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Eifert, TE, Bengals
When Eifert is on the field, he's one of the best red-zone weapons in football. The problem is that he's proving to be highly fragile (or highly unlucky, at least) early in his career. Now Eifert is again dealing with an injury that could force him to the sideline. He injured his ankle in the Pro Bowl and hoped it would heal without surgery, but that plan failed and he went under the knife in late May. With a 3-4 month timetable for recovery, it's likely Eifert will miss at least the first few weeks of the season. Considering where Eifert is being drafted and the possibility he doesn't return to his dominant red-zone form until mid-season, risk-averse fantasy owners may want to look elsewhere.
Risk Factor: ☢☢☢☢☢
ADP: Early 6th roundSocial media sites are filled with images of indulgent food. But when blogger and cookbook author Elizabeth Nyland posted a shot of an apple fritter doughnut, the guilt-inducing backlash was immediate.
Nyland said she was reminded about all the sugar, fat and refined flour she'd ingested. Others questioned her role as an ambassador of healthy eating.
The apple fritter picture that caused the uproar. (Courtesy Elizabeth Nyland ) "Someone said to me … 'You can't post pictures of doughnuts because then I will go out and buy a dozen doughnuts and eat the whole box,'" Nyland explained. Nyland
"[They said,] 'I can't see this picture because then I'll go out and eat all this food. I can't stop myself.'"
For Nyland, this so-called food shaming felt quite personal. In the past she's battled her weight and also an eating disorder — something she traces back to a fundamentally unhealthy relationship with food.
In recent years, as an advocate for a whole foods-based diet, she said her relationship with food has never been better. But as her health-focused fan base grew, she saw more and more instances of food shaming online, with readers who sharply criticized any perceived unhealthy eating.
"Maybe it's because people are on this diet or that diet," she said. "So they just have this 'food police' attitude that they can say whatever they want about what you eat."
And it's not only online. Food shaming can come in the form of passive-aggressive comments at social gatherings or parent groups. It's a form of healthy eating one-up-manship, an attitude that ignores the various reasons we all eat food in the first place.
Most times those reasons are, of course, for sustenance and health. But other times, we eat for fun, to bond with friends or to socialize. Nyland's writing has always reflected that reality.
"I felt like I could post a bunch of healthy recipes … and then a big pie or a big cake. And then we switched to a more paleo diet and then people became really critical."
That indignation, Nyland said, is problematic. Not only is food shaming rude, but it also stems from a failure to acknowledge the many reasons we eat certain things, beyond sustenance and nutrition.
"That's what we do; it's a fun thing that we do on the weekend," she said, laughing. "We have a doughnut, it's part of life."An Advance Centre for Yoga Therapy and Research was inaugurated at the Government Medical College in Jammu on Friday.
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Minister for Health and Medical Education Bali Bhagat dedicated the centre to the public.
He called upon the people to make Yoga a part of their life, saying it has been acknowledged globally as best therapy for relieving stress and keep mind and body fit.
Bhagat said the newly opened centre will not only provide the infrastructure facility for practising Yoga but also prove useful in generating the research data which can be used to create health policies of the state in future.
“A similar centre will be setup at Srinagar to provide the people an opportunity to attend Yoga classes and take the benefit of this unique therapy,” he said.
Bhagat said it was a landmark achievement in India’s history when the United Nations adopted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposal to observe International Day for Yoga on June 21, with a record support of 177 member states.
Asserting that Yoga means unity, he said it is the practice of uniting Humans with God.
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The benefit of Yoga is that it prepares one’s body, mind and soul for the practice of relaxation and meditation which leads to good health, the Minister added.Roughly once a day the sky is lit up by a mysterious torrent of energy. These events — known as gamma-ray bursts — represent the most powerful explosions in the cosmos, sending out as much energy in a fraction of a second as our Sun will give off during its entire lifespan.
Yet no one has ever witnessed a gamma-ray burst directly. Instead astronomers are left to study their fading light.
New research from an international team of astronomers has discovered a puzzling feature within one Gamma-ray burst, suggesting that these objects may behave differently than previously thought.
These powerful explosions are thought to be triggered when dying stars collapse into jet-spewing black holes. While this stage only lasts a few minutes, its afterglow — slowly fading emission that can be seen at all wavelengths (including visible light) — will last for a few days to weeks. It is from this afterglow that astronomers meticulously try to understand these enigmatic explosions.
The afterglow emission is formed when the jets collide with the material surrounding the dying star. They cause a shockwave, moving at high velocities, in which electrons are being accelerated to tremendous energies. However, this acceleration process is still poorly understood. The key is in detecting the afterglow’s polarization — the fraction of light waves that move with a preferred plane of vibration.
“Different theories for electron acceleration and light emission within the afterglow all predict different levels of linear polarization, but theories all agreed that there should be no circular polarization in visible light,” said lead author Klaas Wiersema in a press release.
“This is where we came in: we decided to test this by carefully measuring both the linear and circular polarization of one afterglow, of GRB 121024A, detected by the Swift satellite.”
And to their surprise, the team detected circular polarization, meaning that the light waves are moving together in a uniform, spiral motion as they travel. The gamma-ray burst was 1000 times more polarized than expected. “It is a very nice example of observations ruling out most of the existing theoretical predictions,” said Wiersema.
The detection shows that current theories need to be re-examined. Scientists expected any circular polarization to be washed out. The radiation of so many electrons travelings billions of light-years would erase any signal. But the new discovery suggests that there could be some sort of order in the way these electrons travel.
Of course the possibility remains that this particular afterglow was simply an oddball and not all afterglows behave like this.
Nonetheless “extreme shocks like the ones in GRB afterglows are great natural laboratories to push our understanding of physics beyond the ranges that can be explored in laboratories,” said Wiersema.
The paper has been published in Nature.Frankie Dettori has signed an exclusive deal with Ladbrokes to become a brand ambassador for the bookmaker with immediate effect.
The deal will see Dettori become the face of some marketing, brand, media and internal communications campaigns for the firm while his racing views will be published throughout the year exclusively.
“I am really pleased to be working with Ladbrokes,” Dettori said. “I've come to know the team there very well over the years and I'm looking forward to working more closely with them now. It's a challenge I am excited about and it's a great opportunity to promote racing as widely as possible.”
The deal, which is the most extensive of its kind to date for will also make use of Dettori's profile to promote other events in the bookmaker's portfolio of sport sponsorships.
“Frankie has been the biggest name in the sport for two decades,” UK marketing director Dan Staples added. “He is pure box office and we're delighted that he's joining Ladbrokes as our ambassador. His sporting passion for everything from Ascot to Arsenal is infectious and makes him stand out as the ultimate fit for our brand.Future Retail has built its Brand Factory sale around the demonetisation move and the new Rs 2000 note. The sales have done 50 percent better than what was expected, said Kishore Biyani, CEO of Future Group.Since demonetisation, sales have picked up with the addition of new customers. Modern retail did not face much issue as they were already using cards and wallets for payment. However, the Group’s cash transactions have reduced to 17-18 percent from 65 percent.Some glitches do happen while making credit and debit card payments over weekends, but these are not much.Biyani said that the worry is the additional cost that will come with the digital payment system. However, he is confident that the government will extend some subventions on charges beyond this year-end.The group is confident of achieving its FY16 revenue target of Rs 25,000 crore.
Q: You have the Free Shopping Weekend at Brand Factory. Do you see demand picking up post demonetisation?
A: We are quite there in urban centres and 99 percent of our customers have bank account or they use the debit or credit card or other wallets. However, we saw the slowdown for the first two-three days and then it gradually picked up but as a group we respond to whatever events have happened around us. We believe that there is an opportunity in everything which comes.
Therefore, an event like Free Shopping has brought in crowd in huge number. We were always about targets even after demonetisation and this will take us to another level. We are doing 50 percent better than what we were expecting of the preview sale that we did yesterday. There are queues outside most of our store today.
Brand Factory as a concept was always on discount, but we thought there is huge insight which will pick up because everybody has Rs 2,000 note, so we build a scheme - pay Rs 2,000 and shop for Rs 5,000 and plus. I think this has caught on very well and the response has been unbelievably good.
Q: In terms of recovery, across the formats that you operate in, what has been the recovery there? Can you give us some estimate or some numbers to point towards some sort of recovery?
A: Modern retail has no issues as such because we as a group accept debit, credit cards and other wallets. Therefore, it has never been a challenge for us. We launched our own wallet called Future Pay also which has been rightly timed. We saw a lot of new customers coming into our store, shopping pattern has changed but there has been a pent-up demand because there is a season of festivities right now, December is on, the wedding season is going on. So demand would always be there. However, goods are not there everywhere; luckily we have our own supply chain, so it has been working well for us.
Q: In terms of tier II and tier III cities, how do you assess, how do you gauge the demand there?
A: We can say for our format that since we run our own supply chain, our availability of stock is at the best. We accept all credit cards except on Saturdays and Sundays because we face peak rush; there are issues on credit and debit card transactions because the servers do not take the capacity of the banks or service providers. There are glitches to the digitisation move which is happening but at the moment we are enjoying it.
Q: Can you give us a breakup of how much cash and cashless transactions are happening at this point in time and also I do understand that with cashless transactions the cost that you bear, as a retailer, are slightly more.
A: We have always believed in the cost of doing digital transaction because we have been accepting it always but the cost of digital transactions are high and we believe that the government is going to give some subvention on the charges which they have given at the moment, till December 30, and expect that we get some more subvention on credit card charges. Wallets are very expensive. So ultimately there is a cost of doing digital transaction and everything moves digital. So there is an incremental cost on us but we expect that the government will definitely work on this and give us some subvention on that.
Q: As far as the breakup is concerned, how much is cash versus cashless transaction at this point?
A: In Big Bazaar, prior to demonetisation we were at 65 percent cash which has come down to 17-18 percent now.
Q: You have been working with a target of about Rs 1 lakh crore by 2021. Are we still on that target and in terms of short-term, as far as FY17 is concerned, what kind of revenues, at the group level, can we expect at this point?
A: We are well on track with what we have set for ourselves. This year as a group we targeted Rs 25,000 crore revenue which we think we are absolutely on track and as we move forward in the next five years we have a target of Rs 100,000 crore for which we have laid the building blocks and the foundation and once everything comes into place, we should be able to get that number soon.
Q: In terms of growth you are looking at 30 percent plus compound annual growth rate (CAGR). Do you stick by that growth or would you look at perhaps revising it in terms of the current domestic factors that have come into play?
A: There is no better time than this for formal trade because goods and services tax (GST) coming, latest by September and demonetisation. I think it has been a boon for organised players.I started playing Magic the Gathering over twenty years ago, when I was a thirteen year-old kid in the seventh grade. Since then, playing Magic has taken me to dozens of countries across five continents, and has been responsible for not only my career, but also virtually all of my closest friendships. I am one of the leading money winners in Magic tournament history, and in 2010 I was inducted into the Magic Pro Tour Hall of Fame.
And yet when I sit down to play a card game today, it isn’t going to be Magic. It’s going to be Hearthstone.
BRIAN KIBLER
In addition to his illustrious record as an MTG pro, Brian was lead designer on the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game, which was the paper precursor for Hearthstone. He is also currently senior game designer on Solforge. You can read more of his writing at bmkgaming and see him stream Hearthstone here. I hope you like dragons.
I love Magic. I think it’s the greatest game ever made, even to this day. It created the entire collectible gaming category that has taken the world by storm, and spawned any number of incredibly successful imitators, from Pokemon to Yu-Gi-Oh to Hearthstone. But while its descendants have evolved to take advantage of the new digital revolution in gaming, Magic has failed to keep up with times.
It’s strange that things have gotten to this point, because much like Magic was the first CCG, it was also among the first games to introduce the idea of selling digital objects. Back when Magic Online was released in 2002, the application name was “MODO”, which stood for “Magic Online Digital Objects”. To assuage the fears of a community that wasn’t accustomed to paying real money for virtual goods—as well as to justify charging the same full retail price for digital booster packs—Magic Online included a redemption program that allowed players to exchange a full set of cards online for that same set in paper. This decision was one of many made to anchor Magic Online as closely as possible to the physical game, a philosophy that has caused significant problems over the years.
The most recent foray into the digital space—Magic Duels: Origins—has done away with the same strict tethering. Not only has it embraced the free-to-play philosophy of other games in the digital CCG space, and allowed players to earn cards rather than purchase them, but it has a response timer system that has something more a videogame feel than the sometimes ponderous pace of paper Magic (and thus Magic Online).
These modifications, among others, have led to Duels being a big success at bringing new players into the game. But for established players like me, it doesn’t have the same appeal. So much of what has kept me in Magic over the years is the competition of tournament play, and the vast open-endedness of deck building, neither of which Duels offers in a manner comparable to paper Magic or Magic Online. A lot of people have asked me while I’m streaming Hearthstone on Twitch if I’m going to stream Duels some time too, and I tell them that I just don’t find the same enjoyment in a watered down version of my favorite game.
Magic is an incredible game, but right now, it just isn't a very good videogame.
If Magic wants to keep up with the kids these days, and to keep its old time fans like me engaged in this era of digital gaming, it needs to find a middle ground between Magic Online and Duels. Here are the three biggest area that Magic’s digital offerings need to improve to find a firm footing in today’s online gaming marketplace.
Hearthstone
Convenience
I can log on to Hearthstone and play a ranked or arena game at almost any time of day, and if I only have time for that one game, that’s okay. On Magic Online, signing up for any tournament is a serious commitment of several hours, and you can’t just leave in the middle without giving up your entry fee and possible prizes. Magic needs to adjust its online competitive offerings to make them more convenient, especially for its older fans who may not be able to block off hours at a time to play. Duels simply has no real outlet for competitive play.
Magic Online
Stream Friendliness
It’s Twitch’s world now. The rest of us are just living in it. Online streaming is the way that an entire generation discovers and interacts with games, and it isn’t going away. Magic Online not only suffers from long downtime between matches, as mentioned above, but also an interface that is very difficult for anyone but the most experienced players to follow. Duels is a step in the right direction, with a smooth game flow, animations, and sound effects that people don’t just turn off by default. I’d do away with the simulated perspective of the game board for more of a top-down view, since cards are already hard enough to read when the board gets cluttered. If people can’t tell what’s going on, they won’t watch. If they don’t watch, they’re unlikely to start playing.
Magic Duels
Cost
This may be where Magic Online is hamstrung the most, because many players have invested a great deal to build their collections. Shifting the basic economy away from a same-as-physical price model would massively undermine the confidence of the existing player base, but something has to be done. You can play Hearthstone arena for just two dollars, or for free with in-game gold, while a Magic draft is almost fifteen dollars retail on Magic Online. Duels is much friendlier price-wise, with the ability to earn all of the content for free in the new release, but lacks the same competitive appeal as either Magic Online or Hearthstone.
Magic is an incredible game, but right now, it just isn’t a very good videogame. But if Wizards of the Coast can make it faster, prettier, and cheaper, it just might be good enough to bite off a chunk of huge digital card game audience that has had its appetite whet by Hearthstone and is hungry for more.A commentator on Wednesday suggested that the real solution to the “pay for play” scandal involving Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation would have been to shut down the non-profit in 2009, when she became secretary of state.
Too late.
Now, with Clinton campaign staff on the defensive, New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is forecasting it will end up being one of the biggest political scandals in America.
Ever.
“I am more than willing to predict, when the history of our day is written, the scandal you are watching unfold is going to be like the Teapot Dome scandal in the 1920s and maybe bigger. It’s going to be bigger than Watergate,” he said at a campaign rally for GOP nominee Donald Trump in Tampa, Florida.
“Nixon had to leave office, and he did a lot of bad things, but it wasn’t raking in millions and millions of dollars through a phony charity,” he said. “I’m not sure how much money was involved in the Teapot Dome, but I bet it could not have been much more than the hundreds of millions of dollars the Clintons have been getting and turning the State Department into a pay-for-play operation.”
The Daily Caller reported Giuliani was “outraged” at the “numerous, numerous serious federal felonies” Clinton committed.
Now more than ever, Bill and Hill are “Partners in Crime.” Jerome Corsi reveals “The Clintons’ scheme to monetize the White House for personal profit.”
It was John Cassidy in the New Yorker who suggested the closure should have happened eight years ago.
“It’s getting hard to keep track of all the developments in the story of the Clinton Foundation and Clinton emails,” he wrote.
But he cited an opinion from the Boston Globe regarding the controversy.
“Even if they’ve done nothing illegal, the foundation will always look too much like a conflict of interest for comfort,” the paper said.
And the progressive Huffington Post ran a headline on its homepage that blared “JUST SHUT IT DOWN,” as WND reported.
“At this stage, many Democrats (including, I’d guess, some members of the Clinton campaign) just want the Clinton Foundation to go away. But that won’t happen. … A strong argument can be made that the Clinton Foundation should have been closed, or at least thoroughly overhauled, before Clinton became secretary of state, at the start of 2009. But to shut down the foundation now, when it is under severe attack, would only give credence to Trump’s claims that it was never more than a corrupt scheme to enrich its founders and their cronies,” he wrote.
In a commentary at Fox News, Newt Gingrich, who was speaker of the U.S. House from 1995 to 1999, suggested correcting that error now.
He pointed out that’s not just his opinion, but also that of former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, who also was the Democratic National Committee chief.
“I definitely think if she wins the presidency they have to disband it,” Rendell said.
Gingrich said the same sentiment is coming from the San Diego Union-Tribune, which said, “These special interests are not giving money because the foundation is such an effective charitable organization; a 2013 New York Times investigation made it seem chaotic. They are not paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to hear shopworn speeches because they expect to obtain profound insights. They want the Clintons’ help, and they’re willing to pay for it.”
Gingrich cited the “appearance of corruption, the obvious and inevitable conflicts of interests, and the unseemly arrangements” that have surrounded the foundation.
“The Clintons didn’t care. They repeatedly violated their ethics agreement with the Obama administration to disclose and seek approval for foreign donors and speech clients,” he said. “Now they are making similar promise to the American people in order to ease Hillary’s path to the presidency. But just as the Obama administration was foolish to take them at their word, so would be the American people today.”
The “only acceptable action,” he concluded, is for the foundation to be shut down “right now.”
Clinton late Wednesday called in to Anderson Cooper’s show on CNN, Real Clear Politics reported, to admit there was a controversy about the foundation.
This is how she put it:
“Look, Anderson, I know there is a lot of smoke and there is no fire. This AP report put in it context. This excludes nearly 2,000 meetings I had with world leaders. And countless other meetings with U.S. government officials when I was secretary of state. It looks at a small portion of my time.”
She cited meetings such as those with the late Holocaust survivor Elie Weisel, Melinda Gates and Muhammad Yunus. The AP report said more than half of the non-governmental meetings she had during a time period in office were with those individuals who also had donated to the foundation.
She downplayed the idea that those meetings “were somehow due to connections with the foundation instead of their status as highly respected global leaders.”
“That is absurd,” she said. “These are people I would be proud to meet with, who any secretary of state would have been proud to meet with, to hear about their work and their insights.”
And Clinton’s defenders were losing their cool.
On CNN, Paul Begala, a Democrat activist and senior adviser for Priorities USA Action, “flipped out,” according to the Free Beacon.
“This is the Associated Press report that both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have now responded to that 85, Hillary Clinton, when she was secretary of state, met with 85 major donors to the Clinton Foundation. They gave something like in total $156 million to the foundation. How is that not paying for access?” host Alisyn Camerota asked Begala.
“How is it?” Begala said.
“They paid money and they got to meet with the secretary of state,” Camerota said.
“And who were they and what did they get? This really infuriates me,” Begala said.
Begala repeatedly talked over Camerota in the interview.
He even made the claim that the Clinton Foundation “keeps millions of people alive.”
The London Daily Mail said Clinton’s campaign “went into spin mode Wednesday, calling the AP’s report an exercise in ‘cherry-picking.'”
“Chief strategist Joel Benenson said the Associated Press report was ‘cherry-picking’ Clinton’s long-hidden schedules from her time as secretary of state,” the report said. “Campaign manager Robby Mook used the exact same word to describe the blockbuster article that dominated Tuesday afternoon’s news cycle.”
Trump campaign policy director Stephen said in an email: “Secretary Clinton, you claim the AP report is an incomplete accounting of your meetings. Why don’t you clear up any problems with the AP report by releasing all of your schedules from while you were in charge of the State Department?”
Trump’s opinion?
“It is a total embarrassment if our secretary of state can be bought or bribed or sold.”
The International Business Times also presented some interesting points.
“In May, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Clinton Foundation ‘set up a financial commitment that benefited a for-profit company part-owned by people with ties to the Clintons.'”
The benefit was $812,000, but the Journal noted, “Under federal law, tax-exempt charitable organizations aren’t supposed to act in anyone’s private interest but instead in the public interest.”
And it reported in 2010, Clinton “pushed Russia to approve a $3.7 billion purchase from Boeing.”
“Two months after the deal was solidified, reported the [Washington Post], Boeing announced a $900,000 contribution to the Clinton Foundation.
“A 2015 analysis by Vox found that ‘at least 181 companies, individuals, and foreign governments that have given to the Clinton Foundation also lobbied the State Department when Hillary Clinton ran the place.’ IBT reported that Bill Clinton was paid more than $2.5 million by firms that were lobbying Hillary Clinton’s department.”
The report also has details on a coal deal involving Morocco, Algeria and Colombia.
The result, the IBT said, was a “new political firestorm.”
David Horsey at the Los Angeles Times wrote of the foundation and its donors, “No doubt good intentions were involved, but, at least for some donors, there was also an interest in getting access to a former president of the Untied States and a possible future president – and at least a secretary of state.”
He continued: “In politics donations buy access. Senators and members of Congress spend an obscene share of their days in office begging for campaign contributions and then many more hours hosting those contributors in private meetings. A secretary of state should be above that. Even though Clinton, herself, did not solicit donations, her husband did and, especially when the money came from foreign powers, that raises concerns both about ethics and foreign policy.
“Appearances are important, even if intentions are pure.”
Now more than ever, Bill and Hill are “Partners in Crime.” Jerome Corsi reveals “The Clintons’ scheme to monetize the White House for personal profit.”Globally, People Point to ISIS and Climate Change as Leading Security Threats
Concern about cyberattacks, world economy also widespread
People around the globe identify ISIS and climate change as the leading threats to national security, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. The survey asked about eight possible threats. While the level and focus of concern varies by region and country, ISIS and climate change clearly emerge as the most frequently cited security risks across the 38 countries polled.
ISIS is named as the top threat in a total of 18 countries surveyed – mostly concentrated in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the United States. A substantial number of these countries have endured deadly terrorist attacks claimed by the Islamic militant group.
In 13 countries, mostly in Latin America and Africa, publics identify global climate change as the topmost threat. It is the second-ranked concern in many other countries polled.
Cyberattacks from other countries and the condition of the global economy are named as major threats by global medians of 51% each. Cyberattacks are the top concern in Japan and second-highest concern in places such as the U.S., Germany and the UK, where there have been a number of high-profile attacks of this type in recent months.
People in Greece and Venezuela view the health of the international economy as the leading threat to their countries, perhaps reflecting these nations’ economic struggles in recent years. Many countries surveyed in the Middle East and Latin America name economic turmoil as their second-greatest concern.
The influx of refugees, which was of particular concern in Europe in 2016, is seen as a major threat by a median of 39% across the 38 countries. It is the top threat in only one country, however: Hungary.
Globally, a median of about one-third view the power and influence of the U.S., Russia or China as a major threat. America’s influence is a top concern in Turkey. And in South Korea and Vietnam, eight-in-ten or more name China’s power and influence as a major threat. Meanwhile, among the countries surveyed, fears of Russia are most acute in Poland.
These are among the major findings of a Pew Research Center survey conducted among 41,953 respondents in 38 countries that was conducted from Feb. 16 to May 8, 2017.
In general, there has been little change in the global threat assessment since the last time these questions were asked. But worries about the U.S. and its power and influence have increased in many countries in Europe and around the world since the election of Donald Trump. (For more, see here, and for a broader assessment of Trump’s impact on the international image of the United States, see the June 26 report, “U.S. Image Suffers as Publics Around World Question Trump’s Leadership.”)
Worries about the global economy align with concerns about national economies
Across the 38 countries surveyed, there is a strong positive association between overall negative perceptions of the national economy and general assessment of the global economy as a major threat. For example, in Greece, 98% say their nation’s economic situation is bad and 88% name the condition of the global economy as the top threat. By contrast, only 12% in the Netherlands say their national economy is bad, with a corresponding 21% who name the worldwide economy as a great concern.
Top threats by global region
The story of global threats in 2017 is partly regional in nature. Although ISIS and climate change are frequently cited as major threats, publics in particular countries and regions vary in the intensity and focus of their concerns.
ISIS is clearly the primary concern among the issues tested in Europe. Many Europeans also see climate change as a major threat to their countries.
In the Asia-Pacific, the Islamic State group and global warming rise to the top as major concerns, but a median of roughly half (52%) also worry about cyberattacks. A median of 47% across the region say China’s power and influence is a major threat.
Among people across the Middle East and North Africa, ISIS is the top threat in four of the five countries surveyed, including 97% who name it as a major threat in Lebanon. People in the Middle East are also concerned about the condition of the global economy and the power and influence of the U.S.
In sub-Saharan Africa, people are most concerned about climate change, but other threats such as the refugee crisis, ISIS, cyberattacks and the global economy are concerns of around half or more across the six nations surveyed.
Regionally, Latin Americans show the greatest concern about climate change. It is the top threat in six of the seven nations surveyed. But they also worry about the global economy. In all Latin American nations surveyed – including Venezuela and Brazil, two nations that have seen economic hardships recently – at least half say that the condition of the global economy is a serious threat to their country. (For more on economic and political problems in Brazil, see “How Brazilians view their country’s economic and political crises.”)
In Europe and U.S., ISIS is seen as a major threat
Across 10 European nations, the U.S., Canada and Russia, majorities in most countries name ISIS as a serious threat to their countries. This includes a median of 74% across the European countries who say that ISIS is a major threat to their nation. The same number in the U.S. (74%) name ISIS as a top threat to their country. Relative to the other threats tested, people are especially worried about the Islamic State group in France (88%), Italy (85%) and Russia (58%).
While ISIS is the top threat in most of these countries, global climate change is also a pressing concern, especially in Spain (89%), Sweden (64%) and Canada (60%), where this issue tops the list. Across the 10 EU countries, a median of 64% say global climate change is a major threat. A slim majority in the U.S. (56%) see global climate change as a major threat.
While half or more in seven of these 13 countries see cyberattacks from other countries as a major threat, in no country is it named as the top threat. Still, in the U.S. and Germany – both countries that have been targets of major attacks over the past year – 71% and 66% respectively see cyberattacks as a major threat. And across the 10 European countries, 54% say cyberattacks are a major concern. But only around a third in Russia agree (34%).
The large number of refugees coming from places like Iraq and Syria is named as the top threat in only one European country, Hungary, where 66% say the movement of refugees is a major threat. Worries about the refugee threat have somewhat abated in Europe over the past year. In spring 2016, a median of 49% said refugees were a major threat, compared with 41% who say this in 2017.
Fewer people in Europe see the condition of the global economy as a major threat. But in Greece, which has been mired in economic crisis for close to a decade, 88% name the global economy as a major threat, making it the topmost choice in that country. And 72% in Spain share the same level of concern about the economy.
While Russia’s power and influence are not named as the greatest threat in any of the countries polled in Europe or North America, there is particular concern in Poland (65%). And 47% in the U.S. see Russia as a major threat, but there is a partisan divide: 61% of Democrats say Russia’s power and influence is a major threat, compared with only 36% of Republicans. Across all of Europe, a median of 41% perceive Russia as a major threat.
U.S. power and influence is seen as a major threat by a median of 31% across Europe. Spain, however, is an outlier, with 59% worried about the U.S. In six European countries surveyed and Canada, worries about American power and influence are up since 2016. (For more on this trend, see here.)
China’s power and influence are seen as a major threat by a modest median of three-in-ten across Europe.
Demographic divides in Europe, U.S., Canada and Russia on top threats
Within the countries of Europe and North America, concern over many of the listed threats differs substantially between demographic groups. One of the starker divides is that of political ideology.
The most significant differences by ideology are on the refugee threat. In all of the countries surveyed in Europe and North America, those on the political right are more concerned about the large number of refugees coming from the Middle East than those on the left. For example, in Germany, 51% on the right say that the movement of refugees is a major threat, versus only 14% who say this on the political left. A similar divide exists in the U.S. between self-described conservatives (60% say refugees are a major threat) and liberals (14%).
In Europe, there is also a pattern of more concern about the refugee threat from those who favor right-wing populist parties. In France, for instance, supporters of Marine Le Pen’s National Front (FN) are roughly twice as likely to be concerned about the refugee threat (65%) as are those who do not support FN (32%). Similar divides exists between supporters and detractors of Alternative for Germany (AfD); the United Kingdom Independence Party; the Party for Freedom (PVV) in the Netherlands; and the Sweden Democrats.
A similar right-left divide also exists for those who see ISIS as a major threat. In Canada, 59% on the right say that ISIS is a major threat, compared with only 33% of those on the left. Significant political divides on the ISIS threat also exist in the U.S. (a 22-percentage-point difference) and seven other EU countries.
On the threat of global climate change, there is a reverse pattern, with those on the political left in some countries more concerned about it than those on the right. This is most stark in the U.S., where 86% of liberals say climate change is a major concern, versus only 31% of conservatives. But this left-right divide also exists in Canada, the Netherlands, the UK, Sweden and Germany, though not to the same extent as in America.
In views of ISIS as a threat, there is also a divide by age. In seven countries in Europe, North America and Russia, people ages 50 and older are much more concerned about the threat from the extremist group than are the young. For example, in the Netherlands, 78% |
married to Edward Russell, 3rd Earl of Bedford then aged 22. He was an invalid and she largely led her own life.
Buys Twickenham Park estate
A wealthy woman in her own right, in 1608 she bought the Twickenham Park estate from Francis Bacon and made it her principal residence.
The gardens were laid out and a new house built, reputedly to the designs of Robert Smythson, although there is some doubt about this. What is certain only is that he made a drawing of the house and garden, dated 1609 (as he did also of Ham House), which may have been a survey rather than a design. It is likely that the house was still under construction at the time.
A woman of influence
She was a close friend of Queen Anne who made her a Lady of the Bedchamber. From 1603 to 1620 she was one of the most influential women in England: talented, charming, vivacious, and a performer in masques designed by Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones.
Her houses were a meeting place for poets, writers and wits whom she patronised. One of these John Donne wrote, among other things, a poem titled Twicknam Garden.
In 1617 her husband purchased Moor Park in Hertfordshire and she moved there, passing the lease of Twickenham Park to her cousin Sir William Harington. An extravagant woman, she had spent her fortune and, in 1627, she died a few days after her husband, "having no belongings."
Further reading:
Alan C B Urwin, Twicknam Parke, Alan Urwin, 1965
A C B Urwin, The Houses and Gardens of Twickenham Park 1227-1805, Borough of Twickenham Local History Society Paper No 54, 1984
Dictionary of National Biography
back to topRepublicans on Capitol Hill may think that the deadly attack in Benghazi, Libya is a scandal that besmirches Hillary Clinton’s legacy at the State Department, but a new poll released Monday found that voters trust the former secretary of state over the Congressional GOP on the increasingly contentious issue.
The latest survey from Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling found that nearly half of voters nationwide — 49 percent — trust Clinton more than Congressional Republicans when it comes to Benghazi. Thirty-nine percent said they trust Republicans more.
Those findings may be seen as an extension of the disparate popularity between Clinton and the GOP. Fifty-two percent of voters said they have a favorable opinion of Clinton, compared with 57 percent who said they have an unfavorable opinion of Congressional Republicans.A mysterious 50-foot sea creature drew international attention after washing up and decomposing on a beach in Indonesia last week. Pictures showed the behemoth looked unlike anything the public had seen before, prompting inquiries into just what the massive animal could have been.
Scientists appear to have solved that mystery, at least partly. Most experts agreed the rotting corpse was likely that of some sort of whale, though exactly what kind remained unknown.
The bloated creature was found on Hulung Beach on Serum Island in Indonesia’s Maluku province. Thirty-seven year-old resident Asrul Tuanakota happened upon it accidentally at night, first mistaking it for a stranded boat.
Read: Watch This Mysterious 50-Foot Sea Creature Rotting On An Indonesian Beach
Pictures showed the giant animal’s decomposing skin turning the surrounding waters red. Initial suggestions speculated that the creature could have been a giant squid, but most scientists agreed, based on the images, that couldn’t be the case.
Giant Sea Creature 2 More
Photo: Abhy Hafik/Facebook
“Giant squids are invertebrates and there are clearly bones visible (jaw, skull, vertebrate) so I am very comfortable saying it’s some type of rorqual whale,” Regina Asmutis-Silvia, executive director of Whale and Dolphin Conversation, told the Huffington Post. “Certain species of baleen whales (rorquals) have ventral grooves which run from their chin to their belly button. It is a stretchy tissue that expands when they feed.”
Other experts agreed it was likely a type of baleen whale, which would account for some of the red discoloration surrounding the animal.
“Whales are full of oil, and it’s kind of orangey,” Moe Flannery, the collections manager in ornithology and mammalogy at the California Academy of Sciences, told Live Science, noting that the coloring was probably a mixture of blood and oil.
While most guesses concluded it was some type of baleen whale, discerning the species based just off images would be impossible. Scientists in the area took samples of the body in order to find out definitively what it was, but the results had not yet been revealed.
“[Based] on the images and videos, in the advanced state of decomposition, it is not possible to determine whether it is a humpback whale or not,” Marcus Chua, a museum officer at the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum told Mashable. He noted that it might be a baleen whale, but also nixed the idea of it being a giant squid because they are not usually present in the area.
Read: Journey Through The Ocean On The Back Of A Leatherback Sea Turtle
Though the DNA results have not yet come back, residents in the area have a bigger concern: the smell. The creature has begun to reek and locals asked the government to step in to remove it before it gets any worse.
At the very least, scientists concluded the washed up creature was certainly not a species unknown to humans.
“There is lots of stuff in the ocean that we don’t know about,” Alexander Werth, a whale biologist at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, told Live Science. “But there’s nothing that big.”
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Related ArticlesFollowing my adventure in Japan and the incredible discovery of Nara Dreamland, I had the chance to explore another abandoned theme park: The “Western village”. This attraction park was in fact a far west village where you could freely walk around and feel like a cowboy for a few hours. Reminding you of something? Indeed! The excellent show that you might have already seen: “Westworld”!
Built in 1975, the Western Village was the first amusement park in Japan dedicated to the Far-West. During your visit, you could find and have fun in the replicas of a saloon, a bank, a post-office, a sheriff office, a barber, a shooting gallery and even a fake mount Rushmore and Rio Grande! But what is the most surprising is that you can still find many animatronics hidden the park. They kind of look like old movie stars (is that Clint Eastwood in the sheriff office?). Many other buildings (restaurants, shops…) related to the USA were standing everywhere in the park to complete the experience.
But living the American dream couldn’t last forever there. As many theme parks in Japan, western Village” closed in 2007 due to the competition of other parks and its remote location. Now, few explorers still go there and try to imagine what it was like to travel back in time in the wild west for an afternoon.
Now it’s your turn to travel in Westworld, and who knows, maybe you will find the maze?
More info: amazon.comIf you thought The Flash's time-travel rules were confusing before, you haven't seen anything yet.
After Barry (Grant Gustin) went back in time to save his mother at the very end of the season-two finale, speculation ran wild that The CW's superhero drama would be tackling the groundbreaking DC Comics storyline Flashpoint in season three because of that shocking and consequential choice. Gustin later teased fans on Twitter by not divulging the title of the season-three premiere, until showrunner Greg Berlanti gave him permission to reveal the name.
"FLASHPOINT. This is not drill," Gustin tweeted. "We're definitely doing this FP thing our own way. I've read Flashpoint, I've seen the amazing animated film. This will be its own thing."
But by simply revealing that one word title, Gustin and Berlanti actually disclosed a lot of information about what season three is going to be about. For Flashpoint newbies, the story comes from the 2011 comic book crossover of the same name written by DC Comics boss Geoff Johns. The consequences of Flashpoint reverberated throughout the DC Comics universe, leading the comic giant into a massive re-launch of its titles called "The New 52." The storyline was most recently brought to life in 2013 with an animated movie titled Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, which followed the Flashpoint story closely.
The story of Flashpoint follows Barry as he wakes up in an alternate timeline, first believing that the timeline was created by his enemy Reverse-Flash. Barry has no powers, meaning the Flash does not exist in the new timeline, and his mother is alive. Other differences to the timeline include: the Justice League does not exist; Aquaman is at war with Wonder Woman, causing massive death and destruction across the globe; Captain Cold is actually Central City's biggest hero; Superman has been held captive by the government for most of his life — and thus is not a worldwide hero — Cyborg is the world's greatest hero instead; and Batman is Thomas Wayne instead of his son Bruce.
Barry later finds out in the story that he is actually at fault for changing history, since he went back in time to save his mother from the Reverse-Flash. He literally pulled the entire speed force into himself to stop his nemesis and save his mother, causing all his allies' histories to shatter and the world to fall into the brutal Atlantean/Amazonian war. And that's exactly what Barry did in the series: After saying goodbye to his father (John Wesley Shipp) to Zoom (Teddy Sears), Barry decided he'd lost too much because of his choice to be a hero, and so he went back in time to save his mother Nora (Michelle Harrison).
So what does this mean for The Flash season three? How close with the show follow the comic book storyline in the aftermath of Barry's choice? One major change could be that Barry loses his powers as a result of altering the timeline. The show has already toyed with this storyline in the past, with the speed force itself forcing Barry to confront his grief over his mother's death to get his powers back. In Flashpoint, Barry decides to recreate the accident that gave him his powers in the first place, but the first attempt leaves him badly injured and burnt instead. The second attempt heals him and gives him his powers back. But seeing as how The Flash already tackled an equivalent to that story in the back half of season two, it's highly unlikely it will repeat it again.
Another theory, while also a long shot, is that The Flash could be introducing alternative versions of DC Comics heavyweights such as Superman (different from Supergirl's version who will be played by Tyler Hoechlin, since Flashpoint's Superman is pale and weakened as he has been kept in a windowless room for almost his whole life), Batman, Cyborg and villainous versions of Aquaman and Wonder Woman. For those who believe The Flash can't do that because of the DC films, remember that there are currently two Barry Allens in the DC universe right now, with Gustin on The CW and Ezra Miller playing the Scarlet Speedster in the forthcoming Justice League movies. There's no reason why The Flash can't introduce different versions of other characters too, especially if this is an alternate timeline. And who's to say Jeffrey Dean Morgan can't reprise his Batman v. Superman role as Thomas Wayne, but this time as Batman instead of Bruce's murdered father?
One theory that seems almost guaranteed is that the Reverse-Flash/Eobard Thawne (Matt Letscher) will return for season three. After Barry blames his enemy for altering the timeline, Thawne actually appears to reveal the truth about what happened to Barry. He actually helps Barry to remember his past actions by resetting Barry's internal vibrations, and then tries to kill him. But — spoiler alert — he doesn't get far, since Batman steps in and kills Thawne instead. Other characters from Flashpoint that may be introduced on The Flash include Booster Gold, Hal Jordan aka Green Lantern, Captain Thunder (a different version of Captain Marvel), Lois Lane, Enchantress, Zatanna, The Amazons, Kid Flash, Brainiac, Joker, Element Woman and many more.
But what does The Flash doing Flashpoint mean for other shows in the shared Arrow-verse, including Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, and The CW's newest acquisition, Supergirl? It could mean nothing, but it could mean everything. Barry could be living out his alternate timeline while the three other shows continue on in their normal timelines, unaffected. Or the new Time Masters on Legends of Tomorrow could step in to help revert The Flash's timeline back to normal under the leadership of the Justice Society of America's Hourman (Patrick J. Adams)? There's an epic four-show crossover coming this fall, so maybe Flashpoint is the reason why all the heroes will come together.
What are you most excited to see as The Flash tackles Flashpoint? Let us know in the comments section.
The Flash season three premieres Tuesday, Oct. 4 at 8 p.m. on The CW.Emily Fuller/OPB
In March, a Vancouver-based developer announced that the AMF Pro 300 Lanes on Southeast Powell Boulevard would be closing sometime this summer to make way for a Target.
When you visit Pro 300, it still seems like bowling as usual. A sign on the front of the building reads: “Summer passes on sale now.”
This facility is considered one of the last traditional bowling centers in Portland. It attracts customers who are really serious about the sport.
KimAnn Erdelyi is president of the PDX Pride bowling league. Her group is the largest sanctioned league in the state with more than 100 bowlers who meet every Friday night from September to April.
Some members have been bowling with the group for nearly two decades. On the last day of the league this spring, two players planned to get married on the lanes.
“This is their one night out,” Erdelyi said of her league’s members. “They’ll go, and they’ll spend the money to bowl even though they really can’t afford to do it. They’ll do it just because this is their family, they see these guys once a week.”
Pro 300 is one of only two bowling centers in Portland still offering leagues — but not for long.
With Pro 300 closing, PDX Pride will move to Kellogg Bowl in Milwaukie. Erdelyi said the group will need to drop 40 people from the league to fit into the smaller suburban space.
“We have 120 bowlers, so right now we have 36 lanes,” she said. “We’re going to have to go down to 24 lanes, so we’re going to lose a lot of people.”
Although this league has no trouble filling lanes, serious bowlers say that fewer people today are interested in leagues.
Sam Hull, a longtime league bowler, said bowling centers have to do more now to attract players.
“Leagues isn’t the push anymore, it’s more about having game rooms and adding something to the bowling experience rather than it just being bowling,” he said. “You have to have flashing lights, you have to have more stuff, because bowling for a lot of people just isn’t enough anymore. They haven’t been taught the sport of bowling.”
From an owner’s perspective, balancing league play with expanded game rooms and restaurants is just good business.
Don Allen owns Allen’s Crosley Lanes in Vancouver. His father and grandfather were both in the bowling business.
He said he believes the decline in league bowling is due to the way technology is changing the entertainment industry.
“There’s just more things out there now for people to do,” he said. “There used to be four TV channels, and no internet, no home computers, no phones to look at and no Facebook. And so league bowling was very popular. It got you out of the house for a couple of hours each week.”
Allen can rattle off the names of 10 Portland bowling centers that have closed since the 1980s, including Interstate Lanes in North Portland, which his family owned.
Emily Fuller/OPB
“Bowling centers generally have a large piece of property, and in Portland that’s hard to come by,” he said. “So bowling centers have been a target for developers because they have acreage, build-able acreage. We have three acres here. Some developer some day is going to go ‘That’s a really nice piece of ground,’ and maybe make me an offer I absolutely cannot refuse.”
Allen said the business he’s lost among league players has easily been replaced by casual bowlers.
But for serious bowlers like Erdelyi, the loss of another bowling facility isn’t a good sign.
“I don’t know what we would do if we didn’t have bowling,” she said. “I’d have to go to church.”
AMF still hasn’t said when it will close the Powell Boulevard center’s doors. They did not respond to requests for comment. Target is expected to open in the old bowling center building in July 2018.Buy Photo West Des Moines Water Works general manager Diana Wilson says a study of the water capacity in the Raccoon River aquifer will help the western suburbs decide whether to build a new water treatment facility to serve West Des Moines and Waukee. (Photo: Register File Photo)Buy Photo
West Des Moines and Waukee will explore building a water treatment facility to serve the growing suburbs and potentially alleviate the cities' dependence on Des Moines Water Works.
The first step is finding out whether the Raccoon River alluvial aquifer along the southern edge of West Des Moines has enough water capacity to serve the cities' needs.
Officials from West Des Moines and Waukee met separately Tuesday night to approve a $84,100 study of the water supply. If it finds there is enough water in the aquifer to support the cities' growing needs, they will explore the costs of building a water treatment facility.
West Des Moines Water Works already operates a water treatment facility at 1505 Railroad Ave. It can produce up to 12 million gallons a day, but it also purchases water from Des Moines Water Works. It has the option to buy up to 9 million gallons of water a day from the Des Moines facility. Waukee relies solely on Des Moines Water Works for its clean water supply.
Both cities' water needs are expected to increase dramatically in the next 20 to 25 years. Waukee's needs are expected to triple by 2035. West Des Moines' water need could rise 1½ times by 2040.
Des Moines Water Works CEO Bill Stowe said he doubts the alluvial aquifer will be sufficient to meet the cities' needs. He also questions the logic of moving away from a regional approach to water treatment.
"If the study turns into moving forward with splitting water production, that would be a huge concern for us," Stowe said. "But realistically I would find that highly unlikely."
An alluvial aquifer like the Raccoon River's stores water in the sand, gravel, silt or clay that surrounds a river. The ground water replenishes slower than surface water.
Des Moines Water Works provides clean water to roughly 500,000 customers and sells wholesale to more than 20 regional entities. Its board approved a 10 percent across-the-board rate hike this year that impacted all individual ratepayers and wholesale customers — including the cities of West Des Moines and Waukee.
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A new $2.5 billion Microsoft data center is expected to open up thousands of acres to new development in southwest West Des Moines, while the new Grand Prairie Parkway interchange will open access to a technology corridor on the city's northern border with Waukee. Residential development in Waukee is expected to push west of Ute Avenue, while new businesses look to infill areas along Hickman Road and developers announce plans for Kettlestone, a 1,500-acre development north of the new interstate interchange.
The latest Microsoft data center is the third project the company plans to build in West Des Moines. Data centers use massive amounts of water, especially on hot days, to run cooling systems for computer servers. Just one data center could use 2.4 million to 6 million gallons of water a day when temperatures reach 90 degree or higher. On an average day the data center would use less than 1 million gallons.
Last year, West Des Moines Water Works commissioned a study that recommended exploring different sources of water and treatment options. The study found that in two years, West Des Moines' demand for water would meet its current production limits, according to General Manager Diana Wilson.
The independent utility treats water pulled from 22 wells to serve residential, commercial and industrial customers in West Des Moines. It also purchases roughly 30 percent of its annual water supply from Des Moines Water Works, Wilson said.
West Des Moines uses an average of 7.2 million gallons of water a day, but it can use up to 16.1 million gallons on peak summer days when residents are watering their lawns or filling pools, Wilson said. By 2040, the city's water use is expected to be 11.5 million gallons a day, with 25.1 million gallons on peak days, the study found.
Waukee uses an average of 1.1 million gallons of water a day, with peak days reaching 3.1 million gallons. That could increase to 10.2 million gallons of water a day by 2035, according to data from the city.
"West Des Moines and Waukee have a lot of common interests. (And) the thought was that with these common interests, maybe we can address the water issue together," Waukee City Administrator Tim Moerman said. "So this is the first step in getting good information to make a good decision."
Together the suburbs are allotted 12.5 million gallons of water a day from Des Moines Water Works without penalty. Any increases to daily allotments — for any wholesale customer — would require a costly expansion of Des Moines Water Works' treatment facilities, Stowe said.
The utility is in the middle of its own study of metrowide water needs. Results outlining construction costs for different facility expansion scenarios are expected in mid-2017. Stowe said he is confident immediate needs in West Des Moines and Waukee could be met with Des Moines Water Works' three treatment facilities.
"For those future needs that aren’t met, the solution is more regional production," not localized treatment plants, he said. Water production can have various highs and lows depending on weather and demand, and keeping the utility regional would ensure steady rates, he said.
"The idea of having a number of different local communities producing their water is going to be a detriment to customers because it will drive up costs for everyone and it will discourage economic development in those communities," Stowe said.
West Des Moines and Waukee use roughly 20 percent of the clean water produced by Des Moines Water Works. It's predicted the cities will use 40 percent of the utility's water production within 25 years.
"They’re a really important part of our customer base," Stowe said.
Moerman said Waukee and West Des Moines Water Works don't have "any preconceived notion" about which option would better meet the suburbs' needs in the future. The joint study will provide options to make an informed decision, he said.
"This isn’t an effort to leave Des Moines behind," Wilson said. "This is really an effort to increase the number of options so we are making the best possible decisions for our rate payers."
"At this point, I don’t foresee not being partners with Des Moines. There's certain points of our system that just lend themselves to being served by Des Moines Water Works."
Des Moines supplies water to the northwest corner of West Des Moines and areas south of the Raccoon River. It also supplies water to Microsoft's facility that's under construction in the southeast corner of West Des Moines, and it plans to help supply water to the software giant's newly announced data center seven miles west. Plans are still in the works for exactly how water will be delivered to the new facility, Wilson said.
Results of the joint water quantity study, conducted by Veenstra & Kimm Inc., are expected by Jan. 31. Engineers will study at least three sites along the Raccoon River from Interstate 35 west to Van Meter.
If it's determined the Raccoon River alluvial aquifer has enough water, the two entities would direct Veenstra & Kimm to conduct test pumping and apply for a water allocation permit from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.
Urbandale explores building its own water treatment facility
As West Des Moines and Waukee launch a study of the Raccoon River alluvial aquifer, the Urbandale Water Utility Board of Trustees is looking at the possibility of constructing its own water treatment plant.
Urbandale purchases all of its water from Des Moines Water Works. But rising costs coming from the utility and concerns about Des Moines' ability to meet the needs of its regional customers has the Urbandale utility board looking at alternatives.
“Is it less expensive to purchase water from Des Moines, or will it be less expensive to build a facility and provide Urbandale water to its customers through its own facility?” Urbandale Mayor Bob Andeweg said.
While the specific numbers are unknown, the plant could cost around $60 million, said Dale Acheson, Urbandale water utility general manager. The Urbandale utility is separate from the city. It does not have to seek voter approval to issue bonds or obtain City Council backing. The organization is funded by water rates.
Urbandale officials have been discussing the idea of building a water treatment plant since 2010, Acheson said. In 2012, the Urbandale water utility purchased two former gravel pits east of Beaver Drive in Johnston. The 110 acres of land cost $870,000.
The pits are located near the Des Moines River and could serve as a water source for a water treatment facility. The plant could be built west of Merle Hay Road along Interstate Highway 35-80, where the utility owns 30 acres of land.
So far, Urbandale is just considering its options, Acheson said. If a plant were constructed, it could be done in partnership with Des Moines Water Works.
An engineering company is conducting a design study to determine how much the project would cost. It’s expected to finish in the next six to 12 months, Acheson said.
Read or Share this story: http://dmreg.co/2bTz5EBLOS ANGELES, Jan. 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- ArcLight Cinemas continues its nationwide expansion, announcing the opening of a new location in Boston's The Hub on Causeway development. Located adjacent to the TD Garden and above North Station, the development will feature over 800,000 square-feet of shopping, dining, residential, office space and entertainment. The 15-screen theater will serve as an integral component of the project. Construction on the theater will begin this winter with the grand opening set for early 2018.
For more than a decade, ArcLight Cinemas has redefined the movie-going experience for California residents by presenting films the way filmmakers intended moviegoers to experience them. The 15-screen theater will feature ArcLight's signature amenities that movie-lovers have enjoyed, such as reserved seating, a commercial-free environment, extra-wide seats, unique programming, and excellent sight and sound, including Dolby Atmos, ArcLight's widescreen format, and "black box" auditoriums.
The opening of ArcLight Boston is part of the company's plan to expand its movie-going focus and amenities to guests everywhere. ArcLight Boston marks ArcLight's third major metropolitan area outside of California, including Bethesda, Maryland and Chicago, Illinois.
"The city of Boston is a vibrant community with a long history of avid movie-going. This makes it a great location for ArcLight," said Christopher Forman, chief executive officer of ArcLight Cinemas. "For 13 years, ArcLight Cinemas has changed the way moviegoers experience the art of film and we plan to share that enhanced experience in Boston in this exciting new project."
ArcLight Boston will include a full bar, café and concessions with favorite items such as ArcLight's famous caramel popcorn and chicken sausage baguettes. Guests 21 years and over can enjoy wine, beer and cocktails throughout the theater. ArcLight's membership program further enhances moviegoers' experience with member-only rewards, including discount ticketing for all online purchases. To learn more about ArcLight Cinemas or to find a location near you, please visit www.arclightcinemas.com.
ArcLight Cinemas is where movie lovers belong.
ABOUT ArcLight Cinemas
ArcLight Cinemas, created by Pacific Theatres, a privately owned, Los Angeles based company with 60 years of theatrical exhibition history throughout California, Hawaii and Washington is a premiere moviegoing experience with an unparalleled commitment to bringing a variety of rich cinematic content to moviegoers in all markets. ArcLight Cinemas operates eight theaters in California including Hollywood, Pasadena, Sherman Oaks, El Segundo, Santa Monica, Culver City and La Jolla, as well as one theater in Bethesda, Md, Chicago and Glenview, Ill. ArcLight also owns and operates the historic Cinerama Dome and programs the TCL Chinese Theatre and IMAX in Hollywood. Pacific Theatres currently operates theaters in Los Angeles that include The Grove and The Americana at Brand in Glendale, Calif. Additional information about ArcLight Cinemas is available at www.arclightcinemas.com/
Follow ArcLight Cinemas:
www.facebook.com/arclightcinemas
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Contact:
Ania Wojcieszynska
ArcLight Cinemas
awojcieszynska@arclightcinemas.com
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http://www.arclightcinemas.com“It’s highly unusual, and I don’t think we ever have done it where we’ve had a single politician be the center of our risk items,” said a member of the Economist Intelligence Unit on Donald Trump. | AP Photo The Economist rates Trump presidency among its top 10 global risks By Daniel Lippman By | 03/16/16 04:11 PM EDT
A Donald Trump presidency poses a top-10 risk event that could disrupt the world economy, lead to political chaos in the U.S. and heighten security risks for the United States, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit.
Electing Trump could also start a trade war, hurt trade with Mexico and be a godsend to terrorist recruiters in the Middle East, according to the latest EIU forecasts.
Story Continued Below
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The well-respected global economic and geopolitical analysis firm The well-respected global economic and geopolitical analysis firm put a possible Trump presidency in its top 10 global risks this month, released Wednesday. Other risks include a sharp slowdown in the Chinese economy, a fracture of the Eurozone, and Britain's possible departure from the European Union.
Trump’s controversial remarks on Muslims would be a gift to “potential recruiters who have long been trying to paint the U.S. as an anti-Muslim country. His rhetoric will certainly help that recruiting effort,” said Robert Powell, global risk briefing manager at EIU.
Until Trump, the firm had never rated a pending election of a candidate to be a geopolitical risk to the U.S. and the world. The firm has no plans to include Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz or John Kasich on future risk lists.
“It’s highly unusual, and I don’t think we ever have done it where we’ve had a single politician be the center of our risk items,” Powell said in an interview, but noted that the firm has once included the transition at the top of the Chinese Communist Party as a top-ten risk as well.
“Innate hostility within the Republican hierarchy towards Mr. Trump, combined with the inevitable virulent Democratic opposition, will see many of his more radical policies blocked in Congress,” wrote EIU. But “such internal bickering will also undermine the coherence of domestic and foreign policymaking.”
And there are also serious risks to the global economy if Trump is elected, warned EIU, a sister company to The Economist.
“The prospects for a trade war are quite high,” said Powell. “Why is a guy who has many of his goods made in China wanting to start a trade war in China?”
One difficulty in assessing Trump’s policy positions is that “he does tend to shift his opinions like the weather,” Powell said.
Powell also remarked upon Trump's calls for a more aggressive campaign against the Islamic State terrorist group, also known as ISIL or ISIS.
“One of [Trump’s] extreme positions has been to invade Syria to wipe out ISIS,” he said, citing estimates finding that a year-long excursion in Syria of 20,000-30,000 U.S. troops could cost $25 billion.
Trump has vowed to seize Syria's oil fields and refineries, which help keep ISIS afloat, and then sell the oil to pay for a U.S. military campaign. But Powell said that at current oil prices, if the U.S. actually stole the oil, it would only net about $500 million, at most.
Subscribe to Politico Playbook: http://politi.co/1M75UbXThis morning, One Mile at a Time published: You Won’t Believe Amex’s Targeted “PointsMatch” Promotion. And, you know what, Lucky was right. I can hardly believe what I’m seeing…
Summary
Amex has a new targeted promotion called PointsMatch in which they’re letting customers with Membership Rewards points redeem those points for flights on American Airlines or United. The way it works is this:
You find available award space on AA or United (but not on partner airlines)
Call Amex to book the award
Amex will take Membership Rewards points from your account based on the number of miles that would have been needed for the AA or United award flight.
Amex then pays for your flight.
Why would they offer this?
While Membership Rewards points can be transferred to Delta and many foreign airline programs, they cannot be transferred to American Airlines or United. My guess is that American Express sees this as a barrier to attracting and maintaining their customer base. And, since other banks have tied up partnerships with those airlines, Amex found a way to offer customers something even better: use Membership Rewards points at the same rate as miles, and unlike traditional awards, the customer can earn miles for those flights!
How awesome is this?
This is absurdly awesome in so many ways…
Award availability
Suppose you want to book a business class award for a family of four, but there are only two award seats available. No problem:
Make sure there are at least 4 seats available for sale Call Amex and book two people with Membership Rewards points Since Amex will pay for the flight, the tickets might not affect award availability. There’s a good chance that the two person award will still be available Either book the last two with miles or call Amex and book the next two people.
AA mileage running
If your goal is to earn American Airlines elite status and you’re flush with Membership Rewards points, you can do very well here. The trick is to find AA awards that cover the longest distance flights for the fewest miles.
United mileage running
Remember that, as of March 1, United will award redeemable miles based on the ticket price, not the distance flown (but elite qualification will still be based primarily on distance flown). It should be very easy to find awards that cost very little in miles, but are hugely expensive in price. A simple approach, for example, is to find one way premium class awards to/from Europe. Typically, one way prices to Europe are more expensive than round trip, but one-way awards cost half of the round trip award price. For example, I found a one way business class flight from Newark to London that cost $5,326. The award ticket price, though, is only 57,500 miles. If you were to book this flight after March 1, you would earn United miles for this flight in proportion to the ticket price, as follows:
General member earns 5X: 5 X $5,326 = 26,630 earned miles
Premier Silver member earns 7X: 37,282 earned miles
Premier Gold member earns 8X: 42,608 earned miles
Premier Platinum member earns 9X: 47,934 earned miles
Premier 1K member earns 11X: 58,586 earned miles
In this example, a United top tier elite would earn more United miles than they spend in Membership Rewards points! And, this was just one simple example that I found. I don’t think it would be hard to find examples where you could do much better than this.
This is amazing. This means that you could fly premium cabin international flights for free. You will end up with fewer Membership Rewards points, but you can gain as many or more United miles in the processes. Meanwhile you would also be racking up elite qualifying miles and elite qualifying dollars so that you can gain or maintain high level elite status with United!
Upgrades
If you have upgrade certificates with United or American Airlines you probably know that they can only be applied to paid flights, not award flights. And, with United, they can only be applied to paid flights booked under certain fare classes. The same is true for using miles to upgrade. Either way, it should be possible to use Membership Rewards to book coach or business class flights and then apply upgrades to business or first class.
Targeted only
If you were targeted for this promotion, you basically hit the jackpot. I recommend taking full advantage of this offer while its available (through June 30, 2015). The rest of us are probably out of luck. I’m guessing that Amex is running this as a test to see if they should roll it out to all members. And, I’m pretty sure they’ll find that this deal is too generous. I expect that if they roll it out to all members, that will happen after June 30th. And, I’m sure they’ll change the terms to make it less game-able.On July 9, soon after Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old African-American woman, moved to Texas from Naperville, Illinois, to take a new job as a college outreach officer at her alma mater, Prairie View A&M, she was pulled over by the police for failing to signal while making a lane change. What followed has become all too common and illustrates the ever-increasing rise in domestic terrorism in the United States. She was pulled out of the car by |
heights.[48]
As originally conceived, US Army tactical doctrine called for one M1918A2 per squad, using several men to support and carry ammunition for the gun.[46] Fire and movement tactics centered on the M1 riflemen in the squad, while the BAR man was detailed to support the riflemen in the attack and provide mobility to the riflemen with a base of fire.[46] This doctrine received a setback early in the war after US ground forces encountered German troops, well-armed with automatic weapons, including fast-firing, portable machine guns.[49] In some cases, particularly in the attack, every fourth German infantryman was equipped with an automatic weapon, either a submachine gun or a full-power machine gun.[49]
Elements of the 6th Marine Division at Okinawa with the lead marine (Onward Elmo McCullough) carrying a BAR
In an attempt to overcome the BAR's limited continuous-fire capability, US Army divisions increasingly began to specify two BAR fire teams per squad, following the practice of the US Marine Corps. One team would typically provide covering fire until a magazine was empty, whereupon the second team would open fire, thus allowing the first team to reload. In the Pacific, the BAR was often employed at the point or tail of a patrol or infantry column, where its firepower could help break contact on a jungle trail in the event of an ambush.[50] After combat experience showed the benefits of maximizing portable automatic firepower in squad-size formations, the US Marine Corps began to increase the number of BARs in its combat divisions, from 513 per division in 1943 to 867 per division in 1945.[51] A thirteen-man squad was developed, consisting of 3 four-man fire teams, with one BAR per fire team, or three BARs per squad. Instead of supporting the M1 riflemen in the attack, marine tactical doctrine was focused around the BAR, with riflemen supporting and protecting the BAR gunner.[51]
Despite the improvements in the M1918A2, the BAR remained a difficult weapon to master with its open bolt and strong recoil spring, requiring additional range practice and training to hit targets accurately without flinching.[52] As a squad light machine gun, the BAR's effectiveness was mixed, since its thin, non-quick-change barrel and small magazine capacity greatly limited its firepower in comparison to genuine light machine guns such as the British Bren and the Japanese Type 96. The weapon's rate-reducer mechanism, a delicately balanced spring-and-weight system described by one ordnance sergeant as a "Rube Goldberg device", came in for much criticism, often causing malfunctions when not regularly cleaned.[53] The bipod and buttstock rest (monopod), which contributed so much to the M1918A2's accuracy when firing prone on the rifle range, proved far less valuable under actual field combat conditions.[50] The stock rest was dropped from production in 1942, while the M1918A2's bipod and flash hider were often discarded by individual soldiers and marines to save weight and improve portability, particularly in the Pacific Theatre of war.[53] With these modifications, the BAR effectively reverted to its original role as a portable, shoulder-fired automatic rifle.[53]
Due to production demands, war priorities, subcontractor issues, and material shortages,[54] demand for the M1918A2 frequently exceeded supply, and as late as 1945 some Army units were sent into combat still carrying older, unmodified M1918 weapons.[55]
After a period of service, ordnance personnel began to receive BARs with inoperable or malfunctioning recoil buffer mechanisms. This was eventually traced to the soldier's common practice of cleaning the BAR in a vertical position with the butt of the weapon on the ground, allowing cleaning fluid and burned powder to collect in the recoil buffer mechanism.[53] Additionally, unlike the M1 rifle, the BAR's gas cylinder was never changed to stainless steel. Consequently, the gas cylinder frequently rusted solid from the use of corrosive-primered M2 service ammunition in a humid environment when not stripped and cleaned on a daily basis.[53] While not without design flaws (a thin-diameter, fixed barrel that quickly overheated, limited magazine capacity, complex field-strip/cleaning procedure, unreliable recoil buffer mechanism, a gas cylinder assembly made of corrosion-prone metals, and many small internal parts), the BAR proved rugged and reliable enough when regularly field-stripped and cleaned.
During World War II, the BAR saw extensive service, both official and unofficial, with many branches of service. One of the BAR's most unusual uses was as a defensive aircraft weapon. In 1944, Captain Wally A. Gayda, of the USAAF Air Transport Command, reportedly used a BAR to return fire against a Japanese Army Nakajima fighter that had attacked his C-46 cargo plane over the Hump in Burma. Gayda shoved the rifle out his forward cabin window, emptying the magazine and apparently killing the Japanese pilot.[56][57]
Korean War [ edit ]
Korean War, 1951: A US soldier behind an M4A3E8 Sherman tank, with an M1918A2
The BAR continued in service in the Korean War. The last military contract for the manufacture of the M1918A2 was awarded to the Royal Typewriter Co. of Hartford, Connecticut, which manufactured a total of 61,000 M1918A2s during the conflict, using ArmaSteel cast receivers and trigger housings.[23] In his study of infantry weapons in Korea, historian S.L.A. Marshall interviewed hundreds of officers and men in after-action reports on the effectiveness of various U.S. small arms in the conflict.[58] General Marshall's report noted that an overwhelming majority of respondents praised the BAR and the utility of automatic fire delivered by a lightweight, portable small arm in both day and night engagements.[59] In his autobiography Colonel David Hackworth praised the BAR as 'the best weapon of the Korean War'.[60]
A typical BAR gunner of the Korean War carried the twelve-magazine belt and combat suspenders, with three or four extra magazines in pockets.[61] Extra canteens,.45 pistol, grenades, and a flak vest added still more weight.[61] As in World War II, many BAR gunners disposed of the heavy bipod and other accoutrements of the M1918A2, but unlike the prior conflict the flash hider was always retained because of its utility in night fighting.[62]
The large amounts of ammunition expended by BAR teams in Korea placed additional demands on the assistant gunner to stay in close contact with the BAR at all times, particularly on patrols.[63] While the BAR magazines themselves always seemed to be in short supply, Gen. Marshall reported that "riflemen in the squad were markedly willing to carry extra ammunition for the BAR man".[64]
In combat, the M1918A2 frequently decided the outcome of determined attacks by North Korean and Chinese communist forces. Communist tactical doctrine centered on the mortar and machine gun, with attacks designed to envelop and cut off United Nations forces from supply and reinforcement. Communist machine gun teams were the best-trained men in any given North Korean or Chinese infantry unit, skilled at placing their heavily camouflaged and protected weapons as close to UN forces as possible.[65] Once concealed, they often surprised UN forces by opening fire at very short ranges, covering any exposed ground with a hail of accurately sighted machine gun fire.[65] Under these conditions it was frequently impossible for US machine gun crews to move up their Browning M1919A4 and M1919A6 guns in response without taking heavy casualties; when they were able to do so, their position was carefully noted by the enemy, who would frequently kill the exposed gun crews with mortar or machine gun fire while they were still emplacing their guns.[65] The BAR gunner, who could stealthily approach the enemy gun position alone (and prone if need be), proved invaluable in this type of combat.[65]
During the height of combat, the BAR gunner was often used as the 'fire brigade' weapon, helping to bolster weak areas of the perimeter under heavy pressure by communist forces. In defense, it was often used to strengthen the firepower of a forward outpost.[65] Another role for the BAR was to deter or eliminate enemy sniper fire. In the absence of a trained sniper, the BAR proved more effective than the random response of five or six M1 riflemen.[65]
Compared to World War II, US infantry forces saw a huge increase in the number of night engagements. The added firepower of the BAR rifleman and his ability to redeploy to 'hot spots' around the unit perimeter proved indispensable in deterring night infiltration by skirmishers as well as repelling large-scale night infantry assaults.[66]
While new-production M1918A2 guns were almost universally praised for faultless performance in combat, a number of malfunctions in combat were reported with armory-reconditioned M1918A2s, particularly weapons that had been reconditioned by Ordnance in Japan, which did not replace operating (recoil) springs as a requirement of the reconditioning program.[51] After decades of complaints, ordnance addressed the problem of maintaining the problematic gas piston on the BAR by issuing disposable nylon gas valves.[63] When the nylon valve became caked over with carbon, it could be discarded and replaced with a fresh unit, eliminating the tedious task of cleaning and polishing the valve with wire brush and GI solvent (frequently in short supply to line units).[63]
A South Vietnamese soldier using a BAR LMG
Vietnam War [ edit ]
The M1918A2 was used in the early stages of the Vietnam War, when the US delivered a quantity of 'obsolete', second-line small arms[67] to the South Vietnamese Army and associated allies, including the Montagnard hill tribespeople of South Vietnam. US Special Forces advisors frequently chose the BAR over currently available infantry weapons. As one Special Forces sergeant declared, "Many times since my three tours of duty in Vietnam I have thanked God for... having a BAR that actually worked, as opposed to the jamming M16... We had a lot of Viet Cong infiltrators in all our [Special Forces] camps, who would steal weapons every chance they got. Needless to say, the most popular weapon to steal was the venerable old BAR."[67]
Post-Vietnam use [ edit ]
Quantities of the BAR remained in use by the Army National Guard up until the mid-1970s. Many recipients of US foreign aid adopted the BAR and used it into the 1990s.
Users [ edit ]
Polish resistance fighters during the Warsaw Uprising, 1944. The wz. 28 seen here is likely a survivor of the 1939 September Campaign
BAR in use by Vietnamese communist guerrillas, 1966
British Home Guard in 1941. The man on the end of the front rank is carrying a BAR
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]At the beginning? Quite a bit. Over time? Not as much.
In this paper we compare the labor market performance of Israeli students who graduated from one of the leading universities, Hebrew University (HU), with those who graduated from a professional undergraduate college, College of Management Academic Studies (COMAS). Our results support a model in which employers have good information about the quality of HU graduates and pay them according to their ability, but in which the market has relatively little information about COMAS graduates.
Hence, high-skill COMAS graduates are initially treated as if they were the average COMAS graduate, who is weaker [than an] HU graduate, consequently earning less than [HU] graduates. However, over time the market differentiates among them so that after several years of experience, COMAS and HU graduates with similar entry scores have similar earnings. Our results are therefore consistent with the view that employers use education information to screen workers but that the market acquires information fairly rapidly.Sony might be staring down the barrel of another PlayStation Network security breach. The company, having just had a successful launch of the PlayStation 4 console, has sent out emails to an unknown number of users requiring them to change their passwords because of “irregular activity” on the account. It seems the warning might have come too late for some — users are beginning to report fraudulent charges on the linked credit cards.
Unlike the breach a few years back, it doesn’t appear that mountains of customer data were stolen, but someone seems to have at least gained access to usernames and passwords. Reports indicate content is being purchased on accounts without authorization. One user tells IGN that $150 was charged to his PSN Wallet, and another says FIFA 14 content was bought by someone with his profile.
It may seem odd that someone would steal account credentials only to add content to the victim’s account, but there is a way for the thief to benefit. By adding his or her console to the victim’s account the thief is able to download all the content they want and play it offline, assuming there is no additional DRM measure employed by the game. One user has also reported $650 charged to a clothing retailer on the card used for PSN, but it’s not clear if the supposed perpetrators got that kind of access.
Sony hasn’t spoken publicly about the breach yet, but the emails are genuine. Something happened, but we might have to wait until after the weekend to find out what.Author Anne Rice delivered the ultimate smack down on her Facebook page yesterday, telling her fans, “I will no longer tolerate hate speech in the guise of Christian belief.”
Ms. Rice, whose son Christopher made Out Magazine’s list of top ten gay bachelors last week, has been a longtime LGBT rights supporter.
Following Hollywood actress Ellen Page’s coming out this weekend, Rice posted a congratulatory note on Facebook Saturday to which dozens of haters left vile comments under the post.
Ms. Rice then took to Facebook with this awesome post:
Our post commending actress Ellen Page for her courage in coming out as gay attracted a lot of hostility and hate and hate speech — as well as positive and substantive comments. I have banned many from the page today. I will no longer tolerate hate speech in the guise of Christian belief with the usual irresponsible pick and choose bible quotes and talk of “sin” and hellfire. I have had enough of it, and I think the world has had enough of it too. Again, I commend Ellen Page for her bravery in coming out. I hope more celebrities and public figures will be inspired to do so. Anyone who thinks this does not matter is deceiving himself or herself. It matters very much. Gay people in all walks of life suffer from bigotry, bias, superstition, and ignorance. Hats off to Ellen Page! (And please do NOT come here to tell us publicly that you “don’t care.” If you don’t care, don’t expect us to care that you don’t care!).
Rice also took time to respond to several of the over 3,700 comments to her post.
In one response Anne explained how she bans Christian’s who spread hate on her page:
I ban those who engage in hate speech under the guise of Christianity. And when people say they are unliking the page or rejecting me and my works, I also delete and ban them. This is my personal choice based on my experience on the page.
Rebecca commented:
I do not care. The American people have bigher fish to fry.
Rice hit back with this response:
Then why post here? Obviously you do care enough to tell us that you disapprove of our caring. Well, I do care. I think what Ellen Page did was brave and good….And her courage will have a decidedly positive effect against the hypocrisy,bigotry and ignorance that underscore the persecution of gays in our country.
Mike H. left this response to her post:
I love the way you see people who don’t like or agree with that lifestyle are always”haters”. By that definition what do you think you are when you don’t like what Christians believe. Total hypocrisey. Ms Rice I think you also are dabbling in some self deception.
To which Rice responded with this comment:
Mike, in my experience many Christians are extremely aggressive towards those they despise and seek to control and change. They spend millions in America trying to interfere with a woman’s right to choose and a gay person’s civil rights. They are vocal and “in your face” with their hate of gays and other strong religious biases. If they would respect the rights and dignity of those who do not share their belief system, it would be better for everyone. But sadly, they don’t. And when they bring hate speech to this page, I will delete and ban them. Mike, I don’t think the aggression and hostility of Christians towards those they condemn can be compared in any way to gay rights activists. Gay rights activists don’t spend millions trying to persecute and demonize others or oppress them in terms of civil rights. I hope you do some research on this topic. We have a serious problem in this country with aggressive Christians violating our separation of church and state, and campaigning to oppress women and gays, and sometimes children. I think we are in a time in America when we must demand that all people claiming to be Christian take full moral responsibility for their belief system and the harm it has done historically and the harm it continues to do in our country. I see no reason to give Christians a pass on any of this.
Robyn wrote:
I had made a comment late last night about how I believe in love. And how I am grateful to Jesus loving me as a sinner. I received a reply back about you not wanting me to preach on your page. I didn’t feel I was preaching, but stating my opinion, as so many others. I apologize if there were a misunderstanding. I enjoy your work, and your opinions. I totally agree about your stance on Ellen Page and perhaps, so many others. Have a great day… I’m off to do some chores.
Rice replied with:
Robyn, for many of us, words like “sin” and even “Jesus loving” have become associated, sadly, with bigotry and hate. This isn’t your doing. It isn’t mine. It has to do with the way this language has been used in America aggressively and boldly on a national level in a war against women’s rights and gay rights. So I find myself highly sensitive to it. I respect your good intentions. I cannot change at this point my own negative reaction to the word “sin.” I think it is a very poor word to use in discussing the human spirit and the moral problems which all human beings face every day. But again, I respect your sincerity. I think it’s a good idea to remember that religion has to do with faith in things which cannot be proven, and which have divided people into warring camps and warring nations for centuries. Saying that Jesus loves you may sound innocent and neutral. But blood has been shed in the name of Jesus for almost 2,000 years. Again, I respect your sincerity, but I do ask that people not preach Christianity on this page.
{H/T: Instinct Via TheNewCivilRightsMovement]Update: Oct. 12: Python script to query the API
We are very excited to announce that JEB 2.3.6 integrates with a new project we called the Malware Sharing Network. It allows reverse engineers to share samples anonymously, in a give-and-take fashion. The more and the better you give, the more and the better you will receive.
Files are shared with PNF Software (they are not shared directly with other users);
Contributions and users are algorithmically ranked and scored;
In exchange for their contributions, users receive more files, based on their score.
The goal is to offer a platform for reversers that can (and wish to) share malware files to easily do it, with the added incentive of receiving samples in return — including relatively high-value files that may not be accessible to most users, such as files that are not publicly downloadable on most malware trackers; or files that are not present on malware databases at all, including VirusTotal.
Obviously, the service is entirely optional. Any user, including users of the demo version, may use it whenever they please.
Getting started
The latest JEB update will let you know about the Malware Sharing Network right after you upgrade. You may also click the Share button in the toolbar at any time to get started.
First time users should create an account. You will only need an email address and a password. Click the “Create an Account” button to sign up.
Once you’ve successfully logged in, you will be able to view your profile. Things like your sharing score and other stats are displayed.
Sharing a File
Any time you are working in JEB, you can decide to share the primary file being worked on by clicking the Share button or the Share entry in the File menu:
Before sharing a file, you may:
redact the sample name;
add a text comment;
select a Determination, among four choices (“Unknown”, “Clean”, “Unsure” and “Malicious”).
By hitting the Share button, you will submit the file to PNF Software. It will be added to our file portal, get scored, and eventually, be shared with other users who are participating in this sample exchange program.
When your score gets high enough, you will receive samples. They will be accessible from our website, and also, using the Malware Sharing Network back-end API.
API for Scripting
After successfully logging in, you may have noticed that the API key field was populated. Power-users will be able to use it to perform automation and scripting with our back-end, such as querying samples by hashes, uploading and downloading files, etc. It’s all standard HTTP-POST queries with JSON responses.
A Python wrapper to issue simple API queries can be found on our public GitHub repository. First make sure to set up your API key (either in source, or create an environment variable JEBIO_APIKEY, or pass it as a parameter if you are importing the script as a library).
Queries return JSON output, except for download requests, that return binary attachments. The return “code” variable is set to 0 on success,!=0 on error.
Here are a few examples:
Query a file hash:
$ jebio.py check 42aaa93a894a69bfcbc21823b09e4ea9f723c428 42aaa93a894a69bfcbc21823b09e4ea9f723c428: { "code": 0, "created": "2017-10-09 16:24:31", "filesize": 75599, "filestatus": 0, "md5hash": "879322cfd1c1b3b1813a27c3e311f1a5", "sha1hash": "42aaa93a894a69bfcbc21823b09e4ea9f723c428", "sha256hash": "57ae463e6bc53a38512c58a878370338dcfe0fb59eeedfd9b3e7959fe7c149d1", "userdetails": { "comments": "", "created": "2017-10-09 16:24:31", "determination": 0, "filename": "Raasta.apk" } }
Note: the userdetails section is present only if you uploladed the file yourself.
Upload a file:
$ jebio.py upload 1.apk 1.apk: { "code": 0, "uploadeventid": 155 }
Download a file: (subject to permission)
$ jebio.py download a2ba1bacc996b90b37a2c93089692bf5f30f1d68 a2ba1bacc996b90b37a2c93089692bf5f30f1d68: downloaded to ba1d6f317214d318b2a4e9a9663bc7ec867a6c845affecad1290fd717cc74f29.zip (password: "infected")
–News of a Euro Truck Simulator 2 expansion shipped out a few weeks ago. It took a while to get here, though: arriving on the back of a lorry pocked with dents, it's many fines and tickets flapping about the windscreen. Having played the game, I sympathise. Now that it's here we can delve into info about the game's first DLC, Going East, which adds a number of Eastern European cities to the game.
That means one thing: tanks!
Not playable tanks, of course. Fun fact: tanks are not trucks.
The DLC promises thirteen additional cities, spanning Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. It's a big increase to the available land mass, even if it would be nice to see some other parts of the game, such as available cargo types, get a boost too.
SCS do suggest that more DLC is planned for the future. "Once this is all done," they write, "the DLC team will be facing the big question - what next? Another territory expansion?" The smiley face afterwards would suggest that yes, that is a safe bet.
The developers previously announced that they're planning to patch Oculus Rift support into the game. Personally, I'm hoping for Razer Hydra support too. Then we'd really get to live a true simulation of the truck driving lifestyle:
Accurate road-rage modelling? Well, I can dream.
Going East will be released on 20th September. If you're not sure why I've dedicated hundreds of words and a silly photoshop to a game about driving on motorways, you should really check out our review.After helping a man pick up paints that fell from his bag on a train in Cumbria, 14-year-old Ben Azarya was blessed with a signed painting by an artist he had never heard of. The man turned out to be Banksy, one of the most famous street artists of all time, and the painting Azarya received is said to be worth five figures.
Image via Cascadenews.co.uk
According to the New York Daily News, Azarya helped the man who introduced himself as Robin Banks. "He opened his rucksack and had a gas mask and spray paints inside," the teenager said. "He got out a piece of paper and had colors marked on it of what he had been trying out and he dropped his colors." Banksy asked the Azarya if he knew who Robin Banks was, and when Azarya said he didn't, the street artist gave him the artwork, said that it would be worth around $30,000, and told him, "Have a good life, brother."
Azarya described Banksy as a white man in his late 40s with "scruffy clothes" and an old, fluffy hat. "He had a little jacket that didn't go over his arms and jeans with paint on. He looked really wacky and had blonde hair and blue eyes."
POST CONTINUES BELOW
Bonhams Auction House has advised Azarya and his mother to have the work authenticated, and Azarya already has plans to buy a new phone when the painting is sold.
UPDATE: It looks like young Ben Azarya won't be getting that new phone after all. According to The Independent, there was another alleged run-in with "Robin Banks" at a Wild Zucchinis restaurant in Cumbria on Jan. 19, but Banksy's publicist Jo Brooks says he was not in the area on either of those occasions. "It isn’t true. I don’t know where it has come from, it is really strange," she said. Restaurant owner Manon Plouffe gave a description similar to that of Azarya, and she said that the man announced himself as a graffiti artist and was admiring the art on the walls of the establishment. He never returned despite an offer to have coffee the next day.
So if you are in or around Cumbria and meet a man named Robin Banks, he is an imposter.
[via NY Daily News]The 2016 college Senior Bowl begins tomorrow with the weigh-in, followed by practices Tuesday-Thursday, with the game next Saturday January 30th. This is my position-by-position breakdown of who I’m liking and who I’m looking to gain more information on going forward:
Cornerback
Always one of the positions that has had the most distinct Seahawk archetypes, CB begins with a player that is near 6’0" and 190lbs. We’ve seen exceptions (WT3 and Burley pretty much the only two in six years…and Burley wasn’t a draftpick), but for the most part it’s those benchmarks. Weight is less of a deal-breaker than height/length. A guy can put on 10lbs but you can’t make a short guy tall.
That gives us our first pass at filtering down to a list of:
James Bradberry 6’1"/213
Eric Murray 6’0"/199
William Jackson 6’1"/185
Jalen Mills 6’1"/194
Deiondre Hall 6’2"/190
Harlan Miller 6’1"/180
Maurice Canady 6’2"/195
So, the good news is that is a pretty long list of options. But a) that list will probably filter down again after weigh-in when the arm-lengths are announced, b) I’ve already filtered that list down in my mind to one.
After considering all of the intel that I have access to, the only CB that I am currently considering as a draftpick from this group is Maurice Canady. And even with him, I think I’d have to see him on the board in the 6th round to be interested. I don’t think he’s WT3 in the 4th, nor Sherm or Tye Smith in the 5th…I think he’s more Byron Maxwell in the 6th. And he’ll need two years on the PS/active-redshirt/bench to get his technique complete.
Now, before making you think this makes the CB class seem a disaster, keep in mind the declared Juniors includes Jalen Ramsey, Mackensie Alexander, Vernon Hargreaves, Eli Apple, Kendall Fuller, Artie Burns, Rashard Robinson, Xavien Howard, Zack Sanchez, Daryl Worley. About 7 of those guys are over 6’0".
Defensive End
I don’t recall ever seeing such an extreme, across the board swing to a 3-4 style DE in a single class. These guys, outside of Noah Spence, are MASSIVE. And, quite frankly, many are being mislabeled as DE. Literally, f you look at the North/South specific rosters, the South lists only one guy as a DT (Quinton Jefferson), and then lists seven DE’s. And those DE’s run 261, 265, 275, 283, 303, 313 lbs. The two obvious names mislabeled are Sheldon Rankins (303) and Jarran Reed (313). Both also played inside at DT this year, and that is where both will end up as pros.
Noah Spence has found himself as a unique player in this draft. A year after the class held Vic Beasley, Shane Ray, Hau’oli Kikaha, Nate Orchard, Randy Gregory, Markus Golden, Eli Harold as the OLB/DE tweener/LEO types, this draft has Spence, maybe Victor Ochi day 2, and then a pretty sharp drop-off to the day 3 group of Dadi Nicholas, Kamalei Correa, Ian Seau, Matt Judon, Yannick Ngakoue, James Cowser. So Spence may hold higher value for that distinction. But then how much does he drop for the drug redflag from OSU? I don’t think he drops out of the 1st, but Gregory did. Regardless, Spence is going to be an exciting player this week.
Dadi Nicholas will be an interesting case. Undersized at 227lbs, Nicholas was asked to play 5 technique for Virginia Tech, when his size is a clear disadvantage in the run game. If Nicholas can be allowed to play more of a wide-9, 3rd down, pass-rush specialist in Mobile, he may regain some of the form that saw him finish with 18.0 TFL and 8.5 sacks in 2014. Then again, Bruce Irvin was asked to play a 3-3-5 DE in his Senior year, and his sack total did suffer…but it dropped from 14.0 to 8.0. Nicholas’ number dropped from 8.5 to 2.5.
Shawn Oakman has had a similar path to Nicholas…after posting 19.5 TFL and 11.0 sacks in 2014 everybody loved the 6’9"/275 freak show as a 1st round player. Now, after slumping to 14.5 TFL and 4.5 sacks in 2015, his stock has plummeted to almost 4th round. While I think there’s a degree of boxscore scouting going on there, within boxscore scouting there is generally an element of truth: and it’s the rate of finishing plays, and Oakman hasn’t been good enough this year to finish plays. I, certainly, have taken part in the boxscore scouting, but if we know Pete Carroll, wouldn’t you guess he would take the half-full view of Oakman and believe the player we saw in 2014 is still in there? Worth considering.
Bronson Kaufusi is one of a trio of monster DE at the game. At 6’8"/280, Kaufusi is a shade smaller than Oakman at 6’9"/275 and a shade bigger than the 6’6"/295 Jihad Ward. After beginning his tenure at BYU playing both football and basketball, Bronson gave up hoops after his Freshman year, but it seems he held on to his knack for shot-blocking, as he blocked 5 kicks this year alone. That’s 2 more than everyone else in the country. Kaufusi really stuffed the stat sheet this year: 63 tackles, 19.5 TFL, 10.5 sacks, 3 QBH, 2 PBU, 1 INT, 3 FF, 5 blocked kicks, AND an 18 yard punt return. This is going to be a guy to watch, not only this week, but also at the combine.
Defensive Tackle
Senior Bowl week will be our best look so far at this fabled DT class. Jarran Reed, Sheldon Rankins, Sheldon Day, Adolphus Washington, and Austin Johnson make for a quintet of probable top-63 picks. Some keep Vernon Butler in that group, but I’m not. I think Butler is getting way too much heat right now (we’re talking 10 TFL, 3.0 sacks vs mostly Conference USA competition).
I know Reed is rated very well, but I just have trouble watching Bama and not thinking that Reed is succeeding off of the play from A’Shawn Robinson, who looks to me to be the superior talent. Both are projected gone before Seattle picks.
Sheldon Day has been getting some of the Aaron Donald comp for most of the year. I don’t see that. I think Day is one of the best locker room guys in this entire draft, all positions; but I see him more as Will Sutton than AD. This year’s more apt Donald comparison is Jon Bullard, who is not at the Sr Bowl.
This will be Washington’s first appearance since his arrest, and subsequent "guilty" plea for soliciting a prostitute before the end of OSU’s season. His stock has dropped him out of the 1st, and it will be interesting to see if he can repair that or if he ends up staying available to the Hawks’ 57th overall pick. This draft, for Seattle, is really one of two stories: will the better value player at #57 come from OL or DL? Answer that question and it can inform which direction to prioritize at #26. If Adolphus drops because of his indiscretion, THAT can give you the value you need at DT in 2nd to allow you to go hard for need at OL in the 1st.
Similar could be thought of Sheldon Rankins and Austin Johnson who both currently have projection more to the upper end of the 2nd round. I wrote once before that there holds some plausibility to going OL in the 1st and then trading UP in the 2nd round using our native 3rd to get a DT. Rankins and Johnson would both be worth that maneuver.
Johnson is a 6’4"/323 lb DT that can play a 3-4 NT, but whom also holds enough athleticism to play 1 technique and up into the 3 technique. On the year, AJ compiled a statline of:
78 tackles, 15.0 TFL, 6.5 sacks, 2 PBU, and 1 FF.
Compare that to the line of mystery DT:
43 tackles, 15.5 TFL, 7.0 sacks, 4 PBU, and 1 FF.
Rankins played more DE than DT this year, but at 6’2"/303 I liken him more to a Geno Atkins type once he gets settled inside. Shelly Rank had a year of 58 tackles, 13.0 TFL, 6.0 sacks, and one pretty nifty 46-yard fumble return TD.
Inside Linebacker
Seattle doesn’t have a need here, so I haven’t spent a lot of time studying MIKE’s, but I do appreciate the seasons that Kentrell Brothers and Tyler Matakevich have put together. Deion Jones should test well at the combine, but he’ll be undersized and moved to WILL at the next level.
Outside Linebacker
I’m curious if Joe Schobert can have a Clay Matthews-like rise during the next couple months. After opening 2015 with 9.5 sacks in Wisconsin’s first 7 games, Schobert got completely shutout of the sack column in the Badgers’ final six.
Three more of the OLB at Sr Bowl have projections in the 1st, which is likely far too rich for Seattle’s blood, let alone if they’d even be available at #26.
Perhaps the best mix of value and ability that could make him of interest to Seattle is an OLB from the same school we last drafted a Sr Bowl LB: Utah State. Kyler Fackrell is 6’5"/250, finished the year with 82 tackles, 15.0 TFL, 4.0 sacks, 13 QBH, and 2 FF. Valued at the early 4th round, Fackrell does potentially fall at the early end of where Seattle could take a shot at filling the potential void at SAM from Bruce leaving in FA.
Offensive Center
I believe at one point Alabama’s Ryan Kelly was meant to be a part of this group, but he withdrew sometime after the National Championship game |
fix for Windows 8 auto-login installation and new user-contributed translations for the Windows host installation. Details of the changes for 4.1.24, 4.0.18 and 3.2.16 are also available.
VirtualBox 4.2.6 is available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Solaris from the project's site; builds for specific Linux distributions are also available and include Ubuntu (12.10, 12.04LTS, 11.10, 11.04, 10.4 and 8.04), Debian 7 and 6, OpenSUSE 11.4, 12.1 and 12.2, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 and 10, Fedora 18, 17 and 16, Mandriva 2011.0, 2010.0 and 2010.1, and Oracle Linux/Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, 5 and 4. Downloads for older builds are also provided. VirtualBox binaries from version 4.0 onwards are licensed under the GPL; source code is available from the downloads page.
(djwm)We are huge fans of Star Wars! With May the Forth coinciding with the start of gardening season, I thought it would be fun to celebrate by making some DIY Star Wars Garden Pots! Here’s a quick tutorial for how to make your own Star Wars planters.
* This post may contain affiliate links for your convenience. Click here for my full disclosure.
These cute Star Wars garden pots are super easy to make – you just have to have a confident hand and about half an hour to spare. They would make the perfect homemade gift for a Star Wars fan, and you could even combine it with a small trowel, soil, and seeds or starter plants for a Star Wars garden kit!
Or, you could decorate it like we did with our garden wind chime or a Star Wars wind chime!
How to Make DIY Star Wars Garden Pots
First, gather your materials:
Garden pots
Pencil
Paint brushes – at least one detail brush
– at least one detail brush Paint – gold, white, black, silver or gray, blue, and red
– gold, white, black, silver or gray, blue, and red Water sealant
For our set, I made one Darth Vader, one Storm Trooper, one C3PO, and one R2D2 – but feel free to make as many as you’d like and to experiment with different characters!
Start off by painting base coats on the pots:
one pot black
one pot white
one pot white, leaving the rim unpainted
one pot gold
Look at pictures of the characters and with a pencil, sketch out their features onto the garden pots. Go back and erase any unnecessary lines or details when you’re done. I’m showing you my sketches so you can see what I came up with.
The point isn’t perfection – and getting caught up in perfection can actually make for sloppier work. Just use the most prominent lines and features to imply the characters’ features.
Also, the more confident you are with sketching out the details, the better the outlines will be. Even if you over-confidently outline the buttons on R2D2 and end up with less than his actual character has, you still get a confident representation of his character, rather than a muddled mess!
Take your time painting each pot, going over the lines with a detail brush. If you don’t have a detail brush you can use a pen dipped in paint – just don’t make it your favourite pen!
For Darth Vader, I used a silver paint to bring out the “edges of his mask.”
For the Storm Trooper, I painted with black for the goggles, mask vents (including the mouth), and to imply the edge of the helmet and the curve of the mask at the chin.
For C3PO, I used a different hue of gold paint (although you could just add a bit of white to your base gold) and painted stripes in the eye circles, painted the rim of the pot, and painted around the main face to show the angles. I used a black paint to add dots on the eyes and paint his “mouth.”
By then, I was worked up for R2D2 – he is definitely best saved for last once you’ve built up your confidence a bit!
For R2D2, I used silver paint for the rim and to accentuate a few buttons. I then took the blue paint and did the detailing in the rim and the buttons on his body. I went back over the center button with the silver paint. I added on his laser with a bit of red, and added his projector and slots with black paint. I used a pen dipped in silver paint for the really thin lines.
Last, I sprayed all of the pots with a water resistant spray so that they will stay pristine in the garden!
Are you a Star Wars fan? What Star Wars DIYs would you like to see us try?
Find more adventures in Star Wars:Former head of the European Central Bank, Jean Claude Trichet, has said Ireland’s decision to guarantee its banks was “justifiable”, denying he previously described the decision as a mistake.
Addressing the economic and monetary affairs committee of the European Parliament in Strasbourg yesterday, ahead of the committee’s visit to Dublin tomorrow, the Frenchman who was at the ECB helm during Ireland’s bailout, said the decision was made by the Irish government and was “justifiable given the situation it found itself [in]”.
“The decision was taken by the government and probably rightly so,” he said.
Asked by MEP Gay Mitchell about the ECB’s role in the decision, Mr Trichet said the bank’s message to Dublin was “the same as the message of the central bank to Belgium, to Germany, to France, ” that “we were at the heart of the crisis, saying clearly to beware as we know what could happen”.
Mr Trichet appeared before parliament’s Econ committee today as part of an inquiry into the workings of the troika, following an appearance by EU commissioner Olli Rehn yesterday.
Both men defended the practices of the troika, arguing the gravity of the euro zone crisis required a swift response. “The [bailout] programmes did not mark the beginning of the crisis, but a start of its resolution,” Mr Rehn told members of the committee last night.Former President Jimmy Carter thinks the United States is no longer a democracy, calling the nation an "oligarchy" during an interview with Oprah Winfrey. The comment came from a trailer for an upcoming episode of the talkshow host's SuperSoul Sunday, which will have its season premiere this Sunday.
"We've become now an oligarchy instead of a democracy. And I think that's been the worst damage to the basic moral and ethical standards of the American political system that I've ever seen in my life," the 90-year-old former president told Winfrey.
For those who need a quick civics refresher, an oligarchy is a system of government where the leadership is held in the hands of a small group of elites. According to Carter, shifting systems of political influence have made it so that a rich few basically control the political process.
Carter, who served as president from 1977 to 1981, added the amount of money required to compete in the modern American political system was no longer practical and that he himself would be unable and unwilling to participate in elections today.
"There's no way now for you to get the Democratic or Republican nomination without being able to raise two or three hundred million dollars, or more," Carter said. "I would not be inclined to do that, and I would not be capable of doing it."
Actually, he's right. As it turns out, Carter's comment is increasingly prescient.
In 2014, researchers at Princeton and Northwestern universities caused a minor uproar after they concluded the U.S, was not a democracy as is commonly assumed but, in fact, an oligarchy as Carter has now suggested. "The preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically nonsignificant impact upon public policy," Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page wrote in their analysis.
Their conclusion, that the opinions of ordinary Americans are functionally irrelevant toward shaping public policy, shine a light on how things like gun control legislation can be repeatedly stymied despite overwhelming public support for policies like background checks.
"I would tend to agree that the plutocratic tendencies of the system are now tending to overwhelm democratic principles," Peter Rajsingh, an adjunct professor of finance at New York University, told Mic.
As the Democrats gear up for their first presidential debate on Oct. 13, Carter's stern admonishment may likely be one that will continue to resonate.
Watch the full video below:Two Swedes have been handed life sentences on terrorism charges by a Swedish court for the killing of two people in Syria.
The defendants, aged 30 and 32, denied the charges and said they were not even at the location near Aleppo where two men had their throats cut in 2013.
Key evidence in the case included video clips showing how the victims were surrounded by other men, forced to kneel, and then killed.
Pair killed by sword-wielding man at Swedish school
The District Court in the western coastal city of Gothenburg ruled that the two "acted jointly" with others to "instil serious fear" among sections of the population in Syria, and in other countries where fighters believe the proper form of Islam is not practised.
The younger man was initially investigated by police over extortion. During a house search, police found the video clips in which the two victims, apparently civilians, had their throats slit.
Neither of the convicted men was holding the knife but they were cheering the killings.
Agnetha Hilding Qvarnstrom described the events in the video as the most horrific acts she had seen during her 28-year career as prosecutor.
"What we see are humans being killed in an extremely atrocious and bestial way," Qvarnstrom said.
During the trial she said the defendants were linked to the terrorist-labelled group Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar.
The two men were arrested in July.DENVER — Another Colorado Democrat has stoked the state’s raging gun-control debate by challenging the argument that guns are needed for self-defense.
Colorado House Majority Leader Dickey Lee Hullinghorst said in an interview on YouTube last week that firearms ownership is redundant because the state Legislature keeps citizens safe from harm.
“As a woman, I have the right not to carry a gun and to feel safe on the streets, and that’s what we provide for in the state Legislature is for all of us in the state of Colorado — to feel safe on the streets without having to carry a gun,” said Mrs. Hullinghorst on “The Tim Caffrey Show.”
She also took a swipe at gun owners.
“The thought that the only way we can protect ourselves is to wield our own weapon is completely absurd and an argument that I absolutely discount as frivolous,” Mrs. Hullinghorst said.
Her comments came as Democrats face a strong backlash against the Colorado Legislature’s sweeping gun-control legislation passed earlier this year. Early voting already has begun in the Sept. 10 recall elections of Democratic state Sens. Angela Giron and John Morse over their votes in March in favor of the bills.
SPECIAL COVERAGE: Second Amendment & Gun Control
State Sen. Greg Brophy, a candidate for the 2014 GOP gubernatorial nomination, said Mrs. Hullinghorst’s stance “speaks volumes about the Democratic agenda on guns.”
“Unbelievably naive from a citizen. Absolutely dangerous from an elected official and leader of the Democratic Party in Colorado,” Mr. Brophy told Colorado Peak Politics.
This wasn’t the first time state Democrats have tangled with gun owners over the self-defense issue. Democratic state Sen. Evie Hudak touched off an outcry in March when she told a rape victim that it was unrealistic to expect that she would have been able to fend off her attacker with a gun, saying, “Statistics are not on your side.”
“Chances are that if you had had a gun, then he would have been able to get that from you and possibly use it against you,” Mrs. Hudak said at a committee hearing.
The Democratic-controlled Legislature passed three gun bills in March without any Republican votes. Signed into law by Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, the bills restrict ammunition magazine capacity to 15 rounds; mandate background checks for all gun sales, including temporary transfers; and require gun owners to pay for their background checks.
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.President-elect Trump met Thursday with families and victims of last week's terror attack at Ohio State University, just before jetting off to Des Moines, Iowa for the latest stop on his swing state "thank you tour."
After conducting transition business in New York City Thursday morning, Trump and several top aides departed for Columbus, Ohio where he performed a far more somber task.
"This is a great honor for me today. We're in a fantastic state that I love, Ohio. And we just saw the victims and the families," Trump told reporters after his meeting.
"These were really brave people, amazing people. The police and first responders were incredible," he added. "The families have done so well to come through this so well."
Just over a week ago, a Somali-born refugee plowed his vehicle into dozens of pedestrians on Ohio State's campus before stabbing several onlookers with a butcher's knife. The attacker, 18-year-old Abdul Razak Ali Artan, was gunned down by law enforcement officials within minutes, but not before severely injuring at least 11 of his peers.
"We will do everything in our power to keep the scourge of terrorism our of our country. People are pouring in from regions of the Middle East. We have no idea who they are, where they are, what they're thinking, and we're going to stop that dead cold flat," the incoming Republican president told a crowd in Cincinnati at his first post-election rally last Thursday.
The Islamic State terror group took credit for the Ohio State attack last week, and Trump is likely to use it to make a forceful push for his own proposal to restrict immigration from state sponsors of terrorism and suspend the current administration's refugee resettlement program.
"ISIS is taking credit for the terrible stabbing attack at Ohio State University by a Somali refugee who should not have been in our country," Trump tweeted last week.
The president-elect's meeting with victims of the attack and first responders took place in the Jerome Schottenstein Center on Ohio State's campus. Reporters were not allowed to enter the event and transition officials declined to say whether Trump would deliver remarks before heading to Iowa.The United States has pulled its participation from hearings planned for today by a regional human rights body that has enjoyed the support of every U.S. administration since its founding.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is meeting in Washington, D.C., for a regular session covering human rights issues spanning North and South America. The hearings today are scheduled to cover the Trump administration’s attempt to ban immigration from six predominantly Muslim countries, its immigration enforcement and detention policies, and its approval of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The ACLU is testifying on Tuesday at hearings that can be livestreamed here.
In the past, when U.S. governments have sought to express displeasure at having their records scrutinized, they have occasionally protested by sending lower-level officials. But today’s refusal to engage the commission at all is a deeply troubling indication of its disrespect for human rights norms and the institutions that oversee their protection.
The IACHR is an independent body of the Organization of American States, which brings together all 35 independent countries in the Americas. The U.S. has long been a champion of the work of the commission. While it has no enforcement mechanisms, its mandate is to promote human rights and examine violations in all OAS member states. The IACHR is often the only venue where victims of egregious human rights violations can seek a measure of recourse in the absence of accountability in their own countries. Survivors of the U.S. post-9/11 torture program have appealed to it, and even the Bush administration defended its policies before the IACHR.
The United States’ record isn’t the only one under scrutiny during this session. In the last several days, the commission has heard extensive testimony on the human rights situation in Mexico, Honduras, Panama, Chile, Bolivia, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, with additional countries to face review today and tomorrow.
After word of the U.S. absence spread, the State Department responded by stating that “it is not appropriate for the United States to participate in these hearings while litigation on these matters is ongoing in U.S. courts,” in reference to lawsuits against the government’s Muslim ban. But that doesn’t explain why it wouldn’t attend another hearing regarding a Japanese-Peruvian man who was rounded up with thousands of other Latin Americans, deported to a World War II-era internment camp, and denied redress to this day. It also doesn't explain why the Bush and Obama administrations appeared before the commission for hearings on CIA torture, Guantánamo, immigration detention, and prison issues, even though there was pending litigation at the time.
The Trump administration’s refusal to engage with an independent human rights body, which has played a historic role in fighting impunity and barbaric military dictatorships in the region, sets a dangerous precedent that mirrors the behavior of authoritarian regimes and will only serve to embolden them. It is a worrying sign that the administration, which has also said it would review future engagement with the U.N. Human Rights Council, is not only launching an assault on human rights at home. Rather it’s upping the ante and weakening the institutions that hold abusive governments accountable.
Let’s hope the no-show is temporary, and not a sign of what’s to come.
This post has been updated to reflect the State Department's response.No commentary required.
As you will see.
From the Greens official website (my emphasis added):
Bob Brown delivers the 3rd annual Green Oration
23 Mar | General
The full text of Bob’s speech is below:
Fellow Earthians,
Never before has the Universe unfolded such a flower as our collective human intelligence, so far as we know.
Nor has such a one-and-only brilliance in the Universe stood at the brink of extinction, so far as we know.
We people of the Earth exist because our potential was there in the Big Bang, 13.7 billion years ago, as the Universe exploded into being.
So far, it seems like we are the lone thinkers in this vast, expanding Universe.
However, recent astronomy tells us that there are trillions of other planets circling Sunlike stars in the immensity of the Universe, millions of them friendly to life. So why has no one from elsewhere in the Cosmos contacted us?
Surely some people-like animals have evolved elsewhere. Surely we are not, in this crowded reality of countless other similar planets, the only thinking beings to have turned up. Most unlikely! So why isn’t life out there contacting us? Why aren’t the intergalactic phones ringing?
Here is one sobering possibility for our isolation: maybe life has often evolved to intelligence on other planets with biospheres and every time that intelligence, when it became able to alter its environment, did so with catastrophic consequences. Maybe we have had many predecessors in the Cosmos but all have brought about their own downfall.
That’s why they are not communicating with Earth. They have extincted themselves. They have come and gone. And now it’s our turn.
Whatever has happened in other worlds, here we are on Earth altering this bountiful biosphere, which has nurtured us from newt to Newton.
Unlike the hapless dinosaurs, which went to utter destruction when a rocky asteroid plunged into Earth sixty-five million years ago, this accelerating catastrophe is of our own making.
So, just as we are causing that destruction, we could be fostering its reversal. Indeed, nothing will save us from ourselves but ourselves.
We need a strategy. We need action based on the reality that this is our own responsibility – everyone’s responsibility.
So democracy – ensuring that everyone is involved in deciding Earth’s future – is the key to success.
For comprehensive Earth action, an all-of-the-Earth representative democracy is required. That is, a global parliament.
In his Gettysburg address of 1859, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed: ‘We here highly resolve… that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.’
153 years later, let us here in Hobart, and around the world, highly resolve that through global democracy we shall save the Earth from perishing.
For those who oppose global democracy the challenge is clear: how else would you manage human affairs in this new century of global community, global communications and shared global destiny?
Recently, when I got back to bed at Liffey after ruminating under the stars for hours on this question, Paul enquired, ‘did you see a comet?’ ‘Yes’, I replied, ‘and it is called ‘Global Democracy’.
A molten rock from space destroyed most life on the planet those sixty-five million years ago. Let us have the comet of global democracy save life on Earth this time.
Nine years ago, after the invasion of Iraq which President George W. Bush ordered to promote democracy over tyranny, I proposed to the Australian Senate a means of expanding democracy without invasion. Let Australia take the lead in peacefully establishing a global parliament. I explained that this ultimate democracy would decide international issues. I had in mind nuclear proliferation, international financial transactions and the plight of our one billion fellow people living in abject poverty.
In 2003 our other Greens Senator, Kerry Nettle, seconded the motion but we failed to attract a single other vote in the seventy-six seat chamber. The four other parties – the Liberals, the Nationals, Labor and the Democrats – voted ‘no!’. As he crossed the floor to join the ‘noes’, another senator called to me: ‘Bob, don’t you know how many Chinese there are?’.
Well, yes I did. Surely that is the point. There are just 23 million Australians amongst seven billion equal Earthians. Unless and until we accord every other citizen of the planet, friend or foe, and regardless of race, gender, ideology or other characteristic, equal regard we, like them, can have no assured future.
2500 years ago the Athenians, and 180 years ago the British, gave the vote to all men of means. After Gettysburg, the United States made the vote available to all men, regardless of means. One man, one vote.
But what about women, Louisa Lawson asked in 1889: “Pray, why should one half of the world govern the other half?”
So, in New Zealand, in 1893, followed by South Australia in 1895, and the new Commonwealth of Australia in 1901, universal suffrage – the equal vote for women as well as men – was achieved.
In this second decade of the Twenty First Century, most people on Earth get to vote in their own countries. Corruption and rigging remain common place but the world believes in democracy. As Winston Churchill observed in 1947,
‘Many forms of government have been tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.’
Yet, in Australia and other peaceful places which have long enjoyed domestic democracy, establishing a global democracy – the ultimate goal of any real democrat – is not on the public agenda.
Exxon, Coca-Cola, BHP Billiton and News Corporation have much more say in organising the global agenda than the planet’s five billion mature-age voters without a ballot box.
Plutocracy, rule by the wealthy, is democracy’s most insidious rival. It is served by plutolatry, the worship of wealth, which has become the world’s prevailing religion. But on a finite planet, the rule of the rich must inevitably rely on guns rather than the ballot box, though, I hasten to add, wealth does not deny a good heart. All of us here are amongst the world’s wealthiest people, but I think none of us worship wealth to the exclusion of democracy.
We instinctively know that democracy is the only vehicle for creating a fair, global society in which freedom will abound, but the extremes of gluttony and poverty will not. Mahatma Ghandi observed, the world has enough for everyone’s need but not for everyone’s greed.
So what’s it to be: democracy or guns? I pluck for democracy.
The concept of world democracy goes back centuries, but since 2007, there has been a new movement towards an elected, representative assembly at the United Nations, in parallel with the unelected, appointed, General Assembly. This elected assembly would have none of the General Assembly’s powers but would be an important step along the way to a future, popularly elected and agreeably empowered global assembly.
Two Greens motions in the Australian Senate to support this campaign for a global people’s assembly have been voted down. However similar motions won support in the European Parliament, and in India 40 MPs, including a number of ministers, have backed the proposal. I will move for the world’s 100 Greens parties to back it too, at the third Global Greens conference in Senegal next week. It fits perfectly with the Global Greens Charter, adopted in Canberra in 2001.
We Earthians can develop rosier prospects. We have been to the Moon. We have landed eyes and ears on Mars. We are discovering planets hundreds of light years close which are ripe for life. We are on a journey to endless wonder in the Cosmos and to realising our own remarkable potential.
To give this vision security, we must get our own planet in order.
The political debate of the Twentieth century was polarised between capitalism and communism. It was about control of the economy in the narrow sense of material goods and money. A free market versus state control.
Bitter experience tells us that the best outcome is neither, but some of both. The role of democracy in the nation state has been to calibrate that balance.
In this Twenty First Century the political debate is moving to a new arena. It is about whether we expend Earth’s natural capital as our population grows to ten billion people in the decades ahead with average consumption also growing.
We have to manage the terrifying facts that Earth’s citizenry is already using one hundred and twenty percent of the planet’s productivity capacity – its renewable living resources; that the last decade was the hottest in the last 1300 years (if not the last 9000 years); that we are extincting our fellow species faster than ever before in human history; and that to accommodate ten billion people at American, European or Australasian rates of consumption we will need two more planets to exploit within a few decades.
It may be that the Earth’s biosphere cannot tolerate ten billion of us big consuming mammals later this century. Or it may be that, given adroit and agreeable global management, it can. It’s up to us.
Once more the answer lies between the poles: between the narrow interests of the mega-rich and a surrender to the nihilist idea that the planet would be better off without us.
It will be global democracy’s challenge to find the equator between those poles, and it is that equator which the Greens are best placed to reach.
One great difference between the old politics and Green politics, is the overarching question which predicates all our political decisions: ‘will people one hundred years from now thank us?’
In thinking one hundred years ahead, we set our community’s course for one hundred thousand years: that humanity will not perish at its own hand but will look back upon its Twenty First Century ancestry with gratitude.
And when the future smiles, we can smile too.
That query ‘will people a hundred years from now thank us?’ should be inscribed across the door of Earth’s parliament.
So let us resolve
that there should be established
for the prevalence and happiness of humankind
a representative assembly
a global parliament
for the people of the Earth
based on the principle of
one person one vote one value;
and to enable this outcome
that it should be a bicameral parliament
with its house of review
having equal representation
elected from every nation.
An Earth parliament for all. But what would be its commission? Here are four goals:
Economy.
Equality.
Ecology.
Eternity.
To begin with economy, because that word means managing our household. The parliament would employ prudent resource management to put an end to waste and to better share Earth’s plenitude. For example, it might cut the trillion dollars annual spending on armaments. A cut of just ten percent, would free up the money to guarantee every child on the planet clean water and enough food, as well as a school to attend to develop her or his best potential. World opinion would back such a move, though, I suppose Boeing, NATO, the People’s Liberation Army, and the Saudi Arabian royal family might not.
The second goal is equality. This begins with equality of opportunity – as in every child being assured that school, where lessons are in her or his own first language, and a health clinic to attend. Equality would ensure, through the fair regulation of free enterprise, each citizen’s wellbeing, including the right to work, to innovate, to enjoy creativity and to understand and experience and contribute to defending the beauty of Earth’s biosphere.
Which brings me to the third goal: ecology. Ecological wellbeing must understrap all outcomes, so as to actively protect the planet’s biodiversity and living ecosystems. ‘In wildness’, wrote Thoreau ‘is the preservation of the world.’ Wild nature is our cradle and the most vital source for our spiritual and physical wellbeing yet it is the world’s most rapidly disappearing resource. And so I pay tribute to Miranda Gibson, 60 metres high on her tall tree platform tonight as the rain and snow falls across central Tasmania. In Miranda’s spirit is the saving of the world.
And lastly, eternity. Eternity is for as long as we could be. It means beyond our own experience. It also means ‘forever’, if there is no inevitable end to life. Let’s take the idea of eternity and make it our own business.
I have never met a person in whom I did not see myself reflected. Some grew old and died, and I am now part of their ongoing presence on Earth.
Others have a youthful vitality which I have lost and will soon give up altogether. These youngsters will in turn keep my candle, and yours, if you are aged like me, alight in the Cosmos. In this stream of life, where birth and death are our common lot, the replenishment of humankind lights up our own existences. May it go on and on and on…
The pursuit of eternity is no longer the prerogative of the gods: it is the business of us all, here and now.
Drawing on the best of our character, Earth’s community of people is on the threshold of a brilliant new career in togetherness. But we, all together, have to open the door to that future using the powerful key of global democracy.
I think we are intelligent enough to get there. My faith is in the collective nous and caring of humanity, and in our innate optimism. Even in its grimmest history, the optimism of humanity has been its greatest power. We must defy pessimism, as well as the idea that there is any one of us who cannot turn a successful hand to improving Earth’s future prospects.
I am an optimist. I’m also an opsimath: I learn as I get older. And, I have never been happier in my life. Hurtling to death, I am alive and loving being Green.
I look forward in my remaining years to helping spread a contagion of confidence that, together, we people of Earth will secure a great future. We can and will retrieve Earth’s biosphere. We will steady ourselves – this unfolding flower of intelligence in the Universe – for the long, shared, wondrous journey into the enticing centuries ahead.
Let us determine to bring ourselves together, settle our differences, and shape and realise our common dream for this joyride into the future. In that pursuit, let us create a global democracy and parliament under the grand idea of one planet, one person, one vote, one value.
We must, we can, we will.
Er ….
Over to you, fellow “Earthian”.Today I received an email asking me for publishing advice: “I just finished a book, and thought you might have some tips for publishing options. I want full color and nice fancy paper.” A few weeks ago, I had another inquiry: “I love that you have a printing business! I have something that needs to be printed… do you print these things, or should I just go to Kinko’s?” These questions, along with others garnered at the recent Chicago Zine Fest, have made me realize how much I’ve learned about publishing, and how skewed the perceptions of publishing can be.
First of all, I am a self-publisher. This fact alone has its own set of preconceived notions, with varying degrees of understanding and respect. It also puts me in the position to give you as many reasons why you shouldn’t do it as why you should. So before I explain how to do it, let’s briefly discuss what you’re getting yourself into. If you think all it takes is money, you’re wrong. You will need large quantities of energy, dedication, organization, time, attention to detail, and the capacity to multitask and make mistakes over and over. If you want to save trees, go away. And prepare yourself for this: some people don’t think self-publishing is “real” publishing. They’ll think it’s a hobby, a sign you failed to get “real” published, or they’ll expect to see a zine, a cookbook, or an inherent lack of quality. (This seems to be especially true for the literary segment. I happen to write non-fiction, which I also illustrate, so I can’t speak for fiction personally.) That said, don’t discredit self-publishing; take yourself seriously. Self-publishing is publishing, and you can do it well.
Here is how I do it:
First of all, printing and publishing are two different things. You want to be a printer? Go buy a printing press*. You will also require ink, plates, solvents, large quantities of paper, a guillotine cutter, a bindery, reinforced floors, a loading dock, and numerous other things I know nothing about because I’m not a printer. If you think you can print large quantities of books all dirty and on the cheap, think again. I have syringed ink into my printer cartridges and trust me, it doesn’t work. Oh, but you’re going to use a Xerox? That’s nice, but we’re talking about books here, not zines. Even if you’ve discovered another way to print off thousands of pages, you still need to consider how you’ll be cutting all that paper down (your well-honed X-acto skills will not get you far), and most importantly how to bind it all together.
Bindings you will try and realize are futile or look like crap:
-ribbon
-thread
-linen tape
-book cloth
-other kinds of cloth
-all types of glue
-contact paper
-various rivets
-spiral binding
-hand-made perfect binding
All of these methods fail because you need to go bigger; you need to outsource**. Sending your book to a professional printer will mean less time spent printing/cutting/collating/binding, much higher quality overall, and you may be pleasantly surprised by the cost difference. Making books by hand seems cheaper, but often it’s not.
I currently have my books printed at Cushing-Malloy in Ann Arbor, MI. However, there are tons of printers out there, and which one is best for you depends on the specs of your print run. This includes the quantity of books, number of ink colors, dimensions, binding and cover type, paper stock, coatings, freight cost, and so on. Some small publishers like doing print-on-demand, which is exactly what it sounds like. Rather than ordering a full print run (usually anywhere from 250-1000 and up), you pay for copies as you go, or as you sell. The benefit here is that you don’t have to store or cart around hundreds or thousands of books, or worry as much about financial loss if the book doesn’t sell. Unfortunately, print-on-demand limits you to a narrow range of dimensions, page count, paper stock, and other specs. Personally, I find print-on-demand books lacking in quality as far as visual and tactile prettiness; they’re not typically gorgeous, but they do the job.
How to find a printer:
You can troll the internet, or you can make life easier and refer to the handy and extensive list of printers in the back of the Self-Publishing Manual by Dan Poynter. It seems like this book gets a lot of flack, probably because the cover is ugly and the author is unabashedly self-promoting, but there’s a lot of great information in there. Read it, reread it, highlight stuff. Once you decide the specs of your print run, go through this list and submit quote requests to all of the printers that print the type of book you need. This will give you a good range of prices. When you’ve narrowed it down to a handful of printers (or if you simply know nothing about paper stock and coatings), ask them to send you a sample packet– they totally will, and for free. Then you can see and feel the different papers, as well as the print quality. A lot of publishers and presses are now getting their printing done out of the country, probably in China. I haven’t looked into printers outside the U.S., but I’ve heard the prices are super low. It depends on your priorities, but I like to keep things as local as possible.
If you want to get an ISBN, LCCN (Library of Congress Control Number), or barcode to make your book all official looking, you simply buy and register these online. No, it’s not a black market, these are all legit. Note: ISBNs cost money, and if you’re just starting out you may want to wait. Depending on your publishing goals, you may not need ISBNs, or they may not fit your budget at first. However, they’re also an investment if you plan on publishing multiple books. Bowker is the official ISBN provider, and I’ve used Barcode Graphics for barcodes. You can register for your LCCN before publication by registering a PCN at pcn.loc.gov. That way, you have a number for your copyright page before going to print. If you wish to register your copyright, you can do it at www.copyright.gov.
If you’re at the level of sending your book to a professional printer, you want the design to look equally polished. We’re talking cover design as well as interior layout design. Most people use InDesign or Quark to create book layouts. If you haven’t the design or technical skills to do this part yourself |
50 million to the $187 million it took to build the streetcar line over three years, covered the fare costs beginning July 1 through Labor Day. The foundation said it was covering the fares, estimated at a cost of a few hundred thousand dollars, to allow the system’s backers time to solve the streetcar’s teething problems and build ridership.
“We believe this decision will support the QLine’s long-term success and position the streetcar as a successful demonstration project for transit in the region,” said Kresge President and CEO Rip Rapson in a statement.
QLine officials said paid passenger service will begin Sept. 4 barring a major disruption.
The system, which took 10 years of planning, financing and construction, has run largely without incident. One streetcar suffered minor cosmetic damage on July 24 when it was struck by a car making an illegal turn. No one was injured, but the streetcar was briefly taken out of service for repairs.
Fares are part of the revenue mix, along with the sale of the line’s naming rights and corporate advertising at the stations, that fund the line’s estimated $6 million-plus annual operational costs.
M-1 Rail officials have always intended to turn the system over to a public regional transit agency to operate and fund, but a dedicated funding source has yet to be established. Until a tax is approved to sustain the line long term, Cullen has said other operational funding options included seeking more corporate donations, selling more advertising, and reselling the naming rights.
The QLine’s construction costs and several years of operational money were funded by a mix of public and private sources.Peas, not people: Armin Meiwes said human flesh tastes like pork
Notorious cannibal Armin Meiwes has shocked prison warders – by converting to a green-voting vegetarian.
Meiwes, who ate a man he met online, has been elected the leader of a Green Party group in the prison where he is serving life.
The 45-year-old discusses environmental policies with murderers, paedophiles and drug dealers every week in a maximum-security jail in Germany. Meiwes has sworn not to eat meat in his environmentalist role, according to one prisoner.
‘He finds the idea of factory farming as distasteful as his crime was,’ said the convict. ‘He now sticks to vegetarian dishes.’
MORE: Cannibal reveals he ate his lover with sprouts ‘with consent’
In 2001, Meiwes posted a message on the Internet asking for a man to slaughter and eat.
He was answered by Bernd Brandes, who had posted his own ad offering: ‘Dinner – or your dinner’.
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Meiwes killed, filleted, and froze his victim and ate bits of him for ten months. He was handed eight years in prison in 2004 but two years later his sentence was upped to life after a retrial found him guilty of murder.
Gerhard Kaehler, a Green Party representative who has been working with the convicts, said: ‘Armin is no fool. The group respects him, that is why he was voted leader.’
Although Meiwes claims to be reformed, the Green Party leadership wants nothing to do with him. One official, Kai Klose, said Meiwes is not and never was a member of the party.
Mr Kahler added: ‘To me he is a normal convict who has committed an incomprehensible crime.’
MORE: Cannibal killer looking for love: Would like to meat man with a good tasteYesterday, we took a look at some of the Monsters, Spells, and Traps at a Majespecter Duelist’s disposal. Today, we’ll take a look at some of the other versatile cards that Majespecter Duelists can use to further strengthen their Decks.
The Cat and the Unicorn
First up are Majespecter Cat – Nekomata and Majespecter Unicorn – Kirin!
Like the rest of the Majespecter monsters, Majespecter Cat – Nekomata and Majespecter Unicorn – Kirin can’t be targeted or destroyed by an opponent’s card effects. They also each have a Pendulum Scale of 2, facilitating the Pendulum Summoning of your Level 3 and Level 4 Majespecters.
Nekomata’s other effect lets you add any Majespecter card from your Deck to your hand during the End Phase of a turn that it’s Normal or Special Summoned. That makes it more versatile than the rest of the Majespecter monsters. But unlike the Majespecters we looked at yesterday, Nekomata doesn’t retrieve a card from the Deck with its effect until the End Phase. That makes it slower than the other Majespecter monsters we looked at, but nevertheless makes it a worthy addition to any Majespecter Deck.
There’s nothing quite like Majespecter Unicorn – Kirin. Kirin doesn’t add a Majespecter card to your hand after it’s Summoned, and since it’s a Level 6 Tribute Monster, it can’t be Pendulum Summoned with the Majespecters in your Pendulum Zones. Instead, Kirin boasts the highest ATK and DEF of any Majespecter card, with 2000 ATK and 2000 DEF. It also has a field-clearing effect that leads the way for your other Majespecters to attack.
During either player’s turn, you can use Kirin’s effect to target 1 Pendulum Monster in your Monster Zone and 1 monster your opponent controls, and return both of them to their owners’ hands. Not only can this keep your opponent’s field in check, but it also allows you to re-Summon your Majespecters after returning them to your hand, thereby recycling their effects.
Majemillion Pegasus
Majespecters also have their very own Field Spell Card: Majesty’s Pegasus!
Majesty’s Pegasus gives all Majespecter monsters an additional 300 ATK and DEF. But even more impressively, Majesty’s Pegasus lets you Tribute 1 WIND Spellcaster-Type monster each turn to Special Summon a Level 4 or lower Majespecter from your Deck. By Tributing a Majespecter to activate the effect of Majesty’s Pegasus, you’ll not only load up your Extra Deck with Majespecter monsters to Pendulum Summon, but you’ll also be able to select which ones you immediately want to Special Summon onto the field.
Majespecters are a cool theme that aggressively Pendulum Summons tough-to-destroy monsters. You can start using the new Majespecter cards when Dimension of Chaos is released on November 6th!Tell the real John McCain story and you indict the entire political system. It is not a pretty story. No one really wants to know. I truly believe that if you spelled it out so people could really understand the McCain phenomenon, few would thank you. Instead, they would probably be inclined to hate you for the information and discount anything you had to say on any other matter in the future. There is, after all, validity to the legend about shooting the messenger.
Voters have been comfortable in supporting McCain because he is the mirror image of everything this superficial Sun Belt culture teaches us to admire. On the surface, he is the war hero with an earnest, pleasing personality. He is a family man and friend to Mr. Average Man, to the downtrodden, to the Native Americans and the poor. He loves Sun City residents, too, as well as the blacks, although few can recall having ever seen him in the presence of a black person.
Info John McCain
McCain is the son and grandson of Navy admirals, an Annapolis graduate, Navy pilot and former Pentagon lobbyist. It was while in the Pentagon that McCain curried favor with John Tower, the powerful Senator John Tower of Texas who believed there was never a weapons system too costly to be purchased. It was Tower who tipped McCain off to the career opportunity of moving to Tempe, Arizona, so that he could run for the seat in Arizona's First Congressional District being vacated after 30 years by John Rhodes. Barely here long enough to qualify for a driver's license, McCain won a four-way Republican primary in 1982 with a mere 32 percent of the vote.HOUGHTON, MI - Michigan Tech has defended its expulsion of a student accused of an internet threat to shoot blacks. The university said it acted appropriately given violent episodes at campuses around the country. Michigan Technological University has asked that a federal lawsuit filed by the now former student, Matthew Schultz, be dismissed. Schultz, a third-year student majoring in mechanical engineering, contends that Michigan Tech ignored the fact that his post had been altered, and said the university misled the public, media and a county prosecutor. The case originates from a Nov. 12, 2015, post that Schultz wrote on Yik Yak, a social-media app, as part of a discussion about racial threats at the University of Missouri and racial issues at Michigan Tech.
'Poster boy for white hatred:' Michigan Tech misled students about racial threats, suit says Matthew Schultz, a third-year student, says he was expelled after administrators blamed him for a racist post that had been altered by someone else.
He wrote: "Gonna shoot all black people......A smile tomorrow," followed by a smiley face. He removed the post minutes later but someone grabbed a screen shot and shared it with Michigan Tech. After no immediate response from the university, a shortened version of the screen shot, showing only, "Gonna shoot all black people," was sent to school officials. The school considered both versions to be threats. "Given the horrific instances of gun violence that have occurred on university campuses across the country in recent years, the intense reaction that (Schultz's) post provoked is not surprising," the school's attorney, Michael Cavanaugh, wrote in his motion to have the lawsuit dismissed. "Indeed, reasonable recipients of the post viewed Plaintiff's message as making two distinct statements: 'Gonna shoot all black people' and that the anonymous poster would have "A smile tomorrow' (perhaps after shooting black people today)," Cavanaugh wrote. Within an hour of the original post, the university's Department of Public Safety and Police Services had issued a campus-wide alert. Police arrested Schultz hours later, but charges were dropped. Schultz was kicked out of school, however. "He said he intended for his post to convey, in a humorous way, that he was not a racist, but that others deliberately altered the post by focusing only on the words, 'Gonna shoot all black people,'" Cavanaugh wrote.
Michigan Tech student charged for alleged Yik Yak threat against black students The student is temporarily suspended and banned from campus.
"In the end, however, it was determined that Plaintiff was responsible for the disruption that his own post caused because the post, as written, could reasonably be interpreted as conveying a threat." The university said Schultz's internet post was a threat, not protected speech under the First Amendment. A hearing is set for Feb. 2 in U.S. District Court in Marquette. Schultz says the school made him the "poster boy for white hatred" to show how seriously it took racial issues. His attorneys, Steven Pence and Nicholas Roumel, argued against dismissal of the lawsuit. They say former student Ryan Grainger provided school officials with both the original post and the altered post. Grainger, in response to the lawsuit, said he received the posts from a close friend and said any reasonable person would have reported the information. Schultz's attorneys say he was punished by Michigan Tech "not for his own words but as they were maliciously altered by another, so as to entirely change their meaning." They say that only the "altered, sinister words" were released by the university until months later, when the university, acting on a Freedom of Information request, had to admit there were two separate posts. Police reports were also "significantly" altered, the attorneys said. "In an effort to control the damage this revelation would do to its carefully crafted public image, MTU quickly claimed to the media that these two posts were equally menacing," Pence and Roumel wrote. The school held Schultz responsible for chaos outside of his own doing, they said. "... MTU blamed Plaintiff for a social media post that was significantly altered by Defendant Ryan Grainger - but when they realized their mistake, MTU nonetheless misled the Michigan Tech community, the media, and even the county prosecutor for their own political purposes." A university hearing panel placed Schultz on probation after exonerating him of the most serious charges but they were re-instated - and Schultz was expelled - after he appealed, his attorney said. "This case tells a troubling tale that even after MTU realized Plaintiff's social media post was significantly altered, they refused to back down, and perpetuated false public information for their own purposes." The attorneys, who referenced Watergate in their pleadings, said the case "calls into mind the political saw, 'It's not the crime, it's the cover-up.'" They said that Michigan Tech officials took immediate action in response to the altered post, and did not realize until two hours later that it had been altered. Yik Yak Legal, responding to an emergency request to identify the source of the post, told school officials that the post had been cropped and did not provide the information. Schultz contends the university should have concluded there was no threat. Then, the altered threat got on TV news. "Thus MTU was faced with either a public 'Whoops, never mind,' or pressing on and perpetuating a false threat. They chose the latter course of action, much to Matthew Schultz's great detriment," his attorney said. Police got a search warrant for the Yik Yak account. Schultz was arrested that night on felony charges. By morning, the charge was reduced to a misdemeanor, and ultimately dismissed. Robert Bishop, director of academic and community conduct, told Schultz he was suspended pending a hearing despite the legal outcome. Bishop said that Schultz's original "post clearly can be taken to mean a lot of different things subject to other people's interpretations." Schultz was suspended 18 months and given conditions to comply with. When he appealed, he realized he could face additional sanctions, up to expulsion, the school said. Dean of students Bonnie Gorman said the university would have responded to either post similarly. "In addition, had you not made the initial post, it is unlikely that the (cropped post) would have appeared. Ultimately, your actions have hurt the integrity of the University and caused significant concerns from other students, parents, prospective students, faculty and staff." The university's attorney said that Schultz has presented so many "unbelievable conspiracy" theories it is difficult to respond to all of them. "Undeterred, Plaintiff delves even deeper into wild and unsubstantiated conspiracy theories by suggesting that (Michigan Tech public safety) is engaged in some type of 'Watergate' cover-up," Cavanaugh wrote.Stephen Harper is facing what may be the toughest moment of his electoral career. Once the tide turns against a government the way it’s been turning against the Conservatives the past month, it’s a monumental task to reverse. After nine years of striving to control every available lever of power, the Prime Minister must feel he is being swamped by events he can’t control. And he is.
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The refugee crisis is not his fault. Indeed, of the three party leaders, he’s the one who has been to the refugee camps, has seen the horrors, who knows up close what it looks like when people lose everything they have. He’s also the one who has had to answer to families who have lost loved ones to Canada’s military activities since he became prime minister. He has increased the number of Syrians Canada has pledged to take. His government was smeared unjustly when it was accused of refusing entry to the family of the drowned Syrian-Kurdish child, Alan Kurdi, a report that wasn’t true. And while Canada may have been slow in the number of Syrians it has welcomed to date, let’s get real: the situation in the Middle East is chaos, you can’t just send a planeload of civil servants over to scoop up the first available families and jet them back to Ottawa. The numbers are in the millions; there are immense difficulties in dealing with the situation, as European countries have discovered. This is a crisis that has been going on for four years – just because Canadians only woke up to it a week ago doesn’t mean it just began.
Harper was already wounded when voters suddenly discovered the refugee situation. Mike Duffy’s lawyer skillfully turned his day in court into a trial of Harper’s aides and advisers. Harper has said all along he was unaware of the key event – the cheque written on Duffy’s behalf by Nigel Wright – and there’s no evidence he did. But Wright’s testimony offered the opportunity to unleash years of pent-up hostility over previous Tory slights and misdeeds, and it washed over his government, guilty and innocent alike.
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Now he’s feeling the heat. A poll released Tuesday suggested the Tories have slipped to third place – barely, but third nonetheless. Until this week, the Conservatives’ ability to continue running neck-and-neck with the Liberals and NDP could be viewed as impressive, considering the battering they’ve taken and the array of challenges they face. But there are reports of disquiet in the upper ranks of the campaign, where unnamed insiders are now sniping at campaign manager Jenni Byrne. Harper refused to “dignify” questions about Byrne Tuesday, but the pressure is enough that he’s shifted his message in a clear response to the polls: Hey Canadians, wake up, or you’ll find yourselves with Thomas Mulcair or Justin Trudeau camped at 24 Sussex Drive.
Harper was already wounded when voters suddenly discovered the refugee situation.
It’s a telling moment. Harper, who hates admitting any form of weakness, now acknowledges he might lose.
“We believe there will be a Conservative government, but the reality is that this is a real choice for Canadians and an NDP government or a Liberal government are real possibilities.” That, of course, would be catastrophic, he warned.
“You go out and buy a 6/49 ticket and if it doesn’t work out, you throw it away, you get on with your life, but if a national government goes off course as these guys are proposing with runaway spending, taxes and debt, all of its citizens lose and we will lose for a long time.”
Thanks to the unusual length of the campaign there are still six weeks to go, i.e. the duration of a normal federal election. For Conservatives the glass-half-full view is that they’re still in the game and have plenty of time to right the ship. Most of the bad news must be out by now — how many peeing candidates can there be? But internal sniping in the midst of a struggling campaign is never a good sign — John Turner’s 1984 campaign was doomed from the moment he brought back Pierre Trudeau’s ousted rainmaker Keith Davey to save his bacon at the last moment.
Harper is a seasoned professional on his fifth national election in 11 years. He has increased his seat count in every previous contest. The next six weeks will be an all-out struggle to save his government and his job. It’s not an impossible task, but it’s far more imposing than it was when he called the election.
National Post
KellyMcParland<Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier "summoned Turkey's envoy to the foreign ministry" for talks "on latest developments in Turkey", said a ministry source.
While Ankara "has the right to counter the threat of terrorism and to deal with the bloody coup attempt through the law, that should not serve as a justification to muzzle the opposition or to put them behind bars," the source said.
Berlin felt it "could not remain silent" given the deep ties between the two countries and its people.
"It is therefore necessary to formally communicate the government's position to the Turkish government," said the source.
Both co-leaders of Turkey's Peoples' Democratic Party were detained along with nine other MPs on Friday, dramatically escalating Ankara's crackdown on leading pro-Kurdish politicians in the wake of the July 15 failed military coup.
Critics say that the arrests show that the mass raids have gone well beyond targeting the actual putsch plotters.
Relations between Ankara and Berlin have been strained in the wake of the failed coup, with Germany repeatedly expressing concern over the scope of the crackdown on suspects.
On Thursday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Germany of being one of the world's worst countries for harbouring "terrorists", saying Berlin had not responded to requests to hand over suspects from the failed coup.
After Turkish authorities on Monday detained 13 journalists from the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper, Chancellor Angela Merkel said it was "highly alarming that freedom of the press and speech are being restricted again and again.""José I Bonaparte" redirects here. For the Argentinian paleontologist, see José Bonaparte
Joseph-Napoléon Bonaparte, born Giuseppe di Buonaparte ( Italian: [dʒuˈzɛppe di ˌbwɔnaˈparte], Spanish: José Bonaparte; 7 January 1768 – 28 July 1844) was a French diplomat and nobleman, the elder brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, who made him King of Naples and Sicily (1806–1808, as Giuseppe I), and later King of Spain (1808–1813, as José I). After the fall of Napoleon, Joseph styled himself Comte de Survilliers.
Early years and personal life [ edit ]
Joseph was born in 1768 to Carlo Buonaparte and Maria Letizia Ramolino at Corte, the capital of the Corsican Republic. In the year of his birth, Corsica was invaded by France and conquered the following year. His father was originally a follower of the Corsican Patriot leader, Pasquale Paoli, but later became a supporter of French rule.
As a lawyer, politician, and diplomat, Joseph served in the Cinq-Cents and was the French ambassador to Rome. On 30 September 1800, as Minister Plenipotentiary, he signed a treaty of friendship and commerce between France and the United States at Morfontaine, alongside Charles Pierre Claret de Fleurieu, and Pierre Louis Roederer.
In 1795 Joseph was a member of the Council of Ancients, where he used his position to help his brother overthrow the Directory four years later.
The Château de Villandry had been seized by the French Revolutionary government; and, in the early 19th century, Joseph's brother, the Emperor Napoleon, acquired the château for him.
King of Naples [ edit ]
Upon the outbreak of war between France and Austria in 1805, Ferdinand IV of Naples had agreed a treaty of neutrality with Napoleon but, a few days later, declared his support for Austria and permitted a large Anglo-Russian force to land in his kingdom. Napoleon, however, was soon victorious and, with the War of the Third Coalition having been shattered on 5 December at the Battle of Austerlitz, Ferdinand found himself exposed to French wrath.
On 27 December 1805, Napoleon issued a proclamation from the Schönbrunn declaring Ferdinand to have forfeited his kingdom and that a French invasion would soon follow ensuring 'that the finest of countries is relieved from the yoke of the most faithless of men.'[1] On 31 December Napoleon commanded Joseph to leave Paris and move to Rome, where he would be assigned at the head of the army sent to dispossess Ferdinand of his throne. Although Joseph was the nominal commander-in-chief of the expedition, Marshal Masséna was in effective command of operations, with General St. Cyr second. However St. Cyr, who had previously held the senior command of French troops in the region, soon resigned in protest at being made subordinate to Masséna and left for Paris. An outraged Napoleon ordered St. Cyr to return to his post at once.[2]
On 8 February 1806 the French invasion force of forty-thousand men crossed into Naples. The centre and right of the army under Masséna and General Reynier advanced south from Rome while Giuseppe Lechi led a force down the Adriatic coast from Ancona. On his brother's recommendation, Joseph attached himself to Reynier.[3] The French advance faced little resistance. Even before any French troops had crossed the border, the Anglo-Russian forces had beaten a prudent retreat, the British withdrawing to Sicily, the Russians to Corfu. Thus abandoned by his allies, King Ferdinand had also already set sail for Palermo on 23 January. Queen Maria-Carolina lingered a little longer in the capital but, on 11 February, also fled to join her husband.
The first obstacle the French encountered was the fortress of Gaeta, its governor, Prince Louis of Hesse-Philippsthal, refusing to surrender his charge. This did not however result in any meaningful delay of the invaders, Masséna simply detaching a small force to besiege the garrison before continuing south, where Capua opened its gates after only token resistance.[4] On 14 February Masséna took possession of Naples and, the following day, Joseph staged a triumphant entrance into the city.[5] Reynier was then quickly dispatched to seize control of the Strait of Messina and on 9 March inflicted a crushing defeat on the Neapolitan Royal Army at the Battle of Campo Tenese, effectively destroying it as a fighting force and securing the entire mainland for the French.
Portrait of Joseph Bonaparte, King of Naples, by, by Jean-Baptiste Wicar (1762 – 1834).
On 30 March 1806 Napoleon issued a decree installing Joseph as King of Naples and Sicily, the decree reading as follows:
"Napoleon, by the Grace of God and the constitutions. Emperor of the French and King of Italy, to all those to whom these presents come, greetings. The interests of our people, the honour of our Crown, and the tranquillity of the Continent of Europe requiring that we should assure, in a stable and definite manner, the lot of the people of Naples and of Sicily, who have fallen into our power by the right of conquest, and who constitute a part of the Grand Empire, we declare that we recognise, as King of Naples and of Sicily, our well-beloved brother, Joseph Napoleon, Grand Elector of France. This Crown will be hereditary, by order of primogeniture, in his descendants male, legitimate, and natural, etc."[6]
Napoleonic Italy in 1810, Naples being the same extent under Joseph (1806 - 1808).
Joseph's arrival in Naples was warmly greeted with cheers and he was eager to be a monarch well liked by his subjects. Seeking to win the favour of the local elites, he maintained in their posts the vast majority of those who had held office and position under the Bourbons and was anxious to not in any way appear a foreign oppressor. With a provisional government set up in the capital, Joseph then immediately set off, accompanied by General Lamarque, on a tour of his new realm. The principal object of the tour was to assess the feasibility of an immediate invasion of Sicily and the expulsion of Ferdinand and Maria-Carolina from their refuge in Palermo. But, upon reviewing the situation at the Strait of Messina, Joseph was forced to admit the impossibility of such an enterprise, the Bourbons having carried off all boats and transports from along the coast and concentrated their remaining forces, alongside the British, on the opposite side.[7] Unable to possess himself of Sicily, Joseph was nevertheless master of the mainland and he continued his progress through Calabria and on to Lucania and Apulia, visiting the main villages and meeting the local notables, clergy and people, allowing his people to grow accustomed to their new king and enabling himself to form first-hand a picture of the condition of his kingdom.[8]
Upon returning to Naples, Joseph received a deputation from the French Senate congratulating him upon his accession. The King then set about forming a ministry staffed by many competent and talented men with whom he was determined to pursue a reforming agenda and confer upon Naples all the benefits of the French Revolution, without its excesses. Saliceti was appointed Minister of Police, Roederer Minister of Finance, Miot Minister of the Interior and General Dumas Minister of War. Marshal Jourdan was also confirmed as Governor of Naples, an appointment made by Napoleon, and served as Joseph's foremost military adviser.
Joseph then embarked on an ambitious programme of reform and regeneration aimed at raising Naples to the level of a modern state in the mould of Napoleonic France. Monastic orders were suppressed, their property nationalised and their funds confiscated to steady the royal finances.[9] Feudal privileges and taxes were abolished, however the nobility was compensated by an indemnity in the form of a certificate which could be exchanged in return for lands nationalised from the Church.[10] Moreover, provincial intendants were instructed to engage those dispossessed former monks who had the inclination in the work of public education, and to ensure that elderly monks no longer able to support themselves were moved into communal establishments founded for their care.[11] A college for the education of young girls was also established in each province and a central college at Aversa was founded to which the daughters of public functionaries, and the ablest from the provincial schools, were admitted under the personal patronage of Queen Julie.[12]
The practice of forcibly recruiting prisoners into the army was also abolished and, to counter the perennial plague of robbers and brigands who infested the mountains and preyed upon travellers, military commissions were established with the power to judge and execute, without appeal, all those brigands arrested with arms in their possession.[13] Public works programmes were also instituted to give employment to the poor and improvement to the kingdom, with practicable highways being built all the way to Reggio and the project of a Calabrian road, which under the Bourbons had existed for decades only as the pretext for a tax levied each year ostensibly for its construction, was completed by Joseph within the year.[14] In the second year of his reign, Joseph also had installed the first system of public street-lighting in Naples itself, modelled on that then operating in Paris.[10]
Although the kingdom was not at that time furnished with a constitution, and thus Joseph's will as monarch reigned supreme, there is yet no instance of him ever adopting a measure of policy without prior discussion of the matter in the Council of State and the passing of a majority vote in favour his course of action by the counsellors.[15] Joseph thus presided over Naples in the best traditions of Enlightened absolutism, doubling the revenue of the crown from seven to fourteen million ducats in his brief two-year reign while all the time seeking to lighten the burdens of his people rather than increase them.[16]
Joseph ruled Naples for two years before being replaced by his sister's husband, Joachim Murat. Joseph was then made King of Spain in August 1808, soon after the French invasion.
King of Spain [ edit ]
Propaganda caricature depicting Joseph Bonaparte in Spain
Joseph somewhat reluctantly left Naples, where he was popular, and arrived in Spain where he was extremely unpopular. Joseph came under heavy fire from his opponents in Spain, who tried to smear his reputation by calling him Pepe Botella (Joe Bottle) for his alleged heavy drinking, an accusation echoed by later Spanish historiography, despite the fact that Joseph was abstemious. His arrival sparked the legitimate Spanish revolt against French rule, and the beginning of the Peninsular War. Thompson says the Spanish revolt was, "a reaction against new institutions and ideas, a movement for loyalty to the old order: to the hereditary crown of the Most Catholic kings, which Napoleon, an excommunicated enemy of the Pope, had put on the head of a Frenchman; to the Catholic Church persecuted by republicans who had desecrated churches, murdered priests, and enforced a "loi des cultes"; and to local and provincial rights and privileges threatened by an efficiently centralized government.[17]
Joseph temporarily retreated with much of the French Army to northern Spain. Feeling himself in an ignominious position, Joseph then proposed his own abdication from the Spanish throne, hoping that Napoleon would sanction his return to the Neapolitan Throne he had formerly occupied. Napoleon dismissed Joseph's misgivings out of hand, and to back up the raw and ill-trained levies he had initially allocated to Spain, the Emperor sent heavy French reinforcements to assist Joseph in maintaining his position as King of Spain. Despite the easy recapture of Madrid, and nominal control by Joseph's government over many cities and provinces, Joseph's reign over Spain was always tenuous at best, and constantly resisted by pro-Bourbon guerrillas. Joseph and his supporters never established complete control over the country.
King Joseph's Spanish supporters were called josefinos or afrancesados (frenchified). During his reign, he ended the Spanish Inquisition, partly because Napoleon was at odds with Pope Pius VII at the time. Despite such efforts to win popularity, Joseph's foreign birth and support, plus his membership of a Masonic lodge,[18] virtually guaranteed he would never be accepted as legitimate by the bulk of the Spanish people. During Joseph's rule of Spain, Mexico and Venezuela declared independence from Spain. The king had virtually no influence over the course of the ongoing Peninsular War: Joseph's nominal command of French forces in Spain was mostly illusory, as the French commanders theoretically subordinate to King Joseph insisted on checking with Napoleon before carrying out Joseph's instructions.
King Joseph abdicated and returned to France after the main French forces were defeated by a British-led coalition at the Battle of Vitoria in 1813. During the closing campaign of the War of the Sixth Coalition Napoleon left his brother to govern Paris with the title Lieutenant General of the Empire. As a result he was again in nominal command of the French Army at the Battle of Paris.
He was seen by Bonapartists as the rightful Emperor of the French after the death of Napoleon's own son Napoleon II in 1832, although he did little to advance his claim.
United States [ edit ]
Joseph lived primarily in the United States (where he sold the jewels he had taken from Spain) in the period 1817–1832,[19] initially in New York City and Philadelphia, where his house became the centre of activity for French expatriates, but later moved to an estate, formerly owned by Stephen Sayre, called Point Breeze in Bordentown, New Jersey. Joseph's home was located near the confluence of Crosswicks Creek and the Delaware River. He considerably expanded Sayre's home and created extensive gardens in the picturesque style. When his first home was destroyed by fire in January 1820 he converted his stables into a second grand house. At Point Breeze, Joseph entertained many of the leading intellectuals and politicians of his day.
According to legend, during this period he had an encounter with the mythological Jersey Devil.
Reputedly some Mexican revolutionaries offered to crown him Emperor of Mexico in 1820, but he declined.[19]
Joseph Bonaparte returned to Europe, where he died in Florence, Italy, and was buried in the Les Invalides building complex in Paris.[20]
Family and Issue [ edit ]
He married Marie Julie Clary daughter of François Clary on 1 August 1794 in Cuges-les-Pins, France. They had three daughters:
He claimed the two surviving daughters as his heirs. He also sired two children with Maria Giulia, the Countess of Atri:
Giulio (1806– )
Teresa (1808– ).
Joseph had two American daughters born at Point Breeze, his estate in Bordentown, New Jersey, by his mistress, Annette Savage ("Madame de la Folie"):
Pauline Anne; died young.
Catherine Charlotte (1822–1890); married Col. Zebulon Howell Benton of Jefferson County, New York, and had issue:[21] Louis Joseph Benton (1848-1940) and son Frederick Joseph Benton (1901-1967)[22]
Freemasonry [ edit ]
Joseph Bonaparte was admitted in Marseille's lodge la Parfaite Sincérité in 1793.[23][24][25] He was asked by his brother Napoleon to monitor freemasonry as Grand Master of the Grand Orient of France (1804–1815).[26][27][28][29] With Cambacérès he managed the post-revolution rebirth of the Order in France.[26][30][31][32]
Gallery [ edit ]
Portrait by Jean-Baptiste Wicar, 1808
Coat of arms as King of Naples
Coat of arms as King of Spain
Royal Monogram as King of Spain
Spanish gold coin from 1811
Titles and styles [ edit ]
7 January 1768 – circa 1795 : Nobile Giuseppe Buonaparte
: Giuseppe Buonaparte circa 1795 – 1804 : Citoyen Joseph Bonaparte
: Joseph Bonaparte 1804 – 30 March 1806 : His Imperial Highness, Prince Joseph-Napoleon, French Prince & Grand Elector of the French Empire
:, Prince Joseph-Napoleon, French Prince & Grand Elector of the French Empire 30 March 1806 – 6 June 1808 : His Majesty By the Grace of God and the Constitution of the State, King of Naples.
: By the Grace of God and the Constitution of the State, King of Naples. 6 June 1808 – 11 December 1813 : His Majesty By the Grace of God and the Constitution of the State, King of the Spains and the Indies.
: By the Grace of God and the Constitution of the State, King of the Spains and the Indies. 1815–1833 (styled, not officially) His Imperial Highness the Count of Survilliers
Legacy [ edit ]
Joseph Bonaparte Gulf in the Northern Territory of Australia is named after him.
Lake Bonaparte, located in the town of Diana, New York, United States, is also named after him.
A main character in the play Golden Boy by Clifford Odets is named Joe Bonaparte after him.
Fictional portrayals [ edit ]
The romantic web between Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, Julie Clary and Désirée Clary was the subject of the 1951 novel Désirée, by Annemarie Selinko.
The novel was filmed as Désirée in 1954, with Marlon Brando as Napoleon, Jean Simmons as Désirée, and Cameron Mitchell as Joseph Bonaparte.
Ancestry [ edit ]
Ancest |
EL ESTOR, GUATEMALA—Ribbons of sweat roll down German Chub’s face, as he pushes his wheelchair around his rocky yard, careful not to run over the hens pecking in the dirt or bump into his neighbour’s free-roaming pig. An illiterate Mayan Q’eqchi’ farmer who grows mangoes and bananas, Chub’s life would be difficult enough in this small, indolent city in eastern Guatemala, where the temperature soars to 38C, even if he weren’t paralyzed, with a bullet lodged in his spine.
German Chub was shot seven years ago during a melee between Mayan peasants and security officials at a Canadian-owned nickel mine. Left a paraplegic, he is among a group of indigenous people seeking compensation in an Ontario court in a trial being closely watched by Canada’s mining industry. In the doorway is his brother-in-law. ( James Rodriguez / For the toronto Star )
Chub maintains a stiff resolve, proudly showing off his ability to saw logs, and even hoist himself into the passenger side of a pickup truck. But life is a struggle. Sometimes he can’t make it to the bathroom in time. Sometimes villagers laugh at his disability. And sometimes he is crying inside, despite the ready smile on his face. “Before, I had total freedom and could go anywhere I wanted to,” says Chub, 29. “I had my whole life ahead of me. Now things are difficult. I can’t work. I have to live with my parents. I’ll never have another child.” On Sept. 27, 2009, Chub was shot, allegedly by the head of security for Central America’s largest nickel mine, on contested land owned by Compania Guatemalteca de Niquel (CGN) and what was then its Canadian parent company, HudBay Minerals Inc.
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Chub and 12 others are now at the centre of three separate negligence lawsuits against HudBay making their way slowly through Ontario Superior Court. In total, they are seeking $15 million in compensatory and $64 million in punitive damages. The other plaintiffs include the wife of Adolfo Ich, a teacher and father of five, who was shot and killed on Sept. 27, 2009, and 11 women who allege they were raped by CGN security guards in 2007, when the Fenix mine was owned by Skye Resources, later bought by HudBay. The legal and mining communities are watching these lawsuits closely because they have potentially explosive consequences. If HudBay is found liable, the case could establish corporate behaviour guidelines for Canadian mining subsidiaries overseas, which have a long history of human rights and environmental complaints. Amnesty International has intervened in the lawsuits, telling the court that “to preserve Canada’s reputation, Canadian society has a strong interest in ensuring corporations respect human rights wherever they may operate.” Normally such lawsuits would be heard in the country where the alleged transgressions took place. But Toronto lawyers Murray Klippenstein and Cory Wanless argued in an Ontario court that the plaintiffs could not get a fair trial in Guatemala, due to judicial corruption.
It may be difficult for Canadians to comprehend Guatemala’s violent and racist history, which bubbles like a dormant volcano just beneath the surface. While countries such as Chile, Argentina and Peru have confronted their military pasts, Guatemala has not held to account the military leaders who committed human rights abuses during the country’s 36-year civil war. More than 200,000 people, mostly Mayans, were killed in what the United Nations has called genocide.
The Fenix nickel mine that once belonged to a subsidiary of Hudbay Mineral Inc., a Canadian mining company involved in multiple lawsuits, in El Estor, Guatemala. ( ADRIANA ZEHBRAUSKAS/NYT )
And yet, since peace accords were signed in 1996, there have been few criminal cases. Many members of the ex-intelligence units, police and counter-insurgency forces have joined criminal organizations, involved in arms trafficking and human smuggling, while some former leaders from the dictatorship era have run for office.
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Most Mayans have never had their day in a Guatemalan court. And it is likely they never will. Which is why the El Estor Q’eqchi’ turned to Canada for justice. The most surprising thing about the case is that it is going forward, says Grahame Russell, director of Rights Action, which has funded development projects in El Estor for more than a decade. (Russell accompanied the Star on a recent trip there.) For its part, HudBay has maintained a vigorous defence. The Toronto-based company acknowledges there were tensions in El Estor, a rural city once known as “the store” from its days as an old trading post. The city is on the northern shore of Lake Izabal, home to a tropical wildlife reserve with howler monkeys, alligators, parrots and manatees. Some locals did not want the Fenix mine on their land. From the company’s point of view, the Mayans’ resistance amounted to an “illegal invasion” — which they saw as a common tactic in Guatemala for people to acquire land from private companies or the government. The company says that on the day of the shootings, villagers blockaded the road and attacked the mine’s medical clinic. They outnumbered security guards, who feared for their lives, according to HudBay’s statement of defence. Mynor Padilla, the mine’s 52-year-old former head of security, did not shoot anyone, it adds. (He has pleaded not guilty to murder and aggravated assault at his criminal trial in Guatemala, which is ongoing.) “So much has been said and claimed at this point we can only hope most people will refrain from making up their minds — or reconsider their position if they have — until the court has ruled,” says Scott Brubacher, HudBay’s director of corporate communications. In July 2013, in a landmark ruling, an Ontario Superior Court judge allowed the case to proceed. If the plaintiffs could prove at trial that HudBay knew that violence had occurred at past evictions by CGN security, and there was a risk it could happen again, then the harm of sending in armed guards was foreseeable, she ruled. This month, the company is obliged to disclose thousands of pages of documentation relating to its corporate structure, control over CGN and relations with the community. Still, the case isn’t expected to go to trial for many months, or even years, says Wanless.
Rosa Elbira Coc, resident of Lote Ocho, Guatemala, is one of 11 plaintiffs in a lawsuit against HudBay in Canada. ( James Rodriguez/ For The Toronto Star )
Is HudBay being unfairly targeted for the sins of the past, as its former security guard becomes a flashpoint for all that is wrong with Guatemala? Or did the mining company make a complex problem worse by failing to properly vet security officers, and by taking a hard line against Q’eqchi’ fighting for legal title to their ancestral homeland? Long before HudBay bought the Fenix mine in 2008, it was controversial. Concessions were first granted by the Guatemalan government in the 1960s to a subsidiary of Inco Ltd., then a Canadian mining company, but only after stiff resistance. The mine is on traditional Mayan land where farmers have for centuries tended maize, beans and squash, bathed in the rivers and clambered barefoot up and down the rugged hills and mountains. The town of El Estor is home to farmers and shopkeepers and a cobblestone central square where old men in sombreros sleep on benches in the noonday sun and women sell tortillas from handmade stands. A dried-up swimming pool, sports centre and old golf course can be seen from the main road heading out of town — a remnant from the original mine. While some locals welcomed HudBay, for the work and money it would bring to the community, others did not want to leave their homes. They argued the ancestral lands had been given to foreigners by a dictatorial government at a time when Q’eqchi’ communities were being massacred and driven off their land. In 2006, a United Nations agency agreed that the Guatemalan government had breached international law when it granted a foreign company title to the land. But HudBay and the Guatemalan government both ignored the UN, according to Chub’s statement of claim. On Sept. 27, 2009, tensions between the mine and local opponents reached a boiling point. There had been a protest in the nearby community of Las Nubes following a visit from the regional governor of Izabal, who was trying to enforce an eviction order. A group of villagers blockaded a road between the town and the mine. Later that day, other villagers gathered on a road in front of CGN buildings. Chub didn’t know any of this when he said goodbye to his wife and young son and ambled over to watch a soccer game at a grassy field close to the mine’s fenced-in buildings. Standing in the sun, part way through the second soccer match, Chub saw two grey Toyota pickup trucks arrive carrying CGN security guards armed with machetes, guns, tear gas and pepper-spray. The men walked across a cow pasture next to the soccer field, apparently on their way into the mine medical clinic. Most of the soccer players and spectators dispersed, but Chub did not. He soon found himself in a melee. As he tried to flee, he saw Padilla draw his handgun and aim it at him; then Padilla shot Chub, according to Chub’s statement of claim. “I blacked out and woke up a short time later lying face down on the ground, coughing up blood,” he said in an interview in his ramshackle wood home, at the top of a rocky, dirt hill. Chub spent three months in hospital and 18 more in physiotherapy and rehabilitation centres in El Salvador and Guatemala learning how to live as a paraplegic with one functioning lung. His life in a hilly, impoverished town with no wheelchair ramps or automatic doors is not easy; he is at constant risk of bed sores, respiratory infections and dengue fever. Chub’s wife ended up leaving him, though he was given custody of their son, now 8. While he has a new girlfriend, not everyone in the town supports his case against HudBay, especially those who work at the mine. According to Chub’s statement of claim, HudBay knew it was operating in a country with high levels of violence. “HudBay knew that Fenix security personnel had in the past used unreasonable violence against the local Mayan communities that had opposed mining in their community,” Chub’s claim reads. The claim also says HudBay’s security included former members of military groups that participated in crimes against humanity during the civil war. Other security guards at the mine were involved in organized crime and implicated in arms and drug trafficking, it further alleges. And Padilla, a former high-ranking officer in the military, had been accused of issuing death threats against community members. (HudBay denies any of CGN’s guards had criminal backgrounds.) When he is feeling hopeless, Chub hums the words to his favourite song, which he learned to play with his band, Echoes of Jesus: “God will lift me up with his hands and sustain me.” He dreams of opening a workshop to build wheelchairs for other disabled people, some of whom remain hidden in their humble, dirt-floor homes, ashamed. “If we win or not, at least we fought for justice,” says Chub. “I believe I can only get a fair trial in Canada.” HudBay lays out a different version of events that fateful day in 2009. The company’s statement of defence claims that mine security guards were under attack, and acted with characteristic restraint in fending off an unruly armed mob that destroyed CGN property. Individuals who “self-identify as Mayan Q’eqchi’ ” had invaded and occupied parcels of CGN land. Moreover, three AK-47s were stolen from police barracks and CGN security were outnumbered and surrounded.
Angelica Choc and her son Jose pray at the grave of former Q'eqchi' Mayan community leader, public school teacher and anti-mining activist Adolfo Ich. ( James Rodriguez/for the Toronto Star )
“People in the mob wielded machetes and threw rocks and Molotov cocktails,” says the statement of defence. “The security personnel could not match the firepower of their attackers. They feared for their lives.” HudBay claims that Chub concocted a story to explain why and by whom he was shot. The day after the incident, he told Guatemalan authorities he didn’t see who shot him. In 2011, he said was shot by CGN security. Finally, in 2012, he identified the shooter as Padilla. HudBay also says it takes corporate social responsibility very seriously. The company invested more than $20 million (US) in El Estor, and built a 37-kilometre paved road. “Being responsible is a core company value … reflected in every region where we operate, including our new Fenix project,” says a 2009 report. Klippenstein, Chub’s lawyer, says that Chub was reluctant to identify Mynor Padilla because he was “terrified that he and his family would be at grave risk.” During his first police interview, the day after the shooting, Chub had lost a great deal of blood, was heavily medicated and drifting in and out of consciousness. “Upon his return home after two years in rehabilitation … Mr. Chub made the difficult decision of naming the individual who had shot him despite the risks of doing so,” Chub’s statement of claim reads. No AK-47 shell casings were found where Chub was shot, or the place where Adolfo Ich died, though some were found in the surrounding area, according to Guatemalan prosecutor Verenice Jerez. Medical evidence shows that the bullet inside Chub is not from an AK-47, and that Adolfo Ich was killed with a shotgun. Moreover, nine other Mayan Q’eqchi’ were shot that day, while just one CGN security guard suffered a minor injury to his hand, according to Chub’s statement of claim. Unlike Chub, a reserved campesino, Adolfo Ich, a handsome man with heavy eyelids and a full head of dark hair, was a teacher and well-known community leader who had spoken publicly about the Q’eqchi’s historical, cultural and spiritual connection to the land. Locals called him “el Profe.” On Sept. 27, when Ich, 50, heard about the protest at Las Nubes, he went to the village to try to quell the anger. He returned to his simple home, with its tin roof and wooden walls, in La Union village, to speak with his wife, Angelica Choc. The couple heard gunshots from nearby mine buildings, according to his wife’s statement of claim. “I didn’t want Adolfo to go out but he felt it was his duty to try to calm things down. The last thing he said was ‘I will be back,’” recalls Choc, 48, an almond-eyed woman with long, dark hair that flows to her waist, in an interview at her home. Ich’s son Jose, then 16, followed him, against his father’s wishes. As Ich arrived at the soccer field and neared the barbed-wire fence separating the mine buildings, “a dozen armed members of security came through a gap in the fence, surrounded Aldolfo Ich and began to beat him,” says Choc’s statement of claim. The claim states that they dragged Ich back through the gap in the fence and, on the other side, beat him with machetes. Then, Mynor Padilla shot him in the head at close range. “He shot my father in the head,” Jose says in his affidavit. “This was the worst day of my life.” Autopsy photos show a gaping hole in the side of Ich’s neck and a mangled right arm that had almost been cut in two. He suffered machete blows to his head and right arm — wounds that appear to be defensive. In his final moments, as he fought for his life, Ich writhed in pain, as his teenage son looked on in horror, unable to help. For Choc, the road to justice has been daunting.
Angelica Choc stares at the place where her husband, Adolfo Ich, was killed during a land dispute in 2009. She says he was trying to act as a peacemaker. ( James Rodriguez/for the Toronto Star )
In winter 2013, in a surreal scene, she flew to Toronto to be cross-examined by HudBay lawyers from Fasken Martineau — a Mayan in a traditional, square-cut embroidered blouse and handwoven skirt sitting opposite Bay Street lawyers in dark suits in a chilly corporate boardroom. She returned in May 2015 for HudBay’s annual shareholders meeting, where she stood up and publicly refuted the company’s claim that she coerced her son into lying. “These false accusations against us make me sad and angry. We are here in person to tell you our truth as we lived it,” Choc told executives and the board of directors. “I can tell you that my son Jose Ich watched as my husband was surrounded, beaten, hacked with machetes and then shot in the head.” Like many Q’eqchi’, Choc takes her physical sustenance — and spiritual solace — from the land, in a tradition passed down over generations. During a recent visit to the El Estor cemetery, she placed a candle on her husband’s grave, which is painted sky blue. A cashew tree nearby provided shade and ripe red fruit for her and Jose, who cleared leaves from the grave. “My husband gave his blood defending his people, and this sacred earth,” says Choc, gazing at the mountains in the distance. “I remember him every day. I will continue fighting.” HudBay says in its statement of claim that they are “not aware how Ich came to his unfortunate death.” But the company is clear that Ich was not grabbed by Padilla or other security personnel, dragged through the fence and executed in cold blood. Hudbay says in its statement of defence that Jose was coerced into lying about what happened to his father by his mother. The company further argues that Ich’s death would have been entirely unforeseeable as Padilla had “an exemplary record as CGN’s chief of security” and had previously exercised restraint. “Padilla was not carrying a shotgun on Sept. 27, 2009,” the statement reads. When asked for an alternate theory of who killed Ich and injured Chub, a company spokesman said the trial is the appropriate place to establish the facts. “We are defending the lawsuits because the information available to us indicates that the plaintiffs’ allegations are not true,” says Brubacher, HudBay’s director of corporate affairs. “That can be unsettling to some — we understand that — but we cannot ignore the facts we have.” Lote Ocho is a secluded village of thatched-roof homes in the misty hills, a 45-minute ride by pickup truck from El Estor, up a narrow unpaved road. There is no running water or electricity, but the picturesque red earth is believed to contain large nickel ore deposits. The people of Lote Ocho consider it their ancestral homeland, despite CGN’s legal title. In 2007, relations between the people and the company were tense. At the time, Skye Resources owned the mine (HudBay bought Skye in August 2008 and then sold it to Russia’s Solway Group in 2011, retaining responsibility for all litigation against Skye’s Guatemalan subsidiary, Compania Guatemalteca de Niquel.) On Jan, 9, 2007, at CGN’s request, authorities arrived to evict the approximately 100 villagers. According to a statement of claim from the 11 women from Lote Ocho, the evictions weren’t peaceful: “there was photographic/video evidence of homes being burned down” and allegations of undue force. On Jan. 17, a second eviction took place, as about 100 police officers and soldiers arrived in the remote community. Rosa Elbira Coc, then 24, was cooking date palms and tortillas in the late afternoon over an open fire when the convoy arrived. Coc’s affidavit says the men, among them CGN security, carried guns. Nine men barged into Coc’s home. One put a gun to her head, asked where her husband was and threatened to kill her, says the statement of claim.
An elder in the village of Lote Ocho walks in a field being prepared for sowing. In 2007, authorities evicted approximately 100 villagers. ( James Rodriguez/For the Toronto Star )
“They smashed all my bowls and utensils. Then the men threw me on the ground and ripped off my clothes,” Coc says in an interview. “I screamed but nobody heard me.” All of the men raped her, according to the statement of claim. When they finally left, Coc felt like a crushed orange. She lay on the ground, unable to move. Ten other women from Lote Ocho also allege they were sexually assaulted that day, while their men were tending corn and cardamom in the fields. They spent months recovering. Two of the women, pregnant before the assault, lost their babies. Coc later suffered two miscarriages, according to the statement of claim. After support from Rights Action and a non-governmental organization that specializes in helping genocide victims, the women decided to launch a lawsuit against HudBay in 2011. They talked it over with the men in the village, worried the case would inflame the fragile community. But the men were in agreement. Nobody believed the women would get a fair hearing in Guatemala. A 2006 Amnesty International report found that violence is often used during the forced removal of Mayan communities and that the burning of homes and destruction of personal belongings is common. A 2009 Doctors without Borders report referred to the high rate of sexual violence against women in Guatemala as a “humanitarian crisis.” HudBay denies the rape allegations. Its statement of defence says the villagers of Lote Ocho would not leave the property and refused to engage in dialogue so the company turned to the authorities. Moreover, the company paid the villagers $19,500 to compensate for their loss of property. At the time, there was no indication that “horrific gang rapes had occurred.” Earlier this year, Coc’s marriage dissolved; she moved in with her parents in the village of Cahaboncito, near El Estor, where she sleeps in a single bed in the front room near a pile of corn husks and a traditional treadle loom for weaving. At 31 — an age when most women have a brood of children — Coc is single and childless. “All women should be respected, including us,” she says. Guatemala’s complex and bloody history make it a difficult place for foreign companies to operate in. It has one of the world’s highest homicide rates — 40 per 100,000 people compared with 1.5 in Canada — for a country officially at peace. The majority of violent crimes go unpunished, due to corruption and the intimidation of witnesses and judges. Rony Mendez, mayor of El Estor, suggests that HudBay may have underestimated the weight of these challenges. The year “2009 was (one) of darkness and bloodshed,” he says in an interview in city hall’s pink, colonial-style building, overlooking a boardwalk and glistening Lake Izabal. “The Canadians should have negotiated with the people. They should have ceded some ground. They didn’t use the best strategies to administer the mine and lost control. They trusted bad people.” HudBay sold the mine in 2011 to Russia’s Solway Group following a decision to focus geographically on mineral assets “in investment-grade countries in the Americas.” Today, the open-pit mine is up and running, steam billowing from the smokestacks, trucks lumbering down El Estor’s main road. There have been fewer problems under Solway, says Mendez, although locals complain about the dust from the trucks. The company has not evicted the few families left in Lote Ocho, or in the community of La Union, where Angelica Choc’s home still stands, near the soccer field and cow pasture where her husband died. Overseas rules Canada has no legislation outlining standards for companies operating overseas. A 2010 bill introduced by Liberal MP John McKay would have introduced standards, but it was defeated by the Conservative majority. However, Ottawa does have a corporate social responsibility counsellor, Jeffrey Davidson. Since taking office a year ago, Davidson, a professor and former mining executive, has visited trouble spots in Latin America and Africa and met with more than 25 Canadian mining companies. He has tried to resolve a range of issues overseas, from water contamination and artisanal mining, to difficulties with local security forces and weak or non-existent local governance. He plans to visit Guatemala this summer. “Companies sometimes get themselves involved in situations they don’t truly understand,” he says. “They end up being exposed and vulnerable. Bad things can happen. It is not that it is a company’s intention (to do ill), but how they choose to deal with it is another thing.” —Marina JimenezClaim: On 11 September 2002, the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York’s World Trade Center towers, the numbers selected in one of the New York state lottery drawings were 9-1-1.
TRUE
Origins: Those who regularly duel Lady Luck in state lotteries employ a variety of systems for choosing the numbers they hope will form the winning draw. Some people base their choices on familiar strings of digits such as birth dates, telephone numbers, addresses, and Social Security numbers. Others pick numbers through what they believe is a random process (or allow the lottery machines to generate random entries for them). Many hopefuls play the same numbers week in and week out, hoping “their” numbers will eventually hit; others select new combinations for each drawing.
Many people’s lottery choices are influenced by current news. Numbers that feature prominently in news stories (e.g., flight numbers, license plates, addresses) often end up being the selections of large numbers of lottery players in subsequent draws. We only hear about this phenomenon when the winning numbers correspond to real-life events, of course — jackpots are news, but many hopefuls choosing the same wrong numbers aren’t (and since only the winning numbers are publicized, there’s no real way of telling how many people selected any
particular losing combination).
News and random chance intersected again on 11 September 2002, the one-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks that destroyed New York’s twin World Trade Center towers. The state of New York operates several lottery games, one of which involves choosing a three-digit sequence between 000 and 999, with the winning draw determined by numbered balls circulating in a machine. In the second of two such held draws on 11 September 2002, the winning sequence selected was 9-1-1.
Although the coincidence is interesting, it isn’t astounding. The odds of randomly drawing any particular three-digit combination (such as 9-1-1 ) are only 1 in 1,000, and since New York holds two drawings per day, the chances that 9-1-1 would have been the winning sequence in at least one of the two lottery drawings on 11 September were approximately 1 in 500. Lottery officials said that 5,631 people had selected the symbolic numbers, and each winner took home $500.
In a similar coincidence, on 11 September 2011, the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the first three winners at the Belmont Park racetrack in New York state were horses bearing the numbers 9, 1 and 1.
Another lottery coincidence occurred on 12 November 2001, when American Airlines Flight 587, bound for the Dominican Republic from New York City, crashed in Queens shortly after take-off. The state of New Jersey holds two Pick-3
lottery drawings per day, and on 12 November 2001 the numbers selected for the evening draw matched the number
of the crashed flight: 5-8-7. Even more coincidentally, the same numbers has been selected for the earlier mid-day draw, with the two digits transposed: 5-7-8. So many people (27,829) chose the former combination for the evening draw that the prize was a mere $16, considerably lower than the average $275 payout.
Once again, the coincidence wasn’t astounding, but merely a 1 in 1,000 chance of a particular combination’s hitting on exactly the right day to be considered noteworthy. (A search
of New Jersey’s lottery site revealed that the combination 5-8-7 was the winner at least five other times since June 1993.) This instance might be considered a little more remarkable in that it occurred in combination with another drawing involving the digits 5-7-8 (on the very first day that New Jersey began holding two drawings per day, to boot), but the odds of occurrence still aren’t low enough to boost the coincidence into the “astounding” category.
Originally published: 15 November 2001
Last updated: 12 January 2016
Sources:So it has been a while since I last touched on the problem of deploying software to a server, with that being said I have had a chance to really dig in and find a solution that is flexible as well as simple for developers to setup.
The Idea
So when I started down this path of finding a clean deployment flow for my company (The Control Group) I had a few requirements It had to work for all of the different types of applications and languages that we build; I also did not want to use web hooks they are just too clunky and you have to have a server that is accesible on the internet so it can be called (not really a fan); The last thing that I wanted to be able to do is to deploy multiple versions of an application.
Artifacts
Another part of this system is the need for storing build artifacts in our case tarballs containing all of the files need to run the system. for this I chose rackspace Cloud Files, but Amazons S3 would work just as well. it simply needs to store our build artifacts for later downloading on to our server.
I built a tool!!!
So now for the shameless plug! At first I implemented this system with a pretty unwieldy bash script, and quickly realized if anyone else is going to use this it needs to be simple to setup. With that I introduce Dropship! Dropship is a tool that is installed on your servers along with a simple configuration file telling it where to get your artifact and how to install it as well being able to sequentially update multiple servers.
Dropship uses md5sums to check freshness of your artifact comparing the one that is installed with the sum of file on the artifact repo, it will then repeat this process on the configured interval and if the sums do not match it will then start the update process (pretty simple eh).
A Dropship config is and HCL file like the following:
# vim: set ft=hcl : service "my-service" { # Use a semaphore to update one machine at a time sequentialUpdates = true # Check for updates every 10s checkInterval = "10s" # Run this command before update starts before "script" { command = "initctl my-service stop" } # Artifact defines what repository to use (rackspace) and where # your artifact live on that repository artifact "s3" { bucket = "my-s3bucket" path = "my-service.tar.gz" destination = "./test/dest" } # After successful update send an event to graphite # this allows you to show deploy annotations in tools like grafana # # The graphite hook will automatically add this services name into the # graphite tags. You also have access to all of the services meta data # like Name, "current hash", hostname. after "graphite-event" { host = "http://<my-graphite-server>" tags = "deployment" what = "deployed to {{.Name}} on {{.Hostname}}" data = "{{.Hash}}" } # Run this command after the update finishes after "script" { command = "initctl my-service start" } }
As you can see there are a bunch of options available for installing your system, you can set hooks that will be called before and after your artifact is installed.
Hooks are a very interesting feature and I have implemented a few helpful hooks to start with but hope to add many more. One hook worth mentioning is the graphite-event hook this will create an event in graphite which can be viewed as a pretty annotation on your graphs in grafana for example, you can then see how your latest deployment affected your stats.
Currently this is available as a Debian package and can be installed by following the guide here.
Please let me know what you think of this project in the comments. And feel free to file issues and feature requests hereSTANFORD — Stanford returned to form Saturday, dominating lowly Duke 50-13 in its final tuneup before second-ranked USC comes to town for the most anticipated game of the season.
The Cardinal (2-0) needed just 67 seconds to take the lead and kept the pressure on the Blue Devils (1-1) before an announced crowd of 44,016 at Stanford Stadium.
The impressive all-around effort — Stanford scored touchdowns on offense, defense and special teams — was worthy of the Andrew Luck era, when the Cardinal pummeled second-rate opponents.
“It’s not just the score, it’s the way we played,” Cardinal coach David Shaw said.
It stood in stark contrast to Stanford’s sputtering performance a week earlier against San Jose State.
The offense eliminated the errors in communication and execution that plagued the 20-17 victory over SJSU. In the second start of his career, quarterback Josh Nunes was sharp and confident, completing 14 of 27 passes for 213 yards in the first three quarters.
“Things are getting a lot more comfortable,” Nunes said. “Duke presented a lot of different problems.”
Stanford’s only shortcoming was its red zone offense: The Cardinal scored touchdowns on just three of six possessions inside Duke’s 20.
The defense welcomed back linebacker Shayne Skov, who played for the first time since suffering a severe knee injury early last season. His presence seemed to energize the unit, which smothered Duke’s short passing game and limited the Blue Devils to 109 yards in the first half.
“We were just disciplined this week. There were less mental errors,” said free safety Ed Reynolds, who had two interceptions and returned one of them for a touchdown.
Even Stanford’s special teams contributed to the dominating first half performance.
Duke went three-and-out on the opening possession, then punted to the Cardinal’s Drew Terrell. After fielding the ball at the 24, Terrell took a few steps to his right, cut left past Duke’s initial wave of tacklers, then headed for the end zone.
“I saw on film that their punter out-punted their coverage. I had one guy to beat, and fortunately I was able to (cut) inside of him,” Terrell said.
The 76-yard dash was Stanford’s first punt return for a touchdown since Richard Sherman against San Jose State in 2009.
Stanford’s defense again held Duke without a first down, and Nunes trotted out for the Cardinal’s first possession. It featured a 32-yard pass to Ty Montgomery, who made a fingertip catch, and a 15-yard screen pass to tailback Stepfan Taylor. But the drive stalled in the red zone and Jordan Williamson kicked a 35-yard field goal.
The sequence — an impressive drive that fizzled in the red zone — was repeated late in the first quarter, and Williamson’s second field goal increased the margin to 13-0.
The Cardinal broke the game open early in the second quarter when Taylor charged 13 yards through the heart of Duke’s defense for a touchdown that pushed the lead to 20-0.
Fullback Ryan Hewitt (sprained ankle) missed his second consecutive game.
Stanford wore black uniforms for the third time in school history. The other instances: against Wake Forest two years ago and UCLA last season. The difference this time was that Stanford sported black helmets and shoes, as well.
Stanford’s home-and-home series with Duke is over and will be replaced by two games against Army. The Cardinal visits West Point next fall and then hosts the Black Knights in 2014.Titty Twirlers and Pastie Petals (patent pending) are the creation of Boston based designer/inventor Jesse James Salucci (www.creativeoutlaw.com). After returning from Burning Man in late summer 2010 - my mind reeling from all the sights, sounds and experiences - I began to brainstorm a gift that I could make and give to people I would meet the following year. Two thoughts that kept coming back to me were the feeling of freedom while riding my bike out on the open playa and the power of the dust storms that would sneak up on you without a moment's notice. I thought to myself, "What if I could create something that would transform a dust storm from an unpleasant experience into the best part of the day?"
Titty Twirlers were inspired by a beanie
... that I used to wear while riding my bike to school each day and my love of burlesque (and titties in general, of course). I worked through multiple prototypes until I settled upon a final design and made 20 pairs to give away at Burning Man 2011. To say they were a hit would definitely be an understatement. After giving the first few pairs away, people were stopping by my camp in droves and asking where they could get them. When I returned home to Boston I decided that I needed to find a way to get a pair of Titty Twirlers into the hands of anyone who wanted one of their very own.
... and then Pastie Petals were born
While developing Titty Twirlers prototypes, it became quickly apparent that one of the biggest hurdles was going to be how to adhere them to a titty in a safe and secure manner. I researched burlesque dancers and the various pastie glues and wig tapes they recommended, but none of them were quite good enough. It was through much experimentation that I developed Pastie Petals, which I think are the best double-sided adhesive pastie discs around.
Welcome to TittyTwirlers.com!In the high-stakes debate over control of the Internet, it is common to hear how the free flow of information is crucial to development of humanity. For North Korea, a country that has almost zero Internet access and is repressed beyond anything experienced in the West, the free flow of information is a distant concept. But according to a new report, the sharing of pirate TV shows and music among the citizens of the country is challenging the DPRK |
in his online journal that we partisans of the classical need to speak more from the heart about what the music means. He admits that it’s easier to analyze his ardor than to express it. The music does not lend itself to the same generational storytelling as, say, “Sgt. Pepper.” There may be kids out there who lost their virginity during Brahms’s D-Minor Piano Concerto, but they don’t want to tell the story and you don’t want to hear it. The music attracts the reticent fraction of the population. It is an art of grand gestures and vast dimensions that plays to mobs of the quiet and the shy. It is a paradise for passive-aggressives, sublimation addicts, and other relics of the Freudian world. Which may explain why it has a hard time expressing itself in the time of Dr. Phil.
I am a thirty-six-year-old white American male who first started listening to popular music at the age of twenty. In retrospect, this seems strange; perhaps “freakish” is not too strong a word. Yet it seemed natural at the time. I feel as though I grew up not during the seventies and eighties but during the thirties and forties, the decades of my parents’ youth. They came of age in the great American middlebrow era, when the music had a much different place in the culture than it does today. In those years, in what now seems like a surreal dream world, millions listened as Toscanini conducted the NBC Symphony on national radio. Walter Damrosch explained the classics to schoolchildren, singing ditties to help them remember the themes. (My mother remembers one of them: “This is / The sympho-nee / That Schubert wrote but never fi-nished... ”) NBC would broadcast Ohio State vs. Indiana one afternoon, a recital by Lotte Lehmann the next. In my house, it was the Boston Symphony broadcast followed by the Redskins game. I was unaware of a yawning gap between the two.
Early on, I reached for my parents’ record collection, which was well stocked with artifacts of the Golden Age. I listened to Toscanini’s Brahms, Koussevitzky’s Sibelius, the Budapest Quartet. The look and feel of the records were inseparable from the sound they made. They said so much to me that for a long time I had no curiosity about other music. There was Otto Klemperer’s Zeppelin-like, slow-motion account of “The St. Matthew Passion,” with nightmare-spawning art by the Master of Delft. Toscanini’s fierce recordings were decorated with Robert Hupka’s snapshots of the Maestro in motion, his face registering every emotion between ecstasy and disgust. Mozart’s Divertimento in E-Flat featured the famous portrait in which the composer looks down at the world in sorrow, like a general surveying a hopeless battle. While listening, I read along in the liner notes, which were generally written in the over-the-top everyman-orator style that Orson Welles parodied brilliantly in “Citizen Kane.” Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, for example, was said to be “melancholy, sometimes progressing to abysmal depths.” None of this made sense at the time; I had no acquaintance with melancholy, let alone abysmal depths. What mattered was the exaggerated swoop of the thought, which roughly matched the pattern of the sound.
The first music that I loved to the point of distraction was Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony. My parents had a disk of Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic—one of a series of Music-Appreciation Records put out by the Book-of-the-Month Club. A companion record provided Bernstein’s analysis of the symphony, a road map to its forty-five-minute sprawl. I now had names for the shapes that I perceived. (The conductor’s “Joy of Music” and “Infinite Variety of Music” remain the best introductory books of their kind.) Bernstein drew attention to something that happens about ten seconds in—a C-sharp that unexpectedly sounds against the plain E-flat-major harmony. “There has been a stab of intrusive otherness,” he said, cryptically but seductively, in his nicotine baritone. Over and over, I listened to this note of otherness. I bought a score and deciphered the notation. I learned some time-beating gestures from Max Rudolf’s conducting manual. I held my family hostage in the living room as I led the record player in a searingly intense performance of the “Eroica.”
Did Lenny get a little carried away when he called that soft C-sharp in the cellos a “shock,” a “wrench,” a “stab”? If you were to play the “Eroica” for a fourteen-year-old hip-hop scholar versed in the works of Eminem and 50 Cent, he might find it shockingly boring at best. No one is slicing up his wife or getting shot nine times. But I would submit to my young gangsta interlocutor that those artists are relatively shocking—relative to the social norms of their day. Although the “Eroica” ceased to be controversial in the these-crazy-kids-today sense around 1830, within the “classical” frame it has continued to deliver its surprises right on cue. Seven bars of E-flat major, then the C-sharp that hovers for a moment before disappearing: it is like a speaker stepping up to a microphone, launching into the first words of a grand oration, and then faltering, as if he had just remembered something from childhood or seen a sinister face in the crowd.
I don’t identify with the listener who responds to the “Eroica” by saying, “Ah, civilization.” That wasn’t what Beethoven wanted: his intention was to shake the European mind. I don’t listen to music to be civilized; sometimes, I listen precisely to escape the ordered world. What I love about the “Eroica” is the way it manages to have it all, uniting Romanticism and Enlightenment, civilization and revolution, brain and body, order and chaos. It knows which way you think the music is going and veers triumphantly in the wrong direction. The Danish composer Carl Nielsen once wrote a monologue for the spirit of Music, in which he or she or it says, “I love the vast surface of silence; and it is my chief delight to break it.”
Around the time I got stabbed by Beethoven’s C-sharp, I began trying to write music myself. My career as a composer lasted from the age of eight to the age of twenty. I lacked both genius and talent. My spiral-bound manuscript book includes an ambitious program of future compositions: thirty piano sonatas, twelve violin sonatas, various symphonies, concertos, fantasias, and funeral marches, most of them in the key of D minor. Scattered ideas for these works appear in the following pages, but they don’t go anywhere, which was the story of my life as a composer. Still, I treasure the observation of one of my college teachers, who wrote on the final page of my end-of-term submission that I had created a “most interesting and slightly peculiar sonatina.” I put down my pen and withdrew into silence, like Sibelius in Järvenpää.
My inability to finish anything, much less anything good, left me with a profound respect for this impossible mode of making a living. Composition at its most intense is a rebellion against reality. No one except the very young demands new music, and even when we are young the gates of inattention crash down quickly. Composers manufacture a product that is universally deemed superfluous—at least until their music enters public consciousness, at which point people begin to say that they could not live without it. For more than a century, the repertory has consisted largely of music by dead composers. Yet half of those on the American Symphony Orchestra League’s top-ten most-performed list—Mahler, Strauss, Ravel, Shostakovich, Prokofiev—hadn’t been born when the first draft of the repertory got written.
Throughout my teens, I took piano lessons from a man named Denning Barnes. He also taught me composition, music history, and the art of listening. He was a wiry man with tangled hair, whose tweed jackets emitted an odd smell that was neither pleasant nor unpleasant, just odd. He was intimate with Beethoven, Schubert, and Chopin, and he also loved twentieth-century music. Scriabin, Bartók, and Berg were three favorites. He opened another door for me, in a wall that I never knew existed. His own music, as far as I can remember, was rambunctious, jazzy, a little nuts. One day he pounded out one of the variations in Beethoven’s final piano sonata and said that it was an anticipation of boogie-woogie. I had no idea what boogie-woogie was, but I was excited by the idea that Beethoven had anticipated it. The marble-bust Beethoven of my childhood suddenly became an eagle-eyed sentinel on the ramparts of sound, spying nameless entities on the horizon. “Boogie-woogie” was a creature out of Bernstein’s serious-fun world, and Mr. Barnes was my private Bernstein. There was not a snobbish bone in his body; he was a skeleton of enthusiasm, a fifteen-dollar-an-hour guerrilla fighter for the music he loved. He died of a brain tumor in 1989. The last time I saw him, we played a hair-raising version of Schubert’s Fantasia in F Minor for four hands. It was full of wrong notes, most of them at my end of the keyboard, but it felt great and made a mighty noise, and to this day I have never been able to tolerate any other performance of the work, not even Britten and Richter’s.
By high school, a terrible truth had dawned: I was the only person my age who liked this stuff. Actually, there were other classical nerds at my school, but we were too diffident to form a posse. Several “normal” friends dragged me to a showing of “Pink Floyd—The Wall,” after which I conceded that one passage sounded Mahlerian. Only in college did my musical fortress finally crumble. I spent most of my days and nights at the campus radio station, where I had a show and helped organize the classical contingent. I fanatically patrolled the boundaries of the classical broadcasting day, refusing to surrender even fifteen minutes of “Chamber Music Masterworks” and the like. At 10 p.m., the schedule switched from classical to punk, and only punk of the most recondite kind. Once a record sold more than a few hundred copies, it was kicked off the playlist. The d.j.s liked to start their sets with the shrillest, crudest songs in order to scandalize the classical crowd. I tried to one-up them by ending my show with squalls of Xenakis. They hit back with Sinatra singing “Only the Lonely.” Once, they followed up my heartfelt tribute to Herbert von Karajan with Skrewdriver’s rousing neo-Nazi anthem “Prisoner of Peace”: “Free Rudolf Hess / How long can they keep him there? We can only guess.” Touché.
The thing about these cerebral punk rockers is that they were easily the most interesting people I’d ever met. Between painstakingly researched tributes to Mission of Burma and the Butthole Surfers, they composed undergraduate theses on fourth-century Roman fortifications and the liberal thought of Lionel Trilling. I began hanging around in the studio after my show was over, suppressing an instinctive fear of their sticker-covered leather jackets and multicolored hair. I informed them, as Mr. Barnes would have done, that Schoenberg had anticipated all of this. And I began listening to new things. The first two rock records I bought were Pere Ubu’s “Terminal Tower” compilation and Sonic Youth’s “Daydream Nation.” I crept from underground rock to alternative rock and finally to the full-out commercial kind. Soon I was astounding my friends with pronouncements like “‘Highway 61 Revisited’ is a pretty good album,” or “The White Album is a masterpiece.” I abandoned the notion of classical superiority, which led to a crisis of faith: if the music wasn’t great and serious and high and mighty, what was it?
For a little while, living in Northern California after college, I thought of giving up on the music altogether. I sold off a lot of my CDs, including all my copies of the symphonies of Arnold Bax, in order to pay for more Pere Ubu and Sonic Youth. I cut my hair short, wore angry T-shirts, and started hanging out at the Berkeley punk club 924 Gilman Street. I became a fan of a band called Blatz, which was about as far from Bax as I could get. (Their big hit was “Fuk Shit Up.”) Fortunately, no one needed to point out to my face that I was in the wrong place. It is a strange American dream, this notion that music can give you a new personality, a new class, even a new race. The out-of-body experience is thrilling as long as it lasts, but most people are eventually deposited back at the point where they started, and they may begin to hate the music for lying to them. When I went back to the classical ghetto, I chose to accept its limitations. I realized that, despite the outward decrepitude of the culture, there was still a bright flame within. It occurred to me that if I could somehow get from Brahms to Blatz, others could go the same route in the opposite direction. I have always wanted to talk about classical music as if it were popular music and popular music as if it were classical.
For many, popular music is the soundtrack of raging adolescence, while the other kind chimes in during the long twilight of maturity. For me, it’s the reverse. Listening to the “Eroica” reconnects me with a kind of childlike energy, a happy ferocity about the world. Since I came to pop music late, I invest it with more adult feeling. To me, it’s penetrating, knowing, full of microscopic shades of truth about the way things really are. Dylan’s “Blood on the Tracks” anatomizes a doomed relationship with a saturnine clarity that a canonical work such as “Die Schöne Müllerin” can’t match. (Listening recently to Ian Bostridge sing the Schubert cycle, I had the thought that the protagonist might never have spoken to the miller girl for whose sake he drowns himself. How classical of him.) If I were in a perverse mood, I’d say that the “Eroica” is the raw, thuggish thing—a blast of ego and id—whereas a song like Radiohead’s “Everything in Its Right Place” is all cool adult irony. The idea that life is flowing along with unsettling smoothness, the dark C-sharpness of the world sensed but not confirmed, is a resigned sort of sentiment that Beethoven probably never even felt, much less communicated. What I refuse to accept is that one kind of music soothes the mind and another kind soothes the soul. Depends on whose mind, whose soul.
On my iPod I’ve been listening to the new Missy Elliott song “Wake Up.” It’s an austere hip-hop track with a political edge. Something about the music sets off my classical radar. There are, effectively, only three notes, free-floating and ambiguous. The song begins with a clip of a voice shouting “Wake up!” The voice rises up a tritone, and that interval determines the notes. The idea of generating music from the singsong of speech is ancient, but “Wake Up” reminds me in particular of two minimalist pieces by Steve Reich, “It’s Gonna Rain” and “Come Out.” Both use tapes of impassioned black voices to create seething electronic soundscapes. Whether Elliott and her producer, Timbaland, have listened to Reich is beside the point. (If you say, “Of course they haven’t,” ask yourself what makes you so certain.) The song works much like Reich’s compositions, building a world from a sliver of sound. It’s almost manic and obsessive enough to be classical music.
III.
The fatal phrase came into circulation late in the game. From Monteverdi to Beethoven, modern music was the only music, bartered about in a marketplace that resembled modern pop culture. Concerts were eclectic hootenannies in which opera arias collided with chunks of sonatas. Barrel-organ grinders carried the best-known arias out into the streets, where they were blended with folk tunes. Concerts in pre-classical America were a stylistic free-for-all, a mirror of the country’s mixed-up nature. Walt Whitman mobilized grand opera as a metaphor for democracy; the voices of his favorite singers were integral to the swelling sound of his “barbaric yawp.”
In Europe, the past began to overwhelm the present just after 1800. Johann Nikolaus Forkel’s 1802 biography of Bach, one of the first major books devoted to a dead composer, may be the founding document of the classical mentality. All the earmarks are there: the longing for lost worlds, the adulation of a single godlike entity, the horror of the present. Bach was “the first classic that ever was, or perhaps ever will be,” Forkel proclaimed. “If the art is to remain an art and not to be degraded into a mere idle amusement, more use must be made of classical works than has been done for some time.” By “idle amusement” Forkel had in mind the prattling of Italian opera; his biography is addressed to “patriotic admirers of true musical art,” namely the German. The notion that the music of Forkel’s time was teetering toward extinction is, of course, amusing in retrospect; in the summer of 1802, Beethoven began work on the “Eroica.” Scholars eventually defined the Classical Era as Viennese music of the late eighteenth century, especially Mozart and Haydn, who, in their day, had been racy, modern figures. The word was nonsense from the outset.
The rise of “classical music” mirrored the rise of the commercial middle class, which employed Beethoven as an escalator to the social heights. Concert halls grew quiet and reserved, habits and attire formal. Improvisation was phased out; the score became sacred. Audiences were discouraged from applauding while the music was going on—it had been the custom to clap after a good tune or a dazzling solo—or between movements. Patrons of the Wagner festival in Bayreuth proved notoriously militant in the suppression of applause. At an early performance of “Parsifal,” listeners hissed an unmusical vulgarian who yelled out “Bravo!” after the Flower Maidens scene. The troublemaker had reason to feel embarrassed; he had written the opera. The Wagnerians were taking Wagner more seriously than he took himself—an alarming development.
Composers liked the fact that listeners were quieting down; the subtle shock of a C-sharp wouldn’t register if the crowd were chattering away. Even so, the emergence of a self-styled élite audience had limited appeal for the likes of Beethoven and Verdi, who did not come from that world. The nineteenth-century masters were, most of them, monstrous egomaniacs, but they were not snobs. Verdi wrote for the masses, and he scandalously proclaimed the box office the only barometer of success. Wagner, surrounded by luxury, royalty, and extreme pretension, nonetheless railed against the emergence of a “classical” repertory, for which he blamed the Jews. His nauseating anti-Semitism went hand in hand with a sometimes deeply charming populism. In a letter to Liszt, he raged against the “monumental character” of the music of his time, the “clinging and sticking to the past.” Another letter demanded, “Kinder! macht Neues! Neues!, und abermals Neues!” Ezra Pound condensed this thought as “Make it new.”
Unfortunately, the European bourgeoisie, having made a demigod of Beethoven, began losing interest in even the most vital living composers. In 1859, a critic wrote, “New works do not succeed in Leipzig. Again at the fourteenth Gewandhaus concert a composition was borne to its grave.” The crazy modern music in question was Brahms’s First Piano Concerto. By 1870, seventy-five per cent of works in the Gewandhaus repertory were by dead composers. The fetishizing of the past had a degrading effect on composers’ morale. They began to doubt their ability to please this implacable audience, which seemed prepared to reject their wares no matter what style they wrote in. If no one cares, composers reasoned, we might as well write for connoisseurs—or for each other. This was the mentality that gave birth to the phenomenon of Arnold Schoenberg. The relationship between composer and public became a vicious circle; the more the composer asserted independence, the more the public clung to the past. A critic who attended the première of the “Eroica” saw the impasse coming: “Music could quickly come to such a point, that everyone who is not precisely familiar with the rules and difficulties of the art would find absolutely no enjoyment in it.”
The American middle class carried the worship of the classics to a necrophiliac extreme. Lawrence Levine, in his book “Highbrow/Lowbrow,” gives a devastating portrait of the country’s musical culture at the turn of the twentieth century. It was a world that abhorred virtuosity, extravagance, anything that smacked of entertainment. Orchestras dedicated themselves to “the great works of the great composers greatly performed, the best and profoundest art, these and these alone,” in the redundant words of the conductor Theodore Thomas, who was the founder of the modern American orchestra. Early in his career, Thomas tried to attract the masses, conducting in parks and beer gardens. Later, he decided that the working classes could never appreciate greatly great great music like Beethoven’s. He was a marvellous conductor, by all accounts, but his infatuation with “cultivated persons” set a bad precedent.
Within a decade or two, American symphonic culture was so ossified that progressive spirits were calling for change. “America is saddled, hag-ridden, with culture,” the critic-composer Arthur Farwell wrote in 1911. “There is a conventionalism, a cynicism, a self-consciousness, in symphony concert, recital, and opera.” Daniel Gregory Mason, a maverick Columbia professor, similarly attacked the “prestige-hypnotized” plutocrats who ran the New York Philharmonic. He found more excitement at open-air concerts at Lewisohn Stadium, in Harlem, where the audience freely expressed its enthusiasm. Mason delightedly quoted a notice that read, “We would respectfully request that the audience refrain from throwing mats.” His sentiment still rings true—concerts would be better if there were more throwing of mats.
In the nineteen-thirties, Farwell’s populist philosophy took root. A generation of composers, conductors, and broadcasters embraced the idea of “music for all.” The storied middlebrow age began. David Sarnoff, the head of NBC, had a vision of Toscanini conducting for a vast public, and the public duly materialized. The first broadcast day of CBS featured an American opera: “The King’s Henchman,” by Deems Taylor. Hollywood studios hired composers such as Korngold, Copland, and Herrmann and pursued the modernist giants Schoenberg and Stravinsky (both of whom asked for too much money). F.D.R. funded a Federal Music Project that in two and a half years entertained ninety-five million people; there were concerts in delinquent-boys’ homes and rural Oklahoma towns. A Boston reporter pictured one Federal opera performance as a storming of the Bastille: “Drivers, chauffeurs, and footmen were occupying the seats of the master and the madame at 83 cents a chair.”
Perhaps the boldest forward leap was the invention of a hybrid music combining European tradition and new popular forms. Duke Ellington wrote symphonic jazz for Carnegie Hall; his “Black, Brown, and Beige” was heard there in 1943. Morton Gould and Leonard Bernstein wrote for orchestra, jazz ensemble, and Broadway without worrying about the ranking of each. The ultimate phenomenon was George Gershwin, who rose through Tin Pan Alley and then through the orchestral world, transforming America’s idea of what a composer was. For all his Jazz Age glamour, some part of Gershwin remained a lonely classical kid—the hard-practicing pianist who had filled scrapbooks with concert programs from Cooper Union and Wanamaker’s Auditorium. In Vienna, in 1928, Gershwin met his idol, Alban Berg, who had the Kolisch Quartet play him the “Lyric Suite.” Gershwin then sat down at the piano, but hesitated, wondering aloud whether he was worthy of the occasion. “Mr. Gershwin,” Berg said sternly, “music is music.”
The middlebrow utopia sputtered out quickly, and for a variety of reasons. Federally funded arts projects fell victim to a classic American culture war—the Republicans versus the New Deal—for which fanatics on both the left and the right were to blame. Orchestras that had flourished on radio foundered on television. (No one wants to get that close to oboists.) But the real problem was with the competition. Jazz was satisfying a hunger for popular art that in previous eras only classical composers had been able to satisfy. Ellington and Mingus were pulling off the same synthetic feat that Mozart and Verdi had accomplished before them; they were picking up pieces of every form of available music—African-American, Latin, Gypsy, Debussy, operetta—and transforming them through the force of their personalities.
Lately, I have been reading the young intellectuals who embraced jazz in the twenties, and I recognize their urge to join the party. Carl Van Vechten, the notorious author of “Nigger Heaven,” started out as a music critic for the Times; he witnessed “The Rite of Spring” and embraced Stravinsky as a savior. Then his attention began to wander. He found more life and truth in ragtime, Tin Pan Alley, and, eventually, blues and jazz. In a 1917 article for Vanity Fair, he predicted that Tin Pan Alley songwriters were likely to be considered “the true grandfathers of the Great American Composer of the year 2001.” For young African-American music mavens, the disenchantment was more bitter and more personal. Some were children of a middle class that had taken to heart Dvorák’s 1893 prophecy of a great age of Negro music. The likes of James Weldon Johnson awaited the black Beethoven who would write the music of God’s trombones. Soon enough, these aspiring violinists, pianists, and composers came up against a wall of racism. Only in popular music could they make a living. Many—Fletcher Henderson, for example—turned to jazz.
The twenties saw a huge change in music’s social function. Classical music had given the middle class aristocratic airs; now popular music helped the middle class to feel down and dirty. There is American musical history in one brutally simplistic sentence. I recently watched a silly 1934 movie entitled “Murder at the Vanities,” which seemed to sum up the genre wars of the era. It is set behind the scenes of a Ziegfeld-style variety show, one of whose numbers features a performer, dressed vaguely as Franz Liszt, who plays the Second Hungarian Rhapsody. Duke Ellington and his band keep popping up behind the scenes, throwing in insolent riffs. Eventually, they drive away the effete classical musicians and play a takeoff called “Ebony Rhapsody”: “It’s got those licks, it’s got those tricks / That Mr. Liszt would never recognize.” Liszt comes back with a submachine gun and mows down the band. The metaphor wasn’t so far off the mark. Although many in the classical world were fulsome in their praise of jazz—Ernest Ansermet lobbed the word “genius” at Sidney Bechet—others fired verbal machine guns in an effort to slay the upstart. Daniel Gregory Mason, the man who wanted more throwing of mats, was one of the worst offenders, calling jazz a “sick moment in the progress of the human soul.”
The contempt flowed both ways. The culture of jazz, at least in its white precincts, was much affected by that inverse snobbery which endlessly congratulates itself on escaping the élite. (The singer in “Murder at the Vanities” brags of finding a rhythm that Liszt, of all people, could never comprehend: what a snob.) Classical music became a foil against which popular musicians could assert their earthy cool. Composers, in turn, were irritated by the suggestion that they constituted some sort of moneyed behemoth. They were the ones who were feeling bulldozed by the power of cash. Such was the complaint made by Lawrence Gilman, of the Tribune, after Paul Whiteman and his Palais Royal Orchestra played “Rhapsody in Blue” at Aeolian Hall. Gilman didn’t like the “Rhapsody,” but what really incensed him was Whiteman’s suggestion that jazz was an underdog fighting against symphony snobs. “It is the Palais Royalists who represent the conservative, reactionary, respectable elements in the music of today,” Gilman wrote. “They are the aristocrats, the Top Dogs, of contemporary music. They are the Shining Ones, the commanders of huge salaries, the friends of Royalty.” The facts back Gilman up. By the late twenties, Gershwin was making at least a hundred thousand dollars a year. In 1938, Copland, the best-regarded composer of American concert music, had $6.93 in his checking account.
All music becomes classical music in the end. Reading the histories of other genres, I often get a warm sense of déjà vu. The story of jazz, for example, seems to recapitulate classical history at high speed. First, the youth-rebellion period: Satchmo and the Duke and Bix and Jelly Roll teach a generation to lose itself in the music. Second, the era of bourgeois grandeur: the high-class swing band parallels the Romantic orchestra. Stage 3: artists rebel against the bourgeois image, echoing the classical modernist revolution, sometimes by direct citation (Charlie Parker works the opening notes of “The Rite of Spring” into “Salt Peanuts”). Stage 4: free jazz marks the point at which the vanguard loses touch with the mass and becomes a self-contained avant-garde. Stage 5: a period of retrenchment. Wynton Marsalis’s attempt to launch a traditionalist jazz revival parallels the neo-Romantic music of many late-twentieth-century composers. But this effort comes too late to restore the art to the popular mainstream. Jazz recordings sell about the same as classical recordings, three per cent of the market.
The same progression worms its way through rock and roll. What were my hyper-educated punk-rock friends but Stage 3 high modernists, rebelling against the bloated Romanticism of Stage 2 stadium rock? Right now, there seems to be a lot of Stage 5 classicism going on in what remains of rock and roll. The Strokes, the Hives, the Vines, the Stills, the Thrills, and so on hark back to some lost pure moment of the sixties or seventies. Their names are all variations on the Kinks. Many of them use old instruments, old amplifiers, old soundboards. One rocker was recently quoted as saying, “I intentionally won’t use something I haven’t heard before.”Macht Neues, kids! So far, hip-hop has proved resistant to this kind of classicizing cycle, but you never know. It is just a short step from old school to the Second Viennese School.
The original classical is left in an interesting limbo. It has a chance to be liberated from the social clichés that currently pin it down. It is no longer the one form carrying the burden of the past. Moreover, it has the advantage of being able to sustain constant reinterpretation, to renew itself with each repetition. The best kind of classical performance is never a retreat into the past but rather an intensification of the present. When you hear a great orchestra perform Beethoven’s “Eroica,” it isn’t like a rock band trying to mimic the Beatles—it is like the Beatles re-incarnated. The mistake that apostles of the classical have always made is to have joined their love of the past to a dislike of the present. The music has other ideas: it hates the past and wants to escape.
IV.
I have seen the future, and it is called Shuffle—the setting on the iPod that skips randomly from one track to another. I’ve transferred about a thousand songs, works, and sonic events from my CD collection to my computer and on to the MP3 player. There is something thrilling about setting the player on Shuffle and letting it decide what to play next. Sometimes its choices are a touch delirious—I had to veto an attempt to forge a link between György Kurtág and Oasis—but the little machine often goes crashing through barriers of style in ways that change how I listen. For example, it recently made a segue from the furious crescendo of “The Dance of the Earth,” ending Part I of “The Rite of Spring,” right into the hot jam of Louis Armstrong’s “West End Blues.” The first became a gigantic upbeat to the other. For a second, I felt that I was at some madly fashionable party at Carl Van Vechten’s. On the iPod, music is freed from all fatuous self-definitions and delusions of significance. There are no record jackets depicting bombastic Alpine scenes or celebrity conductors with a family resemblance to Rudolf Hess. Instead, music is music.
It seems to me that a lot of younger listeners think the way the iPod thinks. They are no longer so invested in a single genre, one that promises to mold their being or save the world. This gives the life-style disaster called “classical music” more of a chance. Although the music is far from attaining any sort of countercultural cachet, it is no longer a plausible target for teen rebellion, given that all the parents listen to the Eagles. (A colleague pointed out to me that the movie “School of Rock” pictures a private school where classical music is forced down students’ throats. The closing credits don’t specify which alternate universe this is set in.) Committed rock fans are likely to know a fair amount about twentieth-century composition, especially the avant-garde. Mavens of electronic dance music list among their heroes Stockhausen, Terry Riley, and, especially, Steve Reich, who avoids the temptation to sue his less inventive admirers. Mark Prendergast’s book “The Ambient Century,” a history of the new electronic genres, begins, startlingly enough, with Gustav Mahler.
The new buzzword in progressive circles is “post-classical.” The phrase was coined by the writer Joseph Horowitz, and it neatly expresses exasperation with the C word without jettisoning it. It also hints that life will go on even if monuments of the old classical empire falter. The scholar Robert Fink is even predicting a Richard Strauss-style “death and transfiguration.” Post-classical composers are writing music heavily influenced by minimalism and its electronic spawn, but they are still immersed in the complexity of composition. They just don’t need to advertise an entire course of study on the surface of a work. Likewise, new generations of musicians are dropping the mask of Olympian detachment (silent, stone-faced musician walks onstage and begins to play). They’ve started mothballing the tuxedo, explaining the music from the stage, using lighting and backdrops to produce a mildly theatrical experience. They are finding allies in the “popular” world, some of whom care less about record sales than the average star violinist. The London Sinfonietta, for example, will be playing a program next month of Aphex Twin, Jamie Lidell, and other sonic scientists from the Warp Records label, pairing their work with the constructions of Reich and Cage. The borders between “popular” and “classical” are becoming creatively blurred, and only the Johann Forkels in each camp see a problem.
The strange thing about the music in America today is that large numbers of people seem aware of it, curious about it, even mildly knowledgeable about it, but they do not go to concerts. The people who try to market orchestras have a name for these annoying phantoms: they are “culturally aware non-attenders,” to quote a recent article in the magazine Symphony. I know the type; most of my friends are case studies. They know the principal names and periods of musical history: they know what Nietzsche said about Wagner, they can pick Schoenberg and Stravinsky out of a lineup, they own Glenn Gould’s “Goldberg Variations” and some Mahler and perhaps a CD of Arvo Pärt. They follow all the other arts—they go to gallery shows, read new novels, see art films. Yet they have never paid money for a classical concert. They almost make a point of their ignorance. “I don’t know a thing about Beethoven,” they say, which is not what they would say if the subject were Henry James or Stanley Kubrick. This is one area where even sophisticates wrap themselves in the all-American anti-intellectual flag. It’s not all their fault: centuries of classical intolerance have gone into the creation of the culturally aware non-attender. When I tell people what I do for a living, I see the same look again and again—a flinching sideways glance, as if they were about to be reprimanded for not knowing about C-sharps. After this comes the serene declaration of ignorance. The old culture war is fought and lost before I say a word.
I’m imagining myself on the other side—as a thirty-six-year-old pop fan who wants to try something different. On a lark, I buy a record of Otto Klemperer conducting the “Eroica,” picking this one because Klemperer is the father of Colonel Klink, on “Hogan’s Heroes.” I hear two impressive loud chords, then something that the liner notes allege is a “truly heroic” theme. It sounds kind of feeble, lopsided, waltz-like. My mind drifts. A few days later, I try again. This time, I hear some attractive adolescent grandeur, barbaric yawps here and there. The rest is mechanical, remote. But each |
efforts to thumb their noses at the bourgeois sport turned serious as the competitive juices flowed. Both men were sons of privileged families and Che had worked as a caddy in his native Argentina while going to medical school.
The Cuban journalist Jose Lorenzo Fuentes, Fidel's personal reporter, was to cover the game. It would be his last day at work. Now in exile in Florida, he told The Wall Street Journal: "Castro told me that the headline of the story the next day would be 'President Castro challenges President Kennedy to a friendly game of golf'."
But neither man liked to lose and the game became intensely competitive. He said Che "played with a lot of passion", and he felt obliged to truthfully record the game's outcome. He wrote for the communist party daily Granma that Fidel had lost. The next day he was sacked and fled the country.
It was all downhill for golf after that ill-fated game. President Kennedy, the best golfer to occupy the White House, did not take up the offer. Instead, he tightened the already tough economic blockade, which to the fury of Cubans remains in force. Fidel ordered military barracks to be built on most courses, although the scene of his defeat by Che was earmarked for an arts college, which never got off the ground.
But somehow Rovers Athletic hung on for 20 more years, the British and Cuban flags flying alongside with portraits of Queen Elizabeth II and Fidel hanging inside the mahogany-lined clubhouse. Even after the revolution, those Cubans who could afford it remained eligible to join. As Cuba sent its armed forces to fight wars in Angola and elsewhere, the club hosted endless rounds of golf tournaments and dinner dances. Fidel was made honorary president and would occasionally hold discreet talks with foreign dignitaries on the putting-green.
Then, in April 1980, everything turned sour when Fidel announced that anyone who wanted to leave Cuba was free to do so. Thousands of Cubans poured into the the Peruvian embassy seeking asylum. This was followed by a huge exodus by boat.
It was beginning of the end for Rovers Athletic, because many who fled were Cuban members. The Cuban authorities nationalised the club, declaring that it had been overrun by "antisocial elements". Cuban membership of the club fell from 200 to about 20 and the remaining members were put under surveillance.
The foreign members, mostly diplomats, suddenly had to contend with the Cuban secret police keeping a close eye on the place. That's how things have remained for the past 28 years and the club, tucked in the middle of an industrial zone on the way to the airport, remains a relic of old times. Tourists rarely go there, and it took a taxi-driver half an hour of driving around rutted tracks to find it.
Back in the caddy house, Ms Negrene recalled how Diego Maradona used to visit the club when he was recuperating from surgery in Cuba a few years ago. The club's roster also includes Robert Vesco, a fugitive financier who the US would dearly like to get its hands on. "He has not been around lately," Ms Negrene said. "I love it here," she added. "The members are nice and they bring me books, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Hemingway, lots of things, I have a nice life and plenty of time to read."
Belfast TelegraphIn an age of running back marginalization, the first seven weeks of this season have seen the position exact a measure of revenge. The rushing kings of last year (Adrian Peterson and Doug Martin) have barely been on the field because of injuries, but a new crop of dangerous young backs has emerged in their place.
Coming into the fall, Steelers star Le’Veon Bell was commonly labeled as the league’s top young back. Despite his injury history and a growing list of suspensions, he had established himself as an adept pass catcher and an ultraeffective runner — an ideal fit for the modern game. So far, though, 2016 has presented more than one running back who seems ready to challenge Bell for the title.
Two AFC rushers, the Titans’ DeMarco Murray and the Bills’ LeSean McCoy, have enjoyed bounce-back campaigns to this point, rushing for 633 and 598 yards, respectively. But both will be 29 by the start of next season. When it comes to crowning the NFL’s best young running back, the league’s top two rushers — the Cardinals’ David Johnson and the Cowboys’ Ezekiel Elliott — are the ones with a legitimate shot to knock Bell off his perch. Whether they can is a different story.
Before this season began, the notion that Elliott would pile up yards behind the Cowboys’ offensive line landed right between “The Browns might go winless” and “The Patriots will win at least 11 games and the AFC East” on the spectrum of possibility. Dallas finished ninth in rushing DVOA last season, with Matt Cassel’s corpse at quarterback and Darren McFadden’s glass bones carrying the ball. Bringing in rookie QB Dak Prescott — who’s a threat to run and occasionally tilts the math even further in the Cowboys’ favor on option plays — seemed to border on cruel.
After two underwhelming games to open the season, that combination has proved lethal. Elliott has trampled defenses over the past month. With a 157-yard outing against Green Bay in Week 6 (on a 5.6-yard-per-carry average), he became the first player since Chris Johnson in 2009 and just the 11th player ever to rush for at least 130 yards in four straight games. And he did it against a run defense that had been historically good through its first four contests.
With 703 yards through Week 7, Elliott leads the league in rushing despite playing one less game than everyone else in the top five. He’s averaging an absurd 117.2 yards per game, the third-best mark in the past 10 years, trailing only Peterson in 2012 and Johnson in 2009. One of those guys was named MVP and Offensive Player of the Year. The other was just OPOY. We’re talking historic, take-home-the-hardware sort of stuff with the production Elliott’s put up so far.
In evaluating Elliott, though, the challenge is separating his impact from the impact of his situation. Elliott is eighth in rushing DVOA — an absurd level of efficiency, given his workload — but he also ranks no. 1 in the league in Football Outsiders’ success rate, a measure of consistency that gauges how often a back rips off solid gains. Given the Cowboys’ ability to dominate games with their offensive line, it’s not surprising that Elliott has avoided recording many mediocre runs.
The line is at the center of Dallas’s ground-game success, and while it regularly gets recognition, offensive coordinator Scott Linehan doesn’t garner credit nearly as much as he should. The design of the Cowboys’ rushing attack stacks up with any in the NFL. Having the best line in football is great, but when paired with a scheme that gives it even a tiny advantage before the snap, Dallas becomes nearly unstoppable.
Take, for example, this first-and-10 play from the first quarter of the Cowboys’ 30–16 win over the Packers on October 16. Dallas sets up at its own 46-yard line, and receiver Lucky Whitehead goes in motion before the snap, eventually carrying out a fake end around. The threat of Whitehead tearing off the edge holds outside linebacker Clay Matthews in place, which leaves one less body for the Cowboys’ blockers to worry about. With Green Bay outmanned, it’s game over.
Center Travis Frederick and left guard Ronald Leary only have to focus on wiping up the nose tackle with the double-team, while left tackle Tyron Smith takes an easy angle to the linebacker. Tight end Jason Witten comes crashing across the formation to handle a flat-footed safety. The resulting hole is massive, and Elliott is off to the races. I have no idea what a defense is supposed to do about that.
After Elliott left cleat marks all over the Bengals a week earlier, carrying 15 times for 134 yards with two touchdowns in a 28–14 Dallas victory, Cincinnati cornerback Pacman Jones told reporters, “Now I see why [Jerry Jones] has got $100 million to his line. Those guys block their asses off, and like I said last week, some of the holes my daughter could have ran through today.” That’s tough to gauge, having never seen Pacman’s daughter play, but I have a feeling he might be right.
The Cowboys’ offense provides a perfect environment for any back, so a lot of the credit for Elliott’s hot start should go to the whole unit, but there’s no denying that Elliott is taking advantage of his circumstances more than an average runner would. After brushing off some rookie troubles early in the season, he’s now letting plays develop and exploiting the seas of green that are made available to him.
Elliott’s talent, explosiveness, and newfound patience are more than enough to make Dallas the league’s most dangerous running team. If he can make at least one defender miss (as he does with Green Bay’s Morgan Burnett in the clip above), there are plenty of 15-yard gains to be had. At this point, though, he’s not quite at the level of Bell and Johnson; it seems like both could do more with the help that Elliott has.
The Cowboys are already trying to fold Elliott into the passing game in different ways (he was motioned into the slot for a quick slant against the Packers, a pretty impressive show of confidence), too, but he’s behind Johnson and Bell in that regard. And on 137 carries, the 6-foot, 225-pound Elliott has broken only 11 tackles. In the Dallas offense, taking what’s available and a little more is enough to produce the league’s leading rusher, but right now it’s still the design and big boys up front that are doing the heavy lifting.
With Carson Palmer struggling in Arizona, the Cardinals have learned that going to a steady diet of David Johnson — rather than sticking with their patented deep-passing game — might be their best offensive approach. In a 6–6 tie with Seattle last Sunday, Johnson tallied a combined 46 carries and targets and 41 touches overall. The Cards’ new plan seems to be to use Johnson as often as possible. It’s hard to blame them.
Through seven games, Johnson has racked up 1,004 yards from scrimmage with eight touchdowns. That puts him on pace for 2,295 yards with 18 scores on the season, which would place him in rare company. Since the merger, only four players have finished a season with at least 2,250 yards from scrimmage with 18 touchdowns. Perhaps you’ve heard of them: LaDainian Tomlinson, Edgerrin James, Priest Holmes, and Ahman Green.
How Johnson — who’s 6-foot-1 and 224 pounds and had a “holy shit” showing at the 2015 combine — went in the third round of that draft still makes no sense. When it comes to physical profile, it’d be hard to manufacture a more perfect back. His strength is obvious. He’s already broken 29 tackles this season, according to Pro Football Focus, which equates to a broken tackle every six touches. Plenty of bigger backs have been tackle-breaking monsters, but what sets Johnson apart is how dangerous he is after shaking off defenders.
The balance he shows after hurdling a hapless would-be tackler or spinning away from another is remarkable for a player his size. Combined with his acceleration, it’s almost unfair. That burst is the biggest gap in athleticism between Johnson and the other two backs in this discussion. He and Elliott have similar top-end speeds (their 40-yard dash times are separated by.03 seconds, 4.47 for Elliott to 4.50 for Johnson), but Johnson’s 9-inch advantages in both the vertical leap (41.5) and broad jump (127.0) show up on the field.
This is a first-and-10 run from the first quarter of Arizona’s 33–21 win over San Francisco on October 6. The two jump cuts he uses to get going are impressive, but the insane part is what happens next. When Johnson’s left foot hits the ground on the second cut, it’s almost like he teleports 6 yards.
That type of suddenness just shouldn’t be possible for a 224-pound running back, and with Johnson, it’s present on virtually every carry. I have yet to see proof that Johnson isn’t a cyborg, and I expect that when the machines rise up, he’ll be the one to lead them. If he were one of the hosts in Westworld, the show would have lasted one episode. He would have destroyed Anthony Hopkins within 20 minutes and already been on his way to world domination.
As if pairing ballerina feet with a linebacker’s body weren’t enough, Johnson is also among the most valuable pass-catching backs in the NFL. A converted wide receiver, he’s comfortable catching the ball in any situation, whether it be wheel routes out of the backfield or slants after motioning out wide. Put it all together, and it’s tough to imagine a more valuable running back for the way the game is currently played.
And that’s what makes Le’Veon Bell so ridiculous.
When it comes to measurables, Johnson has an edge over Bell. Johnson is bigger (Bell claims that he’s 15 pounds lighter than his listed 225), stronger, and faster. Johnson’s home run potential make his get-off-me, blink-and-he’s-gone runs more spectacular, but the beauty of Bell lies in his subtlety.
As The Ringer’s Danny Kelly so excellently broke down in September, Bell is the type of pass catcher who can unlock a team’s entire aerial attack, even as a running back. Asking a linebacker to stick with him on option routes out of the backfield is a clear no-win proposition for a defense. The same understanding of angles that makes Bell such an elusive runner also makes him impossible to check as a receiver when he’s given even a tiny bit of room to operate.
That’s only the starting point of Bell’s value in the passing game, though. In the Pittsburgh offense, coordinator Todd Haley is willing to use Bell as a full-fledged receiver. That can mean running slants out of the backfield against outmatched linebackers, but it can also mean running go routes that rival what most wideouts can do. When I checked the numbers about Bell’s usage in the passing game this fall, I had to make sure that my computer — and my eyesight — was working.
Through four games since returning from his suspension, Bell has been targeted 37 times. That’s a 148-target pace over a 16-game season. Compared to some of the force-feeding we’ve seen in recent years with players like Julio Jones and Antonio Brown, that might not seem like a whole lot. Yet for a running back, it’s historic. Since targets started being tracked as a stat in 1992, the single-season record for a running back is 137, set by Tomlinson in 2003. Bell’s average of 9.3 targets per game is a level of passing-game involvement we haven’t seen in the past quarter century, and considering he’s ninth in receiving DVOA among running backs despite that volume, it isn’t likely to drop off.
Even with his excellence in the passing game, the best part about Bell is what he can do while lined up 5 yards deep and taking handoffs. When we fully realize the possibilities of virtual reality, I want the option to see football the way Bell does. No back in the league has better vision, and it allows Bell to exploit openings that other running backs wouldn’t even consider. Bell’s greatest strength is that he’s never in a hurry; it means that any play where his blocking can come together does.
Bell’s knack for anticipating where and why a hole will open is unparalleled, but it isn’t the extent of his foresight. He has an uncanny ability to understand how defenders are moving and how he can take advantage.
The above play, from the Steelers’ 27–16 loss to the Patriots last Sunday, should be a 2-yard gain at most. For Bell, three cuts and six broken ankles later, it’s a 12-yard gain and a Pittsburgh first down. Bell may not be the threat that Elliott or Johnson are to rip off a 60-yard score, but no back in football is better at turning a play that looks DOA into a double-digit gain.
He conjures first downs unlike anyone else in the league, and as opposed to Johnson, he does it by way of quiet genius instead of superhuman power. Johnson and Elliott will likely be superstars for years to come, but as of now, they still have some work to do if they want to unseat Bell as the league’s premier young running back. No one affects the game more substantially and in more ways from that position — a fact that Bell’s agents are sure to mention when he hits free agency next spring.AUSTRALIAN tennis bad boy Nick Kyrgios has plenty of time on his hands after announcing his 2017 season was finished due to an ongoing hip complaint.
So what does any millennial do with their free time? Sit on Twitter and answer fan questions of course.
Despite an up and down season that often left fans and experts scratching their heads, the love for Kyrgios remains evident.
Initially calling for a quick Q & A, the enigmatic 22-year old spent well over 90 minutes on the social media platform, answering a wide array of questions.
With tongue firmly in cheek, Kyrgios had a few little cracks at Mirka Federer (wife of Roger) and effectively all of his fellow countrymen.
Hardest part about playing Feds? #AskKygs — Lachlan holman (@holman_37) October 20, 2017
Mirka heckling and whistling at me before I serve and between serves!! #JustKidding 🙈 https://t.co/F6if833dey — Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) October 20, 2017
Not as much as Bernie it seems.
😂😂🙈🙈 https://t.co/PlHiWjJzG4 — Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) October 20, 2017
Definitely @MattReid12345 is the worst he's got all the rhythm of a dead fish. Best is probably @Gael_Monfils https://t.co/xPr3M9lAP3 — Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) October 20, 2017
Kyrgios had plenty of fun during his time on Twitter and took little jabs at the majority of his ATP rivals. Here are some of the funnier responses Kyrgios served up.
Assuming @andy_murray ever gets fit, then yes I will bestow upon him the pleasure of my skills on the doubles court. https://t.co/3UPeEkItBR — Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) October 20, 2017
First off, he's a beautiful man!! That's what I think!! and yes, he can do anything on a court. 😂😂😉 https://t.co/60tGMlT0yh — Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) October 20, 2017
Something the umpires didn't understand!! https://t.co/0UVXE9bPxF — Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) October 20, 2017
Probably a body shot as my face is too pretty.....
I assume that's what you meant?? #YeahRight https://t.co/Ix84DVqqeE — Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) October 20, 2017
The waiting game now begins until we see Kyrgios back on the court and many will be hopeful that in 2018, he can piece it all together.Gillibrand’s campaign went down to the final hours before the vote. Gillibrand's assault bill derailed
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand came up short Thursday in her yearlong campaign to overhaul military sexual-assault policies, falling five votes short of the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster.
The New York Democrat’s bill, which would have removed the chain of command from prosecuting sexual assaults and other major military crimes, was derailed in the Senate on a 55-45 vote, closing out one chapter in a debate that divided the Senate but not along typical partisan lines.
Story Continued Below
Ten Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and 2016 presidential hopefuls Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky, backed Gillibrand’s controversial chain-of-command bill. But that wasn’t enough to overcome 10 Democratic votes against her, including prominent defense hawks like Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin of Michigan and Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri. Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) also opposed the bill.
( Q&A with POLITICO's Juana Summers on the military sexual assault bill)
Gillibrand’s campaign went down to the final hours and minutes before the vote, and the outcome remained uncertain to the end as about a half-dozen Republicans and one Democrat — Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia — refused to say publicly where they’d fall.
Warner ultimately sided against Gillibrand, one of several surprises during the tense roll call. Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), who was lobbied by Gillibrand right up to the minute before he cast his vote, had previously indicated support for the New York Democrat. Both went against her on the procedural vote.
Kirk, a retired Navy Reserve officer, told reporters after the vote that he’d changed his mind after hearing arguments from Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) that Gillibrand’s bill could force much broader changes to the World War II-era military justice system. He also said he feared having outside lawyers take over prosecuting military cases and disrupting the unique culture of the armed services.
( POLITICO's Chain of Command series)
“I wanted to make sure the captain of a ship is really the captain of the whole ship,” Kirk said.
The Gillibrand vote also exposed deep rifts inside the GOP on national security and women’s issues.
McConnell, who if he survives a GOP primary will face Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes in November, bucked the Pentagon to join the libertarian-minded Paul in support of the chain-of-command change. Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), who was facing a primary challenge against Liz Cheney until she dropped out in January, also voted with Gillibrand.
Then there’s the 2016 factor. Gillibrand is widely seen as a Democratic presidential contender if Hillary Clinton doesn’t get into the race. And on the Republican side, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, an Air Force lawyer and defense hawk, didn’t hesitate to chide two potential primary front-runners — Paul and Cruz — for siding against the Pentagon.
“People wanting to run for president on our side, I will remind you of this vote,” Graham told reporters. “If you want to be commander in chief, you told me a lot about who you are as a commander-in-chief candidate. You were willing to fire every commander in the military for reasons I don’t quite understand, so we’ll have a good discussion as to whether or not you understand how the military actually works.”
( Also on POLITICO: Full defense policy coverage)
Cruz insisted in an interview that his presidential ambitions didn’t factor into his position.
“This issue shouldn’t be political,” he said. “It’s about doing the right thing. It’s about standing with the men and women in the military. It’s about standing against sexual assault.”
Another 2016 contender, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), waited until the vote to take a public stance. “Just want to make sure I do the right thing,” he told reporters beforehand. The senator noted he’d held more than 20 meetings with military brass, victims and senators on both sides of the issue.
For her part, Gillibrand complained after the vote about several of her colleagues. “Too many of the members of the Senate have turned their back on these victims and survivors,” she said. And she also said she was disappointed with President Barack Obama, who issued a statement in December, saying he’d give the Pentagon until the end of 2014 to show progress on sexual assaults before deciding whether to push for stronger reforms like those in her bill.
( Sign up for POLITICO’s Morning Defense tip sheet)
If Obama had weighed in, Gillibrand said he could have helped tip the scales in favor of her proposal.
“I made my greatest case,” she said. “I advocated for this position, this reform. The president’s been very clear he wants to end sexual assault in the military. He wants it to be further studied and he wants to see progress on whether it’s been accomplished in the next year.”
Cruz was more pointed in his criticism of Obama.
“I will note there’s been a complete absence of leadership on this issue from President Obama,” Cruz told POLITICO. “President Obama doesn’t need legislation to make this happen. As commander in chief, he’d have the ability to implement serious reforms.”
No matter the outcome of Gillibrand’s bill, the debate generated significant attention to the Pentagon’s policies at a time when the issue also surfaced in several high-profile criminal trials, and in the Oscar-nominated documentary “The Invisible War” and as a major plot line in the second season of the Netflix drama “House of Cards.”
( Earlier on POLITICO: Gillibrand lauds 'House of Cards' military sexual assault plot)
“Taking the long view, there’s a real victory here because we have improved the system whatever the outcome; we’ve raised public awareness,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a leading Gillibrand supporter, said in an interview. “The military’s system of justice for sexual assault will never be the same. There have been historic changes if only because commanders will never again regard sexual assault in the same way. They’ll pay attention. They’ll respect survivors and they’ll pursue perpetrators in a way they haven’t before. That’s a victory.”
Also helpful: Gillibrand’s rivalry with McCaskill, a fellow female Democrat and former Kansas City-area prosecutor who was kept busy lobbying undecided senators as the vote finally came to a head.
McCaskill’s argument was twofold. She urged undecided senators to oppose Gillibrand and give the Pentagon more time to implement dozens of new sexual assault requirements from the most recent defense authorization law, including making it a crime to retaliate against a victim who reports an incident and prohibiting commanders from overturning jury convictions.
And she insisted Gillibrand’s approach would do just the opposite of what its sponsor promised, leading to fewer successful prosecutions while disrupting how the military deals with its ranks.
“In addition to it not increasing reporting, in addition to it not protecting from retaliation, in addition to removing commanders from their accountability, we also have some real practical implications,” McCaskill argued Thursday during the final floor debate.
McCaskill also tried to undercut Gillibrand through an alternative bill that would eliminate the “good soldier” legal defense from military evidence rules unless a defendant’s military character is directly tied to the alleged crime.
The bill gave senators a chance to back something substantive on sexual assault, without going as far as Gillibrand wanted.
Case in point: Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), who told POLITICO on Thursday, “I’m going to do whatever I can to get to the McCaskill vote and support that.”
Passage of McCaskill’s alternative was never in question. Gillibrand even came out in support of it when it was first introduced.
And sure enough, the procedural vote to advance McCaskill’s bill Thursday was 100-0, though a vote on final passage was delayed until Monday as senators bolted the Capitol for a three-day weekend.I just want to remind the administration that science is political. It is inherently political like everything else … It’s in the U.S. Constitution, Article 1, Section 8, to promote the progress of science and useful arts. That’s what enables innovation, and if our country stops innovating, it will not be able to compete worldwide. — Bill Nye
*****
Scientists — from luminaries like Michael Mann, Bill Nye, Richard Alley, Gavin Schmidt, Stefan Rahmstorf and Neil deGrasse Tyson, to thousands of humbly toiling researchers for the public good whom you’ve probably never heard of — need our help now more than ever.
(Earth Day’s 2017 March for Science produced an unprecedented outpouring of support for public, non-special-interest-based scientific advancement and research around the world. Unfortunately, despite widespread internet and print coverage, broadcast media barely mentioned the historic event.)
Around the world and in the United States, science budgets are under threat, politically motivated individuals attempt to delete factual information related to public health and safety from science websites, individual scientists are subject to politically motivated attacks by quacks and climate change deniers in the hallowed halls of the U.S. Congress, and the person elected president is willfully scientifically illiterate while openly expressing opinions and pursuing policies that are hostile to fact-based science.
Public Rallies in Support of Scientists Under Threat
On Saturday, April 22nd, in honor of Earth Day, hundreds of thousands of people around the world marched in solidarity with scientists. Their essential jobs, often health, safety, and national security-related, are under threat of expungement by individuals and industries now empowered to attack the very basis of scientific truth. Though spearheaded by anti-science climate change deniers and those who harmfully attack public vaccination programs, the gamut of attacks on scientific understanding extends to research on toxic substances, water quality and security, endangered species, food safety and sustainability, forest resiliency, earth and weather observation and many, many more helpful endeavors.
The @ScienceMarchDC was a huge success. Hundreds of thousands marched in 600+ cities. Here are the highlights! pic.twitter.com/gzAoKglUDG — Futurism (@futurism) April 25, 2017
(Saturday’s March for Science drew amazing support from around the globe.)
Weather Underground’s Bob Henson, in his own poignant and heartfelt call to join the march, noted:
For many of us, a prime motivation for marching on Saturday is to express our dismay and anger at the proposed slashing of U.S. federal funding of science that’s now on the table… These proposals run the gamut from medical to atmospheric research; in many areas, they would be the deepest cutbacks in decades. Cuts to ongoing scientific research can be especially problematic. It can take years to gather the people and resources needed for a major study. Once the momentum is disrupted and people scatter, a project may never fully recover. In the world of atmospheric science, satellites and other critical observing tools are especially vulnerable to funding-related problems. We only have one global atmosphere, and there is no substitute for monitoring it as closely as possible—including the effects that human-produced greenhouse gases are having on it. [emphasis added]
The public outpouring in support of these scientists — who often work for modest salaries and generate considerable public good for years and decades following the completion of their work — was tremendous. 610 demonstrations blanketed not just the U.S. but scores of countries and hundreds of cities around the world. Washington, New York, Sydney, London, Denver, L.A. and even Antarctica got involved. Never before in modern history has such an amazing show of support for scientific endeavors by climate scientists and others occurred.
Broadcast Media’s Increasingly Irresponsible Coverage — Or Lack Thereof
And though print media outlets like The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Washington Post provided almost continuous coverage of this historic event, television broadcast news media on Sunday morning following the protest was deafeningly silent. According to Media Matters:
Sunday news shows generally ignored the events that attracted hundreds of thousands of protesters. ABC’s This Week, CBS’ Face the Nation, and NBC’s Meet the Press failed to mention the March for Science at all, according to a Media Matters review. CNN’s State of the Union only had a brief headline about the demonstrations, and Fox Broadcasting Co.’s Fox News Sunday only dedicated about one and a half minutes to the story.
Such failure to cover follows a long-running pattern of apparently oblivious or even anti-science-based activity in TV news media. For example, the Presidential debates hosted by big TV networks included zero questions on the key scientific issue of climate change. Broadcast media sources often host climate change deniers — giving quackery, politicization, and long-disproven claims equal time to actual established science. Meanwhile, TV coverage of climate change-related science and events has plummeted even as climate change-related impacts have steadily worsened. At a time when the Earth is the warmest it has ever been since the dawn of human civilization (and probably in at least 115,000 years), when ice caps are melting, seas are rising, the Great Barrier Reef is dying, crops are endangered and cities like Miami are slowly succumbing to the rising tides, such a dearth of coverage is both unconscionable and amoral.
My father-in-law, Jim Lynch, is a rocket scientist. Here's a picture of him at this weekend's Science March. pic.twitter.com/Gq1Gq79c3T — Robert Fanney (@robertscribbler) April 24, 2017
(My father-in-law, a retired rocket scientist for the U.S. Navy, braves the rain to show his support for the Science March. Mainstream broadcast media, however, was sadly mostly AWOL.)
Over the weekend, many of the same networks that have failed to cover the climate crisis also failed to report on the issue of special-interest-based attacks on science, as well as the public protest and outrage over such attacks. This neglectful non-reporting serves to enable climate bad actors and provides cover for those who attack scientists. Even worse, many of these same broadcast news organizations, in the few rare instances when it was mentioned, used the March to provide a platform for climate-change deniers to level attacks against those who support science. Such actions make these broadcast news organizations (of which Fox News is almost always first and worst) at least partially complicit in the assault on science that spurred the Marches in the first place.
At the start of the Science March this past Saturday, Bill Nye so eloquently reminded us that science and its underlying and ever-expanding quest for fact-based truth is a critical cornerstone of our democracy. However, in order for a healthy democracy supportive of the public good to exist, broadcast media’s silence over or denial of critical scientific issues needs to stop. A large subset of the fourth estate of government in the form of independent internet media and various mainstream print media sources have stepped up to the plate when it comes to providing more responsible coverage of climate change and other key science-based issues. It’s time for broadcast media to pull the gigantic plank out of its own eye, wash its mouth out with a large dollop of soap, and follow suit.
