about 50,000 years ago, human use of edible plants became markedly sophisticated, evolving from foraging to farming.
Wang and his colleagues systematically compiled an archaeobotanical database of China of plant remains dating between roughly 30,000 and 5,000 years ago. This data came from 127 species, including fruits, nuts, beans, yams, and cereals such as millets and rice.
The findings indicate that peoples from northern and southern China used markedly different plants, probably because of differing climates—for instance, northern China used more beans, roots and tubers than southern China did during the Upper Paleolithic. The scientists relied on data from 84 archaeological sites, 74 of which were located in northern China and 10 of which were located in southern China.
Seeds from wild grasses were intentionally collected in both northern and southern China starting about 33,000 years ago, much as they were in Europe and western Asia during about this time. These wild grasses were apparently staple foods, along with beans, tubers, roots, especially in northern China.
“The transitional process to agriculture in China was slow and long-term,” Wang says. The scientists detailed their findings online February 3 in the journal PLOS ONE.
China’s climate gradually began warming 14,000 to 9,000 years ago during the transitional phase from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic. The scientists noted that in northern China people were intentionally cultivating millet and were starting to domesticate it while in southern China people were intentionally cultivating rice. By the Early Neolithic 9,000 to 6,000 years ago, the climate in China was warm and wet, northern China had domesticated millet, and southern China had begun domesticating rice. During the Middle Neolithic 6,000 to 5,000 years ago, millet farming completely dominated subsistence practices in northern China, and rice farming was dominant in southern China.
All in all, the researchers concluded that the transition to rice and millet agriculture in China was a slow process spanning tens of thousands of years. They suggested this shift might be analogous to the development of wheat and barley farming in western Asia.
The researchers suggested that one possible explanation for this increasing use of grass seeds during the Upper Paleolithic was a cold, dry climate. As the human population grew, previous food resources were insufficient, “and then people had to expand their diet, including intentional collection of grass seed,” Wang says.
Future research might focus on why different regions of China cultivated the plants that they did, says archaeologist Robert Bettinger at the University of California, Davis, who did not take part in this research. For example, in northeast China, people domesticated millet for their own diet, Bettinger says, while in western China, people domesticated millet as dog feed, and the canines then helped people hunt wild pigs. “Dogs don’t like eating plant matter,” Bettinger notes. “But they’ll do it.”WARSAW, Poland (JTA) — Polish historian Prof. Krzysztof Jasiewicz was dismissed from the Polish Academy of Sciences following an interview in which he partly blames Jews for the Holocaust.
Jasiewicz, 61, will lose his position as head of the Department of Analysis of Eastern Issues on June 1 but announced that he will appeal the decision.
In the interview, which was published in April in a special edition of Focus magazine on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, Jasiewicz said that “generations of Jews worked for centuries to bring about the Holocaust,” that “without the active participation of the Jews the Holocaust would have been impossible,” and that “it is a waste of time to dialogue with the Jews.”
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Director of the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Professor Eugeniusz Cezary Krol, said in a statement that Jasiewicz was fired for violating the elementary standards of scientific rigor.
Scholars and historians at the academy protested against what Jasiewicz said in the popular scientific magazine, saying his opinions were harmful.
“The Jews accuse us [Poles] of the worst of everything; they are violent and arrogant against us. Our role in this dialogue is limited to apologizing,” Jasiewicz told “Do Rzeczy” magazine in an article about the controversy.This still from a video taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the Aug. 8, 2011 solar flare as it appeared in the ultraviolet range of the light spectrum. The flare registered as an X6.9 class sun storm, the largest of the Solar Cycle 24.
An extremely powerful solar flare, the largest in over four years, rocked the sun early Tuesday (Aug. 9), but is unlikely to wreak any serious havoc here on Earth, scientists say.
"It was a big flare," said Joe Kunches, a space scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s Space Weather Prediction Center. "We lucked out because the site of the eruption at the sun was not facing the Earth, so we will probably feel no ill effects."
Today's solar flare began at 3:48 a.m. EDT (0748 GMT), and was rated a class X6.9 on the three-class scale scientists use to measure the strength of solar flares. The strongest type of solar eruption is class X, while class C represents the weakest and class M flares are medium-strength events. [Sun's Wrath: Worst Solar Storms in History]
The flare is the largest one yet in the sun's current cycle, which began in 2008 and is expected to last until around 2020. Solar activity waxes and wanes over an 11-year sun weather cycle, with the star currently heading toward a solar maximum in 2013.
"This flare had a GOES X-ray magnitude of X6.9, meaning it was more than 3 times larger than the previous largest flare of this solar cycle - the X2.2 that occurred on Feb 15, 2011," scientists with NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, a space observatory that monitors the sun, wrote in an update.
Before the Feb. 15 storm, the largest recent solar flare occurred in December 2006, when an X9-class solar storm erupted from the sun.
Solar flares occur when magnetic field lines on the sun get tangled up into knots, building potential energy until they reach a tipping point. Then, that energy is converted into heat, light and the motion of charged particles.
While all X-class solar eruptions are major events, they pose the greatest threat to Earth when they are aimed directly at the planet. During those events the sun often releases a cloud of plasma called a coronal mass ejection into space, and sometimes toward Earth. This ejection hurls charged particles that can damage satellites, endanger astronauts in orbit, and interfere with power systems, communications and other infrastructure on the planet.
Today's solar flare, and resulting coronal mass ejection (CME) was not aimed at us, however. [Stunning Photos of Solar Flares & Sun Storms]
"Because of its position the CME is going to shoot out into space and not be Earth-directed, and we don’t expect any big geomagnetic storm with this," Kunches told SPACE.com. "We did luck out. If this would have happened a week ago, who knows?"
However, some VLF and HF radio communications blackouts have been reported, according to Spaceweather.com, a website that monitors space weather events.
Whatever particles do head our way should reach us in a few days. [Video: Aug. 9 Solar Flare Briefly Knocks Out HF Radio]
"The cloud will probably miss Earth," SpaceWeather.com wrote. "At this time, however, we cannot rule out a glancing blow from the flank of the CME on or about August 11th."
The plus side of such a collision is often unusually spectacular auroras, or Northern and Southern Lights, which occur when charged particles interact with Earth's magnetic field.
You can follow SPACE.com senior writer Clara Moskowitz on Twitter @ClaraMoskowitz. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.Mayor Bloomberg presented his Fiscal Year (FY) 2012 Executive Budget and an updated four-year financial plan on May 6, 2011. View Full Caption Mayor's Office/Edward Reed
CITY HALL — Mayor Michael Bloomberg called for another round of layoffs Friday in an updated budget that shows city agencies have spent nearly half-a-billion dollars more than expected so far this fiscal year, mainly due to overtime.
Despite a bruising round of budget cuts this spring, the city plans to lay off 250 more workers by the end of Jun 2012, in effort to save another $500 million, the new documents show.
According to the figures, city agencies have spent nearly half-a-billion dollars more than had been budgeted so far this year, thanks in part to the twin punches of the post-Christmas blizzard and Hurricane Irene.
Unlike recent budget cycles, there are no threats of fire house closures, senior center shutdowns or teacher layoffs this time around; but agencies have been pushed to squeeze savings everywhere, from cutting photocopying and printing costs to minimizing overtime.
Among the hardest hit is the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which is expected to face 34 layoffs by the end of June, 2011 and another 41 the June after that. Another 96 agency staff are expected to be lost through attrition over the next year and a half.
The Department of Cultural Affairs was also hit hard with cuts that could force them to lay off 109 staff members this year and 109 the year after that.
And the fire Department will lose 44 non-uniformed officers this year and 29 the next.
While the Department of Education fulfilled its promised of no new personnel cuts, it will slash $147 million though savings on things like special education contracts, consultants and overtime.
The city has also proposed privatizing the operation of four of the city's marine transfer stations for garbage, which would force the Department of Sanitation to shed 248 uniformed workers and an additional 54 civilian staffers through attrition in 2013.
In addition to taxes, the city is banking on $1 billion in new revenue from the sale of new taxi medallions, which can only be achieved through controversial legislation the governor has yet to sign.
The mayor also intends to take another $2 billion out of the Retiree Health Benefits Trust Fund in 2013 and 2014, emptying the piggy bank the city had saved.
But the city still will be in the red $2 billion next fiscal year, even with $1 billion in new cuts, including 1,300 workers lost through layoffs and attrition.
“Even with a billion dollars in new taxi medallion revenue and the savings items released today, we still need to fill a $2 billion hole and the national economic picture remains volatile and highly uncertain,” said Marc LaVorgna, a spokesman for the mayor.
In addition to the cuts, the city has found some new ways to raise cash, including stepped up enforcement of unregulated tobacco products.
The city will also boost fees for street activity permits from $15 to $25, and the Department of Investigating will begin charging $130 for fingerprints instead of the current $110.
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Finance Dominic Recchia, Jr., who in the past have not been shy about drawing attention to cuts they oppose, said they would take their time to review the proposals.
“The Council recognizes the need to make cuts that will help address next year's budget gap. As we have demonstrated before, the Council will again seek a fiscally responsible budget that won't compromise public safety or harm the most vulnerable New Yorkers,” they said in a statement.
Next year’s budget is expected to top more than $70 billion.BOSTON, United States — Inside Converse headquarters, housed in a former Schrafft candy factory overlooking the Zakim Bridge, museum-worthy displays of vintage shoes dot each open floor. A dedicated exhibit illustrates the brand's journey from sportswear upstart — starting with the first 1917 All Star, before coach-turned-salesman Chuck Taylor lent his name to the now-ubiquitous shoe — to counter-culture icon, worn by the likes of the Sex Pistols.
The past is very present at Converse, but the brand’s new leadership team is hoping it will not limit its future. Last summer, parent company Nike installed three of its executives at Converse: Davide Grasso, formerly chief marketing officer of Nike, became president and chief executive; Sean McDowell, who has spent most of his career designing for Nike and had previously worked at Converse, became vice president of design and innovation; and Julien Cahn, formerly senior marketing director at Nike, became Converse’s chief marketing officer. And, in February, the company is launching two of its biggest initiatives since the new team’s arrival: the Chuck Modern, the fourth iteration of the iconic shoe, and the “Forever Chuck” campaign. Both reflect efforts to better align Converse with today’s youth in a competitive sneaker market. And, of course, sell more shoes.
“The mandate was really unlocking the untapped potential that the brand has,” said Grasso. “Because sometimes, if you grow old with your brand, you grow old with your consumer. You’re not relevant anymore,” said Cahn. Indeed, the company aims to impress upon a new generation of consumers that much of what Converse already represents — breaking boundaries, performance, accessibility, gender-neutrality — aligns with their values.
It’s hard to overstate the Chuck Taylor All-Star’s iconic status — and its importance to Converse. “[The Chuck Taylor] is still one of the top sneakers of all time,” said fashion consultant Eugene Tong. “It works for everything and it works for everyone… It’s above the noise.” It’s also the company’s core business. “Converse currently does the majority of its sales from Chuck Taylor and its derivatives,” said Matt Powell, a sports industry analyst at NPD.
But the last time the company redesigned its Chuck, things didn't go as planned, according to industry analysts. In 2015, Converse launched the ill-fated Chuck II. The shoe leveraged Nike technology, including a new insole, to boost comfort and durability, yet the company was careful to only make small adjustments to the exterior of the iconic shoe.
It’s really taking the essence of the original and cleaning it up one more notch. It’s almost as if a child drew it.
“It worked; there was a great surge in the business,” said Powell. “And then it kind of fell flat.” A year later, it was clear that consumer demand for the Chuck II had fallen short of expectation. In fiscal 2016 (which began just before the launch of the new shoe), Converse’s revenue grew by only 2 percent, after growing by 21 percent in 2015 and 15 percent in 2014.
And while the company denies that the decline was linked to the launch of the Chuck II, citing spending on buying back foreign licenses and supply chain investments, by the end of the fiscal year, Nike had overhauled the executive team, bringing in Grasso, McDowell and Cahn.
To be sure, the Chuck II had its critics. Hal Peterson, author of “Chucks! The Phenomenon of Converse Chuck Taylor All Stars,” said the problem was largely one of price. While the original Chucks cost around $50, the Chuck II started at $70. “One of the things that made a pair of Chucks cool to the younger generations was their inexpensive price: $55 is surely stretching that concept, so the price of a new ‘improved’ version starting at $75 did not sit well with a lot of people." And he thinks the new insole also failed to provide sufficient added value and the design changes upset some Converse purists.
Interestingly, the new Chuck Modern, which launches on Thursday, reflects a much deeper overhaul of the iconic shoe than the Chuck II. Its development predates Grasso’s installment as chief executive, but aligns with his vision that future iterations of the Chuck should be boldly different from the classic. “The world doesn’t need another shoe,” explained Grasso. “Innovating for the sake of innovating could bastardise the shoe, it becomes a Frankenstein that people can’t really recognise, don’t know what to do with it and doesn’t go anywhere,” he added. “So we need to identify: what are the insights that we want to deliver?”
The Chuck Modern targets urban teenagers who wake up early, are gone all day long and need comfort, lightweight utility and versatility, said the company. “We’ve showed [focus groups of young people] some of the new line and they said, 'This is great, you can even go further,'” explained McDowell. “I actually think we have a lot more freedom than we sometimes think inside this building.”
The Chuck Modern collection will drop in six batches between February and May, starting with Lux, the most premium version of the shoe, featuring embossed leather and a phylon foam sole for $130 to $140. It is visually similar to the All Star Modern HTM shoe released in June and designed by Hiroshi Fujiwara, Tinker Hatfield and Mark Parker, which set the tone for new updates to Converse icons, including the Jack Purcell and now the Chuck Taylor.
“It’s really taking the essence of the original and cleaning it up one more notch. It’s almost as if a child drew it,” said McDowell. “We call it ‘street style performance,’” said Grasso. Forthcoming Chuck Modern drops will feature shoes with mesh, Nike Flyknit fabrications and expanded colour palettes, ranging in price from $100 to $140, a significant increase over the classic Chuck.
Converse is simultaneously releasing a new marketing effort geared for the youth consumer: “Forever Chuck,” showcasing the history of the Chuck Taylor and its current family of products, will start to roll out in February. The assets will launch primarily on Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook and star actress Millie Bobby Brown, rapper Vince Staples, Born & Raised designer Spanto, NBA player Jordan Clarkson, Winnie Harlow, Gucci Gang (a crew of girls from Paris) and many more talking about the shoe’s cultural significance in film, music and sports. “Some of them have no aspiration to ‘make it,’ but they are massive ambassadors of their community,” said Cahn.
“Most of our investment and focus is on digital tools,” continued Cahn. “If this building doesn’t see the campaign, it means that we did a good job.” Converse is also continuing its fashion week partnership with VFiles, a boutique and platform for emerging designers in New York. “[The VFiles community] is totally in sync with where we see the brand going moving forward,” he said.
Whether it works remains to be seen.
But even if the Chuck Modern succeeds where the Chuck II did not, can Converse really continue to rely on the success of just one style? “I think that’s the biggest shift. From a business standpoint and from a longevity [standpoint], it’s essential. We can’t just be a one shoe brand,” acknowledged Cahn.
When Nike bought Converse in 2003 for about $305 million, it was bringing in $205 million per year. In 2016, revenues hit just under $2 billion, an almost tenfold increase. “It’s been a tremendous source of growth and profit for [Nike],” said Powell. “But while they have managed the business extremely well over the last decade, it’s really imperative that they figure out how to diversify themselves from just essentially one shoe and its variations.”
Otherwise put: can Converse move beyond the Chuck?
Disclosure: Chantal Fernandez travelled to Boston as a guest of Converse.
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Just Fix It: How Nike Learned to Embrace SustainabilityIn less than a year, the sexual assault case against former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn came and went — as did his career.
International tabloids billed the news as a monumental scandal, but months after the case exploded, the allegations dissolved and fizzled to nothing.
Or maybe not.
According to writer Edward Jay Epstein, there is a large likelihood that the since-dismissed charges against DSK were part of a vast, international conspiracy — and he has the documentation to back up his case. In a piece published this week in the New York Review of Books, Epstein goes over hotel records, telephone correspondence and court files to try to make sense of the case against DSK.
From May 14, 2011 until only recently, Strauss-Kahn was embroiled in a heated legal dispute with Nafissatou Diallo, a maid at the posh Sofitel New York hotel. Diallo had attested the DSK sexually assaulted her in his presidential suite that afternoon, but after months of investigation, prosecution had no choice but to dismiss the case after declaring the maid’s account discreditable. DNA samples found in Strauss-Kahn’s room confirm that something sexual did indeed happen between the two parties, but DSK declared it consensual at the time. The following few months launched a he-said-she-said back-and-forth that dissolved once Diallo was found unreliable by prosecutors; but now Epstein insists that there was more to the case than just a chambermaid’s made-up tale of rape.
Of the events of May 14 that made it to the papers, Epstein now writes that some of the more mysterious of incidents largely went unreported.
For starters, Strauss-Kahn was warned earlier that morning that personal correspondence from his Blackberry cell phone had been mysteriously forwarded into the hands of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who DSK was expected to run against in the 2012 elections. Upon hearing the news, Strauss-Kahn contacted people to have his phone examined for any tinkering that could have been carried out once he made it to Paris later that day, though only two hours later his phone was gone.
Experts say that whoever found DSK’s phone managed to quickly disable the GPS signal from it and investigators have to this day not recovered the phone. Strauss-Kahn contacted the Sofitel hotel once he realized the phone had gone missing that afternoon. At that point the police had already become involved in the supposed sex crime and when DSK called back the Sofitel a second time, hotel security confirmed that they had the phone. On the contrary, they did not (or at least never turned it over).
Coincidently, the head of security for Accor, the company that owns the hotel, was out enjoying a soccer match with President Sarkozy that very afternoon. That same afternoon, Xavier Graff, the duty officer at the Accor Group in Paris, said via email, “bringing down DSK.” Though Graff later called the correspondence a joke, he lost his position at Accor.
According to the documentation obtained by Epstein, a conspiracy involving Diallo and the staff of Sofitel, Accor and Sarkozy causes suspicion that this was more than just a case to exhort money from the wealthy DSK, as prosecutors originally had considered. Diallo had discussed in the days after the incident with an imprisoned pal how much money could be made through a settlement and offered several false testimonies. Now, however, Epstein reveals that the chambermaid also lied to the court about her whereabouts immediately before and after the incident, and hotel records confirm that she went in and out of a nearby Sofitel suite that day, possibly while the room was occupied by someone else — although she told prosecutors that this wasn’t the case.
Diallo also reentered DSK’s own room after the encounter, which time stamps reveal could have lasted no longer than seven minutes.
With DSK slated to pose heavy competition for Sarkozy in the election until the scandal led to charges, house arrest and an international scandal, was the French president involved in a vast conspiracy to keep Strauss-Kahn from usurping him from office? His office doesn’t think so.
"It is complete fantasy!" Claude Gueant, the French Interior Minister and former chief of staff to Sarkozy, tells BBC.
“What is the point? So DSK lost his phone. Just because he lost his phone, it doesn't mean there is conspiracy,” he says.
Epstein, on the other day, begs to differ. “Whatever happened to his phone, and the content on it, his political prospects were effectively ended by the events of that day,” he writes.We might think of sub-Saharan subsistence economies when we think of Fairtrade, but the biggest recipient of Fairtrade subsidy is actually Mexico. Mexico is the biggest producer of Fairtrade coffee with about 23% market share. Indeed, as of 2002, 181 of the 300 Fairtrade coffee producers were located in South America and the Caribbean. As Marc Sidwell points out, while Mexico has 51 Fairtrade producers, Burundi has none, Ethiopia four and Rwanda just 10 – meaning that "Fairtrade pays to support relatively wealthy Mexican coffee farmers at the expense of poorer nations".
The article offers many other points of interest. For instance:
By guaranteeing a minimum price, Fairtrade also encourages market
oversupply, which depresses global commodity prices. This locks
Fairtrade farmers into greater Fairtrade dependency and further
impoverishes farmers outside the Fairtrade umbrella. Economist Tyler
Cowen describes this as the "parallel exploitation coffee sector".
Coffee
farms must not be more than 12 acres in size and they are not allowed
to employ any full-time workers. This means that during harvest season
migrant workers must be employed on short-term contracts. These rural
poor are therefore expressly excluded from the stability of long-term
employment by Fairtrade rules.The only way to carry your dice.
As a Henchman, I see a lot of people struggle with what to get once they set their sights on a faction. The seven factions of Malifaux each have their own identity with some bits of crossover. When delving into a faction though, there is still a sense of intimidation because crew boxes are not created equal; they merely provide theme and consistency. Here’s a quick guide, in my opinion, to the best crew boxes to start with in each faction.
Guild
Lady Justice, The Guild’s Judgement
Lady Justice herself is a bruiser of a model. She can shred enemies with her melee attacks, reliably heal herself, and charge without sight.
The rest of her box, sans her totem The Scales of Justice, is above average. With The Judge providing some movement tricks and great combat ability and Death Marshals being able to reliably reach objectives and “coffin” enemy models you don’t want to deal with anymore this box offers a solid starting point.
Perdita Ortega, The Latigo Posse
Perdita is the queen of the quick-draw and is amazing at ranged combat. She also has some movement tricks for her Family to employ and can make other models take actions with a steely glance and her threatening gun.
Her crew box are all individual Family members with their own unique skills. Francisco ties up enemies in melee and has a powerful defensive buff. Santiago emulates his sister with great ranged abilities. Nino watches over the field as a sniper and Papa Loco has some issues that deal mainly with psychosis and explosives. The Enslaved Nephilim isn’t part of the family but can rarely help out, handing out actions, and leap-frogging with it’s ball and chain.
Neverborn
Lillith, Mother of Monsters
Lillith is the master of terrain manipulation and positioning. She can ignore terrain elements, make new ones, swap model places, and she has a great melee attack to boot!
The Minions included in her crew box, Terror Tots, are the fastest demon babies in the west so they can easily claim objectives and they also have the ability to “grow” if they manage to kill something near an appropriate unit. Her included Henchman, Barbaros, is decently fast, tough, and has extremely respectable melee attacks that can set up “grow” opportunities for your horn-ed babbies. Lilith’s Totem, the Cherub, is usually shunned for the Neverborn generic totem but it has respectable uses of making scheme markers easier to drop and a decent ranged attack.
Jakob Lynch, Dark Debts
Lynch is on one-hand a control model with his ability to manipulate card drawing and on the other hand he is a pocket-cannon that can deal excellent damage. He is almost always accompanied by his darker half, The Hungering Darkness, that is a brutal damage dealer and can force actions on enemies.
The minions included with Lynch, The Illuminated, are undoubtedly the most solid melee minions in Neverborn AND Ten Thunders. They have decent speed, are tough, can heal themselves easily, have a ranged attack that can set up tons of melee damage via the “Brilliance” characteristic, and a punishing melee attack.
Arcanists
Ramos, The M&SU
Ramos is primarily a support master with auras and support fire. He can also summon squads of mechanical spiders from scrap on the battlefield.
There’s a lot of model value in Ramos’ crew box before even analyzing their great quality! His totem can give an extra activation to one of your constructs, but he’s rather slow and has next to no combat ability. Joss creates extra scrap when he gets a killing blow, great for more spiders, and his attacks ignore a lot of possible defensive shenanigans. If your opponent doesn’t finish him off he also gets a last “hurrah” |
include callers who have complaints about how they were treated.
In most cases, the office can’t handle such complaints directly and instead must direct callers to other complaint resolution systems. Even this can get tricky, because someone who had a bad experience as a patient may have to go through several complaints processes run by separate organizations, including AHS patient relations, the College of Physicians and Surgeons and the College of Registered Nurses.
“Each of these areas is siloed,” says Prowse, a Calgary lawyer who became involved in patient advocacy after her mother died from a medication mixup in hospital. “But we can help people make sense of it as they go, and provide support in understanding what each of the processes are about.”
This is an area where the advocate could use more authority, to ensure patients get answers rather than seemingly endless bureaucracy, Azocar says.
Other callers to the advocate have concerns about wait times, lack of information and quality of service. Health workers sometimes call to report on the impact of a particular decision or policy.
Yet Prowse says a significant number of callers also worry about raising their concerns publicly.
Again, the office can’t generally intervene on behalf of such callers, but Prowse says staff still try to help “so they can advocate for themselves.”
This can include providing patients a “script” of sorts to use to talk to their doctor or help drafting a complaint letter.
As for the advocate’s visibility with the public, Prowse says it is starting to develop. She says the office could soon use more resources, because the volume of calls has been steadily increasing. Though the number of files that has been opened may seem small, some cases can take a couple of months to resolve, she says.
Health Minister Sarah Hoffman, who just reappointed Prowse for another 18 months, says she believes the office has made progress.
The government isn’t currently looking at adding any powers to the office, and is undecided on doing a larger awareness campaign.
“Anytime you decide to launch a public awareness campaign, you expect demand to go up significantly, so we need to make sure that if we do that we are prepared for that and the staff are prepared for that,” Hoffman says.
In the meantime, Prowse says she is hoping to put more focus on the primary care system, and find ways to reach First Nations and other groups that don’t use the service much.
“I think it’s a valuable office. And I think it has great potential for developing to be even more valuable to the system.”
By the numbers:
$1.9 million: Latest yearly budget for the advocates office, which includes the health, seniors and mental health patient advocates.
678: Files opened by the health advocate in its first year of operation.
1,237: Files opened by the health advocate in its second year.
544: Files opened under the seniors advocate in its first year.
191: Files opened under the seniors advocate in its second year.
1990: Year the mental health patient advocate was established.
350: Files opened by the mental health patient advocate in its inaugural year.
1,173: Files opened by the mental health patient advocate in the 2015-16 fiscal year.
kgerein@postmedia.com
twitter.com/keithgereinScientists discover massive landforms beneath Antarctica’s ice
Sediment ridges the size of the Eiffel Tower found beneath Antarctica
Ridges carving deep scars into the ice sheet and reducing stability of ice sheet
Landforms are five times bigger than visible examples in North America and Scandinavia
Ice-penetrating radar has revealed enormous landforms beneath the Antarctic ice and they may be contributing to the ice thinning, a new study has revealed.
Ancient ice sheets that once covered parts of North America and Scandinavia and have long since retreated left behind numerous landforms that scientists have studied to learn how they impacted the ice above. Until now, most landforms have so far never been observed under contemporary ice sheets - primarily because they are relatively small and buried under a kilometre-thick ice.
Now a team including Dr Felix Ng from the Department of Geography and led by scientists from Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Germany, have discovered an active hydrological system of water conduits and sediment ridges, some as large as the Eiffel Tower, beneath the Antarctic ice sheet.
Their study, published in Nature, reveals that the scale of these subglacial features is five times bigger than those seen in visible deglaciated landscapes in Scandinavia and North America.
Scientists measured the subglacial conduits which form large tunnels under ice sheets that funnel meltwater to the ocean. They found that the conduits became wider near the ocean, and the tunnels accumulated sediment over millenia which formed massive ridges - some measuring 300 metres high..
Using satellite and radar data, the team were able to find evidence of these sediment ridges cutting into the Antarctic ice flow, weakening the ice above.
The newly discovered sediment ridges actively shape the ice hundreds kilometers downstream, by carving deep incisions at the bottom of the ice. The scarred parts of the ice-shelf were found to be up to half as thin as the uncut ice and much more susceptible to melting from the warmer ocean. It was previously thought that ice-shelf channels were carved as the ice melted from the warmer ocean waters.
This is of interest for the stability of the floating ice shelves, as numerous studies show that ice shelf thinning has major consequences for ice sheet stability. Though the study has improved understanding of Antarctica’s ice sheets, the research team says further study is required.Thomas Jones, a retired running back who played for five teams in 12 NFL seasons, has decided to donate his brain, upon his death, to the Sports Legacy Institute to be studied for evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Jones said he has no idea how many concussions he sustained, but he's concerned with what they could mean for his future.
"Honestly, like I couldn't give you a number because you just play with them," Jones said. "You can't know; nobody does. I think the guys counting the concussions were the ones that got knocked out."
The Sports Legacy Institute won't confirm individual donations, but a spokesperson said that more than 600 living athletes have decided to donate their brains to be studied. Of 34 neural tissue samples from NFL players, 33 had evidence of CTE. Jones said he can only guess at what has happened to his brain after 20 years of games and practices -- and numerous "baby concussions" -- through his NFL, college and high school career.
"It's like taking a fresh, ripe apple and tapping it with your thumb over and over again," Jones said.
Jones is in the editing process of a documentary series, "The NFL: The Gift or the Curse?" The first of six planned episodes produced by Jones' company, Independently Major Entertainment Films, deals with concussions and suicide. He interviewed Ann McKee and Chris Nowinski, co-directors of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University.
Jones decided to make his donation after conducting interviews for the project.
Last week, Junior Seau's family revealed that his brain showed evidence of CTE when he committed suicide last year. This generation of players is the first to play with concrete evidence that they could be compromising not-too-distant futures by playing professional football.
In the documentary, Jones also interviewed former defensive end Adewale Ogunleye, who was drafted by the Dolphins in 2000. Ogunleye sees ominous signs in what might just be everyday forgetfulness.
"Somebody might tell me their name; I don't remember it right away," Ogunleye said. "Now I kind of laugh it off, but when stuff like that happens, I'll be like, 'Damn, I hope these concussions don't come back to haunt us in the end.' And if they do, I just pray someone is there to help me through the tough times that may come."
In the rough cut, Ogunleye then puts his face in his hands. Jones comes over and puts his arm on Ogunleye's shoulder.
These issues are personal for NFL players. Jones uses the example of Dave Duerson's suicide in February 2012.
"His suicide, you see it on TV and it's just news," Jones said. "But to us, it's more than that."
Jones envisions the series as the players speaking directly to the fans about the pitfalls of playing in the NFL. He understands that many people see attaining the dream of playing in the NFL as a dream come true, but he wants to show what it looks like through the eyes of the men who reached that goal.
"The fans look at it as money," Jones said, "but once you've bought everything you want, you realize there is more you want out of life."
The series also will focus on issues such as domestic violence and financial pressures. Jones is talking with possible distributors for the project.About
Hello, before we start: we are a 100% Mexican group of devs, but, since we know most of our upcoming fans are going to be from all around the world, we made the image above, showing the equivalence of dollars, euros and pounds to Mexican pesos, so you know exactly how much you are donating!
Beacon The Awakening is our first major videogame, it started it's development process back in mid 2014, when all of us were 16 or 17 years old, we've started with just passion and a dream, the game will consist of two chapters, each one with entirely different gameplay. The first one: Beacon The Awakening it is scheduled to be released in 2017, with the second one a few months later in the form of a free update, we've been working in this game with almost 0 dollars, and now, since we are close to finish it, we need money to actually finish it and publish it.
Read the very beginning of Beacon's story on this free webcomic: https://sheldrybox.com/beacon-mini-comic/
Something wakes him up.
His head hurts. His right arm has some bloody scratches. A backpack weights on his back, and he quickly searches its insides, finding some bandages that he uses to wrap up his injuries.
He looks around himself and stands up. A big bright light glows through the woods in the horizon and he realizes he doesn’t know where he is. He doesn’t remember anything before waking up. Seeing he doesn’t have a lot of options, he decides to walk towards the wood and the mysterious light that’s beckoning him.
(Pre-alpha gameplay screenshot, level 2-3)
Beacon the Awakening has a short and emotional story. The game explores “close to home” subjects such as love, fear, loneliness, life, and death. With an ambiguous nature, the story won’t tell you anything directly, instead giving you details and it will be up to the player to make their own interpretations and conclusions, making each player’s playthrough and experience different.
In Beacon the Awakening you will travel from area to area by solving interesting puzzles that will require you to think out of the box. You will use your enemies and make them work in your favor by making them open doors or get rid of stronger enemies. However, it isn't always smart to interfere with nature; as you are an ordinary man in the game, sometimes it’s best to use your environment and the tools it provides.
(Pre-alpha gameplay, level 1-1)
The levels are structured in a semi-linear way, which makes it possible to finish the game just by walking right, avoiding enemies and solving puzzles you come across. But in order to "see the light” and everything that the game has to offer, you will need to explore and find secrets that will trigger new events throughout the game and will give you more clues to fully understand the story.
Beacon will give the average player a 3 to 4 hour gameplay, with an extra 3 hours with the second chapter coming out a few months after release. The gameplay can be doubled for dedicated players who want to “Follow the Light”.
(Pre-alpha gameplay screenshot, level 1-1)
Beacon the Awakening features hand-painted backgrounds that bring the diverse world to life: explore strange forests, abstract beaches, and magical caves all thanks to our meticulously designed visuals that’ll immerse you into this strange world.
In terms of animation, each character and cinematic features frame by frame animation, made in professional animation software in the standard speed of 24 fps. The special effects included in the game are also done by hand and rendered through the game engine, all of them carefully selected to create the best visuals that we can.
(some of our main character animations)
(Animation process, 2015)
We’ve created a fully original soundtrack, filled with beautiful pieces that focus on setting the mood to immerse the player into the story. Each of the songs has been traditionally recorded and mastered, and they feature keyboards, cellos, violins, drums, and guitars.
We want our players to feel the complete experience of the game. That’s why each song takes you to different places and emotions that, along with the art and gameplay, create an interesting aesthetic of mystery, sadness, fear, and liberation.
Listen to part of the game's soundtrack here:
We are just a bunch of kids with a lot of talent, we started this entire project about 3 years ago, when the average age of the team members was 16.5 now, some time later, at an average age of 20.5 and with a bunch of experience we have created an awesome and deeply artistic game we want to share with you!
You want to meet the people behind the dream and what everyone does? you can do that right HERE
Don't forget to check the awesome rewards that we have for our backers!
The total: 350,000 MXN:
$196,003.28 MXN: Our country taxes and other unavoidable payments.
$77,517.43 MXN: Replace broken equipment with more capable ones.
$50,798 MXN: iMacs and OS/IOS support
$15,681.29 MXN: (Unity Licenses and Android support)
$10,000 MXN: Emergency fund.
The remaining money and any extra money that we may get we would spend it in this order of importance:
Merchandise (for our backers and fans, details below)
Outsource hiring for better quality
Licensing and fees for console support and release
Extra content
Marketing and publicity
Salaries for ourselves
And now that we are in subject:
We have envisioned several stretch goals depending on how achieving this campaign turns out to be, including but not limited to merchandise, digital content, in-game material and improvements in our backer's rewards.
If we reach 130% of our goal ($450,000 MXN), we will use the exceeding funds to finance merchandise, including plushies, apparel, mugs, and artwork like vinyl records with our game's soundtrack and a bound book with original artwork and the game's Master Score.
These items are meant to be sent to our backers. Upon reaching higher numbers, we will also increase our output towards you:
$350,000: Original goal.
$450,000: Merchandise to reward certain backers with.
$500,000: Inclusion of a local multiplayer mode.
$600,000: Console support.
$700,000: Visual art enhancement and professional mastering on the soundtrack.
$800,000: more and improved In-game cinematic sequences.
$1,000,000+ : Additional levels, and an orchestral version of the game's soundtrack.
It is our belief that these stretch goals will make of an amazing experience an astounding one.
We've been working a lot to achieve this our dream, we really do believe that we can make it, and with your support everything is possible, if we exceed our funding expectation we will contact other studios and professionals so that they can help us improve everything: The coding, the visuals, the music and so on, this will mean a delay on the release date, but a better product in the end. it doesn´t matter how this ends, we will finish and publish this game, our baby: Beacon The Awakening.10 SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Whatsapp Pinterest Print Mail Flipboard
One of the proposals being floated by the Trump White House on tax reform is to tax the retirement plan contributions of workers upfront to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.
Politico reported in August, “One idea quietly being discussed would be taxing the money that workers place into their 401(k) savings plans up front: an idea that would raise billions of dollars in the short-term and is pulled from the Camp plan. This policy idea is widely disliked by budget hawks, who consider it a gimmick; the financial services industry that handles retirement savings; and nonprofits that try to encourage Americans to save.”
Americans already don’t save enough money for retirement, so taxing retirement account contributions is an idea that is certain to make the problem worse, but Republicans don’t care if American workers can ever afford to retire. The scheme is all about making the numbers work on paper, so that the wealthy and corporations, a.k.a. people just like Donald Trump can get the tax cut that they don’t need.
Republicans have learned nothing. They are still trying to sell a big tax cut to the wealthy and corporations as a tool for economic development. History and the data both show that tax cuts for the wealthy don’t grow the economy. Trickle down economics doesn’t work. Republicans are going to blow up the deficit and take money out of the economy with tax cuts for the top, and then feign ignorance when the inevitable economic recession occurs.
The plan to tax workers to give rich people a tax cut perfectly sums up the Trump presidency. Donald Trump isn’t governing for regular Americans. Trump is only interested in helping people like himself and pandering to the bigoted right wing fringe that makes up the bulk of his support.
Under Donald Trump, workers will be sacrificing their future retirement so that that rich people can have a tax cut today.
If you’re ready to read more from the unbossed and unbought Politicus team, sign up for our newsletter here! Email address: Leave this field empty if you're human:Image copyright Kate Stephens/BBC Image caption The Philippines is regarded as one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change
A developing country dubbed one of the most vulnerable to climate change has confirmed controversial plans for more coal-fired power stations.
The president of the Philippines has told the BBC the new coal plants are needed to meet demands for energy.
This comes despite environmental groups and some leading Filipino politicians arguing that coal is one of the biggest contributors to global warming.
Coal emits more greenhouse gas than any other fossil fuel.
And climate scientists have long concluded that burning more coal will undermine efforts to limit the rise in temperatures.
But many developing countries, facing rapid increases in population and surging economic growth, see coal as a relatively cheap option, which is why the Philippines is planning a total of 23 new coal plants.
China, India and other fast-growing Asian economies also have plans for hundreds of new coal power stations.
The dilemma of how developing countries should generate electricity - and whether they should follow the path of the nations which industrialised first and became rich using coal - will loom large at the UN summit on climate change in Paris starting next week.
For the Philippines, coal currently generates about 42% of the country's electricity, with the rest coming from locally-sourced natural gas and renewables, but coal's share could potentially rise to about 70% in a few decades, according to some projections.
Speaking to the BBC, President Benigno Aquino said that reducing the use of coal in favour of gas, a popular choice for many, was not an option because of a lack of gas-importing facilities.
And he said that while the Philippines had increased the share of renewables, costs had limited their appeal until recently.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption President Benigno Aquino said that reducing the use of coal in favour of gas was not an option because of a lack of gas-importing facilities.
With solar, he said, "the price was considered too high so that it would bring up all of the electricity rates which would make us not competitive and will hamper the growth."
His concern is that higher power prices would "raise a hue and cry from our people about very high electricity rates which are at points in time the highest in the region".
The costs of solar had now fallen, Mr Aquino said, but that still left the problem of the intermittent nature of renewables, which he then chose to spell out.
"For instance, if we go to wind, are the wind turbines really working or not? Solar will get affected by cloudy conditions like this."
He was speaking under the dark clouds of Typhoon Koppu, known as Lando in the Philippines, which struck last month killing dozens of people and causing widespread flooding.
The president added: "Wave action is not yet developed sufficiently to be viable for the product mix.
"So what we're trying to do is ensure that we have the most modern coal plants that are in existence."
Image copyright Kate Stephens/BBC Image caption Senator Legarda says the global trend is to move away from coal, but does not advocate closing existing plants
The push for more coal, in the face of strenuous objections, has dismayed many leading figures who say that there are many less-polluting alternatives.
Senator Loren Legarda, who chairs the country's Senate Finance Committee and has pushed through new legislation on climate change and energy, told me that "doing coal is a crime".
"It's a crime against humanity, it's just bad. It pollutes the already vulnerable environment, and coal kills - it kills our air, it kills our biodiversity.
"Coal is never an option, coal is not cheap. We must put in the negative effect of the health of the people, the negative effect on biodiversity, the bad effect on the environment, the bad effect on business."
Senator Legarda does not advocate closing down existing coal-burning power stations but says the global trend is to move away from coal and that her country should be part of that movement, particularly since its 98 million people are particularly vulnerable to a potential scenario of higher temperatures and more violent typhoons.
"Europe is downscaling on coal, many countries are downscaling on coal so why are we approving coal? It does not make sense. We are victims of climate change and we want to exacerbate it? We want to worsen the situation by doing more coal? It does not make sense."
Meanwhile, amid the debate over energy in the Philippines, there are efforts to help people cope with the kind of future disasters that may become more intense with climate change.
The charity Save the Children is providing advice to schools on how to teach children to be more aware of the possible dangers.
At the school in the village of San Augustin, in the flood-prone province of Bulacan on the central island of Luzon, pupils are given regular training drills in how to stay safe in situations such as flash floods.
According to one of the charity's organisers, Lourdes Pambid: "People are really getting to see the effects of these changes in the climate and they're also paying attention to these things."
She said the worry was that the next generation would grow up into a very different world.
"For children, it's losing their homes and even the type of their livelihoods.
"In Bulacan, it used to be a farming area and then the floods came in and some have shifted to fish farming but then conditions became worse and they had to give that up, they had to leave fishing.
"It could get worse if nobody does anything to address this situation so that's why the kids, the local government units, the government officials should be doing something about it."
Follow David on Twitter.The above full-page ad was run on the back of the Sunday sports section in the Minneapolis Star Tribune on Sunday. According to reports, it’s from a coalition of religious right and Tea Party activists who regularly oppose legislation meant to protect vulnerable communities. When they fought anti-bullying legislation, it was under the pretense of government intrusion in schools.
But this worse, way worse.
With an image of a shower and a rhetorical question about a boy showering with “your 14-year old daughter,” they go on to mischaracterize the rule that is being considered by the Minnesota State High School Athletic League. (You can read the draft policy here.)
States around the country are addressing the issue of transgendered high school athletes because the federal government updated Title IX to clarify that civil rights applies to all students, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. So, like many states, the high school league is going to tell schools that they need to make private accommodations for trans* students whenever possible — and when it’s not possible the trans* student should be allowed to dress and shower with the gender with whom they identify.
As opposed to the bigots, let’s look at this from the perspective of the high school league. They are attempting to update their policies in ways that are humane and sensitive to all students, and they’re doing so in a politically charged climate. Both the morality and the understanding of sexuality has changed quickly and dramatically in our society in just a couple decades. Bureaucratic organizations like the MSHSL are not set up to make snap decisions, so they they been deliberate about this, and they’ve followed the policies of other states (like North Dakota, not exactly a bastion of liberalism).
But more significantly, let’s talk about the trans* teens. Firstly, somewhere between 2 and 5% of the U.S. population experiences some kind of gender dysphoria, and within that number are those who are trans*. [The Star Tribune reports that 0.3% of the American population is trans*.] That means that most trans* kids are going to be alone in their high school class — maybe in their whole school, depending on the size.
Think how hard it is for a trans* teen to even survive high school, much less to go out for a sport. The MSHSL is to be commended for developing a policy that will attempt to protect these vulnerable kids at a very vulnerable time in their lives.
Where is the church on this issue? The Minnesota Catholic Conference is against it, and I haven’t been able to find any religious leader in Minnesota speaking in favor. Well, I don’t have a church or a pulpit, just this little ol’ blog, but let me state clearly and directly: I support the MHSHL’s draft policy for taking a step to protect and respect trans* teens in our state.
UPDATE: The Star Tribune has published an article on this.Karan Thapar: Hello and welcome to a special interview with the General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Sitaram Yechury, for The Wire.in. Writing an essay on his blog on the 7th of November, 2017, the finance minister said the demonetisation was a watershed moment in the history of the Indian economy. Not only had it fulfilled all its objectives, but more importantly he wrote, “It’s been actually a shattering blow to the chalta hai attitude of the Indian people to corruption.” Now the key question is, how do top Indian opposition politicians respond to those claims. That’s the primary issue I shall discuss today with Sitaram Yechury.
Mr Yechury, I will come one by one to each of the objectives for demonetisation outlined by the prime minister, when he announced the scheme in November last year. But first, as I said a moment ago, Mr Jaitley says this was a watershed moment in the history of the Indian economy and more importantly, it’s dealt a shattering blow to the chalta hai attitude of the Indian people to corruption.
Sitaram Yechury: It is indeed a watershed moment for the Indian economy because it is a shattering blow to the momentum of our GDP growth that was built up for over a decade now. And by this one single move, it shattered what is called the informal economy, which contributes nearly half or more to the GDP. I mean it generates more than 80% of the non-agricultural employment. All that has been completely crippled. So it is indeed a watershed; a watershed in the reverse direction. The momentum of the GDP growth has been shattered.
KT: In other words, it’s a watershed moment, but for none of the reasons that Arun Jaitley says. In fact, for precisely opposite reasons.
SY: And for none of the reasons the prime minister also enumerated, which you said you’ll come to.
KT: In fact, let’s come to the objectives, and I want to ask you, one by one, whether they’ve been fulfilled. Now when the prime minister announced demonetisation on the 8th of November last year, one of the objectives he outlined was tackling counterfeit money. In the essay that Arun Jaitley put on his blog on the 7th of November, he says that detection of counterfeit money has almost doubled. Note that he said “almost.” Do you think that is a significant achievement, or do you think he is making a lot of very little?
SY: He is making a lot of very little and the entire blog is full of statistics. That reminds me of an old English saying, “lies, damned lies and statistics.” I mean these are meaningless in relation to the objectives that have been outlined. Let’s come down to the actual facts, the Indian Statistical Institute, at the time of demonetisation, estimated that counterfeit currency was less than 1% of the cash that was flowing.
KT: In fact 0.02%.
SY: 0.028% is their estimate. Now for that you’re making a mountain of a molehill. Now, this digital counterfeit currency cannot be controlled through demonetisation. Within days of demonetisation, you had counterfeit 2000 rupee notes surfacing in Bangalore.
KT: So you are saying 3 very important things, first of all you are saying that the Indian Statistical Institute established that the quantum of counterfeit currency is so marginal, 0.028%, that you don’t need to worry about it. Secondly, it’s not tackled through de-monetisation and thirdly, if the detection levels have only ‘almost doubled’, then you haven’t achieved very much.
SY: And you have not even been able to plug the holes, ie. how this counterfeit is surfacing, because the new notes are also counterfeited.
KT: So far from being tackled, the problem continues. Let’s come to the second objective, announced by the Prime Minister on the 8th of November last year. And that was tackling terror funding. Now, on the 4th of November, just a couple of days ago, the Home Ministry announced that what they call LWE or left-wing extremism or Naxal terror, has gone down by 21%. In August, the Minister of State for Home, Hansraj Ahir, told parliament, that terror levels in Kashmir, he called it violence in Kashmir, had actually gone up compared to last year. So the Home Ministry is saying two different things, LWE terrorism has gone down by 21%, but Kashmir violence, which includes terror, has gone up.
SY: This is again a misleading statistic.
KT: Let me complete and then you answer. Despite what I have quoted, in his essay on his blog, Arun Jaitley says and I am quoting him, “The reduction in incidence of stone pelting and protests in Jammu and Kashmir, and Naxal activities in LWE affected districts is attributed to the impact of demonetisation. Now do the facts I have quoted corroborate Jaitley, or do they actually, do the opposite, contradict him?
SY: Completely opposite, contradictory. You see, number 1, LWE and terror attacks, cannot be compared. LWE has also got a political component to it. And it is through political negotiations, political talks etc., that much of that problem has been controlled in the past, in fact, this is how it needs to be controlled (through talks).
KT: So if it’s gone down by 21% that’s not attributable to demonetisation.
SY: It’s got nothing to do with demonetisation, if it has gone down. Secondly, you take the statistics, or the data the Home Ministry gives you. Take the number of terror attacks along the LOC in J&K before demonetisation, and you take it after demonetisation – they’ve virtually doubled. Because there is a fundamental flaw in this, we must understand, Mr Thapar. The flaw is that terror funding is not done through cash transactions. Terror funding is done through sophisticated electronic means. We in Parliament had brought a new law on how to control all this. So it is actually missing the wood for the trees.
KT: So once again you are saying two very important things. First of all, any diminution in LWE extremism has got nothing to do demonetisation, it’s to do with politics and a political change in atmosphere. When it comes to Kashmir, the terror there has increased, it hasn’t gone down. Secondly, you are saying, that funding of the terror in Kashmir doesn’t happen through cash, it happens through electronic means. So demonetisation is the wrong way of tackling it. And thirdly, you are saying, these two statements made by the Home Ministry actually contradict what Arun Jaitley is saying. They don’t confirm it.
SY: Exactly.
KT: So the government is at odds with itself.
SY: It is. The government keeps producing these statistics in order to suit their own objectives at a point in time. And often they are contradictory to the actual reality and what they have themselves said in the past.
KT: In fact, the embarrassing thing is on the specific question of whether demonetisation has affected terror funding, what the Home Ministry is saying, and how you interpret what the Home Ministry is saying, actually contradicts Jaitley and doesn’t corroborate him.
SY: Exactly, I mean, it’s a direct contradiction with the Finance Minister’s statement.
KT: Let’s then come to what for many people, was the raison d’etre, the real reason for demonetisation.
SY: Black money.
KT: The belief that it will tackle black money. Now before I put to you what Arun Jaitley has written about that, let me ask you another question. Do you, as an independent observer believe that demonetisation has tackled black money? Has black money, has corruption, come down?
SY: No, on the contrary, it legitimised black money. The quantum of currency that has come back into the banks, the RBI itself says is close to 99%, which means almost all the cash that was outside. If you remember, the Attorney General of India told the Supreme Court that they were expecting 4-5 lakh crores of currency notes not to come back to the banks after demonetisation.
KT: Only 16,000 crore didn’t come back.
SY: Now again, if you look at today’s reports, the amount of money that is today with Nepal, in Bhutan, in Singapore, in Dubai…
KT: And cooperative banks which haven’t been counted either.
SY: Exactly, and if all this is counted, you may well have a situation where more money has come back into the banking system than what was demonetised.
KT: So before I quote what Jaitley has written, you are saying your personal assessment is that demonetisation has failed to tackle black money, it might have actually secured it or encouraged it.
SY: And legitimised it.
KT: And legitimised it.
SY: And secondly, please remember, this is very important to understand, the most liberal estimates of black money say that it’s not more than 6% in cash holding. Most black money is in gold or real estate. So tackling black money by demonetisation itself is limiting even if you accept the most liberal estimate of cash holding – up to 6%. So the actual big fish of your black money holders and operators (are untouched).
KT: So demonetisation as a way of tackling black money, because black money is only 6% held in cash, is a bit like using a bomb to kill a mosquito.
SY: Yes, absolutely. Secondly, remember that black money is not a stock, it’s a flow. People who have black money make more black money by using it.
KT: Let me then, at this point, quote to you what Arun Jaitley in his blog has actually said specifically, about the success of demonetisation in tackling black money. He says, “Almost the entire cash holding of the economy now has an address, it’s no more anonymous.” Secondly he says, “The total amount of money which is under suspicion is actually something as large as 1.7 lakh crore. Separately the Prime Minister has said that 18 lakh accounts are under scrutiny and Arun Jaitley in his blog has added that 2.97 lakh companies are under scrutiny. Taken all together, this suggests that the quantum of money under scrutiny is very substantial. And secondly, a large number of entities who this money is supposedly with, are also under scrutiny. Doesn’t this suggest that when the scrutiny is done, not only will the black money be identified, it will then be taxed and the benefits to the exchequer could be substantial?
SY: The colour of black money is no different (from white money), how do you identify it? All the lakhs of people who stood in the queues converting old notes into new notes – for various other people and earning money for doing the job, their addresses may be there in the bank.
KT: In fact, if they were mules, they could be made to reveal whose money they were actually depositing. And then you’ll get to the address of the actual person, and you’ll identify the black money hoarder.
SY: It is so small (the amount) that each one was depositing, that you can’t even identify whether it is part of any black money.
KT: So you’re saying that the task is so difficult because there are so many mules to identify?
SY: Exactly, and please remember what Raghuram Rajan had said, he said the clever ones always find a way of bypassing all this. And demonetisation is not the way.
KT: But can I say, you’re not actually saying that the task the government has is impossible to do, you’re simply saying it’s difficult to do. Now, the answer to that was given to me by the NITI Aayog Vice Chairman, Rajeev Kumar. He said modern technology actually helps you make a task which looks and seems humongous, very simple. With modern technology, they can scrutinise 18 lakh accounts, they can scrutinise 2.97 lakh companies and they can ensure that this vast sum of 1.7 lakh crore, which is considered dubious, is identified as black and taxed.
SY: But listen, Karan, how was demonetisation put into practice? All this doesn’t work at all and is immaterial. It was cash to cash, you were depositing your money in cash or old notes, you were getting new money in new notes. Now if I were to do the change for you and give it back, for a cost of |
Yes. A ritualistic festival? Check. Gods demanding tribute? We got it!
After roughly 5 months, 700 hours, 3 ruleset revisions, 18 handmade mockups, more than 100 hours of testing and several all-nighters, TOTEZ is production-ready! We cannot wait for you to play it.
"Fun for the Ages" – Noah Clavijo for Another Castle
“TOTEZ combines the best of Poker and some of Memory into a quick fun game”
– Nick E.
“Very fun game with great interaction!”
– Scott K.
“AWESOME GAME! can’t wait to get it when is ready. Thanks for letting me play it!”
– Elizabeth M.
"Played this at GenCon. Really great guys and dat artwork... Great easy to learn game that I highly recommend.”
– Hogger Logger
"Played at Gen Con. Loved it. Backed as soon as I could.”
– Matthew M.
"Played at gen con in two rounds we are already itching to get this back in our hands. Love the art design.”
– Elliott S.
“Great Game!!!”
– Emaline E-D.
“Kickstarter: the only word you need to remember is TOTEZ!”
– GENCON Testers
"Though I don't get the sense that Vieko and Mike are the type of guys who are particularly motivated to sending overt autobiographical messages in their games, it didn't take long to see the parallels between the design of KRUNCH and the temperament of its creators. Competitive, wild, carefully organized, aggressive, and unpredictable, these dudes take intense fun very seriously." – Jon Holmes, Destructoid
"Throughout my career as a sound designer / voice director, I always found Vieko to be one of the most well-organized, detail oriented people I've ever worked with. Clear and concise in his direction, every project we worked on together moved along like a rocket on rails!" – Glenn Howard, GHVOChampagne has had the worst growing season for several decades and the prospects for the 2012 harvest look increasingly bleak.
Champagne’s 2012 growing season has been described as ‘unprecedented’
Even with improved weather in the run-up to harvest, expected to start around 20 September, yields will be significantly down on recent years with frost, hail, protracted and uneven flowering and problems with disease all having an adverse effect.
Frosts in mid-April destroyed nearly 10% of the appellation’s crop, with losses as high as 40% in some areas.
A severe hailstorm in early June in the Cote des Bar affected nearly 1,000 hectares of vineyard, with some producers losing everything and the damage estimated to have cut the 2013 harvest by one-third as well.
‘We have had frost and hail, while poor weather during flowering when it was cold and wet meant that took place over four weeks [instead of just a few days], resulting in a very poor fruit set and millerandage,” said Benoit Gouez, chef de cave at Moet & Chandon.
‘Milder, wet weather more recently has resulted in disease problems, particularly with oidium on the Chardonnay and mildew on Pinot Noir and Meunier. It’s not been a good year for the growers.’
‘We have had a terrible season with an awful climate from April to mid-July,’ said Benoit Marguet of Marguet Pere & Fils, a small producer in Ambonnay.
‘After frost in April, yields were down 20% and since then the rain has never really stopped. It’s been seven days a week work in the vineyard, fighting against mildew and powdery mildew.
‘We have probably lost at least 40% of the grapes – it’s been the worst weather season in Champagne for several decades.’
Both Marguet and Gouez agree, however, that good weather in the coming weeks could still see some healthy grapes produced.
Dominique Moncomble, director of technical services at the CIVC (Comite Interprofessionel du Vin de Champagne), described the season as ‘unprecedented’, adding that average yields would be down 30%, but that harvest quality was ‘not yet compromised’.
Written by Giles FallowfieldHistory
2009-10: Connor Carrick skated for the Chicago Fury midget program in Illinois. In 22 games with the Fury midget major team he scored 2 goals with 4 assists and had 2 penalty minutes. He played 37 games with the Fury’s midget minor team; scoring 7 goals with 15 assists and 48 penalty minutes. Carrick attended the United States National Team Development Program camp in the spring and committed to playing college hockey at the University of Michigan in 2012-13. Carrick was selected by Guelph in the 11th round (212th overall) of the 2012 OHL Priority Draft.
2010-11: Carrick moved to Ann Arbor to skate for the US NTDP’s U17 squad. In 55 games he scored 4 goals with 16 assists and had 50 penalty minutes. He represented the United States in three tournaments – the 2010 U17 Four Nations Cup, the 2011 World U17 Hockey Challenge in Canada, and the 2011 U18 Vlad Dzurilla Tournament in Slovakia. He had one assist as the USA finished first in the Four Nations Cup, had 2 goals and 5 assists in six games for the second-place USA squad at the WHC and had 1 assist in three games as the US U17 team won the U18 Vlad Dzurilla tournament.
2011-12: Carrick skated in 57 games for the US NTDP’s Under-18 team in his second season in Ann Arbor. He scored 8 goals with 13 assists and had 46 penalty minutes. In six games for the gold medal-winning USA at the U18 WJC he scored 2 goals with 2 assists and was plus-four. Plymouth obtained the OHL rights to Carrick in a June 2012 trade with Guelph and he committed to playing with the Whalers rather than playing college hockey. Ranked 124th amongst North American skaters in Central Scouting’s final rankings prior to the 2012 NHL Draft, he was selected by the Washington Capitals in the fifth round (137th overall).
2012-13: Carrick attended training camp with Washington and signed a three-year entry-level contract with the Capitals in September 2013 before joining the OHL’s Plymouth Whalers for his first season of major junior hockey. He as an assistant captain and one of three players to skate in all 68 regular season games for Plymouth. He scored 12 goals with 32 assists and was +27 with 79 penalty minutes. The Whalers finished first in the West Division and reached the Western Conference finals against eventual OHL champion London. Carrick scored 2 goals with 16 assists and was +18 with 6 penalty minutes in 15 playoff games. He was invited to USA Hockey’s junior evaluation camp in August 2014.
2013-14: Carrick made the Capitals out of training camp — making his NHL debut in a game at Chicago on October 1st and skating in three games before being assigned to AHL affiliate Hershey. He played for the USA U20 team in the 2014 World Juniors and rejoined the Capitals in January. Carrick scored 1 goal with 5 assists and was -9 with 23 penalty minutes in 34 regular season games with Washington. He played 13 AHL games for Hershey and was -3 with 4 assists and 15 penalty minutes. Carrick had 3 assists and was +7 with 4 penalty minutes for the USA at the WJC. The USA finished fifth after a 5-3 loss to Russia in the quarterfinals.
2014-15: Carrick skated for the AHL’s Hershey Bears rather than shuttling between he NHL and the AHL in his second pro season. Leading Bears’ defensemen with 42 points and finishing third on the team with 132 penalty minutes, he was a team leader for Hershey as a 20-year-old. Carrick scored 8 goals with 34 assists and was -8 in 73 games. Hershey finished first in the East Division and reached the second round in the playoffs. Carrick scored 2 goals with 2 assists and was -1 with 12 penalty minutes in 10 playoff games.
2015-16: Carrick appeared in three NHL games with the Capitals, spending most of the year with the AHL’s Hershey Bears before being dealt by the Washington Capitals along with Brooks Laich and second round pick to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for Daniel Winnick and a fifth round pick in February 2016. He played 16 games with the Maple Leafs and was the leading scorer for the Toronto Marlies in the AHL playoffs. Carrick scored 2 goals with 2 assists and was -5 with 15 penalty minutes in 19 NHL games, averaging 15:32 minutes of ice time. In 52 AHL regular season games (47 with Hershey) he scored 11 goals with 18 assists and was +25 with 52 penalty minutes. The Marlies finished first in the North Division, advancing to the Eastern Conference finals against Carrick’s former team, Hershey. Carrick scored 7 goals, tied with forwards William Nylander and Connor Brown for the team lead, and was +8 with 11 assists and 12 penalty minutes in 15 playoff games. Three of his seven goals were scored on the power play.
Talent Analysis
Carrick lacks size (5’11, 185 pounds), but he more than makes up for it with his skating and offensive ability. He shows great confidence carrying the puck and attacks the offensive zone, jumping into the rush and creating opportunities. Though he is undersized for a defenseman, he shows competency in his own zone despite facing physical challenges. His shot and ability to quarterback the power play are what make him most valuable and he has the skill set to be very good as an offensive defenseman on the NHL level.
Future
Carrick skated in 19 NHL games in 2015-16 (16 of those games with the Maple Leafs after being acquired in a trade with Washington in February) and led all scorers for the Toronto Marlies in their Calder Cup playoff run to the Eastern Conference finals. An offensively-inclined defender who plays with an edge to his game, Carrick would be an unrestricted free agent if not tendered a contract offer by Toronto. He appears to have surpassed Toronto 2011 first-round pick Stuart Percy in the depth chart and will likely push for a roster spot in training camp. Long-term the consistency in his defensive game will determine if Carrick can stick with an NHL club or remains an injury fill-in/occasional call-up type player.The Minnesota Vikings will look extra fearful in their purple duds this year because, well, they have some new extra-fearful purple uniforms.
Although they’re not supposed to be unveiled until draft night, Uni Watch’s Paul Lukas has confirmed that these will be the Vikings’ new duds.
Are you frightened? Are you scared?
Oh my, the Minnesota Vikings! If one of these guys were positioned behind the back end of a sheep, this photo might look right.
From what we can see, the helmets are more of a matte purple. Matte… appropriate for the Vikings, don’t you think?
And there have been some adjustments to the jerseys — the collar, the arms and the side panels.
This surely signals a new era for the Vikings. One where they’ll average six wins a year and their fans will raise the bar even further on douchebaggery.
Consider us impressed.The starship Enterprise has got to be one of the most beautiful fictional spacecraft ever created. But imagine beaming aboard (and I bet many BBC Future readers have) and living there. At first the pristine corridors, groovy minimalist furniture, view screens and food replicators would seem impossibly exciting.
However, after a few months, I suspect the sterile interior with its lack of pictures, plants and human clutter would begin to get you down. What starts out resembling a futuristic utopia, soon feels like being trapped in Ikea on a wet Sunday afternoon. What they never show you on TV are the long queues for the holodecks to escape from the unrelenting neatness and cleanliness of it all.
While the Federation may be a few years in the future, long duration spaceflight is already a reality. People routinely spend six months in space at a time and, next year, two astronauts are set for a year-long mission to the International Space Station (ISS). When they get there, they will find the interior decor also leaves a lot to be desired, packed as it is with consoles, wires, ducts and equipment.
“The inside of the ISS is incredibly sterile,” says Rachel Armstrong, newly appointed professor of experimental architecture at Newcastle University in northeast England. “It’s like living inside a plastic box.”
Armstrong is an advocate of making our habitats beyond the Earth – space stations, craft, colonies and starships – much more like our existing giant starship, the Earth. “For us to go beyond mere survival and spend any time in space, we have to learn how to thrive beyond our home planet,” says Armstrong, “and that means thinking of our habitats ecologically.”
Artificial environments
But this is about much more than having a few pot plants around the place or a few lettuce leaves growing in a sealed incubator. Her point is that on Earth we rely on a delicate and balanced ecosystem to support us. This includes the billions of bacteria that line our gut to help us digest food, the plants we eat and the trees that supply us with oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide; functions that need to be artificially sustained in space.
“Other than jumping off the Enterprise to visit a lush planet to pick up some resources, there is no notion of biodiversity or ecology in Star Trek,” says Armstrong. “The idea that we’re going to spend any amount of time in space without any ecological fabric that will promote our survival, it’s a very challenging concept.”
Ultimately Armstrong imagines giant floating biomes drifting through the cosmos. Self-sustaining organic spaceships with fields, lakes and mountains, similar to ones I’ve written about before in this column. However, so far any attempts to create large-scale successful closed biological systems on Earth have failed.
To cut a long, and somewhat depressing story, short the most ambitious – the Biosphere 2 project, a giant greenhouse complex in the Arizona Desert – ended when oxygen levels dropped, pest species such as cockroaches proliferated and the “crew” fell out with each other. This is why Armstrong differs from many starship dreamers in her desire to start small, to see these ideas implemented in stages.
Bacterial cleaning
Take one of the most complex systems on the ISS, for instance, the toilet and urine processing system. This $250m device makes boldly going a costly undertaking, using a technologically advanced filtration system to recycle human waste into drinking water.
The same process happens on Earth for a lot less money. When we drink tap water – particularly in urban areas – there is a good chance it has already passed through several other people before us. Most of the “cleaning” of that water has been carried out by bacteria or plants in the natural environment – such as a river – or by cultures of bacteria in sewage treatment works. Armstrong advocates a similar adoption of biological systems in space.
“If we start to think about the processes that take place in a spaceship interior, then we can start to design differently,” she says. “It could be a colony of bacteria, a bit like we have in a sewage farm, fitted to the ISS to convert waste into useable products.”
These would have the additional benefit of making the space station a more attractive place to live. “We can imagine these being bubbling, flowing, tubes or tanks that are situated around the wall spaces,” says Armstrong. “Already this is starting to be a visually interesting environment – creating an aesthetic experience that makes us feel good.”
‘Life and machines’
Water is also an excellent radiation shield and, as an added benefit, these bubbling tubes could be used to protect astronauts from dangerous cosmic rays or solar storms. Armstrong also envisages growing tanks of algae – fed with sewage and sunlight – that could be harvested for food.
Even if they never get fitted to a space station, these are concepts that potential Mars or Moon colonists will need to think about. If humans have any chance of sustaining civilisation beyond a generation on another world, without constant supplies from Earth, then they will need to develop organic systems that work in extraterrestrial environments.
“By working together with life and machines,” says Armstrong, “we’ll get a much better insight into the systems we need to establish for us to live beyond the Earth.”
So when, in 2151, the real starship Enterprise sets out on its maiden voyage, its interior may look very different to how we imagine it today. Instead of featureless corridors, they might be lined with bubbling tubes of algae. There will be grass, instead of carpet, on the floor and trees will grow on the bridge. Just watch for falling branches when the Klingons attack.
If you would like to comment on this article, or anything else you have seen on Future, head over to our Facebook or Google+ page, or message us on Twitter.by Ashley Purpura
Pope Francis’s recent call for a commission to explore the possibility of reinstating the female diaconate in the Catholic Church resonates with over a century of similar calls among leaders and laity of the Orthodox Church. These calls for restoring the female diaconate within the Eastern Orthodox Church have been supported by prominent theologians and hierarchs. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I even stated in 1995 that, “There is no canonical difficulty in ordaining women as deacons in the Orthodox Church,” and in 1997, that the “order of ordained deaconesses is an undeniable part of tradition” and that “there are already a number of women who appear to be called to this ministry.”
Despite hierarchical endorsement, consensus of various international conferences, intermittent examples of elevating nuns to the rank of deacon over the past century, and attempts to form centers for training female candidates for the diaconate, no successful reinvigoration of the female diaconate has been sustained. Although there is Byzantine precedent for the female diaconate, concerns about women’s “roles” in the Church, prejudices against the female body in liturgical space, and ambiguity about how to apply historical tradition to the present day Church in a way that attends to women as full and equal members of the Body of Christ exist as subtle inhibitors of restoring this ministry.
Byzantine sources indicate the rite for making a female deacon was in fact “ordination,” and that female deacons received a stole and received Eucharist at the altar comparable to the male deacons. The female deacons assisted in the adult baptism and sacramental ministry of women in private. Sometimes, female deacons also were identified with keeping order on the women’s side of a church, chanting, held prominent monastic positions, and participated in processional roles. In general, they had limited public liturgical functions, and were usually required to be over the age of forty and celibate/virgins. While the ordination of female deacons has not been canonically prohibited, the order did diminish almost entirely excluding periodic exceptions within monasteries by the twelfth-century. It is unclear what led to this decline, but the increasing numbers of infant baptisms, and the development of restricting women’s liturgical participation during times of perceived “impurity” contributed.
Historically, the diaconate was not a stepping stone to the priesthood, but modern documents about the female diaconate are typically situated among conversations about the “role” of women in the church–both to affirm women do have opportunities for service in the church and (usually) deny any possibility of a female ordained priesthood. For this reason, there is some debate about “consecrating” instead of “ordaining” female deacons. Claims of iconicity, distinct “charisms” for men and women, typologically based orders of creation and redemption, and a lack of a female ordained priesthood in revelation/tradition are used to justify the continued exclusion of women from clerical ranks. An issue worth considering, however, is why is the thought of a female serving liturgically results in such heated debate. Perhaps the Church’s concerns about maintaining an exclusively male administration of sacramental authority is more charged by social/cultural values than theology.
The issue of maintaining or rejecting the Byzantine age requirements for female deacons and the necessity of celibacy/virginity which historically may have mediated cultural concerns about women’s sexuality also need to be interrogated for contemporary relevance. Despite episcopal and pastoral directives that have rejected practices of prohibiting a woman from receiving communion during menstruation, one only has to look at the prayers for a woman entering the Church forty days after childbirth to see there remains a liminality about female bodies in liturgical practice and space. The few twentieth-century Greek deaconesses all were within monasteries, but the possibility of non-monastic and married female deacons has been proposed. An opponent of this proposal exclaimed that it would be a scandal to even imagine maternity vestments. Perhaps the ridiculousness of the idea of a pregnant deacon is obvious to some, but instead of scandal perhaps one could see a Eucharistic icon, if such a deacon ever were to be allowed to exist. Concerns about the hypothetical female deacon’s appearance in liturgical public are not limited to their procreative potential, but also include concerns about appearing sufficiently modest and un-distracting to male parishioners. Perhaps, however, parishioners—both male and female need to see women active in the ministry of the church and the tradition of placing the responsibility for male sexual arousal upon women finally needs to be rejected. Aside from any potential female diaconal involvement in liturgical contexts, opponents also argue that women should not have teaching authority over men, and that women would not have time for ministry given their inherent domestic and maternal duties. Authority should be recognized based on qualifications regardless of sex, and these types of hesitations need to be dispelled.
The female diaconate should be developed for the present in a way that does not idolize the past that has little relevance for women and men today, but in a way that continues to receive and recognize the gifts of the Holy Spirit working timelessly in the unified Body of Christ. To reject the restoration of the diaconate on the basis that the Byzantine pastoral concerns are no longer present today, ignores the host of ministerial needs and the comfort levels of women and male clergy in spiritual ministry. Although there are no longer adult nude baptisms, and there are very few private spaces for women that a male priest would not be permitted to enter, there are numerous pastoral instances in which a female deacon would be preferable to a male. Most of the arguments for restoring the female diaconate have centered on women’s ministry to other women, as in Byzantine times, but this does not necessarily need to be the only path for the female diaconate in the future. The concerns restricting the development of the female diaconate need to be prayerfully and critically considered in order that a female ministry might emerge in a way that is abundantly fruitful within, and authentically witnessing to, the unity and fullness of the Orthodox faith.
Ashley Purpura is Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Purdue University.
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PrintOn June 10, 1190, Frederick I, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and better known as Frederick Barbarossa passed away. He died by drowning in the river Saleph during the Third Crusade. He got the name Barbarossa from the northern Italian cities he attempted to rule: Barbarossa means “red beard” in Italian; in German, he was known as ‘Kaiser Rotbart‘, which has the same meaning. There was a time, when every German school kid knew the history of ‘Kaiser Rotbart‘, who had become a mythological figure, resting in his quiet rock tomb in the Kyffhäuser mountain. According to folk lore, the ravens will watch over his tomb and keep on circling over the Kyffhäuser, until he will awake from his thousand years sleep again to start his comeback. A legend, which was fostered by the literates of the romantic movement in 19th century Germany. But, there is also a historical figure behind the legend.
Frederick was born in 1122. Frederick’s father was from the Hohenstaufen family, and his mother was from the Welf family, the two most powerful families in Germany. At age 25 he became Duke of Swabia in 1147, and shortly afterwards made his first trip to the East, accompanied by his uncle, the German king Conrad III, on the Second Crusade. The expedition proved to be a disaster, but Frederick distinguished himself and won the complete confidence of the king. When Conrad died in February 1152, only Frederick and the prince-bishop of Bamberg were at his deathbed. Both asserted afterwards that Conrad had, in full possession of his mental powers, handed the royal insignia to Frederick and indicated that Frederick, rather than Conrad’s own six-year-old son succeed him as king.
On 4 March 1152 the kingdom’s princely electors in Frankfurt designated Frederick as the next German king, to be crowned King of the Romans at Aachen only several days later. The status of the German empire by that time was in disarray, its power waning under the weight of the Investiture controversy with Henry IV.[3] The German monarchy was largely a nominal title with no real power. When Frederick I of Hohenstaufen was chosen as king in 1152, royal power had been in effective abeyance for over twenty-five years. The only real claim to wealth lay in the rich cities of northern Italy, which were still within the nominal control of the German king.
In 1158 Milan, the chief city of Lombardy, revolted and over the Alps came an army of a hundred thousand German soldiers, with Frederick Barbarossa at their head. After a long siege the city surrendered, but soon it revolted again. The emperor besieged it once more and once more it surrendered. Its fortifications were destroyed and many of its buildings ruined. But even then the spirit of the Lombards was not broken. Milan and the other cities of Lombardy united in a league and defied the emperor. He called upon the German dukes to bring their men to his aid. All responded except Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony, Frederick’s cousin. Frederick is said to have knelt and implored Henry to do his duty, but in vain. Frederick’s campaign against the Lombards failed and his army was completely defeated. On 9 June 1156 at Würzburg, Frederick married Beatrice of Burgundy, thus adding to his possessions the sizeable realm of the County of Burgundy. He also declared himself the sole Augustus of the Roman world. In June 1158, Barbarossa prepared a large expedition to Italy. In the years since he was crowned, a growing rift had opened between the emperor and the pope. While Barbarossa believed that the pope should be subject to the emperor, Pope Adrian claimed the opposite. Marching into Italy, Barbarossa sought to reassert his imperial sovereignty. Sweeping through the northern part of the country, he conquered city after city and occupied Milan on September 7, 1158. As tensions grew, Adrian considered excommunicating the emperor, however he died before taking any action. In September 1159, Pope Alexander III was elected and immediately moved to claim papal supremacy over the empire. In response to Alexander’s actions and his excommunication, Barbarossa began supporting a series of antipopes.
In 1166, Barbarossa attacked towards Rome at won a decisive victory at the Battle of Monte Porzio. His success proved short-lived as disease ravaged his army and he was forced to retreat back to Germany. Remaining in his realm for six years, he worked to improve diplomatic relations with England, France, and the Byzantine Empire. Though Barbarossa had reconciled with the pope, he continued to take actions to strengthen his position in Italy. In 1183, he signed a treaty with the Lombard League, separating them from the pope. After the Christians had held Jerusalem for eighty-eight years, it was recaptured by the Moslems under the lead of the famous Saladin, in the year 1187. There was much excitement in Christendom, and the Pope proclaimed another Crusade. Frederick immediately raised an army of Crusaders in the German Empire and with one hundred and fifty thousand men started for Palestine. He marched into Asia Minor, attacked the Moslem forces, and defeated them in two great battles.
On 10 June 1190, Emperor Frederick’s career was put to an end when he drowned in the Saleph river. He had decided to walk his horse through the river instead of crossing the bridge that had been too crowded with troops. The current was too strong for the horse to handle, and his suit armour was too heavy for him to swim in: both were swept away and drowned. Some historians believe he may have had a heart attack that complicated matters. Some of Frederick’s men put him in a barrel of vinegar to preserve his body.
In the Empire the dead emperor was long mourned and for many years the peasants believed that Frederick was not really dead, but was asleep in a cave in the Kyffhäuser mountain in Germany, with his gallant knights around him. He was supposed to be sitting in his chair of state, with the crown upon his head, his eyes half-closed in slumber, his beard as white as snow and so long that it reached the ground. “When the ravens cease to fly round the mountain,” said the legend, “Barbarossa shall awake and restore Germany to its ancient greatness.” Even today you will find references to the legendary emperor in literature. Umberto Eco made Frederick Barbarossa to one of his protagonists in his historical novel Baudolino.[4] There, you can learn about Barbarossas constant quarrel with the Northern Italian city states, his departure for the Third Crusade and his death by drowning in the river Saleph.
At yovisto you can learn more about the times of the Crusades in John Green’s crash course on World history, in lis lecture ‘The Crusades – Pilgrimage or Holy Wars‘.
References and Further Reading:Screengrab from Ring of Honor
Bruiseday is Ian Williams' weekly column discussing the biggest cultural stories in pro wrestling.
The first time I watched Jimmy Jacobs wrestle was in 2005 on an IWA-MS tape which, by that time, was already a couple of years old. IWA was an incubator, along with Ring of Honor and Combat Zone Wrestling, for late Gen X/early Millennial wrestlers, a significant number of whom would go on to do great things. CM Punk was a regular at their shows, as was Chris Hero and a host of others.
In the middle of the show, out came Jacobs in fuzzy boots and staring at his open palm, yelling "HUSS" over and over—a play on John Nord's Viking/Berzerker gimmick in the early 1990s WWF. The catch was that Nord is 6'8", while Jacobs is 5'7". It was a gag, with Jacobs alternating between moves befitting his physical stature and power moves he had no hope of pulling off successfully.
It was enthralling. Any number of people would've blown it, but in the hands of Jacobs the gimmick never became stupid (I'm not positive he'd agree with that assessment, given how briefly he used it). I was an immediate fan, a fact which ended up being extremely important because my pro wrestling interest at the time was at an extremely low ebb: WCW was always my thing and it was dead, ECW was dead, and WWE felt actively alienating outside a few specific storylines and wrestlers. The IWA-MS crew, especially Jacobs, felt relatable and fun.
It wasn't obvious at the time, but Jacobs would become one of the greatest pro wrestling minds of his generation and, in the process, become one of its biggest what ifs.
The small berzerker thing was never going to last as a gimmick, and his kayfabe manager Lacey urged him to get more serious as part of a tag team with BJ Whitmer. The end storyline result was that Jacobs fell desperately in love/obsession with Lacey. What unfolded was (and I understand hyperbole is the coinage of pro wrestling but I mean it) the greatest angle of the post-Monday Night Wars era, one which took place on the smaller stage of Ring of Honor instead of the gaudy fireworks and strobelights of WWE.
It's impossible to do justice in this article to what unfolded between Jacobs and Lacey over the course of nearly ten years. Luckily I don't have to—a Cage Side Seats user named Vidence does a remarkable job of recapping the extremely sophisticated and long-running angle, while Aaron Taube offers a view of Lacey as the ultimate babyface misandrist. The truncated version is that a Shakespearian story of Jacobs moving from unrequited love to obsession to disinterest and finally consummation, all paired with violence, betrayal, and manipulation became one of the pillars of ROH in the 00s..And all with Lacey as a cunningly, fully portrayed actor in the proceedings.
The multi-year angle would rope in many wrestlers who are currently household names, from CM Punk to Colt Cabana to Austin Aries to Daniel Bryan, and would culminate in the Age of the Fall, a hyperviolent stable founded when Lacey fell in love with Jacobs only to face the realization that he was still miserable, a petty, violent man who might never be happy. Jacobs strung Jay Briscoe up by his feet, stood underneath him, and delivered a promo while Briscoe's blood rained down on him. It was so gruesome that rumors spread saying that ROH wanted to scrub it from the internet. (But after all, those were rumors and this is the internet, so you can watch it here.)
The entire thing was stunning. Stories like this don't get told in pro wrestling anymore. But pay attention to who the other primary members of the Age of the Fall were: Necrobutcher (had a role in The Wrestler), Brodie Lee (now WWE's Luke Harper), and Tyler Black (WWE's Seth Rollins). Jacobs never got the shot the others did, not even Necrobutcher, a notoriously violent death match wrestler who was never going to go to WWE but managed to get a small but prominent movie role out of his notoriety.
It remains inexplicable. Jacobs was in the top tier of independent wrestlers during indie wrestling's 00s reinvention. He was peers with CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, and a host of men and women who "made it." He wasn't the best in-ring worker, but he was good enough and there are certainly worse wrestlers who feasted on good gimmicks and promos to make it. He had the tools, he had the resume in the Jacobs/Lacey epic, and he never made it on the NJPW/WWE circuit, outside a couple jobber matches in WWE.
Not as a wrestler, anyway. Because in 2015, he was hired on as a writer by WWE. On the way out of ROH, Lacey showed up one more time, coming out of retirement to give closure to one of the great pro wrestling stories of all time. People were crying in the audience when they left together, but the best part of it all was that Jacobs was finally able to get a safe, well-paying gig taking his mind for pro wrestling storytelling global. It was a happy ending.
Of course, we now know it didn't turn out that way. Jacobs was fired last week for the pettiest of reasons: taking a selfie with his friends the Young Bucks, non-WWE pro wrestlers who have been making a very good name and living for themselves quite outside of WWE's purview. They have shirts selling out at Hot Topic, a strong social media presence, but worst of all in WWE's mind, they're building careers for themselves making WWE look foolish.
The selfie came when the Young Bucks and the rest of the Bullet Club were filming their own version of D-Generation X's invasion of WCW 20 years earlier. Ever since, WWE has been filling its diaper in a nearly month long freakout over the stunt; they immediately sent a cease and desist order to the Young Bucks to stop the usage of WWE's trademarked "Too Sweet" hand sign on Young Bucks merchandise, despite the fact that the gesture was cooked up by Kevin Nash in the old WCW, which in turn came from the NC State Wolfpack hand gesture. Pro wrestling is about repurposing the past and the broader pop culture, right up until WWE says not to.
There are rumors from Dave Meltzer's paywalled reporting that the selfie that set this off was merely the last in a string of smaller incidents, but what those smaller incidents were wasn't elaborated upon. We know there's always high turnover among the writing team, that Jacobs is obviously out, and that's about it.
Jacobs' firing can't be separated from the conditions which have WWE freaking out. People at WWE are clearly unhappy with Cody Rhodes and the Young Bucks making it in the indies and NJPW. The invasion and Jacobs incidents happen nearly in tandem with Austin Aries and (especially) Neville walking out of the company. Those two are seasoned veterans who reportedly left due to their talent being wasted and having their Wrestlemania match last year cut from the DVD release, shutting them out of royalties.
If people are testing WWE hegemony—and I mean really testing it by getting out there and making big bucks with a lighter schedule—then WWE's in trouble over the next decade. There's little doubt that plenty of wrestlers in WWE could make it without the stifling, mercurial McMahons dictating every move. Cesaro and Rusev could be rich and happy tomorrow if they went to New Japan, and don't think there aren't many in WWE watching Cody, a totally fine but not top flight talent, make a mint and redefine his career on his own terms.
And WWE knows all this, which is why the Young Bucks warrant the freak out; it's not what they are now, which is objectively small potatoes compared to the gargantuan WWE, but the possibility they represent to those mired in the inescapable gravity of WWE's beige midcard.
Jacobs didn't really get fired for being Jacobs, any more than the Young Bucks were sued because they're uniquely irritating. The whole apparatus—the disrespect, the shirt sales, Cody's success, the flaunting of solidarity and friendship between wrestlers over being cowed by corporate propriety—is a future which runs counter to WWE's manufactured reality, where their position as global pro wrestling leader is |
theory we really should not presume to believe. Furthermore, the opponent’s incoming attacks keep varying, so how could we use the concept of generating and overcoming to be able to win? This theory of generating and overcoming simply misleads people with absurd gibberish.
It can happen spontaneously that you do not know in what way the opponent is attacking and yet your hands and feet arrive in the right place to respond to it. Nevertheless, you should not dare to say that you therefore have an ability for overcoming opponents. If you then start talking about what your brain measured or what your mind considered, the techniques that your hands performed or the practice sets that have developed your skills, you would be behaving at the level of the layman, which is insufficient for discussing boxing arts.
What we mean in boxing arts when we talk of the five elements is actually a “strength” of metal, of wood, of water, of fire, of earth:
The sinews and bones throughout your body are as hard as iron or stone. This is the nature of metal, and is therefore called the “strength of metal”. (A similar idea goes: “The skin and muscles are like cotton. The sinews and bones are like steel.”)
The four limbs and hundreds of bones have everywhere the same quality of bending and extending as a tree. This is the nature of wood, and is therefore called the “strength of wood”.
The movement of the body is like a spirit dragon swimming through sky, or a mighty serpent wading through water. Like the flow of water, there is no set path, just the liveliness of following the course of circumstance. This is the nature of water, and is therefore called the “strength of water”.
When you shoot out your hand, it is like an artillery shell exploding, a sudden action that is like a fire burning the opponent’s body, so alarmingly fierce. This is the nature of fire, and is therefore called the “strength of fire” [or “firepower”].
Your whole body is filled with a sincere sense of weight, as though as heavy as a mountain, and every part being like a pointed peak. This is the nature of earth, and is therefore called the “strength of earth”.
With every action, always have these five kinds of strength. This is the method of the “five elements merging into one”. Whenever you are not moving, your whole body has a consistent strength, but whenever you are moving, there is everywhere, large and small joints alike, a duality of contending strength above and below, forward and back, left and right. In this way, you can gain the combined strength of your whole body.
–
六合
[7] THE SIX UNIONS
六合有內外之分。曰心與意合，意與氣合，氣與力合，為內三合。手與足合，肘與膝合，肩與胯合，為外三合。又曰筋與骨合，皮與肉合，肺與腎合，為內三合。頭與手合，手與身合，身與足合，為外三合。總之，神合勁合光線合，全身之法相合謂之合。非形勢相對謂之合。甚矣哉、六合之誤人也，學者慎之慎之。
The six unions are divided into internal and external.
It is said: “Mind is united with the intention, the intention united with the energy, and the energy united with the power. These are the three internal unions. The hand is united with the foot, the elbow united with the knee, and the shoulder united with the hip. These are the three external unions.”
It is also said: “The sinews are united with the bones, the skin united with the muscles, and the lungs are united with the kidneys. These are the three internal unions. The head is united with the hand, the hand united with the torso, and the torso united with the foot. These are the three external unions.”
In short, there is union that has to do with spirit, power, and lines of force. It is methods of using the whole body that makes “union”. It is not merely a matter of some postural alignments. There are indeed people who are misguided in their interpretation of the six unions. Do not become one of them.
–
歌訣
[8] POETIC INSTRUCTIONS
歌訣者，拳術中之精粹也，若能參透其意，窮盡其理，自能得道矣。
(The poetic instructions supply the essence of a boxing art. If you are able to fully understand these concepts and principles, you will naturally be able to obtain the method.)
心愈專
Further concentrate your mind.
意昧三
Triply hide your intention.
精愈堅
Further fortify your essence.
氣愈安
Further stabilize your energy.
神愈鮮
Further brighten your spirit.
〔此學技五大要素也〕。
(These are the five most important essentials to learn.)
渾噩身一貫
Let sincerity course through your whole body.
形具切忌散
Keep your structure from crumbling anywhere.
〔週身用力，無處不圓滿，取內圓外方之意，始終不懈〕。
(Using the power of the whole body, there is no part that is incomplete. Seek for a constant intention of internal “roundness” and external “squareness” from beginning to end.)
拳出如流星
Punches go out like meteors.
變手似閃電
Switch techniques like lightning.
〔變化迅速，神捷果斷〕。
(i.e. Adapt rapidly, your spirit quick and decisive.)
舌捲齒更扣
Your tongue is curled upward and your teeth are closed together.
〔舌為肉之稍，肉為氣之囊，舌捲氣降，注於氣海，又能接引腎氣，結丹入田。齒為骨梢，扣則骨堅〕，
(The tongue forms the “end” of the muscles. The muscles are the bag for your energy. When your tongue is curled, energy descends and pours into your “sea of energy”, and is also able to guide energy from your kidneys into your elixir field. The teeth form the “end” of the bones. When they are closed together, your bones are firmed.)
頭頂如懸磬
The headtop is like a hanging chime.
〔頭為六陽之首，五關百骸，莫不本此，頭頂若懸，三關九竅易通，自能白雲朝頂，一點靈光頂頭懸，亦禪學之要素也〕。
(The head is the source of the six channels of active energy. The five sense organs [eyes, ears, nose, tongue, lips] and the whole skeleton are based in this place. When the headtop seems suspended, the three sections of the spine and the nine orifices of the body will have a smooth energy flow, and so you will naturally be able to have “white clouds facing the headtop”, or a halo hanging over your head. This is also a key principle of Zen teachings.)
兩目神光耀
The spirit in your eyes shines brightly.
〔精光收縮而尖銳〕，
(This means that your vision comes into sharp focus.)
鼻息耳凝歛
Your breath and your hearing become concentrated.
心目宜內歛
Your mind’s eye should watch inward.
〔以鼻作長呼短吸之功，耳目心作收視反聽之用〕。
(This has to do with the practice of breathing through your nose with a long exhalation and short inhalation, and the function of your ears, eyes, and mind watching instead of listening.)
腰轉如滑車
Your waist turning like a pulley wheel,
進足如鋼鑽
your hands and feet go out like drill heads.
〔靈敏活潑，進躦奪位〕。
(Nimble and lively, they dash forward to seize a position.)
提蹚裹扒縮
Lifting, wading, wrapping, raking, shrinking.
滾銼㨮撐擰
Rolling, scraping, lifting, bracing, twisting.
〔動靜須有此力〕。
(Whether in motion or stillness, you must have these qualities.)
手足指抓力
Your fingers and toes grab with strength.
毛孔如生電
Your pores seem to generate electricity.
〔指為筋梢，扣則力自充，週身毛髮為血稍，血為氣之膽，毛孔不睜，毛髮不竪，則血不充，血不充，則氣不振，氣不振，則力不實，不實則必失戰鬥力矣〕。
(The fingers and toes form the “end” of the sinews. When they are hooking in, there is naturally ample strength. Body hair forms the “end” of the blood. The blood is the boldness of energy. When the pores are not open and the hairs do not stand, blood is not abundant. When blood is not abundant, energy is not roused. When energy is not roused, then strength is not full. And without fullness, the fight will be lost.)
–
交手徑法
[9] SPARRING TIPS
[Much of this text draws from the “Yue Fei manual” that features in Li Jianqiu’s 1920 book.]
人之本性，各有不同。有聰明者，有智慧者，有毅力恒心者，有沉著精敏者，更有奸滑陰毒者。其性不同，其作為亦因之而異。如技術之擊法亦然。有具形而出，無形而落，敗勢而往，發聲而來，千變萬化，不能盡述。須以功力純篤，膽氣放縱，處處有法，舉動藏神，不期然而然，莫之至而至，身動快似馬，手動速如風。平時練習，三尺以外七尺以內，如臨大敵之像。交手時，有人若無人之境。頸要竪起，腰要挺起，下腹要充實，兩肱撐起，兩腿夾起，自頭至足，一氣相貫。膽怯心虛，不能取勝。不能察顏而觀色者，亦不能取勝。總之敵不動，我沉靜，敵微動，我先發。所謂打顧之要，亦其擊先者也。不動如書生，動之如龍虎。發動似迅雷，迅雷不及掩耳。然所以能勝敵者，皆在動靜之間。動靜已發而未發之間，謂之真動靜也。手要靈，足要輕，進退旋轉若貓形，身要正，目斂精，手足齊到定要嬴。手到步不到，打人不為妙。手到步亦到，打人如拔草。上打咽喉下打陰，左右兩肋在中心。拳打丈外不為遠，近者只在一寸中。手出如巨炮嚮，足落似樹栽根。眼要毒，手要奸，步踏中門，躦入重心奪敵位，即是神仙亦難防。用拳須透爪，用掌要有氣。上下意相連，出入以心為主宰，眼手足隨之。兩足重量，前四後六，用時顛倒互換。夫有定位者步也，無定位者亦步也。如前足進後足隨，前後自有定位，以前步作後步，以後步作前步，更以前步作後之前步，以後步作前之後步，前後自無定位矣。左右反背如虎搜山，乘勢勇猛不可擋。斬拳迎門取中堂，搶上搶下勢如虎，鶻落龍潛下雞場，翻江倒海不須忙，丹鳳朝陽勢為強，雲遮天地日月交，武藝相爭見短長。三星對照，四稍會齊，五行俱發，六合彌結，勇往前進。縱橫高低，進退反側。縱則放其力，勇往而不返。橫則裹其，開合而莫擋。高則揚其身，而身若有增長之意。低則縮其身，而身若有躦捉之形。當進則進摧其身，當退則退領其氣。至於返身顧後，亦不覺其為後，後即前也。側顧左右亦不覺為左右矣。進頭進手須進身，身手齊到法為真。內要提，外要隨，打要遠，氣要摧，拳似砲，龍折身，發中要絕隨意用，解開其意妙如神。鷂子入林燕抄水。虎捉綿羊抖威風。取勝四稍均要齊，不勝必有懷疑心。聲東擊西，指南打北。上虛下實，靈機自揣摩。左拳出右拳至，單手出雙手來。拳由心窩去，發向鼻尖前。鼻為中央之土，萬物產生之源，衝開中央全體皆縻。兩手結合迎面出，自然把定五道關。身如弩弓拳如彈。弦響鳥落見奇鮮。遇敵猶如身著火，打破硬進無遮攔。何為打，何為顧。顧即是打，打即是顧。發手即是處。計謀精變化，動轉用精神。心毒為上策，手狠方勝人。何為閃，何為進。進即是閃，閃即是進。不必遠求尚美觀，只在眼前一寸間。靜如處女，動若雷電。肩窩吐勁，氣貫掌心。意達指尖處，氣發自丹田。按實用力，吐氣開聲。遇敵來勢兩相交，風雲雷雨一齊到。
Everyone has a different personality. Some are clever. Some are wise. Some are determined and persevering. Some are calm and alert. Some are sneaky and sinister. Because our personalities are different, our actions will be different. This is also the case in martial arts techniques.
Attack with a noticeable posture, but land without one. Go forth appearing to fail, then strike with a victorious shout.
As there are countless transformations, they are impossible to fully describe.
You have to engage in devoted training for courage to come through, so that whatever the technique, the movements will be filled with spirit. But this result will happen in its own time. One moment you’re not there yet, then suddenly you are.
Your body moves as fast as a horse. Your hands move as fast as the wind.
During ordinary practice, the zone for confronting an opponent is between three and seven feet away.
When sparring with someone, act as if there is no one there.
Your neck should be upright. Your waist should be erect. Your lower abdomen should be full. Your arms should brace. Your legs should carry. Then from head to foot, there will be a single energy coursing through.
With timidity or lack of will, you will not be able to win. If you cannot observe his behavior and read his expression, you will again not be able to win.
Always, if the opponent makes no action, I remain calm, but if he acts at all, I issue before he does. It is said: “The key to attacking and defending is to beat him to the punch.”
In stillness, be like a scholar. In movement, be like a dragon or tiger.
Strike the opponent like thunder clapping. When thunder claps, there is no chance to cover your ears. However, the means to defeat an opponent lies between movement and stillness. True “movement / stillness” lies in the instant between having issued and not yet issuing.
Your hands should be dexterous. Your feet should be nimble. In advancing, retreating, and turning, move like a cat. Your body should be upright. Your eyes should be filled with spirit.
When your hands and feet act in unison, you are sure to win. If your hand arrives but your step does not arrive, your attack will be unimpressive. If when your hand arrives, your step also arrives, you will strike the opponent as easily as spreading aside grass.
When attacking above, go for the throat. When below, go for the groin. When to the side, go for the ribs. When to the middle, go for the solar plexus.
When punching, the range can be more than ten feet. When close in, it all happens within an inch.
When your hand goes out, it is like the booming of a huge cannon. When your foot comes down, it is like a tree planting roots.
Your eyes should be venomous. Your hands should be treacherous.
Step right through his center, letting your mass take away his space. You will thus seem too mystical for him to defend against.
When using a fist, it has to be like a piercing claw. When using a palm, it has to express energy.
Your upper body and lower are coordinated with each other. Your attacks are driven by your mind, with your eyes, hands, and feet going along with the movement.
The weight is forty percent on your front foot, sixty percent on your rear foot. Then once you are applying a technique, the ratio switches.
Stepping divides into “fixed” and “unfixed”. When the front foot advances and the rear foot follows, they are “fixed” [i.e. front foot remaining forward, rear foot remaining in the rear]. When the front foot becomes the rear foot or the rear foot becomes the front foot, whether it be because of the front foot becoming the rear foot by way of the rear foot stepping forward, or because of the rear foot becoming the front foot by way of the front foot stepping back, they are “unfixed” [i.e. front foot and rear foot switching roles].”
When going to the left or right, or turning around to face behind you, it is like a tiger searching a hillside. Take advantage of opportunity with bold fierceness, and the opponent will not be able to withstand you. Swipe aside his fists and go directly forward, and you will seize his center. Striking above or below, move like a tiger. Seem like a falcon descending on chickens in a coop.
Once you have “diverted the river and turned back the sea” [signifying a stupendous achievement, in this case going through the hard work of learning a martial art], there is no need for you to perform your techniques in a hurry. Once the “the phoenix has landed on the sunny slope” [signifying the arrival of talent, in this case a level of mastery], your skill has become powerful. When clouds cover the world, light from sun or moon makes no difference, but when martial artists clash, inferior and superior will become apparent.
With the three “stars” in alignment [nose, toes, fingertips], the four limbs acting in unison, the five elements issuing together, and the six unions strongly bound as one, boldly advance.
Move vertically and horizontally, high and low. Advance and retreat, and turn to the sides. When the situation is vertical, release power, advancing bravely instead of backing off and cowering. When the situation is horizontal, wrap with power, opening and closing without colliding. When the situation is high, raise your body up, giving your body an appearance of growing. When the situation is low, shrink your body away, giving your body a shape of crouching to capture something. When it is time to advance, advance to destroy his body. When it is time to retreat, retreat to guide his energy. When you turn around to face to the rear, do not think of it as the rear, for it is now in front of you. When you look to the left or right, do not think of them as left and right [but as forward and forward]. If your head and hand advance, your body must also advance. The correct method is for body and hand to act in unison.
Internally you should be alert. Outwardly you should follow along. Your attacks should reach through to a great distance. Your energy should destroy. Your punch is like a cannon firing. Your body bends like a dragon.
When issuing, be ruthless, and thereby do as you please. Melting away his plans, your actions will be like magic, as when you perform the techniques of HAWK GOES THROUGH THE FOREST or SWALLOW TAKES UP WATER. But when the TIGER CAPTURES THE SHEEP, it overwhelms the prey with a powerful presence.
To win, all four limbs have to work in unison. To lose, all it takes is doubt.
Shout to the east, but strike to the west. Point to the south, but attack to the north. Empty above, but fill below. Inspirations will arise from such contemplations.
Your left fist goes out, then your right fist arrives. One hand goes out, then both hands arrive.
Your fist goes out from your solar plexus and strikes in alignment with your nose. The nose is related to the center, the source of sustenance for all parts [seeing as air is the most basic fuel we take in].
When you thrust out from the center, your whole body bound together, your hands working in an integrated manner, then naturally your technique will be assured in every way.
Body like a crossbow, fist like a bullet. Like the sound of a plucked string or the precision landing of a bird, you will exhibit marvels. When you encounter an opponent, it is like his body is touching fire. If you smash through with a hard advance, you will not be blocked.
What are attacking and defending? Defending is an attack. Attacking is a defense. All it depends on is where you send your hand. Your schemes should be skillfully adaptive. Your movements should make use of spirit. A vicious mentality is the best strategy. Ruthless techniques are the ones that will defeat opponents.
What are evading and advancing? Advancing is an evasion. Evading is an advance. You do not have to look far for a pretty sight. A square-inch site right in front of you gives you all you need to work with.
In stillness, be like a shy maiden. In movement, be like thunder and lightning. Power shoots out from the hollow of your shoulder, energy courses through to your palms, and intention reaches to your fingertips. Energy issuing from your elixir field, push out powerfully and breathe out audibly. When you encounter your opponent’s incoming power, release a storm of wind, cloud, thunder, rain – all arriving in unison.
–
龍法
[10] DRAGON TECHNIQUES
龍法有六，曰滄海龍吟，雲龍五現，青龍探海，烏龍翻江，神龍遊空，神龍縮骨。其為物也，能伸能縮，能剛能柔，能昇能降，能隱能現。不動如山嶽，動之如風雲。無窮如天地，充實如太倉。浩氣如四海，玄曜如三光。度來勢之機會，揣敵人之短長。靜以待動，動中處靜。以進為退，以退為進。直出而側入，斜進而竪擊。柔去而驚抖，剛來而纏繞。縮骨而出，放勁而落。縮即發也，放亦即縮。甲欲透骨而入髓，發勁意在數尺間。
There are six dragon techniques: BLUE DRAGON CALLS FROM THE BLUE SEA, CLOUD DRAGON APPEARS FIVE TIMES, GREEN DRAGON SEARCHES THE SEA, BLACK DRAGON DIVERTS THE RIVER, SPIRIT DRAGON WANDERS THE SKY, SPIRIT DRAGON SHRINKS ITS BONES.
The things it can do: it can stretch or shrink, can be hard or soft, can ascend and descend, can disappear and appear. In stillness, it is like a mountain. When moving, it is like the wind. It is as limitless as the universe, as full as the “grand storehouse”. Its energy is as vast as the ocean. It shines as profoundly as the sun, moon, and stars.
Anticipate the opponent’s opportunities to attack. Estimate his strengths and weaknesses. Await movement with stillness, and maintain stillness while moving. Use advance as retreat, retreat as advance.
If the opponent goes out directly, go in indirectly. If he advances diagonally, strike vertically. If he sends out with softness, suddenly shake. If he sends in with hardness, coil around.
Shrink your bones and then emerge. Release power and then land. Withdrawing is releasing. Releasing is also withdrawing.
Most of all, seek to penetrate his bones all the way to the marrow. When issuing, the intention is focused within the space of a few inches.
–
虎法
[11] TIGER TECHNIQUES
虎法亦有六，曰猛虎出林，怒虎驚嘯，猛虎搜山，餓虎剖食，猛虎搖頭，猛虎跳澗。揣其性靈，強而精壯。橫衝竪撞，兩爪排山。猛進猛退，長撲短用。如剖食若搖頭，猶狸貓之捉鼠。頭頂爪抓，鼓盪週身。起手如鋼銼，用斬抗橫㨮順。落手似勾杆，用劈摟搬撒撐。沉打分擰，伸縮抑揚。頭要撞人，手要打人，身要催人，步要過人，足要踏人，神要迫人，氣要襲人。借法容易上法難，還是上法最為先，較技者不可思悟，思悟者寸步難行。寧教一思進，莫教一思退。有意莫帶形，帶形必不嬴。猶如生龍活虎，吟嘯叱咜，谷應山搖，其壯哉如龍虎之氣，臨敵毫不虛，安有不勝之理哉。總之，龍虎二法，操無定勢。勢猶虎奔三千，氣若龍飛萬里。勁斷意不斷，意斷神連。非口傳心授，莫能得也。聊寫其大意，未克詳述。
There are also six tiger techniques: FIERCE TIGER LEAVES THE FOREST, ANGRY TIGER GIVES A STARTLING ROAR, FIERCE TIGER SEARCHES THE MOUNTAIN, HUNGRY TIGER RIPS OPEN ITS PREY, FIERCE TIGER SHAKES ITS HEAD, FIERCE TIGER JUMPS OVER THE STREAM.
Adopt its nature and strive for its strength. Horizontally cross, vertically strike, climbing the mountain with both claws. Fiercely advance and fiercely retreat. Do lunging pounces and then short-range techniques. As though tearing prey, seem to shake your head, like a cat catching a mouse. Press up your headtop and seize with your claws, rousing your whole body.
Lift your hand like a steel file, using slashing, crashing, crossing, lifting, sliding. Drop your hand like a hook on a pole, using chopping, dragging, parrying, scattering, bracing. Sink and strike, spread and twist, extend and withdraw, press down and hold up.
Your head should butt the opponent. Your hand should strike him. Your body should crowd him. Your step should pass him. Your foot should stomp him. Your mind should compel him. Your energy should surprise him. Other methods are easy, whereas the ones listed here are difficult, and yet these are the most primary.
Fighters must not be thinking, for thinkers cannot fight. Better to teach the thought of advance than the thought of retreat. Have intention rather than a concern for shape. If you are concerned with shape, you will surely not win. Be just like an angry dragon or a lively tiger, singing out shouts until the valley is echoing and the mountain is trembling. Your strength is like the energy of the dragon and tiger. As long as you do not underestimate the opponent, how could you fail?
To sum up, the two methods of dragon and tiger are exercised without choreographed techniques. The posture is like a tiger running a thousand miles. The energy is like a dragon flying three times as far. The power finishes without the intention finishing. And when the intention finishes, the spirit continues.
Without personal instruction, you will not be able to grasp these things. I have written here the general ideas, not comprehensive details.
–
意拳正軌
[12] THE CORRECT PATH OF YIQUAN
意拳之正軌，不外古勢之老三拳與龍虎二氣。龍虎二氣為技，三拳為擊。三拳者踐攢裹也。踐拳外剛內柔有靜力〔又曰挺力〕，曰虛中，以含蓄待發之用。攢拳外柔內剛，如綿裹鐵，有彈力，曰實中，乃被動反擊之用。裹拳剛柔相濟，有驚力，曰化中，乃自動之用。任敵千變萬異，一驚而即敗之，所謂樞紐得其環中，以應無窮。
The correct path of Yiquan is nothing more than the “three classical techniques” and the two energies of dragon and tiger. While the energies of dragon and tiger are for skill building, the three techniques are for fighting. They are: stamping, drilling, and wrapping.
The stamping punch is externally hard and internally soft. It has a power of calmness (or of enduring). Within emptiness, it stores and waits to issue.
The drilling punch is externally soft and internally hard, like silk wrapped around iron. It has a springy power. Within fullness, it reverses the opponent’s own action and counterattacks him with it.
The wrapping punch is hardness and softness switching roles. It has a startling power. Within transformation, it uses natural movement.
Go along with the opponent’s endless changes, and then one shock will make him fail. As it is said [in Zhuangzi, chapter 3]: “Obtaining the center of the circle and from there respond limitlessly”.
– – –
[As a bonus to this brief book, included below is an article by Wang published in 國術
統一月刊 第五六期 Martial Arts United Monthly – issue #5/6, 1935, which also mentions the phrase “correct path”.]
拳之剛柔相濟論
DISCUSSING THE BOXING ARTS PRINCIPLE OF
HARDNESS & SOFTNESS COMPLEMENTING EACH OTHER
王宇僧
by Wang Yuseng [Xiangzhai]
自當局提倡國術以還，於是習之者日衆，如雲擁霞蔚，相繼而起，甚盛事也。蓋國術之旨，略有二端，一健身：一衞身：厥功殊偉。此旨也，人且知之讅矣，又何待余之一言而後信。
人之生於世也，孰不願其體健身泰，而甘終身輾轉於病痛間耶？孰不願其能自衞其身，而甘為強暴者橫加勠辱耶？此則習國術者，能如今茲之衆，决非妄加盲從，如瞽者觀獸，人曰此馬也，則應之曰馬，人曰此驢也，則應之曰驢者，其來蓋有自也。然而國術之途，何止萬千，人各一派，派各一說，入則主之力，出則侮之甚，互相詆侮，不可究詰，全憑意氣，而不細心研討於其間，於是弊竇叢生，而遺害於無窮矣。
曩者余曾見有某拳師，挺其胸，凸其肚，肌肉旣富且堅，可以舉重，可以摧堅，於是人咸相指而言曰：鐵澆銅鑄，不過如此耳，誠入世之金剛，其壽必無量也。然而不半載，遽嘔血死，於是人又相顧而怪曰：是何故？是何故？其天歟！殊不知其外雖堅，而內傷已甚，是則習國術能健身，而反害身矣，習之又奚為哉？
又有某拳者，動作時，毫不用力，如十七八女郎，作婀娜之舞，可以順氣，可以活血，是誠合於健身之道，然又不足以應敵摧堅，言國術能以衞身，殆又屬之子虛。
上之二端：由前之說，雖能壯其表面，而內實大有悖於生理，不僅不能健身已也，其失在於過剛，由後之說，雖能合於衞生之道，而又不能用以衞身，其失在於過柔。過剛與過柔，皆有所褊激，不合正軌，不能有成也，旣或有成，亦不過斷簡零章，不成片段之學問耳。
實則國術之正眼法藏，務求其合於原理而已，形式之繁簡無關也，動作之美醜無關也。――且繁簡美醜，本無絕對，蓋其式雖繁，而其內部之工作實簡，其式雖簡，而其內部之工作實繁，此中有難言者矣，未可求之於皮相中也。世所謂美，而其質實醜，世所謂醜，而其質實美，真正之美醜，全視其質為何如耳。亦如西施，雖粗布荊敘，而其美自不可掩，若東施，塗脂抹粉，則益形其醜耳。――須舒其體，暢其氣，曰舒也，而實則使之練，曰暢也，而實則使之適，使之練適者，蓋為技擊之始基也。使之適練必自舒暢中求者，蓋旣無悖於生理，而有益於身心，且如此方可得適練之眞境焉。體旣舒，氣則暢矣，則須統一其精神，精神統一，可以靜悟其內部之工作，可以養成大無畏之精神。靜悟有素，則應敵有方，養成大無畏精神，則能超脫生死恐怖之域。有佛家所謂我入刀山，刀山毁折，我入油鍋，油鍋枯竭之慨，而後雖泰山倒於前，東海傾於後，而心君泰然，處之若平素矣。凡此所述，旣足以健身，復足以衞身，是二者蓋互為因果者也。
至若應敵之方，對於敵方之精神為何如？間架為何如。面積為何如？力量為何如？意義指使，精神領導之力，在在皆須詳分而縷析之。分析旣明，然後則可拿準火候，因以用之，因以攻之，如此則左券可操矣。
因吳君翼翬之徵，故以一得之愚，謹佈於此，倉卒報命，未盡所懷。且國術之道，言之至艱，非有專著，不足以發具底蘊於萬一，凡此所言，不過犖犖其大者耳。
Ever since the government has been encouraging martial arts, the number of practitioners has daily increased, like clouds thronging the sky at sunset, appearing one after another, truly a magnificent thing. There are basically two purposes to martial arts: strengthening the body and defending the self. These achievements are |
and rehoming centre.
It is hoped the one-year-old's owner comes forward.
Severe blizzard
Duncan Robertson, of the Scottish SPCA, said: "Poppy is around a year old and in good condition.
"It's very lucky she was found by someone who helped her as there was a severe blizzard on Monday evening and it was bitterly cold.
"Poppy was found in Leith, which is a built up area with lots of flats nearby. Hamsters are fast creatures and can wriggle through small spaces so there is a chance she has escaped from home."
Mr Robertson said they were keeping an open mind but could not rule out the possibility she may have been abandoned by her owner.
"Poppy could have easily come to harm so we're really glad she's now safe," he added.
"We're keen to hear from anyone who recognises Poppy and, in the meantime, we'll ensure she receives the care she needs.
"If no-one comes forward, we'll be looking to find Poppy a loving new home."Last year, hundreds of attendees gathered together at Pilsen's Union Park for the first-ever T.G.I.F. rally, battling a surprise summer rain to be there. Standing for “Transgender, Gender Non-Conforming, Intersex Freedom,” the event sought to bring together these three groups for their own pride event. The event often got the misnomer of “Trans* Pride,” but it was more than that. The day saw speakers, musicians and a performance of What’s the T? from About Face’s Youth Theatre, which looks at the intersections of race, class and gender in Boystown through the eyes of youth. The event was families and communities coming together to organize, to dialogue and to celebrate their togetherness. This was a day for everyone.
They say that lightning doesn’t strike twice, but that won’t stop T.G.I.F. organizer KOKUMO from trying. She wants the event to become a yearly "incubator for leaders, artists, activists, as well as community members" and an "asylum" for those who need it:
"Because in lieu of CeCe McDonald, a young black transwoman in prison for self-defense, we are forced to combine power with pride," she said. "We have to navigate this current movement of T.G.I. media visibility to political might. No more T.G.I. youth of color or otherwise should have to worry about their lives being stolen from them by bigots or the government."
Last year, KOKUMO laid the groundwork for a yearly event. This year she wants to take the opportunity to move the conversation further. “T.G.I.F. 2013,” will play up themes of community and celebration. However, KOKUMO is looking to move beyond your typical pride celebration. For T.G.I. groups that are often marginalized in the larger queer umbrella, KOKUMO wants a moment of visibility and mobilization; to go from a place of awareness to movement. KOKUMO believes we need a T.G.I. Stonewall:
"The TGI community started the Gay Rights Movement but had it co-opted from us and renamed due to white and male privilege. We were the ones who started the Compton Riots and Stonewall Uprising. So I find it interesting that it took us 30 years to get to a place societally where honest and intentional conversations around T.G.I. experiences are finally being listened to. What’s happening now is what should have happened when the fight to end AIDS began thirty years ago. The T.G.I. sex workers who were also dying in droves were completely ignored or disrespectfully counted as male-identified people. And that is why T.G.I.F. is happening. The time for patiently waiting for somebody to save our lives is over. TGI people are doing the work for themselves. That’s the thing about courage, you don’t know you have it until you’re left with no choice but to use it."
KOKUMO wants this year’s event to include DJs, performers from Cyon Flare to Angelica Ross and keynotes from co-organizer Alexis Martinez, Nick Kay and Pidgeon Pagonis. Also included will be services from SAGE Community Health, Test Positive Awareness Network (TPAN) and Transformative Justice Law Project, which will hold a clothing drive and a name change mobilization effort for attendees who need assistance in navigating the process to legally alter your birth name to your chosen name.
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However, events don’t pay for themselves. KOKUMO also has to secure a stage, equipment and pay for the park deposit—which lept to $3,075 this year. Movement building doesn’t come cheap. You need to be able to afford the tools. That’s why KOKUMO is asking for $10,000 to put together this year’s event, which will cover most of the $13,340 budget. Although KOKUMO initially wasn’t sure whether or not to ask for that much money, organizers decided that they needed to put it all out there in their ask. This weekend, the T.G.I.F. team put together a campaign video for the 2013 gathering (planned for Union Park on July 28), which organizers call “Transcending Pride, Evolving Movements.”
In a Saturday meeting (that WBEZ got an exclusive invite to), organizers argued that the event needed to “go big or go home” this year. As a friend, KOKUMO asked me for my opinion of the fundraising campaign’s prospects. She was concerned she might not reach her goal. I responded with something that my mother used to tell me as a kid, whenever I felt like I couldn’t do something: “If you don’t believe in yourself, no one else will.” She needed to believe that the movement could rally behind her. I believe it will.
T.G.I.F.'s Indiegogo campaign will launch next Tuesday on the fundraising platform. To me, it’s the ultimate demonstration of community. Although Chicago’s mainstream pride events are attended by sweeping cross-sections of the community, with everyone from shirtless club kids to old ladies, babies and dogs attending, the event is bought and paid for largely by corporations. As much as the Pride parade is a yearly reminder of togetherness, it’s a celebration of capitalism—of beer advertisements and discarded trash. The trash that lines the sidewalks of Halsted every year after Pride is a symbol of the negative externalities of fundraising. Hannah Arendt once coined the phrase “the banality of evil.” Call this instead the “banality of business.”
Instead of littering the community with outside cash, KOKUMO’s mission is to have an event built for the community, by the community—by asking them to chip in. She wants to make celebrating T.G.I. togetherness sustainable by building a movement of friends, supporters and allies. In her fundraising video, KOKUMO explains that this event isn’t just about cash. It’s about building a space for people to go and giving them a platform where they can have their voices represented and recognized. It’s about taking the next step. According to KOKUMO, "when the most oppressed people began to save themselves, that’s revolutionary."
At the end of the video, KOKUMO puts it with her trademark directness: “The revolution will be T.G.I. The question is: Will you be ready?”
To donate to the T.G.I.F. Block Party, look out for the video next week on Indiegogo and follow the T.G.I.F. Facebook page. Their campaign launch event will kick off next Wednesday at 6230 N. Kenmore, and T.G.I.F. will be raising funds through the spring. To contact KOKUMO, please visit www.kokumomedia.com or email her at kokumomedia@gmail.com. You can also purchase her EP on her website.A Dayton man was arrested Tuesday after he allegedly tried to have sexual intercourse with a van.
WDTN of Dayton reports that police responded to the 700 block of St. Nicholas Street for a report of a man with his pants down swinging from a stop sign.
When officers arrived, they found Michael Henson walking around wearing only gym shorts and shoes.
A woman who called police told officers she saw Henson standing near a parked van at the 800 block of St. Nicholas Street. She stated that the man pulled his shorts down and placed his genitals in the front grill of a van parked in the street, WDTN reports.
The witness said Henson continued his actions with the van for a while before he passed out in a nearby yard.
Henson is charged with public indecency, according to WDTN.While the discovery of artificial light certainly has made us a more productive and efficient society, there is a dark side to light that many high achievers would do well to consider. According to the May, 2012 issue of Harvard Health Letter, the light that sets us aglow at night as we work well past "quitting time," check email, send texts, share information on social sites, and flip through pages on e-readers puts us at risk for serious problems, and this is especially true when it comes to types of light emitted by electronics and energy-efficient lightbulbs. According to the article, although blue wavelengths are beneficial during daylight hours because they boost our, reaction times, and mood, they can be quite disruptive to our health and well being at night, particularly in today's high-powered electronic age where screens rule—day and night.
The Costs
The average circadian cycle is twenty-four and a quarter hours, but it is daylight that keeps our internal clocks aligned with our. When we upset the balance with repeated exposure to light at night, it can throw our rhythm off and wreak havoc on our health. This effect has been demonstrated through numerous experiments showing that certain types of cancer (breast and prostate) are associated with night shift work and exposure to light at night.
Although researchers are not yet certain exactly why night light exposure has such a negative impact, they believe it's at least partly related to the fact that exposure to light suppresses the secretion of melatonin, a that affects circadian rhythms (some preliminary research suggests that lower melatonin levels may explain the association with cancer). In fact, one researcher, Professor Abraham Haim at the University of Haifa, believes that light at night is a carcinogenic environmental pollutant that will continue to negatively impact our health and well being until the world recognizes its harmful effects and makes important changes to how and when we use light.
Harvard researchers also have found a possible link between disruptions in circadian rhythms and diabetes and obesity. When subjects were put on a schedule which gradually shifted their circadian rhythms, their blood sugar levels increased and their levels of leptin, a hormone that causes people to feel full after a meal, decreased.
Furthermore, experts have long contended that exposure to light at night interferes with sleep, and this view has found support from research. For example, a 2011 study published in the Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM) revealed that exposure to artificial light between sunset and bedtime strongly suppresses melatonin levels, which can negatively impact physiological processes that are regulated by melatonin including sleep, thermoregulation, blood pressure, and glucose levels.
Types of Light and their Impact
According to the Harvard article, "While light of any kind can suppress the secretion of melatonin, blue light does so more powerfully." In an experiment comparing the effects of 6.5 hours of exposure to blue light to exposure to green light of comparable brightness, Harvard researchers and their colleagues discovered that blue light suppressed melatonin for about twice as long as the green light and shifted circadian rhythms by twice as much (3 hours versus 1.5 hours).
In another study out of the University of Toronto, researchers compared the melatonin levels of people exposed to bright indoor light who were wearing blue-light–blocking goggles to those exposed to regular dim light without goggles and discovered that melatonin levels in both groups were about the same, supporting the hypothesis that blue light suppresses melatonin secretion.
Haim's research has found similar results, showing that white LED light (which is blue light on the spectrum) suppresses the production of melatonin five times more than the orange-yellow light given off by traditional high-pressure sodium (HPS) bulbs and that metal halide bulbs, often used for stadium lighting, suppress melatonin at a rate more than three times higher than the HPS bulb.
According to Dr. Luis Arrondo of Foundational Healing, examples of light sources high in melatonin-suppressing blue light include:
LED light bulbs
Computer monitors
Laptop computers
iPads, iPhones and similar devices
Hand-held video games
Electronic gadgets
LED televisions
LED digital clocks
1) Although glasses that block out blue light can be rather expensive, if you do a lot of work at night, it might be worth it to invest in them.
2) Consider trying f.lux, a free download that adjusts the lighting on your computer depending on the time of day. (See review by Digital Dojos and user comments on YouTube).
3) If you must use a night light, use dim red lights. According to the Harvard Health Letter, "Red light has the least power to shift and suppress melatonin."
4) Avoid the melatonin-suppressing light sources described above, beginning two to three hours before bed.
5) Expose yourself to bright light during day time hours, which should not only improve your mood and alertness during the day, but also help you sleep at night.
6) Reconfigure lighting in your home so that it mimics fire light, which is rich in red and yellow wavelengths. Dr. Arrondo says, "This could mean shutting off the overhead lights and using floor and table lamps with orange and yellow bulbs in the evening. Of course, it also means forgoing computer and television use, especially just before bedtime. It may sound drastic, but for the person with persistent, these changes can help."
7) Reduce stress as much as possible. increases our body's production of cortisol, which lowers melatonin levels.
© 2012 Sherrie Bourg Carter, All Rights Reserved
Follow Dr. Bourg Carter on Facebook and Twitter.
Sherrie Bourg Carter is the author of High Octane Women: How Superachievers Can Avoid Burnout (Prometheus Books, 2011.Communiqué
MONTRÉAL - RDS et les Canadiens de Montréal sont heureux d’annoncer aujourd’hui qu’ils ont conclu une nouvelle entente de 12 ans sur les droits de diffusion régionale, faisant de RDS le diffuseur officiel des matchs des Canadiens de Montréal jusqu’à la saison 2025-2026. Dans le cadre de cette entente, Bell, la société mère de RDS, conserve les droits d’identité pour le Centre Bell jusqu’en 2028. Les modalités financières du contrat n’ont pas été divulguées.
Entente de 12 ans du Canadien avec RDS
La nouvelle entente inclut les droits de diffusion pour 60 matchs réguliers ainsi que des matchs préparatoires, chaque saison, dans la région de diffusion désignée de l’équipe.
« Les matchs des Canadiens de Montréal constituent une pierre angulaire de la programmation de RDS depuis deux décennies, et notre engagement à couvrir l’équipe et la ligue n’a jamais été aussi fort », explique Gerry Frappier, président de RDS. « Cette entente avec les Canadiens témoigne du réel esprit de partenariat que nous avons développé avec l’équipe au fil des ans et de l’excellence de la couverture que notre équipe de diffusion de calibre international offre quotidiennement aux amateurs des Canadiens. »
« Nous sommes très fiers de prolonger notre partenariat avec RDS et Bell Media et ce à long terme. Depuis plusieurs années, les Canadiens, Bell et RDS entretiennent une relation d’affaires qui continue d’être fructueuse et nous sommes convaincus que la poursuite de notre collaboration sera bénéfique pour toutes les parties impliquées, ainsi que pour les partisans des Canadiens de Montréal. Le Réseau des Sports (RDS) est un chef de file dans la diffusion et la programmation d’émissions sportives à travers la province de Québec et nous croyons sincèrement que l’entente conclue aujourd’hui contribuera à consolider sa position. De plus, il nous fait grand plaisir d’annoncer que les droits d’identité du domicile des Canadiens se trouvent également reconduits et que, par conséquent, le Centre Bell conservera l’appellation actuelle pour de nombreuses années encore » d’indiquer Kevin Gilmore, chef de l’exploitation, Canadiens de Montréal.
Le quiz : le meilleur moment du CH à RDS
« En tant que fière partenaire du Centre Bell depuis 2002, Bell est heureuse d’aller de l’avant aujourd’hui en tant que commanditaire de ce haut lieu du hockey à Montréal pour au moins 15 ans », a dit Martine Turcotte, Vice-présidente exécutive, Québec pour Bell. « Le Centre Bell est un symbole visible important de notre engagement autant envers Montréal, notre domicile depuis notre fondation il y a 133 ans, qu’envers le club de hockey légendaire que sont les Canadiens de Montréal. »
RDS diffuse des matchs des Canadiens de Montréal depuis 1992 et est devenu le diffuseur officiel de l’équipe en 2002.
À propos de RDS
RDS est le leader de la diffusion sportive francophone au Canada et la chaîne spécialisée no.1 au Québec. En plus de son offre multiplateforme de calibre mondial incluant les chaînes RDS, RDS2 et RDS Info, le site RDS.ca, RDS Mobile, RDS Télé mobile et l’application RDS GO, RDS dispose du plus riche éventail de programmation sportive francophone au monde. Diffuseur officiel des Canadiens de Montréal et diffuseur de la LNH, diffuseur officiel de la LCF et de la Coupe Grey, de la NFL et du Super Bowl, de la MLS et de la Coupe MLS, de la MLB et de la Série mondiale, de la Coupe du monde de soccer de la FIFA de 2015 à 2022 et de l’EURO 2016, diffuseur francophone exclusif du football des Alouettes de Montréal, de la Formule 1 et du Tour de France, RDS diffuse près de 3000 heures de direct par année sur ses différentes chaînes, incluant le soccer de l’Impact de Montréal, le Championnat mondial de hockey junior de l’IIHF, le NASCAR, le golf du PGA Tour incluant les quatre tournois majeurs, le tennis de l’ATP incluant les quatre tournois du Grand Chelem, le soccer de la Ligue Anglaise Barclays, le basketball du March Madness de la NCAA, la Coupe Canada de curling et les Internationaux de Patinage Canada. RDS sera également diffuseur des Jeux olympiques d’hiver de Sochi 2014, à titre de chaîne spécialisée officielle. RDS est une division de Bell Média, qui est détenue par BCE Inc. (TSX, NYSE: BCE), la plus grande entreprise de communications du Canada.I have released a course on Pluralsight called Agile Fundamentals that talks about Agile Software Development in detail.
I was listening to an episode of the DotNetRocks podcast about Agile Metrics. There was an interview with Michael ‘Doc’ Norton about his experiences figuring out the right metrics to measure for the productivity of a development team. The basic issue discussed was that Velocity is a dangerous metric to rely on as a goal or target.
Velocity is a measure of units over time, so in an agile iteration or sprint, that would be the number of story points completed in the iteration. This is a dangerous metric because it is misleading to management. One week, your team may complete 10 story points in the iteration. Management may then say,
“Well, that’s great, if you can better that to say 12, we might finish early.”
The team, then starts their next sprint, aiming to complete 12 points, but they end up only completing 5. This is like a red rag to a bull to management, but this could be a valid scenario. The velocity of 12 from the previous sprint may have been achieved because all the development tasks where contain within the development team. If as part of the next spring you need input from other teams or departments, then this could affect your ability to get work done as planned. This just one example of an external influence affecting velocity, you could have people go of sick, on holiday, or anything else that can happen that is out of the teams control.
It is because of these external influences that the velocity metric becomes a bad metric to rely on. There is just too much variability in the numbers from sprint to sprint. This doesn’t mean you should ignore velocity completely, but managers should not ask teams to hit targets based on velocity.
In the original interview, in the podcast linked above, Mr Norton talks about 3 laws that influenced him whilst he was looking into agile metrics. These are :
The Hawthorne Effect – This is where something that is measured will improve, at a cost. Goodhart’s Law – When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. Friedmans Thermostat – Correlation is not causation.
Going back to the idea of velocity tracking, in order to deliver more points to meet the target, the team will sacrifice on system quality, which slows down the team in the long run and introduces technical debt. You are better off focusing on the quality of the system that you are building and the processes (continuous delivery and integration etc.) and the people building the system.
As stated above, still use velocity as a rough guide, just don’t rely on it. Some other good metrics to use for your system development could be based around code quality metrics like the following available in Visual Studio.
Maintainablity Index: The Maintainability Index calculates an index value between 0 and 100 that represents the relative ease of maintaining the code. A high value means better maintainability. Color coded ratings can be used to quickly identify trouble spots in your code. A green rating is between 20 and 100 and indicates that the code has good maintainability. A yellow rating is between 10 and 19 and indicates that the code is moderately maintainable. A red rating is a rating between 0 and 9 and indicates low maintainability.
Cyclomatic Complexity: Cyclomatic complexity (or conditional complexity) is a software measurement metric that is used to indicate the complexity of a program. It directly measures the number of linearly independent paths through a program’s source code. Cyclomatic complexity may also be applied to individual functions, modules, methods or classes within a program. A higher number is bad. I generally direct my team to keep this value below 7. If the number creeps up higher it means your method is starting to get complex and could do with re-factoring generally by extracting code into separate, well named methods. This will also increase the readability of your code.
Depth of Inheritance: Depth of inheritance, also called depth of inheritance tree (DIT), is defined as “the maximum length from the node to the root of the tree”. A low number for depth implies less complexity but also the possibility of less code reuse through inheritance. High values for DIT mean the potential for errors is also high, low values reduce the potential for errors. High values for DIT indicate a greater potential for code reuse through inheritance, low values suggest less code reuse though inheritance to leverage. Due to lack of sufficient data, there is no currently accepted standard for DIT values. I find keeping this value below 5 is a good measure.
Class Coupling: Class coupling is a measure of how many classes a single class uses. A high number is bad and a low number is generally good with this metric. Class coupling has been shown to be an accurate predictor of software failure and recent studies have shown that an upper-limit value of 9 is the most efficient.
Lines of Code (LOC): Indicates the approximate number of lines in the code. The count is based on the IL code and is therefore not the exact number of lines in the source code file. A very high count might indicate that a type or method is trying to do too much work and should be split up. It might also indicate that the type or method might be hard to maintain. Please do not ever use Lines of Code as a productivity measure! Only use it to highlight potential complexity in a class or method.
Another tool great for dash-boarding these metrics is NDepend. You may also want to use test coverage as a metric for overall quality. Would you really want to trust any code that doesn’t have a good level of test coverage? Low test coverage has always made me nervous, and as Michael Feathers once said, a system is classed as legacy if it is not covered in tests. This means that even though you are working on a green field project that is brand new, you are already classed as legacy if the test coverage is very low.
The metrics above are more focused around system quality, but there are other Agile Metrics that you can use like :
Burndown : Burndown reports show the progression of a team through a set of work. The reports display a series of snapshots of the remaining and completed work. The remaining work appears to ‘burn down’ as the team completes more and more over the set of time viewed. The goal of the team is to complete all planned work by the end of the period so that the final snapshot shows nothing left to do. The ideal line on a Burndown shows the straight path assuming a start with the highest point on the very first day of the displayed period and an equal progression on each and every day.
Cumulative Flow : Progress of Backlogs by status over time. This allows you to see how your backlog items and tasks or a spring are progressing over time when plotted onto an area graph.
Estimate Trend : The Estimate Trend shows changes in the total amount of Estimate, the amount completed and the amount remaining over the course of time on the backlog. The total amount remaining should trend downward over time, while the amount completed should trend upward. Changes to the total estimates may be due to new items being added to the list, items being removed from the list, or changes in estimates of items already on the list.
There are many more metrics reports you can use, and it depends on what agile planning tool you are using like VersionONE or Jira, but the important thing to remember is not to turn the metrics into targets.
AdvertisementsParkour.
If you’re not practicing it, you should be. If you are, well, then you don’t really need to be reading this do you? Go outside and have some fun.
Anyway, back to the people who are the actual targets of this article – people who don’t practice parkour. You might be wondering, “What in the world is parkour anyway?”. I’m glad you asked.
Parkour, as defined by Mark of American Parkour, is “…the physical discipline of training to overcome any obstacle within one’s path by adapting one’s movements to the environment.” Now, that’s just speaking strictly of parkour, there’s also freerunning. I’m not really going to touch freerunning for right now, since there’s a lot of debate over what ‘real’ parkour is and I don’t want to get into it here. Suffice it to say that parkour is moving over obstacles in the most fluid and efficient way possible.
Put another way, parkour is the art of making the entire world your playground.
So, why should you care enough to give it a try? I’m glad you asked that too. Here’s five reasons.
Parkour Can Be The Ultimate Fitness Plan
Without going too much into the history of it all, parkour was very heavily influenced by a man you’ve probably never heard of before named Georges Hébert. Hébert found when travelling through Africa that the people there were in a state of fitness that put the people back home to shame, even though they never followed a structured exercise routine. This lead him to develop a fitness system he called the Natural Method, where each training session would involve a variety of real world movements like running, jumping, crawling, climbing, throwing etc.
His method resulted in substantially more even body development and significantly better fitness than the methods commonly in use at the time. Parkour took some inspiration from his method, and by its nature develops the body in much the same way.
When you practice parkour you walk, you run, you sprint in bursts mixed with periods of slow movement (sound like interval training?), you vault over things, you roll, you climb, you crawl, you jump, you balance. Almost every way you can make your body move, parkour practice will find a way to make you do it.
This kind of free flowing circuit training is fantastic for your fitness level. Even without working out more, just by going out for a few regular parkour training sessions, you’ll find your strength, balance and likely even flexibility improving. Additionally, it’s all real, compound, full-body movements. These aren’t some isolationist bicep-curl-esque exercises, training for parkour prepares your body to use its fitness in real world situations.
Parkour Gives Increased Confidence
Some people suffer terribly from a lack of confidence. In most cases, it takes a lot of work and practice to build them selves up and get used to the idea of being and acting confidant.
Parkour is a natural confidence builder, as it slowly takes you from not being able to do much to being able to do things that you never would have guessed possible. When you look up at a wall that you know is higher than anything you’ve ever been able to scale before and you commit and manage to make it over, you feel like you can accomplish anything. After a while, that feeling starts to bleed out into the rest of your life.
Whenever you start feeling unconfident about something, your job, school, whatever – you can think back to the time you got over that wall, cleared that gap or landed that precision and remember that if you can do something that awesome, you can do anything.
Parkour Brings More Creativity and a Better Attitude
Parkour, in a sense, is all about the obstacles. If there were no obstacles, you couldn’t have parkour.
Psychologically, that fact starts to affect you after a while. While once you might have seen a wall, a fence or a gate as an obstruction, something that meant you shall not pass – you now see as a toy, a piece of playground equipment, a fun challenge.
It doesn’t take long, after starting to look at every physical obstacle you find in your path as a challenge to be tackled with enthusiasm, that you find yourself seeing mental obstacles in the same way. Rather than hit a problem and immediately get frustrated, you’ll find yourself excited with the prospect of a challenging problem to overcome.
Parkour also fosters creativity. The goal is to move over the obstacles in as efficient a way as possible. That usually takes some creativity on its own, but lots of people (particularly those more inclined toward freerunning) also try to clear obstacles in the most aesthetically pleasing way possible.
That means that once you get into it, you start deconstructing objects to figure out what the most efficient way to get past it would be, and how to make that look really good. Everytime you look at something you’ll be practicing your creativity.
Parkour is Extremely Fun
Maybe it’s the very fundamental, animal-like movements, maybe it’s the feeling of putting all your strength and energy into something and not holding back, maybe it’s just the intensity and the joy of flying through the air – I’m not sure what it is, but there’s something about parkour that taps into our primal nature.
Practicing parkour makes you feel like a little kid again, screaming your head off as you run from whoever was ‘it’ in a game of tag. It’s like the feeling of having an all out sprint just for the fun of it. There’s just something fantastically fulfilling about it. Not to mention addictive.
Honestly, to understand how fun it really is, you just have to go try it. I warn you though, it’s addictive.
Parkour Makes You Feel Like a Ninja
Ok, so this last reason may be a bit egotistical, but who cares? Parkour & freerunning both, aside from being wonderful exercise that will get you in fantastic shape, excellent ways to make you more confident, creative, & positive and a source of fulfilling, exuberant joy, just plain look cool.
Everyone always wanted to be a ninja. Now you can be. Well, kind of. You can feel like one. Not to mention you get to be a part of an enormous, friendly, welcoming community of like-minded individuals from all over the planet who are joined by a love of fun and personal development. Seriously, there are some great people in the parkour community.
So there you go. Five good reasons (or, maybe four good reasons and one ok one) why you should be practicing parkour. To end, just in case you’re still a little confused what all this is, check out these videos. The first is about pure, strict parkour – the other is about freerunning and acrobatic parkour. Watch them. Get pumped. Go get started.
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br>Leviticus 15 New International Version (NIV)
Discharges Causing Uncleanness
15 The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, 2 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When any man has an unusual bodily discharge, such a discharge is unclean. 3 Whether it continues flowing from his body or is blocked, it will make him unclean. This is how his discharge will bring about uncleanness:
4 “‘Any bed the man with a discharge lies on will be unclean, and anything he sits on will be unclean. 5 Anyone who touches his bed must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening. 6 Whoever sits on anything that the man with a discharge sat on must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening.
7 “‘Whoever touches the man who has a discharge must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening.
8 “‘If the man with the discharge spits on anyone who is clean, they must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening.
9 “‘Everything the man sits on when riding will be unclean, 10 and whoever touches any of the things that were under him will be unclean till evening; whoever picks up those things must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening.
11 “‘Anyone the man with a discharge touches without rinsing his hands with water must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening.
12 “‘A clay pot that the man touches must be broken, and any wooden article is to be rinsed with water.
13 “‘When a man is cleansed from his discharge, he is to count off seven days for his ceremonial cleansing; he must wash his clothes and bathe himself with fresh water, and he will be clean. 14 On the eighth day he must take two doves or two young pigeons and come before the Lord to the entrance to the tent of meeting and give them to the priest. 15 The priest is to sacrifice them, the one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. In this way he will make atonement before the Lord for the man because of his discharge.
16 “‘When a man has an emission of semen, he must bathe his whole body with water, and he will be unclean till evening. 17 Any clothing or leather that has semen on it must be washed with water, and it will be unclean till evening. 18 When a man has sexual relations with a woman and there is an emission of semen, both of them must bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening.
19 “‘When a woman has her regular flow of blood, the impurity of her monthly period will last seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean till evening.
20 “‘Anything she lies on during her period will be unclean, and anything she sits on will be unclean. 21 Anyone who touches her bed will be unclean; they must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening. 22 Anyone who touches anything she sits on will be unclean; they must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening. 23 Whether it is the bed or anything she was sitting on, when anyone touches it, they will be unclean till evening.
24 “‘If a man has sexual relations with her and her monthly flow touches him, he will be unclean for seven days; any bed he lies on will be unclean.
25 “‘When a woman has a discharge of blood for many days at a time other than her monthly period or has a discharge that continues beyond her period, she will be unclean as long as she has the discharge, just as in the days of her period. 26 Any bed she lies on while her discharge continues will be unclean, as is her bed during her monthly period, and anything she sits on will be unclean, as during her period. 27 Anyone who touches them will be unclean; they must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening.
28 “‘When she is cleansed from her discharge, she must count off seven days, and after that she will be ceremonially clean. 29 On the eighth day she must take two doves or two young pigeons and bring them to the priest at the entrance to the tent of meeting. 30 The priest is to sacrifice one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. In this way he will make atonement for her before the Lord for the uncleanness of her discharge.
31 “‘You must keep the Israelites separate from things that make them unclean, so they will not die in their uncleanness for defiling my dwelling place, which is among them.’”
32 These are the regulations for a man with |
both frustrating and terrifying.) India under Modi may thus practice a more frankly mercantilist policy toward the world, as China does.
On matters of national security, India’s most fraught relationship is of course with Pakistan. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with its roots in Hindu nationalism, has traditionally adopted a bellicose posture toward Pakistan. During the campaign, Modi took the kind of cheap shots at Pakistan that played to the gallery. He jeered at the Congress party defense minister, A.K. Antony — who declined to authorize a sharp military response to a murky cross-border incident that led to the death of several Indian soldiers — as one of several "agents of Pakistan and enemy of India." Puri dismissed the crack as an "election flourish," and said that Modi "will make a genuine effort to reach out to Pakistan."
That could be. India’s previous BJP prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, made a historic visit to Pakistan in 1999 in the hopes of advancing talks on the disputed territory of Kashmir. Ashutosh Varshney, an India scholar at Brown University, has suggested that Modi could be India’s "Nixon in China." That might be stretching it, but Modi’s shrewd campaign left the impression that, whatever his personal views, he is more politician than ideologue. He is, however, a chesty figure who will not abide incursions, especially from weaker neighbors. Puri says that Modi "will have much less tolerance for acts of terror" than did his predecessor, Manmohan Singh, who did not strike back at Pakistan after the 2008 terrorist attack on Mumbai’s Taj Mahal hotel despite abundant evidence of Pakistani involvement. Modi almost certainly would have shown no such restraint. Give that both countries have nuclear weapons, that has to be a frightening thought for Western policymakers.
Modi is unlikely to give a high priority to relations with the United States, a country to which he has not been permitted to travel owing to his role in the 2002 Gujarat riots. Indians did not miss the brusque undertone of President Barack Obama’s invitation to Modi to visit the United States at "a mutually agreeable time." The Delhi policy elite believes, with some reason, that Obama has relegated India to the second-class status that it had endured until 2005, when President George W. Bush struck a "strategic partnership" with India, followed three years later by a major nuclear deal. Indians are mystified that Obama, unlike Bush, has not embraced an enthusiastically democratic nation with tremendous potential for economic growth. The "pivot to Asia" seems to bypass India altogether.
Obama will be, if anything, warier about an India under Modi than he was when the country was governed, more or less, by the anodyne Singh. The problem, however, is not personal. India illustrates the fallacy of the assumption that democracies share a common outlook on the world. As a young nation under the leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru, India, like the United States in its infancy, saw itself more as a collective idea than as a set of interests, standing up for the principle of nonalignment and for international peace.
But the 1950s were a long time ago. India is now a regional power with strong economic and national security interests, as well as a skepticism bordering on hostility toward many Western norms. It may well be the most vibrant democracy in the emerging world, but India does not believe in promoting democratic values abroad. India guards the sanctity of national sovereignty almost as zealously as China and Russia do, and it abstained on U.N. Security Council votes on intervention in Libya and Syria. In an essay in the volume Shaping the Emerging World: India and the Multilateral Order, David Malone, Canada’s former high commissioner to India and a scholar of the United Nations, along with Rohan Mukherjee, a doctoral student, note a strange paradox: As India has grown stronger, it has become more defensive about sovereignty and less prepared to defend the international order. This inevitably places it at odds with the United States, the chief guarantor of that order.
India is an important partner for the United States where the countries’ interests converge, as in Afghanistan, but not in the many places where they don’t, most notably Iran, a major oil supplier to India. And with an aggressive nationalist whose party’s slogan is "India First" in power, New Delhi will, if anything, make fewer concessions to Washington and the West than his predecessor did. Modi feels a much deeper intuitive bond with the disciplined and socially conservative countries of East Asia than he does with the United States and social democratic Europe. Worse, India’s bad habit
of aligning with authoritarian states on international questions is likely to increase under Modi, a man considered even by many of his most ardent supporters an autocratic, if benevolent, leader.
In short, Modi is likely to be a net negative for the West. But unless he picks a fight with Pakistan, that won’t matter nearly as much as whether he can address India’s sense of stagnation. Modi believes that he can spread the business-first, no-red-tape model he established in Gujarat across India. His stunning electoral victory (though with slightly under 32 percent of the popular vote) gives him a mandate to do so. Hundreds of millions of all-too-hopeful Indians are about to find out whether Modi can do what he said he would. Despite merited suspicions about Modi’s commitment to democracy and secularism, Western leaders need to begin thinking about what they can do to help him succeed.Hello Citizens! Today I'm highlighting some great images and wallpapers I've run across in the Star Citizen community over the past few months.
This is a gorgeous winter wallpaper of one of my favourite ships, the Carrack, done by Ungineer:
Next up we have a lovely view looking up at a passing Polaris at night by Foy AKA OHDFoxy:
Wallpaper by Foy aka OHDFoxy. Beware, full version of image is very large (5K, 19 mb). Source: OHDFoxy @ DeviantArt
Here we have an astonishingly gorgeous, if haunting, wallpaper of the Gladius, by GarfieldICHI:
Following the Gladius we have a pair of wallpapers by SpoofGhost! The first really caught my interest because of the intricate details. The second fueled my imagination and made me eager to race through planetary terrain.
This next one is by icemaneli186, featuring a beautiful environment and a crashed Buccaneer:
STARMEDIC is famous for creating gorgeous Star Citizen wallpapers for years. Here are two great entries from him, the first featuring the Reclaimer and a crashed Polaris, and the second featuring a scene from the Big Guns of the UEE trailer that STARMEDIC recreated for a wallpaper:
The next contestant in our parade of stunning wallpapers is a piece done by Martin Vlas:
Last entry for wallpapers is an incredible piece by Tom607. This one is titled "The Fall of UEES Olympus":
The big development on fan content of late has been the introduction of "Director Mode" into Star Citizen, vastly improving the tools that players have to create gorgeous screenshots. Below are some great examples:
Of course the last image above is from the legendary mr.hasgaha, as is the featured image at the top of this article. If you haven't visited his Flickr to check out his incredible collection of Star Citizen screenshots, please do immediately:
I hope you enjoyed this highlight of incredible fan artwork and screenshots, let me know in the comments below if you'd like to see features like this in the future!Today was another day of drawing things for Rktcr. In part, this was because my remote git server was down due to a power outage, so I wanted to stay away from (mysterious prototype) and Rainbow, both of which I had most recently worked with on my laptop. Mostly, though, it was because Rktcr really did need some vehicle variety.
So here's what I got into the game today:
This vehicle skin was inspired by locomotives; the counterweight design in the wheels was to mitigate the "hammering" of the track caused by the drive piston motion. I think I struck a decent balance between ornamentation and staying true to Rktcr's flat style, though the front triangle seems a bit lacking. I might also decide to come back and tint the wheels. I tried a few tints while drawing and nothing looked quite right.
Next, I decided to head to the future. This vehicle was inspired by a whole slew of visual influences, from plates-over-machinery robot design to the circle-segment elements of the Remember Me logo. I think it came out rather well; though I find that the wheels and body can sometimes blend together.
Finally, I tried to channel a sort of present day performance car aesthetic -- some body panels for aerodynamics, but over a light tubular frame. And, of course, ridiculous low-profile tires and custom rims to round out the look. I'm honestly not sure what that exhaust system would be used for, but I liked the asymmetry.This story is rather incredible, but it’s not without precedent. Republicans in the US House Appropriations Committee yesterday voted down an amendment that would have permitted the Justice Department to block the sale of guns and explosives to suspected terrorists on the terror watch list.
If we stop terrorists from buying explosives, then the terrorists win.
You see, Republicans say they don’t trust the terror watch list, and neither do their masters at the NRA. So rather than figure out how to improve the terror watch list, Republicans figure it’s better to just arm the terrorists.
Oh but it gets worse, Roll Call reports that Republicans also opposed giving local police access to the ATF gun data. What did Republicans support? An amendment “to block the ATF from continuing to require the reporting of purchases of multiple firearms in border states.”
I hate to go all George Bush, but is the GOP, and the gun lobby, now in the pocket of Al Qaeda?
Think that’s hyperbole, here’s an Al Qaeda operative talking about the importance of taking advantage of America’s weak gun laws. Here’s Al Qaeda spokesman Adam Gadahn in 2011:
“America is absolutely awash with easily obtainable firearms. You can go down to a gun show at a local convention center and come away with a fully automatic assault rifle, without a background check, most likely without having to show an identification card. So what are you waiting for?”
How big a problem is it having suspected terrorist being able to buy guns and explosives? The GAO reports (pdf file):
From February 2004 through February 2010, FBI data show that individuals on the terrorist watchlist were involved in firearm or explosives background checks 1,228 times; 1,119 (about 91 percent) of these transactions were allowed to proceed because no prohibiting information was found—such as felony convictions, illegal immigrant status, or other disqualifying factors—and 109 of the transactions were denied.
This isn’t a recent problem. Gun enthusiasts in Congress wouldn’t let the FBI check the gun purchases of terrorists immediately following September 11, lest we impinge on the Second Amendment rights of Mohammad Atta best friend. Here’s a quote from the NYT on December 6, 2001 – only three months after September 11:
The Justice Department has refused to let the F.B.I. check its records to determine whether any of the 1,200 people detained after the Sept. 11 attacks had bought guns, F.B.I. and Justice Department officials say. The department made the decision in October after the F.B.I. asked to examine the records it maintains on background checks to see if any detainees had purchased guns in the United States.
So we shouldn’t be surprised that House Republicans are voting in favor of arming terrorists. They’ve been doing it for years.Image caption Anthony Weiner resigned in June 2011 after pressure from fellow Democrats
A former congressman who resigned in disgrace over his racy Twitter messages has announced he will run for mayor of New York City.
Anthony Weiner enters the race with one poll ranking him second in the contest for the Democratic mayoral nomination.
In 2011, he had said his account was hacked, then admitted sending half-nude photos to young women.
Mr Weiner already has almost $5m (£3.3m) in campaign funds ahead of the city's mayoral election this November.
In a YouTube video released late on Tuesday, the former New York representative said: "I made some big mistakes and I know I let a lot of people down, but I also learned some tough lessons.
"I'm running for mayor because I've been fighting for the middle class and those struggling to make it my entire life. And I hope I get a second chance."
He previously ran for mayor in 2005 and was expected to do so again in 2009 before current Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he would run for a third term.
In recent interviews, Mr Weiner has said he should not have lied about the photos he posted on Twitter, but did so because he wanted to keep the truth from his then-pregnant wife, Huma Abedin.
Ms Abedin, a longtime aide of former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, has said she has forgiven him.
Mr Weiner faces several rivals for the Democratic mayoral nomination, which will be decided at a primary election in September.
A Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday places Mr Weiner second with 15% of the vote, trailing City Council Speaker Christine Quinn by 10 points.
Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and former city Comptroller Bill Thompson both followed with 10% of the survey.
But the poll, conducted before Mr Weiner's announcement, also found nearly half of city voters said he should not enter the race for mayor.
However, Mr Weiner may have taken encouragement from another disgraced politician who recently made a comeback.
This month, former South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, who quit following an extramarital affair, was elected to the US Congress.If one spends enough time reading the Bible, that strange, disparate collection of ancient texts, one begins to notice that something significant has changed between the end of Chronicles (for Jews) or Malachi (for Christians) and the beginning of Matthew. Those differences, at least for the Christian believer, might well become uncomfortable.
Why is there a hell in the New Testament and not the Old? What happened to Sheol, the shadowy abode of the dead from earlier Jewish thought? Where did all the angels come from in the Gospels, and where were they in the Old Testament? What can account for the absence of the resurrection of the dead from the Tanakh, which was the only scripture Jesus and his followers knew?
The answer, according to Baylor University historian Philip Jenkins, is “a tectonic theological shift” between 250 BCE and the birth of Jesus that “left an indelible mark on the scriptures.” In Crucible of Faith, Jenkins tells the story of this time of political and religious upheaval in ancient Judaism and, in the process, shows us something about the world we inhabit today.
That story is mind-bendingly complex. It begins in the years after Israel has returned from exile in Babylon and rebuilt the temple, stories readers may know from the biblical books of Ezra and Nehemiah. But for non-specialists, that familiarity will be short-lived. Jenkins quickly plunges into nearly forgotten histories where, after the break-up of the empire of Alexander the Great, Judea is squeezed between the powerful Ptolemaic (Egyptian) and Seleucid (Syrian-based) empires.
Ethnic cleansing and violence were common, intrigue a constant part of life for the priestly and political elite. In response to this unrest, Jewish writers began to explore new theological and literary paths, and the genre of apocalyptic writing was born. Though Daniel and Second Zachariah emerged within this tumult, they were important, but not genre-defining works at the time.
That distinction, Jenkins writes, belongs to the 38,000-word, 108-chapter tome that today we call 1 Enoch. One Enoch was quoted by the New Testament author Jude, and Jewish writers at the time found it exhilarating. But it was destined to be mostly forgotten by both Jews and Christians. A look at the first chapters of the text explains why.
The authors (there were several) take the reader through the deepest abysses and hells and relate the strangest visions (one is usually called the Animal Apocalypse). We read the names of angels, something rare before this time. There is much speculation about a passage in Genesis — one of the weirdest passages in scripture — where, according to 1 Enoch’s interpretation, in primeval times, fallen angels slept with human women, and giants came from their union.
One Enoch had major political significance, too, though it would be anachronistic to separate political and religious concerns here. Political critique would become a standard feature of apocalyptic writing generally, from the messianic readings of the biblical book of Daniel through Revelation’s cryptic, drama-filled criticism of Rome. It was, in fact, the reason the genre was invented.
But the most important wrinkle 1 Enoch and other apocalyptic works threw into ancient Near Eastern politics at this time was fairly simple: a radicalized monotheism. It is the change which accounts for many of the others. In documents from pre-exilic Israel, one runs across evidence of henotheism, the idea that there are other gods than the one your tribe worships.
By Jesus’ time, the gods worshipped by Greeks, Romans, and other oppressive empires were increasingly thought to be frauds. We see this in 1 Enoch, in the Dead Sea Scrolls found at Qumran, and in many other works Jenkins examines. For these ancient writers, Zeus, Isis, and the emperor were not gods at all since there is only one God, and He was on Israel’s side.
Some readers might wonder why Jenkins did not trace the birth of radical monotheism in Israel to what historians of religion call the “Axial break.” That term indicates a time a few hundred years before Jenkins’ “crucible era,” when metaphysical statements start to appear in the writings of the prophets and “theoretic culture,” as Robert Bellah put it, began to form in Israel for the first time.
But Jenkins’ story is a cultural and political one, and including an examination of this earlier period would have needlessly complicated an already extraordinarily complex narrative. As it stands, Crucible of Faith manages to weave an astonishing number of movements, texts, and political figures into one story, a story that illuminates connections between biblical books and forgotten political movements, Jewish sectarianism, Greek Gnosticism, Roman realpolitik, and the rise of early Christianity.
Above all, Jenkins shows us how political turmoil in an ancient, provincial kingdom at the friction point between empires helped form the beliefs held by billions in the world today. For that reason alone, Crucible of Faith is quite an achievement.
Joel Looper is a Ph.D. candidate in religion at the University of Aberdeen.
Like what we do? Click here to support the nonprofit Independent!The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Schiaparelli Mars lander is being readied for its plunge onto the Red Planet.
Controllers at ESA’s mission control in Darmstadt, Germany have uploaded commands that will govern the lander’s descent and touchdown on Mars.
Meanwhile, discussions are underway regarding the best seat in the house for viewing Schiaparelli’s landing – by NASA’s Opportunity Mars rover.
Two-parter
ESA’s ExoMars 2016 mission is a two-parter: The Trace Gas Orbiter has been carrying Schiaparelli since launch on March 14 of this year.
Upon arrival at Mars on October 19 — and its parent craft brakes into an elliptical orbit around Mars — Schiaparelli will test the technology needed for Europe’s ExoMars 2020 rover to land.
Taking the fall
One of the most crucial moments will be Schiaparelli’s landing, set for 14:48:11 GMT (16:48:11 CEST) on October 19.
During landing, the recently sent upload of commands include ejecting the front and back aeroshells, operating the descent sensors, deploying the braking parachute and activating three groups of hydrazine thrusters to control the lander’s touchdown speed.
Radar love
Radar will measure Schiaparelli’s height above the surface starting at about 4 miles (7 kilometers) altitude.
Above Mars, Schiaparelli will briefly hover before cutting its thrusters, leaving it to fall freely.
The targeted touchdown site is a region in Meridiani Planum – a location that is near NASA’s Opportunity rover that is already on-duty.
Ringside seat?
How solid of a chance is it for the NASA Opportunity rover spotting the Schiaparelli sky show?
“It is exciting to think about the possibility of seeing a visitor coming,” said Mark Lemmon on the Opportunity tactical shift rover control group. He is associate professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at Texas A & M University in College Station, Texas.
Lemmon told Inside Outer Space that there is a realistic possibility, but not a likelihood, of seeing part of Schiaparelli’s parachute descent – maybe one chance in seven.
Constrained downlink
“The parachute would be, at best, around pixel-sized. If there is enough residual glow in the heat shield, that could be a second pixel,” Lemmon said. “We are balancing the desire to maximize the odds of getting at least a few images of Schiaparelli with the constrained downlink we have available that sol [Martian day].”
“If we were talking about a flat plain, and without dusty season, we’d be trying to prune down our options,” Lemmon said. That is, image the entry phase, turn to image the parachute phase, maybe use multiple directions since the lander ellipse is so big – from west on a bit past north, in angle, he said.
Robot’s point of view
But the Opportunity rover is in a hole. The Schiaparelli entry is not viewable, Lemmon said. If the European probe lands in the middle of the landing ellipse, or comes in short, nothing will be viewable. If the probe goes long, to the east, it might come over the crater rim from the rover’s point of view, and also be closer to the rover.
“We are watching the horizon,” Lemmon said. “Previously, we figured about one chance in seven of having the parachute go through the frame. We’d likely point to maximize the chance of seeing anything, but there may be arguments for one part of the descent over another.”
Great bonus
Lemmon added that any sharp-shooting of an incoming Schiaparelli has to cope with the martian dust, as the sky is comparable in brightness to the parachute.
“Because of that, we think we have to use [Opportunity’s] Pancam’s higher sensitivity to small objects and its filters, rather than Navcam’s larger field of view,” Lemmon said. “We’re still collecting information about the descent expectations, weather, and local horizon, and will use all of that for our final plans on October 17 when we uplink to the rover.”
Lemmon said that the ESA Schiaparelli team has been very interested in the images. Those images would be an “extra perspective” on Schiaparelli’s position, winds, maybe heat shield deployment.
“The images are not central to what they need,” Lemmon said, “but if we get them it would be a great bonus. We have a shot at watching an incoming spacecraft from the surface of another planet…good times!”
Surface science
Once safely on the surface, the timeline will operate Schiaparelli’s science instruments for a planned two days – and possibly longer.
Sitting on Mars, a small meteorological station (DREAMS) will operate for a few days.
DREAMS is onboard to measure local weather conditions at the landing site, such as temperature, humidity, pressure, dust opacity, wind speed, and wind direction. It will also perform measurements of the electrical properties of the Martian atmosphere, the first time this has ever been done.
The Mars orbiter was built by Thales Alenia Space – France, and the builder of the Schiaparelli lander is Thales Alenia Space – Italy.
For a new video showing the Schiaparelli landing sequence, go to:
http://m.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos/2016/10/Schiaparelli_s_descent_to_Mars“You’re asked to rank teams that don’t play each other, that don’t play long seasons, and you can’t include margin of victory?” said Massey, who provides a “better version” on his Web site, masseyratings.com. “It’s a very challenging problem from a data-analysis standpoint. It does require sacrificing a bit of accuracy. It’s not the best way to do it.”
It is bad enough that one analytical mathematician, the U.C. Irvine professor Hal S. Stern, has called for the statistical community to boycott participation in the B.C.S. standings.
When the godfather of modern sports statistics, Bill James, wrote a rousing affirmation, Stern’s suggestion spread rapidly. It encapsulated the overwhelming anti-B.C.S. sentiment that populates the college-football-viewing country. The computers are an easy scapegoat for a public skeptical of artificial intelligence playing such a large part in crowning a national champion.
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Any potential impartiality they bring, however, is quickly scythed by the inability of the B.C.S. to trust its own numbers.
The B.C.S. has tinkered with the computers time and again. When the systems blatantly disagreed with the two human elements used — the equally questionable coaches poll and the Harris Interactive Poll, a group of voters with laughable qualifications — they were overhauled. The computer systems that refused to compromise their math by removing margin of victory were removed themselves.
“Stern’s analysis was clearly right,” James said. “This isn’t a sincere effort to use math to find the answer at all. It’s clearly an effort to use math as a cover for whatever you want to do. I don’t even know if the people who set up the system are aware of that.
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“It’s just nonsense math.”
The “nonsense math” is certain to inflame debate. Experts last week predicted that Boise State, the underdog from the upstart Western Athletic Conference, would be ranked first. Ohio State, the top-ranked team in the polls, could be as low as fifth because of its across-the-board low computer rankings.
Accordingly, the computers end up being the patsy more than any part of the B.C.S. system. Fans want to understand the math behind them. They cannot, not because of quantitative inability but because of lack of transparency; only Wes Colley, who runs the Colley Matrix system, makes his formula public.
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Billingsley chooses not to. It is a simple formula, he said, because he is a simple man. He does, against all reason, use the previous season’s end rankings as the starting point for the current year’s. It matters not whether the team lost its coach or its quarterback. Billingsley thinks that to understand the present, one must understand the past, even if that past resembles the present in no demonstrable fashion.
So good news, Florida Gators fans: Tim Tebow is still your quarterback in at least one place.
“I don’t know that the powers that be even know what he’s doing,” Stern said.
They do not know. Three of the computer rankers said the B.C.S. did not verify the numbers they turned in. It supports the notion that the B.C.S., like a teenage-movie cliché, befriended the pocket-protector set only to cast it as the perfect red herring.
Which leaves college football with a problem it cannot solve: real mathematicians exposing the computers — and the B.C.S. — for the nonsense they are.Data from the European Central Bank shows that outflows from Spanish commercial banks reached €74bn (£59bn) in July, twice the previous monthly record. This brings the total deposit loss over the past year to 10.9pc, replicating the pattern seen in Greece as the crisis spread.
It is unclear how much of the deposit loss is capital flight, either to German banks or other safe-haven assets such as London property. The Bank of Spain said the fall is distorted by the July effect of tax payments and by the expiry of securitised funds.
Julian Callow from Barclays Capital said the deposit loss is €65bn even when adjusted for the season: “This is highly significant. Deposit outflows are clearly picking up and the balance sheet of the Spanish banking system is contracting.”
Economy secretary Fernando Jimenez Latorre said Spain is in the eye of the storm right now with the “worst falls” in economic output yet to come in the second half of the year.
Meanwhile, the Spanish statistics office said the economic slump has been deeper than feared, with lower output through 2010 and 2011. The economy slid back into double-dip recession in the third quarter of last year, three months earlier than thought.
The drip-drip of grim figures came amid fears of a constitutional crisis after the Spanish region of Catalonia requested a €5bn rescue package yesterday from the central government but refused to accept any political conditions. The Catalan government agreed to cut its deficit to 1.5pc of GDP but vowed to resist any attempts by Spanish premier Mariano Rajoy to exploit the crisis to roll back the powers of the regions.
“The money that we are asking for is our own Catalan money that is being adminstered by the Spanish government,” said a spokesman, reflecting angry feelings in Barcelona that Madrid is devolving the pain of austerity on to the regions.
Mr Rajoy said he would “listen” but deflected threats of a major showdown if his government seeks to dictate terms. Catalonia is an industrial powerhouse and a net contributor to the central budget. Unlike the Basques, who have weathered the crisis better, the Catalans do not control their own tax revenues. This has become a major bone of contention, reviving bitter feelings that date back to the Franco era.
Separately, Portugal’s tax revenues fell 3.5pc in July despite higher tax rates, raising concerns that the country is tipping into a contraction spiral. It is now certain that Portugal will fail to meet this year’s deficit target of 4.5pc of GDP under its €78bn rescue from the EU-IMF troika. Morgan Stanley said the country will need a “second bail-out” in the autumn.
Mr Callow said shrinking deposits in Spain and other Club Med states are being offset by rises in Germany and the Netherlands, pointing to further “fragmentation” of the eurozone. This will strengthen the hand of ECB chief Mario Draghi as he pushes for mass purchases of Spanish and Italian bonds.
Jorg Asmussen, Germany’s director at the ECB, has signalled support for Mr Draghi once again, saying the authorities cannot allow fears of EMU break-up – or “convertibility” – to destabilise the currency. “Any concerns about treaty-violating state financing will be dispelled,” he said.
The ECB data showed that EMU-wide loans to firms and households continued to contract in July and are down 0.6pc over the past year, implying an acute squeeze in the weakest parts of the eurozone. Jennifer McKeown from Capital Economics said it is clear that the ECB’s €1 trillion blitz of cheap lending to banks over the winter – known as the “LTROs” – has failed to kick-start private lending.
Both Mr Draghi and Mr Asmussen agree that the ECB cannot act alone. It can only offer a flanking operation alongside eurozone bail-out funds (EFSF and ESM), which have the powers to enforce tough conditions.
Nothing can happen until Spain requests a loan package and signs a “memorandum” giving up fiscal sovereignty. It remains unclear whether Mr Rajoy will agree to this.
Mr Draghi has pulled out of the impending Jackson Hole gathering of central bankers, disappointing hopes he would use the event in the US to make the ECB’s plans clearer.
Meanwhile, the Greek government said it is planning to launch Chinese-style “economic zones” with special tax and regulatory breaks in a desperate bid to attract foreign investment.
But the Athens plans could face legal difficulties due to the European Union’s free market rules.You loved NBA basketball all season. You saved money by getting rid of your monthly cable bill. You did it! Or maybe you’re just starting to do it! Or maybe you only survived on league pass, and now you’re trying to figure out how to watch primetime basketball.
Here’s a guide to how you can the best teams go toe-to-toe on national television without cable since some of the biggest games are airing on ABC and others on primetime network channels.
Here’s how you can watch the NBA on ABC.
ABC is an over-the-air network. As such, you can access it for free with an over-the-air digital antenna, provided you live close enough to an ABC affiliate to pick up a signal. (Check that here.) You will need to buy an antenna, which starts around $25 for low-feature versions and goes up to about $150 for fancier models.
If you opt for Sling Orange, you can forgo the over-the-air antenna and get Sling’s ABC add-on for $5 per month. It would likely depend on what access to other over-the-air networks (NBC, CBS, PBS) you’d want.
You can also use your Sling or Vue credentials to log into the Watch ESPN service, on which you can access live ABC sporting events, including the Finals.
Here’s a guide for the NBA regular season.
Okay! We’ll break this down by the type of NBA watching you’ll be doing.
Where are the games aired?
National NBA games are broadcast on ESPN/ESPN2, TNT, ABC and NBA TV. Many of the biggest matchups and nearly every playoff game will be found on these networks. So if you’re into watching the games everyone will be talking about, you want access to these networks. There are two good options.
We’ll talk about ABC, where you’ll find Christmas Day games, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon showcases, and the entire NBA Finals, in a moment.
Sling TV: Sling’s Orange bundle gets you ESPN, ESPN 2, and TNT for $20 per month. Boom. That covers ESPN/ESPN’s traditional Wednesday and Friday broadcasts, TNT’s Thursday night double-header, All-Star Weekend, and most of the first three rounds of the playoffs, including all of the conference finals.
As of November 16, 2016, Sling TV’s Sports Extra pack offers NBA TV with more than 95 regular-season games available starting at $5 a month. And as of Feb. 22, 2018, Sling now offers NBA League Pass with Sling Orange or Sling Blue at a rate of $29 a month.
Playstation Vue: Vue ditched the Access Slim bundle and now runs its cheapest Access package at $40 a month. The Access bundle gets you ESPN, ESPN 2, and TNT. NBA TV is also available on Playstation Vue.
DirecTV Now: With DirecTV’s new bundle, currently priced at $35 per month but slated to increase to $60, customers get 100 channels that include regional sports channels. Comcast SportsNet (Bay Area, California, Chicago, Mid-Atlantic, New England), Fox Sports (Southeast and Sun, FSN Arizona, Cincinnati, Detroit, Florida, Midwest, North, Ohio, San Diego, South, Southwest and West) and the YES Network are all available.
But first...
What is cord-cutting?
Cord-cutting is simply getting rid of your traditional cable television/satellite dish service and relying instead on streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, and HBO Go for your entertainment needs.
Do you still need high-speed internet service?
Yes. This is a major stumbling block for many would-be cord-cutters. Cable companies tend to bundle cheap high-speed internet with expensive cable packages. If you decline the cable, the price of high-speed internet shoots up. Keep this in mind when making a decision.
Can I watch sports without cable?
Yes! There are several streaming services — some sold by bundlers, some sold by the leagues themselves — that make enjoying sports without a cable or satellite contract possible.
Is it easy?
Bottom line: If you’re a normal NBA fan who wants to watch the big games and playoffs, it’s easy. If you’re a hardcore NBA fan who wants a slow drip of 1,100 games over the next eight months, it’s easy. If you love a specific team and live far away from their home base, it’s easy. If you love a specific team and live near their home base, it’s very complicated.
In almost all cases, becoming a cord-cutter will make watching the NBA less convenient than simply turning on your TV. It’s your call as to whether the trade-off is worth it.
What about NBA TV?
The single biggest problem for cord-cutting NBA fans in the past was the lack of access to NBA TV. But that changed as of November 11, 2016 as Vue made NBA TV available on its service. Vue is the only way to get NBA TV programming — including about five or six games per week — without a cable contract. Sling does not offer NBA TV, and you cannot pay the NBA directly for access to NBA TV.
Note that if you have League Pass (see below) you can access NBA TV games about three hours after they have aired, even without Vue service.
If you want all of the basketball
Is the national TV schedule not enough for you? You want NBA League Pass Broadband, which will give you access to every other regular season game not broadcast by one of the above-mentioned networks (subject to local blackouts). League Pass Broadband also allows you to watch games originally broadcast on TNT, ABC, ESPN/ESPN2, and NBA TV after the fact in archives. (In fact, you’ll have access to archived games until the season ends.)
League Pass Broadband runs $200. If you can stand to wait a couple of months, the NBA usually runs a good deal around the holidays. But note that the national TV schedule is much lighter from opening night to Christmas than it is later on.
League Pass is also available on most Roku powered Smart TVs with memberships starting at $28.99 a month. They are currently running a special with that price marked down to $17.99 a month.
You can also sign up for NBA League Pass through fuboTV for $28.99 a month, but it does have restrictions. You’ll be able to |
this entire thing unfold before me, as we worked on FeelTheBern.org, has reinforced my belief that framing is more important than anything else. And by framing I mean asking and answering questions like:
What is your message?
For whom is the message intended?
What is the desired effect of your message?
What is your intention in delivering the message?
How do you deliver it, and why do you deliver it that way?
Does the message change for different people?
These questions are particularly important today when candidates like Bernie speak not just to a monolithic audience via the mainstream press, but also to fragmented, vociferous groups of people who have social media megaphones. Everyone wants to be spoken to directly, and in a way, everyone can be spoken to directly — it just takes a lot of thoughtful work.
All of this makes the past 32 sleepless nights working on FeelTheBern.org seem all the more worth it and relevant.
Thank you’s & what’s next
I am deeply grateful and full of admiration for every single one of the amazing humans who embarked on this crazy project with me. I’ve met some of them in person here in NYC, talked to others on Skype, but most are people I may never meet IRL.
They represent a true coalition of people joining forces in support of this campaign. I’m a tech startup dork, working with an Air Force (and NSA) veteran, an Orthodox rabbi, a child of Dominican immigrants working multiple jobs, a 2012 Mitt Romney campaign staffer, two precocious under-18 siblings from NorCal, a climate scientist, and lots of different kinds of educators to build this site together. Our group’s dedication to this volunteer project speaks volumes about how much people power is behind Bernie Sanders’ quest for the White House.
And so now FeelTheBern.org is a living and breathing thing. If you’re already a Bernie supporter, share it with everyone you know. If you’re not, read about him and see how the facts and his record strike you.
We’ll be updating the site (and iterating on its features) as news breaks, information surfaces, and the campaign rolls on. We have a lot of work ahead before Bernie makes it to the Oval Office, and I hope this website contributes to the grassroots movement that will carry him there.Federal officials have released a tidal wave of fresh recalls in the past 24 hours as they connect the dots in the supply chain of tainted peanut-related products. The latest recalls by 25 companies listing dozens of items include Walgreen's chocolate candy with peanuts, Best Brands peanut butter cookie dough and Hain Celestial's frozen pad Thai dinners, including one made for Trader Joe's.On Saturday, Harry and David of Medford joined the recall, pulling Olympia Delight Trail Mix products, and Berkeley, Ca.-based Clif Bar and Co. pulled eight more of its protein bars. The recall has reached a fever pitch since it was expanded to include all products - from roasted peanuts to peanut butter -- from Peanut Corporation of America's plant at Blakely, Ga., where Food and Drug Administration investigators found two strains of salmonella and evidence that on 12 occasions in 2007 and 2008 the company sold food even after it had tested positive for salmonella. In a startling revelation on Saturday, the Atlanta Journal Constitution said the president of Peanut Corp., Stewart Parnell, serves on an industry advisory board that helps the U.S. Department of Agriculture set quality standards for peanuts. Parnell has expressed dismay at the outbreak, saying his Lynchburg, Va.-based company is cooperating fully with federal investigators. Although Peanut Corp. sold items to about 77 companies in the U.S., many of them in turn resold shipments, reaching about 1,000 distributors and manufacturers all together. As the drumbeat of recalls continues, health departments across the country have confirmed new cases of salmonella poisoning. More than 530 people have been sickened, with nearly 30 new cases popping up in the past week. In Oregon, 11 people have been sickened, with about half of those cases in January. The deaths of eight people - all over 59 - are linked to the outbreak. To check the latest recall releases, go to the FDA site at www.FDA.gov, and to check items being pulled, go to our Foodday page. -- Lynne Terry; lynneterry@news.oregonian.comWelcome to web world of MrStitch Auto Upholstery Service!
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Last year was pretty epic for 3Run Parkour. With trips to Mexico and India, a highly acclaimed tour of the U.K., a performance at the Udderbelly in London and a catwalk appearance for Armani, the guys and girl of Britain’s most successful troupe of freerunners certainly had a busy time of it. On top of this, they managed to squeeze in a high profile public appearance to support a media campaign promoting ‘travel by foot” in the run up to the Olympic Games, with personal input from Boris himself.
3Run Parkour with HTC
Despite the huge success in 2012, we’re assured that 2013 will be even bigger. Courtesy of the good people at HTC, Love Extreme Sports spoke to Michael Wilson, member of 3Run Parkour and expert practitioner of the art of movement. We discussed Michael’s own experience of freerunning, his group’s plans for 2013 and the future of parkour in general.
The first thing that’s apparent when speaking to Mike is his huge dedication to his art. He is wholeheartedly committed to promoting freerunning to anyone and everyone. For Mike, parkour and freerunning aren’t just pastimes or even passions, they are states of mind. In his own words, those individuals who become hooked by freerunning develop “the eyes of a traceur”, reinterpreting mundane cityscapes as athletic playgrounds.
Michael Wilson, 31, was an early-comer to freerunning in the U.K. He started out about 12 years ago, having previously trained as a competitive gymnast. The transition from gymnastics to freerunning was an organic process. It wasn’t sparked by fashion or trends, but instead came about almost accidentally. Mike and his friends preferred to do their gymnastics training outside and pretty soon began integrating everyday objects into their routines. This eventually led to a successful crossover into freerunning, with Mike going on to become a member of 3Run Parkour, one of the world’s most popular freerunning teams.
For those of you who don’t already know about 3Run Parkour, get prepared to hear about them soon. According to Mike, the Reading-based team have something pretty big in the pipelines that should finally secure their position in the mainstream, but unfortunately the exact details are being kept heavily locked down for now. Putting this in context, 3Run Parkour have already undertaken some pretty epic professional work, including participating in the legendary freerunning scene featured in Bond film, Casino Royale, so whatever is on the horizon should be massive.
In the meantime, fans of 3Run Parkour can keep themselves well and truly entertained courtesy of HTC. The communications giant asked the team to produce a new video exploring the delights of freerunning in London. The video, Tales of Your City, was made using HTC’s One X+, which comes equipped with HD filming capability. In keeping with 3 Run’s ingenious approach to their art, the team devised ways of enhancing usability, including fixing the handset to a pole, in order to film at different angles. That said, Mike was clearly pretty impressed with the filming capabilities of HTC’s new phone, with or without freerunning friendly improvised adaptations.
As well as Tales of the City, the 3Run Parkour team are also releasing a series of freerunning videos from around the world. Set at some of the world’s most famous historical and cultural sites, the videos showcase the groups gravity-defying abilities in far flung, exotic locations.
According to Mike, travel is one of the biggest pleasures of being part of a successful freerunning team, which should come as no surprise given that freerunning and parkour are both international in character. A cohesive global community exists, which provides a fertile basis for the continued evolution of the art of movement.
For Mike, interacting with local freerunners in India or Mexico or whatever country the team happens to be visiting is always a pleasure and an education. They not only learn about the best local spots, but they also sample the local approach to freerunning. As a result, the team always feels instantly at home when they meet with other freerunners, no matter where they happen to find themselves. Many of the traceurs they meet on their travels become firm, lasting friends of 3Run Parkour, acting as ambassadors for the brand in their own country.
With so much in the pipelines, the future for Mike and 3Run Parkour is looking very bright. Understandably, Mike Wilson is incredibly positive and optimistic about the future. As freerunning and parkour spread like wildfire across the face of the planet, 3Run Parkour is poised to become one of the chief beneficiaries of its growth. The team is already widely considered one of freerunnings biggest global forces, but they are set to become a lot more in 2013.
3Run Parkour – Tales From Your City
Words: Al Cuin
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Credit Line: This interview was arranged by HTC.Is Bitcoin Mining An “Energy Waste”?
The argument that mining (verifying transactions and timestamping information) in the Bitcoin network is a “waste of energy” has been repeated over and over by people looking to copy Bitcoin, by uninformed VC’s, by journalists and the financial industry’s lobbyists, among others. But is it “true”?
Energy = Security*
Bitcoin’s mining, its proof-of-work, is not a waste at all because it provides security in an open network where everybody on the planet themselves can perform the same mechanisms the current banking system offers today (among many other functions). Bitcoin actually turns energy into security. Banks also provide security. But banks are much less effective.
If you really get down to it you can not compare the wholly new invention that is Bitcoin and its commodity-based assets with the debt-based fiat currencies that whirl around for weeks in the banking system before being finalized, but let’s answer the stupid questions with a stupid argument.
So let’s compare the “energy waste” in the current Bitcoin network to the “energy waste” in the current banking industry (as Bitcoin and its add-ons can replace most of that industry).
The Bitcoin network consumes approx. (0.55 w/GHs x 449 PH/s =) 246 MW assuming the average Bitcoin miner is using equipment with an energy-efficiency around 0.55 w/GHs. And 0.55 w/GHs is actually a high estimation. The next-generation chips from KnC, 21 Inc., Bitfury and others all target the 0.06-0.16 w/GHs range and the end of Moore’s Law is nowhere to be seen, so energy-efficiency in the Bitcoin network is only going to increase the coming years (PH/s figure from bitcoinwisdom.com).
For these 246 MW the whole world has access to an information network where everybody can timestamp information in such a way that everybody involved can trust the info without the need for intermediaries like banks and lawyers. This is tremendously valuable and the bitcoin currency is just the first application on this network. Next up are smart contracts, ID:s, title registrations, legal contracts, transparent governance, multi-signatory insurance agreements, wills, automatic profit-sharing, trustworthy auditing, self-governing AI:s (so we can trust what they say has happened to them) etc, etc. The possibilities are almost endless. The blockchain will change almost everything we know about how the world handles information.
But let’s just return to the simple comparisons of energy (electricity) consumption of only the banking industry’s offices and omit the costs of their data centers and printing and transporting all those bills that needs to be replaced every 5 years.
I’m using only one building owned by Bank of America; the “Bank of America Tower” in NY as an example. This tower is actually touted as one of the greenest towers in the modern legacy financial industry, still it uses more energy per square foot than the more than 80 year-old Empire State Building (banking is an energy-intensive industry).
This tower actually even has its own power plant to save on losses other banks have to pay for when transporting their electricity. The power plant is generating approx 4.6-5.0 MW, which provides 65% of the tower’s electricity needs (the full tower consumes approx. 8 MW).
Time magazine made some calculations on the “energy waste” of each worker’s desk in this tower, the greenest of all banking towers;
“Assuming no one turns these computers off, in a year one of these desks uses roughly the energy it takes a 25-mile-per-gallon car engine to travel more than 4,500 miles.” – URL
Bank Of America’s Offices Alone Consumes 363+ MW
This tower houses about 3,500 employees. Bank Of America employs around 159,000 individuals altogether. If we extrapolate this number and assume this company affords all its employees this level of energy-efficiency (they don’t) we can deduce that Bank Of America consumes at least ( (8MW / 3,500 employees) x 159,000 =) 363 MW.
This boils down to approx. 0.00228571428571 MW per employee.
Now, Bank Of America’s market share isn’t really overwhelming. Wells Fargo employs 227,000. JP Morgan 188,000 and Citibank 176,000. Just to name a few banks in this world.
Assuming all of these worker’s offices are as green as The Bank Of America Tower (they aren’t) then only these 4 banks require an energy consumption of 1714 MW (750,000 employees – 2,28 MW per thousand employees).
And now we are only talking about 4 American banks’ offices.
If we add the following 16 on the top 20 list of the biggest US banks alone we have to add another 400,000 employees, adding another 914 MW.
So the top 20 US banks’ offices alone consumes 2628 MW. One may argue on what value, if any, these organizations provide to the citizens of the world for this energy consumption (and carbon footprint), especially considering the bailouts. And they are only open for a few hours per day, on “bank days”.
And there are many, many more banks in this world altogether. Just think about Western Union for a while.
And we are still only talking about the electricity cost for these guy’s offices, not counting their “energy waste” in other areas (like transportation, data centers, suppliers, air travel etc).
And then we haven’t event looked at the cost of running Visa‘s and Mastercard’s datacenters, networks and offices, or the stock exchanges, or the private investment banks or…(you fill in the blanks).
With the Bitcoin network anyone can pay anybody in the world 24/7 using just a mobile phone, while also transferring ownership of digital assets consuming almost no extra energy from its battery.
The Bitcoin network is also going to allow billions of unbanked to start taking part in our globalized common economy, while disrupting and saving energy in a large number of other industries a part from the banking industry. If you add all the potential energy savings the Bitcoin network offers the world it is almost unfathomable.
Now, tell me again that the mechanism the Bitcoin network provides is “energy waste”.
* * *
Energy / Time (Power) = Security (Truth)
* Bitcoin derives its value independently and from within
Bitcoin uses the concept of “proof-of-work” where computers “work” trying to find a cryptographic solution to confirm a “block” of transactions. The results prove they’ve “worked” (spent energy) in the process. The solution triggers the predetermined block reward inflation (currently 25 bitcoins per block, approx. every 10 minutes). In this way the network extracts security from incentivizing participators to continually increase the security of the world’s most powerful processing network, while creating intrinsic value from within through its native token’s properties (bitcoins). The sheer number of computers participating in the network – its increasing (competitive but collective) “hashrate” – ensures the system’s integrity.
This all happens simultaneously using the same mechanism (the proof-of-work mining). Energy must be spent to “mint” each bitcoin. Minting through proof-of-work-mining proves a certain amount of energy was spent at the particular time the bitcoin in question was “minted” (mined). It’s the open, decentralized nature of Bitcoin that creates this level of security; open to anyone the constant race positions the network well ahead of any attacker. As a side-effect this vast number of processors (connected to the Bitcoin network via beefy nodes) results in a speedy and always-on network. The only “waste” is heat, and several Bitcoin miners are now looking into harnessing that heat for remote heating of homes and grow houses.
IF, like the founders of some altcoins argue, we could extract another useful mechanism at the same time from this proof-of-work mining then that added “value” (let’s say protein-folding) would just further fuel the race between the competitors of the network. You might as well pay for that “added value” on the side with other specialized chips hashing that protein-folding. If you follow this line of reasoning you understand that trying to make the algorithm more “useful” is like trying to create magic, or alchemy. Human greed comes into play.
And this is only today. With bigger blocks and future add-ons like The Lightning Network/Stroem/Othercoin/Sidechains the Bitcoin network will process transactions much much cheaper than today.
Here’s the ensuing comment thread on Reddit if you’d like to comment.Children with autism struggle to communicate with those around them Caring for children with developmental problems such as autism or Down's syndrome can weaken parents' immune systems, research suggests. Researchers at Birmingham University found they had a poorer immune response to a vaccine against pneumonia. It appears that stress causes the immune system to function less efficiently, the team wrote in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. Charities called for better support for parents struggling to cope. Previous work has shown negative effects in elderly people caring for a spouse - but this is the first time that a similar result has been seen in a younger, healthier group providing round-the-clock care, the researchers pointed out. This is a good indication that their immune systems are not functioning efficiently
Stephen Gallagher, study leader A total of 60 parents received the pneumococcal vaccine as part of the study - half of whom had children with developmental disabilities. Blood tests showed that those caring for a child with developmental disability had lower levels of antibodies to the vaccine than those whose children did not have such difficulties. After one month, 20% of parents providing long-term care had an ineffective immune response, compared to 4% of the control group. At six months this had risen to 48% while the levels in the control group remained the same. Stress Study leader Stephen Gallagher said low levels of antibodies suggested parents' ability to fight infection was weaker: "This is a good indication that their immune systems are not functioning efficiently." Stress was likely to be responsible for the immune deficiency, he added. "These parents are sometimes extremely stressed and what they need is appropriate help and training." Co-author Dr Anna Phillips said parents caring for these children are "incredibly dedicated" and not in a position to take time off. "However, knowing the effects that providing round-the-clock care can have on their health may help raise awareness that these parents need help to manage their burden of care." She said the parents should be added to the list of vulnerable groups eligible for vaccinations such as the flu jab. "We are continuing this work by looking at how sleep patterns affect the rates of infection in these parents," she added. Amanda Batten, head of policy and campaigns at the National Autistic Society, said: "Carers often display great strength and resilience whilst coping with this complex disability, but many receive very little help and support, and are under considerable stress as a result. "It is imperative that carers are given access to services such as short break schemes to help them before they reach a crisis point." Carol Boys, chief executive of the Down's Syndrome Association, added that caring for a child with Down's syndrome can be very rewarding but for some families it can be an extremely stressful experience. "I am not surprised at the results of this study. It just confirms what we already suspected might be one of the consequences of the constant stress that families have to endure."
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StumbleUpon What are these?Now that’s a clutch of healthy babies. National Parks Service/Public Domain
Good news for fans of Mark Twain and competitive frog jumping competitions: California’s endangered red-legged frog, the star species of the author’s breakout short story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, is making a comeback!
When Twain wrote the 1865 story, the frogs were abundant, and they were later named the official amphibian of California.
But since the story’s publication, their numbers have sharply declined, due to everything from loss of habitat to invasive species. Today, they are federally listed as a threatened species, and are protected by law.
But legal protection can’t make frogs have babies. Luckily, years of conservation and reintroduction efforts can, and to their elation, scientists with the National Park Service recently found nine egg clusters in the Santa Monica Mountains. These new batches of eggs are evidence that their efforts to regrow the red-legged frog population are working.
The hope is that some of these eggs can be transplanted to other regions, and bolster the frogs’ population across the state, all the result of some animal sex that Twain himself would surely be delighted by.Comet ISON was a sungrazing comet that was expected to put on a spectacular show in Earth's sky in late 2013. However, shortly after rounding the sun's far side on Nov. 28 (U.S. Thanksgiving), the comet faded, torn apart by the star's immense gravity.
ISON's behavior shortly after the close pass confused astronomers because it appeared brighter than what one would expect of a comet that had just broken up. It was later determined, however, that the increased activity was a trick of orbital dynamics.
In recent years, ISON has been cited as an example of the challenges of comet prediction. It's hard to say how bright a comet will be or when they will appear because their paths and behavior are still poorly understood.
ISON's unusually bright appearance before breaking up has some astronomers curious about its origins. One group of astronomers have speculated that ISON may have originated from outside of our solar system, making it similar to 'Oumuamua, an object that sped nearby our sun in 2017.
Discovery and naming
The comet was named after a telescope for the International Scientific Optical Network (ISON). Two Russian amateur astronomers, Vitali Nevski and Artyom Novichonok, spotted the comet in photographs taken by an ISON telescope in September 2012.
Traditionally, comets are named after the people who find them, such as Shoemaker-Levy 9 that crashed into Jupiter in 1994, or Hale-Bopp that brightened Northern Hemisphere skies in 1997.
Comet ISON, however, is part of a newer trend that sees the name of the comet after the project rather than the individuals who discovered it. This means that several comets could have the same name, leading to confusion. However, every comet also has a name assigned to it by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) that includes features such as the year of discovery. ISON's official name is Comet C/2012 S1.
This photo of Comet ISON was taken with the TRAPPIST national telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory on Nov. 15, 2013. (Image: © TRAPPIST/E. Jehin/ESO)
Similar orbit to 1680 'Great Comet'
At the time of its discovery in late September 2012, Comet ISON was about 625 million miles (1 billion km) from Earth in the constellation of Cancer.
At 584 million miles (940 million km) from the sun, the comet was shining at magnitude 18.8 on a scale used by astronomers to gauge how bright sky objects are. (Brighter objects have a lower number.) This is about 100,000 times fainter than what the naked eye can see. [Gallery: Incredible Photos of Comet ISON]
"The most exciting aspect of this new comet concerns its preliminary orbit, which bears a striking resemblance to that of the 'Great Comet of 1680,'" wrote Space.com skywatching columnist Joe Rao.
"That comet put on a dazzling show; it was glimpsed in daylight and later, as it moved away from the sun, it threw off a brilliantly long tail that stretched up from the western twilight sky after sunset like a narrow searchlight beam for some 70 degrees of arc." (A person's clenched fist, held at arm’s length, covers roughly 10 degrees of sky.)
When the comet was still a long ways from Earth, in February 2013, NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft took a series of images of the comet. Deep Impact had snapped close-up pictures of two comets before — Tempel 1 and Hartley 2 — but the astronomers were fascinated by how much activity was taking place on ISON despite its great distance from the sun.
"Preliminary results indicate that although the comet is still in the outer solar system, more than 474 million miles (763 million km) from the sun, it is already active. As of Jan. 18, the tail extending from ISON's nucleus was already more than 40,000 miles (64,400 km) long," NASA stated in a February 2013 press release.
Thanksgiving mystery
ISON's final pass near the sun became visible in images from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), a spacecraft which was originally designed to watch the sun. Over the years SOHO has discovered thousands of sun-grazing comets. The SOHO images showed that shortly after ISON's close shave with the sun on Nov. 28, 2013, its appearance brightened considerably. This confounded astronomers who had previously declared the comet dead.
More tracking of the comet in the days afterward revealed a rapid fading, however, and by Dec. 11 astronomers confidently called the comet dead. The strange brightening likely was due to an orbital dynamics phenomenon, said Geraint Jones of University College London at the time.
As the comet approached the sun, its fragment cloud was pulled out considerably, with the pieces closest to the sun moving faster than those far behind. After the comet dimmed, it then brightened up briefly when the pieces clumped together again after passing the sun. ISON's death in the SOHO images is still one of the more famous moments in the spacecraft's multi-decade history.
(Image: © Adam Block/Mount Lemmon Skycenter/University of Arizona)
Astronomers noted that ISON likely fell apart due to its small size; its nucleus was between 330 feet and 3,300 feet (100 to 10,000 meters), according to observations from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
"It was probably smaller than maybe 600 meters [in] diameter," said Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona, principal investigator of MRO's HiRISE camera, at the time. "And from past sungrazing comets, those smaller than about half a kilometer, they don't survive."
In October 2014, two Lowell Observatory scientists — Matthew Knight and David Schleicher — published their findings from ISON observations. They concluded that the nucleus had a "significant mass loss" before Nov. 1, 2013, that “catastrophically weakened the nucleus prior to perihelion.” The paper was published in The Astronomical Journal.
More recently, astronomers have been looking at other methods to better predict comet brightness. One idea is to include observations from amateurs, who in recent years have gained access to extremely high-resolution photography and video. There are also studies of comets from up close, when spacecraft can reach them, which helps scientists learn about comet outgassing and their paths through space.
Additional resources:Brave Fencer Musashi (ブレイヴフェンサー 武蔵伝, Bureivu Fensā Musashiden, "Brave Fencer: The Legend of Musashi") is an action role-playing video game developed and published by Square in 1998 for the PlayStation home console. The game involves real-time sword-based combat in a 3D environment; it also features segments of voiced over dialogue and role-playing game elements such as a day-night cycle and resting to restore energy.
The story follows Musashi, a young swordsman who is summoned to a parallel world to defend Allucanet Kingdom from the Thirstquencher Empire. He searches for the Five Scrolls, which can enhance the powers of his sword, while interacting with people from Allucanet and a nearby village.
Development began in early 1997, and was directed by Yoichi Yoshimoto, produced by Yusuke Hirata, and scored by Tsuyoshi Sekito. The game was a departure from Square's previous role-playing video games, which brought the team several difficulties during development. The game received positive critical response; reviewers praised the graphics in comparison to other similar games of the time, and found the gameplay, especially the action elements, very compelling. Musashi received a sequel in 2005 for the PlayStation 2 under the name of Musashi: Samurai Legend.
Gameplay [ edit ]
Musashi in evening as described in the bottom right. The left bottom bar shows Musashi's health points as well as his "Bincho Energy." Gameplay ofin evening as described in the bottom right. The left bottom bar shows Musashi's health points as well as his "Bincho Energy."
Musashi is an action role-playing game, in which the player fights against enemies with a sword in action-based combat, with some role-playing elements. The player controls the titular Musashi, who fights a variety of enemies using his swords Fusion and Lumina and searches for five scrolls which will increase Lumina's strength and grant him new abilities. There are also several minigames and puzzles scattered throughout which must be completed to advance the plot. The two swords he uses have varied abilities and uses. Fusion, which resembles a katana, is used to chain rapid combo hits together and can also be used to absorb Bincho energy, which is a type of magical point system that controls how many spells a player can cast and how quickly, or absorb an enemies' skill.[1] The other sword is Lumina, which cannot be effectively used in combos by itself; instead, it can be imbued with elemental properties from Scrolls.[2] Lumina is primarily offensive but in combination with the five elemental scrolls, it gains new skills. The two swords are often used in conjunction with certain techniques which are granted by various rescued townsfolk.[3]
The game features an in-game clock and day-night system that affects the townsfolk and some of the creatures in the field (namely, the Minku - creatures from whom Musashi can obtain berries to increase his overall health stat), as well as forcing the player to pay attention to Musashi's fatigue rating that goes up over time with lack of sleep, which as the name implies will have a deteriorating effect on his combative ability.[4]
The player can either go to an inn to recover Musashi's health or make Musashi sleep outdoors without a full recovery and with danger he may be attacked by enemies. To pass time, the player may also opt to collect the various action figures -which resemble more detailed models of nearly all the characters and monsters- available at the town toy store which stocks new items at the start of every chapter. Along the way, Musashi obtains parts from the Legendary Armor which allow him to perform actions such as climbing or performing double jumps.[5]
Plot [ edit ]
A boy known as Musashi, reincarnated from the legendary Brave Fencer Musashi who saved the Allucaneet Kingdom from a monster called the Wizard of Darkness 150 years before, is summoned to Allucaneet by its ruler Princess Fillet to save it from the invading Thirstquencher Empire. Musashi is given the blade Fusion, and is charged with the task of obtaining Brave Fencer Musashi's sword — Lumina, the Sword of Luminescence — before the Thirstquencher Army does. Although Musashi has no intention of saving the kingdom, he agrees to do so in order to return to his homeland. After Musashi recovers Lumina, he finds that most of the people from the Allucaneet kingdom, including Fillet, have been kidnapped by the Thirstquencher Empire. In order to rescue all the residents from Allucaneet and defeat the Empire, Musashi starts searching for the Five Scrolls; each one holding an elemental power able to greatly augment the sword Lumina's powers.
With help from the treasure hunter Jon, Musashi finds the Earth Scroll and defeats its crest guardian. After its defeat, half-vampire and half-zombie creatures known as Vambees appear in the nearby village. While searching for a way to stop the Vambees, Musashi finds the Water Scroll and defeats its crest guardian in the basement where the Vambees originate. While Musashi searches for the Fire Scroll, Musashi's rival, Kojiro, kidnaps Princess Fillet and uses her as a hostage to force a battle with Musashi. Kojiro is defeated and Fillet is then rescued. Musashi then searches for thieves from the Thirstquencher Empire and makes his way to the next crest guardian. It is then revealed that Princess Fillet is actually one of Thirstquencher's thieves disguised and that the real Fillet, which is still in their hands. Musashi then continues his journey, finds the Wind Scroll, and defeats its crest guardian in an ants' nest.
After finding the fifth and final Scroll, the Sky Scroll, Musashi discovers Thirstquencher's base, a floating ship known as the Soda Fountain. Musashi attacks the base and defeats the Sky Guardian. Thirstquencher's leader, Flatski, forces Musashi to give him Lumina in exchange for the Princess, and frees the Sky Crest. However, this unleashes the Wizard of Darkness, who was sealed within Brave Fencer Musashi's sword Lumina the entire time. It is also revealed by Jon that the original Brave Fencer Musashi sealed The Dark Wizard within the sword. Furthermore, it was Brave Fencer Musashi who entrusted the crests to the crest guardians to prevent The Dark Wizard's seal within Lumina from being broken. In effect, the present Musashi's quest merely aided The Dark Wizard's revival. Musashi recovers Lumina and uses it to defeat The Dark Wizard. After returning the Princess to Allucaneet Kingdom, Musashi takes Lumina to the place where he found it.
Development [ edit ]
Executive producer Hironobu Sakaguchi stated that the idea for the game first came up in February 1997.[6] The original idea for Brave Fencer Musashi was having Miyamoto Musashi fighting in an alternate world from where he belonged. While the game was conceptualized as action-oriented, Musashi was originally meant to be a wanderer. However, he was later changed to an itinerant Samaritan in order to have him interacting and helping other characters. During development, the team used an action base which was crucial to the game's fighting mechanics. Director Yoichi Yoshimoto was focused on the game's fully polygonal aspects that were a departure from Square's previous works. The development team prioritized the movement of polygons in real time and how light affected their appearance.[7]
Climactic battle between Musashi Miyamoto (top) and Kojiro Sasaki (bottom).
The character, Kojiro, was based on the Japanese swordsman, Kojiro Sasaki. Both Musashi and Kojiro shared a lengthy account of rivalry, hence the same frictional relationship that was referenced between the two inside the game. The legend says the two swordsmen set up to duel each other. However, Musashi reportedly arrived several hours late to purposely anger Kojiro and his supporters.[8] Another nod to Kojiro and the legendary duel is when Musashi found him and Princess Fillet on the shores of the Island of Dragons. This loosely referenced Ganryu Island, the appointed location were the long-time rivals held their famous duel.[9]
When developing the characters for the game, Sakaguchi did not have a positive opinion of how popular the game would become. However, after the staff designed the graphics and the gameplay, he was surprised by the work, commenting that it was more interesting.[6] The characters were designed by Koji Matsuoka and illustrated by Tetsuya Nomura. When |
, Undead Labs founder Jess Strain revealed that there are over 1,000 traits for survivors versus the few hundred present in the first game.
Veterans of the initial game know that these traits are important for how well characters perform in different survival situations. Traits can affect their primary survival skills both adversely and beneficially. With a larger pool, players are likely to see new and interesting combinations. In State of Decay 2, survivors with poor traits are easier to handle, too.
Zombies' eyes glow red due to a missing shader in the first game [Image by Undead Labs]
In the Xbox Daily: Live video, developers note that players can now ask survivors to leave. In the previous title, players had to seek creative ways to get rid of characters they no longer wanted around by letting them die. In State of Decay 2, players can simply ask the person to leave. Sometimes the survivor will leave without incident while it is possible that they might get violent.
Of course, there are still many similarities to the first title as they are cornerstones of State of Decay gameplay. Characters will still be able to permanently die. Players will still be able to find and rescue more survivors with random traits, and characters skills still improve with use. Vehicles can still permanently be destroyed in State of Decay 2, but players will need to manage their fuel this time around. Vehicles can be upgraded with more gas tanks or protective shields around windows, though.
It is these similarities to the original State of Decay that has fans excited. The idea of experiencing the new features, such as online co-op, while still enjoying the same tested formula from the last entry should satisfy anyone seeking another adventure in Trumbull County.
Survivors lives are always in danger from one threat or another [Image by Undead Labs]
In the sequel, players will be able to manage their community alongside another player. State of Decay 2 lets players each control different survivors from a community, giving the franchise more options in gameplay, according to the official game website. The sequel will let one player hold a zombie while the other attempts to kill it, for instance. Players can easily invite their friends to help their community or send up a flare to call for help from a player that has opted to be a volunteer.
As the Inquisitr reported, State of Decay 2 was announced at E3 2016, and its release window was confirmed at E3 2017. Expect State of Decay 2 on Xbox One and PC in the spring of 2018 as a Play Anywhere title.
[Featured Image by Undead Labs]Most of us have probably thrown out food due to spoilage, but regularly doing this is terribly wasteful and expensive. Thankfully, you can safely preserve the quality of your food and make it last longer by learning a few food storage techniques.
There are a couple of things to keep in mind when storing food, such as: how to safely handle food to prevent foodborne illness, the types of containers you use, and how long foods normally last in the fridge or freezer. Here are some guidelines from the USDA (and, where noted, other sources):
Handling Food Safely
Keep raw meat, poultry, and fish away from other foods so they don't contaminate them. (This is probably why many fridges have a meat compartment in the bottom of the fridge; if yours doesn't, store uncooked meat/seafood on the lowest rack to prevent their juices from leaking onto the other foods.)
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Also always wash your hands—there's a best way to do it—before and after handling food, whether cooking or putting it away.
Refrigerator and Freezer Temperature
The temperature of your refrigerator should be 40 °F or below and the freezer at 0 °F or below.
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Storing Leftovers and Perishable Food
Timing: Freeze or refrigerate perishable food within two hours or one hour if the temperature is over 90 °F. A general guideline is to eat leftovers within four days. This chart shows pizza and cooked meat or poultry should last three to four days, while lunch meats and egg, tuna, or macaroni salads may last three to five days.
Containers: Store the food in the best-fitting, shallow containers. Glass storage containers have the benefit of being easy to check the contents, may be microwavable, and are more eco-friendly. If you have plastic containers already, just check to make sure they're labeled BPA-free; as dealnews mentions in "6 Best Choices for Food Storage Containers," if the number on the recycling icon on the container has a "7" on it, it likely has BPA in it, which may be hazardous. If your kitchen is drowning in food containers, it may be time to trim your stash to include only the most essential types of containers.
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One trick for making sure your leftovers actually get eaten, not just stored prettily, is to put the most recently cooked food behind earlier leftovers. If you have trouble remembering when you put the food in the fridge, try using a dry erase marker to note the date on the cover.
Storing Fruits and Vegetables
Produce can be tricky to store because some fruits and vegetables are incompatible when stored together. Some fruits emit ethylene gas which can cause vegetables to spoil prematurely. Vegetarian Times recommends keeping these "gas releasers" out of the fridge: avocados, bananas, nectarines, peaches, pears, plums, and tomatoes.
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You can refrigerate apples, apricots, canteloupes, figs, and honeydew, but keep them out of the vegetable bin/crisper where you may be storing ethelyne-sensitive vegetables (check the Vegetarian Times article for the list of these vulnerable veggies; VT also recommends which fruits and vegetables to eat first based on how rapidly they spoil).
Speaking of the vegetable bin, most standard fridges have a vegetable crisper designed to keep produce firm and fresher for longer, and sometimes come with moisture and temperature controls. This may be a good place to keep your gas-sensitive vegetables, as the area is sealed off from the rest of the fridge.
Don't store fruits and vegetables in their own airtight bags or containers, however, because that might speed up decay. Produce preserving products like Debbie Meyer Green Bags, on the other hand, might help extend the life of your produce (but we can't personally vouch for them).
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Storing Eggs
Because there are so many types of egg products and eggs require special care to avoid food poisoning, FoodSafety.gov has a chart on how to store different egg products, whether in the fridge or freezer. Basically, raw eggs in the shell can last a long time (three to five weeks), while liquid egg substitutes only last a few days.
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Freezing Foods
Keep your food in air tight packages in the freezer to prevent freezer burn, which degrades the quality of your food. If you're not ready to invest in something like the FoodSaver vacuum sealer, an inexpensive alternative is the Reynolds Handi-Vac vacuum-sealing kit, which works on the same principle of removing air from the accompanying freezer bags. It's a bit noisy, but saves counter space and works (for the most part).
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Tinkernut says to wrap meat like a pro for freezing, use good quality freezer paper. Fold the paper over the meat and crease, then continue folding and pressing the air out. After folding and turning under the ends, seal with freezer tape. You could double up the paper or layer with aluminum foil or plastic for more security.
Real Simple advises you to let breads and other baked goods cool off before freezing in freezer bags so the moisture doesn't form ice crystals inside. This may also apply to other just-cooked items.
Label your frozen foods with the date and name of the food, and try to separate foods into portion sizes for easy reheating.
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Finally, the National Center for Home Food Preservation has a long list of freezing information by specific food, as well as general advice like foods that don't freeze well (e.g., milk sauces), how much headspace to allow between packed food (0.5 inch to 1.5 inch), and freezer management tips like making sure you keep your freezer full for best efficiency.
See the USDA's cold storage chart for safe time limits for storing food in the fridge or freezer (there are many others available like this one from University of Nebraska-Lincoln and this one from the Colorado State University).
Have any tips or advice for better food storage? Let's hear them in the comments. Photo by Rubbermaid.
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You can follow or contact Melanie Pinola, the author of this post, on Twitter.CLOSE The fiancé of Justine Damond, an Australian woman shot and killed by a Minneapolis police officer, told more than 200 mourners "it felt like a privilege" to love her. Don Damond spoke Friday night at a memorial held in southwest Minneapolis. (Aug. 11) AP
Don Damond hugs supporters and loved ones prior to a memorial service for his fiancé Justine Damond, seen in photo at left, Friday, Aug. 11, 2017, at Lake Harriet in Minneapolis. Damond was killed by a Minneapolis police officer on July 15 after she called 911 to report a possible sexual assault near her home. (Anthony Souffle/Star Tribune via AP) (Photo: Anthony Souffle, AP)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Court documents show Minnesota investigators found nothing when they searched the home of an Australian woman shortly after she was fatally shot by a Minneapolis police officer.
Justine Ruszczyk Damond called for police assistance on July 15 because she believed she had heard a sexual assault taking place in the alley behind her house.
Mohamed Noor, one of the two responding officers, shot her. He has declined to be interviewed by investigators.
Hours later, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension obtained a search warrant for Damond's home. Agents checked inside for blood, hair, guns, ammunition, knives, drugs or writings. They took nothing from the home.
The Damond family attorney says the search was appropriate.
Bureau of Criminal Apprehension spokeswoman Jill Oliveira tells the Star Tribune investigators wanted to give prosecutors the most complete picture possible about what happened.
___
This story and headline have been corrected to show that the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension obtained a search warrant and searched Damond's home.
Read or Share this story: http://on.sctimes.com/2w6SegoRoster cuts are trickling in, we will post them here as they develop. Right now it looks like the Browns have decided that Seneca Wallace will no longer be needed. But does that mean that the Browns will go with Colt McCoy?
Rumors in the twittersphere are that the Browns may bring in AJ Feely, which could mean that McCoy may be getting traded.
Rosters have to be finalized by 9pm EST tonight. Keep it here on DBN for up to the second coverage. If you see anything, put it in here. Plus, what players are free that you like?
OFFENSE:
* QB Seneca Wallace
* TE Evan Moore
* TE Dan Gronkowski
* WR Rod Windsor
* LG Jarrod Shaw
* WR Josh Cooper (Browns want to sign to PS)
DEFENSE:
* S David Sims (Traded to the Philadelphia Eagles)
* CB/S James Dockery
* DL William Green
* DT Ronnie Cameron (Could be headed to PS)
* LB Ben Jacobs
* DT/DE Brian SchaeferingSo where do we begin with Dahvie Vanity? Accusations of inappropriate and illegal behavior date back years, and yet the guy never seems to receive punishment. He was arrested back in 2009 for the alleged statutory rape of a 15 year old girl, but she was bullied and pressured into retracting her statement.
And there have been a series of accusations from underage girls online
This girl’s account has since been suspended, but at the time she was, of course, bombarded with fan hate
Here’s an old cap from stickydrama, thanks to the waybackmachine
Here’s a video of him splashing a child in the face with some sort of drink and then licking it off.
Most recently there was an accusation by a tumblr user of him luring her into a bathroom under the false pretense of wanting her to “straighten his hair” where he proceeded to try to molest her, and that he also tried to molest her friend.
There is a series of twitpics which cap their text conversations and a perceived threat by Dahvie
Links to the originals 1 2 3 4 5
Here is a youtube video where a woman talks about him cheating on his girlfriend while she was on tour with him, and discussing him sleeping with underage girls. Read the description of the video for her texts with him. Also notice the comments section is full of fans berating her for speaking out, which is typical every time someone speaks out against him.
He treats his fans like sex vending machines, calling them teases when they refuse him sex.
He also posted a video to youtube (which has since been deleted and mirrored by another person) showing him degrading a drunk woman (age unknown) and just generally acting like a great role model foul individual.
He encourages flashing by his audience and strips on stage… maybe this wouldn’t be a problem if his shows weren’t ALL AGES and catering almost exclusively to teenagers.
Many former tour mates and a former band member have spoken out against him, accusing him of messing around with underage girls and bullying.
From Jeffree Star
Dahvie responded to the accusations on stickam and, as usual, he claimed Jeffree was lying and everyone is “out to destroy them,” and “seeking attention.”
videos 1 2
Tweets at Daniel Lucas
And tweets by him
Here is the tumblr post by Ash Costello of New Years Day (this is a long post, she is apparently looking into taking legal action against him so she deleted the post, for a larger size click here)
A merch guy for NYD also spoke out about problematic behavior he witnessed.
And here is an account from a friend of the band discussing Dahvie’s verbally abusive behavior toward Ash and random people back stage.
And Lady Nogrady (an artist who was featured on some of their songs) spoke out in the July issue of Lemonade Magazine
And finally, the most well know story of Blood on the Dance Floor, the Jessi Slaughter scandal.
Since this is pretty much internet common knowledge, I’ll be relatively brief. Jessi Slaughter was an 11 year old fan who claimed that Dahvie Vanity had slept with her and received a huge backlash from both BOTDF fans and 4chan. This entire scandal is googleable, but here is where it gets really ridiculous. Instead of acting like the adults that they are and allow the accusation to play out as it would, BOTDF took this as an opportunity to bully the 11 year old, making a youtube video mocking one of her videos, and writing a song calling her out… yes this was a dude in his mid-20s attacking an 11 year old girl… again, great role model. And, as per usual, he did absolutely nothing to encourage his fans to stop attacking her. He is so anti-bullying that he completely ignores the dog piling of teens by his fans on his behalf.
The most ridiculous thing about this is that he takes this anti-bullying stance, yet he has been reported as one of the biggest bullies in his scene. Here’s a video showing his contradictory stance, talking about being anti-bullying, but then flipping off a girl on the side of the stage and calling her a slut. This is her tumblr post on the subject.
Unfortunately, many links to incriminating articles, videos, and confessions are now broken. Between websites going out of business and people being bullied into deleting statements, I can’t share incriminating things such as a video from Garrett Ecstacy, former band member, who told all in a youtube video (thought you can see Dahvie’s response to that here), or the old myspace photo album they used to have that was filled with provocative pictures taken by minors, encouraged by BOTDF lyrics about sending nudes.
Please reblog this with anything I’ve missed (since it’s been five years since I was first alerted to his behavior there is a whole lot that I’ve seen in passing and am forgetting now) and your own personal stories. This is your chance to share your stories. You’re not alone and this bully needs to take some responsibility once and for all. How can one person explain away so many allegations by fans and friends? How can he keep claiming innocence and that “haterz are just jealous?” This needs to be shared and if you have a young relative in your life who worships this scumbag PLEASE show this to their parents. We need to stop putting our preteens/teens in danger.
ETA: Some more links
http://mikaylax.tumblr.com/post/36070818367/ive-been-internally-conflicted-with-whether-or
http://dannypoo.tumblr.com/post/37706097153/i-wasnt-going-to-do-this-but-honestly-after
http://botdftruth.tumblr.com/post/37895695571/i-asked-dahvie-a-question-on-fb-and-he-responded
http://botdftruth.tumblr.com/post/36441361023/i-never-wanted-to-be-one-of-those-people-who-said-i
http://porcelainnicole.tumblr.com/post/36448947002/i-never-wanted-to-say-this-about-them
http://mestgirl99.tumblr.com/post/36151385221/team-truth
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http://botdftruth.tumblr.com/post/37919784002/this-breaks-my-heart-to-write-because-i-loved-him-so
http://botdftruth.tumblr.com/post/37394585765/my-friend-went-to-warped-with-her-sister-shes-14-her
http://thereasonimhereisyou.tumblr.com/post/36555502177/dahvie-vanity-is-not-who-you-think-he-is
http://botdftruth.tumblr.com/post/36444399941/attacking-teenaged-girls-is-the-new-cool-these-days
http://www.eq2flames.com/something-else-everything-else/83862-shit-band-blood-dance-floor-assaults-random-people.html[np_storybar title=”View the full document” link=”#1″]
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Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, who built his political reputation on respecting the taxpayer, had his city-funded driver drop him at a crack rendezvous last spring, newly unsealed police documents claim.
The files, which contain allegations not proven in court, were opened to the public Wednesday by an Ontario Superior Court judge. They reveal new details about the police investigation into Mr. Ford’s conduct, dubbed Brazen II, and the night he was caught on tape, for a second time, smoking crack.
The documents pertain to a narrow legal point. Police filed them in order to obtain a warrant to search three cellphones. But they contain a wealth of information about the once-stalled police probe of the chief magistrate.
In fact, according to the documents, the team investigating the mayor had all but given up the active part of that probe by last March.
It was only after reports appeared in The Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star in April and May of a second video showing the mayor smoking crack that the investigation kicked back into high gear.
As part of that investigation, police spoke to the mayor’s sister, Kathy Ford. In two separate interviews, she confirmed that she had smoked crack with her brother in her home on April 26.
Ms. Ford said she bought the crack from Michael “Jugga” James, whom she described as a crack, heroin and cocaine dealer. (Mr. James has never been convicted of selling drugs.) She added that Mr. James was in the basement with her, her brother and Alexander “Sandro” Lisi, the mayor’s one-time friend and accused drug dealer, and that Mr. James had been the one to film their exploits.
Ms. Ford said her brother “arrived at the house intoxicated,” that night according to the document. “He was brought there by his driver ‘Jerry.’ ”
In Nov. 2013, Mr. Ford hired Jerry Agyemang, a city hall security guard, as his personal driver. His salary is paid by the City of Toronto.
Ms. Ford also identified her brother “as being the individual depicted in the photographs published by The Globe and Mail. The item in his hands is a ‘crack pipe.’ ”
She added that her grown daughter was asleep upstairs while the two were in the basement, getting high.
The publication of the second crack video was a turning point for Mr. Ford. The night the story broke, his team announced he was taking a leave of absence to seek treatment for alcohol abuse. He first tried to enter the United States, then turned back and later checked into an in-patient treatment facility in the Muskokas.
Meanwhile, the police investigation continued. Officers honed in on Mr. James and tailed him for a time. After one failed, high-speed pursuit, they tracked him to a Toronto home and arrested him as he was getting into his car. They charged him with possession of a dangerous weapon, namely a pair of brass knuckles. (Those charges have since been stayed.)
Along with the brass knuckles, though not on Mr. James’s person, police found three phones. The information to obtain unsealed Wednesday was prepared by the police in an attempt to get a warrant to search those phones.
In the document, police say they were looking for evidence that would definitively tie the phones, and thus the brass knuckles, to Mr. James. However, the ITO also said that should police come across evidence of other crimes on the phones — including drug possession by the mayor — they may use it to lay other charges.
The ITO was filed June 9. No further charges have been laid since that date in the Brazen II investigation.
Lawyers for the media in Toronto, including the National Post, petitioned the court to have the warrants unsealed. On Wednesday, Justice Ian Nordheimer granted that request, although some parts of the ITO were redacted, mostly over privacy concerns.
Mr. Ford was diagnosed with cancer last week. He is undergoing chemotherapy and is no longer running for re-election. Instead, he is contesting his old council seat, in Etobicoke. His brother, Doug Ford, is now running for mayor. At a press conference Wednesday, Doug Ford asked the city to keep his brother in their prayers.
National Post
• Email: rwarnica@nationalpost.com | Twitter: richardwarnicaNetflix's return DVD mailers are apparently costing the U.S. Postal Service $21 million in annual labor costs. And the Postal Service wants some of its money back.
Simply put, Netflix's return DVDs clog the postal machinery and require manual sorting. When Netflix subscribers open their mailers the leading edge of the package is removed. On return, the same package comes back without the hard edge and plastic instead and jams the sorters.
According to Citi analysts Tony Wible and Mark Mahaney a potential 17 cent surcharge to Netflix's DVD return packages would crush the company's operating income per subscriber (Techmeme).
The analysts, who rate Netflix a “sell” and Blockbuster a “buy,” write:
If Netflix has to bear the full brunt of this increase (without other cost offsets), monthly operating income per paying subscriber would fall 67% from $1.05 to $0.35. NFLX questions whether the USPS will accept the OIG's suggestions, and if no hikes occur, the impact would be limited.
Here's the math:
The Inspector General audit at the Postal Service didn't mention Netflix specifically, but the hints in the report are pretty strong. Some excerpts from the audit report:
We initiated this audit based on concerns raised regarding potential preferential treatment given to a large digital versatile disc (DVD) mailer. Our objective was to determine whether PRM (permit reply mail) mailers' mailpieces are processed in accordance with their approved classification and pricing. The Postal Service generally processes PRM mailpieces in accordance to their approved classification and pricing, as outlined in the Domestic Mail Manual (DMM). However, employees manually process approximately 70 percent of the approved First-Class two-way DVD return mailpieces from one DVD rental company because these mailpieces sustain damage, jam equipment and cause missorts during automated processing. Nonmachinable mailpieces are subject to a surcharge. However, the DMM does not currently address the characteristics of the mailer's two-way DVD return mailpiece that make it nonmachinable. Because these mailpieces are not machinable, the Postal Service pays significant additional labor costs to manually process them. We estimate the additional labor costs to process these mailpieces were $41.9 million during the past 2 years, and will be $61.5 million over the next two years. We will report this monetary impact of $103.4 million in our Semiannual Report to Congress as $41.9 million in unrecoverable costs and $61.5 million in funds put to better use.
Add it up and you have the following takeaways:
The Postal Service wants to add a 17 cent surcharge if Netflix doesn't redesign its mailers;
Congress will love this tidbit;
A surcharge would crush Netflix, which is under pricing pressure already;
It's a safe bet that Netflix will redesign its mailers;
The Postal Service is inefficient: Why did it take so long to even ponder a surcharge? A company would surely notice if a customer was increasing its labor costs.
On another note, Citi's analysts confirmed that Blockbuster's mailers don't clog the Postal Service's sorters.
As for that final takeaway, Wible and Mahaney reckon that the Postal Service may be looking to add surcharges to pay for other initiatives.
We are somewhat concerned that the USPS has singled out the rental by mail industry, which could allude to price increases despite any compliance with the mailers. To this point, the USPS proposed annual rate increase of $0.17 would provide $56.5 million in revenue and more than cover the estimated $31 million in annual manual labor costs, which implies that the USPS may be looking at online rental plans as a way to subsidize losses from other parts of its operations.
Netflix argues that it saves the Postal Service $100 million since it pays for first class postage both ways. But amid rising fuel costs and electronic delivery of mail and other promotions the Postal Service is likely to look to balance its budget somewhere.Attention! This news was published on the old version of the website. There may be some problems with news display in specific browser versions.
The Taking of Saipan
From 10.00 GMT on 15th of June until 10.00 GMT on 16th of June
The '[Operation] Saipan' special event for Realistic Battles will be available
where you will earn additional 20% of both Research Points and Silver Lions!
Additionally, you can profit from
20% discount on the conversion of convertible RP for USA, Japan
Saipan was 72 square miles of jagged volcanic rock, ridges, fissures, mountains and cliffs, but nobody was prepared for the carnage that was the subterranean battlefield in Saipan's caves.
As the first wave of LSTs and LVTs made for the beaches of Saipan, it was only 8:30 in the morning on the 15th of June. The Japanese waited patiently having endured two days of bombardment from over 20 USN ships, ranging from battleships to destroyers. The 43rd Division of the IJA under General Yoshitsugu Saito held themselves ready to meet the assaulting 2nd and 4th Marine divisions.
The first assault wave was a mixed force of the latest model Amtracs equipped with a rear facing ramp. These armored amphibian tractors, LVT-4s and LVT-4(A)s which were equipped with 3-inch howitzers, would go ashore first. The LVTs could with great difficulty cross the reef, but the the LSTs and small landing craft were unable to penetrate the natural barrier and advance until a channel would be discovered.
When the LVT(A)s and troop-carrying LVTs reached the reef, the Japanese opened up with every gun available. A great fusillade of fire erupted around the landing vehicles, the hail of fire was extraordinary. The carefully planned and orchestrated artillery barrage from the IJA artillery units was so great that some observers believed the reef had been mined. Through this barrage, the first and second waves of LVTs pushed taking their cargo of Marines directly to the shoreline. Of the 719 LVTs taking part in the assault only 20 would be lost while at sea, the greatest threat would come on the beaches and the fringe of jungle lining the beaches.
As the Marines stormed ashore, murderous fire from hidden machine guns and mortars tore into the exposed men. Strong currents inside the reef had dispersed Marine units across the landing beaches which allowed a crucial gap to appear between the 2nd and 4th Marine Divisions. This would cause a great deal of problems in coordination and supply. Later in the day several Sherman tanks made it ashore, but these arrived too late and could not force their way out of the beachhead on the 15th of June. By the end of the day, the Marines had with some 20,000 men on the beaches and had pushed around 500 yards inland. In some places they had established a foothold, but in doing so, had sustained nearly 2,000 casualties.
The night would bring no respite, the Japanese Army made numerous counterattacks. One of these, shortly after the landing, included the first armored assault the Marines of the 6th division had ever experienced. Around 40 Japanese medium and light tanks accompanied by 2,000 infantry attacked through the darkness toward the beach. The 1st Bn, 6th Marines were the focus of the assault, but the Marines stood their ground with the help of illumination from star shells fired from the ships out beyond the reef. Night turned to day and US M4 and M3 tanks, bazookas, artillery and naval gunfire destroyed the Japanese tank battalion as well as the supporting infantry units.
The morning of the 16th brought the landing of the US 27th Division Infantry, now with a secure beachhead and logistics base. The advance on Aslito Airfield could begin, which was the final blow to General Saito. The fall of Saipan was now inevitable and the United States had taken a hold of one of the core Japanese islands crucial for the defense of Japan. Just months after the capture of Saipan, US B-29s would take off from Isley Air Base and strike at the heart of the Empire.
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The War Thunder TeamAbout: -----------------------------------------------------------------16 year old, sick with a deadly disease called DIY-itis!-----------------------------------------------------------------Hi FTC! My I'bles con...
I've built quite a bit of mallets in the past months. A Plywood Mallet, A Hot-Glue Mallet, And my favorite: A Dead-Blow Mallet from an old transformer.
What I haven't built, is a small and light duty mallet.
So today, I'll show you how to make a small mallet that attaches to your finger (without a handle), from an old Olive wood tree branch. This also my first woodturning project, so I'll probably make a bunch of mistakes ;)
I don't know how useful this will be, but my goal was to go do some woodturning, take good pictures, and hopefully have a lot of fun, which I definitely did!
Let's get started!
*Pssst! Don't forget to check out more info about the giveaway in the comments!Building Cling (the C++ interpreter) on Windows
11 September 2012 update
The last revision of Cling, r45925, doesn’t need any modifications in order to compile on Cygwin, I’ve removed some outdated instructions about manually editing the libcling.exports file.
3 September 2012 update
After a discussion with the main developer of Cling I’ve removed a paragraph about adding some hard codded paths in the Clang sources, this was an unnecessary complication. I’ll keep updating this article if we’ll find any other simplifications.
In my last article I wrote about Cling, the C and C++ interpreter. If you want to have a taste of what Cling can do for you, read my earlier post or this one. In short, Cling is a C++ REPL that uses Clang and LLVM for just in time compilation and parsing of your code. Currently, Cling can be officially compiled only on Unix like operating systems (e.g. Linux or OSX). What if you can’t, for various reasons, use a Unix like OS? Well, this post is for you, the Windows user!
In principle, you could use Visual Studio to compile Cling, however because of the incompatibilities between Clang and Visual Studio, the resulting interpreter will let you use only C code. At the time of this writing, a Visual Studio compiled Clang is not able to build C++ executables … A C only interpreter, while useful, is not so attractive, at least not for me.
The solution is to use Cygwin, which is a collection of tools which provide a Linux look and feel environment for Windows. From the Cygwin main page download setup.exe, this will install Cygwin on your C drive. During the installation phase be sure to select the next group of packages: binutils, flex, bison, m4, subversion, python (use the Cygwin version!), clang, llvm, ncurses, make, patch, gcc4 (gcc4-core, gcc4-gfortran, gcc4-g++), perl, autoconf, automake, libtool, libxml2. At the end of this step you should have a Cygwin Terminal icon on your Desktop, from which you will be able to launch Cygwin.
Next step is to download the sources for LLVM, Clang and Cling. It is important to note at this point that LLVM is currently a moving target, so we need to download the last good LLVM revision, currently this is *163370 *. You should check yourself this number each time you do a fresh Cling compilation and update the next instructions accordingly.
Let’s start by double clinking the Cygwin Terminal. In the Terminal window that is presented to you, paste the next instructions one by one:
1 mkdir Cling && cd Cling 2 svn co -r 163370 http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/llvm/trunk llvm 3 cd llvm/tools 4 svn co -r 163370 http://llvm.org/svn/llvm-project/cfe/trunk clang 5 svn co -r 45925 http://root.cern.ch/svn/root/trunk/interpreter/cling/ 6 cd.. 7 cat tools/cling/patches/*.diff | patch -p0 8 cd..
Now, we are ready to do the actual compilation of Cling. In the Cygwin Terminal paste these lines one by one (depending on the speed of your PC this phase could take from half an hour to a few hours):
1 mkdir build && cd build 2../llvm/configure --prefix=/usr/cling --enable-optimized --enable-targets=host 3 make -j 4 4 make install
If you’ve seen no error message during the above phase, great! Now you have Cling compiled on your machine. Each time you want to use the interpreter, open a Cygwin Terminal and paste the next line:
1 export PATH=/usr/cling/bin:$PATH
now, write in the Terminal cling and the interpreter should start:
1 $ cling 2 3 ****************** CLING ****************** 4 * Type C++ code and press enter to run it * 5 * Type.q to exit * 6 ******************************************* 7 [cling]$
A short example of how you can use the interpreter (for more examples read my previous article):
1 [cling]$ int a 2 (int) 0 3 [cling]$ int b = 10 ; 4 [cling]$ a + b 5 (int const) 10 6 [cling]$
If you are interested in learning more about the new C++11 syntax I would recommend reading The C++ Programming Language by Bjarne Stroustrup.
or, Professional C++ by M. Gregoire, N. A. Solter, S. J. Kleper:Parents in the Uganda capital are freaking out right now because of fears that witch doctors will steal their children away and kill them for sacrificial luck. People who pay these guys to do this think the sacrifices will make them and/or their companies prosperous.
According to official police figures, there was one case of child sacrifice in 2006; in 2008 the police say they investigated 25 alleged ritual murders, and in 2009, another 29. The Anti-Human Sacrifice Police Task Force, launched in response to the growing numbers, says the ritual murder rate has slowed, citing a figure of 38 cases since 2006. Pastor Sewakiryanga disputes the police numbers, and says there are more victims from his parish than official statistics for the entire country. The work of the police task force has been strongly criticised by the UK-based charity, Jubilee Campaign. It says in a report that the true number of cases is in the hundreds, and claims more than 900 cases have yet to be investigated by the police because of corruption and a lack of resources.
I don’t know if the true number even matters. One child killed for such a reason is one too many. The BBC reporters posed as businessmen wanting to hire a witch doctor. The first luck ceremony involved a goat, but
At our next meeting, Awali invited us into his shrine, which is traditionally built from mud bricks with a straw roof. Inside, the floor is littered with herbs, face masks, rattles and a machete. The witch doctor explained that this meeting was to discuss the most powerful spell – the sacrifice of a child. “There are two ways of doing this,” he said. “We can bury the child alive on your construction site, or we cut them in different places and put their blood in a bottle of spiritual medicine.” Awali grabbed his throat |
title "King of Italy" to him. The Italian king had to pay an enormous annual tribute and was required to cede the Duchy of Friuli south of the Alps. Otto reorganized this area into the March of Verona and put it under Henry's control as reward for his loyalty. The Duchy of Bavaria therefore grew to become the most powerful domain in Germany.
Otto and the Catholic Church [ edit ]
A medieval king investing a bishop with the symbols of office. Otto centralized his control over Germany through the investiture of bishops and abbots, making the clergy-class his personal vassal
Beginning in the late 940s, Otto changed his internal policy and began to use the Catholic Church as a tool of his dominance. He increasingly associated himself with the Church and his "divine right" to rule the kingdom, viewing himself as the protector of the Church. As a key element of this change in domestic structures, Otto sought to strengthen ecclesiastical authorities, chiefly bishops and abbots, at the expense of the secular nobility who threatened his power. Otto controlled the various bishops and abbots by investing them with the symbols of their offices, both spiritual and secular, so the clerics were appointed as his vassals through a commendation ceremony. Historian Norman Cantor concludes: "Under these conditions clerical election became a mere formality in the Ottonian empire, and the king filled up the ranks of the episcopate with his own relatives and with his loyal chancery clerks, who were also appointed to head the great German monasteries."
The most prominent member of this blended royal-ecclesiastical service was his own brother Bruno the Great, Otto's Chancellor since 940, who was appointed Archbishop of Cologne and Duke of Lorraine in 953. Other important religious officials within Otto's government included Archbishop William of Mainz (Otto's illegitimate son), Archbishop Adaldag of Bremen, and Hadamar, the Abbot of Fulda. Otto endowed the bishoprics and abbeys of his kingdom with numerous gifts, including land and royal prerogatives, such as the power to levy taxes and to maintain an army. Over these Church lands, secular authorities had neither the power of taxation nor legal jurisdiction. This raised the Church above the various dukes and committed its clerics to serve as the king's personal vassals. In order to support the Church, Otto made tithing mandatory for all inhabitants of Germany.
Otto granted the various bishops and abbots of the kingdom the rank of count as well as the legal rights of counts within their territory. Because Otto personally appointed all bishops and abbots, these reforms strengthened his central authority, and the upper ranks of the German Church functioned in some respect as an arm of the royal bureaucracy. Otto routinely appointed his personal court chaplains to bishoprics throughout the kingdom. While attached to the royal court, the chaplains would perform the work of the government through services to the royal chancery. After years within the royal court, Otto would reward their service with promotion to a diocese.