(Broadcast media’s failure to adequately or responsibly cover the Science March follows a longer-term trend of reduced science and climate coverage by major TV outlets. In addition, networks like Fox often host climate-change skeptics or deniers, providing a false balance to actual mainstream scientists. Image source: Media Matters.)
The science, along with the foundations of a healthily functioning democracy, is under attack by politically motivated anti-science interests at the exact time that dangers to public health and safety in the form of climate change and increasingly virulent diseases are on the rise. This is a story that needs to be covered. And it is arguably the biggest, most important story in the history of our nation and our race. So to broadcast media we say — pitch in, or get the hell out of the way.
Links:
The March for Science
Why We are Taking Part in the March for Science
March for Science on Earth Day
Sunday Shows Mostly Silent on the March for Science
Historians Say March for Science is Pretty Unprecedented
Every Continent Turned out For Science March
Networks Providing Coverage of Science March Gave Platform to Climate Change Deniers
Why Has Climate Change Been Ignored in U.S. Electoral Debates?
Trump Presses Control+Alt+Delete on Science
Lamar Smith’s Attacks on Science are Funded by the Fossil Fuel Industry
Hat tip to Suzzanne
Hat tip to Robert in New Orleans
Hat tip to Ryan in New England
Hat tip to Colorado Bob
Scientific hat tip to Bob Henson
Special thanks to everyone here and elsewhere who showed up this weekend in support of science
AdvertisementsOAKLAND, Calif. -- CC Sabathia's 100th victory as a Yankee was not the most important game he has pitched in his seven-plus seasons in pinstripes; that was probably Game 4 of the 2009 ALCS, when he pitched eight innings of one-run ball against the Los Angeles Angels, giving New York a 3-1 lead in the series and virtually ensuring they would return to the World Series.
Nor was his personal accomplishment as significant as what the team accomplished with its 8-3 win over the Oakland Athletics on Friday night; that was the New York Yankees' third consecutive win, the first time all season they have been able to string wins back-to-back-to-back.
The real significance of this win was that it demonstrated that maybe Sabathia, at 35 and with more than 3,000 innings on his left arm, can still be an important pitcher for a rotation that desperately needs someone to step forward and assume a leading role.
With several starters struggling, CC Sabathia gave the Yankees' rotation a boost with his six-inning, eight-strikeout performance on Friday night. Kelley L Cox/USA TODAY Sports
Sabathia is not nearly the pitcher he was in 2009, when the fastball still topped 95 and the changeup and slider still buckled knees.
But now, in his 16th big league season, it finally appears that Sabathia is beginning to master the art of pitching -- and winning -- with a diminished repertoire.
"When I take a look at CC, he’s not the same pitcher he was in Cleveland," said Carlos Beltran, one of the Yankees' hitting stars, with three doubles and three RBIs on Friday. "But he has something other pitchers don’t have. That is experience. He knows how to pitch. He knows that he has to make adjustments. Now, he has great stuff to compete in this league for many, many years."
Many, many years might be an exaggeration -- Sabathia is signed through this season, at $25 million, and has a $25 million option for 2017 that vests unless he ends the season on the DL with a shoulder injury -- but judging off Friday night's outing, he seems to have the stuff to at least pitch effectively for the rest of this season, assuming he can remain healthy.
That might be a foolish assumption, considering he had just come off the disabled list with a |
following one's friends, and ending up in environments that foster groupthink. Atran is also critical of the claim that terrorists simply crave destruction; they are often motivated by beliefs they hold sacred, as well as their own moral reasoning.[187]
Robert Pape, director of the Chicago Project on Suicide Terrorism, found the majority of suicide bombers came from the educated middle classes. (Humam Balawi, who perpetrated the Camp Chapman attack in Afghanistan in 2010, was a medical doctor.[188]) A 2004 paper by Harvard University Professor of Public Policy Alberto Abadie "cast[s] doubt on the widely held belief that terrorism stems from poverty, finding instead that terrorist violence (not just suicide terrorism) is "related to a nation's level of political freedom", with countries "in some intermediate range of political freedom" more prone to terrorism than countries with "high levels" of political freedom or countries with "highly authoritarian regimes". "When governments are weak, political instability is elevated, so conditions are favorable for the appearance of terrorism".[189][190]
A study by German scholar Arata Takeda analyzes analogous behavior represented in literary texts from the antiquity through the 20th century (Sophocles' s Ajax, Milton's Samson Agonistes, Friedrich Schiller's The Robbers, Albert Camus's The Just Assassins) and comes to the conclusion "that suicide bombings are not the expressions of specific cultural peculiarities or exclusively religious fanaticisms. Instead, they represent a strategic option of the desperately weak who strategically disguise themselves under the mask of apparent strength, terror, and invincibility."[191][192]
Nationalist resistance and religion [ edit ]
To what extent attackers are motivated by religious enthusiasm, by resistance to perceived outsider oppression or some combination of the two is disputed.
According to Robert Pape, director of the Chicago Project on Suicide Terrorism, as of 2005, 95% of suicide attacks have the same specific strategic goal: to cause an occupying state to withdraw forces from a disputed territory, making nationalism not religion their principal motivation.[193]
Beneath the religious rhetoric with which [such terror] is perpetrated, it occurs largely in the service of secular aims. Suicide terrorism is mainly a response to foreign occupation rather than a product of Islamic fundamentalism... Though it speaks of Americans as infidels, al-Qaida is less concerned with converting us to Islam than removing us from Arab and Muslim lands.[194]
Alternately, another source found that at least in one country (Lebanon from 1983–1999) it was Islamists who influenced secular nationalists—their use of suicide attack spreading to the secular groups. Five Lebanese groups "espousing a non-religious nationalist ideology" followed the lead of Islamist groups in attacking by suicide, "impressed by the effectiveness of Hezbollah's attacks in precipitating the withdrawal of the 'foreigners' from Lebanon".[17] (In Israel suicide attacks by Islamist Islamic Jihad and Hamas also preceded those of the secular PFLP and the Al-Fatah-linked Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.)
Pape found other factors associated with suicide attacks included
the government of the targeted country being democratic and the public opinion of the country playing a role in determining policy.
a difference in religion between the attackers and occupiers;
grassroots support for the attacks; [195]
attackers disproportionately from the educated middle classes; [196]
high levels of brutality and cruelty by the occupiers, [197] and
and competition among militant groups fighting the occupiers.[198]
Other researchers contend that Pape's analysis is flawed, particularly his contention that democracies are the main targets of such attacks.[199] Atran argues that suicide bombing has moved on from the days of Pape's study,[196] that non-Islamic groups have carried out very few bombings since 2003, while bombing by Muslim or Islamist groups associated with a "global ideology" of "martyrdom" has skyrocketed. In one year, in one Muslim country alone – 2004 in Iraq – there were 400 suicide attacks and 2,000 casualties.[10] Other researchers (such as Yotam Feldner) argue that perceived religious rewards in the hereafter are instrumental in encouraging Muslims to commit suicide attacks,[200][201] or ask why prominent secular anti-occupation terrorist groups—such as the Provisional IRA, ETA or anti-colonialist insurgents in Vietnam, Algeria, etc.[202]—have not used suicide,[203] why he does not mention that the very first suicide attack in Lebanon (in 1981) targeted the embassy of Iraq, a country which was not occupying Lebanon.[202]
Mia Bloom agrees with Pape that competition among insurgents groups is a significant motivator, arguing the growth in suicide as a tactic is a product of "outbidding", i.e. the need by competing insurgent groups to demonstrate their commitment to the cause to broader public—making the ultimate sacrifice for the insurgency being a "bid" impossible to top.[204] (This explains its use by Palestinian groups, but not that by the Tamil Tigers.[203]) Still other researchers have identified sociopolitical factors as more central in the motivation of suicide attackers than religion.[205][206]
According to Atran[207] and former CIA case officer Marc Sageman,[208] support for suicide actions is triggered by moral outrage at perceived attacks against Islam and sacred values, but this is converted to action as a result of small-world factors (such as being part of a football club with other jihadis). Millions express sympathy with global jihad (according to a 2006 Gallup study involving more than 50,000 interviews in dozens of countries, 7 percent or at least 90 million of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims consider the 9/11 attacks "completely justified").[209][210]
Afghanistan suicide bomb attacks, including non-detonated, 2002–2008
Also arguing that the increase in suicide terrorism since 2001 is really driven by Salafi/Jihadist ideology and Al-Qaeda is Assaf Moghadam.[211][212]
Updating his work in a 2010 book Cutting the Fuse, Pape reported that a fine-grained analysis of the time and location of attacks strongly support his conclusion that "foreign military occupation accounts for 98.5% – and the deployment of American combat forces for 92% – of all the 1,833 suicide terrorist attacks around the world" between 2004 and 2009[213] Moreover, "the success attributed to the surge in 2007 and 2008 was actually less the result of an increase in coalition forces and more to a change of strategy in Baghdad and the empowerment of the Sunnis in Anbar." (emphasis in the original)[215]
The same logic can be seen in Afghanistan. In 2004 and early 2005, NATO occupied the north and west, controlled by the Northern Alliance, whom NATO had previously helped fight the Taliban. An enormous spike in suicide terrorism only occurred later in 2005 as NATO moved into the south and east, which had previously been controlled by the Taliban and locals were more likely to see NATO as a foreign occupation threatening local culture and customs.[217] Critics argue the logic cannot be seen in Pakistan,[202][219] which has no occupation and the second highest number of suicide bombing fatalities as of mid-2015.
Islam [ edit ]
What connection the high percentage of suicide attacks executed by Islamist groups since 1980 has to do with the religion of Islam is disputed. Specifically, scholars, researchers, and others, disagree over whether Islam forbids suicide in the process of attacking enemies or the killing of civilians. According to a report compiled by the Chicago Project on Suicide Terrorism, 224 of 300 suicide terror attacks from 1980 to 2003 involved Islamist groups or took place in Muslim-majority lands.[220] Another tabulation found more than a fourfold increase in suicide bombings in the two years following Papes study and that the overwhelming majority of these bombers were motivated by the ideology of Islamist martyrdom.[10] (For example, as of early 2008, 1,121 Muslim suicide bombers have blown themselves up in Iraq.[221])
Recent history [ edit ]
Islamic suicide bombing is a fairly recent event. It was totally absent from the 1979–1989 Afghan jihad against the Soviet Union,[133] (an asymmetrical war where the mujahideen fought Soviet warplanes, helicopters and tanks primarily with light weapons). According to author Sadakat Kadri, "the very idea that Muslims might blow themselves up for God was unheard of before 1983, and it was not until the early 1990s that anyone anywhere had tried to justify killing innocent Muslims who were not on a battlefield." After 1983 the process was limited among Muslims to Hezbollah and other Lebanese Shi'a factions for more than a decade.[222]
Since then, the "vocabulary of martyrdom and sacrifice", videotaped pre-confession of faith by attackers have become part of "Islamic cultural consciousness", "instantly recognizable" to Muslims (according to Noah Feldman),[133] while the tactic has spread through the Muslim world "with astonishing speed and on a surprising course".[133]
First the targets were American soldiers, then mostly Israelis, including women and children. From Lebanon and Israel, the technique of suicide bombing moved to Iraq, where the targets have included mosques and shrines, and the intended victims have mostly been Shiite Iraqis.... [In] Afghanistan,... both the perpetrators and the targets are orthodox Sunni Muslims. Not long ago, a bombing in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand Province, killed Muslims, including women, who were applying to go on pilgrimage to Mecca. Overall, the trend is definitively in the direction of Muslim-on-Muslim violence. By a conservative accounting, more than three times as many Iraqis have been killed by suicide bombings in just three year (2003–6) as have Israelis in ten (from 1996–2006). Suicide bombing has become the archetype of Muslim violence – not just to Westerners but also to Muslims themselves.[133]
Recent research on the rationale of suicide bombing has identified both religious and sociopolitical motivations.[223][224][225][226] Those who cite religious factors as an important influence note that religion provides the framework because the bombers believe they are acting in the name of Islam and will be rewarded as martyrs. Since martyrdom is seen as a step towards paradise, those who commit suicide while discarding their community from a common enemy believe that they will reach an ultimate salvation after they die.[223]
In the media attention given to suicide bombing during the Second Intifada and after 9/11, sources hostile to radical Islamism quoted radical scholars promising various heavenly rewards, such as 70 virgins (houri) as wives, to Muslims who die as martyrs, (specifically as suicide attackers).[227][228][229][230] One Israeli source (Y. Feldner of MEMRI) complained that
the death announcements of martyrs in the Palestinian press often take the form of wedding, not funeral, announcements. `Blessings will be accepted immediately after the burial and until 10 p.m....at the home of the martyr's uncle,` read one suicide bomber's death notice.[231] `With great pride, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad marries the member of its military wing... the martyr and hero Yasser Al-Adhami, to "the black-eyed,"` read another.[229][232]
Other alleged rewards for those dying in jihad are feeling no pain from the cause of their death,[229] being cleansed of all sin and brought directly to paradise, not having to wait for the Day of Judgement.[233][234][235]
Others (such as As'ad AbuKhalil) maintain that "the tendency to dwell on the sexual motives" of the suicide bombers "belittles" the bombers "sociopolitical causes", and that the alleged "sexual frustration" of young Muslim men "has been overly emphasized in the Western and Israeli media" as a motive for terrorism.[206]
Support for "martyrdom operations"
Islamist militant organisations (including al-Qaeda, Hamas and Islamic Jihad) argue that despite what some Muslims claim is Islam's strict prohibition of suicide and murder,[236][237] suicide attacks fulfill the obligation of jihad against the "oppressor", "martyrs" will be rewarded with paradise, and have the support of (some) Muslim clerics. Clerics have supported suicide attacks largely in connection with the Palestinian issue. Prominent Sunni cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi previously had supported such attacks by Palestinians in perceived defense of their homeland as heroic and an act of resistance.[238] Shiite Lebanese cleric Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah, the spiritual authority recognized by Hezbollah, holds similar views.[133] According to the conservative Iranian Shi'ah cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, "When protecting Islam and the Muslim community depends on martyrdom operations, it not only is allowed, but even is an obligation as many of the Shi'ah great scholars and Maraje', including Ayatullah Safi Golpayegani and Ayatullah Fazel Lankarani, have clearly announced in their fatwas."[239]
The Quranic verse used by Zarein Ahmedzay (an Afghanistan-born New York City cab driver who traveled to Waziristan for terrorist training and discussed possible suicide bombing target locations in crowded parts of Manhattan) in support of his actions was 9:111 (Surah At-Tawba):[240]
Verily, Allah has purchased of the believers their lives and their wealth for the price of Paradise, to fight in the way of Allah, to kill and be killed. It is a promise binding on the truth in the Torah, the Gospel and the Qur'an.[241]
Supporters of the Taliban insist their attacks are "martyrdom operations" and not suicide. The June 2013 issue of the Taliban magazine Azan extolled the virtues of suicide attacks, claiming that "suicide bombing" is a "false term" for jihad martyrdom attacks. "So martyrdom operation ≠ Suicide bombing".[242]
The articles maintains that Abu Huraira (a companion of the Muhammad) and Umar ibn Khattab (the third caliph of Islam), approved acts in which the Muslims knew would lead to certain death, and that the Islamic prophet Muhammad also approved of such acts (according to authors Maulana Muawiya Hussaini and Ikrimah Anwar cited numerous Hadith of Muhammad on the authority of Islamic jurist Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj). "The Sahaba [companions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad] who carried out the attacks almost certainly knew that they were going to be killed during their operations but they still carried them out and such acts were extolled and praised in the sharia."[243]
Opposition and responses from Muslim scholars
Others (such as Middle East historian Bernard Lewis) disagree, noting
... a clear difference was made between throwing oneself to certain death at the hands of an overwhelmingly strong enemy, and dying by one's own hand. The first, if conducted in a properly authorized [ jihad ], was a passport to heaven; the second to damnation. The blurring of their previously vital distinction was the work of some twentieth-century theologians who outlined the new theory which the suicide bombers put into practice."[37]
The difference between engaging in an act where the perpetrator plans to fight to the death but where the attack does not require their death, is important to at least one Islamist terror group – Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). While the group extols "martyrdom" and has killed many civilians, LeT believes suicide attacks where the attackers dies by their own hand (such as by pressing a detonation button), are haram (forbidden). Its "trademark" is that of perpetrators fighting "to the death" but escaping "if practical". "This distinction has been the subject of extensive discourse among radical Islamist leaders."[244]
A number of Western and Muslim scholars of Islam have posited that suicide attacks are a clear violation of classical Islamic law and characterized such attacks against civilians as murderous and sinful.[245][246]
According to Bernard Lewis, "the emergence of the now widespread terrorism practice of suicide bombing is a development of the 20th century. It has no antecedents in Islamic history, and no justification in terms of Islamic theology, law, or tradition."[246] Islamic legal rules of armed warfare or military jihad are covered in detail in the classical texts of Islamic jurisprudence,[133] which forbidding the killing of women, children or non-combatants, and the destroying of cultivated or residential areas.[133][247][248] For more than a millennium, these tenets were accepted by Sunnis and Shiites; however, since the 1980s militant Islamists have challenged the traditional Islamic rules of warfare to justify suicide attacks.[133][247]
A number of respected Muslim scholars have provided scholastic refutations of suicide bombings, condemning them as terrorism prohibited in Islam and leading their perpetrators to hell.[245] In his 400+ page Fatwa on Terrorism condemning suicide attacks, Muslim Islamic scholar Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri directly disputed the rationale of Islamists, arguing among other things that the indiscriminately killing of both Muslims and non-Muslims is unlawful, and brings the Muslim ummah into disrepute, no matter how lofty the killers intentions.[249] Tahir-ul-Qadri states terrorism "has no place in Islamic teaching, and no justification can be provided to it...good intention cannot justify a wrong and forbidden act".[245]
The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia, Abdul-Aziz ibn Abdullah Al Shaykh, issued a fatwa on September 12, 2013 that suicide bombings are "great crimes" and bombers are "criminals who rush themselves to hell by their actions". Al Shaykh described suicide bombers as "robbed of their minds... who have been used (as tools) to destroy themselves and societies".[250]
"In view of the fast-moving dangerous developments in the Islamic world, it is very distressing to see the tendencies of permitting or underestimating the shedding of blood of Muslims and those under protection in their countries. The sectarian or ignorant utterances made by some of these people would benefit none other than the greedy, vindictive and envious people. Hence, we would like to draw attention to the seriousness of the attacks on Muslims or those who live under their protection or under a pact with them", Al Shaykh said, quoting a number of verses from the Qur'an and Hadith.[251]
In 2005, following a series of bombings by the banned putfit Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) Ubaidul Haq, the chief cleric of Bangladesh led a protest of ulema denouncing terrorism.[252] He said:
"Islam prohibits suicide bombings. These bombers are enemies of Islam." "It is a duty for all Muslims to stand up against those who are killing people in the name of Islam."
In January 2006, Ayatollah al-Udhma Yousof al-Sanei, a Shia Marja (high ranking cleric), decreed a fatwa against suicide bombing, declaring it a "terrorist act".[253][254] In 2005 Muhammad Afifi al-Akiti also issued a fatwa "Against The Targeting Of Civilians".[255]
Ihsanic Intelligence, a London-based Islamic think-tank, published their two-year study into suicide bombings in the name of Islam, The Hijacked Caravan,[256] which concluded that,
The technique of suicide bombing is anathema, antithetical and abhorrent to Sunni Islam. It is considered legally forbidden, constituting a reprehensible innovation in the Islamic tradition, morally an enormity of sin combining suicide and murder and theologically an act which has consequences of eternal damnation.[257]
American based Islamic jurist and scholar Khaled Abou Al-Fadl argues,
The classical jurists, nearly without exception, argued that those who attack by stealth, while targeting noncombatants in order to terrorize the resident and wayfarer, are corrupters of the earth. "Resident and wayfarer" was a legal expression that meant that whether the attackers terrorize people in their urban centers or terrorize travelers, the result was the same: all such attacks constitute a corruption of the earth. The legal term given to people who act this way was muharibun (those who wage war against society), and the crime is called the crime of hiraba (waging war against society). The crime of hiraba was so serious and repugnant that, according to Islamic law, those guilty of this crime were considered enemies of humankind and were not to be given quarter or sanctuary anywhere.... Those who are familiar with the classical tradition will find the parallels between what were described as crimes of hiraba and what is often called terrorism today nothing short of remarkable. The classical jurists considered crimes such as assassinations, setting fires, or poisoning water wells – that could indiscriminately kill the innocent – as offenses of hiraba. Furthermore, hijacking methods of transportation or crucifying people in order to spread fear are also crimes of hiraba. Importantly, Islamic law strictly prohibited the taking of hostages, the mutilation of corpses, and torture.[258]
According to Charles Kimball, chair of the Department of Religion at Wake Forest University, "There is only one verse in the Qur'an that contains a phrase related to suicide" (4:29):[259]
O you who have believed, do not consume one another's wealth unjustly but only [in lawful] business by mutual consent. And do not kill yourselves. Indeed, Allah is to you ever Merciful.[260]
Some commentators posit that "do not kill yourselves" is better translated "do not kill each other", and some translations (e.g., by M.H. Shakir) reflect that view. Mainstream Islamic groups such as the European Council for Fatwa and Research also cite the Quranic verse Al-An'am 6:151[261])] as prohibiting suicide: "And take not life, which Allah has made sacred, except by way of justice and law".[262] The Hadith, including Bukhari 2:445, states: "The Prophet said, '...whoever commits suicide with a piece of iron will be punished with the same piece of iron in the Hell Fire', [and] 'A man was inflicted with wounds and he committed suicide, and so Allah said: 'My slave has caused death on himself hurriedly, so I forbid Paradise for him.'"[263][264]
Other Muslims have also noted Quranic verses in opposition to suicide, to taking of life other than by way of justice (i.e. the death penalty for murder), and to collective punishment.[265]
The international community considers the use of indiscriminate attacks on civilian populations[152] and the use of human shields[266][267] as illegal under international law.[268]
Public surveys
Muslim views on suicide bombing, 2002 to 2014.
"Often or sometimes justified" 2002
[269] 2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2011
[270] 2014
[271] Lebanon 74 – 39 – 34 32 38 35 29 Jordan 43 – 57 29 23 25 12 13 15 Pakistan 33 41 25 14 9 5 5 5 3 Indonesia 26 – 15 10 10 11 13 10 9 Turkey 13 15 14 17 16 3 4 7 6 Nigeria 47 – – 46 42 32 43 – 9 Palestinian
Territory – – – – 70 – 68 68 46 Egypt – – – 28 8 13 15 28 28 Results of Pew Research Center survey asking Muslims the question:
"Suicide bombing can be ______ justified against civilian targets in order to defend Islam from its enemies?"
Percentage of respondents choosing "often" or "sometimes", rather than "rarely" or "never".[269][270][271]
Support by Muslims for "suicide bombing and other forms of violence that target civilians in order to defend Islam", has varied over time and by country. The Pew Global Attitudes Project survey of the Muslim public found support has declined over the years (on average) from a post-9/11 high. The highest support for such acts has been reported in the occupied Palestinian territories where in 2014 46% of Muslims in Palestine thought such attacks were sometimes/oftentimes justified.[271]
Gender [ edit ]
A female US Air Force officer playing the role of a suicide bomber during an exercise, 2011
Suicide operatives are overwhelmingly male in most groups, but among Chechen rebels[272] and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) women form the majority of the attackers.[273]
Female suicide bombers have been observed in many predominantly nationalist conflicts by a variety of organizations against both military and civilian targets. In February 2002, however, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the religious leader of Hamas, issued a fatwa, giving women permission to participate in suicide attacks.[274]
During the 1980s the greatest number of female suicide attacks in any single year was five. By contrast, in 2008 alone there were 35 female suicide attacks and in 2014 there were 15 such attacks according to the Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism (CPOST) Suicide Attack Database.[275][276]
According to a report issued by intelligence analysts in the U.S. army in 2011, "Although women make up roughly 15% of the suicide bombers within groups which utilize females, they were responsible for 65% of assassinations; 20% of women who committed a suicide attack did so with the purpose of assassinating a specific individual, compared with 4% of male attackers." The report further stated that female suicide bombers often were "grieving the loss of family members [and] seeking revenge against those they feel are responsible for the loss, unable to produce children, [and/or] dishonored through sexual indiscretion."[285][286] Male suicide bombers are presented as being motivated more by political factors than female suicide bombers are.[287]
Another study of suicide bombers from 1981 and July 2008 by Lindsey A. O’Rourke found female bombers are generally in their late twenties, significantly older than their male counterparts.[288]
O’Rourke found the average number of victims killed by a female suicide attacker was higher than that for male attackers for every group studied (Tamil, PKK, Lebanese, Chechen, Palestinian[289]). Consequently, terrorist organizations recruit and motivate women to participate in suicide attacks, using traditional attitudes of honor and feminine harmlessness and vulnerability among target populations to insert attackers were they can cause a maximum of death and destruction.[288] Bombs have been disguised as a pregnant belly, avoiding invasive searches, seen as taboo. By stumbling or calling out in distress more victims may be drawn to the explosion.[288] These women have proven to be more deadly with higher success rates with more casualties and deaths than their male counterparts. The woman bomber carriers are not permitted to hold and control the detonator, which are still held by the men in charge.[288] Until recently, attacks of women bombers were considered more newsworthy because of the "unladylike" behavior of their perpetrator.[290]
Specific groups [ edit ]
Studies have attempted to learn the history and motivation of suicide attackers.
Al Qaeda
Analysis of the 9/11 Al Qaeda attackers found almost all had joined the group with someone else. About 70 percent joined with friends, 20 percent with kin. Interviews with friends of the 9/11 pilots reveal they weren't "recruited" into Qaeda. They were Middle Eastern Arabs isolated even among the Moroccan and Turkish Muslims who predominate in Germany. Seeking friendship, they began hanging out after services at the Masjad al-Quds and other nearby mosques in Hamburg, in local restaurants and in the dormitory of the Technical University in the suburb of Harburg. Three (Mohamed Atta, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Marwan al-Shehhi) wound up living together as they self-radicalized. They wanted to go to Chechnya, then Kosovo.[291]
Hamas
Bus after 2003 suicide bombing in Haifa
Hamas's most sustained suicide bombing campaign in 2003–04 involved several members of Hebron's Masjad (mosque) al-Jihad soccer team. Most lived in the Wad Abu Katila neighborhood and belonged to the al-Qawasmeh hamula (clan); several were classmates in the neighborhood's local branch of the Palestinian Polytechnic College. Their ages ranged from 18 to 22. At least eight team members were dispatched to suicide shooting and bombing operations by the Hamas military leader in Hebron, Abdullah al-Qawasmeh (killed by Israeli forces in June 2003 and succeeded by his relatives Basel al-Qawasmeh, killed in September 2003, and Imad al-Qawasmeh, captured on October 13, 2004). In retaliation for the assassinations of Hamas leaders Sheikh Ahmed Yassin (March 22, 2004) and Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi (April 17, 2004), Imad al-Qawasmeh dispatched Ahmed al-Qawasmeh and Nasim al-Ja'abri for a suicide attack on two buses in Beer Sheva (August 31, 2004). In December 2004, Hamas declared a halt to suicide attacks.[291]
On January 15, 2008, the son of Mahmoud al-Zahar, the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, was killed (another son was killed in a 2003 assassination attempt on Zahar). Three days later, Israel Defense Minister Ehud Barak ordered Israel Defense Forces to seal all border crossings with Gaza, cutting off the flow of supplies to the territory in an attempt to stop rocket barrages on Israeli border towns. Nevertheless, violence from both sides only increased. On February 4, 2008, two friends (Mohammed Herbawi, Shadi Zghayer), who were members of the Masjad al-Jihad soccer team, staged a suicide bombing at commercial center in Dimona, Israel. Herbawi had previously been arrested as a 17-year-old on 15 March 2003 shortly after a suicide bombing on Haifa bus (by Mamoud al-Qawasmeh on March 5, 2003) and coordinated suicide shooting attacks on Israeli settlements by others on the team (March 7, 2003, Muhsein, Hazem al-Qawasmeh, Fadi Fahuri, Sufian Hariz) and before another set of suicide bombings by team members in Hebron and Jerusalem on May 17–18, 2003 (Fuad al-Qawasmeh, Basem Takruri, Mujahed al-Ja'abri). Although Hamas claimed responsibility for the Dimona attack, the politburo leadership in Damascus and Beirut was clearly initially unaware of who initiated and carried out the attack. It appears that Ahmad al-Ja'abri, military commander of Hamas's Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades in Gaza requested the suicide attack through Ayoub Qawasmeh, Hamas's military liaison in Hebron, who knew where to look for eager young men who had self-radicalized together and had already mentally prepared themselves for martyrdom.[291][292]
LTTE
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam were thought to have mastered the use of suicide terrorism and had a separate unit, "The Black Tigers", consisting "exclusively of cadres who have volunteered to conduct suicide operations".[293][294]
Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant
The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant utilizes suicide attacks against government targets before they attack. The attackers can use a wide range of methods, from suicide vests and belts to bomb trucks and cars and APCs filled to the brim with explosives. Usually, the suicide bomber involved in a "martyrdom operation" will record his last words in a martyrdom video before they start their attack and will be released after the suicide attack was done.
A study published by The Guardian in 2017 analyzed 923 attacks done between December 2015 and November 2016 and compared the military tactic to those used by kamikaze operations.[295] Charlie Winter, author of the study, indicated that ISIL had "industrialized the concept of matyrdom". Most (84%) of suicide attacks were directed towards military targets usually with armed vehicles. About 80% of the attackers were of Iraqi or Syrian origin.[295]
Response and results [ edit ]
Response
Suicide bombings are often followed by heightened security measures and reprisals by their targets. Because a successful suicide bomber cannot be targeted, the response is often a targeting of those believed to have sent the bomber. Because future attacks cannot be deterred by the threat of retaliation if the attackers were already willing to kill themselves, pressure is great to employ intensive surveillance of virtually any potential perpetrator, "to look for them almost everywhere, even if no evidence existed that `they` were `there` at all".[296]
In the West Bank the IDF has at times demolished homes that belong to families whose children (or landlords whose tenants) had volunteered for such missions (whether successfully or not).[297][298] Other military measures that were taken during the suicide attack campaign included: A widescale re-occupation of the West Bank and blockading of Palestinian towns; "targeted assassinations" of militants, (an approach used since the 1970s); raids against militants suspected of plotting attacks, mass arrests, curfews, and stringent travel restrictions; and physical separation from Palestinians via the 650-km (400-mile) "security barrier" in and around the West Bank.[299][300] cide bombing campaign in 2003–04 involThe Second Intifada and its suicide attacks are often dated as ending around the time of an unofficial ceasefire by some of the most powerful Palestinian militant groups in 2005.[299] A new "knife intifada" started in September 2015, but although many Palestinians were killed in the process of stabbing or attempting to stab Israelis, their deaths were not "a precondition for the success" of their mission and so are not considered suicide attacks by many observers.)[17]
In the United States, the element of suicide in the major attack on it (the 9/11 attacks) persuaded many that previously unthinkable, "out of the box" strategic policies in a "war on terrorism" — from "preventive war" against countries not immediately attacking the US, to almost unlimited surveillance of virtually any person in the United States by the government without normal congressional and judicial oversight — was necessary.[296] These responses "produced their own costs and risks — in lives, national debt, and America's standing in the world".[296]
The "heightened security measures" also affected the target populations. During the bombing campaign Israelis were questioned by armed guards and given a quick pat down before being let into cafes.[181] In the US, the post-9/11 era meant "previously inconceivable security measures—in airports and other transportation hubs, hotels and office buildings, sports stadiums and concert halls".[181]
Results
Early Israeli construction of West Bank barrier in 2003
One of the first bombing campaigns utilizing primarily suicide attacks had considerable success. In the early 1980s Hezbollah used these bombing attacks targeting first foreign peacekeepers and then Israel. The result in both cases was withdrawal from Lebanon by the targets.[301]
Other groups have had mixed results. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) pioneered the use of suicide bombings against civilian and political targets and in 2000 were called (by Yoram Schweitzer) "unequivocally the most effective and brutal terrorist organization ever to utilize suicide terrorism".[17] Their struggle for an independent state in the North and East of the island lasted for 26 years and led to the deaths of two heads of state or government, several ministers, and up to 100,000 combatants and civilians (by a UN estimate).[302] Politically its attacks succeeded in halting the deployment of the Indian peace keeping troops to Sri-Lanka and the subsequent postponement of the peace-talks in Sri-Lanka.[17] Nonetheless it ended in May 2009 not with an independent "Eelam", but with the overrunning of LTTE strongholds and the killing of its leadership by the Sri Lankan military and security forces.
It is more difficult to determine whether Palestinian suicide bombings have proved to be a successful tactic. Hamas "came to prominence" after the first intifada as "the main Palestinian opponent of the Oslo Accords" ("the US-sponsored peace process that oversaw the gradual and partial removal of Israel's occupation in return for Palestinian guarantees to protect Israeli security")[303] according to the BBC.[303][304] The accords were sidetracked after the election in 1996 of right wing Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu. Hamas's suicide bombings of Israeli targets (from 1994–1997 there were 14 suicide attacks killing 159—not all of which were attributed to Hamas)[305] "were widely" credited for the popularity among Israelis of the hardline Netanyahuof,[303] who — like HAMAS — was a staunch opponent of the Oslo accords, but an even stauncher enemy of HAMAS).
The efficacy of suicide bombing however, does not appear to have demonstrated by the al-Aqsa Intifada. During this Intifada, the number of suicide attacks increased markedly,[306] but petered out around 2005 following harsh Israeli security measures (mentioned above) such as "targeted assassinations" of Palestinians reportedly involved in terrorism, and the building of a "separation barrier" that severely hampered Palestinian travel, but with no withdrawal by the Israelis from any occupied territory.
The drop in suicide bombings in Israel has been explained by the many security measures taken by the Israeli government,[178][299] especially the building of the "separation barrier",[307][308][309] and a general consensus among Palestinians that the bombings were a "losing strategy".[309] The suicide (and non-suicide) attacks on civilians had "a major impact" on the attitudes of the Israeli public/voters,[310] creating not demoralization, but even greater support for the right-wing Likud party, bringing to office another hardliner, former general, prime minister Ariel Sharon. In 2001, 89% of Israeli Jews supported the Sharon government's policy of "targeted assassinations" of Palestinian militants involved in terrorism against Israel, the number rising to 92% in 2003.[310] Opinion polls of the Jewish Israelis found 78–84% support for the "separation barrier" in 2004.[311]
In the case of the 9/11 attacks in the US, at least in the short term, the results were negative for Al-Qaeda, as well as the Taliban Movement. Since the attacks, Western nations have diverted massive resources towards stopping similar actions, as well as tightening up borders |
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As reported by VG247, companies signing into Sony’s developer relations receive the following message:
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We’ll have more on the situation as it develops.The World Is Full Of Harvey Weinsteins
Bigwig Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, already notorious for his sometimes-violent temper tantrums and general ruthlessness, has been revealed as a serial sexual harasser. According to a New York Times investigation, Weinstein often lured women to his hotel room, on the pretense of a job interview, where Weinstein would appear in a robe and ask them to give him a massage or watch him shower. He would frequently turn work-related discussions sexual, to the point where some women would avoid ever meeting with him alone.
The fact pattern is now wearingly familiar. A powerful man abuses and coerces vulnerable women and uses his position to keep them quiet. See also: Trump, Cosby, Ailes, O’Reilly. It really is incredible how many awful men get away with doing awful things, without serious public consequences. Hugh Hefner treated his girlfriends like sexual servants housed in a minimum-security prison, yet received warm obituaries in “liberal” newspapers. Jeffrey Epstein, billionaire friend to Clinton and Trump alike, raped underage girls and received a slap on the wrist. (Trump on Epstein: “a terrific guy” who “likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”) Clarence Thomas has been on the Supreme Court for over two decades, because Joe Biden didn’t care what Anita Hill had to say. O’Reilly sexually harassed women for years, yet just knocked Hillary Clinton off the top of the bestsellers list, and walked away from FOX with $25 million. (Regardless of one’s opinion of Clinton, it’s depressing and infuriating watching the country’s most prominent female politician repeatedly edged out by harassers.) I could spend 10,000 words just listing the names of men, their despicable acts, and the various ways in which they have gotten away with them. Cosby is the exception, of course, since he was charged with a crime (albeit at the age of 79), but Cosby’s behavior was also the worst, since he literally committed outright rape (or “allegedly” committed, but come on), and even Cosby was able to continue his stand-up comedy tour after the facts received attention. (And powerful men’s impunity isn’t limited to sex crimes. Consider what Joe Arpaio did to people, or the rehabilitation of George W. Bush’s reputation by liberals who like his art.)
The sheer amount of sexual harassment and abuse in the world is always horrifying to contemplate. Ailes and Weinstein may have been at the top of powerful companies, but their behavior is so common that the experience of it has become almost a universal fact of women’s lives. Writer Anne T. Donahue asked women on Twitter to tell about their own personal Harvey Weinsteins, knowing just how many would have them. Sure enough, she received thousands of responses, all of them incredibly disturbing:
“ High school science teacher, 10th grade, would make all the girls sit up front, comment on clothes/looks, positive & negative, for years.” (A reply: “Your science teacher was my history teacher, it seems.”)
“He trapped me in a bathroom and tried to get me to touch his dick even after i begged him to leave. “
“I was 16 and auditioned for his independent pilot – he told me the scene was about seducing an older man and to improv with him.”
“ I was born to my Harvey Weinstein.”
After Donald Trump’s history of assaulting women was revealed a year ago, writer Kelly Oxford had issued a similar call for stories, and likewise received thousands of personal accounts. (e.g. “Older man next to me slips hand under my butt/vagina at movie theater. I was 7. I’ve only ever told that to 2 people.”) Nearly all women get sexually harassed sooner or later in their lives, and when the perpetrators are bosses or teachers or relatives, staying silent about it may end up seeming the best option. As Abi Wilkinson writes in the New Statesman, the more precarious a woman’s job, the fewer options one has when an employer starts behaving inappropriately:
The relationship between employer and employee involves an imbalance of power. Under capitalism, most of us sell our labour in order to pay for the things we need to stay alive. It should come as no surprise to anyone with even the vaguest understanding of human behaviour that some employers are prepared to exploit this unequal dynamic for sexual purposes.
Wilkinson writes of her own experience of the dilemma that comes with economic powerlessness, when her own boss became flirtatious and there seemed no way to refuse without jeopardizing her job. In fact, one of the common themes of accounts submitted to Donahue and Oxford is just how difficult it was to speak up, both during the incident and afterwards, first because of a fear of offending or aggravating the harasser, and second because of doubt that anything can come from speaking out (and who would you speak to anyway?) Poor women simply have less ability to walk away from a horrific boss, and there are so many horrific bosses. It is, as Wilkinson writes, one very good argument for being a socialist: in a democratized workplace, single individuals don’t wield exorbitant amounts of power over everybody else.
I’ve never known quite how to describe it, but there’s this kind of huge public lie that occurs, where we pretend not to know that many people are charming in public and assholes in private. There’s the Harvey Weinstein everyone pretends exists, the champion of liberal causes who hosts fundraisers for the Clintons, and the Harvey Weinstein that actually exists in his relationships with the people around him. We know that having power and status and money often turns you into a horrible person (and that the horrible people are the ones who will pursue those things to begin with), and yet so many of these horrible people are successful in molding a positive public image. (I have devoted a lot of text to wondering why Bill Clinton, who seems to have treated nearly everyone around him in a manipulative and deceitful manner, is still liked by anyone.)
One of the things that struck me when reading about Harvey Weinstein is that, even before the actual harassment revelations were printed, there was plenty of publicly available evidence that he was a toxic human being. After Julie Taymor disagreed with Weinstein, he shouted at her husband: “I don’t like the look on your face. Why don’t you defend your wife, so I can beat the shit out of you?” He consistently referred to one of his interns as “Fuckface” instead of by their name because he felt like reminding them of his superiority. He called journalist Rebecca Traister a “cunt” to her face, and pushed her colleague Andrew Goldman down a set of steps, dragging Goldman into the street in a headlock, after declaring that he was the “fucking sheriff of this town.” He was just an all-around unpleasant individual.
Even without the sexual harassment, people who treat others this badly shouldn’t be indulged just because they run a movie studio. There is an unbelievable amount of license afforded to men who can get themselves labeled “brilliant but temperamental.” See, for example, director David O. Russell, who is known to “humiliate and scream at his subordinates,” throw things, swear at or even physically assault his actors—he called Lily Tomlin a “bitch” and a “cunt” and kicked one of his extras who was nervous doing a scene with George Clooney. (Is it shocking that Russell later admitted to groping his niece? But don’t miss his upcoming TV series for Amazon starring Robert De Niro!) Men like this are often called “complicated,” their total sociopathic disregard for other people taken as a symptom of their genius. But we should heed the assessment of Vixen Daily: “A guy who acts like a total piece of crap towards you isn’t ‘complicated’… he’s a total piece of crap.” I wish there was a lot less tolerance, not just for outright harassment and assault, but assholes more broadly. Bosses who treat their assistants poorly are bad people; they should never be excused because they are “visionaries.” (Also, a lot of men christened “geniuses” are nothing of the kind. They’re just very good at making other people feel stupid through exploiting insecurities.)
There are plenty of reasons why these men get away with it. The most obvious, of course, is that nebulous thing called “power.” Harvey Weinstein could make or break careers. Roger Ailes would determine whether a woman had a future at FOX News. Such men are manipulators, and they use carrots and sticks: “You can do very well at this organization if you cooperate, and if you don’t, good luck finding another job.” They are also vicious and litigious. Cosby, of course, immediately sued seven of his accusers. When the Daily Beast reported on Trump’s ex-wife’s 1980s allegation that he had brutally raped her, the threats the reporter received from Trump’s lawyer were almost cartoonish:
I will make sure that you and I meet one day while we’re in the courthouse. And I will take you for every penny you still don’t have. And I will come after your Daily Beast and everybody else that you possibly know…. So I’m warning you, tread very fucking lightly, because what I’m going to do to you is going to be fucking disgusting. You understand me? You write a story that has Mr. Trump’s name in it, with the word ‘rape,’ and I’m going to mess your life up… for as long as you’re on this frickin’ planet… you’re going to have judgments against you, so much money, you’ll never know how to get out from underneath it.
Nobody should wonder, then, why women don’t come forward, or why they wait to go public until somebody else has. Money is power, and you really don’t want a rich sociopath deciding that he will do whatever he can to ruin your life.
But here’s another important aspect of “power”: in order for it to exist, other people have to cooperate with it. And Harvey Weinstein’s case is not just a story about a serial abuser, but about an industry that willingly tolerated his serial abuse. Weinstein’s conduct was an “open secret” in Hollywood (the parts unrelated to sex had even been printed in the media), yet people who were already very rich and famous and had nothing to lose continued to work with him. It’s understandable when people who are vulnerable, like low-level employees, feel unable to say or do anything. It’s less understandable when it comes from people who Harvey Weinstein had very little real “power” over. Hollywood, despite its reputation for liberalism, has long tolerated rampant sexism in its midst, not only in casting, but in rewarding men like Dr. Dre, Bill Murray, Casey Affleck, Terry Richardson, and Johnny Depp who have histories of sexual misconduct or violence. And of course there’s the icky ongoing industry support for Roman Polanski; over 100 high-profile celebrities and directors—including, shockingly, Woody Allen and Harvey Weinstein—signed a petition supporting Polanski, who, let us remember, raped a child (possibly several), though he also did make Chinatown.
For abuse to persist over a long period of time, it often requires complicity. Consider the case of Jimmy Savile in the U.K. Savile was a popular children’s TV host and a major philanthropist, who was knighted by the Queen. After his death, it came out that he was also a serial rapist, on an almost unimaginable scale, with thousands of victims, possibly even 1,000 just on the BBC premises. Savile donated money to hospitals, who would grant him unmonitored access to the wards, where he would rape sick children as young as 8. He did this for decades, at over a dozen hospitals. It was one of the most shocking acts of mass abuse in recent history.
But Savile’s mass attacks could not have occurred without mass complicity. Plenty of people knew what he was doing. Hospital staff knew, and simply warned patients he was a “dirty old man” whom they should try to avoid. BBC executives knew. The police knew. Heck, he even wrote in his 1974 autobiography about how he managed to persuade the police not to press charges after coercing an underage girl into having sex with him. (He was given a knighthood in 1990.)
It was baffling that so many people could know about Savile’s crimes and do nothing. It’s understandable, of course, that the victims themselves felt powerless because of Savile’s fame and power. But what’s less understandable is the behavior of the bystanders, those who knew what was going on but refrained from intervening. Some of them may have felt “threatened” by Savile’s status. But let’s be serious: he was a children’s TV host. He was not exactly God Almighty. Many of Jimmy Savile’s victims did come forward, but were laughed at or ignored, and everyone who did the laughing and ignoring was partly responsible for the continuing of the abuse.
Likewise, Harvey Weinstein was a powerful guy in Hollywood, certainly. Nobody should ever lay the slightest blame upon his victims. His enablers, on the other hand, bear significant responsibility, including those around him who allowed him to cultivate a reputation as a committed proponent of women’s rights. Those journalists who had heard about Weinstein’s activities but decided not to investigate should examine their own consciences. Rebecca Traister admitted she had known about Weinstein’s private acts for 17 years, but it didn’t even cross her mind to write about them, partly because Weinstein was terrifying and partly because “back then, I didn’t write about feminism.” Now, I understand why Traister didn’t touch the story, especially when she had watched Weinstein violently attack her boyfriend. But I think it’s a journalist’s duty not to conceal the secrets of powerful people. From Traister’s account, it seems as if journalists are very easily intimidated by the rich and famous, and it’s reasonable to wonder what else is an “open secret” among journalists that nobody is willing to disclose.
It’s important for journalists who learn things like this to ask themselves: how powerful is this person, really? I am sure many of them worry about what someone like Harvey Weinstein might “do” if something came out. After all, the New York Times made sure to include a vast number of sources in the story, and Weinstein is suing them anyway (despite having seemingly admitted the allegations). But journalists aren’t in the motion picture industry; he can sue you, but if your story is well-reported enough, that’s often an empty threat. (God bless the 1st Amendment; in England, one reason the Savile stories never got into the press is that the law defines “libel” much more broadly.) Donald Trump spent years threatening to sue journalists who crossed him. He never succeeded. Still, they pulled punches: according to Megyn Kelly, Trump seemed worried that she would ask him about his ex-wife’s rape allegation against him. And yet Kelly didn’t ask.
One reason journalists need to be bolder is that it’s easy to get fooled into believing a person’s own portrayal of their power. But unless you’re trying to get your screenplay produced, guys like Harvey Weinstein are just blowhards. There’s nothing to lose from angering them. Journalists are often terrified of irritating people in positions of status. But I suspect that often has less to do with an actual fear of some concrete reprisal than the very strong human inclination not to “make waves.” There can also be a lot of social pressure, and if there’s one thing Stanley Milgram taught us, it’s that the fear of speaking up when our peers are silent can lead us to tolerate extraordinary atrocities, even if the people committing them have no real power over us.
But journalists and industry insiders can make up for their long tolerance of Weinstein by refusing to play a part in his (inevitable) attempt at rehabilitating his reputation. Weinstein has already issued an absurd “apology,” in which he attempts to simultaneously atone for and justify his behavior. He blames it on growing up in the “60s and 70s,” when the culture was different. (Note: “I was a child during the decades of the women’s liberation movement” is not a convincing excuse for treating your female employees like shit.) Previously, he has blamed his aggressive behavior on having too much sugar in his diet, and said it got better after he stopped eating M&Ms. Weinstein’s apology statement touts his commitment to feminism, plugs his upcoming film about the president, and misquotes Jay-Z. It is not the sign of a man changed (especially since immediately after apologizing he vowed to sue the newspaper). Yet Weinstein has already had support from attorney Lisa Bloom (daughter of Gloria Allred), who described him as an “old dinosaur learning new ways.” Nobody, least of all a women’s rights attorney like Bloom, should be assisting in this man’s attempt to justify himself.
How many more monsters are there out there like Harvey Weinstein? So many, probably some not quite as bad as him, some far worse. Women know the world is full of creeps. It’s refreshing, of course, to see that we’re moving into the era where this is somewhat less acceptable, where Bill O’Reilly can be forced out of his job. But we also still live in an economically precarious world, where bosses can easily exploit employees, and until that changes, the only ones stopped may be the high-profile offenders and the ones whose behavior is sufficiently well-documented and repeats enough times. It often seems to be the case that anyone can get away with this for a while, and it’s only when there are literally dozens of women that anyone even begins to find the accounts plausible. While it will take a lot of effort to change the balance of power, though, so that rich assholes are no longer allowed to do whatever they please without anything happening to them, we can at least develop a lower tolerance for such people and for the people who tolerate such people themselves. If you don’t have anything to lose personally, and it would help, there should be no excuse for not acting. The world is full of Harvey Weinsteins, and I am sick of putting up with them.It’s not every day, and certainly not every Holy Week, that you hear the carbon cycle described as a cornerstone of Creation.
Yet there it was, in Thursday’s edition of the Stillwater Gazette:
In the book of Genesis (3:19), God told Adam that his body would return to the ground when he died, saying, “… out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and unto dust you shall return.” God was describing one of the fundamental processes in the earth’s design: the carbon cycle.
The writer, David Jenkins, was taking the occasion of Easter to lay out religious reasons for better stewardship of the planet in general, and more particularly for reining in the globe-warming emissions that are driving climate change.
Climate skeptics – particularly those on talk radio – like to peddle the notion that the earth was created on such a grand and complex scale, it is impossible for mankind to mess it up. In other words, we can do anything we want without serious consequence.
Does that sound like something God would say? Actually, it sounds a lot more like something the snake in the Garden of Eden would say. …
God gave mankind the ability to reason, and the experts are telling us that too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere disrupts the climate and causes the earth to overheat. … With the record warmth and other weird, unprecedented weather events we have experienced over the past year – in the U.S. alone we have broken over 130,000 weather records – it is hard not to conclude that something is amiss with our climate.
If we broke it, it is probably safe to say that God expects us to fix it.
Jenkins’ Christian reasoning doesn’t make his piece more “right,” of course, and it may not even make his conclusions more persuasive to most.
When conservation was conservative
But the piece struck me as noteworthy, first, because it’s something of an outlier in a time when the loudest religious voices are lined up against rational climate policies and, second, because it recalls a line of thinking that used to be utterly ordinary in American churches, American life and American politics.
In fact, many would trace the notion of environmental protection as a moral/ethical responsibility to conservatives and Republicans, two other affiliations that David Jenkins proclaims.
Jenkins has been a national leader in the organization known until last week as Republicans for Environmental Protection, or REP. Now it will be known as ConservAmerica, in hopes that the rechristening will help it “hammer home the connections between conservation and traditional conservative values.”
Martha Marks, a founder of REP, was one of our favorite visitors on the Strib editorial board, as she traveled the country to remind folks there were still Republicans who believed in conservation and environmental protection as conservative principles.
Sometimes she even brought along a living example, like the New York investment banker Ted Roosevelt, often called TRIV, which is pronounced TR 4, as in Theodore Roosevelt IV. You remember his great-grandfather.
‘You don’t eat your seed corn’
That particular visit was in 2004, and Roosevelt addressed the Westminster Town Hall Forum on the need for a new land ethic and a new political center on environmental matters especially. Afterward, in a Q&A, I asked him what his message to his own party might be, and he said, memorably:
There has been an ethic in the Republican Party that you are conservative and you don’t eat your seed corn — you don’t consume your capital. But that’s exactly what we’re doing. The definition of an immoral society is one that passes its debts down to the next generation. Well, that’s what we’re doing. That’s not what we stand for as a party.
Even as late as 2004, REP didn’t have to reach back to TR or even to Barry Goldwater, Bill Ruckelshaus and Russell Train to make the point that Republicans have been prominent among the makers of America’s environmental law and policy. They could still point to John McCain and Tim Pawlenty, who took leadership roles on global warming until it became an intraparty liability.
But times were changing, and I remember well Marks’ recounting of how the Republican National Committee was pounding on REP to take the R-word out of its name, lest voters be duped into thinking the GOP endorsed REP’s unfailingly modest, middle-of-the-road positions.
Eight years on, Jenkins has explained the name change to Huffington Post by saying that Republicans for Environmental Protection was “a mouthful,” while ConservAmerica will be a more accessible brand:
Our mission is staying exactly the same. It’s more of an emphasis issue, switching from the emphasis being on Republican — not that we’re separating ourselves from that at all. It’s just putting the emphasis more on connecting conservation and conservative, which are born of the same root.
Jim DiPeso, another longtime REP leader, told Grist that the group has not given up on the party by any means, and that it will continue to spotlight Republican candidates who favor progressive environmental policies.
But first they’ll have to find some. Volunteers?
(For more on how Jenkins sees the GOP’s environmental calculus today, see Andrew Revkin’s blog of March 14.)
Another vanishing species: honeybees
One more study on the mysterious collapse of honeybee populations has come along, this time from the Harvard School of Public Health, and it would seem to implicate neonicotinoid insecticides even more strongly than the French and British research I described last week.
Most scientists seem to think the “neonics” are at least one cause among many that may be driving “colony collapse disorderr,” or CCD, a syndrome in which honeybees desert their hives for no apparent reason and vanish without a trace. But the timing has been a tricky thing to explain. As Janet Raloff writes in ScienceNews:
CCD tends to occur in winter or early spring, often when bees begin their first foraging trips of the year. In affected colonies, bees leave but fail to come home, despite their hives having adequate food. One suspicion, which is supported by [the French and British] studies released March 29, is that pesticides or some other poison might impair a forager’s memory or behavior.
But Chensheng Lu, an environmental scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, was puzzled as to when and where the critical exposures occured. After all, affected bees were disappearing after months without exposure to toxic agents outside the hive. Lu now argues that bees can undergo a chronic poisoning if their hives’ honey was tainted by insecticides that the pollinators encountered months earlier.
During winter, he charges, what looks just like colony collapse disorder largely emptied 15 of his team’s 16 test hives in central Massachusetts. Each had been exposed experimentally for 13 weeks during the summer to low doses of imidacloprid. Growers rely on this and related neonicotinoid insecticides to protect their crops.
How long a hive’s colony survived after treatment diminished with increasing exposure of its bees to the insecticide the previous summer, Lu and his colleagues reported online April 5 in the Bulletin of Insectology.
Lu and his colleagues also believe CCD’s sudden emergence in 2006 and 2007 had to be related to recent change in the honeybee world, and their leading candidate was the widespread adoption of neonics by corn farmers starting in 2004 and 2005. Another was beekeepers’ rising use of high-fructose corn syrup to feed their bees, both as a necessary supplement during the pollination season and as a post-season replacement for honey taken out of the hives for sale.
You might think Bayer CropScience, the inventor and major manufacturer of these insecticides, would jump at the chance to speculate that Lu’s study lets it off the hook by suggesting that beekeepers are poisoning their own colonies. Instead, the company offered the usual rebuttals that the study design wasn’t a perfect replication of real life, the exposure levels were unrealistically high, and so on.
That’s a tough sell. High-fructose corn syrup is not routinely monitored for residues of these insecticides, but the levels selected by Lu’s team for testing – four concentrations ranging from 20 parts per billion to 400 – were below federal limits and not out of line with residues typically found in corn pollen.
And the results were not ambiguous. All but one of 16 hives treated with neonic-laced corn syrup suffered CCD-like population collapse; all but one of control hives given untreated syrup stayed healthy (the fifth was hit by dysentery, not CCD).
Other good coverage of the Harvard study is available at Scientific American’s Observations blog and in the Christian Science Monitor; the Monitor offers this link to a prepublication proof of the paper itself.We want pupils from all different backgrounds educated together in a shared environment, rather than separated according to the religious beliefs of their parents. Find out more
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26 Church of England bishops sit as of right in the House of Lords, amending legislation. This unique privilege is unfair, unjustified and unpopular. Find out moreSeason One-Episode One It was a nice cold winter day. Well. Nice for some people. For most of the population of Hillsbury Private High, it was hell. Only the ski club seemed really content with it. The first bell rang. Only around two hundred students attended the prestigious boarding school. There didn't seem to be any connection between one person and the next as to why they got to attend the school, but the headmaster insisted there was. This particular day was the first day back from winter break. And as previously mentioned, it was absolutely freezing. Everyone was walking around the campus with enormous jackets and their hands shoved deep into their pockets. The lucky few couples had abandoned holding eachothers hands and simply linked arms instead. One girl scowled at everything from her dorm window. "Ugh. Why does it have to be cold?" She said out loud, even though the only person in the room was herself. She sat on her unmade bed amongst several sweaters and her textbooks. She picked up a dark blue sweater and pulled it on over her grey t-shirt, stood up, slid on her sneakers, grabbed her coat, and walked into the hall. "Hey Rose!" Another girl asked as she walked down the hall. "Oh. Hey Ally. How was your break?" "Good. Why do you sound so solemn?" "Nice use of vocab." "You didn't answer my question." Rose sighed "my aunt freaked out at me this vacation. I didn't even DO anything, she just kept saying I was a disgrace and shit..." "Aw. Sorry." "Whatever. I like it here way better." "Yeah. So you ready for Mr. Bossman's first history class of the semester?! I heard we're going over Greek mythology!" "Have I ever been excited about history? I'm gonna sleep." "Yeah... figured you would. Hope you don't get a detention!" "For sleeping? I have never once gotten a detention for that." "Well its a new semester. A lot could change" "But it wont." ~HISTORY CLASS~ "And that is how Cronus was defeated by a rock baby. Any questions?" Professor Chiron asked the class. "Yeah. Why did Rhea betray Cronus?" A girl in the front of the class asked. "Well, Summer, its because he ate her babies." He chuckled a little, then glanced around the classroom, his eyes falling upon one student, and his smile disappearing, "Miss Aarons. Do YOU know how Cronus was defeated by his rock baby?" He asked the student with her head down on the desk, asleep. She sat bolt up right and answered "YES BECAUSE I WAS THERE" and she quickly put her head back down on her desk, falling asleep. Mr. Chiron shook his head and glanced around the room, "I should kick her out." Ally raised her hand. "Um, Mr. Chiron? Didnt she get like, a 100 in this class last semester?" "Well, yeah but that isn't an excuse to sleep in this class!" "She's doing fine anyway. Let her sleep. She stays up all night studying anyway." "I should send her down to the nurse..." "I think she's there like, every day." "What? Why?" "I think she has some problems with gym....."There have only been 26 games thus far in the young 2012/2013 NHL season, but all ready the league has come back with a bang. Thanks to the crammed schedule, the past three days have provided a plethora of highlight reel goals, saves and plays that have managed to hush lockout critics and excite fans once more. I’ve no doubt Bettman and Fehr are laughing while swishing their brandy and clipping their cigars as the excitement and mirth among fans have cast a daunting shadow over those who still hold a grudge toward the NHL. But no matter where you stand, it’s hard to deny the NHL’s flashy return. Here are some interesting stats:
1. Rookies have come out flying thanks to their half-season warm-up before the NHL’s return. Vladimir Tarasenko sits under Vanek at the top of the leader board with three goals and two assists. Cory Conacher has been a pleasant surprise with one goal and three assists while Jonathan Huberdeau isn’t far behind with a goal and two assists.
2. Per The Hockey News’ Jason Kay: “Steven Stamkos estimates (…) that it’ll take 36 or 37 goals to win/defend the Rocket Richard Trophy this year.” This would equate to.75 goals-per-game, a mark that is.02% higher than Stamkos’ mark last year.
3. Goals against by division:
Central 31
Southeast 29
Atlantic: 27
Pacific: 27
Northwest: 27
Northeast: 11
4. 40-year-old Jagr and 42-year-old Selanne each have four points in their first two games. They sit at 1348 and 1343 games respectively.
5. Many vouched to boycott the NHL if it were to return, but according to the CBC, an average of 3.3 million viewers donned their jerseys and shotgunned a beer while watching the Leafs/Habs tilt on Saturday night. In total, 9.3 million Canadians watched the game at some point, which is 27% of the population.
6. Looks like Gomez is being scooped up by the Sharks. Who saw that one coming? Maybe the much-needed change will help him return to the Gomez of old, where the Devils saw him accrue 450 points in 548 games.
7. Teams with the least experience from goaltenders by games: Winnipeg – 245, San Jose – 190, Washington – 130, Boston – 111 (without Thomas), Toronto – 85.
8. The Atlantic Division, by an astronomical landslide, has by far the most experience from its goaltenders with a total of 5046. 1192 of those belong to Brodeur.
9. If you aren’t satisfied with these stats, this one will surely blow your mind. My roommate bought NHL 13 on Sunday and our team is 3 – 3 – 1. We’re still learning.
If you have noticed any other trends or interesting stats drop a comment. I’d love to hear!
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TSX: ACB
VANCOUVER, Nov. 28, 2017 /CNW/ - Aurora Cannabis Inc. (the "Company" or "Aurora") (TSX: ACB) today announced that, further to its news release dated November 16, 2017, the Company has completed its offering of 115,000 special warrants (the "Initial Special Warrants"), including the exercise, in full, of the over-allotment option (the "Special Warrants"), through Canaccord Genuity Corp. ("Canaccord Genuity" or the "Agent") for gross proceeds of $115 million (the "Offering").
Each Special Warrant shall be automatically exercisable (without payment of any further consideration and subject to customary anti-dilution adjustments) into $1,000 principal amount of 6% unsecured convertible debentures of the Company (the "Debentures") on the date (the "Automatic Exercise Date") that is the earlier of: (i) the date that is three business days following the date on which the Company obtains a receipt from the applicable securities regulatory authorities in Canada (the "Securities Commissions") for a (final) short form prospectus qualifying the distribution of the Debentures issuable upon exercise of the Special Warrants (the "Qualification Prospectus"), and (ii) the date that is four months and one day after the closing date.
The Debentures will have a maturity date of 5 years from the Closing Date of the Offering (the "Maturity Date") will bear interest from the Automatic Exercise Date at 6% per annum, payable semi-annually on June 30 and December 31 of each year. The Debentures will be convertible, at the option of the holder, into common shares of the Company ("Common Shares") at any time prior to the close of business on the Maturity Date at a conversion price of $6.50 per Common Share (the "Conversion Price").
Upon a change of control of the Company, holders of the Debentures will have the right to require the Company to repurchase their Debentures, in whole or in part, on the date that is 30 days following the giving of notice of the change of control, at a price equal to 104% of the principal amount of the Debentures then outstanding plus accrued and unpaid interest thereon (the "Offer Price"). If 90% or more of the principal amount of the Debentures outstanding on the date of the notice of the change of control have been tendered for redemption, the Company will have the right to redeem all of the remaining Debentures at the Offer Price.
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for the future.”
“The paper shows that there are winners and losers under global warming: the geographic ranges of some species have expanded while others have contracted, and timing of breeding and other seasonal events have shifted,” said co-author, Professor David Dudgeon, Chair of Ecology & Biodiversity and Director of the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Hong Kong.
This study has significant implications for Hong Kong. According to Professor Dudgeon, we can envisage that endemic species - found nowhere else but Hong Kong - will have little chance to make compensatory range shifts in response to climate change. The Hong Kong paradise fish and the short-legged toad are examples of species that would be unable to adjust their ranges due to intense urbanization around the sites they occupy currently. If conditions change, they must adapt or perish.
The Hong Kong newt, which breeds only during the coolest months of the year, would also likely fall victim to warming since, in future, winter temperatures might not fall sufficiently to permit reproduction by this species which is, already, globally near-threatened. Mountain-top animals such as the giant spiny frog, already mainly confined to streams near the summit of Tai Mo Shan and globally vulnerable to extinction, would have nowhere to go as the climate warms.
“The new paper shows a pervasive ecological finger print of only 1 degree Celsius of global warming. This will not be beneficial for local species of conservation concern.” On a global scale, Dudgeon added, “we face an uncertain ecological future as the temperature continues to rise, especially if warming exceeds the 1.5-degree boundary incorporated in the Paris climate-change agreements that came into force last week. Such warming would put at risk biodiversity and the ecosystem services delivered by nature that benefit humans”.
Dudgeon concluded: “To put it bluntly, climate change is already happening, and it is altering ecological process and natural systems everywhere. We must to do more to limit carbon emissions and prevent further warming.”
DOI for this paper, The broad footprint of climate change from genes to biomes to people, is 10.1126/science.aaf7671
Media enquiries:
Chair of Ecology & Biodiversity and Director of the School of Biological Sciences Professor David Dudgeon (Tel: +852 2299 0602; email: ddudgeon@hku.hk) or
Communication and Public Affairs Office Ms Rhea Leung (Tel: +852 2857 8555/ +852 9022 7446; email: rhea.leung@hku.hk) or
Faculty of Science Ms Cindy Chan (Tel: +852 3917 5286/ +852 6703 0212; email: cindycst@hku.hk)
Professor David Dudgeon, a co-author of the climate change research recently published in Science, warns that species in highly-urbanized cities like Hong Kong are more vulnerable to global warming.
Giant spiny frog (Photo credit: Evan Pickett) Hong Kong newt (Photo credit: Anthony Lau)Public Enemy, Trombone Shorty, and More to Play COTA Fan Fest 2015
Written by harlow
Circuit of The Americas is excited to announce the return of the fourth annual COTA Fan Fest to Austin on Thursday, October 22 through Saturday, October 24. Fan Fest is a free celebration of motorsports and music held in the heart of downtown Austin during the annual FORMULA 1 UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX race weekend.
Public Enemy leads the all-star lineup for this year’s COTA Fan Fest. Also confirmed to perform are DJ, producer and label head A-Trak; neo-soul singer Mayer Hawthorne; singer-songwriter Elle King with her new hit single “Ex’s and Oh’s”; jazz-funk band Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue; Latin-rockers Ozomatli; and more. With over 235,000 guests from across the globe partaking in last year’s F1 race weekend, Circuit of The Americas looks to take Fan Fest to the next level in 2015 by spreading the three-day party across downtown Austin.
Rainey Street will now host the Fan Fest main stage and venues across downtown will offer an eclectic array of musical performances and activities. The Mohawk, an anchor of Red River; the legendary Continental Club; along with Austin Rocks; Banger’s Sausage House; Bungalow; C-Boy's Heart & Soul; Concrete Cowboy; Half Step; Hangar Lounge; Parkside; Speakeasy; Summit Rooftop Lounge; TenOak; The Backspace; The Belmont; The Market; Toy Joy; Vulcan Gas Company; and Wild About Music are all slated to participate in this year’s festivities as official Fan Fest venues.
More information on the initial acts set to perform throughout Circuit of The Americas’ Fan Fest weekend are included below. Please check out circuitoftheamericas.com more information leading up to the Fest.
RAINEY STREET BUD LIGHT STAGE:
Thursday, October 22: Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue / Elle King
Friday, October 23: Mayer Hawthorne / Ozomatli
Saturday, October 24: Public Enemy / A-Trak
BANGER’S SAUSAGE HOUSE:
Boss Street Brass Band / Urban Achievers Big Band
CONTINENTAL CLUB:
Ruby Jane / Mother Hips / Romi Maves
SPEAKEASY:
Suede / Radiostar
THE MOHAWK:
Dana Falconberry / Matt the Electrician / Little Brave / Lee Bains III & the Glory Fires
THE BELMONT:
Soul Asylum / Meat Puppets
THE BLACKHEART:
Mrs. Glass / Swingset Junkies / Those Nights / Sam Pace & the Gilded Grit / The Refrains / Eagle Claw / Dikes of Holland / Black Elevator Comedy Open Mic / Shane Cooley / Young Readers / The Holy Child / Josh Buckley
VULCAN GAS COMPANY:
Gorgon City / Cedric Gervais / Gold Rush Army
*Cover charge at the door of each venue may be applicable*
Beyond the festival’s music entertainment, Fan Fest will also offer a variety of entertainment options and activities. Stay tuned for more information as the full music lineup, additional Fan Fest venues, onsite activities, and music schedules are announced over the next couple of weeks leading up to the ultimate sports and entertainment weekend, FORMULA 1 UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX.
Official sponsors of Circuit of The Americas’ Fan Fest 2015 at Rainey Street include AT&T, Bud Light, Beck’s, Bubba Burger, Coca-Cola, Seton, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, TopoChico, Abu Dhabi Tourism, Blu e-Cigs, CP-IGT, Freebirds, Monster, Pizza Hut, Shell, TX Lotto, and TXDot.
Tickets for FORMULA 1 UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX race weekend, happening October 23-25 at Circuit of The Americas, are still available for purchase at circuitoftheamericas.com. If interested in only attending the Sunday races, which are headlined by a special performance from Elton John & His Band that evening, Sunday-only tickets are available for purchase starting at $99, in addition to Turn 9 tickets for $250, which offer ticket-holders the closest entrance to the racetrack’s Super Stage.
Circuit of The Americas also announced today the launch of the Circuit’s official F1 after party, APEX Nights, which will be held at a private venue in East Austin on October 23-25. The weekend party will feature performances from a variety of acclaimed DJs including Beautiful Swimmers, DJ Harvey, Orthy, Marcellus Pittman, Loose Fit, Eamon Harkin & Justin Carter: Mister Saturday Night, and L Vis 1990. Event location and hours will be announced at a later time.
For information please visit circuitoftheamericas.com and follow COTA on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Google+ Share on LinkedIn Pin to Pinterest Share on StumbleUpon +
On December 11th, city and state officials—Mayor Greg Fischer and Governor Steve Beshear among them—lined up to praise Louisville’s latest economic development project: a plan for a new six story structure to expand Kindred Healthcare’s space at the site of today’s Theater Square. The plan calls for demolishing the 1980s-era Theater Square to build the mixed-use office building, bringing in 500 jobs to Downtown Louisville—and the city leaders couldn’t be more thrilled as was evidenced by Mayor Fischer’s terming the project “a dream come true.”
Now that a few months have passed since the announcement, we’ve had a chance to step back from all the pageantry of a public unveiling and it’s time to take a closer look at how the proposed development will actually help—or in some cases hurt—Downtown Louisville.
While it’s undeniable that adding 500 well-paying jobs to the city’s core is a positive move, the physical manifestation of that addition leaves a great deal to be desired. And it’s not entirely the fault of this proposed new building—it’s a sequence of actions over the past 30 years that have eroded the urban fabric of Louisville’s once-most-prominent intersection, leaving scars for blocks around. What this building doesn’t do, however, is attempt to address any of the site’s existing shortcomings, and, more troubling, will cement these errors for another generation.
This week, the city’s Downtown Development Review Overlay (DDRO) Committee will discuss the project at its regular meeting on Wednesday, March 11 at 8:30a.m. in the Old Jail Building Auditorium (514 W Liberty Street). Leading up to that meeting, let’s take a look at where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going.
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Details of the Current Scheme
Kindred’s proposed $36 million six-story building would cover 142,000 square feet on a 1.1-acre site. The structure would replace Theater Square’s two-story, U-shaped commercial structures and take up a portion of the city-owned plaza. Kindred purchased the north and south Theater Square buildings from FBM Properties the western building from FMEE Properties last year.
Current tenants at Theater Square—the Bluegrass Brewing Company and Yafa Cafe—would vacate their spaces as part of the expansion project. Kindred has not announced whether the retailers would return in the new building, but it’s likely they would wait for 18 to 24 months of construction to reopen. The whimsical Louisville Clock by sculptor Barney Bright will also be moved to an undisclosed location, likely inside due to recent vandalism. The city-owned clock was restored and installed at Theater Square in 2011.
The new building has been designed by local architecture firm K. Norman Berry Associates, which has distinguished itself with high profile projects like the elegant infill Fenley Building and the 21C Museum Hotel, both on West Main Street. The firm’s design this time is a largely generic box clad predominantly in brick with an aluminum storefront system at ground level enclosing 7,000 square feet of retail space set aside for two restaurants. The main building massing steps back around 25 feet from the single-story retail base and a small green roof is included in the design. The building will stand 86 feet tall, or 97 feet to the top of its rooftop mechanical space.
“Kindred Square” would replace Theater Square and would include “alternating panels of pavers, sods and perennials.” with moveable furniture placed throughout. At the northern side of the plaza, a large waterfall would mask a new service entrance into the site, connecting with an existing alley.
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According to the development announcement, the new building would house support center operations, the company’s national training center (called Kindred University), and an employee wellness clinic. It would serve as a sort of national training hub for Kindred, and employees from across the country would pass through. Kindred already employs 2,500 people in Louisville. Pending this week’s hearing and other approvals, the project could be completed in 2017.
As is unfortunately the case with just about every development proposal these days, a large portion of the budget comes from public subsidies. The structure will cost an estimated $36 million, but a hefty portion of that is covered by subsidies in the form of performance-based tax breaks for creating jobs. Up to $11 million in incentives would come from the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority (KEDFA) through its Kentucky Business Investment program. That agency is also providing another $500,000 through the Kentucky Enterprise Initiative Act. (That’s 32 percent of the entire project budget.)
Kindred’s predecessor company, Vencor, proposed a sculptural I.M. Pei–designed tower along the waterfront before going into bankruptcy.
History Loves a Wrecking Ball
Before we evaluate the current proposal, let’s look back at the site’s history to better understand its evolution over time.
The modern era of Fourth and Broadway began in the 1920s when the predominantly residential area was being rebuilt as a dense and thriving city core. By 1927, Louisville contained some 235,000 residents, making it the 34th largest city in the country, and Fourth and Broadway was bustling. The Brown Hotel was built at break-neck speed in 1923 by architect Preston Bradshaw. Across Broadway, the 17-story Heyburn Building was finished in 1928, bringing with it a modern skyscraper aesthetic that emphasized the structure’s vertical elements. The corner was quickly becoming the heart of the city, earning the nickname, “The Magic Corner.”
On the northwest corner, the four-story Martin Brown Building also designed by Bradshaw replaced a fire-ravaged dance hall in 1927. The structure brought with it streamlined Art Deco detailing in its limestone facade—Louisville’s only example from that time period—along with enormous windows that must have flooded its office space with natural light. The structure was built by wealthy businessman J. Graham Brown and named after his late brother, Martin.
The sturdy four-story Martin Brown Building got a lot taller in 1955 when the Commonwealth Life Insurance Company added another 17 floors to the building—for a total of 21—making it the city’s tallest at 255 feet. The renamed Commonwealth Building at 680 South Fourth Street stood until January 16, 1994, when it was imploded due to the cost of renovating the building.
Commonwealth Life Insurance Company created the Capital Holdings Company in 1969, becoming its subsidiary and eventually building another skyscraper, the Capital Holding Center, aka the Aegon Tower or 400 West Market.
Theater Square
The Theater Square we know today was the result of a 1985 public-private partnership “between the city, state, a labor pension fund and five local corporations and banks,” according to Metro Louisville. A $45 million campaign to revive the corner of Fourth Street and Broadway was launched. Called The Broadway Renaissance, the initiative built Theater Square, reopened the Brown Hotel, and constructed a large parking garage north of the hotel. It also saved the Kentucky Theater and a small portion of the old Ohio Theater facade. Work continued into the 1990s, according to Metro Louisville:
In 1995, efforts to revitalize the area continued with renovations to the Palace Theatre, Theatre Square, and surrounding restaurants. Fourth Avenue was reopened to vehicles while the development of the surrounding Theatre Square entertainment and business complex were completed. Current restaurants along Theatre Square include: Sapporo, Theater Square Marketplace, Safier Mediterranean Deli, and Bluegrass Brewing Co.
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But before Theater Square, this stretch of Fourth Street was once the home of a pair of stately buildings, including the five-story Berkeley Hotel and an adjacent four-story structure. A lot of history has gone missing from this once-magnificent intersection. The set of buildings here created a well-defined urban edge along the sidewalk and if they were around today, would have made great candidates for adaptive reuse as offices of housing. The density Theater Square today provides pales in comparison to what the block once offered.
The New Modern Era of Fourth & Broadway
The current six-story Kindred headquarters was completed in 1992 as a complex for Capital Holding. The company had purchased the Commonwealth Building and its adjacent garage in 1990 for $9 million. The city chipped in $1.9 million of that figure. Atlanta-based architecture firm Smallwood, Reynolds, & Stewart designed the beige and red brick building.
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Those plans called for a large circular driveway at the site of the Commonwealth Building under guise of a park. The developers at the time called the driveway a “front porch” for the Brown Hotel. Today, that front porch is more accurately the front parking lot as the Brown uses the sidewalk here to park cars, rendering it nearly impossible for handicap people to pass through.
Kindred acquired the Capital Holdings complex in 2006, taking over the buildings for its own use.
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While the large office building is the most prominent on the site, it’s footprint is actually less than half that of the overall complex. Along Fifth Street running north from Broadway, a large one-story training center and cafeteria turns its back to the street, creating an enormous dead zone along Fifth that’s only exacerbated by an equally dead facade at the Courier Journal‘s facility across the street.
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What Does Metro Planning Really Think?
Metro Planning & Design reviewed Kindred’s proposal against guidelines established to create quality urban development in the Downtown Master Plan and against Louisville’s Land Development Code, Cornerstone 2020. A preliminary report posted on Metro Louisville’s website last week included an incendiary review of the project as “suburban” and establishing a bad precedent for future development with its setback from Fourth Street. A final report released today was scrubbed of such language, instead lauding the proposal for creating additional green space.
According to the city’s final report, “the established urban pattern of the 4th Street wall to create the Kindred Plaza will be diminished., thus contradicting Cornerstone 2020’s goals for the Downtown’s future development.” The report noted that 89 feet of streetwall will be lost.
The report also added to the preliminary findings that Kindred is moving its building closer to the street than the westernmost Theater Square building. The new building’s one-story retail base will sit 80 feet from the streetwall, approximately 20 feet closer than Theater Square, but it’s main building mass steps back from the first floor by about 25 feet, meaning the main building effectively sits over 100 feet back from Fourth Street.
The final report steps back from accusations that the planned addition will be anti-urban. The preliminary report included this scathing analysis of the Kindred design that was later removed:
The design, as proposed, is creating an internally oriented and secured “campus” environment, disconnected from the street and pedestrian environment, with an inward focus. Exclusionary and static, a suburban design is being proposed in an urban environment, neglecting to engage with its surrounding buildings and the historical importance of 4th and Broadway, contradicting the goals set forth by the 2020 Comprehensive Plan.
Due to the project’s proposed disconnect from the pedestrian environment, Staff is concerned the plaza will not function as presented and will not successfully engage the public. Staff is also concerned that if an exception is made in this case, and that the project is approved as proposed, precedence is being set and will encourage future developments to not meet Land Development Code, giving further opportunities to deteriorate the urban environment.
Instead, the final report praises the new plaza as “valuable public open space” claiming that it will, in the end, “offset the loss of the street wall.” The final report does call for careful attention to the plaza’s design to promote urban interaction.
That revision of the staff report seems hollow at best, as it’s clear that this plaza won’t contribute in a meaningful way to the quality of Fourth Street—on the contrary it will in fact erode its urban qualities further.
While Theater Square wasn’t perfect by any means, it did wrap its plaza with three sides of retail frontage, standing two stories tall to give the space definition. Existing mature trees add to the scale of the square. Kindred’s new plaza will be undefined and inevitably soulless, with a giant waterfall to mask a service truck entrance that appears on plans to actually be wider than Fourth Street. The landscaping as proposed appears to create a sort of green moat that cuts the sidewalk off from the proposed restaurant space. It reads more as a buffer to pedestrians for an overscaled restaurant’s outdoor dining area than a real public plaza. Further, the one-story retail podium diminishes the space’s overall definition as an urban plaza.
But beyond all of these reasons why the plaza is not needed and is harmful to the city’s fabric, there’s already a faux-plaza directly to the north that Kindred uses as a gated, landscaped, wrap-around driveway for its main entrance—some 175 feet off of Fourth Street. (It’s sidewalk facing entrance along Broadway has been locked for years with a note telling people to walk around to the gated entry.) Removing Theater Square and opening up the new plaza to this larger gated driveway completely erodes a corner that was once anchored by Kentucky’s tallest building.
I asked Jessica Wethington, spokesperson for Metro Louisville’s Develop Louisville, about why the final language was watered down from the preliminary report, but she said she could not comment on pending cases. She did provide the following comment:
The guidelines are not intended to discourage development, but to encourage development which is innovative and aesthetically pleasing in design. A development proposal that does not conform to one or more specific guidelines may be approved if it is determined that the proposal is in conformance with the intent of the guidelines considered as whole. And staff has recommended approval for the project.
Both the preliminary and final staff reports did recommend approving the project with a series of conditions, including trying to save a portion of the southern Theater Square building that comes up closer to the sidewalk, adding a new structure in its place, redesigning the plaza for better pedestrian flow, and requiring future development to conform to the city’s code, potentially being built up to the corner of Fourth and Broadway.
The DDRO Committee will take up the case this Wednesday, March 11, 2015 at 8:30a.m. in the Old Jail Building Auditorium (514 W Liberty Street)—and we hope that body will take a strong stance on how the urban pattern will affect the city going forward. Louisville deserves a voice in this development, especially when 32 percent of the entire project budget is coming from public funds.
Wethington said the case may also require going before the Board of Zoning Adjustments or another planning committee, but that the project does not need Metro Council approval to proceed. Kindred and the Mayor have previously said the building could open in 2017.
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[Image from UL Photo Archives, Reference Reference. Hat tip to WDRB for finding the final report.]A 44-YEAR-OLD man who was born a woman has been euthanised in Belgium on the grounds of "unbearable psychological suffering."
The Telegraph reports that Nathan Verhelst, who was born Nancy, was given legal euthanasia by Wim Distelmans, a cancer specialist who made headlines last year when he gave 45-year-old twins Marc and Eddy Verbessem a lethal injections because they feared they were going blind as well.
Verhelst told Belgian newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws that he had hormone therapy in 2009, followed by a mastectomy and a penis constructed in 2012 but "none of these operations worked as desired".
"I was the girl that nobody wanted," he said in the hours before her death. "While my brothers were celebrated, I got a storage room above the garage as a bedroom. 'If only you had been a boy', my mother complained. I was tolerated, nothing more."
"I was ready to celebrate my new birth," he told the newspaper. "But when I looked in the mirror, I was disgusted with myself. My new breasts did not match my expectations and my new penis had symptoms of rejection. I do not want to be... a monster. "
Dr Distelmans has defended his call to proceed with the euthanasia.
"The choice of Nathan Verhelst has nothing to do with fatigue of life," said Dr Distelmans. "There are other factors that meant he was in a situation with incurable, unbearable suffering. Unbearable suffering for euthanasia can be both physical and psychological. This was a case that clearly met the conditions demanded by the law. Nathan underwent counselling for six months."
Jacqueline Herremans, a member of the national euthanasia committee, told RTL television he had been examined by two doctors, including a psychiatrist, to make sure he was not suffering from a temporary depression.
The case has revived the debate in Belgium over whether euthanasia should be given to those who are psychologically troubled or only to terminally ill patients. The country is also deciding if it should extend euthanasia to children.
While there were only six cases of euthanasia recorded on psychological grounds in 2004, there were 33 in 2011 and 52 last year.
Belgium recorded a record number of 1432 cases of euthanasia in 2012, up 25 per cent from the previous year. Euthanasia carried out by doctors is only legal in three European countries, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.And the winner is... Arnon Milchan!
Anyone watching the Oscars on Sunday – or reading/watching news Monday morning – knows that 12 Years a Slave earned the Academy Award for Best Picture.
But when the star-studded cast and director crowded the stage at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre to accept their trophies, it was evident that film producer and Israeli spy Arnon Milchan – who stood with them – also won big.
Though Milchan, an Israeli citizen, admitted in November that he engaged in espionage against the U.S for many years, including helping to smuggle American nuclear bomb parts to Israel, his appearance at the Oscars was pretty much proof not all spies are treated equally.
Forbes columnist Dorothy Pomerantz, who writes about Hollywood for the magazine, noted in her morning after rundown of the Oscars, “The Billionaire Winners of the 2014 Academy Awards,” that it is “unlikely the admission will affect his standing in the film industry.”
Since revealing his “James Bond”-like past on Israeli television in November, Milchan has apparently not generated interest among U.S. law enforcement agencies. The FBI won’t even acknowledge that it investigated him previously (it has) and would not say it has plans to interview him about his spying activities now that he’s admitted to them.
“Although [Milchan] has publicly acknowledged participation in alleged illicit activities, that in itself is not sufficient grounds for the FBI to override the subject’s privacy interests,” the FBI told Under the Radar.
Milchan is the founder of New Regency, the film production company behind 12 Years a Slave and other blockbuster films featuring “A list” stars such as Brad Pitt, Kevin Spacey, and Robert DeNiro. DeNiro even acknowledged in the Israeli TV interview that Milchan once admitted his spy role, though DeNiro said he didn’t judge Milchan for it.
An FBI spokeswoman in Los Angeles would not tell Under the Radar if the bureau planned to interview Milchan or DeNiro in connection with what they said in the Israeli interview.
“As a matter of policy, the FBI neither confirms nor denies investigations. I am unaware of any public information relative to this matter,” she said.
Grant Smith, author of Divert, about the decades-long Israeli operation to funnel U.S. nuclear secrets, uranium and parts to Israel, was not surprised that Milchan was “unconcerned and on stage” at the Oscars. Smith said Milchan has dodged prosecution for more than 30 years, even as a colleague in the smuggling of nuclear triggers, Richard Kelley Smyth, ultimately was arrested and jailed.
What has made Milchan untouchable, according to Smith, is his connections. These include long time associations with Israeli leaders including Shimon Peres and current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who worked at Heli Trading, a Milchan front company used for smuggling, according to Smith, who cites Justice Department documents that he acquired through the Freedom of Information Act.
During the interview with Israel’s Channel 2, Milchan acknowledged being an arms dealer and that he also used his international connections to advocate for the apartheid government of South Africa in exchange for the regime helping Israel procure uranium.
Hollywood’s stars, of course, frequently condemned apartheid South Africa, though none seemed to have any problems with Milchan.
That’s entertainment.On this weekend’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” while discussing the presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s attempt to line up the GOP behind his candidacy, Fox News senior political contributor Brit Hume said “Republicans and most conservatives” were warming up to Trump.
Hume, “I think it’s one of a number of signs that Donald Trump is well on his way to pulling nearly all of the Republican party behind him. There will be holdouts and there will be conservatives who were conservatives first and Republicans second who will not be reconciled to him, but the Supreme Court list that he put out, the meeting with Paul Ryan, all these things are pointing in the same direction, that Republicans and most conservatives are increasingly ready, particularly because they so fear the alternative, to back him and I think that’s where we’re going.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNENAlthough it’s called the International Space Station, in reality the US has been the dominant partner in the project up to now, dictating much of its development and also paying the bulk of its costs. (credit: NASA) The future of American human space exploration and the “Critical Path”
With the pending end of the space shuttle era in American space policy, critical questions revolve around the issue of how and when the United States will return to independent crewed space flight. The decision is complicated by the fact that the US has long had the prestige of being one of the first two space pioneers, first with the Soviet Union and now with the Russian Federation. Both programs grew out of the Cold War driven global competition that only truly ended in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union. That competition had a warping effect upon both participants in that each self-defined themselves as the dominant player within their political-military bloc, an identification reinforced by possession of the largest and most powerful military forces and economies. With the Cold War’s end and the growth of other states to positions of selective parity with the two former superpowers, space activities become more complicated, with diverse international partners possible and conflicting agendas common. How the US responds to these changes will have great impact on the future of American human space exploration, changes are being forced regardless of US preferences in how affairs are conducted in the future. Earlier assumptions underlying US space activities When the space age dawned in 1957, the Soviets and Americans were engaged in a competition in which they initially ran alone, as all other states lagged far behind. Fairly quickly, both states engaged in cooperative space activities with the US engaged more widely, beginning with the Canadians and the Europeans and followed by the Japanese. For the United States, the pattern was clear: the US would engage with space partners as long as the other international participants acknowledged American preeminence and leadership. This posture was buttressed at first by the fact that among the Western allies, the United States was the sole possessor of space launch technologies capable of lifting significant payloads to orbit. This American monopoly was carefully guarded through a series of stratagems, including providing space launch services either free or at such a low cost that competitors were discouraged, or by withholding critical launch technologies by forbidding technology transfers on grounds of security concerns. For societies with smaller economies and national budgets, American willingness to provide such launches was accepted because in the short term there was no alternative. In the case of Canada, willingness to accept American leadership got their Alouette I satellite sent to orbit in 1962 (making them the third country to have a satellite in orbit). For the United States, the pattern was clear: the US would engage with space partners as long as the other international participants acknowledged American preeminence and leadership. The Europeans were the first to publicly struggle against this American monopolist behavior by initiating an independent launch program, the Europa, which failed. The project failed due to mismatched components since the program attempted to couple existing launch vehicles into a staged vehicle. However, given ever greater US willingness to restrict other states’ ability to compete economically by refusing to launch communication satellites that might pose future challenges to the US monopoly over Intelsat comsat purchases, the Europeans embarked subsequently on a successful launch vehicle program, the Ariane. Efforts to sustain US control over western space launch ultimately failed due to the conscious choices made by various states to compete, combined with the space shuttle Challenger accident in January 1986. That accident led to the subsequent withdrawal by President Reagan of space shuttles from commercial launches. Constricting Japan’s possible competition with US launch vehicles was facilitated by apparent American generosity in licensing certain rocket technologies to the Japanese, combined with no-compete clauses in the contracts. In time, Japan was forced to develop its own independent launch capabilities; a process that took longer than expected but was seen as essential for Japan’s space program to grow. The International Space Station (ISS) program began in 1984 as an American initiative but international partners were considered an early and important component of the program. Europe and Japan agreed to fund and build the Columbus and the JEM (Japanese Experimental Module, later Kibo) labs to house much of the research to be conducted on orbit. Their participation was carefully hammered out in several agreements, but as the space station project floundered in a series of redesigns and budget changes, the partners often became the last to know. In 1993, the Clinton Administration imposed a new design and expanded the partnership agreement to incorporate Russia, with the international partners forced to go along for the ride. Subsequently, in March 2001, the Bush Administration restructured the space station to a new status that the Americans labeled “Station Complete”. For the international partners, this abrupt change was particularly shocking because it envisioned a station possibly incapable of operating the lab components that they were in the process of building. In fact, shortly after the decision, NASA attended a ceremony in Europe celebrating the development of the Columbus space laboratory that the Americans had in effect rendered useless by shrinking the crew size to three from six. By canceling development of the American crew escape vehicle for budgetary reasons, the United States effectively gutted the project. European and Japanese resistance led to changes that reinstated their participation in a more substantial role. The ISS continues as a bone of contention when in January 2004, the Americans announced their intention to shut down the shuttle in 2010 (now possibly into early 2011) and deorbit the ISS in 2015 or 2016, or in any case have the US abandon the ISS for the Constellation program. That plan is unacceptable to the international partners who want the ISS to operate until at least 2020. Pushing the ISS beyond that date is not impossible, as the Russian space station Mir demonstrated, although it might become dicey toward the end. Those plans are in abeyance at this writing as the Obama Administration explores its alternatives and the new US road for continued human spaceflight, which will also impact the partners. The point of the above is not to rehearse the past but to point out a pattern in US government international cooperative activities with other states whether in space launch, human space exploration, or space science and other research projects. The historical pattern is simple: the US is willing to join international space projects as long as it remains the project leader and is relatively, if not completely, unconstrained by the international partners when the US decides significant changes are required. Why would other states agree to such arrangements? First, the United States, due to its resources, often set out to establish a new program and then added other participants on as second thoughts. This happened with the space shuttle: Europe and Canada came on after the original configuration was established. Likewise, the ISS was basically configured as a concept and then the international partners brought on board. 1 As a result, historically, the US, as its price for being leader, was normally willing to pay the largest share of the costs, which for space operations are usually significant and long-term due to recurring program delays and cost overruns. By being willing to pay the costs, the United States encouraged a “free rider” mentality among its partners—meaning their willingness to accept US decisions only as long as the US wanted to pay. Second, and of obviously declining importance today, the United States previously controlled the critical step in the project, the ability to launch the resulting payload to orbit or beyond. The US aggressively pursued a policy aimed at discouraging other states’ efforts to develop significant independent launch capabilities. The Europeans were first to break free, followed more slowly by Japan. Until the 1980s, the United States effectively had a complete monopoly on commercial launches and a large percentage of all launches by the Western states and their allies. The reality is that the human spaceflight program survives as well as it does because neither political party has truly bought into a pay-as-you-go budget; deficits growing as far as the eye can see have allowed the humans spaceflight program to survive. Third, in a cynical but realistic tradeoff, other states learned to accept these de facto ground rules in order to have access to the programs and the technologies involved. This allowed states to participate in broader and more advanced space activities than would otherwise have been possible given their budgets. Canada, for example, has a much larger and cost-effective space program than its domestic political realities would normally envision. Canadians as individuals participated in the Apollo program, with a significant colony of Canadian engineers working at the then-Manned Spacecraft Center (now Johnson Space Center) as members of NASA teams working on ensuring successful Moon landings and returns. Their presence was the direct result of the cancellation of the Avro Arrow fighter aircraft by then Prime Minister Diefenbaker, another brain drain to the United States. Canada subsequently participated in the shuttle program with their Remote Manipulator System (RMS) known as Canadarm, used for moving awkward and heavy payloads out of the shuttle. Later, in the ISS program, Canada reprised its Canadarm experience by building the Canadarm2 for the ISS. As a result of this activity, Canada has been able to support a human spaceflight program without the cost of independent launch. More broadly, Canada has been able to link up with the European Space Agency to engage in other activities outside US control. For the Europeans, there existed an alternative once the European Space Agency (ESA) became established, but that was largely not for human spaceflight. Their willingness to support the costs of such an endeavor was obviously limited but subject to change as opportunities arose. An independent European crewed spaceflight program was considered several times, but the US always provided a cheaper option provided the Europeans were willing to accept American leadership, erratic at times due to a constantly shifting domestic political environment regarding covering the costs of human spaceflight. There is little major disagreement that the US should not be involved in |
the back of his property—simply wasn’t true. Sometimes it was folks hunting coyotes in the wooded land back there; other times it was actually Block himself. “I got a target thing back here so I can shoot my gun,” he said. “I mean, I got an AK-47 and stuff.” (Block, for the record, has 13 guns.)
After that terrible night, Dalton’s wife and children had moved elsewhere, but Block said that he had seen Carole several times since, when she’d come by to pick up stuff from the house. They’d talk about the kids and the dogs. Once they’d gotten everything, she told him, they were never coming back.
AFTER LEAVING his wife and children at his parents’ house, Dalton headed to the family home. At about seven that evening, his neighbor’s daughter saw the car in his driveway, idling for a few minutes with its lights on. Then it sped down the driveway, stopped for 30 seconds, reversed fast back up the driveway, then parked with the lights on for five more minutes.
Whatever was going on in Dalton’s mind, his trip there seems to have had a practical purpose. Later, when the police searched the property, they would find the Glock with which he had shot Tiana Carruthers, lying on a workbench; it appeared to have jammed. Now, as he drove away, Dalton was carrying a replacement inside his coat pocket—a Walther P99 9-mm semi-automatic. He would be needing a gun that worked, because he wasn’t done yet. Not nearly.
Still, anyone trying to understand what he was thinking may struggle to comprehend what Jason Dalton did next: He started picking up Uber fares again. And his passengers in this period didn’t notice anything about his behavior that might suggest what he’d done over the last few hours: two high-speed accidents, a cascade of bullets fired at a stranger.
At 8:02 he picked up Keith Black at his home near the Western Michigan campus and took him into the center of town. Black sat in the passenger seat and made small talk. Another passenger, later that hour, remembered Dalton singing along to the radio. At 9:21, when he picked up a fare at the Fairfield Inn, next to Cracker Barrel, and took three passengers to the Beer Exchange in town, he couldn’t get his app to start and the fare wasn’t charged properly, but he seemed easygoing enough about it, like it wasn’t a big deal. He seemed to be doing his job as though nothing had happened and nothing else would.
James Block and Jason Dalton would greet each other every morning, as Block ferried kids to school and Dalton headed to work. They had their final substantial conversation, for 20 minutes over the fence, only two days before the shootings. One of many online eruptions about the case was sparked by the discovery on Dalton’s Facebook page that he was listed as a “Progressive.” Finally, a mass shooter who couldn’t be stereotyped as some kind of a right-wing nut: Look! You liberals do it too! Then someone pointed out that Progressive was actually the name of the insurance company Dalton used to work for. After that, the default assumption seemed to be that he would turn out to be a right-wing nut after all. But that seems unlikely as well.
“He never told me if he was a Republican or a Democrat,” Block explained, though he recalled that during their last conversation, they did discuss politics. “He goes, ‘Man, look, we have a choice between Trump, Hillary, Bernie Sanders…’ He never mentioned Cruz. He goes, ‘Look at our choices!’ He was like, ‘Man, who are we supposed to vote for?’ We both laughed about it.”
TYLER SMITH was 17. He had spent most of Saturday looking for a car with his girlfriend of nine months, Alexis, also 17; in the evening, his father, Rich, a plumber, joined them to see what his son had scoped out earlier. Tyler and his father both loved cars, but they were also looking for something they could use to go into business together. There’s a strip of dealerships along Stadium Drive, and as the time neared 10 P.M., they pulled into Seelye Kia. Tyler and his father got out to look at a blue Ford pickup truck parked right by the entrance of the closed dealership. Less interested, Alexis stayed in the backseat of their Range Rover, which was pulled up next to the pickup truck with its lights on, engine running. As though the three of them wouldn’t be more than a moment.
What happened next could be seen on the showroom’s surveillance cameras from several angles. Dalton enters the frame, drives around the lot and parks in front of the dealership offices, then approaches the father and son on foot, walking past the Range Rover, apparently without seeing Alexis. He was almost upon the Smiths before they noticed him.
Dalton later said, mystifyingly, that he had gone into the car lot because he felt compelled to look at a black BMW. This is exactly how, according to the police report, Dalton explains the subsequent change of plan that actually made him a killer for the first (and second) time:
“Jason advised that he got out of his car and instead of looking at the black BMW, he shot a couple of people.”
Alexis watched as Dalton walked up to Rich and Tyler Smith and spoke to them.
“He asked them what they were looking at,” she said. “They turned around.… ‘Yeah, we’re looking at…’ That’s all the words they got out, because he pulled out the gun and started shooting. They looked at him, and they put their hands up, and they said, ‘What are you doing?’ and they fell down. That’s when I ducked behind the seat.”
According to another witness, who was driving by at the moment of the attack, even after the father and son fell, Dalton shot them some more.
Only then did Dalton try the door of the black BMW next to the bodies, but it was locked. Alexis, panicked, crouched behind the seat, could see Dalton’s shadow move over the Smiths’ Range Rover as he came back past her.
She’d left her cell phone at Tyler’s house. After waiting about 90 seconds, she leaned the front seat forward and looked for Dalton, then got out and crawled to where her boyfriend’s still body was lying on its back. She took the cell phone from his pocket, then retreated to the Range Rover. At 10:08 she dialed 911.
By then, Dalton was long gone. Whatever was guiding him, it was telling him that he had somewhere else to be.
Three weeks after the shootings, when the police released accounts of their two formal interviews with Jason Dalton during his first 24 hours in custody, it turned out that what they’d so far been implying—that Dalton had offered no explanation for his actions—wasn’t quite true. In fact, he had. Maybe they didn’t believe him, or couldn’t take him seriously. Maybe they felt that an explanation like the one Dalton had given was the same as no explanation at all. Or maybe they felt that passing on what he had said would be one further insult to his victims. Because while Jason Dalton had given an explanation, it wasn’t one that would satisfy—or make much sense to—anybody.
This is the moment in his police interrogation when he finally explained:
Dalton said if we only knew, it would blow our mind. Dalton then explains how when he opens up the Uber taxi app a symbol appeared and he recognized that symbol as the Eastern Star symbol. Dalton acknowledged that he recognized the Uber symbol as being that of the Eastern Star and a devil head popped up on his screen and when he pressed the button on the app, that is when all the problems started…. Dalton said the iPhone can take you over. Dalton explained how you can drive over 100mph and go through stop signs and you can just get places.… Dalton described the devil figure as a horned cow head or something like that and then it would give you an assignment and it would literally take over your whole body….
A while later, he elaborated:
Dalton was asked what was different tonight from the other nights and he said as driver partner with Uber, the icon is red and it had changed to black tonight.… I asked him why he was carrying his firearm tonight and he said that the Uber App literally took over his mind and body. Dalton said that when the Uber symbol is red it is just picking up and dropping off people, but when he recognized the symbol and spoke what the symbol was, the color changed from red to black.
After this report was released, the headlines went around the world: variations on “the Uber app made me do it” and “the devil possessed me through Uber.” And, naturally, the assumption was that Jason Dalton was crazy, a liar, or both.
When Dalton’s full explanation finally became public knowledge, it was mostly greeted cynically, as though people saw calculation behind the crazy talk. It was a plot everyone has seen over and over on TV: the murderer who tries to avoid the harshest punishment by laying the basis for an insanity defense.
Except that the full transcript of those police interviews simply doesn’t read that way. Over and over and over, Dalton avoided giving this explanation. He refused to say, or asked to take the Fifth, in total, at least twenty-two times before he finally blurted it out. In the meantime, he was otherwise reasonably cooperative (he said he didn’t want to call anyone, that he wasn’t suicidal, that he wasn’t hungry, wasn’t on any medications, wasn’t on drugs) and answered more general questions about his life calmly and sensibly, discussing his marriage and dog and daily habits. He also definitively ruled out what didn’t happen: He denied seeing a psychiatrist or being bipolar or having any mental problems, and he insisted he wasn’t an anti-government or militia person.
“He said nothing triggered him,” the report records.
Even when Dalton finally told the police the truth as he claimed to experience it, he made it clear that he really didn’t want to. He came across less like someone trying to seem delusional than someone rational enough to know that what he was saying sounded completely insane.
AT THE START of the night, four women over 60—Mary Lou Nye, Mary Jo Nye, Dorothy Brown, and Barbara Hawthorne—and 14-year-old Abigail Kopf met up for dinner at the Cracker Barrel, then carpooled to see a performance of Chinese acrobatics on campus. Now, a bit after 10 P.M., they were back in the Cracker Barrel parking lot purely so they could split back into two parties, before heading home. By the time Dalton came upon them on foot, four of them were in one car, and the fifth, Mary Lou Nye, was in another.
The first time Dalton described what he did here, he said the only thing he remembered was the percussion of the gunshots. But the next time he remembered more, including a particularly disturbing detail: He went up to a woman in a white van and “asked her whether she could spare a dollar to make America great again.” After she declined, he shot her in the head. He said that he was about to run away, but then he heard the four women in the other car scream, so he shot them, too. He methodically described the order in which he did this: first the driver, then the rear-seat passenger on the driver’s side, then the front-seat passenger, then the rear-seat passenger behind her.
The police would quickly gain access to surveillance footage from Cracker Barrel—not as clear as the Seelye footage, but clear enough to confirm that it was almost certainly the same shooter. “They show,” Kalamazoo’s chief prosecutor, Jeff Getting, would say, “that it was done intentionally, done deliberately, without any hurry. There’s no question about whether he did this with the intent to kill somebody.”
Meanwhile, at Seelye Kia, one of the officers on the scene listened as reports came over the radio of what had happened at Cracker Barrel.
“We got a serial fucking killer going around,” he said.
The officers also discussed how lucky Tyler Smith’s girlfriend, Alexis, was to be alive:
“She should have been dead, too,” said one. “She got fucking lucky. His tunnel vision fucked him up.”
As they stood there, trying and failing to come up with anything that would make easy sense of any of this, they discussed one final haunting image from the scene. “The father falls on his son’s lap,” one said. “Like they’re almost hugging each other.”
Even at this late hour, police still had perilously little information about the shooter—all they knew about Dalton was what they could see in the security footage. Soon the public was warned to look out for an older white male driving a dark-colored Chevy HHR. Shortly after, word arrived that, in addition to the father and son at Seelye Kia, all five victims from the Cracker Barrel parking lot were dead.
This last detail wasn’t true. In fact one of the Cracker Barrel victims was still alive. But nor was this sloppy journalism—the media and the police were simply passing on information they had received from Bronson hospital; doctors treating 14-year-old Abigail, who had been shot in the head, had called a time of death, and the body was maintained so her organs could be harvested for transplant. And then breathing and a heartbeat were detected—the type of event that people like to see as a kind of miracle, a miracle that would grow and offer succor to a shattered Kalamazoo over the next weeks as Abigail would recover sufficiently to say her first word—“pig,” because she had a pet pig—and take her first steps. Her story, accompanied by upbeat bulletins from Tiana Carruthers, became the story that Kalamazoo wanted to tell about this night.
The other story was too awful. And the closer you looked at it, the less and less sense it seemed to make.
AFTER THE Cracker Barrel shootings, Dalton went back to his family home—a journey of 16 miles—one final time. His neighbor, Jim Block, ominously heard four shotgun blasts on Dalton’s property at around 11:20. But if there are rules or patterns to shooting sprees, Dalton sidestepped them all. The shots Block heard, Dalton later explained, were just him firing into the garden shed with a shotgun. Even at the time, he recalled, he wondered why he’d just done this.
Then he got back into the Chevy HHR and drove off into the night. He left the shotgun behind, but the Walther 9-mm he’d already used to shoot seven people now contained 20 fresh rounds.
It remains the most baffling aspect of this long surreal night: Dalton, who had just slaughtered six people, the subject of a county-wide manhunt, simply resumed picking up Uber fares, once again shuttling people back and forth from bars in downtown Kalamazoo for a few dollars each, just as he might have on any other night. Only on this night, he was driving around with a loaded murder weapon hidden in his coat.
The police, meanwhile, were still struggling to make sense of what was happening. They established an emergency operations center at the Kalamazoo Valley Community College, and the key figures arranged to meet there at 1 A.M. (Chief Hadley had been sleeping on his couch when his 9-year-old daughter walked in and told him, “Daddy, your phone’s going off a lot.”) Someone was going around Kalamazoo shooting people—young, old, male, female, white, black—seemingly at random. And they had no way of knowing whether, when, or where the killer might strike again.
What no one could have imagined was that neither, it seemed, did Jason Dalton.
During his first couple of days in police custody, Jason Dalton gave various accounts of that day, and while some of what he told them matched known facts, just as often his details and chronology would be deeply muddled. But over time, a picture of why Dalton believes he did what he did builds. It was as though he knew he had murdered people, but he could do no more than watch, unable to intervene in his own actions. Or, as bafflingly relayed by the police: “Dalton told us that he is not a killer and he knows he has killed.”
It all seems to have started while Dalton was at the dog park, early in the afternoon. His Uber app beeped in a way that made him feel he was being urgently summoned, so he ran to his car and drove as fast as he could to the college campus, where the girl refused to get in his car because of the dog. Then he picked up Matt Mellen, and he described with chilling accuracy how crazily he drove, and Mellen’s panic. Afterward, Dalton hurried home as fast as he could and prepared his guns: “He advised it was scary. He stated it was like he wasn’t even himself, like it was an altered reality.” He said that it was the Uber app that made him get his gun, and made him put on the bulletproof vest. All he would say to explain why he shot Tiana Carruthers was that “it just had a hold of him.”
Parts of what Dalton was claiming did have a kind of logic or real-world context. For instance, all that stuff about the Eastern Star, which is both the symbol and name of a branch of the Masons: Dalton told the police “his grandmother was in the Eastern Star and his grandfather was in the Masons”; this turned out to be true. What’s more, Dalton’s mother would later tell the police that he’d asked her about the Masons during an unusual phone call weeks before the shooting. Dalton’s wife, meanwhile, told police that he would discuss the Masons with her. Clearly, somehow or other, this had been percolating in Dalton’s mind.
Similarly, one theme in Dalton’s police interviews was the intermittent problems he had with his Uber app. Even though Dalton himself never seemed to connect these with his improbable story of the app taking over his body, the overlaps seem evident. For instance, many of the visual cues he described sounded like standard app functions that he’d simply misinterpreted. And some of his movements that night—returning to the Cracker Barrel, with Seelye Kia along the way—appear to have resulted from a compulsion to retrace his steps from the botched fare an hour earlier.
None of this, of course, means that he truly was possessed by his Uber app. But it may mean this much: As he sat there talking to the police—lost within whatever vortices of unreality were swirling around inside his head—Jason Dalton was trying as best he could to explain what had happened to him that night.
AND SO the Uber driver carried on Uber driving. At 11:30 P.M., Jason Dalton accepted a ride request from a 19-year-old student named Nick. Nick couldn’t find the car, so he called Dalton, who said he’d been there and maybe Nick hadn’t sent him the right location. Then, at 11:58, Nick was notified that his ride was canceled, with a $5 fee. Annoyed, Nick called again.
“Oh, report it to Uber,” said Dalton. “Okay. ‘Bye.”
At 12:04, Dalton successfully picked up three friends who wanted to be taken to one of the dorms at Western Michigan University. They were surprised that Dalton didn’t seem to know where he was going—they had to direct him—and they didn’t think he was very friendly. But he got them there.
Meanwhile, Derek, a law student from Indianapolis, was finishing his night at Bell’s Eccentric Café. He’d traveled up earlier in the day with his wife and in-laws to see his wife’s stepbrother’s jam band. It was after midnight, but it was only a few blocks back to their hotel. They would have walked, but one of the hostesses told them something that made them reconsider: There was an active shooter on the loose. They weren’t that worried, but they figured they might as well be prudent and order an Uber. Seemed safest. Derek used his phone, and their ride came up: Jason, Chevy Equinox. Shortly afterward, the driver called. He said he was five minutes away and added that, by the way, he wasn’t in a Chevy Equinox—they should look out for a black HHR instead. A few minutes later, at 12:12 A.M., Dalton pulled up.
Derek got in the front, next to Dalton. His father-in-law was behind him, his wife in the middle, and his father-in-law’s wife, Sheri, was behind Dalton. Before the journey started, Sheri told her husband, “Hey, don’t say anything.” Because she thought he might. And, of course, he did.
“You know there’s a shooter situation going on?” he told Dalton.
Yes, Dalton replied, he knew that. To Derek it seemed a bit awkward, this whole exchange, so trying to make light of it, he chipped in: “You’re not the shooter, are you?”
“No,” Dalton said.
That answer, so deadpan and curt, only added to the awkwardness, so Derek doubled down.
“Are you sure?”
“No, I’m just tired,” Dalton replied. He said he’d been driving for seven hours.
After that, they chatted normally: the slightly drunken reveler from out of town and, next to him, a newborn serial killer with a loaded pistol in the pocket nearest Derek, inches away.
“I always make conversation with Uber drivers,” said Derek, “because, I don’t know, it’s just awkward when it’s quiet.” And there was nothing to raise their suspicions. “He drove very carefully.”
They were dropped off at 12:15, though once again either Dalton or his Uber app messed up, because their receipt would show that they continued to be charged as he continued, his car now empty, down Portage Street. “There’s not really much funny about this,” said Derek, “but…the guy over-charged us.”
Five days after the shootings, Carole Dalton would file for divorce from her husband of 20 years. Not as a reflection of anything at all prior to February 20, 2016, lawyer Paul Vlachos insisted, but in response to what had happened, and to life moving forward, and to protecting herself and her children. Vlachos also said that while Dalton’s parents were declining to see their son, and had gone back to Florida, Carole had visited him twice in jail.
“The second time she went in she said, ‘As you know, we’re getting a divorce…,’ ” he said. “They didn’t talk about the case.”
MARC DUNTON was out with two friends at the Central City Tap House when they decided to move on to Up And Under, more of a roughneck spot. The trip was only a few blocks, but it was cold out, so they called an Uber. They were picked up by Dalton at 12:26.
They’d heard what had been going on in Kalamazoo that night and had taken in the specifics of the police warning. They realized that Dalton and his car fit the description. Still, it’s a common car. And, anyway, Dalton was an Uber driver. Surely someone on a shooting spree wasn’t going around picking up fares.
Nevertheless, during the ride, Dunton did ask Dalton: “You’re not the guy going around killing people, are you?”
“Wow,” they remembered Dalton answering. “That is crazy. No way—I’m not that guy.”
Dalton remembered them, too. Later, he would tell the police that he felt like his passengers were mocking him; in his mind, he said, he heard one of them say, “Does he have a gun?” and “Are you gonna shoot me?”
But he didn’t shoot them. He just drove them to their destination and let them out.
During Jason Dalton’s first police interview, before he’d begun to try to explain anything, he asked if he could call his wife. But as soon as she came on the phone, he ended the call. He said he just wanted to hear her voice. Later he explained that he wasn’t sure what he had or hadn’t done, and he was afraid he might have killed his family.
For the most part during the interviews that night, Dalton appeared affectless, but there is one moment, faithfully recorded in the police report, that is eerie and sad in a different way. In between sessions with different officers, during a short interlude when Dalton had been left alone but was still being filmed, he could be heard speaking aloud to himself. The words the police believed they heard him say in the empty room:
“Sorry to you, my love.”
SERGEANT JAMES HARRISON didn’t normally work in the city, but he’d been called into town to investigate a report of a shooting—another incident entirely, nothing to do with Dalton. And as it turned out, not even a real one. Prank call. Happens. But like everyone else working in law enforcement in Kalamazoo that night, he was now on the lookout. Harrison was idling at the stoplight on the corner of Main and Michigan when he happened to turn and spotted something over his right shoulder: a black Chevy HHR about to pull out of the Up And Under parking lot.
In a bar a few blocks away, Mallory Lemieux, a student at Western Michigan, was enjoying a mother-daughter night out with several other friends: seven girls, seven mothers. Lemieux noticed her father had been calling and texting since the previous bar, so she went to the bathroom to find out what was up. A shooter on the loose, seven people believed dead. Her father told her what was right now being talked about on the news: a Chevy HHR driven by an older male. The moms and daughters decided to just hit one more spot, the Wild Bull, then call it a night. Her dad kept phoning, increasingly worried, and by now the other women were getting calls and texts too, so she summoned a cab.
At 12:33 A.M., Lemieux’s Uber request was accepted by the nearest driver, and his information came up on her phone:
Jason. Chevy Equinox.
When Lemieux saw the word “Chevy,” and Jason’s picture, she panicked. (She did notice that the Uber app was telling her, wrongly, that the car on its way was a Chevy Equinox, not an HHR, but as far as she was concerned Chevy-anything was too close.) She canceled the ride and tried to rebook a different driver.
At 12:34, her new request was accepted.
Jason. Chevy Equinox.
She canceled again. On her Uber app, she could see the car icon move right past where she and her group were waiting. Meanwhile, Sergeant Harrison trailed Dalton as he circled the Wild Bull. Harrison had no idea that Dalton was an Uber driver; there was every reason to worry that this person might be going from one Kalamazoo nightspot to another, scoping out new victims.
“I’m like, ‘Oh shit,’ ” Harrison would later tell his colleagues, “because there’s 30 or 40 [people] standing outside the Wild Bull.”
But instead Dalton headed north, then took a right turn down Ransom Street, into the quieter industrial and business district northeast of downtown. He was listening to the radio: Open House Party on 103.3 FM. There were no signs that he noticed Sergeant Harrison behind him, or the second car of Sergeant Scott Miller, who had just joined the pursuit.
At 12:38, Mallory Lemieux tried Uber one more time.
Jason. Chevy Equinox.
This time, though, she noticed something odd: The car icon was not moving toward her on the map. In fact it had stopped moving entirely. No matter. He was an older man in a Chevy. She canceled a final time.
In the days after his arrest, Jason Dalton’s court-appointed lawyer would apply on his behalf for a competency test—not (yet) to consider his mental state when these acts were committed, but merely to judge whether he had the mental capacity to understand legal proceedings. Dalton told the psychologist who interviewed him about the app, how it had taken over his body and controlled his actions. Asked whether this was possible or whether his mind could have been playing tricks on him, Dalton sounded like someone who was slowly beginning to wake up: “That’s what I’ve been trying to work through.… I guess that’s the heavy part. I believed at the time I was experiencing something. I’m not sure what that is. In the cell, it’s heavy thinking about if I was imagining those things or if they were real.”
The psychologist found Dalton competent to stand trial.
JUST AFTER 12:37 A.M., a few hundred yards away from where Mallory Lemieux was about to cancel her ride for the third and final time, Sergeant Harrison flipped on his lights to make what police call a felony stop. Dalton pulled over almost immediately. The two police cars pulled in behind Dalton and, after a pregnant minute, ordered the driver to put his hands out of the window. Dalton complied. At 12:38 A.M., Harrison—gun drawn, covered by Sergeant Miller, his gun also drawn—slowly edged toward Dalton’s car, then grabbed Dalton’s wrists.
“Do you have anything on you?” Miller asked, but Dalton just stared blankly ahead. Patting him down, Harrison found the pistol—“Gun!” he announced—and placed it on the roof of Dalton’s car. Then Dalton was handcuffed and Harrison led him to the police car. As Harrison searched Dalton some more, one of his colleagues walked by and gave Harrison a fist bump.
The call went out over the police radio: “One detained. Firearm on person.”
After Dalton was put in a car and driven away, the officers who remained at the scene seemed surprised, and maybe disappointed, that such a violent and terrible situation could have ended so quietly. Snatches of their conversations could be heard on the police-car audio, the officers still adrenalized as they talked through what had happened:
“He had a bulletproof vest on. I can’t believe we didn’t have a fucking gun battle out here.”
“Oh man. Could you get a better fucking backdrop? Brick building…brick building…metal building…no residential.”
“Dude, I’m gonna tell you right now, I really wanted to… [mimes firing his gun several times] I was like, ‘You fucking piece of shit.’ ”
“When he stopped here, I was like: ‘Game on.’ ”
“We would’ve fucking obliterated his ass.”
“He didn’t say a single thing when we pulled him over. I can’t believe he didn’t go out in a blaze of glory.”
They also discussed whether more bodies would be found. Somebody mentioned that officers were checking all the other parking lots along Stadium Drive.
“He’s got to have killed his wife and everything,” said one.
“I would think so,” came the reply.
As the news came through that his wife had been successfully contacted—“She’s a 14”; Kalamazoo police code confirming she’s okay—they sounded perplexed. Cops at the Seelye scene were also surprised. Clearly this was not how they had anticipated the night would end:
“He didn’t fight us? I am surprised that he didn’t want to go at it—figured that would be suicide by cop.”
“Wow. What a fucking puss.”
In the months since his arrest, there has been little sign that Jason Dalton might offer a clearer account of his motives. At a pre-trial hearing in late May, Dalton interrupted the testimony of Tiana Carruthers—who was sitting in the witness box a few yards from him and who was beginning to describe how he shot her—with a seemingly nonsensical outburst:
“No,” Dalton cried out, “they gave bags, these old people, they have these old black bags, that are called—they’re black, they’re black bags that people drive around and people look at them. It gets real bad, it’s time people look and that’s when they tell the people it’s time to get to temple.”
He then appeared to try to break free of his restraints, repeatedly shouting “Take!” at Carruthers, who had burst into terrified tears, and jabbing his right forefinger at her in a way that seemed to resemble someone firing a gun.
After that, he had to be dragged from the courtroom, his body deadweight, legs trailing on the floor. For the rest of the hearing, once it reconvened, he appeared by video link, flanked on either side by a law-enforcement official, each with a hand on one of his shoulders.
A few weeks later, a new, peculiar detail emerged—if true, an almost clichéd serial-killer precursor. Someone told the police that Dalton had once talked of “choking and killing” the family cat, then leaving it on the marital bed. Asked about this, his wife confirmed that six or seven years ago she had found their cat, Leo, dead, lying where it usually slept on their bed. She assumed it had died of natural causes.
In early June, it was confirmed that Dalton would be offering an insanity defense, though the bar for proving that Dalton was legally insane when he committed these crimes, given all the methodical acts that punctuated the day, might be a high one.
At trial, he can be convicted without us ever knowing why he did what he did. “Legally, I don’t have to prove motive,” said the Kalamazoo prosecutor, Jeff Getting. “I have to prove he did it, I have to prove premeditation, deliberation. Legally, that’s what’s important. The reality is, there’s a want to explain it, but that’s not something I have to prove in court. We’ll continue to look for explanations, but I’m not sure we’ll ever get a good enough one.”
JASON DALTON later tried to explain why he had allowed himself to be arrested without a fight. He said that he did reach to his right side for his gun when he was pulled over, but then, once again, something happened with his phone. In one police interview, he said that it beeped. In another, he said that his app turned from black to red. At that moment, he said, “he felt like he was no longer being guided.” As the report summarized, “Dalton said that was the reason he didn’t shoot the officer.”
Everyone still wants a reason. Of course we do. A reason helps us to know how to feel, helps us know where to put an experience like this. A reason reassures us that it can’t happen again. Not easily, anyway. Not often.
And maybe that kind of reason will come. Maybe more information will surface—medical, situational, ideological, biographical—that will help us understand. Experts of various kinds will be invited to explain or name Dalton’s behavior in ways he cannot. When we can’t explain something, we often pretend by finding clever words to describe it. Maybe we’ll even convince ourselves that we’ve learned what we needed to so that we can file away the horrific deeds of Jason Dalton, and move on.
That’s what we want. That’s what we demand. But when it comes to reason and motive, cause and effect, the eternal need for sense and order to triumph over chaos and entropy, we often expect too much. Maybe, more often than we can bear, the one thing we don’t want to accept is the one thing we need to: Sometimes the world fractures. It just does.
For now, this is what we do know. On each of the first 16,678 days of his life, Jason Dalton killed no one. The next day, he killed six people.
There’s one further form of testimony that might provide some insight about what was going on in his mind: a handwritten polygraph background information form he completed on his second day in custody. Yet again, the most revealing clue is the absence of clues. What shocks the most is Dalton’s respectful compliance, the way his banal, diligent attempts at honesty sit there on the page, in contrast to the barbarity that will define him forever:
Physical Condition Now: “Feel okay”
Hospital (injury, fracture, surgery, etc.): “2000–2009 stitches R Hand”
Person Most Respected: “Father”
Person Least Respected: “None”
Best Thing: “Got a job at Michigan Appraisal”
Worst Thing: “This + the consciousness of what has happened”
Self Concept: “Okay.”
How Honest: “1–10 Rating I Rate Myself a 9.”
Ever Arrested: [Dalton has ticked the “Y” box]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
Winds of up to 80mph could hit Wales on Friday.
The Met Office has issued a yellow warning for the whole of the country saying there could be gusts of 60 to 70mph in places and perhaps over 80mph in exposed coastal areas.
There does remain some "considerable uncertainty" but the forecaster issued the warning on Tuesday as a precaution.
If the winds do come, they are expecting damage to trees and buildings, as well as disruption to power supplies, as well as delayed travel.
The warning is currently in place from 6am until just before midnight on Friday.
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The chief forecaster said a number of "potentially vigorous" low pressure systems are likely to move quickly towards the UK later this week.
He added: "One of these on Friday, may affect parts of southern parts of the UK.
"However, it is worth stressing that there are a number of scenarios in which the strongest winds miss the UK altogether.
"Even so, spells of wet and windy weather will be affecting many areas later this week."
Welsh weather presenter Derek Brockway has said that early February looks more unsettled than recently with Atlantic local pressures.
Although it’s not unusual to see vigorous low pressure systems moving across the country at this time of year, so far this winter there have been relatively few of them, especially when compared to last winter.
So far this season we have named three storms: Angus, Barbara and Conor. The next storm name on the “Name our Storms” list is Doris.
The long range weather forecast from the Met Office is for the unsettled weather to continue through the weekend.
This is the Met Office forecast for the weekend and Monday
"The unsettled conditions are expected to dominate through the weekend, with heavy and persistent rain pushing in from the southwest through Saturday.
"This will bring strong winds for all, possibly reaching severe gale force towards the southwest.
"This rain will tend to clear eastwards across the country through Sunday, with temperatures near or above average for most.
"The unsettled theme is likely to continue through the remainder of the period, with bands of persistent rain followed by brighter and showery conditions.
"Winds |
of Siemens, a German industrial conglomerate, told German television last month.
Siemens sent a top official to Tehran with German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel last month. Their government plane touched down at Imam Khomeini International Airport five days after world powers agreed on the nuclear deal on July 14.
“The agreement reached between the E3+3 and Iran in Vienna has laid the foundations for a normalization of economic relations with Iran,” Gabriel said, using another term for the group of six world powers that negotiated the deal. The vice chancellor was accompanied by a delegation of top officials from some of Germany’s largest companies, including Daimler, Volkswagen and ThyssenKrupp.
Officials and executives
Since Gabriel’s visit, high-ranking ministers from France and Italy also have visited Tehran. British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond plans to rush there Saturday to reopen his nation’s embassy, amid concerns that British business is falling behind its continental counterparts. Spain, Sweden and Poland plan to follow in the fall. Most of the lawmakers have brought top business leaders with them.
Next month, Austrian President Heinz Fischer plans to be the first European head of state to visit Tehran since 2004. Vienna also hosted a major E.U.-Iran trade conference just a week after the deal was signed.
“A lot of companies at the moment are preparing agreements to be signed the moment sanctions are lifted,” said Michael Tockuss, the head of the German-Iranian Chamber of Commerce. He said his association is organizing a trip every week for companies interested in doing deals in Iran. Requests for advice have tripled since the accord was announced.
Any Western business deals with Iran are still riddled with legal uncertainties, leaving companies tiptoeing for now. Multinational firms that do business in the United States don’t want to be targeted by U.S. sanctions if Congress ultimately rejects the agreement. The Treasury Department also has powerful sway over the international finance system, making it difficult for money to flow to and from Iran and crimping even deals that are legal under the current sanctions regime.
That doesn’t even touch on what would happen if Iran were found to be violating the deal, triggering “snapback” sanctions that could gobble up whatever Western money is invested there.
But despite the concerns, some initial agreements are being signed — with government stamps of approval. Italian bank Mediobanca signed a memorandum of understanding in Tehran this month to finance deals between Italian and Iranian businesses. The loans would be guaranteed by Italy’s state-run export credit company, which has estimated that removing sanctions could increase Italian exports to Iran by $3.3 billion by the end of 2018.
Many analysts say European policymakers would have little patience for a U.S. rejection of the agreement, which was finalized after years of painstaking negotiations led by the Obama administration. Europe never sundered ties with Iran as completely as the United States did.
“There is no particular reason why the Europeans would let themselves be affected by U.S. self-inflicted injuries,” said François Heisbourg, a defense analyst at the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research.
Congressional rejection of the deal might thwart some investment in Iran in the short run, he said. But over the years, European businesses would probably find ways to circumvent any financing restrictions.
European firms have been salivating over the prospect of a deal, with leaders preparing to sign contracts as soon as it is legal for them to do so.
“Iran is an El Dorado for oil,” said Paolo Scaroni, who, when he headed the Italian energy giant Eni, met with Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh about potential investments. At the time of the December 2013 meeting, Scaroni said, “there was already a kind of smell that sanctions might be reduced or eliminated.”
But as the rush picks up between Europe and Tehran, the U.S.-Iran contacts have been far quieter.
Door opens for U.S. firms
In the short term, most American businesses stand to gain far less than their European counterparts, even though many Iranians covet U.S. goods and would gladly pay a premium for them. The deal would lift only those sanctions related to Iran’s nuclear program, leaving in place many U.S. restrictions that are pinned to Iran’s human rights abuses and support for terrorism.
The accord nevertheless opens the door for some U.S. companies to expand their business with the Islamic republic and lays the groundwork for more trade and investment in future years.
A separate clause in the agreement allows for the sale of commercial aircraft and parts to Iran, which wants to buy at least 400 new planes over the next decade from both Boeing and Airbus.
Given the size of the Iranian market and its affinity for American products, said Richard Nephew, the lead U.S. sanctions expert negotiating with Iran until early this year, it is surprising that more U.S. companies haven’t been openly advocating for the deal as Congress prepares to vote on it. When he recently asked a corporate executive why, the executive explained that doing business with Iran could have “reputational consequences.”
“But three, four or five years from now, I can see them going to Congress and saying, ‘The Europeans are making a mint while we’re off in the side lot,’ and asking for a change,” Nephew said. “It comes down to perceptions if the remaining sanctions are stopping terrorism and violations of human rights.”
Despite their interest, many U.S. businesses do not expect to set up shop in Tehran for some time.
“Most of our clients recognize that this will not be business as usual for probably many years to come,” said William McGlone, a lawyer who specializes in sanctions at the Washington firm of Latham & Watkins.
Current sanctions allow limited trade with Iran in areas intended to alleviate human suffering, such as drugs, food and medical equipment. In practice, however, a lot of companies don’t take full advantage because the sanctions leave only a limited number of firms to facilitate the trade.
“I can under the law send an MRI machine, with a permit,” said Farhad Alavi, a sanctions lawyer with the Akrivis Law Group in Washington. “But it’s hard to find a company to ship it. It’s hard to get paid. With the U.S. removal of penalties, third-country companies might come into the fray.”
Alavi said most of the companies that have contacted him since the deal was announced are taking a long view of investment prospects, but he said they may find that the Europeans are already entrenched in the market.
“Iran is on everybody’s radar,” he said.
Morello reported from Washington.
Read more
What’s next for Iran after the nuclear deal
Full text of the Iran nuclear deal
The key moments in the long history of U.S.-Iran tensionsInterviewed: █████ ████████
Interviewer: Agent ██████
Foreword: █████ ████████ was brought to Site-██ following the recovery of SCP-1650. Following his arrival, he asked to discuss a "mutually beneficial arrangement" between the Foundation and the HI. Agent ██████ was instructed to act with prudence in regards to █████ ████████'s terms in order to gain information.
<Begin Log>
Agent ██████: You said you had something to discuss with us?
█████ ████████: Indeed. I wish to discuss the terms offered by the Horizon Initiative.
Agent ██████: Terms?
█████ ████████: My superiors have prepared me for the contingency of the deal being intercepted by Foundation operatives, and provided me with a list of terms that, if followed, will ensure full cooperation on behalf of the Initiative in all future endeavors.
Agent ██████: And those terms are?
█████ ████████: First and foremost, the Initiative will require that the holy relic you confiscated from us be returned. While we respect your attempts of containing dangerous phenomena, this relic cannot stay in your hands. It is a sacred object, the cleanser and the provider for the Temple itself. Next, we require that the Foundation relinquish the following holy relics already in its possession to Initiative hands: [REDACTED], as well as the immediate destruction of the following heretical and demonic objects: [REDACTED]. In exchange, the Initiative is willing to share all of its resources and information concerning any future findings and assist in battling the various heresies corrupting God's good earth to the Foundation's satisfaction.
Agent ██████: I'm not exactly sure how much you know about us, Father, but I can tell you right now those terms are extremely problematic.
█████ ████████: I'm sorry, but the terms are non-negotiable. Surely you could see the benefits of such an arrangement? The Initiative and the Foundation needn't be enemies; we share the same goals, after all. We both wish mankind to be safe from the evils of the beyond. Your attempt of preserving man's flesh is admirable, but you neglect his soul! Let us help you, please.
Agent ██████: I'll have to discuss this with my superiors, you understand. This might take a while.
█████ ████████: I was told only to accept an immediate response. My superiors do not trust you.
Agent ██████: You have to understand, those things take time. You're asking for a lot, you know.
█████ ████████: [angrily] They told me! They told me you would do this! Try to string me along, make me complacent! I admit, I did not expect this, I thought you were better than that! Perhaps I should have. Perhaps you are not what I thought you were. [to himself] Pactum serva, █████.
Agent ██████: Come now, you are being unreasonable.
█████ ████████: I am sorry it must come to this, but my conviction is clear, as are my orders. If you refused our terms, it means you have fallen too far. It appears that is the case, and so there is only one thing left to say: Judges 16:30.
<End Log>
Closing Statement: At this moment, █████ ████████ appeared to have triggered an explosive device, killing himself and Agent ██████ and severely damaging the interrogation room. Traces of an unknown explosive and a voice activation system which failed to be detected by the screening process were found in █████ ████████ remains. Security details on the objects █████ ████████ mentioned were updated following this incident.On Media Blog Archives Select Date… December, 2015 November, 2015 October, 2015 September, 2015 August, 2015 July, 2015 June, 2015 May, 2015 April, 2015 March, 2015 February, 2015 January, 2015
Wall Street Journal closes bureaus, starts layoffs
The Wall Street Journal is closing several international bureaus and blogs and scaling back some teams, laying off dozens of employees in the process.
In a memo to staff on Thursday, obtained by the On Media blog, editor-in-chief Gerard Baker said the closures targeted content that wasn't generating much traffic or many subscribers. The Prague and Helsinki bureaus will be closed, as will the Bahasa, Indonesia, site. The small-business group and New York-based economics team will be eliminated, and the personal finance team will be scaled back.
"These closures and realignments do not reflect on the quality of the work done by these teams but simply speak to the pressing need to become more focused as a newsroom on areas we believe are ripe for growth. It is always painful to part with staff in this way but we express our deep gratitude to them for all they have done for Dow Jones and wish them the very best," Baker said in the memo.
Our colleagues at Capital New York report that about 30 staffers will be laid off. The news comes just a few weeks after the Journal embarked on a round of about 20 to 40 buyouts.
Baker also said in his memo that over the next few months the paper will be adding more positions "in the critical areas of business, finance, technology, markets and global economics" as well as in "visuals and video, audience data and analytics; social media engagement and others."
"This necessary restructuring will leave us a somewhat smaller but much more focused newsroom. We will be better-equipped and better able to exploit the opportunities that exist in the fastest growing parts of our business: with enhanced and improved coverage of the news that we know translates into additional circulation and long-term growth," Baker wrote.
Hadas Gold is a reporter at Politico.Covering nearly a fifth the circumference of Mars, the canyon system Valles Marineris reigns as the largest canyon system on the Red Planet. Dwarfing its Earthly counterpart, the Grand Canyon, the Martian feature is one of the larger canyons in the solar system.
Characteristics
Valles Marineris is a system of canyons that spans 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers). At some points, the canyon is 125 miles (200 km) wide. Regions can reach depths of 6 miles (10 km). If the system were located on Earth, it would stretch across the United States, from Los Angeles to the Atlantic coast.
By comparison, Earth's natural wonder, the Grand Canyon, is only 227 miles (446 km) long, 18 miles (30 km) wide, and 1 mile (1.6 km) deep. A windy channel on Venus, Baltis Valles, extends longer than the Martian system, as do a handful of rift valleys on Earth, which form along fault lines as the crust breaks apart.
Valles Marineris stretches east-west just below the Martian equator. It starts in the west in the Noctis Labyrinthus, a system of maze-like valleys and canyons, and stretches around 20 percent of the planet to the chaotic terrain near the Chryse Planitia basin. (Chryse Planitia was visible to NASA's Viking 1 lander.)
The canyon system contains a number of different features that give clues to its formation. Collapse pits created by rushing water eating away at the land, massive floods, and seeping along canyon walls all point to water just at or beneath the surface at some point in the Martian history. Cracks in the crust, cliffs and walls, and landslides also exist along the expanse of Valles Marineris.
The vast canyon can be seen from Earth through a telescope as a dark scarring on the planet's surface. Features known as chasmata, steep depressions that resemble canyons on Earth, dominate the canyon.
The canyon begins in the Noctis Labyrinthus on the western edge, a region of material thought to have volcanic origins. Two parallel chasmata, Ius and Tithonium, stretch eastward, and contain lava flows and faults from the Tharsis Bulge.
Three more chasmata, Melas, Candor and Ophir, are connected on the east side of the parallel features. Their floors contain eroded material and volcanic ash. The floor of the Melas chasma contains the deepest point of the canyon system.
Valles Marineris in the east of Mars’ Tharsis volcanic region. Higher regions are marked red in this topographic map, while yellow and green indicate moderate elevations; the lowest points are shown in blue. (Image: © MOLA, NASA/JPL/University of Arizona)
Coprates Chasma lies farther east, with well-defined layered deposits. These deposits may have formed from landslides or wind-blown material, although the region may once have housed isolated lakes.
This canyon, one of the lowest points in Valles Marineris, boasts a handful of its own volcanoes, though they are small compared to Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in the solar system, and its neighbors. The 400-meter high cones were only recently identified.
"We observed morphological details such as bulging of solidified lava caused by the injection of more-recent lava beneath the hardened crust, as well as characteristic surface patterns identical to lava fields on Earth," Petr Brož, from the Institute of Geophysics of the Czech Academy of Science, said in a statement. "This reinforces our assumption that we are looking at magmatic rock volcanism and not liquid mud."
"In geological terms, the volcanic cones are very young, just 200 [million] to 400 million years in age," co-author Gregory Michael, of the Freie Universität Berlin in Germany, said in a separate statement on the research. This is surprising, given that the bulk of Martian volcanism took place around 3.5 billion years ago.
Eos and Ganges are another set of chasmata that contain volcanic or windblown deposits that have slowly eroded over time.
The Valles Marineris system empties into the Chryse region, one of the lowest regions on Mars. Any water from the canyon system would have flown into the lowlands, and it may have once contained an ancient lake or ocean.
Valles Marineris formation
Over the years, scientists have proposed a number of theories about the formation of Valles Marineris. Erosion during a water-rich past and the withdrawal of subsurface magma were both early possibilities.
Today, most scientists think that the formation of the Tharsis region may have helped the canyon to form. The Tharsis region contains several large volcanoes that dwarf those found on Earth, including Olympus Mons.
The valleys of Coprates Chasma in the east of Valles Marineris. This perspective view was created using stereo image data from DLR’s High Resolution Stereo Camera on board the European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft. (Image: © ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC-BY-SA 3.0 IGO)
As molten rock pushed through the volcanic region to form the monstrous volcanoes 3.5 billion years ago, the crust heaved upward. The strain cracked the crust, causing large faults and fractures across the planet's surface. Such fractures, growing over time, birthed the enormous canyon system.
The spreading cracks caused the ground to sink and opened an escape for subsurface water. The upward rushing liquid broke down the edges of the fractures, enlarging them and washing away more of the ground while flowing past.
Signs of flooding are especially apparent at the eastern end, in the mesas and hills known as chaotic terrain. Rushing water poured through channels into the lowlands, carving a series of channels. Scientists do not yet know whether the flooding took place over a short span of time, or whether one overwhelming flood was accompanied by several smaller flooding events.
At the same time, canyons were slowly widened over smaller scales as seeping groundwater carried rock and sediment away in smaller quantities. Landslides also helped to enlarge the features, sometimes traveling as far as 60 miles (100 km). Lava flows and ash falling from the nearby volcanoes may also have played a role in forming the intricate feature.
Glaciers probably helped with the carving. Signs of acid-rock interactions in Valles Marineris suggest that giant ice formations may have helped to carve at least some of the extensive network of channels. Deposits of the mineral jarosite suggest formation by ice rather than by puddles of water.
"Jarosite is usually considered an evaporative mineral: it forms from acidic water that is evaporating," lead author Selby Cull, of Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, told Space.com.
"Getting an evaporating pool of water halfway up a 3-mile-high cliff is tricky, and the more we looked into the geologic context surrounding the deposit, the less likely a liquid water origin seemed."
The large canyon system was discovered in 1972 by its namesake, NASA's Mariner 9 spacecraft, the first satellite to orbit another planet.
Follow Nola Taylor Redd at @NolaTRedd, Facebook, or Google+. Follow us at @Spacedotcom, Facebook orGoogle+.The aquaculture industry is growing faster than the human population, at about eight percent each year, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
About 20 percent of the world’s fish goes to aquaculture, depleting wild-caught forage fish such as anchovies and krill to provide essential oils and protein for the development and growth of these cultivated foods.
The first team to sell 100,000 metric tons of fish-free feed or, if that threshold isn’t reached, that sells the most feed by the end of the contest, on September 15, 2017, will be named the winner of the F3 challenge.
When the world is staring down a population that’s pushing quickly toward nine billion people, aquaculture offers an efficient way to produce high-protein food for the hungry masses. But there’s a catch: While fish are feeding the multitudes of people, there may not be enough left for other fish to eat. As the farming of fish, shrimp, and mollusks expands, the old adage about “plenty of fish in the sea” may no longer ring true.
The aquaculture industry is growing faster than the human population, at about eight percent each year, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. About 20 percent of the world’s fish goes to aquaculture, depleting wild-caught forage fish such as anchovies and krill to provide essential oils and protein for the development and growth of these cultivated foods.
“Even if the industry gets to a sustainable maximum yield, that just means we’ll take the same amount of fish out of the sea without affecting how much we want next year,” says Kevin Fitzsimmons, an aquaculture expert and environmental sciences professor at the University of Arizona in Tucson. “Nobody interviewed the whales and dolphins and seabirds as to whether they’re getting enough anchovies, menhaden and other forage fish.”
The Fish-Free Feed (F3) challenge was created to accelerate the development of aquaculture diets made without fish or fish oil. Eight teams of innovators from around the world were attracted to the sustainable premise and the promise of a $200,000 (USD) prize, raised through crowdfunding and sponsorship from the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the New England Aquarium, the University of Arizona, and the World Bank. The first team to sell 100,000 metric tons of fish-free feed or, if that threshold isn’t reached, that sells the most feed by the end of the contest, on September 15, 2017, will be named the winner.
“There’s a lot of research going on out there, the problem is getting the word out in the industry and getting people to recognize that all kinds of ingredients — single-cell proteins, algal extracts or insect meals — could be used instead of fish,” says Fitzsimmons, chair of the contest committee. Beyond generating new feed formulations, he also hopes the contest will connect alternative ingredient manufacturers with feed companies and investors who can help smaller companies scale up production.
One of those smaller companies looking to ramp up production is TomAlgae, a Belgian-based manufacturer of microalgae that feeds shrimp during the earliest life stages. By growing a specific diatom under carefully controlled conditions, they take the guesswork out of nutrition and avoid contamination with pathogens that can reduce the nutritional value of this food source.
“We want to replace the live algae used in hatcheries,” says William van der Riet, the company’s cofounder. “There is an enormous technology gap in the early stages. They rely on a very artisanal way of producing their own feed when they should be relying on feed with quality that is consistent from day to day.”
This specialized feed can’t compete with the bigger companies on a tonnage level, notes van der Riet. Under ideal conditions, about 100 grams of the freeze-dried micro-algae (which is rehydrated before use) could feed one million shrimp larvae and produce about 15 tons of shrimp meat. The F3 challenge is a way to join with other companies producing fish-free products and create a complete chain of sustainable feeds for aquaculture, starting from the hatchery stage, he says.
On a larger scale, algae is harnessed by TerraVia, a California-based company, to produce docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), one of the omega-3 essential fatty acids (EFA) found in fish oil. Roughly 400,000 tons of fish oil go into feeds for farmed salmon and trout, making aquaculture the single biggest industry for consuming long-chain omega-3s like fish oil, notes Walter Rakitsky, TerraVia’s senior vice president of emerging business. Algae is the original source of the EFAs that bioaccumulate in fish.
Previously focused on extracting oils for biofuel production from algal fermentation, TerraVia uses its bioreactors in Brazil to produce DHA. With facilities capable of making tens of thousands of tons of AlgalPrimeDHA, Rakitsky estimates that every ton of their algae-derived DHA saves about 40 tons of wild-caught fish.
With a sustainable ingredient to offer, TerraVia teamed up for the F3 challenge with Star Milling, a Bay Area feed company, and TwoXSea, an environmentally motivated fish wholesaler headquartered in San Francisco. Their contest entry is a rainbow trout feed produced by Star Milling, and formulated for TwoXSea by USDA research physiologist Rick Barrows to include the TerraVia’s algae-made DHA as well as other healthy ingredients such as flax oil and pistachio meal.
The quest for healthier fish food wasn’t new to TwoXSea, a company cofounded by Bill Foss, a hi-tech expat who helped start a seafood restaurant — called Fish. — to serve sustainable seafood and educate consumers.
“We treat the ocean like a toilet with everything we dump in [the water], we don’t know what inventory is in there, we can’t control it, and yet we blindly depend on it for food. That’s stupid,” says Foss. “Every consumer needs to start making educated decisions and take some responsibility — not just on farmed fish.”
The obvious solution, for Foss, was to stop sourcing seafood from somewhere else and start farming freshwater trout on a plant-based diet. He calls the process “renewable” rather than sustainable. “We want to be involved in things that can be replicated, so that generations from now we’ll still have access to the same fish,” he says.
Similar to Foss’ restaurant patrons, more than one kind of meal needs to be on the aquaculture menu because each species has different nutrient requirements. For example, the plant-based foods formulated for omnivorous tilapia might not be suitable for carnivorous salmon.
The Ridley Corporation, a leading agri-feed producer based in Australia, focused on developing feed for prawns, a seafood for which experts estimate that global aquaculture production will grow by more than 5 percent in the coming years. With a novel ingredient called Novacq, their contest entry represents a long-term effort to develop more sustainable feeds that boost growth performance, enhance disease resistance, and reduce waste.
“We’ve been looking at sustainable feed strategies for many years, so the thinking behind the competition matches ours really well,” says Sunil Kadri, head of business development at Ridley. “Whether or not we win, we want to be part of this international movement and work with like-minded people and companies; this competition gives us that opportunity.”
Those kind of opportunities are lining up. Before the next competition milestone in mid-January — a first tally of sales receipts for the new feeds — the F3 contestants are invited to a round of meet-ups with fellow competitors, selected industry insiders, and investors.
“We didn’t set this up to pick winners or losers,” says Fitzsimmons of the F3 challenge. “Having all these companies talking to each other and using a fish-free diet — that’s a success unto itself.”
FEEDBACK: Use this form to send a message to the author of this post. If you want to post a public comment, you can do that at the bottom of the page.See that phone in the above photo? That's a Galaxy Note 5. And yet compared to Samsung's new, monstrous 18.6-inch Galaxy View tablet, the phablet looks downright tiny. Today, Samsung made its full unveil of the hulking device we first saw in September at IFA. And while it's sure to be ridiculed and laughed at by some, Samsung seems to think it's built the ultimate entertainment and consumption tablet. A really, really big consumption tablet. Let's be honest: this thing's almost more TV than tablet.
To start, yeah, it's got a built-in kickstand — and handle, to boot. But our guess that it would detach from the tablet was way off; it's permanently attached. In its regular position, the kickstand props the Galaxy View up at the right angle for setting it on a table or desk and watching from a few feet away. But the bottom of the kickstand also moves inward, which gives the device a slight incline when laid flat. There really is no "flat" with the Galaxy View, though; the kickstand is always sticking out somewhere, so it's not the most convenient thing to transport away from home.
But Samsung doesn't think consumers will do that very often anyway. For one, you'd look like a total moron trying to use this thing on the bus or train. Instead, the grand vision here seems to be a giant 1080p screen that you carry from room to room — but rarely outside the house. Put it in the bedroom for binging on Netflix before bed, or take it to the kitchen to watch some Hulu while making dinner. That's the idea, anyway. But it's also what normal-sized tablets already accomplish. Does anyone actually need a screen this massive over, say, an iPad Air 2 or Galaxy Tab S2?
So big that it feels wrong calling this thing a tablet
The display itself looks okay. It's a 1080p screen, which Samsung would argue is where most web videos and Android games currently max out in quality. But at 18-plus inches, you can definitely see pixels up close. No one's going to confuse this for a Quad HD or 4K panel. But Samsung says the immersion created by its sheer size is on par with big-screen TVs. Pushing that display along is a 1.6GHz octa-core processor and 2GB of RAM. On the audio side, a pair of 4-watt speakers handles sound output. And while most of your viewing will probably be tied to streaming, there's a microSD slot if you need more storage than what's built in.
The Galaxy View features a custom home screen that's filled with video apps like Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube. Swipe to the next screen over and you get Samsung's usual Android home screen. (The View also supports side-by-side apps and other Samsung features like SideSync.) The top left slot of that video grid is reserved for video apps from cable providers like Time Warner Cable, Comcast, and DirecTV. Sadly, you can't move around the tiles and apps featured or add your own favorites like Sling TV or HBO. Samsung says it'll update what's on the home grid periodically, and you can always download video apps — Amazon Video, Sling, and so on — and put them on the secondary home screen.
Pricing and availability info on the Galaxy View are coming very soon, but for now just marvel at the enormity of this Samsung tablet — and try answering the question of whether it's something you'd ever consider buying.The Indian polity is drowning in corruption. Many of India’s politicians are corrupt. Quite a number of them are known criminals facing serious charges before the courts. Most political parties are guilty of running a significant number of candidates with criminal records and cases hanging over their heads. The civil servants are completely uncivil and corrupt — no less than the politicians. Many of the cadres of the IPS, IAS, IFS and numerous other federal and state services are busy accumulating wealth by hook or by crook. The corruption and its deadly poison of unethicality, amorality and immorality have seeped deep into the vitals of each and every aspect of India’s life. This much is incontestable except by the human ostriches with their heads in the murky and corrosive sand dunes of denial.
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WATCH VIDEO | All Eyes On TN Governor After Sasikala & Panneerselvam Hold Talks At Raj Bhawan
Since shortly after independence, the unprincipled and unethical politicians have been plundering the country; the Indians talk about it, cry about it, shout about it and campaign about it. But the naked dance of corruption goes on and the deeply ingrained ethical and financial sickness and morass continue to bedevil India and its politics. The feudal ethic of loyalty to family too continues to reign supreme and suffocate politics. Previously, the Nehru-Gandhis were the only major example of this slavery. One can now add Yadavs of UP and Bihar, Badals of Punjab, several BJP politicians and their scions and others across the country to the list. This will eventually prove deadly for liberal democracy.
The latest episode of Indian democracy under stress happens to involve the AIADMK leaders and MLAs in Tamil Nadu. Some AIADMK MLAs have been in an obscene rush to anoint Sasikala chief minister of Tamil Nadu. In their mad and blind dash to do this, they are prepared to ignore the very serious criminal disproportionate assets case against her still pending before the Supreme Court. They aren’t even prepared to wait for the decision of the court which we are told is due any day. The politics in India being extremely corrupt, unethical and embedded much beyond politics, deep into India’s cultural and social values, one is terrified to confess – but in its soul – the very low threshold of ethics and principles exhibited by the MLAs in this sorry and depressing tale hasn’t at all registered in the editorial rooms of major print and electronic media.
WATCH VIDEO | 5 Lesser Known Facts About Sasikala Natarajan
It is reported that Sasikala herded and whisked away about 120 MLAs, plus or minus a few, into hotels and resorts to keep them locked away to ensure they did not declare their loyalties to someone else. About 30 of them are said to be fasting in protest against being virtual prisoners of Sasikala and her henchmen. This is the time-worn method often used in India to ensure continued support from the legislators as the herder lays claim to the chief ministership of a state. This terribly feudal and undemocratic practice has been used by so many and so often that it has barely caused a ripple on the opinion pages.
It is abhorrent that the ‘Sasikala MLAs’ were under virtual house arrest as she presented their signatures to the governor in support of her claim to the top seat. This must be sufficient in itself for the governor to reject those signatures as not having been made by the MLAs of their own volition; treat them as inked under duress in ‘captivity’. The governor should personally ask to see the MLAs – one by one if that was his wish – in the presence of a couple of independent observers. That would allow the MLAs to freely express their support for their choice of leader for the AIADMK. Based on that voluntary expression of support, the governor should ask the one backed by the majority to form the government and allow for the trust vote to be had in the Assembly.
WATCH VIDEO | O. Panneerselvam: 10 Things You Need To Know
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The constitutional experts may scoff at this proposal. There is a larger issue at stake. Why should a state governor act on a list of signatures of men and women under virtual imprisonment presented by anyone – in this case Sasikala – to allow him/her to don the mantle of Chief Minister? For democracy to mean something, there must a fundamental right to choose founded on a freely exercised will; the MLAs in choosing their legislative leader must at least be as free as the voters in a general election. In free and fair elections, the voters have the right to freely choose their representatives. The governor should ensure the AIADMK MLAs have the same right: To freely choose their leader before he/she is allowed to become the chief minister. The chief minister must not only be freely chosen but must also be seen to be freely chosen before being given the opportunity for a confidence vote in the Assembly. The governor should follow this route. Let true democracy reign; and let the democratic chips fall where they may: on VK Sasikala, O Pannneerselvam or on someone completely different. That is what transparency and democracy demand. That is what people – in this case the people of Tamil Nadu – deserve!TEDxHollywood will focus on entertainment themes including:
• Everyone is a Media Company: Brands and organizations now regularly create and post content to engage audiences and customers.
• Succeeding Outside The System: Learning from mavericks who have carved out successful careers in entertainment using ingenuity, elbow grease, talent, digital media and more.
• Storytelling That Drives Change: Stories that explain, inform and inspire. Stories shed new light on controversial topics, or advocate for a particular point of view.
• Sci-Fi Comes To Life: Great gadgets and technology imagined by Hollywood show what is possible, and what could become reality in the not too distant future.
In addition to leading industry experts and creative minds, TEDxHollywood will host 400 attendees who will be able to rewind time and watch previous TEDTalk videos delivered by creative and technology visionaries who made prognostications about the future of digital content and its impact on the entertainment industry.
How to Attend TEDxHollywood
For more information about TEDxHollywood and tickets, please visit www.tedxhollywood.net or email us at info@tedxhollywood.net.Several unrelated issues have assembled for what promises to be a wild month in the Minnesota Vikings' quarterback saga. An ominous diagnosis for Sam Bradford's knee and the potential return of Teddy Bridgewater have intersected, leaving open the possibility of a midseason transition that once seemed highly improbable.
Let's examine the issues involved in a friendly format. There's nothing to fear here...
Ominous? I thought the Vikings said Bradford was just dealing with "wear and tear."
They did, and he is.
But there are two important takeaways from that information.
Go on …
The first is that "wear and tear" isn't a medical diagnosis. It's a description of why the injury happened. The real question to ask in order to understand Bradford's condition is: WHAT happened?
OK, genius: What happened?
The NFL Network reported that he suffered a bone bruise in the left knee in Week 1. That's the same knee in which Bradford has twice torn the ACL.
But I thought the Vikings said Bradford didn't have a bone bruise.
That's not actually what they said. Speaking to reporters Monday, athletic trainer Eric Sugarman said: "We're not dealing with a bone bruise from a direct hit."
See, there you go!
Well … as it turns out, there are two types of bone bruises. One can occur if, say, a helmet hits the shin. Another, as former San Diego Chargers team doctor David Chao has pointed out, happens with no contact. Technically, it's referred to as a periarticular bruise, and it occurs when the femur and tibia jam together without muscles absorbing |
even flatly say, "I could jump off a cliff" and regard this as true - if you construe could-ness according to reachability, and count actions as primitively reachable. But this does not challenge deterministic physics; you will either end up wanting to jump, or not wanting to jump.
The statement, "I could jump off the cliff, if I chose to" is entirely compatible with "It is physically impossible that I will jump off that cliff". It need only be physically impossible for you to choose to jump off a cliff - not physically impossible for any simple reason, perhaps, just a complex fact about what your brain will and will not choose.
Defining things appropriately, you can even endorse both of the statements:
"I could jump off the cliff" is true from my point-of-view
"It is physically impossible for me to jump off the cliff" is true for all observers, including myself
How can this happen? If all of an agent's actions are primitive-reachable from that agent's point-of-view, but the agent's decision algorithm is so constituted as to never choose to jump off a cliff.
You could even say that "could" for an action is always defined relative to the agent who takes that action, in which case I can simultaneously make the following two statements:
NonSuicidalGuy could jump off the cliff.
It is impossible that NonSuicidalGuy will hit the ground.
If that sounds odd, well, no wonder people get confused about free will!
But you would have to be very careful to use a definition like that one consistently. "Could" has another closely related meaning in which it refers to the provision of at least a small amount of probability. This feels similar, because when you're evaluating actions that you haven't yet ruled out taking, then you will assign at least a small probability to actually taking those actions - otherwise you wouldn't be investigating them. Yet "I could have a heart attack at any time" and "I could have a heart attack any time I wanted to" are not the same usage of could, though they are confusingly similar.
You can only decide by going through an intermediate state where you do not yet know what you will decide. But the map is not the territory. It is not required that the laws of physics be random about that which you do not know. Indeed, if you were to decide randomly, then you could scarcely be said to be in "control". To determine your decision, you need to be in a lawful world.
It is not required that the lawfulness of reality be disrupted at that point, where there are several things you could do if you wanted to do them; but you do not yet know their consequences, or you have not finished evaluating the consequences; and so you do not yet know which thing you will choose to do.
A blank map does not correspond to a blank territory. Not even an agonizingly uncertain map corresponds to an agonizingly uncertain territory.
(Next in the free will solution sequence is "The Ultimate Source", dealing with the intuition that we have some chooser-faculty beyond any particular desire or reason. As always, the interested reader is advised to first consider this question on their own - why would it feel like we are more than the sum of our impulses?)WASHINGTON
Secretary of State John Kerry will address Syria’s ongoing civil war and the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh during an upcoming whirlwind global tour, the State Department announced Friday.
Kerry will be in Vienna from May 16-17 to co-host multinational meetings on Libya and Syria. During the Syria meeting he will seek to “reaffirm and strengthen the Cessation of Hostilities, to discuss ways to ensure humanitarian access throughout the country, and to expedite a negotiated political transition in Syria,” the agency said in a statement.
Alongside representatives from Russia and France, Kerry will co-host a meeting on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev.
The trip is part of a longer May 14-26 trip that will also take Kerry to Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Burma and Vietnam.
He will be in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia May 15-16 for bilateral meetings with Saudi officials where they are expected to address bilateral and regional issues.
During a four-day visit to Brussels he will participate in a NATO meeting of foreign ministers ahead of an alliance summit in July in Warsaw.
Kerry will meet with Burmese leaders on May 22 in the capital, Naypyitaw, “to signal U.S. support for the new democratically elected, civilian-led government and further democratic and economic reforms,” the State Department said.
From May 22-25, Kerry will visit Vietnam to accompany President Barack Obama to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.Slowly but surely, a whole lot of people are coming to terms with the fact that the African National Congress just ain’t what it used to be. But, writes CHRIS VICK, that could be because their view is a nostalgic one hinged on the ANC of Mandela, Sisulu and Tambo, rather than the reality of what the 99-year-old ANC really is.
Today’s ANC is increasingly looking like a struggle organisation which is struggling to govern. Struggling to rule, no – but struggling to govern, yes.
So when ANC members in the National Assembly voted in favour of the Protection of State Information Bill (for the POIB is, still, a Bill), it was really a sign of the times – proof, if you still needed it, that the ANC is on the ropes when it comes to how to govern.
There is no doubt that, if ultimately signed into law in its current form, the POIB will knock a huge dent in our democracy. It poses new challenges to real democrats, raises serious questions about the ANC’s commitment to key elements of our Constitution and opens the ANC to criticism from a range of important local and international voices.
But there are other theatres where the ANC is losing serious battles, and which require the urgent attention of all South Africans. Because – unless we turn some sort of magical corner – the more the ANC gets a bloody nose on these battlefields, the more it is likely to come up with other POIBs.
You don’t have to be a foreign spy to realise that this means more steps – including legislation – which are aimed at doing nothing more than protecting the ANC’s political preserve.
And you can bet your last copy of the Constitution that this includes a media appeals tribunal before the end of next year.
Analysing the extent of the ANC’s difficulties highlights why the movement is prepared to risk local and international condemnation by seeming to spit on a key page of the Constitution.
The National Planning Commission provided a sober summary of the scale of those challenges in its diagnostic report, published in September this year. Its list of “critical issues” facing South Africa – and, thereby, the ruling party – is profound:
Ensuring that economically active but poor citizens can find work that leads them out of income poverty.
Determining whether the growth path is acceptable or viable, and what other options exist.
Assessing the degree to which state policy and implementation have been captured by new and old elites.
Creating a developmental state that can actively facilitate the development of individuals, households and communities, and enhance human capability.
Improving nutrition, the quality of education, health outcomes and community safety.
Finding the appropriate mix of different forms of social assistance and livelihood support.
Restructuring state institutions and performance.
Tackling the quadruple burden of epidemics.
It’s a wonder anyone in government sleeps at night with that hanging over them – it’s the ultimate “challenge” for an organisation whose key competence is liberation rather than governance, even if the target date for real change is 2030.
But if the 2011 ANC leadership can’t make up its mind over just one of those items – bullet two: a growth path – and dithers over three current and largely parallel current conversations over economic policy – the NPC, the New Growth Path and the strategy for industrial growth – how capable is it of biting the bullet on some of the real social challenges facing the country it rules?
Take a look around you. The ANC increasingly finds itself walking a political, economic and social tightrope – and, to make it worse, a potentially destructive global recession is looming down below.
In government in particular, the ruling party is caught between the bite of two self-made scourges: rampant corruption and dismal under-performance,
The Special Investigating Unit recently informed Parliament that approximately 20% of government procurement-spend is lost on corruption.
At the same time, government appears to be undershooting most of the targets announced by President Jacob Zuma since his appointment. Whether it’s economic growth, job creation (real or imagined), interventions into health care, education, housing or rural development, government’s well of good news seems to be drying up.
On top of this, even government’s own elaborate monitoring and evaluation mechanism – an indicator of its own progress – seems to be floundering. Despite the presence of some of the country’s most skilled technocrats, and a recently appointed deputy minister to boost Collins Chabane’s political leadership, the presidency seems unable to keep up with its own system. No new performance statistics have been published on its website since August; in many cases, there is just no data available to show how government is performing in terms of its own Programme of Action. And where there is data, it shows scant progress since performance agreements were signed in public ceremonies last year.
What this means is an increasing slide, and growing signs of potential delivery failures – and missed targets, which means dashed public expectations – in crucial socio-economic services. All these services are intended to benefit one constituency the most: the poor, who make up the vast majority of the ANC’s support base.
So at a time when there is a profound need for political direction and leadership in government departments, South Africa is left lacking. Even the health minister, who seemed to be Zuma’s silver bullet when some of his Cabinet colleagues seemed as lethal as a potato gun, seems to have retired from public view. And the Cabinet reshuffle – which one would have expected to reinvigorate and revitalise government – seems to have little effect on the levels of energy and commitment in Pretoria. We are back to the malaise, and kicking crucial decisions into touch.
You can see similar “challenges” in Cape Town: officials working in Parliament still reminisce about the Class of ‘94, the first wave of ANC cadres who were sent to the National Assembly to craft a new Constitution, to scrap apartheid legislation and write new democratic laws for our new democratic society.
The quality of debate back then, when MPs were flush with the newness of being in office (if not yet in power), was intense. The commitment was immense. And there was nary a scandal, a travel claim fraud, a sexual harassment charge or a conflict of interest to speak of – proof, if you would, of the caliber of cadres who were appointed public representatives.
Today, some of the honourable members who aren’t sleeping in the House are probably only still awake out of fear of another Sunday Times investigation into building leases, a Mail & Guardian expose of their dodgy tenders in the Northern Cape, or a City Press exclusive on the size of their “pipi”.
Little wonder, then, that the POIB debate went the way it did, and that at times it felt like a lynch-mob for the media elite who attended the session in black. It was public payback time for all those articles on the arms deal, the president’s love-children, the deputy president’s airplanes or the presidential non-spokesman’s trips to Disneyland.
Amid all this, you could be forgiven for starting to think the ANC has lost the plot. Except there’s one plot it will never lose – the Ultimate Plot: The succession battle.
It’s clear that most ANC leaders are almost totally distracted by Mangaung 2012 and the political in-fighting that goes with it. If it’s not Malema, it’s Sexwale and Madikizela-Mandela. If it’s not Mbalula, it’s Gigaba and Mantashe. If it’s not Zuma, it’s Motlanthe.
So rather than increased service delivery and a ruling party which pays increasing attention to the people who voted it into power – all of which would result in more good news, and less need for secrecy – government focuses on ways of keeping the bad news out of sight. And spends almost all its energy on incessant, soul-destroying in-fighting over who gets to inherit the ANC in 2012.
Which begs the question: if the current ANC leadership won’t be able to govern itself, will it still be able to govern South Africa?
As the ANC’s secrecy swords are brandished, as the condoms burst, as the commissions of inquiry build caseloads quicker than government builds RDP houses, the very thing which could rescue the ANC – delivery of services to the people, and a better quality of life for all – slides.
As the political infighting increases, the political delivery decreases. Stalemate. And the ruling party increasingly finds itself with its back against the wall.
Nostalgically, then, some among us are left to recite verses about freedom of speech made by former president Nelson Mandela in 1955, 1963, 1990 or 1994 – forgetting that the times have changed profoundly since then, and the ANC with it.
There were far fewer blue lights back then, when those comments were made. No lavish refurbishment of ministerial homes. No free flights on SAA. No free breakfasts, lunches and dinners. No shopping trips to conference venues in New York. No arms deal. No tenders. No tenders. NO TENDERS.
Nelson Mandela is still alive. But his values – crafted during the struggle for freedom rather than during the struggle to govern – are already pretty near dead, people. Get used to it. DM
Are You A South AfriCAN or a South AfriCAN'T?
Maverick Insider is more than a reader revenue scheme. While not quite a "state of mind", it is a mindset: it's about believing that independent journalism makes a genuine difference to our country and it's about having the will to support that endeavour.
From the #GuptaLeaks into State Capture to the Scorpio exposés into SARS, Daily Maverick investigations have made an enormous impact on South Africa and it's political landscape. As we enter an election year, our mission to Defend Truth has never been more important. A free press is one of the essential lines of defence against election fraud; without it, national polls can turn very nasty, very quickly as we have seen recently in the Congo.
If you would like a practical, tangible way to make a difference in South Africa consider signing up to become a Maverick Insider. You choose how much to contribute and how often (monthly or annually) and in exchange, you will receive a host of awesome benefits. The greatest benefit of all (besides inner peace)? Making a real difference to a country that needs your support.
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Austin scores QPR's first goal of the season
Rangers abandon 3-5-2 in favour of a 4-3-3 formation
Loic Remy withdrawn from line-up ahead of Chelsea move
Sunderland remain without a league win this season
Queens Park Rangers claimed their first win of the season as Charlie Austin's goal gave them victory over Sunderland.
Rangers came into the game having suffered three straight defeats, in which they had not managed a goal.
But Austin - leading the line in the absence of Loic Remy, who was withdrawn from the home starting XI ahead of a move to Chelsea - ended that run with a close-range strike following a corner.
Sunderland battled hard but fell to their first defeat of the season.
Media playback is not supported on this device We were excellent today - Harry Redknapp
QPR had to wait until mid-December for their first league win during their last Premier League campaign in 2012-13.
That they have achieved this feat a full three-and-a-half months earlier this time around will give them hope of avoiding a repeat of their relegation of two seasons ago.
It was far from a cohesive performance from Rangers, who have still yet to work out their best formation or starting XI, but there were significant improvements from their first two league matches of the season, particularly their 4-0 mauling at the hands of Tottenham last weekend.
Harry Redknapp began the season using the much-discussed and often maligned 3-5-2 formation, currently being put to largely ineffective use at Manchester United by Louis van Gaal.
A long time coming... QPR have had to wait over 17 months for a Premier league win, having failed to claim victory in the last nine games of the 2012-13 season (in which they were relegated) and the first two matches of this season. Their previous top-flight win to Saturday's was also against Sunderland at Loftus Road (3-1 on 9 March).
However, whereas Van Gaal seems intent on persevering with the system, three straight defeats without having scored a goal was enough for Redknapp, who switched to a more familiar back four and a three-man attack.
Remy was a part of that frontline until midday, when the club accepted a release-clause triggering offer for the player from Chelsea, thus prompting his withdrawal and seemingly the end of his career at Loftus Road.
The French forward had scored QPR's last three goals in the Premier League, going back to the end of the 2012-13 season and his intelligent movement and attacking instinct was missed by the home side.
Austin missed a penalty in QPR's opening game of the season - a 1-0 defeat by Hull
Fortunately for them, they also have last season's 20-goal top-scorer Austin in their ranks and the striker proved the match-winner on his return to the side following a hamstring injury.
In first-half added time, Joey Barton's corner was met at the far post by Leroy Fer, who had earlier hit the crossbar with a powerful 30-yard drive, and his cushioned header was the perfect set-up for Austin to smash the ball into the roof of the net from 10 yards.
The goal, and its timing, was a huge blow to the visitors, who had looked the more composed side for much of the first half.
Media playback is not supported on this device Gus Poyet hopes Sunderland learn from their mistakes
The returning Adam Johnson was a lively presence, creating two good openings with neat through-balls but neither Steven Fletcher nor Patrick van Aanholt could make the most of them, with the former seeing his shot saved by Robert Green and the latter looping his effort over the bar.
QPR had more control in the second half forcing their opponents to increasingly levels of desperation.
The Black Cats finished the game with a host of forwards on the pitch including Jozy Altidore and Emanuele Giaccherini.
The Italian came the closest to earning his side a point but his powerful 25-yard shot was palmed away superbly by the diving Green to ensure that QPR sealed just a fifth win in 43 Premier League games.
Charlie Austin scores QPR's first goal of the season in their fourth game
The relief at Austin's goal is clear to see among the QPR players
Jack Rodwell scored in Sunderland's last game but was a peripheral figure in this match
Gus Poyet's Sunderland side now have two points from their opening three league gamesMarc Hedlund is VP of Engineering at Etsy. He has managed engineers in Internet companies from coast to coast, and is currently writing a book for O’Reilly Media on engineering management.
Today, in conjunction with Hacker School, Etsy is announcing a new scholarship and sponsorship program for women in technology: we’ll be hosting the summer 2012 session of Hacker School in the Etsy headquarters, and we’re providing ten Etsy Hacker Grants of $5,000 each — a total of $50,000 — to women who want to join but need financial support to do so. Our goal is to bring 20 women to New York to participate, and we hope this will be the first of many steps to encourage more women into engineering at Etsy and across the industry.
Women in Engineering
I’ve been an engineering manager in the Internet industry for 17 years, in the Bay Area and now in New York City. Throughout that time, I’ve hired hundreds of men from across the country and around the world into fun, creative, lucrative jobs. In sharp contrast, before joining Etsy, I had hired about 20 women in engineering roles, total, and it wasn’t for a lack of effort. Other managers I know have reported similar experiences. When I first heard about Carnegie Mellon’s “Dave-to-girl ratio,” I laughed ruefully but was not surprised.
Last September, three out of 96 employees in Engineering and Operations at Etsy were women, and none of them were managers. Talking this over with others here, we thought that Etsy — which supports the businesses of hundreds of thousands of female entrepreneurs through our marketplace, which sells a majority of all items to women, and which already has many talented and amazing women working for the company — should be one of the single easiest Internet companies at which to correct this problem.
Six months later, we now have eleven women in Engineering and Operations. That’s a great start, but we still have no female engineering managers, and we’re nowhere near a gender-balanced department.
What more can we do? What, beyond aggressively searching social networks and hiring every qualified female engineer we can find, will make a real difference any time soon? Many people agree that real solutions to this problem need to start as early as middle school. For my three-year-old daughter, I am thrilled to hear discussion of solutions at that level. For our company, I’d like to start solving the problem a lot sooner.
Hacker School
Hacker School is a New York-based project described by its founders (David Albert, Nicholas Bergson-Shilcock, and Sonali Sridhar) as “a three-month, immersive school for becoming a better programmer. It’s like a writers’ retreat for hackers.”
I love their focus on open-source software, on coding over building a startup, and especially on having a productive classroom environment that’s free from the negative conversational habits that all nerds sometimes fall into. They establish rules such as, “No feigning surprise — ‘You don’t know who RICHARD STALLMAN is!?'” Working to make a comfortable and supportive classroom environment is a great example of their educational insight and approach, and helps to address one of the big points of dissatisfaction female computer science students tend to experience.
In Hacker School’s current batch, however, there is only one female student out of 20 (and yes, I am working on hiring her). Talking with them, they said all the same things I hear from engineering managers everywhere: few female applicants, hard to find women who are interested, and so on. We started talking about how we could make a bigger change: for their school, for Etsy, and for the industry as a whole.
Making a Change
The summer batch of Hacker School will be 40 students, and our goal is to have them accept at least 20 women, with Hacker School retaining full control over the admissions process. In other words, 20 times the number of women in the current batch.
What will it take to get there? Most of all, we need to reach out far and wide to find the women who would be interested in becoming professional engineers, but for whatever reason haven’t made it into the industry yet, or need help getting a better role. Second, we need to make the program as appealing to those women as we possibly can. Third, we need to make it possible for those women to attend.
Reaching out: Etsy and Hacker School are working hard to get the message out, but we can’t reach everyone we need to on our own. We’re asking everyone in the Etsy community, and everyone who reads this post, to help us spread the word to women they know who love hacking. If you know a woman who has made an awesome personal website, a great iPhone app, or anything of the sort, please encourage her to apply. We have a page up about the program, where you can forward information to friends, follow our progress, or apply yourself.
Etsy and Hacker School are working hard to get the message out, but we can’t reach everyone we need to on our own. We’re asking everyone in the Etsy community, and everyone who reads this post, to help us spread the word to women they know who love hacking. If you know a woman who has made an awesome personal website, a great iPhone app, or anything of the sort, please encourage her to apply. We have a page up about the program, where you can forward information to friends, follow our progress, or apply yourself. Making it appealing: Hacker School already does a great job of this on their own, but we found some ways to help. The school operates by borrowing space from New York technology companies, so the summer batch will be hosted in Etsy’s headquarters, which are (if we may say so) freaking awesome. We’re inviting all of the students to join our company lunch, Eatsy, so they can meet and learn from Etsy engineers. Finally, the students will be invited to tech talks and company events, like the boisterous Etsy talent show we had last month.
Hacker School already does a great job of this on their own, but we found some ways to help. The school operates by borrowing space from New York technology companies, so the summer batch will be hosted in Etsy’s headquarters, which are (if we may say so) freaking awesome. We’re inviting all of the students to join our company lunch, Eatsy, so they can meet and learn from Etsy engineers. Finally, the students will be invited to tech talks and company events, like the boisterous Etsy talent show we had last month. Making it possible: While Hacker School itself is free to all students, we know New York City is expensive, and a three-month “hackers’ retreat” might sound enticing but be out of reach for some of the women we want to see attend. So, for 10 female students, we’ll provide a $5,000 needs-based scholarship — a total of $50,000 in grants.
We’ll be thrilled if we get to hire any awesome female engineers from the next batch of Hacker School, but more importantly, we just want to see these women go on to get fun, creative, lucrative jobs in technology — and hopefully tell other women about the great experiences they’ve had.
Twenty is a small number, but it would roughly match the total number of female engineers I’ve hired in the past 17 years. Even a small change can have a large impact, given the severity of the issue. We hope you’ll help us make it happen.Domestic Shipping:
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Charles Alexander Diez, the former North Carolina firefighter who shot cyclist Alan Simons in the head, has been sentenced to four months in jail.
Diez
In an Asheville courtroom last week, Diez pled guilty to shooting Simons during a July 26 roadside confrontation. Said to be upset that Simons was riding his bike with his 3-year-old child, Diez fired his.38 caliber pistol as Simons walked away after the two exchanged words. The bullet struck Simons’ bike helmet, narrowly missing his skull.
In August, a grand jury reduced charges against Diez from attempted first degree murder to felony assault. While assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill certainly sounds like an offense worthy of a lengthy prison term, the presiding judge apparently agreed that this was a case of a stand-up guy having a bad day. Mountain Xpress reports:
Convictions on such a charge result in an average 20-39 months in
prison for the defendant. But in the sentencing, Superior Court Judge James Downs found that Diez’s military service, along with testimony from former
colleagues about his good character, were mitigating factors, and chose
to sentence him to 15-27 months instead. Downs suspended all but four
months of that sentence unless Diez breaks the law again in the next 30
months.
Diez must also undergo anger management counseling and pay Simons $1,200 "for damage to his eardrum."
The slap on the wrist issued to Diez has some worried that authorities have pretty much declared open season on area cyclists. Asked Brian Jones, who along with his wife is a regular victim of harassment and worse at the hands of local motorists: "If a cyclist shot a fireman, judge or prosecuting attorney in his
head, in front of his family, what sentence do you think he/she would
receive."
The travesty in Asheville comes amid continuing reports of driver-on-cyclist violence, with, as Sarah noted this morning, recent incidents in Austin and Miami.Gov. Daugaard has until March 1 to act on transgender bathroom bill
Buy Photo LGBT advocates and others gather on the steps of the South Dakota Capitol on Tuesday. (Photo: Jay Pickthorn / Argus Leader)Buy Photo
Gov. Dennis Daugaard said meeting with students "put a human face" on the impact a so-called transgender bathroom bill could have if he approves it.
In his first experience knowingly meeting with transgender people, Daugaard spoke for about half an hour Tuesday with three transgender people, including two students.
And while both sides entered the meeting a little nervous, Daugaard and two of the transgender residents left with a sense of understanding for one another.
"It helped me see things through their eyes a little better and see more of their perspective," Daugaard said.
Thomas Lewis, 18, and Kendra Heathscott, 22, were involved in the meeting and said afterward that the governor was kind and receptive in hearing their stories.
Heathscott, who knew Daugaard from his work at the Children's Home Society, said Daugaard doesn't seem as tall as he did back then, but was just as kind.
“You could tell that he’s gone out of his way to get educated about transgender folks,” Heathscott said. “He has the same strong heart that I was aware of when I was younger.”
Lewis said he was pleased with the meeting and tried to explain that the lawmakers who approved the measure are out of touch with students like him, who just want fair treatment.
CLOSE Sioux Falls' Kendra Heathscott and Thomas Lewis talk about meeting with Gov.Dennis Daugaard on Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016 in Pierre. Jay Pickthorn - Argus Leader
“I tried to bring home that at the end of the day we’re all human and we all need to use the bathroom because that’s what people do,” Lewis said. “And I really think that the governor understood that.”
The governor's office and the Center for Equality said the meeting was not publicized or open to the media or others to ensure the privacy of those involved. And the gathering comes the same day the governor's office received the bill, starting the clock on Daugaard's opportunity to act. The governor's spokeswoman, Kelsey Pritchard, confirmed the receipt Tuesday morning and said Daugaard has five business days to sign or veto the bill. That makes the deadline March 1.
If the governor doesn't act, it will become law without his signature.
Buy Photo Thomas Lewis, an 18-year-old transgender student at Lincoln High School, speaks Friday during a news conference to speak out against legislation that groups have said would discriminate against transgender people. (Photo: Joe Ahlquist / Argus Leader)
If the bill were approved, South Dakota would become the first state to implement such a law.
Daugaard said he'll take the comments from transgender students into consideration, but he said he also wants to be open to all sides and will consider archived testimony before making his decision
"I have my own set of values and in the end I'll make my own decisions," Daugaard said.
Earlier in the day Tuesday, LGBT and civil rights groups gathered at the Capitol to deliver binders filled with tens of thousands of signatures opposing the bill.
Representatives from the Center for Equality, American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota, the National Center for Transgender Equality and LGBT group Human Rights Campaign spoke with lawmakers about a set of bills they believe could negatively affect the state's transgender residents.
"With one stroke of his pen, Gov. Daugaard can veto this bill and stop this reckless legislation," said Hope Errico Wisneski, regional spokeswoman for Human Rights Campaign.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW @bydanaferguson's twitter feed from the Capitol.
The meeting comes after Daugaard said earlier this month that he had not met a transgender person and felt he didn't need to before deciding whether to approve or veto HB1008. The Republican governor has said he'll consult with supporters and opponents and will review archived testimony before making up his mind.
The bill would bar transgender students in South Dakota public schools from using bathrooms, locker rooms and shower facilities of the gender with which they identify. Transgender students who don't want to use bathrooms based on their biological sex would be required to submit a request to their school for a "reasonable accommodation."
Supporters, including conservative Christian groups such as Family Heritage Alliance Action, say the measure enhances the privacy of all students, while opponents including celebrity Caitlyn Jenner say it's discriminatory.
The bill's author, Rep. Fred Deutsch, R-Florence, said if Daugaard signs the bill, South Dakota would be the only state to require “special accommodations” for transgender students. He said having the separate facilities is a compassionate option.
"We have to help them become the people God wants them to be," he said. "So this is a way to help them.
“For as long as we’ve been a state we’ve had boys in the boys' room and girls in the girls' room. So this does nothing to change that. It just provides these special accommodations for them.”
Follow Dana Ferguson on Twitter @bydanaferguson
Read or Share this story: http://argusne.ws/1TDj7NN‘planting in a post-wild world,’ with thomas rainer
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WE GARDENERS want to do the right things: to attract pollinators, for instance, or grow more natives, and be environmentally conscious. We also want to create gardens that work for us, that are manageable—and resilient—even in tough situations and changing times. But goals like “sustainable landscaping” or “ecological landscape design” can sound a bit lofty and theoretical to those of us without a landscape-architecture degree.
Landscape architect Thomas Rainer is co-author with Claudia West of a new book called “Planting in a Post-Wild World” that inspires us to design plantings that function like naturally occurring plant communities. It also instructs how to manage them, not doing painstaking and often impractical garden maintenance, plant by plant, as in traditional horticulture. (Enter to win a copy of the book in the comments box below.)
Washington-based Thomas Rainer teaches planting design at George Washington University, and has designed landscapes for the U.S. Capitol grounds; the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial; and The New York Botanical Garden, as well as more than 100 private gardens. He is also a keen—and daring–home gardener.
I welcomed him back to my public-radio show and podcast. Read along as you listen to the Sept. 21, 2015 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).
my q&a on ecological design, with thomas rainer
Q. Can you distill for us the idea of “Planting in a Post-Wild World,” which is also kind of your design philosophy?
A. I had been in a practice for many, many years where we were doing a lot of high-end residential garden design. It was great—I loved the immediacy of that. But I always had large maintenance crews to follow up on my planting designs. When you have clients with large budgets and really good gardeners, I think your understanding of how well you design plantings can be a little bit inflated—which I think happens.
I swapped; I kind of had my Olmsted-ian itch and wanted to get into a firm that does much more large-scale public parks, public landscapes, embassies—I love that scale, love projects that affect a larger group of people. But they are the types of projects that sometimes have budgets to plant once, but not to maintain them.
And Claudia was dealing with the same thing—a lot of municipal designs, a lot of rain gardens. People with the very best intentions, but not always the kind of budgets or the kind of knowledgeable maintenance crews that I’d had previously. It left us in a place where we had a lot of projects that looked great for the first year, and then really fell apart.
Both of us were really wanting to be sustainable, we wanted to be beautiful–we had all the goals that I think a lot of home gardeners have. But we really wanted to understand how to put plants together in a way that actually was a little more resilient–in ecological terms, but also just in maintenance terms for crews like that.
For us, the post-wild world is the fact that we don’t have as much wildness in nature as we once had, and that trend doesn’t look like it’s changing. But there is a lot of space around us—in cities and in suburbs. The landscape architect Gilles Clement calls it the “third territory,” all the little remnants of green you have in cities—the medians, the roundabouts, the backyards, the public-library spaces. The sum total of all that space is fairly large, even though it’s a confetti of isolated green spaces.
I think our attention is turning more |
’m not sure that I’m going to see it in our generation, but maybe in the future.
You’ve talked about the idea of “privileged gays,” people that have the luxury of looking for surrogates, getting married and doing all of those things. Can you elaborate?
It is a luxury. These are people who are coming from privileged countries. I don’t underestimate their struggle, and I’m sure that it’s super-hard to have a child with a surrogate, or get married. But to me, it’s just something that I could dream of. Israel/Tel Aviv is well-known as the gay capital of the Middle East. But until today, we don’t have one law to protect us. We cannot get married in Israel. We cannot have a surrogate in Israel. As gays, we don’t have any rights inside the only democracy in the Middle East.
We cannot get married in Israel. We cannot have a surrogate in Israel. As gays, we don’t have any rights inside the only democracy in the Middle East.
After something like what happened in Orlando, do you feel that people in the U.S. are still in a “privileged” position?
I think that everybody has their own fight. I was so sad when I saw what happened in Orlando because the guy who did it was a Muslim and said he was in ISIS. I started to see a lot of articles and Facebook statuses about Islam—we need to bomb them, destroy them all—coming from within the LGBT society. That was so sad because we are Muslims and we are part of the LGBT community and you are calling for killing all of us. For sure, somebody needs to destroy ISIS. I’m into that. I want that to happen but you cannot blame all of us. We should fight them together.
How do you, and I—the individual—go about fighting them?
We need to start from the understanding that ISIS are not representing all of Islam. We will not participate in this game of Donald Trump, ISIS and I don’t know who. We shouldn’t all go right wing and hate each other. I will not hate Christians. I will not hate Americans. I will not hate English people because they are not from the European Union anymore and going right. Our generation really wants peace. I think that the first step is to say no to this whole system, to the government, to the people who are trying to separate us by our ethnicities, colors, and I don’t know what.
How frustrating is it for you that the Western World immediately associates anything Arab with Isis?
It is frustrating. It’s generalizing everything and you cannot really be yourself anymore. I wish that I could live in a utopic world where I could say, “I’m just gay” or “I’m just human.” But today when the West is turning its back on Arabs and on Islam and on humanity, you start to be afraid.
Why is very little, if any, mention of religion in the film?
While I am Muslim and Fadi and Naeem are Christians, we don’t talk about it inside of our relationship because we are not those kind of boys. We are human. We are not religious people. But for me, it’s super-important for me to say I’m Muslim because I want to show the world, the sheiks, the Muslim fanatics, that we have LGBTs and gays inside our community, to understand that we are here and we are not afraid.
A lot of the film takes place in Jaffa, one of my favorite places. Can you describe what the area is like?
It’s our little island three to five minutes from Tel Aviv, super quiet, super beautiful, with an amazing, historical past. I will say it in the gay language: “Jaffa, give me life.” I am from Jaffa, born and raised and the fact that I could live openly out from the closet in Jaffa and nobody will assault me or attack me, that shows you how the community can use the idea of what it means being gay. Three days ago I was walking in the street and there were two boys, 12 or 13 years old and one of them started mocking me saying, “Look, he’s gay.” Both of them were Arab, and the other kid looked at him and was saying, ““Dude, what do you care? He can do with his life whatever he wants.” For me, that was the point I understood that I can change my city. I can change the world if I changed this situation.Jim Doss’ name is the first name to be added to the Pylons since 2012.
by Travis Williams
Jim Doss photos courtesy of Doss family
Engraving photos by Logan Wallace Doss left a legacy of honor and commitment to his country.
In 1967, Luther “Jim” Doss Jr. sacrificed his beloved position as a Virginia Tech student to offer his service for family and country. Nearly five decades later, the fallen Vietnam War veteran has found a permanent place on campus.
In August, Doss, a U.S. Army Ranger who was shot while attempting to rescue fellow soldiers, had his name engraved on the War Memorial Pylons, joining 430 fellow Hokies killed in military action.
Doss will be honored during a special Veterans Day ceremony on Nov. 10 at 3 p.m.
Jim Doss came to Virginia Tech in the fall of 1966, but left after just three quarters to return to Maryland with his pregnant wife. He was drafted just more than a year later. Because he did not graduate, the family never considered contacting the university about having his name added to the pylons following his death in April 1970.
Jim Doss in Vietnam.
Almost 50 years later, the research of Dana Hesse, a 1986 graduate and brother within the same fraternity lineage as Jim Doss, paved the way for the fallen soldier’s long overdue honor. “Jim would be so very proud of that,” said Doss’ widow, Barbara Rookstool. “He loved going there [to Tech]. He thought it was the greatest thing in the world.”
Doss’ son, David Doss, said his father spent his earliest years living in Max Meadows, less than an hour southwest of Blacksburg. A first-generation college student hoping to study engineering, the son said he doubts his father gave much consideration to attending any other university, even after the family relocated to Maryland while Jim Doss was in elementary school. “Virginia Tech is a legend in that area,” David Doss said. “And I grew up in that legacy.”
Jim Doss arrived on campus in the fall of 1966 and pledged Phi Alpha Chi about a year later.
In June 1967, he attended a wedding in which he was a groomsman and met the bridesmaid who would soon become his own bride. “Actually, we only were together about six months before we were married,” Rookstool said.
Jim Doss in 1967.
Rookstool clearly recalled her former husband’s passion for Virginia Tech and particularly for the football team, which he took her to see in Lane Stadium during one of her first visits to campus.
The couple was married in December 1967 and with a child soon on the way, Jim Doss left Virginia Tech to move home to Maryland. He was working and taking college courses part-time when he was drafted to the United States Army in February 1969. By September, he was shipped overseas.
David Doss said his father took basic training at Fort Bragg and infantry training at Fort McClellan before deploying to Vietnam, where he trained in-country to become an Army Ranger. “I think he thought, if I’m going to be a solider, I’m going to be the best damn solider I can be,” David Doss said.
Having researched his father’s military career and spoken with many soldiers with whom he served, David Doss said he learned his father quickly became a leader of Long Range Reconnaissance Patrols (LRRPs), which were routinely dropped in teams of four behind enemy lines.
“I’d say my dad did intelligence the old-fashioned way—boots on the ground behind enemy lines,” said David Doss, who has followed in those footsteps by finishing a engineering degree similar to the one his dad started at Tech and then working for the National Security Agency.
He said many of the men who remember his father recall one particular battle, which they say greatly affected the entire company.
In January 1970, Jim Doss’ four-man team was on a mission behind enemy lines when they were ambushed. Doss was the lone survivor of the attack, despite being shot in the back through his radio. “He fought off the enemy with such ferocity that they thought they were up against a larger force and retreated.” David Doss said. “He then began the task of getting the three fallen Rangers home, as the Ranger creed demands, ‘No man left behind.’”
David Doss said the servicemen recalled his father’s resolve to join a new recon team following that mission.
On April 30, 1970, a call came in from a different recon team under attack behind enemy lines and an eight-man response team was quickly assembled. “Dad volunteered for that,” David Doss said.
It was Jim Doss’ last mission, with his official cause of death listed as “small arms fire.”
David Doss said his father left Vietnam having accomplished his task—he was the best soldier he could be. In less than two years in country, Jim Doss distinguished himself as a leader among a very elite group of Rangers and was awarded two Bronze Stars for Valor in Battle and the Purple Heart. More importantly to the Doss family, he left a legacy of honor and commitment to his country, which they strive to emulate today.
Jim Doss was buried alongside family members in Meadowridge Memorial Park in Elkridge, Maryland. “They brought him home and I knew it was Jim,” said Rookstool. “I will always be grateful for that because I know there are so many others who don’t get to have that closure. One of the greatest blessings is to know that the man buried in that grave is my husband. “
Rookstool said though she never considered contacting Virginia Tech about putting her husband’s name on the Pylons, she did contact the university in hopes of negotiating a lower payment on her deceased husband’s student loans.
“Let me tell you something about Tech … They returned that to me by telling me that debt was forgiven,” Rookstool said. “For a young wife and mother that was just such a great gift of love and caring.”
That conversation was likely the last time Jim Doss was mentioned in an official manner on campus until Hesse, (electrical engineering ’86) had an epiphany while collecting fraternity scrapbooks for digitizing in the spring of 2017.
“That’s when I came across the name of Jim Doss for the first time in many years,” Hesse said. “I thought, I should know that name. Oh yeah, he was killed in action in Vietnam.”
During his time at Tech, Hesse joined the Rho Alpha Chapter of Phi Gamma Delta, commonly known by the nickname FIJI, which grew out of the Phi Alpha Chi house of which Doss was a member. He said in recent years he’d taken on the unofficial duties as the fraternity’s historian, among other volunteer graduate roles locally and at the national level.
When Hesse realized Jim Doss’ name was not on the Pylons, and after confirming with the university that Jim Doss was Pylon-eligible, he reached out to David Doss to request the family’s permission to attempt to change that.
“[David] said, ‘Absolutely,’” Hesse recalled.
Adding a name to the Pylons is a lengthy and collaborative process involving the Virginia Tech Alumni Association and the Corps of Cadets. Verifications of enrollment, death, and military records confirming a line-of-duty death must all be verified before the commandant of cadets and the vice president for alumni relations sign off on the addition.
Jim Doss’ name is the first name to be added to the Pylons since 2012.
Sandblasting work in progress.
Not only will the Nov. 10 ceremony be special for the Doss family, it will also be a cherished event for many of the soldier’s contemporary and non-contemporary fraternity brothers. “He’s going to be the only one from our tribe whose name has been engraved,” Hesse said. “This isn’t exactly a list that one strives to be a member of, but having Brother Doss immortalized on a Pylon will be both a source of pride and of solemn reflection for the Doss family and all Virginia Tech FIJI members for many years to come.”
The dedication to Jim Doss has stirred the memories and emotions of many of those who attended Tech with him, including his Phi Alpha Chi pledge brother, Chris Raines, (’70 business.) “Jim was a good guy, he had your back all the time,” said Raines. “He had an old 1956 Chevrolet station wagon and that was kind of like our Uber. It was yellow and looked like a hotrod. If anybody had to get anywhere, Jim was always ready and able.”
Raines recalled an occasion when the brothers were traveling along a back road and noticed a mobile home on fire.
“Well, Jim always being the one to help others, pulled off and ran up to the mobile home. He picked up a cinderblock and threw it through the front door to make sure there wasn’t anyone in there,” Raines said. “So even then, he was risking himself to help others.”
Bob Salter (political science and history ’69), who was also in the fraternity with Jim Doss, said the ceremony had elicited both happy and sad memories. “I had graduated just prior to Jim's death and did not know of it until I saw a note posted on the bulletin board at our old frat house while I was visiting Blacksburg later that year. I wept,” said Salter. Like Raines, Salter said he could easily see the man he knew in college growing into the military leader who took on tough assignments.
Jim Doss enjoyed clowning around even while deployed in Vietnam.
“He always had a smile on his face,” Salter said. “So many people who are athletic and somewhat physically imposing, as Jim was, are assertive and aggressive. Not so with Jim. He was a man that you just felt comfortable being around. No axes to grind. No complaints. Never any grandstanding. Always willing to chip in and do at least his share and probably more.”
Both Salter and Raines plan to be among the fraternity brothers traveling to Blacksburg for the special ceremony. The event will mark the first time Barbara Rookstool has been to campus since her husband’s death and David Doss’ first-ever trip to Virginia Tech.
David Doss, who was 2 years old when Jim Doss was killed, said the event would mark an important milestone in the 15-year journey of discovering the man who was his father.
“To me, it’s important to know and honor my dad and to tell his story,” David Doss said.
Barbara Rookstool said it brought her great joy to know her former husband would forever have a place at Virginia Tech. “It just warms my heart for Jim to have such a legacy at VPI. He so loved that school,” she said.Get the biggest daily stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
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Video: Fergus Sweeney
Ten dolphins died despite a major rescue operation to save them.
This heartbreaking footage shows the desperate bid locals made to return the animals to the Atlantic Ocean after they were cut adrift.
The tragedy happened after experts reckon a 13-strong pod may have followed a sick relative into shore - and became trapped in the sand.
The sad scenes were filmed by wildlife cameraman Fergus Sweeney on the Mullet Peninsula in Mayo last Sunday.
The dad-of-one, 34, said: “At 4pm I got a call to say four had been washed ashore, the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group said there were 13 common dolphins overall.
“Some were taken to deeper waters. I was one of the first on the beach and saw an adult dolphin beside an adolescent, and that scene was repeated further up the beach.
“That would indicate that the younger ones weren’t aware of the dangers of the shallow water.
“The other theory is that as they work in pods, when one gets sick, they all accompany them to the shoreline.”
Seven of the 13 animals in trouble managed to get back into deeper water themselves but local residents and members of the RNLI refloated the others.
But the following day, rescuers found a dead female dolphin at Elly beach.
Her young calf was in waters nearby but conservation ranger with the National Parks and Wildlife Service, Irene O’Brien, believes the animal later died without milk from its mum.
Ms O’Brien said: “The calf was not seen later that day but we think it would not have survived anyway as it was still dependent on milk from its mother, who had died.”
Later that day, another adult female and calf who were stranded in “very poor condition” were euthanized by animal experts.
On Wednesday, another four adults and two calves died.
Two of these dolphins and a calf had been refloated earlier in the day and died after getting beached again later that evening.
The IWDG (Irish Whale and Dolphin Group) have recorded a total of 34 live strandings from Co Mayo and 17 of these have been around the Mullet Peninsula.
Ms O’Brien said: “This is maybe the fourth such stranding here this year but this is definitely one of the biggest. No-one knows why they get stranded. Some think the dolphins follow the food into shallow waters and get into difficulty.
“In recent weeks, fishing has been great around here and fishermen have reported seeing hundreds of dolphins at sea.
"You could go two years without seeing any stranded dolphins and then you might have two or three instances a year."Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine said Monday he was saddened by the “senseless act of gun violence” at Ohio State University, even though the attacker used a butcher knife and a car.
Mr. Kaine, who ran on the 2016 Democratic ticket with presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, was accused of pushing a gun-control agenda after his Twitter post blaming firearms for the siege.
Eleven people were injured in a rampage by Somali-born student Abdul Razak Ali Artan, who drove into a crowd on a sidewalk and then chased bystanders with a knife in what is being investigated as a possible act of terrorism.
He was shot and killed by Ohio State Police Officer Alan Horujko.
Mr. Kaine was blasted by those who charged him with trying to politicize the tragedy.
“The only guns used were by the police. Try and confirm before you politicize,” Rick Moore said on Twitter.
Mr. Kaine later corrected himself, saying in a tweet, “Updated reports say attacker used a vehicle & knife. Horrifying & senseless.”
The campus went on lockdown Monday morning after an initial university alert warned of an “active shooter.”
Copyright © 2019 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.Turkish lawyer claims he is Messiah, sues family for rejecting his claims
ISTANBUL
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A Turkish lawyer who claimed to be Jesus Christ has sued his family members after they rejected his claims and insulted him, state-run Anadolu Agency has reported.The incident was revealed after İsmail Taşkıran filed a lawsuit against his family members for giving him mental damage. He was called to the Istanbul Bar Association, where he demanded 10,000 Turkish Liras as compensation from each member.Taşkıran first told his family he was Messiah in 2011, but said they rejected his claims. He also claimed he was beaten and insulted by his family members.He filed a complaint against his family with the Istanbul Chief Prosecution Office, which later decided to dismiss the charges after conducting investigations.Taşkıran later ordered to sue his father Osman Taşkıran for mental anguish, as well as his mother Gülşen Taşkıran, his brother Cem Taşkıran and his sister Rahime Pınar Taşkıran Sabuncu, saying that they restricted his beliefs.“I filed a complaint against my family but it was denied due to lack of evidence. But my family interfered in my worshipping since 2011 to 2016, a time period when relations deteriorated between me and my family. They restricted me from fasting and performing prayers. So, I was mentally tormented, which has been verified in psychology reports. I demand 10,000 Turkish Liras from my family as compensation for giving me mental anguish,” he wrote in his court statement.An Istanbul court accepted the case and held the first hearing on Feb. 27. The court postponed the trial to a later date for witness consultation.In Abrahamic religions, the Messiah, Christ, or Al-Masih is the one chosen to lead the world and thereby save it.Ten supporters claiming to be part of the Black Lives Matter movement have been arrested during a demonstration near Heathrow Airport.
The Metropolitan Police said four people had been taken to west London police stations, where they remain in custody.
Officers said a further six people were arrested at the scene and they had to release the remaining activists who had "locked on" to each other while lying on the tarmac.
Screens were put up to prevent distraction for motorists.
Video footage showed police officers hunkering down next to the protesters, while chants of "black lives matter" could be heard.
Demonstrators are linked together lying on the road heading into Heathrow
Scotland Yard said officers were called at 8.25am on Friday to the M4 slip road at one of the world's busiest airports.
A spokesman said: "Officers have attended and a number of people have been arrested.
Black Lives Matter activist Adam Elliott Cooper, 29, from London, said the Heathrow location was chosen as "many people are either being killed at our borders or being sent back to certain death".
A Heathrow spokesman said: "Heathrow supports the right to peaceful protest within the law, but the safety and security of our passengers, aircraft and colleagues, together with the smooth running of the operation, is paramount.
"We are sorry to those passengers whose journeys are being disrupted and we are working with the authorities to resolve the issue."
Activists shut down part of Nottingham's tram and bus network. Pic: Joe Howey
The disruption at Heathrow was part of wider demonstrations in other parts of the UK.
Protesters called for a "nationwide #shutdown" in a post on social media on Thursday, and events were also held in Birmingham, Nottingham, and Manchester.
Members of the movement caused delays to the tram network in Nottingham city centre by lying on the tracks.
Nottinghamshire Police said officers negotiated with a small number of protesters and screens were also been put up.
Image: Protesters lying on tram tracks in Nottingham get support from the public.
Earlier in the day, a group of protesters blocked the A45 in Solihull, and five people were arrested for obstructing the highway.
The group said it staged the "shutdown" of roads to "mourn those who have died in custody and to protest the ongoing racist violence of the police, border enforcement, structural inequalities and the everyday indignity of street racism".
The demonstrations came on the fifth anniversary of the fatal shooting of Mark Duggan by police in north London, which led to riots in several cities across England.
Image: Mark Duggan was shot dead by police in north London five years ago
The Black Lives Matter movement began in the US in protest against police killings of black people.
Two white officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, killed a black man during a scuffle and an officer in Minnesota shot and killed a black motorist during a traffic stop, sparking protests.
Police have also been the victims of fatal shootings, with five officers killed in Dallas, Texas, and three law enforcement officers gunned down in Baton Rouge.There are always some games that you look at and think that it would be great to try when you have the time. My Steam library is full of them. One game that might have made it into your Steam games is Guns of Icarus, but even if it hasn’t yet, perhaps it should. And you should also make time to actually play it.
This weekend at PAX, I sat down with two of the creators of the game, Howard Tsao and Joe Lieberman (not to be confused with the former US Senator), and they were extremely excited to let me be one of the first people to step into the PvE module for Guns of Icarus.
If you’ve played the PvP side of GoI, then you will be very familiar with the PvE game. There is very little difference in regards to controls or the overall feel of the game. Currently, the only real difference is the objective and the sheer number of enemy ships. Ostensibly, the idea is for your team to transfer supplies from one base to the next and protect your resources from a massive number of AI controlled ships.
On the surface, Guns of Icarus looks like it might operate like any real-world, naval combat simulator, but Tsao told me he doesn’t really like that comparison because it quickly becomes a discussion about the the game’s accuracy when it comes to simulating real-world combat and not about having fun with the game. That is one of the reasons Muse Games went with steampunk air ships and not with water-bound battleships. “We didn’t want any preconceived notions,” Tsao explained.
This freedom allows them to break some preset rules not only with the design of the ships themselves but also with the designs of the weapons. He said in PvP that he does have to design for balance, but in this new PvE module, that’s not as big a concern. He became positively giddy when explained that he could add a laser weapons in the PvE module, when it might be considered game-breaking in the PvP game. Lieberman chimed in, saying, “No one’s really going to care if this one ship is a little overpowered in PvE.”
Unfortunately, my team of players, who were made up of mostly veterans and Kickstarter backers, didn’t achieve the map’s objectives, but that doesn’t mean that we didn’t have a lot of fun. This was actually the first time many of these vet players have actually seen this module themselves.
Despite having just seen this module, we became very efficient at taking down enemy ships when we were in range. A Gatling gun would reduce the armor of the ship, while the other projectiles would take out the ship’s hull; then, very swiftly, we would see the ship fall to the earth. The engineers would also have to keep our ship up and running when the enemy ships fired on us, or in our case, when the captain ran into a mountain side. “It’s like a dance,” Lieberman said. And he’s completely right. Our captain knew when to call for repairs on certain parts of the ship. He also new when to have which gun to fire where. The only real trouble he had was that the map was understandably unfamiliar — hence that meeting with the mountain side.
The PvE module is clearly still in the prototype stage, but Tsao said that after PAX he will start throwing out testing invitations to veterans and Kickstarter backers. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have a window for public testing yet, but he will keep us updated. If you’ve not tried the PvP game for Guns of Icarus, now would be a good time to jump in and get used to how the game plays before the PvE module goes live.[content warning: rape, false rape allegations. Some people have been linking this article claiming it says things it DEFINITELY DOES NOT, so please read it before you have an opinion.]
(see also parts 1, 2, 3, and 4 of ∞)
I.
Spotted on Brute Reason but liked and reblogged 35,000 times: Five Things More Likely To Happen To You Than Being Accused Of Rape. A man is 631 times more likely to become an NFL player than to be falsely accused of rape! Thirty-two times more likely to be struck by lightning! Eleven times more likely to be hit by a comet!
Needless to say, all of these figures are completely wrong, in fact wrong by a factor of over 22,700x. I’m not really complaining – missing the mark by only a little over four orders of magnitude is actually not bad for a “story” of this type. Nevertheless, it will be instructive to figure out where they erred so we may be vigilant against such things in the future, and perhaps certain moral lessons may be gleaned in the process as well.
II.
Since that article itself does not show its work, we will have to rely on its obvious inspiration, an almost-identical blog post written a few days before by the same person responsible for the Buzzfeed piece, Charles Clymer.
It starts by noting that there are about 84,000 forcible rapes per year – and that FBI statistics suggest 8% are false accusations. We will examine these numbers later, but for now let’s just take them as given.
It then goes on to calculate that, given the average man has sex 99 times per year (who is this average man?!) there are 5.1 billion acts of sexual intercourse in the United States each year among American men 15 – 39. Divide 5.1 billion by 6,750, and therefore, in Clymer’s words “the odds of any sexually-active male between the ages of 15 and 39 has a 750,000 to 1 chance of being falsely accused of rape”
And, he goes on to say, 1/33 men are raped during their lifetime. Therefore, the average man has a 27500x higher chance of being raped than being falsely accused of rape. The average man has a 1 in 84,079 chance of being killed by lightning, so that’s 32x more likely than getting falsely accused of rape. And it adds that the average women has a 1/4 chance of being raped during her lifetime – so the odds of a woman being raped during her lifetime must be 220000x higher than the odds of a man being falsely accused of rape.
Did you spot the sleight of hand in those calculations? He calculated the odds of a man who has sex 99 times per year for 24 years being accused of rape per sex act, and then declared this was the odds of being accused of rape in your lifetime. Then he went on to compare it to various other lifetime odds, like the lifetime odds of being raped, the lifetime odds of being struck by lightning, et cetera.
This isn’t comparing apples to oranges. This isn’t even comparing apples to orangutans. This is comparing apples to the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy.
To highlight exactly how awful this is, suppose we wanted to trivialize rape itself through the same methodology. The average woman, as per the article’s statistics, has a 1/4 chance of getting raped during her lifetime, which means a 1/9500 or so chance of getting raped per sex act if she has sex 99 times per year from ages 15-39. And looking at the same list of statistically unlikely things provided on that article, that’s less than the odds of dying in a plane crash (1/7032). So you crow “THE AVERAGE WOMAN IS LESS LIKELY TO GET RAPED THAN TO DIE IN A PLANE CRASH! HA HA WOMEN ARE SO DUMB TO EVER WORRY ABOUT RAPE!”. And now you have a Buzzfeed article.
III.
We can do better. Let’s come up with conservative and liberal estimates of a man’s chance of getting falsely accused of rape between ages 15 and 39.
The rate of false rape accusations is notoriously difficult to study, since researchers have no failsafe way of figuring out whether a given accusation is true or not. The leading scholar in the area, David Lisak, explains that the generally accepted methodology is to count a rape accusation as false “if there is a clear and credible admission [of falsehood] from the complainant, or strong evidential grounds”, and goes on to explain what these grounds might be:
For example, if key elements of a victim’s account were internally inconsistent and directly contradicted by multiple witnesses and if the victim then altered those key elements of his or her account, investigators might conclude that the report was false
Attempts to use this methodology return varying results. Lisak lists seven studies he considers credible, which find false accusation rates of 2.1%, 2.5%, 3.0%, 5.9%, 6.8%, 8.3%, 10.3%, 10.9%. The two with 10%+ mysteriously go missing and thus we get the commonly quoted number of “two to eight percent”, which is repeated by sources as diverse as Alas, A Blog, Slate, and Wikipedia (Straight Statistics keeps the original 2% – 10% number)
Feminists make one true and important critique of these numbers – sometimes real victims, in the depths of stress we can’t even imagine, do strange things and get their story hopelessly garbled. Or they suddenly lose their nerve and don’t want to continue the legal process and tell the police they were making it up in order to drop the case as quickly as possible. All of these would go down as “false allegations” under the “victim has to admit she was lying or contradict herself” criteria. No doubt this does happen.
But the opposite critique seems much stronger: that some false accusers manage tell their story without contradicting themselves, and without changing their mind and admit they were lying. We’re not talking about making it all the way through a trial – the majority of reported rapes get quietly dropped by the police for one reason or another and never make it that far. Although keeping your story halfway straight is probably harder than it sounds sitting in an armchair without any cops grilling me, it seems very easy to imagine that most false accusers manage this task, especially since they may worry that admitting their duplicity will lead to some punishment.
The research community defines false accusations as those that can be proven false beyond a reasonable doubt, and all others as true. Yet many – maybe most – false accusations are not provably false and so will not be included.
So there’s reason to believe some of those 2-10% of presumed false accusations are actually true, and other reasons to believe that some of the 98% – 92% of presumed true accusations are actually false.
What is an upper bound on the number of false rape accusations? Researchers tend to find that police estimate 20%-40% of the rape accusations they get to be “unfounded”, (for example Philadelphia Police 1968, Chambers and Millar 1983, Grace et al 1992, Jordan 2004, Gregory and Lees 1996, etc, etc). Many scholars critique the police’s judgment, suggesting many police officers automatically dismiss anyone who doesn’t fit their profile of a “typical rape victim”. A police-based study that took pains to avoid this failure mode by investigating all cases very aggressively (Kanin 1994) was criticized for what I think are ideological reasons – they primarily seemed to amount to the worry that the aggressive investigations stigmatized rape victims, which would make them so flustered that they would falsely recant. Certainly possible. On the other hand, if you dismiss studies for not investigating thoroughly enough and for investigating thoroughly, there will never be any study you can’t dismiss. So while not necessarily endorsing Kanin and the similar studies in this range, I think they make a useful “not provably true” upper bound to contrast with the “near-provably false” lower bound of 2%-10%.
IV.
But this only represents the number of false rape accusations that get reported to the police. 80% of rapes never make it to the police. Might false rape accusations be similar?
Suppose you are a woman who wants to destroy a guy’s reputation for some reason. Do you go to the police station, open up a legal case, get yourself tested with an invasive rape kit, hire an attorney, put yourself through a trial which may take years and involve your reputation being dragged through the mud, accept that you probably won’t get a conviction anyway given that you have no evidence – and take the risk of jail time if you’re caught lying?
Or do you walk to the other side of the quad and bring it up to your school administrator, who has just declared to the national news that she thinks all men accused of rape should be automatically expelled from the college, without any investigation, regardless of whether there is any evidence?
Or if even the school administrator isn’t guilty-until-proven-innocent enough for you, why not just go to a bunch of your friends, tell them your ex-boyfriend raped you, and trust them to spread the accusation all over your community? Then it doesn’t even matter whether anyone believes you or not, the rumor is still out there.
This last one is the one that happened to me. I wasn’t the ex-boyfriend (thank God). I was the friend who was told about it. I took it very very seriously, investigated as best I could, and eventually became extremely confident that the accusation was false. No, you don’t know the people involved. No, I won’t give you personal details. No, I won’t tell you how I became certain that the accusation was false because that would involve personal details. Yes, that leaves you a lot of room to accuse me of lying if you want.
But if my word isn’t good enough for you, I happen to have witnessed two more cases of false rape accusations where I can tell you some minimal details. In a psychiatric hospital I used to work in (not the one I currently work in) during my brief time there there were two different accusations of rape by staff members against patients…
I want to take a second out to say very emphatically that all accusations of rape by psychiatric patients should be taken very seriously. Yes, psychiatric patients sometimes have complicated cognitive or personality issues that make them more likely to falsely report rape, but for exactly this reason they are much more vulnerable and people are much more likely to take advantage of them. This is a known problem and you should never dismiss their complaint.
…but in this case, there were video cameras all over the hospital and these were sufficient to prove that no assault had taken place in either case. Now I know someone is going to say that blah blah psychiatric patients blah blah doesn’t generalize to the general population, but the fact is that even if you accept that sorta-ableist dismissal, those patients were in hospital for three to seven days and then they went back out into regular society. I would love to say that we treated every single one of their problems so thoroughly it would never come back but I wouldn’t bet on it.
So I know three men who have been accused of rape in a way that did |
Ismail to form the new cabinet within a week.
The outgoing government is to play a caretaker role until then, the statement said.
Image copyright AFP Image caption Salah Helal resigned on the orders of the president
A senior government official quoted by AFP news agency said the reshuffle was to "pump new blood" into the government following the arrest of agriculture minister Salah Helal.
Shortly before his arrest, Mr Helal had resigned on the orders of President Sisi.
Reports said the arrest was in connection with allegations that officials took bribes to help businessmen illegally acquire state land.
Mr Sisi has promised to make the fight against corruption a focus of his administration.Indonesia Attracts $327 Million Renewable Energy Investment In Q1 2016
April 25th, 2016 by Saurabh
The renewable energy sector in Indonesia has had a very encouraging start to the year, with over $300 million investment in the first quarter.
Indonesia’s Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry has announced that the country attracted $327 million in renewable energy investments during the first 3 months of the year. This represents 23% of the total investment target for the year of $1.37 billion.
The bioenergy sector attracted the largest investment of $250 million, followed by $75 million for geothermal power and $2.4 million for other renewable energy projects. Investment has increased sharply for renewable energy projects as the government has implemented a single-window approval system.
The single-window approval system is among several incentives to bring large investments into its renewable energy sector, one of which could reduce the import duty on equipment used in the development of renewable energy projects. The planned incentives would play a critical role in Indonesia’s endeavor to boost the share of renewable energy sources in the total energy mix to 19% by 2019 and to 25% by 2025, up from its current share of renewable energy sources of between 5% and 6%.
Earlier this year, the Indonesian Government expressed its intention to set up a new utility dedicated to procure electricity from renewable energy projects. The government is considering this measure after reports that the country’s main power utility, Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN), is opposed to buying power from renewable energy projects due to the high costs involved in the exercise.A rehab worker who was fired from the Betty Ford Centre in Los Angeles after an argument with Lindsay Lohan is suing the actress.
Lawyers for Dawn Bradley filed the lawsuit in California accusing the star of assault and battery.
She claims she was seriously injured during an argument with the 25-year-old in December and needs surgery on her wrist.
Steve Honig, a spokesman for Lohan, declined to comment on the case.
Dawn Bradley, who is also known by her married name of Dawn Holland, was fired from Betty Ford Centre after talking about the fight with Lohan on camera with a celebrity news website.
A probation report reveals that Bradley had been trying to give Lindsay Lohan a breathalyzer test after she missed curfew and was with two other girls who admitted drinking that night.
The actress was sent to LA's Betty Ford Centre for three months of treatment after failing a drug screening for cocaine and amphetamines.
House arrest
Meanwhile, a judge has told Lindsay Lohan that she has to spend more time doing community service.
She was warned that she had to finish 480 hours of community service by next April.
The actress, best known for appearances in Mean Girls and TV series Ugly Betty, was released from house arrest last month.
She spent 35 days at her apartment for stealing a necklace last January and is now working at a shelter for women and LA's county morgue.
"She's not going to get five minutes more than one year to complete the service," superior court judge Stephanie Sautner said.
The actress was also told off for not providing officials with a phone number where she could be reached for monitoring.
The 25-year-old has completed one of four anti-shoplifting classes and has been given until 19 October to finish the rest.
The star was also ordered to find a new counsellor "within three weeks" after saying she couldn't afford to pay a psychiatrist who was previously treating her.
Lohan is also still on probation over a 2007 drink-drive case.Image caption The Scottish government hopes to eventually return Prestwick to private ownership
Prestwick Airport has passed into public ownership after being bought by the Scottish government for £1.
The facility, which was put up for sale last year by New Zealand firm Infratil, has incurred annual losses of £2m.
It is understood a deal was concluded late on Friday. It is expected the airport will continue to operate as normal and there will be no job losses.
Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said the deal would help protect the airport and the jobs it supported.
She told BBC Scotland that work would now begin for "turning Prestwick around and making it a viable enterprise".
She said: "It's a good decision and I'm glad we've reached this outcome, because it allows us to protect not just the asset of Prestwick Airport but the jobs that directly and indirectly depend on it."
Ms Sturgeon said the full terms of the agreement with Infratil and the Scottish government's business plan for the Ayrshire facility would be made public at a later date.
She added: "This is not a decision we have taken lightly.
"We would have preferred to see a private company buy Prestwick Airport but the strategic and economic importance of Prestwick Airport is such that we weren't prepared to see Prestwick close."
The deputy first minister said the government would run the airport on "a commercial basis" and do everything it could to return it to profit as soon as possible.
She said the long-term goal was to return it to private ownership but said, realistically, it may take "some time" to have the airport running profitably.
"First and foremost we need to make sure that the airport is operating on the right basis," she said.
"We've made clear our intention to have a separate company to run the airport for us."
'Huge relief'
The deal was welcomed by the leader of South Ayrshire Council, Cllr Bill McIntosh.
He said: "The airport is vital to the local and national economy and this excellent news will be a huge relief for the 1,400 people employed there - and for those companies directly involved with the freight, training, maintenance and repair operations at the site, supporting an additional 3,200 jobs.
"The transfer of ownership, just before Christmas, could not have come at a better time for the staff and families whose future looked less than certain a few weeks ago."
However, the viability of the Prestwick deal has been questioned by the leader of Glasgow city council.
Councillor Gordon Matheson said: "While I've said that I support efforts to save jobs at Prestwick, I'm still unclear how the Scottish Government can build a sound business case for Prestwick as a passenger airport without skewing the market at Glasgow's expense.
"Given Prestwick's significant annual loss under its previous owners and the fact that no private investors considered it a viable acquisition, it is difficult to see how the Government can make it a success as a passenger airport within State Aid rules."This article is over 1 year old
Expert whose property lies in project’s path says pedestrian safety has been overlooked in road widening, but NSW government says checks are being made
An expert surveyor and certifier whose property lies in the path of Australia’s biggest infrastructure project, WestConnex, says he has uncovered design flaws that breach conditions imposed by the state’s roads minister.
The flaws relate to one of WestConnex’s crucial stages, the widening of Euston Road in Sydney’s inner west from four lanes to seven, a project designed to allow for the carriage of 50,000 cars a day, up from 6,000 now.
In some areas, the road will be brought to within two metres of homes, separated by a narrow footpath.
WestConnex: bitter battles mark the road to Australia's urban future Read more
Local residents have repeatedly complained that the road is dangerous and will make adjacent properties unlivable.
But one property owner, Patrick McNamara, a surveyor with 40 years’ experience, says he noticed a discrepancy last month which puts the widening project clearly in breach of planning standards.
The ministerial consent for the project requires not only that road widths take into account pedestrian and traffic safety but also comply with guidelines on road design published by Austroads. Those guidelines stress that the distance between an arterial road and homes be at least 4.3 metres.
The ministerial consent also requires an independent audit to scrutinise a project’s compliance with the Austroads guidelines. McNamara says the audit did not consider pedestrian safety.
He has made a formal complaint to New South Wales Road and Maritime Services.
“It’s diabolical, really, no one’s looked at it,” McNamara told Guardian Australia. “I know how these things work, I’ve been in the business 30 or 40 years.
“Someone says the traffic report says [the road] needs to be seven lanes wide, so they just give it to some graduate engineer and say, ‘Give me a seven-lane road through there.’”
Workers began removing trees lining Euston Road in preparation for the widening on Wednesday. That sparked a protest from the WestConnex Action Group, which is seeking to have the entire project halted.
The road widening is taking place about a kilometre from the major WestConnex intersection at St Peters in Sydney’s inner west.
The NSW government, through the WestConnex minister, Stuart Ayres, has acknowledged the temporary disruption caused to residents but said the $16.8bn project would provide huge benefits once complete, particularly for those in western Sydney. WestConnex is designed to cut commute times on Sydney’s notoriously congested roads and the government says it will provide enormous economic benefits to the state.
A Roads and Maritime Services spokeswoman said the footpaths designed as part of the Euston Road widening project met relevant road design and safety standards.
“The designs of footpaths between Sydney Park Road and Maddox Street were displayed in the new M5 environmental impact statement and were approved by the minister for planning last April,” she said.
“A pre-construction safety audit for work on Euston Road was carried out in September last year, with further audits to be carried out as the project progresses.”
A local resident and activist, Carmel Delprat, said the proximity of the road to 90 homes and apartments was dangerous.
Sydney's WestConnex changes the face of St Peters – in pictures Read more
“There are fatal accidents just waiting to happen if Gladys Berejiklian builds this road just 180cm from people’s front doors and children’s bedrooms,” Delprat said in a statement issued by the WestConnex Action Group. “It’s not a matter of if but when.”
McNamara agrees the project is dangerous. “Two people can’t walk safely if there are buses or trucks going along there,” he said. “One of the guys nearby said, ‘If i trip out the front door, I’m falling head-first into traffic.’”
Fairfax Media reported last week that the government was considering retrofitting air conditioning units and noise insulation to the apartments adjacent to Euston Road.Forged in Dortmund: Jurgen Klopp and Paul Lambert share a passion for BVB
When Wolves visit Liverpool in the FA Cup fourth round at Anfield on Saturday, the game will pit two Borussia Dortmund heroes against each other. Find out how Wolves boss Paul Lambert is attempting to emulate Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp in more ways than one.
When Jurgen Klopp's Borussia Dortmund prepared to face Juventus in a Champions League tie in 2015, he was dismissive of the notion that the club's victory over the same opponents in the final of the competition 18 years earlier could possibly be a motivational tool.
And yet, one of the heroes of that famous night appears to be taking plenty of inspiration from Klopp. Paul Lambert was the man in midfield who helped shackle Zinedine Zidane two decades ago, but now he is busy releasing the shackles at Wolves.
Having returned to management looking rather more trim, Lambert is unrecognisable in more ways than one from the man who became so burdened by his travails at Aston Villa. He is taking a self-consciously care-free approach to life in the Championship.
"My way is to be on the front foot," he declared in his first press conference as Wolves manager in November, before name-dropping Liverpool boss Klopp soon after and painting a vivid picture of the high-tempo pressing game he intended to introduce.
Wolves midfielder Jack Price insists he is full of confidence playing under Lambert Wolves midfielder Jack Price insists he is full of confidence playing under Lambert
A dramatic 4-4 draw with Fulham in December in which Wolves came from two goals down only to concede a stoppage-time equaliser might have made him rethink this pursuit of excitement. Instead, Lambert broke managerial code by claiming he'd prefer this to a boring 1-0 win.
"I love watching this team play," he said recently and when the 1-0 win did come - against old club Aston Villa at Molineux - it was anything but dull. "You can feel and sense that we're vibrant and energetic," he said afterwards. "Our pressing is great."
Klopp, of course, is seen as one of the foremost proponents of this pressing game. And his relationship with Lambert, whose Wolves side he will face at Anfield on Saturday in the FA Cup fourth round, is a long-standing one that dates back to a 2004 coaching course.
Klopp and Lambert look on during a Borussia Dortmund training session in 2013
The pair took their UEFA Pro Licence together in Germany, and speaking to Lambert last season, it was clear that he has fond memories of the "humble guy" he met back then. The two men have maintained intermittent contact ever since.
"We went our separate ways," he told Sky Sports. "But I knew he'd got the Dortmund job and spoke to him way back. The next time I saw him was when I went to watch them train at Wembley before the Champions League final. He shouted me over and we had a good chat."
Like so many, Lambert was wowed by Dortmund's style of play. "It's the running power of the team," he said. "They are high intensity. They outran a lot of teams and it was high pressing." After his departure from Villa, he arranged to go out and see Klopp at work.
"I went over for nine days and it was fantastic," he added. "I took loads of things away from it in terms of the way they work. It's hard to explain because you have to see it. It's the way the whole thing is structured and how it's done. It's just excellent."
There were further trips to Germany to see Roger Schmidt's entertaining Bayer Leverkusen side and the Bundesliga success story that is RB Leipzig. But it is not just the style of play that Lambert appears anxious to incorporate. It's the entire German experience.
"The German stadiums are full and there's always a great atmosphere," he explained. "The fans are special at Dortmund. The Sudtribune is unbelievable. I've always said that before I leave this earth I'm going to go in there and watch a game because it's a special place.
The Sudtribune is unbelievable. I've always said that before I leave this earth I'm going to go in there and watch a game because it's a special place. Paul Lambert on Dortmund
"The football club itself generates an upbeat atmosphere because of the fan base. It's an incredible place to play your football. I was fortunate enough to play there. The support is unbelievable and there always seems to be a feel-good factor."
That's the atmosphere he is endeavouring to create at Wolves. He has spoken of the importance of building a "massive rapport" with the supporters, the like of which he enjoyed at Dortmund, and has been a forceful advocate of the so-called Viking thunder clap.
Wolves' Icelandic forward Jon Dadi Bodvarsson is the man charged with leading the way and it has become a real feature under Lambert. "I would pay admission money every week to see that," he said having witnessed it following December's 2-0 win at Nottingham Forest.
Lambert wants Molineux to be a special place for his players
Klopp, of course, was ridiculed in some quarters for encouraging his Liverpool players to salute the Kop as one following a 2-2 draw against West Brom last season - the thank you being wrongly interpreted as a celebration.
Such behaviour is not so common in English football culture but it is something that Klopp and Lambert are keen to change. Indeed, the sight of Lambert forcefully ushering his players towards the crowd upon the final whistle has now become a familiar one.
With Klopp, it all feels natural. What's interesting is that for Lambert it feels more like an epiphany. Having lost the crowd in previous jobs, he seems determined not to do so again. It seems the Jurgen Klopp template - on and off the field - is an appealing one to follow.It’s time for our last matchup in the Joe Morgan Memorial Elite 8. Already, one of Monday’s semifinals is set with Chris Berman facing Craig James. The winner of our final Elite 8 matchup today will face the gross Colin Cowherd in our other semifinal. Who will it be? Will it be sports broadcasting’s chosen one that has faced the ire of fans for his moribund play by play… or the sleazy reporter that still wants to take credit for The Decision. Your decision is a tough one, Joe or Jim, who deserves to be on AA’s Mount Rushmore the most?
Joe Buck vs Jim Gray
Joe Buck
Fact File: Fox’s #1 play by play man for NFL and MLB. Has announced several World Series and Super Bowls.
Why He’s Here: Joe Buck has quickly risen to the top of the most disliked sports announcers. His dry, monotone style doesn’t quite fit in with an age where Gus Johnson and Kevin Harlan are two of the more popular sports announcers in the business. Beyond that though, Joe Buck has a certain air of smugness towards his announcing duties, even admitting in the past that he isn’t that big of a sports fan. His attempted and failed late night career told sports fans that he had bigger and better things to do than announce the biggest games in sports.
Links:
Joe Buck Doesn’t Enjoy Baseball Anymore
Real Tweets From Real People – Joe Buck
It’s Time For Fox To Sit Joe Buck
The Artie Lange Interview
Round 1 Result: Defeated Chris Rose 72.53% – 27.47%
Round 2 Result: Defeated Deion Sanders 55.21% – 44.79%
Jim Gray
Fact File: Reporter and interviewer for ESPN…or the highest bidder
Why He’s Here: Two words – The Decision. Jim Gray’s involvement in The Decision led to plenty of jealousy from fellow sports media personalities and plenty of fury from sports fans. At least his pointless stalling in that interview wasn’t as contentious as his infamous interview with Pete Rose. But, there’s also many other examples of Jim Gray’s sterling career.
Links:
Jim Gray’s Awful Super Bowl Sign Off
What Happened To Jim Gray?
Jim Gray Tries To Fight Corey Pavin, Gets Dumped By Golf Channel
How Jim Gray Helped Orchestrate The Decision
Round 1 Result: Defeated Jim Nantz 78.15% – 21.85%
Round 2 Result: Defeated Thom Brennaman 77.89% – 22.11%
Results:
Joe Buck defeated Jim Gray 56.34% – 45.66%New Missouri Bill Would Track "Driving While Gay"
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Missouri on Tuesday, in conjunction with PROMO and other community partners, announced the filing of The Fair and Impartial Policing Act, bipartisan legislation sponsored by State Sen. Jamilah Nasheed (D-St. Louis) and State Rep. Shamed Dogan (R-Ballwin).
HB1890, which prohibits law enforcement from engaging in biased policing practices, would expand the current process of data collection that police officers in Missouri are required to follow during traffic stops to the perceived race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, English language proficiency or national origin of the individual stopped.
“Missourians of all communities deserve to have equal treatment under the law,” said Sen. Nasheed. “The Fair and Impartial Policing Act is a step towards balancing an inequity that must be addressed.”
“Transparency is the friend, not the enemy of good policing,” explained Rep. Dogan. “The Fair and Impartial Policing Act will provide stronger analysis and the statistics necessary to recognize and applaud those who protect and serve all communities equally.”
The current statute mandates police must record “the age, gender and race or minority group of the individual stopped.”
“This bill is a common sense measure that offers real solutions and gets us closer to justice for all Missourians,” said Jeffrey Mittman, Executive Director of the ACLU of Missouri. “We look forward to seeing this legislation continue to gain bipartisan support and ultimately be signed into law.”
"Knowing that LGBT people, particularly trans women of color, are profiled by police officers at an alarming rate around the country, we were part of a coalition that worked with Sen. Nasheed and Rep. Dogan to create a bill that protects against disparate policing for all Missourians," added Steph Perkins, Interim Executive Director of PROMO, Missouri's statewide LGBT advocacy organization. "We will continue to work with Rep. Dogan and Sen. Nasheed, who are leading the bill, to ensure the best bill possible moves through the legislature."Founder and co-host of Cast of Thrones. Say hello on twitter. @rbristow
Well that’s it folks! We made it through the first season of Westworld. As the prophecy foretold, these violent delights did have violent ends.
Maeve finally achieves sentients…or does she, Dolores finds the center of the maze, Ford has an abrupt ending, Bernard gets a second chance at “life”, and we find out the true identity of the Man in Black. It turns out he’s a business man.
This really was an incredibly strong opening season. Every episode was exciting. We don’t know exactly what next season will hold, but its going to be very different based on the ending of season 1!
P.S.
Patch notes for Westworld.
Consider supporting us by going here: Patreon
The coHosts- Nick Bristow, Michael ‘Thrifty Nerd’ DiMauro, Tim Lanning, Jennifer Cheek
Subscribe and Rate on iTunes or Subscribe directly to the Feed Like us on FacebookVladimir Putin has lashed out at the US’s Magnitsky Act dubbing it “a purely political, unfriendly move.”
The President has approved the speeding up a counter list addressing American foster parents guilty of abusing Russian orphans.
“We should certainly react [to the bill] appropriately,” Vladimir Putin said, welcoming the State Duma’s initiative regarding the sanctions list against US nationals. “We should make sure that our decisions are adequate, but not exorbitant,” he underlined.
Earlier this month, Russian lawmakers suggested preparing a list of Americans who have violated the rights of Russian children adopted into US families. They said they will name their law after Dima Yakovlev – a two-year-old boy who died after being locked in a car by his adoptive father on a hot day in 2008. But the law might see a broader application since the draft has officially been named “Enforcement actions on people involved in violating human rights of Russian Federation citizens”.
The move comes in response to a US list of sanctions, the so-called Magnitsky list, which is expected to be signed into law by the end of the week. The act imposes visa bans and asset freezes on Russian officials allegedly involved in the death of Russian anti-corruption lawyer Sergey Magnitsky and in other human rights abuses in the country. The 37-year-old died in a Moscow pre-trial detention center in November 2009.
The Russian President believes that the American Magnitsky law is most likely the result of internal political wrangling in the US.
“But I don’t understand why Russian-US relations are sacrificed for the sake of domestic policies,” Putin noted on Thursday. Washington speaks about the ‘reset’ and, at the same time, aggravates the situation, he added.
Putin: Guantanamo prisoners face cruelty worthy of ‘Middle Ages’
The President noted that American jails also see their prisoners die.
“Why, don’t people die in their prisons as well? Perhaps, even more than in ours,” he said.
Despite promises by the US leadership, the Guantanamo Bay detention camp is still operating.
“People are kept there without trial – in shackles and chains just like in the Middle Ages,” Putin remarked and now, he continued, people “who opened secret prisons and legalized torture during investigations” point out Russia's shortcomings.
As for the death of Magnitsky, Putin expressed his regret for the tragedy, but noted that the investigation into the case is not over and it is yet to be found who is to blame for the incident.
US reaction to deaths of kids adopted in Russia ‘even worse’ than deaths
As the meeting gradually switched to the problem of Russian orphans dying in foreign foster families, Putin slammed American authorities for their slack reaction of the incidents.
"We are indignant not so much at these tragedies – even though it’s the worst thing that can happen – as at the reaction of the [US] government, a vindicatory reaction. That’s what is bad,” Vladimir Putin said on Thursday.
American judicial authorities hardly respond to cases of abuse of Russian children by their American adoptive parents, the Russian President stated. On the contrary, US courts justify such crimes and acquit those guilty of charges against them, Putin added.
Moscow has repeatedly criticized the US for applying “double standards” in dealing with Russian child abuse cases.
Russian officials claim that at least 19 Russian children have been killed by their foster parents in the US since the early 1990s, when adoption began.
Adoptions between Russia and the US were frozen between 2010 and 2012. The incident which led to this was a 2010 case when an American adoptive mother put her 7-year-old son back on a plane to Russia saying he was no longer wanted. Now an agreement, signed by the two countries, obliges US parents who want to adopt Russian children to take foster parent courses. The agreement also confirms that Russian children keep their Russian citizenship until they are 18- and oversees situations where Americans no longer want a child.SA cyclist Burry Stander dies
Johannesburg - South African mountain bike ace Burry Stander died in a crash on Thursday, Cycling SA (CSA) has confirmed.
"He was returning from a training ride in Shelly Beach, on the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) south coast, and was hit by a vehicle (taxi)," said CSA spokesperson Mylene Loumeau.
Stander, 25, was fifth in the men's cross country race at the 2012 London Olympics.
Four years earlier, at the Beijing Games, he had proved his ability when he finished 15th in the cross country event at the age of 20.
The following season he rose to prominence on the global stage when he won the under-23 title in the Mountainbike World Cup series.
In 2011, Stander became the first South African to win the Cape Epic stage race in the Western Cape, with Swiss partner Christoph Sauser, and the pair defended their title in 2012.
He was married to elite road cyclist Cherise Taylor in May last year, just three months before he narrowly missed out on a medal at the London Olympics.
An emotional Loumeau said Stander, who was raised in KZN, would be missed by the SA cycling community.
"I had seen him come through the ranks since 2006," she said.
"He was a fantastic role model, and at the same time he was humble at it."
HAVE YOUR SAY: What was your best memory of Burry Stander? Also send your condolences to Stander's friends and family to Sport24.
SAPAThe battle against anti-scientific literalism continues. Next stop Texas.
The creation–evolution debate in the United States is ever-changing: any given week might bring good news for science advocates in some states, but bad news in others. At the moment, the good news is coming from Florida, which on 19 February voted to adopt new science standards that significantly strengthen the role of evolution in the state's biology curriculum (see page 1041.
But the next round of news will undoubtedly come from Texas, where a state agency faces a decision whose ramifications could resonate across the United States for years to come. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board is considering an application by the Institute for Creation Research (ICR) to grant online master's degrees in science education. And an advisory panel to the board has recommended that Texas should accept the application.
The ICR accepts the Bible as literal truth on all topics. According to its website, the palaeoclimatology class covers “climates before and after the Genesis Flood”. Anatomy lab includes “limited discussion of embryology and accompanying histology, specifically in regards to evolutionary theory and its alternative — the creation of fully functional major groups of animals”.
For most of its existence the ICR was ensconced in the San Diego area, but in 2007 it relocated to Dallas, in an apparent move to expand its national reach. California may have been glad to see it go; the state had been battling the ICR over accreditation since 1981, when, under a sympathetic official, the institute first got the go-ahead to offer degrees. But in Texas the ICR must win approval from the state board to continue setting up its graduate programmes before seeking permanent accreditation.
The decision falls to the nine-member higher-education board. It had been expected to vote on the issue in January, but instead asked the ICR for more information — about the research done by its faculty members, about how an online course would teach experimental science, and about why its curriculum is so different from other degree-granting institutions in science education. A vote is expected at the board's 24 April meeting.
High-powered scientists in Texas are already weighing in, asking board commissioner Raymund Paredes to deny accreditation. And there are signs that the board is listening. In a response to Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg, Paredes wrote that “our primary criterion will be how the proposed program will contribute to preparing high school students to do rigorous science in higher education”. One can only hope such rational approaches will outweigh the primary ICR reaction, which has been to send out a call for prayer.
Scientists in Texas and the rest of the country must continue to make it clear to Paredes why the board should deny accreditation to this organization. The ICR has managed to con its way into the California educational system for decades. Texas must not succumb as well.
Rights and permissions To obtain permission to re-use content from this article visit RightsLink.