Liudolf's Civil War [ edit ]
Rebellion against Otto [ edit ]
With the humiliating failure of his Italian campaign and Otto's marriage to Adelaide, Liudolf became estranged from his father and planned a rebellion. On Christmas Day 951, he held a grand feast at Saalfeld that was attended by many important figures from across the kingdom, most notably Archbishop Frederick of Mainz, the Primate of Germany. Liudolf was able to recruit his brother-in-law Conrad, Duke of Lorraine, to his rebellion. As Otto's regent in Italy, Conrad had negotiated a peace agreement and an alliance with Berengar II and believed that Otto would confirm this treaty. Instead of an ally, Berengar II was made Otto's subject and his kingdom was subsequently reduced. Conrad felt betrayed and insulted over Otto's decision, especially with the additional empowerment of Henry. Conrad and Liudolf viewed Otto as being controlled by his foreign-born wife and power-hungry brother and resolved to free the kingdom from their domination.
In winter 952, Adelaide gave birth to a son, whom she named Henry after her brother-in-law and the child's grandfather, Henry the Fowler. Rumors spread that Otto had been persuaded by his wife and brother to propose this child as his heir instead of Liudolf. For many German nobles, this rumor represented Otto's final transformation from a policy focused on Germany to an Italian-centered one. The idea that Otto would ask them to revoke the succession rights of Liudolf prompted many nobles into open rebellion. Liudolf and Conrad first led the nobles against Henry, the Duke of Bavaria, in spring 953. Henry was unpopular with the Bavarians due to his Saxon heritage, and his vassals quickly rebelled against him.
Word of the rebellion reached Otto at Ingelheim. In order to secure his position, he traveled to his stronghold at Mainz. The city was also the seat of Archbishop Frederick of Mainz, who acted as mediator between Otto and the appearing rebels. Recorded details of the meeting or the negotiated treaty do not exist, but Otto soon left Mainz with a peace treaty favorable to the conspirators, most likely confirming Liudolf as heir apparent and approving Conrad's original agreement with Berengar II. These terms rendered the treaty incompatible with the wishes of Adelaide and Henry.
When Otto returned to Saxony, Adelaide and Henry persuaded the king to void the treaty. Convening the Imperial Diet at Fritzlar, Otto declared Liudolf and Conrad as outlaws in absentia. The king reasserted his desires for dominion over Italy and to claim the imperial title. He sent emissaries to the Duchy of Lorraine and stirred the local nobles against Conrad's rule. The duke was a Salian Frank by birth and unpopular with the people of Lorraine, so they pledged their support to Otto.
Otto's actions at the Diet provoked the people of Swabia and Franconia into rebellion. After initial defeats by Otto, Liudolf and Conrad fell back to their headquarters in Mainz. In July 953, Otto and his army laid siege to the city, supported by Henry's army from Bavaria. After two months of siege, the city had not fallen and rebellions against Otto's rule grew stronger in southern Germany. Faced with these challenges, Otto opened peace negotiations with Liudolf and Conrad. Bruno the Great, Otto's youngest brother and royal chancellor since 940, accompanied his older brothers and oversaw the arrangements for the negotiations. As the newly appointed Archbishop of Cologne, Bruno was eager to end the civil war in Lorraine, which was in his ecclesiastical territory. The rebels demanded ratification of the treaty they had previously agreed to with Otto, but Henry's provocation during the meeting caused the negotiations to break down. Conrad and Liudolf left the meeting to continue the civil war. Angered by their actions, Otto stripped both men of their duchies of Swabia and Lorraine, and appointed his brother Bruno as the new Duke of Lorraine.
While on campaign with Otto, Henry appointed the Bavarian Count Palatine, Arnulf II, to govern his duchy in his absence. Arnulf II was a son of Arnulf the Bad, whom Henry had previously displaced as duke, and he sought revenge: he deserted Henry and joined the rebellion against Otto. Lifting the siege of Mainz, Otto and Henry marched south to regain control over Bavaria. Without the support of the local nobles, their plan failed and they were forced to retreat to Saxony. The duchies of Bavaria, Swabia, and Franconia were in open civil war against the King, and even in his native Duchy of Saxony revolts began to spread. By the end of 953, the civil war was threatening to depose Otto and permanently end his claims to be Charlemagne's successor.
End of the rebellion [ edit ]
In early 954, Margrave Hermann Billung, Otto's long-time loyal vassal in Saxony, was facing increased Slavic movements in the east. Taking advantage of the German civil war, the Slavs raided deeper and deeper into the adjacent border areas. Meanwhile, the Hungarians began extensive raids into Southern Germany. Though Liudolf and Conrad prepared defenses against the invasions in their territories, the Hungarians devastated Bavaria and Franconia. On Palm Sunday, 954, Liudolf held a great feast at Worms and invited the Hungarian chieftains to join him. There, he presented the invaders with gifts of gold and silver.
Otto's brother Henry soon spread rumors that Conrad and Liudolf had invited the Hungarians into Germany in hopes of using them against Otto. Public opinion quickly turned against the rebels in these duchies. With this change in opinion and the death of his wife Liutgarde, Otto's only daughter, Conrad began peace negotiations with Otto, which were eventually joined by Liudolf and Archbishop Frederick. A truce was declared, and Otto called a meeting of the Imperial Diet on 15 June 954 at Langenzenn. Before the assembly convened, Conrad and Frederick were reconciled with Otto. At the Diet, tensions flared up again when Henry accused his nephew Liudolf of conspiring with the Hungarians. Though Conrad and Frederick implored the enraged Liudolf to seek peace, Liudolf left the meeting determined to continue the civil war.
Liudolf, with his lieutenant Arnulf II (the effective ruler of Bavaria), took his army south towards Regensburg in Bavaria, quickly followed by Otto. The armies met at Nuremberg and engaged in a deadly, though not decisive, battle. Liudolf retreated to Regensburg, where he was besieged by Otto. Though Otto's army was unable to break through the city walls, starvation set in within the city after two months of siege. Liudolf sent a message to Otto seeking to open peace negotiations; the king demanded unconditional surrender, which Liudolf refused. After Arnulf II had been killed in continuous fighting, Liudolf fled from Bavaria for his domain of Swabia, quickly followed by Otto's army. The adversaries met at Illertissen near the Swabian-Bavarian border and opened negotiations. Liudolf and Otto called a truce until an Imperial Diet would be assembled to ratify the peace. The king forgave his son all transgressions and Liudolf agreed to accept any punishment his father felt appropriate.
Soon after this peace agreement, the aging and sick Archbishop Frederick died in October 954. With the surrender of Liudolf, the rebellion had been put down throughout Germany except in Bavaria. Otto convened the Imperial Diet in December 954 at Arnstadt. Before the assembled nobles of the kingdom, Liudolf and Conrad declared their fealty to Otto and yielded control over all the territories that their armies still occupied. Though Otto did not restore their former ducal title to them, he did allow them to retain their private estates. The Diet ratified Otto's actions:
Liudolf was promised regency over Italy and command of an army to depose Berengar II
Conrad was promised military command against the Hungarians
Burchard III, son of former Swabian Duke Burchard II, was appointed Duke of Swabia (Liudolf's former duchy)
Bruno remained as new Duke of Lorraine (Conrad's former duchy)
Henry was confirmed as Duke of Bavaria
Otto's oldest son William was appointed Archbishop of Mainz and Primate of Germany
Otto retained direct rule over the Duchy of Saxony and over the territories of the former Duchy of Franconia
The king's measures in December 954 finally brought an end to the two-year-long civil war. Liudolf's rebellion, though temporarily weakening Otto's position, ultimately strengthened it as absolute ruler of Germany.
Hungarian invasions [ edit ]
Europe shortly after Otto's reign. The Hungarians (orange), located to the east of Otto's realm (blue), invaded Germany in 954 and 955.
The Hungarians (Magyars) invaded Otto's domain as part of the larger Hungarian invasions of Europe and ravaged much of Southern Germany during Liudolf's civil war. Though Otto had installed the Margraves Hermann Billung and Gero on his kingdom's northern and northeastern borders, the Principality of Hungary to the southeast was a permanent threat to German security. The Hungarians took advantage of the kingdom's civil war and invaded the Duchy of Bavaria in spring 954. Though Liudolf, Duke of Swabia, and Conrad, Duke of Lorraine, had successfully prevented the Hungarians from invading their own territories in the west, the invaders managed to reach the Rhine River, sacking much of Bavaria and Franconia in the process.
The Hungarians, encouraged by their successful raids, began another invasion into Germany in the spring of 955. Otto's army, now unhindered by civil war, was able to defeat the invasion, and soon the Hungarians sent an ambassador to seek peace with Otto. The ambassador proved to be a decoy: Otto's brother Henry I, Duke of Bavaria, sent word to Otto that the Hungarians had crossed into his territory from the southeast. The main Hungarian army had camped along the Lech River and besieged Augsburg. While the city was defended by Bishop Ulrich of Augsburg, Otto assembled his army and marched south to face the Hungarians.
Otto and his army fought the Hungarian force on 10 August 955 at the Battle of Lechfeld. Under Otto's command were Burchard III, Duke of Swabia and Bohemian troops of Duke Boleslaus I. Though outnumbered nearly two to one, Otto was determined to push the Hungarian forces out of his territory. According to Widukind of Corvey, Otto "pitched his camp in the territory of the city of Augsburg and joined there the forces of Henry I, Duke of Bavaria, who was himself lying mortally ill nearby, and by Duke Conrad with a large following of Franconian knights. Conrad's unexpected arrival encouraged the warriors so much that they wished to attack the enemy immediately."[76]
A 1457 illustration of the Battle of Lechfeld in Sigmund Meisterlin's codex about the history of Nuremberg
The Hungarians crossed the river and immediately attacked the Bohemians, followed by the Swabians under Burchard. Confusing the defenders with a rain of arrows, they plundered the baggage train and made many captives. As Otto received word of the attack, he ordered Conrad to relieve his rear units with a counter-attack. Upon the successful completion of his mission, Conrad returned to the main forces and the King launched an immediate assault. Despite a volley of arrows, Otto's army smashed into the Hungarian lines and was able to fight them in hand-to-hand combat, giving the traditionally nomadic warriors no room to use their preferred shoot-and-run tactics; the Hungarians suffered heavy losses and were forced to retreat in disorder.[e]
According to Widukind of Corvey, Otto was proclaimed Father of the Fatherland and Emperor at the following victory celebration.[f] While the battle was not a crushing defeat for the Hungarians, as Otto was not able to chase the fleeing army into Hungarian lands, the battle ended nearly 100 years of Hungarian invasions into Western Europe.[79]
While Otto was fighting the Hungarians with his main army deployed in Southern Germany, the Obotrite Slavs in the north were in a state of insurrection. Count Wichmann the Younger, still Otto's opponent over the King's refusal to grant Wichmann the title of Margrave in 936, marauded through the lands of the Obotrites in the Billung March, causing the followers of Slavic Prince Nako to revolt. The Obotrites invaded Saxony in the fall of 955, killing the men of arms-bearing age and carrying off the women and children into slavery. In the aftermath of the Battle of Lechfeld, Otto rushed to the north and pressed far into their territory. A Slav embassy offered to pay annual tribute in return for being allowed self-government under German overlordship instead of direct German rule. Otto refused, and the two sides met on 16 October at the Battle of Recknitz. Otto's forces gained a decisive victory; after the battle, hundreds of captured Slavs were executed.
Celebrations for Otto's victory over the pagan Hungarians and Slavs were held in churches across the kingdom, with bishops attributing the victory to divine intervention and as proof of Otto's "divine right" to rule. The battles of Lechfeld and Recknitz mark a turning point in Otto's reign. The victories over Hungarians and Slavs sealed his hold on power over Germany, with the duchies firmly under royal authority. From 955 on, Otto would not experience another rebellion against his rule and as a result was able to further consolidate his position throughout Central Europe.
Otto's son-in-law, Conrad, the former Duke of Lorraine, was killed in the Battle of Lechfeld and the king's brother Henry I, Duke of Bavaria, was mortally wounded, dying a few months later on 1 November of that year. With Henry's death, Otto appointed his four-year-old nephew Henry II, to succeed his father as duke, with his mother Judith of Bavaria as his regent. Otto appointed Liudolf in 956 as the commander of an expedition against King Berengar II of Italy, but he soon died of fever on 6 September 957. Archbishop William buried his half-brother at St. Alban's Abbey near Mainz. The deaths of Henry, Liudolf, and Conrad took from Otto the three most prominent members of his royal family, including his heir apparent. Additionally, his first two sons from his marriage to Adelaide of Italy, Henry and Bruno, had both died in early childhood by 957.[83] Otto's third son by Adelaide, the two-year-old Otto, became the kingdom's new heir apparent.[84]
Reign as emperor [ edit ]
Second Italian Expedition and imperial coronation [ edit ]
Liudolf's death in the fall of 957 deprived Otto of both an heir and a commander of his expedition against King Berengar II of Italy. Beginning with the unfavorable peace treaty signed in 952 in which he became Otto's vassal, Berengar II had always been a rebellious subordinate. With the death of Liudolf and Henry I, Duke of Bavaria, and with Otto campaigning in northern Germany, Berengar II attacked the March of Verona in 958, which Otto had stripped from his control under the 952 treaty, and besieged Count Adalbert Atto of Canossa there. Berengar II's forces also attacked the Papal States and the city of Rome under Pope John XII. In autumn 960, with Italy in political turmoil, the Pope sent word to Otto seeking his aid against Berengar II. Several other influential Italian leaders arrived at Otto's court with similar appeals, including the Archbishop of Milan, the bishops of Como and Novara, and Margrave Otbert of Milan.
After the Pope agreed to crown him as Emperor, Otto assembled his army to march upon Italy. In preparation for his second Italian campaign and the imperial coronation, Otto planned his kingdom's future. At the Imperial Diet at Worms in May 961, Otto named his six-year-old son Otto II as heir apparent and co-ruler, and had him crowned at Aachen Cathedral on 26 May 961. Otto II was anointed by the Archbishops Bruno I of Cologne, William of Mainz, and Henry I of Trier. The King instituted a separate chancery to issue diplomas in his heir's name, and appointed his brother Bruno and illegitimate son William as Otto II's co-regents in Germany.
Otto's army descended into northern Italy in August 961 through the Brenner Pass at Trento. The German king moved towards Pavia, the former Lombard capital of Italy, where he celebrated Christmas and assumed the title King of Italy for himself. Berengar II's armies retreated to their strongholds in order to avoid battle with Otto, allowing him to advance southward unopposed. Otto reached Rome on 31 January 962; three days later, he was crowned Emperor by Pope John XII at Old St. Peter's Basilica. The Pope also anointed Otto's wife Adelaide of Italy, who had accompanied Otto on his Italian campaign, as empress. With Otto's coronation as emperor, the Kingdom of Germany and the Kingdom of Italy were unified into a common realm, later called the Holy Roman Empire.
Papal politics [ edit ]
On 12 February 962, Emperor Otto I and Pope John XII called a synod in Rome to finalize their relationship. At the synod, Pope John XII approved Otto's long-desired Archdiocese of Magdeburg. The Emperor had planned the establishment of the archdiocese to commemorate his victory at the Battle of Lechfeld over the Hungarians and to further convert the local Slavs to Christianity. The Pope named the former royal monastery of St. Maurice as provisional center of the new archdiocese, and called upon the German archbishops for support.
Magdeburger Reiter, an equestrian monument traditionally regarded as a portrait of Otto I ( Replica of the, an equestrian monument traditionally regarded as a portrait of Otto I ( Magdeburg, original c. 1240)
The following day, Otto and John XII ratified the Diploma Ottonianum, confirming John XII as the spiritual head of the Church and Otto as its secular protector. In the Diploma, Otto acknowledged the earlier Donation of Pepin of 754 between Pepin the Short, King of the Franks and Pope Stephen II. Otto recognized John XII's secular control over the Papal States, and expanded the Pope's domain by the Exarchate of Ravenna, the Duchy of Spoleto, the Duchy of Benevento and several smaller possessions. Despite this confirmed claim, Otto never ceded real control over those additional territories. The Diploma granted the clergy and people of Rome the exclusive right to elect the pontiff. The pope-elect was required to issue an oath of allegiance to the emperor before his confirmation as pope.
With the Diploma signed, the new Emperor marched against Berengar II to reconquer Italy. Being besieged at San Leo, Berengar II surrendered in 963. Upon the successful completion of Otto's campaign, John XII began to fear the Emperor's rising power in Italy and opened negotiations with Berengar II's son, Adalbert of Italy to depose Otto. The Pope also sent envoys to the Hungarians and the Byzantine Empire to join him and Adalbert in an alliance against the Emperor. Otto discovered the Pope's plot and, after defeating and imprisoning Berengar II, marched on Rome. John XII fled from Rome, and Otto, upon his arrival in Rome, summoned a council and deposed John XII as Pope, appointing Leo VIII as his successor.[93]
Otto released most of his army to return to Germany by the end of 963, confident his rule in Italy and within Rome was secure. The Roman populace, however, considered Leo VIII, a layman with no former ecclesiastical training, unacceptable as Pope. In February 964, the Roman people forced Leo VIII to flee the city. In his absence, Leo VIII was deposed and John XII was restored to the chair of St. Peter. When John XII died suddenly in May 964, the Romans elected Pope Benedict V as his successor. Upon hearing of the Romans’ actions, Otto mobilized new troops and marched on Rome. After laying siege to the city in June 964, Otto compelled the Romans to accept his appointee Leo VIII as Pope and exiled Benedict V.
Third Italian Expedition [ edit ]
Otto returned to Germany in January 965, believing his affairs in Italy had been settled. On 20 May 965, the Emperor's long-serving lieutenant on the eastern front, Margrave Gero, died and left a vast march stretching from the Billung March in the north to the Duchy of Bohemia in the south. Otto divided this territory into five separate smaller marches, each ruled by a margrave: the Northern March under Dietrich of Haldensleben, the Eastern March under Odo I, the March of Meissen under Wigbert, the March of Merseburg under Günther, and the March of Zeitz under Wigger I.
Peace in Italy, however, would not last long. Adalbert, the son of the deposed King Berengar II of Italy, rebelled against Otto's rule over the Kingdom of Italy. Otto dispatched Burchard III of Swabia, one of his closest advisors, to crush the rebellion. Burchard III met Adalbert at the Battle of the Po on 25 June 966, defeating the rebels and restoring Italy to Ottonian control. Pope Leo VIII died on 1 March 965, leaving the chair of St. Peter vacant. The Church elected, with Otto's approval, John XIII as new Pope in October 965. John XIII's arrogant behavior and foreign backing soon made him disliked among the local population. In December of the same year, he was taken into custody by the Roman people but was able to escape a few weeks later. Following the Pope's request for help, the Emperor prepared his army for a third expedition into Italy.
In August 966 at Worms, Otto announced his arrangements for the government of Germany in his absence. Otto's illegitimate son Archbishop William of Mainz would serve as his regent over all of Germany, while Otto's trusted lieutenant, Margrave Hermann Billung, would be his personal administrator over the Duchy of Saxony. With preparations completed, Otto left his heir in William's custody and led his army into northern Italy via Strasbourg and Chur.
Reign from Rome [ edit ]
Italy around 1000, shortly after Otto's reign. Otto's expansion campaigns brought northern and central Italy into the Holy Roman Empire
Upon Otto's arrival in Italy, John XIII was restored to his papal throne in mid-November 966 without opposition by the people. Otto captured the twelve leaders of the rebel militia, which had deposed and imprisoned the Pope, and had them hanged. Taking up permanent residence at Rome, the Emperor travelled, accompanied by the Pope, to Ravenna to celebrate Easter in 967. A following synod confirmed Magdeburg's disputed status as a new archdiocese with equal rights to the established German archdioceses.
With his matters arranged in northern Italy, the Emperor continued to expand his realm to the south. Since February 967, the Prince of Benevento, Lombard Pandolf Ironhead, had accepted Otto as his overlord and received Spoleto and Camerino as fiefdom. This decision caused conflict with the Byzantine Empire, which claimed sovereignty over the principalities of southern Italy. The eastern Empire also objected to Otto's use of the title Emperor, believing only the Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros II Phokas was the true successor of the ancient Roman Empire.
The Byzantines opened peace talks with Otto, despite his expansive policy in their sphere of influence. Otto desired both an imperial princess as a bride for his son and successor Otto II as well as the legitimacy and prestige of a connection between the Ottonian dynasty in the West and the Macedonian dynasty in the East. In order to further his dynastic plans, and in preparation for his son's marriage, Otto returned to Rome in the winter of 967 where he had Otto II crowned co-Emperor by Pope John XIII on Christmas Day 967. Although Otto II was now nominal co-ruler, he exercised no real authority until the death of his father.
In the following years, both empires sought to strengthen their influence in southern Italy with several campaigns. In 969, John I Tzimiskes assassinated and succeeded Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros in a military revolt. Finally recognizing Otto's imperial title, the new eastern emperor sent his niece Theophanu to Rome in 972, and she married Otto II on 14 April 972. As part of this rapprochement, the conflict over southern Italy was finally resolved: the Byzantine Empire accepted Otto's dominion over the principalities of Capua, Benevento and Salerno; in return the German Emperor retreated from the Byzantine possessions in Apulia and Calabria.
Final years and death [ edit ]
Grave of Otto I in Magdeburg
With his son's wedding completed and peace with the Byzantine Empire concluded, Otto led the imperial family back to Germany in August 972. In the spring of 973, the Emperor visited Saxony and celebrated Palm Sunday in Magdeburg. At the same ceremony the previous year, Margrave Hermann Billung, Otto's trusted lieutenant and personal administrator over Saxony during his years in Italy, had been received like a king by Archbishop Adalbert of Magdeburg – a gesture of protest against the Emperor's prolonged absence from Germany.
Celebrating Easter with a great assembly in Quedlinburg, Emperor Otto was the most powerful man in Europe. According to Thietmar of Merseburg, Otto received "the dukes Miesco [of Poland] and Boleslav [of Bohemia], and legates from the Greeks [Byzantium], the Beneventans [Rome], Magyars, Bulgars, Danes and Slavs". Ambassadors from England and Muslim Spain arrived later the same year. To mark the Rogation Days, Otto travelled to his palace at Memleben, the place where his father had died 37 years earlier. While there, Otto became seriously ill with fever and, after receiving his last sacraments, died on 7 May 973 at the age of 60.
The transition of power to his seventeen-year-old son Otto II was seamless. On 8 May 973, the lords of the Empire confirmed Otto II as their new ruler. Otto II arranged for a magnificent thirty-day funeral, in which his father was buried beside his first wife Eadgyth in Magdeburg Cathedral.
Family and children [ edit ]
Although never Emperor, Otto's father Henry I the Fowler is considered the founder of the Ottonian dynasty. In relation to the other members of his dynasty, Otto I was the son of Henry I, father of Otto II, grandfather of Otto III, and great-uncle to Henry II. The Ottonians would rule Germany (later the Holy Roman Empire) for over a century from 919 until 1024.
Otto had two wives and at least seven children, one of which was illegitimate.[111]
With an unidentified Slavic woman:
William (929 – 2 March 968) – Archbishop of Mainz from 17 December 954 until death[112]
Legacy [ edit ]
Ottonian Renaissance [ edit ]
A limited renaissance of the arts and architecture in the second half of the 10th century depended on the court patronage of Otto and his immediate successors. The "Ottonian Renaissance" was manifest in some revived cathedral schools, such as that of Bruno I, Archbishop of Cologne, and in the production of illuminated manuscripts, the major art form of the age, from a handful of elite scriptoria, such as that at Quedlinburg Abbey, founded by Otto in 936. Extant manuscripts of this era are the Diploma Ottonianum, the Marriage Charter of Empress Theophanu, and the Gero Codex, an evangeliary drawn up around 969 for Archbishop Gero. The Imperial abbeys and the Imperial courts became centers of religious and spiritual life; prestigious convents like Gandersheim and Quedlinburg were led by women of the royal family.
Modern World [ edit ]
Otto I was selected as the main motif for a high value commemorative coin, the €100 Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire commemorative coin, issued in 2008 by the Austrian Mint. The obverse shows the Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire. The reverse shows Emperor Otto I with Old St. Peter's Basilica in Rome in the background, where his coronation took place.[121] Among others, three exhibitions in Magdeburg, opening in 2001, 2006 and 2012, have documented Otto's life and his influence on medieval European history.[122]
Ancestry [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
^ Berengar II ruled from 952 until 961 as "King of Italy", but as Otto's vassal. ^ The precise terms King of the Germans and Holy Roman Empire were not in common use until the 11th and 12th century, respectively. ^ Widukind of Corvey, Res gestae saxonicae (in Latin) Book 2, chapter 2: "...; duces vero ministrabant. Lothariorum dux Isilberhtus, ad cuius potestatem locus ille pertinebat, omnia procurabat; Evurhardus mensae preerat, Herimannus Franco pincernis, Arnulfus equestri ordini et eligendis locandisque castris preerat; Sigifridus vero, Saxonum optimus et a rege secundus, gener quondam regis, tunc vero affinitate coniunctus, eo tempore procurabat Saxoniam, ne qua hostium interim irruptio accidisset, nutriensque iuniorem Heinricum secum tenuit." (in Latin) Book 2, chapter 2: "...; duces vero ministrabant. Lothariorum dux Isilberhtus, ad cuius potestatem locus ille pertinebat, omnia procurabat; Evurhardus mensae preerat, Herimannus Franco pincernis, Arnulfus equestri ordini et eligendis locandisque castris preerat; Sigifridus vero, Saxonum optimus et a rege secundus, gener quondam regis, tunc vero affinitate coniunctus, eo tempore procurabat Saxoniam, ne qua hostium interim irruptio accidisset, nutriensque iuniorem Heinricum secum tenuit." Bibliotheca Augustana ^ From his stronghold in Swabia, located just north of the Alps, Liudolf was in closer proximity to the Italian border than his father in Saxony. ^ During the following days scattered parts of the Hungarian army were repeatedly attacked from nearby villages and castles; a second Bohemian force under Duke Boleslaus I was able to intercept and defeat them. ^ Widukind of Corvey, Res gestae saxonicae (in Latin) Book 3, chapter 49: "De triumpho regis. Triumpho celebri rex factus gloriosus ab exercitu pater patriae imperatorque appellatus est;..." (in Latin) Book 3, chapter 49: "De triumpho regis. Triumpho celebri rex factus gloriosus ab exercitu pater patriae imperatorque appellatus est;..." Bibliotheca Augustana
Citations [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Primary sources [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]In honour of Black History month, I’ve put together this list of 12 Sci-Fi or Fantasy books by Black Women that all sound excellent. I’ve stuck to just one book per author, but plenty of them have tons more that you should check out too. I’ve not read any of these yet, but they all had good reviews and have been added to my own TBR list.
The Books
Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson
The rich and privileged have fled the city, barricaded it behind roadblocks, and left it to crumble. The inner city has had to rediscover old ways-farming, barter, herb lore. But now the monied need a harvest of bodies, and so they prey upon the helpless of the streets. With nowhere to turn, a young woman must open herself to ancient truths, eternal powers, and the tragic mystery surrounding her mother and grandmother.
She must bargain with gods, and give birth to new legends.
The Switch II: Clockwork by Valjeanne Jeffers
Includes the Switch and The Switch II: Clockwork. Look for The Switch in the groundbreaking anthology: Steamfunk!
“As she looked on, the target unzipped his jumpsuit and pushed it down. His blond companion sauntered over to his desk, and slipped off her pants. She straddled him, curling an arm about his neck. With her other hand she unzipped her tunic to bare her plump breasts. Moans of pleasure filled Z100’s apartment.
Z100 watched them, arousal spreading down her pelvis. She cut the tape off, got up and poured herself another glass of wine. She’d planted the tiny cameras in the men’s offices. They were later retrieved by spies posing as under dweller janitors.”
York is a city of contradictions. Women are hard-pressed for lovers, because lovemaking can be dangerous. The upper city is powered by computers, the underground by steam. And the wealthy don’t work for a living, underdwellers do it for them.
But certain underdwellers have a big problem with this arrangement. And so does the time keeper.
Welcome to the Revolution…
My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due
When Jessica marries David, he is everything she wants in a family man: brilliant, attentive, ever youthful. Yet she still feels something about him is just out of reach. Soon, as people close to Jessica begin to meet violent, mysterious deaths, David makes an unimaginable confession: More than 400 years ago, he and other members of an Ethiopian sect traded their humanity so they would never die, a secret he must protect at any cost. Now, his immortal brethren have decided David must return and leave his family in Miami. Instead, David vows to invoke a forbidden ritual to keep Jessica and his daughter with him forever. Harrowing, engrossing and skillfully rendered, My Soul to Keep traps Jessica between the desperation of immortals who want to rob her of her life and a husband who wants to rob her of her soul. With deft plotting and an unforgettable climax, this tour de force reminiscent of early Anne Rice will win Due a new legion of fans.
Mindscape by Andrea Hairston
MINDSCAPE takes us to a future in which the world itself has been literally divided by the Barrier, a phenomenon that will not be ignored. For 115 years this extraterrestrial, epidimensional entity has divided the earth into warring zones. Although a treaty to end the interzonal wars has been hammered out, power-hungry politicians, gangsters, and spiritual fundamentalists are determined to thwart it. Celestina, the treaty’s architect, is assassinated, and her protegee, Elleni, a talented ren |
who listened to audiobooks with no explicitly "relaxing" content. Bereaved people who make the most effort to avoid feeling grief, research suggests, take the longest to recover from their loss. Our efforts at mental suppression fail in the sexual arena, too: people instructed not to think about sex exhibit greater arousal, as measured by the electrical conductivity of their skin, than those not instructed to suppress such thoughts.
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Seen from this perspective, swathes of the self-help industry's favorite techniques for achieving happiness and success -- from positive thinking to visualizing your goals to "getting motivated" -- stand revealed to be suffering from one enormous flaw. A person who has resolved to "think positive" must constantly scan his or her mind for negative thoughts -- there's no other way that the mind could ever gauge its success at the operation -- yet that scanning will draw attention to the presence of negative thoughts. (Worse, if the negative thoughts start to predominate, a vicious spiral may kick in, since the failure to think positively may become the trigger for a new stream of self-berating thoughts, about not thinking positively enough.) Suppose you decide to follow Dr. Schuller's suggestion and try to eliminate the word "impossible" from your vocabulary, or more generally try to focus exclusively on successful outcomes, and stop thinking about things not working out. As we'll see, there are all sorts of problems with this approach. But the most basic one is that you may well fail, as a result of the very act of monitoring your success.
This problem of self-sabotage through self-monitoring is not the only hazard of positive thinking. An additional twist was revealed in 2009, when a psychologist based in Canada named Joanne Wood set out to test the effectiveness of "affirmations," those peppy self-congratulatory phrases designed to lift the user's mood through repetition. Affirmations have their origins in the work of the nineteenth-century French pharmacist Emile Coue, a forerunner of the contemporary positive thinkers, who coined the one that remains the most famous: "Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better."
Most affirmations sound pretty cheesy, and one might suspect that they would have little effect. Surely, though, they're harmless? Wood wasn't so sure about that. Her reasoning, though compatible with Wegner's, drew on a different psychological tradition known as "self-comparison theory." Much as we like to hear positive messages about ourselves, this theory suggests, we crave even more strongly the sense of being a coherent, consistent self in the first place. Messages that conflict with that existing sense of self, therefore, are unsettling, and so we often reject them -- even if they happen to be positive, and even if the source of the message is ourselves. Wood's hunch was that people who seek out affirmations would be, by definition, those with low self-esteem -- but that, for that very same reason, they would end up reacting against the messages in the affimations, because they conflicted with their self-images. The result might even be a worsening of their low self-esteem as people struggled to reassert their existing self-images against the incoming messages.
Which is exactly what happened in Wood's research. In one set of experiments, people were divided into subgroups of those with low and high self-esteem, then asked to undertake a journal-writing exercise; every time a bell rang, they were to repeat to themselves the phrase "I am a lovable person." According to a variety of ingenious mood measures, those who began the process with low self-esteem became appreciably less happy as a result of telling themselves that they were lovable. They didn't feel particularly lovable to begin with -- and trying to convince themselves otherwise merely solidified their negativity. "Positive thinking" had made them feel worse.
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* * *
The arrival of George Bush onstage in San Antonio was heralded by the sudden appearance of his Secret Service detail. These were men who would probably have stood out anywhere, in their dark suits and earpieces, but who stood out twice as prominently at Get Motivated! thanks to their rigid frowns. The job of protecting former presidents from potential assassins, it appeared, wasn't one that rewarded looking on the bright side and assuming that nothing could go wrong.
Bush himself, by contrast, bounded onstage grinning. "You know, retirement ain't so bad, especially when you get to retire to Texas!" he began, before launching into a speech he had evidently delivered several times before. First, he told a folksy anecdote about spending his post-presidency cleaning up after his dog ("I was picking up that which I had been dodging for eight years!") Then, for a strange moment or two, it seemed as if the main topic of his speech would be how he once had to choose a rug for the Oval Office ("I thought to myself, the presidency is going to be a decision-making experience!"). But his real subject, it soon emerged, was optimism. "I don't believe you can lead a family, or a school, or a city, or a state, or a country, unless you're optimistic that the future is going to be better," he said. "And I want you to know that, even in the darkest days of my presidency, I was optimistic that the future was going to be better than the past for our citizens and the world."
You need not hold any specific political opinion about the forty-third president of the United States to see how his words illustrate a fundamental strangeness of the "cult of optimism." Bush was not ignoring the numerous controversies of his administration -- the strategy one might have imagined he would adopt at a motivational seminar, before a sympathetic audience and facing no risk of hostile questions. Instead, he had chosen to redefine them as evidence in support of his optimistic attitude.
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The way Bush saw it, the happy and successful periods of his presidency proved the benefits of an optimistic outlook, of course -- but so did the unhappy and unsuccessful ones. When things are going badly, after all, you need optimism all the more. Or to put it another way: once you have resolved to embrace the ideology of positive thinking, you will find a way to interpret virtually any eventuality as a justification for thinking positively. You need never spend time considering how your actions might go wrong.
Could this curiously unfalsifiable ideology of positivity at all costs -- positivity regardless of the results -- be actively dangerous? Opponents of the Bush administration's foreign policies might have reason to think so. This is also one part of the case made by the social critic Barbara Ehrenreich, in her 2009 book "Bright-Sided: How Positive Thinking Is Undermining America." One underappreciated cause of the global financial crisis of the late 2000s, she argues, was an American business culture in which even thinking about the possibility of failure -- let alone speaking up about it at meetings -- had come to be considered an embarrassing faux pas.
Bankers, their narcissism stoked by a culture that awarded grand ambition above all, lost the capacity to distinguish between their ego-fueled dreams and concrete results. Meanwhile, homebuyers assumed that whatever they wanted could be theirs if they wanted it badly enough ( how many of them had read books such as "The Secret, which makes exactly that claim?) and accordingly sought mortgages they were unable to repay. Irrational optimism suffused the financial sector, and the professional purveyors of optimism -- the speakers and self-help gurus and seminar organizers -- were only too happy to encourage it. "To the extent that positive thinking had become a business in itself," writes Ehrenreich, "business was its principal client, eagerly consuming the good news that all things are possible through an effort of mind. This was a useful message for employees, who by the turn of the twenty-first century were being required to work longer hours for fewer benefits and diminishing job security. But it was also a liberating ideology for top-level executives. What was the point in agonizing over balance sheets and tedious analyses of risks -- and why bother worrying about dizzying levels of debt and exposure to potential defaults -- when all good things come to those who are optimistic enough to expect them?"
Ehrenreich traces the origins of this philosophy to nineteenth-century America, and specifically to the quasi-religious movement known as New Thought. New Thought arose in rebellion against the dominant, gloomy message of American Calvinism, which was that relentless hard work was the duty of every Christian -- with the additional sting that, thanks to the doctrine of predestination, you might in any case already be marked to spend eternity in Hell. New Thought, by contrast, proposed that one could achieve happiness and worldly success through the power of the mind.
This mind-power could even cure physical ailments, according to the newly minted religion of Christian Science, which grew directly from the same roots. Yet, as Ehrenreich makes clear, New Thought imposed its own kind of harsh judgmentalism, replacing Calvinism's obligatory hard work with obligatory positive thinking. Negative thoughts were fiercely denounced -- a message that echoed "the old religion's condemnation of sin" and added "an insistence on the constant interior labour of self- examination."
Quoting the sociologist Micki McGee, Ehrenreich shows how, under this new orthodoxy of optimism, "continuous and neverending work on the self [was] offered not only as a road to success, but also to a kind of secular salvation."
George Bush, then, was standing in a venerable tradition when he proclaimed the importance of optimism in all circumstances. But his speech at Get Motivated! was over almost as soon as it had started. A dash of religion, a singularly unilluminating anecdote about the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, some words of praise for the military, and he was waving goodbye -- "Thank you, Texas, it's good to be home!" -- as his bodyguards closed in around him. Beneath the din of cheering, I heard Jim, the park ranger in the next seat, emit a sigh of relief. "OK, I'm motivated now," he muttered, to nobody in particular. "Is it time for some beer?"
"There are lots of ways of being miserable," says a character in a short story by Edith Wharton, "but there's only one way of being comfortable, and that is to stop running around after happiness." This observation pungently expresses the problem with the "cult of optimism" -- the ironic, self-defeating struggle that sabotages positivity when we try too hard. But it also hints at the possibility of a more hopeful alternative, an approach to happiness that might take a radically different form. The first step is to learn how to stop chasing positivity so intently. But many of the proponents of the "negative path" to happiness take things further still, arguing -- paradoxically, but persuasively -- that deliberately plunging more deeply into what we think of as negative may be a precondition of true happiness.
Perhaps the most vivid metaphor for this whole strange philosophy is a small children's toy known as the "Chinese finger trap," though the evidence suggests it is probably not Chinese in origin at all. In his office at the University of Nevada, the psychologist Steven Hayes, an outspoken critic of counterproductive positive thinking, keeps a box of them on his desk; he uses them to illustrate his arguments. The "trap" is a tube, made of thin strips of woven bamboo, with the opening at each end being roughly the size of a human finger. The unwitting victim is asked to insert his index fingers into the tube, then finds himself trapped: in reaction to his efforts to pull his fingers out again, the openings at each end of the tube constrict, gripping his fingers ever more tightly. The harder he pulls, the more decisively he is trapped. It is only by relaxing his efforts at escape, and by pushing his fingers further in, that he can widen the ends of the tube, whereupon it falls away, and he is free.
In the case of the Chinese finger trap, Hayes observes, "doing the presumably sensible thing is counterproductive." Following the negative path to happiness is about doing the other thing -- the presumably illogical thing -- instead.
Excerpted from "The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking" by Oliver Burkeman, published in November 2012 by Faber and Faber, Inc., an affiliate of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC. Copyright © 2012 by Oliver Burkeman. All rights reserved.There appears to be a movement in Germany at the moment towards using Windows Phone in law enforcement as part of an effort to eradicate paperwork and increase police time on the beat.
We have seen several police forces in Germany adopt Windows 10 Mobile and the UWP app platform, and the latest to join the list is the Hamburg force, who just purchased 900 Lumia Windows Phones at the cost of 100,000 Euro.
In internal documents the force describes how using the UWP platform they will be able to increase the efficiency of police officers by processing incident reports digitally and directly into the police database.
The also describe how using UWP apps they can use the same app on the phone, laptop or tablet, desktop and even the backend system, with differing user interfaces and capabilities.
Officers on the beat would have access to the information systems, and internal messaging service and various applications for incident reports. On a bigger screen they would of course be able to do much more.
This vertical market approach, where the absence of 3rd party apps, especially consumer apps, do not matter, and integration with Microsoft’s backend systems are more important, has great potential to cement Windows 10 Mobile as an enterprise platform and as part of the Windows in enterprise story as a whole, particularly due to being able to leverage existing developer and platform management talent already in place in businesses.
Due to the small size of the market however there is an issue with the availability of low-cost devices. In this deployment each handset appears to have cost around 110 Euro. With Lumias disappearing from the market the cheapest enterprise Windows Phone will likely be many multiples of that price.
Of course HP is rumoured to be working on a cheaper device and appears to be attacking this market head-on, so we may see a healthy niche developing for our favourite mobile OS that seems determined to live on long after everyone declared it to be dead.We engineered the Deltaprintr to be simple, efficient, and affordable. We want as many people as possible to be able to get their hands on this exciting new technology without having to sacrifice quality or user-friendliness.
Why Deltaprintr?
SIMPLE - Using a 3D Printer shouldn't be a hassle. We designed our printer so that it requires minimal set-up, and so that there's effectively no long-term maintenance. We'll be shipping every printer with a construction manual (pictures!) to get you up and running in no time.
EFFICIENT - The polar coordinate system allows for faster movements (than those of traditional Cartesians printers) while achieving a 100 micron resolution.
AFFORDABLE - Because a Deltaprintr design doesn't need as many parts as other 3D printers, we can pass the savings on to you.
About the Deltaprintr
The Deltaprintr uses three stepper motors, located under the acrylic build platform, to control the carriages that move the hot-end. Both the drive reels and the bearings that the carriages ride on are manufactured via high-precision CNC machining.
The Deltaprintr's CNC'ed drive reels
The minimal carriage design allows you to simply slide the assembled carriage onto the extruded aluminum beams without having to make any adjustments. The Deltaprintr also uses 65lb Spectra fishing line instead of expensive belts to control the carriages. The Spectra line also makes it easy to expand the build volume - all you need to do is buy longer aluminum extrusions, which cost a few dollars.
Custom laser-cut carriages
Every printer will be fitted with an automatic calibration probe, ensuring that prints stick to the bed and don't warp when printing. In addition, every printer will also come with an LCD display and a compact 60 Watt laptop-style power supply.
Benefits of a Deltaprintr
Faster speeds
100 micron resolution
Automatic calibration - no more manual calibration
Ease of use and assembly
Easy & expandable print volume
PLA plastic - biodegradable and food safe
LCD and SD card included
Compact power supply
Print Samples
Printed at 100 micron resolution
Specs
Deltaprintr brochure
Deltaprintr specifications
Getting Started Guide
We're already working on an assembly manual so that backers can look it over before their Deltaprintr comes in the mail. For those new to 3D printing, we'll be sure to walk you through the software end of things too.
We understand that 3D printing may seem overwhelming to beginners but it's really not that bad! We'll have more detailed instructions on creating your first 3D print on our website after the campaign ends.
"Getting Started Guide" for the Deltaprintr
Timeline
Click to enlarge
World Maker Faire NY 2013
We attended World Maker Faire NY this past September and had a blast. Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth, we were overwhelmed by the support and excitement! Check out the pics:
Andrey explaining how the Deltaprintr works
Printing a tornado at 100 micron resolution
The Deltaprintr booth
Supporters signing up to receive updates and to find out when we launch!
Kids checking out the cool prints
Upgrades
Though the Deltaprintr has everything one would need to start printing, we think LED lights are pretty cool.
LED to light up the acrylic bed and logo - Add $10 to your pledge.
Why Kickstarter?
We're here because we wouldn't be able to turn our idea into a reality without initial funding. The industrial grade machinery we need is expensive stuff. Producing these printers at a low cost requires us to place large orders to our manufacturers, so we're turning to you guys!
About Us
From left to right - Shai, Andrey, Yasick and Eugene
Shai Schechter - “Highly capable and motivated, Shai is currently majoring in graphic design with a minor in business at SUNY Purchase College. He’s the tech guru behind the Deltaprintr and was the driving force behind this project's inception. When he's not working on this project, he works as a freelance web designer.” - Andrey
Andrey Kovalev - “A student at the Cooper Union School of Engineering and a habitual tinkerer, Andrey brings a passion for efficiency and innovation to life with his contributions to our project. He has a keen eye for detail in the realm of mechanical design, a hands-on understanding of pertinent business concepts, and a wicked jump shot.” - Yasick
Yasick Nemenov - “Yasick is a student at Williams College studying Economics and Math. He has a knack for numbers and his guidance has helped drive the business and financial aspects of this project. Yasick’s common sense has been useful at every stage of development. He is also an avid rock-climber. One day he hopes to 3D print a rock." - Eugene
Eugene Sokolov - “Eugene is currently a student of electrical engineering at Cooper Union in New York City. He has hands-on experience in circuit design and is helping with the electrical aspects of the printer. Apart from working on this project, he is a computer programmer and a talented soccer player. He hopes on scoring a goal with this project.” - Shai
Thanks and Acknowledgements
While we have spent a great deal of time and effort designing, improving and prototyping the Deltaprintr, we couldn't have done it without the help of these fellow makers, developers and friends.On last night’s O’Reilly Factor, Rick Santorum compared Obamacare to apartheid, then called Obamacare “cool” because it will help Republicans win in 2014.
“Nelson Mandela just died,” O’Reilly said. “I don’t know if you’re aware. Ninety-five years old. Nelson Mandela — I spent some time in South Africa, he was a communist, this man. He was a communist. But he was a great man anyway. The sacrifices he made for his people were just stunning. But he was a communist. A great man, but a communist.”
“I would never attack Nelson Mandela,” O’Reilly continued. “I told Bishop Tutu, who’s like that too, but I told him ‘I respect you.’ Why can’t you guys in the Republican Party bring that to the forum?”
“Well, Nelson Mandela stood up against a great injustice,” Santorum replied. “And he was willing to pay a huge price for that. And it’s for that reason he — he — he is mourned today, because of that struggle he performed. But what he was advocated for was not necessarily the right answer, but he was fighting against some great injustice.”
“I would make the argument,” Santorum continued, “that we have a great injustice going on too, in this country, with an ever-increasing size of government that is taking over and controlling people’s lives, and Obamacare is front-and-center in that.”
“And I agree with [O’Reilly’s] talking points earlier, that the center focus of the 2014 election must be Obamacare and all of its aspects,” he concluded.
“And the cool thing about Obamacare is that it’s not only bad for the economy, not only bad for people’s health, it’s also bad for freedom of conscience — it’s also bad for a whole variety of issues that will energize all across America.”
Watch the entire exchange from The O’Reilly Factor below.Christopher Lee shared a birthday with Vincent Price. It was a well-known fact, but always felt note perfect that these towering figures of terror, princes of darkness, kings of horror should divide a day and lord over us all. They also shared a sensibility, a presence in classical, Gothic horror that defined their singular presences as the kind a film fan grew up with. Very likely, Christopher Lee was one of the first actors a budding admirer of genre or horror had a grasp of. We lost Price in 1993. Now, another sad day has come as Christopher Lee, at the age of 93, has passed.
Born May 27, 1922 in the Belgravia district of London, Lee began acting in 1947, following release from his duty in the Royal Air Force during World War II. Perhaps his true career began ten years later, with a pained, stirring performance as the monster in The Curse of Frankenstein. Hammer, a name now synonymous with Lee and the genre, was about to truly endeavor into horror. Lee became great friends with co-star Peter Cushing and the two would go on to star in several films together including, just one year later, The Horror of Dracula. Now a classic alongside Brownings, The Horror of Dracula presented Lee in his now most iconic role.
Lee would play Dracula, a fierce, captivating creature, nine times, while appearing in innumerable productions, many horror. He caught two doomed locomotives in Dr. Terrors House of Horrors and Horror Express, essayed mad villains Rasputin and Fu Manchu, worked with masters Mario Bava and modern greats like Peter Jackson and Tim Burton. Lee appeared in the James Bond, Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings series, rarely slowing down as he grew older; even boasting a healthy musical output.
Lee sang famously in folk horror classic The Wicker Man and ventured into recording with Kathy Joe Daylors Italo Disco track, Little Witch; narrating on Italian metal band Rhapsody of Fires albums; and of course, there was his own metal on the Charlemagne albums. In spoken word, he recorded readings of Edgar Allan Poes The Raven (like Price) and several times appeared in video games reprising roles contemporary and long past.
Lees work in life is staggering. The performer was knighted in 2009. He is both a comforting aura, and a dark demeanor. Dangerous as Dracula, and unbelievably suave as the Duc de Richleau in 1968s stunning The Devil Rides Out.
Rest in Peace, Christopher Lee, and thank you.
Top Photo: Sven JacobsenAUBURN, Ala. — Auburn center Austin Wiley devoted much of last season catching up to his freshman teammates.
Wiley stepped onto campus as an early enrollee midway through the year. He practiced all of two times before playing his first game and was thrown into the starting lineup shortly after that.
Coach Bruce Pearl asked Wiley to “learn where to go and what to do” on the job. There were growing pains as Wiley averaged 8.8 points and 4.7 rebounds, but the decision is paying dividends with the team regrouping for summer practice.
“He is now a returning player, he is able to impose his leadership and ownership and kind of say, “hey this is my team now,” Pearl said Sunday.
Wiley worked for much of the practice alongside Chuma Okeke and Davion Mitchell while Pearl walked the newcomers through the team’s basic offensive concepts. A few months ago Wiley needed similar instruction, but now he’s a player the youngsters on the team can turn to for help.
“I love it, it’s great,” Pearl said. “It’s different for him.”
Wiley and Okeke will get extra time to train together trying out for USA Basketball’s U19 team later this month. The combo could be one to watch for Auburn fans thanks to Okeke's inside-outside game. Pearl isn't ready to commit to any pairings, but admits Okeke's versatility will be a nice fit next to Wiley's presence in the paint.
*** Get free breaking news in the Auburn Undercover newsletter ***
*** Subscribe to Auburn Undercover: 7-day FREE trial ***After 26 losses, Ron Paul won his first popular vote over the weekend. However, the congressman from the Lone Star State walked away with only one lone delegate.
In the U.S. Virgin Islands, Paul got 29 percent of the vote, edging out Mitt Romney by 3 percentage points. Despite a Paul win, Romney ended up with seven of the nine available delegates.
According to the Republican Party of the Virgin Islands, the caucus selected three Romney delegates, one Paul delegate and two uncommitted delegates, one later pledging support for Romney. The former Massachusetts governor also has the support of the three RNC member delegates.
Some Paul supporters might be upset by this result, but to be fair, this is exactly what Ron Paul hopes to do elsewhere. Despite losing the popular vote in caucus states like Iowa, Nevada, Colorado and Minnesota, the Paul campaign believes the Texas congressman can get a far number of delegates than what the polls reflect, according to a press release issued in February.
In response to the reports that declared Romney the winner, Ron Paul’s campaign blogger Jack Hunter posted a video with a “math lesson for mainstream media,” in which he emphasized that 29 percent is indeed higher than 26 percent. (Thank you, Jack! You are correct.)
The ultimate purpose of Hunter’s video is to point out that in every other contest, most media outlets have reported winners in terms of the popular vote. The U.S. Virgin Islands is the first place where delegates were used to determine who won.
“If we’re going to start to measure it according to delegate counts…when we go back and look at who actually has accumulated the most delegates in some of these states – Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and beyond – and Ron Paul actually picks up more delegates possibly than what his straw poll finish would indicate, is the mainstream media going to adjust accordingly?” he asks.
Hunter continues, arguing that the mainstream media will most likely not report Paul as the winner if he picks up more delegates as the caucus selection process plays out.
“The mainstream media is trying to have it both ways” he said. “Once again, when Ron Paul does win, they find all sorts of ways to ignore it.”There is a path forward, past denial and scandal and shame.
Are you a man who has been outed as a sexual harasser or abuser? Are you a man who is reading about all these rich and powerful men being brought down by their past transgressions and hoping and praying that the gross shit you did that violated the humanity or autonomy of another human being won’t be brought to light? Are you a man who is right now swearing that you’ve changed, that you are not the foolish man you once were and you are appalled by your past actions, but also you remember them differently, but also you’d like us all to be able to move forward?
Are you a man who has sexually harassed, abused, or assaulted someone and you do not want to be that person anymore? Are you a man who wants to genuinely move past the wrong you’ve done?
There is a path forward, past denial and scandal and shame. There is a path to genuinely being the better person that you want to be. I’m writing this sincerely. I’m writing this because sexual abuse and assault is so very common in our society that chances are, someone I know and love and respect is reading this and knowing that they are guilty. I’m writing this because if we don’t find a way forward, this will keep happening. Even if you never harass or abuse or assault another human being again: If you don’t try to make this right, this will keep happening and you will have helped to enable it.
When You Can’t Throw All Men Into The Ocean, What CAN You Do?
Are you ready to get started? Here are some first steps you can take.
1. Stop calling your victim(s) a liar.
Don’t slander them, don’t ignore them, don’t try to intimidate them. Don’t try to get your buddies to vouch for how you would absolutely never do anything like this. When you hurt someone, and then tell them to their face that you didn’t hurt them, you are hurting them all over again. Do not make your victim carry this alone.
2. Don’t wait to be accused.
If the person you harmed has not come forward publicly yet, do not just wait in terror for them to do so. Do not force them to take the risk to their reputations, careers, and peace of mind that victims take when they come forward with abuses against them. If you can first come forward to the person you abused in a way that would not add further harm to them, do so. And then be honest with others. If you harassed someone at work, go to your boss and to HR. Come clean with your community. Come clean with your sons.
An important note: Unless you have the permission of the person you harmed, you absolutely must protect their identity and any personal details of what happened that might cause further harm to them to hear or to have their community hear. Anything you do must place the wellbeing of the person you harmed as a top priority. A simple statement of, “I did this, and it was a violation of this person. It was not okay and I’m very sorry” is a good start.
3. Pause before immediately saying what a better person you are now.
Oh, you just got called out for sexual harassment or abuse but you’re a better person now? How much better? Better because you aren’t harassing or abusing people anymore? Better because when you think about what you did you feel bad? How much better of a person were you before someone had to be brave enough to publicly discuss the pain you put them through? How much better of a person were you when they were carrying the pain of what you did every day but you got to pretend like it didn’t happen? You might be on the way to better, but you haven’t earned the right to make any public declarations of reform yet. Keep reading.
4. Understand exactly what you did.
If you know you did something wrong but part of you is still thinking, “this wasn’t really that big of a deal,” then you need to take some time and do some research. Research how sexual harassment impacts victims. Research rape culture and the lasting effects of sexual abuse and assault. Listen to survivors. Listen to them and respect their ability to interpret what happened to them and the impact that it has had on them. Believe them.
5. Face the consequences.
Do you deserve to lose some friends? Yes. Do you deserve to lose some respect? Yes. Do you deserve to lose your job? Yes. Do you deserve to go to jail? If you assaulted someone — yeah. If your teenager was stealing from work and got fired for it, if you were a halfway decent dad you’d likely tell them to be glad for the opportunity to learn from their mistakes and to realize that actions have consequences. Well, what you did was worse, way worse — even from a business perspective. Even if it was “just” sexual harassment. You stole the productivity of the person you harassed, who from then on had to try to do their job and deal with your gross ass at the same time. You likely made anybody else who was aware of what you did feel unsafe, which contributed to low morale and higher turnover. You made your employer look bad. You spent your work hours playing grab-ass instead of doing your job. On top of just being very shitty and abusive you wasted company time and resources and you deserve to be fired for that.
If you ever want young men to believe in personal accountability you will take these consequences respectfully, gratefully even. Yes, it does indeed suck if you will now find it harder to feed your family but understand that YOU DID THAT. You, not your accuser, not your employer, not an “angry mob” on the internet. You did that. You did that to yourself and your family and your community. Apologize to them for what your actions have brought and know every day that you are not the victim.
If you don’t face any of these consequences, consider yourself a lucky beneficiary of a society that doesn’t give two fucks about sexual abuse and assault victims, and know that you did absolutely nothing to deserve such luck.
On Spacey, Weinstein, Milo, And The Weaponization Of Identity
6. Use your power for good.
Hey, remember how you felt so powerful and entitled that you were pretty sure you could sexually harass someone and nothing would happen to you? Remember how you were pretty sure that you were so well liked and respected that nobody would believe sexual assault accusations against you? The power that you had in order to be able to do this gross shit? It’s power you can use to actually stop this gross shit.
Hey, you hold the careers of other people in your hands and that makes it really easy for you to tell a woman that you’d ruin her if she spoke out about your sexual harassment? It’s literally just as easy to tell the dudes you work with that you’d ruin THEM if they sexually harassed women.
Man, people really like you and look up to you so you have the perfect shield for your past sexual abuses? You also have the perfect platform to start talking about your struggles with toxic masculinity and encouraging other men to do the same.
Are you the dude who all the other dudes try to impress with their sexist jokes? You can be the dude who says, “hey man, that’s not cool.”
And if you for one minute used your power (and even if you’re an unemployed dude looking around his studio apartment saying “what power,” trust me, you have some over at least one person in your life) to harass, abuse, or assault someone and you are not now using that power to fight the harassment, abuse, or assault of others — you are not a man changed. You are a man with a debt that you must pay.
7. Do not expect forgiveness.
Yes, you may be doing this to be a better person, but it does not mean that others have to see you as a better person. The things we do cannot be undone. We must find other ways to get as close to making things right as we can, but if you’ve harmed someone, you have no right to expect to be seen by them or anyone else impacted by you actions as anyone other than the person who harmed someone. You have to live with what you did as long as they do.
This does not mean that you have to beg for forgiveness for all eternity. It means that you will have to find a way to move forward while also carrying that burden with you. It will remind you of why your work now to fight the culture that makes sexual abuse so prevalent is so important. It will remind you to not be complacent, to not abuse your power, to resist the lure of toxic masculinity. It will fuel your fire to reach out to other men you care about so that they, too, will not harm others and have to carry around the harm they caused forever.
When Forgiveness Isn’t A Virtue
And to some people — to a lot of people — you will likely be seen as a better person, because you will be a better person. But you will never have a right to expect or demand that.
We have a serious sexual abuse and assault problem in this society, and as a perpetrator of some of that abuse, you have an increased obligation to help fight. You are not alone. There are millions of men around the country looking at their past behavior and wondering what they can and should do about it. You can help them follow the right path by taking the first steps yourself. This is not easy. This open accountability for the wrongs you’ve done is very painful to go through. But it’s nothing compared to the pain you’ve caused your victim(s) or the harm your silence does to society by continuing to uphold a culture that makes this abuse so easy.
You can never erase this, but you can repair some of the damage done, and the damage your inaction is currently doing. You can be a part of the solution. And you have to be. You owe it to your victims. You owe it to us all.Image caption Public health minister Michael Matheson said minimum pricing "would save lives"
Scottish deaths from chronic liver disease are among the highest in Europe, new statistics have suggested.
Compared to countries in central, western, northern and southern Europe, only Hungary has a higher mortality rate than Scotland.
The rates are almost 70% higher than the average across the UK and 60% higher than 30 years ago.
Meanwhile, a target for cancer patients to begin treatment has been missed by half of Scotland's NHS boards.
Seven boards failed to hit the standard for getting at least 95% of patients with a suspicion of cancer to their first treatment within 62 days.
The liver deaths statistics have been published by the Scottish Public Health Observatory, a collaboration led by Information Services Division Scotland (ISD Scotland) and NHS Health Scotland.
It said male mortality rates for chronic liver disease (CLD) were twice as high as those reported for women, and that people in the most deprived areas were more than five times more likely to die of CLD than those in the least deprived.
'Too high'
Scotland's Public Health Minister Michael Matheson said alcohol minimum pricing would "save lives".
"The death and suffering caused by chronic liver disease is far too high and much of the blame |
match with Kenta Kobashi. It’s much more likely that Joe’s career will be inevitably defined not by a single year, but by the six-year stretch between 2003-2008 that encompasses his 21-month Ring of Honor championship run, his feud with CM Punk, his 18-month TNA undefeated streak, and a memorable series of matches with Kurt Angle culminating at Lockdown 2008 with his only TNA World Heavyweight Championship win. While it may not be his best year, 2015 will undoubtedly go down as one of the most important of Joe’s career, and it is one that adds nicely to that already impressive legacy.
Had Samoa Joe not left TNA at the beginning of 2015, that 2003-2008 run would have unquestionably made up the vast majority of his legacy. Despite being one of TNA’s top draws (two of TNA’s top three PPV buy rates came from shows headlined by Joe vs. Angle), Joe’s standing as a main event star in the company entered a downward spiral from 2009 on and never recovered. His TNA World Heavyweight Championship run was almost completely unmemorable, ending at Bound for Glory 2008 in a match where he attempted a dropkick from a press box onto concrete stairs to horrifying effect. Joe was truly never the same after that bump, and his remaining time in TNA was mostly notable for incomprehensible nonsense such as threatening people with enormous knives and being abducted by masked men only to resurface two months later with no explanation.
Samoa Joe should have been the TNA guy. Instead, he was repeatedly passed over for and politically outmaneuvered by established stars of yesteryear. He would say after leaving TNA that he felt obligated to stay with the company and finish what he had started there, but as it became increasingly clear that he would not be given the opportunity to do just that, it began to feel like he was simply operating on autopilot.
If Joe had left TNA in 2015 and called it a career, he would have nonetheless been lauded as one of the very best of his time. But because he was never able to achieve to the best of his potential in TNA, there would always be that question of wondering what could have been had he tested the waters elsewhere, or what could have been if he had recaptured that spirit from 2005 and translated it on a worthier stage than TNA. Fortunately, the last 10 months have erased that “what if” to a significant degree.
Rediscovering “The Fire”
After the passing of Shinya Hashimoto in 2005, Joe penned a blog wherein he described attending a training session in which Hashimoto explained that the fire in one’s eyes is the single most important component of being a great professional wrestler. “The burning spirit, the unyielding will,” Joe described it, “even in the face of insurmountable challenges.” And, having learned from the man he sought to honor, much of what made Joe such an incredible asset to professional wrestling for so many years was attributable to that same fire. By 2015, however, Joe was only showing that fire from time to time, and it was clear that TNA was simply not providing the oxygen-rich atmosphere that Joe needed to nurture his flame. If anything, they were doing their damnedest to douse it. TNA, it seemed, was Joe’s insurmountable challenge.
By the start of the year, with Joe yet again relegated to little more than a henchman in a cumbersome heel stable, that flame was quite dim indeed. Evidence enough can be found in the fact that the first match on the first episode of IMPACT in 2015 saw Joe defeat Angle in six minutes. This once profitable, once captivating matchup was being feebly replicated in a show-opening segment for the sheer purpose of advancing a larger angle. It was by no means a bad match, but to say that it was a shadow of what the same two men had been able to do nine years prior is putting it mildly.
On February 17, Joe announced that he had at last made the decision to leave TNA. Wrestling had its first major free agent since Alberto Del Rio was fired by WWE in August 2014, and the possibilities for Joe’s new direction seemed at once boundless. Just a week later, Ring of Honor announced that it was bringing Joe back for four dates in March, including the main event of Supercard of Honor IX during Wrestlemania weekend. Before long, he would have independent bookings carrying him all the way through August, and it was being speculated that he was involved in serious negotiations with WWE.
Back in ROH, Joe put on four stellar matches with Kyle O’Reilly, ACH, Michael Elgin, and then-ROH World Champion Jay Briscoe. Just a little over a month removed from his final match in TNA, Joe was leaner than he had been in some time, he had seemingly regained much of that motivation that had been sapped from him by seven years of directionless booking, and most importantly, that fire was alive and roaring.
Then, in spite of Vince McMahon’s seeming disinterest of signing anyone who had been exposed to a national TV audience through TNA, Joe made his NXT debut by interrupting the main event of TakeOver: Unstoppable in May. It came out that Joe had signed a unique, non-exclusive deal that allowed him to continue working on the indies, enabling him to have fantastic matches with Johnny Gargano in Absolute Intense Wrestling and Chris Hero at the Smash Kick ALS show in between his NXT dates. It also left open the possibility that Joe could continue working for Ring of Honor and possibly even take dates with New Japan down the line.
Joe’s deal was also unique in that he was able to debut using the name he had spent more than a decade building; in a company where not even Brian Danielson was allowed to use his own name, this was a significant victory. Samoa Joe was able to get a deal that most couldn’t possibly command, and the success of that deal has since helped pave the way for James Storm and Tommaso Ciampa to appear on NXT television despite their respective histories with TNA and using the names for which they are best known.
A week after Joe’s debut, Ring of Honor signed a television deal with Destination America, giving them exposure on national cable. This development, combined with the almost immediate sell-out of Joe’s NXT-branded t-shirt, shoulder injuries knocking Hideo Itami and Sami Zayn out of action for the foreseeable future, and Kevin Owens being called up to the main roster for his feud with John Cena, helped secure Joe a full-time WWE contract.
Joe by this point was already booked by ROH to team with AJ Styles against Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian for a June 20 television taping. In the same year where Alberto Del Rio was forbidden from dropping the AAA Mega Title in Mexico after re-signing with WWE, Joe worked this match (albeit untelevised) a mere two days after taping for NXT. And even without the allure of television, Joe’s performance in that match was better than in some of his television work in the waning days of his time with TNA.
What’s miraculous thus far about Joe’s run in NXT is seeing what can be achieved by simply handling him at a level commensurate to his talents. Since appearing at the end of TakeOver: Unstoppable, Joe has been booked like the special performer that he is. Joe has had just 17 matches between NXT television and TakeOver specials. Of those matches, 14 were wins, and his only pinfall loss came against Finn Balor on Wednesday. The announcers didn’t have to remind the audience that Joe had never been pinned or submitted to inform their opinion that Joe is special. Because of the way he has been presented, they already know.
Two of Joe’s NXT feuds were truncated when his opponents, first Owens and then Tyler Breeze, were called up to the main roster. Even still, Joe has never once felt lost in the shuffle. Moreover, he’s fulfilling the dual purpose of making himself an even bigger star while helping younger talent develop their skills. Baron Corbin, for example, has been noticeably improved since his feud with Joe and their match at TakeOver: Brooklyn. Their 10-minute slug-fest helped shake the misconception of Corbin’s ineffectualness in longer matches, and while Joe probably can’t take much credit for tweaking Corbin’s anti-indie-wrestler character, their feud was the catalyst for it.
It’s hard to make the argument right now that there is any single active individual in WWE’s talent pool who is a more complete performer than Samoa Joe. He’s absolutely unlike anyone else they have on the roster, which makes it all the more confounding that he has not been brought up to the main roster and pushed immediately into title contention as a monster heel. Still, if the result of staying in NXT for much of 2016 is Joe putting on more hard-hitting, decidedly un-WWE-like performances like his match with Ciampa on the December 2 episode of NXT, then there won’t be much cause for complaint from wrestling fans.
Whether 2016 has Joe staying in NXT to chase the championship or getting his much-deserved run on the main roster remains to be seen, but it’s pretty clear that Samoa Joe will not accept any kind of regression. After the conclusion of the TakeOver: London main event, the camera cut to a shot of Joe being led up the aisle by officials and facing Balor in the ring. There, with blood trickling from his mouth, Joe’s eyes conveyed a range of emotions: rage, pain, and disappointment among them. There was something else there as well. Something that Joe learned from one of the old masters, and something that makes him one of the world’s greatest: the fire.Why I Don't Care About Edward Snowden
By: Ron Fournier
Is Edward Snowden a hero or a traitor? I don't care. You read right: I don't give a whit about the man who exposed two sweeping U.S. online surveillance programs, nor do I worry much about his verdict in the court of public opinion.
Why? Because it is the wrong question. The Snowden narrative matters mostly to White House officials trying to deflect attention from government overreach and deception, and to media executives in search of an easy storyline to serve a celebrity-obsessed audience.
For the rest of us, the questions seem to be:
Are the two programs revealed by Snowden legal and constitutional?
What else is the government doing to invade our privacy? Until a few days ago, paranoids were people who claimed Washington had cast a vast electronic net over our communications. Who isn't a bit paranoid now?
Why did the U.S. government for years debunk what they called a myth about the National Security Agency seizing electronic data from millions of Americans?
Why did the leader of the U.S. intelligence community mislead Congress in March by answering a question about the program in the "least untruthful manner" -- a phrase that would make George Orwell cringe.
Why do Democratic lawmakers who criticized President Bush for exploiting the post-9/11 Patriot Act now defend President Obama for curbing civil liberties?
Why do Republicans who defended Bush now chastise Obama for ruthlessly fighting terrorists?
Rather than fierce oversight, why did the White House and congressional leaders restrict full knowledge of the programs to a few elites, and stage, for the rest of Congress, Potemkin briefings?
Why does a secret federal court almost always side with the government's requests to seize information?
Why didn't the president find a way before the leaks to tell the public in general terms what he was doing and why? Obama ran on a pledge of government transparency, opposed Bush-era surveillance tactics, and denounced the "false choice" between security and liberty.
No sane American would deny the president and the national security community the best tools to fight a fast-evolving and shadowy enemy. It would be foolish to demand full disclosure of programs that require secrecy. And most Americans, according to polls, are open to trading some privacy for security.
But before perpetuating and immortalizing the Surveillance State, we need to remember that the precedents set today apply to the next president -- and the ones that follow, perhaps men and women who aren't as dedicated to democratic institutions as both Bush and Obama are.
It would help if the Obama administration would stop misleading the public, eroding trust in government that is already at record lows. Four stories today suggest how badly the truth has been victimized.
Scott Shane and Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times documented how intelligence officials for years have denied the existence of programs revealed by Snowden: "Disclosures on N.S.A. Surveillance Put Awkward Light on Previous Denials."
"Awkward light" is a polite way of describing a lie.
Glenn Kessler slapped three Pinocchios on James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence who spoke a least-untruthful way: "Debates Over NSA Should be Free of Semantic Muddling."
Semantic muddling is a polite way of describing – well, you get it.
Jack Shafer of Reuters wrote an insightful piece that puts Snowden's actions into context with the government's self-serving leaks. "… He's done in the macro what the national security establishment does in the micro every day of the week to manage, manipulate and influence ongoing policy debates," Shafer wrote.
Finally, syndicated liberal columnist David Sirota challenged the views of "Permanent Washington" in an analysis arguing that NSA's actions are illegal and unconstitutional.
He called the Snowden case "a commentary on how political self-interest and partisanship now trumps everything else – even the law of the land."
Love him or hate him, we all owe Snowden our thanks for forcing upon the nation an important debate. But the debate shouldn't be about him. It should be about the gnawing questions his actions raised from the shadows.
In the end, fear and politics likely will prevail, as it has in America's past. Washington elites will close ranks to protect the Surveillance State, to trample out transparency and to mislead the public. Maybe we can talk first?Klaas Carel Faber (20 January 1922 – 24 May 2012) was a convicted Dutch-German war criminal. He was the son of Pieter and Carolina Josephine Henriëtte (née Bakker) Faber, and the brother of Pieter Johan Faber, who was executed for war crimes in 1948. Faber was on the Simon Wiesenthal Center's list of most wanted Nazi war criminals. Faber died in Germany in May 2012, having never been extradited.[1]
Second World War [ edit ]
Faber was born in Haarlem, The Netherlands, to a family with a strong National-Socialist background.[2] Like his father and his brother, Faber was a member of the National Socialist Movement, or NSB, before the war,[3] and joined the Waffen SS a month after the German occupation of the Netherlands in 1940. After five months, he abandoned military training for less demanding police jobs in Rotterdam and The Hague.[4]
In May 1943, he became a German citizen with the passing of the Erlaß über den Erwerb der deutschen Staatsangehörigkeit durch Einstellung in die deutsche Wehrmacht, die Waffen-SS, die deutsche Polizei oder die Organisation Todt vom 11. Mai 1943 (RGBl. I. S. 315), which automatically awards citizenship to all foreign members of the Waffen-SS and other organizations. From 1943 to 1944, he was a commander of a firing squad at the Westerbork concentration camp, the camp Anne Frank passed through on her way to her death at Belsen.[2][5] His zeal increased after his father, Pieter Faber, a baker at Heemstede, was killed by Hannie Schaft of the Dutch resistance on 8 June 1944.[2][4] He participated in the SS's Silbertanne ("Silver Fir") death squad which targeted members of the Dutch resistance, and those who hid Jews and opposed Nazism.[6] He was also a member of Sonderkommando Feldmeijer, which carried out arbitrary assassinations (more than 50; his brother and Heinrich Boere were members of the same squad[7]) of prominent Dutch citizens in reprisal for Resistance activities,[8] and served as a bodyguard to Dutch Nazi leader Anton Mussert.[2][8]
After the war, Faber was tried by a Dutch court and sentenced to death by firing squad on 9 June 1947, for the murder of 11 persons in Westerbork and 11 others.[3][9] The Dutch court stated that the Faber brothers were "two of the worst criminals of the SS".[10] Pieter Faber was executed in 1948.[10] On 14 January 1948, Faber's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. However, on 26 December 1952, he escaped from prison in Breda, with Herbertus Bikker, Sander Borgers [nl] and four other former members of the Dutch SS, and that same evening crossed the border into Germany.[11] The escape may have been masterminded by the Stichting Oud Politieke Delinquenten, an organisation of former Dutch fascists and collaborators.[11] As a former member of the SS, Faber had obtained German citizenship.[12] Following his escape Faber went on to live in the Bavarian city of Ingolstadt and until retirement worked for the car manufacturer Audi as an office clerk.[3][10]
Extradition requests [ edit ]
In 1957, a German court in Düsseldorf dismissed charges against him for lack of evidence, claiming the Dutch authorities would not share evidence.[5][13] Two extradition requests were made by the Dutch in 1954 and 2004 to have Faber returned to complete his sentence. Both requests were denied by the German authorities,[10] the second with reference to the 1957 decision of lack of evidence.[13] When new evidence was presented to a Munich court in 2006, the cases were viewed as manslaughter as opposed to murder, and thus outside the statute of limitations. A new arrest warrant from Dutch authorities was required to reopen the case,[13] which was issued in part because of attention brought to the case by Dutch journalist Arnold Karskens [nl], who in 2003 had found Faber's residence.[3] Calls for his extradition were frequent, including at the 2007 commemoration of the first transport that left Westerbork for the destruction camps.[14]
In April 2009 Faber was listed by the Simon Wiesenthal Center as one of the most important Nazi era war criminals still at large.[15] The center noted that he was a member of the Sonderkommando Feldmeijer execution squad.[10] In July 2009 it was reported that at the time the German government might have wanted to prosecute Faber after all[9] while other reports stated that he enjoyed immunity from prosecution.[16] In August 2010, following the petition of more than 150 lawyers organized by Jerusalem-based lawyer David Schonberg, the Israeli government demanded that Germany enforce Faber's sentence or extradite him to the Netherlands, and change its policy of allowing Nazi war crimes suspects to escape prosecution. Israel's justice minister,[17] Ya'akov Ne'eman, wrote to the German justice minister, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, asking that justice be carried out.[citation needed]
In November 2010, the Netherlands issued a European Arrest Warrant for Faber, the first the country ever issued for a war criminal.[18] The application questioned the legality of Faber's German citizenship given because of his membership in the SS.[5][10] A Justice official from Bavarian justice stated that the request would be considered, "but as far as I know, there is nothing new".[10]
In January 2012 the German Justice department requested the judiciary in Ingolstadt, after pressure from the Dutch government, to execute the life sentence of the war criminal.[19][20] Faber died before the request was granted. The many extradition requests and other investigations also called into question various administrative decisions regarding the Faber case; in 2012, Dutch historian Jan de Roos filed a suit against the Dutch government regarding their decision to not release correspondence between it and the German government about Faber.
Death [ edit ]
Faber died on 24 May 2012 from kidney failure in Ingolstadt.[7]
See also [ edit ]Here is a complete 5-day backpacking meal plan similar to what I eat on my hikes. It includes three meals and four snacks, providing 3,500 calories from 2 lbs of food per day.
3,500 calories a day is a good baseline calorie goal for most backpacking trips. I eat this amount on hikes up to 500 miles. After that my metabolism kicks into high gear and I have to eat more (as much as 5,000 calories a day) to keep my energy up and stave off weight loss. The easiest way to add an extra 1,000 calories to this plan is to double up on the snacks.
Packaged, processed foods are a staple of my backpacking diet because they are calorie-dense, non-perishable and available everywhere – but some of them are not very nutritious. To get a more balanced diet it’s a good idea to eat lots of whole foods (meat, fruit, veggies, whole grains, etc.) during your town stops and supplement with vitamins.
I hope this gives you some ideas for designing your own backpacking meal plan.
Day 1 (3,474 calories – 32.9 ounces)
Day 2 (3,424 calories – 31.9 ounces)
Day 3 (3,663 calories – 32.9 ounces)
Day 4 (3,254 calories – 31.6 ounces)
Day 5 (3,785 calories – 31.7 ounces)NEW YORK (RNS) Studios and filmmakers are rediscovering a classic text as source material for upcoming mainstream films: the Bible.
Nearly 10 years after the blockbuster success of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” which earned $611.9 million worldwide, studios are looking to the Good Book for good material.
Future films include:
LD Entertainment is financially backing “Resurrection,” a drama set immediately after Jesus’ death and directed by “Hatfields & McCoys” director Kevin Reynolds.
Paramount will release “Noah,” a $125 million adaptation starring Russell Crowe in 2014.
20th Century Fox is developing “Exodus,” a Moses film starring Christian Bale.
Warner Bros. has another Moses-themed film titled “Gods And Kings,” which Steven Spielberg flirted with directing.
Warner Bros. also is working on a film on Pontius Pilate, rumored to possibly include Brad Pitt.
Sony is producing Will Smith’s “The Redemption of Cain,” on the sibling rivalry of Cain and Abel.
Lionsgate has been developing “Mary Mother of Christ,” described as “a prequel to ‘The Passion of the Christ”’ and rumored to include Ben Kingsley.
Alongside the string of upcoming Bible-related films, producers from the History channel’s “The Bible” miniseries just announced that the series’ film adaptation “Son of God” will be released in theaters nationwide in February with 20th Century Fox.
The couple behind the show, Mark Burnett and “Touched by an Angel” star Roma Downey, said mixing Hollywood and the Bible can be tricky.
“It’s not just some story,” said Burnett, who produces “The Voice” and “Survivor.” “There’s a price to pay for failing to stay on track and failing to get the right advisers.”
When showing it to a group of children, the couple said they were told one thing: “Please don’t make it lame.”
“It’s not enough to have good intentions,” said Downey, who plays Jesus’ mother Mary in the series. “It has to be told in a way that’s relevant to a contemporary audience.”
The couple have been able to reach across traditional religious divides in getting promotions; Downey is Catholic and Burnett considers himself a nondenominational Christian. Their efforts have received endorsements from religious leaders ranging from megachurch pastor Rick Warren to Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl.
Previous generations of filmmakers largely stayed within their own traditions without much interest in what other Christians were making, said Dallas megachurch pastor T.D. Jakes, who hosted a film festival earlier this year.
“We have learned that there is more to unite us than to divide us,” he said. “That is exhibited primarily by how we see the arts and film.”
Ultimately, though, Jakes hopes to see faith-based films go more mainstream rather than being a separate niche category.
“Faith is not limited or incarcerated by labels that restrict it from being able to be woven into the fabric of the human experience,” he said. “I think that faith is best worn when it is part of the totality of the human experience rather than relegated over to a tribal expression of a particular group of people.”
Taking a cue from Gibson’s success with “The Passion,” film marketing campaigns now go after pastors’ endorsements through special advance screenings to secure endorsements from big-name religious leaders. As more people are sitting in front of the TV on a Sunday morning rather than in church, “filmmakers are the new high priests of our culture,” said A. Larry Ross, who has handled publicity for several religious leaders and organizations, including Billy Graham and Rick Warren.
“No pastor went to seminary to put people in (theater) seats or build revenue for a film producer,” Ross said. “Many pastors are realizing that in this video-driven culture, stories are the vessels of meaning.”
Photo courtesy Trailer screenshot, from DVD The Ten Commandments, 50th Anniversary Collection Paramount, 2006 (The Ten Commandments trailer) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
“For many faith and family films, the impact on the screen is less the answers given than it is the questions asked that you could discuss over coffee with someone who would never go to church with you but go to a movie with you,” he said.
In some ways, Hollywood’s fascination with the Bible isn’t new: Hollywood drew on biblical storytelling after World War II, especially with Charlton Heston, who played Moses in “The Ten Commandments,” and “Ben-Hur,” a movie about a Jewish prince sent into slavery and rescued by Jesus.
But some films flopped when they took too much license. “The Last Temptation of Christ,” Martin Scorsese’s 1988 film about the life of Jesus and the temptations he faced that included sex scenes, took in only $8.4 million domestically amid a widespread boycott led by Roman Catholics.
Independent films have dealt with the Bible in the past, but it’s significant that major Hollywood studios are taking this up, said Tom Allen, a partner in Allied Faith & Family, a Hollywood marketing firm.
“We’re beyond the cheap ministry movies that appeal only to a certain constituency,” he said.
As Hollywood looks to epic tales of floods, burning bushes and parting seas, films with biblical themes will also continue to pop up. Nicolas Cage is slated to star in “Left Behind,” a movie based on the book series on the Second Coming of Christ. Sony’s adaption of the popular book “Heaven is for Real” is also scheduled for next year.
But sticking strictly to the Bible starts with a financial upside — no one collects copyright or licensing fees.
KRE/AMB END BAILEYAustralia's plain packaging stoush with the tobacco industry has created policy ripples in some unexpected places, as members of the European Parliament use the Australian stand-off to argue against a free trade agreement with the United States.
The decision by tobacco giant Philip Morris to take legal action against the Australian government has caught the attention of the European Parliament, which is using the legal wrangle to pour cold water on a trade deal currently under negotiation between the EU and the United States.
Many in Europe are concerned that once the deal is reached, legitimate health and social policies could then attract legal action taken on the part of aggrieved corporations, and opponents are using Australia's clash with Philip Morris as an example of how badly things can go wrong.ITHACA, NY—Saying that when it came down to it he really didn’t have any other choice, respected ornithologist Ethan R. Lewis confirmed Monday that he had agreed to participate in the upcoming History Channel program What If Humans Suddenly Became Birds? “Let’s face it, there aren’t a ton of bird gigs out there, and this one actually pays pretty well, so eventually I called and told them, ‘Sure, I’ll be on your show,’” said Lewis, an assistant director at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, who reportedly spent 25 minutes explaining to a History Channel producer that humans could not actually become birds. “What else am I going to do? It’s not like you get rich from studying birds. Anyway, all I have to do is say something about how, if they were birds, humans would have to chew on little bits of gravel in order to digest their food.” At press time, Lewis was looking into a camera and stating that in order for humans to fly, each of their arms would have to be the size of a Harley-Davidson.
AdvertisementNails scattered on the stretch between Central Silk Board and HSR Layout are causing flat tyres every other day. Techies say the nails are usually found near puncture shopsKeys, wallet, mobile phone and laptop — these are the four things probably every techie takes before stepping out of his house to work.But tyre tubes have become must-haves for techies heading to their workplace on two-wheelers and four-wheelers in the tech corridor (between Central Silk Board and HSR Layout), because they have flat tyres almost every other day.Saravanan Muthu, 37, a principal consultant with an IT firm travels from Bommanahalli to Mahadevapura every day on a two-wheeler. He says, “In the last couple of weeks, my vehicle’s tyres have punctured at least five times. This is strange because my vehicle is a brand new Hero Honda bike. I bought it a few weeks ago. The old bike I had before this one got punctured eight times within a few months. All these punctures have been caused by the same type of nails lying on the road.”But why does Muthu carry a brand new tube every day to office? He says, “Each puncture is charged Rs 50. Strangely, every time I head to the puncture shop, I am told that I need to change the tube which costs not less than Rs 350. Without option, I end up buying this sub-standard tube which gets punctured in a day or two. A techie, who faced the same problem, suggested that I keep a brand new tube handy to give the puncturewallah so that he doesn't cheat me with a sub-standard one.”The abundance of nails on the stretch continues to baffle the victims. When Muthu recently went with a flat tyre to a puncture shop along Silk Board-HSR Layout route, he saw at the shop at least eight vehicles with punctures caused by the same kind of nails. He has now shot off an email to the police asking them to look into frequent punctures caused by the nails.One recent evening, Ashvin Mandowara, a techie who travels on a two-wheeler on this stretch, noticed six two-wheelers punctured on the road. A week earlier, he saw four two-wheelers punctured on the same road.He says, “We doubt that someone is purposely scattering nails on the road to get some business. I also noticed a boy standing on a service road and directing all punctured vehicles to a mechanic’s shop.”Anand Kumar, 33, a techie who commutes on a motorbike to his office in Bagmane Tech Park and has fallen prey to the nails often, says, “Interestingly, these nails are found only near puncture shops.”Technology is coming to the beer glass.
Bud Light will distribute 65,000 glasses to New England Patriots fans at Thursday night's NFL season opener against the Chiefs at Gillette Stadium. The glasses will light up for every Patriots touchdown throughout the season.
Fans can pick up a special Bud Light glass at Thursday's season opener -- or buy one of the 28,300 that will be available later -- that will light up every time Rob Gronkowski & Co. score a TD. Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
To make the glass light up for each TD, fans will have to download an application on an Android or iPhone, pair the phone with the app and ensure the phone is within 30 feet of their glass.
For those who won't be able to get a glass at the game, Bud Light will sell 28,300 "Touchdown Glasses" for $18 each at budlight.com/touchdown. That number is a tribute to the Patriots' 28-3 comeback in Super Bowl LI.
This isn't Budweiser's first foray into using technology to associate a game's big moment with its brand. In 2013, Budweiser started selling Red Lights, which lit up and sounded a horn when the purchaser's hockey team scored a goal. The company sold 80,000 lights at $150 apiece in its first 2½ years.Red Hat is out today with the latest version of its Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (RHEL) platform, and the company is now also providing support for users of the newer Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 to run RHEL 6 apps in a container.
RHEL 6.6 is the latest iteration of the RHEL 6 platform that first debuted in November of 2010. In June of this year, Red Hat launched Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 as RHEL 6's successor. The new RHEL 6.6 release benefits from some of RHEL 7's innovations.
Steve Almy, product manager for Red Hat's Platform Business Unit, explained to ServerWatch that in In RHEL 6.6, Red Hat has added support to enable a cross-realm Kerberos trust, through a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 server.
"By setting up an identity management server on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.6 clients can interoperate with that server and take advantage of the Active Directory / Identity Management cross realm trust that is available in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7," Almy commented.
RHEL 6.6 also benefits from the Performance Co-Pilot feature that was also first introduced in RHEL 7. Almy noted that with Performance Co-Pilot, Red Hat customers can monitor performance across a set of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and 7 servers in a single, consistent approach.
Additionally, Almy said that Red Hat has updated packages for High Availability to match those in RHEL 7.
"HAProxy and keepalived are now consistent with those in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, and fully-supported," Almy said.
RHEL 6.6 will also benefit from performance improvements that allow for more efficient locking and better CPU utilization.
"These are in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 as well, and will benefit customers running on large NUMA systems in both Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and 7," Almy commented.
RHEL 6 Containers
While Red Hat is bringing some RHEL 7 features down to RHEL 6.6, it is also making it easier for users to migrate as well. Red Hat is now providing a supported container feature in RHEL 7 that will enable RHEL 6 applications to run without any changes.
Bhavna Sarathy, technology product manager in the Platform Business Unit at Red Hat, explained to ServerWatch that the new Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 platform image provides the necessary runtime elements needed to run a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 application, inside a Docker-formatted container on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 host.
"With the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 image, the application and other dependencies can be layered on top of it, forming a complete containerized application," Sarathy said.
As to why RHEL 6 applications cannot just simply run natively on RHEL 7, Sarathy explained that applications that were built and certified to run on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 have to be rebuilt and re-certified to run on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, as the software stack between the two major releases is vastly different.
"With the Linux Containers feature providing application packaging in Docker format in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 platform image allows a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 application to run 'as is' in a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 container running on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 host," Sarathy said.
"Customers will see performance improvements resulting from running on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 host with newer hardware capabilities built into the kernel," Sarathy continued.
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at ServerWatch and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.
Follow ServerWatch on Twitter and on FacebookJune 20, 2013 | Written by Melinda McKee | Written by
If you need ideas for a summer soirée or just something to drink by the pool, try these delicious and refreshing summer drinks.
Nothing rejuvenates me more on a warm day under the sun than a good old-fashioned iced tea.
No need to hop on a plane. You can enjoy the feel of the tropics with the banana and pineapple in this drink from paradise.
Baby, it’s hot outside! This cool, crisp drink is refreshing and easy to make when you’re on the go!
Drawing inspiration from a Peach-Sriracha Sorbet recipe and this Peach Sunrise smoothie, you can create something piquant and irresistible.
When life gives you limes … it’s time for limeade!
This has got to be my favorite go-to smoothie. Bananas. Berries. Yum!
If you’re looking for something a bit more adult to imbibe, try this crisp, zesty cocktail with cranberry and ginger.
Nobody knows how to cool down on a hot summer day quite like they do in the South.
Mangoes and limes make my favorite combination for a sweet yet tangy beverage.
Another fruit smoothie, with three simple ingredients: banana chunks, strawberries, and apple juice!
Mint makes everything refreshing! Try our version of the classic mint julep.
Thirsty yet?!Jump to Ingredients – Jump to Method – Jump to Printable Version
If you are anything like me, you love chocolate. For chocolate lovers, one of the best staples to have is chocolate syrup! You can put it in or on just about anything to whip up a chocolatey treat. If you are anything like me, you also like to use as little mass produced, prepared foods as is sanely possible, and therefor, the idea of a store bought bottle of chocolate syrup doesn’t exactly excite you.
Well, I have |
issues. who knows.I know i wont have a lot of time to work on this myself. Feel free to copy the idea and do your own thing. Ill be responsive to adding people and what not until someone else figures out how to admin if that becomes a thing.let me know if it doesnt work. Friend me on steam if you want.I have some other tools available as well if it works. so that a facebook page could keep changelog and post to twitter and all jazz automatically. I think multiple pages could be maintained. Facebook might be more difficult through my zappier account but i can help others setup their own.thats how i have blackbox for sd1 setup.but anyway. im ahead of myself as i am like to do.Try it out if you want.When we’re watching Game Of Thrones and Hodor, the gentle dimbulb giant who can only say his own name, comes onscreen, we all obviously think the same thing: I want to watch that guy spin house music. In reality, Kristian Nairn, the towering Northern Irish actor who plays Hodor, is also a fixture on Belfast’s club scene. And now, as The Guardian reports, he’s about to embark on a Game Of Thrones-themed DJ tour in Australia, where he promises to play “the deepest house in all the seven kingdoms.” Promoters promise “a range of surprise guests and garnishings,” whatever that means, and they’ve asked partygoers to wear fantasy-themed costumes. Also, midway through, they’ll lock the doors and cut everyone’s throats. (That last part is not actually true.) This entire idea is obviously ridiculous, but it also sounds fun as hell; I can imagine losing my shit when the house remix of “The Rains Of Castamere” comes on.MS Dhoni has not ruled out playing another World Cup for India. Speaking at the post-match press conference after India's defeat to Australia in their semi-final at the SCG, Dhoni said he would probably think about his long-term future after next year's World T20.
"I'm not sure about it," Dhoni said, when asked if he would play another World Cup. "I'm 33, I'm still running, I'm still fit, but I'll have a year's time, maybe close to next year, during the T20 World Cup will be the time I would like to decide whether I'll continue till the 2019 World Cup or not."
Dhoni retired from Test cricket in late December, handing over the captaincy of the Test team to Virat Kohli. He remains India's captain in the shorter formats.
When it was his turn to take the mike, Michael Clarke, the Australia captain, said he was sure Dhoni would continue to play on for a while yet.
"I heard you ask if it is going to be his last World Cup," Clarke said. "I'm pretty sure it's not going to be, there's a lot of cricket left in his body yet."
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.OTTAWA—They talked about it before the game. Misfits, they called themselves. The Toronto Argonauts had been in last place the year before, and so many of them had to be discarded before they were here. This was a last-place team that didn’t have a coach or general manager until March, and then was flung together. The Calgary Stampeders were heavy favourites. The Argonauts drew fewer than half as many fans as those guys, all season. Misfits. “The forgotten toys,” said offensive lineman Chris Van Zeyl, who had to be cut by Montreal before he was an Argo. “You know what I mean?”
Lirim Hajrullahu dealt the Calgary Stampeders another stunning Grey Cup defeat. Toronto Argonauts defeated Calgary 27-24 on Nov. 26. (The Canadian Press)
With five minutes left Sunday in the 105th Grey Cup, the Stampeders were up eight points. They hadn’t trailed all game. On a snowy night in Ottawa, a strange night, a very Canadian night, the Argos couldn’t quite get in the game. They had a chance to fall on a fourth-quarter fumble that could have changed everything; the Stampeders got it, and Bo Levi Mitchell threw a 50-yard pass. Calgary blew this game last year, and they were close to sealing this one. On the Argos sideline they got to miracle territory. Hope for a miracle, because that was all that was left. “I’ve been in several Grey Cups that have ended some crazy ways, that were shocking, I promise you that,” Argos general manager Jim Popp said. “And I’m sitting there going, you know what? We’re going to pull this off. And I felt that way all week.” “Just praying. Everybody’s praying,” said receiver DeVier Posey, who caught seven passes for 175 yards and was named the game’s MVP. “Pretty sure God was ready to hang up the phone.”
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This Argonauts team shouldn’t have been here. They were stitched together, with Popp and head coach Marc Trestman trying to make up for lost time. Trestman never raised his voice, never tore them apart, even when they started 4-7. He kept at it. Quarterback Ricky Ray kept at it. They couldn’t draw a real crowd at BMO Field. They all kept going. And then a ball fell on the ground. Calgary’s Kamar Jorden got hit inside the 10, and a split-second before his knee hit the turf the ball came out. Cassius Vaughn got cut by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in May, along with five other guys, and the Argos picked him up. He grabbed the ball and ran, weaving, accompanied. He ran 109 yards. A few seconds later, the game was tied. If miracles happen, that was one. “I didn’t actually see it, to be honest with you,” Van Zeyl said. “I had my face in my hands, and I was praying. And Bo Levi Mitchell’s a great quarterback.” He looked up. “All I can say is our defence balled out. They changed this game for us. I’m looking up at the scoreboard, and I still don’t know how this happened.” The defence got Ricky Ray the ball back and he made the throws, the same throws he’s been making for 16 years. His offensive line held off the Stampeders monsters who had made the first three quarters a series of attempted escapes. The field goal went through. The Stampeders had 49 seconds and they drove to the Toronto 25. Mitchell wasn’t scared, and he took a shot at the end zone. He probably shouldn’t have. Because he didn’t see the little guy in the middle of the end zone, the one who saw the ball coming. He didn’t see Matt Black. Toronto 27, Calgary 24, for the 17th Grey Cup in Argos history.
The Argos were a last-place team without a coach or a GM until March. That's where the story of Sunday's Grey Cup begins. ( Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS )
“How about Matt Black for the game-winning interception?” Posey said. “That’s our team, man.” “It’s so special,” said Black, an Argo since 2008, still cradling the ball he intercepted. “It’s so special being a part of this group.”
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“What about his story?” Trestman said. “I cut him. I cut him (on Aug. 1), and I wouldn’t have brought him back, but he left with class. He didn’t burn any bridges, and he’s got a message to send somebody. You don’t always get what you want, but you deal with it with class. And then a door opens. And you say, that guy’s got class, he can come back. And he’s got a story to tell that nobody can ever take away from him.” That’s what the Argos won. They went from last place to a group of guys thrust together and stitched together by a coach who told them — and it sounds hackneyed, it really does — to love each other. Posey said, “I think what we proved was that love wins. I remember when we lost a few games, and coach Trestman said, I’m not going to rip you guys. I’m going to show you good plays. And we’re going to be better. Let’s work on each other. Let’s fight harder for James (Wilder), let’s block harder for James. And it’s just, he shows love. I don’t know how else to say it. In life, in football.” “Everybody had so much love for each other, and coach Trestman set that up for us,” said Ray, whose cool exterior finally cracked. “It just felt like this team was too special for it to end any other way for us.” They were surrounded on the slippery cold field by their parents and children, their brothers and sisters, their teammates and friends, in a place of pure unexpected elation. Linebacker Marcus Ball said, “Calgary is a damned awesome, awesome, great team. But you know what? We Grey Cup champs. Quote that.” Team president Michael Copeland, glassy-eyed, his wife and two daughters at his side, tried not to cry. “I’m really proud of everybody in our organization that believed we could do this,” Copeland said. “The game was like the season. Ups and downs, times you had to have faith, times you have to believe. The guys never gave up. And we’re champions.” Calgary, meanwhile, spilled their guts on the floor. They were haunted by that loss to Ottawa last year, and it followed them all year, and they thought this time it would be different. They will see the 100-yard pass that beat a corner, Tommie Campbell, who hadn’t been burned like that all season. They will see Jorden’s fumble, and they will see the last pass Bo threw. They will see the field goals that vanished with both plays, in a game they lost by a field goal. “We’ve got a great organization, great management,” Calgary coach Dave Dickenson said. “We’ve got winners on our team, great football players, great staff. Lot of good things there. We just can’t seem to find a way to get that ring. “I couldn’t give them much, I really couldn’t. It was too fresh, too hard. Any words I say will not resonate. They’re just words. Words don’t win. Actions do. Man, that was a tough one. It’s going to hurt. And the problem is, you can’t change what happened, you can’t change the past. So don’t forget to live, go forth, do what you’ve got to do.” “It’s just a tough, tough loss for our team. It just didn’t happen for us.” But it happened for Toronto. This was a great week in Ottawa. The town that never gets called fun was tremendous. The area around the stadium was a party. This town has what Toronto wants, football-wise. It has fans. It has a community. Toronto, though, delivered this to the fans who have stuck with this franchise through the lean years, the absurd years, the years where being an Argos fan got lonelier and lonelier. The misfits. Trestman was discarded by the NFL and came back here, and he told these players to love one another. And he won. “We all have our wounds,” Trestman said. “And we’ve talked about that along the way. And what I’m most proud of is every guy now has a story. That they can share with people that they love, and who will listen. And it’s a good story. And it never goes away. And that’s what this is all for. It’s not for the ring, it’s not for the championship. It’s for the testimony that if people come together they can become part of something bigger than themselves. And it’s a real story.” “Misfits,” Posey said. His arms were inside his championship T-shirt, and he shivered in the cold, but he wanted to live this, because it was real. “We’ve all been told no before, and we said we’re going to rely on each other, we’re going to love each other.” “Look what it got us. Eternity, etched in stone, for life. I’ll never forget this.”
Read more about:Wavves are getting ready to hit the road for a summer tour. Before they go, the band’s Nathan Williams wants to make clear whom he does and does not make music for, as well as whom he believes is welcome at Wavves shows. Today, he tweeted, “a few things i wanted to make clear,” and shared a long note that detailed six types of people who are “not welcome at a Wavves show:” Anybody who’s said or supported #AllLivesMatter, anybody who’s “gone out of [their] way to defend police in America,” and people who blame rape victims, as well as homophobes, racists, and Donald Trump supporters.
He acknowledges that he could lose fans, but concludes, “id rather have a room half filled with good energy than one filled with hate. people are suffering every day and the way i see it you are either part of the solution or part of the problem.” See Williams’ full note below, and check out Wavves’ upcoming shows here.Western New York shines brightest on the Monday after a Bills win.
(Sore subject, we know.)
The Town of Hamburg is hoping to make those Mondays a little better — should the Bills find a way to win on Sunday anytime soon.
18 Mile Creek Golf Course is offering half-priced greens fees on Mondays following a Bills victory this season.
Unfortunately, golf season doesn't last as long as football season.
The good news is we are experiencing unusually warm temperatures this year that should extend the twilight for tee times.
The bad news is the Bills have a difficult early schedule, continuing this Sunday against the visiting Arizona Cardinals, who some experts have picked to play in the Super Bowl. Next week, the Bills go on the road to play the Patriots.
Oh and Fore is starting to look like a real possibility.Once again, as President Barack Obama began pressuring the right-wing Israeli government to freeze the expansion of its illegal settlements in occupied Palestinian territories, leading Congressional Democrats have joined in with Republicans to try to stop him.
Recognizing that increased Israeli colonization on occupied Palestinian land would seriously threaten the viability of an independent Palestinian state that could emerge from the peace talks and thereby make the process worthless, and recognizing that he would lose any popular mandate to continue negotiations under such conditions, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has threatened to withdraw from the negotiating table. As a result, Obama has been trying to get the rightist Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu to extend the partial freeze on new construction of the Jewish-only settlements in the occupied West Bank.
In an apparent effort to undermine administration’s efforts, Democratic Senators Barbara Boxer and Robert Casey joined with Republican senators Johnny Isakson and Richard Burr in preparing a letter to President Obama that criticizes Abbas’ threat to withdraw from the talks while completely ignoring the threatened resumption of Netanyahu’s illegal colonization drive that would prompt it. According to the letter, “…it is critical that all sides stay at the table. Neither side should make threats to leave just as the talks are getting started.”
There is no mention in the letter that Netanyahu should abide by commitments of previous Israeli governments to freeze the settlement drive nor is there any mention of the five UN Security Council resolutions and the 2004 World Court decision calling on Israel to withdraw from the already-existing settlements. Instead, they praise the right wing prime minister for “not abandon(ing) the talks.”
It appears that Boxer and the other initiators of the letter decided that rather than emphasize the importance of both sides refraining from taking actions that would undermine the credibility of the negotiations, they were determined to put the U.S. Senate on record putting all the blame for the possible collapse of the talks on the Palestinians and none on the Israelis.
In response to international calls for pressure on Israel to live up to its international legal obligations to withdraw from Palestinian territories seized in the June 1967 war in return for security guarantees, the letter also insists that the United States “not to attempt to impose an agreement on the two parties,” and – despite the gross asymmetry in power between the Israeli occupiers and the Palestinians under occupation – that a peace settlement must be “embraced by both sides.”
The letter was strongly criticized by the liberal Zionist group Americans for Peace Now and praised by the right-wing American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC.)
Back in April, Boxer and Isakson initiated another letter, which was signed by 76 senators (half of whom were Democrats), to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton implicitly rebuking President Obama for challenging Israel on its illegal settlements, insisting that “differences are best resolved amicably and in a manner that befits longstanding strategic allies.” The letter, which criticized the Palestinians for conditioning talks on a settlement freeze, insisted that “Progress occurs in the Middle East when everyone knows there is simply no space between the U.S. and Israel.”
Ironically, despite the efforts of senators like Boxer, Russ Feingold, Patty Murray and others who have signed such letters to undermine President Obama’s peace efforts in the Middle East, liberal groups like Democracy for America and MoveOn have recently been praising Boxer, Feingold, Murray, and other signatories as “progressive heroes” deserving support for their re-election.
It is hard to get excited about defeating Republican challengers, however, when incumbent Democrats embrace the same right-wing foreign policy and try to undermine President Obama when he tries to do something right.: Sports Donga via Naver1. [+1,397, -23] Taecyeon seems like such a nice person to the point where I wonder if it's necessary to be so nice. Kids like him are bound to be successful.2. [+1,248, -23] He's physically injured enough to qualify for public service but he got three voluntary surgeries to make sure he serves active duty. He even gave up his American citizenship..3. [+732, -8] Looks like 2PM's enlisting now too. Hope they all serve safe and sound!4. [+668, -10] Everyone's at enlisting age now... Nichkhun's going to be lonely ^^ Serve healthy and strong, let's see you as six again soon and promote as a longstanding group like Shinhwa...5. [+146, -1] Very rare to find a male celebrity like Taecyeon... everyone tries so hard to find excuses to get out of serving but he worked even harder to make sure he got to serve. Amazing.6. [+141, -2] Taecyeon's a true celebrity. Gave up his American citizenship, gave up his qualification for public service by taking out the metal pin in his arm, getting lasik, getting surgery for his back, all just to serve active duty. Very rare to find a celebrity like him.7. [+122, -0] He doesn't deserve any hate. He qualified for public service but got retested to get into active duty.8. [+119, -0] Hul are even the beast-dols leaving now ㅜㅜ stay safe and serve fast~ Taecyeon probably looks good in uniform tooJohann Hari: UK faces looming threat of terror from 'neo-Nazis' out to kill black people, Jews and gays BelfastTelegraph.co.uk The UK is facing the real risk today of a bombing campaign that targets random civilians for death – but it is being virtually ignored. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/johann-hari-uk-faces-looming-threat-of-terror-from-neonazis-out-to-kill-black-people-jews-and-gays-28498979.html
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The UK is facing the real risk today of a bombing campaign that targets random civilians for death – but it is being virtually ignored.
When its supporters step closer every day to mass murder, nobody notices. When its perpetrators are caught, there is (at best) a little flick of information in News in Brief, before everyone goes back to talking about the Strictly Come Dancing race row. This silence suggests something dark about us – and requires us to change our behaviour, fast.
The campaign I am talking about is not being planned by jihadis or fringe Irish nationalists but by white "neo-Nazis" who want to murder Asians, black people, Jews and gays in the bizarre belief it will trigger a "race war".
They have struck before. Exactly a decade ago, a 22-year-old member of the British National Party called David Copeland planted bombs in Brixton, Brick Lane (where I live), and a gay pub in Old Compton Street. He managed to lodge a nail deep in a baby's skull, and to murder a pregnant woman, her gay best friend, and his partner. He bragged: "My aim was political. It was to cause a racial war in this country. There'd be a backlash from the ethnic minorities, then all the white people would go out and vote BNP."
The police are warning ever-more urgently that similar attacks seem to be coming today. The West Yorkshire Police recently launched a huge series of raids against far-right groups and found them in possession of 80 bombs – considerably more even than any jihadi group has been caught with in British history.
Last year, a 43-year-old man called Neil Lewington was arrested "on the cusp" of waging a "terror campaign", it emerged at his trial. He had built a bomb factory in his parents' house which he planned to use to launch attacks against people he considered to be "non-British". He was only caught by chance: he picked a panicked fight with a train conductor, and the police who turned up found he was laden with explosives.
The list of far right-wingers who have been busted for planning violence has spiked up in the past few years. In the home of a BNP election candidate called Robert Cottage in 2008, the police discovered "the largest amount of chemical explosives ever found in this country", they said.
The same year, a thug called Martyn Gilleard was caught with a huge stash of nail bombs, and rage-filled letters in which he declared: "I am so sick of hearing nationalists talk of killing Muslims, of blowing up mosques, of fighting back, only to see these acts of resistance fail to appear. The time has come to stop the talk and start to act." He was only caught by fluke: the police busted him for distributing child porn.
It's not hard to get in on this act. There are dozens of far-right websites that explain – with handy video links – how to make bombs, and then urge you to head to the nearest mosque, synagogue or gay club.
But as the New Statesman's Mehdi Hassan has pointed out, as far as public debate goes, it's as if these crimes never happened. While planned attacks by jihadis (rightly) dominate the news agenda for days, these remarkably similar plans pass unmentioned and unnoticed.
This disjunction exposes a rash of hypocrisy. The parts of the right that gleefully blame all Muslims for the actions of a tiny minority are mysteriously reluctant to apply the same arguments to themselves. If Martin Amis was consistent, he should now declare: "The white community will have to suffer until it gets its house in order. What sort of suffering? Not letting them travel. Deportation. Strip-searching people who look like they're from Hampshire or from Surrey... Discriminatory stuff, until it hurts the whole community and they start getting tough with their children."
But of course he won't. It shows the bigotry at the core of these make-all-Muslims-pay arguments: they see brown-skinned people as a homogenous mass who can be collectively punished, while they see white people as discrete units who should only be punished individually.
But these white bomb-makers also blast holes in the arguments put by some small parts of the left, who claim "terrorism" is only a response to "legitimate grievances". We can see that somebody like David Copeland simply had an insane hatred of black, Asian and gay people. It's a form of soft racism to fail to see that the same lunacy can happen to non-white people. The vile Islamist gang who wanted to blow up the Ministry of Sound really did say the women there were "slags" who deserved to die for wearing miniskirts. Sometimes (but not always), the grievances that drive violence are simply deranged and have to be resisted.
While the threat of far-right violence is rising, the BNP leader, Nick Griffin, is going to appear on Question Time next week. It would be easy, and emotionally satisfying, for me to join the many well-intentioned protesters who are saying he shouldn't be there, but I can't do it. There are two reasons – one moral, and one pragmatic.
Freedom of speech includes the freedom to say abhorrent and repulsive things, or it isn't worth having. Why is our Britain vastly morally superior to the fantasy island that the BNP dream of building? Because we do not silence them – even though they would silence so many of us.
Then there's the pragmatic reason. The BNP is doing increasingly well in elections because there is a huge gap between the reality of the BNP and how their voters see them. I see this on the run-down estates where many of my relatives live: most of the BNP's voters believe they are a patriotic party who will peacefully defend the rights of the white working class, just as other organisations peacefully defend the rights of other ethnic groups.
When they find out the BNP leaders have in fact praised Britain's greatest enemy, Adolf Hitler, derided the Holocaust as "the Holohoax", had violent maniacs in their senior ranks, and want to deport many of our national heroes like Ashley Cole and Trevor McDonald, they are disgusted, and withdraw their support. There is only a very, very small constituency in Britain for Holocaust denial, mass "repatriations", and the mongering of "race wars".
So how do we close this perception gap? Shutting the BNP out of debate hasn't worked. They have been shut out and they have grown. In the darkness, the fungus can spread. The greatest disinfectant is sunlight, shone straight into Griffin's face. The only people who should fear free speech are the BNP, because when the British people hear what they have to say, and their lack of answers to basic factual questions, they are repelled.
One of the areas where everyone should see Griffin being challenged is over this question of far-right violence. He claims he is "strongly" opposed to these freelance attacks – yet he has kept violent attackers in his senior team.
His chief lieutenant for years was a man called Tony Lecomber, who was jailed for three years in the 1980s for plotting to blow up the offices of a left-wing political party. After he was released, he and a gang then beat a Jewish teacher unconscious. When he was freed after another three years inside, he was swiftly promoted through the BNP ranks. He was only ditched after he approached a Liverpool hitman to discuss how they could "take out" a cabinet minister.
One of the leading figures in the BNP's online operation, Lambertus Nieuwhof, tried to blow up a mixed-race school in South Africa in 1992. The BNP is happy to have him nonetheless. Nieuwhof says: "Everybody should be allowed to make a mistake."
The BNP is not directly organising violence, but it has tolerated violent madmen in its midst, and its arguments have encouraged violence. Griffin has demanded "rights for whites with well-directed boots and fists". He reacted to the Soho nail-bomb by one of his own party's members by attacking the victims, saying they were "flaunting their perversion in front of the world's journalists, [and had] showed just why so many ordinary people find these creatures disgusting".
Let Griffin speak his filth to the nation, and sweat under David Dimbleby's forensic questioning. He will only discredit himself.
But the country also needs to start acknowledging the danger of bombs thrown from the far right. David Copeland came from within the ranks of the BNP; so might the next one. The police need to monitor neo-Nazis as closely as jihadis, and the Government projects to prevent violent extremism should be working with white kids as well as Muslim children. We need to prepare ourselves now: the next person to bomb Britain might not look like Mohammed Sidiq Khan – he might look like me.
Source: Independent
Belfast TelegraphImage caption Students have staged several protests against a rise in tuition fees
A senior Conservative backbencher has warned that the tuition fees row has stoked "widespread" disaffection in the party about the coalition leadership.
Former shadow home secretary David Davis said many of his colleagues thought Liberal Democrat MPs were allowed to do what they liked.
Meanwhile, he said, Tory MPs were being told "Right, you don't vote for this, your career is over".
He said the "sheer degree of hostility" among Tory MPs had been surprising.
Speaking on Pienaar's Politics on BBC 5 Live, the MP for Haltemprice and Howden said he had been shocked by the reaction as the coalition struggled to push through rises in university tuition fees in England.
"What was surprising was the sheer degree of hostility really to the general coalition leadership in its widest sense from a lot of my colleagues," he said.
"Some of them mulling over whether they should vote in order to defeat the government, one or two of them, I think, not just to make a point."
On Thursday, the government survived a revolt by Liberal Democrat and Conservative MPs over its plans to increase university tuition fees.
Twenty-one Lib Dem MPs rebelled, along with six Conservatives, including Mr Davis.
Image caption Mr Davis was defeated by Mr Cameron for the Conservatives' top job in 2005
But Mr Davis said the anger was "multi-cause" and not limited to tuition fees.
"It was wider than that, all sorts of things ranging from tuition fees through a feeling that they have been taken for granted," he said. "A feeling that the Liberal Democrats are allowed to say what they like and do what they like.
"All the Liberal Democrats are being cosseted while they decide whether to abstain or to vote against or vote for, while the Tories are being told, 'right, you don't vote for this, your career is over', or 'you vote for this, you have got to resign as a PPS (parliamentary private secretary)'.
"It seemed to be pretty widespread and it seemed to be really quite uncomfortable... it's everything from tuition fees at one end, through to things like expenses."
Mr Davis was defeated by Mr Cameron for the Conservatives' top job in 2005, and three years later shocked many by quitting the shadow cabinet to campaign on civil liberties issues.First came the “shock and awe”: the revelations of massive spying by the US and British governments—on the people of the world. Then came the enlightened debate: Is Edward Snowden a hero or a traitor? Then arrived the Hollywood-style entertainment: Where is Edward Snowden going? (The Washing Post even published a map of his potential journey, as if he is some kind of an explorer trying the first ascent of Everest, or the first trek to the North Pole). Then came the finger: first from China, and then Russia. Then arrived the much-anticipated distraction—the “Obama Climate Plan.” And now, the “chill”—Russia the evil.
Snowden’s work has revealed that even what we thought is the most democratic invention in human history can be used successfully against people of the world by few devious minds.
Eminent Russia scholar George Kennan passed away in 2005. Today, Anne Applebaum is as qualified as anyone in the US to write on Russia. She won the Pulitzer Prize for her magisterial book, Gulag: A History (2004). Yesterday, in The Washington Post she opened her op-ed on Edward Snowden in Russia with the following words:
For those who think that Edward Snowden deserves arrest or worse, cheer yourselves with the thought that Sheremetyevo International Airport ;might possibly be the most soul-destroying, most angst-inducing transport hub in the world. Low ceilings and dim lighting create a sense of impending doom, while overpriced wristwatches glitter in the murk. Sullen salesgirls peddle stale sandwiches; men in bad suits drink silently at the bars. A vague scent of diesel fuel fills the air, and a thin layer of grime covers the backless benches and sticky floor. It’s not a place you’d want to spend two hours, let alone 48.
The rhetorical device that Applebaum used to situate her readers—in the environment where Edward Snowden presumably is residing—is a strategy that nature writers have used for more than two centuries now. In his widely acclaimed book, Ecology Without Nature: Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics, philosopher Timothy Morton called this rhetorical device—ecomimesis. “Strong ecomimesis purports to evoke the here and now of writing. … The reader glimpses the environment rather than the person,” Morton wrote. Strictly speaking though, “I” the writer is essential in Morton’s definition of “ecomimesis,” but I’d take liberty to also include “you” the reader that Applebaum is referring to.
With just those words, Applebaum’s op-ed, it seems to me suggests that Edward Snowden is currently in such a hell-hole that even the prisoners of Guantánamo wouldn’t want to go there. As you read further, you get this: “It is perfectly possible that, as in Cold War days, Russian authorities will seek to trade Snowden for something or someone else they want, whether a spy or a criminal.” There is no mention (not a word or line) about the global significance of Snowden’s courageous whistle blowing. Quickly it becomes clear that—if only Russia would co-operate with the US, Snowden could be transferred to the paradise—we call Guantánamo in America. She couches it with a euphemism though—home. An op-ed filled with carefully worded nationalistic diatribe, ends with the following words:
[Russia] won’t send him home as a gesture of goodwill or a matter of principle, as Kerry seems to hope. We can expect that only from some of our allies, and Russia isn’t one at all.