About this article Publication history Published 27 February 2008 DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/4511030aDisaster Prepping: Build a Bunker from a Second Hand Shipping Container
TV shows like The Walking Dead and National Geographic’s “Doomsday Preppers” have created an increased interest in disaster prepping, survivalism and building underground bunkers. The internet is full of videos and articles discussing how to build an underground bunker out of a second hand shipping container. Once its constructed you can hide out in the event of a natural disaster, civil war, zombie apocalypse or perhaps just store your wine collection in a really unique way!
Shipping containers are the ideal for secret lairs for super villains, conspiracy theorists bunkers, disaster prepper’s shelters, or places for cults to hold out to the end times, or the previously mentioned underground bunker for housing your precious wine! Second hand shipping containers make a great starting point for an underground bunker project, as they are cheap, easy to find, easy to transport and easy to modify.
This isn’t just crazy talk of some conspiracy theorists though. These shelters are being used in Australia and have saved lives. As recently as 2009, one Australian family used a modified second hand shipping container to survive deadly bush fires during “Black Saturday” while everything else was destroyed around them.
“If we didn’t have it, I don’t doubt that we’d be dead”
– Bevan Gobbett, discussing the shipping container shelter that saved his life.
The video clip below is an example of a shipping container bunker built by a company in the United States including a gun room, accommodation, food storage, electricity, water and enough supplies to survive for at least a year!
Steps to Build a Second Hand Shipping Container Shelter
While shipping containers have the potential to make a great underground bunker, they also have the potential to turn into a death trap if not constructed properly. This is due to the way shipping containers are constructed. They are built to transport products and to be stacked, with the ability to hold large amounts of weight if stacked vertically. This strength, however, does not apply to the sides of the containers. If buried without sufficient reinforcement, these second hand shipping containers can collapse due to the weight of the earth. Always have an engineer look over your plans before construction to ensure that these are safe, and also that you meet any local government requirements for building on your property.
So, with this in mind, how does one build a zombie-proofed shipping container shelter safely and effectively?
Purchase a high quality second hand shipping container. Work out what size you require, as containers are available in sizes from 10 to 40 feet long. Work out what interior modifications are required (Gateway Container Sales can literally construct almost anything in our containers, from kitchens, bathrooms and accommodation, right thought to firearms storage in case of zombie outbreak!). It is wise to add additional reinforcing to the interior and exterior of the container to ensure that it can handle the weight of earth on the tops and side of it. Repaint and waterproof the ISO shipping container to ensure that it is resistant to corrosion. Believe it or not but there is even paint available that can shield your underground bunker from radiation, radar and cell phone signals. Entry and exit to your bunker is important, especially when it is underground. If your bunker is set into a hillside you may be able to use the original corten steel doors that open outwards, but these will not work if the container is buried underground. Modify the doors so that they can be easily opened from below ground and can open inwards. Generally this is done by sealing the doors, and creating a new door on the other end that can open internally. Dig a large hole where you are planning to install the shelter, this will need to be deeper than the container. Lay a concrete foundation at the base of your hole. This will stop the shelter from sinking into the ground. Use a crane or ISO shipping container transporter to lower the container bunker into the hole. Build concrete steps to allow access to the modified door in the container. Reinforce the sides of the container, this will require lots of rebar (steel poles), cinder/concrete blocks and concrete around the sides of the container. Many “how to” videos on youtube ignore this vital step, without this the walls will eventually cave in under the weight of the surrounding earth. Lay sandbags around the entrance to your bunker so that you have a defensive position. Install air vents or a container ventilator to ensure that you have some form of air circulating in the shelter. Make sure that these are hidden from view otherwise they will give away the location of your secret bunker. Also include piping for utilities (power and water) which will be linked to underground storage tanks and where ever your electrical generator is located. Link plumbing to an external septic tank and plumbing. Reinforce the roof with more rebar, then lay six inches concrete on top. Lay topsoil on top of the reinforced concrete and plant grass and local plants to camouflage your second hand shipping container shelter against the surrounding natural landscape.
Modifying Your Second Hand Shipping Container
Once the actual structure is constructed using a second hand shipping container you are going to want to modify it. Think of what you’ll need in your shipping container bunker. If it’s a wine bunker, you’ll need shelving for all your bottles and perhaps something to keep the humidity at the correct level. If its something aimed at more serious survivalism you might want to include power from a portable generator, an independent water supply, shelving, reinforcing beams and structural strengthening, ventilation so you can breathe properly, accommodation modifications, bathroom, maybe even a secure armoury!
Ready To Construct Your Underground Lair?
Are you ready to take the next step in becoming an evil super villain, ready to store your wine, or just need somewhere to hide our during the Zombie apocalypse? Contact our team of second hand shipping container experts at Gateway Container Sales and Hire.
Related TopicsFebruary 23rd, 2015
Running Bodhi 3.0.0 Legacy on Older Hardware
There are many reasons why people use Bodhi Linux. Some use it because they really like the Enlightenment desktop, and Bodhi has pioneered the integration of Enlightenment to create a distro that is both beautiful, elegant and functional. Others use it because they want an operating system that stays out of their way, and although Enlightenment offers plenty of whistles and bells for those who need or want them, it can also be configured to be highly minimalist and use a very small amount of system resources.
Because of this, Bodhi can also be a good choice for people using older hardware, especially for those who might want to run some “heavier” programs than many made-for-old-hardware distros allow. With this in mind, Bodhi now offers a special “Legacy” edition, developed especially for older hardware. The 3.0.0 Legacy ISO, which can be downloaded from the Bodhi website, features the 3.2 kernel and works on 486 or newer machines, including non-PAE hardware. It also uses Enlightenment’s E17 desktop instead of the E19 version which is on all other 3.0.0 Bodhi releases.
A little while back, when interviewing Bodhi’s lead developer Jeff Hoogland, he recommended that I try Bodhi’s Legacy version when I mentioned I’d be loading 3.0.0 on an older Dell Inspirion laptop to give it a test run. Unfortunately, when I tried the Dell and Bodhi Legacy didn’t get along, evidently due to some kind of hardware conflict as the install constantly stalled in the “configuring hardware” stage, so I grabbed another, even older, laptop — an IBM branded Lenovo ThinkPad with a 1.6 GHz processor and 256 MB RAM — and booted it to run “live” from a USB thumb drive. After checking to make sure the Wi-Fi was working, I hit “install.” Less than fifteen minutes later, I was up and running.
The ThinkPad had originally belonged to my roommate who’d bought it refurbished from a friend seven |
romeda Constellation And The Andromeda Galaxy, Multiple Visits Aboard Their Tremendous Motherships, Telepathic Contact, Pleiadian ETs Appealed For Assistance In Dealing With A Dangerous, Malevolent ET Confederation Plaguing Humanity And Much Of The Galaxy, It Appears That The Alpha Draconan Reptilian ETs Have Been Manipulating Humanity Into A Nearly Invisible System Of Servitude For Aeons, Feeding Off Our labour And Our Bodies Through The Wars That They Instigate And The Hostile Belief Systems Which They Foster In The Form Of Religious And Social Instituions, His Life Has Also Been Threatened 9 Times, Planet X, Belief System, Archons, Suicide, Reincarnation, Light At The End Of The Tunnel, Store Up Food, Weather To Get Worse In March/April. Download (Right-click & select "save link as" or "save target as"...)
Guest - Marc Stevens - Sunday January 3rd 2016 - Marc Stevens Is An Author, Radio Show Host, Consultant and Voluntaryist, He Is Not A Lawyer Or Attorney, Not Trained In The Law Or Legal Profession, School Of Hard Knocks, Results From Having A Sharp Curiosity, Contradictions Render Most Of The Laws And The Legal System Invalid, The First Thing To Question Is Jurisdiction, The Judge Is A Second Prosecutor, Burden Of Proof, Legalise, Success In Multiply Countries With His Approach, Credit Cards, Tickets, Nothing Moves Until Jurisdiction Is Proven, Citizen and Sovereignty, Registration, Where Is The Social Contract, Cromwell, Violence Nullifies Everything, Government – Men and Women Forcing People To Do Things Against Their Will.
Download (Right-click & select "save link as" or "save target as"...)Catch & Sweep [Shutting Down the Switch Kick]
The switch kick is a weapon used to not only score and damage the opponent, but as a way to shut down their attack. It is a common technique used against heavy punchers who throw their right hand by stepping in with overwhelming power. A good technician will time this step, ripping the kick into the arm and sticking the arm to their body before the opponent can attack.
If you are going against a technician with a quick and powerful switch kick, this is the solution to shut it down. The pass through catch and sweep can be hard to execute for some [technically], for that reason, we came up with this variation of it – is straight forward and effective in its execution.
Couples that train together, learn from each other, and grow as one... obviously stay together. In this video, Richi Alvarez displays a catch and sweep technique to shut down the switch kick with his lady by his side.
[Richi is a fighter out of Khongsittha Muay Thai in Bangkok, Thailand. He is a decorated Professional that is a regular on the main card portion of the well known MAX Muay Thai show]
Shutting Down the Competition. Location: Bangkok, Thailand.
Catch and Sweep Technique Tutorial | Shutting Down the Switch Kick
Taught by: Richi Alvarez. MAXX Muay Thai Fighter, Khongsittha Gym Bangkok.
You can follow Richi’s journey in Thailand on Instagram
If you enjoyed this video format, check out my new
Heavy Bag Training Manual – [Free] 3 Chapter Series
Paul Banasiak is a Professional Muay Thai fighter/addict, 9x champion, trainer, and fitness professional currently living, training, and fighting in Thailand. After leaving medical school without looking back, he decided to fully follow his passion of helping others become the best version of themselves, creating MuayThaiAthlete.com. A website for those who are already passionate individuals that want to take their life, mindset & training to the next level.
Today we begin forging our bodies and
strengthening our limitless minds.
Interested in even more? Follow us on:
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The comment period on the Eglinton Crosstown station names has now ended. Thank you to everyone who participated. Your thoughtful comments are very helpful as we move forward. We welcome this level of engagement and look forward to more opportunities for public input on the many Metrolinx projects underway across the GTHA.
Read the full summary report of this initiative.
While this particular Eglinton Crosstown opportunity to comment is now closed, you can still review the information here on the site, including an introductory video, a research summary on the station naming protocol, and even the Naming Decision Tree used in developing the station names. You can also review the public comments submitted.
In the near future, we will share a report of the comments we received through this engagement. Again, we’re grateful that so many of you took the time to review and comment on the proposed station names on the Eglinton Crosstown subway line. Stay tuned for our report and for more opportunities to participate as Metrolinx continues the largest transit expansion in Canadian history.
The Consultation
The Eglinton Crosstown Project is building the Eglinton Line, a 19-kilometre light rail transit (LRT) line that will run along Eglinton Avenue through the heart of Toronto, with a 10-kilmetre underground tunnel in its central section. When it’s complete, the line will connect Mount Dennis in the west to Kennedy Road in the east, and will be up to 60% faster than bus service today.
The Crosstown project is the largest transit expansion in the history of Toronto, and is one of the first wave of projects from Metrolinx’s award-winning 2008 Regional Transportation Plan for the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.
As we begin to construct the underground stations and surface-level stops on the line, final names must be determined for each of the stations and stops.
Metrolinx’s Design Excellence team recently completed a study on regional transit wayfinding harmonization including station, stop, and interchange naming. As part of this, a set of principles was established for selecting names which, applied consistently across the regional transit network, will help to make transit easier to navigate and avoid customer confusion.
Applying these principles to the Eglinton line has led us to propose changes to the names of seven of the line’s stops.
We invite you to learn more about the principles by watching this video and reading the summary of the research report:
Resources for you
Download the summary research report on station naming.
Download a graphic of the Naming Decision Tree.
See the route map that currently appears on the Crosstown website and shows the original Eglinton line station names used as placeholders until now. You may have seen this map before.
What you told us
The consultation was open from October 1 to October 9, 2015. To see what you told us, read the full summary report of this initiative, click on a station on the interactive route map, or click on any of the station discussion cards that appear below it.
Next steps
The approved names for the stations and stops on the Eglinton line will be communicated via the project website at thecrosstown.ca.BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil filed a lawsuit on Monday against two of the world’s largest mining companies for 20 billion Brazilian reais ($5.2 billion) to clean up what it says was its worst environmental disaster, caused by the collapse of a tailings dam.
An aerial view of the Rio Doce (Doce River), (bottom) which was flooded with mud after a dam owned by Vale SA and BHP Billiton Ltd burst, at an area where the river joins the sea (top) on the coast of Espirito Santo in Regencia Village, Brazil, November 23, 2015. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes
The governments of Brazil and those of two states hit by the damburst sued iron ore operator Samarco and its co-owners, the world’s largest miner BHP Billiton Ltd and the biggest iron ore miner Vale SA.
Earlier on Monday, President Dilma Rousseff blamed the disaster on the “irresponsible action of a company” in a speech to the COP21 climate change summit in Paris. “We are severely punishing those responsible for this tragedy,” she said.
While they are going to court, Brazilian authorities are looking for a settlement similar to the $20.8 billion agreement reached by the U.S. government with oil firm BP Plc following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
However, in a civil lawsuit brought by business owners and others, a judge in 2014 ruled that BP was primarily responsible for the spill and had to pay up to $18 billion in penalties on top of the previous payments made.
The Nov. 5 damburst in Minas Gerais, Brazil’s main mining state, unleashed 60 million cubic meters of mud and mine waste that demolished a nearby village, killed at least 13 people and polluted a major river valley, killing fish and reaching the Atlantic Ocean.
The lawsuit filed in federal court in Brasilia required Samarco to take immediate action to contain and reduce the environmental impact of the damburst, the chief prosecutor of the coastal state of Espírito Santo, Rodrigo Vieira, said.
The lawsuit seeks at least 20 billion reais that would be administered by a private fund over 10 years to pay for the recovery from the environmental disaster and its social impact on communities near the mine and along the Rio Doce river basin.
Samarco would be required to set up the fund to be managed independently by non-governmental groups, such as a committee of inhabitants of the river basin and Instituto Terra, a local environmental nonprofit started by world renowned photographer Sebastian Salgado.
“If Samarco does not have the financial resources to cover payments over 10 years, Vale and BHP will be held responsible for providing their shares,” Vieira told Reuters by telephone.
BHP, whose shares have fallen 20 percent since the dam burst, said on Tuesday it would consider the matters raised in the court documents “in due course”.
Vale and BHP announced last Friday that they would create a fund with Samarco to help in the clean-up of the Rio Doce and its tributaries affected by the disaster. They did not detail the size of the recovery fund.
Samarco has already been fined 250 million reais by Brazil’s environmental agency, Ibama, for the disaster, which covered the flood plain in mud for 80 km. Drinking water supplies for a quarter of a million people had to be closed off.
Brazil hopes to sit down with the miners and settle out of court, Vieira said. “The big oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a good precedent of how to agree on funds for environmental and socioeconomic recovery,” he said. “That’s our goal.”
($1 = 3.8698 Brazilian reais)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
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Eminem did what many people do when looking for love — used an app.
The “Walk on Water” rapper, 45, told Vulture that since he and Kim Mathers finalized their divorce in 2001, dating has been difficult.
“It’s tough. Since my divorce I’ve had a few dates and nothing’s panned out in a way that I wanted to make it public,” he explained. “Dating’s just not where I’m at lately.”
When asked how he’d meet potential dates, Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Mathers, said, “Yeah, Tinder. And Grindr. I also used to go to strip clubs.”
He continued, “What can I say? Going to strip clubs is how I was meeting some chicks. It was an interesting time for me.”Star Citizen Patch v2.4.0
Alpha Patch 2.4.0 has been released to the PTU, and is now available for players to test! This patch provides access to our new Shopping experience, full Hangar interactivity from within the game client via new options and the Port Modification App. Many changes to Crusader and Port Olisar including the implementation of new missions, Alpha Currency and Defender reputation. Tying all these new features together and making them truly possible is our first iteration of server-side Persistence – our first persistent server databases! With this we can begin storing information about in-game characters, items, currency and reputation so they can be recalled between game play sessions. We also have our first pass on control unification between flight and fps controls which promises a greater experience then ever to players, new flyable Starfarer and Starfarer Gemini, the hangar-ready Reliant and numerous fixes across the game. During this initial testing phase, PTU access will be restricted to a small group of players that we will expand on over time as required.
Your launcher should should show “2.4.0-352849” as the client version. It is strongly recommended that players delete their USER folder for the Test client after patching, particularly if you start encountering any odd character graphical issues or crash on loading. The USER folder can be found (in default installations) at C:\Program Files\Cloud Imperium Games\StarCitizen\Test.
Please take full advantage of our PTU Issue Council area of the Community site (https://ptu.cloudimperiumgames.com/community/issue-council) to report any bugs you encounter, as well as contribute to other players submissions.
%{color:lightblue}Important Callouts:
Arena Commander has been disabled for this portion of testing.
The keyboard, mouse and gamepad default keybindings have received a massive update to better unify controls between different peripherals and also between flight and FPS modes. The major highlights are listed in the UI section below. More detailed information will be coming in the near future, and in the interim, we strongly recommend that players review the keybindings in-game. We strongly encourage players to use the default keybindings during the PTU phase, so as to provide us with as much constructive feedback as possible regarding the changes.
modes. The Port Modification tool does not currently work in Crusader. However, modifying your ship in your hangar will allow the loadout to persist into other game modes. Additionally, the Port Modification tool has only limited access to ship parts at the moment, so modifying ship loadouts should not be a focus of testing in this initial push.
There is a high chance when loading into the Hangar, that you will load into empty space. Reloading the Hangar will generally fix this.
aUEC is sometimes resetting to a seemingly-random amount.
There is missing geometry at far distances in the SelfLand hangar.
FPS weapons are not dealing damage outside of interior physics grid ships.
Contents:
New Features
Star Systems:
Crusader
Port Olisar has been renovated. While some areas are still under construction, completed sections include a improved atrium and the opening of several new shops, including Casaba Shopping Outlet, Garrity Defence and Live Wire Weapons.
Crusader Industries has made lockers available in both the Ez Hab rooms and near the Port Olisar airlocks, to allow pilots to change their clothing during long stops. If a player wishes to change their default civilian clothing, they will need to go to the shops in Port Olisar or ArcCorp and “Equip” items they have purchased. This is a very temporary implementation until we have a better equipment access system implemented.
Characters now spawn into Port Olisar in their civilian clothing by default.
Characters who exit Port Olisar in civilian clothing rather then a spacesuit will die.
Respawning in Crusader now costs AUEC. The charges are only for deaths by “natural” causes (ship blown up, shot by FPS weapon, spaced in the airlock, ect). Characters are not charged for respawning if a user becomes stuck and has to use the respawn command. If a player does not have enough AUEC, they will still be able to respawn.
. New landing pads have been added to all of the Port Olisar struts to allow them to hold larger ships.
The asteroid fields around Crusader have proven to be incredibly dangerous to shipping traffic after the veritable flood of pirates into the area. As a result, enterprising salvage-hungry pilots may find many more wrecks and valuables in need of recovery in the Yela asteroid fields then previously. Likewise those who are enlisted by Tessa Bannister out at the local ICC Probe Station to investigate the more remote asteroid pockets may also find the odd keepsake of the poor lost souls who perished.
ArcCorp, Area 18
After months of construction, the Casaba Shopping Outlet has opened up on ArcCorp! Interested pilots can now purchase the latest fashions from around the frontier at affordable prices.
Cubby Blast has also fixed the main sales computer, and is ready to sell eager pilots weapons and armor sets.
Hangar
Players can now select which of their available Hangars they wish to use from the Main Menu of the game!
Inside of the “Options” menu, in the Game Options section, there is a drop-down menu that will allow players to select which Hangar they would like to use. This selection will persist between sessions. Players who change their default Hangar while still inside the Hangar will need to exit and re-enter the hangar to see it update in the game-client.
The expansion bays for each Hangar are temporarily out of service. This is temporary while we rework certain aspects of the expansion bays to function alongside the Port Modification App. The VFG industrial central hangar is being expanded to allow owners of large ships to spawn craft in while the expansion bays are worked on. Likewise the Revel & York central hangar bay is now Extra-Large to allow owners of the Starfarer to spawn it in while the expansion bays are worked on. Hangar selections made via the RSI website will no longer work or be registered by the game client.
The character load out selector has been removed from the Hangar. Characters now all load in with the same RSI space suit by default. New civilian clothing and armor can be obtained from ArcCorp and Port Olisar. Clothing can be equipped from the lockers on Port Olisar, or by interacting with previously-purchased items in ArcCorp.
The Holotable has been removed from the Hangar… for now. Players will be able to modify their ships via the Port Modification App going forward.
Game Systems:
Bounty and Reputation System
Crusader Industries has identified a potential weakness in their criminal monitoring network at the understaffed Security Post Kareah. As a result, Crusader Industries has constructed a much improved security station, armory and are looking to contract reliable pilots in the area as security guards to help protect it. “Defenders” who repair enough Comm Array or ICC Probe missions will get offered a contract from Crusader Industries to protect Security Post Kareah from nefarious parties. Newly recruited security guards will receive a weapon from Crusader Industries armory, and will need to defend the station for 10 minutes without dying or allowing any criminals to breach the main security terminal. Security guards are authorized and encouraged to eliminate any trespassers that enter the station, with a 100 AUEC bonus instantly awarded per trespasser that is dispatched.
Outlaws in Crusader will now receive a mission from mysterious allies to kill the new security guard at Security Post Kareah.
Outlaws and Defenders in Crusader will receive missions to hunt one another in Crusader, with varying rewards. Defenders will lose their mission to hunt Outlaws if they are killed by a Outlaw.
Outlaws who have a bounty on them can no longer be tracked via mobiGlas if they are outside monitored space.
Both “Defender” and “Outlaw” missions award AUEC.
. Crusader Industries has tightened their monitoring on deactivating Comm Arrays. Deactivating a Comm Arrays can now take players all the way to Wanted Level 5.
The timer for Outlaw Wanted Levels only counts down while the account is online on Crusader.
Outlaws no longer receive a special loadout when they respawn. Instead Outlaws names will be in red on Augmented Reality when you approach them on foot, and they will appear as hostiles when targeted in space.
Outlaws at Wanted Level 5 will no longer get kicked from the server when they are killed. Outlaw Wanted level will instead persist between sessions, until either enough active play time passes between criminal actions to return to a 0 Wanted level, or until the Outlaw takes actions to erase his wanted level via the Kareah security terminal.
Each Outlaw Wanted level now persists for a number of hours (not minutes) equal to the rank of Wanted. Wanted level 1 persists for 1 hour, Wanted Level 2 persists for 2 hours, ect. Wanted Level 5 would persist for 5 hours. Going all the way from Wanted Level 5 to Wanted 0 without taking actions to decrease the Wanted level would take a total of 15 hours.
The “Defender” reputation of a character on Crusader will persist between sessions. The “Defender” reputation of a player in Crusader is not currently displayed on the HUD. A players “Defender” reputation is permanent assuming no criminal actions are taken. Performing any criminal action will instantly erase any good reputation earned, and place them at Wanted Level 1.
Alpha Currency (aUEC)
We have added a new currency type that can be earned in-game specifically for testing purposes – Alpha UEC.
. aUEC is currently awarded from performing both Outlaw and “Defender” missions in Crusader, and can also be earned by salvaging rare valuables in the asteroid fields around crusader.
The Covalex PI Mission rewards more or less aUEC depending on the ending you receive.
aUEC can be used to purchase items in both Port Olisar, Crusader and Area 18, ArcCorp.
Every account will start with 2750 aUEC.
aUEC can be tracked in-game via mobiGlas and will be periodically wiped as needed throughout the Star Citizen Alpha.
Repair, Restock, Refuel
Repairs, Restock, and Refuel in Crusader now cost aEUC.
When a ship lands on a Cry-Astro pad, the mobiGlas of the pilot will open automatically to the Cry-Astro app and show the character which service they need and how much each one costs. The pilot can then select which ones they wish to purchase and then “Confirm” the service purchase.
Shopping Experience
We have introduced the first iteration of the Shopping Experience to both Port Olisar and Area 18!
Shopping is accessible through Augmented Reality.
Mousing over any item you are interested in while in AR will give you the name, description and price of an item
It will also present you with two options – “Try on” or “Buy Now”, which users can toggle between via the mouse wheel or dpad down on Gamepad. Either option can then be selected via the standard “Interact” keybinding, which by default is via “F” on the keyboard or “Y” on the gamepad.
“Try On” will bring up a dressing room preview of how the item looks.
“Buy Now” will take you to the checkout screen, where you can confirm your purchase before it is delivered to your locker on Port Olisar. There is also a option called “Deliver To” that is greyed-out, pending implementation in a future iteration.
If you already own an item, the UI will show “Equip” instead of “Buy Now”.
Cubby Blast (ArcCorp), Live Wire Weapons and Garrity Defense (Port Olisar) offers all of our currently available weapons and 6 armor sets.
Casaba Outlets offer civilian clothing in the form of hats, footwear, pants, shirts and jackets. The main Casaba Outlet store on ArcCorp has a much larger selection of attire.
Items purchased via the shopping experience will also persist from session to session. Please note that throughout the alpha and beta of Star Citizen we will periodically wipe items back to a clean state status for further testing.
Persistence
One of the biggest features we’ve implemented in Alpha 2.4.0 is our first iteration of true server-side Persistence. Persistent databases are what allow us to store information on items, ships, questions, locations, and actions that a player has taken, such that they can return to exactly where they left off session-to-session. This is a huge step forward into the “Persistent” part of making the “Persistent Universe” the vast universe we all look forward to.
During this first iteration, the following items will now “Persist” on the database and be saved from session to session. aUEC Item Purchases Hangar Configurations Ship Loadouts Character Loadouts Crusader Reputation (Criminal and Defender) Ship Ammo and Missiles (Crusader only)
Port Modification App
What is this? What does it do? What doesn’t it do! This handy application allows pilots from all over the ‘verse to directly modify the loadouts of their ships – just by looking at their ships and activating the appropriate nodes!
This fun-filled new option is housed in mobiGlas and currently can be accessed by pressing the “home” key on your keyboard.
Once the Port Modification App is activated, your AR vision will show you interaction points in both the Hangar and Ship where you can place flair items, ships and modify components.
The Port Modification app works in both the Hangar and Crusader. Changes made in the Hangar will carry over to your Arena Commander simulation sessions, and changes made in Crusader will carry on in the ‘verse from session to session.
It also allows you to select what ships you wish to have in your Hangar without use of the RSI website, and allows you to select where and which Flair items you want to place!
Social Module
mobiGlas now shows both AUEC (Alpha UEC ) and UEC in the top right corner of the main mobiGlas page.
(Alpha ) and in the top right corner of the main mobiGlas page. Augmented Reality is now on by default. It can still be toggled on and off with the F2 key.
The MISC Reliant (Base) has been added as a Hangar-Ready ship.
Reliant (Base) has been added as a Hangar-Ready ship. The Starfarer (Base) and the Starfarer Gemini are now flight-ready, and available for pilots to summon in Crusader.
Ship health has received a balance pass across the board. Ships that will have seen an increase in health include the Mustang (All), 300i and Freelancer. Ships that will have seen a decrease in health include the Aurora (All), 325a, 315p, Hornet (all), Gladiator, Vanguard and Constellation Andromeda.
Ship armor and shields are currently going through a review for rebalancing, and may experience adjustments during the 2.4.0 PTU process.
First Person:
A whole slew of animation changes have been made to support the new shopping experience.
We have added a slew of new items from armor to civilian clothing that players can obtain and use through the Shopping experience. Our initial selection of civilian clothing includes five styles of jackets, three different shirt styles (in a wide variety of colors), six styles of pants (also in a wide range of colors), shoes and hats! We also have familiar Marine and Outlaw armors, flightsuits and the full assortment of FPS weapons.
User Interface:
The keyboard, mouse and gamepad default keybindings have received a massive update to better unify controls between different peripherals and also between flight and FPS modes. Major changes include: mobiGlas is now on F1 on the Keyboard. Spacebrake is now on “Left ALt+ X” (Keyboard) and “LeftShoulder+B” (Gamepad). Exit ship/Exit seats is now on “Left Alt+F” (Keyboard) and “LeftShoulder+Y” (Gamepad). Cycle Countermeasure is now “G” (Keyboard), and “Dpad Down” (Gamepad). Launch Countermeasures is now Hold-“G” (Keyboard), Mouse Button 4, “RightShoulder” (Gamepad). Throttle Min/Thottle Max is now “Backspace” (Keyboard) as a toggle. Self-Destruct and Force Respawn are now “Right Alt” + Doubletap “Backspace” (Keyboard), and “LeftShoulder + RightShoulder” + doubletap “B” (GamePad). The keybinding changes are very extensive. More detailed information will be coming in the near future, and in the interim, we strongly recommend that players review the keybindings in-game. We strongly encourage players to use the default keybindings during the PTU phase, so as to provide us with as much constructive feedback as possible regarding the changes.
modes. Major changes include:
Updates and Fixes
Star Systems:
ArcCorp, Area 18
Fixed an issue where a lighting effect on the elevator doors would pop as the doors opened and closed.
Fixed an issue where a bright light was flickering on and off in the center of AstroArmada.
Toned down some of the lighting in the Customs area of ArcCorp.
Fixed an issue where the visual effects for the Sphere outside of TDD Jobwell were missing.
Jobwell were missing. Fixed an issue where the Cubby Blast sign had some texture clipping and conflicts.
Crusader
Fixed an issue where the Yela asteroid were missing a number of graphical detail levels.
Fixed an issue where Quantum Traveling to an object would sometimes cause the player’s ship to be moved about 3000m in a random direction.
Fixed an issue wherein ramming another player’s ship and destroying your own ship in the process, would give the other user a Criminal Wanted level.
Fixed an issue where the Audio for Comms Array activation and deactivation was playing globally across the server.
Hangar
Fixed an issue where the door frames in the VFG Industrial hangar were missing detail levels.
Game Systems:
Arena Commander
Added the ability for characters to suicide in Arena Commander.
Fixed an issue in the Tutorial (Chapter 6), where the eject hint would be for the keyboard even when using the gamepad.
IFCS
Precision mode velocity damping now only applies to strafe.
Strafe is no longer affected by the space-brake.
Fixed an issue where pilots who entered certain landed ships would sometimes see the artificial horizon holo-disc grow huge on their screens.
Fixed an issue where several ships would take a very long time to destroy unless their cockpit took damage.
Individual Ships
300 Series
Fixed an issue where the 300i and 350r landing gear would hover a few inches above the landing pad.
Fixed an issue where maneuvering thruster audio on the Aurora LN was repeating excessively at moderate-to-high volume levels.
Fixed an issue where the zoom-camera for the Avenger HUD would pull the camera too far toward the left or right when zooming in on screens.
would pull the camera too far toward the left or right when zooming in on screens. Fixed an issue where the Avenger (all) would drain fuel very quickly when using boost or afterburner.
Fixed an issue where the Avenger Warlock was missing its Visor HUD information.
Fixed an issue where the zoom camera for the Cutlass Black HUD would pull the camera too far downward when zooming in on screens.
would pull the camera too far downward when zooming in on screens. Fixed an issue where the entrance audio for the Cutlass Black did not attenuate over distance or direction.
Fixed an issue where the ramp suspension had no collision for all Cutlass variants.
Fixed an issue where the turret seat of the Cutlass Black was hovering inside of the cargo bay until it had been interacted with.
Fixed an issue where the left wing landing gear of the Gladiator would sometimes spawn in deployed for Arena Commander matches.
Fixed an issue where the Gladiator exterior lights were not aligned to the body of the ship.
Fixed an issue where the zoom-camera for the Gladius HUD would pull the camera too far toward the left or right when zooming in on screens.
would pull the camera too far toward the left or right when zooming in on screens. Fixed an issue where the Gladius pilot had no strafe animations.
Made some minor art and visual effect tweaks to the Hornet series of ships.
Fixed an issue where using automated landing on the Khartu-al would sometimes cause the ship to strafe….forever.
Fixed an issue with the Khartu-Al where flying close to objects would cause the ship to rapidly switch between landing and flight mode.
Fixed an issue where the Merlin maneuvering thrusters were missing graphical detail levels.
Fixed an issue where the zoom camera for the Retaliator HUD would pull the camera too far toward the center when zooming in on screens.
Fixed an issue with the Aegis Sabre where the color and damage shaders were visible on the interior of the landing gear doors.
Fixed an issue where the zoom-camera for the Sabre HUD would pull the camera too far toward the left or right when zooming in on screens.
Fixed an issue where character who walked past a ladder in the Starfarer would automatically climb the ladder.
Fixed an issue where there was a flickering white light around the external gangway of the Starfarer.
Fixed an issue where the captain’s seat on the Starfarer had no “Use” prompt.
Fixed an issue where panels in the Starfarer Docking Collar were reversed.
Fixed an issue where the Vanguard Warden’s missile racks could be attached to any ship.
Components
Fixed an issue where the Max Ox Neutron Cannon (S1 and S2) were both unaffected by overheating.
First Person:
Fixed an issue where characters would not lift their leg when EVA ’ing around the Port Olisar rings.
’ing around the Port Olisar rings. Fixed an issue where the helm flashlight had a blur effect inside of ships.
Fixed an issue where the wheels and glass on the Greycat Buggy had graphical detail problems that would cause it to pop in and out at close range.
Fixed an issue where the Greycat Buggy was spawning with its wheels partially in the floor of the Hangar and ArcCorp.
Fixed an issue where the FPS Radar was oriented to the helmet and would rotate with it, instead of moving with the player.
FPS Weapons
Fixed an issue where the small arms fire from FPS weapons would not manifest inside of a ships physics grid. Gun battles inside of ships are now fully possible!
weapons would not manifest inside of a ships physics grid. Fixed an issue where the Devestator-12 Energy Shotgun damage abruptly dropped off at a certain distance.
Fixed an issue where swapping an Arrowhead Sniper rifle for another weapon would leave the Arrowhead rifle floating in mid air.
Fixed an issue where players could not pick up dropped Arrowhead Sniper rifle.
Fixed an issue where headshots taken with the Arrowhead Sniper rifle wouldn’t register past a certain distance.
Fixed some visual effect issues with the Arrowhead Sniper Rifle.
Fixed an issue where characters would drop their gun both when unholstering and when switching weapons.
User Interface:
Fixed an issue where the HUD Interaction cursor was not properly aligned with multi-function displays, making it difficult to cycle screens.
Interaction cursor was not properly aligned with multi-function displays, making it difficult to cycle screens. Fixed an issue where users could not rotate a turret with a HOTAS or Joystick peripheral.
or Joystick peripheral. Fixed an issue where certain keybindings were saved to the incorrect peripheral and were not saved on restart.
Fixed an issue where the “double tap” binding for player keybindings was not saving correctly.
Fixed an issue where the HUD Icons on the helmet holoradar were affected by motion blur, causing them to stretch when turning or looking around.
Fixed a number of client crashes.
Fixed a number of server crashes.
Made some graphical performance tweaks to the Constellation Andromeda.
Made some continued performance improvements to the game servers.
Fixed some significant lag tied to the chaff visual effects.
Back to topLEGO 10254 – Winter Holiday Train
Designer Review Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IIpLW1D
[learn_more caption=”Transcript for Hearing Impaired”]
Hi, my name is Morton and I’m a designer for LEGO Creator. I’m very excited because today I’m going to show you what I’ve been working on lately, this year’s Winter Village set. Choo choo. The Holiday Train. This cozy little train makes it possible to deliver all the presents in time for the holiday and transport all the people from the big city to the Winter Village. This train is also packed with lovely details and is dressed to get you into the Christmas spirit. Let’s have a closer look.
First, we have the locomotive. It has a nice, big smokestack with the steam coming out. You can remove the roof to easily access the cockpit. Behind it, you have the small charcoal wagon with some lovely details. All the way in the back, we have the passenger wagon. This, you can also take the roof off. Inside, the kids can enjoy a hot cup of cocoa, but my favorite part of the whole set is this wagon. It has a tiny, little train that goes around the Christmas tree as the train goes forward. On this flatbed, there’s also room to store all your presents. In this set, you also get this little platform with a bench where the grandmother can wait for her grandkids to arrive.
Speaking of which, let’s have a look at the characters in this set. You get the engineer that drives and maintains the train, the conductor that checks the tickets and makes sure everyone has a pleasant trip, the grandmother waiting for her kids to arrive for Christmas, and the two excited children. You also get a lot of toys and presents in this set. You get a little remote controlled robot, a sailboat, a little spaceship inspired by one of my favorite space themes from when I was a kid, a firetruck, a tiny windup car, and then of course the little train set.
Of course, with this train, you also get a full circle of tracks and you can also power it up by adding the power functions so you can have it going around and around your Christmas tree. This feature was also the biggest challenge. To fit all the power functions in this small, cute train and then make it easily rebuilt was not that easy, but the end result is really, really cool when you see the small steam locomotive pulling all of the wagons. Choo choo. I hope you all have lots of family fun this holiday and enjoy building this set.
Building Instructions – Assembly Manual
[/learn_more]
Coming SoonImage caption Egypt's ruling military council has promised to step aside after a presidential election in June
Egypt's military ruler has said the decades-old state of emergency will be lifted partially on Wednesday, the first anniversary of the uprising against former President Hosni Mubarak.
Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi said the law would still be applied in cases of "thuggery", without giving any details.
The military has used the term "thugs" to justify the crackdown on people demanding a return to civilian rule.
Egypt has been governed under emergency law almost |
But those needs change. Software is developed with expectation of reliable messaging, observing every event. But then it is hibernated, frozen for debugging, disconnected. Ensuring state is non-local and observations are eventless will help a great deal, but we also want stateful extensions to (metaphorically) hit the ground running. A useful technique is to model an extension’s state as a function of the input history of the parent system, reducing the burden for specialized state per extension. Of course, maintaining and processing the entire history of inputs would be an impractical burden. But if we also address disruption tolerance, the extensions should have little trouble handling the approximate history reported through exponential decay.
– there are many models for stateful systems: mutable imperative variables, state machines and their hundred variations, folds and integrals, term rewriting, process calculi, actors model, relational databases, object databases, and so on. Unfortunately, most state models indirectly lead to software systems that are under common conditions: maintenance, upgrade, extension, disruption. Software is specialized to maintain only the state that it needs. But those needs change. Software is developed with expectation of reliable messaging, observing every event. But then it is hibernated, frozen for debugging, disconnected. Ensuring state is non-local and observations are eventless will help a great deal, but we also want stateful extensions to (metaphorically) hit the ground running. A useful technique is to model an extension’s state as a function of the input history of the parent system, reducing the burden for specialized state per extension. Of course, maintaining and processing the history of inputs would be an impractical burden. But if we also address disruption tolerance, the extensions should have little trouble handling the approximate history reported through exponential decay. machine learning – An interesting goal for a system that maintains history with exponential decay is to recover the complete history, or at least a good re-enactment of it. In this case, our loss function would have a goal of compressing the interesting and useful bits from the two frames into one frame, i.e. such that we can recover both frames. By ‘interesting’, I mean that you would not have predicted the value (and thus cannot recover it without recording it). By ‘useful’, I mean that it has predictive value noise, i.e. information that is difficult to compress and has low utility. Access to context (e.g. before and after frames) will be essential for computing what information is predictable in context. I believe that developing a good loss function by hand is infeasible, that we humans won’t be able to explain to a computer which details are useful, and which are predictable. But this is a suitable task for machine learning. In particular, it’s good for unsupervised machine learning (because we can easily test our ability to recover frames), and it’s good for deep machine learning (because our loss function will often be combining frames that have been combined before, possibly at different knowledge depths, thus necessitating multiple ‘layers’ of semantic knowledge and implying cross-layer training). If we develop it carefully, the resulting system will also support both classification (of objects AND actions), and what if? questions (via fictionalizing the context). (By my estimate, machine learning and exponential decay should be very symbiotic, with the history providing the context necessary for intelligent deductions.)
Exponential decay is well aligned with real world evidence models. That is, the real world records a lot of evidence for recent events, and progressively less evidence for past events. Since the amount of ‘state’ in the world is finite and does not grow over time (modulo occasional meteoric impact), the evidence must decay exponentially. (It just doesn’t decay at a uniform exponential rate.) I believe it is also well-aligned with intelligence in animals and humans, since the state and computational resources of a human brain is finite and bounded.
Implementing Exponential Decay of History
Exponential decay of history is one of those rare, great, simple ideas that could revolutionize software development.
Unfortunately, my prior article made it more complicated than it needed to be. In this article, I describe a simpler implementation here, with the following improved qualities:
The state of the history can be modeled as a simple list (instead of a stack of ring-buffers). Manipulations and configuration are simple and uniform.
The half-life can be tuned arbitrarily. Users can provide it as a natural number, which is reduced to a pseudo-random value from the exponential distribution that indicates which of frames should be collapsed (if any) when adding a new frame.
Because frames are collapsed in a probabilistic manner, the resulting model is robust against temporal aliasing. (The prior design could lose valuable information if a condition naturally aligns with periodic loss events. The new design will suffer aliasing only if it exists in the initial input, i.e. based on sensor framerates.)
Warning: The following model is non-type-checked pseudo-Haskell. It’s also a pure model for history, which might not be the best option if dealing with very large values or supporting persistence.
-- a little context... import qualified System.Random (StdGen) import qualified Control.Exception (assert) type RNG = StdGen exponentialDist :: Integer -> RNG -> (Integer,RNG) exponentialDist halfLife rg = (irg',index) where -- implementation assumed -- pure history with support for stateful context data History s a = History { h_rand ::!RNG -- pure random numbers, h_loss ::!(HLossFn s a) -- see below!, h_hist ::![a] -- the frame buffer, h_state ::!s -- extra state and context, h_halflife ::!Integer -- approximate frame count to lose 1/2 info, h_maxlen ::!Integer -- how much history to keep? } -- The Loss-function for a history: -- -- state -> lowerFrames -> upperFrames -- -> aNewer -> aOlder -> (state', aMerged) -- -- This loss function gets access to the historical context -- (state, lower and upper frames) along with the two frames it -- is to smash together. It outputs an updated state and a new -- combined frame. (I.e. the loss function cannot affect the -- surrounding frames, but may influence state.) -- -- state: arbitrary, user-defined, but really should have bounded -- space. Might contain ML models, or recursively more history. -- lowerFrames: Ordered from latest to earliest (i.e. list zipper style) -- all younger than aNewer -- upperFrames: Ordered from earliest to latest; all older than aOlder -- aNewer: the younger of the two frames being merged -- aOlder: the older of the two frames being merged -- state': the updated state. -- aMerged: the result of combining. -- type HLossFn s a = s -> [a] -> [a] -> a -> a -> (s,a) -- A history-update will always add the given 'a' to the front -- of the history. Then, it will typically merge two frames -- that are later in the history. Though, if the history is -- smaller than its max length, it may increase its size. historyUpdate :: a -> History s a -> -> History s a historyUpdate aUpd h = -- full implementation elided, but basically: -- use exponentialDist, halflife, and rng to obtain an index -- reduce selected update index if greater than maxlen -- add the aUpd element to the front of the list. (aUpd:h_hist h) -- unzip and apply loss function to the elements at index and index+1... -- (unless there is no index+1 element) -- build and return the updated history -- new hist (~ reverse lower ++ [aMerged] ++ upper... but efficiently!) -- new state -- new rng
This is a very simple model. I would not be surprised if other people have developed something similar on their own, though I have not found references and exponential decay was novel to me when I developed it. I have already found applications for exponential decay of history in my day job, and I expect it will become one of a few cornerstone state models for RDP.
An interesting benefit of this probabilistic approach is that it can also be applied to temporal information. And we can help ‘smooth’ it out by simply computing multiple locations for *where* to decay (e.g. pick three or seven possible decay targets) then choosing the one that *loses the least information*.
I encourage you to find applications for this state model, to make use of it in practice, to share and blog your own experiences.
AdvertisementsDuring this year’s EvoLang conference, a book was launched with perspectives on the last conference. The past, present and future of language evolution research (McCrohon, Thompson, Verhoef & Yamauchi, 2014) is a volume of student responses to EvoLang9 in Kyoto. It includes basic reviews and criticism, synthesis of current approaches, experiments and sociological perspectives.
It makes for interesting reading. What comes across in all the papers is a drive for collaboration and integration of fields and ideas, as the diagram from the contribution by Barcceló-Coblijn and Martin shows. These are serious attempts to understand what has been learned so far and find new perspectives that incorporate empirical evidence. Many papers see neuroscientific evidence as a key to expanding many areas of research.
An electronic version of the book can be downloaded at the Evolang Website (although at the time of writing, the website was down). Below, I review the chapters to give a flavour of the book.
Junko Kanero reviews vocal and gestural theories of language origins, and asks whether a vocalisation-only theory is testable. They suggest that recent advances in neuroscience will be able to test whether gestures and spoken language share common neural substrates.
Cory Cuthebertson compares claims of abrupt versus gradual evolution of the language faculty in the proceedings of the first EvoLang conference in 1996 and the 2012 conference. They observe a broadening of approaches between the two, but theories have become less unified and the discussion of sudden versus gradual evolution has become much less explicit. Only two papers assumed an abrupt evolution of language.
Xiaoxia Sun and Uwe Seifert discuss the origin of language and music, and whether they evolved separately, in sequence or together. They suggest that neuroscientific approach should also be able to differentiate between whether there were shared cognitive resources that served both language and music, but then split. They review existing neuroscience evidence and point out a gap in the literature: there should be more experiments with non-Western languages and musical styles.
Tessa Verhoef reviews laboratory experiments of cultural evolution. Literature from computational neuroscience is used to suggest an integrating framework for studying cultural evolution and the brain by discussing compression and efficient coding.
Seán Roberts and Justin Quillinan challenge the keynote lecture by Matsuzawa on working memories in chimpanzees. In a visual memory game, the chimpanzee Ayumu outperformed a small sample of humans. Roberts and Quillinan replicated the human study online and found participants who performed as well as Ayumu. Saccade distance and the fidelity of the ordering of numerals across the screen were predictors of performance. While no support was found for Hurfrod’s suggestion of a trade-off between auditory working memory and visual working memory, they suggest this could be tested in more detail in the future.
Rie Asano contrasts studies which compare human cognition to animal cognition with studies which compare different human cognitive systems (e.g. language and music). They argue that these address two separate domains –human uniqueness and language uniqueness, and this distinction should be incorporated into Hauser, Chomsky and Fitch’s distinction between FLN and FLB.
Anne van der Kant reviews inter-species comparative work and suggests how non-invasive neuro-imaging can be applied to birds and primates to perform longitudinal studies of vocal learning.
Caroline Green uses results reported at the 2012 EvoLang to hypothesise that FOXP2 mediates the relationship between finer auditory sensitivity and finer motor control of vocal production to allow vocal learning. They suggest an experiment that could elucidate this further.
Michael Pleyer discusses views of language as a complex adaptive system, and notes that the ontogenetic, glossogenetic and phylogenetic elements are complex adaptive systems in their own right. They suggest that cognitive-functional and usage-based approaches can help synthesise these timescales by emphasising properties of language use and social factors.
Marisa Delz and Johannes Wahle review studies of language evolution in networks from the conference. They synthesise the approaches under a single concept of embedded networks that they call Multiple-Network-Population. They suggest that it should be possible to compare and contrast studies that find social networks to be important for language evolution under a unified framework.
Mauricio Martins, Archishman Raju and Andrea Ravignani review critical issues in quantitative modelling approaches to language evolution. They call for more rigorous scrutiny of assumptions in models and better validation against real data. Researchers in language evolution should learn from similar techniques in other fields. They suggest that quantitative modelling should be an intermediate step between theory and experiment.
Lluís Barceló-Coblijn and Txuss Martin argue that approaches from evolutionary biology should be used to identify the unique aspects of language and study its evolution. Unlike the recent paper by Hauser et al., they see the best approach as involving the integration of many other disciplines such as anthropology, psychology, philosophy, neuroscience and modelling.
Dillon Niederhut argues that neuroscience should be more central to the field. They review how methods in neuroscience can generate, constrain and test hypotheses of language evolution.
Christian Bentz discusses how theories from the EvoLang conference could be unified into a cohesive picture. They present the concept of a ‘language helix’ which captures the idea of language as a complex adaptive system (similar to Pleyer) where regularities in language are constantly being inferred, ‘unfolded’ and inferred again at different levels and timescales.
Richard Littauer, Seán Roberts, James Winters, Rachael Bailes, Michael Pleyer and Hannah Little provide a sociological review of the conference, and note the increasing role of technology. Participation of EvoLang 9 extended outside of Kyoto via the internet through twitter and blogging, and an increasing number of people were connected to the internet during talks, making it possible to fact-check claims immediately. They also discuss the role of blogging and academic publishing for the future of the field.
McCrohon, L., Thompson, B., Verhoef, T. and Yamauchi, H. (2014) The Past, Present and Future of Language Evolution Research: Student volume following the 9th International Conference on the Evolution of Language. Tokyo: EvoLang9 Organising Committee.
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PrintIdentifying priority areas for biodiversity is essential for directing conservation resources. We mapped global priority areas using the latest data on mammals, amphibians, and birds at a scale 100 times finer than previous assessments. Priority areas have a higher—but still insufficient—rate of protection than the global average. We identify several important areas currently ignored by biodiversity hotspots, the current leading priority map. As the window of opportunity for expanding the global protected area network begins to close, identifying priorities at a scale practical for local action ensures our findings will help protect biodiversity most effectively.
Abstract
Identifying priority areas for biodiversity is essential for directing conservation resources. Fundamentally, we must know where individual species live, which ones are vulnerable, where human actions threaten them, and their levels of protection. As conservation knowledge and threats change, we must reevaluate priorities. We mapped priority areas for vertebrates using newly updated data on >21,000 species of mammals, amphibians, and birds. For each taxon, we identified centers of richness for all species, small-ranged species, and threatened species listed with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Importantly, all analyses were at a spatial grain of 10 × 10 km, 100 times finer than previous assessments. This fine scale is a significant methodological improvement, because it brings mapping to scales comparable with regional decisions on where to place protected areas. We also mapped recent species discoveries, because they suggest where as-yet-unknown species might be living. To assess the protection of the priority areas, we calculated the percentage of priority areas within protected areas using the latest data from the World Database of Protected Areas, providing a snapshot of how well the planet’s protected area system encompasses vertebrate biodiversity. Although the priority areas do have more protection than the global average, the level of protection still is insufficient given the importance of these areas for preventing vertebrate extinctions. We also found substantial differences between our identified vertebrate priorities and the leading map of global conservation priorities, the biodiversity hotspots. Our findings suggest a need to reassess the global allocation of conservation resources to reflect today’s improved knowledge of biodiversity and conservation.“Let the voters decide” has a certain immediate appeal. It implies that the will of the people will guide public decisions and create a more just and fair city for all. That’s the idea at least. The reality usually ends up looking a lot messier. To say nothing of the huge structural issues direct democracy has caused for the state as a whole (ahem, Proposition 13).
This year, Proposition B purports to make the planning process more fair by letting the public vote on any project that exceeds existing waterfront height limits. Sounds good, right? No more shady backroom deals! Everyone wins, right? Not quite. First, let’s look at the existing height limits. One of the most popular buildings on the waterfront (and in San Francisco as a whole) currently exceeds the forty foot height limit that exists along most of the waterfront and would not be allowed under current planning regulations:
But wait, we can bring the Ferry Building into compliance without going to a vote:
Maybe this seems like a frivolous exercise, but it illustrates the reason why height limits are sometimes exceeded- it makes sense. 40’ is extremely low in an urban area, and most of the waterfront is not so precious that a few taller buildings would make it such a bad place. People often throw out Miami Beach as indicative of the horrible consequences of changing our current 40’ height limits. You know what? Miami Beach’s waterfront is in some ways a much more pleasant place to be than a lot of the Embarcadero, with public access and a surprising lack of huge storage buildings full of parking. Or in other cases, the waterfront is literally surface parking. Perhaps you have heard in campaign literature that the San Francisco Giants want to build high rise condos on land zoned for parks? That’s not quite the case. The Giants have some of the largest surface parking lots in San Francisco that currently take up prime waterfront land which has current height limit of zero. Meaning, without the height limit being exceeded, that “open space” is going to remain surface parking forever instead of turning into housing and a five and half acre park.
Ah, there’s nothing like a little stroll along the waterfront:
Planning at the ballot box doesn’t make sense because the typical voter doesn’t have the time or background to analyze urban design, land use planning, or the tradeoffs involved in various options. A lot of people walk into the voting booth, read the one line description on the ballot, and vote. The current process for exceeding the height limit on a parcel takes years of meetings (public meetings for anyone interested in attending), approval of the Planning Commission, and approval of the Board of Supervisors. Changing a height limit cannot simply be done with an exception to the planning code: it involves rezoning that piece of land at a taller height, and it is not a simple process.
Our current planning process also has a number of public benefits built in. Developers must comply with affordable housing laws (either through a fee or providing on-site units), fees to pay for infrastructure and they are held to public scrutiny at numerous meetings where public comment is collected.
What is Proposition B proposing? Proposition B would require proposed projects to skip the typical approvals process and instead go to a vote of the people. Why does the City’s Planning Department think this is a bad idea? “There is a potential for developers to circumvent required City review and craft subsequent ballot initiatives that combine height phentermine-med increases with other aspects of project approval.”
How often to voters read the full text of things they are voting on? Not very often, I can assure you. Developers could hypothetically skip many steps of project approval by spending enough money to get a project approved at the ballot box without having to comply with all of the other rules that have been put in place to ensure a good outcome for the City and the residents of the area. The Port has $1.5 billion in unfunded infrastructure needs, and by their own economic analysis Prop B could result in $8.4 billion in “delayed, reduced or lost revenues to the Port Harbor Fund.” Perhaps the Warriors arena wasn’t the best use of Piers 30-32, but nobody else with enough money has stepped up to keep it from falling into the Bay (except for maybe George Lucas).
In more detail:
Depending on the nature of required ballot measures that would evolve from Proposition B, such measures could enable developers to bypass otherwise mandatory environmental review, professional analysis, public response, commission hearings, and legislative review in advance of the election on the project. The layered review and public processes that exist today evolved after decades of vigorous public discourse, planning, and action, some of which is highlighted in our attached letter, resulting in the Port Lands being the most regulated lands in San Francisco. The current review and public process likely would be altered and occur at different chronological periods in the various stages of project approval. (from the San Francisco Planning Department’s analysis of Measure B)
We have a very long and time consuming process for building on the waterfront, and we have a few very rich people who don’t want anything built because it might block a portion of their precious views, and hey, they already got theirs, so who cares about anyone else? While there has been a pretty valiant effort to paint this ballot measure and last year’s ballot measure to block a mid-rise condo building as a rise of progressive voting power in the city, but it’s really about progressives getting played by 1%ers who will do anything to preserve the status quo (and their views of the Ferry Building). Richard and Barbara Stewart, wealthy NIMBYs who live downtown near the Embarcadero, have been writing checks to support both waterfront campaigns, spending $143,750 in support of Proposition B to date (versus less than $50,000 spent by Prop B opponents). They spent nearly half a million dollars last year to defeat the 8 Washington condos that would have risen across the street from the high rise condo complex they already live in. If you’re interested in looking up campaign finance in general, the San Francisco Ethics Commission has a database that is searchable online.
Back in the 1980s the San Francisco Bay Guardian (and others) waged a campaign to stop the Manhattanization of San Francisco. Ballot measures were passed that severely limited the amount of office space that could be built downtown (to less than the area in one building the size of the Transbay Tower per year). How did that work out? Great, if you like San Francisco turning into a bedroom community for suburban office parks, and you like the high-rise hotels that were built instead of commercial office buildings:
(San Francisco Mariott image by Flickr user FUMITOL)
There are a lot of unintended consequences of well-intentioned political efforts. The risks of passing Proposition B are too great, and the benefits are far too small (I personally fail to see any benefits to passing it). I’ve already voted NO and mailed my ballot this morning.- Advertisement -
The perverse and perilous paradox of this presidency is that the more Bush and Cheney fail, the more they succeed. (See my article "Fighting Terror with Terror.")
Bush parlayed his criminal failure to protect and come to the rescue of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast due to Hurricane Katrina into getting Congress to pass in September 2007 the John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007.
The Warner Act abrogates the Posse Comitatus Act (the Civil War law that prohibits the use of federal troops in domestic affairs) and gives the President the power to declare, on his own say so, a "public emergency" and carry out mass roundups, arrests and detentions.
All Bush and Cheney need do, in other words, to nullify their record level of unpopularity is allow - or merely fail to prevent - another 9/11 attack (the attack that Bush warns of in the article below.)
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If they once again fail to prevent a terrorist attack as they did on 9/11, they will then undoubtedly get their grandest wish: unfettered executive powers.
The reason that this perverse paradox works is because their "war on terror" rests upon a specific, immoral logic - the idea that Americans' lives are more precious than that of Afghanis or Iraqis or Iranians or Pakistanis and that that it is necessary, and justifiable, to do anything to "protect American lives," including torture, mass murder, surveillance of all of us, and so on.
So long as the logic of this rationale remains unchallenged, Bush and Cheney - and their successors (McCain, Obama or Clinton and so on) - will succeed in consolidating virtually all power in the executive branch, accountable to no one and to no law. Anything and everything can be justified according to this reactionary, national chauvinist logic. The Bill of Rights, US Constitution, Geneva Conventions, international law and the UN Charter be damned. Nothing must or will stand in their way.
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The Democrats - and Obama and Clinton in particular - have made it clear that they do not question the logic of this vicious rationale. Where is the talk in Pennsylvania between Barack and Hillary right now about the recent revelations of how from the very top levels of the White House, torture was plotted? Why are the Democrats mum about this? What kind of leaders are these? What right do they have to say that they should lead this country and we should support and vote for them when they haven't stopped the torture? Obama can say all he wants that he will shut down Gitmo, but why hasn't he done this while in the Senate?
Obama and Clinton could have and should have filibustered the Military Commissions Act of 2006 that legalized torture and stripped habeas corpus rights from anyone the president decides is an "enemy combatant." It isn't enough to say you're against something and vote against it, but then allow it to nevertheless pass. This is what a filibuster is for. Even the NY Times said at the time, if you're going to filibuster anything, filibuster this. Since January 2007 the Democrats have had the majority in Congress and all of the leadership posts.
They could have and should have, if they're really against all of this, repealed the MCA and the Warner Act and Patriot Act.
They should have defunded the war. They have had the power to do this. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid hide behind the fig leaf that they don't have the votes to stop the funding and stop the other tyrannies and crimes against humanity of the Bush regime. This is disingenuous in the extreme. They don't even need the votes to turn out their way, the leadership can simply prevent a funding bill from coming to the floor. They could hold hearings that reveal the depravities and atrocities being committed at Gitmo and Abu Ghraib and in Afghanistan and they would have no problem given the impact this would have on public opinion in repealing the fascistic laws that have been passed to enable Bush and Cheney's power grab.
You have to ask yourself, what road are we on? Where is all of this headed? What would you do if you were Bush and Cheney and you had their worldview and their agenda? Would you go quietly into the night? Or would you do what you knew would give you the power you crave? What has been, after all, their entire record up to this point?
You have to ask yourself, why would the very same people who have had all of the power in their hands for years to prevent and expose these crimes - but haven't used it - suddenly, upon getting the presidency, have a moral awakening? If you stand by for years while a murderer and torturer is doing their filthy deeds in full view of you, and you did nothing about it when you had the ability, and thus the blood is on your hands for your failure to act, why would you suddenly have an epiphany when you now occupy the highest office in the land? Even if you did suddenly have an epiphany, wouldn't the obvious question be: why didn't you do something about this back then?
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"Bush Warns of the Possibility of Another 9/11"
Big News Network.com
Sunday 13th April, 2008
Next Page 1 | 2Roller derby gave me a gift. That gift was relief from the constant stream of self-critical chatter in my own head. Well, the real truth of the matter is I gave that gift to myself, but derby was the medium in which I began to understand that my habit of negative self-talk was not enriching my life, nor the lives of those around me. Telling myself I suck didn’t help me learn a hockey stop, it didn’t teach me a strategy, it didn’t help me become a good teammate. Giving myself mental space to mess up and not beating myself up over little failures did, though. I gave myself permission to have fun without being perfect. A good life lesson, it turns out.
It took some mental acrobatics to get there. Derby attracts adventurous, high-achieving women who tend to expect a lot of themselves. And it’s not easy to be good at derby, which most of us find out the first time we put on skates and attempt a skill. So it’s natural to get down on yourself for the inevitable errors you make. But I quickly learned the less I let that negative voice occupy my headspace, the better I did.
But this is not another “derby saved my soul” story. I realized some time this season — one that’s been rife with injury and self-doubt — that I still hadn’t completely beat the habit of talking down to myself. I’m just more subtle about it. I come up with ideas of things I want to do in life and who I want to be. I’m still just never enough. If I don’t ride my bike to work every day in a week, I’m not committed enough to riding. Maybe I don’t cook enough and spend too much money eating out. Maybe I don’t prep enough healthy meals. I cross-train outside of derby, but it’s never enough. Look at this poor showing on my blog this year — I don’t write enough. I keep a busy schedule and don’t see some of my friends enough. I don’t meditate enough. Some days I don’t drink enough water. Most days I don’t get enough sleep. I forgot to send my friend a birthday card. I never read that book someone lent me.
Derby generally surrounds you with so much badassery it’s hard not to compare yourself to others. Did you really give it your all in that drill? You made attendance, but did you practice enough? Did you cross-train, did you eat healthy, did you read everything posted on the league forum? Is your gear clean enough, do you have the best helmet to protect yourself against concussions? Do you have the right wheels to skate on that floor? Do you own even one scrimmage shirt that doesn’t look like a Goodwill reject? Do you watch enough derby? If you do watch enough derby, do you learn as much as you can from what you watch?
I met a girl at a tournament one year. My team played hers in a single match. We somehow became friends on social media, and even though we have not seen each other since, we’ve gotten to see a little of each other’s lives play out online. Isn’t it amazing how derby does that? I have noticed in the pictures she posts of herself a tattoo that reads: “what I am is enough.” I think of that often — it’s such a beautiful sentiment. What if I could be, right at this moment, enough? Enough in derby. Enough in life. I don’t think it means abandoning plans to improve, but embracing the process. And yourself in the process.By: Krishnagopal Dharani, Posted on: October 8, 2014
One of the most intriguing features of the brain is the phenomenon of sleep and dreams. What are dreams? What purpose do they serve? Why do we forget most of the dreams, but remember some? We do not know. Whatever is the mechanism of dreams, one thing is certain – dreams are the surreal manifestations of memory stored in the brain – which simply means that stored memory is the basic prerequisite for the formation of dreams. Putting it in another way: Sensory thoughts collected during the awaken state are obviously essential for the recollection of memory – either from the conscious mind as in day-to-day activities; or from the unconscious mind as in dreams.
Now, we can say that to study dreams in any meaningful way, we must know the fundamental mechanism by which the brain stores vast amounts of information in it as memory – i.e. an understanding of the mechanism of forgetfulness/remembrance would definitely lead us into a better analysis of dreams!
The molecular-grid model (as proposed in The Biology of Thought) unfolds a new molecular mechanism by which thoughts may be generated by the neurons by converting external stimuli into internal thoughts (Chapters 4 through 7). This model also proposes a mechanism by which memory is stored in the brain for variable periods as short-term memories and long-term memories (Chapter 8, and see below). We will now employ this model to see how it answers these questions: “Why are dreams random, and why do we forget dreams?”
A Brief Note on Dreams
Dreams are successions of bizarre and meaningless ideas and emotions that occur during certain stages of sleep, which are produced involuntarily without obvious external sensory inputs. While sleep itself is a puzzling phenomenon of the brain, dreaming is no less enigmatic! There are various theories about their origin – Sigmund Freud famously postulated that they are the manifestations of our repressed desires and anxieties, while Carl Jung, his student, said they represent not only pent-up anxieties but dreams are meant to offer some solutions to problems. Some researchers took a more physiological explanation (in contrast to the above psychological explanations) and said that dreams are merely the manifestations of random stimulation of memory traces (see below) in the brain resulting in disorderly thoughts! Yet another theory, called the activation-synthesis hypothesis (by Hobson and McCarley – perhaps a theory much in vogue today), clubs both of these theories and says that the brain is randomly activated during dream state but the resultant irrational ideas are interpreted by the analytical human brain as some rational sequences and hence understood as purposeful “visitations”. However the disagreement continues!
Human sleep occurs in several cycles during the night, each cycle consisting of 5 stages of sleep. The first 4 stages of sleep are of varying depths ranging from light sleep to very deep sleep, and these stages correspond well with a gradual decrease in the brain activity (as demonstrated by the slowing of electrical wave rhythms in EEG). All these stages put together are referred to as non-REM sleep (or slow-wave sleep). The last stage of sleep is paradoxical in the sense that there is an increased activity of the brain (almost akin to the awaken state), and is associated with roving eye movements – hence called REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. Dreams typically occur during REM sleep.
Characteristically, the dreams experienced during sleep are not remembered after waking up and frequently they are unpleasant and ominous – though some are pleasant and welcome! Dreams are usually claimed to be associated with consolidation of memory and learning (see below) – even they are said to induce creative ideas and spur some people on new innovations. It is believed that some Renaissance painters have employed a technique of waking up while they were dreaming and depicting their dreams in their art!
A Brief Note on Neural Circuits in Sleep and Dreams
Slow, rhythmic and synchronized activity of neuronal circuits between thalamus and cortex generate oscillatory waves (the thalamo-cortical loop) and this is thought to be crucial for the development of sleep in humans. During waking periods this neural loop generates high-frequency oscillations (30-80 Hz gamma rhythm), which is suggested to be responsible for the binding of individual sensations into complex thoughts. However, in sleep primary cortical areas are shown to be shut off thus forming a “closed neural system”. Especially in REM/dream state the cholinergic neurons of the pons are activated, which then pass signals to the lateral geniculate body (in thalamus) thence to the visual cortex (ponto-geniculo-occipital spikes) (Barrett et al, 2012, pp. 272-273). It is also noted that pons sends signals to the frontal lobes which are especially activated in dreaming. Thus the integrity of brainstem is supposed to be essential for REM/dream state. Dreaming is a dopaminergic process that occurs in the limbic areas involving cortex through the Papez circuit (adding a significant emotional content to dreams).
It is thought that the characteristic inability to remember many dreams is a consequence of the dynamics of neural circuits and their neuromodulatory systems – but the following discussion reveals a different dimension to this problem!
Biological Explanation of Dreams
By the above discussion it becomes clear that there are two problems that needs explanation – one, dreams are random and disorderly, and two, we tend to forget dreams upon waking. These two outstanding features of the dreams can be accounted for by using the molecular-grid model, as shown below.
The Orderly Human Memory
Human thought is exceedingly complex, but at the same time is highly orderly. The multitude of sensory inputs we receive each moment are arranged in a sequential order to enable a meaningful idea of the external world we perceive. For example, when an image of a rose flower impinges on the retina, several signals of color are sent to the neurons in the brain where they are converted into several primary thoughts of color (details in the book!). Only when the perceptions of these colors and shades are arranged in a sequential order, we can get a meaningful idea of the rose we see – if they were to be disorderly the image we appreciate would no longer be that of a rose! Consider a more complex situation – when we pick up a rose and smell it, we are utilizing at least three modalities of sensation all at once. We look at the flower, we feel the texture of it while picking and we smell the odor of it – only when all these sensory inputs are arranged in a sequential and organized manner, it gives us the knowledge of a real rose (i.e. not a paper-rose!). When our thoughts are disorderly (as for example in an inebriated state or in insanity) the information becomes disorderly and hence the inference routs into irrational ideas (perhaps the rose is perceived as a paper rose or a blob of red waste-tissue).
What causes our conscious thoughts to be arranged in an orderly fashion, what are |
constant. It was this unrelenting noise in the background that we had all just become accustomed to. In some ways, it became like white noise—we didn’t even hear it anymore. It was only when I left and came back, that I realized: This is unacceptably loud. This is crazy that we live with this volume of noise.
Photo by David Naugle
What do you think the solution is for these communities?
It’s tough, because the areas around the airport are like bedroom communities for airport employees. They need the airport to invest and thrive. But we have to bargain and deal with the noise and the traffic.
I would like to see better integration between the airport and the surrounding communities. When you think about it, the airport really functions like a fortress. It’s essentially a mini-city and it’s completely walled off. The closest Starbucks to my house is inside the airport. The best restaurants in the area are inside the airport. But I can’t get there.
Because of airport security. Is that ever going to change?
Culturally it’s cut off for security reasons, but I have two young sons who would love to go watch airplanes. Why doesn’t the world’s busiest airport have an observation deck? The interface might be rooftop observation decks, or it might be parks and greenspace. But there need to be gestures of openness to the community.
What role does the business community play in this? Because the south side is home to not just the airport now—you’ve got Pinewood Studios, you’ve got Porsche.
There is this aero-tropolis planning process going on. The leaders and mayors of all these jurisdictions and the CEOs of the companies down here like Porsche, Delta, Chick-fil-A—they’re all talking about planning issues. This is long overdue and it’s exciting to see, because together they can start discussing common opportunities and challenges. The city of Hapeville, for instance, can’t solve these problems on its own.
How do you see the south side evolving over the next few years?
It’s still really affordable. Houses are cheap. There are large-scale redevelopment opportunities. And as Atlanta gentrifies, people are looking for new frontiers. On paper, there’s so much potential. I just don’t want to see it become another “non-place” in Atlanta. I want development that’s rooted in history—the south side is old. There are all these historic railroad towns that are really cool with interesting architecture, and we have this rich culture of generating Atlanta’s hip-hop stars. There’s cultural capital here that I don’t want to get lost.
Palmer will launch her book at Highland Inn & Ballroom Lounge on April 13 and 7 p.m. The event is hosted by A Capella Books. She will also read from Flight Path at Hills & Hamlet Bookshop in Serenbe on April 15 at 7 p.m. Or catch her author talk at SCAD Ivy Hall on May 4 at 6 p.m.
More: Read our review of Flight Path.You may know Tecate for its beer, but did you know, this little border town has arts, culture, gastronomy, wine and natural beauty? Well, it has all that and more.
Initially, Tecate has the feel of a tired small city. However, after spending a bit more time there I came to realize it was anything but sleepy and if it seems a bit groggy, it is because it appears to be awakening.
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Tecate is a little border town just over an hour from San Diego. Because it is a small town and a bit further from San Diego than Tijuana, border crossing is a less dreadful process. We travel to Tecate via Ensenada but returned to the US from Tecate. We traversed into the US late on a Friday afternoon and there was no wait on either side of the border. This is ideal if you are planning to do a weekend or overnight trip. You will have more time to enjoy and less time in line.
Arts
Like a lot of northern Baja, Tecate seems to be going through a bit of a revival. In recent years, they have opened a cultural center downtown dedicated to the heritage of the indigenous people. In addition, they have cleaned up around the Arts Center and are in the process of expanding. While I was there, they were building a new first-rate performing arts center. Additionally, the center offers revolving art exhibits, art and music classes for adults and kids as well as theatre.
Expanding on the arts and Mexico’s long pottery and tile history, in 2017 the city plans to introduce a self-guided ceramics tour. The tour will provide visitors with a map of the traditional potters in the area. Visitors can see the process and of course purchase authentic Mexican terra-cotta.
A day and a half in Tecate and only scratched the surface. Click To Tweet
Wine
Another trend taking off in Tecate is small wineries. Locals and some non-locals have taken cues from Valle de Guadalupe and have decided to give winemaking a go in the area. As it was explained to me, if Valle could be so successful with wines without water, then Tecate should be able to succeed with water. It seems to be paying off, at least for the mother and daughter team at Veramendi: Casa Vinicola, where they are producing approximately 3900 cases of wine despite being a young winery with 2013 being their first year of production.
This region of Baja has long been regarded as a place of spiritually, wellness and healing. You can truly feel it in the air, whether you are hiking at nearby La Rumorosa or taking a weeklong sabbatical at the exclusive health resort of Rancho La Puerta.
Nature
It is worth taking a ride about 40 minutes outside town to experience La Rumorosa. The vistas and valleys are breathtaking. You can see for miles and the only sign of humanity is the single-lane road winding through the painted landscape. Spend some time here and reconnect with nature, but watch out for rattlesnakes.
Health and Wellness
If you really want to get in touch with Mother Earth and your spiritual side, spend a week at Rancho La Puerta. This health spa offers all the services you would expect at a wellness center and much more. Every week they have presenters talking on a diverse range of topics. The week we were there, the lecture line-up included Pilates, sleep and dreams, autobiography and memoir writing as well as music and more. Additionally, they offer healthy cooking classes at La Cocina Que Canta with a guest chef.
Gastronomy
If you are all about the food but not interested in cooking or learning to cook, there are plenty of places to indulge in some exceptional meals. We were treated to a nice selection of restaurants.
Our first meal in the area was at La Cocina Que Canta. We were four days into a five-day Baja trip and we had been eating nonstop. I was ready for some lighter fare. La Cocina is a vegetarian restaurant offering sandwiches and lovely salads made with greens from there on-site organic garden. Additionally, they serve up some nice soups. Be sure to leave room for espresso and dessert. We sampled all of them and I wouldn’t know which one to recommend. They were all tasty.
Another great option for lunch or dinner is El Lugar de Nos. This is an eclectic little joint with indoor and outdoor dining. We were there mid-afternoon but I can imagine that it is a bustling place in the evening. In addition to tables for dining there are casual seating areas. I can envision hanging out here with friends until we are asked to leave so the help can go home. It is that kind of place. Of course, the food is fantastic. Again, the menu offerings are a bit on the lighter side but they have a nice selection of tostados and salads and the servings are plenty. Once again, you will want to leave room for dessert.
If you are looking for a more upscale meal, you will want to go to Asao located at Santuario Diegueno. This is Martin San Roman’s restaurant in Tecate. Roman is an international award-winning chef with other restaurants in Baja and San Diego. The menu at Asao is an upmarket Baja-Med. He does an Octopus Kebab that even I enjoyed. I say this because I have an aversion to eating anything with tentacles. The Braised Short-ribs and the Cilantro Risotto with Grilled Shrimp were delicious.
A good night’s sleep
Asao and Santuario Diegueno, the hotel where we stayed are on the same property. They sit perched on a hill with spectacular views. This is a lovely hotel. Rooms have vaulted ceilings and giant beds. The kind that make a girl feel like a princess but not foo-foo. The tones are neutral and décor comfortable. My room had a balcony overlooking a courtyard and a bathroom with a shower and soaking tub. On-site are business facilities, a swimming pool and exercise room. The hotel appeared brand new but I believe it is about 10 years old so I would say it is well maintained.
If you have ever considered a visit to Tecate but thought it was more of a pass-through town, I encourage you to go and stay a while. I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the diversity of activities in the area. I know that after a day and a half there I felt like it was a place I need to revisit. I suspect we only scratched the surface of all Tecate has to offer.
Disclosure: I received compensation in exchange for writing this review. Although this post is sponsored, all opinions are my own. This post contains links to businesses where I may have been compensated. At this time, I do not receive any financial compensation by you clicking on a link.L.S.C.’s Press Release #1
ecurrencyhodler Blocked Unblock Follow Following Aug 30, 2017
8/30/17
Today, I’ve launched a publication called The Litecoin School of Crypto and my vision is simple. Advocate for Litecoin adoption.
I hope to achieve this in 2 ways:
Reducing the technical barriers to entry through education. Marketing by partnering with social media influencers and businesses.
You can read more “About L.S.C” for a roadmap and additional info.
Education
Currently, there is a huge technical gap between the pioneers in crypto and the average laymen. This can make cryptocurrency intimidating, hard to understand, and confusing for newcomers. By providing easily accessible and simplified education, my goal is to clear a path for the average Joe to buy Litecoin. This is the reason why I’ve created a series called “A Newcomer’s Guide to Crypto.” However, its goal is not only to empower new consumers with information, but also the Litecoin Community. I challenge you, the more experienced cryptoinvestor, to help spread adoption by sharing these articles if you have difficulty explaining cryptocurrency to your friends. Let me be the words you can’t find.
I know. Much of this information will be review for you. But it might be new for your family members, your friends, or even your coworkers. I invite you to join me in my mission. Sit down with them. Talk to them about Litecoin. Send them A Newcomer’s Guide to Crypto. Review with them the different ways to buy and store LTC and alleviate their fears.
You can check out the first two guides here: 1) An Intro to Crypto and Litecoin 2) Understanding Wallets
This section of L.S.C. is geared towards the more experienced cryptoinvestor. It will include articles on Litecoin Technology such as the Lightning Network, MAST, and Covenants. It will also include articles that distinguish Litecoin from the hundreds of other coins listed on coinmarketcap.
2. Marketing
As I partner with social media influencers and businesses, I will write a short profile on them and post it on the publication. If you have any LTC swag you’d like to donate or have any connections to influencers, contact me via twitter or email at ecurrencyhodler@gmail.comHoly smoke: Bank worker saved from fire by divine intervention finds Jesus in his frying pan
When Toby Elles fell asleep while cooking a late-night snack, it really was a case of divine intervention that saved his bacon.
The 22-year-old was'miraculously' woken after an hour as his lounge filled with smoke – and quickly had the revelation that he had left a frying pan on a hob.
While saying his prayers, the bank worker scraped the remains of crispy bacon rashers from the pan, but could not believe the vision that appeared before him - Jesus Christ staring back at him.
Jesus crust: Toby Elles found the image of the Son of God after falling asleep while cooking
The image, burnt into the base of the pan, shows eyes and a nose as well as the distinctive beard and long hair of the son of God.
‘It’s some kind of miracle’, the Halifax Bank cashier from Salford, Lancaster, said.
His culinary efforts may have been burnt to a crisp but Mr Elles said being saved from meeting the man upstairs was well worth it.
He added: ‘I fell asleep cooking some bacon and it had burnt this face on to the pan.
‘If it wasn't for the smoke it could have been a very bad situation, perhaps someone's looking over me.
Vision: Toby discovered the image of Jesus when scraping the burnt bacon from the frying pan
‘My housemates and I had a few beers earlier in the evening I thought I would snack before going to bed and as it was cooking I decided to take a rest on the couch.
‘When I woke up about an hour later the room was full of smoke.
‘Luckily we have an electric hob so I just turned off the heat, but then I lifted up the bacon and there was JC looking back at me.’
Mr Elles has said he is going to keep the 'gift from God' for good luck.
‘I'm not going to scrub it clean though, just in case I get struck by lightning, it's going to take pride of place on a wall instead,' he said.
‘It's become quite a talking point for people who come round to the house and I have even thought I might get a glass cabinet to put it in.
"I'm going to keep it for the rest of my life, perhaps it can watch over me."As criticism of Bill C-13 mounts, the government’s sales strategy for its latest lawful access bill is starting to unravel. Many will recall the immediate, visceral opposition to Bill C-30, the last lawful access bill that started with then-Public Safety Minister Vic Toews declaring the day before introduction that Canadians could either stand with the government or with the child pornographers. The bill never recovered as Toews’ divisive remarks placed the spotlight on the warrantless disclosure provisions and the lack of privacy balance. Within ten days it was on placed on hiatus and formally killed a year later.
While the government has removed some of the most contentious elements from Bill C-30, many privacy concerns remain (immunity for voluntary disclosure, metadata). Indeed, it appears that its primary takeaway from the last legislative failure – an incredibly rare moment in the life of a majority government – was that it was a botched sales job. So despite a promise not to bring back lawful access legislation, it did so months later, this time armed with a new marketing strategy. Bill C-13 was framed as a cyber-bullying bill and its primary sales people were presumably supposed to be the victims of cyber-bullying and their parents.
The turning point on Bill C-13 came ten days ago when they appeared before the Justice Committee studying the bill. Carol Todd, the mother of Amanda, led off and courageously insisted that the government stop using her child’s name to undermine privacy:
“While I applaud the efforts of all of you in crafting the extortion, revenge, porn, and cyberbullying sections of Bill C-13, I am concerned about some of the other unrelated provisions that have been added to the bill in the name of Amanda, Rehtaeh, and all of the children lost to cyberbullying attacks.
I don’t want to see our children victimized again by losing privacy rights. I am troubled by some of these provisions condoning the sharing of the privacy information of Canadians without proper legal process. We are Canadians with strong civil rights and values. A warrant should be required before any Canadian’s personal information is turned over to anyone, including government authorities. We should also be holding our telecommunication companies and Internet providers responsible for mishandling our private and personal information. We should not have to choose between our privacy and our safety.


We should not have to sacrifice our children’s privacy rights to make them safe from cyberbullying, sextortion and revenge pornography.”
Ms. Todd’s comments effectively derailed the government’s sales strategy for Bill C-13, making it clear that the failure to appropriately protect our privacy victimizes the same people the bill purports to protect. In the days since her appearance, the voices against the bill have grown louder. Ontario Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian this week:
“The time for dressing up overreaching surveillance powers in the sheep-like clothing of sanctimony about the serious harms caused by child pornography and cyberbullying is long past.“
Former Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, who faced his own backlash against lawful access, yesterday:
“There can be an overreaction in terms of how you correct it. So [Cavoukian is] raising a bit of an alarm here. Let’s be very careful in how we could protect someone in a situation like this, but let’s also be careful in going too far and limiting even things like free speech, [or using] invasive techniques that could be employed by policing. I’m hoping they take another look at this and kind of curtail some of those powers.”
Next week, the committee resumes with appearances from criminal lawyers, the Canadian Bar Association, and others (I’m currently scheduled to appear on Thursday). With the criticism likely to grow, the government should recognize that its lawful access strategy has failed yet again. The right approach would be to separate the bills, move forward on addressing cyber-bullying, and go back to the drawing board on surveillance and lawful access.From Unify Community Wiki
Author: Brandon Edmark
Description
This is a method to easily create a new asset file instance of a ScriptableObject-derived class. The asset is uniquely named and placed in the currently selected project path; this mimics the way Unity's built-in assets are created.
ScriptableObject asset files are useful for storing data that doesn't fit naturally within the MonoBehaviour/GameObject Prefab system. Since they use Unity's built-in serialization, they are guaranteed to map perfectly to an existing class; therefore, ScriptableObject assets are much easier to work with in Unity than XML, CSV, or other traditional ways of storing such data.
Usage
Copy ScriptableObjectUtility.cs into your project. Then create a class like YourClassAsset.cs, replacing YourClass with the name of your ScriptableObject-inheriting class, and place it in an Editor folder. You will now be able to create a uniquely named YourClass asset file from the Asset menu.
ScriptableObjectUtility.cs
using UnityEngine ; using UnityEditor ; using System.IO ; public static class ScriptableObjectUtility { /// <summary> // This makes it easy to create, name and place unique new ScriptableObject asset files. /// </summary> public static void CreateAsset < T > ( ) where T : ScriptableObject { T asset = ScriptableObject. CreateInstance < T > ( ) ; string path = AssetDatabase. GetAssetPath ( Selection. activeObject ) ; if ( path == "" ) { path = "Assets" ; } else if ( Path. GetExtension ( path )!= "" ) { path = path. Replace ( Path. GetFileName ( AssetDatabase. GetAssetPath ( Selection. activeObject ) ), "" ) ; } string assetPathAndName = AssetDatabase. GenerateUniqueAssetPath ( path + "/New " + typeof ( T ). ToString ( ) + ".asset" ) ; AssetDatabase. CreateAsset ( asset, assetPathAndName ) ; AssetDatabase. SaveAssets ( ) ; AssetDatabase. Refresh ( ) ; EditorUtility. FocusProjectWindow ( ) ; Selection. activeObject = asset ; } }
YourClassAsset.cs
using UnityEngine ; using UnityEditor ; public class YourClassAsset { [ MenuItem ( "Assets/Create/YourClass" ) ] public static void CreateAsset ( ) { ScriptableObjectUtility. CreateAsset < YourClass > ( ) ; } }I honestly can only think of a handful of people I know that have gone to the grave without having children. It wasn’t common for our parents and grandparents generations. Hello.. they’re called baby boomers for a reason. Well anyways, it’s becoming more of a norm for women to decide not to have children. It’s also becoming a norm for people to drop their irrelevant commentary into conversations about children with the women who don’t want them.
Personally, I could live my entire life without ever having children. Crazy to think considering my career is to care for kids, right? Well being a nanny tends to encourage people to ask me about having my own children pretty much all of the time. Seriously, like every single day. And yes, it gets super old answering the same question over and over, especially coming from people who have kids.
What gets even more irritating is listening to them school me on how I’ll “change my mind” or how “once I get pregnant things will change”. What if neither of those happens? What if I don’t want to change my mind? What if I take proper precautions and won’t “just get pregnant”. What if you just minded your own business, huh?
Well I know people are never going to just mind their own business so here I am writing to you. All of you women (and occasionally men) who think it’s acceptable to say anything other than “okay” in response to me not wanting to have children. You’re not a psychologist. You don’t have to offer me suggestions, particularly if you ask me the question, to begin with.
And you certainly don’t have to remind me to “give it time, you’ll want them someday”. Oh, and DO NOT hit me with “well does your boyfriend/husband want them?” Unless you wanna make babies with him I really don’t think it’s anything for you to worry about.
Granted, I don’t think people truly realize how inappropriate these responses are. Hey, after all, that’s why I’m making it a point to help people understand that it’s truly insulting. It insults a woman’s judgment. It insults her right to her own body. Would you want me to ask you, “Well.. did you really want kids?”
“You know you’ll change perspectives over time right, and probably won’t want them.” Seems pretty dang obvious that you wouldn’t say these things to people, and for some reason, people still think it’s acceptable to make those comments towards women who choose the other route.
Okay Karen, how about you go worry about your 7 kids while I make my own decisions. Capiche? Capiche.Dan Le Batard discusses Kimbo Slice's deep roots in Miami, how he emerged from the streets to become one of the first viral sports stars by fighting in the streets, and what his legacy is in the sport of mixed martial arts. (2:38)
Professional mixed martial artist Kimbo Slice died Monday at age 42, Bellator MMA announced.
"We are all shocked and saddened by the devastating and untimely loss of Kimbo Slice, a beloved member of the Bellator family," Bellator president Scott Coker said in a statement, calling Slice "a charismatic, larger-than-life personality that transcended the sport."
"Outside of the cage he was a friendly, gentle giant and a devoted family man," Coker said. "His loss leaves us all with extremely heavy hearts, and our thoughts and prayers are with the entire Ferguson family and all of Kimbo's friends, fans, and teammates."
There was no word on the cause of Slice's death.
Slice had been hospitalized earlier Monday in Margate, Florida, for undisclosed reasons, according to Coral Springs police, who had been dispatched to his residence to prevent a potential gathering outside. They said no foul play was suspected.
"We lost our brother today," Slice's longtime manager, Mike Imber, said in a text message to The Associated Press.
Slice, birth name Kevin Ferguson, was a former backyard brawler and internet sensation. A heavyweight at 6-foot-2, 225 pounds, he had a 5-2 professional record with four TKOs.
He was signed to Bellator MMA and scheduled to headline Bellator 158 on July 16 in London against James Thompson.
He last fought at Bellator 149 on Feb. 19 in Houston. He defeated Dhafir Harris, aka Dada5000, in a three-round decision. The result was later changed to a no-contest by the Texas commission, after Slice tested positive for anabolic steroids and an elevated testosterone ratio.
Kimbo Slice was "a charismatic, larger-than-life personality that transcended the sport," Bellator president Scott Coker said. Robert Laberge/Getty Images
Slice also previously fought for the UFC.
"He carried himself as a true professional during his time in our organization," the promotion said in a statement Monday night. "While he will never be forgotten for his fighting style and transcendent image, Slice will also be remembered for his warm personality and commitment to his family and friends."
Slice was born in the Bahamas on Feb. 8, 1974, but grew up in South Florida. He played middle linebacker at Miami's Palmetto High and showed the potential to play in college before Hurricane Andrew caused Palmetto High's season to be cut short and his scholarship offers vanished. He flunked out of college at Bethune-Cookman University and was homeless for a brief time. He worked as a limo driver, strip-club bouncer and bodyguard before rising to fame through his viral street-fighting videos.
He was not embraced by much of the MMA world as it attempted to go mainstream, with UFC president Dana White famously saying Slice would not last two minutes in the Octagon. However, due in part to his immense popularity, Slice's third professional fight, a fourth-round TKO against Thompson in May 2008, aired on CBS, making it the first MMA fight on prime-time network television.
In 2009, the UFC booked Slice as a contestant on "The Ultimate Fighter" reality series. He ultimately fought for the UFC twice, compiling a 1-1 record, before taking a leave of absence from MMA to compete in professional wrestling.
In 2015, Bellator signed Slice and promoted him in a main event against MMA pioneer Ken Shamrock. Slice won the fight via TKO in the first round, after nearly being submitted by Shamrock in the opening minutes.
Shamrock tweeted about Slice's death Monday night.
We battled inside the cage, warrior vs warrior. Outside the cage, we have loved ones. REST IN PEACE KIMBO SLICE. May God Watch Over You. — KEN SHAMROCK (@ShamrockKen) June 7, 2016
The two Bellator events Slice competed in, Bellator 138 and Bellator 149, set new ratings records on Spike TV.
Slice made his professional MMA debut on Nov. 10, 2007, for the now-defunct promotion EliteXC, knocking out Bo Cantrell in just 19 seconds.
He trained out of American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida. The team also mourned his passing on Twitter.
The ATT Family and South Florida community lost a legend today. RIP Kimbo. pic.twitter.com/sjs8ctyJMd — American Top Team (@AmericanTopTeam) June 7, 2016
For all of his glowering in-cage swagger and outsized fame, Slice was extraordinarily honest about his fighting abilities. He acknowledged being an MMA newcomer with much to learn, never claiming to be anything but a big puncher providing for his family while constantly working to learn the sport's other disciplines.
"The guys who are holding the titles, heavyweight and light heavyweight, these guys are awesome," Slice told the AP in a 2010 interview before his second UFC fight. "I'm really just having happy days in the midst -- being among them, fighting on the undercards, just contributing to the UFC and the sport. That's really what I want to do. I'm not looking ahead to winning a title or anything like that. I'm just enjoying each fight as it comes."
Slice is survived by six children, and he credited his MMA career for allowing him to send them to college. One of his three sons, Kevin Ferguson Jr., made his MMA debut in March.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.Last February the U.S. extradited the son of one of the most powerful cartel leaders in Mexico to stand trial in Chicago for cocaine trafficking. The capture of Vicente Zambada-Niebla, son of Sinaloa cartel leader Ismail "El Mayo" Zambada Garcia, is the DOJ’s highest-profile catch in years and a nominal drug war victory. But in July, Zambada turned the tables on his captors by claiming that he had “public authority” to traffic cocaine into the U.S. over a span of five years in exchange for providing intelligence on his rivals. For nearly two months the Justice Department declined to comment, fueling speculation that “Operation Fast and Furious,” a gun-smuggling operation conducted by the U.S. Attorney’s office in Phoenix, was part of a trend of state-sanctioned law-breaking. The DOJ’s eventual response, filed September 11, did little to assuage those concerns. Prosecutors admitted that Zambada’s lawyer in Mexico had been a confidential informant for the DEA, supplying intel that the Sinaloa cartel had gathered on its competitors to U.S. law enforcement. Prosecutors also admitted that Zambada’s lawyer had in fact arranged a meeting between his client and the DEA in 2009, but that the meeting was supposed to have been cancelled at the last minute.
“The agents who met with defendant were expressly ordered by the highest ranking DEA official in Mexico not to even meet with (Zambada-Niebla), and no official with actual authority, namely the United States Attorney General or a United States Attorney, authorized agents to promise defendant immunity,” the filing read.
If that claim sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve heard it before. Attorney General Eric Holder’s second reaction to Operation Fast and Furious (after first claiming that the allegations couldn’t possibly be true) was that the actions taken by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms and the U.S. Attorney’s office in Phoenix couldn’t possibly have been sanctioned by the higher-ups at the Justice Department.
Zambada is not the only person to claim that the DOJ sanctions illegal activities in order to get closer to the cartels. Days after prosecutors denied Zambada’s allegations, a former law enforcement officer went to the El Paso Times with allegations that the FBI had allowed drugs to cross the border as part of a larger investigation. William Dutton, a former New Mexico livestock investigator, claimed that during his 18 months working with the FBI, he accepted several shipments of narcotics on the agency’s behalf. "The drugs were concealed in horse saddles, and we started getting a lot of them," Dutton told the Times. "But the FBI kept putting me off when I asked for the money to pay the cartels for the drugs. I had to use my own funds. The FBI still owes me thousands of dollars for these out-of-pocket expenses.”
According to the Times, Dutton and a retired Doña Ana County sheriff's deputy named Greg Gonzales “allege that the FBI dropped them after ‘big names’ on the U.S. side of the border began to surface in the drug investigations.” The FBI declined to comment on Dutton’s claims, telling the Times that it never reveals information about confidential informants. The Texas Department of Public Safety told the Times that Dutton “had no credibility.”
“Much of the intelligence cited by Dutton and Gonzalez does not appear to be actionable or provable, just more rumors in the swirl of half-truths found along the border,” wrote Insight Crime's Elyssa Pachico, an analyst who covers organized crime in Central America. Pachico also compared the charges to Zambada's. "[T]hey hint at a deeper truth in the U.S.'s handling of the Mexican drug panorama. The border zone is filled with double agents, and often U.S. officials have to take part in morally ambiguous operations. This includes relying on informants who may continue to traffic drugs and kill people, but will still expect protection in return for their information.”
While the burden of providing actionable evidence is on Dutton and Zambada, the burden of justifying drug war collateral damage is on the Justice Department. Mexico's drug-related death toll for the last five years is creeping toward 50,000 people. Guns from Operation Fast and Furious have been recovered not just across northern Mexico, but also in Texas. Those same guns were used to kill not just a U.S. Border Patrol agent, but also the brother of Chihuaha State Prosecutor Patricia Gonzalez and roughly 150 other Mexicans. If that weren’t bad enough, Mexico Attorney General Marisela Morales still has not been briefed on the supposedly rogue operation by her U.S. counterparts, a fact that lends weight to Zambada’s claim that the Sinaloa Cartel worked with the DEA without the knowledge of officials in Mexico.
If the U.S. can’t enforce its own drug laws without first violating them, perhaps it’s time for a new strategy.
Mike Riggs is an associate editor at Reason magazine.State lawmakers wrapped up the 2016 legislative session Saturday with what some critics say is a last-minute poke at voters.
Over the objections of several Democrats, the House voted 31-25 to give final approval to HB 2296. The main provision would curb the ability of both the Secretary of State’s Office and the Citizens Clean Elections Commission to demand that certain “social welfare” groups disclose information on their donors.
If all that sounds familiar, it should: The same provisions were in SB 1516 signed into law earlier this year by Gov. Doug Ducey. But the wording of that bill means it cannot take effect until sometime later this summer.
HB 2296 would become law no earlier. But in a bit of legislative sleight of hand, it contains language making it effective, retroactively, later this month.
Rep. J.D. Mesnard, R-Chandler, said the aim was simply to have the provisions in place for this year’s elections.
But Rep. Ken Clark, D-Phoenix, said he sees something more sinister in the measure which is now on the desk of Gov. Doug Ducey.
Clark is spearheading a petition drive to put the provisions of SB 1516 on the ballot in November. If voters reject what lawmakers have done, that legislation self-destructs.
But here’s the thing: If SB 1516 goes away, the law — and specifically the provision designed to go after “dark money” — defaults to the way it was before the November election. And that would be the identical language in HB 2296.
Put another way, the changes in campaign disclosure laws would still remain.
Clark said that leaves only one option: Have two separate petition drives to force a vote on both measures. That adds to the effort and expense.
Mesnard denied that was the intent. But a clearly angry Clark said that does not matter.
“If you are a responsible lawmaker and you know that your actions have an unintended consequence that will force the voters to have to go twice to the ballot to overturn one law, then you are acting against the spirit of our constitution,” he said.
It is a constitutional provision which gives voters the right to have the last word on virtually anything approved by the legislature. It takes just 75,321 valid signatures on petitions gathered within 90 days of the end of the legislative session to put any legislative act on “hold” until voters get to decide whether they want the new law.
But asking voters to review two separate measures, even if they have identical language, means two separate petition drives.
Mesnard conceded Clark’s point.
“That’s true,” he said of the need for two petition drives. But Mesnard said the new version and its retroactive effect is designed to short-circuit what he believes are improper investigations by the Citizens Clean Elections Commission.
That goes to the heart of the battle.
Current Arizona law requires groups that spend money to influence elections to register first with the state. SB 1516 — and now HB 2296 — say none of that is necessary if the groups are registered with the Internal Revenue Service as a non-profit “social welfare” organization. More to the point, the groups would not have to disclose their donors.
Proponents say IRS rules prohibit such groups from spending more than half of their money influencing elections.
But Tom Collins, executive director of the Citizens Clean Elections Commission, said there are two problems with that.
First, he said the IRS does not consider anything spent to promote or kill ballot measures to be political spending. So as long as it spent less than half to elect candidates, it would be free to spend without disclosing donors.
“That’s a real sea change,” Collins said.
Beyond that, Collins the record shows that the IRS does not police these social welfare groups to see how they are spending their money to ensure they are not violating the limits on political spending. With the new law putting a group’s records off limits to state officials, Collins said that pretty much gives them permission to do what they want in secret.
“This bill would result in less disclosure than current law requires of who is contributing money for elections in the state of Arizona,” he said.
Mesnard sees the issue through a different lens: the right of privacy.
“Folks have the right to influence their elected officials because their elected officials are going to influence them and their way of life,” he said during debate on the measure earlier this session.
“The end result is a registry of every person and who they donated to,” Mesnard said. “I think that is entirely dangerous.”
And Mesnard said he would not have pushed the second bill, with its retroactive enforcement date, if Collins’ commission were not trying to look into the books — and the donors — of social welfare groups.
“This is about the Clean Election Commission overstepping its bounds,” he said.
“There’s fear that they’re going to insist on essentially be able to going in and prying open the books of private nonprofits,” Mesnard said. “And we’re trying to say, ‘No, you can’t do that.’ ”Editor’s note: This post was originally published in February 2015. We’ve selected it as one of the posts we’re republishing for our 10th anniversary celebrations in May 2017.
I’ll keep this brief: we know too little about the women of the Harlem Renaissance. The more I look into these poets, writers, dramatists, essayists, critics, social critics, young adult writers, and editors, the more astounded I am at their range and literary output. These women writers run the gamut of political perspectives, editorial and aesthetic approaches, and backgrounds and |
sweetness and bitterness. It is also reminiscent of the philosophy of the Bhagavadgita which imprints on us that one should have a calm equanimity towards life's ups and downs. A Sanskrit shloka that explicates the medicinal and spiritual benefits of the neem is also chanted while chewing this sweet-bitter mixture.[10]
शतायुर्वज्रदेहाय सर्वसंपत्कराय च ।
सर्वारिष्टविनाशाय निम्बकं दलभक्षणम् ॥
"For attaining a strong (diamond hard) body that lasts a hundred years, for obtaining all kinds of wealth, for destroying all negativity, the leaves of neem are to be eaten."
Kannada panchanga
Another practice in Karnataka associated with Yugadi is the panchangashravana (ಪಂಚಾಂಗಶ್ರವಣ).The practice is to worship and read the new panchanga (ಪಂಚಾಂಗ, the almanac) for the upcoming year which lists the fortune of the individuals according to their astrological signs, the rainfall for the year, eclipses that may occur in the year, and a general prediction of the country's affairs.[10]
Special dishes [ edit ]
In Andhra Pradesh and Telangana a special dish called Bobbattu (Polelu) (Puran Poli) (Oliga) are prepared on this occasion. This special dish is called Bhakshalu, Boorelu in which is eaten with fresh ghee in Andhra Pradesh Telangana State. These are eaten along with the Ugadi Pachchadi mentioned earlier. In Karnataka a special dish called obbattu, or Holige (ಹೋಳಿಗೆ / ಒಬ್ಬಟ್ಟು), is prepared. It consists of a filling (gram and jaggery/sugar boiled and made into a paste) stuffed in a flat roti-like bread. It is usually eaten hot or cold with ghee or milk topping or coconut milk at some places of Karnataka.
Greetings [ edit ]
In Kannada, the greeting is Yugadi Habbada Shubhaashayagalu - ಯುಗಾದಿ ಹಬ್ಬದ ಶುಭಾಶಯಗಳು ("Greetings for the festival of Yugadi") or Hosa varshada shubhashayagalu - ಹೊಸ ವರ್ಷದ ಶುಭಾಶಯಗಳು ("Greetings on the New Year").
In Telugu, the traditional greetings for Ugadi are kroththa yeta, ugadi panduga, palukarimpulu or ugadi subhaakankshalu - "క్రొత్త ఏట" / "ఉగాది పండుగ" పలుకరింపులు, లేదా ఉగాది శుభాకాంక్షలు ("Greetings for the festival of Ugadi") and Nutana samvastara shubhaakankshalu -నూతన సంవత్సర శుభాకాంక్షలు ("Greetings on the New Year").
Related festivals [ edit ]
The Hindus of Maharashtra term the same festival, observed on the same day, Gudi Padwa (Marathi: गुढी पाडवा).
The Sindhis, people from Sindh, celebrate the same day as Cheti Chand, which is the beginning of their calendar year.[11]
Manipuris also celebrate their New Year as Sajibu Nongma Panba on the same day.
The Hindus of Bali and Indonesia also celebrate their new year on the same day as Nyepi.
See also [ edit ]WASHINGTON -- In an immediate response to a shooting at a Connecticut elementary school on Friday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said today is not the day for a debate on gun control.
"I think it's important, on a day like today, to view this -- as I know the president, as a father, does, and I as a father and others who are parents certainly do, which is to feel enormous sympathy for families that are affected and to do everything we can to support state and local law enforcement and support those who are enduring what appears to be a very tragic event," Carney told reporters in the daily White House press briefing. "There is, I am sure -- will be, rather -- a day for discussion of the usual Washington policy debates, but I do not think today is that day." Carney did say that President Barack Obama remains committed to renewing a ban on assault weapons.
The secretary noted that the president had first been informed of the shooting by his counterterrorism adviser John Brennan, and will continue to be briefed throughout the day. The White House also confirmed that the president spoke with FBI Director Robert Mueller, as well as Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy to extend his concern and condolences. Carney said that it was "certainly possible" the president would make a public statement on today's shooting.
"I would rather not relay reactions at this point, because I don't have any confirmation to give to you about what exactly has happened there, or potential victims," Carney said, adding that the FBI is assisting both state and local law enforcement officials in Connecticut with response and investigation efforts. In light of the shooting, Carney also said he would keep the briefing free of the usual political debate in Washington.
According to initial reports, the shooting has left 27 dead, including 18 children. It marks the third mass shooting in the United States in recent months, following the Aurora, Colo., theater massacre in July and the Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting in August. When asked by a reporter whether sufficient reflection had occurred since the shooting in Aurora, when Obama promised more action to combat gun violence, Carney reiterated that he did not think now was the time to discuss policy.
"I really encourage all of us to give a moment here to focus on what is an unfolding tragedy in Connecticut and not to engage in Washington policy battles of long running," Carney said. "We do that often and it's appropriate, and I'm sure the day for this will come, but today is not that day, in our mind. We're focused on what's happening in Connecticut."
At least five mass shootings have occurred since Obama took office in 2009. The president has been criticized for having made little progress on repeated pledges to make substantive reforms in gun control laws.We examine electric power generation from Earth’s rotation through its own nonrotating magnetic field (that component of the field symmetric about Earth’s rotation axis). There is a simple general proof that this is impossible. However, we identify a loophole in that proof and show that voltage can be continuously generated in a low-magnetic-Reynolds-number conductor rotating with Earth, provided magnetically permeable material is used to ensure curl ( v × B 0 ) ≠ 0 within the conductor, where B 0 derives from the axially symmetric component of Earth’s magnetic flux density, and v is Earth’s rotation velocity at the conductor’s location. We solve the relevant equations for one laboratory realization, and from this solution, we predict the voltage magnitude and sign dependence on system dimensions and orientation relative to Earth’s rotation. The effect, which would be available nearly globally with no intermittency, requires testing and further examination to see if it can be scaled to practical emission-free power generation.
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.6.014017
© 2016 American Physical Society
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)In today's hustle and bustle world, processed foods are commonplace time-savers. But that convenience factor may come with a bigger price tag than previously known, says an international team of researchers. In findings published earlier this year in Autoimmunity Reviews, researchers from Israel and Germany present evidence that processed foods weaken the intestine's resistance to bacteria, toxins and other hostile nutritional and not nutritional elements, which in turn increases the likelihood of developing autoimmune diseases.
The study was led by Professor Aaron Lerner, of the Technion Faculty of Medicine and Carmel Medical Center, Haifa and Dr. Torsten Matthias of the Aesku-Kipp Institute (Germany).
The research team examined the effects of processed food on the intestines, and on the development of autoimmune diseases - conditions in which the body attacks and damages its own tissues. More than 100 such diseases have been identified, including type 1 diabetes, celiac disease, lupus, multiple sclerosis, autoimmune hepatitis, and Crohn's disease.
"In recent decades there has been a decrease in incidence of infectious diseases, but at the same time there has been an increase in the incidence of allergic diseases, cancer and autoimmune diseases," said Prof. Lerner. "Since the weight of genetic changes is insignificant in such a short period, the scientific community is searching for the causes at the environmental level."
In their study, the researchers focused on the dizzying increase in the use of industrial food additives aimed at improving qualities such as taste, smell, texture and shelf life, and found "…a significant circumstantial connection between the increased use of processed foods and the increase in the incidence of autoimmune diseases."
Many autoimmune diseases stem from damage to the functioning of the tight-junctions that protect the intestinal mucosa. When functioning normally, tight-junctions serve as a barrier against bacteria, toxins, allergens and carcinogens, protecting the immune system from them. Damage to the tight-junctions (also known as "leaky gut") leads to the development of autoimmune diseases.
The researchers found that at least seven common food additives weaken the tight-junctions: glucose (sugars), sodium (salt), fat solvents (emulsifiers), organic acids, gluten, microbial transglutaminase (a special enzyme that serves as food protein "glue") and nanometric particles.
"Control and enforcement agencies such as the FDA stringently supervise the pharmaceutical industry, but the food additive market remains unsupervised enough," said Prof. Lerner. "We hope this study and similar studies increase awareness about the dangers inherent in industrial food additives, and raise awareness about the need for control over them."
The researchers also advise patients with autoimmune diseases, and those who have a family background of such diseases, to consider avoiding processed foods when possible.Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said Thursday that he expects rookie running back Le'Veon Bell to get snaps with the first-team offense in Pittsburgh's preseason opener Saturday against the New York Giants.
Le'Veon Bell has impressed coach Mike Tomlin in camp, earning some snaps with the first-team offense for Saturday's preseason game. AP Photo/Keith Srakocic
"We are going to play the 1s 10-12 snaps. Don't be surprised if you see Le'Veon getting some snaps with those guys," Tomlin said, according to the team's website. "I think he has earned that. I think how he is running the ball speaks for itself."
Tomlin said Bell likely will get some snaps after the first-team offense departs as well.
"He, like a lot of guys, we need to get a lot of exposure to," Tomlin said.
The 21-year-old Bell, who was selected 48th overall in April's draft, has been competing with veterans Jonathan Dwyer and Isaac Redman for the right to replace the departed Rashard Mendenhall as the Steelers' starting running back.
Tomlin didn't say which other running backs would receive first-team snaps Saturday, but he said he is pleased with how Dwyer and Redman have responded to the competition.
"They are competing, and it's bringing out the best in them," Tomlin said.
Dwyer and Redman combined for 1,033 yards while splitting carries with Mendenhall in 2012 but couldn't stay healthy, leaving their ability to become a true feature back in question. Bell, meanwhile, led the nation with 383 carries last fall at Michigan State and caught 32 passes, potentially giving the Steelers a running back who can play all three downs.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.South Korea May Regulate Video Games Like Drugs
South Korea introduced new legislation this week proposing that video games need to be strictly regulated, like drugs and alcohol, in order to promote a "happy and healthy society." Rep. Shin Eui-jin, a member of the conservative Saenuri Party and former medical professor, introduced the bill, backed by fourteen other representatives, which would authorize the government to regulate online gaming, drugs, alcohol, and gambling, by controlling their manufacturing, distribution, and sale. The bill has yet to be voted on in the National Assembly, but is already causing a stir in the country's gaming industry. "It is regretful that the government views games in the same category as drugs and gambling," a member of the gaming industry told Inews24. "[This administration is] talking about a creative economy and yet are constantly trying to regulate one of leading industry for content business." Gaming addiction is a growing problem in South Korea. The government spends about $10 million per year to fund internet and gaming addiction treatment centers, in addition to "prevention programs" such as imposing a national online gaming curfew for people below age sixteen. According to the DSM-5, video gaming is not classified as an addiction, but continues to seriously affect the lives of those who become addicted.President Donald Trump zeroed in on repealing the Affordable Care Act in his first address to Congress, saying the federal health care law has been a "disaster" that has caused premiums to skyrocket.
"Obamacare premiums nationwide have increased by double and triple digits," Trump said on Feb. 28, 2017. He then cited a 116 percent increase in Arizona as an example.
When Trump says "Obamacare," he’s not talking about everyone who benefitted from President Barack Obama’s signature health care law. He’s referring to premiums for insurance plans on the federal insurance exchange.
Premiums for those plans did increase in the past year, drawing criticism from Republicans that the system had failed. But Trump is leaving out a significant part of the story.
An off year
When officials and policy wonks talk about premium increases, there’s a commonly used benchmark employed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The agency takes a look at the average cost in each county for the second-lowest-cost silver level plan for a 27-year-old. That allows a comparison of rates between years and different parts of the country.
In its Oct. 24, 2016, brief, HHS showed that premiums rose an average of 25 percent across the 39 states that use the HealthCare.gov marketplace.
As an average, that means some places saw higher increases than others. Oklahoma saw a 69 percent hike, for example, while Arkansas premiums only went up 2 percent.
For the record, Arizona is the only state where premiums went up by triple digits. And in Indiana, premiums actually decreased in 2017. (It was the only state where that happened.)
The 25 percent average increase is much higher than the earlier years of the Affordable Care Act. Premiums went up about 7 percent in 2016 and 3 percent in 2015.
It’s also much higher than the increases people who acquired health care through an employer saw. In a survey of 425 large employers, the National Business Group on Health estimated that workers who get insurance through their jobs — which most people do — would see a 2017 increase of about 5 or 6 percent.
The sudden jump is due in part because portions of the law designed to keep costs artificially low have ended or didn’t work as originally intended.
Reinsurance kept premiums for high-cost policyholders low by transferring money to their plans. A program called risk corridors was designed to share money from profitable insurers with companies that lost money, but was targeted by Republicans.
Both programs ended as planned for 2017, so many premiums went up considerably to more closely match what it actually costs insurers to offer policies on the exchange. An Urban Institute report said that underpricing was the norm in the early years of the health care law, so the jump this year was a short-term correction.
There are other factors, too: Health care costs still are rising each year, though not as much as before the Affordable Care Act. There also are annual changes in who signs up, changes in provider networks and so on.
"Price increases are lower than we would have expected without exchanges in place," said Rena Conti, a health economist at the University of Chicago.
Enrollment for 2017 also went up, even with higher premiums and a possibility the law could be repealed. Close to 6.4 million people signed up for policies through the marketplace, about 400,000 more than last year. (Trump also doesn’t mention that the Medicaid expansion portion of the law accounts for more than half of newly covered patients.)
David Himmelstein, a professor in the CUNY School of Public Health at Hunter College, noted something else not said by Trump. While premiums for some did go up significantly, most people buying these plans aren’t paying those increases.
"More than 70 percent of people who purchase coverage through the exchanges receive subsidies, and they will not pay any more for their coverage since their share is fixed," Himmelsten said. "Government will pick up any increase, and government costs for Obamacare have actually been lower than initially predicted."
Our ruling
Trump said, "Obamacare premiums nationwide have increased by double and triple digits." Many people purchasing health care through federal and state insurance marketplaces did see double-digit premium increases, and one, Arizona, saw a larger increase.
But as we have noted in previous fact-checks, Trump’s talking point doesn’t accurately reflect the situation overall.
Several states did not see such dramatic premium changes, and experts say that health care costs broadly are increasing at a lower rate than before the health care law took effect. Most people get their health care through the employer, which hasn’t seen the same premium spikes. And for people on the health care exchanges, federal subsidies are offsetting premium increases for many.
Trump’s statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details. We rate it Half True.
https://www.sharethefacts.co/share/22be5e24-12a9-440b-a32f-0242b44daa7eCardiff City Football Club is delighted to unveil its new adidas home and away strips for the upcoming campaign.
The new adidas Cardiff City home shirt for the 2017/18 season has an impactful blue dominating its visual identity. It has navy 3 stripe markings combined with textured engineered fabric.
Our new away strip uses a vibrant solar green base with a contrasting melange print. The famous 3 stripe markings are executed in navy across the shirt and shorts so as to complement the design of the new home kit.
Cardiff City Executive Director & CEO Ken Choo, said: “Having worked closely for a number of months with our partners, adidas, we’re delighted to be able to launch our new home, away, goalkeeping and training kits this Saturday.
“I’m sure Bluebirds fans will love the new clean and traditional blue home shirt, whilst a fresh and vibrant away kit for the new season is something Tan Sri Vincent was particularly keen for us to have. There’s no doubting that the lime green is going to make quite a visual impact around the country for us next season!”
The official Cardiff City kit for the 2017/18 season will be available to purchase online – and at Cardiff City SuperStore – from 9am on Saturday, 17th June 2017.
Cardiff City FC SuperStore opening times Saturday, 17th June 2017 (Launch Day) 9am-5pm Sunday, 18th June 2017 (Father's Day) 10am-4pm Monday, 19th June 2017 9am-5pm Tuesday, 20th June 2017 9am-5pm Wednesday, 21st June 2017 (Fixture Release Day) 9am-5pm Thursday, 22nd June 2017 9am-5pm Friday, 23th June 2017 9am-5pm
The Cardiff City away strip from 2016/17 will be registered as our third strip in case of any kit clashes during the 2017/18 season - and is still available to purchase online or in store.
#CityAsOne
2017/18 Cardiff City Kit Prices HOME AWAY GK Adult Shirts £45.00 £45.00 £47.00 Adult Shorts £28.99 £28.99 £28.99 Socks (Sizes 6-12) £12.00 £12.00 £12.00 HOME AWAY GK Ages 13/14 - 15/16 Shirts £37.99 £37.99 £39.99 Ages 13/14 - 15/16 Shorts £25.99 £25.99 £25.99 Socks (Sizes 6-12) £12.00 £12.00 £12.00 HOME AWAY GK Child Shirts £35.00 £35.00 £37.99 Child Shorts £23.99 £23.99 £23.99 Child Socks (Sizes 13.5-5) £10.00 £10.00 £10.00 HOME AWAY GK Mini Kits Coming Soon Coming Soon Coming Soon
For full details on all Cardiff City replica kit & training wear, visit: cardiffcityfcstore.comBritish Airways is conducting its own tests of the impact of the ash cloud on aeroplane engines.
A BA Boeing 747 is flying over the Atlantic for up to four hours on Sunday.
BA's chief executive, Willie Walsh, who is a trained pilot, is on board, as is the airline's chief pilot.
The airline's engineers will work through the night to examine the impact of the flight on the 747's four engines. Results are unlikely till tomorrow.
Right now, BA and other airlines are planning on the assumption that they won't be allowed to fly till Thursday at the earliest.
As I pointed out on Saturday, the financial cost to the industry of the cessation of flights is immensely painful, at around £25m a day for BA and - according to the industry group IATA - at least £130m ($200m) a day for airlines collectively.
I would not be surprised if IATA on Monday were to call on European governments to provide financial support to airlines, which face a stiffer financial challenge than even after the collapse in passenger numbers after the 9/11 atrocity.
I would also expect BA and other airlines to urge the government to "stress test" the science that has led to the flying ban.
BA would want to highlight that in the US the authorities operate less constraining safety precautions after volcano eruptions.
"There are six active volcanoes in the world" said an airline executive. "We need to understand why the Icelandic eruption is seen by the authorities to be so much more dangerous than others".
Update 19:11: Airline executives and engineers want to know why they can't be given permission to fly at 20,000ft, below the ash cloud, till the cloud clears.
Also, they're worried that even if they are given permission to fly again in a few days, many people may decide to avoid air travel for an extended period on the fear that the plume and cloud will return.
"We need a permanent solution that reassures people in a proper way" said one airline boss. "Otherwise the damage to our businesses will be even more severe."
As I said earlier, there are deep concerns that some European airlines will be bankrupted by the disruption, unless they're given support by taxpayers.
In the UK, Easyjet is more robust than most.
Its losses are running at between £3m and £5m a day. But it has always operated with a massive liquidity buffer, so that it can withstand being grounded for up to six months.
As for food retailers, the big chains tell me that about one or two per cent of their produce is flown in.
"We're beginning to see a shortage of certain flowers, because Kenya supplies about half our stock at this time of year" said a supermarket boss. "And you'll begin to see less exotic fruit and out-of-season veg".
As for clothing retailers, the impact on them so far has been limited: some so-called "fast" fashion, based on what's in the latest shows, goes by air.
Right now, the biggest impact for business is the sheer number of executives who are stuck abroad, unable to come home.
"The real danger for them is that we'll discover we don't really need them," one business leader joked.
Update 21:38: The BA 747 has now landed at Cardiff after a two hour 46 minute flight, covering 550 miles to the west, over the Atlantic.
The plane took off from Heathrow, and flew through the no-fly zone.
It encountered no problems, no loss of engine performance, no damage to windows.
Engineers in Cardiff will now make a more detailed assessment of the Jumbo's engine over night.
Update 21:50: Earlier today a Met Office plane went through the cloud and encountered dangerous levels of ash.
Which shows that the issue isn't whether the cloud is real and dangerous - but whether its extent can be accurately mapped.
One possible solution is to put observation planes in the sky, to give a more detailed picture of the location of ash concentrations.
The government is therefore trying to obtain more observation planes, from the military in particular.Blade & Soul: Dawn of the Lost Continent introduces progression to level 55, and upon reaching the new level cap, you’ll gain access to new and powerful Hongmoon Ultimate Skills. These ultimate skills allow you to devastate your opponents, and in some cases, aid your allies.
Once you’ve achieved level 55, you’ll automatically be granted the Ultimate Hongmoon Skills without any other prerequisites. These ultimate skills are fueled by a new resource called Hongmoon Focus—a blue bar you can see above your character’s health bar in-game. Hongmoon Focus fills up passively over time, but can also be charged faster by using many of the skills you’ve already learned.
Once your Hongmoon Focus is charged to 100% you’ll be able to unleash your Hongmoon Ultimate Skill, which will consume all of your Hongmoon Focus. Many of the new ultimate abilities require a channel before unleashing, so be sure to time it wisely, because taking damage will cancel the skill and cost you all of your Hongmoon Focus.
You can find a quick glimpse of the new Hongmoon Ultimate Skills for each class below, along with which key shortcuts activate them:
Assassin
Blink Step (B)
Quickly dash forward up to five times while resisting incoming attacks.
Shadow Step (G)
Disappear into the shadows for a short amount of time, and gain the ability to use Viper Fang for a few seconds. Viper Fang (G)
Surprise your enemy unleashing an attack that deals high amounts of damage. Requires you be in Shadow Step to use.
Blade Dancer
Giga Sword (G)
Summon a large sword that smashes your enemy, dealing high amounts of damage and resisting up to three attacks during the use of the skill. Black Hole (B)
Summon a black hole that pulls in enemies, dazing and restraining them. You and your party members regain Hongmoon Focus while attacking enemies stuck in the black hole.
Blade Master
Storm Surge (G)
Summon lightning and fire swords that deal high amounts of damage over several attacks, and resist up to three attacks during the use of the skill. Lightning Surge (B)
Dash forward up to five times, dealing damage and leaving a trail of fire and lightning behind.
Destroyer
Axe Frenzy (G)
Amplify your axe and do a flurry of attacks, dealing high amounts of damage while becoming invulnerable for a short amount of time. Eye of the Storm (B)
Throw your axe at a target, dealing damage to all enemies within 5 meters over time while stunning them and reducing their movement speed.
Force Master
Sacred Flames (G)
Combine the powers of Ice and Fire to unleash dragons that deal a massive amount of damage to your enemies. Glacier (B)
Create a large area of ice around you, chilling all enemies caught inside.
Gunslinger
Flare (B)
Release a bright light that blinds all enemies facing the blast for a few seconds. Snipe (G)
Equip a rifle with a wide area of attack that decreases over time. As the area of attack becomes smaller, the more damage it does.
Kung Fu Master
Eight Talons (G)
Dash to your enemy, dealing high amounts of damage with consecutive attacks, and resist up to three attacks during the use of the skill. Aftershock (B)
Jump to your enemy, smashing the ground around them while dealing damage, slowing their movement speed, and launching them into the air. Increase your own movement speed and regain Hongmoon Focus for each enemy hit.
Soul Fighter
Soul Surge (G)
Release a flurry of attacks dealing high amounts of damage, and increase your Chi level. Regain some Hongmoon Focus if the enemy is defeated. Harmonize (B)
Channel your inner chi to heal yourself and party members around you over a few seconds. Harmonize also increases maximum health and defense for yourself and party members around you for a short period while resisting up to three attacks during the use of the skill.
Summoner
Rumble Queen (G)
Summon the Queen Rumblebee to dive-bomb your enemies and explode, dealing high amounts of damage and regaining Hongmoon Focus for each enemy hit. Besties (B)
Your familiar will resist attacks for a short amount of time and allow you to use Party Time. Party Time (B)
Your familiar jumps up and down excitingly, dazing all enemies around the familiar and allowing you and your allies to resist attacks.
Warlock
Enthrall (G)
Snare a group of enemies in dark bindings and a deal a high amount of damage. Necrotic Chains (B)
Shackle your enemy by binding them in dark chains granting you and your allies Hongmoon Focus for each attack inflicted.
Check out the Blade & Soul: Dawn of the Lost Continent Story & Questing article to see what to expect on your path to 55. Also register for the Lost Continent Explorer’s Pack, which includes a free level 50 Character Creation Voucher and other goodies to expedite your journey toward unlocking your own Hongmoon Ultimate Skills.The two nurses who were caught on camera engaging in sex acts while caring for a stroke victim were handed down short prison stint and probation, according to a report on Times of San Diego.
A surveillance video showed Russel Torralba, 42, and Alfredo Ruiz, 43, performing a sex act on each other inside the 99-year-old woman’s bedroom.
Under a plea bargain, the two men pleaded guilty to a felony charge of inflicting mental suffering on an elder. Alfredo was sentenced to 325 days in prison while Russel received 365 days.
The nurses – both of whom are Filipino – will be put on probation for five years.
It was in 2011 when Alfredo and Russel were arrested on suspicion of sexual misconduct, following the shocking incident caught on video. The security footage showed the two male nurses allegedly fondling each other while touching the bed-ridden victim.
The video, taken between March 3 and March 11, 2011, shows both nurses apparently masturbating and performing oral sex on each other near the patient’s bed. One of the nurses was also seen leaning his crotch onto the patient’s hand and kissing the woman’s face.
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[quote_right]…Both men will be barred from seeking employment at a hospital.[/quote_right]
As part of the probation both men will be barred from seeking employment at a hospital.
While this incident clearly sends a message to other nurses and caregivers not to abuse their patients, the victim’s lawyer, William Berman, said this is also an isolated case that should not represent other Filipinos who do admirable and exceptional work in the caregiving and nursing professions.
Meanwhile, according to Berman, the victim who is now 102 years old is doing well.
Want to learn more about nursing? Subscribe To Our Newsletter! Receive updates on our new posts which includes study guides, quizzes, and more! Invalid email address Give it a try. You can unsubscribe at any time. Thanks for subscribing! Please check your email for further instructions.Cal football aide under fire since player death is let go
Damon Harrington in 2013. MANDATORY CREDIT GOLDENBEARSPORTS.COM Damon Harrington in 2013. MANDATORY CREDIT GOLDENBEARSPORTS.COM Photo: GoldenBearSports.com 2013 Photo: GoldenBearSports.com 2013 Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Cal football aide under fire since player death is let go 1 / 4 Back to Gallery
The football assistant who devised a drill that led to a player’s death in 2014 is no longer working for Cal after the school hired Justin Wilcox as head coach this month.
The assistant coach, Damon Harrington, created and oversaw a Feb. 7, 2014, workout that led to the collapse and death of walk-on defensive lineman Ted Agu, a 21-year-old student preparing to go to medical school.
The university paid $4.75 million to Agu’s family to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit as some faculty members and critics of the football program called for Harrington to be fired.
But rather than terminate Harrington’s contract, the school extended it. He continued to coach until Sonny Dykes — the head coach who recruited Harrington — was fired this month. All other assistants were also let go.
Cal will continue to pay Harrington through June 30, the end of his contract, although his salary of $12,500 per month would be reduced by however much a new job were to pay.
The multimillion-dollar settlement and uproar from faculty came after The Chronicle reported that attorneys for UC admitted liability and negligence in Agu’s death.
The admission by the school capped months of confidential depositions, obtained by The Chronicle, during which former Cal football players disputed the narrative that university officials told the public and the media about the events surrounding Agu’s death.
The teammates said Agu struggled for an extended period and fell several times before he finally collapsed and team officials intervened.
The players’ testimony prompted a forensic pathologist to revise his conclusions on Agu’s cause of death — which he initially attributed to a common heart disease but later said was related to Agu’s sickle-cell trait, which experts believe can lead to a metabolic crisis under extreme exertion. Whereas the heart problem is typically unexpected and difficult to prevent, the latter condition was known to Cal’s medical staff, and its symptoms tend to appear and worsen gradually.
The conditioning drill, which the team hadn’t done before, involved players sprinting up and down a hill as they held a thick rope together.
An initial review commissioned by the school, which cleared coaches and trainers of wrongdoing, was conducted by two investigators with personal ties to the Cal athletics staff and relied heavily on interviews with players handpicked by athletic-program administrators, The Chronicle revealed last year. The evaluators set out to examine Harrington’s involvement in not only Agu’s death in 2014 but also his potential role in inciting a player in 2013 to attack a teammate who missed practice.
As noted by a fan blog, football players on the team were quick to defend and praise Harrington despite criticism by faculty.
Chancellor Nicholas Dirks in July ordered a new review of the strength and conditioning program after The Chronicle reported on the possible conflicts of interest and methodology in the first one.
The new probe will continue despite Dykes and his staff leaving, said Dan Mogulof, a spokesman for the campus.
Harrington has been replaced by Torre Becton, who previously coached at USC and Washington.
Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerovGAMEPLAY- Fixed how magic damage is amplified when there are multiple sources of bonuses.- Death Prophet: Fixed Exorcism healing never resetting.- Enigma: Tightened selection area of Eidolons to make picking individual units easier when they clump- Gyrocopter: Fixed Call Down not slowing magic immune units.- Spectre: Spectral Dagger now properly trails invisible units.- Spectre: Fixed various properties of Haunt illusions being incorrect.- Tiny: Fixed Craggy Exterior working on illusions of Tiny.- Visage: Fixed Roshan decreasing Gravekeeper's Cloak charges.- Visage: Fixed Gravekeeper's Cloak not restoring its layers independently of one another.- Warlock: Fixed Flaming Fist damage not leveling properly, damaging magic immune units, and having incorrect chance to proc.- Fixed a bug with Radiance kill credit and illusions.- Fixed Roshan no longer casting Slam to slow and damage nearby units.UI- The Smooth Drag option now works for anyone that's spectating (whether through DotaTV or as a broadcaster).- Reduced waiting time in hero picker during All Random to 10 seconds.- Reworked how your personal hero performance is done on your profile page (provide feedback here http://dev.dota2.com/forumdisplay.php?f=431).- Added preview for summoned items like the panda and watcher golem to store and backpack.- Added the ability to filter out empty teams from the team list.BOTS- Fixed some incorrect timing calculations that were causing bots to miss some last hits.- Fixed Practice vs Bots not properly selecting the nearest server.- Fixed Death Prophet bot to know about the true range of Crypt Swarm.- Fixed bots thrashing selling a situational item (dust, wards, TP scroll) to purchase another situational item.WEBAPI- Added Captain's Mode Picks and Bans.- Added ability upgrade order and times to each player.- Added inventory for additional units (Lone Druid's Spirit Bear).- Added an API for getting match details in the order they were recorded.The 2016 Dieu du Ciel! Summer Bottle Release is Here, and Beerism has you Covered
An article by Noah Forrest
For the first time that I’m aware of, Microbrasserie Dieu du Ciel! is having a summer bottle release party! I, for one, am excited! With the exception of a couple of bigger beers, the line up generally consists of wild beers, sour blends, and fruited sexiness – or some combination of all three. I’ll include the full list of bottles at the end of this article.
Microbrasserie Dieu du Ciel! Summer Bottle |
. But I did see myself reflected in certain fictional characters. In his novel Hogfather, Terry Pratchett thus described the mind of his character Mr. Teatime: “a truly brilliant mind, but it was brilliant like a fractured mirror, all marvellous facets and rainbows but, ultimately, also something that was broken.”
Sandman’s Delirium, who spoke in a meandering way, peppered with surreal non-sequiturs, especially resonated with me. She understood more than any of the other characters did, and when her brother Dream fell into a dark chasm of man-pain and couldn’t function, she pulled herself together for long enough to help him. “I don’t know how much longer I can be like this,” she said. “It hurts very muchly.” I felt this way almost every day, trying to impose order on the sprawling cacophony of my speeding mind. It hurt very muchly, indeed.
How could I access these moments of understanding more frequently? By trying harder? I already felt as if I were trying all the time.
As a college sophomore, after a breakdown following a late-minute paper disaster, I sat down with my counselor. This tall, calm, Dutch-accented woman provided stability through the year-long hurricane of homework and equally distressed friends. “It’s so hard to control myself and concentrate when I don’t want to,” I told her. “It’s almost like I could have ADHD or something…”
“It’s very possible,” she said.
I didn’t detect any hint of scorn in her voice. That first granting of permission, from an authority figure I trusted, prompted me to begin to take the possibility more seriously.
Doctors can be leery of college students claiming to have ADHD, since the campus demand for illicit prescription stimulants is high. One doctor thought my inattention came from depression; another feared drugs would exacerbate a burgeoning eating disorder. My year-and-a-half-long odyssey through counselors’ and doctors’ offices involved sampling a wide variety of antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds that still failed to produce positive effects. I struggled through tedious paperwork and months of waiting, a particular trial for someone with ADHD.
Cut to me at 21 years old, twitching nervously on a psychiatric specialist’s couch. I’d given her a life recap, played an inane assessment game involving flickering squares, and filled out dozens of speech bubbles related to how I was doing in school and whether I thought I might be a reincarnated god. The reckoning was upon me. My IQ was at a certain level, the therapist explained. My concentration level was low. Extremely low.
I cried when I received my full psychological assessment and an official ADHD diagnosis. Even though it was a relief to have my suspicions confirmed, it also felt damning, in a way. My condition is chemical, and probably here to stay, I realized.
And so began the reconceptualization of my personal history. Finally I had to adjust the vision I’d always had of myself: I wasn’t lazy. I wasn’t making it up. I wasn’t just another college student trying to scam her way into an Adderall script. I had ADHD. I read about my new diagnosis, mentally checking each item off:
Hyperfocus. The short-lived and feverishly intense hobbies I had as a kid: pop-up books, seed beads, knitting, hula hooping. And, ah yes, the hours spent editing Sherlock fan videos instead of studying for my IB exams in high school.
Having trouble sitting still at mealtime and naptime. My dad once made up a little song he would sing to me during dinner: “We’ve got some rules ’round here and I think you’ve forgot ’em / One of those rules is keep the seat on your bottom.”
Poor handwriting, problems with speech development, neglecting details, doodling. The constant frustration of my teachers, the years I spent being unable to focus and stay on task at school.
Lack of commitment, loses interest in relationships. I decided to apologize to my ex for my flightiness; for growing bored instead of patiently tending to our relationship. It wasn’t personal, but I knew it still hurt them.
Depression. Anxiety. Sometimes I almost gave up, lost the will to keep struggling with everyday tasks, resigned myself to failure.
Inattentiveness, difficulty processing information. I always thought that if I just tried a little bit harder, or had more discipline, I could will myself into normalcy. I remember how hard I had tried, all my life. As hard as I could.
At last, I have begun to forgive myself.
A dose of stimulants did not make all my symptoms go away. My executive functioning is still pathetic; I still fidget and doodle sometimes; my room oscillates wildly between pigsty and Life-Changingly-Magically-Tidied-Up. I have to unlearn a lot of habits, and some things will always be a struggle for me.
But in so many ways, life is easier now that I have a diagnosis and treatment. I love the blessing of understanding and using my very capable brain; I worked on this essay for two interrupted hours, which I could never have done before. The bright moments of understanding I once craved are now a regular part of my life.
I wanted to write this for my younger self, and for all girls who keep silent and try to be obedient despite the ruckus in their skulls. Who do their best to keep the chaos from escaping their mouths, from demanding any attention. Who think their forgetfulness and scatterbrained nature mean they are stupid, lazy, ditzy, innately hopeless.
It’s not true. None of it is true. If you think you need it, find a practitioner who will take your concerns seriously and give you an assessment. Find forums for women with ADHD, seek out a community of people who understand. Be an advocate for yourself and your odd but beautiful brain.
ADHD isn’t a superpower in disguise. It’s still hard for me, and for many, to live with. But despite this, many of us are stronger than anyone knows. We might struggle with daily life on an epic scale, and tasks that are “normal” for some might be grueling feats of endurance for us, but I for one have found great strength and motivation – and even pride – when I give myself a break and just keep going anyway. It now seems like the only choice. I think I have felt more than enough shame.
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Criminal proceedings against the late Labour peer Lord Janner over sex abuse charges have ended because of his death, an Old Bailey judge has said.
The peer had been accused of 22 counts of sex offences against boys, over a 20-year period from the 1960s - allegations his family denied.
A jury was to be asked to decide - without resolving whether he was guilty - if the incidents had taken place.
A lawyer for some of the alleged victims said they were "devastated".
Meanwhile, 12 former residents of children's homes say they were abused by Lord Janner, a BBC investigation has found.
Goddard scrutiny
Lord Janner, who had been suffering from dementia, died in December aged 87.
A trial of the facts had been due to be held in April 2016. However, prosecutor Richard Whittam QC said on Friday that the law provided no circumstances whereby a dead defendant could face a trial, even a trial of the facts.
Mr Whittam also revealed in court that more charges had been due to be brought.
And he said the defence had been in the process of trying to get the case thrown out due to an "abuse of process".
Mr Justice Openshaw said: "There is nothing more to be said. That's the end of the proceedings, that the defendant is dead."
Image copyright PA Image caption Lord Janner's career kept him in the company of many dignitaries, such as the Queen
The Goddard inquiry - the independent inquiry examining historical child sex abuse in England and Wales, chaired by New Zealand judge Justice Lowell Goddard - said it would resume its investigation into the allegations against Lord Janner now that the criminal case had ended.
However, it said the public hearings which would take place in the case were not the same as a trial of the facts in a criminal court.
"They will be focused on different issues, subject to a different procedure and determined according to different standards of proof," it said.
It said it would seek evidence and submissions from all relevant parties, and make findings of fact where appropriate.
"If allegations are found to be true, the inquiry will then consider the extent of any institutional failures to protect children from abuse and make recommendations for the future."
The BBC's home affairs correspondent, Tom Symonds, says he understood the inquiry was considering televising some of the evidence sessions relating to Lord Janner.
Who was Lord Janner?
Image copyright PA
Born in Cardiff in 1928
Served in the Army and studied at Cambridge before becoming a barrister and then QC
Labour MP for Leicester North West and then Leicester West from 1970 until retiring in 1997, when he was made a life peer
Diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2009
Suspended from the Labour Party in April
Ruled unfit to stand trial over allegations of child sexual abuse in December 2015
The allegations centred on claims that Lord Janner, when he was MP for Leicester West, befriended the manager of a children's care home to allow him access to children and carry out serious sexual offences.
One man, Mark, told the BBC Lord Janner would undress him, wash him and touch him intimately during visits to the Moel Llys children's home, to perform magic shows.
He said: "Washing a child is abuse. It was touchy-feely kind of stuff. It's mentally scarred me for life, I can never get rid of it. You lose a bit of trust. You feel ashamed, you feel dirty."
The BBC has learned that lawyers are now representing at least 20 men and one woman, including the 12 residents of children's homes, who say the former MP abused them.
Police have said they have information from 25 alleged victims.
Peter Garsden, from the Association of Child Abuse Lawyers, is representing 12 people who allege they were abused by Lord Janner.
He said: "They are immensely frustrated that they haven't had the chance to have justice done and for them to give their version of events to a court of law.
"Because what matters is that they are heard and believed and that's now not going to happen. And so they feel cheated by the whole process."
'Real travesty'
Leicestershire Police said an investigation into claims not just against Lord Janner but against other individuals was "live and will continue".
Leicestershire County Council said it had introduced procedures to strengthen child protection since the period in question.
Liz Dux, specialist abuse lawyer at Slater and Gordon, who represents six of Lord Janner's alleged victims, said: "My clients are obviously devastated that they are no longer able to give their evidence in a criminal court.
"They understand the reasons why but that doesn't make up for the real travesty - that many gave their statements decades ago and have been denied justice through a failure to prosecute earlier when Janner was alive and well."
Her clients "sincerely hope" the Goddard Inquiry will make their cases a priority and allow them to give evidence in person, she added.
Labour issued a statement which said: "Lord Janner was suspended from Labour Party before his death. The Labour Party will co-operate fully with the Goddard Inquiry."
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Lord Janner is seen showing PM David Cameron with a book of dedications for Holocaust Memorial Day in 2011
Peter Saunders, of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood, told the BBC the decision to not hold a trial of the facts was a "disastrous day for child protection".
He added: "It's a disastrous day for the police, who did an excellent job and presented a case that should have been prosecuted a long, long time ago.
"It's a shameful, shameful system that has let us down and emphasised and demonstrated beyond any doubt that that man was protected from prosecution".
Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders said in April last year there was enough evidence to prosecute Lord Janner for 22 sex offences allegedly committed in Leicestershire children's homes between 1969 and 1988, but that he was too sick to stand trial.
She also said the CPS had been wrong not to prosecute Lord Janner following investigations in 1991 and 2007, and that Leicestershire police had been wrong not to pursue him in 2002.The following comes from a friend of mine, Dillon “The Boots on the Ground in DC” McBrady, and for this I am very appreciative. Unfortunately, the last time I had an opportunity to talk with Senator Al Franken back when GDBPWSNBDG was but a threat he thought it was hilarious and a great idea, which is presumably the reason why he has been working so passionately on net neutrality issuessince I am 90% positive this website is the only thing standing between freedom, liberty and ‘Merica, and the Soviet Union [citation needed], but I forgot to make the ask and thus for the longest time Senator Franken was “the one that got away.” But not for long.
Luckily Dillon happened to make one of his constituent breakfasts in DC, which just goes to show that we will hunt you down, and was able to solicit a drawing. Naturally, this would be the part of the article where I devolve into a long tale of trial and triumph, comedy and life friends made, but there really is not much to say. Dillon asked and he received. That’s it. Not a reference was made about the fact that Franken is well known around the state for his ability to draw a map of the United States from memory or Senator Jeff Sessions from still life.
Nothing.
But where the story of Senator Franken ends the story of the Wall of Shame grows and now I have the great burden of announcing the following: former Chairman of the House Agricultural Committee Collin Peterson, and territorial representative of GDBPWSNBDG, has turned us down. Dillon writes:
It was a normal constituent breakfast. Al Franken was making the rounds shaking hands, but when he stood up to make his usual speech, he pointed out the Representative Collin Peterson was in the crowd. My heart raced. Could I perhaps get two giraffes drawn from important Minnesotans? Peterson looked like such a nice, old gentleman. He even said, “Hi, how ya doing?” and gave me a pat on the back as he walked by me. After getting the Franken giraffe, I had the confidence to approach Peterson: “Hi, my name is Dillon McBrady, I attend college at the University of Minnesota, Morris. I have an extremely random question for you, would you draw a giraffe for me, please?” I politely handed him a piece of paper and a pen. He took it into his surprisingly large hands. “A giraffe, huh? What for? Will this end up on the internet?” His eyes narrowed, looking down at me suspiciously from his 6-foot-something advantage. “In all probabitlity, yes.” I said, smiling hopefully. “Then no, I don’t draw too well, and don’t want to be embarassed by some awful giraffe picture I drew.” He gave me back the pen and the empty piece of paper. After some witty repartee, I walked away. Shamefully disappointed that Colin Peterson had let me down. It doesn’t tarnish his reputation, but it did break my heart.
These kind of things happen and all we can do is shrug our shoulders and move on with our lives (and definitely not send Peterson, who happens to be a part of the House Art Caucus, an email regarding his decision from zip code 56267). But, on the bright side, at least Dillon was able to walk away with a nice “Caraffe” that only makes me think that I should soon open up a sister website called “Camels Drawn By People Who Should Not Be Drawing Camels” since it’s apparently pretty popular.
But alas, who would read that garbage?
It has a penis.
AdvertisementsIn the world of digital publishing, the law of the jungle still applies, as it does in any industry: Only the fittest shall survive. But while eContent providers initiate and expire with regularity these days, recent news of the shakeout of three notable names in tech media--Gigaom, Joystiq, and The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)--has caused some players in this space to sit up, take notice, and ask nervous questions.
Word of Gigaom's shuttering arrived last month, coming only weeks after AOL chose to fold TUAW and Joystiq into Engadget and ReadWrite was acquired by Wearable World. With 2015 only a few short months into the books, industry experts are taking a closer look at the tech media tea leaves and trying to see if a troubling trend is emerging.
The demise of Gigaom, which was unable to pay its creditors, came as a surprise to Gregarious Narain, cofounder and CTO of Chute. "(Gigaom) had created an interesting consulting model alongside its site. Unfortunately, venture-backed content players are forced to hire fast and scale spending," Narain says. "That, of course, can be at odds with the underlying need to build an audience and engagement that can be monetized."
Ben Parr, author of Captivology and former co-editor of Mashable, chalks up Gigaom's failure to bad leadership and money management. "Under the right management, Gigaom could have absolutely survived. It should have cut failing programs like its research arm, been more open about its finances with its editorial, and focused on increasing its footprint," says Parr.
Previous media tech titles that met the same fate as Gigaom include the print magazines The Industry Standard and Business 2.0. "Many of these (titles) didn't find a unique enough voice or they saw that voice fade as key members of their editorial staff moved on. Others became engaged in other revenue-generating efforts, which ultimately took away from their core," says Narain.
Yet, plenty of tech publication peers have survived, if not thrived, including Fast Company, TechCrunch, Mashable, The Next Web, Re/code, The Verge, and PandoDaily.
"The lesson to be learned here is that Gigaom will not be the last well-lauded publisher of quality content to buckle in an era where content is no longer king," says Alex Lustberg, CMO of Lyris. "This highlights the need for media companies to begin engaging in intelligent conversations with their audiences that create new relationships in new ways."
Toni Ressaire, blogger and publisher with Route 11 Publications, is another who doesn't see Gigaom's obituary as a bad omen for tech media or digital content in general. "People are consuming more information today than ever before, but with the goal of using that information to further their own careers and personal lives," says Ressaire.
Parr agrees. "Sure, you'll see more tech media death, but I think that happens in any industry where there are a lot of startups," says Parr. "Digital publishing is stronger than ever. It's about learning from your success and dominating your own niche with unique content."
However, media titles need to roll with the changes and not rely on quality content alone, Lustberg contends. Auxiliary business models are needed to drive revenue and/or new marketing models based on highly personalized offerings that command advertising and subscription premiums.
"Tech media specifically has an opportunity to explore new business models-for example, by harnessing smart content to engage audiences with personalized and contextually informed interactivity," adds Lustberg.
While over-extending resources and rapid growth can be deadly to tech media companies, Ressaire says these businesses can succeed with the right focus. "One of the weaknesses I see in tech enterprises is lack of user research," says Ressaire. "Readers and users are looking for value. What's in it for them? How can this information help them grow personally or professionally? Listen to your audience and provide the solutions they want and need."
Also, instead of transferring the mass broadcasting approach of print to the web, publishers must effectively convey value to what Lustberg calls "the channel of one" by tailoring the right content for every individual subscriber.
"For example, instead of delivering daily news alerts or newsletters via emails as part of a paid subscription, publishers of all stripes are now able to apply predictive algorithms and machine learning to deliver meaningful content to every individual subscriber profile," Lustberg says. "That is the kind of granularity that provides an information edge based on a reader's interest, and it is what people will pay a premium for."
(Image courtesy of Shutterstock.)Mohammed and his wife Aisha freeing the daughter of a tribal chief. From the Siyer-i Nebi
Aisha (‘Ā’ishah, c. 613/614 –c. 678)[1] or عائشة, (also transliterated as A'ishah, Aisyah, Ayesha, A'isha, Aishat, Aishah, or Aisha) was was consummated by Muhammad, then 53,[2] at the age of 9 or 10 according to various sahih hadiths.[2][3][4][5] Muhammad initially married Aisha when she was 6, but, according to scriptural hadiths, waited 3 years to consummate the marriage for her to reach puberty.[6][7] Although child marriage was common in the 7th century[8] this topic is of heavy interest in the apologetic literature and public discourse.
Marriage at a young age was not unheard of in Arabia at the time, and Aisha's marriage to Muhammad may have had a political connotation, as her father Abu Baker was an influential man in the community.[9] Abu Bakr, on his part, may have sought to further the bond of kinship between Muhammad and himself by joining their families together in marriage via Aisha. Egyptian-American Islamic scholar, Leila Ahmed, notes that Aisha's betrothal and marriage to Muhammad are presented as ordinary in Islamic literature, and may indicate that it was not unusual for children to be married to their elders in that era.[10]
Authenticity
In the Quran the mention of marrying those who have not yet reached menstruation can be read in Chapter 65 "Al Talaq" verse 4.[11] The Jalalayn tafsir (exegesis), is one of the most respected commentaries on the Quran.[12] In the Jalalayn exegesis it describes "those you have yet to menstruate" as "those who have not yet menstruated, because of their young age, their [waiting] period shall [also] be three months."[13]
In the modern era, Aisha's age at marriage ha"s been a source of controversy and debate. Some Muslims have attempted to revise the previously-accepted timeline of her life.[14] All biographical information on Muhammad and his companions was first recorded over a century after his death,[15] but the hadith and scripture provide records of early Islam through an unbroken chain of witnesses. Various hadiths stating that Aisha was either nine or ten at the time of her consummation come from collections with sahih status, meaning they are regarded as reputable by the majority of Muslims.[2][4] Some other traditional sources also mention Aisha's age. The sira of Ibn Ishaq edited by Ibn Hisham states that she was nine or ten years old at the consummation. The historian al-Tabari also states that she was nine.[7]
Association with Child Marriage
Child bride with her infant daughter
No age limits have been fixed by Islam for marriage according to, Persian Professor at the University of Cambridge, Reuben Levy, and "quite young children may be legally married".[16] The girl may not live with the husband however until she is fit for marital sexual relations.[16] The Hanafi school of jurisprudence of Islamic fiqh maintains that a wife must not be taken to her husband's house until she reaches the condition of fitness for sexual relations.
Levy adds: In Islamic legal terminology, Baligh refers to a person who has reached maturity, puberty or adulthood and has full responsibility under Islamic law. Legal theorists assign different ages and criteria for reaching this state for both males and females.[17] In marriage baligh is related to the Arabic legal expression, hatta tutiqa'l-rijal, which means that the wedding may not take place until the girl is physically fit to engage in sexual intercourse. Some Hanafi scholars hold the opinion that sexual intercourse may take place before puberty, as long as it's not injurious to one's health.[18] In comparison, baligh or balaghat concerns the reaching of sexual maturity which becomes manifest by the menses. The age related to these two concepts can, but need not necessarily, coincide. Only after a separate condition called rushd, or intellectual maturity to handle one's own property, is reached can a girl receive her bridewealth.
Relevant Quotations
Quran 65:4 And those who no longer expect menstruation among your women - if you doubt, then their period is three months, and [also for] those who have not menstruated. And for those who are pregnant, their term is until they give birth. And whoever fears Allah - He will make for him of his matter ease.
he married 'Aisha when she was a girl of six years of age, and he consumed that marriage when she was nine years old.
Sahih Bukhari 5:58:236 Narrated Hisham's father: Khadija died three years before the Prophet departed to Medina. He stayed there for two years or so and then
the Prophet married her when she was six years old and he consummated his marriage when she was nine years old, and then she remained with him for nine years (i.e., till his death).
Sahih Bukhari 7:62:64 Narrated 'Aisha: thatand then she remained with him for nine years (i.e., till his death).
I used to play with the dolls in the presence of the Prophet, and my girl friends also used to play with me. When Allah's Apostle used to enter (my dwelling place) they used to hide themselves, but the Prophet would call them to join and play with me. (The playing with the dolls and similar images is forbidden, but it was allowed for 'Aisha at that time, as she was a little girl, not yet reached the age of puberty.) (Fateh-al-Bari page 143, Vol.13)
Sahih Bukhari 8:73:151 Narrated 'Aisha:When Allah's Apostle used to enter (my dwelling place) they used to hide themselves, but the Prophet would call them to join and play with me.(Fateh-al-Bari page 143, Vol.13)
Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) married me when I was six years old, and I was admitted to his house when I was nine years old.
Sahih Muslim 8:3310 'A'isha (Allah be pleased with her) reported:
Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) married her when she was seven years old, and he was taken to his house as a bride when she was nine, and her dolls were with her; and when he (the Holy Prophet) died she was eighteen years old.
Sahih Muslim 8:3311 'A'isha (Allah be pleased with her) reported thatand when he (the Holy Prophet) died she was eighteen years old.
"The Apostle of Allah married me when I was seven years old." (The narrator Sulaiman said: "Or six years."). "He had intercourse with me when I was 9 years old.
Sunan Abu Dawud 2116 (Ahmad Hasan Ref) Aisha said,
the Messenger of God married me when I was seven; my marriage was consummated when I was nine; he married me when I was a virgin,no other man having shared me with him; inspiration came to him when he and I were in a single blanket; I was one of the dearest people to him, a verse of the Qur’an was revealed concerning me when the community was almost destroyed; I saw Gabriel when none of his other wives saw him; and he was taken (that is, died) in his house when there was nobody with him but the angel and myself."
According to Abu Ja‘far (Al-Tabari): The Messenger of God married her, so it is said, in Shawwal, and consummated his marriage to her in a later year, also in Shawwal.
Al-Tabari, Vol. 7, pp. 6-7 According to Abd al-Hamid b. Bayan al-Sukkari - Muhammad b. Yazid - Ismai'il (that is Ibn Abi Khalid) - Abd al-Rahman b. Abi al- Dahhak - a man from Quraysh - Abd al-Rahman b. Muhammad: "Abd Allah b. Safwan together with another person came to Aishah and Aishah said (to the latter), "O so and so, have you heard what Hafsah has been saying?" He said, "Yes, o Mother of the Faithful." Abd Allah b. Safwan asked her, "What is that?" She replied, "There are nine special features in me that have not been in any woman, except for what God bestowed on Maryam bt. Imran. By God, I do not say this to exalt myself over any of my companions." "What are these?" he asked. She replied, "The angel brought down my likeness;no other man having shared me with him; inspiration came to him when he and I were in a single blanket; I was one of the dearest people to him, a verse of the Qur’an was revealed concerning me when the community was almost destroyed; I saw Gabriel when none of his other wives saw him; and he was taken (that is, died) in his house when there was nobody with him but the angel and myself."According to Abu Ja‘far (Al-Tabari): The Messenger of God married her, so it is said, in Shawwal, and consummated his marriage to her in a later year, also in Shawwal.
Apologetic History
The majority of scholars today, agree that Aisha was 9 when her marriage to Prophet Muhammad was consummated. This has been the mainstream Muslim understanding throughout Islam's 1,400 year history.[19] The first recorded objection raised to Aisha's age was by Maulana Muhammad Ali who lived from 1874 to 1951.[20] However, he is not considered credible to the Sunni sect since he belonged to the Ahmadiyya sect whose beliefs drastically differ from mainstream Islam. The Ahmadiyya and their writings are also heavily focused on missionary work.[21]
Adding to Ali's objections, there is Habib Ur Rahman Siddiqui Kandhalvi (1924-1991) who in his Urdu booklet, "Tehqiq e umar e Siddiqah e Ka'inat" (English trans. 1997), laments that he is "tired of defending this tradition" that is "laughed" at and "ridiculed" by English-educated individuals he meets in Karachi who claim it is against "sagacity and prudence" and "preferred English society to Islam over this", and he readily admits his "aim is to produce an answer to the enemies of Islam who spatter mud at the pious body of the Generous Prophet".[22] A posthumous fatwa was issued against him in November 2004, labelling him a "Munkir-e-Hadith" (hadith rejector) and a "Kafir" (infidel) on the basis of being a rejector of hadith.[23]
Deriving arguments from both Habib Ur Rahman and Muhammad Ali, Moiz Amjad (who refers to himself as "The Learner") is the most recent reference to online apologetic. Moiz admits to having lifted his arguments from them, summarizing and presenting them in response to a Muslim asking him how he can respond to critical Christians.[24] With Moiz's restructured response the arguments originating from the Ahmadiyya in the 1920s and 1930s finally achieved a little popularity among a few orthodox Muslims. However, this popularity seems to be strictly limited to articles or arguments on the Internet and not between contemporary sheikhs and scholars.
In July 2005, Shaykh Dr. Gibril Fouad Haddad, responded to Moiz Amjad's polemics with, "Our Mother A'isha's Age At The Time Of Her Marriage to The Prophet."[25] Including many facts that are easily verifiable for those who have access to the hadith and sira literature. For example, his analysis highlighted the fact that many of the arguments were based solely on faulty assumptions taken from hadiths completely unrelated to Aisha's age, or were misrepresenting the sources that were being cited (i.e. hadiths actually in support the idea that Aisha was 9). His reply has not yet been answered by Moiz Amjad.
However, Haddad's response did not stop Amjad's arguments from being rehashed by apologists on the Internet with the same missionary and apologetic focus. Other transmitters of these arguments include, but are not limited to; T.O Shavanas,[26] “Imam” Chaudhry (word-for-word plagiarism of Amjad's work),[27] Zahid Aziz,[20] Nilofar Ahmed,[28] and David Liepert.[29]
Apologetic Arguments
Dispute of Aisha's Age
Some Muslim authors have attempted to calculate Aisha's age based on details found in some biographies, eschewing the traditionally-accepted ahadith, though Kecia Ali labels these attempts as "revisionist".[14] One da'if (weak) hadith recorded in the works of some medieval scholars, including al-Dhahabi,[30] states that Aisha's older sister Asma was ten years older than her. This has been combined with information about Asma's age at the time of her death and used to suggest that Aisha was over thirteen at the time of her marriage.
Shaykh Dr. Gibril Haddad who was listed amongst the inaugural "500 most influential Muslims in the world",[31] is considered a Muslim scholar and muhaddith (hadith expert)[31] criticizes this approach as relying on a single narrator, and notes that a hadith from the same narrator gives a broader range for the age difference between the sisters.[25]
Not Enough Narrators
This claim objects that there is only one narrator, Hisham, and that although it is a sahih (authentic hadith) he alone is not enough to consider the hadith reliable. However, many of the chains of narration for these hadiths[32] do not involve Hisham (for example, Sahih Muslim 83311)[4], and, in any case, there is no requirement in Islam for multiple narrations. Even a single sahih hadith is sufficient to establish Islamic laws and practices.
Shaykh Dr. Gibril Haddad also refutes the claim that most of these narrations are reported only by Hisham ibn 'Urwah. "Try more than eleven authorities among the Tabi`in that reported it directly from `A'isha, not counting the other major Companions that reported the same, nor other major Successors that reported it from other than `A'isha."[33]
Details of some of these other chains of narration that do not include Hisham ibn 'Urwah ibn az-Zubayr can be found in the first half of an article by the IslamQA website.
Revelation Time of Surah al-Qamar
This arguments uses the Sahih Bukhari hadith in which Aisha explains she was a young girl when Surah (chapter) al-Qamar of the Quran was revealed.[34] With the rough estimation that this chapter was revealed nine years before hijrah (c. 622) some conclude that this makes Aisha older than other hadiths claim.
However, the precise date of the revelation of Surah al-Qamar is unknown. Ibn Hajar, Maududi, and other traditionalists said it was revealed 5 years before Hijrah (BH).[35] Zahid Aziz said it was revealed before 6 BH.[36] Alternatively there is no reputable source that claims this chapter came about 9 BH.
Shaykh Haddad confirms this as he argues that the traditional estimate of the revelation of Surah al-Qamar is consistent with Aisha’s age being nine years.
"The hadith Masters, Sira historians, and Qur'anic commentators agree that the splitting of the moon took place about five years before the Holy Prophet's (upon him blessings and peace) Hijra to Madina. Thus it is confirmed that our Mother `Aisha was born between seven and eight years before the Hijra and the words that she was a jariya or little girl five years before the Hijra match the fact that her age at the time Surat al-Qamar was revealed was around 2 or 3. A two year old is not an infant. A two year old is able to run around, which is what jariya means. As for "the comments of the experts" they concur on 6 or 7 as the age of marriage and 9 as the age of cohabitation."[33]
Battle of Badr and Uhud
This apologetic argument aims to make the claim that Aisha was at the Battles of Badr and Uhud, and that since standard practice at the time disallowed anyone under 15 from joining the battlefield, she could not have been younger than this.
However, there are no sources that can be found mentioning Aisha's participation in the Battle of Badr. Though, are a few hadiths that highlight Aisha's involvement in the Battle of Uhud, but the the extent that she was not involved in the battlefield and merely carrying water skins to the combatants.[37] Women and young children were allowed to preform such functions during battles.[38]
Shaykh Haddad also showed included on this subject:
"First, the prohibition applied to combatants. It applied neither to non-combatant boys nor to non |
2005. When the plane, a four engine Boeing 747–436, was around 300 feet into the air, flames burst out of its number 2 engine, a result of engine surge. The pilots shut the engine down. Air traffic control expected the plane to return to the airport and deleted the flight plan. However, after consulting with the airline dispatcher, the pilots decided to set off on their flight plan "and get as far as we can" rather than dump 70 tonnes of fuel and land. The 747 is certified to fly on three engines. Having reached the East Coast, the assessment was that the plane could continue safely. The cross-Atlantic journey encountered less favourable conditions than predicted. Upon reaching the UK, believing there to be insufficient usable fuel to reach their destination, the captain declared an emergency and landed at Manchester Airport.
A safety controversy ensued; the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) accused the carrier of flying an "unairworthy" plane across the Atlantic Ocean. The FAA proposed fining the carrier, British Airways (BA) $25,000. BA lodged an appeal on the grounds that they were flying according to United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) rules (which are derived from International Civil Aviation Organization standards).[1] In the end, the FAA told BA it was dropping the case based on assurances that airline changes will "preclude the type of extended operation that was the subject of this enforcement action."[2] BA said they had not changed their procedures and according to Flight International the FAA said that they "will recognise the CAA's determination that the aircraft was not unairworthy"[3]
Investigation [ edit ]
The investigation report recommended that BA revise its training of crews in three engine operation fuel management procedures.[4]
During the investigation, the British Air Accidents Investigation Branch discovered that one of the eight tracks on the Flight Data Recording tape had been erased during flight as a result of a short circuit in the unit, resulting in the loss of over three hours of data. It recommended that the FAA should require Honeywell, the manufacturer of the flight data recorder, to include a visual inspection of the printed circuit board during routine maintenance of the FDR.[citation needed]The main street of Maotanchang, a secluded town in the furrowed hills of eastern China’s Anhui province, was nearly deserted. A man dozed on a motorized rickshaw, while two old women with hoes shuffled toward the rice paddies outside town. It was 11:44 on a Sunday morning last spring, and the row of shops selling food, tea and books by the pound stood empty. Even the town’s sacred tree lured no supplicants; beneath its broad limbs, a single bundle of incense smoldered on a pile of ash.
One minute later, at precisely 11:45, the stillness was shattered. Thousands of teenagers swarmed out of the towering front gate of Maotanchang High School. Many of them wore identical black-and-white Windbreakers emblazoned with the slogan, in English, “I believe it, I can do it.” It was lunchtime at one of China’s most secretive “cram schools”–a memorization factory where 20,000 students, or four times the town’s official population, train round the clock for China’s national college-entrance examination, known as the gaokao. The grueling test, which is administered every June over two or three days (depending on the province), is the lone criterion for admission to Chinese universities. For the students at Maotanchang, most of whom come from rural areas, it offers the promise of a life beyond the fields and the factories, of families’ fortunes transformed by hard work and high scores.
Yang Wei, a 12th grader at this public school, steered me through the crowd. A peach farmer’s son in half-laced high-tops, Yang had spent the previous three years, weekends included, stumbling to his first class at 6:20 in the morning and returning to his room only after the end of his last class at 10:50 at night. Yang and I met at this precise moment, after his Sunday-morning practice test, because it was the only free time he had all week–a single three-hour reprieve. Now, with the gaokao just 69 days away–the number appeared on countdown calendars all over town–Yang had entered the final, frenetic stretch. “If you connected all of the practice tests I’ve taken over the past three years,” he told me with a bitter laugh, “they would wrap all the way around the world.”
Yang and I had communicated on social media for weeks, and the 18-year-old seemed almost giddy to be hosting an American expatriate. Yet there was a crisis brewing. Even with all the relentless practice, Yang’s scores were slipping, a fact that clouded over the lunch I ate with his family in the single room that he and his mother shared near the sacred tree. We were joined by Yang’s father, visiting for the afternoon, and his closest friend from his home village, a classmate named Cao Yingsheng–all squeezed into a space barely big enough for a bunk bed, a desk and a rice cooker. The room’s rent, however, was high, rivaling rates in downtown Beijing, and it represented only part of the sacrifice Yang’s parents made to help him, their only son, become the first family member to attend college.
Yang’s mother, Lin Jiamin, quit her garment-factory job to support him in his final year of cramming. Cao’s mother came to live with her son as well. “It’s a lot of pressure,” said Cao, whose family paid more in school fees than Yang’s family–about $2,000 a semester–because of his low marks entering high school. “My mother constantly reminds me that I have to study hard, because my father is out working construction far from home to pay my school fees.” The room went quiet for a minute. They all knew this was the boys’ fate, too, if they failed to do well on the gaokao. “Dagong,” Yang said. “Manual labor.” He and Cao would have to join China’s 260-million-strong army of migrant workers.
{snip}
Nothing consumes the lives of Chinese families more than the ever-looming prospect of the gaokao. The exam–there are two versions, one focused on science, the other on humanities–is the modern incarnation of the imperial keju, generally regarded as the world’s first standardized test. For more than 1,300 years, into the early 20th century, the keju funneled young men into China’s civil service. Today, more than nine million students take the gaokao each year (fewer than 3.5 million, combined, take the SAT and the ACT). But the pressure to start memorizing and regurgitating facts weighs on Chinese students from the moment they enter elementary school. Even at the liberal bilingual kindergarten my sons attended in Beijing, Chinese parents pushed their 5-year-olds to learn multiplication tables and proper Chinese and English syntax, lest their children fall behind their peers in first grade. “To be honest,” one of my Chinese friends, a new mother, told me, “the gaokao race really begins at birth.”
China’s treadmill of standardized tests has produced, along with high levels of literacy and government control, some of the world’s most scarily proficient test-takers. Shanghai high-school students have dominated the last two cycles of the Program for International Student Assessment exam, leading more than one U.S. official to connect this to a broader “Sputnik moment” of coming Chinese superiority. Yet even as American educators try to divine the secret of China’s test-taking prowess, the gaokao is coming under fire in China as an anachronism that stifles innovative thought and puts excessive pressure on students. Teenage suicide rates tend to rise as the gaokao nears. Two years ago, a student posted a shocking photograph online: a public high-school classroom full of students hunched over books, all hooked up to intravenous drips to give them the strength to keep studying.
{snip}
Even as cram schools have proliferated across urban areas, Maotanchang is a world apart, a remote one-industry town that produces test-taking machines with the same single-minded commitment that other Chinese towns devote to making socks or Christmas ornaments. {snip}
Isolated in the foothills of Anhui, two hours from the nearest city, Maotanchang caters mostly to such students and prides itself on eliminating the distractions of modern life. Cellphones and laptops are forbidden; the dormitories, where roughly half the students live, were designed without electrical outlets. Romance is banned. In town, where the rest of the students live, mostly with their mothers in tiny partitioned rooms, the local government has shut down all forms of entertainment. This may be the only town in China with no video arcade, billiards hall or Internet cafe. “There’s nothing to do but study,” Yang says.
Town planning is not the only means through which the school instills discipline in kids like Yang, a normally fun-loving teenager from Yuejin whom his father calls “the most mischievous kid in the village.” Maotanchang’s all-male corps of head teachers doles out lessons, and frequently punishments, with military rigor; their job security and bonuses depend on raising their students’ test scores. Security guards roam the 165-acre campus in golf carts and on motorcycles, while surveillance cameras track students’ movements in classrooms, dormitories and even the town’s main intersections. This “closed management practice,” as an assistant principal, Li Zhenhua, has termed it, gets results. In 1998, only 98 Maotanchang students achieved the minimum gaokao score needed to enter a university. Fifteen years later, 9,312 students passed, and the school was striving to break the 10,000 mark in 2014. Yang and Cao hoped to be among them.
{snip}
Yang’s parents and I lingered in front of the rows of dormitories where their son spent his first two years at Maotanchang. Ten students, sometimes 12, bunked in each room. The wire mesh covering the windows–“to prevent suicide,” one student told me later, only half-joking–was festooned with drying socks, underwear, T-shirts and shoes. The dorms have few amenities–no electrical outlets, no laundry room, not even, until a separate bathhouse was installed last year, hot water. There is, students note, one high-tech device: an electronic fingerprint scanner that teachers log into every night to verify that they have conducted their obligatory bed checks.
{snip}
The head teachers’ schedules are so grueling–17-hour days monitoring classes of 100 to 170 students–that the school has decreed that only young, single men can fill the job. The competition to hang onto these spots is intense. Charts posted on the walls of the faculty room rank classes by cumulative test scores from week to week. Teachers whose classes finish in last place at year’s end can expect to be fired. It’s no wonder that teachers’ motivational methods can be tough. Besides rapping knuckles with rulers, students told me, some teachers pit them against one another in practice-test “death matches”–the losers must remain standing all morning. In one much-discussed case, the mother of a tardy student was forced to stand outside her son’s class for a week as punishment. For the repeat students, the teachers have a merciless mantra: “Always remember your failure!”
{snip}
When I returned to Maotanchang in June, the night before the students’ mass departure for the gaokao, the darkened sky was illuminated by dozens of floating paper lanterns. The ethereal orange orbs rose higher and higher, until they formed a constellation of hope. I followed the trail of lanterns to their source: an empty lot near the school’s side gate. There, several families were lighting oiled wads of cloth. As the expanding heat lifted their lanterns off the ground, their prayers grew louder. “Please, take my son past the line!” one mother intoned.
As the glowing lanterns soared unobstructed into the night air, families cheered. One lantern, however, became tangled in electrical lines. The student’s mother looked devastated–for this, according to local belief, was a bad omen, all but dooming her child to finishing “below the line” on the gaokao.
For a town that turns test preparation into a mechanical act of memorization and regurgitation, Maotanchang remains a place of desperate faith and superstition. Most students have a talisman of some sort, whether it’s red underwear (red clothing is believed to be lucky), shoes from a company called Anta (their check-mark logo is reminiscent of a correct answer) or a pouch of “brain rejuvenating” tea bought from vendors outside the school gates. The town’s best-selling nutritional supplements are called Clear Mind and Six Walnuts (the nuts are considered mind-boosters in large part because they resemble brains). Yang’s parents did not seem especially superstitious, but they paid high rent to live close to the mystical tree and its three-foot-high pile of incense ash. “If you don’t pray to the tree, you can’t pass,” Yang says, repeating a local saying.
{snip}
The 10,000 or so parents who come to live in Maotanchang will do almost anything to enhance their children’s chances on the gaokao. Many of the mothers, like Lin, lack formal education. Yet they are the fiercest enforcers of the unwritten rules that forbid Maotanchang residents to watch television, do laundry or wash dishes during students’ sleeping time. When an Internet cafe opened in town a few years ago, posing a potential distraction to students, the mothers helped the school carry out a boycott that eventually forced it to close. When Yang’s scores slipped, his mother confiscated his cellphone and made him study late at night while she sat next to him, weaving needlepoint slippers with butterfly and fish designs. During the day, Lin timed her cooking to coincide precisely with class breaks, so her son could devour his meals without wasting a second of study time. “We have to do all we can,” Lin said. “Otherwise, we will always blame ourselves.”
{snip}
Original Article
Share ThisWelcome to LWOS’ Summer Hockey Series, Best of the Rest. Plenty of sites do a version of a 30 greats in 30 days series, but this year we are doing something a little bit different. We want to look at the best player from each team who is not in the Hockey Hall Of Fame. In order to do this there are some rules. First the player must have been a significant part of this franchise (franchises include their time in a previous city… see Winnipeg/Atlanta) and must be retired for at least 3 years, making them Hall of Fame eligible. To see all the articles in the series, check out the homepage here.
The Montreal Canadiens- the most historic team in the NHL, the oldest, the holder of most Stanley Cups with 24, also have 62 members in the Hockey Hall of Fame whom were once associated with the “St. Flanelle”. They are one of the most recognizable professional sports teams in the world, alongside the names of the New York Yankees and Manchester United. Over 800 players have donned the blue-white-red of the Habs since December 4, 1909 when they were founded. But now, which player deserves to be in the Hockey Hall of Fame more than any one else that has played in Montreal and not been inducted in Toronto?
Montreal Canadiens – Peter Mahovlich
Montreal Canadiens fans from the 1970’s could easily recall the brother duo of Frank and Pete Mahovlich playing together for the Habs for four seasons, from 1971-1974, winning two Cups during their tenure together (1971, 1973). Frank, the “Big M” wore #27 and was at the end of his career after winning 4 Cups with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Pete, the “Little M”, wore #20 and played his first full NHL season in 1970-1971 after bouncing around between the Canadiens, Red Wings and the minor leagues the previous 5 years.
Pete was always in Frank’s shadows during their time together in Montreal as Frank would collect more points for the Tricolore in three of the four seasons they both skated on the same ice, the exception being the first year when Frank was traded midway through the season and played 38 games, in which he scored 41 points. He then went on to get 96 points the following season, a career high, 93 in 1972-1973 and finishing his NHL career in ’73-’74 with 80 points.
During that time, either Pete was not so confident in his scoring ability because of the presence of his big brother, or he was just learning how to play in the pros. During the four seasons with his brother, Pete had the following statistics:
Season GP G A PTS PIM +/-
1970-1971: 78 35 26 61 181 25
1971-1972: 75 35 32 67 103 16
1972-1973: 61 21 38 59 4 21
1973-1974: 78 36 37 73 49 42
source: hockeydb.com
When the Canadiens won Stanley Cups in 1971 and 1973, he finished with 10-6-16 and 4-9-13 point totals in 20 and 17 games, respectively. He was an important piece in the Canadiens runs to the Cups, as he was clutch. But yet again, his big brother eclipsed him finishing with 27 points in ’71 and 23 in ’73.
However, when Frank left the NHL in 1974 to play 4 more seasons in the WHA before calling it quits, Peter stuck around with the Canadiens for three seasons (and parts of a fourth), in which his point totals sky rocketed. In 1974-1975, he had a career high of 35 goals, 82 assists for 117 points long with 122 penalty minutes and +41 in 80 games. Then the next season he repeated his performance with 34 G, 71 A good for 106 PTS, had a +71 and sat in the box for 76 minutes worth of penalties. In his final full season with the club, his points record was 15-47-62 with 45 penalty minutes and +36 in 76 games.
Looking at Mahovlich’s stats, it is obvious and a no-brainer to say he was an important player for the Montreal Canadiens during his tenure. To add to that argument, he finished the Habs 1976 and 1977 Cup runs with 12 and 9 points respectively, both in 13 games plus 16 points in 11 games during a failed playoffs in 1975.
Four Cups with a 0.825 points/playoff game with the Tricolore, how much more valuable can a player be on a team that featured players like Guy LaFleur, Larry Robinson, Guy Lapointe, Yvan Cournoyer, Steve Shutt and Jacques Lemaire, some of the all-time greatest players ever?
During his time with the Habs, he was selected by Hockey Canada to represent the country at the 1972 Summit Series, where he played 7 of the 8 games scoring 1 goal and 1 assist while recording 4 penalty minutes.
On November 29, 1977, Peter Mahovlich was traded from the Montreal Canadiens to the Pittsburgh Penguis, by GM Sam Pollock, which would signify an end to his time with the organization. He would play the rest of the ’77-’78 season in Pittsburgh, along with the next season before being traded to to the team who drafted him, the Detroit Red Wings. He played one full season there, a part of the following year and then finished his professional hockey career in 1982 after playing for the Adirondack Red in the AHL for parts of two seasons.
At the end of his fabulous 16-year career, eight in Montreal, Mahovlich finished with (in brackets are with the Canadiens); 884(581) regular season games played, 288(223) goals scored, 485(346) assists, 773(569) points, +234(267) and sat in the box for 916(695) minutes. His plus/minus is 8th in Canadiens history, while his 17 shorthanded goals are third and points per game (0.98) is 10th. In the playoffs for the Canadiens, since he only played 2 games outside of Montreal recording one point and one assist, he played 86 games, scored 30 times and added 41 assists for 71 points with 134 penalty minutes.
He would finish 17th all-time in total points for the Habs and 165th in all-time NHL scoring.
After reading all these statistics from the rugged playmaker, a unique type of player in his day, it is safe to say Peter Mahovlich should be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Not only that, but the Montreal Canadiens organization should retire his number 20, raise it up to the rafters, let him be legendary. After being in his brother’s shadow, it is time for Pete to step out of it and being engraved forever in hockey history.
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Thank you for reading. Please take a moment to follow me on Twitter – @LWOSNick. Support LWOS by following us on Twitter – @LastWordOnSport – and @LWOSworld and “liking” our Facebook page.This article is from the archive of our partner.
When Madison, a Washington DC, sixth grader, was told "somebody special" was going to show up to a community service event at her school, she hoped it would be Beyoncé. Instead, as The Huffington Post reported, she had to settle for the President of the United States of America:
"When I first heard that somebody special was coming, I really wanted it to be Beyoncé," Madison told Obama. "I understand," Obama said, because of course. The President told Madison his daughters Malia and Sasha "would feel the same way."
Madison said it was "even better" that the President was there, but Michelle Obama added that "I'd rather see Beyoncé," as well. And, given past evidence, we can probably guess how Sasha Obama feels.
In fact, there is a long history of young people being less-than-impressed with the so-called Leader of the Free World. Most of those moments have been captured by the White House's official photographer, Pete Souza. For the record, here's a visual history of kids being bored by Obama:
Earlier this week "Watch This Kid Faceplant Onto Obama's Couch He's So Bored" kid became a viral sensation, as well as the physical embodiment of Monday morning after you get into the office, but before the coffee is ready, as The Washington Post and others documented.The House GOP leadership tonight put all its chips on a “Plan B” strategy to isolate Senate Democrats and force President Obama to make additional concessions to conservatives. Since Democrats such as Sen. Chuck Schumer once embraced setting the threshold for income tax hikes at $1 million, as Plan B would have, Republicans could theoretically protect themselves from blame if lawmakers fail to reach an agreement to avert the “fiscal cliff.”
But at least two dozen House GOPers refused to support leadership—either out of dogged anti-tax principles or fear of a primary challenge, or both. Plan B failed, and House Republicans are in a flutter.
The problem with Plan B, as I saw it Wednesday, was its stark imbalance of risk and benefit. If it passed—sure, maybe Democrats are put in the slightly awkward position of rejecting legislation some of them once favored. Maybe Obama’s White House is compelled to tilt further in your direction once negotiations resumed. Maybe the media and general public won’t blame you—or blame you as harshly—in the event that we do go over the cliff.
But if it failed … well, we’re seeing the fruits of that failure tonight. Speculation is rampant that Rep. John Boehner’s speakership is imperiled. President Obama’s negotiating hand has unmistakably been strengthened. If a deal is eventually struck with Congress, it will take the support of House Democrats and almost certainly be on terms less favorable than those the White House and Boehner had worked out as of early this week.
And yet conservative hardliners like Rep. Tim Huelskamp of Kansas, still smarting from having been booted from the House Steering Committee, are seemingly giddy:
On a separate note, Republican leadership thought they could silence conservatives when they kicked us off our Committees. I’m glad that enough of my colleagues refused to back down after the threats and intimidation, thus preventing the Conference from abandoning our principles.
These conservatives—well-intentioned, perhaps, but tactically foolhardy—are steering the Republican party and the movement into an iceberg that’s been in plain sight for weeks.
I’d say I’m in disbelief, but this clown show has been going on too long now to say that.By Ashley Okwuosa
Rabat – A 7-year old girl has been killed by an elephant in the Rabat-Temara Zoological Park.
According to The Huffington Post, a 7-year old girl died on Tuesday, July 27th, after an elephant at the Rabat-Temara Zoo accidentally threw a stone at her. The zoo confirmed the incident on their Twitter page.
C’est avec beaucoup de tristresse que le zoo de Rabat annonce le décès accidentel d’une petite fille victime d’un jet de pierre (1/2) — Rabatzoo (@Rabatzoo) July 27, 2016
“It is with great sadness that we announce the accidental death of a little girl victim of a stone throw launched by an elephant,” said the zoo on their Twitter page
We learned that the girl was visiting the zoo with her parents, and even took a photo with her father outside the pen of the zoo’s three elephants.
An investigation has been opened in regards to the incident.
In the zoo’s 4-year history, this is the first time an accident of this magnitude has occurred. The Rabat-Temara Zoo officially opened in January 2012.WASHINGTON D.C. — In a bold and short statement that has since been overshadowed by Trump bombing Afghanistan, the White House is proposing a compromise between keeping the border secure, and allowing a select few of talented individuals come into the country.
The compromise would be to build, instead of one 30-40 foot wall, to build several 5 foot walls that would need to be jumped over in order to gain entry to the US. This, the statement says, would encourage athletic Mexicans to vault over the walls, while discouraging less desirable ones from coming into the country.
The initial plan of one big beautiful wall was too exclusive, as it would have kept everyone out, but this new proposal relieves strain on the immigration system, while also giving us the competitive edge on the world stage that immigration can give a country.
Specifically, the statement mentions, “the US has a bad track record in athletic events like soccer, while Mexico has had a fairly average one. Not great, but average.” It goes on to propose bringing in Mexican immigrants to boost the US agriculture, lawn care, and auto body work industries.
The proposal is one both sides are coming together on, as both sides agree that the country could benefit from high skilled Immigrants.
The Democrats have yet to see that Trump is essentially proposing the same amount of wall to be built, but that this new one will be spread out over several walls, and to call him on it, as would be expected. As with the Gorsich nomination, Democrats are kinda just taking what they can get. Democratic strategist and APR’s Compromise Correspondent tells us that this is the best thing the Democrats can do.
“The Republicans have full control so the Democrats are left with the choices of a 35 foot wall, or 7 five foot walls. Both aren’t prime, but it’s best to bite the bullet, buy a team USA soccer jersey, and let it happen”At least one report recently said that Nokia is working “full steam ahead” on an Android smartphone named Normandy. Yes, we admit it seems bizarre since Microsoft, which makes Windows Phone, is acquiring Nokia’s devices and services business. In any case, if Nokia is indeed moving forward on Normandy, then an increase in leaks makes sense.
Today, we’re greeted with a new shot of the alleged smartphone, thanks to @evleaks. While we originally only saw the device in red, it looks like Nokia is going to follow its current trend of releasing devices in multiple colors. We can see black, white, red, yellow, cyan and awesome mint green options are in the works. Unfortunately, we don’t know when this handset will ever see the light of day.
https://twitter.com/evleaks/status/415234934635126785
We would love to see Nokia’s hardware on an Android handset. Seriously. But it’s also very possible Microsoft will scrap the project, if it hasn’t already, in favor of continuing its big Windows Phone push. So, in one case, we might be looking at a picture of what’s to come. In another, we could be looking at what might have been.Microsoft's first ever computer, the Surface with Windows RT (or "Surface RT" as I will henceforth call it) is a mixed bag. The design and build quality both impress, and Microsoft's twin typing solutions—the 3mm no-moving-parts Touch Cover and the 6mm real keyboard-equipped Type Cover—are remarkably effective.
Specs at a glance: Microsoft Surface with Windows Pro Screen 1920×1080 10.6" (207 ppi), 400 nit, 10-point capacitive touchscreen OS Windows 8 Pro CPU Intel 3rd generation Core i5-3317U RAM 4GB (non-upgradeable) GPU Intel HD Graphics 4000 HDD 64GB or 128GB solid-state drive (of which about 25 or 89 GB are usable) Networking 802.11a/b/g/n with 2x2 MIMO antennas, Bluetooth 4.0 Ports Mini DisplayPort, headphones, microSDXC, USB 3.0, Cover port Size 10.82×6.77×0.52" (274×172×13.2 mm) Weight 1.99lb (0.903kg) Battery 42Wh Warranty 1 year Starting price $899 Price as reviewed $1128.99 Sensor Ambient light sensor, Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Magnetometer Other perks 48W charger with 5W USB port
The screen resolution, however, is substantially lower than those of its comparably-priced competitors. The touchpads of those covers are wretched (in the Surface review, having used them for a week, I thought they were poor; with several months under my belt, I now think they're downright bad). The processor is underpowered.
But the biggest issue with Surface RT is its operating system: Windows RT. Windows RT can only (officially) run applications using the Metro user interface and the WinRT API. These were thin on the ground when I reviewed Surface RT, and they're thin on the ground today.
Surface with Windows 8 Pro (hereafter known as "Surface Pro") is Microsoft's second computer. It is a straightforward proposition: take Surface RT, give it an Intel processor, a high resolution screen, and stylus support. Next, make all the requisite changes to cope with the greater power consumption and heat output that the x86 processor implies—and all the software compatibility and performance that x86 brings.
Like Surface RT, but a little bit bigger
In isolation, the Surface Pro looks indistinguishable from its smaller sibling at first glance. It has the same black VaporMg finish that feels good in the hand and should resist everyday wear-and-tear with aplomb, and it has kept the trademark kickstand with its satisfyingly reassuring snap.
Put them side-by-side and the differences start to appear. The Pro is 4mm thicker, at 13.46mm compared to 9.3mm for the RT. It's 0.5lb heaver, coming in at a hair under 2lb. Its other dimensions are unchanged, with the screen retaining the 10.6 inch diagonal. This has been upgraded, however; it's now a Full HD 1920×1080 device, replacing the 1366×768 unit in the RT model.
Closer inspection reveals the ports have been rejigged. The USB port moves from the machine's right side to its left, and although the port isn't the tell-tale blue (presumably to enhance the machine's aesthetics) it supports USB 3.0, compared to the ARM system's 2.0. The microSDXC slot, which in the Surface RT was positioned behind Surface's kickstand, is now more conveniently placed on the right hand side of the machine. It's easier to swap cards, but a little less clean-looking. Also on the right is a mini-DisplayPort, uh, port, replacing the micro-HDMI of the older unit.
The placement of the mini-DisplayPort is inferior. The microHDMI port on Surface RT is more or less where the microSDXC slot is on Surface Pro. This allows the power connector to be attached with the cable extending down, which means the little white LED at the top of the power connector, indicating whether a connection has been made, is visible.
On Surface Pro, if you use the power connector in that orientation it fouls the mini-DisplayPort connector. The power connector can connect in both orientations, so it's possible to use it "upside down," with the cable coming out the top. But then, the LED indicator is no longer visible.
The placement of other buttons and devices is unchanged. The power button remains on the top right, with a volume rocker and headphone port on the left, a charging connector on the right, and 720p cameras front and rear. The Windows button is centered beneath the screen. And on the bottom there's the cover port, for connecting to the same selection of Touch and Type Covers as the ARM version supports.
The power connector retains the same magnetic connector, and this too is identical between the devices. Surface Pro's power adaptor is bigger, rated at 48W rather than 24W. It should in principle be able to fully charge the system in under an hour. The adaptor brick also sports a USB port, and can deliver up to 5W to a smartphone or other tablet to charge it.
On Surface RT I had consistent issues with getting the power connector to marry properly. Sometimes it would appear to be magnetically latched, but it would actually be slightly skew and fail to charge the machine. The connector on Surface Pro hasn't had the same issue. It's still fiddly, but I no longer receive the false positives. Maybe it has been slightly tweaked to improve the connection; maybe I'm just more familiar with its foibles.
Surface Pro includes one other big feature not found in the RT: an active digitizer in its screen supporting a touch-sensitive pen. Wacom claims it's their technology being used, though there's no immediate indication in Windows of who made the digitizer. The pen has a barrel button and "eraser" tip, and it's pressure sensitive with 1,024 levels.
When not in use, it attaches magnetically to the charging port, with the barrel button serving dual purpose as the magnetic connector. On the one hand this is surprisingly secure; it should be safe to put the Surface Pro into a bag with its pen attached and not find the two are divorced when you get them out. This is fine when you're not charging the computer, but it means every time you plug into the wall you have to pull off the pen.
This is downright inelegant. It's going to result in unnecessarily lost pens. An integrated pen garage or holster is the better solution.
Ultimately, it makes me think the Surface Pro was something of an afterthought. Microsoft created the basic system design for the Surface RT, and since that has no active digitizer or pen, it doesn't need a place to store a pen. Rather than create a new design specific to Surface Pro's capabilities, Microsoft has performed a minimal modification of the Surface RT design. This precludes any major modifications such as adding slots for pens—and it's why we have the unfortunate mini-DisplayPort location too.Can America Survive the Mass Panic of the Adult Babies? I wrote the first draft of this post in a series of Tweets. Someone had asked me about what the hell was going on; this is my answer. This is what set me off: This is what set me off: For a lot of people, this is the Great Depression, but this time it's emotional & physical. Our bodies r breaking down w fear & rage... — Sarah Silverman (@SarahKSilverman) November 16, 2016
This is This is mass hysteria. In sociology and psychology, mass hysteria (also known as collective hysteria, group hysteria, or collective obsessional behavior) is a phenomenon that transmits collective allusions of threats, whether real or imaginary, through a population in society as a result of rumors and fear (memory acknowledgment). In medicine, the term is used to describe the spontaneous manifestation (production in chemicals in the body) of the same or similar hysterical physical symptoms by more than one person. People teach each other how to behave. These people spend all day in bubbles spraying each other with panic pheremones like they're in some kind of People teach each other how to behave. These people spend all day in bubbles spraying each other with panic pheremones like they're in some kind of Amygdala -Milking Bukakke of Terror. Or they tweet out unhinged emotional Vaudeville that sparks the release of fear and panic chemicals in readers. Or they tweet out unhinged emotional Vaudeville that sparks the release of fear and panic chemicals in readers. Speaking of a buzzword that is very au courrant with the left at the moment -- the "normalization" of some attitudes -- this sort of performative neurotic hysteria used to be frowned upon, so its infectious capacity and destructive reach was limited. Speaking of a buzzword that is verywith the left at the moment -- the "normalization" of some attitudes -- this sort of performative neurotic hysteria used to be frowned upon, so its infectious capacity and destructive reach was limited. But now of course hysterical overemoting has been valorized into how one shows one feels and one really cares deeply and ergo is virtuous. But now of course hysterical overem |
stories of all those involved tend to mix. While it does get somewhat messy, it never gets chaotic. The story never goes off-track and it never becomes too confusing, which was a common criticism levied against “Batman v. Superman: Dawn Of Justice.”
A major reason why the story remained so concise was because of the main villain, Steppenwolf. While he’s not as iconic a villain as Lex Luthor, Loki, or Darkseid, who is mentioned multiple times, he does plenty to establish himself as a powerful threat and a highly motivated villain.
Like the other members of the league, his role in the plot has a personal component. He doesn’t just show up, wanting to destroy the world for shits and giggles. There’s an actual reason behind his actions and those reasons never become excuses, something that should carry weight for any character.
On top of those reasons, Steppenwolf’s story helps build the bigger picture of the DC Extended Universe. Through it, we learn that there are much larger conflicts in this universe that go beyond the Justice League. It helps establish a larger role for the Amazons, who showed their strength in “Wonder Woman.” It also establishes the Atlanteans and Green Lantern Corp, who are set to show theirs in future movies.
If the secondary goal of “Justice League” was to build a world and expand the possibilities, it certainly succeeded. If its primary goal was to bring each hero together in a way that was entertaining, flashy, and dramatic, then it succeeded as well.
There were plenty of powerful moments. There were plenty of dramatic moments. There were even some funny moments, most of which involved Ezra Miller’s Flash. Few of the moments felt forced or contrived. None felt empty either. There was purpose in every moment, decision, and action. By those most basic of standards, “Justice League” works.
I would even argue that this movie works better than a lot of Marvel movies. I would certainly put it above titles like “Avengers: Age Of Ultron” and “Iron Man 3,” movies that I think get more praise than they deserve. “Justice League” even makes the effort to improve on the mistakes of its predecessor, something few franchises even try, as “Amazing Spider-Man” can attest.
None of this is to say that “Justice League” is without flaws. It certainly has a few. The effects aren’t as flashy or colorful as other movies. Even “Man Of Steel” had better effects, by comparison. It’s also worth belaboring that Ben Affleck is no Christian Bale and Steppenwolf is no Darkseid. It really did feel as though the movie held back, at times.
If that’s the biggest shortcoming of “Justice League,” though, then I still say it qualifies as a good movie. It tells a story. It fleshes out characters. It tells a big, flashy story, full of big battles and satisfying conclusions. There’s a sense of emotional catharsis at the end that is much more uplifting than what we got in “Batman v. Superman: Dawn Of Justice.” When put in the context of the greater DCEU, it acts like frosting on the cake.
Why, then, does it receive such hate and scorn from critics? If this movie does have a major crime, it’s that it isn’t crafted in the same mold as Marvel with their cinematic universe. I don’t deny that Marvel sets a very high bar. However, this movie cannot and should not operate by those same standards. If it did, then those same critics would just whine that it’s ripping off Marvel too much.
There are other criticisms of “Justice League,” but when so many of them revolve around Henry Cavill’s digitally-removed mustache, those criticisms are downright petty. It is possible to hate and criticize this movie by focusing on those petty issues, but that’s hardly a fair way to judge the actual substance of the movie.
In terms of actual substance, “Justice League” has it and plenty more. It Superman being Superman, Batman being Batman, and Wonder Woman being Wonder Woman, just in case her movie didn’t give you enough of that. For that reason, “Justice League” deserves far more praise than it has gotten and far less petty criticism.
In the end, it still gives us a satisfying, live-action Justice League movie. That, in and of itself, makes it inherently awesomePosted on ·
This is now so simple, it shouldn’t even require any guidance… but first things first.
Why would you want to import all your old email to Gmail? Because it gives you an All-In-One, searchable archive. I know there is real demand for this: my blog visitor log tells me, since my old post on the subject, How to Import All Your Archive Email Into Gmail still receives a good 5-600 readers every single day. That means:
people do want to migrate to web-based software (Gmail)
they don’t want to lose their historical “baggage”
so far it has been rather complicated
Now that Gmail supports the IMAP protocol, everything’s changed. My most-popular-ever post is all of a sudden obsolete. Forget all the “Gmail-loader” tools on the Net, most of them did not work anyway, forget even my multi-step process… I’ll show you all you have to do now. I’ve tested these steps with Outlook, but they should work with Thunderbird or whatever your favorite desktop email software is.
Enable IMAP in your Gmail account
Setup the Gmail account in your client software, based on these instructions
This will create a folder structure matching your Gmail labels
Open your old archive.pst files, if any
Drag-and drop all your old email into the Inbox folder in your new IMAP account.
You can do this across accounts, or even archive files. If you don’t want to “move” old email out of the archives, use “copy” instead. Instead of Inbox, you can drop old email into any other Folder (create new ones if you like), to match the Gmail labels
Drag-and drop all your old “Sent mail” into the “Sent Mail” folder in your new IMAP account.
Wait patiently – with thousands of emails (my archive goes back to 1996) your upload bandwidth may be the bottleneck.
Voila! Your email is now up in Gmail, all labeled, searchable, with original sender info and dates intact (this was a problem with previous methods).
Happy Gmail-ing
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Like this: Like Loading...Vatican says world must halt attacks against Christians and others, as Francis sends emissary to Iraq
Pope Francis used unusually strong language to condemn the actions of Islamists in their continuing campaign against minorities in Iraq on Sunday and called for an end to violence in the name of God. A high-ranking special Vatican envoy is due to leave for northern Iraq on Monday.
In his traditional Sunday blessing, Francis said the news from the country had left him "in dismay and disbelief". Without referring by name to the Islamic State (Isis), whose jihadists are largely responsible for the persecution, the pope deplored reports of "thousands of people, including many Christians, driven from their homes in a brutal manner; children dying of thirst and hunger in their flight; women kidnapped; people massacred; [and] violence of every kind."
He added: "All this gravely offends God and humanity. Hatred is not to be carried in the name of God. War is not to be waged in the name of God."
Iraqi authorities have reported that Isis has kidnapped hundreds of women and girls from the Yazidi religious minority after seizing the north-western town of Sinjar. Up to 100,000 Christians are thought to have fled for their lives towards Iraqi Kurdistan.
In an apparent reference to the US-led air campaign to deliver relief to the civilians fleeing Isis, Francis said: "I thank those who, with courage, are bringing succour to these brothers and sisters, and I am confident that an effective political solution on both the international and the local levels may be found to stop these crimes and re-establish [the rule of] law."
On Friday, the pope named Cardinal Fernando Filoni as his personal envoy to Iraq. Plans are also being made for a meeting in Rome, probably in September, of all the Vatican's diplomatic representatives in the region. The aim is to organise support for those who have been forced to flee the jihadists.
The 68-year-old Filoni is a Vatican heavyweight who was considered a candidate for the papacy in the runup to the election last year at which Francis was chosen.
At an earlier stage in his career, he served for six years as the Holy See's ambassador to Jordan and Iraq during the final stages of Saddam Hussein's regime.
Filoni was among the few foreign diplomats to remain in Baghdad during the bombing of the city by US-led forces in 2003.
The pope's spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, said the cardinal would travel to Iraqi Kurdistan, where the majority of Christian refugees are sheltering.
In an interview published in Avvenire, the daily of the Italian bishops' conference, Filoni appeared to blame the deterioration of the situation in Iraq on the US-led invasion 11 years ago. "Since 2003, the situation has never improved," he was quoted as saying.
"I believe [Pope] John Paul II was right when he warned the political leaders at that time to rediscover the paths of a peace that was not [found] and for [the lack of which] we are suffering these consequences today."
The pope also discussed the fighting in Gaza, which he described as "a war that cuts down innocent victims and does nothing but worsen the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians".
He also mentioned the battle against Ebola, which has killed close to 1,000 people in west Africa, calling on his followers to "pray for the victims of the Ebola virus and for those who are fighting to stop it".By James Rowe 1 year ago
More than 70 NBA players are being paid a total of more than $177m USD not to play for their former teams.
The incredible riches owed to former players includes the likes of stars Dwyane Wade, Tim Duncan, and Deron Williams. The reasons for the payments are a mix of bad luck and injury, poor signings by NBA managers, retirements, complete loss of form - and some odd reasons. Some are carefully made under NBA'stretch provisions' which allow clubs to pay the final two years of a player's salary over five seasons, saving damage to their salary cap. Others are just mistakes.
Dwyane Wade's money is probably the hardest to believe - being paid $15.55m USD to not play for the Chicago Bulls, after agreeing to a buyout by the club after just one season when the Bulls decided to clear their roster.
The former Finals MVP now plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers alongside LeBron James. Signed to a bargain minimum contract, and currently coming off the bench, Wade's contributions have led to early calls for him to win the Sixth Man Of The Year Award - making the Bulls' buyout even more painful.
The Brooklyn Nets infamously owe $16.5m to Deron Williams, and will be paying him until 2020. Williams had signed a monster five-year, $99 million deal with the Nets in 2012, but that deal fell to pieces, with Williams accepting a buyout of $27.5 million in 2015 for his final two seasons, with payments spread over five seasons.
The Detroit Pistons owe Josh Smith $16.2m in a similar arrangement, while the Atlanta Hawks are paying Jamal Crawford well over $13.2m not to play, after he was waived this year by the club.
Atlanta are paying eight players, including Crawford, a total just short of $18m not to play for the club, the highest number of players being paid not to play by any team.
But the Portland Blazers top the list when it comes to totals, owing the relatively unknown Andrew Nicholson more than $19.9m. Nicholson signed a four year deal with the Washington Wizards, but after playing poorly, was traded to the Nets. The Brooklyn side agreed to the deal with the sweetener of also receiving a first-round draft pick, a complex but relatively common deal that occurs when overpaid players are removed from teams, often after a change in management or coaching.
With Nicholson not appearing for the Nets, the team traded the Canadian's 'dead' contract to Portland where he was waived, in another complex trade. Nicholson now plays for the Guangdong Southern Tigers in the China Basketball Association, as he attempts to prove he's still got it.
The Blazers accepted a similar 'dead' deal for Anderson Varejao, and owe him $7,653,380, and along with owing the injured Festus Ezili's $1m, have the highest owed total, at more than $28.5m for just three players.
Not in this list is the Los Angeles Lakers, who are currently contracted to pay Luol Deng $72m over four years. Deng is still on the roster, but has started just one game for the Lakers and hasn't been seen since - not even in training, or on the bench. Deng's contract is considered one of the worst for active players and it's likely the Lakers will attempt to remove him via the previously mentioned stretch provisions.
Just two clubs don't owe money to non-players: The Charlotte Hornets and Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Cavaliers are currently rated by bookmakers Neds a $6.50 chance to win the NBA Championship.
But the Cavaliers aren't totally in the clear. According to reports, the Cavaliers do owe former coaches Mike Brown and David Blatt approximately $8 million in buyouts, having removed the coaches while they remained on contract.Multiple sources have confirmed to Sportsnet that Edmonton general manager Peter Chiarelli offered centre Ryan Nugent-Hopkins to Nashville in a bid to land defenceman Seth Jones.
Chiarelli had no comment on this report, neither confirming nor issuing a denial when reached. And of course, Nashville general manager David Poile chose to deal Jones to Columbus for Ryan Johansen instead. What it tells us is that Chiarelli sees Nugent-Hopkins as the one player from the Oilers former core that can command the greatest return — yet at the same time is expendable.
Meanwhile, Taylor Hall has played himself into the “going forward” group of Oilers Top 6 forwards, with an excellent season thus far.
A source explained that Johansen’s size advantage — he’s 6-foot-3 and 218 lbs., compared to 6-foot, 189 lbs. for Nugent-Hopkins — tipped the scales, as it were. Poile wanted size to go up against the plethora of big Western Conference centres, a group that includes the very player that has made Nugent-Hopkins expendable in Edmonton: the 6-foot-2 Draisaitl.
Comparing the two players is an interesting exercise. RNH is from Burnaby, Johansen from Vancouver; Johansen went No. 4 overall in the 2010 draft, RHN was No 1 the next year; both have played five NHL seasons, with Nugent-Hopkins holding a slight edge in points-per-game (0.719 to 0.636).
Nugent-Hopkins’s totals read 73-144-217 in 302 games; Johansen’s go 81-118-199 in 313 games. RNH shoots left and Johansen right, the latter preferred, I believe, by most GMs.
Contract-wise, the race isn’t close, however. Nugent-Hopkins is locked up for five seasons past this one at $6 million per with an AAV of the same number. That means he is locked up for his prime years — assuming he matures into good value at that number.
Johansen, on the other hand, makes $3 million this season, $6 million next, and carries an AAV of $4 million. But he’ll have to be qualified at over $6 million in the summer of 2017. Poile’s choice will be to QO Johansen for one year, after which he becomes unrestricted, or do a long-term deal at a number that will could well start with “8” depending on Johansen’s production.
We conducted an informal, anonymous poll among a dozen NHL scouts, analysts and front office types on Friday, asking the simple question: “You can only have one of Nugent-Hopkins or Johansen. Which one would you choose?” (No employees of the Predators, Oilers or Blue Jackets were included in the poll.)
By deadline, nine had cast their vote. The result: Nugent-Hopkins 5, Johansen 4.
It’s not in any way scientific. But it does show how close the value of the two players is among objective eyes in the game. The hardest part is youth. At 22, how much better could Nugent-Hopkins be in a couple of years?
And the same goes for Johansen.
Trade Call
As for the Jones-Johansen trade, it’s crazy to think that the two teams — Nashville and Columbus — have forged a record of 1-5-0-2 between them heading into the weekend. And it’s not because the newcomers haven’t been productive.
Jones has just one assist in four games as a Blue Jacket, but he is playing four minutes more per night than he had in Nashville. Johansen has six points in four games with the Predators since the trade, but the Preds have only one loser point since his arrival.
You can’t ask for a bigger shakeup in either dressing room, yet Nashville has been passed by Colorado in the Central, and the Blue Jackets are inexplicably the 30th place team in the NHL. There is no chance the Jackets avoid a 13th playoff miss in their 15-year existence.
I was one of the many who picked CBJ as a playoff team. Crazy…
Cody Kassian and Zack Hodgson
Speaking of two first-rounders being dealt for each other, how about the parallel universes of Zack Kassian and Cody Hodgson? Their stories bumped into each other again this week as Hodgson cleared waivers in his way to AHL Milwaukee, while Kassian was on his way up from the minors.
Hodgson, the former 10th overall pick by Vancouver, ended up on a one-year deal in Nashville worth $1.05 million this season, but gave the Preds only 3-5-8 in 39 games before clearing waivers.
“I think we gave him a good opportunity,” Poile told The Tennessean. “That’s for him to (decide) whether he agrees or not.”
Meanwhile Kassian, the former Sabres first-rounder who was dealt straight up for Hodgson in 2012, arrived in Edmonton’s dressing room Thursday after a long and winding trail. He played 14:23 in a shootout loss to the Sharks, and visually, looks to have lost considerable weight.
He’ll need to find consistency – something neither Kassian not Hodgson has ever grasped in the NHL — in order to remain with the Oilers.
Here Come The Champs
Look out for the Blackhawks. Chicago is hockey’s hottest club, taking a nine-game winning streak into the ACC to play the Maple Leafs Friday.
And the former hottest team in the West? Well, Dallas just watched Chicago whiz right up to their side atop the Central Division in the standings.
“It’s no surprise to myself or Johnny Oduya,” ex-Hawk Patrick Sharp, now a Stars forward, told Dallas radio. “The Hawks find a way to keep reloading every year. If you’re going to go where you wanna go, you’re probably going to have to go through Chicago.”
Stamp of Approval
Apropos of nothing, check out this stamp that hit post offices in Finland on Friday.
It’s worth noting that, as the World Juniors were once gain fabulously entertaining, there’s something about amateur sports that fans have come to like, when compared to the pros. The BCS Bowl was easily the best football game of the week last week, because the kids make mistakes and have lapses in team structure that cause points to be scored.
Same with hockey, where NHL coaches have structured the game to the point where the average goals scored per game (5.207) is almost as dire as it was in 2003-04, when teams combined for 5.136 goals per game in the final season before the lockout.
Structure, predictability and shot-blocking may work for coaches. But it doesn’t work for fans that want to see a few more goals for their buck.A new paradigm to rally round people with aphasia
by Don Weinstein on May 21, 2014
God knows my speech therapist worked daily, Monday to Friday, attentively and conscientiously, to help me get my limited speech, by stages, back; I will be beholden to her every day for the rest of my life. She was in the trenches with me and the rest of my aphasiacs sweating out each letter, syllable and word fifty weeks a year. I valued her and her colleagues at Transition of Long Island and the hundreds of other hands on speech therapists and the people with aphasia who shared their experiences, as limited as they were. Over the years I spent more time in rehabilitation centers, hospitals, universities, and other types of community aphasia groups listening, speaking and Skypeing. The worst assembled group programs for aphasiacs and caregivers were those who were presented my therapists who didn’t have daily hands on experiences in the trenches presently or people who didn’t have aphasia but had a script about aphasia; the chutzpah, the audacity, the presumptuousness and pretentiousness when they wring out words that say that aphasiacs are bright but the organization somehow couldn’t find one person, one person, with aphasia to present the program and the other speakers who have aphasia.
In juxtaposition to the fact that some organizations still have no aphasia presidents, presenters or master of ceremonies for programs, they are good, competent organizations, yet, they dream of an aphasia global association; they have not worked out the relationship between the different aphasia group, agencies, organizations and the problems in each state in the United States. These people have chutzpah; they dream the dream, their dream of an aphasia global association, a daydream, like Happy Talk Lyrics, “You gotta have a dream, if you don’t have a dream, How you gonna have a dream come true?” Who can argue, no, who would want to dispute Hammerstein and Rodgers? Not I. But is this dream a prophetic vision or a nightmare? Is it for management types, in the United State, even though they haven’t gotten all universities, hospitals, medical staff, therapists and aphasiacs on board? Hell no they have to go miles and miles so why are they pushing for the global association?. And who will control this organization, therapists or people with aphasia? Is this a top bottom or bottom top association? Is it to help people with aphasia in the United State? How will this help a person with aphasia? Is it meant to be a pot of gold of jobs, grants, recognition awards and government charity?
Stop thinking that the aphasiac community wants charity or that we can get along by afternoon teas and crumpets and government doles; the Ivy leagues are just another group of costly good schools, the Episcopalian church is just another church, those Ivy leagues and Episcopalians together with the CUNY and SUNY noble prize winners, in every state university, and the Native Americans, Latinos, African American, Irish, German, Norwegians, Swedes, Jewish, Italian, Poles, Indian, Chinese, and the other immigrants that made this country great also have people with aphasia. Instead of talking to other academicians in their annual conventions find out where people with aphasia live and go to their houses and talk with them, there is no simply way but it is a sure way; stop cursing hard work and make use of the lessons learned by businesses, politics, governments, and universities; make use of high schools and colleges students.
I have a dream also; aphasiacs must own their organizations, an organization of aphasiacs, controlled by aphasiacs, for aphasiacs, headed by a person with aphasia with an abiding respect for the need of transparency, with some kind of a annual shareholder meeting, so that the people who give money can hold the board, director and staff responsible for the organization’s programs.;. these groups will be supported by families members, employ speech, occupational, emotional and physical therapists; they will get help from grassroots marches, protests, boycotts and civil disobedience; and if needed they can buy other talents. That was a lesson learned from the time of the abolitionist movement, National Rifle Association, unions, Alcoholics Anonymous and the wide range of substance-abuse and dependency problems, African American movements and the NAACP, the oldest and most widely recognized civil rights organization, Woman (NOW), National Council of La Raza and the Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars organizations and other groups.
Fredrick Douglass understood the ludicrous events when white and black abolitionists, well meaning, introduced him to the audience and then interpreted Douglass’ words and used him as an object, one that was told to follow the scripts of the activists. Douglass was literate, understood the details and horrors of slavery; he had been a slave. There was no reason for him to be only an example; he rallied against the fact that his was an object, it was degrading and infantilizing; he was in a moral prison, constructed by the abolitionists; he became free when he spoke his words and thoughts in his tone. Unfortunately, this absurdity still goes on today when a puppeteer who doesn’t have aphasia comes out to talk about aphasia; he show off his bullpen of aphasiacs, and limits their time and thoughts; it was unbecoming, morally lazy and a mockery of brightness of people with aphasia.
There are therapists that should be honored by their professional organizations as therapists not as Ms. or Mr. Aphasia. The aphasia movement is a movement for people with aphasia; remember the poster woman or man is a person with aphasia.
Please give me some feedback especially if you want to form a new aphasia organization with aphasia management.
My book is on Kindle Store. The name of my book:
MY STROKE: 450 DAYS FROM SEVERE APHASIA TO SPEAKNG, READING AND WRITINGOn Wednesday, the U.S. Senate voted 52-47 in favor of overturning the FCC’s decision to repeal net neutrality. The regulation, put in place by the FCC under the Obama administration in 2015, essentially ensures that all internet traffic is treated equally by internet service providers and prevents them from blocking or prioritizing content from certain companies over others. In December 2017, the FCC had decided to repeal the current set of rules, arguing that net neutrality would limit internet freedom and stifle investment and innovation.As our chart, based on a recent poll commissioned by the nonpartisan group Voice of the People, illustrates, Americans are surprisingly united in their support of current net neutrality rules. 86 percent of the registered voters polled by Nielsen Scarborough oppose the FCC's plans to repeal net neutrality rules, with similar numbers found across all political camps.While yesterday’s ruling was a major win for Democrats and net neutrality advocates, it was only a first step: to roll back the FCC’s decision using the Congressional Review Act, Democrats need a majority vote in the House as well as the president’s signature, which is unlikely considering he publicly supported the FCC’s decision in December.New York City cops. | Rob Bennett/Mayoral Photography Office De Blasio says he expects cops to enforce the law
After a police union launched a plan to embarrass City Hall by publishing pictures of quality of life violations, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Monday that he expected officers to address any lawbreaking they witness.
“I would say to any on-duty or off-duty officer, if you see a law being broken, it is my firm assumption that they will either act on it or report it to the proper authorities for action,” de Blasio said when asked about the initiative at an unrelated press conference in City Hall.
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“[W]e are going to have very consistent quality of life enforcement all over this city, for any kind of offense, that includes if a homeless person commits it," he said. "We are going to enforce those laws stringently.”
The initiative was launched by the Sergeants Benevolent Association, whose president, Ed Mullins, has long complained about de Blasio’s stewardship. In his letter to members, Mullins said lawmakers were letting the city’s quality of life deteriorate while seeking to pass new laws that would weaken police enforcement.
In his letter, Mullins encouraged off-duty sergeants, along with their friends and family, to “get more involved” and “utilize your smart phones to photograph the homeless lying in our streets, aggressive panhandlers, people urinating in public or engaging in open-air drug activity, and quality of life offenses of every type.”
A spokesman for the union later told POLITICO New York they were prohibiting members from using their NYPD-issued smart phones for this initiative.
The photographs would be published on the SBA’s Flickr stream, in their “Peek-a-boo” album. As de Blasio started his press conference on Monday afternoon, there were 17 photographs posted, although two were taken in September 2013, months before de Blasio took office. By 5:45 p.m., there were 150.
The move by the SBA comes days after a Quinnipiac University poll showed a historic level of dissatisfaction with the city's quality of life. It also comes as de Blasio seeks to balance his police commissioner’s steadfast insistence on strictly enforcing quality of life violations, against a push by the City Council Speaker and other lawmakers to reduce penalties for some of those activities.
City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito said at the news conference, “These kind of tactics are not going to persuade us from having real, legitimate, public policy conversations.” De Blasio, seated next to Mark-Viverito, stressed the fact police would not go easy on lawbreakers.
“The law is the law. Anyone who urinates in public is subject to arrest. Anyone who hops a turnstile is subject to arrest. There’s a long list of clear violations we all know about. And the NYPD wil enforce those very, very consistently,” he said.
Thanks to a drumbeat of tabloid and television stories, de Blasio is fighting the perception that New York City’s quality of life has slipped in the 20 months since he took office. He told reporters earlier that the number of homeless people has not “appreciably” increased in that time.
Today, he was asked whether complaints have about homeless people have increased. “We have a lot of impressionistic information,” he said, adding, “I would not be surprised if complaints have gone up in part because of the public dialogue that is happening. … If it’s on the front pages a lot, people are going to think about it differently.”Image from 'Welcome to County' rap video produced by Oakland doctors. (Humanized Medicine/YouTube)
OAKLAND (KPIX 5) — Oakland doctors concerned about the funding of county hospitals are taking a one-of-a-kind approach to publicizing that concern, with the release of a slickly-produced rap video.
The hospital featured in the video, Highland Hospital, is the scene of a seemingly daily procession of trauma victims. “It’s gunshots, car accidents. It’s life and death,” said Dr. Swapnil Shah, Chief of Orthopedics.
“Sometimes it gets crazy,” said Dr. Chris Hahn. “We have every trauma bay filled.”
About a dozen physicians from Highland here produced a rap video called, ‘Welcome to County.’
Most patients don’t expect the doctors who care for them to rap. “I don’t look like a typical rapper,” said lead singer Hahn. “Shock and disbelief.”
Dr. Shah is the producer of the video. “That’s what music is. It’s about life, it’s about obstacles, it’s about joy,” he said. “And that’s what people want to hear in music.”
The doctors have combined their dual passions of medicine and rap music to convey the importance of county hospitals, saying these safety-net hospitals will lose $500 million dollars next year as Obamacare fully rolls out.
Because the government now expects everyone to have insurance, it will no longer gives lump sum amounts to hospitals that serve the poor and the underinsured.
The doctors said there is no political message here. They just want people to support county hospitals.
Without the support, the doctors fear their hospital will meet the same fate as Doctors Medical Center in San Pablo, which has seen services whittled away and the facility downsized. Only emergency funding will keep it afloat.
“It’s vital people pay attention now,” said Shah. “It’s the transition period. Transition period is what [will] make it or break it.”
It took the doctors about a year and a half to write and produce the music video, paid for out of their own pockets.FESSENDEN, N.D. -- A former North Dakota sheriff was officially charged with conspiracy to deliver methamphetamine and bribery Tuesday, May 30, in Southeast District Court in Fessenden.
Johnny Zip Lawson, 41, Harvey, was charged with conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance, methamphetamine, a Class A felony, and bribery-unlawful influence of public servants, a Class C felony. He was also charged with three Class A misdemeanors: providing false information to a law enforcement officer, neglect of duty and ingesting a controlled substance, methamphetamine.
He is free on a $25,000 bond on his personal recognizance. He was released from jail without having to pay any money, and he could be charged up to $25,000 by the judge if he violates any terms of his probation.
Before resigning as Wells County sheriff on April 25, Lawson is accused of consuming methamphetamine provided by Alexander Blake Lail, 47, New Rockford, according to court documents. Lawson received the illegal drug in exchange for not investigating burglaries and break-ins of residences around Wells County that may have been committed by Lail or some of his associates, court documents said.
The county is about 90 miles northwest of Jamestown.
Wells County State’s Attorney Kathleen Murray said at a news conference Wednesday, May 31, that Lail is being held in Heart of America Correctional and Treatment Center near Rugby on charges related to the incidents involving Lawson.
Lail was charged Wednesday with six felonies, including two Class A felonies: delivery of a controlled substance, methamphetamine, and conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance, methamphetamine. The four other felony charges were Class C felonies: maintaining a dwelling for using a controlled substance, bribery, possession of a controlled substance and aggravated assault-domestic violence. He was also charged with ingesting a controlled substance, methamphetamine, a Class A misdemeanor.
Lail was charged May 10 with two counts of attempted murder, a Class AA felony, after being accused of burning the inside leg of Jason Thomas, 55, rural Harvey, with an ice auger. Court documents state that Thomas suffered permanent loss or impairment of a function or a bodily member or organ and was in hospice at risk to die after suffering a cardiac arrest. He died at his home on April 28.
Peter Welte, Lawson’s attorney, said Wednesday he questioned the need for Murray to hold a press conference about the charges filed against his client.
“This is indicative of the complete lack of objectivity and questionable tactics of the (Wells County) state’s attorney office and law enforcement in this matter,” Welte said. “We will try this matter in court as opposed to the way the (Wells County) state’s attorney office and law enforcement has been proceeding. I believe their actions speak for themselves.”
Lawson was arrested in Bismarck on Friday, May 26, on a complaint sworn out by the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation. Lawson was seen in Bismarck by a BCI agent who followed Lawson until the BCI was able to provide a copy of the arrest warrant for Lawson to the Bismarck Police Department. A detective with the Bismarck Police Department arrested Lawson about 8:45 p.m. Friday.
Murray said Wednesday afternoon that the case against Lawson is still open and anyone who might have seen or heard anything related to the case should call the Wells County Sheriff’s Office at (701) 547-3211 or the BCI at (701) 328-5500.
Murray said the Wells County Commission is continuing its efforts to hire a replacement for Lawson. The commission appointed Commissioner Randi Suckut as the interim acting county sheriff. Suckut said he has no powers to arrest anyone, but has helped with office work at the sheriff’s office.
Since the election for a new sheriff is over a year away, the County Commission must either appoint a new sheriff or the county’s electors could petition the county to hold a special election. Suckut said Lawson was hired by the county on Jan. 7, 2014, and he was elected to the office in June 2014.How “Yes on S” tricks Angelenos into voting against themselves
Stephen Corwin Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jan 1, 2017
Remember the morning after Brexit happened, when Nigel Farage went on TV and admitted that several of the key promises proposed by the campaign weren’t actually true? Remember how duped so many voters felt? Well get ready: it’s about to happen all over again. Except this time Nigel Farage is Jill Stewart, and Brexit is Measure S, the March ballot initiative to halt all real estate development in Los Angeles for the next two years.
Back in June, I wrote an open letter to Jill explaining how Measure S (formerly called the “Neighborhood Integrity Initiative”) was not an appropriate way to address the problems she sees in Los Angeles, and how it was counterintuitively going to make problems like gentrification worse. At that point I assumed that in spite of her ill-informed approach, Stewart did legitimately have good intentions. But this morning, I received a flyer in mail for the Measure S campaign and realized just how far past constructive discussion we are. We are beyond facts and reasonable discussion; Stewart has gone full Trump.
The fliers are stuffed full of empty rhetoric, the very same kind Trump used to galvanize voters into blindly supporting him. She’s pointing fingers and calling people names (Liar!) and giving them labels (“the billionaire developers”) to appeal to raw emotion without offering anything more than random, unexplored factoids to back her stance. This is evil genius at it’s finest.
Remember when you were a kid, and |
Azmi Sharom, on the other hand, was initially clad in a white shirt bearing the number '5'. "I'm wearing this because I'm afraid of getting caught by the police. But now I will change into this," he says, changing into a yellow Bersih T-shirt. "Who is trying to threaten democracy? We didn't say that we will kill anyone," he adds. Other prominent leaders giving speeches are activist Marina Mahathir, Amanah's Dzulkefly Ahmad and DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang.
Hundreds of red-shirts gather at PWTC 10.20am: PWTC - Some 1,000 red-shirts arrive from various points around Kuala Lumpur. Umno Youth exco Armand Azha Abu Hanifah addresses the crowd, and tells them to await further actions. At PWTC, there are three buses parked in front of the Seri Pacific hotel, and more around the side of the building.
Muar baker offers 'Bersih roti' for hungry rallyers 10.15am: Petaling Street - Feeling a bit hungry attending Bersih 5 rally? No worries, there is always free 'Bersih roti' up for grabs. A total of 10,500 loafs of bread are being distributed at Petaling Street to the public, as a gesture of support for the rally. The man in charge Tan Soon Kit, 23, has come all the way from Muar, Johor to Kuala Lumpur yesterday with his mission to fill the protestors' stomachs. He tells Malaysiakini that this is the second time they are distributing free Bersih bread since the last mega rally. "We are in the bread and cake industry. Before this rally, our donation drive has raised RM4,000, and we are distributing 10500 slices of bread, " he says enthusiastically, adding "free roti, free GST". On top of it, another bakery has sponsored 1,200 pieces of cake. Although the food has been prepared for Bersih, Tan says everyone including the red-shirts can have it. Some protestors grab the chance to take photos with him after taking their 'Bersih roti'.
M’sians in Canberra hold Bersih 5 picnic 10.12am: Canberra - About 40 Malaysians living in Canberra gathered for a picnic to support Bersih 5. The gathering at Canberra Nara Park, attracts not only the participation of the Malaysian diaspora residing in the Austalian city, but also university students who stayed back during semester break. This is the fourth time Malaysians in Canberra are participating as part of the global Bersih movement. Previous gatherings were held in solidarity with Bersih 2 in 2011, Bersih 3 in 2012 and last year's Bersih 4.
Barricades erected to keep yellows, reds apart 10.10pm: Jalan Kinabalu - Barricades manned by over 100 police personnel have been erected, blocking all access roads from Masjid Negara to Dataran Merdeka. An officer from the Dang Wangi district police headquarters tells Malaysiakini that the barricades are to seperate Bersih supporters and the red-shirts. "We just want everything to go peacefully and end peacefully," the officer says. As at 9.45am, roughly 1,000 reds have been spotted around the Jalan Raja Laut vicinity.
Adam Adli rouses 1,000-strong Bersih crowd 10am: Bangsar - Activist Adam Adli's arrival raises the spirits of some 1,000 Bersih 5 supporters at Bangsar LRT. Speaking to the crowd, he claims he had escaped being picked up by the police last night. "Malaysians are not rattled, Malaysians are not afraid," he says. "The whole world is witnessing how the people of Malaysia can fight for our sovereignty. "Last night I was nearly detained by roughly 20 policemen from Bukit Aman, but I have succeeded in getting here," he says. Present are Amanah president Mohamad Sabu and several other leaders.
Red shirts march singing ‘Inilah Barisan Kita’ 9.37am: Sogo - More than 1,000 red-shirts are marching towards PWTC via Jalan Raja Laut while singing ‘Inilah Barisan Kita’. There are some 20 FRU personnel at the scene.
Ambiga: They fear the truth 9.30am: Bangsar LRT station- Former Bersih co-chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan tells the crowd of over 1,000 that yesterday was "a bad day". Ambiga cites Malaysiakini which was "dragged to court", the raid at the Bersih headquarters as well as the spate of arrests. "Although they (those arrested) are not here, their spirit is here with us. Their message is to continue with Bersih 5," she says. "What are they afraid of? They are afraid of the truth, Bersih 5's strength and your support," she adds.
Taiping reds supporters 'wait for instructions' 9.28am: Masjid Negara - No red shirts are spotted here but roughly 20 youths from Taiping dressed in regular clothes say they are here to support the anti-Bersih movement. They tell Malaysiakini they arrived on a bus at 5am. When asked why they have come, they say, "I don't know, we are here for the red shirts. "We are just waiting, because it seems there's nothing going on here," says one youth. "We'll just follow whatever happens later." They say they have not been given any instructions and are free to do as they please.
'We are all Maria, Mandeep' says Ambiga 9.20: Bangsar - Bersih supporters gathered at the LRT station welcome the arrival of Hakam president S Ambiga. The former Bersih co-chairperson in her brief speech notes the festive mood of today's gathering despite the arrest of present Bersih chair Maria Chin Abdullah and secretary Mandeep Singh. "We are all Maria, we are all Mandeep," she declares to the crowd.
200 reds show up against Bersih 9.15am: Masjid Jamek - A crowd of some 200 red-shirts briefly face off with another crowd of some 300 Bersih supporters opposite Swiss Hotel near the LRT, as they make their way to Padang Merbok. Cheering "Hidup Merah!," the crowd walks pass the Bandaraya LRT here. The Bersih purple security team upon spotting the red-shirts, forms a human barricade to prevent their advance. The red-shirts are now walking towards Sogo shopping mall, and stops at the Bandaraya LRT
'Arab Donor' makes comeback crooning Sha La La La
9.10am: Bangsar LRT - The attention-grabbing 'Arab donor' makes an appearance yet again. - The attention-grabbing 'Arab donor' makes an appearance yet again. Clad in traditional Arab garb, it is hard to ignore the man's presence, who made his first appearance at last year's Bersih 4 rally. He even goes on to sing his take on the song ‘Sha La La La’ by Danish Glam Rock band The Walkers. Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak belted the song with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte at a private dinner during the latter’s visit to Malaysia. "Sha la la la, mari datang bersama-sama (let's come together)," the 'Arab man' croons. The man, Mok Sek Chool, tells Malaysiakini he is here at the Bersih rally as the "government has not been able to answer" questions with regard to the RM2.6 billion donation issue. "That's why I made this costume, to make people know (about the issue)," he says. The 27-year-old, who describes himself as "just a citizen", says he will keep doing this to ensure more people will know about the issue. Despite the heat and possible rain, Mok will be marching all the way to Dataran Merdeka in the costume. Najib has been heavily criticised after an expose in The Wall Street Journal revealed RM2.6 billion had been deposited into his personal accounts. The authorities have since cleared him of any wrongdoing, claiming the amount was a donation from the Arabs.
No reds spotted in Bangsar 9am: Bangsar - Observing the area from Jalan Bukit Pantai to Dataran Maybank since 8am till now, Malaysiakini sees no reds supporters. Most of the roads leading to Bangsar have been closed since 7am. Meanwhile Penang DAP chief Chow Kon Yeow reports on Facebook buses they have hired to ferry supporters from the north have backed out for fear or reprisal. "All five buses chartered by Penang DAP have been cancelled due to last minute intimidation. "Bus operators do not dare to take the risk of having their permits revoked. "But still, Penang folk are on their way, by car, air and rail," writes Chow.
Bangsar LRT stays open 8.50am: Bangsar LRT station - LRT services here are going on as usual without any disturbances. This is despite Pakatan Harapan chief secretary Saifuddin Abdullah tweeting that the station has been closed and advising Bersih participants to get off at nearby stations. Checks by Malaysiakini however find that passengers are still disembarking at the Bangsar LRT station. A Prasarana staff tells Malaysiakini that service at the station will not be halted. "Service will only be stopped if things get out of hand," he says.
Hardships drive Johoreans to join rally 8.45am: Masjid Negara - Two elderly gentlemen are among the 100 Bersih supporters at the national mosque. 65-year-old Tajuddin Mohamed and Jamaluddin Harun, 57, are both Amanah members from Johor, although they say they have come in their own personal capacity. They tell Malaysiakini they were motivated by the suffering of the people, especially the young, due to rising costs of living. "Things are so difficult. As a Muslim, sometimes I can't even fully focus while praying," Tajuddin says. Jamaluddin says they arrived here in the wee hours of the morning aboard a bus filled with other Bersih supporters from various parties.
Pikachu joins the Bersih cause 8.30am: Sogo - A FRU team of around 50 are having a briefing in front of Sogo. Several trucks and a water cannon are seen parked outside the Dang Wangi district police station. Police have set up road blocks at Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman in front of Sogo to prevent people who wear red or yellow from entering the road. Sogo is not a gathering point for Bersih or red-shirts and so far only a few people in the yellow Bersih tee shirt are spotted passing by the area. 8.20am: Masjid Negara - A man clad in a fuzzy Pikachu outfit is garnering a lot of attention here as people clamour to take pictures with him. The man, Abdul Malik Abdul Razak, says he came here with a group of others from Kluang, Johor on a bus today. "Of course, it's hot (in the outfit)." "I'll bear with it, because we have to rise up," he says, pumping his fist in the air. He plans to march in the outfit, he adds. Pikachu is a bright yellow mouse-like creature from the popular franchise Pokemon. 8.15am: PWTC - Police have locked down most entry points to downtown Kuala Lumpur. Naturally, streets are unusually empty in the city. There does not appear to be people gathering at PWTC, where Umno's headquarters is located. However, one person can be seen selling the reds' T-shirts by the roadside.
Food and shopping as vendors set up shop 7.50am: Masjid Negara - The first order of the day at the national mosque is breakfast. Vendors selling nasi lemak and other goods have popped up, and are serving Bersih supporters, policemen, and other folks in regular clothes. There are also a few stalls selling Bersih merchandise. About two dozen Bersih protesters in yellow are already here among a crowd of over 50 people dressed in regular clothes. There is heavy security here, and a FRU water cannon and a command truck are parked next to the mosque, although the officers are staying out of sight and resting in their trucks Similarly, no the red-shirts have been spotted despite pledging to occupy Masjid Negara yesterday.
Bersih supporters fuel up for long day 7.40am: Petaling Street - Plenty of Bersih protestors have arrived in downtown Kuala Lumpur hours before the rally kicks off, as some are concerned about major road closures and fear being unable to enter the city later. Petaling Street, which saw a heated red-shirts gathering last September, is peaceful and calm. Rallygoers are seen having breakfast and preparing for a long day.
FRU gear up for crowd control 7.26am: Masjid Jamek LRT, Jln Tun Perak - The federal reserve unit (FRU) team of 50 members is holding a meeting in front of Masjid Jamek LRT station to discuss their duties in dealing with Bersih and reds crowds. Along the road seven FRU truck with a water cannons are parked. Police have cordoned off roads at the end of Jalan Perak and Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman and Jalan Raja Laut, barring protesters and journalists from entering Dataran Merdeka. Over 100 cops stand right in front of the three cordon areas, preventing people from entering Dataran Merdeka. A LRT staff who passes by says three LRT station around the city centre - Masjid Jamek station, Bandaraya station and Plaza Rakyat station may be closed if chaos (kecoh) erupts. "But now, the passengers still can take the LRT at these stations," she says.
Calm before the storm as city awakes 7am: Protestors are set to gather at Jalan Bangsar and Masjid Negara. The city wakes up to its normal routine although road blocks are beginning to be set up. Dataran Merdeka at the junction of Jln Tun Perak and Jln Tuanku Abdul Rahman is closed off. At Bangsar, the road from Jln Maarof to Jln Bangsar has been closed off as Dataran Maybank is one of the Bersih gathering points. It appears to be business as usual at Petaling Street with the flea market and hawkers setting up for business. However the arrests of Bersih leaders chairperson Maria Chin Abdullah and secretary Mandeep Singh last night along with a number of politicians is an ominous sign for things to come. The latest of the total 12 arrested is reds leader Sungai Besar Umno chief Jamal Md Yunos, who was picked up at 1.30am. Meanwhile Clare Rewcastle-Brown speaks on why Bersih 5 is important:ADVERTISEMENTS
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Artprice has recently obtained “innovative company” investment status from France’s State-run Public Investment Bank (BPI) in November 2015 and this prized status will give the company access to significant Innovation Funds (FCPIs in France) for a 3-year renewable period.
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By its very nature, the Art Market is the perfect market for a Blockchain and Artprice is leading in the right direction as all its players are looking for the serenity and confidence that an absolutely safe market provides. According to all the major market research studies, the Art Market is becoming an efficient market like the financial markets.
Artprice or the revolution of the art market by Thierry Ehrmann from Artprice on Vimeo.
Artprice plans to use the funds to invest further in its IT strategy and particularly their Art Market Blockchain – a distributed database containing specifications of years of complaints and lawsuits between the different segments of the Art Market chain and, notably, their relations with tax authorities and State judicial and customs services.
Artprice’s Blockchain will be compatible avec IPv6 (network protocol without connection of layer 3 of the OSI – Open Systems Interconnection) and IPv4.
Artprice is confident of the success of the Blockchain it is developing as it’s the result of a consensus linking proof of work with proof of participation.
In the longer term the Blockchain will allow a considerable improvement in the payment of reproduction rights and other related rights to recognised copyright companies like the ADAGP in France which collects copyright duties in 43 countries.
Artprice’s Blockchain will reduce transaction costs (intermediation) both for auctioneers and for galleries and museums. In fact, Artprice’s Blockchain will take the place (among others) of catalogues raisonnés, which are subject to known defaults, weaknesses and ‘subjectivity’. It will therefore become a sort of universal catalogue raisonné.
Their Blockchain will allow the total control of data, the management of copyright payments, the trace-ability of artworks, the tracking of stolen or lost artworks, their tracking by customs authorities and the localisation of artworks at any given moment.
Ever conscious of reputation risk, free ports, such as those in Geneva, should welcome the Blockchain as it will provide the durable credibility they need after the different scandals that have impaired their image.
Artprice will progressively install its Blockchain throughout its IT systems interacting with the global Art Market, and this will streamline and authenticate transactions, giving collectors and art buyers of all kinds the confidence required to make the Art Market transparent. It will also assure buyers and sellers that their data will be freely duplicated, via Artprice’s Blockchain, to millions of servers worldwide, and therefore can’t be falsified.
With its Blockchain, Artprice is making a significant contribution to the art market by enhancing its overall transparency vis-à-vis legislators and State authorities. This ‘self-regulatory’ initiative represents a way of avoiding a surcharge of legislative and administrative constraints, which is why so many players on the Art Market are more than happy to contribute to the project.
Artprice is the global leader in art price and art index databases. It has over 30 million indices and auction results covering more than 620,000 artists. Artprice Images gives unlimited access to the largest Art Market resource in the world: a library of 118 million images or prints of artworks from the year 1700 to the present day, along with comments by Artprice’s art historians.
Artprice permanently enriches its databases with information from 4,500 auctioneers and it publishes a constant flow of art market trends for the world’s principal news agencies and approximately 7,200 international press publications. For its 4,500 000 members, Artprice gives access to the world’s leading Standardised Marketplace for buying and selling art.
In addition to substantial fiscal advantages, this R&D investment ensures that Artprice can regularly create new products and services that expand the Internet’s commercial attractiveness, without any loss or capital increase diluting shareholder value or weighing on the growth of its share price.
According to Thierry Ehrmann, Artprice’s founder:
“Few listed companies can boast such salutary management and economic results… and in the coming years we will enjoy significant tax credits.”
In a world where tax obligations, transparency and regulatory compliance govern all high value-added markets, the Art Market can only be effectively regulated once standardised. Artprice is not only world leader in Art Market information, but also the leading pioneer of the market’s standardisation.
Artprice has recently made a substantial investment in acquiring the Swiss company Xylogic whose technical team developed the e-SA3 (e-Solutions for Art and Auction). Xylogic’s client base includes a large number of the world’s major Art Market players and its e-Solution has a major and unique technological lead on the Art Market, primarily via its powerful proprietary algorithms.
According to Thierry Ehrmann, founder and current chairman of the Serveur Group, a major collator and distributor of judicial, legal and economic databases for nearly 15 years…
“With Blockchain, the code is law.”
The Artprice Blockchain can be likened to a large public accounting book, both unfalsifiable and anonymous.
To quote the mathematician and professor of computer science at the Lille University of Science and Technology Jean-Paul Delahaye:
“Imagine a huge book that everyone can read and write into freely, but that is impossible to erase and and is indestructible.”
Artprice – with the billions of logs each year onto its Big Data banks – knows the IT structure of the global art market and its algorithms better than anyone.
The new version of Artprice’s Standardised Marketplace, deployed late April 2016, is entirely written to fit into Artprice’s Blockchain, a guarantee of confidence, especially for the US market, Artprice’s priority target.
Remarks, suggestions, advice and criticism from Artprice’s clients and market professionals have contributed to the specifications of our Blockchain, which, by responding to a genuine and confirmed market need, has to be better than a solution imposed from the top.
Artprice is listed on the Eurolist by Euronext Paris, SRD long only and Euroclear: 7478 – Bloomberg: PRC – Reuters: ARTF.Complimentary beverage upon boarding
Four Seasons private jet: Dom Pérignon 2006
Commercial: Gulp of tap water from my water bottle, which I filled up in the airport
Napping conditions
Four Seasons private jet: After lowering the shades on all five of my seat’s windows, I reclined my white leather seat (designed by Italian craft studio IACOBUCCI) flat, pulled down my Bulgari eye mask, and cuddled up under a Mongolian cashmere blanket.
Commercial: I inflated my neck pillow from Target and tried to sleep, despite the pillow having a slow leak.
Refreshing hot (or cold) towels offered
Four Seasons private jet: Five (and I think Four Seasons staff met later to analyze missed opportunities to have provided more of them)
Commercial: One (a cocktail napkin that I dipped into my water)
Coffee consumed
Four Seasons private jet: An iced latte, made via the plane’s on-board espresso maker
Commercial: Coffee that reminded me it was time to change my car’s oil when I got home
In-flight entertainment options
Four Seasons private jet: The iPad Air and Bose noise-cancelling headphones provided to all passengers (both for keeps) that connect to an onboard server pre-loaded with movies, music, and shows.
Commercial: Ones available at no extra charge on my Hawaiian Airlines flight included a flight tracker, survey about my flight, and note explaining the location of the USB port… which was next to that same screen.
Meals provided
Four Seasons private jet: Spiny lobster on fennel was the starter, with queen sea bass as the entrée, both prepared by the jet’s executive chef, Kerry Sear. And both paired beautifully with the Kistler Chardonnay 2014.
Commercial: Hawaiian Airlines provided a meal of rice and beans. I think the entrée may have been chicken.
Medical attention
Four Seasons private jet: After opening a quarter-inch cut on my index finger, the journey’s dedicated physician, Dr. Michael Billington, provided a triple antibiotic and bandage. I bravely declined the flight attendant Mark’s offer to divert the plane.
*Commercial:** After a bite of the aforementioned chicken, I closed my eyes and tried to summon calming thoughts.
Interactions with fellow passengers
Four Seasons private jet: Continued bonding with passengers with whom I’d already hiked in a rainforest, seen crocodiles on a riverboat cruise, and ridden a mile-long zip line while staying at the Four Seasons Resort Costa Rica at Peninsula Papagayo.
Commercial: Grimaces when the hand of the sleeping passenger next to me kept landing on my thigh.
Welcome upon arrival
Four Seasons private jet: After a short transfer flight from Honolulu to Lana’i, I was greeted at the Four Seasons Resort Lanai with a drink of pineapple and jalapeño juice before being led to my room and shown a private lanai overlooking the Pacific. The room featured teak and zebra-wood decor; and a Toto toilet that has a built-in bidet and dryer.
Commercial: After a short ride from Reagan National Airport to my home, I was greeted by spirited hugs from my two young daughters who—upon hearing of the Toto toilet—then asked, “When can we go to Hawaii?”
By Zach Everson Courtesy Conde Nast TravelerThe new boxed set The Apple Years collects the first six solo George Harrison albums, which is five more than I was familiar with going in. Like most people weaned on the Beatles during their teenage years, I knew and loved Harrison’s third LP, 1970’s triple-album opus All Things Must Pass, generally considered (with John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band and Paul McCartney’s Ram) to rank among the very best of the Beatle solo records. What I didn’t know of Harrison’s early solo work was the instrumental record (1968’s Wonderwall Music), the other instrumental record (1969’s Electronic Sound), the one that sounds like an unofficial sequel to All Things Must Pass (1973’s Living in the Material World), the debauched record (1974’s Dark Horse), and the one that looks like a flattened basketball (1975’s Extra Texture). Frankly, I had avoided Harrison’s solo albums because I heard they weren’t any good. At times, Apple Years doesn’t exactly dispel that notion, though “bad” rarely means “uninteresting.”
Being a Beatles fan in 2014 doesn’t offer much in the way of adventure; the band’s story has been told and retold many times, and the rote romanticism has rubbed away some of the richness of the individual characters. In the case of Harrison, his persona as a soft-spoken and dryly witty mystic has been well-established by handsomely produced hagiographies like the 2011 Martin Scorsese–directed Living in the Material World. While my appetite for Beatles ephemera is considerable — I’ve watched Living in the Material World so many times I can recite the “George hands Tom Petty a ukulele out of his car trunk full of ukuleles” story from memory — the process of turning Harrison into a sainted humanitarian has stripped him of his humanity. What I appreciate most about The Apple Years is how it restores several obscured chapters of the story, showing Harrison to be weirder, angrier, grumpier, and darker than his carefully stage-managed posthumous image might indicate. For better or worse, Harrison put his life into the songs. Fortysome-odd years later, it’s the songs that seem to provide the most complete picture of the man.
With the exception of Extra Texture, which is a pretty dreary exercise in broken spiritualism and sub–Gerry Rafferty sax solos, The Apple Years abounds with fascinating surprises. The album I’ve been drawn to the most is Dark Horse, long one of the most reviled releases in Harrison’s catalogue. Finished in a rush as Harrison was rehearsing for his blockbuster ’74 tour — the first by a Beatle since the breakup, and Harrison’s last ever in the U.S. — Dark Horse is remembered for the hoarseness of Harrison’s vocals, which were obliterated from round-the-clock jamming and drugging. (Cocaine, as it was for most of his peers at the time, was Harrison’s bugaboo.) I’m tempted to call Harrison a method vocalist on Dark Horse — the songs document the hell of Harrison’s life at the time, which was marred by his failed marriage to Pattie Boyd (who absconded with Harrison’s pal Eric Clapton in July ’74), his drug use, and his constant womanizing. In the press, Harrison likened the record to Peyton Place. His haggard voice suits the haggard tunes.
This carried over to the tour, when Harrison deigned to perform just eight of his songs over the course of a two-and-a-half-hour show, which allowed Ravi Shankar to play two sets of sitar music and frequent collaborator Billy Preston to essentially assume frontman duties. When Harrison did play his Beatles and solo hits, he altered the music and changed the words, rare for superstars at the time. (Even Bob Dylan, back on the road earlier in the year for an arena tour with the Band, played it relatively straight, performing his hits merely faster and louder.)
The response from the press was venomous; even normally worshipful outlets like Rolling Stone eviscerated both the tour and the album. This part of Harrison’s career, tellingly, is glossed over in documentaries like Living in the Material World, though in this clip you can see him shouting his way through an unfortunate reggae redux of “What Is Life.” Harrison looks gaunt, a tiny man staring down a leviathan-size audience and fighting to keep his nerve from failing.
How miserable was George Harrison around the time of Dark Horse? Let’s find out via this multiple-choice quiz!
1. Heading into Dark Horse, Harrison was coming off two no. 1 albums and his ego was raging. Which of the following statements did Harrison not make in the press at the time?
A. “Having played with other musicians, I don’t even think the Beatles were that good.”
B. “Paul should have let me write more, but he never forgave me for putting ‘Within You Without You’ on Pepper.”
C. “The biggest break in my career was getting in the Beatles. The second-biggest break since then was getting out of them.”
D. “I really didn’t want to do this for a living. I’ve always wanted to be a lumberjack.”
2. Harrison produced Dark Horse by himself after enlisting the help of Phil Spector on All Things Must Pass and Living in the Material World. One of Harrison’s points of contention with Spector concerned the legendary producer’s excessive drinking in the studio. Approximately how many cherry brandies did Spector require in order to begin work each day?
A. 6
B. 10
C. 11
D. 18
3. The best song on Dark Horse is “So Sad,” which is also the album’s most direct statement on the dissolution of Harrison’s marriage. Harrison was so distraught over Pattie leaving him that he comforted himself by having sex with the wife of one of his ex-Beatle bandmates. Which Beatle was it?
A. Paul McCartney
B. John Lennon
C. Ringo Starr
D. None of the above. George Harrison would never sleep with the wife of one of his ex-Beatle bandmates.
4. Harrison cowrote another standout track, “Far East Man,” with Ron Wood of Faces and later the Rolling Stones. (Wood also included “Far East Man” on his first solo LP, I’ve Got My Own Album to Do.) “Far East Man” is about the value of friendship, though Harrison and Wood weren’t good friends to each other at the time. How did Harrison and/or Wood damage the relationship?
A. Wood slept with Harrison’s wife.
B. Harrison slept with Wood’s wife.
C. Wood and Harrison slept with each others’ wives.
D. Neither man slept with the other man’s wife, which upset both men, because they secretly wanted to swap wives but couldn’t figure out the logistics.
5. In spite of the tension, Wood plays guitar on the Dark Horse cut “Ding Dong, Ding Dong.” How did Harrison credit Wood in the liner notes?
A. Ron Would If You Let Him
B. Ron Would Pick Up the Phone If Keith Richards Doesn’t
C. Ron Would Suck Up to Rod Stewart Relentlessly
D. Ron Would Resemble a Rooster If He Had Red Hair
6. One of the weirdest cuts on Dark Horse is the cover of the Everly Brothers’ “Bye Bye Love,” which Harrison rewrote to include a reference to his wife running off with Eric Clapton. What is Harrison’s nickname for Clapton in this song?
A. The Clap
B. Clapper
C. Crapper
D. Slowhand
7. In his memoir Clapton: The Autobiography, Clapton writes that “heroin began to come into my life” in 1970 when he was hanging out in the studio with Harrison during the making of All Things Must Pass. How exactly did heroin come into Eric Clapton’s life?
A. “A particular dealer used to come around whose deal was that you could buy as much coke as you wanted on the condition that you took a certain amount of smack at the same time.”
B. “Bobby Keys, a lovely Texan, would stay with me and do blow at my flat from the time the session ended until 6 or 7 a.m. in the morning. We were so gakked one night that when he slipped in some heroin I scarcely noticed until I felt God run his index finger across my back.”
C. “George wanted me to play on ‘Thanks for the Pepperoni’ and the thought of doing anything else frankly seemed attractive.”
D. “My world was crumbling: I was in love with my best friend’s wife, and now that Duane Allman was playing in Derek and the Dominos, I was suddenly the second-best guitarist in my own band.”
8. Clapton also writes in his book about how Harrison wanted Clapton to seduce his wife, Pattie, so that Harrison could then attempt to seduce Pattie’s sister, Paula. (Clapton instead went after Paula in order to get closer to Pattie.) How old was Paula when this occurred?
A. 15
B. 17
C. 19
D. 21
9. Of the many fine sidemen who played on Harrison’s early ’70s albums, perhaps the best was drummer Jim Gordon, whose playing can be heard on everything from Pet Sounds to Harry Nilsson’s “Jump Into the Fire” to Frank Zappa’s Apostrophe to the Incredible Bongo Band’s “Apache,” one of the sampled breaks in hip-hop. Why did Gordon’s music career end in 1983?
A. He died of a drug overdose.
B. He became a born-again Christian.
C. He started a computer company and became a millionaire.
D. He murdered his mother.
10. Harrison’s ’74 tour was controversial for how Harrison changed up Beatles songs. Which of the following lyric changes were not made by Harrison on the tour?
A. “Taxman, Mr. Thief” to “Taxman, Mr. Asshole”
B. “In my life, I’ve loved you more” to “In my life, I’ve loved God more”
C. “Something in the ways she woos me” to “something in the way she moves it”
D. “While my guitar gently weeps” to “while my guitar gently smiles”
ANSWERS
1. B
2. D
3. C
4. C
5. A
6. B
7. A
8. B
9. D (!)
10. A
This article has been updated with the correct answer to question no. 7.Former Wizards point guard Rod Strickland set a new standard for point guards in the NBA like John Wall, Chris Paul, and Kyrie Irving.
The first-round pick in the 1988 draft played professionally for nine different teams (Knicks, Spurs, Trail Blazers, Bullets/Wizards, Heat, Timberwolves, Magic, Raptors, Rockets) from 1988 to 2005.
Strickland played in Washington from 1996-2000, and enjoyed his best stint with the team during the 1997-98 season where he averaged 17.8 points and a league-high 10.5 assists.
Although Strickland wasn't exactly known for his long range game, NBC Sports Washington's Tom Haberstroh was quick to point out just how influential the point guard's play was to future talents of the position.
It's really hard to play in today's NBA without a knockdown 3-pointer, but Rod Strickland showed you that you can be shifty and shoot with both hands around the rim.
Despite the craftiness and durability of his career, Strickland never once made an All-Star team. He currently sits 12th among the NBA's all-time assists leaders with 7,987. For this and more, he is considered one of the most underrated players in NBA history.
Catch "Make 'Em Jump," a mini-documentary on Strickland dropping February 27 on the MyTeams app.
MORE WIZARDS NEWS:Update | 1:43 PM Adding information about a new content partnership between Foursquare and The New York Times, in conjunction with the Winter Olympics.
Foursquare, the location-based mobile application that is capturing the fancy of hip urbanites, is a bar game that lets users compete for points and badges when they go out at night. But recently the service has been branching out beyond its bar-hopping origins.
On Tuesday, Foursquare is announcing a partnership with Zagat, the restaurant-guide publishers. It plans to offer a “Foodie” badge that can be earned by checking into Zagat-rated restaurants in New York, San Francisco, Chicago and other major cities.
In addition to pointing toward a business model for Foursquare, the collaboration with Zagat underscores the popularity of the service and could help extend its reach to a mainstream audience. It is one of several deals that the company has been hammering out.
Foursquare recently signed an agreement to integrate Bravo TV shows with the game aspects of its service, and it is working with Warner Brothers to promote the studio’s romantic comedy “Valentine’s Day.” The company is working on a similar partnership with HBO, said Tristan Walker, Foursquare’s head of business development, and The New York Times is experimenting with the service. Some of these companies are paying Foursquare, Mr. Walker said, but he declined to disclose the terms of the deals.
Ryan Charles, a senior product manager at Zagat, said the collaboration was a natural progression for the company, which has dabbled in other creative online ventures, using Twitter and creating a so-called augmented reality application for Android-powered mobile phones.
“We saw thousands of Foursquare users checking in to Zagat-rated restaurants, and saw an opportunity to present content to them as well as engage them in game-play,” said Mr. Charles, who first heard about the mobile company last year at the annual technology conference South by Southwest Interactive.
In addition to offering a special badge for Foursquare users, Zagat will begin piping tips and recommendations into the Foursquare system, which already doubles as a user-generated city guide. Foursquare users can submit their own suggestions for activities and dishes to order at a particular restaurant, which will pop up when their friends “check in” on Foursquare from that venue.
But the Zagat partnership will add a slightly different layer to the content by incorporating recommendations cul |
in Nashville. That year, the Vols took a 9-21 record into the tournament and then reeled off three straight wins to reach the championship game, where it fell to Alabama.
This is the ninth time Nashville has hosted the SEC Tournament. UT is 11-8 in the tournament when it takes place in "The Music City."
Tennessee's SEC Tournament record at Bridgestone Arena is 7-6.
MEMORABLE VOL PERFORMANCES AT THE SEC TOURNAMENT
Wayne Chism scored 23, JaJuan Smith added 19 and Tyler Smith put in 13, but it was Chris Lofton's 25-footer with 12.0 seconds remaining that lifted the Vols to an 89-87 win over South Carolina in the 2008 SEC Tournament in Atlanta on March 14, 2008.
Carlus Groves went 9-for-10 from the floor, scoring 22 points, to lift Tennessee to an 87-70 upset win over No. 18 Mississippi State in the quarterfinals of the 1991 SEC Tournament in Nashville.
It took Tony White 45 minutes to put 30 on Florida, including five points in overtime, as the Vols beat the Gators, 80-74, in the first round of the 1984 SEC Tournament in Nashville.
Tennessee topped Kentucky, the third time UT beat the Wildcats that year, in the championship game of the 1979 SEC Tournament in Birmingham, Ala. The Vols prevailed 75-69 in overtime on March 3, 1979.
BARNES IN LEAGUE TOURNEYS
Rick Barnes is 33-28 (.541) in conference tournament games as a head coach.
He led Providence to the Big East Tournament championship in 1994.
So in the last 29 years, Barnes has logged more conference tournament wins and as many conference tournament championships as Tennessee since the SEC Tournament was renewed 38 years ago in 1979 (Tennessee has one league tournament title and 30 wins during that span).
RON SLAY NAMED TENNESSEE'S 2017 SEC BASKETBALL LEGEND
Former All-American forward Ron Slay (1999-2003) has been selected as Tennessee's 2017 Allstate® SEC Legend and will represent the Volunteers at the SEC Tournament in his hometown of Nashville this week.
Slay earned third-team All-America honors in 2003 and was selected as the 2003 SEC Player of the Year after leading the SEC in scoring with 21.2 points per game. A team sparkplug and fan favorite, Slay was one of the top scorers on Tennessee's 2000 SEC Championship team, which finished with a 26-7 record and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen.
He finished his career with the Volunteers ranked 13th on the school's all-time scoring list with 1,569 career points, and he was voted onto UT's All-Century Team in 2009.
Following his days as a Vol, Slay enjoyed a pro playing career that lasted more than a decade.
LAST MEETING WITH GEORGIA
Despite freshman Grant Williams tying his career-high 30 points, Tennessee fell to Georgia in a nailbiter, 76-75, on Feb. 11, 2017. The loss snapped a five-game winning streak at Thompson-Boling Arena for the Volunteers.
Williams (10-for-16) was the only Vol to shoot better than 50 percent on the day. Robert Hubbs III added 10 points but struggled from the field, shooting 3-for-13. The Vols excelled at the free-throw line, going 19-for-24 from the charity stripe.
The first half was back and forth, including eight lead changes and four ties with neither team holding a lead of more than four points.
In the second half, UT jumped out to a 14-point lead sparked by a 15-5 run. However, the Bulldogs, led by J.J. Frazier (29 points, six assists) chipped away at the deficit until they took a 65-64 lead with 3:34 remaining, after which they never trailed. The Bulldogs shot 52 percent from the field, and Tyree Crump added 13 points in his first career start.
Despite forcing 11 turnovers on defense, Tennessee struggled to contain Georgia for much of the second half, allowing Frazier to log 20 points.
UT guard Lamonte Turner made two 3-pointers in the final minute of play; however, it was not enough as Georgia converted efficiently from the free-throw line to solidify its victory. Tennessee sophomore Kyle Alexander also tied his season-high for rebounds with nine.
Tennessee's freshmen accounted for 57.3 percent of the team's scoring, netting 43 of the Vols' 75 points.
MEARS OWNED THE DAWGS
Legendary Tennessee head coach Ray Mears was at his best against Georgia. Mears was 25-4 vs. UGA during his tenure on The Hill (1962-78).
PHILLIPS, OGBEIDE HAVE HIGH-STAKES HISTORY
Tennessee sophomore Shembari Phillips and Georgia sophomore Derek Ogbeide are both Atlanta natives, and they were on opposing sides in the biggest game of their high school careers back in 2015.
When both players were seniors, Phillips and his Wheeler High School teammates (which included current Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown) defeated Ogbeide's Pebblebrook High School squad, 59-58, in the Georgia Class 6A state championship game.
Phillips scored 17 points, while Ogbeide finished with 14 points and three blocks.
Other Division I signees in that game included Brown (one-and-done at Cal), Auburn guard Jared Harper and Clemson guard Ty Hudson.
OLIVER COACHED AT UGA
Second-year UT assistant coach Desmond Oliver was an assistant coach at UGA under Dennis Felton from 2004-09.
During Oliver's tenure in Athens with Felton--who himself was once an assistant under Rick Barnes at Providence and Clemson from 1992-98--the Bulldogs made consecutive postseason appearances in 2007 (NIT) and 2008 (NCAA Tournament).
Oliver was on UGA's staff during one of the most memorable conference tourney runs in recent history when Georgia won two games on the same day to capture the 2008 SEC Tournament championship.
TENNESSEE PLAYING AT LEAST 20 GAMES IN-STATE THIS SEASON
The Vols will play at least 20 games in the state of Tennessee this season (that includes at least one game at this week's SEC Tournament in Nashville).
Tennessee's Thursday game against Georgia in Nashville will be UT's 20th in-state game of the year. The Vols are 13-6 in The Volunteer State thus far.
THREE VOLS EARN SEC HONORS
A trio of Volunteers earned SEC postseasons honors over the last week.
Senior wing Robert Hubbs III was selected by the league's head coaches as a second-team All-SEC selection. Hubbs leads the Vols in scoring (13.9 ppg) and ranks sixth in the SEC in FG percentage (.473).
Freshman forward Grant Williams earned a spot on the eight-man SEC All-Freshman Team. The Charlotte, North Carolina, native ranks among the league leaders in blocks and leads the Vols in both scoring (14.2 ppg) and rebounding (6.4 rpg) in SEC play.
And last week, sophomore Admiral Schofield was named to the men's basketball SEC Community Service Team.
EVANS COMING OFF BEST GAME AS A VOLUNTEER
Playing his final regular-season home game at Thompson-Boling Arena, graduate transfer Lew Evans enjoyed his best game as a Vol, leading Tennessee to a come-from-behind, 59-54 win over Alabama last Saturday.
In UT's previous game--last Wednesday at LSU--Evans caught an elbow in the mouth that loosened and severely damaged three of his top front teeth (will require dental surgery after the season). He wore a custom mouthpiece against Alabama.
Evans entered the Alabama game averaging 3.2 points and 2.8 rebounds, but he totaled 13 points, five rebounds and two blocks in the winning effort vs. Alabama. He also made a season-high three 3-pointers as the Vols rallied from down 16 in the second half.
Evans got the starting nod on Senior Day; it was his first SEC start of the year.
TENNESSEE WINS 16 GAMES, EXCEED LAST YEAR'S TOTAL
In 34 total games last season, Rick Barnes' first UT squad managed 15 victories.
Last Saturday's Senior Day win over Alabama gave this year's team 16 victories (in 31 games).
Tennessee's eight SEC wins were two more than the Vols managed last season.
VOLS EXTEND STREAK OF TOP-20 ATTENDANCECraig Hignett won 15 games in total from 52 in all competitions as Pools boss
Craig Hignett has left his job as Hartlepool United manager by mutual consent following Saturday's 1-0 League Two defeat by Crawley Town.
Hignett, 47, was appointed in February 2016, taking over from Ronnie Moore in his first managerial post.
However, the former Middlesbrough and Barnsley midfielder was unable to turn around Pools fortunes, winning only 14 of 46 league games in charge.
Pools are currently 19th in the fourth tier, four points off the bottom two.
"I would like to place on record my thanks to Craig for all of his efforts," chairman Gary Coxall told the club website.
"He has given everything for the club during his time in charge and he leaves with our very best wishes for the future.
Hartlepool chairman Gary Coxall on the decision to part company with Hignett.
"The search for a new manager will begin immediately and it won't be a long, drawn-out process - we want to get the right man appointed as quickly as possible."
Sam Collins will take charge of first-team affairs until a successor is appointed.
This exit makes him the 10th different manager Pools have employed since Danny Wilson left his post in December 2008.
Popular choice
Hignett was a popular choice as manager to replace Ronnie Moore at Victoria Park, having previously enjoyed a successful stint as assistant to Colin Cooper.
That partnership helped Cooper win a manager of the month award in October 2013, and took the club to ninth in the division, before Hignett left to join Aitor Karanka's coaching staff at Middlesbrough in March 2014.
His return to Pools last season began well, steering the club away from danger with a seven game unbeaten run through to March 2016.
After a reasonable start for Pools this campaign which saw them lose just two of the opening 12 games, form has slipped and only two teams - Cheltenham and Newport have failed to win fewer games.A deal for a lower-priced F-35 program could be near, as Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson projected “thousands and thousands of jobs” and cheaper costs after meeting with President-elect Donald Trump.
“I certainly share his views that we need to get the best capability to our men and women in uniform, and we have to get it at the lowest possible price,” Hewson told reporters in Trump Tower after the Friday meeting.
Lockheed wouldn’t be the first major corporation to fold under the barrage of Trump’s blistering tweets, but none of the others were sitting on a weapons program estimated to cost $1.5 trillion over its lifetime, either.
The F-35 program and cost is out of control. Billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases after January 20th. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2016
Based on the tremendous cost and cost overruns of the Lockheed Martin F-35, I have asked Boeing to price-out a comparable F-18 Super Hornet! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 22, 2016
Trump tweeted twice about the F-35 in December. First he called the cost "out of control," and then 10 days later announced that he challenged Boeing to offer a "comparable F-18 Super Hornet." Trump has seemingly discarded that latter idea, after many critics pointed out there was no way an F-18 could replace the F-35’s stealth capabilities.
Read more
Lockheed also plans to add 1,800 jobs at its plant in Fort Worth, Texas, where the F-35s are built, Hewson said Friday, Reuters reported. Those would in turn lead to “thousands and thousands of jobs” being added in 45 states to fill out the company’s supply chain, the CEO said.
While this development may please the president-elect, the whole program is still over budget and way behind schedule.
In a December 19 letter to Senator John McCain (R-Arizona), Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Frank Kendall wrote that development of the F-35’s software was being delayed seven months, resulting in a cost of “at least $500 million more than previously budgeted.”This guide has been aligned with Common Core, NGSS, and ISTE standards for grades 6-8. The lessons can also be easily modified for high school students and standards. View the Table of Contents
The elementary-level guide contains lessons for students in grades K-5. All lessons are aligned to Common Core Standards as well as ISTE technology integration standards. View the Table of Contents.
HEART and the Peace Learning Center have partnered to create these resource guides to help educate youth for social responsibility. Humane education addresses social justice, animal protection, environmental ethics, and the ways in which these areas are interconnected. By allowing students to learn crucial information and develop solutions for many of the modern issues facing our world, humane education promises to usher in a global community that is prepared to make the planet a more peaceful and sustainable place.Apple's iCloud is a convenient means of syncing your contacts and calendars between your iOS and Mac devices, but the service is useless if you don't have internet access. While the initial version of Apple's OS X Mavericks operating system nixed the ability to sync content between your iOS device and Mac via a USB cable, the recent 10.9.3 patch has remedied this problem. If you prefer transferring content the old-school way, here's how to sync locally in OS X Mavericks without the use of iCloud.
1. Make sure your Mac is running OS X Mavericks 10.9.3. You can do this by clicking the Apple icon at the top left of your home screen and select About This Mac. If you're not up to date, select Software Update from the same menu.
2. Connect your iOS device to your Mac via a USB charging cable.
MORE: Top 10 Features of OS X Mavericks
3. Open iTunes. If iTunes asks for permission to sync with your device, select Continue.
4. Select your device from the top right of the iTunes interface.
5. Use the tabs at the top of the device screen to check off which content you'd like to sync. For example, you may want to check off Sync Contacts in the Info tab, or Sync Music in the Music tab.
6. Once you've chosen the content you want to sync, select Apply and then Sync from the bottom right of the iTunes screen.
If you want to expedite this process every time you plug in, you can select the automatic sync option from the Summary tab.MUMBAI: Banking, as we have known it, appears headed for an upheaval. The Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday 'in principle' cleared 11 entities – including department of posts, top conglomerates such as Reliance Industries and Aditya Birla Group, telecom giants like Airtel and Vodafone, and a number of tech and finance companies – to set up 'payments banks'. Unlike 'universal banks' – as the regular banks are called – payments banks can accept deposits up to only Rs 1 lakh and cannot grant loans. They can only deposit their money in government bonds. They can issue debit cards but not credit cards. Other than this they can provide all the services of a universal bank.Ever since the first round of bank nationalization in 1969, only two private business groups have been allowed to promote a bank. Although most corporate houses had applied for a universal bank licence, they all drew a blank, with only IDFC and Bandhan Microfinance being granted licences earlier this year.Payments banks will largely depend on mobile and ATM infrastructure to provide transaction banking services. Opening an account is expected to be like acquiring a pre-paid mobile number. Analysts expect intense competition, which should drive down charges for remittances, fund transfers and other banking transactions. Customers who do not have the means to maintain minimum balance will be welcomed into these banks as revenue will be earned through transaction charges and not on the spread of interest between deposits and loans.What makes this round of licensing disruptive is that it brings together giants from across industries. For instance, the new payments bank to be set up by the department of posts will have access to the 1.55 lakh post offices across the country. State Bank of India will pick up a 30% stake in RIL's bank which will use Reliance Jio's 4G network to provide banking services. Airtel has the backing of Kotak Bank, which will hold a 19.9% stake in the proposed bank.Announcing the list of successful applicants, RBI said that at this stage it would be difficult to predict which model will be successful in the emerging business of payments. The committee of the central board, which decided the final shortlist from among 41 applicants, chose entities with experience in different sectors and with different capabilities so that different models could be tried.Besides the five named earlier, the successful applicants are National Securities Depository, Tech Mahindra, Sun Pharma promoter Dilip Shanghvi, Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Cholamandalam Distribution Services, and Fino PayTech. The unsuccessful 30 include Videocon and Kishore Biyani, Vakrangee Software and a host of digital payment companies. RBI has however said that it will use the learnings of this round of licensing and in future grant permissions 'on tap'.“The in-principle approval granted will be valid for a period of 18 months, during which time the applicants have to comply with the requirements under the guidelines and fulfil the other conditions as may be stipulated by RBI,” the central bank said in a statement. On being satisfied that the applicants have complied with the requisite conditions laid down by it as part of in-principle approval, RBI would grant a banking licence.Compliments, recognizing and thanking makes organisation stronger. Develop cooperation inside organisation and with business partners.
You are talented
“Talent is not rare. Rare is the courage to follow the talent where it leads”
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Grassy mate, sourness of sea buckthorn berry, sweetness of prime rose, mintiness of peppermint, mild spice of cardamom and cinnamon.
Mate stimulates mind and body for hours without exhausting body energy resources. South-American Indians calls it the elixir of life.
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Comes buy post to you: Europe 2-5 days, US 6-8 days, Asia 7-10 daysWesley Rand (Las Vegas Review-Journal)
The conspiracy crowd took to the internet almost as soon as the gunfire stopped.
Every mass-casualty event attracts its share of crackpots, and the Oct. 1 attack in Las Vegas would be no different.
Shaky cellphone videos of a flashing strobe light became proof of a second shooter.xxx
Sketchy accounts from traumatized tourists fueled narratives of a coordinated terrorist attack and a far-reaching cover-up.
The lack of a clear motive spawned wild claims that Stephen Paddock was a patsy or a spy — or maybe even still alive somewhere.
Already, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said, he has seen more conspiracies and misinformation about this investigation than he has in other high-profile cases. The “keyboard tough guys” are out in force, he said.
Some of the stories were created or repeated by unscrupulous websites looking to cash in on the tragedy.
Undoubtedly, the loved ones of those killed in the attack have seen the fake news, too, some of it hurtful, even dismissive of what they have lost.
“You just purposefully have to ignore it,” the sheriff said. “We’re being transparent, as far as I’m concerned. … I hope my comments are strong enough that people believe what we’re saying versus what they read on the internet.”
‘Explanation for everything’
There’s certainly no shortage of unsubstantiated or factually incorrect stuff to read.
“I would say that there is a definitely an increase,” said journalist Bethania Palma from Snopes.com, one of the largest and oldest fact-checking sites on the web. “It’s getting multiplied by the internet. It’s a lot more immediate.”
Snopes.com, which has doubled the size of its editorial staff in the past year or so, has already published fact checks on several false reports from the Las Vegas shooting.
But it’s hard to keep up, Palma said. “Fake news can be produced so quickly and cheaply.”
Many of the conspiracy theories she has heard so far follow the “false flag,” New World Order narrative popularized by Alex Jones’ Infowars website: Basically, the attack was staged as an excuse to take away people’s guns, clearing the way for the secret, totalitarian world government to take over.
Palma said she traveled to Las Vegas last weekend to get a firsthand look at the scene, talk to people who were there and get answers she just couldn’t get from her home in Southern California.
“I was surprised to talk to so many people who believed the second-shooter conspiracy theory,” she said.
Some of the conspiracies are rooted in early reports heard over police scanners. Others are pinned to discrepancies in the information released by the authorities, something that is almost guaranteed to happen after an incident of this magnitude, Palma said. “There’s an explanation for everything people are posting.”
Even some witnesses emerged from the attack with versions of events that just weren’t true. Chaos, trauma and fear play tricks on people, Palma said.
“This is a crowd of 22,000 people who went to a country music concert that turned into a massacre,” she said.
Chasing tips, not ghosts
Former Aurora, Colorado, Police Chief Dan Oates said the conspiracies got really bad after the movie theater shooting there in 2012. People took to the internet to claim the attack never happened, that no one died and that James Holmes was innocent.
“Really perverse crap,” said Oates, who is now the chief of police in Miami Beach, Florida.
One person even found a way to contact one of the victim’s mothers and told her that her son wasn’t dead. Oates said they tracked that person down in Oregon and had him arrested.
Ultimately, it’s up to the authorities to decide what’s real and what isn’t. Tips can be important — even crucial — to an investigation, so if the public has legitimate information to share, Lombardo said his department won’t ignore it.
“But there’s some things out there I’ve just got to throw the bull—— flag at. We can’t be wasting our time and resources chasing them,” he said. “We can’t spend our time chasing ghosts.”
Self-feeding fantasties
University of Massachusetts professor Kirby Farrell is a regular contributor to Psychology Today and the author of a 2015 book about America’s fascination with rampage killings.
He prefers the term “conspiracy fantasies,” not theories.
Farrell said the need to invent — or to believe — elaborate and often unprovable explanations for attacks like the one in Las Vegas is rooted in fear and avoidance. It is an attempt to “sanitize or wish away the inexplicable violence that overtakes certain individuals,” he said.
“Conspiracy fantasies are a kind of sophisticated game people play to prop up or reinforce denial,” Farrell said.
The internet merely increases their reach, while social media will guarantee delivery to a receptive audience.
“In a way, everybody has become an individual publisher,” Farrell said. “People compete to see who can attract the most attention.”
And much like the perpetrators of mass killings, those who traffic in conspiracy fantasties tend to feed off one another, he said. “There’s a kind of copycat quality in both.”
Early reports unreliable
Radio show host and freelance Review-Journal editorial page columnist Wayne Allyn Root was among those criticized for spreading misinformation on the night of the Las Vegas attack. In a Twitter post from his personal account at 11:51 p.m. Oct. 1, he wrote that shots had been fired at seven different resorts on the Strip. A minute later, he told his 110,000 Twitter followers that the shooting was a “clearly coordinated Muslim terror attack.”
Root stands by what he did.
“I do NOT deal in conspiracy theories,” he said in an email.
Root insists everything he posted that night was based on information he was getting directly from law enforcement sources.
“It looked exactly like an ISIS terror attack, and I made a split-second decision to warn people in Vegas and get them out of harm’s way,” Root said. “And I’d do it again if I could save lives.”
Social media and video-sharing sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube now serve as the primary conduit for false reports and outright hoaxes. Recently, though, the web has seen a proliferation of fake news sites that seek to profit by spreading lies after a tragedy.
“It’s no question that a lot of these sites are making money off the ad revenue from the clicks they’re getting,” Palma said.
Lies that linger
Transparency is one effective way to combat the conspiracy crowd, she said.
But even the most baseless stories can be stubborn. No amount of evidence to the contrary will make them go away. No amount of public shaming will silence the people spreading them.
Palma said she recently spoke to the parent of a child murdered during the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. The families of the victims are still being harassed by people who believe the shooting and the deaths of their children were faked.
“People in Las Vegas should be ready for that sort of thing,” she said.
Contact Henry Brean at hbrean@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350. Follow @RefriedBrean on Twitter. Contact Colton Lochhead at clochhead@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4638. Follow @coltonlochhead on Twitter.Santa Monica is trying just about everything in its transportation system: bike-share, a mix of bike lane treatments, a new rail line, neighborhood greenways, a pedestrian action plan, a new promenade/protected bike lane where the Expo line terminates, and of course they have the hard-to-miss Big Blue Bus!
In the last six months alone the city has launched Breeze bike-share and opened the Expo rail line to downtown Los Angeles, which cuts travel times from an hour and a half by bus to 50 minutes. (Personal note: At rush hour the discrepancy can be even bigger -- after spending the day shooting this story I endured a two-hour, 15-minute bus ride back to L.A.'s Union Station.) Breeze bike-share was my first experience with a smart bike system, and it was easy to use and comfortable.
Come see how Santa Monica is making it easier to get around without a car. Thanks much to the wonderful Cynthia Rose from Santa Monica Spoke, for giving me the grand tour and making my first visit there a joy.India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the country's last vicereine Edwina Mountbatten deeply loved and respected each other but they did not a physical relationship, Edwina's daughter Pamela Hicks nee Mountbatten has written in a book recently published in India.
The book, "Daughter of Empire: Life as a Mountbatten", was first published in 2012 in the United Kingdom and was recently brought to India as a paperback.
According to a PTI report on the book, Pamela writes that her mother and Nehru shared a "profound relationship" that bloomed after Edwina arrived in India along with her husband and India's last viceroy, Lord Louis Mountbatten in 1947.
Pamela was 17-years-old then and says that she saw the first stages of what would go on to become a relationship based on "equality of spirit and intellect". "She found in Panditji the companionship and equality of spirit and intellect that she craved," Pamela is quoted as saying by PTI.
Reading Nehru's inner thoughts and feelings for her mother in his letters made Pamela "realise how deeply he and my mother loved and respected each other".
Pamela says that she was intensely curious to know more about the extent of the relationship between Nehru and Edwina. She wanted to find out whether or not their affair had been sexual in nature" but after having read the letters, she was utterly convinced it hadn't been.
They neither had the time, nor the space to wallow in a physical relationship. "Quite apart from the fact that neither my mother nor Panditji had time to indulge in a physical affair, they were rarely alone. They were always surrounded by staff, police and other people," Pamela writes.
Pamela goes on to say that she spoke to Freddie Burnaby Atkins, Lord Mountbatten's aide-de-camp, who told her that Nehru and Edwina would have found it impossible to carry on a physical affair due to the very public lives they led.
GOODBYE
As the Mountbattens prepared to leave India, Edwina wanted to gift Nehru an emerald ring, her daughters writes in the book. However, Edwina knew that Nehru would not accept is and so instead she handed the jewel over to Indira Gandhi, Nehru's daughter, telling her to pawn it off in case of financial difficulties.
Instead, she handed it to his daughter, Indira, telling her that if he were ever to find himself in financial difficulties he was well known for giving away all his money she should sell it for him," Pamela writes.
And, during the farewell party organised for the Mountbattens, Nehru addressed Edwina directly.
"Wherever you have gone, you have brought solace, you have brought hope and encouragement," Pamela quotes Nehru as saying. "Is it surprising, therefore, that the people of India should love you and look up to you as one of themselves and should grieve that you are going?"
(With PTI inputs)
ALSO READ | Subramanian Swamy takes a dig at Nehru, says his contribution to the constitution was only Article 370
ALSO READ | Will 1947 Partition show Nehru-Lady Mountbatten relationship?Get to know our new signing Gaston Ramirez will a look back on the Uruguayan's career to date.
Born in Fray Bentos, 25-year-old Ramirez began his youth career with Penarol and made his professional debut for the club in March 2009.
The attacking midfielder scored nine goals in 41 appearances for Penarol and helped the club lift the Primera Division title in the 2009/10 season.
The Uruguayan joined Serie A side Bologna in 2010 and made his debut for the Italians in a 1-1 away draw to Catania on September 26 2010.
Ramirez scored four goals in 25 appearances in his first season at Bologna.
The final game of the 2010/11 campaign was an eventful one for Ramirez as he scored to level the score away to Fiorentina but was then sent off with just over 10 minutes left on the clock.
In his second and last season at the club, Ramirez scored eight goals in 34 appearances as Bologna finished ninth in Serie A.
In August 2012 Ramirez moved to Southampton for a club-record fee in what was the Saints' first season back in the Premier League.
Ramirez scored five goals in 28 appearances in his first season in the Premier League and was sent off in a 3-0 home defeat to West Brom in April 2013, meaning he would be suspended for the final three games of the season.
He then scored three goals in 25 appearances during his second season with the Saints and was named in the Uruguay squad for the 2014 World Cup.
Ramirez made his World Cup debut against Italy and provided the cross for Diego Godin who scored the game's only goal to send Oscar Tabarez's side through to the knock-out stages of the competition.
Upon returning from the World Cup, Ramirez joined Hull City on a season-long loan from Southampton and made his debut for the Tigers as a second half substitute against West Ham.
Ramirez scored one goal during his time will Hull City as Steve Bruce's side were relegated from the Premier League last season.ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA - JULY 19: Taylor Walker (left) and Richard Douglas of the Crows celebrate after the 2015 AFL round 16 match between Port Adelaide Power and the Adelaide Crows at the Adelaide Oval, Adelaide, Australia on July 19, 2015. (Photo by Michael Willson/AFL Media)
Richard Douglas and Sam Shaw have been recalled to the Crows team to play the Brisbane Lions at Adelaide Oval on Saturday night.
The pair returns in place of young defender Jake Lever (rested) and the Club’s substitute of the past fortnight, David Mackay, who has been omitted.
Douglas has missed two games following surgery to remove his appendix. Shaw, who was sidelined for the opening half of the season because of a hamstring injury, played his one and only AFL game for the season as a late call up for Daniel Talia against Gold Coast in Round 17.
Mackay, midfielder Cam Ellis-Yolmen and utility Andy Otten are the emergencies.
Crows Head of Football David Noble said Lever, who has played 10 games in his debut season, would be available for selection next week.
“The demands of AFL are extremely tough, but particularly on young players fresh into the industry,” Noble said.
“Jake has done an outstanding job as a first-year player and we feel that managing his workload at this time of year makes complete sense.”
Two Crows will celebrate milestones against the Lions. Patrick Dangerfield will play his 150th game, while Tom Lynch will notch up his 50th match for the Adelaide Football Club.
See all the Stats that Matter
Tickets are still available for Saturday night’s clash. Purchase tickets here. Gates open at 5:00pm. See full ticketing and match day information.
The Adelaide Crows Children’s Foundation is encouraging all supporters to wear a touch of yellow to the game and make a donation to collectors at the gates in memory of late Assistant Coach Dean Bailey.
The Cancer Council SA will be our official charity partner for the game with all proceeds raised directly supporting families affected by cancer. Home match sponsor COLORBOND® steel have kicked off proceedings with a donation of $5,000.
Thanks to Holidays of Australia, volunteers will be giving out 17,500 clap banners before the game and supporters can dedicate their banner to someone who has touched their life through cancer. Anyone who would like to make a donation and can’t make it to the game can do so by texting CURE to 0475 444 555.
Adelaide’s SANFL team will take on Sturt at Unley from 2:10pm on Saturday. Ticketed Crows members receive free entry to the Club’s minor-round SANFL games.
The team is:
IN: Richard Douglas, Sam Shaw
OUT: Jake Lever (rested), David Mackay (omitted)Conclusion : Most of the studies identified were for psychiatric indications, especially in patients with depression and/or schizophrenia and majority indicated some positive results. Variability in outcome is noted across trials and within trials across subjects, but overall results were reported as encouraging, and consistent with modern efforts, given some responders and mild side effects. The significant difference with modern dose, low current with smaller electrode size and interestingly much longer stimulation duration may worth considering.
Results : Fifteen articles met our criteria. The majority were small-randomized controlled clinical trials that enrolled a mean of approximately 26 subjects (Phase II studies). Most of the studies (around 83%) assessed the role of tDCS in the treatment of psychiatric conditions, in which the main outcomes were measured by means of behavioral scales and clinical observation, but the diagnostic precision and the quality of outcome monitoring, including adverse events, were deficient by modern standards. Compared to modern tDCS dose, the stimulation intensities used (0.1–1 mA) were lower, however as the electrodes were typically smaller (e.g., 1.26 cm 2 ), the average electrode current density (0.2 mA/cm 2 ) was approximately 4× higher. The number of sessions ranged from one to 120 (median 14). Notably, the stimulation session durations of several minutes to 11 h (median 4.5 h) could markedly exceed modern tDCS protocols. Twelve studies out of 15 showed positive results. Only mild side effects were reported, with headache and skin alterations the most common.
Methods : Articles were identified through a search in PubMed and through the reference list from its selected articles. We included only non-invasive human studies that provided controlled direct current and were written in English, French, Spanish or Portuguese before the year of 1998, the date in which modern stimulation paradigms were implemented.
Objectives : To review methods and outcomes of tDCS studies from old literature (between 1960 and 1998) with intention of providing new insight for ongoing tDCS trials and development of tDCS protocols especially for the purpose of treatment.
Background : Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is investigated to modulate neuronal function including cognitive neuroscience and neuropsychiatric therapies. While cases of human stimulation with rudimentary batteries date back more than 200 years, clinical trials with current controlled stimulation were published intermittently since the 1960s. The modern era of tDCS only started after 1998.
Introduction
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) consists of applying a weak direct current on the scalp, a portion of which crosses the skull (Datta et al., 2009) and induces cortical changes (Fregni and Pascual-Leone, 2007; Nitsche et al., 2008). The investigation of the application of electricity over the brain dates back to at least 200 years, when Giovanni Aldini (Zaghi et al., 2010) recommended galvanism |
is that the arrangement favors the landlords. Bezdek found that differences in speech, the effects of poverty and the unduly high hurdles tenants were asked to overcome to even raise a defense prevented them from being truly heard. All in all, Bezdek described the legal dynamics as “a charade.” In the two decades since, not much has changed.
A Judicial “Charade”
On a typical day in rent court, the average number of scheduled cases ranges from 800 to 1,000. Shah says the court’s “dirty little secret” is that it depends on the overwhelming majority of summoned tenants to not show up — meaning default wins for the landlord — because there’s no way judges could ever hear as many cases as they schedule. Mark Scurti, associate judge at Baltimore City’s District Court, agrees they would not be able to handle as many cases as they schedule if all tenants were to appear. “It would put a tremendous strain on our current staffing and judges,” he says.
For tenants who do show up to court, it’s not much better. “The court really operates like a giant black box. I have a friggin’ Ph.D. and I’m sitting there like, if this were me and I was actually there [for a case], I would have no idea what’s going on,” says Pasciuti. “There’s no direction, there’s nobody there to explain anything to you.” While some legal aid groups try to offer assistance, their availability is minimal, and most tenants go in without professional help. On days with full dockets, a case can easily receive less than 30 seconds of judicial review.
Rent court is one of the few courts in Maryland’s judiciary system for which no digitized records are available. Whereas all other court cases are filed online, no similar computer system has ever existed for these housing disputes; everything must be manually processed and gets filed away into a vault. Relatedly, no court records are available to determine things like the number of judgments ruled in the landlords’ favor, or how many times an individual tenant is brought to court annually. “I think those are critical numbers to know, and I’m all about watching statistics and watching trends,” says Scurti, who hopes the court will be included in a statewide electronic court filing initiative that is being rolled out over the next couple years. “Why we’ve never been electronic before, I don’t know,” he says. “I suspect it has to do with funding.”
Obtaining data on the number of evictions is similarly difficult. While the sheriff’s office tallies monthly eviction stats for rent court stakeholders to review, it does not make the data easily accessible to the public. It took several weeks for the city to agree to share with me that they had a total of 6,309 evictions in 2014. Housing advocates say the number has hovered around 7,000 evictions annually for the last 10 years. An Abell Foundation report published in 2003 found that the chances of eviction are greater if one rents in Baltimore than in comparable cities like Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Cleveland.
Rent court is easily one of the state’s speediest judicial proceedings. Landlords can file for trial a mere one day after rent is late, no matter what the reason. In other states, like New York, landlords must serve tenants with a “rent demand” that gives them three or five days to pay overdue rent before an eviction case is started. New York tenants who do not receive these notices can raise that as a defense in court, says Jenny Laurie, executive director of Housing Court Answers. There is no similar pre-filing period required in Baltimore, leading to, what Shah describes as, “an enormous amount of unnecessary litigation.”
Such a rapid system also gives tenants little time to prepare their defenses, but from the landlord’s perspective, the process has to be quick. “On a large commercial scale [court speed] is not such an importance because they have an ability to withstand not getting rent, but when you’re not a commercial landlord and you have maybe just three, four units, or just one unit, plus a mortgage on the property, [not getting] your rent is a big deal,” says Dennis Hodge, a lawyer who has been representing landlords in the Baltimore area since the mid 1980s. “Most landlords do not want to do evictions, they prefer just to get their money,” he adds.
But when tenants are unable or unwilling to pass over that money, the courtroom’s speed comes into play again. With hundreds of cases to hear in a day, the judges have little time to hear the details of a tenant’s situation. And without professional legal assistance, tenants are generally unable to defend themselves against common chicanery like landlords tacking on additional charges veiled as rent.
Judges often ask tenants why they don’t just move if a rental is uninhabitable or too expensive. “People can’t afford to just pick up and move!” exclaims Detrese Dowridge, a 30-year-old single mother who has gone to rent court three time since May 2013. Dowridge’s Northwest Baltimore home had cracked walls and windows, scurrying mice and roaches, and a leaky ceiling. “And even if they can move,” she says, “then the person who comes in after them will still be stuck with the [same] landlord getting away with whatever.”
“There’s a lot of blaming and shaming the poor in the courtroom,” explains Shah. “I think the spirit with which the court operates is that you have to deserve your housing.”
Reforming Rent Court
Without a jury or many headline-making cases, civil courtroom proceedings have typically flown under the public’s radar. That is beginning to change. A Department of Justice report issued in the wake of police officer Darren Wilson’s deadly shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson singled out the Missouri municipal court for “constitutionally deficient” procedures that “undermine the court’s role as a fair and impartial judicial body.”
Now attorneys at the Public Justice Center have teamed up with the Right to Housing Alliance (RTHA), a Baltimore-based human rights organization, and Jews United for Justice (JUFJ), a local activist group, to try and change the frustrating realities of rent court. With $280,000 in grant funding from the Abell Foundation, they hope to lead a court reform initiative and promote greater awareness about housing evictions around the city.
“The bare minimum allowable for any human dignity in the rental housing system is for this court to be fixed,” says Jessica Lewis, an organizer with RTHA.
“Our members that go through rent court are just defeated,” she adds. “They feel there is no dignity. It’s just really, really dehumanizing for them.”
Pasciuti, with a team of Johns Hopkins students, has been helping the three organizations conduct surveys and analyze their quantitative data. The goal is to collect meaningful information about what actually happens in rent court. “Our theory is if the public narrative about low-income renters was articulated, presented with numbers, substantiated in a really sound way, and we got it out to the right people, then we can get to a point where there is the political will, and even maybe the business interest to fix this system,” says Shah. The groups hope to go public with a completed dataset of over 300 tenant surveys, augmented by information from the court proceedings and regulatory agencies, later this fall.
In addition to bringing tenant voices into the public discussion, the Public Justice Center also aims to launch a legal strategy, in order to get sufficient clarity about what “rent” means in a residential lease context. Shah says they are considering either a class-action lawsuit or litigating through the appeals process to investigate tricky lease clauses that landlords often use to get more money or to evict tenants.
The activists’ timing might be just right. Scurti, the Baltimore judge frustrated by the lack of good data collection in his court, says he also wants to move toward a formal evaluation of docket patterns to see how the court can operate better. “I want to understand the process and to reevaluate it,” he says. He is particularly interested in figuring out how technology might help the court function more smoothly.
Ultimately, all sides agree that the court today is a flawed and inefficient operation. “You’re not going to encounter a judge, or a landlord, or an advocate for tenants who will tell you things are going well,” says Shah. The problem, however, is that improvement means different things for everyone involved. Despite the relative speed at which these cases move, Baltimore landlords, for instance, still feel the whole legal process should be adjudicated much more quickly and with less bureaucracy. Tenant advocates, on the other hand, want increased procedural accessibility and due process.
A promising place to look may be Massachusetts, which has one of the best housing court models in the country. First established in the 1970s, housing court officials in Massachusetts have prioritized creating a system that is accessible to both landlords and tenants.
In addition to a robust legal services community, Massachusetts employs court staff to serve as mediators between landlords and tenants and help them solve disputes without going directly before a judge. According to Paul J. Burke, deputy court administrator, the majority of rental disputes are settled this way. The typical length of a mediation session is around 30 minutes, which can provide a greater sense of dignity than Baltimore’s hasty proceedings. In some cases, mediations can even last for several hours.
Ultimately it comes down to fairness. “From day one back in the early ’70s, it was anticipated that many people would be self-represented, would perhaps be lower-income, and perhaps not have the highest level of educational training,” says Burke. “The policies, the processes and the forms in our courts have always been set up with that in mind.”In the aftermath of Saturday's Yaan Earthquake, which killed more than 189 people in China's Sichuan province, the country's internet censors have tightened control, stemming some false rumors (such as Beijing demanding a five million yuan toll from Taiwan's Red Cross rescuers) — but also quashing dissent.
Some images paint a grim picture of need among survivors.
Other conversations on Weibo, the country's most popular social network, seek to track corruption. China's massive "human search engine" has long crowdsourced information to expose official corruption and draw attention to hypocrisies in official statements. The earthquake's aftermath has been no different. Debates rage around whether the actor Jet Li's One Foundation is a more embezzlement-proof donation fund than the Red Cross of China, and whether some officials have acted too flippantly in times of national mourning.
The site Free Weibo monitors and saves censored messages from the Twitter-like microblogging service. Below are some of the topics and images currently under close scrutiny and lockdown:Lupin Productions, the company behind the Mercy-focused “Heroes Never Die” Overwatch short film, has its sights on the beautiful and deadly sniper Widowmaker for its next live-action film.
Co-founder of Lupin Productions Grayson Peters tells Inverse that Widowmaker was introduced as an adversary to Mercy in “Heroes Never Die” so that the film could have a “centralized villain” whom fans connected with. He adds, “Enough went into making her design authentic and realistic that exploring more of that character felt inevitable.”
Peters explains that they’re working on “the idea of an Alien-style combat movie filming Widowmaker like the xenomorph: The less you see, the more you experience.”
Peters describes the filming style as “almost like a third-person point of view” to “keep these heroes larger than life.” For Peters, to put her fully on display might make “just a purple girl with a sniper rifle” — the same one who’s fetishized by the fandom so much.
The blue-skinned sniper is one of the least-used but most-loved characters in all of Overwatch, and though playful and sexy emotes and costumes dull the severity of her largely hidden backstory, Peters wants the next film to remind Overwatch fans that Widowmaker is kind of an irredeemable monster.
Amélie Lacroix was a renowned French ballet dancer who married Gérard Lacroix, the Overwatch agent that was spearheading efforts against Talon. The terrorist organization eventually kidnapped and tortured Amélie, brainwashing her into a sleeper agent who killed Gérard in his sleep.
After returning to Talon, several more experiments enhanced her physiology and slowed her heart down to only a few beats per minute, which resulted in her skin turning a shade of bluish-purple and her being unable to feel any emotions. The hellish makeover turned her into a deadly, elegant assassin, who came to be known as Widowmaker.
Not only is she one of the bad guys, but she’s one of the worst.
“I like the idea that it’s a tragic story,” Peters said. “The video about Mercy is hopeful — how those events turned her into the hero we love. For Widowmaker, different events created this monster. It’s an intriguing idea to explore that she’s not redeemable.”
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Peters understands what fans of Overwatch have known since the beginning: “With the game, you get these characters with a whole lot of personality but really not much story.”
Overwatch doesn’t offer any kind of story mode or campaign; it’s entirely multiplayer matchups with players battling in a team-based, first-person shooter experience. There’s a lot of variety and quirks among its 24 playable characters, and what little backstory there is gets revealed through random lines of dialogue in-game, along with comics and animated videos.
Building off of what little backstory game developer Blizzard provides allowed Lupin Productions to create a practical, realistic version of Widowmaker for live-action. “Talon did not brainwash her to turn her into a weapon to be sexy,” Peters said. “They turned her into a weapon to kill. We want to communicate that in a real-world setting.”
Widowmaker's design is meant to scare you a little bit.
“Her visor doesn’t retract because she’s in an active war zone,” Peters explained, which isn’t the case in-game. “It’s feeding her tactical data. I like the idea that if you have something giving you information, you want that sucker down and running all the time … It also makes her look very scary.”
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And with regards to the outfit, Lupin Productions moved away from Widowmaker’s standard purple attire in favor of something a little more practical: “We went all black with the outfit to make her more realistic, because if she’s a sniper, she’d want to blend in. And it’s a legitimate outfit from the game.”
An in-game skin for Widowmaker was used as the source inspiration for her live-action counterpart.
“As far as her skin, she’s purple because her heartbeats have been slowed to a few beats a minute in the game, so that would make her look veiny and an unhealthy shade of purple.” Rather than a curvaceous, sexy sniper, her live-action counterpart looks almost gaunt and sickly, with thick veins on her neck and chest.
“We want to give the idea that this is a very scary person and a dangerous person to be around. We like the idea of the hair down, at least in the light. It gives her more of a wolfish appearance.”
Widowmaker in-costume for "Heroes Never Die."
“I love Widowmaker and the potential with that character,” Peters said. “I wanted to explore this area that’s not really explained.” The upcoming film will presumably grapple with a version of her backstory not unlike the assumed past of Mercy in “Heroes Never Die” — but this Widowmaker’s film will present something very different.
“In ‘Heroes Never Die,’ we want you to cry, but in the next, we want you to change your underwear.”
What can an Alien-inspired live-action Widowmaker film look like?
“We want that fear and ruthless destruction that’s also elegant. When she’s in full-on combat in a war zone, it’s almost like a ballerina dancing. She’s not a brawler. There are no wasted movements.”
Peters did offer up another tantalizing tease about future projects: “In the next short, just because it’s about Widowmaker, that doesn’t mean we can’t introduce another hero — or two.”
Watch this live-action version of Widowmaker right here in her debut as the villain in “Heroes Never Die,” and look for upcoming announcements from Lupin Productions.
No title or release date has been announced for Lupin Productions’ next film.RESURFACING work on the pitch at Leichhardt Oval has stymied efforts to stage the FFA Cup final there — meaning the game looks increasingly likely to be played at Coopers Stadium in Adelaide.
Football Federation Australia held talks with Inner West Council about playing the game in Leichardt after Sydney FC and Adelaide United won through to the final.
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But annual repairs to the playing surface have already started, and FFA was advised the pitch could not be ready in time.
With Jubilee Oval at Kogarah believed to be booked out that night also, the only possible venues appear to be Allianz Stadium or Coopers Stadium, the teams’ respective A-League home grounds.
media_camera Adelaide United looks set to have home advantage for the 2017 FFA Cup final.
A spokesman for Inner West Council confirmed that FFA had looked at Leichhardt Oval as potential venue, adding: “Council has a good relationship with FFA as a regular hirer for national and club matches as well as training camps.
“Council would certainly relish the opportunity for Leichhardt Oval to play host to the FFA Cup Final but unfortunately the pitch cannot be prepared in time for a match of this high standard on November 21.
“Council refurbishes the ground surface every year and this work has already begun, with the winter grass already starting to die off.”
Sydney FC heading to finals 1:44 FFA Cup: Sydney FC have dominated South Melbourne to lock their spot in the FFA Cup final. Sydney FC heading to finals
Given Coopers Stadium’s smaller capacity and significantly lower running costs, speculation is growing that United will get to host the final — which would mean Sydney travelling for the final for the second year in a row.
An FFA spokesman said it was still considering the options for the final.Fast, efficient trains may exist at some point for people who live in this city! We could get to D.C. in a jiff!
Preliminary designs and routes for a proposed high-speed rail line between Richmond and Washington, D.C. just gained a little bit more steam.
More than a hundred people attended a public meeting at the Department of Motor Vehicles HQ in Richmond last Wednesday, where they had a chance to look over maps, watch a video on the proposed new rail line, and meet with officials in charge of the proposed rail service.
The Federal Railroad Administration and the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation is exploring the feasibility of high-speed rail in the 123-mile stretch connecting the two cities. The proposed rail line would service trains capable of going up to 90 mph, reducing travel times between DC-and-Richmond to 90 minutes, making intercity rail service more reliable and a more attractive alternative to a region famous for its highway gridlock.
One of the centerpoints of the public showcase last Wednesday were maps of various proposed routes in or around Fredericksburg, Ashland, and Richmond, along with the proposed changes that would be made to existing railroads in these cities. Part of the reason for reaching out to the public is to showcase what will be needed in order to do that according to Emily Stock, manager of rail planning at the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation.
“Right now, rail between Richmond and DC generally uses a two track system owned by CSX, use both by freight rail and passenger rail, as well as commuter rail in Northern Virginia,” said Stock. “For most of the route, we’d be looking at adding a third track to the existing system, as well as adding passing sidings and crossovers to some higher traffic areas along the route, all of which decrease travel times and increase the reliability of the service in the corridor.”
Stock also was quick to point out that the line will be built largely with federal grant money, as well as with contributions from CSX Transportation, the host railroad. The most recent cost estimate for the route, in 2009, was about $2 billion.
The proposed high-speed rail line also plays a part in the ongoing plans for the renovation of Richmond’s Main Street Station, with the potential to turn the city into a regional high-speed rail hub forming a central focus of redevelopment, along with a proposed indoor market and tourism center. At a tour of the site last Thursday, officials said the implications for the city would be enormous.
“High-speed rail would be a game-changer for the city,” said city planner Viktoria Badger. “It would connect downtown Richmond to all the downtowns on the East Coast.”
That game-changing interconnectivity hasn’t gone unnoticed by the rail line’s planners—part of the reason the project has earned much of the attention that it has is that once completed, Richmond would likely end up a major high-speed rail hub, something that could have a tremendous impact on the region according to Kevin Page, Chief of Infrastructure Initiatives and Strategic Partnerships at DRPT.
“The DC-to-Richmond high-speed rail line will eventually be the link between the Northeast Corridor, which goes from DC to Boston, and the Southeast Corridor, which would go from Raleigh to Atlanta and down to Florida,” said Page. “What that means for the region is that Richmond and Virginia would be the terminus for two of the largest high-speed rail networks in the country.”
This is one of the reasons the DC-to-Richmond high-speed rail project is attracting attention even as a number of other high-speed rail projects are being proposed or built across the country. California broke ground earlier this year on a high-speed rail line what will eventually connect Los Angeles and San Francisco. In Texas, developers are promising a high-speed line between Dallas and Houston within six years. While the DC-to-Richmond Tier II Study is currently underway, one for a similar high-speed corridor between Raleigh and Charlotte was recently approved in North Carolina. One specific example brought up by Emily Stock was how plans for high-speed rail in Virginia are working Amtrak to compliment redevelopment being done to the Northeast Corridor.
“In the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak will be replacing the Acela Express with new high-speed trains that can reach speeds of 220 mph, and will cut rail travel time from Washington to New York from three hours to 90 minutes,” said Stock. “It’s an exciting, innovative time for high-speed rail in this country, and we’re doing all we can to make sure Virginia will be a part of it.”
The Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation says it hopes the federal environmental study, which is expected to be completed in 2017, will deliver an updated plan detailing the required improvements and cost. At that point, the state would be able to seek federal funding and implement the recommendations in phases. Officials say they expect improvements to be implemented over the next decade, with a hopeful completion date around 2025.If there was a 12-step program to get my 11-year-old son to stop playing Minecraft, he'd be going to meetings.
Minecraft is an interactive online game with 44 million registered users, and 7.7 million people who have bought the game. I know this because they have a real-time ticker on their website that counts them, just like the one McDonald's had to record its gajillionth hamburger sale. In both cases, this isn't stuff that's necessarily good for you -- no matter how many people are doing it.
Like many things that aren't good for you, computer games aren't a problem if played in moderation. They become a problem when moderation is lost and obsession begins. And that's what I was worried could be happening in my family.
At first, I was mainly concerned about all the things my son was missing because he was playing Minecraft: He wasn't reading, he wasn't playing outside, he wasn't socializing with other kids, walking the dog, talking to his family. He was playing Minecraft endlessly -- and getting sneaky about it when I started harping on him to stop.
Every time I turned my back for 90 seconds, it seemed, he'd be on it. Sometimes he would play it hidden behind a book so I'd think he was reading. Driving to the school bus, he'd be in the backseat of the car playing. If he woke up in the middle of the night, he would grab for the nearest iPad and start to play Minecraft.
At first glance, Minecraft seems like it an innocent online Lego-like game where you build things. Harmless enough. Sure, Minecraft monsters come out at night, but those weren't the ones I was worried about. I worried about the perverts who pose as other 11-year-old boys and want to play Minecraft with my son -- those monsters.
So for those and a host of other reasons, I put a complete stop to my son's Minecraft-playing about a month ago. And what I've learned is that like an addiction, breaking the habit requires the will of the addicted -- not fear of Mommy or the police giving you a breathalyzer test.
For the past month, my son has been living in an "all-screen blackout" -- a 100 percent, strictly enforced policy where he gets his stripped-of-all-games phone only when I need for him to have it and he doesn't go near the computer except for homework. I've alerted carpool parents that while in my custody, their sons may not pull out their smartphones except to answer calls. I ceremoniously deleted all games from the computers in the house, much the same way an alcoholic might pour all his vodka down the drain. We changed the password to the iTunes store so there will be no more games downloaded. And yes, I emptied the Trash on all the computers, taking no chances.
And together with my son, we came up with a list of other things he might do besides play computer games, especially when he awakens in the middle of the night. Now, he keeps a book next to his pillow, as well as a drawing pad and a set of pens. And if he doesn't fall back to sleep right away, he knows to come and get my husband. They play checkers. (The good news: Mostly, he falls right back to sleep, and he has produced some beautiful artwork when he hasn't.)
One of the hardest things to deal with has been peer pressure. Playing electronic games is what middle school boys do for entertainment. Their social lives exist online. They take photos of their new shoes or the full moon and send them to one another on Instagram. They text instead of talk, and yes, they play a lot of Minecraft.
We did a test playdate with one of his friends last week and scripted what my son would say if the boy suggested they play Minecraft. "Nah, it's boring. Let's kick the soccer ball around outside." He pulled it off with success, but what would have happened if the kid insisted? He would have called me and I would have come gotten him. It's no fun being the only sober guy at a party of drunks.
What's most interesting to me is that my son actually seems to appreciate our intervention. He had a hard first few days going screen-less but now is pretty proud of himself. He has lost interest in some of his Minecraft-obsessed pals and moved closer to some soccer friends who spend endless hours bouncing a soccer ball off their feet and knees with the goal of getting 50 touches before losing ball control. He's up to at least 30.
I'm aware of the risk I'm running in turning Minecraft into a forbidden fruit; we always want what we can't have, right? I also know it's not realistic to expect him to live in a screen-less world forever. But for now, it's the best idea I have. We'll try the moderation route with limits at some point when I feel he can keep it under control. In the meantime, I check that real-time ticker frequently and know that in my heart, I'm glad it has one less user -- my son.
This post is a part of Screen Sense, a place for parents to discuss what it's like to raise the digital generation.And Another Thing... is the sixth and final installment of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy "trilogy". The book, written by Eoin Colfer, author of the Artemis Fowl series, was published on the thirtieth anniversary of the first book, 12 October 2009, in hardback. It was published by Penguin Books in the UK and by Hyperion Books in the US. Colfer was given permission to write the book by Adams' widow Jane Belson.[1]
Unlike the previous Hitchhiker's works, the title is not a quotation from the first novel, but taken from the third chapter of So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish,[2] where it appears in the following passage:
The storm had now definitely abated, and what thunder there was now grumbled over more distant hills, like a man saying 'And another thing...' twenty minutes after admitting he's lost the argument.
Background [ edit ]
After writing five Hitchhiker books, Adams had felt the need to continue the story: "I suspect at some point in the future I will write a sixth Hitchhiker book...",[3] and "People have said, quite rightly, that Mostly Harmless is a very bleak book. I would love to finish Hitchhiker on a slightly more upbeat note, so five seems to be a wrong kind of number; six is a better kind of number."[4][5]
In referring to the Dirk Gently book he was then working on, Adams said, "A lot of the stuff which was originally in The Salmon of Doubt really wasn't working." Adams had planned on "salvaging some of the ideas that I couldn't make work in a Dirk Gently framework and putting them in a Hitchhiker framework... and for old time's sake I may call it The Salmon of Doubt."[6][7] However, Adams died in 2001 without having written the sixth book.
Plot summary [ edit ]
And Another Thing... starts where Mostly Harmless ends, with Arthur Dent, Ford Prefect, Trillian, and Arthur and Trillian's daughter Random standing inside Club Beta, while the Earth is about to be destroyed by mercenaries hired by the Vogons. They are then rescued by Zaphod Beeblebrox in the Heart of Gold. During a debate, Ford accidentally freezes Left Brain (Zaphod's second head who has been running the ship) and it seems they are doomed, until an immortal named Wowbagger brings them to safety. Angered by Wowbagger's insults, Zaphod promises to get Wowbagger killed, an idea to which Wowbagger, tired of immortality, has no objection; and so the group sets off in search of Thor, to see if he can kill Wowbagger.
Meanwhile, Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz, assigned to destroy all humans, hears rumours of a colony of Earthmen, and he sets off to destroy them, while Arthur attempts to get Wowbagger to stop the Vogons.
On the Earth colony, Nano, the excessively stereotypical Irish leader, Hillman Hunter, is seeking applicants to be the planet's god, who would keep Hillman in charge due to divine providence. Meanwhile, Prostetnic Jeltz's son, Constant Mown, is having rather "un-Vogonly" thoughts, including an enjoyment of poetry and sympathy for humans. Wowbagger and Random start arguing, and Wowbagger drugs and imprisons Random. Afterwards, Trillian and Wowbagger fight, but they share a kiss at the end of the argument. Random is less than impressed with her mother's and Wowbagger's actions, and complains about it to Ford. During this conversation, Random steals Ford's company credit card.
Back on Asgard, Zaphod has managed to gain access to Valhalla and finds his old acquaintance Thor. After some negotiations, Thor agrees to help Zaphod by becoming Nano's god and killing Wowbagger.
Things on Nano are not going as planned, and Hillman is struggling to find his god and keep order among his own populace, as well as trying to control the Magratheans who built the planet. Hillman recalls creating a cult for the rich, which preached of a coming apocalypse, only for the Grebulons to create such an apocalypse. Having received an offer from the otherworldly Zaphod, Hillman and his followers relocated to their "haven", the planet Nano. However, many of the staff abandoned their rich employers and several rival religious groups also settled on the planet, the most prominent of these being the cheese-worshiping Tyromancers, led by Aseed. The Tyromancers and the Nanites enter into a war, and during one of the war's battles, the Heart of Gold and Thor suddenly arrive.
Wowbagger's ship lands on Nano and is met by the Tyromancers. Zaphod negotiates for Thor to be Nano's god and reveals that Aseed and Hillman are actually the same being from parallel universes, both of whom made deals with Zaphod. It is revealed that this is what brought him to Earth, saving Arthur and the rest. With Wowbagger representing the Tyromancers for show and Thor representing the Nanites, the two meet in battle.
The battle begins, but Thor is unable to win because Wowbagger does not die, even when hit with the hammer Mjöllnir. A package for Random arrives through interstellar freight, containing the rubber bands involved in Wowbagger's becoming immortal, which Random believes may be able to hurt him. Using Mjöllnir, enhanced with the rubber bands, Thor sends Wowbagger into the air.
The Vogons approach with the intent of destroying Nano. Thor is able to deflect the Vogon missiles, but is seemingly killed by an experimental weapon called QUEST. Constant Mown disables the Vogon gunner, and uses the argument that their orders are to kill Earthlings and not Nanites (legally two distinct groups, with the latter being taxpaying citizens). Prostetnic Jeltz agrees to his argument, and is proud of his son's ability to follow law and bureaucracy. Zaphod and Hillman tell the people that Thor is Nano's martyr and that all commands he will issue shall henceforth come from Hillman, only for Hillman to be sliced in two by a piece of bomb debris.
Luckily, Hillman's death is short, as the Heart of Gold medical bay restores him to full health, with only one minor change – he now has hooves rather than feet. Even though he now has control over the populace, he grows displeased upon finding himself swamped with civic paperwork. Zaphod sets off with Left Brain to work on his re-election campaign, and Ford has decided to stay behind and sample the best Nano has to offer, so he can write material for the Guide. Up in space, a very much alive Thor is pleased to learn of his rise back to fame, and the success of his "martyrdom" trick. Arthur finds the beach from his construct, and it becomes his new home. To his displeasure, he finds that Vogons are going to destroy it.
Announcement [ edit ]
The announcement of And Another Thing… was made on 16 September 2008. Although Colfer spoke of "semi-outrage" at the initial idea of another author contributing to the series, he came to regard the book as "a wonderful opportunity to work with characters I have loved since childhood and give them something of my own voice while holding on to the spirit of Douglas Adams".[1] Adams' widow, Jane Belson, said that she "could not think of a better person to transport Arthur, Zaphod and Marvin to pastures new" and gave the project her full support.[1]
When the announcement was made on the BBC Radio 4's news show The Today Programme, a special sketch starring Simon Jones as Arthur Dent (whom he played in the radio and television series) was broadcast. In it, Arthur was angry at the news that he had been "brought back from the dead".[8]
A reception was held at the Penguin offices in London on 9 March 2009 to launch the cover of the book and announce the related marketing activity which included the BBC, with their CDs of the radio series, and Pan with their reissues of the first five books of the series.[9] As part of the book's promotion, a website collected Twitter-style messages from visitors, to be "transmitted into deep space" on the day of the book's launch.[10]
Waterstones' science-fiction buyer Michael Rowley described the match of Colfer and Hitchhiker's as "an inspired combination", although some Hitchhiker's fans expressed regret that "a complete unique series can't remain untouched" and hoped Colfer would not "completely ruin the books".[11]
Radio adaptation [ edit ]
And Another Thing... was adapted and abridged for BBC Radio 4's Book at Bedtime, in ten parts, broadcast from 12–23 October 2009. It was abridged by Penny Leicester, read by Stephen Mangan, with Peter Serafinowicz as the voice of The Guide, and produced by Heather Larmour.[12][13] The parts are about half the size of a regular "fit" of the more formal radio adaptations of the other books, totalling about five fits in comparison, but each part has its own short title.[14]
A full cast radio adaptation under the title The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Hexagonal Phase and adapted from And Another Thing..., with unpublished Hitchhiker material by Douglas Adams, was announced in October 2017 by the BBC as the sixth series of Hitchhiker's Guide. The first episode of the series was broadcast on March 8, 2018, and the complete series was released commercially both on CD and via audio download by Audible.com on April 19, 2018.[15]
Audio book [ edit ]
The audio book version is read by Simon Jones, who played Arthur Dent in the radio and television series as well as a short made by BBC Radio 4 to celebrate the original announcement of the book.[8] The recording is ten hours and twenty one minutes in length and is the first Hitchhikers audio book starring Jones. The others were read by Stephen Moore (known for playing Marvin in the radio series and television series, and did recordings for all books except Mostly Harmless), Douglas Adams, Martin Freeman (who |
’ goaltender G Johan “Moose” Hedberg (Flyers), RW Radim Vrbata (Coyotes), D Sami Salo (Canucks) and F Ruslan Fedotenko (New York Rangers).
See all Day One deals on NHL.com.
Used with permission of the author.
Jay Donetelli is a Tampa-based freelance sportswriter and contributor to Sports Climax. With an opinion sharper than an Ovechkin skate blade with the sting of an Ali jab, Donetelli has a loyal cult of readers who have found a way to love him.
Copyright ©2011 Sports Climax, LLCPresident Obama's goal is to make no more concessions to the House GOP on the law. W.H. determined on Obamacare
Don’t blink first.
That’s the strategy President Barack Obama and Capitol Hill Democrats are pursuing as the nation faces a government shutdown, a historic default on its debt and the final phase of Obamacare.
Story Continued Below
Obama’s domestic agenda — headed up by infrastructure spending, gun control and immigration reform — has long since stalled. Now, with the basic functions of government on the line again, he’s defining his goal as not giving any more ground to House Republicans — no budget cuts and no concessions on the Affordable Care Act or the debt limit.
Obamacare, the crown jewel of the president’s legislative legacy, is truly non-negotiable for the administration, according to Democrats privy to conversations behind closed doors at the White House and on Capitol Hill.
( Also on POLITICO: Reid blasts Boehner on 'waste of time' Obamacare votes)
Rob Nabors, Obama’s deputy chief of staff for policy, told that to House Democratic leaders during a closed-door session on Thursday, according to a Democratic source on Capitol Hill.
“They’re willing to negotiate, but not on ACA,” the source said of Nabors’s message. The bigger problem, the source said, is that “Republicans can’t get their s—t together to sit down and talk.”
With the exception of a Wednesday meeting on the debt limit with Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Boehner and his aides haven’t talked fiscal matters with the White House recently, according to Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck. Nabors told House Democrats that there have been no back channel conversations with the speaker.
( PHOTOS: 25 unforgettable Obamacare quotes)
The White House position is a defensive posture struck as much out of necessity as from choice, and one that remains unchanged after Washington lost more than two weeks on domestic matters while it was fixated on the Syria crisis. The idea is to prevent further damage to party priorities. Administration officials also believe that Republicans will back down to avoid economic catastrophe and the ensuing political fallout.
“The combination of those two incentives will compel them to come up with a solution,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said Thursday. “We have drawn the lines we have drawn, and we’ll see what they produce.”
But Democrats in Congress say they aren’t so sure that the White House is really ready to back up its rhetoric, particularly on a short-term spending bill known as a continuing resolution that would lock in lower spending levels than House Democrats want and take political pressure off of House Republican leaders. While the White House won’t give ground on Obamacare with regard to the CR, House Democratic leaders are far more inclined to let the government shut down over the spending levels or length of the extension than their White House counterparts.
( Also on POLITICO: Shutdown deja vu on Hill)
“Our leadership thinks the time has come to draw a line in the sand, not do a short-term extension,” said a senior Democratic aide. “They’re ready for a flash and a pop.”
Recalling past budget battles, the aide said the administration’s hard line on the CR and the debt limit could move.
“I don’t know that I trust them, because they’ve said that before and it’s changed,” the aide said.
Senate Democratic leaders echoed White House arguments in a Capitol Hill press conference on Thursday, and they feel confident that their solidarity will prevail over a fractured House Republican Conference that just had to pull a stopgap bill to keep the government funded into the fall because it wouldn’t gut Obamacare.
( Also on POLITICO: GOP's Obamacare quandary)
“The biggest thing has been the uniformity in the refusal to negotiate on the debt ceiling,” said Matt House, the communications director for Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). “We think at the last minute they’re going to be the ones that have to blink and come to us.”
House Republicans are badly fractured over spending. They can’t agree among themselves on whether to keep spending on its current trajectory, cut it further than the caps agreed to in previous budget deals, or, as a handful of Republicans believe, raise it a little bit. More important at the moment, they are divided over whether to shut down the government in the name of starving Obamacare.“A profile on a book rating website in Bulhan’s name shows an interest in Islamic theology, listing a biography of the Prophet Mohamed and a book of Quran verses and hadiths as recent reads.” Mark Rowley, the Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said: “So far we have found no evidence of radicalisation or anything that would suggest the man in our custody was motivated by terrorism.”
Has Mark Rowley ever read the life of Muhammad or any part of the Qur’an or Hadith? Almost certainly not. If he had, he would have come upon passages exhorting Muslims to kill non-Muslims (Qur’an 2:191; 4:89; 9:5; 47:4), as well as passages depicting Muhammad doing exactly that. So: “no evidence of radicalisation”? Only if one is unshakably committed to the unproven (and actually quite false) dogma that the Qur’an and Muhammad teach peace.
“Russell Square attack: London student Zakaria Bulhan named as suspect in stabbing that left American woman dead,” by Lizzie Dearden, Independent, August 5, 2016:I
Here’s a story that looks like it’s about feminism but isn’t: Kristen Visbal’s Fearless Girl statue goes up, internet loses it.
First take. Girl Fucking Power.
Second take. Corporate feminism through and through. State Street Global Advisors commissioned the statue, SHE is a Nasdaq symbol, not a pronoun. They’re using feminism for advertisement. Capitalism is still evil, etc.
First viral piece of the lousy mess, Greg Fallis’s seriously, the guy has a point:
Arturo Di Modica, a Sicilian immigrant who became a naturalized citizen of the U.S., responded by creating Charging Bull — a bronze sculpture of a…well, a charging bull. It took him two years to make it. The thing weighs more than 7000 pounds, and cost Di Modica some US$350,000 of his own money. He said he wanted the bull to represent “the strength and power of the American people”. He had it trucked into the Financial District and set it up, completely without permission. It’s maybe the only significant work of guerrilla capitalist art in existence. […] Unlike Di Modica’s work, Fearless Girl was commissioned. Commissioned not by an individual, but by an investment fund called State Street Global Advisors, which has assets in excess of US$2.4 trillion. That’s serious money. It was commissioned as part of an advertising campaign developed by McCann, a global advertising corporation. And it was commissioned to be presented on the first anniversary of State Street Global’s “Gender Diversity Index” fund, which has the following NASDAQ ticker symbol: SHE.
Third take. The power of the image is more important (round two). Second viral piece. Caroline Criado-Perez’s On Fearless Girl, women & public art; or, no, seriously, the guy does not have a point.
No, Greg. Just, no. Like many other men, Di Modica may not realise that rampant male-dominated capitalism already is a symbol of patriarchal oppression, already is an aggressive threat to women and girls all around the world, but that doesn’t make it any less the case. […] But to be clear: rampant unchecked capitalism is a symbol of patriarchal oppression whether Di Modica likes it or not. I don’t wish to be pedantic here, but in order to represent “the strength and power of the American people,” Di Modica chose a bull. A male cow. He chose to represent the American “people” with an animal that is perhaps above all others considered a byword for male sexual aggression. And my god the balls on that thing. I think we can be fairly certain how Di Modica visualises power and strength — the phrase “grow a pair” comes to mind. Let’s be clear: this statue never represented the strength and power of American people. It represented the strength and power of American men. Fearless Girl does not therefore change the meaning of Charging Bull. She makes it explicit. And for that, I love her.
Criado-Perez is undeniably correct about one thing: the statues’ meaning as art is not to be judged solely by their origin. She’s the only one to make this point explicit, but note that Fallis agrees with this. Everyone agrees with this, and everyone loves the Fearless Girl despite her silver spoon.
Allow me to offer a contrary position: I hate the Fearless Girl, and the only thing that will help women is the origin. SHE is a threat, not an advertisement. SHE comes from a passive investor, which means that SHE isn’t talking to you. SHE is talking to firms, and SHE says: “Hire women or we’ll withhold money.”
She, on the other hand, the part we’ve agreed is “Girl Fucking Power!”, is an embarrassment.
II
I’m about to say a lot of things you don’t like. Relax, this isn’t about feminism, nor is it about women.
Opening with the debate wasn’t to bring you up to speed (who doesn’t know what the statue is?), it was to make a point: all of the fighting around Fearless Girl (and this is fighting by explicit feminists) is about corporate money (Ron O’Hare) and Di Modica’s statue (kyriarchy or no?). In other words, about men. Fearless Girl is unquestioned – it’s merely reflective of the men around it. Only male actions and intentions get to contextualize this piece. “Oof.”
I’m not shaming the commentators, I’m saying this was inevitable. Fallon argues that Fearless Girl has appropriated Bull’s power and strength. Criado-Perez agrees but retorts that the Bull’s power is bad, and hence Fearless Girl’s appropriation of it is good. So what does it say about Fearless Girl that she only has power relative to what a male image gives her?
Fearless Girl doesn’t mean anything without the Bull, problem #1. More teeth: her meaning is […], provided for her by context, she has no agency. Remove the bull and put in starving children: suddenly her “powerful pose” looks a lot like cruel indifference. Place a cross on the bull and she’s imitating Richard Dawkins. The Bull doesn’t have that problem. Fearless Girl transformed it from “power” to “patriarchal power”, sure, but it’s still power. Hell, it’s the same kind of power, just with a different value judgment: “capitalism” -> “capitalism but bad”. Do you not see that difference? You’ve created an image of “womanhood” that is always only the reflection of what men do. Fearless Girl is a classic image of objectification, her meaning completely at the mercy of how men themselves decide to contextualize. The fact that it’s entirely up to Di Modica to remove his statue (and hence recontextualize Fearless Girl), is just a cruel footnote to whole embarrassment.
Things get worse if you do talk about origin. It being “wall street money” is misdirection, a ruse. The problem is that someone (here, a man) had to allow the artist her fearlessness, had to open a space for her. Fearless Girl could be an ad for Reebok or Planned Parenthood and it would say the same thing: “You, a girl, don’t have the power to do this on your own. Someone has to help you.” Di Modica may be a #patriarchalcapitalist, but he didn’t need anyone else to let him be that. He just did it. That’s what power is – choosing to do something by your own agency. The artist here is a reflection of her work: she was commissioned, she took no power on her own.
Or, to steal a point from from Criado-Perez, the bull has balls. I’ll risk it: Balls = fertitility, “can create, can reproduce, can make grow“. How does that compare to the girl? Fearless Girl is a girl, i.e. not able to generate children, metaphorically incapable of creating. This is Art History 101: symbols for sex are symbols for creating art. The girl can’t make anything, she’s just placed there, waiting to grow up (be grown) until someone can give her an identity.
“A woman’s meaning is determined by the men around her.” Holy Shit, didn’t know you’d become that guy. If Trump tweeted that tomorrow it’d render you apoplectic, so why are you applauding this?
III
Here’s another iconic feminist image: Rosie the Riveter. Yeah, I know, been a while. Notice the difference? There’s no man. Notice another difference? She’s an adult.
Don’t give me the “it’s for girls to feel empowered, for children to see their own strength” excuse. That’s worse. Children didn’t do anything to you, stop making them your scapegoats. Fearless Girl disappears in February, i.e. too short of a time for anyone currently a child to remember it. Any girl who does is going to ask the obvious question, the implications of which are horrifying: “Why did the bull get to stay but the girl standing up to it disappear?” Images are important, take the logic of the art seriously even on the surface level: When there’s a furious bull, and a child in front of it, and that child disappears, then what happened? And what lesson does that teach our aspiring fearless girls, you fucking lunatic?
This exists only as a battle for the current crop of culture warriors, i.e. all adults. I shouldn’t need to say this, but I do: There’s something genuinely terrifying about a generation that has chosen to objectify itself as – or at least assent to their objectification as – girls. As children, as people without agency, at the mercy of their parents. Even if there was no bull, no metaphorical reflection of male meaning, the regression to childhood should set off red flags. “The piece is pungent with Girl Power!” says Visbal, but “Girl Power” is something you put on the pencil case of a 6th grader. You want to be an adult one day, right? What happens then?
And this is, by the way, how you know that neither “feminism” nor women as such have anything to do with Fearless Girl. It may look that way, sure, but cultural pathologies often mask themselves in ideology. Men are applauding this nonsense as well, and equally blaming their infantilization on their children (“such a good lesson!”). Rosie the Riveter is also a feminist image, but a very different one. “Things have gotten worse.” What, women in 2017 have less agency than they did in the ’40s? Don’t answer that how you want to – it reveals too much.
The question isn’t “What is feminism saying?” it’s “How did the people who identify as feminists change their self-image?” As in: why did humans – as humans – change, such that those who call themselves feminists now applaud… this.
IV
A man commissions a statue of a woman that is only ever reflective of the masculine symbols around it. The statue, moreover, is not of a woman, but of a girl. A girl adopting the characteristically “huffy, bratty, thinks-she’s-so-good” pose of a thousand locker room one-liners.
Sounds like something out of a Henry Miller piece – don’t bother, Catherine Breillat already owns the rights. The scene would become a synechdoche for male gaze, it’d be the subject of three Butler essays. So what happened here? “They don’t know how to read it right.” I don’t buy that for one second. modern feminism is hyper aware of symbolism and sexist undercurrents. Throw a dart at TV Guide and google “[show] is sexist”. I bet you find a dissertation.
So what happened? Did everyone just forget their ideology for a second? Was it the Russians?
Something that you should’ve noticed immediately that I didn’t mention – what is the girl doing? Let’s say you’d never seen Fearless Girl, but someone says: “It’s about a girl in confrontation with a bull.” What’s your first thought? Does she have a matador’s sword and cloak? What about a cage? A net? Guns are bad and we should definitely ban them yesterday, but why not a bazooka? Is she doing anything that implies action?
Fearless Girl is just… standing. Ok – she’s trying to threaten the bull with her ferocious poise. But that means she needs to be seen, her entire power lies not in doing but in being observed. Not as in “it’s a statue”, but contextually – the bull itself needs to see her. If it doesn’t, then it isn’t afraid, and it gores her. The girl can’t impact the bull if it doesn’t notice her first. She can’t stab it, can’t shoot it. Her only power is in it seeing her. “Sounds feminist to me – like a commentary on male gaze!” You people make me feel like I’m going crazy.
This is related to, but distinct from, the above. How was the girl sold to you? And I don’t mean how did The Man sell it to you, I mean how did you hear about it? A friend posted an article decrying it for corporate advertisement – that’s how we all heard about it. “Ooooh – sneaky campaign!” True, but not the issue. I don’t mean to be a dick here, but since when does Wall Street need your money, much less your approval? Yeah, your hourly is super important to them, I know, and you can tell because they chose to advertise to you. You, of course, wouldn’t let yourself be advertised to, you caught them (and isn’t the implication of those breathless exposes that you would’ve been, well, persuaded? Woooh – really dodged a bullet, without [writer’s] take on corporate feminism I almost became a J.P. Morgan quant). But still… there’s something… it’s that…
If they’re advertising to you, then it means that they’re looking at you, right? They see you, Girl Power onesie and all. They almost got you this time, which means they wanted to. I don’t mean this as your standard “wants to be cared for/father figure/[Freudian murmur here]”, nor do I mean it entirely as “narcissism”. Fearless Girl is political, right? And this is “political”. If the Bull sees Fearless Girl, then she has power over it, so if “Wall Street” see you, then you …
This isn’t a conspiracy, SHE didn’t plan this. I already told you: Fearless Girl is no ad, it’s a threat to other firms. You’re unimportant (no one is looking at you). And none of the bloggers screaming are being paid off to super secretly reconcile you to your own uselessness before modernity. This was organic. You (plural second person pronoun) did this to yourself (singular and plural). “They want me to like them!” Wrong, the opposite, you want to like them and you want them to want you to like them, and you chose that interpretation. Why?
V
“I still think it’s about feminism.” It isn’t. “Then what’s it about?”
It’s about power, and also —
What, am I just supposed to tell you? Didn’t I just point out the problem with being given a place to “be powerful”? “You” could have any gender here – that’s still an issue, feminism isn’t relevant. Assemble the sundry facts: being seen, advertisement, impotence, you. It’s all there. Do you want me to watch you do it?
Final clue: Fearless, fearless, not feared.
How to fail –
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Like this: Like Loading... RelatedNaruto Ninja Storm 4 is coming to the consoles in just a couple of weeks. Tons of new gameplay footage has been released on Youtube and while I am excited for the game there is one key thought that keeps coming up whenever I see something new from this game. I mean, there are plenty of cool things to see already. From the new characters, to the large battles, to even the canon stories plot points. Speaking of the canon plot points… WHY AM I HAVING TO PLAY THE SPINOFF VIDEO GAME JUST TO SEE THE ENDING ANIMATED AND VOICE ACTED?!?
So now that you know why you’re here, lets talk about why we are probably never going to see Naruto Shippuden ever reach the ending of the show.
Filler, Fillers, and More Fillers!!!
We are getting both Itachi and Kaguya fillers this year with little to no room for the Canon episode to show up. Last year in 2015 there were only a total of 8 canon episode of Shippuden in the entire year. I only have a feeling that this will occur again this year.
An announcement for an Itachi filler came to a surprise to people, mostly because everyone thought it was going to be a spin off separate series from the anime. It is still unclear but from what it is sounding like its going to be just a filler in the anime. Was this a mishandled misstep? We will have to see.
If you have caught up to the show at this point you would know that the anime is still in the infinite tsukuyomi filler arc that has been the main focus of the show since September. I can only hope that there won't be more fillers in 2017, but knowing how this studio has handled the series, there could easily be more filler.
We Will Have Moved On…
A lot can happen in a year, and the more time move on, we move on. By the time we get back to the finale of the show we will have moved on to something else. Whether it be a new popular anime, or just from forgetful memory. Most people I have seen mention the Naruto anime always respond with a "Oh that is still going on? I thought the manga ended like 2 years ago."
We are already getting a brand new Boruto manga that will continue the story of the Naruto world, most fans will have put their focus on this new story with these new characters because the old ones has moved on. Their stories are over for most people and the story of Naruto is over for many others.
Since the end of the manga we have had two movies that have taken place post the manga and have moved the characters we all know along to a much mature state, where they have passed the torch to the next generation in the latest Boruto: Naruto the movie.
Gotta Milk It Till It Got No More Left
It is very clear that Studio Perriot is planing to milk Naruto for as long as they can still sell anything from the brand. Even at the cost of delay the shows end in order to extend its life, they will keep it going and never end it. Naruto is one of the most popular anime and manga franchises in the world, it makes sense for them to do so much with it. But there comes a point where you need to follow the source material to keep the fans happy.
Its fine if the anime ended and then they decided to do spin offs and side stories and other filler like material to extend the life. At that point it will have kept the main original series alone and undamaged from poor quality. Unfortunately we are at this point where the video game adaptation of the Naruto story is finishing off everything I have wanted to see from the end of the anime in video game form.
At least there is that...
So will we see the end of the Naruto anime? Yeah we will. You might have to wait a year and a half from this point to actually see it, but you will get it. All that I and fans can hope for is that they deliver the best Naruto quality that we've ever seen, something that can make current fans, non fans, and fans who have moved on from the show a reason to come back to the anime. Some of the biggest fights from the manga are upcoming and doing them justice is a must on the studio's part.This article is over 4 years old
Former premier’s son John Bjelke-Petersen to replace Alex Douglas, who quit the party earlier in 2014 citing concerns over the selection process for candidates
The son of former Queensland premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen will lead the Palmer United party into next year’s state election.
Palmer United party federal leader Clive Palmer confirmed John Bjelke-Petersen will replace Alex Douglas, who quit the party earlier this year.
Palmer says Bjelke-Petersen was the obvious candidate for the leadership.
“Mr Bjelke-Petersen is just the person the party needs, he is a real leader who will be able to deliver real results for all Queenslanders,” Palmer said in a statement.
Bjelke-Petersen had already been endorsed as the party’s candidate for the seat of Callide, where he’ll stand against Liberal National party (LNP) incumbent and Queensland deputy premier Jeff Seeney.
Bjelke-Petersen quit the LNP earlier this year, citing disgust at the Newman government’s lack of support for regional Queensland.
He said he was excited to take on the challenge of leading PUP into the 2015 Queensland election.
“[Premier] Campbell Newman and his government have failed Queensland and Queenslanders,” he said.
“It is time that Queenslanders were represented by a government who is focused on building the state’s economy, creating jobs and providing opportunities for local industries.”
PUP has been without a leader in Queensland since October, when its two state MPs – Douglas and Carl Judge – quit the party.
Douglas cited concerns over the selection process for candidates, while Judge said he could better serve his electorate as an independent.
Bjelke-Petersen’s father, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, was Queensland’s longest-serving premier, holding office from 1968 to 1987.There’s only one thing I love as much as florals, and that’s lace! So when I saw what lacy delights Coco designs had going for 50% off at their holiday sale, I filled up my virtual shopping basket with as many pretties as I could carry! All mesh clothing for regular avatars (Coco doll avatar clothing is not part of the sale) are half price until December 15th. I nabbed myself this pretty sweater with lacy collar, a matching lace skirt and this cosy fur tippet with pretty pearl chains, all for so cheap you wouldn’t even make a dent in your bank balance!
Ink’s new hair over at this round of The Chapter Four stole my heart away with its cutesy bob and optional headband. The band even comes with a HUD to change the material, and one of the textures just went with this outfit so perfectly I couldn’t resist. Also at TCF are these cute ‘Lu’ poses from Imeka. I spoke about them briefly in my last post but now you can buy them for yourself for a discounted price for the duration of TCF!
The sweet Olivia Lalonde of Le Poppycock sent me a box of goodies today and inside were these adorable Christmas tote bags! You get 3 in the pack and they’re only 25L$ for the 25-for-25 hunt which goes on until December 30th! Each design is as cute as the last and all feature a very Christmassy bell on them. 3 bags for just 25L$ is a steal in my book!
*X*
Location: Neva River
AdvertisementsBrooks Jackson, the director of FactCheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, said that at various points this year both sides have blithely gone on repeating statements that were found false.
“They don’t care,” he said, “because it gets votes.” The increasingly disaggregated media ecosystem, the diminished trust in traditional news organizations and the rise of social media had made it easier than ever to inject questionable assertions directly into the media bloodstream — and to rebut them.
But while there is arguably more fact-checking now than ever — and, thanks to the Web, more ways to independently check what candidates and campaigns say — verdicts that a campaign has crossed the line are often drowned out by dissent from its supporters, who take it upon themselves to check the checkers.
Brendan Nyhan, an assistant professor of government at Dartmouth College, said nonpartisan fact-checking groups now compete with ideologically motivated groups from both sides that consider their work to be checking facts as well. (The political campaigns also call some of their own news releases “fact-checks.”)
“The term ‘fact check’ can easily be devalued, as people throw it onto any sort of an opinion that they have,” Mr. Nyhan said. “The other problem is that the partisans who pay attention to politics are being conditioned to disregard the fact-checkers when their own side gets criticized.”
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The cycle was on display at the Republican convention when Mr. Romney’s running mate, Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, made a number of questionable or misleading claims in his speech. Even before he stopped speaking, some of his claims were being questioned on Twitter. Soon fact-checkers were highlighting some of the misleading statements. More partisan sites rushed to Mr. Ryan’s defense with posts finding fault with the first round of fact checks.
The truth-twisting has not been limited to Republicans. Democrats gleefully repeated an out-of-context quote that made it sound as if Mr. Romney enjoys firing people. An outside group supporting Mr. Obama ran an advertisement giving the unfair impression that Mr. Romney was responsible for the death of the wife of a steelworker who lost his job and his health insurance when Mr. Romney’s old company, Bain Capital, closed down the plant where he worked.
And the Obama campaign ran a commercial falsely suggesting that Mr. Romney opposes abortion even in cases or rape or incest; he says he supports such exceptions.
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But some independent commentators have argued that the Romney campaign appears to be more dishonest at this point in the campaign, citing the many times it has broadcast a commercial making the false claim that Mr. Obama wants to gut the work requirements of welfare.
Mark Halperin, the Time magazine writer, made the point this week on MSNBC, even as he noted that the Democrats had lost some of the high ground with their recent misleading attacks. “But at this point I think the Romney campaign is besting them in making these distortions and untruths a bigger part of their message,” he said.
Confidence in the old arbiters, the mainstream media, has fallen precipitously in recent decades: the percentage of Americans who trust newspapers, television and radio to report the news accurately and fairly fell to 43 percent in 2010, down from 72 percent in 1976, according to the Gallup Poll. Mr. Nyhan’s research has shown the difficulties in trying to set the record straight through news accounts.
In a recent paper, called “When Corrections Fail: The Persistence of Political Misperceptions,” he and Jason Reifler, an assistant professor of political science at Georgia State University, found that corrective information in standard news articles — compared with separate fact-check pieces — was often ineffective at changing the minds of people predisposed to believe a misperception, and sometimes made the problem worse with what they termed a “backfire effect.”
Bill Adair, the editor of PolitiFact.com, a project of The Tampa Bay Times, has seen his site come under fire from the left and the right in recent years, but said that this may prove to be the year of the fact-checker.
“I think there has always been a calculation by political campaigns to forge ahead with a falsehood if they think it will score the points they want to score,” said Mr. Adair, who noted that campaigns still care enough about the truth to spend time explaining their positions and statements to his reporters. “What’s different this time is there is more fact-checking than ever.”The conversation cranked open by the Amazon expose still hasn't died down. The global tech giant's workplace culture, you will remember, was dramatically depicted last week in a 10,000-word piece in the New York Times, from which emerged a cruel picture of a sort of futuristic, dystopian wage hell.
Employees past and current spoke of a terrifyingly punishing, mean, and hard-paced environment, where it is common to see colleagues crying at their desks, where staff are berated for not being available 24/7 and are encouraged to undermine each other, and where notions of compassion or humanity - "bereaved? Get back to work!", "Miscarriage? Get over it!" - have long ago left the building.
Since then, the company's CEO Jeff Bezos has shot back, claiming not to recognise the workplace described. A current employee took to LinkedIn to insist that the NYT piece was "blatantly incorrect". Rebuffing the piece point by point, this Amazon manager wrote that Amazon may have been a hive of bad work practices in the past, but today, "Amazonians" - as staff are somewhat nauseatingly called - "come to work, do our best, have fun, and go home".
Like some others weighing in on the issue, this "engineering leader" added that the company simply couldn't attract and keep the cream of the tech crop if they behaved in the way described in the NYT piece.
No worse than others?
That last bit isn't necessarily the case, though. First, because it's fair to suppose - as some commentators have suggested - that Amazon is no worse than others in its field, or in the US' high-ranking, white-collar workplace, more generally.
What's more, while reams of research suggest that employees go past peak productivity if they are unhappily chained to their desks for extreme hours, it seems that the fierce competition over jobs coupled with the fear of being replaced - in our current austerity-raddled climate of wage stagnation, spiralling living costs, and no-frills contracts - might be enough to keep staff locked into such conditions.
Advanced capitalism has somehow taken workplace competitiveness, slavish hours and impossible, round-the-clock work demands and turned the whole into a good thing.
Moreover, advanced capitalism has somehow taken workplace competitiveness, slavish hours, and impossible, round-the-clock work demands and turned the whole into a good thing. And we lap it up, revelling in the hyper-competitive hard work, wearing it as a badge of honour and proof of our super-modern, professional status; after all, isn't the repeated modern refrain "I'm so busy!" just a new status signifier?
Sure, crazy work demands might be taking a toll on your personal life, loved ones, health and wellbeing, but what's not to love about thriving in a dynamic, innovative workplace? The preening subtext in all the talk around tech companies, in particular, is that some people just can't take the pace; these shiny, buzzy workplaces are where the future happens, but, you know, not everyone can be a part of that.
Long ago, we accepted that the cost of our fast, disposable baubles - the stuff that makes advanced consumer capitalism go round - is an increasingly impoverished, exploited and largely unseen workforce.
For some years now, the sweatshops and call centres have been discussed and bemoaned and remained exactly the same. Remember the reports about high-street chains and global trainer brands exploiting mostly female labour, paying a pittance in unregulated factories? It's all still going on - and if anything, is getting worse.
And what about when we found out that some of our mobile phone and laptop components are "conflict minerals", and the mining of which fuels conflict in the developing world?
Appalling warehouse conditions
Amazon isn't the first US giant to be subjected to scrutiny over punishing workplace practices; that other great US retailer, Walmart, was similarly castigated over a decade ago.
But Amazon also came under fire a few years ago for its appalling warehouse conditions. One of the tech industry's most admired companies, Amazon was described as running "slave camp" conditions in the UK: timing warehouse staff's toilet breaks, penalising them for talking, having them walk 11 miles in the course of a working day - all for around 6.50 pounds ($10.25) an hour.
Meanwhile in the US, on top of the mandatory overtime and pushing workloads, Amazon's giant warehouses became so overheated that it parked paramedics outside the building, ready to treat staff suffering heat stress and dehydration. Amazon issued rebuttals to accusations on both sides of the Atlantic and reported it had installed air conditioning units in warehouses, which, in company-speak, are called "fulfilment centres".
We know all this, but we also know that Amazon is really good at delivering a dazzling array of products to our doorstep - and really fast. Just as we know that Walmart and others conveniently sell pretty much everything at low-cost and in one space.
The two things are joined, of course, but who dwells on the connection? It's too much to think about - not just because to do so might mean giving up the convenience offered up by companies like Amazon, but because the change needed is so much more systemic, fundamental and far-reaching. Entire systems, societies and lives are constructed around consumer capitalism: To contemplate doing something different is, on an individual level, just impossibly daunting.
And the genius of this set-up is that it has managed to keep both ends of the workforce - factory and fun, happy office space - caught, in various ways and with varying degrees of pressure (and, of course, with varying degrees of choice), in this modern - but so Victorian - work culture. The reports keep coming out: The latest in the UK warning that working long hours makes us 33 percent more likely to |
on the radar going into this summer. He’s a 2011 fourth rounder with the wheels and the frame (6-foot-4, 190 pounds) to be a factor on the forecheck.
He signed with Vancouver in April 2015 after finishing his fourth season at the University of Wisconsin and playing a couple of games with the Canucks’ AHL Utica Comets farm team on a professional tryout. He was assigned to Utica last season. He scored his first of 10 goals on the campaign on Nov. 25, tallying late in the third period in a 7-1 win over the Lehigh Valley Phantoms.
He had left that contest earlier, though, needing to get stitches after a second-period fight with 6-foot-7, 227-pound Lehigh Valley defenceman Samuel Morin. It was a messy, frightening visual, and the story afterwards went viral. CBSSports.com picked it up, and referred to LaBate’s bloody visor looking like a “crime scene.”
Joe and Karen were checking in on the game on-line that night from the family’s home in Eagan, Minn., a suburb of Minneapolis-St. Paul. Joseph is their youngest of four children.
“As a parent, those are obviously stressful moments to watch,” Joe said over the phone Monday afternoon, as Joseph was in Vancouver preparing for the Canucks pre-season match-up that night against the Arizona Coyotes at Rogers Arena. “It’s a tough sport. Players run into all sorts of tough circumstances. Players can get injured in various ways.
“When he got into the fight, we didn’t know how badly he was hurt. We found out soon enough exactly what had happened. And, when he came back and scored that goal, it was pretty rewarding.
“Photographs (of the fight and the aftermath) still come up. None of us like looking at them. The fights are not fun to watch. You can ask his mother — it’s far from her favourite part of the game.”
LaBate says now that he wasn’t aware initially that he was even cut during the fight with Morin. It was likely from his visor when the pair crashed to the ice. LaBate says he needed 15 stitches afterwards.
“There was so much adrenalin,” he recalled of the evening. “One of the little stick boys came over and he was like, ‘Holy smokes, that guy was huge,’ and then ‘You’re bleeding so much.’
“I didn’t really realize it until I got into the trainer’s room. It was just a cut. I was fine.”
LaBate has drawn rave reviews from Canucks coach Willie Desjardins, prompting the Canucks coach to give him another shot on Monday.
“It means that whatever I’m doing and the game that I’m bringing is making an impact,” said LaBate, who also had 10 assists and 79 penalty minutes in his 66 regular season outings with Utica last season. “I’m just trying to help the team the best I can.”
And his parents? They remain cautiously optimistic right now.
“We are just thrilled that he’s working as hard as he is,” Joe said. “It’s not a surprise. He’s put in many, many years of commitment and sacrifice, like so many of these players have.”
Online raffle
The Vancouver Canucks and the B.C. Lottery Corporation announced Monday a new online Canucks for Kids Fund 50/50 raffle for both home and away games.
It’s separate from the 50/50 raffle that takes place inside Rogers Arena during Canucks home games.
The new raffle is available on PlayNow.com.
Last year’s in-game 50/50 generated over $1 million for the Canucks for Kids Fund.
According to the team, the Canucks for Kids Fund has granted $52 million to charities in B.C. over the last 31 years.Privacy advocates call renewed discussion cynical and say government ‘back door’ access to secure communications would doubtless be used by terrorists
As the world continues to absorb the full impact of the murders of civilians by Islamic State attackers in Paris, officials on both sides of the Atlantic have renewed a discussion that many thought had been closed: whether or not to allow government agencies “back-door” access to the codes used to secure communications and financial and personal medical information.
US and European officials have been quick to indict technology for the attacks – although they have yet to show how, or if, technology contributed. CIA director John Brennan, whose own personal email account was recently breached by hackers, attributed the recent popularity of secure communications to “a lot of handwringing over the government’s role in the effort to try to uncover these terrorists”, and said the effect had been to make the CIA’s ability to locate people “much more challenging”.
On Tuesday evening, senator Tom Cotton introduced a bill that would extend the deadline on the National Security Agency’s bulk surveillance program, called “likely unconstitutional” by a Federal judge last week and due to expire at the end of the month.
North Carolina senator Richard Burr offered the fact that the attacks had surprised intelligence services as proof that the killers had used encrypted communications. He called for the government to review encryption. Burr has also demanded the government shut out Syrian immigrants fleeing Isis in response to the Isis attacks.
“We can’t tell you today specifically that they were using a specific encrypted platform. We think that’s a likely communication tool because we didn’t pick up any direct communication,” he said at a press conference. Both Brennan and Burr used the term “wakeup call” to describe the attacks, though neither offered any evidence of their assertions.
Bill Bratton, head of the New York police department, told MSNBC’s Mike Barnicle that the department’s ability to monitor locals had been hampered by encryption. “We have a huge operation in New York City working closely with the Joint Terrorism Task Force where we’re monitoring and they go dark, because basically they go onto an encrypted app, they’re going onto sites that we can’t access.”
“Going dark” is another phrase favored by encryption opponents in the government.
Privacy advocates have called the renewed discussion of encryption back doors inexcusably cynical and said that back door access would doubtless be used immediately by criminals and indeed terrorists.
“A sophisticated terrorist organization will be thrilled at the presence of weakened encryption and backdoors into encryption, because we know from every reputable computer scientist that there’s no safe way to do it that will not be vulnerable to hackers,” said Lauren Weinstein, a privacy advocate who worked on Arpanet, the ancestor of the modern internet. “We’re talking about the same government that’s proven itself unable to protect the information of its own citizens, and we’re not talking a few people; we’re talking millions.”
“We were shocked and saddened to learn of the attacks in Paris and Beirut,” wrote Electronic Frontier Foundation executive director Cindy Cohn, saying backdoors would “inevitably” be used for illicit purposes. “But these heinous attacks must not be used to justify further erosion of our security, civil liberties or privacy.”
Misreporting on the nature of the PlayStation console and an anonymous quote from “a senior European counterterrorism official” in the New York Times that the attackers had used encrypted devices (the Times said the interviewee “offered no evidence” for the claim) have helped reignite the debate over encryption.
Law enforcement and intelligence services are sounding the alarm about a host of applications, among them services like Telegram and WhatsApp, which adopted end-to-end encryption in January after a series of embarrassing breaches.
But Jan Jambon, a Belgian politician, said last week at a conference before the attacks that “the most difficult communication between these terrorists is the PlayStation 4, not only for Belgian services but for international services to decrypt.” This does not appear to be the case – PlayStation’s party chat feature does not advertise end-to-end encryption, nor does it appear to be a particularly safe platform for clandestine communications.
The company has made headlines several times in recent years over security breaches. Indeed, Sony specifically prohibits using its services to communicate illegal material and says it will happily pass user information on to the police. “Sony will cooperate with any law enforcement authorities or court order requesting or directing Sony to disclose the identity of anyone posting such materials,” the company writes in its terms of service.
Earlier this month, FBI general counsel James Baker said the FBI had given up on encryption back doors. “It’s tempting to try to engage in magical thinking and hope that the amazing technology sector we have in the United States can come up with some solution,” he admitted, calling the notion that back doors might be safe “magical thinking”.
Weinstein said that there was simply no way to make a backdoor “key” that only worked for the “good guys”.
“If there was a scientifically provable way to do this, we could have the discussion, but it doesn’t make sense to have the discussion when everybody who’s looked at this and is honest about it says that it would make us more vulnerable when those systems are subverted,” he said.
“Magical thinking is a really good term for this. They say, ‘Golly gee, if only!’ That if-only doesn’t exist.”
Apple, by contrast, does provide highly encrypted communications, notably iMessage, and without apology. CEO Tim Cook has likened encryption backdoors to leaving a key under the doormat. “If you put a key under the mat for the cops, a burglar can find it, too,” said Cook in a speech in June. “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.” Apple has not changed its position on the matter.
Former deputy director of the CIA Michael Morrell said on Sunday’s Face the Nation that the last debate on cybersecurity “was defined by Edward Snowden”. Now, he believes the coming discussion will be “defined by what happened in Paris”.
Experts in the tech world say that the kinds of encryption likely useful to organizations like Isis are in fact more sophisticated than the mainstream cryptography used by the large tech companies like Apple and Google, which have been the foremost recipients of pressure to provide back doors. Tech companies are also quick to point out that they often comply with reasonable requests from law enforcement.
The White House began a charm offensive in Silicon Valley in April, when newly installed defense secretary Ashton Carter began touring tech companies asking for their direct cooperation, with the tacit threat of legislation mandating governmental access to encrypted communications.
In September the administration said it would not seek legal avenues to mandate encryption back doors, but the White House did endorse the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (co-sponsored by Burr), passed by the Senate just weeks ago, which allows private industry to share user information with the government under a veil of immunity from both regulation and the Freedom of Information Act. Many businesses quietly endorsed the act.
But with renewed calls to weaken cryptography at a moment when data breaches are rampant, the detente between Silicon Valley and the US government appears to be at an end just as relations were beginning to thaw.ASP.NET Core MVC – Caching Tag Helpers
Introduction
Caching can significantly improve our application load time and responsiveness. What can we cache with cache Tag Helpers? Well, we cache HTML content. We usually cache content that does not change frequently.
In one of the previous posts, we talked about Tag Helpers. We saw what Tag Helpers do, how we can use them and we saw how do we use some of the most used Tag Helpers.
Today, we are going to look at how we can use caching Tag Helpers and what they are good for.
The sample application is available on GitHub – CachingTagHelpers.
Cache Tag Helper
First one is <cache> tag helper. Unlike other Tag Helpers that we talked about that are being used as attributes on other tags, Cache Tag Helper is used like a tag – <cache>. Therefore, it wraps content and makes that content available for caching in memory, based on the options we specify with its attributes.
Let us see an example code:
When we open the page for the first time, we will see the current time. However, if we refresh the page within 30 seconds, we will get same content every time. However, once those 30 seconds from the first hit have passed there will be new content, and we will again see the current time in the output.
We got three options for controlling cache Tag Helper via time-related attributes:
expires-after – most commonly used one, it will cache content for the specific amount of time (time span)
expires-on – takes a date time offset
expires-sliding – every time user requests content rendered caching gets extended by specified amount of time (time span)
vary-by attributes
Cache Tag Helpers build cache keys by generating an ID that is unique for the context of the cache Tag Helper. That means we can have multiple cache tag helpers inside of the same view and that those contents will be unique and will not overlap. We can also instruct caching Tag Helpers to use more complex keys by using one of the vary-by attributes or combination of any of the vary-by attributes.
List of vary by attribute suffixes:
query
route
cookie
header
user
vary-by
vary-by-query
It makes unique caches (keys) based on the query parameters for the current request.
For the following code:
We get the following output and changes on the page:
vary-by-route
This one will make unique caches based on the set of route data parameters. It takes a comma-separated list of route data parameter names.
vary-by-cookie
This one will make unique caches based on the value stored in the cookie. It takes a comma-separated list of cookie names.
vary-by-header
This one will make unique caches based on the set of route data parameters. It takes a single header name.
vary-by-user
This one will make unique caches based on the logged in user. Attribute expects a boolean value.
Can we do more?
As we saw, <cache> Tag Helper is very cool and useful. However, it stores cache entries in memory in the local process. If the server process restarts, all of the cache content will be lost.
Furthermore, if we have multiple servers, every server gets to have its cache. And that is probably not what you want.
You could use something called sticky sessions. Sticky sessions ensure that subsequent requests from a client all go to the same server.
Another way to deal with inconsistent caching over multiple servers is to use distributed caching. That is why folks at ASP.NET team also made <distributed-cache> Tag Helper. Let’s see what is that all about.
Distributed Cache Tag Helper
Why should we use distributed cache at all?
Support higher scaling (when compared to in-memory cache)
using distributed cache offloads the cache memory to an external process
we have coherent data across all of our web servers (users always get the same results, no matter which web server they hit)
cached data does not get lost on server restarts and during deployments
we can remove or add web servers without losing cached data
Now we can talk about that distributed cache Tag Helper we mentioned in the previous chapter.
Distributed Cache Tag Helper behaves almost the same as the CacheTag helper. Every attribute available for <cache> Tag Helper is also available for <distributed-cache> Tag Helper.
However, where Distributed Cache TagHelper differs is that it enables us to inject and use an external cache manager instead of using the default in-memory cache manager.
If you want to store the cached HTML content in distributed cache using SQL Server, Redis or something similar then <distributed-cache> TagHelper is the what you need.
Two cache manager implementations that come with ASP.NET Core MVC for distributed caching are SQL Server and Redis.
Another thing where <distributed-cache> differs is that it requires name attribute.
So how do we use distributed cache actually with TagHelper? It is quite easy, but if we just place the <distributed-cache> Tag Helper in Razor code that will not work.
Example with ASP.NET Core MVC 1.1.
Let us add Redis as our distributed cache manager:
Install and start Redis Add following NuGet package: Microsoft.Extensions.Caching.Redis Change the ConfigureServices method by adding the following code:
services.AddDistributedRedisCache(option =>
{
option.Configuration = "localhost";
option.InstanceName = "localRedis";
});
And that is it! From this point, our content inside of <distributed-cache> Tag Helpers should be cached inside of Redis.
Achieving that is even easier with ASP.NET Core 2 since Redis package – Microsoft.Extensions.Caching.Redis comes with amazing meta package – Microsoft.AspNetCore.All.
SummaryStory highlights The U.S. has known for some time ISIS planned to attack around the world
"It's not a sign of weakness or desperation. They are adapting in a different way," an official said.
(CNN) Recent raids against ISIS targets have given the U.S. intelligence community a better understanding of how the terror group is structured and organized and about its plans for attacks outside areas it controls in Syria and Iraq, according to a senior administration official.
They also have made it clear that for some time ISIS was planning to focus on those attacks around the world, although there were no clear indications of when and where that would have provided actionable intelligence to prevent them, the senior official said.
"We were aware they were moving this way," the official said. "It's not like we didn't see it coming."
The official declined to say where the intelligence came from, but a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq and Syria recently revealed the Syrian Arab Coalition (SAC) -- Arab fighters in northern Syria that the U.S. supports -- had collected a significant amount of ISIS intel in raids in northern Syria.
"The SAC forces have... seized more than 10,000 documents from the outlying edges, including textbooks, propaganda posters, cell phones, laptops, maps and digital storage devices. Exploitation of this information is ongoing to better understand Daesh (ISIS) networks and techniques, including the systems to manage the flow of foreign fighters into Syria and Iraq," the spokesman, Col. Christopher Garver, told reporters.
Read MoreThe debate between conventional energy sources and alternative energy sources is ongoing that will only be exacerbated as the years go on. This is mostly due to the fact that more and more people are becoming aware that conventional energy sources, such as coal and oil, immensely pollute the environment. Coal and oil is relatively cheap, which is one of the reasons they have become the USA’s primary energy sources since the Industrial Revolution began. Now, as climate change and global warming are becoming more salient topics, US residents are wondering how these conventional energy sources could be replaced. In this article, we are going to honestly examine three alternative energy sources: solar, wind, and geothermal. Some aspects that are going to be focused on will be the true cost of these systems, savings potential, and overall pros/cons.
Introduction to Solar:
Solar energy has become increasingly popular over recent years due to it’s ease-of-installation and convenient placement. Recent improvements have made solar panels far more efficient than ever before, leading more and more homeowners to consider using the sun as an energy source.
Unlike other energy sources, there is no rotational force. Instead, solar cells within the panels convert sunlight in D/C energy, which is then inverted into A/C energy for household consumption.
Main Segment:
Installation costs:
Installation costs vary heavily depending on a number of factors. Roofs with a larger surface area will obviously bring higher installation costs, but will bring more energy and savings potential as well. Additionally, the government rebate for installing solar panels can often vary.
The cost to install a solar system is about $7-9 per watt, about $20,577 for the average households. Rebates tend to range from 10-20%, meaning that the final cost could be as low as about $15,000.
Savings Potential:
Within a 20 year span, the average household could save anywhere from 7K-30K depending on the area you live in, thanks to a solar-powered system. Maintenance costs generally tend to be in the hundreds and is required every few years depending on model.
Eligible homes:
For many households, solar may not be worth the cost. Houses which are far from the equator, under constant cloud cover (which scatters over 20% of rays), or under a source of shade are rendered significantly less efficient than areas such as South America or Africa. It’s best if the house is relatively far from tree lines and other structures (especially East and West of the house) to keep the horizon free and increase exposure time throughout as much of the day as possible.
Pros:
-Available for most households
-Affordable for many households
-Discreet
-Safe
Cons:
-Performance dependent upon weather – As you’d expect, clouds heavily limit input
-Households beneath trees or in particularly cloudy areas will generate significantly less electricity
-Has extreme growth potential, leaving some homeowners to wait until even more efficient versions come out to purchase the addition
-Requires storage and an inverter, which takes up additional space on house
-Potentially vulnerable to weather damage/vandalism.
Introduction to Wind:
Wind energy is unquestionably one of the most talked about energy sources when people discuss alternative energies and for good reason. It is quite simple how the utilization of wind energy works; once infrastructure such as wind turbines are built, they are used to harness the naturally occurring winds that happen on a daily basis. These winds can be used to power any type of entity that requires electricity. Not only is wind a clean and renewable energy source, but also it is by far one of the most abundant sources of energy available on Earth. Despite the immense benefits, there are some drawbacks as well, which are going to be explained in the upcoming sections.
Main Segment:
Initial costs:
Depending on the type of wind turbine that is being created, the initial bill would be anywhere from $80,000 to $4,000,000. If one is planning to install his or her own personal wind turbine, the total cost will end up at approximately $80,000 or more. On a larger scale, a commercial wind turbine, which would provide power to more than one household or business, the initial costs could total $3-4 million. For commercial wind turbines, that is obviously a large number but the bright side is the average person does not have to worry about paying for those initial costs. This is why wind energy is one of the most cost-effective energy sources because your average person could simply buy this energy from a company that specializes in producing wind energy. If someone decided to go this route, it would be very favorable to potential consumers because on average wind energy costs $.02 per kilowatt-hour. Therefore, the average consumer has choices; they could purchase their own wind turbine or buy the power through another company. It is important to note that if someone lives in the ideal area for wind energy, their electricity bill could potentially be reduced by 50-90%.
Maintenance costs/Lifespan:
Now, wind turbines do not last for a lifetime and they do require maintenance checks much like any other energy system. An average wind turbine is estimated to last for about 20 years before it needs to be replaced and maintenance checks are necessary every few years if not every year. These maintenance checks are not insanely expensive, though; most cost a couple hundred dollars.
Payback rate/Subsidies:
There is some conflicting data on the potential payback rate for wind energy systems. Some places estimate that large wind turbines payback period could be less than a year while others claim, depending on the capacity of the turbine, the payback period could exceed 10 years. Moreover, there are estimates that 10-15 kW turbines would pay for itself within 30-45 years. This is a primary concern of people that are hesitant to move away from our traditional energy systems, so it is important that we find more conclusive data on this issue. However, the lack of certainty on the payback period has not stopped the federal government from subsidizing this industry, as the government pours billions of dollars into the wind energy sector. In fact, from fiscal year 2010-2013 wind energy subsidies increased by 9% from $5.4 billion to $5.9 billion.
Pros:
Clean source of power
– Renewable source of power
-Wind is an abundant energy source that is the largest source of new generating capacity
–Wind is a cost-effective source of power
-One of the least expensive forms of energy once installed ($.02 per kilowatt-hour)
-Job creation
Wind energy is expected to grow by 108% over the next decade
-The economies of farms and ranches would benefit since that is where the turbines will most likely be installed
Cons:
-Wind may not be provided on a consistent basis in some areas of the country
–Visual impacts and the sound produced could be an annoyance to people living in the area
-Initial costs are high
Home wind turbines: $80,000
Commercial wind turbines: $3-4 million
–Storms and other natural events could damage the turbines, thus potentially putting people at risk
-Wind turbines can only be set up in remote locations, so extra infrastructure would need to be built to reach residential locations
Introduction to Geothermal:
It is no secret that the Earth itself produces more than enough energy to meet all the world’s energy needs. Geothermal systems take advantage of this fact. Just like nearly every other source of energy out there, geothermal power is generated by utilizing steam to spin a turbine. However, unlike other systems, geothermal energy makes use of the energy naturally produced within the Earth. This is achieved in different ways by different systems, but they all work on the same general principle; they tap into Earth’s internal heat to either create steam, or access steam that occurs naturally within the Earth.
Main Segment:
Types of Systems available:
Personal Heating and Cooling Systems
One of the most popular and accessible uses of geothermal energy are home heating and cooling systems. While these systems do not produce electricity, they can be used to drastically reduce the energy use at your home. Geothermal heating and cooling systems work by tapping into shallow ground (around 10ft LINK!), to access natural temperature fluctuations. These systems take the place of conventional heating/cooling systems and can reduce your utility bills by 40-60%. While they do cost around twice as much as conventional systems to install (between $20,000- $25,000), they have a lifespan of around twice that of conventional systems (18-23 years) and will likely save you money over the course of 2-10 years. This is not even taking into account that if you live in the United States you will likely be eligible for a 30% tax cut. If you want to check to see if you are eligible, check out http://www.dsireusa.org/ for state-by-state information and potential savings.
Energy Production Systems
Unlike other energy options, there are not geothermal power systems available for personal home use. This is due to the fact that installation of these plants is only economical for use on a large scale because of the massive energy production, as well as the costs of installation. While the cost of these systems varies greatly depending on where they are installed, they are technically viable options for everywhere on Earth.
Pros:
–Provides a virtually endless supply of clean energy, which can be used everywhere on earth
-Saves money over time generally
-Would/could make energy a free (or close to it) public resource due to the fact that the supply would be endless
–Virtually no cost fluctuations due to steady supply
-Generally environmentally friendly especially when compared to fossil fuels
Cons:
–In extreme cases, can cause earthquakes
–Does release some greenhouse gases (much less than oil or coal though)
-High upfront costs
–Much more difficult to access in some areas than in others.
–Contributed by: Frank Bursese, Bobby Amendola and Justin Mood
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Like this: Like Loading...The gay marriage bill has been saved after Ed Miliband agreed at the last minute to vote against an amendment to extend civil partnerships to heterosexual couples that had prompted government warnings that it would derail the entire measure.
The Labour leader, who had planned to abstain in a Commons vote on the amendment, agreed to change tack after the government chief whip Sir George Young sent a message to his opposition counterparts that the Tory leadership was facing defeat.
The move meant that the amendment, tabled by the anti-gay marriage Tory, former children's minister Tim Loughton, was defeated by 375 to 70 votes, a majority of 305.
The decision by the Labour leadership, which has gone from supporting the amendment on civil partnerships to rejecting it within the space of 24 hours, means that the marriage (same-sex couples) bill will now experience a safer journey through parliament.
The government had warned earlier in the day that the Loughton amendment would have threatened the entire bill by adding £4bn to the costs and delaying its implementation. The costs would have come from increased pension survivor rates for new civil partners.
Labour sources said that the party, which had announced earlier in the day that it would abstain on the Loughton amendment after overnight warnings from the government about the threat to bill, denied that Miliband had embarked on a double U-turn.
One source said: "We had an eleventh hour appeal from the government that they did not have the numbers to defeat the Tim Loughton amendment. They made repeated approaches to us at ever increasing levels.
"Ed's overriding priority is to ensure that the bill gets on to the statute book. Ed and Yvette Cooper will therefore be voting against the Tim Loughton amendment. We expect a large number of MPs to join Ed and Yvette. Since there was a genuine threat to the bill Ed decided the best thing to do was to act in this way."
The appeal by Tory whips for Labour support to ensure the safety of the bill highlighted deep divisions in the Conservative party in the wake of claims that a senior member of his entourage described party activists as "swivel-eyed". Lord Feldman, the Tory co-chairman, denied making the remarks.
More than 100 Tory MPs planned to register their opposition to the marriage (same-sex couples) bill by voting in favour of a series of amendments to water down the measure. In the first vote of the evening, more than 150 MPs voted in favour of an amendment that would allow registrars to refuse to perform same-sex ceremonies.
Tory opponents of the bill were alarmed when Labour and the Tories embarked on negotiations during the day. The government agreed during the day to a Labour request to amend its own plans by launching an immediate review into extending civil partnerships to heterosexual couples.
Maria Miller, the equalities minister, agreed to the Labour request. But she suggested that the review could lead to the end of civil partnerships when she said the review will see "if there is a demand for [civil partnerships]".
The deal meant that the government amendment, altered by Labour, was approved by 391 to 57 votes, a majority of 334.
But Labour initially said that it would abstain on the Loughton amendment on the grounds that it agreed with it but did not want to risk the overall bill.
The leaders of all the main parties offered all their MPs, including ministers and shadow ministers, a free votes on the grounds that marriage is a "conscience" social issue in which the party whips have no official say. But the prime minister devoted government time to the gay marriage legislation in the belief that it would help reach out to centre ground voters who may feel uncomfortable about supporting a party whose leader voted in favour of the retention of section 28 as recently as ten years ago.
The divisions among Tories was highlighted when Sir Gerald Howarth, knighted on the advice of the prime minister last year when he sacked him as a defence minister, warned of an "aggressive homosexual community" during a clash with a member of Cameron's policy board. Howarth made the remarks when Margot James, a fellow Tory MP who is in a civil partnership and who was recently appointed to the new Conservative policy board, said that the equal marriage legislation would level the playing field after gay people suffered discrimination in the 1980s.
Howarth replied: "I warn you, and MPs on all sides of the house, that I fear that the playing field has not been levelled. I believe that the pendulum is now swinging so far the other way and there are plenty in the aggressive homosexual community who see this as but a stepping stone to something even further."8:26pm: Bonilla received a $575K guarantee on his deal, tweets MLB.com’s Adam Berry. Considering the right-hander’s lack of big league experience, the minimal guarantee isn’t much of a surprise.
5:25pm: The Pirates announced on Tuesday that they’ve designated left-hander Jeff Locke for assignment and signed right-hander Lisalverto Bonilla to a Major League contract. The 29-year-old Locke has long stood out as a non-tender candidate due to his recent struggles and his projected $4.2MM salary for the 2017 season (via MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz).
[Related: Updated Pittsburgh Pirates Depth Chart]
Locke functioned as a serviceable back-end starter for the Pirates from 2013-15, pitching to a 3.98 ERA with 6.6 K/9 against 3.6 BB/9 with a ground-ball rate north of 51 percent across 466 innings. However, Locke also averaged fewer than six innings per start in that time, and his numbers declined in 2015 before taking an even more drastic downward turn in 2016. This past year, Locke logged a lackluster 5.44 ERA with a diminished 5.2 K/9 against 3.1 BB/9 and a career-low 47.2 percent grounder rate. Right-handed opponents teed off against Locke this year as well, hitting him at a.299/.368/.508 clip in his 127 1/3 innings.
Presumably, the Pirates marketed Locke to other clubs to gauge interest in him and will continue to do so over the next week, but if no deal materializes then Locke will be released into a dismal market for free-agent starters. If it comes to that, it’s certainly plausible that Locke will end up with a 40-man roster spot and perhaps a smaller base salary than his arbitration projection represented in addition to some incentives based on innings pitched. There will be no shortage of teams on the hunt for cheap rotation arms, and Locke is just one year removed from that previously mentioned solid three-year run. (Speculatively speaking, the Marlins could make sense as a landing spot, as former Pirates special assistant/pitching guru Jim Benedict is now in the Miami front office.)
As for Bonilla, the 26-year-old once rated as one of the better prospects in the Phillies and Rangers organizations — he went from Philadelphia to Texas in the 2012 Michael Young trade — but saw his career stall in the upper levels of the Rangers’ system. He landed with the Dodgers on a minor league deal last winter and enjoyed a nice season pitching in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, where he recorded a 3.97 ERA with a 118-to-40 K/BB ratio in 111 innings (13 starts, 18 relief appearances).
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.We’re already halfway through 2013 and the world continues to wake up to the fact that we are not alone in the universe. Just this year, we’ve seen a tremendous step forward regarding UFO disclosure. In early May, researchers, activists, political leaders, and high ranking military/agency personnel from around the world testified to the reality of the UFO/extraterrestrial phenomenon in front of several former United States members of Congress. To watch an interview with former 2008 presidential candidate and ex-congressman Mike Gravel (who participated in the hearings), click here. You can watch interviews with all of the senators who participated in the event here.
For more CE articles on the subject of UFOs and extraterrestrials, click HERE.
Prior to the recent hearing on UFOs and extraterrestrial life, we’ve had explosive statements made by NASA astronauts and professors. (You can watch some of those statements here and here.) Not only has the world heard from all of these credible people, it’s also been privy to official documentation released by dozens of governments worldwide that outline the reality of the UFO phenomenon. Documents indicate that UFOs are of concern to governments, who put a significant amount of time, effort, and resources into studying them. Apart from governments, agencies like the National Security Agency also released official files regarding UFOs, and you can view some of these previously classified documents here.
It’s now a fact that UFOs are tracked on radar, performing maneuvers that defy our current understanding of physics. This is no longer a conspiracy theory; it’s a fact. Release of files began early in 2007 with the UK, and since then, they’ve released thousands of pages every year, with the latest ones published in June 2013 made available through the UK’s National Archives. You can view them here.
“Behind the scenes, high-ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about UFOs. But through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense.”
— Former CIA Director Roscoe Hillenkoetter, 1960
The UFO/extraterrestrial phenomenon is extremely top secret; access to this type of documentation and the deeper truth behind it is almost impossible. CIA directors, presidents, and other high ranking officials barely have any access to these programs. That being said, all of the information that’s already out in the public domain is overwhelming. It makes you wonder how far down the rabbit hole this topic goes.
As most of the world today already knows, Wikileaks is an international non-profit organization that publishes secret information, news leaks, and classified material from anonymous sources. They’ve been a tremendous threat to the controlling elite for a number of years, and have gained the attention of major mainstream media outlets worldwide. For the most part, these mainstream media outlets have bashed Wikileaks leader Julian Assange, arguing that the release of classified documents threatens national security, but in reality, it threatens only the ruling elite.
Since a large amount of official documentation has already been released, the documents from the Wikileaks cables shouldn’t come as a big surprise. Assange has already mentioned that there are yet-to-be published cables that reference UFOs. Below are quotations taken from official transcripts via the official Wikileak cables. You can view it here: http://wikileaks.org/cable/2010/01/10DUSHANBE82.html
On January 13 Ambassador called on Dushanbe Mayor and Chairman of the upper house of Parliament Mahmadsaid Ubaidulloev at his parliamentary office. The Mayor began the meeting with a lengthy discourse on Afghanistan, thanking the United States for its contributions and sacrifices there, and saying that U.S. activities there were very important “as we enter the third millennium and the 21st century.” Ubaidulloev thought the main task there was to build a sense of national identity among ethnically disparate groups, and said the United States was an example for this. He noted that “war is very dangerous”, and said “we know there is life on other planets, but we must make peace here first.”
And another:
In a platitude-ridden meeting, Dushanbe Mayor Mahmadsaid Ubaidulloev said upcoming elections would be free and fair, that contributions to the Roghun Dam were voluntary, and that the losses suffered by the United States in |
world looks to have his character model based off Steve McQueen. Diana goes to Man’s World, things happen and there is an awesome battle in Washington DC with shades of the recent Amazons Attack series (don’t ask).
This was a seriously good movie for straight to video. It’s funny, the cast is great, it’s action packed and leaves you wanting more Wonder Woman. The breakout supporting character though is Artemis (voiced by Rosario Dawson), whose character was Wonder Woman herself for a time in the 90s when everything had to be EXTREME in comics. Her character is so deadly serious during all of her appearances, but also has the cool dry wit of a Schwarzenegger character. I kind of groaned at first when she first came onto the screen, but this movie made up for every dumb storyline from the 90s.
I was expecting mediocre at best, but I was blown away by Wonder Woman. I never for the life of me thought I would see Wonder Woman drinking tequila, but I did, this movie delivered it, and it’s one of the best and funniest scenes in the movie. This is the best thing to come out of Warner Brothers’ DC division so far and with Green Lantern up next I think I might have to set my hopes a little higher for the next release.
Highly recommended, but not for your children.
[tags]Video, Movies and TV, Literature, Wonder Woman, Comics[/tags]Perspectiva Corporum Regularium (Perspective of regular solids), created in 1568 by German goldsmith and printmaker Wenzel Jamnitzer (1508–1585) and available online through the Getty Research Institute, is a study in shapes inspired by the five Platonic solids: tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron, and icosahedron. An article by Frank J. Swetz on the Mathematical Association of America’s website explains that the Platonic solids were thought to be the building blocks of four basic types of matter: tetrahedron of fire, octahedron of air, cube of earth, water of icosahedron. The 10-faced solid — the dodecahedron — symbolized heaven and the universe.
In Perspectiva Corporum Regularium, Jamnitzer rotates and carves each of the solids to demonstrate how they might function as the building blocks of the world. Though science has since demonstrated the atom to be the most basic part of all matter, Jamnitzer’s studies possess a captivating artistic merit. With the manipulation, repetition, and layering of basic shapes, they seem like distant precursors to Minimalism and its concerns.
Jamnitzer sometimes sketches solids in sculptural positioning — a shape upon a pedestal — enhancing an understanding of the three-dimensional form in space. The resulting manipulations are often so varied it can be hard to discern from which Platonic solid they originated. This is Jamnitzer’s point: to show that all matter might be constituted by these primary shapes. Although our understanding of the essence of matter has changed, interestingly, the underlying concept of building blocks has not. All matter is constituted of molecules made of atoms, adding up to their own kind of minimal, molecular geometry.Okay, so first of all, let me give you a brief overview of how the Internet works. You have your computer and it is given an Internet Protocol (IP) address by your Internet Service Provider (ISP, the company you pay for Internet access). When you type in a website (like www.yahoo.com), that gets converted into another IP address (209.191.93.53). From there, it's like a phone call- your computer is talking to one of yahoo's computer's, asking it for information. All of the information is stored on Yahoo's computers and Yahoo can just keep adding more hard drives.
So no, the Internet will never run out of room because it consists of millions upon millions of hard drives and all you have to do is plug in another hard drive to get more space. There currently is a project called the Wayback Machine that attempts to archive the entire Internet from 1996 onward. It is currently 20 petabytes (20,000,000 GB) and it grows by 20 TB (20,000 GB) every month. So, since the archive is also on the Internet and I don't believe it has the whole Internet (password protected stuff probably doesn't get added), it's got to be much bigger than that.
Source(s): http://www.archive.org/about/faqs.php#9 Ben · 10 years ago 2 Thumbs up 3 Thumbs down Report AbuseThe Government Accountability Office (GAO) told Congress yesterday that in addition to a possible gap in data from NOAA’s polar-orbiting weather satellites, a similar gap in data from its geostationary satellites could also occur. It also told two House subcommittees that NOAA’s cost estimate for its new polar-orbiting satellites actually was $14.6 billion, not the $12.9 billion figure NOAA uses publicly. That figure is a cap imposed by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and NOAA is taking action to reduce costs to meet that target.
NOAA operates weather satellites in polar orbits that circle the entire globe as well as in geostationary orbits that maintain a fixed position over the equator. The current generations are called Polar Orbiting Environmental Satellites (POES) and Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES). NOAA was part of a tri-agency program to build new polar orbiting satellites called the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS), but that program failed and NOAA is now embarked upon its own Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS). NASA manages the acquisition of those satellites through a reimburseable arrangement with NOAA. Separately, NOAA is developing a new generation of GOES satellites — the GOES-R series.
GAO’s David Powner told two subcommittees of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee that, overall, both of those weather satellite programs are doing better than in the past, but that does not mean they are trouble free. The biggest surprise of the hearing was Powner’s statement that NOAA has only a 48 percent confidence level that GOES-R, the first of four satellites in the series, will meet its launch date in October 2015. A potential delay in the shipment of the Geostationary Lightning Mapper was cited as one schedule risk factor.
Concern has been focused on a potential data gap for the polar orbiting satellites. NOAA’s existing POES satellites already are getting old. A NASA satellite, NPP Suomi, designed and built as a technology testbed for the NPOESS program, is being repurposed as an operational weather satellite to provide data between now and when the first JPSS is launched. That is scheduled for the spring of 2017, but there is concern that it will not be on orbit with its instruments properly calibrated and validated before NPP Suomi ceases operations. Powner said a 17-month data gap is a best case scenario if NPP Suomi lasts five years and JPSS-1 keeps its 2017 launch date.
Powner also revealed at the hearing that NOAA’s actual cost estimate for JPSS was $14.6 billion, but OMB told NOAA it could only have $12.9 billion. NOAA refers to that as a “cap” and it is $1 billion higher than what NOAA told Congress last year. It includes sunk costs in NPOESS, two JPSS satellites, two additional small satellites for instruments that cannot be accommodated on JPSS, and operations through 2028. NOAA explained earlier this year that the $1 billion increase is because it extended the operational period from 2024 to 2028, so the lifecycle cost estimate covers an additional four years of operations.
Stung by the NPOESS fiasco where years of cost overruns and schedule delays ultimately led the White House to kill the program in February 2010, Congress views this new $1 billion increase with alarm, however. The Senate Appropriations Committee lambasted NOAA in its report (S. Rept. 112-158) on the FY2013 Commerce-Justice-Science (CJS) bill and called for the weather satellite programs to be transferred to NASA because of NOAA’s management shortcomings. NOAA would still operate the satellites once in orbit, but NASA would otherwise be responsible for them.
NOAA’s Deputy Administrator Kathy Sullivan and NASA’s Marcus Watkins, Director of the Joint Agency Satellite Division, declined to tell the subcommittees what the Obama Administration’s position is on the Senate proposal. Both insisted that the Administration is studying the implications and not yet ready to take a position. Watkins’ division serves as the acquisition agent for NOAA’s satellites, managing the contracts for the satellites and associated launch vehicles. NOAA reimburses NASA for those activities today, but under the Senate Appropriations Committee’s plan, NASA would be completely in charge and the money would be appropriated to NASA rather than NOAA.
Powner emphasized the $1.7 billion “funding gap” for JPSS between NOAA’s estimate of $14.6 billion and OMB’s cap of $12.9 billion. A GAO report released simultaneously with the hearing discloses the options NOAA is considering to cope with that shortfall. Sullivan said she has “high confidence” that the measures NOAA is taking to get down to the $12.9 billion figure will be successful, but that it also needs “very high and continued scrutiny.”
Sullivan and Watkins were asked about the potential impact on JPSS and GOES-R of a Continuing Resolution (CR) that goes beyond the first quarter of FY2013. Congress routinely passes CRs when it cannot complete action on the regular appropriations bills by the beginning of a fiscal year on October 1. CRs generally hold agencies to their previous year funding levels. Agencies have become accustomed to CRs for that last one-three months, but problems can develop if they last longer. Sullivan and Watkins indicated that JPSS probably would be OK under even a long-term CR since the requested funding level for FY2013 is almost the same as what it received for FY2012 (just over $900 million). GOES-R, however, needs a “bump” in FY2013 to begin acquiring a launch vehicle. The GOES-R request for FY2013 is $802 million compared to the $616 million it received for FY2012. If it is held at the FY2012 level, there could be “severe negative impacts” to the program’s cost and schedule, Watkins said.
A webcast of the hearing and prepared statements are available on the committee’s website.There is a glaring disconnect between the public and Angela Merkel, along with her establishment cronies. Merkel will be receiving an honorary doctorate from Belgian KU Leuven and UGent universites in Brussels, for “her diplomatic and political efforts to boost Europe’s political strength, and to defend the values which allow the continent to find unity in diversity”; the public is outraged.
“Angry campaigners held placards with slogans reading ‘Merkel not welcomed’ and “’Merkel must go’”.
More than a million migrants have been absorbed into Germany in the last year, which has proved disastrous, bringing sex attacks, surges in crime and a critical economic drain to Germany, not to mention the Christmas market truck jihad attack.
Furious activists also held posters emblazoned with the face of Angela Merkel and the message: “Terror Berlin 19-12-2016 GUILTY”.
“MERKEL MUST GO: Furious protesters demand Angela LEAVES as she receives honorary award”, by Rebecca Perring, Express, January 12, 2017:Jeremy Clarkson punched his Top Gear producer Oisin Tymon in the face following a 40-minute rant in which he swore at him and referred to him as a “lazy Irish”, eyewitnesses have claimed.
The presenter of Top Gear, who has been suspended pending an internal BBC investigation into his conduct at a hotel in Yorkshire during filming of the show, is said to have threatened to have Tymon sacked during the heated row over food.
A guest at the hotel where the BBC team were staying said Clarkson was furious to find that there was no hot meal available when he and his co-presenters James May and Richard Hammond returned from a drinking session at a nearby pub.
In one of the first independent accounts to emerge of the fracas Sue Ward, from Leeds, claimed the presenter complained it was “ridiculous there was noting to eat” and that the producer had not done his job properly.
Mrs Ward, who was staying at the Simonstone Hall hotel, near Hawes, told Sky News: “Obviously there were a lot of expletives in between all this. Clarkson told his colleague he would see to it that he would be losing his job."
A relative of Mrs Ward, called Denise, 51, said: “It was the shock of how can someone be so rude? It was the swearing and the length of time and this poor guy he ripped into.”
Top Gear producer Oisin Tymon (BBC)
Another source said that Clarkson called Tymon, 36, a “lazy Irish c***” before splitting his lip with a punch that left him with blood running down his face.
Tymon is understood to have received treatment at the A&E department at Friarage Hospital, in Northallerton, and is said to have also suffered dizziness.
The producer, who has received abuse on social media following Clarkson’s suspension, including violent threats, has consulted lawyers over the incident.
Slater and Gordon solicitors said: “We are assisting Oisin Tymon in relation to incidents occurring during his employment at the BBC.”
• Is Clarkson - a 'dinosaur' - nearly extinct?
Mrs Ward, a medical receptionist, added: "Even someone who's really inept at their job should be told properly, in a proper manner. But the fact that it was in a public place, I didn't want to listen to that language."
It is understood that Clarkson will firmly deny either using xenophobic language or punching Tymon when he appears before the BBC inquiry being conducted by the head of BBC Scotland, Ken MacQuarrie.
It has been reported that he raised the incident himself with senior BBC managers after meeting with the Top Gear crew to apologise for his outburst.
Clarkson had been due to arrive at the hotel by helicopter from the Top Gear studio in Dunsfold, Surrey, where he had been filming with May and Hammond. But the trio are said to have kept the helicopter waiting while they went into a local pub for two hours to drink.
By the time they arrived at the hotel most of the Top Gear production team had gone to bed, save Tymon who stayed up to greet Clarkson and his colleagues.
A source said: “Oisin had waited to see the presenters before going to bed, but when Clarkson arrived he was very agitated. You could hear him screaming abuse at the hotel bar. He kept saying: ‘He’s f****** gone’, while people tried to calm him down. 2
Eventually the hotel’s general manager, Robert Scott, prepared a £21.95 steak for the presenter, in an attempt to calm him down.
Clarkson himself has hinted that even if he escapes sacking or some other form of disciplinary action he may still quit the BBC show.
Writing in his column in the Sun on Saturday, he did not comment directly on the incident – save to thank the thousands of people who had signed a petition in his support- but alluded to his fate by writing about the decline and eventual extinction of the dinosaurs.
He said: “All the dinosaurs died and now, years later, no one mourn their passing. These big imposing creatures have no place in a world that has moved on. You can start as many campaigns as you like and call on the support of politicians from all sides, but the day must come when you have to wave goodbye to the big monsters and move on. we lose one animal and gat another. The world turns.”
More than 800,000 people have now signed a petition to reinstate the presenter, fuelling speculation that Top Gear would be scrapped if Clarkson was sacked.
But insiders have said the BBC – which holds the rights to the format – is quite prepared to continue making the programme even if it means getting a new presenter or presenters.
One source said other popular shows, such as Have I Got News For You? Had survived a change of presenter and there was no reason Top Gear could not do the same.
Other shows, including Strictly Come Dancing, have continued to thrive after star presenters left, and when a string of high profile presenters including Adrian Chiles, Christine Bleakley and Susanna Reid defected from the BBC they failed to replicate their previous success.
The source also pointed out that the BBC remained the best place for an irreverent and fearless motoring consumer programme, because the Corporation was not beholden to advertisers.
The source told the Telegraph: “If the guys wanted to go to another channel to do a different show, would it be better than Top Gear on the BBC with all its commercial freedom?”
“I think it would be bonkers to suggest we would automatically have to shut up shop. People seem to think that no Jeremy Clarkson means no Top Gear, but programmes can be more robust than people might think.”
Danny Cohen, the director of television, has also made it clear that no one star is considered bigger than the corporation and Clarkson was recently warned that he was in the “last chance saloon”, following a string of controversies.
But many fans of the show, which is sold around the world guaranteeing millions in revenue for the Corporation’s commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, believe it will struggle to replicate its current success without Clarkson at the helm.
It is understood not all the potential witnesses to the row have yet been contacted ahead of the hearing.
Clarkson is scheduled to appear alongside co-hosts James May and Richard Hammond at four live shows in Norway on March 27 and 28 and a decision on whether to go ahead is expected early next week.
All three men’s contracts expire three days after the Norway gigs, which could render any disciplinary hearings redundant.
The last three episodes of the series have currently been put on hold and the BBC has apologised to viewers who complained about the postponed episodes.
In a statement it said: “We do hope you’ll understand that we value this reaction, but the investigation is still under way. Until more is known, we’re therefore unable to say anything further in response and will not yet be making further statements about the issue. We realise you’ll be disappointed that we can’t respond to you in any more detail but thank you for contacting us.”LINCOLN & KENNEDY COINCIDENCES
(last updated April 14-24, 2012)
Readers are invited to add to this developing and evolving compilation of coincidences:
- Lincoln's name has 7 letters
- Kennedy's name has 7 letters
- In Lincoln's & Kennedy's names the vowels & consonants fall in exactly the same place;***
in the order c, v, c, c, v, c, c
- Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846
- Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946
- Lincoln was elected president in 1860
- Kennedy was elected president in 1960
- Kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln
- Lincoln had an aide named Kennedy
- War was thrust upon Lincoln almost immediately after inauguration
- War was thrust upon Kennedy almost immediately after inauguration
- Lincoln ordered the Treasury to print its own money
- Kennedy ordered the Treasury to print its own money
- International bankers may have arranged the assassinations of Lincoln and Kennedy
- Lincoln gave negroes freedom and legalized equality
- Kennedy enforced equality for negroes
- Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863
- Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963
- Lincoln was loved by the common people and hated by the establishment
- Kennedy was loved by the common people and hated by the establishment
- Lincoln was succeeded, after assassination, by vice-president Johnson
- Kennedy was succeeded, after assassination, by vice-president Johnson
- Andrew Johnson was born in 1808
- Lyndon Johnson was born in 1908
- Andrew Johnson's name has 13 letters
- Lyndon Johnson's name has 13 letters
- Andrew Johnson had a pug nose and slicked-back hair
- Lyndon Johnson had a pug nose and slicked-back hair
- Lincoln was sitting beside his wife when he was shot
- Kennedy was sitting beside his wife when he was shot
- Rathbone, who was with Lincoln when he was shot, was injured (by being stabbed)
- Connally, who was with Kennedy when he was shot, was injured (by being shot)
- Rathbone's name has 8 letters
- Connally's name has 8 letters
- Lincoln's wife held his head in her lap after he was shot
- Kennedy's wife held his head in her lap after he was shot
- Lincoln was shot on a Friday
- Kennedy was shot on a Friday
- Lincoln was shot in a theatre named Ford
- Kennedy was shot in a car made by Ford
- Kennedy was shot in a car named Lincoln
- Lincoln's bodyguard was away from his post at the door of the President's box at the theatre
- Kennedy's bodyguards were away from their posts on the running-boards of the President's car
- Lincoln was shot in a theatre and his assassin ran to a warehouse
- JFK was shot from a warehouse and his alleged assassin ran to a theatre
- Lincoln's assassin had a three-worded name, John Wilkes Booth
- Kennedy's alleged assassin had a three-worded name, Lee Harvey Oswald
- John Wilkes Booth has 15 letters
- Lee Harvey Oswald has 15 letters
- John Wilkes Booth was born in 1839 (s/b 1838)
- Lee Harvey Oswald was born in 1939
- Lincoln didn't die immediately after being shot
- Kennedy didn't die immediately after being shot
- Lincoln and Kennedy died in places beginning with the initials P and H
- Lincoln died in Petersen's house
- Kennedy died in Parkland Hospital
- Booth was shot and killed* in police custody before going to trial
- Oswald was shot and killed in police custody before going to trial
- Kennedy's funeral was modelled on Lincoln's funeral
- Andrew Johnson was a heavy drinker with crude behaviour
- Lyndon Johnson was a heavy drinker with crude behaviour
- There were conspiracy theories that Johnson was knowledgeable about Lincoln's assassination
- There were conspiracy theories that Johnson was knowledgeable about Kennedy's assassination**
- Days before it happened Lincoln told his wife and friends about a dream he'd had of being shot by an assassin
- Hours before it happened Kennedy told his wife and friends it would be easy for an assassin to shoot him from a crowd
- Shortly after Lincoln was shot the telegraph system went down
- Shortly after Kennedy was shot the telephone system went down
- Kennedy's father had been the Ambassador to England at the Court of St James
- Lincoln's son became the Ambassador to England at the Court of St James
- Lincoln and Kennedy were 2 of the greatest presidents of the nation
- Lincoln's wife tastefully and expensively re-decorated the White House
- Kennedy's wife tastefully and expensively re-decorated the White House
- Lincoln loved great literature and could recite poetry by heart
- Kennedy loved great literature and could recite poetry by heart
- Lincoln had young children while living at the White House
- Kennedy had young children while living at the White House
- Lincoln's son had a pony he rode on the White House grounds
- Kennedy's daughter had a pony she rode on the White House grounds
- Lincoln lost a child (12 year old son) to death while President
- Kennedy lost a child (newly born son) to death while President
- Lincoln had 2 sons named Robert and Edward. Edward died young and Robert lived on.
- Kennedy had 2 brothers named Robert and Edward. Robert died young and Edward lived on
- Lincoln let his children run and play in his office
- Kennedy let his children run and play in his office
- After Lincoln's assassination the nation experienced an emotional convulsion
- After Kennedy's assassination the nation experienced an emotional convulsion
- the whole world cried when Lincoln died
- the whole world cried when Kennedy died
- Lincoln's funeral train travelled from Washington-DC to New York
- Kennedy's brother's funeral train travelled from New York to Washington-DC
- Lincoln Assassination conspiracy theories are believed these 140 141 years later
- Kennedy Assassination conspiracy theories are believed these 42 43 years later
- Abraham was the first name of the man who filmed Kennedy's murder in the Lincoln
- The man running alongside Kennedy's car snapping pictures with his 35mm camera was a salesman of Lincoln cars
- Kennedy bought a Virginia home that was the 1861 Civil War headquarters of Lincoln's first general-in-chief, McClellan
- Jefferson Davis was the name of the president of the Confederate states while Lincoln was president of the Union states
- Jefferson Davis Tippit was the name of the police officer killed allegedly by Kennedy's alleged assassin
- Lincoln was famous for his wit and for telling hilarious stories and anecdotes
- Kennedy was famous for his wit and for telling hilarious stories and anecdotes
- Lincoln was sitting in a rocking chair at Ford's Theater when he was shot
- Kennedy had a special rocking chair he sat in at the White House
- Henry Ford bought the rocking chair Lincoln died in and put it in his museum in Dearborn
- Kennedy's seat in the Lincoln he was sitting in when he was shot is in Ford's museum
- Lincoln's seat in the Ford he was sitting in when he was shot is in Ford's museum
- John Kennedy is the name of a character in a 1951 movie about a detective travelling by train
to thwart the assassination of President Lincoln
- John Kennedy is the name of the real-life detective who travelled in the train with President Lincoln in 1860
to thwart his assassination
- In 1863, the Tsar sent the war fleet of the Russian empire to assist President Lincoln during the American civil war
- In 1962, during the Kennedy presidency, a fleet of Russian ships transporting instruments of war
were steaming towards America with less benign intent
- Booth was loyal to the south, whose Confederate president was Jefferson Davis ----------------------NEW
- Officer J.D. Tippit was killed [allegedly] by Oswald 2 blocks south of Davis Street and 1 block north of Jefferson Blvd;
The streets run almost parallel and were named after Jefferson Davis
- The officer's initials "J.D." stand for "Jefferson Davis"
- "Davis" is the last name of the people who lived in the house on the corner of Tenth and Patton ---------NEW
where two empty bullet shells were found in the shrubs after the assassin ran diagonally
across their yard on his way to Jefferson Boulevard
- The handgun Oswald allegedly used to kill Tippit was a.38 Smith & Wesson revolver ---------NEW
- The handgun JFK used to announce his location after shipwreck was a.38 Smith & Wesson revolver
- The barrel of the handgun found on Kennedy's alleged killer was 2 1/4 inches long
- The barrel of the handgun used by Lincoln's killer was 2 1/2 inches long
- There are only two times in USA history that incumbent vice-presidents ran for president and lost: --------NEW
- Incumbent Vice-President Breckinridge lost to Lincoln in the 1860 election
- Incumbent Vice-President Nixon lost to Kennedy in the 1960 election
Hank sends a coincidence about vice-presidents Breckinridge & Nixon
OSWALD HANDGUN SAME JFK.38 REVOLVER (Jackie noticed both revolvers were made by Smith & Wesson)
JEFFERSON DAVIS IN LINCOLN-KENNEDY KILLINGS (Ray sends coincidences about the shooting of policeman J D Tippit)
LINCOLN-KENNEDY & CZAR COINCIDENCES (Erwin sends coincidence about Russian war ships sailing to America during the presidencies of both)
~ Michael found a Lincoln/Kennedy coincidence in the 1951 movie "The Tall Target"
LINCOLN-KENNEDY JOHNSONS ALIKE (James says Andrew & Lyndon each have pug nose & slicked-back hair)
Ondra sends coincidences about Lincoln's and Kennedy's seat-mates being injured, their wives holding their heads, and both not dying immediately after being shot
LBJ AIR FORCE 2 TO 1 (...Glancing at the bronze box, Mrs. Kennedy began to think of Abraham Lincoln. The buoyant, youthful sophisticated John F. Kennedy became fused in the shadow of death with the wary, cavernous man who had sealed the fractures in the union with the blood of its best boys. He, too, had had his Johnson ; he, too, had died on a Friday ; he, too, had been sitting with his wife ; he, too, had been shot in the back of the head ; in death he, too, had turned over the affairs of the nation to a man who was earthy, a vindictive Southerner who was politically alienated from his area.)
Sheila sends coincidence of Robert and Edward being sons and brothers
Marti sends a similarity about the seats JFK & Lincoln were sitting in
Jackie adds the rocking chair coincidence
*** Christian says that 'y' is a vowel, not a consonant
Etaoin sends a Lincoln/JFK coincidence about consonants & vowels in their names
Silvia sends a JFK-Lincoln coincidence about the birthdays of Booth and Oswald
LINCOLN DREAMS JFK FUNERAL ('Who is dead in the White House?' I demanded of one of the soldiers, 'The President,' was his answer; 'he was killed by an assassin.')
LINCOLN, KENNEDY & MONEY (Carmen adds a coincidence to the list)
Rachel sends a coincidence to add to the Lincoln/JFK Coincidences List
Colin sends additions for the Lincoln & Kennedy Coincidences list
Raymond contributes more coincidence additions
Raymond contributes to developing list of strange JFK coincidences
- interesting fact: Lincoln picked Andrew Johnson as his second-term running mate in 1864. Kennedy, had he lived, probably would have picked Lyndon Johnson as his second-term running mate in 1964 (exactly 100 years later). Both Lincoln and JFK were assassinated during the first vice-presidential terms of men named Johnson.
THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS (delivered by President Lincoln on November 19, 1863 almost 100 years to the day before President Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963 )
*Booth's death is debatable. Some researchers think a red-haired man was shot and buried in his place
**Lincoln's wife Mary wrote to a friend on March 15, 1866, "...that, that miserable inebriate Johnson, had cognizance of my husband's death - Why, was that card of Booth's, found in his box, some acquaintance certainly existed - I have been deeply impressed, with the harrowing thought, that he, had an understanding with the conspirators & they knew their man... As sure, as you & I live, Johnson, had some hand, in all this...")
JFK TRUTHS & UNTRUTHS and JFK & RFK ASSASSINATION PUZZLES & LINCOLN ASSASSINATION THEORIESMedia playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Footage of rebels on the road between Ras Lanuf and Bin Jawad
Libyan rebels are fleeing the oil port of Ras Lanuf after sustained attacks by forces loyal to Col Muammar Gaddafi.
There were reports of severe civilian casualties after rebel positions and residential areas came under fire from rockets and shells.
Libyan state TV said pro-Gaddafi troops had also cleared rebels from the oil port of Sidra, west of Ras Lanuf.
One of Col Gaddafi's sons, Saif al-Islam, said it was time for "liberation" and "action".
In other developments:
Gulf Arab states said Col Gaddafi's regime was illegitimate and contacts should be made with the rebels
US President Barack Obama's top intelligence adviser, James Clapper, predicted Col Gaddafi would defeat the rebels
The Brazilian daily Estado said one of its journalists, Andrei Netto, had been safely released after going missing days ago in Zawiya; citing Libyan officials, the UK Guardian said its correspondent, Ghaith Abdul-Ahad - who had been with Netto - remained in custody
Three Dutch soldiers taken captive in late February as they tried to evacuate civilians from Sirte are being freed
In recent days, Col Gaddafi's forces have been trying to regain ground in the rebel-held east, as well as the town of Zawiya, west of Tripoli.
Hospital evacuated
One report on Thursday said that pro-Gaddafi tanks advancing on Ras Lanuf had reached their easternmost position since the conflict began.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Saif al-Islam Gaddafi: "This is our country. We will never ever surrender"
A witness in the oil port said he had seen dozens of dead bodies in the residential part of the town.
A BBC reporter said the Ras Lanuf hospital had been evacuated due to the bombardment, and a mosque had been hit in an oil workers' residential area.
"We've been defeated," a rebel fighter told AFP news agency. "They are shelling and we are running away."
But Reuters quoted rebels as denying Ras Lanuf had fallen.
Government planes also targeted Brega, another oil port further east.
Shifting balance?
Zawiya, 50km (30 miles) west of Tripoli, is now reported to be either largely or wholly under the control of government forces, after being bombarded for days with tanks and artillery.
He said if I say one word in English, he would kill me Feras Killani, BBC Arabic correspondent BBC team describe beating
Residents of the city have said women and children are among the dead.
Western journalists in Tripoli were taken late on Wednesday to a stadium on the outskirts of Zawiya that was filled with Gaddafi loyalists waving green flags.
BBC diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus says fears the military balance may be shifting in Col Gaddafi's favour have prompted calls for urgent international action.
However, the African Union said on Thursday evening from the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa that it rejected any idea of foreign military intervention in Libya.
Ramtane Lamamra, commissioner of the AU's Peace and Security Council, said that body would appoint five heads of state to travel to Libya shortly in an effort to end the conflict.
France earlier became the first country to recognise the Libyan rebel leadership, the National Transitional Council (NTC), as the country's legitimate government.
Britain later followed suit, with its Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Nicolas Sarkozy jointly urging other EU countries to do likewise.
In a letter to European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, Mr Cameron and Mr Sarkozy also backed plans for the possible imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya "or other options against air attacks".
Nato defence ministers discussed a no-fly zone during talks on the Libyan crisis in Brussels, but they decided more planning was needed.
Mustafa Abdul Jalil, head of the rebel council, urged other countries to recognise them as Libya's leaders.
The revolt began in mid-February when opponents to Col Gaddafi's 41-year rule seized towns and cities in the east, after successful popular uprisings in neighbouring Tunisia and Egypt.We are happy to announce the full lineup for Pitchfork Music Festival 2017, which takes place in Chicago’s Union Park from July 14–16. As in years past, we strive to be one of the world’s most welcoming and exciting festivals, consistently dedicated to striking a balance between discovery and celebration.
Friday, July 14 sees performances from LCD Soundsystem, Dirty Projectors, Danny Brown, Thurston Moore Group, Vince Staples, Arca & Jesse Kanda, Kamaiyah, Hiss Golden Messenger, Frankie Cosmos, William Tyler, D∆WN, Priests, and Madame Gandhi.
Saturday, July 15 features A Tribe Called Quest, PJ Harvey, Angel Olsen, the Feelies, George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic, Mitski, Madlib, Arab Strap, S U R V I V E, Francis and the Lights, Weyes Blood, Jeff Rosenstock, Cherry Glazerr, and Vagabon.
Sunday features Solange, Nicolas Jaar, the Avalanches, Ride, American Football, Isaiah Rashad, Hamilton Leithauser, Pinegrove, Jamila Woods, Colin Stetson, Derrick Carter, Joey Purp, NE-HI, and Kilo Kish.
As previously announced, this year will feature a special collaboration with Saint Heron, the innovative label and arts platform founded by Solange Knowles. The Saint Heron-curated event series will feature an onsite art installation, film screening, artist talks, late night jazz jam sessions, and more, taking place at various locations throughout Chicago from Thursday, July 13 through Sunday, July 16. Details are available here with more to be announced in the coming weeks.
Tickets are $75 a day, and $175 for a three-day pass. A layaway option for regularly priced three-day passes is also being offered, where you will be able to pay the $175 price over three installments. This offer will expire on March 1. Act quickly and get your tickets here!
This year, Pitchfork also announces Pitchfork +PLUS—an additional ticket tier allowing attendees to enjoy exclusive amenities during the weekend, available at $365 for a three-day pass. Pitchfork +PLUS passes include everything that General Admissions passes provide plus:
Access to premium food vendors
Access to private specialty bars (21+ area)
Deluxe air-conditioned bathrooms
Shaded seating areas
Cell-phone charging stations
Storage lockers*
Exclusive and expedited entry to Festival
“Come and Go” re-entry access to the Festival grounds.
*Availability for storage lockers is limited and will be determined on a first come, first served basis daily.
For more ticket info, and to stay tuned on new amenities and additions to the 2017 Festival, visit the Festival website. Check out a photo gallery highlighting the best moments of the 2016 Fest here.politics The “Webster Effect” Has a Chilling Effect on Staff and Makes for Worse Council Decisions
When City staff don't feel they have the freedom to offer professional advice without consequences, the process is compromised.
“Excellence in bureaucracy isn’t defined like excellence in private enterprise. Excellence in a bureaucracy is the ability to put forth the positions that are consistent with those adopted by the mayor.”
TTC Commissioner Councillor Frank Di Giorgio, attempting to justify his vote to fire TTC Chief General Manager Gary Webster “without cause,” February 21, 2012.
Last week, Mayor John Tory’s SmartTrack got a step closer |
the company’s PR department, today is the 22nd day of “Plant Health Month“—a period designated for raising awareness about the diverse benefits of Headline. That’s one way to celebrate Earth Day.- Advertisement -
Every story has an impact, whether socially or individually, but the story of Sonkorey Mohamed, as reported by the Irin News, has not only touched us, but prompted us to action and long term commitment in doing everything necessary to stop the illegal Ethiopian occupation in Somalia. Sonkorey Mohamed was not raped, nor tortured, but the tragedy she has faced due to the horrific internal displacement outweighs everything else as she experienced the perfect ordeal of being pregnant in the ninth month, and then delivering her first child in the open roadside who died in the process due to lack of a knowledgeable midwife to assist, thus causing her to bleed and eventually lose her ability to control urine.
(Image by Unknown Owner) Details DMCA
That was not the end. Instead of her husband offering vital moral or otherwise support, he abandoned her because of her bleeding and the subsequence infection that presumably engulfed her. In her own words, the young 20-years old Sonkorey said, "My husband has left me because he said I smell very bad and he could not stand it. Other people don't want to be near me." This is a glimpse of the brutality of Ethiopia's 11-month occupation in Somalia. They didn't only expel people in large proportions from the densely populated Capital by artillery shelling and shoot-by-sight, but they also slaughtered innocent civilians with knives as horrific pictures of such inhumane atrocities were shown by the local independent Shabelle Media.
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The U.S. and the International Community has forsaken the Somali people in Mogadishu and elsewhere in Somalia. The International Community failed its collective moral responsibility by being complicit when the US supported warlords and used the vicious Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who ranks 17 in the list of world's worst dictators of last year as its proxy, to replace the six-months peace and order that had prevailed last year in Mogadishu, with what we have today of genocide, deliberate starvations, the arbitrary mass imprisonments of our elders and youth as terrorists for the awesome crime of speaking against the ugly truth of the occupation!
Sonkorey is now among the one million-plus Mogadishu residents who are confined in the harshest concentration camps in the outskirts of the Capital, mainly in Afgoye, under trees as shelters, and near the area of the water-treatment reservoirs, having no access to health facility, adequate food and clean water. The international aid agencies couldn't reach to those people with any help since the so-called TFG government - which purely consist of criminal warlords and murderers that is hated by all Somalis, but supported by our beloved U.S. government and the U.N. - ordered its militias to halt the food delivery as well as the outside media exposure to the irreversible humanitarian tragedy of the population.
So far, the scrutiny is on the war, (the so-called war on terror), and the support that the international community has bestowed upon the Ethiopian mercenaries to win over the resistance of the people, who are regarded in the circles of the U.N. and the U.S. State Department as terrorists, but to us, the Somali people, we consider them our only hope and means for survival. Our people's determination for peace and freedom was tested by the unprecedented systematic calamity against us, but with it was also tested in their values and leadership as the civilized world, by their sheer duplicity and evil policies towards the world's poorest nations.
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As an immigrant to this domestically great nation of America, in terms of its good treatment to me and others, I find very saddened by the actions of the U.S. government against my people. We, as Somali immigrants in the U.S. appreciate the assistance and the opportunity that was extended to us, but we will never appreciate the genocidal treatment of our people in Mogadishu that was carried out by the inexperienced U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Affairs, Miss Jendai Frazer. With the unjust U.S. involvement in Somalia comes with a huge loss of an already tarnished U.S. global standing that is leaning towards duplicity and recklessness.
Instead of helping the Somali people overcome the criminal warlords that had victimized the Somali population for 16 years throughout Somalia, the U.S. policy along the AC-130 gunship is driving our people to choose death over the debilitating state of life in Mogadishu as Sonkorey cries out, "I'd rather die than live like this." I am sure the American people that I've seen are not in line with such hostile policies that deliberately destroy and shatter the lives of innocent people, like that of Sonkorey, but we want them to know that we're suffering because of their taxes that are enabling the Ethiopia's dictator and military to kill as much Somalis as possible.Here’s the little we do know. He was an atheist and liked CNN = leftist. Texas church shooter Devin Patrick Kelley was court-martialed and dishonorably discharged in May 2014. Of course authorities rush to scrub the shooters Facebook page almost immediately — why?
Attack was stopped by a resident shooting at Devin Patrick Kelley. We need more guns — all soft targets need an armed man. Period.
Sheriff on Texas church shooter: “We don’t think he had any type of connection to this church” and “he was not from this immediate area.”
I thought Kelley was made up like Anonymous – the Guy Fawkes mask. But Atlas reader Scott suggests he is “made up like Heath Ledger in his Joker character in One of the Batman movies. I think the Dark Knight. In my book THAT is more sinister and speaks volumes about the evil involved”
Reddit has this:
Here are Antifa tweets (below) inciting to church attacks:
Heavy has these fast five facts:
Devin P. Kelley, who was court martialed from the U.S. Air Force, was identified as the gunman who walked into the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, on Sunday morning and murdered at least 26 people, wounding many more in the tiny, rural community near San Antonio.
The shooter’s name was reported through sources by The New York Times and CBS News; the latter gave his name as Devin Patrick Kelley, 26, of New Braunfels, Texas and said the Air Force court martial occurred only three years ago. Although the motive was not yet clear, the gunman’s background includes religious school work, but he also liked pages devoted to atheism. The shooter, who is dead, left behind disturbing social media posts, including a Facebook page that showed off a rifle, calling it a “bad b*tch.” (You can see the photo later in this story.)
Authorities revealed that a heroic and unidentified citizen in the church “grabbed his rifle and confronted the suspect,” who was armed with a “Ruger AR assault type rifle.” The local citizen pursued the suspect, who ran off the road and crashed and was found deceased in his vehicle. “We don’t know if it was a self inflicted gunshot wound or if he was shot by our local resident who engaged him with gunfire,” authorities said. It was the largest mass shooting in Texas history.
The horrific mass shooting wounded almost everyone inside the small country church building, which held only about 50 people in the town of only a few hundred people. The victims ranged in age from 5 to 72, authorities said. “This will be a long suffering mourning for those in pain,” said Governor Greg Abbott, confirming that 26 people had died. Authorities would not confirm the suspect’s name, and they said they were investigating, but could not confirm, reports of possible militia ties.
As many as 30 other people were injured, reported an ABC producer. A KSAT-TV reporter at the scene said that an “ambu-bus” had responded, which is used to transport multiple victims. Pregnant women and young children were reportedly among the victims, including the 14-year-old daughter of the pastor, who was out of town when the mass shooting occurred. The victims were still not identified, the sheriff said in the evening press conference.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. The Shooter, Who Showed Off a Photo of a Rifle on Facebook, Once Taught Bible School
Kelley’s Facebook page has now been deleted, but you can see a screenshot of the weapon he posted above. His profile picture showed two small children, which was a chilling juxtaposition next to the semi-automatic rifle that was his cover photo. According to The Daily Beast, “Kelley was married and Kelley’s mother-in-law listed a P.O. box in Sutherland Springs as a mailing address. San Antonio police reportedly raided Kelley’s home on Sunday evening…he briefly taught at a summer Bible school.”
The shooter was described as a “white male in his 20s from outside San Antonio” by Mike Levine, a journalist for ABC News, who reported that law enforcement had uncovered a weapon photo on Kelley’s Facebook page. “Authorities are now scrubbing his social media; on Facebook in recent days, he showed off an AR-15 style-looking gun,” Levine wrote.
Devin Kelley’s LinkedIn page says that he was a VBS “teacher aid (sic)” for “VBS AT KINGSVILLE FBC” and notes, “Dates volunteered Jun 2013 – Jun 2013 Volunteer duration 1 mo. Cause Children. Teaching children ages 4-6 at vocational bible schools helping their minds grow and prosper.” However, multiple children are reportedly among those shot in the church. Kelley’s Facebook page also showed that he had liked pages devoted to atheism, as well as those on German Shepherds, Glocks, and karate.
Kelley had recently shaved a beard, he wrote on Facebook recently.
Reporter Matt Massey wrote that “neighbors say they heard shooter may have reloaded multiple times, around 50 people usually at service.” He reported that at least six helicopters were called in to transport victims.
According to CNN, “The shooter was killed after a brief chase north into neighboring Guadalupe County,” according to Guadalupe County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Robert Murphy.
2. The Gunman, Who Is From Comal County, Once Wrote That He Lived By the Air Force’s ‘Core Values’
The LinkedIn page in the shooter’s name shows that Devin Kelley served in the U.S. Air Force right after high school, from 2009 through 2013. According to The New York Times, Kelley is from Comal County. His motive and why he targeted the Wilson County church remain unclear. Comal County is located northeast of San Antonio, Texas. The Daily Beast reported that Kelley was a “resident of New Braunfels, a suburb of San Antonio.”
Kelley’s LinkedIn page says, under the entry for U.S. Air Force, “Cargo, demand and supply, distribution.” He added, “Basic learning on my contracted job.” The page says he attended New Braunfels High School from 2003 to 2009, receiving his diploma. His LinkedIn page also says, “I am a hard working dedicated person. I live by the core values on which the Air Force go by.”
However, CBS News reported that the susect is former “US Air Force E1 (2010-2014). He received a dishonorable discharge. He was court martialed in May 2014.”
The scene outside the church was heartbreaking as crying family members of loved ones gathered outside, desperate for information about them, and praying. A local hospital has reported receiving multiple victims. The ATF was responding to the scene, as did the FBI. Authorities had said very little in the hour immediately after the shooting because they were dealing with the mass casualty event. However, just before 6 p.m., the governor and other officials held a news conference.
Texas Governor Abbott condemned the “evil act,” writing on Twitter, “Our prayers are with all who were harmed by this evil act. Our thanks to law enforcement for their response. More details from DPS soon.” CNN reported that a “witness, a cashier at a gas station across the street from the church, said she heard about 20 shots being fired in quick succession while a church service was underway around 11:30 a.m. local time.”
3. The Gunman Was Dressed All in Black & Wrote That He Did Not Fear Death
Devin Kelley’s social media accounts contained other warnings. His Facebook page contained a quote from Mark Twain about not fearing death. “I do not fear death,” it read. “I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.”
Authorities say the gunman approached the church around 11:20 a.m., “he was seen dressed in all black. He started firing at the church. He moved to the right side of the church and continued to fire, then he went in the church.” He was “dressed all in black tactical type gear and was wearing a ballistic vest,” said authorities in the press conference. Multiple weapons were found in Kelley’s vehicle.
Witness accounts agreed on this: The male suspect walked into the church and opened fire. “A man in full gear came into the church and unloaded several rounds, and then took off in a vehicle,” a KSAT-TV reporter said in a live report on Facebook Live. The FBI was at the scene after the tragedy unfolded.
People on Twitter and Facebook wrote within minutes that a man, possibly with an assault rifle, had shot multiple people. People posted frantic messages on social media about loved ones. Witnesses reported that the man walked into the church around 11:30 a.m. Sunday and opened fire, KSAT-TV reported, adding, “The church is located in the 500 block of 4th Street in the small, south Texas town about 40 miles east of San Antonio.” (Recent population figures said the town has only 362 people.)
Assault rifle reports first originated on social media. “Oh my God if you live in Sutherland Springs or Wilson County please go in side and stay safe. My family just called me freaking out because across the street from their house a guy with an assault rifle started shooting in our town church and even shot my brothers house. If ur from my hometown go inside, lock ur doors and so be safe and I love you all,” wrote one woman on Facebook.
4. Multiple Children Were Among the Victims, Including the Pastor’s Teenage Daughter
Horrifically, early reports say that a small toddler is among the victims. “A witness at the scene reported a 2-year-old was also shot,” reported KENS5. The child’s condition was not clear. There was no official word on the number of casualties.
The toll on children was horrific:
Another man said that people he knew were inside the church. He wrote on Facebook, “Just got a call from (named removed) prayers needed for Sutherland Springs community. Someone went into the Baptist Church and shot 15 people. The guy is one the run and they have the roads closed down. (Names removed) were at their church in LaVernia. Please keep prayers going.”
Some accounts on social media said there might be more than one shooter. However, authorities believe Kelley was the only shooter. Pastor Frank Pomeroy oversees the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs. Pomeroy’s wife, Sherri, told NBC News that her husband was out of town during the shooting, but their daughter was inside. Frank Pomeroy later told ABC News that their daughter, Annabelle, 14, was one of those killed. Pomeroy described Annabelle as “one very beautiful special child” to ABC News.It's the final week of the League of Legends Global Power Rankings for the summer splits. Every week, we look at each team in the five major regions and rank them according to how they are performing.
We're starting with pre-playoffs for the North American/European League Championship Series, after Day 1 and 2 of League Championships Korea playoffs, after Day 1 for the League Pro League playoffs and pre-playoffs for the League Master Series. The +/- indicates the change since the previous ranking. Editor's Picks Riot OCE to host English LPL finals broadcast Riot Games Oceania name trio of casters to broadcast LPL finals and regional gauntlet on site in China at the end of August.
NRG, Schalke fail to requalify for the LCS Two teams with big-time investors have failed to get back into the NA and EU LCS, instead falling into Riot's minor league, the Challenger Series.
Deilor steps down as head coach of Fnatic Luis "Deilor" Sevilla is stepping down after 20 months as head coach of Fnatic's LCS team. He has led the team to championships and an 18-0 record. 2 Related
Nos. 1-10 -- World contenders
Nos. 11-20 -- Playoff contenders
Nos. 21-30 -- Middle of the pack
Nos. 31-40 -- Struggling
Nos. 41-50 -- Bottom of the barrel
World contenders
1. ROX Tigers
Record: 15-3 (30-10) | League: LCK | +/-: No Change
Oh look, the ROX Tigers won another regular-season title and are atop our Global Power Rankings. What a surprise! The Tigers won the LCK regular-season crown for the third time in four seasons, and they will now wait in the summer finals for whichever team can make its way through the postseason gauntlet to meet them in the climactic showdown. After losing the past three major tournament finals to SK Telecom T1, this is the season when the Tigers need to win if they truly want to be considered the undisputed best team in South Korea. And for top lane ace and two-time league MVP Song "Smeb" Kyung-ho, this is another opportunity to establish himself as the world's greatest if he can pick up his first big championship.
2. EDward Gaming
Record: 16-0 (32-5) | League: LPL | +/-: +2
This season China has proved to be extremely competitive, unless you're EDward Gaming, who have dominated the regular season and closed it out with an undefeated record of 16-0. Now with an automatic semifinal berth where it will meet the winner of Team WE and Vici Gaming, the team looks poised to make it to the finals with ease.
3. KT Rolster
Record: 13-5 (29-15) | League: LCK | +/-: +1
After a 3-0 round 1 victory over Samsung in the playoffs, KT's full head of steam coupled with SKT T1 showing weakness could spell a three-peat appearance in an LCK summer finals. Kim "Ssumday" Chan-ho continues to be one of the best players in the world, and he's the type of superstar player that can drag KT to Worlds if need be.
4. Team SoloMid
Record: 17-1 (35-6) | League: NA LCS | +/-: +3
TSM finished off its greatest regular-season of all time by sweeping first-place rival Immortals and ending the regular season 17-1. Now the real season begins for the organization that has made all seven NA LCS finals up to this point but has failed to win the title in the last two. For a majority of the teams in the world, just making the domestic finals would be a huge accomplishment. TSM, however, will need to win the NA LCS playoffs for this year to be considered a success at home.
5. SK Telecom T1
Record: 13-5 (28-13) | League: LCK | +/-: -3
While it's hard to bet against SKT T1 in the LCK playoffs, the three-peating champion of the league is going to have to do a bit of work if it wants to make it through straight hoists of the domestic trophy. SKT T1 faltered down the stretch and will need to beat KT Rolster to make it to the finals against the ROX Tigers.
6. Royal Never Give Up
Record: 13-3 (29-11) | League: LPL | +/-: +1
Royal Never Give Up may have placed second, but the team looks much more vulnerable than it did this time last split. But it's got the better side of the playoff bracket, as WE sits in EDward Gaming's side instead. This means Royal has the easiest chance to make it to the finals should it not falter to the winner of I May vs. Snake Esports.
7. J Team
Record: 10-4-0 | League: LMS | +/-: +3
J Team is ending the summer split as the best team in Taiwan and the first seed for the upcoming playoffs. J Team's teamfight finesse and standard laning continue to be its largest strengths, but that doesn't mean it hasn't seen any challenge. In a loss to ahq, it was pretty clear that J Team's elongated laning phase approach can easily fizzle with extreme pressure on mid.
8. Immortals
Record: 16-2 (33-9) | League: NA LCS | +/-: no change
In a world where TSM didn't exist, Immortals might be defending NA LCS champions and putting a stamp on a perfect season, Alas, that isn't the case, and Immortals defeated everyone this season without dropping a best-of-three except for TSM. While favored to make it to its first domestic finals, TSM is also likely to be awaiting them in Toronto.
9. G2 Esports
Record: 10-6-0 | League: EU LCS | +/-: +1
G2 Esports ended the regular season with a week of mixed results. The team tied with seventh place team Team Vitality but beat fifth place squad Fnatic, both of which have had their ups and downs in the last few weeks. While G2 is likely still the best in Europe, the team still has a lot to prove coming into the playoffs, where they'll have a shot in best-of-three and best-of-five series.
10. Splyce
Record: 9-6-3 | League: EU LCS | +/-: +1
Like its peer G2, Europe's second place team, Splyce, goes into the playoffs on a rough note. The team beat Origen but fell to Unicorns of Love. Come playoffs, Splyce will face the winner of Fnatic and H2K and will need to bring its A-game if it wants to make a run in its playoffs debut.
Playoff contenders
11. Samsung Galaxy
Record: 12-6 (24-16) | League: LCK | +/-: -6
Samsung won 2-0 versus the Afreeca Freecs in the wildcard stage of the playoffs, but a 0-3 versus KT Rolster put Samsung back in its place as the team too good to be lumped in with the middling pack of the league but not good enough to be considered a part of the elite class of South Korea.
12. Cloud9
Record: 12-6 (28-16) | League: NA LCS | +/-: +3
The team with the best chance to shake up the expected TSM vs. Immortals NA LCS Final comes in the form of former two-time champion of the league Cloud9. C9 shook off a stagnant middle of the season to finish strong, and the third-place team could be eyeing an explosive best-of-five semifinal with Immortals if it gets by Team Envy in the first round of the playoffs.
13. Team WE
Record: 10-6 (24-16) | League: LPL | +/-: -4
Team WE closed out the LPL with a surprise loss to Vici Gaming, which it will now face in the playoffs quarterfinals after Vici took down Game Talents. This could prove problematic for WE, but the team's previous victory over Royal shows that it may just be inconsistent. Its quarterfinal showdown means everything if WE wants to stay at the top.
14. Flash Wolves
Record: 10-2-1 | League: LMS | +/-: No Change
The pups clearly have been a top two team all split and have earned the second seed for the LMS playoffs. Flash Wolves still have the best macro in Taiwan, but clearly also still have trouble properly reading their opponent's strengths. Recent patch changes to tower gold are also a burden on the Wolves, as MMD and NL have not been fantastic laners thus far.
15. Vici Gaming
Record: 9-7 (20-17) | League: LPL | +/-: +7
Vici Gaming dominated Game Talents in the first round of the playoffs, moving itself up in the rankings. Vici looks like one of the strongest teams in LPL and will likely be able to challenge Team WE in the Bracket A semifinals. The winner of that set faces EDward Gaming, and it'll be a big match to watch.
16. Ahq e-Sports Club
Record: 8-0-2 | League: LMS | +/-: -3
Ahq seemingly floundered all split trying to find a proper identity this summer and while things looked grim, it pulled it together in the final weeks. Ahq was able to take games off of both Flash Wolves and J Team, with bot and mid-centric strategies tailored to the titans. A best of five may not treat ahq the same way, but it has a few weeks to practice and work its way up from the third seed.
17. Snake Esports
Record: 10-5 (21-14) | League: LPL | +/-: +4
Snake Esports' finish gives it an automatic quarterfinal berth where it will face I May, which won its match against Invictus Gaming. This gives Snake the advantageous side of the bracket, where it could make a decent run and even challenge Royal Never Give Up.
18. Counter Logic Gaming
Record: 10-8 (26-20) | League: NA LCS | +/-: -1
Although fourth in the league, it almost feels like CLG wouldn't want to be in any other spot going into the postseason. The back-to-back league champion has always played at its best when overlooked, and with all the talk surrounding TSM's dominant season and Immortals' attempt to dethrone them, CLG are going into the postseason as quiet as a mouse.
19. I May
Record:21-16 (21-16) | League: LPL | +/-: -3
I May moves on in the League Pro League playoffs after eliminating lower-seeded Invictus Gaming in two games. I May will face Snake Esports next, with the winner advancing to face Royal Never Give Up. While neither team is particularly favored, I May's victory over Invictus may keep them on top.
20. Giants Gaming
Record: 8-3-7 | League: EU LCS | +/-: +3
Giants Gaming took a tie with now-relegated Schalke 04 last week before beating ROCCAT. Giants has looked extremely improved this split and finishing in third is not an easy feat for a team that fought for its LCS spot in the last promotion tournament. Its playoff match versus Unicorns of Love will be a sight to see, but if Giants plays up to expectations, it could be the victor.
Middle of the pack
21. Afreeca Freecs
Record: 8-10 (20-23) | League: LCK | +/-: -9
Afreeca is a team that drags SK Telecom T1 down to its level when it plays, but it still has issues closing out matches against the teams the true contenders easily put away, like in its wildcard match loss against Samsung. Although it's been a remarkable year for the former amateur team known as Rebels Anarchy, the club will need to upgrade its play and consistency if it wants to move from a dark horse to a league favorite.
22. H2K Gaming
Record: 7-6-5 | League: EU LCS | +/-: +6
Since Freeze's injury and the return of FORG1VEN, H2K has looked improved. The team beat Unicorns of Love, Origen, and Fnatic (in a tiebreaker) last week, ending in fourth place in the regular season standings. The team's matchup versus Fnatic will put both teams at odds as the loser takes fifth-six, something neither has done in the playoffs in their time in the LCS.
23. Longzhu Gaming
Record: 7-11 (16-25) | League: LCK | +/-: +7
It was a good ending of the year for Longzhu. It got out of relegations after an awful start to the season, and its roster has seemingly stabilized after an entire year of rearranges and swaps. Although the team won't be going to Worlds like it hoped at the beginning of the split, at least the fans can take solace in the fact they aren't rooting for CJ Entus.
24. LGD Gaming
Record: 7-9 (18-20) | League: LPL | +/-: +13
LGD Gaming ended the regular season with a loss to Royal Never Give Up but a win over OMG. If LGD had been been in group A, it would've easily qualified for the playoffs, but due to the strength of group B, the team will fight for its spot in the promotion tournament.
25. Fnatic
Record: 7-6-5 | League: EU LCS | +/-: -7
Out of all the playoff teams, Fnatic look like it has the most to worry about. Its coach, Deilor, recently stepped down, saying there were issues he was not able to fix, while the team tied with ROCCAT and lost to G2 Esports last week. The writing's on the wall: this may be the first time Fnatic does not make it to the semifinals of the European playoffs.
26. Team Liquid
Record: 9-9 (22-21) | League: NA LCS | +/-: -7
It's been a rough season for Team Liquid. Its Academy team failed to qualify for the NA LCS next split, and the main squad sputtered to an unexpected fifth-place position after looking like a possible third-place contender for a majority of the split. Next up for Liquid is a date with CLG in the quarterfinals.
27. Unicorns of Love
Record: 6-5-7 | League: EU LCS | +/-: +2
The final playoff team from Europe had confusing results last week. First, it lost at the hands of H2K Gaming, but quickly bounced back to beat Europe's second best, Splyce. Unicorns are not consistent in their results, but neither are their playoff opponent, Giants, so there's a chance the team could advance further into the playoffs and face G2 Esports in the semifinals.
28. Hong Kong Esports
Record: 5-4-5 | League: LMS | +/-: -2
The final playoff seed goes to Hong Kong eSports, but frankly this team is still a mess. While the talent ceiling shows up every week to make great comebacks and grab early leads, actual teamplay remains to be seen. The recent patch is certainly a buff to HKE's above-average laners, but it only goes so far.
29. MVP
Record: 7-11 (18-23) | League: LCK | +/-: -5
MVP were in line for a postseason spot for a good portion of the season; however, when it came down to the nitty gritty, it was the experience of the Freecs that won out over the possibly more talented yet inexperienced MVP starting lineup. For what it's worth, MVP had a good showing in its inaugural split, and an offseason of possibly bolstering its lineup with a few new pieces could be what it takes to become a contender come 2017.
30. Apex Gaming
Record: 8-10 (20-26) | League: NA LCS | +/-: +2
It was simply a little too late for Apex Gaming. If we were picking playoff teams on purely an eye-test, Apex or Phoenix1 would be going to the playoffs and Team Envy would be sitting at home enjoying the offseason. But, when Apex needed to beat Envy a few weeks back to secure itself in a playoff spot, the Lions of APX couldn't get it done. With changes expected in the offseason, we'll see how the team shapes up come spring of next year.
Struggling
31. Phoenix1
Record: 5-13 (14-31) | League: NA LCS | +/-: No Change
Phoenix1 has surely come a long way since being a laughingstock early in the season. Once a team that disheartened people who watched them play in the league, P1's second half of the split has brought new fans, optimism, and expectations. The team's 3-0 sweep over Echo Fox has re-qualified them for the spring 2017 split, and the team won't be looking to just stave off relegations any longer: P1 are aiming for the postseason come the new year.
32. Game Talents
Record: 7-9 (16-21) | League: LPL| +/-: +5
Game Talents fell harshly to Vici Gaming in three decisive victories even though it had a one-game advantage due to seeding. Vici will move on but Game Talents is out after a mediocre season in group A.
33. Invictus Gaming
Record: 5-11 (16-25) | League: LPL | +/-: +11
Invictus Gaming got thrashed by I May in the first round of the LPL playoffs and was knocked out. The team looked extremely mediocre this season and barely qualified for the playoffs. IG will need to fix itself if it wants to do better next spring.
34. Jin Air Green Wings
Record: 7-11 (19-26) | League: LCK | +/-: -7
The Green Wings narrowly avoided disaster by beating ESC Ever in its last game to stay safe from relegations. Once a team that was in the top five of our rankings, the Green Wings had one of the worst mid-to-late season runs in recent memory. Still, due to making the playoffs last split, Jin Air could still make it to the World Championships if the team can somehow pull off the miracle of all miracles.
35. ESC Ever
Record: 6-12 (16-29) | League: LCK | +/-: -10
It wasn't a terrible first split for the once-hyped rookies from ESC Ever, but the team did stumble in the end and will play in the relegation matches to keep its place in the major leagues. Luckily, Ever should be able to keep its spot in the league if it can play well on the day of relegations.
36. Midnight Sun Esports
Record: 3-5-6 | League: LMS | +/-: -3
MSE looked to be working its way up to the fourth-best team in the LMS, but those hopes were dashed once the squad lost 0-2 to seventh-place team eXtreme Gamers. At the very least, MSE managed to redeem itself with a win over Machi.
37. Team EnVyUs
Record: 8-10 (17-25) | League: NA LCS | +/-: -2
Yes, Team Envy are a playoff team, and it did win the matches it needed to, but its play was relatively uninspiring. Cloud9 are going to be heavy favorites in the quarterfinals against the wounded Envy, and it'll take a spirited turnaround in only two weeks of practice for the sixth-place team in the league to return to its early season glory.
38. Newbee
Record: 5-11 (13-26) | League: LPL | +/-: No Change
Newbee disappointed again this season, taking fifth in group A and failing to qualify for the playoffs. It ended the season off with a loss to Invictus Gaming and will move on to the promotion tournament to fight for its spot.
39. OMG
Record: 4-12 (13-26) | League: LPL | +/-: No Change
OMG has had one of its worst seasons yet and will now move to the promotion tournament. The team will need to keep its head up if it wants to return to the League Pro League.
40. CJ Entus
Record: 3-15 (12-32) | League: LCK | +/-: No Change
This was an organization that once defined success and popularity. While the team still has a rabid, never-say-die fanbase, the glory is long gone, and the unthinkable might happen: if CJ Entus loses its next best-of-five, it will be relegated from the LCK and dropped into the minor league.
Bottom of the barrel
41. Vitality
Record: 3-9-6 | League: EU LCS | +/-: No Change
Team Vitality barely dodged relegation after tying with Schalke 04 and then beating them in a tiebreaker. With Schalke now gone from the League, it's arguable that Vitality isn't far behind and it's interesting to think how this team would've fared in the promotion tournament. They'll need to make some changes in the off-season if they want to compete next split.
42. Origen
Record: 2-8-8 | League: EU LCS | +/-: -8
Oh, Origen, how terribly this split went for you. The team that once was second in the league last year has fallen hard due to reported mismanagement, poor player relations with FORG1VEN, and the departure of Zven and Mithy to G2 Esports. Origen will need to completely overhaul next split if it wants to be a title contender again.
43. Machi E-sports
Record: 2-5-7 | League: LMS | +/-: -4
Machi has looked fairly lost all split, switching out players constantly in an attempt to cobble together a successful roster. Machi still manages to get some early leads, but generally squandered them as team synergy is at an all-time low.
44. Team ROCCAT
Record: 2-6-10 | League: EU LCS | +/-: +1
Down but never defeated: the Team ROCCAT story. Welcome back to the LCS, ROCCAT. This team has had chances to build European super teams before but those fell through during the offseason period. Now that they'll have almost half a year to rebuild for the next LCS season.
45. eXtreme Gamers
Record: 2-2-10 | League: LMS | +/-: +3
XGamers was able to |
heralding Maitreya’s emergence.)
Dear Editor,
On the morning of 10 July 2009, between 3.30 and 4am, I happened to look out of my bedroom window, and saw a huge star shining brilliantly in the dawn light. The star must have been about six times as large as an ‘average’ star. I was so amazed that I called a friend to witness the phenomenon. Was this the ‘star’ or was it actually Venus?
A.L., Goudhurst, Kent, UK.
(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms that it was the ‘star’)
Dear Editor,
On 2 May 2009, in the small hours, I saw a shining object very high in the sky. It was the only object shining in the sky, all the stars having disappeared. It was white coloured and round like a ball. At a certain point, its luminosity decreased as if to disappear and then it regained its size and brilliance. Then clouds obscured my view, but once the clouds had dissipated, I saw the object had disappeared, but after a while, I saw it again in another place, lower in the sky, and then it disappeared again in the clouds.
Was this a UFO or the ‘star’ announcing the arrival of Maitreya?
A.Y., Abidjan, Ivory Coast, West Africa.
(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms that it was the ‘star’.)
Dear Editor,
Myself and a workmate were travelling to Mackay in Queensland, Australia, and as the sun was coming up on a long road miles from nowhere we saw what looked exactly like the ‘star’ in Share International so we pulled over and viewed it with a cheap telescope we had in the vehicle. That star thing can move from one end of the sky to the other in a blink of an eye, it’s amazing. Also, in my mind it has no real or definite size; it’s all very abstract to the usual way we think of things. It challenged me; in fact it sent me a little nutty for a while. It looks as if it cools off or something and it turns an earthy-red clay-type colour and the fiery-looking interior of it settles. As the sunlight moved in, it disappeared. It’s crazy – absolutely mind blowing to see it as we did.
A.S., Brisbane, Australia.
(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms it was the ‘star’.)
Dear Editor,
Last week I was awakened at 4am and needed to go out to my car to retrieve a bite of candy for a low blood sugar episode. Over my shoulder I thought there was a really bright light, then I did not see it. After the low blood sugar was dealt with, I walked back out to have another look and lo and behold a tremendous, beautiful, sparkling, twinkling – let’s just call it a luminary because star does not quite fit – way too huge and colorful – up in the east, very high. I have been up now most nights and have begun a dawn vigil with the beautiful ‘star’. I awaken most mornings at 4.30 to go and have a look and meditate with this star – it feels like family! I often stay with it until it is high in the sky, well into the new day and still very visible!
I started seeing the ‘star’ back in late December 2008 and then it suddenly was gone by the spring solstice. I sure hope this is its return?
G.C., Alabama, United States.
(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms it was the ‘star’.)
Q&A regarding the'star'
Added
11 November 2009
Q. Some people who have seen the ‘star’ report that they seem to experience an energy emanating from it. Does this really happen?
A. Yes. The ‘star’ (all four of them) does indeed radiate energy, the quality which we would usually associate with love, which is why some people say that they actually love the ‘star’ and hold it in awe as something sacred.
Q. I don’t think I have seen the ‘star’ but would like to very much. If someone strongly desires to see it, is it possible that it would show itself in response?
A. Yes. Several people have reported this phenomenon. What we have to remember is that the ‘star’ is a Spaceship with people inside it and it is They who pick up the desire and respond.
Q. I saw the ‘star’ on 2 March 2009, which was confirmed in Share International magazine. (1) Do sightings of the ‘star’ happen according to a person’s karma, responsibility to inform or other reason? (2) What would be the most effective way to inform people, and therefore accelerate the first interview of Maitreya and eventually the Day of Declaration?
A. (1) No. Anyone can see the ‘star’. (2) Contact media with what you have seen and ask them to ask questions about this unusual phenomenon.
Q. A short while ago I sent an e-mail to Share International to ask if the ‘star’ had appeared over Glasgow yet and received an e-mail from I assume Mr Creme himself whereby he stated he would try and arrange for the ‘star’ to make an appearance over my area and commented ‘jovially’ that he had very fond memories of Glasgow since of course this is his birthplace. I was absolutely delighted that he had returned my e-mail, it wasn’t expected.
I was wondering if the ‘star’ has already appeared over Glasgow recently because I fear I may have missed it, as I was on holiday recently. It’s not that I am that desperate to see it, it’s just that I told my children that it would be appearing soon and I would hate to disappoint them. I wish to put no pressure on anybody, least of all those who are flying the ‘crafts’.
I thank you for your patience and understanding and wish all who work for Share International well. Keep up the good work.
A. Keep your eyes on the skies.
Q. (1) Apart from the Observatory of Malta, are there other scientific institutions aware of the presence of the ‘star’? (2) Which is the best way of accelerating the public awareness of the ‘star’ and its significance? (3) Are any countries more aware of the ‘star’ than others? Many UFO groups detect large spaceships but are not aware of their meaning.
A. (1) I cannot believe that serious workers in the world’s observatories have not seen the ‘star’ — they must have taken note of it, but not understanding its significance, they probably dismissed it. Whenever someone unacquainted with astronomy contacts such a professional body they are fobbed off with remarks like, it was probably Jupiter or Venus, or some other planet in our system. They dismiss, a priori, the possibility of finding something new, like Maitreya’s ‘star’. Ordinary people are upstaged by this response and believe the astronomers. This of course is true of media as well, who need some professional person in astronomy to admit the existence of the ‘star’. However, there was good footage of the ‘star’ on Japanese Fuji Television [17 July 2009] for 1 minute 47 seconds of the ‘star’ doing its ‘tricks’ twirling round, moving, changing colour and size. (2) a: Talk about it. b: Photograph it if possible and send the photographs to local media and/or Share International. (3) No.
Q. I am confused about the connection between Maitreya and beings from other planets, e.g. the large spaceships that are appearing as the ‘star’. What is the connection between Maitreya and these Beings? Why would they be involved in His coming?
A. We are all part of one unitary solar system. The public may not generally know about, or believe in, the reality of life on other planets of our system but the Hierarchies of all the planets are in contact. There is indeed a kind of Interplanetary Parliament representing all the planets. The Space Brothers are here to help the people of Earth to overcome the difficulties which our own ignorance has brought about and to work with Maitreya, and our Spiritual Hierarchy as a whole, in the work of salvage. It is a spiritual mission.
Added
23 September 2009
Q. When will Maitreya first appear on television? Is it related to more people seeing the ‘star’ and/or to the further collapse of our financial systems?
A. It does not entail a further collapse of our systems and it is not really related to more people seeing the ‘star’.
My information is that Maitreya’s first interview is taking place very, very soon – sooner than you think possible. But obviously, if more people saw the ‘star’ and reported the sightings we could start a worldwide media debate about what the ‘stars’ are.
People needn’t necessarily agree with what I believe them to be – gigantic spaceships: one from Mars, one from Jupiter, one from Venus and one from a planet whose name has not been given. They are spacecraft (not ordinary UFOs doing their ordinary work, which is extraordinary) which do this special work vis-à-vis the ‘star’.
I have been told the four ‘stars’ will be in place until the Day of Declaration, in the North, South, East and West, so that wherever you are in the world your area will be covered by a ‘star’. All you have to do is keep looking for them; they don’t appear all the time. People imagine you just look up and suddenly see them. It is not that simple. They are gigantic but they do not fill the sky. They are larger than planets and stars and they move.
Each ‘star’ is about the size of five football fields put together. They don’t appear all the time because they have to recharge their batteries. So they move as close to the sun as possible to recharge their batteries that way. That takes time and then they return to position and move around. That is the thing about the ‘star’ – it moves around. Sometimes, they move about if asked: when you see one you can ask it to move; they have been known to respond to human thought. In fact, we recently published a letter in Share International in which the writer saw the star and asked: “If you are the star can I see another one?” And almost immediately another appeared next to the first, and then another and the fourth. They lined up next to one another.
Q. How can Maitreya emerge if the mainstream media continues to suppress reports about the ‘star’?
A. If the media were to continue indefinitely to suppress reports about the ‘star’ Maitreya would just come forward.
Maitreya has had these craft from our own solar system placed in position around the Earth as a sign heralding His emergence. It replicates what happened in the Middle East when Jesus was born. The Star of Bethlehem guiding the wise men was a spacecraft. This is a repetition of that event. But now there are four and they can be seen sometimes during the day and, of course, at night. They can be seen if you are assiduous and you look often. If you go out star-hunting take a camera with a good zoom. We have photographs of the star which look more like spacecraft than stars.
Look at YouTube [website] and you will see dozens of videos or photographs of the ‘star’.
Q. Are the ‘stars’ life forms?
A. The ‘stars’ are not life forms, they are craft made on Mars, Venus, Jupiter and the other unnamed planet. Two were made on Mars which is the spacecraft ‘factory’ for our solar system; it makes about 90 per cent of all the spacecraft. They are made by thought and are not of dense physical matter. If you went to Mars you would see nothing, but there are more Martians on Mars than there are people on Earth.
Q. Are the ‘star’ visitors guided by Maitreya?
A. No. I am sure that this has all been well thought out between Maitreya and the Space Brothers. I am sure He would leave it up to them to carry out the required mission.
Q. The ‘star’, which you announced in December 2008, is not constantly visible throughout the whole world, but now and then in some places. If the ‘star’ were to be visible constantly, the acceptance by the public would be much easier. Is the appearance of the ‘star’ bound by certain laws?
A. Yes. They can only show their light for a given number of hours per day before needing to be recharged from the sun.
Q. Is there any reason to hope that the Emergence will take place anytime soon? At Christmas you gave many people who trusted you reason to set their hopes very high, but it all seems to have ‘petered’ out. What was billed as a “very bright star visible to everyone both day and night” seems to have panned out to be a tiny fraction of what we were led to hope for. That has caused some people to back away from Share International. (1) Is it possible that Maitreya’s emergence may take place a number of years from now, or (2) that He may have changed His mind about working openly on the world stage?
Added 11.9.2009
Q. (1) Is the new ‘star’ the return of the star of Bethlehem or the “sign of the Son of Man” as prophesized by Jesus? (2) Are all the things that have been happening in the recent past, signs of Him appearing soon? (3) How do you explain the Bible’s prophecy in Matthew 24:29-31, where Jesus says He will come “on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory”? And the scripture that says: “And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming”, says the Lord of Hosts.” (Malachi 3:1) This is plainly talking about a real temple in Israel (to me, at least). The problem is that the Jewish people have not rebuilt the ancient temple of Solomon. This prophecy is yet to be fulfilled. (4) How do you see this happening?
A. (1) The ‘star’ is, symbolically, the sign of the Son of Man and heralds the first appearance of Maitreya, the World Teacher, on US television, interviewed not as Maitreya, but as an ordinary man. (2) Yes. (3) Maitreya descended from His retreat in the high Himalaya on 8 July 1977, stayed some days in Pakistan, then came from Karachi to London, UK, on 19 July 1977, thus “coming in the clouds” which today all can do by aeroplane. (4) The ‘temple’ referred to in this symbolic text is not a building but means humanity, to which the Son of Man returns as the oldest and highest of men.
Q. Fear still sells better than hope. This is one reason for media inhibition of the ‘star’. Fear also governs their editors. I had an experience with a nationwide paper whose editor in chief refused to publish an advert for the ‘star’. He didn’t state any reason for declining, but I guess it had been fear of something strange, peculiar and controversial. Most people would rather go on in old self-destructive ways and media as a whole are the last ones who would
A. I totally agree.
---------- previous additions ----------
Q. I was at your London lecture on 23 April 2009 and you spoke very urgently about the need to get the existence of the ‘star’ into media outlets (radio, television, the internet, etc), so that there is an open public discussion/debate about its meaning.
A. As Maitreya says: “Nothing happens by itself. Man must act and implement his will.” Maitreya desires as much public discussion as possible otherwise the function of the ‘star’ in heralding His approach,
Q. I have been following the news about the ‘star’. I am very much hoping that what people are seeing is the miracle star. But I am wondering whether any unusual sightings have been reported by people who spend their days looking at the stars through giant telescopes, etc. Were the scientific community to observe something new I would be reassured that it is not simply Venus being mistaken for something more unusual. Has this happened yet?
A. The response from professional stargazers has been a deafening silence. Why the silence? Are they following governmental orders to keep quiet about any unusual sightings (like UFOs)? On the other hand, reports of sightings have been flooding in from all over the world – from Norway to New Zealand and the USA to Japan. YouTube is full of reports, many of the ‘star’ although the reporter usually has no idea what, in fact, he is seeing. Some earlier reports were indeed about Venus, but since 28 March Venus has gone beyond our sight. So now there is no confusion. The ‘star’ is brighter even than Venus, changes colour frequently and moves position. So obviously it is not a real star. There are, in fact, four such “star-like luminaries” covering the world. They are gigantic spacecraft (each one about the size of five football grounds put together). They all come from planets of our own solar system. They are a sign, heralds of the first public appearance on American television of Maitreya, the World Teacher.
Q. Thanks for all of the great work that you have done so gracefully for so many years. I have one question that has been gnawing at my mind for several weeks: why have you been calling the light in the sky ‘the star’, while some of your regular readers know it is one or more UFOs?
It seems that many people would quickly become very confused by your references to ‘the star’, especially after they look at the photographs (and accompanying text) on the Share International website that clearly indicates that it appears and disappears in a wide variety of different locations, colours, and forms, and that it moves around randomly (unlike any other star) like a spacecraft might.
To my mind calling it a‘star’, makes it all too tempting for the public (including all those who are open to UFOs), to dismiss the story as baloney. So, why not cut out the pretence and call it a UFO?
A. There is no pretence. Knowing the nature of the ‘star’, as four gigantic spaceships from several planets of our System, I had great difficulty in deciding just how to present it to the general public and media. I decided to follow my Master’s example. He had called it a “star-like luminary of brilliant power”, and related it to the ‘star’ which led the ‘three wise men’ to the birthplace of Jesus. Some of us know that that ‘star’ was a spacecraft too, but is accepted by millions as a miracle star.
It was just before Christmas so I called it a ‘Christmas star’, sure that that would be more interesting and magnetic than a prediction about a UFO. In Britain at least, people are much more sceptical of UFOs than in the USA, for example. Of course, at each lecture I make it clear that what looks like a star is, in fact, one of four huge spacecraft. In a lecture, one has time and opportunity to enlarge on the subject and the meaning and purpose of the phenomenon. In a press release or advertisement one is limited by space and the need to be succinct. The result from the public has been encouraging – eager and excited and amazed by the sheer beauty of the spectacle. The response of the media has been almost nil, as if there was an embargo on mentioning something so important as the herald of the Christ. However, it could be that media interest is starting now. Thank you for your kind words.
Q. Many people in foreign countries have had the pleasure of seeing the ‘star’, but I don’t think it has been over England very much. I live in the south-east, and I haven’t heard of anyone seeing it here in my area. So often the skies are cloudy, but I look every day and night for it. Is it likely to come here again? I have downloaded the photograph of it over Oslo, and given it out to many people in the hope of spreading the news of Maitreya. God bless you all at Share International. I love the magazine.
A. We have some excellent photographs sent in to Share International by people in these islands, but our cloudy skies are certainly a hindrance. However, keep looking and, if possible, take pictures. Thank you for your comments on Share International magazine.
Q. I have noticed that Benjamin Creme’s lectures are running throughout 2009. Why would we need more lectures? After we all see the ‘star’ won’t Maitreya be the main speaker or is the star going to run its show for another year before the appearance of Maitreya? I have been an amateur astronomer for 25 years. Stars are suns, they don’t move in orbital cycles. Would you care to enlighten me on a star that moves? Maybe it’s another object that has a projected orbit?
A. Lectures are given to inform new people of our information. That means about 6 billion people who still have not heard what is happening in our world. The ‘star’ has a limited period as a sign of Maitreya’s presence and first public interview. Stars, as you say, do not move. Nor, I think, do they change colour constantly and disappear at high speed. There are four “star-like luminaries” which are now seen by many people around the world. They are huge spacecraft from different planets of our solar system. Their presence among us is further proof of the reality of UFOs and intelligent and harmless life in our own solar system.
Q. (1) In what way can you recognise the ‘star’ sign and not get it mixed up with celestial bodies? (2) I know it is seen in the west. Does it move in any way? I’m looking for it in my vicinity but don’t think I have spotted it yet. Is there a chance it would make a wee cheeky appearance over Scotland anytime in the future?
A. (1) For a start, it is very bright, brighter than Venus, changes colour and moves. (2) I don’t think we have had reports from Scotland but we have from Canada and New Zealand where many ex-Scots live, as you know. I will see if I can do anything for a magnificent sighting over Glasgow, my dear old birthplace!
Q. When I was staying in a house in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, in March 2009, I noticed a handprint mark on my bedroom window. Back at my home in São Paulo, I realized that there were also some fingerprints on my own bathroom mirror. (1) Were these handprints manifested by Maitreya? (If yes, it’s becoming a frequent phenomenon in my house!) (2) Is this a sign that Maitreya’s appearance is near? (3) On 14 April, at 21.30, I was coming home in São Paulo, when I saw a strange star that was changing colours very quickly, and then disappeared. (3) Was it the ‘star’ and did anyone else realize it was there? (4) Also, on 6 April 2009, outside my home, I noticed an object in the distant sky outside my home. It was emitting a light at times and I remembered that some people who had seen the ‘star’ had asked it to become brighter. I decided to do the same: when I did it really became brighter even when the object was behind the clouds, and was brighter only at the times that I asked. It was a great moment and was like a confirmation. Was it the star?
A. (1) Yes, it is a Sign of His Presence. They are appearing in many parts of the world. (2) YES, very near. (3) Yes, the ‘star’ and many others saw it. (4) It was the ‘star’.
Q. I saw the photograph of the ‘star’ on your website, taken from New Zealand. If something unusual is spotted in our skies, it is normally all over radio talkback programmes and the media, immediately. Not a squeak so far!
If this ‘star’ has been seen from so many countries, it amazes me that astronomers haven’t been speaking out and discussing it, by now! The fact that they are not, seems illogical.
I have been searching in vain for comment from the local astronomy community. The deafening silence does not inspire confidence! I hope with all my heart that there is such a ‘star’ but for now I’m finding it hard to accept!
A. I agree. It is quite extraordinary, this media and professional silence. The ‘star’ is seen all over the world, sometimes even in broad daylight, yet the media and astronomers alike refuse to speak about it. It begins to look as though they are following instructions from somewhere.
Q. I have been reading about the ‘star’ sign on your website. I asked my uncle about the new star but he was unable to find anything more about it, even though he has some fairly advanced telescopes and photography equipment. He cannot find the star in the sky (he lives in Toronto, Canada). Is there any way you can release some astronomical information on this ‘star’ so we can get a better look at it? I know you already have some photographs on your website though they do not seem to contain enough context to determine where the ‘star’ is.
A. Look for a star-like brilliant light which changes colour, moves and sometimes just disappears. It is not a real astronomical ‘star’ but a spaceship.
Q. I saw what I thought was the ‘star’ about 8.45pm on 14 April 2009 when coming out of a Transmission Meditation session in Ladbroke Grove, London. It was in the western sky quite low down, very bright like Venus has been recently. I travelled by underground to my home, which took about an hour, and could still see it. Was it the ‘star’?
A. It was indeed the ‘star’.
'Star' sightings from around the globe
Added 11.9.2009
Dear Editor,
While I was on vacation at the beach in Pawleys Island, South Carolina, I felt inspired to go outside and check the night sky. It was 27 May 2009 around 9.45pm EST [Eastern Standard Time], a beautiful clear night, and the stars were too numerous to count. As I walked toward the ocean, I asked the Space Brothers if they were in the vicinity to please make visible the ‘star’ heralding Maitreya’s first interview on television. Within seconds of making my request, two stars of brilliant yellow/orange appeared like spotlights in the eastern sky directly in front of me. The stars, one larger than the other, were not perfectly round, and brilliant rays of light extended from each star in all directions. They were visible for about 30-60 seconds.
When they disappeared, I called my wife Ann to come outside. When she arrived, the stars reappeared with the same brilliance. After they disappeared once again, she called to her sisters to come outside. This time I looked to the southern sky, and the stars appeared again side-by-side but higher up. We watched the luminaries with joy and excitement. After the stars disappeared, we waited with great anticipation. The stars appeared again in the eastern sky for about 30 seconds. This time when they disappeared, we witnessed the most spectacular display of smaller white blinking stars for perhaps 10 minutes. It seemed as if there were a hundred blinking stars all around the constellation Orion. After the amazing display of blinking lights, one of the original yellow/orange stars appeared again in the eastern sky, then a second one, and a third, and finally a fourth, all side by side. Brilliant rays of golden light extended from each star and appeared for another 30-60 seconds. The four stars then disappeared. Were these stars heralding Maitreya’s first interview?
D. D., Marietta, Georgia, USA.
(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms these to be the four “luminaries”, giant spacecraft, heralding Maitreya’s emergence. See Share International May 2009.)
Dear Editor,
I awoke as if it was the morning (in very good shape) at 3am on Monday 30 March 2009. I felt drawn to the kitchen window and looked out at the sky. It was splendid! I saw a star which looked like a coloured sun, dancing. I felt merry and happy. I went to lie down but I couldn’t sleep again, although I usually sleep very well. Was that the ‘star’?
N. D., Marmoutier, France.
(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms that it was the ‘star’.)
Dear Editor,
I often look at the stars over my village of Santiago de Mora. Some weeks ago, there was a very bright star in the north, not normally there. My friends also saw it over Valladolid, Murcia, Valencia and Alicante and confirmed to me they also saw it move.
Another night, at 10.30pm, talking with a neighbour, we saw passing above us a very bright light, at an altitude of about 300 meters, from west to east. It became sharper as it was above us and focused on us with a very potent light beam, not flickering. It moved very differently from a plane and there was no noise coming from it. I have seen it for five nights, almost at the same time, always passing in the same direction, but at different altitudes. Could you comment on these please?
B. G. R., Santiago de Mora, Spain.
(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms that the “bright star” was indeed the ‘star’. The passing light was a spacecraft.)
Dear Editor,
On the evening of Saturday 9 May 2009 I was reading Share International magazine and thought: “I would like to see that star at last.” I went to my kitchen window (facing west) and saw the radiant sun. After two seconds I suddenly saw on the right side and in a horizontal line from the sun a round white ball with some pastel colours in it. And to my amazement I saw at the same distance another white ball that was dancing up and down. All in all, this whole phenomenon lasted about one hour (18.30 to 19.30pm).
I would very much like to know: (1) Those balls, what were they? (2) Were there indeed two or did this appear so because of the double-glazing window?
T. K., the Netherlands.
(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms that there was in fact one ball and it was the ‘star’.)
Dear Editor,
On 24 April 2009 in the west-southwest sky 25 miles east of NYC, sometime around 11pm, I noticed a star of unusual brightness. It seemed to be flickering from red, to blue to green to white. Is this the ‘star’ we have been expecting?
M. T., New York, USA.
(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms that it was the ‘star’.)
Dear Editor,
On Thursday 18 June from 11.30pm until 1am we watched a star that was easily the brightest star in the western region of the sky. It became steadily brighter as we viewed it and it appeared to change colour (mainly red, orange) and even shape. It was seen at an angle of around 50 degrees in the sky.
We are wondering if this is ‘the’ star? Or have we just seen an ‘ordinary’ star?
C. P., Edinburgh, Scotland.
(Benjamin Creme’s Master confirms that it was the ‘star’.)
Dear Editor,
On Friday 19 June 2009 I woke suddenly at 3.30am and felt compelled to look out of my bedroom window. The sky, which was totally clear, was beginning to turn lighter. High up, and straight ahead, was a very bright twinkling star. All the other stars were no longer visible in the clear sky. Was it the ‘star’?
G. F., London,What is the real story about the "missing oil"?
One study shows that most of the oil is gone, while another shows that there is still a whole lot of it in a mid-depth plume not visible from the surface. The answer might have been found in research announced today by Lawrence Berkeley Lab of the US Department of Energy. They found the plume alright, but they also found that microbial activity, spearheaded by a new and unclassified species, degrades oil much faster than anticipated. This degradation appears to take place without a significant level of oxygen depletion.
The study notes "Our findings show that the influx of oil profoundly altered the microbial community by significantly stimulating deep-sea psychrophilic (cold temperature) gamma-proteobacteria that are closely related to known petroleum-degrading microbes," says Terry Hazen, a microbial ecologist with Berkeley Lab’s Earth Sciences Division and principal investigator with the Energy Biosciences Institute, who led this study. "This enrichment of psychrophilic petroleum degraders with their rapid oil biodegradation rates appears to be one of the major mechanisms behind the rapid decline of the deepwater dispersed oil plume that has been observed."
Hazen notes that "Our findings, which provide the first data ever on microbial activity from a deepwater dispersed oil plume, suggest that a great potential for intrinsic bioremediation of oil plumes exists in the deep-sea," Hazen says. "These findings also show that psychrophilic oil-degrading microbial populations and their associated microbial communities play a significant role in controlling the ultimate fates and consequences of deep-sea oil plumes in the Gulf of Mexico."
There is much we don't know about nature's ability to repair itself. Can we count on microbes to save us when then next environmental crisis arises, maybe, maybe not.
Berkeley Lab researchers collected more than 200 samples from 17 deepwater sites around the damaged BP wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico between May 25 and June 2, 2010. (Image from Terry Hazen group)
For more information: http://newscenter.lbl.gov/news-releases/2010/08/24/deepwater-oil-plume-microbes/ECCENTRIC Queensland billionaire Clive Palmer has today unveiled detailed plans for his Titanic II project, and declared an on board casino would be off limits to pensioners.
The outspoken businessman said a casino would most probably be restricted to first class passengers only to ensure those who could not afford to lose money didn't.
"There'll be some sort of screening (process)," Mr Palmer said.
"We'll be in international waters so we'll probably be able to stop pensioners coming without breaching any legislation."
He said the replica of the ill-fated Titanic would feature a number of key differences including the addition of a "safety deck" with "proper lifeboats".
"New escape stairs, service elevators, air conditioning room and similar functions have also been added," he said.
His ship would also be about one metre wider than the original for "stability".
"But we've retained the essence of the Titanic by having first, second and third class. I think that's very important," said Mr Palmer.
"So if you book on third class you can share a bathroom, sit down at a long table for dinner every night, have some Irish stew and a jig in the night."
media_camera Mining magnate Clive Palmer gives the media an update on the progress of his Titanic II project. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen
Mr Palmer declined to say what the project might cost, but he ruled out seeking any co-investors.
"We don't want any partners. If you look for partners things mightn't happen. This is just for me to go for a little sail around the world in," he said.
The final design was still subject to approval by the board of Mr Palmer's shipping company Blue Star Lines.
It is due to make its maiden voyage in late 2016 after completion at China's CSC Jinling Shipyard.
Originally published as Palmer's Titanic II now on paperNathan Hale (Seattle) has swept the Naismith Trophy High School Player and Coach of the Year honors, the Atlanta Tipoff Club announced Monday.
Michael Porter Jr., a 6-9 forward whom many consider the No. 1 recruit in the nation, took home the top player after averaging 34.8 points and 13.8 rebounds.
Porter scored 28 points with 17 rebounds in the Raiders’ 68-51 victory against Garfield in the Washington state 3A title game.
Brandon Roy, a NBA All-Star guard, won the coach honor in his first season after leading Hale to an undefeated season (29-0) and the state championship after the program won three games last season. Hale is currently ranked No. 1 in the Super 25.
“It’s a dream come true,” Porter said in a news release. “This is the biggest individual accomplishment of my basketball career so far and I feel blessed.”
This marks the third time a player and his coach were both honored, joining Jared and Satch Sullinger (Northland, Columbus) in 2010 and Lonzo Ball and Steve Baik (Chino Hills, Calif.) last season.
“Michael was the leader of a talented team which worked hard and never lost sight of their end goal – a perfect season and winning a state title,” said Eric Oberman, executive director of the Atlanta Tipoff Club. “Coach Roy was the steady guidance who motivated this team to improve every single game and ultimately they both were rewarded by winning Naismith awards.”
Porter Jr. and Roy will be honored at Hale in April.
Winners were determined by the Naismith Awards high school voting academy, a select group of basketball journalists from around the country.An Islamic center is being built near the site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City. Muslim investors have decided to purchase a small space near Ground Zero in New York near where the new World Trade Center complex will be constructed.
The Islamic center will provide education, arts and recreation and will be open to everyone in New York City. The hope is that opening a center and educating the public will reduce the discrimination against Muslims. This project was in the works even before the terrorist attacks of 9/11. It will also serve has a meeting place for Muslims who lack a proper location in lower Manhattan.
The city fully supports this effort and said that Muslims have the same commitment to rebuilding the city as any other New Yorker.An Ontario man reported missing since Monday has been located in Nova Scotia after he called his wife while she was in the middle of a conversation with police about his disappearance.
A Brantford, Ont., detective was speaking with the wife of John Thomas Lavo |
next summer, claims that supporters will be liable to prosecution under the Football Offence Act 1991 should they enter the field of play when West Ham face Swansea in their last ever home game next May.
Sent by Commercial Director Felicity Barnard, the letter confirms that summer pitch events will be staged at the Boleyn Ground between 14th-30th May 2016 - and that the club will do "everything possible to ensure the pitch is in the best possible condition following the celebrations to mark our departure from Upton Park".
In the weeks leading up to the Swansea game, which is currently scheduled for Saturday 7 May, West Ham will "proactively warn" supporters not to access the pitch following the final whistle - a policy they intend to enforce by deploying "increased stewards" at the game to ensure that "the occasion is not spoilt by over exuberance".
And fans will be reminded that "entering the field of play is a criminal act" - with any ignoring the order liable to prosecution under the 1991 act and likely to be banned "from all football stadia" - including the club's new Olympic Stadium home.
The club add that summer events will be treated as "a priority" and that the aforementioned measures are necessary to ensure that all such commercial arrangements "are protected".
West Ham United have called the Boleyn Ground home since 1904. The ground, which the club currently owns has been sold to Galliard Homes and will be replaced by a housing development. West Ham's 99-year tenancy of the Olympic Stadium commences next summer.
* What do you think of the club's decision to order supporters to stay off the pitch after our last ever game at the Boleyn? Have your say on the KUMB Forum or in the comments section below.UC-Berkeley environmental scientist Lynn Ingram joined us for the one-year anniversary episode of Ars Technica Live, and she gave us a broad historical perspective on climate change. Ingram's special focus is paleoclimatology, or the study of Earth's ancient ecosystems. She explained that she spends a lot of time in the lab dissolving rocks, bones, and shells in acid to get good carbon dates on them. Working with other researchers, she has found that California's climate has always been subject to dramatic fluctuations, but now those are being exacerbated by human activity.
California history has always been one of drought and flood. Ingram told us about the southwestern region's great medieval warming period roughly 800 years ago, which may have caused drought for over a century. People living in the region abandoned their settlements and moved away, while plant life struggled to hold on. In the more recent past, California's central valley became an inland sea after 40 days of rain in 1862. This is the sort of megaflood that is due to happen again, Ingram told us, because they seem to occur roughly every two centuries. Even without humans contributing to rapid climate change, we should be preparing for another flood of this magnitude—but now, with atmospheric rivers becoming more common, they will probably happen more often.
So how do atmospheric rivers work? Ingram tells us all about that in the video (above) and podcast (below). She also explains the mechanisms that cause California's ever-changing climate and why the state tends to experience climate changes earlier than other parts of the globe. What happens to California eventually happens elsewhere, though of course climate change will affect regions in different ways. The Pacific northwest will become even rainier, while other parts of the Americas will experience simultaneous drought and tropical storms.
Of course, this is nothing compared to what was happening on the Pacific Coast during the Cretaceous era, when dinosaurs roamed California and there were no ice caps on Earth. The whole planet was essentially tropical at that time, and even Antarctica bloomed with flowers and fruit. Nobody is worried that present-day climate change will take us back to that kind of environment, which would completely change the world as we know it. But we are risking a more dramatic version of the medieval warming, as well as seasonal megafloods.
If you want to keep up with Ars Technica Live, look for monthly updates on the site or follow the event page on Facebook.
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Soundcloud:FILE - This April 19, 2005 file photo shows Pope Benedict XVI greeting the crowd from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica moments after being elected, at the Vatican. On Monday, Feb. 11, 2013 Benedict XVI announced he would resign Feb. 28, the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years. The decision sets the stage for a conclave to elect a new pope before the end of March. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis/FILE)
It was announced Monday that Pope Benedict XVI will be resigning on Feb. 28, citing health concerns for his need to step down. In looking back at his career as Pope, Buzzfeed dug up a 2009 Myspace playlist that the Vatican publicized as music from the Holy See.
The playlist was a part of a series of celebrity playlists, put together for the launch of Myspace's UK site. Most of the playlist features expected tracks such as Mozart's "Don Giovanni," but things get interesting with the inclusion of Tupac's "Changes," and Muse's "Uprising." The Vatican explained the choices at the time as “A perfect mix of classical, world and contemporary music. The genres are very different form each other, but all these artists share the aim to reach the heart of good minded people.”
Take a look at the full playlist below.International Herald Tribune, France
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'Ignorant' Romney Policies Will Result in 'Direct Confrontation' (China Daily, People's Republic of China)
Is Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney out of his depth when it comes to foreign policy? According to this editorial from China's state-controlled China Daily, if Romney's China plans were implemented, they would result in a mutually-destructive 'confrontations' between the United States and the People's Republic of China.
EDITORIAL
August 27, 2012
Peoples Republic of China - China Daily Original Article (English)
Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice delivers the Romney-Ryan foreign policy critique of the Obama Administration, at the Republican National Convention, Aug. 29, 00:18:46. C-SPAN NEWS VIDEO: Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asserts 'Mitt Romney knows leadership', Apr. 29, 00:18:46
By any standard, the China policy of U.S. Republican candidate Mitt Romney, as outlined on his official campaign website, is an outdated manifestation of Cold War thinking.
Romney endorses the "China threat" theory and focuses on containing China's rise in the Asia-Pacific through bolstering America's robust military presence in the region.
And by stating that the United States "should be coordinating with Taiwan to determine its military needs and supplying them with adequate aircraft and other military platforms," the Republican challenger has gone so far as to provoke China in terms of its sovereignty over the island.
Of course, politicians tend to go back on their word after being elected, and playing the China card has become commonplace for U.S. politicians during election years. But Romney's China stance is still worrying, as it could poison the friendly development of Sino-U.S. relations.
Setting aside his remedies for U.S. problems domestically and whether or not they would be effective, if his China policy were implemented, it would cause a retrogression in relations and turn the region into a venue for open China-U.S. confrontation.
Romney's recommendations are EVEN more pugnacious than Obama's "strategic pivot." He insists that the U.S. and its allies "must maintain appropriate military capabilities to discourage any aggressive or coercive behavior by China against its neighbors."BY:
A course titled "Black Lives Matter" (BLM) that examines the controversial movement's strategies "to defend human rights in the era of a New Jim Crow" will be offered this spring at Virginia's James Madison University (JMU).
The class, given as a special topic in the Women's and Gender Studies Department at the public university, will look at "the radical resistance of the Black Lives Matter movement to state sanctioned violence against black and brown communities," according to the course description.
Topics covered will include "black joy in the face of oppression" and "the media dismissal of Black Lives Matter in favor of focus on ‘black on black' crime," the description goes on.
The course will give particular focus to how BLM, founded by LGBTQ black women, differs from the 1970s black nationalist movement, which had "homophobic underlying messages," according to student newspaper the Breeze.
The class was developed and will be given by Beth Hinderliter, an associate professor of cross disciplinary studies. According to her JMU profile, she is co-editor of (Re)framing the Feminine: Women's Studies, Feminism, Gender Identity and the Academy, "which examines the persistent exclusionary aspects of feminism today after many decades of striving to become intersectional, transnational, and inclusive."
Hinderliter said "Black Lives Matter" will collaborate with other courses "to interconnect students on the topics of activism, racism and politics…[and] show there's a wider community at JMU interested in the topic of Black Lives Matter," the Breeze reported.
One of these courses is a sociology class on "the construction of whiteness," noted the Breeze.
A.J. Morey, associate provost for the Office of Cross Disciplinary Studies and Diversity Engagement, was instrumental in creating the course.
She told the Breeze that students who voiced concern about the course's BLM focus should know, "Education is more than a paycheck—it's about becoming a more decent human being. It doesn't mean that they aren't decent now, it just means there are always ways we can learn and grow."
Both Hinderliter and Morey have been contacted by the Washington Free Beacon for comment.
This spring, JMU students can also sign up for a course that asks them to work on a semester-long project researching a specific branch of protest culture.
In March, JMU will also be hosting its 12th annual Diversity Conference, where grants and awards for diversity research are announced. Last year's theme was "All Included All Engaged," whose activities includes a collaborative mosaic that asked attendees "to express what diversity means to [them]."She stole America’s heart as Stephanie Tanner, the spunky middle daughter on the hit show Full House, but after the series ended when she was 13, actress Jodie Sweetin struggled with addiction for years. Now she’s been sober since 2011 — and she credits the change to her role as a mother.
In a new interview with People, Sweetin says earning five years of sobriety has given her an “amazing” life.
Sweetin, who played Stephanie Tanner, having one of those famous Full House heart-to-hearts with her dad, Danny, played by Bob Saget, in a 1987 episode. (Photo: ABC via Getty Images)
Things weren’t always so easy for the child star. In her 2009 book, UnSweetined, Sweetin detailed how she first got drunk at onscreen older sister Candace Cameron Bure’s wedding: “I probably had two bottles of wine, and I was only 14. That first drink gave me the self-confidence I had been searching for my whole life. But that set the pattern of the kind of drinking that I would do.”
STORY: I Enjoy Drinking — What Does That Teach My 13-Year-Old?
In addition to alcohol, Sweetin struggled with a crystal meth addiction and has been in treatment multiple times. Her second marriage, to Cody Herpin, resulted in daughter Zoie, 7, and a third marriage to Morty Coyle brought her daughter Beatrix, 5. Sweetin, who’s currently divorced, says she is finally clean and healthy because of her daughters.
Kimmy Gibbler (Andrea Barber), Stephanie Tanner (Sweetin), and DJ Tanner (Cameron Bure) are all grown up on Fuller House. (Photo: Fuller House/Instagram)
An incident when she drove with her baby in the car after she’d been drinking, detailed in Sweetin’s book, was a big wakeup call. “That was the big rock bottom,” the actress told Us Weekly in 2009. “I not only put myself in danger, but also my daughter, who I loved more than anything. I felt terrible.“
STORY: The Age Parents Should Start Talking to Kids About Alcohol
She began to look back on her own childhood for answers. Sweetin’s biological mother was also an addict, and as a baby, she was adopted by her uncle and aunt. “I would hear stories about my mom leaving me to go off and party. And for years I was like, ‘F*** her. How could somebody do that to their kid?’ When I started seeing my own addiction getting in the way of being a mom, I finally understood: If you’re not in the right place to get sober, you’re not ready to be a mom.”
Jill Weber, a clinical psychologist who works with adolescent patients in Washington, D.C., tells Yahoo Parenting that Sweetin’s own past, even though she was only with her mother for those early nine months, can affect her present. “Addiction runs in families,” Weber says, adding that, for Sweetin, there was also an environmental risk in terms of being adopted, feeling abandoned, and then having the highs and lows that come with celebrity life. “Being on a set throughout childhood, for some, means they maybe had little emotional support, long-term friendships, and a healthy day-to-day routine. As exciting as it sounds to be a child star, it’s arduous work and kids often lose out on having a childhood.”Even after a win on Saturday against Big Ten Conference opponent Illinois, it was not enough to keep the Hoosiers from falling out of the AP Top 25.
For the first time all season, Indiana Basketball is not included in the AP Top 25. Rightfully so, the Hoosiers dropping three straight games was not exactly the way Tom Crean and company planned to enter Big Ten play.
Be that as it may, Indiana did salvage a complete game Saturday. The home win against Illinois, 96-80, snapped a three game losing streak. The losses to Nebraska, then-No. 6 Louisville, and then-No. 13 Wisconsin should have come as a wake up call. The team that was built extensively off of expectations set in early November have now essentially crumbled.
The Hoosiers are pegged as a team that can beat any team on a given night. In the same token, they can lose to an opponent on any given night. Ultimately the two top-5 ranked wins against Kansas and North Carolina seem like a distant past for this Hoosier team from a national perspective. Indiana’s non-conference cupcake schedule didn’t help either.
Indiana came into conference play with one of the worst non-conference RPI rankings in the country (No. 309 out of 351) according to KenPom. Perhaps the Hoosiers felt that match-ups like Kansas, North Carolina, Butler, and Louisville were enough to suffice the other lackluster non-conference opponents. Many could point to the problems the Hoosiers have dug for themselves to the strength of the non-conference opponents, but it goes much deeper than just scheduling.
Whether you agree or disagree about the state in which Indiana Basketball finds themselves, there are bright spots. The Hoosiers are in a perfect situation. The national media has counted them out, but the ones who follow them more closely have a different opinion.
Putting together a complete game…
It’s no secret that the Hoosiers have had their fair share of early struggles. It seemed that every game among the last three weeks have come with a different problem. If it’s not the offensive consistency, it’s the lack of team defense. Turnovers have always plagued Tom Crean led teams, and the same is said about this team.
One of the biggest bright spots for Indiana was Saturday’s win against Illinois. It wasn’t the fact that Thomas Bryant put up a season high point total (20 points) or the guards had a stellar performance. It was the collective effort to play a complete game from start to finish. While the second half of the game wasn’t exactly anything to write home about, it was better than what we have seen over the course of 10 days.
The Hoosiers came out with a defensive aggressiveness that was unusual for this team. Indiana scored the first 15 points of the game. The Illini were struggling to find opening offensive opportunities. The offense was on par with what we knew Indiana’s team was capable of. Along with Bryant’s 20 points, James Blackmon Jr. lead all scorers on Indiana with 25 points. Robert Johnson helped with 18 points of his own. The difference maker above all was the control of the ball. Indiana only allowed 4 turnovers in the first half, something they had not done all year.
It was the first time in about a month or so that we saw Indiana put together a performance they could finish. When the Hoosiers close out games, push from tip-off to conclusion, they win games.
Consistency from the guards…
It goes without saying that the Indiana offense heavily relies on its guards to lead the scoring. James Blackmon Jr. and Robert Johnson are essential to Indiana’s success. The pair of veteran guards, when on, are the most electric shooting duo in the Big Ten. When the two are not shooting particularly well, the offense seems to panic. Other guys on the team take low percentage shots and try to force offense that frankly isn’t there.
The guards also play a crucial role in facilitating to other players on the court. Thomas Bryant and O.G. Anunoby can be versatile scoring threats when in the right opportunity. Those types of opportunities come when Blackmon and Johnson are consistent offensively. Bryant has matured tremendously in just the less than 2 seasons with the team. He can be every bit as important to the offense as the guards are.
Like I have told many furious Hoosier fans on social media this week, let us all take a deep breath. While certainly this Indiana team has flaws we did not foresee early on, I wouldn’t give up on this team just yet. Who knows, Indiana could rattle off 8 straight wins (including the win over Illinois) before they play Wisconsin again. To me, there is no real panic button. Rather a reassessment of where this team is realistically at compared to what we thought two months ago.
Indiana squares off at Maryland (14-2) tomorrow 7pm ET on ESPN.Word about a new caching back-end for the Firefox web browser first spread when the lead designer of the project revealed that Mozilla was working on it in an attempt to protect the cache from crashes or kills of the Firefox process, and also to eliminate any caching related hangs.