When the animated debate—“Is Edward Snowden a hero or a traitor?” started, I wrote a piece urging to consider him not as a “hero” or “traitor” but “simply as a teacher—who provided knowledge to expose yet another aspect of the inverted totalitarianism in the United States.” After everything that has been revealed since, there has been no public outrage against the government, in the US. The apathy that the people of the US are currently exhibiting is astounding—a classic attribute of “inverted totalitarianism” that political philosopher Sheldon Wolin coined in his book, Democracy Inc.: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism.
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Instead of vigorous debate about fascism in the US government that Edward Snowden’s work has revealed, the dialogue might soon shift toward what the influential left-wing liberal writer Anne Applebaum is suggesting: “the Cold War is back.”
Rest assured though that “Cold War is back” will not be the only topic of debates to come. Throughout history, whenever there have been injustices, humans have debated it vigorously. In 2005, the Seattle Art Museum presented a two-day reading performances based on the anthology, Voices of the People’s History of the United States, edited by Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove. I read two pieces from the book: “The Devastation of the Indies: A Brief Account” (1542) by Bartolomé de Las Casas and “The Problem Is Civil Obedience” (November 1970) by Howard Zinn. In the famous Valladolid debate (1550-1551), as a defender of the people of the Americas, Las Casas had vigorously debated Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda, who had promoted the idea that the Indians should be punished and reduced to slavery.
We need all our voices of conscience to rise in unison so that Edward’s Snowden’s courageous and immensely important revelations don’t get side stepped by the government, the corporate media, and by the right- and left-wing pundits.
Beyond all the important things that Snowden’s leaks have revealed, there is something profound it has brought to light also—the folly of the human mind.
Every now and then, with its ingenuity, the human mind gives us a solid kick-in-the-ass—and we keep running. But as soon as we gain speed, with its deviousness, it gives us a solid kick-in-the-crotch—and we fall flat on our back. This has been the story of human progress. Human mind is like a boomerang.
Long ago, we put coal inside a steam engine, and that inside a train—we started to go fast, collectively. Some time later, we put oil inside cars—we started to go fast, individually. We got the Internet—we started to communicate so fast that a tweet goes out before I can complete a fart. Going faster and faster, and some more—has been the story of human progress.
Edward Snowden’s work has revealed that even what we thought is the most democratic invention in human history can be used successfully against people of the world by few devious minds.
Perhaps the biggest lesson we can take away from Snowden’s revelations is this: Is it possible to slow down a bit?As I noted in my post at the end of last week regarding Hall of Fame holdovers, the ballot is a bit of a mess right now. There are already seven players who’ve received at least 45% of the vote — generally a pretty good gauge of worthiness when it comes to the Hall — plus a handful of others (Larry Walker, in particular) who are lower on the ballot but deserve induction, as well.
Joining that group of deserving candidates this offseason is a collection of four additional players who merit a place in the Hall — as well as Omar Vizquel, who is getting a lot of votes in the early going. This year’s entries include one no-doubter (Chipper Jones), another who’s deserving and likely to earn induction on the strength of his offensive contributions (Jim Thome), and two more players who merit selection but whose case rests largely on defensive contributions (Andruw Jones and Scott Rolen).
Before we get to the contenders, let’s take a brief look at the players who’ve earned spots on the ballot with solid careers but lack much of a case for the Hall.
For the players below, I’ve included several metrics, |
interpersonal interaction, conflict resolution, and negotiations
People who have these skills are the people you want in your corner and in your life. They are capable of not only reading your desires and fears, but they also respect them and help you achieve your goals.
Because EQ is so crucial to success across the board—in personal relationships, in school achievement, in workplace success—developing good EQ skills is equally crucial. As Dr. Tali Shenfield, an expert in school and child clinical psychology, points out, emotional intelligence in children develops as a result of their interaction with. In some families, emotions are dangerous and shameful things that must be denied even to oneself. In such an, it is difficult to learn how to identify and manage one's own emotions, or how to effectively respond to the emotions of others. Accordingly, Dr. Shenfield urges parents not to ignore, dismiss, or repress children's emotions, particularly negative emotions. Instead, parents should empathize, accept and acknowledge them, and encourage their children to talk about their feelings. Doing so, teaches them that feelings are important and deserve. This approach also reduces their over experiencing "bad feelings”, such as and because they learn that other people experience these, too. Grasping this simple concept helps children manage their social interactions more smoothly.
The Dark Side: When EQ Turns Bad
The problem is that EQ is "morally neutral". It can be used to help, protect, and promote oneself and others, or it can be used to promote oneself at the cost of others. In its extreme form, EQ is sheer Machiavellianism--the art of socially manipulating others in order to achieve one's own selfish ends. When used in this way, other people become social tools to be used to push oneself forward even at considerable expense to them. Some people confuse Machiavellianism with psychopathy or even social impairment syndromes, such as Asperger Syndrome (think Sheldon Cooper on the TV show The Big Bang Theory, as in this video clip). Here's a handy way to distinguish them:
An individual may not know that you're feeling.
A doesn't care what you're feeling.
A Machiavellian manipulates your feelings to achieve selfish ends.
This dark side of EQ is relatively easy to demonstrate in laboratory settings. In one set of studies, a small group of college students were given a hypothetical problem to solve, namely, determining how they would survive following a plane crash in a remote mountain area with only rope, matches, and 3 ounces of water. In each group, one or two individuals came to dominate the group, steering the discussion down particular paths and emphasizing some offered solutions over others. Now here is the interesting part: These dominant individuals also turned out to be people who were best at. For example, when asked to take a sip of a truly foul tasting liquid and then tell others that the liquid tastes great, these dominant individuals were more convincing than others. It was on the whole difficult to tell when they were lying. This was true even when the study was repeated with preschool children. Again, the dominant kids were best at deception.
In another study, young adults played a game that pitted the common good against their own self-interest. Participants were allowed to take points from a common lottery pool up to a maximum of 10. and the more points they took, the greater their odds of winning a lottery. The hitch was that if everyone took the maximum number of points they were entitled to take, all of the points would be depleted and there would be no lottery. In past research, people usually took a little under 4 points for themselves, leaving the rest for the common pool. The results showed people who had obtained high EQ scores on a pre-test took significantly fewer points for themselves than expected on past research--but only if they also scored high on pretest that assessed commitments.
These results are not restricted to contrived laboratory settings. They hold true in real word workplace settings. The same researchers showed this in a second study (reported in the same paper). The participants were university employees rather than students. In addition to taking the EQ test, the participants also took a test to measure their Machiavellian tendencies. Then they were asked to fill out an interpersonal deviance survey which asked to indicate how often they engaged in seven antisocial behaviors using a scale from 1 (never) to 7 (daily). A sample item is “I publicly embarrassed someone at work.” You might think people would be unwilling to answer these questions honestly. But you would be wrong. In past research, this self-report survey yielded scores that correlated strongly with supervisor reports of these behaviors. Meta-analytic research also found the same results when self-reports were included than when they were excluded. Finally, the study authors were careful to emphasize that the survey was confidential and solely for research purposes.
The results were striking: People who scored high on EQ and Machiavellianism scored remarkably high on the interpersonal deviance scale: They used their emotional skills to demean and embarrass their peers for personal gain. Among participants who scored low on Machiavellianism, EQ mattered little: They scored low in interpersonal deviance. The authors concluded that simply having high EQ doesn’t necessarily promote kindness and compassion. Having high EQ can be used to promote bad behavior.
In a comprehensive review of the dark side of emotional intelligence, Dr. Martin Kildare, Chair of Organizational Behavior at University College London, noted that people “intentionally shape their emotions to fabricate favorable impressions of themselves…The strategic disguise of one’s own emotions and the manipulation of others’ emotions for strategic ends are behaviors evident not only on Shakespeare’s stage but also in the offices and corridors where power and influence are traded.”
Stanford Professor Joanne Martin has argued for the introduction of "bounded emotionality" in the workplace, a managerial approach that "encourages the constrained expression of emotions at work in order to encourage community building and personal well-being in the workplace." The term "bounded emotionality" is a play on "bounded rationality", a term introduced by Nobel Laureate Herbert Simon to describe in the real world. He pointed out that because people have limited time and / resources to make decisions in real life, we frequently seek satisfactory solutions rather than optimal ones that require much more time and deep thinking. From this view, we are rational decision-makers, but our rationality is "bounded" by constrained by limited decision-making resources. Professor Martin applied the same concept to emotions. It is not reasonable to assume people will simply check their emotions at the workplace door and conduct business like Star Trek Vulcans, particularly when much of that business involves dealing with co-workers and customers. But because too much emotion can overwhelm good thinking, emotion must be "bounded" or constrained in principled ways.
In order to explore this concept, a research led by Dr. Martin conducted an in-depth investigation of workplace dynamics at The Body Shop, an international franchise that sells bath and supplies. In the report based on this study, Body Shop founder Anita Roddick explained her preferred way to use emotion in the workplace: “Whenever we wanted to persuade our staff to support a particular project we always tried to break their hearts.” Techniques to achieve this end were employed strategically. For example, Roddick instructed employees it was acceptable to cry, but that weeping "has to be used… Here, cry at this point in the... meeting.” Some would argue that such tactics cross the fine line between motivation and manipulation. So although Dr. Martin conceived of "bounded emotionality" as a means of promoting workplace well-being, in actual practice, that is not necessarily how it played out.
The Bottom Line
Succeeding in life depends in large part on succeeding socially, and a large part of social success depends on EQ. But as a growing body of research shows, EQ can be to orchestrate win-lose as well as win-win outcomes.
Copyright Dr. Denise Cummins August 14, 2014
Dr. Cummins is a research psychologist, a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, and the author of Good Thinking: Seven Powerful Ideas That Influence the Way We Think.
More information about me can be found on my homepage.
Books written by, edited by, or recommended by Dr. Cummins can be found at goodthinkingbooks.com
Follow me on Twitter.
And on Google+.
And on LinkedIn.Comedian Stephen Colbert says he had to give up his old faux conservative character on the “Colbert Report” because GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump Donald John TrumpREAD: Cohen testimony alleges Trump knew Stone talked with WikiLeaks about DNC emails Trump urges North Korea to denuclearize ahead of summit Venezuela's Maduro says he fears 'bad' people around Trump MORE is playing it better than he ever could.
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“He’s completely playing on an emotional level — and so beautifully,” Colbert said in an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation” broadcast Sunday.
“I mean, it’s one of the reasons why I just can’t do that old character anymore, because he’s doing it better than I ever could, because he’s willing to drink his own Kool-Aid and manufacture and distribute it, because he’s got all the cash,” he added.
“I’m not the first person to say this, but I completely agree that he’s my old character with $10 billion.”
The “Late Show” host said he was attacked by liberals for hosting Trump on his show earlier this year.
"Like, people were very upset. Like, liberals got so mad at me,” he said. “Somebody called me, like, a craven sell-out for not attacking Donald Trump, like, what? What do you want? There's no pleasing some people.”
Colbert also said his interview with Vice President Biden earlier this year about his deceased son, Beau Biden, was “one of the most sublime moments” of his career.
“It was one of — I don't want to say the word happy because it's not a happy subject, but in some ways one of the most sublime moments I've ever had on stage, was to be there and have the ability, or to have the responsibility and the privilege, to receive that from him,” he said.Regular price $11.11
I can spell confusion with a 'K' and I can like it...
(This hot sauce was only available until 11/11/17 & is now sold out. Thank you to everyone who ordered.) Our 2018 Konstantine bottle is now available here until 12/11/18!
Here at Dark Matter Hot Sauce we felt it was only right to honor such an iconic song in a unique way--bringing you a new limited edition Konstantine hot sauce bottle each year. We've decided to do things a little differently this time around, so please read the information carefully (to prevent konfusion with shipping times).
The 2017 Limited Edition Konstantine Hot Sauce bottle is a peach habanero flavor. The heat level is about a 8/8.5 out of 10. It's got a subtle sweet peach accent packed with lots of heat. This flavor goes great with poultry, sandwiches or lighter tasting foods (for those who want to add a nice kick of heat to their food!)
We will only be selling these bottles until 11/11/17. We will tally up the total sales and that will be the total amount sold. That means this will be featured as 'Sold Out' on 11/12/17 and will not be sold again.
Each bottle will be numbered and include a certificate of authentication.
30% of all sales are donated to The Dear Jack Foundation
Don't forget that you can also grab your I Woke Up In A Car hot sauce (and try your luck at winning an autographed rubber duck, certificate, or label--only available for the I Woke Up In A Car bottles!)
**This is a pre-sale item. Orders are estimated to start shipping the week of 11/27/17**
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*This will only be available for sale until 11/11/17.
Check out our interview with Andrew below.Why Isn't Healthcare Doing More To Protect Against Cyber-Attacks?
By James Litton, CEO, Identity Automation
Three steps to reverse the trend.
It’s well established that healthcare is one of the most targeted industries for cyber-attacks. Over the past five years, attacks on healthcare institutions have risen 125 percent, and personal health information is now seen as 50 times more valuable than financial information on the black market. Reports from the likes of the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology further prove what a significant problem cyberattacks are for healthcare organizations:
Of the 16 top vertical sectors, healthcare suffered the most data breaches over the first six months of 2015 — 21 percent of the 888 reported breaches.
The average healthcare organization has battled at least one cyberattack per month over the last year.
over the last year. Eighty-one percent of 223 healthcare CIOs, CTOs, Chief Security Officers, and Chief Compliance Officers surveyed report their organization was compromised by at least one cyberattack in the last year, an improvement over the prior statistic but still an indication hackers are winning the battle.
Furthermore, recent headlines such as Healthcare firms invite cyberattacks and Report: Healthcare the least prepared sector against cyberattacks make it clear that, not only is this problem not going away, healthcare organizations are allowing it to continue.
This begs the question — what’s holding healthcare organizations back from doing more to protect themselves?
They’re Focusing More On Productivity Than Security
Doctor/nurse efficiency and productivity has been seen as a major driver of healthcare IT changes over the past few years. Productivity has been the call to arms, rather than security. Doctors need to be able to move quickly from system to system and device to device without obstacles. Unfortunately, in many cases, productivity and security have been seen as an either/or decision. That’s not true across the board, certainly not with identity and access management technology, for example, but that thinking has spread enough that many in healthcare view the situation in that light and they’ve chosen productivity as the priority.
HIPAA Leads Them To Focus On Compliance More Than Security
The national compliance standard, intended to protect the privacy of patient data, can be partially blamed for the inaction of healthcare organizations in securing that data. HIPAA instructs medical providers on when they can share patient information and with whom. It also states healthcare organizations must protect patient data and information. What it does not do is establish how that data must be secured. HIPAA contains very few mandates on the protection of patient information. This leads many healthcare facilities to build an infrastructure that is compliant with HIPAA rather than secure. It’s actually created a false sense of security among many healthcare providers. Many that are in compliance with HIPAA actually are not securing patient information very well at all, as the multitude of recent cyber-attacks has revealed.
Executives Are Not Prioritizing Security
Amazingly, even with all the data and evidence demonstrating the clear and present danger of attacks, security doesn’t seem to be a priority for those running healthcare organizations. On average, healthcare providers spend less than 6 percent of their IT budget on security. Their counterparts at financial institutions spend at least double that (12 to15 percent of their IT budget) while the federal government spends 16 percent of its IT budget on security. Another sign security isn’t receiving adequate attention in the boardroom is the fact 60 percent of healthcare boards of directors only get security updates on an as-needed basis, compared to regular quarterly reports on finances and operations.
All of these issues have contributed to the growing problem healthcare institutions face with cybersecurity. The longer they’re seen as vulnerable, easy targets, the more the attacks on them will continue. With the use of networked medical devices continuing to increase, we can only expect hospitals and other healthcare providers to become even more appealing targets for attackers.
Healthcare organizations must begin improving their security programs, protocols and solutions now. To reverse this trend and begin proactively securing their organizations, healthcare providers should take three steps toward a company-wide shift in security.
Focus On Security First
Security has to become the foremost priority. Healthcare providers must stop sacrificing security for productivity and compliance. They need to seek out the solutions that don’t require them to make trade-offs. These solutions do exist. There are technologies built to protect an organization, which also enable greater business agility and compliance.
Invest More Resources In Security
Maybe it’s budget. Maybe it’s bodies. The specifics depend on the organization, but healthcare providers need to direct more resources toward security. With all the breaches we’ve seen of late, it’s clear more attention must be given to security. This could mean those in charge of budget allocation need to shift their approach to analysis, or perhaps those requesting budget for security solutions need to change how they position their request. In many cases, when budget dollars are up for grabs, more attention goes to patient-facing technologies that can be used to improve patient care or drive new revenues. The ROI for solutions like these can often appear to be greater and sexier than the ROI for security infrastructure.
To overcome this unintentional ROI bias, those making security requests must supplement their ROI analyses. Instead of relying solely on ROI, add a Risk Assessment Report or a Security Audit to the decision. This Report or Audit would cover the technology that funding is being considered for — IAM software or a firewall or an intrusion detection system, for example. It would define the breaches the technology can prevent and analyze the vulnerabilities the organization currently faces without the technology. An Assessment Report would also determine the probabilities of the breaches identified, as well as the likely losses if it were to take place. Complementing the projected ROI of the solution with this numerical risk data can make a more compelling case for security technology when positioned against patient-facing tools for budget. The numerical risk data can become even more helpful when using real-world examples of breaches, along with the costs the attacked organizations had to spend in the aftermath.
Ultimately, the costs of proactive preventative security solutions are minimal when compared with the expenses of dealing with a cyber-attack, especially when factoring in the eligible HIPAA fines which now reach the millions.
Centralize Security
Healthcare organizations often consist of a hospital, a clinic, and a lab all working with the same patient information but with different medical and patient record systems using varying degrees of security. This type of infrastructure — with multiple, unconnected security systems — actually increases an organization’s risk. Each patient record has multiple points of entry through the disparate security systems an attacker could target for intrusion. In instances like this, healthcare providers must have one central security team, managed by a CISO to manage and oversee all security projects. Access can still be decentralized by department or group, but the systems must be connected. Limited entry points mean limited points of attack. The CISO and security team should also implement a security awareness program across the whole organization so employees can understand the risks they could encounter and are trained on how to react when they do. A central team is more likely to be successful in rolling out comprehensive training programs and communicating to the employee base than an uncoordinated, loosely affiliated group of multiple security teams.
Healthcare organizations must get proactive in dealing with their security instead of waiting for something to happen to make changes. Cyberattacks have become too damaging and too costly to sit back idly and wait. Systemic change is needed at healthcare organizations, from systems admins all the way up to the CEO and board. The right people, technologies and protocols need to be implemented that can prevent attacks and minimize damage in the event of an attack.
Failing to get serious about preventing attacks like those we’ve seen recently, means we’ll continue to see alarming, damaging headlines. Take action now. Don’t become the next headline.
About The Author
With more than 25 years of experience in enterprise technology software and systems, James Litton has led teams as an executive living and working in North America, Africa, Europe, and throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Immediately prior to joining IA, he was the Head of IT for Cray, a global supercomputing company. James joined Identity Automation as its Chief Executive Officer in 2007 and led the company to success as a consulting services firm and has since guided the company through its rapid and successful transformation into the highly profitable, high-growth software products company it is today.“I can put your logo on anything," said Lisa Parke. "Shirts, hats, mugs. Anything at all you put your logo on, I can make it happen for you.”
Parke is the owner of Advertising Specialties on Regency Road. She’s been a one-woman business in Lexington for 16 years, but last week she got a call from a woman named ‘Valerie’ claiming that Parke had recently hired her.
“There was an ad on Craigslist looking to pay $100 to do business errands," said Parke. "This person in Lexington went and answered that ad. Well, come to find out, that ad was saying they were me!”
Parke said someone claiming to be her sent Valerie text messages, instructing her to go to a mail store off New Circle Road.
“So, Valerie went there, being ‘hired’ to go there and signed for the papers and filled out a P.O. Box list saying that she was my secretary when I don’t even know who she is.”
Parke said Valerie went to the Mail Room to set up the P.O. Box where she could receive a shipment and then forward it to its destination. That destination? Las Vegas, Nevada.
Parke said Valerie told her the package was full of cell phones and cases. When Valerie called to get her $100, the phone number was disconnected and that’s what led her to Parke.
“So then she says ‘uh oh, I think you and me are in the middle of a scam.’”
Parke has turned her case into police, but she hopes to make other small business owners aware of what happened to her.
“If Valerie didn’t call me, I would’ve never known,” said Parke.
Parke said the scammer was able to change Advertising Specialties' address using the Secretary of State's website for a $10 filing fee. She also learned that 15 separate phone lines have been set up under her business' name.
Shortly after our interview with Parke, she received a call from the Mail Room who said another package had just arrived from Verizon for her fake address.
If the scammer is caught, police told Parke they would face mail fraud and identity theft charges.
The owner of The Mail Room said the business is cooperating with investigators and the postal service to help solve this case.On January 31, footage emerged from sources within Syria showing what is claimed to be a chemical weapon attack in the countryside of Damascus. This article will use open source analysis techniques to examine the footage and judge its veracity.
Date: 30/01/2017
Reported casualties: No Information
Injured: 11 (3 of them in critical situation)
Claimed chemical: Chlorine gas
Alleged perpetrator: Syrian Government
Visual evidence showing the type of munition
The media office of Al-Marj has published photos and the below video showing the remnants of the rocket that contained the chlorine gas.
Zooming in on the above still from the video, we can read the following:
107mm ROCKET
LOT: 526
DATE: 2016
N.W: 18 kg
R.No: 1243
We can clearly see the impact crater as a result of the rocket attack below:
Another video has been published by Qasioun News Agency about the same incident also shows the type of munition used.
Other photos were published by Azem Lens, a group of photographers that accompany Jaish Al Islam, showing the same type of rocket.
We notice from the below photo that the marking numbers are different than the first rocket.
107mm ROCKET
LOT: 524
DATE: 2016
N.W: 18 kg
R.No: 1767
Weapon identification
Here we see an unexploded 107mm rocket, typically launched by Type-63 multiple rocket launchers, a system used widely by both government and rebel groups in the conflict. 107mm rockets are manufactured in a number of countries, but the markings on this example strongly indicate it was manufactured in Iran. Below are reference images regarding 107mm rockets manufactured in Iran.
Source
Source
It’s very clear the rocket in the video is a match for the Iranian examples, with similar colouring and markings. A very interesting detail is the date of manufacture (2016), which can be clearly seen in this screenshot taken from the media office of Al-Marj video.
The design of the munition is close to that of improvised rocket assisted munitions (IRAMs) used by the Syrian military and documented since 2013, which also use 107mm rocket motors. A typical IRAM takes a conventional rocket and replaces the warhead with a much larger one, increasing the destructive power of the munitions while sacrificing range and accuracy. What’s significant about the IRAMs used in the above attack is instead of an explosive warhead, the warhead was reportedly filled with chlorine gas, the first document instance of this in the conflict. While there have been previous claims of chlorine rockets being used in Syria, this is the first time there has been visual evidence. Previous examples of chlorine gas use recorded in the conflict have been from air dropped munitions, not surface to surface rockets, as seen in the previous example.
Medical Report
The medical office in Al Marj published a report about chlorine gas attack:
On Monday 30/01/2017 at 4:00pm Damascus time, The emergency department of Al Marj received injured civilians as a result of a poisoned gas attack (probably chlorine gas). The number of injured was 11, this includes 3 who are in a critical health situation and they had the following symptoms: Breathing difficulties
Eye and nasal irritation
Nausea and vomiting
The injured who came to the hospital said that the exploded bombs contained green gas with a very bad smell. They had breathing difficulties immediately after they were exposed to this smell. We provided treatment for those who were injured.
Date: 09/02/2017
Reported casualties: One casualty
Claimed chemical: Chlorine gas
Alleged perpetrator: Syrian Government
The following video was published by the YouTube channel of Erbin surgery hospital. The person in the video says:
On Feb 9th 2017 in the morning, we received several cases that had the following symptoms: eruption, absence of consciousness, vomiting and irritation in the eye. These symptoms are the result of the chlorine gas exposure.
A second video shows several individuals being treated in what appears to be a field hospital. The video was uploaded to the YouTube channel of the Qasioun News Agency.
This morning we received four injured as a result of a chlorine gas attack. There was one casualty out of the four injured. The symptoms were related to breathing difficulties, the absence of consciousness. We treated the injured with hydrocortisone and hexon as well as oxygen.
A third video published by braa abo yhea, who seems to publish videos on YouTube mainly on incidents in Erbin. The video shows the injured being treated in a field hospital as a result of the chlorine gas attack. Another video showing the injured in the field hospital was published by the YouTube channel SMO Syria.
Smart News Agency has also published a video about this incident in February 10, 2017 from the frontlines in Eastern Ghouta, where they interviewed one of the fighters who appeared to be with Failaq Al Rahman Brigade. He said:
The frontline was attacked with a rocket that contained poisonous gas which resulted of one casualty and three injured. They are still in the medical point.
Another video published by SMO Syria YouTube channel shows the frontline that was allegedly attacked with chlorine gas and fighters from the Failaq Al Rahman Brigade.
We were able to geolocate the building which appeared in the video above. This is the location that was allegedly attacked by a chlorine rocket.
We made certain that this was the correct building by cross-referencing the above image with a photograph uploaded to Panoramio.
We geolocated the same building through a video that has been published by the Smart News Agency on February 7, 2017. They claim in the video that the same area was attacked by five airstrikes from the Syrian government. This was only two days before the alleged chlorine gas attack in this same area.
Below is the terrain behind a building, showing the same hills seen in the videos above.
Below is a recent satellite image dating February 7, 2017, which shows significant damage and destruction at the impact site.
Conclusion
It appears that Syrian government forces attacked Al Marj and Erbin, which are located in Eastern Ghouta in the suburbs of Damascus, with a poison gas that was identified as chlorine by local medical workers. Syrian government forces have been trying to advance in Erbin and have reportedly conducted airstrikes before using chemical weapons when their advance failed against the Failaq Al Rahman Brigade.
It also appears from the first incident in Al Marj that the Syrian government is using an Iranian rocket manufactured in 2016. This is strong evidence that Iran is still arming the Syrian government during the conflict, directly or indirectly, despite sanctions on Iran to prevent this. This is also a strong evidence that the Syrian government is still using chemical weapons (chlorine), even after the OPCW/UN mission in Syria which ended in early 2015.As votes in Iowa and New Hampshire loom, ‘did any of us really, truly in our heart of hearts believe that six months later he was going to be kind of winning?’
It is an unlikely-looking spot from which to plot a revolution. The third-floor suite in Burlington that serves as the national headquarters for Bernie Sanders’ insurgent presidential campaign in fact looks more like a small-town law office: surprisingly busy for a Friday evening, perhaps, but hardly the den of communist sympathisers some Democratic opponents claim it to be.
Dreamers on the campaign trail: 'We cannot vote, but we do have a voice' Read more
In contrast to his frontline base in a faded mall in Iowa, from where Sanders is threatening to upstage Hillary Clinton in next week’s Democratic caucus, the prosperous streets here in Vermont’s biggest city are buzzing with, well, capitalism – a legacy, say locals, of regeneration during the senator’s tenure as mayor in the 1980s.
There are still hints of what Sanders calls his “democratic socialism”. Public transport is unusually well developed for an American city of this size. French-language radio stations remind visitors of its proximity to Canada, whose single-payer healthcare system and family leave policies Sanders wants to emulate in the US.
But the notion that the redistributive tax policies needed to pay for this agenda amount to an assault on American values and a rejection of capitalism is met with wry bemusement by supporters, who dismiss the latest “red scare” mainly as a sign of how rattled their opponents are.
Instead, the mood inside the Sanders headquarters as they prepare for the biggest week of their political careers is a very Vermont mixture of surprise and quiet satisfaction.
“Truth be told, did any of us really, truly in our heart of hearts believe that six months later he was going to be kind of winning?” says environmentalist Bill McKibben as he recalls how far this so-called fringe candidate has come since he launched his campaign from a Burlington park in June.
Perhaps more than for any other leading candidate in the 2016 election, the next seven days are make or break for Sanders. If he can beat Clinton in the Iowa caucus, it won’t destroy her or win him the Democratic nomination, but it will raise the possibility that the wave of support could build – first in New Hampshire and then perhaps in Nevada or several Super Tuesday states. If the surge dissipates on the prairies of Iowa, even a win in the New Hampshire primary a week later may not be enough to dispel the inevitable feeling that the revolutionary moment has passed.
The last eight polls in a row have put Sanders comfortably ahead in New Hampshire, but only the last two have him ahead in Iowa and most pundits agree the race in the state is essentially a dead heat. Nowhere are people more aware of how precarious the poll lead is than in the bustling advance teams and among the field directors planning his crucial final days before real voting starts.
The momentum has been building and the polls were a reinforcement of that, but we know polls can go up or down Symone Sanders, national press secretary
“The momentum has definitely been building and the polls were a reinforcement of that, but we know polls can go up or down,” said national press secretary Symone Sanders.
“Literally, a poll could come out tomorrow and say the exact opposite, so we try not to get too bogged down in them, but it is exciting. It is extremely exciting. You can feel it. You can feel it here in the office.”
Another set of polls, showing higher success rates against various Republican candidates in a general election than Clinton, have given Sanders more confidence to answer one of the many criticisms he is now facing from his Democratic opponent.
“Within a week of an election, suddenly you start hearing a lot of strange things being said,” he told supporters in New Hampshire on Friday. “And one of the things that my opponent Secretary Clinton is saying is that Bernie Sanders is unelectable; that he cannot defeat a Republican candidate in a general election.
“It gives me some pleasure to present some facts to suggest that that might not be case.”
On one level, the sheer variety of attacks provides some reassurance for the Sanders team. Though some sting more than others, Clinton has yet to settle a single clear message for why President Sanders would be such a disaster.
Though she rightly points out how difficult it would be to implement his bold plans for healthcare, the implied defence of the status quo risks weakening Clinton’s own hard-fought reputation as a reformer.
Others target the senator’s perceived weakness on race and gender, attacking him for not becoming the only candidate to support slave reparations or construing negative comments about Clinton’s endorsement by a women’s health group as a sign of a lack of resolve in defending abortion rights.
Whether these latest attacks add up to much in Iowa, the underlying weaknesses are real. The Sanders camp acknowledges, for example, it was slow to incorporate the specific concerns of Black Lives Matter into its early messaging on inequality, even if it has quickly caught up since then.
When asked by the Guardian if he regretted not making this and criminal justice reform a priority earlier, campaign director Jeff Weaver said much of the strategy was formed on the fly after Sanders decided to run.
“We didn’t spend years planning this,” he said.
The announcement itself came in a shambolic Senate press conference during which Sanders did not even mention he was running. Instead, the first question asked was about his older brother Larry, who was about to stand in the British general election as a candidate for the Green party and is now helping Democrats register for the primary in the UK.
Bernie Sanders puts boots on the ground in Iowa battle with Clinton Read more
The campaign has also been playing catch-up with its own supporters, whose enthusiasm somewhat overwhelmed the small number of paid staff at first. Even now, after a rapid period of hiring, the head office is visibly straining at the seams.
“We are packed in here like sardines, and there are a lot of people who are out on the road,” observed spokeswoman Sanders as she showed the Guardian around.
But it is the grassroots enthusiasm and perceived authenticity that may prove more important.
“Every politician says they are for the little guy; everybody gets that Bernie actually is,” said McKibben, who founded the climate change campaign group 350.org.
“Vermont is a small state. If you were a fake or a phoney you would have been found out long ago. Everybody from Vermont understands, even if they don’t agree with him, that he is the real deal.”
It is certainly a sentiment common among local residents not affiliated with the campaign.
“He’s very Vermont: what you see is what you get,” agreed Carol Blattspieler, an orthopaedic nurse, who remembers Sanders’s time as mayor fondly for the restoration of the city’s lakeside waterfront. “Back then, he didn’t comb his hair at all!”
Ask whether someone in Vermont supports Sanders now and you tend to get an indignant “of course”.
The question that will begin to get answered over the next week is whether the rest of the country can become as comfortable with the idea of President Sanders.A majority of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza approve of attacks against Israeli civilians and believe that an armed intifada would help them on the path to statehood, a recent poll has found.
The survey, carried out by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research and published on April 4, found that 60 percent of Palestinians support “armed attacks against Israeli civilians inside Israel,” while 65 percent think that escalating the current wave of violence into an armed intifada would help Palestinian national aspirations in a way that negotiations could not. A plurality also believes that armed action is the most effective way to establish a Palestinian state.
Efforts by Palestinian Authority security services to contain violence, which a PA official quoted by the survey said prevented 200 attacks against Israelis, were opposed by 65 percent of Palestinians and supported by 30 percent.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas remains unpopular with his constituents, with about two-thirds of respondents demanding his resignation. If new elections took place in the West Bank and Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh – the leader of Hamas – would beat Abbas by 11 percentage points. However, if the competition was between Haniyeh and Marwan Barghouti – who is currently serving 5 life sentences in an Israeli prison for murder convictions – the latter would win by 18 percentage points.
Palestinians last held presidential elections in 2005. Abbas is currently on the 11th year of his four-year term.
A majority of Palestinians — 52 percent — also believe that Israel is planning to destroy the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, which are located on the Temple Mount, and build a synagogue in their place. The Israeli government has previously rejected the charge, and non-Muslim presence and activity on the Temple Mount remains highly restricted.
The survey also showed that 51 percent of Palestinians support the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, while 47 percent oppose the two-state solution. When asked about the Arab Peace Initiative — a plan that would include an Israeli retreat from the West Bank and Jerusalem and allow Palestinian refugees to immigrate to Israel and receive compensation in exchange for the Arab world normalizing its ties with Israel — 47 percent agreed with the plan, while 50 percent disagreed.
60 percent also opposed recognizing Israel as the state of the Jewish people within the context of a two-state solution, while 39 percent said they would support such a move.
Another 60 percent expressed disapproval of the Arab League’s recent decision to designate Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. 69 percent of Palestinians reported favorable views of Iran, which backs Hezbollah, in light of news that Iran will provide financial support to the families of Palestinians who carry out attacks against Israel.
A poll from the same organization in December found that two-thirds of Palestinians support knife attacks against Israelis, while 54 percent oppose a two-state solution.
[Photo: Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research]Berg |
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BLAZBLUE CONTINUUM SHIFT EXTEND from ARC SYSTEM WORKS CO., LTD. (PS3®/PS Vita), MLB12: The Show (SCE PS3®/PS Vita), MotorStorm RC (SCE PS3®/PS Vita)
Upcoming titles:
Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time (SCE PS3®/PS Vita), Sound Shapes (SCE PS3®/PS Vita), PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale (SCE PS3®/PS Vita)
Cross-Goods
The Cross-Goods feature allows users to enjoy various content such as purchased downloaded content and user generated content on both PS3® and PS Vita by transferring to other platform, by sharing between both platforms, or by other ways.
Available titles:
ULTIMATE MARVEL VS. CAPCOM 3 from CAPCOM (PS3®/PS Vita), MLB12: The Show (SCE PS3®/PS Vita), Hustle Kings (SCE PS3®/PS Vita), MotorStorm RC (SCE PS3®/PS Vita), ModNation Racers (SCE PS3®)/ModNation Racers: Road Trip (SCE PS Vita)
Upcoming titles:
STREET FIGHTER X TEKKEN from CAPCOM (PS3®/PS Vita(*2)), Assassin's Creed III (PS3®)/Assassin's Creed III: Liberation (PS Vita) from Ubisoft, Sound Shapes (SCE PS3®/PS Vita), LittleBigPlanet 2 (SCE PS3®)/LittleBigPlanet PlayStation Vita (SCE PS Vita), PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale (SCE PS3®/PS Vita)
Remote Play
The Remote Play feature allows PS Vita users to remotely access their PS3® to enjoy content including games and videos.
Supporting titles:
BLAZBLUE, BLAZBLUE CONTINUUM SHIFT from ARC SYSTEM WORKS CO., LTD. (PS3®)
Expected supporting titles:
ICO, God of War, God of War II, Shadow of the Colossus (All titles are from SCE PS3®)
SCE will further accelerate the proliferation of PS platform by maximizing the strong collaboration between PS3® and PS Vita.
(*1) The name and launch timing of each title differs by regions. The 1st party titles are listed per Japanese Alphabet.
(*2) STREET FIGHTER X TEKKEN from CAPCOM for PS3® is available
Article source and copyright © PR Newswire Europe Limited, all rights reserved.
Trademarks, logos, pictures and other items may be copyright of firms mentioned in this article.Image copyright PA
For Jeremy Corbyn, this was the sweetest of defeats.
The Labour leader won just 262 seats, not nearly enough to secure a majority in Parliament. His party is the second largest in the House of Commons, not the first. He won fewer seats than Neil Kinnock in 1992.
And yet for Mr Corbyn this is a result that exceeded all expectations. Having begun the campaign 20 points behind in the polls, he has won an astonishing 40% of the votes. That is the largest increase in the share of the vote by a Labour leader since Clement Attlee in 1945.
Image copyright Getty Images
As a result, Mr Corbyn won 30 more seats for his party than Ed Miliband achieved two years ago. He has deprived Theresa May of her majority. He has won seats in southern England such as Canterbury and Plymouth that for years have been Labour no-go areas.
After months of internal criticism, a man who was described as Labour's weakest leader since Michael Foot now has his position assured. He is being compared to Bernie Sanders, the populist American Democratic politician who gave Hillary Clinton a run for her money in the last presidential contest.
So bullish is the Labour leader that he is even suggesting his party could form an unlikely minority government and not the Conservatives. At the very least, he is now very much the Leader of Her Majesty's Official Opposition with real heft in the House of Commons.
Image copyright Getty Images
Mr Corbyn was rewarded for a campaign that had an old-fashioned feel, one where he addressed large rallies and channelled a mass grassroots movement with effective party organisation. Unlike the prime minister, he engaged with the media and chose to take part in the TV debates. He showed he could learn, ditching the down-at-heel lecturer look for a more professional demeanour. He cut his hair, did up his tie and bought a proper suit.
In the face of a brutal onslaught from the print media, Mr Corbyn learned to keep his calm, realising that peevishness is seen by many voters to be an unattractive trait. In fact, he may well have benefited from the negative headlines in the Daily Mail and the Sun if they convinced wavering Labour voters to return to the fold out of tribal loyalty.
Image copyright Getty Images
And Mr Corbyn appears to have done what few political leaders have done in recent years - he engaged with young people and convinced them to come out to vote. He did this by promising not just to cut their tuition fees - a bribe as shameless as past Tory promises to protect pensioner benefits - but also offering them some positive politics and a little passion. There was less of this on offer from the other side.
He managed to engage with voters by appearing authentic, feeling the pain of those who have endured austerity for years as real wages fell, acknowledging their belief that globalisation at times has left them behind. He showed, amazingly, that Labour did not have to move to the centre to win votes but could do so from the unashamed left.
Image copyright Empics
He appealed to a coalition of young people, public sector workers and urban liberals, many of whom showed they were once again prepared to back someone who calls himself a socialist, promises to tax more and spend more, and is reluctant to deploy nuclear force. Many voters dismissed concerns about the affordability of his plans - dubbed the famous "magic money tree" by his opponents - and instead embraced the new radicalism.
Mr Corbyn has changed British politics and as such the Labour party, whose obituary was being written by some Tories before this election, is now a force to be reckoned with in this new parliament.Divine coincidence? By Scott Sumner
Some of my progressive friends argue that markets are not efficient because information is a public good. Thus research in equity values will be under-provided. Others argue the financial sector is inefficient because greedy Wall Street types convince the gullible public to pour money into expensive managed funds, which underperform indexed funds. Thus investment analysis will be over-provided.
I sometimes say that both are wrong, because these two inefficiencies exactly cancel out. (I usually have a twinkle in my eye, when making this claim.)
Matt Rognlie is a grad student who occasionally leaves comments in various blogs. His typical comment is usually more interesting than the average published paper in an economics journal. I particularly liked one he left after a post by Nick Rowe discussing Larry Summers advocacy of minimum wages on “efficiency wage” grounds. (The basic argument is that a minimum wage may boost worker productivity, and thus not cost jobs. Although it’s a bit more complicated than that.) Here’s Rognlie’s comment:
The Summers claim doesn’t hold up very well empirically either: most studies show roughly 100% pass-through of higher minimum wages to prices. This means that the “second-order effect on total costs” argument doesn’t hold when wages are increased across the board (presumably because of the fallacy you’re pointing out) — unless, for some reason, firms consistently pick the moment of a minimum wage increase to inflate their markups. This reflects an interesting internal tension among minimum wage advocates in economics. If clean identification is the standard, they have the empirical high ground on the direct policy question — “do minimum wages decrease unemployment?”. But once we move from direct estimates to the underlying mechanisms, very few of the ideas floating around have any empirical support, and most of them can easily be rejected. Neither the Summers story nor the simplest variant of the monopsony story (which would imply that a binding minimum wage lowers marginal costs) seem consistent with full pass-through to prices. Or, to take another example, search-based monopsony requires that marginal recruitment costs increase dramatically with the scale of a firm’s employee base — which is hard to rationalize either anecdotally or using the formal evidence in the literature. So it’s an amusing contrast. By prevailing standards, the minimum wage itself has great empirical support — but then pretty much every single explanation that’s offered to rationalize these findings crashes and burns when you subject it to data and a little light theory. An even more subtle but telling case of this disconnect is the following. The current empirical consensus among mainstream labor economists is that the employment effects of the minimum wage are close to zero. But most of the economic arguments offered to explain this finding do not specifically rationalize the zero — instead, they suggest some force that pushes opposite the traditional supply-and-demand logic, and could in principle offset it by 50% or 150%, rather than just 100%. In general, if X is some positive value and Y is some negative value — with no a priori relationship between the magnitudes — it’s a remarkable coincidence for X+Y to always come out near zero. Yet, if we substitute “the traditional downward-sloping component of labor demand” for X and “the added effects of search-based monopsony” for Y, that’s exactly what the minimum wage consensus seems to believe. After all, cleanly identified studies aren’t giving sizable negative estimates in some settings and sizable positive estimates in others — they’re basically just giving zeros. (Of course, one advantage of the Summers hypothesis is that — when drawn out under some very particular assumptions — it could explain a consistent zero. I’m curious whether this view is currently popular, despite its obvious other failings, because smart economists like Summers realize this advantage. My guess is no, and that this is all a little too subtle. It will take a while for everyone to realize that proposing a negative Y to offset the neoclassical X isn’t good enough — you also need to explain why Y is so consistently of a magnitude that cancels out the neoclassical X. Or else you need to acknowledge that your point estimates might be driven by attenuation bias a la Sorkin, and that the Credibility Revolution isn’t always and everywhere as credible as it purports to be.)
And as if that’s not enough, he also left several other extremely interesting comments, later on in the comment thread. I’d encourage people to read all of them. (Warning, some of his comments are a bit difficult if you haven’t studied economics.)DARPA spends a good portion of its time devising ways to replace US soldiers, make them obsolete and unnecessary in the face of robotic or remote-controlled alternatives. Still, even DARPA can’t (yet) replace the human element entirely, and when the US does call on soldiers to do battle, they need to be ready.
The Special Operations Command (SOCOM) unit of the US military has put out a call for proposals to help build its next generation of super-soldier. The Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit (named so as to allow the acronym TALOS) is the next generation in exo-skeletons and power-assisted garments and will, if successful, put US soldiers in a league all their own.
For several years DARPA has been showing off improvements to their Warrior Web project, which sought to increase both the stamina and carrying capacity of its soldiers without impeding speed of maneuverability in the least. It managed this with a series of load-bearing struts and gait-assisting springs that kept soldiers light on their feet even when weighted down. Now that idea is getting a new and more ambitious face in the TALOS project, with a few notable additions.
Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter might be a good visualization of the project’s goals with respect to technology, as DARPA wants to put situational awareness at the top of its list of priorities. The suit will help soldiers navigate and keep track of each other, let soldiers monitor their own health, and stay in contact with their commanders. The aforementioned Warrior Web tech will certainly be integrated, but between new pieces of tech and the batteries they will require, along with the project’s extreme focus on ballistic armor, most of the extra carrying capacity may already be spoken for.
TALOS is a seriously forward-thinking initiative. At MIT, researchers hope to contribute to the suit with their ideas for liquid body-armor, magnetorheological fluids that become solid and impenetrable in milliseconds when subjected to a magnetic field or electric current.
Some have gone so far as to call TALOS the military’s attempt to create its own version of Iron Man, but that’s going too far — despite the rather outrageous (unofficial) video below, TALOS will not be an invulnerability suit but rather a discrete tactical advantage. Quickly and accurately chasing enemies through streets or mountaintops while carrying hundreds of pounds? Possible. Bursting through stronghold door, though, will likely have to wait for ATLAS.I was born in 1992 during the rebel war, in a town called Mattru Jong, in the Bonthe District, and I was raised and schooled in Kenema. I knew it as my hometown.
Kenema was among the towns that the rebels captured from early 1997 to 2000. They killed thousands and destroyed properties, which led to the backwardness of the people there and the country as a whole.
Kenema is the third largest city in Sierra Leone and the district headquarters of the Eastern Province. The people engage in farming, mining, and trading. Kenema has forests with wild animals, and flat lands rich with minerals. Due to the mining and farming, people are now using their funds to develop certain demoted areas. Today, the youths in Kenema are more engaged in commercial bike riding and entrepreneurship.
My trip to Kenema was another dream come true. I was eager to return back to my childhood town that I left in 2009 when I was 17. I was welcomed there like a prince, due to my hard work. People promoted my visit via social media, and I felt at home again. I brought them news of a great technology that will change the mindsets of many in the future. … The good news was bitcoin.
I started an initiative on Facebook that I named BitConference, where I taught youths about bitcoin and introduced them to mobile banking. I called them after midnight because calls were free, and discussed and shared many ideas. They were eager to meet with me in person so they would learn more, and I was elated by their passion.
I visited Kenema for a wedding ceremony, so I took that opportunity to go on a short tour to meet some friends and the BitConference members in Kenema. I decided to conduct a lecture at my residence. The turnout for the class was huge, and I was very impressed, because I never expected such a number to attend it.
—Welcome sign: ”Bitcoin will help the youths. We are waiting for your arrival.”
I spent an hour introducing bitcoin and made some illustrations on the blackboard for them to understand it, from the grass roots to the fruit. I played some tutorials on my tablet as we rested. They asked relevant questions, and I took my time to answer, because I told them I am not an expert in bitcoin, just trying my best to impart my knowledge to them.
We took another hour to debate bitcoin. I played the “for” part and they played “against.” We interrogated each other with critical questions, but I won when they became convinced because I told them that bitcoin is decentralized, meaning no central authority owns it.
I further highlighted another point that with bitcoin, you don't have to rely on banks. It is online everywhere, with no middleman or intermediary, and every transaction in the network is transparent on the public ledger, the blockchain.
They were so proud to meet with me, and I was honored to be there. I thought it was time to help them make wallets and bring them into the bitcoin community, so they could experience the difference as I did, when I was introduced to my new ChangeTip friends.
They raised concerns that I should provide them with some bitcoin reading materials, tutorials, and wallet apps. I stayed two weeks, and promised to visit again for another two weeks, so that I could burn the tutorials on CDs for everyone and supply them with the materials they requested.
I couldn't imagine in my first lecture I would end up winning over eight people in a debate, and convince them all to use bitcoin. … Alhamdulillah (thanks be to God) for that.
Now that I'm back in the capital city of Freetown, it’s my responsibility to put things in place, and produce all the required materials to fulfill my promise to do another open lecture to bring more youths to the initiative. Therefore, I need financial support for this trip, because my first trip was out of my own pocket, so I couldn't take much time.
—SLBNet: Chero has founded the Sierra Leone Bitcoin Network.
I have decided to take my next trip after their final exams, so that we can use the holidays to do more work and lectures as well. We will be so grateful if this trip would be sponsored, so that we can make it happen even better than the first time.
We are planting bitcoin seeds in Kenema, and we believe they will grow and bear many fruits in the future.
Audio version read by Mansaray Abubakarr.INDIANAPOLIS (Statehouse File) – A company that develops online training software announced Thursday that it is expanding its Indianapolis headquarters and will more than double its staffing by 2020.
Executives of Lessonly joined Gov. Eric Holcomb in announcing plans to add 102 new high-wage jobs.
"Entrepreneurs are finding success here and propelling Indiana to the forefront of technology and innovation," Holcomb said in a statement. "Lessonly is a true example of the way Hoosiers identify and solve 21st Century challenges for businesses across the nation. Because of companies like Lessonly, all eyes are on Indiana, and I’m excited to see what the future holds for Lessonly and for our growing tech sector."
Lessonly was co-founded in 2012 by Max Yoder to develop customized training software for sales and support teams. Customers include NBC News, Trunk Club, Ibotta and Thumbtack.
"We're extremely proud to call Indianapolis home," Yoder said in a statement. "We're working hard to reimagine training software for millions of people across the globe, and this city is our bedrock."
Lessonly has committed to investing about $2 million in the business over the next five years, which includes plans to enhance its current facility at 407 Fulton St. in Indianapolis.
According to the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, Lessonly has doubled in size every year since its founding and currently has 83 full-time employees. The company is currently hiring for sales, product and engineering, business development and others roles, which are expected to offer salaries 50 percent than the state’s average.
IEDC has offered Lessonly up to $1.1 millions in conditional tax credits and up to $200,000 in training grants based on the company's job creation plans. These incentives are performance based, meaning until Hoosiers are hired, the company is not eligible to claim incentives.
This content was reproduced from TheStatehouseFile.com, a news service powered by Franklin College.Verizon, responding to complaints from Netflix about its broadband service, says Netflix is slowing down its own video streams to the telco’s providers.
If that sounds confusing, that’s because it is. And if that sounds familiar, there’s a reason for that, too: In April, Comcast made a similar claim about Netflix. And like Comcast, Verizon has signed a deal with Netflix that’s supposed to alleviate Web traffic headaches.
This is the kind of he said, he said that’s nearly impossible to explain coherently, in part because reasonable people disagree about some of the basic technical points.
But I’ll try:
Both Verizon and Comcast have deals that are supposed to help Netflix deliver its streams into the broadband networks both companies operate, via a direct connection.
Comcast signed their Netflix deal in late February, and since then Netflix has said its speeds have improved.
But Verizon says that it is still implementing technical changes to accommodate the Netflix deal it signed in April.
So for now, Verizon says, Netflix is still responsible for getting its streams into Verizon’s network, and it is doing a lousy job of it. Key sentences from a blog post (titled “Shifting Blame”) Verizon published this afternoon: “The source of the problem is almost certainly NOT congestion in Verizon’s network. Instead, the problem is most likely congestion on the connection that Netflix has chosen to use to reach Verizon’s network. Of course, Netflix is solely responsible for choosing how their traffic is routed into any ISP’s network.”
I’ve asked Netflix for a response but I don’t expect to get one.
That said, we did ask both Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and Netflix CEO Reed Hastings to talk about their dispute — and partnership — last week at the Code Conference. And since Verizon’s story seems to emulate Comcast’s so closely, you might get some benefit out of watching their comments.
* Comcast owns NBCUniversal, which is a minority investor in Re/code.Calgary art punk quartet Viet Cong have streamed a new track titled “Silhouettes” from their forthcoming self-titled debut album. The song makes a turn away from their stoned psych efforts, displaying an upbeat post-punk aural assault. The record is highly anticipated following the emphatic reception for the band’s debut EP Cassette which was released last year. Viet Cong is out January 20th via Jagjaguwar.
Pre-order the record:
Viet Cong have an extensive tour of the U.S. and Europe planned for 2015. Check out the tour dates below:
Brooklyn, NY – Union Pool w/ PC Worship BUY TICKETS
New York, NY – Mercury Lounge BUY TICKETS
Montreal, QC – Bar Le Ritz PDB w/ PC Worship, Unblonde BUY TICKETS
Toronto, ON – The Garrison BUY TICKETS
Manchester, UK – Deaf Institute BUY TICKETS
Glasgow, UK – Broadcast BUY TICKETS
Leeds, UK – Brudenell Social Club BUY TICKETS
Brighton, UK – Green Door Store BUY TICKETS
Amsterdam, NL – Paradiso BUY TICKETS
Berlin, DE – West Germany
Copenhagen, DK – Loppen BUY TICKETS
Oslo, NO – Pokalen BUY TICKETS
Lund, SE – Mejeriet BUY TICKETS
Hamburg, DE – Hafenklang BUY TICKETS
Rotterdam, NL – Rotown BUY TICKETS
Kortrijk, BE – De Kreun BUY TICKETS
Brussels, BEL – Le Botanique BUY TICKETS
Edmonton, AB – The Artery BUY TICKETS
Calgary, AB – Nite Owl
Portland, OR – Mississippi Studios BUY TICKETS
San Francisco, CA – Rickshaw Stop BUY TICKETS
Los Angeles, CA – Echo BUY TICKETS
San Diego, CA – Soda Bar BUY TICKETS
Phoenix, AZ – Valley Bar BUY TICKETS
Kansas City, MO – recordBar BUY TICKETS
Minneapolis, MN – 7th St Entry BUY TICKETS
Oberlin, OH – Dionysus Club at Oberlin College
Denver, CO – Larimer Lounge BUY TICKETS
Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court BUY TICKETS
Boise, ID – Treefort Music Fest BUY TICKETS
Seattle, WA – Barboza BUY TICKETS
Vancouver, BC – Biltmore Cabaret BUY TICKETSSenator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, criticized Twitter in comments to reporters after a meeting today.
Twitter put out a public statement this afternoon saying that Vice President for Public Policy Colin Crowell met with people from both the Senate and House Intel Committees. The statement also addresses steps they’re taking to crack down:
Over the coming weeks and months, we’ll be rolling out several changes to the actions we take when we detect spammy or suspicious activity, including introducing new and escalating enforcements for suspicious logins, Tweets, and engagements, and shortening the amount of time suspicious accounts remain visible on Twitter while pending confirmation. These are not meant to be definitive solutions. We’ve been fighting against these issues for years, and as long as there are people trying to manipulate Twitter, we will be working hard to stop them.
They also reportedly have taken down a number of Russia-linked accounts.
After the meeting today, CBS News reports, Warner made it clear he wasn’t happy:
The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee said Thursday that he found the presentation made by Twitter earlier in the day to be “deeply disappointing.” “The presentation that the Twitter team made to the Senate Intel staff today was deeply disappointing,” Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, told reporters Thursday. “The notion that their work was basically derivative, based upon accounts that Facebook had identified, showed [an] enormous lack of understanding from the Twitter team of how serious this issue is, the threat it poses to democratic institutions, and again begs many more questions than they offered.”
He even went so far as to call their response “frankly inadequate on almost every level.”
Congressman Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intel Committee, released a statement and said “it is clear that Twitter has significant forensic work to do to understand the depth and breadth of Russian activity during the campaign”:
JUST IN: Rep. Adam Schiff issues statement on Twitter's briefing to House Intelligence Committee: pic.twitter.com/OTddSxLmp2 — NBC Politics (@NBCPolitics) September 28, 2017
[image via screengrab]
— —
Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac
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Kristoffer Peterson is wearing a smile as wide as the nearby Charles River.
The Liverpool youngster didn't expect to find himself locking horns with Serie A giants Roma in Boston this week.
The 19-year-old Swedish attacker was supposed to be at a training camp in Holland with his Kirkby Academy team-mates.
However, a short conversation with Brendan Rodgers following last Saturday's 2-1 friendly win at Preston changed all that.
Having added to his goal against Brondby with another strike at Deepdale, Peterson was promoted to the club's touring party for the trip to America.
“I was in the dressing room when the gaffer said'make sure you are on the plane to the States tomorrow',” Peterson told the ECHO.
“He said I'd earned my place by working really hard and performing well.
“It was such a special moment for me and I was really pleased to hear that.
“I got some banter off all the lads because I got a bit emotional! They could see how happy I was. My smile was really big.
“I was meant to go to Holland with the reserves the following day but I ended up here instead. Getting his opportunity has really inspired me to work even harder.”
Peterson shone once again after coming off the bench for the final half hour of Wednesday night's 1-0 defeat to Roma at Fenway Park.
Equally at home out wide or in a central attacking role, the teenager looks at ease on the big stage.
“I expected myself to have more nerves to be honest as I've come from a small team back home in Gothenburg,” he said.
“It's just the best feeling to go out there and try to enjoy your football. That's when I play my best.
“It feels good that the crowd doesn't really affect me. I'm just going out there to try to show what I can do.
“It's helped that everyone has been so welcoming – all the lads have been brilliant with me.
“I am enjoying myself so much. I couldn't be in a better place right now.”
Peterson, who joined Liverpool's Academy from Swedish club Savedalens IF in 2011, credits Tranmere Rovers for helping his development. He had a loan spell at Preston Park last season.
“My time at Tranmere massively helped me,” he said.
“It was the first time I got the chance to play senior football at a good level in front of crowds and the games really meant something – it was like life and death for the people as the club tried to stay up.
“It was great experience and I really enjoyed it. I came back to Liverpool as a different person and a different footballer after that loan spell. I'll always be grateful to Tranmere for that.”
Liverpool's belief in his potential was illustrated back in January when he was rewarded with a new contract and Rodgers gave him a run out in May's end of season friendly against Shamrock in Dublin.
His dream is to follow in the footsteps of fellow Swede Glenn Hysen, who made 93 appearances for the Reds between 1989 and 1992.
Peterson wasn't even born when Hysen helped Liverpool clinch their last title in 1990 but he knows the former defender well.
“I've met Glenn many times,” he said.
“Even before I signed for Liverpool I knew him as we're both from Gothenburg and we have some mutual friends.
“He's a fantastic person. He's always happy and I can really feel that he's happy for me. When I was home in the summer I spoke to him.
“Football is big in Sweden but we don't have so many big players. If a player gets a chance like the one I've been given now then it becomes a big thing.
“It's good to think that by doing well at Liverpool I can make some small kids happy back home.”
With Liverpool embarking on a major summer recruitment drive Peterson is under no illusions about the size of the challenge facing him as he looks to establish himself at the club.
But he's enjoying the ride and is determined to repay Rodgers' faith in him.
“My aim has to be to play Premier League football for Liverpool and the gaffer inspires you every day to go for that aim,” he added.
“I'm just trying to make sure I take my lifestyle to a different level - eating right, training right, sleeping right. That's what I've got to do.
“Talent can take you so far but you need to put in a huge amount of hard work if you want to make it at a special club like Liverpool.
“I have to continue to try to catch the eye of the gaffer and hopefully get more minutes on this tour.
“I've scored two goals in pre-season but I want to score more. I didn't expect to be here but now I am I want to make the most of it. When the chances come I need to be ready to take them.”
More on LFC's tour of the US
New Anfield contract for Steven Gerrard a formality, says Brendan Rodgers
In pictures: Liverpool FC pay tribute to victims of Boston bombing
WATCH: Steven Gerrard playing baseball at Fenway Park
James Pearce's Liverpool FC USA tour diary: Fan is on song to lift Rodgers and his Reds
What we learned from Liverpool 0 Roma 1
Rodgers satisfied with early pre-season preparations
Liverpool 0 Roma 1: Rodgers eases Borini injury worries as Reds tour opener ends in defeat
Liverpool target Chelsea left-back Ryan Bertrand but are being frustrated in attempts to wrap up £8m deal
Rodgers insists Liverpool will not be held to ransom with their transfer targets
In pictures: LFC Boston supporters club helps Reds relationship strengthen across the pond
WATCH: Reds practice quick, direct passes into space during Boston training session
Reds pre-season tour of US diary: fan excitement reaches fever point in hot, hot conditions
In pictures: Reds train at Fenway as Rodgers reflects on significance of Boston return
WATCH: Rodgers believes new signings will help ensure Liverpool challenge for silverware
Rickie Lambert: Time to look beyond sentiment and get down to business
In pictures: Rodgers returns as Reds train on boiling Boston morning
Watch: Reds defender Martin Kelly aiming to put injury nightmare behind him
Liverpool pursuing deal to sign Atletico Madrid full-back Javier Manquillo
In Pictures: Rush, Fowler and Pizzuti help coach kids in America
*You can follow Liverpool's tour of the USA every step of the way. James Pearce and Kristian Walsh will be bringing you news, views and exclusive footage from the Reds' trip, from Boston to Charlotte. There will also be a dedicated liveblog every morning, running all the way through the day and covering the games.
Keep up-to-date with the latest Liverpool news & sport by using the ECHO's mobile app: click here for iPhone and here for android phones
Get our e-edition delivered to your tablet every day, including Sunday (FREE 30-day trial): click here for iPad and here for Android devices - also available on KindleThe inaugural annual review into the operation of the EU-US Privacy Shield is to take place in September this year.
EU justice commissioner Věra Jourová confirmed the timing of the review in a speech in Washington late last week.
"[The review] will be an important milestone where we need to check that everything is in place and working well," Jourová said. "If we want to further consolidate this new transatlantic bridge, we need the active engagement and contribution of all interested parties to the review."
The Privacy Shield facilitates the transfer of personal data between the EU and US businesses signed-up to the scheme. The framework was put in place last year to replace a previous system which was effectively invalidated by the EU's highest court in 2015.
The European Commission has deemed that data transfers handled in accordance with the Privacy Shield principles will adhere to EU data protection law requirements. The Commission negotiated amendments with US counterparts to an earlier draft of the framework following criticisms raised by EU data protection authorities. However, the framework has continued to draw criticism from privacy campaigners and is the subject of two separate legal challenges.
A recent motion put forward by MEPs cited concerns with the Privacy Shield, including how the scheme addresses US bulk surveillance powers and accounts for judicial redress for EU citizens in the US. It also highlighted concerns about limitations on the rights of data subjects and inconsistencies in wording compared with EU data protection law.
The motion also referred to the forthcoming annual review of the framework, which will be conducted jointly by EU and US officials. It said the review should consist of "a thorough and in-depth examination of all the shortcomings and weaknesses" it and others, such as EU data protection authorities, have identified with the Privacy Shield, and that reviewers should "demonstrate" how those issues have been addressed to ensure the framework is compliant with fundamental EU rights and laws.
In addition, the motion called for all members of the review team to have "full and unrestricted access to all documents and premises necessary for the performance of their tasks, including elements allowing a proper evaluation of the necessity and proportionality of the collection and access to data transferred by public authorities, for either law enforcement or national security purposes". The reviewers should also each be given the freedom to "express their own dissenting opinions in the final report."
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Well, as I stated in my post listed all of my stats and supporters from 2010, I never heard of a blog until last year. That being said, I still decided to create a list of the best personal finance blogs of 2010.
Since I have been introduced to a number of sites that I enjoy reading, I will break this up into smaller lists. You will notice that I have used bullets to organize the list rather than numbers. That is because I am just listing my favorite sites, not ranking them in any particular order!
I will also list a few sites to watch for in 2011. These represent sites that I didn’t discover until the end of 2010, or sites about which I have read good things, but am not very familiar with their writing.
Here are the…
Best Christian Personal Finance Sites of 2010
These are the sites that boldly proclaim the authority of God’s word within their writing, and also produce great financial content!
Here are a couple to watch for in 2011:
Faith and Economics (two of my favorite subjects)
Get Rich Slowly (I know it’s not new, but it’s new to me)
Dollars and Doctrine
Best General Personal Finance Sites
These sites talk about various topics within the personal finance genre.
Up and coming PF sites:
Yakezie – The members (many of whom are on other lists here) are beginning to write posts for the site daily, so you’ll be sure to find great content there in 2011!
Best “Personal” Finance Sites
These are my favorite writers in terms of taking lessons from their lives and applying it to personal finance.
Best Investing Personal Finance Sites
Best Tax Personal Finance Sites
Well, there you have it! If you are familiar with some of these blogs, let me know what you like about them. Also, I would love to hear any suggestions for both categories and other sites.
photo by Shorts and LongsRandom fact about Peyton Manning: He owns a lot of Papa John’s franchises in Colorado — a little more than a dozen of them, to be somewhat precise. And in an interview with Sports Illustrated, he admitted, as a businessman, he was glad to see the direction that the state’s laws have headed in.
“I’ve gotten to know some of the folks here in Colorado,” he told them. “There’s some different laws out here in Colorado. Pizza business is pretty good out here, believe it or not, due to some recent law changes.”
He means pot. Duh.
But really, the Colorado pot industry has sold over $308 million in weed in the first six months of legalization. While most of that money is derived from medical marijuana sales, and a debate is currently raging over lost tax revenue from recreational retail sales, one thing’s for sure: Peyton Manning is selling a lot of pizza, regardless.
And now we wait for the calls for Manning to divest.
[h/t The Huffington Post]
[Image via Papa John’s]
— —
>> Follow Tina Nguyen (@Tina_Nguyen) on Twitter
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.comImage caption Egyptians have held angry protests outside the Saudi embassy in Cairo this week
Saudi Arabia has shut its embassy and consulates in Egypt following protests over an Egyptian lawyer who has been detained in Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi ambassador to Egypt had also been recalled, the Saudi state news agency said.
Egyptian protesters have demanded the release of human rights lawyer Ahmed al-Gizawi.
The head of Egypt's ruling |
confidence you might have in the forecasts. Ensemble forecasts are just model forecast with slightly different initial conditions or slight variations in the physics. Meteorologists use ensembles to try to judge the uncertainty of a forecast. On the diagram below, when the vertical lines are short, there is strong agreement in the temperature forecasts from the various model forecast. The stronger the agreement if between the models, the less uncertainty there is in the forecast.
On the really warm days relative to normal (this weekend through Monday) the ensemble members are unanimous in predicting torching temperatures. The uncertainty starts rising after the first front passes on Monday. However, even then, the ensembles are still advertising above normal temperature even from the colder outlier members (the bottom point of the vertical lines).
What I see as the big question mark is where I’ve annotated the oval. During that period from Dec. 19-21, the ensemble average temperature forecast drops the temperatures to near-normal but there are members that dip temperatures below normal. That same time period is when the model forecasts of precipitation are all over the place because of how differently they handle the front and any surface low that might develop along it. If we have any shot of snow, it would be within that short hazy window of opportunity. Even then the chances are a long shot because of the marginal temperatures and uncertainty about the low track.
Once we get by the cool period, the ensembles are showing considerable spread but the bulk of them are predicting temperatures to rise to above normal levels in the days leading up to Christmas.
Forecasts from four European ensemble members of the surface pressure pattern for 7 a.m. next Friday help illustrate why there is so much uncertainty about any storm from next Thursday through Sunday.
I’ve chosen these four since they give a feel for the wide range of possibilities, which range from a low going towards the Ohio Valley (top left), to having an initial low race off New England (top right) which pulls the front too far east of us to provide us with much precipitation. On the latter, the initial front might offer light precipitation Thursday but nothing on Friday. Another forecast (bottom left) predicts two weak lows with the front along of near the coast. It might offer rain Thursday or Friday. Still another tracks a low to western North Carolina. It would probably offer us moderate to heavy rain.
Most of the forecasts support rain and are not cold enough to snow. Thus, there is a chance of precipitation during our “cool days” the week before Christmas, and while a few members do suggest the possibility of light snow, the vast majority and the lack of cold air with the pattern argue against it.
So what’s the bottom line? Enjoy the weekend, which will be nice and toasty. You might have to dodge showers Monday afternoon or night when the first front comes through but even behind it, temperatures are likely to run above normal. I don’t have a lot of confidence in the outlook during the second week. Temperatures overall should average above normal and I don’t see us getting a white Christmas.
That said, there is a short window that will have to be watched when temperatures might be marginally cold enough to support a few flakes next Thursday night or Friday if some of the colder ensemble members are correct. Still, that possibility looks like a long shot, but may be enough to keep snow lovers from utter despair."What the Obama administration has done has strengthened Raul Castro," Ted Cruz said. | Getty Cruz, Rubio want Trump to dial back U.S.-Cuba relations
Following the death of Fidel Castro, Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio said Sunday that President Barack Obama's recent ties with Cuba should be reevaluated.
Cruz told correspondent Martha Raddatz on ABC News' “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” that he hopes to see increased liberty in Cuba but that with Obama's' restoration of diplomatic ties, it's hard for that to happen.
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"What the Obama administration has done has strengthened Raul Castro," the Texas Republican said. "Raul is the dictator now. You know, I asked my dad at dinner last night, well, what do you think happens now that Fidel is dead? And he shrugged and said Raul’s been in charge for years, that this is — the system has gotten stronger."
Fidel Castro, the author of the Cuban revolution in 1959, died Friday at the age of 90.
The comments by the Republican senators were in line with that of Reince Priebus, President-elect Donald Trump's incoming chief of staff, who said Sunday that Trump is willing to reconsider U.S. relations with Cuba. "There's going to have to be some movement from Cuba in order to have a relationship with the United States," he said on "Fox News Sunday."
Rubio, who, like Cruz, is of Cuban descent, said he believes Trump will demand more of Cuba to bring concessions on human rights issues.
"He has made very clear that he felt that the moves President Obama has made toward Cuba were wrong and that he would examine them and change the ones that needed to be changed," Rubio told correspondent Dana Bash on CNN's "State of the Union." "And I think that's very promising."
Rubio said he believes that if Hillary Clinton were to have been elected, she would have kept Obama's policies in place.
"I know they've had good people advising them on this issue, as well," Rubio said of Trump. "So I certainly have confidence that he's going to do the right thing when it comes to Cuba."
Cruz said Obama has "funneled billions of dollars to Raul Castro" but that he hopes to one day visit and see a "free Cuba."
"This ought to be a moment where Cubans are dancing in the street because they’re being liberated, but instead — listen, if you dance in the street, you’re going to be thrown in jail," Cruz said. "Cuba is not a free society."
During his presidency, Obama has worked to restore some U.S. ties with Cuba, which had been an adversary throughout the Cold War and beyond. Fidel Castro allied himself with the Soviet Union early in his regime.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, speaking on "State of the Union," took a different tack from his Republican colleagues.
"We have had relations with brutal dictatorships all over the world," the Vermont independent said. "The goal right now is to see that we can improve our relationship with the people of Cuba to do what we can to improve their economy and to make sure that the younger generation does better than their older generation."An eight-year-old boy was in critical but stable condition on Monday after he was hit in the head by a stray bullet while he slept at his Los Angeles home, police said.
The boy’s father and the suspect in the shooting were arguing at the home in Del Rey just before midnight on Sunday when shots broke out, Officer Liliana Preciado of the Los Angeles Police Department said. It was not clear whether they were inside or outside when the shots were fired.
One bullet struck the boy in the head while he was sleeping, Preciado said. He was taken to a local hospital where he underwent surgery and was listed on Monday in critical but stable condition, the officer said.
“We have no suspect description at this time,” she added.
(Reporting by Daniel Wallis in Denver; Editing by Lisa Lambert)Online shopping continues to remake the world. Mobile shopping, now in the lead. And retail culture, remade.
Amazon Prime employee Alicia Jackson hunts for items at the company's urban fulfillment facility that have been ordered by customers, in New York. (Mark Lennihan/AP)
Online shopping is as regular as Santa Claus these days. But its reach just keeps growing. Even in the store now, Americans are browsing with smartphone in hand, as ready to order online as walk to the checkout counter. It’s changing what stores are. Many have vanished. Others are downsizing. And the culture around shopping – a big chunk of American life – is changing too. This hour On Point, how the “buy now” button is changing the world. — Tom Ashbrook
Guests
Sarah Halzack, national retail reporter for the Washington Post. (@sarahhalzack)
Christian Magoon, CEO of Amplify Exchange Traded Funds and CEO of Magoon Capital. (@ChristianMagoon)
Thom Blischok, global strategic retail adviser to Nielsen Holdings PLC and CEO of the Dialogic Group.
From Tom’s Reading List
Washington Post: What happened when I tried ‘buy online, pick up in store’ on Black Friday -- "This holiday shopping season, retailers are eagerly promoting their click-and-collect programs, in which shoppers can place an order online and pick it up at a nearby store. The big chains are salivating over the possibility this model lets them fulfill your orders faster — in a matter of hours, not days — and it allows them to utilize their old-school brick-and-mortar outposts in the fight for your e-commerce spending."
Money: Amazon Is Dominating the Holiday Shopping Season to a Shocking Degree — "Online shopping has been booming thus far in the holiday shopping season. According to Adobe Digital Insights, e-retail sales in the U.S. totaled $9.36 billion from Thanksgiving Day to the Sunday that followed, an increase of over 16% compared to the same period last year. On Cyber Monday, online sales reached an all-time high of $3.39 billion, a 10% increase over the day in 2015 and only slightly higher than e-retail purchases on Black Friday 2016 ($3.34 billion)."
The Wall Street Journal: Mobile Looms Larger With Holiday Shoppers — "Americans jumped on holiday deals over the weekend but a larger slice of their spending migrated online, often through mobile devices, highlighting the high-wire act that faces retailers tethered to stores."Your browser does not support HTML5 video tag.Click here to view original GIF
“I will kill him myself.” That’s the moment in Captain America: Civil War when I knew that I wasn’t going to have a problem with the Russo brothers’ approach to my favorite superhero.
Spoilers follow for Captain America: Civil War.
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That line up top is one of the first things T’Challa says after his father King T’Chaka dies in a bombing attack supposedly carried out by the Winter Soldier. The razor-sharp threat immediately places him outside the boundaries of the other superheroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in that he seemingly has no compunctions about killing. Everything his character does in Civil War is about ruthlessly single-minded. The Black Panther is about his prey and pretty much nothing else.
Throughout the movie, the Black Panther feels like a character who serves his own agenda first, aiding Stark’s faction only out of pragmatism. He’s not here to make white characters feel good about themselves, as has sometimes been the case in his comics appearances. In the big fight scenes between Team Cap and Team Iron Man, he’s not helping War Machine or Black Widow with the ol’ tried-and-true, ‘change dance partners’ superhero battle switcheroo. T’Challa is going after Bucky almost exclusively. He’s going to kill that man. It truly feels like his way of life demands it.
Yet, the Black Panther doesn’t come across as a feral Dark Continent savage. Chadwick Boseman’s portrayal is cooly regal when we first meet him. Even as he gets pulled into a plot of ever-escalating drama, his affectation is that of someone who’s unperturbed by the major events happening around him. T’Challa and Wakanda get portrayed as mysterious but not exoticized. Sam Wilson quips at the Panther after he makes his dramatic debut in costume but the king doesn’t respond with snark. He simply says that the Black Panther has protected Wakanda for centuries. This is who he is and what he does.
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This is a younger T’Challa than the one who shows up in my favorite Black Panther run, so he’s not the master strategist put forth by writer Christopher James Priest. But he still manages use his country’s undisclosed but considerable resources to sneak into the movie’s climax and capture the mastermind who got Steve and Tony fighting in the first place.
In the end, T’Challa moves from wanting vengeance for himself and his country to ensuring justice will be done. That switch doesn’t feel like it’s motivated by a need to align with Tony or Steve’s moral compass; rather, it’s the thematic endpoint of his arc in the movie. Civil War’s third act has Iron Man become obsessed with killing Bucky as payback for his parents’ murder. Tony Stark almost turns into a villain, an analogue of the kind of people that he and the Avengers usually fight. T’Challa, on the other hand, is able to find his own closure precisely because he’s an outsider who isn’t compromised by the considerations motivating Captain America and Iron Man. In Civil War, the Black Panther begins a wary relationship with the world outside Wakanda and it becomes crystal clear that he’s a force to be reckoned with.Potrzebie (; Polish pronunciation: [pɔtˈʂɛbʲe] dative/locative of potrzeba, "a need") is a Polish word popularized by its non sequitur use as a running gag in the early issues of Mad not long after the comic book began in 1952.
Origin [ edit ]
Mad editor Harvey Kurtzman spotted the word printed in the Polish language section of a multi-languaged "Instructions for Use" sheet accompanying a bottle of aspirin, and Kurtzman, who was fascinated with unusual words, decided it would make an appropriate but meaningless background gag. After cutting the word out of the instruction sheet, he made copies and used rubber cement to paste "Potrzebie" randomly into the middle of Mad satires.
Appearances [ edit ]
Potrzebie was first used in a story in Mad 11 (May 1954), where it was the exclamation of a character who spoke only in foreign languages and song lyrics, in "Murder the Story," a parody illustrated by Jack Davis. It was used again in Bernard Krigstein's "From Eternity Back to Here!" in Mad 12 (June 1954) on an airplane advertising banner. With the same type font, it reappeared in Jack Davis's "Book! Movie!" in Mad 13 (July 1954), pasted into a panel as the title of an abstract painting seen in the background. In the same issue the word appears as POTS-REBIE, emblazoned on a cauldron in which Robinson Crusoe is roasting a frankfurter. This piece reappeared in one of the earliest Mad paperbacks, Bedside Mad[1] It was illustrated as a rebus in "Puzzle Pages!" in Mad 19 (January 1955). These stories, like others in Mad comics, were written by Harvey Kurtzman. Frequent repetition gave it the status of a catch phrase or in-joke among the readership which continues to the present day. In the first Mad Style Guide, edited by Bhob Stewart in 1994, the word was made available for display on T-shirts and other licensed Mad products. It also sees occasional use as a metasyntactic variable by hackers.
Mad 13) Fourth appearance of the word in Jack Davis's "Book! Movie!" (13)
A typical appearance of the word is exemplified by the Mad version of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (from Mad 43, December 1958), which begins:
"Whon thot Aprille swithin potrzebie, "The burgid prillie gives one heebie-jeebie.
System of measurement [ edit ]
In issue 33, Mad published a partial table of the "Potrzebie System of Weights and Measures", developed by 19-year-old Donald E. Knuth, later a famed computer scientist. According to Knuth, the basis of this new revolutionary system is the potrzebie, which equals the thickness of Mad issue 26, or 2.2633484517438173216473 mm,[2] although a digit was mistakenly dropped and the thickness appeared as 2.263348517438173216473 mm in the MAD article. A standardization in terms of the wavelength of the red line of the emission spectrum of cadmium is also given, which if the 1927 definition of the Ångstrom is taken for the value of that wavelength, would equal 2.263347539605392 mm.[3]
Volume was measured in ngogn (equal to 1000 cubic potrzebies), mass in blintz (equal to the mass of 1 ngogn of halavah, which is "a form of pie [with] a specific gravity of 3.1416 and a specific heat of.31416"), and time in seven named units (decimal powers of the average earth rotation, equal to 1 "clarke"). The system also features such units as whatmeworry, cowznofski, vreeble, hoo and hah.
According to the "Date" system in Knuth's article, which substitutes a 10-clarke "mingo" for a month and a 100-clarke "cowznofski", for a year, the date of October 29, 2007, was originally rendered as "Cal 7, 201 C.M." (for Cowznofsko Madi, or "in the Cowznofski of our MAD"). The dates are calculated from October 1, 1952, the date MAD was first published. Dates before this point are referred to, tongue-in-cheek, as "B.M." ("Before MAD.") Later Knuth preferred 0-origin indexing,[4] so October 29, 2007 is now rendered as "Cal 6, 201 C.M.". The ten "Mingoes" are: Tales (Tal.) Calculated (Cal.) To (To) Drive (Dri.) You (You) Humor (Hum.) In (In) A (A) Jugular (Jug.) Vein (Vei.)
Google's calculator can perform conversions from potrzebie system to other units.[5]
Other media [ edit ]
The word made an impression on many readers, for example jazz guitarist Jimmy Raney, who recorded the tune "Potrezebie" [sic] on the album The Dual Role of Bob Brookmeyer (1954; reissued on compact disc in 1992). In the late 1960s, "Potrzebie" was a Jeopardy category.
"Potrzebie" became the default password for the #1 (which is "God" or the root account) user account in several MUSHes and MUCKs (e.g., PennMUSH, TinyMUCK, Fuzzball MUCK, TinyMUSH, and TinyMUX).
Other odd words favored by Kurtzman and popularized by him through their use as running gags in Mad were veeblefetzer, axolotl, hoohah, osszefogva, bitsko, furshlugginer, Moxie, ganef and halavah. Many of these are of Yiddish or Jewish origin.
In the Bill Griffith comic strip Zippy for February 27, 2007, Zippy and Zerbina mention both potrzebie and axolotl in a panel captioned, "They like to use out-of-date words and catchphrases." The word was also featured as the title of the May 30, 2018 strip and again on September 8, 2018 and January 5, 2019.[6][7][8]
In "Agatha H. and the Clockwork Princess," the second of the novelizations of Phil and Kaja Foglio's "Girl Genius" webcomic, the character Herr Doktor Potrezbie Spün is one of the many footnoted references.I remember the first time I was exposed to the fact that NASA gets less than 1% of the federal budget, and the suggestion that we could do so much more awesome stuff if NASA just got 1% of the budget like it used to. I was 16 at the time, and I was in my freshman year at BYU. I was so fired-up by this idea that I used the idea as the topic for a persuasive writing essay for my Creative Writing class I was taking that semester. The sad thing is that in the 17 years since then, the Penny for NASA arguments have gotten no more convincing than my paper (which probably only earned me a C+).
My biggest beef with the Penny for NASA concept is that I think NASA is doing a lackluster job of effectively spending its current ~$17B/yr. There are not so far-off technologies that could slice the cost of deep-space manned missions by 2-5x, but funding for those technologies are getting starved, while most of the money gets sucked-up by politically untouchable mega-projects. If NASA’s budget were doubled, Congress would probably run out of excuses, and send some money towards technology development and demonstration, but that funding would also likely be the first to get cut if NASA’s budget were ever reduced in the future. And seriously, who here thinks that if NASA’s budget were doubled it wouldn’t be come a lightning rod for cost cutting in the future? No, I’d rather see NASA more effectively spend the money it has, and is somewhat likely to keep, than hoping for solving all problems by shoveling more money at the agency.
What I think would be a more useful spending goal would be to advocate for spending at least 1% of NASA’s budget on prizes, such as the ones that have been run by the Centennial Challenges.
You’ve heard the benefits of prizes before, but to reiterate:
Prizes only reward success, not effort. Far too much of NASA’s money is spent in a way that does not guarantee the taxpayer gets anything in exchange for huge investments. Far less of the money and effort associated with winning a prize is spent satisfying bureaucratic requirements/oversight than with even COTS-like contracts. There are some regulations such as FAA regs that have to be followed, but the overall percentage of prize efforts spent on hardware/operations versus paperwork is much more optimal. Well-structured prizes often help encourage multiple players in an industry even after the prize is completed. Prizes encourage creative, out-of-the-box solutions that might have been rejected by a selection committee for normal funding. Prizes can often encourage non-traditional players to compete. Prizes are often more exciting and engaging for the public than similar traditionally funded technical efforts. Prizes can often get ego-capital investments into risky new technologies that might not have happened based purely on financial merits.
That said, prizes don’t solve all problems, I’ll be the first to admit that. Prizes don’t guarantee that people will be able to raise the money to pursue them for instance. Especially when the prize value is too low compared to the likely cost to complete it, and when there’s no clear near-term commercial follow-on opportunity. Prizes tend to attract for more teams than it attracts credible teams. Of the something like 20 X-Prize teams, I think that Armadillo was the only other semi-credible team other than Scaled, and they were way behind Burt Rutan’s team. Of the something like 15 teams competing in the NGLLC, we did better, with about 5 pretty serious teams by the end (in addition to the two winners, Unreasonable Rocket, TrueZer0, and Paragon Labs all at least built and had stable tether tests with vehicles that could’ve won the prize with another year of practice and refinement). No comment on GLXP.
But while there are definite tradeoffs with prizes, it’s also pretty clear that they’re getting woefully underfunded compared to the rest of NASA’s spending priorities. At its best year, I think Centennial Challenges came close to getting 0.1% of NASA’s total funding, and most years it has received significantly less than 0.05%. While I agree there is room for debate on how effective prizes are compared to traditional contracts, I’m pretty sure nobody seriously thinks that they are 1000-2000x less effective.
So, I propose the idea of setting aside 1% of NASA’s budget for prizes.
Really, in the grand scheme of things, a 1% tax on other NASA programs wouldn’t be felt by most of them, only the programs that have been hit the most with spending cuts (like Planetary Science) would likely notice them at all. And having a pot of $170M per year for prizes would enable a wide range of prizes that NASA has so far been unable to even offer, including prizes related to technology development/demonstration capabilities they’d like to fund, including: reusable launch systems, nanosat launch, microreturn vehicles, interplanetary cubesat missions, Lunar/Asteroidal/Mars/Venus sample return and/or ISRU demonstration, cryogenic propellant storage, handling, and transfer technologies, deep-space human spaceflight issues (like radiation protection, artificial gravity, etc). When you’re only getting $4M/yr or less, you’re stuck with either funding prizes for really tiny efforts, or badly underfunding prizes for slightly bigger (but still quite small) efforts.
Here are a few suggestions I’d have for making this better funded Centennial Challenges program more successful:
Place a cap on the fraction of the budget that can be spent on administrative personnel. I’d suggest say 5%. 5% of $170M still works out to over 40 full-time support staff. Setup Prize Manager positions in the Centennial Challenges program in a method similar to how DARPA handles Program Managers, where they are only brought on for a set period of time (typically about 3 years). Encourage bringing people on from academia, industry, and military space, not just NASA employees. This encourages more diversity of thought and cross-pollination, while also decreasing the ability for people to empire-build. Make prize winnings tax-exempt (I’m not sure if they already are, but they ought to be–that’s one way of making them more lucrative that doesn’t cost much extra money). Set aside some money for paying the partnering groups that run the prizes. I’d still limit this to no more than say 5-10% of the total budget. But providing some financing to the prize groups would mean that the prize groups wouldn’t be spending so much of their time trying to raise money for themselves instead of running the prizes effectively. It might also be worth setting aside one last 5% of the budget for media/promotion of the prizes and teams. If the prize organizations aren’t having to raise money to cover their own cost, and media groups aren’t having to pitch Hollywood on funding media efforts, there’s a lot higher probability of being able to gain visibility for both the prizes and the teams involved. Require that the other 75% of the budget can only be spent on prize payouts, and keep the current Centennial Challenges ability to retain money unclaimed from year-to-year.
While there are probably tweaks or adjustments to this plan that could make it work better, and while 1% is a bit ambitious, I still think this is much better than just trying to up NASA’s topline budget by a factor of 2x, and a lot more likely to result in lasting benefits than doubling NASA’s budget.Yale scientists use gene editing to correct mutation in cystic fibrosis
(Images by Rachel Fields)
Yale researchers successfully corrected the most common mutation in the gene that causes cystic fibrosis, a lethal genetic disorder.
The study was published April 27 in Nature Communications.
Cystic fibrosis is an inherited, life-threatening disorder that damages the lungs and digestive system. It is most commonly caused by a mutation in the cystic fibrosis gene known as F508del. The disorder has no cure, and treatment typically consists of symptom management. Previous attempts to treat the disease through gene therapy have been unsuccessful.
To correct the mutation, a multidisciplinary team of Yale researchers developed a novel approach. Led by Dr. Peter Glazer, chair of therapeutic radiology, Mark Saltzman, chair of biomedical engineering, and Dr. Marie Egan, professor of pediatrics and of cellular and molecular physiology, the collaborative team used synthetic molecules similar to DNA — called peptide nucleic acids, or PNAs — as well as donor DNA, to edit the genetic defect.
“What the PNA does is clamp to the DNA close to the mutation, triggering DNA repair and recombination pathways in cells,” Egan explained.
The researchers also developed a method of delivering the PNA/DNA via microscopic nanoparticles. These tiny particles, which are billionths of a meter in diameter, are specifically designed to penetrate targeted cells.
In both human airway cells and mouse nasal cells, the researchers observed corrections in the targeted genes. “The percentage of cells in humans and in mice that we were able to edit was higher than has been previously reported in gene editing technology,” said Egan. They also observed that the therapy had minimal off target, or unintended, effects on treated cells.
While the study findings are significant, much more research is needed to refine the genetic engineering strategy, said Egan. “This is step one in a long process. The technology could be used as a way to fix the basic genetic defect in cystic fibrosis.”
Other Yale authors include Nicole Ali McNeer, Kavitha Anandalingam, Rachel J. Fields, Christina Caputo, Sascha Kopic, Anisha Gupta, Elias Quijano, Lee Polikoff, Yong Kong, Raman Bahal, and John P. Geibel.
This research was supported in part by the NIGMS Medical Scientist Training Program T32GM07205 (to N.A.M.), the Hartwell Foundation (to M.E.E.) and the National Institute of Health grants R01HL082655 and R01AI112443 (to P.M.G) and R01EB000487 (to W.M.S.).The last time I packed up my apartment to move, I realized I didn't really know where I wanted to move to. I was tired of sitting in one spot and I was tired of paying rent. Since I'm a writer and have the advantage of being able to work from virtually anywhere, I decided to take that concept to its logical extreme.
In the Spring of 2015 I bought a 2006 Gulf Stream Vista Cruiser G24, and after a couple months of fixing it up, I started living in it full-time. It's basically a small RV built into a Freightliner Sprinter chassis. All the goodies under the hood are made by Mercedes Benz, but it didn't have that MB sticker price. I found one in Oregon with just 35,000 miles on it and I bought it on the spot. It had taken me more than five months to find the model that had what I needed (a separate work area and sleep area, a storage compartment big enough for a surfboard and a folding mountain bike, good gas mileage and easy drive/parkability). I was overjoyed.
But it wasn't perfect. No. I mean, come on, these things are built for retirees. I, unfortunately, am still very much on the clock, and my job requires a fair amount of technology, too. I had to keep my gadgets not only charged, but safe. I had to make the space not only functional, but comfortable and fun.
So I've been pimping it out. I'm talking about a full solar panel/lithium battery package from AM Solar, Viper Security's 5806 system plus GPS SmartStart, the Viking Security Safe VS-38BL with fingerprint scanner, mood lighting with the color-changing the Enevu Cube, mobile Internet with a Verizon Jetpack MiFi 6620L, and Pioneer's top of the line AVIC-8100NEX (with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay), which the boys at All Pro Audio in Santa Clara, California had to carve open my dashboard and completely rebuild it to install, adding in a badass fake faceplate into the mix. Basically, I went all out. Watch the video above for more detail.
Follow Brent's van-tastic adventures at ConnectedStates.com, and on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.The former police commissioner in charge when Freddie Gray died from injuries sustained in a Baltimore police van said State's Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby is "in over her head" and has added more flaws to a broken justice system by prosecuting innocent officers.
"She's immature, she's incompetent, she's vindictive and that's not how the justice system is supposed to work," former Baltimore police commissioner Anthony W. Batts said on Wednesday. "The justice system is supposed to be without bias for police officers, for African Americans, for everyone."
Batts led Baltimore police from the fall of 2012 until Mayor Stephanie Rawlings Blake fired him in July 2015 amid a surge in city homicides that followed weeks of criticism from the police union over his handling of the city's riots two months before.
Batts said Mosby never should have filed charges against the six officers involved in Gray's arrest, and that her decision Wednesday to drop charges against the remaining three officers facing trials was long overdue.
Her actions, Batts said, have further harmed a criminal justice system in need of repairs.
"Don't create more flaws in that broken system," he said. "And you don't do it on the back of innocent people just to prove that point."
CAPTION Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby talks about why her team decided to drop the charges against the officers in the Freddie Gray case. (Kevin Richardson/Baltimore Sun video) Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby talks about why her team decided to drop the charges against the officers in the Freddie Gray case. (Kevin Richardson/Baltimore Sun video) CAPTION "I think most of the blame falls to the prosecutor who failed to prosecute the case and brought cases that she didn't have the evidence for," Gov. Larry Hogan said. (Erin Cox/Baltimore Sun video) "I think most of the blame falls to the prosecutor who failed to prosecute the case and brought cases that she didn't have the evidence for," Gov. Larry Hogan said. (Erin Cox/Baltimore Sun video)
A spokeswoman from the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office did not respond to Batts' specific claims, but lumped them with the comments made by the GOP's presidential candidate.
"Today Donald Trump and former commissioner Anthony Batts have attacked the State's Attorney in numerous ways, but as our First Lady Michelle Obama said, when they go low we go high," said Rochelle Ritchie, a spokeswoman for Mosby's office.
Weeks of an internal police investigation found no evidence that officers committed any crimes or meant to hurt Gray, Batts said. The former police commissioner said he has always acknowledged that mistakes were made, and that Gray should have been given medical care during his fatal van ride.
"There was no question that Freddie Gray should have gone home after that interaction," Batts said. "But sometimes when people are doing the job of police work, bad things happen sometimes."
Days after Gray's death, Batts said he personally urged the Baltimore city solicitor to issue a civil settlement in the case. In September 2015, the city approved a $6.4 million payout to the Gray family, accepting all civil liability.
"I was proud of the city stepping up to the plate and taking responsibility," he said.
Forty officers on a task force Batts convened to investigate Gray's death looked at every angle of Gray's arrest and could not find evidence of a crime, Batts said. That became clear in court and to the public after prosecutors failed to secure any convictions through four trials.
"My heart bled for these officers as they went through these steps," Batts said. "I think Marilyn Mosby is in over her head."
He said the six officers who faced trials have "a good heart."
"I didn't see any malice in the heart of those police officers," Batts said. "I don't think those officers involved are those you would put in the class of bad or malicious or evil police officers."
Batts, who also oversaw police departments in Long Beach and Oakland, Calif., is currently working as a consultant with the AWW Group training police commanders, including a group in Fort Worth, Texas, last week.
He said there were problems within the Baltimore Police Department, and said one of his top priorities was to root out corrupt or abusive officers during his tenure — even to the point that his calls for reform and transparency made enemies on the force, who called for his firing.
While he said he had a responsibility to protect his officers, "my bigger responsibility is to the public trust to make sure they had all the information and the correct information."
He took umbrage at Mosby saying police "bias" obstructed her case, and said his tenure showed patterns of creating transparency, such as when he gave the family of Anthony Anderson a copy of his autopsy and appointed an independent commission to look into his 2012 death.
Anderson died from internal injuries after he was tackled by police officers during a drug investigation. The State's Attorney's Office, which was run then by Mosby's predecessor, did not file charges against officers in that case.
Batts said Mosby cannot make police her scapegoat by saying officers obstructed her investigation to protect their colleagues.
"There was no obstruction," Batts said. "I would have taken off anyone's head if I knew they were obstructionist. … The judge said it: (The case) didn't have merit and you can't put that on anyone else."
jgeorge@baltsun.com.
Twitter.com/justingeorgeJohn Lennon once wrote that “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans” (of course he also wrote the horribly self-pitying diatribe that is “Working Class Hero” so he wouldn’t necessarily be my first port of call when it came to giving out life advice) but he was at least correct in his belief that we rarely have full control over the direction of our lives.
“But what about a soccer team John?” is probably the first question you would ask him were he still alive today “Can a soccer team adequately plan for the distant future?”
And he would likely reply (with his legendary acerbic wit) “Yes and no.” and how right he would be, because running a soccer team is partially about planning for the future and partially about dealing with the fallout as each one of those plans fall to pieces before your very eyes.
So the idea that the Whitecaps should have plans for three years (or more) into the future displays both a Panglossianly optimistic attitude and a wilful Tiresian blindness (though, ironically, Tiresias was also clairvoyant so that allusion doesn’t really work. Fascinating character by the way; got turned into a woman after hitting a pair of copulating snakes with a stick, not sure if that’s a true story or not).
Gender altering reptilian attacks aside, even a vaunted youth system only offers a form of ballast against the ceaseless tides of change that inevitably engulf almost every soccer team in the world, and there are only a few exceptions to that rule. Manchester United, Barcelona and Bayern Munich have |
lab. The immunization she got was developed in 2005 by Feldmann and his colleagues, including Thomas Geisbert, professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. The vaccine both protects against Ebola infection and treats those who are recently infected with the virus.
While it’s not clear whether the lab workers was actually infected – she got the shot 40 hours after the accident – she did not develop symptoms and did not show evidence of the virus in her blood.
“There’s just no financial incentive”
Feldmann says there are other strategies that look equally promising — but taking the next step of testing the products in people is proving more difficult, says Geisbert. “Globally, [Ebola] is not a huge problem in terms of infectious diseases in general. It’s devastating and sad for the people involved but it’s a small market for big pharmaceutical companies. There’s just not a financial incentive to develop a drug or vaccine.”
Unfortunately, it often takes outbreaks like the current one in west Africa, which is the largest in Ebola history (see Infographic: Ebola By the Numbers), to ignite interest in developing treatments. That, Feldmann notes, and the fear that a virus like Ebola could be used as a form of bioterrorism. “The fact is that biothreat countermeasure activities are what pushed multiple governments to do this work,” he says. Some of that investment may pay off in public health benefits, however, since a bioterror event is essentially an intentional and concentrated outbreak. Geisbert recently received a $26 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to study the three strategies, including in combination, to take the interventions to the next step.
And while an outbreak might seem like an ideal opportunity to test new treatments, it may actually be of little use, and may even do more harm than good. “My concern is that if you give the treatment to people in late stage disease, and if the person dies, then everybody is going to blame whatever was given,” says Geisbert. “If the person survives, you may never know if the product worked because it was somebody who was going to survive anyway, without the drug.”
Feldmann agrees. “People like me and others who have worked for years in vaccines and countermeasures are frustrated. But on the other hand, we don’t want to make a step that isn’t well thought through, and ruin the whole approach in the future.”
Contact us at editors@time.com.PETALING JAYA: Disappointed with the outcome of the investigation into SRC International (SRC), a senior Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officer tendered his resignation last week.
Bahri Mohamad Zain, who was the director of MACC’s Special Operations Division (SOD), said he felt as if he had “sinned against 30 million Malaysians”.
Bahri played a pivotal role in the investigation into SRC International (SRC), a subsidiary of 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).
Bahri, 57, told FMT he had chosen to retire three years early as he was disappointed that despite the evidence uncovered, the case did not go to court.
“I’m not only disappointed, but I also felt like I had sinned against 30 million Malaysians when the SRC case could not be taken to court,” he told FMT this morning.
He said a large sum of public money had been embezzled but no one had been brought to justice for it.
SRC was established in 2011 to explore international strategic investments in the energy field.
It was a subsidiary of the embattled state-owned 1MDB, until it was moved under the purview of the Finance Ministry led by Najib.
It had been reported that SRC had funnelled RM42 million into Prime Minister Najib Razak’s personal bank account through two companies – Gandingan Mentari Sdn Bhd and Ihsan Perdana Sdn Bhd – in two transactions in 2014 and 2015.
Exactly a year ago, Attorney-General Mohamed Apandi Ali cleared Najib of the SRC case and the RM2.6 billion which was found in the prime minister’s accounts.
Also, in a written reply to Wong Chen (PKR-Kelana Jaya) in Parliament in March last year, Najib had said SRC International had no record of the purported transfer of RM42 million into his (Najib’s) personal bank account.Pew has a new poll out today showing that the nation has shifted on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, since the 1990s. Only 27 percent of Americans oppose gays and lesbians serving openly in the military, down from 45 percent in 1994. Fifty-eight percent of Americans support ending DADT. Even among Republicans, there is a narrow split: 44 percent oppose gays serving, while 40 percent favor. One in three white evangelicals support allowing gays to serve, and among those who attend religious services weekly, the divide is 40/40. In short, opposing the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is not a political winner for most politicians.
Support for same sex marriage has also been rising rapidly, from 27 percent in 1996 to 42 percent in 2010. On this question, independents are closer to Democrats than Republicans in viewing same sex marriage as not a big deal.
Similar trends can be found when it comes to gays and lesbians raising children. A minority of Americans in 2010 (43 percent) think it is bad for society to have more gay couples raising children, while a majority think it is either a good thing (12 percent) or it makes no difference (41 percent) to have gay couples in parenting roles. In 2007, according to Pew, 50 percent of Americans said it was bad for society to have gay couples raising children, which means three years have yielded a seven point swing, which is sure to continue, since younger Americans tend to be more accepting of homosexuality than older Americans.Texans punter Shane Lechler stays hungry at age 40
Texans punter Shane Lechler is seemingly ageless, booming punts to remain atop his profession.
The 40-year-old seven-time Pro Bowl selection is entering his 18th NFL season and averaged 47.5 yards and a 40.1 net per punt last season. He placed 30 punts inside opponents' 20-yard line.
The East Barnard native and former Texas A&M standout is regarded as a potential future Hall of Fame selection as one of the top punters in NFL history.
Signed to a one-year, $2 million contract this offseason that included a $500,000 signing bonus, Lechler says remaining hungry despite his accomplishments is what drives him.
"I know that there's somebody younger and cheaper that wants my job," Lechler said. "And there are only 32 people in the world that can do my job. I've got to stay on top of it. I take that challenge. I love being in the underdog role."Image copyright Reuters Image caption Iraqi troops are reported to have taken more ground
Iraqi forces have met heavy resistance after launching an attack to recapture Mosul University from so-called Islamic State (IS), military officials say.
Elite troops entered the compound on Friday in an attempt to secure the area in the last major IS stronghold in Iraq.
It comes amid reports that Iraqi forces have reached a second bridge in the city.
The latest phase of a push to retake Mosul was launched last month.
Friday's operation to capture the university, in the eastern part of the city, has seen government forces gain control of several buildings in the area, local media report.
The complex has been used by IS militants as a base. Iraqi officials have also said that the group has used the site's chemistry laboratories to produce chemical weapons.
Read more
Meanwhile, the Iraqi military said in a statement that troops had reached al-Hurriya, or Freedom, Bridge, after inflicting "heavy losses" on IS militants.
Iraqi Special Operations Forces (ISOF) have now, according to reports, taken the east sides of two of the five main bridges across the Tigris river, after reaching the southernmost Fourth Bridge just days ago.
The bridges, which provide a link from Mosul's north and south, were targeted by coalition air strikes in October with the aim of limiting the ability of IS to resupply or reinforce their positions in the east.
The strikes caused sufficient damage to the bridges but they were purposely not destroyed in order for them to be repaired more easily after the city's recapture, analysts said.
Since the offensive to recapture Mosul was relaunched two weeks ago, government forces have made swift progress on the eastern side of the city.
The campaign began in October but got off to a slow start in the face of tough IS defence and counter-attacks.BERLIN — Not since 1945, when the Allies banned the dubious work and awarded the rights to the state of Bavaria, has Hitler’s manifesto, “Mein Kampf,” been officially published in German. Bavaria had refused to release it. But under German law, its copyright expires Dec. 31, the 70th year after the author’s death.
That allows a team of historians from a noted center for the study of Nazism, the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich, to publish its two-volume, 2,000-page edition, a three-year labor complete with about 3,500 academic annotations.
The intention is to set the work in historical context, to show how Hitler wove truth with half-truth and outright lie, and thus to defang any propagandistic effect while revealing Nazism.
“This is really one of the best relics we have of the Third Reich,” said Christian Hartmann, the historian who led the five-person team on the project and unveiled the work to journalists on Tuesday. He compared it to Hitler’s lair at Obersalzberg in the Alps, which two million visitors a year now view, passing first through an exhibit on Nazism designed by the institute.When a stern Russian schoolmistress in one of these poor villages said she would no longer admit girls in hijabs, she became a hero to many in Stavropol. The region’s leaders backed her up by introducing a uniform that does not allow girls to wear head coverings at all — a restriction that affects a population of around 2.7 million. Official statistics say around 10 percent of those residents are Muslim, though the real number may be double that because of unregistered migration, the International Crisis Group has reported.
Ali Salikhov, Amina’s father, said he would not be cowed into relaxing his views on the hijab.
“If they think that because something will happen with my daughter I will forget my religion — I say, no, religion is the goal of my life,” he said. “For 70 years they taught us that there was no God, but that passed, and this will also pass. In 20 years they will have forgotten that hijabs were ever forbidden in Russia.”
There are influential people on Mr. Salikhov’s side. A celebrity lawyer from neighboring Chechnya has agreed to represent four fathers of daughters now excluded from school, arguing that under Russian law only the federal authorities can curtail a citizen’s constitutional right to freedom of religious practice.
The lawyer, Murad Musayev, said he saw the Stavropol ban as an attempt to stir up tensions between groups that have been living together peacefully, perhaps with the intent of establishing eastern Stavropol as an ethnic boundary.
“When we discussed the social aspect of the problem with hijabs, one of our opponents said, ‘Let these people go back to their historical homeland, to their hijab homeland, and let them wear hijabs there,’ ” he said. “This is a pretty common opinion in Russia.”Thursday Night Contesting
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During periods of infrequent major contests, an NS ladder competition may be held. Usually there are three 8-week ladder competitions per year. A ladder competition is a series of NS events. There are usually 8 Thursday evening NS events per ladder. Ranking is based on one's best 6 events in the series. For details on the current ladder competition, go to Ladder. For the current ladder rankings, go to Results.
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Weekly announcements are made as to the format for these Thursday evening contest sessions and other related information. Watch the Next NS web page or the email reflectors, e.g., CQ-Contest, NCCC, CT-User, TR-Log, etc. Questions can be directed to N3ZZ or N6ZFO.Image caption Demonstrators expressed their anger at President Evo Morales for backing the road
Tens of thousands of demonstrators in Bolivia have brought traffic to a standstill in central La Paz.
They were protesting against the construction of a highway which would pass through a nature reserve in the Amazon.
The Bolivian government says the road is essential for development and would encourage trade by linking remote communities to market towns.
But indigenous communities fear it could encourage illegal settlements.
Bolivia's largest labour union had called for a day of protest on Wednesday.
Public anger
Thousands blocked the streets of central La Paz, carrying banners opposing the road and criticising President Evo Morales.
One of the demonstrators told the Associated Press news agency that Evo Morales' government was "the worst and it should go because it attacked human beings, the indigenous compatriots who had given it their support, and now it's turned its back on them".
Many of the protesters called into question President Morales' commitment to indigenous rights and the protection of "Mother Earth", which he advocated during his election campaign.
President Morales has suspended work on the road until a referendum is held, but the furore over the construction and the government's handling of the protests has not abated.
Indigenous groups opposed to the road said on Wednesday they would resume their 500km (310-mile) march to La Paz.
Their trek was broken up by police firing tear gas on Sunday and protesters complained that "extreme violence" had been used.
Defence Minister Cecilia Chacon resigned in protest at the police action.
Interior Minster Sacha Llorenti and his deputy Marcos Farfan stepped down on Tuesday.
They had defended the break-up of the march, but denied ordering the use of force.Rep. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee, joined Senate Democrats in questioning whether there was enough time to implement the so-called "Gang of Six" deficit-reduction plan, and suggested a short-term debt-limit increase could be an option.
"Senator Durbin, a member of the Gang of Six, said yesterday, they don’t have legislative language and it hasn’t been scored by CBO," said Van Hollen Wednesday on MSNBC, referring to the Congressional Budget Office. "And so the question is, you know, what can be done between now and Aug. 2, if anything — with the plan, or do we need to continue to proceed with a back-up plan, Plan B?"
He said there might have to be some kind of short-term extension of the debt ceiling while legislators processed this plan.
"We would have to work out some interim arrangement if we were to proceed down that road. Again, exactly what the time line would be and that question would remain to be seen," said Van Hollen.
The Treasury Department projects the economy will default unless the debt ceiling is increased by Aug. 2.
But despite the time constraints, Van Hollen was positive about the Gang of Six proposal.
"The overall framework mirrors what the President was trying to do and in some ways what the Speaker of the House was apparently trying to do, which is to get a big deal in a balanced way. So, that’s the good news." Van Hollen said.
"This provides some additional momentum to the idea of getting something big done. Again, haven’t seen every detail and I’m not sure that I would agree with every detail, but the overall concept takes us in the right direction," Van Hollen added.
Watch Van Hollen below:Aero Vodochody performed the maiden sortie of its updated L-39NG trainer from its Odolena Voda facility in the Czech Republic on 14 September.
Enhancements include a new Williams International FJ44-4M engine, Genesys Aerosystems avionics, and head-up displays from Speel Praha. The wings have also been modified, replacing the wing-tip fuel tanks on earlier generations of the Albatros with new composite structures.
Aero Vodochody
Company president Ladislav Šimek says the flight came just three weeks after it received the aircraft’s engine.
“By using the best available components, the integration of which culminates in this first flight, we have brought to the market an unprecedentedly effective type of aircraft, accessible to a broad spectrum of users,” he says.
Aero Vodochody
No details were available on the duration of the flight or any tests performed.
Aero Vodochody plans to demonstrate the L-39NG to NATO service chiefs at an event in Ostrava later this month.An important reminder for all comrades:
But it is one thing to conclude that Duterte is a fascist or a stooge of imperialism before his unfolding and another thing to test his best claims and self-contradictions by challenging him to heed the people’s agenda for change and testing him through the peace negotiations. If he proves conclusively to be an unmitigated counterrevolutionary, the revolutionary forces can fight him. If he proves to be a genuine patriot and firm anti-imperialist and progressive, he will need the support of stronger revolutionary forces and a well-mobilized people with arms in their hands to avert a fall similar to that of Sukarno and Allende.
In any case, only infantile petty bourgeois revolutionists or Left ” philistines will reject any thought of reforms just because it does not fit into their narrow dogmatic understanding of Marxism as pure storm and thunder without any place for basic reforms before the revolutionary leap. Genuine Marxists,including Maoists, know that bourgeois-democratic reforms of the new type are undertaken in a semicolonial and semifeudal country in the course of the people’s democratic revolution and prior to the socialist revolution. Marx pointed out a long time ago that the revolutionary proletariat must first win the battle for democracy to attain socialism even in a capitalist country.
Well, even if certain reforms are carried out as a result of an alliance with Duterte, it does not mean that the movement will stop half-way and be content with the achievement of partial goals. There is no question that the Filipino revolutionaries will continue holding on to their weapons because they are determined to bring to completion the current stage of the national democratic struggle and thereafter proceed to the socialist revolution.Story highlights Expired meat was repackaged and sold to fast food chains in China
McDonald's is the only brand that will continue to work with the meat supplier
China has 2,000 McDonald's branches across the country
China's food safety law is currently being revised
McDonald's restaurants in many Chinese cities have been eerily quiet this past week.
The fast food giant is enormously popular in China where it has 2,000 outlets, each one typically overflowing with hungry crowds.
But many McDonald's addicts have been forced to go cold turkey as numerous branches have yanked flagship burgers off the menu amid a tainted meat scandal.
The food scare broke when a video surfaced in Chinese media last week, showing appalling practices in a Shanghai food-processing factory that supplies ingredients to many international restaurant brands.
Since then, the tainted meat supply has been found to reach across China, all the way to Hong Kong, and even to Japan.
How was the scandal uncovered?
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A reporter from a Shanghai broadcaster secretly filmed inside the food processing plant of Shanghai Husi Food, a subsidiary of U.S.-based food supply giant OSI Group
The footage captured workers handling food with their bare hands. Several scenes showed them picking up meat that had fallen on the floor and returning it directly into the processing machine.
One worker, his face concealed behind a surgical mask, turned to the camera and stated, "foul meat," referring to the meat being handled.
Shanghai Municipal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) subsequently investigated the factory and found that expired beef and chicken products were processed and repackaged with new expiration dates.
Amongst the tainted products, they were able to trace forged production dates on more than 4,300 cases of smoked beef patties, with more than 3,000 cases already sold.
Who was affected?
Husi had been supplying chicken and beef products to branches of McDonald's, Papa John's, Burger King, Starbucks, KFC, and Pizza Hut in several cities in China.
Since the scandal broke, all the brands have cut ties with Husi's parent company OSI Group, except for McDonald's.
The golden arches will continue to work with the food supplier in China, eventually shifting to a Husi food plant in Henan province, which was described as the "newest state-of-the-art facility" by OSI CEO Sheldon Lavin.
McDonald's has worked with OSI for more than half a century internationally, and for more than 22 years in mainland China, a spokesperson surnamed Xu told CNN.
Meanwhile, beef and chicken products at most McDonald's in northern and central China are unavailable. Branches in southern China, which use a different meat supplier, are largely unaffected.
Xu also said the products will slowly return to menus after August 3.
In Hong Kong, McDonald's previously stated that it does not use products from Husi. It later backtracked the claim after local government issued a ban on the import and sales of Husi products.
As a result of the ban, chicken nuggets, chicken filets, as well as several vegetable products and iced lemon tea are now temporarily unavailable at the city's McDonald's branches.
Japan's McDonald's have also been affected as 20% of the meat for chicken nuggets there were supplied by Husi. It has since stopped importing chicken from China and introduced a tofu and fish version of the McNugget.
The scandal has led to "negative impact on sales and consumer confidence," the company's Japanese unit said in a statement. "Our sales and profit expectations have been reduced."
Who was held responsible?
Although no one has fallen sick as a direct result of the tainted meat supply, Shanghai's FDA has closed the Husi plant at the center of the scandal, and detained five employees for questioning.
Meanwhile, Shanghai's top official has pledged to mete out "severe punishment" for anyone involved in the incident, China Daily reported.
OSI Group is conducting its own internal investigation, promising "swift and decisive action" against those responsible.
It has also announced a number of organizational changes that it says will better ensure food safety at its China subsidiaries. This includes taking the previously separate and decentralized China operations and shifting them under the global management umbrella.
It will also launch an Asia Quality Control Center in Shanghai and a three-year, RMB 10 million ($1.6 million) food safety campaign.
Is China doing enough for food safety?
Food safety has long been a top concern for China, affecting domestic and foreign companies.
In 2008, a major scandal erupted over tainted infant formula that killed several babies and left thousands more ill.
Earlier this year, Wal-Mart recalled donkey meat after it was found to be contaminated with fox meat.
Yum Brands, the owner of KFC and Pizza Hut, has just emerged from a food safety scanda l that began in late 2012.
The latest Husi scandal comes amid a revision of China's food safety laws.
Earlier this month, the National People's Congress released a draft version of the law on its website, seeking public opinion. It promised harsher punishment for offenders.Out of curiosity, Roaming Millennial, what would you go back to school for your graduate degree in? As to the thrust of the video: as long as we treat race as if it is significant in determining success, it will be made significant in determining success. The only way to overcome racial biases is to stop focusing on race. If you're really worried that a given program is STILL discriminating, depersonalize the applications and use double-blind judgment to pick and choose. If you're doing the common apologist maneuver of saying it's systemic, and so the poor disadvantaged minorities who were syetemically undereducated and put down throughout childhood need the leg up to get into college, then address the systemic problems. It's too late to "fix" it by a cosmetic acceptance into a program for which their supposedly racially disadvantaged upbringing didn't prepare them. If you want to do something for those you feel are disadvantaged as they're about to enter college, make the education they're missing available to them. Don't force them into situations for which they're not prepared. And make those opportunities available to everybody, regardless of race, who needs the help catching up to be ready for college. You'll achieve more racial equality by removing race from the criteria for consideration than you will by any measure of well-intentioned racism to favor those you consider victims of prior racism.A leaked copy of Windows Blue suggests Microsoft may finally be ready to embrace WebGL in its Internet Explorer browser. To this point — and even with the impressive (and creepy) tech demos we've seen that showcase the web API — the company has refrained from enabling WebGL in IE. In June 2011, Microsoft justified its stance by calling out a number of security concerns related to WebGL, which allows a browser to run graphically intensive applications without installing extra plugins. "Browser support for WebGL directly exposes hardware functionality to the web in a way that we consider to be overly permissive," wrote the company's Security Research & Defense team. "We believe that WebGL will likely become an ongoing source of hard-to-fix vulnerabilities."
Apparently Microsoft is now looking at things a bit differently. Last week, web developer Francois Remy did a bit of digging in the early build of Windows Blue and found several references to WebGL — a sign support could finally be en route. But Rafael Rivera explored things a bit further and discovered that WebGL can be enabled right now for anyone running the leaked software. It's still very much a work in progress according to Rivera, but by the time Internet Explorer 11 properly ships to consumers, Microsoft's browser should be standing toe-to-toe with Chrome.Clive James reflects on career, poetry and death in interview with Kerry O'Brien
Updated
Clive James says terminal illness and confronting his mortality have given him the clarity to focus like never before.