The new caching back-end launched today in the latest Nightly version of the Firefox web browser.
It is interesting to note that it landed in desktop and mobile Nightly versions of the browser, and that it is turned off by default.
Interested Firefox users, and who would not be considering that they run the most cutting edge version of the web browser, can enable the new http cache of Firefox in the following way:
The new Firefox HTTP Cache
Type about:config into the Firefox address bar and hit the enter key. Confirm that you will be careful if this is your first time opening the internal page. Type or paste browser.cache.use_new_backend into the search field at the top. Double-click the value and change it from 0 to 1 to enable it. Restart Firefox.
Note that you need the latest Firefox Nightly version for this. Make sure it is up to date if you do not get the preference listed here.
The preference has two values: 0 means it is disabled and the old caching back-end is used, and 1 means it is enabled so that the new cache is used by the browser.
Before you restart the browser, you may want to hear about other new preferences that have been added to Firefox in the wake of this.
The preference browser.cache.memory_limit defines the number of Kilobytes of cache that Firefox keeps in RAM to speed up page loading times and switching on the desktop. The default value is set to 51200 which is 50 Megabytes.
The lead developer notes that the system has some bugs currently. The disk cache is for instance not automatically cleared of old files if it is about to exceed its default limit. This needs to be done manually for the time being, but will be handled by Firefox automatically in the near future once the bug has been fixed.
Mozilla plans to enable the new HTTP Cache in the fourth quarter of 2013. It will still take several release cycles before it lands in the stable version of Firefox.
Closing Words
Most Firefox users should benefit from the new caching back-end performance-wise, or do not notice much of a difference if they work on a fast system (e.g. with a current generation Solid State Drive).
Performance is just one aspect however, and most users will certainly appreciate the fixing of cache related hangs and caching related issues when the browser crashes or is terminated in another way.
AdvertisementSocial media company’s advertising data doesn’t tally with census data for millennial and other demographics to the tune of millions of people
Facebook claims it can reach more young people than exist in UK, US and other countries
Facebook claims that it can reach more millennials and people in other demographics than actually exist in the UK, US, Australia, Ireland and France, according to census data.
In the UK, Facebook says it can reach 7.8 million users aged between 18 and 24. The Office of National Statistics, however, says there were only 5.8 million people in that age group in the whole in the country in 2016.
The problem appears to be systematic and global, with similar discrepancies having been found in various different countries around the world in Facebook’s key markets.
The questionable statistics were discovered by American analysts Pivotal, who noted that Facebook’s advertising tools claim a potential “reach” of 41 million Americans between the ages of 18 and 24.
According to the 2016 US Census, there were only 31 million people in that demographic in the entire country. A similar pattern holds for American 25-34-year-olds: Facebook claims 60 million people, while the census reports 45 million.
In a research note, Brian Wieser, a senior analyst at Pivotal, said that the gap is not widely known among ad agency executives. Now that its existence has been reported, he adds, it may cause large advertisers to step up demands for third-party measurement services.
“While Facebook’s measurement issues won’t necessarily deter advertisers from spending money with Facebook, they will help traditional TV sellers justify existing budget shares and could restrain Facebook’s growth in video ad sales on the margins,” Wieser said.
The problem is international. In Australia, the company claimed to be able to reach 2.3 million 20-24-year-olds in a country that only had 1.7 million of them in 2016, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. In France, Facebook claimed 7.4 million 18-24-year-olds even though the French National institute for demographic studies (Ined) reported 5.2 million of them 2016. In Ireland, where Facebook’s European headquarters is based, Facebook claimed 560,000 young people while Eurostat reports just 353,000 in the country in 2016.
The question marks over Facebook’s audience reach will further erode relations with advertisers still angry about ads running around fake news sites, and the social media site’s admission of a string of measurement errors affecting their campaigns inflating the average time people spend watching videos, in some cases by up to 80%.
“This is yet another self-reporting error by Facebook that doesn’t help it re-establish confidence with advertisers and the market,” said Michael Karg, group chief executive of media and advertising auditing firm Ebiquity. “They have been trying to improve things like transparency, but once again they are having issues.”
Between them, Facebook and Google are expected to take half of all internet advertising revenue worldwide, according to research firm eMarketer, and 20% of the entire advertising business.
Facebook said in a statement that its audience estimates did not match census data, but added that this was by design as ad reach numbers “are designed to estimate how many people in a given area are eligible to see an ad a business might run. They are not designed to match population or census estimates”.
The company added: “This is just an estimator and campaign planning tool. It’s not a business’ actual reach or campaign reporting, and is not billable.”
In November, Facebook launched a blog called Measurement FYI to share updates and corrections for its data. In its most recent post, the company said it was working on technology to identify accidental clicks on adverts, and announced it would begin to report the raw numbers of viewers received by adverts, before the figures are adjusted to deal with fraud, repeats, or accidentally delivered adverts.
On Wednesday, the company revealed that it had taken $100,000 (£76,300) over two years from an influence operation likely based in Russia that spread divisive social and political messages. The adverts didn’t back a particular candidate, but instead spread polarising views on topics including immigration, race and gay rights, Facebook said.
Facebook said it identified a further $50,000 in overtly political advertising that might have a link to Russia. Some of those ads were bought using the Russian language, even though they were displayed to users in English.One of my fondest memories as a young adult was when my dad took me to see Chris Rock. I was so excited to see him live, as we sat somewhere in the middle of a Palm Springs event center, wedged between bouts of explosive laughter and a few sharply drawn gasps. I loved seeing the whole place light up as Chris worked the stage, boldly reckoning with life’s cold truths. And while he got me laughing hysterically, he also got me thinking about the vast injustices of the world — and my place among them, respectively shaping my love and appreciation for stand-up comedy.
While [Chris Rock] got me laughing hysterically, he also got me thinking about the vast injustices of the world.
Last week while I was on the phone for nearly two hours with an income tax representative, we covered the sobering reality of teacher’s pay, and Dave Chappelle’s latest stand-up specials, “The Age Of Spin” and “Deep In The Heart Of Texas.” True to form, Dave examines a set of polarizing topics, like sexism, racism and... O.J. Simpson, once again drawing forth a succession of sighs from his audience. My tax agent was quick to note how excited he was for Dave’s return after a decade, but ultimately felt let down by the performance, simply calling it “not funny” and “repetitive.”
After we hung up, I thought about what he’d said, having binge-watched both specials, and in some agreement, it compelled me to think about the power and purpose of stand-up comedy amid a rapidly changing world. Like all great comedians, Dave isn’t shy about his opinions, nor should he be, especially when he’s got the intellect and inherent curiosity to support his moral impasses and candidly laid out claims. And he delivers. Dave Chappelle is one funny motherf*cker. However, his return has garnered some expected criticism, which is nothing new considering the gig, and the blaring transfer of ideas. But it feels different this time around, beckoning a number of hard questions during an unimaginable period of troubling social discord.
Some have characterized Dave as “cruel, lazy, and offensive.” No doubt his comedic undertones can be heavy. I, too, had jarred reactions as he loosely spoke about Bill Cosby and sexual assault, coming across as ignorant and misogynistic. Similarly, he failed to offer any kind of thoughtful understanding in regards to matters of the LGBTQ community, only perpetuating regressive homophobic and transphobic rhetoric by cracking jokes about transgender people. That being said, and hardly forgotten, his choices didn’t completely deter me from seeing a deeper, more complex Dave Chappelle who ironically, and implicitly, poses some interesting questions throughout his standup: What have we continued to normalize as a society in regards to tolerance? What have we desensitized and conditioned into a “new normal?”
Pulsating with nicotine and penetrating thought, Dave’s ability to cut through social nuances — while rightfully exposing the abuse of power and privilege that exists within our society, is what makes him the provocative comedian that he is. If we strip away all the discomfort Chappelle creates, isn’t it a funny way, pun intended, of confronting our current reality that for lack of a better term, isn’t okay? Offended or not, at the end of the day, his material is our grim actuality.
Take for example two stories he shared in his specials. One about a time when a car full of white teenagers hurled a snowball at him and his sister, who was dressed in all Muslim garb, and the other about some ignorant asshole who threw a banana peel on stage during a show in Santa Fe. Interestingly enough, after being arrested for his racist innuendo he was given the opportunity to redeem himself. A lieutenant with the police department reported that Chappelle actually gave this man a chance to sit and talk, but he showed “no remorse,” only validating what’s terribly wrong with our society, while drawing the curtains for a man with something important to say. What’s jarring and “disconcerting” isn’t necessarily Dave’s act, but the gravity of real life issues that feed and sustain his work, making him one of the most vital and influential comedians I’ve ever seen. And by saying this I’m not excusing him from reinforcing some of the bigoted ideas that take place within our culture, but rather raising an interesting question about the power of platform within stand-up comedy.
Amy Schumer’s latest Netflix special is another example of why stand-up comedy offers more than just a good laugh. She’s never been afraid to address relevant social issues or tell the truth, particularly in regards to how disturbingly easy it is for anyone to obtain a firearm. She uses her platform wisely and unapologetically, giving viewers something to think about beyond what one might deem trivial or trite. Likewise, she’s welcomed true self-empowerment into the folds of our ideas about women and feminism — and tolerance, again unapologetically. She’s made it very clear who’s in charge of Amy, and her message is louder than any laugh.
And then there’s Margaret Cho whose pushed boundaries in many arrangements, stating that comedy is all about “challenging the audience.” In her edgy pitches, she goes straight for the jugular, unabashedly addressing her abuse as a child while also reckoning with racial stereotypes, and audience members walking out offended.Just a Bandit Spoonin' with a Robot. Nothing to see here.
Poetic License is a side mission in Borderlands 2
Quest Giver [ edit ]
Scooter
Prerequisites [ edit ]
Completed Wildlife Preservation
Locations [ edit ]
Sanctuary (Mission Start)
Thousand Cuts
Slab Town
No Man's Land
Bloody Knuckle Point
Objectives [ edit ]
Find inspiration for Scooter
Pick up nudie magazine (optional)
Return to Scooter 0/3
Give Poem to Daisy
Wait for Daisy's Reaction
Turn in: Scooter
Description [ edit ]
Eliot. Yeats. Frost. Scooter
Level 20
Side Mission
Optional: Yes
Rewards [ edit ]
$434 - $838
1929 XP
Green (Uncommon) Sniper Rifle or Assault Rifle
Enemies [ edit ]
"Woa-wee! I got the nudie mags! Worst case scenario, I still got somethin' to pass the time" (After you pick up the magazines)
"Is that a Bandit Spoonin' with a Robot? That is some artsy-fartsy bull crap, my friend. Chicks LOVE that! That's going in the poem. Robots and sexy stuff."
"Aw. A lone flower surrounded by blood n' stuff. I maybe could turn that into a symbol of... of like flowers, or - or birds, or - I got it!"
"Whoo boy! That bandit hung himself from his own tombstone! It's dark. It's depressing. I don't understand what I'm talking about. It's PERFECT! Puttin that in the poem."
"Allright, my poem is done completed and stuff! Get back here, and I will not read it to ya"
"I recorded my sweet nothin's into this here ECHO sevice. Just find Daisy and play it fer her. Gotta wait for her reaction, though, ya hear me? I gotsa know how it went!"
"Herein is Scooter's poem for Daisy. Here we go"
Finished Poem [ edit ]
This is the completed version of the poem Scooter wrote for Daisy:
Daisy, I like you a whole lot
More than that bandit liked spoonin' that ro-bot
You are a diamond in the rough
or a flower surrounded by shrapnel and stuff
I will hang myself from my own tombstone
If within you, I cannot put my bone.
Daisy's Reaction [ edit ]
"Wow, this is really... um, could you excuse me for a second? Thanks."
(Daisy enters her house and shoots herself"
Scooter asks: "So, What'd she think?"
Mission Briefing [ edit ]
Scooter wants to write a love poem, but he needs inspiration. He's asked you to explore Pandora and find natural (or unnatural) landmarks that can inspire him to complete his poem and win the heart of a woman named Daisy
Mission Debriefing [ edit ]
Everyone's a critic
"So, she didn't dig the poem, huh? I dunno, I thought it was pretty good"
Walkthrough [ edit ]
Snap pictures of interesting stuff that can inspire Scooter. Inspirations can be found in any order:
First Poem Inspiration [ edit ]
Bandit Spoonin' with a Robot: Locate this Marauder in a weird pose with a Loader in Bloody Knuckle Point to the west of the bridge.
Second Poem Inspiration [ edit ]
A Lone Flower Surrounded by Blood n' Stuff: Locate this inspiration in No Man's Land
Third Poem Inspiration [ edit ]
Bandit Hung From His Own Tombstone: In Slab Town.
Strategy Guide - Tips - Cheats [ edit ]
Picking up the magazines is optional, but gives you a higher money reward at the end of the mission.Solar wind presses against Earth's magnetic field, giving it a bow shock much like that of a boat in the water. During heavy solar ejections, the pressure can shove the magnetosphere into the Van Allen radiation belts, releasing dangerously charged electrons into space.
As the sun heads toward its 2013 maximum, the corresponding increase in space weather may temporarily strip the radiation belts around Earth of their charged electrons. But a new study of data recorded by 11 independent spacecraft reveals that the deadly particles are blown into space rather than cast into our planet's atmosphere, as some scientists have suggested.
Streams of highly charged electrons zip through the Van Allen radiation belts circling Earth. When particles from the sun collide with the planet's magnetic field, which shields Earth from the worst effects, the resulting geomagnetic storms can decrease the number of dangerous electrons.
Where those particles go is something physicists have long puzzled over — and since they could wreak havoc on sensitive telecommunication satellites and pose a risk to astronauts in space, it's an important question, researchers say.
At the heart of the geomagnetic storm mystery are strange dips, known as dropouts, in the number of charged particles in the radiation belts. These lapses can happen multiple times per year, but when the sun is going through an active period — as it is now — the number can increase to several times per month, scientists involved in the new study explained. [Amazing auroras from geomagnetic storms]
Astronomers have previously suggested that the missing particles could have been ejected toward Earth, where they might have been absorbed by the atmosphere. This activity still could explain some of the loss, particularly that which occurs when no geomagnetic storm has been detected, but not all of it.
A team of scientists from the University of California, Los Angeles, observed a geomagnetic storm in January 2011 with a plethora of instruments. They noticed that as intense solar activity pushes against the outer edge of Earth's magnetic field on the daylight side, the lines can cross, allowing the damaging electrons to escape into space.
"Those particles are entirely lost," lead scientist Drew Turner told SPACE.com. The research is detailed in the Jan. 29 edition of the journal Nature Physics.
Although material ejected from the sun can deplete the Earth's outer radiation belt, it can also resupply the belt with more charged particles in only a few days, Turner said.
Previous studies have found that the volume of electrons can spike after a solar event. When the belts are first almost depleted, Turner's observations imply a larger influx than previously accounted for.
The team used 11 different satellites, including NASA's five Themis spacecraft and two weather satellites operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, to study a small geomagnetic storm. The abundance of spacecraft allowed them to capture a complete picture of the interactions between Earth's magnetic field and the particles streaming from the sun.
"It's impossible to get the sense of the entire process with one pinpoint of information," Turner said.
He called the lineup of the various crafts "lucky."
The upcoming launch of NASA's Radiation Belt Storm Probes Mission (RBSP), scheduled for August 2012, may help to remove some elements of chance from further studies.
"RBSP will provide two more points of view with perfect instruments for radiation belt studies," he said.
Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.ron gray
Ron Gray, a member of the University of Alabama Board of Trustees, discussed the ending of the UAB football program and proposed changes to the board in an interview with AL.com (AL.com file photo)
The termination of the UAB football program "has been painful for everyone involved" but University of Alabama System trustee member Ron Gray said he hoped relationships between the board and UAB would grow stronger in the aftermath.
UAB President Ray Watts announced he was ending the football program as well as the rifle and bowling programs on Dec. 2, 2014, setting off a chain of events that led to a series of no-confidence votes in Watts and for two state legislators to introduce bills calling for changes in the UA System Board of Trustees.
The trustees have remained largely quiet on the issues, speaking through written statements support for Watts.
On May 5, Gray met with AL.com to give the |
grey matter, but white matter is only common in a few places. As we grow the volume of grey matter tends to increase as we head into puberty, and then starts to decrease. White matter on the other hand, continually increases, and the process of myelination continues into our late 20s. This suggests a growth spurt of neurons in childhood, followed by a period of pruning and consolidation in adolescence continuing into adulthood. A lot of this is probably biologically set in stone, but the fine details are no doubt shaped by our life experiences. White matter development has to follow grey to an extent of course, since you can’t insulate an axon that isn’t there, and myelination presumably continues into adulthood as axons continue to sprout new branches and prune others in response to experience.
Chapter 3: The orphans
White matter is also a suspect in the effects of neglect on children. A study of seven children adopted into US families from Romanian institutions used diffusion tensor imaging (a type of MRI) to examine white matter bundles connecting various brain regions. Compared to a group of normally raised children, the adopted kids had less of this white matter, particularly in something called the uncinate fasciculus, which connects parts of the brain’s temporal lobe, including the amygdala, with parts of the prefrontal cortex. The paper makes no specific claims beyond “a structural change” in this white matter “tract”, but it’s worth noting that the amygdala plays a role in memory and emotional reactions and the prefrontal cortex is important for decision making and social behaviour.
The tragedy of Romanian orphans provided psychologists with a “natural experiment” to study the effects of early social deprivation and the Bucharest Early Intervention Project was the first randomised controlled trial to study the benefits of transfer to foster care for very young institutionalised children. A total of 136 children were assessed with a comprehensive battery of tests before being randomly assigned to either remain in an institution or be placed in foster care, at an average age of just under two.1 The project has generated many publications showing benefits in everything from cognitive development to psychiatric outcomes for the children placed in foster care, with the most benefit seen for the youngest children – especially if they were less than two when they were removed from an institution.
One study published just last month found differences in the volume of both grey and white matter between children who remained in an institution, those who were placed in foster care and those who had never been institutionalised. Children who had been in an institution had less grey matter, regardless of whether or not they were later placed in foster care. The foster care group however, did not have less white matter than the group who had never been institutionalised, whereas those who remained in an institution did have less. This suggests that placement in foster care at an early enough age might allow white matter development to “catch up” in children moved into better environments. So, since the earlier studies demonstrated a range of beneficial effects of foster care, it doesn’t seem like too much of a leap to suppose that those effects are due to changes in white matter. That’s a long way from scientific proof, but it’s a reasonable working hypothesis.
It’s also worth mentioning that although the orphans adopted by US families mentioned above had differences in white matter which hadn’t been reversed by foster care, the structure involved, the uncinate fasciculus, is the last major white matter tract to mature and the only one that is still developing beyond the age of 30.
Chapter 4: The experiment
But none of this tells us anything about how social deprivation influences white matter, which brings us to the protagonist of this story. Observations such as these led a team at Boston Children's Hospital, led by neurobiologist Gabriel Corfas, to investigate the effects of social isolation on mice bioengineered to develop fluorescent oligodendrocytes – the cells that produce myelin.
Beginning at an age of three weeks, just after weaning, the mice were split into groups: One group was isolated and another was housed normally, with four mice per cage. After four weeks they were tested and the isolated mice performed significantly worse on measures of social interaction and working memory – two behaviours believed to depend on the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Two weeks later, the researchers inspected the oligodendrocytes in the mPFCs of the mice. Sure enough, although the number of cells was the same in both groups, the isolated mice had oligodendrocytes that were stunted, with simpler shapes, fewer branches, and so on, and two genes that produce proteins important for myelination were turned on, or expressed, less often in the isolated mice’s mPFCs. Electron microscopy also revealed significantly thinner myelin sheaths.
Examining normally housed mice showed that the first two weeks of this six week period was when a lot of oligodendrocyte development went on in the mPFC, and analysing mice after two weeks of isolation revealed similar defects to mice isolated for the full term.
So the team ran another experiment. They isolated some three week-old mice for just the first two weeks before returning them to normal housing and took another group from normal housing at five weeks old and isolated them for only the last four weeks. The mice isolated for the last four weeks were indistinguishable from mice housed normally throughout, whereas the mice isolated for the first two weeks showed the same retarded myelination and reduced performance as mice isolated for the full six weeks – even after being returned to normal housing for the last four weeks.
In other words, these first two weeks (the fourth and fifth of a mouse’s life) appears to be what is known as a “critical period” for oligodendrocyte development and myelination in the mPFC and lack of social interaction during this time retards this development, which, in turn, causes problems with memory and social behaviour.
Chapter 5: In which we follow a pathway
But how does this happen? Well, to dig any deeper we need to know about cell signalling pathways. Certain genes code for proteins, which means they produce that protein if expressed. Proteins have a huge number of different functions, but one of them is to transmit a signal from one cell to another. The protein binds to a receptor on the destination cell, and – well, something happens. Again, this can take many forms, but in the context of brain development one likely result is cell differentiation, where a simpler cell changes into a more complex, specialised one, but there are a variety of other things that can happen.
The NRG1 gene codes for a protein essential for brain development called neuregulin-1, which happens to bind to a class of receptors on oligodendrocytes called ErbB. Neuroscientists have known for some time that this signalling pathway is important for oligodendrocyte development, but Klaus-Armin Nave of the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine in Gottingen published a paper in 2006 showing that it also controls the amount of myelin produced by Schwann cells – the peripheral nervous system’s version of oligodendrocytes. Shortly after, another study from Boston Children’s Hospital showed that if specific ErbB receptors in mice are blocked, oligodendrocytes are stunted, myelin is thinner and impulses travel more slowly down axons.
To investigate the influence of this cellular control mechanism on myelination in the mPFC, the researchers genetically engineered mice in which they could eliminate certain ErbB receptors with a drug. They found that if they did this before the two week critical period, mice housed normally had the same reduction in myelination and lower performance as ordinary mice that had been isolated. If they did it after the critical period it had no such effect. So it seems the neuregulin-to-ErbB binding mechanism needs to be working for mice to benefit from normal social interaction during the critical period, but after that it doesn’t matter. Finally, the team compared levels of all the components of this mechanism in mice isolated during this period with levels in regularly housed mice. The isolated mice had less of a specific kind of neuregulin-1, known as type III.
To check that all these effects of isolation weren't just part of a decline across the board, the researchers also looked at general physical activity and changes in gene expression in the motor cortex, which controls movement and sits right next to the mPFC in the brain. They found no changes in either of these measures, showing that isolation only affects specific things.
So let’s recap. Mice deprived of company during a sensitive time in their young lives express less of a certain protein in their prefrontal cortex. This interferes with a signalling mechanism involved in oligodendrocyte development and myelination. Reduced myelination alters the speed at which neural impulses travel down axons, which messes with the delicate timing of neural processing. This leads to problems with working memory and social behaviour, which aren’t reversed by reintroducing the mice back into society. And there you have it.
Chapter 6: The lonely brain
Well, actually no. This is the brain we’re talking about and nothing about the brain is ever simple. For a start there are other interpretations of how myelin deficiencies could cause behavioural changes. Corfas himself has shown that blocking ErbB receptors causes changes in dopamine signalling which could offer an alternative explanation for the effects of isolation on behaviour.
Secondly, this isn’t the only mechanism that’s been proposed to account for the effects of experience on myelination. R Douglas Fields and colleagues published a paper last year showing that a neurotransmitter called glutamate, released along axons in response to electrical activity, increases myelination by stimulating production of myelin proteins in oligodendrocytes. This was only done in a culture dish, not in a live animal, but it’s an appealing theory of how experience might shape brain development because electrical activity in axons is neural activity and neural activity is experience, so it’s an intuitive mechanism for the effects of experience on white matter development. This is one of the thorny questions in this area: does experience shape white matter, which then shapes neural activity, or does neural activity shape white matter? The answer is probably both.
Also, nobody is suggesting the effects of social isolation are confined to white matter and myelination. The brain is a staggeringly complex thing and a scenario as broad as social experience, or the lack of it, is likely to have a wide range of consequences. Remember the orphans in chapter 3 who had less white matter than children raised in families? They also had less grey matter. And while this does go through a period of decline as we develop, it’s unlikely their reduced grey matter was an indication of accelerated development as they were only around 9 at the time and so not yet at the age when this usually happens. It also wouldn’t really tally with the mental health problems they invariably suffered from.
As a specific example, there was a paper published this July looking at the effects of social isolation on behavioural performance in rats. It focussed on the barrel cortex, the part of a rat’s brain that receives input from their whiskers, as whiskers are an important social communication channel for rats. The researchers found that early isolation disrupted a signalling pathway involved in forming healthy neural circuitry in the barrel cortex, leading to decreased whisker sensitivity and deficiencies in “whisker-related” behaviour. This had nothing to do with white matter and everything to do with grey matter.
Epilogue:
Schizophrenia and mood disorders usually crop up in adolescence and have been linked to disturbances in white matter and myelination, and disruptions of the neuregulin-1-to-ErbB signalling pathway. Corfas has also shown that disruption of oligodendrocyte genes involving our old friend neuregulin, causes schizophrenic-like behaviour in mice. All of which suggests that this latest study may shed more light on new ways to understand and possibly even treat these conditions.
Corfas’ team is also currently looking at ways to target neuregulin-1 and ErbB signalling pathways with drugs that might stimulate myelination. It’s conceivable that this could eventually lead to ways to treat the debilitating effects of early social deprivation, but we will have to proceed very cautiously down this particular path as too much myelination is likely to be as bad as too little.
Footnote:
1 (Before you start worrying about the morality of randomly assigning orphans to foster care, be assured this study went to great lengths to ensure it was a force for good. The study recruited its own foster parents, as “government-sponsored foster care was limited to about one family” and none of the children received less care than would have happened if the study hadn’t been conducted. Also, crucially, following the ethical guideline that “no subject should be randomised to an intervention known to be inferior to the standard of care”, the researchers point out: “at the start of our study there was uncertainty about the relative merits of institutional and foster care in the Romanian child welfare community, with a historical bias in favour of institutional care.” Government officials and child protection professionals were kept informed of the results as the study progressed, with the result that the Romanian government eventually passed laws prohibiting placing infants younger than two in institutions. If you’re still not convinced, read this.)
Images: Neuron with oligodendrocyte and myelin sheath by Andrew c; Oligodendrocyte by Jurjen Broeke.Faraday After months of speculation, the electric car startup Faraday Future finally revealed its first concept car on Monday at a press event in Las Vegas during CES.
The autonomous, Batmobile-like car, called the FFZERO1, is a race car that boasts more than 1,000 horsepower and can go from zero to 60 in under 3 seconds. It features four motors, one at each wheel, and can reach a top speed of 200 miles per hour.
faraday Future
In addition, the car is highly-connected, and is capable of learning a driver's preferences so that it will automatically adjust to each driver's' preferences.
"I think it is the most breathtaking project that I have ever worked on or that I have ever seen," Richard Kim, Faraday Future's head designer, told Tech Insider. "The designers that I have worked with here are 10 plus years in the business, they are world class, and we all think it's going to be the showcar of the decade."
Faraday Future
But before you get too excited, Faraday's first concept is just that, a "showcar," and is not likely to hitting the road any time soon, if ever.
Faraday Future
While the company does have plans to have its cars on the road by 2020, the vehicle unveiled Monday is not its first production vehicle. It is a concept car and it cannot actually be driven.
Faraday didn't rule out the possibility of it eventually going into limited production, but it will likely be awhile before we know if this will actually happen.
Faraday Future
Rather, the company said the FFZERO1 is meant to showcase the company's design vision and engineering platform.
"The concept car is not our first production concept car, but it is a very distant cousin," Kim said.
"It has the same engineering skateboard, but it's done in a more intense performance based sort of concept. So if you take all the values from our company, crank up the volume and the performance, that is what the concept car is," he said.
Faraday Future In other words, while the FFZERO1 is a really souped up version of what the company plans to roll out to the masses, many of its features will be included in production models.
The most important thing the production cars and the FFZERO1 will have in common is the engineering platform on which they are built.
Faraday Future's Variable Platform Architecture (VPA) is a modular engineering system designed specifically for electric vehicles. Basically, the skateboard-style chassis can easily be adjusted by changing the lengths of the rails and other structures.
In addition, Faraday engineers also developed a new battery structure that is arranged in rows or as Faraday calls it, "strings." Adding or removing strings allows the company to change the battery capacity.
Faraday Future
Combined, the new platform enables the company to develop new wheelbases and build a variety of electric vehicles quickly and efficiently.
"The modular platform can be changed in physical size using a very easy technique. The battery pack has been architected in a way that enables different size battery packs to be quickly and easily used," Nick Sampson, Faraday's vice president of research and development, told Tech Insider.
"Having designed, developed, and engineered one element of it, you practically replicate that element a number of times as we want bigger and bigger packs. This is different to how everybody is currently doing it."
The company said its production cars will also have the same highly connected, predictive features shown in the concept car as well as a similar interface, with the smartphone having a reserved spot in the steering column.(CBS News) North Korea's new leader, Kim Jong-Un, appears ready to continue the family tradition of provoking enemies, including the U.S.
The isolated country is getting ready to launch a new rocket that could reach the United States, and there are indications that it is preparing for another nuclear test.
CBS News correspondent David Martin reports that the world's most secretive society is making no secret of its plans to fire off this rocket and launch a satellite into space. Not just North Korean media but foreign reporters as well were taken on a tour of the launch site, shown the satellite, and given a look inside mission control.
The launch is expected to take place sometime later this week, despite objections from the U.S. and countries in the region that it violates a ban on the testing of ballistic missile technology.
To hear the North Koreans tell it, the satellite launch is a peaceful use of space timed to mark the 100th birthday of their country's founding father, Kim Il-Sung.
N. Korea rocket path prompts airline changes
North Korea prepping for nuclear test?
N. Korea's controversial missile on launch pad
Its trajectory is expected to take it due south in order to put the satellite into polar orbit. But U.S. officials say that is just an excuse to test a three stage rocket that would be capable of carrying a nuclear warhead far enough to reach the Hawaiian islands and parts of Alaska.
The U.S. is sending a giant seaborne radar to the test area, long with a half dozen other anti-missile ships. The Japanese are deploying Patriot anti-missile batteries. And airlines are rescheduling flights to avoid the area.
The most likely U.S. response will be to cancel 240,000 tons of food aid that would help North Korea feed its undernourished people.
It might not end there. Activity has been spotted at North Korea's nuclear test site, which means the North could be preparing for another underground nuclear explosion.A diamond pendant is draped over a white t-shirt-clad 20-something woman as she runs through a corn field and swims with her clothes on while purring, “There was a moment in there that goodbye was inevitable … maybe we won’t ever get married and maybe we will.”
In another ad, the male narrator explains, “There was a time I panicked: Was this too much too fast … Who knows if we’ll ever slow down, I’m not thinking about that right now,” after a woman brushes her three-ring diamond necklace over his lips.
Those little doubting soliloquies from a couple of new sepia-toned diamond ad spots may seem like the antithesis of marketing in an industry that has been injecting itself into marriage proposals since the 1940s, when DeBeers launched its famous “a diamond is forever” campaign and solidified a steady stream of demand for the precious gem.
But the millennial generation poses an existential dilemma for the industry: they tend to spend on experiences rather than luxury items, achieve financial maturity later in life and are less likely to get married than previous generations. DeBeers’ 2016 Diamond Insight report noted that millennials, defined in the report as those born between 1981 and 2000, are set to become the most important cohort for diamond jewellery retail sales, which dipped slightly to US$79 billion in 2015.
“The challenge is that diamond jewellery appears to be low on the buying lists among so-called millennials,” the report said. It advised industry players to “safeguard and nurture the diamond dream” in the face of potential challenges ahead.
The two ads above are part of the “Real is Rare” campaign by the Diamond Producers’ Association (DPA) — its first ever ad blitz — which attempts to reframe diamonds’ relevance for a generation less focused on forever and more focused on now.
Emphasizing both the “real” and “rare” nature of diamonds is a two-pronged strategy. It tackles the demographic shift that could signal a drop off in consumer demand, as well as the rise of lab-created alternatives that could diminish the lustre of natural stone sales.
According to a 2016 American Express survey, 13 million partners propose on Valentine’s Day. But members of the ethically and eco-conscious generation who do get down on one knee are increasingly turning to non-traditional rings, including relatively new-to-market lab-created diamonds.
“Demand growth is slow with the millennial generation, for example, seemingly less attracted to diamond jewellery than previous generations,” said RBC Capital Markets analyst Des Kilalea, noting rough diamond prices will remain capped given new supply and lacklustre demand.
As a result, Kilalea added, the DPA has put stimulating demand for natural diamonds at the top of its agenda.
The DPA, which represents the seven biggest diamond miners, was created amid an industry-wide sales slump in 2015, with the goal of “sustaining long-term consumer demand and promoting the integrity of the industry,” said its chief executive Jean-Marc Lieberherr in an interview from India.
The “diamond is forever” campaign by DeBeers, he said, tapped into post-Second World War consumer sentiment. Diamonds came to symbolize a craving for stability and the quest for timelessness.
The DPA launched its marketing campaign late last year in a deliberate effort to tap into a more modern and relevant meaning for a generation used to fleeting interactions.
Its consumer research found millennials seek meaning and authenticity in a digitally driven world where “everything is fast and disposable,” Lieberherr said.
“We’re reminding them that diamonds are about the love about the underlying emotion, the personal motivation that brings these two people together, it’s not about the ritual, it’s not about the convention that that’s what you do when you get married.”
The world’s largest diamond miners and geologists are so on message about the “real” and “rare” attributes of diamonds that they draw the same analogies: a natural diamond is an artist’s masterpiece; a lab-created gem is simply a reproduction, like the starry night poster a university student might hang in her residence room.
The threat of a smaller overall market for the precious gems has diamond miners trying to guard their market share against companies growing diamonds in labs, which are being rapidly adopted by a variety of retailers, from independent boutiques to some of Canada’s largest jewellers.
Synthetics, a small, but growing portion of sales at Toronto’s Jacob Mercari, which only started offering them within the past year, could be really disruptive, said vice-president Gregory Jacobson.
“Obviously there is a need for it in the market. I think if the customer is happy with the lab-created diamond, I don’t really see much of a difference between the two,” he said. “It makes sense that the miners would be more guarded about it, because they want to sell the diamonds they’re mining. They don’t want to have additional competitors in the market.”
Over at the flagship Spence Diamonds store in Mississauga, Ont., store director Habib Issawi said about two in five diamond pieces sold are grown in a lab. Spence calls them “artisan” diamonds and sells them as an “ethical alternative to mined stones.” More and more customers walk in asking about the artisan diamonds they hear about on Spence’s radio ads.
“The onus is really on us to educate the client that this is not a fake,” said Issawi, an expert in artisan diamonds. “The difference is it’s just a diamond that’s been created above ground versus below ground.”
Lab-created diamonds are created by subjecting a mined “seed” diamond to extreme heat and compression to culture new diamonds. The process has been in development for some 50 years, but has only recently reached the time- and cost-effectiveness and quality for jewelry.
From a scientific perspective, they are nearly identical to mined diamonds. They have the same chemical and physical properties, and any differences between them and their mined cousin are indistinguishable to the naked eye.
Even an experienced jeweller can’t tell the difference without some “pretty sophisticated equipment,” Issawi said.
Their quality is on par with the top two per cent of the world’s mined diamonds and there are no questions about their origins or whether any human rights abuses resulted from their mining, Issawi explains to customers.
But the selling point that really convinces buyers is that they get 30% more diamond for the buck, he said. He points to a one-carat mined gem selling for $9,500 next to a 1.33-carat artisan diamond that sells for $9,200. For coloured diamonds, some of the rarest mined gems, the price difference can be closer to 10-fold.
“Now I think it’s to a point in which the consistency and the sizes have gotten to a level where you just can’t ignore them anymore,” he said. “The younger generation has been more eager to catch on to it because it’s revolutionary … this is just another way of extending your dollar further without compensating on beauty, quality or anything.”
But David Johnson, midstream communications manager at The De Beers Group of Companies, said a diamond made in a lab in a matter of weeks will never rival the authenticity, nor the symbolic meaning of a gem that is billions of years old.
“Diamonds are the oldest thing you could hope to touch, so there’s a real sense of eternity and timelessness and history,” he said. “Consumers just don’t perceive that same value in laboratory-created material.”
DeBeers is also a player in the synthetic diamond market, but only produces them for industrial uses such as for drill bits or airplane windows, because, Johnson said, it does not see any real demand from jewelry consumers. He believes synthetics will end up as mere costume jewellery, just as synthetic rubies and emeralds are used.
Despite the demographic and technological shifts threats facing the diamond industry, he is adamant that synthetics are not the “Uber” of the diamond industry.
Company research shows that consumer demand for synthetics is weak, and that millennials’ apparent lack of interest in diamonds is not supported by its studies.
But diamond producers realize they need to pivot away from the association between rocks as the ultimate symbol of heteronormative romance to focus on injecting diamonds into the milestones valued by modern customers, be they single, coupled, gay, straight, marriage-bound or not.
“Millennials still want to have that same ability to symbolize the things that are real and important to them in their lives,” Johnson said. “They still very much want to have those real authentic ways of marking important moments in their lives, even if they don’t mark them in the same way.”
Financial Post
sfreeman@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/SunnyFreemanMichelle McQuigge, The Canadian Press
Researchers and educators agree that cellphones have become fixtures in Canadian classrooms, but opinion remains divided on how best to address their presence.
All agree that the presence of smartphones can be problematic if students are allowed to devote more attention to their screens than their studies.
One research paper suggests the majority of schools are still treating cellphones as a scourge and banning the devices outright both in and out of class.
But that study and a growing number of boards say they've had more success once deciding to stop fighting the technological tide and find ways to incorporate cellphones into schools.
Canada's largest school board reversed a four-year ban on cellphones and now lets teachers dictate what works best for their classrooms, while a board in Quebec has gone so far as to distribute tablets to all students in Grade 5 and up while maintaining a permissive smartphone policy.
Researchers say these approaches work best, but add it's essential to have guidelines in place around the use of technology.
Thierry Karsenti, Canada Research Chair on Technologies in Education and professor at the University of Montreal, said students will find a way to bring phones into the classroom regardless of the rules.
A survey of more than 4,000 high school students found that 79.3 per cent of respondents owned a cellphone.
Participants indicated that the phones did not figure strongly in their formal education, with 88.4 per cent reporting that the devices were banned either in class or at school altogether.
Karsenti said the majority of schools he's studied persist in fruitless bans against smartphones, edicts that students will inevitably ignore.
Only 12.9 per cent of survey respondents said they had never sent texts in class, 55.7 per cent said they felt it was acceptable to send or read text during lessons, and 90.7 per cent said they had seen classmates doing just that. Another 64.2 per cent reported seeing their peers accessing Facebook on their phones while in class.
But Karsenti said schools with more flexible policies got better results, he said, adding the best ones set firm boundaries that helped educate students on when it may or may not be appropriate to use their cells.
Students responded, he said, by taking those lessons to heart.
"They were becoming themselves more responsible in those schools where cells were allowed with specific rules because schools help them become more responsible," Karsenti said in a telephone interview. "Otherwise who's going to help them become more responsible?"
One school Karsenti studied allowed students to use their phones as they wished outside of class, but insisted they keep the devices in plain sight and face-down on their desks during class time.
Such an approach strikes the right balance, he said, since it still gives teachers the flexibility to tap into the technology for their lessons while limiting distractions among students.
Some organizations, like the Eastern Townships School Board in Quebec, have made technology an integral part of the classroom experience.
Spokeswoman Sharon Priest said the board began issuing iPads to students in 2013 with the full expectation that they would be used both at home and at school.
Today, all board students from Grade 5 and up have been issued either an iPad or a Chromebook. Priest said the technology that looms so large in most students' home lives should be incorporated into the educational experience, adding the devices also help empower teachers.
"They allowed us the creativity in the classroom to support... lifelong learning and different competencies," Priest said of the tablets, which can be used for everything from research to video streaming.
The board has a permissive policy around cellphones, she said, allowing teachers to dictate what works best for their classroom.
The same approach is now in effect at the Toronto District School Board, which banned cellphones for four years before reversing course in 2011.
Spokesman Ryan Bird said the board came to recognize that enforcing an outright ban was next to impossible, while also acknowledging that to curb technology use would be to place limits on educational opportunities as well.
"I think it was more an acknowledgement that there's an important role for technology to play in the classroom," he said. "And that's where we are now. In general the boared encourages the use of technology in the classroom where appropriate."
Not all instructors are keen to embrace mobile technology in the classroom, however.
At a Halifax middle school, one teacher's effort to promote healthy living among her students resulted in a school-wide experiment meant to help detach students from their screens and revive the art of conversation.
Sean MacDonald, principal at Herring Cove Junior High, said the school's previously flexible policies were tightened up for a week to bar cellphone use in class, during recess or at lunch.
He said the week-long experiment is meant to gauge impacts on students studies and social lives, adding the school is also soliciting feedback from parents on cellphone use at home.
MacDonald said early feedback suggests students too can be flexible on cellphone use, adding some who felt they couldn't live without their devices have noted some upsides to going without.
"Many of our students have reported... that they're enjoying the opportunity to have more conversations with their friends as opposed to sitting down and everybody staring at their phones," he said. "And teachers have definitely noticed less distractions in the classrooms."
MacDonald said the school will analyze feedback from the experiment and use it to adjust its permanent cellphone policies for the next academic year.50,000 orphans currently sponsored by the global Islamic Relief community masha’Allah!
Caring for orphans is especially important to the Islamic Relief family. Islamic Relief USA has dedicated programs to do just that: Orphan Family Support or Annual Orphan Sponsorship.
As of December 2018, there are 1,305 orphans who have lost their sponsorships in Afghanistan, Albania, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Chechnya, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Kosovo, Lebanon, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Pakistan, Somalia, South Africa, and Sri Lanka. Can you help one?
Orphan Family Support
Orphan Family Support means you help uplift an orphan and his or her family into self-reliance and independence by giving them the tools they need to thrive! What’s more: The family gets the medical and psychological support they need, all while building a sustainable living so that they can break the chains of poverty, and rely on themselves for years beyond what a traditional sponsorship would offer. And donations toward Orphan Support are flexible—you can offer support whenever you’re ready, and as often as you like.
Join the thousands of dedicated, caring humanitarians who are caring for orphans today! In Gaza, Palestine, our donors’ support focuses on education and vocational training, along with monthly financial support. For just over $2/day ($800/year), you can give an orphan and her entire family tools they can use to thrive — for life! In our Bangladesh program, all of the school-age orphans are attending school, and all of their guardians — often widowed mothers — have received training and started businesses so they can support their children on their own. This gives them the incredible gift of self-sufficiency. Local staff report that many of them are breaking free of the cycle of poverty. Of course, every country is different, and, sometimes, programs for orphans are customized to meet particular conditions. For details, please connect with us at 1-855-447-1001 or orphansupport@irusa.org. You can provide so much to an orphan all for such a relatively small amount of money, and insha’Allah be among those the Prophet (SAW) promised would be extremely close to him! The value of these efforts is immense, masha’Allah. YOU CAN SUPPORT AN ORPHAN’S FAMILY IN COUNTRIES LIKE:
Afghanistan Albania Bangladesh Bosnia Chad Chechnya Ethiopia India Indonesia Jordan Kenya Kosovo Lebanon Malawi Mali Niger Pakistan Palestine Somalia South Africa Sri Lanka Tunisia YemenYes, it’s Motordom #Fail here at Price Tags. This time Sightline Institute researcher(whose must-read series “Dude, Where are my cars? is here ) ruminates on our particular version of the Traffic Delusion:
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It must be a syndrome. A mass delusion of endless traffic growth. Or maybe the idée fixe that the future will resemble the 1950s.
Earlier in the week I mentioned that, despite years of declines on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, Washington’s transportation revenue forecasts assume that traffic will soon start growing, quickly and inexorably. It might be funny if the fiscal stakes weren’t so dire.
Apparently, the same mentality apparently holds sway north of the 49th parallel. Consider the newly twinned Port Mann Bridge—a project of British Columbia’s provincial government that opened to traffic last fall. The province was anticipating a rapid increase in traffic volumes to pay for construction. And while it’s too early to tell how the added road capacity will affect traffic volumes over the long haul, the declines in traffic volumes in recent years could make it very hard for the bridge to meet its toll revenue forecasts…
(Forecasts here; actuals here.)
As with the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, the traffic forecasts actually got wackier over time. Despite roughly a decade of flat or declining traffic, the province’s transportation planners in 2011 predicted that traffic volumes would quickly catch up with where they “should” have been. In essence, the planners interpreted the slight decline in traffic between 2006 and 2011 as evidence that traffic would skyrocket even faster from 2013 through 2021.
It shouldn’t be too hard on the poor traffic forecasters. As Yogi Berra (or was it Niels Bohr?) allegedly said, “It’s hard to make predictions, especially about the future.” And that advice applies to me as well as to traffic planners—so I want to make it clear that I’m not actually predicting that real-world traffic won’t live up to the official forecasts..
Still, it’s increasingly clear that official traffic forecasts have become untethered from reality. At best, they’re based on outdated transportation models or “best practices” forged in the years when traffic volumes really were growing quickly. At their worst, they’re the result of coordinated deception to build support for politically favored projects.
The fiscal consequences of failed transportation forecasts can be pretty dire: see, e.g., the $35 to $45 million annual hole that the Golden Ears Bridge is blowing through the lower mainland’s transportation budget, because toll revenues from the bridge aren’t keeping pace with projections, even as bond payments to pay for construction keep coming due.
But has the province actually learned anything from the Golden Ears shortfalls, or the flat-lining of gasoline consumption in the lower mainland, or the failure of its early Port Mann forecasts to line up with forecasts? Apparently not. In fact, they’re doubling down on their risky bet on traffic growth, by moving forward with a costly and aggressive plan to replace the 4-lane George Massey Tunnel with a 10–lane bridge.
No doubt, the province will predict that rapid traffic growth will help pay for the construction costs for the new bridge. Which could set the province’s taxpayers for quite a shock down the road: they could easily wind up paying for yet another highway project that was supposed to pay for itself.
.Image caption Matt Smith is being replaced as Doctor Who by Peter Capaldi
Doctor Who's regeneration was the most-watched Christmas Day television moment with 10.2 million viewers seeing the five-minute sequence on BBC One.
However Mrs Brown's Boys Christmas Special, also on BBC One, was the most-watched programme with an average of 9.4 million viewers.
An average of 8.3 million watched Matt Smith bow out as the Doctor while ITV's Coronation Street averaged 7.9 million.
It beat rival BBC soap EastEnders for the first time in more than |
a new batch is available. Last year I had the privilege of attending the TEDxNJLibraries at the Princeton Public Library. It was great to listen to a range of speakers on a wide range of topics and stories while also being able to talk with others about the presentations.
My attraction to these talks and the reason I am writing about them now is that I feel they are excellent perspectives from outside of the librarian echo chamber. Some have given me additional ideas for how to think and approach some of the issues that we as librarians face in the road ahead. I’ve linked some in my blog over the years but I wanted to highlight 5 TED talks that I think every librarian should watch.
So, without further ado. (I note the talk lengths in minutes, rounded up.)
1) Ken Robinson – Schools Kill Creativity (20m)
If you are going to watch any talk, make it this one. My takeaway from this talk is looking at how libraries as a whole approach their patrons. Are we nurturing the creativity of others? Are we looking at their interests and curiosities? Furthermore, are we creating our own hierarchy of literacies? Why do some treat book borrowers better than movie borrowers? Why does certain kind of internet use get more scrutiny than others (people on Facebook versus people writing school papers)?
For myself, I think about the idea of a dynamic intelligence and personal unique talents when I am conducting a reference interview. I work towards trying to figure out what is the best way that the person in front of me learns and try to match the materials to that style. It doesn’t always work, but I think it more effective than simply handing out a list of items without consideration to how they take in information.
2) William Kamkwamba: How I Harnessed the Wind (6m)
I know I’ve written about this one before, but I want to reiterate the lesson again: information access matters. In watching this presentation, William talks about how he made a windmill to provide electricity and pump water for his family in Malawi. He constructed it based on books he got from a school library which consisted of three sets of bookshelves. The ability for people to access information can make the difference in the inventions and innovations for the future. To me, it speaks also to the digital divide and the importance of narrowing that gap. Is the next great mind out there but lacking the resources to truly unlock their potential? My guess would be yes, but my thoughts are to work towards fixing that situation.
3) Malcolm Gladwell – What We Can Learn from Spaghetti Sauce (19m)
This talk is a great meditation that carries over to the user experience. As libraries have moved to emphasize our human interfaces and the face-to-face contact that we offer, there is still an undercurrent mindset of creating ‘one size fits all’ solutions to the customer experience. But, honestly, no one can say that every conversation that they’ve had with a patron (public, academic, school, otherwise) has been the same. But, in the same way that Malcolm describes grouping people’s preferences, we can look to group the kinds of interactions that we have and create experiences from them. It behooves us to think and move towards services and information solutions in the same manner. The world has shifted to the individual experience; libraries should look to provide the same wherever possible.
4) Mark Bezos – A Life Lesson from a Volunteer Firefighter (5m)
It’s very short but also to the point: don’t wait to get into the game. Everything counts. While librarians tend to gloss over interactions that don’t result in “real” librarian work (like placing books on hold or answering basic computer questions), these experiences do have an impact on the patron. It is not a life or death issue, but certainly a quality of life issue. While the cynical side to me says that someone will not be broken by not being able to put a reservation on the latest James Patterson or Nora Roberts (and would certainly they would not), it’s the small stuff that can have bearing on the larger picture. It’s important to the library because it is important to our patrons. It’s something to keep in mind.
5) JR – Use Art To Turn the World Inside Out (25m)
My reasons for including this are a bit more abstract than the other four talks, but I don’t think it is any less important. It is about perception, community, people, and of course art. For myself, it’s just about another way to look at the world. I found it moving and introspective in its range and scope for a French street artist to work towards creating bridges between communities that were in various states of conflict (either with others or their issues). I just think it’s an excellent not-to-be-missed TED talk.
Note: As I was putting this together, I realized there were a ton of other TED talks I wanted to include. I might just look to make this a blog series and I would encourage others to highlight videos (both from TED and other sources) that bring something new to the librarian world.Arian Foster's hamstring injury won't keep him out for the second consecutive week.
NFL Media's Albert Breer relayed that the Houston Texans running back is officially active to play against the Buffalo Bills.
The evolution of the NFL:
Take a look at how the NFL has evolved from its humble roots, and the efforts being made to ensure it continues to grow.
Foster missed last week's loss and was limited in practice all week.
The workhorse running back dealt with the hamstring injury during the preseason, but coaches felt he entered the season in phenomenal shape and was ready to carry an offense with questions at the quarterback position.
The Texans rode Foster through the first two weeks of the season -- both wins -- before he sat out last week. Foster carried the ball 55 times for 241 yards in those contests.
His participation is vital for the Texans, who face a stout Bills defensive front allowing just 83 rushing yards per game (fifth best in the NFL).
Rookie running back Alfred Blue will return to his backup role behind Foster.
We preview and pick every Week 4 game in the latest Around the NFL Podcast.Are you old enough to remember the DOS operating system? Users had to enter commands in text form. It seems so primitive now. But I predict a return to text interfaces, this time on your smartphone.
I love my smartphone but I find it annoying to hunt for the right app icon to do a simple task such as send a message or make a note to myself. I want a Smartphone with a Preloader interface, a term I just invented. It’s a blank box and keyboard for data entry that is always your first screen. Instead of first specifying which application you want to use, such as messaging, email, phone, etc., you simply use a simple text code and start working. For example, if you want to send an email to Bob, you type into the empty box:
—————————————————————-
e bob about borrowed lawnmower
Hi Bob,
Please return my lawnmower. Have a nice day.
Scott
—————————————————————–
Your smartphone would recognize “e bob” to be a shortcut for “email the guy named Bob in my address book.” The subject line would be whatever followed “about” on the same line.
When you’re done typing your message, click “submit” and it brings up your email app populated with your message and Bob’s email address, or options for selecting which Bob you want. If everything looks good, you press Send.
The main idea here is that you should be able to start doing your work before you choose the app. The content of the message will tell your smartphone which app you intend.
Some one-letter text commands for the preloader might include:
E = email
T= text
N = note
C = calendar
W = weather
P = phone
V = voicemail
If you want to enter an appointment in your calendar, just type “c staff meeting 9am Tuesday Aug 26 alert 1 hour”. Your calendar app will pop up and you can confirm it entered the appointment correctly.
Do you want the hourly weather forecast for Baltimore? Just type “w Baltimore hour” into your preloader. It’s much faster than opening the app first, looking for the box to enter the city then clicking the hourly option.
The way my brain is wired I always want to jump right into a task before I hunt for an app. I often accidently choose my text messaging icon instead of email, cancel the texting app, open email, choose the addressee box, type addressee, choose subject, and so on. The process feels inefficient and it bugs me every time. I want to start working immediately, while a thought is fresh in my mind. Only after I have done my work do I want the phone to deduce which app I intended.
Voice recognition apps already do this sort of thing. But 80% of the time that I use my phone I’m someplace where speaking aloud would be awkward or unwise. I want a text interface to speed things up.
Does that already exist?Farm co-ops urge GOP to preserve deduction
With Sabrina Rodriguez, Maya Parthasarathy, Jenny Hopkinson and Helena Bottemiller Evich
FARM CO-OPS TO GOP: PRESERVE SECTION 199 DEDUCTION: The National Council of Farmer Cooperatives will announce today that it is opposed to congressional Republicans’ proposal to eliminate the Section 199 deduction, which is part of their broader framework for overhauling the tax code. The deduction — one of the few mentioned by name in the GOP’s framework — is a 9 percent tax break for most manufacturers, Pro Ag’s Catherine Boudreau reports. Those who benefit include agricultural co-ops like Land O’ Lakes, American Crystal Sugar and Blue Diamond, which are represented by NCFC. But the majority of co-ops have been passing on the benefits directly to their farmer members, returning an estimated $2 billion annually to communities across the country, according to the industry trade group.
Story Continued Below
“It’s a popular deduction across a diverse range of business sectors, but I think many sectors have determined that if the corporate tax rate is reduced, that will more than compensate them for losing the Section 199 deduction,” said Chuck Conner, president and CEO of NCFC, referring to the Republican’s plan to reduce the corporate tax rate from 35 to 20 percent. “In the case of cooperatives, we would get little to no benefit.”
Conner said eliminating the Section 199 deduction runs counter to Congress’ fundamental goal of putting more money in people’s pockets to spur economic growth. “Farmers will have less money to invest,” he said. “Most members of Congress would say that’s not what they want to do.”
What’s the latest on tax reform? Beyond Section 199, the GOP framework says that "numerous other special exclusions and deductions will be repealed or restricted" to generate revenue and pay for tax rate cuts, a feat that is likely to be supremely difficult. On Tuesday, the proposed elimination of a federal deduction that people apply to state and local taxes was in the cross hairs, reports POLITICO’s Rachael Bade, Sarah Ferris and Aaron Lorenzo. A handful of New York Republicans are threatening to vote against the budget on Thursday — a key hurdle Congress must jump to get to tax reform — unless leadership retreats from that plan.
HAPPY WEDNESDAY, OCT. 25! Where MA is always up for a good pun. Today’s winner is the Economist’s push news alert “Don’t cry for meat, Argentina” (The story was on the trend toward meatless Mondays in the beef-loving nation.). Got any more cheap puns, tips, birthday or wedding anniversary shoutouts? (Today Christine, one of your hosts, is celebrating nine years of marital bliss!) Send them or other ruminations to chaughney@politico.com or @chaughney. Follow the whole team at @Morning_Ag.
** A message from the Almond Board of California: Over the past 20+ years, California almond farmers have reduced the amount of water used to grow each pound of almonds by 33% via improved production practices and adoption of new technologies. More improvements are underway. Learn more about our commitment to water efficiency at Almonds.com/Water **
DRAMA-FILLED MARKUP FOR H-2A REPLACEMENT: The House Judiciary Committee will reconvene today after calling an unusual recess in the middle of a contentious markup of a bill sponsored by Chairman Bob Goodlatte to revamp the agricultural guest-worker program. Democratic lawmakers opposed to the bill took up a significant part of the hearing, which started almost 45 minutes behind schedule and ran on for more than two hours of debate. Goodlatte himself was so incensed that he left the hearing room, returning only to vote on amendments.
Why all the Democratic backlash? Democratic committee members repeatedly slammed the bill, saying it would hurt both foreign guest-workers and American workers. The bill would eliminate requirements that employers provide transportation and housing. Visa holders would also not receive protection from the Fair Labor Standards Act. Employers would be required to pay such workers slightly above minimum wage, but it would be a sharp decrease from the average prevailing wage for many industries.
The future of the bill remains unclear: Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) asserted that even if the bill moved out of committee, anyone who thought it would be enacted into law was “living a fantasy.” In 2013, Goodlatte sponsored a bill with the same name that was voted out of committee, but never taken up on the House floor. More from Pro’s Sabrina Rodriguez here.
RURAL TASK FORCE REPORT SENT TO WHITE HOUSE: The Interagency Task Force on Agriculture and Rural Prosperity led by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has sent its report to the White House for review, USDA spokesman Tim Murtaugh told MA. “We met the deadline,” Murtaugh said, adding that President Donald Trump will finalize the report “at the time of his choosing.”
Trump established the task force in April via an executive order, directing cabinet members to spend 180 days studying problems in rural America and devising recommendations to fix them. They were to focus particularly on identifying regulations that stifle job creation, improving infrastructure and spurring technological innovation. Perdue has convened a handful of meetings and listening sessions since its inception. No word on what the recommendations might be.
ROW CROPS:
— A day of ag and food bills: Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) on Tuesday introduced marker legislation for the 2018 farm bill. It would make changes to the Agriculture Risk Coverage county program to address discrepancies in subsidy payments, reported mainly by participating corn and soybean growers. The bill would direct the USDA Farm Service Agency to use crop yield data from the Risk Management Agency as a first choice instead of information from the National Agricultural Statistics Service, among other provisions. More from Catherine here.
Reps. G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.) and Joe Courtney (D-Conn.) also introduced a bill that would allow flavored low-fat milk, now restricted in the federal lunch and breakfast programs, back into the cafeteria as a way to increase consumption of the dairy product. Perdue proposed in May the same changes as part of a broader plan to give schools more leeway to serve food that students find appetizing. More than five months after being announced, the proposed changes are still under review by the White House Office of Management and Budget.
— No need to address him as Senator Rock: In his usual expletive-laden fashion, Kid Rock told Howard Stern that he was not running for Senate against Senate Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow. Instead, he'll be dropping his new album, "Sweet Southern Sugar" on Nov. 3. More from POLITICO’s Rebecca Morin here.
— A grim picture: A GAO report issued Tuesday said that greenhouse gas emissions and climate change could cost the United States as much as $9.2 billion between 2020 and 2039 in lost crop yields. It also said that extreme weather and fire events have cost the federal government $350 billion over the past 10 years -- including in crop and flood insurance costs, Pro Ag’s Jenny Hopkinson writes. Separately, Columbia Journalism Review examines why it’s important for ag reporters to cover climate change issues.
— Governors call for wildfire funding fix: The National Governors Association is urging Capitol Hill in a letter today to provide a long-term fix to the Forest Service’s funding for wildfires, arguing that the current practice of using the 10-year average when budgeting for suppression is inadequate.
— Aid bill passes: The Senate approved a second emergency aid measure to help areas devastated by hurricanes and wildfires, Pro’s Sarah Ferris reports. All the $36.5 billion bill needs now is Trump's signature.
— Doud clears one hurdle: The Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday approved Trump's pick for USTR chief agricultural negotiator, Gregory Doud, by voice vote, Doug Palmer and Megan Cassella report.
— Save the grasslands: Roughly 2.5 million acres of grasslands across the Great Plains region of the United States and Canada were converted to cropland in 2015-2016, according to a new report from the World Wildlife Fund. Converting grasslands to crop production can harm habitat for wildlife, damage nearby waterways and release carbon into the atmosphere, WWF says.
— Grazing battle: Hispanic ranchers have been feuding with the federal government over grazing rights on New Mexican land that their families have used for centuries. The ranchers' attorneys argue that the U.S. Forest Service didn't consider the negative social and economic impacts on the ranchers when deciding to limit grazing, but a federal judge dismissed the counts against the Forest Service. More from the Associated Press here.
— But will lawmakers eat it up? More than 30 chefs, farmers and organic food makers are heading to Capitol Hill today as part of the Plate of the Union campaign to urge lawmakers to include in the 2018 farm bill provisions for more resources and funding for the National Organic Program.
— Better data needed for fishing industry: Witnesses during a Senate subcommittee hearing on the Magnuson-Stevens Act agreed that the industry needs better data about its ever-slippery and on-the-move subjects: fish. More from Christine here.
— USDA handling a growing number of FOIAs for commodity checkoffs: In the last five years, the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service has fielded 104 FOIA requests for commodity checkoffs and taken an average of 77 days to complete them, according to a Government Accountability Office report published Tuesday. The agency handled 21 requests in fiscal 2012, which dropped to 12 the following year. It has since reached a high of 35 in fiscal 2016. The report was requested by Democratic Sens. Cory Booker (N.J.) and Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), who have called for greater transparency and accountability in the checkoff programs. Check out the report here.
— The fate of glyphosate in Europe: It is still unclear. The European Commission is backtracking on its proposal to renew the weedkiller for a decade in favor of seeking to extend its license for 5-7 years. Although not legally binding, the European Parliament passed a symbolic resolution to phase out glyphosate in Europe by the end of 2022. More from POLITICO Europe here.
— And the fate of glyphosate in you: Researchers have found higher levels of glyphosate in urine samples of cohort study participants in California than they did even a decade ago, according to a paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
— Ethanol fight victor: Bloomberg examines how the corn lobby beat out the oil lobby on the Renewable Fuel Standard issue.
— Pingree wins James Beard leadership award: Rep. Chellie Pingree was honored with the James Beard Foundation Leadership Award Monday for her legislative work on organics and other parts of the food system. The congresswoman’s hometown paper, the Portland Press Herald wrote about it here.
—Spotted, CSPI edition: The Center for Science in the Public Interest held its first-ever gala Tuesday night to honor the work of its longtime leader and co-founder Michael Jacobson. There were plenty of notable names in the room to raise a toast to Big Food’s longtime foe, including: Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, former Sen. Tom Harkin, Marion Nestle of New York University, and Michael Moss, formerly of the New York Times and author of the book “Salt Sugar Fat.” Both Ralph Nader and Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg delivered video remarks.
Lurie at the helm: The group also formally welcomed its new executive director and president, Peter Lurie, who most recently served as an associate commissioner for public health strategy and analysis at FDA.
THAT'S ALL FOR MA! See you again soon! In the meantime, drop your host and the rest of the team a line: cboudreau@politico.com and @ceboudreau; jhopkinson@politico.com and @jennyhops; hbottemiller@politico.com and @hbottemiller; chaughney@politico.com and @chaughney; jlauinger@politico.com and @jmlauinger; and pjoshi@politico.com and @pjoshiny. You can also follow @POLITICOPro and @Morning_Ag on Twitter.Loading... Loading...
How is the government going to get people to pay their taxes if the government is not viewed as legitimate? ~ Catherine Austin Fitts
The world economy is designed to fail through the mechanism of a banking system that requires all users of money to pay usury every time a transaction takes place. In this way, the financial systems of the world can be manipulated into a managed collapse, thereby causing global chaos so that the world’s nations and citizens can be tricked into demanding a global currency managed by a global elite.
Problem, reaction, solution. Economic hit man John Perkins wrote about this strategy as it was used in the 20th century to bring developing nations under the control of the international monetary fund and transnational profiteers, and at present this scheme is being globalized.
If an EHM is completely successful, the loans are so large that the debtor is forced to default on its payments after a few years. When this happens, then like the Mafia we demand our pound of flesh. This often includes one or more of the following: control over United Nations votes, the installation of military bases, or access to precious resources such as oil or the Panama Canal. Of course, the debtor still owes us the money—and another country is added to our global empire. ~ John Perkins, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
For decades now, the dollar has been in a slow burn style of collapse, and while many journalists, primarily outside of the mainstream, have been warning the world about how and why this is happening, we’re quickly approaching a turning point, where the slow burn moves into something more severe. While at first glance this seems like a frightening potentiality, the truth is that an economic collapse may very well be our best chance at freeing ourselves from the rule of the Gods of Money.
A Whistleblower Warns Us and Gives Us Hope
Speaking to Greg Hunter of USA Watchdog news, former Wall Street banker and former Assistant Secretary of Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development in the first Bush Administration, Catherine Austin Fitts explains why the slow burn is about to come to an end.
The system has the capacity with monetary policy in one sense to keep going forever if the force and military capacity is there to do it, but at some point, you burn through the fat, you burn through the muscle and then you have to change institutions. ~Catherine Austin Fitts
During the financial crisis of 2008, the government was able to prevent an uncontrolled firestorm collapse of the system by colluding with the chiefs of the financial sector, giving them bailouts of extraordinary magnitude, then inflating the dollar by the Federal Reserve’s introduction of quantitative easing. Eight years later, this tactic has reached its limit; however, it has given the public significant reason and time to understand why our economy functions the way it does, and people are losing faith in our leadership.
It’s going to be extremely difficult to get people to continue to pay their taxes when they’re highly confident the money’s not being spent legally and it’s going to the advantage of small parties or things that they don’t understand. And so you can’t move further without institutional overhaul. ~ Catherine Austin Fitts
The thing that frightens her most is the fact that groups within the U.S., such as ALEC, are already calling for changes in the law and even a new Constitutional Convention to overhaul these institutions. The financial sector has already been operating outside of the law and beyond the Constitution for some twenty plus years, and if we haven’t been using the Constitution, she notes, then why do they wish to change it?
If you want to enforce the Constitution or fix things, that’s what you do. The reason you get a Constitutional Convention is you want to tear it up because you’re worried, now that people realize the extent of the corruption, that they’re going to try and enforce. ~Catherine Austin Fitts
Her warning is that as people continue to wake up to the corruption of our government and financial rulers, the entrenched elites who are fully invested in destroying the middle class will fight tooth and nail to prevent us from holding them accountable, by means of bringing more Draconian laws into place to protect themselves.
In this light, the economic war that is brewing isn’t completely technical, it is social as well, quickly becoming class warfare. The world’s financial elite are in grave danger of being held to the fire for their crimes, and surely they know they how quickly things can change in favor of the populace, as historical events like the French Revolution have shown.
Prepare Now
As individuals stuck in the debt-slave matrix, there is very little we can do to challenge this sort of massive global scheme as it’s happening; however, preparing now for collapse is our best chance of chucking our burden of debt to these people, if they are even human, and of creating a future without such obvious criminal financial tyranny holding us back.
Working now to expose these criminals is imperative so that when the ball drops, ordinary people understand why, how and who is truly to blame, thereby making resisting to the takeover possible. Taking care of personal emergency preparations by gathering healthy storable foods, networking in your community, and having plans in place to survive are absolutely necessary at this stage, and once this is done, efforts to awaken others are critical.
View the full interview here:
Source: www.activistpost.com
Help Us Be The Change We Wish To See In The World.The Motorola Moto 360 release date has been rumoured, with the Android Wear powered smartwatch tipped to hit retailers in July.
Suggesting that the round-faced smartwatch could be less than two months from receiving an in-store launch, new reports have claimed that a July launch could be joined by a €249 (£203) Moto 360 price tag.
Citing unnamed sources, French site Le Journal du Geek has claimed that the Motorola Moto 360 release date will be held on an as yet undisclosed date in July, with further details to be announced during Google I/O next month.
With Motorola still to announce any formal Moto 360 release plans, and given the less than official source of the reports, we must suggest these claims are taken with the usual pinch of salt.
However, if accurate, the Moto 360 would hit retailers within weeks of the rival LG G Watch, a device which will become the first Android Wear smartwatch to land following a May 27 launch event.
More importantly, the claimed price tag – just a couple of quid over the £200 marker – would see the desirable 360 cost only marginally more than the square fronted G Watch which is expected to land around the £179 mark.
Despite the manufacturer remaining coy on finalised Moto 360 specs, Motorola has been outspoken on its dislike of rival smartwatch offerings.
Speaking exclusively with TrustedReviews last week, Mark Randall, Motorola’s Senior Vice President of Supply Chain and Operations stated: “Moto 360 is a really cool device that we think solves a lot of problems that no one else has solved in the wearables space.”
He added: “We look at the 360 and we look at what everyone has done in that space. To be honest we think they are all pretty crappy.”
Highlighting areas in which he believes the smartwatch market needs improving, Randall stated: “We think the IDs aren’t very sexy. We think people just don’t want to wear a lot of the devices that are out there today.”
Read More: Apple iWatch rumoursStrange “Vibrations” Detected Throughout The United States
% of readers think this story is Fact. Add your two cents.
Seen on multiple nodes managed by different institutions, feeding back to the CERI / Midwest USGS official charts across the region… what can only be described as low end vibrations, over a VERY large area.
NOT to be confused with earthquakes elsewhere around the planet, this is something I have not seen before over such a wide area.
Did the sensor network undergo some kind of damage? Is there some kind of interference happening? Is this a REAL detection of low frequency vibrations occurring?
Time will tell on this…
———–
Here is the main link...click on CERI, SLU, or any of the other ‘nodes’.. then select 11/30/2012 (most current charts).. and then compare to a few days or weeks, or months ago by clicking back through the charts (listed by date):
http://www.ceri.memphis.edu/seismic/heli/index.html
———–
use these links here to monitor earthquake activity nationally, and internationally:
http://sincedutch.wordpress.com/2011/11/30/11302011-list-of-earthquake-links-for-global-monitoring/
———–
The Live Internet Seismic Server also shows this activity.http://earthquake.usgs.gov/monitoring/operations/heliplots_anss.php
Read More Here
If I thought that the world was going to end in the next 20 days, this might freak me out alittle bit. Could this be a sign of yellowstone is going to erupt? or maybe new madrid wakes up? or something entirely global on scale and infathomable? Maybe the machine is just broke… Whatever it is, im sure DutchSinse will be on top of it, stay tuned.. ~OpheliaAmong the qualities that make for a good leader are resilience, courage and a determination to follow through on commitments, even when doing so takes some effort. Portland mayoral candidates Jules Bailey and Ted Wheeler came up short in all three areas this weekend. Having committed weeks ago to a debate Monday night, both pulled out Sunday evening when, for security reasons, The Oregonian/OregonLive determined that it would be more prudent to hold the event without a live audience.
The debate was to have taken place at Revolution Hall in Portland. It was to have lasted one hour, from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. More than 1,000 people had registered to attend the event at no cost, and an audience many times that size would have had been able to watch online. The event was to have been live streamed on OregonLive.com.
As the event approached, however, credible threats of disruption mounted, including some that suggested a potential risk to public safety.
Editorial Agenda 2016
Get Oregon centered
Better leadership in education
Make Portland a city that works
Build Oregon prosperity
Protect and expand personal freedom
Get pot right
_______________________________
While 12 candidates had filed to run for mayor, we invited only Bailey and Wheeler, whose qualifications for the office exceed by a wide margin those of any other candidate. One of these two is almost certain to be Portland's next mayor. Our decision understandably frustrated some of the other candidates. Lacking a rational and defensible basis for choosing among the other 10 for inclusion in the event, however, we determined that Portland's voters would be served best by a substantive debate among the race's two front-runners.
Not everyone agreed with this approach. Some of the other candidates weren't happy about it, and some intimated that they would attend the debate and, perhaps, disrupt it. As if to underscore the potential for disruption, a protester took the stage at a debate last week involving Wheeler, Bailey and Sarah Iannarone. The protester demanded that other candidates be allowed to join the discussion.
More serious threats of disruption appeared, including an organized effort aimed at preventing the debate from happening. One email circulated by protesters even suggested that the doors to the venue be locked from the outside with bicycle-type U-locks in order to keep the audience from entering. The risk of such an action to anyone trapped inside the venue is obvious. We could not ignore it.
The Oregonian/OregonLive decided on Sunday that it would be prudent to hold the debate without a live audience. The event would have operated more like a televised studio debate, making disruption much more difficult. The candidates, meanwhile, would have been able to discuss their visions for Portland without distraction. This certainly would have inconvenienced people who'd registered to attend the debate live, but the much larger audience watching via live stream would not have been affected. Anyone who wanted would have been able to watch the debate to which Bailey and Wheeler had committed.
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But when we approached the two campaigns with our alternative - hold the same debate, but without a live audience - both said "no" and gave different variations of the same explanation: Eliminating the live audience would change the feel of the event in a way neither campaign was willing to tolerate. One campaign staffer even likened the alternative to transmitting from a bunker.
Would holding the debate without a live audience have required some small adjustments on the candidates' parts? Of course it would, but the difficulty of making such adjustments would not have been on the order of, say, climbing Mount Everest. We were certainly willing to make it work, and a pair of candidates who truly wanted to follow through on their commitment to voters - to hold a substantive debate - would have done so as well. These are, after all, experienced politicians, and they'd been preparing for a debate Monday in any case. Their eagerness to pull out suggests, rather, that they were looking for the slightest excuse to cancel their involvement in what had become a controversial event. That opportunity came in the form of our decision not to proceed with a live audience.
Portland voters have reason to be disappointed today. They were expecting - and they were promised - a debate Monday night. That debate will not happen. But let's make one thing clear: The Oregonian/OregonLive canceled the live audience - and for good reason. Jules Bailey and Ted Wheeler canceled the debate.Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has raised more than $1 million this year in his bid for a sixth term.
The Republican remains far ahead of his opponents in fundraising and has $4.1 million on hand when his earlier contributions are factored in.
Democrat Paul Penzone's campaign says it has raised $148,000 this year.
Independent Mike Stauffer's campaign estimated that Stauffer had $38,000 and says much of the much was provided by Stauffer himself.
A call to Democrat John Rowan's campaign wasn't immediately returned Thursday afternoon.
Arpaio received numerous donations from people living outside of the state.
Nearly all of Penzone's contributions were made by Arizonans.
Arpaio was the only candidate to file a campaign report as of mid-afternoon Thursday.
Other candidates face a Monday deadline for reporting their fundraising.Tuesday night, England vs Scotland, great game. It’s been a long day in the studio and my ears and brain need a rest because I’ve just started work on a new film. Time for a brew before turning in. But wait, a post-match interview with England’s talisman Wayne Rooney. Asking the questions is one of my bosses for this job – Gabriel Clarke, erstwhile director, in his other role on ITV as the voice of an inquisitive nation. His nose intrudes into the shot as he tries to prise something more than a mixed-metaphor out of the scouse striker. No joy, Wayne is bound more tightly than a terrified Oyster…we knew that he knew it’d be a difficult game. Frankly, I’m due a rest, but this sets me off again. Back to my studio. Gabriel’s still working, so am I.
Starting a new score is a bit like getting Rooney to say something other than a pre-rehearsed platitude. It’s easy to make noises, easy to find a tune or two, but finding THE noise or THE tune can take some coaxing. Fortunately, experience has honed my coaxing skills to a level more incisive than a scimitar. If you Google ‘coaxer’ the top hit will almost certainly be Clarke, with me a close second. If the bottom falls out of my career – as my teachers assured me it would – I’ll head down to the Jobcentre and declare my availability for immediate coaxing.
As my family took to their beds my post-match challenge was to coax the beautiful out of the formidable scream of a Porsche 917. This 917 in particular was engaged in the savage destruction of a section of French asphalt in 1970 Le Mans. This is me coaxing. Making a mark on an otherwise blank canvas. Within the wails and screams of this most astonishing engine I find a section where the car must have been flat out – the home straight perhaps? A brief moment where the pitch of the engine retained a degree of stability, the diabolic whine of a machine at the limit. In I go with the scissors and some sophisticated software and set about crafting the sound into something musical…maybe even something useable. With some careful looping and tuning I’m able to create a sustained sound that I can actually play with my piano keyboard as I would any other. It’s morphed from a machine at the edge into a unique instrument.
You see, it’s easy with a computer and a bundle of posh software to make things that sound like music very quickly. But often those things are not music at all, just a sequence of pretty notes. A glass bowl of M&M’s on a receptionist’s desk.
Coaxing gets you deeper, asks questions of you and throws up the unexpected. Like metal detecting. Mainly you find a few old coins and a ring pull. Occasionally you dig up a Roman hoard.
Ring pull or Roman hoard? Season’s greetings performed entirely by a Porsche 917:
Sign up to our newsletter for updates on ‘McQueen: The Man & Le Mans’ here.Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, dropped a controversial phrase casting doubt on the Holocaust from an address to a United Nations conference on |
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: Describe meeting Lena Dunham for the first time.
JUDD APATOW: Lena is just a remarkable person. She's everything you hope she would be. She's very sweet, and open, and vulnerable, yet she knows exactly what she wants to do. But she's very collaborative. She's one of those people that you're just glad they're a part of your world. I've collaborated with all sorts of people; sometimes very easy, sometimes it's really hard. And the work can be great when it's hard also. But she's just a very unique individual, that also just, someone I interact with everyday, just handles herself so well. There's such a swirl of controversy and debate around everything she does. But it doesn't seem to throw her off of her path of what she wants to say and do. And she's not debilitated by it. She's getting an enormous amount of praise, and then there are people who don't like it. And she's very game to make her stuff and throw it out there for people to talk about. And I think it's because her parents are from the art world and to her it is art.
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: I thought it was pretty interesting that at the TCA there was a question about nudity. You were a little upset by that or irritated. She wasn't.
JUDD APATOW: I got really mad. People wrote about it. But it was about how the guy asked it. He was just really nasty and there was a really nasty tone in his voice. Every interview we ever do people ask about the nudity. We don't care about that. That's just a part of the show. There was just something really awful in how he was communicating with us.
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: Does she get upset about critiques of her?
JUDD APATOW:You know, so little it doesn't even make sense. I'll read things and things really bother you. Things can stay with you for years. I'll remember, oh my god, the Roger Ebert Heavyweights review, oh it's so painful. Or the Time Magazine Cable Guy review. I remember Newsweek said Cable Guy, there's not one laugh in it. And it just stuck with me in my head. I knew it wasn't true because we would show it and it would get giant laughs. But it doesn't seem to bother her or haunt her and when we're in the writing room she's never adjusting anything because of all the noise. So much of the Internet is negative. That's how people get noticed, when they write blogs, or even when they're just posting on Twitter, you get noticed by being negative. You have to be disciplined to understand that. It's not actually even the reaction to things. It's just, who wants to read nice things? So the blogosphere can get really tough because they want some attention.
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: Who's the one who pushes the limit on that? Is it her? Is it you?
JUDD APATOW:Well, we always laugh because sometimes people think I'm the one pushing the dirty stuff, or whatever. That last sequence was something that was an idea that I was pushing to Lena and Lena always laughs about that because you wouldn't think I would write the sweet thing. So it goes back and forth. Sometimes I think of something disgusting, and sometimes I think of something sweet. And sometimes it's Lena or Jenni Konner, who's the show runner. It's different for every episode.
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: So go back to the very first meeting with her.
JUDD APATOW: I met her, I saw her movie Tiny Furniture, and I sent her an email, if you ever need somebody to screw up your career, give me a call.
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: This time she said, "Is this The Judd Apatow?"
JUDD APATOW: Exactly. I called her and she thought it was a joke. I said, I'd love to help you with anything you're trying to do. Because I really related to how personal her work was and also that she used her family. How intimate it was. It turned out she was already developing Girls with my friend Jenni Konner who worked on the TV show we did, Undeclared. They said, hey do you want to join the team? I wasn't looking to do TV but I knew it was a big opportunity to work with them. So I jumped at it.
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: What would surprise people about her who don't know her well?
JUDD APATOW:What would surprise people about her? I don't know what people actually know about her and don't know about her. She's just a very kind person. I think that comes through in the show. The show is so much about bad behavior, and people who are self-entitled, and there's a lot of selfishness on the show, and really bad decisions. Lena isn't like that. She's pretty together and knows what she wants to do. But we have an awareness. There's that moment in your twenties when you're trying to figure out who you are and you want to take on the world and you don't want to hear everybody's advice and you have to be selfish to succeed. You have to be a little bit of a lunatic to say, I'm going to do something with my life. And that's what we try to capture on the show is that struggle. Because sometimes you say that and things don't go well.
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: All these people want to ask you questions. Let's go. Introduce yourself please.
STUDENT [SAMUEL LOCKE]: Hi there. I'm Samuel Lock.
JUDD APATOW:How are you?
STUDENT [SAMUEL LOCKE]: I'm doing super thanks for asking.
JUDD APATOW: We can't clear your t-shirt or you can't ask a question. What does it say on your shirt?
STUDENT [SAMUEL LOCKE]: Steamhouse. It's the comedy club on campus.
JUDD APATOW: Oh, excellent.
STUDENT [SAMUEL LOCKE]: My question to you is, as a comedian and a filmmaker there is a lot of uncertainty and doubts and self-consciousness and all this other negative energy that comes with being in the profession. How do you specifically deal with it and do you still deal with it even as a success?
JUDD APATOW: I think that the hard part is that you never know if a joke is going to work. And there's no way to know for sure if a joke is going to work. So in a way you are always feeling insecure about everything that you do. Even having a lot of successes, doesn't make me feel any better than I did when I first started because it's all reinventing the wheel, every time you go at it. At some point you just get used to it. That's what it is. That's why I shoot a lot of extra jokes, and extra material. Sometimes when I shoot scenes I'm shooting so many versions of the scene that I'm actually shooting the reshoot of the scene while I'm shooting the scene. So, I'll say, this scene is too corny, maybe I'll do an edgier version of it. Or it's too funny maybe I'll do the serious version. And I'll get all those options so in editing I can decide what the tone is but that's only because I don't believe anything will work.
STUDENT [PAUL GIACOMAZZI]: A lot of your films are comedies with heart and they have the audiences rolling in their seats laughing, but at its core it's heartfelt and relatable commentary on life. So, what draws you to that genre, this balance between comedy and truth?
JUDD APATOW: Well, Paul Giacomazzi, I just wanted to see if I could say your name back. Is that how you say it? Wow, I'm pretty good. That's the exact kind of stuff I loved when I was a kid. I loved Fast Times at Ridgemont High; I loved that it had Spicoli in it but Jennifer Jason Leigh had an abortion and it was real and they handled it very seriously. Say Anything, I loved St. Elsewhere and NYPD Blue and Hillstreet Blues. Anything that had drama and comedy was what I got excited about. All in the Family would have these episodes that would be funny and then they would get so dark. The fight about Vietnam would be really funny and then it would just not get funny. And they would really fight about it for a few minutes. I'm always drawn to that, Paddy Chayefsky wrote so many great plays and movies like Network. I guess that's the area that interests me the most. It's really fun to do just pure joke fest movies. I worked on Walk Hard, and You Don't Mess with the Zohan, and that's a different type of comedy writing that I also find great fun to be a part of. But I like things to be heartfelt and I try, like in music, there's music that really touches you. You listen to Nirvana, you think he's not messing around. He's really telling me what he's feeling from deep in his soul and even in comedy I try to make that what I'm going for.
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: You haven't yet or would you ever do a straight drama?
JUDD APATOW: I don't think so, because I don't think anything is without humor. Whenever there's a movie that has no jokes in it at all, I always think, well that's not even possible. In any situation somebody is making a heinous joke. At funeral or massacres, someone's making a joke. Someone at a massacre is going, can you believe this is happening to us right now?
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: I'm not going to invite you to my next massacre. Let's have the next question.
STUDENT [JANETTE DANIELSON]: You've been working with a lot of these actors since the beginning, like Seth Rogen and Jason Segal. How has the creative process developed between all of you over the years? Are you proud to see where they are now since Freaks and Geeks?
JUDD APATOW: It's evolved because they're so talented and they just get better and better and I'm just so in awe of what they do. I just saw Jason Segal's next movie Sex Tape which Jake acts and directed in it which is so good. And This is the End is just a remarkably funny, ballsy comedy. So yeah, there's an element of it where it feels like someone has flown out of the nest and they do something great and you just are proud that you were ever part of their world. So you feel like the whole world of what we do expanding and it's very exciting. Seth and Evan have a new movie called The Interview. I couldn't be more excited to get to see it.
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: Do you hang out with them? Do they come and work on ideas with you at your home?
JUDD APATOW: We give each other scripts we're working on. When we have rough cuts of movies, we invite each other to the rough cuts to get notes from each other. It's a great community of people and we all have a philosophy of just trying to help everybody. I'm directing a movie that Amy Schumer wrote called Trainwreck and I had everybody read it out loud about a week ago. About fifty people showed up and gave notes and we're all very honest with each other. I liked this, I did not like that. Here's what I would do.
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: What's it about?
JUDD APATOW: It's a romantic comedy between Amy Schumer and Bill Hader from Saturday Night Live. It's Amy's point of view and Amy's style of comedy. Which is always fun for me to try to find the next person, someone who hasn't made a movie and go how would this work in a movie? What is Amy Schumer like as a comedy star, or as an actress? And to try to develop the material with her. So it's really fun.
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: Do you find it weird how you film more and more from the woman's point of view?
JUDD APATOW: It might be from having daughters too. My whole world is women, all day long. And it's like three eras of the same woman. It's like I live with the same woman. It's like a weird time machine movie. So maybe that's part of it is that I'm in that point of view more than when I was in college.
STUDENT [JOSEPH ENGLAND]: So my question is, the industry is changing quite a bit right now with what studios are green lighting and digital distribution. So I'm wondering if you have some advice for us, how young storytellers could leverage these changes into assets more than liabilities, preparing us for the future?
JUDD APATOW: Just look at what Lena has done. Lena got one of those Canon cameras, she shot a movie for $45,000. And looks like the equivalent of what was the $1 or $2 million movie a few years ago and she made her career. She just did it. I think it's different than when I started out because you really couldn't do it without a lot of funding. Some people would, Robert Rodriguez would pull it off, Kevin Smith. But now you really could make a movie, it's all about sound. You just need a friend who knows how to work the mic. The cameras, everything looks amazing. Now it's all writing, and having energy and fortitude to just do it. You can make a short film and you can put it up on Funny or Die or YouTube. I used to goof around with short film when I was young but there was nowhere to show them. There was no internet. Or at least I didn't understand what it was yet. I thought it was just like a chat room for people with weird sexual proclivities. So you just have to make stuff. There's no excuse not to be making things.
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: As a writer what tips would you give these students?
JUDD APATOW: The best thing I ever heard about writing, it sounds simple but it really rocked me. The best gift you could give other people is your story. It took me a long time to think my story had any value or was interesting, but I feel like the more personal you are, that doesn't mean it's actually your story but it's just how you feel about the world. When that comes out, that's when people do their best work
STUDENT [KRISTEN YORK]: What would be your best piece of advice for writers, directors, producers that want to get into comedy?
JUDD APATOW: You have to do a lot of things. Mike Binder, who's a great writer and director, when I was young he told me that the first script he sold was his tenth script. That had a lot of impact on me. I thought, oh, so you don't necessarily sell that first one. You might have to just keep starting the next one and that was a great thing to learn. The second you finish something, start the next one. Don't take two years shopping around your script. Just start another one.
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: I think Oliver Stone wrote something like ten scripts before he sold one.
JUDD APATOW: They get better. You so want the first one to be perfect, but every script you write gets better, for the most part. So you just have to continue to work and write. The culture is so much about very short jokes and tweets and short films. I think there's very few people reading books and doing deep thinking and if I was young I would be the one who is still reading books trying to…
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: You love self-help books. Do you have any recommendations?
JUDD APATOW: Do I Have To Give Up Me To Be Loved By You? That's always one. All the books I like. Healing Your Aloneness. When Things Fall Apart. I'm a big self-help fan because I think there's a lot of character details in it. Usually in a self-help book they'll have stories. Here's why two people fight. He thinks this, she thinks that, here's how they fight and here's how they might get over it. So when you read a lot of self help books you actually might learn a lot about human nature.
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: Do you keep them or do you give them to people?
JUDD APATOW: I'm a hoarder, I don't throw anything out.
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: Your wife said that and I wonder if you really are a hoarder.
JUDD APATOW: Well, according to her. I have five storage spaces where I just keep putting things. So it's not all in the room. When I see people and they have stacks of newspapers, up to the ceiling and they think, I'll read that one from 1978 one day, I totally get that.
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: And I know you collect autographs and letters.
JUDD APATOW:I do. I have a big autograph collection.
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: What is the one thing you would find the hardest to give up?
JUDD APATOW: Well, the Steve Martin signed book would be hard to give up. Those things I got as a little kid. I used to write letters to people. I'd ask them for their autograph and every once in a while someone would send one to me. So I wrote Paul Lind—you guys remember Paul Lind? And I got an autograph, so I wrote him again, and he sent another photograph and I wrote him again and thought, how many times will he keep sending me the autograph? He's not connecting it's me. It's just a name on a stack. I like the old ones I got as a little kid.
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: When we last met you got the Johnny Carson.
JUDD APATOW: That's right, I bought at an auction Johnny Carson's speech at a Friar Club roast and he wrote out all his jokes. That's fun to have.
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: Did you meet him?
JUDD APATOW: I had. I did. Roseanne did one of the last episodes of the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and I went with her. And he used to never come visit people before the show but because it was ending he came into the dressing room and said hi. And I was able to spend two minutes in his presence but it was a good two minutes.
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: Was he nice to you?
JUDD APATOW: He was very nice, but he was tiny. He was a little, tiny, elderly man which rocked you because I had watched him since I could remember being alive. And this little man walks in.
STUDENT [DAVID KOUTSOURIDIS]: I know it can take quite a bit of time to succeed in this industry, and I'm just curious as to how you remained patient when you were first starting out?
JUDD APATOW: I was always doing something that I liked. I went to college. I ran out of money. I couldn't afford college. So I had to drop out. I was booking comedy clubs, that was one thing I did to pay the rent. I had a job at HBO working for this charity comic relief putting on benefits for the homeless with comedians. So I was trying to be around what I liked, even if in the periphery, I was around it enough that I didn't mind doing the hard work. So eventually I was able to get some jobs as a comic and writing jokes for other people. So I was still doing comedy for a while before it blossomed into real jobs. I couldn't' have been happier writing jokes for Jeff Dunham and the Walter puppet. I wrote jokes for George Wallace, and then it turned into Tom Arnold and Roseanne. That was what I did. I noticed that comics don't write jokes for other comics 'cause they want to keep them for themselves. So it was weird to comics that I would write for them because no one wants to do that. So you have to find that thing that you could do that pays the bills but keeps you in the universe of what your real goal is.
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: Do you like the comedy world?
JUDD APATOW: I do like it. I think there's a lot of nice people. And I think comedians want other comedians to succeed, we all respect how hard it is to do it. And we like to help each other, comedians tend to be fans of comedy so there's a nice community.
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: Lena Dunham said it's very much a gentleman's world, meaning a guy's world.
JUDD APATOW:I think that it might lean that way but so many of the great comedy voices of this generation are people like Tina Fey and Amy Poehler and Lena Dunham. There's a countless amount of great female voices, so it's changing very fast.
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: How many more seasons are you going to do of Girls?
JUDD APATOW:We've talked about doing six seasons. I guess that could change, it's not set.
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: Are you committed to six.
JUDD APATOW:I think we're all committed that we'll do six. And I don't know if at someone everyone says, let's keep going, but I think there was some thought to that already.
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: Do you have an ending in mind?
JUDD APATOW: No I don't think so. But we've talked about it. It makes you respect the ending of The Sopranos though. When you're part of a show and you think about, how do you end a series, the idea that you just stop and leave people there is so genius, it's such a great idea. It's such a great way of saying, it doesn't matter. This is their life and now we're just going to leave them to it.
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: The most debated ending, isn't it?
JUDD APATOW: I liked it. It might have been viscerally interesting to get gunned down, but I'm glad he didn't 'cause now he could kill other people in my dreams.
STUDENT [TOM YOUNG]: I'm a huge fan of Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared. Thanks to the Internet and Netflix a lot of new fans are able to enjoy these shows after cancellation. Have you ever considered bringing them back?
JUDD APATOW: I think it's too late. Freaks and Geeks would probably have a really sad reunion show. It would have to happen at a prison or at a hospital. We didn't think much of those people would do very well. We thought Lindsay might escape but for the most part, it probably wouldn't be a pretty picture. So we've never taken that seriously. Whenever you see those reunion shows, there's something that feels wrong about that.
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: Have you thought about picking up one of those characters again and following him in something else?
JUDD APATOW: In my mind we have done that. Superbad feels like an extension of Freaks and Geeks, and Forgetting Sarah Marshall feels like an extension. In a way we continue to tell those types of stories, so I don't feel like it's open ended. And I like the ending. That Lindsay goes off to follow the Dead. We did talk about what would happen second season. Paul had a lot of ideas about Lindsay having very serious drug problems. She loved acid. She loved it.
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: Really, you seriously would have done that second season?
JUDD APATOW: Joe Flaherty would have had to deal with how you sober up your child.
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: I'm sure the network would have loved that.
JUDD APATOW:They would have loved it.
STUDENT [CAMERON TAGGE]: I was wondering what you would tell mini baby Judd Apatow when he was first getting started in the business and why?
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: Good question.
JUDD APATOW:What would I tell him? What advice would give myself? When I was 15-16 I did all these interviews with Harold Ramis, and Jay Leno and Jerry Seinfeld. So I asked them for advice. So I feel like I got the advice from them because I would interview them for my high school radio station. I never even aired most of the interviews. I just wanted to know things about comedy. The best lesson that they taught me was patience. Everybody wants everything immediately. Everybody thinks that they're great instantly. The people who tend to succeed are the people who realize you evolve as a person, you evolve as an artist, and that it takes time, and if you're patient and you're prepared not to quit, and you're open to learning the entire time, then great things can happen. Look at Martin Scorsese and The Wolf of Wall Street, it's just a guy that continues to learn and push himself to the next place. And that's what you have to do as a filmmaker is to continue your education forever.
STEPHEN GALLOWAY: On behalf of everybody here, Judd Apatow, thank you for joining us.AARON LENNON will be reunited tonight with the man who signed him for the cost of a McDonald’s.
Carlisle boss Greg Abbott
We were playing Everton, who were all over us, yet we won 3-0 with this little kid from Chapeltown scoring a hat-trick Carlisle boss Greg Abbott
Carlisle boss Greg Abbott is praying Lennon starts for Tottenham in the David-versus-Goliath Capital One Cup clash at Brunton Park.
And he will even be tempted to take him out afterwards, knowing it will not blow a big hole in his wallet.
Abbott was an Under-14 coach at Leeds when he first set eyes on Lennon, 25, and made it his mission to sign him for the club.
He said: “We were playing Everton, who were all over us, yet we won 3-0 with this little kid from Chapeltown scoring a hat-trick. I knew then he’d go on to play for England.
“From that day, I set out on a personal crusade with Aaron, his dad Winston and brother Tony to get him to sign a contract and we managed it.
“The club used to give me two hundred quid to take his family out for a meal and, every time, they’d politely decline and ask me if we could go to McDonald’s instead.
“The biggest bill I ever spent was £9.80 – and that included my own Big Mac. All Aaron ever wanted was burger and coke, while his dad had coffee.”
Abbott has kept track of Lennon’s career ever since – from Leeds to Spurs and England – and would love to see him in action tonight, even if it lengthens the odds of the Cumbrians pulling off an upset.
“Aaron left Leeds when they were in financial difficulty, but it is what youth football is all about,” said League One’s longest-serving manager.
“For me, he is the most frightening player in the country because of his electric pace and dribbling ability. I just hope the Carlisle public get the chance to see him play.”
Not that Abbott thinks the game will be just about Lennon. Carlisle are undefeated in four matches and are in the mood to give Spurs boss Andre Villas-Boas a bloody nose.
“I bet if you gave AVB a map, he would not have a clue where Carlisle is,” said Abbott. “It should be an interesting night.
“We played Everton in the FA Cup three years ago and hit the bar in the dying minutes with the scores level and although we lost that one, it was one of our best performances since I arrived.
“This is a great game for us and an absolutely horrible one for Spurs.
“I haven’t a clue who AVB will pick, but he can’t afford to lose this one.”
Abbott is keeping his game plan a secret – but there is one team order he is happy to make public.
“No-one’s allowed to swap shirts with Aaron Lennon,” he said. “That shirt’s mine!”When a game as modifiable as Skyrim comes out, capable modders often leap at the opportunity to make the character models look as fuckable as humanly possible. It’s become something of a joke whenever this sort of game nears its release date—how long till someone makes a nude patch? Hint: usually not very long.
So it’s never surprising to see, whilst perusing the metaphorical aisles of the mods database of your choosing, a slew of mods that give all the women in the game enormous breasts and flawless skin and J-Lo butts—not to mention mods that make men’s six packs shinier– but y’know, to each his own. These people probably paid good money for this game and they can do what they want with it.
There’s a thin line to be crossed here, though—while many mods clearly suit particular personal tastes or merely improve upon a game’s default meshes or textures, others accidentally step into body image territory. That’s not cool, guys, and I think it’s something that, as a community, we need to start being more careful about.
In particular, I’m talking about Skyrim mods like Better Females. This mod re-textures all of the females in the game with smoother, more made-up complexions. Lots of glittery eye shadow and lipstick going on around here. Personally, I can’t find the logic in Dovahkiin glamazon-ing it up in the Nordic tundra, but clearly this is a mod built for those with preferences similar to the author’s– and there’s nothing wrong with that, until you start throwing around words like better which the Elder Scrolls modding community has a nasty habit of doing. The author has surely received some complaint, as they’ve put up a disclaimer in the mod’s description box:
“I would also like to say that I made this mod originally for myself then thought others might enjoy it as well. So I am giving you the option of downloading it which I do with most all of my work. With that being said this mod is tailored to my style and not necessarily everyone else. This is my art some might love it and some might absolutely hate it and that's understandable. I'm not saying this is how females HAVE to look and I'm not saying they looked ugly or unattractive before. I just wanted everyone to have the option of something different. Thanks again everyone take care and be safe <3 -Bella”
The author of this mod obviously hasn’t meant any harm, but the mod is nonetheless called “Better Females” and not something catchy like “Glamazon Ladies of Skyrim” or “Glittery Barbie Lipgloss Dreamland: The Skyrim Mod”. By calling her re-textured ladies “Better Females”, she is implying that that these fictional females were unattractive to begin with, whether she’s intended to or not—and it’s not even her fault.
Character design so often lends itself to the unrealistic expectations we have for ourselves, reaffirming our physical insecurities and the idea that we could always be better.
I know what you’re asking—why should it matter? They are fictional females. But ask yourself this: when we’re at a point where even our fantastical polygons aren’t considered attractive enough to look at or briefly roleplay as in our spare time, at a point where we feel we must make even pretend people “better”, where are we as a society? We done goofed, internet.
Character design so often lends itself to the unrealistic expectations we have for ourselves, reaffirming our physical insecurities and the idea that we could always be better. In the real world, we feel the need to create these flawless doll-like versions of ourselves—perfectly symmetrical features, immaculate proportions, no pores, certainly no blemishes. We cake their faces with makeup, take pictures of them in just the right lighting, and then airbrush whatever shred of humanity is left on their bodies and stick them into magazines and onto billboards so that people will buy products in hopes of attaining that sort of perfection. If you’re ever in the mood to make yourself really sad, search tags like “pro-ana” and “body image” on Tumblr and you’ll see what I’m talking about.
Video games and other forms of media imitate life in this fashion, with characters like Nathan Drake and Lara Croft showing us that, “This is what a man should look like. This is what a woman should look like.” And you know what? I’m not really sure anybody is ever going to change that. It’s human nature. I’m not even sure there’s anything too terribly wrong with some of our video game icons looking the image of perfection—heroes always have.
It’s all the more refreshing to me, though, when a game comes out that offers character models that are more varied or allow you to be less than perfect. Lord of the Rings Online, Star Wars: The Old Republic and EVE Online (all MMOs, coincidentally) are good examples of this—all have character creation systems that allow you to customize the shape of your avatar. For MMOs, this allows for a more realistic and diverse player base where you’re less likely to run into similar avatars again and again.
On the single-player side of things, Skyrim offers these same options. By default, Skyrim characters look a little roughed up and dirty, lending themselves easily to their harsh environment. They don’t look perfect. They aren’t especially attractive and they don’t come with hourglass figures.
And while I don’t expect that aesthetic to float everyone’s particular boat, isn’t it a little disappointing how quickly we rush to improve their appearance? Isn’t it kind of a shame how easily we can Photoshop eyeliner and lipstick onto a video game character and unabashedly declare it better than it was without? It scares me just a tiny bit how even in video games—a form of escapism for many—we cling so heavily to our real-world ideals of beauty. A nip here, a tuck there, and suddenly Joan Rivers is trekking to the summit of the Throat of the World. And that is a horrifying prospect, friends.BJP's Yogi Adityanath has applauded Donald Trump's immigration ban
BJP lawmaker Yogi Adityanath has praised US President Donald Trump's temporary ban on citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries - roundly condemned within the US and worldwide - and said similar action is needed to check terrorism in India. While campaigning for the Uttar Pradesh polls to be held from February 7, the firebrand leader also focused on his party colleague's claims of a Hindu "exodus" from western UP and warned that the region could soon "become another Kashmir".Addressing a rally in Bulandshahr on Monday, the saffron-robed lawmaker referred to Mr Trump's immigration order temporarily banning entry to the US for citizens of seven countries and refugees from around the world, and said: "Similar action is needed to contain terror activities in this country."The lawmaker from Gorakhpur also alleged during his speeches that the situation in western Uttar Pradesh is similar to the Kashmir Valley around three decades ago, when "Kashmiri Pandits were terrorized and forced to leave". The situation, he claimed, was especially grim in Muzzafarnagar, Baghpat, Meerut and Ghaziabad. He accused the ruling Samajwadi Party and Mayawati's BSP of allowing it to happen with their policies over the years."What happened in Kashmir in 1990...the same is going to happen in UP," the lawmaker said, adding, "BJP is committed not to let this happen anymore. We have lost Kashmir Valley, but we cannot let western Uttar Pradesh to become second Kashmir."Last year, BJP parliamentarian Hukum Singh alleged that more than 300 Hindu families have left Muslim-dominated Kairana because of threats and attacks after riots in 2013 in the area.Both the Samajwadi Party and BSP have rubbished the claim, calling it is an attempt to polarise the region for votes. Mr Singh has also not backed his claim with any credible evidence.Kairana is around 50 km from Muzaffarnagar, where over 60 were killed and thousands displaced in riots in September 2013, months before the national election. Kairana has also found a place in the BJP's manifesto for UP. "District collectors will be held accountable for migration of people due to communal strife," BJP chief Amit Shah said while releasing the manifesto on the weekend, promising to set up teams that would check such "exodus".Michael Nemeth
in our homes for generations. Americans use it to run water heaters, home furnaces, stoves, clothes dryers, and other appliances. As a fuel it accounts for 24 percent of our total energy consumption nationwide, all but 1 percent in residential applications. And as we reported last fall ("Drilling Down," September 2011), new fracking techniques are tapping domestic reserves that previously were not economically viable. Vast global supplies are projected to last well into the next century even if natural gas replaces gasoline completely. So it should be no surprise that natural gas will remain incredibly cheap. It runs at one-half to one-third the current cost of gasoline on an energy-equivalent measure. In a properly tuned engine, natural gas combustion delivers 20 percent lower carbon emissions and about a 25 percent reduction in greenhouse gases compared with the cleanest gasoline engines, all without damaging existing catalytic converter systems. So right about now you're probably wondering: Why aren't we putting this stuff in our cars?
As it turns out, there are very few technological barriers to overcome. In fact, converting existing vehicles to burn natural gas isn't particularly challenging. Unfortunately, if you tried to do it yourself, you'd more than likely run afoul of the Clean Air Act's rules against modifying fuel systems--a violation that could cost you up to $5000 in fines for every day you drive the converted vehicle. So if you want to green your wheels today, the only way to do it is by hiring a certified compressed-natural-gas (CNG) installer to do the job. To get the skinny on aftermarket CNG systems, I visited NatGasCar in Cleveland. It's a startup shop that augments gasoline cars by installing a parallel natural gas fuel system. They showed |
Rs 25 lakhs to Kapoor and also giving her a story credit in his upcoming film ‘Phir Se’.)
I was in a meeting with the Creative Head of one of the top production houses of our industry recently. I was totally overwhelmed about finally getting a chance to get that meeting after having waited for almost a decade.
So I narrate two stories of mine, the gentleman likes them and asks me to share them with him. I happily agree to this, trying to contain my excitement. I have waited so long for this!
“But you have to sign a release form”, he says. “You know, which says that if we are already working on something that is similar to what you are sharing, you cannot sue us in the future” (or something to that effect). The grim look on my face tells him that I am perhaps not comfortable signing any such document. “Arre it’s okay. It’s just a formality, only to make sure that some loony doesn’t file a case against us”. I can’t stop smiling. “Arre there are all kinds of loonies out there, nothing personal against you”, he adds trying to make me comfortable.
I pause, take a quick call on whether to make the grand revelation or not and I decide to go with the full and final disclosure. “You do know you’re talking to one of those loonies?” I ask him.
“Arre baba, I was talking about those complaining types, nothing against you baba,” he reiterates with a rather genuine smile. I figure he is unaware of the copyright case I have been fighting and made that remark very innocently. And so I spill the beans. Tell him about my ongoing case that I have been fighting against a famous director who stole my script. And there’s silence! That uncomfortable, ghostly silence!THE NRL Integrity Unit has blocked the first grade debut of Manly youngster Jamil Hopoate, declaring he needs to rehabilitate further following a stint in jail before a contract will be registered.
Hopoate, the son of controversial former Sea Eagles star John and brother of Bulldogs fullback Will, had been in line to come into an injury ravaged Manly backline against Penrith on Sunday, but the NRL is understood to have scuppered the move earlier this week.
The 21-year-old junior star linked again with Manly last month after serving nine months in prison of an 18-month sentence for two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm in company in 2014.
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Father John took to social media on Wednesday evening lamenting the decision and the NRL confirmed its ruling on Thursday.
“The NRL has required Jamil undertake a range of rehabilitation work before it will consider registering his contract,” an NRL spokesman told foxsports.com.au.
“That rehabilitation has not yet been undertaken.”
Manly coach Trent Barrett joins Nathan Ryan, Ben Glover and Matt Russell to discuss his rookie season as NRL coach, recruitment for 2017, the future of his veterans and the biggest challenges facing the club.
You can also subscribe via iTunes or for Android users, listen on the iPP Podcast Player app.
Manly coach Trent Barrett told the press his club had no issue with any ruling from the NRL around its players eligibility on disciplinary grounds, with a similar issue also affecting recently signed ex-Rooster Willis Meehan in recent weeks.
“Jamil, he’s eligible for NSW Cup but not eligible to play NRL,” Barrett said.
“I’m not too sure of the details around that. Rules are rules and we’ll abide by them. We’ll field a strong side on Sunday.
“The integrity commission’s got rules. We stick to them. When our players are all OK to play, we’ll play them. If not we’ll abide by the rules and do just that.”
A promising local junior, Jamil Hopoate had his contract with Manly torn up in 2014 after the then Sea Eagles under 20s player and a group of friends punched and kicked a man, rendering him unconscious outside the Ivanhoe Hotel on the northern beaches.
Hopoate had previously rejoined the club after being booted from Parramatta following a drink-driving conviction and a disciplinary incident at an NRL rookie camp.
Having served his time, Hopoate has spoken of his stint in jail as a “wake up call” that helped turn his life around.
The damaging back-rower began his return to rugby league in May this year and after impressive performances in the local A grade competition forced his way into Manly’s NSW Cup side.
He scored two tries in last week’s reserve grade loss to Newtown and had been slated to come into Barrett’s 17 for NSW Origin star Dylan Walker, who continues to struggle with a shoulder injury.
Earlier this year Manly and the NRL were involved in a tense stand-off over John’s involvement as coach of the club’s SG Ball side.
Hopoate’s career as a junior coach has since been all but canned after he dropped a Supreme Court case appealing an NRL ban, imposed after the governing body was advised by a NSW police force detective that he was not a ‘fit and proper person’ to mentor teens.
Hopoate senior posted on Facebook on Wednesday evening: “So my son Jamil misses out on debuting for the Eagles this week cause the NRL integrity unit said he’s not allowed. He’s done he’s (sic) time so let the play and let’s move on...”
The head office’s stance comes as Cronulla’s Andrew Fifita faces scrutiny over a police warning for consorting with criminals.
Fifita won’t be stood down from the Sharks blockbuster minor-premiership showdown with the Storm for what CEO Lyall Gorman says is concern around Fifita’s relationship with a long-time friend currently in jail.
The Sharks and NSW Origin front-rower is the fourth NRL player to be issued a consorting warning by authorities this season, while ongoing investigations into alleged match-fixing and criminal connections within the game continue.
This writer is on Twitter: @dan_walsh64
Download the new FOX SPORTS App to get the latest news and scores from your NRL team.ESSENDON has withheld sensitive information about the club's game-plan from its top-up players for fear of having opposition clubs steal its intellectual property.
With about 17 Bombers-listed players provisionally suspended over the club's 2012 supplements program, Essendon has been forced to rely on the services of up to 13 top-up players to fill its team during the NAB Challenge series.
James Polkinghorne (Brisbane Lions), Jordan Schroder (Geelong), Clint Jones (St Kilda), Mitch Brown (Geelong), Mitch Clisby (Melbourne), Jared Petrenko (Adelaide), James Magner (Melbourne) and Sam Michael (Brisbane Lions) are among the players who have been previously listed by an opposition AFL club.
Essendon assistant coach Mark Harvey said the club feared disclosing critical information to the top-up players in case other clubs approached them when their stints were over to learn secrets from the Bombers' game-plan.
"The interesting part is that it's very hard to simulate your game-plan when you have upwards of eight to 10 players who have just come into your club in the last two weeks," Harvey told SEN on Wednesday morning.
"Sometimes things like structure and the timing of what you need to do (has been problematic).
"How much information do you pass on with your strategy and tactics to these guys, knowing they might be around for a couple of weeks?
"That's been difficult."
Harvey said the club had decided the best course of action was to have separate meetings.
"We've had a couple of different meetings throughout the course of a week on those sorts of issues," Harvey said.
"But the (top-up) guys that we've got into the club have been fantastic in the way that they've conducted themselves and the way they've gone out and played."
AFL Anti-Doping Tribunal findings notwithstanding, a number of Essendon-listed players will head into the club's round one clash against the Sydney Swans without playing an official practice match.
Harvey said it has been tough to simulate game-like intensity at training and prepare the players for the premiership season.
"We hope that we're getting in somewhere near the game simulation that they'd be getting if they were playing in the NAB Challenge," Harvey said.
"As you know, they're not necessarily playing in their structural positions based on the training modes that we're doing at the moment.
"It's very hard from a game style to get the rhythm and what we need to do when we can't all play together."
Essendon meets Melbourne at Etihad Stadium in its last NAB Challenge hit-out on Friday night.
The Tribunal will hand down its verdict on the Essendon players on March 31 and if results do not fall the club's way it may be forced to retain some of the top-up players for the season proper.Former Illinois congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. plead guilty on Wednesday in a scheme to use $750,000 in campaign cash for personal use. (The Washington Post)
Former Illinois congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. plead guilty on Wednesday in a scheme to use $750,000 in campaign cash for personal use. (The Washington Post)
Eighteen years in Congress. Field director for the National Rainbow Coalition. Adviser to his father’s presidential campaigns.
With his father watching from the front row of a federal courtroom in Washington on Wednesday, Jesse L. Jackson Jr. ticked off his many accomplishments, demonstrating not only his successes but how far he has fallen as he pleaded guilty to using approximately $750,000 in campaign money to enrich himself and his wife.
Court documents filed Wednesday outlined for the first time how extensively Jackson and his wife, Sandra Stevens Jackson, 49, used campaign money for personal expenses — from the extravagant to the mundane. In addition to high-end items such as a gold watch and fur wraps, the Jacksons used campaign cash and credit cards to pay for movie tickets, health club dues, dry cleaning, private-school tuition and trips to Costco.
“I did these things,” Jackson told U.S. District Judge Robert L. Wilkins, repeatedly dabbing his eyes with a tissue before pleading guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to commit false statements, mail fraud and wire fraud.
Jackson treated his campaign coffers as a “personal piggybank,” U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr. said in a news conference. Machen called Jackson’s downfall “tragic” because of his talents but said he had “squandered that talent to satisfy his personal whims and extravagant lifestyle.”
Jackson, 47, could spend 46 to 57 months in prison and must forfeit the goods he purchased inappropriately. His wife faces only slightly less prison time. Three hours after facing his criminal charges, Jackson sat hunched forward on his knees as he watched his wife plead guilty to filing false income-tax returns from 2006 through 2011. Sandra Jackson, who worked in the Clinton administration and resigned in January as a Chicago alderman, could be sentenced to one to two years in prison.
The Jacksons used campaign credit cards to make approximately 3,100 personal purchases over seven years starting in August 2005, prosecutors said.
Other expenses detailed in court records Wednesday: a $466 dinner at the Mandarin Oriental’s CityZen restaurant; $10,000 for multiple flat-screen TVs and DVD players from Best Buy; $2,300 in transportation services at Disney World; and $5,600 for a five-day holistic retreat on Martha’s Vineyard for a family member.
The Jacksons also spent campaign money on appliances for their Chicago home, including a washer, dryer and refrigerator, and on renovations at their home near Dupont Circle.
Jesse Jackson’s acknowledgment of his misconduct follows a series of setbacks for the once-promising Illinois Democrat and son of the famed civil rights leader who was considered a potential successor to President Obama in the Senate.
He was implicated in the scandal surrounding allegations that then-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) tried to sell an interim appointment to the Senate seat to the highest bidder. Although Jackson was not charged, prosecutors investigated allegations that he had instructed his fundraiser to bring in millions for the governor’s campaign.
At the same time, Jackson’s personal life was unwinding. Before resigning from the House in mid-November, Jackson left Washington for several weeks without telling congressional leaders why. He later announced that he was being treated for depression at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and released a statement saying he suffered from bipolar disorder.
Outside the courthouse on Wednesday, Reid Weingarten, Jackson’s attorney, suggested that he would seek leniency at the sentencing because Jackson’s “serious health issues” are “directly related to his present predicament.”
Machen rejected that argument because Jackson was a highly functioning member of Congress throughout the conspiracy.
“This was not a momentary lapse or a short streak of compulsive behavior,” Machen said. “He lied many times over many years to hide this fraud from the government and his constituents.”
Jackson’s friends and family, including his parents and siblings, filled three rows in the sixth-floor courtroom. Joining Jackson at the defense table was crisis manager Judy Smith, the inspiration for the TV series “Scandal.” Even the judge in the case acknowledged a connection to the family’s prominent patriarch and offered to recuse himself — a motion both parties declined. Wilkins was co-chairman of the Harvard Law School students supporting the elder Jackson’s 1988 presidential campaign.
As he left the courtroom, the younger Jackson held his wife’s hand, turned to a Chicago Sun-Times reporter and said, “Tell everyone back home I’m sorry I let them down, okay?”
T.W. Farnam contributed to this report.On Tuesday, the Cincinnati Reds made a few low-key moves, signing Jermaine Curtis, Ivan De Jesus Jr., and Nathan Adcock to minor league deals, according to Chris Cotillo of SB Nation.
Minor lg signings: Adron Chambers to #Cubs, Jermaine Curtis to #Reds, Ivan DeJesus to #Reds, Nate Adcock to #Reds — Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) December 23, 2014
While the signings don’t exactly answer the left field or bullpen issues, they do serve as organizational depth for the Reds.
Curtis, 27, has spent his entire career in the Cardinals organization, appearing in five big league games in 2013. Curtis primarily plays third base, but has experience at second base and left field as well. For his minor league career, he’s batted.272/.379/.348. Curtis doesn’t strikeout much (11.6 K%) and his walk numbers are above average as well (11.6 BB%). As his slugging percentage might indicate, Curtis’ power numbers are a bit underwhelming; he’s never hit more than five home runs in a season or driven in more than 49 runs. Last season at Triple-A Memphis, Curtis hit.253/.386/.289 with no home runs, 26 RBIs, and five stolen bases.
De Jesus is the son of former major leaguer Ivan De Jesus, who played for seven different major league teams. De Jesus, a 27-year-old shortstop and second baseman, is a bit of a journeyman himself, spending time in the Dodgers, Red Sox, Pirates, and Orioles organizations. He’s appeared in 48 major league games with the Dodgers and Red Sox, batting.205/.253/.247 with zero HRs and five RBIs. Despite lackluster numbers in the big leagues, De Jesus has showed good offensive promise in his minor league career, amassing more than 1,000 hits and putting up a.298/.369/.395 slash. Like Curtis, De Jesus is a non-factor from a power standpoint, hitting only 38 HRs in his 10 minor league seasons. In 2014 with Triple-A Pawtucket and Norfolk, De Jesus batted.281/.359/.386 with five HRs, 57 RBIs, and two SBs.
A Kentucky native, Adcock, 26, has the most major league experience of the three players signed, appearing in 43 games over parts of three seasons with the Royals and Rangers. Pitching primarily out of the bullpen, Adcock has gone 1-4 with a 3.86 ERA and 1.48 WHIP. Adcock missed the first two months of the 2014 season, but pitched fairly effectively after his return. In 18 games at Triple-A Round Rock, Adcock went 1-0 with a 2.95 ERA and 1.17 WHIP. He saw time with the Rangers as well, going 0-0 with a 4.50 ERA and 1.60 WHIP in seven appearances. He saw his strikeout numbers increase from a career rate of 6.6 to 8.9 strikeouts per nine innings between Triple-A and the Rangers.
These moves from Walt Jocketty certainly won’t make a huge splash, but they do give the Reds more depth in Triple-A in the form of players who have some MLB experience. Barring injuries, Curtis and De Jesus are unlikely to see time with Cincinnati in 2015, but Adcock could potentially provide bullpen help for the Reds if he can impress in Spring Training and Triple-A.President Donald Trump is a bigger problem than Sean Spicer. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo)
There's one central reality about the job of White House press secretary that's being overlooked amid the current hubbub over the fate of Sean Spicer, the chief spokesman for President Donald Trump.
The fact is that the job is totally defined by the president, not what the job has been in the past or how the current press secretary wants to define it, or what the media are clamoring for, which is basically unlimited access and a constant flow of information from the president and senior government officials. All this is totally unrealistic.
The president is apparently considering naming a replacement for Spicer, who has been widely criticized and ridiculed, including on "Saturday Night Live," for not knowing what he's talking about and for being overly hostile to the press corps.
But the problem lies with his boss. Trump has declared war on the media and has described major news organizations as the "enemy" of the American people. Based on this kind of thinking, Trump wants his press secretary and press staff to engage in combat with journalists day after day in order to defend and promote him. Confiding in his press secretary as other presidents have done during my three decades of covering the White House seems alien to the way Trump does business. And Spicer and other press aides have dispensed falsehoods repeatedly if for no other reason than they really do not know what Trump is thinking or planning. The straightforward conveying of information seems secondary to Trump's desire to crush his adversaries in the Fourth Estate.
Political scientist Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia told CNN, "Particularly in this administration, most of what you hear in a press secretary's press conference, in that daily briefing, is misrepresentations, outright lies, and propaganda. And on the whole I think people would do better without that." He says reporters would be better off spending their time developing sources and digging for information rather than relying on the official press office at the White House to inform them and the country.
Dan Pfeiffer, former White House communications director for President Barack Obama, told CNN that the White House press briefings can be important. "The press is bored and they want to torture you," Pfeiffer said. "But it's part of the job. It's an important part of purely governing because governing is also about just communicating, interacting with the public, and the press briefing is one of the ways in which that happens."Illinois law turns to hairstylists for help in fight against domestic abuse
An Illinois law that takes effect on Sunday aims to take advantage of the trusting relationship between hairstylists and their clients in order to prevent domestic violence.
Stylists, barbers, cosmetologists, estheticians, hair braiders and nail technicians in the state will receive an hour of mandated abuse-prevention training, as part of the licensing process. The law does not require them to report any violence, and it shelters them from any liability.
The training provides beauty professionals with information about local help and resources they can share with clients. The measure appears to be the first of its kind in the country, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Hairstylists are well situated to notice signs of abuse, said Vi Nelson, spokeswoman for the industry group Cosmetologists Chicago.
Abusers “tend to try to find places where it could be an accident or it’s not as visible”, Nelson said.
LGBT people face discrimination over domestic violence claims, report finds Read more
“They may hit them in the back of the head, and there’s a bruise or a bump. The hairdresser is touching you and can see things that cannot be visible to the casual observer.”
Clients and stylists often develop relationships, said Karen Gordon, who owns J Gordon Designs salon in Chicago.
“We get very close with our clients, even so far to say we love our clients,” she said. “You know people through life’s ups and downs. When people come into a safe environment like a beauty salon, they tend to open up.”
State senator Bill Cunningham supported the measure in part because his wife is a former hairstylist whose customers frequently discussed incidents of domestic violence.
She “had a difficult time dealing with these issues when they came up. She wasn’t sure what to tell her clients,” said Cunningham, a Democrat.
That is why the new law was written to connect victims with services, not to have beauty professionals act as therapists, he said.
“The main goal is to get victims of domestic violence professional help if they want it,” he said. “It could be as simple as providing their client with a phone number. In maybe more extreme cases, it could be putting their client in touch with a shelter.”
The not-for-profit domestic violence prevention organization Chicago Says No More said the mandate was needed because past training efforts never caught on. The group’s founder, Kristie Paskvan, said beauty professionals were an ideal source to provide help because they could be more objective than family and friends.
“They’re listening and then they can say, ‘Hey, if you’re interested, here’s some information,’” Paskvan said.
State representative Fran Hurley of Chicago, who supported the legislation, said she knew of one Chicago-area salon owner who put business cards for a local anti-domestic violence group in her beauty shop’s bathroom.
“You’d be amazed at how many times she has to replace them,” said Hurley, also a Democrat. “She refills them all the time.”
Cosmetologists Chicago helped write the measure so it did not require beauty professionals to become involved or report violence unless they chose to do so. Once that was clarified, Nelson said, the professional response was “overwhelmingly positive”.
The first training sessions will be offered in March at an industry trade show in Chicago.
Gordon has been in the beauty industry for 38 years and said she thought she would have used the training if it were offered earlier in her career.
“I wish I’d had the tools,” she said. “I wish I’d had the resources.”Last March, as part of a series called The End, reported by Times correspondents around the world, John Shields of Victoria, British Columbia, permitted me to enter not just his life, but also his death. It was, undoubtedly, one of the most profound workdays I have ever had.
In May, I wrote this behind-the-scenes story about how I came to be in Mr. Shields’s hospice room that morning. It was slated to be published at the same time as my story about his death, together with Leslye Davis’s wonderful photos and video. But as often happens in journalism, it was held. Until now.
What I wrote then remains true today. I carry the memory of Mr. Shields’s death with me like prayer beads. For me, it has become a mantra not only about dying well, but also about living well.
TORONTO — The first living wake I heard about was Rob Gray’s.
His wife described how two dozen loved ones had gathered around him in his hospital bed a couple of hours before his scheduled death. They serenaded him, drank champagne and each delivered a loving tribute.Update 8/16 10:00 p.m. ET: The day after this article was published, Cloudflare terminated its services for the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer. The move was a stark reversal from Cloudflare’s policy of non-intervention, described in detail below, and the company’s CEO said in a blog post that he believes the decision sets a dangerous precedent. For more, follow Quartz’s running list of websites, apps, and services that are banning, blocking, and dropping white supremacists in the wake of the far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
After 32-year-old Heather Heyer was killed while protesting against the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Aug. 12, the American neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer published a hate-filled article about her. The ensuing uproar led to calls for The Daily Stormer’s domain registrar, GoDaddy, to take the website down.
Although GoDaddy had previously defended its choice to provide domain services to the neo-Nazi site, citing its rights under the First Amendment, the company took a different stance this time around. Within a few hours of the article’s publication, GoDaddy dropped The Daily Stormer, saying it violated the registrar’s terms of service. The website then registered its domain with Google, which promptly dropped it as well. Other tech companies have also made moves against the far right: Airbnb banned users it suspected were traveling to attend the rally, while Discord, a chat service for online gamers, shut down a server and some accounts used for spreading extremist views.
But one company is sticking by The Daily Stormer and other far-right websites: the cloud security and performance service Cloudflare.
Cloudflare acts as a shield between websites and the outside world, protecting them from hackers and preserving the anonymity of the sites’ owners. But Cloudflare is not a hosting service: It does not store website content on its servers. And that fact, as far as the company is concerned, exempts it from judgment over who its clients are—even if those clients are literally Nazis.
In a statement Cloudflare sent to Quartz and other publications yesterday, the company refused to explicitly say it will continue to do business with sites like The Daily Stormer, but pointed out that the content would exist regardless of what Cloudflare does or doesn’t do.
Cloudflare is aware of the concerns that have been raised over some sites that have used our network. We find the content on some of these sites repugnant. While our policy is to not comment on any user specifically, we are cooperating with law enforcement in any investigation. Cloudflare is not the host of any website. Cloudflare is a network that provides performance and security services to more than 10% of all Internet requests. Cloudflare terminating any user would not remove their content from the Internet, it would simply make a site slower and more vulnerable to attack.
That statement somewhat underplays Cloudflare’s importance. Without its shield, many websites—belonging to groups right across the political spectrum as well as companies and government agencies—would be frequently crippled by distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, in which attackers flood a site’s servers with spurious traffic. In DDoS attacks, might is right: Only a few companies like Cloudflare have enough servers to soak up a concerted assault. If it were to drop the Daily Stormer, the site would for all intents and purposes cease to exist any time it came under concerted DDoS attack from anti-fascist activists. If the Daily Stormer lost its web hosting service, on the other hand, it would have countless others to choose from.
The statement from Cloudflare is also neutral about whether or not hate speech is dangerous. In a blog post in 2013, Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince was more candid about his views:
A website is speech. It is not a bomb. There is no imminent danger it creates and no provider has an affirmative obligation to monitor and make determinations about the theoretically harmful nature of speech a site may contain.
Conflicts of interest
It’s not just Cloudflare’s refusal to take a stand against hate speech that has drawn criticism. Last May, ProPublica reported on a practice that made Cloudflare particularly appealing to neo-Nazi websites.
When users sent complaints to Cloudflare about content they saw on The Daily Stormer and similar sites, it would automatically send the website owners the names and email addresses of the complainants, who often then suffered prolonged harassment. After ProPublica’s article was published, Cloudflare began allowing anonymous complaints, but in a blog post about the issue, Prince maintained the tone of his 2013 post:
While we clearly had a significant blindspot in how we handled one type of abuse reports, we remain committed to our belief that it is not Cloudflare’s role to make determinations on what content should and should not be online.
Cloudflare’s indiscriminate approach to its clients appeals not only to neo-Nazis, but also to another set of bad actors: websites that provide illegal hacking services. Security journalist Brian Krebs has written at length about websites that conduct DDoS attacks for hire while using free services from Cloudflare to protect themselves from the same kinds of attacks.
Krebs argues Cloudflare has a “blatant conflict of interest” because, by protecting the DDoS-for-hire sites, it enables them to carry out the attacks from which it protects other sites, thus generating business for itself. If it stopped doing this, Krebs argues, “the DDoS-for-hire industry would quickly blast itself into oblivion because the proprietors of these attack services like nothing more than to turn their attack cannons on each other.”
We asked Cloudflare to clarify whether the statement it sent to Quartz and others means it will continue to provide protection services to The Daily Stormer and other far-right websites. A spokesperson reiterated that the company does not comment on specific users, and pointed to its terms of service. When asked whether the company had suspended its services for any website based on its content for the past 72 hours, Cloudflare did not respond. If it does, we will update this post.Once news about goofy Blake Farenthold using $84,000 to settle a sexual harassment claim came out, the Democrats and media immedality called on Farenthold to resign. I’m actually with them on this issue. ANYONE who uses the tax payer slush fund to pay off sexual harassment lawsuits needs to go, regardless if they offer to pay the money back or not.
Now we have one time impeached judge and racist Alcee Hastings, a Democrat from Florida. Turns out he used the same tax payer funded slush fund to pay off a sexual harassment lawsuit totally three times what Farenthold did. It cost taxpayers a whopping $220,000.
When will Democrats and media call for Alcee Hastings resignation?
There have been few reports about Alcee Hastings settlement, and no media hacks calling on him to resign. Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and the rest of the Democrats haven’t called on Hastings to resign despite the fact he spent nearly a quarter of a million tax payer dollars to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit.
Alcee Hastings has been in his Congress set for nearly 25 years. In 1988, the Democrat controlled U.S. House of Representatives voted impeached for bribery and perjury by a vote of 413–3. 5 years later, he ends up as a member of the same House that impeached him.
Hasting’s district is a safe Democrat district. Kicking him out of office wouldn’t hurt Democrat’s numbers in the House. Whenever a special election would be held for his seat, a Democrat would win easily. So why the hell aren’t there more calls to kick this piece of crap out of Congress? Using nearly a quarter of a million tax payer dollars to pay off a sexual harassment claim isn’t enough for Democrats and the media for force him out?The ratings redesign process is going well, thanks for asking! I discussed it a bit last week, and as I continue to tinker, I'm coming up with numbers that look pretty good from a retrodictive perspective (the end-of-season rating seems to be getting between 80-81 percent of past results correct) and phenomenal from a predictive perspective.
There's still some tweaking to do to make sure I'm not overfitting, but I've simulated the 2013 and 2014 seasons, week by week, and right now the new measure is hitting about 54.5 percent against the spread and about 76 straight up. Going by the results here, that's about as good as you're going to find over a two-year period. And I'm tinkering with the idea of presenting the ratings in terms of point values, which would allow anybody to quickly look at teams' ratings, apply a home-field advantage where appropriate, and come up with a general "Team A would likely beat Team B by 6.6 points" estimation.
Right after I posted my Under the Hood piece last Thursday, it hit me that I was thinking way too hard about the whole "where's the balance between predictive and retrodictive?" thing, and the responses to that post certainly solidified that. It seems the best way to approach ratings is to make them as predictive as possible, period. But in looking back at past results, it is useful to still provide clues regarding which teams have been overachieving, underachieving, lucky, unlucky, et cetera.
That's where things like Pythagorean records can come in handy. It is a popular approach for many sports -- in this instance, the Wikipedia entry basically tells you everything you need to know (the short version: look at points/runs scored and allowed, apply an exponent, and produce a team's most likely win percentage) -- and it is good at telling you which teams are likely punching above their weight and are due some regression.
There are exponents available for turning college football points into a Pythagorean win percentage, but I'm more interested in another concept: second-order wins. That basically takes the same idea but uses advanced stats of some sort to determine not simply what you did score and allow, but what you should have scored and allowed.
My new ratings are based on margins in categories related to my Five Factors: efficiency, explosiveness, field position, finishing drives, turnovers/luck. As I flesh the system out with previous years of data, I'm able to basically use these margins to determine both what was your most likely scoring margin in a given game and, based on the plays that took place, your likelihood of winning a given game.
To further explain the second part of that last sentence, it basically says "If you took all the plays in this game, tossed them up in the air, and had them land in a random order, you'd win this game XX% of the time." It is a single-game win likelihood concept, and with it, we can look at wins and losses not as zeroes and ones, but as percentages. And if you're winning a lot of "You'd have won this game 60 percent of the time" games, you're probably getting a little bit lucky. And as with everything else, that luck is likely to change over time.
So who's been particularly fortunate or unfortunate in 2014? Let's take a look.
Team Games Wins Second-order Wins Diff Rank Florida State 13 13 9.6 -3.4 128 Arizona 13 10 7.5 -2.5 127 Bowling Green 12 7 4.9 -2.1 126 Utah 12 8 6.1 -1.9 125 Northern Illinois 13 11 9.2 -1.8 124 Missouri 13 10 8.2 -1.8 123 Rutgers 12 7 5.3 -1.7 122 Ohio 12 6 4.5 -1.5 121 Clemson 12 9 7.6 -1.4 120 North Carolina 12 6 4.7 -1.3 119 UCLA 12 9 7.7 -1.3 118 Duke 12 9 7.9 -1.1 117 Colorado State 12 10 9.0 -1.0 116 UTEP 12 7 6.0 -1.0 115 Hawaii 13 4 3.0 -1.0 114 Illinois 12 6 5.0 -1.0 113 Michigan State 12 10 9.0 -1.0 112 Central Florida 12 9 8.0 -1.0 111 Boise State 13 11 10.0 -1.0 110 Nevada 12 7 6.1 -0.9 109 Cincinnati 12 9 8.1 -0.9 108 Baylor 12 11 10.1 -0.9 107 West Virginia 12 7 6.2 -0.8 106 LSU 12 8 7.3 -0.7 105 Old Dominion 12 6 5.3 -0.7 104 Mississippi State 12 10 9.3 -0.7 103 Marshall 13 12 11.3 -0.7 102 USC 12 8 7.4 -0.6 101 Team Games Wins Second-order Wins Diff Rank Alabama 13 12 11.4 -0.6 100 South Florida 12 4 3.4 -0.6 99 TCU 12 11 10.4 -0.6 98 Toledo 12 8 7.5 -0.5 97 Wake Forest 11 2 1.5 -0.5 96 Ohio State 13 12 11.5 -0.5 95 Wyoming 12 4 3.5 -0.5 94 Texas State 12 7 6.6 -0.4 93 Minnesota 12 8 7.6 -0.4 92 Oklahoma State 12 6 5.6 -0.4 91 Texas A&M 12 7 6.6 -0.4 90 South Carolina 12 6 5.6 -0.4 89 NC State 12 7 6.6 -0.4 88 Kansas State 12 9 8.7 -0.3 87 South Alabama 12 6 5.7 -0.3 86 Washington 13 8 7.7 -0.3 85 Georgia Tech 13 10 9.7 -0.3 84 Fresno State 13 6 5.7 -0.3 83 Nebraska 12 9 8.7 -0.3 82 Vanderbilt 12 3 2.7 -0.3 81 |
windows and a well-stocked buffet counter. Real Madrid's TV channel plays on large screens, and on one side, a long dining table overlooks the players' car park. Sponsorship rules require each player to report to training in their own Audi. The Lamborghinis and Ferraris are left at home.
Every first-team player has their own personalised bedroom
From there, we make the short trip over to La Fabrica, the famous youth academy which currently caters for 277 players - 59 of whom live permanently in the residence. From the U8s to the Real Madrid B team - who play their home games in the 6,000-capacity Alfredo di Stefano Stadium at the opposite end of the complex - this is where the club attempt to sculpt the stars of tomorrow.
The building is pristine and modern, but in keeping with the hierarchical system in place at Valdebebas, it is not luxurious like the first-team residence. The bedrooms are shared between two, and the dining room is like a school canteen. The busy classrooms are a reminder that at La Fabrica, the education extends beyond the pitch.
Only a fraction of the young players here will go on to crack the Real Madrid first-team, but La Fabrica is one of the world's leading academies for producing top-level players and there are notable success stories. From Emilio Butragueno to Raul, the walls are adorned with images of illustrious graduates who became club legends.
An image of Raul adorns a wall inside Real Madrid's academy building
Perhaps the best inspiration for today's youngsters, however, comes with a slightly less prominent image showing a 12-year-old academy player who was randomly selected to lay the first stone at Valdebebas back in 2004. It is Dani Caravajal, the two-time Champions League-winning right-back who first enrolled at La Fabrica at the age of 10.
Caravajal is not the only academy graduate with his name now printed on one of the doors in the first-team residence. There is also Alvaro Morata, Lucas Vasquez, Nacho and back-up goalkeeper Kiko Casilla. Even Brazilian midfielder Casemiro spent time in the B team Zidane used to coach. Making that step up is not easy, but the pathway is there.
A 12-year-old Dani Caravajal lays the first stone at Valdebebas in 2004
We leave the academy building for one final wander around the facilities. The morning sessions are over and the pitches are empty now, but tomorrow it starts again. The young hopefuls continue their mission to rise to the top, and Zidane's first-team stars resume their preparations for Sunday's Clasico. If they beat Barcelona, the result will owe a lot to the foundations in place here at Valdebebas.She said those who died in the Dec. 2, 2016, fire "faced a nearly impossible labyrinth of the defendants' making" that prevented their escape.
Almena was arrested Monday in Lake County. Harris, who had described himself as "second in command" to Almena in managing the Ghost Ship, was arrested in Los Angeles.
Almena's lawyers, including noted defense attorney Tony Serra, said in a brief written statement that the charges "represent no less than a miscarriage of justice, and we are confident that this attempt to make a scapegoat out of our client will fail."
Deputy District Attorney Teresa Drenick said investigators had looked into the role of others in the events leading to the fire. She declined to say how many individuals had been investigated, and she declined to discuss whether further charges might be brought in the case. She said the office's inquiry into the blaze has ended.
In a three-page declaration filed in support of the charges against Almena and Harris, prosecutors outlined a history of what they describe as illegal and dangerous behavior.
In addition to the illegal conversion of the warehouse to a group residence, the declaration says, Almena "substantially increased the risk to those living, working or visiting the building by storing enormous amounts of flammable material inside the warehouse. Witnesses describe wood and other flammable objects being stored from floor to ceiling on the first level. Storing that amount of flammable material in the manner described by witnesses and shown in photographs, created an extremely dangerous fire load and was a violation of the Oakland Municipal code and the California Fire Safety code."
The document describes Harris' role as "creative director" of the Ghost Ship facility, responsible for collecting monthly rent from the warehouse's approximately 25 residents, acting as go-between with the building's landlord and arranging entertainment events at the venue.
The night of the fire, the declaration alleges, Harris helped prepare for an electronic music performance on the building's second floor. The main access to the area was a jury-rigged staircase made of wooden pallets.
"In the course of his preparation," the document says, "Harris blocked off an area of the second floor that included a second stairwell, which effectively reduced the upstairs guests to a single point of escape. Because of the fire, the power to the building went out and the guests that could escape, were forced down the narrow makeshift stairs in complete darkness."
O'Malley said that under California's homicide statutes, prosecutors "must be satisfied that any defendant acted with gross or reckless conduct akin to a disregard for human life, and that the deadly consequences of those actions were reasonably foreseeable."
Monday's charges and arrests come after a long series of reports that detailed dangerous living conditions in the 31st Avenue warehouse, which had been converted illegally into a residence. Those conditions -- also enumerated as allegations in lawsuits filed against Almena, the building's owners and others -- included substandard, unlicensed electrical work.
Investigators still have not made an official ruling on exactly what sparked the fire, but reports in the days after the blaze suggested that an electrical fault was likely to blame.
The fire broke out just before 11:30 p.m. on Dec. 2 during a Friday night dance party at the warehouse. About 100 people were attending the event in a space that had never been inspected by the city or granted permits for public events. Perhaps two dozen Ghost Ship residents were also at home. Almena, his partner and their two children were staying in a hotel in downtown Oakland.
The blaze sent partygoers and residents scrambling to escape.
Those who fled, and the firefighters who attempted to enter the burning structure, described encountering a maze consisting of old pianos and furniture that, combined with heavy smoke, made it difficult to get out of or into the building.
The jury-rigged stairway made of wooden pallets burned, cutting off the escape route for dozens of people on the building's second floor.
Thirty-five concertgoers and one resident died.
The tragedy exposed a series of apparent failures or lack of follow-through in Oakland's fire and building inspections.
Although the Oakland Fire Department had said it conducted yearly inspections of the city's commercial and large residential buildings, it had no records of ever inspecting the Ghost Ship building.
The building and an adjacent property -- a debris- and vehicle-filled vacant lot also owned by landlord Chor Ng -- had been the subject of repeated blight complaints. The city's Planning and Building Department received at least two reports that suggested the structure had been converted, illegally, into a residence.
In one case, a city inspector said an unpermitted structure had been removed from the building. The city says that a second complaint, received three weeks before the fire, focused on the adjacent junk-strewn lot, not the warehouse itself.
Warehouse neighbors reported calling Oakland police repeatedly about noise and other issues at the warehouse -- including the possibility people were living there illegally.
The city later released records that showed 19 separate calls to respond to the warehouse.
Among those calls was a March 2015 incident in which officers responded to a 2 a.m. call that a rave, complete with illegal alcohol sales, was occurring in the building and that 15 people inside were not being allowed to leave. One of the responding officers confirmed the situation and notified an unidentified person at the Ghost Ship that the event was in violation of city ordinances, but decided not to issue a citation.Sen. John D. Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) on Monday introduced an online “do not track” privacy bill that would allow consumers to block Internet companies from following their activity on the Web.
The Do-Not-Track Online Act of 2011 comes amid increased attention by lawmakers on creating privacy rules for the Internet. The White House has called for such rules but has not supported a specific mandate that would block companies from tracking users.
Rockefeller, chairman of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, said in a statement that recent reports of privacy breaches show that companies have too much freedom to collect user data on the Internet.
His legislation would force companies to abide by a consumer’s choice to opt out of such data collection. The Federal Trade Commission would draw up specific “do not track” rules. The agency and states’ attorneys general would enforce the law. And the legislation would apply to mobile phones — a growing platform for accessing the Internet.
“I believe consumers have a right to decide whether their information can be collected and used online,” Rockefeller said in a statement. “This bill offers a simple, straightforward way for people to stop companies from tracking their movements online.”
Already, Microsoft’s Bing and Mozilla’s Firefox browsers have been redesigned to allow users to block marketers from tracking what sites they visit and their other activities online.
But without a law, no Internet company is required to honor the consumer request, privacy groups said.
“This bill will put regulatory support behind these industry initiatives and make sure that online providers listen to the many consumers who want to clearly say ‘No’ to online tracking,” said Ioana Rusu, regulatory counsel for Consumers Union. “This complements the comprehensive online privacy legislation introduced by Senators [John] Kerry and [John] McCain last month.”
Tuesday, a new Senate privacy subcommittee will hear from Apple and Google, among others, about location data collection and whether the firms have been logging that information through mobile devices.
In the House, Reps. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Joe Barton (R-Tex.) said they are working on a “do not track” bill aimed at children.
NetChoice, a trade group representing Internet firms such as eBay and Yahoo, said new laws can hamper online commerce. Firms want to be able to deliver ads that are as targeted to individuals as possible for higher revenues.
“American consumers love how the Internet gives the information you want, when you want it, and location-based technology adds even more value since this info can also be tailored to right where you are,” said Steve DelBianco, executive director of NetChoice.
“Online services will make location-based info the next big thing in internet innovation, and we may be lucky enough to get advertisers to pay for a lot of it.”
Related stories:
With quick click, teens part with online privacy
Obama, Zuckerberg meeting highlights importance of Silicon Valley
White House, FTC urge privacy lawsIt sure seems like there are a lot of cheaters in HOV lanes, slowing down those lanes for carpoolers and enraging solo drivers who follow the rules. How common are HOV violations and how does the State Patrol enforce them?
You’re sitting there. It’s bumper to bumper. Barely moving. Miserable.
Glance out the window. One lane over is an open lane of free-flowing traffic. An asphalt Xanadu.
But it’s HOV. And you’re all alone. And you’re a good citizen. So you sit.
Learn more about Traffic Lab » | Follow us on Twitter » Traffic Lab is a Seattle Times project that digs into the region’s thorny transportation issues, spotlights promising approaches to easing gridlock, and helps readers find the best ways to get around. It is funded with the help of community sponsors Alaska Airlines, CenturyLink, Kemper Development Co., NHL Seattle, PEMCO Mutual Insurance Company and Seattle Children’s hospital. Seattle Times editors and reporters operate independently of our funders and maintain editorial control over Traffic Lab content.
But it sure looks like some of your fellow drivers are a lot less civically conscious — an awful lot of those HOV-lane cars don’t have the minimum passenger requirements. So you stew.
“Whenever I’m on the highway, there are a lot of cars using the HOV lane and it seems impossible they all have that many passengers,” wrote Michael Jacobson, of Ravenna. “How do State Patrol troopers monitor and enforce Highway 520’s HOV lane requirement?”
Jim S., of Seattle, wrote that on the Eastside, where 520’s HOV lanes require a three-person carpool, he thinks there are three times as many “buttheads zooming by one-to-a-car” as there are legitimate carpoolers. “Why don’t they enforce this anymore?” Jim asked. “What gives?”
First of all, they do enforce it.
But with hundreds of miles of HOV lane in King County and about 130 state troopers total in the county (not all of whom are on duty all the time), there’s simply not enough manpower to monitor everywhere all the time.
And, unfortunately, the times when people are most tempted to cheat on HOV lanes are also the times when troopers are most likely to be occupied with more urgent concerns.
“When traffic’s heavy, typically it’s a time when most of the troopers that are on shift are at collisions due to the heavy volume of rush hour,” said Trooper Rick Johnson, a State Patrol spokesman.
The State Patrol pulled over more than 14,000 cars for HOV-lane violations in 2016, handing out about 10,000 tickets ($136 a pop) and 4,000 warnings, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT).
There’s no high-tech system for catching violators. Troopers either park in the shoulder or median or drive alongside HOV lanes and look in car windows.
Johnson admitted that enforcing three-person HOV lanes is a bit more difficult than enforcing two-person ones, especially with the seeming proliferation of over-tinted windows.
But, he said, if a trooper can’t see into a car to count passengers, that’s often reason enough to pull them over for violating state laws on window tinting. Troopers gave out 1,200 citations last year for violating rules on vehicle equipment, a category that includes window tinting.
“There’s plenty of times I’ve stopped a vehicle because I couldn’t see somebody,” Johnson said. If it turns out that the car did have the proper number of people and its windows were not in violation, “you just send them on their way; people usually understand.”
Other times, Johnson said, guilty drivers will inadvertently make themselves known.
“If cars don’t have the proper number of people, a lot of times they’ll see us and dive over into the general purpose lane,” he said.
Drivers are not above more elaborate ways of cheating either. From department store mannequins, to the Dos Equis “most interesting man in the world,” to a frighteningly inanimate Seahawks fan, stories are legion of troopers pulling over drivers with dummy passengers, designed to fool observers.
So how many people are actually cheating? Is the “butthead”-to-carpooler ratio really 3-to-1 as Jim posited?
WSDOT doesn’t have road-specific data on violators, so there’s no way to know the percentage of cheaters on the 3-mile stretch of 520 — between Interstate 405 and the Lake Washington bridge — where the HOV lanes are three-person.
On all its HOV lanes (and express toll lanes), which include sections of Interstates 5, 405 and 90; highways 520 and 167, and the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, WSDOT claims average violation rates of between 1 and 7 percent.
The national average of HOV violators is between 10 and 15 percent, WSDOT says.
WSDOT’s stats, like State Patrol’s enforcement, rely on human observation, not high-tech gadgetry. The agency is in the middle of a project to hand-count violations at four different spots along I-5. During peak hours, they’ll have observers at overpasses counting passing vehicle in all lanes and how many passengers are in each, said Matt Neeley, a WSDOT traffic and planning engineer.
They plan to release a report in the fall, the first update on HOV violation rates since 2012, Neeley said.
WSDOT credits its HERO program with keeping its reported violation rates below the national average. That program lets drivers report carpool cheaters (and their license plate numbers) online or by calling a toll-free number, 877-764-HERO.
The State Patrol uses data from the HERO program to help station troopers in areas with lots of violations. Less than 5 percent of people who are reported through the program are reported a second time, WSDOT says.
But cheaters won’t get a ticket if you report them. First-time violators get a brochure in the mail, followed by progressively sterner letters for subsequent violations.
Despite State Patrol’s and WSDOT’s efforts, some people are, to use Jim’s term, simply “buttheads.”
“I am an old geezer and will happily pay the ticket,” an anonymous Reddit user wrote last year, fessing up to frequently cheating on 520’s HOV lanes. “I’ve been doing it for several years now and have yet to be pulled over, so it’s a fairly cheap tax in my eyes. Sorry not sorry, but you guys keep calling in the HERO line.”If you learn one skill in 2013, make it a mastery of the home brew. A host of books offer advice from the experts. Get reading, then hop to it.
“The Complete Joy of Home Brewing,” by Charles Papazian
Charles Papazian’s “The Complete Joy of Homebrewing Third Edition” has all the information you need to start. The founder and president of the American Homebrewer’s Association and Association of Brewers gives instructions, charts, recipes, and guidelines. The only thing his book doesn’t do is brew the beer for the reader.
“Designing Great Beers,” by Ray Daniels
So many styles, so little time. Help, Ray Daniels. “Designing Great Beers: The Ultimate Guide to Brewing Classic Beer Styles” is a technical take on the science of homebrewing. Even though he goes three chapters deep on hops, he also includes enough images and tips to keep the pace light.
“The Brewmaster’s Bible,” by Stephen Snyder
Stephen Snyder doesn’t mince words in his “The Brewmaster’s Bible: The Gold Standard for Home Brewers.” This large book serves as a go-to guide for all things home brew, including a long discussion of liquid yeasts, a couple dozen classic recipes, and water analysis for cities around the country. In other words, it’s a bunch of stuff you need, and a bunch you didn’t know you needed if you’re home-brewing bound.
“Radical Brewing,” by Randy Mosher
Two heroes of the home-brewing world, author Randy Mosher and Michael Jackson (who writes the foreword), team up in “Radical Brewing: Recipes, Tales, and World-Altering Mediations in a Glass.” Mosher spends pages railing against the mega-breweries of the world, championing the little guy, and arguing that craft beer and home brews are the only ways to go.
“Extreme Brewing,” by Sam Calagione
“Extreme Brewing: An Enthusiast’s Guide to Brewing Craft Beer at Home” offers advice from Dogfish Head’s Sam Calagione, one of the men responsible for the explosion of unusually ambitious alcoholic beverages over the past 10 years. He provides a brief overview of the basic science, then launches into the nitty-gritty details to create concoctions your friends won’t believe. (As a bonus, pick up Calagione’s “Brewing Up a Business,” which details how he built Dogfish Head into the money-making behemoth it is today.)
“Mini Farming Guide to Fermenting,” by Brett L. Markham
“Mini Farming Guide to Fermenting: Self-Sufficiency from Beer and Cheese to Wine and Vinegar” provides tips on the art of fermenting. Mini farming star Brett Markham runs the gamut from sourdough to vinegar, throwing in some beer and winemaking tips for good measure.
“Beer School,” by Tom Potter
Brooklyn Brewery rose up from a small space in Williamsburg to find a place in the new world order of craft beers. Co-founders Steve Hindy and Tom Potter explain their strategy in “Beer School: Bottling Success at the Brooklyn Brewery.” Mayor Michael Bloomberg, of all people, brews up the foreword.The fitness guru looks to save his defamation lawsuit against the publisher of National Enquirer.
Richard Simmons is nodding in new court papers to the recent announcement by President Donald Trump that transgender individuals will not be allowed to serve in the United States military. Facing an attempt by American Media to kill his lawsuit over a false National Enquirer story about a sex change, the fitness guru says Trump's transgender ban shows there isn't societal acceptance of trans people.
Simmons filed his defamation suit in May after a series of articles he characterizes as "cruel and malicious" suggested he was transitioning from a male to a female.
In response, American Media has brought an anti-SLAPP motion that argues that false statements about someone's gender transition can't rise to defamation because such statements don't impute anything that's shameful or odious. The publisher contends that Simmons can't make the case his reputation has been besmirched because we're living in modern times and because Simmons has long had a reputation for gender ambiguity.
On Thursday, Simmons filed his response.
"It is unclear why — if society (and AMI purportedly with it) so embraces the transgender community — that AMI would characterize its Articles as 'exposing' Mr. Simmons or use the word 'bizarre' to characterize his alleged new life as a trans woman," states the opposition brief. "Surely, if AMI's readers rejected prejudice against trans people, such phrasing would not help sell magazines or promote internet clicks. AMI cannot at once cynically and deliberately publish falsehoods about Simmons that it touted to the world as'shocking' and 'bizarre,' intentionally pandering to prejudice, and then righteously pretend that such prejudice does not exist."
Neville Johnson, attorney for Simmons, has a much different take on recent developments in First Amendment law than the ones at Davis Wright Tremaine representing American Media.
For example, the publisher of National Enquirer pointed in its anti-SLAPP motion to a 2012 Supreme Court decision striking down the Stolen Valor Act, a federal law criminalizing false statements about having a military medal. The point was that even false statements must be allowed without punishment absent harm.
But Johnson points to Justice Stephen Breyer's concurring opinion that emphasized this decision wasn't disturbing defamation or invasion of privacy doctrine. He also leans on other Supreme Court precedent (Time, Inc. v. Firestone) for support that reputational injury isn't a prerequisite to a defamation claim. The attorney asserts that personal humiliation and mental anguish are sufficient.
Given that reading of the law, Simmons is discussing in court how an accusation that someone is transgender remains damaging and is actionable even if only a minority of the community regards it as so.
"AMI erroneously asserts that because many progressive people would not discriminate against trans individuals (even if some others nonetheless would), even knowingly false assertions, cast in the most salacious terms, cannot be defamatory," writes Johnson. "But this claim by AMI that 'the views of the enlightened' govern the defamation analysis have long been rejected in American jurisprudence."
Simmons' lawyer runs through examples. He even finds a past court decision where false statement of transsexuality was deemed actionable.
He also holds false imputations of race apart.
"Defamation based on racial identity is the sole existing exemplar of prejudice against a particular group becoming so clearly marginalized by societal consensus that it is deemed no longer subject to the law of defamation," states the brief. "But this took a very long time. From the entrenchment of slavery in the original Constitution, through the decision in Dred Scott v. Sanford, a bloody Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation, the passage of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, the'separate but equal decision' in Plessy v. Fergusson, the overruling of Plessy in Brown v. Board of Education, the Civil Rights Movement, the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, through the election of Barack Obama, an African-American President of the United States, courts after centuries may justly say that racism is so marginalized in America that a false imputation that one is a member of a racial minority may no longer be deemed defamatory."
Then again, the brief (read here in full) was likely written before Trump made comments this week about white supremacists and counterprotesters in Charlottesville.Indiana State Rep Vanessa Summer: Who wouldn't be scared?
The best place to go to catch up after flinching from the Death of America Watch is One Old Vet. He never flinches (unlike me).
One Old Vet does an amazingly industrious news aggregation operation. Direct editorial comment is very rare. The last time I can remember was noted here in ONE OLD VET Nails Obama’s “Flood-America-By-Stealth” Plan. Six months later, it remains an imperative read.
However recent contemptible (and sinister) behavior by one of his home State Representatives has provoked a response: Moronic Indiana Democrat State Representative Vanessa Summers Claims Republican’s 18-Month Old Son Is a Racist! March 28, 2015
Allow me to share with you my own personal experience with this race-baiting Indiana state legislator. A few years ago I was giving testimony before the Indiana State General Assembly on proposed legislation to stop the employment of ILLEGAL aliens in Indiana. This law was quite similar to the Arizona law, eventually receiving a similar fate. About 10 minutes into my presentation, Rep. Vanessa Summers noisily stumbles in to the packed assembly carrying a large bag of McDonald’s Egg McMuffins, a coke and a cup of coffee. She sat her big fat ass into her front row desk, directly in front of me at the speakers podium, whereupon she immediately begins to inhale her food, one McMuffin after another with the relish and noise of a wood chipper. She intentionally ingested her food in a manner meant to disrupt my presentation. Her open mouth mastication allowing food to drop on her desk was disgusting. Republican and Democrat colleagues were embarrassed by her conduct. I am not surprised by her latest antics in the below article wherein she attempted to racebait a Republican State Representative with a claim that his 18 month old baby is a racist.
Summers pressed forward reiterating that she thought the child would become prejudiced if nothing is done now.
OOV links to The Daily Caller story Indiana Democrat Says GOP Colleague’s 18-Month-Old Son Is Racist Chuck Ross 03/27/2015 but the more informative version is Democrat State Rep Calls GOP Colleague’s Son Racist, But There Is One Problem INQUISITR.COM March 27,2015(My emphasis)
These people want a Police State.
As James Kirkpatrick has noted, recent action by the Left Establishment/Supreme Court Division means that fewer of these clowns will be visible on the national scene.
But they are still out there and so are the evil people who want to utilize their hatreds.In a six-figure, 2013 speech, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton said terrorism does not constitute a threat to the U.S. as a nation, according to a new batch of emails released by WikiLeaks.
“[M]ake no mistake, as the recent travel alert underscores, we still face terrorism,” Clinton said during a private Aug. 7, 2013, speech in San Diego to the Global Business Travelers Association. “It’s not a threat to us as a nation. It is not going to endanger our economy or our society, but it is a real threat. It is a danger to our citizens here at home, and as we tragically saw in Boston, and to those living, working, and traveling abroad.”
Clinton brought in $225,000 for the speech, in which she downplayed the threat of terrorism America faces.
Interestingly, at another paid, private speech in New York City that same year, Clinton said she didn’t believe Russia would constitute any kind of a threat to the U.S.
“I last saw [Putin] in Vladivostok where I represented President Obama in September for the Asia Pacific economic community,” Clinton told Sanford C. Bernstein May 29, 2013, for $225,000. “I sat next to him. He’s an engaging and, you know, very interesting conversationalist. We talked about a lot of issues that were not the hot-button issues between us, you know, his view on missile defense, which we think is misplaced because, you know, we don’t believe that there will be a threat from Russia, but we think that both Russia and the United States are going to face threats from their perimeter, either from rogue states like Iran or from terrorist groups, that’s not the way he sees it.”
Excepts from her private speeches come at an uncomfortable time, as events have not exactly unfolded in alignment with her vision of terror or Russia’s relationship with the U.S. For starters, the U.S. has suffered numerous devastating terror attacks since 2013, including the attack in San Bernardino, the shooting at the Orlando nightclub, the recent mall stabbing in St. Cloud, Minn., and the bombing on a Manhattan street, among others. In Orlando, Omar Mateen killed 49 people and wounded 53 others.
Secondly, the end of 2013 heralded the beginning of deteriorating relations with Russia, as Russia moved to annex Crimea in March 2014, and has since fought off the debilitating effects of sanctions to displace the U.S. as the primary geopolitical actor in Syria.
Russia is now deploying nuclear-capable missiles into a Kaliningrad outpost near Poland and Lithuania. Relations spiraling out of control have prompted Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley to warn Russia that the U.S. would soundly beat its military in a ground combat fight.
“I want to be clear to those who wish to do us harm … the United States military — despite all of our challenges, despite our [operational] tempo, despite everything we have been doing — we will stop you and we will beat you harder than you have ever been beaten before. Make no mistake about that,” Milley said.
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But at least the inglorious history of the sadsack Canadian coin south of the border no longer includes espionage allegations, now that the great "poppy quarter" spy caper has been unmasked as poppycock.
It turns out that the strange coin found in the cup holder of the Canadian car a U.S. defence contractor rented was, well, a quarter – with a red poppy inlay and a minting date of 2004.
Six of them would have bought him a large double-double at Tim Hortons, which distributed the special coins, and he would have been handed back something strange called a nickel.
Instead, the ominous-looking coin gave rise to an even stranger spy tale in this country – with the U.S. Defense Security Service warning that mysterious coins with radio transmitters appeared to have been planted on American army contractors as they travelled through Canada during 2005 and 2006.
Turns out the American officials were befuddled by protective coatings on the coin, which had been put in place to try to keep the red colour from smudging, something that marred the early 2004 printings of the coin, leaving on some a red blotch on the face of the Queen on the reverse side.
One contractor marvelled that the coin didn't seem to have a power source, but was filled with some sort of "nano-technology."
Another wondered how those things got into his pockets after he had put his loose change in a secure plastic bag.
"And you wonder why our war effort isn't going too well," said John Pike, a security and military analyst at GlobalSecurity.org.
The Canadian embassy tried to remain diplomatic.
"We knew loose lips sink ships, but loose change...?" said spokesperson Bernard Etzinger.
The mystery of the Canadian coins with the radio transmitters had haunted cyberspace for four months until it was resolved by the Associated Press yesterday.
The entire story appeared absurd, but the longer it lingered, the more it rankled, Canadian officials admit, and some observers are now wondering whether the original tale had now entered the pantheon of urban legend and will forever stick.
The fear is that it could be the next urban myth that Canadians must deal with down here, joining a list headed by the persistent tale of the 9/11 hijackers coming across the northern border.
"There will be a certain element which will never believe this story because they will believe the media is part of the conspiracy for covering this up," said James Lewis of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, a rare American who actually owns a Canadian poppy quarter.
"And now I guess I'm part of the conspiracy. And all I got out of it was something worth 22 cents American. I can't even buy a Coke with this"
Documents obtained by AP showed the Canadian worries that the spy coin would enter the world of assumed fact.
The story making the rounds was that rivals of America – maybe Russia, China? – had counterfeited the coins and planted them on the U.S. contractors.
"That story about Canadians planting coins in the pockets of defence contractors will not go away," Luc Portelance, now deputy director for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, wrote in a January email to a subordinate.
"Could someone tell me more? Where do we stand and what's the story on this?"
Others in Canada's spy service also were searching for answers.
"We would be very interested in any more detail you may have on the validity of the comment related to the use of Canadian coins in this manner," another intelligence official wrote in an email. "If it is accurate, are they talking industrial or state espionage? If the latter, who?"
The identity of the email's recipient was censored in the documents obtained by AP.
Patrick Basham of the Washington-based The Democracy Institute says the original story could stick with the right-wing in America, which is convinced Canada is soft on terrorism. Stories of foreign enemies counterfeiting Canadian coins and using them to spy on Americans play perfectly to that constituency, he says.
"Two, three, four years from now I can see the (ambassador) Michael Wilson of the day earnestly explaining to some congressman that those coins were not really a security threat."
The Defense Security Service backed off its warning after it was publicized and a spokesperson said the information was never properly vetted.
"While these coins aroused suspicion, there ultimately was nothing there," said spokesperson Cindy McGovern.
The CIA has acknowledged using coins to transport bugging devices or film in the past, but no one could quite figure out the logic of planting them on adversaries.
"They have been used to hide a secret document or in co-operative tracking," said Jeff Richelson, an intelligence expert and author who has written extensively on U.S. espionage. "But coins are meant to be put in circulation. People don't keep them very long."
Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists, which tries to ferret out government secrecy, said the coin spy caper shows the type of military paranoia that can lead to overreaction.
"You just have to laugh because this case is an example of the excess of zeal in the intelligence community which has not been critically examined."
As Pike says, when spooks talk to other spooks, they rarely step back and ask simple questions that might be posed in the real world.Forget, just for a moment, about the quality of the prose in President Donald Trump’s inaugural address. Don’t get caught up in the idealism, or lack thereof. And put aside whether its dark portrait of “American carnage” resembles the reality of America today.
Focus instead on some of the promises Trump made to the American people ― to smash the business and political establishments, to rebuild America’s manufacturing economy, to fix schools, to stop crime and even to fight poverty.
“Today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another or from one party to another,” Trump said. “We are transferring power from Washington, D.C., and giving it back to you, the American people.”
There are many reasons to be skeptical that’s how Trump will actually govern.
Some of the best ones were right up there on the stage with him.
One was GOP mega-donor Sheldon Adelson, who had a prime seat near the front row and the Trump family. After the ceremony, Adelson joined members of Congress and other dignitaries for the Capitol Hill luncheon ― which left reporters scratching their heads, trying to remember if a political financier had attended the exclusive event before.
It's my 5th inaugural luncheon - I don't ever recall a mega donor being in this lunch. But there's Sheldon Adelson at Table 23 with Boehner. — Paul Kane (@pkcapitol) January 20, 2017
In his speech, Trump warned, “For too long, a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost.” But Adelson’s presence was a reminder that the self-interested elite will carry plenty of influence in Trump’s Washington.
Trump himself has seen to it by filling his administration with moguls, donors and representatives of the very Wall Street firm, Goldman Sachs, that he vilified on the campaign trail. The new president wants to turn the Education Department over to Betsy DeVos, who appears unfamiliar with some basic education policy issues but just happens to be among the GOP’s biggest donors. He wants to hand the Commerce Department over to Wilbur Ross, an investor who specializes in corporate restructuring and was also a major GOP donor.
And that’s to say nothing of Trump’s own conflicts of interest now that he’s decided to maintain ownership of his business empire ― a decision that has drawn public condemnation from the Office of Government Ethics, among others.
Another reason to doubt that Trump can deliver on his promises were a group of people sitting right near Adelson at the inauguration: House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and other Republican leaders from Congress.
They’re already hard at work on an agenda that will feature massive tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, coupled with the slashing of social programs that benefit the poor |
or were joining the early recognizers.
The Czech Republic, Netherlands, Portugal, Greece and Slovakia were still making up their minds.
Romania’s parliament said outright it would not recognize Kosovo, in a reflection of fears the move will fuel separatist moves elsewhere in the Balkans.
The 57-member Organisation of the Islamic Conference congratulated Kosovo, whose Albanians are nominally Muslim.
Slideshow (43 Images)
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Kosovo’s independence marked “the end of the Balkan troubles”. In Serbia’s capital, student Jelena had a different view.
“This country is getting smaller and smaller,” she said. “We are marching to show that we’re against it.”Image caption The Fat Years is Chan Koonchung's first novel to be translated into English
Amid one of the biggest crackdowns on dissent in years, a dystopian science-fiction novel has become an unlikely rallying point for China's disaffected.
Shanghai-born Chan Koonchung's thriller The Fat Years is a thinly veiled critique of life in modern China.
Set in 2013, its presents a world in which China has taken over as the leading economy, and the people are revelling in their prosperity. A sense of euphoria has descended, and it is coupled with collective amnesia about the past.
However, a disparate group of characters is immune to the tide of cheerfulness. They become obsessed with the idea that a month-long brutal crackdown by security forces has been obliterated from memory.
Themes such as China's excessive use of the death penalty, police surveillance and internet censorship are woven into the book's narrative. The 1989 Tiananmen massacre is mentioned repeatedly. The veil of sci-fi is thin.
Image caption The English translation hopes to play upon the book's notoriety in China
"It is a criticism, I am a critic," Chan told the BBC World Service over the phone from Beijing.
"I am trying to create a scenario that is a logical extension of the present system, it's one step ahead. If the present system does not change it may end up looking like this. It's not all positive."
Despite his criticism of the current state of affairs, the authorities have not targeted him in the same way that they have other critics such as the artist Ai Weiwei or writer Liu Xiaobo.
"The authorities have never come to me directly, that is not to say that this will not change tomorrow," he says.
The Fat Years was first published in Hong Kong and Taiwan in 2009 and a number of copies did make their way to the mainland. It was reviewed by newspapers and magazines, and quickly began to create a buzz.
But no mainland Chinese publisher has been willing to publish it.
Dinner party gift
"Many publishers approached me when they heard that I had a book published in Hong Kong. I asked them to read the book first - none of them came back with proposals to publish it," he says.
When it was first released some sellers on the Chinese equivalent of eBay - Tao Bao Wang - stocked the book, but they were closed down in a matter of months.
This, Chan says, is the only indication that the authorities have taken notice of The Fat Years. "I'm not sure how the government feels, they never talk to me," he says.
Although he is explicitly critical in his writing, in his public life Chan is careful not to upset the authorities. In April, when Ai Weiwei was arrested, he refused requests from journalists to discuss it.
Jane Lawson of Transworld, the publishers who bought the international rights to Chan's book, says the authorities probably regard him as "small fry".
"He is part of a very big guerrilla war, but he is not amassing huge support like Ai Weiwei and Liu Xiaobo but still he is being careful," she says.
"This book is extremely prescient, which is probably why it's getting so much attention and why it could be a lasting novel. Political historians and cultural commentators will look back on it as a book which held truths that were deemed to be only science fiction at the time."
Two years since the novel was published in Chinese, about 20,000 copies have been sold. But Chan also released the book as a PDF document and made it available to download, so the number of people who have actually read the book is likely to be much higher.
Writer Julia Lovell who wrote the preface to the English edition claims the book has reached such prominence in intellectual circles that one hostess distributed copies at her dinner parties.
But as the book is reproduced across the world in 12 languages, Chan continues to enjoy relative anonymity at home.
"You know in China, until the state intervenes, until the state tries to stop you from giving out dissenting views, you are not considered a dissident until then," he says.
You can hear Chan Koonchung's interview on BBC World Service's The Strand programme via iPlayer or download the podcast.Neanderthals may have been wiped out due to INTERBREEDING and not because of a lack of intelligence
Two researchers have suggested that Neanderthals never went extinct
Instead, they say they vanished because they mated with early humans
They also say Neanderthals were not as dumb as we believed them to be
Their lack of intelligence is often cited as the reason they disappeared
They thrived in Eurasia for 300,000 years but vanished 40,000 years ago
They are often depicted as dim-witted evolutionary losers, but Neanderthals were not driven to extinction by their lack of brains, a new study suggests.
Instead, it is more likely that they disappeared 40,000 years ago because of interbreeding and assimilation with our early modern human ancestors, scientists believe.
An analysis of archaeological evidence dating back 200,000 years strips away some of the myths surrounding Neanderthals and reveals they were more advanced and sophisticated than has widely been thought.
Why did Neanderthals go extinct? It's often thought their lack of intelligent ultimately led to their demise, but new research suggests it may instead have been due to interbreeding and assimilation with our early modern human ancestors
The differences between the two human sub-species are not enough on their own to account for the demise of the Neanderthals, say the two US and Dutch researchers.
Dr Paola Villa, from the University of Colorado Museum, and Professor Wil Roebroeks, from Leiden University, wrote in the online journal Public Library of Science ONE: 'Genetic studies now suggest that the debate on the demise of the Neanderthals needs to be reframed in terms of some degree of interbreeding.
'In that sense, Neanderthals did not go extinct, even though their distinctive morphology did disappear.
'We conclude that all the "archaeology-based" explanations for the demise of the Neanderthals... are flawed.'
Neanderthals thrived in Eurasia for 300,000 years but vanished around 40,000 years ago as early modern humans began to settle in Europe.
In the past, experts have theorised that Neanderthals died out because they were mentally, technologically and culturally inferior to the newcomers and unable to compete for limited resources.
But more recent evidence has shown that Neanderthals made effective tools and weapons, wore ornaments such as eagle claws, used ochre and pitch, ate plants and fish as well as big game and created organised living spaces in their caves.
In many cases this was happening before the arrival of modern humans, so the behaviours could not have been copied from them.
Reviewing the evidence, the scientists pointed out that 200,000 years ago Neanderthals were using fire to produce pitch from tree bark.
Experiments showed that the process required high temperatures and an oxygen-free environment such as an enclosed pot, suggesting a high level of technical knowledge.
Evidence of the Neanderthals and early humans mixing can be seen in the fossil record. Some human-like characteristics have been found in late Neanderthal fossils, and conversely, Neanderthal features have been seen in early specimens of modern humans in Europe
Neanderthal DNA, which was sequenced in 2010, shows clear evidence of interbreeding, the researchers add. Neanderthals and early modern humans are most likely to have interbred in Europe and the Middle East around 50,000 years ago.
Today Neanderthal inheritance is estimated to make up between 1% and 4% of the DNA of people outside Africa.
Interbreeding could be one reason why Neanderthals vanished, according to the scientists. They were not so much driven to extinction as assimilated.
Evidence of the two mixing can be seen in the fossil record. Some human-like characteristics have been found in late Neanderthal fossils, and conversely, Neanderthal features have been seen in early specimens of modern humans in Europe.
Neanderthals were more robust and much stronger than modern humans, with a backward sloping chin and forehead.
It is possible that interbreeding with Neanderthals may have helped our ancestors survive outside Africa, say the scientists. On the other hand some Neanderthal genes may have contributed to sterility, which is why so few remain.
The researchers wrote: 'The Neanderthal demise appears to have resulted from a complex and protracted process including multiple dynamic factors such as low population density, interbreeding with some cultural contact, possible male hybrid sterility and contraction in geographic distribution followed by genetic swamping and assimilation by the increasing numbers of modern immigrants.'A tip from a Toronto imam sparked an investigation that culminated in the arrests of two men who allegedly plotted to derail a Via passenger train.
The imam alerted authorities more than a year ago about a person he regarded as an extremist who was corrupting youth in his community.
That single tip led to what the RCMP on Monday called the first-ever Canadian bust of an alleged al-Qaeda terrorist plot.
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The RCMP believes that two men, Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, and Raed Jaser, 35, were planning to derail a Via passenger train on the Canadian leg of its Toronto-New York route. The actual imam who phoned in the initial tip to authorities remains anonymous. But community sources confirm his involvement.
"More than a year ago, a client of mine, an imam in the Toronto Muslim community, became concerned after noticing the activities of one of the individuals now under arrest," Toronto lawyer Naseer Syed told The Globe and Mail, referring to notes he had taken last year.
The men were taken into custody Monday in Montreal and Toronto. They face several criminal charges, including plotting murder, terrorist recruitment and terrorism.
Detectives, who spent months on the case, claimed the duo relied on "direction and guidance" from al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorists in Iran as they plotted carnage in Canada. One Canadian detective called the train scheme "the first known al-Qaeda plan of attack that we've experienced."
The nation's top counterterrorism police officials briefed reporters about the arrest Monday, but not before they made a point of summoning about 20 leaders of Toronto's Islamic community to a meeting.
The message from authorities to the Muslim community? Thank you for a helping hand.
"The first comment they made, and they encouraged us to make it a talking point, is that, but for the Muslim community's intervention, we may not have had the success we've had," said Hussein Hamdani, a lawyer who was invited to the pre-briefing.
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Because the Toronto suspect was allegedly seen trying to spread extremist propaganda to youth, the imam felt obliged to alert the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and RCMP to these activities.
Alarmed by Mr. Jaser's "attempts to approach young Muslims," the imam "took the initiative to notify the authorities." Mr. Syed said.
The two suspects are to appear in court on Tuesday.
While the RCMP has been investigating the pair since last fall, public details about the two men remain vague. The Mounties did reveal that neither man is a Canadian citizen, but refrained from releasing their nationalities.
It is unknown how Mr. Esseghaier and Mr. Jaser met or began hatching the alleged plot. What is known suggests contrasting backgrounds.
Born in Tunis, Tunisia, Mr. Esseghaier came to Canada in the summer of 2010. His first stop was Sherbrooke, Que, where he arrived at Jean-Luc Brodeur's apartment building at 2748 Galt looking for a place to live. Mr. Brodeur said the young man spoke impeccable French and told him he would be studying at the University of Sherbrooke.
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"Those are the magic words to me. We know they're generally good kids who pay their rent," Mr. Brodeur said.
Mr. Esseghaier kept to himself during his short stay and caused no trouble, Mr. Brodeur said. He moved to Montreal in November that year to continue his studies and sublet his apartment to avoid breaking his lease, which ran to July 1.
"The bills were paid and everything went fine," said Mr. Brodeur. "This is very hard to understand."
Mr. Esseghaier's new school was the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) in a Montreal suburb, according to his biography on the school's website, which was expunged later in the day.
Mr. Esseghaier joined a laboratory group to study optical and electrochemical biosensors. He was working toward a PhD. Esen Sokullu, who was in the same lab group, said she was shocked to hear the news. "I never expected to hear something like that. He was very nice," she said.
At the research institute he attended in suburban Montreal, Mr. Esseghaier was recalled as a serious man who spent long days in the lab, often leaving campus at 9 p.m.
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Nothing in Mr. Esseghaier's behaviour raised suspicions, said two fellow students who declined to give their names. Both said they hadn't seen him on the campus for several months, perhaps since before Christmas.
"He was discreet," said one researcher as he left the low-slung building in Varennes. "But nothing he did seemed suspicious. He seemed like an ordinary guy."
News of the arrest spread quickly through the series of labs and offices, and some staffers slipped out quickly to their cars to avoid speaking to journalists.
Far less is known about Mr. Esseghaier's alleged partner.
Yellow police tape surrounded the east-end Toronto duplex where Mr. Jaser is believed to live Monday evening, as a white RCMP truck and a Toronto police cruiser stood parked outside.
The police arrived some time after 11:30 a.m., when next-door neighbour Sanjay Chaudhary left his home for a few hours. When Mr. Chaudhary returned around 3 p.m., a detective quizzed him about his neighbours, asking him if he had ever seen any suspicious behaviour.
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"I never saw anything suspicious," Mr. Chaudhary told reporters on his doorstep.
He described his neighbours, a man and a woman in their 30s, as reserved, never saying hello on their shared driveway. The pair were renting the back apartment of the semi-attached duplex next to Mr. Chaudhary. They were already residents of the quiet neighbourhood when Mr. Chaudhary and his family moved in one year ago.
The couple kept their blinds constantly closed and left their home each morning around 5 a.m. for Islamic prayers, Mr. Chaudhary said. They would generally return about an hour later.
Mr. Chaudhray doesn't believe the man worked. He said his neighbour was about five feet, 10 inches tall, chubby, with a long, dark beard that hit mid-chest. Mr. Chaudhary said the man's wife was covered head to toe in black, only exposing her eyes.
He was shocked to learn about the allegations facing his neighbour. He last saw the couple pull into their home around 9:30 p.m. Sunday in a white Lincoln vehicle.
They were kind of reserved, I think. I never saw him talking to anybody except his [landlord]," Mr. Chaudhary said. "Even if I am starting my car and he is starting his car, even then he would never say hi, hello. Never. We never had any conversation."
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For Mr. Chaudhary, one event stands out. Last spring, around May and June, he recalls about five or six men in their 30s were at the home constantly, sitting outside in the backyard, eating and "partying" with the couple on Fridays. And then, after about a month, the visitors were gone.
With reports from Les Perreaux, Omar El Akkad, Renata D'Aliesio, Tu Thanh Ha, Ingrid Peretz and Daniel LeblancBill Shorten favours female candidate to replace retiring Victorian MP in hotly contested Wills preselection
Updated
Labor leader Bill Shorten is pushing strongly for a woman to replace retiring MP Kelvin Thomson, as fellow party heavyweight Senator Stephen Conroy attempts to manoeuvre his own man into the safe Victorian seat of Wills.
It is understood that Mr Shorten favours the preselection of a female candidate for the seat, which would bring Labor closer to fulfilling its self-imposed goal of women holding 50 per cent of all positions in the party within 10 years.
Key points: Bill Shorten wants a female candidate to replace Kelvin Thomson
Rudd government adviser Peter Khalil believed to be interested in running
Former Federal Senator Mehmet Tillem appears to be frontrunner
Mr Tillem has been accused in the past of branch-stacking in the electorate
Although local members had expressed fears that the party's national executive would impose a candidate on them, there is growing confidence that a genuine preselection ballot will occur in Wills, which has the most party members of any Victorian seat.
A number of people are being touted as potential challengers for preselection, but few of them are women.
Journalist and Victorian Multicultural Commissioner Helen Kapalos has confirmed media reports that she was approached by senior Labor figures.
"Yes, I was approached, but quickly said no, I wasn't interested. Therefore I was surprised to see the news reports shortly afterwards," she told the ABC.
Former SBS executive and adviser to Kevin Rudd's government, Peter Khalil, is believed to be keenly interested in running for preselection, but with Senator Conroy backing Mehmet Tillem and Mr Shorten convinced of the need for a female candidate, he may struggle to attract the necessary support.
Do you know more about this story? Email investigations@abc.net.au.
However, despite Mr Shorten's preference for a female candidate, the clear frontrunner for preselection still appears to be former Federal senator Mr Tillem.
The ABC reported earlier this year that an influential Labor local councillor with alleged links to Italian organised crime figures used then-senator Mr Tillem's office to improperly sign up members to the ALP, effectively creating a "ghost branch" of the party.
Moreland councillor Michael Teti was expelled from the ALP in July after it was revealed that he had worked for crime figure Frank Madafferi, and had allegedly supplied a gun to another criminal who is suspected of using it to threaten a woman.
Mr Tillem declined to comment when contacted, but the ABC is not suggesting he knew of Mr Teti's links to the Madafferi family or of his branch stacking activities.
Senator Conroy 'not commenting on party matters'
Mr Tillem, who is currently serving as chief of staff to state Labor minister Phillip Dalidakis, is closely tied to Senator Conroy, who is believed to be energetically backing his acolyte to take over from Mr Thomson in Wills.
A spokesman for Senator Conroy said he did not comment on internal party matters.
However, a loose alliance of other Labor figures is apparently equally adamant that Mr Tillem should not be given the opportunity to return to Federal Parliament.
Apart from Mr Shorten, these include factional opponents of Mr Tillem, but also others who believe Mr Tillem's links to branch stackers and back room deal-making is potentially dangerous to the party.
Mr Shorten's office did not respond to a request for comment.
Wills is essentially divided into two halves. The section closer to Melbourne's CBD, which takes in suburbs such as Brunswick and Coburg, is becoming more heavily populated by Greens voters.
While the northern half of the electorate is safer territory for Labor, with more elderly voters from a number of ethnic communities traditionally loyal to the party.
Labor insiders are concerned that the installation of Mr Tillem — with his reputation for Labor machine politics — will send younger Labor supporters into the arms of the Greens, who are making inroads every year as the gentrification of the seat creeps northwards.
The jostling over the Wills preselection comes with a backdrop of increasing angst over branch-stacking in Labor seats in Melbourne's northern and western suburbs.
In recent months, the ABC and Fairfax have revealed widespread use of pre-paid credit cards to anonymously sign up large numbers of party members, with the intention of influencing preselection battles.
An investigation by two party figures, Garth Head and Liz Beattie, is underway into how extensive the practice is, but internal critics have questioned whether the probe is genuinely independent, given the factional links of both Mr Head and Ms Beattie.
There is fear among some members that the final report will be a whitewash.
It was consternation over branch-stacking that led some in the party to fear that a candidate would be parachuted in by Labor 'head office', but that prospect now seems unlikely with the preselection expected in February.
Topics: government-and-politics, states-and-territories, federal-government, parliament, melbourne-3000, vic, coburg-3058, brunswick-3056
First postedThe 1966 Westall UFO Incident - 200 Witnesses, No Explanation
On April 6th 1966, around 200 school students and teachers were witness to a strange object in the skies above their school in Westall near Melbourne, Australia. Almost 50 years later and there is still no explanation as to what it was these people saw, and with evidence limited to the varying testimonies of the witnesses, it remains unlikely that one will ever arise.
It all started as a late morning sports session was wrapping up on the school's cricket oval. As the children and teachers prepared to head back in, murmurings of a strange object in the sky began to turn heads.
"We were out on the oval playing sports," said witness Terry Peck in a TV documentary. "One of the kids yelled out 'Look, look up in the sky, a flying saucer', and I remember we all looked up and, it really was a flying saucer." Peck continues "It was a round silver disc, it seemed to be very low over the school and I remember kids screaming and running inside."
But it wasn't just the children that witnessed the object. The massive panic spread through the school like a wave, and many teacher both inside and outside the building were witness to the events unfolding on the oval. Verbal reports from teachers are unfortunately lacking, however of those that do exist, be they from adults or children, almost all of the reports agree that the object was able to move at an alarming speed, something it demonstrated after its initial hovering above the school.
After the initial disc-shaped object was spotted, some witnesses reported seeing a collection of five smaller objects circling and following it. Initial explanations that these objects were small Cessna-like aircraft seemed thwarted when local air traffic control and military authorities both confirmed there was no air traffic in the area at the time. However, this lack of record should not rule out the possibility that civilian or military aircraft were present at the time. Whatever these objects were though, their appearance almost immediately led to the disappearance of the silver disc, which swiftly made for a nearby pasture known as 'The Grange'. The school children, or at least the ones who weren't too terrified, set off in pursuit of the object.
According to her friends, a girl by the name of Tanya was the first to reach the site. What happened when she got there will never be known because by the time the rest of the group arrived, Tanya, according to some witnesses, was found passed-out on the grass. What caused this momentary lapse of consciousness remains a mystery, but the consensus among her companions was that Tanya had touched the object as it lay seemingly dormant in The Grange. However, one of her friends remembers it differently...
"Tanya had gone back to school and had basically gone to pieces," said Tanya's friend, Jacqueline Argent. "There was definitely an ambulance on the oval and I was told she had been taken away in the ambulance. And that was the last time I ever saw her."
Whether Tanya had made it back to school or not, the ending seems to be the same.
With the school abuzz following the exciting events of the morning, the school's Principal called an emergency assembly of the school's student body and faculty. There, he told the school's population that what they saw wasn't real, it didn't happen and they should absolutely not discuss it any further. The Principals words were added to by a group of suited officials who advised the children that what they saw was nothing but an experimental craft. The children were once again warned that they should not speak of the incident ever again.
Despite this enforced silence, journalists soon caught wind of the story and they came to the school in their droves. But when they started to conduct interviews with the witnesses, the local police force intervened and ordered them to stop what they were doing and leave school grounds with immediate effect. So jumbled are reports about what happened that day, many teachers are reported to have claimed that there was no object and it was, in fact, a case of mass hysteria. But for many of the child witnesses this explanation goes against everything they believe they witnessed.
The reports by some children that mysterious officials mentioned experimental aircraft would seem to bolster the common theory with cases like this, that the object was military in origin. But when investigators have requested information from the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), they have been met with silence. Stranger still, when freedom of information requests were made and RAAF files turned over, not a single file mentioned the events of April 6th 1966. This silence and mystery is echoed in almost all avenues of investigation, written reports are few and far between and requests for information from local police and air traffic authorities return nothing of value.
In fact, the only documented explanation for the events was provided when a local newspaper revealed that a weather balloon was released earlier that morning. The wind that balloon was released into may well have taken it on a path over Westall, but you try and tell the witnesses that what they saw was a weather balloon and you would be met with nothing but raised eyebrows.
Is there a case that this could have simply been a weather balloon sparking chaos and panic among a young school populace? Of course. The fact that witness accounts are so varying would certainly add credence to such an explanation, but even if it were a weather balloon, there a number of questions that witnesses would surely like answered. How and why were these mysterious military representatives on the scene so quickly? If it was a weather balloon, why was silence urged by them and the principal? Conversely, if it was a secret craft, does it really need to stay secret today, almost 50 years since the incident occurred? All of these questions, and more, are ones that witnesses to the Westall UFO incident want answers to.Israel’s Pre-emptive Media Strike on Iran Confirmed by Intel Sources to Have Been Prepared Prior to Bulgarian Bombing.
Israel fumbled their WWIII ball by using the Bulgarian bombing as a pretext for launching a ‘retaliation strike’ on Iran which would really be an offensive one under the Nuremberg precedent.
Veterans Today previously caught the Israeli psy ops people red handed in the faked video material they released to the public showing ‘terrorists’ aboard the Mavi Marmara.
We discovered is was all shot in Israel’s own studios with some CGI (computer generated imaging) help. They have been caught again.
We were used to looking for this. Most all of the fake Osama videos and tapes were made by the Israelis, along with the fake Al Qaeda training tapes which were funny in a way.
What was not funny was how Western media pipelined material to their respected audiences as the real deal when a rookie Intel trainee could have spotted how fake they were.
Again, they over played their hand…too much ‘blame it on Iran’ dot connecting, too soon, based in information that was incorrect or purposefully arranged to be so. And then they piled on of every past event that they could find on the Iranians. Missing in all of this was any mention of Israel’s ongoing crimes against humanity,their long record on State sponsored terrorism and refusing to open their WMD stockpiles for international inspection. Imagine that.
We don’t have faked video to show you on Bulgaria (yet) but Nima Shirazi has nailed the Zios on the next best thing, faked, mistranslated, mis-attributed and out of context quotes from Iran and Mr. Ahmadinejad.
But we did notice the too quick on the trigger, the very detailed media disinformation and all the bells and whistles were going off as a ‘ready to go…made in Israel’ event.
It did not take too long to confirm that this material had been ready to go before the bombing event. Welcome to that world.
A basic premise of all Intel 101 analysis training is that when you really have the goods to nail an opponent with something you use it. And when you don’t, you have to make something up.
The problem with that is when your made up material is discovered, the games is up on the alleged threat you are claiming. It is now exposed as bogus.
This is not a knock out blow for Israeli’s credibility as it has long learned to keep their ship of state afloat having thrown that unnecessary baggage overboard long ago. It is to the disgrace of all Western Intelligence agencies that they have not help public webinars of Israels long record of faked threats and attacks as they have always been an attack on the rest of us.
How?…by the usual ‘preparing the minds’ psy ops that routinely accompany all aggressive attacks which a public would not support otherwise.
You could ad to this that American counter intelligence has never once publicly warned the American people of the scale of Israeli espionage that has gone on here for decades with untold damage.
This even includes warning graduating physics Phd. students of their usual recruiting techniques, things like helping them get placed in our most sensitive national laboratories.
The revelation of this damage is now considered a threat to the national security but in a twisted way.
The political treason and corruption involved in having allowed this to go on all these years might trigger mass lynching across American for all those involved.
That is something most guilty parties would lie and classify to save their traitorous hides, and have.
Veterans Today has published a couple of these in the past few months, Condi Rice and Richard Clarke (and there are many more), without a single follow up call by main stream media.
A growing segment of the Intelligence community is coming to view this horrendous situation less as political corruption, but more as an uber-organized crime operation from which our counter intelligence institutions have been powerless to defend us.
And there are even some scarier theories as to why. More on this later…always… Jim Dean
_______________________
The Insanity of Anti-Iran Propaganda
… by Nima Shirazi
The Times of Israel, the same “news” outfit that was quick to identify former Guantanamo detainee Mehdi Ghezali as the bomber based on half-baked Bulgarian media reports is back at it.
The claim was immediately denied by all intelligence agencies involved in the case.
But this time there is a report declaring that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has revealed (and reveled in) Iran’s culpability for the attack in Bulgaria.
The Times opens its piece with what could not be mistaken for anything other than what it presents as a clear statement of fact:
“Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gloated publicly on Thursday over the deaths of Israelis in a terror bombing in Bulgaria, and hinted that Iran was responsible for the attack.”
Claiming that, just hours after the attack itself, “Ahmadinejad described the attack as ‘a response’ to Israeli ‘blows against Iran,'” the report continues:
“The bitter enemies of the Iranian people and the Islamic Revolution have recruited most of their forces in order to harm us,” he said in a speech reported by Israel’s Channel 2 TV. “They have indeed succeeded in inflicting blows upon us more than once, but have been rewarded with a far stronger response.” He added: “The enemy believes it can achieve its aims in a long, persistent struggle against the Iranian people, but in the end it will not. We are working to ensure that.”Ahmadinejad’s speech was interpreted in Israel as asserting that the Burgas bombing was a revenge attack for the killing of Iranian nuclear scientists, for which Iran has repeatedly blamed Israel.
This report spread like wildfire around the internet, from right-wing sites like The Blaze and Commentary to progressive outlets like Paul Woodward’s War in Context.
But it’s a lie.
Ahmadinejad’s speech, delivered in commemoration of World Mosque Day, has absolutely nothing to do with the bus bombing in Bulgaria.
The quotes cherry-picked and bizarrely analyzed by the Israeli media have nothing to do with boasting or bragging about the attack.
The speech, typical of Ahmadinejad, states clearly that, in the face of Western aggression and efforts to impose hegemony over Iran and its rights, the Islamic Republic will stand firm and not back down.
This is even evident in the English language report on the speech itself, available on Ahmadinejad’s own website.
“I assure the Iranian people that the government will not retreat even one iota from their rights, principles and values against the declining materialistic powers,” Ahmadinejad said, “even if the enemies mobilize their past and future capabilities and get accompanied by certain parties inside the country.”
The key part of the speech twisted and bastardized by the Israeli press actually states that:
“the main enemies of the Iranian nation and the Islamic Revolution have waged a major battle and mobilized their utmost power and capability but the Iranian government strongly resists against them. The enemy deals a blow to the Iranian nations step by step; but, in return, it receives a stronger, heavier blow.”
The Iranian president is so obviously talking about the campaign to abrogate Iran’s nuclear rights (Ahmadinejad said that “the hegemonic system opposes the Iranian nation only because of the high speed of its progress in various sectors such as industries, science and technology”) and Iran’s steadfastness in the face economic pressure and ever-mounting sanctions and threats that to allege this has anything to do with Burgas is not only amazingly dishonest and grotesque, but also dangerous.
The critical paragraph of Ahmadinejad’s speech (a small portion of the whole, which mostly praises the importance of mosques as constructive cultural centers of society) can be read below both in the original Farsi along with an alternate translation:
دكتر احمدينژاد در بخش ديگري از سخنان خود با بيان اينکه امروز دولت درگير يک نبرد سنگين و تمام عيار است، خاطرنشان کرد: امروز دشمنان اصلي ملت، فرهنگ، آرمانها، انقلاب اسلامي و موجوديت ايران، همه توان خود را بسيج کرده اند تا از حرکت سريع و رو به پيشرفت ملت ايران جلوگيري کنند و دولت نيز با همه توان و به صورت شبانه روزي و لحظه اي روياروي آنها ايستاده است. دشمنان با تسلط بر همه مراکز اقتصاد و قدرت در دنيا به صورت شبانه روزي و لحظه اي عليه جمهوري اسلامي اقدام مي کنند و دولت نيز پا به پاي آنها به مقابله برخاسته و اگر هر ضربه اي وارد کنند، ضربه اي دريافت مي کنند كه معمولاً ضربه دريافتي آنها سنگينتر از ضربه اي است که وارد کرده اند. Dr. Ahmadinejad in another section of his remarks (words) mentioning that today the (Iranian) Government is involved in a heavy and all encompassing struggle reminded that: Today the main enemies of the people, culture, ideals,the Islamic revolution and the Iranian existence have mobilized all their abilities (powers) to prevent the fast movement towards progress of the Iranian nation, and the Government (Iranian) also with all of its power, day and night and every moment is standing in front of them. The enemies with domination over all the centers of economy and power in the world day and night and every moment are acting against the Islamic Republic and the Government (Iranian) also has risen in front of them (standing in front of them, against them) and if they deliver a blow they will receive a blow which usually the blow they receive will be heavier than the blow they have delivered. (translation by Ahmad Shirazi)
The use of this quote, and the false presentation of it as having anything to do with the Burgas attack, may set a new low in the warmongering campaign that Israel is waging against Iran.
Nima Shirazi blogs at http://www.wideasleepinamerica.com
Editing: Jim W. DeanQuagmire
An art project where drawings draw themselves.
Quagmire is an emulation of an impossible 8bit processor, where all memory is addressed in 2 dimensions, and is represented by pixel value. Program execution threads can run up, down, left or right. Sections of code are visible in memory, as are the processes as they run. Unlike a normal computer the internal process of the machine is visible. Programs are drawings.
In this system, crashes can be viewed as they occur, processes can write all over each other, or themselves. Lost threads of execution wander through memory, running any data they meander over.
Drawings
Fork Exec Exit
This is a series of artworks documenting some of the experimental drawings/programs I have tried with quagmire. In these pictures, the memory contents is shown, with the program threads overlayed as white pixels. Memory is cleared to white (value 255) to make things easier to see, as most instructions are nearly black. The first thread always starts at the bottom left corner heading from left to right.A test program to broadly emulate the actions of the commands fork, exec and exit in a unix system - ie copy the code to another location, spawn a new process and exit the parent process. As the new thread is spawned at 90 degrees counter clockwise to the parent, after the 3rd copy, a new process is written in exactly the same position as the original and the drawing is infinitely repeated.
Broken fork bomb
A fork bomb is similar to the program above, except it forks multiple copies of itself, which means memory will fill up and the machine will become inundated with processes. Unfortunately there is a bug in |
Told By South Korean Official: “Clearly Credit Goes To President Trump” (VIDEO)
“President-elect Trump asked me to meet with him about our current policies regarding Syria, our fight against terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and [the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria], as well as other foreign policy challenges we face,” Gabbard said.
“I felt it important to take the opportunity to meet with the President-elect now before the drumbeats of war that neocons have been beating drag us into an escalation of the war to overthrow the Syrian government—a war which has already cost hundreds of thousands of lives and forced millions of refugees to flee their homes in search of safety for themselves and their families.”
Gabbard said that while the “rules of political expediency” would suggest she not take a meeting with the president-elect, she refuses to “play politics” with American and Syrian lives.
This is phenomenal of Trump to be finding common ground and gaining broad support, but don’t expect the media to give him any credit for this.On the docket today is a simple Arduino project – a WiFi weather display that shows the day’s temperature and has an indicator for sun, clouds and precipitation.
An Arduino-compatible, WiFi microcontroller receives weather data from the IFTTT service. The temperature is displayed on a four digit display, and each of the three indicators light up a triangular segment.
Like the Giftduino project we featured yesterday, this project doesn’t have many features but it’s still a great build. The modern design is a big plus too, as it wouldn’t look out of place in a carefully made home.
If you’d like a piece of functional wall electronics that’s more advanced, we’d suggest looking into the new wave of DIY smart mirrors. We’ve featured versions based on a Raspberry Pi and a tablet conversion in the past.
These could also display the weather as well as anything else you’d like, if you’re willing to spend more time and money putting it together.Get the biggest Sport 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
Hibs skipper Darren McGregor has been cleared of headbutting Morton's Kudus Oyenuga in last week's explosive draw in Leith - and will now be free to play in this weekend's rematch.
McGregor was ordered off by referee Nick Walsh in injury time as all hell broke loose at Easter Road.
The former St Mirren and Rangers defender was adjudged to have headbutted Oyenuga with the Morton player falling to the floor holding his face after the two squared up.
But an SFA judicial panel sitting at Hampden this morning has overruled the original decision and reduced Hibs stopper McGregor's red card to a booking.
(Image: SNS Group)
It means the big defender will be free for this weekend's rematch between the two sides in Greenock.
The astonishing scenes in last week's draw were sparked when Oyenuga, who was also sent-off, recklessly threw himself into a challenge on Jordon Forster.
After McGregor confronted the Ton player, Oyenuga fell to the ground clutching his face.
Oyenuga’s dangerous tackle sparked a mass melee and Hibs head coach Neil Lennon and Morton manager Jim Duffy had to be kept about during the scuffle.
After the game, Lennon’s accused Oyenuga of feigning a head-butt in what he described as an ‘act of cowardice’.
Despite McGregor's clearance this morning, Oyenuga will not face a dive charge after compliance officer Tony McGlennan decided he has no case to answer.
Lennon and Duffy face charges of acting in an aggressive manner while both clubs and Ton assistant Craig McPherson have also been charged in relation to the bust-up.
They have until next Tuesday to respond to the complaint.LONDON – A topless photo of a popular actress is making headlines.
A topless photo of Keira Knightley is going viral, but the star says she was not the victim of a hack.
Instead, she decided to make the topless photo public in Interview Magazine for a cause.
Knightley told The Times she demanded the photo be unedited so people could see what she really looked like.
“I’ve had my body manipulated so many different times for so many different reasons, whether it’s paparazzi photographers or for film posters,” Knightley said. “That [shoot] was one of the ones where I said, ‘Okay, I’m fine doing the topless shot so long as you don’t make them any bigger or retouch.’ Because it does feel important to say it really doesn’t matter what shape you are.”
Click here to be directed to the full image in Glamour Magazine.
“I think women’s bodies are a battleground and photography is partly to blame,” she said. “You need tremendous skill to be able get a woman’s shape and make it look like it does in life, which is always beautiful. But our society is so photographic now, it becomes more difficult to see all of those different varieties of shape.”1,000 employees evacuated after acid spill, fire in northwest Austin Copyright by KXAN - All rights reserved Copyright by KXAN - All rights reserved Employees were evacuated from ICU Medical after an acid leak. (KXAN Photo/Paul Shelton) 1,000 employees evacuated from ICU Medical on West Howard near MoPac Employees were evacuated from ICU Medical after an acid leak. (KXAN Photo/Paul Shelton) prev next
AUSTIN (KXAN) -- A hazmat situation initially described as an isolated, small chemical spill by the Austin Fire Department led to the evacuation of around 1,000 people at a company in northwest Austin.
Firefighters were called to 3900 W. Howard Ln., just west of MoPac Expressway, at 2:55 p.m. Tuesday. Authorities determined a 30-gallon container of acid was leaking and spilled inside a containment room. AFD says they worked with the company's response team to mitigate the spill.
The main building of ICU Medical was evacuated after a small fire started in a chemical storage shed, the fire department said. The fire was out as of around 4:20 p.m., firefighters said.
No injuries were reported and the employees were cleared to go back into the building around 6 p.m. A private contractor is currently in the process of cleaning the spill.On Tuesday, the LA Galaxy kicked off their commemorative match day poster series by revealing the artwork for the April 12th fixture against Vancouver Whitecaps FC.
The first poster in the series celebrates Jaime Penedo’s miraculous save against the Whitecaps on August 25, 2013 that helped seal a 1-0 Galaxy win over Vancouver at BC Place. The Galaxy will release a new poster for each regular season home match in the 2014 season featuring designs by local and national artists.
Designed by LA Galaxy graphic designer, Brad Saik i, a limited run of the Penedo posters will be available for purchase for $25 at Saturday’s match against Vancouver at StubHub Center. An additional three posters will be signed by Penedo himself and available in a silent auction at the Foundation Booth.
You can download the poster as a phone background or a home computer wallpaper below:Community members take part in a mobilization against censorship of Palestine activism, at the University of California Office of the President in Oakland, 7 July. (via Facebook)
Students at the University of California (UC) are celebrating victory against the latest attempt to stifle advocacy for Palestinian rights under the banner of fighting “anti-Semitism.”
The university’s governing body, the Board of Regents, had been due to consider at its meeting this week whether to adopt as official policy the US State Department’s definition of “anti-Semitism.”
That definition “brands critics of Israel and advocates for Palestinian human rights as anti-Semitic by blurring the important distinction between criticism of Israel as a nation-state and anti-Semitism,” according to civil rights group Palestine Legal.
In an interview on WBUR radio in May, UC President Janet Napolitano had publicly declared her support for the State Department definition and insisted that UC Regents would vote on it this month.
But faced with a growing public outcry, Napolitano backed down and the definition was taken off the agenda.
Instead, in September the UC Regents will consider “a statement of principles against intolerance, including, but not limited to anti-Semitism and other types of intolerance,” according to a university statement.
This is a major setback to efforts by pro-Israel activists to control speech on campus.
Victory for academic freedom
Palestine Legal welcomed the university’s shift as “a victory for academic freedom.”
“We commend the University of California for engaging in much-needed conversations about how to effectively defeat all forms of racism at the UC while affirming its commitment to the free flow of ideas on campus,” said Palestine Legal staff attorney Liz Jackson. “We hope the university will recognize that student activism and academic inquiry expressing critical views of Israeli policy are not forms of ‘intolerance,’ but rather, they are initiatives to address discrimination and violence against Palestinians, including Palestinian students at the UC. These racial justice initiatives further the university’s efforts to create a more tolerant environment.”
SJP-West, a coalition of West Coast Students for Justice in Palestine chapters, also welcomed the decision.
In a statement from the group, Sophia Shalabi, a student at UC Irvine, said the decision to drop consideration of “a definition that is strategically meant to silence pro-Palestinian activists will allow students to continue advocating for the Palestinian voice that has been ignored by our administration.”
“As we move forward within the upcoming academic year, Palestinian rights activists hope to engage in critical debate and continue to educate our fellow students about the Palestinian plight,” Robert Gardner, a student at UCLA, said. “This will now be a little bit easier.”
Blow to Israel lobby
The decision not to consider adopting the State Department definition of “anti-Semitism” is a blow to a key Israel lobby strategy to stifle criticism of Israel by redefining it as bigotry.
The drive to get the university to adopt it was led by none other than Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, founder of the anti-Palestinian group Amcha Initiative that has long spearheaded attacks on students and faculty who criticize Israel, as well as other efforts at censorship.
In an interview with The Jewish Daily Forward in June, Rossman-Benjamin described how in her view nearly all forms of protest and criticism of Israel employed by students would amount to anti-Semitism.
While claiming her goal is to ensure tolerance, Rossman-Benjamin has been caught on video spouting racist statements against students involved in Palestine activism.
Outcry
But Rossman-Benjamin’s latest effort to stifle free speech faced considerable, and apparently decisive, pushback.
This included a petition from SJP-West and a letter from UAW 2865 (the labor union for graduate students and workers at UC campuses) to UC President Napolitano.
On 7 July, members of SJP West, UAW 2865, Jewish Voice for Peace and several civil rights groups along with UC students, faculty and staff protested outside the UC Office of the President in Oakland.
They delivered a petition from Jewish Voice for Peace with more than 4,000 signatures.
There were also letters and statements from civil and legal defense groups Palestine Legal and FIRE, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
Remarkably, pro-Israel activist Kenneth Stern, a lead author of what became the State Department’s definition, opposed official adoption, saying it “would do more harm than good.”
While backing the substance of the definition, Stern feared that turning it into an officially enforced “speech code” would portray Jews – who he conflates with Zionists – as supporting repression of “sacred values” such as free speech for the sake of Israel. This, he warned, could even end up fueling anti-Semitism.
Going mainstream
Even the Los Angeles Times editorialized that the State Department definition would be a “constitutionally dubious” threat to the “free-speech provisions of the First Amendment.”
“Would pro-Palestinian students who mounted a protest against Israeli policies in the West Bank be judged anti-Semites because they didn’t also demonstrate against repression in Egypt or Russia?” the Times asked. “What about a student who wanted to argue that Israel should be replaced by a nonsectarian state? Even those who find such a position unrealistic or undesirable might agree that it needn’t be driven by hatred for Jews.”
This editorial underscores that the backlash against Israel lobby efforts at campus censorship has gone mainstream.
That too is a victory that will likely have repercussions far further afield than the University of California.When I got my first smartphone, the iPhone 3GS, one of the first few games I downloaded was Tap Tap Revenge. After all playing games like Guitar Hero on the PS3 was already so fun, imagine replicating that play style on a mobile device that you can bring with you on the go! Pretty compelling, isn’t it? Unfortunately it looks like all good things must come to an end as the company being Tap Tap Revenge, Tapulous, has announced that they will be officially shutting the franchise down for good and will be pulled from the app store starting from today, and that the game’s servers will be closed at the beginning of February.
According to the company, the reason behind the closure is due to the ever-changing mobile and music markets, which the company believes no longer makes sense for them to maintain the game. The good news is that those who still have the game will be able to keep playing them, but take note that if you were to reset your phone and lose any songs you might have bought/downloaded, you will not be able to restore them. This shutdown will also apply to the Android version of the game, although we guess there will probably be places where you might be able to download the APKs if you were to search hard enough. So, anyone sad to see such a classic iOS game disappear?
Filed in. Read more about Apps.Folks,
Okay, it's time to take a ride on the BSC train but before we do that, a couple of quick bits. First, another great day for our Kickstarter! We're on track to one of our highest daily number of pledges and pledge totals! If we can keep this up, we'll be in good shape for our final few days. Second, there was an amazing piece by Robert Purchese over at Eurogamer here.
BSC Stealth
Stealthers and I have a long and interesting history, dating back to Dark Age of Camelot, which had the most robust and interesting implementation of stealth in any MMORPG to date. Unfortunately, it also had some serious bugs, and yes, some design errors. Over the years at Mythic, we balanced/nerfed/changed/added elements in an attempt to improve the overall system.
Since then, many other studios have tried to create a “better” stealth system. Most of these attempts resulted in “dumbed down” implementations. Speaking solely as a player, I love stealth and have played numerous stealth-based characters in MMORPGs. OTOH, speaking as a designer, especially of an RvR-focused MMORPG such as Camelot Unchained, I’m deeply concerned about them and their effect on the game.
I don’t want to add a class that drives away as many people as it attracts whether due to the real or simply perceived power of stealthers. Nor do I want one that has to be continually nerfed to try to find just the right balance and to stave off the anger of non-stealthers.
While in an RvR game, while we will always be balancing classes, being killed by a stealther seems to generate more angry comments and e-mails than other classes. When the discussions here at CSE began to coalesce around an MMORPG, I did not want to repeat those bad old days of constant complaints (some valid, some not) and angry forums due to stealthers and the changes that we made to them. I did, however, want to find a way we might possibly bring them into Camelot Unchained because if we can do so in an innovative and fun way, we could add another interesting dynamic to the game.
IMO, some of the problems with stealth, from both a designer's and a player’s perspective are:
1) A lot of potential stealthers, most likely the vast majority, want long duration stealth, but most victims hate it.
2) Most stealthers hate moving slowly in stealth mode, while the victims love it.
3) Some stealthers, like any other class, do want to be OP, but many welcome the challenge of a more difficult system that rewards smart play and skill, not just patience and stunlock (which is hated by the majority of victims because it removes their ability to actually fight back) and/or extremely powerful opening attacks.
4) Some stealthers don’t want to be part of keep sieges or mass RvR, but others really want to be involved and help out in more ways than simply picking off lone players (wounded or not).
5) Most people dislike being killed by a stealther, but almost everyone hates being killed by multiple stealthers acting in concert.
6) “Easy on” stealth is widely despised by the victims and laughed at by some stealthers, and is usually a bit of a disconnect from most games' physical laws.
7) Some stealthers really want to play the role of a scout, while for others, the role of an assassin fits them best.
The problem was and is how to resolve these and other issues and make this fit together nicely. I don’t want to simply implement Dark Age of Camelot’s system even if I could. Too many other developers have tried, and frankly, this game is about taking risk. It’s about making choices matter, it’s about this world and this lore, but most importantly, it’s about RvR and the Veil.
The Veil, the term that plays such an important part in CU lure and to which some people’s early reaction to was to see it as “fluff” or even trite, is so much more than just a bit of inter-dimensional detritus. As I discussed in my lore update, it is a living and sentient being that exists in the space between this world and that of the Emissaries. What if we could tie the Veil into the game at an even deeper level and make that a core mechanism for a stealth system? It’s light bulb over the head time, Wart. For weeks I’ve been talking about a BSC (Bat S**t Crazy) idea for stealth, and here it is, in all its glory or folly.
What if we used the Veil as almost a different world for stealthers? What if being in it allows them to move normally through it, but also comes with some significant downsides? After all, the Veil is alive and sentient, and it’s in a real pissed-off mood these days. How could we implement a system utilizing the Veil that both makes playing solo stealthers feasible and allows them to contribute to RvR, but can also act as a shadow world? For the consideration of our backers and comments from those waiting in the wings, I present my concept for VeilWalkers and VeilStalkers.
A VeilWalker is a being that can, as the name suggests, move through the Veil in much the same manner as we move through our world. They do pierce it, but not in the same manner as the apocalyptic event, and they do so almost undetected by it. The world around them shifts as if they were seeing it through gauze.
While within its “body”, they can move at normal and sometimes heightened speed.
Like our bodies, however, it also has its own defenses, so VeilWalkers must always be on guard. Think of the scene in the movie Fantastic Voyage when the anti-bodies attack both the sub and anyone outside it. That’s only one of the ways the Veil fights back against invaders, and it can also throw other challenges at a VeilWalker plying his/her craft. For example, there are also the spirits of dead VeilWalkers who seek to consume their living counterparts' souls to ease their painful existence.
Speaking of pain, walking through the Veil hurts VeilWalkers and can change them over time. This pain is also greater the more stealthers are in proximity to you and the longer you stay close to each other. In addition, the Veil can send out illusions to confuse VeilWalkers, especially less experienced ones.
Now, what do you get for all this risk? Power, movement speed, a game within a game and a challenge like no other. VeilWalkers won’t make great scouts (our archers would be a better choice) and they aren’t great at sneaking up and going all stunlock or stabby/stabby, but they can move through unprotected walls, levitate over objects, learn to control aspects of the Veil’s defenses and use them to their advantage, and so much more.
There is no easy on button for entering the Veil so it can’t be used as an escape valve. Also, the more stealthers that are together in an area, the more that the Veil fights back, especially when they are all from the same realm. Forming and maintaining a “gank squad” in the Veil will not be an easy task, and frankly, it will be less rewarding for stealthers than soloing.
The BSC train still hasn’t stopped. To make it even more interesting for stealthers, I added the concept of a VeilStalker. This class cannot move within the Veil, but its powers are geared to hunting VeilWalkers from outside. They can detect them, lay down traps and prepare other defenses. They are best at dealing with VeilWalkers and protecting other players/areas from them. Walkers/stalkers are two sides of the same coin.
But wait, there’s more! Remember when I said that VeilWalkers' best abilities are useful within the Veil? Well, there are a couple exceptions. One is being attacked by a VeilStalker. When a stalker reaches into the Veil to attack a walker, you guessed it, the walker can fight back, and when he does, his powers can extend into the world. Think of it as a perpetual feedback loop. They can also attack outside the Veil but they are at their best within it.
The Veil holds mysteries and power, but it comes with a price. Within it,the walkers are deadly, with special abilities and powers that cannot be used outside. An “easy on” stealth button so you can hunt down single players? Meh. Hunting other hunters within a sentient body that wants you dead while stalkers on the outside are looking for any signs of your presence... now there’s a challenge worthy of a great player. So what do you say people, BSC or not? Fun or not?
-MarkTHEY were considered wooden spoon contenders just two weeks ago, but now a duo of St George Illawarra players sits atop the Dally M leaderboard.
Star recruit Gareth Widdop and Origin forward Trent Merrin lead Dally M voting after two rounds, with Widdop scoring maximum points in the Dragons’ 31-12 demolition of the Warriors on Saturday.
Likewise, Merrin notched three points in St George Illawarra’s 44-24 round one win over the Wests Tigers.
Tigers youngster James Tedesco sits second on the leaderboard.
He notched maximum points in Sunday’s massive 42-12 win over the Titans, and managed to steal a point in round one despite his side’s 44-24 loss.
Check out the full points and leaderboard below.
News_Image_File: Gareth Widdop (L) and James Tedesco (R) feature prominently in Dally M voting. Picture: Gregg Porteous
ROUND 2
Sea Eagles v Rabbitohs
Judge: Andrew Johns
3 D Cherry-Evans (MAN)
2 A Watmough (MAN)
1 M Ballin (MAN)
News_Rich_Media: South Sydney winger Lote Tuqiri says the Rabbitohs weren't mantally prepared for the match against Manly, and will need to respond quickly if they are to get back into the winners circle.
Broncos v Cowboys
Judge: Wally Lewis
3 S Thaiday (BRI)
2 A McCullough (BRI)
1 J Tamou (NQL)
News_Rich_Media: Brisbane Broncos showed their "little cousins" how it's done, clawing their way to a four-point win over North Queensland Cowboys at Suncorp Stadium.
Warriors v Dragons
Judge: Daryl Halligan
3 G Widdop (STI)
2 T Merrin (STI)
1 B Morris (STI)
News_Rich_Media: Re-live all the action from the Warriors clash against St George Illawarra.
Storm v Panthers
Judge: Greg Alexander
3 J Bromwich (MEL)
2 J Segeyaro (PEN)
1 C Cronk (MEL)
News_Rich_Media: Melbourne Storm has scored a dramatic one-point win over Penrith after Panthers halfback Peter Wallace missed a penalty goal after the siren.
Knights v Raiders
Judge: Gary Belcher
3 A Milford (CAN)
2 S Fensom (CAN)
1 B Scott (NEW)
News_Rich_Media: Fox Sport's Matt Russell and Gary Belcher break down the Canberra Raiders upset win at Hunter Stadium over the Newcastle Knights
Titans v Tigers
Judge: Darren Lockyer
3 J Tedesco (WST)
2 L Brooks (WST)
1 M Taupau (WST)
News_Rich_Media: Highly-rated Wests Tigers fullback James Tedesco says he hopes to re-sign with the club he has played with since his junior days as the Bulldogs ramp up their pursuit of the sought after number one.
Roosters v Eels
Judge: Gary Belcher
3 M Pearce (SYD)
2 A Minichiello (SYD)
1 J Waerea- Hargreaves (SYD)
News_Rich_Media: Debate continues over Darcy Lussick's tackle on Waerea-Hargreaves with Parramatta's Corey Norman seeing nothing wrong with the hit.
Bulldogs v Sharks
Judge - Greg Alexander
3 Trent Hodkinson
2 Josh Reynolds
1 James Graham
News_Rich_Media: The Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs have thrashed the Cronulla Sharks 42-4 at ANZ Stadium, bouncing back from their Round 1 loss to the Broncos.
ROUND 1
Rabbitohs v Roosters
Judge: Phil Rothfield
3 G Inglis (SOU)
2 S Burgess (SOU)
1 A Reynolds (SOU)
Bulldogs v Broncos
Judge: Phil Rothfield
3 A Glenn (BRI)
2 B Barba (BRI)
1 L Maranta (BRI)
Panthers v Knights
Judge: Gary Belcher
3 E Taylor (PEN)
2 J Mansour (PEN)
1 N Plum (PEN)
Cowboys v Raiders
Judge: Ben Ikin
3 J Thurston (NQL )
2 J Taumalolo (NQL )
1 J Papalii (CAN)
Sea Eagles v Storm
Judge: Greg Alexander
3 B Hampton (MEL)
2 G Stewart (MAN)
1 J Lyon (MAN)
Dragons v Tigers
Judge: Dean Ritchie
3 T Merrin (STI)
2 G Widdop (STI)
1 J Tedesco (WST)
Eels v Warriors
Judge: Paul Crawley
3 M Ma’u (PAR)
2 S Radradra (PAR)
1 N Peats (PAR)
Sharks v Titans
Judge: Greg Alexander
3 A Kelly (GC)
2 W Graham (CRO)
1 G Bird (GC)
LEADERBOARD
5 G Widdop (STI)
5 T Merrin (STI)
4 J Tedesco (WST)
3 G Inglis (SOU)
3 A Glenn (BRI)
3 E Taylor (PEN)
3 J Thurston (NQL )
3 B Hampton (MEL)
3 M Ma’u (PAR)
3 A Kelly (GC)
3 D Cherry-Evans (MAN)
3 S Thaiday (BRI)
3 J Bromwich (MEL)
3 A. Milford (CAN)
3 M Pearce (SYD)
2 J Taumalolo (NQL )
2 G Stewart (MAN)
2 S Radradra (PAR)
2 W Graham (CRO)
2 A Watmough (MAN)
2 A McCullough (BRI)
2 S. Fensom (CAN)
2 L Brooks (WST)
2 A Minichiello (SYD)
2 J Mansour (PEN)
2 J Segeyaro (PEN)
2 B Barba (BRI)
2 S Burgess (SOU)
1 A Reynolds (SOU)
1 L Maranta (BRI)
1 N Plum (PEN)
1 J Papalii (CAN)
1 J Lyon (MAN)
1 N Peats (PAR)
1 G Bird (GC)
1 M Ballin (MAN)
1 J Tamou (NQL)
1 C Cronk (MEL)
1 B. Scott (NEW)
1 M Taupau (WST)
1 J Waerea- Hargreaves (SYD)Gay Pride Weekend Returns to Peoria Copyright 2019 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Video
PEORIA - It had been five years since Peoria last hosted a gay pride festival.
But that all changed this weekend as hundreds showed their support for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community.
There was no shortage of smiling faces at the Peoria gay pride expo Saturday afternoon.
"It's given us a happy, care-free mood,” Ashley Carney said. Carney, a member of the Gay-Straight Alliance at Richwoods High School, self-identifies as pansexual. “We don't have to worry about people judging us. We're just here to have fun with each other."
That relaxed mood, in part, has to do with the recent Supreme Court ruling that legalized gay marriage in America. People at the expo said you can already see the differences.
“See that dress there? I probably never would have seen that at a pride festival,” said Cesar Vargas, who organized the event.
"It's made me so happy, I cried when it happened. It was amazing,” said Carney.
Over 1,000 people showed up at the Civic Center showing support for the local LGBT community. Dozens of vendors from local businesses and agencies offered their services to anyone who stopped by.
“We support, everybody,” said Janet Roth, a vendor at the expo. “We think it's important that everyone is treated equally."
“A lot of my friends are homosexual or identify as different genders,” said Bre Johnson, who is also a member of the Gay-Striaght Alliance at Richwoods High School. “So really i just wanted to support them."
That support, and friendship, can go a long way.
"Being with other people like myself... mean I'm young but I've been through a lot,” said Carney. “So it's amazing to be here with everyone.”
The expo was just one part of the weekend long festival. Organizers say this year was a huge undertaking...but they're committed to bringing it back next year.In Tunisia and Egypt, the Arab Spring freed higher education from dictatorial rule. But it has also prompted fundamentalists to demand a return to old-time religion.
Sitting on a curb outside the college where she was recently expelled, Eman is defiant.
"I did it for the sake of God," the 21-year-old Tunisian history student—who asked to be identified only by her first name—said of her insistence on wearing the niqab, the full-face veil. Such a display of piety is banned in the classrooms of the University of Manouba's Faculty of Arts and Letters, and she has been forced to leave. "He will reward me in other ways."
Eman is covered head to toe in flowing brown-and-beige polyester. She wears gloves and shields her light-brown eyes from view with a second, transparent veil. Depending on whom you talk to in Tunisia, her attire, and the militant strain of Islamism it is associated with, represents either the future of the Arab Spring—or the greatest threat to it.
To her supporters, Eman is staking a righteous claim for a greater role for religion on campus. To her opponents, she embodies a threat to the university's liberal values and to academic freedom itself.
Fundamentalists like Eman, says Habib Kazdaghli, a dean at the university, believe that the primary purpose of the university is "not to deliver knowledge but to serve as a place for spreading religion."
Two years after protesters first took to the streets in the Arab world, universities there are facing more upheaval. Even as two key countries, Egypt and Tunisia, held their first free elections in decades, the revolts have unlocked radical Islamists' demands, brought to power Islamist governments, and triggered political fights that some say now threaten academe.
"The university has become an ideological battleground," says Sami Brahem, a specialist in Arabic and Islamic civilization who leads a cultural center in the Tunisian town of La Marsa. Before the dictatorship was swept aside, it was impossible to have a free "intellectual, cultural debate over identity, Islam, secularism" in Tunisia, he says. In the heady and anxious postrevolutionary phase, that debate is finally taking place, but it has turned "poisonous" now. "Every political party and movement is trying to impose itself."
Both Tunisia and Egypt face questions that could affect higher education across the Middle East and North Africa: Can their new Islamist governments spread conservative religious values and also create vibrant, modern universities? Will they respect or restrict academic freedom? And will the legacy of the Arab Spring be a revitalized academe or a stifled one?
Tunisian and Egyptian universities have arrived at similar crossroads by different paths. Tunisia is a small, Francophone country with a modern history of strong secularism; Egypt is the most populous Arab country and the birthplace of political Islam.
In Tunisia, Islam was kept outside the university for decades. Under the staunchly secular dictatorship of Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali, Eman wore a head scarf in high school and faced harassment from police on the street and from school administrators. She used to sneak into school every day through a side door, avoiding a principal who would send home any girl wearing the scarf. But the political uprisings in both Tunisia and Egypt emboldened Islamic fundamentalists, known as Salafis, who derive their name from the Prophet Muhammad's companions, or Salaf, whose lifestyle they aspire to imitate. They call for the application of a literal, repressive interpretation of Islamic law.
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For Eman, this meant donning the niqab in December 2011, almost a year after Mr. Ben Ali stepped down. She then enrolled at the University of Manouba.
"At the beginning of the year, I thought I would study normally, like any other student, but I encountered enormous opposition," she says. "We thought after the revolution we would have a little bit more freedom."
The university's Faculty of Arts and Letters, which Eman briefly attended, is a collection of low-slung white buildings on the outskirts of Tunis, surrounded by open fields and orange groves. For the past year, a confrontation between a minority of Islamist students there and the largely secular faculty has simmered, winding its way from the bucolic campus to the Tunisian courts.
In October 2011, shortly after the Islamist party Ennahda, meaning "revival" in Arabic, won the biggest share of seats in Tunisia's new assembly, some students at the university demanded a prayer room and the right to wear the niqab. The administration allows students to wear the veil on campus but not in class, arguing that for professors, seeing students' faces is a "pedagogical necessity." It also denied a request to establish a prayer room, offering instead to set up bus service to a nearby mosque.
The confrontation dragged on. A sit-in by Islamist students led the administration to shut the faculty for several months. After two women in niqabs were expelled, they forced their way into the office of Mr. Kazdaghli, dean of the faculty, to demand an explanation. They said he slapped one of them, an accusation he vehemently denied but for which he is standing trial, risking a five-year jail sentence.
Slideshow
Pressure for Piety on Campuses in Tunisia and Egypt
Academic and human-rights groups rallied to Mr. Kazdaghli's cause, saying he is being targeted with trumped-up charges. Outside the courthouse where the dean's trial took place, Tunisian activists and academics held up signs with messages like "No future for Tunisia without valuing its universities." They looked suspiciously at the plaintiffs' supporters, men with untrimmed beards and women in niqabs who held up signs of their own: "Where is the right to education? Where is the Tunisian revolution?"
The Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education, headed by a member of the ruling Ennahda party, refused to take a position on the Kazdaghli case. It said individual universities should set their own policies but also urged them to negotiate with students. Mr. Kazdaghli criticizes Ennahda's position as "ambiguous."
"They don't want to confront the Salafis," he says. "They want to be understanding, accommodating, [and] sacrificing academic and democratic rules."
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In the last two years, Salafis have sometimes taken violent action against institutions and individuals they accused of insulting Islam, including professors. For Tunisia's largely secular faculty, the demands of Salafis are an opening gambit in a systematic assault on the liberal values of their profession.
"If it wasn't the symptom of a bigger project, I wouldn't really have a problem with the niqab in class," says Nabil Charni, a professor of literature and media at Manouba. "But there's a tendency to push things further, because it's not a matter of rights but a matter of changing society, starting with state institutions. Behind the niqab there are other demands. One way or another it's an Islamization of the university. We can see it coming."
Ultimately, the debate comes down to what role, if any, religion has in higher education.
"In the mosque, praying is the priority. Here, teaching is the priority," Mr. Kazdaghli says. "We want autonomous spheres."
But "religion is part of the human being," counters Eman. "It's connected to all aspects of life."
In Egypt, where the niqab is already allowed at many universities, views such as Eman's are not uncommon.
Islamist groups and preachers, many of whom espouse a conservative interpretation of Islam that limits free speech and the rights of |
Canada coach Mike Babcock said. "So it's so important that you've done your work in advance, obviously to give yourself the best chance in the tournament, but probably as importantly to give yourself the best chance of not being injured.
"We've addressed it with them. Guys are proud and smart. They know how to play. They know the best players are going to play, and you can't play if you're injured. So your preparation phase is huge for you."
Team Canada center Sidney Crosby had a shorter offseason than usual, playing until June 12, when the Pittsburgh Penguins clinched the Stanley Cup with a Game 6 win against the San Jose Sharks.
"You try to make sure when that time comes along that you've skated a lot, that you're at your best," he told Sportsnet. "Usually in early September you're thinking, 'OK, I can use training camp to get ready a bit too,' but that's not the case here. You have to make sure your game's at a high level when you get there.
"You're thrown into some important games in September. A lot of guys, myself included, haven't been in that situation. You have half a season to get ready for the Olympics. This is a new concept that we have to make sure we're ready for, so communication is important."
Some NHL players rehabbing from injury are aiming to play in the World Cup, including Team Canada left wing Jamie Benn, the Dallas Stars captain who had core muscle surgery on July 15.
"I feel pretty good," Benn said July 30. "I'm making progress. Much like last summer, these things take time. The hardest part is just trying not to do too much too early. We're sticking to the rehab program and working our way forward."
Also hoping to compete for Team Canada is Stars center Tyler Seguin, who is recovering from an Achilles and calf injury that forced him to miss 12 of Dallas' 13 Stanley Cup Playoff games last season.
"I don't know if many people know what to expect yet, or if even the players know what it's going to be like, but I'm putting expectations pretty high," Seguin said. "I think it's the best of the best and going to be a great tournament."
Video: Chatting with Patrick Kane
Team USA goalie Ben Bishop of the Tampa Bay Lightning is coming back after a leg injury sustained in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
"It's going good," Bishop told ESPN on July 29 of his recovery. "The leg is feeling better and it's getting stronger every day. I'm getting ready to start skating soon... and get back on the ice and doing that side of things. We have about a month until we go, so I'll start off slow and pick it up in the next month and be ready for training camp for the World Cup."
Team North America defenseman Morgan Rielly of the Toronto Maple Leafs said he's never worked this hard, this early in the offseason.
"Usually, I won't skate this much until September," Rielly said. "You are out there as much as you can be while trying to maintain strength and not break down your body, because starting earlier, that also means a longer season."
Official PrimeSport World Cup of Hockey PackagesFundamental Concepts: The Tragedy of the Commons [WeirdDave]
This one is not going to be very long, because it's an easy one. Tragedy of the Commons is the name given to a theory that if a group of people share a resource, it will eventually be plundered and rendered useless. Overfishing of the Grand Banks is a commonly cited example. Selfish people will overuse the resource, ruining it for everybody. This concept is the basis for a good deal of leftist political thought, it is the reason that they want to put government in charge of everything. They are right, up to a point, but as usual they miss the mark completely in an attempt to bring everything under the thumb of government.
Let's start with an example:
Suppose there is a herd of buffalo. Nobody owns it, it's just there. The people of the nearby town go out and shoot buffalo when they need or want one. Some people shoot two or three of the animals because they want to stock up, some people shoot the buffalo and just take a favorite part, leaving the rest to rot, some people just shoot them for fun. Pretty soon that herd is gone and the people have no more buffalo and they start to starve.
The statist sees this and his solution is to create a governmental agency to manage the buffalo herd. Hunting licenses are required, and the Buffalo agency issues bag limits. Pretty soon the Buffalo Agency takes some land to keep it's buffalo on. One year a PETA drone is elected head of the agency and no permits are issued, so the herd grows uncontrolled. That won't do, so a biologist is brought in to manage buffalo breeding. Wolves show up to feed on the weak and young of the herd, so now the Buffalo Agency hires some of the hunters that it won't let shoot the buffalo to shoot the wolves. The people are starting to starve again, so the Buffalo Agency starts a program to humanely butcher selected older buffalo and sells the meat. They then start a Buffalo Cultural Festival to celebrate all things buffalo related (and to toot their own horn), and so on. The Buffalo Agency, which was established simply to keep the buffalo from being hunted to extinction, now employs half the town. The buffalo? Well, they're still there, but now they're almost an afterthought.
A conservative looks at this situation and immediately spots the flaw in the statist's logic. He knows that a basic tendency of any governmental agency is to first protect it's authority, and then to expand it. Contrary to the simple logic of the left, the Buffalo Agency's fundamental focus isn't the efficient use of the buffalo (although that's the excuse), it is the efficient use of it's own POWER. The buffalo are being managed, but not efficiently, and the Buffalo Agency is now spending more of it's time and money on things that have nothing to do with the herd at all. (Let's be topical. Change "Buffalo Agency" to "CDC", "buffalo" to "control disease" and all the rest to "rabbit massage", "gun control" and "studying fat lesbians". Hmmmmm.)
No, a conservative looks at the problem of unhindered buffalo slaughter and knows that the correct solution is to privatize the buffalo herd. If ownership of the herd is given to the hunters themselves, they now have two opposing incentives which balance each other out. Their first incentive is to hunt the buffalo and sell the meat. They do this to keep the town fed, and to make a living themselves. Countering that incentive, they also must manage the herd efficiently so that it remains viable so that they can keep on feeding the town and supporting themselves. They may do some, or even all, of the things that the Buffalo Agency did in the first example, but they will only be able to do them through voluntary transactions, and they won't have the ability to enter into any of these transactions unless they are effectively and efficiently performing their two primary duties-maintaining the herd and harvesting it in a smart manner. The Buffalo Agency uses it's authority to take land, the Hunters Co-Op has to turn enough profit to buy land. The Co-OP won't have to hire hunters to kill wolves, paying them with tax revenue, they'll do it themselves. They may establish a Buffalo Festival, but again, only if they can afford to pay for it. And so on.
The Tragedy of the Commons is the basis for a good bit of Marxist economic theory, but as we have seen, it is utterly flawed when applied to human beings (as is the rest of Marxist economic theory). The Tragedy of the Commons is just another fallacy.
Here endeth the lesson."Morning Joe" co-host Joe Scarborough took his parting shots at former Republican nominee Mitt Romney on Friday, slamming him for comments suggesting that President Barack Obama won the election because he gave "gifts" to minorities, young voters and women.
"The 47 percent quote — he actually believed it," Scarborough said. "He wasn't just doing analysis. That was his, I would say, twisted view of what he views conservatism to be— that you write off 47 percent of the population and try to squeeze in 3 percent of the undecideds. It's just sick."
Later in the segment, Scarborough hit Romney for what he called an "insulated view" because of his background. He said Romney never "understood" conservatism like Ronald Reagan, who "grew up in middle America."
"Mitt Romney's view was such an insulated view of a guy who grew up rich and grew up in this insular world, where his father ran car companies and was governor of Michigan."
Watch the clip below:When everyone talks about anon-based cryptocurrencies, one of the first tokens mentioned is Dash. The number 7 top cryptocurrency market capitalization is held by the Dash community. However, another anonymous digital currency is moving steadily up the ladder without all the frills and marketing called Monero. Without a steady influx of campaigning the Monero currency has managed to grow to be the second most popular anon coin with a market capitalization of over $17 million.
Monero isn’t new, and some may not have heard about the cryptocurrency yet. Despite this, the token is being regularly adopted and has grown quite a bit in value. Currently, Monero is resting at $1.40 per XMR at the time of writing and people believe it has maintained integrity since its inception in April of 2014. Unlike typical coin shuffling procedures which some would say are not entirely honest about anonymous sending features, Monero uses the CryptoNote protocol which has been deemed superior in some cryptographic circles. The team explains that Monero’s modular code architecture has been praised by Wladimir J. van der Laan, the Bitcoin Core developer.
CryptoNote-based currencies cannot be traced through the blockchain like Bitcoin because of its ring signature technology and the origin, destination, and amounts become very obfuscated using the protocol. Ring signatures were invented by Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Yael Tauman giving the world of cryptography a new type of key process. The method is similar to group signatures, but there is no way to reveal the anonymity of single users within the group of users. The only people who can witness the data for what it is would be the sender and receiver. Another aspect of CryptoNote technology is that it is not a fork of Bitcoin and Monero was coded from scratch in a similar fashion to Bytecoin. Monero’s nodes don’t have a hard coded limit which means it should be able to scale more properly than other cryptocurrencies that are limited to a 1MB or 2MB block sizes. Monero’s website explains its anonymous features are due to the cryptographic enhancements of ring signatures:
“By taking advantage of ring signatures, a special property of certain types of cryptography, Monero enables untraceable transactions. This means it’s ambiguous which funds have been spent, and thus extremely unlikely that a transaction could be linked to particular user.”
Dash has made quite a name for itself over the years and has a larger capitalization at the moment with $44 million in its coffers. The currency is praised for its Masternode architecture and governance system using the Masternode voting system. The cryptocurrency uses Darksend, which is basically an advanced shuffling system that obfuscates transactions. However, it has been said by those who disagree with its methods that coin shuffling is subpar compared to ring signature technology. Alongside this, it has been said that many Masternodes run across clearnet and centralized servers which conflates the idea that its anonymous capabilities are efficient. Despite this Dash is the most recognized anon-based cryptocurrency and its healthy community and protocol continues its climb to the top.
Monero has other attributes people dig as well, being one of the only cryptocurrencies paired in market trading on the popular exchange Poloniex. Just as Litecoin was paired with its own markets on Poloniex offers XMR trading directly with most of its other altcoin selections. The cryptocurrency has a long ways to go to catch up to Dash, but the team seems to be modestly moving forward without caring what others think or speculate. It will have to stay competitive with Dash and the upcoming Zcash release. The founder of the untraceable digital currency Zcash, Zooko Wilcox, launched the public alpha of the project back in January 2016. Zcash was also recently praised by Edward Snowden.
The world of Anon-based cryptocurrencies are not as big as they once were a couple of years ago when Altcoins proposing anonymity features seemed to be everywhere. Currently, there are only a few strong communities left, and this includes Monero and Dash. There isn’t a big marketing campaign surrounding the Monero protocol, but it is definitely one to watch as its technology is intriguing to many and some consider it underrated.
Sources: Monero Websites, Wikipedia, Twitter, Dash Websites, Zcash, Github, Poloniex, and Bitcointalk.org
Images: Monero Websites, Dash Websites, and PixabayNational magazines and recording artists like Chris Brown posted condolences on social media about his death.
Mcleod and others like Brian Gaughan, who owns Spinelli's Pizzeria, helped raise $17,000 to handle Brown's funeral costs.
His peers turned to paint, not the internet to share their love for Brown. But to Josh White, the director of the Louisville Graffiti Abatement Coalition, that act of love is still a crime.
"We don't just have people in town doing this," White said. "I think that they loved him, but this is a totally unacceptable way of showing you love somebody by going and causing thousands of dollars of damage."
White is currently working on a program to help reduce graffiti in the city by replacing jail time with community service and graffiti cleanup.
"If we think that throwing someone in jail and then fining them $1,000, they're going to get out of jail and say 'hmm, I'm not going to do that anymore, that sucked'," White said. "We've seen completely the opposite."
Brown's friends said the program wouldn't work and anyone as passionate as Brown would keep painting.
Criminal or artist, Brown left a literal mark - and not just on Louisville.
"He's a humble self-made guy from Louisville, Kentucky which doesn't have a huge graffiti scene and he made a worldwide impact with his art," Mcleod said.