The prolific writer and Australian cultural icon was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2010 and is battling terminal emphysema - a condition that prevents him returning to Australia.
In a candid one-hour interview with Kerry O'Brien, James speaks openly about his writing, his broadcasting career, and looking death in the eye.
"I won't see Australia again, and it weighs on me. I'm very sad about that," he said.
The interview, which O'Brien says left James physically exhausted, was filmed in the Old Library at Pembroke College in Cambridge, where the 73-year-old studied in the early 1960s.
James reflects warmly about his time at the university alongside the likes of Germaine Greer and Eric Idle.
He also talks with remarkable honesty and his trademark humour about the prospect of his looming death.
"I won't be buying a ticket to Switzerland so I can book into some clinic and pay people to put me into a long, deep sleep. I can get that from television here," he quipped.
"The truth is I've got almost everything wrong; my lungs are in bad shape... I have to have my immune system replaced every three weeks," he said.
'Death is a subject'
As an author, poet, essayist, and journalist, James's literary achievements are as broad as they are impressive. That's not to mention his years as a broadcaster and television host.
He is currently working on the sixth volume of his memoirs, and earlier this year released a translation of Dante's Divine Comedy - a project that was a decade in the making.
James says his illness has added an extra dimension to his writing.
The thing about Clive James is that he is an original mind with the boldness to chance his arm at all kinds of things and the end result is there for all to see Kerry O'Brien
"Bad health makes you think," he said.
"Approaching death is a subject. Writers love subject. I'm writing things now that I never would have written before.
"Just before I got sick I was having illusions, fantasies, that I was world-weary and I'd had enough of life and it wouldn't matter very much if I disappeared [and] I'd done it all - all that self-indulgent stuff.
"Those feelings vanished overnight as soon as I got sick and I just wanted to live.
"I've found this period when I have been ill, as I am now... I find it brings a clarity of mind and the ability to concentrate on the essential that I never had when I was well. When I was well I was so energetic I never noticed anything."
Love, marriage and separation
James, who has gone to lengths over the years to shield his family's private life from the media, discusses the early days of his romance to Prue Shaw, his wife of 45 years.
The pair have been separated since last year, a period which has been difficult for the ailing writer.
O'Brien has interviewed James a number of times, but says this was the first time they discussed his personal life in any detail.
"It's the first time we have quite consciously gone into that personal exploration," O'Brien said.
"This time, because he has written quite explicitly in two or three poems about where he is in his personal life, I felt like I had the licence to go there.
"Clive, as reflected in his recent poetry, is feeling that sense of being in a solitary place. I think quite clearly, reading between the lines, he would like to be back with his wife Prue."
James speaks fondly of his younger days with Shaw, a Dante scholar who showed him the finer points of the Divine Comedy.
"She showed me how the verse worked and immediately I was enthralled. It was a big thing for me; it was a big thing for me and her. In fact it's still a romance that is still in a way going on 45 years later," he said.
"I should say that: we are still married and still involved, but you don't get more involved than when you are reading something together."
James's quality as an artist 'never in doubt'
Despite the sombre subject matter of their discussion, O'Brien says it is one of the most satisfying interviews of his career.
"The thing about Clive James is that he is an original mind with the boldness to chance his arm at all kinds of things and the end result is there for all to see," he said.
"He is now recognised globally as a poet of high quality. He's recognised as a great writer of prose. He's recognised as a humorist. He's recognised globally as a satirist. He's recognised as somebody who was a terrific songwriter – the fact that his songs never took off is another matter.
"The quality of his work was never in doubt and it's been true of everything he has taken on."
Topics: author, books-literature, arts-and-entertainment, poetry, people, human-interest, australia
First postedQuinn has been fascinated with Magic ever since Revised Edition. When he is not spending time with his lovely wife and amazing son, he's constantly brewing decks for, playing, and writing about Magic.
It's great when you get a creature with aggressive power that you can cast on the first or second turn. That Savannah Lions (or even better, a Wild Nacatl or Kird Ape) means you can get started with a plan of taking your opponent out from the earliest turn.
We appreciate that power at two mana as well, but hopefully we can get some bonus for the extra mana. Sylvan Advocate beats most other "bears" (vanilla two-mana 2/2 creatures, named after Grizzly Bears), as it gains vigilance and gets to become a 4/5 creature later in the game! That's a pretty good deal for two mana and sets a high bar.
Grim Flayer starts out as a bear, but with one swing can often become a 4/4 with trample by the end of the third turn.
All of this is to say that you don't commonly want a 3/1 with no abilities in your Constructed deck unless you are particularly hard up on creatures. The 3 power is a bit above rate and puts an opponent on a clock for little mana. It also trades with the Thraben Inspector your opponent cast on turn one.
But what if you got a 3/1 that could protect itself and produce energy?
Aethergeode Miner is an aggressive but fragile creature at first, but the second you have a little energy, it starts being able to protect itself from targeted removal.
Aethergeode Miner stands proudly in the intersect of aggro, energy, and revolution.
Wait, what?
The Miner's Revolt
Let's take a second to review the revolt mechanic, which Matt Tabak explained in the Aether Revolt mechanics article yesterday:
As the people see their ingenuity, hard work, and even loved ones disappearing under the oppression of the Consulate, tensions are rising. Revolt is a new ability word that appears in front of abilities that depend on a permanent you control leaving the battlefield.
Revolt can take several different forms. Sometimes it appears as a bonus on an instant or sorcery spell. Some creatures have revolt abilities that let them enter the battlefield with +1/+1 counters or produce different effects when they enter the battlefield
Revolt is a really cool mechanic, and it also calls back to many cards already in Standard:
Mileage may vary since you'll have to spend mana to trigger many of these effects.
Note that while Clue tokens are permanents, +1/+1 counters, loyalty counters, and energy counters are not. Clue tokens are great because you get to trigger revolt and replace the card you just cast.
We've already seen Greenwheel Liberator and Silkweaver Elite. They have great effects, but when you need to cast something that makes a permanent leave the battlefield, the extra value these cards provides can be diminished. But what if you can make something leave the battlefield for no mana? Better yet, what if it comes back?
The Aethergeode Miner does leave the battlefield; it goes to the mines and comes back angry and ready for the revolution.
Casting Aethergeode Miner on turn two and attacking with it on turn three for energy then blinking it means being able to drop a Greenwheel Liberator and untapping with 7 power between a pair of two-mana creatures!
If there are any one-drop revolt cards, Aethergeode Miner could create truly explosive turns from a single attack phase.
So it's clear that Aethergeode Miner is part of the revolution...who else is in?
Deck Concept: Green-White Revolt
We don't have all the cards in Aether Revolt yet, but we know we've got the start of a shell. This deck takes a motley crew of one- and two-drop creatures with revolt and creatures that easily trigger that mechanic. Aethergeode Miner, Selfless Spirit, and Aviary Mechanic are key ways to trigger revolt with small mana requirements.
Aggressive Energy
What I don't think we should ignore is the energy production capabilities of the Miner. What if you want to keep the energy for other purposes? The Miner has to attack to fuel itself, so it wants to live in an aggressive environment. There are many solid cards that produce energy early in the game to help the Miner out:
These cards have varying strengths and see varying amounts of Standard play, but each can feed or be fed by the Miner in the first few turns.
When you keep this Dwarf alive, it will just keep amassing energy for you to use for other spells or to keep it standing on its own two feet!
While I wonder whether this card might give white enough of an energy curve to maybe use Aetherstorm Roc, I am really more curious to see what it does when you mix it with red and green energy cards...
Deck Concept: Naya Pummeler
This is a version of the red-green energy deck that adds white for some more removal and Aethergeode Miner. The Miner in this deck can produce or use energy, and becomes another hard-to-remove card in the deck to strain your opponent's removal. As a result, the deck doesn't have to depend so heavily on the Pummeler because it is overall harder to stop. The Naya energy deck might not even need the Pummeler and could use the energy generation to fuel something else.
Back to the Mines
Ultimately, we don't yet know everything that the Miner will interact with until all of Aether Revolt is revealed. Be sure to keep checking the Card Image Gallery to see what else might work well with it! Even then, I am excited about the interactions we can already see and what interactions are soon to emerge.
Until the revolution starts in full though, it's back to the mines we go.Bible John is an unidentified serial killer who is believed to have murdered three young women between 1968 and 1969 in Glasgow, Scotland.
Each of the victims of Bible John were young brunette women between the ages of 25 and 32, and all had met their murderer at the Bar |
Brodrick (Secretary of State for War), who was also vainly urging Kitchener to greater leniency.[110]
During this period of the war—conducting "drives" across the country for Boer guerrillas, and eventually dividing up the country with barbed wire and imprisoning Boer civilians in camps—French had to struggle with out-of-date information, and trying to maintain communications between British forces by telegraph, heliograph and dispatch rider.[111] Kritzinger was driven out of the Cape in mid-August 1901, and Harry Scobell captured Lotter's commando (5 September 1901). On 7 September Smuts defeated a squadron of Haig's 17th Lancers at Elands River Poort. Gideon Scheepers was captured (11 October).[112]
Relations with Kitchener [ edit ]
French had a serious personality clash with the ascetic Kitchener, worsened by both men's obstinacy; French would later have a poor relationship with Kitchener during the First World War.[70] Although he had been unimpressed by his handling of Paardeberg, he seems to have broadly welcomed his appointment as Commander-in-Chief, not least because he was not as opposed as Roberts to the "arme blanche". In August 1900 Kitchener praised French to the Duke of York (later King George V) and wrote to Roberts that French was "quite first rate, and has the absolute confidence of all serving under him, as well as mine".[104]
Kitchener wrote to Roberts praising French for the capture of Lotter's commando, but by 17 January 1902 he wrote to Roberts "French has not done much lately in the colony. I cannot make out why, the country is no doubt difficult but I certainly expected more." After meeting French at Nauuwport Kitchener recorded (14 February 1902) "he was quite cheerful and happy about progress made, though it appears to me slow". Ian Hamilton, now Kitchener's chief of staff, wrote that French was "very much left to his own devices...he was one of the few men that Kitchener had trusted to do a job on his own".[113]
Kitchener later wrote of French "his willingness to accept responsibility, and his bold and sanguine disposition have relieved me from many anxieties".[114] Kitchener wrote of him to Roberts: "French is the most thoroughly loyal, energetic soldier I have, and all under him are devoted to him—not because he is lenient, but because they admire his soldier-like qualities".[115]
The war ends [ edit ]
Roberts (now Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in London) ordered French to convene a committee to report on cavalry tactics; French replied (15 September 1901) that he was consulting his regimental commanders, and accepted that cavalry should fight dismounted with firearms, but that they needed a new and better sword.[116] French was appointed (23 October 1901) to command 1st Army Corps at Aldershot, in place of the disgraced Buller. French wrote to thank Roberts, to whose recommendation he guessed – correctly – that he owed the job, but also wrote to Buller, stressing that he had not been offered the position, but had been appointed to it by the King (i.e. suggesting that he had had little option but to accept).[117]
The report on cavalry tactics (8 November 1901) demanded an effective rifle for cavalry rather than the existing carbine, but only as a "secondary" weapon. Roberts (10 November 1901) ordered cavalry to give up their steel weapons for the duration of the campaign, over the protests of French who argued that this was making the Boers tactically bolder.[116] In early November 1901 French, who was by now reliant on methodical operations and excellent Field Intelligence, was infuriated by Kitchener's attempt to micromanage operations. In March French had expected the war to drag on until September 1902, but Kritzinger was captured in mid-November.[112][118] French continued to lobby about cavalry tactics, agreeing (21 February 1902) with the Mounted Infantry expert Maj-Gen Edward Hutton that it was "the bullet that kills" but that the important matter was "the moral power of cavalry".[119]
The war ended at the start of June 1902, after over a month of negotiations. French was ordered to return home on the same ship as Lord Kitchener;[120] they returned to Southampton on 12 July 1902,[109] and received an enthusiastic welcome with thousands of people lining the streets of London for their procession through the city.[121] At the peace he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in recognition of his services in South Africa,[122] an unusual award for a soldier. He also received honorary degrees from Oxford and Cambridge Universities and the freedom of a number of cities and livery companies.[109]
In September 1902, French accompanied Lord Roberts and St John Brodrick, Secretary of State for War, on a visit to Germany to attend the German army maneuvers as guest of the Emperor Wilhelm.[123]
Edwardian period [ edit ]
Corps Commander, Aldershot [ edit ]
French took office as Commander-in-Chief of 1st Army Corps at Aldershot Command, from 15 September 1902.[124] He was promoted to permanent lieutenant general for distinguished service in the field on 31 October 1902.[125] He attracted the attention of Lord Esher when he testified before the Elgin Commission.[126] Esher reported to the King (27 February 1903) that he regarded French as the outstanding soldier of his generation, both as a field commander but also as a thinker. However, Balfour (Prime Minister) blocked French's appointment to the Esher Committee.[127]
French was proposed as a potential Chief of Staff in 1903–04. Esher wrote "he has never failed" while Admiral Fisher—who stressed French's excellent record in South Africa, his skill as a judge of men, and his openness to army-navy operations—wrote "plump for French and efficiency", although with growing friction over war planning, Fisher hoped that French would be an ally in opposing Army plans for deploying an expeditionary force to Europe. French's appointment was—to his relief, as he did not relish having to fight with Arnold-Forster over his mooted reforms—vetoed by King Edward VII, who thought him too junior for the post.[128] Esher pressed Neville Lyttelton, who was appointed instead, to give French as free a hand as possible.[129]
French had been insisting since January 1904 that, irrespective of what reforms the War Secretaries Brodrick or Arnold-Forster were pushing through, I Corps should be the Army's main strike force with at least one of its divisions kept up to strength for service overseas, and managed to force his view through the Army Council in August 1904.[129] French may have privately shared the doubts which others had about his intellectual capacity, but Esher wrote of him that his grasp of strategy and tactics broadened, and, although naturally gregarious, he became more aloof and solitary as he prepared himself for high command.[130] In 1904 French urged the adoption of the 18 pounder field gun on Esher. He also recognised the importance of howitzers.[131] At the 1904 Manoeuvres French commanded an "invasion force" which advanced inland from Clacton—many horses and supplies were lost, which apparently persuaded French that an enemy would find it hard to invade Britain successfully.[132] In October 1904 French won Fisher's approval with a paper on the strategic importance of the Dardanelles.[132]
French threatened resignation unless his aide de camp Major Algy Lawson, who had not attended Staff College, was appointed Brigade-Major of the 1st Cavalry Brigade. He suspected a War Office plot led by the rising staff officers Henry Rawlinson and Henry Wilson, whom at this stage he distrusted. Despite being advised by Esher that this was not a sufficiently serious matter to justify such obstinacy, French got his way (December 1904) by threatening to appeal to the King. He also got his way over a similar matter involving Esher's son Lt Maurice Brett, who served as French's ADC, and on this occasion did approach the King's secretary (February 1905).[133]
French was given General Officer Commanding-in-Chief status at Aldershot on 1 June 1905.[134] He was on the Committee of Imperial Defence in 1905, possibly because of his willingness to consider amphibious operations including at various times, in the Baltic and on the Belgian Coast. Philpott[135] discusses French's significant influence on pre-war strategic planning.[136] He generally confined his advice to practical questions such as the difficulties of keeping horses at sea for long periods.[132] French had a poor regard for staff officers and had poor relations with the general staff. At one meeting of the CID he became scarlet and speechless with rage while listening to Lyttelton proposing that Egypt could be defended by warships in the Suez Canal.[137]
On 19 December 1905 and 6 January 1906, as a result of the First Moroccan Crisis, French was one of a four-man committee convened by Esher to discuss war planning: the options were purely naval operations, an amphibious landing in the Baltic, or a deployment of an expeditionary force to France. At the second meeting French presented a plan for deployment to France or Belgium ten days after mobilisation, possibly mobilising on French territory to save time.[138][139] Although French helped to draw up deployment plans as asked, it is not entirely clear from the surviving documents that he wholeheartedly supported such a commitment to France ("WF"—"With France"—as this scheme was known) until he was eventually persuaded by Henry Wilson, and he did not entirely rule out an amphibious landing in the Baltic. He also maintained an interest in a possible deployment to Antwerp.[140]
French generally had good relation with Haldane, the new Secretary of State for War, but lobbied him against cutting two Guards battalions (the Liberals had been elected on a platform of retrenchment).[141] In February 1906 French told Major General Grierson (Director of Military Operations) that he was to be Commander-in-Chief of the BEF during the next war, with Grierson as his chief of staff. He had meetings with Grierson throughout March until the Moroccan crisis was resolved.[142] French told the Daily Mail (12 May 1906) that a force of trained volunteers would deter an enemy invasion.[132] In June 1906 French still believed that another war scare might come soon, and in July he attended French Army manoeuvres in Champagne, by which he was impressed, although he was less impressed by the Belgian Army. On this trip he was accused of giving unauthorised interviews to the French press, after uttering what Grierson called "a few platitudes" to the Figaro correspondent.[143]
Haldane confirmed to Esher (26 September 1906) that French was to be Commander-in-Chief of the BEF during the next war.[144] He visited France unofficially in November 1906 in an attempt to improve his French, although he never became fluent in the language.[143] A Special Army Order of 1 January 1907 laid down that in the event of war Britain would send an Expeditionary force of six infantry and one cavalry division to assist the French.[145] French was promoted to full general on 12 February 1907.[146] In the summer of 1907 he entertained General Victor Michel, French Commander-in-Chief designate, at Aldershot to observe British manoeuvres.[147]
The Cavalry controversy [ edit ]
French testified to the Elgin Commission that cavalry should be trained to shoot but that the sword and lance should remain their main weapons. Hutton wrote to French (1 April 1903) that cavalry should retain some shock capacity but that the real issue was recruiting "professional" officers in place of the present rich and aristocratic ones. French strongly disagreed, although he remained on friendly terms with Hutton and recognised that the expense of being a cavalry officer deterred many able young men.[119] The Adjutant-General's memorandum (10 March 1903) recommended the retention of the sword—which Roberts had wanted replaced by an automatic pistol—but not the lance. Roberts also chaired a conference on the topic six months later, at which Haig was the leading traditionalist. Haig's heavily traditional "Cavalry Training" appeared in 1904, leaning heavily on the 1898 Cavalry Drill Book which he had helped French to write, although with a "reforming" preface by Roberts.[148]
In response to a request from Arnold-Forster, French submitted a memorandum (7 March 1904) arguing that cavalry still needed to fight the old-fashioned way as a European War would begin with a "great cavalry battle". He also sent a copy to the King. In response to Roberts' claim that he wanted to give cavalry the ability to act independently, French wrote in the margin that the campaigns of early 1900 had seen cavalry acting independently, although he replied politely that their differences were not as great as Roberts seemed to think. Roberts had the support of Kitchener (who thought cavalry should be able to seize and hold positions, but not to roam about the battlefield looking for enemy cavalry), but he was away as Commander-in-Chief, India. French was supported by Baden-Powell (Inspector-General of Cavalry), Sir Francis Grenfell (who commented that he had not spoken to any junior officer who agreed with Roberts) and Evelyn Wood. In February 1905, after Roberts' removal as Commander-in-Chief, the Army Council authorised the publication of Haig's "Cavalry Training" but without Roberts' preface, although the lance was declared abolished as a weapon of war—a decision ignored by French, who allowed his lancer regiments at Aldershot to carry the lance in field training.[149]
The first edition of the Cavalry Journal appeared in 1906, promoted by C.S. Goldman, an admirer of French. It was put on an official basis in 1911.[150] Lieutenant General Friedrich von Bernhardi's Cavalry in Future Wars was published in 1906, with a preface by French, repeating his arguments that cold steel gave the cavalry moral superiority, and that the next war would see an opening clash of cavalry. French also claimed that Russian cavalry in the Russo-Japanese War had come off worse as they were too willing to fight dismounted—this was the opposite of the truth.[151][152] The new edition of Cavalry Training in 1907 reaffirmed that cold steel was the main weapon of the cavalry.[150] However, at the end of the 1908 Manoeuvres French criticised cavalry's poor dismounted work, and—to Haig's annoyance—declared that the rifle was cavalry's main weapon. He also noted that infantry lacked a doctrine for the final stages of their attack, as they closed with the enemy—something which was to prove a problem in the middle years of the Great War.[153] The lance was formally reinstated in June 1909. However, in his 1909 Inspection Report French again criticised cavalry's poor dismounted work.[154]
Although French believed that the "cavalry spirit" gave them an edge in action, his tendency to identify with his subordinates—in this case the cavalry, whose identity seemed under threat—and to take disagreements personally caused him to be seen as more of a reactionary than was in fact the case. In the event, cavalry would fight successfully in 1914: the "cavalry spirit" helped them to perform well on the Retreat From Mons, while they were still capable of fighting effectively on foot at First Ypres.[155]
There was general agreement that the greater size of battlefields would increase the importance of cavalry. The publication of Erskine Childers' War and the Arme Blanche (1910) with a preface by Roberts went some way to reinstating the reformers' case. Childers argued that there had been only four real cavalry charges in South Africa, inflicting at most 100 casualties by cold steel, but acknowledged that French, "our ablest cavalry officer", disagreed with him.[156] However, in September 1913 the Army Council decreed that Mounted Infantry would not be used in future wars and the two existing Mounted Infantry brigades were broken up.[157]
Inspector-General of the Army [ edit ]
After extensive lobbying by Esher, and with King Edward VII's support, French was selected as Inspector-General of the Army in November 1907.[158][159] The appointment was announced on 21 December 1907.[160] Irish MP Moreton Frewen demanded – apparently in vain – a Court of Inquiry into French's dismissal of his brother Stephen Frewen from command of the 16th Lancers during the Boer War, pointing out to Haldane that French was "an adulterer convicted in a court of law", for which offence "Haldane's late chief" had "drum(med) his late chief" out of public life.[161] French was also appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order in 1907.[6]
French openly opposed conscription, thinking Roberts' demand for a conscript army to defend against German invasion "absurd".[162] He was generally supportive of the new Territorial Army, although he had some doubts about the effectiveness of Territorial Artillery. In 1907–08 he sat on a CID committee to consider the risk of German invasion—it was decided to retain two divisions at home as a deterrent to invasion, until the Territorial Force was ready.[163] At the August 1908 manoeuvres, French's poor report ended the military career of Harry Scobell, who commanded the Cavalry Division on the exercise, despite being well connected, a personal friend of French, and a successful commander from the South African campaigns. French's reports showed great interest in trenches, machine guns and artillery. He also believed strongly that peacetime drill, both for infantry and for cavalry, was necessary to prepare men for combat discipline.[164] In the winter of 1908–09 French served on the "Military Needs of the Empire" sub-committee of the CID, which reaffirmed the commitment to France in the event of war.[147] He was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in the King's Birthday Honours 1909.[165] French courted unpopularity with some infantry officers by urging a doubling in the size of infantry companies. In the winter of 1909–10 he toured British troops in the Far East, and in the summer of 1910 he inspected the Canadian Army, at the request of the Canadian Dominion administration. He declined to express an opinion on the mooted introduction of conscription in Canada, replying that the existing system of voluntary recruitment had not been tested for long enough yet.[166]
This period also saw the beginning of the feud between French and Smith-Dorrien, his successor at Aldershot with whom he had been on relatively cordial terms at the end of the Boer War. Smith-Dorrien annoyed French by insisting that cavalry improve their musketry, by abolishing the pickets which trawled the streets for drunken soldiers, by more than doubling the number of playing fields available to the men, by cutting down trees, and by building new and better barracks. By 1910 the feud was common knowledge throughout the Army. Smith-Dorrien, happily married to a young and pretty wife, also objected to French's womanising.[167]
French in full ceremonial uniform as Aide-de-Camp to King George V in September 1911.
French was made an Aide-de-Camp General to the King on 19 June 1911.[168] The Second Moroccan Crisis was occasion for French to push again for greater Army-Navy co-operation. Admiral Fisher, recently retired as First Sea Lord, wrote (20 August 1911) that French had been to see him "as the tool of Sir William Nicholson. I told him to go to Hell." On 23 August Henry Wilson carried a CID meeting with a lucid presentation of the Army's plans for deployment to France; Admiral Wilson's plans to land on the Baltic Coast were rejected. French spoke to the Navy Club that year on the need for co-operation between the two services.[169] The autumn 1911 manoeuvres were cancelled, supposedly because of shortage of water but in reality because of the war scare. French accompanied Grierson and the French military attaché Victor Huguet to France for talks with de Castelnau, Assistant Chief of the French General Staff (Wilson—Director of Military Operations since August 1910—had already been over for talks in July). On the journey, French talked of how Douglas and Paget would command armies under him in the event of war, with Grierson as chief of staff. Plans for British deployment were especially welcome as French war plans were in a state of flux, with Joffre having been appointed commander-in-chief designate on 28 July.[170] After his return from France in 1911 French inspected German cavalry manoeuvres in Mecklenburg, and was summoned from his bath to receive the Order of the Red Eagle. On presenting him with a signed photograph of himself the Kaiser told him: "You may have seen just how long my sword is: you may find it just as sharp".[171]
In January 1912 French attended the annual staff conference at Staff College, and was impressed by the quality of the discussion. However, he lectured staff officers that they should not consider themselves the superiors of regimental officers, but that their job was to provide the commander with impartial advice and then endeavour to carry out his wishes.[137]
Chief of the Imperial General Staff [ edit ]
He became Chief of the Imperial General Staff ("CIGS"—professional head of the Army) on 15 March 1912 although he neither had staff experience nor had studied at Staff College.[6][172] On his first day as CIGS (16 March 1912) he told his three directors (Wilson—Director of Military Operations, Murray—Director of Military Training and Kiggell—Director of Staff Duties) that he intended to get the Army ready for war. French was receptive to Wilson's wishes to explore co-operation with Belgium (although in the end the Belgian Government refused to co-operate and remained strictly neutral until the outbreak of war).[173][174] French had initially been suspicious of Wilson as a Roberts protégé, but in 1906 had supported Wilson's candidacy for Commandant of Staff College. By 1912 Wilson had become French's most trusted adviser.[169] On 8 November 1912, with the First Balkan War causing another war scare, Wilson helped French draw up a list of key officers for the Expeditionary Force: Haig and Smith-Dorrien were to command "armies", Allenby the cavalry division, and Grierson was to be chief of staff.[175]
In February 1913 Repington wrote a series of articles in The Times demanding conscription for home defence. The Prime Minister himself led the CID "Invasion Inquiry", on which French sat. The conclusions, which were not reached until early 1914, were that two divisions should be retained at home, reducing the size of the BEF. (French and Roberts had agreed with one another that one division would have sufficed.[175])
In April 1913, French told Wilson that he expected to serve as CIGS (extending his term by two years) until 1918, and to be succeeded by Murray.[176] In April 1913 King George V told Seely that he was to make French a field marshal in the next honours.[144] He received the promotion on 3 June 1913.[6]
French's efforts "to get the Army ready for war" were hampered by budgetary constraints, and he was unsuited by temperament or experience for the job. French caused controversy by passing over four generals for promotion in the autumn of 1913, and angered some infantry officers by forcing through the changes to infantry battalions so that they comprised four large companies commanded by majors rather than eight small companies commanded by captains. French lobbied Seely for an increase in pay and allowances for officers, to widen the social base from which officers were recruited—this was enacted from 1 January 1914.[177]
In the summer of 1913 French, accompanied by Grierson and Wilson, again visited French manoeuvres in Champagne.[178] After the September 1913 Manoeuvres Repington wrote in The Times that French had found it difficult to defeat even a skeleton army.[178] Since 1904 French himself had to act as Director of the Annual Manoeuvres, so that although other officers had the chance to learn to handle divisions, he himself had little chance to learn to handle a force of several divisions. This lack of training may well have been factor in his poor performance in August 1914.[179] The BEF senior officers (French, Haig, Wilson, Grierson and Paget who had replaced Smith-Dorrien by then) met to discuss strategy on 17 November 1913. In his diary Wilson praised "Johnnie French" for "hitting out" at the Royal Navy over their poor transport arrangements, but recorded his concerns at French's lack of intellect and hoped there would not be a war just yet.[175][180]
Curragh incident [ edit ]
Plans for deployment [ edit ]
With Irish Home Rule about to become law in 1914, the Cabinet were contemplating some form of military action against the Ulster Volunteers (UVF) who wanted no part of it, and who were seen by many officers as loyal British subjects. In response to the King's request for his views (the King had also written to the Prime Minister), French wrote (25 September 1913) that the army would obey "the absolute commands of the King", but he warned that some might think "that they were best serving their King and country either by refusing to march against the Ulstermen or by openly joining their ranks" although he stressed that he wanted to act firmly against dissidents within the army.[181] In December 1913, in his memorandum "Position of the Army with Regard to the Situation in Ulster", French recommended that Captain Spender, who was openly assisting the UVF, be cashiered "pour decourager les autres".[182]
With political negotiations deadlocked and intelligence reports that the Ulster Volunteers (now 100,000 strong) might be about to seize the ammunition at Carrickfergus Castle, French only agreed to summon Paget (Commander-in-Chief, Ireland) to London to discuss planned troop movements when Seely (Secretary of State for War) repeatedly assured him of the accuracy of intelligence that UVF might march on Dublin. French did not oppose the deployment of troops in principle but told Wilson that the government were "scattering troops all over Ulster as if it were a Pontypool coal strike".[183]
At another meeting on 19 March French told Paget not to be "a bloody fool" when he said that he would "lead his Army to the Boyne", although after the meeting he resisted lobbying from Robertson and Wilson to advise the Government that the Army could not be used against Ulster. That evening French was summoned to an emergency meeting at 10 Downing Street (he was requested to come in via the garden, not the front door) with Asquith, Seely, Churchill (First Lord of the Admiralty), Birrell (Chief Secretary for Ireland) and Paget, where he was told that Carson, who had stormed out of a Commons debate, was expected to declare a provisional government in Ulster. French was persuaded by Asquith to send infantry to defend the artillery at Dundalk, and by Seely that a unionist coup was imminent in Ulster. No trace of Seely's intelligence survives. Seely reassured French, who was worried about a possible European war, that "large mobile forces of the Regular Army" would not be sent to Ireland unless needed, but he was sure that Ulster would support Britain in that event.[184]
Peccant paragraphs [ edit ]
The result was the Curragh incident, in which Hubert Gough and other of Paget's officers threatened to resign rather than coerce Ulster. French, advised by Haldane (Lord Chancellor) told the King (22 March) that Paget should not have asked officers about "hypothetical contingencies" and declared that he would resign unless Gough, who had confirmed that he would have obeyed a direct order to move against Ulster, was reinstated.[185]
French suggested to Seely that a written document from the Army Council might help to convince Gough's officers. The Cabinet text stated that the Army Council were satisfied that the incident had been a misunderstanding, and that it was "the duty of all soldiers to obey lawful commands", to which Seely added two paragraphs, stating that the Government had the right to use "the forces of the Crown" in Ireland or elsewhere, but had no intention of using force "to crush opposition to the Home Rule Bill".[186] Gough insisted on adding a further paragraph clarifying that the Army would not be used to enforce Home Rule "on Ulster'", to which French added in writing "This is how I read it. JF CIGS". He may have been acting in the belief that the matter needed to be resolved quickly after learning from Haig that afternoon that all the officers of Aldershot Command would resign if Gough was punished.[6][187]
Asquith publicly repudiated the "peccant paragraphs" (25 March). Wilson, who hoped to bring down the government, advised French to resign, as an officer could not be seen to break his word, even at the behest of politicians. Asquith at first wanted French to stay on as he had been "so loyal and well-behaved", but then changed his mind despite French drawing up two statements with Haldane, claiming that he had been acting in accordance with Haldane's statement in the House of Lords on 23 March. Seely also had to resign.[188] French resigned on 6 April 1914.[189]
Results [ edit ]
French had been made to look naive and overly-friendly to the Liberal government. Most officers were Conservative and Ulster Unionist sympathisers, but, with a few exceptions (Kitchener and Wilson's party sympathies were well known), took pride in their loyalty to the King and professed contempt for party politics. French was thought by Margot Asquith to be a "hot Liberal".[190] By 1914, he was a personal friend of the Liberal ministers Winston Churchill and Jack Seely[126] and was friendly to Seely when the minister's first wife died in childbirth in August 1913. Meanwhile, Sir Edward Grey wrote "French is a trump, and I love him". After 1918 French became a Home Ruler, but at this stage he simply thought his duty to be ensuring that the Army obeyed the government's orders.[190]
As far back as 20 April 1913, Wilson recorded his concerns that French's friendship with Seely and unexpected promotion to Field Marshal were bringing him too close to the Liberals.[182] Throughout the affair French resisted pressure from Wilson to warn the government that the Army would not move against Ulster,[191] and he had an acrimonious telephone conversation (21 March) with Field Marshal Roberts in which he was told that he would share the blame if he collaborated with the Cabinet's "dastardly" attempt to coerce Ulster;[192][193] French for his part blamed Roberts for stirring up the Incident.[158] Esher, who had written of French (22 March 1914) that he was "too much in the hands of the politicians", approved of his resignation, as did H.A. Gwynne, who throughout the crisis had pressed French to tell the Cabinet that the Army would not coerce Ulster, and Godfrey Locker-Lampson MP.[194]
While sorting out some papers for his successor Charles Douglas French told Wilson (3 April) that Asquith had promised him command of the BEF in the event of war, although nobody realised how quickly this would come.[195] Margot Asquith wrote that he would soon be "coming back", suggesting that Asquith may have promised to appoint French Inspector-General. Churchill described him as "a broken-hearted man" when he joined the trial mobilisation of the fleet in mid-July. French was still seen as a potential Commander-in-Chief of the BEF, although even in early August French himself was uncertain that he would be appointed.[194][196][197]
Commander-in-Chief, BEF [ edit ]
1914: BEF goes to war [ edit ]
Mobilisation and deployment [ edit ]
The "Precautionary Period" for British mobilisation began on 29 July, the day after Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. French was summoned by Sir Charles Douglas (CIGS) and told (30 July) he would command the British Expeditionary Force (BEF).[7][198] There was no other serious candidate for the position.[199] He was first briefly re-appointed Inspector-General of the Army (1 August).[200] Sir John spent much of 2 August in discussions with French Ambassador Paul Cambon.[198] British mobilisation began at 4 pm on 4 August.[201] Until Germany invaded Belgium it was unclear whether Britain would join in the war, but she did so at midnight on 4 August.[202]
French attended the War Council at 10 Downing Street (5 August), and there presented the War Office plans (drawn up by Wilson) to send the BEF to Maubeuge, although he also suggested that as British mobilisation was lagging behind France's it might be safer to send the BEF to Amiens (also the view of Lord Kitchener and Lt.-General Sir Douglas Haig). French also suggested that the BEF might operate from Antwerp against the German right flank, similar to schemes which had been floated in 1905–06 and reflecting French's reluctant acceptance of the continental commitment. This suggestion was dropped when Churchill said the Royal Navy could not guarantee safe passage.[198] Kitchener, believing the war would be long, decided at Cabinet (6 August) that the BEF would consist of only 4 infantry divisions (and 1 cavalry); French believing the war would be short, demanded 5 infantry divisions but was over-ruled at another War Council that afternoon. Embarkation began on 9 August.[201]
On 12 August, French, Murray, Wilson and the French liaison officer Victor Huguet met at French's house at Lancaster Gate and agreed to concentrate at Maubeuge, and after another meeting with Kitchener (who had had an argument with Wilson on 9 August—given Wilson's influence over French this served to worsen relations between French and Kitchener), who still preferred to concentrate further back at Amiens, they left to obtain the Prime Minister's agreement.[203]
French crossed to France on 14 August.[201] President Poincaré, meeting French on 15 August, commented on his "quiet manner... not very military in appearance" and thought that one might mistake him for a plodding engineer rather than a dashing cavalry general. French told Poincare that he would not be ready until 24 August, not 20 August as planned.[204] French also met Messimy (French War Minister) and Joffre (16 August).[205] Sir John's orders from Kitchener were to co-operate with the French but not to take orders from them, and given that the tiny BEF (about 100,000 men, half of them regulars and half reservists) was Britain's only army, to avoid undue losses and being exposed to "forward movements where large numbers of French troops are not engaged" until Kitchener had had a chance to discuss the matter with the Cabinet.[206]
Clash with Lanrezac [ edit ]
Field Marshal French (left) in Paris
The Siege of Liège ended when the last of the Belgian fortresses fell on 16 August and most of the remaining Belgian troops were soon besieged in Antwerp, opening Belgium to the German advance. Previously ardent and bombastic, French became hesitant and cautious, giving different answers about the date when the BEF could be expected to begin operations in the field.[207][208]
At his meeting with Joffre (16 August) French had been advised to hurry up and join in Lanrezac's offensive, as he would not wait for him to catch up.[209] French met General Charles Lanrezac, commanding the French Fifth Army on his right, at Rethel (17 August)—they were met by Lanrezac's Chief of Staff Hely d'Oissel, with the words: "At last you're here: it's not a moment too soon. If we are beaten we will owe it to you". They conferred in private despite the fact that Lanrezac spoke no English and Sir John could speak little French, Wilson being eventually called over to translate. French asked whether the German advance forces spotted at Huy would cross the Meuse River (a reasonable question, as a westward crossing of the Meuse exposed the BEF to encirclement from the west)—his inability to pronounce the name "Huy" caused Lanrezac to exclaim in exasperation that the Germans had probably "come... to fish"; French understood the tone but not the meaning, and Wilson tactfully translated that the Germans would indeed cross the river. French informed Lanrezac that his forces would not be ready until 24 August, three days later than promised. The French cavalry under André Sordet, which Sir John had previously asked Joffre in vain to be placed under his command, were further north trying to maintain contact with the Belgians. Sir John, concerned that he had only four infantry divisions rather than the planned six, wanted to keep Allenby's cavalry division in reserve and refused Lanrezac's request that he lend it for reconnaissance in front of the French forces (Lanrezac misunderstood that French intended to use the British cavalry as mounted infantry). French and Lanrezac came away from the meeting with a poor relationship. At the time French wrote in his diary that Lanrezac was "a very capable soldier", although he claimed otherwise in his memoirs 1914. Besides their mutual dislike he believed Lanrezac was about to take the offensive, whereas Lanrezac had in fact been forbidden by Joffre to fall back and wanted the BEF moved back further to clear roads for a possible French retreat.[207 |
the potential to drown out bird vocalisations – making communication by sound virtually impossible. Taking male birdsong as an example, we can see how this is significant. Male song is essentially a coded message that does two things: 1) give information to female listeners on his quality as a mate and 2) tell rival males to go away. If these messages cannot be heard properly, then it is likely that it will be much harder for the singer to find a female, and he will be more likely to get into more physical fights during disputes over territory.
However, some birds have adopted what is thought to be a smart strategy for ensuring song notes can be heard above the racket. Many comparisons of song from noisy urban areas with that from quiet countryside locations have shown the urban songs of some species such as the great tit (Parus major) to be at a significantly higher pitch than those in the countryside – making themselves heard over low frequency traffic noise (Mockford & Marshall 2009). So far, this has been seen in many species including: chiffchaffs (Verzijden et al., 2010), northern cardinals (Seger-Fullam et al., 2011), silvereyes (Potvin & Mulder, 2013) and song sparrows (Wood & Yezerinac, 2006).
From these two brief examples, it is clear that the noise and bright lights of the city are changing the behaviour of resident bird species. But do these changes in behaviour signify a more serious pressure on species’ survival? To answer this, scientists such as those at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology (Seeweisen, Germany) are now looking into the physical consequences of living in a metropolitan environment for birds – particularly if exposure to anthropogenic (man-made) noise causes high levels of stress. Only once we know this, can we make predictions as to how life in the city might be affecting the survival of native bird species, and ultimately give us clues for the plans we should make in order to protect city wildlife as a whole. With a recent study showing a drop in the number of bird species found near noisy roadsides (Wiącek et al., 2015), further research cannot come too soon.
References
Dijk, D.J., (2013), Why do we sleep so late? Journal of Sleep Research, (22), 605-606.
Dominoni, D. M.., Helm, B., Lehmann, M., Dowse, H.B., Partecke, J., (2013)., Clocks for the city: circadian differences between forest and city songbirds, Proceedings of the Royal Society of Biological Sciences, (282), DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2013.0593.
Max Planck Institute for Ornithology Website. URL: https://www.orn.mpg.de/en. [Last Accessed on: 10/02/2015].
Mockford E., Marshall, R., (2009), Effects of urban noise on song and response behaviour in great tits” Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B. (276), 2979-2985, ” DOI:10.1098/rspb.2009.0586
Potvin, D.A., Mulder, R.A., (2013), Immediate, independent adjustment of call pitch and amplitude in response to varying background noise by silvereyes (Zosterops lateralis), Behavioural Ecology, (24), 1363-1368.
Seger-Fullum, K.D., Rodewald, A.D., Soha, J.A., (2011), Urban noise predicts song frequency in Northern Cardinals and American Robins, Bioacoustics, (20), 267-276.
Verzijden, M.N., Ripmeester, E.A.P., Ohms, V.R., Snelderwaard, P., Slabbekoorn, H., (2010), Immediate spectral flexibility in singing chiffchaffs during experimental exposure to highway noise, Journal of Experimental Biology, (213), 2575-2581.
Wiąceka, J., Polaka, M., Kucharczyka, M., Bohatkiewiczb, J., (2015), The influence of road traffic on birds during autumn period: Implications for planning and management of road network, Landscape and Urban Planning, (134), 76-82.
Wood, W.E., Yezerinac, S.M., (2006), Song sparrow (Melospiza melodia) song varies with urban noise, The Auk, (123), 650-659.
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Like this: Like Loading...IMAGE CREDIT TO ANGRYDOGSTUDIOS.COM!!! www.angrydogstudios.com I do not own this image, it belongs to the photographers of angrydogstudios.com~~~This is an original battle armor version cosplay of Nightmare Moon from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. This was designed, created, and modeled by me Brittany Molnar at MTAC 2014. ALL PIECES WERE MADE BY ME!I got alot of crap being said about me when I won the cosplay contest at MTAC 2014. Most people said that I couldn't have made all of the cosplay on my own, that something must have been bought, but NO! I made everything, EVEN THE SPANDEX SUIT UNDERNEATH AND I TAKE PRIDE IN THAT PIECE! I patterned the hidden seam spandex suit on my own, made the pattern to fit me, spent lots of time tweeking the pattern, and eventually came out with this. It's not perfect, but it does its job and I'm proud of it. The gloves are loosely based off of Vincent Valentine gloves and the sceptor is my own design as well.For more information about my cosplays and for commission quotes, visit me at my cosplay page Crowe's Cosplays!Also, please check out my Etsy Shop! I will do commission transactions through my Etsy shop. I also make lolita fashion and accessories to sell in my shop! At the moment, there are no lolita items on my shop because I nearly sold out of everything at MTAC!But I will have new things up soon!THE jury in the trial of a student accused of rape has failed to reach a verdict.
Alastair Cooke, a former Durham University student, has been standing trial at Durham Crown Court accused of three charges of rape.
But the jury, which had heard evidence over almost a two-week period, failed to reach a decision on any of the charges on Friday.
After more than seven hours of considering the evidence the jury was discharged and a decision on whether a further trial will be held will be made in the new year.
The trial had heard from the prosecution that the woman, another student, had been very drunk at the time of the alleged rape.
The incident happened in the early hours of June 2, 2015, following a house party the night before, which the pair had attended together.
The court had heard that the woman, who had been drinking rum punch, had left the party after being kissed by Mr Cooke and he had later followed her to her home, entered through an unlocked door and found her sleeping on the sofa.
The complainant says she remembers waking up naked in bed with the defendant in the room and it is alleged he raped her in a number of positions.
But Mr Cooke, who was studying geology and geophysics, says the pair had consensual sex and says that the alleged victim did not appear to be drunk.
He says he was “close” to the woman and they had been growing closer over a period of time and had shared a moment earlier on the day of the party during a yoga session at his house.
Mr Cooke, who was suspended by Durham University following his arrest, denies three charges of rape.
The 22-year-old, who was a third year student at Van Mildert College at the time of the alleged offence, also worked for the university’s support service Nightline and had shortly before his arrest had been given an award for his efforts towards a suicidal caller.
Shaun Dodds, for the prosecution, said a decision on whether there would be a re-trial will be made at a further hearing on Friday, January 13.
He said: “It is highly likely we will be seeking a re-trial.”
Mr Cooke, of Truro, in Cornwall, was told he does not have to attend the hearing.Rough sleeping has soared since the Coalition came into power as cuts to local housing and homeless services take effect, Government figures show.
An estimated 2,414 people were sleeping rough in England on any one night in 2013, an increase of 37 per cent on 2010. Local authority budgets have been squeezed under the Coalition, making shelters and schemes aimed at preventing homelessness increasingly vulnerable.
Snapshot surveys and estimates were conducted by local authorities over a single night in autumn 2013. These found that while rough sleeping declined in London by three per cent between 2012 and 2013, it increased elsewhere in England by seven per cent.
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.
In 2009 the Labour Government removed the ring fence from housing support services to the vulnerable, known as Supporting People. Unprecedented cuts to local authority budgets imposed by the coalition mean many councils have been forced to strip back services aimed at preventing homelessness even further.
In Derby the number of rough sleepers has almost doubled, to 47, in the wake of dramatic council cuts. Last year Derby City Council began a two-year programme of 82 per cent cuts to its budget for supported housing. The first tranche of these cuts went through between April and October last year.
The number of rough sleepers found in Nottinghamshire increased by 78 per cent between 2011 and 2012, to 48 people. Two years ago, Nottinghamshire Council Council, then Tory-controlled, cut its Supporting People budget by 65 per cent. Now under Labour rule, the council is proposing a further cut of £3.2m for housing related services including homeless services. A budget that was £27m in 2004, could amount to just £9m by 2017.
Councillor Muriel Weisz, chair of Nottinghamshire County Council’s adult social care and health committee, said: “Unfortunately, the impact of the Government cuts on our budget means we must prioritise our statutory services – those we must do – over discretionary services such as the homeless support services.”
Shadow Housing Minister, Emma Reynolds MP, said: “It is appalling that on David Cameron’s watch the number of people sleeping rough has soared by more than a third.
“The Prime Minister once said homelessness and rough sleeping were a disgrace. But warm words are cold comfort to those sleeping rough if you fail to act.
“The Government was warned its policies risked increasing homelessness and rough sleeping but these warnings fell on deaf ears. What we are seeing now are the direct consequences of David Cameron's failure.”
In Scotland, where homeless prevention has been prioritised by the devolved government, the rate of rough sleeping has been decreasing, according to the latest figures. In 2007-08, 10 per cent of applicants for local authority homelessness assistance had slept rough the night before, by 2012-13, this dropped to four per cent.
No data has been collected on rough sleeping in Wales since 2007, though some charities estimate that there could be more than 1,000 people either sleeping rough or in an emergency shelter every night.
Mark McPherson, director of practice and regions for Homeless Link, said: “Any increase in rough sleeping is bad news, but without charities working hard to get people off the streets, the situation could have been far worse. In areas where funding has been cut to the bone, we have seen significant rises in rough sleeping.
“Councils have to make tough decisions, but removing funding will leave already vulnerable people at even greater risk. Furthermore, this will not have the desired effect of saving money as people become more damaged and require ever more complex services.”
London had 543 rough sleepers when the Government head count was conducted, accounting for 22 per cent of the national figure. However, data collected by the Combined Homelessness and Information Network (CHAIN) suggests that overall in 2012-13, there were 6,437 people in London contacted by outreach teams or who accessed accommodation for rough sleepers.
Housing Minister Kris Hopkins said: “For years, the national figure on the numbers of rough sleepers failed to reflect the true situation on our streets – we’ve changed that so every council now has to report the scale of the problem in their area.
“We’ve also introduced the No Second Night Out initiative, which actively seeks to find and help hidden rough sleepers and means that 70 per cent of rough sleepers spend no more than one night on the streets.
“And with the majority of rough sleepers in London being foreign nationals, we’ve ensured European nationals sleeping on our streets are removed, and we’ve toughened the immigration rules.”
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 now.Taking a cue from their global counterparts like Google and Amazon who have played elaborate pranks on their customers and audiences for April Fools, Indian companies too joined the party this year with hilarious setups for the occasion. Here are some on the best April Fools pranks that were seen on the Indian corporate scene.
1. Ola
This prank began early in the morning of April Fool’s day, when Ola sent out the following tweet announcing the revolutionary concept of OlaAir – a helicopter cab service.
Introducing Ola Air: Now you can book a chopper ride, from the Ola app for just Rs. 499 per hour! #OlaAirhttps://t.co/DzWYIof3Pn — Ola (@Olacabs) March 31, 2015
The rest of twitter joined in with gusto, with people joining in on the joke.
@Olacabs @karan23701 hahaha!!
yes Even I am riding in Ola air!! pic.twitter.com/FiEHdeFz8V — Murari Bhartia (@muraribhartia) April 1, 2015
Thanks to @Olacabs #OlaAir I got this beautiful view. What a start to the day it was. pic.twitter.com/3n1pCTs6vH — Chetan Bhawani (@chetanbhawani) April 1, 2015
Ola wasn’t done quite yet. There was some playful banter with other startups too.
@Olacabs The pilot looks familiar… oh yeah, he chauffeured the cab we booked last week. 😉 — Flipkart (@Flipkart) April 1, 2015
TaxiForSure, which was recently bought by Ola for $200 million, also got in on the action.
Congrats @Olacabs for starting #OlaAir – this is indeed going to be a #RevolutionForSure — TaxiForSure (@taxiforsure) April 1, 2015
2. Zomato
Another company that’s often in the news for its quirky promotional campaigns, Zomato launched Zomatcho for April Fools, a service that it claimed would help single, lonely people find love by bonding with their would-be partners over food. “Using a proprietary algorithm that takes into account your known dining behaviour based on the way you use Zomato, as well as a couple of other parameters (let’s just call it magic, because we can’t reveal anything more), the app helps match you with people you’re most compatible with, food-wise.”, the press release cheekily said.
Dining alone will soon be a thing of the past – #Zomatcho will be served up soon! http://t.co/TYeNnE1ZNt — Zomato (@Zomato) March 31, 2015
3. Allen Solly
Clothing retailer Allen Solly changed the colours of its clothes to some ludicrous combinations and asked people to guess what the original colours of its wardrobe were.
4. Freecharge
Freecharge launched Buzzkill, what it claimed was a revolutionary new app that detects mosquitos using a “heat signature” and drives them away. It also claimed to provide FreeCharge credits for all the mosquitos that users chase away, terming this as “social work”. Now there’s a company that truly understands its market.
Today, FreeCharge launches a revolutionary new product- 'BuzzKill' Check it out: http://t.co/JwGu8JWNQC http://t.co/pYXPDAZAjF — FreeCharge (@FreeCharge) March 31, 2015
5. Inmobi
Bangalore based mobile ad platform Inmobi chose to diversify from its core product, saying that it wanted to invest in craft beweries to provide cheaper beer to developers around the world.
"Craft brewers are like indie app developers, and we are excited to invest in them" says InMobi's @ManishDugar – https://t.co/mC0oqREAkl — InMobi (@InMobi) April 1, 2015
6. Amazon
Amazon India came up with a product that claimed to solve the biggest grooming problem that Indian men face – how to maintain a stately moustache. It might look ridiculous, but you’d expect this to be widely adopted if it could work.
Style your moustache in minutes with the Silicon Styler from #TheEdgeCollection on Amazon.in! http://t.co/OKwgpN6fR0 pic.twitter.com/QTRRE9vRiu — Amazon.in (@amazonIN) April 1, 2015
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commentsI often write about the extreme right of Evangelicalism, the end of the Evangelical spectrum inhabited by churches and sects that nice, friendly Evangelicals like to call fundamentalist nut jobs. However, as I clearly show in my post titled Are Evangelicals Fundamentalists, ALL Evangelicals are fundamentalists. Evangelical belief requires theological fundamentalism, a core set of beliefs that one must adhere to be a Christian and considered an Evangelical in good standing. Some who deny this fact are really liberal/progressive Christians living in denial. Raised in the Evangelical church and familiar with its worship and practice, these liberal/progressive Christians don’t want to abandon the only church they have ever known. Their theology puts them squarely outside of Evangelicalism, but they refuse to accept this and they dig their heels in when attempts are made to drag them into the liberal/progressive church. There’s not much anyone can do for these folks. In time, the keepers of Evangelical truth will expose and embarrass them and they will be forced to leave. For now, they play pretend Evangelical.
There’s another subset within Evangelicalism that thinks they are what I call a nicer, friendlier version of Evangelicalism. They are convinced that legalism, rules, moralizing, and the like are the problem, so they attempt to advertise their churches as places that are judgment free, places where sinners can come to find healing and deliverance. However, these nicer, friendlier Evangelicals hang on to theological fundamentalism. While their lifestyle or what they consider a sin might be different from their legalistic brethren, theologically there is very little difference between the two.
Here’s how you force a nicer, friendlier Evangelical to show their true colors. Forget this or that doctrine. Forget everything except what I share next:
Evangelical: The church I go to, First Church of the Most Awesome People in Town, is the nicest, friendliest church in town. We love everyone and I am sure if you come to our church you would feel right at home!!
Bruce: Let me ask you several questions. First, do you believe in a literal hell?
Evangelical: Yes, that’s what the Bible teaches.
Bruce: Who ends up in hell?
Evangelical: Well, I am not the judge, only God is, but the Bible does say that a person must know Jesus as their Lord and Savior to go to heaven when they die.
Bruce: So, since I am not a Christian and I refuse to acknowledge Jesus as my Lord and Savior, I will go to hell when I die, right?
Evangelical: (looks down to ground) Uh, well, um, yeah, if you don’t repent of your sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ you will go to hell when you die.
Bruce: How long will I be in hell? Is it like Catholic purgatory where I’ll suffer for a time and then be taken to heaven?
Evangelical: Well,uh….(long pause) if you die without knowing Jesus as your Lord and Savior you will spend eternity in the torments of hell.
Bruce: Fire and brimstone and where the worm dieth not?
Evangelical: Yes.
Bruce: Since this body I currently have would burn up if I was thrown into a pit of fire and brimstone, does this mean God gives me a new body that will withstand the torments of hell?
Evangelical: (silently praying the Rapture would happen)
Bruce: And doesn’t this mean that your God created me, killed me, and sent me to hell with a new body fashioned by him to withstand day and night torture for eternity?
Bruce: Is this the God you worship? Why would anyone want to worship such a horrible deity?
Forget all the other doctrines, this is the only one that matters. I don’t care how nice or friendly a church thinks they are, if they believe in hell then they are party to the savage, endless torture of billions of people. They might smile more or practice friendship evangelism, but the result is still the same; those who don’t repent of their sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ go to hell when they die. (please see We Love People and Are the Friendliest Church in Town)
The next time you run into a nicer, friendlier Evangelical, go for their jugular. Ask them point-blank if they believe in hell. Their answer (s) to this questions will tell you all you need to know. Personally, I have no interest in be a part of a group or being friends with anyone who thinks that I will burn in hell for eternity because I am not like them. This kind of thinking is no different from the thinking of the demented killers portrayed on Criminal Minds. Our God is an awesome God, the Evangelical says, and He loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. And if you refuse to accept this, our God will some day torture you for all eternity.
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TumblrThe world is soon heading towards a Robo-War. No? Seriously! After the development of combat Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) which have been used extensively by the US and its allies to eliminate high value targets in this on-going War-on-Terror, the development of weaponized Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGV) could just prove to be a game-changer altogether.
Clearing its intentions, Russia has already picked up pace in the development of ground-based robotic armies. Combat ground drones have been spotted at Russia’s Rzhevka training ground lately.
Apart from ground-based drones Russia has also been developing amphibious variants too which could prove equally lethal on ground as well as in open waters in the coming years.
The smaller six wheeled weaponized version with a space rover-like power train looks like something straight out of Hollywood movie; “Small Soldiers”.
Though these ground drones would eventually help to save human lives at the battle front but with the advent of these weaponized robotic armies the concepts of conventional warfare will no more be the same.
Images: Vadim Savitsky
SEE ALSO: DARPA’S WildCat, where fiction meets reality!
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: DARPA Has Created Self-Guided Sniper Bullets Capable of Changing Path in Mid-FlightWASHINGTON (Reuters) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Saturday when the U.S. Congress returns next month from its summer recess, Democrats will offer legislation that could give oil companies drilling access to more offshore areas.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi talks about Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy in the Capitol in Washington May 20, 2008. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
By moving to open additional federal waters to energy exploration, Democrats could narrow the differences they have with Republicans on tackling America’s energy problems, a concern that ranks high with voters heading into the November presidential and congressional elections.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has changed his position and said he would be willing to consider new offshore drilling if it allowed comprehensive energy legislation to pass. His Republican challenger, John McCain, also switched his position and has called for opening most U.S. waters to drilling if the affected states agree.
In the Democrats’ weekly radio address, Pelosi of California said expanding drilling areas would be part of a broader bill which addresses other energy issues.
“It will consider opening portions of the (offshore) Outer Continental Shelf for drilling, with appropriate safeguards, and without taxpayer subsidies to Big Oil,” she said.
Pelosi said the legislation would require oil companies to pay billions of dollars in drilling royalties, which would be invested in clean energy resources.
Democrats also want to release supplies from the U.S. emergency oil stockpile to help lower gasoline prices, increase drilling in an Alaskan oil reserve that is already open to exploration and require utilities to generate a portion of their electricity from renewable sources like solar and wind energy.
In addition, Pelosi said, the legislation would seek to rein in excessive energy market speculation that many U.S. lawmakers blame for running up crude oil and gasoline prices.
“This comprehensive Democratic approach will ensure energy independence which is essential to our national security, will create millions of good paying jobs here at home in a new green economy, and will take major steps forward in addressing the global climate crisis,” Pelosi said.
House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio said the Democratic proposal falls short of Republican-sponsored legislation that would open more areas to oil drilling, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.
“While the speaker now claims to embrace a comprehensive energy plan that includes more conservation, more innovation, and more American energy production, the fact is her new effort appears to be just another flawed plan that will do little to lower gas prices,” Boehner said.
He said if Pelosi was serious about boosting domestic oil supplies, she would call the House back into session to take up such a bill. Congress is scheduled to return on September 8.History of SEC School Mascots
Have you ever wondered why Tennessee is called the Volunteers? And why is Kentucky called the Wildcats? Or Auburn the Plainsmen, War Eagles or Tigers? Sorry, I know War Eagle is not one of the recognized mascots, I just thought I would have some fun with the Auburn people.
Here is a list of the Southeastern Conference (SEC) teams and where their mascots come from:
SEC East
Florida Gators - The alligator was incidentally chosen as Florida's mascot in 1911 when a Gainesville merchant sold school pennants with an alligator emblem on them. A 12-foot live alligator named Albert served as the official mascot through the 1906’s before dying in 1970. Currently, there are two costumed mascots named Albert and Alberta, who roam the sidelines as the official costumed mascots. In 2003, the popular duo was honored by the erection of a bronze statue that stands across the street from Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
The University of Florida's mascots Albert and Alberta in the Swamp (Florida Field).
Photo Courtesy By wikipedia.org
Learn all about Florida Gators Football; Florida Gators Basketball; and Florida Gators Baseball. For more check out -- Florida Gators Football History and Florida Basketball History.
Georgia Bulldogs – Want to win a bar bet in Athens? Ask what the first mascot for UGA was. If they say a bulldog, have them order you a drink.
During the first 28 years of Georgia football, a goat paraded around the sidelines. It first appeared after the first football game in 1892, when students hoisted it on their shoulders in celebration of their first victory and slapped a small "G" blanket on its back.
The historic change came on Nov. 6, 1920, during the Georgia-Virginia game when Atlanta Constitution writer Cliff Wheatley wrote an article describing how Georgia "bulldogged" Virginia in the game and held them to a scoreless tie.
The mascot is an English Bulldog that comes from a long lineage of dogs owned by Frank W. "Sonny" Seiler, which have served as the mascot of the University of Georgia (UGA) since 1956. Uga is one of the few live mascots prowling the sidelines in the SEC.
Uga wears a spiked collar and a red jersey with varsity letter. In 2007, he wore a black jersey for the "Blackout" game against Auburn University.
"Uga VI" - University of Georgia Bulldogs Official Mascot. Thanks to Brian Ussery at wikipedia for the picture.
To date, there have been seven dogs to carry the name Uga, and deceased Uga's are interred in a mausoleum near the main entrance to Sanford Stadium. An epitaph describing each dog graces the mausoleum nameplates. Several Uga's have "retired" as part of elaborate pre-game ceremonies, during which there is a "passing of the bone" and the new Uga begins his reign.
Here's our current Georgia Bulldogs Football; Georgia Bulldogs Basketball; and Georgia Bulldogs Baseball page. For more check out -- Georgia Bulldogs Football History and Georgia Bulldogs Basketball History.
Kentucky Wildcats – After a 6-2 victory over Illinois in 1909, Commandant Carbusier, who presided over the school’s military department, said the team had fought like Wildcats during the Sunday chapel service.
The costumed Wildcat mascot originated during the 1976-77 academic year at UK. A few years later, he was joined by another Cat - walking on stilts - who made his appearance during UK's twin tower era of Melvin Turpin and Sam Bowie. Even today, the original mascot is joined by Scratch, who's a more child-friendly mascot and serves as the host of UK's official Kids Club.
Today, both mascots attend each football and basketball game, several academic functions and generally serve as friendly ambassadors for the University.
In Fall 2003 and 2004, Scratch was named to the Capital One All-America Mascot Teams and competed for the title of the Capital One Mascot of the Year.
Kentucky Wildcats Mascot. Thanks to kylydia.wordpress at flickr.com for the picture.
Check out our current page about Kentucky Wildcats Football; Kentucky Wildcats Basketball; and Kentucky Wildcats Baseball. Read all about Kentucky Wildcats Football History and Kentucky Basketball History.
South Carolina Gamecocks – The University of South Carolina is the only major college athletic program in the country that uses "Fighting Gamecocks" as its official nickname and mascot. The University's athletic teams have been known as Gamecocks for almost 100 years.
At the turn of the century (1900), after struggling for more than decade under numerous nicknames, the school's football team was first referred to unofficially as Gamecocks. In another account, it was written in a newspaper story that South Carolina fought like gamecocks after a game in 1902.
In 1903, Columbia's morning newspaper, The State, shortened the name to one word and South Carolina teams have been Gamecocks ever since.
South Carolina has a costumed mascot called Cocky. Cocky was chosen National Mascot of the Year in 1986, 1994, and again in 2004 and is recognized as one of the most colorful mascots in collegiate athletics.
The USC mascot - cocky and a cheerleader. Thanks to BottleLeaf at flickr.com for the picture.
Learn more about South Carolina Gamecocks Football History and South Carolina Gamecocks Basketball History. For more check out our current -- South Carolina Gamecocks Football; South Carolina Gamecocks Basketball; and South Carolina Gamecocks Baseball page.
Tennessee Volunteers – Tennessee officially began calling itself the Volunteer state in 1905, in tribute to the many volunteers from the state that went off to fight in wars for the United States. The name was officially attached to the 1902 team in a story written by the Atlanta Constitution. Three years later the Knoxville Journal reported the school had officially taken the name Volunteers.
Similar to Georgia, Tennessee has a live dog "hounding" the sidelines. Smokey, a blue tick coonhound comes from a long line of blue tick hounds that started in 1953. During halftime of a game between Tennessee and Mississippi State, a contest was held to find the best hound to become the Vols on the field mascot. As each dog was introduced, the crowd applauded. When the last dog was announced, a feisty dog named Blue Smokey, the crowd cheered. When Blue Smokey heard the cheers he barked. The fans cheered louder, so he barked louder. UT had found their mascot.
Tennessee Volunteers Mascot - Smokey. Thanks to Tennessee Journalist at flickr.com for the picture.
Here's our current Tennessee Volunteers Football; Tennessee Volunteers Basketball; and Tennessee Vols Baseball page. For more check out -- Tennessee Volunteers Football History and Tennessee Vols Basketball History.
Vanderbilt Commodores – Nashville Banner writer William Beard first used the nickname in an 1897 story. This was possibly in reference to the school's founder, Cornelius Vanderbilt who was nicknamed Commodore due to his homage to his business successes.
As far as a live mascot, the 'Doors have a large costumed Commodore wandering the sidelines named Mr. Commodore. Also known as Mr. C, he is portrayed as a decorated naval commander from the late 1800’s.
What many might not know is Vandy once had a basset hound mascot named George, who belonged to halfback Toby Wilt. George was crowned mascot for life when he chased the Tennessee Walking Horse out of Dudley Field in 1964 to the cheers of the fans. He died in 1966 and was replaced by a female named Samantha who remained on the sidelines until 1970. Read all about Vanderbilt Commodores Football History and Vanderbilt Basketball History. For more check out our current page about Vanderbilt Commodores Football; Vanderbilt Commodores Basketball and Vanderbilt Commodores Baseball page.
The Vanderbilt Commodores mascot performs before a game between the Commodores and the Tennessee Volunteers at Memorial Gym. Photo Courtesy By Don McPeak-USA TODAY Sports.
SEC West
Alabama Crimson Tide – Many people have wondered what a Crimson Tide looks like, or why the mascot is an elephant. There are a few theories as to what these are all about.
The first Alabama team wore crimson socks, so that is where the color comes from. Around the turn of the century a sportswriter started using a stanza from a Rudyard Kipling poem titled, The Thin Red Line, when referring to the Alabama team. Eventually, the writers became more creative and the thin red line became a crimson tide.
The story of how Alabama became associated with "elephant" goes back to the 1930 season when Coach Wallace Wade had assembled a great football team.
On October 8, 1930, sports writer Everett Strupper of the Atlanta Journal wrote a story of the Alabama-Mississippi game he had witnessed in Tuscaloosa four days earlier. Strupper wrote, "At the end of the quarter, the earth started to tremble, there was a distant rumble that continued to grow. Some excited fan in the stands bellowed, 'Hold your horses, the elephants are coming,' and out stamped this Alabama varsity.”
Strupper and other writers continued to refer to the Alabama linemen as "Red Elephants," the color referring to the crimson jerseys.
Alabama Crimson Tide Mascot - Red Elephants. Thanks to Diamondduste at flickr.com for the picture.
There is another story about how the elephant’s nickname came about. When Alabama came west for their first Rose Bowl, then were greeted by the west coast media at the train station. When the team’s luggage was unloaded, it had an elephant logo on each case. The luggage was supplied by a company in Tuscaloosa for the team to use for their travel west, and the logo of the company was an elephant. When the media saw this on the luggage, they assumed the team’s mascot was the elephants.
Learn all about Alabama Crimson Tide Football History and Alabama Basketball History. For more check out our current Alabama Crimson Tide Football; Alabama Crimson Tide Basketball and Alabama Crimson Tide Baseball page.
Arkansas Razorbacks – In 1909, Arkansas was known as the Cardinals. After a huge win over LSU, head coach Hugo Bezdek told fans his boys had played like a wild band of razorback hogs. That meant something in Arkansas, and the name stuck.
As far as a live mascot, there are no true razorbacks in Arkansas, only in Australia, but the Russian Boar is close enough and it can be seen in a cage on the sidelines. Tusk I is the live version while a number of costumed mascots attend most major sporting events.
Big Red is the traditional mascot for the University and Sue E., is the female hog and is famous for her costume changes and dancing ability. Pork Chop is the "kid" mascot. Boss Hog, a nine-foot inflatable mascot, joined the mascot family during the 1998-99 football season.
Arkansas Razorbacks mascot "Boss Hog" entertains fans at a football game. Thanks to weretable at flickr.com for the picture.
Read all about Arkansas Razorbacks Football History and Arkansas Razorbacks Basketball History. Here's our current Arkansas Football; Arkansas Basketball; and Arkansas Baseball page.
Auburn Tigers – Auburn is known as the Tigers, but early lore had the mascot name as The Plainsmen, after the poem from Oliver Goldsmith’s poem titled The Deserted Village.
War Eagle is the battle cry and it comes from a legend that dates back to the Civil War. A wounded confederate solider, who was left for dead, was joined by an equally wounded baby eagle. The solider recovered and went on to teach at Auburn, taking the baby eagle with him, who had also recovered from its wounds. At the first Georgia-Auburn game in 1892 the |
transformation sweeping the Middle East and to testify to the suffering of people caught between government oppression and opposition forces," wrote Jill Abramson, executive editor of the Times, in an email to the newspaper's staff.
Survivors include his wife and two children, his parents, a brother and a sister.Mustapha Khaznadar (مصطفى خزندار, 1878–1817), was Prime Minister of the Beylik of Tunis from 1837 to 1873.[1][2] He was one of the most influential people in modern Tunisian history.[3]
Biography [ edit ]
Early life [ edit ]
Mustapha Khaznadar was born of Greek ancestry[1][3][4][5][6] as Georgios Kalkias Stravelakis[4][7][8] on the island of Chios in 1817.[7][9][10] In January 1822, rebels from the neighboring islands of Samos arrived on Chios and declared their independence from the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman sultan soon sent an army of about 40,000 to the island of Chios, where roughly 52,000 Greek inhabitants were massacred and tens of thousands of women and children were taken into slavery.[11][12] During the Chios massacre, Georgios's father, the sailor Stephanis Kalkias Stravelakis, was killed, while Georgios along with his brother Yannis were captured and sold into slavery by the Ottomans.[10] He was then taken to Smyrna and then Constantinople, where he was sold as a slave to an envoy of the Husainid Dynasty.
Religious conversion and political career [ edit ]
A painting of Mustapha Khaznadar and his son and a photograph of an elderly Mustapha Khaznadar during his career as Prime Minister of the Beylik of Tunis
While a slave Stravelakis converted to Islam and was given the name Mustapha.[10] He was raised by the family of Mustapha Bey, then by his son Ahmad I Bey[5] while he was still crown prince. Initially, he worked as the prince's private treasurer before becoming Ahmad's state treasurer (khaznadar).[5] He managed to climb to the highest offices of the Tunisian state, married Princess Lalla Kalthoum in 1839 and was promoted to lieutenant-general of the army, made bey in 1840 and then president of the Grand Council from 1862 to 1878. In 1864, Mustapha Khaznadar, then Prime Minister, attempted to squeeze more taxes out of the Tunisian peasants; the countryside rebelled and rose in the Mejba Revolt, nearly overthrowing the regime. However the government was swift to act and ultimately suppressed the uprising through a combination of brutality and guile.[13] Mustafa Khaznadar retained memories of his Greek origin[14] and contact with his native Greece, even sending ten thousand riyals from the state treasury to pay for his two Greek nephews he was educating in Paris.[15] Khaznadar died in 1878 and is buried in the mausoleum of Tourbet el Bey, in the heart of the Medina of Tunis.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
Sources [ edit ]David Miscavige, chairman of the board of Religious Technology Center and leader of the Scientology religion, at the opening ceremony of the Church of Scientology's new building in London in 2006. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor David Miscavige, the leader of the Church of Scientology, is one of the best-known Scientologists in the world. But Miscavige's wife, Shelly Miscavige, hasn't been seen in public since 2007.
The Church of Scientology says Shelly Miscavige isn't missing, and she hasn't been kidnapped. Instead, Scientology says she has been working inside the church.
The disappearance of Shelly Miscavige continues to be a high-profile mystery for Scientology critics and former members. A 2014 Vanity Fair article referred to Shelly Miscavige as "Scientology's Vanished Queen."
Filmmaker Alex Gibney's 2015 Scientology documentary "Going Clear" passes over the disappearance of Shelly Miscavige, instead focusing on testimonies from former Scientology members and the history of the organisation's founder, L. Ron Hubbard.
Steve Hall, a former Scientologist who left the church in 2004 after spending the previous 17 years at its international management level as a senior writer of its marketing materials, spoke with Business Insider about where Shelly Miscavige might be. He thinks Shelly is at Scientology's little-known Church of Spiritual Technology, a remote forest compound with prison-like security in Twin Peaks, California, near San Bernardino.
It's important to note that Shelly Miscavige may not actually be held against her will. Instead, she may have been convinced that she must stay at the remote compound to make up for any alleged crimes she may have committed against the Church of Scientology. The 2014 Vanity Fair article says Miscavige was responsible for restructuring the upper levels of Scientology, but she told a former Scientology member at her father's funeral that she had "f----d up."
One person who has visited the compound is "Angry Gay Pope," the nom de guerre of an Anonymous activist who has staged protests against Scientology. In 2010, he took these pictures of the CST compound in Twin Peaks, documenting its spiked fences, razor wire, motion detectors, infrared spotlights, satellite dishes, fuel tanks, and mysterious semipermanent trailers.CLOSE A contract between the U.S. and a non-profit in charge of all Internet domain names expires September 30th and has lawmakers saying America is "giving away the Internet." USA TODAY NETWORK
Network cables are plugged in a rack in a server room on November 10, 2014 in New York City. (Photo: Michael Bocchieri, Getty Images)
SAN FRANCISCO — The United States doesn’t own the Internet, but it’s held the oversight contract for the organization that runs its address book for many years. That’s set to change Friday.
The U.S. contract with the non-profit organization in charge of all Internet domain names expires then, and the non-profit running the database will become autonomous and be accountable to international stakeholders in the Internet community. These include a governmental advisory committee, a technical committee, industry committee, internet users and telecommunications experts.
The move has been opposed by some officials and lawmakers like Sen. Ted Cruz who say America is “giving away the Internet.”
On Thursday the attorneys general of Arizona, Oklahoma, Texas and Nevada filed a lawsuit asking a Federal district court to block the transition, alleging that it amounts to giving up U.S. government property, among other complaints.
At issue is oversight of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN. Created in 1998, the non-profit is based in Los Angeles. One of its main jobs, done by ICANN's Internet Assigned Numbers Authority department, is to coordinate the Domain Name System that matches address such as usatoday.com with their actual computer addresses, in this case 66.61.174.185.
To do that and other work, ICANN has a budget of more than $126 million a year.
Started with a clipboard
It began as a simple list of what names were assigned to what numbers, known as Internet Protocol addresses and was originally kept on a clipboard by Jon Postel, a famed computer scientist at the University of Southern California.
Jon Postel, shown in this undated photo, the Internet pioneer who wielded enormous influence managing technical details of the global computer network. Postel kept the original list of names and numbers that evolved into today's Internet address system. (Photo: Associated Press)
The 18-year-old contract for ICANN has been held by the U.S. Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration but is not scheduled to be renewed on Sept. 30 when it comes to an end.
At that point ICANN will become an autonomous non-profit.
Very little will change with the handover. The staff and protocols will remain the same. The only thing that changes is that the Department of Commerce will no longer be approving every change to the domain name root file, the master list of Internet addresses that allows the Internet to function.
ICANN was always meant to become independent. However, under President George W. Bush, the Department of Commerce backed away from that, saying in 2005 that it would “maintain its historic role in authorizing changes or modifications to the authoritative root zone file.”
Snowden legacy
Efforts to make it truly neutral and global came back into the fore in 2013, after National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden's revelations about the depth of U.S. Internet surveillance. That pushed ICANN to begin working on a new transition proposal.
Some in the United States argue that the Internet has always belonged to the United States and that the handover is illegal and dangerous.
Cruz, a Republican from Texas and a former candidate for the GOP presidential nomination, has been very vocal in his belief that the move will harm the freedom of the Internet.
“The likes of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Chinese President Xi Jinping should not dictate what can be read, written, distributed, bought and sold on the Internet,” he wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post when the plan was first discussed.
A last-ditch effort by Cruz to stop it from taking effect failed this week when it was not included in a stop-gap spending bill to keep the government open.
U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), ranking member of the Senate subcommittee on communications, technology, innovation, called the suits by the four attorneys general lawsuit baseless.
“Congress has repeatedly rejected attempts to delay the transition. Technology and foreign policy experts from across the political spectrum agree that any delay of this transition would only empower our enemies and undermine America’s commitment to keeping the internet open and free," he said in a statement.
Who owns the Internet?
A U.S. Government Accountability Office report issued Sept. 12 found that the Internet "address book" was not U.S. government property.
Others dispute that such censorship would even be possible. The new entity that is scheduled to take over control on Oct. 1 is run through consensus and includes multiple stakeholders from many countries, said Milton Mueller, a professor in the school of public policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a longtime participant in ICANN’s volunteer advisory groups.
“It’s not like Russia and China suddenly have more power than anyone else. All the governments in the room have to agree to give advice to ICANN, but it’s non-binding. ICANN can not take the advice, particularly if all the other stakeholder groups strongly object to it,” said Mueller.
“Their argument has been that ‘We are the bulwark of freedom in the world and if we let go of this, the Internet will go to hell.’ How much of them really believe that and how many are just exploiting this to make the Obama administration look bad isn’t clear to me,” said Mueller.
While the Department of Commerce had been very hands off in its oversight of the contract, at least it provided a sort of safety valve, said Mark Grabowski, a professor of Internet law at Adelphi University, in Garden City, N.Y.
“You knew if anything really went wrong you’d have the U.S. government to step in,” he said.
He expects any chances to be very gradual. “We really won’t know for three to five years whether this was something to worry about or not, whether the proponents can truthfully say, ‘We told you so,’ or the people who were critical had a point,” Grabowski said.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2dqhHDWEach week we take an in-depth look at young members of the organization while providing an overview of Habs prospects playing at the junior (OHL, WHL), collegiate (USHL, NCAA), and professional (ECHL) level.
Sunday was the last day of CHL action before the Christmas break. It marks the end of a strong first half of the season for the majority, if not all Habs prospects in the league. Catching The Torch will be back on January 2, 2018 as we continue to follow the future hopes of the Montreal Canadiens organization.
Prospect spotlights
William Bitten, C/RW, Hamilton Bulldogs
After playing centre for a while, Bitten was back on right wing for the Bulldogs in the last few games. Ryan Moore, Hamilton's new acquisition and a prolific OHL scorer, is slotting down the middle on his line. With Matthew Strome on left wing, this is a powerful trio.
The firepower that Hamilton added in this trade also helped Bitten become the productive player he can be. Since the move happened — right after his five-point night — the Habs prospect has never fallen below a point-per-game pace on the season; something he struggled to achieve at the beginning of the year.
With his current pace, it's likely that we see him surpass his career best of 65 points in 67 games. Had he received the offensive help he needed right from the start, there would have been no doubt about him posting a record year.
As shown earlier this season, his production doesn't reflect his high potential to become an NHL player. He has numerous tools that point to him making the Canadiens lineup in the next few years, like his passing ability and the fact that he is a great skater with a physical edge.
It will likely take him a little while to refine those attributes, like developing better ways to utilize his playmaking skills by creating lanes for his passes (not unlike Ryan Poehling) instead of having to thread the needle every time.
But once he drops some of the bad habits of junior hockey, he could prove to be very useful to any coach at the professional level, able to handle defensive responsibilities while contributing offensively.
Bitten was one of the OHL’s standout players in the first half, and his blooming production will make for an exciting final three months of the season. He finally has the necessary supporting cast to show what kind of player he can be.
He even scored a goal on a breakaway this week. It has been a long time coming for a player who creates those solo opportunities with regularity.
Josh Brook, RD, Moose Jaw Warriors
After missing the first 24 games of the season recovering from wrist surgery, Brook missed the last two for unknown reasons, most likely due to illness. This doesn't leave a big sample size on which to evaluate him.
However, he recorded an outstanding eight points in the same amount of games after coming back in the lineup and has had an immediate impact on the Moose Jaw Warriors, who were already sitting atop the WHL standings.
The strength of the team surely factors into his production, but after Brook was deemed inconsistent last season, flashing some high-end offensive skill only sporadically, he came out of the gate making some great plays and generally being involved on the attack every game.
In the last couple of weeks, he showcased his ability to manipulate opponents to create lanes to the net, using those paths to either shoot the puck or drive closer to the net. That, added to his hard and precise passes, made him a threat in more than one way on the attack.
Unlike some other WHL prospects for the Habs, Brook isn't as exposed defensively. He guards his blue line well against approaching forwards and knows where to position himself in his own end. That being said, he needs to identify his options on the breakout more quickly and has had some indecisiveness when confronted with board battles that he will need to work on.
The offensive side of Brook's game remains his most exciting trait. In this short stretch of games, most of his points were earned with his great understanding of how to fuel the attack of his team. The trick will be to maintain his offensive game through the rest of the season, which is something he was unable to do in his draft year.
Jarret Tyszka, LD, Seattle Thunderbirds
Tyszka has some great offensive upside, as demonstrated by his 22 points in 31 games; four away from tying his total of last season.
His qualities are numerous. He's calm under pressure while handling the puck or carrying it up the ice; he's able to find his way through the opponent’s defence with some smooth moves, and; even if his wrist shot is probably his best, he's comfortable with different ways to fire on net.
But the defensive side of his game is very problematic. While his stick can find the puck to get it out of the possession of opponents, he's unsure of his positioning and loses track of the play too often. As a result, he can be late to counter the opposition's movements in his end of the ice and he also has trouble breaking the puck cleanly from his zone.
Those are things that can be fixed with time, and his confidence orchestrating the attack is a unique quality that is not present in every defencemen. If he can work out some of his defensive issues, it would also transition into more time on the offence for the Habs fifth-rounder, which is when he is at his best.
Scott Walford, LD, Victoria Royals
Walford is the opposite of Tyszka in the sense that he is calm and reacts well away from the puck while not carrying his team’s offence in the same way. Like I said in a previous article, I have no doubt that Walford will become a solid defencemen in his own end. He looks the part.
But right now, the great majority of Walford's points (17 in 34 games) are secondary assists. This doesn't bode well for projecting any kind of offensive upside in his game. He also has yet to register a goal.
He is still used on the power play because of his passing ability, even though he doesn't drive the play, but rather opts for quick feeds to keep the puck moving in the offensive zone. He often simply pivots in place when he has possession, relaying the puck around instead of trying to actively shift the other team's defence to create better scoring opportunities.
He doesn't have to completely change his playing style, but taking more risks like in the play below where he gains the zone and picks up an assist could be very beneficial for him if he wants to stand out from the pack. He is capable of more than what he has shown so far.
Michael Pezzetta, C/W, Sudbury Wolves
The Wolves are struggling. They have just a two-point lead on the worst team in the OHL: the Flint Firebirds. But in the murk, their captain, Michael Pezzetta, is putting together his most productive season to date.
It would not be completely true to say that Pezzetta is a changed man. His attitude on the ice is still relatively the same. He was really lucky a few weeks ago to not get a long suspension for an elbow to the head. Unlike other years, however, we can finally talk more about Pezzetta the hockey player instead of his disciplinary issues.
He is one point away from trying his career best of 28, and will likely accomplish that feat in about half the games it took to set the previous mark.
Playing for a contract, the sixth-rounder will still have to show a bit more if he wants to be signed by Montreal. He has slowed down recently with only six points in his last 12 games.
What plays in his favour, more than for some other prospects whose rights were allowed to expire, is that Pezzetta has a great skating ability and has developed his nose for the net. That gives him another way to contribute on the scoreboard besides his hard wrist shot. In fact, he’s scored the majority of his points this season from right in front of the crease, either by tip-ins or creating chaos in the zone for his teammates to capitalize.
An ability to score goals from right at the door step is often a translatable skill to the next level, and with Pezzetta's hard forechecking that is served well by his quickness, he could prove useful to the organization down the road.
Pezzetta was out this week due to a head injury, according to the Sudbury Star.
Cale Fleury, RD, Regina Pats
Fleury has 11 points in 15 games since his trade to the Regina Pats on November 15. What's surprising is that the team has only won five of those 16 games. He was supposed to be their missing piece, but it seems that they will have to look for more as they make preparations to host the Memorial Cup.
Fleury's seven goals are the most among Habs defenceman in the WHL and are a direct result of his play at the offensive blue line. However, the situation he's in now is perfect for him to prove he can be more than a power-play specialist while playing on a more structurally sound team, especially if Josh Mahura is able to stick with Team Canada for the World Juniors after rejoining the squad on the weekend.
Regina needs to start winning games, and Fleury has some of that pressure on himself, especially after being identified as a player who could help give the team a boost. There's still time to do so, but sitting just three points ahead of the Kootenay ICE (his old team) in the standings can't be something Fleury is happy about.
Follow David (@RinksideView) on Twitter for daily prospect updates.
CHL weekly performance Player Pos League Team GP G A P Player Pos League Team GP G A P William Bitten RW OHL Hamilton 3 1 2 3 Michael Pezzetta C OHL Sudbury Out with head injury Cale Fleury RD WHL Regina 4 0 1 1 Jarret Tyszka LD WHL Seattle 2 0 2 2 Scott Walford LD WHL Victoria 3 0 1 1 Josh Brook RD WHL Moose Jaw 2 1 3 4Has Robert Pattinson found a new leading lady?
Four months after splitting up with on-again, off-again girlfriend Kristen Stewart, the actor, 27, has been linked to model Dylan Penn.
“They’ve been dating a month or two,” a Pattinson source confirms to PEOPLE. “He’s crazy about her.”
The blonde beauty, 22, has quite the Hollywood pedigree: She’s the daughter of Sean Penn and Robin Wright.
According to media reports, Pattinson and Penn were spotted on Sept. 7 catching a show by rapper Mickey Avalon at the famed Viper Room in Los Angeles.
They then reportedly hightailed it to the Chateau Marmont for post-show drinks and bites.
Speculation has been swirling about whom Pattinson would date next following his split with Stewart. He was also recently seen with trainer Sydney Liebes outside Harley Pasternak’s gym, where she works. But a second source shoots down any insinuation that the two are an item, telling PEOPLE that “Pattinson has trained with Liebes a few times in Harley’s absence and that s it.”
In May, Pattinson and Stewart, 23, called it quits after more than three years of dating, their relationship having weathered intense strain and scrutiny following her fling with her married Snow White and the Huntsman director, Rupert Sanders.
The two had attempted to patch things up following her cheating scandal, attending Coachella and celebrating her 23rd birthday together before ultimately calling things off. On May 21, Pattinson was seen moving his belongings out of Stewart’s Los Angeles home.Ahmedabad: One of the two 220 MW units of Kakrapar Atomic Power Station(KAPS) in Gujarat's Surat district was on Friday shut down after leakage of heavy water and a temporary emergency situation was declared but there was no radioactive leak and all workers are safe.
According to officials, the leakage of heavy water that is used in cooling off the nuclear reactor core was detected around 9 am and it was fixed in some time and the temporary emergency was lifted shortly afterwards.
Surat District Collector Rajendra Kumar said there was no leakage of radiation at the plant and the situation was under control.
The incident took place on a day when Japan marks the fifth anniversary of Fukushima nuclear disaster caused by a monster tsunami.
KAPS site director L K Jain in a statement said radiation levels in and outside the plant are normal.
"Unit-1 of KAPS, which was operating at its rated power, was shut down at about 9:00 Hrs today. Consequent to a small leak in Primary Heat Transport (PHT) system, the reactor was shut down as intended as per the design provisions. All safety systems are working as intended," the statement said.
"The radioactivity/radiation levels in the plant premises and outside are normal. KAPS 1 and 2 consists of two Units of Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors of 220 MWe each," Jain added.
The KAPS, located on the border of Surat and Tapi districts near Vyara town of Tapi, is run by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL).
"The director of the plant informed me that unit-1 has been shut down following a problem in the primary heat transmission system. There was some leakage of heavy water that is used in cooling the reactor core. At present, the situation is under control," Rajendra Kumar told PTI.
According to KAPS website, the power station has two generation units of Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR) that were commissioned during early 90s.
"The problem was detected in the morning and it has been fixed as of now. The plant also declared temporary emergency, which has been lifted after some time. As of now, there is no emergency and things are under control. We are told that Unit-1 will take some time to start functioning again," Kumar added.
Meanwhile, neighbouring Tapi district administration also swung into action and sought details from plant officials after learning about the leakage.
Tapi District Collector B C Patni also confirmed that there was no report of radiation leakage.
"The problem occurred in Unit-1 of the plant at around 9 am. As per the reports received from the site director, all the employees are working in the plant and no internal or external radiation leak took place. The leakage of liquid has been fixed," said Patni.
: The Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited`s (NPCIL) atomic power plant at Kakrapar in South Gujarat was shut down on Friday morning following a leak in its Primary Heat Transport System (PHTS), official sources said.
NPCIL`s site director Lalit Kumar Jain said Unit One of the nuclear plant was closed at 9 a.m. after a "small leak" in the PHTS.
"All safety systems (at the plant) are working as intended," Jain said in a statement.
Kakrapar Atomic Power Station (KAPS) comprises two units of pressurised heavy water reactor of 220 MWe each.
Allaying any fears, Jain said: "The radio-activity/radiation levels in the plant premises and outside are normal."
Official and police sources in Tapi district, where the plant is located, meanwhile, echoed Jain`s statement that there was no need for panic or evacuation at the plant.What was intended to be a tool aimed at preventing economic retreat and loss of revenue due to labour shortages, has become a go-to solution for companies to artificially keep labour costs down, according to a new report.
The Temporary Foreign Workers Program has evolved into an effective tool used by corporations to increase their profit margins. Alberta opponents of the TFWP claim it does so on the backs of foreign and Canadian workers, and say the province is ground zero for the worst offences, abuses and misuses of the controversial program.
The TFWP has left Albertans out of work and bred a subculture of foreign worker abuse, claims the Alberta Federation of Labour in a report titled From Last Resort to First Choice. The report, released earlier this week, highlights all that is allegedly shady and ugly about the federal program.
Debate over the controversial initiative reached a fevered pitch this week and prompted the federal government to announce a list of changes to the TFWP.
But the changes are too little to affect any kind of meaningful change, claims AFL president Gil McGowan.
Figures in the report outline a pattern that shows how the program has had negative impacts on job seekers, on average wages and questions whether the premise for the federal program was even valid during, and post, the recession.
According to those numbers, the program has led to artificially low wages, and has allegedly also contributed to soaring unemployment, harassment and abuse of foreigners working in Alberta.
The report outlines how foreign workers under the program have little recourse when faced with abusive situations at work because they are dependant on the employer to remain working and residing in Canada. It also expresses concerns about how workers end up in Alberta under false promises, while others are tricked or forced to pay into shady dealings in order to remain in the country.
Too often, instead of legitimately earning their fee from employers, recruiters charge prospective foreign workers for work placement, which is illegal under several provincial laws. In Alberta, for example, workers are charged recruitment fees ranging on average between $2,000 and $8,000, with some approaching $20,000. In addition, recruiters sometimes engage in illicit conduct, such as charging a fee to bring the worker to Canada for a job that never existed, no longer exists when the worker arrives, or exists for only a short time before the worker is laid off. Recruiters have also disseminated misinformation, such as exaggerating the amount a worker can expect to earn in Canada, and providing incorrect information about the worker¹s opportunities to obtain permanent resident status once in Canada. Furthermore, recruiters often charge very high fees for other services, such as obtaining an extension of a work permit (House of Commons Canada 2009, 31). -From Last Resort To First Choice
Several other studies conducted into the matter by universities, and even the Fraser Institute, have spoken out against the program and back the findings made by the AFL report.
Simon Fraser University professor emeritus Herb Grubel, who writes frequently for the Fraser Institute, told the Vancouver Sun this week the program only helps the employer at the expense of proper business practices and at the cost of Canadian workers.
Grubel describes the TFW program to the Vancouver Sun as a business subsidy that lets frequent users avoid increasing wages to attract workers, invest in training, or automate production to boost productivity.
Canadians shouldn't "swallow this argument made by employers who would rather hire immigrants than pay higher wages," Grubel told the Sun.
An Institute for Research On Public Policy report titled Do Short-Term Economic Needs Prevail over Human Rights Concerns? states the nature of the program makes foreign workers susceptible to all the aforementioned abuses.
"A significant factor is the restrictive nature of the work permit (temporary foreign workers are often tied to one job, one employer and one location), which can have the practical effect of limiting their employment rights and protections," the report states.
"Other problems include illegal recruitment practices, misinformation about migration opportunities and lack of enforcement mechanisms."
According to evidence from research conducted by the University of Alberta, as well as parliamentary committees, the abuse foreign workers are subjected to by their Canadian employers is well documented.
Although the program's effect on Alberta workers in its worst form is not as oppressive as it is on the foreign workers themselves, it is as pronounced and has long-term ramifications, the AFL report states.
The TFWP has had a tangible effect on Alberta's economic realities, keeping many out of work and keeping the wages of others low, while economic pressures continue to siege families and escalate across the province.
The original purpose of the TFWP when launched in 2004 was to address acute labour shortages in critical and specific industries and sectors, such as academia, and other specialized professions and trades.
But, in Alberta, it took on a life of its own during the oil sands boom between 2004 and 2008.
What it has turned into now is a quick and cheap source of labour for cost-adverse employers, the AFL report states.
"The oil sands boom meant wages had to keep pace with an economy that was lurching ahead without a plan for labour or skills shortages and employers wanted a way to contain labour costs," the report says.
"The only way to defy the laws of economic gravity is to flood the labour market with a supply of workers who are unlikely to demand higher wages, better standards, pensions, or benefits.
"When employers get easy access to vulnerable groups of lower-paid temporary workers, wages and benefits don't have to keep pace with economic growth. It puts downward pressure on wages when they should be going up."
The plan also became an aggravating factor during the recession, when unemployment grew at a violent pace, the report states.
As the unemployment rate swelled, so did the number of foreign workers flooding into the province, particularly those hired to perform menial jobs, which resulted in less work for Albertans with limited skill, as the jobs they would normally take were now taken up by TFWs and the jobs that they could get were at a deflated wage, the report adds.
The AFL study, which bases its findings on figures obtained from Statistics Canada, Citizenship and Immigration, Human Resources Services and Development Canada, and census figures, shows the correlation between Alberta's unemployment rate, wages and the growing number of temporary foreign workers being brought in to Alberta.
The numbers in the study state that despite the economic recovery experienced by the country, and particularly Alberta since 2008, the number of people making $13/hour or less has remained the same since the height of the recession in 2008 likely due to the continuing flood of underpaid foreign workers, states the report.
The youth unemployment rate has also remained steady since 2009, again, due to an unprecedented number of unskilled foreign workers coming into the province, it adds.
Numbers show that Alberta youth unemployment (ages between 15 and 24) is actually on the rise, with the rate growing from 26,900 during the recession, to 38,200 in 2011.
The number of workers in Alberta aged 20 to 24 remains effectively unchanged (200,500 workers in 2009; 200,600 in 2011). But the number of young people earning less than $13/hour has actually increased. In 2009, 54,200 young Albertans earned $13/hour or less, in 2011, it was 54,800. Low wages and high unemployment are a growing phenomenon for young people in Alberta.
Particularly in these sectors, there was never really a shortage of labour, states the report. What there was, was a shortage of people willing to do those jobs for less money, it states.
"The evidence is stark: Alberta employers are bringing in more TFWs than are needed to fill the new jobs the economy is creating... labour market conditions are not dictating TFW policy," states the report.
"Outside booming oilsands regions, the situation can be far more stark. Consider Medicine Hat, where the economy has shed more than 10,000 jobs since 2008 but hundreds more Temporary Foreign Workers arrive."
Additionally, many workers are being forced to become involuntary part-time employees, further driving down wages and the need for benefits.
During the height of the recession, in 2009, small-town Alberta saw the arrival of 13,480 new TFW, adding to the 29,385 already present, as 18,500 jobs disappeared.
The story is even more marked in 2010, when 213 per cent more TFW arrived than jobs were created, at a time when there already were 527 per cent more TFW than new jobs.
Story continues after slideshow
Photo gallery By The Numbers: Alberta's Temporary Foreign Workers See Gallery Temporary Foreign Workers In Alberta: Report Shows Flood Of TFW As Jobs Disappear, Wages Fall 1 / 30
By The Numbers: Alberta's Temporary Foreign Workers 1 / 30
And there's little economic benefit to municipalities from having such a large population of temporary workers, despite the fact that population is large enough to put a significant demand on health services and real stress on municipal and provincial infrastructure, the AFL states.
By scale, their impact is even more profound on smaller municipalities.
For municipalities, stagnant wages at the lowest end of the job market means an erosion of the tax base, fewer homeowners, and less stability for local small business. Temporary Foreign Workers cannot put down roots in our communities. While most would like to live in Canada as permanent residents, their temporary status means they are likely to send most of their earnings back to their country of origin. Because they are not allowed to stay in Alberta, they are not going to be buying furniture for newly-purchased homes or having their cars serviced at the local mechanic¹s shop. They are not investing their money in their local credit union, or taking out a loan for a new vehicle. They do not have disposable income to spend at the local café or sporting goods shop.
The impact these labour populations have on their communities was made clear during the beef recall crisis that struck Brooks, where the slaughterhouse at the epicentre of last fall's E. coli scare is located.
Brooks, located in eastern Alberta and with a population of just more than 13,000, found itself in a state of crisis after more than 2,000 workers, hundreds of them classified as temporary foreign workers, were left without income when XL Foods was forced to close down.
With no savings, disposable income or any real possessions to leverage for quick income, many of them were forced to rely on the community for everything from food to shelter until the plant reopened two months later.
What Alberta needs, rather than the TFWP, is better and more effective immigration policies, for government and industry to make themselves responsible for training Albertans, and for industry to pay workers salaries dictated by market pressures, the report concludes.University of Regina Rams linebacker Michael Stefanovic has removed himself from the 2017 CFL draft due to an alleged doping violation.
The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) announced Thursday that a urine sample provided by Stefanovic during the CFL’s western regional combine in Regina on March 23 revealed the presence of drostanolone, a prohibited anabolic agent.
Under the CFL’s drug policy, a U Sports (formerly CIS) player incurring a doping violation in his draft year would have his draft year deferred. In Stefanovic’s case, his draft eligibility has been deferred until 2018.
Stefanovic removed himself from Sunday’s draft even though a violation CCES’s anti-doping rules has not been confirmed. Under the rules of the Canadian Anti-Doping Program (CAPD), Stefanovic is pursuing a hearing to contest CCES’s assertion of a violation.
Anti-doping violations aren’t usually announced until after the hearing process has been cleared and a final determination has been made. CADP disclosed Stefanovic’s violation because he is eligible for Sunday’s draft.
Stefanovic’s case remains open until the conclusion of the hearing and any subsequent appeal. He has been provisionally suspended in accordance with the CADP until an independent arbitrator has dealt with the matter.
“Obviously, we are extremely concerned that one of our student-athletes has tested positive for anabolic steroids,” Tanya Reynoldson, |
Infinity cross-member/stabilizer/pull-up bar †
Flat utility bench
Any combination of (4) total band pegs and/or detent/hitch pins †
Spud Inc Econo Lat/Tricep Pulley
Optional cable attachments (the Spud system only comes with the one)
† The 43″ R4 cross-member (the same piece used as a horizontal rack stabilizer) and the orange detent pins are not offered on the Rogue website for individual sale, but they can be ordered over the phone. You should already own at least 2 detent pins just from owning spotter arms, and you probably own a set of 4 band pegs already from when you bought the rack; so you shouldn’t need to buy any of these anyway. If for some reason you do, I would maybe look at 5/8″ detent pins on Amazon. Just make sure that they are long enough to pass through all components.
As you can see, the beauty of this set up; other than being far more affordable than formal lat pulldown machines; is that it assembles and disassembles in seconds, it’s completely adjustable for any height, and it doesn’t require you to commit any floor space when it’s not in use.
FIY!
There are a couple of things that I’ve learned as I’ve used my lat machine conversion. For starters, Thompson Fat Pad-equipped benches are not ideal for this conversion. They are just too damn high even for tall people (I’m 6’3″ and I couldn’t make it work).
Also, since it’s unlikely that you’ll be using that 43″ cross-member for anything else, you can string tie some form of padding around it if you find the sensation of pressing bare leg into it uncomfortable. It’s actually not uncomfortable if you set it up correctly (level), but I can see how padding would be a nice touch.
Some folks have used a pull-up bar instead of crossmember, and wrapped it in one of those foam pool noodles. Pretty solid idea.
My Attachments (in case you were wondering)
Most of the attachments that I use regularly are from American Barbell. AB offers both steel and aluminum, but I chose the aluminum attachments because they are lighter, made in the USA, and comfortable in the hands. The aluminum attachments are a little more expensive than the classic steel attachments that they offer but not by much, and considering these are pieces that I’ll never have to buy again, I was okay with a slightly more expensive and nicer variation.
Amazon has a plethora of attachments that you can get on the cheap – I own a couple of those as well. They don’t compare to the AB attachments obviously, but they do get the job done all the same. I’ve actually retired all of my non-AB attachments except for an Amazon tricep rope and the included nylon attachment from the Spud Inc Pulley (which happens to be a very versatile attachment by the way, and one that I like very much).
I’m not a cable attachment ‘expert’ by any means, so I’m not going to pretend to be and tell you where to buy your attachments. Nor will I suggest that you have to spend a fortune on high-end attachments to get strong. It’s very likely that you’ll be used to some very specific attachment types and brands from your global gym days and you’ll want to go with those – by all means, do that.
On a different note, if you happen to own the tricep pushdown attachment or the multi-grip cable attachment from Rogue, I’d love to get some feedback on them. Leave a comment.
DIY Lat Pulldown Station – Summary
It’s not the fanciest thing, but it gets the job done. I have a back day that rolls around every four workouts, and I set this up every time. None of the cable-based pulls are primary lifts for the day, but I do a pretty good job of burning out my back during my tier 2 and tier 3 set. Again though, if you don’t own the proper rack or any of the rack components, you can certainly still row with a barbell. Don’t go out of your way to put this together if it’s going to cost you a small fortune.Announced at the beginning of this year, Intel’s Edison is the chipmakers latest foray into the world of low power, high performance computing. Originally envisioned to be an x86 computer stuffed into an SD card form factor, this tiny platform for wearables, consumer electronic designers, and the Internet of Things has apparently been redesigned a few times over the last few months. Now, Intel has finally unleashed it to the world. It’s still tiny, it’s still based on the x86 architecture, and it’s turning out to be a very interesting platform.
The key feature of the Edison is, of course, the Intel CPU. It’s a 22nm SoC with dual cores running at 500 MHz. Unlike so many other IoT and micro-sized devices out there, the chip in this device, an Atom Z34XX, has an x86 architecture. Also on board is 4GB of eMMC Flash and 1 GB of DDR3. Also included in this tiny module is an Intel Quark microcontroller – the same as found in the Intel Galileo – running at 100 MHz. The best part? Edison will retail for about $50. That’s a dual core x86 platform in a tiny footprint for just a few bucks more than a Raspberry Pi.
When the Intel Edison was first announced, speculation ran rampant that is would take on the form factor of an SD card. This is not the case. Instead, the Edison has a footprint of 35.5mm x 25.0 mm; just barely larger than an SD card. Dumping this form factor idea is a great idea – instead of being limited to the nine pins present on SD cards and platforms such as the Electric Imp, Intel is using a 70-pin connector to break out a bunch of pins, including an SD card interface, two UARTs, two I²C busses, SPI with two chip selects, I²S, twelve GPIOs with four capable of PWM, and a USB 2.0 OTG controller. There are also a pair of radio modules on this tiny board, making it capable of 802.11 a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0.
The Edison will support Yocto Linux 1.6 out of the box, but because this is an x86 architecture, there is an entire universe of Linux distributions that will also run on this tiny board. It might be theoretically possible to run a version of Windows natively on this module, but this raises the question of why anyone would want to.
The first round of Edison modules will be used with either a small breakout board that provides basic functionality, solder points, a battery charger power input, and two USB ports (one OTG port), or a larger board Edison board for Arduino that includes the familiar Arduino pin header arrangement and breakouts for everything. The folks at Intel are a generous bunch, and in an effort to put these modules in the next generation of Things for Internet, have included Mouser and Digikey part numbers for the 70-pin header (about $0.70 for quantity one). If you want to create your own breakout board or include Edison in a product design, Edison makes that easy.
There is no word of where or when the Edison will be available. Someone from Intel will be presenting at Maker Faire NYC in less than two weeks, though, and we already have our media credentials. We’ll be sure to get a hands on then. I did grab a quick peek at the Edison while I was in Vegas for Defcon, but I have very little to write about that experience except for the fact that it existed in August.Tim Horton's donuts are universally acclaimed — and some people will do anything to get them.
On Friday, at approximately 12:30 am, a 31-year-old man hijacked a Toronto bus and held it up at knifepoint. He allegedly forced the driver to drive through several lights, and speed to his ultimate dream destination: Tim Horton's.
SEE ALSO: Watch this cinnamon roll mastermind turn donuts into heavenly pastries
Passengers fled the bus after the man arrived and pulled out a knife. The driver then departed from his normal route. After arriving at the Tim Horton's/McDonald's joint parking lot, the man walked into Tim Horton's, where he was arrested by police.
Tim Horton's launch Toronto Blue Jays baseball team themed donut. Image: Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images
While the driver reported feeling "shaken," there were no other known injuries. The man heads to Newmarket Court later today, where he'll face criminal charges. His name has yet to be released.
It is unclear what donut, exactly, the assailant was after. The strawberry chocolate cake donut? The cinnamon sugar cake donut? The Canadian maple donut? Perhaps he should have come at the end of the day, when the donuts are stale but vendors sometimes give out pastries for free.
A Tim Horton donut isn't worth jail time. An Entenmann's donut — well that's up for grabs.
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Ian Ayre says the Fenway Sports Group move in clearing £69m of debt from the club’s books is just another demonstration of their long term commitment to Anfield.
A £69m sum technically owed to FSG has been written off and converted into equity, today’s accounts reveal.
Said the Liverpool CEO: “It’s another great example of the commitment that the owners make to the club.
“It’s effectively writing off that debt for the club and putting us in a healthier position.
“They have continued to do that throughout as everybody has seen and at the same time as doing that they have put forward the first instalment, almost £50m, of additional money in for the first phase of the stadium.
“It just continues to show their commitment, making those two gestures and at the same time reinvesting all of the profit from the sale of Luis Suarez.
“It just tells you the type of commitment they have and it is very much a long term commitment.
“We see heading towards us now the arrival of this new main stand at Anfield and I think that lends itself very well to the future of the club and how long term these owners look at the club.
“That’s something that will be there forever for this football club and I like to think they will be around for a long time as well.
Fenway’s top trio were at Wembley on Sunday to see the Reds lose heartbreaking on penalties to Manchester City.
Said Ayre: “They have been to Wembley before but they certainly said for a final it was fantastic.
“I spoke to Mike Gordon on Monday afternoon and he was like everyone, disappointed at the ultimate loss but he really enjoyed the occasion and felt it was one of those things that you will always remember.
“Going to Wembley is special for anyone whether you are from Liverpool or Boston or anywhere else.
“The whole experience of the day was fantastic and the owners enjoyed it as much as anyone else.”
Ambitions remain as high as ever at Anfield
Ayre also stressed that everyone at Liverpool remains committed to winning trophies and competing at the very highest levels - including a return to the Champions League stage, which Liverpool are struggling to make this season under new boss Jurgen Klopp.
Said Ayre: “We said when this ownership group came in that we wanted to win and keep winning and moving forward and that means everywhere in the club.
“And we are making that progress. We have a great manager now and we are making progress there as well.
“Nothing ever changes in terms of our ambitions. We always want to be playing Champions League football and that’s always our ambition. I have never known a year when it wasn’t our ambition at this club. It’s not always a reality but as an ambition it is always up there.
“And whether you speak to current manager or former managers it is always their ambition as well so you don’t have to create that pressure or expectation on a manager.
“Because a manager who is the manager of Liverpool Football Club, whether it is Jurgen or Brendan or Kenny or whoever, they always have the same view.
“Jurgen has played in the Champions League before and I know for certain he wants to play in it again. Everybody is focused on the same goal.
“As to the financial value of it, as we said, we are trying to compete with the best teams in the Premier League and the best teams in Europe and in order to do that you want to have the best opportunity to buy the best players. Sometimes that means you have got to invest a lot of money and sometimes it doesn’t.
“It is why in the round we are focused on our entire business, because if you just focus on the importance of Champions League revenue, then you might fall behind in other areas.
If we do the best we can in all areas then in some years we might lose out on Champions League revenue but we might gain in other areas like commercial or what have you.
“But the important thing is to be ambitious and be committed and keep investing and all of those things are happening and for that reason I think we are on the right track.”
Jurgen Klopp reflects all of Liverpool’s values and characteristics
Ayre believes Jurgen Klopp has already proved himself a great fit for Liverpool despite the ups and downs since his appointment in October.
He said: “I don’t think you have to say very much because anybody who sees him or listens to him or meets him gets him.
“He is very infectious.
“He is very genuine and down to earth of you had to start writing the values of Liverpool and Scousers, he is ticking all the boxes.
“He’s got a bit of a strange accent - but that probably works as well!"Will The Establishment's Stalking Horse for Hillary Blow Up the Republican Party? Via Hot Air, Matthew Sheffield writes of the anger and (correct) feelings of betrayal rising among the base. The Establishment's plan is very simple. They've pretty much announced it. Bret Stephens, for example, does not hide the fact that his plan is to help Hillary into the presidency with a "blow out" against Trump. Then, he figures, the rebellious Untermenschen of the Lumpenproletariat will come grovelling to the Establishment for its super-successful and popular policy mix of unchastened neocon foreign adventurism, favors for corporate cronies, and official, explicit Open Borders policy. The Establishment's plan is very simple. They've pretty much announced it. Bret Stephens, for example, does not hide the fact that his plan is toHillary into the presidency with a "blow out" against Trump. Then, he figures, the rebellious Untermenschen of the Lumpenproletariat will come grovelling to the Establishment for its super-successful and popular policy mix of unchastened neocon foreign adventurism, favors for corporate cronies, and official, explicit Open Borders policy. Here's Here's Stephens admitting The Plan, which is hardly necessary anyway, as it was always pretty obvious: This is the reason I�ve consistently argued that the only hope for a conservative restoration is a blowout Hillary Clinton victory, held in check by a Republican majority in Congress. If Mr. Trump loses the election narrowly, the stab-in-the-back thesis will have a patina of credibility that he might have won had it not been for the opposition of people like me. But a McGovern-style defeat makes that argument impossible to sustain except among the most cretinous. We can count on Mr. Hannity for that. And we can count on Mr. Stephens for that as well. And we can count on Mr. Stephens for that as well. These guys, who fancy themselves smart, seem to miss the point that the way to "teach a lesson" to Trump supporters is to just sort of stay out of the election, and let Trump fail on his own. Then they would have the makings of a "See, I told you so" argument. These guys, who fancy themselves smart, seem to miss the point that the way to "teach a lesson" to Trump supporters is to just sort of stay out of the election, and let TrumpThen they would have the makings of a "See, I told you so" argument. But they're too stupid and emotional for that -- no, they have to insert themselves directly into this, agitate for a Hillary win, and then admit they're actually agitating for a big Hillary win because the bigger the win, the bigger the repudiation. But they're too stupid and emotional for that -- no, they have to insert themselves directly into this, agitate for a Hillary win,because the bigger the win, the bigger the repudiation. The smart play was to keep their fingerprints off Trump's loss so they couldn't be blamed. But they're egotistical, and highly emotional, and can't help themselves from signing the defeat in blood-red fingerpaint: "WE DID THIS." The smart play was to keep their fingerprints off Trump's loss so they couldn't be blamed. But they're egotistical, and highly emotional, and can't help themselves from signing the defeat in blood-red fingerpaint: "WE DID THIS." But they also want to claim, post-November, "We had nothing to do with this." But they also want to claim, post-November, "We had nothing to do with this." Um, except for the part where you actively agitated for Hillary Clinton, and even put up a pawn of a candidate to try to throw a crucial state to Hillary Clinton. Um, except for the part where you actively agitated for Hillary Clinton, and even put up a pawn of a candidate to try to throw a crucial state to Hillary Clinton. One question: One question: You guys, having admitted you shivved the rest of the party in the back in order to scramble into a leadership position after the electoral debacle you admit you engineered -- You guys, having admitted you shivved the rest of the party in the back in order to scramble into a leadership position after the electoral debacle you admit you engineered -- why the fuck wouldn't the rest of us return the favor? why the fuck wouldn't the rest of us return the favor? I will never again support the WSJ/Establishment/Rick Wilson/Brent Stephens wing of the GOP. Ever. I will never again support the WSJ/Establishment/Rick Wilson/Brent Stephens wing of the GOP. Ever. Why the hell would I help you assholes into the power positions you crave after you've admitted to tanking an election to "teach a lesson" to the rest of us? Why the hell would I help you assholes into the power positions you crave after you've admitted to tanking an election to "teach a lesson" to the rest of us? You actually conspire with the enemy -- the Democrat Party, the socialists -- to give them the Supreme Court (all liberal justices older than 50 will retire under Hillary so she can pack the court with 40 year old liberals, and the conservatives except for Roberts and Alito are old) just to increase your own position vis-a-vis the base, and you're even brazen and stupid enough to admit this, and you think, what? You actually conspire with the enemy -- the Democrat Party, the socialists -- to give them the Supreme Court (all liberal justices older than 50 will retire under Hillary so she can pack the court with 40 year old liberals, and the conservatives except for Roberts and Alito are old) just toand you're even brazen and stupid enough to admit this, and you think, what? We line up to reward you for your betrayal? We line up to reward you for your betrayal? Are you fucking insane? Are you fucking insane?
Vote for Benedict Arnold Now that I've taught you rebellious colonists a lesson about proper deference to the King, I am ready to resume a leadership role over you -- tanned, ready, and rested.
PS: Once you've delivered Hilary her four or five young liberal justices who will rule the country for 40 years, 2020 becomes a particularly low impact election. Once you've delivered Hilary her four or five young liberal justices who will rule the country for 40 years, 2020 becomes a particularly low impact election. So what would be my incentive to even help these assholes with their plan to come roaring back in 2020? Do they really think I'm as hot for subsidies for John Deere as they are? So what would be my incentive to even help these assholes with their plan to come roaring back in 2020? Do they really think I'm as hot for subsidies for John Deere as they are? If we lose 2016, I have no dog in the 2020 fight, except payback. If we lose 2016, I have no dog in the 2020 fight, except payback. Posted by: Ace at 02:33 PM
MuNuvians MeeNuvians Polls! Polls! Polls! Frequently Asked Questions The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick Top Top Tens Greatest Hitjobs News/ChatA girl of 12 hanged herself after struggling to cope with the death of her mother from breast cancer, an inquest heard.
Isabel Ann Richardson began self-harming after Karina Richardson, 37, passed away in 2010.
But despite speaking to a school nurse, she was overcome by her sadness, and on May 12 was discovered hanging in her bedroom by her father Stephen.
Isabel Ann Richardson, from Norwich, was struggling to cope after losing her mother to breast cancer in 2010
Before her death, Isabel, from Norfolk, and her father had approached her school to ask for support. She had also used photo-sharing website Instagram to upload self-harm pictures, prompting another parent to contact teachers.
However at the inquest into her death on Wednesday, a coroner said she was 'concerned' about how the Hewett School, in Norwich, had dealt with Isabel's problems.
Jacqueline Lake told Norfolk coroner's court: 'I place no blame on any individual, however I am concerned about the robustness of the pastoral care at the Hewett for supporting pupils, particularly when it is known they have problems.'
Mr Richardson told the inquest that he had spoken to his daughter about the self-harming but she assured him she had stopped. 'Isabel seemed a lot better since the meetings at school,' he said.