Right now, graffiti damage below $500 is a misdemeanor, and above that, it's a felony.
Copyright 2015 WAVE 3 News. All rights reserved.The Transylvanian Griffinfinch (pronounced transylvanian griffinfinch) is a bizarre dog breed that is somewhat frustrating to live with.
If you want a dog who...
A Transylvanian Griffinfinch may not be right for you. Good. All the more for the rest of us!
If I were considering buying or adopting a Transylvanian Griffinfinch
I would be most concerned about...
Health problems. Too many people simply turn on their printer and print out a Griffinfinch without understanding how fragile he is. Please don't take on the responsibility for this breed unless you know you can keep him safe. First, you should print your Griffinfinch on durable paper, not cheapo photocopy paper. Second, to keep your Griffinfinch healthy, the most important things to remember are: Do not bend, fold, staple, or mutilate him.
You can seriously injure a Griffinfinch by sitting on him when he's lying on the sofa.
Don't pet your Griffinfinch after you've been eating potato chips, else he'll smudge.
Don't walk your Griffinfinch in the rain. Griffinfinches should NOT be handed over to children. That a child "meant well" is little solace to a Griffinfinch who has been folded into a paper airplane and launched skyward. Even worse is the poor little Griffinfinch who is folded into an Origami flower.
Exercise. Once a week, on a breezy day, take your Griffinfinch to a large open field and let him sail across the meadow. But be careful – if it's too gusty, the wind could take him so high that he might be seized by eagles and carried away right in front of your helpless eyes. Griffinfinch owners who witness such a horrifying spectacle often require counseling. Remember that Griffinfinches do not come when called. Ever. So if yours gets too far away, you'll have to give chase. If you've "had it up to here" chasing your Griffinfinch on windy days, you might consider a radical surgical procedure involving a hole punch and a length of string. Needless to say, this should only be carried out under general anesthesia. A less-drastic solution for a wandering Griffinfinch is to tape him to a sheet of heavy cardboard. Unfortunately, this will cut down on his ability to exercise, so he may become lethargic.
Training. Griffinfinches are not impressed by treats or praise, and they're oblivious to scolding. If you roll your Griffinfinch into a tube and wrap the leash loosely around him, you may be able to coax him to "come" and "heel". Of course you can force him to obey you if you have subjected him to that surgical procedure involving the hole punch. But then you risk breaking his spirit.
Escape attempts. Some Griffinfinches, no matter where you put them, will quietly slide off onto the floor, where they will lie silently while you stride around the room searching for them and uttering bad words. When looking for a missing Griffinfinch, check under the furniture. They like to hide – sometimes because they're manipulative, sometimes because they're shy. If you have a shy Griffinfinch, he is more likely to feel secure and stay put if you tuck him inside a manila file folder when set him down. Alas, some Griffinfinches will NEVER stay where you put them. You may need to "get tough" with stubborn Griffinfinches by weighing them down with a paperweight or attaching them to a clipboard. You can try using a paperclip – attaching the Griffinfinch to other sheets of paper – but a really determined Griffinfinch will simply take the other papers with him. If you find a whole pile of papers hiding under the furniture, and a Griffinfinch is attached to them, don't punish the other papers. Undoubtedly it was the Griffinfinch who masterminded the whole thing. The other papers simply "went along for the ride."
Defensive reactions. If you discipline a Griffinfinch by handling him roughly, he might give you papercuts. If you have a really bad-tempered Griffinfinch and you need to discipline him, I recommend wearing gloves.
Grooming. Your Griffinfinch's coat can be kept clean of dust and debris by wiping it with a dry cloth or by blowing gently on it. Do not bathe him in water. Remember what happened to the Wicked Witch of the West. Your Griffinfinch does not require trimming or clipping unless he has excessive white space around him. If you make a mistake when trimming your Griffinfinch, you can try to fix it with tape or glue, but everyone will be able to tell that you messed it up and they will snicker at your Griffinfinch behind your back.
Noise levels. Normally, Griffinfinches are very quiet. But if you harass them by waving them around, they make a flapping noise, and if you crumple them, they make a pitiful crackling sound.The Russian seizure of Crimea plus Moscow’s intimidation, and worse, of all Ukraine, has created an awkward situation for Edward Snowden’s fans and enablers. That Ed has taken up residence in Putin’s Russia, and continues to pontificate about privacy and the perfidy of Western intelligence while under Kremlin protection, is a bit much, so much so that even MSM stalwarts have begun to ask difficult questions about the whole Snowden-linked apparat.
Judging from their conduct, not to mention the vicious online abuse suffered by myself and others who have questioned the narrative that Snowden is a pure-hearted patriot who “just happened” to wind up in Moscow, it seems justified to ask about the motivations of Snowden’s stalwart defenders in the West. Some may be pawns of Russian intelligence but most, I suspect, are what Communists once called Useful Idiots: Westerners whose hatred of their own society is so profound that they accept baldfaced Kremlin lies uncritically. It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the egregious Walter Duranty has present-day equivalents.
Yet espionage cannot be ruled out either. Indeed, Moscow’s powerful intelligence apparatus has long considered Western journalists to be an easy and tasty target, not least because so many volunteered their services freely, or at least cheaply. Post-Cold War revelations made clear that among numerous Useful Idiots in Western journalists there were paid-up Soviet agents too, who consciously transmitted Kremlin Line agitprop masquerading as “daring” journalism.
This rot was present from the start. The father of Central European “investigative journalism,” Egon Erwin Kisch, can serve as our Patient Zero. In the waning days of Austria-Hungary, the young Kisch, who gave himself the sobriquet “the raging reporter,” cemented his reputation in 1913 with his scoop about the notorious traitor Colonel Alfred Redl – a sordid tale of espionage, corruption, suicide, and sex – who was probably the Spy of the (20th) Century. Kisch virtually created the image of the hard-boiled, cynical journalist who went the extra mile to uncover what others sought to hide: “nothing is more annoying than the truth” was his mantra.
Yet behind the muckraking there was an unpleasant, if concealed, reality. After 1918, as he rose to journalistic stardom across Europe, Kisch was a committed Communist who secretly served Soviet military intelligence (GRU). His solidarity with Moscow was unshakable, as he was every bit as credulous about the Kremlin as he was incredulous about everything else, and while he reported on all sorts of scandals that put “bourgeois society” in a bad light, he was taking GRU orders. Kisch’s allegiances were an open secret in certain circles and even some committed Leftists found his stock line, “I am Stalin’s soldier,” hard to swallow. Through the Ukrainian genocide-famine, the Purges, all the worst Stalinist excesses, Kisch was a deeply devoted Soviet agent while posing as a truth-teller to his Western readers. His devoted service to one of the most murderous regimes in history notwithstanding, there is an Egon Erwin Kisch Prize for journalists in Germany today.
American journalism, too, had “secret soldiers of Stalin” in its ranks, and there were more than a handful. In a case I was involved in decades after the fact, back in the 1940s one of the most prominent members of the U.S. journalistic scene was, we discovered much later thanks to information derived from KGB sources, also a devoted secret Communist. He was so overtly pro-Stalin that it creeped out his fellow-traveling friends, and during World War II he apparently passed U.S. classified information to the Soviets. However, by the late 1940s, he had a change of heart and over time became a committed anti-Communist, which was not uncommon back then. Moreover, there was nothing to be done with the case, as we learned of his treason decades after the event, which was mitigated by the reality that he abandoned the Moscow Line early in the Cold War, and he was dead to boot. It’s an interesting file that some researcher will make an intriguing “footnote to history” out of decades hence, once it’s been declassified and released to the archives.
The most notorious case, however, is that of I.F. Stone, Izzy to his legions of admirers on the Left, who cultivated the image of the muckraking journalist for truth pitch-perfectly for decades. It was a fraud. Inconveniently, he was an agent of Soviet intelligence in the late 1930s, at the height of Stalin’s purges, and maintained some sort of witting relationship with the KGB to 1956, when he broke with Moscow – later than many – over the invasion of Hungary. KGB efforts to reestablish their relationship with the elderly Stone, an “old master” in Chekist parlance, in 1968 were not successful. The extent to which Soviet connections influenced Stone’s “daring” reporting must remain an open question, but the vehement efforts of his defenders to deny his ties to the Soviet secret police are thoroughly debunked here.
Needless to add, there is an “Izzy Prize” to reward “special achievement in independent media” in honor of I.F. Stone. Its inaugural winner was Glenn Greenwald, who along with Jeremy Scahill was recently named to the “I.F. Stone Hall of Fame.”
For too many decades, among too many Western investigative journalists, secret loyalty to the Kremlin has been more a feature than a bug. As we enter a Second Cold War of the Kremlin’s creation, it’s time to face up to this reality and start asking about the real motivations of “truth tellers” who like to criticize the West while dodging negative comments about Moscow.
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PrintSix years after expelling the DEA, Bolivia has quietly become one of South America's leading success stories in the war on drugs.
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According to a new report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Bolivia has slashed its illicit coca production by 34 percent over the past four years, and is now on pace to reduce its cultivation levels to within legal parameters by 2016.
Bolivia's success is not exactly cause for a ticker-tape parade, but it's an important vindication for a leftist country that decided to fight the drug war on its own terms.
"Just because the U.S. is not a main actor doesn't mean there isn't a serious effort to limit the flow and production of coca," says Coletta Youngers, who recently co-authored a research report on Bolivia's drug war efforts for the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA). "The DEA is overrated."
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"The DEA is overrated" — Coletta Youngers, WOLA
Youngers says Bolivia's homegrown drug-war strategy is built on two pillars: economic development in rural coca-producing regions, and a policy known as "cooperative coca reduction" that allows registered farmers to grow limited amounts of coca crops while legally titling their lands. Participating farmers are allowed to cultivate coca on 1,600-2,500 square meters (one-third the size of a U.S. football field) for personal consumption and commercialization in authorized markets, WOLA reports.
The results of cooperative coca reduction are stunning. Antonino De Leo, the UNODC's representative in Bolivia, notes that the government of Evo Morales, a former coca producer himself, has reduced the area of coca cultivation in Bolivia by one-third in just four years. That's the size of 15,000 soccer fields, to use a more regionally appropriate sports analogy.
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Bolivia's success is inconvenient for the United States. The two countries have long been at odds, expelling each others' ambassadors and exchanging heated rhetoric over the years. President Morales booted the DEA in 2008, and tossed USAID in 2013 amid claims the agency was conspiring against his government.
The two countries' differences extend to drug-war policy. While the U.S. pushes for criminalization, persecution and forced eradication, Bolivia has moved more towards legalization, regulation, and cooperative control. Consuming coca, the plant used to manufacture cocaine, is legal in Bolivia. People chew the leaves for energy, or use them to make tea. Coca is also used as a key ingredient in the Bolivian energy soft drink Coca Colla.
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Not surprisingly, the U.S. doesn't love the idea. And it and hasn't been too congratulatory when it comes to recognizing the merits of Bolivia's drug-war policy, which the Obama administration says has "failed demonstrably." But the U.S. is inconsistent when it comes to the issue. WOLA notes that the state department earlier this year coincided with UN reports that coca leaf cultivation in Bolivia has "declined steadily over the last four years."
"U.S criticism is clearly politicly motivated," Youngers told Fusion. "There are still people in Washington who feel deeply wounded that the DEA was thrown out of Bolivia."
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The DEA declined Fusion's request for comment and instead deferred to the U.S. Embassy in Bolivia, which didn't respond to phone calls or email by the time of publication.
The rest of the world, however, is more generous when it comes to recognizing Bolivia's accomplishments. The UN has become a leading cheerleader for the Andean nation's drug-control policies, and the EU recently granted the Morales' government a new five-year $72 million package to support counter-drug efforts.
"Bolivia's achievement over the last four years is well known: reduction of coca cultivation through dialogue, participation of coca growers' unions, and a policy based on respect for human rights," the UN's De Leo said.
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Still, in drug war that's ultimately unwinnable, success is relative and dangers always loom large.
Bolivia is still a transshipment country for international drug-trafficking — especially coca paste coming from Peru— and there's increased concern about the corrupting effects of international drug cartels that are moving into the country. The country also still has a draconian drug law on the books that WOLA claims "was designed by the U.S. Embassy to mimic the United States' own punitive approach to drugs."
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More also needs to be done to protect public health as "the first principle of drug control," De Leo says.
"Law enforcement is only a means to achieve that end," he says. Unfortunately, he adds, in the implementation of the drug control system "the means became confused with the end."
Ultimately, he stressed, more needs to be done to put health first. "Drug users have been perceived, at best, as people with a moral affliction or, at worst, as criminals who needed to be punished. All this flies in the face of conclusive scientific evidence that drugs dependence is a disease, not a crime," De Leo said. "Treatment offers a far more effective cure than punishment."
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So a lot of work remains to be done — in Bolivia and elsewhere. But experts say the South American country appears to be on the right path, and its early success could provide lessons for Peru and Colombia, the world's leading coca producers.
(Editor's note: a previous version of this article misattributed a quote to Antonino De Leo. The line has since been removed.)Labour party leader ‘completely fired up’ during confrontation with journalist who was shouting questions about his future
Aides hold Jeremy Corbyn back after reporter asks if he was 'running away'
Jeremy Corbyn was held back by aides today after a reporter asked if he was “running away” from answering questions about his beleaguered leadership.
Video appears to show aides trying to hold the Labour leader back after Victoria Macdonald of Channel 4 News shouted questions at him about his future as leader and told him he appeared to be running away from the media.
The Labour leader turned around and told her: “If you want to arrange an interview, speak to my press office.”
One aide tries to grab hold of his arm, while another says “don’t, Jeremy, don’t, come on” while manhandling him, before he turns back and walks off.
Macdonald later tweeted that Corbyn was “angry, yes, but contrary to reports I didn’t feel ‘lunged at’”.
A spokesman for Corbyn said he could not see “anything to respond to” when asked for comment.
Shadow cabinet resignations: who has gone and who is staying Read more
The incident occurred on Highbury Fields in north London after Corbyn spoke at an anti-racism rally.
Photographer Julian Andrews told the Telegraph that Corbyn was walking back to his car when the incident occurred.
“There were three or four camera crews and a handful of photographers. Everyone had been told that he wasn’t answering questions,” he said. “The reporter asked him if he was running away and he completely fired up. He swung around and made his way to confront her, but two or three aides carried him away. He was really pissed off.”
Corbyn had earlier posed for selfies and chatted with the crowd at the Say No To Hate Crime rally in his north London constituency.
Thousands brought banners and flag to a rally in support of Corbyn in Liverpool today, the Liverpool Echo reported.
Speakers voiced their support for the Labour leader and criticised those who said Corbyn was losing support among the electorate.
Meanwhile, Angela Eagle made a renewed call on Saturday for Corbyn to stand down for the good of the party and the country.
The former shadow business secretary is poised to mount a challenge to Corbyn, with the former shadow work and pensions secretary Owen Smith also believed to be considering a bid.
Eagle told ITV News: “Let’s face it, the country is in a crisis and we need strong opposition. It’s all about Jeremy considering his position and I don’t think speculation about anything else is useful.”
Dear Jeremy … the art of the political resignation letter Read more
Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, is continuing to seek a meeting with Corbyn’s team to find a way of negotiating a settlement as the crisis engulfing the party shows no sign of abating.
Momentum, the grassroots movement that supports Corybn, dismissed claims the leader could go after being offered a settlement that would ensure his top priorities were continued under his successor.
James Schneider, a national organiser, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The coup plotters are now flailing about because they have had 10 months to plot this coup and it seems like it has failed. Jeremy Corbyn has shown incredible steel in staying there and not falling, and staying there on behalf of the principle of democracy in the party.”
Schneider claimed that Corbyn would win a new leadership ballot and insisted the wave of people signing up for Labour membership were largely supportive of the leader. “They don’t have a candidate who can beat Jeremy Corbyn,” he added.
Polling has indicated more than half the members of Unite, Britain’s biggest trade union, want him to quit. Almost 50% of members said they wanted Corbyn to go immediately, while a further 10% believe he should resign before the next general election, according to a poll seen by the Guardian.
Among Labour voters, 61% said he was doing badly in the job, the YouGov Election Data survey found. Overall, 35% said Corbyn should stay at the helm in the face of overwhelming opposition from MPs, MEPs and politicians in Scotland.
The YouGov poll of 775 voters will be seized on by opponents as proof that Corbyn lacks support on the ground. It was not commissioned by the union, which has 1.4 million members, and the Unite general secretary, Len McCluskey, was among the first to rally to Corbyn’s support as the attempt to oust him emerged.
A Unite spokesman said: “Unite’s policy is made in 3,500 branches by at least 100,000 activists, by our policy conference and our elected executive council of lay members. This democratic procedure is not going to be set aside in favour of an opinion poll conducted by an organisation with a miserable accuracy record of late.”Big Ben volcano: Scientists witness 'amazing' eruption on remote Australian sub-Antarctic island
Updated
Scientists on board the CSIRO's research ship the Investigator have taken rare pictures of an eruption of the remote Big Ben volcano.
Big Ben on the sub-Antarctic Heard Island is the highest mountain on Australian territory and is known to have erupted at least three times in the past 15 years.
The neighbouring McDonald Islands are also home to an active volcano.
The voyage's Chief Scientist, Professor Mike Coffin from the Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies, said the eruption came as a surprise.
"Seeing vapour emanating from both of Australia's active volcanoes and witnessing an eruption on Mawson Peak have been an amazing coda to this week's submarine research," he said.
"We have 10 excited geoscientists aboard Investigator, and our enthusiasm has spread to our 50 shipmates."
Jodi Fox from the University of Tasmania, who is also onboard, is doing a PhD on Heard Island volcanism.
"To see lava emanating from Mawson Peak and flowing down the flank of Big Ben over a glacier has been incredible," she said.
The full eruption was captured on video and uploaded to YouTube by the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies.
One of the scientists interviewed in the video said that they were excited to see land after a couple of weeks at sea and that the volcano eruption was an "added bonus".
The remote Australian Territory of Heard and McDonald Islands is 4,100 kilometres south-west of Perth and 1,750 kilometres north of Australia's Antarctic base at Davis Station.
Scientists on the voyage are studying the link between active volcanoes on the seafloor and the mobilisation of iron, which supports life in the Southern Ocean.
Their findings will become part of a greater understanding of the Earth's climate system and climate change.
Topics: volcanic-eruption, science-and-technology, earth-sciences, heard-island-and-mcdonald-islands, tas
First postedYahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has struck a deal with Starboard, a New York hedge fund that has been pressing for change at the tech giant./ AFP PHOTO / ROBYN BECKROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images
Yahoo on Wednesday announced a deal that should end a nearly year-long tussle with a New York hedge fund that had threatened to unseat its entire board.
Starboard Value has been a vocal critic of the tech giant, which has struggled to profit from its massive online audience. Last month, Starboard called for Yahoo's entire board of directors--including Marissa Mayer, Yahoo's chief executive, and H. Lee Scott, the former president of Wal-Mart--to be replaced. The hedge fund submitted a slate of hand-picked board members to stand for election on during Yahoo's next shareholder meeting.
Instead, Yahoo said Wednesday it will add four board members chosen by Starboard, including the hedge fund's founder, Jeff Smith. They will join the board immediately.
"This constructive resolution will allow management and the board to keep our focus on our extremely important objectives," Mayer said in a statement.
Those board seats will give Starboard even more influence at Yahoo. Under pressure from Starboard and other investors, Yahoo abandoned a plan late last year to spin off its interest in Chinese retailing giant Alibaba. The potential multibillion-dollar tax bill from such a deal would be too costly, investors argued.
Now, Yahoo is selling its iconic search engine and email service, but Starboard has |
be willing to definitely go overseas as well. I’m a traveler-kind of guy. I always enjoy being in a car and going different places and I enjoy it.”
During a visit to Kingston Elementary School in Berea last week, Willis and Hawkins talked to students about anti-bullying, the importance of upcoming statewide tests, staying active and perseverance during a morning assembly. The duo also attended Kit Carson Elementary, Daniel Boone Elementary and Madison Middle, before concluding the one-day tour with a signing event at Soft Shoe.
“It’s really special and we’ve had good showings everywhere we’ve been,” Willis said. “Corbin was great, Somerset had a good showing, London (and) Lexington has always been good to us and coming back here to Richmond has been really good. It’s been great interacting with the fans and interacting with the kids. Hopefully they can take something away from the assemblies that we do.”
Willis said being from Kentucky and playing for the Wildcats provides much-needed notoriety during the tour. Willis and Hawkins were consistently fan favorites during the past four years because of their ties to the state.
“It helps out a lot being a four-year player and being from Kentucky,” Willis said. “Showing the kids if they want to play at Kentucky and do whatever they want to do (in life), they just have to put some work into it and do whatever you want.”
Willis said having Hawkins on the tour gives it more familiarity and gives the students and others a chance to see what it takes to succeed in life and on the court.
“I feel like we can identify with a lot of people around the state that want to do the things we’ve done and I think that’s kind of cool,” he said. “It’s just good being out in the community and spreading the word about the experiences that me and Dominique have been through.”
A late-bloomer during his career with the Wildcats, Willis blossomed into a solid contributor during the past two years and started 15 of 38 games last season. Willis averaged seven points and 5.4 rebounds per game.
“I just started working at it a little more than I was and that helped me out a lot,” Willis said. “The support system was good and a lot to people kept telling me to be confident and stay positive.”
Now that his college career is over and a professional one looming, Willis wants Big Blue Nation to remember him “as a kid who made it through some tough times and came out on top.”
“I made some mistakes in college, fought through them, didn’t play at first, but fought through that and now I’m about to graduate with a degree and make some money playing basketball,” he said. “You’ve just got to adapt to adversity and if you get frustrated, just fight through it and hopefully they can identify with that and understand that you can live out your dreams if you work at it.”
Keith Taylor is a senior sports writer for KyForward, where he primarily covers University of Kentucky sports. Reach him at keith.taylor@kyforward.com or @keithtaylor21 on TwitterHume Highway at Goulburn re-opened after major grass fire
Updated
Emergency crews have contained a grass fire at Goulburn in New South Wales that closed the Hume Highway in both directions, and are stamping out remaining flare-ups.
Traffic diversions were put in place between the Federal Highway and Goulburn, 80 kilometres north of Canberra since the fire jumped the highway shortly after 1:00pm on Friday.
The Rural Fire Service (RFS) issued a watch and act notice but have downgraded the fire's status to advice, and are confident the fire has been contained.
The highway has now re-opened, and diversions have been lifted.
Up to 20 RFS tankers and aircraft worked to put out the fire, which started at the south end of Goulburn, and moved south-east.
RFS Southern Tablelands operations officer Ian Kennelly said the fire burned on nearby paddocks.
He said some sheds had been damaged during the fires, but that was the extent of the damage.
RFS Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said the fire likely started after a minor car accident.
"Early indications are that a vehicle had a failure of a wheel, that wheel has started a fire on the median strip right near the interchange of the Goulburn Big Merino," he said.
"That fire then burnt on the median strip, it crossed to both sides of the freeway, burning back up in toward homes on the northern side of the freeway and right down into paddocks and other property on the southern side."
RFS firefighter Jake Roarty said conditions meant the fire took hold with ease.
"Everyone can feel that the temperatures are really high, the winds are pretty high, so it's starting to dry some of that fuel out," he said.
"It's pretty good fire weather.
"There is a lot more fuel on the ground."
Topics: fires, disasters-and-accidents, goulburn-2580, nsw, canberra-2600, act, australia
First postedGiven that alcoholic drinks vary in strength, origin, flavour, consistency, clarity, the glass it comes in, and almost every other variable imaginable, what would you say is the standard strength of an alcoholic drink?
Scientists have sought to do exactly that on an international scale, surveying 75 countries for definitions, of which 36 were identified as having adopted a standard drink definition.
For example, the average drink of Iceland, based on governmental definitions and consumption guidelines, contains roughly eight grams of ethanol, a far cry from the 20 grams contained in the average Austrian drink.
The study concluded that:
Researchers working and communicating across national boundaries should be sensitive to the substantial variability in ‘standard’ drink definitions and low-risk drinking guidelines.
However, it's worth noting that bartenders around the world are likely to vary a little in terms of how much of what they pour - it's rarely likely to be the World Health Organisation's dictated definition of 10 grams of pure ethanol per beverage.Abandoned Solar Two Tower (photograph by Marcin Wichary)
Like the vanished, money making dreams that spawned them, it can be hard to find abandoned solar and wind farms.
The most impressive are in the United States, where investors slammed up wind turbines and solar panels in the aftermath of the 1970s energy crisis. Everyone expected oil to get even more expensive, and government subsidies and tax breaks for renewable energy were easy to get. But oil prices didn’t climb as anticipated, and as the subsidies went away, so too did many developers of wind and solar farms, no longer interested when the money wasn’t right. Projects were sold, or left in the sun and wind.
Solar panels and wind turbines are not brick, concrete, or stone. They’re relatively easy to remove, and most are built with a plan to tear them down at some point. But there are a few places you can still go to wander among abandoned dreams of wind and light.
THERE FOR ALL TO SEE
Tehachapi and Altamont Wind Energy Areas
California
Tehachapi wind turbines (photograph by TomSaint11/Wikimedia)
Tehachapi and Altamont are the granddaddies of them all — sites of a 1970s-1980s wind energy rush gone wrong. Federal subsidies sparked developers into action, crowding what are now considered antique, poorly functioning turbines into particularly windy areas of California.
At Tehachapi in hapless Kern County, north of Los Angeles, officials had no provision in law requiring developers to cover the future tear-down costs of the wind turbines. At first, that may not have seemed like a big deal. But the federal tax breaks soon dried up and the developers vanished, leaving behind thousands of rusty, cranking turbines standing in rows like soldiers on the windy plain outside Tehachapi.
Tehachapi Pass Wind Farm (photograph by Ikluft/Wikimedia)
Estimates vary on how many of the turbines in the Tehachapi area are defunct. Some range as high as 4,000, but others are lower. No matter how many are abandoned, Tehachapi is definitely a wind turbine boneyard.
To get there:
For a loop drive with great view of the area’s turbines, drive south from Tehachapi on Tehachapi Willow Springs Road, hang a left on Oak Creed Road heading east to Mojave. Take Highway 58 north and west back toward Tehachapi to complete the loop.
Altamont Pass Wind Farm (photograph by David J Laporte)
In Altamont, one hour’s drive east of San Francisco, California, there are approximately 5,000 wind turbines. All were installed in the early 1980s in the wake of generous federal and state subsidies for renewable energy. Subsequent decades have brought larger, more efficient wind turbines, but there are plenty of aged turbines in the Altamont area, with their telltale lattice-work towers.
The older, smaller turbines are unfortunately efficient bird slicers, and will soon get upgraded by operators in the area to larger, slower speed turbines under a deal to avoid more bird deaths.
Altamont Pass Wind Farm (photograph by David J Laporte)
To get there:
For a good view of the Altamont area wind turbines, drive east from Livermore, California, on Interstate 580. Take the West Grant Line Road exit and either go north to make a left and head east on Altamont Pass Road, or better, go south to wander among the turbines that stretch between the interstate and Patterson Pass road that runs east-west to the south.
Solar One/Solar Two
Daggett, California
Solar Two tower (via eeremultimedia.energy.gov)
The Department of Energy’s Solar One plant was based on a simple if somewhat wild idea: line up nearly 2,000 mirrors to reflect sunlight on a focal point to heat water, make steam, and generate power.
The plant was completed in 1981, in cooperation with Southern California Edison, L.A. Dept. of Water and Power, and the California Energy Commission. It spread across 126 acres 10 miles east of Barstow, California, generated about 10 megawatts of power, and was in operation from 1982 to 1986. In 1995, additional mirrors were added to the site, which now heated a molten salt solution that could store energy while clouds passed overhead.
Solar Two heliostat (via Wikimedia)
Solar One proved the viability of the molten salt energy storage concept. The site was decommissioned in 1999 and converted by University of California-Davis into a kind of telescope that measures gamma rays hitting the atmosphere.
To get there:
Drive on Interstate 40 east of Barstow, take the Daggett exit, skip past historic Highway 66 and instead take Santa Fe Street east for about three miles. Solar One/Solar Two will be on your left, to the north.
THE DEARLY DEPARTED
Kamaoa Wind Farm
Hawaii’s Big Island, Southern tip
Kamaoa Wind Farm in 2006 (photograph by Rebecca Stanek)
A cluster of 37 wind turbines formerly marked the spot of the Kamaoa Wind Farm, at the far south end of Hawaii’s Big Island. The small wind farm opened in 1987 and was decommissioned 20 years later after a deal for the turbines’ power expired.
Yet the Mitsubishi turbines cranked on, became an ever-worse eyesore, and maddened those who wanted good views of the coast and Pacific Ocean. The farm’s owner, Apollo Energy Corp., finally removed the turbines in 2012 and sold them as scrap to China.
Kamaoa Wind Farm in 2007 (photograph by Christian Razukas)
ARCO Carrizo Plain Solar Farm
San Luis Obispo County, California
Abandoned Carrizo Plain’s solar power plant (via Center for Land Use Interpretation)
There’s nothing left of an ambitious plan to generate power from the sun at one of the sunniest places in California, about 70 miles west of Bakersfield. But for 11 years — from 1983 to 1994 — Carrizo Plain hosted a 5.2 megawatt solar farm built by Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO).
ARCO, traditionally an oil company, was a pioneer in solar power after the 1970s energy crisis. It built its own solar cells and deployed them on Carrizo Plain. ARCO sold the 177-acre solar farm to Carrizo Solar Corp. in 1990, which dismantled the farm in 1994.
PG&E Pilot Solar Plant
Kerman, California
Near the town of Kerman, California, sits the new Five Points Solar site, the direct descendent of Pacific Gas & Electric’s pilot solar plant in Kerman, demolished in 2011. The 10-acre site was built in 1992, retired in 1997, and its panels were removed 14 years later after neighbors complained.
Explore more awe-inspiring abandoned places on Atlas Obscura >The Democratic Coalition, an anti-Trump Super PAC, has filed an ethics complaint against White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders with the Office of Government Ethics for essentially calling for ESPN host Jemele Hill to be fired.
Hill recently called President Trump a “white supremacist” in a tweet. Asked about it during a White House press briefing Wednesday, Huckabee Sanders said Hill’s criticism of the president was a “fireable offense by ESPN.”
“When Sarah Huckabee Sanders called for Jemele Hill to be fired by ESPN, she crossed the line and put herself in dubious legal territory,” Coalition Chairman Jon Cooper said in a statement first obtained by TheWrap.
Also Read: WH Press Secretary Says ESPN Sportscaster Should Be Fired for Calling Trump 'White Supremacist'
“For Sanders to publicly call for the dismissal of a Trump critic is bizarre and disturbing, to say the least,” Cooper added. “If anyone is to be fired, it should be her.”
The coalition cited a federal law, which states that certain government employees — including any executive branch employee — are prohibited from influencing the employment decisions or practices of a private entity or company “solely on the basis of partisan political affiliation.”
Breaking the law is punishable by a fine or up to 15 years in prison, or both.
Also Read: Jemele Hill Says She 'Expressed My Personal Beliefs,' But Regrets Painting 'ESPN in an Unfair Light'
“This is yet another example of the Trump White House’s blatant disregard for the Constitution and its authoritarian efforts to quiet dissenters,”Nate Lerner, the group’s Executive Director, said. “It is of the utmost importance that we hold the Trump administration accountable for this illicit behavior and protect our democratic institutions.”
The White House did not respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.The beginner's guide to Mayan mythology that's perfect for both casual and academic use. It's written such that anyone can pick it up and start reading, even those who know nothing of the Mayans or mythology. The first section uses a cheeky tone to teach a little about the lives and worldviews of the people. The next section has short versions of most existing myths rewritten to be easy to read without losing vital information. Finally, the back contains an appendix of important characters, places, creatures, and objects.
-Great for supplementing a student's education.
-Contains cheat sheets of important characters and places that provide short descriptions to help refresh your memory.
-Includes 35 stories.
-Introduction uses a quirky tone to make it fun to learn those less exciting parts like setting and religious worldview.
-Appendix includes detailed descriptions of important characters, places, objects, and creatures.
-Like most mythology, this is not recommended for young children due to violence.With Theresa May off in Bahrain painting her Turner prize-losing Brexit red, white and blue, the short straw of standing in for her at prime minister’s questions fell to the leader of the house. It was David Lidington’s bad luck to have found himself up against a forensic Emily Thornberry rather than the haphazard Jeremy Corbyn; it was his misjudgment to come to the house almost totally unprepared.
The shadow foreign secretary doesn’t normally cover herself in glory at the dispatch box, often managing to antagonise as many in her own party as she does on the government benches. But for her promotion to PMQs, she had come unusually well-primed. Her plan was nothing less than Lidington’s assassination.
Could the leader of the house give a simple answer to a simple question? Was Britain planning to stay in the customs union? Yes or no? Lidington appeared startled. Whatever instructions the prime minister had left him on her Post-it note, it hadn’t included this. He waved his arms around theatrically, as if hoping to drag up an answer with a little method thinking. Nothing. Nada. Customs union was well above his pay grade, but he was sure the government had a great plan.
Thornberry pressed him a little harder. Did he remember saying back in February that leaving the customs union would be a total disaster? “Does the minister still agree with himself?” she inquired, twisting the stiletto. The look of panic that crossed Lidington’s face suggested he remembered it only too well.
“Um, er,” he mumbled. “Things have changed a lot since then.” Certainly they had for Lidington, who was now entering a possible career-ending parallel universe. Someone passed him a note, which he eagerly opened. “The customs union is not a binary issue. There’s at least four possible outcomes.” He had no idea whether this was true, no idea of what it meant, but it was all he had to offer. The next time Theresa went away, she could get someone else to do her dirty work; up in the gallery, the prime minister’s advisers were having much the same thought.
Theresa May’s clever holding position has caught remainers off guard | Matthew d’Ancona Read more
Customs union was also on the agenda as part of the opposition day Brexit debate. Faced with the certainty of being defeated, the government had quickly tabled an amendment promising to publish some kind of plan before triggering article 50 in March next year, so the shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, tried to pin down the parameters of what might be in the plan. Could the government offer any clue about what sort of Brexit it had in mind?
“No plan survives engagement with the enemy,” Crispin Blunt snapped. Branding the EU as the enemy before negotiations have even started may not be the best way of securing the best possible deal.
David Davis, the Brexit secretary, tried to be a little more accommodating. He had been falling over himself in the past few months to let parliament know what the government plans. It was just that no one had been listening to him. His plans were to get the best possible deal for the country once someone had got round to working out what the best possible deal was. Whatever the government managed to come up with would de facto turn out to be the best possible deal.
When Conservative Dominic Grieve pointed out that if the supreme court upheld the divisional court’s ruling on parliamentary involvement in article 50, then the government would be obliged to introduce primary legislation, Davis grandly announced: “We will obey the rule of law.” It says something for post-truth politics in 2016 that Davis managed to make that sound like a concession.
What Davis didn’t say was what the plan the government would present to the Commons would look like. Would it be a few gentle hints written on the back of an envelope? He couldn’t say for certain. Though probably it would be nothing that detailed.
Thereafter the debate rather fell apart. The Eurosceptics, once the strongest defenders of parliamentary sovereignty, were now adamant that Brexit was far too important to be left to MPs and insisted that anyone who said otherwise was just trying to thwart the will of the people. As if they had a hotline to what that will was. The remainers were equally certain that allowing the government to stumble into any old Brexit within an arbitrary timeframe was asking for trouble.
“Would anyone in this house sign up to an agreement without knowing the details?” Starmer asked. “If so, please put your hand in the air.”
Jacob Rees-Mogg put his hand up. There’s always one.Jordan's state security court has convicted five Syrians of helping Islamic State militants carry out a 2016 car bomb attack that led to the closure of the Syrian-Jordanian border.
The court on Monday imposed the death penalty on one defendant and sentenced three to life in prison. A fifth was sentenced to two years in prison.
The cross-border attack, launched from near the Rukban border camp for displaced Syrians, killed seven Jordanian border guards. In response, Jordan sealed the border.
Judge Mohammed Afif says the defendants collected information about Jordan's military positions on the border for IS. He says four admitted receiving monthly payments from IS.
The judge says the defendant who was sentenced to death had filmed the attack on his mobile phone and given the footage to IS.Amount of Afghan farmland planted with opium poppies rises by a fifth as instability pushes up prices of 'black gold', UN says
The amount of Afghan farmland planted with opium poppies has increased by nearly 20% this year, after high prices in 2011 tempted more farmers into growing the drug.
Blight and bad weather meant the harvest of opium in the world's biggest producer of "black gold" fell by a third, according to the United Nations annual opium survey. But in the longer run that shortage could help keep prices near record highs, fuelling further expansion of poppy farming.
"High opium prices were a main factor that led to the increase in opium cultivation", said Yury Fedotov, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), in a statement. Despite the fall in actual production, the crop was still worth $700m this year.
Concern about the future has helped push up prices for opium, which is easily transportable and can be preserved for years. In a country with a limited and unreliable banking system, these factors have made the valuable drug a source of income for many farmers and traders.
"People are still hedging for an insecure future, so there is lots of speculation. Prices quietened in recent months but still are double what the normal economic price should be," said Jean-Luc Lemahieu, Afghanistan director for UNODC.
"We are afraid that eventually lower production this year, combined with the still speculative mood overall, mean prices will inflate, which in turn will encourage more production in the coming year."
Around half of Afghanistan's provinces grew poppies in 2012, the same as last year, but the amount of farmland turned over to the drug is closer to levels seen nearly five years ago. Farmers this year earned $200 a kilogram for dry opium, more than a policeman's monthly wage.
The spread of poppy farming is bad news for efforts to control trade in a drug that provides millions of dollars to the Taliban, and helps fuel massive corruption across the Kabul-based government, undermining its legitimacy.
Opium production is closely linked to insecurity, with the vast majority of poppy fields being in areas across the south and west of Afghanistan where there is little government control, a lot of organised crime and high levels of violence. Half of the crop is grown in Helmand province, where most British soldiers deployed to Afghanistan have fought.
Government subsidies and aggressive eradication programmes have persuaded farmers in the most fertile areas by the Helmand river to grow food crops, but overall more land was sown with poppies across the province than in 2011.
Afghan officials dug up more than twice as many fields this year compared with 2011, but this was equivalent to just 6% of the total national crop.
Lemahieu warned it would take time to wean farmers, and the Afghan economy, off the drug, even if the government responded strongly to the rapid spread of poppy farming.
"Are we alarmed? For sure. Are we panicked? No, because we know what needs to be done, and we hope that those alarming figures will give another incentive to the government," he told the Guardian. "As proven to its own peril, narcotics [control] today is still too much considered a footnote.
"The art is to induce dramatic change without destabilising the government or the economics of the country. This is possible, but takes time."Seth & Scott Avett of the Avett Brothers will perform Feb. 14 at the Visalia Fox Theatre. (Photo: Samuel M. Simpkins / The Tennessean)
Scott and Seth Avett began the 21st century by putting down their electric instruments and picking up an acoustic guitar and banjo.
"Both of us had played in some loud, heavy rock bands, and those fell apart in a very emotional way," Seth Avett said by phone aboard a tour bus rolling through California. "We finally decided that the only person we could really count on was each other.
"So we wanted to make some songs where we couldn't hide behind volume or any kind of distracting factor. We wanted simplicity."
Apparently, so did a lot of music lovers and at least one record label owner, Dolph Ramseur, their longtime manager. In a time when gimmicks and gadgets dominate the radio, The Avett Brothers have found a huge following, playing and singing down-to-the-soul music that can't be pigeon-holed. It's a pinch of bluegrass, rock, folk, country, blues, jazz — and, seemingly, a front porch and a shade tree thrown in to set the mood.
The Avett Brothers perform Feb. 14 at the Visalia Fox Theatre.
An example of their popularity: The Avett's 2009 CD "I and Love and You" reached No. 16 on Billboard's Top 200 album chart. It also reached No. 1 on the folk chart and No. 7 among rock albums.
"It would be easy to frame up our decision to play simple music in a heroic way," said Seth, 34, and the younger brother by four years. "Really, we just decided to look toward the roots of American music — people like Woody Guthrie, Jimmie Rodgers and Doc Watson — and then see if we could write songs that were honest, genuine and sincere."
Simplicity still rules
They've increased the sound a bit: In addition to stand-up bass player Bob Crawford, who started with them in 2002, cellist Joe Kwon joined in 2007. And while touring, they also include keyboards, drums and a fiddle. But simplicity still rules.
So does the surprises on stage. The grandsons of a Methodist minister in their home state of North Carolina, The Avett Brothers are known to perform old gospel songs such as "In the Garden" and "Just A Closer Walk With Thee."
"Those are the church songs I love," Seth said. "There is something about electricity and church music mixed together that I don't care for. I love a good sermon from an old-school preacher talking about how life experiences affected his life day to day, and how it relates to God.
"I think there are a lot of ways to connect to God. Old-school gospel music is a way to connect, whether you're a Christian or non-Christian. There were a bunch of songs written between 1880 and 1920. It was a golden age of gospel songs with melodies that always hit us.
"There are so many songs from years ago that just get lost. I went with my dad to this sort of low-rent flea market and this little ol' lady had about 15 records stacked up. They were all 78 (rpms), and they were dusty and scratched. She said 'Two dollars for all of 'em.' I think I gave her $5 because I felt like I was stealing them. First song I put on the record player was Fiddlin' John Carson singing 'Be Kind to a Man When He's Down.' It was so scratchy, it took me a while to figure out all the lyrics. We play it from time to time. But it's just another example of great, great songs that get lost in time."
It's all about the music
What hits audiences about The Avett Brothers are deep, piercing lyrics; distinct voices that aren't afraid to test their limits; harmonies that are both tight and stretched; and complex musicianship made to look easy.
And this: An unbridled love of two brothers making music together.
"Life allows us all to take things for granted," Seth said. "But here's the deal: When Scott sings 'Murder in the City' — a song that I knew the first time he played it for me was going to be a classic — I take it all in. Because I know there are a finite number of times I'll be able to enjoy that.
"That's our jam. Live in the moment and appreciate every one of them."
But Scott and Seth Avett take it a step further.
"We have built what we have now piece by piece, little by little," Seth said. "But in the middle of it is a strong bond that can't be manufactured. Everything is centered on goodwill. And it permeates through recording a song to performing on stage, how we talk to the crew, our body language walking to the bus.
"We've done a lot of festivals, and I've seen bands where there was so much tension surrounding them. I wouldn't want any part of that. I would find it extremely difficult smiling on stage living in that environment every day.
"Scott has been married for over 10 years now and has two little ones. I'm divorced and have a significant other I'm excited about a future with. We're old enough now to have experienced tragedy — had friends to die — and that has a way of humbling you. And when you're humble, you sort of give yourself over to the team. That's what we all do, anybody connected with The Avett Brothers."
Which explains these lines of their 2004 original tune, "Salvation Song": "We came for salvation/We came for family/We came for all that's good/that's how we'll walk away/We came to break the bad/We came to cheer the sad/We came to leave the world/a better way."
How to attend
What: The Avett Brothers
When: 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 14..
Where: Visalia Fox Theatre
Tickets: $65
Information: 625-1369 or www.foxvisalia.org
Read or Share this story: http://vtd-tar.co/1DGgL5EAMD announced new Radeon R9 300 series and R7 300 series graphics cards earlier this week, and while those graphics cards are interesting, there are nowhere as titillating as the Mack Daddy of AMD GPUs: Fiji. Fiji will find its way into three distinct products this summer: Radeon R9 Nano, Radeon R9 Fury, and the range-topping (and water-cooled) Radeon R9 Fury X. And we can’t forget other upcoming variants like this dual-Fiji board or the scrumptious Project Quantum. As we indicated previously, the water-cooled Radeon R9 Fury X will debut June 24 for $649, while the air-cooled Radeon R9 Fury will land on July 14 for $549.
AMD Radeon R9 Fury X
Although we can’t yet bring you our full review on Fiji (don’t worry, it will arrive shortly), we can provide you with the following official spec sheet for the Radeon R9 Fury X:
The specs shouldn’t be too surprising for anyone that has been following Fiji for any length of time, and as you can see, the chip is built on a 28nm process. Other specs to take note of are the 8.6 TFLOPs of compute performance, 4GB of High Bandwidth Memory (we don’t need no stickin’ 8GB), and 275W power envelope.
And below, you’ll find AMD-provided benchmarks for the Radeon R9 Fury X:
Again, please realize that these are benchmarks that AMD has run themselves. Manufacturer benchmarks tend to show their products in the best possible light, but these early results look promising. The 4K gaming performance shows the Radeon R9 Fury X outpacing the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti in all benchmarks (if ever so slightly in some cases) with the real outlier being Sleeping Dogs, in which we see a roughly 20 percent performance advantage for AMD’s latest and greatest.
To get a true picture of the performance profile for Fiji and its various incarnations, you’ll have to wait for the HotHardware review which will land next week. We’re working behind the scenes to bring you the best possible coverage on the Radeon R9 Fury X, and you won’t be disappointed.- Three workers at San Francisco International Airport are facing serious drug charges after a federal indictment earlier this week.
The 15-page indictment filed on Tuesday states Joseph Scott, Jessica Scott and Michael Castaneda are each facing two criminal counts: conspiracy to defraud the government and conspiracy to distribute and possess five kilograms or more of cocaine.
"I think it's terrible, we entrust a lot into these people and to let us down like that is awful," said Jason Hick of Pleasant Hill.
The three accused are Transportation Safety Administration subcontractors working for Covenant Aviation Security at SFO. According to the documents, for nearly a year -- from May 2013 until April 2014 -- the three workers allowed drugs to pass through their secure area on several occasions.
Their duties included operating the x-ray machines that are used to inspect carry-on bags and monitoring the security lines. The indictment states a federal sting was arranged to catch the accused.
Two government officials acted as drug smugglers who had what appeared to be cocaine or simulated narcotics in their carry-on luggage.
Court documents state one of the defendants would set up a time and place to meet the smugglers at the airport, that way when it was time to go through security. The smugglers would be directed to the lines where the others were working the x-ray machines and monitoring passengers.
This allowed the bags to make it through without question even though the defendants would know there were possible drugs in the bags.
The documents go on to explain that none of the defendants failed to notify law enforcement or ask for a secondary screening. If convicted the three are facing possible life sentences and fines upwards of $10,000,000.Low Life leveling without Solaris Lorica / Shavs
---
Why?
100% increased rarity and high damage while leveling.
If you've played the game for a while then you are probably bored of the normal leveling progress.
There has been a few threads talking about low life end game builds without Solaris Lorica or Shavs.
I wanted to see if it was possible to level while on low life starting from level 24 when we can use the Blood Magic gem to be on permanent low life.
---
The concept:
Reserving 66% of life with blood magic gem and auras to be on low life. Getting 75% chaos res so chaos damage becomes a non issue.
---
This leveling process won't work for the first character in a league because of gems and uniques. It's also closely tied to specific builds and not a generic leveling build.
The total cost for non quest gems and required uniques is about 3-8 fusings/alchs depending on how much you want to haggle.
This cost will pay for itself from the 100% rarity boots due to all the alteration orbs you'll find while leveling.
I had 31 fusings from alts by the time I reached lvl 66.
---
There are many uniques tied to being on low life and many of the are available from early levels.
These are the most important ones:
Crown of Thorns
Up to 100 es from level 1. Also gives Pain Attunement (30% more spell damage on low life)
Price: 1fusing/alch or less
Zahndethus' Cassock
Very high chaos res and es for it's level
Price: 1fusing/alch or less
Redbeak
100% increased damage on low life, best spellcaster weapon early on.
Espescially when combined with Herald of Thunder, vaal skills etc.
The damage output makes up for only grabbing defensive nodes early on.
About 1k DPS on Lightning Tendrils at lvl 30 is pretty good
Price: 1fusing/alch or less
Wondertrap
Pretty terrible boots apart from the 100% rarity
Price: 1fusing/alch or less
Lori's Lantern
Ok chaos res and good ele res on low life
Optional
Price: 3fusings/alch
EDIT: The price has gone up significantly. Don't buy unless you plan to use it endgame
---
Recommended items to buy:
Gems:
2x Blood Magic
2x Reduced mana
Culling Strike
Purity of Elements
Life Leech (optional)
---
Progression:
I do not recommend going low life on lvl 24. The chaos damage is not the problem. Most chaos mobs deal little to no damage. I was never at risk from them (including spinesnap and sewers). But the energy shield is too low at the end of Act3. 800 es at Dominus. It's not a comfortable leveling experience and Dominus required 6 tps (but no deaths). The chaos damage from the mini bosses at dominus was pretty sketchy though. Because at this point I had only 44% chaos res and had not figured out the best way to reserve auras. But if you're a good player it's def possible to do without any deaths. In HC you can also just remove the blood magic aura for specific fights like dominus. I wanted to do everything at low life though.
Starting low life on lvl 37 is safe and easy.
Recommended base build:
https://poebuilder.com/character/AAAAAgMAf8Yc3N-KSbHXz_k374iTJxGWlS4HHklR8NUOSGyMnao2PeOEYqxfatvntMXpAhslS67ZW20Zpys1uRFQHU9qQ8BUCPTB86KjlSAtHyepflkNfOq6tAxcig==
Lvl 24(Act2/3 Normal):
ES: ~600 Unreserved life: ~150
Flasks: 3x Quicksilver, 1x life, 1x mana
- Herald of Thunder/Ice + Blood Magic lvl1-2 + Culling Strike (recommended)
This one is easy to setup, stays at 66-67% reserved. You get Herald of Thunder from quest reward and the other has to be bought.
- Blood Magic + Clarity + (redcued mana)
This one is pretty annoying because each time you level you get more hp and swapping gear around it can
put you above low life and significantly below. Not recommended.
- Timeclasp is a pretty decent ring here if you have it
Lvl 31(Act 3 Normal):
ES: ~1000 Unreserved life: ~ 300
- Add discipline and purity of elements to your auras
|
each shoe by hand. Along with faster production, new products were also introduced to the shoe industry—in this case, vulcanized rubber. The first rubber-soled shoes were developed in England and called “plimsolls.” Rubber soles made for a quiet shoe, a perfect tool for sneaks.
By 1862, rubber-soled shoes were known as “sneaks” after the people who used them to their advantage (not just people up to no good, but anyone who wanted to wander around quietly). This is evidenced in an article published that year:
The night-officer is generally accustomed to wear a species of India-rubber shoes or goloshes on her feet. These are termed ‘sneaks’ by the women [of Brixton Prison].
“Sneaker” appears to have caught on pretty quickly. In 1887, another note appeared in the Boston Journal of Education:
It is only the harassed schoolmaster who can fully appreciate the pertinency of the name boys give to tennis shoes — sneakers.
Two years later, in 1889 there is evidence of the department store Jordan Marsh advertising its “sneakers.” In 1895, the term appeared in Funk and Wagnall’s Standard Dictionary referring to the shoes rather than the people and the name as been more or less popular ever since.
If you liked this article, you might also enjoy our new popular podcast, The BrainFood Show (iTunes, Spotify, Google Play Music, Feed), as well as:
Bonus Facts:
“Sneakers” is a much more common term in America than it is elsewhere in the world. In Britain, you’d be more likely to hear “trainers.”
The Old English word “snican” also gave us “snake.”
The brand Keds would have you believe that they created the first sneakers, but this is incorrect. Their parent company, Goodyear (of rubber tire fame), was the first licensee of the process of vulcanization, which involves attaching cloth to rubber in a permanent bond. However, they didn’t start experimenting with shoes until 1892. As you can see above, the word “sneakers” was around long before then. That said, Keds were probably the first such shoe to be mass-marketed.
Keds were originally going to be called “Peds” from the Latin root for feet, but Peds was already taken. From there, it was a toss-up between Keds and Veds, and you know which one they chose.
Reebok has a slightly more interesting story about how the brand came to have its name. It was originally part of J.W. Foster & Sons, which was based in Britain and had been in business since 1895. Two of the Fosters decided they wanted to create an athletic shoe company in 1958, so they began searching around for ideas about what to call it. They learned that Joe Foster, the founder of the company, had once won a footrace and had been given a dictionary for his efforts. In the dictionary, they found the word “rhebok”—an African antelope known for its speed. “Rhebok” is the Afrikaans spelling, they chose to use the English spelling of “Reebok.”
Adi and Rudi Dassler were brothers who made shoes, including the pair that Jesse Owens wore when he won his races at the 1936 Olympics. It wasn’t until 1949 that Adi Dassler created his own company. The name? Adidas. So no, Adidas does not mean “All Day I Dream About Soccer!” (Adi’s brother Rudi went on to create another company—Puma.)
Converse was named after Marquis Mills Converse, who created the shoe company in 1908. So what about their “Chuck Taylor All Stars?” The All Star started out as a basketball shoe in 1917, but it wasn’t selling very well because of some tough competition. In 1921, basketball player Chuck Taylor went to Converse in need of a job, and Converse hired him as a salesman. Not only did Taylor sell Converse, but he also made suggestions to improve the design (using some of his basketball expertise) and would put on demonstrations to show players why they should wear Converse when they played basketball. His signature was even added to a patch on every shoe that left the factory. Even with all of his contributions, he was only ever paid a salary for his 40 years working at the company, and never received any extra profit or commission for his ideas.
Chucks weren’t the only shoe to be named after an athlete. The Air Jordan shoe put out by Nike is, of course, is named after the legendary Michael Jordan. Meanwhile, the Adidas Stan Smith is named after a tennis player who won both Wimbledon and the US Open in the early 1970s. The Puma Clyde is named for Walt Frazier, nicknamed “Clyde,” who played basketball for the New York Knicks. (He was nicknamed Clyde because he tended to dress like Clyde Barrow, the famous bank robber.)
Nike, of course, is named after the Greek goddess of victory. Today, Nike is the top-selling brand of sneakers. Rounding out the top five are Adidas, Reebok, Puma, and Converse.
Expand for ReferencesI have a crazy idea: success isn’t just about hard work. We hear about hard work all the time—it’s what Olympic champions talk about when they get to the top of the podium and it’s what the media credits as the sole force behind of multimillion-dollar Internet entrepreneurs. But there has to be something else in the equation of obtaining unimaginable success. What other traits tipped the odds in favor of the world’s most successful people?
What helped propel their careers before they had track records?
For the past year I’ve been fortunate enough to interview some of the world’s most successful people to find the answers to these very questions. Below are just a few of the traits I’ve noticed that have stood out in the personalities of people who have truly made it big:
1. The Audacity to Break the Rules
In his early twenties, Tim Ferriss, bestselling author of The 4-Hour Workweek, was running an online sports nutrition company and realized that he would be risking his businesses’ survival if he followed the industry standard of accepting payment up to twelve months after the product was shipped.
“Everyone followed those rules,” Ferriss revealed to me. “I realized I was inviting disaster and financial ruins if I risked my cash flow that way by following the standard protocol, so I insisted on prepayment. Nobody had ever done prepayment. I think that is one of the reasons why my sports nutrition company succeeded where a lot of other startups of that type failed.”
Straying from the norm isn’t easy when you’ve spent your whole life following rules laid out for you at school and at home. It takes a major cognitive shift to understand that the way things are, and have been, can be challenged.
Ask yourself what rules in your industry you accept as fact. Why do you follow them? If the excuse is “that’s the way it’s always been,” it’s time to consider pulling a Tim Ferriss.
2. An Irrational Level of Commitment
Growing up, Sugar Ray Leonard would wake up, get dressed for school, and walk with his siblings to the bus stop. As the yellow bus would pull to the curb, his friends and siblings would step up into the school bus, but young Sugar Ray Leonard, who is now a six-time world champion boxer, would refuse to get on. As the bus drove away, Leonard tightened up his sneakers and ran behind the bus all the way to school.
“The other kids thought I was crazy,” Leonard said, “because I would run in the rain, snow—it didn’t matter. I did it because I didn’t just want to be better than the next guy, I wanted to be better than all the guys.”
My generation is used to instant gratification. But Sugar Ray Leonard demonstrated the necessity to be able to buckle down for the long haul and accept that you won’t see any return on investment for years. You have to be able to stay passionately committed even when you can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. And remember, Sugar Ray Leonard, now one of the greatest boxers in history, was running behind that yellow school bus at a time when others thought he wasn’t “boxing material.”
Sugar Ray Leonard kept at it, to the point that others thought was irrational. Turns out irrational commitment leads to irrational success.
Does what you’re working on excite you so much that it inspires an irrational sense of commitment? Are you willing to chase the school bus for years—before seeing any return? If so, keep running. If not, maybe it’s time to think bigger.
3. A Hunger to Solve Problems
Peter Guber, former CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, was in his mid-twenties as a new hire at Columbia Pictures when he realized that the way the studio heads were selecting directors was archaic—based on esoteric chatter instead of real data. Guber personally took on the task of solving this industry-old problem.
He went out and got a corkboard the size of his office wall and created a matrix: all the directors in Hollywood listed down the side and all the relevant information sprawled across the top—think of it as a primitive Wikipedia for the entertainment industry.
Word spread around town about the young guy who had this crowd-sourced wealth of data on every director in Hollywood mounted on his wall. In addition to adding value and helping others do their jobs more effectively, the corkboard allowed people to take notice of Guber’s ingenuity.
“It became a tool that allowed people to recognize that I was willing to do things differently. It shined the light on me and it and gave me more currency to make more daring choices,” Guber said. He explained that, “You are in the ‘problem solving’ business—always. That’s the way it works.” This was a key trait that allowed Guber to go from being a new hire at Columbia pictures to the studio chief—in just three years.
Although HR reps fail to mention it on the first day on the job, it seems that taking risks, solving other people’s problems, and creating value—even in a formal corporate environment—could have huge payoffs for your career.
Are there any problems, even outside your job description, that you could solve? What opportunities can you create to add value to both help people as well as supercharge your career?
4. A Ferocious Drive to Do More
Growing up in a village outside of Shanghai with no running water or electricity, Qi Lu (pronounced: chee loo) had no idea that one day he would have a corner office at one of the world’s biggest technology companies. As the President of Online Services at Microsoft, Lu has made a drastic journey to the top thanks to what his colleagues call “Qi Time.”
“During college, the amount of time I spent sleeping really started to bother me,” Lu explained to me. “There are so many books I can read and so many things to learn. It feels like, for humans, 20% of our time is wasted [during sleep] in the sense that you’re not putting that time towards a purpose that you care about.”
Although he admits it wasn’t easy, Lu has engineered his body to function on four hours of sleep a night thanks to an unusual regimen that ranges from timed cold showers to daily three-mile runs.
Driven by an unusual hunger to do more, Lu’s sleeping schedule has added an extra day’s worth of work time per week, which aggregates to nearly two months of productivity latched on to every calendar year. And he did it while still in college.
Ask yourself how badly do you want to do more. And what are you willing to give up for it?
5. A Sharp Focus on Playing the People Game
Shortly after graduating high school, Steven Spielberg began reducing the time he spent at college and increasing the time he spent hanging within the Hollywood inner circle. “[Spielberg] was going off to Sonny and Cher’s place all the time,” said Don Shull, Spielberg’s childhood friend. In a personal letter to Shull, Spielberg revealed that he would directly approach directors and Hollywood stars on the studio lot and ask them to lunch. And keep in mind—Spielberg was only nineteen years old at the time.
“Spielberg arranged his class schedule so that he could spend three days a week at Universal, watching filmmakers at work and trying to make useful contacts,” writes Joseph McBride in his detailed biography on Spielberg’s career. “He frequently slept overnight in an office at the studio where he kept two suits so he could emerge onto the bustling lot each morning looking as if he hadn’t slept in an office.”
“Steve knew at that early age that filmmaking is not just filming—it’s a people game. And he played it well,” said producer William Link.
While he definitely had talent on his side, so did handfuls of other aspiring directors. What helped Spielberg become the youngest director signed to a long-term studio deal was his focus on building relationships. This has nothing to do with “networking”; this has to do with making friends and focusing on people.
What little changes can you make in your life, starting today, to put a greater focus on people? What investments can you make, in both time and money, to hone the way you play the people game?
Wrapping up
Success can come in different fields, but the principles behind it are one. From Sugar Ray Leonard chasing the school bus to Peter Guber’s corkboard, these stories show the unique personality traits that tipped the scales in favor of the world’s most successful people.
Success—while defined by everyone on their own terms—is something that truly manifests itself once you make that mind-set shift and tell yourself it’s go time. Are you ready to make that shift?
Alex Banayan is a venture capitalist at Alsop Louie Partners in San Francisco. His upcoming book will feature 25 of the world’s most successful people and will focus on the little things they did to propel their careers. He is 19-years-old. For more, sign-up for Alex Banayan’s newsletter here.The Virginia Supreme Court yesterday ruled that the state's anti-spam law, designed to prevent the sending of masses of unwanted e-mail, violates the First Amendment right to freedom of speech.
Virginia Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell (R) promptly said he would appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court. The law was one of the first enacted in the United States to stem the overwhelming tide of unwanted e-mail. The 2004 trial in Loudoun County of mass e-mailer Jeremy Jaynes resulted in the first felony conviction in the country for spamming.
But the state Supreme Court said the law doesn't make any distinction between types of e-mail or types of speech, and so it was unconstitutional. The ruling came on an appeal of Jaynes's conviction. Jaynes had sent the mass e-mails anonymously by using false Internet addresses, and the court said that speech is also protected by the First Amendment.
Justice G. Steven Agee, who has since moved to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, wrote the unanimous opinion for the court. "The right to engage in anonymous speech, particularly anonymous political or religious speech, is 'an aspect of the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment,' " Agee wrote, citing a 1995 U.S. Supreme Court case.
"By prohibiting false routing information in the dissemination of e-mails," the court ruled, Virginia's anti-spam law "infringes on that protected right."
Agee noted that "were the 'Federalist Papers' just being published today via e-mail, that transmission by 'Publius' would violate the [Virginia] statute." Publius was the pen name for James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay.
The court determined that the law does not limit its restrictions on spam to commercial or fraudulent e-mail or to such unprotected speech as obscenity or defamation. Many other states and the federal government drafted anti-spam laws after Virginia, but often specifically restricted the regulations to commercial e-mails, the court found. The ruling affects only the Virginia statute.
McDonnell called the law an innovative act that broke new ground in protecting citizens, and he noted that Jaynes was rated one of the most prolific spammers in the world. Loudoun Circuit Court Judge Thomas D. Horne sentenced Jaynes, of Raleigh, N.C., to nine years in prison but allowed Jaynes to remain free while his appeals were heard.
"The Supreme Court of Virginia," McDonnell said in a statement, "has erroneously ruled that one has a right to deceptively enter somebody else's private property for purposes of distributing his unsolicited fraudulent e-mails.... We will take this issue directly to the Supreme Court of the United States. The right of citizens to be free from unwanted fraudulent e-mails is one that I believe must be made secure."
The court's ruling was remarkable for another reason: It reversed its own ruling of six months ago, when the court upheld the anti-spam law by a 4 to 3 margin. But Jaynes's attorneys asked the court to reconsider, typically a long shot in appellate law, and the court not only reconsidered but changed its mind. Agee wrote both opinions.
"I think the decision is a sound one," said Rodney A. Smolla, dean of the Washington and Lee University Law School and a First Amendment scholar. "This is a case in which the spammer may have been doing things that a well-crafted law could make illegal. The problem with the Virginia law is it included e-mail communications that people have the right to make anonymously."
There was plenty of disagreement, particularly among those who provide Internet service or battle spam.NEW YORK -- Manchester City and the New York Yankees have joined forces to establish a $100 million Major League Soccer team.
New York City Football Club will be the MLS's 20th team and is set to start playing from the 2015 season.
"This is not a marketing gimmick," City chief executive Ferran Soriano said in a conference call on Tuesday. "This is about developing a team that will play very good football and will have a chance to win."
City, which is owned by Sheik Mansour bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, will be the majority owner of the team.
"They'll be running all the soccer. We know our way around New York, how to get things done," said Yankees president Randy Levine, who will be the team's lead person in the launch.
The venture is being launched by City amid difficulties in England after the team failed to win a trophy in the 2012-13 season, leading to manager Roberto Mancini being fired.
Soriano said it wasn't a mistake to award Mancini a new five-year contract after City won the Premier League title in May 2012, ending the team's 44-year English title drought.
"We don't think we are under any instability," Soriano said.
"We are changing the manager as it happens in other clubs. We feel confident that we will have a good manager and a very good team next year. And I don't think anybody made a mistake on this. It's just, as normally as it happens in football, time to change for the good."
City is in need of new revenue streams to help comply with UEFA's Financial Fair Play rules, which are designed to curtail over-spending by wealthy owners and require clubs to eventually break even on football-related activities.
But heavy spending led to City losing 90 million pounds ($137 million) in the 2011-12 financial year with transfer fees since the club entered Abu Dhabi ownership in 2008 went beyond 580 million pounds ($880 million).
"This obviously has nothing to do with Financial Fair Play," Soriano said. "We are building a team in New York that will be sustainable and we will be investing here with the idea of recovering our investment and being a club that will be financially sustainable, the same way that our club in Manchester is becoming sustainable every year more, right?
"So we don't have any problem with the Financial Fair Play rules, and the New York team has nothing to do with it."
There is a chance the New York club will serve as a feeder team for City, while young players unable to break into the Premier League squad could be loaned the other way.
"I think naturally it will happen, that some Manchester players will end up playing in New York," Soriano said. "But the objective and the focus will be to try to find the right players for the New York team. The New York team is a team on its own."
The expansion fee for the new team is $100 million. The Yankees will be responsible for 25 to 30 percent of that, according to sources. The club will compete for attention, and dollars, with 10 other professional major sports teams in the New York market.
NYC FC will start play at an interim venue with one option being the New Yankee Stadium, which opened in 2009.
The venue hosted its first two football matches last year and is the site of a friendly on Saturday between City and Chelsea. The original Yankee Stadium was the home of the North American Soccer League's New York Cosmos in 1976.
The MLS has been negotiating with New York to build a stadium in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, near the home of the New York Mets.
"Flushing is still the preferred site," MLS commissioner Don Garber said.
However, some community groups have opposed using city parkland. The new owners will consider other sites.
"We are very aware of the Queens negotiation," Soriano said of the 13-acre plot of the Flushing Meadows-Corona Park that has been previously discussed for a stadium. "This is not about finding a stadium. This is about finding a home that will be successful from a commercial, and soccer perspective as well as a community perspective."
Holly Leicht, executive director of New Yorkers for Parks, said the Yankees' involvement "opens the door for the possibility there might be a serious discussion about relocating where the stadium will go."
For a soccer stadium to be built at Flushing Meadows, NYC FC would have to reach an agreement with the Mets to use Citi Field's parking lots. The Mets declined comment on the Yankees' deal.
"It seems to make sense with the Yankees involved that the doorstep of Citi Field would be less enticing perhaps than before," Leicht said.
Yankee Stadium is hosting Manchester City on Saturday for a friendly versus Chelsea FC. The Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund will also be shown on the big screen.
"Yankee Stadium is an option, as are many places," Levine said.
The new team is intended to spark a rivalry with the New York Red Bulls, who play in Harrison, New Jersey.
"The Red Bulls now will have a rival here in the market providing them with that derby-like competition that is such a driver of what makes football so successful around the world," said Garber, calling the addition of a second New York team a "big transformational event."
The Yankees have long been exploring football deals. A partnership with Manchester United was announced in 2001, but that turned into a now-expired licensing and broadcasting agreement in which the clubs sold each other's licensed goods and exchanged television programming. The Yankees' YES Network has broadcast Arsenal games on a delayed basis since October 2010.
Legends Hospitality, co-owned by the Yankees, Dallas Cowboys and Checketts Partners Investment Fund, takes over hospitality and catering at Manchester City's Etihad Stadium next season under a partnership with Jamie Oliver's Fabulous Feasts that was announced in January. Legends already has started work on premium seats sales.
Levine downplayed his verbal sparring with Garber four years ago, which followed the MLS commissioner's comments about empty premium seats at the new New York baseball stadiums. Levine said then "if he ever gets Major League Soccer into the same time zone as the Yankees, we might take him seriously."
"Don and I are old friends," Levine said Tuesday. "What's a little fun between friends?"
With the decision completed on team No. 20, MLS can turn attention to No. 21.
Former Los Angeles Galaxy star David Beckham, who plays his final game this weekend before retiring, has an option to buy an MLS expansion team at below cost. Miami appears to be a possible market.
"It's just premature," Garber said. "Clearly, we've got to finalize a long-term expansion plan for the league."
Information from reporters Darren Rovell, Roger Bennett and the Associated Press was used in this report.Do not ever assume 02:40 yalazi 0 Comments
#sysadminday
Happy SysAdmin Day!
#symptoms
#theinvestigation
The Team
Syslog is important
#theverdict
I assumed local syslog would never block. -- wrong
I assumed seemingly remote and unrelated systems would not affect each other. ElasticSearch was too remote, seemed innocent and never was brought up in the investigation.
I assumed I had time to add Elastic Search nodes.
I assumed late responding sudo was an unrelated issue.
I assumed sudo was late because of ldap or dns issues or byproduct of the the high load of the system.
We assumed the culprit was old master PostgreSql server.
I assumed that slow friday would end slow like it started.
Two days ago was #sysadminday and Murphy was making sneaky and hideous plans for us.And please don't tell meis not to be blamed but theis. Rule is named after him and he will have to cope with the accusations ;)It was a slow Friday and it all started after I went to the cafeteria to have some tea with friends. And I was not aware of any Murphy activity. After some time I was coming down stairs to my workstation I saw our DBA has a cluster of people around her.Our ERP system was flaky and the culprit seemed to be the PostgreSql cluster. Gulçin was working on it and it has been a while since the issues has begun. But she could not pinpoint the cause.Here I need to tell you that our home-baked ERP system is the heart of our operations. Every department, need to use some parts of it to run the company. It is the start ofthus every other part of the company is preparing for the upcoming days, - every other department because hey we are sysadmins, if we are not working then we have done our jobs well -. This day ERP was a bit more important than usual. The issue must be solved at once.At this point my colleagues decided the issue may be the master postgres server and it was time to retire it.Everything would be ok now except the issue reappeared in no time. It is not a db problem. It seems to be a more complex issue and a broader and fresh look was needed. So it was time for me to step in.After talking with my colleagues about the issue and learning the symptoms. Something was not adding up. Systems were steady in cpu usage, our SAN was not out of breath, actually our DB showed strangely low write activity, network seemed to be not saturated or not showing any latency. There were little or no system log on the DB. load was high but not because cpu or disk IO? What the heck?Only strange log was some tasks were hung more than 120 seconds and terminated. All related to postgresql.Then I started to investigate.I saw many "idle in transaction" postgres processes. I binded some of them with strace and see that they were waiting for data from a file descriptor. With the help of lsof and /proc filesystem, I found out that the fds belonged to our client pgbouncer's network sockets. So I opened another terminal tab and sshed into our client apps and straced into the counterpart processes. Strange thing is they seemed to be stalled on waiting data from PostgreSQL.A race condition or something? Why would each part waited the other hand? I was clueless at this point.At this time my colleagues was trying brute force strategies, Closing different parts of our stack to see effects. Was it our cronjobs? Celery tasks? Web apps? But nothing was helping.I needed a break at this point thus I diverted my efforts to another but seemingly unrelated issue we were having. Sudo was responding very late. Our systems all connected to our Active Directory LDAP servers and sudo was no exception. Most of the time late sudo is caused by unresponsive dns servers, or in sudo-ldap situations ldap connection issues. But neither were in guilt this time.Still I was not ready for facing the gruesome monster we had so I defaulted to my swiss army knife, strace to look more into this sudo issue. By the way it was intriguing. I was assuming it was because dns or ldap connection or PostgreSql was having locks on the cpu so sudo was not responding. Could the two issues be related? Yes intriguing.Here I will give you a 2¢. Have you ever tried stracing sudo? If you are not root, sudo would bulk out because it is lacking setuid. strace is not setuid thus setuid on the sudo binary is not elevated to execed sudo. Easiest solution is to run strace via root user to strace sudo.Strace shown that sudo was waiting on /dev/log a worrisome and noticeable time, in the seconds magnitude.Then I had the moment. The moment where you solve every issue at once and feel lightening. Everything was in place now. Everything adding up.It was logstash, no to be more specific it was Elastic Search. We have just begun collecting syslogs to a central server. And it was not responding in time because of failed elastic search shards.After I fixed elastic search and restarted rsyslog instances, everything began to work flawlessly. Sure we had degraded database and elastic clusters but ERP was OK for now.I was assuming many things that led us to this situation. After I built central logging with logstash, the single node elastic search cluster failed once and I thought it would hold till we solve our storage problem to introduce more nodes and would not affect anything even if it failed. I was dead wrong.I learned for the thousandth time to. I'm a fast learner but I am also fast forgetting :)Republicans and their allies are making a lot of different arguments about what Obamacare is doing to America. It’s hiking premiums! It’s making people lose their doctors! It’s destroying Medicare! But if you listen closely, you’ll discern a common theme—a message aimed squarely at the middle class: Obamacare is taking away your money or health insurance, and giving it to somebody else. "If you think about it, it's $250 billion a year in Medicaid expansion, in the subsidy structure, that's basically being paid for by people on Medicare, through Medicare cuts, and a lot of tax increases," James Capretta, a former Bush Administration official now at the Ethics & Public Policy Center, said on Fox News Sunday. "It is a massive, massive income redistribution."
It’s not a novel argument. This is how Republicans have been attacking Democrats at least since the late 1960s, with varying results. For Ronald Reagan, it was a winner. For Mitt Romney, it wasn't. Maybe it will resonate this time and maybe it won't. Honestly, I have no idea. But since we're having this debate, it would be good to clarify who's getting money from the law—and who's providing it. Republicans aren't wrong when they say Obamacare amounts to redistribution. But they seem to have a distorted view of how that redistribution works.
About two-thirds of the law’s spending, a little over $1 trillion in the next decade, will be in the form of tax credits for people buying insurance on the new exchanges. About one third, or about $640 billion, finances the expansion of Medicaid. There's no simple and reliable way to break down exactly how much money goes to people at different income levels. (I've tried!) And it's certainly fair to say that a majority of people getting money from Obamacare are in the lower half of the income scale. But that includes an awful lot of people that qualify as "working class" or "middle class." Remember that the credits are available to people making up to 400 percent of the poverty line, or about $46,000 a year for an individual and $94,000 for a family of four—well above the nation's median income.
So that's the money going out of the federal Treasury thanks to Obamacare. And the money coming in? Here's a list of major sources of revenues and program cuts, based on Congressional Budget Office reports and put together with help from Paul van de Water at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:Julia Hartley-Brewer has issued a statement after receiving Twitter abuse following a TV appearance with fellow journalist Owen Jones.
The incident has been trending on Twitter since Jones walked off Sky News following a heated discussion with Julia and host Mark Longhurst about the terrorist attack in Orlando.
"Owen is a very good friend," says Julia. "He took exception to something the host said.
"We repeatedly stated it that [Orlando] was a homophobic attack. We were trying to have a debate about why this man had been motivated to make a homophobic attack.
“Apparently I didn’t use the right form of words."
Jones has since asked his Twitter followers to leave Julia alone, saying she does not shoulder any blame. You can listen to her full statement above.Rep. Pelosi in May. Image: US DOL/Flickr
Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, the powerful Democrat House leader who represents San Francisco, is urging the Federal Communications Commission to reclassify broadband service under a strict regulatory regime favored by many Open Internet advocates.
Pelosi's endorsement of so-called Title II reclassification, which is vehemently opposed by cable and telecom giants and their allies on Capitol Hill, represents a major political boost for supporters of net neutrality, the principle that broadband providers should treat all data equally.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and his colleagues are weighing whether to reclassify broadband service under so-called common carrier regulations in the wake of a legal defeat earlier this year that gutted the agency's net neutrality rules. Wheeler has proposed a new policy that stops short of reclassification, and opens to the door to so-called paid prioritization, which many Open Internet advocates argue would effectively spell the end of net neutrality.
In a letter to Wheeler released Monday, Pelosi wrote that she is "concerned" that the FCC "may act in a way that would permit broadband providers to discriminate against the content consumers and innovators create and enjoy." She warned the agency that Wheeler's proposed rules might force innovators "into commercial arrangements that require payment of tolls in cash or equity to get their ideas on the internet."
there's now almost no political support for Chairman Wheeler's proposal within his own party.
"I oppose special internet fast lanes, only open to those firms large enough to pay big money or fraught enough to give up big stakes in their company," Pelosi wrote. She noted that the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled against the FCC's net neutrality rules in January, give the agency "a clear path forward to prohibit discrimination and paid prioritization."
"I believe the FCC should follow the court's guidance and reclassify broadband as a Telecommunications Service under Title II of the Communications Act," Pelosi said.
Open Internet advocates hailed Pelosi's clear support for reclassification as further evidence that Wheeler has the political support for what would surely be a bruising battle over reclassification on Capitol Hill. They say that reclassification would give the FCC greater authority to ensure that broadband providers don't block or discriminate against online services—two principles that are at the heart of net neutrality.
"This is a huge political statement," said Marvin Ammori, a First Amendment lawyer and tech policy expert who strongly supports net neutrality. "The FCC always suggested that its hands were tied—that real net neutrality, under Title II, was a pipe dream without political support."
"But the FCC completely misunderstood the politics," Ammori told Motherboard. "In fact, there's now almost no political support for Chairman Wheeler's proposal within his own party. His entire base of support now is the cable and phone companies, their vendors, and closest allies."
FCC spokesperson Kim Hart declined to comment on Pelosi's letter.
Although Wheeler has asserted that he won't "hesitate to use Title II," many observers believe that he wants to avoid the inevitable political firestorm that would result from reclassification.
Wheeler clearly knows that Title II reclassification would prompt a furious response from the cable and telecom giants. Comcast, Verizon and AT&T vehemently oppose Title II reclassification, which they say would allow "unprecedented government micromanagement of all aspects of the internet economy." They say that such a move would deter them from making capital investments needed to improve and expand their service.
Several conservative lawmakers, who are allied with the cable and telecom giants and who view the FCC with suspicion under any circumstances, have warned Wheeler not to pursue that path. Many oppose net neutrality rules altogether.
For example, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, the Tennessee Republican who serves as Vice Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over the FCC, has called net neutrality rules "socialistic," a view that is shared by many members of her caucus.
In May, Blackburn and several of her colleagues sent Wheeler a strongly worded letter in which they expressed "grave concern" about reclassification.
"Such unwarranted and overreaching government intrusion into the broadband marketplace will harm consumers, halt job creation, curtail investment, stifle innovation, and set America down a dangerous path of micromanaging the internet," the lawmakers wrote.
Over the last decade, AT&T and Verizon have been Blackburn's second and third largest donors, funneling $66,750 and $59,650 into her election campaigns, respectively, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. She's also received $56,000 from the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, an industry trade group, and $36,000 from Comcast, the nation's largest cable company.
Without strong net neutrality rules, disruptive startups like Skype, YouTube and Netflix might have been snuffed out by broadband providers in favor of their own, rival services, according to Open Internet advocates.
For her part, Pelosi pointed out that some of the more far-reaching consequences of Title II reclassification could be ameliorated through what's called forbearance, which gives the FCC certain flexibility in applying the statute. "The law's forbearance mechanism is an appropriate tool to refine modern rules and will prevent the FCC from overburdening broadband providers," Pelosi wrote.
Craig Aaron, president and CEO of the Free Press Action Fund, a DC-based advocacy group, said that Pelosi's letter "shows the serious momentum" for tough new net neutrality regulations.
"Chairman Wheeler can no longer claim that there's no political support for reclassifying broadband as a common carrier," Aaron told Motherboard. "Clearly the more politically perilous path is digging in and defending his unworkable proposal."
"As the Democratic leader rightfully points out, the courts have given the FCC a clear path forward to prevent slow lanes and discrimination: It's called Title II," he continued. "And as millions and millions of Americans have been telling the FCC, that's the only way to protect the internet and ensure it continues to thrive."For a party that denounces “big government” and “socialism” at every turn, Republicans are oddly terrified of the alternative: privatization.
Case in point: Republican Senatorial candidate and former Club for Growth |
1914, was given to the Belmont Secondary School's Library Learning Commons whose students tracked down a relative of the fallen soldier this week. (CBC)
The students put out the call for information in November. Responses came in from across the country. Their first lead was from a genealogist in Ontario who compiled Doty's family tree.
"George Doty's dad had been previously married and had children and … through that side of the family we were able to get contact information for Sharon [Hoover's] side of the family and make contact with them," Court said.
The medal was found by a man who scraps cars. He reached out to the school for help, prompting the search. (Courtesy of Trudy Court)
The class presented Doty's medal to Hoover who was shocked to have a piece of her family returned to her.
"I was fine until she gave me the medal and then I couldn't talk, it just choked me up with sadness," Hoover said.
Doty died on Dec. 22, 1948.
Since the hunt for Doty's family began, the regiment numbers and names of other soldiers were given to students as a class project. Court said the students have connected with the men they're learning about.
The students of Belmont Secondary were given the regiment numbers and names of a few soldiers as a research project. (CBC)
"You can walk by a table and hear a group of boys talking about James, he was in the trench, Jim said they were in a blizzard for six days, and you would have no idea that these are soldiers from World War One that they're talking and trading facts about," Court said.
"We've really brought these people to life."
Sharon Hoover, great niece of George Doty, holds the restored medal after being presented with it by Victoria's Belmont Secondary students. (CBC)
George Doty's medal was restored to its original condition and the appropriate ribbon was added to it before the class presented the artifact to Hoover.
"So the medal, now, actually looks as though it would have looked the day that George received it," Court said.
With files from the CBC's All Points West.Tom LaPille makes things. Some of the things he makes are card sets, like Dark Ascension and Born of the Gods. Sometimes he makes stories, too. Sometimes he makes unexpected things, like 16th-century Japanese clothing. He's probably making something right now.
Ajani Goldmane is a member of the catlike leonin race and a Planeswalker wise beyond his years. You can read more of his story here.
Ajani recently traveled to the plane of Theros looking for his friend Elspeth Tirel. Together, they journeyed into the god-realm of Nyx on a quest to kill the newly ascended satyr-god Xenagos. They succeeded—but at a price. The sun god, Heliod, struck down Elspeth with her own weapon, having no further need or desire for a mortal godslayer. You can read more about Elspeth's story here.
Ajani saw Heliod kill Elspeth. He carried his friend's body back to the mortal world so her soul could travel to the Underworld.
She is gone. He remains. Once again, he faces that difficult, delicate question asked by everyone who has lost someone dear:
What now?
Ajani awoke, his whole body a dull ache of pain. His blurred vision resolved into lantern-lit shadows flickering on an angled white ceiling. He was in a tent, at night, and its canvas flapped slightly against the breeze.
He narrowed his eye and sniffed. The scent of some herbal concoction clung to his fur, no doubt thanks to a healer who tended to him while he had been asleep. He tested an ankle, a leg, a wrist, an elbow, a claw. Everything seemed to be working.
He raised his head and looked around the tent. He had been laid out on a cot that occupied the tent's center. Elspeth's cloak lay on a nearby wooden table, folded neatly next to a clay bottle. It was pure white again, all of the blood washed out, as though nothing had happened. Next to that, perched on a folding stool, was a white-haired old human whose neck and lower face were covered in rippling burn scars.
"Lanathos," Ajani growled.
The gnarled old man smiled. "Greetings, fellow visitor."
Ajani kept his face impassive.
The man's smile melted away. "You returned alone."
Ajani's face fell.
The man leaned forward. "Were your travels so troubling? The healer said you would be fine in the morning."
Ajani sat up in the cot, towering over the little old human. His head pounded. "This isn't about me," he snarled.
Lanathos raised a single eyebrow. "No?"
"Elspeth's story is over," Ajani said. "Don't you want to hear how it ends?"
The old man scratched his chin. "I do, but perhaps not now."
Ajani rolled one of his braids between his fingers. "We're both here, aren't we?"
"My memory is excellent," the man said. "I will remember anything you say for as long as I live. Are you certain that you know how you wish me to remember her?"
The leonin's shoulders drooped. "I had not thought about that."
The man looked at the folded cloak, then back at Ajani. "If it is a story you wish to tell, perhaps you should start with your own."
Ajani stood up from the cot, moved an empty stool closer to the little man, and sat down, looming over him. "Why would I do that?"
"Your fur is a shade unlike anything I have seen among these leonin. Your accent is different as well. You told me you came from over the mountains, and then some. There's a tale there, I'm sure. But you've stopped telling it." He looked up at Ajani and stared him in the face, defiant. Between two leonin, this would be a blatant challenge, and he must have known that by now. "You came to me looking for your friend. You followed her on her quest to kill a god. She perished in the attempt, I assume, which is why you have returned alone. Her story is over now. When will yours begin?"
Ajani's mouth fell open. "She needed my help!"
The man looked over at the whitewashed cloak again. "Did you help?"
Ajani tensed, his claws extending. His vision swam at the edges. "Brimaz may tolerate you, storyteller, but he would not be pleased to hear that you had disturbed one of his guests."
The man stood. "Then I will allow you your rest," he said, "but not before I deliver a message to you on his majesty's behalf." He nearly spat the honorific, as Brimaz was not known for his formality. "The Setessans are here, celebrating a victory shared by human and leonin alike. Anthousa does not know that you have returned, and she will suspect what has happened if she discovers you alone. This would dampen spirits at the celebration, which his majesty finds unacceptable. You are to stay in this tent tonight." He lifted a hand, indicating the table. "The bottle contains a draught that will return you to sleep for the night and dull the pain tomorrow. His majesty will see you at the gymnasium in the morning after breakfast."
Appealing to Brimaz's authority had been a mistake. Ajani folded his ears back, allowed his claws to retract, and plucked the bottle from the table. "You serve as his messenger now?"
"He trusts me. You will have to do the same if you want the world to remember your friend." He smiled, though on his gnarled face Ajani could not tell if it was the genuine sort of human smile or not. "Rest well, fellow visitor," the man said, and then he turned and left.
Ajani sniffed at the bottle. It was aromatic, earthy, and only a little unpleasant. He drank the contents, laid back down on the cot, and closed his eye.
He awoke to sunlight filtering through the tent's ceiling and the smell of grilled meat and bread. The latter came from a tray of food someone had left on the table next to the folded cloak. He pulled himself off of the cot and pulled a stool up to the table, his stomach rumbling. The meat was well-spiced and the bread was warm, although it was a bit airier than he preferred.
A moment after he finished eating, a young female leonin with gray fur entered the tent. It was Seza, who had found him in the wilds when he first arrived.
"Good morning," Seza said brightly.
Oreskos Swiftclaw | Art by James Ryman
"To you as well," said Ajani with a smile. He nodded his head toward the empty tray. "Thank you for the breakfast."
She nodded in answer, smiling, but then her face stiffened. "You are to meet Brimaz at his morning exercises. I will take you to him."
"You and Lanathos have been quite formal." Ajani raised his eyebrow.
She looked around furtively, then spoke again, now much more quietly. "Brimaz considers you a great friend, but your situation here has worsened. We may have defeated the nyxborn army with the Setessans, but this cost us many soldiers, and not everyone agreed with the king's decision to march with the humans. Pyxathor's separatist faction was small before, but he has been quite active since we returned to Tethmos, and his influence has grown. This is the first time Brimaz will have seen you since the battle. Pyxathor's men will be watching."
Ajani softened. "I see."
"A few of my friends have begun listening to him, and I have been trying to pull them back. But I will need to treat you somewhat coldly once we are outside the tent, or they will suspect your influence." She looked at the ground. "I am sorry."
"We all give things up for our causes, do we not?" He smiled.
She nodded. "Shall we?"
They left the tent, and she led him through the burgeoning city for a few minutes, taking him to a wall of curtains. She pulled one aside, and motioned for Ajani to enter.
The gymnasium itself was somewhat less grand than Ajani was expecting. The humans here often built huge freestanding building complexes in which to exercise. This gymnasium was little more than a curtained-off area that contained wagons of weights and racks of weapons, but it was still more than he would have been able to find in Naya. And at the center of it all was Brimaz, standing tall and strong with his scar-crossed chest bare in the morning light. He was not wearing his crown, but his bearing and the berth that the other leonin gave him made his position clear.
Brimaz, King of Oreskos | Art by Peter Mohrbacher
Seza stopped just inside the curtains. "Brimaz awaits you."
"Thank you," Ajani said, and then he entered. Pyxathor stood at the edge of the gymnasium with crossed arms. There were many other leonin present, many from Brimaz's personal guard, and their gazes shifted between Pyxathor and the king.
Ajani made his way to the center, and Brimaz nodded to him. "I wanted to thank you for your counsel," he said. "My army fought alongside the Setessans, and we routed the nyxborn assault. Last night, we celebrated the victory together, human and leonin alike, sharing cups. I think we have made some progress toward a lasting peace." The king's voice had a newly acquired edge, and the speech was clearly not for Ajani's benefit.
Ajani nodded his best wise nod. "That is excellent."
Brimaz looked him in the face. "You always tell me that you are from far away."
Ajani considered his surroundings. Every other leonin was watching them now. This was not the place to explain, even if he thought he could.
"That is true," he said.
Ajani waited for another question, but none came. Brimaz turned away from Ajani and toward a nearby weapon rack, on which rested a wooden shield and several wooden weapons. He put his arm through the shield's leather strap, picked up a sword with his other hand, and turned to Ajani. "You may have your choice of weapons."
Ajani's tail tensed. "We are to fight?"
"Your fur is white. Your accent is not ours. You did not understand the tales of the Champion. You are not one of us, and you choose to tell me nothing more. But you are clearly a capable warrior, and I am in need of a sparring partner." Brimaz continued staring at Ajani, defiant.
"I don't want to fight anyone," Ajani said, averting his eye.
"After all the trouble I went through to have these made?" Brimaz extended a claw toward a one-handed axe and a sword, each with wooden blades, on the same rack—each made almost exactly in the style of the weapons that Ajani had become accustomed to carrying here.
Ajani sighed. He padded to the rack and hefted the axe in his right hand and the sword in his left. They were both well-built, with a nice weight and balance. For a moment, he longed for his more familiar double-bladed axe. Such a weapon would have marked him even further as an outsider, but perhaps that was not so important then.
The king led him to an open space nearby. "They are sufficient?" he asked, bracing his round shield on his extended left knee.
Ajani nodded.
And with that, the king was on him. Ajani backpedaled, but the taller leonin was too fast. Ajani cut with his sword for Brimaz's right, but the king's shield snapped into a block with lightning speed. Ajani dodged right and swung with his axe, but Brimaz was too close, and only the shaft made contact with the king's shoulder before Brimaz shoved the tip of his wooden sword against Ajani's throat.
Ajani froze. Brimaz nodded, and backed away. "Again."
Brimaz was once again the first to move. Ajani dropped his left arm to thrust his sword below Brimaz's shield. At the last moment, Brimaz dodged to the left—Ajani's blind side. Ajani's thrust only pierced air. He raised the axe in his right hand to block an attack from his blind side just as something tapped the right side of his neck.
Ajani's face betrayed his frustration as he returned to the starting point. "Do they not teach the wrap cut where you are from?" asked the king. "Perhaps the swords are not double-edged?"
Ajani growled and settled into place. Brimaz's face remained impassive.
Brimaz came directly at him a third time, but Ajani matched his approach. Brimaz raised his shield to foul Ajani's axe on his right side, and Ajani heard but could not see their swords clashing on his left. Brimaz's shield shot past the right side of Ajani's head, shoving his axe further out of position. The king's shield hand grabbed one of Ajani's braids and yanked downward. Ajani staggered, and then Brimaz shoved him over.
Ajani tumbled onto the ground. By the time he recovered, Brimaz was pointing a sword at his throat.
Brimaz placed his sword between his right arm and his body. "You were right," the king said, reaching his hand down to help Ajani stand. "You don't want to fight, and that is your problem."
Ajani grasped the hand. "Is that so wrong?"
Brimaz pulled Ajani a bit closer than speaking distance as he stood. "Everything here is a fight, Ajani. I fought to make my soldiers march alongside humans. I fought to keep order when our mixed army faced the nyxborn. Now we are back, and I must fight those of my own who prefer to live apart from every other civilization. I am happy to have you here, but I need you fighting for something, or your presence only makes my fights harder."
"What can I do?"
Brimaz turned a little, and gazed at the other leonin. They were watching, and listening, though now only out of the corners of eyes and ears. "They don't trust you because they don't know who you are," Brimaz whispered. "They will need answers before you can truly be one of us." He turned back to face Ajani again. "I will be busy for the time being with the Setessans. The next time we speak, I will ask you what you wish your role in my city to be."
Ajani nodded. "Yes, your majesty."
Brimaz smiled, finally, although only a little. "You know I do not stand on titles among my friends."
"So we are still friends?"
The hint of a smile faded, and Brimaz stole a glance at Pyxathor. "In private, we will always be friends, but very little of my life is private these days."
"I understand."
"It was good to see you."
Ajani nodded. Brimaz turned to rack his weapons. Ajani placed his on another rack nearby, and left the gymnasium.
He wandered the streets for much of the morning, a white-furred ghost among Tethmos's darker leonin. He could always leave, of course. There were many planes, each full of sights and sounds, some of which even had other leonin who might take him in. But Brimaz was right. He had not wanted to fight, even though there were many things here to fight for. Oreskos's right to exist in peace was one, although that was more properly Brimaz's fight. Elspeth desired to punish Xenagos for how his ambition had affected so many on this plane, but that had not truly been Ajani's fight either. Perhaps he needed to find his own.
Then Ajani remembered the sight of Heliod striking Elspeth down, and he smiled a savage and joyless smile. He returned to his tent, collected his belongings, fastened Elspeth's cloak around his shoulders, and set out on the road to Meletis.
As he traveled, he pondered the nature of the gods. Xenagos demonstrated that one could become a god on Theros if he could convince enough sentient creatures to believe. It was clear that Heliod was not, strictly speaking, a force for good, and yet at some point enough people had chosen to believe in him. What would happen if enough people chose to stop?
The journey was long, and it was a relief to see Meletis's gleaming walls and buildings in the distance as night began to fall. He approached the gates with flattened ears and a contrite bearing, hoping to appear docile. The two guards' postures shifted from alert to alarmed to curious as they saw him get closer, and Ajani stifled a satisfied smile.
"I seek Heliod's temple," he said quietly to the guards when he arrived at the gate. One of them seemed suspicious, but the other was happy to provide him with directions, although he still spoke to Ajani as one might speak to one's pet cat. After twenty minutes of navigating the Meletian streets and the stares of their human occupants, Ajani found himself at the base of the stairs outside the largest temple to Heliod in all of Theros.
Temple of Enlightenment | Art by Svetlin Velinov
Ajani climbed up the stairs and entered the building. Inside, it was civilized and perfect, every angle between unblemished marble walls constructed exactly, and a bright but sourceless light suffused everything within it. Ajani was the only leonin inside; the other supplicants, perhaps eighty in total, were all human, and their organic, rounded forms seemed out of place within the temple's angular perfection.
Many of them stared openly at him—most at his body, but more than a few at his weapons. He looked to his left; there was a gleaming golden rack, on which a smattering of swords and daggers had been placed. Ajani flattened his ears and placed his axe and sword at the bottom of the rack.
Much of the attention subsided, and a young woman dressed as a temple attendant approached. "We do not often have leonin guests," she said softly, her dark skin and hair shimmering in the unearthly light.
He looked down at her sternly, and matched her volume. "I have come to believe that only Heliod can answer the questions I have."
Her face softened. "Devotion to the gods is rare among your kind."
"I have had unique experiences with them," he said, keeping his face calm.
"How so?"
Ajani stood up a little taller. "I was present," he said, his voice loud enough to carry a little, "when the god of this temple slew a woman who was both his Champion and my friend."
The attendant stiffened. The men and women near them paused, and began to listen. "How do you know it was Heliod who did this?"
Ajani raised an eyebrow. He raised his voice further again, but kept his tone soft. "His golden halo is quite distinctive."
The attendant's eyes went wide for just a moment before she recovered. "And what question do you have for our divine patron?"
"This friend of mine," Ajani said, stepping past her and projecting loud enough for all to hear, "consented to become Heliod's champion. To do his bidding, to perform great deeds on his behalf, to keep safe those of us who can only pray to the gods for safety." He wanted to spit out the last part, but instead kept his voice even, playing the picture of provincial naiveté. "I assumed that she would be rewarded for this service. That she would be thanked, lauded, given an appropriate reward for filling the position she had accepted. And instead she was struck down. What am I to think of a god who treats a loyal supplicant with such ingratitude?"
Not everyone was watching, now, but they were all listening.
A young man approached, likely no older than fourteen, with blue eyes that faded into milky whiteness as he walked. "What is a god to think of a champion who would exceed her station?" His voice echoed with an unnatural depth, and the surrounding men and women all dropped to their knees.
Ajani did not even incline his head.
"You have come to sow discord in Heliod's temple." The boy's resounding voice rattled Ajani's bones.
"I have come to ask Heliod a question."
The oracle narrowed his eyes. "This place is for those who respect Heliod's divine power. If you do not count yourself among the believers, you should leave."
Ajani stepped forward, feeling bolder now. "I believe that Heliod is a god. I believe that the people of this temple venerate him for his divine might. I believe it was not so long ago when all of his priests were thrown out of this very temple, forced to flee for their lives. And I believe that he slew his Champion in cold blood."
"She slew one of his kind as well." The voice was deafening, and Ajani turned his ears away from it. "The mortals of 'this place' have a place, and she did not consent to remain within it."
Fire burned in Ajani's belly. "I have seen what happens to mortals who remain in the places the gods assign them. When the priests of this temple were scattered to the winds, I met one of them, Stelanos, on the road. He was a blind and broken wretch. He even refused to let us bury the dead around him. 'Leave us as a warning to others,' he said. 'The gods have forsaken us.' He drank nightshade to end his misery."
The boy crossed his arms. "If you continue to sow dissent in Heliod's temple, you will meet the same end that Elspeth did."
Ajani smiled a joyless smile. "Then I will not sow dissent here."
The boy scowled and gestured toward the temple's entrance.
Ajani turned, retrieved his axe from the rack at the door, and walked out into the twilight. The humans all stared after him as he walked, but now, perhaps, not all of the stares were hostile.
He made his way to the edge of the temple complex, and discovered that a few of the supplicants were following him. At the edge of the complex, he turned to face them.
"You saw Heliod kill his own champion?" asked a young woman. "His priest, left blind and broken to die on the road?" said an older man.
He walked with them, and told them of what he had seen in Nyx, of Heliod's vengeful act of murder, of the true nature of the gods.
"They are like a great flame," he said, gathering a small crowd as he paused in one of Meletis's public squares. "Before the spark, there is nothing. After the spark, there is light and heat and destruction. But without those who believe, there is nothing for the fire to burn. And if Heliod treats his Champion and his oracles as little more than kindling for his flame, what hope do those of us who cannot hear his voice have?"
A skeptical-looking woman stepped forward. "You cannot snuff out a god like a cookfire."
Ajani regarded her with stern kindness. "A fire with nothing to consume must die, no matter how large it has become."
She scratched her chin, and faded back into the crowd. Another stepped forward, an older man this time. "You seem to think we created the gods. What should we create instead?"
"Create something for yourselves!" Ajani nearly roared. "A family, a home, a life. Friends and acquaintances and happiness. Something that is yours, not something far above you that can destroy everything you cherish on a whim."
There were many nods as the crowd began to disperse, many of its members speaking among themselves. They spoke of their ambitions, their families, the things they loved, and how they could better their lives for themselves. One spoke of how often the gods had helped him. Rarely, he said, and not much. Those around him nodded.
One woman remained with him. "You said some interesting things, and I would like to hear more of them. Do you have a place to stay?"
Ajani smiled, and shook his head. "I did not before."
He stayed in the city for several days, sharing his message, subsisting only on the kindness and sympathy of those who found his words inspiring. He often slept in the homes of those who listened to him. Twice he slept on the streets, but each time Elspeth's cloak was enough to keep him warm through the night. He found many who rejected his ideas, but a few more each day seemed sympathetic, and perhaps those few returned to their lives with new ideas about the divine forces that live in the skies of Theros.
Traveling Philosopher | Art by James Ryman
On his ninth day in the city, while eating breakfast purchased from a street vendor with coins given by his previous night's host, he heard a human speaking loudly on a nearby corner. "The gods have betrayed us," she barked, "and yet we feed them with our belief!" She had a small crowd gathered, and although she was neither as eloquent nor as kind as Ajani had been, it was clear that the message had begun to spread. It was time to go home.
The journey from Meletis back to Oreskos was long, but Ajani did not mind. He needed the time to construct a worthy monument to Elspeth. A story that would spread far and wide. A story about a worthy mortal, ordinary in birth but great in deed. A story that would inspire leonin and human alike to look up at the stars and say no, I will not lend my strength to these capricious and unfeeling gods. A story that would someday shake the very foundation of Nyx.
Soon, Ajani thought to himself as he saw the sun setting over the gates of Tethmos, no leonin would think of the story of the Champion the same way. It would take time for this version of the story to reach the humans, but stories had a way of spreading.
Two armed leonin guarded the gates. One of them stepped forward as Ajani approached. "You are Ajani, yes?"
Ajani nodded.
"Brimaz wishes to speak with you. I will take you to him."
The guard led him through the darkening city to the king's hall. A great fire burned in its center, surrounded by many leonin and a single gnarled old man. As Ajani entered the hall, Brimaz stood. All eyes turned to Ajani, and the conversation ceased. Only the crackling fire made a sound.
Brimaz spoke. "It is good to see you again."
Ajani stepped forward. "I am ready to tell my story."
Ajani Steadfast | Art by Chris Rahn
Brimaz smiled, and sat. The circle around the fire expanded, leaving a space for Ajani.
He stood just outside the space. "Many of you have wondered where I came from," he said, and his voice echoed within the hall. "I traveled far to be here, and none of you have likely heard of my home. I was young when I left, and I have traveled much since then. I am most truthfully from nowhere."
Pyxathor, sitting nearby, snorted; a few others looked skeptical. Lanathos scratched the scar tissue on his chin, pondering.
"I met the lady Elspeth several years ago during my travels, and it was she who I followed here. She was a great warrior. She took up Heliod's mantle, becoming his Champion. Xenagos, newly ascended to godhood, wronged her greatly, and she resolved to punish him for his hubris. I chose to go with her. She led us into Nyx, the land of the gods. She completed an ordeal for Erebos, who allowed us to pass to Xenagos's domain. She slew him with a spear blessed with Heliod's power. And Heliod, enraged by the death of a god, even one who usurped the natural order to achieve divinity, killed the woman who was his Champion in cold blood as I watched."
Many of the leonin around the circle murmured among themselves.
"Many of us do not think much of the gods, but they are very real. However, they are our own creations. They came into being when the first believers asserted their existence, and ever since, they have only grown in power." Ajani surveyed the circle of leonin, which was now rapt with attention. "Thassa lives in the depths, oblivious to the boats and lives and families that her pets destroy. Erebos jealously guards those who find themselves in his realm, and allows only pathetic mockeries of them to escape his grasp. Heliod is a childish, petty creature, and yet he is what we made to lead the pantheon of our own creations. We can do better.
"I spent several days in Meletis spreading this message. That the gods are our creations, a fire created by a spark of belief. That their power to consume is sustained only by our beliefs. That a fire, deprived of kindling, must go out."
Ajani smiled slightly. "As you have observed, I am not truly from this place, but I share your frustration with the gods, and I will fight them in my own way. If you do not wish me to stay, I will go, but I will continue to spread my message to the other poleis."
And again, the only sound in the hall was the crackling of the fire. Elspeth's cloak fluttered behind Ajani in the slight breeze.
"Welcome home," Brimaz said. Lanathos grinned. Several of the leonin nodded, Pyxathor among them.
Ajani entered the circle and sat.PHILADELPHIA -- The top 2014 NHL Draft prospects continued their tour of Philadelphia with a stop for some pictures at Love Park, and then it was off to local culinary landmark Geno's for cheesesteaks.
All six prospects got steaks, some "wiz wit" -- local slang for with cheese wiz -- while others went "wit out." All, however, gave two thumbs up to their meal.
Kootenay center Sam Reinhart worked the
grill to help prepare a few sandwiches at Geno's,
a Philadelphia culinary landmark. (Click to enlarge)
Courtesy: Adam Kimelman
"Let all the people in Philadelphia know that I love cheesesteaks," Barrie Colts defenseman Aaron Ekblad said.
The players also got an inside look at Geno's, and Kootenay Ice center Sam Reinhart worked the grill and helped prepare a few sandwiches.
Next is a trip to Citizens Bank Park for batting practice prior to the Philadelphia Phillies hosting the Miami Marlins.
All the players said it was the thing they were looking forward to the most.
A poll of the prospects made Sarnia Sting defenseman Anthony DeAngelo the favorite to reach the seats.
"Tony is the American," Oshawa Generals left wing Michael Dal Colle said. "Got to pick him."
DeAngelo also picked himself, but he wasn't overly confident.
"I haven't played baseball in a long time," he said. "I just hope I foul a few off."
---Two brothers sit on a beach. One cooks fish. The other watches the ocean, waiting for enemies to arrive. His philosophy is rigid: “They come. They fight. They destroy. They corrupt. It always ends the same.” The fish-cooking brother smiles and responds warmly: “It only ends once. Anything that happens before that is just progress.” This is not a scene from Survivor. It’s a scene from Lost, my other favorite show. It’s from the season five finale, called “The Incident,” and it’s the first time we lay eyes on legendary mystic Jacob and his nameless nefarious brother, the human form of the monstrous cloud of smoke that’s stalked the island since the first episode. What does any of this have to do with Vytas Baskauskas, or Survivor: Cambodia — Second Chance for that matter? A couple of things. For one, the conflicting philosophies of Jacob and the Man in Black speak to the beauty of Survivor, the idea that men and women voyage to a magical place twice a year and do horrible things to each other — but sometimes, something magnificent and revelatory can happen for the people who allow themselves to survive the darkness and emerge in the light, like a moth flying free from its cocoon. For another, fans of both shows immediately pictured the Jacob/MiB moment from “The Incident” during the ninth episode of Survivor: Blood vs Water — at least, I did. The Survivor scene sees Vytas and his brother Aras, winner of Season 12, sitting together on Redemption Island, both of them blindsided by people Aras trusted. The brothers are halfway out of the game, but not all the way there, and they don’t see eye to eye on the current situation. ARAS: “I’m still in the game. So are you.”
VYTAS: “It’s different. We’re not actually in the game. It’s purgatory.”
ARAS: “It’s not purgatory. I’m in the game. If I wasn’t in the game, I would be eating a cheeseburger right now. Since I’m not eating a cheeseburger, I’m in the game.”
VYTAS: [Rolls eyes, burps] The scene takes place on Day 23, and the Brothers Baskauskas are actually debating whether or not they’re in purgatory. You could not get a bigger Lost moment on Survivor if you tried. Now, Survivor life imitates Lost arzt once more, with Vytas’ return to the game. Just as the Smoke Monster wanted nothing more than to free himself of his brother and live on his own terms, Vytas comes back to Survivor without a plus one — but unlike Jacob’s sinister sibling, there’s a big part of Vytas that actually wishes Aras was here in Cambodia. “I’m happy that I get to play my own game,” Vytas tells me when I ask how he feels about playing without his brother, “but I’m also a little bit…” He trails off, smiles, and catches himself in a moment of vulnerability. “These are deep feelings! But it’s almost scarier to play your own game.” “When I played with Aras, he messed up,” Vytas continues. “Now I have no one to blame but me this time. Getting ready for this game, and looking at the 19 other people who are out to get you, at least before one of those people had my back no matter what — and now that I’m not with him, it makes me so much more grateful for the experience we got to share together. That was cool. It was so cool to go through this with Aras. I’ll play my own game this time, unencumbered by any complexity of the Blood vs Water business — but I’ll miss him.” When Vytas waxes poetic about missing his brother, and when he talks a few minutes later about recently becoming a father, there’s a sense that the reformed bad boy of Season 27 has reformed even further — that he’s a softer, gentler soul than he was even two years ago. But that’s the kind of thinking that gets you torn apart in the jungle. “I think I’m manipulative,” Vytas tells me, wearing a quiet grin, looking deep into the distance at sights unseen. “I’m going to manipulate the hell out of this game.” ON THE NEXT PAGE: Confidence Man
You met Vytas once before Blood vs Water, albeit briefly, flashing before your eyes at the Survivor: Panama — Exile Island finale, glowing with light as he embraced his brother, the newly named Sole Survivor. Many years later, Vytas hit the island on his own quest for the million dollar prize. Over the course of his 27 days in Season 27, Vytas recruited others to his cause by telling stories about his troubled past as a heroin addict who spent several months in prison, and stories about who he is today, re |
a wash of white noise. Of course, parallel processing of the whole kit gets you that more bombastic cymbal action which can be great for no-holds-barred assault.
For a more spooky approach, try just using the distorted signal on its own and rolling most of the tops out. This is great for more atmospheric tracks and leaves tons of space for other instruments. Alternatively, treat the drums with several different distortion and EQ approaches and print them all to separate tracks and then cut between them for fills and different sections. I’ve had heaps of joy doing this on some electro projects; it keeps things sounding fresh indeed.
Vocals: Distorted vocals can sound great or they can get a bit tiring after half a song, which is why you often hear distortion used just in certain parts of a song. Try parallel processing for some subtlety, or just distort a duplicate of the vocal to send to your reverb, or distort the double, or the delay! EQ the crap out of the distorted version to just catch certain frequencies in the voice and run that under the clean track. Distortion on backing vocals is cool too and lets them punch through at lower levels. There’s also another way of using distortion here, which is to feed a distorted version of the signal back into the singer’s headphones – you’ll notice a big difference in how they approach a performance and you don’t necessarily have to keep the fuzz later on. For a great vocal distortion sound check out some of the Strokes recordings where the vox was done live in the main room through a PA… just a little bit of grit and drive and tons of spill – lovely!
Keyboards & Synths: I guess this is essentially like the concept of distorting a guitar except that keys seem to get tracked clean more often as a basic studio strategy. It’s common to see people adding grit and drive to keyboard sounds in order to make them sit up in a mix. Organ sounds in particular are classic for sounding great when you’re tracking but a bit dull and lifeless in the mix as other elements get pumped up. Again, some moderate distortion followed by aggressive EQ can really pick out the best frequencies and make things come to life. Most synths worth their salt these days have some kind of distortion built in via a dedicated control or a combination of pulse width modulation and noise generators. Aggressive square wave leads and ginormous synth bass lines seasoned with distortion have been a way of life in dance music for decades now and so on it will go – just check out the presets in any modern synth. It’s all been done for you!
Horns: Horns can benefit from a bit of dirt to give them a more aggressive character and also to get them to feel more like a section than a bunch of separate overdub tracks. This can also be great for extracting maximum bottom end and generally exaggerating their tonality a bit.
The Mix Bus: Like all distortion applications this can be a bit hit and miss, but when it works it’s potentially very fun. Hitting an expensive analogue console hard can be a great experience akin to driving a Porsche, and rarely disappoints, but there are other ways and means as we have seen. One of the recordings I still often get comments about is a C.W. Stoneking album where we went for a really old-time sound. A lot of the power in these sounds came from C.W.’s own performance of course, which was fantastic and a joy to capture, but we also decided to do a little re-amping. The secret sauce on that record was sending the whole mix in mono into an el-cheapo ‘Zenith’ practice amp and remiking it with an old banger of a ribbon mic. That was the sound, although interestingly it only worked on some songs and not others.
OVER THE LIMIT
Okay, I haven’t mentioned resampling sounds through your ’80s Akai gear or mechanical distortion effects like putting strips of paper in your snare or weaving bits of wire through your guitar strings at the bridge or rubbing wine glasses while wobbling them around the soundboard of a detuned piano soundboard, but some things need to be discovered by sheer trial and error and I’m way over my word count already. Hope all this helps you dish the dirt on your sounds and keeps you from falling into lazy default mode. Happy distorting!By Maria Saporta
A gift of nearly $600,000 from Delta Air Lines CEO Richard Anderson and his wife, Susan, helped close out the $12.5 million campaign to fund the Atlanta BeltLine’s Westside Trail.
The private fundraising campaign was crucial in securing an $18 million TIGER V grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, which is accelerating construction on the Westside Trail by two to three years.
Funding will support the development of the Westside Trail, land acquisition, and project management and stewardship through the Atlanta BeltLine Partnership’s continuing efforts to enable the transformative project, empower the residents of the surrounding neighborhoods, and engage the users and visitors of the parks and trails.
The Atlanta BeltLine Partnership, the private fundraising arm for the transformational initiative, announced the successful completion of the campaign on Tuesday. The lead gift of $5 million came from Jim Kennedy through the James M. Cox Foundation/PATH Foundation.
Another critical gift that helped close out the campaign was a grant of $500,000 from Porsche Cars North America.
“The private sector’s support is once again playing a critical role in delivering more of the Atlanta BeltLine – this time to southwest Atlanta,” said Chuck Meadows, executive director of the Atlanta BeltLine Partnership.
Meadows went on to say that Kennedy’s generous gift as well as the leadership on the board and fundraising committee “infused the campaign with the momentum to not only meet the tight TIGER V grant timeline, but also to rally other donors to accelerate the completion of the campaign.”
The Andersons donated 13,000 shares of Delta Air Lines’ stock to the Atlanta BeltLine on Feb. 20, according to Trebor Bannister, a Delta spokesman. Based on the price Delta’s stock at that time, the value of that gift was about $598,000.
It was the second major gift Richard Anderson has made to the Atlanta BeltLine since last May when he donated 28,500 shares of Delta stock to the project, according to Bannister, who did not say how much that gift was worth.
Other major gifts to the Westside Trail campaign included:
a $2.5 million gift from Kaiser Permanente, including $500,000 for health measurement and programming;
a $500,000 gift from Wells Fargo Foundation to support accessible, vibrant communities;
a $500,000 gift in memory of Herman J. Russell, Sr.
The Atlanta Committee for Progress also provided critical leadership for the campaign, helping to secure key corporate contributions.
The effort was led by the Atlanta BeltLine Partnership board and a campaign committee led by Honorary Chair: Mayor Kasim Reed; Honorary Co-Chairs: James C. Kennedy of Cox Enterprises, Philip I. Kent, the late Herman J. Russell, Sr., A. Ray Weeks, Jr. of Weeks Robinson Properties; and Co-Chairs Matt M. Bronfman of Jamestown Properties, Michael S. Donnelly of Wells Fargo Bank, Ernest L. Greer of Greenberg Traurig, Michael B. Russell of H. J. Russell & Company, and Jeffrey Sprecher of Intercontinental Exchange.
Here is a list of the Capital Campaign Donors:
James M. Cox Foundation / PATH Foundation
Kaiser Permanente
Susan and Richard Anderson
In Memory of Herman J. Russell
Porsche Cars North America
Wells Fargo
Mr. John Portman and Mr. Charlie Loudermilk
Georgia Power Foundation, Inc.
AGL Resources
Ray Weeks, Jr.
Fuqua Foundations
Cousins Properties, Incorporated
Richard and Susan Dugas Family Foundation
Georgia-Pacific Foundation
Intercontinental Exchange
Morgens West Foundation
Rebecca and John Somerhalder
SunTrust Trusteed Foundations:
Harriet McDaniel Marshall Trust and
Walter H. and Marjory M. Rich Memorial Fund
Douglas J. Hertz Family Foundation, Inc.
Tommy Holder
Jamestown
AMLI
Philip I. Kent
Mr. and Mrs. R. Charles Shufeldt
L&C Wood Family Foundation, Inc.
Carter
The Atlanta BeltLine Partnership said that when the Westside Trail is completed, it will transform an abandoned rail corridor into a 14-foot wide paved multi-use pathway for pedestrians and non-motorized vehicles.
The project will also include the construction of 14 access points, 11 of which will be ADA-accessible, along with lighting, security cameras, signage, way-finding, mile-markers, and underground utility tunnels. An expansion of the Atlanta BeltLine arboretum will blend hundreds of large, native trees and integrate more than 30 acres of inviting and usable new green space.
The project will be constructed in preparation for future streetcar expansion. The Westside Trail connects four schools and four parks, as well as the residents of 10 southwest Atlanta neighborhoods to public transit, existing community businesses and future economic development sites.
Thanks to the Kaiser Permanente funding, there will be programming to improve the health of the people and communities on the Westside Trail. For more information, please visit the Atlanta BeltLine’s website about the Westside Trail.Bank of England Governor Mark Carney speaks during the bank's quarterly inflation report news conference at the Bank of England in London November 12, 2014. REUTERS/Stefan Rousseau/pool
LONDON (Reuters) - British interest rates will have to rise despite an expected dip in inflation but the exact timing of the hike is uncertain and any moves are likely to be gradual, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said in an interview published on Wednesday.
Carney, speaking to the Birmingham Post, stuck close to the message that he gave last month alongside updated economic forecasts and said inflation was still expected to dip below 1 percent in the coming months before starting to accelerate.
“What that means though, for this economy to have balance and inflation to get back to two percent over the next few years, is that... interest rates are going to have to increase,” he was quoted as saying.
“We don’t know the precise timing that will start, but what we are emphasizing... is the path of interest rate adjustments... is expected to be a gradual set of interest rate increases and to a more limited extent than the past,” he added.
Economists polled by Reuters do not expect the BoE to raise rates until the third quarter of next year as a slowdown in growth in the euro zone and big falls in oil prices reduce short-term price pressures.
Carney has voted against raising rates since he took over at the BoE last year, but in a speech earlier on Wednesday Ian McCafferty — one of two policymakers in favor of higher rates — said wages might be starting to pick up, bolstering the case for a tightening of policy.
Carney cited weak export markets, a financial sector that had not fully recovered from the crisis and ongoing pressures from government austerity measures as reasons to expect future rate rises to be gradual.
However, British economic growth is forecast to remain strong. The BoE expects an expansion of 3.5 percent this year — the fastest in a decade — before a slowdown to 2.9 percent in 2015.Days before candidate Donald Trump announced his intention to visit the flood ravaged area of Louisiana, he had already put in place a donation (a full 18 wheeler) of supplies for the victims of the flood.
CNN accidentally stumbled upon the donation, and Brooke Baldwin reported on it during a 90 second segment. Don’t worry, they won’t air it again:
While Donald Trump and Mike Pence were visiting with Franklin Graham and the fine folks of Samaritans Purse, the donation was quietly being off-loaded in another location.
Donald Trump met with several families, and gave them a message of support and hope. “Stay strong, you’re going to rebuild”.
The security agents assigned to candidate Trump are very protective, twitchy about close physical contact – but Donald Trump reassures them all will be ok.
This is another reminder of what goes on (earlier example here), that people don’t necessarily gain any insight into because it just doesn’t fit the MSM narrative.
AdvertisementsThe United States is closing all of its embassies Sunday in the Middle East and parts of Asia because of a possible al-Qaeda-related threat to diplomatic posts worldwide, American officials told NBC News on Thursday.
The U.S. has been "apprised of information that out of an abundance of caution and care for our employees and others who may be visiting our installations, that indicates we should institute these precautionary steps," said State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf.
She didn't say which or how many embassies would be closed or what kind of information led to the decision, but she said the closings could be extended, "depending on our analysis."
A senior State Department official told NBC News that all embassies that are usually open in Sundays — primarily those in Muslim countries and Israel — would be closed Aug. 4 "out of an abundance of caution." Sunday is a normal workday in those countries.
The officials said the threat appeared to have originated somewhere in the Middle East and to be related to al-Qaeda. It was aimed at overseas diplomatic posts, not at facilities inside the U.S., they said.
No further details were immediately available.
Sunday is President Barack Obama's 52nd birthday, and it's also the day Iran inaugurates Hassan Rowhani as its new president. But U.S. officials told NBC News they had heard nothing to indicate that the date was chosen for either of those reasons.
— Catherine Chomiak, Charlene Gubash and Robert Windrem of NBC News contributed to this report.Your move Golden Arches.
October 27, 2016 2 min read
It wouldn't be Halloween without some mischief, and Burger King pulled off a pretty effective trick on its rival fast food franchise.
A Burger King location in Rego Park, N.Y. decided to get into the spooky spirit of the season by crafting a ghostly McDonald’s get up complete with a feisty sign that reads "Booooo! Just kidding, we still flame-grill our burgers. Happy Halloween."
Related: Burger King Gets Burned in Twitter Duel With Wendy's
The internet seemed pretty impressed by the chain's Halloween chutzpah and awarded this round to Burger King. There's still time for McDonald's to make a move, but we may be waiting until Christmas to see what the Golden Arches has in store.
Now that’s the competitive Halloween spirit I like to see @BurgerKing!!?https://t.co/nkRnVBfIXk — John Legere (@JohnLegere) October 27, 2016
Leave it to a Burger King in Queens, NY to display the best Halloween costume a fast-food chain has ever worn. pic.twitter.com/Ib8sWknSZ1 — Eric Alper (@ThatEricAlper) October 27, 2016Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
Oct. 7, 2014, 11:02 AM GMT
MADRID — Four people, including the nurse who tested for Ebola on Monday, were hospitalized and being monitored over suspicion of potential contagion of the deadly disease, Spain's health authorities said on Tuesday. Officials for Madrid's health system told a news conference those hospitalized included the nurse's husband, a traveler from Nigeria and another health worker.
Officials also said the nurse, who did not leave Madrid during her vacations, was currently being treated with drip using antibodies from previous infected patients.
It was confirmed Monday that the nurse, who had cared for an Ebola patient who contracted the virus in Sierra Leone, was the victim of the first known transmission outside West Africa during the current epidemic.
IN-DEPTH
— ReutersStephen Cummings will sign a new contract at Dimension Data during this year's Tour de France. The 36-year-old has spent the last three seasons at the team and plans to put pen to paper on a new two-year deal, having agreed to terms with the squad. Related Articles Cummings: It would be crazy to stop now, it's the best time in my career
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Steve Cummings' Tour de France Cervelo S5 in British champion colours
Cummings fights the pain to finish the Tour de France
Pauwels, Morton and Kudus in Dimension Data team for Vuelta a Espana
"We've had really positive discussions. We've agreed but not signed. Hopefully, we'll have that done by the end of the Tour. I like the project and I like the opportunities I get," Cummings told Cyclingnews.
Cummings had drawn interest from several rival WorldTour teams, who, despite his advancing years, were keen to sign a rider enjoying the best period of his career.
Cummings came back from two injuries this season to make the start line at the Tour de France. He won both the road race and the time trial at the British Championships in order to secure his Tour spot and has eyed several opportunities to win a stage. He has won stages in each of the last two Tours.
"Tomorrow is a good opportunity," he said when looking to stage 8 from Dole to Sation des Rousses. The terrain, with it's three categorised climbs, is perfect for Cummings' characteristics if he has the legs to match.
"I just have to try and find the right move at the start, and people are still quite fresh. Finding the right move isn't easy. What I like is a really hard start and the final tomorrow does really suit me.
"Tomorrow is a good stage but there are other opportunities if it doesn't happen tomorrow."
Cummings' injury issues this season meant that he missed a considerable block of racing. He last completed a stage race at Tirreno-Adriatico back in March. The opening week of the Tour, however, has helped him find his rhythm.
"The legs are good and of course that's important. These stages are good for me. It's helped me come back into the group and find the rhythm. It's given me the chance get into the groove again because there's not been anything super hard."
Of course, Cummings' isn't the only rider here chasing stage wins. Robert Gesink, Thibaut Pinot, Thomas Voeckler and Pierre Rolland all have similar game plans – highlighting the calibre of rider the Dimension Data athlete is up against.
When asked who is rivals were, Cummings said: "That's probably the 20 or so riders at the back of the bunch riding around me. It's probably a few of them. Some sway more to hillier stages, and if it's too hilly then it's too hard for me. There are some guys like Pierre Rolland who can go harder on the real mountain stages but tomorrow should be good."
Cummings isn't just at the Tour de France to ride one-man missions. He has been pitching in when called upon.
"I'm happy. They've asked me to help in the sprint a few times, and I'm happy to. Today they've asked me to help a bit and it's a case of waiting for my stages. The sprinters wouldn't try and win tomorrow, and it's the same sort of thing."Excessive Government debts and credit card borrowing have led to New Zealand’s credit card rating being downgrade from AA+ to AA.
In a move that did not seem to surprise many, New Zealand’s credit rating was been downgraded from AA+ to AA on September 30th by Fitch Ratings. The international ratings agency pointed to the country’s staggering external debt levels as the primary reason behind the downgrade.
New Zealand’s net external debts currently stand at 83 percent of the GDP. According to Fitch Ratings, there has been no significant evidence that the figure is likely to drop, with neither the government nor public showing signs of making strong moves to slash their debts. It was added that the country also has a high current account deficit, which is expected to hit 4.9 percent in 2012 and 5.5 percent in 2013.
While addressing the New Zealand media on the day before the announcement, the Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard warned that the current debt crisis in Greece could a debt averse financial market turn a negative eye upon New Zealand. Commenting on the credit downgrade, the Finance Minister of New Zealand Bill English said that the country has improved its financial situation recently, but international financial markets are currently “hyper sensitive” to debt. He conceded that the government could have done more to encourage taxpayers to lower their personal debts levels, but the move would have required significant cuts and reforms to the national welfare system.
Banks have shown mixed reactions to the credit downgrade. ANZ’s chief economist Cameron Bagrie has already said that he does not think that the cut will have an impact on local borrowing costs in the short term. However, Westpac chief economist Dominick Stephens has said that the bank is already looking at the possibility of raising borrowing costs.
Photo by Mark Lincoln"It's going to be like the first six games," he said, "where I'm going to probably go home, eat something, and then take a little napperoonski and be good to go."
PITTSBURGH -- Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Slater Koekkoek has a plan in mind for how he'll treat the hours leading up to the first Game 7 of his life.
Will he be able to get through his nap -- sorry, his napperoonski -- without thinking about what's ahead in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Consol Energy Center (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, TVA Sports) on Thursday?
"Way easier said than done for sure," Koekkoek said.
He's not alone.
Koekkoek is one of three Lightning players expected in the lineup Thursday who never have played in a Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy was the backup to Ben Bishop in the Game 7s the Lightning played in the 2015 playoffs. Forward Jonathan Drouin was scratched for both of them.
Video: TBL@PIT, Gm2: Drouin ties the game with perfect shot
Drouin at least played in two Game 7s in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League as well as a Memorial Cup Final. Vasilevskiy never has played a Game 7 in North America.
On the other side the Penguins have seven players who are expected to play in their first Game 7 -- rookie goalie Matt Murray, rookie forwards Conor Sheary, Bryan Rust and Tom Kuhnhackl, and defensemen Brian Dumoulin, Ian Cole and Justin Schultz.
Sheary and Dumoulin have Game 7 experience in the American Hockey League. Murray, Rust and Cole have never played a Game 7 at any level.
Schultz's last Game 7 was in 2008, when he was in the British Columbia Hockey League.
Kuhnhackl's only Game 7 experience came with the Windsor Spitfires in the Ontario Hockey League in 2011.
"That was my first year [in North America]. I was 17 and in a different country with different culture," said Kuhnhackl, who is from Landshut, Germany. "Now that I've been over here for a long time, been through injuries and trades and suspensions, all that stuff, I don't think I'm as nervous as I was back then."
Video: NYR@PIT, Gm5: Sheary beats Lundqvist from the slot
None of the players seemed nervous after their respective morning skates. Obviously Koekkoek wasn't. He was using words like napperoonski instead of nap.
"I'm excited," Koekkoek said. "I'm thankful that I'm here. But you have to treat it like any other game. You can't get too high on things. That's what I'll try to do."
That seemed to be the general sentiment from all of the Game 7 rookies.
Cole said the closest he's come to a Game 7 was Game 3 of the best-of-3 Central Collegiate Hockey Association quarterfinals in 2008 when he was a freshman at Notre Dame. He wasn't comparing that game to what's ahead of him Thursday, but the experience at least gives him an idea of what to expect.
"Obviously the gravity of the game, of every play, is exponentially higher than it is in Game 1, which is exponentially higher than it is in the regular season," Cole said. "You're aware of the situation but you can't let the situation dictate your play, your thought process, because you can almost paralyze yourself thinking, 'Oh my God, it's a Game 7. Oh my God, this is it, don't screw it up.' You can almost paralyze yourself. You just have to go out and play the way you have been leading up to that Game 7, because you need to make sure you don't psyche yourself out. I think you can do that if you think, 'Oh my God, this is Game 7. This is insane.'"
The Penguins already faced a win-or-else game, needing to win Game 6 at Amalie Arena on Tuesday. They won 5-2 to force Game 7, and having that occur so recently could be an advantage for them.
"I think it helps out a lot of guys in here that we were in an elimination game just two days ago so it's the same thing now," Rust said. "We've got to come out with the same mindset, same energy, same feeling. Just maybe ramp it up a bit because both teams will have that sense of urgency."
Video: PIT@TBL, Gm6: Vasilevskiy stops Bonino's chance
Sheary and Dumoulin saw firsthand how that urgency can manifest itself when they played for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, the Penguins' AHL affiliate, in a Game 7 against Providence, the Boston Bruins' affiliate, in the Calder Cup Playoffs in 2014.
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton had a 5-0 lead by 7:16 of the second period, including a goal from Sheary. Providence scored the next four goals but Wilkes-Barre/Scranton held on in the final 10 minutes for the win.
"That game was a whirlwind and we almost lost it," Sheary said. "I can take a lot of points from that, just to not sit back at any point because any team can come back. Nothing is safe. Guys are putting it all out there."
And as Dumoulin noted, it should be even more "amped up" at Consol Energy Center because this Game 7 is for the right to go to the Stanley Cup Final. The stakes never have been higher for any of these Game 7 rookies.
"Obviously it's the biggest game I've ever been in," Koekkoek said.Don’t ask how and don’t ask why, but the nunsploitation genre is making a major comeback in the cinema. And we’re all the richer for it.
There are two ways to approach the making of a film about revenge-seeking, death-dealing Catholic nuns. Given the ludicrousness of the entire premise to begin with, one could either treat the subject with real seriousness or go for the strictly goofy send-up route.
Despite the pun-ish title, directors Greg Hanson and Casey Regan successfully opt for the serious route. While there are a few good jokes scattered throughout the film, for the most part Thy Kill Be Done is a straight recreation of the ’70s urban gang exploitation genre.
Have You Seen This Movie? (Leave Your Own Review)
With a suitably grainy film stock and funky score — both courtesy D.P. and music scorer Seth Applebaum — the film feels both modern and throwback as it begins in a church in an indeterminate year. Monsignor O’Byrron (Kevin Kate) sermons about the ills that plague the city — drugs, rape, prostitution and murder — when a drug-addled 12-year-old boy (Johnny Kilcoyne) bursts inside and passes out among the pews.
Following a confrontation with the unrepentant drug dealer named Scratch (Scott Hand) and his goons, the Monsignor lies bloody and dead in the snow. So, it’s up to a trio of ass-kicking nuns (Jessica Webb, Rachel Cervarich, Chaseedaw Giles) to get revenge and clean up the streets for good.
That set-up takes up pretty much exactly half of the 14-minute film, so it takes a little while before things get going. But, when the nuns do decide to fight back, Hansen and Regan really throw things into high gear, beginning with an insane Vietnam flashback to explain their unusual penchant for violence.
The ostensible leader of the nuns is Sister Yvonne, played with a steely and fierce intensity by Jessica Webb, who delivers her lines — whether she’s reciting scripture or announcing she’s going to kick some goon’s ass — without once winking at the audience that her character’s actions or dialogue are totally ridiculous. She’s a totally fearsome presence.
The eventual showdown between nuns and goons in — where else? — an abandoned warehouse is a nicely choreographed bloodbath with especially good, gory special effects for a low-budget short film. Hansen and Regan wisely knew that they couldn’t cheat on delivering a completely over-the-top, brutal conclusion if their film were to totally live up to its premise.
Goons are dispatched with baseball bats, switchblades and, in an inventive twist, a pope’s hat ringed by metal teeth. The device recalls the titular weapon of the classic kung fu film Master of the Flying Guillotine. Lastly, the ultimate confrontation between Sister Yvonne and Scratch doesn’t disappoint either, with a great crowd-pleasing final image.
It’s difficult to say why nunsploitation is making a comeback in film these days, from Australian features like Dominic Deacon’s Bad Habits to bank robbers dressing up in grotesque nun costumes in Ben Affleck’s The Town. It also appears to be a subgenre that can only go so far. But, luckily, Hansen and Regan have gotten in on the action early and have contributed a fine and fun entry that could possibly inspire much more nun bad-assery to come.Kevin Gallo just announced Bash support on Windows.
If you have never had to interact with the Windows Batch language, this might not seem like such a big deal. Surely Batch could not be substantially worse than Bash, right?
Bash: a language that was neither designed, nor evolved. An adequate solution to a problem that has since become orders of magnitude harder. As arcane as it is useful, as dangerous as it is ubiquitous, Bash: the language that asks how much we are willing to give up for convenience’s sake?
Sure, Bash could be worse. But substantially worse? Bash had one value proposition: it was just good enough. It is difficult to imagine that it would have flourished as it has, if that had that not been true.
But the truth is what it is. Batch is substantially worse. And how much worse sort of beggars belief. Look:
The time a batch script takes to execute is at least O(n*(n-1)/2) (aka O(n^2)) in the LENGTH OF THE FILE, INCLUDING COMMENTS. The reason is that the batch engine reads the entire file, then executes a line, then reads the file again, then executes another line, and so on.
It is therefore customary to use a GOTO to skip over sizable comment blocks, so that you don’t have to “execute” them.
The lines inside “lexical” blocks like those of the for loop are not interpreted separately. They are CONCATENATED TOGETHER AND INTERPRETED ALL AT ONCE, meaning that if do something as innocuous as adding a :: comment inside a for loop or an if block, the terminating ) will go missing and batch will not know what to do. It will think that you forgot to add a ) to close the for loop.
loop are not interpreted separately. They are CONCATENATED TOGETHER AND INTERPRETED ALL AT ONCE, meaning that if do something as innocuous as adding a comment inside a loop or an block, the terminating will go missing and batch will not know what to do. It will think that you forgot to add a to close the loop. Never comment out code. If you, do bad things will eventually happen. For example, on some Windows systems, the REM -style comment, REM Ensure > true, will actually pipe the “output” of the comment to a file called true. Since comments have no output, the effect is to generate an empty file called true.
-style comment,, will actually pipe the “output” of the comment to a file called. Since comments have no output, the effect is to generate an empty file called. Variable expansion occurs at PARSE TIME, not evaluation time. This is particularly bad in the case of blocks like for and if, because all the lines in the block are concatenated together and parsed at once. So, normally if you call something like findstr inside a for block, you would expect %errorlevel% to be set to indicate whether there was an error. But, it’s not. The variable %errorlevel% is never updated, because it was assigned whatever value it had when Batch PARSED THE for BLOCK. The statement if %errorlevel% neq 0 is therefore completely meaningless inside a for block.
and, because all the lines in the block are concatenated together and parsed at once. So, normally if you call something like inside a block, you would expect to be set to indicate whether there was an error. But, it’s not. The variable is never updated, because it was assigned whatever value it had when Batch PARSED THE BLOCK. The statement is therefore completely meaningless inside a block. If you add 2 :: comments in a for block, you will get errors that claim The system cannot find the drive specified and there is a possibility that your script will exit with error code 123. This happens because (in spite of popular guidance that you should use :: as a comment) it turns out that the :: comment syntax is actually not a comment at all, but a LABEL, and in label syntax, :: must be at the beginning of the line with no leading whitespace, and two consecutive labels causes batch to freak out, because batch concatenated them together into the same line.
And the list goes on and on.
When I was in college a few years ago, I thought that PowerShell was a fun take on what a modern shell could look like. It is not. PowerShell is the cure for polio, and Jeffrey Snover is the Jonas Salk of the Windows ecosystem.
Batch is like an alien device that has appeared on the earth, and at first you think it’s a gift, but then you realize it is a machine of destruction, here to raze your society to the ground, and the only viable solution is to find a way to rid yourself of it completely.
Like the Necronomicon or some other Satanic book, Batch does not seem so bad at first, but when the correct medium (in this case, the computer) reads the words, you find that a portal to hell has opened and suddenly the trees are coming alive and you’re being sucked into your computer screen you’re thinking about how 10 minutes ago your biggest problem was whether you were going to get to the store in time tonight to grab that macaroni you like, and now, as you are floating through the demon portal, you’re just wondering why this thing didn’t come with a warning on this side or something like that.
Bash is like the neighbor who seems nice and sweet, but maybe they don’t have a life you’d want to have personally. They have some pretty serious character flaws and obviously make mistakes, but in the end they are a nice person who tries hard to make sure the people that depend on them are doing ok.
Batch is the guy who looks like that neighbor, but then turns out to be a serial killer.
So, here we are. This is the reality of the Windows world. Yesterday, your choice was Batch or PowerShell. Today your choice is Batch, PowerShell, or Bash. (Well, it’s not really as simple as that, but you get my point.)
And as you make your choice, it’s worth visiting the graves of the fallen.
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DisqusStore manager Brandon Khan stacks copies of 'Call of Duty: Ghosts' during a launch event at a GameStop in Las Vegas. (Photo: Ethan Miller, Getty Images)
Shares of video game retailer GameStop plunged nearly 20% to $36.50 in afternoon trading after releasing a mixed report on holiday sales.
The company reported total global sales of $3.15 billion, up 9.3% from the same time last year. However, sales of new video game software dipped more than 22% compared to the same time last year.
The slump in software was offset by hardware sales that were nearly double that of the 2012 holiday, thanks to the arrival of Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One.
Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia says the dip in new video game software -- which consists primarily of games on older systems -- and surge in hardware signals that "people are moving on to the next gen faster."
"It's a classic transition time," says Bhatia.
Both the PS4 and Xbox One have gotten off to strong starts at retail. Sales of the PS4 reached 4.2 million worldwide, while the Xbox One has topped 3 million. The combined 7.2 million in sales is ahead of an expected 6 million in sales, Bhatia says.
Last week, GameStop shares were hit after Sony announced a new cloud-based gaming service that would allow users to either rent individual titles from the PlayStation, PS2 and PS3 libraries, or start a subscription for greater access.
Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @bam923.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/KhiUhDMāori want mainstream doctors to collaborate more with traditional rongoā Māori healers to give patients the best possible healthcare, according to a new study
Photo: Flickr user Andy Chilton / RNZ
The study, by Dr Glenis Mark (Ngāpuhi, Ngāi Tahu), found tāngata whenua wanted the option to receive treatment from both, but would not tell their doctor they were seeing a healer as well, because they feared ridicule.
Photo: SUPPLIED
Dr Mark carried out the study as part of a Health Research Council Māori health post-doctoral fellowship, through Whakauae Research Services.
She interviewed Māori who used both rongoā Māori healers and doctors in mainstream primary healthcare, and Māori who used doctors |
, they like to go outside, they like to be active. Having male teachers does not only make a difference in the classroom, but also in the staff room; it changes the tone."
At another London school, which expects to attract 100 men to its event this week, the headteacher said she was determined to change the image of primary school teaching. "Thirty or 40 years ago it was seen as a job that women did because it fitted in with their children. We want it to be seen as a serious profession out of which men and women can expect to make a long career. We want it to be seen as more hard-edged and dynamic," said Alyson Russen, head of Millbank primary school.
Millbank has 24 teachers, of whom only four are men. "That is common," added Russen, who said it was important to change the balance: "It makes a big difference. Schools should represent what is out there in the world. That is what works best for kids, what they need and thrive on. You want a mix in age, in linguistics, in ability and disability, in ethnic background and in gender. Teachers are powerful role models."
Ben Keeling, a lead teacher at the school, hopes that speaking to men about his own experience, starting with the event this week, will help trigger a change: "The job is seen as a more nurturing, caring role and is stereotypically not seen as male. But, as Alyson says, 'little boys need to learn to become men'."Anderson Ponty Band – Better Late Than Never
Article by: Tony Colvill
Somewhere around 1980, Jon Anderson approached Jean-Luc Ponty with a view to a collaboration. Now, over thirty years later, the man from Accrington and the man from Avranches, two very different environments, have finally got together. The album was recorded live in Aspen, Colorado, which goes some way to explain the sound and feel, and then tweaked in the studio. I looked forward to this album when I first heard of its planned release, and overall it has not disappointed. I always considered Yes to have a jazz element, particularly in their early work, and combining this with former Frank Zappa musician and credible artiste in his own right Jean-Luc Ponty seemed to me to create an interesting combination.

So let’s get the gripes out of the way. Just two really; in an album of covers of Yes material, Jean-Luc material and a couple of new bits, it’s not bad but although a cover must bring something new to a song it should not slaughter what are essentially sacred cows. So what, in my view, went to the abattoir? Firstly, Time and a Word, a song with a lot of feeling, pathos if you will, all the sentiment and meaning is lost in a cod reggae version. Don’t get me wrong, in a live environment this may actually work. I recall seeing Fairport Convention doing a reggae style Matty Groves live and it was really enjoyable, but, for me, this does not. Professionally done with good musicianship, but the heart of the song, gone. Similarly, Wondrous Stories, a song which when performed by Yes (and Jon) is just plain enjoyable.
The album opens with an intro, this is the band statement and as such delivers some promise before moving into the first track, One in the Rhythm of Hope, a blending of J-LP’s Rhythm of Hope and “Yesisms”. It works well, Anderson’s voice reaches its heights and Ponty’s violin provides a jazz feel. This is much a pattern for the album, Yes revisited, a merging of Yes and J-LP with a few new bits.
A for Aria is a lovely piece, it has the feeling that the reggae version of Time and A Word has lost to my ears. Jon, although the voice is older, can still sound as powerful and emotive as ever. Other tracks hit these high points too, most markedly Listening with Me and Soul Eternal.
Owner of a Lonely Heart works for me, it has had some of the eighties bombast removed but still manages to retain the shape and feeling of the original, violin substituting for the guitar work of Trevor Rabin does not devalue the song so a thumbs up from me on this one.
Infinite Mirage blends the rock and jazz influences but also manages a poppy feel with a distinct live element. Overall it is a strange album, part rock, part jazz, part lounge, an occasional indulgence (eek!), some even meriting owning, especially in the current presence of a wayward studio Yes.
Soul Eternal is what Wonderous Stories could have been, a track filled with hope and the expectations that I have of a classic Yes track. My perspective on this is mainly as a Yes rock fan, and much as I love my jazz too, I have not exposed myself to a lot of J-LP’s back catalogue, I will however make it a mission to explore.
And You & I is almost a straight Yes cover, if covering your own material is in fact a cover. It’s fine, it works, and nothing of its essence is lost. Unlike the jazz lounge Wonderous Stories, not far from Alas Smith & Jones and now the tears of laughter fall. Though currently sat in the shed with a glass of merlot and Wonderous Stories playing, it is not as offensive as on first listen. Merlot mellows the savage ear…
Renaissance of the Sun is one of the jointly composed pieces and it’s very very nice. First sound of the audience. Yup, the merlot is working, feeling very chilled with this piece, can recommend it for late night chilling.
Roundabout is a mad and crazy jazzed up version of the Yes classic, this is what a musical conglomeration should be, a little from both, losing nothing and adding a different edge to get close to. And it would seem that the band finally express themselves freely. Long time coming for a live recording.
I See You Messenger and the last track, New New World, show the true potential of this project and I do hope they have another go but with more new material.
It was recorded live, and I wonder if the DVD that accompanies the deluxe version of the album gives more life to the performance, in particular those two tracks that disappoint me. Perhaps with movement and cheesy grins they become more than party pieces. Sadly, the review copy is just audio so I may never know. The production values are good, something that seemed to be missing from the last Yes studio album. I think that if you like Jon with Yes, Jean-Luc Ponty and a little jazz orientated music, yours to own will be no disgrace. Some tracks will happily go on to a prog mix for the car, others….
If this is the first of a few from Anderson Ponty then it is a good start. 30 years in the making, but a good start.
TRACK LISTING
01. Band Intro (1:17)
02. One in the Rhythm of Hope (4:34)
03. A for Aria (3:22)
04. Owner of a Lonely Heart (5:04)
05. Listening with Me (5:39)
06. Time and a Word (5:30)
07. Infinite Mirage (3:48)
08. Soul Eternal (4:58)
09. Wonderous Stories (4:01)
10. And You and I (3:00)
11. Renaissance of the Sun (6:36)
12. Roundabout (5:27)
13. I See You Messenger (3:50)
14. New New World (3:46)
Total time – 60:52
MUSICIANS
Jon Anderson – Vocals, Guitar
Jean-Luc Ponty – Violin
Jamie Glaser – Guitars
Wally Minko – Keyboards
Baron Browne – Bass
Rayford Griffin – Drums & Percussion
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Ear Music
Year Of Release: 2015
LINKS
Anderson Ponty Band: Website | Facebook
Jon Anderson: Website | Facebook
Jean-Luc Ponty: WebsiteCandyShell Grip is Speck’s military-grade protective Google Nexus 6P case with raised rubber ridges that are designed to make an impact – and take one.
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Speck makes products that are designed for impact to protect the tech you rely on. With a balance of slim lines and military-grade protection, we provide a difference you can see and feel.As the guitarist for The Bouncing Souls, Pete Steinkopf has made the punk rock scene and the state of New Jersey proud for continuously delivering on every record and at every show. I got a chance to catch up with Pete to discuss what he’s been up to as of late, the future of The Bouncing Souls, his punk rock roots, his biggest influences and more.
Alex Obert: So I understand you’ve been doing some work in the studio with Up For Nothing, can you fill readers in on that?
Pete Steinkopf: I went with them a couple weeks ago into the studio that I work at in town a lot called Lakehouse. We recorded about fourteen songs and we’re gonna go back and do overdubs in a couple weeks.
Alex Obert: What do see in them?
Pete Steinkopf: I’ve known their singer, Justin, for years. He’s got great catchy songs. I’ve always liked those guys. I did an EP with them a couple years ago too, just good dudes. Great music.
Alex Obert: Who are some other new bands that you’ve gotten into lately?
Pete Steinkopf: I was recently working on an EP with this band called The Moms. They’re a Jersey band, a really good band from central Jersey. Little poppy, a little edgy. Cool shit.
Alex Obert: How do you feel that the New Jersey music scene has evolved throughout the years?
Pete Steinkopf: Geez man, who knows? (laughs) It seems that there’s always stuff going on. I live right by Asbury Park and the music scene down here is awesome. There’s always something new going on. Always new bands coming up in all kinds of different scenes happening that you keep discovering all the time. If you’re from New Jersey, it comes out in your music.
Alex Obert: And speaking of which, the Bouncing Souls have a show coming up at the Starland Ballroom on July 17th. What memories do you have of playing there?
Pete Steinkopf: We haven’t played there in a long time, it’s been at least ten years. We started doing our Home for the Holidays shows here in Asbury Park at the Stone Pony. And we’ve been doing it for eight years now. Since then, we haven’t really been playing other New Jersey shows. But we did play Starland Ballroom a bunch of times back in 2002-2004. It’s a great place to play. There’s always good shows there, there’s tons of kids around in the area. It’s always a good show at a packed house. And a good vibe.
Alex Obert: Outside of the United States, where else do you like to play?
Pete Steinkopf: One of my favorite places to go is Australia, such great place to go. There’s good people and good shows, it’s a great vibe.
Alex Obert: How is the food there?
Pete Steinkopf: I don’t think the Australian local cuisine is all that great, but they have great Thai food and great Japanese food there. Some of the best sushi I’ve ever had was from Australia.
Alex Obert: Which places do you always make sure to eat at when on the road?
Pete Steinkopf: We used to be really into Cracker Barrel a long time ago, but kind of over that now. I love going to California and going to Del Taco, that’s pretty good. When in California, I go to In-N-Out Burger. Can’t beat that. When you’re on the West Coast, you’ve gotta go to In-N-Out Burger.
Alex Obert: Now that it’s out for three years, how do you feel about Comet when looking back and really reflecting on it all?
Pete Steinkopf: It’s one of my favorite records of ours. Some of the songs are real cool. It’s pretty heavy, some longer songs. We’re starting to work on a new record now and getting the songs together. The whole goal is to write short, fast, fun songs. The goal is to get back to that. It’s about doing something different because that’s we’re at right now. At the time with Comet, the matter was heavy and the songs were heavy. The whole thing was heavy in a cool way, but we now want to go more lighthearted and personal and fun.
Alex Obert: Who do you feel paved the way for the band?
Pete Steinkopf: I saw bands in high school like the Ramones and The Replacements and Red Hot Chili Peppers and Fishbone. Those were the bands whose shows we would always attend. That’s what our motivation was, to get in the van into just go tour or at least play. These are bands that changed our lives and they meant so much to us. And we’re like, “Fuck it, we can do that. Let’s go do that.” (laughs) We started doing it and somehow, we’ve just kept doing it for a long time.
Alex Obert: Being a big fan of the Ramones, what are some of your favorite songs by them?
Pete Steinkopf: Bonzo Goes to Bitburg. Cretin Hop. Teenage Lobotomy, can’t beat that. Pinhead. Dude, there’s so fucking many. I Just Want to Have Something to Do. I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend. I could probably name you about thirty because they’re all so great.
Alex Obert: Who would you say are some of the guitarists from any genre that influenced you the most?
Pete Steinkopf: So many, man. Growing up, I learned to play guitar by listening to Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones. As a kid, my older cousins listened to that. I hung out with them and listened to their record collections. That’s the kind of stuff that I learned to play, old fuckin’ rock and roll. Then I discovered the Ramones and learned how to play in a more simple way, just playing cool chords that are super catchy. I think The Edge from U2 was a big influence, he’s just so innovative and he does cool shit with effects. I went through a big U2 phase. Guitar-songwriter guys like Paul Westerberg played chords in a different way and that’s what influenced me the most.
Alex Obert: So I understand that the band has a relationship with CM Punk.
Pete Steinkopf: He’s a good guy. He comes to our shows and he’s a big supporter. It’s awesome.
Alex Obert: How did it feel to know that he came out to Night Train for a big match ten years ago?
Pete Steinkopf: It was so cool, man. It’s just awesome to have someone like him use our music as his fuckin’ hype music. It was cool as fuck.
Alex Obert: Sami Zayn was well-known for using Ole as his entrance theme in the past and now the crowd chants it in support of him and as an acknowledgment to that.
Pete Steinkopf: It’s really cool. I love that kind of shit. I remember in the Vancouver Winter Olympics, every time the US hockey team scored a goal, they played that. I thought that was fuckin’ cool.
Alex Obert: If it were to all end today, how would you want the Bouncing Souls to be remembered?
Pete Steinkopf: Just by what you saw. You came to our shows and got the feeling to go home feeling good about life, that’s what we sing about. We sing about our lives, the good parts and the bad parts. It’s a celebration. Hopefully people go away from it feeling a little bit uplifted and hopefully we just made this world a little better place by doing something.
Alex Obert: You’ve definitely done a great job with that.
Pete Steinkopf: Thanks, man.
Alex Obert: I’d love to thank you so much for your time and a great interview.
Pete Steinkopf: You got it, man.
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Photo Credit: Mike McLaughlin PhotographyEL PASO, Texas — Tyler Scaife went coast-to-coast and scores with 2 seconds left to give Rutgers the Women's National Invitation Tournament championship with a 56-54 win over UTEP on Saturday.
Rutgers (28-9), which led 30-16 at the half, withstood a furious second-half rally by UTEP (29-8), which tied it at 54 with 7 seconds to play on a putback by Chrishauna Parker.
Scaife took the inbounds pass and raced downcourt to score the winning points to quiet UTEP's home sellout crowd of 12,222.
"I just knew we had to get down the floor and score," said Scaife, a freshman who was named the tournament MVP. "I'm happy it went in.
"I'm just happy we finished the season off like this."
Rutgers Hall of Fame coach C. Vivian Stringer, who won her 929th game, said her team did well to win in a tough environment -- and for the third straight time on the road.
"First of all, I think give credit to UTEP," she said. "Great crowd, outstanding team and a great coaching job. They really truly are an outstanding team. I think that, easily, UTEP could've been an NCAA (tournament) team.
"But what's most important -- I thought that we probably got the greatest experience of them all, because I don't think it could be rougher than that. I know it can't be rougher than that in the Final Four."
Rutgers was led by Kahleah Cooper and Scaife, who each finished with 18 points, and Briyona Canty with 12. UTEP got 16 points from Kristine Vitola and 11 from Jenzel Nash.
Both teams were playing in the 64-team WNIT for the first time and both entered on a five-game tournament win streak. Yet despite outscoring the Knights 28-26 in the second half, it was UTEP that came up one play short.
"The game was great. There are great kids on that team," UTEP coach Keitha Adams said. "It stings because we were so close."
UTEP trailed by 18 points early in the second half before runs of 8-2 and 12-2 helped it cut the Rutgers lead to 39-36. The Miners then took their first lead since 5-2 when Parker's bucket gave them a 50-48 lead with 5:06 to go.
However, Rutgers was able to answer the surge, getting a jumper and two free throws from Scaife and a layup from Rachel Hollivay to go ahead 54-50 with 1:15 to play.
Vitola sank two free throws with 1:01 to go to make it 54-52, and both teams exchanged misses from the line before Parker's rebound and putback tied it with 8 seconds to go.
Copper, who also was named to the all-tournament team, said the Scarlet Knights were not fazed by the hostile crowd. That showed late, when Rutgers held the Miners without a basket from the 5:06 mark to the final 8 seconds.
"We've played in crowds like this," she said. "We played at Louisville, we played at Connecticut. We were prepared for this. So it was no different than any other time."
The Miners, who finished with 19 turnovers, came up one play short. Twice they suffered shot-clock violations in the final 3 minutes, and their defense froze in the final seconds.
"It wasn't just the last 6 seconds," Vitola said. "It was the whole game."The Brooklyn Nets will hold a free agent mini-camp on June 2-4 at the PNY Center in New Jersey, bringing in 32 free agents to get a look at over the three day period.
We already knew about a few of the players invited, including Donte Greene, Lance Thomas, DeAndre Liggins and Scott Machado, among others.
Here now is the complete list of players to participate, which includes NetsDaily favorite Ivan Johnson as well as DaJuan Summers, who played with the Pistons, Hornets and Clippers, and Malcom Lee, who played with the Timberwolves. Of all the invites, Donte Greene has the most NBA experience with 253 games.
About a third of the group --10 players-- have some NBA experience. Greene and Thomas were preveiously invited to the Nets training camp, Greene in 2010 and Thomas in 2012. Thomas was cut in camp and Greene blew out his ankle shortly he was invited and didn't participate in camp.
Billy King will also be there and will meet with the media after one of the sessions, which should be a good opportunity for some newsworthy updates on the Nets plans this summer.SpaceX's launch of the Falcon 9 from Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, USA. (EPA/SPACEX)
Update: Elon Musk had some strong words for his biggest potential client today. Check out the full report here.
At 17 minutes past midnight Eastern time Friday, reporters got a cryptic e-mail in their inboxes: "Elon Musk will make an important SpaceX announcement today, Friday, April 25 at 1 p.m. ET at a Washington, DC venue to be announced shortly. The announcement will be followed immediately by Q&A."
That was it. No further explanation. What has the entrepreneur got up his sleeve? Has he found a way to loft rockets into space on Tesla batteries? Has he made first contact with aliens? Maybe he is an alien?
Whatever it is, we've got it covered. I'm heading to this event later this afternoon, so check back here — or on Twitter — for updates.
The latest announcement comes one week after SpaceX successfully launched, for the first time, a reusable Falcon 9 rocket. Here's a video of the new technology in action:
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Netflix to become real TV and get its own ‘cable channel’ next week
Everything you should know about the FCC’s new net neutrality proposal
Ask us anything in The Switch’s new weekly livechat, SwitchbackQanta Ahmed is a Muslim physician, author, and British citizen. In a recent exclusive interview with United With Israel, she called Israel’s achievements in women’s and minority rights an inspiration to the Muslim world.
Qanta Ahmed is a physician, a Muslim of Pakistani origin, a British citizen and the author of “In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor’s Journey in Saudi Arabia.” Ahmed told United With Israel that she has traveled virtually everywhere in the Middle East, and has found no other country in the region with the same “level of freedom and integration.” Based on her experience, she acknowledges Israel as a special and unique country, a fact she believes no one should take for granted.
Ahmed recounts, “There was a very powerful sense of national identity in Israel, and in a certain way an acceptance of people wanting to be different. I found Israel extraordinarily liberating, for Muslim men and women. I met with Israeli Muslims…I visited the Beit Issi Shapiro Center in Kalansua, where Israeli Arab women were taking care of children with special needs. These women participated in the society, whether veiled or not. They had a role outside the household.”
Ahmed remarked that during her visit to the Technion, she was amazed by the various programs offered and the strong minority presence on the campus. She noted, “20 percent of the undergraduates at the Technion are Arab Muslims and seeing how they were thriving is very different from even the privileged women in Saudi Arabia. There is a different climate. I don’t feel in Israel that women are under siege or unequal or victims, but that is a strong feeling in the Muslim world. They aren’t fully empowered and they aren’t equal. I found Israel very refreshing. I did not find it in any way oppressive.”
Ahmed was also impressed that Israel provides a safe haven to the Ahmadi Muslim community, which is “persecuted across the Muslim world.” In contrast, the Ahmadi Muslim community in Haifa has “been thriving for the last 100 years.” They have their “own mosques, cemeteries funded by the Israeli government, and a school,” while in Pakistan “Ahmadi cemeteries are frequently desecrated, Ahmadis are barred from giving the Muslim call to prayer, and it is forbidden to call their holy places mosques.” Ahmed relates, “When I was visiting the minorities in Haifa, there were young men who recently converted [to Ahmadi Islam]…[and] some of them were Palestinians from the West Bank. They were excommunicated by their families in the West Bank for adopting their views and sought shelter in Haifa.” She acknowledged, “Israel is a guarantor of religious freedom. Religious freedom is an absolute human right under Israeli law, but not in the Palestinian Authority.”
Ahmed concluded, “The Muslim world needs Israel as an inspiration more than Israel needs the Muslim world’s acceptance. It is very bleak times, but Israel is extraordinarily hopeful…a hope I really experienced through the Israeli Muslims I met.”
Featured in: http://www.jewishpress.com/blogs/united-with-israel/muslim-physician-israel-an-inspiration-to-islamic-world/2013/07/09/
By Rachel Avraham, staff writer for United with Israel2014 looks set to be a record-breaking year for immigration, according to the ONS estimates published yesterday.
After a brief post recession dip, net immigration from the EU began to rise again in 2010 and last year, non-EU migration increased too.
The gross migration figures in the next chart show the different patterns of EU and non-EU migration. Some of the sharp drop in net EU migration was due to people going back to their home countries whereas net non-EU migration fell because fewer people came in the first place. There is a higher churn among EU migrants because it’s not as far for them to go back home and it’s easier to come back again.
The composition of EU migrants has changed as well. We tend to assume that most come from Eastern Europe but, in recent years, more people have been coming from the old EU15.
Some of this is due to the recession and unemployment in southern Europe but immigration from the EU15 has been rising since the mid 2000s. This chart from Migration Observatory tells an interesting story. Immigration from eastern Europe rose sharply after 2004 there was also an increase in net migration from the old EU at around the same time.
The story of EU migration, then, isn’t just an eastern European one. The UK is attracting people from all over Europe. This CityLab article explains some of the background. Europe’s population is shifting to its prosperous north-west, with London, the largest city in the EU, having by far the largest migrant population.
As Elli Thomas of Centre for Cities points out, based on figures for NI Number registrations, 43 percent of migrants and 48 percent of those with degrees go to London.
Having a big fashionable international city that dwarfs anywhere else in the EU and a language that much of the world speaks, makes the UK a favoured destination for workers from across Europe. Young people want to come to London and London seems to have no trouble creating lots of jobs for them to do. I have no data for this but most of the young EU workers I have spoken to say that having worked in London means they can then get better jobs when they return to their home countries. Working here becomes like an extension of university. As one cohort goes home to improved job prospects another group of freshers arrives to take their place.
Against this background, getting net migration down to the tens of thousands is not going to be easy. It would mean taking it back to where it was in the mid-1990s. Migration Observatory’s Madeleine Sumption is sceptical:
Today’s figures show how difficult it would be to reduce net migration to the ‘tens of thousands’. Net migration has risen even despite new restrictions on family, work and student visas that were introduced during the last parliament. If the cap on skilled migration does start to prevent employers from accessing certain non-EU staff shortly, then the first people it will affect will be skilled migrants on relatively low wages – those with salaries just above the minimum threshold of £20,800. One of the largest groups of these is nurses. Today’s data indicate that it is increasingly likely that some employers – including the public sector – may find themselves unable to recruit non-EU staff over the next year. If this happens, we may see some of them turning to EU workers instead.
In other words, there may be a balloon effect going on. If you clamp down on immigration in one area, it just increases somewhere else. The migration cap on non-EU workers may just lead to more migration from within the EU.
But what if the UK negotiated restrictions on EU migration or left the EU altogether? It’s difficult to say what would happen because no-one has ever done it but it would probably just squeeze the balloon in the opposite direction. A reduction in EU migrants would increase migration from outside the EU. Either that or companies which couldn’t fill their jobs here would simply relocate those jobs to somewhere else in Europe.
For at least the next five years, lots of people, especially the young, will want to come to the UK and this country’s employers will continue to find work for them. Any attempt to take the immigration level back to that of two decades ago, during the life of this parliament, would require drastic action. What that would do to our economy and our relationships with other countries is anybody’s guess but it would probably be very damaging. The UK’s economy has changed a lot in the last 20 years. Trying to wind the clock back is unlikely to do us much good.
AdvertisementsProspective Leeds United owner Massimo Cellino now says he wants Brian McDermott back as the club’s manager, just a day after informing him he was sacked.
The dramatic U-turn caps a farcical 48 hours at Elland Road. McDermott received a call on Friday night from a lawyer representing the Cellino family, informing him he had been dismissed and would receive the details in writing.
In a subsequent interview, Cellino explained he “didn’t have any choice” but to sack the popular manager because he had done “everything to get fired”.
But little more than 12 hours later Leeds chairman Salah Nooruddin phoned McDermott, explaining the lawyer did not represent Leeds and that Cellino was not yet the owner of the club. Speaking exclusively to The Telegraph, Cellino explained he wanted McDermott back at Elland Road.
“I want the coach back and have been trying to call him,” the Cagliari owner said. “I don’t mind this coach. How could I sack anyone anyway? I need the approval of the Football League before I own the club.
“GFH are still running Leeds United. They did not want Brian as manager but didn’t have the courage to sack him.”
There are major doubts as to whether McDermott, who was only nine months into a three-year contract, would want to return in any case. He was advised not to attend Saturday’s 5-1 victory over Huddersfield or to make any comment on his situation.
Twenty minutes into the second half, Leeds issued a statement that said McDermott was still manager of the club.
The 53-year-old has been advised to send a series of key questions to Leeds managing director David Haigh and not to attend training on Monday unless he receives satisfactory answers.
Cellino had pushed for former Middlesbrough and Cagliari defender Gianluca Festa, a close confidant, to be on the Leeds bench for their 1-1 draw with Ipswich on Tuesday. McDermott refused and this, as things stand, seems to have been his last game in charge of the club.
Festa also attended training at the club’s Thorp Arch training ground twice last week, but Cellino, 57, claims he had never wanted Festa to replace McDermott. “Festa was not here to coach the club, just to make the translation with the players,” he said. “Festa has never run a club before. I have never had him coach a team in Italy before, so why would I want him to coach a major club like Leeds?”
Cellino says he bought a 75 per cent stake in the club on Friday lunch time and is frustrated at the Football League’s delay in ratifying his purchase.
“I have already paid for the shares and the papers are with the Football League,” he said. There were players from Italy and France ready to join the club on Friday, the deals were agreed.
“I can’t do anything and I’m really p------ off,” he said.
The Football League released a statement on Saturday saying it required information from Cellino’s company, Eleonora Sport Limited, before it could ratify the purchase of the club.
Cellino has two convictions for fraud in Italy and there are doubts about whether he would pass the Football League’s fit and proper person test.
The League Managers Asscociation sees the case as potentially a “watershed moment” for the Football League.In this preview, we take a look at a superbly updated Airbus A400M heavy lifter…
Last Christmas I was flipping around the internet trying to settle on a ride for what has become a tradition – the SimHQ Christmas Eve flight that was started by Deacon. Unfortunately, I missed the 2014 Christmas flight because I was called out to complete an actual medical flight, but in preparing for the flight I ran across the fantastic Airbus A400M by Laborie Roland. When we exchanged some e-mails, he indicated that a Version 2 of the A400M was coming out soon. So it was with great excitement that I received an e-mail from him a few weeks ago with an opportunity to take the new A400M ver 2 for a test drive. Now I can’t wait for Christmas 2015 – this beast should be able to carry many tons of toys from the North Pole to points all over the globe!
The new A400M ver 2 features an awesome array of choices. You can select either a 2D or 3D panel version. The 2D panel is really cool because it is sharp, crisp, and lets you drag around a dozen 2D windows onto another desktop to allow control of the huge array of systems while retaining a full screen “out the window” view. A new HUD has been added and the virtual cockpit was updated and improved. Gauges and functions have been updated and improved, and the external model is just jaw-droppingly gorgeous.
The package really shines (literally) under the awesome lighting effects of Prepar3D. The self shadowing in the virtual cockpit is fantastic, and the HDR effects in P3D add a nice bit of atmosphere to the flying. A huge array of custom cockpit views are preset with Captain, Co-Pilot, Flight Engineer/Navigator, pedestal, overhead, and other views included. The EFIS screens are nicely presented with sharp clarity and readability. There are days worth of exploring with the multiple EFIS pages and while some functionality is simplified, the gist of the package translates nicely into what being in a real A400M driver must be like.
Animated entry doors, airborne troop deployment doors, and the loading ramp are all included. The option of loading heavy military equipment is there. At this time, loading (both fuel and cargo) is done via the default FSX/P3D loading menu – but this add-on begs for a more intricate loading module that would allow for different configurations (civil cargo, military cargo, medical, etc.,) as well as an external fuel loading program. The relatively short take-off and landing distances that can be achieved with the A400M mean that this hauler can operate to short strips in the bush.
A look at the 2D version of the panels that can be drag and dropped to other monitors, resized, and formatted to suit your custom cockpit needs:
Despite the array of knobs and switches, the A400M is quite straight-forward to operate. With FADEC throttles and automated starting sequences, the plane is quick to get up and running. Electrical (APU) – bleed air – engine crank switch to crank – fuel cutoff lever – and you are pretty much in business! The little details like the props moving out of feather to flatten out as the engines start is really, really cool. Sound effects are fantastic and the overall starship quality of the flight deck is well presented.
In many photos of the A400M in real life, you’ll notice that the EFIS tubes often do not have the ADI or HSI on them – instead featuring moving maps, weather displays or other items. The reason for this is that the Heads Up Display (HUD) is certified as a primary flight instrument – so all reference to ADI and HSI information can be done though the HUD. Laborie modeled a flip down HUD that can be used to fly approaches with.
The flight model appears to be pretty good. I still have some questions in to Laborie regarding some aspects of the flight model. I don’t know much about the A400M specifically, but I think it is a “zero trim” airplane driven by a similar fly by wire system as their commercial airlines. Thus, when you pitch and roll the airplane, the flight computers correct the aircraft trim to give you that steady state input after you release the controls. While the flight model feels pretty good |
They pay sales taxes in most states. They pay a larger share of their income in taxes than rich people do. And they are students, and disabled people, and the elderly who don't have income.
And you know who doesn't pay income tax? Two dozen Fortune 500 companies that avoided corporate income taxes altogether in 2011.
And Eric Cantor says that we need to take even more money away from poor Americans and give it directly to "those that have been successful." That's the Republican version of redistribution of wealth.
The Cantor NASCAR/NFL owners tax break just passed, 235-173. Ten Republicans voted no, one voted present, and 10 Democrats voted for it.A referendum on restoring the monarchy was held in Albania on 29 June 1997 alongside parliamentary elections.[1] Officially the proposal was rejected by 66.7% of voters,[2] although Crown Prince Leka claimed that 65.7% voted in favour.[3]
Official Results [ edit ]
Choice Votes % For 450,478 33.3 Against 904,359 66.7 Invalid blank votes 68,372 – Total 1,423,209 100 Registered voters/turnout 1,986,550 71.64 Source: Direct Democracy
Reactions [ edit ]
The House of Zogu never accepted the official result of the referendum. After the publication of the result by the Central Election Commission of Albania, during the 1997 rebellion in Albania, Leka returned again, this time being greeted by 2,000 supporters.[4] A referendum was held in Albania concerning a monarchical restoration. After a recount it was announced that the restoration was rejected by approximately two-thirds of those voting.[5] The Crown Prince questioned the independence of the election. Police intervened, gunfire broke out, one person was killed, and Leka fled.
On 30 November 2011, after the death of Leka, Prime Minister Sali Berisha admitted that there was vote manipulation in the referendum, and that the monarchy should have been restored. Berisha blamed the manipulation on the "flames of communist rebellion".[6]From the back of the Box!
SDMY-JP001 Alpha the Electro-Magnet Warrior (Super Rare)
SDMY-JP002 Beta the Electro-Magnet Warrior (Super Rare)
SDMY-JP003 Gamma the Electro-Magnet Warrior (Super Rare)
SDMY-JP004 Berserion the Magna Warrior (Ultra Rare)
SDMY-JP005 Reborn Kuriboh (Normal Parallel)
SDMY-JP006 Valkyrion the Magna Warrior
SDMY-JP007 Alpha the Magnet Warrior
SDMY-JP008 Beta the Magnet Warrior
SDMY-JP009 Gamma the Magnet Warrior
SDMY-JP010 Dark Magician (Normal Parallel)
SDMY-JP011 Dark Magician Girl
SDMY-JP012 Buster Blader
SDMY-JP013 Gaia the Fierce Knight
SDMY-JP014 Curse of Dragon
SDMY-JP015 Jack’s Knight
SDMY-JP016 Queen’s Knight
SDMY-JP017 King’s Knight
SDMY-JP018 Berformet
SDMY-JP019 Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts
SDMY-JP020 Obnoxious Celtic Guard
SDMY-JP021 Magnet Field (Normal Parallel)
SDMY-JP022 Dark Magic Sucession (Normal Parallel)
SDMY-JP023 Dark Magic Attack
SDMY-JP024 Dark Magic Curtain
SDMY-JP025 Mystic Box
SDMY-JP026 Monster Reborn
SDMY-JP027 Swords of Revealing Light
SDMY-JP028 Card Destruction
SDMY-JP029 Card of Sanctity
SDMY-JP030 Spell Shattering Arrow
SDMY-JP031 Polymerization
SDMY-JP032 De-Fusion
SDMY-JP033 Magnet Combination (Normal Parallel)
SDMY-JP034 Magician’s Circle
SDMY-JP035 Mirror Force
SDMY-JP036 Magic Cylinder
SDMY-JP037 Magical Hats
SDMY-JP038 Lightforce Sword
SDMY-JP039 Chain Destruction
SDMY-JP040 Soul Rope
SDMY-JP041 Super Conduction Machine Imperion Magnum (Ultra Rare)
SDMY-JP042 Arcana Knight Joker (Normal Parallel)
SDMY-JP043 Dark Paladin
SDMY-JP044 Gaia the Dragon Champion
SDMY-JP045 Chimera the Flying Mythical Beast
SDKS-JP001 A-Assault Core (Super Rare)
SDKS-JP002 B-Buster Drake (Super Rare)
SDKS-JP003 C-Clash Wyern (Super Rare)
SDKS-JP004 Heavy Mech Support Armor (Normal Parallel)
SDKS-JP005 X-Head Cannon
SDKS-JP006 Y-Dragon Head
SDKS-JP007 Z-Metal Tank
SDKS-JP008 Heavy Mech Support Platform
SDKS-JP009 Blue-Eyes White Dragon (Normal Parallel)
SDKS-JP010 Kaiser Glider
SDKS-JP011 Lord of D.
SDKS-JP012 Blade Knight
SDKS-JP013 Enraged Battle Ox
SDKS-JP014 Des Feral Imp
SDKS-JP015 Vorse Raider
SDKS-JP016 La Jinn the Mystical Genie of the Lamp
SDKS-JP017 Ancient Lamp
SDKS-JP018 Familiar Knight
SDKS-JP019 Peten the Dark Clown (2 Copies)
SDKS-JP020 Union Hanger (Normal Parallel)
SDKS-JP021 Honor of the Eyes of Blue (Normal Parallel)
SDKS-JP022 Burst Stream of Destruction
SDKS-JP023 The Flute of Summoning Dragon
SDKS-JP024 The Melody of Awakening Dragon
SDKS-JP025 Monster Reborn
SDKS-JP026 Silent Doom
SDKS-JP027 Shrink
SDKS-JP028 Enemy Controller
SDKS-JP029 Soul Exchange
SDKS-JP030 Cost Down
SDKS-JP031 Megamorph
SDKS-JP032 Scramble Union (Normal Parallel)
SDKS-JP033 Crush Card Virus
SDKS-JP034 Shadow Spell
SDKS-JP035 Negate Attack
SDKS-JP036 Ring of Destruction
SDKS-JP037 Interdimensional Matter Transporter
SDKS-JP038 Cloning
SDKS-JP039 Final Attack Orders
SDKS-JP040 A-to-Z Dragon Buster Cannon (Ultra Rare)
SDKS-JP041 ABC-Dragon Buster (Ultra Rare)
SDKS-JP042 XYZ-Dragon Cannon (Normal Parallel)
SDKS-JP043 XY-Dragon Cannon
SDKS-JP044 XZ-Tank CannonCharlotte Church
President-elect Donald Trump’s team is still desperately trying to find musicians who are willing to perform at his inauguration — and they’re still failing spectacularly.
The latest artist to turn down an invitation to sing at the inauguration is Welsh singer Charlotte Church, a soprano who began her career in classical music before crossing over to pop music last decade.
Unlike most singers asked to perform at the inauguration, however, Church didn’t just politely turn down Trump’s request in private. Rather, she took to Twitter and called Trump a “tyrant” and rejected his proposition using several poo emojis.
@realDonaldTrump Your staff have asked me to sing at your inauguration, a simple Internet search would show I think you're a tyrant. Bye💩💩💩💩 — Charlotte Church (@charlottechurch) January 10, 2017
Trump has had an impossible time finding any A-list talent to sing at his inauguration, and has been turned down by artists including Elton John, tenor Andrea Bocelli, and Celine Dion. Additionally, some members of groups who are performing at the inauguration, such as the Rockettes and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, have loudly protested being asked to entertain Trump.
Alec Baldwin, whose impersonations of Trump on Saturday Night Live have frequently angered the president-elect, has offered to sing at the inauguration if he can do a cover of AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell.” Singer Rebecca Ferguson, meanwhile, would only agree to sing at the inauguration if she were allowed to sing a powerful anti-lynching song called “Strange Fruit.”Image Credit MTO; huge version here
Last year the ARC wildlife crossing competition got a lot of pixels; it was won by Michael Van Valkenburgh & Associates and there is talk of building it, although it was more of an ideas competition. But they are actually building a wildlife bridge this summer in Ontario, just south of Sudbury. It is not nearly as fancy as the ARC competition entries, but the $ 58.3 million "eco-passage" will save the lives of both animals and the humans who tend to hit them.
Closeup of drawing by Totten Sims Hubicki, now part of Aecom.
The highway reconstruction from Parry Sound to Sudbury cuts through the rock of the Canadian Shield, and if it is anything like the recent construction just south of Parry Sound, involves significant and impressive rock cuts. The location chosen for the wildlife bridge spans between rock cuts so that there is no grade change; the road is going under the natural lay of the land. According to Peter Kenter in Daily Commercial News,
The 30-metre-wide wildlife bridge is in an area where a number of large animal collisions had been recorded -- and not just raccoons or porcupines. Animals common in the area include white-tailed deer, moose, elk and black bears....Other features designed to encourage wildlife use include: approaches that are gradual and consist of the existing lay of the land; landscaping that matches the adjacent natural environment; and concrete barrier walls to prevent noise and light impacts from vehicles travelling under the bridge.
As always, I will complain that the Ministry didn't have a competition or hire someone like Toronto landscape architect Janet Rosenberg to make it something lyrical, instead of giant engineering firm Aecom. But that is how it goes in Ontario.
More at Daily Commercial News
Follow me on Twitter! @lloydalter and friend me on FacebookDavid’s position of absolute authority in the church brings to mind the analogy of a military strongman who lives a lavish lifestyle while the citizens of the country live in poverty. David has well-appointed apartments or living facilities in all of Scientology’s major centers: the headquarters in Hemet, Los Angeles, Clearwater, St. Hill in England and aboard the Freewinds. As I have mentioned, he has only the highest quality food served at every meal. at the Hemet base, he had an exercise facility built that only he and certain celebrities such as Tom Cruise are allowed to use. Incidentally, because of my lifelong interest in exercise, I researched, found, and bought the equipment for the gym. The church furnishes all his vehicles and transportation, including motorcycles, cars and vans. He wears suits tailored by top Los Angeles tailors and once received a $10,000 suit from one for his birthday. And speaking of birthdays, every April the churches around the world pressure their meagerly paid staff to buy birthday presents for him. Rank-and-file Sea Org members receive a standard allowance of $50 a week for incidentals. Many weeks, however, this amount is reduced because of financial pressures, sometimes to zero. During some years we were paid nothing throughout most of the year—except when it was time to shell out for David’s Christmas or birthday presents. Still, after the weekly staff meeting at which everyone lines up to collect their pay, someone is there to take 30 or 40 percent of their pittance to help buy COB [chairman of the board] a new camera or high-end mountain bike or high-tech gadget. The same thing happens at Christmas when different organizations try to outdo one another to express their gratitude. Make no mistake: David’s position of absolute power is a comfortable and well-feathered nest.
I recall a time when he walked in wearing a nice pair of shoes. “I got the shoes I told you about while I was over in England,” he said. “Custom made.”
“Good-looking shoes,” I said. “How much did they cost?”
“Fifteen hundred bucks.”
I was stunned. Fifteen hundred dollars is what I made in the Sea Org for an entire year’s work. At that time, Sea Org members made $30 a week. Yet he had the wherewithal to drop $1,500 on a single pair of shoes.
David obviously saw the look on my face and told me in a somewhat embarrassed tone, “You know, these really do feel different,” trying to convince me that these nice shoes really were worth ten or more times the usual price of a decent pair.
All the booty David accumulates doesn’t take a dime out of his pocket. Sea Org members are meant to be rewarded for their production. What they produce on their jobs is counted up weekly, and [Ron] Hubbard recommended that, for stellar performance, staff should receive bonuses on top of their allowance. Dave has worked it out so that he receives not only weekly bonuses but also hefty year-end bonuses. The allowance that other Sea Org members receive isn’t even an afterthought for him. A former RTC [Religious Technology Center] staff member who worked in its finance division told me that David would have shirts custom made at a cost of $200 each, and he would wear them once. Maybe this was for special events but still. Once? Scientology is supposed to be a church.
In comparison, other Sea Org members live like monks. Their weekly allowance would not pay for activities on a day off, if they were ever allowed a day off. I have already mentioned the difference in the food allowance. As for living quarters, unmarried men and women live in dorms for each, while married couples have single rooms. Quarters are not lavish by any means. Sea Org members are furnished with uniforms, but when items wear out, people are expected to buy replacements out of pocket. You can bet that church public relations executives will counter what I write by showing the beautiful facilities at the Gold base—the soccer fields, basketball and tennis courts, running path with exercise stations, the nine-hole golf course, Olympic-size swimming pool, the landscaping with manicured lawns and tended flower beds and functional but beautiful architecture. And they would be right: the facilities at Gold are first rate. Of course, staff members work in the production spaces for as long as 24 hours a day and rarely, if ever, get to enjoy the recreational facilities. At one time L. Ron Hubbard mandated that all staff should have one hour a day for exercise. It was to be in the daily schedule, he ordered.
And at times, the staff was allowed this time. It would be implemented, and people would begin exercising.
Two weeks later, some emergency, or “flap,” would happen and exercise time would drop out again, only to be resurrected some years later, again for a week or two. While David lives like a prince wherever he travels and flies first class or in Tom Cruise’s private jet, the rest of the Sea Org lives like indentured servants, at best.
To be truthful, though, I would not begrudge him any of the perks of his leadership if he had remained true to the humanitarian objectives laid out by L. Ron Hubbard. Instead, David has managed to do virtually the opposite, for purposes, it seems, of keeping himself and a handful of well-paid lawyers living comfortable lifestyles.
I write all this to make what I think is the central point of my story: there is a world of difference between what I found workable in the actual philosophy of Scientology and how David has twisted it to his own ends. How did it come to this? How did a young boy who was an affectionate, happy, bright kid with a great sense of humor and a desire to help others grow into a man who surrounds himself only with people who suck up to him and lives a lavish lifestyle while those who work for him live no better than medieval serfs? What is the catalyst for such an unfortunate transformation?
I have concluded that it is the acquisition of power. Some who come into positions of power may be able to remain whole and true to themselves, but my son David has demonstrated beyond doubt that he is not one of them.
Excerpted from Ruthless by Ron Miscavige. Copyright © 2016 by the author and reprinted by permission of Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martin’s Press, LLC.
Ron Miscavige is the father of David Miscavige, the leader of the Church of Scientology. Ron and his family joined Scientology in 1970, and he worked for the Sea Org for almost 27 years before leaving the church entirely in 2012. He is a Marine veteran and professional musician, and he lives in Milwaukee.What's this site?
TL;DR Finallysomegoodnews.com aims to balance out all the bad news in mainstream media. It only links to good news, which is collected from reddit.com.
While browsing reddit.com I stumbled upon an article saying the giant panda is no longer endangered. Upon sharing it with my parents, my mother commented (in Dutch): “Eindelijk ook eens wat goed nieuws..” which translates to “Finally some good news..”. It made me realise that mainstream media tend to report only the “bad news”, because apparently that’s what we’re drawn to as people, and thus it sells more.
finallysomegoodnews.com looks to balance out the constant stream of bad news by linking only to positive stories. The headlines and articles shown on FSGN are the top stories aggregated from /r/upliftingnews. A few new articles will show up every 24 hours. If you don’t want to miss out on any stories, feel free to follow @fsgoodnews on Twitter, or set this webpage as your browser’s homepage :-)(Repeats story from June 19)
* Falling pound pushes up prices
* Syrians turn to dollar savings to preserve their wealth
* Dollarisation spreads as Syria pound loses purchasing power
By Suleiman Al-Khalidi
AMMAN, June 19 (Reuters) - Since the latest nosedive in the Syrian currency, Damascus shopkeeper Aboud Katebee can no longer put price stickers on the imported chocolate bars he sells in the middle class Jaramana neighbourhood.
“Every time the dollar rises, I change the pricing of my goods,” said the middle aged merchant, who says he stocks a range of imported and locally produced goods from powdered milk to detergents and vegetable oil.
Talk of Western and Arab military support for rebels trying to topple President Bashar al-Assad has led to panic buying of the U.S. currency by jittery Syrians, pushing the Syrian pound below 200 to the dollar this week, a fall of 20 percent in four days.
Bankers and businessmen contacted by Reuters by telephone say the pound’s weakness could presage a freefall if the central bank runs out of dollars to defend it after two years of civil war that has cost more than 90,000 lives and caused tens of billions of dollars of losses.
Those fears mean the dollar has become central to daily transactions across all walks of life in Syria - in marked contrast to pre-war days when only the wealthy few had dollar-denominated assets.
“Dollar transactions used to be restricted to large traders who would sell with dollars to the wholesaler, but now even the small retailer who sells in Syrian pounds bases his business deals on the daily price movements of the dollar,” said Yousef Safouri, a garment wholesaler in Aleppo.
From fresh produce vendors to manufacturers, from importers to lawyers and taxi drivers, the crisis has brought the dollar into much wider circulation as people try to protect themselves against currency depreciation and inflation.
Officially inflation stands at 50 percent, but economists warn that Syria could be heading for hyperinflation after cumulative falls in the currency of 75 percent since the start of the crisis in March 2011 when one dollar was worth 47 pounds.
European Union sanctions on Syria’s oil exports and a collapse in tourist revenues cut off two main sources of foreign revenue early in the crisis, and since then the unrelenting violence has brought most trade and manufacturing to a halt.
“People are saying to protect our savings we go for dollars because it preserves my wealth,” said a Damascus based banker who added that this meant even greater downward pressure on the pound, whose purchasing power has worsened the plight of ordinary Syrians struggling with everyday life.
PRICES SURGE
A Facebook page used by Syrian activists said that the price of bulgur wheat rose to 85 pounds from 65 pounds in one morning, while rice jumped to 145 pounds from 125 and flour rose to 97 pounds from 85.
“We are living day by day. My salary does not do anything,” said Abdullah Awadat, a state employee in Deraa municipality, whose 15,000 pound salary now barely covers his food purchases for the first two weeks of the month.
Traders said several shopping outlets in the northern city of Aleppo and in the capital Damascus saw higher than usual sales, as shoppers hoarded some products, fearing the impact of the soaring dollar on the price of goods in the days ahead.
“I went to shop this morning and bought with the few pounds I have some detergents and imported canned foods, which I know I will wake up tomorrow and find has gone up in price at least 30 percent,” said Umm Ibrahim, a housewife in the Muhajireen district of Damascus.
For many industrialists and businessmen the fluctuations in the pound have made it difficult to plan ahead.
“The wild fluctuations of the pound are wreaking havoc on our ability to plan production costs,” said Essam Zamrick, deputy head of the Damascus chamber of industry, who owns a food additives factory.
But the plunge is not bad news for everyone, with the state incurring lower costs on a hefty salaries bill for more than 1.8 million state employees from foreign reserves while black market profiteers hoarding subsidised goods are now thriving.
“It’s cheaper for the state to pay its salaries at a higher dollar rate. Today the government’s monthly salaries expenditure is a quarter of what it was prior to the crisis if you are talking in U.S. dollar terms,” said one banker.
The central bank’s inaction had left the exchange market in chaos with multiple prices offered by dealers, traders say.
“Every dealer gives a price - between 180 and 220 in the last few days,” one Damascus banker said. “But I wouldn’t quote a price because there are no quantities (of dollars) to back it up.”
In Yousef al-Azmeh square, a pedestrian thoroughfare thronged with money changers, a wait-and-see mood prevails with the market awaiting a corrective move by the central bank, a currency trader told Reuters by telephone.
“No one is giving prices, People are waiting and not much selling is taking place. Everyone is waiting to see what will happen,” said Anas Salamah.
“We can only see double digit and three digit jumps from now. The more the dollar goes up and up and isn’t corrected, the more people will jump on the bandwagon,” he added, predicting that only a surprise breakthrough in the Syrian crisis could reverse the pound’s falls. (Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; editing by Dominic Evans and Giles Elgood)In this 20 minute video tutorial, you will learn several great tricks for building and operating APIs on AWS Lambda and API Gateway, including:
How to manage multiple Lambda versions for development, testing and production
How to manage environment configuration using stage variables
How to handle asynchronous processes in APIs
How to customise response types with API Gateway APIs
How to use dynamic request paths to create nice URLs
How to protect your API from unauthorised access using API Keys
How to reduce operational cost and speed up access using CloudFront
We’re building an image server that connects to GitHub and creates dynamic images for repository statistics. To see the application in action, visit RepoLabels.net. Grab the source code for the finished project from GitHub.
Some code is specific to Claudia.js, but most of the tips and tricks apply to AWS Lambda and API Gateway in general.The Blindness of Christian Privilege February 19, 2012
“Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. 14 Leave them; they are blind guides.[d] If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” [Matthew 15:13-14]
Posted by shaunphilly in Culture and Society Tags: anti-christ
So, I’ve been reading Nietzsche again.
See, I went and got myself a Kindle. And I was getting free copies of all these books I already have (and will be donating many books at some point in the future to make shelf space for…something). And I downloaded a copy of The Antichrist which I have not read in many years. It is a fascinating book that makes many points that would be familiar to many gnu atheists. I have thought more than once of sending a passage to Jerry Coyne, Eric MacDonald, or even PZ Myers because they all have reminds me of things Nietzsche has said in this little book.
So, then the other day, on the way home from work, I read section 32 of said book. Before quoting and commenting, I want to point out that Nietzche does not identify as an atheist*, although his views seem pretty consistent with how the term is used today. I think it is fair to consider him an atheist for the purposes of simple categorization (as if Nietzsche could be easily categorized!) but recognize that he didn’t self-identify with the term.
As an introduction to today’s thought, allow me to make an observation. Many atheist writers, especially ones I read, talk about how Christianity, or theism generally—perhaps merely the concept of faith itself!—is philosophically and even methodologically opposed to basic critical thinking, skepticism, and secularism. There is a real worldview difference between the very religious and the essentially secular culture which surrounds it. Some call it a culture war, and this label is as good as any I suppose, but it is at bottom (one is tempted to say de Bottom) it is a difference of perspectives, whether those at odds see the underlying methodological distinctions or not.
I think part of Nietzsche’s point in section 32 of The Antichrist to point out that the faith of the Christian is incapable of seeing this perspective for what it is—a privileged perspective. But before he can make any such observations, he has a few necessary bushes to beat around. He starts the section with the following:
I can only repeat that I set myself against all efforts to intrude the fanatic into the figure of the Saviour: the very word impérieux, used by Renan, is alone enough to annul the type. What the “glad tidings” tell us is simply that there are no more contradictions; the kingdom of heaven belongs to children; the faith that is voiced here is no more an embattled faith—it is at hand, it has been from the beginning, it is a sort of recrudescent childishness of the spirit. [links obviously not in the original]
Nothing surprising yet. Nietzsche several times observes the child-like attribute of Christian faith, not that this observation should be surprising at all given that this idea is native to the New Testament. For example, in the book of Luke, chapter 18:15-17 (NIV):
“15 People were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. 16 But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 17 Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” [emphasis mine]
But Nietzsche seems to see a significance to this childishness which I think many gnu atheists either miss, or is no longer largely true. Nietzsche continues:
The physiologists, at all events, are familiar with such a delayed and incomplete puberty in the living organism, the result of degeneration. A faith of this sort is not furious, it does not de nounce, it does not defend itself: it does not come with “the sword”—it does not realize how it will one day set man against man. It does not manifest itself either by miracles, or by rewards and promises, or by “scriptures”: it is itself, first and last, its own miracle, its own reward, its own promise, its own “kingdom of God.” This faith does not formulate itself—it simply lives, and so guards itself against formulae.
Now, in light of the history of Christianity, the evangelical nature of Christians throughout their history (and no sign of it slowing!), and the various formulas by which sects argue (with atheists and with each other), one might think that Nietzsche is being either naive or ignorant here. But Nietzsche is quite aware of the history and character of Christianity, and seems to be saying such to raise your eyebrows here, in order to set you up.
So, given that he is certainly aware of the objections rising in your mind, let us follow his bread-crumb trail to see where it is leading:
To be sure, the accident of environment, of educational background gives prominence to concepts of a certain sort: in primitive Christianity one finds only concepts of a Judaeo-Semitic character (—that of eating and drinking at the last supper belongs to this category—an idea which, like everything else Jewish, has been badly mauled by the church). But let us be careful not to see in all this anything more than symbolical language, semantics[6] an opportunity to speak in parables. It is only on the theory that no work is to be taken literally that this anti-realist is able to speak at all. Set down among Hindus he would have made use of the concepts of Sankhya,[7] and among Chinese he would have employed those of Lao-tse[8]—and in neither case would it have made any difference to him.—With a little freedom in the use of words, one might actually call Jesus a “free spirit”[9]—he cares nothing for what is established: the word killeth,[10] whatever is established killeth. The idea of “life” as an experience, as he alone conceives it, stands opposed to his mind to every sort of word, formula, law, belief and dogma. He speaks only of inner things: “life” or “truth” or “light” is his word for the innermost—in his sight everything else, the whole of reality, all nature, even language, has significance only as sign, as allegory.—
In writing this, Nietzsche is pulling you in, especially if you are prone to seeing an ecumenical nature to religion. He seems to want to sketch the humanity of Jesus in order to create a larger picture, a larger historical and ideological contrast, of Christianity. Nietzsche here seems to be addressing the character of the ‘Saviour’ as a foil for the church which he sees as degraded and stagnant (“Oh how repulsive is this falsified light, this stake air!”). He is seeing the humanity hidden under ecclesiastical religion, a humanity too-well hidden by the finery of its tattered garb.
Here, Nietzsche the philologist comes through clearly. He is seeing the Gospels as a picture into a life lived by a man who stands prior to the dogmas of the church as they would become. It is here that the liberal believer, the ecumenicalist, and in general the respectable atheist can step up and try to claim Nietzsche as their own, as a representative of those for whom standing up and proclaiming that religion is a part of our humanity (even if it is not true), and we gnu atheists who despise and degrade it (as if it needed our help for that) ought to be ashamed of ourselves. But it’s not quite that simple.
Nietzsche continues:
Here it is of paramount importance to be led into no error by the temptations lying in Christian, or rather ecclesiastical prejudices: such a symbolism par excellence stands outside all religion, all notions of worship, all history, all natural science, all worldly experience, all knowledge, all politics, all psychology, all books, all art—his “wisdom” is precisely a pure ignorance[11] of all such things.
And it is here we see the first strong glimpse of what Nietzsche is enlightening us to. From a purely formal point of view, Nietzsche’s cloaked criticism of Wagner here (the phrase “pure ignorance” is from Wagner’s Parsifal, which was largely responsible for Nietzsche’s turning into the greatest critic of his former friend) is perhaps an analogy of his criticism that lies beneath it. That is, this cloaked criticism is itself a clue that Nietzsche is not here cuddling up with the Gospels, but is rather creating a caricature, again a foil, of both the Gospel and its subject in contrast to the Christianity which we find ourselves faced with in modernity.
Nietzsche continues:
He has never heard of culture; he doesn’t have to make war on it—he doesn’t even deny it…. The same thing may be said of the state, of the whole bourgeoise social order, of labour, of war—he has no ground for denying “the world,” for he knows nothing of the ecclesiastical concept of “the world”…. Denial is precisely the thing that is impossible to him.—In the same way he lacks argumentative capacity, and has no belief that an article of faith, a “truth,” may be established by proofs (—his proofs are inner “lights,” subjective sensations of happiness and self-approval, simple “proofs of power”—). Such a doctrine cannot contradict: it doesn’t know that other doctrines exist, or can exist, and is wholly incapable of imagining anything opposed to it…. If anything of the sort is ever encountered, it laments the “blindness” with sincere sympathy—for it alone has “light”—but it does not offer objections….
This observation lies in stark contrast to one of the sharpest criticisms of religion by many new/gnu atheists today; that religion and faith are anti-life, anti-science, and ultimately anti-reality. And while it is true that religion is all of these things, what I think Nietzsche is pointing out here is that this is a perspective that can only be seen from the outside, from one who looks at faith from the outside, and not from the inside of Christian faith.
(Remember, one does not need to have faith to look at it as if from the inside. This is the essence of accomodationism)
The Christian worldview, insofar as it is child-like, is not against the world or its various useful methodologies, technologies, or philosophies; it is unaware of them. A young child does not misbehave because it is against the rules of behavior and social interaction, the child cannot conceive of them yet. The child is just being child-like, yet to become aware of the society in which it is swimming, just like the proverbial fish. In much the same way, one whose entire world is lived within the simplicity of faith, worship, and promised salvation cannot see the conflict inherent with those who do not live with them in that world.
They see the world outside as rejecting this simplicity, and cannot comprehend why those outside would reject it. They see us secularists as the source of the conflict, and whine about persecution and oppression of simply living their lives according to the values (not their values, because that would require awareness of another possible value). They cannot see that their own worldview (if they are even aware that theirs s a worldview!) is in conflict with reality—they have no concept of “reality” as those who are methodologically aligned with science are!
In the end, it is just another privilege. In this case it is a religious privilege which blinds them to their own ignorance—they are ignorant that they are ignorant. As Christopher Hitchens pointed out many times, they are in chains and glad of it. They do not see their imprisonment for what it is, and they act in ways that look like whining children to the rest of us. They demand special privilege, undue respect, and don’t understand why we don’t give it to them.
It’s for the same reason you don’t allow a small child to do whatever it wants. That child has not yet learned to be an adult, and so we protect it and sometimes find it adorable, but we don’t allow it free reign lest it destroy itself and the things we value.
—
*Consider the following:
“God”, “immortality of the soul”, “redemption”, “beyond” — Without exception, concepts to which I have never devoted any attention, or time; not even as a child. Perhaps I have never been childlike enough for them? I do not by any means know atheism as a result; even less as an event: It is a matter of course with me, from instinct. I am too inquisitive, too questionable, too exuberant to stand for any gross answer. God is a gross answer, an indelicacy against us thinkers — at bottom merely a gross prohibition for us: you shall not think! (Ecce Homo)
AdvertisementsStory highlights Princess Irina Walker is the third daughter of Romania's King Michael I
The arrests took place across various sites in Oregon and Washington
The princess and her husband are among 18 people arrested
A Romanian princess and her husband are scheduled to appear in court Friday after they were arrested in an alleged cockfighting ring in Oregon.
John Wesley Walker and his wife, Princess Irina Walker, the third daughter of Romania's exiled King Michael I, are among six people charged with operating an illegal gambling business, the Justice Department said in a statement.
Those six are also charged, along with 12 others, with conspiracy to violate the animal Welfare Act by conducting unlawful animal fighting ventures on 10 occasions, the statement said.
The arrests took place Thursday across various sites in Oregon and Washington. The Walkers are from Irrigon, in Morrow County, Oregon, according to the indictment.
They and the others arrested in Oregon are scheduled to appear for arraignment before a federal magistrate judge in Portland on Friday afternoon.
Each of the offenses carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000, according to the Justice Department.
It was unclear whether the couple has a lawyer.Yale University Press
In his 2007 book, “The Bridge at the Edge of the World,” James Gustave Speth argued that true ecological reform must be preceded by bedrock changes in the way human societies think about social justice, nature and the unquestioned drive toward economic growth
When the book was first published, Professor Speth, the dean of Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense Council, was in a grim mood about “market fundamentalism and anti-regulation, anti-government ideology.”
In a telephone interview on Monday, Green Inc. found him with a more positive outlook about the future, and the potential for basic changes in the way consumers — and government — approach notions of growth and environmental stewardship.
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The credit crunch has seriously |
. Modular applications on Java 9 and later are packaged into JARs which contain module descriptors (modular JARs) and run from the module path. Code in modular JARs on the module path can't access code in traditional JARs on the classpath. So what happens when a modular application wants to use a library living on the classpath, which doesn't have a module descriptor yet? The modular application can't express such a dependency in its module descriptor.
It would be unworkable if the only resort for application developers were to wait for the library maintainer to write a module descriptor, or worse, attempt to patch the JAR themselves with a module descriptor. To prevent this possibly indefinite waiting game, a feature called automatic modules was introduced. Moving a traditional JAR (without module descriptor) from the classpath to the module path turns it into an automatic module. Such an automatic module exports all of its packages and depends on all other resolved modules. Additionally, automatic modules themselves can still access code on the classpath.
So, instead of waiting for libraries to be modularized, application developers can take matters into their own hands. Traditional JARs can be used as if they were modules. For an example of automatic modules in action, look at Paul's post where he uses Vert.x JARs as automatic modules in an application.
Automatic Module Name Derivation
Still, the question remains how you can express a dependency on an automatic module from application modules. Where does its name come from?
There are two possible ways for an automatic module to get its name:
When an Automatic-Module-Name entry is available in the manifest, its value is the name of the automatic module
entry is available in the manifest, its value is the name of the automatic module Otherwise, a name is derived from the JAR filename (see the ModuleFinder JavaDoc for the derivation algorithm)
That second option probably had you shaking your head. Filenames are not exactly the hallmark of stability, and your library may be distributed in many ways that could lead to different filenames on the user's end. (Maven's standardized approach to artifact naming alleviates this a bit, but is still far from ideal.) Moreover, the module name derived from a filename might not be your ideal pick as module name. That's exactly why you're reading this call to action for adding Automatic-Module-Name to libraries. Pick an explicit module name, put it in the MANIFEST.MF and ensure a smooth ride into the modular age for users of your library. This way, you're not forcing users of your library to depend on an 'accidental' module name.
Naming Library Modules
Naming is hard. Picking the right module name for your library is important; module descriptors will refer to your library module by this name. It's effectively part of your API—once you pick a name, changing it constitutes a breaking change.
For libraries it's essential to pick a globally unique module name. A long-standing practice in Java is to use reverse DNS notation for packages (e.g. com.acme.mylibrary.core ). We can apply the same to module names. Name your module after the root package of your module. This is the longest shared prefix of all packages in the module (for the previous example it might be com.acme.mylibrary ). Read Stephen Colebourne's excellent advice on why this is a good idea. Ensure your module name is valid, meaning it consists of one or more java identifiers separated by a dot.
If you want to see examples of libraries who've already gone through this process, look at the module name discussion for Google Guava and the Spring Framework.
Practical Tips
Most likely your library is built using Maven or Gradle. Adding a manifest entry to the resulting JAR is a breeze in both build tools. For Maven, make sure the jar plugin has the following configuration:
<plugin> <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId> <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId> <configuration> <archive> <manifestEntries> <Automatic-Module-Name>com.acme.mylibrary</Automatic-Module-Name> </manifestEntries> </archive> </configuration> </plugin>
With Gradle, you can configure the jar plugin as follows:
jar { manifest { name = "mylibrary" instruction "Automatic-Module-Name", "com.acme.mylibrary" } }
Sanity-Check Your Library
Is this really all there is to do as a first step toward modularization? Ideally, yes. But if you want your library to be used as automatic module on Java 9 and later, there's a few other potential issues you need to verify:
Make sure your library doesn't use internal types from the JDK (run jdeps --jdk-internals mylibrary.jar to find offending code). JDeps (as bundled with Java 9 and later) will offer publicly supported alternatives for any use of encapsulated JDK APIs. When your library runs from the classpath on Java 9 and later, you can still get away with this. Not so if your library lives on the module path as automatic module.
to find offending code). JDeps (as bundled with Java 9 and later) will offer publicly supported alternatives for any use of encapsulated JDK APIs. When your library runs from the classpath on Java 9 and later, you can still get away with this. Not so if your library lives on the module path as automatic module. Your library can't have classes in the default (unnamed) package. This is a bad idea regardless, but when your library is used as automatic module, this rule is enforced by the module system.
Your library can't split packages (two or more JARs defining the types in the same package), nor can it redefine JDK packages ( javax.annotation is a notorious example, being defined in the JDK's java.xml.ws.annotation module but also in external libraries).
is a notorious example, being defined in the JDK's module but also in external libraries). When your library's JAR has a META-INF/services directory to specify service providers, then the specified providers must exist in this JAR (as described in the ModuleFinder JavaDoc)
Addressing these concerns is a matter of good hygiene. If you encounter one of these issues and you can't address those, don't add the Automatic-Module-Name entry yet. For now, your library is better off on the classpath. It will only raise false expectations if you do add the entry.
What You Need To Do Next
While your library can now be used as automatic module, it isn't really a great module. Every package is exported and it doesn't express its dependencies yet. That's why your next step is to add a module-info.java file describing which packages must be exported and which dependencies on other modules the library has. This might even entail some refactoring, by dividing up your code into API (exported) packages and internal packages.
If your library has no external dependencies, creating and compiling this module descriptor is relatively straightforward (see this real-world example). However, if you have external dependencies, you'll have to wait until those libraries have added module descriptors (or at least have an Automatic-Module-Name themselves). Writing your module descriptor to depend on filename-derived automatic module names is a sure way to break things for your users. When these transitive dependencies do start modularizing with a different module name, users of your library will experience breakage.
In Chapter 10 of our book, we give in-depth advice on how to migrate a library to a proper module step-by-step. For example, we explain how you add a module descriptor to your library without having to target Java 9+ when compiling your code. Features like the new --release flag and Multi-Release JARs are very helpful. That all goes far beyond the scope of this post. So, please be a good citizen of the Java community. Decide upon a module name and add it to your library's manifest. Then, keep the ball rolling by reading up on the module system and adding a real module descriptor.
Special thanks to Alex Buckley for commenting on a draft version of this post.Milan return Lapadula to Pescara?
By Football Italia staff
There is an extraordinary suggestion Pescara could bring Gianluca Lapadula back on loan after selling him to Milan.
The striker was the undoubted star of last season in Serie B, scoring 30 goals in 44 Serie B games, including the promotion play-offs.
He was wanted by numerous clubs, including Napoli and Leicester City, but opted for Milan because he thought he’d get more regular playing time there.
However, Lapadula hasn’t featured at all in pre-season due to fitness problems and Carlos Bacca appears to be staying at San Siro, surely limiting his chances.
“With hindsight, it wasn’t a great choice for him,” said Pescara President Daniele Sebastiani on Radio Kiss Kiss this week.
“He didn’t want to go to Napoli because Gonzalo Higuain was there. Perhaps it was better to choose a mid-table club so he’d have more space.”
Now tuttopescaracalcio.com claim Pescara are going a step further – they have asked Milan to take Lapadula back on loan just weeks after his €9m transfer to San Siro.Image copyright ACSA Image caption Ellinah Wamukoya said she would "represent the mother attribute of God"
The Anglican Church of Southern Africa has consecrated its first woman bishop in Africa.
Ellinah Wamukoya, 61, will serve as the church's bishop in the small, conservative kingdom of Swaziland.
Her consecration comes as the Church of England is due to vote on whether to allow women to become bishops.
"We have taken this step, and we wish the Church of England 'God speed' as they deliberate this week," Cape Town's Anglican archbishop said.
The Most Revd Thabo Makgoba of Cape Town said in a statement: "The thunder is rumbling as I write: We have witnessed a great occasion, and now it does indeed seem that the heavens are about to fall upon us - the falling of rain, which this country and its people so desperately need.
David Dinkebogile led Saturday's ceremony and stressed that the gathering was to consecrate a bishop "not a black woman, not an African, not a Swazi woman".
"She was to be pastor to all, to men and women, to black and white, to Swazis and all others in her diocese," he said.
Bishop Wamukoya is a former mayor of Swaziland's economic capital, Manzini, reports the AFP news agency.
"I am going to try to represent the mother attribute of God," she told the AP news agency.
"A mother is a caring person but at the same time, a mother can be firm in doing whatever she is doing," she said.Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The agreement in Hanoi was described as "a political and strategic decision"
Vietnam has agreed to help supply Japan with rare earths, as Tokyo tries to reduce its dependence on China.
The two countries have also agreed on greater nuclear cooperation, with Hanoi virtually awarding Japan contracts to build two reactors in Vietnam.
China currently dominates the market in rare earth minerals, which are vital in the manufacture of high-tech goods.
But it has blocked shipments to Japan because of a row over the ownership of islands in the East China Sea.
Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan met his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung in Hanoi on Sunday, after a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) meetings.
A joint statement read: "Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung announced that Vietnam has decided to have Japan as a partner for exploration, mining, development, and separation and production of rare earth minerals in the country."
'Strategic partners'
The Japanese government believes it will win exploration rights for rare earth minerals in Vietnam's northwestern Lai Chau province.
The statement said Tokyo would provide financial and technical support for the rare earths development.
Prime Minister Kan told reporters: "These projects symbolise the start of a close relationship that sees (the two nations) as strategic partners over the long run."
China produces around 97% of the so-called rare earths used around the world to make goods such as mobile phones, computers, lasers, televisions and cars.
But China has been restricting exports of some products in recent years.
It then stopped shipments to Japan altogether, after a Chinese fishing boat captain was arrested near the contested islands in the East China Sea seven weeks ago.
The islands - known in Japan as Senkaku and in China as Diaoyu - are controlled by Japan, but claimed by China, in an on-going dispute.
The Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi gave assurances on Saturday that Beijing would remain a "reliable supplier" of the high-tech ores.
Image copyright Reuters Image caption Lanthanum is one of the 17 elements which make up the 'rare earth' group
But Japan, the US and other countries have already started looking at ways to diversify their sources.
Japan and Vietnam have also agreed to work towards the early signing of a bilateral nuclear cooperation pact.
The joint statement released after the prime ministers met said: "The Vietnamese government chooses Japan as a cooperation partner to build two nuclear reactors".
A Japanese official said the move makes it highly likely that Japanese companies will get the contract.
Japan is the world's third-biggest nuclear power generator, and the government is keen to develop nuclear plants in fast-growing markets like Vietnam.Woman jailed for five-and-a-half years for grooming boy for sex
Jodie Delray was jailed for 5 years and 6 months for sexual activity with boys aged 12 and 13. Picture: Norfolk Constabulay Norfolk Constabulay
A 35-year-old woman who groomed a young boy for sex has been jailed for five-and-a-half years and placed on the sex offenders’ register for life.
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Jodie Delray, of Easthaugh Road, Lyng, was convicted following a nine-day trial of sex assault and sexual activity with the boy, who was aged about 12 to 13 at the time of the abuse, Norwich Crown Court heard.
Delray, who was wearing a grey hoodie, wept in the dock as she was sentenced. She had denied all the offences,
William Carter, prosecuting, said there was an element of grooming to her behaviour and an aggravating feature of the abuse was the disparity in their ages.
Michael Clare, who did not represent Delray at trial but appeared for her defence, said the defendant was of very low risk of re-offending.
He said she was concerned at her trial about the impression she gave to the court as she had been advised not to show her emotions.
“She feels she has been let down in the way she presented herself.”
He said she was a vulnerable individual with a number of health problems and suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome.
“Custody for her will be all the more punishment for her. She is someone who will find it extremely difficult.”
Sentencing Delray, Judge Anthony Bate said he accepted she was a woman of previous good character and said he had received a number of testimonials from her friends and family, who spoke of her many qualities.
He said she had been convicted by the jury of six of nine counts she faced and said: “I can do nothing in this case other than my public duty.”
Judge Bate said she had started by sexually assaulting the boy and this was a “precursor” to them going on to engage in sex.
“Full sex began to occur initiated by you. These clandestine sex trysts continued for some time.”
He said the Appeal Court had stressed the point about how a teenage boy is often “ill-equipped” to cope with a premature sexual experience.
He also made Delray subject to a sexual harm prevention order.Health and Human Services head Kathleen Sebelius Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images
After the Obama administration’s incarnation of the HHS threw pro-choicers under the bus with its overrule of the FDA’s decision to make Plan B emergency contraception available over the counter with no age restrictions, hopes were low that the department would do the right thing when it came to religious-right demands for broad exceptions to the new HHS requirement that contraception be covered without a co-pay by insurance companies. The right wanted the religious exemption, which currently only covers religious employers who are basically working ministry, to include any organization that had a religious affiliation. Today, the administration issued its decision: It’s sticking to the regulations as currently written, and not expanding the exemptions.
This is no small deal. Right now, the exceptions mainly cover people who work for churches and not much else. The exemptions that were demanded would include, among other employers, religiously affiliated universities and hospitals, even though those organizations are there to serve the general public and not just their narrow congregations. (And subsequently benefit from federal spending on education and health care.) Since these kinds of organizations are often Catholic-affiliated, the exemptions had the potential to exclude not a small number of women from full coverage.
This ruling is consistent with other federal law. The EEOC recognizes the right to have contraception covered in the same way other drugs are by insurance companies, and federal judges have upheld that decision. The problem is that the EEOC can’t do anything unless it receives a complaint, and most women are unaware that they have rights, and even if they are aware, they fear retaliation from their employers if they push on this issue. The new regulations from the HHS have more teeth, which is why so many anti-choice groups were fighting them. Additionally, the new regulations require that contraception be offered with no co-pay. Sex-phobic employers could previously discourage contraception use by simply having high co-pays for contraception; that won’t be possible any longer.
It’s worth remembering that while most people think of hormonal contraception when they think of “free birth control” under the new regulations, these regulations also cover sterilization and IUDs. In August, I covered this facet of the new regulations for Slate, but a quick recap: Since getting an IUD can cost a cool grand without insurance coverage, the device is prohibitively expensive (though it’s the cheapest reversible form of contraception in the aggregate). That price will now be free to insured women. Even if they work for a Catholic hospital, though they’ll have to go to a non-Catholic service provider to actually get their IUD inserted.On This Day - 25 July 1915
Theatre definitions: Western Front comprises the Franco-German-Belgian front and any military action in Great Britain, Switzerland, Scandinavia and Holland. Eastern Front comprises the German-Russian, Austro-Russian and Austro-Romanian fronts. Southern Front comprises the Austro-Italian and Balkan (including Bulgaro-Romanian) fronts, and Dardanelles. Asiatic and Egyptian Theatres comprises Egypt, Tripoli, the Sudan, Asia Minor (including Transcaucasia), Arabia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Persia, Afghanistan, Turkestan, China, India, etc. Naval and Overseas Operations comprises operations on the seas (except where carried out in combination with troops on land) and in Colonial and Overseas theatres, America, etc. Political, etc. comprises political and internal events in all countries, including Notes, speeches, diplomatic, financial, economic and domestic matters. Source: Chronology of the War (1914-18, London; copyright expired)
Eastern Front
Enemy reaches Posvol and Poneviezh district on the Dvina.
Russian Government evacuates factories at Riga and Warsaw.
Enemy troops cross Narev above Ostrolenka.
Southern Front
Italians progress on Lower Isonzo.
Barracks at Verona bombed.
Asiatic and Egyptian Theatres
Nasriya shelled, attacked and occupied by British troops under General Gorringe.
Naval and Overseas Operations
U.S.A. steamer "Leelanaw" torpedoed.
French occupy Lomie in Cameroons; rising in Zemen district, Germans retreat.Students at a Chinese university now have the option to test themselves for HIV at their convenience, as they can now purchase affordable testing kits in vending machines.
The urine test kits cost approximately $4.40 and are sold next to instant noodles and other snacks at Southwest Petroleum University in Nanchong City in southwestern China. According to AsiaWire, this move signifies the Chinese government’s newfound urgency in battling HIV, which is on rapid rise among the country’s youth. There are over a half a million people living with the disease in China, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
There was a 43 percent year-over-year increase in infection rates among young students and 80 percent of those occurred from same-sex encounters, according to reports citing research from universities in Nanching City, AsiaWire reported.
The increase of HIV is particularly noticeable amongst young men who engage in sex with other men, AsiaWire reported. The Chinese curriculum does not adequately teach HIV and AIDS awareness and HIV-positive patients tend to be shunned by their acquaintances and their families. Patients are even less likely to speak up or seek professional help due to the diseases’ link to homosexuality.The contents of this page have not been reviewed or endorsed by the Chicago Bulls. All opinions expressed by Sam Smith are solely his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Chicago Bulls or their Basketball Operations staff, parent company, partners, or sponsors. His sources are not known to the Bulls and he has no special access to information beyond the access and privileges that go along with being an NBA accredited member of the media.
There’s been this narrative about Pau Gasol, a sort of don’t confuse me with the facts thing that he is a tentative player, someone who fades from the fight, soft in the detractive vernacular of professional sports. This, of course, for the second leading man on a two-time champion team. You know: Are you going to believe what you see or what I tell you?
“A lot of bull crap stuff,” Taj Gibson was saying Wednesday night after Gasol came up strong and big once again with 22 points and 14 rebounds in the Bulls’ second consecutive comeback win, 95-86 over the Milwaukee Bucks.
Tuesday at the United Center, Gasol had 16 points and 13 rebounds as the Bulls rallied from 10 points behind without Joakim Noah as Gasol played 41 minutes. Then Wednesday, again without an ill Noah and in the second of the back to back against an active and long Bucks front line, Gasol was the rock in 36 minutes, leading the Bulls in fourth quarter rebounding.
“Pau is a physical player,” said Gibson, who added 23 points and 10 rebounds as the duo fought off a 50-42 Milwaukee rebounding edge. “People were trying to bash him and trying to say all kind of stuff. He’s a dominant player. I think he’s one of the dominant bigs in this league. He’s showing you right now that he still has it, no matter his age or what; he’s still hungry. It’s always good when you have a post player you can throw it down to and get something positive out of it.”
Gasol has been that and more and everything that was promised, leading the team in minutes played, total points, rebounds and blocks while averaging 18.8 points, 10.6 rebounds and 2.6 blocks.
Though the Bulls were outrebounded again Wednesday, Gasol was the leading rebounder among both teams in the fourth quarter, adding a crucial jumper when the Bulls led 79-78 with 5:12 remaining and then two clinching free throws when he grabbed a Bucks air ball and was fouled with 1:39 remaining.
“I thought Pau late in the game, it seemed like he got to every rebound,” said Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau as the Bulls went to 4-1. “That’s huge. Not giving them a second and third crack. Oftentimes, that’s when you see the threes. The long shot, long rebound and kick out. Pau was range rebounding. He was covering a lot of ground to get to them. He had people hanging on him; he was strong. So that’s big. He’s smart and he’s long; it seems he’s a better rebounder late. With the game on the line, he’s going after it. He reads the ball well, anticipates, knows who’s shooting it. It’s one of his strengths.
“He’s a big time winner,” added Thibodeau. “Sometimes he can appear to be quiet. We see him every day; we knows he’s not quiet; quick witted, good sense of humor, very, very intelligent. He plays for the team, he plays to win. He’s just as happy when he makes a play like he did last night (passing out for the crucial three pointer to Aaron Brooks); doing dirty work, rebounding. He gets as much pleasure out of passing as scoring. I’m just glad we have him.”
It was especially important for the victory Wednesday as the Bulls bench players never got much going, outscored by Milwaukee’s reserves 50-11. Though Kirk Hinrich made two crucial three pointers in the fourth quarter. So the starters carried the night without Noah, whom the Bulls hope will play Friday in Philadelphia.
They’re also hoping Derrick Rose can play as well as Rose returned to the lineup Wednesday after missing two games with a sprained ankle, clearly not fully healed but doing enough with 13 points and seven assists to make a difference.
As always with Rose and injuries, there is a heightened alert, even for a common basketball injury like an ankle sprain. Rose was again listed a game time decision, but he said he was determined to play even as he clearly was running stiffly, especially early in the game. He went almost 32 minutes without much lift, but drawing enough defensive attention and with several runners and going to the basket late in the game to hold off the Bucks with free throws.
“I wasn’t 100 percent,” Rose acknowledged. “I felt like we needed a win and just tried to come out and get the win with my teammates. Really couldn’t get to hole as much as I wanted. No fast break points or anything, but I was still able to affect the game and draw people in with my double teams to help my teammates out.
“A regular ankle sprain, sore a little bit,” Rose said. “I’ll get treatments the entire day tomorrow and see if I can go Friday against Philly. When I came over to the arena, I knew I was going to play. They taped me up, stretched, did everything I was supposed to do and it felt all right. So I gave it a go.”
But Rose clearly was limited early. He made a pair of three pointers, though the Bucks began to go at him on defense and apparently Bucks guard Brandon Knight began to taunt Rose late in the second quarter with the Bucks leading 46-37. Rose later said he couldn’t recall what was said, but his ankle seemed to loosen up then as he led on a Bulls 12-7 run to end the half with a driving score, nifty passes to Gasol for a slam dunk and Mike Dunleavy for a three and then a powerful finishing basket of his own that changed the tenor of the game. It enabled the Bulls to trail 53-49 at halftime in a game the Bucks seemed to be dominating.
“Just basketball, competing,” shrugged Rose. “I forgot what he did to get under my skin. It’s something that just had me going. We’ll see next time.
“Starting it was kind of stiff,” Rose admitted. “I wasn’t worried offensively; we are good offensively. Before the game, I told Thibs I was worried about defense moving around. Defense you have to react, especially against the point guards they have. End of the first half, that’s when I (was able) to compete more like myself.
“(But) tonight’s game was not my game at all,” said Rose. “I did anything to win the game and tried to produce. I couldn’t jump the way I wanted. I had a gang of turnovers.”
Rose then was asked his regular question that’s some form of when did you stop being a quitter. With his history of two years with knee operations, Rose—and he does it with remarkable calm—basically has to respond almost every game to some question about being criticized on talk radio or in the newspapers or on TV about being injured. To his credit, Rose never gets angry or answers with anything but professional aplomb.
“Chicago is a hard place to play, I know that,” said Rose. “They just want to see good basketball. They’re just good basketball fans so I can’t get mad.
“Even if I play the whole year and don’t get injured again, it’s going to be the same thing (with questions),” agreed Rose. “It’s going to always be there even if I make it through the season healthy, my first playoff game is going to be like, ‘OK, is he going to be healthy through the playoffs?’… Even if I play the whole year, next year it will be the same thing. It’s just people’s opinion about the situation. The only thing I can control is myself and my work ethic and what’s going on here. We’re 4-1 now. So I’m not worrying about myself, just trying to worry about the team and just trying to put us in a good position to be contenders for the rest of the year.”
It’s a worthy enough goal with the Bulls off to a good start, tied atop the Eastern Conference in a tough part of the schedule with 12 of the first 17 on the road. The Bulls finish the current four in five days with Philadelphia and Boston home Saturday and then see Detroit, Toronto and Indiana next week before going to the Western Conference.
So it’s important to get a cushion of wins, which hasn’t been assured even against non playoff teams with the regular starting group not having played together yet. Friday in Philadelphia could be the first time, though Rose won’t be at full health and likely not Noah after a rough go with flu.
The Bulls trailed 23-21 after the first quarter as Chicagoan Jabari Parker had six points and four rebounds. But it wasn’t a good game for the celebrated rookie from Simeon High School and Duke, who ended with eight points on four of 12 shooting. As advertised, he seems to have a good feel for the game. But’s he’s not a particularly athletic player and doesn’t much make plays for himself. The Bucks have wild guards with Brandon Knight and Jerryd Bayless and don’t run much to set up Parker under inexperienced coach Jason Kidd. Knight was the only starter to score in double figures with 10 points, and he shot three of 15. It’s an athletic Bucks team that pushes the ball, though often out of control. Once the Bulls settled in and got more physical, the Bucks scored just 33 points in the second half.
“They are a veteran club and we talked about them being able to turn it up a little bit and put more pressure on us on both ends,” said Kidd. “You can see that in the third quarter, we couldn’t get going on that pace or tempo.”
The Bucks had been the aggressors in the first half, getting 14 free throws to six for the Bulls and seemed about to take over until that Rose awakening that was the start of it being a bad Knight for the Bucks.
“We’re finding our way,” said Thibodeau. “We’re dodging bullets right now. That’s an area we have to shore up (first half defense). It’s much harder to guard people if you give them confidence. Make them work for their points early so they don’t get into a rhythm. We have a lot of different combinations out there, so we are learning the strengths and weaknesses playing with different people. You need that. Over the course of a season, there are going to be different guys in at different times and everyone has to be comfortable playing with everybody. So that’s the one plus we’re getting out of this.”
Rookie Nikola Mirotic had a rough game shooting one of six and unable to contain Giannis Antetokounmpo, who led Milwaukee with 13 points.
One blind spot was the Bulls constantly missing Doug McDermott. He only played about seven minutes, but was routinely open as the Bucks curiously played well off him. But the second group seemed to rarely find him as he never got a field goal attempt.
But the Bulls got it going to start the third to finish that second quarter run with Rose getting a steal and finding Dunleavy for a fast break score. That highlighted a 13-2 run to start the third quarter and 25-9 since late in the first half to take a 62-55 lead.
“I thought as the game went along he (Rose) got stronger and stronger,” said Thibodeau. “He made big plays in the second half for us, so it was good. I thought we had a lot of guys step up. I thought Pau and Taj were terrific inside and Jimmy (Butler) and Kirk, they made great plays in the fourth quarter for us.”
The Bucks did get back within 72-70 going into the fourth quarter as their dribbling out of control guards made some plays while Gasol answered with 10 points with a runout dunk and a driving three-point play in which he pumped his fists as he’s often done with the Bulls, much more emotional and animated than advertised.
“He plays solid D,” Gibson said of Gasol. “His defense is phenomenal, blocking shots, rebounding, talking on D. He’s really in tune with the defense. That’s what people don’t understand. He’s talking to me, Joakim, he’s real vocal. He’s hungry. Every play down he’s vocal: ‘Get a stop, keep it going,’ always talking. Always ready to go.”
And then in the fourth quarter the Bulls said goodbye to the Bucks with the highlights another Butler steal among his four, a spectacular acrobatic layup for Butler, who had 14 points, seven assists, six rebounds and four steals and earlier in the day picked up his diploma at Marquette as he does continue to do it all. Hinrich had the two threes, one on a terrific Butler assist. And Brooks and Hinrich drew driving killing offensive fouls as the Bulls delivered the knockout. How’s that go: Pow!
“I’m really happy about the way I’m able to play right now,” said Gasol, “the way I’m performing and how I am contributing. I just want to continue to work and stay with it and keep that edge and keep performing at that level. I’ve just been paying attention, understanding our strengths and weaknesses and then the rest is just playing games. It’s been good, positive so far. I’m happy with what I’ve seen, what we’re doing and where we are at. Basically, we haven’t had the full team healthy in any game we’ve played and we’re 4-1. So we started off pretty well and now we just have to keep going. Not being content with a good record, a couple of wins here and there. We just have to stretch that winning streak. I love what we are doing and the direction we are heading.”To blog Previous post | Next post
Java version and vendor data analyzed: 2016 edition
This is now fourth year when we publish statistics about the Java landscape. Every year, during springtime, we dig into the data that we have gathered from the JVMs Plumbr Agents have monitored, and find out about:
which Java versions are used (Java 6 vs Java 7 vs Java 8);
which JVMs are used (Oracle Hotspot vs OpenJDK vs Rest Of The World);
how the landscape has changed over time.
This year our conclusions are based on 1,240 different JVMs that Plumbr monitored for performance during February and March 2016. The data has been gathered from within the JVM via System.getProperty() calls with os.arch, os.version, java.version etc..
Java versions used in 2016
Java major version got close to confirming the Java 8 being the most popular environment. But 2016 is still the year of Java 7 in the lead with Java 8 trailing behind with just 0.17% less deployments:
in 2016 we saw no ancient Java 5 versions nor was there any early Java 9 builds.
Java versions in use during 2013 – 2016
The picture looks more interesting if we look at the trends over the four years. Presenting the same data over the period from 2013 to 2016 where we have analyzed the same data, we see the following:
The trends visible above expose the pace older Java versions are making room for new. Java 5 remains dead and Java 6 deployment base shrinks 2x each year. It is also clear that Java 7 deployment base has peaked and is now in decline, giving room for Java 8 to take over.
JVM vendors in 2016
Next analysis opens up the different JVM vendors in regards of deployment market share. If you wonder about the concept then – Java declares a standard any vendor can decide to implement when building a Java Virtual Machine. In theory we should thus have a multitude of different JVM vendors, but in practice we have the following:
No matter how you would interpret the data, the conclusion is the same: there are just two JVMs out there, Hotspot and OpenJDK. The promise of Java spec with multiple vendors does not really hold and we have the choice of between the Hotspot and OpenJDK.
The “Other” category consisted of five different JVMs vendors, each represented by less than five JVMs in the dataset. These vendors included Oracle JRockit, IBM J9, SAP Java Server VM, Zing and DCEVM.
If you found the data interesting, you are likely to enjoy our next week post about Java EE container statistics as well. To be notified on time, subscribe either to our Twitter or RSS feed.China’s credit rating has been downgraded by Moody’s Investors Service for the first time since November 1989, from Aa3 to A1.
“The downgrade reflects Moody’s expectation that China’s financial strength will erode somewhat over the coming years, with economy-wide debt continuing to rise as potential growth slows,” the ratings agency said in a statement.
Chinese economic growth has slowed significantly over the past years, from double digit GDP growth of 10.6% in 2010 to 6.7% in 2016 – the weakest level of growth since 1990. Moody’s expects growth to decelerate further over the next five years to close to 5%.
The credit rating agency provided three reasons for its GDP outlook:
A slowdown in capital stock formation as investment accounts for a diminishing share of total expenditure. An accelerating fall in the working age population that started in 2014. No reversal in the productivity slowdown that has occured over the last few years, despite increased investment in creating a more skilled workforce.
In 2013, Fitch Ratings downgraded China’s debt to A+ (equivalent to Moody’s |
past. It's not just physical, it's disciplined physical, and they're forcing opposing players to earn their space and time to make plays.
The Capitals are learning how to win games in different ways. There is more structure. There is a great buy-in level, and everyone is starting to believe in the system and how successful it can be. Their players are believing what this staff is preaching.
Braden Holtby Goalie - WSH RECORD: 17-8-6
GAA: 2.27 | SVP:.920 Braden Holtby, his game is just tighter overall. Mitch has had him doing a better job of not allowing any goals through the body. He's also using his hands more, both in unison and independently. That's helped his rebound control and helps him retain a lot more pucks in the body or the glove, and to direct them with the blocker.
In addition, Holtby's mental approach is sharper. He's a very articulate guy, very bright, but under Mitch he's been sharper and there is more consistency in his game. He's playing every game, and for the most part every night you're getting the same performance.
But the Capitals also are playing much better in front of him, and I'm not just talking about guys like Brooks Orpik, John Carlson, Karl Alzner, Matt Niskanen, Brooks Laich, Joel Ward and Eric Fehr. Look at Alex Ovechkin, he's a plus-8 now. He was a minus-35 last season. Look at all of their skill players and the buy-in level from them. They are all doing a much better job.
After their win Thursday it has to be an even greater buy-in. They beat a two-time Stanley Cup championship team on the big stage. Now I want to see how this translates going forward for them and what this turns into.
They had an unreal December and they started out with the win Thursday. I want to keep an eye on them.
NEW YORK RANGERS (Last 10: 9-1-0)
In the last six weeks we have seen the Rangers play their most consistent brand of hockey. It looks like they finally hit their stride. What makes that interesting is Washington has picked up its game too. This is going to be a great race to watch.
Obviously Rick Nash is having a great season, but Henrik Lundqvist said he needed to be better after a slow start and he has been in every situation. Cam Talbot has three shutouts. Overall they just have a lot of good things going for them right now. Derek Stepan had the hat trick recently and he's better than a point-per-game player now with 25 points in 23 games. They need that out of him.
The best part of the Rangers is they're playing fast again. They have their up-tempo game working again. I'm interested to see if they can keep it going, because I do have a feeling the Capitals will, and I don't think the Columbus Blue Jackets are going to go away.
MINNESOTA WILD (Last 10: 3-4-3)
I've mentioned this before here in this space, but overall I think Wild general manager Chuck Fletcher has done a nice job there. They have some nice pieces. Nino Niederreiter, a player he basically stole from the Islanders, is having a good season. Zach Parise is a point-per-game player. Quietly they have some nice guys on defense with Marco Scandella and Jared Spurgeon.
Thomas Vanek Left Wing - MIN GOALS: 6 | ASST: 16 | PTS: 22
SOG: 64 | +/-: -3 Thomas Vanek. He is starting to feel his way now, but he has to pick up his scoring even more. He has six goals in 35 games, including five scored in his past 14 games.
I think the most important key to their team is Darcy Kuemper. We need to remember he is a young goalie, but he has all the tools to be a top-flight goalie in the League. He is on a team that for the most part defends well, so that puts him in a great situation.
Mikael Granlund's injury is a tough one to deal with, but they have depth and other guys have to step up.
We've talked about their power play, they need it. They can't beat teams like Chicago without scoring on their power play. They defend well, but they don't score enough at even-strength, so they are more power-play dependent to get points than some other teams in the Western Conference.
COLORADO AVALANCHE (Last 10: 5-3-2)
Let's hope for their sake that Semyon Varlamov can stay healthy. Calvin Pickard was amazing. That was a great story. He kept them afloat while Varlamov was gone. That's tough to come in and replace a Vezina finalist like that. They need Varlamov though.
I'd like to see more from them defensively. Patrick Roy does give them the freedom to take chances, but they need to come back and be more defensive. They can't rely so much on their goalies and expect to get back in this thing this season. They're allowing 2.97 goals and 33.7 shots per game. They're going nowhere if those numbers don't come down.
I am a big fan of Matt Duchene, Ryan O'Reilly, Gabriel Landeskog and Nathan MacKinnon, but those guys have more to give. My point with them is they can't just rely on being a rush team offensively. There isn't enough room to make plays in the NHL on a nightly basis to rely on skill alone, particularly in the West. They have to have a different dimension to their scoring.
The problem is I don't see them scoring a lot of goals on second and third chances around the net. Last season they had a nice balance and attacked and scored goals in so many ways. They need to get grittier this season. All those guys are willing, so they have to do it.John Elefante and OFL Team up
Former “Kansas” Lead Singer and Grammy-winning Artist John Elefante has partnered with Online for Life to launch the music video for "This Time" – a powerful song that tells the story of John’s adopted daughter’s birth mother choosing life 20 years ago for Sami. The song’s lyrics are based on the true story of Sami’s 13-year old birth mother's experience as she battled thoughts of abortion.
Stories like Sami's is why Online for Life exists. OFL works online and offline to reach abortion-determined women and men. We come alongside them in their time of crisis and connect them with local life-affirming organizations, mobile ultrasound units, or a call center where they can receive compassion, thoughtfulness, and helpful information... The kind of compassion and care that SAVES lives.
Enter your email address above to join our combined efforts in the fight for LIFE! Together, we can make sure every child makes their mark.Thirty years ago, Bonnie Svarstad and Chester Bond of the School of Pharmacy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison discovered an interesting pattern in the use of sedatives at nursing homes in the south of the state.
Patients entering church-affiliated nonprofit homes were prescribed drugs roughly as often as those entering profit-making “proprietary” institutions. But patients in proprietary homes received, on average, more than four times the dose of patients at nonprofits.
Writing about his colleagues’ research in his 1988 book “The Nonprofit Economy,” the economist Burton Weisbrod provided a straightforward explanation: “differences in the pursuit of profit.” Sedatives are cheap, Mr. Weisbrod noted. “Less expensive than, say, giving special attention to more active patients who need to be kept busy.”
This behavior was hardly surprising. Hospitals run for profit are also less likely than nonprofit and government-run institutions to offer services like home health care and psychiatric emergency care, which are not as profitable as open-heart surgery.Law clerks have assisted the justices of the United States Supreme Court in various capacities since the first one was hired by Justice Horace Gray in 1882.[1] Each justice is permitted to have between three and four law clerks per Court term. Most persons serving in this capacity are recent law school graduates (and typically graduated at the top of their class).[2] Among their many functions, clerks do legal research that assists justices in deciding what cases to accept and what questions to ask during oral arguments, prepare memoranda, and draft orders and opinions.[3] Research suggests that clerks exert a moderate influence on how justices vote in cases, but have "substantial influence in cases that are high-profile, legally significant, or close decisions."[4] After retiring from the Court, a justice may continue to employ a law clerk, who may be assigned to provide additional assistance to an active justice or may assist the retired justice when sitting by designation with a lower court.
Supreme Court law clerks have often gone on to prestigious careers in academia, business or in government; many subsequently became federal appellate or district judges.[3] Eight clerks later served on the Court themselves: Byron White clerked for Fred M. Vinson (1946–47); John Paul Stevens clerked for Wiley Rutledge (1947–48); William Rehnquist clerked for Robert H. Jackson (1952–53); Stephen Breyer clerked for Arthur Goldberg (1963–64); John Roberts clerked for William Rehnquist (1980–81); Elena Kagan clerked for Thurgood Marshall (1987–88); Neil Gorsuch clerked simultaneously for Byron White (then-retired) and Anthony Kennedy (1993–94), as did Brett Kavanaugh (1993-1994). Neil Gorsuch is the first justice to serve alongside a justice for whom he clerked.[5]
The following articles cover the law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States:
Note that, due to the several changes in the size of the Court since it was established in 1789, two seats have been abolished, both as a result of the Judicial Circuits Act of 1866 (and before the Court established the practice of hiring law clerks). Consequently, neither "seat 5" nor "seat 7" have a list article. Also, the seat numbers in these articles are not derived from official United States federal government sources, but are used as a way of organizing and detailing the succession of justices over the years since the first set of justices were confirmed by the United States Senate.At my day job I’m really the only person that knows how to write WordPress plugins, so when I write one it’s usually sand-boxed on my machine where nobody can touch it. However, in a side endeavor I’m part of we have a team of 3 people developing on one plugin. As I’m the most experienced plugin developer amongst our team, I was tasked with coming up with a development style and plugin architecture that would work for us.
Development Style
Everyone will be running a local copy of WordPress and making their changes to the plugin locally. The plugin itself will be under version control using Git, and developers will push/pull changes from either a self-hosted Git server or Git Hub. Database schema will be tracked in a file called schema.sql. When someone makes a change to the schema, it goes into that file at the bottom with a comment about why the schema changed. We’ll being jQuery as our Javascript framework of choice, and we’ll be writing all of our Javascript in CoffeeScript (see my previous entries).
Plugin Architecture
The more difficult aspect of developing this plugin as a team is the sheer size of the plugin. Realistically this could probably be split into about 6 different plugins by functionality, but we want to keep everything together in one tidy package. To illustrate the architecture, I made a quick drawing.