His daughter had been referred to a bereavement charity and was due to speak to a counsellor, the court heard. Yet on May 12, at around 6pm, Mr Richardson called up to his daughter's room and asked her what she wanted for dinner.
He said that when she did not reply, he assumed she was listening to music. It was only when her brother Kyle phoned and said he had seen more disturbing pictures online that Mr Richardson rushed upstairs and found Isabel hanging.
She died in hospital six days later with her father by her side.
Despite speaking to staff at Hewett School (pictured) with her father, Isabel hanged herself on May 12
Describing her death, the 48-year-old said: 'I never thought for a second she would do anything like take her own life. I will always think I could have done more.'
In a statement read in court, he added that Isabel told the school's pastoral staff that she self-harmed because she'missed her mum'.
Recording a narrative conclusion, Coroner Lake said: 'Although she hanged herself, this could have been a cry for help.' She listed Isabel's cause of death as brain injury, cardiac arrest and hanging.
Paying tribute to the young pupil in May, teachers described her as 'hard-working, pleasant and polite'.
Speaking after the inquest, Hewett School headmaster Tom Leverage said: 'The welfare of students is always uppermost in our concerns and we will carefully consider the coroner's comments.
'We already take pastoral care very seriously but if there are things we can improve, we will.'Image caption Can vegetables make you look more healthy?
Even a few weeks of eating fruit and vegetables could improve your skin colour, it is claimed.
University of St Andrews researchers monitored diet in 35 people, finding more colouration in those eating more greens.
Other research suggests these changes may make you more attractive.
Other scientists said the study, in thePLoS Onejournal, might not fully reflect the link between consumption and appearance.
It has been known for some time that certain yellow and red pigments called carotenoids found in many types of fruit and vegetables, can have an effect on skin tone.
However it is not clear exactly how much influence a normal healthy diet can have on this effect.
The St Andrews scientists recruited 35 students, mostly white, who were quizzed on their fruit and vegetable intake over a six week period.
The volunteers were told not to use sunbeds, fake tan or make-up.
An instrument was used to analyse their skin tone before, during and after the test period.
The results suggested that changes in fruit and vegetable consumption might be related to changes in skin tone, with more fruit and vegetables contributing to a deepening of natural red and yellow skin colouration.
Earlier research by the team had found links between the perceived attractiveness of faces and even subtle changes in these skin tones.
"It is possible that even smaller dietary changes are able to produce perceptible benefits to skin colouration," they wrote.
However, they did concede that the effects on older people might be different, and that more research into non-white volunteers would be needed.
Food preparation
Dr Glenys Jones, from the Medical Research Council Human Nutrition Research laboratory at Cambridge University, said that another issue was that food preparation techniques made a big difference to how much of the carotenoids were available from food, and the study did not take this into account.
She added: "With the vast majority of the population not consuming the recommended five-a-day of fruits and vegetables, this could be another way of encouraging people through our own innate vanity to increase fruit and vegetable intake.
"After all fruits and vegetables contain a wide range of nutrients that are good for not just for our complexion, but for our overall health."
Dr Catherine Collins, a dietician at St George's Hospital in London, said that although people heavily exposed to sunlight were excluded from the study, all the areas of skin studied were those exposed to daylight, and the effects of this could not be ruled out.
However, she echoed the point that anything which encouraged people to eat more fruit and vegetables was a good thing.
"For the rest of us post-university people, it's another potential reason to carry on eating your greens - and red/orange/yellow veggies as well.
"The grown-up way of serving them cooked, or as part of an overall meal along with other foods, boosts bio-availability of these useful phytochemicals, which may contribute to overall health - as well as beauty!"Following the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, Ukraine has been watching closely to ensure the peninsula is still marked as its territory on maps all around the world. Its Foreign Ministry appealed to citizens to report instances where this was not the case, and this was how the public learned of the publication of a world atlas in France and geography schoolbooks in Britain and Kazakhstan that showed Crimea as part of Russia.
Now something similar has happened in Germany. At the end of March, Ukrainian and Russian media reported that a German textbook depicting Crimea in the same color as Russia had been approved by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF). Ukrainians living in Germany were the first to point this out.
New textbooks for migrants
The textbooks were for integration courses like this one
The books in question are part of the series "Einfach gut! Deutsch für die Integration," published by the company TELC in Frankfurt am Main. TELC (The European Language Certificates) has been established for almost 50 years and is a respected provider of language examinations. The map with "Russian" Crimea appears in the textbooks B1.1 and B1.2.
The new series has been on the market since July 2016. According to the publisher, it was conceived especially for integration courses, which prepare migrants for life in Germany. According to some estimates, throughout Germany there are some 200 course providers, such as language schools, using these textbooks. BAMF integration courses are part-funded by Germany's federal budget. Knowledge of German to B1 level is one of the conditions for German citizenship.
How illustrations are checked
TELC declined to comment when contacted by DW. It referred instead to the response on its website, in which the company regrets "the printing of the inaccurate map" and stresses that it had not intended to make "a political statement." The illustration had been purchased from the agency Fotolia. TELC declared that it will immediately reprint the books in question with a new map.
The agency Fotolia is a world market leader in the field of digital books. It is owned by the US software giant Adobe. "Fotolia is a marketplace for images," its representative Martin Moschek told DW. "The principle is that anyone who creates an image or a graphic can register with Fotolia and upload their images." The databank, he said, contains tens of millions of images. These are checked partly by machine and partly by employees. However, the checks address not content but technical aspects, such as resolution. They also weed out pornographic and violent images. In other words, they do not check whether a border has been correctly drawn on a map. Following the complaints about the map of Crimea, the image has been withdrawn and the provider informed.
"Crimea and Russia": Crimea is depicted in Russian national colors in this Moscow mural
'Disputed regions'
This provider is Kartox JM, which described itself in a mail to DW as "a small start-up company in Berlin." The mail goes on to express regret that "one of our maps has led to misunderstandings" and asserts that it has been removed from their portfolio. "We would like to make clear that we did not consciously intend to favor one nationality or be disrespectful towards another."
The striped area shows the disputed territory of Crimea. In the Germant textbook, Crimea is entirely yellow to show Russian possession.
Kartox JM has neither a website of its own nor a company e-mail address; yet many organizations use its pictures, including banks, newspapers and industrial firms.
The map of Europe with "Russian Crimea" is not the only example. In the Fotolia database, DW found two maps by Kartox JM, entitled "Chernobyl in Ukraine," in which Crimea is a different color to the rest of the country. The firm's Twitter account also had a map as its cover image on which Crimea was clearly depicted as part of Russia. Kartox JM announced that it would be removing these maps as well. The cover image on its Twitter account has indeed been deleted. "There are many regions around world that are disputed," was the Berlin cartographers' explanation. Data sets from these regions are "not always unequivocal."
This map showing Crimea as part of Russia was deleted from Kartox JM's Twitter account in April
Unauthorized books are still being used
The BAMF press office in Nuremberg expressed regret for the printing of "a faulty map" in an authorized book. The agency "expressly declares that this was not intended as a political statement," spokesperson Andrea Brinkmann told DW. The BAMF, she said, had removed both volumes from its list of authorized textbooks with immediate effect.
According to Brinkmann, the agency had no involvement in creating the series, either financially or with regard to content. Furthermore, the authorization was issued in June 2016 with the caveat that TELC had at that point not submitted the final print version. "In addition to a few appendices and the introduction, it lacked the map that has occasioned this criticism," said Brinkmann.
A bridge will soon link Crimea with mainland Russia
However, although they have been removed from the list of authorized textbooks, the providers of integration courses will still be able to continue working with them. BAMF says it will inform providers about the incorrect map, the forthcoming correction, and the possibility of exchanging the books.
Ukrainian ambassador: 'That is unacceptable!'
Ukraine has not turned it into a diplomatic scandal. The Ukrainian ambassador in Berlin, Andriy Melnyk, told DW that Kyiv had asked TELC, the BAMF and the Federal Ministry of the Interior for an explanation. He referred to the printing of the map as "a regrettable incident." "We were indignant when we received this information, because essentially it is deceiving - whether intentionally or not - the numerous users of these educational materials." This, he said, was "unacceptable in any circumstances." Hopefully, Kyiv now no longer has any grounds for criticism.This is the one. Don't let what we like to call the relative calm here, fool you. When the Knesset passed the boycott law Monday night, it changed the history of the state of Israel.
In real time, a tipping point of great magnitude can sound a lot like nothing at all. But if the Boycott Law makes it past challenges filed by human rights and pro-peace organizations in Israel's High Court of Justice, then anything goes, beginning with democracy itself.
Members of the Knesset voting on a bill, July 11, 2011 Michal Fattal
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Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak and 10 other cabinet ministers already know this. That's why they failed to show up for the vote.
They stayed away because they know that this is the stain that may prove indelible. The Boycott Law is the litmus test for Israeli democracy, the threshold test for Israeli fascism. It's a test of moderates everywhere who care about the future of this place.
This is the one. This is where the slope turns nowhere but down.
Q. What is wrong with the law?
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1. The measure curbs political freedom of expression in Israel in a number of ways, setting potentially significant – and dangerous – precedents. It allows any individual to, in effect, become a private law enforcement agency, empowered to bring lawsuits against anyone or any group the plaintiff accuses of having taken part in or even simply supported any action the plaintiff construes as a boycott against Israel, against the settlements, or even any individual Israeli, for any reason.
2. The measure erases the legal differentiation between settlements and Israel proper, regarding targeted boycotts against goods from the settlements as actions harmful to the state of Israel itself.
3. The Knesset's apolitical Legal Advisor Eyal Yinon has ruled that the law's broad definition of "boycotting the state of Israel", coupled with its "civil wrongdoing" or anyone-can-sue clause, may compromise freedom of expression where it comes to public debate over the fate of the West Bank. Prior to the Monday vote, Yinon stated that the law could be brought to bear against targeted boycotts "whose goal is to influence the political debate in connection with the future of Judea and Samaria, a discussion which has been at the heart of political debate in Israel for more than 40 years now."
4. The effect of the law could be crippling to the efforts of all organizations and many individuals working for Israeli-Palestinian peace and enhanced freedoms and human rights within Israel and the territories. The rabid anti-NGO campaigns of Im Tirtzu and other groups could escalate into a full-bore "lawfare" offensive, hauling them repeatedly into court and costing them prohibitive legal fees.
Q. Who benefits from all of this?
For the hard right, this is a clear win-win. First, there is the language of the law, through which Israel effectively and without fanfare annexes the settlements, and, in so doing, acknowledges that the settlements have annexed the state of Israel.
Secondly, the more untenable the law, the more anti-democratic its spirit and the more delusional its provisions, the more it delights those within the pro-settlement power base. Furthermore, this increases the likelihood that the High Court – reviled by the far-right and radical religious - will strike it down, only adding luster to those who incite against the Court.
Q. Who is fighting the law?
The Gush Shalom organization Tuesday filed the first High Court legal challenge to the new law.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, the Coalition of Women for Peace, Physicians for Human Rights, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, and Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, have also announced that they will challenge the law in the High Court. Peace Now and the Solidarity (Sheikh Jarrah) movement have begun collecting thousands of personal pledges advocating boycotts against settlement.
A number of U.S. Jewish organizations have condemned the bill, notably the Anti-Defamation League, which generally refrains from criticizing Israeli government policy and actions. ADL President Abraham Foxman said the bill was a disservice to Israeli democracy. J Street and Ameinu were among other U.S. groups to denounce the law.
Q. How dare you call this a step toward fascism in Israel?
I'm pretty much no different from everybody else here - just learning by doing. Im learning about fascism one step at a time. "Now they tell me," I'm thinking to myself. Im learning that the success of the Boycott Bill is a textbook case of the quiet appeal, the brilliant disguise, the endlessly adaptable expertise in the workings of democracy, that help explain the progress of fascism in our time. So this is what I've found out so far:
At first, it doesn't feel like fascism. That's why it works.
At first, to people whose nerves are bleeding and torn and altogether shot from generations of bearing arms and bearing wars and bearing children who will face still more wars, and between them, chaos and trauma and fury and grief and going without, fascism can sound like quiet. It can sound like actual calm. It's an understandable mistake. What have these people had to compare it to?
To people who feel vilified on reflex and demonized by rote, this new direction of ours can feel like freedom. That's why it works in a place like this. While it's getting up to speed, fascism's just another word for nothing left to lose.
I have friends whose livelihood is bound up with preserving the sense that democracy in Israel is as sound as ever; that if it's under attack, it's only from enemies foreign and domestic. I feel for them now. They'll have to dismiss or minimize or ignore the Boycott Bill. They'll have to pretend. At |
(NSA) by allowing secret services to bypass the company’s own encryption codes and gain access to programs including Outlook and Skype, The Guardian reported Thursday, citing documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
The British newspaper said documents provided by Snowden showed that the NSA “had pre-encryption stage access to email on Outlook.com, including Hotmail,” and that Microsoft also “worked with the FBI this year to allow the NSA easier access via Prism to its cloud storage service SkyDrive, which now has more than 250 million users worldwide.”
Prism is the US electronic surveillance network exposed last month by Snowden, who previously worked for the CIA and private firms used by the NSA.
“We provide customer data only in response to legal processes,” The Guardian quoted Microsoft as saying in a statement.
“We only ever comply with orders about specific accounts or identifiers, and we would not respond to the kind of blanket orders discussed in the press over the past few weeks,” the company said.
The Guardian said that the top-secret documents provided by Snowden also showed that: “In July last year, nine months after Microsoft bought Skype, the NSA boasted that a new capability had tripled the amount of Skype video calls being collected through Prism.”
Snowden, who faces espionage charges in the United States for leaking details of the secret state surveillance programs, arrived in Russia on a flight to Moscow from Hong Kong on June 23. The US authorities have revoked Snowden’s passport, and he is now believed to be holed up in the transit area of Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport while awaiting responses to multiple requests he has made to various countries for political asylum.PORT Adelaide premiership coach and former Magpies goalkicker Mark Williams has flagged his interest in the Collingwood coaching role, should it become available at season’s end.
Current Magpies coach Nathan Buckley is out of contract at season’s end and is no certainty to keep his role for the 2018 season, despite Collingwood’s mini turnaround over recent weeks.
Asked if he would consider putting his hand up for the role if Collingwood opts to part ways with Buckley, Williams told SEN’s Afternoons program on Monday: “You never say never.”
Williams, a former Collingwood captain and dual best and fairest winner, described the Magpies coaching role as “one of the dream jobs of the AFL”.
“I have a great passion for football and coaching,” Williams said.
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“If an opportunity like that came along, you would certainly look at it because it is one of the dream jobs of the AFL.”
As well as leading the Power to their inaugural premiership, Williams has also been a development coach at Richmond where he played an integral part in helping Dustin Martin grow into the superstar he is today.
Williams then left the Tigers to coach Ajax in the VAFA for this season.
LIVE stream every game of every round of the 2017 Toyota AFL Premiership Season on FOX SPORTS. Get your free 2-week Foxtel Now trial and start watching in minutes. SIGN UP NOW >>Image caption People underestimated the amount of sugar in many so-called 'healthy' soft drinks
People underestimate the amount of sugar in drinks which are perceived to be "healthy", research suggests.
The Glasgow University study asked more than 2,000 people in the UK to estimate how much sugar was in a range of drinks.
While many overestimated the amount in fizzy beverages, they underestimated levels in smoothies and fruit juices.
The research also found soft drinks could be accounting for a large chunk of their recommended calorie intake.
The British Soft Drinks Association says the sugar in soft drinks is not hidden because beverages carry clear labelling of nutritional content, including calorie and sugar content.
Risk factor
The reasearchers asked participants to assess their weekly drinking habits.
Their answers suggested 450 calories a day were being consumed - a quarter of the daily limit for women and a fifth for men.
What you drink can be as damaging to the body as what you eat Professor Naveed Sattar, Glasgow University BBC Health: Managing your weight
But it was the lack of awareness about the sugar content of drinks that caused concern.
The participants were asked to guess the number of teaspoons of sugar in a range of popular drinks.
They underestimated it for pure apple juice and orange juice, a caffeinated energy drink and a smoothie by between two and four teaspoons.
And for a pomegranate-based drink, they underestimated the sugar content by nearly 18 teaspoons.
Unsurprisingly, many participants were not taking the calorie content of their soft drinks into account when thinking about their diet.
The team warned that the over-consumption of soft drinks was contributing to obesity and was a major risk factor for conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke.
Lead researcher Prof Naveed Sattar said: "What you drink can be as damaging to the body as what you eat.
"There is no question that consuming too many sugar-sweetened drinks can greatly contribute to obesity.
"Some varieties of drinks such as pure fruit juices and smoothies, which are perceived as 'healthy' options, are also very high in sugar.
"For many people struggling with their weight, reducing their intake of such drinks and replacing with water or diet drinks would be a sensible first target to help them lessen their calorie intake."The vast majority of people do pushups with horrendous technique. It’s not their fault – the body defaults to positioning itself in a certain way when it lacks strength in some key areas.
Bad technique also derives from subconsciously imitating pushups technique seen in fitness magazines and online. Notice how all those professionally done shots have the model looking forwards smiling into the camera, and arms flaring out like wings? It’s a photogenic shot.
Unfortunately, proper pushup technique is much less photogenic, so you don’t see it as much.
Note: good pushups are modest and make for a bad photo, i.e. arms tucked in and head pointed at the floor.
Why Spend Time Working On Pushups Technique?
Aside from reducing your risk of injury, it puts your joints and muscles in their optimal position to produce force. More force = more pushups. More pushups = more strength and you achieve your 100 Pushups goals faster.
It also transforms what on the surface can be a monotonous training plan, to a journey of discovery. You connect more with the movement, your mind is within the effort rather than externally distracted. It is just a good feeling to take a movement and master it.
The 3 Most Common Pushups Mistakes
Arching your lower back Arms coming out too far out to the side Forearms not remaining vertical
Watch this video. It highlights these three mistakes, and is a good go-to resource for pushup technique:
Video Notes:
15secs – Tuck your bum under. Don’t stick your bum out. You want to be tucked under so your lower back stays more neutral or flat, and your abs stay engaged. Stay tight.
– Tuck your bum under. Don’t stick your bum out. You want to be tucked under so your lower back stays more neutral or flat, and your abs stay engaged. Stay tight. 43secs – Shoulder blades. Lots of people miss this. You need to be able to protract your shoulder blades at the top of every pushup. Avoid ‘winging’. You should see your shoulder blades move out towards your body as you finish the pushup.
– Shoulder blades. Lots of people miss this. You need to be able to protract your shoulder blades at the top of every pushup. Avoid ‘winging’. You should see your shoulder blades move out towards your body as you finish the pushup. 1:38secs – You need to be able to hold a perfect plank position.
– You need to be able to hold a perfect plank position. 1:50secs – You want your hands to be slightly wider than shoulder width apart, not too wide though. Spread your fingers wide and turn them out slightly (it helps the elbows stay close to your body). My opinion:
– You want your hands to be slightly wider than shoulder width apart, not too wide though. Spread your fingers wide and turn them out slightly (it helps the elbows stay close to your body). My opinion: 2:30secs – You lean forwards slightly so your shoulders are just above your fingers. When you lower down, your elbows are bending and staying close to your body. Elbows should not flare out.
– You lean forwards slightly so your shoulders are just above your fingers. When you lower down, your elbows are bending and staying close to your body. Elbows should not flare out. 3:12secs – Forearms stay vertical throughout the movement, like a post. To achieve this, the shoulders come ahead of the arms.
– Forearms stay vertical throughout the movement, like a post. To achieve this, the shoulders come ahead of the arms. Rest of the video is about progressions: he talks about incline pushups to make the movement easier. This is one way to go, but I prefer you start out doing negatives and pushup planks if you can’t do full pushups. His advice about not doing kneeling pushups is sound.
Next Section: The correct arm position →Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
July 6, 2017, 2:42 AM GMT / Updated July 6, 2017, 10:17 PM GMT By Phil Helsel and Alex Johnson
Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the third-ranking Republican in the House, underwent surgery to manage an infection and tolerated the procedure well as he recovers from last month's congressional baseball shooting, a Washington, D.C., hospital said Thursday.
Scalise, 51, the House majority whip, was readmitted to intensive care on Wednesday, MedStar Washington Hospital Center said.
On Thursday, a statement released by MedStar on behalf of Scalise’s family said "he tolerated the procedure well" and remained in serious condition.
Scalise, who was shot in the hip, was the most seriously wounded of four people who were injured June 14 when James T. Hodgkinson opened fire at a baseball field in Alexandria, Virginia, where Republican lawmakers were practicing for their annual game against Democratic lawmakers.
Related: Who Is Steve Scalise, House Majority Whip Wounded in Alexandria Shooting?
Hodgkinson, 66, of Belleville, Illinois, died in an exchange of gunfire with police. Officials briefed on the FBI's investigation told NBC News last month that Hodgkinson had a list of several Republican representatives in his pocket when he was killed.
After Scalise was readmitted to intensive care, representatives and senators from both sides of the aisle expressed their well wishes and prayers for Scalise and his family.From Bulbapedia, the community-driven Pokémon encyclopedia.
The Sootopolis Gym (Japanese: ルネジム Rune Gym) is the official Gym of Sootopolis City. It is based on Water-type Pokémon. The Gym Leader is WallaceRSORAS, who succeeded and, in Pokémon Emerald, was eventually replaced by his mentor JuanE. Trainers who defeat them receive the Rain Badge.
In the games
The Sootopolis Gym's door is initially locked. It will only open up once the player has solved Hoenn's weather crisis.
Generation III
Sootopolis City Pokémon Gym
Leader: Wallace
Artist, and lover of water
Sootopolis City Pokémon Gym
Leader: Juan
The Gym Leader with the beauty
of pure water!
In Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, to reach the Gym Leader, Trainers must step on every ice tile to activate the stairways to the next level. If any tile is used twice, the player will fall to a lower floor, where the Gym Trainers are located. No matter where he or she falls, at least one Trainer must be challenged before the stairs can be returned to. The levels on the basement floor are separated with ice slides, allowing the player to only move downwards.
When defeated, WallaceRS or JuanE will give the player the Rain Badge as well as TM03 (Water Pulse) as a reward.
Generation VI
Sootopolis City Pokémon Gym
Leader: Wallace
Artist, and lover of water
In Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, the player can walk across the ice diagonally instead of just straight. The second and third puzzles now also contain solid platforms which can be stepped onto multiple times without them breaking. Once a puzzle is solved and the player has entered the next level, the cracked tiles on the lower levels can be stepped onto without them breaking. The ice slides on the lower floor are replaced with stairs, allowing the player to freely move between the different levels of the floor. In addition, two Trainers can now be battled on the main floor.
When defeated, Wallace will give the player the Rain Badge as well as HM05 (Waterfall) as a reward.
Appearance
This section is incomplete.
Please feel free to edit this section to add missing information and complete it.
Reason: Needs layout maps from ORAS.
Trainers
Second rematch
Third rematch
Fourth rematch
Trainer Pokémon 1F Poké Fan Marissa
テイコ Teiko
Reward: 2,752 Azumarill ♀ Lv. 43 No item Lass Crissy
メイ Mei
Reward: 656 Luvdisc ♀ Lv. 39 No item Seadra ♀ Lv. 41 No item BF Beauty Olivia
ナオコ Naoko
Reward: 2,408 Starmie Lv. 43 No item Lady Brianna
シオリ Shiori
Reward: 4,920 Clamperl ♀ Lv. 41 No item Corsola ♀ Lv. 41 No item Beauty Connie
マユコ Mayuko
Reward: 2,408 Huntail ♀ Lv. 43 No item Beauty Bridget
セイコ Seiko
Reward: 2,408 Gorebyss ♀ Lv. 43 No item Beauty Tiffany
ハルコ Haruko
Reward: 2,296 Golduck ♀ Lv. 41 No item Wailord ♀ Lv. 41 No item Lass Andrea
ミキ Miki
Reward: 672 Ludicolo ♀ Lv. 42 No item Trainers with a PokéNav by their names will be registered in the Trainer's Eyes or Match Call function after the first battle, and may have a rematch with the player with higher-level Pokémon.
Items
In the anime
The Sootopolis Gym debuted in The Great Eight Fate!, when Ash and his friends first arrived there. After challenging Juan, Ash learned that the Gym battle would be divided up into two parts, with the first part being a Double Battle. Once both of Juan's Pokémon fainted, the battle would switch into one-on-one battles. Ash's battle with Juan ended in Eight Ain't Enough! with Ash's victory, earning him his Rain Badge.
In Our Cup Runneth Over!, Wallace was revealed to have been the Leader of the Sootopolis Gym before becoming the Hoenn League Champion.
Sootopolis Gym is also the home to Sebastian, the assistant at the Gym.
Pokémon used in Gym
Trivia
Despite being a Water-type Gym, this Gym's puzzle resembles an Ice-type Gym.
This is one of the only two Gyms that have different Gym Leaders in the same generation depending on the version. The other Gym is Opelucid Gym. This is also the only eighth Gym to not have any Ace Trainers in any of its appearances.
There is a glitch in Pokémon Emerald on the bottom floor of the Gym where the player can walk into the wall above the ladder.
Due to Wallace giving HM05 (Waterfall) in Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, this is the only Gym in which the player is ever rewarded with an HM rather than a TM.
This is the only Gym in Hoenn where the Gym Leader ever uses a Dark-type Pokémon or a Fairy-type move.Introduction
Battleships Forever is a freeware tactical Real Time Strategy game that put's you in command of a small fleet of warships in space. Combat and damage mechanics are extremely detailed. Everything is simulated in game if possible. There are no abitrary "to hit chance" values in Battleships Forever. The game also features many innovative mechanics that you've never seen before. For example, the Cronus Battleship sports a Flux Shield generator that allows you to draw a defensive force shield around your ships in any shape you want. Another example are the Deflector modules that are used extensively through the game. These modules make a single section of a ship totally invulnerable to fire. This means that you will have to manoeuvre your ships to attack sections of the enemy ships not protected by Deflectors while keeping your own protected sections facing the enemy. Position is paramount!
Players will command picked fleets made up of Battleships, Destroyers and Patrol Craft. The completed game will include ten campaign missions and multiple skirmish modes. Battleships Forever is inspired by and loosely based on Warning Forever by Hikoza.T.Ohkubo Screenshots
A formation of ships
Pew pew laser beams! About The Ships
Each warship is modeled to meticulous detail. Your ships can be controlled to drift in one direction while facing another direction for strafing attacks. Each section of your ship is an object on it's own. If a section is destroyed, any child sections that were connected to the core of your ship through that section will also be destroyed.
This section-based modular ship system makes positioning very important. Take the Hestia-Class Assault Destroyer for example; It's sections and weapons are swept forward allowing it to concentrate it's fire to the front. At the same time, the Hestia is vulnerable to rear attacks which can destroy it's wing's connection strut, thus destroying the entire wing in one blow.
There are 17 playable ships available: Cronus Battleship
Peitho Armoured Battlecruiser
Hecate Dreadnought Athena Advanced Dreadnought
Arcas Carrier
Hestia Assault Destroyer Hestia Alpha
Enyo Cruiser
Oenone Beam Destroyer Oenone Delta
Helios PointDefence Destroyer
Tmolus Bombardier
Moira Torpedo Destroyer Moira X
Proteus Gunship
Zelus Attack Boat
Thetis Drone Carrier In the campaign and skirmish modes, you will face more than fifty types of enemy craft! About The Weapons
Each turret is individually articulated and has its own firing arc, range, turning speed and health. Turrets can be individually destroyed in order to de-tooth an enemy. Beams will even rake across the enemy ship's hull, tracing out a trail of destruction. Individual turrets can even be targeted and sniped off.
Active defences are also a major part of your tactics in Battleships Forever. Many ships are equipped with interceptor turrets that shoot down incoming projectiles. Maximizing your interceptor coverage to nullify enemy firepower is the key the victory. Project Status
BETA TESTING/DEVELOPMENT (Tech and Engine)
Title: Battleships Forever
Genre/Category: Tactical Real Time Strategy
File Size: ~11mb
Game File-Type: Zipped
Change Resolution: Yes(Can be changed in options or with alt-enter)
Full Screen: Yes(Can be changed in options or with alt-enter)
Game Resolution: 1024x768
Recommended System Requirements
Win98 or later
128mb Graphics Card
512mb of RAM
Intel Pentium 2ghz and equivalent
Minimum System Requirements (No surfaces mode)
Win98 or later
64mb Graphics Card
256mb of RAM
Intel Pentium 1.5ghz and equivalent Other Stuff
"After playing Battleships Forever for the first time it immediately became one of the best games I've played on the GMC." - 5/5 Preview of v0.29 on GM Tech Magazine Blockade Highscores
Grinder Highscores
Raid Highscores
Leviathan HighscoresA Senate report into the CIA’s use of torture and its cover-up was heavily redacted and almost never published, with the Obama administration trying to protect the agency, its lead investigator has revealed for the first time.
Daniel Jones, the Senate Intelligence Committee staffer who led the probe into the CIA’s detention and interrogation program following 9/11, has revealed the drama behind the six-year effort in a three-part expose authored by Spencer Ackerman and published over the weekend by the Guardian.
From 2008 to 2014, Jones and his colleagues examined over 6.3 million CIA documents, eventually authoring a 6,700-page classified report concluding that the agency had lied about torture to two US presidents, Congress and the public.
Speaking to the media for the first time, he spoke of how the 525-page declassified executive summary almost came to be suppressed, and how the man who set him on his career path – Denis McDonough, the White House chief of staff – sided with the CIA in redacting some of the most relevant information from it.
“They redacted all references to Allah,” Jones said. “Like, really? Under what national security concern?”
Redacted beyond recognition
Backed by the White House, the agency insisted on eliminating any identifiers from the declassified report, both for the interrogators and the detainees. That made it impossible to follow the persons involved from one “black site” to another.
Read more
“You couldn’t follow the narrative arc,” Jones told the Guardian.
Redactions followed a predictable pattern, Jones explained. First the CIA and the White House would claim they were a matter of national security. When the committee staff argued otherwise, they would say “this will really hurt morale at the CIA, this is a morale issue … as if that was a reasonable response to making something classified,” Jones said.
Both the CIA and the White House were adamantly opposed to revealing that some of the interrogators had a record of domestic abuse and even sexual assault. The final public document contained only oblique language suggesting the possibility.
Down the rabbit hole
Jones and his colleagues were first tasked to look into the destruction of evidence, following a December 2007 revelation by the New York Times that a senior CIA official named Jose Rodriguez destroyed 92 videotapes depicting the “enhanced interrogation” of two detainees, Abu Zubaydah and Abdel Rahim Nashiri.
Read more
Jones and his colleagues found documents describing how Abu Zubaydah was “kept naked, filthy, stinking, shaking with fear, shoved inside a filth-riddled wooden box, defecating on himself,” among other things.
“I don’t think the CIA even knew what they were giving us, to be honest,” Jones said.
When Jones presented the committee with a preliminary report, in February 2009, both Republicans and Democrats were shocked and outraged. By March, the committee had voted to expand the investigation to review the entire program.
Agreeing to review the documents inside an office provided by the CIA, using a separate computer set-up, Jones and his colleagues started digging. By March 2010, they noticed they could not bring up some of the documents they’d reviewed before. An internal CIA probe discovered that over 900 documents had been withdrawn from the committee on two occasions.
With this in mind, in the summer of 2013 Jones took a printout of a document, prepared by the CIA for then-director Leon Panetta, documenting that the Agency was all too aware it had deceived the White House about torture. The so-called Panetta Review was never made public, and it should still be in the Senate Intelligence Committee safe.
“It’s a final findings document. It has 13 findings. And one is, basically, they provided inaccurate information to support the use of [torture],” Jones said. “They’re topic oriented: ‘These are the inaccurate things we told the president’.”
When Colorado Senator Mark Udall, a Democrat, revealed the existence of this document at a December 2013 hearing, the CIA went ballistic, accusing Jones of hacking into their computers even as agents broke into the computer system set up for the Senate staff to spy on their work.
Fear and Loathing at Langley
The CIA’s Inspector-General later established that at least five agency officials would improperly access the Senate investigators’ work during January 2014, even reading Jones’s emails, trying to establish how the Panetta Review made it onto that computer system in the first place.
Read more
CIA Director John Brennan met with the committee leadership on January 15, 2014, demanding that staffers who accessed the document be “disciplined.”
Senator Diane Feinstein (D-California), who chaired the committee at the time, refused. Instead, she publicly denounced the CIA probe into the Senate probe as improper. In the heated war of words between the CIA and the Senate, the agency even referred Jones to the Department of Justice, for prosecution on hacking charges – which the DOJ eventually declined to pursue.
On April 3, 2014, the committee voted to release a declassified version of the torture report. The CIA overreaction had apparently convinced the minority Republicans – who had long opposed such a move – to change their mind.
Kerry and Clapper’s last-minute gambit
Jones had completed the first draft of his report in December 2012, running up to 6,200 pages. In June 2013, the CIA had sent a long response to the committee, contesting the conclusions of the report’s first draft. Jones had incorporated that response – and the comments and footnotes rebutting it – into the final draft, which grew to 6,700 pages as a result. The final executive summary that was made to the general public amounted to 525 pages, with Jones having to fight for almost every word against the CIA and the White House that backed the agency.
At one point, Feinstein even accused the White House of running out the clock, knowing that the Democrats would lose the midterm election and the report would never see the light of day under a Republican-led committee.
In December 2014, Secretary of State John Kerry made a last-minute plea to delay the report, because it might inflame passions in the Muslim world and endanger the struggle against Islamic State. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper followed up, predicting widespread riots and violence. That effort backfired, the Guardian reported, saying that multiple sources indicated the senators were insulted by the apparent efforts by the Obama administration to suppress the report.
The so-called “Senate torture report” summary was made public on December 9, 2014. It described CIA interrogators“taking power drills to the heads of captured men; making them stand with their arms stretched above their heads for days at a time; leaving at least one of them naked until he froze to death; waterboarding them to the point of catatonia as bubbles rose from their open mouths; and inserting pureed food into their rectums while claiming it was necessary for delivering nutrients.” No one at the CIA was ever held accountable.
“People who played a significant role in this program, who are in the report, continue to play significant roles in sensitive programs at the agency,” said Jones.The other day I read this Arstechnica article and realized how tragic the situation is. And it is not this bad because of the evil hackers. It’s bad because few people know how to handle one very common thing: authentication (signup and login). But it seems even cool companies like LinkedIn and Yahoo do it wrong (tons of passwords have leaked recently)
Most of the problems described in the article is solved with bcrypt. Other options are also acceptable – PBKDF2, scrypt. And using salt is a must, obviously. Note that bcrypt is not a hash function, it’s an algorithm that is specifically designed for password storage. It has its own salt generation built-in. Here are two stack exchange questions on the topic: this and this. Jeff Atwood has also written on the topic some time ago.
What is salt? It’s a random string (series of bits, to be precise, but for the purpose of password storage, let’s view it as string) that is appended to each password before it is hashed. So “mypassword” may become “543abc7d9fab773fb2a0mypassword”. You then add the salt every time you need to check if the password is correct (i.e. salt+password should generate the same hash that is stored in the database). How does this help? First, rainbow tables (tables of precomputed hashes for character combinations) can’t be used. Rainbow tables are generated for shorter passwords, and a big salt makes the password huge. Bruteforce is still possible, as the attacker knows your salt, so he can just bruteforce salt+(set of attempted passwords). Bcrypt, however, addresses bruteforce, because it is intentionally “slow”.
So, use salt. Prefer bcrypt. And that’s not if you have to be super-secure – that’s the absolute minimum for every website out there that stores passwords. And don’t say “my site is just a forum, what can happen if someone gets the passwords”. Users tend to reuse passwords, so their password for your stupid site may also be their email of facebook password. So take this seriously, whatever your website is, because you are risking the security of your users outside your premises. If you think it’s hard to use bcrypt, then don’t use passwords at all. Use “Login with facebook/twitter”, Mozilla Persona, OpenID (that is actually harder than using bcrypt) or another form of externalized authentication.
Having used the word “minimum” a couple of times, I’ll proceed with a short list of things to consider in terms of web security that should be done in addition to the minimum requirement of using bcrypt-alikes. If you are handling money, or some other very important staff, you can’t afford to stay on the bare minimum:
use https everywhere. Sending unsecure session cookies can be sniffed and the attacker can “steal” the user’s session.
one-time tokens – sends short-lived tokens (codes) via SMS, or login links – via email, that are used to authentication. That way you even don’t need passwords (you move the authentication complexity to the mobile network / the email provider)
encourage use of passphrases, rather than passwords – short passwords are easier to bruteforce, but long passwords are hard to remember. That’s why you could encourage your users to use a passphrase, like “dust blinds horror buildings” or “beautiful dump fire diver”, which are easy to remember, but hard to attack. (My signup page has an example of a subtle encouragement)
require additional verification for highly-sensitive actions, and don’t allow changing emails if the login was automatic (performed with a long-lived “remember-me” cookie)
lock accounts after failed consecutive logins – “bruteforce” should only be usable if the attacker gets hold of your database. It should not happen through your interface.
use certificates for authentication – public-key cryptography can be used to establish mutual trust between the user and the server – the user knows the server is the right one, and the server knows the user is not a random person that somehow obtained the password.
use hardware tokens – using digital signatures are the same as the above option, but they store the certificates on hardware devices and cannot be extracted from there. So only the owner of the physical device can authenticate
Web security is a complex field. Hello world examples must not be followed for real-world systems. Consider all implications for your users outside your system. Bottom-line: use bcrypt.By: Anand HarshSometimes epiphanies sneak up on you in the middle of the night. Of course contemporary bass music producers are going to turn to the lush catalog of UK trip-hop for source material when it comes to crafting breathtaking soundscapes from scraps of eerie atmospherics and piercing vocals.'s Rain was sonically thrust back in time to a memory of roaming the aisles of a record store hearing the haunting strains of "Teardrop" from, which he immediately purchased. Rain shakes the heartbeat kick into a modern dub shuffle, and throws a frame or two of glitch into Elizabeth Fraser's vox. The original cut provides a blank canvas onto which Rain paints great big strokes of lazer bass and blotches of crisp cacophony, to which end he said "I made an effort to maintain the warmth and essence of the original, while giving it a new gritty edge." There is absolutely no question bass producers whose formative years encompass those early-to-mid 90's will go running to their CD collection to grab up any loose Portishead, Tricky, and yes, Massive Attack albums. Rain just opened the floodgates.Free Download Link:Sellers are offering a trip to New York City or pre-paid condo fees in a bid to get noticed among the glut of condos for sale in Calgary.
There are nearly 1,650 apartments and condos for sale right now, with only 286 sold last month. Yet the average price is holding steady at just over $300,000 and more units are under construction.
"The builders are still enthusiastic but it is surprising because there is a huge inventory of unsold units," said Hilliard MacBeth, the Edmonton-based author of When the Bubble Bursts: Surviving the Canadian Real Estate Crash.
"And that's why we are seeing these amazing incentives to try and get buyers to take action."
Some desperate Calgary condo owners are trying to attract buyers with big incentives. One seller in Marda Loop is offering a week-long trip for two to New York City and a developer in Auburn Bay is offering a year of free condo fees, cable and internet.
In Sage Hill, a buyer can get a $1,800 travel voucher, upgraded appliances or six months of prepaid condo fees.
More sellers to offer incentives
Senior real estate analyst Don Campbell of the Real Estate Investment Network says more sellers will start offering incentives to move their units.
"A strategic buyer will buy it if they think that they can make it work, you know, financially. But they'll probably get it at a discount, which is nice for the buyer, not so great for the seller."
An advertisement offering incentives like travel vouchers, appliance upgrades or six months of no condo fees as incentives to new condo buyers. (Shanehomes.com)
He says it will be a long time before the excess inventory is absorbed.
"We're in for a long ride in Calgary and Edmonton. And I just think that speculators are really being shown to not have a Plan B, and investors are doing incredibly well, because they've had a plan B – i.e. rent it out."
Offering an incentive to buy, like a car or a trip, is preferable to a developer over dropping the price, said MacBeth, but eventually prices need to fall.
"The bad news is it isn't getting any better," he said, pointing to 1,290 multi-family units under construction right now.
"We aren't even half-way through this because of the fact that they haven't quit building yet. A lot of those condos are going to end up in the rental pool, it's inevitable."
Renters enjoy lower prices
That has brought down rental prices, with the average two-bedroom going for $2,000 in 2014 at the peak of the oil prices to $1,500 today, he said.
"The multifamily construction in Calgary and Edmonton both seems to be shifting more towards rentals as well."
Calgary saw similar overbuilding in the 1980s and two major builders went into receivership, he said.
"It's an inevitable cycle. We get the boom-bust. We all know it. We've got the bumper stickers to prove it. But this is a pretty major cycle and it's going to take some time to resolve."This post deals with the step-by-step security testing guidelines for Adobe CQ installation.
Adobe CQ is Adobe’s new Web Experience Management software portfolio which provides easy-to-use web apps for creating, managing and delivering online experiences to its users. It also supports integration with other Adobe products. CQ provides a unified suite of management tools which includes Web Content Management, Marketing Campaign Management, and Digital Asset Management applications.
As I was working on a security testing of a project which was based on an Adobe CQ installation, I quickly made a Google dork for identifying CQ applications, ran this dork on Google, and was amazed to see the results. There were more than 100,000 results. And most of them were damn vulnerable. This can be seen in the image 1.1 below.
Image 1.1: Results of Google query (inurl:content/geometrixx)
When I searched for docs to help in testing the security of this app, almost no results popped up except the security checklist for admins. So, despite the popularity of this product, there was a lack of resources for its security testing guides. So I came up with this article which can be taken as a security checklist for Adobe CQ Instances.
If we talk about any CMS as compared to a normal web application, CMS are always complex when it comes to security, as admins are not even aware of all the configurations. In the same manner, Adobe CQ is quite a big CMS and damn complex too. This leads to good amount of security holes in an application, if it is not configured properly. So let’s talk about scope of vulnerabilities in Adobe CQ. Well, most of the vulnerabilities in Adobe CQ are more of security misconfigurations, and not of the core. Adobe CQ is very secure in the core. However, if you come across one in a core, then go, grab a CVE-ID. So, our target keeps revolving around identifying any security misconfiguration left open.
So let’s start off.
Check for Default Passwords: Manufacturers of any equipment or application typically use a simple password, such as admin or password on all equipment they ship, in the expectation that users will change the password during configuration
However, due to unawareness of security, users generally forget this and leave the default passwords as they are. Most of the adobe CQ instances which we went through were vulnerable to this issue, where they already lost half the battle. So check for the default passwords. While we identified an author account to be left open in 90 percent of our findings, an admin account was using a default password in three instances. An anonymous account and other three are also very helpful (even if they give read-only access), because they can at least take you to backups, cloud instances, etc. Default passwords for Adobe CQ installs are: admin : admin
author : author
anonymous : anonymous
replication-receiver : replication-receiver
jdoe@geometrixx.info : jdoe
aparker@geometrixx.info : aparker
Check for default Login Screens: Test for the default login page of the application. Default login screen are one most potential entry points in the application. And this is obviously the best place to check whether the default usernames and passwords are being used or not. These links can be useful, as shown in image 1.2 and image 1.3:
/system/console [Felix Web Console]
/system/ admin [CQSE; servlet engine]
/system/sling/cqform/defaultlogin.html
/crx/de/index.jsp
OR /crx/ [CRX Web Console] /etc/packages.html
/content/geometrixx
/libs/cq/core/content/login |
Finland want the system overhauled before forging ahead with closer banking union, to the barely concealed horror of southern European politicians and bankers.
Italian Finance Minister Pier Carlo Padoan has urged caution on introducing the new rules. “Let’s be very careful about translating into practice rules that look nice on paper,” he warned, adding that any such rules could lead to a sell-off and “instability”. Padoan’s sentiments were echoed by Santiago Fernandez de Liz, the chief economist for financial systems and regulation at Spain’s second biggest lender, BBVA, who cautioned that applying a proposal of this kind in the Eurozone would “reignite the fragmentation” of Europe’s financial markets.
The race is now on to get as much peripheral sovereign debt as possible off the balance sheets of peripheral banks and onto the ECB’s already bloated books. In January the central bank “invested” €6.1 billion in Spanish sovereign debt — 18.9% more than the previous month, raising the total amount it has spent on Spanish bonds since launching QE in March last year to €62.9 billion. Given the likely direction of EU policy, as well as the scale and scope of the risks, challenges and threats clouding the investment horizon in Spain, one can expect this trend to intensify. By Don Quijones, Raging Bull-Shit.
The scheme derailed. Read… Hedge Funds, Wall Street not Happy with the New Spain
Enjoy reading WOLF STREET and want to support it? Using ad blockers – I totally get why – but want to support the site? You can donate “beer money.” I appreciate it immensely. Click on the beer mug to find out how:
Would you like to be notified via email when WOLF STREET publishes a new article? Sign up here.Former deputy prime minister likens shadow business secretary to band who drenched him with water at 1998 Brit awards
The former deputy prime minister John Prescott has dismissed the shadow business secretary, Chuka Umunna, as “Chumbawamba” at a Labour party conference event.
Lord Prescott made the remark during an interview with the comedian Matt Forde at the Comedy Store in Manchester, after he was asked how he viewed modern Labour politicians such as the Streatham MP.
Forde asked: “Do you find it difficult? … when you are watching people do speeches, like … Chuka Umunna?”
Prescott replied: “They can call him Chumbawamba.” He also quipped that water was now in fashion.
The Labour MP was drenched by anti-establishment band Chumbawamba at the 1998 Brit awards when they poured a bucket of ice-cold water on him.
When the group announced their split in 2012, Prescott expressed his delight on Twitter.
He wrote “Chumbawho?” and said he would mark the moment by going to buy their greatest hits album.
The wide-ranging interview also covered topics like the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the threat of Islamic State and the infamous punch in 2001 when he lashed out after being hit in the face with an egg.ES Football 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
Chas and Dave will appear on the pitch at half-time during Sunday’s final match at White Hart Lane.
The pop duo, Chas Hodges and Dave Peacock, who released their first single in 1975, became synonymous with Tottenham. They recorded four FA Cup Final singles for the club, including "Ossie’s Dream" in 1981, when Spurs beat Manchester City 3-2 in a replay at Wembley.
They will be interviewed at the interval of the meeting with Manchester United. It will be the pair’s first public appearance since Hodges, 73, was diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus in February. He is awaiting medical clearance to begin performing again.
Standard Sport also understands that members of club owner Joe Lewis’ family will attend, though it is not yet clear whether Lewis himself will be there. Lewis, 80, has an estimated fortune of £4.5billion, making him the fifth richest person in the United Kingdom.
Tottenham have invited many of their best former players and managers to the match, and those present are expected to take part in a ‘farewell ceremony’ about 20 minutes after the final whistle. This will also feature the first-team squad and coaches, and players from the academy.
Harry Winks, the midfielder who has become a key part of the first-team squad, is also due to be interviewed at half-time. Winks is an academy product who made 33 appearances this season before suffering an ankle injury in the 2-0 win at Burnley in April.
Tottenham supporters will be presented with flags when they go into the ground, which they will be asked to raise at a certain point during the ceremony to create what Spurs hope will be a memorable visual effect.You may notice some changes from page to page as we go forward here. As a group of schmucks who've never worked on a comic before, we're still adjusting to see what works and what doesn't. Mind our mess!
It's a guardsman's life
The lifespan of a guardsman recruit freshly delivered to the front line is often measured in minutes, which is not surprising, given the sorts of foes they find themselves going toe to toe with on a daily basis, not to mention the indifference of their own officers. To combat his enemies, the guardsman is given his sacred kit, which has been standard issue for over a millennium. Each regiment often makes its own adjustments depending on local conditions, requirements, and traditions, but the vast majority of are outfitted with some form of flak armour and the trusty las rifle (Read: laser pointer)(Note from Kaiser: If Tom Hinchliffe or Don Greger ever read this by some stretch of the imagination, can I please have that panel in high definition for my desktop/phone/tattoo on my ass. Love, Kaiser). Life ain't easy in the Guard.Ed Gillespie, adviser to the Romney campaign, defended the campaign’s assertion that six independent studies have validated the plausibility of Mitt Romney’s tax plan, a talking point used by both Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan to defend the plan against attacks that the math doesn’t ad up. “Six different studies have said this is entirely doable,” Gillespie said on “Fox News Sunday.”
But host Chris Wallace took issue with the assertion, calling some of the studies “questionable.”
“These are very credible sources,” Gillespie pushed back.
“One of these is from a guy — is a blog from a guy who was a top adviser to George W. Bush,” Wallace countered. “These are hardly non-partisan studies.”
Gillespie said that these are from Harvard and AEI and that said again that they are “very credible sources.”
Here’s the full exchange, via Fox:While homicides and shootings have dropped in New York City this year, the number of stabbings have jumped.
As of March 13, stabbings are up 20 percent compared to the same time last year, according to a report on Bloomberg.com. The NYPD has taken 809 stabbing reports, more than the 673 by that date last year.
There have been 20 stabbings in the subway system, more than twice the nine at this point in 2015.
Police concluded less than 20 of 809 were "unprovoked," as for the first time the NYPD is tracking motives for knife assaults. Among the weapons that have been used are kitchen knives, screw drivers, box cutters and machetes.
Knives less than four inches are legal to carry unless they're "gravity-opened" items like a switchblade.
The report noted, however, that most of the stabbings are domestic disputes.
Shooting have fallen 19 percent while homicides are 30 percent off last year's pace.
Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.The following blog post, unless otherwise noted, was written by a member of Gamasutras community.
The thoughts and opinions expressed are those of the writer and not Gamasutra or its parent company.
I recently spoke on the topic of the contemporary arcade market at the Baltimore IGDA, and now that we just returned from exhibiting our game (“Neon FM”) at our third industry trade show in 2 years, I wanted to revisit the subject here for everyone else. Let’s address the elephant in the room for people outside the industry:
Why did so many arcades fail? Why are so few companies making video arcade games?
Many people of my generation have fond memories of wandering the dimly-lit, flickering halls of machines that seemed to be making money hand-over-fist in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Everyone I knew back then would celebrate their birthday somewhere with an arcade. The arcade was a unique experience, where you could compete with strangers, win fabulous prizes (to us), and play games that were far beyond what you could experience and/or afford at home. Consoles and the rise of the internet are the most common scapegoats for the decline in arcade popularity, but the main reasons actually have much more to do with a business model that makes video arcades unattractive for both manufacturers (arcade game developers) and operators (arcade owners). As a consequence, the only people left playing on the supply side are people who are too established to change, have too much invested to quit, or whose love for arcades supersedes profit (we would be the latter); and the result is an old-fashioned industry that resists change.
Location Tests
Trust in new products and new companies is tremendously low in this industry, which isn’t entirely unfounded when you consider the high price of a new arcade machine (upwards of $10-12k) and the long term before a break-even point is reached on the unit (typically 10-12 months or longer for video arcades). As a result, every product purchase is a considerable investment on the operator’s end, and even moreso for independent arcades. Location tests are therefore the standard, and can run for 30-60 days before the operator makes a purchasing decision. During this time, the manufacturer is at risk, since modern arcade machines cost multiple thousands per unit to make, payment is delayed for months, and return on investment is not guaranteed. Further, (and contrary to what many operators believe is a mutually-beneficial arrangement) no one location test contributes to building confidence in another buyer—markets are perceived as regional and unique, even within the same city, and everyone wants to complete their own test before committing to a purchase. Consider the cost of building dozens of machines to arrange these tests, and the faith you must have in a product to bet on your game being successful in markets and conditions you cannot control. Does your game benefit from the internet? Your operator may not have a connection available, may accidentally disconnect it for days at a time, may be paranoid that you or an invader could access the machine’s data, or may have a network that is mysteriously incompatible with your unit for reasons that you can’t diagnose because you just shipped a machine to them across the nation (perhaps that one is a bit specific). Can your machine that usually behaves at a smooth 60 FPS do the same in a location that skimps on air conditioning and then backs your unit’s ventilation ports up against walls and other machines? Location tests seem to be perceived as boons to manufacturers who get answers to these questions, but the reality is that a location test is not a public beta—it is a live-fire exercise that determines whether your game will be sold. Major franchises such as Dave & Busters have a reputation for immediately ending tests on machines that fail for any reason during their test, and any public failure for a company will certainly lower the probability that they will get a chance with another game.
Trade shows
I plan to address the true cost of trade shows in a future post, but for now, understand that trade shows are frequent, very relevant to this industry, time-consuming, highly unpredictable, and outrageously expensive. For those of us who don’t have the resources to attend the multitude of shows around the world, there is a standout: IAAPA Attractions Expo is the largest arcade & amusements show in the US, has the highest buyer attendance, and is relatively affordable as well (no, I have no stake in them). The industry is founded on the relationships built along the supply chain, often over decades, and this is where those relationships are made and maintained. This is different from many high-tech industries (where efficiency is valued more highly than loyalty, and risk-averse behavior is less common), so these shows are by far the best—if not the only—way to introduce your game and build your brand. Most of the people in the industry who can make a purchasing decision do so exclusively at trade shows, making manufacturer attendance mandatory. That said, depending on a number of factors (including time of year, location, proximity to other shows, parking, nearby hotel rates, and so on) it’s hard to predict who will actually attend the show. Further, there’s no guarantee that even if a potential customer attends a show that they will find your booth. Every show we attend, buyers tell us that they’ve never seen us at previous shows, and it’s not for want of our machine being obnoxious (a loud music game with 6-foot tall neon tube lights is hard to miss). However, booth placement at these shows is determined by the coordinators, with preference given to vendors who buy multiple booth spaces. Should you actually get to speak with a potential buyer, someone on your team will need to understand how to pitch the game and close a sale (which is a science in itself).
Further, the damage done by unit failure is even higher at a trade show than a location test, since there are so many important eyeballs on your product at all times. We carry spares of everything in our machines in triplicate for shows, and most veteran manufacturers will ship separate crates full of spare parts in the event something goes wrong (and something will go wrong). That said, the one benefit of machine failure at a trade show is that you’re there to do something about it, and while we learned the hard way that you should never update your software during a show, a precaution that’s worked well for us is to run our most stable build and insert debug keys to quickly and silently change or disable software features. And while we’re on the topic of software…
Bulletproof software
I mentioned that hardware failures are disastrous for arcades, but software failures are equally fatal because there’s no difference to the end user, and unlike other platforms, players cannot restart your software (and often lose money) if something goes wrong. You would be completely fair to assert that a game in public should be bug-free and never malfunction anyway, and you would also be amazed at what people can do to your lovely software when they touch it in just the way that only a fresh pair of hands can (one common oversight is failing to thoroughly test the easy difficulties, which are over 90% of what get played at shows, and which neither we nor our vocal players commonly experience because we’re pros). Day-0 patches may be common in the rest of the games industry, but arcades do not get that luxury, and therefore time spent in QA is much longer, and simplicity in game design to avoid logic errors is strongly encouraged. The arcade industry has evolved somewhat from the days of mailing out repair boards to all your locations whenever Shang Tsung starts to march across the ceiling (I may be dating myself with that reference), and internet access is largely ubiquitous among arcades, but developers cannot assume that their machines can receive updates and that operators will be willing to bother themselves with your problems if online updates fail. And this is especially true when most operators have an attractive alternative.
There are better ways to make money
This may be the single biggest reason video arcades are rare and/or pigeonholed into “safe” genres, such as “shooters” and “drivers.” The average video arcade player shares similar demographics with the rest of the games industry and is unusually price sensitive. Consider that one of the first games to charge 50 cents per play was Dragon’s Lair in 1983 (a notoriously short game, too, for casual players), which the Consumer Price Index values today at $1.19 per game. With an estimated cycle time of 2 minutes between players, the game was effectively earning $35.70 per hour. However, to this day, players will balk at a price per game above 50 cents, despite the value being 58% lower than when the price point was introduced over 30 years ago. Even then, players expect to get quite a bit of mileage out of their two quarters. Card-based payment systems are gradually replacing traditional coin mechs and seem to help operators overcome this hurdle through price obfuscation (alcohol always helps too), but the fact remains that consumer willingness to pay is far lower than it was in the golden years of arcades.
The exception is redemption (ticket or prize) games. With a tangible reward on the line, price sensitivity is turned on its head and gameplay duration is suddenly a non-factor. The demographic expands to a younger audience, tantalized by dreams of fashionable spider rings and sweets. Adults are still playing, too, for higher-ticket items such as game consoles and tablets. The typical price for a redemption game is $1, and the cycle time for a game can be as low as 10 seconds. Even with the cost of prizes at a typical 30% of revenue, these games can generate hundreds an hour in profit. What’s more, redemption games don’t cost any more to purchase than video arcade games, and many players don’t seem to even care if the machines are new—looking at arcade data shared with us, some of the top earners were made in the 80s and can be bought at an auction for as little as $500. Price sensitivity for redemption games among operators is also much lower than with video arcades because the investment can be recouped so quickly. Is it really any wonder that so few people are trying to make video arcades, much less straying from proven design formulas?
Summary
Why did the American video arcade industry fall into decline? Because consumer demand (willingness to pay) decreased, operators became more risk-averse, and more risk was passed on to manufacturers. Compounded by the rising budgets of software titles, many developers moved on, lowering supply. Why were they not replaced? Because of the cost barrier, considerable effort, uncertain returns, lower margins caused by a high amount of power among distributors (where a near monopoly exists), and a slew of other barriers to entry (patents, safety concerns, engineering considerations, et al) which are worth an article in themselves.
So why would anyone make a modern video arcade game? Because there’s still something magical about arcades that can’t be found elsewhere. Every new arcade game challenges the developer to invent new interfaces and modes of control. Fringe and once-fringe technologies such as virtual reality, stereoscopic displays, motion controls, panoramic screens, et al are first explored in the arcade space because the end-user investment is low and the goal of arcade development is to perfect a brief but unique experience. We’re here because, to us, the arcade will always be the frontier of gaming, and the curator of our fondest memories.
Eric Yockey is an MBA graduate from Johns Hopkins University, CEO of Unit-e Global & Unit-e Technologies (creators of the arcade music game Neon FM, releasing for mobile this Spring), and on the board of the Baltimore IGDA. He can be followed on Twitter at @EricYockey and has a project portfolio at http://www.ericyockey.com.There are half a million dogs in the city of Jining, which encompasses the 16 villages, the official New China News Agency says. Officials there said their extermination plan was scheduled to begin later this month. There have also been reports of smaller extermination schemes in other parts of the country, notably in Sichuan Province.
As remarkable as the killings themselves, however, has been the response. With its rising prosperity, China is developing a pet-owning culture, with dogs standing out as a particular favorite. As word of the killings has spread here, pet owners have begun to mobilize — speaking out online and circulating petitions — to try to stop the killings.
In fact, discussion of the issue has surpassed the bounds of a simple conversation about pets’ rights, with many commentators sharply questioning a system that could order the mass extermination of dogs, whether or not they are licensed and vaccinated. The reaction of groups and individuals, often through the Internet, also provides a striking illustration of the emergence of true public opinion in China, unmediated by the official press or censors.
“This is just another stupid decision by several foolish officials taken in a small room, totally unreflective of the people’s will,” said a comment on Mop, a current affairs forum.
Some drew comparisons with China’s human rights situation. “We don’t have human rights, let alone dog rights,” wrote a commentator going by the name of Kui Kui Xiang Ri, on the Tianya forum. “I’ve seen too much live abuse, let alone abuse of dogs. Anyway, it’s the local emperors who have their say, and we ordinary folks are not much different from dogs in their eyes.”
Chinese humane societies have announced plans to file lawsuits against local governments that mount extermination campaigns. “This kind of thing is just too terrible, too inhumane,” said Huang Juan, a leader of the Abandoned Pets Assistance Center, in Wuhan. “They did it without any real reason, since many of these dogs are vaccinated and cannot spread rabies. But how can you speak reason with these people?”
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Another group, the China Small Animal Protection Association, said it would sue. “We are meeting with lawyers the day after tomorrow, and will go to court and bring charges against two local governments,” said Lu Di, the group’s director. “I will not just try to persuade, warn or criticize them — it’s too late for that. We will sue them to make them understand that this is not merely a moral issue, but a crime.”
On Wednesday, the Humane Society of the United States offered $100,000 to China to establish a program to control rabies in Jining, The Associated Press reported.
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More broadly, others pointed out that the extermination campaigns contradict the guiding ideology of China’s current leaders, who constantly invoke the need to build a “harmonious society.”
Although the extermination programs are being widely denounced here, there is no doubting that rabies remains a severe problem in China. Nationwide, 961 people died of the disease in the first six months of the year, and last year, 2,545 people died. By contrast, rabies deaths in most Western countries are extremely rare.
Experts say the persistence of the disease reflects the breakdown of the rural health care system, once one of the proudest achievements of Chinese Communism. Many poor rural provinces view canine rabies vaccinations as a costly burden. Meanwhile, an oral vaccine, which is far easier to administer, is not imported, partly because of its cost.
“Many farmers are reluctant to get shots for their dogs, because it’s not always free, whereas the veterinary system at the township level has become very inadequate,” said Luo Tingrong, a rabies expert at Guangxi University. “There isn’t much investment into the system.”
China Plans a Rare-Animal Hunt
BEIJING, Aug. 9 (Reuters) — China plans to auction licenses to foreigners to hunt wild animals, including rare species, a newspaper said on Wednesday.
The government will auction the licenses based on the numbers in each category of animal, ranging from a starting price of $200 for a wolf, the only predator on the list, to as much as $40,000 for a yak, The Beijing Youth Daily said. There are believed to be fewer than 10,000 mature wild yak in the world.
The newspaper said the auction, on Sunday in Chengdu, capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan, would be a first for China.Sanders’ calls have come following last week’s resignation of Democractic Senator Al Franken, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by several women.
Sen. Bernie Sanders has reiterated his call for US President Donald Trump to leave office over the sexual misbehavior allegations against him.
"Here you have a president who has been accused by many women of assault, who says on a tape that he assaulted women," Sanders told NBC’s "Meet the Press" program on Sunday.
The senator noted that Sen. Al Franken resigned after several women accused him of sexual misconduct.
On Thursday, Sanders already suggested that Trump should step down, following in Franken’s footsteps.
We have a president who acknowledged on tape that he assaulted women. I would hope that he pays attention to what's going on and think about resigning. — Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) 7 декабря 2017 г.
Sanders’ calls on Sunday echoed similar statements by Sens. Cory Brooker and Jeff Merkley, who have also urged Trump to step down over the allegations.
Before he was elected president, Trump was accused of sexual misconduct by 16 women. Trump has long threatened to sue the women who have made those claims, but he has not yet done so. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that the White House’s official position is that all the women who have accused Trump of sexual misbehavior are lying.
READ MORE: House Democratic Leader: Trump's Election Evoked a Wave of Sex Scandals in US
Al Franken resigned from office on Thursday, a day after a number of his Democratic colleagues called for him to step down following a growing number of allegations of sexual harassment.
© AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite Senator Al Franken Announces His Resignation After Sexual Harassment Allegations (VIDEO)
In November, a female journalist publicly accused Franken of groping her when she was asleep. Following this allegation, another woman claimed Franken made unwanted sexual advancements toward her in 2006. More accusers reported allegations of sexual misconduct against Franken over the past several weeks.
Earlier, Rep. John Conyers resigned over similar allegations, but he claimed his departure was due to health issues.
Franken and Conyers have been in the epicenter of sexual allegations that have recently emerged against a number of US politicians in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal. Another prominent figure is Republican candidate Roy Moore, who has faced multiple sexual misbehavior allegations, including assault and sexual encounters with underage girls.by Jay Hashop
“I’m a big believer in Michael Young. And if the ship sinks, I’ll still be on it.”
– Ron Washington, August 2012
The S.S. Ultimate Professional officially sank on October 5th, 2012, when the Texas Rangers lost the AL Wild Card game to mighty Joe Saunders and the Baltimore Orioles. Coming off a strong 2011 season in which FanGraphs credited Young with 3.5 fWAR (FanGraphs wins above replacement), the Rangers’ super-utility player struggled all season at the plate and in the field, ending the season at -1.6 fWAR as one of the worst everyday players in Major League Baseball. Contributing significantly to his collapse was the complete lack of power Young displayed in 2012, when he posted his lowest season marks in both home runs (8) and isolated slugging (.093) in over a decade. Additionally, Young’s batting average on balls in play (BABIP) dropped to.299 from the.367 he recorded in 2011. The breakdown in Young’s game was so severe that general manager Jon Daniels paid the Phillies 10 million dollars to take Young in exchange for a middle reliever and a bullpen prospect in case Young had permanently lost the ability to play at least replacement-level baseball.
While Young fizzled, his teammate David Murphy sizzled on his way to accumulating more fWAR in 2012 (3.9) than he had from 2009 through 2011 (3.7). Murphy finally appeared to have conquered the left-handed pitching demons that had forced him into a platoon-like role for much of his career, and the Rangers showed confidence in Murphy by naming him the everyday left fielder going into 2013. A.433 BABIP against left-handed pitchers on only 60 balls in play served as cause for concern about steep regression, but Murphy at least appeared to be a sufficient corner outfield option.
Murphy stumbled out of the gate in 2013, hitting to a meager.176/.227/.297 triple-slash line in March and April, but it seemed safe to assume he would rebound to his career average rate statistics. A productive month of May (.286/.322/.524) provided the expected positive regression, but Murphy’s bat went cold again in June (.200/.283/.305), and he landed second on Mike Podhorzer’s list of unluckiest BABIPers at midseason. For fantasy purposes, Murphy looked like a buy-low candidate who could turn around quickly in the second half.
Suffice it to say that he didn’t turn around. Murphy’s poor results at the plate eventually landed him on the bench in mid-September, with Jim Adduci taking the starting role in left field against righty pitchers. You probably haven’t heard of Jim Adduci, likely because he spent seven years in the minors before making his MLB debut at age 28 when rosters expanded this season. When the brief Adduci experiment failed, Craig Gentry took over in left field, and Murphy, whose last start as the Rangers’ left fielder came on September 20th, received only seven plate appearances over the final six regular season games and did not play in Game 163.
The best explanation for whatever happened to Murphy over the course of 2012 and 2013 is likely that Murphy played over his head in 2012, benefited from some good luck along the way, then lost some bat speed and foot speed as he got a year older, and all the good luck from 2012 hopped on a train heading in the other direction. The tricky part is allocating the blame between lost skill and random variation.
Just how unlucky must Murphy have been to have hit so poorly this season due to bad luck alone? Looking purely at the results of plate appearances over his career, one can try to quantify the bad luck through simulation. Taking Murphy’s career rates for all of his nearly 3,000 plate appearance outcomes as his true talent level, I ran 1,000,000 simulations of a 476-PA season (to match Murphy’s 476 PA from 2013). In 1,402 of those simulations – approximately one in 700 – computerized Murphy produced a wOBA (weighted on-base average) at or below the.289 mark he put up this past season. (In case you were wondering, computerized Murphy beat his.369 wOBA from 2012 in over one third of the simulations and underperformed his.227 BABIP from 2013 in about one in 40.) Events with probabilities much lower than one in 700 aren’t all that uncommon or surprising in baseball, but normally one would confidently conclude that a performance three full standard deviations below the mean indicates the influence of some factor other than random variation. Since Murphy struck out at a noticeably lower rate in 2013 than he did previously while his walk rate dipped only slightly, this mystery factor probably manifests itself in statistics concerning balls put in play.
Looking the batted ball profiles, 2013 doesn’t appear all that different from 2012: Murphy pulled the ball a little more and hit fewer balls in the air, but there’s nothing to explain a drastic 43-hit difference between the seasons.
Enter BABIP. Just as a deflated BABIP aided in Michael Young’s disastrous 2012 season, a poor BABIP seems to explain a sizeable chunk of David Murphy’s 2013 faceplant. From the 2008 season, Murphy’s first as a regular player, through his best year in 2012, Murphy never put up a season-long BABIP below.299. In 2013, Murphy did not record a BABIP above.299 in any calendar month. Looking at historical context makes it appear even worse.
In the last decade, there have been 34 player-seasons in which a hitter reached 400 PA with a BABIP below.240. Here are the seven player-seasons with the highest line drive rate, according to FanGraphs. All the players in blue are catchers, none of whom are particularly renowned for their hit tools, so they may reasonably be expected to post low BABIP marks on occasion due to their subpar speed. Note that the correlation between BABIP and LD% was +0.579 for qualified hitters in 2013, and that the median line-drive BABIP for qualified hitters in 2013 was.699, compared to.242 for ground balls and.225 for fly balls.
Murphy’s relatively meager.562 BABIP on line drives from 2013, third-to-last among qualified hitters, is likely the combination of bad luck – Rangers announcers Steve Busby and Tom Grieve pointed out that it seemed like many of Murphy’s line drives were hit right at outfielders – and a loss of bat speed that enabled infielders to snag a few more liners. However, it would be nice to get a better handle on this balance by examining the data from more angles. We have already taken a quick glance at batted ball type, but we can also break the numbers down by count as well as pitch type, pitch location, and batted ball location.
The table below shows Murphy’s BABIP and wRC+ (a park- and league-adjusted measure of weighted runs created, where 100 denotes average and higher numbers are better) in plate appearances through most counts as well as his BABIP and sOPS+ (park- and league-adjusted OPS for a given split) by situation in a plate appearance. The gray rows are those in which Murphy was behind in the count at some point during the plate appearance.
Murphy clearly scuffled at the plate when behind in the count; a first-pitch strike essentially reduced his offensive production per PA to that of mid-1970’s Mario Mendoza, the light-hitting shortstop for whom the Mendoza line was named. When behind in the count, Murphy produced a.291 OPS, which the 17 sOPS+ indicates is extremely poor with respect to the average hitter given that said hitter is behind the pitcher. That Murphy’s BABIP was uniformly lower through at-bats in which he was behind suggests Murphy made abnormally weak contact in those scenarios, possibly because he was swinging defensively to keep from striking out, an explanation corroborated by Murphy’s career-low strikeout rate in 2013. One would need Hit F/X or a similar data set, which is not publicly available, in order to evaluate the hypothesis that Murphy hit baseballs with much lower velocity when behind in the count.
Other than functioning as a near-automatic out while behind in the count, Murphy also struggled mightily with pitches on the outer portion of the plate and with sliders in general. The heat maps below from Baseball Heat Maps depict Murphy’s average run-value production on all fastballs, curveballs, sliders, and changeups in 2013 by pitch location (from the catcher’s perspective) compared to the rest of his tenure as a Ranger, and the problem areas are evident.
Murphy showed signs of trouble with fastballs low and away in 2013, and the spray charts below from Texas Leaguers display between Murphy’s last two seasons. In 2012, Murphy hit 43 four-seam (FF) and 16 two-seam (FT) fastballs into the gold zone between the infielders and outfielders that I drew in Microsoft Word because I know nothing about Photoshop or anything like it. A total of 30 four-seamers and 11 two-seamers fell in for hits, yielding a.695 BABIP in the gold zone. Meanwhile, in 2013 Murphy hit 26 four-seamers and 10 two-seamers into the gold zone, 13 and three of which resulted in hits, respectively, for a.444 BABIP. For Murphy, that meant the 2013 gold zone provided 25 fewer hits on 23 fewer balls in play.
Regarding Murphy’s low relative run value in 2013 against sliders, it may have been less a matter of balls in play than an issue with making contact. From 2008 to 2012, he whiffed on 92 of 483 swings at sliders, or 19.0%. However, in 2013, Murphy swung at 105 sliders and completely missed 35 (33.3%). Missing so many sliders either led to strikeouts directly or placed Murphy further behind in the count, a situation in which he clearly struggled in 2013.
The big question here concerns the extent to which Murphy can be expected to bounce back next season, and recent history provides reason for relative optimism. Since 2008, there have been 23 player-seasons in which a non-catcher recorded at least 300 PA with a BABIP below.240 and then reached at least 100 PA in the next season. Those 23 players – counting Andruw Jones and Jose Bautista twice each – averaged a.228 BABIP in the low-BABIP seasons I examined (the “averages” in this paragraph are not weighted by number of plate appearances but are instead simple arithmetic means of each player’s BABIP) compared to their.282 average career BABIP. In the year following the low-BABIP season, those players posted an average BABIP of.270, which falls below career norms but includes a significant rebound from the prior year. Given that the 23 players’ average age during the low-BABIP seasons was about 30.3, it seems intuitive that the rebound-year BABIP marks would not reach career averages since the players had passed the peak of the aging curve. In all, the rebound-year BABIP marks averaged about 96% of the respective career levels using either an arithmetic or geometric mean, projecting Murphy to record a BABIP near.287 next season.
Looking only at the 11 players with career BABIP marks above.282 – Murphy’s is.302 – gives approximately the same results. Those 11 players have a mean career BABIP of.297, averaged a.228 BABIP in the low-BABIP year, and rebounded to average a.284 BABIP the following season. In all, projecting Murphy’s 2014 with this smaller but more specific |
in Mexico and from extortion and kidnapping.
The claim that marijuana is the top U.S. cash crop is unfounded. Marijuana advocates and law enforcement have an incentive to inflate the value. For the advocates, plumping up the numbers leads to higher predicted tax-revenue estimates from legalization, currying favor from cash-strapped states. For law enforcement, a higher number makes seizures seem more impressive. A more-reasonable valuation would put marijuana around 15th in the rankings (closer to potatoes and almonds than to corn or soybeans).
If legalized, is there concern that marijuana use could increase harder drug use?
We don’t know. We address the controversial “Gateway Effect” in our book. Advocates make bolder claims than the data justifies. There is no consensus in the professional literature, and both sides of this debate offer plausible arguments. People who use marijuana (particularly those who initiate at a young age) are more likely to use hard drugs than people who don’t use. But that doesn’t mean that the marijuana use caused the hard drug use. It is plausible that marijuana use might be an indicator of underlying differences in susceptibility to hard drug use. It is also plausible that marijuana use increases the overall taste for mind-altering substances. The jury is out.
An equally important question, which receives much less attention, is the likely effect on alcohol consumption. Alcohol kills more people than all the hard drugs combined. Whether marijuana legalization caused an increase or decrease in alcohol consumption would dramatically change predictions about the costs and benefits of legalization.
How will the legalization of marijuana benefit the people of Colorado?
The benefits (and costs) of legalization will vary from person to person. Effects on heavy users are different than effects on sellers, which in turn are different than effects on parents of teenagers. One chapter of our book consists of a series of questions – “How will legalization affect me if I’m a ___” – with the blank filled in for many different groups.
How does legalization lead to more effective drug policy for marijuana-based crime? Or does it not?
It’s important to distinguish two types of marijuana-based crime: (1) violation of marijuana laws and (2) other crimes (burglary, assault, arson, etc.).
Amendment 64 would eliminate most violations of Colorado state marijuana laws (most, not all, because underage possession, sales to minors, and driving under the influence would still be illegal, and there would be civil penalties for producers who violate regulations). Amendment 64 would have no effect on the legality of marijuana-related activities with respect to the federal Controlled Substances Act. The DEA could still arrest anyone, even a user with a single joint. Traditionally the DEA has focused its efforts on larger producers and distributors (typically those possession hundreds of pounds), but it is not clear how the DEA or the federal government more generally would react to passage of Amendment 64.
Amendment 64 would have very little effect on burglary, assault, etc., simply because such a small proportion of those crimes have anything to do with marijuana. The “expensive” big three (cocaine/crack, heroin, and meth) do create a lot of non-drug crime, so legalization of them might affect crime rates substantially, but legalizing marijuana would likely not.
Do you think legalization will affect prices? Will they be driven drastically up or down, or neither?
The price of basic “unbranded” marijuana will tend to go down very substantially over time as the industry transforms and expands.
Producing legal marijuana could be cheap if the federal government does not step in to replace state and local enforcement efforts: 10-20% of current illegal prices if the product were legal at the state level only, and closer to 1% of current illegal price if it were legal nationally as well. How much of that decrease gets made up by taxation is a policy choice. Amendment 64’s choice is “not much” – with excise taxes limited to 15% of the wholesale price through 2017, and only for non-medical marijuana. But if you impose heavy taxes, you're going to need to enforce them.
Legalization may well also bring product differentiation, in part as producers try to evade the classic problem of commodity prices being bid down close to the cost of production. Godiva sells its chocolates for much more than its production costs, in part because it has invested in enough advertising to create a cachet associated with its brand. Similarly, some marijuana sellers might target the affluent and “discerning” market segments with higher priced forms. So there might be a wide range of prices. But the basic cost per hour of intoxication for people who just want to get high would likely fall substantially over time. How long it would take for prices to reach that new equilibrium is anyone’s guess. If Colorado were an island, it might take only a few years, but the marijuana market does not respect state borders; as prices in Colorado began to fall, some of that lower priced marijuana would leak out to other states. Since Colorado is now a very minor producer relative to the national market, it might take quite a few years for its production to ramp up enough to reach a new equilibrium at the new, long-run prices for the national market. And we may not ever reach that equilibrium, because by then other states may have legalized or there might be other structural changes.
If marijuana is legalized in the state, what are the expected responses from the federal government?
No one knows, and it makes all the difference in the world. If Colorado legalized, and the federal government stepped in and started making exactly the same number of arrests as Colorado state and local police had been making before (and arrested anyone who tried to get a license under Amendment 64), we wouldn’t expect to see a big effect on marijuana prices or use; the major effect would be that the cost of enforcing the prohibition would be shifted to a larger tax base, and people arrested would be prosecuted under federal, not state, statutes. And even that financial win for Colorado could disappear if Congress decided to “punish” Colorado by withholding federal highway funds, for example, in an amount equivalent to the federal government’s increased enforcement cost. (Recall that the Reagan Administration used the threat of withholding highway funds to goad states into raising the minimum legal age to purchase alcohol.)
At the other extreme, if the federal government were to abstain from enforcing federal laws against anyone who was complying with Colorado law, then Colorado producers could enjoy the full economies of scale that would otherwise only come from national-level legalization. This scenario seems exceedingly unlikely, if for no other reason that markets in neighboring states would be affected by spill-overs. But the larger point is that forecasting the consequences of a state legalizing always comes with a giant question mark concerning the unpredictability of the federal response.
With the federal government in mind, how can a state-wide marijuana industry operate without the support of banks, who due to their federal regulation cannot offer business accounts to marijuana businesses?
Marijuana production is not a terribly capital intensive business, certainly not relative to manufacturing or mining. Given the profit margins that could be enjoyed until production expanded enough to bid prices down, informal start-up funding plus retained profits could fuel its growth – albeit slower perhaps than if entrepreneurs had ready access to large commercial loans.
Bear in mind that one set of entrepreneurs Colorado can expect to be interested in Amendment 64’s legal protections will have no shortage of start-up funding. That is people who are now producing in other states and neighboring countries. Indoor production is footloose; it can be done in any state. So Colorado might have operations that participate in the legal Colorado market just enough to obtain a license as a front for larger scale, purely illegal production intended for export to other states. The appeal of Amendment 64 for such organizations is that unreported production by licensees would amount to a violation of regulations – punishable only by civil penalties, not the criminal penalties these operations now face where they currently operate. Such established marijuana producers would presumably not be bothered by the difficulty of obtaining bank loans, since their usual problem is not obtaining cash, but laundering it.
Why should a voter who is not a marijuana user come out and vote in support of this measure?
We have no intention of telling people how to vote. There are arguments on both sides.
Supporters point to various hoped-for goods, including potential tax revenues, reduced enforcement costs, and the potential for elimination of racially discriminatory enforcement practices. Opponents worry about increased use and increased problem use and dependency, especially among teenagers. Both could be right. How a voter should strike the balance between gains and losses is a matter of values on which we don’t have an expert opinion to offer.
In terms of how people will vote rather than how we think they should vote, current users are indeed more likely than non-users to support legalization. Parents, and especially the parents of teenagers, tend to view legalization less charitably.
In your opinions has the drug war been a failure or a success when it comes to marijuana, or a little of both, and why?
We dislike the term “drug war.” War is a terrible metaphor for social policy. And we don’t think social policies pertaining to complicated problems are best evaluated in terms of success or failure, wins and losses. There are advantages and disadvantages of current policy; there are advantages and disadvantages of alternatives, including legalization.
If Amendment 64 passes, what do you expect the economic impact of legalized marijuana in Colorado to be?
The macroeconomic impact will probably not be large. The gross state product for Colorado is on the order of $250 billion a year. The current Colorado marijuana market is well under $1 billion a year, and Colorado’s domestic market value will shrink with legalization if consumption increases by less than price falls.
Colorado’s best chance for a substantial macroeconomic boost would be from exports to other states. (Exporting would be illegal of course, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t happen or that it wouldn’t generate employment for people living in Colorado.) Profiting from exports might be tricky, because exports may be exactly what elicit an aggressive federal response. But if Colorado can use a time window when it alone has legalized to outcompete traditional producing regions in Mexico, British Columbia and California, to bring the industry and its “supply chain” within Colorado’s borders before a general, nationwide legalization occurs, then perhaps Colorado could retain the higher-value-added processing stages, even if national legalization turns cultivation itself into a minor farm crop with no special economic advantage.
The other opportunity is drug tourism. If Colorado can become a vacation destination for marijuana enthusiasts flying in from elsewhere in the U.S. or around the world, then the money those additional tourists spend on hotels, rental cars, and restaurants would also count as an economic benefit of legalization. Given that Amendment 64’s excise tax cap is so low (through 2017), it is not implausible that sales taxes on these drug tourists’ conventional spending might not be negligible compared to the marijuana excise taxes themselves. But Coloradans should be careful what they wish for; pot tourism might be a nuisance.
What does the legal marijuana market look like, as you see it (cafes, shops, will it resemble Colorado's craft beer movement?) What about the industrial hemp side of the market, how will Colorado farmers/business people benefit from hemp?)
Industrial hemp is mostly a red herring. A number of European countries as well as China and Canada have legal industrial hemp production, yet the industry there remains stalled at relatively small scale. It is not clear why farming hemp in Colorado would outcompete Canadian farmers or European farmers (who are subsidized), and none of those countries competes effectively with China (which dominates global production).
From a practical perspective, other materials are simply better than industrial hemp for most applications. Manila hemp (a different genus from cannabis) had already largely displaced cannabis hemp even before synthetic materials came on the scene in the 20th century. Industrial hemp’s greatest asset is often its “hempness,” which can induce some people to pay a premium for a T-shirt made with hemp, akin to the way that some people once happily paid more for a shirt whose label said “Union Made” or “Made in the USA.”
With national legalization, one would expect to see a differentiated market, with cafes, shops, and the analogs to craft beers, as well as plain-vanilla intoxicant competing on price and sold at much lower prices. Which segments of that market would get impeded by the ongoing federal prohibition would depend on the (unknown) federal response to passage of Amendment 64. One might guess, though, that place-based institutions would be the most vulnerable, because they would have real assets that are vulnerable to seizure. E.g., if the federal government targets landlords, one might be more likely to see home delivery or the equivalent of marijuana food trucks, not marijuana microbreweries.
If the amendment passes, do you think some kind of DWI bill should also be introduced in the wake of legalization? The opposition "No on 64" says that marijuana increases the likelihood of impaired driving? Is this true? If not, why is this misleading?
No one wants to be on the road with someone who is intoxicated. Research shows that driving stoned increases the risk of accidents, but it is not as risky as driving drunk. What is especially risky is when a driver is under the influence of both alcohol and marijuana.
Recent statistics indicate that marijuana use amongst teens is on the rise, while alcohol and tobacco use is going down. However, in Colorado, where there is a regulated medical marijuana market, stats indicate that teen use appears to be going down. Does regulation help curb use?
The nationwide statistics on the decline in youth alcohol and tobacco use, and the absence of a decline in marijuana use, are striking. Over the last two decades, the proportion of 13 year olds who report trying alcohol fell from 33% to 21%, the proportion reporting having tried cigarettes fell from 24% to 10%, while the proportion trying marijuana was little changed (increased from 7% to 8%).
The big change in marijuana consumption over the last half dozen years does not pertain to youth. Rather, it is the very substantial increase in the number of adults who use marijuana daily or near daily.
As for inferences about how any of these trends are influenced by changes in state’s policies – that is tricky, and best done with a comprehensive statistical analysis that controls for other factors, not by selectively citing before and after statistics from certain states. The academic literature would support a conclusion that “decriminalizing” marijuana use does not appear to have large effects on use; the responsible position vis-a-vis “legalize and regulate” is agnosticism, since there are effectively no historical precedents for what Amendment 64 would do.
If you didn't address it above, does marijuana increase or decrease the use of alcohol amongst adults?
A crucial question, and one impossible to answer under current conditions; there's simply no way to make observations while marijuana is illegal that tell you about its impact on alcohol use if it were legal. Heavy drinking could go up or down, and anyone who tells you he knows which is going to happen - or that there will be no effect at all - is just bluffing. That's one reason why we're not dogmatic about whether legalization of marijuana would be a good idea or not: too many unknowns.
Is marijuana more or less dangerous than alcohol and/or cigarettes?
Clearly less dangerous than alcohol; less dangerous to health than tobacco by a huge margin, but dangerous in ways that tobacco is not. (Tobacco doesn't produce intoxicated behavior.) But since we all think that both alcohol and tobacco are currently under-taxed and under-regulated, we're not willing to use those policies as benchmarks for marijuana policy.
If the amendment passes, how will trafficking be curtailed? i.e. Should voters be concerned about Colorado becoming a hub for legal growing that turns into illegal trafficking? Why is that unlikely or likely?
Trafficking for the adult Colorado market would disappear; that is the big upside of legalization.
There will of course continue to be a black market serving the other 49 states, and that production has to locate somewhere. As mentioned above, Colorado should worry that those producers might infer – rightly or wrongly – that Colorado is a congenial place to produce for sale in those other markets. But if one knew that national legalization were coming in another five or 10 years, then there might be long-term economic benefits to the state if it can get that soon-to-be-respectable activity moved from its current locations into Colorado.
What are your individual personal feelings on legalization? Do you want it legalized or to remain illegal?
None of us thinks it would be a panacea, and none of us thinks it would be an unmitigated disaster. It would have some good consequences and some bad ones, to an extent depending in part on the details of the new legal regime and in part on unknown factors. Each of us offers our personal opinions about marijuana policy at the end of our book.Academic Degrees targets the incorrect use of academic degrees. When discussing a type of degree, it should be lowercase. Bachelor’s and master’s degree types should be possessive. Note that doctorate is a degree type, while Doctor is used in a degree name. Example: She earned her doctorate of philosophy. is corrected to "She earned her Doctor of Philosophy" Example: She earned a Bachelors degree will be corrected to "She earned a bachelor’s"
Adjective Used Instead of Adverb targets the use of “real” vs. “really”. “Real” is used to modify a noun, “really” to modify a verb. Example: He is driving real carefully would be corrected to He is driving really carefully.
Agreement with Noun Phrases targets number agreement within noun phrases to make sure the words within a single noun phrase agree in number (singular or plural). Example: I would like to buy this apples would be corrected to I would like to buy these apples or I would like to buy this apple.
Capitalization targets words with incorrect capitalization. Articles, short prepositions, and conjunctions that should be in lower case within titles. The first word in title is capitalized. Example: "Of Mice And Men" is a novel would be corrected to "Of Mice and Men" is a novel.
Capitalization of March and May targets incorrectly lowercased words “May” and “March” when they are used as month names instead of verbs. The months "March" and "May" should always be capitalized. The verbs "march" and "may" are not capitalized. Example: Camping in may can be an enjoyable experience. would be corrected to Camping in May can be an enjoyable experience.
Commonly Confused Words targets words that require special attention because they sound similar and may have related meanings. They often represent different parts of speech (word classes) and have different spellings. It also targets the incorrect use of “of” rather than "have" in constructions with modal auxiliaries. Use "have" rather than "of" in constructions with modal auxiliaries such as could, can't, may, and will (i.e., verbs that express likelihood, ability, permission, obligation). Example: Could you please advice me? would be corrected to Could you please advise me? I could of known that. would be corrected to I could have known that.
Commonly Confused Phrases targets words that are commonly used in combination with each other. You may have used a different preposition, helping verb, or other word than expected. Example: I do not see TV. would be corrected to I do not watch TV.
Comparative Use targets the use of "more" and "most" with adjectives without comparatives. Don't use comparatives like more, most, less, or least with comparative adjectives. Example: This is more bigger than I thought would be corrected to This is bigger than I thought.
Hyphenation suggests a hyphen to link modifying words if a noun modifier consists of more than one word. Example: Our five year old son is learning to read would be corrected to Our five-year-old son is learning to read. This rule also covers numerals "twenty-one" through "ninety-nine".
Incorrect Auxiliary targets auxiliaries (be, have) followed by incorrect verb forms. Make sure that the auxiliary you use is the correct one for the following verb. Example: We are not taken them to the movies before. would be corrected to We have not taken them to the movies before.
Incorrect Inflection targets the incorrect use of two gerunds in a row. Some gerunds should be followed by past participles or infinitive verbs, instead. Example: Having misunderstanding the directions, she failed the test. is corrected to Having misunderstood the directions, she failed the test. Also targets expressions that require the use of "to" as an infinitive marker and a specific verb form. Example: I would like to accepting the invitation. is corrected to I would like to accept the invitation
Incorrect Verb Form after Auxiliary Targets an incorrect verb form after an auxiliary verb. Use the correct verb form after an auxiliary verb (verbs that describe a person, number, mood, tense, etc). Example: They had ate by the time she arrived would be corrected to They had eaten by the time she arrived.
Indefinite Article Targets the use of "a" before a word beginning with a consonant sound and "an" before a word beginning with a vowel sound. Example: We waited for at least a hour would be corrected to We waited for at least an hour.
Possessives and Plural Forms Targets the incorrect use of Possessive and Plural forms. Possessive nouns require an apostrophe. The possessive pronoun "its" does not; the form "it's" is always a contraction of “it is” (or “it has”). Example: As long as its doing it's job, we're happy would be corrected to As long as it's doing its job, we're happy.
Question Mark Missing Targets a missing question mark at the end of an interrogative sentence. Write a question mark at the end of any sentence that asks a question (interrogative sentence). Example: How many cats does he have. would be corrected to How many cats does he have?
Subject Verb Agreement targets number agreement between subject and verb. The subject and verb should agree in number. They should either both be singular, or both be plural. Example: The teacher want to see him would be corrected to The teacher wants to see him.
Too Many Determiners targets certain determiners (articles, possessive pronouns, and demonstratives) that shouldn't be combined. Example: I gave her a the carrot would be corrected to I gave her a carrot.
Use of Plain Verb Form targets the use of an incorrect gerund or infinitive verb form, which depends on the verb it follows. An infinitive (to + verb) is used for an action that follows the main verb. A gerund (verb + -ing) is used after a preposition or for an action that occurs at the same time as the main verb. Example: I would like invite you. is corrected to I would like to invite you. Example: I do not mind rename the dog. is corrected to I do not mind renaming the dog.
Use of the Word "Lack" targets the incorrect use of the work "lack". As a noun, it is usually followed by the preposition "of" (e.g. "a lack of sleep"). As a verb, "lack" should not be followed by any preposition. Example: The country was lacking of qualified medical staff is corrected to The country was lacking qualified medical staff.Singapore-based payment processor CoinPip is introducing new payment options, allowing anyone in the world to send coins via SMS.
It integrates seamlessly with the ‘SMSwallet’ system developed by US-based 37coins, which itself is aimed at developing and emerging markets where access to smartphone and desktop PC apps is limited.
It allows consumers to pay in bitcoin via any CoinPip Merchant POS from any mobile device with SMS functionality.
Anson Zeall, co-founder of CoinPip, is planning to expand across Hong Kong and Indonesia within the next month or so.
His company’s vision is to make bitcoin and other digital currencies as safe and easy-to-use as any other form of money. He also has sights set on other regions in Southeast Asia where 3G mobile connections are limited, adding:
“The mobile market in Southeast Asia is massive but the usage of smartphones is still lagging. So QR code scanning is not that useful. Thus the collaboration with 37coins is going to make payments more convenient for everyone else.”
Getting started
To beging using a 37coins bitcoin SMS wallet, mobile users simply need to visit www.37coins.com and enter a mobile number in countries where the service has been launched.
Once confirmed, the gateway can then be opened by anyone from any location and users can send and receive bitcoin from anywhere with mobile access.
CoinPip also recently launched an online API for merchants that want to accept bitcoin online and uploaded its merchant POS app to the Google Play store.
CoinPip Merchant allow merchants in some Southeast Asia region countries to accept bitcoins, and receive in their local currency. Instant exchange is available in Hong Kong and Singapore, while an on-demand exchange is available for an extra fee in Australia, China (ex Hong Kong), Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. CoinPip has plans to add more countries soon.
Where instant exchange is available, bitcoins are converted to local currency and deposited into merchants’ bank accounts daily. Users can track orders using their CoinPip account online and view transactions on an Android device. It also allows businesses to refund customers in bitcoin or local currency as required.
37Coins
37coins’ aim is to make bitcoin easy, secure to use, and accessible to everyone. It is similar to Kenya’s M-Pesa mobile payment system, a leapfrogging technology that uses the country’s fiat currency. However, 37coins uses bitcoin and can potentially be used anywhere in the world.
Based in the US, 37coins’ focus is on connecting the world’s ‘other four billion’ to the global economy with low-tech, secure, scalable solutions and apps aimed at low-end Android devices. It does so without requiring any new infrastructure or hardware.
37coins.com was founded by social entrepreneur Songyi Lee, developer Johann Barbie and designer Jonathan Zobro.
“The 37coins gateway system is distributed, and modeled after bitcoin itself. A person that deploys a gateway gets a tiny percentage of the transaction which turns it into an entrepreneurial opportunity,” said Barbie.
“It’s simple and is even usable on the Nokia 100, this basic SMS phone. While M-Pesa is just in Kenya, 37coins can work anywhere in the world,” added Zobro.Update: It seems, through Chad Johnson's Twitter feed, that he claims to have paid his housing fees after his home was ordered foreclosed.
In his lifetime, Chad Johnson has been a six-time Pro Bowl NFL receiver, a man known as "Chad Ochocino," a reality-television star, and, apparently, a person who couldn't pay his mortgage.
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Johnson, who owned a mansion in Davie until last week, seems to have run into some financial trouble. According to court filings, Johnson's 6,000-square-foot home, at 2899 Juniper Lane, was foreclosed earlier this month and will be put up for public sale in April.
In the world of juiced-up supermen, tattooed outlaws, and attention-hungry prima donnas that is the National Football League, Johnson, who grew up in Miami, managed to stand out like a unicorn during his playing days. He spent the prime of his career with the Cincinnati Bengals — in that time, he was a fantasy stud and caught more than 1,000 receiving yards in seven of his first nine seasons. He was elected to six Pro Bowls during that same stretch.
But Johnson, never content with quiet success, also legally changed his name to Chad Javon Ochocinco — in honor of his jersey number, 85 — in 2008, to the chagrin of fun-hating people everywhere. He also starred in a reality-TV dating series called Ochocinco: The Ultimate Catch, which ran for a single season on VH1 in 2010.
Johnson bounced to the New England Patriots in 2011 and then signed with the hapless Miami Dolphins the following year. (He also changed his name back to "Johnson" in 2012, in an effort to "find himself" again.) But before his season with the Dolphins began, he was arrested for domestic battery, and the team cut him before he ever touched the field.
His legal woes have, apparently, continued. In February 2015, the Long Lake Ranches West Homeowner's Association placed a lien on his home, claiming he owed more than $3,500. After Johnson didn't pay up, the association sued him in May of that year. On March 1, a Broward County judge officially granted a final motion of foreclosure on Johnson's home. According to property records, the home is currently worth roughly $1.1 million.
In the unlikely chance you have a spare million dollars laying around, the home will be posted for sale at broward.realforeclose.com on April 15.
Perhaps Johnson's financial woes explain why he's been Feelin' the Bern lately:
@BernieSanders I love you man... — Chad Johnson (@ochocinco) February 5, 2016
Here's the latest court filing:
This post has been updated.Image caption Dissident republicans had claimed there was a bomb in the village
A viable device has been found after a two-day security alert in a County Londonderry village, police have said.
Police took the device away for examination and said people could return home in Lettershandoney.
Dissident republicans had claimed there was a bomb in the village.
Houses were evacuated and roads closed in the area's second security alert in as many days. Officers had to give some children a lift on their first day back at school.
On Wednesday night, a number of houses were evacuated in Oeghill Park during an alert, but nothing was found.
Image caption Roads were re-opened on Friday evening
Supt Gordon McCalmont said "I am well aware how frustrating it has been for those people who have had their lives disrupted and I thank them for their patience and understanding.
"When violent dissident criminals tell us that there is a device in the area we do not take chances."
He said the police had received inaccurate information which prolonged their search.
"The blame lies squarely with those individuals who seem intent on creating fear and causing harm within our communities," he said.
A number of families were out of their homes for two days as army bomb experts examined the area.Time is hard. Any developer who tells you differently is either lying; thinks they understand it when they really don’t; or is a bona fide Time Lord. In this series we’ll explore some of the issues that time can pose, and take a look at some tools that we can use to help make time handling a little easier.
One area where time can really cause problems is in API design. I’m not just talking about APIs for Open Source libraries, it can be every bit as much of an issue for internal APIs used within a project. The issue is that often the units for time are not obvious.
I recall a school teacher who was a stickler including the units. If I were to omit them from my homework and just include, for example, the number ‘1’, I would get a sarcastic note suggesting some random unit – “1 what? Elephant? Banana?”. As I have grown older, I have realised that this teacher was not just being awkward, it is vital to understand what units are being used.
To see this problem in real-world code, let’s consider this simple example:
MainActivity.kt class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() { override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState) setContentView(R.layout.activity_main) text.alpha = 0f text.animate().alpha(1f).apply { duration = 1000 }.start() } } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity ( ) { override fun onCreate ( savedInstanceState : Bundle? ) { super. onCreate ( savedInstanceState ) setContentView ( R. layout. activity_main ) text. alpha = 0f text. animate ( ). alpha ( 1f ). apply { duration = 1000 }. start ( ) } }
Hopefully this is easy enough to understand – we want to perform an animated fade-in of a View. The highlighted line demonstrates the issue, though. I happen to know that we specify the duration of an Animator in milliseconds because I use these APIs very often. But if this were an API that I was unfamiliar with, I could easily get it wrong. Even if we look at the method signature (both in decompiled source, and in the official Javadoc) it does not make it any clearer:
ViewPropertyAnimator setDuration (long duration)
If the argument were named durationMillis instead of duration we may get more of a clue as to the units, but without this we need to actually read the Javadoc itself to learn that the value needs to be specified in milliseconds. It is worth mentioning that I am not singling out this specific API for criticism here, I am merely using it as an example of how the lack of units can be problematic – there are many other examples I could have used instead!
The problem here is not only that the developer has to look up the Javadoc to determine the units that the argument should be provided in, but also so does anyone performing code review of this.
One way of resolving this is to actually accept a unit specification in the method call. TimeUnit is part of the concurrency package and has been around since Java 1.5. It provides a mechanism for the caller to clearly declare which unit the duration is being supplied in.
Let’s simulate how we can improve on this API by using a wrapper around it using a Kotlin extension function:
Extensions.kt fun ViewPropertyAnimator.setDuration(durationInUnits: Long, unit: TimeUnit): ViewPropertyAnimator = apply { duration = unit.toMillis(durationInUnits) } 1 2 3 4 fun ViewPropertyAnimator. setDuration ( durationInUnits : Long, unit : TimeUnit ) : ViewPropertyAnimator = apply { duration = unit. toMillis ( durationInUnits ) }
We don’t care what the user has supplied, we simply use the unit specification to convert the supplied value to millis. (I also return the ViewPropertyAnimator instance so we can use this function in a more idiomatic manner).
Our consumer code now looks like this:
MainActivity.kt class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() { override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState) setContentView(R.layout.activity_main) text.alpha = 0f text.animate().alpha(1f).setDuration(1, TimeUnit.SECONDS).start() } } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity ( ) { override fun onCreate ( savedInstanceState : Bundle? ) { super. onCreate ( savedInstanceState ) setContentView ( R. layout. activity_main ) text. alpha = 0f text. animate ( ). alpha ( 1f ). setDuration ( 1, TimeUnit. SECONDS ). start ( ) } }
Functionally this is identical to the previous example, but it is simply more explicit about what is happening. Not only does it make it easier for the developer writing the code, it also makes it easier for anyone performing code review to understand.
It is actually pretty trivial to add a TimeUnit argument to any function which takes a time value as an argument, but it does make your APIs much more robust and easy to understand and call correctly.
However, when dealing with third-party APIs which we don’t control, there is still a trick that we can use without making any changes to the API whatsoever. We can use the same TimeUnit API in our code to annotate a vague method call:
MainActivity.kt class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity() { override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState) setContentView(R.layout.activity_main) text.alpha = 0f text.animate().alpha(1f).apply { duration = TimeUnit.SECONDS.toMillis(1)}.start() } } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 class MainActivity : AppCompatActivity ( ) { override fun onCreate ( savedInstanceState : Bundle? ) { super. onCreate ( savedInstanceState ) setContentView ( R. layout. activity_main ) text. alpha = 0f text. animate ( ). alpha ( 1f ). apply { duration = TimeUnit. SECONDS. toMillis ( 1 ) }. start ( ) } }
Once again, this is functionally identical to the first example. The benefit here is that, although we are still calling the same setDuration() method we are annotating our code to make it obvious that setDuration() takes an argument in milliseconds. Not only will this help anyone reviewing the code to understand it without having to check the Javadoc, but also it will help any developer who has to maintain this code in the future. And that developer may well be you!
The difficulties with time are not just confined to vague APIs which lack clearly defined units, but there are some real-world issues which can really bite you. In the next article we’ll take a deeper look in to this.
The source code for this article is available here.
© 2017, Mark Allison. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 2017 Styling Android. All Rights Reserved.
Information about how to reuse or republish this work may be available at http://blog.stylingandroid.com/license-information.Incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said some aspects of the Islamic faith are "problematic" while defending former Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn's controversial comments about Muslims.
Asked on ABC whether future National Security Adviser Flynn's view that Islam is a political ideology that hides behind being a religion is in line with President-elect Trump's view of Islam, Priebus answered "I think so."
"Clearly there are some aspects of that faith that are problematic and we know them; we've seen it," Priebus said. "It certainly isn't a blanket for all people of that faith, but Mike Flynn is one of the most highly respected intelligence officers in America. Certainly no one can deny that."
The future White House chief of staff did not explicitly define the aspects of Islam he thought "problematic" and what, if anything, the president-elect would do about it as president.Pope Francis may be charming – but he is part of a rehabilitation plan that depends on bamboozling us rather than delivering any real change, argues Terry Sanderson.
Am I being cynical or has the Vatican scored an amazing PR victory with Pope Francis?
Snr Bergoglio seems, within a few short months, to have passed beyond initial suspicions into the land beyond criticism. The global perception of him is of a benign, cuddly, modest man who everybody would like as their granddad. He can do no wrong.
What's not to like? He lives modestly, he deplores ostentatious displays of wealth and power, he makes reassuring noises at gay people – and even atheists. He kisses babies in a way that doesn't seem sinister. He rings up people who write |
he says. "Instead, I associate colors and timbres with some of the main characters."
When we see Maria (played by teenaged ingénue, Brigitte Helm), the female protagonist who exists in both good and evil forms, as well as mechanistically in robot form, Matalon switches between a light, pure tonal palette and grating distortion on the electric guitar, depending on which Maria is present in the scene. Similarly, Freder (Gustav Fröhlich), the male hero, is most often represented by the fluid timbre of the fretless bass, not by a particular melodic theme. Repeating motifs distinguish between idyllic and industrial settings, leisure and work, and the world above and below ground. Every instrument is given "a moment or several moments to blossom."
When Metropolis premiered in Berlin in 1927, it was the most widely anticipated event in the history of the world's youngest popular art form. Taking some 17 months to shoot at an estimated cost of $25 million, Metropolis was the most expensive and complex film yet produced.
Unfortunately, the film mostly drew critical scorn, primarily for its melodramatic screenplay, which was written by Thea Von Harbou, Lang's soon-to-be-ex-wife who was on track to join the Nazi Party. Metropolis depicts a dystopian future world in which ruthless capitalists subjugate slave-laborers in a nihilistic cycle of suppression, revolt, and destruction. A fraught love story is thrown in the mix and everything is seemingly orchestrated by a diabolical mastermind who builds shape-shifting robots.
Before Metropolis could reach American shores, Paramount Pictures produced a heavily edited version for domestic consumption. For the next 80-odd years, surviving prints of Metropolis circulated in various abridged forms.
In 2008, an original full-length copy of Metropolis was found in the archives of the Museo del Cine in Buenos Aires. From this significantly damaged print 25 minutes of missing scenes and sequences were painstakingly extracted and restored. The footage brought Metropolis close to its original two-hour-and-33-minute (approximate) running time, and helped define certain plot elements and characters, particularly the role of a mysterious spy-investigator known as "Thin Man."
Says Matalon, "Over the past 20 years, I have had opportunities to cut and revise the score, to add music and reorchestrate, so the work has evolved, but to me it still feels fresh every time I hear it."The Castle in the Forrest (2007) recounts the remarkable assentation of Adolph Hitler to the dubious position of megalomaniac-in-chief, a conflicted man who genuinely believed he could save the world through a Fascist construct of suppression, destruction, and institutionalized slaughter.
Yet, further investigation is needed to prove this assentation.
As they worked through how that group of lords responded to the death of Duncan and the assentation of Macbeth, however, they realized the degree to which the lords' thinking did function as a unit.
Such results echo the assentation of Soloway and Norris (2001) indicating devices "at hands" are a critical condition to facilitate active technology-enhance learning activities as students do not need to spend extra efforts on accessing the learning devices and sharing the learning devices with others.NOVEMBER 21--Unable to locate the restroom at a 7-Eleven, a Florida man opted instead to relieve himself in the store’s walk-in cooler, where a stack of Busch beer was defiled by the tipsy suspect, police charge.
According to cops, Daniel Colon, 46, entered the Treasure Island convenience store around 7:30 PM Saturday looking for a bathroom. When that search failed, Colon opened a door marked “Employees Only,” a criminal complaint alleges.
He then entered what turned out to be the 7-Eleven’s walk-in cooler. Colon (pictured at right) then began urinating on “several cases of beer.” A store employee who had spotted Colon entering the cooler confronted him and told him to stop. Colon then left the store and drove away.
Colon, cops reported, “urinated over 6 cases of Busch Light,” causing the store (seen below) a loss of nearly $100.
Colon was subsequently arrested after his vehicle was pulled over by cops searching for the 7-Eleven suspect. In addition to criminal mischief and burglary charges stemming from the cooler urination, Colon was also charged with drunk driving.
After being read his rights, Colon reportedly told police he “could not find the bathroom so he entered the walk in cooler.”
Colon, a Tampa resident, is locked up in lieu of $3250 bond, according to jail records. (2 pages)Three juveniles of African species may not be only ones, say experts
Researchers at the University of Florida have found a man-eating African species of crocodile among native populations in the state’s swamps and Everglades.
It is unclear how the Nile crocodile, Crocodylus niloticus, which can grow up to 5.5 metres (18 feet) in length and was blamed for at least 480 attacks on people and 123 fatalities in Africa between 2010 and 2014, arrived in the state.
But DNA analysis has confirmed that three juveniles have been identified in the state, including one that was relaxing on a house porch in Miami. The local alligators do not prey on humans, but the unwelcome imports have unsurprisingly made headlines in the state.
Kenneth Krysko, a herpetology collections manager at the Florida Museum of Natural History, confirmed that the specimens are linked to native populations in South Africa. He told the journal Herpetological Conservation and Biology that the species can survive and potentially thrive in sub-tropical Florida.
“The odds that the few of us who study Florida reptiles have found all of the Nile crocs out there is probably unlikely. We know that they can survive in the Florida wilderness for numerous years, we know that they grow quickly here and we know their behaviour in their native range, and there is no reason to suggest that would change here in Florida.”
Crocodylus niloticus is considered a generalist, unfussy predator, and has clearly adapted to the local food supply, from native birds, fish and mammals, including domestic pets, to the state’s native crocodile and alligator. The researchers looked at one juvenile specimen that grew nearly 28% faster than wild Nile crocodile juveniles.
The three captured specimens were genetically identical, suggesting they came from the same source. But that source remains mysterious – the reptiles do not match with any Nile crocodiles currently housed in US zoos.
However, the study noted that large groups of Nile crocodiles have been imported from South Africa and Madagascar, both for display at places such as Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and to supply Florida’s pet trade. Pet owners are the most likely source of introduction.
Florida has the world’s largest number of invasive species. The spiny lionfish, believed to have been released during Hurricane Andrew in 1992, has caused devastation to native populations of reef-dwelling fish across the Caribbean. There is also the Cuban tree frog, which has been found as far north as Jacksonville.
Short of the latest visitor, the invasive species that attracts the greatest attention is the Burmese python. These monsters are now common enough for authorities to organise and license python hunts.
The Miami Herald reported in March that biologists bagged more than 2,000 pounds of Burmese pythons – in just one county. One snake, measuring almost 5 metres and weighing about 63kg (140 pounds), set a new record for males caught in the wild in Florida. Using radio trackers, scientists found the snakes like to occupy gopher tortoise burrows, and found six males and a female squeezed into a “mating ball”. They are so numerous they have become one of the region’s top predators. Research suggests the pythons are responsible for a sharp decline in the population of Everglades marsh rabbits and for a decrease in deer.
“The ecological impact of these animals is just over the top,” said Ian Bartoszek, a biologist at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida. “We’re starting to get a sense they eat bigger up the food chain.”
But now the state has new worries. According to the University of Florida study, its Atlantic coast and the entire Gulf of Mexico coastline are favourable for Nile crocodiles.
“My hope as a biologist is that the introduction of Nile crocodiles in Florida opens everyone’s eyes to the problem of invasive species that we have here in our state,” Krysko said. “Now here’s another one, but this time it isn’t just a tiny house gecko from Africa.”
However, Allyson Gantt, a spokeswoman for Everglades National Park, where one of the reptiles was found, rejected the idea that any Nile crocs were still roaming in the park.
Some Everglades visitors might not be aware of the differences between crocodiles and alligators, complicating efforts to confirm any remaining crocs. Crocodiles have angular snouts, and their lower teeth are exposed when their mouths are closed. Alligator snouts are rounded, with few exposed lower teeth. Nile crocs are usually bronze or brownish yellow; by contrast, alligators are blackish green.Two weeks after her 18th birthday, Lee Marsh was sitting at the kitchen table one Sunday, reading the Bible, when her mother came in and announced that Marsh would marry a 20-year-old member of their Jehovah’s Witness congregation in Montreal. The girl was stunned; she had met her husband-to-be just once. Five weeks later, it was done.
For a few months before, her mother had been shopping her around while sizing up men in the congregation—some more than 20 years older—looking for a suitable husband. She made Marsh wear a tight, low-cut white dress bought for the outings. “I hated wearing it. I’ve always preferred to be covered up,” Marsh says. “But my mother really wanted me to be attractive to these men.” Marsh’s mother had rejected all the suitors up to that day in 1970 when she announced the match. “I knew I wasn’t allowed to have an opinion. This wasn’t a woman that you said no to.”
Marsh thought about the leather strap hanging by the front door, the one her mother used when the children—Marsh was the eldest of four—dared to defy her. They never knew what would set her off; two weeks before, Marsh had got it for not cleaning the house properly. So Marsh buried the feelings of anger and betrayal she felt toward the woman who had abandoned her twice already in her short life: After her parents divorced when she was nine, she was left behind in Toronto with a father she says sexually abused her; later, in Montreal, when she had returned to her mom, she says her mother’s Jehovah’s Witness boyfriend also sexually assaulted her, and she was sent into foster care.
In their congregation, the pressure to get married early was intense. Breaking off the engagement was not an option. “Once the announcement was made in church that we were getting married, I was trapped,” she says. “I couldn’t back out of it.” Marsh would do anything to stay in her mother’s good graces; she couldn’t bear the thought of losing her again.
During the ceremony, Marsh was terrified. “I wanted to run, but I didn’t dare.” She had told her husband about her history of sexual abuse, but he told her not to worry, that they would get through it together.
Two weeks into the marriage, Marsh realized just how much she resented it. Her husband started demanding sex constantly and she felt it was her duty to submit. “The Witnesses believe that when you’re married, you are obligated to deliver sex whenever your husband wants it,” she explains. “It brought back everything I had gone through as a child and I became extremely depressed and suicidal.”
But she stayed, had two children and, for 15 years, endured what she describes as incessant verbal and sexual abuse from a man who eventually became a church elder. That meant he passed judgment on others in the congregation, deciding whether or not they had sinned and how they would be punished. In 1984, Marsh decided to leave. In addition to a legal, secular divorce, she needed a “spiritual” divorce, otherwise, the church would still consider her his wife. In a letter to church elders, she writes that she tried to be a “good, submissive wife,” and “almost always pushed aside my personal feelings so that he would be happy.” She details the emotional and sexual abuse, but does not cite forced marriage; only recently did she even hear the term. “It wasn’t really applicable at the time. I wanted out of the marriage, not because I was pushed into it, but because of the abuse that was triggering all of my past abuse,” she says.
It may seem strange, even impossible, that someone could be forced to marry against her will. But, like sexual assault—and, more recently, human trafficking—the curtain is being pulled back on what has been happening in Canada, and around the world, for centuries. In some nations, such as Norway, Belgium, Pakistan and the United Kingdom, forced marriage is a crime. Next year, Canada is expected to join that list when Bill S-7, which adds forced marriage to the Criminal Code, is approved.
In September 2013, Toronto’s South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario released a report that counted 219 confirmed or suspected cases of forced marriage in Ontario and Quebec from 2010 to 2012, information obtained through interviews and a survey filled out by service providers from shelters, legal clinics, immigration agencies and youth groups. The people, the vast majority of whom are women, came from a wide range of religious groups: 103 were Muslim, 12 Christian, 44 Hindu, 24 were unsure of their religious affiliation, and five had none. Almost half were Canadian citizens and, in most cases, family members were the perpetrators. People were taken out of Canada to get married in 57 per cent of cases. Yet the report points out that the Department of Foreign Affairs “confirmed they had provided assistance” to just 34 individuals from 2009 to 2012.
Forced marriage always involves pressure to wed against a person’s will, under physical or emotional duress, or without free and informed consent, according to definitions from international law and human rights groups. The main reason people submit to a marriage is because they do not want to disobey or disappoint family or church.
Very little data exist on forced marriage in Canada, but numerous court cases and anecdotal evidence suggest it’s been happening for more than a century, from coast to coast. Only in the last decade have researchers and advocacy groups started to grasp its prevalence and scope.
Shortly after Marsh sent that letter to her church, the elders “dis-fellowshipped” her and announced it to the congregation; Marsh packed her bags and moved out. She says her husband bribed her children to stay with him, but, in 1986, she obtained custody of her two daughters, then 14 and 10, and went on to study at Montreal’s Dawson College and Concordia University to become a counsellor for abused women and children. Now 62, Marsh frequently hears from ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses who say they, too, were forced to marry. “I used to think I was the only one, but I’m hearing more and more women saying they were forced into marriage. I’m flabbergasted, because I thought I was alone.”
Jehovah’s Witnesses in Canada would not directly answer questions regarding Marsh’s claims, but a spokesperson said in an email that “forced marriage, and spouses being required to submit to marital acts against their will, is repugnant and contrary to what Jehovah’s Witnesses believe, practise and teach.” They pointed to their website for information on dis-fellowshipping, which states: “If a baptized Witness makes a practice of breaking the Bible’s moral code and does not repent, he or she will be shunned or dis-fellowshipped,” and also explains that dis-fellowshipped people who demonstrate a desire to change their ways are “welcome to become members of the congregation again.”