The first layer of the plugin is essentially a wrapper. It initializes the ORM that we are using to access the database (we are using a separate database for this plugin’s data), and includes the wrapper class. The wrapper class is where developers drop their sub-plugin include file and instantiate it’s main object. For instance, for each sub plugin there will probably be two classes instantiated in the wrapper. One being admin related functionality, and the other being for front-end display functionality. My thinking with this architecture was that we could all work on separate sub-plugins without crossing paths too frequently. This also allows us to separate the different functionality areas of the plugin in a logical manner. The other benefit to architecting the plugin like this is that it will be very easy to port to a different architecture in the future. I’m well aware that WordPress probably isn’t the best tool for the job, but it is the best tool for the team with the deadline that we have.
Thoughts
While thinking about WordPress Plugin Architecture, I cruised the source code of a lot of plugins and it seems that everyone goes about it in a different way. If you’ve ever developed a large-scale plugin with a team, how did you go about doing it? Did you run in to any problems that you didn’t foresee at the beginning of the process?The judge who scrubbed the fatal shooting of black motorist Terence Crutcher from the record of a white cop has been criticized for allowing the murder of a Lebanese man that the victim’s family describe as a hate crime.
Tulsa County district Judge William “Bill” LaFortune belongs to one of the most prominent families in Oklahoma. LaFortune, a Republican, served as the 34th mayor of Tulsa 2002-2006. His uncle served as mayor of Tulsa in the 1970s and his nephew, G.T. Bynum, is the current mayor.
As Raw Story reported Thursday, Judge LaFortune sealed the documents involving the fatal shooting of Terence Crutcher by white former Tulsa Police Department officer Betty Jo Shelby, essentially making it, “as if it never happened.”
Crutcher had his hands in the air and was unarmed. Officer Shelby was acquitted and now works for the neighboring Rogers County Sheriff’s Office.
Attention on Judge LaFortune’s wiping of Shelby’s record hung a lantern on an earlier, controversial decision that may have cost the life 37-year-old Khalid Jabara last year.
Prosecutors allege that Stanley Vernon Majors murdered Jabara after Judge LaFortune ignored prosecutors and allowed Majors to be released from jail while awaiting charges of running over Jabara’s mom.
Majors lived next door to the Jabara family and was under a protective order at the time of both attacks. The order came after a history of threats and racial slurs.
In Sept. 2012, prosecutors charged Majors with assault and battery with a deadly weapon, leaving the scene of a collision involving injury, violating a protective order and public intoxication after he alleged hit Haifa Jabara with a car, Tulsa World reported.
Majors was initially denied bail while awaiting trial for the attack.
Despite Majors having been convicted in 2009 of threatening a crime with intent to terrorize, Judge LaFortune allowed him to be released on $30,000 bail.
Majors was released for jail and returned home to live next door to the Jabara family.
Assistant District Attorney Brett Mize filed a motion asking Judge LaFortune to reconsider allowing bond or at least raise the amount to $300,000.
Majors has “demonstrated a wanton disregard for the life of the victim and the safety of the public,” the prosecution concluded.
“At that bond hearing, the judge was told Majors was a dangerous man, with a prior conviction of threatening with intent to terrorize someone in California. That he was a flight risk. That hitting Haifa Jabara was an intentional act and it was likely he would be convicted,” CNN reported.
Judge LaFortune disagreed. Bail was raised to $60,000 — one fifth of the minimum the state had suggested — and Majors bonded out immediately.
The district attorney’s office asked the judge to reconsider, Fox 23 News reported. The judge did not.
Officials at the DA’s office refused comment to Fox 23 on why Majors was not charged with a hate crime in the initial attack on the mother.
“The perpetrator was not unknown to us—he is our neighbor—someone whom we continuously brought to law enforcement’s attention. He killed our brother while awaiting trial for running over our mother, resulting in a broken shoulder, collapsed lung, broken ankle, broken nose, head trauma, and fractured ribs amongst other injuries,” the Jabara family said in a statement.
The Jabara family had harsh words for the fact that Judge LaFortune had allowed Majors to go free.
“My family lived in fear of this man and his hatred for years. Yet in May, not even one year after he ran over our mother and despite our repeated protests, he was released from jail with no conditions on his bond—no ankle monitor, no drug/alcohol testing, nothing,” the family noted.
The family says the racial aspect can not be ignored.
“This suspect had a history of bigotry against our family. He repeatedly attacked our ethnicity and perceived religion, making racist comments. He often called us ‘dirty Arabs,’ ‘filthy Lebanese,’ ‘Aye-rabs,’ and ‘Mooslems’ — a fact highlighted by the Tulsa Police Department who also heard these comments from the suspect. The suspect’s bigotry was not isolated to us alone. He made xenophobic comments about many in our community — ‘filthy Mexican’ and the ‘n-word’ were all part of his hateful approach to anyone from a different background,” the family explained.
The family charged that Khalid Jabara’s murder was entirely preventable.
“Today, in our pain, we are also keenly aware that this is not just another murder to be added to crime statistics. Our brother’s death could have been prevented. This man was a known danger. He intentionally tried to kill our mother less than one year ago when he ran her over with his car. Based on his racist comments towards us, he should have been charged with a hate crime then. He should not have been released without monitoring. Yet he was released and put back next door to us, the family he assaulted just months before,” the family reminded. “This is troubling at any time, but profoundly disturbing given the current climate of our country and the increase nationally in cases of hate crimes.”
Judge LaFortune comes from a position of vast privilege.
“LaFortune is a third-generation member of one of Tulsa’s most prominent families active in the petroleum industry, philanthropy and civic affairs,” News OK explained when LaFortune was elected mayor in 2002. “His grandfather – Joseph LaFortune Sr., gave millions for medical research, an athletic dorm at the University of Tulsa and a high school football stadium. His uncle – Robert A. LaFortune – served as the city’s street commissioner from 1964 to 1970 and as mayor from 1970 to 1978.”
Despite his history in Tulsa, Judge LaFortune was largely unaware of the 1921 “Tulsa Race Riot” when whites burned the segregated black business district of Greenwood, reportedly killing 300 black citizens.
“I’m 39 years old, and I was born and raised in Tulsa,” LaFortune admitted in 1996. “I never really learned about the race riots until the last several years.”
“How many red flags does it take to keep somebody that’s obviously dangerous to the community, to the public in general, who’s a flight risk … How many red flags does it take to keep this guy in custody so that he can face trial?” Jabara’s younger brother, Rami wondered.
Watch Fox 23 News coverage investigating why Judge Bill LaFortune allowed Vernon Majors released from jail:It’s been a year of memorable takeaways by the New England Patriots defense. There was that time Duron Harmon intercepted Ben Roethslisberger to secure a Patriots victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers. And there was that time Duron Harmon intercepted Deshaun Watson to ensure the Patriots defeated the Houston Texans. Oh, and there was that time Duron Harmon intercepted Matt Moore to clinch a Patriots win over the Miami Dolphins.
And there was that time when Duro- oh, sorry, Jonathan Jones intercepted Philip Rivers so the Patriots could beat the Los Angeles Chargers.
The Patriots have forced seven turnovers after the two minute warning in 2017 and they have forced six turnovers in the red zone. The New England defense has been clutch and stepped up when the team needed them most.
“I think it's just continuing to play, you know?,” Patriots free safety Devin McCourty said about playing at a high level by the goal line. “It's obviously something we work on. Obviously not the turnover part but red area. Situation is something we spend a lot of time on so I think when we get in the red area everyone realizes the drive is not over. “We spend time, we talk about the red area so we're trying to get stops. A lot of times if you can get a turnover that's a seven-point swing. You take the field goal off the board, touchdown off [the board]. It's a huge play. I think it's just been more about executing whatever our game plan is and a couple times we've come away with turnovers and they've been huge.”
The Patriots six takeaways in the red zone lead the NFL, with only the Baltimore Ravens (5) and New York Jets (4) recording more than three. New England also has seven takeaways after the two minute warning, which also leads the NFL.
But for a defense that is so clutch at taking the ball away at crucial junctures, they’ve not been too special at takeaways in general. They have just 18 on the season, which is tied for 18th in the NFL.
The Patriots are on pace for 20.6 takeaways in 2017, which ranks between last (2005, 18 takeaways) and second-to-last (2015, 21 takeaways) in the Bill Belichick era. Those are the only two years that featured worse-ranked defenses by takeaways relative to the league- they ranked 22nd in 2015 and 31st in 2005.
While it’s not too different from the past two Super Bowl winning defenses of New England (25 in 2014; 23 in 2016), it’s still on the bottom end of the Belichick-spectrum. The big difference is also yards allowed. The 2014 defense ranked 13th in yards allowed, while the 2016 defense ranked 8th.
The 2017 defense ranks 29th in yards allowed.
The New England Patriots have been doing enough to win games and rank an impressive 6th in points allowed. Usually the high ranked defenses rank well in either yards or takeaways, or both. The 2017 defense does not rank well in either category, but they keep on creating turnovers at key moments. It’s incredible what can happen if you just “continue to play” until the final whistle.After 11 years of stealthy privatisation in the health service, it is little surprise that doctors are up in arms over polyclinics - themselves a cover for commercialisation. The NHS, for so long an international model for a universal, public-owned and public-controlled service, is now the world's laboratory for privatisation.
Labour's 1997 manifesto promised: "Our fundamental purpose is simple but hugely important: to restore the NHS as a public service working cooperatively for patients, not a commercial business driven by competition." But from the outset, New Labour had four targets in its sights: ending public ownership and control of the NHS; developing a large for-profit private sector using Treasury and NHS funds; creating a flexible workforce for that sector; and changing the public's resistance to markets in healthcare.
Today 90 NHS foundation hospitals operate outside direct government control in an increasingly commercial environment. At the same time, the government has continued to divert NHS funds to the private sector. Since 1997, its private finance initiative programme has been used to sell and liquidate hundreds of NHS hospitals and clinics. But the 76 planned and 33 operational PFI hospital schemes are not under public control - they are leased back from the private sector under 30-year to 60-year commercial contracts.
The high costs to the NHS of servicing the annual PFI debt charges and absence of proof of value for money are well documented. However, until recently the true scale of the profits has been hidden from view with "commercial confidentiality" exemptions being invoked in response to freedom of information requests. The recent release of the Royal Infirmary Edinburgh and Hairmyres hospital contracts in Scotland and their analysis by Jim and Margaret Cuthbert show shareholders will reap dividends of £168m on an equity stake of £500,000 for the infirmary, and £89m on an equity stake of £100 for Hairmyres hospital - rich rewards for so little risk. The estimated fees, additional interest charges and shareholder dividends amount to more than three times the cost under public procurement. In other words, the taxpayer gets one PFI hospital for what three public hospitals would have cost.
Meanwhile, PFI- and deficit-driven hospital closures, including the loss of more than 13% of NHS beds in England since 1997, have seen waiting lists soar. The Department of Health has turned NHS shortage to advantage, advocating further commercialisation to bring in additional capacity, and pouring £5bn into the controversial independent sector treatment centre programme. Its corporate owners have yet to provide the DoH with any meaningful data on beds, staffing, performance, quality of care or value for money. But the absence of data hasn't stopped the CBI publishing spurious claims about quality of care, productivity, length of stay and value for money. Nor has it stopped the government using public money to extend new contracts to the commercial sector.
The commercialisation of services leads to the blurring of boundaries about the funding and responsibilities of care; once NHS services have moved into the commercial sector there will be no limits on what the private sector can charge for: boutique care for those who can pay, and small-print restrictions for those who cannot. The debate has already begun with proposals to introduce co-payments or top-up charges for those who can afford to pay for care not provided by the NHS.
Politicians, meanwhile, unite in the fiction of an unaffordable NHS. We are never told about the impact of the market or how the huge injection of cash into the NHS is being diverted into marketing, billing, invoicing, chief executive-level salaries, profits, shareholders' returns and bank dividends. Nor is the public told how budgetary controls that made the NHS the most cost-efficient health system in the world are being dismantled in the rush to market.
Public and staff protests have gone unheeded, and judicial reviews have merely delayed the market process. The mechanisms for public accountability are being stripped out. Voters face a dilemma: the temptation is to punish Labour at the ballot box, yet the Conservatives' health proposals, published last October, advocate the abolition of the secretary of state's unqualified duty to provide a universal health service. While Scotland and Wales are trying to forge a new path, taking steps to dismantle their markets, the English electorate is between a rock and a hard place.
· Allyson Pollock is director of the Centre for International Public Health Policy at Edinburgh University
allyson.pollock@ed.ac.ukWhen it comes to diversifying a financial portfolio, precious metals are always mentioned as being a good choice – and gold in particular. But before you invest in anything, it’s smart to understand what’s going on behind the scenes. In 2017, there’s a lot to consider.
4 Factors That Move Gold Prices
While gold prices don’t tend to move a whole lot over a short period of time, there are a lot of different factors that can affect the valuation. When you study gold price trends over the years, it’s apparent that the following factors are heavily involved in the ebb and flow of this precious metal.
Global Crises
Much like the stock market – or even real estate to an extent – gold prices can be influenced by what’s happening in the global geo-political scene. However, unlike the stock market, where prices sink when turmoil is present, gold prices generally increase when people are feeling uncertain.
Gold values increase when other investments diminish because this precious metal is seen as a source of safety. If money, stocks, and other holdings cease to hold value, gold suddenly becomes even more prized.
Inflation
Gold is also considered a good asset for hedging against inflation. While currencies may change in terms of what a single unit can purchase, the theory is that gold holds value all over the world and is a much safer asset. For example, even if the U.S. dollar were to suddenly become globally irrelevant, gold would still have worth in other countries.
Government Reserves
The United States is one of a handful of countries that actually holds gold as part of its national reserves. When the central banks in these countries buy gold in larger quantities than they sell, the supply becomes scarcer and prices are driven up. When they sell more gold than they buy, the supply increases and prices go down.
Changes in Global Currency Valuations
As global currency valuations change over time, the price of gold also fluctuates – and it’s usually in the opposite direction. For example, as the Euro gets stronger, the value of gold goes down (and vice versa). This speaks to how people view gold – as a hedge, rather than something they actually use to trade or barter with.
What’s Happening in 2017?
While gold has been down for a couple of years, Adam Shell of USA TODAY proclaims it’s “glittering again on Wall Street.” While good news for gold investors, this could be bad news for everyone else.
“Even though gold is up nearly 11% this year, which is better than the S&P 500’s 9% gain, Wall Street pros still think gold can be an effective hedge and offer protection to investors’ portfolios during what could be a turbulent September,” Shell explains. “The biggest driver of gold prices could be the uncertainty surrounding approaching deadlines for Congress related to the nation’s budget and raising of the debt ceiling.”
While some may also point to rising interest rates as a sign that gold prices could be on the move, this isn’t necessarily true. If you study historical interest rates, they don’t necessarily line up with gold prices very well. And when you consider that it’s going to take a lot to bring interest rates back up to pre-2008 levels, it’s unlikely that gold will be affected much by rising interest rates in the United States.
As with any investment commodity, it’s impossible to tell, for certain, where the price of gold is headed. However, when you study some of the global turbulence going on right now, it’s hard not to feel a little optimistic about gold.Image copyright Reuters Image caption Hewitt pleaded not guilty to allegations that he had abused three of his former students
Former tennis Grand Slam champion Bob Hewitt has been found guilty by a South African court of raping underage girls.
Hewitt, 75, had denied two charges of rape and a third charge of sexual assault.
The attacks took place in the 1980s and 1990s, when the Australian-born former tennis star was coaching the women, then young girls, in South Africa.
Hewitt won nine Grand Slam doubles and six mixed doubles titles in the 1960s and 1970s.
His name was removed from the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2012, following abuse allegations.
During the trial, one woman said Hewitt had told her "rape is enjoyable" as he assaulted her.
Another victim said he had touched her inappropriately and forced her to perform a sex act on him when she was 12 and 13.
Judge Bert Bam told the High Court sitting in Johannesburg that the evidence against Hewitt was overwhelming and consistent.
He said striking similarities among the three victims' testimonies showed that Hewitt's conduct was calculated.
"Time did not erase the crimes. A guilty person should not go unpunished," the judge added.
Hewitt was remanded in custody following the guilty verdicts.HTC and Valve recently released the full list of VIVE games that will be displayed at next week’s Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco. According to an email from a Valve representative, many of these titles will be familiar, but there are also more than a few debut games on the list as well. Check out the full collection below:
The New
These are the previously unannounced Vive games that will be displayed at the show:
Note: we are still gathering information on these titles as well so please forgive us if we can’t provide full descriptions for each one just yet. This story will be constantly updated as new details are brought to light.
Vanishing Realms – Indimo Labs
A true mystery, all that is currently known about Vanishing Realms is this image, which may or not be from the actual game.
La Peri – InnerspaceVR
Described as a “narrative experience” by developer InnerspaceVR, La Peri has been teased as a Disney quality animated experience for the Vive. In less than a week we’ll know if it lives up to the hype.
Other Ocean – GiantCop
Giant Cop embraces the “deity” viewpoint that a lot of VR titles offer to you with good humor. Your fellow police officers recognize your enormous size and implore you to use it to stop crimes in this VR sendup of 70s cop shows.
WaveVR – TheWave
This game could be anything. Is it an ocean simulator? A sound visualizer? Or, most likely, the world’s first wave-practicing engine for the socially awkward? Only time will tell.
Adventure Time – Cartoon Network Games/Turbo Button
I had the chance to interview Holden Link – one half of the Turbo Button squad – several months ago. During that talk he did allude to the fact that his studio’s popular Gear VR game Adventure Time: Magic Man’s Head Games would one day make an appearance on the Vive. Looks like he’s a man of his word. We’ve reached out to the studio for further comment.
Pool Nation – CherryPop Games
CheryPop prides itself on making incredibly realistic pool simulator. This VR version is still a question mark but a reasonable assumption would be that Vive owners might soon be able to play a nice round of billiards in their homes without putting dents all along the walls of their game room.
Universe Sandbox ² – Giant Army
The last time I spoke to Dan Dixon – the founder of Giant Army – Universe Sandbox 2’s VR support still seemed to just be a prototype. Now, however, a new video and news of the game’s presence at GDC serve as proof positive that the world’s best planet-smashing simulator is off to a even better start than I could have hoped.
The Familiar
These are the games we’ve all come to know, love, and drool over these past few years:
Owlchemy Labs – Job Simulator: The 2050 Archives
Northway Games & Radial Games – Fantastic Contraption
Google – Tilt Brush
Epic – Unreal Editor
Lionsgate & Starbreeze – John Wick: The Impossible Task
Stress Level Zero – Hover Junkers
Cloudhead Games – The Gallery
Neat Corporation – Budget Cuts
VRUnicorns – #SelfieTennis
VIRZOOM – Virzoom
Futuretown.io – Cloudlands Minigolf
I-Illusions – Space Pirate Trainer
Vertigo Games – Arizona Sunshine
Phosphor Games – Brookhaven
Alientrap – Modbox
Solfar – Everest
Aldin Dynamics – Waltz of the Wizard
Survios – Raw Data
Dylan Fitterer – Audioshield
Penrose Studios – The Rose and I
Triangular Pixels – Unseen Diplomacy
Schell Games – Water Bears
Phaserlock – Final Approach
Innervision VR – Thunderbird
Lightning Rock – Marble Mountain
Frontier Development – Elite: Dangerous
Envelop – E.V.E.
AltVR – AltspaceVR
Minority Media – Time Machine
We will be bringing you news and updates on all the notable games and experiences live from the GDC show floor all week during GDC.
Tagged with: Games, gaming, GDC, htc, SHowcase, titles, valve, Viveon •
Sometimes I feel like the world of decorating has finally caught up with my own eclectic style. Pinterest and other online sites now share and extol the random and budget friendly decor I learned from my grandmother. She never bought a new piece of furniture, other than mattresses and the occasional sofa, and probably as a result my own mother rarely bought anything but new. I’m a throw back, if only because I can afford eclectic far more than I can afford a decorator.
New neighbors at the lake bought their cabin last year, and had it entirely repainted and redecorated before they moved in. Every bit of furniture is brand new, and each small room coordinates perfectly. It all makes for a “harmony of color and style” I was informed when I visited.
My cabin is filled with “stuff left over from my home”. For the most part it’s stuff that I’ve gathered over the years. I basically decluttered my home a bit by moving stuff to the cabin. I also found an excuse to buy more stuff from vintage stores, garage sales, and charity shops.
It’s far from a “harmony of color and style”, but I like it. Yes, the upstairs is almost all knotty pine. It grows on you. Really.
I’m sure I’ll share more of my cabin decor, for such a small place I quickly managed to fill it with stuff other people might have said was “hoarding”. I think of my collection in terms of another TV show “American Pickers”! What to one person is “hoarding” is to another “I know I’m going to find just the use for this priceless treasure one day!” Trust me, there is more to share.None of it is a”harmony of color and style”.
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Categories: General Stuff!, TravelWhat do Faye Vincent, George Steinbrenner, and David Stern have in common?
They’re each relevant characters in the relocation saga of the Maloof family, owners of the Sacramento Kings, who are increasingly becoming a liability for the NBA.
That’s because Chris Lehane, executive director of arena group Think Big Sacramento and big-time political consultant to be played by Rob Lowe in the upcoming film Knife Fight – mashed those characters together when he sent a scathing letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday. In that letter, he described the Maloofs’ harassment of at least one Sacramento business owner using an ex-FBI agent and asks for a federal investigation into the matter.
On Friday night, CBS13, the local CBS News affiliate, reported that the Maloof Family is employing a former FBI Agent whose purported activities appear designed to intimidate citizens of the Sacramento region who in recent weeks have expressed their concerns |
it is not backed by any government or central bank.
Bitcoin’s platform has begun to gain real traction in recent months forcing governments and regulators to look for the best way to respond.
“Bitcoin has no legal status or a regulatory framework. Thus it poses a number of risks for those that would choose to transact with it such as the lack of guarantee of security, convertibility or value,” said Hlengani Mathebula, head of group strategy and communications at the SARB.
“The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) is actively monitoring the developments around virtual currencies to inform any future regulatory approaches that may become necessary within the South African jurisdiction,” Mathebula said.
The SARB and the National Treasury (the Ministry of Finance) together constitute the monetary authority in South Africa.
A bitcoin is currently worth about $264 (Mt.Gox, 19 February), with its value fluctuating widely amid increasing visibility. Last September, a bitcoin was worth around $150, and by late December the value was near the $1,000 mark.
Israel said on Wednesday that it was considering regulation of bitcoin and warned citizens that using such decentralized virtual currencies was risky, Reuters reported.
Israel, home to pioneering firms in hi-tech fields such as cryptography, has emerged as a bitcoin hotspot.
In the US, meanwhile, Robocoin is set to install the first automated teller machines that enables users buy and sell bitcoin.
According to CoinMap, a few South African companies have already started to accept Bitcoin, predominantly in the Western Cape.
They include a paintball shop, a taxi service, Fire & Ice – Fire dancers Cape Town, an internet marketing company, and a tax consultancy.
In recent weeks, bitcoin was hit by attacks from unknown computer hackers that led to problems at two exchanges.
More on Bitcoin
The world’s most popular digital currencies
Cyber currency here to stay
Standark Bank throws out Bitcoin idea
Bitcoin up and down as withdrawals halted
US regulator mulls Bitcoin rulesA father has condemned the NHS for double standards after he was refused a surgery on his chest due to his gender, he believes.
Gareth Edwards pleaded with the NHS for surgery after one side of his chest became bigger than the other, resembling a breast.
The 24-year-old suffers from gynecomastia - swelling of the breast tissue in men, caused by an imbalance of the hormones oestrogen and testosterone.
Scroll down for video
Gareth Edwards, 24, suffers from gynecomastia - swelling of breast tissue in men. The condition has led to his chest becoming asymmetrical
The father-of-one says the stress of his condition is making him ill - and he desperately wants surgery
The condition can can affect one or both breasts, sometimes unevenly. While it isn't a threat to health, it can cause great emotional distress to those affected.
Mr Edwards, a father-of-one, says he is so distressed by his appearance he can no longer go to the gym or show his chest on the beach.
He is now desperate to have surgery to make his breasts more symmetrical.
However the NHS has refused to fund the op because there is no demonstrable health benefit to having it.
Mr Edwards, from Bovey Tracey, Devon, said has now been told it will cost more than £3,000 to have an operation privately - money he does not have.
Mr Edwards believes he has a right to have surgery on the NHS - but has been refused the op
The hotel chef, who weighs 9st, said: 'About six months ago I noticed one side of my chest was bigger than the other.
'It's now got to the point where I can't go to the gym, or the beach on a sunny day and take off my T-shirt. I'm scared people are staring at me.
'My friends were shocked I had a boob and said I should seek help.
'I was told it is fatty tissue that needs removing - and it's only going to get bigger.'
He insists private surgery is not an option due to his personal circumstances.
'I have a young son and a family to feed and clothe - I don’t have that kind of money. I need the operation to remove the lump and gristle, which is causing the problem.'
He added: 'I pay taxes and National Insurance. All I’m asking is for the NHS to do its job and fix my issue, which I shouldn't have to pay for. The stress of it all is making me ill.
'Women get boob jobs on the NHS but I can't get help - it's very upsetting.'
A spokesman for South Devon and Torbay Clinical Commissioning Group said: 'When making these decisions we have a responsibility to take into account ethical issues, safety, clinical effectiveness and cost effectiveness, balancing the needs of the majority with the differing needs of the individual.
'We are not unsympathetic to any individual who wishes to change their appearance.
'However when there is no demonstrable health benefit to the individual the NHS is unlikely to agree funding.'Loading... Loading...
Many people today have heard about the scientific explanations that quantum theory provides–such as the vibratory densities of all physical objects, showing that in a very real sense, the physical reality that encapsulates the human experience is nothing more than one large vibratory collage–a song with infinite variety. Hence the common explanation given from the Book of John, “In the beginning, there was the Word…”
While there are a lot of individuals who simply think, “Wow, what a cool idea this is,” and leave it at that, there are more deeply probing, inquisitive minds that have begun pondering more fundamental questions that this proposes, such as: If life is a song, then what is its tuning? And if there is a tuning, then how does a human determine what it is–and can we tune ourselves to this key signature?
Researcher Jamie Buturff, is one of these inquisitive minds. Having deeply investigated Pythagorean mathematics and esoteric sciences. Founder of 432 Design, LLC, Buturff has based his research premise and material around the complex analysis and understanding of 432 Hertz, which has been scientifically demonstrated by Buturff and his colleagues to represent the literal frequency of the human crown chakra. Actually, Jamie has validated and brought to light the hertz translation of the all five of the chakra points, all of which have been demonstrably proved in FDA-approved laboratories as controlled and professional scientific experiments. The document can be viewed here, and the table reads:
Crown – 216 / 432 / 864 Hertz – A (musical note tuning)
Third Eye – 144 / 288 / 576 Hertz – D (musical note tuning)
Throat – 192 / 384 / 768 Hertz – G (musical note tuning)
Heart – 128 / 256 / 512 Hertz – C (musical note tuning)
Solar Plexus – 182 / 364 / 728 – F Sharp (musical note tuning)
Sacral – 303 / 606 / 1212 Hertz – E Flat (musical note tuning)
Root – 228 / 456 / 912 – B flat (musical note tuning)
The study, conducted at the Centre for Biofield Medicines in Pune, India, can be seen in its entirety here.
This, in conjunction with the full extent of Buturff’s research, conclusively confirm these hertz tones. The scientific study confirms that these frequencies had a large spectrum of advanced therapeutic potential for biological life, especially when these frequencies were directed towards their ascribed bodily chakra points for therapy. Essentially, this study confirmed the tuning capability that these frequencies have on the chakra points.
Many people are probably wondering why they have not heard of Jamie Buturff and 432 Design, especially since he has been providing research on the subject since 2010–and it will not be surprising to many, considering the level of knowledge in his research, that his official research-oriented YouTube channel is literally blocked for viewing in America, even though Buturff himself is an American citizen that uses literally no vulgarity on YouTube whatsoever. Luckily, since Buturff is an honorable researcher, he can’t be legally banned from YouTube as a whole, and thus he continues to pump out videos, many of which can still be individually viewed in America–but when an American tries to click on his personal channel, or subscribe, it is quite clearly blocked out.
However, if this blocking was not some sort of indicator that this is some invaluable material, then the trolling-spree of Jesuit-affiliated, egotistical shill, Leonard Horowitz on Jamie Buturff and 432 Design is certainly an indicator. Knighted by the Sovereign Orthodox Order of the Knights Hospitaller of St John of Jerusalem (a secret society inherently wed with the corrupt Vatican Jesuit Order), Horowitz has systematically made a career of spreading disinformation, castigating and even threatening a variety of authentic researchers throughout the years, and his own research seems to be heavily oriented around stroking his own ego.
In reality, however, despite the braggadocio that Horowitz exudes with the boasting of his PhD, his constant insistence that he is a chosen instrument of the “Creator,” and other narcissistic traits that this doctor demonstrates, he is only popular on his own website, and on blogs that fail to do their own research into this phony activist. In an account given by Dr. A. True Ott (whose website can be viewed here) it seems more than plausible, although not confirmed, that Horowitz is a legitimate agent of Military Intelligence of CoIntel Pro nature that is tasked with networking with authentic researchers, gathering data on their work, and reporting it to military intelligence. A piece written on the matter by Investigative Journal can be viewed here, and it is quite a thorough and damning read for Horowitz.
Before moving on, it is important to briefly mention the disinformation that Leonard Horowitz represents to the realm of Esoteric Frequency Mathematics. While this may be a bit confusing for those unfamiliar with the terminology, suffice it to say that Horowitz insists that the heart chakra can be measured at 528 Hz, and promotes the idea that the Solfeggio Ratio components are actually equivalent to the chakra point vibrations, and are an imparted spiritual gift upon humanity.
Known as the educational music scale “Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti,” Horowitz claims it to be an ancient scale used by humans, but it wasn’t actually developed until the 11th century. Also, these are six notes, leaving one chakra point out anyway. He is also popular for promoting the claim that geneticists actually use the 528 Hz frequency to repair damaged DNA–and this claim is completely unstudied, unverified, ill-founded, and essentially total bogus. And in any case, the only evidence really needed to disprove Horowitz is to play his Hertz frequency measurements that he has applied to this ratio–supposedly an ancient gift of harmony.
When actually played, the scale is hardly even a scale, and is completely disharmonious. This is a complete dead end in terms of understanding the frequencies of nature, and Horowitz not only adamantly denies any fallacies with his research, he consistently and vehemently attacks researchers that openly dispute him.
In actuality, to be fair, the Solfeggio Ratio is an important piece to this puzzle. Discovered by Buturff, this ratio is actually the Family Number Groups of circuitry developed by mathematician and inventor Marko Rodin over 30 years ago with his invention, the Rodin coil. This means that these numbers are the frequency spectrum at which the energy in the Rodin coil travels–an example serving as a Rodin coil would be a guitar, and the Family Number Groups being the fingers pressing on the strings to produce the specific notes. Horowitz, as discussed by Buturff in the video below, is using numbers that equate to the fingers on the “guitar” of the Rodin Coil, not the notes produced. Jamie Buturff and 432 Design have scientifically validated his information over Horowitz’s.
To discuss advanced mathematician Marko Rodin is to discuss the coming paradigm shift in mathematics, zero point energy, and suppressed technology. Rodin’s story is so interesting because, while he has certainly received his own amount of suppression, he has been astonishingly successful with the development of his research. His prominence is continuing to rise, both due to the thoroughness of his research and the efficacy of his inventions.
The Rodin coil is a toroidal coil used to conduct electricity that uses schematics developed by Rodin, previously unknown in modern-day mathematical computation. The invention essentially serves as an electronic torus field, and the coiled circuitry,
“naturally creates a greatly increased magnetic field in the center of the torus, when compared to a conventional coil wound with the same amount of wire. In addition the field generated is much more coherent, in the sense of being much more sensitive to a particular frequency of applied current. These properties are the basis for useful applications of the Rodin Coil, as well as for any limitations in its use.”
The article quoted here, explaining the Rodin coil in-depth, can be read here. Marko Rodin is continuing his groundbreaking research to this day and even Rodin’s mathematician protegé’, Randy Powell, is making waves in the research community, garnering his own following in conjunction with Rodin. In the recent documentary, Randy’s Donuts, the research is explained in great depth, and the website can be viewed here.
As final thoughts on the matter, the reason Buturff has so deeply involved Rodin’s research in his own is due to the incredible applications that the coil possesses. Not only did Rodin develop his circuitry technology using his study of esoteric Pythagorean mathematics and numerology, but as discussed in the quote, the coil magnifies electrical currents applied to it quite precisely. Long story short, the Rodin coil has allowed Buturff the technology to adequately gather his research and accurately test it. As well, Leonard Horowitz considers Marko Rodin a disingenuous fool.
(Here is a pdf online guide to developing your own Rodin coil: http://www.panaceatech.org/Marco%20Rodin%20Coils.pdf)
The current tuning of all music today is generally 440 Hz; however, many musicians have tuned their music to 432 Hz, such as Bob Marley. Consider that, and the effect that modern music, at the wrong setting, has on you.
Here is a video comparing and discussing the differences between 440 and 432 Hz, and why all music should be tuned to 432 Hz, as it had traditionally been tuned by humans in the past:
(More information on Marko Rodin and his research can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN2LBO8wig8, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fI93jeaXGvs, http://www.americanantigravity.com/)
(Here is a playlist on YouTube that goes directly to Jamie Buturff’s primary research videos, since his channel for subscription is blocked in America. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVATlX4XKMk&list=PL21257F2621425450)
In summation, Globalist-elitist efforts (who are inherently involved with esoteric secret societies that teach these esoteric understandings) have gone through great efforts over the years to bury this information, and have even apparently disseminated disinformation agents to help keep it that way. However, the word is coming around, and with such attention being drawn to Rodin by the Nikola Tesla-inspired and Elon Musk-fueled mathematical/electrical forefront–it seems like the time for public understanding of these esoteric principles is getting closer and closer.
Author’s Note: Giving his commendation to The Last American Vagabond, researcher Jamie Buturff offered us his recently posted YouTube video, explaining just exactly how his YouTube channel had become blocked for seemingly no reason. Unfortunately, the answer here is not exactly reasonable, and involves a list of allegedly hundreds of YouTube channels and websites, et cetera, in the ambiguous “order approving stipulation” in the details of a divorce court settlement between none other than Leonard G Horowitz and his wife, Jacqueline Lindenbach. Over two hundred websites unrelated to Horowitz and Lindenbach were curiously censored by court order of this “order approving stipulation” due to the material on these sites that was deemed to have some sort of relationship to the material put forth by Horowitz’s company, “The Royal Bloodline of David, LLC”, and Lindenbach’s, “The Manifestation of Divine Will, LLC”.
In short, this is nothing short of further proof that Horowitz is a disinformation agent for some “Alphabet Agency,” seeking to gather material on independent researchers in order to censor and silence them–especially when they call into question Horowitz’s bogus research and false claims. To quote Buturff on the matter:
“My YouTube channel was blocked in the USA via an Idaho court order in a divorce between Leonard G. Horowitz and his ex-wife… “How do dozens of people, and over 200 websites and pages have their freedom of speech blocked, deleted, or taken down in a Leonard Horowitz divorce court order in 2014? Well, I guess the 528 love wasn’t working so instead had to bribe a judge. Ya think?”
Buturff’s YouTube video explaining the matter can be viewed here:
The Last American Vagabond will continue to report the updates of this story as they come.
Sources: http://vbm.isteaching.com/, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN2LBO8wig8, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pvuTZ5u6Kg&list=PLd8nNT6sz_QcT3_Svg3qIB3X-LhUrBvnG, https://www.scribd.com/doc/202351974/Spiritual-Results-Music-Study, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDRaCTVO67w&list=PL21257F2621425450&index=3, http://unhypnotize.com/other-conspiracies/7297-len-horowitz-dark-doctor-disguise-remains-vatican-shill.html, http://www.arcticbeacon.com/greg/headlines/len-horowitz-a-dark-doctor-in-disguise-remains-a-vatican-shill/, http://www.atrueott.com/, http://www.panaceatech.org/Marco%20Rodin%20Coils.pdf, https://www.scribd.com/doc/202352187/The-A-432-Chakras
Help Us Be The Change We Wish To See In The World.Since I wrote this article in November 2014 quite a few things have changed, so I thought it was time to update the original article.
In a recent interview, Jeremy Crawford commented that the official setting of the D&D tabletop RPG “ is the multiverse, which includes all D&D worlds. “
“ On Twitter, Chris Perkins revealed he has something in the works for 2016, which just might be a new setting based on his own world called Valoreign.
. Errata documents will be released this spring.
It is likely that the Warforged race (from Eberron) and Kender race (from Dragonlance) will be covered in an upcoming article on the Dungeon & Dragons site. Comments by Mike Mearls have pretty much confirmed this, with Warforged “up first”.
Previously, Mike Mearls let us know that they are ” looking at two storylines a year” and have “plans laid down for stories up through 2018.“
So what do we get every six months?
It appears that each storyline will provide some (or all) of the following:
Optional: storyline specific Adventurer’s Handbook, with new races, classes, backgrounds, feats, equipment lists.
“Not every story will necessarily include a player option type book” – Chris Perkins
We have not seen an Adventurer’s Handbook yet, since Elemental Evil is releasing this content in the adventure/as part of a free PDF.
“Not every story will necessarily include a player option type book” – Chris Perkins We have not seen an Adventurer’s Handbook yet, since Elemental Evil is releasing this content in the adventure/as part of a free PDF. Adventure for that storyline (1 or 2 books) for the Dungeon Master with additional details for that setting such as adventure specific bonds, locations, monsters, magic items and NPCs.
Tyranny of Dragons was two books, but this might have been a time crunch decision. I think that we’ll most likely see one book for future adventures and Elemental Evil is following this pattern.
Tyranny of Dragons was two books, but this might have been a time crunch decision. I think that we’ll most likely see one book for future adventures and Elemental Evil is following this pattern. Free downloadable storyline supplements at official D&D site.
Both Tyranny of Dragons adventures provided free supplements online and Elemental Evil will be as well.
Both Tyranny of Dragons adventures provided free supplements online and Elemental Evil will be as well. Support with storyline specific video games, comics, miniatures and more.
We have seen good support on Tyranny of Dragons for all of these so far and Elemental Evil has already announced a bunch of products including a new board game.
We have seen good support on Tyranny of Dragons for all of these so far and Elemental Evil has already announced a bunch of products including a new board game. Digital Versions
“We have every intention of releasing the books in electronic versions. But we don’t have a date at this time.” – Chris Perkins
There has been no announcement of digital PDFs for any books yet.
Looking forward to 2018 provides 6 unaccounted for slots for our favorite settings of the past and new settings. Here is a possible release schedule. This is based only on what I have read when Mearls has been asked about future releases (such as this AMA back in November 2014) and what I have seen included in the Player’s Handbook.
2014
Tyranny of Dragons
Setting: Forgotten Realms – Sword Coast.
Player’s Handbook – Released August 2014
Everything a player needs to create heroic characters for the world’s greatest roleplaying game.
– Released August 2014 Everything a player needs to create heroic characters for the world’s greatest roleplaying game. Hoard of the Dragon Queen – Released August 2014
Fight the war against draconic oppression.
– Released August 2014 Fight the war against draconic oppression. Rise of Tiamat – Released October 2014
Avert the Cataclysmic Return of Tiamat.
2015
Elemental Evil
Read Elemental Evil Storyline & Product Offerings Unveiled
Setting: Forgotten Realms – Sword Coast Sumber Hills and Dessarin River Valley
Elemental Evil Adventurer’s Handbook ( CANCELLED ) – March 17, 2015; hardcover; $39.95
– March 17, 2015; hardcover; $39.95 Princes of the Apolcalypse – April 7, 2015; hardcover; $49.95
Abolish an Ancient Evil Threatening Devastation in this Adventure for the World’s Greatest Roleplaying Game.
This book (like both Tyranny of Dragons books) will be supported by a free PDF. According to Jeremy Crawford, some of material in the download will also appear in the hardcover. Crawford commented that he “thinks” the book might be in the 256-300 page range, but “can’t remember off the top of [his] head.”
– April 7, 2015; hardcover; $49.95 Abolish an Ancient Evil Threatening Devastation in this Adventure for the World’s Greatest Roleplaying Game. Products: Board Game, Miniatures from WizKids and Gale Force 9, Dungeon Master’s Screen from Gale Force Nine.
Board Game, Miniatures from WizKids and Gale Force 9, Dungeon Master’s Screen from Gale Force Nine. Digital: “Neverwinter: Elemental Evil brings a new playable class—the Paladin—and increases the game’s level cap to 70.”
“Alice in Wonderland” Inspired Storyline
Late 2015 Release
Already in development, this storyline that will come out next after Elemental Evil
What You Get:???
??? Books: Player Handbook, Adventure Book
Player Handbook, Adventure Book Digital:???
Here is where pure speculation begins on a release schedule that I can imagine happening. The settings most mentioned/supported in the Player’s Handbook are Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Greyhawk and Dragonlance. I have not included Planescape, Spelljammer and other settings. I put Eberron towards the end (but included), since it was part of 3.xe/4e and I think they want to cover the more traditional stuff first. The important thing to remember is that their focus in on stories not settings and they are leaning really heavy so far on providing support for the Realms.
2016
Storyline A – World of Greyhawk
Early 2016 Release???
According to Wizards… a Giants based story influenced by a Shakespearean play. List of Shakespeare plays, by genre
Set in a new world? or maybe this is set in Greyhawk or another existing setting such as Forgotten Realms.
If this is set in Greyhawk…
What You Get: Old school vibe? Not really sure what this setting can offer for 5th edition, but I think it should provide typical medieval fantasy with knights, dungeons, dragons and castles. Maybe we’ll see a return of Fighting Man and Dwarf and Elf as classes 😉
Old school vibe? Not really sure what this setting can offer for 5th edition, but I think it should provide typical medieval fantasy with knights, dungeons, dragons and castles. Maybe we’ll see a return of Fighting Man and Dwarf and Elf as classes 😉 About the Setting: In the early 70s Gary Gygax (co-developer of D&D) created Castle Greyhawk so his players would have a castle and dungeon to explore. This home campaign expanded to include an entire medieval-Europe type world, which was published in 1980. Setting a new storyline in Greyhawk would show just how committed Wizards of the Coast is to supporting the original fans of D&D. Greyhawk might also work better for some DMs as their default fantasy world if they don’t want to bother with all of the history of the Forgotten Realms. Greyhawk also fits well as a replacement for the D&D 4th edition Nentir Vale/Points of Light default setting that was outlined in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale and many adventures.
In the early 70s Gary Gygax (co-developer of D&D) created Castle Greyhawk so his players would have a castle and dungeon to explore. This home campaign expanded to include an entire medieval-Europe type world, which was published in 1980. Setting a new storyline in Greyhawk would show just how committed Wizards of the Coast is to supporting the original fans of D&D. Greyhawk might also work better for some DMs as their default fantasy world if they don’t want to bother with all of the history of the Forgotten Realms. Greyhawk also fits well as a replacement for the D&D 4th edition Nentir Vale/Points of Light default setting that was outlined in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, Monster Vault: Threats to the Nentir Vale and many adventures. Books: Player Handbook, Adventure Book, Campaign Setting
Player Handbook, Adventure Book, Campaign Setting Digital:???
EVERYTHING FROM THIS POINT ON IS PURE 100% SPECULATION
Storyline B – “Valoreign” – Chris Perkins’ Setting / Arthurian
Late 2016 Release
About the Storyline: It might be time for Chris Perkins’ “Valoreign” setting to join the ranks of other settings created by Keith Baker (Eberron) and Ed Grimwood (Forgotten Realms) that are now official settings. Chris Perkins tweeted “I have a project releasing in 2016 that I’m very proud of.” on January 20, 2015. He also tweeted “We’ve got some non-FR stuff in the works. Stay tuned!”. You can view the conversations at ENWorld. PDFs have been released in the past by Chris that tell us that Valoreign is an island kingdom (a map of Britain turned 180º) and the setting is inspired by Arthurian legend and medieval England. If Wizards of the Coast is looking to release an Arthurian inspired campaign setting – this would be a really good match.
It might be time for Chris Perkins’ “Valoreign” setting to join the ranks of other settings created by Keith Baker (Eberron) and Ed Grimwood (Forgotten Realms) that are now official settings. Chris Perkins tweeted “I have a project releasing in 2016 that I’m very proud of.” on January 20, 2015. He also tweeted “We’ve got some non-FR stuff in the works. Stay tuned!”. You can view the conversations at ENWorld. PDFs have been released in the past by Chris that tell us that Valoreign is an island kingdom (a map of Britain turned 180º) and the setting is inspired by Arthurian legend and medieval England. If Wizards of the Coast is looking to release an Arthurian inspired campaign setting – this would be a really good match. Books: Adventure Book, Campaign Setting
Adventure Book, Campaign Setting Digital: Not likely.
2017
Storyline C – Psionic (Dark Sun?)
Early 2017 Release
What You Get: Psionic Class options such as Psion, Wilder, Ardent and Battlemind. Cleric Mind Domain.
Psionic Class options such as Psion, Wilder, Ardent and Battlemind. Cleric Mind Domain. About the Storyline: Similar to what they are doing with the Elemental Evil storyline. Not sure where it would be set (Dark Sun), but this would expand the player options to include psionic class options and perhaps a Mind Domain for clerics. Dark Sun (1991) is set in a dying earth setting and features the fictional harsh, desert world of Athas where water and metals are extremely scarce.
Similar to what they are doing with the Elemental Evil storyline. Not sure where it would be set (Dark Sun), but this would expand the player options to include psionic class options and perhaps a Mind Domain for clerics. Dark Sun (1991) is set in a dying earth setting and features the fictional harsh, desert world of Athas where water and metals are extremely scarce. Books: Player Handbook, Adventure Book(s), Campaign Setting
Player Handbook, Adventure Book(s), Campaign Setting Wildcard: This could be set in Dark Sun
This could be set in Dark Sun Digital: Maybe an expansion pack for one of the previously released games.
Storyline D – Dragonlance
Late 2017 Release
What You Will Get: Kender, Gully Dwarves and Draconian races.
Kender, Gully Dwarves and Draconian races. What You Might Get: Minotaur, Aquatic Elves, Bakali, Centaurs, expansion of Elven and Dwarven subraces.
Minotaur, Aquatic Elves, Bakali, Centaurs, expansion of Elven and Dwarven subraces. About the Setting: Before Forgotten Realms was a bestselling book series and campaign setting there was Dragonlance. Set in Krynn, Dragonlance was popular in the 1980s and beyond… with a long history detailed in adventures, novels and an animated movie starring Kiefer Sutherland. There are some behind the scenes hurdles for seeing Dragonlance happen, especially since a new story will be needed and the best people to provide a new story would be big gun Dragonlance authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. I’m a huge Dragonlance fan and I’m personally rooting for this setting to come out with new stuff before anything else.
It is likely that the Kender race will be covered in an upcoming article on the Dungeon & Dragons site and comments by Mike Mearls have pretty much confirmed this.
Before Forgotten Realms was a bestselling book series and campaign setting there was Dragonlance. Set in Krynn, Dragonlance was popular in the 1980s and beyond… with a long history detailed in adventures, novels and an animated movie starring Kiefer Sutherland. There are some behind the scenes hurdles for seeing Dragonlance happen, especially since a new story will be needed and the best people to provide a new story would be big gun Dragonlance authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. I’m a huge Dragonlance fan and I’m personally rooting for this setting to come out with new stuff before anything else. It is likely that the Kender race will be covered in an upcoming article on the Dungeon & Dragons site and comments by Mike Mearls have pretty much confirmed this. Books: Player Handbook, Adventure Book, Campaign Setting
Player Handbook, Adventure Book, Campaign Setting Digital: I would like to see a Dragonlance game, but the Realms seems to be the main setting for the game so far.
2018
Storyline E – Forgotten Realms 4 – Underdark
Early 2018 Release
What You Get: More Drow, more Illithids (Mind Flayers) and underdark monsters and Drizzt! This could be a really hard campaigns for higher level characters.
More Drow, more Illithids (Mind Flayers) and underdark monsters and Drizzt! This could be a really hard campaigns for higher level characters. About the Setting: The Underdark is a vast subterranean network of interconnected caverns and tunnels, stretching beneath entire continents and forming an underworld for surface settings. This could be set under Forgotten Realms as seen in the Legend of Drizzt series by R. A. Salvatore or under any campaign setting. Check out our list of 10 Monsters for Cave / Underground Encounter.
The Underdark is a vast subterranean network of interconnected caverns and tunnels, stretching beneath entire continents and forming an underworld for surface settings. This could be set under Forgotten Realms as seen in the Legend of Drizzt series by R. A. Salvatore or under any campaign setting. Check out our list of 10 Monsters for Cave / Underground Encounter. Books: Player Handbook, Adventure Book, Campaign Setting
Player Handbook, Adventure Book, Campaign Setting Digital: Expansion pack for Forgotten Realms game.
Storyline F – Eberron
Late 2018 Release
What You Will Get: Artificer class, Warforged race
Artificer class, Warforged race About the Setting: Eberron was created by Keith Baker in 2002 and was released in 2005. Eberron is a setting with non-traditional fantasy technologies such as trains, skyships, and mechanical beings which are all powered by magic. It combines a fantasy tone with pulp and dark adventure elements in a period after a vast destructive war.
It is likely that the Warforged race will be covered in an upcoming article on the Dungeon & Dragons site and comments by Mike Mearls have pretty much confirmed this.
Eberron was created by Keith Baker in 2002 and was released in 2005. Eberron is a setting with non-traditional fantasy technologies such as trains, skyships, and mechanical beings which are all powered by magic. It combines a fantasy tone with pulp and dark adventure elements in a period after a vast destructive war. It is likely that the Warforged race will be covered in an upcoming article on the Dungeon & Dragons site and comments by Mike Mearls have pretty much confirmed this. Books: Player Handbook, Adventure Book, Campaign Setting
Player Handbook, Adventure Book, Campaign Setting Digital: I would love to see an Eberron game too!
2019 and Beyond
In this group below, I could easily see Ravenloft or a primal storyline showing up earlier, maybe in the late 2017 slot I put Dragonlance in.
Ravenloft
What Your Would Get: Dark power checks. Additional options for Clerics, Bards, Paladins and Rogues.
Dark power checks. Additional options for Clerics, Bards, Paladins and Rogues. About the Setting: If you want a gothic horror setting, Ravenloft is a setting where DMs are encouraged to build fear, culminating in the eventual face-to-face meeting with the nameless evil.
If you want a gothic horror setting, Ravenloft is a setting where DMs are encouraged to build fear, culminating in the eventual face-to-face meeting with the nameless evil. Books: Player Handbook, Adventure (1 to 2 Books)
Player Handbook, Adventure (1 to 2 Books) Digital: They did the board game. Now make a video game. Castlevania is awesome.
Primal (Feywild?)
What You Might Get: Minotaur, Wilden, Goliath and other Fey races. Seeker, Shaman and Warden classes. More options for Barbarian, Druid and Ranger.
Minotaur, Wilden, Goliath and other Fey races. Seeker, Shaman and Warden classes. More options for Barbarian, Druid and Ranger. About the Storyline: This might work best set in the Feywild. It could but this would expand the player options to include class options such as Seeker, Shaman and Warden. It could expand Barbarian, Druid and Ranger classes.
This might work best set in the Feywild. It could but this would expand the player options to include class options such as Seeker, Shaman and Warden. It could expand Barbarian, Druid and Ranger classes. Books: Player Handbook, Adventure (1 to 2 Books)
Player Handbook, Adventure (1 to 2 Books) Digital: Feywild expansion pack?
Planar / Planescape
Developed by Zeb Cook, Planescape was published in 1994 and is supported in Player’s Handbook with the cosmic wheel on page 303. This connects the numerous planes of existence, encompassing an entire cosmology called the Great Wheel, as originally developed in the Manual of the Planes by Jeff Grubb. This includes many of the other Dungeons & Dragons worlds, linking them via inter-dimensional magical portals.
by Jeff Grubb. This includes many of the other worlds, linking them via inter-dimensional magical portals. This could be a higher level campaign, maybe even a way to introduce becoming a demi-god for characters level 21 and beyond.
Other Ideas
More Forgotten Realms
Dark Sun if not covered by Psionics
Pirates of the Fallen Stars – pirates and swashbuckling set in the Forgotten Realms. Paizo/Pathfinder is pushing pretty hard on its pirate setting (Skull & Shackles) with adventures and a card game.
Spelljammer – a fantastic outer space setting that provides a way of connecting settings such as Dragonlance (Krynn) to Forgotten Realms (Toril) via space travel via open deck space galleons
Modern Adventure (e.g. D20 Modern) – |
several key factors that have propelled it, namely: the spillover effects of the US-led Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) and US military space doctrines; shifts in US global strategy; and advancements in South Korea’s own IT and high-technology sectors and the search for new opportunities for economic growth.
The Republic of Korea Air and Space Operation Center at Osan Air Base in March 2015. | Image: Wikicommons
Future-Oriented Warfare, ISR, & Space | As Chang-hee Nam writes, in the mid to late 1990s, a small group of researchers within the Korean Institute of Defense Analysis (KIDA) became keenly interested in RMA studies emanating from the Pentagon, and their practical application in US wars in the Balkans and, later, Afghanistan. Briefly put, RMA involved the transformation of a country’s military strategy, tactics, and organization through adoption of advanced technologies, enhancing the awareness, responsiveness, mobility, and interoperability of different armed services. Intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capability is an integral element of RMA, and outer space a particularly important domain within which ISR assets operate. Interest in the theory and practice of RMA led some of these South Korean researchers to take on a lead role in the RMA Promotion Office (군사혁신기획단) within the South Korean Ministry of National Defense (MND).
Their cutting edge research catalyzed efforts within each service of the Korean military, including the ROK Air Force (ROKAF). In 1998, the ROKAF opened the Space Weaponry Branch in the Weapon Systems Bureau of the Air Force Studies and Analyses Wing, and, in September 2007, replaced it with the Space Development Branch within Air Force Headquarters. In addition to signing a memorandum of understanding with the civilian-run Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) and the Astronomical Center, in support of the construction of the Naro Space Center and the first Korean astronaut program, the ROKAF began to recruit personnel with space expertise as well as send a handful of officers each year to train at the US Air Force’s National Security Space Institute in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In short, the ROKAF and the larger Korean defense community saw the importance of space in improving ISR capability as part of its emergent strategy regarding future warfare. The development and deployment of different types of remote sensing and communications satellites figured prominently in their thinking.
The future-oriented planning in the various armed services and the MND was eventually brought together in the Defense Reform Plan 2020, released in September 2005 under then President Roh Moo-hyun. Although the subsequent Lee Myung-Bak Administration would adjust the plan’s more ambitious goals as well as its cost, the importance of the military use of space remained in play. It has been repeatedly and more systematically featured in successive ROK defense white papers in 2008, 2010, 2012, and 2014, as well as in the 2014 National Security Strategy.
Seoul’s move to incorporate advanced technologies and new defense doctrines in outer space was also driven by changes in US global strategy and their direct effect on the US-ROK alliance. In the wake of 9/11 and the US invasion of Iraq, the Bush Administration’s 2004 Global Defense Posture Review (GDPR) stressed the uncertainty of a rapidly changing security environment and the attendant need for more flexible, mobile, and smaller force deployments. In regard to Korea, this shift was manifest in plans to realign United States Forces Korea (USFK) troops south of the Han, and redeploy a certain number off the Korean Peninsula. Attendant to this process, the US began to pressure Seoul to take on a greater role in the alliance.
More concretely, this played out in plans for the transfer of the wartime operational control (OPCON) of the ROK military from the US to South Korean command. The transfer required, among other things, the development (once again) of Seoul’s ISR capabilities, including advanced communications and reconnaissance satellites to monitor North Korea more effectively, provide early warning capabilities that are crucial in crisis situations, and increase the interoperability of ROK forces. Moreover, form the American perspective, ROK upgrades in space could eventually provide “surge” capabilities for the alliance The indefinite delay of OPCON transfer was, in part, a result of Seoul’s lack of progress in these areas and continued dependence on US satellites, which is readily apparent in the area of missile defense.
Technology and Economic Growth in the 21st Century | Lastly, Seoul’s current efforts in space have a clear economic logic. Indeed, the relatively rapid development of the ROK’s space program since the late 1980s has followed a familiar South Korean pattern of targeted state industrial policy and, more recently, the emergence a state-private sector nexus. As Daniel Pinkston shows, soon after the current Park Administration entered office they issued a directive and later a Medium- and Long-term Space Development Plan that aimed to foster the growth and competitiveness of ROK firms in satellite service markets for imagery, communications, and applications.
The ROK views space technology as the leading industry of the 21st century that will help the country climb the technology ladder, create and expand high-tech firms, improve quality of life, and have ripple effects throughout other industries. Over the next several years, the size of the Korean market for space services is expected to triple, the number of venture capital firms involved to grow from six to roughly 50, and the number of jobs to increase almost five times to 4,500.
Earlier this year the Park Administration announced it would allocate 746.4 billion won to space, a notable 20 percent increase over last year’s budget. Despite (or because of) deteriorating economic conditions, the increased funding is a way “to secure a new growth engine,” according to Hong Nam-ki, Vice Future Minister at the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning. Action plans include crafting a number of satellites for public use and national security; reorganizing state-led satellite development plans by fostering partnerships between state and local think tanks and small and medium-sized firms; and providing 286.6 billion won for marketing and technology support for companies in the satellite sector.
A brief sketch of some of the ROK’s most advanced communications and earth-observation satellites reveals the interconnected factors examined above. Koreasat 5 (or Mugungwha 5), part of the larger Koreasat series, is the ROK’s first dual-use commercial and military communications satellite. Manufactured by Alcatel Alenia Space (now Thales Alenia Space) and launched in August 2006, it is jointly owned and operated by the ROK’s Agency for Defense Development (ADD) and the KT Corporation.
On the one hand, Koreasat 5 offers high-quality data and video services to KT’s customer base throughout East Asia. On the other hand, it fits within the ROK military’s effort to build an infrastructure for military support operations in space and offers a secure route for critical communications throughout the armed forces. “Koreasat 5 will be the essential equipment for the future combat system in Korea,” said Major General Chi Gue Rim of the country’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. “It will play one of the most important roles for military operations in the Asia-Pacific area.” Koreasat 5 and the ADD’s military space communications facility in Taejon are part of the push toward greater interoperability and “net-centric” capabilities (see: RMA spillover). These developments are featured in the previously mentioned defense white papers, specifically the sections on the ROK’s “Satellite Communications System” and “Defense Information Communications Network.”
The ROK’s multipurpose earth observation satellite program (its KOMPSAT or Arirang series) demonstrates a similar trajectory. The KOMPSAT program was begun in order to develop and enhance the ROK’s independent remote sensing capabilities (for civil and military purposes), gain understanding of systems engineering for indigenous satellite development, transfer technology to domestic firms, and promote the satellite industry for both domestic and export markets. Although at the outset KARI worked alongside foreign partners, with each successive satellite it took on a more expansive role and passed off greater responsibility to Korean firms, such as Korean Aerospace Industries and Satrec Initiative (founded by a group of former KAIST engineers).
In reference to Kompsat 3, 5, and 3A (launched in 2012, 2013, and 2015 respectively), the KARI website notes that: “except for some parts, the design, assembly and testing…were all conducted in Korea.” For Kompsat 3A, “the domestic industry took full responsibility for the development of the main body as part of technology transfer for expanding the industrial base in Korea.” Moreover, each of the satellites, which together operate on a “mutual support basis,” signaled an upgrade in South Korea’s ISR capability.
Kompsat 3 provided the ROK its first observation capability of less than 1 meter resolution; Kompsat 5 its first all weather observation satellite (equipped with synthetic aperture radar) that offers the ROK armed forces day-and-night, all weather imaging for targeting, reconnaissance and surveillance; and Kompsat 3A its most precise earth observation capability (at 55cm resolution) and first Infra-Red Camera that can sense heat on the ground both day and night, with obvious application for monitoring DPRK missile and nuclear tests.
Conclusion | The foregoing analysis has stressed the specifically military and economic logics driving South Korean efforts in space, particularly in respect to its increasingly sophisticated satellites. To be fair, though, there are also civil space applications to almost all of the ROK’s space assets and programs. For example, the ROK’s remote sensing satellites listed above are used in a wide range of areas such as national land management, natural disaster monitoring, marine resource management, agriculture and forestry, environmental weather observation. In addition, it is KARI and other non-military government institutions that manage satellite imagery, not the ROK armed forces.
Thus, the recent agreement between the US and ROK was correct to stress potential cooperation in civil space in areas like the ROK’s lunar exploration project and the future exploration of Mars. Nevertheless, as Choi Gi-hyuk, director of KARI’s lunar exploration program, remarked, even the peaceful, scientific elements of the ROK’s space program are “closely linked with national security,” and will have “a direct and indirect impact” on the nation’s technological progress. Although the official English-language announcement does not mention military applications, the press release from South Korea’s Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (MSIP), explicitly highlights the dual-use nature of South Korean space technology.
In sum, while Seoul may or may not put an astronaut on the moon in coming years, we can be sure that its extant military and market motivations will continue to be the primary drivers of its efforts in space. No matter how fascinating and high tech deep space exploration is, a divided peninsula, North Korean missiles, and a sagging economy will likely mean that guns and butter ultimately determine the path ahead.In late November, the security team at Check Point Software Technologies revealed a new malware campaign named Gooligan, which breached the security of more than a million Android phones.
The malware, which can find its way onto phones via phishing links or apps downloaded outside the Google Play store, can steal authentication token information and use it to access Google-related accounts – including Gmail, Google Drive, Google Photos, G Suite and more – without entering a password.
Gooligan also can install and rate apps from Google Play and even install adware to generate revenue.
The malware, which has been found in at least 86 apps outside the Google Play store, could affect users running versions 4 or 5 of the Android operating system, which were released between 2011 and 2014.
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These account for more than 72 percent of users, despite the fact that two newer versions exist. Marshmallow, version 6, was released in October 2015, and Nougat, version 7, was released in August 2016.
Android users can check to see whether their account is compromised, re-install their operating system and change their account passwords. And Google has taken action to protect users.
But millions of Android users are running out-of-date software that leaves them vulnerable to a whole host of publicized security flaws, as well as surveillance by law enforcement.
While Google regularly updates its operating system for its own Nexus and now Pixel devices, users of less expensive Android phones have to wait much longer.
Android updates are so slow to roll out that adoption rates for older software versions gain market share after new ones are released, in stark contrast with quick adoption rates for new iPhone versions. Bloomberg reported in May that 84 percent of Apple’s mobile devices run the latest software, compared with 7.5 percent for Android.
According to one 2015 report, more than 87 percent of Android devices were exposed to at least one of 11 known critical vulnerabilities.
The delays are the result of a fractured ecosystem that has plagued Android for years. While Google maintains the core operating system and updates, consumers must wait for carriers and device makers to push them out.
Christopher Soghoian, principal technologist at the American Civil Liberties Union, recently described this as “not just a cybersecurity problem – it’s a civil rights problem.”
One reason many Android users are vulnerable is because after Google pushes out its updates, it also publicizes the security flaws, giving hackers and malicious actors time to capitalize on them.
“Ideally, the updates would go out at the same time,” said Joshua Drake, vice president of platform research and exploitation at Zimperium Enterprise Mobile Security.
“Think about it from a hacker’s point of view,” he said. “They’re waiting for this monthly Nexus (Security) Bulletin or Android Bulletin to come out, and they’re looking for something really good to write an exploit for and start working on an exploit from there.”
Although smartphones often are sold on 12- to 24-month contracts, devices that are about a year and a half old often don’t get any software updates, regardless of when the user purchased the phone.
“Last year, Google announced there would be monthly updates, but the monthly updates are only as good as the willingness of OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) to give them to users, and some of the OEMs have already walked back and said they can’t keep up,” Soghoian said.
This stands in contrast with Apple’s iPhones. Only phones as old or older than the iPhone 4S, released in 2011 and no longer for sale in the Apple Store, won’t run iOS 10 – the latest version of the operating system.
Obviously, companies can’t be expected to indefinitely support very old devices, but Drake said they should be expected to support the software they release for a reasonable amount of time.
“If they don’t want to sell and support cheap devices, then they shouldn’t do it,” he said.
But Soghoian said there’s little financial incentive for companies to provide such support for older devices.
“This is not a technical problem,” he said. “This is an economic problem, and really what it boils down to is that most of the companies that manufacture Android phones are not interested in bearing the cost of providing ongoing updates.”
“The carriers don’t care, the OEMs don’t care, and the carriers aren’t really facing any regulatory threat,” he added. “It’s a ticking bomb for cybersecurity.”
So who’s to blame? Creating an enforceable obligation to upgrade systems is not an easy task.
In 2012, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Motorola Mobility Inc. The company had released its CLIQ XT mobile handset in March 2010, and the phone was based on the outdated Android 1.5 mobile operating system.
For 10 months, Motorola repeatedly made public statements of its intentions to upgrade the system to Android 2.1 on its own website, Twitter account and online service forum. In the interim, the phone became incompatible with various popular mobile apps.
Motorola settled the lawsuit by providing a $25 credit in its online store for anyone who had purchased that particular mobile handset prior to Feb. 2, 2011, the day before it announced that the upgrade to 2.1 never would take place. In this instance, the company claimed it would make the upgrade and then didn’t do so – it’s not likely that a class-action lawsuit would have been successful otherwise.
The ACLU filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission in 2013 arguing that major wireless carriers had engaged in unfair and deceptive business practices by failing to warn customers about unpatched security flaws in their phones’ software.
In Europe, the Dutch Consumers’ Association sued Samsung earlier this year over device support, pointing out that consumers aren’t informed about how long they’ll receive software updates or about critical security issues – which, it states, is an unfair business practice.
Maurice Wessling, who coordinated the lawsuit, said the association was pushing for updates for two years from the moment of sale for the phone, rather than when the phone was released.
The lawsuit was a fast-track one intended for urgent matters. It was dismissed for procedural issues, as the judge deemed it too complicated for this procedure. However, the Dutch Consumers’ Association is considering filing another suit, which would be a broader, more thorough proceeding in a different court.
Class-action lawsuits against carriers are significantly more difficult because many carriers have arbitration-only clauses, which don’t allow consumers to go to court or bring a case on behalf of multiple parties.
In May, the FTC ordered eight mobile device manufacturers to provide information on the factors they consider in deciding whether to patch a vulnerability on a particular mobile device, as well as a list of devices offered for sale since August 2013, the vulnerabilities that have affected those devices and whether they were patched.
In addition, the Federal Communications Commission is “conducting a separate, parallel inquiry into common carriers’ policies regarding mobile device security updates,” it stated in the press release.
“These studies typically result in public reports that may contain recommendations for consumers, industry, and Congress,” Jay Mayfield, an FTC spokesman, wrote in an email. “There has been a lack of transparency in the mobile industry regarding the process for developing and deploying security updates to mobile devices. The Commission’s study is designed to provide insight into the parties that are responsible for this critical process, where there may be areas for improvement, and to ensure that consumers and other stakeholders are fully informed about this issue.”
Mayfield said the FTC expects to issue a public report with its findings once the study is completed, but it’s too soon in the process to speculate about other potential outcomes. The FCC, which is working in partnership with the FTC, also could take action, though critics argue that it has a poor track record in dealing with cybersecurity issues.
Sean Sullivan, security adviser at F-Secure Corp., which provides cybersecurity services, agrees that regulators should be looking into the issue: “If you look at the demographics of where Android is deployed, it’s not your upper-middle-class individuals who are buying a new phone every year; it’s people who buy a phone for two, three years and get it from the carrier.”
Independent security researcher and operational security trainer Matt Mitchell thinks Google could be doing more to ensure that carriers and manufacturers in its partner network prioritize security updates, perhaps by penalizing those that don’t have the latest updates.
Mitchell points out that in its internet search business, Google delists websites with malware and doesn’t include payday loan or predatory lending sites in its search results.
“Google knows for the open internet and for the good of society, certain things just shouldn’t be out there. … I don’t see why they don’t apply this to the other parts of their business, namely the mobile phone industry,” he said.
Because Google benefits financially from keeping the manufacturers it partners with happy, asking it to require carriers and manufacturers to follow specific mandates might be a tall order.
“We’re constantly working to improve the safety and security of the Android ecosystem,” a Google spokesman said. “Like many Android efforts, security is a team effort, and we’re working closely with OEM and carrier partners to keep users safe.”
Mitchell, who compares the current mobile device customer base to people who were unaware that cigarettes were unhealthy back in the 1950s, would like to at least see warning labels or some kind of rating system for phone privacy and security.
“The burden shouldn’t be on the consumer, because the consumer doesn’t have stuff in plain English to understand the risk that they’re taking,” he said. Mapping data from 2014 indicates that iPhones proliferate in high-income areas, whereas Android phones often are found in lower-income areas.
“You have to worry about the consumers,” Mitchell said. “These are things that you’ll find in other industries that are really lagging behind in tech, and it hurts real people, and those people tend to be marginalized to begin with.”
And then there’s the fact that Google doesn’t offer solutions that are accessible to lower-income people.
“Earlier with Nexus, you had some really affordable Nexus phones, which made it seem like there were some options for regular Americans who couldn’t afford the high-end phones,” said Soghoian, of the ACLU. “But if Google is killing off Nexus and making the Pixel the only device that gets regular updates, then really we end up furthering the digital security divide, where the rich get security and the poor get insecurity.
“The market’s solving the problem at the high end, but it’s leaving most working Americans behind. The digital security divide, of which Android is a major piece of the puzzle, is perpetuating inequalities in our society.”
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This story was edited by Fernando Diaz and copy edited by Nikki Frick. Yael Grauer can be reached at yael@yaelwrites.com. Follow her on Twitter: @yaelwrites.I very much love Michael Smith’s recent paper “A Constitutivist Theory of Reasons: Its Promise and Parts” (Law, Ethics and Philosophy 2013, also available on his website ). One thing that strikes me about this paper is that, whilst discussing Parfit’s views on practical reasons, Smith seems to also create a powerful objection to the buck-passing views of value, which at least to me seems original and something that hasn’t been discussed in the vast buck-passing literature before. So, what I want to do below is to outline this argument briefly and then introduce some of the ways this argument could be resisted. For what it’s worth, my own commitment to buck-passing might be getting weaker because of this argument.
Here’s the rough outline of the argument:
Premise 1: No equivocation thesis.
We are not equivocating when we talk about reasons for beliefs and reasons for final desires. Corollary: if we give a reductive account of the concept of reasons in either one of the domains, then we have to accept the same reductive account of concept of reasons in the other domain.
Premise 2:
Humean/Lewisian view of reasons for belief: the concept of reasons for belief can be reductively analysed in terms of the concepts of entailment and truth. Hume himself thought that a fact is a reason for belief only if that fact entails the truth of the proposition believed, which would mean that there are only deductive reasons for belief. But, following Lewis, we can also understand inductive and abductive reasons in a somewhat similar fashion. We can think that the fact that p is a reason for S to believe q reduces to the fact that, in those possible worlds in which S believes that q on the basis of p, the fact that p removes all of the other possibilities except for q that the subject isn’t properly ignoring.
Conclusion 1:
Premises 1 and 2 mean that the concept of finally desiring something must be analysable at least in some way in terms of entailment and truth, or otherwise we would be equivocating.
Consequence of Conclusion 1:
The Inheritance Thesis. It seems like the only relevant truths, in terms of which we could understand the concept of reasons for finally desiring things, are truths about what is finally good. This would mean that a consideration is a reason for finally desiring something in virtue of being a consideration that entails the truth of the proposition that the thing in question is finally good. Smith calls this the inheritance thesis because the considerations that are reasons for final desires inherit their reasonhood from supporting the truth of the theses that the objects of these desires are finally good.
Conclusion 2:
Inheritance thesis rules out buck-passing. The buck-passing theory of value must be false because it is incompatible with the Inheritance Thesis. Buck-passers want to understand final value in terms of the reasons there are for desiring the given object. If this is the case, then the reasons for the final desires for the object could not be reduced to being considerations that entail the truth of the proposition that the object is finally good (in the way Inheritance Thesis claims) because as Smith puts it ‘this would get the order of explanation wrong’. And so, because we have reason to believe the Inheritance Thesis on the basis of Premises 1 and 2 we have to give up the buck-passing account of value.
What can we do in response to this argument? It seems to me initially that the premise 1 seems plausible and it would be a significant cost to assume ambiguity here. It also looks like the argument has a valid form
I am less certain about the premise 2. It means that all reasons for belief are epistemic reasons – reasons that count in favour of the beliefs' truth. If there are pragmatic reasons for belief, then all reasons for beliefs cannot be reduced in the Humean/Lewisian fashion. Smith himself says that the price of giving up the premise 2 for the buck-passer would be that then you would have to think that we cannot explain what it is for a consideration to be a reason for belief, which would beggar belief. But, can there be no other explanations of reasons for belief that would accommodate pragmatic reasons for belief and be compatible with buck-passing?
I also have some concerns about the Inheritance Thesis. What if we accept with Smith that reasons for final desires have to be analysed in terms of some truths, but deny that these truths must be truths about what is of final value? Could we not rely on oughts here? What if to be a reason for a final desire is to be a consideration that supports the truth of the thesis that you ought to desire that thing? In this case, buck-passers could still understand value in terms of reasons.
I finally have some weaker worries about the Conclusion 2 and the incompatibility of the Inheritance Thesis and Buck-Passing, but I’m less certain about how to formulate these concerns. I do accept that explanations are asymmetric. If p explains q then it cannot be that q explains p. If reasons are explained in terms of value, then value cannot be explained in terms of reasons.
However, what if there is no explanatory or conceptual priority here? What if reasons and values are on a par (in the same way as perhaps truth and meaning are)? In that case, it seems to me like something like the inheritance thesis (A consideration is a reason for final desire for X consists of this consideration supporting the truth that X is finally good) and the buck-passing view (For X to have final value consists of there being considerations that are reasons for finally desiring X) could be true at the same time. Both would be just indications of the same close relation from different directions. In this case, we would need to give up any claims of explanatory priority and think that these claims both illustrate how these concepts are related. This would fit the lessons from wrong kind reasons debates where it seems difficult to give a non-circular account of what the wrong kind of reasons are.
In any case, I feel like I am clutching at straws. Smith’s argument seems like a powerful new objection to the buck-passing view to me. I would be very interested in hearing what the readers of PEA Soup make of this argument.ALBUQUERQUE (CN) – Albuquerque police, who have been under scrutiny by city residents and the federal government, were hit with four police abuse lawsuits in a single day, two involving civilian deaths, and one alleging retaliation against a high school principal.
In Rachael Hernandez v [Officer] Raymond Schultz, 15 named officers are accused of using excessive force, including explosive devices, tear gas and an armored vehicle, in an incident that ended with a man shooting himself in the head.
The late Santiago Chavez, 20, “had a history of mental health problems, including depression and drug use,” according to the lawsuit in Bernalillo County Court.
On June 20, 2012, police received reports that he had been throwing rocks at cars and houses, and that he “displayed a gun in his waistband.”
Chavez “retreated into his house,” which is owned by co-plaintiff Kathy Wujick.
Whereupon, according to the complaint, Albuquerque police surrounded the house, with snipers and other officers, “breached all three doors of the house with explosive devices,” shot chemicals agents and bullets into it, as well as a “tri-chamber explosive,” shot wooden batons into or through the doors, and rammed through the front door with an armored vehicle.
Chavez shot himself in the head during the melee. The house suffered $57,000 worth of damages.
The plaintiffs seek damages for negligence, negligent training and supervision, assault and battery, wrongful death and pain and suffering. They are represented by Rachel Higgins.
In the second case, Bruce Thompson v City of Albuquerque, an Albuquerque cop who was looking for a stolen car is accused of shooting to death a man who had parked next to the car that was stolen.
Thompson sued as guardian ad litem for the late Mickey Owings’ three minor children. He also sued former Police Chief Ray Schultz and the officer who allegedly killed Owings, K. Sanchez.
According to the lawsuit in Bernalillo County Court, “In March of 2010, defendant Sanchez shot and killed Mickey Owings after Mr. Owings’ car was boxed in by an unmarked APD vehicle driven by an APD officer in a commercial parking lot.”
Police had received information that a stolen car was parked in the commercial lot, according to the complaint. So “several officers positioned unmarked cars in the lot around the suspected stolen car.”
Owings drove into the lot “and parked next to the alleged stolen car.”
The complaint continues: “A passenger got out of Mr. Owings’ car and moved toward the alleged stolen car.”
An officer blocked Owings’ escape path with a car, while Sanchez approached Owings on foot. Owings backed into the blocking car and Sanchez shot him, according to the complaint. Owings, who was unarmed, drove away and died on a nearby road.
His children seek damages for wrongful death, and loss of consortium caused by negligence, battery and unlawful deadly force. They are represented by Shannon Kennedy, with Kennedy, Kennedy & Ives.
The complaint adds: “Of the 20 plus officer-involved shootings resulting in fatalities [in Albuquerque] from 2009 to 2012, the United States Department of Justice has found that a majority of these shootings were unconstitutional.”
In the third case, Sandra Jo Sloan v City of Albuquerque, Sloan, who is the principal of Del Norte High School, says she called police on March 25, 2011 because a student had told the school nurse “about possible physical abuse at her home.”
Police told Sloan that the public school resource officer “was too busy to respond,” but they would send “Officer Lehocky in his place.”
Lehocky is not named as a defendant in the header of the lawsuit, but he is referred to as a defendant in the body of the 6-page complaint.
“Officer Lehocky’s pending involvement caused great concern to plaintiff because Officer Lehocky was at the same time pursuing criminal charges on an unrelated case against Ms. Edwards [the school nurse] resulting from a similar call,” Sloan says in the complaint.
“Ms. Edwards had expressed fear of Officer Lehocky and that she felt bullied by him.
“Plaintiff was concerned for her employee’s well-being as well as the potential legal consequences of an interaction between Ms. Edwards and Officer Lehocky.
“Plaintiff also had previous negative interactions with Officer Lehocky,”
Sloan says that on June 5, 2011, she “was noticed as a witness of behalf of Ms. Edwards regarding the other criminal charges brought by defendant Lehocky against Ms. Edwards.
“On June 6, 2011, Officer Lehocky filed a criminal complaint against plaintiff charging her with obstructing the reporting or investigation of child abuse or neglect.
“These charges were dismissed with prejudice.
“Lehocky additionally filed a complaint with the Public Education Department against plaintiff in an attempt to revoke plaintiff’s occupational license.
“This complaint was dismissed, finding that Lehocky’s complaint was without evidence and was a further attempt to harass plaintiff.”
Sloan claims that Albuquerque “had knowledge that defendant Lehocky would violate the constitutional rights of civilians whom he came into contact with.”
She seeks punitive damages for civil rights violations and malicious prosecution. Former Police Chief Ray Shultz also is named as a defendant.
Sloan is represented in Bernalillo County Court by Joseph Kennedy with Kennedy, Kennedy & Ives.
In the fourth case, Rose Gonzalez v City of Albuquerque, Gonzalez claims she fell and broke her hip because officers did not properly assist her out of a police car in which they put her, handcuffed.
She seeks more than $25,000 in damages. She is represented by David Elias Idinopulos, also in Bernalillo County Court.
Thirteen people were arrested and jailed last week after they tried to occupy the Albuquerque mayor’s office to protest the string of police shootings. These protesters were outraged that an autopsy revealed that James Boyd, a 38-year-old homeless man, had been killed by being shot in the back.
The Department of Justice raked Albuquerque police over the coals in an April report on 23 police killings in the previous four years. The Justice Department found a “pattern or practice of unconstitutional use of deadly force.”
Since the report was issued, Albuquerque police have killed three more people.
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Express News Service
KOLKATA: Women with brooms, sticks, sickles and iron rods in their hands have taken the lead in violence and vandalism in several parts of Basirhat in West Bengal, which is reeling under communal violence since Monday.
While the women were at the forefront in vandalising and setting fire to several Trinamool Congress party offices in Basirhat, ransacking the house of local MLA Dipendu Biswas and beating him up on Thursday; they continued the violent streak on Friday by damaging a few shops near the railway station on Friday. After returning from Europe on Wednesday, Biswas had allegedly led police to arrest a dozen youth of a particular community on Thursday.
While riot epicentre Baduria and neighbouring areas have returned to normalcy, Basirhat, some 15 km away from Baduria, continues to simmer with rage against perceived bias by police and administration. It is one of the few Hindu-dominated areas in a border subdivision which has 70% Muslim population.
“When was the police when our houses were vandalised and shops looted? Now, when we are retaliating, police are arresting our youth,” said Shanti Mondal (name changed), a woman vigilante in Basirhat. Some 51 arrests were made on Wednesday and Thursday and fresh arrests were made on Friday.
One person has died and 12 have been injured in the violence that erupted after a derogatory meme on Prophet Mohammad got circulated in the social media. The minor accused has been arrested but angry mobs demanded that he be hanged to death for blasphemy.
“Women of our religion have taken the lead here in Basirhat as we are in minority and every hand counts,” said another vigilante Rakhi Chowdhury (name changed).
BJP leaders detained
Leaders of Bengal’s opposition parties including the Left Front, Congress and BJP were prevented from visiting strife-torn areas of Basirhat subdivision of North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal on Friday.
While the BJP delegation led by Rajya Sabha MP Roopa Ganguly was stopped at Michaelnagar near Kolkata, the Left Front delegation led by Mohammad Salim was stopped at Ashoknagar near Habra, 37 km north of Basirhat. A Congress delegation led by Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee chief Adhir Ranjan Choudhury was stopped at district headquarters Barasat, 44 km from Basirhat.
The BJP delegation was detained for a few hours and then released. Speaking at a press conference, state BJP president Dilip Ghosh alleged that Trinamool Congress workers verbally abused BJP leaders including Roopa Ganguly and Locket Chatterjee inside the police station.
Claiming the hand of terror outfit Jamatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) behind the Basirhat riots, the BJP leader said that a party delegation will meet Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi on Saturday and submit a memorandum demanding President’s rule in West Bengal.
Speaking to media after being released from detention, Rajya Sabha MP Roopa Ganguly said: “It is a matter of shame for West Bengal government that every other day they have to call central forces. When Didi is seeing that things are returning to normal in Baduria due to presence of central forces, she now wants to form peace committees so that TMC people can command over everybody through these committees. She is not looking for peace.”Please enable Javascript to watch this video
EAST ST. LOUIS, IL (KTVI)- Illinois State Police are investigating an officer- involved shooting that occured Tuesday night near Interstate 255 and State Street in East St. Louis. The shooting occured around 11:30p.m. on the northbound ramp to I-255 when a Trooper was conducting a routine traffic stop. The Trooper believed the driver was intoxicated at the time. After asking the driver to exit the vehicle for a sobriety test, police say the suspect pulled out a gun and opened fire at the Trooper. The nine year veteran returned fire and the suspect fled on foot.
The Trooper was not injured during the shooting.
It is unclear if the suspect was wounded. He is described as a black male wearing dark colored clothing. His identity has not been confirmed.
He was last seen running south-southeast from the scene.
Authorities are still on the scene investigating.
Please enable Javascript to watch this videoAtheist Ireland welcomes the statement from Dermot Ahern, the Irish Justice Minister, that he is proposing a referendum this Autumn to remove the offence of blasphemy from the Irish Constitution, along with two other referendums that the government is already committed to.
The Minister has told the Sunday Times that “I was only doing my duty” in bringing in the new blasphemy law, and that “there was an incredibly sophisticated campaign [against me], mainly on the internet.”
Atheist Ireland thanks everyone who has helped to |
When Korbi Ashton goes out in public with her six children, she tends to get a lot of interesting comments from strangers.
“So much so that my twin sister, Jakobi, gave me a shirt for Christmas that reads, ‘Yes, they are all mine,’” she told HuffPost.
The Washington state photographer is mom to 11-year-old Beck, 9-year-old Paisley, 5-year-old Penelope, 3-year-old Remington, 2-year-old Violet and 3-month-old Jorgen. To show others what life with six kids really looks like, Ashton put together a series of photos offering a glimpse into her daily experiences.
The photographer loves to capture "the sometime mundane small and simple things that may get brushed aside." (Korbi Ashton Photography) More
“I love to photograph our everyday lives and record the day-to-day things that we do,” she explained. “I look back at all the photos of them I have taken over the years like the most emotional time capsule. You always hear ‘it goes by so fast.’ And it is so very true!”
The mom said she’s taken so many cute photos of her children that she actually ran out of wall space to hang them and purchased a large TV to use as a digital picture frame.
"You always hear ‘it goes by so fast.’ And it is so very true!” said Ashton. (Korbi Ashton Photography) More
All six of her kids have very different personalities, Ashton told HuffPost. “Just when I think that I have it all figured out the next one throws me for a loop and I start all over again. I am learning right along with them this thing called parenting and life.”
As her children grow up, the photographer and her husband want to teach them to be happy and successful, however they define that. “I also want to instill in them a desire to live right down the road from me when they grow up,” she joked.
Ashton's kids include 11-year-old Beck, 9-year-old Paisley, 5-year-old Penelope, 3-year-old Remington, 2-year-old Violet and 3-month-old Jorgen. (Courtesy of Korbi Ashton) MorePhilip Rivers of the San Diego Chargers is the PWFA Comeback Player of the Year? Oh, really? Umm, no disrespect to Rivers or the media members who belong to the PWFA, but how can that honor not go to Terrell Thomas of the New York Giants?
Yes, it's nice that Rivers played well after a couple of down seasons and led his team to the playoffs -- which should be good news for Eli Manning and the Giants. Playing well after playing poorly isn't, however, anywhere near what Thomas accomplished.
You know the story, Giants' fans. Thomas returned this season after missing back-to-back seasons with ACL tears. He played in all 16 games and became the first NFL defensive back to return to action after three ACL tears to the same knee. THAT is a comeback.
Comeback player of the year is Phillip Rivers!? Come- back where did he go? T2 @TerrellThomas24 my winner! pic.twitter.com/0tlG8Trf5B — GiantsBiz (@NYGmafia) January 17, 2014By Chris Binnie
Many years ago I remember somebody mentioning that rather than running a firewall, they were just using TCP Wrappers. This piqued my interest because all my customers talked about when it came to Internet security was how much their proprietary firewall had cost them or which bundled features with their firewall guaranteed greater security for their servers.
Admittedly, it goes against the grain – and more than just a little – to totally dismiss firewalls, but you might be surprised to hear that I’ve successfully run several sets of production servers for many years with the absence of a firewall entirely. If you’re wondering what I mean by “successfully,” I mean without the servers being compromised.
My brief addendum to the last two sentences has to be that running Netfilter – or, to most peoples minds, the tool that controls Netfilter, iptables – on a Linux server brings a great number of benefits, such as automatically dropping illegitimately formed traffic that might pose a threat to your applications or catching traffic to a port you forgot to close. A word to the wise, therefore, is that if you fail to implement correctly the approach I run through in this article, iptables is the perfect hero to come to your rescue and make that tiny mistake less disastrous to your servers’ security.
Firewalls Are Overrated
With a little planning and some consideration it is possible to connect Linux boxes to the Internet safely without anything but some Access Control Lists (ACLs) combined with an eye for minimalism. I’m referring to keeping the number of packages (and more specifically network services) to a minimum. By only having, say, three ports open on your server, such as HTTP, SMTP and SSH, you’re significantly limiting the number of attack vectors on your system.
Aside from network ports posing a threat there’s a loosely followed rule of thumb that for every thousand lines of code you add to a server you potentially add another security hole. This is important because you can lock all the network-facing ports down but make your applications prone by adding screeds of unneeded code to your server. Amongst other benefits keeping packages at a minimum means not only that your backups are leaner (and therefore easier to store because they’ll use less storage space and in addition because they’re smaller they should also be quicker to restore in an emergency) but also that the code on your server is less vulnerable to attack. Another side effect is that fewer packages might mean less services that can accidentally open up a network port (which would otherwise add to your risk; such a scenario might only be mitigated against by running only a comprehensive firewalling policy like a efficacious IPtables default-deny ).
Gift Wrap Your Security
I mentioned ACLs, and in this case, I’m talking about limiting access to services installed on your server, such as SSH, to specific IP addresses or restricting access with other rulesets. The open ports example I used was that of HTTP, SMTP, and SSH. It’s highly unlikely that you would want to restrict all HTTP traffic to your server by IP address (e.g., unless the web server was on an Intranet), but you might only want email from specific mail servers locked down by IP address, and to my mind, almost every Internet-facing SSH server should be locked down by IP address. You can achieve this easily using a fantastic piece of software called TCP Wrappers. TCP Wrappers uses tcpd to log, check, restrict, and avoid spoofed network connections efficiently and in real time. It also handles hostname lookups with ease, whether they’re entered in a local database or a public DNS database.
TCP Wrappers have been around since the early days of the Internet and were written by a programmer named Wietse Venema, a Dutchman who is most famous for writing the truly excellent mail server software, Postfix. The story goes that the talented Venema needed to keep track of attacks on workstations at a University and wrote a piece of software capable of limiting port access by rules.
Ignoring the use of a somewhat ancient network service, namely identd, I’ll focus on the use of IP addresses and names for configuring who is allowed to connect to ports.
How Do You Use It?
On many of the popular Linux distributions, two files live inside the /etc directory: hosts.allow and hosts.deny. For the sake of simplicity, I’ll start by denying all access to a server over the SSH service and then explicitly allow certain users access. It’s similar to the deny by default approach I touched on earlier.
To achieve this, the /etc/hosts.deny file would look like this:
sshd: ALL
To allow some IP addresses to connect /etc/hosts.allow, the file would simply look like this:
sshd: 10.10.10.10, 1.2.3.4, 21.21.21.21
TCP Wrappers works nicely, even if you change the standard SSH port (it’s usually TCP port 22) to port 2222, for example, to stop port scans filling up your logs. Without TCP Wrappers enabled, scans might run dictionary attacks on your server where password combinations are guessed by one of many automated attack methods.
As well as being able to take individual IP addresses, hosts.allow can happily handle the CIDR notation of classless IP address ranges, such as:
sshd: 10.10.10.0/24, 1.2.3.4/32, 21.21.21.0/19
IP addresses hosts.allow can be set to accept connections from hostnames, too.
One example might be
ALL: *.domain.tld
or you might have an administrative group of machines that live under a set of hostnames:
ALL: *.admin.domain.tld
For clarity, even without the wildcard asterisk at the start of those examples, you can still allow any machine under that hostname umbrella, even if the line just starts with a period. Turning that example on its head entirely, ending with a period
ALL: 12.34.
would allow all machines with the first two octets in their IP address starting 12.34, so, for example, 12.34.56.78 will be allowed to connect to ALL services and not just SSH. As well as these flexible options, you can also declare old school subnets directly:
sshd: 1.2.3.4/255.255.255.0
As well as the ALL parameter, you can use LOCAL, which allows any machine without a dot in its hostname. You could edit your local hostname database (somewhat confusingly called /etc/hosts ) to declare that an oft-used computer called friend had the IP address 10.10.10.10. With the LOCAL switch in your allow file then, access to that service could be granted to all local machines:
sshd: LOCAL
By accepting connections from any hostname without a dot, this might also cover any machine under the same domain name as the server you’re working on.
The KNOWN operator also exists, but I think it should be avoided, in case hostnames aren’t served correctly when name servers are unavailable.
Stop
As you might have gathered, as your configuration files grow there’s a reasonable chance for making a typographical error. In many cases, this is harmless, but I once had a near miss over a dial-up connection into the back of a Linux router. Unfortunately the console I was using wasn’t set up properly, and in the process of speed typing, I hit an extra carriage return by mistake on the sshd line in hosts.allow. This meant that all SSH access was broken until I spotted it.
To say that the order of the rules with TCP Wrappers is sensitive is a monumental understatement, and if you decide to mix allow and deny rules in hosts.allow (which I strongly recommend against), then take a moment to check that your allow rules are declared well in advance of your deny rules; otherwise, you might lose remote access. Luckily, the modem I dialed into over to the Linux router reset as expected within a minute or so, and I could dial back in to fix the broken hosts.allow file and circumvent networking altogether before using SSH again. Not that many back door dial-up connections exist any more; however, I was lucky in some respects.
Mixing Up the Configuration Files
As I mentioned, I wouldn’t recommend ignoring hosts.deny and putting deny configurations in your hosts.allow file, but (and I suspect this format harks back to older versions of TCP Wrappers) if you decided to do so for the sake of convenience, the syntax might look something like this:
sshd : localhost : allow sshd : 192.168. : allow sshd :.mydomain.tld : allow sshd : ALL : deny
Is Your Service Enabled?
Many Linux services almost surreptitiously enable TCP Wrapper usage by default. If you’re unsure and the man page doesn’t shed any light, then this command should let you know if you can lock the software down using TCP Wrappers.
# ldd /path-to/software | grep libwrap.so
I’ve also seen libwrap0.so work in some cases, so try that if the first command (just libwrap.so ) isn’t successful. In many cases, you’ll know you’ve hit the jackpot if any output comes back from that command at all.
Not So Static
You might be surprised that it’s possible to go one step further with hosts.deny and trigger commands when a nefarious connection is tracked by TCP Wrappers. In the two examples below, the trailing backslashes indicate continuation lines follow.
This first example means all banned connections are logged nicely to /var/log/tcp-wrappers.log :
ALL :.example.com \ : spawn (/bin/echo %a from %h triggered an alarm %d >> \ /var/log/tcp-wrappers.log) \ : deny
Going one step further this next example involves further action:
ALL: ALL: SPAWN ( \ echo "
\ TCP Wrappers\: Connection refused
\ By\: $(uname -n)
\ Process\: %d (pid %p)
\ User\: %u
\ Host\: %c
\ Date\: $(date)
\ " | /usr/bin/mail -s "Connection to %d blocked" chrisbinnie@email.com) &
Each time a running service port is probed, you can do far more than just logging the attack details; instead, you could receive a nicely formatted email. Try it out and see if you can add to its functionality. The SPAWN command has lots of other uses, including communicating the attack to other servers, which would also instantly ban the attacking IP.
Be warned that generating email for every illegal service access could bring your mail server down, never mind the server being attacked (and fill your Inbox quota up, too), so use this script with some consideration to prevent creating your own specially crafted Denial of Service tool.
The End
Even though I only looked at TCP Wrappers very briefly, I hope you will agree that they are versatile, sophisticated, and yet surprisingly easy to use. There’s little excuse for not using TCP Wrappers in some form for Telnet access, and I’d be reluctant to deploy SSH on any server of value without them.Bea Arthur in 2009. (Photo11: Brad Barket, Getty Images)
Thanks to Golden Girls star Bea Arthur, homeless LGBT New Yorkers will have a warm place to stay come winter.
The Bea Arthur Residence is an 18-bed shelter that will serve LGBT youth in New York City's East Village, scheduled to open by February 2017.
The shelter is named after the late actress, whose donation made its opening possible. In addition to beds, the Bea Arthur Residence will also provide counseling, and case management services to the city’s LGBT youth in crisis, DNAInfo reports.
Arthur was a longtime supporter of the Ali Forney Center, the nonprofit helping to open the new shelter, bequeathing $300,000 to the center after her death in 2009.
"These kids at the Ali Forney Center are literally dumped by their families because of the fact that they are lesbian, gay or transgender — this organization really is saving lives," the actress told New York Magazine in 2005.
"Now between our 12 housing sites and 24/7 drop-in center we are able to provide for over 1,000 youths per year," Carl Siciliano, the Executive Director of the Ali Forney Center, wrote about Arthur's legacy in the Huffington Post.
"I honestly don’t know how we would have made it through the recession without that extraordinary gift. Bea Arthur truly meant it when she said she would do anything to help our kids."
Bea in 1975. (Photo11: AP)
The new shelter helps alleviate a public health crisis in NYC. Nearly 4,000 homeless teenagers live on the NYC streets, and according to a 2008 Census survey, up to 40% are LGBTQ.
Learn more about the Bea Arthur Residence here.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2bM9ucSIt’s a big decision: choosing a sports team to root for with your child. Jay Caspian Kang writes about his choice in this week’s On Sports column. Kang, a new father and an immigrant who had lost his own baseball ties, wants his daughter to “feel the sense of belonging to a place that fandom can bring.”
But where does a father without a team start? Should he embrace the Mets’ straightforward geographic proximity to his family, or resurrect his younger allegiance to the Red Sox (jettisoned after he found Boston fandom parochial)? Can he protect his daughter by supporting the apparent Korean-friendliness of the Dodgers, or is that too contrived?
We asked readers to share the origin stories of their sports fandoms. For some, devotion was handed down through family; others discovered their favorite teams at various stages in life. A selection of responses, edited for length and clarity, follows.
Forever Rooting for the Underdog
I fell in love with the Oakland Athletics at the age of 5. Everything about this team appealed to me, and still does. The A’s represent every reason to be romantic about baseball. They are roughly the 28th- or 29th-most majestic franchise in the league, and they play in a stadium known as more of a septic tank than a jewel box. Yet their status as the redheaded stepchild of not just the Bay Area but also the American League only motivates the spirit and beauty of the A’s brand of baseball. An A’s win is more than a victory against another team. It validates the promise that baseball was founded on: in the end, that it’s a child’s game, and that every man is equally armed with a bat, glove and ball.Personally, I do not like to use toothpicks to keep the bacon attached to the smokies. If you prefer to use toothpicks, as many other similar recipes do, by all means do so.
Empty the smokies onto some paper towels and blot them dry. Dry smokies will allow the bacon to adhere better. Place the dried smokies in a single layer (keeping them separated) onto a small cookie sheet. Place in the freezer for 45 minutes.
While the smokies are in the freezer, cut the bacon into thirds. Separate each piece of bacon and place on a large cookie sheet in a single layer. Put the bacon in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. The well-chilled smokies and bacon will help to keep everything from getting too slippery when you wrap the smokies later.
When it is nearly time to take the smokies out of the freezer, preheat the oven to 350F. Line a rimmed sheet pan with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Make the glaze by whisking together the brown sugar, maple syrup, mustard, and cayenne (if using). Whisk the mixture well to ensure that the larger pieces of brown sugar have broken up.
Wrap a piece of bacon around each smokie, pressing firmly on the final edge of the bacon to better ensure it does not spring open during baking. Try not to stretch the bacon when wrapping the sausages. Place the bacon-wrapped smokies onto the foil-lined sheet pan, seam side down. Continue with the rest of the bacon and smokies. Using a spoon, put a little bit of the thick glaze on top of each bacon-wrapped smokie, trying to coat each one evenly. You should have just enough glaze to do the entire batch.
Bake the smokies for about 35 minutes or until they are lightly brown on top. Immediately transfer the smokies to a serving plate or a slow cooker set on low to keep warm. These a very addictive. I apologize in advance.
Recipe courtesy of Cooking Ventures at http://cookingventures.blogspot.comSandy Alderson. | AP Photo/John Minchillo Mets, in first, look again to next year
The New York Mets are in their seventh season since they last finished with a winning record. The New York Mets are also in their seventh season since ownership could rely on Bernie Madoff for uncommonly consistent returns and a slush fund for spending.
These two facts are not coincidental.
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Accordingly, no one should be surprised by the revelation in Kevin Kernan's Sunday column that an offense-starved team is "targeting 2016 as their real target date to make a splash."
But let there be no question about why this is. It has nothing to do with the pace of the rebuilding effort, necessitated by ownership's inability to afford a major league payroll in the top two-thirds of the league, despite a cash cow of a TV network, the largest market in the league and an influx of national television revenue. As previously reported, general manager Sandy Alderson has been turned down many times when asking for funds to go get a player. And the inability to add even marginal depth this offseason has left this Mets team particularly bereft in case of an injury.
Nor does it reflect the team's current standing. The Mets, even after getting no-hit by the Giants Tuesday night, are in first place in the National League East more than a third of the way through the season.
The reality, as multiple members of the front office have explained to me, is a simple one: Alderson has no idea what he can spend, or even when he'll know. And their frantic efforts to supplement pitching with an improved offense is severely restricted as a result.
That's a far more difficult problem than simply a frugal budget. Give someone $100, and it's hard to afford a car. Fail to tell him how much money he has, and it's impossible to buy a car.
The remarkable reality of a first-place team pushing back its own timeline for financial reasons would seem to fly in the face of the MLB commissioner Rob Manfred's own vote of confidence for Mets ownership this spring. Manfred said, back in March: "I think adding players comes at the point in time that you've built your farm system up and you have a really good core of players on the field. And then it's effective to spend. I think the Mets have made great progress in terms of the young talent they have. And I know, at the point in time that they think it's appropriate, they will spend to supplement players."
That statement works as long as the "they" isn't baseball operations, but rather an ownership group who continues to put its own financial survival, which requires financing massive debt against team, TV network and stadium, ahead of any investment in the team itself.
The same line has been used throughout Sandy Alderson's tenure, regardless of where the team is on the field.
Back in 2010, when Alderson took the job, he said this: "I wasn't hired to apply a Moneyball approach to the New York Mets. I would not have accepted the position were I required to run the Mets on a shoestring budget.... But we do have to get through a somewhat difficult period from a standpoint of our payroll because we already have most of it committed."
Mets payroll at the time topped $140 million. Here in 2015, despite massive increases in revenue around the league, and a national television infusion of cash, the Mets find themselves with a payroll of around $100 million, bottom third of the league.
And as we now know from Steve Kettmann's book, which included more than 100 interviews with Alderson, that Alderson believed this by February 2011: "Immediately after the Madoff litigation was made public, I realized that was going to have some impact on what we were going to be able to do."
And so it has been ever since. In 2012. In 2013. In 2014. In 2015.
But as the Alderson rebuild has produced more players, there's been a separation between on-field expectations and off-field realities. Mets fans could see the team wasn't close to winning, and thus each summer would begin hot-stove dreaming a bit early. Each winter, the team did very little, relying on internal, already-paid-for players.
Some of these have worked out (Lucas Duda), some of these haven't (Ruben Tejada), but Alderson made no secret of it: he didn't view either one as a "core player" back in 2013. That both are still here is more a consequence of the enormous barrier to making deals during his tenure than any change in his beliefs, though Duda has certainly proven himself since.
So the target date for relevance has continued moving back, even with the improved on-field performance that was supposed to trigger spending to move the Mets from talented group of homegrown talent into a team maximizing their window.
As Alderson said in the summer of 2013, "Was 2014 always a target year? Yeah. It should be an important year for us."
As Alderson said, famously, in spring of 2014, about his call for the Mets to try and win 90 games, "This team is now about being successful. Being successful is not some nebulous concept about winning or being competitive or playing meaningful games some month later in the calendar. This is about concrete expectations about what we need to do. The 90 wins is about challenge. It's about changing the conversation."
And after the Mets did little to add to a 2014 team that won 79, not 90, adding Michael Cuddyer and little else this past winter, the spring produced this leaked moment from Fred Wilpon's closed-door meeting with manager Terry Collins that, according to Collins, Wilpon "expects a much better team."
Not that anyone heard this from Wilpon himself, who hasn't made himself available to reporters since the spring of 2013, a press conference in which he claimed, falsely, that he and the team were debt-free.
Indeed, even the talking point from the organization about Wilpon has shifted from "of course he can afford to run a large-market team" to how much he cares about winning, as if that matters even slightly if he lacks the means to make it happen.
And yet, here are the 2015 Mets, their best pitchers excelling and critically in their cheap, pre-arbitration years. Offensive help is on the way from the farm with outfielder Michael Conforto and shortstop Amed Rosario impressing, but how quickly they can arrive in New York and hit major league pitching, no one can say. And without ownership able to lock down these pitchers as they get more expensive, the Mets could find themselves with enough hitting just as it's time to, say, trade Matt Harvey.
So as Alderson and his lieutenants cast about for more hitting, all too aware that targets with big contracts are likely off-limits (though one never knows; the money for Bartolo Colon magically showed up about 48 hours before the Mets signed him), the team continues to hold the top spot in a division the Nationals have underachieved enough to make competitive.
But the analog Mets fans need to be hoping for here is 1973, when it took only 82 games to win the N.L. East. And that requires the Nationals to keep on playing well below capacity all season, an unlikely outcome.
Otherwise, it looks like whatever improvements the Mets can muster to an offense among the worst in the National League, especially since May 1, will have to come from within. Hope that Travis d'Arnaud, activated Wednesday, can stay healthy and productive. Hope Daniel Murphy's quad heals quickly. Hope Juan Lagares remembers how to hit as he did even last year. Pray nothing happens to Lucas Duda, by far the team's best offensive player.
It's a strange position for a first place team with good young players in the biggest market in the league. But thanks to MLB continuing to allow Fred Wilpon and his partners to divert that revenue toward financing their company's debt, that's reality for the 2015 Mets, and any Mets team, contending or otherwise.Boeing is acquiring Aurora Flight Sciences of Virginia, a specialist in developing innovative aerial drones and advanced robotic systems.
Boeing is acquiring Aurora Flight Sciences, a developer of autonomous aerial drones and advanced robotic systems that has worked for the Pentagon as well as for Uber.
The financial terms were not disclosed.
Greg Hyslop, chief technology officer and senior vice president of Boeing Engineering, Test & Technology, said the acquisition “will advance the development of autonomy for our commercial and military systems.”
Aurora will help Boeing stay in the forefront of advanced robotic technologies for future aircraft, unmanned or optionally manned, and other aerospace applications, Hyslop said in a teleconference call.
“The world is going to be about hybrid-electric airplanes, or all-electric airplanes, and … more autonomy, and how artificial intelligence enables that,” Hyslop said. “We don’t know what that market is going to look like in the future, but as it forms, we want to be there and we want to lead.”
Aurora founder and chief executive John Langford said joining Boeing will allow his team to take “the cutting edge R&D we’ve been doing over the years in a whole range of areas — autonomy, electric propulsion, very long endurance flight — and apply it with the strength of the world’s leading aerospace company to get it out into the world market.”
“The marriage of robotics and aeronautics is really at the heart of what Aurora is involved in,” Langford said.
Headquartered in Manassas, Va., Aurora has more than 550 employees. It has a research-and-development center near MIT in Cambridge, Mass., and manufacturing facilities in Bridgeport, W. Va., and Columbus, Miss.
One Aurora project, called Centaur, installed an autonomous piloting system on a small Diamond Twin Star plane, turning it into an aircraft that can fly with or without a pilot.
Another project, Orion, set the world endurance record for a remotely controlled drone, staying aloft for more than three days.
Aurora also works on military projects. For the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) it has developed a vertical takeoff and landing experimental vehicle that uses multiple hybrid-electric-powered ducted fans and can both hover and fly forward at high speed.
And in April, spinning off that DARPA project, the car ridesharing company Uber selected Aurora as a partner to develop electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft for its proposed pilotless air-taxi network.
Aurora has flown a quarter-scale prototype of the aircraft it is developing for Uber.
“It’s not like there are no humans involved,” Langford said, saying that the concept is for the Uber air taxis in any given city to be monitored and controlled from a network center.
“There’s no pilot on board, but there are still humans supervising the network,” he said.
At the Paris Air Show in June, Mike Sinnett, the Boeing vice president responsible for innovative future technologies, said that the jetmaker has begun researching the possibility of full-scale commercial-passenger jets that will fly without pilots — using artificial intelligence guiding automated controls to make decisions in flight.
Asked if acquiring Aurora is another step in that direction, Hyslop on Thursday cautioned that “there are a lot of tough technical problems that have to be worked before we ever get to the point of pilotless airplanes.”
He said the nearer-term goal is to create a “robotic co-pilot.” The human pilot will become a manager of the increasingly complex automated-control systems as planes become more electrified, he said.
Langford called it “a matchup of computers doing what computers are best at and humans doing the things humans are best at.”
“They may not be sitting in traditional seats, operating traditional-looking controls,” he said. “The computers are augmenting what the humans can do.”
Boeing has collaborated with Aurora on various experimental projects, not only on aircraft but also on automated manufacturing systems.
Langford revealed on the teleconference call that about three years ago, Aurora — working both with Boeing and with Boeing’s key supplier of automated manufacturing equipment, Mukilteo-based engineering-design firm Electroimpact — built the first all-composite prototype wing spars for the 777X in its Columbus manufacturing facility.
The success of that robotic-techology project led to the decision to go with a composite wing on that airplane and allowed Boeing to set up the 777X wing plant in Everett.
Hyslop said Boeing hopes to use Aurora’s production facilities not only for rapid prototyping of experimental vehicles but also for component manufacturing.
Aurora has also collaborated with other aerospace companies in both research and manufacturing, including rivals to Boeing.
At its Bridgeport facility, Aurora partnered with Sikorsky, now part of Lockheed Martin, to develop the CH-53K heavy-lift helicopter for the U.S. Marines. It built the engine nacelles and designed and built the main rotor pylon.
At its Mississippi facility, Aurora builds the carbon composite horizontal tail of the G500 business jet, manufactured by Gulfstream, a Savannah, Ga.-based subsidiary of General Dynamics.
Hyslop said Boeing intends to continue such supplier relationships and that partnering with competitors is “not uncommon.”
Boeing also wants to preserve Aurora’s culture of innovation.
Langford said Aurora will operate as a separate independent subsidiary within Boeing, retaining its name and branding.
That approach was successful when Boeing acquired another drone company, Insitu based in Bingen, Klickitat County.
Even while retaining Aurora’s independent spirit, Langford said, he aims to integrate with Boeing through its engineering-research unit to develop cutting-edge technology that will make its way into Boeing products.
He said “the goal is to push not only innovation but products into the big production centers” at Boeing, including its Puget Sound-area airplane factories.Auburn deputy mayor Salim Mehajer has denied allegations that he threatened the family of a Sydney siege survivor Joel Herat after an altercation with Mr Herat's father at a Burwood gym, saying he planned to sue the company for damages, Channel Nine has reported.
Bruce Herat, who works at the Anytime Fitness gym on Railway Parade as a personal trainer, was allegedly confronted by Mr Mehajer after he requested he stop dropping weights on the gym's floor, according to a Channel Seven report on Saturday night.
Mr Herat said Mr Mehajer allegedly followed him to his car and threatened to kidnap his children after repeatedly saying: "Don't you know who I am?"
A spokesman for NSW Police confirmed to Fairfax Media they had received a report of an incident involving two men aged 29 and 52 where a number of threats were allegedly made on September 16.Nine Retailers Arrested for Food Stamp Trafficking
A federal grand jury indicted nine retail store owners in Baltimore City and Baltimore County for 'food stamp trafficking.'
Court papers said the retailers redeemed the food stamps for cash and split the money with food stamp recipients. The amounts totaled about $7 million. According to investigators, the retailers did not provide any food.
"Taxpayers fund the food stamp program to put food on the tables of needy recipients, not to put money in the pockets of greedy criminals," said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. "Food producers and distributors benefit when food stamp funds are used to buy food, and honest storeowners work hard to earn a profit by actually selling food. People who play by the rules deserve to know that criminals who defraud them will be held accountable."
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), previously known as the Food Stamp Program, is administered by the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), together with state agencies. The program funds low-income individuals to allow them to obtain a more nutritious diet. In Maryland, the program provides eligible individuals with an electronic benefit transfer (EBT) card called the Independence Card, which operates like a debit card. Recipients obtain EBT cards through the state Department of Human Resources, then use the EBT card to purchase approved food items from participating retailers.
Those indicted are:
Abdullah Aljaradi, age 51, of Baltimore; Second Obama Express and D&M Deli and Grocery, 901 Harlem Avenue, Suite A and B, respectively. From October 2010 through July 2013, Aljaradi allegedly obtained more than $2 million in payments for food sales that never occurred.
Dae Cho, age 66; and Hyung Cho, age 40, both of Catonsville;
K&S Food Market, 3910 W. Belvedere Avenue. From November 2010 through July 2013, Dae Cho and her son, Hyung Cho, allegedly obtained more than $1.4 million in in payments for food sales that never occurred.
Abdo Mohamed Nagi, age 54, of Baltimore; New York Deli and Grocery 1207 West Baltimore Street. From February 2011 through May 2013, Nagi allegedly obtained more than $1.2 million in payments for food sales that never occurred.
Kim Man Chu, age 38, of Rosedale, Maryland; Long Hing Grocery Store, 1131 Greenmount Avenue. From October 2010 through July 2013, Chu allegedly obtained more than $750,000 in payments for food sales that never occurred.
Amara Cisse, age 50, and Fanta Keita, age 45, both of Windsor Mill, Maryland; Simbo Food Mart, 2103 West Pratt Street. From November 2010 through May 2013, Cisse, and his wife Keita, allegedly obtained more than $600,000 in payments for food sales that never occurred.
Jung Kim, age 51, of Ellicott City, Maryland; C&C Market, 4752 Park Heights Avenue. From November 2010 through April 2013, Kim allegedly obtained more than $600,000 in payments for food sales that never occurred.
John Cunningham, age 54, of Baltimore; Cunningham's Amoco, 4419 Park Heights Avenue. From December 2012 through July 2013, Cunningham allegedly obtained more than $348,000 in payments for food sales that never occurred.
If convicted, those indicted face a maximum of 20 years in prison.An independent study of radio-frequency emissions from Central Maine Power Co.’s new smart meters has found maximum exposure levels that are far below what the Federal Communications Commission considers safe.
The study, reviewed Monday by the Portland Press Herald, concluded that the highest exposure level averaged over time is 4.6 percent of the FCC limit. The agency regulates equipment that broadcasts radio-frequency signals.
Additional Photos In this file photo, a Central Maine Power smart meter displays electricity usage at a business in Freeport in late 2010. An independent study of radio-frequency emissions from CMP's smart meters has found maximum exposure levels that are far below what the Federal Communications Commission considers safe. AP
The report was done by True North Associates and C2 Systems and overseen by Maine’s Office of the Public Advocate.
The results, however, provide little comfort to people who complain that the meters are hurting their health, causing symptoms that include headaches and fatigue. They say the findings were expected and are meaningless.
“The question is, are there biological effects at levels lower than the FCC guidelines?” said Ed Friedman, the Bowdoinham man who led a court suit last year on behalf of smart-meter opponents. |
Different shapes of the vocal tract produce different frequencies of resonance linked with the amplification of specific sound frequencies, or notes.
Using a special instrument embedded in a tenor saxophone mouthpiece to measure the resonances as musicians played, there was no simple relationship between vocal tract resonances and the notes played over most of the instrument's range, say Jer-Ming Chen, John Smith and Prof Joe Wolfe at the University of New South Wales, Sydney.
To play in the highest octaves, however, a resonance in the tract of professional players was consistently tuned close to the sounded note. This allows the vocal tract to boost the saxophone's resonance, which is weak in the highest octaves.
Amateur saxophonists seem to be unable to tune this resonance - to change the shape of their vocal tracts - in an accurate way that allows them to play notes in this high range, they conclude.
Although the changes to the vocal tract, shaped by the position of the tongue at the back of the mouth, the glottis and jaw, are too subtle to explain, this new understanding could help budding saxophonists increase their range to match the likes of Coltrane, says Mr Chen.
"They can train their vocal tract," he says, though he adds that "it usually takes saxophone players some years."
It seems likely that the likes of Coltrane were born with an ability to accurately tune the resonance but "our studies don't answer this question," he says. "However, nearly everyone learns, at an early age, how to produce, reliably, the dozens of different vocal tract configurations required to speak one or more languages."
Now that it has been shown in the saxophone, the team will study whether the same tuning mechanism occurs in related instruments such as the clarinet.
In earlier work the same team used a similar approach to crack the secret of the characteristic sound of the didgeridoo.
The didjeridoo plays at much lower frequencies, so there the effect of the vocal tract resonances is to alter the harmonic content of the sound, allowing the production of a huge range of sound qualities."Pelagians" redirects here. For the Italian movement of lay mystics known as Pelagians, see Pelagians (Quietism)
For the indigenous inhabitants of the Aegean Sea region before the advent of the Greek language, see Pelasgians
Pelagianism is a belief in Christianity that original sin did not taint human nature and that mortal will is still capable of choosing good or evil without special divine aid. This theological theory is named after the British monk Pelagius (354–420 or 440), although he denied, at least at some point in his life, many of the doctrines associated with his name. Pelagius was identified as an Irishman by Saint Jerome.[1] Pelagius taught that the human will, as created with its abilities by God, was sufficient to live a sinless life, although he believed that God's grace assisted every good work. Pelagianism has come to be identified with the view (whether taught by Pelagius or not) that human beings can earn salvation by their own efforts.
History [ edit ]
According to Augustinian theologians, Pelagius rejected the Biblical concept of grace.[2] According to his opponents, Pelagius taught that moral perfection was attainable in this life without the assistance of divine grace through human free will. Augustine contradicted this by saying that perfection was impossible without grace because we are born sinners with a sinful heart and will. The Pelagians charged Augustine with departing from the accepted teaching (e.g.: John 8:11) of the Apostles and the Bible, demonstrating that the doctrine of original sin amounted to Manichaeism, which taught that the flesh was in itself sinful (and thus denied that Jesus came in the flesh). This charge would have carried added weight since contemporaries knew that Augustine had himself been a Manichaean layman before converting to Christianity. Augustine also taught that a person's salvation comes solely through a free gift, the efficacious grace of God, but that this was a gift that one had no free choice to accept or refuse.[3]
Pelagianism was attacked in 415 at the Council of Diospolis (also known as Lydda or Lod),[4] which found Pelagius to be orthodox.[5] But it was later condemned at the Council of Carthage (418)[6] and this condemnation was ratified at the Council of Ephesus in 431. The strict moral teachings of the Pelagians were influential in southern Italy and Sicily, where they were openly preached until the death of Julian of Eclanum in 455, and in Britain until the coming of Saint Germanus of Auxerre c 429.[7] Despite repeated attempts to suppress Pelagianism and similar teachings by orthodox clergy, some followers of Pelagianism were still active in the Ostrogothic Kingdom (493–553), most notably in Picenum and Dalmatia during the rule of Theoderic the Great.
In De causa Dei contra Pelagium et de virtute causarum, Thomas Bradwardine denounced Pelagianism in the 14th century, as did Gabriel Biel in the 15th century.[6]
Pelagius [ edit ]
Little is known about the life of Pelagius, and although he is frequently referred to as a British monk, his origins are by no means certain. ("Pelagius" is derived from the Greek "pelagikos", meaning of the sea.)[9] Augustine says that he lived in Rome "for a very long time" and referred to him as "Brito" to distinguish him from a different man called Pelagius of Tarentum. Bede refers to him as "Pelagius Bretto".[10] St. Jerome suggests he was of Scottish descent which at the time would most certainly have meant he was from Ireland, since in the time of Pelagius, "Scots" referred to the Irish because Scota (source of "Scottish" or "Irish" in the early Middle Ages) was one of their matronyms; the word Irish comes from the matronym Ériu.[11] Other sources place his origins in Brittany.[12] He was certainly well known in the Roman province, both for the harsh asceticism of his public life, as well as the power and persuasiveness of his speech. Augustine, a pillar of the Church, referred to him as "saintly" before their falling out and John Wesley said "he was both a wise and a holy man".[13]
Beliefs [ edit ]
The teachings of Pelagius are generally associated with the rejection of both original sin and infant baptism.[14] Although the writings of Pelagius are no longer extant, the eight canons of the Council of Carthage (418) provided corrections to the perceived errors of the early Pelagians. These corrections include:
Death did not come to Adam from a physical necessity, but through sin. New-born children must be baptized on account of original sin. Justifying grace not only avails for the forgiveness of past sins, but also gives assistance for the avoidance of future sins. The grace of Christ not only discloses the knowledge of God's commandments, but also imparts strength to will and execute them. Without God's grace it is not merely more difficult, but absolutely impossible to perform good works. Not out of humility, but in truth must we confess ourselves to be sinners. The saints refer the petition of the Our Father, "Forgive us our trespasses", not only to others, but also to themselves. The saints pronounce the same supplication not from mere humility, but from truthfulness.
Some codices containing a ninth canon: Children dying without baptism do not go to a "middle place" (medius locus), since the non-reception of baptism excludes both from the "kingdom of heaven" and from "eternal life". Pelagianism stands in contrast to the official hamartiological system of the Catholic Church that is based on the theology of Saint Augustine of Hippo. Semipelagianism is a modified form of Pelagianism that was also condemned by the Catholic Church at the Council of Orange (529).
Of far-reaching influence upon the further progress of Pelagianism was the friendship which Pelagius developed in Rome with Caelestius, a lawyer of noble (probably Italian) descent. In the capacity of a lay-monk Caelestius endeavoured to convert the practical maxims learnt from Pelagius, into theoretical principles, which he then propagated in Rome.[17] The denial of the transmission of Original Sin seems to have been introduced into Pelagianism by Rufinus the Syrian, who influenced Pelagius' supporter Celestius.[18] Pelagius' views were sometimes misrepresented by his followers and distorted by his opponents. Pelagianism has come to mean – unfairly to its founder – the view that human beings can earn salvation by their own efforts.[9]
Comparison of teaching [ edit ]
Pelagius's views on free will [ edit ]
Pelagius was disturbed by the immorality he encountered in Rome and saw Christians using human frailty as an excuse for their failure to live a Christian life.[9] He taught that the human will, as created with its abilities by God, was sufficient to live a sinless life, although he believed that God's grace assisted every good work. Pelagius did not believe that all humanity was guilty in Adam's sin, but said that Adam had condemned mankind through bad example. The value of Christ's redemption was, in his opinion, limited mainly to instruction and example.[17]
Pelagius wrote:
"Whenever I have to speak on the subject of moral instruction and conduct of a holy life, it is my practice first to demonstrate the power and quality of human nature and to show what it is capable of achieving, and then to go on to encourage the mind of my listener to consider the idea of different kinds of virtues, in case it may be of little or no profit to him to be summoned to pursue ends which he has perhaps assumed hitherto to be beyond his reach; for we can never end upon the path of virtue unless we have hope as our guide and compassion."
"It was because God wished to bestow on the rational creature the gift of doing good of his own free will and the capacity to exercise free choice, by implanting in man the possibility of choosing either alternative....He could not claim to possess the good of his own volition, unless he was the kind of creature that could also have possessed evil. Our most excellent creator wished us to be able to do either but actually to do only one, that is, good, which he also commanded, giving us the capacity to do evil only so that we might do His will by exercising our own. That being so, this very capacity to do evil is also good – good, I say, because it makes the good part better by making it voluntary and independent, not bound by necessity but free to decide for itself."
"Yet we do not defend the good of nature to such an extent that we claim that it cannot do evil, since we undoubtedly declare also that it is capable of good and evil; we merely try to protect it from an unjust charge, so that we may not seem to be forced to do evil through a fault of our nature, when, in fact, we do neither good nor evil without the exercise of our will and always have the freedom to do one of the two, being always able to do either."
"Nothing impossible has been commanded by the God of justice and majesty...Why do we indulge in pointless evasions, advancing the frailty of our own nature as an objection to the one who commands us? No one knows better the true measure of our strength than he who has given it to us nor does anyone understand better how much we are able to do than he who has given us this very capacity of ours to be able; nor has he who is just wished to command anything impossible or he who is good intended to condemn a man for doing what he could not avoid doing."
A follower of Pelagius[who?] taught:
When will a man guilty of any crime or sin accept with a tranquil mind that his wickedness is a product of his own will, not of necessity, and allow what he now strives to attribute to nature to be ascribed to his own free choice? It affords endless comfort to transgressors of the divine law if they are able to believe that their failure to do something is due to inability rather than disinclination, since they understand from their natural wisdom that no one can be judged for failing to do the impossible and that what is justifiable on grounds of impossibility is either a small sin or none at all.
Under the plea that it is impossible not to sin, they are given a false sense of security in sinning...Anyone who hears that it is not possible for him to be without sin will not even try to be what he judges to be impossible, and the man who does not try to be without sin must perforce sin all the time, and all the more boldly because he enjoys the false security of believing that it is impossible for him not to sin...But if he were to hear that he is able not to sin, then he would have exerted himself to fulfil what he now knows to be possible when he is striving to fulfil it, to achieve his purpose for the most part, even if not entirely.
Church Fathers on free will [ edit ]
Many of the Church Fathers before Augustine taught that humans have the power of free will and the choice over good and evil.
Justin Martyr said that "every created being is so constituted as to be capable of vice and virtue. For he can do nothing praiseworthy, if he had not the power of turning either way". [25]
Theophilus (c.180) said, "If, on the other hand, he would turn to the things of death, disobeying God, he would himself be the cause of death to himself. For God made man free, and with power of himself." [ citation needed ]
Irenaeus said, "But man, being endowed with reason, and in this respect similar to God, having been made free in his will, and with power over himself, is himself his own cause that sometimes he becomes wheat, and sometimes chaff." [ citation needed ]
Clement of Alexandria (c.195) said, "We...have believed and are saved by voluntary choice."[ citation needed ]
Jerome (d. 420) emerged as one of the chief critics of Pelagianism, because, according to him, sin was an unavoidable part of human nature.[citation needed]
Later responses [ edit ]
Thomas Bradwardine (c. 1290–1349) wrote De causa Dei contra Pelagium et de virtute causarum ad suos Mertonenses.[26] Johann Pupper, also known as Johannes von Goch (c. 1400–1475), an Augustinian, recommended a return to the text of the Bible as a remedy for Pelagianism.[27]
Reformation [ edit ]
Pelagianism became a common accusation during the Protestant Reformation; Reformers often used the epithet to critique what they saw as late-medieval Catholicism's undue emphasis on doing good works. Martin Luther (1483–1546), John Calvin (1509–1564), and Cornelius Jansen (1585–1638) reacted in different ways against Pelagianism, and evaluations of Lutheran, Reformed, and Jansenist theologies have often turned on the question of what is or is not Pelagian.[28]
Contemporary responses [ edit ]
In the book Guardare Cristo: Esercizi di fede, speranza e carità (Looking at Christ: Exercises of faith, hope and charity),[29] Pope Benedict XVI wrote:
"the other face of the same vice is the Pelagianism of the pious. They do not want forgiveness and in general they do not want any real gift from God either. They just want to be in order. They don’t want hope they just want security. Their aim is to gain the right to salvation through a strict practice of religious exercises, through prayers and action. What they lack is humility which is essential in order to love; the humility to receive gifts not just because we deserve it or because of how we act…" [30]
In a June 2013 talk with the leadership of the Religious Confederation of Latin America and the Caribbean (CLAR), Pope Francis alluded to Pelagian tendencies when he referred to "restorationists", one group of whom sent him after his election 3,525 rosaries. The pope said he was "bothered" by this need to count prayers and labeled it "pelagianism." He went on to comment: "these groups return to practices and disciplines I lived – not you, none of you are old – to things that were lived in that moment, but not now, they aren't today...."[31] The Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith subsequently emphasised "neo-Pelagianism" in a letter of February 2018 titled Placuit Deo, stating, "A new form of Pelagianism is spreading in our days, one in which the individual, understood to be radically autonomous, presumes to save oneself, without recognizing that, at the deepest level of being, he or she derives from God and from others."[32]
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [ edit ]
Mormon philosopher Sterling M. McMurrin, argued that "[t]he theology of Mormonism is completely Pelagian."[33] Mormon theology teaches that the Atonement of Jesus Christ has overcome the effects of "original sin" for all mankind. For example, the Book of Mormon, a sacred text for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, teaches: "[T]he Messiah cometh in the fullness of time, that he might redeem the children of men from the fall. And because they are redeemed from the fall they have become free forever, knowing good and evil; to act for themselves and not to be acted upon, save it be by the punishment of the law at that great and last day, according to the commandments which God has given."[34] It also teaches: "there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah".[35] Pelagianism is not the official stance of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.[36][37]
See also [ edit ]
Notes [ edit ]
Sources [ edit ]
Bercot, David. A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs, Hendrickson Publishers
, Hendrickson Publishers Denzinger (1908), "Enchir" (10th ed.)
Rees, B. R., The Letters of Pelagius and his Followers, The Boydell Press
Cohen, Samuel (2016). "Religious Diversity". In Jonathan J. Arnold; M. Shane Bjornlie; Kristina Sessa. A Companion to Ostrogothic Italy. Leiden, Boston: Brill Publishers. pp. 503–532. ISBN 978-9004-31376-7.
Further reading [ edit ]Cars have a long history with augmented and virtual reality. Designers rely on immersive systems, from CAVE rooms to augmented reality headsets, to visualize their work. Drivers have been using heads-up displays for decades, even if they’re projected onto a windshield and not a pair of glasses.
Bringing Microsoft’s HoloLens headset to the auto industry, though, feels much bigger. Unlike more specialized augmented reality tools, it’s something that Microsoft eventually hopes ordinary people will buy and use. And the quality of its images is nearly unprecedented; you can almost suspend disbelief and imagine the objects it projects are real. That’s what makes the company’s latest partnership so potentially exciting — and, at the same time, so frustrating.
For about six months, says Volvo global marketing vice president Thomas Andersson, Microsoft and Volvo have been working on a way to incorporate what they call "mixed reality" into the process of choosing a car. The result, first seen today, is a virtual showroom straight out of science fiction. Located at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, it’s a series of podiums and a fenced, raised platform clearly meant to support some shiny automotive prototype.
The catch, of course, is that they’re all empty. Instead, a car dealer and potential buyer don HoloLens headsets, both of them seeing and interacting with the same holographic cars. The main stage holds a life-size projection of Volvo’s unreleased S90 sedan, which buyers can see with different rims and paint jobs by using Microsoft’s "air tap" gesture. Another demo strips away the outside of the car to reveal its engine and undercarriage, and another projects a short animation showing off some of the car’s more unusual features, like a system that uses data from other cars to alert drivers about ice patches.
"People aren't reading car manuals anymore, and there's so much they miss."
Volvo has already experimented with virtual reality — last year, it released a Google Cardboard app that simulated driving its XC90 SUV. Now, it sees complementary applications for HoloLens. "People aren't reading car manuals or user manuals much anymore, and there's so much they miss," Volvo senior marketing VP Björn Annwall tells me. The demos are a "human, interactive," and undeniably novel replacement. A miniature holographic S90, for example, shows off its many sensors by lighting them up as viewers move around its sides and back. Like everything else in HoloLens, these models are astonishingly solid; I was faintly aware of real-world walls and floors, but only the way I might notice the screen behind a high-powered projector.
Microsoft dislikes the term "augmented reality," which immediately evokes visions of awkward smartphone apps and the lackluster Google Glass. As HoloLens senior director Scott Erickson says, augmented reality "blocks your view" with an overlay, while HoloLens can spatially map and respond to your surroundings. This is what lets its holographic car stay on that stage as you walk around it, without using special physical markers or external cameras. I noticed a little drift as I moved around the room, but not enough to be distracting.
But as with many HoloLens demos, objects are coherent only at a very specific distance and angle. The very thing you want to do with the showroom model — walk up close and get a sense of its scale — chops it into pieces or makes it disappear altogether. The headset’s lenses are easy to adjust, they’re just incredibly unforgiving. I couldn’t quite find a fit that didn’t have me craning my neck to see a whole object, even if it was a Volvo logo the size of a dinner plate. Maintaining the showroom’s illusion requires unflagging concentration.
Microsoft has taken a lot of criticism (including a fair amount from me) for HoloLens’ constricted field of view, but it’s a problem that seems theoretically solvable, even if the company has suggested we won’t see dramatic improvement in the near future. Likewise, developers can deal with the issue gracefully by showing small, self-contained objects; I’m particularly fond of an architectural modeling tool co-created by mapping company Trimble. But Microsoft has been consistently reluctant to talk about working within its prototype’s limitations, or to acknowledge that those limits exist at all.
It's possible to work within HoloLens' limits, but Microsoft seems reluctant to acknowledge them
Volvo’s miniatures are ingenious, but it’s hard to say whether HoloLens, rather than a virtual reality headset, is the best option to look at a full-sized car. Microsoft and Volvo both make compelling arguments: it’s wireless and doesn’t block out the real world, rendering single objects is much less resource-intensive than creating a whole environment, and it can be deployed anywhere, not just spaces with tracking systems. But that doesn’t change the fact that it fails to deliver something that you can seamlessly walk up to and explore, which is the one thing that really matters. It’s actually easier for me to feel the scale and physicality of a complete object in a fake world than to examine parts of one in the real world.
HoloLens today feels like virtual reality headsets did two years ago: raw material that designers are trying to hammer into submission instead of testing for strengths and weaknesses. Many VR developers now tend to be unflinchingly honest about things that don’t work, taking pride in describing the way they’ve adapted their games to minimize nausea or handle extremely simple controls. With HoloLens development kits becoming more widely available next year, we should start getting more experiments, fewer secrets, and more frank discussion of the device’s potential.
For now, Volvo hopes to publicly unveil some kind of HoloLens experience next year, although the exact date and the details of what we’ll see remain unclear. "We wouldn't be in this with Microsoft right now if we didn't believe in it," says Andersson. "It's a matter of time and maturity, of course, but I think we really want to put this in front of customers in 2016."Those who closely follow Major League Soccer know that the league does not make transparency the highest priority.
The league’s salary cap has a number of convoluted and at times confusing rules. One example is the concept of allocation money.
MLS has two kinds of allocation money. There’s targeted allocation money (TAM), which has more restrictions, but is basically used to minimize the cap hit on players that would be designated players so they don’t take up one of a team’s three designated player slots. There’s also general allocation money (GAM), which has fewer restrictions, but is still used to lessen a player’s cap hit.
If you’re confused, that’s OK. That just means you’re paying attention.
This is relevant because of the two trades involving Sean Johnson this morning. The Fire’s longtime goalkeeper was traded this morning to Atlanta for general allocation money. The trade was agreed upon days ago, but couldn’t be made official until the offseason officially started the day after MLS Cup, which took place Saturday.
It was going to be a move for him to go to his hometown club in its expansion year. On the surface, this could have been a goodwill move by the Fire. Allow the Atlanta area native Johnson, who was the longest tenured player on the roster in 2016, to go home even if it meant getting only intangible assets in return for a popular player.
It didn’t play out that way once it was reported that Atlanta was lining up to sign American national team goalkeeper Brad Guzan. Suddenly, Johnson was unnecessary for Atlanta.
However, the trade with the Fire was agreed to days before it could be made official and still went through on Sunday even after Atlanta had Guzan in mind. When Atlanta flipped Johnson to New York City FC, which officially happened minutes later, it received both kinds of allocation money, targeted and general.
Without knowing the amount of allocation money that changed hands, the amount is never announced in trades like these, it appears on the surface that the Fire got less in return for the same player. Atlanta received two acronyms for Johnson after giving the Fire one acronym. In that way it appears that Atlanta basically day-traded Johnson to get more for him within minutes.
That may not be the case. The dollar amounts could be different, but MLSSoccer.com’s Andrew Wiebe dropped this:
Tough turn for Chicago as well. I'm told NYCFC had an offer for Sean John on the table for more than ATL ended up sending in initial deal. https://t.co/VZbZmBbfWG — Andrew Wiebe (@andrew_wiebe) December 11, 2016
Without knowing the numbers it’s impossible to say if the Fire took less compensation to send Johnson to his hometown team, in essence doing Johnson a favor only to see Atlanta find a replacement for Johnson, before he was even officially a member of the club, and flip him to another team immediately.
The Fire have lost a lot of good will thanks to back-to-back last place finishes so fans don’t require much evidence to wonder if this is just an example of getting outmaneuvered. The point is it might not be and we don’t know because there isn’t enough transparency in MLS. Instead of what could have been a goodwill gesture to a long-serving player, the optics are that the Fire may have allowed Atlanta to skim off the top for the pleasure of being the middleman in a trade the Fire could have just made to NYCFC directly.Last April, five civilians were shot dead by Indian soldiers in India-controlled Kashmir, shortly after protests broke out in the aftermath of the molestation of a young girl by soldiers in Handwara (50 miles north of the capital city of Srinagar). The attempted sexual harassment had gone largely unnoticed until the victim spoke to the media, but it was not the first time that a similar incident had occurred in the heavily militarized region. In almost three decades of armed oppression against the civilian population, supposedly a bid to win back trust in Kashmir, many women and girls have been raped and molested by Indian soldiers. Sexual violence has been used as a channel to impose authority upon the female population, while torture and killings are used to suppress their male counterparts.
This isn’t the only reason why a popular civilian uprising is underway in Kashmir as India’s rule grows weak again. The government’s hold over the territory had strengthened with the help of mass killings in the early 1990s, and later, with the regional elections held in 1996. In the early 1990s, when India’s grip was weak and the rebels, as per an India Today report in May 1993, had “achieved successes previously unimaginable” and “for the first time established liberated zones,” a government militia was instrumental in crushing popular dissent, leading to the fall of most rebel groups. Currently, there is one group (other than a scattering of new-formed ones) that is still fighting in Kashmir and continues to gain power: the indigenous Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, also known as the Hizb. The Hizb has pro-Pakistan leanings, but most of its cadres are local. In the last few years, the Hizb has managed to climb to the top in terms of popularity, and continues to successfully gain new recruits, who are being celebrated as righteous warriors by the general public.
Even mourning the rebels’ losses is seen as a major political statement in contemporary Kashmir, as thousands of people join funeral processions for both local and Pakistani rebels who died fighting Indian soldiers. During several recent gunfights, moreover, civilians diverted the soldiers’ attention from the procession in order to help the rebels escape unscathed. These trends have alerted Indian agencies. Meanwhile, social media remains abuzz with many people who idolize rebel commanders, like Burhan Muzaffar Wani, a 23-year-old Hizb commander in South Kashmir who has become the face of the new rebellion. Wani’s brother Khalid was among those killed by the soldiers, and this year, a cricket tournament was organized to remember him, with team titles dedicated to various rebels. The people’s acceptance of this rebellion has grown with the decline of any political process that can hope to empower them.
The change in mood has its roots in the 2008 and 2010 mass uprisings in Kashmir, during which Indian troops and police shot more than 200 teenagers dead on the streets. This has gradually led to major protests, drawing in the younger generation, with people from all walks of life vehemently rejecting India’s continued rule in Kashmir. From the army to the local government, the alarm bells are ringing, but no one has a political solution to solve the long-standing issue. Last month in Kashmir, a senior official from the government informally told me that the new generation is angry. “Have you seen how these youths are reacting? They don’t want to listen to anything. They are serious about it (protesting) and can go to any extent to achieve their goals,” he said.
Continuous Killings and Impunity for Soldiers
Like many problems in South Asia, the roots of the Kashmir issue stretch back to the partition of British India in 1947. After an aborted attempt at remaining independent, what was once the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir was divided between the two new countries of India and Pakistan, with a de facto border known as the Line of Control.
The armed rebellion against Indian rule in Kashmir started in the late 1980s. In these years of violence, around half a million soldiers in the region used extreme torture and targeted killings against civilians, with hundreds killed in some incidents. Estimates of the number of people killed in Kashmir range from 70,000 to 100,000.
Force was again used in 2010, when the political narrative in Kashmir took a different shape as youths took over the reins of public dissent and rebellion. Two mass uprisings in 2008 and 2010 showed the brutal face of the state to children born during the 1990s, who had not seen such mass violence spearheaded by the state before. It further strengthened the younger generation’s anti-India sentiments and brought about a fresh wave of dissent. The slow growth of young rebels over the last five years is a product of this phenomenon.
Without a clear policy-based solution apparent, two laws that have been instrumental in crushing the recent popular dissent in the Valley: the draconian Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), which provides impunity to Indian soldiers for basically any action, and the Public Safety Act (PSA), which is used to imprison people without due process. Amnesty International calls the PSA a “lawless law” and has been campaigning for its revocation. On the AFSPA, Amnesty International said in its report in 2015 that the impunity is a long-standing problem in Jammu and Kashmir. “The lack of political will to account for past and present actions of the security forces, including the state police, is fortified by legislation and aggravated by other obstacles to justice, especially for those who lack financial resources or education,” the report read.
After the five civilians were shot dead by soldiers in Handwara, for example, the state government expressed regret over the killings, but it did not issue an investigation. The central government in New Delhi continued its silence, aside from blaming pro-freedom leaders for instigating the violence.
At the core of the long weeks of violence was an underage girl, who was subjected to attempted sexual harassment and was also forced to refrain from speaking to the media while she was kept under police detention. Activists accused the police of a forced detention to protect the solider who had committed the act; there was no clear response from New Delhi.
The girl was released later and spoke to the media, accusing the police of forcing her to give a statement that would exonerate the soldiers. “I had gone to a public washroom,” she said. “When I was coming out, a soldier came and held my hand. I freed my hand and ran out, weeping.” She demanded that an FIR must be filed against the accused soldiers and action be taken against the police officers involved in her detention.
It has been two months now since the attempted molestation and killings in Handwara, but the government has not yet produced an investigation report, as demanded by opposition parties.
Sexual Violations as a Form of Oppression
Incidents like the one in Handwara are not the first of their kind. Sexual violence conducted by the Indian forces has long been a mainstay tactic, with no one prosecuted to date. Another highly visible episode involving sexual violence occurred in 1991 in North Kashmir’s Kunan-Poshpora villages, when dozens of women accused Indian soldiers of rape.
On February 23, 1991, Indian soldiers had gone to the two villages for a cordon and search operation. As per various accounts, the soldiers tortured the men and raped the women. The 20-year-old injustice came to light again amidst the swelling public discontent of the last few years. In 2013, a group of women came together to file a public lawsuit that called for further investigations regarding the case. Months have passed since a local court ordered further investigations, but the police have taken no action.
Essar Batool, one of five Kashmiri women who co-authored the book Do You Remember Kunan Poshpora?, says that “the legal procedure in Kashmir is neither transparent and nor accountable, as it is by extension another arm of Indian occupation.” Batool says the delay in the legal procedure not only hampers investigations and but also exposes the true face of the state to the public, who believe the judiciary will deliver justice.
Batool sees the case as a way to strengthen the public’s memory, which has supposedly gone fragile despite years of brutal occupation. “We need to comprehend that the occupier is changing its tactics, and hence we need proper documentation to keep memories alive,” she says. “The documentation also contributes to spreading knowledge about Kashmir and Indian occupation… through the book many people outside Kashmir and even outside India came to know about the incident in detail only 25 years later.”
New Rebels and a Strengthened Movement
Earlier this month, rebels overpowered three policemen and snatched four service rifles from the police in South Kashmir. Rebels have been using this strategy for the last few years, taking weapons from the police or paramilitary troops and later giving them to their new recruits. It also shows the growth of the rebellion as an indigenous movement, as the border with Pakistan has become less and less porous over time. The rebels are mainly focusing on their particular areas, mostly in the south of the Kashmir Valley. But lately some attacks and rebel activities have happened in North Kashmir and Central Kashmir also. In the absence of any political solution, the youth have become restless and their anger has intensified.
The Indian Army has also started acknowledging the change in the Kashmiri situation. One of the senior military commanders in Northern India, Lt. Gen. D.S. Hooda, recently told the Associated Press that soldiers have little hope of competing against the rebels for public sympathy. “It’s a big problem, a challenge for us to conduct anti-militant operations now,” said Hooda. “Frankly speaking, I’m not comfortable anymore conducting operations if large crowds are around. Militarily, there’s not much more to do than we already have done … We’re losing the battle for a narrative.”
Growing anti-India sentiments their counterpart in rapidly rising support for Pakistan among people in India-controlled Kashimr. Yet the chief cleric of South Kashmir’s Ummat-i-Islami, Mirwaiz Qazi Yasir, believes that the ongoing freedom struggle in the Valley is a populist movement. “More than things, symbols are more important and [the new rebellion] is a symbol,” he says. “Even if there are no resources, but still this is a symbol.”
However, he acknowledges that “a long-term rebellion” will find it “hard to survive without resources.”
“If Pakistan wants to help the movement here, they will have their own interests also,” he adds. “[…]Pakistan has always tried to show it as an indigenous movement and it is an indigenous to a large extent.”
Some observers |
we've made on them," he said, "so I can anticipate that over the next couple of months the partnership is going to make a decision."
Nonetheless, steering clear of foreign government funds could narrow his options.
Of the 10 priciest office-building purchases last year in Manhattan, two were made by a sovereign wealth fund in China (China Investment Corp.) and a third was by the central bank of Hong Kong. Three of the other purchases came from private entities in Saudi Arabia, Canada and Spain, sometimes investing public money.
New York real estate consultant Arthur J. Mirante II, who advised the Kushner family on the original deal, said 666 Fifth Avenue could probably be re-leased as an office building with modest investment. Redevelopment is more difficult, he said.
"If they have to forget about that market because of Jared being in the White House, they're going to have to look elsewhere," Mirante said.
Meanwhile, the interest rate on the Kushner company's principal loan rose to 5.5 percent from 5 percent this year and will continue to rise to a maximum of 6.3 percent, according to Trepp. The loan is held by a group of investment banks and investors led by General Electric and Wells Fargo.
That, in turn, has created an opportunity for Kushner's partner, Roth's Vornado. Unlike Kushner Cos., Vornado's central business is leasing New York office buildings. Some analysts expect Roth to wait out the Kushner redevelopment plan and, if it fails, try to take over the property — despite what Roth has said publicly.
Earlier this year, Roth told shareholders that 666 Fifth Avenue "is an ongoing, complex, dynamic and unpredictable situation... and it is the rare case when we may be sellers."
Barrack said that when Kushner went to the White House, his father, Charles — who had helped devise the redevelopment proposal — must have known that his efforts would be undermined. Charles Kushner did not respond to a request for comment.
"This was [Charles's] dream and his baby," Barrack said. "When Jared decided to go to Washington, he probably had a heart attack."
As a result of the Kushner focus, Barrack said, investors have to ask themselves, "Are they willing to take the scrutiny of what comes along with" investing with Kushner Cos.?Irish people living in Britain tend to view the country as a mature democracy; yesterday they woke up wondering if that maturity had become senility.
In the Irish pubs around Covent Garden ex-pats were examining the 4% margin of victory that has delivered a body blow to an established way of life.
In London where the remain camp polled over 75% there is disbelief that the nation could betray the capital.
Outside Waxy O’Connors, off Leicester Square, Aisling McSwiggan from Galway and her work mates were in collective shock.
Ms McSwiggan, who has been in London for years, said she hadn’t met a single person who was voting in favour of Brexit.
“I have been working in London for years. Not a single person who I knew in my network was voting leave,” she said. “We are not celebrating, we are drowning our sorrows.” She put the out vote down to the economic problems in the North of England, which voted in favour of leaving the EU.
“I know things have been tough in northern England economically but I didn’t think it was this bad,” she said.
In the Porterhouse bar in Covent Garden, part of the Porterhouse group based in Dublin, Fiona Carey from Westmeath said she couldn’t believe the outcome of the vote.
“London is so diverse and full of foreign people that I just assumed that they would stay in,” she said.
The result of the Brexit vote is already playing into people’s plans for the summer.
Ms Carey said one of her friends who was planning to come over to London to work for the summer, was now reconsidering where to go in search of work.
“My friend is reconsidering coming to the UK because it is leaving the EU,” she said.
Back upstairs in Waxy O’Connors the Watson family from Belfast are split down the middle. Chris Watson, who has been working for Sainsbury’s in London for the last year-and-a-half, said he voted to leave the EU.
Immigration and Brussels bureaucracy were what pushed him towards Brexit.
“You can spend a whole year negotiating with suppliers to get contracts only for legislation to be changed and you have to renegotiate everything,” he said.
Chris’s father Mark Watson also voted to leave. He said there are a huge number of immigrants who contribute nothing to the economy. He is hoping that the UK can implement an Australian style points system to slow the flow of people into the country.
However Ben Watson voted in favour of remaining in the EU.
As another round of drinks arrived he argued that it was OK for his parents to vote leave as they were approaching the end of their careers and wouldn’t have to deal with the uncertainty that Brexit brings about.
“I think that the EU will introduce trade tariffs and make an example out of the UK,” he said “It will be my generation who will have to deal with it.”1. Mike (LW: 1)
Yes I know Mike had an incredibly rough week, but if the game ended right now, I think that he would easily get the most votes. He has the best combination of likability and strategy, so most people wouldn’t vote against him out of spite and would be forced to acknowledge that he’s been playing the game as hard as anyone from the start. He also has an idol and has shown well in almost every immunity challenge, so he could very well win more than one along the way. Now to the negatives. We’re at the point where everyone has crucial flaws that will hold them back from winning, and Mike’s is obviously that he only has Shirin as a strong ally. This is clearly a huge problem, and he is going to have a lot of work to do in order to avoid being sent home next week. The auction wasn’t his finest moment, and he should’ve been more decisive one way or the other. Although, I thought that whole thing was completely blown out of proportion by Dan. Based on what we’ve seen from Mike so far, I do think that he is more than capable of making a compelling argument to Sierra and Dan to get them back on his side. We’ll see.
2. Rodney (LW: 4)
It wasn’t surprising that Rodney’s sub-alliance was outed last episode. What was unexpected was that after it happened, Rodney actually gained two members. If the numbers sit tight, Rodney’s in a great position. But he faces two major roadblocks. Since Mike and Shirin are so obviously on the outs, it makes in-fighting between the new majority alliance more likely – the group knows it can easily vote for Mike or Shirin the next time around if they decide to blindside a threat from inside the alliance first. Second, there’s a chance that Dan and Sierra’s jump was a temporary one, and if Mike gathers them in addition to Shirin, with Dan’s extra vote that would give them a 5-4 majority. Rodney’s reaction to Mike’s accusations of his sub-alliance, both after the auction and at tribal, weren’t the best, and he could have been calmer in his response. But the end results worked out in his favor, and we can’t forget his crucial conversation with Dan, which shows Rodney just may be getting the feeling for how to play a social game. As the leader of the new majority alliance, we move up Rodney to second overall.
3. Tyler (LW: 3)
I continue to come away from each episode disappointed in Tyler. We almost never hear from him, and he seems content playing second fiddle to Rodney. While there’s a chance he’s got strategy building up inside and is waiting for the right moment to use it, Tyler doesn’t have the track record at this stage of the game to deserve complete benefit of the doubt. It also doesn’t seem like he’s making major social connections with anyone out there, which may limit how many people vote his way if he makes it to final tribal. The reason he’s so high is that because this cast has become pretty unlikable, he’d still win were he matched up against many of the people below him. Additionally, he has been shown to at least consider strategic gameplay before when people have approached him. I am encouraged by the scenes for next episode where he finds out Dan’s advantage – while we don’t know if it’s a great idea to look in someone’s bag, at least Tyler’s doing something, and that’s more than we can say for these past few weeks.
4. Carolyn (LW: 2)
It’s difficult to get a read on what Carolyn’s mindset is because she isn’t at all open about what her strategy is. Is she completely sold on sticking with Rodney, or could she flip to Mike’s side next week? I really don’t know for sure based on what she’s shown us. She does have an idol, which is obviously a huge weapon, but I have to wonder if she is becoming too comfortable because of it. One thing I know is that she’s beginning to become unlikable and isn’t helping herself win any votes. Her name was being floated around this week as someone to vote out, and Jenn’s words were about how much she doesn’t like “Mama C.” She’s the kind of person who isn’t loudly obnoxious like Dan or Rodney but has a sort of arrogance that definitely gets on people’s nerves. However, she still is one of the smarter players left in the game and has a shot to keep going if her alliance holds up. The problem is that her alliance might not make it past next week, which means she may have to play her idol earlier than she probably would have hoped.
5. Dan (LW: 9)
This week’s episode showed us a different side of Dan than we’re used to. While we still got plenty of his bumbling idiot moments, his personal side came out which suggested that he isn’t 100% crazy like we previously had thought. I don’t think Dan will win, but he’s gaining enough momentum where depending on what the final three is, he may have a shot. Winning that extra vote was huge, and Dan using that correctly could be his guide to winning the million dollars. It would give him a strategic move he could sell to the jury, and could help him take out a major threat. It looks like Dan’s game might come down to the decision he makes this upcoming week – does he go with Mike, the guy that’s had his back the whole time, or does he move over with Rodney? With Mike he has a surefire alliance, while in Rodney’s crew him and Sierra are likely 5 and 6. It also wasn’t encouraging that Dan was quite flustered when people on both sides were pressuring him for his vote. But Dan’s advantage, coupled with him being a quasi-swing vote, vaults him up to the middle of the rankings.
6. Shirin (LW: 6)
Shirin, like Mike, is an obvious candidate to be voted out next. However, Shirin has shown she’s intelligent about the game, and she could really have an impact down the stretch. The majority alliance is 6 strong, but it’s also newly formed, which leaves plenty of posturing of who’s actually on top. If Shirin’s smart, she could really shake things up by going at the weaker links of that alliance. The good thing for her is that Mike and her trust eachother 100%, so they can talk strategy without fear of it being repeated. I’m excited to see what they can cook up, especially if they pull over Dan, which would give them an idol and an extra vote to work with. Shirin also has another thing going for her: the jury loves her. Except for possibly being in a final tribal with Mike, I think Jenn, Joe and Hali would 100% vote for Shirin. So that’s a plus for her, but if the other castaways are smart enough to notice, that puts a target on her back. But I’m not quite sure we’re there yet with the members of the Rodney alliance.
7. Sierra (LW: 5)
I don’t think Sierra said one word this week, or at least, she didn’t say anything worth remembering. Her once promising position in the game is fading fast, and she is going to have to make a big move soon if she wants to make it to final tribal. Her problem is that even if she does make it there, she will have no case to win. She can’t seem to decide who she wants to be loyal to and seems to switch sides multiple times each episode. This might be a smart way to survive each week, but it’s not a million dollar strategy. I can’t blame her for not liking most of the contestants, but she’s going to have to build a relationship with someone and fast. I think she has as good a shot as anyone to make it through to the final 5, but I don’t know who would like her enough to bring her further than that. Her best bet is probably to bring Dan with her back to Mike’s side and hope that the three blue collars, excluding Rodney, can stick together until the end.
8. Will (LW: 8)
I was stunned to see Will unload on Shirin, especially since she wasn’t even the one who started the food rumor. He was clearly frustrated and didn’t have the guts to take it out on Mike or Jenn, so he chose poor Shirin who was just sitting there minding her own business. The thing is, this is the kind of person Will is. He’s been a follower the whole game and hasn’t had the guts to make any big moves. The one thing he had going for him was that he seemed to be the nicest guy remaining, but now even that is gone. He wasn’t going to get many jury votes before the outburst, but his attack on Shirin definitely hurt whatever slim chance he still had. At this point, he might be the most likely contestant to make the final three because he has absolutely no case for winning. In fact, I’d like to see him make it there just because of how entertaining it would be to see him try to make a case for himself.
AdvertisementsGuardian analysis shows the higher the median age in an area the higher the turnout – meaning larger numbers of older, leave voters got their way
Britain’s vote to leave the European Union has revealed a deep generational and social divide in the country, with younger, metropolitan and higher-educated voters appearing to strongly oppose Brexit.
However despite high national turnout, key areas analysed by the Guardian showed that turnout among young, remain voters appears not to reflect the historic significance of the vote. The median age in an area was the strongest predictor of turnout and showed a familiar pattern – the older the median age in an area, the more likely it was to have had a high turnout.
“Young people voted to remain by a considerable margin, but were outvoted,” the Liberal Democrat leader, Tim Farron, said. “They were voting for their future, yet it has been taken from them.” The TV presenter James Corden said: “I can’t get my head around what’s happening in Britain. I’m so sorry to the youth of Britain. I fear you’ve been let down today.”
In his victory speech at Vote Leave headquarters, Boris Johnson acknowledged the fears of many young voters, particularly over restrictions on freedom of movement. “I want to speak directly to the millions of people who did not vote for this outcome, especially young people, who may feel that this decision involves somehow pulling up the drawbridge, because I think the very opposite is true.
Meet the 75%: the young people who voted to remain in the EU Read more
“We cannot turn our backs on Europe, we are part of Europe, our children and our grandchildren will continue to have a wonderful future as Europeans. It is the essence of our case that young people in this country can look forward to a more secure and more prosperous future, if we take back the democratic control.”
Voter ages are not recorded, but in urban areas where the average age was 35 and under, electoral commission data showed overwhelming support for remaining in the EU. This was particularly marked in the London local authorities of Lambeth,, Hackney and Harringey, where the average age is between 31 and 33, and which all voted over 75% in favour of remaining in the EU.
Oxford and Cambridge, the councils with the highest percentage of 18- to 25-year-olds, were also remain strongholds, as was Tower Hamlets, which has the highest percentage of 21- to 30-year-olds. According to YouGov polling before the referendum result, 64% of under-25s said they wanted the UK to remain. With a life expectancy for that generation of 90, younger voters have approximately eight more decades to live compared with the voters who most favoured leaving, the over 65s.
Voters with university degrees overwhelmingly backed remain, which also signified the strength of support for the EU among the younger generation, where 40% of 21-year-olds have a university education, compared with 7% of 60-year-olds.
Michael Sani, from the youth voter movement Bite the Ballot, which registered hundreds of thousands in the run up to the poll, said he understood the feelings of helplessness and anger among the younger generation, but said turnout had been affected by the direction of both campaigns.
David Beard (@dabeard) "Those who must live with result of the EU Referendum the longest want to remain" #EUref pic.twitter.com/xR02Z711jS
“If no one inspires you, that is how you end up being marginalised, divided and fearing,” he said. “This generation are so passionate, they care so much about issues, but they are just not empowered to use the means of communication to get through to make real change. Both campaigns have been a disaster in terms of meaningful engagement on such complex issues.”
Sani said, however, that there were still opportunities to make the issues that the younger generation care about a priority during the Brexit negotiations.
“What people need to do now if they are angry is harness that feeling, these negotiations are still to come, and young people need to be at the table or they will end up being on the menu yet again.”
Dr James Slom, of the centre for European politics at Royal Holloway, University of London, said the division between younger and older voters was more decisive than country or socioeconomic divides.
“In efforts to bring out the youth vote, we were swimming against the tide,” he said.
Both sides had displayed “staggering indifference” to younger voters. “Given the decades-long trend towards low electoral turnout amongst young people, this was equally unsurprising and disturbing.”
Slom said the individual voter registration system was partly to blame for issues with turnout, with more than 1 million people falling off the register and the number of attainers, newly eligible voters, falling by 40%.
The timing, too, was “completely indifferent to the fact that it was to take place in the higher education summer vacation period”. Slom said interviews on campuses had borne out concerns that young people would be away or forget to re-register away from their term-time addresses.
A poll for the Times at the Glastonbury music festival found roughly 22% of young revellers there did not vote, 65% of whom saying they had intended to vote remain but had not arranged to do so in time, equating to about 15,000 votes.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Many 18- to 29-year-olds feel the older generations have robbed them of a future within the EU. Photograph: Amer Ghazzal/Rex/Shutterstock
Slom said the media had not accurately reflected the generational divide in its coverage of the youth vote, citing the BBC’s Question Time for 18- to 29-year-olds, in Glasgow, in late May. “The remain and leave guests were split 50-50; in other words, in aiming to give balance, the BBC presented a distorted view of this pro-remain generation.”
More than 200 young people, asked to comment on the result by the Guardian, emailed their thoughts within the first 30 minutes, many expressing distress at the skew of the vote, and fear for freedom of movement and their jobs.
A PhD student, Kirsten Dutton, 25, from Newcastle, said she was worried about science funding in the UK. “Scientists receive so little funding from the UK we are very dependent on EU sources and collaboration,” she said. “I won’t be surprised if over the coming years the UK’s output of original research falls because people, both European and British, choose to move and work elsewhere. I can’t imagine staying here where my work is not valued and every day is a fight to stay funded.”
If you’re young and angry about the EU referendum, you’re right to be | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett Read more
Zainabb Hull, a 23-year-old graduate from London, said the vote meant “more anxiety for me, more instability to navigate and try to understand. I’m also a woman of colour. This result confirms my fears. That my families aren’t seen as people, as human. They’re not welcome here, and as a product of immigration, neither am I.”
In the first few hours after the leave vote was confirmed, there was explicit anger from 16- and-17-year-olds, who voted in the Scottish referendum but were denied a vote in the EU poll. The politics student Erin Minogue said she felt her future was completely transformed. “I couldn’t vote in what is probably the most important political decision the British people have made, an irreversible decision. My future is completely changed; I will not have the benefits my parents and their generation have had, such as freedom of movement between all EU countries.”
The 16-year-old school student Madeline Gomes said she was “utterly and completely disgusted with my country and what they have done to my future. But most of all, I’m scared. I’m terrified”.Hash browns sold by Roundy’s and Harris Teeter brands have been recalled due to possible golf ball contamination.
McCain Foods USA, Inc., voluntarily recalled frozen hash brown products that may contain “extraneous golf ball materials” within them, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) announced Friday.
The golf ball materials “may have been inadvertently harvested with potatoes used to make” the frozen hash browns, the FDA said.
The recall affects Roundy’s two-pound bag of Frozen Souther Style Hash Browns and Harris Teeter two-pound Bag of Frozen Southern Style Hash Browns at supermarkets in several different states.
McCain Foods USA Recalls Frozen Southern Style Hash Browns branded Roundy's and Harris Teeter #recall #health #UShttps://t.co/22YBvnUSMN pic.twitter.com/2pWts9Dd53
— PotatoPro (@PotatoPro) April 22, 2017
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
The hash browns were distributed on Jan. 19, and no other products are affected by the recall.
Though no injuries have been reported related to the contamination, the FDA warned “consumption of these products may pose a choking hazard or other physical injury to the mouth.”Nature had one of her finest moments in Switzerland. Where else can you find such varied and intense beauty – colossal glaciers, raging falls, hidden valleys and 4000m mountains – in such a small country?
On foot or skis, by bike or raft, with karabiner or paraglider, the Swiss have harnessed these wild places with impeccable precision. And no matter how ‘switched-on’ life gets, this will always be a land where you can find adventure and solitude.
Hikers on a trail overlooking Switzerland's iconic Matterhorn Mountain © Dan Herrick / Getty Images
On a high in Valais
Nothing says Switzerland more than that mountain. As the train chugs from Täsch to the ritzy outdoor resort of Zermatt, the pop-up effect of the Matterhorn is surreal. The 4478m fang of rock and ice forces your gaze skywards and elicits gasps of wonder.
Closer, you say? Kein problem. The Gornergratbahn, Europe’s highest cogwheel railway, has been trundling up to Gornergrat (3089m) since 1898. At the summit, the view of the Gorner Glacier and 29 peaks rising above 4000m – including Switzerland’s highest, Dufourspitze (4634m) – opens up. Skiers, mountaineers and hardcore hikers are in their element at Matterhorn Glacier Paradise, Europe’s highest cable-car station on the Klein Matterhorn (3883m), with views reaching deep into the Swiss, French and Italian Alps.
Ever since British climber Edward Whymper made the first successful ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865 – albeit a triumph marred by rope-breaking tragedy – Zermatt has been the Holy Grail for mountaineers. Here you can tackle some of Europe’s most epic ascents: the Matterhorn, say, or Monte Rosa (4634m), with an Alpine Center guide. Hikers, meanwhile, can set out along the two-hour, 6.5km Matterhorn Glacier Trail. When the flakes fall in winter, the car-free resort is laced with 360km of ski runs in the Matterhorn’s shadow, some of which dip over the border into Italy.
A climber scales a rock face over the mighty Aletsch Glacier © Lost Horizon Images / Getty
Among alpine giants
The Matterhorn gets a lot of love, but swing north and follow the Rhône River east along the serene, remote valley of the Goms in Valais and you enter another world. Here tiny hamlets with baroque churches and sun-blackened chalets are dwarfed by the dramatic backdrop. From Fiesch, take the cable car up to Fiescheralp, where paragliders catch thermals on clear days, then beyond to Eggishorn for one of Switzerland’s most unforgettable sights: the mighty Aletsch Glacier.
The icing on the cake of the Unesco World Heritage Jungfrau-Aletsch region, this is the longest and most voluminous glacier in the Alps: a 23km swirl of deeply crevassed ice that powers its way past waterfalls, spires of rock and the dagger-shaped summit of Aletschhorn (4193m) like a six-lane glacial superhighway. You can admire it from the viewpoint, but you’ll get much closer on the 17km, five- to six-hour hike from Fiescheralp to Bettmeralp, which is where you can be at one with the phenomenal views and perhaps spot the odd Valais blacknose sheep. For more of an instant thrill, walk (if you dare) the Aletschji–Grünsee Suspension Bridge, which spans the terrifyingly untamed, 80m-deep Massa Gorge.
Over the mountain as the crow flies lies the Bernese Oberland, presided over by its ‘big three’: Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau (Ogre, Monk and Virgin), all hovering around the 4000m mark. The picture-perfect resorts of Grindelwald, Wengen and Mürren are great bases for hitting trails like the 6km Eiger Trail, with fearsome North Face views. More spectacular still, the full-day, 15.9km trek from Schynige Platte plateau via Faulhorn to First has views of lakes Thun and Brienz to make you yodel out loud. Or enjoy knockout peak and glacier views with zero effort by taking the train from Kleine Scheidegg up to 3454m Jungfraujoch, Europe’s highest railway station.
Autumn train ride through Switzerland's scenic Engadin region © Roberto Moiola / Sysaworld / Getty Images
Into the Engadin
Evocative of a golden age of travel, Switzerland’s train journeys are some of the world’s finest. There are big mountain views on repeat aboard the Glacier Express, which negotiates the Furka, Oberalp and Bernina passes on the eight-hour ride between Zermatt and St Moritz in Graubünden’s Upper Engadin.
Switzerland’s cradle of winter tourism since the mid 19th century, St Moritz is enshrined in sporting legend, home to slopes of Olympic fame and host to world championship events. Skiing ramps things up a notch in winter, with 350km of pistes, first-class freeriding opportunities, forested cross-country trails and heart-stopping black runs on 2978m Diavolezza.
The resort is every bit as alluring in summer. Hiking trails thread for mile after lovely mile, mountain bikers are in their element on 400km of terrain – the Suvretta Loop single trail is a classic – and wind- and kite-surfers drift across Silvaplana’s startlingly turquoise, wind-buffeted lakes in wonder.
For a taste of the Alps before the dawn of tourism, head northeast to the Swiss National Park in the Lower Engadin. Easily accessed from the quaint villages of Scuol, Zernez and S-chanf, Switzerland’s only national park is a nature-gone-wild spectacle of high moors, pastures, glaciated mountains, larch woodlands and topaz-coloured lakes. The only way to see it is by striking out on foot on one of 80km of marked trails. Go solo or hook onto a guided walk with the visitor centre in Zernez. With an expert in tow, you stand better chances of spotting rarities like wild edelweiss, ibex, chamois, golden eagles and bearded vultures.
Lucerne's historic city centre and the famous Chapel Bridge © Prasit Photo / Getty Images
Land of lakes & legends
Sitting on the mountain-rimmed shores of its eponymous lake, Lucerne, with its pristine Old Town, medieval wooden bridge and promenade, is every inch as genteel as it was back in the 19th century when Goethe, Wagner and Queen Victoria fell for its charms. And Lake Lucerne is no ordinary lake: this is where the Swiss legends were made and born. Cruise the fjord-like waters of Lake Uri and you’ll glimpse Rütli Meadow, hallowed birthplace of the Swiss Confederation in 1291, and the Tells’ Chapel, where apple-shooting hero and Swiss rebel William Tell apparently escaped from the boat of his Hapsburg captor, Gessler.
Lucerne itself is a cracking base for striking out into the surrounding lakes on low-key adventures. Without venturing too far or expending too much effort, you can marvel at the Alps cycling the trails rimming the waterfront, taking a refreshing dip at lakefront beaches in the warmer months, or hiring a boat to explore Lake Lucerne at your own steam.
The mountains that rear above Lucerne and its lake are the stuff of myth. Green peaks seem to ripple into infinity from 2128m Mt Pilatus, where the restless ghost of Roman prefect Pontius Pilate is said to roam. Reached by the world’s steepest cog railway, the mountain has walking trails commanding views as far as Germany’s Black Forest on cloudless days. Its rival in the beauty stakes is 1797m Mt Rigi, famous for its magical sunrises and sunsets.
A hillside enclave on the banks of Lake Lugano © chaoss / Getty Images
Little Italy, Switzerland style
Lakes are a defining feature of the Swiss landscape, but they take on a very different quality in the southern Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, where pines give way to palms. South of the fortified town of Bellinzona, topped by a trio of Unesco-listed medieval castles, mountains tumble down to the shores of lakes where the water is warm enough to swim. Baroque campaniles chime in waterfront towns and stylish cities with Italian flair: Locarno, Lugano and Ascona included.
Lago di Lugano looks sublime from the boats that ply the lake, but 1701m Monte Generoso gives a great overview from above. Reached by a rack-and-pinion railway, it affords a broad vista of the Alps and Apennines and is crowned by a Mario Botta-designed visitor centre resembling a giant stone flower. For more expansive views over the lakes and into the Alps, take a funicular above Lugano to Monte San Salvatore or Monte Brè.Ever since the release of Halo: Reach, the question of whether Sprint should be used in MLG Settings has been debated intensely. With version 3 of the official MLG Settings on the horizon, we wanted to get out in front of the issue and announce our intentions regarding Sprint.
Version 3 of MLG’s Halo: Reach Settings will include Sprint.
After a lengthy period of internal debate, including feedback from pro players and in-depth gameplay review sessions, MLG has decided to include Sprint in version 3 of the official MLG Settings. Sprint will also be included in the settings used at the first Live Competition of the 2011 Season.
Why Sprint?
MLG examined a number of key factors over the course of our review, including Sprint’s effect on both gameplay and the quality of the spectator experience. We also took into consideration the fact that once an ability so deeply rooted into the game is removed, it is incredibly difficult to bring it back. In the end, we found that the argument was weighted in favor of Sprint.
Of course, we constantly re-evaluate our settings and we will continue to monitor the effect Sprint has on gameplay throughout the Season.
When can you expect v3?
With the decision to use Sprint made, we will now proceed to modify the rest of our settings to better accommodate its inclusion. This includes issues ranging from the positioning of certain objects all the way to objective return times. This involves a lot of work, and there is still considerable testing to do. While we can’t give you an exact date, it’s safe to say it will be at least a few weeks before you can expect to see v3 settings. However, you will have access to the settings well in advance of the first Live Competition of 2011.
MLG has always taken the feedback from our community into account throughout the development of our official settings. If you have constructive feedback you’d like to share, please do so in the Official MLG Rules and Settings Discussion thread.
Discuss this article in the forumsWe recently posted about Bible Storyland, a documentary film about the failed 1960s biblical theme park of the same name designed by Disney creatives. We have now learned about Space City USA, a never-completed 1960s space theme park in Huntsville, Alabama. According to The Huntsville Times, construction of the park was announced in 1964 to the thrill of locals and by 1967, the site was shutdown and the project declared an expensive failure.
Space City would have a skyway ride, a glass-bottom boat, a lunar restaurant shaped like a giant mushroom, a jet car ride, a flying saucer, futuristic “time machines,” a simulated colony on the moon and even a miniature volcano. Guests would enter through a “time machine” into various themed areas, like the Lost World with dinosaur models, a simulated moon colony, a “Land of Oz” and an Old South section.
The Huntsville Times recently ran a history of Space City USA along with a gallery of then and now images including ones from longtime Huntsville resident Toni Reynolds whose husband invested in the project.
The Huntsville Times original news story on Space City USA
Space City USA photograph by Dr. William S. Reynolds taken May 1965. Photo shows construction of volcano in “Lost World.”
Space City USA stock certificate. 100 shares at $2.00/ share.
Photo shows grading work at northeast edge of lake. Space City USA aerial photograph taken by Dr. William S. Reynolds approx. fall 1963 – spring 1964.
Thanks to Mark Johnson for the tip!If you’ve ever drank beer out of a can, you can thank Gottfried Krueger Brewery. They were the first ones, 78 years ago today, to put the tasty beverage in a can and offer it up to consumers. Wired writes:
Krueger had been brewing beer since the mid-1800s, but had suffered from the Prohibition and worker strikes. When American Can approached with the idea of canned beer, it was initially unpopular with Krueger execs. But American Can offered to install the equipment for free: If the beer flopped, Krueger wouldn’t have to pay. So, in 1935 Krueger’s Cream Ale and Krueger’s Finest Beer were the first beers sold to the public in cans. Canned beer was an immediate success. The public loved it, giving it a 91 percent approval rating. Compared to glass, the cans were lightweight, cheap, and easy to stack and ship. Unlike bottles, you didn’t have to pay a deposit and then return the cans for a refund. By summer Krueger was buying 180,000 cans a day from American Can, and other breweries decided to follow.
Just think of all the things you couldn’t do had they never filled those aluminum cans with beer? There would be no shotgunning, no crunching the can on your head, no beer can chicken. And, a lot of people would be way less rich. The History Channel says:
Today, canned beer accounts for approximately half of the $20 billion U.S. beer industry. Not all of this comes from the big national brewers: Recently, there has been renewed interest in canning from microbrewers and high-end beer-sellers, who are realizing that cans guarantee purity and taste by preventing light damage and oxidation.
That big business means lots of engineering and development to can a ton of beer as fast as possible. And those higher end breweries, making less beer than the big guys, have to figure out how to do it cost-effectively. How On Earth radio writes:
If you’re a beer drinker, you’ve probably noticed that there are a lot of cans on liquor store shelves these days. Here in Colorado, and elsewhere, more and more breweries are choosing to put their beer in cans. There are some good reasons for that, as you’ll hear in this segment. But for the smallest of small breweries, canning can still be a real challenge. It’s expensive, and it takes up a lot of space. Enter Mobile Canning, a Longmont-based company that offers brewers a solution to both of those problems: put the canning line on a truck, and take it to any brewery that needs it. We speak with co-owner Pat Hartman in our Boulder studio. Of course, designing a fully-automated canning line is no small feat – to say nothing of designing one that can be packed into a delivery truck. For that, we turn to Boulder firm Wild Goose Engineering. Chief Technology Officer Alexis Foreman also joins the conversation.
Whether high end of tailgate style, canned beer |
are also discussed. The overall conclusion of Part I is that social environment and cultural conditioning play a large part in shaping human behavior.
Part II: Social Pathology
John Locke and Adam Smith are discussed in regard to modern economics. The film critically questions the economic need for private property, money, and the inherent inequality between agents in the system. Also seen critically is the need for cyclical consumption in order to maintain market share, resulting in wasted resources and planned obsolescence. According to the movie, the current monetary system will result in default or hyperinflation at some future time.
Part III: Project Earth
As with Zeitgeist: Addendum, the film presents a "resource-based economy" as advocated by Jacque Fresco discussing how human civilization could start from a new beginning in relation to resource types, locations, quantities, to satisfy human demands; track the consumption and depletion of resources to regulate human demands and maintain the condition of the environment.
Part IV: Rise
The current worldwide situation is described as disastrous. A case is presented that pollution, deforestation, climate change, overpopulation, and warfare are all created and perpetuated by the socioeconomic system. Various poverty statistics are shown that suggest a progressive worsening of world culture.
The final scene of the film shows a partial view of earth from space, followed by a sequence of superimposed statements; "This is your world", "This is our world", and "The revolution is now".
List of Interviewees
Reception [ edit ]
Zeitgeist: Moving Forward received "Best Political Documentary" in 2011 from the Action on Film International Film Festival.[23]
A The Socialist Standard review said the film's use of animation and humour gave it a "well rounded feel", though it criticized the "shaky economic analysis" in the second part of the film, saying "Karl Marx had already undertaken a more scientific analysis", adding, "the analysis is at least on the right track". Regarding transition to the new system proposed in the film, the reviewer noted "there is no mention of how to get from here to there".[24]
In an article, in Tablet magazine, Michelle Goldberg described the film as "silly enough that at times [she] suspected it was [a] sly satire about new-age techno-utopianism instead of an example of it".[3] She describes the 3 Zeitgeist movies as "a series of 3 apocalyptic cult documentaries.[3]
Zeitgeist movement [ edit ]
Zeitgeist: The Movie (2007) started the chain of events leading to the formation of the Zeitgeist movement.[3] The group advocates transition from the global money-based economic system to a post-scarcity economy or resource-based economy. VC Reporter's Shane Cohn summarized the movement's charter as: "Our greatest social problems are the direct results of our economic system".[25] Joseph created a political movement that, according to The Daily Telegraph, dismisses historic religious concepts as misleading and embraces a version of sustainable ecological concepts and scientific administration of society.[26] The group describes the current socioeconomic system as structurally corrupt and inefficient in the use of resources.[20][27] Michelle Goldberg described the Zeitgeist movement as "the first Internet-based apocalyptic cult".[3]
See also [ edit ](CBS/AP) CHICAGO The Chicago Teachers Union announced Sunday night that it will go on strike Monday morning for the first time in 25 years after contract talks with the school district failed over issues including pay, benefits and job security.
"We will be on the (picket) line," Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said after emerging from all-day talks with district negotiators.
"This is a difficult decision and one we hoped we could have avoided," she said. "We must do things differently in this city if we are to provide our students with the education they so rightfully deserve."
More than 26,000 teachers and support staff are expected to hit the picket lines Monday morning, while the school district and parents carry out plans for keeping nearly 400,000 students safe and occupied during the day in the nation's third largest school district. District officials plan to feed and monitor students at 144 schools throughout the city during the strike.
School board President David Vitale had announced a short time earlier on Sunday night that the talks had broken off, despite the school board offering what he called a fair and responsible contract that would cover four years and meet most of the union's demands. He said the talks with the union had been "extraordinarily difficult."
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel says the strike is unfair to the city's school children.
Speaking shortly after Lewis announced the walkout, Emanuel said the two sides disagreed mainly over two issues that could quickly be finished if the negotiations continued, and that the district's team was ready to start talks again at any time. He said the district had offered the teachers at 16 percent pay raise over four years.
CBS station WBBM in Chicago points out the mayor said he was "disappointed that we have come to this point, given that even all the other parties acknowledge how close we are, because this is a strike of choice. Because of how close we are, it is a strike that is unnecessary."
Lewis said she believed talks would resume Monday but a time had not been set for the sides to meet. She added that progress had been made but not enough to avert a strike.
Union officials said among the outstanding issues were district proposals for standardized student testing that would "cheapen" the school system and a teacher evaluation system that would cost 6,000 teachers their jobs within two years. Lewis said the union had won concessions from the district on other matters.
The walkout was announced after months of tense, at-times heated talks among Emanuel, the school board and union leaders at a time when unions and collective bargaining have come under criticism around the nation during difficult economic times.
The district had been offering a raise of 2 percent a year for four years. The union called that offer unacceptable particularly after Emanuel last year canceled a previously negotiated 4 percent pay raise, citing budget problems.
The union countered by asking for a 30 percent pay raise over two years, followed by a request for a 25 percent increase over two years. Just weeks ago, Lewis told delegates the union had adjusted its demand and was asking for a 19 percent pay raise in the contract's first year.
The union also has raised concerns about raises based on teacher experience and education. It said the district agreed to retain contract language allowing raises based on experience, called step increases, but would not actually pay the money now.
Teachers also have been concerned about new teacher evaluations, health benefits and regaining lost jobs. An additional issue was how a longer school day for students is being implemented.
The strike is the latest flashpoint in a very public and often contentious battle between the mayor and the union.
When he took office last year, the former White House chief of staff inherited a school district facing a $700 million budget shortfall. Not long after, his administration rescinded 4 percent raises for teachers. He then asked the union to reopen its contract and accept 2 percent pay raises in exchange for lengthening the school day for students by 90 minutes. The union refused.
The longer school day was one of the mayor's campaign promises for the city's schools, and he pushed to have it implemented a year ahead of schedule. He attempted to go around the union by asking teachers at individual schools to waive the contract and add 90 minutes to the day. He halted the effort after being challenged by the union before the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board.
The district and union agreed in July on how to implement the longer school day, striking a deal to hire back 477 teachers who had been laid off rather than pay regular teachers more to work longer hours. That raised hopes the contract dispute would be settled soon, but bargaining continued on the other issues.“We cannot fool ourselves. There is an Islamic problem. Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, ISIS, Boko Haram, all of them are killing by the name of Allah. They’re not killing by the name of Jesus. They’re not killing by the name of Jehovah. They’re not killing by the name of Mahavira, or the Buddha, or Lao Tzu,” said Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of a religious leader of Hamas.
Speaking at The Jerusalem Post Annual Conference on May 22, Yousef spoke of Islam as an ideology, Israel as the Jewish state, President Barack Obama’s vision of Islamic terrorism, and “political correctness.”
“There is an Islamic problem,” repeated Yousef. “And I think humanity needs to stand against this danger, because this danger is not only against the state of Israel.”
“Political correctness,” said Yousef, was a product of fear. “We don’t want to provoke [Muslims].”
“We are trying not to create a religious war, but there has been a religious war, whether you like it or not. The better way is to face it, to grow up, and to face it with courage,” advised Yousef, receiving applause from the audience.
Delineating between individuals and social systems, Yousef said he did not want to be perceived as being opposed to Muslims as people.
“The problem is not in the individual,” said Yousef. “We are not against the Muslim people. I cannot be against my mother and my father and my people. They’re just people. And there are idiots everywhere in every nation.”
Muslims should be encouraged to abandon slam as an ideology, continued Yousef. He suggested that humanity unify in opposition to Islam as he said was done against Nazism.
"There has been a religious war, whether you like it or not. The better way is to face it, to grow up, and to face it with courage." Mosab Hassan Yousef
“The Muslim people have a problem, and their problem is in their belief system. They have to face it, and we need to encourage them to fight the good fight, as I did,” said Yousef.
Obama, warned Yousef, was facilitating the expansion of Islamic terrorism through his subscription to “political correctness.”
“Of course, Hypocrisy is coming together with political correctness, because it’s the same. Two faces for the same coin,” said Yousef. “When the president of the free world stands and says that Islam is a religion of peace, he creates the climate, he provides the climate, the perfect climate to create more terrorism.”
Mocking left-wing CNN when discussing “political correctness,” Yousef asked if the Democrat-aligned network had any reporters in the audience.
Having defected from the “Palestinian” national movement and operating as a double agent with Israel’s Mossad, Yousef made his story known in his bestselling memoir Son Of Hamas. The book served as the foundation for a documentary film about his experiences, The Green Prince.
Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter.Alphabet CEO Larry Page, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg are among the small group of top tech leaders who will attend a summit with President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday at Trump Tower in Manhattan, according to numerous sources with knowledge of the situation.
Invites for the gathering went out last week, as has been previously reported, but only to a small group of largely Silicon Valley execs whose names were not announced.
But — as Recode can now report, because we still do that quaint journalism thing — is a very heady group of less than a dozen, comprising most of the key players in the sector.
Those who will be attending (although most of the companies declined to comment to Recode) along with Page, Cook and Sandberg, include: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins, IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich and Oracle CEO Safra Catz.
“I plan to tell the president-elect that we are with him and will help in any way we can,” said Catz in a statement. “If he can reform the tax code, reduce regulation and negotiate better trade deals, the U.S. technology industry will be stronger and more competitive than ever.”
It’s not clear who the other attendees are, because many more invites went out late this week. Whether tech’s most high-profile exec, SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, is going is unknown, although he is an obvious invite.
But Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos was invited, said sources, and he is likely to attend.
Bezos’s presence would be awkward, obviously, given how aggressive his Washington Post has been in its reporting on Trump and how many times the reality-show-star-turned-president-elect has attacked Amazon on a number of issues.
Trump has done the same to Apple, dinging it on the making of its popular products outside of the U.S. And he also called for a boycott of Apple after it refused to unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters.
The invite for the Wednesday event came from Trump's chief of staff Reince Priebus, as well as his son-in-law and chief whisperer Jared Kushner and, of course, his biggest tech supporter, investor Peter Thiel.
Those close to the process said that Thiel — who is on the Facebook board with Sandberg — and others helping Trump reach out to the tech community had a hard time convincing them to attend, largely due to his persistent public hostility to one of the U.S. economy’s few bright and innovative arenas.
In addition, most of Silicon Valley’s leadership backed Trump rival and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and were even more supportive of outgoing President Barack Obama.
Tech companies also stand on the other side of a myriad of key issues from Trump, including immigration reform, encryption and a range of social concerns. But those involved said that tech leaders had little choice in accepting the invitation, even if they wanted to decline, opting to engage now even if they later oppose Trump.
“Look, this is obviously a circus,” said one person close to the situation. “Everyone in tech just wants to be invisible right now when it comes to this administration, but has to participate since we have done it before.”
The list of those not invited or invited but not going — the equivalent of the “I’m washing my hair” excuse, I guess — is even more interesting, including those from pretty much all of its most innovative companies. Some just got invites late this week, by the way, which shows how rolling the invites might have been.
Thus, no on Uber CEO Travis Kalanick (invited, but out of the country), no on Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky (invited and a Thiel investment, but out of the country), no on Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, no on Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, no on Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield and no on Dropbox CEO Drew Houston.
In other words, most of the cool kids are staying west. “I think my invite got lost in the mail,” joked one. “Of course, this kind of thing will never happen again as of January.”
And prominent venture capitalists and entrepreneurs like Marc Andreessen, Max Levchin and Reid Hoffman are also not attending. Let that sink in. Both Levchin and Hoffman worked with Thiel at PayPal and are close to him. Hoffman has been a big critic of Trump and continues to be.
Sources also said Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman, another prominent and vocal Trump detractor, is also not going. During the campaign, the Republican stalwart — one of the few in Silicon Valley — called Trump a “dishonest demagogue” and compared him to Hitler and Mussolini. Let’s be fair, that’s pretty hard to walk back.
Update: Also not going is entrepreneur Mark Cuban, who criticized Trump quite a bit and backed Clinton, even sitting in the front row of one of the debates to unnerve Trump. He was, oddly, recently photographed having a meeting with always-trying-to-be-scary Trump consigliere Steve Bannon.
Another prominent techie, Jack Dorsey, CEO and inventor of Twitter, Trump’s favorite method of digital communication, told me last week he was not invited and later said he was not sure if he was. I have asked for clarification, but maybe Trump will tweet it out soon enough.....................................................................................................................................................................................
Copyright © 2017 Albuquerque Journal
Final details regarding how ranked-choice voting will work in Santa Fe’s 2018 municipal election were hammered out late Wednesday, with the mayor and City Council adopting crucial definitions and what one councilor called the nation’s most “liberal” rules for handling improperly marked ballots.
Only about a dozen jurisdictions in the country use RCV. The March 6 election in Santa Fe, in which voters will select a new mayor and four city councilors, will be the first RCV election in New Mexico.
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“I’m tired, but I feel really good about what we’ve done,” said City Councilor Joseph Maestas, whose name will be on the ballot as a candidate for mayor, near the end of a more than five-hour special meeting that followed a 90-minute study session on the same issue.
The council decision to adopt an ordinance establishing an RCV method for electing candidates was unanimous. The ordinance gives voters unlimited opportunities to correct ballots with errors recognized by election machine software. Maestas said that makes Santa Fe’s rules the most liberal – in terms of allowing voters to make corrections – in the country.
Because RCV will be used for the first time – provided the state Supreme Court doesn’t rule that RCV is unconstitutional, an issue that’s pending after the City Council voted earlier this month to challenge a lower court’s ruling – councilors said they wanted to give voters every opportunity to get their ballot right.
While Santa Feans voted in 2008 to adopt the RCV method, the 2018 election is the first opportunity to actually use it because the software capable of tabulating the votes wasn’t certified by the Secretary of State’s Office until September.
RCV, also called “instant runoff,” applies in election contests where there are more than two candidates. Voters are asked to rank their choices in order of preference. If no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the first-ranked votes during an initial count, the last-place candidate is eliminated and the second-choice votes of the last-place candidate are distributed to the others. The process is repeated until one candidate gets a majority.
The council also voted to adopt a new definition for what constitutes a “majority” in RCV voting.
The city attorney’s office has taken the stance that a “majority of votes cast,” as stated in the 2008 city charter amendment, means the majority of all votes in the election, those counted in the first round. But there have been cases in RCV elections in other cities where the winner has less than 50 percent plus one of all the votes because some voters failed to rank candidates beyond a first choice or otherwise didn’t rank all the candidates.
A three-page opinion from Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver presented to the council on Wednesday interpreted the city charter language to mean the “majority of votes cast in the round of voting.”
The council ultimately settled on a definition that a winning majority consists of a majority of votes among “continuing candidates,” or those still in the running after each vote-counting round, which essentially conforms with the Secretary of State’s advice instead of the interpretation of the city attorney’s office.
Trial run with animals
During the study session prior to the special meeting, councilors heard a presentation by Matt Ross, the city’s public information officer, on a public education campaign the city is conducting to get voters familiar with RCV. This discussion had a somewhat lighter tone – the campaign will use cute animal figures as mock candidates.
As reported by the Journal last week, the city is spending $150,000 on the campaign to educate voters.
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The campaign formally launched Thursday with a website, www.votedifferentsantafe.com, providing basic information about RCV, with more to be added after the Christmas holiday.
The city signed a $49,999 contract with PK Public Relations to help create the website. It’s designed to allow people to practice voting using the RCV method by casting ballots for the animal candidates.
“We want it to be engaging and people can relate to animals,” Lynn Komer of PK Public Relations said in an interview Thursday. “We really want it to mirror the actual election in a way that’s fun and inclusive for everyone.”
The candidates in the mock election are Betty Bear, Felix Fox, Lucinda Lizard, Roberto Rabbit and Diego Deer. Each animal will run on its own platform. For instance, Betty Bear will advocate for daily siestas, Lucinda Lizard will be a solar energy proponent and Felix Fox will push for more affordable hen houses.
“We really feel the best way to engage people is through the storytelling of the candidates in a way that’s fun so people won’t feel intimidated by it,” said Komer.
Election contractor absent
What turned out to be a long night – Mayor Javier Gonzales didn’t adjourn the night meeting until 10:16 p.m. – could have been made shorter had a representative of Dominion Voting Systems been present. Discussion repeatedly bogged down because councilors weren’t clear on what the vote-counting software created by Dominion, which holds the contract for voting systems in New Mexico, was capable of doing in RCV elections.
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For instance, no one present could say whether Dominion could accommodate the council’s preferred choice of a horizontally aligned RCV ballot, with candidates names in a column on the left and columns to the right where voters would fill in ovals to select a first choice, second choice and so on.
“So why are we even being provided with options?” asked Councilor Carmichael Dominguez.
City Manager Brian Snyder said he and other city officials, as well as representatives from the Secretary of State’s Office, had met with Dominion on Monday and were told then that the company would have someone present to answer questions at Wednesday’s meeting. But Snyder said he received word Tuesday afternoon that no Dominion representative would be able to attend due to a “conflict.”
“They should be here. This is too important of a vote tonight,” said Ron Trujillo, another councilor running for mayor.
Noting that Dominion had returned a signed contract with the city earlier in the day – the terms including fees to be paid for training – Trujillo said Dominion was doing a “disservice to the community” and apparently didn’t feel “it was important enough” for them to attend. Peter Ives, the third councilor in the five-candidate race for mayor, lamented that the city’s “hands are a bit tied” without more answers.
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The contract calls for the city to pay Dominion $30,650 for equipment rental, licensing, training, testing and election day support.
The council ultimately voted for a horizontally aligned ballot contingent on Dominion’s ability to produce it.
A spokeswoman for Dominion said Thursday that Dominion never promised officials that someone would attend Wednesday’s meeting. “There were not enough people, not enough time and too much to do at the end of the year” to have someone present, said Kay Stimson, vice president of government affairs for Dominion.
She said Dominion representatives did talk to city officials on Thursday. “We tried at every turn to do what we were obligated to do,” she said.
At the close of Wednesday night’s meeting, Mayor Gonzales said Dominion would play a critical role in assuring that the city’s first crack at conducting an RCV election would come off without a hitch. “With a signed contract, we won’t have to ask where Dominion is any longer,” he said.
Mock voting with the animal candidates will take place during yet-to-be-scheduled public forums. Results will be announced Jan. 20.
Real-life voting for the 2018 municipal election begins with absentee voting on Jan. 30. Early voting begins Feb. 17. Election day is March 6.Screenshot by Michelle Starr/CNET Australia
While you cool your jets waiting for Grand Theft Auto V, take a walking tour of GTA IV's Liberty City -- in Google Street View.
Fan site GTA4.net has had a map of Liberty City based on the Google Maps API since early 2009, and it has been a pretty fun -- and useful -- piece of software that shows users where they can find health, armor, and weapons pickups, as well as pigeons, stunt jump locations, and window-cleaning platforms. But now it has received the ultimate upgrade: Google Street View.
To create the map of Liberty City, which is pretty comprehensive -- only missing a few uninteresting ramps -- nearly 80,000 in-game screenshots were stitched together into around 3,000 panoramic views. The final set of tiles is made up of more than 1 million images.
It's not quite as smooth as the actual Google Maps, but if you're a GTA fan, it's a fun way to spend an hour or two looking for your favorite spots -- and amusing moments captured in the screenshots.
Check it out on the GTA4.net Web page. And while you're at it, go revisit Poonikins, the Magic Warrior Princess.
Screenshot by Leslie Katz/CNET
(Source: Crave Australia)The fallacy of prayer. The death of Christianity itjustgotserious Jul 6th, 2014 871 Never 871Never
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rawdownloadcloneembedreportprint text 1.81 KB Did you know that prayer is contradictory to a major philosophy that Christianity presents? It's true, I can explain, and it is not a ridiculously hard thing to figure out. I am uncertain why nobody has thought about this the way I have myself. If God has a plan, and everything that happens is supposedly "a part of God's big plan" Then isn't prayer ignorant? It is basically asking God "hey, can you stop doing what you're doing please? Can you do this, this way?" To pray for change, is asking God to not follow through with his plan. To pray for guidance is senseless for if God gave you guidance he would have planned on it regardless. The whole view on Prayer in Christianity is contradictory to the concept that "God has a divine plan." God has a divine plan? Interesting, how could God even execute our plan if he has allowed us to be free willed? What can he do to control us? Endanger us? God has proven to be an amoral being, he doesn't care who he hurts, as long as everyone pays attention to him. God is self-centered, caring only about himself and opinions of himself. I ask God to call his bluff, or to execute his plan of torture and show the world that he is responsible, so that people can know how much "God loves us." If this cannot be done, then I ask the ministry to call it quits. How can they defend this? Bible quotes? Silly, the bible is non demonstrable, it is illogical that a book could provide any evidence. A document today can be forged as-is, let alone a book that is 2000+ years old. How do you know the bible has validity? Oh you put faith into it. Faith is saying "It has to be this way, because I think it does." Do you fools fail to see the grotesque amount of ignorance in that? Give it all a rest, you have lost this argument. Face it, your God is one of two things, a spoiled child, or non-existent.
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Did you know that prayer is contradictory to a major philosophy that Christianity presents? It's true, I can explain, and it is not a ridiculously hard thing to figure out. I am uncertain why nobody has thought about this the way I have myself. If God has a plan, and everything that happens is supposedly "a part of God's big plan" Then isn't prayer ignorant? It is basically asking God "hey, can you stop doing what you're doing please? Can you do this, this way?" To pray for change, is asking God to not follow through with his plan. To pray for guidance is senseless for if God gave you guidance he would have planned on it regardless. The whole view on Prayer in Christianity is contradictory to the concept that "God has a divine plan." God has a divine plan? Interesting, how could God even execute our plan if he has allowed us to be free willed? What can he do to control us? Endanger us? God has proven to be an amoral being, he doesn't care who he hurts, as long as everyone pays attention to him. God is self-centered, caring only about himself and opinions of himself. I ask God to call his bluff, or to execute his plan of torture and show the world that he is responsible, so that people can know how much "God loves us." If this cannot be done, then I ask the ministry to call it quits. How can they defend this? Bible quotes? Silly, the bible is non demonstrable, it is illogical that a book could provide any evidence. A document today can be forged as-is, let alone a book that is 2000+ years old. How do you know the bible has validity? Oh you put faith into it. Faith is saying "It has to be this way, because I think it does." Do you fools fail to see the grotesque amount of ignorance in that? Give it all a rest, you have lost this argument. Face it, your God is one of two things, a spoiled child, or non-existent.This is the age of the young quarterback. Buoyed by the draft class of 2012, we have a surplus of promising young signal-callers. Around The League and "NFL Total Access" will count down the top 10 quarterbacks 25 or under we'd want leading our franchise.
No. 3: Colin Kaepernick, San Francisco 49ers
Why he's here
He didn't blink. Facing a huge deficit on the biggest stage possible, Kaepernick played lights out even before the lights went out. A couple of throws got away from Kaepernick early in the Super Bowl, his 10th career NFL start, but the second-year pro otherwise put on a clinic against the Baltimore Ravens. Kaepernick makes difficult throws look so easy. Early mistakes did not stop Kaepernick from squeezing the ball into tight windows requiring his considerable arm strength. His outstanding overall performance got ignored because of how the game ended.
Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh says his quarterback, Joe Flacco, has the "guts of a burglar." The same holds true for Kaepernick. Down 10 points at halftime of the NFC Championship Game against the Atlanta Falcons, Kaepernick played his best (five incompletions, 233 passing yards to lead the 49ers past the Falcons). Down 28-6 in the Super Bowl, Kaepernick pulled off a number of throws that other quarterbacks couldn't make.
It's not about the read option, which wasn't particularly effective or noteworthy in the 49ers' final two games. It's not about Kaepernick's running ability, even though he broke the NFL record for rushing yards by a quarterback in a game when he ripped the Green Bay Packers for 181 yards in a divisional playoff win. Kaepernick can spin it as well as anyone from the pocket or on the move. Teams often play zone coverage against Kaepernick so defenders don't turn their back to him. But his accuracy and arm strength slice up the gaps in those zones.
Yes, he has started just 10 games in the NFL. But he was as effective as any quarterback in the league during that stretch. The common reaction when the 49ers didn't take the lead late in the Super Bowl: surprise. We already expect greatness from Kaepernick.
Why he's not higher
The first thing you notice about Kaepernick is the pregame warm-up "toss." The dude fires it as fast as he can to receivers barely 10 yards away. Niners receivers have been known to avoid catching passes from Kaepernick in practice because he hurts their fingers. It's a funny story, but he sometimes needs more touch on passes during the game.
Kaepernick also can work on his timing and anticipation. As you can see in the play below, he sometimes has to "see" the throw before he makes it. His incredible arm strength usually makes up for it. However, that occasionally causes Kaepernick to pump fake, and the ball arrives late. This happened a few times in the Super Bowl, and it cost the 49ers points.
This play to Moss was typical. Most plays to Moss slowed the offense down, with Kaepernick showing poor chemistry with the veteran. The 49ers' offense will be better off without Moss this season.
If Kaepernick has a flaw at this point, it's only experience. Defenses haven't adjusted. The St. Louis Rams did a nice job playing three deep in coverage against him, with a lot of men on the line of scrimmage and plenty of blitzes. It was an effective strategy. (Then again, the Packers got plenty of free rushers on Kaepernick to little effect.) Kaepernick also needs to improve his ball security -- he had 10 fumbles in his 10 starts.
What will Kaepernick do when his first read is taken away? This is an area he improved on during the season, as the Week 17 throw against the Arizona Cardinals to the right shows. But the reality is that Kaepernick didn't need to go to his second read that much.
Ten starts are not a lot to judge. Kaepernick hit the NFL like a supernova, with excellent talent around him, and it will be fascinating to see where he goes from here. His work ethic already is legendary, and I expect to see a different player in 2013. I also expect defenses to attack Kaepernick in new ways.
Kaepernick's floor
When Kaepernick sees an opening as a runner, he bolts. He's decisive, and his foot speed seems to catch defenses off guard, even when they know it's coming. His "arm talent" is special, but the ability to eat up chunks of yardage on the ground sets Kaepernick apart. He'd be my choice as the most valuable runner of all the young quarterbacks, and it's a crowded field. His runs only are a part of the 49ers' big-play threat.
The video above shows why the 49ers benched Alex Smith. Whether it's through the air or on the ground, Kaepernick strikes quickly. San Francisco beautifully mixes a power running game with a quarterback who can score from anywhere on the field. It's hard to imagine Kaepernick as anything but a player who makes multiple Pro Bowls and remains a top- 10 quarterback for much of his career. That's the floor, and he should be there this year.
Kaepernick's ceiling
Kaepernick easily could be No. 1 on the list, and he strongly was considered for the spot. The closer to the top this list gets, the more arbitrary these rankings feel. The top quarterbacks are closely bunched, with the entire top five having a chance to eventually be the best in the NFL.
Kaepernick is in the best position of any of them to win titles quickly because of the coaching staff and talent that surrounds him. The 49ers know how to maximize Kaepernick's incredible skill set.
There are no right answers to the debate over which young quarterback is the best -- at least not yet. They are all so early in their development. That's what makes this particular moment in NFL history so special. This group has a chance to go down in history together, and we all get to watch.
Follow Gregg Rosenthal on Twitter @greggrosenthal.Mohammod Youssof Abdulazeez has been identified by the FBI as the gunman who fatally shot four Marines and wounded a police officer on Thursday in shootings at two military recruiting and training centers in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Abdulazeez, 24, is also dead, the FBI says.
At least two others were injured, including one in critical condition. The officer is in stable condition. The shootings happened at separate military reserve centers on Lee Highway and Amnicola Highway.
Here’s what we know so far:
1. He Was a Naturalized U.S. Citizen Originally From Kuwait
NBC News reports that Abdulazeez is a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Kuwait. His family is Jordanian.He came to the United States in 1996 with his parents.
Abdulazeez visited Jordan for about seven months last year, according to the New York Times.
He lived in Hixson, Tennessee, which is a community in Chattanooga, in a middle-class Muslim family.
The FBI was searching the neighborhood where his family lives:
Two women were seen being removed from the home in handcuffs, but neither was arrested.
He was arrested on April 21, 2015 for driving under the influence in Hamilton County, Tennessee, according to the Chattanoogan.com.
Police have not yet released a motive for why the gunman targeted the two military facilities and military personnel. Authorities said he did not work at the military centers. The shooting is being investigated as “national security” case and the FBI is leading the probe.
Police believe he acted alone and they are not actively searching for another shooter.
2. He Wasn’t on Terror Watch Lists & It’s Not Yet Known if He Had Ties to Islamic Terrorists
Abdulazeez was not being watched by the FBI or on any terror watchlists prior to the shooting, CBS News reports.
The FBI is now trying to determine if he has any ties to terror groups, if he was inspired by organizations like ISIS and if he had any accomplices. The Justice Department said it is a “national security” investigation.
The chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, said the case is an “open terrorism investigation,” and he believes, based on his experience, that it was inspired by ISIS.
But federal authorities said at a press conference that there is no indication yet that the attack was ISIS-inspired.
Several ISIS-affiliated Twitter accounts tweeted about the shooting, praising Abdulazeez.
An ISIS-related account tweeted “O American dogs soon YOU will see the wonders,” and used #Chattanooga.
The account has tweeted out other references to Chattanooga:
The account also has several anti-American and pro-ISIS tweets.
ISIS often uses social media to recruit supporters and to distribute its propaganda videos, including disturbing executions. They also have told their followers to carry out attacks in their name across the world, including in the United States. Terrorism experts say it’s not likely ISIS fighters would try to come to the United States, but that they would try to inspire Americans to carry out attacks here.
The terror organization had called for an increase in terror attacks at the end of Ramadan. The holiday comes to a close on Friday.
3. He Was a Recent College Grad & Electrical Engineer Who Was Trained as an MMA Fighter
Abdulazeez attended Red Bank High School in Tennessee. According to the Chattanooga Times Free Press, his high school yearbook quote was, “My name causes national security alerts. What does yours do?”
Senior quote: "My name causes national security alerts. What does yours do?” http://t.co/cL3wXBf2qj pic.twitter.com/QfhV5PcJHQ — Times Free Press (@TimesFreePress) July 16, 2015
“He was an unbelievable nice person,” a high school classmate, Ryan Smith, told the Times Free press. “He |
a loss of prestige for some workers, who prefer to feel as though their contributions to the company are bigger than just their time logged.
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One survey by the National Restaurant Association found that 85 percent of restaurant and retail managers believe changing employees from salaried to hourly workers will have a negative effect. Nearly half believe that the change would hurt morale, making people feel they were in a job rather than a career. And these respondents aren’t just speaking for their employees. After all, many of the managers in restaurants and retail shops may also be newly eligible for overtime, and 86 percent reported that their perceptions of their own positions would deteriorate if they were moved to an hourly status.
This costly new regulation would have been a blow to flexibility for workers and created a costly administrative burden for businesses. It’s welcome news that its implementation has been delayed.of the series is the Deimon Devil Bats team as a whole. Technically Sena Kobayakawa is the main character however almost all of the other team members are treated equally in level of importance of development. The writer, Riichiro Inagaki, also takes the time to show the other rival teams, their back stories, and what they're all about. Aside from the Deimon Devil Bats, rival teams usually only have 1-4 characters that will be named and have any sort of dialogue or back story. Throughout the series' course it introduces a wide array of characters but not too fast or too numerous that you would be overwhelmed.Eyeshield 21 is a mixture of drama, action, and comedy. This series generally avoids ecchi, fan service, and romance. The story is deep but also simple. It's centered around a tournament and the characters walk you through it as well as walk you through each individual football match so you'll be able to moderately follow even if you're not football savvy. There are many unexpected turns and twists not just during the matches but also with the characters themselves. Riichiro Inagaki does a fantastic job at delivering a completely believable cast and world. The pacing and overall length of the series is excellent. It's not too long or too short. It gives you everything it has and doesn't overstay it's welcome. The ending is satisfactory and even gives you some bonus pages that tell you the fates of the characters.The artist of Eyeshield 21 is Yusuke Murata. His art style starts off a bit rough and sketchy but still pleasant. Throughout the course of the series it evolves and becomes more cleaner and sharp. Murata is skilled in being able to draw different faces and body types and is able to create memorable and unique designs making the world of Eyeshield 21 all the more believable. Murata's art really makes the comedic scenes pop out and is able to so skillfully illustrate different emotions that can range from downright silly to dead serious or anything required of him. His color spreads are absolutely breath taking. Full of detail and life. He always puts all his effort into every panel of Eyeshield 21. A possible way to describe his style is "pretty shounen" or maybe "cute shounen". There's enough for those who desire a shounen look as well as those who are drawn to a sort of shojo style.Eyeshield 21's strongest attribute is probably it's colorful characters. They come from all different walks of life all with their own goals, weaknesses, and strengths, some of which you may even be able to understand on a personal level. Some characters that you may have thought were one dimensional and easy to read will end up having more depth than you first assumed. Eyeshield 21 tackles on many different types of personalities and mindsets. You'll see examples of inferiority complexes, egotistical monsters, a strong desire to achieve, and much more. Some characters have more depth than others who sometimes just serve as support but they are just as likable as any of the fleshed out ones. The entire cast is likable and even the most cold hearted villains you'll learn to love for one reason or another. Watching these characters grow and having different kinds of people come into contact with one another and seeing who triumphs is one of the great joys of the series.I think this series will be a nice surprise to anyone who gives it a fair shot. It provides so many desirable attributes for a manga that I wonder how someone couldn't possibly enjoy it. Great art, good story, fantastic and memorable characters, what more could you want? In comparison to every other manga I've read this has made the greatest impact on me. It will always be in my mind. I simply cannot ever forget what this series has given me. I've re-read it several times already and I will continue to do so. Most manga I don't care if I physically own or not but with this series I simply need it in physical form. Eyeshield 21 will always be that manga I recommend to all my friends and consistently praise above all else. I don't personally like football....but Eyeshield 21 managed to become my favorite manga of all time and it always will be.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
A man who mistakenly thought he had bought a bullet-proof vest was shot dead by a friend after convincing him to blast him with a shotgun in a bid to test it out.
Philip Harper, 46, suffered 'catastrophic' injuries after he was shot by pal Ian Catley last June as the two stood in a farmer's field in Cambridgeshire.
Tragic Mr Harper had visited an army surplus store the previous day and bought a load of new kit - including a "protective" vest, that the victim fatally believed meant bullet-proof.
The court heard that the vest - far from being bulletproof - had a plastic casing that actually funnelled the shotgun spray into the centre of his chest, slicing an artery.
Catley, 40, pleaded guilty to manslaughter at Southwark Crown Court last November, and at sentencing today Judge Jeffrey Pegden spoke of the tragic nature of the case as he jailed him for seven years.
He said: "You shot Mr Harper at a distance of less than 20 feet, causing him catastrophic injuries and immediate death.
(Image: PA)
"You then, straight away, took him to hospital but tragically, nothing could be done to save his life."
Catley stared straight ahead in the dock as the sentence came down, while his mother appeared to fight back tears from the public gallery.
The court heard the two friends had been close and Catley had nightmares about what he had done. "Your remorse is complete and genuine," the judge said.
"You recognise the magnitude of your actions and I have no doubt that the effects of killing your good friend will last with you for the rest of your life."
But he said Catley, as a gun licence-holder, had "manifestly breached those obligations and duties”.
Defence barrister Mark McDonald argued that the killing was the result of a stupid and reckless act to which the "keen" Mr Harper had nevertheless consented.
The court heard that after leaving Rugby Trading International Ltd with his new vest, Mr Harper had asked a friend - James Hill - to help him test it out, but that Mr Hill had flatly refused.
"(Mr Harper) was very proud of it. He'd gone to the pub that evening wearing that vest and indeed a SWAT cap," Mr McDonald said.
"After a drink or so, he asked more people, and Mr Catley agreed to do a stupid and undoubtedly reckless act."
(Image: PA)
Prosecutor Mr Mulgrew said that the vest - far from being bulletproof - had a plastic casing that actually funnelled the shotgun spray into the centre of Mr Harper's chest, slicing an artery.
He said Catley attempted to save his friend.
Mr Mulgrew said: "He was panicking, upset and swearing. But it was clear to the paramedics at first sight that there was very little that could be done to save Mr Harper's life."
He said Catley had first claimed he had been aiming for a pigeon and hit his friend by accident, but quickly came clean.
Catley will serve up to half his seven-year term, and the judge ordered that his gun be forfeited and destroyed.When Marci Rapp moved to Israel from Toronto in 2008, her Canadian wardrobe didn't make much sense any more.
"We had nine months of hot weather, of beach weather," she says.
That kind of weather poses a problem for Orthodox Jewish women who want to enjoy the sun in modest attire, she says. Few good swimwear options were available.
"I just wasn't comfortable in what I had to wear," Rapp tells As It Happens guest host Laura Lynch this week. "So I decided to design and manufacture myself."
A promotional photo for a few of the outfits available from MarSea Modest Swimwear, Marci Rapp's online clothing retailer. Rapp says the company offers more than 30 styles. (MarSea Modest Swimwear)
For seven years, Rapp has been producing swimwear for women and girls that offers more coverage than typical options.
She says her online retailer, MarSea Modest Swimwear, offers more than 30 styles of varying shapes and lengths.
So when French authorities were handing out fines for women wearing the body-covering "burkinis" favoured by some Muslim women, Rapp heard about it.
Rapp spoke to As It Happens the day before France's highest court struck down the ban.
"Everybody sent me that article," she says.
"I think if a woman chooses to follow her religious dictates and cover up for religious reasons, that's her choice," she says. "I cover up for religious reasons, and I don't feel oppressed. I feel free."
MarSea Modest Swimwear advertises beachwear for Jewish women, as well as other women and girls looking to cover up for sun protection or to hide marks such as medical scars. (MarSea Modest Swimwear)
But reasons for choosing swimwear with more coverage extend beyond religion, Rapp points out. She says some women wear it for simple sun protection, or to cover up medical scarring, for example.
She's grateful that she hasn't seen in Israel the kind of beachwear crackdown France has experienced.
"You go to the beach, you'll see anything from bikinis to burkinis, and everything in between," she says. "At our beaches, we're free to dress how we want to."HBO doesn’t want your money, Web-only television viewers.
The premium cable channel on Wednesday acknowledged a fan campaign called “Take My Money, HBO!” with a Twitter message that said, in effect, thanks but no thanks.
The message reaffirmed HBO’s belief that it’s better off with its existing cable and satellite partners than it would be on its own, despite growing pressure from Internet-based alternatives.
“Take My Money, HBO!” is a very simple Web page that was started this week by Jake Caputo, a Web designer who wants to be able to subscribe to HBO via the Internet. The page asks: “How much would you pay monthly for a standalone HBO GO streaming service? Enter a number and Tweet it to let HBO know we want it and we will pay.” The page quickly gained attention from others like Mr. Caputo who want to subscribe to HBO without having to subscribe to a cable or satellite provider like Comcast or DirecTV.
But HBO has resisted such entreaties because of its lucrative relationships with those providers. Selling subscriptions to HBO on the Internet would almost certainly undermine those relationships.
And HBO seemed to affirm that view on Wednesday. In a reaction to the “Take My Money” campaign on Wednesday morning, the channel’s Twitter account stated, “Love the love for HBO. Keep it up.” Then it linked to an article by Ryan Lawler of TechCrunch and said that for now, he “has it right.”
Mr. Lawler wrote on Tuesday: “What would happen if HBO no longer had the pay-TV industry’s marketing team propping it up all the time? The results would be disastrous, and there’s no way that HBO could make up in online volume the number of subscribers it would lose from cable. Which is why, even though some users would actually pay more for access to HBO GO without all the other cable channels, you won’t see it show up as a standalone service anytime soon.”
Of course, HBO’s message included the words “for now” — a reminder that as the economics of television change, so too could HBO’s calculations about its relationships.
For now, Web-only television viewers will have to keep swapping HBO GO passwords, it seems.I just wanted to share some cruelty free pale foundation swatches with you. I’ve got a mix of drugstore, department store, high end and indie brands.
Cruelty Free Pale Foundation Swatches
This post contains a mix of press samples and products purchased by me in my never ending quest to find the best foundations for pale skin.
This first photo was taken outside in the hot sun at 3pm EST on my Samsung Galaxy Note 4. I wanted to get direct sun swatches since they most accurately represent what I think foundation looks like on me. I couldn’t use my DSLR because the poor thing kept steaming up. It’s about 95 degrees out, feels like 106 and it’s over 50% humidity. Ahh yes, Florida in the summertime. These swatches are partially blended out, to show you how they blend into my skintone. I believe my skintone is somewhere between N0 and N5 (pale neutral).
Cruelty Free Foundations for Pale Skin Plus Swatches
Lucy Minerals Original Foundation
The Lucy Minerals Original Foundation that I pressed is Courtney, my custom mix. You can see how I made this foundation in my how to press loose powder foundation video. I started with a base of 60% Snow White and 40% Light. I love this foundation. It’s easy to wear. It looks like skin on me. It’s not heavy. I’m shooting a wear test video of it.
Cover FX Liquid Foundation
The Cover FX Oil Free Liquid Foundation in N0 has been one of my favorite foundations to wear. It has good coverage and a wide range of shades available (I think it has around 38 shades). I like to add Paula’s Choice Hyaluronic Acid Booster to it.
Illuminare Moisturizing Liquid Mineral Foundation
I just bought the Illuminare Moisturizing Liquid Mineral Foundation in Alabaster. It seems to be lighter than the Illuminare Concealing Foundation. I haven’t had a chance to wear it yet but I will be doing that soon. I bought it for my Pale Foundation Series.
Burt’s Bees BB Cream
The Burt’s Bees BB Cream in Light is still the best drugstore foundation that I’ve ever tried, though it is not a perfect product. I need primer and setting powder to make it last all day. On its own it wears away in a few hours. See my First Impressions video here. See my follow up video here.
Illuminare Concealing Liquid Mineral Foundation
I bought the Illuminare Concealing Liquid Mineral Foundation in Alabaster at the same time that I bought the Moisturizing because I was curious to see if there would be any difference in the shades. To my eyes, the Concealing foundation is darker. It’s also very pigmented.
Kat Von D Lock-It Liquid Foundation
The Kat Von D Lock It foundation in Light 42 is the best pale pink-toned foundation that I’ve found. I also think this one is best for oily skin.
Charlotte Tilbury Magic Foundation
I bought the Charlotte Tilbury Magic Foundation in Fair 1 after a friend raved to me about it and said that she thought it would be gorgeous on me. I haven’t yet worn it. It’s very full coverage and darker than I expected.
NARS All Day Luminous Weightless Foundation
The NARS All Day Luminous Weightless Foundation in Siberia is oil-free and claims 16 hour wear. I’ll be putting that claim to the test. It’s possibly the most yellow-toned of all the shades here.
It Cosmetics Illuminating CC Cream
The It Cosmetics Illuminating CC Cream in Fair is really pretty. When you look at it outside it really does have an illuminating quality to it. I need to try it with a white mixer.
Too Faced Beauty Balm
The Too Faced Beauty Balm in Snow Glow has a subtle illuminating quality. I haven’t worn that in forever.
Too Faced Born This Way Foundation
I like to wear the Too Faced Born This Way foundation in Snow with some white foundation mixer and a drop of the Paula’s Choice Hyaluronic Acid Booster.
Too Faced Born This Way Concealer
I have not worn the Too Faced Born This Way concealer in Very Fair because I think it’s too dark to conceal around my face.
I have not worn the Too Faced Born This Way Concealr in Fair because it’s also too dark on my skintone for concealer.
NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer
I’m glad I finally bought the NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer in Chantilly because it’s gorgeous. I feel it works really well for concealing around my face.
How to Fix Foundation That is Too Dark
How I fix any foundation that is too dark for me is by adding a white foundation mixer. Right now my favorite whitening drops are the Manic Panic Dreamtone Virgin White. If you have the opposite problem, the Body Shop Shade Adjusting drops come in Darkening as well as Lightening to deepen foundation.
How to Fix Foundation That Cakes Up or Shows Flakes on Dry Skin
As someone who has dry, sensitive skin and rosacea, I do often add things to my liquid foundation in addition to white mixers. The other two products that I like to add to liquid foundations are the Paula’s Choice Hyaluronic Acid Booster or the Josie Maran 100% Argan Oil Light. The Hyaluronic Acid Booster helps to add more moisture and make it easier to wear. The Argan Oil makes things meld better with my skin. It basically makes it so that you don’t see any dry patches.
How to Protect Your Skin
You need to wear a broad spectrum SPF 365 days a year. I can’t emphasize this enough! I never rely on my makeup for SPF protection, either. Even if it says it’s SPF 50, I put on sunscreen before makeup. I’ve been using the Paula’s Choice Calm Redness Relief SPF 30 for the past 7 – 8 months. It’s mineral based. It doesn’t irritate my skin.
It’s also very important to keep your skin moisturized, whether you have dry skin or oily skin. Even if you have oily skin, you should use a light moisturizer. Keeping your skin moisturized will help prevent signs of aging. So at least have a basic skincare routine and stick with it. Cleanse, moisturize and protect!
EDIT:
Kat Von D Beauty just launched a white concealer! They’re also launching new foundation shades, which looks like they will have a pale neutral soon too! Also, the vegan Serpentina palette is live now!PORT ST. LUCIE — When Daniel Murphy got back on the field to take batting practice for the first time since injuring his intercostal muscle last month, his swing was a little different than when he left off.
Murphy attributed the injury that sidelined him for more than two weeks to a change he made during the offseason. Though he has not abandoned the new approach, he has made more adjustments.
“I’ve been trying to gain a little bit more leverage against the ball, so I’m putting my lead foot in the ground more and face it toward home plate,” Murphy said after his workout, which included fielding 30-35 ground balls at second base.
PHOTOS: METS SPRING TRAINING
The slightly new swing is something he began working on in December after watching players as different as Chase Utley and Miguel Cabrera use the stance. He spent most of the offseason working with his brother Jonathan, an outfielder in the Twins’ farm system, trying to perfect it.
Though he is pleased with the results, Murphy said he thinks the added pressure on his side helped cause the issue with his intercostal.
“It took the brunt of the load because I have tight hips,” said Murphy, adding he felt no pain during yesterday’s session. “So now I’m trying to loosen my hips up, but also find a happy medium where my foot isn’t completely in the ground. That way, I’m not putting as much pressure on my side, but I’m still not abandoning it entirely.”
The idea, as the examples of Utley and Cabrera would suggest, is to find more power.
Murphy liked what he saw before he got hurt.
“I think I’m hitting the ball with more authority, especially to the middle of the field,” Murphy said. “It allows me to stay on the ball longer and the desire is to turn singles into doubles and maybe doubles into home runs.”
Despite taking a full round of batting practice, Murphy said he will not know the impact of his new swing until he starts playing in games.
“It’s tough to tell now, but I know when I’m in the cage and doing it right, the ball is jumping better,” Murphy said.
His first priority is getting back on the field.
“Now that I know I’m healthy, I can start working on some things,” Murphy said. “I’d like to get in a game as soon as possible.”
After a day off today, Murphy plans on going through a similar workout tomorrow.
“I’ve got to get my legs underneath me again,” Murphy said. “As long as I feel good, I know that will come.”Grandmother Vanga (Bulgarian: баба Ванга; 31 January 1911 – 11 August 1996), born Vangeliya Pandeva Dimitrova (Вангелия Пандева Димитрова), known after her marriage as Vangelia Gushterova (Вангелия Гущерова), was a blind Bulgarian mystic, clairvoyant, and herbalist, who spent most of her life in the Rupite area in the Kozhuh mountains in Bulgaria.[2][3][4] Zheni Kostadinova claimed in 1997 that millions of people believed she possessed paranormal abilities.[5]
Life [ edit ]
Vanga was born in 1911 to Pando and Paraskeva (Surcheva) Surchev in Strumica, then in the Ottoman Empire, but in 1912 the city was ceded to Bulgaria. She was a premature baby who suffered from health complications. In accordance with local tradition, the baby was not given a name until it was deemed likely to survive. When the baby first cried out, a midwife went into the street and asked a stranger for a name. The stranger proposed Andromaha (Andromache), but this was rejected for being "too Greek" during a period of anti-Hellenic sentiment within Bulgarian society. Another stranger's proposal was a Greek name, but popular with Bulgarians in the region: Vangelia (from Evangelos).[footnotes 1][6]
In her childhood, Vangelia was an ordinary child with brown eyes and blonde hair. Her father was an IMRO activist, conscripted into the Bulgarian Army during World War I, and her mother died soon after. This left Vanga dependent on the care and charity of neighbours and close family friends for much of her youth. After the war, Strumica was annexed by Serbia. The Serbian authorities arrested the father, because of his pro-Bulgarian activity. They confiscated all his property and the family fell into poverty for many years.[7] Vanga was considered intelligent for her age. Her inclinations started to show up when she herself thought out games and loved playing "healing" – she prescribed some herbs to her friends, who pretended to be ill. Her father, being a widower, eventually remarried, thus providing a stepmother to his daughter.
According to her own testimony, a turning point in her life occurred when a 'tornado' allegedly lifted her into the air and threw her in a nearby field. She was found after a long search. Witnesses described her as very frightened, and her eyes were covered with sand and dust, she was unable to open them because of the pain. There was money only for a partial operation to heal the injuries she had sustained.[8] This resulted in a gradual loss of sight.
In 1925 Vanga was brought to a school for the blind in the city of Zemun, in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, where she spent three years, and was taught to read Braille, play the piano, as well as do knitting, cooking, and cleaning.[9] After the death of her stepmother she had to go back home to take care of her younger siblings. Her family was very poor, and she had to work all day.
In 1939 Vanga contracted pleurisy, although it remained largely inactive for some years. The doctor's opinion was that she would die soon, but she quickly recovered.
The house of Vanga in Petrich
Petrich Vanga's last house (built in 1970) in Rupite
During World War II, Strumica was ceded to Bulgaria. At that time Vanga attracted believers in her ability to heal and soothsay – a number of people visited her, hoping to get a hint about whether their relatives were alive, or seeking for the place where they died. On 8 April 1942 the Bulgarian tzar Boris III visited her.[10]
On 10 May 1942, Vanga married Dimitar Gushterov, a Bulgarian soldier from the village of Krandzhilitsa near Petrich, who had come asking for the killers of his brother, but had to promise her not to seek revenge. Shortly before marriage, Dimitar and Vanga moved to Petrich, where she soon became well-known. Dimitar was then conscripted in the Bulgarian Army and had to spend some time in Northern Greece, which was annexed by Bulgaria at the time. He got another illness in 1947, fell into alcoholism, and eventually died on 1 April 1962.[11]
She continued to be visited by dignitaries and commoners. After the Second World War, Bulgarian politicians and leaders from different Soviet Republics, including Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev, sought her counsel;[12] in the 1990s, a church was built in Rupite by Bogdan Tomalevski with money left by her visitors.[12] Vanga died on 11 August 1996 from breast cancer.[13][14][15] Her funeral attracted large crowds, including many dignitaries[who?].[16][unreliable source?]
Fulfilling Vanga's last will and testament, her Petrich house was turned into a museum, which opened its doors for visitors on 5 May 2008.[17]
Work [ edit ]
St Petka of Bulgaria, Baba Vanga's church and grave.
Vanga was semi-literate in Bulgarian, she could read some Braille in Serbian, as she learned in Zemun. She did not write any books herself. What she said or allegedly said had been captured by staff members. Later numerous esoteric books on Vanga's life and predictions were written.
Sources such as The Weiser Field Guide to the Paranormal, claim that she foretold the break-up of the Soviet Union, the Chernobyl disaster, the date of Stalin's death, the sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk, the September 11 attacks, Topalov's victory in the world chess tournament, the tensions with North Korea.[18][19] On the other hand, Bulgarian sources[which?] say that the people who were close to her[who?] claim that she never prophesied about Kursk or other subjects[which?] circulating the Internet, and that many of the myths about Vanga are simply not true, which ultimately hurts and crudely misrepresents her and her work.[20][21]
In early August 1976, Yugoslav actress and singer Silvana Armenulić was on tour in Bulgaria and decided to meet with Baba Vanga. The meeting was unpleasant. Vanga only sat and stared out a window with her back to Silvana. She did not speak. After a long time, Vanga finally spoke: "Nothing. You do not have to pay. I do not want to speak with you. Not now. Go and come back in three months." As Silvana turned around and walked towards the door, Vanga said: "Wait. In fact, you will not be able to come. Go, go. If you can come back in three months, do so."[22] Silvana took this as confirmation that she would die and left Vanga's home in tears.[23] Armenulić died two months later, 10 October 1976, in a car crash with her sister Mirjana.[citation needed]
Vanga incorrectly predicted that the 1994 FIFA World Cup Final would be played between "two teams beginning with B". One finalist was Brazil, but Bulgaria was eliminated by Italy in the semifinals.[24] According to The National, Vanga predicted that a World War III would start in November 2010 and last until October 2014.[25] Witnesses and close friends also claim that she never made such prophecies, and in fact when asked claimed that there will be no World War III.[21]
Vanga purportedly predicted another'realm of being,' claiming that entire cultures would begin to spread through a 'false world.' She claimed that in 2003, any person would be able to think in synchronicity with others, allowing for a form of secondary existence.
Followers of Vanga[who?] believe that she predicted the precise date of her own death,[21] dreaming that she would die on 11 August, and be buried on 13 August. Shortly before that she had said that a ten-year-old blind girl living in France was to inherit her gift, and that people would soon hear about her.[26]
In 1989, she predicted an attack on the United States:
Horror, horror! The American brothers will fall after being attacked by the steel birds. The wolves will be howling in a bush, and innocent blood will be gushing. Predicted in 1989 by Baba Vanga[27][28][29][30]
Another prediction attributed to her is that the 44th President of the United States would be the country's last Commander-in-chief.[26][31][32] While Donald Trump's inauguration in 2017 has seemingly debunked this prediction, it should be noted that Trump is technically the 44th person to occupy the office - due to the fact that both the 22nd and 24th presidency were occupied by Grover Cleveland.[33] Vanga's supporters also claimed that she predicted the 45th president will be with a "messianic personality", who will be faced with a crisis that eventually "brings the country down".[34][35][36]
Some evidence has also been presented that Baba Vanga did not make many of the predictions now attributed to her, but rather people frequently attribute new fake "prophecies" to her since her death, and the lack of a written record of her prophecies, makes any prediction attributed to her difficult to disprove.[37]
Studies [ edit ]
An attempt was made in 2011 to systematically summarize the existing knowledge about Vanga in the documentary Vanga: The Visible and Invisible World.[20][38] The movie includes interviews with some of the people who met Vanga in person, including Sergey Medvedev (press secretary to the then President of Russia Boris Yeltsin in 1995–96; who visited as Yeltsin's envoy), Neshka Robeva (Bulgarian rhythmic gymnast and coach), Sergey Mikhalkov (Soviet and Russian writer, author of the Soviet Union anthem), Nevena Tosheva (director of the first documentary about Vanga), Kirsan Ilyumzhinov (Kalmyk multi-millionaire businessman and politician). According to the documentary, Baba Vanga predicted Yeltsin's second electoral victory in 1995, and warned him about his heart condition.[citation needed]
Several researchers have studied the phenomenon of Vanga in the attempt to establish whether she has any extraordinary capabilities. One of the first studies was initiated by the Bulgarian government and is described in the 1977 movie Fenomen[39] directed by Nevena Tosheva. Bulgarian psychiatrists Nicola Shipkovensky and Georgi Lozanov also studied the capabilities of Vanga. According to Jeffrey Mishlove, some of the studies[which?] concluded that about 80% of predictions of Vanga turned out to be accurate.[40][page needed]
In popular culture [ edit ]
Vangelia, a 24-episode biographical TV series with elements of mysticism, was commissioned in 2013 by Channel One Russia.[41]
The supposed clairvoyant's predictions, political speculations with them and their criticism continue to appear in the mass media in different countries and in different languages.[12][42][43][44][45][46][47]
Her image is particularly popular in Eastern Europe, particularly in the Balkans and in Russia. Russian publications related to the mysterious prophetess are numerous. "The Great Encyclopedia of Vanga" is a Russian online project, dedicated to her.[48]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
^ According to Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, At the beginning of the 20th century Bulgarians constituted the majority of the population in the region of Macedonia. They are described in the encyclopaedia as "Slavs, the bulk of which is regarded by almost all independent sources as Bulgarians": 1,150,000, whereof, 1,000,000 Orthodox and 150,000 Muslims (the so-called Pomaks); Turks: ca. 500,000 (Muslims); Greeks: ca. 250,000, whereof ca. 240,000 Orthodox and 14,000 Muslims; Albanians: ca. 120,000, whereof 10,000 Orthodox and 110,000 Muslims; Vlachs: ca. 90,000 Orthodox and 3,000 Muslims; Jews: ca. 75,000; Roma: ca. 50,000, whereof 35,000 Orthodox and 15,000 Muslims; In total 1,300,000 Christians (almost exclusively Orthodox), 800,000 Muslims, 75,000 Jews, a total population of ca. 2,200,000 for the whole of Macedonia.After almost a year in the shadows, The Afflicted has been retooled and is looking for a public playable demo in the near future. We're a small indie team, and we've been polishing the game to get it ready for the public as a free download. We're looking forward to getting feedback from our audience and seeing what you think!
We can't give out an exact release date just yet, but we wanted to give you a preview of what to expect. When we release our first playable, it will feature:
One gametype, the unique Scavenger Mode which is the basis of the core Afflicted gameplay. Capture control points while scavenging for resources to upgrade your team's arsenal!
3 Characters, one per team. This includes two brand new character models presented in the screens, including the outlandish new team, the Psychos! We're only going to have the 3 characters for now, but we're looking into character selection and have more options for characters down the road!
Five weapons, each with 3 tiers of upgrades available to the team. There's also the deadly Jackhammer for building upgrades or slaughtering your foes in explicit fashion.
Two playable levels, including a retooled version of SinglePoint and a new level called Capitol. These levels each present different approaches to the multi-phase gameplay of Afflicted. We hope that you like them!
We're really excited to show you an update and look forward to providing more in the future. Make sure you check out all our new screenshots and the two new gameplay videos for SinglePoint and Capitol!The Eagles have begun to fill out their 8 man practice squad with some familiar names. WR Marvin McNutt, LB Ryan Rau, TE Chase Ford and FB Emil Igwenagu were all with the Eagles in preseason and have been brought back to the practice squad.
The one new name so far is Chase Beeler, who was Andrew Luck's center at Stanford and was signed as a UDFA last season by the 49ers. He's very much in the mold of a Howard Mudd center in that he's not a big guy, but very quick and athletic. Here's what ESPN had to say about him.
Beeler is an undersized center with good short-area quickness, agility and body control but marginal strength and power. He spent his rookie season on the 49ers practice squad and needs more exposure to be evaluated.
These moves mean they've added 5 players, so there's still room for 3 more.Update. I have updated the post a bit, as it misled a number of people to think that you need to define the move constructor in a cpp file. This is not so. I have now also highlighted another important feature of my solution: statically checked noexcept specification.
I am not satisfied with the solution I gave in the previous post. The proposed interface was this:
class Tool { private: ResourceA resA_; ResourceB resB_; // more resources public: // Tools's interface Tool(Tool &&) = default; // noexcept is deduced Tool& operator=(Tool&&) = default; // noexcept is deduced Tool(Tool const&) = delete; Tool& operator=(Tool const&) = delete; }; static_assert(std::is_move_constructible<Tool>::value, "..."); static_assert(std::is_move_assignable<Tool>::value, "...");
In a way, it is self contradictory. The whole idea behind departing from the Rule of Zero is to separate the interface from the current implementation. Yet, as the comments indicate, the exception specification is deduced from the current implementation, and thus unstable.
Let me be clear about one thing: I am not discussing the usage of the Rule of Zero in the general case. I am only considering its application in a resource-handling non-trivial class, where I want to hide some details, I want to consciously decide on the interface, and I want to clearly communicate the interface to the users.
First things first
Upon the outset of creating my class, I should probably first focus on the interface, and not let my ideas how to implement it alter my interface decisions. I realize this is an idealistic view, probably impractical in some cases, and maybe counterproductive. But it helps us see our class the way the users will see it.
So, |
System, operating the money powers which are reserved to Congress by the Constitution.”
But Goldman Sachs knows full well that there is but one government and that they own it. Carter Treasury Secretary Michael Blumenthal, Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin (now CEO at Citigroup), and Boy Bush Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson are all Goldman Sachs alumni. It was Paulson who held the gun to the collective heads of the American people and demanded $1 trillion to be handed over to the bankers to “avoid another Great Depression”.
Goldman was heavily involved in crafting recent weak bank reform legislation. Part of the legislation sets up a “resolution authority”. This sounds an awful lot like the Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC), which Daddy Bush set up in 1991 to auction off 680 bankrupt Savings & Loans. The S&L fiasco cost US taxpayers a cool $500 billion, with most of the loot going down the CIA guns for drugs Iran Contra rabbit hole.
According to the Charlotte, NC-based Southern Finance Project, more than half of these 680 S&Ls ended up in the hands of 10 giant US investment banks for pennies on the dollar. The largest purchaser was BRW- a partnership between Goldman Sachs and the Blackstone Group. BRW spent $80 million to pick up assets worth billions.
Similar “resolution authority” was exercised by the Fed with no Congressional approval during the 2008-2009 financial melt down. It wasn’t enough that the megabanks got $1 trillion in TARP money. They also vastly increased their assets, further concentrating their economic power and solidifying their “too big to fail” status.
Washington Mutual and Bear Stearns were handed over to JP Morgan Chase, Wachovia was gifted to Wells Fargo and Merrill Lynch was absorbed by Bank of America. Goldman Sachs curiously became a bank holding company.
Goldman Sachs led the Wall Street delegation which dealt the Russian oil industry to the Four Horsemen - ExxonMobil, ChevronTexaco, BPAmoco and Royal Dutch/Shell - for a song, leading to the 1998 Russian economic collapse.
The firm lobbied for Enron just before it went belly up, robbing state pension funds before being “sold” to UBS Warburg for the lofty sum of $0.
Around that same time the infamous Richard Perle was hired as an advisor by Goldman Sachs International. His job was to help Goldman find ways to profit from the coming Gulf War, though the 911 terror attacks had yet to occur.
In 2007 Goldman Sachs formed a partnership with BCCI insider/crook Sulaiman Olayan, whose Saudi National Commercial Bank is the largest in the Kingdom. For Goldman Sachs, war is business and business is good.
Goldman has profited from everything from the Internet IPO bubble and bust, to the NASDAQ bubble and bust, the oil and food price spikes, the 1990′s Mexican debt crisis and the current Greek debt crisis.
Now we find that Goldman profited from both the housing bubble it helped create and its imminent demise.
Goldman is not a job creator. It is a job destroyer. They and their LIBOR-rigging Eight Families’ ilk are financial parasites who have historically and consistently profited from the suffering of people, decimation of environment and economic destruction of wealth.
The FDIC lawsuit targets the head of the snake. It is a good start.
Now the Justice Department needs to prosecute the Darth Vader of the global economy – Goldman Sachs.One of the reasons that I got into science writing was because of Baroness Susan Greenfield. Actually, she’s also one of the reasons that I got into video game research as well. In that sense, I guess, I owe a lot to her. In another, more realistic sense, the reason that she acted as a catalyst for those things is because of her regular appearances in the media, claiming that the internet, social media and video games are damaging our brains.