Since 2011, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird has sought to make Canada a world leader in combatting forced marriage around the world, which he has said can be eradicated “within a generation.” Last October, he introduced the first-ever UN resolution dedicated to ending it, and has pledged approximately $35 million to projects combatting child and forced marriage in developing countries such as Ghana, Bangladesh, Zambia and Burkina Faso. Yet York University Ph.D. student Karlee Sapoznik, who researched forced marriage in Canada for her doctoral thesis, says the Canadian government has historically ignored—and even denied—that people get married against their will within our borders. “There’s almost this mythology that it doesn’t happen in Canada.”
On Nov. 5, when Citizenship and Immigration Minister Chris Alexander announced S-7, the “Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act,” he introduced a three-pronged piece of legislation to address the problem at home and abroad. Alexander cited the 2012 Shafia honour killings, in which an immigrant from Afghanistan, his second wife and his only son conspired to drown the family’s three teenage daughters, because their “Westernized behaviour” had shamed the family. Bill S-7 would ban people in polygamous and forced marriages from immigrating to Canada. The second piece will amend the Civil Marriage Act to make 16 the minimum age of marriage across the country.
It would also enshrine forced marriage in the Criminal Code. “Everyone who celebrates, aids or participates in a marriage rite or ceremony knowing that one of the persons being married is marrying against their will” would be guilty of a crime punishable by up to five years in prison. It is moving at a fast clip through Parliament; it received its third reading on Dec. 12.
At York University, Sapoznik interviewed victims of forced marriages—including a Mennonite woman from Winnipeg, who says that in 1988, she was forced to get married at age 18 after her family and community found out she was pregnant—and examined legal cases dating back to the 19th century. More recently, 200 members of Lev Tahor, the ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jewish group that originated in Jerusalem in the 1980s, moved to Quebec, where they lived for 10 years. Many fled to a small community in southwestern Ontario in 2013 after they heard that Children’s Aid was about to remove their children based on allegations that they were being confined to basements and forced to marry older men, among other abuses. An ex-member of the group testified that the goal of the community was to marry children by age 13. They fled again in March to Guatemala, although several children have since been returned to the Toronto area, where they are in foster care.
In Toronto, the South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario (SALCO) investigated its first case of forced marriage in 2005, after a counsellor at a Toronto high school called to report that a family of girls had gone abroad for a vacation, but one of them did not return to Canada. Deepa Mattoo, the acting executive director of the clinic, says the group tracked the girl down, found out she was about to be forced to marry, and arranged to bring her home.
In many of SALCO’s cases, women who come to them for advice don’t even know that what is happening to them is wrong. “People going through it know they aren’t being given a choice, but they don’t necessarily call it forced marriage,” said Mattoo. “They may say something like their father is making them get married, but they won’t say that their human rights are being violated.” Toronto’s Barbra Schlifer Clinic started a support program for forced-marriage victims in 2009, and the caseload has been increasing ever since. “I’ve had Irish clients who have experienced forced marriage; Roma clients, Saudi, South Asian, European and Christian clients. It’s pretty much across the board,” says Farrah Khan, who has been counselling victims since 2006. “We see different economic backgrounds, as well. We see it happening in communities that are isolated, in communities that have a fear about losing their connections to culture, to faith.” Rape must also be brought into discussions about forced marriage, because couples are expected to consummate the marriage.
For families with LGBT children, forced marriage is a way to control their sexuality and protect the family from the shame of having a gay or transgender child. Yegi Dadui, transgender program coordinator at the Sherbourne Health Clinic in Toronto, deals with about four cases a year involving both Canadian citizens and newcomers. “There’s so much stigma around being trans already. Not being able to express yourself and be yourself is difficult, and that’s what’s going on in forced-marriage situations, as well.” Because these cases are even more taboo, it’s difficult to find people who will discuss their experiences openly. Although Antua Petrimoulx is not one of Dadui’s clients, her story has parallels with other cases in Canada.
Born Manuel Aguilar in Reynosa, Mexico, in 1965, Petrimoulx was 20 when her mother, a devout Catholic, forced her to marry a woman, even though Petrimoulx knew, deep down, she was female with no desire for other women. Her mother and brothers taunted and punished her for behaving like a girl and having relationships with other boys. In her late teens, they forced her to have sex with a female prostitute in a hotel room and, shortly after that, her mother told her she would be marrying a woman in order to fit in with the community and become a real man. The couple had sex once, on their wedding night. After a couple of months, Petrimoulx moved back home, where the abuse escalated. Her mother forced her to take anti-psychotic medications, and often locked her in her bedroom. When she did make it out of the house dressed as a woman, the police frequently targeted her. She says she was once raped and burned with cigarettes by police officers in the back of their squad car. In 2005, she fled to Canada, where she filed an application for refugee status as a victim of forced marriage and police brutality. Her claim was accepted and she now lives in Windsor, Ont. Although she is safe, Petrimoulx suffers from depression, and has tried, and failed, to write the hairdresser’s exam five times; the stress and anxiety were too much and she could not concentrate. She cannot work and her mental health is precarious.
Mattoo says SALCO’s clients are often hesitant to seek help from the police or the courts, because they don’t want to incriminate—or testify against—family. Without them, they would be alone in the world, a fate sometimes more frightening than the abuse itself. It’s also difficult to prove emotional duress and subtler types of pressure. In cases of physical and sexual abuse, SALCO has helped clients pursue criminal charges against spouses they were forced to marry, the same way they would even if the marriages weren’t forced. For Mattoo, Canada already has robust laws that deal with abuse, and she feels victims are more in need of a place to live, counselling to deal with the psychological trauma, and help getting back on their feet after they leave their marriages and, sometimes, their family members.
That’s why SALCO and 13 other activist groups and social service agencies, including the Schlifer clinic and the Woman Abuse Council of Toronto, are opposed to Bill S-7. “The proposed legislation exposes the underlying racist agenda that this government harbours,” their statement reads, referring to the name of the bill and the fact that they feel it singles out non-Western communities where polygamy is accepted. Mattoo’s main criticism is that the new law allows the federal government to wash its hands of the problem. “I’m not saying that any criminal action should go unreported, but criminalizing will not help prevent it.”
On June 16, the United Kingdom made forced marriage a criminal offence. Its forced-marriage unit, created in 2005 by the British government in response to a growing number of cases, says it “gave advice or support related to a possible forced marriage” in 1,302 cases between January and December 2013, the most recent statistics. Anyone who uses “violence, threats or any other form of coercion” to force someone to marry faces up to seven years in prison. The case of a blond-haired, blue-eyed Christian girl from Ontario is one of the first being investigated under the new law.
Elizabeth, who does not want to use her real name for fear of alerting her British ex-fiancé, whom she believes would jeopardize the criminal investigation, was raised in Hamilton by parents who belonged to the Church of God. It’s a distant offshoot of the Christian Open Brethren movement, which originated in 19th-century England and Ireland. The precise number of members is unknown, but scholars estimate there are 100 or so congregations around the world.
Elizabeth says church elders were very involved in her family’s day-to-day decisions, and friendships outside the community were discouraged. When she was in Grade 3, she recalls being pulled out of class by a social worker and taken to a room, where she was asked if she was fearful of being married off to older men. “Thankfully, that wasn’t happening, but all community members are required to marry within the group. The penalty for not doing so is punishment or expulsion,” she says. “The attitudes of the leaders toward their marriage practices are: If you don’t like it, just leave.”
At age 14, Elizabeth started receiving letters and gifts from men in her church and partner churches abroad who were interested in courting her. “They were also coming to visit all the time, making a point of being with my family, trying to get their foot in the door.” She wasn’t interested, and tried her best to ignore the advances, even graduating from high school. She was trying to figure out what she wanted to study at McMaster University when a church elder in his 30s came to town in search of a bride. One of his relatives began sending her tapes of sermons, in which he described how parishioners must only marry other church members or face excommunication. The church told the 25-year-old she would be cut off from her family if she didn’t marry the English church leader. “I was feeling pressure from the community, like a cloud hanging over me,” she said. “It’s a very difficult place to be in, because you’re being told the judgment of God is on you if you don’t conform.”
In a written response to questions about Elizabeth’s case, a spokesperson for the Church of God in Toronto says it’s not aware of any forced marriages in its congregations, and that members who may have come to Canada to find a spouse “probably came more in hope than expectation!”
In 2007, Elizabeth’s future husband brought her to England to prepare for the wedding. She thought she would live with someone else until they were married, but, when she arrived, he told her she had to live with him right away for immigration purposes. She was only allowed to leave the house to run errands or go to church. “I was being kept at home and told how to dress and the things I could or could not wear as the wife of an elder.”
She says he began raping her on a regular basis, once forcing himself on her in his car. It continued even when she was ill. “Rather than helping me through this sickness and getting me medical attention,” she said, “he’s demanding things sexually from me, premaritally, which is unusual in the Brethren.” In its letter, the Church of God Toronto states that “any church member engaging in premarital sex would be excommunicated from the Church for committing a serious sin.”
In 2008, Elizabeth’s fiancé brought her back to Canada, where she thought she would be retrieving the rest of her belongings. Instead, she says he took her to a room at the Holiday Inn by Toronto’s Pearson airport and sexually assaulted her for the last time. He flew back to England alone and she hasn’t seen him since.
Elizabeth says her parents and church elders ignored her complaints about the abuse and her plea to investigate and remove her ex-fiancé from his leadership role. Women in the church told her it was her fault the engagement fell through and that she should marry someone else. After writing church leaders about her grievances, she was officially excommunicated in a letter dated Sept. 26, 2011, for the “sin of unforgiveness,” specifically, for being unable to forgive her ex-fiancé and the church, but the letter does not go into further detail. “We do not intend to reopen discussion about those things. We have done all that we possibly can do as an oversight in Toronto. Local U.K. oversight has agreed, our District oversight has agreed, and those things must now be left with the Lord,” the letter to Elizabeth reads.
The Church of God Toronto wouldn’t comment on Elizabeth’s allegations, but says it would not “tolerate or permit the occurrence of sexual abuse by elders or church members” and would notify the police if it occurred.
Three years ago, Elizabeth was riding the bus in northeast Toronto when she saw an ad for the Agincourt Community Services Association’s forced marriage project, with the telephone number for its hotline at the bottom. In that moment, she realized what had happened to her, even though, in her case, no marriage had occurred. When she mustered up the courage a few weeks later to call, she got Shirley Gillett on the line. The program coordinator had been raised in an Open Brethren church outside Orillia, Ont., a more liberal offshoot of the Brethren movement. “I couldn’t say that I was surprised,” Gillett recalls. “We had suspected that we were going to find forced marriage in small Christian sects in Canada.” Gillett invited Elizabeth to join her group of six or so survivors, which meets monthly. Elizabeth is now co-operating with the Tees Valley Inclusion Project, a non-profit group based in Middlesbrough, England, which is looking into more than 100 forced-marriage cases. Hers is their second Christian case. U.K. government authorities are reviewing the evidence in her case to see whether a conviction is possible.
Elizabeth, now 33, lives in Toronto and has a long-term boyfriend. When she tries to explain the forces that conspired to keep her in the relationship, the despair seeps through the sentences that tumble out of her computer. “I felt damned if I do (get forced into marriage, because I am a lover of freedom), and damned if I don’t (get married ‘in the lord,’ because I could not function in a Brethren society, and there are some things about the way of life I enjoy). It’s like being sawn in half and torn between two realities—painful. It’s mental torture. I felt trapped.”
After excommunication, her parents wrote her out of their will in what she calls a classic Brethren tactic to make her feel socially rejected. “My parents are being very influenced by the Brethren and it REALLY upsets me,” she wrote in a recent email. “I feel like I’ve lost my own family members.”
She warned her parents not to go to any Brethren weddings, because even celebrating a forced marriage could mean a jail sentence under Canada’s proposed legislation. Elizabeth is disappointed that SALCO is opposed to Bill S-7, because she feels the new law would help young men and women like herself who are born into the Brethren community. The day the law passes, she will be free of the shame and guilt of her failed relationship, the abuse and her excommunication. Finally, there would be vindication: the acknowledgement that what happened to her was a crime.Exeter are the first side to do the double over Northampton this season
Aviva Premiership Exeter: (8) 21 Tries: Dollman, penalty try Cons: Slade Pens: Slade (3) Northampton: (5) 10 Tries: Wilson, Elliott
Exeter Chiefs moved back into the top four of the Premiership after beating leaders Northampton Saints for the second time this season.
Phil Dollman's try gave the home side early impetus, but James Wilson crashed over in the corner in reply.
A penalty try was awarded as the Chiefs pack drove towards the line soon after the break, converted by Henry Slade.
He also kicked three penalties and Jamie Elliott's late try for Saints was no more than a consolation.
The victory lifted the Chiefs back into the top four at Leicester's expense, with Northampton remaining six points clear at the top despite what was only their fourth league defeat of the campaign.
The award of a penalty try to Exeter was crucial to the outcome of the match
Exeter, who won 24-18 at Franklin's Gardens in November, had England's Jack Nowell back in their side at centre, with Dollman returning at full-back.
And after Slade had kicked an early 25-metre penalty, Dollman left the Northampton defence flat-footed with two dummies in a superb run to score the game's first touchdown.
Chiefs lock Dean Mumm was then sin-binned for collapsing a scrum, but Northampton failed to make their numerical advantage count while he was off the pitch, with wing Ken Pisi spilling a pass into touch as he headed for the line.
Dollman sprinted 70 yards to touch down for the second time, but the try was ruled out for a knock-on and it was the visitors who wrapped up the first-half scoring as Wilson got the ball down before being forced into touch by Matt Jess and Slade.
Trailing only 8-5 at the interval, Saints lost Stephen Myler temporarily - the second of three of their players sin-binned during the match - for a deliberate knock-on, which Slade punished with a penalty.
He then kicked a conversion after Exeter were awarded their penalty try.
Carl Rimmer came on as a Chiefs replacement for his 50th Premiership appearance before Slade extended their lead to 16 points with another kick.
They defended superbly as Saints rallied and by the time Elliott found a way through to the corner, it was too late for the visitors, with Myler missing the conversion attempt.
Exeter head coach Rob Baxter:
"It was all about collecting some important league points because everyone has been saying that we have had the toughest run-in for the last five or six games - which is probably true - but that makes for some great games.
"If you look at the first half, it was cat and mouse, but we probably didn't make the most of the conditions; mainly because we didn't force that scrum pressure into being a try.
"But I think that we grew as the game went on and we did do well in the forward exchanges - there is no getting away from that - and ultimately that pressure counts for a lot.
"The league positions don't lie. Look at Northampton and that shows that they have been the consistent achievers and performers over the season. We are back in fourth place and that is probably about right."
Northampton director of rugby Jim Mallinder:
"There were parts of the performance that were pretty good, but we just lacked patience when we got into those really good attacking areas.
"A lot of credit to Exeter because they defended well and they took the opportunity to score that try in the first half really well.
"They put our set-piece - particularly our scrum - under some pressure. We'd talked about the quality of Exeter's scrum before the game. You can't under-estimate that because they are a big heavy pack.
"We know exactly where we are - three games to go and six points clear - so its still in our hands and we are looking forward to the challenge."
Exeter: Dollman; Whitten, Nowell, Hill, Jess; Slade, Chudley; Moon, Yeandle, Francis, Mumm (capt), Lees, Ewers, White, Waldrom.
Replacements: Rimmer for Moon (58), Taione for Yeandle (68), Brown for Francis (56), Lewis for Lees (76), Horstmann for White (25).
Not Used: Skinner, Steenson.
Sin Bin: Mumm (21).
Northampton: Wilson; Ken Pisi, George Pisi, Burrell, Elliott; Myler, Fotuali'i; Corbisiero, Hartley (capt), Denman, Manoa, Day, Wood, Clark, Dickinson.
Replacements: Tuala for Wilson (62), Stephenson for G Pisi (66), L Dickson for Fotuali'i (56), A Waller for Corbisiero (47), Haywood for Hartley (62), Mercey for Denman (47), Dowson for Manoa (72), Fisher for S Dickinson (55).
Sin Bin: Clark (35), Myler (42), A. Waller (51).
Referee: Wayne Barnes
Attendance: 12,139Well, we haven’t really talked about football, have we? There are more important things in life. With these words, SC Freiburg trainer Christian Streich ended an emotional press conference before his team’s match against Armenia Bielefeld, in September. During the press conference, the issue of Germany’s recent influx of refugees was brought up, and one journalist asked Streich his opinions on the matter. What followed was typical Streich: emotional, political and eloquent, and delivered in his thick South-German accent. The refugee issue in Germany is complex, and one that has polarized family and friends, caused political and social chasms, and has affected the whole nation these past few months. What’s more, it is an issue without easy solutions. Still, with no intention of sidestepping the issue, Streich gave an impassioned answer, almost plea, to the gathered journalists on behalf of the country’s new arrivals. It was a scene more at home at a UN convention, not the build up to a second division football game – but Streich is no ordinary football trainer.
Following their latest victory, away at Heidenheim on Friday night, SC Freiburg sit top of the 2. Bundesliga, ahead of RB Leipzig on goal difference, and as it stands, they look set to bounce back from the bitter disappointment of relegation from the top flight last season.
As has been the case in recent years, anyone looking for drama in the Bundesliga had better look to the bottom of the table, rather than the top. Bayern Munich’s dominance has barely been challenged as Borussia Dortmund look to regroup, post Klopp, while Wolfsburg and Leverkusen continue to falter. Over the same three or four seasons, though, the scrap to stay in the league has involved some big-names, such as Hamburg, VfB Stuttgart and Werder Bremen – all of which are among the top five Bundesliga teams of all time in terms of points won.
Last season was no different, as both VfB and Hamburg found themselves in real danger of dropping into the 2. Bundesliga. In fact |
for reading books, listening to lectures, and writing long essays. Obviously, such rewiring is going to have the biggest impact on the rising generation appearing in our college classrooms: the "digital natives."
The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (2008), by Mark Bauerlein, provides alarming statistical support for the suspicion — widespread among professors (including me) — that young Americans are arriving at college with diminished verbal skills, an impaired work ethic, an inability to concentrate, and a lack of knowledge even as more and more money is spent on education.
It seems that our students are dumb and ignorant, but their self-esteem is high so they are impervious or hostile to criticism. Approaching his subject from the right, Bauerlein mentions the usual suspects — popular culture, pandering by educators, the culture war, etc. — but also reserves special attention for the digital technologies, which, for all their promise, have only more deeply immersed students in the peer obsessions of entertainment and fashion rather than encouraging more mature and sustained thought about politics, history, science, and the arts.
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For Bauerlein, the future of American democracy "looks dim" unless we can counter the youth culture with respect for the knowledge of those over 30.
The most wide-ranging cultural study — extending Hofstadter's analysis up to the present — is Susan Jacoby's The Age of American Unreason (2008), in which she argues that American anti-intellectualism has reached unprecedented heights thanks to the converging influences of junk science, fundamentalism, celebrity-obsessed media, identity politics, urban-gang culture, political correctness, declining academic standards, moral relativism, political pandering, and the weakening of investigative journalism, among other factors.
Jacoby also supports the view that technology has damaged our ability to focus and think deeply. Her vision of the future is a nation that is unprepared for the global challenges we face.
As someone involved in education, I take the concerns of all of those writers quite seriously: The abilities and attitudes of students affect my life on a daily basis. It is my job, as I see it, to combat ignorance and foster the skills and knowledge needed to produce intelligent, ethical, and productive citizens. I see too many students who are:
Primarily focused on their own emotions — on the primacy of their "feelings" — rather than on analysis supported by evidence.
Uncertain what constitutes reliable evidence, thus tending to use the most easily found sources uncritically.
Convinced that no opinion is worth more than another: All views are equal.
Uncertain about academic honesty and what constitutes plagiarism. (I recently had a student defend herself by claiming that her paper was more than 50 percent original, so she should receive that much credit, at least.)
Unable to follow or make a sustained argument.
Uncertain about spelling and punctuation (and skeptical that such skills matter).
Hostile to anything that is not directly relevant to their career goals, which are vaguely understood.
Increasingly interested in the social and athletic above the academic, while "needing" to receive very high grades.
Not really embarrassed at their lack of knowledge and skills.
Certain that any academic failure is the fault of the professor rather than the student.
About half of the concerns I've listed — punctuation, plagiarism, argumentation, evaluation of evidence — can be effectively addressed in the classroom. But the other half make it increasingly difficult to do so without considerable institutional support: small classes, high standards, and full-time faculty members who are backed by the administration.
More than anything else, I see the group of books I've listed here as supporting the redirection of resources into the classroom, rather than into amenities and administrative bloat. We need to reverse the customer-service mentality that goes hand-in-hand with the transformation of most college teaching into a part-time, transient occupation and the absence of any reliable assessment of course outcomes besides student evaluations.
On the other hand, I am not so pessimistic about the abilities of the "digital natives." Different generations have different ways of knowing — different configurations of multiple intelligences. Pick your era and your subject: How many of us know anything about farming anymore or how to read the changing of the seasons? How many of us know how to repair an automobile or make a cake from scratch?
Of course, we lament that the skills we have acquired at great pains can become lost to the next generation, but we can hardly reverse all of it. And it may be that the young are better adapted to what is coming than we are.
We can be student-centered and respond to their ways of viewing the world, but at the same time it seems reasonable to expect that students also become faculty-centered. Students must learn, as we do, to speak across generational lines and gradually abandon the notion of a world constructed purely around them.
While I share many of these authors' concerns about the pathologies nurtured by new technologies, I have to agree with Gore's position — that technology must play a prominent role in this continuing intergenerational negotiation. There are, undoubtedly, major changes taking place in the culture and psychology of the young, with serious consequences for everyone. And there are many steps that individual educators can take to deal with those changes.
But that's a subject for next month's column.The wife of a soldier at CFB Petawawa is suing military police for false arrest, wrongful imprisonment and assault after they busted down her door in the middle of the night and forced her out of bed at gunpoint, then pushed her face down on the floor only to break her hand by aggressively pulling her up by the handcuffs, according to a statement of claim.
It was April 8, 2016, around 2:16 a.m., and military police had been staking out Brittany Alexa Stratuik’s home for hours after they got a call that there were two dead bodies inside her home, that the back parking lot was rigged with bombs and that there were outlawed guns in the house. During the stakeout, military police enlisted the help of the Ontario Provincial Police, who dispatched a K-9 unit, according to the claim filed in Ontario Superior Court.
But there were no dead bodies. There were no bombs. And there were no outlawed guns.
Military police were advised by the OPP that the call was in fact a hoax, and that there had been similar swatting calls earlier at different locations across Ontario, but they busted down the door with a battering ram just the same, according to the court filings.
Though the OPP told the military police they had investigated and that the call was a prank, the base police stormed in with guns drawn, according to the claim that has yet to be tested in court. Stratuik was home alone and in bed. Her husband was out of town.
According to the $850,000 claim — plus undisclosed special damages — Stratuik says she was ordered out of bed at gunpoint and onto the floor and told to shut up. She told a military police officer that she recently had surgery on her right hand. She said she started to comply but before she could an officer pushed her face down on the floor.
She was handcuffed and then yanked up off the floor, causing her severe pain. Her statement of claim includes a surgeon’s confirmation that her hand was broken during the arrest and that the break was unrelated to her previous injury. Surgery was required after the incident. She also suffered nerve damage and has no feeling in her right hand, and has no feeling in her fourth and fifth fingers, according to court filings.
Stratuik is seeking undisclosed damages for “assault, arrest and injuries suffered from embarrassment, humiliation, exhaustion, pain and stress due to the events.” Stratuik’s claim says she no longer feels safe in her own home and suffers from anxiety attacks.
After they took off her handcuffs, one military police officer told Stratuik that he had “scared the s–t out of” her neighbour after pointing his C8 rifle at him, according to the statement of claim. The same military police officer allegedly told her that it was a “sh—y situation but I was just doing (my) job.”
The Department of National Defence has not yet filed a statement of defence, but plans to.
In an email, a DND spokesperson said the statement of claim was received last week and “we are currently looking into the allegations.” The Canadian Armed Forces are “committed to protecting the safety of all members of the DND/CAF community,” the spokesperson said.
Asked for comment, Stratuik’s lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon, said: “She was treated in a shocking way and suffered mental and physical damage and that’s the reason for the lawsuit.” The lawyer added that her client “may never have full use of that hand again.”
gdimmock@postmedia.com
http://www.twitter.com/crimegardenImage copyright AP Image caption Russian officials said the system was purely defensive
Russia has confirmed it has sent an S-300 air defence missile system to its naval base in Syria's port of Tartus.
Defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the purpose of the system was to guarantee the security of the base from the air.
The move comes amid growing tension with the West. On Monday, the US halted talks with Russia on trying to co-ordinate air strikes against jihadists.
A ceasefire brokered by Washington and Moscow collapsed last month.
"Let me remind you that the S-300 is a purely defensive system and poses no threat to anyone," Maj-Gen Konashenkov said.
"It is unclear why the deployment of the S-300 caused such alarm among our Western partners."
The spokesman said the system was similar to one earlier deployed at sea on the cruiser Moskva.
Analysis: Jonathan Marcus, BBC defence and diplomatic correspondent
The deployment of S-300 surface-to-air missiles (known to Nato as the SA-23) to Russia's naval base at Tartus is the first time Russia has deployed the system outside its own territory. It joins another sophisticated anti-aircraft system, the S-400, already in place at the Russian air base near Latakia.
The S-300 is highly mobile - its radars, launchers and command systems carried on a number of vehicles. It can be mounted on a heavy wheeled launcher as well.
It is one of the most lethal area defence systems ever developed intended to engage aircraft, cruise and ballistic missiles.
Its deployment indicates that Russia is significantly bolstering its air defences in Syria. This is a clear signal to Washington that there would be a heavy price to pay should the US be tempted to intervene in some way against Russian or Syrian operations.
How the S-300 missile system works
Profile: Russia's S-300 missile system
Fox News reported earlier quoting unnamed US officials that the system had been deployed at the weekend.
In addition to the Tartus naval base, Russia uses the Hmeimim air base near the Syrian coastal city of Latakia.
Last year, Moscow deployed the more advanced S-400 system there as it began conducting air strikes in Syria.
On Monday, the US said it was suspending talks with Russia over Syria, accusing Moscow of having "failed to live up" to its commitments under the ceasefire deal.
Washington blamed Russia and the Syrian government for intensifying attacks against civilians, including rebel-held areas in eastern Aleppo.
State department spokesman John Kirby said Moscow and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's troops had been "targeting critical infrastructure such as hospitals and preventing humanitarian aid from reaching civilians in need, including through the 19 September attack on a humanitarian aid convoy".
Moscow strongly denies involvement of its own or Syrian planes in the deadly aid convoy strike, and says the incident was caused by fire on the ground and not by an air strike.
Hundreds of people, including children, have died since government forces launched an offensive to take full control of Aleppo after the week-long truce lapsed.
Image copyright EPA Image caption Syrian government troops, backed by Russian air strikes, are making gains around Aleppo
Responding to the suspension of the talks, Russia said it regretted the US move, accusing Washington of trying to shift blame for the collapse of the ceasefire.
"Washington simply did not fulfil the key condition of the agreement to improve the humanitarian condition around Aleppo," Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
She also said that the US had failed to divide jihadist groups in Syria from the moderate opposition.
Russia and the US were due to convene in Geneva to try to co-ordinate air strikes against jihadist groups, but American officials were told to return home.
The US also said that it would withdraw personnel "that had been dispatched in anticipation of the possible establishment of the Joint (US-Russian) Implementation Centre".
However, the two sides would keep talking about counter-terrorism operations in Syria to avoid unnecessary clashes.An angry crowd attacked a treatment centre in Guinea where staff from Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) were working to contain an outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus, forcing it to shut down, a spokesman for the medical charity said.
"We have evacuated all our staff and closed the treatment centre," Sam Taylor told Reuters news agency on Friday, adding that the attackers in Macenta, around 425km southeast of the capital Conakry, had accused MSF of bringing the disease to the southeastern town.
"We have the full support of the local leaders and we're working with the authorities to try and resolve this problem as quickly as possible so we can start treating people again," he said, declining to give further details of the incident.
More than 90 people have already died in Guinea and Liberia in what MSF has warned could turn into an unprecedented epidemic in an impoverished region with poor health services.
The outbreak in Guinea is the first time the disease, epidemics of which occur regularly in Central Africa, has appeared in the country. Infected patients initially went undiagnosed for several weeks before tests confirmed Ebola.
The latest outbreak originated in Guinea two months ago. Neighbouring Sierra Leone has since reported suspected cases while Liberia's government has confirmed the disease's presence there.
Gambia placed two people in quarantine although the Health Ministry has since said the cases were negative.
Senegal has closed its border with Guinea because of the outbreak.Presumed racist bleach attacks in Austin were water pranks
What were thought to be a string of racially motived bleach attacks in Austin that attracted protests and national attention have been determined to be a case of pranksters with water balloons.
A noon rally Wednesday against racism at the University of Texas at Austin ended up being a call for unity and solidarity after it was determined that a balloon thrown at a black student was not filled with bleach, as earlier believed.
The reported bleach attack and its racial overtones attracted national headlines. Now, it appears to be a student prank rather than a malicious act, according to university officials.
"Indications are that the balloon dropped last week was filled with water," Gregory J. Vincent, vice president for diversity and community engagement at UT-Austin, said Wednesday in a prepared statement.
"We take seriously the concern that this (recent) incident may have been racially motivated," he stated. "However, water balloon incidents are not uncommon near campus, especially during fall rush activities."
The student, Bryan Davis, told police that he was walking to a friend's apartment on Aug. 21 near the campus near University Towers at 23rd and Pearl streets the balloon hit him in the leg
The attack came on the heels of similar incidents last October, when several minority students told Austin police that they were hit by bleach-filled balloons in West Campus apartment complexes. The attacks sparked a march through West Campus that made national headlines.
Like the most recent case, a probe into the incidents last year determined the balloons had been filled with water, resulting in disciplinary actions taken against several students, said Leslie Blair, a university spokeswoman.
In the most recent incident, university officials collected clothing and balloon remnants from the site and sent them a lab for further forensic testing.
"The University of Texas at Austin has long been committed to promoting diversity and ensuring respect and inclusion throughout the campus community," Vincent stated in the release. "Our university should be a haven and home to students of all backgrounds."
Anyone with information about the cases is asked to call Austin 512-974-5000.Ford has announced at the Detroit Auto Show this week that it's now testing its autonomous research vehicles in snowy conditions. Inclement weather — conditions like heavy rain, snow, hail, and the like — have long been viewed as one of the final unsolved technical challenges to bringing self-driving cars to market.
The snow testing is, to some degree, a side effect of Ford's home base in Michigan, where wintry conditions are unavoidable for several months out of the year. The company notes that traditional autonomous driving sensors like LiDAR — those spinning things you see atop many research vehicles — can't see through snow, which renders them useless for building the high-resolution maps of a car's surroundings that are necessary for safe driving. Instead, Ford is using LiDAR to detect landmarks above the road, then switching to high-resolution maps of the road that are already stored onboard the vehicle to actually drive.
LiDAR isn't great in the winter
Those high-res maps, of course, don't always exist. Volkswagen and GM both announced this week that they've partnered with self-driving sensor company Mobileye to crowdsource better mapping using cellular data connections and the sensors that are already on board many vehicles. Tesla, which already has its Autopilot system in public beta, is doing something similar.
In Google's most recent self-driving report for the month of December, the company noted that it is using the rare rainy weather in California to test inclement weather in its own autonomous test fleet, but the company's two current testing markets — Silicon Valley and Austin, Texas — don't do much good for trying out snow. Perhaps a rumored tie-up between Google and Ford (which was expected to be announced at CES, but didn't happen) could help everyone involved.BY: CONNOR BRIAN
At certain moments we all feel the desire to escape from it all. Even if it’s only a brief walk or a long drive through the countryside, there is truly no greater companion than ourselves. Yet there are few who can break free from social dependence, away from the urban comforts, to live alone in nature. Photographer Danila Tkachenko set out to document the hermits of Russia and Ukraine who have crossed the tree line to exclude themselves completely from society.
“I am concerned about the issue of internal freedom in the modern society: is it at all reachable, when you’re surrounded by social framework? School, work, family – once in this cycle, you are a prisoner of your own position” writes Tkachenko
Solitude is something of a misunderstanding in the 21st century; all too often we confuse solitude with loneliness. But when you are alone and begin to feel the space grow vast around you, the realization comes that you are beginning to make a step towards self-understanding. This is why though many of us have grown up in the heart of large city, we find ourselves drawn into the wild.
Tkachenko asks that when living outside the structure of organized society will a person “be pragmatic and strong, or become an outcast and a lunatic? How do you remain yourself in the midst of this?”
And that IS the question, but until you take a moment to step outside of social context and the roles that bind you, you will never be able to answer that question.
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front the only essential facts of life. And see if I could not learn what it had to teach and not, when I came to die, discovered that I had not lived” – Henry David Thoreau
You can purchase the photobook here
Image SourceRival of Aether News
17 Oct 2017
New playable DLC characters New playable DLC characters Clairen and Ranno officially released.
21 June 2017
Patch 1.0.4 is officially released.
With the patch comes brand new, flashy profile icons for players to showoff online, and the beginning of Ranked Season 2.
13 June 2017
The Ori DLC, coming out later this summer is announced. The DLC will come with the tag team fighters Ori and Sein as well as The Spirit Tree stage.
22 May 2017
Patch 1.0.3 comes out with various bug fixes, stage updates, new skins and more.
28 March 2017
Rivals of Aether has officially come out of Early Access, featuring a new Story Mode, Abyss Mode and Abyss Versus, four new maps, background music while navigating menus and much more.(CNN) More than 150 years after the Civil War ended, the Confederacy is memorialized with statues, monuments and historical markers across the United States.
Some say they mark history and honor heritage. Others argue they are racist symbols of America's dark legacy of slavery.
A nationwide debate surrounding this issue has been underway since Dylann Roof killed nine African-Americans in a Charleston, South Carolina, church in 2015 in an effort to " start a race war." And it flared up again after white nationalists marched last weekend to protest the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a counterprotester was killed amid violent clashes between demonstrators.
The National Register of Historic Places does not keep a detailed list of Confederate memorials. In 2016, the Southern Poverty Law Center identified 1,503 Confederate "place names and other symbols in public spaces" across the nation but admitted the study was "far from comprehensive." Some Civil War monuments in the South, such as at battlefields, do not have pro-Confederate symbolism.
Many local government officials are now weighing whether to keep Confederate memorials in their cities and towns. Here's a state-by-state breakdown:
Removing
Kentucky
A statue of Gen. John Hunt Morgan in Lexington, Kentucky.
"By relocating these statues we are not destroying, hiding or sanitizing history. We are honoring and learning our history through this relocation," Lexington Mayor Jim Gray wrote on Twitter.
Gray had announced his intent to relocate the statues in a series of tweets just after the Charlottesville attack.
Florida
Manatee County commissioners on August 22 approved by a 4-3 vote a resolution to temporarily move a Confederate memorial from its spot in Bradenton, said county spokesman Nicholas Azzara. No timeline for the move was set.
This motion was approved: "Based on concerns for public safety of the citizens of Manatee County, I move to remove the Confederate memorial from the courthouse grounds, until a decision can be made, with public input, as to an equally prominent and respectful replacement location, and among those replacement locations to be considered shall be the Veterans Memorial Park adjacent to the Manatee River, and including considering Gamble Plantation."
The Memoria In Aeterna statue in Tampa.
In another case, Hillsborough County Board of Commissioners voted in July to remove the Memoria In Aeterna monument, which honors Confederate soldiers, from a county courthouse. The board recently voted that the monument would only be removed if donations could be raised to cover half the cost, estimated to be as high as $280,000.
By Friday, more than $52,000 in donations had been raised via GoFundMe. In a joint statement, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Lightning and Rays said the sports teams also had donated an undisclosed amount of money. The GoFundMe site now says the necessary money has been raised.
"Now more than ever before, we must stand united and committed to diversity and inclusion as we all attempt to heal from the tragedy in Charlottesville," the teams' statement said.
The monument will be relocated to a private cemetery. It is expected to come down as soon as September 4.
The board is also expected to relocate the Hillsborough County Civil War Veterans Monument.
Missouri
The Missouri Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy has requested that a monument be moved from its current location on Ward Parkway to prevent further vandalism. The 9-foot tall monument was dedicated in 1934 to honor the "Loyal Women of the Old South," according to city's parks and recreaction website. The monument was boarded up after vandals spray painted it, according to CNN affiliate WDAF.
New York
Busts of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and Lt. Gen. Stonewall Jackson will be removed from the City University of New York's Hall of Fame for Great Americans because "New York stands against racism," Gov. Andrew Cuomo tweeted Wednesday. "There are many great Americans, many of them New Yorkers worthy of a spot in this great hall," Cuomo tweeted. "These two Confederates are not among them."
Also Wednesday, Cuomo requested that the acting US secretary of the Army, Ryan McCarthy, reconsider his refusal to rename General Lee Avenue and Stonewall Jackson Drive at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn.
Virginia
A statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville's Emancipation Park has been at the center of controversy.
The Charlottesville City Council voted in April to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee at the newly renamed Emancipation Park, CNN affiliate WVIR reported. The violence there over the weekend came after this decision. The removal is on hold pending litigation.
Wisconsin
Madison Mayor Paul Soglin announced Thursday that two Confederate memorials at the Forest Hill Cemetery will be removed. In a statement, Soglin said taking down the "monuments will not erase our shared history. The Confederacy's legacy will be with us, whether we memorialize it in marble or not."
"There should be no place in our country for bigotry, hatred or violence against those who seek to unite our communities and our country," the mayor's statement said.
The removal had "minimal or no disruption to the cemetery itself."
Considering removing
Alabama
Birmingham Mayor William Bell ordered plastic draped over a Confederate monument at Linn Park and a plywood structure built around it while officials decide what to do. State law prohibits a city from taking down the monument, he said, but not covering it up. "This country should in no way tolerate the hatred that the KKK, neo-Nazis, fascists and other hate groups spew," he said. "The God I know doesn't put one race over another."
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said he will sue Bell and the city, citing state law that prohibits the "relocation, removal, alteration, or other disturbance of any monument on public property that has been in place for 40 years or more."
Florida
Jacksonville City Council President Anna Lopez Brosche said she asked city officials for an inventory of all Confederate monuments and markers. Brosche said in a statement that she plans to submit legislation to relocate the monuments to museums for "appropriate historical context."
Georgia
The city of Atlanta said it is currently reviewing options for the Peace Monument in Piedmont Park. Mayor Kasim Reed asked the public art commission to review the city's art and determine which pieces have ties to racism and slavery, but hasn't asked to remove any.
Texas
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings called for the formation of a task force Tuesday to determine the fate of Confederate statues in city parks during the next 90 days, including the Robert E. Lee statue in Lee Park and the Confederate War Memorial in downtown Dallas, CNN affiliate KTVT reported. "This is simple. We could remove them, the question is, how do we heal on this issue? To do that we have to talk and listen to one another," Rawlings said.
In San Antonio, two City Council members have pushed for the removal of a Confederate monument at Travis Park, CNN affiliate KSAT reported. Councilmen Roberto Treviño and William "Cruz" Shaw jointly filed a consideration to relocate the monument where it could be used in an "educational context."
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner asked city staff to compile an inventory of Confederate statues and make recommendations about whether they should be removed from city property. Members of the public urged the council to take down the statues. "It is my hope that we can, in a very positive and constructive way, move forward," Turner said.
Virginia
Officials in Richmond, the one-time capital of the Confederacy, have started to hold public meetings for community input on the future of the city's many Civil War monuments and statues. According to local reports, the first meeting was civil, with spirited debate on both sides. The city hopes to have a plan in place later this fall.
Washington
Seattle Mayor Ed Murray wants to remove a monument to Confederate soldiers in Lake View Cemetery. The cemetery is on private property, but Murray said in a statement that his office called the cemetery operator to express his concerns about the monument. Murray said the move would send a "strong message by taking these archaic symbols down."
"We must remove statues and flags that represent this country's abhorrent history of slavery and oppression based on the color of people's skin. It is the right thing to do," Murray's statement said.
Not removing
Arizona
Gov. Doug Ducey told CNN affiliate KTVK that he will not remove any Confederate monuments or memorials and will instead leave that decision up to the public.
"It's not my desire or mission to tear down any monuments or memorials. We have a public process for this. If the public wants to be engaged on this, I'd invite them to get engaged in it," Ducey said.
Pennsylvania
Officials with Gettysburg National Military Park said they have no plans to remove any of the park's 1,300-plus monuments, markers or plaques.
Removed
California
The Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles removed a Confederate monument Wednesday morning, spokesman Theodore Hovey told CNN. The monument memorialized more than 30 Confederate veterans and their families who are buried in the cemetery. It was erected in 1925.
A monument honoring Confederate soldiers is removed Wednesday in Los Angeles.
The Long Beach chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the owners of the monument, asked the cemetery to remove it after it was featured in an August 4 op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, Hovey said. A CNN request for comment from that group was not immediately answered. "It was a mutual decision on the part of the cemetery and the monument's owner that it is best for it to be removed," Hovey said. The graves around the monument were not affected, he said.
In San Diego, a Confederate marker commemorating the Jefferson Davis Highway was removed Wednesday, according to CNN affiliate KGTV. The marker was installed in Horton Plaza in 1927.
An online petition asking Mayor Kevin Faulconer, City Councilman Chris Ward and Scarlett Stahl, president of the California division of United Daughters of the Confederacy, to remove the monument was started earlier Wednesday. It had received more than 160 signatures by Thursday morning.
In a Facebook statement, Ward praised the decision to remove the marker, saying, "Monuments to bigotry have no place in San Diego."
Florida
The statue of "Old Joe" in Gainesville, Florida.
A Confederate statue called "Old Joe" was removed Monday in Gainesville, Florida. The statue sat outside the Alachua County Administration Building for more than 100 years. The Alachua County Board of Commissioners made the decision to remove the statue in May after two years of debate. It will be relocated by the Daughters of the Confederacy.
Louisiana
A statute of Confederate President Jefferson Davis came down in May in New Orleans.
Four Confederate statues were removed in New Orleans earlier this year. The city started removing them in late April after the City Council's vote in 2015 to take down the four Confederate markers.
The city was able to start the process to relocate the monuments after court rulings cleared the way following heated public debate and legal fights.
The Louisiana Legislature was considering a measure that would allow local governments to take down a war memorial only if voters approve the action at "an election held for that purpose."
Maryland
A monument dedicated to Maryland's Confederate women gets taken down early Wednesday.
Baltimore removed four Confederate statues early Wednesday after the City Council voted unanimously to take down the monuments immediately, CNN affiliate WBAL reported. Mayor Catherine Pugh defended her decision to remove the monuments "quickly and quietly" overnight, saying it was the best thing for Baltimore.
"The city charter says, according to our city attorney, if the mayor wants to protect or feels like she needs to protect the public or keep her community safe, she has the right to keep her community safe. I felt the best way to remove the monuments was to remove them overnight," Pugh said.
A monument of Chief Justice Roger B. Taney is removed early Friday at the Maryland State House.
In Annapolis, the statue of former Chief Justice Roger Taney was removed from the grounds of the Maryland State House, according to CNN affiliate WBAL.
Taney wrote the majority opinion in the 1857 Dred Scott decision declaring that slaves were not citizens of the United States and therefore were not protected under the Constitution.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan had called for the statue's removal on Tuesday.
"While we cannot hide from our history -- nor should we -- the time has come to make clear the difference between properly acknowledging our past and glorifying the darkest chapters of our history," Hogan said in a statement.
And a Confederate memorial was removed late Monday from outside the Howard County Circuit Courthouse in Ellicott City.
"It has become increasingly clear in recent weeks that memorials such as this are hurtful to many residents in our community and elsewhere," said Howard County Executive Allan H. Kittleman. "Given these feelings and the tragedy in Charlottesville, I felt compelled to remove this memorial from public property."
Kittleman received permission from a historic preservation commission to remove the monument after a five-day public notice. The monument will be donated to a local museum.
"We can't forget that this symbol and symbols like this represent hate and cause many people pain," County Council Chair Jon Weinstein said. "The monument is not representative of who we are as a community today and does not belong on grounds of a building that represents justice."
Missouri
The Confederate Memorial was removed in July from Forest Park in St. Louis.
The Confederate Memorial in St. Louis was removed in July after an agreement between the city and the Missouri Civil War Museum.
The museum agreed to pay for the monument's removal and storage until a permanent new location could be found. The museum must find a Civil War museum, battlefield or cemetery outside St. Louis as the monument's new home, the city said.
North Carolina
Protesters kick the fallen statue of a Confederate soldier in Durham, North Carolina.
Protesters toppled over a Confederate statue Monday in front of the old Durham County Courthouse. The monument depicted a soldier holding a gun and had an engraving that said "in memory of the boys who wore gray." The protest was held in response to the Charlottesville violence.
Also in Durham, the president of Duke University authorized the removal Saturday of a Robert E. Lee statue that was defaced earlier in the week. The statue adorned the entrance of Duke Chapel. It sat between figures of Thomas Jefferson and Sidney Lanier, a Georgia poet who served in the Confederate Army.
Duke President Vincent E. Price said he had authorized the Lee statue's removal to ensure the safety of those who worship in the chapel and "to express the deep and abiding values of our university." A commission will be created to determine how to "navigate the role of memory and history" and how to memorialize historic figures on campus, he said.
Ohio
A monument of Lee was removed late Wednesday night from a highway in Franklin, Ohio, said Jonathan Westendorf, acting city manager. The monument was affixed to a rock formation to mark the Dixie Highway. It was erected and dedicated by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1927.
Westendorf said the monument was removed overnight "to assure the safety of the crews performing the work, as well as to secure the monument from potential damage," according to a statement. It is intact and has been returned to Franklin Township, Westendorf told CNN.
Texas
The University of Texas in Austin has removed four Confederate statues, according to campus police spokeswoman Cindy Posey. A small crowd watched as statues of Robert E. Lee, Albert Sidney Johnston, John Reagan and James Stephen Hogg were removed from the university's Main Mall. "The Lee, Johnston and Reagan statues will be added to the collection of the Briscoe Center for scholarly study," university president Greg Fenves. The statue of Hogg (who was governor of Texas from 1891 to 1895) will be considered for re-installation elsewhere on campus. Two statues -- one of Jefferson Davis and one of former President Woodrow Wilson -- were removed in 2015 following the Charleston church shooting. The Davis statue is now part of a scholarly exhibition, according to the university.Four members of Mr Manning’s family, including his mother, Susan, made the trip from Pembrokeshire in the past two weeks in the hope of seeing him, a friend said.
But it is understood that a request to visit the 23-year-old soldier, who is being held in solitary confinement at a military base in Quantico, Virginia, was turned down.
The friend said: “They hoped to be able to see Bradley but were not able to do so because he is in a military prison.”
Mr Manning’s family has been asked not to speak to the media about the case by his American father, Brian, a former serviceman.
Mrs Manning, who suffered a stroke four years ago, met her former husband to discuss their son’s welfare. The couple divorced in 2001.
A spokesman at the US base said he believed the family would have had the right to visit Mr Manning, and that only media visits were banned. He said Mr Manning had received visitors, but he did not know the details.
Mr Manning was arrested in May after WikiLeaks released leaked footage of attacks by US Apache helicopters which killed two Reuters staff in Iraq in 2007.
He was later charged with transferring classified data and “delivering national defence information to an unauthorised source”, which could carry a maximum sentence of 52 years in jail.
After the later release by WikiLeaks of hundreds of thousands of documents from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, the Pentagon described Mr Manning as a “person of interest”.
Mr Manning was born in Oklahoma but moved back to Wales with his mother. He enlisted in the US Army in 2007 and was an intelligence analyst in Iraq.Image copyright James Dittiger Image caption Hong Kong actor Philip Ng portrays the late martial arts legend in the 2016 biopic
Fans of Bruce Lee are criticising a new biopic of the late martial arts legend, accusing it of "whitewashing and burying" his legacy.
Birth of the Dragon follows the kung fu star's early years in the US and showcases his controversial fight with master Wong Jack Man in 1964.
Directed by George Nolfi, the movie debuted at the Toronto Film Festival.
But many fans have protested against Lee's portrayal, saying the star took "a subdued role in his own biopic".
"Is this a joke? I was here to see Bruce Lee but they put the focus on some white guy," wrote IMDb user ticklegear in a scathing online review.
"Instead of celebrating what a beast Bruce Lee was, they made him out to be some insecure and jealous loser. Seemed more like a character assassination, rather than a biopic."
He added: "A terrible film - I wouldn't recommend it as it tarnishes Bruce Lee's true history with half-baked lies."
Image |
fine lines behind Franklin's head on the front and behind the image of Independence Hall on the back. These lines are so fine that they are extremely difficult for copiers or printers to duplicate without blurring them into a solid background. Microprinting, which was introduced in 1990, is used in two places on the new $100 bill; the words "USA 100" appear within the lower left-hand numeral 100, and the words "United States of America" run down the lapel of Franklin's coat.
Perhaps the most high-tech feature is a special color-shifting ink which is used to print the numeral in the lower right-hand corner. When viewed from head on, this ink appears green, but changes to black when viewed from the side.
Lower denomination bills will have many, but not all, of the security features present in the new $100 bills. The highest level of protection was given to the $100 bill because it is the largest denomination being printed. It is also the most common bill in circulation outside the United States, and hence, is frequently counterfeited in other countries.
Some of the security features originally proposed for the new money—such as holograms, plastic films, and coded fiber optics—were not used for this latest change because they represented too great a departure from the current money or because of potential technical problems.
Looking further into the future, paper money may eventually be replaced by electronic money that is downloaded onto plastic "stored value" cards from an ATM or computer. Each card would have a computer chip memory, and the money would be electronically transferred through a card reader to make purchases.
Where to Learn More Books Friedberg, Robert. Paper Money of the United States, 14th Edition. The Coin and Currency Institute, Inc., 1995. Krause, Chester L. and Robert F. Lemke. Standard Catalog of U.S. Paper Money. Krause Publications, 1990. Periodicals Freeman, David. "Change For a Hundred." Popular Mechanics, January 1996, pp. 72-73. Geschickter, J. "Making Money." National Geographic World, November 1996, pp.30-33. Hirschkorn, Phil. "The Buck May Stop Here." George, April/May 1996, pp. 92+. Lipkin, Richard. "New Greenbacks." Science News, January 27, 1996, pp. 58-60. Schafrik, Robert E. and Sara E. Church. "Protecting the Greenback." Scientific American, July 1995, pp. 40-46. Other "Engravers." The Department of the Treasury. http://www.ustreas.gov/treasury/bureaus/bep/proc/new/engrav.html "The Money Factory." The Department of the Treasury. http://www.ustreas.gov/treasury/bureaus/bep/proc/new/hq.html "Your Money Matters." The Department of the Treasury. http://www.ustreas.gov/treasury/whatsnew/newcurr/home.htmlWith all the news concerning Studio Ghibli and whether or not the renowned studio will continue making movies, local Australian distributor Madman has announced a Studio Ghibli Showcase, a cinematic event showing a selection of more recent Ghibli movies alongside some of the classics. There will also be showings of documentaries focusing on Studio Ghibli.
The Studio Ghibli showcase is focusing on perhaps the two most famous directors from Ghibli. The first, obviously is Hayao Miyzaki. The second is Isao Takahata, perhaps most famous for his brutally poignant movie Grave of the Fireflies.
The idea is to show the movies that made both directors famous alongside their most recent works. Therefore My My Neighbor Totoro and Grave of the Fireflies will be shown alongside The Tale of The Princess Kaguya and The Wind Rises.
The screenings will be done primarily through Dendy.
Between October 9 and October 22 the showcase will be shown at Dendy Newtown in Sydney, Cinema Nova in Melbourne, Dendy Canberra, and Dendy Portside in Brisbane.
In Perth the showcase will be available to watch at Luna Leederville from November 6 until November 19 and in Adelaide it'll be shown at Palace Nova East End from November 27 until December 10. Head to Madman for more information.
The idea is to celebrate the 25 year anniversary of Studio Ghibli's double release of Grave of the Fireflies and Totoro. Both movies are on opposite sides of multiple different spectra, but both are perfect examples of the power of animation. I think I'll be signing up for this.Late in the evening on April 2, a group of around 15 men from the Islamic Jihad Front, a local hard-line group, stormed into Lady Fast, a music event focused on female empowerment in the city of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The hard-liners called the women “communists” and “trash,” and demanded that the show be immediately shut down. A.Y., one of the event’s organizers who asked to be only identified by her initials, says in an e-mail to TIME that when she tried to reason with the hard-liners, who were busy tearing down posters from the walls, one said to her, “Do you want an argument or a debate? What do you want? You’re a woman, easy enough to punch you!”
The police had already arrived by then, shooting into the air to establish their presence. They did not arrest any of the hard-liners but instead they detained four Lady Fast organizers and participants, questioning them about the nature of their event and about a book on LGBT rights the police discovered at the venue. A.Y. grew frustrated. “It shouldn’t have been me that was brought to the police station, but the man who almost punched me,” she says. She told the police that the book on LGBT rights had been at the venue before Lady Fast began; she was released with no charges a few hours later.
Yogyakarta is vaunted as Indonesia’s bohemian university town, where students from all over a huge and diverse nation gather to study. It is a place of the arts, especially of Javanese culture, and has become a centerpiece of the national government’s new campaign to promote tourism.
But recently, it has also become a centerpiece of a hard-line Islamist campaign to subdue Indonesia’s minority groups — a category that includes Christians, minority Muslim sects, progressive student groups, and the LGBT community. According to the Wahid Institute and the Legal Aid Institute, two organizations that monitor rights abuses in Indonesia, over the past two years more abuses of minority rights have been recorded in Yogyakarta than any region other than deeply conservative West Java province. Examples of recent abuses in Yogyakarta include the burning of a Baptist church, an assault on Afghan Shi‘ite Muslim refugees, the refusal by local government leaders to allow ethnic Dayak students from rural Borneo to hold a traditional ceremony, and the forcible suspension of Pondok Pesantren al-Fatah, which had been the world’s only transgender Islamic boarding school.
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“This is quite a significant development in Yogyakarta, actually, in terms of growing intolerance,” says M. Najib Azka, a professor of sociology at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, the nation’s oldest university, who blamed the city’s government and police force for its refusal to confront hard-line groups.
Municipal authorities have long promoted the city with the slogan “City of Tolerance,” which features on several murals around Yogyakarta. After the attack on Lady Fast, a newly formed progressive group, Solidarity for a Peaceful Yogyakarta, painted a big question mark on each of the murals.
The same question mark could be said to hang over the rest of Indonesia. In 2014, Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, a committed pluralist, won the presidency over Prabowo Subianto, a former special-forces officer who had the backing of Indonesia’s conservative and hard-line Muslim organizations. Jokowi’s victory, and his urging of the police to take action against hard-line groups encouraged progressive hopes that Indonesia finally had a President determined to rein in the ultra-conservatives.
Instead, incidents of intolerance have spiked during Jokowi’s presidency, with the President appearing to focus his attention on reviving Indonesia’s economy in his first 18 months in office. The Setara Institute, an organization that tracks religious violence in Indonesia, recorded 236 cases of religious violence in Indonesia in 2015, the first full year of Jokowi’s presidency, compared with 177 in 2014. Bonar Tigor Naipospos, the institute’s executive director, says, “[Jokowi] thinks improving the economy can solve all problems. He doesn’t have a sufficient understanding of human rights and how to protect minority groups. There are too many cases where the police are simply silent.”
The President’s Office declined to comment for this article. Boy Rafli Amar, chief spokesperson for the National Police, responds to TIME’s questions about the police’s apparent tolerance of hard-line groups via a WhatsApp message. “Intolerant groups that take violent action must be met with a strong response in accordance with the law,” he writes. “We are already undertaking this effort.”
Participants of Lady Fast remain skeptical. “When hard-line groups repressed and intimidated us, why was it the event organizers, as well as participants, who were detained? Why didn’t the police tell the hard-line group to get lost?” asks Pamillia, who participated in the event.
That remains a giant question mark.
Contact us at editors@time.com.Hackweek project: FindMyCar app
Federico Toscano Blocked Unblock Follow Following Mar 9, 2017
This year carwow’s hack week has found me very keen on having fun with mobile developing. In fact, together with Anson Kelly and Jessica Lascar, we have built an android app, together with a Sinatra API service.
Making the choose car journey easier
For those not familiar with carwow’s car configuration process, it involves taking a few simple steps and some knowledge around the model/engine of the car you want
Current car configuration steps
The question we asked ourselves was: can we create a visual way to make it easier/faster for users to get to the offer stage?
The main objective of this app was making this process easier and shorter, by allowing people taking pictures of cars they like and configure them automatically
Since we need quite a few informations to create a car configuration, we decided that a picture of a license plate would work just fine. In fact there are services that give you all the specs of a car just providing its license plate number.
Backend
We started right away with a discussion about which framework and libraries to use. Since we needed to extract the licence plate number we looked into several OCR libraries and eventually we chose OpenALPR, a suite of binaries and libraries built on top of tesseract.
We played around with OpenALPR, trying to figure how get the best out of it. Eventually we wrote a ruby wrapper around its binary that boiled down to
def scan_image(filepath)
`alpr -j -c gb #{filepath}`
end
Once we got the licence plate number we needed to use it to get the car informations through HPI api
Android app
Within a couple of days of readjusting the aim of what the core features of the app would be, we ended up having a basic but working prototype supporting the main functionalities:
Take a picture with the camera / Pick an image from gallery
Upload the picture to the backend and wait for the licence plate number
Present the result of the OCR processing to the user to give him the chance to edit it if it’s wrong
Present the result of the HPI api call with the car specs together with some picture and allow users to proceed with the configuration on our website
The main libraries we used are:
retrofit: type-safe REST client, that allows to make requests to APIs very easily and allows to map the returned data into POJOs which must be defined for each “resource” in the response.
glide: very useful image library that allows fetching, decoding, and displaying of a wide range of image formats
End result
It’s pretty amazing what you can do just in a few days when you’re excited about trying new stuff, that’s why we love hack weeks at carwow!
Interested in making an Impact? Join the carwow-team!
Feeling social? Connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn :-)HTML5 is great for game development -- sure, there are a lot of skeptics, but the ability to create a game that runs on all platforms with very little modification is unparalleled. This is part one of a three part series where I'll be sharing my tips for developing a cross-platform HTML5 game.
Part 1: Getting the game to look great and run well across all platforms
Part 2: Handling the various input types of each platform
Part 3: Dealing with security for your game
Part 1 covers:
CSS3 media queries for UI
Scaling the game
Retina displays
"Full screen" on mobile
"Installing" the game on mobile
Improving FPS through use of subcanvases.
CSS3 Media Queries for UI
@media screen and (max-width: 800px) { /* Whatever CSS you want here */ }
window.onresize = function() // this needs to be called onorientationchange as well { var htmlTag = document.getElementsByTagName('html')[0]; if(window.innerWidth < window.innerHeight) htmlTag.className +='portrait'; else htmlTag.className = htmlTag.className.replace(' portrait', ''); }
Scaling the Game
window.onresize = function() // You can alternatively add an event listener for onresize { var canvas = document.getElementById(‘canvas'); canvas.width = window.innerWidth; canvas.height = window.innerHeight; } window.onload = function() { window.onresize(); // Call onload to set the width & height initially }
var rectangle = { // Be sure to update this onresize width: window.innerWidth / 10, height: window.innerHeight / 10 };
Getting the Game to Look Good on Retina Screens
var devicePixelRatio = window.devicePixelRatio || 1; // > 1 for retina displays var canvas = document.getElementById(‘canvas'); /* Be sure to update all these values onresize */ // Width & height attributes (scaled according to pixel ratio) canvas.width = window.innerWidth * devicePixelRatio; canvas.height = window.innerHeight * devicePixelRatio; // CSS width & height canvas.style.width = window.innerWidth; canvas.style.height = window.innerHeight; var rectangle = { width: devicePixelRatio * window.innerWidth / 10, height: devicePixelRatio * window.innerHeight / 10 };
"Full Screen" on Mobile
By now you're probably well aware of CSS media queries - they're a great way to custom-fit your site or game to various-sized screens. These will just be useful for the UI of your games as the game itself will likely all run within the canvas element.For our games and site, we typically just have to make tweaks for layouts smaller than 800px wide. Here's how that's done:We use media queries to hide or move UI elements that aren't critical for mobile devices.Another thing you'll have to deal with is how your game looks in different orientations. For desktops, we're used to landscape, but on a mobile device you might want your game to look good in portrait mode.With Word Wars, we have some JavaScript that detects if the view is landscape or portrait (if the window width is less than window height, it's portrait), and we add a.portrait class to the element. Then in our CSS we have some specific properties for html.portrait children (e.g. hiding certain elements, scaling them differently). If you take a look at http://wordwars.clay.io on a mobile device (or just scale down your browser) you'll see how we show the info bar and timer up top for portrait and to the left for landscape.Here's a bit of code to detect portrait and add the portrait class:It's easy enough to scale the canvas element to the full window width. The hard part is scaling all the contents inside.To scale the canvas to full width and height, just make sure your and have no padding or margin, and with a bit of JavaScript, you can set the canvas width and height to full and have it update when the window is resized (do note that an orientation change on a mobile device doesn't call onresize, just onorientationchange):When you're adding items to the canvas context, you specify a height and width -- for example: ctx.fillRect(0, 0, 100, 100); draws a 100px by 100px rectangle, which isn't fluid at all.To make this fluid, you'll want to scale according to the window height and/or width. For example, if you want an item to take up 10% of the screen vertically and 10% horizontally, you would use:Another issue to deal with is getting the game to look good on retina screens. To do this we do two things. First, we set the CSS width and height of the canvas element to be the window.innerWidth and window.innerHeight. Additionally, we set the width and height attributes of the canvas element to be those values multiplied by the devicePixelRatio. Second, we multiply the size of each item drawn in the canvas by the device's pixel ratio (typically this is 1, but for devices like the iPhone 4 it's 2). Following the above example, we would get:
The address bar on a mobile device can be pretty annoying when it comes to games, but it's fairly easy to scroll past with this bit of code.
Another thing to consider to try and retain more mobile users is a prompt for users to ‘install' your game as a bookmark on iOS (which adds an icon to the home screen). The other benefit of these bookmarks is when your game is opened from the home screen, the bottom bar in Safari doesn't show, so there is more real-estate.
For this, you'll need to specify a 57x57 icon to use (in <head>):
<!-- Works for iOS and Android --> <link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" href="images/apple-touch-icon.png" />
Improving FPS with Subcanvases
var insetCircle = document.createElement('canvas'); var redCircle = document.createElement('canvas'); var blueCircle = document.createElement('canvas'); var greenCircle = document.createElement('canvas'); var renderTile = function(circle, color1, color2, outglow1, outglow2, strokeColor) { circle.width = size; // size is something we set elsewhere for fluid width & height circle.height = size; var innerGlow = ctx.createRadialGradient(0, 0, size/2-4, 0, 0, size/2); // Gradient for looks innerGlow.addColorStop(0, 'rgba(255,255,255,0)'); innerGlow.addColorStop(1, 'rgba(255,255,255,.2)'); var cctx = circle.getContext('2d'); cctx.translate(size/2, size/2); // center of circle var grdRedLin = cctx.createLinearGradient(0, -size/2, 0, size/2); grdRedLin.addColorStop(0, color1); grdRedLin.addColorStop(1, color2); cctx.save(); outerGlow(outglow1, outglow2, cctx); cctx.beginPath(); cctx.arc(0, 0, size/2, 0, 2*Math.PI); cctx.strokeStyle = strokeColor; cctx.lineWidth = 4; cctx.stroke(); cctx.fillStyle = grdRedLin; cctx.fill(); cctx.fillStyle = innerGlow; cctx.fill(); } var renderAllTiles = function() { // Render each tile in its own canvas renderTile(redCircle, '#a52222', '#7e0101', '#a52222', 'rgba(165, 34, 34, 0)', '#520101'); renderTile(blueCircle, '#1d97c9', '#0a7cab', '#7bb5c5', 'rgba(123, 181, 197, 0)', '#105a78'); renderTile(greenCircle, '#1dc924', '#0faf15', '#1dc924', 'rgba(29, 201, 36, 0)', '#107814'); insetCircle.width = size; insetCircle.height = size; var cctx = insetCircle.getContext('2d'); cctx.translate(size/2+50, size/2+50); cctx.lineWidth = Math.floor(size * 0.1); cctx.strokeStyle = 'rgba(255,255,255,.25)'; // draw the rest of the tile cctx.beginPath(); cctx.arc(0, 0, size/2, 0, 2*Math.PI); cctx.stroke(); var grd = ctx.createRadialGradient(0, 0, 10, 0, 0, size/2); grd.addColorStop(0, 'rgba(255,255,255,.1)'); grd.addColorStop(1, '#a1aaae'); cctx.fillStyle = grd; cctx.fill(); } renderAllTiles(); // Actually rendering them (render() is called with requestAnimationFrame()) var circles = [insetCircle, blueCircle, greenCircle, redCircle]; // These correspond to tile states var render = function() { //... ctx.drawImage(circles[tiles[i].state], Math.floor(-size/2), Math.floor(-size/2), size, size); //... }The Boston Red Sox need to improve in a lot of areas this offseason, but the one thing they need more than anything else is an ace.
The Kansas City Royals happened to pick one of those up at the trade deadline in the form of Johnny Cueto. However, the 29-year-old workhorse is in the final year of his contract and is set to become a free agent at year's end.
So, Johnny, what do you think about the Red Sox?
Cueto was asked that very question on Thursday by WEEI.com's Rob Bradford, with Red Sox outfielder Hanley Ramirez -- a friend of Cueto's -- acting as an impromptu translator by the visitors dugout prior to the game.
From WEEI.com:
"It depends," said Cueto on if he would sign with the Red Sox after this season. "Because I'm a free agent, and I'm just going to pick the best choice to go. The main thing -- I would like to come here because it's a championship-caliber team."... "Yeah, that's what I think," he said when he believed the Red Sox might be a landing spot when trade rumors started swirling prior to this season. "I think, 'I'll wait for Boston.'"
Cueto is in the midst of another ace-worthy season, with the Royals certainly getting their money's worth since dealing for him. He's 2-1 with a 1.80 ERA in four starts in Kansas City, and is good for a 2.46 ERA over the course of the season.
Cueto will turn 30 years old in February and would certainly infringe upon the REd Sox's history of hesitance to lock up pitchers with lots of mileage on their arms. Cueto certainly falls under that umbrella, as he's been a full-time MLB starter since he was 22 years old, logging more than 30 starts in five seasons.
On the other hand, Cueto is one of the most consistent pitchers in the league, something that the Red Sox have a dire need for moving forward. Will the Dave Dombrowski era usher in a change in pursuing older pitchers? We'll find out in the offseason.Please enable Javascript to watch this video
RICHMOND, Va. -- As Donald Trump is set to speak to a large crowd of supporters at Richmond's Coliseum Friday night, the visit is bringing the threat of potential violence.
Hours before the doors are scheduled to open at 8 p.m., Richmond Police and Secret Service were seen discussing tactical options outside the Coliseum.
[WATCH LIVE: WTVR CBS 6 will stream the Trump rally live at WTVR.com/LIVE2 and on our digital channel, 6.3. Comcast 206 | Verizon 466]
Last week, several injuries and arrests were reported after protesters clashed outside of a Trump rally in San Jose, California.
Tony Cobb works across the street from the planned event and disagrees with Trump's policies.
"I wouldn't be totally surprised if there were some clashes," Cobb said. "I'm just hoping there can be a civil situation."
However, Trump supporter Helena Hopson said she doesn't think police will be forced to intervene.
"This it a nonviolent city," Hopson said. "If you damage our city, you're in for it. We will not tolerate that here in Richmond."
Don't miss these signs! Several streets will begin towing for #Trump rally today #RVA https://t.co/bjz3WLrTjT pic.twitter.com/hy486kgG0W — Brendan King CBS 6 (@ImBrendanKing) June 10, 2016
Police Chief Alfred Durham told reporters Thursday that they planned for protesters to stand in Festival Park, which neighbors the Coliseum.
"Police personnel will take swift action and make arrests if they witness any illegal acts," Durham said. “We will extend every courtesy possible, but if you break the law, you will be arrested.”Over the weekend, while taking a break from putting together some furniture as it was my time for my daughters nap, I got that the chance to explore and create a new Alexa Skill which integrates with a few of VMware's APIs. This has been something I wanted to try out for some time but have not had any spare time. I had even purchased an Amazon Echo Dot but its just currently being used as a music player for the family. A couple of weeks back I saw an awesome blog post from Cody De Arkland where he demonstrates how to easily integrate the new vCenter Server 6.5 REST APIs into an Alexa Skill which can then be consumed using an Amazon Echo device.
Cody's write-up was fantastic and I was able to get everything up and running in about 20-25minutes with a few minor trial/error. It was great to see how easy it was for a non-developer like Cody to easily consume the new vCenter Server REST APIs which includes basic VM Management as well access to the VMware Management Appliance Interface or VAMI for short. Given Cody already did the hard work to create the initial Alexa integration, I figure it might be cool to extend his work and introduce Alexa to a few more VMware's APIs including the traditional vSphere API (SOAP) and the new vSAN Management API.
UPDATE (06/15/17) - Just added support for PowerCLI, it was a little tricky as Flask app is written in Python and so poor man workaround was to call Powershell/PowerCLI using subprocess.
Since Cody's integration module was written using Python, it was pretty simple to add support for both pyvmomi (vSphere SDK for Python) and vSAN Management SDK. To install pyvmomi, you can simply run
pip3 install pyvmomi
and for installing vSAN Management SDK, have a look at this blog post here.
Here is a quick video that I had recorded which demonstrates the use of both the vSphere API and vSAN Management API using my Amazon Echo.
You can find all my changes in this forked repo lamw/alexavsphereskill and make sure to follow Cody's blog post here for instructions on how to get setup. For those wondering if Cody will be publishing an Alexa Skill for general consumption, I know he is working on some awesome updates to make it even easier to consume. Here is a sneak peak at just some of the recent updates that Cody is working on...
A little @VMwareClarity UI action going on with the @amazonecho & @VMware skill this weekend in the lab. So easy to work with! @vmwarecode pic.twitter.com/0iXMbU6Acz — Cody De Arkland (@Codydearkland) June 12, 2017
Stay tuned on this blog and Github repo for future updates!
One thing to note which I was not aware of until Cody mentioned it, is that once your Alexa Skill is built, you can directly access it from your own personal Amazon Echo without needing to publish it. You need to activate the Alexa Skill by saying "Alexa Start [APP-NAME]" where name is the name used in the "Invocation Name" field as shown in the screenshot below when setting up your Alexa Skill. I should also mention that if you decide to change the Alexa Skill name itself, which I had initially done and called it "vGhetto Control", make sure you update the Flask App name in __init__.py to the same name (spaces are converted to underscores) or you will run into issues.0
Jason Momoa has become one of the more interesting actors to build a career off of what was a paltry part on Game of Thrones – although his character gets name-dropped pretty regularly. The big get, of course, is Aquaman, in which he will star as the protector of the oceans for director James Wan; he’ll also be appearing as the “funny one” in Justice League alongside Ben Affleck‘s Bruce Wayne. Beyond that, however, he’s been experimenting with an interesting hash of roles, starting with his work on the slightly undervalued The Red Road on Sundance and his villainous turn in Walter Hill‘s surprisingly good Bullet to the Head.
More importantly, he’s now looking to become the new Eric Draven – AKA The Crow – for the troubled reboot of The Crow that now looks to be finally heading into serious pre-production, and he has a major role in Ana Lily Amirpour‘s divisive sophomore feature, The Bad Batch. On top of these two promising properties, he will next be seen in Frontier, a Western series from Netflix about a half-Irish, half-Native American outlaw, Declan Harp (Momoa), who wages war against corrupt fur traders in the old West. The first trailer for the series, which you can take a look at below, suggests a tone similar to The Red Road but with a bit more blood and a lot more period detail. That might not sound like much, but in the early days of the TV season, a simple, six-episode adventure series sounds like just the ticket.
Here’s the new trailer for Frontier:
Here’s the official synopsis for Frontier:Many people believe that during war American soldiers are required to obey any orders they are issued to them and that the citizenry should honor the troops for serving their country by loyally carrying out such orders.
Actually, however, every soldier is taught that, as a matter of law, he must disobey orders that are unlawful. If he obeys such orders, he is subject to being criminally prosecuted.
What are examples of unlawful orders?
The recent World War II war movie Fury, starring Brad Pitt, provides one example. Pitt, who plays the role of a U.S. tank sergeant, orders one of his men to shoot a German soldier who has been taken prisoner. The man refuses to do so. Pitt forces the man to squeeze the trigger of the gun that is pointed at the POW. The prisoner is shot and killed.
Pitt is guilty of a war crime. He has broken the law by killing an enemy soldier who has been taken captive.
Consider the case of Army Lt. William F. Calley during the Vietnam War. Calley led his platoon into a Vietnamese village, where he and his platoon proceeded to kill hundreds of people, mostly elderly people, women, children, and infants.
Calley was criminally prosecuted by U.S. authorities for a war crime. While soldiers are legally entitled to kill enemy soldiers in war, they are not legally authorized to kill defenseless women and children and other non-combatants.
Let’s suppose President Lyndon Johnson had issued a direct order to Calley to go into that Vietnamese village and kill all the inhabitants. What then? Again, the officer would be expected to disobey the order. It would be unlawful for Calley to carry out the president’s order.
What if Calley obeyed the presidential order and began killing defenseless women and children and that one of the mothers began defending her children by shooting back at Calley. Let’s say that Calley returned fire and killed the mother. Could he claim self-defense in a criminal prosecution? No, because he had no legal right to kill the children who the mother was protecting.
Should citizens honor and glorify soldiers who commit war crimes? Should they thank them for their service to our country?
I don’t think so. I fail to see anything heroic about committing a war crime. I believe the soldier who commits a war crime — be it killing a POW or defenseless women and children and other non-combatants — belongs in jail, not on top of a pedestal.
What about the war crime known as a “war of aggression”? That’s a type of war where one nation initiates an unprovoked attack on another nation.
A war of aggression was declared a war crime at Nuremberg.
Did the principles that were set forth a Nuremberg apply only to Germany or were they universal? I think most people would respond that the Nuremberg principles are universal.
Suppose President Obama ordered U.S. soldiers to invade Costa Rica, a nation that has no standing army. When asked why he’s ordering the invasion, Obama says, “I have come to dislike the president of Costa Rica. He’s not playing ball with the U.S. Empire. He is independent and recalcitrant. He is criticizing our policies in the Middle East. He needs to be removed from power and replaced by a pro-U.S. Costa Rican military dictator.” Obama orders the troops to invade the country and to kill anyone who gets in their way, which they proceed to do.
The war against Costa Rica would clearly be a war of aggression, given that Costa Rica has never attacked the United States or even threatened to do so.
Is there any difference in principle between a presidential order that orders soldiers in a war zone to kill everyone in a village and a presidential order that orders soldiers to invade a country and kill anyone who gets in their way? Should Americans honor and glorify the troops upon their return from Costa Rica. Should the troops be thanked for their service to our country and for protecting our rights and freedoms from the Costa Ricans?
The Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal saw no difference between killing defenseless people in a village or killing people in a war of aggression. Both were viewed as grave war crimes.
Suppose President Obama ordered his troops to China to help the Chinese communist regime with population control by assisting with abortions. As the troops were returning from their one-year tour of duty, should Americans, including Christians, honor them and thank them for their service to our country?
It is an undisputed fact that Iraq never attacked the United States or even threatened to do so. It is also undisputed that the president failed to secure the congressional declaration of war against Iraq that the Constitution mandates. It is also undisputed that every U.S. soldier takes an oath to support and defend the Constitution.
If soldiers are expected to refuse orders to kill everyone in a village or to kill enemy POWs, then why shouldn’t they be expected to refuse orders to kill people in an undeclared war of aggression?
And if citizens are not going to honor and glorify soldiers who wrongfully kill people in a war zone, should they be honoring and glorifying soldiers who follow orders to kill people in a war of aggression?
Or to put it another way, which should have higher priority in the mind of both the soldier and the citizen: conscience and moral and religious principles or blind allegiance to whatever the national-security state is ordering its soldiers to do?The following is a script from "Inside the NSA" which aired on Dec. 15, 2013. John Miller is the correspondent. Ira Rosen and Gabrielle Schonder, producers.
No U.S. intelligence agency has ever been under the kind of pressure being faced by the National Security Agency after details of some of its most secret programs were leaked by contractor Edward Snowden. Perhaps because of that pressure the agency gave 60 Minutes unprecedented access to NSA headquarters where we were able to speak to employees who have never spoken publicly before.
How did 60 Minutes get cameras into a spy agency?
Full disclosure, I once worked in the office of the director of National Intelligence where I saw firsthand how secretly the NSA operates. It is often said NSA stands for "never say anything," but tonight the agency breaks with that tradition to address serious questions about whether the NSA delves too far into the lives of Americans.
Gen. Keith Alexander: The fact is, we're not collecting everybody's email, we're not collecting everybody's phone things, we're not listening to that. Our job is foreign intelligence and we're very good at that.
The man in charge is Keith Alexander, a four-star Army general who leads the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command.
John Miller: There is a perception out there that the NSA is widely collecting the content of the phone calls of Americans. Is that true?
"The fact is, we're not collecting everybody's email, we're not collecting everybody's phone things, we're not listening to that. Our job is foreign intelligence and we're very good at that."
Gen. Keith Alexander: No, that's not true. NSA can only target the communications of a U.S. person with a probable cause finding under specific court order. Today, we have less than 60 authorizations on specific persons to do that.
John Miller: The NSA as we sit here right now is listening to a universe of 50 or 60 people that would be considered U.S. persons?
Gen. Keith Alexander: Less than 60 people globally who are considered U.S. persons.
But the NSA doesn’t need a court order to spy on foreigners, from its heavily protected headquarters in Fort Meade, Md., it collects a mind-numbing amount of data from phones and the Internet. They sort through it all looking for clues to terrorist plots, and intelligence on the intentions of foreign governments. To do all that they use a network of supercomputers that use more power than most mid-sized cities.
Gen. Alexander agreed to talk to us because he believes, the NSA has not told its story well.
Gen. Keith Alexander: "We need to help the American people understand what we're doing and why we're doing it." And to put it simply, we're doing two things: We're defending this country from future terrorist attacks and we're defending our civil liberties and privacy. There's no reason that we would listen to the phone calls of Americans. There’s no intelligence value in that. There's no reason that we'd want to read their email. There is no intelligence value in that.
What they are doing is collecting the phone records of more than 300 million Americans.
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de l’Arago (France). The other samples, 49 from Denisova Cave and 9 from Chagyrskaya Cave (Russia), had been collected previously for luminescence dating. The latter two sites are located in the Altai Mountains, where remains of both Neandertals and Denisovans have been uncovered (3, 21). We extracted DNA from between 38 and 160 mg of each sample and converted aliquots of the DNA to single-stranded DNA libraries (8, 22, 23). All libraries were shotgun sequenced and analyzed with a taxonomic-binning approach (8). Whereas most of the DNA sequences (79.1 to 96.1%) remained unidentified, most of those that could be identified were assigned to microorganisms and between 0.05 and 10% to mammals (figs. S7 to S15).
Enrichment of mammalian mtDNA To determine the taxonomic composition of the mammalian DNA in the sediments, we isolated DNA fragments bearing similarities to mammalian mtDNAs by hybridization capture using probes for 242 mitochondrial genomes, including human mtDNA (8, 24). MtDNA is useful for this purpose because it is present in higher copy numbers than nuclear DNA in most eukaryotic cells and is phylogenetically informative despite its small size because of its fast rate of evolution in mammals. Between 3535 and 3.2 million DNA fragments were sequenced per library (data file S2), of which between 14 and 50,114 could be assigned to mammalian families with a strategy for taxonomic identification of short and damaged DNA fragments (8) (fig. S18). To assess whether the sequences were of ancient origin, we evaluated them for the presence of C to T substitutions at their 5′ and 3′ ends (17, 18) (see fig. S19 for an example). Additionally, we computed the variance of coverage across the mitochondrial genome for each taxon to test whether sequences mapped randomly across the reference genome (fig. S20), as would be expected for sequences that are genuinely derived from the taxon to which they are assigned. With the exception of 46 sequences from a single sample from Les Cottés, which were originally attributed to procaviids but that mapped only to one restricted region of the genome (fig. S21), this analysis lent support to the correct taxonomic classification of the sequences we obtained. Of the 52 sediment samples from the Late Pleistocene, 47 contained mtDNA fragments from at least one family showing evidence of ancient DNA-like damage, whereas 14 out of 33 Middle Pleistocene samples did so (Fig. 1 and fig. S22). Overall, we detected ancient mtDNA fragments from 12 mammalian families, of which the most common were hyaenids, bovids, equids, cervids, and canids (data file S3 and figs. S23 to S32). These taxa are all present in the zooarchaeological records of the sites, as reconstructed from faunal remains (fig. S33). Fig. 1 Ancient taxa detected in Late Pleistocene (LP) and Middle Pleistocene (MP) sediment samples from seven sites. For each time period, the fraction of samples containing DNA fragments that could be assigned to a mammalian family and authenticated to be of ancient origin is indicated. The shaded symbols representing each family are not to scale. We exploited the known genetic variation within these families to determine the affinity of the sequences we obtained to specific species (8) (data file S3). In all libraries containing elephantid DNA, the majority (71 to 100%) of sequences matched variants found in the mtDNAs of woolly mammoths, a species that became extinct in Eurasia during the Holocene (25), but not in other elephantids. Likewise, sequences attributed to rhinocerotids most often carried variants specific to the woolly rhinoceros branch (54 to 100% support), thought to have become extinct at the end of the Late Pleistocene (25), and showed little support (0 to 6%) for other rhinoceros lineages. In ~70% of libraries containing hyaenid mtDNA, the sequences matched variants of the extinct cave hyena and/or the spotted hyena, which exists today only in Africa (26). Lastly, 90% of ursid mtDNA sequences retrieved from Vindija Cave carried variants matching Ursus ingressus, an Eastern European cave bear lineage that became extinct ~25 ka (27, 28). Extraction and DNA library preparation negative controls contained between 32 and 359 mammalian mtDNA sequences. These sequences do not exhibit damage patterns typical of ancient DNA, and they originate from common contaminants (24, 29–31), predominantly human DNA, as well as DNA of bovids, canids, and suids (fig. S34).
Targeting hominin DNA Among the samples analyzed, the only site that yielded sequences from putatively deaminated DNA fragments that could be assigned to hominids (or hominins, assuming that no other great apes were present at the sites analyzed here) was El Sidrón. This site differs from the others in that no ancient faunal DNA was identified there (Fig. 1), consistent with the almost complete absence of animal remains at the site (32). To test whether animal mtDNA was too abundant at other sites to detect small traces of hominin mtDNA, we repeated the hybridization capture for all DNA libraries using probes targeting exclusively human mtDNA (8). Between 4915 and 2.8 million DNA fragments were sequenced per library, out of which between 0 and 8822 were unique hominin sequences that passed our filtering scheme (8). Between 10 and 165 hominin mtDNA sequences showing substitutions typical of ancient DNA were obtained from 15 sediment samples from four sites (data file S4). To generate sufficient data for phylogenetic analyses, we prepared DNA extracts from additional subsamples of 10 of these samples and used automated liquid handling to generate 102 DNA libraries from these as well as the original extracts (data file S1 and fig. S22). After enriching for human mtDNA and merging all sequences from a given sediment sample, nine samples yielded a sufficient number of deaminated hominin mtDNA fragments (between 168 and 13,207) for further analyses (data file S4).
Identifying Neandertal and Denisovan mtDNA We identified “diagnostic” positions in the mtDNA genome that are inferred to have changed on each branch of a phylogenetic tree relating modern humans, Neandertals, Denisovans, and a ~430,000-year-old hominin from Sima de los Huesos (8, 33). For eight sediment samples from El Sidrón, Trou Al’Wesse, Chagyrskaya Cave, and Denisova Cave, the Neandertal state is shared by 87 to 98% of sequences overlapping positions diagnostic for Neandertal mtDNA, whereas the modern human, Denisovan, and Sima de los Huesos branches are supported by 4 to 11%, 0 to 2%, and 0 to 2% of sequences, respectively. In the ninth sample, collected in layer 15 of the East Gallery in Denisova Cave, 84% (16/19) of sequences carry Denisovan-specific variants, compared to 0% (0/10), 5% (1/19), and 0% (0/23) for the modern human, Neandertal, and Sima de los Huesos variants, respectively, pointing to a Denisovan origin for these mtDNA fragments (data file S4 and fig. S40). Notably, none of the hominin sequences present in the extraction or library preparation negative controls carry variants specific to the Neandertal, Denisovan, or Sima de los Huesos branches (data file S4). The average sequence coverage of the mitochondrial genome varied between 0.4- and 44-fold among the nine samples. To be able to reconstruct phylogenetic trees using these sequences, we called a consensus base at positions covered by at least two deaminated fragments and required more than two-thirds of fragments to carry an identical base (34). These relatively permissive parameters were chosen to avoid discarding samples that produced very small numbers of hominin sequences and allowed us to reconstruct between 8 and 99% of the mtDNA genome (table S3). Phylogenetic trees relating each of the reconstructed mtDNA genomes to those of modern and ancient individuals (8) (table S5) show that they all fall within the genetic variation or close to known mtDNA genomes of Neandertals or Denisovans (Fig. 2 and figs. S41 to S49). Fig. 2 Cladogram relating mtDNA genomes reconstructed from sediment samples to those of modern and ancient individuals. The branches leading to mtDNA genomes reconstructed from sediments (dashed lines) were superimposed on a neighbor-joining tree relating the previously determined mtDNA genomes of ancient and present-day humans (purple), Neandertals (orange), the Sima de los Huesos hominin (blue), and Denisovans (green) (table S5). Discrete phylogenetic trees relating each of the mtDNAs reconstructed here and the comparative data are shown in figs. S41 to S49.
Single versus multiple sources of hominin mtDNA We next aimed to assess whether mtDNA fragments from more than one individual are present in a given sediment sample. For this purpose, we identified positions in the mitochondrial genome that are covered by at least 10 sequences exhibiting evidence of deamination. Three samples had sufficient data for this analysis (fig. S50). At each of these positions, nearly all sequences from a sample collected in the Main Gallery of Denisova Cave carry the same base, suggesting that the DNA may derive from a single individual. In contrast, sequences from the El Sidrón sample support two different bases at a single position, as is the case for a second sample from Denisova Cave. Thus, at least two mtDNA genomes seem to be present in both these samples (fig. S51). That the variable position in the latter sample is a known variant among Neandertal mtDNAs supports the conclusion that the sample contains DNA from more than one Neandertal (table S7). We then developed a maximum-likelihood approach to infer the number of mtDNA components also in low-coverage data (8) (fig. S52), allowing us to investigate this issue in four additional samples from two sites. We detected only one ancient mtDNA type in the sample from Chagyrskaya Cave and in two samples from Denisova Cave, whereas another sample from Denisova Cave contains mtDNA from at least two ancient individuals (table S9).
DNA yields from sediments To assess how much DNA can be recovered from sediment compared to skeletal elements, we counted the number of mtDNA fragments retrieved per milligram of bone (2, 21, 35–38) or sediment originating from the same layers at three archaeological sites. The number of hominin mtDNA fragments retrieved from bone ranges from 28 to 9142 per milligram, compared to between 34 and 4490 mammalian mtDNA fragments per milligram of sediment (table S10). Thus, surprisingly large quantities of DNA can survive in cave sediments. Notably, most of the ancient taxa we identified are middle- to large-sized (Fig. 1), consistent with larger animals leaving more of their DNA in sediments. The hominin DNA is present in similar concentrations among subsamples of sediment removed from larger samples (fig. S53). This suggests that, in most cases, the DNA is not concentrated in larger spots but is spread relatively evenly within the sediment, which is compatible with the DNA originating from excreta or the decay of soft tissue (9, 39, 40). One exception is a sample from the Main Gallery of Denisova Cave, from which one subsample contains more than 500 times as much hominin mtDNA fragments as others. As the mtDNA retrieved from it may originate from a single Neandertal (tables S7 and S9), we hypothesize that this is due to an unrecognized small bone or tooth fragment in the subsample. Despite its high content of hominin DNA, the library remains dominated by DNA from other mammals, as only ~7.5% of sequences were attributed to hominins after its enrichment with the mammalian mtDNA probes. Nonetheless, if such microscopic fragments can be identified and isolated, they may represent a source of hominin DNA sufficiently devoid of other mammalian DNA to allow for analyses of the nuclear genome.
DNA movement across layers Postdepositional mixing of particles or a saturation of the sediments by large amounts of DNA can potentially lead to movements of DNA between layers in a stratigraphy (40–42). At the sites investigated here, the overall consistency between the taxa identified from DNA and the archaeological records (fig. S33) suggests the integrity of the spatial distribution of DNA. In Chagyrskaya Cave, for example, we recovered abundant mammalian mtDNA fragments showing degradation patterns typical of ancient DNA in layers rich in osseous and lithic assemblages, whereas no ancient mammalian DNA was identified in an archaeologically sterile layer underneath (43). Additionally, mtDNA sequences attributed to the woolly mammoth and woolly rhinoceros were identified in Late Pleistocene layers, yet they are absent from the layer that postdates the presumed time of extinction of these taxa (25) (data file S3 and fig. S24). This implies that little or no movement of mtDNA fragments occurred downward or upward in Chagyrskaya Cave. However, as local conditions may affect the extent to which DNA can move in a stratigraphy, these conditions need to be assessed at each archaeological site before the DNA recovered can be linked to a specific layer. This may be best achieved by dense sampling in and around layers of interest.
Conclusions We show that mtDNA can be efficiently retrieved from many Late and some Middle Pleistocene cave sediments by using hybridization capture (Fig. 1). Encouragingly, this is possible also for samples that were stored at room temperature for several years (8). Sediment samples collected for dating, site-formation analyses, or the reconstruction of ancient environments at sites where excavations are now completed can thus be used for genetic studies. The mtDNA genomes reconstructed from sediments of four archaeological sites recapitulate a large part of the mitochondrial diversity of Pleistocene hominins hitherto reconstructed from skeletal remains (Fig. 2). The recovery of Neandertal mtDNA from El Sidrón, Chagyrskaya Cave, and layer 11.4 of the East Gallery of Denisova Cave is in agreement with previous findings of Neandertal remains at those sites and in those layers (21, 32, 44). At Trou Al’Wesse, where we find Neandertal mtDNA, no hominin remains have been found in the Pleistocene layers. However, Late Mousterian artifacts and animal bones with cut-marks support the use of the site by Neandertals (45). In Denisova Cave, we detected Neandertal mtDNA in layers with Middle Paleolithic stone tools in the Main Gallery (46), in which no Neandertal remains have been found. In the East Gallery, we identified Denisovan as well as Neandertal mtDNA lower in the stratigraphy than where skeletal remains of archaic humans have been discovered (Fig. 3), indicating the repeated presence of both groups in the region. Fig. 3 Hominin mtDNAs along the stratigraphy of the East Gallery in Denisova Cave. Layer numbers are noted in gray. The layers of origin for sediment samples and skeletal remains yielding Neandertal (orange) and Denisovan (green) mtDNA genomes are indicated. For details on these and other hominin skeletal remains from other parts of the cave, see (8). The absence of identifiable ancient DNA in Middle Pleistocene layers in Caune de l’Arago and Chagyrskaya Cave is not surprising given their age (>300 ka). Although compared to other animals, hominins constitute a rare taxon at most sites, we were able to detect Neandertal DNA in the sediments of four of the six sites containing Late Pleistocene layers. For the remaining two sites, Vindija Cave and Les Cottés, only one and four samples, respectively, were available for this study, suggesting that extensive sampling is necessary at each site to ensure that hominin DNA is detected if present. Fortunately, the automation of laboratory procedures to generate DNA libraries and isolate DNA by hybridization capture (8) now makes it possible to undertake large-scale studies of DNA in sediments. This is likely to shed light on the genetic affiliations of the occupants of large numbers of archaeological sites where no human remains are found.
Supplementary Materials www.sciencemag.org/content/356/6338/605/suppl/DC1 Materials and Methods Figs. S1 to S53 Tables S1 to S10 References (47–159) Data Files S1 to S4Here we see him in 2014, complaining that Muslim prisoners were being deprived of food during Ramadan.
A MIGRANTS’ rights activist suspected of being the surviving Brussels airport bomber known as the “man in the hat” was yesterday charged with terrorism offences by Belgian police.
Fayçal Cheffou, 35, born in Belgium to Moroccan parents, was charged with membership of a terrorist group, terrorist murder and attempted terrorist murder....
Cheffou has posted various video reports and blogs on YouTube and other websites; they included a short film in 2014 about the alleged abuse of Muslim asylum-seekers at a closed facility near Brussels.
Police are investigating whether Cheffou had a press pass that would have given him access to government buildings. He was detained several times after trying to persuade migrants camping in Maximilien park in Brussels to join Islamist groups.
UPDATE: This guy has now been released without charge.Editor’s note: For more information on oral gonorrhea, please see our post Why Should You Care About Oral Gonorrhea? For more information on whether a gonorrhea infection can go away without treatment, please see our post Will STDs Go Away on Their Own?
My fellow Generation Xers might remember an episode of Chicago Hope in which a very young Jessica Alba portrays a teenage girl with a gonorrhea infection in her throat — also called pharyngeal gonorrhea. The actress later reported being shunned by members of her church, disillusioning her from the religion she grew up with. It is a testament to the power of taboo that even a fictional association with a sexually transmitted disease (STD) can elicit such negative reactions.
Taboos can affect the ways we relate to one another sexually, as well. Many of us conceptualize of disease as “dirty,” and the flip side to that is to think of people without disease as “clean.” This kind of stigmatizing language can be found in phrases like “She looked clean” and “Don’t worry, I’m clean” — all to describe people who are perceived to be or who claim to be free of STDs. With all the baggage we put on STD status, it can be difficult to ask a partner to use a condom or dental dam during oral sex. Some people might think we don’t trust them or are underhandedly questioning their “cleanliness.” These sorts of fears can cloud our judgment when it comes to protecting our health, but there is nothing wrong with asking your partner to use protection during oral sex — especially if you don’t know one another’s STD status. There are many good reasons to use barrier methods when engaging in oral sex, and pharyngeal gonorrhea is just one of them.
Unprotected oral contact with a penis puts you at the most risk of acquiring pharyngeal gonorrhea.
Gonorrhea is most famous as an infection of the cervix or the urethra. But gonococci, the bacteria that cause gonorrhea, can thrive in other warm, moist areas of your body — not just the reproductive tract, but also the mouth, throat, eyes, and anus. Gonococci can be transmitted to your mouth or throat via oral sex — most likely via unprotected oral sex. Symptoms might include a sore throat, but 90 percent of the time there are no symptoms at all.
If you were to put everyone with gonorrhea into one giant room, you would be able to find gonococci in the throats of about:
3 to 7 percent of heterosexual men
10 to 20 percent of heterosexual women
10 to 25 percent of men who have sex with men (MSM)
As shown by the above numbers, people who perform fellatio (oral contact with a penis) are much more likely to wind up with pharyngeal gonorrhea than are those whose oral-sex repertoire includes only cunnilingus (oral contact with a vagina, clitoris, etc.). Interestingly, performing fellatio seems to be associated with symptoms of pharyngeal gonorrhea while performing cunnilingus does not. Perhaps there is something about fellatio that has the potential to irritate the throat, independently of a gonorrhea infection.
Although gonorrhea can be spread via cervical and vaginal secretions, the frequency of transmission by this route has not been well studied among women who have sex with women (WSW). Documentation of pharyngeal gonorrhea among exclusively lesbian populations is rare, although it certainly exists!
While transmission of gonorrhea from a penis to a mouth has been well documented, researchers aren’t quite sure how easy it is to transmit gonorrhea from a mouth to a urethra, vagina, or anus. Despite an unknown transmission rate, the fact remains that this mode of transmission is possible — therefore, during the time you have a pharyngeal gonorrhea infection, you can transmit the infection to your partner(s).
The good news about pharyngeal gonorrhea is that gonococci don’t seem very well suited to living in throats — they are much better adapted to the anus and genitals. A flurry of research on pharyngeal gonorrhea was performed in the 1970s and 1980s, when it was demonstrated that gonorrhea infections in the throat can clear up without medical intervention within three months — with possibly half of infections going away after just a week.
This shouldn’t lull you into complacency, however — during the time you have a pharyngeal gonorrhea infection, you have the potential to infect others, and some experts fear that these symptom-free, under-the-radar infections might perpetuate strains of antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea. Furthermore, depending on your other sexual activities you might have gonorrhea in your genital or anal area as well, and infections in those sites are often asymptomatic. Additionally (and rarely), someone with untreated gonorrhea can develop a form of infective arthritis called disseminated gonococcal infection (DGI), which can cause joint pain, rashes, lesions, or fever. It seems likely that someone with a pharyngeal gonorrhea infection might also be at increased risk for DGI, despite the ability of a throat infection to clear up on its own. DGI can be treated, but if it is ignored for too long it can cause permanent joint damage.
It’s unfortunate that so many people are under the impression that barrier methods aren’t necessary during oral sex (at least when we don’t know our partners’ STD status) — this leaves them more vulnerable to preventable infections. Furthermore, pharyngeal gonorrhea is more difficult to treat than gonorrhea in the genital or anal areas. Throat infections are treated most effectively with a single shot of ceftriaxone and an oral antibiotic. While genital and anal gonorrhea infections are usually treated this way as well, they can also be treated with a wider range of antibiotics — but these other antibiotics aren’t as effective against pharyngeal infections. And, since there are strains of antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea out there, you don’t want your choice of antibiotics to be further limited.
Pharyngeal gonorrhea is diagnosed by taking a swab of the throat. You can receive testing and treatment at a Planned Parenthood health center, as well as other clinics, health departments, and private health care providers. Infected individuals should also make sure their sexual partners receive treatment to ensure that they won’t be reinfected.
Click here to check out other installments of our monthly STD Awareness series!Wauconda village board meeting could move to high school
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Anticipating a larger-than-usual audience, Wauconda officials may move Tuesday's village board meeting to the local high school.
The preparations, Mayor Frank Bart said, are a response to a local activist who has used Facebook and other means to try to attract a crowd to the meeting.
"We reserved the school just in case," Bart told the Daily Herald in an email.
The meeting will be the first since the Central Lake County Joint Action Water Agency's decision last week to break off talks with Wauconda officials over whether to supply Lake Michigan drinking water to the suburb.
Wauconda's trustees -- and many residents -- were shocked when the agency's board of directors voted 8-1 to end discussions with the village after two years of negotiations.
The activist prompting the possible venue change, local business owner Maria Weisbruch, said she believes the public has been misled about the issue.
People should attend the meeting "to clarify why we were denied (membership)," Weisbruch said.
The meeting is set for 7 p.m. at village hall, 101 N. Main St.
If the audience is too big for the boardroom, the board will stop the meeting and reconvene at Wauconda High School, 555 N. Main St.
The village board last held a meeting at the high school in early June, also because a large crowd was expected.
That time, more than 200 people filled the school cafeteria to protest Bart's ouster of Police Chief Douglas Larsson.
Larsson eventually was replaced as chief by Patrick Yost. Technically, Yost is the department's interim chief, because Bart never asked the village board to vote on the assignment.
As for Wauconda's quest for Lake Michigan water, village officials have insisted the CLCJAWA board's rejection hasn't doomed the $50 million plan, which was approved by voters in 2012.
Last week, Wauconda officials said the Des Plaines-based Northwest Water Commission is their best option, and negotiations with that group are moving ahead.
The CLCJAWA decision isn't on Tuesday's agenda, but Bart said officials will discuss it publicly.
Trustee Linda Starkey expects community members and her fellow trustees "will absolutely be demanding answers" about how the CLCJAWA plan fell apart and the status of the village's work toward getting Lake Michigan water.
"I also expect that the trustees will step up and be more vocal than we have been at past meetings," Starkey said in an email.Now I’ve been in the US a long time I’m valued for what I am rather than where I came from, writes Áine Greaney
Áine Greaney
I was sitting in one of those corporate cafeterias eavesdropping on the women at the next lunch table. One had vacationed in Thailand. The other had returned from a group tour of Vietnam.
“Over there, it was nothing to see two generations of family crammed into a house no bigger than my living room,” said the Vietnam traveler. “Makes you appreciate what we have here, in America.”
I’m sure I’ll never see that American woman’s living room. But I’m willing to bet that it’s larger—and certainly more weather-proof—than my childhood home in Mayo. And as for that multi-generational-living thing? Yup, we managed to cram two parents, five kids, two grandparents, and the family dog into a thatch-roof house with three tiny bedrooms.
But, sitting there in that air-conditioned cafeteria, did I interrupt my lunch neighbors to say: “Whoa! Wait. You have no clue how it really is. You have no clue about what I learned from my live-in grandparents, or that poverty and cultural exotica are a lot more than the sum of our non-commodities, of what we don’t possess?”
I just kept munching on my salad. Ten minutes earlier, I had ordered and paid for that salad in my best expat patois.
These days (I have since switched jobs), I work as the communications director for a large nonprofit. In my own office, among my own colleagues, I say little or nothing about my rural, west-of-Ireland childhood. Equally, I don’t stand at the office photocopier belting out an old Irish come-all-ye, just as I don’t boast how, once, I used to knit Aran sweaters. You’ll never see me pulling up a boardroom chair to re-tell one of my live-in grandfather’s fireside stories, like that one about how, as a youngster, his mother (my great-grandmother) brought him to town where he saw a huge ship sitting way, way out in the harbour. His mother said that the ship was on a stopover (in Cobh) between England and America. It was called the Titanic.
So as an expatriate in America, am I in a perpetual state of what my late mother called, “putting dogs on windows” (aka pretending or trying to be someone I’m not)?
No. And yes.
In my private, non-working life, among my American friends, everything is fair game. Actually, I’m often the one quizzing them about their childhoods. Even after almost three decades here, I’m still fascinated by this huge, polyglot country where entire families either shipped in or moved out or were dust-bowl displaced across three whole states. But in the workplace, I’m quite content to “pass” as American.
I was 24 years old when I landed at JFK Airport, New York. It was a freezing December afternoon. I had my tatty college army-and-navy rucksack and a borrowed $200 and a set of directions for how and where to catch a Trailways bus.
In my early American years, I worked as a waitress in an Irish-American pub in a jazzy college town. This was the swingin’ ’80s, and, compared to my at-home job of teaching in a rural primary school, that restaurant job was one eye-popping culture shock. Also, in any country or culture, waiting tables is a safari of human behavior: the good, the bad, and the downright weird (especially after midnight).
In that Irish-American pub, for the first time in my life, I had to become—well, Irish. I discovered this “all-Irish” meal called corned beef (yuck) and cabbage. My bar customers ordered this “Irish” beer drink called a Black and Tan. Often, as I served up that pint glass, I used to imagine what my history-buff father would say if you ever offered him any food or beverage by that name.
The first week on the job, I learned that the way I spoke was called a “brogue.” And my “brogue” brought a string of questions: Oh, what brought you here? Don’t you miss your family? Aren’t all you Irish chicks named “Colleen?”
Of course, I was grateful for this all-American chance to reinvent myself from my heretofore parish teacher’s life in which the government signed my cheque, but the church and local priest oversaw my hiring and work performance. So, bit by bit, I began to assume this packaged, offshore brand of Irishness.
Three years after arrival day, I quit that pub gig to take evening classes toward a master’s degree. I also worked a string of day jobs, most of them in offices. I’m not proud to admit this, but as I interviewed for and started each new gig, I wasn’t above laying on the brogue and the Maureen O’Hara charm.
What a 20-something girl doesn’t or cannot yet know is this: Playing to a set of Hollywood stereotypes, to a set of broad-brush cultural assumptions, is “putting dogs on windows”. And worse, it will deplete our sense of self and self-esteem.
I finished that master’s degree and landed better-paid jobs, including my first position in business writing and communications.
In one job, I had to deliver a monthly overview of the organization’s public information policies to all new employees. As an ex-teacher, preparing content and delivering a short, lively presentation was easy. So I assumed that my participant evaluations would be glowing.
They were.
Then I scrolled down to those add-on, narrative comments: “I liked the communications woman’s accent.” “Love that accent!” “She’s really cute!”
Gulp. What about my carefully prepared content?
Outside of work, I was also building a career as a creative writer. On both sides of the Atlantic, my publications and bylines were landing me on some book panels and literary readings and public presentations.
More than once, an American listener approached the podium to say: “Heck, with that accent, you could stand there and read the phone book, and I’d sit here and listen.” Meanwhile, at Irish events, more than one listener said: “You? From down the west? Oh! we-ell, you’d think you never even set foot in Mayo!” In America, they have a phrase for this: “damned if you do (be Irish) and damned if you don’t (be Irish).
But here’s the thing: I didn’t want to read any phone books. I didn’t want to have crossed an ocean and navigated a whole new country just to be either cute or fit anyone’s notion of County Mayo.
Then came our 21st-century recession. And with it came a lot less room, a much narrower tolerance, for blather or swagger. In a 2008, 8 to 10 per cent unemployment America, in an America where both the communications and the publishing industries were changing and dipping faster than the Nasdaq, it took hard-core, provable skills to snag a new job. And, in a perpetually merging and downsized workplace, keeping that job means staying trained, ready, and willing to produce the goods.
I find this delightful. I find it really freeing. Without the cultural distractions, I’m just another middle-aged woman with a skill base that’s continually challenged and updated. I’m a woman valued for what I know and what I can do, not for where I came from.
Still, since that day in the lunchtime cafeteria, I have imagined myself turning to those women and regaling them with enough hardscrabble childhood stories to put them off their sandwiches.
We weren’t a poor family. At least by 1970s rural Ireland standards, by how we viewed ourselves or, indeed, where we ranked in our village’s socio-economic pyramid. Based on what I overhead at that lunchtime table, our setup probably didn’t match how those women grew up, but in our village primary school, most of my classmates had live-in grandparents. We kids had a good pair of shoes just for Sunday, plus a warm winter coat. If it had once been a sister’s or a cousin’s coat, what difference?
But in that imaginary lunch speech, the glossary becomes longer than the content. There are more cultural footnotes, more lost-in-translation asides than any of us would have time for.
Often I ask myself: Would it be the same if I moved back to live and work in 2013 Ireland?
Yes. Maybe not to the same degree, but on both sides of the Atlantic, from our florescent, white-walled workplaces to our vapid, buzzwordy chatter, today’s workplaces breed a certain homogenisation. We assume that most or all of us used the microwave on the kitchen shelf or that Dad bought us our first mobile phone for Christmas. For those of us who didn’t, that fear of historic and cultural mismatch, the socio-economic dissonance can keep us reticent or mum about our pasts.
A version of this essay was first published in The Daily Muse and Forbes. Originally from County Mayo, Áine Greaney now lives in Boston where she now works as a communications director, a writing teacher and an author. She has published four books, and many short stories, essays and features in Irish and American publications. Her fifth book (in progress) What Brought You Here is a non-fiction narrative about leaving Ireland, an examination of the act of emigration as an existential, political and spiritual act. See ainegreaney.com.Whether it be kanelsnegle, kanelbulle, or korvapuusti, many people around the world can claim that cinnamon rolls are one of their favourite foods. I mean, who doesn't love cinnamon rolls? Its soft fluffy dough wrapped in layers of gooey cinnamon filling and topped off with a sweet icing or glaze. It's not your heart healthy or your diet food, but you can surely say, it is damn good. Even though eating a warm cinnamon roll from your local bakery is mouth watering and satisfying, making them yourself in your own home can be even more fulfilling; the scent of cinnamon in the air while they bake, and the control of sugar and icing you can put on top. Though, proper cinnamon rolls, are not an easy feat, but with some sugar, spice,and a bit of patience, you can make them quite easily with this recipe.A team led by the University of Washington (UW) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US has for the first time discovered magnetism in the 2D world of monolayers. (representaional image)
Scientists have for the first time discovered two-dimensional magnets that are formed by a single layer of atoms and may pave the way for more compact and efficient devices.
Magnetic materials form the basis of technologies that play increasingly pivotal roles in our lives today, including sensing and hard-disk data storage.
For smaller and faster devices, researchers are seeking new magnetic materials that are more compact, more efficient and can be controlled using precise, reliable methods.
A team led by the University of Washington (UW) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US has for the first time discovered magnetism in the 2D world of monolayers, or materials that are formed by a single atomic layer.
The findings, published in the journal Nature, show that magnetic properties can exist even in the 2D realm - opening a world of potential applications.
"What we have discovered here is an isolated 2D material with intrinsic magnetism, and the magnetism in the system is highly robust," said Xiaodong Xu, a professor at UW.
"We envision that new information technologies may emerge based on these new 2D magnets," |
said.
Notably, since the Jordan project was first initiated, the UN has revealed a wide range of blockchain projects being undertaken by other agencies under its umbrella.
Jordanian refugee camp shop image via ShutterstockMicrosoft promised a 75 percent increase in battery life for Surface Pro 2 over the original, and the company delivered. In our review we noted that the Surface Pro 2 lasted 7 hours, 33 minutes on the Verge Battery Test, which cycles through a series of websites and high-res images with screen brightness set to 65 percent. Anandtech has discovered that a recently released Surface Pro 2 firmware update has pushed the battery life even further.
In our own Verge Battery Test we can confirm that the battery life on the Surface Pro 2 has increased to 8 hours, 51 minutes following the firmware update, an almost 20 percent increase. Anandtech notes that the improvements appear to be related to a change that lets the Marvell Wi-Fi chipset use less power. The improvements are impressive and help improve the viability of using the device all day as a tablet or a laptop. Microsoft’s Surface 2 tablet, running on Windows RT 8.1, has not received similar battery improvements in its firmware update, meaning the Pro 2 outpaces the ARM-based model on battery life.Fort McMurray fires: Security camera captures inferno ripping through Canadian house
Updated
An indoor security camera gave the world a haunting five-minute glimpse of one of the worst wildfires in Canadian history as it roared through a living room and the homeowner watched it burn on his mobile phone.
Key points: Inferno captured on in-home security system
Authorities conduct mass-evacuation via road, air
Fires have engulfed 100,000 hectares of forest, claimed more than 1500 buildings
The video from a fixed camera in James O'Reilly's home began with a seemingly serene shot of red walls, a brown couch and a glowing fish tank before the view turned to heavy smoke, ash and flames outside the window, the slow breaking of glass and smoke filling the room.
Traffic and weather cameras and security webcams have allowed those who fled to remotely see if their homes have been lost to the fire that has consumed at least 1,600 buildings and forced 88,000 to evacuate the city of Fort McMurray.
I was so happy we were alive, the rest was all — who cares, right? James O'Reilly
Mr O'Reilly, 51, and his wife pulled out on Tuesday, driving through flames and ash to put distance between themselves and the inferno.
He pulled over 20 minutes outside Fort McMurray, his phone buzzing with an alarm from his in-home security system. He watched as the house was consumed by flames, live on the screen in his hand.
"My wife couldn't watch it, but at that point I thought we were dead coming through the flames like we did," Mr O'Reilly said.
"I was euphoric, so it didn't bother me. I knew the house was gone already, I knew we were alive, and I was so happy we were alive, the rest was all — who cares, right?"
Mr O'Reilly said he had installed the camera only a month before more because he is a technology geek than out of security concerns.
Entire neighbourhoods have been burned to the ground in Fort McMurray. No-one has died in the fires, but two people died in a car crash during the evacuation.
Police conduct risky road evacuation
Canadian police led convoys of cars through the burning ghost town of Fort McMurray in a risky operation to get thousands of people to safety on the other side.
In the latest harrowing chapter of the drama triggered by monster forest fires in Alberta's oil sands region, the convoys of 50 cars at a time made their way through the city at about 50-60 kilometres per hour, TV footage showed.
Police took up positions at intersections along the way to keep evacuees from detouring to try to salvage belongings from charred homes and make sure the route remains safe from the fire.
Three army helicopters hovered above to sound the alert if the flames got too close to the road, or cut it off completely, as has happened in recent days.
Those being evacuated — for a second time, after first abandoning their homes — had fled this week to an area north of the city where oil companies have lodging camps for workers.
But officials concluded they were no longer safe there because of shifting winds that raised the risk of them becoming trapped, and needed to move south to other evacuee staging grounds and eventually to Edmonton, 400 kilometres to the south.
Some 8,000 people were airlifted out of the northern enclave on Thursday on helicopters and planes. Officials expect the road convoys for the remaining 17,000 will take around four days.
State of emergency declared
The government has declared a state of emergency in Alberta, a province the size of France that is home to one of the world's most prodigious oil industries.
Alberta has been left bone-dry after a period of unusually scant rainfall and unseasonably high temperatures.
More than 1,100 firefighters are battling 49 separate blazes across the province — seven of them totally out of control.
The fires have engulfed 100,000 hectares of forest including at least 12,000 in the area surrounding Fort McMurray, now the epicentre of the inferno.
Reuters/AFP
Topics: bushfire, fires, disasters-and-accidents, canada
First postedCuyahoga County's new land bank, along with its partners, received nearly $41 million in federal stimulus funds to demolish blighted homes and renovate others in 20 targeted neighborhoods throughout the county.
Cities, counties and the state of Ohio received a total of $175 million out of $2 billion in awards the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced Thursday.
"Vacant homes have a debilitating effect on neighborhoods and often lead to reduced property values, blight, and neighborhood decay," HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan the said in a statement. "This additional $2 billion in Recovery Act funding will help stabilize hard hit communities by turning vacant homes into affordable housing opportunities."
The investment is "helping to eliminate blight, stabilize our community and stop the cycle of abandonment that has occurred. This program is truly helping to improve the quality of life in our region," said Councilman Anthony Brancatelli, chairman of the community & economic development committee.
The new county land bank, along with the city of Cleveland, Cuyahoga County and Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority, put in a joint proposal this summer asking for $74 million for 20 targeted neighborhoods.
Fifteen of the neighborhoods are in the Cleveland, and the others include parts of five inner-rung suburbs -- East Cleveland, Garfield Heights, Lakewood, South Euclid and Shaker Heights.
Gus Frangos, president of the land bank said the money will go to acquire abandoned and foreclosed homes in those areas, as well as vacant property.
He said those that still have "good bones" will be rehabbed and financial help will be given to low and moderate income families to purchase the homes with down-payment and closing cost assistance.
Homes that can't be saved will be demolished. The plan was to demolish more than 1,000 vacant homes.
One of the biggest challenges in Cleveland, now with about 380,000 residents, is what to do with the vacant land, Frangos said. And the group's proposal is to turn some of the land into community gardens, parks and even urban forests.
"By rebuilding neighborhoods devastated by the economic crisis, we will improve surrounding property values, create new jobs, and foster long-term economic growth," Sen. Sherrod Brown, said in a statement after joining Donovan in Columbus for the announcement of the awards. "By putting vacant properties and lots to good use and targeting funds to the hardest-hit communities, we can rebuild our downtown's and strengthen our communities.'
The HUD money awarded Thursday, part of the $737 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act plan, was a competitive process, and applicants such as counties, cities non-profits and others had to detail how they would tackle neighborhoods with high foreclosure or vacancy rates.
"Cleveland and the county have been hard hit by the global economic crisis and these additional... funds will help to rebuild our neighborhoods, providing our residents with affordable homes in revitalized communities," said Mayor Frank G. Jackson.Today I write my first blog post.
My wife and I finished serving our third mission together a little over a month ago. Our first two missions were a great experience. We loved each and every day together and we grew closer together. However, this last mission drove a wedge between us and The Church that cannot be removed.
We left on our third mission with great experiences from our previous missions and strong testimonies. We returned from our third mission disillusioned and unbelievers.
Some back story: My wife and I converted to the Church in the 1970’s along with our three young children. The missionaries were introduced to us by a dear neighbor. After receiving the discussions for about 2 months my wife and oldest child was baptized. I still had a number of vices that I wasn’t willing to give up. After seeing the good that had become of my wife and children (the other two were later baptized), I joined the church 10 years later. At first it was easy. Everyone was friendly–as we were new to the ward. I quickly was called to be a secretary in the Elder’s Quorum, then First Counselor in the Elder’s Quorum.
Seven years after being baptized I was called to the High Council.
My family and I were strong in the Church. Our two sons served missions and attended BYU. We were active in a meetings and kept the commandments.
When hard times hit our area in the early 2000’s, I retired and we immediately went on a mission. A second mission followed.
When we got home from our second mission, we discovered that our ward had shrunk to less than half of its original size. The bishop had “apostatized” due to “gay issues”. Later we learned his son was guy and he supported same-sex marriage and his conscience required him to stop participation in the Church.
With little leadership left in the ward, I was called as bishop 3 months after returning home.
Two and a half weeks after being sustained as bishop my wife diagnosed with breast cancer. Six days later my oldest son was diagnosed with early-onset ALS (the signs had been ignored for quite some time). I was devastated. My world had been turned upside down.
I was barely able to hold myself together. Seeing our retirement draining, I got a job at a local grocery store. Between work odd hours and caring for my wife and son, I was spending nearly 20 hours a week with church responsibilities. I promised the Lord that if He could cure my wife and ease the pain of my son and family, I would consecrate my life to Him.
Months later my wife had become a cancer survivor and my son had only experienced minimal progression in his disease. We felt blessed.
Faithful to my word, I had rededicated myself to Him (and His Church). My wife and I set a go to serve our third mission together–more dedicated to The Work than we had been previously.
We were called to serve in a foreign mission office with some other minimal responsibilities. It was hell from day one. From the start it was clear that we were no more than glorified butlers and assistants to the mission president. We were asked to wash his car once a week, pick up his laundry, purchase gifts for his children’s birthdays, and on occasion use our own funds to purchase meals for his family of five.
We had enter more dedicated than ever to serve the Lord and we were only servants of our mission president.
At the same time, working in the office allowed me (me much more than my wife) to interact with the Area Presidency. While serving our third mission, the Area Presidency was very proactive in establishing new rules for missionaries and new baptism requirements. With each new program, rule, or General Authority visit, I became aware that business sense and strategy was being used more than the Spirit. The corporate skeleton of the Church appear to grow more visible as the religious and spiritual exteriors evaporated in our eyes. Over the short period of time we were on our third mission, we went from 100% dedicated, three-time missionaries faithful to God and the Church to cynical agnostics that really don’t know what to do.
The horrible relationship with are mission president and the stark reality of the corporate governance of the Church was probably enough. But while we were on our mission the Church released a number of Gospel Topics on special subjects that rocked us pretty hard and nearly flipped us over.
For me, it was the essay on Race and the Priesthood. For my wife, it was the essays on polygamy which were released just before we were about to return home.
It is crazy to think how our whole world has been overturned in the last 18 months. Sometimes we don’t even know whether up is up anymore. Sometimes we just utter under our breathe “I’m just so confused”.
We have haven’t been to church since we returned home. Nor do we expect to. We often wonder whether all our time spent on “church things” was a waste. I often have regrets of not being there more for my wife as she was going through chemotherapy. I thank God (if there is a God) that she survived. If she had not, my biggest regret would have been not having spent more time by her side. More time with her–instead of at church.
AdvertisementsFour key GOP senators will become the targets of a new series of TV ads opposing the ObamaCare repeal bill in the Senate.
The ads, launched by Save My Care, will target Sens. Lisa Murkowski Lisa Ann MurkowskiHouse to push back at Trump on border GOP Sen. Tillis to vote for resolution blocking Trump's emergency declaration Pence meeting with Senate GOP ahead of vote to block emergency declaration MORE (Alaska), Susan Collins Susan Margaret CollinsHouse to push back at Trump on border Hillicon Valley: Senators urge Trump to bar Huawei products from electric grid | Ex-security officials condemn Trump emergency declaration | New malicious cyber tool found | Facebook faces questions on treatment of moderators GOP Sen. Tillis to vote for resolution blocking Trump's emergency declaration MORE (Maine), Dean Heller Dean Arthur HellerTrump suggests Heller lost reelection bid because he was 'hostile' during 2016 presidential campaign Trump picks ex-oil lobbyist David Bernhardt for Interior secretary Oregon Dem top recipient of 2018 marijuana industry money, study finds MORE (Nev.) and Shelley Moore Capito Shelley Wellons Moore CapitoDems slam EPA plan for fighting drinking water contaminants GOP senator: Border deal is 'a very good compromise' Push to include contractor back pay in funding deal hits GOP roadblock MORE (W.Va.), who are all seen as deciding votes on the Senate GOP's Better Care Reconciliation Act.
The ads warn the senators against accepting any "backroom deals."
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellHouse to push back at Trump on border Democrats block abortion bill in Senate Overnight Energy: Climate protesters storm McConnell’s office | Center-right group says Green New Deal could cost trillion | Dire warnings from new climate studies MORE (R-Ky.) is working with moderates to try to get their support for the bill, which could involve more money for the opioid crisis or changes to the bill's Medicaid language.
All four senators are currently against the bill.
The ads are different for each senator and highlight comments they've made in the past about the bill.
"When the Senate unveiled its devastating healthcare repeal plan, Senator Heller said: 'I'm telling you right now, I cannot support a piece of legislation that takes insurance away from tens of millions of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Nevadans.' "
"But now, Washington politicians are pressuring Heller to support their secret backroom deals that will gut Medicaid and take away coverage from over 120,000 Nevadans," says the narrator.
Congress returns from a one-week recess Monday, and McConnell will continue working on getting the votes for the bill.
It needs a least 51 votes to pass, but moderates have worried the bill would cause too many people to lose coverage and conservatives say the bill leaves too many of ObamaCare's regulations in place.“Citizen Kane does not come in year two of VR.”
Esteemed VR filmmaker/documentarian/founder/CEO Chris Milk took to the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt in NY to discuss the limitations and massive items of potential for the proliferation of VR content, still in its early early early stages.
Some of the most difficult challenges in the VR filmmaking space are incredibly basic features often taken for granted in modern cinema, Milk told the audience. Underlying structures like the concept of a feature film don’t operate the same way for VR as they do on the silver screen, and those are some of the things that the creatives in the space are desperately searching for.
Right now, the best template in terms of VR film is a bit messy at the moment and involves what the Vrse CEO calls “a series of spheres that you’re sitting inside and looking around.”
The technical challenges are significant, but they don’t detract from the power of the platform to impact humanity, Milk says.
“The promise that VR can hold is that it’s the democratization of human experience,” Milk said onstage. “Much like the Internet was the democratization of data.”
A stumbling block for early VR adopters is really the lack of content. Good or bad, there’s just not a lot of stuff to download on your Gear VR or Oculus Rift. Milk said that this was a major point of strain on consumers that are hyped on VR potential and are willing to drop a lot of cash.
“It’s hard to sell 50 million televisions if there’s only a week’s worth of television to watch,” said Milk.
With the pretty notable dearth of VR content, conversations surrounding VR’s lack of a “killer app” can seem a bit fruitless, but Milk says that the killer app already exists — it’s VR storytelling. That being said, Milk stresses that “the killer app for your aunt is going to be different from the killer app for your niece.”
Getting VR in the hands of your aunt and niece might be the first issue to tackle, though. Like many in the space, Milk sees mobile VR as the platform with the most potential and hopes that handsets a few generations from now will be on par with current tethered systems like the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.
“The more great experiences you’re having, the more interested you’re going to be in upgrading to the next level of immersion,” Milk told interviewer Josh Constine.
With all the buzzwords floating around virtual reality, sometimes it can grow difficult to see the importance of the medium in terms of isolating human experiences and replicating it for secondary visitors.
“Once you move past the spectacle and past the hype, [VR] is the medium of human experience,” Milk said.
[gallery ids="1320373,1320372,1320374,1320368,1320369,1320375,1320370,1320371"]The resignation of Health Minister Jim Wells has left the campaign to secure medicine for a Limavady boy with a terminal illness uncertain.
A campaign to secure a new, potentially life-changing medicine for Limavady boy Callum McCorriston, who suffers from a condition known as Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, has been ongoing for some time.
In my darkest hours I have planned his funeral. I’m grieving for Callum even though he’s with me Laura Smith
Operating under the slogan #TeamCallum, the campaign has been thrown into uncertainty following the Ministers’ resignation.
The Health Minister stepped down earlier this week after he made controversial comments about homosexuality.
Callum’s mother, Laura, told the Sentinel that while she did not agree with Mr Wells’ comments, he had been a good supporter of the campaign to secure the medicine Translarna for her son.
She said: “His resignation leaves me wondering where we stand now.
“I met with Mr Wells in October to talk about Callum getting access to Translarna. Something he fully supported. He also attended the All Party Parliamentary Group on Muscular Dystrophy and has since allowed for another four neuromuscular advisors.
“Will this all still stand when he leaves? Our application for individual funding is being processed. God willing the right decision will be made and it will improve Callums quality and quantity of life.
“To the decision makers: Do you know how it feels to be told your child has a terminal condition?
“Do you know how it feels for your heart to break into a million pieces?
“Do you have any idea how hard it is to put a smile on your face everyday?
“Do you understand how Callum must feel with so many appointments? How he must feel when he sees others doing things he can’t? Basic things like walking to the shop, riding a bike, playing on climbing frames?
“You have the ability to change this. It is not a cure, I understand that. But it’s all we have. All our hopes are pinned on this. In my darkest hours I have planned his funeral, I have wept so many tears I could fill an ocean.
“I’m grieving for Callum even though he’s with me. I get angry at he unfairness of it. I hurt when he hurts. I wipe his tears and rub his tired, sore legs.
It’s happening more and more often that he cannot sleep because of pain. He has started heart medication. This scares me more than anything. My son’s heart is affected at 5 years old. How can it be that in 2015 we have to fight for a treatment. Please, make the right choice.”That should easily beat 'Baywatch' — which likewise lathers up over Memorial Day weekend — in a needed win for Johnny Depp.
Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales is tracking to set sail at the domestic box office with $90 million or more over the four-day Memorial Day weekend, roughly on par with the last film in the franchise, according to prerelease tracking.
The fifth outing in the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced series once again features a zany performance by Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow. Depp could use a win at the box office after a generally tough run, including last summer's sequel Alice Through the Looking Glass, which bombed over Memorial Day.
Dead Men Tell No Tales should have no trouble beating the other Memorial Day offering, Paramount's action comedy Baywatch, which is tracking to post an OK $37 million-$40 million in its five-day debut. (It opens on a Thursday.) Pirates by definition is a broader play, considering Baywatch is R-rated. Bullish box-office observers believe both films could come in higher than early tracking suggests, noting that Disney and Paramount have three weeks left to make their final marketing push.
Directed by Seth Gordon, Baywatch is loosely based on the television series of the same name and stars Dwayne Johnson alongside Zac Efron, Priyanka Chopra, Alexandra Daddario and Kelly Rohrbach. Comparisons to Baywatch are tough. In summer 2016, Johnson and Kevin Hart's action comedy Central Intelligence debuted to $35.5 million domestically.
It has been six years since Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides played in theaters on its way to grossing $1 billion globally, the majority of which it earned overseas. This time out, Pirates is directed by Hollywood studio newcomers Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg, who directed the critically acclaimed 2012 film Kon-Tiki.
Other returning castmembers include Kevin McNally and Geoffrey Rush. Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley also return after sitting out the fourth film. Franchise newcomers include Javier Bardem, Brenton Thwaites and Kaya Scodelario.
In making Dead Men Tell No Tales, Ronning and Sandberg said they took their inspiration from the first movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, which was a runaway hit at the box office, grossing $305.4 million domestically and $654.3 million globally in 2003.
The second film, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, opened to $135.6 million domestically in July 2006, followed by a massive four-day gross of $140.8 million over Memorial Day in 2007.
The summer box office officially gets under way this weekend with the debut of Disney and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. The quirky superhero sequel is tipped to earn as much as $150 million.THE secret evacuations began at night. Ancient books were packed in small metal shoe-lockers and loaded three or four to a car to reduce the danger to the driver and minimise possible losses. The manuscript-traffickers passed through the checkpoints of their Islamist occupiers on the journey south across the desert from Timbuktu to Bamako. Later, when that road was blocked, they transported their cargo down the Niger river by canoe.
It formed part of a fabulous selection of Islamic literary treasures that had survived floods, heat and invasion over centuries in Timbuktu. But in April 2012 Tuareg rebels had occupied the city. They were soon displaced by the Islamists with whom they had foolishly allied, a group linked to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. The militants issued edicts to control behaviour, dress and entertainment. Music and football were banned. They destroyed Sufi shrines that had stood for centuries. It was assumed books would be next.
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Such fears were not overblown. Islamists had been ruthless with libraries and holy sites in Libya earlier in the year. So in October, the evacuation began. By the time French troops liberated Timbuktu in January 2013 and journalists saw a wing of the city’s grandest new library still smouldering, most of the precious manuscripts had already been spirited away.
The man behind the plan was Abdel Kader Haidara. Born in Timbuktu in 1965, he had grown up surrounded by the treasures: his father, an expert on ancient manuscripts, had inherited a 16th-century Islamic collection and spent his life expanding it. Dr Haidara’s ambitions were even broader. Since 1996 he had run an organisation called SAVAMA (Sauver et Valoriser les Manuscrits). In his office in Bamako, elegantly bound Korans line the bookshelves. Manuscripts lie in stacks, on tables, in corners. He has become their steward.
Dr Haidara, with priceless treasures
Dr Haidara describes Timbuktu as the Sahara’s capital of manuscript study. But the city was just one of several where north African Islamic learning flourished at the same time as the European Renaissance. Books were exchanged as caravans came through Timbuktu and, beginning in the late 16th century, they were copied there, too. Men who cared about learning bought or produced libraries full of books about the grammar, logic and rhetoric of the Koran and its teachings; the positions of stars; remedies and music. One 16th-century collector, Ahmed Baba, left behind such a wealth of notation and bibliography that historians call his period a scholarly zenith.
Leo Africanus, a Moorish traveller who visited Timbuktu early in the 16th century, said books from abroad traded at higher prices than fabrics, animals or salt. As it fell again and again over the centuries, families held tight to their collections. The city gained a boost from generous donors after independence from France in 1960, when scholars around the world, supported by agencies such as UNESCO, saw its potential as a centre for pan-African historical research. But in 2012, as the Islamists’ grip tightened, Dr Haidara appealed for donations to help evacuate the treasures.
Turning the page
The evacuation was funded by, among others, the Dutch lottery, the German government and private donors, to the tune of a reported $1m. Some $70,000 more was raised through crowdfunding. The details remained opaque until well after the operation was complete.
The cars travelled through the night on the bumpy roads of central Mali, their drivers sworn to secrecy. As they arrived in Bamako after more than 12 hours of driving, they were greeted by Dr Haidara, who distributed the documents to loyal friends to be stored. The drivers then turned around to make the trip all over again. Each of the hundreds of volunteers took these risks willingly, and often. More than 370,000 manuscripts now sit in safe houses in Bamako—roughly 95% of the total previously held in Timbuktu, Dr Haidara estimates. They are stored in extra rooms in secret apartments, stacked from floor to ceiling in windowless closets. In one room in Bakodjikoroni, a neighbourhood of Bamako, sit 200 of the metre-long metal cases, glittering with hand-painted filigree, each containing tens or even hundreds of books.
As he looked at the saved manuscripts, Dr Haidara saw another opportunity that his father could never have imagined: to preserve their contents in perpetuity. In 2013 he put out a request for help to digitise them. He received an answer from a monastery on the other side of the world.
Somewhere in the frozen north
There can be few places more different from Timbuktu—geographically, culturally or spiritually—than Collegeville, Minnesota. Swept by winds as icy as the Saharan ones are baking, it is encrusted with snow for more than half the year. Towns called St Michael, St Augusta and St Joseph along the 80-mile road north from Minneapolis hint at the region’s deep Christian roots. St John’s Abbey is the last turn-off on the right before St Cloud. When Dr Haidara put out his call for help, it passed via several intermediaries to a member of the abbey’s board, who delivered it to Father Columba Stewart. It had reached the right monk.
In the basement of the Hill Museum and Manuscript Library (HMML) at St John’s, Father Columba flicks on the fluorescent lights. “It’s basically the manuscript culture of Europe in here,” he says, looking at four rows of long metal cabinets containing as many as 100,000 rolls of microfilm. He pulls out the first roll from the first drawer and snaps it into a reader. A white light projects a document on the screen. “This is a Codex,” he says as he rolls through the pages, “Benedictine sermons from the 13th to the 15th century, 880 pages.”
Father Columba has run the HMML for 12 years. He had known of the Mali manuscripts for some time, and was intimately familiar with both the centuries-long quest to preserve them and their immediate peril. The institute is blind to the borders of geography, language and faith.
Born in Texas in 1957, Father Columba attended both Harvard and Yale and received his doctorate in theology from Oxford University. Before taking his vows he imagined a life in law, but the call was stronger, and St John’s Abbey has been his home since 1982. He reluctantly admits that he holds diamond status on Delta Air Lines, earned from spending much of his time travelling from Minnesota’s enormous airport to monasteries in Ethiopia, India, Iraq, Israel and Lebanon.
St John’s Abbey was founded in 1862 and moved here in 1865. Its monks make honey, candles and fine furniture, but have not brewed beer since a temperate Minnesota archbishop forbade it in the 1880s. They spend each day gardening and teaching, following rules set down by St Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century that call for a balance of prayer and work in everyday life. Occupying a great deal of their affection, and most of Father Columba’s time, is the abbey’s library.
The Benedictines’ longevity is rooted in their intellectual instincts. “We had scriptoria for very practical reasons,” Father Columba says, referring to the “writing places” of medieval European monasteries. “You can’t do theology without philosophy,” he says, standing in his own 21st-century equivalent. “You can’t try to be a self-sustaining monastery if you can’t take science seriously.” So, as a policy, any relevant text was copied. Over one and a half millennia, knowledge has been a matter of survival for the Benedictines, allowing one collective to pick up where another left off, in low times and in high. Today, thanks to machines, the library is copying more efficiently.
There have always been threats. The Vikings, the Reformation, Napoleon’s looting spree and the second world war all scarred the writing places of Europe. American soldiers used ancient Benedictine manuscript pages as kindling to make a fire in a freezing European castle; Russian soldiers used them to roll their cigarettes because newspaper was too expensive. Monte Cassino, St Benedict’s original monastery, was bombed in 1944 as the Allies battled to take Rome.
So St John’s has a team of latter-day scribes scattered across the world who follow a protocol created half a century ago by one of Father Columba’s predecessors, a bibliographer named Oliver Kapsner who made the first backup of the Benedictine archives of Europe. After receiving a grant of $40,000 in 1965 ($302,000 in today’s money), Father Oliver began knocking on church doors in Austria and asking to make copies of their ancient texts. He spent most of the next decade in unheated chambers indexing microfilm images. His task was to save them in case of another world war. “We are seeing what happened in Europe in the 20th century now happening elsewhere in the 21st,” says Father Columba. It is the same mix of ignorance and barbarism, but more heavily armed.
Father Oliver’s work was widely admired and soon others wanted their libraries copied. HMML built studios in Austria, Spain, Portugal, England, Germany, Malta and Ethiopia, clicking their Recordak microfilm cameras and sending undeveloped microfilm via local mail services. The collection reached 93,000 manuscripts, safely arranged in cabinets in a basement north of Minneapolis. Father Oliver hated computers, preferring card stock in neat drawers.
Later librarians oversaw the archive’s growth until Father Columba took the position in 2003. He transformed the whole project through digitisation and from there it accelerated. His own scholarship brought the library to the Middle East, where he launched projects in East Jerusalem, Turkey and Lebanon backing up Syriac Orthodox and Christian Arab libraries that could provide insight into neighbouring Benedictine heritages. He started projects in the Syrian cities of Homs and Aleppo in 2005, and in Mosul, Iraq, in 2009. The teams photographed 50,000 endangered volumes in a decade.
Sometimes things get dicey. The project in Syria had to hide its manuscripts in 2012. The workers in Iraq, who were archiving a Christian monastery, were evacuated from Mosul because of kidnapping threats. They went to Qaraqosh with the equipment and their remaining manuscripts, only to see it taken by Islamic State in August 2014. Today they are refugees in Kurdish Erbil. The fate of many thousands of manuscripts in Christian libraries in that region is unknown.
Guided by a Christian teacher from the sixth century, monks of the 21st century archive texts about an Arabian prophet from the seventh
HMML had been interested in Timbuktu before, but had not pursued that interest because the city was saturated with donors. “They didn’t need us,” says Father Columba (pictured left). That changed in 2012 when al-Qaeda’s affiliates invaded. After the French regained control, HMML was the first group to agree to do the digitisation work, funded by the Prince Claus Foundation, an Amsterdam-based organisation that aims to bridge cultures and which also contributed to the evacuation from Timbuktu. In terms of sheer volume, copying the Islamic manuscripts of Mali has become its largest project. It is a curious novelty: guided by a Christian teacher from the sixth century, monks of the 21st century archive texts about an Arabian prophet from the seventh.
Bamako was safe when Father Columba met Dr Haidara in August 2013. He brought his most trusted information manager with him to build a studio. They mounted lights and cameras over desks, and trained local cameramen to shoot pages quickly and accurately. It was the same protocol that the workers of St John’s have been refining for 50 years. Father Columba checks in once a year. Hard drives with terabytes of high-quality manuscript images are shipped back to Minnesota. He jokes that the whole operation is run by DHL, a delivery service.
An additional digital copy is stored under a granite mountain in Utah, “just a canyon up from where the Mormons have all of their microfilm”, Father Columba says with a wink. After two years of work, two of Timbuktu’s 25 large libraries are backed up. The operation has cost about $285,000 to date. The Arcadia Fund, based in Britain, which protects endangered culture, has made a large grant to support the monastery’s work. Father Columba closes the library and settles down for dinner, sharing an inexpensive bottle of red wine. Outside the bells are ringing, gently calling the monks to evening prayers.
An open book
In Bamako the muezzins’ call to prayer struggles to be heard over the din of animals and scooters in the busy streets. In the photo studio at SAVAMA, one of Dr Haidara’s colleagues sits under the high-watt bulbs with a stack of paper covered in ancient handwritten Arabic text. “OK,” he says to the woman sitting next to him at a computer. She fires the shutter using the space bar and the bulbs flash the room white. The operator turns the page; he can take 600 pictures every day. HMML now has six photo studios, producing 3,600 pages daily. At that rate the project may need 30 years to finish. Dr Haidara hopes it can be done in four. Father Columba says they will work for as long as they are welcome.
“We keep them in homes, Timbuktu-style,” Dr Haidara says, looking at the 200 aluminium boxes in a small windowless room. He lifts a slim book from a small wooden crate and opens it to reveal colourful lines of Arabic in a large sweeping font. In some of the trunks there are tens of manuscripts, he says. In some there are hundreds; a few hold even more. A dehumidifier struggles to dry Bamako’s damp air.
Dr Haidara opens the prayer book and reads: “Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Raheem.” In the name of God, the beneficent, the most merciful: Al-Fatiha, the opening of the Koran. “In this box”, he says, “we have a complete Koran, written in the 16th century and not yet digitised.” A note in the spine says the book is number 4969. “Look at the decoration.” He opens to a page adorned with a blood-red banner criss-cross |
big screen). The actor is known for much smaller, darker roles. He’s the bad boy or the outcast. He’s also insanely talented and with three years until we see him in the role (he’ll likely show up in Justice League, right?) it’s pretty likely we’ll grow to see him in a more heroic, wise cracking way.
We’ll have more as news is revealed about The Flash movie. Until then, what do you think?STORRS, Conn. -- It was business as usual at Gampel Pavilion. Well, sort of. Before Connecticut's home opener Friday, a banner was unveiled and a ring presented, but not for a national championship. Instead, both of those items were to honor former Huskies great Rebecca Lobo, who was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in September.
It was the first time since 2012 that no new championship banner was raised to the Gampel rafters to open the season.
The sting from the loss to Morgan William and Mississippi State in last season's Final Four hung in the air. It wasn't suffocating, and hardly noticeable in a 82-47 blowout of No. 20 Cal, but it was still present, if only among the tonal shift of how the team presented itself. In a marked difference from the rallying cry "Champions are made here" in the Huskies' 2016-17 pregame video, "Here we come" is this season's theme.
You know, just in case anyone thought UConn was going to sneak up on them.
It's all part of the narrative that this team is hungry. The Huskies are back in the gym, working harder than ever. And they were out to make a statement in their first game at home.
Top-ranked UConn improved to 2-0 on the season and had no trouble with Cal, but the victory did not come without cost, potentially a steep one.
With 4 minutes, 2 seconds left in the second quarter, 6-foot-3 junior Katie Lou Samuelson jumped into the paint to retrieve a pass but came down on the foot of Cal forward Mikayla Cowling. Samuelson fell to the hardwood and immediately grabbed the lower part of her left leg. With help from her teammates, she tried to walk it off but soon waved to the bench for a sub. Samuelson, who had scored 12 points early on, hobbled to the locker room under her own power, but didn't return to the game.
Coach Geno Auriemma later said that Samuelson had suffered a mid-foot sprain and that the extent of her injury would be determined in the coming days.
"We're not as good of a team without Lou, no question about it," he said. "But I think we responded pretty well."
In the locker room at halftime, the Huskies were informed that Samuelson wouldn't return. They knew more was going to be asked of each of them. Then, already ahead by 21, UConn went on a 22-3 run in the third quarter to extend the lead to 40. Napheesa Collier, Kia Nurse and Crystal Dangerfield led a balanced attack -- six players scored in double figures -- with 14 points each. The Huskies notched 20 assists on 30 field goals.
"One man down, next man up," said Dangerfield, a sophomore guard. "That's going to be our mentality because we don't know what [Samuelson's] status is for this upcoming week."
Defense continues to be UConn's core. The Huskies forced the Bears into 29 turnovers, converting those mistakes into 35 points on the other end. They got out on the run, showcasing their passing, including a couple of impressive bounce passes from senior Gabby Williams. She also scored 13 points.
"We want to establish that as our identity," Auriemma said of his team's defensive effort. "We create turnovers. We get out in transition. We're hard to play against on the move. That's who we are."
Katie Lou Samuelson suffered a mid-foot sprain Friday. The Huskies play Maryland on Sunday before a three-game road trip. David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports
That defense might be what holds UConn together down a tough stretch of the schedule, possibly without one of its best players for part or all of it. The Huskies take on No. 15 Maryland at home on Sunday before hitting the road to face No. 8 UCLA on Tuesday. Then they play Michigan State in Oregon and Nevada in Reno -- near Williams' hometown -- before facing rival and sixth-ranked Notre Dame in Hartford on Dec. 3.
"And now, on top of that, we've got a kid who may or may not play -- who we rely on heavily," Auriemma said. "All of a sudden, this isn't normal Connecticut going on the road, walk into an arena, blow somebody out and then go home. I'm anxious to see how we respond to that."
Dangerfield wasn't the only one to use the "next man up" mantra. The phrase was uttered multiple times in UConn's postgame interviews, that the team leaders expect each of their teammates to step up in Samuelson's prospective absence.
Last season, a potential injury to a member of the starting five had the potential to derail UConn's season, since the Huskies routinely played only six, maybe seven players. At just two games into the season, UConn's rotations aren't clear yet, but transfer Azurá Stevens and freshman Megan Walker logged 17 and 20 minutes, respectively, while also accounting for all 15 UConn bench points on Friday.
"What we're fortunate to have is that we're not a one-person, two-person, three-person or four-person team," Nurse said. "We find ways to get things done and we find ways to pick up where we need to. I have a feeling that some of our players that need to step up at this point will do it, because they're ready for it."So I just came across the soundtrack for the upcoming Spike Jonze flick Where the Wild Things Are. Jonze selected Yeah Yeah Yeah’s frontwoman Karen O. to help make the soundtrack as reminiscent of childhood as possible. I find this notion a little strange, since the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s are more known for being in your face, off the wall, and quirky. They aren’t known for their huge child fanbase.
From their Imeem Profile:
Inside Karen O is a Wild Thing – as singer for the Grammy-nominated Yeah Yeah Yeahs, her wild thing is in your face, vulnerable, obnoxious, tender, exciting… a self-proclaimed “spazoid.” To Oscar-nominated Where the Wild Things Are director Spike Jonze, however, Karen O and her music possess something of a child-like innocence, a guileless charm that put her exactly on the right emotional wavelength to sonically capture the film, be it a tender moment or a wild rumpus. To compose the music, O enlisted friends and fellow musicians she believed had a musical intuition that would bolster her intent to marry sound to vision. Dubbed Karen O and the Kids, these include Tristan Bechet (Services), Tom Biller (co-producer with Karen O and member of Afternoons), Bradford Cox (Deerhunter), Brian Chase (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), Dean Fertita (Queens of the Stone Age, The Dead Weather, The Raconteurs), Aaron Hemphill (Liars), Greg Kurstin (The Bird and the Bee), Jack Lawrence (The Dead Weather, The Raconteurs, The Greenhornes), Oscar Michel (Gris Gris), Imaad Wasif (New Folk Implosion, Alaska), Nick Zinner, (Yeah Yeah Yeahs) and an untrained children’s choir.
Take a look at some behind the scenes footage:
[media id=87 width=570 height=428]
Where the Wild Things Are is set to hit theaters on October 16th.The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is investigating the way the Bank of England lent money to banks during the financial crisis, the Bank has said.
The Bank commissioned its own inquiry last year, then referred the matter to the SFO.
Liquidity auctions enabled banks to access extra cash during the credit crunch that followed the collapse of Northern Rock.
The Bank confirmed the investigation but would not comment further.
The Financial Times reported in November that the Bank was investigating whether staff knew or assisted in possible manipulation of auctions it held in 2007 and 2008.
What are liquidity auctions?
Liquidity means ready access to cash. Banks have to juggle the amount they lend out in the form of personal loans and mortgages, and the amount they receive in the form of cash deposits.
If everybody suddenly wants to take their money out - as can happen when they fear a bank is going bust - finding enough cash quickly to meet those liabilities can be difficult.
So one of the roles of a central bank, like the Bank of England, is to provide "liquidity insurance" - access to that ready cash.
Banks can bid for this cash in different types of auction run by the Bank, depending on how long they need the money for and how much collateral they can put up against the loans.
The Bank has now confirmed it appointed Lord Grabiner QC, a senior barrister, to conduct an independent inquiry into the liquidity auctions.
It said it referred the matter to the SFO "following the conclusion of that initial inquiry" in November.
Collateral damage
As the financial crisis bit in 2007, the Bank launched a new type of liquidity auction - called long-term repo open market operations - whereby banks were allowed to put up a wider range of assets as collateral against the three-month loans.
These assets included government bonds and mortgage-backed debt securities.
But it was the inability of the credit agencies to assess correctly the riskiness of such mortgage-backed securities that contributed to the financial crisis following the collapse of the US property market.
The exact focus of the SFO investigation is unknown, but BBC business editor Kamal Ahmed believes it may want to find out whether the banks exaggerated the value of such collateral to makes themselves look stronger, with or without the knowledge of Bank of England officials.
The Bank says the size of these "extended collateral" operations peaked at £180bn in January 2009.
Then in April 2008, the Bank launched its Special Liquidity Scheme, whereby banks could swap "high quality" mortgage-backed and other securities for UK Treasury bills - a scheme that saw £185bn change hands.
The Bank closed the Special Liquidity Scheme in January 2009.
'Sooner the better'
Andrew Tyrie MP, chairman of the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee, said that the referral was the "right thing to do".
"We must now await the outcome of the SFO's work," he said. "The sooner their findings are published, the better."
The SFO simply confirmed it was "investigating material referred to it by the Bank of England concerning liquidity auctions" in 2007 and 2008.
Image copyright PA
Analysis: Robert Peston, BBC economics editor
As I understand it, the SFO is looking at potential malpractice by the staff of our commercial banks, but has not ruled out that there may have been collusion by Bank of England staff.
Now the encouraging news is that the Bank is not taking disciplinary action against those who currently work for it. But it can't be confident that the SFO will not find evidence of wrongdoing by present and past employees.
Anyway, one important point is that as and when the SFO's enquiries are complete, it really matters that the Bank of England is as transparent as it can be about what happened, so that UK citizens - as owners of the Bank - can be certain that sunlight has cleansed it.
Read Robert's blog in full.
Lord Grabiner previously led an investigation in March 2014 over whether Bank staff had played any part in foreign exchange [FX] rate manipulation.
He concluded: "I have found no evidence to suggest that any Bank official was involved in any unlawful or improper behaviour in the FX market."
Earlier this week the Bank's governor, Mark Carney, declined to comment when MPs asked him about the liquidity auctions investigation.The White House doesn't see a potential conflict of interest in President Trump asking former FBI Director James Comey if he was under investigation when he was wondering if he should let Comey stay on in his job.
White House deputy press secretary Sarah Sanders said it was OK that Trump asked Comey on three different occasions if he was under investigation in the bureau's White House probe into connections between Trump's campaign and Russia. Any interaction between Trump and Comey about an ongoing investigation involving the Trump campaign is breach of Justice Department protocol, according to experts.
Sanders said she saw no potential conflict of interest in the move.
"I don't see that as a conflict of interest and neither do the many legal scholars or others that have been commenting on it for the last hour," she said.
Trump told NBC Thursday he had asked Comey multiple times if he was under investigation, including during a dinner the two had when Trump was deciding if he should keep Comey on the job.
Comey said in March the FBI is investigating possible links between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.A touring installation by Chinese artist-activist Ai Weiwei is coming to Boston’s Rose Kennedy Greenway.
His 12 bronze animal heads -- including a pig, monkey, rabbit, rooster and dog — will look out from their pedestals around the Greenway’s Rings Fountain and represent the signs of the Chinese Zodiac.
The vocally dissident artist was inspired by a series that was pillaged at a Chinese palace in 1860. His intention is to highlight global issues of looting and repatriation of cultural treasures.
Greenway public art curator Lucas Cowan says he looks forward to seeing how Boston residents and visitors to the city interpret Ai Weiwei’s provocative but also accessible work.
“He’s a controversial artist but his work can be interpreted in multiple ways,” Cowan said, “I mean, the 'Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads' really are talking about the idea of cultural repatriation of cultural objects and/or the fake and original in art.
"But at the same time I think all of us have a connection to the Zodiac animals — we’re all born under a specific Zodiac.” (Cowan was born in the Year of the Monkey, by the way; 2016 is also a Year of the Monkey.)
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei on Feb. 11 (Axel Schmidt/AP)
Cowan acknowledges that, yes, the animal heads are bronze.
“Boston always complains that we have too many bronze pieces,” he said with a laugh, “but I thought by bringing in Ai Weiwei, who is probably the most well-known contemporary Chinese artist, and the struggle and tribulations he’s been through with his art, was going to create a really interesting conversation here in Boston.”
The 12 sculptures have been on an international tour to cities including Paris, London and Chicago.
"Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads" in Paris in 2015 (Courtesy of the artist)
The installation will be here from late April through late October.
"It’s an amazing opportunity I think for Boston and its visitors to get a glimpse of Ai Weiwei’s work up close — outside of a museum setting,” Cowan added.
Ai Weiwei's work can be seen inside the Museum of Fine Arts and the Harvard Art Museums.CRED
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The platform offers an ‘Improved Checkout,’ whereby buyers and sellers are protected even before a transaction is established. The entire transaction is secured for both parties. So, unless the buyer is satisfied the seller is not paid.ORG XMIT: RIC110 This Wednesday, June 6, 2012, photo shows a Taco Bell restaurant in Richmond, Va. The chain said it plans an early July rollout of a menu addition created by celebrity chef Lorena Garcia for its nearly 5,600 U.S. restaurants. (AP Photo/Steve Helber) (Photo11: Steve Helber, AP) Story Highlights Taco Bells says that less than half of 1% of its sales are kids meals
It wants to focus on marketing to Millennials
First national fast-food chain to eliminate kids meals
Taco Bell will shock the fast-food industry on Tuesday by announcing plans to drop kids meals and toys at all of its U.S. restaurants.
"The future of Taco Bell is not about kids meals," says Taco Bell CEO Greg Creed. "This is about positioning the brand for Millennials."
Somewhere around January 2014, the chain's last kids meal will be sold, he estimates.
Taco Bell emerges as the first national fast-food chain to eliminate kids meals altogether. The meals are a huge lure for kids -- which is why the industry sells more than 1.2 billion of them annually in the U.S., according to Federal Trade Commission data. In 2011, the regional chain Jack-in-the-Box eliminated toys from its kids meals.
HEALTHIER FOOD: Taco Bell promises better nutrition — by 2020
MORE: Taco Bell taco licker to get the axe
The move by Taco Bell comes at a time fast-food giants are under increasing pressure by parents, health advocates and lawmakers to improve the nutrition of meals they serve to children and to stop tantalizing kids with gee-whiz toys linked to Hollywood blockbusters. Last year, a judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Center for Science in the Public Interest against McDonald's for "deceptive marketing" with the toys in its Happy Meals.
"It's a constructive step forward that Taco Bell will no longer use toys to encourage kids to pester their parents to go to their restaurants," says Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the CSPI. "By constantly churning out new toys, fast-food chains have a new angle every six to eight weeks for marketing to kids."
Fast-food chains spend about $580 million annually marketing to children under age 12, of which $340 million is spent on the licensing and production of toys, estimates the FTC.
But Taco Bell's move has little to do with any of that, says Creed. Kids meals account for half of 1% of Taco Bell's overall sales. "It's fairly inconsistent for an edgy, twentysomething brand to offer kids meals," he says.
For more than a dozen years, he notes, Taco Bell has not promoted its kids meals on TV or in social media.
After the kids meals are gone, it will cost slightly more for children to eat at Taco Bell.
Currently, a Kids Meal with a Crunchy Taco, Cinnamon Twists and a small beverage costs about $2.84 in most markets. That will increase to $3.17 when purchased a la carte. Most combo meals will cost more than that. Many combo meals also serve larger portions, which concerns the CSPI's Wootan. "The adult menu at Taco Bell is chock-full of unhealthy choices," she says. "Kids are likely to get even more calories."
But Creed says many parents will like that they no longer will be nagged by their kids to eat at Taco Bell just because of a toy. "It's not that we don't like kids," he says. "We're empowering parents."
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/12ck1aNWoman killed in Punta Gorda police gun demonstration
PUNTA GORDA, Fla. – A 73-year-old woman was shot and killed by a police officer in front of about 34 people Tuesday evening during a live gun demonstration just before 7 p.m. on Tuesday at police headquarters, the department said.
Mary Knowlton was one of two Citizen Police Academy students chosen to participate in a “shoot/don’t shoot” role-playing situation, Punta Gorda police said. The demonstration was supposed to instruct the class about making decisions “using simulated lethal force,” according to Chief Thomas Lewis.
Knowlton was “mistakenly struck” with a live round during the lesson’s “first scenario,” the department said.
She was rushed from the police department to Lee Memorial Hospital where she was pronounced dead, PGPD said.
Lewis, who was named the permanent chief in March after serving in the interim, called the shooting a “horrible accident.”
“Our entire police department and all of our city leaders are absolutely devastated for everyone involved in this unimaginable event,” he said in a press conference Tuesday night. “I am asking that if you pray, you pray for Mary’s husband and family and for all the officers and witnesses that involved this incident. Everyone involved is in an overwhelming state of shock and grief.”
Knowlton was a board member with Friends of the Punta Gorda Library, according to the organization’s webpage. She was originally from Minnesota, according to her Facebook.
Her son, Steven Knowlton, called it a devastating time for the family in a statement to CBS This Morning.
Niece Jenny Tucker Christensen shared sentiments via Facebook.
“My mom was a saint,” he said. “Such a tremendous loss of a wonderful human being and the best mom a kid could ever hope for.”
Punta Gorda police did not immediately identify the officer involved, but said they were placed on administrative leave. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has been asked to conduct an investigation into the incident, which is common in officer-involved shootings.
The academy is a free eight-session course offered to as many as 35 people who are interested in learning local civics, according to Punta Gorda’s official website. The class meets biweekly on Tuesdays at different government buildings from January to May. Knowlton’s class met at the department at 5:30 p.m., according to Lt. Katie Heck.
Photos posted in a March Facebook album show adult students in a classroom watching and participating in what appears to be live demonstrations.Have you ever been waiting for a bus or streetcar for so long that you started wondering what was up with the TTC's weird numbering system for its routes? You'd think that there would be a more easy way to discern the logic behind numbers like 501 (Queen), 29 (Dufferin), and 196 (York University Rocket).
Well, if you have ever wondered about such things, there's good news. Despite some anomalies and exceptions, the TTC's route numbers aren't entirely arbitrary. On the contrary, in 1956 the Commission did its best to put a logical and predictable route numbering system into place. Prior to that, routes were merely named for their streets.
If you're curious about pretty much anything TTC-related, Transit Toronto's James Bow is one of the first people you want to talk to. His site is an encyclopedia of TTC tidbits and history, including a chart of all the route numbers the TTC has used over the years. After an inquiry from one of our readers, I asked Bow about how the numbering system works.
"The current TTC numbering system is a kludge of several numbering schemes that were added to or replaced elements of the original scheme, with many elements grandfathered in," he explained via email. "As a result, there's very little rhyme or reason."
There was some purpose at the beginning, though. "Initially, the route numbers were assigned in alphabetical order," Bow notes. "Odd numbers [were] assigned to routes which operated primarily north-south, and even numbers assigned to routes that were primarily east-west."
That sounded good on paper, but it was actually difficult to implement given that the system was always growing at the time. "They tried leaving gaps between some of the numbers in order to allow new routes to fill in alphabetically, but very soon, this became impossible, and anomalies started to appear," Bow tells me.
"Pretty soon, the TTC dumped the idea of keeping the routes alphabetical, or even the odd-even NS/EW designations... The other problem was that, very soon, the route numbers exceeded the 99 spaces available, and we started breaking into 100 series."
"The TTC made a few attempts to clean things up and apply order in the years that followed, but they never followed through with a coherent system covering all of the routes, primarily for fear that people would be attached to their old route numbers, and confused if, say, 32 Eglinton West suddenly transformed to 78 Eglinton West."
The route numbering system has never been particularly coherent, but there are systematic elements to it, going back to the early attempt at alphabetization. Case in point, when route numbers were introduced on streetcars in 1980 with the arrival of the CLRV cars, they took the 500 series to separate them from bus routes.
Blue night buses are also given distinct status by being numbered in the 300s, while Rocket buses are labeled between 190 and 199. As one of the initiatives of the Andy Byford era, subway routes have also been given official numeric designations, which will necessitate the renaming of the lower numbered bus routes like the 5 Avenue Rd.
So there you have it. There's purpose without purposiveness. By way of a general scheme, Bow provided the following breakdown. It's probably the best you can do when dealing with a system that has so many anomalies.
1-9 - Subway and LRT routes
10-139 - Regular bus routes, assigned willy-nilly
140-159 - Premium express services
160-189 - Regular bus routes, assigned willy-nilly (180-189 may be new "Rocket" routes)
190-199 - Regular fare "Rocket" express routes
200-299 - Routes that primarily serve areas outside the City of Toronto
300-399 - Night services
400-499 - Accessible Community Bus services
500-599 - Streetcar routes.Photo
When Susanna Styron’s daughter, Emma, was 14, she began to have migraines. Emma would retreat to a dark room and tell her mother to leave her alone. Ms. Styron didn’t know how to react, much less get her daughter the treatment she needed. “I couldn’t touch her or talk to her,” Ms. Styron recalled to Op-Talk. “I was so alone, and so in the dark. It would have made such a difference to know that people out there are in the same position, to know who to ask for help.”
Ms. Styron is now the director of an in-progress documentary on migraine called “Out of My Head.” (The film is currently raising funds on Kickstarter through Nov. 23.) But before she realized the severity of her daughter’s condition — that migraine is a chronic neurological disease and a source of chronic pain for as many as 36 million people in the United States — she didn’t quite take it seriously. “I thought my god, it’s a headache, stop being such a drama queen,” Ms. Styron recalls. She didn’t realize at the time that it’s not “just a really bad headache” but a “complete neurological, global, sensory event.” Ms. Styron continues: “I realized in retrospect that I had really not paid her condition the respect that it warranted. It was a huge disservice to her and everyone who gets migraines.”
Migraine is a confounding condition, and one that non-sufferers have a hard time understanding. As Joan Didion wrote about her migraines in a 1968 essay entitled “In Bed,” “For I had no brain tumor, no eyestrain, no high blood pressure, nothing wrong with me at all: I simply had migraine headaches, and migraine headaches were, as everyone who did not have them knew, imaginary.” In May 2013, Sallie Tisdale wrote in great depth in Harper’s (subscription required) about her own odyssey to get a diagnosis for a persistent headache that woke her in the night and kept her from eating or being able to concentrate. The neurologists that Ms. Tisdale visited dismissed her concerns about the gnawing pain by telling her she was simply dehydrated.
Migraineurs are often mocked or derided in the public sphere. In 2011, in the midst of running for the Republican party presidential nomination, Michele Bachmann revealed that she suffers from episodic migraines that sometimes force her to seek emergency medical treatment. In response, her opponents questioned whether Ms. Bachmann would be suited to act around the clock as commander in chief. Ms. Bachmann assured doubters that she would, telling a New York Times reporter that her headaches are “easily controlled with medication.”
Seventy-five percent of migraineurs are women, a fact that has impacted its reception. “There’s the cultural history of it being a woman’s disease, being a symptom of neuroses or weakness or hysteria,” said Jacki Ochs, the producer of “Out of My Head.” The word “headache” sounds like “a mild kind of quotidian condition,” says Ms. Styron, but in reality it’s anything like that.
But for those who do suffer from migraines, many questions remain unanswered. The difficulty of treating the condition can make migraineurs verbose about triggers, side effects and treatments. Some publications, including this one, have attempted to address that dearth. In 2008, The New York Times briefly ran a blog about migraines, soliciting writers like Oliver Sacks, Siri Hustvedt and Paula Kamen to contribute. There was lots of material — and plenty of readers had substantial questions — but the blog lasted only about a month.
There’s little new research on migraines and much misunderstanding about the condition. As reported in The Atlantic, a high number of combat veterans return from Iraq and Afghanistan with traumatic brain injuries that cause migraines; these vets have just as hard a time finding relief as any other migraineur. The widespread belief that migraines are caused by certain triggers — foods like cheese, chocolate or red wine, or by stress or changes in weather — may not be true. And Botox, a treatment known as a cure for a wrinkled forehead, has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treatment of chronic migraines. Many doctors prescribe it, but no one is sure if it is truly effective.
Cindy McCain, the wife of Arizona Senator John McCain, said in 2009 that she had had enough. She had been engaged in a “silent struggle” against migraines for years, and it was time for her to speak out. She hoped sharing her experience might encourage others to do so and, finally, convince Congress to devote funds to research. Speaking on behalf of the American Headache Society in 2009, at an event that Lauren Collins wrote about for a Talk of the Town story in The New Yorker, Ms. McCain said, “If you can give five million dollars to study flatulence in cows and its effects on the ozone layer, you can give me some money for migraine research.”
Ms. Styron and her producer, Jacki Ochs, hope that their film will help bring attention to migraines. “There has yet to be a huge breaking of the silence,” said Ms. Styron. “If people keep hiding the fact that they get migraines, then we will never break through that barrier.” Patients need to understand that “having migraines is not a commentary on my character or strength. It’s a disease that you have, and so do hundreds of millions of other people, too.”Self-proclaimed stuntman Rod Kimble is preparing for the jump of his life - to clear fifteen buses to raise money for his abusive stepfather Frank's life-saving heart operation.
A day in the lives of two convenience clerks named Dante and Randal as they annoy customers, discuss movies, and play hockey on the store roof.
A high school wise guy is determined to have a day off from school, despite what the Principal thinks of that.
After being kicked out of his rock band, Dewey Finn becomes a substitute teacher of an uptight elementary private school, only to try and turn them into a rock band.
Three company workers who hate their jobs decide to rebel against their greedy boss.
Preston, Idaho's most curious resident, Napoleon Dynamite, lives with his grandma and his 32-year-old brother (who cruises chat rooms for ladies) and works to help his best friend, Pedro, snatch the Student Body President title from mean teen Summer Wheatley. Written by Anonymous
Did You Know?
Trivia Behind-the-scenes at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, Fox Searchlight engaged in a bidding war with Warner Independent Pictures over the distribution rights to this movie, until Fox Searchlight put in a last-minute bid of over $3 million, and won. They would later join forces with Paramount Pictures and MTV Films to distribute the film, a mere 17 days before its release. Behind-the-scenes at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival, Fox Searchlight engaged in a bidding war with Warner Independent Pictures over the distribution rights to this movie, until Fox Searchlight put in a last-minute bid of over $3 million, and won. They would later join forces with Paramount Pictures and MTV Films to distribute the film, a mere 17 days before its release. See more
Goofs When Napoleon is waiting in the van for Uncle Rico to take him to the dance, he looks at his watch. The time and date displayed is 5:40 p.m., Thursday 7/17. (They may have forgotten to change the date on the watch -- how many school dances are in July?) After he starts running down the road, he stops to look at his watch and the time and date says 5:54 p.m., Monday, 7/21. When Napoleon is waiting in the van for Uncle Rico to take him to the dance, he looks at his watch. The time and date displayed is 5:40 p.m., Thursday 7/17. (They may have forgotten to change the date on the watch -- how many school dances are in July?) After he starts running down the road, he stops to look at his watch and the time and date says 5:54 p.m., Monday, 7/21. See more
Quotes [ first lines ]
Kid on Bus : What are you gonna do today, Napoleon?
: Whatever I feel like I wanna do. Gosh!
See more » : What are you gonna do today, Napoleon? Napoleon Dynamite : Whatever I feel like I wanna do. Gosh!
Crazy Credits All the items, food or otherwise, used in the credits appear at some point in the movie, e.g. Napoleon's chap-stick, Uncle Rico's steak, etc. All the items, food or otherwise, used in the credits appear at some point in the movie, e.g. Napoleon's chap-stick, Uncle Rico's steak, etc. See moreStarting today, my Rotisserie Chicken Grilling cookbook is on a Kindle Countdown sale!
On Monday Jan 12, 2015 at 8AM EST, the Kindle edition of Rotisserie Chicken Grilling goes on sale for 99 cents – over 80% off the $4.99 cover price. Every day at 8AM the price will go up a dollar – Tuesday it’s $1.99, Wednesday it’s $2.99, Thursday it’s $3.99, and Friday at 8AM the book is back to the full price of $4.99.
If you want to check out Rotisserie Chicken Grilling, act fast!
On a related note, I was asked by a reader:
This book looks like your first book, Rotisserie Grilling. What’s the difference?
The difference? Lots and lots of chicken.
I think chicken is the killer app for the rotisserie, the best way to show off what a rotisserie can do. There were a bunch of extra chicken recipes that I couldn’t fit in the original book, some of which I had a really hard time cutting out. I couldn’t give up on those recipes; I love them too much. The result is Rotisserie Chicken Grilling; all chicken, all the time.Associated Press
GARFIELD, N.J. — An undercover drug buy ended in gunfire in a shopping center parking lot on Tuesday, leaving a police officer wounded and two suspects in custody and another hospitalized.
The undercover officer was posing as a prospective drug customer and was in the driver's seat of a car with a suspected drug dealer in the passenger seat, Bergen County prosecutor John Molinelli said. The car was sitting about 100 yards across the parking lot from a Marshall's department store when a second man approached the car and demanded that the officer "give him everything," he said.
The man pointed a gun at the officer, became agitated and shot him twice during a scuffle, Molinelli said.
The officer was struck once in his left side and once in an ankle. He was hospitalized in stable condition.
Narcotics task force members monitoring the staged transaction, for about $400 worth of marijuana, fired several times at the suspected shooter, who was hospitalized with injuries police said were not considered life-threatening. Police said they believe he and the suspected dealer were working together. They were arrested at the scene, where police recovered the suspected shooter's weapon plus drugs and money, Molinelli said.
A third man, who police said had driven the other two to the scene, fled in a car when the shooting began, Molinelli said. State police arrested him a short time later near a toll plaza on the Garden State Parkway.
Police were withholding the officer's name due to his undercover status but said he's a nine-year veteran of the Paramus Police Department and was on loan to a Bergen County narcotics task force.
Molinelli called the incident an "an average street drug buy" and praised the work of the task force officers.
"This is what they do, every day, every night, 365 days a year," he said.
Molinelli said he believes the injured officer had been set up for robbery by the three men. He said the officer was not armed or wearing a bulletproof vest since he was participating in an undercover operation.
"He was wide open," Molinelli said.
Witnesses reported hearing several shots and said at least one person was bleeding from his head and leg.
"We heard three or four popping noises and saw one (wounded) guy on the ground," said Brianna Colon, who was walking with a friend along a nearby sidewalk when the shots were fired.
Stefano Cutillo and his friend Andre Sajnoski said they were eating in a fast-food restaurant across the parking lot from where the shooting occurred.
"My mom was in Marshall's at the time, and she called to say, 'Don't come out,'" Cutillo said.
Copyright 2014 The Associated PressThe Tatun Group almost consist of 20 volcanoes which showed signs of seismic evidence which could in |
faced by disaster victims (especially the poor) under previous regimes, where assistance was lacking.[81]
Geology [ edit ]
Tangshan lies at the northern edge of the Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan Plain, an alluvial plain that stretches from Beijing to the Sea of Bohai.[82] This plain – the northeastern corner of the great North China Plain – is where sediments eroded from the Yanshan mountains to the north have filled in the ancient Sea of Bohai, with Tangshan near where the shore was about 4,000 years ago.[83] To the south these sediments have formed a layer of weak soils as much as three kilometers thick. At Tangshan and northward these sediments are thinner where the underlying strata crops out to form isolated hills.[84] This underlying strata is a thick (typically 10 km) layer of mainly sedimentary strata such as limestone and sandstone, with large deposits of coal.[85] Tangshan is located particularly over a northeast oriented syncline, a fold in the sedimentary strata that has brought massive deposits of coal close enough to the surface to be mined. In this area the overlying alluvium varies in thickness from several meters to around 600 m (2,000 ft).[86]
Underlying all this is the ancient bedrock of different kinds of metamorphic rock (such as schist, gneiss, quartz, granulite, etc.) that form the Eastern Block of the North China Craton.[87] This craton was formed approximately two billion years ago[88] by the collision of two major crustal blocks that left a belt of uplifted mountains – the Central Orogenic Belt (COB) – that crosses China approximately southwest to northeast, passing just west and north of Beijing.[89] Just north of Zunhua another orogenic belt, the east-west trending Yanshan mountain fault-fold belt (also known as the Yanshan seismic belt) marks the northern edge of the North China Craton (and of the alluvial plain). It is also the location of over half of the destructive earthquakes in Hebei province,[90] as under the plain several fault zones (oriented parallel to the Central Orogenic Belt) terminate against the Yanshan mountains.
Many of these faults are ancient, but have been reactivated by the force transmitted from the collision of the Indian Plate against the Eurasian Plate,[91] making the Eastern Block unusually active seismically, accounting for six of the ten deadliest earthquakes in recorded history.[92]
The Tangshan fault that ruptured 28 July runs right under the center of Tangshan City.[93] One of three faults in the Changdong fault zone, it runs approximately east-northeast (ENE) about 36 km to where it terminates against the north-south trending fault where, just to the south, the secondary M 7.1 quake occurred ("B" on the map).[94] The southern end of the Tangshan fault (it bends slightly at Tangshan) is near Ninghe, which was also the site of a M 6.2 earthquake several hours after the main shock, and an M 6.9 quake ("C") the following November. The Tangshan fault is considered shallow, but corresponds with a deeper and younger fault with somewhat differing characteristics.[95]
Question of prediction [ edit ]
Whether the Tangshan earthquake was predicted has had considerable political as well as seismological significance.
The 1975 Haicheng earthquake (about 400 km [250 miles] northeast of Tangshan) was widely hailed as the first (and, by mainstream seismologists, the only) successful prediction of a major earthquake, demonstrating both that earthquakes could be predicted, and that the Chinese were successfully doing so.[96] The surprisingly light death toll — initial reports were of "very few people killed",[97] but later determined to be a modest 2,041[98] — for this magnitude M s 7.5[99] quake, attributed to the precautionary measures taken following a definite short-term prediction, was proclaimed as a demonstration of the superiority of China's socialist system,[100] and incidentally a validation of the Chinese methodologies. However, it was later determined that the most important factor in anticipating the Haicheng earthquake was the extended series of significant foreshocks ("powerful messages from nature"[101]), and the low casualty rate was due largely to the time of day, hitting in the early evening when most people were neither at work nor asleep.[102]
Tangshan was not so fortunate.[103] Seventeen months later the 242,419 fatalities of the similarly-sized Tangshan earthquake was therefore a considerable shock politically as well as seismically. While some of this greater mortality might be attributed to the exposure of a larger population, or the time of day (Haicheng was struck in the early evening, Tangshan while most people were asleep[104]), the principal factor appeared to be the failure to take any precautionary measures: Tangshan was entirely unprepared.[105]
At the time, the Chinese methods of earthquake prediction mainly consisted of watching for various precursors, including foreshocks,[106] and were celebrated for their success at Haicheng and elsewhere.[107] Many seismologists consider the Tangshan earthquakes to have not been predicted,[108] even "famously unpredicted",[109] and that it was not predictable due to a lack of precursory anomalous phenomena.[110] Furthermore, an investigation 30 years later found that there was no official short-term prediction of an imminent earthquake at Haicheng, and that, though there were many unofficial predictions of an imminent quake, none of those had a scientific basis.[111] The warnings that were made and precautions taken happened largely at the local level, based on general middle-term predictions, enhanced public awareness due to an educational campaign,[112] and a series of foreshocks. It is significant that at Tangshan there were no perceptible foreshocks.[113]
On the other hand, it is reported[114] that several people at the State Seismological Bureau (SSB) wanted to warn of an impending earthquake somewhere in the region between Beijing and the Bohai Sea, and that this was discussed at several meetings. One of these was a week-long national conference on earthquake predictions and preparation that convened in Tangshan on July 14 (two weeks before the earthquake) where Wang Chengmin is said to have warned there could be a magnitude 5+ earthquake in the Tangshan—Luanxian area between July 22 and August 5.[115] However, in addition to the distractions of the Cultural Revolution, there was a possible disagreement within the SSB on whether the next large earthquake would be in eastern China (i.e., Beijing area) or western China,[116] and that in May it had been concluded that no major earthquakes would occur in the Beijing–Tangshan area.[117] As it turned out, western China was hit by the magnitude 7.2 Songpan-Pingwu earthquake only three weeks after Tangshan,[118] showing that those arguing for the imminence of an earthquake in Western China were not entirely wrong.
At another meeting, on July 26, there was a purported suggestion to not issue any warning, to avoid alarming the population.[119] The next morning, at an emergency meeting he requested with the Bureau's leadership, Wang was reportedly told by Deputy Chief Cha Zhiyuan that "We are currently very busy. We will discuss it again next week."[120] However, Cha has disputed this, claiming that Wang said there would be no major earthquakes.[121] Another account says Wang was directed to submit more information, then send a small group to observe the earthquake.[122]
The dilemma: an "abundance of caution" leads to many false alarms.
Some of the bureaucratic reticence to issue warnings and order precautionary measures likely resulted from too many predictions. These were often based on doubtful theories notorious for false alarms[123] that earthquakes can be predicted on the basis of droughts,[124] daily temperatures,[125] variations in geomagnetism,[126] or isolated anomalous phenomena. They were often too broad (magnitude "of at least 4.0 in the area of Beijing, Tianjin, Huailai, Tangshan, Bohai, and Zhangjiakou",[127] "in a few years"[128]) to warrant large-scale societal and economic disruption. Such disruptions could be serious: a false alarm in October, 1976, issued by the Sha'anxi provincial government, is estimated to have disrupted the lives of 65% of the population of that province for half a year.[129] It has also been estimated that "in the fall of 1976 about 400 million of the then total population of 930 million of China spent some nights in temporary earthquake shelters."[130] This illustrates the classic dilemma of earthquake prediction: increasing the sensitivity to the possibility of an earthquake (i.e., reducing the failure to predict) increases the number false alarms, which often has a significant cost.[131]
Comparison [ edit ]
Comparison of the Tangshan death toll — officially 242,769[132] — with other earthquake disasters is problematical because of uncertainty in the statistics. For example, the 1556 Shaanxi earthquake (estimated magnitude of ~8) is generally said to have been the deadliest earthquake disaster in history, with 830,000 deaths, based on Chinese historical records.[133] However, a Chinese language source[134] argues for only 530,000 deaths from the earthquake itself, with the larger number being the total reduction of population due to deaths from all causes (including exposure, disease, and famine) as well as people leaving the region due to economic collapse. Another Chinese source[135] states (without citing any sources) that the 1556 earthquake killed only about 100,000 directly, with another 700,000 dying of disease. Depending on what basis is used, the Tangshan disaster can thus be considered as approximately one-third, one-half, or twice as deadly as the Shaanxi disaster.
The other five deadliest earthquake disasters known in history,[136] with magnitudes ranging from 7.0 to 9.1, have had death tolls just under that of Tangshan's:
Other notably deadly earthquakes in the past century include:
Although unprepared,[137] compared to other earthquake disasters Tangshan did not experience significant common secondary disasters arising from fire, tsunami, landsliding, or flooding due to blocking of rivers or breaching of dikes. A dam holding back a large reservoir just above Tangshan was seriously damaged but did not fail; [138] similarly for another dam that imperiled Tianjin and some outlying districts of Beijing.[139]
The immediate and massive response by the government resulted in the rescue of thousands of people in the first two days (after which mortality increases rapidly),[140] while prompt attention to the problems of clean water, food, and public health avoided the mortality due to epidemic disease and starvation that often follows such disasters.[141]
Cultural references [ edit ]
Chinese director Feng Xiaogang's 2010 film Aftershock gives a dramatic account about this tragic earthquake.
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
Sources [ edit ]I literally cannot stop listening to these mixes. I’ve probably listened to each one 25 times and I am still not even close to being sick of them. They are nice to go to sleep to, nice to do computer work to, nice to make love to, nice to make art to… in other words… they are amazing all purpose vibes!!
I’ve been waiting for and wanting Karim So, LuvStep Episodes 1, 2, and 3 but haven’t been able to find them anywhere. If you can, help!
Luvstep Episode 4
<span><a href=”http://soundcloud.com/karimso/karim-so-luvstep-episode-4-aug-2010″>Karim So – Luvstep / Episode 4 / Aug 2010</a> by <a href=”http://soundcloud.com/karimso”>Karim So</a></span>
Luvstep Episode 5
<span><a href=”http://soundcloud.com/karimso/karim-so-luvstep-episode-5-sep-2010-mast”>Karim So – Luvstep / Episode 5 / Sep 2010</a> by <a href=”http://soundcloud.com/karimso”>Karim So</a></span>
Posted in Music
Tags: Dubstep, Karim So, luvstep, musicAt the Black Hat cybersecurity conference in 2014, industry luminary Dan Geer, fed up with the prevalence of vulnerabilities in digital code, made a modest proposal: Software companies should either make their products open source so buyers can see what they’re getting and tweak what they don’t like, or suffer the consequences if their software failed. He likened it to the ancient Code of Hammurabi, which says that if a builder poorly constructs a house and the house collapses and kills its owner, the builder should be put to death.
No one is suggesting putting sloppy programmers to death, but holding software companies liable for defective programs, and nullifying licensing clauses that have effectively disclaimed such liability, may make sense, given the increasing prevalence of online breaches.
The only problem with Geer’s scheme is that no formal metrics existed in 2014 for assessing the security of software or distinguishing between code that is merely bad and code that is negligently bad. Now, that may change, thanks to a new venture from another cybersecurity legend, Peiter Zatko, known more commonly by his hacker handle “Mudge.”
Mudge and his wife, Sarah, a former NSA mathematician, have developed a first-of-its-kind method for testing and scoring the security of software — a method inspired partly by Underwriters Laboratories, that century-old entity responsible for the familiar circled UL seal that tells you your toaster and hair dryer have been tested for safety and won’t burst into flames.
Called the Cyber Independent Testing Lab, the Zatkos’ operation won’t tell you if your software is literally incendiary, but it will give you a way to comparison-shop browsers, applications, and antivirus products according to how hardened they are against attack. It may also push software makers to improve their code to avoid a low score and remain competitive.
“There are applications out there that really do demonstrate good [security] hygiene … and the vast majority are somewhere else on the continuum from moderate to atrocious,” Peiter Zatko says. “But the nice thing is that now you can actually see where the software package lives on that continuum.”
Joshua Corman, founder of I Am the Cavalry, a group aimed at improving the security of software in critical devices like cars and medical devices, and head of the Cyber Statecraft Initiative for the Atlantic Council, says the public is in sore need of data that can help people assess the security of software products.
“Markets do well when an informed buyer can make an informed risk decision, and right now there is incredibly scant transparency in the buyer’s realm,” he says.
Corman cautions, however, that the Zatkos’ system is not comprehensive, and although it will provide one indicator of security risk, it’s not a conclusive indicator. He also says vendors are going to hate it.
“I have scars to show how much the software industry resists scrutiny,” he says.
Photo: Cole C Wilson
Software Seal of Approval
When Mudge announced on Twitter last year that the White House had asked him to create a cyber version of Underwriters Laboratories, praise poured in from around the security community.
No one knew the details, but people were confident if he was involved, it would be great.
“Excellent! Something everyone has talked about for decades!” the Def Con hacker conference tweeted after his announcement.
“That’s a concept that really could make a difference if executed well,” wrote Bruce Potter, founder of the Shmoo Group crypto-security collective, which runs the annual Shmoocon security conference
Mudge has been tightlipped about the nature of the cyber UL ever since, but he agreed to discuss the details in advance of a talk he’s presenting next week at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas.
“To use the car analogy, does it have seatbelts, does it have air bags, does it have anti-lock brakes?” — Peiter Zatko
He says the method their lab uses to evaluate software is based on one he taught NSA hackers in the 1990s about how to find the softest targets on an adversary’s network. (During his run back then with the famed hacker think tank L0pht Heavy Industries, Mudge and his L0pht colleagues regularly provided advice to various parts of the government.)
The technique involves, in part, analyzing binary software files using algorithms created by Sarah to measure the security hygiene of code. During this sort of examination, known as “static analysis” because it involves looking at code without executing it, the lab is not looking for specific vulnerabilities, but rather for signs that developers employed defensive coding methods to build armor into their code.
“To use the car analogy, does it have seatbelts, does it have air bags, does it have anti-lock brakes? All the things that are going to make [a hacker’s] life more difficult,” Mudge says.
The Zatkos say a code’s security hygiene, measured by the programming methods developers use, as well as by the tools and settings used to compile the resulting software, are good predictors of whether a software application will have serious security vulnerabilities and reliability issues.
“stack” and “heap” — from being used to hold additional software.
“Things like ASLR [address space layout randomization] and having a nonexecutable stack and heap and stuff like that, those are all determined by how you compiled [the source code],” says Sarah. “Those are the technologies that are really the equivalent of airbags or anti-lock brakes [in cars]. They’re the things that make software better than it used to be.”
Modern compilers of Linux and OS X not only add protective features, they automatically swap out bad functions in code with safer equivalent ones when available. Yet some companies still use old compilers that lack security features.
The lab’s initial research has found that Microsoft’s Office suite for OS X, for example, is missing fundamental security settings because the company is using a decade-old development environment to build it, despite using a modern and secure one to build its own operating system, Mudge says. Industrial control system software, used in critical infrastructure environments like power plants and water treatment facilities, is also primarily compiled on “ancient compilers” that either don’t have modern protective measures or don’t have them turned on by default.
Asked about the findings, a Microsoft spokesperson would only say, “We are focused on security as a core component in the software development process. We developed and are committed to the Security Development Lifecycle, and continue to lead the industry in creating the most secure products across all platforms.”
The Zatkos’ algorithms also assess the number of branches in a program; more branches mean more complexity and more potential for error. And they look at the presence of complex algorithms that could be susceptible to algorithmic complexity attacks.
The lab is also looking at the number of external software libraries a program calls on and the processes it uses to call them. Such libraries make life more convenient for programmers, because they allow them to repurpose useful functions written by other coders, but they also increase the amount of potentially vulnerable code, increasing what security experts refer to as the “attack surface.” There are about 200 specific external library calls, Mudge says, that are particularly difficult to implement in a manner that ensures a given program executes safely.
If they get a really low score, “we can guarantee that … they’re doing so many things wrong that there are vulnerabilities” in their code. — Sarah Zatko
The process they use to evaluate software allows them to easily compare and contrast similar programs. Looking at three browsers, for example — Chrome, Safari, and Firefox — Chrome came out on top, with Firefox on the bottom. Google’s Chrome developers not only used a modern build environment and enabled all the default security settings they could, Mudge says, they went “above and beyond in making things even more robust.” Firefox, by contrast, “had turned off [ASLR], one of the fundamental safety features in their compilation.”
Mudge worked for Google previously, so some might accuse him of bias, but he says their algorithms, which have been vetted by an outside technical board, ensure that the automated assessments aren’t biased.
Software vendors will no doubt object to the methods they’re using to score their code, arguing that the use of risky libraries and old compilers doesn’t mean the vendors’ programs have actual vulnerabilities. But Sarah disagrees.
“If they get a really good score, we’re not saying there are no vulnerabilities,” says Sarah. But if they get a really low score, “we can guarantee that … they’re doing so many things wrong that there are vulnerabilities [in their code].”
The lab aims to prove such vulnerabilities with the second part of its testing regimen, which uses fuzzing, a method that involves throwing a lot of data at a program to see if it crashes or does something else it shouldn’t do.
“In actually executing it and crashing it, we’re confirming that, yes, this thing has bugs, this thing crashed,” Mudge says. “We were able to give it input and it behaved abhorrently.”
Not all crashes indicate the presence of a bug that hackers can exploit, but they do, at a minimum, indicate that a program may be unreliable for users. In the lab reports the Zatkos plan to make available to the public, they will note which crashes they found were potentially exploitable.
The Zatkos don’t plan to fuzz every program, only enough to show a direct correlation between programs that score low in their algorithmic code analysis and ones shown by fuzzing to have actual flaws. They want to be able to say with 90 percent accuracy that one is indicative of the other.
Mudges Storied Hacking History
Mudge has a long history in the hacker and security communities. While a member of L0pht, he and his L0pht colleagues testified to federal lawmakers in 1998 that the group could bring down the internet in 30 minutes using a serious flaw that still exists.
Photo: Cole C Wilson
He also advised the Clinton administration on cybersecurity issues; was a program manager for DARPA’s Cyber FastTrack initiative, which offered fast-turnaround grants for short cybersecurity projects; and more recently, worked for Google’s Advanced Technologies and Projects Group, a sort of rapid-response skunkworks group, before leaving to launch the testing lab.
His interest in doing software security assessments dates back to a paper one of his L0pht colleagues wrote in 1998 about such evaluations. The idea moved from theory to practice when L0pht merged with a security startup called @Stake and began developing an automated way to do static analysis of code. That method became the basis for what a company called VeraCode does today: assess software for government and corporate clients before they buy it.
Chris Wysopal, CTO of VeraCode and a former L0pht colleague of Mudge’s, says clients generally won’t purchase software his company finds problematic until the software maker fixes the problems, which he says is great for other buyers.
“To me that’s like actually finishing the job; we’re not just pointing out the problems but helping make better software,” he says.
But these assessments are done privately and often on enterprise software, leaving the rest of the public with no way to assess the security of software and little leverage to force vendors to fix other poorly secured code. The Zatkos’ venture could fill that gap, Wysopal says.
Two years ago, Mudge says someone from the White House technology office approached him about helping to set up a government program to evaluate software. He had no interest in working inside the government and decided to set up a nonprofit instead. Although his tweet last year said the White House asked him to create the lab, the White House isn’t involved in his project.
Instead, with $600,000 in funding from DARPA, the Ford Foundation, and Consumers Union, he and Sarah set up the lab in the basement of their home. The outside technical board that vets their methodology and algorithms includes security notables such as former NSA hacker Charlie Miller; Dino Dai Zovi, a security engineer with Square; and Frank Rieger, CTO of the German firm GSMk, which makes the Cryptophone.
Vendors don’t pay for the evaluations. The Zatkos choose the software they evaluate and either buy it or obtain free evaluation copies from vendor websites. They’re examining both commercial software programs and open-source ones. For each software package they test, they produce three reports. The first, automatically generated by their algorithms, scores the software on a scale between 0 and 100. The second contains a detailed breakdown of what they found in the software and will be available for free on their website. The third report, which they plan to sell, will contain raw data from their assessments for anyone who wants to recreate them.
They’ve examined about 12,000 programs so far and plan to release their first reports in early 2017. They also plan to release information about their methodology and are willing to share the algorithms they use for their predictive fuzzing analysis if someone wants them.
There’s already a growing interest in their work. They’re working with Consumer Reports, another inspiration for the lab, to develop a way to use their data to evaluate products the magazine tests. They’ve also had interest from AIG and other insurers who want to use the data to do risk-assessments of companies seeking cyber insurance.
But there is at least one downside to scoring software like this: Attackers can use it to gauge where they should focus their energy to find vulnerabilities, targeting low-scoring applications. Lawyers will also likely want to use the data to assess liability for companies that get hacked. Did they install risky software on their network when a measurably more secure one was available?
Mudge says he’s not upset about the prospect of lawyers finding joy in their scores. “We’ve been begging people to give a shit about security for a decade. … [But] there’s very little incentive if they’ve already got a product to change a product. If you come out with a quantifier saying what you’ve got is not as secure as this other one, that’s going to be an incentive for them to go out and get the other one.”PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — U.S. Sen. Susan Collins said on Wednesday she’s open to using a subpoena to investigate President Donald Trump’s tax returns for potential connections to Russia.
Collins, a Republican who has served as a U.S. senator from Maine since 1997, sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election. She appeared on Maine Public radio to talk about issues including the investigation.
Collins was asked if the committee would subpoena Trump, who’s also a Republican. She said she hopes for “voluntary cooperation” but is open to using a subpoena if necessary.
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“This is a counter-intelligence operation in many ways. That’s what our committee specializes in,” she said during the radio appearance. “We are used to probing in depth in this area.”
Trump’s refusal to disclose his tax returns is a break with presidential tradition. He has said he would be happy to release them after the completion of an Internal Revenue Service audit.
Using a subpoena to get access to the tax returns would be a more aggressive move than members of Congress have taken on the subject so far. House and Senate leaders have thus far shown no interest in taking such a step.
Last week, House Republicans blocked an attempt by Democrats to use an obscure law to obtain the tax returns from the IRS. Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee tried to frame the issue as a matter of national security, questioning whether Trump has any investments in Russia.
Collins also said during the radio appearance that she and other intelligence committee members will call for former national security adviser Michael Flynn to testify before the committee. Flynn resigned following reports that he had misled officials about his contacts with Russia.
Collins said the committee is in the midst of a “broad investigation” about Russian interference and it’s too early to speculate about the results.
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She touted the “bipartisan” nature of the committee’s probe and pledged: “We will get to the bottom of this.”For other people with the same name, see John Francis (disambiguation)
John Francis (born 1946) is an American environmentalist nicknamed the planetwalker. Born in Philadelphia, the son of a West Indian immigrant, he moved to Marin County, California as a young man. After witnessing the devastation caused by the 1971 San Francisco Bay oil spill, he stopped riding in motorized vehicles, a vow which lasted 22 years from 1972 until 1994. From 1973 until 1990, he also spent 17 years voluntarily silent. During this time he earned a Ph.D. in land management and traveled extensively, walking across the entire width of the lower 48 states of the USA as well as walking to South America.
Life [ edit ]
On January 17, 1971, two oil tankers owned by Standard Oil Company, the Arizona Standard and Oregon Standard, collided in San Francisco Bay, creating an enormous oil spill of 840,000 gallons. After seeing the damage caused, John Francis joked with a friend about never riding in a car again. The following year, a neighbor of Francis' died suddenly. Faced with a new sense of the uncertainty of life, Francis decided to act immediately and for the next 22 years refused to ride in motorized vehicles.[1] Francis describes himself as having had an over-inflated sense of self-importance at this time and says that he initially expected other people to follow his example and also forgo automobiles and other powered vehicles.
As Francis traveled about on foot, people would sometimes stop to talk about what he was doing, and he often found himself arguing with them, as well as with friends and acquaintances, about his decision to go on foot. On his birthday in 1973, Francis decided to stop speaking as a gift to his community, to not argue for one day and instead listen to what others had to say. He found this so valuable that he continued to be silent the next day. This continued and he ended up not speaking for 17 years, with the exception of a phone call to his mother after 10 years of silence. During this time, he communicated by writing and gestures, and also expressed himself by playing the banjo. He ended his vow of silence on Earth Day in 1990. The following day, while in Washington, D.C. he was struck by a car. He managed to convince the ambulance crew to allow him to walk to the hospital.
While he was silent, he completed three college degrees, culminating in a Ph.D. in Land Management from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He walked to Ashland, Oregon to enroll in Southern Oregon University, and completed a B.A. there in a two-year program. Next, he walked to the state of Washington and built a boat, contacting the University of Montana and informing them that he'd like to enroll in a master's degree program in about two years. He walked and sailed to Montana, and completed his degree there. With little money, he audited classes but professors tracked his grades, and when funds became available to pay for the classes he had taken, they were put on his transcript for credit. As is common with graduate students, Francis taught classes while studying for his master's degree.
Francis then walked to Wisconsin, where he took up his doctoral studies, focusing on the effects of oil spills. During his studies, the Exxon Valdez disaster occurred, which brought attention to his research. After completing his degree, he walked to Washington D.C.
In 1994, Francis decided he could be a more effective environmentalist if he began to again use motorized transportation. At the border of Venezuela and Brazil, he boarded a bus.
Francis has been employed by the United States Coast Guard to work on legislation relating to the management of oil spills. In 1991 he was named a United Nations Environmental Program Goodwill ambassador. In 2009 he was in Australia, walking the Great Ocean Road for a film being made by Tourism Victoria.[2]
He is the author of Planetwalker: How to Change Your World One Step at a Time. He lives in Point Reyes Station, California with his wife and two sons.
His life story was optioned by Universal Studios in 2006 for a movie release, with rumor of Will Smith expressing interest to play the role of John Francis.[3]
References [ edit ]The study, published today, highlights how CRISPR could be used to stop the spread of deadly diseases such as malaria, Zika, and yellow fever by manipulating the sex selection process in certain species of mosquitoes. We speak to the study’s two lead authors, Zach Adelman and Zhijian Tu, both entomologists at Virginia Tech University, to find out more.Only female mosquitoes bite and suck blood, and hence are responsible for spreading disease amongst humans, males feed purely on nectar. We recently discovered the sex-determination gene in mosquitoes – called the Nix gene. Combining this knowledge with the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing tool, we could bias mosquito populations towards being male, hence contributing to the control of mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue fever, malaria, yellow fever and Zika.Zach Adelman: We are still at the beginning of the research. There are a lot of questions that need to be answered – we don’t yet know, for example, what the effectiveness and long-term stability of CRISPR-based gene drive systems in mosquitoes are.There are more than three thousand species of mosquitoes and only a very small fraction of them transmit disease-causing pathogens to humans. We are only interested in reducing the populations of these mosquito species. If we take the Aedes aegypti species as an example, it is an invasive species in many parts of world where the dengue and Zika diseases are a problem. In other words, Aedes aegypti exist in these areas largely as a result of globalization.Additionally, the vector for dengue and Zika viruses are highly adapted to human environments and are, to a certain extent, a "domesticated" species. Finally, the genetic method we are developing is species-specific by definition as it requires mating. In this sense, it is eco-friendly as it should have minimal impact on other non-target species.: Again, it depends greatly on the target species. For an efficient, invasive vector like Aedes aegypti, there is nothing like it on Earth, and certainly nothing worse that could potentially take its place.There are some concerns and risks of implementing this research. For example, accidentally releasing just a few of these mosquitoes during testing could be sufficient to establish gene drive systems in the wild, and it is not yet clear how to remove an introduced gene from a study area if needed. As the ethical and regulatory guidelines have not yet been established, The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine is currently developing recommendations for the responsible conduct of gene drive research in non-human organisms. Having said that, I would emphasize that that the approach we are proposing would ultimately be self-limiting as local mosquito population crash due to insufficient females could eliminate the engineered Nix gene from the environment.No. But so far, and for the immediate future, our experiments are restricted to the laboratory under confined conditions. In the future, we’d seek to apply this approach in areas around the world where the burden of disease is high and hasn’t been managed by other control methods. However, we’d need the support of governments, local collaborators, and the public in order to field test the research.Laboratory experiments still need to be completed to better understand how well the technology works and how it can be controlled in order to inform the safe and responsible conduct of any future field-based trials.We are focusing on two main goals. The first is to better understand the molecular mechanism of sex-determination in mosquitoes. The second is to work towards a genetic strategy to effectively reduce mosquito populations by the introduction of bias towards the non-biting males.ResearchGate has put together a comprehensive collection of emerging Zika virus research, including scientific papers, interviews with researchers, and discussions among them.Featured image courtesy of Nathanael CoyneYOU would be hard-pressed to find a more unlikely supporter of Geert Wilders, an anti-immigrant Dutch politician, than Khalid Jone, a Sudanese asylum seeker. Mr Jone lives in an empty office building in Diemen, near Amsterdam, where 60 failed asylum-seekers have been squatting since April. In 2002 he fled to the Netherlands from his native Darfur, escaping ethnic cleansing. He was denied asylum and has been in limbo ever since, filing appeals.
There are hundreds of thousands of migrants like Mr Jone across Europe, caught in the gears of asylum systems. He is so fed up with the uncertainty, he says, that he wishes Mr Wilders had won the Dutch election in March: “At least he is not lying to me.” More important, Mr Wilders wants to pull the Netherlands out of the European Union, and Mr Jone hopes that this would “get rid of the Dublin agreement”—the EU rule that migrants can apply for asylum only in the first member state where they set foot.
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On this point many policymakers agree with Mr Jone: to fix Europe’s asylum system, the Dublin agreement needs to be revised. The reform camp includes the European Commission and the governments of Italy and Greece, where most migrants first arrive in Europe. Under Dublin rules, those two countries would have had to accommodate nearly all of the people flooding in from the Middle East and Africa, more than 1.5m of them since 2015.
Since the migrant crisis started, it has been clear that this system is inadequate, and that some of the burden must be borne by Europe’s wealthy northern states. For a while Germany, Sweden and other countries waived the Dublin rules. In 2015 the EU instituted a temporary scheme to redistribute 160,000 asylum-seekers among member countries.
Wir schaffen das, now you chip in
Now the EU’s reformers want a more permanent arrangement. In 2016 the commission proposed changing the Dublin accord as part of a comprehensive European migration system. In October a committee of the European Parliament approved the idea. The proposed law calls for agreements with source countries to send failed asylum-seekers home quickly, and would allocate asylum-seekers among EU countries, lightening the burden on Mediterranean states. The commission also wants new places for legal immigrants, to encourage them to apply for visas rather than turning to smugglers.
But these proposals face tough going in the EU’s Council of Ministers. A group of central European countries vehemently opposes the plans. Hungary and Poland are led by populist governments that have campaigned against Muslim immigration. Hungary and Slovakia challenged the relocation scheme of 2015 in the European Court of Justice, with Polish support. The court ruled against them in September, but whereas Slovakia has backed down, Hungary and Poland have not, |
walls, floor and ceiling, and are affected by the contents of the room. Room dimensions can create standing waves at particular (usually low) frequencies. There are devices and materials for room treatment that affect sound quality. Soft materials, such as draperies and carpets, can absorb higher frequencies, whereas hard walls and floors can cause excess reverberation.
Modern turntable. Top-loading CD player and external D-to-A converter. Quad II, an early monoblock valve (vacuum tube) amplifier.
Sound sources [ edit ]
Audiophiles play music from a wide variety of sources including phonograph records, compact discs (CDs), and digital audio file formats that are uncompressed as well as ones that are compressed using lossless data compression such as FLAC, Windows Media Audio 9 Lossless and Apple Lossless (ALAC). Since the early 1990s, CDs have become the most common source of high-quality music. Nevertheless, turntables, tonearms, and magnetic cartridges are still used, despite the difficulties of keeping records free from dust and the delicate set-up associated with turntables.
The 44.1 kHz sampling rate of the CD format, in theory, restricts CD information losses to above the theoretical upper-frequency limit of human hearing – 20 kHz, see Nyquist limit. Despite this, newer formats such as DVD-Audio and Super Audio Compact Disc (SACD), have sampling rates of 88.2 kHz or 96 kHz or even higher.
CD audio signals are encoded in 16-bit values. Some higher-definition consumer formats such as HDCD-encoded CDs contain 20-bit and even 24-bit audio streams. With more bits more dynamic range is possible; 20 bit dynamic range is theoretically 120 dB—the limit of most consumer electronic playback equipment.[9]
MP3 encoding, widely used in portable audio devices, is an example of lossy compression.
Amplifiers [ edit ]
A preamplifier selects among several audio inputs, amplifies source-level signals (such as those from a turntable), and allows the listener to adjust the sound with volume and tone controls. Many audiophile-oriented preamplifiers lack tone controls. A power amplifier takes the "line-level" audio signal from the preamplifier and drives the loudspeakers. An integrated amplifier combines the functions of power amplification with input switching and volume and tone control. Both pre/power combinations and integrated amplifiers are widely used by audiophiles.
Audiophile amplifiers are available based on solid-state (semiconductor) technology, vacuum-tube (valve) technology, or hybrid technology—semiconductors and vacuum tubes.
Dedicated amplifiers are also commonly used by audiophiles to drive headphones, especially those with high impedance and/or low sensitivity, or electrostatic headphones.
Loudspeakers [ edit ]
The cabinet of the loudspeaker is known as the enclosure. There are a variety of loudspeaker enclosure designs, including sealed cabinets (acoustic suspension), ported cabinets (bass-reflex), transmission line, infinite baffle, and horn loaded. The enclosure plays a major role in the sound of the loudspeaker.
The drivers that produce the sound are referred to as tweeters, midranges, and woofers. Driver designs include dynamic, electrostatic, plasma, ribbon, planar, ionic, and servo-actuated. Drivers are made from a variety of materials including paper pulp, polypropylene, kevlar, aluminum, magnesium, beryllium, and vapor-deposited diamond.
The direction and intensity of the output of a loudspeaker, called dispersion or polar response, has a large effect on its sound.[10] Various methods are employed to control the dispersion. These methods include monopolar, bipolar, dipolar, 360-degree, horn, waveguide, and line source. These terms refer to the configuration and arrangement of the various drivers in the enclosure.
The positioning of loudspeakers in the room has a strong influence on the sound experience.[11][12] Loudspeaker output is influenced by interaction with room boundaries, particularly bass response, and high frequency transducers are directional, or "beaming".
Accessories [ edit ]
Audiophiles use a wide variety of accessories and fine-tuning techniques, sometimes referred to as "tweaks", to improve the sound of their systems. These include filters to "clean" the electricity,[13] equipment racks to isolate components from floor vibrations, specialty power and audio cables, loudspeaker stands (and footers to isolate speakers from stands), and room treatments.
There are several types of room treatment. Sound-absorbing materials may be placed strategically within a listening room to reduce the amplitude of early reflections, and to deal with resonance modes. Other treatments are designed to produce diffusion, reflection of sound in a scattered fashion. Room treatments can be expensive and difficult to optimize.
Headphones [ edit ]
Headphones are regularly used by audiophiles. These products can be remarkably expensive, some over $10,000,[14] but in general are much cheaper than comparable speaker systems. They have the advantage of not requiring room treatment, and being usable without requiring others to listen at the same time. Newer canalphones can be driven by the less powerful outputs found on portable music players.
Design variety [ edit ]
For music storage, digital formats offer an absence of clicks, pops, wow, flutter, acoustic feedback, and rumble, compared to vinyl records. Depending on the format, digital can also have a higher signal-to-noise ratio, a wider dynamic range, less total harmonic distortion, and a flatter and more extended frequency response.[15][16] Despite this, vinyl records remain popular, and discussion about the relative merits of analog and digital sound continues (see Analog sound vs. digital sound). (Note that vinyl records may be mastered differently from their digital versions.)
In the amplification stage, vacuum-tube electronics remain popular, despite most other applications having since abandoned tubes for solid state amplifiers. Also vacuum-tube amplifiers often have higher total harmonic distortion, require rebiasing, are less reliable, generate more heat, are less powerful, and cost more.[17] There is also continuing debate about the proper use of negative feedback in amplifier design.[18][19]
Controversies [ edit ]
There is substantial controversy on the subject of audiophile components; many have asserted that the occasionally high cost produces no measurable improvement in audio reproduction.[20] For example, skeptic James Randi, through his foundation One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge, has offered a prize of $1 million to anyone who can demonstrate that $7,250 audio cables "are any better than ordinary audio cables".[21] In 2008, audio reviewer Michael Fremer attempted to claim the prize, and said that Randi declined the challenge.[22] Randi said that the cable manufacturer Pear Cables was the one who withdrew.[23]
Criticisms usually focus on claims around so-called "tweaks" and accessories beyond the core source, amplification, and speaker products. Examples of these accessories include speaker cables, component interconnects, stones, cones, CD markers, and power cables or conditioners.[24][25]
There is disagreement on how equipment testing should be conducted and as to its utility. Audiophile publications frequently describe differences in quality which are not detected by standard audio system measurements and double blind testing, claiming that they perceive differences in audio quality which cannot be measured by current instrumentation,[26] and cannot be detected by listeners if listening conditions are controlled,[27] but without providing an explanation for those claims.
See also [ edit ]
Audiophile publications
References [ edit ]Story highlights A dolphin who died in the southern Chinese city of Sanya has sparked nationwide anger
Pictures of tourists mistreating and posing with the dying animal were spread on Weibo
The dolphin died due to injuries to its tail, likely from a boat collision, state media reported
A dolphin who died in the southern Chinese city of Sanya Monday has sparked nationwide anger after pictures surfaced of tourists near the shore mistreating and posing with the dying animal were spread on Weibo, China's most popular social network site.
The dolphin died off the shore in Dadonghai, a resort in Hainan Province, due to injuries to its tail, likely from a collision with a fishing boat, according to state news agency Xinhua
The injured dolphin was found on a beach Sunday. A witness surnamed He said the animal was still alive when tourists start to take pictures with it, according to local portal news hinews.cn.
Photos on China's microblogs showed that tourists -- instead of helping the dolphin -- were lifting and mistreating it before rescuers arrived. One of the pictures showed a man flexing his muscles in front of a group of swimmers holding up the dolphin soon went viral on the social network sites.
Irritated netizens criticized harshly for the tourists' cruelty. A writer posting by the name @Justin_joe called the tourists "a group of animals."
Tourists pose with a dying dolphin.
"China is now filled with people lacking moral values, ignorance, and decreasing civility of the citizens," added @Jiangxiangsiyi.
While many showed their anger, others say Chinese netizens have overreacted to the incident.
"I think people have focused on the wrong thing. They don't care when people die, but to care about dolphin," wrote @Woaijialin.The political necessities that have led the prime minister to call this election have given the people of Northern Ireland the opportunity to slap down Gerry Adams and his triumphalist crew and burst their balloon of inflated republican demands.
Many unionists have expressed their anger at the way in which Sinn Fein have tried to use their veto over the forming of an Executive to demand an expensive, intrusive and divisive Irish Language Act along with legislation to persecute members of the security forces who stood between Adams and his bunch of terrorists over 40 years of the Troubles.
Letter to the editor
June 8th will give unionists the chance to rally around the Union standard by voting for the only unionist party capable of standing up to Adams and beating Sinn Fein.
At the same time the prime minister has made it clear that her aim in this election is to get a mandate to take forward the will of the people of the United Kingdom to leave the European Union.
As the only Northern Ireland party at Westminster to give her total support in that aim those who voted to leave and those who had a different view but want an end to the uncertainty about the future, have the opportunity to return DUP candidates who are committed to delivering Brexit.
Although the DUP increased its vote at the Assembly election just past and remain the largest party, Sinn Fein arrogantly took their increased vote as a right to ram their policies down the throats of everyone and have employed political blackmail to achieve that end.
June 8th gives an opportunity to show that unionists will not be cowed by them.
Sammy Wilson MP, East AntrimEditor’s note: The following reports were written by the Weeklings at the scene of the March 25 Huntington Beach pro-Donald Trump rally in which one of our interns and two of our photographers were assaulted while working. (See the original post HERE).) Not only was the #MagaMarch yet another black mark on Huntington Beach (which is always fighting with Anaheim for the title of Orange County’s most riot-happy city), but also the original coverage by the mainstream media was a travesty of journalism that allowed Trump supporters to cloak themselves in a veil of victimhood, when it was their side that itched for a rumble. White supremacists worldwide are already hailing the beatdown of the press and activists of color as a victory for their cause. As of this writing, the California Department of Parks and Recreation has not bothered to contact the Weekly about what its peace officers are doing to go after those responsible for the attack on our people and others.
The Weekly will not stand idly by as racism, misogyny, homophobia and flat-out fascism try to run rampant over a free press and political opponents. As I told the Los Angeles Times when they finally corrected their fake news, “My photographers and intern were just trying to do their jobs. For that, they got harassed by Trump supporters, then shoved and punched when they tried to defend one another.... I’m proud of them, and we will not be silenced by biddies or bros.”
—Gustavo Arellano
* * * * *
FRANK JOHN TRISTAN, INTERN: From the outset, it appeared the Trump supporters were angry simply at the presence of the counterprotesters. As the first two protesters stepped onto the beach, a female Trump supporter reportedly pulled her car next to them and yelled, “If you touch my kids, I’ll kill you!” The counterprotesters seemed surprised to find no other counterprotesters in sight, as Trump supporters patrolled the area publicly announced as the gathering place for counterprotesters. The counterprotesters took off into the parking lot, where they found other counterprotesters unloading a car, at which point Trump Mama got in my face. The Trump supporters were angry about counterprotesters invading their march—and conservatives say liberals always want safe spaces?
As I approached the mob on the beach, I considered what had transpired with the Twins being ganged up on (see main story for details). I saw photographers Julie Leopo and Brian Feinzimer surrounded, and the only thing going through my head was what editor Gustavo Arellano had told us: “Stick together.” As I turned, I saw Trump Friend charge Feinzimer. I didn’t know what he planned on doing to my colleague, so I stuck out my arm and yelled, “Hey!” Trump Friend reeled back, then regained his balance and began to attack me. I felt a series of love-tap, tiny-handed punches and someone pulling me from the back.
As soon as the pepper-spraying counterprotester cleared the attackers, I started searching for my phone, which held my notes and photos. A Trump supporter kindly handed it back to me and gave me a hug with a look of concern.
Counterprotest organizer Jordan Hoiberg took the chants of “pussy” and “faggot” as best as he could. A cellphone-wielding Trump supporter grabbed him by the shirt and started yelling, “You’re the one who put this protest together! Why do your guys have masks on?” Meanwhile, another Trump supporter falsely accused him of beating elderly women in order to get nearby supporters to attack Hoiberg. The look on Hoiberg’s face spelled out fear, as the backlash facing him and his fellow counterprotesters surrounded him on all sides. He escaped the crowd, returning to the beach, then attempted to ask State Park peace officers how many people were arrested and what their names were, only to be told they didn’t know.
He walked away without argument. Hoiberg said he believed things were over and that he should probably leave for his safety, so he headed north on the bike trail with the defeated look of a general who led his troops into slaughter. As he was leaving, a group of white boys holding a “Defend America” sign tried to pick a fight with him, but then they faced me and Indigenous rights activist Naui Huitzilopochtli. In their group stood Gray Shirt Guy and the white Trump supporter who threw the rock at the counterprotester.
Their friend tried to calm them down as they flexed and stared at us. “We see you, dawg,” one told us, threateningly. “Fuck la raza,” another joined in. “I’m in the pit at every Observatory show,” a third Trump supporter announced, inviting anyone who has a problem with him to show up there. They dispersed at the behest of their friends, heading south on the bike trail with the rest of the MAGA marchers.
* * * * *
JULIE LEOPO, PHOTOGRAPHER: One thing that was clear: there were far more Trump supporters than counter-protesters or media. This automatically made me feel uncomfortable. The fact I was a brown, 120-pound female photojournalist in a sea of angry white Trump supporters yelling to build a wall, and above all disregarding me as fake news was unsettling. The violence and hate spewing from the Trump supporters had to be documented.
Considering the normalization of Trump’s disdain for the media, the Trump supporters felt empowered to ridicule and intimidate me. I kept shooting despite the insults and just as I was about to click the shutter on my camera, I looked up and locked eyes with a white woman carrying a flag. Out of all the people in the crowed, she glared at me. Her stare was cold, angry and taunting. She smirked and walked toward me. I did not know what was to come. Should I pick up my camera and shoot? Should I shield my face?
The pro-Trump woman began to hit my camera and arm with her American flag. I yelled “STOP!” and held out my arm. I looked around and saw the yelling and confusion, and knew the spark of violence had just been ignited.
[
* * * * *
BRIAN FEINZIMER, PHOTOGRAPHER: Although I knew there was a chance it could happen, being physically assaulted while taking pictures at a Trump rally wasn’t exactly at the top of my list of concerns.
As I walked through the group of MAGA marchers, I noticed the group was overwhelmingly Caucasian—the same color as me. Yet despite—or perhaps because of this—it felt incredibly unpleasant being among them, even before the hate speech started.
Things started happening fast when a woman armed with a flag began harassing myself and fellow photographer Julie Leopo, jabbing at us with it. Suddenly, someone outside my field of view violently pushed me. As I turned my head, I realized I had been intentionally shoved, so I raised my camera to photograph the person. At the same time, someone stepped in the middle to protect me, and as I snapped photographs, I saw that person get punched repeatedly by the person who had shoved me.
Three seconds later, I realized it was intern Frank Tristan who had stepped in and was being punched. In those seconds, my mind went from surprise to confusion, and then the adrenaline kicked in as I wrapped my arm around Frank and pulled him away from the attacker. Julie rushed forward to help me. Someone near us unleashed a cloud of pepper spray, ending the assault. Unable to collect my thoughts, I kept taking pictures, relying on my instinct to keep shooting, to keep doing my job to capture everything that was happening.
* * * * *
DENISE DE LA CRUZ, REPORTER: I had a feeling the night before and the day of the MAGA march that something serious was going to happen. Around noon, I received text messages from two of my colleagues, photographer Brian Feinzimer and intern Frank Tristan, saying they and photographer Julie Leopo had just been attacked by Trump supporters. My heart immediately sank with disappointment, but I wasn’t surprised.
By the time I got to Bolsa Chica State Beach, around 1 p.m., the violence had subsided, but there was still tension in the air, as if a brawl could break out at any moment. The spectacle of hundreds of Trump supporters chanting, “USA, USA, USA!” while waving American, “Blue Lives Matter” and “Don’t Tread On Me” Tea Party flags on the sidewalk alongside the beach garnered honks from cars speeding by on PCH and perplexed looks by beachgoers who didn’t get the memo of the day’s festivities. I heard someone yell out “Fuck Trump!” from their car, but by then, the Trumpsters were already headed back to the march’s starting point near Warner Avenue, where all the violence occurred earlier.
As I walked among the Trump supporters, I chatted with some of them. Most assured me they weren’t the bigoted monsters the media perceive them as, but rather well-intentioned people with conservative views. Yet I noticed that among the marchers was a group of about five young white men, one of whom was carrying a “Da Goyim Know” sign while another held a German Imperialist flag—both symbolic of the neo-Nazi movement.
I looked around to see if any of the Trump supporters who had claimed to be intolerant of hate took offense to this obvious display of anti-Semitism. Not one seemed appalled. At least if they were, they didn’t speak out against the hate that was clearly on display. While they did not participate in the violence earlier, their sheer complicity was just another act of evil.Next up, from a line of soap I haven’t touched since December; Mike’s Natural Soaps’ Orange, Cedarwood, and Black Pepper.
The lather is exactly what I expect out of Mike’s Natural: absolutely wonderful. It’s quite a thirsty cream, so use plenty of water and enough elbow grease, and you’ll work up a lather with great cushion, very good glide, which leaves your face feeling nice and moisturized to boot. As per usual, top marks for lather.
The predominate scent is most definitely the orange, with the black pepper coming up a close second bringing some kick to it, with the cedarwood serving to balance things out a bit between the other two. I find it fairly pleasant, if not something to write home about, but I’ll give it a bonus point because the girlfriend really likes it.
The strength is damned good as well; comes on good and stays without noticeable fading.
8/10 Scent Pleasantness
9/10 Scent Strength
10/10 Lather Quality
So, all in all, I’d say it’s a very solid 8/10.
Gear used:
Ingredients: Distilled water; saponified tallow and stearic acid; vegetable glycerin; saponified kokum butter, avocado oil, and shea butter; lanolin, fragrance and/or essential oil(s); saponified coconut oil; kaolin clay, vitamin E.
AdvertisementsMexico City is located in the Valley of Mexico, sometimes called the Basin of Mexico. This valley is located in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt in the high plateaus of south-central Mexico.[53][54] It has a minimum altitude of 2,200 meters (7,200 feet) above sea level and is surrounded by mountains and volcanoes that reach elevations of over 5,000 meters.[55] This valley has no natural drainage outlet for the waters that flow from the mountainsides, making the city vulnerable to flooding. Drainage was engineered through the use of canals and tunnels starting in the 17th century.[53][55] The city primarily rests on what was Lake Texcoco.[53] Seismic activity is frequent here.[56] Lake Texcoco was drained starting from the 17th century. Although none of the lake waters remain, the city rests on the lake bed's heavily saturated clay. This soft base is collapsing due to the over-extraction of groundwater, called groundwater-related subsidence. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the city has sunk as much as nine meters in some areas. This sinking is causing problems with runoff and wastewater management, leading to flooding problems, especially during the rainy season.[55][56] The entire lake bed is now paved over and most of the city's remaining forested areas lie in the southern boroughs of Milpa Alta, Tlalpan and Xochimilco.[56] Don't forget to check out our Kickstarter Campaign! If you love Curionic pledge what you can! Even a dollar and a share helps!
Click HereThe price of bitcoin surpassed $2,000 for the first time in history today, pushing the cryptocurrency to a fresh, new record amid rising trader interest.
The currency’s price rose as much as 2.62% during the session, according to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index (BPI) to hit a press time high of $2,019. By rising above $2,000, bitcoin’s price has surged more than 100% this year and nearly 125% since hitting an annual low of $891.51 in late March.
Now that the the digital currency has surpassed this key, psychological level of $2,000, it could experience some significant tailwinds, according to several analysts who spoke with CoinDesk.
High hopes
Arthur Hayes, co-founder and CEO of leveraged digital currency platform BitMEX, told CoinDesk that should bitcoin prices “convincingly” surpass $2,000, “the rate of price appreciation will accelerate dramatically”.
Charles Hayter, co-founder and CEO of CryptoCompare, also weighed in on the importance of this price level, stating:
“As a psychological level, bitcoin hitting $2,000 is an important milestone and will generate further interest that could boost the price further.”
Speaking of interest, analysts generally agreed that bitcoin’s rise above $2,000 could spur significant attention from the media. Hayes offered similar sentiment, stating that a sustained rise above $2,000 would prompt every major financial media outlet to cover bitcoin.
In spite of all this visibility, Hayter cautioned that sometimes, the “lack of sophistication” that goes along with mainstream media coverage “can be dangerous as it snowballs momentum.”
Interestingly enough, Google Trends data has thus far shown that online searches for the word “bitcoin” have still not recovered to the all-time high they set in December 2013, but they are getting closer. While a figure of 100 represents the highest point for these searches, the metric stood at 85 at the time of report.
While many agreed that bitcoin’s rise above $2,000 would spur greater media coverage, the factors that drove the currency’s price above this level seemed a bit more complex.
Growing trader interest
One development that has coincided with bitcoin’s sharp price gains over the last several months is the rising interest of traders, as measured by trading volume at major exchanges. Earlier this month, both Kraken and Poloniex announced that they were experiencing surging transaction activity.
Kraken indicated that on 5th May, trading volume across all digital assets surpassed $178m, setting an all-time high and beating the prior record by 25%.
Poloniex expressed similar sentiment, saying in a statement that:
“We have never seen such enthusiasm for trading blockchain tokens as we have in the past few months. Since January, we’ve seen an increase of more than 600% active traders online and regularly process 640% more transactions than we did merely [four] months ago.”
Another factor that has helped drive bitcoin prices is the rising influence of Japan in the bitcoin markets, where the technology is now regulated. The Japanese yen is the single largest currency being exchanged for bitcoin, accounting for more than 45% of the money flow into bitcoin at the time of report, according to CryptoCompare data.
The US dollar came in a relatively distant second, making up approximately 30% of the money flowing into bitcoin, according to additional CryptoCompare figures.
This increase in the use of the Japanese yen comes after Japan moved to formally recognize bitcoin as a legal method of payment starting 1st April. The country’s lawmakers enacted legislation that both classified the cryptocurrency as a type of prepaid payment instrument and also caused it to fall under anti-money laundering and know-your-customer rules.
Scaling dilemma fades
Bitcoin prices have even been rising sharply in spite of the cryptocurrency’s ongoing scaling dilemma, an ongoing issue with its transaction capacity that members of the bitcoin community have been trying to resolve.
Developers could address this problem by increasing block size, increasing the number of transactions that can fit into an individual block through Segregated Witness, or both. Thus far, the bitcoin network has failed to rally the support needed to bring about any such changes.
Still, bitcoin markets seem unhindered by the scaling dilemma, and Hayes spoke to this development:
“It appears the scaling issue is forgotten. The positive momentum and publicity continues to attract new capital into bitcoin.”
Rocket icon via ShutterstockThe Economist valuables index
PRICES for rare and valuable items are on the up. An index of the 50 finest and most valuable Ferraris, Porsches and other marques compiled by the Historic Automobile Group increased by 53% in the two years to July 2013. Price indices for vintage wine, fine art, rare stamps, precious coins and even classic guitars and violins have for the most part done well, too. The Economist has collated recognised indices for each of these assets to create a “valuables index”. We have weighted each asset in the index according to rich individuals’ holdings: 36% fine art, 25% classic cars, 17% coins, 10% wine, 6% stamps and 6% to guitars and violins. Our index has shot up by 211% in nominal terms since 2003 and by 54% since the first quarter of 2009. In comparison, the MSCI World, a rich-world stockmarket index, has increased by 147% since 2003, including income from dividends. See full article.Shoveling the Bike Path
A Walking Push Plow
My general laziness and keen engineering skills soon came to good use as I designed a pushable plow that would roll the snow out of the way and not require any lifting. It is like walking while pushing a baby stroller although in deep, wet snow it is like pushing a baby stroller carrying a 100 pound baby who is dragging his feet.
Right Front Front Rear
Bottom
Front Detail Extra "Wings" Diassembled for Transport Detail of Cargo area
The push plow with integrated shovel holder. (Click on any photo for a larger version.)
After years of not having much success riding my road bike in the snow, I discovered the seat could be raised high enough on my daughter's mountain bike for me to ride comfortably. Although the bike handled well in new snow, compacted, icy snow with hundreds of footprints and a few other bike tracks was a bit treacherous. I soon realized the amount of time it would take me to shovel the bike path would be paid back in a few days of quicker and easier riding. Additional motivation for this was the lack of any safe alternative route for a section of the forest preserve path. I could go across town to safer side streets but that would add almost 20 minutes each way on what is normally about a 30 minute commute. My first test at clearing a path was walking with a regular snow shovel. This worked fine although the constant lifting and dumping quickly tired my arms and back. Scraping the shovel on the pavement for a mile or so also wore down the metal tip. Heavier steel proved to be much more durable.The shovel is useful for chipping away at drifted or compacted snow.The rear box turns out to be a handy place to put my hat and jacket once I start getting sweaty.The "T" handle is removable so the whole unit fits in the trunk of a Honda Civic.The frame is made from 3/4" plywood and assorted 2x2 and 2x4 lumber. The top cover is shaped from aluminum flashing.The dark steel blade on front pivots on hinges to follow the contour of the pavement. The square front has the disadvantage of catching on most cracks.The whole unit is about 16" wide. Although one can ride a bike on a narrower path (and I did try a 7" plow), the snow tends to fall back into the cleared area and bike pedals will hit any snow deeper than a couple of inches. Most bikes need a width of about 15" to clear the pedals.The orange front wheel was added after I realized the front blade would gather a large mound of wet snow and the plow would become very difficult to push. There is an additional set of "wings" that bolt onto the rear to roll the snow out at a 30 degree angle. Heavy wet snow tends to form fairly large (almost 12") snow balls on the deck and they fall back into the plowed path if the wings are not used.This plow was used for four major snowfalls during the 2001-2002 winter season and performed well even in 7" of wet snow.Take a look at a simpler and improved version called The Drift Cutter A key lesson learned: Get out and clear the path soon after the snow stops, before it gets walked on and compacted!
Something faster is needed
The winter of 2002-2003 started out with a light 1" snowfall. The push plow did a nice job of clearing a narrow path but the effort of transporting the plow down to the bike path, walking while pushing it two miles and bringing it back home seemed to be a bit of overkill for such a light snow.Since I commute to work on my bike, something I could carry with me would be very convenient. I started experimenting with plows that could be towed behind a bike. I considered this to be safer than a front blade after my experiences jamming the push plow on cracks and bumps in the pavement. The first test plow was built out of vinyl gutter pieces. It had an apex angle (blade to blade) of about 40�. Experience with the push plow proved wheels to be useful. I found inexpensive scooter wheels at a local surplus store. They met the requirements of being durable, narrow and had nice bearings. The plow was pulled by a rope attached to the rear rack on the bike. It had fairly low mass so the front tended to lift every time the rope pulled taut. The plow would bounce as the plastic blades flexed and touched the pavement. The plow also tended to swerve side to side since the rope provided very little lateral stability. With a 16" rear width, the plow ended up being almost too long with such an acute apex angle. The plastic blades became very brittle in the cold and pieces broke off during the first test run but it did a good job of clearing the snow off of the path.After the first test run the essential features seemed to be:- A rigid hitch for lateral stability- A low angle hitch to prevent lifting- Wheels for a smooth ride- Steel blade edges for durability- Capability of folding up for transportI contemplated what an appropriate apex angle would be. An equilateral triangle had an appealing symmetry but I decided an isosceles right triangle would be enough for light snow and would provide maximum outward velocity of the ejected snow.
A plow towed behind a bike.
Photos on the Path
Ongoing Improvements
Some comments
This shows the plow deployed behind a bike.The carriage bolts on top mate with the rear rack holes during transport.The photos below show the original hitch design but click here to see the present hitch. Detail of the hitch attachment.A triangular piece of wood with slightly larger plywood sides is captured in the stays ahead of the rear axle.A piece of rope at the joint near the tire provides a flexible connection for cornering and tilt.The metal bracket holds the tip of a shovel in case I want to bring one along.A bolt and wing nut secure the flexible joint when the unit is up for transport.The yellow wire just makes removing the bolt easier.Detail of test ice breaking tooth.The clearance is adjustable. This tooth helped keep the wheel low but did occasionally catch on cracks. The stress of stopping the bike eventually cracked the main hitch bar and so the tooth was removed.Each steel blade meets the ground at a 45� angle. The sides are made from two pieces of 1x6 (actual size 3/4" x 5-1/2") wood fastened 90� to each other so the top of the blade tilts out at a 45� angle. I added a filler piece of wood to reinforce the joint. The cross section of the blade looks roughly like three sides of an octagon. The blue plastic is from a cheap roll up sled with the shiny side out. It helps keep wet snow from sticking to the blade.The plow flips up and rests on the bike bag for transit.A bungie cord holds it in place.Here are some higher resolution photos of the plow with a top mounted hitch (no longer used since it caused tilting) and no plastic sheeting. Bottom Top Front Right RearThe plow in action. (Action photos courtesy of Gary Ross.)A test scraper attachment is stowed on the top of the plow. It attaches behind the plow and is designed to skim down the hard packed crust that the main plow can't get.This is what the plow does. Note the relatively clean ski tracks to the sides of the plow track.These photos were taken only three days days after a snowfall with wind and drifting.Here is what the path looks like where it is not plowed. Note the ski tracks and foot prints.And nearby where the plow has been. Again, note the ski tracks and foot prints.Wet snows in February 2004 showed the need for more lift of the exiting snow. After a few snowfalls the plowed path has deep sides and the current design is not able to fling the snow over the edges of the trough. Wet snow then tends to pile up in front of the plow and can become heavy enough to stop the bike. You can see that happening somewhat even with the shallow track in the action photos.A modification has been made to open up the outer top half of each side to allow a more vertical and outward exit for the snow. A new design is in development that will also shape the sides of the trough outward similar to the action of the wings on the push plow.I have received many requests for drawings or parts lists. Click here to see more details and have a look at the next generation! Although I did not anticipate this, I have received many thanks from walkers, runners, bikers and even skiers. It seems people tend to walk in the most compacted path. A plowed path keeps most of the walkers out of the ski tracks.I have noticed even dogs will prefer to walk in the clear track.The plow does not remove the snow perfectly but it certainly is better than nothing at all.In general:- Dry pavement is easier to ride on than snowy pavement.- Thin snow is easier to ride on than deep snow.- Smooth snow is easier to ride on than lumpy snow.- Smooth ice is easier to ride on than lumpy ice.Even during a cold spell when the temperature does not exceed freezing for many days, the plow track will be clear and dry in a day or two just from sublimation. The plow does not have to scrape the pavement completely clean for this to occur.I have been asked "Why don't you just drive the car when it is too snowy?" There are many reasons why I decided to try to keep a clear path to ride on; the commute along the bike path is so much more peaceful than driving in traffic, it gives me an hour of (usually) low impact exercise at least 5 times a week, many of the side streets are plowed and the bike path is a small but critical portion of the ride, and so many other people can get out and use the path too.Someone called into the Sound Off for the March 1, 2003 edition of the Kane County Chronicle and said"I want to thank the thoughtful person or persons who, after a snowfall, shovels a single-lane footpath along the east side bike trail between Fabyan and Batavia. It makes our morning walk less hazardous and more enjoyable."Had social media existed in 1989, Manchester United might now be approaching their 50th year without a league title. Alex Ferguson |
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