Over the years, Greenfield has appeared in newspaper articles claiming that computer games “leave children with dementia”; that internet use is linked to autism; and that social media harms children’s brains. When criticised about the comments, the Baroness has been quick to claim that she’s been misrepresented, although no retractions or corrections of pieces like those mentioned above have ever surfaced. A call from Ben Goldacre for Greenfield to publish her claims in a scientific journal, so that they can be placed under an appropriately rigorous level of scrutiny, has been dismissed. Instead, we’ve had two books – the disastrous science fiction novel 2121, and the equally problematic popular science book, Mind Change. Both advance Greenfield’s view that the internet generally, and social media and video games more specifically, are having a huge and negative impact on our brains.
So it’s refreshing to see that, yesterday, the BMJ published an editorial taking a stance against the Greenfield media circus, and has called for a more nuanced, evidence-based debate to be had about the potential effects of digital technology on developing brains. In the article, the authors – Vaughan Bell, Dorothy Bishop and Andrew Przybylski – point out that many of Greenfield’s claims don’t accurately represent the state of the underlying research literature, and that the claims that she makes in the media are misleading. It presents the evidence against some of her claims – for example, that social networking sites like Facebook can negatively impact on empathy and social interactions – in a calm and collected manner. It’s well worth a read.
It’s also great to see that the editorial is far from an apologetic piece. Generally, research in the relevant areas is still in its early stages, and there are some clear negative effects that have already been shown – for example, the editorial points out that there is an association between using passive forms of digital technology and health risks such as obesity or diabetes. But the important take-home message here is that the debate about the potential positive and negative effects of using the internet and digital technology needs to be sensible, informed, and objective. If we really want to get to grips with what the potential problems are for young people, not only is ‘more research needed’, but that research needs to be appropriately presented to parents, policymakers, and the public.
Speaking to the Australian, Greenfield replied to say that she welcomed the criticism of her work, because it means the debate has now shifted to “how”, rather than “if” there is an effect. In doing so, she implies that her approach – through scaremongering, sensationalistic claims in the media over the past ten years – was worth it. I find this a bizarre claim to make, as if Greenfield’s crusade to promote the dangers of modern technology has resulted in some sort of Pyrrhic victory. But it’s not just Greenfield’s reputation that has suffered as a result of her campaign; it’s the way the public has been informed about the evidence. Hopefully, the BMJ editorial marks a turning point in the way in which that debate plays out in the public eye.Bernie or Bust Has a Plan B
J. L. Barlow Blocked Unblock Follow Following Mar 23, 2016
I’m with Senator Sanders. I was with Senator Sanders back in 2008 when I was supporting Congressman Kucinich’s bid for the Presidency. I thought the only VP Dennis could appoint to avoid foul play would have been Senator Sanders. I was with Senator Sanders in 2012 when he was calling for a primary challenge to President Obama. I was with Senator Sanders from the moment he announced his candidacy. I was with Senator Sanders when I traveled more than a thousand miles to hear him speak in Madison, Wisconsin last July. I will be with Senator Sanders in April when we vote here in New York. I will be with Senator Sanders straight through to DC on June 15th, but I’ve been active in politics for a long time, so I temper my faith with knowledge, and I know the hill the campaign must climb to achieve victory is exceptionally steep.
The main stream media and the punditry has told us all to quit. We are not doing that, but it has also conditioned Americans to believe that they have only three lousy choices this fall in the event Senator Sanders fails to achieve victory during this primary. As Revolutionaries we must know and we must make clear to our fellow citizens that this is simply not the case. We must even make it clear to our leader, Senator Sanders, that it is not the case.
According to the popular narrative, behind door number 1 will be Donald Trump, a member of the big club that Senator Sanders has been railing against. Trump is allegedly a “billionaire” and amongst the 195 American families that contributed $650 million in 2014 to buy the Congress. Of course Mr. Trump is also the embodiment of the racism and prejudice that Senator Sanders chained himself to others and was arrested protesting against in the 1960s. 40% of Republicans have said they will not vote for the man, and better than 50% of the American public dislike him, and would crawl naked across broken glass to vote against him.
Behind door number 2 will be Hillary Clinton, who along with her husband has taken more than $150 million from corporate America for doing their bidding in the form of what in any other country would most certainly be treated as bribes. The Clintons have raised more than $3 billion in campaign contributions during their collective time in politics for themselves and the candidates they have supported, and most of that money has come from corporate America. More than 50% of the American public dislike her and will crawl naked across broken glass to vote against her.
Behind door number 3 according to the main stream media is staying home and letting the chips fall where they may, but this election should have demonstrated a very important principle to Sander’s supporters. The reason that the Democratic primary never became a three way race is quite simple. The Democratic primary uses proportional representation. In a proportional representation system where a majority is required to win, no one will achieve victory in a three way race.
However, the Sanders campaign is not the only election during this primary cycle and there is a great deal to be learned from the winner take all contests on the Republican side of the aisle. The Republican primary is a far more mixed bag than the Democratic primary. It uses proportional representation in some states. It uses winner take all, even with a simple plurality in some states. It uses winner take all in the event of a majority in some states. It follows the same requirement to obtain a majority of delegates, but it has also demonstrated that in a three way race, a plurality of the vote with far less than fifty percent can make you the winner.
In 1992 and 1996, with a plurality of the vote, about 43%, Bill Clinton was elected to the White House because most states in the United States use first past the post, simple most votes wins, plurality voting to determine who wins their electoral votes, all of them. This means that in a three way race, a candidate with as little as 36% of the vote could theoretically win the Presidency.
As it stands today, in the event Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump become the nominees of the Republican and Democratic Parties, most Americans will likely stay home. There will be a considerable amount of overlap amongst the 50% of Americans who would never vote for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. I know that I am in that group of people, and I suspect a large percentage of Bernie supporters will never vote for corruption, racism, or stupidity. Integrity matters to Sanders voters.
Our preferred choice would be a run by Senator Sanders as the Presidential candidate on a third party line in the event he fails to win the nomination. Before his campaign began, Senator Sanders ruled out such a bid. Unfortunately for him, he started a revolution, and it cannot be put back into the bottle. His campaign has exposed the corruption that lies at the heart of the Democratic Party in a way that Ralph Nader who he hasn’t spoken with in more than 15 years could not during his 2000 Presidential campaign.
The corporate talking heads all state repeatedly that Ralph Nader’s campaign, and not the approximately 7 million Democratic voters who chose to vote for George W. Bush, nor the corruption of the Supreme Court, cost Al Gore an election where he won the popular vote.
More importantly, these pundits ignore history to sell the narrative that a third-party vote is a wasted vote that will only cost the candidate from the major parties who would be more acceptable to you the election. In 1948, then Democratic Governor of South Carolina Strom Thurmond left the Democratic Party and formed the State’s Rights Party to run against President Harry Truman. Truman had integrated the military and this was unacceptable to the southern racists in the Democratic Party. The first Dixiecrats ran Thurmond who would later be a Republican US Senator against President Truman.
Before Harry Truman became Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s running mate in 1944 to appease the corporate interests in the party, Roosevelt’s Vice President had been socialist Henry Wallace. Wallace and his populism won over allies for the United States all around Latin America during World War II. In 1948, the Progressive Party ran Henry Wallace as its candidate because Truman had failed to whip the votes in Congress to prevent an override of his veto of the Taft-Hartley Act which gutted the National Labor Relations Act to a large degree. The progressive wing of the Democratic Party supported Wallace.
At the same time, the Republican Party ran a very center of the road New York Republican Governor named Thomas Dewey against Harry Truman. With an attack from inside his own party on the left and the right, and an attack from the center by the Republicans, Harry Truman ran against the “Do Nothing” Congress and surprised the newspapers who had already printed that he lost to Dewey. As we all know. There was no President Dewey. If Truman could win that election by carrying his own water, then why the hell can’t Hillary Clinton and her corporate backers beat Donald Trump and a third-party candidate backed by Team Sanders?
The truth of the matter is that she probably cannot beat a strong third-party candidate running against Trump because her unfavorables are too high, but it is also true that Donald Trump with high unfavorable ratings of his own is unlikely to beat a strong third-party candidate either.
This of course assumes that Donald Trump is the candidate of the Republican Party, but that may not be the case. It is quite probable that no candidate will have a majority of the vote on the Republican side at their convention on the first ballot. It is also possible that rules concerning open primaries which allow the exclusion of those delegates from the convention could be used to deny Donald Trump delegates their credentials to the convention. The fix is likely in on the Republican side as well as the Democratic side. The media, the Democratic Party Chair, the front loading of the Southern conservative states in the calendar, and numerous measures to ensure conservative candidates win, not to mention the Super Delegates as a fail safe measure all work to prevent a progressive challenge to the moneyed interests achieving victory inside the Democratic primary process.
On the Republican side, measures are being taken to ensure that Paul Ryan becomes the likely nominee of the Republican Party. If that is the case,in a two party race, the Republican candidate will likely win. Why do I say that? Because even though a large portion of the Republican party will be upset, Ryan has strong enough credentials with many Tea Party Republicans to be acceptable, he will keep their numbers from dropping as badly as the fall off from a Clinton candidacy will have been. Additionally, Trump supporters are not necessarily traditional voters, let alone Republican voters. Trump has drawn a lot of new people into the Republican Party. These non-voters staying home are unlikely to lower turnout for the Republicans.
Once the dust has settled from the convention floor fight on the Republican side, the traditional Republican voter is likely to do what they have always done, and fall in line behind their candidate. In New York State, where the Republicans almost always lose, and rarely spend much money to support state wide candidates, 1.5 million Republicans show up to cast votes for their candidate for Governor in almost every election. Republican voters are a machine. That is unlikely to be changed by the dust up of a convention floor fight, and in American politics, optics matter. A large percentage of voters are no information voters, and no information voters tend to vote for the younger, better looking candidate. In that event, Paul Ryan will crush Hillary Clinton with no information voters.
One of the vital things the Sanders campaign has worked to change is the no information voter. Sanders activists have been educating people about the issues and how to get things done. The Sanders campaign and its supporters have been explaining to people why they never seem to get what they want despite popularity of their ideas. The only way to change the dynamics of the fall in the event the election is a race between Clinton and Trump or Clinton and Ryan is to change a variable, call an audible, and use the power that this revolutionary movement has gathered to do some good.
Voting for more of the same corruption by voting for Clinton, or Trump, or Ryan would not be doing some good. Writing in Senator Sander’s name would not be doing some good. The vast majority of states require a lot of paperwork to be filled out before a write in candidate for President will even have their votes counted. At the end of the day, writing in Senator Sanders name would be a wasted vote. It would be as if you did not vote at all because your vote would not be counted.
Because Senator Sanders has stated unequivocally that he will not run as a third-party candidate for President, and he is a man of integrity, then the best thing the Bernie or Bust movement can do is identify a candidate who shares Senator Sanders values and work just as hard for that candidate and that third-party to win the election with a plurality this fall.
If the Republicans throw the election to Paul Ryan who didn’t even run, it will be easy for a third-party candidate to argue that the primary election system is rigged to favor the moneyed interest on both sides of the aisle. The Clinton and Sanders contest has made it clear how rigged the game is on the Democratic side. A floor fight that results in someone other than Donald Trump becoming the nominee of the Republican Party will prove how corrupt it is on the Republican side. Of course this scenario for Plan B is the hardest road to travel for a third-party candidate.
The easier road would be a Clinton versus Trump race. In Clinton versus Trump, you have a “billionaire” versus the bought and paid for servant of the billioniares. Corporate America versus corporate America with a little racism on the side.
What if I told you there was a party that has never taken corporate PAC money? What if I told you there was a candidate who will be on the ballot in all fifty states this fall whose platform is virtually identical to Senator Sander’s platform? What if a party that supports the $15 an hour minimum wage, universal health care and Medicare-for-all, universal free college tuition, an end to the military industrial complex, the legalization of marijuana, decriminalization of drugs and treatment for addiction instead of the continuation of the prison industrial complex, a party that is opposed to free trade deals, and a party that wants to restore sanity to the tax code and an end to Citizens United exists? That party is the Green Party, and their likely candidate is Dr. Jill Stein.
I have been a Democrat since before I was old enough to vote. At 16, I was advocating for the candidacy of Governor Jerry Brown for President. It was 1992 and he was the best candidate for the job back then. He has changed a lot in the intervening years, but in 1992, he self-imposed a limit of $100 on campaign contributions because money in politics was already the problem issue. This was pre-Internet, so Jerry didn’t stand a chance against the Clinton corporate fundraising apparatus.
In 1992, until he dropped out of the race, H. Ross Perot was leading in the polls for the general election. He was going to win the election because he correctly opposed NAFTA. What most Democrats didn’t realize at the time, because it was completely anti-thetical to everything the Democratic Party has ever stood for was that Bill Clinton was in favor of NAFTA. He didn’t make a point of telling people that he favored NAFTA. It is the only reason he won. If most Democrats had known the truth about Bill Clinton’s position on NAFTA, Perot would have been President, regardless of having dropped out of the race.
I am telling you all of this because the Sanders campaign has demonstrated that despite the media ignoring a campaign. Despite having no big money donors. Despite having no pre-existing organization, a poor unknown candidate can become at the very least a contender in national politics today. This is why I urge all of my fellow Sanders supporters to keep up the good fight straight through to the convention, but have a Plan B.
My suggestion for Plan B is that we all be ready to continue the revolution and work equally hard to inform the public about Jill Stein and the Green Party alternative to the politics of corruption this summer and fall in the event that Senator Sanders fails to achieve victory. Plan A is still a go. Last night demonstrated that Senator Sanders can win big enough to capture the delegates needed to win this thing. We keep working hard, but if we are truly revolutionaries, we must be ready to rally behind a new leader if our preferred leader fails to achieve victory. The cause is greater than any one man or woman. The cause is greater than all of us, so keep digging, keep working, keep fighting, but always be prepared to continue the fight with a new leader if necessary.Chris Addison has revealed that there are plans to film a new series of The Thick Of It next spring.
Addison, who plays Ollie in the comedy, told Digital Spy that writer Armando Iannucci has been busy working on his new HBO show Veep.
However, he explained that the current plan is to film more episodes of The Thick of It in April or May.
Watch Chris Addison chatting about Skins and The Thick Of It below:
Addison admitted that he has no idea what will happen in the new series of The Thick Of It but joked that he is "very strongly advocating a musical episode".
"And a bit less politics," he quipped. "Maybe we could run a toy shop this time or something, just to change it up a bit.
"That would be really brilliant, if suddenly The Thick of It was back and it was just Malcolm running a department store."
Addison also revealed that he is enjoying his work on Skins and described his character Professor Blood as a "great big cartoon" and a "supercilious, mean-spirited b**tard".
Chris Addison's stand-up comedy DVD Chris Addison Live is out on Monday.to protect victims of sexual violence,' she said
Lady Gaga has joined a powerful new project aiming to expose the rape crimes sweeping US college campuses by releasing a harrowing new music video showing four women being sexually assaulted.
The pop provocateur does not appear in the black-and-white clip but sings the song, Till It Happens To You, written by Oscar-winning powerhouse Diane Warren.
The video was written and shot by director Catherine Hardwicke and features actress Nikki Reed as one of the victims. The two are longtime collaborators, having worked together on the films Thirteen in 2003 and Twilight in 2008.
Till It Happens To You begins with the disclaimer: 'The following contains graphic content that may be emotionally unsettling but reflects the reality of what is happening daily on college campuses.'
Distressing: The video for the song Till It Happens To You shows four women - one played by actress Nikki Reed (pictured) - being raped while on campus at college
In this scene, a presumably gay female student is violently raped in the bathroom by a man
Harrowing: The video ties in with new documentary The Hunting Ground, which investigates universities covering up incidents of rape in order to 'protect their brand'
Date rape: One of the scenes shows a guy spiking two drinks with pills at a house party and then assaulting two girls when they are unconscious
Shocking: Arguably the worst part of the clip is a scene where a male student attacks two women he has drugged at a party, before one of them is able to overcome him
The public service announcement ties in with upcoming documentary The Hunting Ground, which investigates universities covering up incidents of rape in order to 'protect their brand'.
Till It Happens To You will feature on the film's soundtrack.
The new video - which Gaga tweeted to her 50million followers Thursday night - shows four women being raped by male students, all in different situations.
The woman played by Reed is attacked in her room by a friend, while another girl - who is depicted as gay or transgender - is raped in a bathroom.
The other two girls are at a house party and have their drinks spiked.
In the videos most graphic part, the guy who put the pills in the cups proceeds to rape both of them in a bedroom, before one is able to overcome him.
'We have a responsibility to protect victims of sexual violence': Gaga has been vocal about rape in the past. She is seen here in New York on Tuesday
Till It Happens To You was penned by prolific songwriter Diane Warren (left). The video was written and directed by Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke (right)
As the distressing scenes play out, Gaga sings: 'Till your world burns and crashes / Till you're at the end, the end of your rope / Till you're standing in my shoes / I don't wanna hear a thing or two from you, from you, from you.'
The video concludes with the victims understanding that the best way to survive their assaults is to speak to other and offer support.
Gaga dedicated the video to all victims of sexual assault.
Earlier this year she wrote an op-ed about the issue with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, calling for the passing of the bill 'Enough is Enough' in her home state.
'We have a responsibility to the young men and women of this country to stand up against sexual violence everywhere,' the singer wrote.
The confronting clip explore the shame and isolation of being a victim of sexual assault
The video concludes with the victims understanding that the best way to survive their assaults is to speak to other and offer support
Warren, who is considered the most prolific and successful songwriter in the world, said she was inspired to pen Till It Happens To You after seeing The Hunting Ground, directed by two-time Oscar nominee Kirby Dick.
'This song, with its message of hope and empowerment, is my heartfelt tribute to them and will also resonate with anyone who has been bullied, lost a loved one or just feels alone in the world,' Warren told Deadline.
Hardwicke said the video speaks for itself.
'I hope that this PSA, with its raw and truthful portrayals, will send a clear message that we need to support these courageous survivors and end this epidemic plaguing our college campuses,' she said.
The Hunting Ground, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this year and was produced by Amy Ziering, centers around former University of North Carolina students Andrea Pino and Annie Clark and their battle to make the university acknowledge its rape problem.New Delhi, Dec. 9: A television series that showed a "passionate kissing scene" between two women has run into trouble for airing lesbian romance, that too at a non-restricted hour, weeks after the country's broadcast watchdog had hauled up another channel for suggesting a similar encounter.
Officials in the information and broadcasting ministry said they were taking the issue seriously because homosexuality was still illegal in India.
The latest controversy is over the MTV India show The Big F - hosted by actor Gautam Gulati - that revolves around relationship fantasies of youngsters and is broadcast every Sunday at 7pm, well within the 5am-11pm "non-restricted" time slot when "adult" content is not allowed to be screened.
Sources said the ministry had received a raft of complaints and asked the Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC) to "look into the matter at the earliest".
"We have been getting complaints for the past two weeks from across the country," a senior official in the ministry's broadcasting division said. "The council should now watch the episode and issue notice to the channel if the content violated the obscenity clause of the programming code."
The episode, I kissed a Girl, aired on November 15, depicted acceptance of alternative sexuality by two women - a fashion designer and a model - and showed a kissing scene that lasted several seconds.
"Even if some progressive viewers find it okay, we are going by the rulebook," said a director in the ministry. "What most viewers have objected to is the broadcast of the show at prime time when many families with young kids sit together and watch TV."
A BCCC executive said the council would take up the matter at its next complaints review meeting in a few weeks.
An email query to the channel remained unanswered but a senior executive associated with MTV India, a channel popular with the young, said it would respond after it receives a "formal notice seeking explanation".
Anjali Gopalan, a gay rights activist, dubbed the I&B ministry's move "ridiculous". "If romance between a man and a woman can be shown in all its glory, what is wrong if the protagonists happen to be of the same sex?" Gopalan asked. "These ideas are ridiculous and regressive."
Last month, the BCCC had issued a notice to STAR World for suggesting a homosexual encounter and "denigrating women" in its popular soap, Grey's Anatomy, in an episode telecast in June. The notice had followed complaints from the ministry.
In the episode, a woman doctor is shown telling a male colleague how she had failed to please her partner.
The watchdog has already received a response from STAR World but is yet to decide on what action to take.Since it’s launch last week, Tekken 7 fans have been complaining about the considerably bad matchmaking system which would often fail to pair up opponents. Bandai Namco have stated that they are aware of the issues and are looking into a fix for the issue.
Speaking to fans on social media website, Bandai Namco has confirmed that it has received “inquiries from a number of customers” and it is working to fix the problems. “We are currently investigating the issue and plan to address the problem through an online update scheduled to modify the game spec and improve matching. Player and opponent character will no longer be displayed when searching for a match in Ranked Match,” the team said in a statement.
In other news, a fellow writer has set up a controller wiki for avid fans on what key combinations are required for certain moves, check it out, here.Rally shows how homosexuality is being used to represent all the evils besetting the nation, says Daily Maverick
At a stadium in Kampala, 30,000 Ugandans gathered to give thanks to the president, Yoweri Museveni, for passing the anti-homosexuality act. Monday's event combined the fanfare of a mass political meeting with the party atmosphere of a cultural festival.
“There is a fundamental misunderstanding between us and the liberal west," Museveni told the gathering organised by the Inter-religious Council of Uganda. "They say that homosexuality is sex. But it is not sex.”
The president continued: “There are other words (in Luganda) for sex. I won’t tell you those words.” The crowd laughed. “But if you take homosexuality, they (the Ugandan people) don’t call it ‘sex’. They call it ekifire.” A neighbour wearing a Ugandan flag on her head translated: “It means they are half-dead, yet they are still living.”
Museveni spoke at the service without notes, ad-libbing with a jocularity that resonated with the mood of the crowd. Many people there had travelled from rural areas and had already endured many hours of speeches. Over the course of the morning, the crowd poured in by the thousands, filling Kololo stadium to capacity. Museveni was the highlight of the speaker’s bill, and was kept until almost the very last. The audience cheered wildly as he strode to the podium, but silence descended once his speech began.
On the surface of it, Museveni’s opening gamut was pure demagoguery – a jab at the west and an absurd reproach against gay zombies. But, in the context of the day’s events, and Museveni’s own skilful politicking around the act, his remarks revealed much about how homosexuality has been politically loaded in Uganda, presented as a proxy for all the geopolitical and moral evils besetting the nation, derailing economic and spiritual advancement, and darkening the future.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Museveni addresses the rally in Kampala in support of new anti-gay laws. Source: Reuters
Many of the speakers condemned the threats made by European donors that aid would be withdrawn should the bill be legislated. A leader from the Inter-religious Council said that the EU should “respect the sovereign rights of other nations and desist from tying homosexuality to development aid,” to deafening applause. He thanked Museveni for “reminding President Obama that Uganda is a sovereign country.” A previous speaker had cribbed Obama in assuring the crowd that “Yes, we can rid Uganda of homosexuals. Yes, we can!” after announcing: “They can stop their dollars, but they have no authority to come here and spread homosexuality.”
Museveni himself shrugged off threats of aid withdrawal with a somewhat petulant avowal: “We don’t need aid… because a country like Uganda is one of the richest on earth.”
This must have rung false for audience members, who travel daily along Kampala’s dirt roads, and many of whom live without access to basic amenities. Mulago, the nation’s flagship public hospital, saw a recent outbreak of diarrheal disease in its paediatric ward after water supplies had been cut due to the hospital’s failure to pay its bills. Political pundits blamed the incident on international donors.
The spectre of the homosexual lobby loomed large at the rally, and featured in a booklet on sale by the ushers at the rally. Written by George Oduch, a senior pastor of the Victory Church of Christian Ministries International, the text was peppered with quotes from the so-called gay manifesto, testament to “the kind of aggressiveness that was in Sodom and Gomorrah… the same with which the homosexual community is promoting this evil cause.”
Those implicated in the gay lobby constituted an odd medley. They included Zimbabwean politician Morgan Tsvangirai, UN official Arie Hoekman, South African lawyer Albie Sachs (alleged to be masterminding the homosexual infiltration of the Kenyan judiciary), and an unnamed Swedish “homosexual doctor” who was claimed to abuse his patients as a prelude to performing their sex change operations.
The ostensible health effects of homosexuality were another key focus of both speeches and educational materials, and the spread of disease a productive refrain. “Homosexuality = AIDS = 100%,” declared one placard, while Museveni instructed the audience that: “The mouth is for eating, it is not for gonorrhoea.” George Oduch’s booklet provided a list of homosexual acts which, in its scatological preoccupations, bore a closer resemblance to the writings of the Marquis de Sade than a Christian treatise. Oduch’s various descriptions and their accompanying pictures exceeded the bounds of prurience. They were explicitly pornographic, of the gonzo not vanilla variety, and audience members (particularly school children) spent much of the day pouring over them with fascination.
There were varying degrees of circumlocution in accounts of sex acts. Museveni, for example, described anal sex as visiting the “wrong address”, to the guffaws of the crowd. The idea of genitals as a kind of destination had clearly caught on, becoming a popular denunciation. As a sign tied to the backside of the man read, “Want here? Wrong address.”
For a nation that styles itself as beset by sexual secrecy, mired in taboos that preclude public discussions about intimate physical acts, these explicit descriptions and images were surprising, but only fleetingly. As soon as these acts were described, they were consigned to the realm of perversity, cast as the practices of “criminals”, “animals” and “devils”. More surprising by far was the atmosphere of celebration and joyfulness – just plain fun – that pervaded the proceedings.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ugandan anti-gay activist Pastor Martin Ssempa carries a national flag while leading a procession to the rally. Photograph: Stringer/Reuters
Interspersed with the condemnations of homosexual deviance were jivey musical interludes, dance performance and songs by school choirs. A young woman with a voice like a lark had the audience singing and swaying in unison (the lyrics of the song chorus: “Say ‘no’ to sodomy. No! No! No! No! No!”). The day’s surreal highlight was an act by an acrobatics troupe, which did flik flaks down the red carpet towards the VIPs, causing a momentary fracas among the president’s security detail.
A range of snacks were on offer throughout the proceedings – sweets, biscuits, and popcorn in paper cones. On the grassy areas of the stadium grounds, barbecues were lit. The venue was emblazoned with Ugandan flags, paper copies of which were handed out for free at the entrance, while a roaring trade in Yoweriana (key rings and laminated A4 pages with images of Museveni) was conducted.
The presence of so many children concentrated the jovial nature of the service. They ate messily, slept, and listened to other things on their earphones. They rolled up their placards, bearing slogans of homophobic hatred, and attacked each other with them good-naturedly. When the acrobatics troupe botched an attempt at a complicated human pyramid, they laughed themselves hoarse.
But children featured solemnly in many of the speeches. Speaker after speaker entreated the younger generation to continue the moral crusade that they had begun, to shape the future of Uganda according to local values. The anti-homosexuality act was presented as a beacon of national pride, to be passed on from the current generation of leaders to the next. As one cleric explained, the act had turned Uganda “from being a beggar to being a nation that gives away to other nations. People will come to Uganda to receive your help.”
As Museveni reminded the audience, Kololo stadium – the site of the day’s festivities – was also the site of the nation’s genesis. It was at the stadium on 9 October 1962 that the Union Jack was lowered, independence was inaugurated and the national anthem sung for the first time. Outside the grounds there's a sculpture that commemorates the day, built in 2012 to mark 50 years of Ugandan independence.
After the rally the sculpture was surrounded by school kids, animated by its scale, novelty and emotive force. The sculpture features five Ugandans, a young family perhaps, each figure representing a decade of freedom. They are led by a man, wielding a flag, and followed by a woman and three children. The figures are placed at an angle, so that they seemed to be ascending – propelled forwards as a nation united, into an idealised future.
Rebecca H |
former army reservist living in Atlanta, Georgia, now spends four or five hours a day patrolling the Internet for news coming from the embattled region to thread into the subreddit.
Calling themselves “armchair citizen journalists,” Kingdon says he and his fellow moderators don’t consider themselves professionals, and say the forum is not meant as a substitute to traditional journalism. Their duty is to centralize all evidence currently available, but let a semi-organic process develop the rest.
Whether they like it or not, Kingdon and the other moderators rely on anonymous tips and unverified reports. News outlets rushing to keep up with the social-media fueled breaking news cycle can be subject to such embarrassment as was felt by CNN after reporting erroneous information during the chaotic Boston bombing manhunt. Reddit’s crowd-sourced “reporting” means users have to exercise editorial judgment, though threads can be prone to devolve into misinformation and assumption.
“With news articles you have ability to comment but the comment section never has any interaction with the article itself,” Kingdon says. On Reddit, the initial post is just a jumping-off point. It’s up to readers to promote (with upvote and downvote capabilities), add to, and argue with posts. The Syrian Civil War subreddit is only possible thanks to thousands of online subscribers and many more visitors who translate breaking videos, track down eyewitness accounts, and explain fights emerging from embattled Syria. Readers are expected to be skeptical and savvy. And, the moderators attempt to curate the content with the same respect. “We’re very conscious of not just putting out the first thing we hear,” Bromirski says.
Another moderator, writing under the username “bigdaddybrownsugar” is a Syrian living in Chicago who lends an authoritative knowledge of the area to his posts. On a video posted a month ago of troops killing wounded prisoners, he offered a some context to the video’s claim that the forces pictured were Hezbollah: “their accents are really soft which would make me lean more towards Lebanese then Iraqi for sure. Iraqi Arabic is a lot rougher.” Two other moderators are American, and one is Icelandic. “Someone’s awake 24 hours a day, there’s always an eye on the subreddit,” Kingdon says.
Of course, there’s no telling when a major story will break. On August 21, the day the United Nations confirmed that Syrian government troops used chemical weapons on civilians, Kingdon was up for 20 hours threading together incoming videos and reports of the horrific attack. The first thing he did was call his mom, a nurse, to ask if the content of the videos matched what she believed would be a reaction to chemical warfare. When they did, he knew he had a game changer on his hands. He dialed the major news networks like the BBC, but none were willing to risk going with the story until confirmation came. That day, the page raked in 10-times normal traffic, with 80,000 page views, and doubled its active community. Time magazine and USA Today were a few of the mainstream media outlets linking back to r/syriancivilwar. “In my mind this sub is the best place on the internet for real, unbiased news about Syria,” one user wrote on a thread.
It’s the connection between life on the ground in Syria and a Reddit reader on the other side of the world that most rewards Kingdon. “Sometimes you’ll have comments from users saying this happened by my family member—and it’s kind of a slap in the face because you read in the New York Times about this tragedy happening, but we’re thousands miles away,” Kingdon says. Sometimes the distance lends risk to being desensitized. But he doesn’t fear his efforts are turning Syrian atrocities into something pornographic, or sparking a voyeuristic reaction to the blood and guts. He hopes, in fact, the reaction will be quite the opposite. “If you want to see what’s actually going on and why soldiers have always returned from war for the last 5,000 years saying ‘war’s a horrible thing we should never let it happen’—this will help you understand why they say that, because there’s nothing beautiful in any of these videos.”Miro Cerar accused of seeking to interfere with judiciary after he voiced support for Syrian man, Ahmad Shamieh, who is facing deportation
The prime minister of Slovenia, Miro Cerar, one of the few liberal leaders in central and eastern Europe, is facing impeachment over his support for a Syrian asylum seeker who is facing deportation.
Should the country’s rightwing opposition party be successful in their motion, Cerar, the leader of the centrist moderate party, could be dismissed from office by the Slovenian MPs, although government sources insist the prime minister has enough support in parliament to vote down the motion.
The future of Ahmad Shamieh, a 60-year-old man who arrived in Slovenia in 2015, where he learned the language and became an example of successful refugee integration, has nevertheless become a key dividing line in the country’s politics, whatever the outcome of the impeachment process.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Slovenia’s prime minister, Miro Cerar. Photograph: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images
Government sources claim the opposition to Cerar’s support of Shamieh is a “staged case” designed to destabilise the government in the run-up to national elections next year.
Many tens of thousands of refugees have passed through Slovenia since the refugee crisis began, leading Cerar to claim two years ago that without action to control Europe’s frontiers, the EU would collapse as individual member states took unilateral action. The issue of immigration remains highly controversial in the country.
Shamieh’s case took hold of the public imagination when his asylum claim was rejected this summer by the Slovenian courts, which ordered that he should be deported in order to make his application for asylum in Croatia, his first port of call in the EU after leaving Syria.
Two prominent MPs, Jan Škoberne, from the leftwing SD party in the coalition government, and Mihe Kordiš, an MP from the leftwing opposition Levica party, took Shamieh to Slovenia’s parliament building to prevent the police from taking him away.
When pushed in a press conference last week on his own response to the case, Cerar, who has been prime minister since 2014, suggested that he also wanted to find a way to grant Shamieh residence on the grounds of his integration into Slovenian society.
His response prompted claims from rightwingers in the Slovenian parliament that Cerar, a constitutional lawyer, had sought to interfere in the affairs of the independent judiciary.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Refugees are escorted through fields by police in Slovenia. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
On 15 November the opposition Slovenian Democratic party (SDS), led by Janez Janša, a rightwing former prime minister, announced they would seek to impeach Cerar.
Janša, who was sentenced to two years in prison on corruption charges in 2013, only for the case to be later dismissed by the constitutional court, has previously accused Cerar of being anti-Slovenian, for putting foreigners first.
While other eastern European states have boycotted an EU scheme to disperse refugees, Slovenia has taken in 335 people from Greece and Italy out of its EU quota of 567.
Cerar has 30 days to answer the charges before a vote in parliament, where the opposition will require a two-thirds majority to carry the motion and force a public court hearing.
Only three impeachment motions have been submitted to parliament in the history of the country, founded in 1991 from former Yugoslavia, but none as yet have received a sufficient backing to proceed to the constitutional court.
In the course of events, Shamieh has suffered a nervous breakdown and is currently in a psychiatric hospital.
He is still expected to be deported to Croatia once he is better, where he will be able to apply to return to Slovenia. Senior Slovenian government sources said, however, that Shamieh’s ill-health may also offer him a right to appeal to the Slovenian court.
Slovenian government sources further claimed that the issue had been politicised by both the left and the right to destabilise Cerar’s government in the lead-up to next’s years parliamentary elections.
“It is a tragic case,” said one source. “Left and right have used him for their own purposes and the government was squeezed in between. This is a staged affair.”Getty Images
He’s partied his way out of a job and out of multiple relationships with people who represented him, but Johnny Manziel still has a spokesperson — and apparently still has plans to return to the NFL.
“I’m hoping to take care of the issues in front of me right now so I can focus on what I have to do if I want to play in 2016,” Manziel said in a statement provided to multiple outlets on Tuesday. “I also continue to be thankful to those who really know me and support me.”
Earlier Tuesday, agent Drew Rosenhaus officially terminated his representation of Manziel because he said Manziel didn’t hold his end of their deal and seek treatment for whatever issues he’s battling. Also Tuesday, it was announced that evidence against Manziel from a January incident in which he’s accused of striking his ex-girlfriend will go to a grand jury on Thursday.
The Browns released Manziel last month. He was dumped by agent Erik Burkhardt and LRMR, LeBron James’ marketing company, earlier last winter.
Though he spent around 10 weeks last offseason in a treatment center, it’s not clear what issues Manziel has besides an addiction to attention. It’s also unclear how much or what he would have to change for an NFL team to be willing to take a chance on him, but if any team is still listening/reading, this statement indicates he’s willing to try.
“So many people only have one image of Jonathan but, believe it or not, he takes all this very seriously,” Denise Michaels, Manziel’s spokesperson, said. “He’s hoping that he can clear up his personal issues, start interviewing agents and see what he needs to do if he wants to play this year.”Alberta's rate of gang-related homicides more than tripled last year, with killings in the Calgary and Edmonton areas accounting for the majority of the increase.
That's according to the latest Statistics Canada data, which breaks down homicide rates by province, by gang involvement and by the Indigenous or non-Indigenous identity of victims.
Indigenous people continue to be far more likely to be killed than non-Indigenous people in Canada, with a homicide rate 6.7 times higher than the non-Indigenous population.
The three prairie provinces led the country in overall homicide rates.
Alberta's rate was the highest — by a substantial margin over second-place British Columbia — when it comes to non-Indigenous victims, specifically.
Click or tap on this interactive graph to see the homicide rate for non-Indigenous people, Indigenous people and the total population, by province, in 2015:
Prince Edward Island held the title for highest non-Indigenous homicide rate in 2014 but that was because there happened to be three killings among of the province's relatively small population of about 150,000.
With just one homicide in 2015, the P.E.I. rate dropped back down, while Alberta's increased by about 25 per cent to reach 2.40 homicides per 100,000 non-Indigenous people.
That's nearly twice the national rate, but it's not something that should alarm everyday Albertans, according to Kelly Sundberg, a professor in the Department of Economics, Justice, and Policy Studies at Mount Royal University. Many of the recent homicides, particularly in Calgary, have been related to organized crime or occurred "between people that are known to one another," he said, and are not the result of random acts of violence.
Gang-related killings jump
The crime statistics released this week show Alberta led the country in gang-related homicides last year, with a rate 0.67 killings related to organized crime per 100,000 people.
That marks a 205 per cent increase over 2014, and a 138 per cent increase over Alberta's previous five-year average.
In Calgary, specifically, in 2015 there was an uptick in gang-related crime in general, as turf wars emerged between competing criminal organizations whose members are often linked by family ties.
The Calgary and Edmonton metropolitan areas accounted for two-thirds of the increased number of gang-related homicides in Alberta in 2015, according to Statistics Canada.
Sundberg said it's not unusual for gang violence to rise and fall in cycles, with clusters of violence interspersed by periods of relative calm.
"We see a clustering of events, the police respond, then we see mass incarceration and arrests," he said.
"They all go to jail, cases are solved, they get out jail, and then sometimes we see turf wars redevelop, and it goes up and down. So we'll see this clustering a few years apart, and it's very normal to see that within gang-related offences, including homicide."
The height of Alberta's gang-related killings came in 2008, and there was another, smaller spike in 2011.
This interactive graph depicts the gang-related homicide rate (killings per 100,000 people) in Alberta and Canada since 1999:
In Calgary, a high-profile triple murder at Bolsa Restaurant on New Year's Day in 2009 marked the crescendo of an eight-year gang war between two rival criminal organizations in the city, the FOB and FK.
Gang-related violence was relatively quiet after that, before bubbling up again in 2015.
Police in Edmonton reported an escalation in the firepower of weapons being used in gang battles last year and the city saw a total of 16 homicides in the first 16 weeks of 2016, many of them believed to be gang-related.
In Calgary, two larger organized crime groups involved in disputes over drugs and territory were responsible for numerous homicides in the city last year, said acting Insp. Greg Cooper with the Calgary Police Service's major crimes unit.
Acting Insp. Greg Cooper with the Calgary Police Service's major crimes unit says police are constantly working to suppress organized crime in the city. (CBC)
Police responded with two major operations targeting those groups, putting many members behind bars.
"We had a lot of success but we don't want to rest on our laurels," Cooper said.
"We don't want to be naive. We know that organized crime is in Calgary. We're constantly investigating and involving our members in suppression as well as enforcement."
Last year there were 39 homicides in the Calgary metropolitan area, 12 of which were deemed to be gang-related, according to Statistics Canada.
Police said there have been 25 homicides in Calgary so far this year, but it's not yet clear how many are related to organized crime.December 10, 2014
Last week the Islamic State launched its second major attack against the Deir e-Zor military airport since it captured Deir e-Zor city and the majority of the eponymous province from the regime and Jabhat a-Nusra this past July.
The military airport is now the last major regime stronghold in the oil-rich eastern province.
Using a series of car bomb attacks–including one that detonated a tank–IS has now managed to penetrate the buffer zone surrounding the airport and capture a number of points in the area.
The regime is responding by launching an intense aerial campaign against IS positions in al-Jafra and the towns of al-Hawija and Marihiyak to the north of the airport, forcing IS fighters to withdraw from the military base’s vicinity, reported Al-Monitor on Tuesday.
Despite their gains, it will be difficult for IS to capture the airport, says a Deir e-Zor-based citizen journalist who goes by the pseudonym Abu Baraa Sharqi.
The regime still controls a series of military facilities and bases that are connected to the airport, with local residents enlisting in the National Defense Forces [pro-regime militia] to protect the area, Sharqi tells Syria Direct’s Mohammed al-Haj Ali.
Even the presence of former FSA fighters cannot help against the regime’s "scorched earth policy," says Sharqi, who works with the pro-opposition media campaign Deir e-Zor Under Fire.
Q: What are you hearing and seeing about Deir e-Zor military airport?
There are dead bodies and severed heads hanging in the streets of the villages around the airport. The regime also defiles the bodies, stabbing the corpses in the areas under its control.
Q: Are there any other opposition groups, such as the FSA or Jabhat a-Nusra fighting alongside IS in the battle for the airport?
The situation in Deir e-Zor is so complicated, and yes, there are factions from the FSA that are fighting on more than the half of the frontlines. The biggest proof is that more than 40 fighters from the FSA were killed in the past two days. All of them are either from the FSA or are civilians.
The people of Deir e-Zor know this, but because of the media’s fascination with IS, people outside Deir e-Zor do not know.
After IS captured FSA areas, it agreed with other opposition groups that they would stay on the frontlines in the fight against the Syrian regime. IS told them that it will support them with weapons during the battles, but it put forward certain conditions:
[The FSA] must surrender all of their heavy weapons and inform IS of all the light weapons that the FSA has. IS then gives the FSA their weapons when they go to fight and then retrieves the weapons from them when the battle finishes.
The FSA is not allowed to declare on social media and in news agencies that it fights with IS against the Syrian army and it cannot adopt any military stance [without IS] against the Syrian army.
Because of this, we see that IS takes credit for FSA’s efforts [against the regime].
Aside from this, we do not deny that some fighters from IS are on the frontlines, but the largest effort is on part of the FSA–who are the people of Deir e-Zor–because IS knows that protecting their families and freeing the city are the FSA’s goals for the revolution.
Q: There is contradictory news about what is happening at the airport.
The battle for the airport is an open battle and will not be easy for either side [to win] because of the topography in the area. The airport is connected to a series of military bases and facilities that are still under regime control.
The regime-controlled area starts from the east side of the airport to the mountain where there are military divisions, such as the Air Defense and a number of other Brigades. The line of regime divisions then stretches to the al-Talaea Camp and Brigade 137 in the southwest of Deir e-Zor. All these places are with the regime now.
Many people from the areas and villages surrounding the airport are now joining the National Defense Forces [pro-regime militia]. These people know the area very well – its strengths and weak points that could be used as possible points of infiltration.
On the other hand, IS and the rebels show determination and aggression in the battles. They are using car bombs against the airport walls. The regime built a buffer zone around the airport, but with car bombs, the rebels have managed to control some of the areas around the airport.
The rebels and IS captured some sites on the north front of the airport in the last two days in the Mazarea area. They also captured a number of sites around al-Jafra village, and those bordering the airport’s main gate like al-Hawija. The regime is using a ‘scorched earth’ policy in each place it loses in order to force IS and rebels to retreat from it. That happened in the Missile Brigade [regime base] and the mountain area. After the areas were liberated, the regime targeted them with fierce bombardment, causing the rebels and IS to retreat within hours [of their capture].
The battles between the IS and the regime are ongoing, but it is certain that IS has broken the regime’s buffer zone around the airport. Now it is an open front between the two sides, with only hundreds of meters between the two parts.
The regime bombs IS-held areas near Deir e-Zor airport on Monday. Photo courtesy of @abohfs5.
Q: IS is attacking the airport from two sides: the al-Jafra village from the north and the Missiles Brigade [military base] in the south – what is the difference between these two axes?
Yes, that is right. The idea is to open more than one front against the regime to distract its forces and their bombardment. It also increases the chances of breaking through the airport walls.
There is no difference between these two fronts from a geographical point of view.
The al-Jafra village borders the airport's main gate in the north. Control of this gate will make it easy to reach the military residential quarters and cut the main road.
The Missiles Brigade is more of an open space. The regime can target the rebels there easily and they can directly strike the rebels. But if IS and rebels capture it, it will restrict the regime’s ability to bomb the rebels aerially. It will also make it easy for the rebels to target the air defense runway directly.
Q: What is the situation of civilians in the villages surrounding the airport? Are there many injured amongst the civilians?
With regard to the people in the villages around the airport, the majority of them have fled since the beginning of the military operations in the area.
For more from Syria Direct, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.As most know by know, Florida State’s defending national championship football team is off to another stellar start. The Seminoles are 7-0 and ranked second in the nation, but football is not the only sport where the Seminoles are excelling. Football is just one of four sports where Florida State currently ranks in the top 5. Here is a look at the other three:
Men’s Golf
National Ranking: 4th (GCAA Coaches Poll, October 3rd)
Finishes: 2nd at Olympia Fields Invitational (September 12th-14th)
2nd at Jerry Pate National Intercollegiate (October 6th-7th)
1st at Tavistock Intercollegiate Invitational (October 19th-21st)
Top Players:
Rowin Caron, Junior
Junior Rowin Caron finished fourth at the Olympia Fields Invitational early in the season and finished fourth at the Tavistock Intercollegiate Invitational this past week.
Hank Lebioda, Junior
Hank Lebioda notched top 10 finishes at the Jerry Pate National Intercollegiate and Tavistock Intercollegiate Invitational. Lebioda shot -8 at the Jerry Pate Intercollegiate in Alabama to tie for second before finishing tied for seventh at Lake Nona this past week.
Women’s Soccer
Record: 14-1
National Ranking: 2nd (NSCAA Coaches Poll, October 21st)
Key Wins: Virginia (1-0, September 28th) and Virginia Tech (2-1, October 12th)
Top Players:
Cassie Miller, Freshman Goalkeeper
Cassie Miller has 10 shutouts in 15 games this season for the Lady ‘Noles and leads the ACC in goals against average.
Dagny Brynsjardottir, Senior Midfielder
Dagny Brynsjardottir ranks fourth in the ACC with nine goals on the season. Brynsjardottir scored the lone goal against Virginia on September 28th as Florida State handed the Cavaliers their only loss of the season.
Berglind Thorvaldsdottir, Sophomore Forward
Berglind Thorvaldsdottir ranks second in the ACC with 10 goals on the year. She is tied with Dagny Brynsjardottir for the team-lead in points this season.
Women’s Volleyball
Record: 19-0
National Ranking: 4th (AVCA Coaches Poll, October 20th)
Key Wins: Nebraska (3-1, August 29th), Florida (3-2, September 4th), and North Carolina (3-0, September 26th)
Top Players:
Katie Mosher, Senior Defensive Specialist
Senior defensive specialist Katie Mosher leads the Seminoles with 4.4 digs-per-set, which ranks fourth in the ACC.
Nicole Walch, Junior Outside Hitter
For Florida State this season, no one has been better at putting opponents away than Nicole Walch. At 6’2″, Walch ranks third in the ACC averaging better than four kills-per-set.
Sarah Burrington, Sophomore Middle Backer
Sarah Burrington, a 6’5″ middle backer, has been an enforcer around the net this season. Averaging 1.4 blocks-per-set, Burrington leads the Lady ‘Noles and ranks fifth in the ACC.A dog "jumping around" in the backseat of a parked pickup truck in Wyoming accidentally discharged a rifle that wounded a man standing outside the vehicle, authorities told NBC News on Friday. The victim, 46-year-old Richard Fipps, was taken to a hospital in rural Sheridan on Monday for a non-life-threatening injury to his lower left arm, said Johnson County Sheriff Steve Kozisek.
The Sheridan Press first reported that Fipps could lose his arm because of the injury, but Kozisek couldn't say Friday if that was still the case. Fipps, a Sheridan landowner, couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
The incident happened as Fipps and two of his employees were trying to use chains to free another pickup truck stuck in the road. Fipps ordered the pooch — described as a "ranch dog" — from the front seat of the parked pickup to the back, where a.300 Winchester Magnum rifle was kept, Kozisek said. The gun's safety had been left off.
"At some point, when the dog was jumping around, he either hit the trigger of the firearm or caused something else in the backseat to hit the trigger," Kozisek said.
The bullet passed through the pickup's cab and hit Fipps, who was standing to the right side of the vehicle. His employees drove him to the hospital, and he was eventually transferred to another facility in Billings, authorities said. No charges were expected to be filed against the gun's owner.
IN-DEPTHICE Raids Net More Arrests In Texas And In New York City… MORE TO COME!
More ICE Raids Throughout The U.S.
More ICE raids are being reported throughout the country in addition to the ones reported earlier in this week in Southern California, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
The new raids that have been reported have taken place in New York City and in Austin, Texas.
Breitbart News reports that in Austin, Texas ICE officers have begun to round up criminal illegal aliens.
From Breitbart:
The Mexican consul general in San Antonio claimed that Operation Crosscheck is underway in six different states, the Austin American-Statesman reported. ICE agents have arrested 44 criminal aliens in the past two days.
Pix11 in New York is reporting that there have been multiple arrests made in New York City as well of criminal illegal aliens.
From Pix11:
Five Staten Island residents from Mexico were arrested in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids that were conducted this past week. The immigrants were arrested in ICE raids that began on Feb. 3 and ended this Wednesday, a source told PIX11 news.
The important thing to remember is that everything that is going on is in the best interest of the American public. Immigrants are not being arrested. Illegal Immigrants are being arrested. There is a big difference between the two, one chooses to do things the right way while the other chooses to break the law to further themselves. Those who are willing to break to law in one area will be willing to break it in another.
Follow Ryan Saavedra On Twitter @NewsRevoltRyanAs the advertising campaign for Rob Zombie’s newest comic book title “WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BARON VON SHOCK?” is just over the horizon the rockstar, turned director, turned comic author posted a press release for his new title from image due out on May 26th that included a finished cover of the first issue that promises sex, drugs, and monsters. Hey, it’s Rob Zombie, could you have asked for anything less? Read on for the skinny.
“Rob Zombie explores the gruesome world of fame and fortune with Baron Von Shock
Berkeley, CA – 15 March 2010 Is there anything ROB ZOMBIE can’t do? From music to television to movies, Zombie has proven himself to be a boundary-jumping entertainment juggernaut. In May, he returns to conquer comics with ROB ZOMBIE PRESENTS: WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BARON VON SHOCK? Zombie has concocted a delightfully depressing tale about the seduction of celebrity culture and its pitfalls. BARON VON SHOCK is illustrated by DONNY HADIWIDJAJA and VAL STAPLES and published by Image Comics.
“This comic venture is very, very different in tone for me. Instead of a crazy over-the-top monster-fest like El Superbeasto, I wanted to create something that works more on a slice of life human level.” states Zombie, “After El Superbeasto became a movie, I felt I had taken that style as far as I could. So, I really needed Baron Von Shock to be something fresh in writing and in art.”
“After publishing THE HAUNTED WORLD OF EL SUPERBEASTO, we jumped at the chance to work with Rob again on BARON VON SHOCK,” says Image Publisher Eric Stephenson. “Baron Von Shock is darkly humorous, thrilling and uncompromising everything fans expect a Rob Zombie story to be.”
In BARON VON SHOCK, Rob Zombie returns to comics with a dark dramedy describing the fantastic rise and spiraling decent of celebrity. Being in the right place at the right time isn’t always a good thing, as Leon Stokes aka Baron Von Shock finds out first hand. His sudden rise to fame as a local television horror host meets with unexpected results. BARON VON SHOCK proves to be a roller coaster of emotion that only Rob Zombie can deliver.”
“WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BARON VON SHOCK?” Hits Stores From Image Comics On May 26th! (MSRP-$3.99)By Terry Anderson, professor in Distance Education, Athabasca University.
As an educational technologist, I seem always infatuated with the latest tools, even as I grow increasingly alert to what is lost as well as what is gained from their use.
Learning analytics joins the family of mostly commercial applications based on “big data”. These tools promises — perhaps too optimistically — to replace metaphors of information overload, info glut and obesity with the more optimistic sense that, although “big” we can effectively gather and interpret the torrent of digital information traces left by distance teachers and learners.
Both distance educators and students have traditionally suffered from a lack of awareness of each other. The black hole of geography and temporal distance has, in the past, only been penetrated by sporadic interactions with content, fellow students or teachers. Traces from these fleeting interactions have quickly disappeared or been completely hidden from all the actors.
« The abuses on personal data have made both educators and students leery of inviting “big brother” to oversee our teaching and learning »
Learning analytics gives us the optimistic promise that these interaction traces will now not only become visible, but from subsequent sophisticated analysis a host of personalized interventions, diagnostic insights, comparative intuitions and profound insights of both the strengths and the weaknesses of our education programming, will emerge. Who could not eagerly look forward to the dawn of this golden age?
But as the Canadian philosopher of communication theory Marshall McLuhan and many others have noted1, each new media takes away as well as enhances our human potential. The first challenge stems from the ownership of this data. The abuses by both governments and commercial services of personal data have made both educators and students, leery of inviting “big brother” to oversee our teaching and learning activities.
This is especially egregious when the data collected and analyzed is not made available to those who created it. As education moves beyond institutional learning management system onto a variety of personal learning tools that are selected by individual learners and teachers, the challenges of collecting data and the potential for exploitation of this personal data increases.
« Results must always be interpreted with an appreciation of their potential for inaccuracy and lack of validity »
Secondly, as researchers at Microsoft Research danah boyd and Kate Crawford noted2, learning analytics currently suffers from the delusion “that large data sets offer a higher form of intelligence and knowledge that can generate insights that were previously impossible, with the aura of truth, objectivity, and accuracy.” The former may be true, but the later belief in “truth, objectivity and accuracy” is far from proven.
Indeed, to date we measure the easily measured — traces such as participation data, quiz results and time on line — all of which may be associated with good teaching and learning, but can as easily be associated with deception, bad pedagogy and teaching to the test. Determining and accurately measuring indicators of quality learning is a challenging task and doubtlessly influenced by both cultural and academic predisposition. Thus, results must always be interpreted with an appreciation of their potential for inaccuracy and lack of validity.
Despite these concerns, I am optimistic. Learning analytics can be a spotlight that penetrates the darkness that has to date plagued both distance educators and students. With smart application it stands to benefit both learners and teachers.
Footnotes:
1. McLuhan, M., & McLuhan, E. (1988). Laws of media: The new science (Vol. 1): University of Toronto Press, Toronto.
2. boyd, d., & Crawford, K. (2012). Critical questions for big data. Information, Communication & Society, 15(5), 662-679.If Americans act on the guidelines and lower their blood pressure by exercising more and eating a healthier diet, or with drug therapy, they could drive an already falling death rate from heart attacks and stroke even lower, experts said.
Now, high blood pressure will be defined as 130/80 millimeters of mercury or greater for anyone with a significant risk of heart attack or stroke. The previous guidelines defined high blood pressure as 140/90. (The first number describes the pressure on blood vessels when the heart contracts, and the second refers to the pressure as the heart relaxes between beats.)
Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death among Americans. The new criteria, the first official diagnostic revision since 2003, result from growing evidence that blood pressure far lower than had been considered normal greatly reduces the chances of heart attack and stroke, as well as the overall risk of death.
Recent research indicates this is true even among older people for whom intensive treatment had been thought too risky. That finding, from a large federal study in 2015, caught many experts by surprise and set the stage for the new revision.
That calculation must be individualized, and experts are recommending that patients use a calculator developed by the guidelines committee at ccccalculator.ccctracker.com.
Nearly half of all American adults, and nearly 80 percent of those aged 65 and older, will find that they qualify and will need to take steps to reduce their blood pressure.
Even under the relatively more lenient standard that had prevailed for years, close to half of patients did not manage to get their blood pressure down to normal.
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“Is it going to affect a lot of people, and is it going to be hard to meet those blood pressure goals?” asked Dr. Raymond Townsend, director of the hypertension program at Penn Medicine. “The answer is a pretty significant yes.”
According to the new guidelines, anyone with at least a 10 percent risk of a heart attack or stroke in the next decade should aim for blood pressure below 130/80.
But simply being age 65 or older brings a 10 percent risk of cardiovascular trouble, and so effectively everyone over that age will have to shoot for the new target.
Younger patients with this level of risk include those with conditions like heart disease, kidney disease or diabetes. The new standard will apply to them, as well.
People whose risk of heart attack or stroke is less than 10 percent will be told to aim for blood pressure below 140/90, a more lenient standard, and to take medications if necessary to do so.
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If there is any good news for patients here, it is that nearly all the drugs used to treat high blood pressure are generic now. Many cost pennies a day, and most people can take them without side effects.
In formulating the guidelines, the expert committee reviewed more than 1,000 research reports. But the change is due largely to convincing data from a federal study published in 2015.
That study, called Sprint, explored whether markedly lower blood pressure in older people — lower than researchers had ever tried to establish — might be both achievable and beneficial.
The investigators assigned more than 9,300 men and women ages 50 and older who were at high risk of heart disease to one of two targets: a systolic pressure (the higher of the two blood pressure measures) of less than 120, or a systolic pressure of less than 140.
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In participants who were assigned to get their systolic pressures below 120, the incidence of heart attacks, heart failure and strokes fell by a third, and the risk of death fell by nearly a quarter.
Those patients ended up taking three drugs on average, instead of two, yet experienced no more side effects or complications than subjects in the other group.
Some experts in geriatrics had expected many more complications among older patients receiving more intense treatment, especially increased dizziness, falls and dehydration.
Instead, the benefits for older people were impressive. With a lower risk of heart attacks and strokes, they were more likely to maintain their independence.
“They had half the rate of disability,” said Dr. Jeff Williamson, head of the Sticht Center on Aging at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center and the only geriatrician on the committee drawing up the new guidelines.
But more intensive drug treatment in so many more patients may increase rates of kidney disease, some experts fear. In the Sprint trial, the incidence of acute kidney injury was twice as high in the group receiving drugs to reduce their systolic pressure to 120.
“Although the lower goal was better for the heart, it wasn’t better for the kidney,” said Dr. Townsend of Penn Medicine, who is a kidney specialist. “So yeah, I’m worried.”
While agreeing that lower blood pressure is better, Dr. J. Michael Gaziano, a preventive cardiologist at Brigham |
to be Treasury secretary, doesn’t serve on the boards of any policy-oriented institutions, and there is no evidence he has ever appeared on a panel at the Brookings Institution, the American Enterprise Institute or any of the other places in Washington where people debate economic policy.
“I had never heard of him,” said Stan Veuger, an economic policy expert at A.E.I., an often-heard comment from Washington policy people since Mr. Mnuchin emerged as a candidate to run the Treasury Department.
There’s nothing wrong with that, of course, and speaking on panels at the Brookings Institution is neither a prerequisite for high government office nor a guarantee that a person will be any good at it. Mr. Mnuchin is, from the accounts of those who have worked with him, smart, capable and pragmatic.Rivers of Blood: Why Enoch Powell Was Right!
Introduction
The supreme function of statesmanship is to provide against preventable evils. In seeking to do so, it encounters obstacles which are deeply rooted in human nature. From the first line of Enoch Powell's Rivers of Blood speech.
Government is not incompetent, don't be deceived. Extremist elements in the establishment are plotting an international communist revolution.
Divide and conquer strategies like this work by making people feel threatened, playing one group off against another.
React in anger and you are seen as the cause of the evil.
Putting an end to this criminal insanity requires that those who know not what they do are turned, forgiven and not forced to resist.
Knowledge is power: Power from knowledge withheld or knowledge given. The power of the elite is based on knowledge withheld. This is their secret and how to beat them..........
Table of Contents
Why is this happening again? Why does this strategy even exist? And who are the infamous "They" of "They plot and scheme, but so do I"?
Qur'an 86:13-16 "This is a truly decisive statement, it is not something to be taken lightly. They plot and scheme, but so do I: Prophet, let the disbelievers be, let them be for a while."
Qur'an 2:218 "But those who have believed, migrated and striven for God's cause, it is they who can look forward to God's mercy..."
Qur'an 9:20 "Those who believe, who migrated and strove hard in God's way with their possessions and persons, are in God's eyes much higher in rank; it is they who will triumph;"
Qur'an 22:58 "He will give a generous provision to those who migrated in God's way and were killed or died: He is the best provider."
Qur'an 13:41-42 "Do they not see how We come to their land and shrink it's borders? God decides - no one can reverse His decision - and He is swift in reckoning. Those before them also schemed, but the overall scheme belongs to God: He knows what each soul does. In the end, the disbelievers will find out who will have the excellent home."
Qur'an 47:18-19 "What are the disbelievers waiting for, other than the Hour which will come upon them unawares? Its signs are already here, but once the Hour has actually arrived, what use will it be to take heed?"
Qur'an 6:25 "Among them are some who [appear to] listen to you, but we have placed covers over their hearts - so they do not understand the Qur'an - and deafness in their ears. Even if they saw every sign they would not believe in them. So, when they come to you, they argue with you: the disbelievers say, 'These are nothing but ancient fables.'"
Qur'an 70:29-30 "who guard their chastity from all but their spouses or slave-girls they are not to blame."
Qur'an 9:14 "Fight them: God will punish them at your hands, He will disgrace them, he will help you conquer them, He will heal the believers feelings."
For "ancient fables" (Qur'an 6:25) think along the lines of what is written in Deuteronomy (See section 2). For the who of They (Qur'an 86:13-16) keep reading................
Compare the strategy here to cultural Marxism and globalisation as well as what's going on around you: Yes really, take a look! It isn't just a coincidence either, compare this strategy to and
History repeats for a reason. Subversives can advance this divide and conquer strategy as easily as calling people racist, intolerant, bigots, deluded or a danger to society and the agenda rolls on regardless of people's concerns. It's timeless......
And this is what they are doing.......
Deuteronomy 28:1-2 New International Version (NIV)
1 If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:
Deuteronomy 7:16-24 (NIV)
16 You must destroy all the peoples the Lord your God gives over to you. (Miscegenation) Do not look on them with pity and do not serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you.
17 You may say to yourselves, "These nations are stronger than we are. How can we drive them out?" (Mass immigration) 18 But do not be afraid of them; remember well what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt. 19 You saw with your own eyes the great trials, the signs and wonders, the mighty hand and outstretched arm, (Infiltration & subversion) with which the Lord your God brought you out. The Lord your God will do the same to all the peoples you now fear. 20 Moreover, the Lord your God will send the hornet among them until even the survivors who hide from you have perished. (Civil war & famine) 21 Do not be terrified by them, for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God. 22 The Lord your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little. You will not be allowed to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals (Angry people) will multiply around you. 23 But the Lord your God will deliver them over to you, throwing them into great confusion until they are destroyed. (Lies & deception, creating a situation beyond people's powers of understanding) 24 He will give their kings into your hand, and you will wipe out their names from under heaven. (Erase & distort history) No one will be able to stand up against you; (Just call them racist) you will destroy them.
Deuteronomy 7:5-6 (NIV)
5 This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, (Destroy religion & promote atheism) smash their sacred stones, (Destroy tradition) cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire. 6 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.
Deuteronomy 9:4-5 (NIV)
4 After the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, "The Lord has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness." No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is going to drive them out before you. (Encouragement of gambling, drunkenness, drugs & injustice) 5 It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Deuteronomy 28:9-14 (NIV)
9 The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the Lord your God and walk in obedience to him. 10 Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will fear you. 11 The Lord will grant you abundant prosperityin the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your groundin the land he swore to your ancestors to give you. 12 The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. (Usury, debt slavery, unsustainable government spending leading to collapse) 13 The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom. (Political correctness) 14 Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them.
Deuteronomy 32:28-35 (NIV)
28 They are a nation without sense, there is no discernment in them. (Political correctness) 29 If only they were wise and would understand this and discern what their end will be! 30 How could one man chase a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, (Call them racist, intolerant, bigots etc..) unless their Rock had sold them, unless the Lord had given them up? (Christianity corrupted) 31 For their rock is not like our Rock, as even our enemies concede. 32 Their vine comes from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are filled with poison, and their clusters with bitterness. 33 Their wine is the venom of serpents, the deadly poison of cobras. (Pornography, erosion of morals & advancement of gay rights) 34 "Have I not kept this in reserve and sealed it in my vaults? 35 It is mine to avenge; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them." (Societal collapse & revolution)
Deuteronomy 8:18 (NIV)
18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.
Numbers 33:55-56 (NIV)
55 But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the land where you will live. 56 And then I will do to you what I plan to do to them.
Habakkuk 1:4-5 (NIV)
4 Therefore the law is paralysed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted. (No one believes the conspiracy could be true) 5 "Look at the nations and watch- and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.
Habakkuk 1:14-17 (NIV)
14 You have made people like the fish in the sea, like the sea creatures that have no ruler. 15 The wicked foe pulls all of them up with hooks, he catches them in his net, he gathers them up in his dragnet; and so he rejoices and is glad. 16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his dragnet, for by his net he lives in luxury and enjoys the choicest food. (Traditionalists marginalised while subversives prosper) 17 Is he to keep on emptying his net, destroying nations without mercy? (Strategy repeats)
Habakkuk 2:10 (NIV)
10 You have plotted the ruin of many peoples, shaming your own house and forfeiting your life.
The Deuteronomy strategy was employed in Medina, except Muhammad saw what was going on and took over the city himself. These quotations explain how.....
Qur'an 86:13-16 "This is a truly decisive statement, it is not something to be taken lightly. They plot and scheme, but so do I: Prophet, let the disbelievers be, let them be for a while."
Qur'an 2:218 "But those who have believed, migrated and striven for God's cause, it is they who can look forward to God's mercy..."
Qur'an 9:20 "Those who believe, who migrated and strove hard in God's way with their possessions and persons, are in God's eyes much higher in rank; it is they who will triumph;"
Qur'an 22:58 "He will give a generous provision to those who migrated in God's way and were killed or died: He is the best provider."
Qur'an 13:41-42 "Do they not see how We come to their land and shrink it's borders? God decides - no one can reverse His decision - and He is swift in reckoning. Those before them also schemed, but the overall scheme belongs to God: He knows what each soul does. In the end, the disbelievers will find out who will have the excellent home."
Qur'an 47:18-19 "What are the disbelievers waiting for, other than the Hour which will come upon them unawares? Its signs are already here, but once the Hour has actually arrived, what use will it be to take heed?"
Qur'an 6:25 "Among them are some who [appear to] listen to you, but we have placed covers over their hearts - so they do not understand the Qur'an - and deafness in their ears. Even if they saw every sign they would not believe in them. So, when they come to you, they argue with you: the disbelievers say, 'These are nothing but ancient fables.'"
Qur'an 2:216 "Fighting has been ordained for you, though it is hard for you. You may dislike something although it is good for you, or like something although it is bad for you: God knows and you do not."
Qur'an 8:60 "Prepare against them whatever forces you (believers) can muster, including warhorses, to frighten off (these) enemies of God and of yours, and warn others unknown to you but known to God, Whatever you give in God's cause will be repaid to you in full, and you will not be wronged."
Qur'an 8:65-66 "Prophet, urge the believers to fight: if there are twenty of you who are steadfast, they will overcome two hundred, and a hundred of you, if steadfast will overcome a thousand of the disbelievers, for they are people who do not understand. But God has lightened the burden for now, knowing there is weakness in you - a steadfast hundred of you will defeat two hundred and a steadfast thousand of you will defeat two thousand, by God's permission. God is with the steadfast."
Qur'an 4:74 "Let those of you willing to trade the life of this world for the life to come, fight in God's way. To anyone who fights in God's way, whether killed or victorious, We shall give a great reward."
Qur'an 9:111 "God has purchased the persons and possessions of the believers in return for the Garden they fight in God's way: they kill and are killed this is the true promise given by him in the Torah, the Gospel and the Qur'an. Who could be more faithful to his promise than God? So be happy with the bargain you have made: that is the supreme triumph."
Qur'an 48:29 "Muhammad is the Messenger of God. Those who follow him are harsh towards disbelievers and compassionate towards each other."
Qur'an 5.33 "Those who wage war against God and His Messenger and strive to spread corruption in the land should be punished by death, crucifixion, the amputation of an alternate hand and foot, or banishment from the land: a disgrace for them in this world, and then a terrible punishment in the Hereafter, unless they repent before you overpower them in that case bear in mind that God is forgiving and merciful."
Qur'an 33:60-62 "If the hypocrites, the sick at heart, and those who spread lies in the city do not desist, We shall rouse you (Prophet) against them, and then they will only be your neighbours in this city for a short while. They will be rejected. Wherever they are found, they will be arrested and put to death. This has been God's practice with those who went before. You will find no change in God's practices."
Qur'an 8:12-14 "Your Lord revealed to the angels: 'I am with you: give the believers firmness; I shall put fear into the hearts of the disbelievers strike above their necks and strike all their fingers'. That was because they opposed God and His Messenger, and if anyone opposes God and His Messenger, God punishes them severely 'That is what you get! Taste that!' and the torment of the Fire awaits the disbelievers."
Qur'an 9:14 "Fight them: God will punish them at your hands, He will disgrace them, he will help you conquer them, He will heal the believers feelings."
And if the situation is reversed:
Qur'an 2:191 "Kill them wherever you encounter them, and drive them out from where they drove you out, for persecution is more serious than killing."
Translation by M.A.S Abdel Haleem
Sahih Muslim 6985 "Abu Huraira reported Allah's Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews".
We are all the victims of the "New World Order". This includes the Muslims the vast majority of whom are simply victims of circumstance. Peace requires understanding and mutual respect. Different groups all working on their own agendas within the same lands is itself divisive, causes a breakdown in trust and is the ultimate cause of conflict.
Communists are the useful idiots and cannon fodder of a societal collapse. Early adopters work subversively to help undermine society while the masses think they are fighting and dying for a workers paradise, rather than their own enslavement. Some see it as nothing more than a means to total power and world domination.
There are thousands of subversive organisations full of well meaning people who believe they are doing good. e.g. People who believe they are helping Africans by flooding Africa with free shoes & clothes but are unwittingly helping to destroy the African economy and its manufacturers, sending waves of migrants to Europe. Cause, effect, action and reaction.
Knowing what the bomb makers want is more important than knowing what all the bag carriers think they are up to.
"The state is an instrument for coercion. We want to organize violence in the name of the interests of the workers." Lenin in 1917
"Religion is the opium of the people: this saying of Marx is the cornerstone of the entire ideology of Marxism about religion. All modern religions and churches, all and of every kind of religious organizations are always considered by Marxism as the organs of bourgeois reaction, used for the protection of the exploitation and the stupefaction of the working class" The attitude of the working party toward religion by Lenin.
Our program necessarily includes the propaganda of atheism Lenin
The 1922 English translation of The ABC of Communism:
Section 32 "A Decisive victory over the enemy and the realization of the dictatorship of the proletariat - Such will be the inevitable outcome of the world wide civil war."
Section 33 "Manifestly it is essential that Humanity shall make an end of capitalism once and for all. With this goal in view, we can endure the period of civil wars, and can pave the way for Communism, which will heal all wounds"
Section 34 "We are thus confronted by two alternatives, and only two. There must either be complete disintegration, hell broth, further brutalisation and disorder, absolute chaos, or else communism."
Section 56 "It is essential that the working class should overcome all national prejudices and national enmities. This is a requisite, not only for the world-wide attack upon capital and for the complete overthrow of the capitalist system, but also for the organization of a single world-wide economic system."
Section 57 "The bourgeoisies of all countries, especially of late, join the cry, 'down with the Jews!' The aim of this is to switch off the class struggle of the workers against their capitalist oppressors, into a struggle between nationalities."
Section 60 "Today, even British ministers of state sometimes deliver antisemitic orations. This is an infallible sign that the bourgeois system in the West is in the eve of a collapse, and that the bourgeoisie is endeavouring to ward off the workers' revolution by throwing Rothchilds and Mendelssohns to the workers as sops."
Section 77 "In the matter of education, as in all other matters, the Communist Party is not merely faced by constructive tasks, for in the opening phases of it's activity it is likewise faced by destructive tasks. In the education system bequeathed to it by capitalist society, it must hasten to destroy everything which has made of the school an instrument of the capitalist class rule."
Section 92 "The transition From socialism to Communism, the transition from the society which makes an end of capitalism to the society which is completely freed from all traces of class division and class struggle, will bring about the natural death of all religion and all superstition."
Don't be deceived, all are being used by the criminal elite to bring the same revolutionary strategy to fruition. Creating all the poverty, misunderstanding and hatred needed to feed the beast of world communism. Government is not simply incompetent.
If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.
This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones.
You must destroy all the peoples the Lord your God gives over to you.
You may say to yourselves, "These nations are stronger than we are. How can we drive them out?"
The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.
You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none.
They are a nation without sense, there is no discernment in them. If only they were wise and would understand this and discern what their end will be! How could one man chase a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight?
He will give their kings into your hand, and you will wipe out their names from under heaven. No one will be able to stand up against you; you will destroy them.
Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will fear you.
World communism is their goal. Obviously most communists don't realise they are being deceived into assisting with strategy from the Old Testament/Torah.
Liberalism is used to break down traditional values and morals while using political correctness to silence any opposition.
Capitalism is used to justify mass immigration on globalist economic grounds. Much of what passes for capitalism is really just subversion and the theft of state assets!
We are the victims of a truly unspeakable crime, as are the vast majority of the immigrants brought here under false pretences to be used so cruelly and then themselves to live as slaves under communism.
Mein Kampf (James Murphy Translation)
History is being hidden and repeated.....
Volume 1 Chapter 4
"Nobody can doubt that this world will one day be the scene of dreadful struggles for existence on the part of mankind. In the end the instinct of self-preservation alone will triumph."
"Once we know what the consequences of this 'internal colonization' theory would be we can no longer consider as a mere accident the fact that among those who inculcate this quite pernicious mentality among our people the Jew is always in the first line."
"It is specially difficult to understand how the belief that the State is brought into being and preserved by economic forces could gain currency in a country which has given proof of the opposite in every phase of its history. The history of Prussia shows, in a manner particularly clear and distinct, that it is out of the moral virtues of the people and not from their economic circumstances that a State is formed."
"But as soon as economic interests begin to predominate over the racial and cultural instincts in a people or a State, these economic interests unloose the causes that lead to the subjugation and oppression."
"How then did it happen that the political instincts of this very same German people became so degenerate? For it was not merely one isolated phenomenon which pointed to this decadence, but morbid symptoms which appeared in alarming numbers, now all over the body politic, or eating into the body of the nation, like a gangrenous ulcer. It seemed as if some all-pervading poisonous fluid had been injected by some mysterious hand into the bloodstream of this once heroic body, bringing about a creeping paralysis that affected the reason and the elementary instinct of self-preservation."
"Even as early as that time I warned people around me, just as I am warning a wider audience now, against that soothing slogan of all indolent and feckless nature: Nothing can happen to us."
"Long before then the spiritual and moral decline of the German people had set in, though those who were affected by the morbid decadence were frequently unaware - as so often happens - of the forces which were breaking up their very existence."
Volume 1 Chapter 10
"The broad masses of the people see little of the cultural, political, and moral background of this collapse. Many of them completely lack both the necessary feeling and powers of understanding for it."
"If we study the course of our cultural life during the last twenty-five years we shall be astonished to note how far we have already gone in this process of retrogression. Everywhere we find the presence of those germs which give rise to protuberant growths that must sooner or later - bring about the ruin of our culture."
"Only those who have nothing of value to give to the world will oppose everything that already exists and would have it destroyed at all costs."
"The efforts made to conceal the past from the eyes of the present afforded clear evidence of the fact that these apostles of the future acted from an evil intent. These symptoms should have made it clear to all that it was not a question of new, though wrong, cultural ideas but of a process which was undermining the very foundations of civilisation. It threw the artistic feeling which had hitherto been quite sane into utter confusion, thus spiritually preparing the way for political Bolshevism."
"The ultimate and most profound reason of the German downfall is to be found in the fact that the racial problem was ignored and that its importance in the historical development of nations was not grasped."
Volume 2 Chapter 1
"Once we understand the impenetrable stupidity of our public, we cannot be surprised that such tactics turn out successful. Led by the press and blinded once again by the alluring appearance of the new program, the bourgeois as well as the proletarian herds of voters faithfully return to the common stall and re-elect their old deceivers...................
Scarcely anything else can be so depressing as to watch this process in sober reality and to be the eyewitness of this repeatedly recurring fraud. On a spiritual training ground of that kind it is not possible for the bourgeois forces to develop the strength which is necessary to carry on the fight against the organized might of Marxism."
"Marxism will march shoulder to shoulder with democracy until it succeeds indirectly in securing for its own criminal purposes even the support of those whose minds are nationally oriented and whom Marxism strives to exterminate."
"As I have said, only a very credulous soul could think of binding himself to observe the rules of the game when he has to face a player for whom those rules are nothing but a mere bluff or a means of serving his own interests, which means he will discard them when they prove no longer useful for his purpose."
"On this planet of ours human culture and civilization are indissolubly bound up with the presence of the Aryan. If he should be exterminated or subjugated, then the dark shroud of a new barbarian era would enfold the earth. To undermine the existence of human culture by exterminating its founders and custodians would be an execrable crime in the eyes of those who believe that the folk-idea lies at the basis of human existence."
"Only when the international idea, politically organized by Marxism, is confronted by the folk idea, equally well organised in a systematic way and equally well led - only then will the fighting energy in the one camp be able to meet that of the other on an equal footing: and victory will be found on the side of eternal truth."
Volume 1 Chapter 3
"For the first time nationalists and patriots were transformed into rebels. Not rebels against the nation or the state as such but rebels against a form of government which, they were convinced, would inevitably bring about the ruin of their own people"
"If a Government uses the instruments of power in its hands for the purpose of leading a people to ruin, then rebellion is not only the right but also the duty of every individual citizen."
"The doom of a nation can be averted only by a storm of glowing passion: but those who are passionate themselves can arouse passion in others. It is only through the capacity for passionate feeling that chosen leaders can wield the power of the world which like hammer blows, will open the door to the hearts of the people."
From the May 1932 Emergency Economic Program of the NSDAP.
"The Marxist objection that one must proletarianize the independent middle class in the interests of hurrying the arrival of the future Marxist state contradicts the interests of the German worker. The goal for the German worker must not be the proletarianizing of the middle class, but rather the deproletarianizing of the German worker, and providing him with property."
From Hitler's Last Political Testament signed on 29 April 1945 as the Russians closed in on Berlin.
"I never desired that after the first terrible World War a second war should arise against England or even against America. Centuries may pass, but out of the ruins of our cities and cultural monuments there will arise anew the hatred for the people who alone are ultimately responsible: International Jewry and its helpers."
The New Testament counter strategy.
John 15:18 New International Version (NIV)
18 "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first."
Matthew 7:15-29 (NIV)
15 "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them."
21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?' 23 Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'
24 "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
John 7:1-13 (NIV)
1 After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him. 2 But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, 3 Jesus' brothers said to him, "Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. 4 No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world." 5 For even his own brothers did not believe in him.
6 Therefore Jesus told them, "My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. 7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil. 8 You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come." 9 After he had said this, he stayed in Galilee.
10 However, after his brothers had left for the festival, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. 11 Now at the festival the Jewish leaders were watching for Jesus and asking, "Where is he?" 12 Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, "He is a good man." Others replied, "No, he deceives the people." 13 But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the leaders.
John 8:31-47 (NIV)
31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
33 They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"
34 Jesus replied, "Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are Abraham's descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. 38 I am telling you what I have seen in the Father's presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father."
39 "Abraham is our father," they answered. "If you were Abraham's children," said Jesus, "then you would do what Abraham did. 40 As it is, you are looking for a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. 41 You are doing the works of your own father." "We are not illegitimate children," they protested. "The only Father we have is God himself."
42 Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. 43 Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. 44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! 46 Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don't you believe me? 47 Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God."
John 10:11-16 (NIV)
11 "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd."
John 15:13-15 (NIV)
13 "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you."
Revelation 3:9 (NIV)
9 "I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars. I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you."
Matthew 13:36-43 (NIV)
36 Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him |
. Beverly Hills Cop III currently holds a 10% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 49 reviews.[14] Metacritic, which assigns a normalized score, rated it 16/100 based on 15 reviews.[15] Richard Natale of Variety called it "a return to form by Eddie Murphy" that "runs out of steam before the end".[16] Caryn James of The New York Times wrote that the film is designed to be a foolproof and safe money-maker, but Murphy plays Foley too straight.[17] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly rated it D- and called Murphy's performance joyless and depressing.[18]
Beverly Hills Cop III was nominated for two Golden Raspberry Awards, for Landis as Worst Director and the film as Worst Remake or Sequel.
Sequel [ edit ]
A fourth entry in the series was initially announced for release in the mid-1990s, under the production of Eddie Murphy's own production company "Eddie Murphy Productions", though production later fizzled out.[19] It was re-announced in 2006, when producer Jerry Bruckheimer announced his intention to resurrect the film series, though he eventually gave up his option to produce the film, instead passing production duties to Lorenzo di Bonaventura.[20][21] In September 2006 a script, an amalgamation of several earlier drafts, was presented to Murphy who was reported to be "very happy" with the outline which was described as an attempt to recapture the "feel of the original".[22][23] Murphy admitted one of his motivations for making a fourth Beverly Hills Cop film was to make up for the fact that the third film was "horrible" and that "he didn't want to leave (the series) like that".[24][25]
In May 2008, Rush Hour director Brett Ratner was officially named director, who promised the film would return under the series' standard "R" rating, rather than as a rumored watered down PG-13.[26][27] Michael Brandt and Derek Haas were hired as screenwriters to improve on the existing script in July 2008[28] and completed a new script, under the working title Beverly Hills Cop 2009, which would see Foley return to Beverly Hills to investigate the murder of his friend Billy Rosewood.[19] The script was eventually rejected, leaving Ratner to work on a new idea. In an interview with Empire magazine, Ratner stated "I'm working very hard on the fourth. It's very difficult, especially since there were three before. We're trying to figure out some important things, like where do we start? Is Axel retired? Is he in Beverly Hills? Is he on vacation? Does Judge Reinhold return as the loveable Billy Rosewood? Many questions to figure out, but I'm hoping to have a script before film disappears from our existence."[19] Although Murphy himself committed to the project, it was unconfirmed whether the series' other principal actors, Judge Reinhold, John Ashton, Ronny Cox or Bronson Pinchot would also return,[29] though Ratner stated in late 2009 that he was trying to convince Reinhold and Ashton to reprise their roles.[30] Harold Faltermeyer's "Axel F", however, would definitely be returning for the proposed fourth installment, with Ratner quoted as saying "It'll be back but it'll be a whole new interpretation."[31] On November 15, 2010, Ratner stated in an interview with MTV that there was still a possibility that they will make a fourth film, but that it wouldn't be "anytime soon."[32]
In October 2011, Murphy discussed a possible fourth film, stating, "They're not doing it. What I'm trying to do now is produce a TV show starring Axel Foley's son, and Axel is the chief of police now in Detroit. I'd do the pilot, show up here and there. None of the movie scripts were right; it was trying to force the premise. If you have to force something, you shouldn't be doing it. It was always a rehash of the old thing. It was always wrong."[33]
During late Summer 2013, after CBS decided to pass on the TV series, Paramount decided to move forward with the fourth film. On September 13, 2013, Jerry Bruckheimer, stated he was in talks to produce. On December 6, 2013, it was announced that Eddie Murphy will again reprise the role of Axel Foley and Brett Ratner will direct.[34] On May 2, 2014, Deadline announced that screenwriters Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec would be penning the screenplay.[35]
On June 27, 2014, in an interview with Rolling Stone, Murphy discussed returning to the edgier type character of Axel Foley after years of making family friendly films. "I haven't done a street guy, working class, blue-collar character in ages so maybe it's like, 'Oh, wow, I didn't remember he was able to do that'" Murphy said.[citation needed] According to studio reports on the film's plot, Foley returns to Detroit after leaving his job in Beverly Hills and he's faced with the coldest winter on record to navigate the new rules and old enemies of one of America's most tenacious cities.[citation needed] The state of Michigan approved $13.5 million in film incentives, based on an estimated $56.6 million of filmmaker spending in the state.[citation needed] The film was supposed to be shot in and around Detroit and was estimated to provide jobs for 352 workers. The film was originally scheduled for a March 25, 2016 release,[36] but on May 6, 2015, Paramount Pictures pulled Beverly Hills Cop IV from its release schedule, due to script concerns.[37][38]Our climate change debate is stuck in a "left-wing ghetto." That was one provocative conclusion reached during a high-level panel of politicians, environmental thinkers, journalists and business people in London, England.
Tyee's Climate Change Crash Course: Part 2 read more
Announcements, Events & more from Tyee and select partners ‘Punch to the Gut’ Musical on Residential Schools Returns to Vancouver Children of God has been shaped by intense audience reactions, says director Corey Payette.
"[Twenty] years of 'awareness raising,' grandiose pleas to save the planet, lots of talk about sacrifice, apocalyptic messages and photos of polar bears," a recent summary report explained, "have trapped climate change in a niche that it urgently needs to break out of."
Recent polling numbers support the panel's claims. Less than half of Britons firmly believe human activities are causing climate change, Angus Reid data from this spring suggested. The figures were similar for Americans.
Only 58 per cent of Canadian respondents agreed "global warming is a fact and is mostly caused by emissions from vehicles and industrial facilities" -- even though 97 per cent of climate scientists believe that to be true.
Activists, scientists and politicians similarly convinced by climate science have long struggled to explain why such large segments of society dismiss the urgency of global warming.
Those observers often blame a self-interested public, manipulated by powerful fossil fuel interests to believe the economic costs of fighting climate change outweigh its environmental consequences.
But a growing body of social science research has revealed an unexpected counter-narrative: for two decades the language, narratives and images of global warming have reinforced deeply held liberal values, it argues. Conservatives now see global warming solutions, and the science itself, as attacks on values they hold dear.
"There is a vacuum where a coherent and compelling conservative narrative on climate change should be," the U.K. panel report concluded, "and this vacuum has been effectively filled by sceptical voices." That is also the opinion of respected social scientists contacted by The Tyee in recent weeks. Yet their research on environmental communication suggests the situation is still reversible.
Below are some of that research's most important insights, a roadmap potentially leading our climate change debate out of its "left-wing ghetto."
1. We're all a bit irrational
Why do liberals seem to care more about the environment than conservatives? One influential explanation holds that left and right-wing people approach moral questions from profoundly different perspectives. Research by New York University psychologist Jonathan Haidt and others forms the basis for "moral foundations theory," which breaks down human morality into distinct categories.
People who identify as politically liberal tend to have strong emotional reactions to questions of "care/harm" (protecting vulnerable elements of society) and "fairness/cheating" (making sure that justice is upheld).
Environmental arguments often evoke both. For instance: "Alberta oil sands firms are not held accountable (fairness/cheating) for their contribution to a warming climate that will ultimately harm the planet's poorest people (care/harm)."
The logical left-wing reaction is to demand strict limits on oil sands emissions. But that climate change solution can provoke strong emotional reactions from people who identify as politically right-wing.
That's because conservative morality tends to emphasize questions of "loyalty/betrayal" (staying true to your cultural group), "authority/subversion" (upholding long-held institutions) and "sanctity/degradation" (fending off defilement).
So the right-wing response to oil sands limits might be: "Since all Canadians benefit from our oil and gas industry (loyalty/betrayal), we shouldn't restrict free markets (authority/subversion) to limit a naturally-occurring, odorless gas (sanctity/degradation)."
These types of emotional reactions are so deeply ingrained in our psyches we often don't realize they're affecting our perceptions.
Yet getting conservatives concerned about global warming means liberals need to first recognize their own moral biases, and how the climate arguments they make can reinforce them.
"We all have gut-level reactions to things," Ravi Iyer, a University of Southern California researcher who's collaborated with Haidt, told The Tyee. "It's good to realize that we're all kind of irrational."
2. Information is rarely neutral
That realization seems to have eluded most proponents of climate change action for the past two decades, particularly the idea that people filter information through their emotions, rather than the other way around.
Instead, many activists, scientists and politicians believe that if the public was only better educated about the science and impacts of global warming, then it would respond to the issue more urgently. That's true to a certain extent. Former U.S. vice-president Al Gore's Oscar-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, as well as the lecture tour that accompanied it, undoubtedly raised the profile of climate change.
But plying the public with information may not be enough.
"I don't want to argue that facts are irrelevant," University of Michigan professor Andrew Hoffman, an expert on environmental politics, told the Tyee. "But it's also important to recognize how [those facts] are received."
What he means is that people don't coolly analyze information before making a moral judgment. Rather, they approach information with coherent moral views already in place.
So when liberals learn, for instance, that human activity is warming the planet, they're already morally primed to believe that oil sands firms and other fossil fuel companies must reduce their carbon emissions.
But conservatives, who might feel these companies support the Canadian way of life, may go out of their way to reject any information undermining this belief, including the fact that human activity is warming the planet.
"Once someone connects a position on an issue to their cultural identity," Hoffman said, "to try and get them to accept something that contradicts that identity is really challenging."
3. Too much fear will backfire
One tactic used again and again by climate change campaigners is fear: alarm the public enough about rising sea levels, extended droughts and infectious diseases, and surely it will be convinced to take action on the issue.
Fear is no doubt one of the most powerful human emotions. Yet social science research suggests deploying it too much can actually increase conservative skepticism of global warming. That's because conservatives are more prone than liberals to believe fundamentally that the world is ordered and stable, good deeds are rewarded in the future and punishments await those who deserve them.
Liberals, on the other hand, generally accept that the world can be chaotic and unjust, a place where future generations who played no role in creating global warming will suffer nonetheless.
One fascinating study, conducted in part by Stanford University's Robb Willer, suggested when people's belief in a just world is challenged by dire climate predictions, they become less determined to shrink their carbon footprint.
"Scary, apocalyptic messages about the likely consequences of global warming are something conservatives can dismiss psychologically," Willer told The Tyee. "[Liberals] are less committed to viewing the world as stable and enduring." Willer isn't suggesting people downplay climate change's severity. But research by him and others shows that for fear-based appeals to effectively engage conservatives, they must be tied to readily available solutions.
"There has to be something realistic people can do that could stop the apocalypse from happening," he said. "People committed to a just world are then more inclined to believe in global warming."
4. Messengers can trump messages
Knowing that left and right-wing people approach morality from different perspectives, filter facts through separate emotions and aren't motivated equally by fear, how can a climate change campaigner hope to be heard across the divide? Perhaps by handing the microphone to someone else.
Influential research by Yale University's Dan Kahan suggests that people's positions on climate change -- whether liberal or conservative -- are strongly influenced by the cultural groups to which they belong.
"Take a barber in a rural town in South Carolina," he wrote last year. "Is it a good idea for him to implore his customers to sign a petition urging Congress to take action on climate change? No. If he does, he will find himself out of a job."
Likewise, a vendor on Vancouver's Commercial Drive is not going to do much business by urging passerbys to support Alberta's oil sands. Such cultural attitudes on global warming are deeply ingrained and often unconscious.
In many cases they're influenced by trusted opinion leaders. David Suzuki, for instance, speaks to a certain type of environmentalist, while the CEO of ExxonMobil, Rex Tillerson, reaches another cultural group entirely.
For two decades scientists, activists and politicians (many of them politically liberal) have framed our climate change debate. No wonder they've failed to engage large sections of the public, argued Susanne Moser, an expert on climate communication.
"Often the messenger matters more than what the messenger says," she told The Tyee. "If you want to talk about the health impacts of climate change, get a doctor to do it, not a scientist." The same applies to conservative audiences. A right-wing talk-radio host is going to have much less trouble engaging that South Carolina barber on climate change than an environmentalist.
5. 'Green' has its limits
But in order to convince opinion leaders outside the so-called "left-wing ghetto" that global warming is an urgent issue, campaigners need to speak a different language. And that might mean not invoking "green" values at all.
One recent study suggested that when energy-efficient lightbulbs are presented as cost-savings opportunities, both liberals and conservatives are more likely to buy them. Explicitly mention their climate benefits, though, and conservatives shy away.
"There is likely to be a significantly sized group that may not like these environmental messages," the University of Pennsylvania's Dena Gromet, lead author of a report on the study, told NBC News.
That's a lesson General Electric seems to have learned. In 2005 it unveiled a major public relations campaign called "Ecomagination," pledging to invest $1.5 billion in clean technologies by 2010. Late last year, however, when announcing plans to develop the "Industrial Internet," which could arguably produce gigantic green benefits, General Electric shunned "any mention of climate change or sustainability," GreenBiz reported. Company chairman and CEO, Jeffrey Immelt, instead "described the potential to cut billions of dollars of energy from sectors like aviation, railroads, power generation and oil and gas development."
Immelt clearly knows how to speak the language of business. An army official, however, might describe climate change as a "threat multiplier." For the Vatican, global warming obliges us to protect "the vulnerable of the Earth."
City planners see a challenge of "urban resilience." Farmers worry about "diminished crop yields." Parents want the "best future possible" for their children and grandchildren.
And this may be the most important insight of all, that a warmer climate is not just an environmental issue, but something with profound cultural implications for everybody.
"It is," after all, in the words of the recent U.K. panel report, "an issue that transcends politics: something that people of all political stripes -- left, right or centre -- have a stake in."Participating departments and law enforcement agencies across US must share every use of force, including non-lethal incidents, through an online portal
The Obama administration has announced details of an ambitious set of plans to collect comprehensive national data on fatal police encounters, and has said it will also attempt to collect records of non-lethal use of force incidents.
Since the fatal police shooting of unarmed African American teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, the federal government has come under increasing pressure to collect accurate data on police use of deadly force. This pressure intensified in 2015 following the launch of the Guardian’s ongoing project, The Counted, which logs all officer-involved deaths through a model of verified crowdsourcing.
The US attorney general, Loretta Lynch, said on Thursday that such data was “essential to an informed and productive discussion about community-police relations” as she revealed further details of an FBI scheme, announced in 2015, to try to collect official use of force records from police departments around the US.
“The initiatives we are announcing today are vital efforts toward increasing transparency and building trust between law enforcement and the communities we serve,” Lynch said in a statement.
The FBI pilot scheme will begin in 2017 and is due to include around 178,557 officers in some of the nation’s largest police departments, as well as some federal and state law enforcement agencies.
Individual departments will be asked to report virtually every time they use force through an online portal. As part of the trial, agencies will also voluntarily forward original records to the FBI, so that federal officials can see whether local officers are using the tool correctly.
“The goal of this review is to ascertain whether the agencies are applying the definitions and using the provided instructions in a uniform manner,” according to the proposal.
The FBI’s expansive new system goes a step further than previous data collection attempts because it will track non-lethal force in addition to police killings. Every month, agencies will be asked to report each incident in which force caused death or serious bodily injury as well as every time officers fire a gun “at or in the direction of” a person.
The second phase of the trial program will include on-site visits to some of the involved agencies to “ascertain the level and source of underreporting of within-scope incidents”.
If the program is extended beyond the pilot to include all US departments, it will face a major limitation: reporting the data to the FBI will remain voluntary. This means that many police departments could simply opt out of reporting altogether and skew the national count. Voluntary reporting has been a significant constraint on past attempts to count police use of force.
A DoJ spokesman explained that mandating police departments to report use of force data via the FBI’s online portal would require an act of Congress. In 2014, Congress did pass the Death in Custody Reporting Act, which mandates states and federal agencies to report in-custody deaths or risk losing federal funding. But that law has never been enforced, and doesn’t apply to non-lethal uses of force.
Previous attempts by the FBI have relied on local police departments’ voluntary adherence to a scheme attempting to collect data only on “justifiable homicides”. In 2014 the FBI recorded just 444 of these deaths, a figure that was widely regarded as unreliable as hundreds of departments failed to report their records. In 2015, the Guardian recorded 1,146 fatalities. The Counted has logged 847 deaths so far in 2016.
“I don’t have the power to require people to supply us with data,” the FBI director, James Comey, said in 2015, in the wake of harsh criticism of the bureau’s flawed count.
Last year, Comey said it was “embarrassing and ridiculous” that the Guardian and the Washington Post, which runs a similar project documenting only police shootings, had better records than his own department.
On Thursday, Lynch said that the department would attempt to navigate around the lack of a statutory framework by partnering more closely with a range of law enforcement bodies around the country and hinted the department could fine states who do not comply.
The justice department’s data collection arm, the Bureau of Justice statistics, is running a concurrent scheme that more closely mirrors the Guardian’s methodology and has already begun a pilot phase. The BJS will track all arrest-related deaths, including deaths following force by law enforcement and those from natural causes and suicide. The BJS pilot does not depend on agencies to voluntarily report fatalities, but instead works to confirm media reports and requires local police to provide additional details.SRI LANKA CRICKET
Jayasuriya retained as Sri Lanka's Chairman of Selectors
Rex Clementine • Last updated on Tue, 04 Jul, 2017, 02:44 PM
Sanath Jayasuriya has been retained as the Chairman of Selectors till the end of 2017 © Getty
Former Sri Lanka captain Sanath Jayasuriya has been retained as Chairman of Selectors along with his team for the next six months, Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) announced on Tuesday (July 4).
The committee's term expired on June 30 and it has now been extended till the end of the year (December 31).
Earlier, Sports Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara had indicated a new set of selectors will be brought in, but following a consultation with SLC, the decision to retain the selectors was taken.
"SLC wanted continuity and requested me to retain the same set of selectors," Jayasekara told Cricbuzz.
Accordingly, Jayasuriya's batting partner Romesh Kaluwitharana, fellow World Cup winner Asanka Gurusinha, Ranjith Madurusingha and Eric Upashantha were retained.
The current year has been a tough one for Sri Lanka, starting from a first-ever defeat in Test cricket at the hands of Bangladesh to losing their first-ever home ODI to Zimbabwe. Sri Lanka were also knocked out of the Champions Trophy in the first round itself.
Jayasekara had hit out at the Sri Lankan players, calling them unfit after three dropped catches cost them dearly during the crucial Champions Trophy clash against Pakistan in Cardiff.
In return, fast bowler Lasith Malinga hit out at the Minister calling him a'monkey' for which he received a 50 percent fine and was imposed a sentence of one year suspension, suspended by six months (whereby the punishment would be imposed in the event of a similar infraction within the stipulated six month period).
© Cricbuzz
TAGSHow Brexit vote impacts Californians The ramifications of the Brexit vote are already being felt in California. Many people saw some changes in their 401K plans less than 24 hours after the vote. Share Shares Copy Link Copy
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WEBVTT CALIFORNIA, BUT IT WASN'T THE ONLY ONE. PEOPLE WERE ENJOYING THEIR TEA AND DEVOURING FISH AND CHIPS, BUT IT WAS BREXIT THAT EVERYONE WAS CHEWING ON. LILLIAN WAS BORN IN ENGLAND AND MOVED TO SACRAMENTO IN 1985. >> WHAT CAN WE DO? WE HAVE TO ACCEPT WE CANNOT CHANGE. REPORTER: SHE WONDERS HOW IT WILL AFFECT THE COST OF IMPORTED FOOD AND OTHER ITEMS SHE SELLS IN HER SHOP. >> WE JUST HAVE TO WAIT AND SEE. REPORTER: KATHLEEN JONES RETURNED FROM A TRIP TO ENGLAND RECENTLY, AND SAID THEIR OPINIONS EVERYWHERE. >> PEOPLE HAVE STRONG OPINIONS, AND EVERY OTHER PERSON HAD A PRO OR CON. REPORTER: YES CALIFORNIA IS A POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE LOOKING FOR CALIFORNIA TO SECEDE FROM THE UNITED STATES AND BECOME AN INDEPENDENT COUNTRY. IT STARTED AN INITIATIVE ON THE 2018 BALLOT. >> WE SEE BREXIT AS A GOOD EXAMPLE OF A DEMOCRATIC PROCESS WHEREBY A SOVEREIGN STATE EXISTING WITHIN A LARGER UNION OF STATES WAS ABLE TO PEACEFULLY COME ILLEGALLY AND DEMOCRATICALLY MOVE FORWARD TOWARD WHAT THEY WANTED, A MORE INDEPENDENT STATE FOR THEMSELVES. REPORTER HE SAYS THEY SEE SIMILARITIES IN THE MOVEMENTS,Terminator is terminal emulator which includes numerous useful features such as multiple terminals in the same window (split view), notifications, supports saving and restoring custom layouts and much more.
More than two years after the previous release, Terminator 0.98 was released today, bringing a more polished tabs functionality, better layout saving/restoring, improved preferences UI and numerous bug fixes.
a layout launcher was added which allows easily switching between layouts (use Alt + L to open the new layout switcher);
a new manual was added (use F1 to launch it);
when saving, a layout now remembers the following:
*maximised and fullscreen status
* window titles
* which tab was active
* which terminal was active
* working directory for each terminal
added options for enabling/disabling non-homogenous tabs and scroll arrows;
added shortcuts for scrolling up/down by line/half-page/page;
added Ctrl+MouseWheel Zoom in/out and Shift+MouseWheel page scroll up/down;
added shortcuts for next/prev profile;
improved consistency of Custom Commands menu;
added shortcuts/code to toggle All/Tab grouping;
improved watcher plugin;
added search bar wrap toggle;
major cleanup and reorganisation of the preferences window, including a complete revamp of the global tab;
added option to set how long ActivityWatcher plugin is quiet for;
many other improvements and bug fixes
Revamped Global preferences tab, new Layout Switcher
A complete changelog for the latest Terminator 0.98 can be found HERE
It's also worth mentioning that all the changes available in this release are also available in a separate GTK3 branch, which is not fully ready yet as there are some bugs that still need fixing.
Install Terminator in Ubuntu or Linux Mint
important: this means you may occasionally encounter bugs) in Ubuntu or Linux Mint. To add the PPA and install Terminator, use the following commands: The latest Terminator 0.98 is not yet available in its official stable PPA. However, you can use the Terminator Nightly Builds PPA to install the latest Terminator from trunk (this means you may occasionally encounter bugs) in Ubuntu or Linux Mint.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome-terminator/nightly sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install terminator
Note: the PPA version is 0.97+revision - the version number wasn't updated to 0.98 but it is the latest Terminator from trunk.We already knew that Tom Hiddleston’s Loki would be back for Thor 3, given the cliffhanger ending to Thor: The Dark World, and it seems the God of Mischief will also have a role to play in the two-part Avengers: Infinity War, Digital Spy is reporting.
Loki’s inclusion in Infinity War isn’t too surprising given that he has one of the Infinity Stones that the Mad Titan Thanos will need to acquire for the Infinity Gauntlet, and of course the two villains have unfinished business stemming from The Avengers.
UPDATE: It seems that Loki will also appear in Avengers: Age of Ultron alongside Thor and Heimdall, with Idris Elba stating to the Telegraph that he has shot a scene with Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston for the upcoming sequel.
SEE ALSO: Watch the teaser trailer for Avengers: Infinity War
Thor: Ragnarok is set for release on July 28th 2017, with Avengers: Infinity War – Part 1 opening on May 4th 2018 and Avengers: Infinity War – Part 2 hitting screens on May 3rd 2019. You can listen to the Flickering Myth Podcast’s thoughts on Marvel’s Phase Three line-up including Thor: Ragnarok and Avengers: Infinity Wars using the player below:Image caption BMI Baby is losing about £25m a year
BMI Baby, the budget airline, will be grounded from September, with some routes being stopped from next month, owner IAG has announced.
The move by the owner of British Airways (BA), which bought BMI from Lufthansa last month, puts almost 500 jobs at risk.
IAG is still open to offers for BMI Baby, but expressed doubts last month that a buyer would be found.
The airline, based at East Midlands Airport, is losing about £25m a year.
While BMI's mainstream operations are being integrated into BA, talks are described as "positive" on a sale of its Aberdeen-based Regional division, which has 300 staff, says BBC's Scotland business and economy editor Douglas Fraser.
IAG had already made it clear that BMI Baby and BMI Regional would not be part of its long-term plans.
'Full refunds'
"BMI Baby has delivered high levels of operational performance and customer service, but has continued to struggle financially, losing more than £100m in the last four years," said BMI's interim managing director Peter Simpson in a letter to all staff.
"To help stem losses as quickly as possible, and as a preliminary measure, we will be making reductions to BMI Baby's flying programme from June. We sincerely apologise to all customers affected and will be providing full refunds and doing all we can with other airlines to mitigate the impact of these changes."
The changes mean that all BMI Baby flights to and from Belfast will cease from 11 June 2012.
Services from East Midlands to Amsterdam, Paris, Geneva, Nice, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Newquay, and from Birmingham to Knock and Amsterdam, will cease on the same date.
"Customers can continue to book summer holiday flights from East Midlands and Birmingham," the airline said.
"It is proposed that all BMI Baby flights departing from Monday September 10, 2012 onwards will no longer operate."THERE is no evidence to link the development of autism with childhood vaccines, research from the University of Sydney has found.
A systematic international review — the first of its kind — was undertaken examining studies from medical databases, including cohort studies with more than 1.25 million children and an additional five case-controlled studies with 9920 children.
media_camera A group of young girls showing off their arms after having been administered the H1N1 Swine Flu vaccination. media_camera A bottle of measles vaccination.
The results found there was no statistical data to support a relationship between childhood vaccination for the commonly-used measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough vaccines and the development of autism or autism spectrum disorders.
Associate Professor Guy Eslick from the Sydney Medical School said these vaccines were the ones which had received the most attention by anti-vaccination groups.
“A rising awareness of autism cases and the claimed, but not proven link, to childhood vaccinations has led to both an increased distrust in the trade between vaccine benefit outweighing potential risks and an opportunity for disease resurgence,” he said.
The data consistently shows the lack of evidence for an association between autism, autism spectrum disorders and childhood vaccinations
“This has in recent times become a major public health issue with vaccine-preventable diseases rapidly increasing in the community due to the fear of a ‘link’ between vaccinations and autism.”
media_camera The boy who can't protect himself. Lachlan Hay, 3, had a liver transplant at 18 months and therefore has such a weak immune system he cannot be vaccinated. He relies on the community being vaccinated to protect him.
Prof Eslick said this was especially concerning given the fact that there have been 11 measles outbreaks in the US since 2000 and NSW also saw a spike in measles infections in 2012.
“Vaccine-preventable diseases clearly still hold a presence in modern day society, and the decision to opt out of vaccination schedules needed to be urgently and properly evaluated,” he said.
There had been no quantitative data analysis of any relationship between autism or autism spectrum disorders and childhood vaccinations to date, Prof Eslick said.
“Our review is the first to do so, and we found no statistical evidence to support this idea,” he said.
“Furthermore, our review found the components of the widely-used vaccines (thimerosal or mercury), nor the measles, mumps and rubella combination vaccines (MMR) are not associated with the development of autism or an autism-spectrum disorder.”
media_camera An Iraqi child is given a polio vaccine in Baghdad this month. Health officials aims to vaccinate millions of children against the highly contagious polio virus after an outbreak of the disease. Picture: Afp
The increase in parents deciding not to vaccinate their children has substantially decreased ‘herd immunity’ among populations, subsequently increasing the risk of catching potentially more serious infectious diseases, Prof Eslick said.
“The risks incurred by not immunising a child is increasing substantially as the level of immunisation coverage in the population falls,” he said.
“The data consistently shows the lack of evidence for an association between autism, autism spectrum disorders and childhood vaccinations, regardless of whether the intervention was through combination vaccines (MMR) or one of its components, providing no reason to avoid immunisation on these grounds.”
The results were published in the medical journal Vaccine.SINGAPORE - A Taiwanese man, suspected of involvement in scams where a police officer was impersonated, was charged in court on Saturday (July 8).
Huang Ying-Chun, 52, stands accused of dishonestly receiving stolen property.
According to court documents, he was said to have received $150,000 at about 6pm on Wednesday, in Lorong 40 Geylang.
Huang, who wore a black T-shirt when he appeared in court, had a solemn expression as the charge was read to him.
He is "believed to be involved in a series of scam cases", said the prosecution on Saturday.
He will be remanded for a week, and his case is expected to be heard again on July 14.
Police said in an earlier statement that the Taiwanese man had been arrested on Thursday - a day after a 55-year-old woman reported losing about $225,000.
She had received a call from an unknown person claiming to be a police officer before that.
Told that she was being investigated for money laundering offences, her call was transferred to another unknown person who said he was a police officer from another country.
She was then given a link to a website supposedly from the Singapore Police Force, and instructed to key in her internet banking credentials.
It was later that she realised her bank account had been accessed illegally without her knowledge, with about $225,000 transferred to unknown accounts.
Huang is believed to be involved in at least 10 other similar cases, with a total of over $800,000 in losses, according to the police's statement.
If convicted for the offence of dishonestly receiving stolen property, he could be jailed up to five years and fined.When I’m working on a novel I type the initial draft first thing in the morning. Really: first thing. For preference, I have a cigarette ready-rolled and a coffee percolator loaded the night before; then I simply roll out of bed, fuel up and set to it. I believe the dreaming and imagining faculties are closely related, such that wreathed in night-time visions I find it possible to suspend disbelief in the very act of making stuff up, which, in the cold light of day would seem utterly preposterous. I’ve always been a morning writer, and frankly I believe 99% of the difficulties novices experience are as a result of their unwillingness to do the same. Narrative structure, mise en scene, characterisation − you can’t get to grips with these problems unless you’ve put the words on the page.
So, my rule is I don’t rise from my desk until I’ve done my allotted portion. When I began writing seriously I measured my word counts in “Conrads”, one Conrad being 800 words, which is what the master wrote daily – an output on which he was able to support a considerable establishment, including two housemaids and a chauffeur. Back in the 1990s I could manage two or even three Conrads in a morning, but with age (and possibly the increasing complexity of the work itself), my pace has slowed – and I now manage 1.25 Conrads. (My journalism word rate, by contrast, is 500 words per hour.)
I wrote all my early books on computers, but when broadband came along in 2004 I understood intuitively it was inimical to the novel, an art form that depends on the codex for its inception as well as its reception. So I shifted to writing on a manual typewriter − an Olivetti Lettera 22 used by my late mother, who was also a writer. When I’m working on a first draft I may do some additional research in the afternoon, but usually I’ll shift my attention to something else altogether. It’s when I get about two-thirds of the way through that things get interesting, for then I begin rewriting the text from the beginning, even as I’m still working on the end. This necessitates a lengthening of the working day to around eight full hours − but it pays massive dividends: it’s far easier to make a novel “cohere” overall if you’re working on different parts of it simultaneously.
This methodology gets still more interesting when I finish the first draft and begin working on the third while I’m still writing the second. The second draft entails me rekeying the text into a computer – which in turn explains why doing the first draft manually isn’t really that onerous; after all, if you know you’re going to have to rewrite a work entirely, you can afford to be a little more cavalier when you attack the blank page. During the early stages of a novel I’m able to work under conditions of partial − but not total − isolation (no internet-enabled devices on, children and dogs muzzled); but by the time I’m working on the third draft I need up to 16 hours a day in complete purdah. I’ve often wondered if this isn’t an indulgence on my part, and whether I should train myself to cope with more human interaction − but I fear Auden’s characterisation of poetry (“The social act of the solitary man”) applies still better to novelising, which requires its practitioner to listen very intently so as to hear the voices and thoughts of wholly inexistent beings.Powell netted eight goals in 23 appearances for Wellington last season, including four strikes in a memorable 5-2 win over grand finalists Western Sydney Wanderers.
The former Sydney FC fringe player scored for the Mariners |
body odor. It smelled like a locker room.
He tried to think of an explanation for why I would find his face attractive but not his sweaty T-shirt. “Maybe you're out of sync with your pheromones,” he offered.
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I wasn't banking on finding true love at the pheromone party, even though people reportedly hooked up in droves and began long-term relationships at the inaugural pheromone party in New York City. But I was intrigued by the idea that we can reduce our desires to their basest level. Many of us have heard of the experiment where women are asked to smell a lineup of white cotton shirts, and then it turns out that the shirts they found the most pleasing belonged to the men they found the most handsome, with the most symmetrical faces. Maybe women are attracted to strong jawlines and symmetrical faces because we're still susceptible to all the evolutionary cues that tell us, “I will father strong, resilient babies with you, and then I will help you take care of them.” Maybe men are attracted to the scent of a woman with robust ovaries who will produce dozens of offspring that carry their genetic code. Maybe on some level, we women are just acting in an updated play that our cavewomen ancestors performed. We might think we want a funny, sensitive guy who likes Lisa Cholodenko movies, cooks Thai food and reads the Rumpus, but what we really want is nothing more than a muscular display of an excellent Y chromosome.
This scenario could certainly make the dating slog easier – just marry whoever smells the best! But it leaves entire swaths of humanity out of the equation. It erases all sorts of sexual orientations, fetishes, non-normalized gender identities, disabilities, races, and histories both personal and cultural. Aside from the fact that most of what we've been taught about “how we were in caveman times” is based on racialized and gendered mythology, the fact is, we are not just cellphone-toting incarnations of our ape ancestors. We aren't born with preloaded instincts to hunt, gather and sleep together exactly as we did in the Stone Age. We are born with brains primed to learn and adapt to social patterns with lightning speed. Which means that what we find attractive, and how we categorize our objects of desire, are not based on a template unaltered from our paleolithic past, but on what we absorb, engage with, and construct, and what is constructed for us. This is not to say that our drives are purely cultural – we have hormones too. But culture is not like clothing. You can't strip it off to reveal the “true” drives underneath.
Of course, heteronormative evolutionary psych propaganda is not exactly what the pheromone party people have in mind. Participants are, after all, encouraged to sniff pink bags and blue bags – “It's OK to experiment!” said the chalkboard above the T-shirt table. It certainly would have been edgier and made for a more transgressive evening if the bags weren't gender-coded at all. Of course, no rule said you could flirt only with those who posed with your shirt-sniffed armpits, before running off into the biological determinist sunset to raise strapping caveman babies and hunt mastodon.
And at the end of the day, it was a courtyard full of single people. The air was buzzing with puckish promise, setup or no setup. Of course, introducing yourself as the mystery girl from Bag No. 630 makes for a great icebreaker. But I also managed to have some engaging conversations with a fellow East Coast transplant while waiting at the bar. We traded teenage nostalgia stories about the hippie crystal thrift stores in Newark, Del. I also met writers, filmmakers and the guy wearing a fez. I'd chalk this up to my ineffable charm and gregariousness, but when I spotted a gentleman I found particularly handsome (the arrogant theatrical one from earlier), my smooth introduction was, “Hi!” as he rushed by me with a clear look of disinterest. Sigh. Maybe I should have worn perfume.Photo courtesy of Los Angeles County Department of Public Health
Angelo Bellomo has seen a lot during nearly three decades in government. The Director of Environmental Health for L.A. County Department of Public Health started as a field inspector 38 years ago and after nine years, went to work for Governor Jerry Brown in Sacramento in Hazardous Waste Management. He worked in the private sector and returned to the L.A. County Department of Public Health three years ago. After seeing thousands of letter grades on restaurant windows and now that I receive the department’s Food Facility Closure Report, it’s become important to learn more. To shed some light on the restaurant inspection process, I spoke with Angelo Bellomo on July 5, where he provided illumination. Leading up to the interview, a couple people even weighed in on the Food GPS Facebook page, and their contributions are noted below.
What are the most common mistakes that restaurants make when it comes to health code violations, and how easy are those violations to prevent?
The most significant, if there was an intersection between common and significant, that intersection would be on something like food temperatures, keeping cold food cold enough and hot foods hot enough. That alone goes a long way toward making sure that contaminants that are either introduced during handling and preparation of food in the restaurant, or may have been included in the food during harvesting or introduced during shipment or sale to the facilities. What we want to do is keep conditions cold enough or hot enough so bacteria die and don’t multiply and produce chemical toxins or when consumed, cause disease in a consumer.
The other common serious mistake would be that of contamination during preparation, assuming foods are relatively clean when they’re brought to the facility. Maybe they’re stored on unclean surfaces, or introducing chemicals that might be part of cleaning the operation, or other contaminants. If a worker is ill, they can transfer contaminants, either after they visit the bathroom or as a result of touching an unclean surface. So when we talk about keeping a restaurant clean, for example, we certainly don’t want contaminants in the restroom to spill out into the kitchen…If the surfaces in the restroom are not cleaned and sanitized, you have the potential of people coming out of the restroom and carrying fecal matter into the kitchen. We have to make sure three’s a proper supply of soap, warm water and towels or another mechanism for drying the hands.
What are the most common misconceptions that diners have about restaurants that are forced to close temporarily after failing to pass a health inspection?
Probably one of the most common misconceptions that people have is they generally don’t understand that conditions are dynamic within a restaurant. They can change within a few minutes. Conditions that are proper can turn to improper and dangerous in a matter of minutes. If you’ve got refrigeration and warming tables that are keeping prepared foods warm prior to being served, or a refrigeration table that are keeping cold foods cold prior to preparation or service, you’re not going to get bacterial growth. But if you get a breakdown that allows those temperatures to move into the danger, that breakdown can happen suddenly. A refrigeration unit can suffer a power outage, or a gas powered heating table may not be turned up hot enough. People can be using the equipment improperly. If an inspector goes into a restaurant, he can find really good conditions one day, or come back later that afternoon and find that due to a dropoff of chickens that are dropped off, and they’ve had insufficient time to be put into refrigeration. That could present a factor that could lead to food borne illness. Food handlers and restaurant operators have to be constantly vigiliant, so as conditions change, they can make the proper adjustment.
What would you tell somebody who isn’t willing to eat at a restaurant with a B rating?
By extension, a B rating reflects the conditions that were noticed during the time of inspection. It’s a snapshot in time. We have to realize that. An inspector may go into a restaurant three times a year and assess conditions in that restaurant. These are unannounced inspections by the way. On the basis of that snapshot. Those conditions can change when we’re not in there. You really should not judge it based on one grade, especially if it’s a B. It’s much more reliable to see their grade based on the previous three years of inspection, or one year of inspection, so looking at the trend or looking at the history, is more important than the graded inspection, but the graded inspection gives you information as to what was observed during the last inspection.
Does the same hold true for a C rating?
Absolutely, but the lower the rating, the more deficiencies were found during the inspection. A C rating really reflects a higher degree of noncompliance than a B rating or an A rating. Take it into proper context. C rating, same deal…What we’ve found is that restaurants that consisentently get high marks, they’re really diligent about insuring food safety continuously. They’re constantly thinking about food temperatures, potential contamination, proper refrigeration, food storage.
How can the public find this data on trends?
They can look up the compliance history for the facility, what was found on prior inspections.
How has working as a restaurant inspector helped or hindered your enjoyment of food?
Some of the things you see as an inspector, they’re sobering. Sometimes you see conditions and really wonder what the operator or food handler was thinking about. I think a lot about the source of foods, where they’re getting their raw materials, and also how they’re storing.
Cady Manin: What’s the worst offense/most blatant disregard for regulations that you have come across in the field?
One of the most repulsive things I saw was rat droppings in a bin that was holding dry rice, and I remember calling the intention of the operator to that, and he very quickly pulled out the droppings, thinking it was cured. Rather than deal with the infestation of rodents he had, he picked the droppings out. I wondered how many times that he had done it. It seemed so natural for him to reach out and flick out the droppings, even in front of a health inspector. There are certain operators who would switch into high gear, figure out where’s the infestation and correct the source of the problem immediately. That man that I’m talking about, his way of thinking was that he had corrected the problem when he flicked those droppings out of the bin, but a properly trained operator will think, what is the source of this problem?
I’ve also seen chickens piled on the walk-in floor in a puddle of chicken juice and cleaning solution. That made an impression on me as well.
Tara de Lis: Has anybody ever offered you a bribe, and what happened to that person as a result?
No, I’ve never been offered a bribe.
Has that happened to another field inspector?
It has happened.
What would happen to the person who offered a bribe?
We would refer the matter to the local prosecutorial agency and request that they file charges. When I was a young inspector, I walked into a facility one time, and when I got back to my car, there was a bouquet of flowers in my car. I went to the nearest bin and put the flowers in the nearest dumpster. When I told an old time inspector, he told me there was probably money rolled up, and I wondered how the old inspector knew that. This was after he was retired.
What measures does L.A. County take to ensure that enforcement is consistent, regardless of the restaurant inspector?
Proper training, and proper written procedures and policies. We have more work to do in that area because consistent interpretation and enforcement of the laws is a continuing challenge. We have more that we need to do in that area, but the short answer is proper training, and proper written policies and procedures that inspectors can refer to so we’re standardizing the options during inspections.They all look like oracles now, cinnamon-colored soothsayers, thick-haired prophets, those lone black folks who stood early and alone for the orange man with the wistful comb-over and the penchant for vile, racist comments. He's our president now, whether we like it or not, and like obedient slaves before them, those black folks are surely looking for a place inside the house, and if not the house, then the Cabinet.
Below is a look at the five most visible African Americans who not only stumped for Trump but also risked public ridicule, and permanent banishment from cookouts to come, to push their man into the White House, and the jobs they might hold during his presidency.
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1. Omarosa Manigault
I feel kind of sad whenever I see Omarosa placing herself close to Trump in photos or onstage since his presidential win. Mostly because I think Omarosa could have been someone legit, like a real business-minded person with goals and dreams. Now she just seems like a shell of a person who knows her best move is to stay close to the man with money. Like the weed holder in a rap group, the close friend of an NBA draftee or the person in the passenger side of her best friend's ride, Omarosa has become a scrub.
Don't get me wrong; if you're going to be a scrub, it's best to be a scrub to the elite. As President Scrub (her official title), she will say things like "we" when referring to herself. All of her Instagram photos will be captioned, "We out here!" or "We in here!" or "When we step up in Congresssssssss!" In fact, she's already started.
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She will act as if the White House is her house when Trump's not there. She will FaceTime people from the Oval Office with her feet up on Trump's desk. This is not a paid position, but Omarosa will not have to work as long as Trump is in office.
2. Diamond and Silk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=18&v=1gzd7DOdVSc
Oh man, these two take me back to vaudevillian days when blackface was all the rage. If you're not familiar with Diamond and Silk, think the women from the movie BAPS but older and infatuated with Trump. The funniest part is that they are serious about their love for the Donald, and so serious about profiting off of their faux celebrity. They have a website and a following.
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I wish that there were more to them besides being the women who lightweight-cooned it up for Trump, but sadly, this is their claim to fame. As such, I envision both Diamond and Silk—they are conjoined, they have one Twitter page, one YouTube channel and therefore count as one person—as Executive Entertainers in Chief.
I imagine Trump and Vladimir Putin finishing off a steak dinner in the formal dinning room and Trump leaning back in his seat asking if Putin's had a chance to see Diamond and Silk's performance. Putin will look puzzled, as he only knows diamond and silk to be an exquisite jewel and a fine fabric. In they walk and perform Southern blackness at its best, "honey chiles" and all, much to the leaders’ delight.
3. Katrina Pierson
Katrina Shaddix's life reads like a Dickensian fairy tale. Born to a 15-year-old mother in poverty, she was raised around unsavory types. Young Katrina persevered in spite of her upbringing. Then, just five days shy of her 21st birthday, she was arrested after she and a friend stole nine pieces of clothing from a J.C. Penney store in Plano, Texas. She pleaded no contest and received no jail time. She would marry young and have a child of her own.
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Then something happened. Katrina Shaddix became Katrina Pierson, and the woman who voted for Obama in 2008 was an activist in the Tea Party movement by 2009. Pierson would go on to champion onetime GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, and that relationship would introduce her to Trump. She would become Trump's national spokesperson.
I envision Pierson's tenure with Trump being twofold: Pierson will become the Senior Spouter and Official Interpreter of Trumpian Language. She and Trump speak the same bizarre mix of hatred, lies, complete fabrications and made-up hysteria. Their language is a series of double-talk, blame and catchphrases. Think of her as Trump's Luther. Since winning the election, Trump has been trying to reinvent himself as a kinder, softer uniter in chief, and if this remains, who better than Pierson to channel his inner racist?
4. Dr. Ben Carson
Uncle Ben Carson. We know you well. We know your rise from poverty to become one of the most decorated surgeons in the world. We also know that your run for president exposed some pretty crazy positions about America. We learned that you could jump over 6-foot-tall fences when running from fat police officers and that you once avoided being robbed in a Baltimore Popeyes "organization" by pointing the robber toward the guy behind the cash register.
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You might be one of the smartest men in Trump's Cabinet, but I'm concerned that your own cabinet might be short a few packets of ramen noodles. It seems as if you burned out early, that the majority of your brains got used up doing the Lord's work, and who are we to judge? As such, I expect your role in Trump's crew to be akin to Clarence Thomas' role on the Supreme Court. You will become the Designated Black Guy. You will show everyone how to do the Cupid Shuffle. You will explain terms like "on fleek." You will count toward us, but we all know we lost you some time ago.
5. Pastor Darrell Scott
During an election party for Trump at Trump Tower in New York City, a caller for Hillary Clinton's campaign rang Pastor Darrell Scott to ask if he was voting for her.
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"Hell no," the pastor replied. "I’m voting for Trump. I hate Hillary. … I hate Hillary. My whole family hates Hillary!"
It's easy to dismiss Scott. Inside his pastoring, he's got the air of a smooth-talking slickster who’s just ingratiating himself to Trump. His hair is always perfectly coiffed, his collars are always wide and his talk is always extra.
But that would really be to sell Scott short. Scott was born in the ’50s and lived through the racial hatred of the ’60s. He truly believes that Trump is going to make the world a better place for African Americans.
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Such is life for the pastor who prayed, or preyed, on and for Trump. I expect his role to be the Pastor Inside the Misogynist's Palace, or resident PIMP. As the resident PIMP, he will continue to use religion as a weapon. He will continue to trick religion out. He will continue to put religion on the stroll while standing next to Beelzebub.
Stephen A. Crockett Jr. is a senior editor at The Root. Follow him on Twitter.Lena Dunham has explained herself after receiving major backlash following comments she made about NY Giants player Odell Beckham Jr.
The Girls star sat next to the NFL athlete at the Met Gala in May and recently claimed that he determined she was 'not the shape of a woman by his standards.'
She said he was glued to his phone and despite not speaking with him throughout the evening she insists he made her feel like a'marshmallow' and a 'dog.'
'My story about him was clearly (to me) about my own insecurities as an average-bodied woman at a table of supermodels & athletes,' the 30-year-old actress tweeted on Friday.
No instant attraction: Lena Dunham opened up about her own experience placed next to Khloe Kardashian's love interest Odell Beckham Jr at this year's Met Gala - admitting she couldn't have been more miserable
And while the feminist didn't exactly apologize to the 23-year-old football player, she added: 'It's not an assumption about who he is or an expectation of sexual attention.'
'It's my sense of humor, which has kept me alive for 30 years,' she quipped.
However the Golden Globe winner took a mild passive aggressive dig at Khloe Kardashian's former love interest when she stated:'@OBJ_3 [Odell Beckham] is talented, stylish, seems super awesome and wasn't into chatting with me at a fancy party.'
'My own insecurities': But the Girls star took to Twitter on Friday and offered an explanation of her assumptions about the NFL player
'S eems like it would be a lot easier to just say sorry,' @B111S tweeted.
Another tweeter by the username @james_mahaney wrote: 'WOW! If a guy wrote that about a woman you'd be all over him saying how sexist he is. Can you say DOUBLE STANDARD?'
Attracting the biggest stars of the year, the Met Gala is one of the hottest nights on the celebrity calendar.
'It's my sense of humor': The feminist didn't exactly apologize to the 23-year-old football player but only clarified what she said in the interview
'Odell... wasn't into chatting with me': The Golden Globe winner took a mild passive aggressive dig even during her explanation
Yet landing the golden ticket doesn't necessarily mean a great night out - not least because guests are seated according to a strict table plan.
And the firestorm against Lena began when she opened up about her own experience as she was placed next to Odell at this year's bash - admitting she couldn't have been more miserable.
'I was sitting next to Odell Beckham Jr., and it was so amazing because it was like he looked at me and he determined I was not the shape of a woman by his standards.'
'He was like, "That’s a marshmallow. That’s a child. That’s a dog," It wasn’t mean — he just seemed confused.'
Talking to Amy Schumer, who she was interviewing for her Lenny Letters series, Lena said the sports star ignored her in favour of his phone.
'The vibe was very much like, “Do I want to f*** it? Is it wearing a… yep, it’s wearing a tuxedo. I’m going to go back to my cell phone."'
'It was like we were forced to be together, and he literally was scrolling Instagram rather than have to look at a woman in a bow tie.'
'She conjures up dialogues': Twitter users weren't happy with Lena's comments about the athlete, accusing her of being a hypocrite
'I was like, "This should be called the Metropolitan Museum of Getting Rejected by Athletes."'
Schumer was sat opposite Lena, and didn't have a much better time.
'I left so early,' she admitted.
But Amy had kind words for Lena's outfit.
'You were dressed like a boy, and you looked sexy, and I really appreciated you showing me your tits several times.'
Twitter users hit back at Lena, accusing her of hypocrisy.
Not the best night: Lena with her pals on the red carpet - says she didn't enjoy the Met Gala
'If you pay attention to Lena Dunham you're sexualizing her. If you don't pay attention you're shallow and ignoring her,' wrote @MatthewKick.
@ShaunaReporter tweeted: 'Dear Lena Dunham: Odell Beckham Jr. didn't owe you his time or attention.'
'Lena Dunham is the epitome of hypocritical sexism. She conjures up dialogues stemming from her own insecurities to put OBJ on blast. Sad,' wrote @michael_boswell.
Even after Lena's clarification, followers were not so quick to let the actress off the hook.Scientists have long wondered how Earth's atmosphere filled with oxygen, and a new study claims to have finally cracked the mystery.
Researchers have found changes in the Earth's crust between 3 billion to 2.4 billion years ago increased the levels of oxygen in the planet's atmosphere.
The amount of free oxygen went up by 10,000 times, triggering an explosion of life on Earth.
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Researchers have found changes in the Earth's crust between three billion and 2.4 billion years ago increased the levels of oxygen in the planet's atmosphere
CONTINENTAL CHANGES Before oxygenation, continents were composed of rocks rich in magnesium and low in silica. This is similar to what can be found today in places like Iceland and the Faroe Islands. But more importantly, those rocks contained a mineral called olivine. When olivine comes into contact with water, it initiates chemical reactions that consume oxygen and lock it up. That is likely what happened to the oxygen produced by cyanobacteria early in Earth's history. However, as the continental crust evolved to a composition more like today's, olivine virtually disappeared. Without that mineral to react with water and consume oxygen, the gas was finally allowed to accumulate. Oceans eventually became saturated, and oxygen crossed into the atmosphere. 'It really appears to have been the starting point for life diversification as we know it,' Dr Smit added.
Links between oxygenation and changes in the composition of continental crusts during this time have been suspected as the cause, but have been hard to prove.
University of British Columbia (UBC) geologist Matthijs Smit and research partner Klaus Mezger believe they have been able to show how the disappearance of a mineral called olivine from the Earth's crust led to an explosion of biological life.
Earth's early atmosphere and oceans were devoid of free oxygen, even though tiny cyanobacteria were producing the gas as a byproduct of photosynthesis.
Free oxygen is oxygen that isn't combined with other elements such as carbon or nitrogen, and aerobic organisms need it to live.
A change occurred about three billion years ago, when small regions containing free oxygen began to appear in the oceans.
Then, about 2.4 billion years ago, oxygen in the atmosphere suddenly increased by about 10,000 times in just 200 million years.
This period, known as the Great Oxidation Event, changed chemical reactions on the surface of the Earth completely.
The researchers were aware that the composition of continents also changed during this period.
They set out to find a link, looking closely at records detailing the geochemistry of shales and igneous rock types from around the world, more than 48,000 rocks dating back billions of years.
Dr Smit said: 'Oxygenation was waiting to happen. All it may have needed was for the continents to mature.
At around this time, a a mineral called olivine virtually disappeared from the Earth's crust. Matthijs smit examines ancient rocks from the deep crust in Norway during this summer
WHAT IS OLIVINE? Olivine is the name of a group of rock-forming minerals that are typically found in mafic and ultramafic igneous rocks such as basalt, gabbro, dunite, diabase, and peridotite. They are usually green in colour and have compositions that typically range between Mg2SiO4 and Fe2SiO4. Many people are familiar with olivine because it is the mineral of a very popular green gemstone known as peridot. When olivine comes into contact with water, it initiates chemical reactions that consume oxygen and lock it up, and this is likely what happened to the oxygen produced by cyanobacteria early in Earth's history.
'It turned out that a staggering change occurred in the composition of continents at the same time free oxygen was starting to accumulate in the oceans'.
Before oxygenation, continents were composed of rocks rich in magnesium and low in silica - similar to what can be found today in places like Iceland and the Faroe Islands.
But more importantly, those rocks contained a mineral called olivine.
When olivine comes into contact with water, it initiates chemical reactions that consume oxygen and lock it up, and this is likely what happened to the oxygen produced by cyanobacteria early in Earth's history.
However, as the continental crust evolved to a composition more like today's, olivine virtually disappeared.
Without that mineral to react with water and consume oxygen, the gas was finally allowed to accumulate.
When olivine (pictured) comes into contact with water, it initiates chemical reactions that consume oxygen and lock it up. That is likely what happened to the oxygen produced by cyanobacteria early in Earth's history
Oceans eventually became saturated, and oxygen crossed into the atmosphere.
'It really appears to have been the starting point for life diversification as we know it,' Dr Smit added.
'After that change, the Earth became much more habitable and suitable for the evolution of complex life, but that needed some trigger mechanism, and that's what we may have found.'
As for what caused the composition of continents to change, that is the subject of ongoing study.
Dr Smit notes that modern plate tectonics began at around the same time, and many scientists theorise that there is a connection.WHEN the European Union expanded to take in eight former Communist countries, leaders faced a conundrum: they did not want to keep extending the club eastward, neither did they want to tell Ukraine and others that they would be shut out forever. So they devised a middle way: the EU would offer to extend large parts of its single market to countries in eastern Europe, the Caucasus and the Mediterranean rim, without making any promises of membership.
This European Neighbourhood Policy was meant to create “a ring of friends”. Ten years on, Europe's borderlands look more like a ring of fire. Libya has been in violent chaos since the overthrow of Muammar Qaddafi. In Egypt one military ruler was replaced by another after a brief interlude with an elected president. Syria is suffering an appalling civil war. Georgia has lost territory after a war with Russia. Belarus languishes under the dictatorial Alexander Lukashenko. Two small countries, Tunisia and Moldova, are the closest thing to success.
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For a time it looked as if Ukraine would join the list of failures. Last November, ahead of a summit in Vilnius of the EU and ex-Soviet countries, President Viktor Yanukovych caved in to Russia and refused to sign an association agreement with the EU that included a “deep and comprehensive” free-trade deal. This was a pyrrhic victory for Russia. Pro-European protesters took to the streets of Kiev and, after weeks of confrontation that culminated with the shooting of protesters, Mr Yanukovych ran away.
Opinions around Europe are divided about the meaning of events in Kiev. A recent paper by Stefan Lehne, a former Austrian diplomat, argues that the neighbourhood policy has failed. Modelled on the enlargement process, it “does not work for countries that do not want close association with the EU, and the absence of the carrot of future membership frustrates those who do”, writes Mr Lehne in his paper for Carnegie Europe, a think-tank. The slow process of enacting European standards, on everything from the environment to food safety, was designed for a stable world, not tumultuous revolutionary change. Others, though, are convinced that the victory of Ukraine’s Maidan protesters is proof that Europe's soft power can still trump Russian bullying.
Ukraine presents the EU with an opportunity to redeem itself. The foreign ministers of Poland, Germany and France were in Kiev at the height of the shooting, and may have facilitated a controlled collapse of Mr Yanukovych's rule. The EU's foreign-policy chief, Cathy Ashton, was in Kiev this week to urge victorious anti-Yanukovych parties to create an “inclusive” government and avoid witch-hunts. The visitors come away with a strong sense that they must not let down those who risked their lives. But as Mr Lehne argues, their tools may be too limited.
The EU decided far too late to impose sanctions on Mr Yanukovych's regime. The deal it offered Ukraine involved long-term modernisation and a pledge to support an IMF-sponsored adjustment programme. It said it would not be drawn into a bidding war with Russia, which instead offered a large instant loan and cheaper gas. Now Europeans are scrambling to come up with a short-term financial package to halt an imminent default. They are still hoping that Russia might contribute. They are also planning to send technical experts to help Ukraine manage reforms and ensure the money is not stolen. Andrew Wilson of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a think-tank, has proposed a longer to-do list. It includes help to recover stolen assets stashed away in Europe, limited interim trade-agreements to help kick-start the economy, inclusion of “civil society” in political reforms and facilitating EU visas for Ukrainians.
Soon the Europeans will have to decide whether to go ahead with the accord that Mr Yanukovych rejected. Most think they should wait until Ukraine holds presidential elections, changes the constitution and then holds a ballot for the new parliament. The current crop of opposition leaders taking over power in Kiev, not least Yulia Tymoshenko, the former prime minister, are viewed with suspicion by many Maidan protesters. EU officials also worry about provoking Russia in its already resentful mood.
In fact, the timing will be decided by Ukrainians themselves. Having been prepared to deal with a man who now has much blood on his hands, and having promised Ukrainians that the accord remains on the table, the EU can hardly refuse if the interim government asks to sign it.
Back to the future
The signature ceremony would be a good time to answer the question Europeans have tried to avoid for a decade: should they offer a “membership perspective” to Ukraine? Earlier this month EU foreign ministers dropped a cryptic hint in a statement, saying that the association agreement “does not constitute the final goal in EU-Ukraine co-operation”. They should be more explicit and say that a future democratic Ukraine would be eligible to apply, even though the prospect is far off.
The Europeans should also rethink the neighbourhood policy, which lumps together disparate countries merely because they happen to be nearby. In the south it may have to devise a wider concept of its interests stretching out to the Sahel, the Horn of Africa and the Middle East. Here Europe has no real friends, lots of acquaintances and not a few enemies. To the east it needs better ways of helping those who want to move closer to the EU.
Above all, the EU needs a coherent policy to deal with Russia. Its members are divided between Russo-sceptics, particularly in the Baltic states and Sweden, and Russophiles including Cyprus, Italy and Hungary. Russia's behaviour in Ukraine should be a warning to all Europeans of the danger of embracing Vladimir Putin closely.Updated at 8:10 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON Senior Internal Revenue Service officials knew agents were targeting tea party groups as early as 2011, according to a draft of an inspector general's report obtained by The Associated Press that seemingly contradicts public statements by the IRS commissioner.
The IRS apologized Friday for what it acknowledged was "inappropriate" targeting of conservative political groups during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status. The agency blamed low-level employees, saying no high-level officials were aware.
Political target scandal at the IRS
IRS admits to singling out tea party groups for extra scrutiny
But on June 29, 2011, Lois G. Lerner, who heads the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt organizations, learned at a meeting that groups were being targeted, according to the watchdog's report. At the meeting, she was told that groups with "Tea Party," "Patriot" or "9/12 Project" in their names were being flagged for additional and often burdensome scrutiny, the report says.
The 9-12 Project is a group started by conservative TV personality Glenn Beck.
Lerner instructed agents to change the criteria for flagging groups "immediately," the report says.
Attorney Jay Sekulow confirmed to CBS News Saturday that IRS targeting of tea party groups began in 2011, CBS News correspondent Chip Reid reports.
"When we saw the letters that the IRS had sent to our clients, I was outraged," Sekulow said.
As chief counsel of the conservative American Center for Law and Justice, Sekulow has represented nearly 30 tea party groups investigated by the IRS.
"It was from coast to coast," said Sekulow. "Saying that this was, you know, low-level IRS employees- these weren't clerks. These were Internal Revenue Service agents that are trained in tax-exempt specialties."
The Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration is expected to release the results of a nearly yearlong investigation in the coming week. The AP obtained part of the draft report, which has been shared with congressional aides.
Among the other revelations, on Aug. 4, 2011, staffers in the IRS' Rulings and Agreements office "held a meeting with chief counsel so that everyone would have the latest information on the issue."
On Jan. 25, 2012, the criteria for flagging suspect groups was changed to, "political action type organizations involved in limiting/expanding Government, educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights, social economic reform/movement," the report says.
While this was happening, several committees in Congress were writing numerous letters to IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman to express concern because tea party groups were complaining of IRS harassment.
In Shulman's responses, he did not acknowledge targeting of tea party groups. At a congressional hearing March 22, 2012, Shulman was adamant in his denials.
"There's absolutely no targeting. This is the kind of back and forth that happens to people" who apply for tax-exempt status, Shulman said at the House Ways and Means subcommittee hearing.
The portion of the draft report reviewed by the AP does not say whether Shulman or anyone else in the Obama administration outside the IRS was informed of the targeting. It is standard procedure for agency heads to consult with staff before responding to congressional inquiries, but it is unclear how much information Shulman sought.
The IRS has not said when Shulman found out that tea party groups were targeted.
Shulman was appointed by President George W. Bush, a Republican. His 6-year term ended in November. President Obama has yet to nominate a successor. The agency is now run by an acting commissioner, Steven Miller.
The IRS said in a statement to CBS News and other news outlets Saturday that the agency believes the timeline in the IG's report is correct, and supports what officials said Friday.
"IRS senior leadership was not aware of this level of specific details at the time of the March 2012 hearing," the statement said. "The timeline does not contradict the commissioner's testimony. While exempt organizations officials knew of the situation earlier, the timeline reflects that IRS senior leadership did not have this level of detail."
Lerner's position is three levels below the commissioner.
"The timeline supports what the IRS acknowledged on Friday that mistakes were made," the statement continued. "There were not partisan reasons behind this."
Rep. Charles Boustany, R-La., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee's oversight subcommittee, said the report "raises serious questions as to who at IRS, Treasury and in the administration knew about this, why this practice was allowed to continue for as long as it did, and how widespread it was."
"This timeline reveals at least two extremely unethical actions by |
set time_state to TIME_OK
line 751 - assuming the kernel does not livelock, the stack is unwound and the ntp_lock spinlock is released.
There are a couple interesting things here.
First, line 691 cancels the existing timer every time adjtimex(2) is called. Then, 554 re-creates that timer. This means each time ntpd ran its clock loop filter, the buggy code was invoked.
Therefore I believe Red Hat was wrong when they said that once ntpd had set the leap-second flag, the system would not crash. I believe each system running ntpd had the potential to livelock every 17 minutes (or more) for the 24-hour period before the leap-second. I believe this may also explain why so many systems crashed; a one-time chance of crashing would be much less likely to hit as compared to 3 chances an hour.
UPDATE: In Red Hat's KB solution at https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/solutions/154713, Red Hat engineers did come to the same conclusion (that running ntpd would continuously hit the buggy code). And indeed they did so several hours before I did. This solution wasn't linked to the main article at https://access.redhat.com/knowledge/articles/15145, so I didn't notice it until now.
Second, this explains why loaded systems were more likely to crash. Loaded systems will be handling more interrupts, causing the "do_tick" kernel function to be called more often, giving more of a chance for this code to run and grab the ntp_lock while the timer was being created.
Third, is there a chance of the system crashing when the leap-second actually occurs? I don't know for sure, but possibly yes, because the timer that fires and actually executes the leap-second adjustment (ntp_leap_second, on line 388) also grabs the ntp_lock spinlock, and has a call to hrtimer_add_expires_ns. I don't know if that call might also be able to cause a livelock, but it doesn't seem impossible.
Finally, what causes the leap-second flag to be disabled after the leap-second has run? The answer there is ntpd stops setting the leap-second flag at some point after midnight when it calls adjtimex(2). Since the flag isn't set, the check on line 554 will not be true, and no timer will be created, and line 598 will reset the time_state global variable to TIME_OK. This explains why if you checked the flag with adjtimex(8) just after the leap second, you would still see the leap-second flag set.
In short, the best advice for today seems to be the first I gave after all: disable ntpd, and disable the leap-second flag.
And some final thoughts:
none of the Linux vendors noticed John Stultz's patch and applied it to their kernels :(
why didn't John Stultz alert some of the vendors this was needed? perhaps the chance of the livelock seemed low enough making noise wasn't warranted.
I've heard reports of Java processes locking up or spinning when the leap-second was applied. Perhaps we should follow Google's lead and rethink how we apply leap-seconds to our systems: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/time-technology-and-leaping-seconds.html
06/02 Update from John Stultz:
https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/7/1/203
The post contained a step-by-step walk-through of why the leap second caused the futex timers to expire prematurely and continuously, spiking the CPU load.To make your bike less likely a target for bike thieves, you’re told to sloppily rattle can and sticker your frame. I knew a guy who completely wrapped his frame in duct tape, which very effectively uglified it.
I’ve long been skeptical of the usual advice to “uglify” your bike to make it less appealing to thieves. When I look at stolen bikes recovered by police they’re almost always ugly. Take a peek at the bikes in the Santa Cruz PD property room.
Indeed, one of the takeaways from this story about Sacramento bait bikes seems to be: don’t bother.
The value, type and condition of the approximately 20 bait bikes varies, [Sacramento Police Sgt Rachel] Ellis said, adding that thieves are as likely to steal an inexpensive bike as an expensive one. “It’s pretty surprising,” she said. “Even some that don’t look that appealing are getting stolen.”
Bait bikes are bikes equipped with GPS trackers and left in areas with high bike theft and other property crimes. Police track the bikes, find the perps, and arrest them.
If bike theft is a problem in your area, other tidbits in that story might help convince your local P.D. to start a bait bike program. According to the Sacramento police sergeant who runs the program, the bait bike program is supported by local businesses who see a focus on low-level crimes like this improve the quality-of-life overall. Police believe the suspects they arrest are guilty of other property crimes as well. They might not have sufficient evidence to prosecute for shoplifting, but the bait bike theft is an easy conviction.
Bait bike programs are also a high-profile way to let potential criminals that the police are watching. San Francisco Police, which also runs a bait bike program, distributed 25,000 “Is This A Bait Bike?” stickers to cyclists. These stickers are also on the real bait bikes. They report bike thefts are down 8.5% in San Francisco over the past year. I suppose these stickers can be considered a variation on uglifying.
Read more in the Sacramento Bee: Sacramento police say bait bikes’ crime-fighting role goes beyond deterring bicycle thefts.
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PocketWhile the Recon Jet was introduced this past spring, it’s a project I’ve been following for quite a long time. I first sat down with the company over a year ago to talk about what athletes would want in a heads up display. Since then I’ve checked in with Recon from time to time to see how things have been going on the Jet.
A Bit of Background:
Upon offering the product for sale in July things have been solidified on a number of technical fronts, so I got up to speed on those as well as what the plans are moving forward.
First up is the unit in whole. The Recon Jet is fully built in-house, which means it’s not actually going to attach to a different OEM’s sunglasses (like Oakley), such as how their snow products do today. The reasoning for this is relatively straight forward once you see how much custom design work must be done to make all the electronics fit into it.
Before we get too far one should realize that the unit shown here is prototype, and has a lot of ‘rough edges’ from a plastics standpoint. It’s also not final yet, for example the black edition shown above is a slightly earlier prototype and you can see the display is a touch bit smaller than the next iteration (shown in white). So things will continue to be tweaked slightly.
The Current State:
The Recon Jet is essentially three components: The glasses, the battery pack, and the computing engine (display/sensors/etc…). The glasses specially are designed to be usable after removing the two pods for post-workout use. For example, you finish up your ride and want to use them for the drive home or to do snow angels in the sand at the beach. They’re still working on the edging below so it’ll be much cleaner in the next prototypes.
By default the package will come with a ‘smoke’ lens color (what you see in these photos), however, they’ll offer four types in total: Clear, Rose/Yellow/Orange (exact variant TBD), Smoke, and Mirror.
For a quick tour through the pods, first up we’ve got the battery pod. This pod weighs 14g, and the battery has a lifetime of 3-6 hours depending on which sensors and features are used.
The battery pods are designed to be replaceable, and while a final price hasn’t been established for extra battery pods, they expect it to be in the $30-$50 range.
Next we have the ‘computing engine’ pod, which contains all of the real goodness. This is connected to the battery via tiny virtually invisible wiring along the top of the frame of the glasses.
The computing engine has a dual core 1ghz processor on it, and also weighs 14g. You’ll note that both ‘pods’ (battery and computing) weigh the same, to ensure balance in the universe.
In total, that puts the pods at 28g, or slightly less than 1oz. The glasses themselves weigh 32g.
The computing engine runs Android Jelly Bean 4.1.1 as its kernel, though the Recon OS is what the glasses itself run. From an Android standpoint, developers can leverage an API to develop apps for Recon Jet in a similar manner as they’d develop apps for the remainder of the Android platform.
Inside this is where all the good stuff is, specifically the following sensors and components:
– GPS
– WiFi
– ANT+
– Bluetooth Smart
– 720P HD Photo/Video Camera
– Speakerphone/Microphone
– 3D Accelerometer, Gyroscope
– Barometric altimeter and thermometer
– Data display (it doesn’t project on lens, rather is like a mini-screen)
Below, you can see the little black square is where the touch sensor is, allowing tap and swipe movements. They said it works just fine with gloves or in the rain. To the right of the square you’ll see the small dot, that’s the camera.
It was explained that the goal of the camera is “not intended to replace a GoPro”, but rather, aimed for quicker photos on the go. For example, if I was coming up on Yogi bear while riding – the ability to simply tap the button on the side and instantly get a photo. Or do a combined single tap with a secondary longer hold to start recording video. Think of it as situations you’d normally grab your cell phone for.
As noted above, the quality will be 720p initially, but down the line they may look at more advanced sensors as they become available/reasonable in that size.
You’ll charge the battery pods using the Micro-USB connector on the computing engine side/pod, which in turn charges the battery pod itself on the other side.
From a functionality standpoint of interest to most athletes are the ANT+ capabilities. The unit out of the gate will include support for ANT+ Power, ANT+ Speed, ANT+ Cadence, and ANT+ Heart Rate Sensors. Also, metrics from GPS such as distance and speed are also displayed. This means that as you ride you’ll be able to have your power information displayed inside the heads up display itself on the small screen.
The display is designed to be just inside your peripheral vision. In using the Recon HUD’s for snow sports, I found that when positioned ‘just right’ it works perfectly. However, when not positioned correctly you have to refocus. Unfortunately, this particular unit was not powered, thus I couldn’t get a good feel for how things stand today with the Jet.
The unit is designed to connect to Android and iPhone apps, which allow you to take advantage of your cell phone. This includes out of the gate features such as buddy tracking where if two users are riding out at the same time you’ll get updates on his/her location (on a map on the display), as well as the ability to simply tap to talk to them via the cell phone connection (and in turn, via the speakerphone/microphone in the unit). Thus, the next time I can’t figure out where The Girl is on a ride where we’re out at the same time, I could just tap and it’ll connect me to her and get details on why she’s still standing by the side of the road.
Other features aside from replicating your GPS bike or running computer (which it does) is notification of incoming texts and calls and weather. Additionally, you can configure the unit to spit out updates to social media platforms. For example when you cross 100 miles on a ride, it could automatically post that information to Facebook exactly as it happens.
There’s significant potential for integration with other 3rd party services to develop apps as well, from Strava to Training Peaks – though none have released their exact plans yet.
Future Plans:
Currently the unit is selling for $599, with European pricing still being finalized, though they are targeting 649€. Availability at this point is split into two groups. For the absolute earliest folks who pre-ordered in July, they will receive theirs in December. For everyone else, it’ll be just into the new year (2014).
Going forward, they’ll be doing their B3 prototype device run (build) right before Ironman Hawaii (Kona) and will be present there to demonstrate the units further.
I’ll be likely meeting up with them at the ANT+ Symposium the week prior, and hope to be able to give a more “in-use” first-look at it then in person. After all, there’s no better place to go for a ride, see some bears, and capture it on camera.
Finally, in addition to all of the work being on the Recon Jet, they’ve also got some news on their snow sports variant – the Recon Snow2. This unit updates previous ones (which I’ve toyed with in the past) by adding in WiFi, extending the battery closer to 8 hours, as well as adding in all the social notification features I mentioned above. The OS GUI looks quite a bit different and cleaned up as well. If you have a previous unit you can buy the new unit without re-purchasing the entire goggle, though, it’ll still cost ya – $399 for the total swap of internal parts (449€).
Thanks for reading!
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Welcome to Eurobike week! This week during Eurobike I’ll be tweeting from the exhibition show floor quite a bit, as well as posting frequently. Here’s a quick and handy link to all Eurobike-related posts.
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Update/Heads Up: You can order Recon Jet through Clever Training and support the site here. By doing so you’ll save 10% with DCR coupon code DCR10BTF, plus get free shipping within the US (and flat-rate international shipping). Simple as tSAN DIEGO - Seven teenagers face possible drug charges after being detained Tuesday on suspicion of using and distributing marijuana in front of Westview High School.
The students -- four minors and three 18-year-olds -- were taken into custody by undercover San Diego police detectives in the 12500 block of El Camino Real in Torrey Highlands about 8:30 a.m., SDPD Sgt. Wes Albers told reporters.
The suspects were questioned and released pending further investigation and possible filing of criminal narcotics charges. All the youths were cooperative with the detectives, who were acting on an anonymous tip about suspected drug use among teens in the area, the sergeant said.
After detaining the students, the officers searched two vehicles parked near the campus, finding marijuana paraphernalia and remnants of used cannabis, Albers told news crews during a mid-afternoon briefing outside SDPD Northwestern Division headquarters.
No drugs were found on the students themselves, police said.
Police emphasized that there was no danger to the school or neighborhood.
Westview High Principal Todd Cassen issued the following letter to parents and neighbors in response to the incident:
"Prior to the start of school this morning we were alerted by the San Diego Police Department to possible illegal activities taking place across from our campus on Fallhaven Road. We will continue to monitor the situation and are working with the SDPD as they continue their investigation … The individuals involved with this situation have been detained and there are no safety concerns for the students on our campus at this time."
Police give high-priority attention to all alleged drug offenses and other crimes that could put juveniles at risk in the division, which is home to four school districts, "30 some-odd schools" and thousands of students, Albers told news crews.
"There are students walking to school (here)," he said. "There are kids walking with older brothers and sisters. We take very seriously the welfare of our youth up here."A statue of Jean-Claude Van Damme was inaugurated the 21st October 2012 in front of the Westland Shopping Center in Brussels in presence of the Belgian actor.
Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg (born 18 October 1960), professionally known as Jean-Claude Van Damme, is a Belgian martial artist born in Brussels, actor, and director best known for his martial arts action films. The most successful of these films include Bloodsport (1988), Kickboxer (1989), Universal Soldier (1992), Hard Target (1993), Timecop (1994), Sudden Death (1995), JCVD (2008) and The Expendables 2 (2012).
After studying martial arts intensively from the age of ten, Van Damme achieved national success in Belgium as a martial artist and bodybuilder, earning the "Mr. Belgium" bodybuilding title.[5] He emigrated to the United States in 1982 to pursue a career in film, and achieved success with Bloodsport (1988), based on a story written by Frank Dux. He attained subsequent box office success with Timecop (1994), which was his highest grossing film with over $100 million. (source : Wikipédia)VARANASI: Union minister of state for micro, small and medium enterprises Giriraj Singh on Sunday said here that demographic changes in the country’s population was a growing threat to Hindus and strict laws must be formulated to address the ‘imbalance’.Singh was here to attend Sanatan Dharm Bachao Sammelan organised by Sri Vedshastranusandhan Kendra at Gandhi Adhyayan Peeth of Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapeeth.The changes in nation’s demography and population indicated impending threat to Hindus, he said, adding that widening gap in growth rates of different religious groups would cause religious imbalance in the population ratio. “It will pose a threat to the unity, integrity and cultural identity of the country,” he said.“We should learn from China, which controlled its population by enforcing the policy strictly and transformed into a developed nation,” he added. He further said that population control was a must for speedy and proper development of the country.“It is sadhus and saints’ responsibility to convince the society about conservation of our ‘sanskritik virasat’ (cultural heritage),” he said and warned that decline in population of Sanatan Dharma followers would create social imbalance in the country.“I am saying all these things not as a minister or BJP spokesperson but as a Sanatan Dharmi Hindu. I am first a Hindu, then BJP member and minister. I can quit the post of minister and party, but can’t quit my dharma,” Singh said, adding that the declining population of followers of Sanatan Dharma was a matter of concern.“The geography and history of vast Aryavart are still there but many parts of this Aryavart have no Sanatan dharma followers,” he added. He also advocated a wide discussion on the definition of minority.Citing examples, he said that population of Hindus had declined in 60 districts of UP and 26 districts of Bihar, while they have turned into minority in five districts of Kerala.On the issue of intolerance, the minister said that tolerance was in the blood of India, which firmly believes in the philosophy of ‘Vasudhaiv Kutumbakam’ and ‘Sarve Bhavantu Sukhina’. “It is the country’s tolerance that the court sat at night for a terrorist Yakub Memon and thousands of people took part in his funeral,” he said, adding that some people were questioning the country’s tolerance by raising the issue of increasing intolerance but the world accepts India’s tolerance.Behold the claw! Robotic arm CRUSHES car with its hydraulic fingers as crowd witnesses show of strength from afar
Six ton robotic arm is capable of crushing cars, oil drums and wardrobes
Powerful hydraulic fingers were made out of recycled scrap metal
Dutch RoboHand, on show in Newcastle, tours world for science shows
A giant robotic hand arches down and locks its metallic fingers around a car like a scene from a futuristic film.
With frightening power it clamps the roof of the green Panda and uses its superhuman robot strength to hold it aloft.
With frightening power it squeezes the vehicle's frame as if it were no stronger than paper, smashing through the windows and crumpling the body work.
RoboHand, a giant robotic hand with hydraulically-powered fingers, crushes a green Panda at Life Science Centre in Newcastle
RoboHand is the attraction that has been dazzling audiences at the Maker Faire UK, a science technology and arts and craft extravaganza at Newcastle's Life Science Centre.
The vast contraption is 30 times larger than an average human hand, with an arm measuring eight meters and weighing in at six tons.
Hydraulically powered fingers give the hand enough strength to crush almost anything put before it.
The fearsome RoboHand makes light work of a Panda car, as it hoists it aloft in front of the crowds at Newcastle's Maker Faire UK
Crowds watch on as the eight metre arm uses its superhuman strength and grip to lift a car in to the air at the Life Sciences Centre in Newcastle
Originally commissioned for the 2007 Robodock Festival in the Netherlands, Robohand is the brain-child of American artist Christian Ristow.
It was built from recycled scrap-metal and due to its huge size, was destined for a return to the junk yard following its festival appearance.
But after its owners made modifications, Robohand is now a sustainable and transportable art object which tours internationally.
The big squeeze: After hoisting the four-door car in to the air, Robohand's hydraulically-powered fingers easily crush its roof and boot, having already made light work of the windows
With its boot and roof now crumpled, the car hangs precariously from RoboHand's thumb. the giant mechanical crusher's fingers are released as the vehicle's fate is sealed
The RoboHand is the headline act at the Maker Faire UK in Newcastle, which is expected to draw in 10,000 visitors
As well as cars, objects set to face its mangling power during the festival include washing machines, oil drums, wardrobes and pianos.
The two day festival is expected to draw in around 10,000 visitors.On Dec. 21 last year, immediately after the Dolphins pulled off a Week 16 win over the Vikings, Miami owner Stephen Ross announced coach Joe Philbin would return for the 2015 season.
"He has one year left on [his] contract and is coming back," said Ross, who three months later then handed Philbin an extension through the 2016 campaign, so Philbin could avoid lame-duck status this season.
It took only four weeks of dismal play from the high-priced Dolphins to undo all the owner's faith in his head coach. Ross fired Philbin on Monday, with the Dolphins sitting at 1-3 following a 27-14 loss in London to the Jets. Since rallying to beat Washington in Week 1, Miami has lost three straight games—the last two coming within the division by a combined score of 68-28.
The Dolphins needed to make a move, but it sure looks like Ross dropped the ball by not canning Philbin at the end of 2014. There was ample cause: a 23-25 record over three seasons, multiple cases last year where Philbin's in-game management cost the team, not to mention the Richie Incognito-Jonathan Martin bullying scandal that happened under Philbin's watch.
Firing Philbin now amounts to throwing in the towel on the season. There have been instances where an interim coach stepped in and held down the fort—Jason Garrett earned the Cowboys' full-time gig by posting a 5-3 record to close 2010; Bruce Arians, under totally different circumstances, helped the Colts to the playoffs in 2011 as Chuck Pagano underwent cancer treatments.
In general, though, promoting an interim coach usually means a complete shift is coming next off-season, as happened in Oakland last year. The lack of any NFL head-coaching experience on Miami's staff outside of Philbin makes that reconfiguration all but inevitable.
Dan Campbell, who will take over for Philbin, just retired from playing in 2009. He has five years' experience as Miami's tight ends coach.
His job moving forward will be thankless, because it will take a borderline miracle to turn this team around in short order. Defensive coordinator Kevin Coyle reportedly is out, too, and offensive coordinator Bill Lazor is feeling the heat himself. Most legitimate options to replace Philbin permanently are under contract with other teams, meaning Ross will have to wait on them until the end of the season.
So, what's next for the Dolphins? Here are a few potential candidates, be it now or in January:
Jim Schwartz: A long shot, sure, but if the Dolphins are desperate to find someone right now with experience as a head coach, this is an option. Schwartz ran the show in Detroit from 2009 to '13 before being fired, taking the Lions to the playoffs in 2011. He then turned in a successful one-year run as Buffalo's defensive coordinator. Even if the Dolphins don't see Schwartz as their new head coach, he could be an upgrade as the defensive coordinator.
Bill Cowher: Ross reportedly wanted to swing for the fences last time he needed a new head coach, prior to hiring Philbin for the 2012 season. Jon Gruden then was linked to the Dolphins, and his name likely will surface again—but the contract extension he signed through 2021 with ESPN makes the odds of him returning to the sidelines quite slim.
Ross has a better chance with Cowher, though the 58-year-old also has settled in as a TV analyst, far removed from the stresses of coaching. Cowher last manned a head-coaching post for Pittsburgh in 2006. He has hinted in the past that he would be open to coming out of unofficial retirement, but is this the job that could lure him?
Jim Harbaugh: Ross denied back in March that he had courted Harbaugh once the latter left the 49ers. Ross's presence at the University of Michigan—he donated $200 million to the eponymous business school—makes it almost unfathomable to believe he would ask Harbaugh to leave Ann Arbor after just one year on the job there. Count on hearing the suggestion, though.
• The MMQB: How the Jets defense became the NFL’s best
Kyle Shanahan: The Falcons' offensive coordinator interviewed for the same job in Miami in 2014; Lazor was hired instead. However, Shanahan, 35, figures to receive a head-coaching shot at some point soon, especially considering his early success in Atlanta. His dad, Mike, could be another big-name possibility for Ross.
Adam Gase: Considered for multiple off-seasons now to be among the likeliest to be promoted from a coordinator role to head coach, somewhere. It didn't happen for him last off-season, so he followed John Fox to Chicago as offensive coordinator. Whenever a coaching vacancy opens in the coming months, Gase will be among the obvious candidates.
Teryl Austin: The Lions were afraid that they would lose their defensive coordinator after he turned in a brilliant 2014. The first few weeks of 2015 have not gone as swimmingly, but Austin, 50, remains a highly respected assistant with designs on a head-coaching job. The respective success stories (thus far) of Todd Bowles and Dan Quinn transitioning from defensive coordinator to head coach will help Austin's case.
Jim Mora: Third time's the charm? Mora did win the NFC South with an 11-5 record in his first season as the Falcons' head coach (2004), but he was let go after successive eight- and seven-win years. He then was one-and-done as Seattle's head coach, fired following a 5-11 mark in 2009—Pete Carroll replaced him. Still, his work at UCLA (33-12 over three-plus years) and coaching pedigree are appealing to NFL teams, even if his pro record is not.
Frank Reich: As was the case with Austin and Gase, Reich interviewed for multiple jobs last off-season, only to stick as the Chargers' offensive coordinator for a second season. While he does not have any head-coaching experience at any level, Reich has a lengthy NFL playing career that gives him a boost. So, too, does his work with San Diego to date.
Kevin Sumlin: Another coach whose name has come up repeatedly when anyone tries to guess where the next NCAA-to-NFL promotion may happen. Sumlin is 33-11 in his current role at Texas A&M and was 35-17 at the University of Houston. His consistently exciting offenses could appeal to Ross, whose staffs have yet to figure out how to utilize all the playmakers available.
Sean McDermott: While less-heralded than some of the other NFL assistants, McDermott has produced results as Carolina's defensive coordinator from 2011 to 15 that no one can argue. Philbin came from an offensive background (Green Bay O.C. before his hire in Miami) and Coyle was an outrageous disappointment in 2015. Could Ross focus on defense with his next hire?
From the SI.com Photo Archives
Mouse over a photo for a pop-up view; click on a link to go to the gallery.A study of survey data collected over 25 years has confirmed that university faculty in New England are far more liberal than anywhere else in the nation, outnumbering conservatives 28-to-1, compared to a 6-to-1 ratio nationally.
Samuel Abrams, a professor of politics at Sarah Lawrence College, notes in an op-ed for The New York Times Sunday that while decades of survey data confirm liberal preponderance throughout the academy, one region in particular stands out for its particularly extreme imbalance: New England.
“Wow, it’s getting harder and harder to find non-progressive professors on campuses right now.”
“I cannot say for certain why New England is so far to the left,” Abrams concedes. “But what I can say, based on the evidence, is that if you are looking for an ideologically balanced education, don’t put New England at the top of your list.”
Reviewing surveys of professors’ ideological leanings that were conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) between 1989 and 2014, Abrams discovered a distinct leftward shift over the past 25 years, but was surprised to discover that “the factor that had the greatest impact on the ideological leanings of college professors was their geographic region.”
The HERI surveys reveal that liberal academics outnumbered their conservative peers in 1989 by a 2-to-1 margin nationally, while in New England the figure was 5-to-1. Twenty-five years later, the national ratio had tripled, coming in at 6-to-1 in 2014, but that increase paled in comparison to New England, where the discrepancy reached an astronomical 28-to-1.
[RELATED: REPORT: 99.51% of top liberal arts prof. contributions go to Dems]
Abrams reassured Campus Reform that the findings, both in New England and nationally, are not indicative of the nation’s overall ideological leanings, suggesting instead that they are a product of groupthink and unconscious bias among university faculty and administrators who control the hiring process for new professors.
“On average the nation is more conservative than it is liberal, but professors are just so far left,” he explained. “It’s a very strong finding to see that suddenly it’s not a myth, and that academics really has shifted to be far more liberal.”
The reason for the disproportionate leftward bias in New England, Abrams added, can be attributed primarily to the hiring process rather than an ideological shift in the region.
“What’s going on in New England is most likely that they are hiring more liberal professors, rather than these professors actually becoming more liberal, and over time that can culminate into a big shift toward the left,” Abrams said. “Typically, we hire people because we’re planning on working with them and it’s a lot more attractive to have people you agree with.”
[RELATED: Cornell prof says hiring Republicans would decrease faculty quality]
Indeed, Abrams recounts experiencing just that phenomenon when he started teaching at Sarah Lawrence in 2010, recalling that colleagues used to joke that he was a “targeted hire” because his moderate political views were practically heretical at the ultra-liberal college.
According to Abrams’ findings, the leftward shift in academia became most noticeable in the mid-1990’s.
In 1989, the surveys showed that 40 percent of professors identified as liberal, 40 percent as moderates, and only 20 percent were conservative. In 2014, however, professors identifying as liberal climbed to 60 percent, while the share of moderate professors fell to 30 percent and conservatives declined to 10 percent.
The research findings present a much larger issue than a regional ideological gap, Abrams notes, pointing out that an increase in liberal ideology can potentially lead to issues regarding free speech and academic freedom.
[RELATED: Tenured conservative prof retires due to liberal persecution]
“It just makes you go ‘wow, it’s getting harder and harder to find non-progressive professors on campuses right now,’” he told Campus Reform. “It’s very hard to challenge people with different views on college campuses right now because there’s no one to support you.”
Abrams said the importance of establishing a balanced environment and giving students the opportunity to hear perspectives from both sides of the isle is crucial because it is currently not happening on college campuses today.
“If these are the people who are teaching our future leaders, then it begs the question, are these professors really the most balanced group of people, are these students really getting the most balanced education?” he asked.“The data suggest maybe not.”
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @morgan_walker95ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION) A police officer had to be rescued by helicopter after his vehicle was stranded in fast-moving flood waters in Sachse, Texas on Friday (May 29). Hundreds of people fled areas near Texas rivers that overflowed their banks on Thursday as the state reeled from severe storms this week that killed at least 17 people, flooded cities and set a record for the wettest month. The National Weather Service issued a flash flood watch stretching from south of San Antonio to Dallas, through Oklahoma, where severe weather this week killed an additional six people, and into Kansas. Thunderstorms pelted large parts of the affected region. Teams worked overnight to rescue people affected by the flood waters. Officials said Travis County firefighters saved 21 people from a drifting houseboat while Johnson County emergency workers rescued 14 drivers and residents. No injuries were reported among them. The city of Wharton, about 60 miles (100 km) southwest of Houston, issued a voluntary evacuation notice for about 300 homes along the Colorado River, where water was expected to rise through Friday. The Brazos River flooded about 30 miles (50 km) west of Fort Worth and was expected to crest on Thursday evening. Hundreds left their homes on Wednesday as the waterway began breaching its banks, Parker County officials said. State climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon said the average rainfall across the state was 7.54 inches (19 cm) in May, breaking the record of 6.66 inches (17 cm) set in June 2004, according to records that date to 1895.So you want to build an app with Node.js (io.js if you’re feeling adventurous) that does something other than manage your todo list or let you chat with randoms through websocket connections. Maybe you have some experience with robust web frameworks like Rails or Django. You have a taste for style and find 2000 lines of JavaScript in one file to be unacceptable.
You’ve selected Express as your minimalistic framework because you have some doubts about the maturity of bigger frameworks like Sails. Now what? Every example you find is a single file: app.js. The following tips aim to help ease the pain of structuring a Node.js app in a modular way, while testing it thoroughly along the way.
Single entry point
It’s important to note up-front that even though we are splitting our objects into many files and directories, our Express app will still have a single entry point. It is in here that our Express app will be initialized, middleware configured, and various other global setup will happen.
Skip ahead to “But how do I run it?” if at any point you’re unsure of how a particular tip can be applied in reality.
Organizing your file structure
Split up that single file app.js by breaking out objects into individual files and structuring the filesystem in a conventional way so future developers can easily follow. You might do something like:
models/
controllers/
lib/
config/
... etc
Routing
Splitting your routes into individual controller files means your routes are now distributed and thus need to be aggregated and initialized with Express in order for those paths to be exposed to the user. Enter express-enrouten, an Express middleware built by the kraken team at PayPal that will automagically load your controllers/ directory and handle your routing with some nice conveniences for namespacing: get(‘/api/users/:id’) becomes get(‘:id’) because of its location in controllers/api/users/index.js.
Requiring your components (no more ‘../../../../../’)
Node’s require allows you to a) require files relative to the directory of your current file; and b) require files relative to the node_modules/ directory in your package. The implication of (a) in a nested file structure is that you must traverse the tree up in order to require files from sibling directories:
// controllers/api/users/index.js
var User = require('../../../models/user');
Now that’s no fun and gets out of hand with deep nested directories.
You can leverage Node globals to expose a new function to all of your files that will behave as an app-specific version of require, scoped to your app’s root directory.
app_require.js
var path = require('path');
module.exports = function() {
global.appRequire = function(name) {
return require(path.join(__dirname, name));
};
}();
Now our controller looks like:
// controllers/api/users/index.js
var User = appRequire('models/user');
Much better.
Note: there are a number of other solutions to this, but I found the above to be the most convenient and expressive.
Connection and configuration dependencies
If your app is like most apps, it will require configuration and shared connections to one or many databases. Node’s require cache allows us to share singleton connections or configuration objects thanks to its caching the value of module.exports. For example, if we have two models that need the database connection:
// models/user.js
var DB = appRequire('config/db');
DB.model('User',...);
// models/article.js
var DB = |
this article may or may not agree with the views expressed on those pages. TThe LDS Church rejects the use of the cross as a religious symbol yet adopts those used by the Masons and Satanists prominently displaying them on their temple in Utah and other buildings.. See photographs... See Origins of The Beehive, The Inverted Pentagram & The All-seeing Eye To understand the symbols one must first know something of Joseph Smith's involvement with Freemasonry. Masonic Symbols & The LDS Temple. (Also see our article on Freemasonry) Additionally Some Mormons do not realize that their temple Endowment Ceremony was copied directly from rites in Freemasonry. The Mormon temple ceremony has no connection whatsoever with Christianity. The Beehive
One of the principal symbols of The Masonic Lodge is predominantly displayed all over the Mormon temple in Utah. "It will be remembered that in the process of censing the Lodge, a beehive-shaped structure was erected in front of the pedestal of each of the principal officers "(C.W. Leadbeater, The Hidden Life in Freemasonry). The symbolism of the Beehive (given to the candidate in the Third Degree as a hieroglyphic emblem) and the Bee was the subject of a talk given at the Mill Valley Masonic Lodge on February 29, 2000 by Thomas D. Worrel. He says that At certain times the candidate is placed within these subtle structures so that (it is thought) he or she may absorb the subtle influences invoked by the rites. And Inside the traditions that have been transmitted to us under the name of Freemasonry, lie concealed a multitude of mysteries. Another interesting statement.. "The hive proper denotes man's physical body. The honeycomb signifies that which is interior to the physical, the astral body. And the honey is symbolical of the spiritual body, which is composed of the choicest nectars and aromas of earthly experience." (C.C. Zain, Ancient Masonry) While there is little doubt that the bee has long been a symbol of industry and work ethic, it has unassailable ties to pagan religions. The Hindu God Shiva has been depicted by a bee surmounting a triangle and Krishna often had a blue bee on his forehead. Yogic writings liken the hum emitted by the lowest chakra (energy center in the body) to the sound made by the bumble bee. The second temple built at Delphi was said to be built by bees. There are coins from Ephesus from the 5th century B.C. that depict a queen bee as a symbol of the Great Mother.(Ephesus was known throughout the ancient world for its temple to the Great Mother Goddess). The mystery Rites of Eleusis, centered around the goddess Demeter, were widely regarded as the high point of Greek religion and were conducted by (among others) the Panageis Priestesses or Milissae - meaning bees. However Mr. Worrel in an attempt to connect bees and honey to Christianity says that both have had various meanings in both Jewish and Christian legends, quoting the story of Sampson as an example. As far as Biblical text goes it would take an enormous stretch of the imagination to read any hidden meaning or symbolism into that story, or any other reference to honey in Old or New Testament. Sampson in satisfying his greed was guilty of handling a corpse.. nothing more, nothing less. (Leviticus 11:26.) He also speaks of the.. Christian uses of the symbol, which as to be expected centered around Christ. The symbol of industry, fidelity and virtue being predominant. And makes a reference to the monasteries who learned to cultivate bees. There is no reference to the bee or the beehive in the New Testament and industry, fidelity and virtue, while desirable, and even necessary traits in any human, are certainly not one particularly associated with Christianity. From earliest times principal Christian traits have always been faith and righteousness. Virtually all references to honey in the OT were lands that flowed with milk and honey symbolizing a bountiful land. Honey could not be burned on the altar of the Lord but could be part of the offering of First fruits. Leviticus 2:11. Simply because it was the monks who first domesticated bees cannot be taken to mean that the bees or their hives in any way symbolized Christianity. Conclusion: While the Mormon Church may conveniently use the smoke and mirrors explanation that the symbols that adorn their temple mean different things to us the facts remain irrefutable. The beehive (among others) Is A symbol steeped in paganism and mystery religions with no connections to traditional Christianity. Religions and religious systems that stem from very dark and anti Christian roots and the use of these symbols would be, as Amos so eloquently quotes the Lord, as saying A foul stench to my nostrils. (Top) The Nauvoo Pentagram
By Bill McKeever The Mormon Church has received plenty of criticism regarding the many inverted pentagrams that are displayed on both the exterior and interior of the temple in Nauvoo, Illinois. Several of them are located on the perimeter of the temple and as many as 138 inverted stars can be found in the assembly room. Inverted pentagrams can also be found on the upper walls and embroidered into the curtains of the celestial room. Some have wondered why a church claiming to be Christian would blatantly use emblems currently associated with Satanism as a temple decoration. Mormon apologists have quickly come to their church's defense by insisting that pentagrams have historically been a positive symbol and only recently have become a symbol of evil, therefore concluding that any comparison to the Nauvoo pentagrams is nothing more than sensationalism.
History of the Pentagram
The five-pointed star is a simple design that has shown up in the artwork of several cultures. Deciding when the inverted star actually came to be known as a symbol of evil can be confusing. There is no general consensus among historians and even Wiccans and witches are not in full agreement. Some say this happened around the time of the Inquisition, while others say it could have been as late as the 19th century. Mormon apologists are correct when they insist that Christians have used the pentagram or pentacle in their artwork. For instance, at one time the five-pointed star was commonly known as the "five wounds of Christ." However, the time frame in which Christians used this symbol becomes very important, and, as I will examine later in this article, tend to discount many LDS assertions. One thing we do know and that is the inverted pentagram has come to be associated with evil. Of that there is little doubt. Consider the following: "The pentagram with one point upwards repels evil, but a reversed pentagram, with two points upwards, is a symbol of the Devil and attracts sinister forces because it is upside down and because it stands for the number 2. It represents the great Goat of the witches' sabbath and the two upward points are the Goat's horn." (The Black Arts, Richard Cavendish (G.P.Putnam's Sons Publishing; 1967, p.265). "The spiritual knowledge of the Five-pointed Star is identical with its practical application. Let us beware that the figure is always well drawn, leaving no open space, through which the enemy can enter and disturb the harmony existing in the Pentagon. Let us keep the figure always upright, with the topmost triangle pointing to heaven, for it is the seat of Wisdom, and if the figure is reversed perversion and evil will be the result" (Magic - White and Black, Franz Hartmann, M.D., Newcastle Publishing, 1971,pp.290-291). "Inverted Pentacle. The sacred symbol of Witchcraft often is misunderstood because of associations of the inverted pentacle, with single point down and double points up, with the infernal. If an upright five-pointed star represents God or the deity, then the reverse typically represents Satan...In Europe, some Witches have used the inverted pentacle to denote the second-degree rank. This use has declined, because of the association of the symbol with Satanism" (The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft, by Rosemary Ellen Guiley, Facts on File, Inc., 1989, p.266) It is interesting to note that in the latter two quotes great care is expected regarding the direction of the points in order not to be associated with Satanism.
The LDS Perspective
I am not aware of any evidence that proves Smith was purposely attempting to use a symbol that society at the time would have viewed as evil, nor do I know of any LDS who feels such a symbol is meant to represent Satan either blatantly or esoterically. In fact, most Mormons have told me that the pentagrams used on LDS buildings symbolize the stars mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15:41. Perhaps that works for a Mormon, but I personally don't imagine pentagrams when I read how "one star differs from another star in glory." But then again, that's just me. BYU professor of history William Hamblin raises some good questions when he asks what the five-pointed star meant in the 1840s in the United States (e-mail received 9/10/02). This is important because we would assume that what this emblem meant at the time the Nauvoo temple was built would probably reflect how Joseph Smith would have seen it as well. Mr. Hamblin mentions in the same email that the "the swastika is a symbol of Nazism in the mid-twentieth century, but is a symbol of the sun-god or of good luck in India and Tibet." This is true. In fact, for thousands of years the swastika, or the reversed sauvastika, shows up in artwork all over the world, including the artwork of American Indians. However, when Adolph Hitler chose to use this emblem as an insignia for his Nazi Party, things began to change very rapidly. This, I feel, is the whole issue regarding the LDS Church's use of the inverted pentagram on its buildings. Mormons may argue that Smith's pentagram was perfectly harmless in the 1840s, but there is no denying that many people in the world today associate it with evil. Show most people a picture of an inverted pentagram and I am sure that only Mormons would insist this is the star mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15:41. On his web site, Mr. Hamblin asks: "When was the inverted pentagram first explicitly said to be a symbol of Satan? As far as I have been able to ascertain, the originator of this symbol was Eliphas Levi (pseudonym for Alphonse-Louis Constant), a French defrocked Catholic priest, in his 'Dogme et rituel de la haute magic' published in 1855 and 1856 in France. (English translation Eliphas Levi, 'Transcendental magic, its doctrine and ritual.' trans. Arthur Edward Waite (New York, S. Weiser: 1970) illus. ii, p. 55.) He invented the idea in 1855." Mr. Hamblin goes on to say, "This book was published over a decade after the death of Joseph Smith. Now it is certainly true that since Eliphas Levi, the inverted pentagram has become a widespread symbol used by occultists and Satanists. But it is the height of folly to take the symbolic meaning of the pentagram today and apply in to the symbolic world of Joseph Smith in 1844 by claiming Joseph secretly used the pentagram as an occult and satanic symbol. No one in 1844 would have understood it as such."
[fhss.byu.edu/history/faculty/hamblin/Esoterica/Pentacles.htm. Link is not longer valid] Unless Mr. Hamblin can supply evidence that absolutely refutes much of what historians have told us about this symbol, I don't think his conclusion is defendable. Whereas it may be argued that this symbol was not meant by Smith to have "occult or satanic" meanings, to say "no one in 1844" would have understood it as such is much too broad an assertion. Joseph Smith's fascination with folk-magic may supply some of the answers to this mystery. His use of seer stones, amulets, and magical parchments certainly do not help us draw a conclusion that Smith had no knowledge of what was known to be "occultic" in his time period. We do know that the word occult during Smith's time meant, "to conceal." Other definitions include invisible, secret, unknown, undiscovered, and undetected. The 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language states, "...the occult sciences are magic, necromancy, &c." The fact that the LDS temple ceremony (prior to 1990) on numerous occasions used the words secret and secrecy would tend to fit well within this definition. Even if it could be proven that prior to the 1840s the inverted pentagram did not have any relationship to evil, it does not explain why the Mormons would continue to use it during a time period when, by Hamblin's own admission, it definitely does have that connotation. The LDS Church has used the inverted star to decorate other buildings that were completed long after 1855. This would include the famous Salt Lake temple, which was finished in 1893. Several inverted stars with an elongated point at the bottom can also be found in the woodwork in the Christus Rotunda in the North Visitor's Center on Temple Square that was built in 1963. The lined, inverted star within a circle can also be found in the upper left hand corner near the entrance of the LDS Museum of Church History and Art built in 1984. And let us not forget that the Nauvoo temple we see today on Mulholland Street was not finished in the 1840's -- it was completed in 2002. In his article entitled Inverted Stars on LDS Temples (http://www.fairlds.org/pubs/Stars.pdf ), Mormon writer Matthew B. Brown also refers to Eliphas Levi as the one who gave the inverted pentagram an evil connotation. He states "Though Eliphas Levi is consistently credited with being the first person to associate the inverted five-pointed star with Satan, one commentator makes this important observation: "The inverted five-pointed star, with its single point downward, originally had no demonic meaning, but over the centuries it has mistakenly come to represent evil." (Source cited, Tom Ogden, Wizards and Sorcerers: From Abracadabra to Zoroaster, New York: Facts on File, 1997, 172). How this mistakenly happened is subject to debate, but it seems to be clear that if it has come to represent evil "over the centuries," it is reasonable to assume that it did have had such a connotation when Joseph Smith was alive. Several books on the subject, as well as several web sites sympathetic to Wicca and Witchcraft, insist that the occultic association of the inverted pentagram goes back much further than the 1850s. "...when the Black Mass was developed by disgruntled priests during the times of the Inquisition, the inverted cross with its vertical line moving upward, as their symbol, took on an evil connotation just the opposite of what simple geometric symbolism would suggest. Also, during the Inquisition, the Pagan Horned God, sometimes depicted as a goat, otherwise as a stag, was characterized by Inquisitors as Satan, in one of many deliberate, false and very often violent attempts to suppress the Old Religion. As if that was not bad enough, the Church of Satan, founded in America in 1966, chose the inverted pentagram as its symbol. Since then, Satanic fears and fantasies, have caused the inverted pentagram to be thoroughly suppressed in any use by Wiccans, especially in the USA. Here it is largely viewed as the antithesis of Wicca, just as the inverted cross is viewed within Christianity." (Starcrafts web site, retrieved 09/23/02, http://www.starcraftsob.com/craft/pentagram.shtml). "During the long period of the Inquisition, there was much promulgation of lies and accusations in the 'interests' of orthodoxy and elimination of heresy. The Church lapsed into a long period of the very diabolism it sought to oppose. The pentagram was seen to symbolise a Goat's Head or the Devil in the form of Baphomet and it was Baphomet whom the Inquisition accused the Templars of worshipping" (Magickal Musings, retrieved 09/23/02, http://magickalmusings.net/wicca/topic10.php). The Inquisition began under the reign of Pope Gregory IX in 1231 as a means for controlling and condemning those who were considered heretics. Coupled with the Spanish Inquisition, its effect lasted for hundreds of years. When exactly during this time period the inverted pentagram became a symbol of evil is difficult to determine. However, if the above information is even closely correct, the parallels drawn by both Brown and Hamblin regarding medieval cathedrals become irrelevant since they were designed or built prior to the time this symbol was commonly linked with evil. The same is true for the artwork they mention. While I see this as only a minor consequence, on the web page that bears Mr. Brown's article is a picture of the "Great Star," a flag he says, "flew from 1837 to 1845." He notes "This flag displayed a large upright star in the center of the blue field with numerous smaller stars around it that were arranged so as to create one enormous inverted star." Not that this really matters, it is doubtful that any of these designs had the sanction of the US Government considering the fact that on April 4, 1818 Congress enacted a law that gave clear instructions for the design of the American flag. It read: "That the Flag of the United States be 13 horizontal stripes, alternate red and white, and that on the admission of every State into the Union, one star to be added on the Fourth of July next succeeding admission." Perhaps it should also be noted that there were also variations of the "Great Star" flag with stars arranged as an upright star as well. Mr. Brown also correctly mentions that the prestigious Medal of Honor is an inverted five-pointed star. I concede that I don't have an answer for this, but then, I can't explain a lot of things our government does. I do know that it is probably not a wise thing to place too much trust in the government when it comes to things of a spiritual nature.
No Win Situation
When I heard that the LDS Church was going to rebuild the Nauvoo temple using its original design, I felt that they were going to find themselves between a rock and a hard place when it came to the pentagrams. If they kept them, they would be criticized for its now universal association to evil. If they changed them, it would be construed as somehow recognizing something was amiss. However, make no mistake about it, there is good reason to believe that Gordon Hinckley knew full well that this symbol would cause controversy. He could have easily avoided it, but he chose not to. In his book entitled Window Maker, Charles W. Allen tells how he was commissioned by the LDS Church to build the leaded glass stars that encircle the outside of the Nauvoo temple. The original plan was to stick as closely as possible to the original design, so Allan commenced to put together stars that would be placed in an inverted fashion. However, Allan notes on page 182 of his book how on Tuesday, May 8 [2001] he was approached by three men from his church. He writes, "...Ron Prince, Cory Karl and Keith Stepan were in the shop this morning to see how I was doing and to take a look at the colored glass in the star sash. They really liked what they saw. Keith asked me whether, if President Hinckley wanted to have the star pointed in an up position, that would be possible? I said yes, that all I had to do is to rotate the sash. He made a recorded note of that for his next meeting with President Hinckley. There is some concern by members of the temple committee that the upside down star would be interpreted as a Satanic symbol which some cults believe in today." This paragraph is very telling since even some members of the temple committee were apprehensive as to how the stars would be interpreted. It also shows that President Hinckley had the final say as to which direction the stars would point. Since I have not read any statement as to why Hinckley chose to open his church to this criticism, I can only surmise that he probably wanted to remain true to the design Joseph Smith said he saw in a "vision" (History of the Church 6:196 -197). He apparently was unconcerned that this symbol's meaning had changed drastically since the time of Mormonism's founder. If Keith Stepan did in fact relate this concern to Hinckley then we know for sure his decision was not made ignorantly. For this reason I find it irrational for Mormon apologists to easily dismiss the concerns of Christians who find the inverted five-pointed stars troublesome. I'd like to insist that I am not aware of any evidence that proves Smith was purposely trying to utilize what he thought was a Satanic symbol. Nor do I think that any Mormon sees it as such either. However, as I have pointed out earlier, this symbol has changed its meaning over the years. Just as any American who chooses to adorn his building with a swastika should expect to be criticized, so too should any religious group that chooses to utilize an inverted pentagram be second-guessed. If a Mormon wishes to belong to a church that purposely uses an emblem currently associated with evil, that is their choice. If a Mormon wishes to have their apologists defend such a symbol, that is their prerogative also. I personally don't see this as emblem to be proud of and to prove my point I don't expect to see pentagram necklaces being sold next to CTR rings. What really puzzles me about this whole issue is how Mormons can defend the use of the pentagram but criticize the use of a cross as a Christian symbol. While recognizing that many who wear crosses see it as a "sincere and sacred gesture," tenth LDS President Joseph Fielding had no problem insulting millions of Christians when he went on to say, "To them the cross does not represent an emblem of torture but evidently carried the impression of sacrifice and suffering endured by the Son of God. However, to bow down before a cross or to look upon it as an emblem to be revered because of the fact that our Savior died upon a cross is repugnant to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint (Answers to Gospel Questions 4:16). In light of such a comment, is it not hypocritical for Mormons to complain about Christians who find pentagrams on "sacred" buildings "repugnant"? Conclusion
I personally feel that Hinckley's loyalty to Smith's original design is to blame for much of this controversy. We have no reason to believe he was compelled to remain completely true to the temple's original design given the fact that the upright angel atop the steeple is not the same as the horizontal weathervane/angel used in 1846. If I may offer my suggestion, I think the best way this issue could have been avoided would have been for Hinckley to change the design and issue a press release that said something like, "Because the meaning of the inverted pentagram has changed drastically since the 1840's we felt that in order not to offend the many Christians who see this design in a negative light, we plan to place the stars in an upright position." In doing so he would have calmed the concerns of his temple committee and probably put to rest many undo criticisms. Inplainsite Note: From a purely logical point of view one would assume that any symbol that may be called by names like The Goblin Cross, the Pentalpha, the Witch Foot, and the Devils Star, would have nothing to do with Christ and His church. The Mormons (who ironically call themselves The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints) however seem to have no problem in harmonizing the two most opposing forces in the Universe and incorporating Satans own symbolism into their Church. The Lord punished the Israelite kingdom time and again, finally utterly destroying them for embracing symbolism and idols of pagan gods. The question one is forced to ask is whether the rules have changed so drastically that the God who once destroyed a nation for practices He called an abomination, would embrace a church that does exactly the same thing? (Top) The All-Seeing Eye / The Eye of Horus At the Salt Lake City Temple, over a window of the east central tower, is the All-seeing-Eye. The All-seeing-Eye is taken from the left eye, the "moon" or "sound" eye of Horus, a pagan god, the son of Osiris and Isis. The ancient Egyptian Eye of Horus or wedjat ('Whole One') is a powerful symbol of protection, and is also considered to confer wisdom, health and prosperity. Horus was one of the most important Egyptian gods, a sun-god represented as a falcon or with the head of a hawk, whose right eye was the sun and whose left eye was the moon. He was the son of Osiris (god of the underworld) and Isis (mother goddess). Osiris was slain by his own brother, the evil Set (jackal-headed god of night), and Horus fought Set to avenge his father's death, winning the battle but losing an eye in the process. The eye was restored by the magic of the god of wisdom and the moon, Thoth, and this allowed Horus to grant Osiris rebirth in the underworld. The Eye of Horus symbol was used in funerary rites and decoration, as instructed in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. After 1200 BC, it was also used by the Egyptians to represent fractions, based on repeated division by two. Both the right and the left eyes of Horus were depicted by the ancient Egyptians. The wounding of the left eye served as a mythical explanation of the phases of the moon, and its magical restoration meant that the left was usually the one used as an amulet and considered to be the 'Eye of Horus'. The right eye is sometimes referred to as the 'Eye of Ra', the sun god, though often little distinction is made between the two eyes. Conclusion : The all-seeing eye of Horus! Connections to the ancient Egyptian god of the underworld, mystical creatures born of gods and reborn through magic! And the Mormon Church would have its faithful believe that all these were inspired of God who states repeatedly in the Bible how He hates other gods, magic, paganism, witchcraft and communication with the dead. How then can the Mormon Church explain the obvious disagreement between their symbolism and the laws of the God they claim to follow? Quite simply they cant. (Top) The Temple Endowment Ceremony
Masonic Roots of Mormonism.. This is an excerpt from an article by Mark Hines, M.A. Some Mormons do not realize that their temple Endowment ceremony was copied directly from rites in Masonry. The Mormon temple ceremony has no connection whatsoever with Christianity. On March 15, 1842, Joe Smith became an Entered Apprentice Mason, and the next day he became a Master Mason. The usual thirty-day wait between degrees was waived by Abraham Jonas, Grandmaster of the Illinois Lodge. Joe Smith admitted to being a Mason in his History of the Church (vol. 4, p. 551). Under the date of March 15, 1842 his entry is, "In the evening I received the first degree in Free Masonry in the Nauvoo Lodge, assembled in my general business office" (History of the Church vol. 4, p. 551). The very next day he noted becoming a Master Mason, "I was with the Masonic Lodge and rose to the sublime degree" (Ibid., p. 552). Dr. Reed Durham, who was president of the Mormon History Association, noted: "There is absolutely no question in my mind that the Mormon ceremony which came to be known as the Endowment, introduced by Joseph Smith to Mormon Masons, had an immediate inspiration from Masonry. It is also obvious that the Nauvoo Temple architecture was in part, at least, Masonically influenced. Indeed, it appears that there was an intentional attempt to utilize Masonic symbols and motifs...." (Mormon Miscellaneous, pub. David C. Martin, October, 1975, pp. 11-16). Less than two months after becoming a Master Mason, Joe Smith introduced the Endowment ceremony. For the Endowment ceremony, Joe Smith copied Masonic rites from a book called Freemasonry Exposed (1827) by William Morgan. When one compares the Nauvoo ceremony with the Masonic rite in Morgan's book, one easily sees the Masonic influence on the Mormon rite. The two rites resemble each other to the point of being identical at places. Morgan's account was an exposé of his local York Rite's "Craft" degrees. One can easily see the similarities between Masonic and Mormon rites. The penalty for revealing the First Token of the Aaronic Priesthood, Smith copied from the penalty of disclosing the first degree (Entered Apprentice) of Freemasonry. Mormon text: "We, and each of us, covenant and promise that we will not reveal any of the secrets of this, the first token of the Aaronic priesthood, with its accompanying name, sign or penalty. Should we do so, we agree that our throats be cut from ear to ear and our tongues torn out by their roots" (W. M. Paden, Temple Mormonism, 1931, p. 18). Mason text: "I will... never reveal any part or parts, art or arts, point or points of the secret arts and mysteries of ancient Freemasonry... binding myself under no less penalty than to have my throat cut across, my tongue torn out by the roots...." (William Morgan, Freemasonry Exposed, 1827, pp. 21-22) Compare the Second Token of the Aaronic Priesthood with the Second Degree (Fellow Craft) oath: Mormon text: "We and each of us do covenant and promise that we will not reveal the secrets of this, the Second Token of the Aaronic Priesthood, with its accompanying name, sign, grip, or penalty. Should we do so, we agree to have our breasts cut open and our hearts and vitals torn from our bodies and given to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field" (Paden, p. 20) Mason text: "I... most solemnly and sincerely promise and swear... that I will not give the degree of a Fellow Craft Mason to any one of an inferior degree, nor to any other being in the known world... binding myself under no less penalty than to have my left breast torn open and my heart and vitals taken from thence... to become a prey to the wild beasts of the field, and vulture of the air...." (Morgan, p. 52). Besides similar penalties, there are also similar signs, arm positions, ear whisperings, passwords and handgrips. For instance, compare the "First Token of the Aaronic Priesthood" grip with the "First Degree" Masonic grip: Mormon text:
Peter - "What is that?"
Adam - "The first token of the Aaronic Priesthood."
Peter - "Has it a name?"
Adam - "It has."
Peter - "Will you give it to me?"
Adam - "I can not, for it is connected with my new name, but this is the sign" (Paden, p. 20). Mason text:
"What is this?"
Ans. "A grip."
"A grip of what?"
Ans. "The grip of an Entered Apprentice Mason."
"Has it a name?"
Ans. "It has."
"Will you give it to me?"
Ans. "I did not so receive it, neither can I so impart it." (Morgan, pp. 23-24). Joe Smith copied the Mormon Endowment ceremony directly from the Blue Lodge degrees of Freemasonry, and he borrowed Masonic symbolism, such as the Masonic markings on underwear Mormons wear. Over the right breast in Mormon underwear is a carpenter's square, and over the left, a mason's compass. The opening at the navel is symbolic of the evisceration penalty for disclosing Mormon secrets. Mormons are taught that their underwear, and in particular its Masonic markings, "will be a shield and a protection" to them from the power of the destroyer (Bruce R. McConkie, The Mortal Messiah, vol. 2, p. 295). When the underwear becomes worn, Mormons may use the garment as, say, a rag only if they cut out and burn the patches with the Masonic square and compass. The occult power is in the Masonic symbolism. Ashamed and embarrassed about Smith's copying Masonic rites for the Endowment ceremony, Mormon officials expunged the Five Points of Fellowship and the Penalties from the Endowment in 1990. (Top) Index to Articles on Mormonism www.inplainsite.orgWhen he’s not posting leaks and rumors to his social media account, @evleaks — also known as Evan Blass — occasionally spends his time writing up the really juicy stuff for blogs and whatnot. Posted on VentureBeat, Blass dropped a pretty big bombshell, revealing details for the upcoming LG G5 set to launch early next year.
According to his source, the LG G5 will allegedly feature an all metal build, for a much more premium feeling handset. Of course, premium feel will only take you so far, but LG appears to be throwing the entire kitchen sink at the G5, opting for a slightly smaller 5.3-inch Quad HD display (vs the G4’s 5.5-incher) along with a secondary “ticker” 160×1040 display like we saw on the LG V10. What’s more is that secondary display will apparently be LG’s big new feature for their 2016 lineup, kinda like how we saw their Knock-On feature hit multiple devices from high to low-end awhile back.
Inside a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 is said to power the device, along with the same 3GB RAM and 32GB storage we saw in last year’s G4. On the camera front, LG will be using dual 16MP cameras like we saw on the front of the V10, making for a super wide 135-degree wide-angle photos. The camera will be assisted by an RGB sensor in addition to laser auto-focus for lightning quick response time. The camera will be joined by a fingerprint sensor on the back for security and inside, a welcome addition for sure.
For whatever reason, LG will be following current trends and use a slightly smaller — but still removable — 2,800mAh removable battery. The big kicker? The introduction of a mystery “Magic Slot” for hardware expansion. The Magic Slot will allegedly allow for users to attach hardware modules to the device, things like 360-degree VR cameras, audio amps, or even a physical keyboard. Unfortunately there was no word on micro SD card slot expansion, and release timing is still the vague Q1 2016. Consider our interest piqued.Robert J. Corry, the marijuana activist and attorney who handed out free joints in Denver’s Civic Center park earlier this month, was arrested Wednesday for smoking marijuana in public during the Rockies game.
According to a police report, Corry and a woman were seen smoking a joint between a gate and the concourse at Coors Field when officers approached. An officer asked Corry to hand over the joint, and Corry responded, “No, I don’t have to, it’s legal,” according to the report.
Corry also cursed at officers, refused to comply with orders and told one officer, “You’re a stupid cop. You are going to make this easy for me. You can’t search me. It’s only a citation,” the report states.
Corry, 46, was arrested on suspicion of public consumption of marijuana and disobedience to a lawful order, according to the report. He could not immediately be reached for comment.
Corry is among the most prominent marijuana attorneys in the state, helping to draft Colorado’s successful marijuana-legalization ballot initiative and representing marijuana advocates in several significant legal victories.
He has had previous trouble with the law, including a sexual assault charge in Jefferson County that he pleaded down to third-degree assault and an arrest in June on allegations he smashed the window of a recreational vehicle.
In the Wednesday arrest, Corry told an officer, “I bet I am a big trophy for you,” according to the report. When the officer said he didn’t know who Corry was and Corry explained, the officer responded that Corry should have known it remains illegal in Colorado to consume marijuana in public. Corry replied, “yeah,” the report said.
The woman cited along with Corry for public marijuana consumption, 33-year-old AmberLee June of Salt Lake City, told police she happened to be sitting next to Corry at the game when the two started talking about marijuana and he offered to share a joint.
“He smoked marijuana and he passed it to me,” she wrote in a statement to police, included in the report. “I took a puff and passed it. After all, I was in Colorado.”
John Ingold: 303-954-1068, jingold@denverpost.com or twitter.com/john_ingoldSt. Paul-based Summit Brewing Co. has ended distribution of its craft beers in six more states, leaving just five in the Upper Midwest where connoisseurs will be able to buy the brewery’s seven year-round beers as well as its many seasonal and limited-release beers.
Officials last week announced the move to stop distribution in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Nebraska and Michigan in a posting on its website and Facebook page.
In what it called a “difficult decision,” the company cited challenges in getting its product to retailers due to changes in the industry and the need to meet rising demand in its core Midwestern market.
“We’ve been invited into your homes, businesses and refrigerators, and we’ve been fortunate to make friends and fans out of folks across the country. It’s been a great honor to share our beer with you all,” part of the announcement reads. “We are sorry to leave your area and look forward to returning in the future.”
Summit spokesman Brendan Kennealy declined to provide additional information.
Summit was started 31 years ago by home-brewer Mark Stutrud. Over the past three decades, Summit has grown from a |
aul trucks to think this was actually our car — I didn’t want them to know that this was actually my dad. Designated parking areas didn’t help either. They unintentionally stratified families by car models like an auto show. Welcome to Cornell University.
My family would love this place. I used to wander around campus in awe of its beauty, especially Sage Chapel, the subtle smell of incense luring me in like Sunday mass at Cristo Rey. Despite me no longer believing in a higher power, in those moments I would desperately wish for a God and all of my aunt’s favorite santos to be real, just for her; if God existed the way that he does in her heart, I’d believe in him, too.
However, sometimes I’d forget my family. Ignoring their struggle used to be a shamefully blissful thing. They became reduced to mere voices on the end of the phone line, bouncing back and forth between satellites. After the first few weeks of being back in Cornell, my family then begins to exist as unanswered voicemails. When you have life as good as you have it here, you don’t want to know what’s going on back home. How could I not feel guilty, knowing that I have the comfort of going to Gannett Health Services when my health is compromised, but my family is reduced to waiting rooms, rude nurses and unsanitary facilities? I don’t want to know that your lungs are filled with water, that your heart is bursting with anxiety and that your back is plagued by a ceaseless pain.
Reptile8488 via Getty Images
At home, Cornell becomes a story of wonder, adventure and great success — through these stories, they have sat with me in the stacks at midnight, cheered me through my prelims and held me through my despair when getting up in the morning felt like peeling my back off my bed, the only thing that felt safe. They live off the countless chapters and plot-twists, and when the story finally ends, they crave for the words to be theirs, too.
I tell them everything they want to hear, from how beautiful the gorges are, to the opportunities available for students like me on campus, while sweeping the extra nuances under the rug — like how Cornell can always be better for students like me, and how being critical of a place that I’m so unbelievably grateful for, insisting on always challenging it, is misconstrued as ungratefulness by students who can’t even begin to fit into my shoes.
THE MORNING EMAIL Start your workday the right way with the news that matters most.
There will be times though, that I won’t be able to bring them along with me, not even through these stories. There’s no way for me to explain to them what a PhD is, what constitutes Human Development, what a minor is and why I have three of them — to explain to them my research (what is research) and the powerful pull that social justice has on me, all because of them. How do I really translate stereotype threat, oppression, internalized and institutionalized racism into Spanish so that they can understand the kind of hell that it’s been for my sister and me, and students like us, to graduate? I know now why we’re in the condition that we’re in, why we continue to remain in it, and what we can do to change it. How do I explain to them institutional racism, that I can see — that I can quantify — a monster that’s designed not to be visible to them; that I desire to study, critique and destroy this structural and institutional entity through academia. All they know of are doctors, lawyers and the proverbial Harvard. Cornell only became the “highly esteemed” Cornell University in my dad’s mind when a passenger flipped out after he told her why his daughter isn’t going to be home for the fall in 2013. And then he understood me — not all of me, but my essence — my power, and that it was all worth it.
When I graduate, I won’t be walking that stage alone. What I will have accomplished isn’t what demands a standing ovation; what my family will have done for us to finally take that walk together — to finally graduate, and to reap all the unimaginable rewards and benefits that having this title will present to me — for me to have a better life, is nothing short of magic. We survived, and after all, it’s only just the beginning.
Follow my friends and I at Follow my friends and I at Cafecito con Chisme: Latinx Podcast for more on Cornell, Latinidad, resistance, y chisme. Also follow Oblivion Magazine for intercampus narratives written by, and for, students of color.S.T.A.L.K.E.R., which stands for Soviet Train Attacker Looking for Kans and Earthly Rewards, is an advanced, post-apocalyptic military survival simulator used by Soviet soldiers to prepare for the approaching apocalypse when the USSR was going to bomb the world with its nuclear weaponry, but eventually the Russians decided to be pansies, and let the Yanks get the upper hand. These games were then later found by the Yankee conquerors and used to train its soldiers how to survive, when the US bombs itself into oblivion to prevent the rise of the New World Order.
Contents show]
Plot Edit
Chernobyl has asploded (for the second time now.), and you are a Stalker, a fool who goes around shooting people and taking their stuff, your purpose in life is to run around Chernobyl doing a bunch of tasks for old Russian(Ukrainian?) guys, guys in uniforms, other STALKERS, and just losers who need you to fight all their battles for them because even though they have guns and armor, they're still weak pansies who lose control of their bowels the minute a bloodsucker jumps out, "pfft wimps", and you wish you could join a group of fellow S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s who are not complete weaklings, but you(and I) digress.
You are after a guy named Strelok who is trying to get to the center of the Zone, it is the area around Chernobyl where all the mutants spawned from and for some reason where the best stuff is. This Strelok is attempting to find a great artifact at the center of the Zone so he may wish for godly powers, but you can't allow that to happen, since you need the artifact to wish for a endless supply of vodka, that your pure Russian blood needs to survive in a drunken stupor all day. It also makes the poor game translation easier to understand for reasons unknown, in fact you are advised to drink at least three shots of vodka before even starting the game up, if not Lenin will burst through your floor, jump in your body, turn you inside out, and then drag you to the very depths of commiehell (which is more like commieheaven really, but I digress.), now where were we....oh yeah.....the rest of the plot is just wandering around, trying not to get yourself killed, while you comment on how creepy the atmosphere of the game is, but as it grows dark the most powerful mutant in the game, a Grue, jumps out and eats you.
Gameplay Edit
Guns are fun, which is why everybody in the Zone runs around shooting at each other all day, and hoping to find some nice artifacts to sell, so they can leave this horrible place, buy some vodka, and then go have secks with a russian prostitute. When you're not shooting at something, you're either walking through nowhere, or trying to understand what these damn Russians are trying to tell you in very bad English. There are also bugs which can give you hours of "fun". Which is quite an achievement given its 6 patches. Far Cry, based on the CRYengine, had 5 patches and for every patch the game actually got laggier and more prone to crash your computer.
You are dead within one minute from gamestart unless you keep drinking bottle after bottle of vodka. Oddly, no one else is affected by radiation poisoning. To drink vodka, you must press "Inventory," mark the vodka icon in your inventory, and then press "Escape" to resume game, if youre real quick all of this takes about 3-4 seconds, which funnily enough is the time it takes any enemy to just appear from nowhere and shoot your head clean off.
Enemies Edit
Basically, everybody is neutral at the beginning because you are a n00b, except for the mutants who like tasty n00bz, and the bandits who are too weak to prey on the more l33t stalkers, so they have to jump sorry saps like you, and steal your worthless pistol and the few medkits you had on yourself.
Bloodsuckers - The first thing you're going to see that's going to scare you. Did I mention they're invisible?
Rabid Dogs - They'll try to kick you in the dick, but if your so much of a n00b that you let them surround you, they will gangbang your sorry n00b ass, and all the other stalkers will laugh.
Big Mutant Chickens - As big as you and ten times as heavy, these things will want to nom on your remains.
Snorks - these dudes like to bite you in the face. Apparently you become one of these if you don't drink enough vodka.
Other mutants - a bunch of others that are all out to kill you for some unknown reason.
Humans - This is what you'll run into the most, humans, theres the loners, who consist of sociopaths much like the military, the military whom are composed of sociopaths and sadists, then the factions duty, who are wanna-be soldiers, and freedom, a bunch of hippies, then the ecologists who are a bunch of hippy tree huggers, then there are the bandits who want your stuff, and the mercs who will do anything for money, hell they'll even eat dog crud if several guns are involved, thats arouses them and their DUI warlike personality. There are also zombies who can use guns and shoot you, but some of them are actually just high instead of zombified, to tell the difference go straight up to one, if white stuff is on his face, or he looks dazed then he's high, if he tries to bite your head off then he's a zombie. Then there is monolith, but they're a bunch of fags. And not to mention some of the missions when youre supposed to work alongside or with a faction, and then, for no apparent reason, they just shoot you down, or whenever youre around a group of other stalkers and they, as they always do, get ambushed or attacked by Bandits and you draw your weapon (you cant have it drawn around them or theyll warn you, in russian, a couple of times and then theyll shoot you) to help them, and they shoot you down cause they dont like others to have a drawn weapon amongst them... Lousy scripting anyone hmm?
Goals Edit
Goal 1 - To find some vodka.
Goal 2 - To sit around the campfire, stringing your guitar as a pack of bloodsuckers overrun your camp.
Goal 3 - Get some more vodka to withstand the radiation poisoning that just killed your friends.
Goal 4 - To always spell the Zone in bold.
Goal 5 - Spend all your money on more vodka.
Goal 6 - To kill a mutant who has a stash of vodka.
Goal's 7,8, & 9 - sa' more vodka.
Goal 10 - To find Stalin, and ask him for tree fiddy, so you can buy...you guessed it...a hello kitty shirt.
Summary Edit
Ultimately success is not guaranteed by how great your skills, weapons, or armor are, but by how drunk you are, for vodka empowers your body, you must drink at least three hundred gallons of vodka just to make it towards the center of the the Zone, for only the most russian of Russian stalkers may enter into the center, for here lies the only boss in the game - the mutated corpse of Stalin, which now resembles a massive ultramegarobotspiredemon with seven heads that spews fire and excretes bloodsuckers one after another. Only the most drunken of stalkers could ever hope to defeat UltraMegaStalin, when you finally slay the beast after a great and hard fought battle, then and only then will communism be erased from the face of the earth, and the oceans will turn into vodka, and the americans will get sent to pluto, damn yanks. For Mother Russia and Vodka!Egyptian helicopters have bombarded several villages in the northern Sinai Peninsula region, witnesses reported, after a rise in attacks against soldiers in the unstable and often violent region.
Residents told Al Jazeera that the assault was launched on the villages of al-Tuma al-Mukataa and al-Mahdiya. The army this week vowed to stamp out armed groups operating in the region.
No casualties were been reported in Friday night's shelling.
On Saturday, Egyptian security officials said a roadside bomb had struck an army vehicle, also on Friday, injuring seven soldiers.
Armed groups have been battling security forces in the Sinai Peninsula for a decade
The blast near the city of el-Arish, near the Gaza border, came a week after an attack in the same area killed 31 soldiers.
It was the deadliest attack targeting security forces since the army toppled former president, Mohamed Morsi, in July.
Authorities declared a state of emergency, imposed a curfew, and launched a plan to demolish homes and create a buffer zone in response.
The army forcibly evacuated hundreds of families living along the border with the Gaza Strip in order to create the buffer zone, designed to stop the smuggling of fighters and weapons through underground tunnels.
Armed groups have been battling security forces in Sinai for a decade, but the violence soared after Morsi was overthrown, spreading to other parts of the country.
The armed groups have said the attacks are in retaliation to a sweeping crackdown by security forces, in which hundreds of Morsi supporters have been killed and about 20,000 people have been arrested.
The government has blamed much of the violence on Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group, which it blacklisted as a "terrorist group" last year.
The Brotherhood, which officially renounced violence decades ago, has condemned the attacks and denied any involvement.The Vital Concept Club have unveiled the kit riders will wear for the French Pro Continental team's inaugural season, with green-and-black the predominant colours. Related Articles Pineau to establish new French team as of 2018
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Run by former pro Jerome Pineau, the Bretagne-based team are aiming for a wildcard invitation to the Tour de France this year and a jump to the WorldTour within three years. The main sponsor will be the French company Vital Concept, which previously co-sponsored Fortuneo-Oscaro, pulling out of that team just before the Tour de France.
Sprinter Bryan Coquard was the first big signing for the team, followed by Kris Boeckmans from Lotto Soudal and Steven Lammertink from LottoNL-Jumbo, among others. The creation of the Vital Concept team means there will be five French Pro Continental teams fighting for the expected four wildcard invitations to the Tour.
Coquard joins as team leader after a difficult divorce from the Direct Energie team. He told Jean-Rene Bernaudeau that he wanted to quit the Vendee-based squad in the spring and was not selected for the Tour de France.
Pineau raced as a professional between 2002 and 2015, spending much of his career alongside Sylvain Chavanel. He won a stage at the 2010 Giro d'Italia and retired after two final seasons with the Swiss IAM Cycling team.
Vital Concept Club 2018 roster: Yoann Bagot, Kris Boeckmans, Bryan Coquard, Erwann Corbel, Arnaud Courteille, Bert de Backer, Corentin Ermenault, Marc Fournier, Adrien Garel, Steven Lammertink, Johan Le Bon, Jérémy Lecroq, Lorrenzo Manzin, Julien Morice, Justin Mottier, Patrick Müller, Quentin Pacher, Kévin Réza, Tanguy Turgis, Jonas van GenechtenPolice in Indonesia have arrested 141 men for allegedly attending a gay sex party at a sauna in the capital Jakarta.
Authorities raided the sex party known as ‘The Wild One’ on Sunday.
Gay sex is not illegal in Indonesia, however authorities say Indonesia’s strict pornography laws have been violated.
Discrimination
The LGBT community in the country says it is coming under increasing attack following outspoken and prejudicial remarks from conservative politicians.
Last month police swooped on a gay gathering in a hotel in Surabaya.
public flogging
In another incident two men arrested last March have been sentenced to 85 lashes of the cane by Aceh’s sharia courts.
The public flogging is due to take place on Tuesday.
Indonesia police arrests dozens in raid on Jakarta gay sauna https://t.co/KKou1mF4L0pic.twitter.com/wKDnQvHk9A — Telegraph News (@TelegraphNews) 22 May 2017
Human Rights Watch and other rights groups have called for the sentence to be halted.
Police say those arrested in Sunday’s operation, including the owner, may face prosecution under Indonesia’s anti-porn law.
This will allow the courts to pass more extreme sentences.
It has emerged that a British national was among those taken into custody.
To date 10 people have been charged and if found guilty they face up to ten years in jail.
Lawyers representing those held say the arrests were ‘arbitrary’ and officers abused their human rights by photographing them naked and posting pictures on social media.There’s no rational explanation for how well the Miami HEAT are shooting against the Charlotte Hornets. But let’s try anyway.
First, they put up the single most efficient offensive game in franchise history in Game 1, scoring 1.42 points per possession. A great performance, but one ripe for a visit from the Regression Fairy. But instead of coming out in Game 2 shooting like, you know, a normal basketball team, they shoot 74.4 percent in the first half. Through the first two games of any playoff series in any round, the HEAT have the highest effective field-goal percentage (63.4). Ever.
The Regression Fairy must have stopped off to see that Snow White and the Huntsman sequel which doesn’t actually have Snow White in it and nobody really asked for. But we digress.
It’s natural that, in today’s Age of Sports Math, we eventually react to abnormal shooting performances like this with a, ‘Well, they can’t possibly keep this up.’ And that’s fair. If the HEAT continue like this over the course of an entire series, they’re essentially denying gravity its purpose.
“I know and understand that this is fool’s gold,” Joe Johnson said.
We just can’t penalize them for it. Erik Spoelstra’s team isn’t destined for one of the worst shooting nights ever as some sort of comeuppance. They could score at an average rate in Charlotte or fall somewhere on either side of the spectrum. They just can’t expect to continue shooting this well. You have to be able to win in other ways.
“On the road we have to win defensively,” Dwyane Wade said. “We can’t expect to take this same offensive game on the road. If that ever happens, praise God. Thank you. But we can’t expect it at all. We have to win these games with defense, and our defense has to be better.”
We’ll get to that in a moment. First, what this shooting means for the Hornets.
If you followed the HEAT during their four-straight trips to the NBA Finals then at some point you probably heard Spoelstra say, ‘Trust the process’. Usually it was in response to being asked about the team’s defense. Miami would be playing its aggressive brand of ball pressure and they would get beat with ball movement and three pointers. People would say that and think the HEAT needed to change everything they do, their entire defensive identity, in response.
Spoelstra certainly had that option, but instead the team would always come back and try to do what they always do – just better. Judging by the results, it worked out fairly well.
That’s the position Steve Clifford finds himself in now. Like Miami’s current scheme, the Hornets want to keep you away from the rim, out of the paint and shooting as many pullup jumpers as possible. Apart from some breakdowns, many related to the changes they did make to their scheme, in the paint that have let Hassan Whiteside get look after look at the rim, Charlotte is accomplishing most of what its scheme intends to accomplish.
Miami is just making damn near everything. Contested, off the dribble, in generally inefficient zones? It hasn’t mattered.
So does Clifford change things up? He explained, quite politely, after the game.
“Not to be disrespectful,” Clifford said. “But you guys, you watch these games and come up like something’s got to change. Sometimes you just have to do the basic things better. Which is what basketball is. It kills me. Jeff Van Gundy always used to say, ‘Writers like to say they made an adjustment.’ Sometimes the adjustment is one guy who went 1-for-8 went 6-for-8.
“We’ve got to keep the ball out of the middle. We’ve got to be cleaner with our basic coverages. We’ve got to make [sure] that we’re not turning the ball over and stay organized on offense. It’s not all these great ideas or things that have to change or this plan is terribly wrong. Sometimes a team just makes shots. That’s really what’s going on.”
Like Spoelstra in past years and many, many other successful coaches, Clifford is probably right. It’s not to say Charlotte won’t make changes, just that Miami’s results don’t necessitate that they do. To further illustrate his point, Clifford offered up some of the shotmaking of Goran Dragic.
In order to keep the ball out of the paint and induce jumpers off the dribble, the Hornets will often have the guard being screened go underneath that pick and then recover to the ball – a different look than Miami’s defenders fighting over and through screens. With Dragic, Charlotte is well aware that he’s one of the best attacking and finishing guards in the league (65.3 percent at the rim) – and that he’s also shot just 29.4 percent (20-of-68) on pullup threes this season. Logically, you want him shooting off the dribble.
So, with Charlotte going under screens, Dragic shot the shots their defense wants him to take. And made them anyways.
“You can’t take away everything,” Clifford said. “My point would be this, that’s not their strength. Is Dragic a guy that’s capable of making threes? Yes he is. Is that what you want him doing versus driving the ball to the basket? Yes it is. On the nights when he makes 3-for-3, they’re probably going to win. That’s the way basketball works.”
The issue for Charlotte was that, while trusting your process and your scheme makes a ton of sense from game-to-game, when a player is draining threes on you – including back-to-back shots in the second period – it’s remarkably tough to keep doing the same thing in the moment.
Charlotte changed. It’s not clear whether it was a coaching move or something the players started doing, but as soon as Dragic hit those back-to-back threes, the defenders started going over the top of his screens.
“Dragic hit three threes tonight, all against the under, all step-back threes,” Clifford said. “And then we started going over the top. When you go over the top he’s in the paint more. If you look at him as a three-point shooter from above the break, you go into most games saying if he’s going to shoot step-back jumpers from above the break you can live with that. When he makes two and he’s got it going, you have to change.”
And that change eventually opened things up even more for Dragic. With defenders going over the top and effectively chasing Dragic from behind, he was afforded gaps to get to the rim…
Or, if help had to come over on the drive, Dragic made the read for an open three.
“What we talked about at halftime is this, you can’t overreact,” Clifford said. “You have to stay disciplined to what they’re doing. Dragic make three threes against the under, and then all the sudden we’re overextended and giving up driving gaps.”
Whether or not it was a team-wide decision to change the coverage or if players just naturally reacted to the shots Dragic was hitting, this is the ultimate benefit of Miami’s extraordinary shooting performances (aside from the wins, which are nice for them). The HEAT have done something so well, and so against type, that the Hornets now have to spend two days questioning what has been so successful for them this year.
They might know that the HEAT aren’t going to keep shooting this well, but it’s impossible to really know. Like the rest of us, they have to make as educated a guess as possible. There may be no correct answer, but they have to find the best one for them.
In the meantime, the HEAT unveiled a look late in Game 2 that may be just as important as their shooting has to date. As Wade said earlier, they’ll eventually have to win a game with their defense – a defense that has so far given up 106.7 points per 100 possessions in each of the first two games.
“You have to win games in different ways in the playoffs,” Spoelstra said. “When we move up to Charlotte, we have to expect to try and win it and compete in a different way.
“That doesn’t have to be our model,” he added later. “Look, it’s great if we’re making threes, but that’s not what we tried to build our offense around.”
Despite the HEAT’s offensive special effects the Hornets were hanging around throughout Game 2. Kemba Walker was a terror in the pick-and-roll and Al Jefferson was doing Al Jefferson things to the max in the post. Even with Marvin Williams struggling and Nicolas Batum eventually leaving the game with an ankle injury, the Hornets were showing why they were one of the league’s better offenses.
Miami kept its opponent at bay long enough to when Charlotte, 1-of-16 from three as the Hornets were again far below their averages not just for makes but for attempts, was going to have to start hitting from deep in order to eat chunks out of the lead. So Clifford inserted Spencer Hawes at center to spread the floor as much as possible.
Here’s where we mention that even though the HEAT have a fairly conservative base defense – while still fighting through screens – with their big men involved, they have a number of highly versatile defenders on the perimeter. Which means if they so choose they have the ability to switch everything with those players and keep the ball in front and stationary – a defensive tactic that took Golden State to the Promised Land last year.
With Charlotte relying a fair amount on pick-and-pop threes for Marvin Williams, Frank Kaminksky and, when he plays, Hawes, Miami can just switch those actions to shut them down entirely.
“They’re switching and they switch on Marvin and Frank’s pick-and-rolls which is their primary way to get shots,” Clifford said.
While the Hornets consider whether to change things up to counter Miami's shooting, the HEAT can go ahead and preemptively change the way they can win.Nothing says misery like a hot tent in a refugee camp. That's especially true when a family spends year after year under a triangle of canvas meant to last only six months.
More than six decades after the United Nations passed a convention pledging to protect refugees, very little has changed about the way they are sheltered – until now.
The IKEA Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the iconic Swedish furniture maker, has helped come up with a more comfortable refugee shelter. Just like the coffee table or nightstand sitting in your home, the IKEA shelter is flat-packed, requires no tools to assemble, and can be taken apart and rebuilt again elsewhere. Instead of canvas flaps, the shelter is made up of hard panels, which stand up better against harsher climactic conditions and offer more privacy.
The clever innovation heralds a new era of refugee assistance, one where the United Nations approaches the private sector for ideas and investment, not just donations. If the shelters work, the design will be made available by IKEA to other companies for commercial production, while the swelling numbers of refugees from conflicts like those in Syria will have a more humane place to call home.
“We’ve been working on this for three years and it’s… a significant investment,” says Per Heggenes, the CEO of the IKEA Foundation. “[W]e hope that this will be a product that can be manufactured commercially and offered in the market to all organizations that are dealing with emergency and disaster situations.”
Beyond tents
An estimated 3.5 million of the world's refugees – civilians driven from their homes and across international borders by conflict – are living in tents.
Searching for a better alternative, the Refugee Housing Unit, a Swedish design firm specifically aimed at improving the living conditions of displaced persons, approached the IKEA Foundation in 2010. Intrigued by the idea, IKEA reached out to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the initiative was born.
Each of the IKEA shelters is designed to house one family. The shelters employ technologies to keep the interior cool by day and warm at night; a solar panel on each provides electricity.
“The new shelter has the potential to provide a more dignified temporary housing solution to refugees,” said Olivier Delarue, UNHCR's senior adviser on private sector partnerships, in an e-mail. “Essentially it could be a temporary home until people are able to return to their place of origin.”
The full range of benefits – and drawbacks – will not be completely known until the prototype goes into field testing next month. Several units of the shelter will be introduced to the Dollo Ado refugee camp in southeastern Ethiopia, which houses approximately 190,000 Somali refugees. The site was chosen in part because of its harsh conditions.
"It is critical to set the units in a harsh environment to have feedback on their technical resistance,” says Mr. Delarue, “and also [to] have refugees’ views on the cultural suitability of the units.”
The testing phase is supposed to take between four and six months, during which time adjustments will be made before the shelter goes into production. Until then, it won't be known whether the shelter will be suitable for the needs of those living in camps.
"We don’t know enough to [say] whether it is an ideal solution yet,” says Prof. Alexander Betts, an associate professor at the University of Oxford's Refugee Studies Centre and the director of the Humanitarian Innovation Project. But he adds, “there are reasons to believe it’s exciting: The idea of moving beyond the usual tent structures … that often characterize that sort of terrain in the Horn of Africa, to provide something more durable, more sustainable.”
The shelters are more costly than typical refugee housing, but if enough are produced then the cost will be lowered to just above the price of tents, and they last up to six times longer.
Coming soon to a border near Syria
However, this process may be sped up in order to help ease the pressure of continued refugee flows out of Syria.
“We have also been testing the shelters in Iraq and Lebanon,” says IKEA's Mr. Heggenes. “[We] decided to move from just testing it in Dollo Ado to testing it in all three areas, at the request of [the] UNHCR because the needs are so great in and around Syria.”
Over the past two and a half years, the civil war in Syria has produced 1.6 million refugees, most of whom have taken shelter in neighboring Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. The strain of supporting the displaced Syrians is immense, with the UN recently asking for a record $5.1 billion. Organizations such as the UNHCR are looking for innovative ways to handle these emergency situations.
The IKEA Foundation is currently the single largest private donor to the United Nations ever, and their contribution has created the groundwork for more innovative ways of approaching refugee management issues. The Dollo Ado camp serves as a sort of laboratory, where IKEA can question and potentially improve upon the services and solutions normally applied to refugee emergencies.
“[A] foundation like ours, we can afford to take risks, so we can go when we see the opportunity,” says Heggenes. “We can go invest in a product like this and maybe change the way we look at emergency housing in the future. The potential of this is huge.”
Great potential, possible pitfalls
The partnership with IKEA marks a new phase of UNHCR-private sector relations. "It also potentially moves the whole way in which we look at refugees from one of a logic of charity to that of a logic of sustainability," says Prof. Betts.
But, as Betts cautions, wider engagement with the private sector comes with its own risks, especially when introducing them to vulnerable populations such as refugees.
"If one had private sector companies working [in] camps for the wrong motives, who didn't respect human rights or protection needs, that would be extremely problematic and would seriously undermine the UNHCR's ability to ever work with the private sector again."
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Though Betts does not think this is the case with IKEA, he recommends that if the UNHCR’s engagement with the private sector continues, regulations should be set up, such as a voluntary code of conduct.
"It can be very exciting, it can make a contribution, but it must be done in the right way."Romeu and the second or maternal family name is Vidal. This name uses Spanish naming customs : the first or paternal family name isand the second or maternal family name is
Oriol Romeu Vidal ( Spanish pronunciation: [oˈɾjol roˈmeu]; born 24 September 1991) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for English club Southampton.
He began his career at Barcelona, playing mainly in its reserves. In 2011, he joined Chelsea for €5 million, spending time on loan at Valencia and VfB Stuttgart before moving to Southampton four years later.
Romeu represented Spain up to under-21 level, and was part of their under-17 team which won the 2008 European Championship. He also played for the country at the 2012 Olympics.
Club career [ edit ]
Barcelona [ edit ]
Born in Ulldecona, Tarragona, Catalonia, Romeu started his career at local CF Ulldecona. He arrived in FC Barcelona's youth academy in 2004, from neighbours RCD Espanyol, and progressed through the club's youth academy until breaking into the reserve team.[3] Manager Pep Guardiola handed him his first appearance for the senior side in a friendly against Kuwaiti team Kazma Sporting Club, and subsequently included him in the squad for the 2009 FIFA Club World Cup which took place in Abu Dhabi.[4]
Romeu was included in the nineteen-man Barcelona squad on 13 August 2010, due to the need to rest some of Barça's Spanish internationals. He was to face Sevilla in the first leg of the season's Spanish Supercup. He made his official competitive debut in that game, playing the full ninety minutes in the 1–3 away loss.[5][6]
Romeu made his first La Liga appearance on 15 May 2011, playing the last ten minutes of a 0–0 home draw against Deportivo de La Coruña in the place of another club youth graduate, Jonathan dos Santos.[7]
Chelsea [ edit ]
Romeu playing for Chelsea in 2012
Reports began to link Romeu with a move to Chelsea on 22 July 2011.[8] The following day he agreed terms for his transfer, pending a medical or personal terms as he was away on international duty at the 2011 FIFA U-20 World Cup.[9] On 4 August the English club announced the completion of the transfer, with the player signing a four-year contract[10] in a deal worth €5 million – the deal also gave Barcelona first refusal via a buy back option should Chelsea deem him surplus to requirements, seeing Barcelona pay €10 million in 2012 or €15 million in 2013 to bring him back to the Camp Nou;[11] he was given the number 6 shirt for the new campaign.[12]
Romeu made his official debut for Chelsea on 10 September 2011, being brought on as a substitute in the 79th minute of the 2–1 away win against Sunderland.[13] He received his first start on the 21st, in a 0–0 draw (penalty shootout win) against Fulham for the season's Football League Cup.[14]
Romeu's first UEFA Champions League appearance came on 19 October 2011, playing the full 90 minutes in a 5–0 group stage home win against K.R.C. Genk.[15] His first start in the Premier League was against Wolverhampton Wanderers on 26 November, putting in a solid performance in a 3–0 home win.[16]
In December 2011, Chelsea issued a statement regarding the deal surrounding Romeu's buy back clause with Barcelona. The statement highlighted that the Blaugrana did not have an automatic buy back clause as first suggested, only having first refusal on any deal if the Blues wanted to sell him in the future.[17]
On 25 September 2012 Romeu scored his first goal for Chelsea, taking a penalty in a 6–0 win against Wolves at Stamford Bridge for the season's League Cup.[18] Manager Roberto Di Matteo stated that the departures of Yossi Benayoun, Michael Essien and Raul Meireles would mean more playing opportunities for the Spaniard; however, on 11 December, he suffered a knee injury in a game against Sunderland, being sidelined for the rest of the season.[19]
Loan to Valencia [ edit ]
On 12 July 2013, Romeu returned to Spain and joined Valencia in a season-long loan deal.[20] He made his debut for the club on 15 September, in a 3 |
should", "projects", "estimates", "contemplates", "anticipates", "intends", or any negative such as "does not believe" or other variations thereof or comparable terminology. No assurance can be given that potential future results or circumstances described in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or will occur. By their nature, these forward-looking statements, necessarily involve risks and uncertainties, including those discussed herein, that could cause actual results to significantly differ from those contemplated by these forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the view of the Company with respect to future events, and are based on information currently available to the Company and on assumptions, which it considers reasonable. Management cautions readers that the assumptions relative to the future events, several of which are beyond Management's control, could prove to be incorrect, given that they are subject to certain risk and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from those projected. Factors which could cause results or events to differ from current expectations include, among other things: fluctuations in operating results; the impact of general economic, industry and market conditions; the ability to recruit and retain qualified employees; fluctuations in cash flow; increased levels of outstanding debt and obligations under a capital lease; expectations regarding market demand for particular products and the dependence on new product development; the impact of market change; and the impact of price and product competition. Management disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information.
The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed, approved or disapproved the content of this news release.Not long ago, FC Barcelona's women's team were considered also-rans in the Primera División Femenina and indeed were relegated in 2006/07. At the midway stage of the current campaign, however, they have dropped only two points from 17 games.
The groundwork for their rise was laid in that relegation season with the arrival of Xavier Llorens as coach. Famed as Lionel Messi's first trainer at Barcelona when in charge of the boy's Under-14 B side, Llorens explained how he made the switch.
"For 17 years I was training children in the youth categories," Llorens told UEFA.com. "José Ramón Alexanco – who was then in charge of the youth set-up – spoke with me and mentioned that I should take charge of the women's side. He said there had to be changes and that if at the beginning the team went down it didn't matter.
"I started completely from scratch. We dropped down a division but then came back up and based on that we could see where we were going wrong. Little by little we began to resolve [the problems] until we arrived at where we are today. The best part of the whole process was that we always had the support of the board of directors."
The backing of the club, headed by president Sandro Rosell, has helped the women's department take a giant leap forward in both quality of play and the results gained by this crop of players. "The hard work started in the era of [former president] Joan Laporta and since the new board have come in we've received another helpful push despite the fact we were already doing well," Llorens added.
That is now paying off. Barcelona currently have a chance of challenging next season for a unique treble of UEFA Women's Champions League, UEFA Champions League and UEFA Futsal Cup. They have been able to reinforce with talents including Miriam Diéguez, Sonia Bermúdez, Kenty Robles, Ludmila Manicler and Alba Aznar.
"In terms of the budget for signing players, things haven't changed greatly," Llorens went on. "The difference now is that players want to come to Barça."
Miriam and Sonia, recruited from champions Rayo Vallecano de Madrid, made a particular impact as Barcelona kicked off the campaign with a record 14 straight wins. "Both Miriam and Sonia have incredible talent, a great winning mentality and as people they are fantastic," the coach said. "Sonia always wants to get involved – she controls the ball perfectly and knows how to burst forward, plus her final touch is fantastic. She brings so much to the team."
The Spanish Cup holders are three points clear of Athletic Club after 16 wins in 17 top-flight matches – slipping up in a 3-3 draw last month at RCD Espanyol de Barcelona. "We like to work on things on a week-by-week basis and concentrate on each game as it comes," Llorens said.
"Despite the excellent run we've been on, everyone is aware that we could lose at any time. Perhaps the day when we least deserve it, we will lose. That said, our intention is to continue achieving good results while giving our all on the pitch."Authority turns spotlight on potentially misleading information and investigates if sites are pushing certain hotels on commission basis
Britain’s competition watchdog is to investigate hotel booking sites over concerns that consumers are being misled, pressured, and prevented from finding the best deals.
The Competition and Markets Authority said it would look into whether sites were using pressure tactics to rush customers into booking rooms, and whether they were pushing hotels based on the commission they receive, in what could amount to a breach of consumer law.
Business Today: sign up for a morning shot of financial news Read more
About 70% of people researching hotels last year used booking sites, which include Trivago, booking.com, Expedia and Late Rooms. The CMA said consumers needed to be confident they were getting the best deal.
“Sites need to give their customers information that is clear, accurate and presented in a way that enables people to choose the best deal for them,” said Andrea Coscelli, chief executive of the CMA. “But we are concerned that this is not happening and that the information on sites may in fact be making it difficult for people to make the right choice.
“That’s why we have started our investigation into this sector – to get to the bottom of these issues, see whether sites are breaking consumer law and make sure they help, not hinder, people searching for their next hotel room.”
The CMA will investigate whether sites try to rush customers into making a decision by creating a false impression of room availability, stating how many rooms are left or for how long a price is available.
Other areas of concern include sites potentially steering customers towards hotels based on the amount of commission they earn from a booking, and hidden charges such as taxes and booking fees which might only be revealed at the end of the process.
The CMA has written to companies across the sector asking for information about their practices and wants to hear from consumers about their experiences.For the most part, updates are always good. When we update an app, we always update it expecting new features and improvements added it in the update. But unfortunately, that’s not always the case. A lot of time developers update their apps to add advertisements on them. Some times developers or company redesign their app completely, and a lot of us hate changes. Like when Facebook updated their Facebook app for iPhone, many people hated the new design. That’s when we have to stop updating those apps and keep updating the ones that bring good updates with improvements and new features. But sometime it’s annoying to see all updates for apps we want to update mixed with the updates for apps we do not want to update, this is likely to get you confused and update the app you don’t want to update by mistake. This problem can easily be stop by using ‘Update Hider for iOS 5‘ from Cydia.
Update Hider is a tweak for jailbroken iOS devices that lets you hide app updates in the App Store. With this tweak you can configure which apps you want to stop showing that it has a new update in the App Store. After downloading this tweak from Cydia, it will not add any extra icon or setting in your home screen. Instead, you will have a setting in the iPhone Settings.app to configure the update. This video below made by the developer of this tweak explains well:
Update Hider is available for iOS 5 or newer by downloading Update Hider for iOS 5. It can also be used on jailbroken device running iOS 4.2 or lower by downloding Update Hider. Both versions for iOS 5 or lower and iOS 4.2 can be downloaded from Cydia default repo BigBoss; and is free.
Another Cydia tweak for the App Store:By Walt Peretto
Whatsupic -- Since February 12th 2014, waves of reactionary factions have taken to the streets of Venezuela to protest the policies of democratically elected President Nicolas Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chavez who succumbed to cancer one year ago. The Western mainstream media portrays these protests as part of a popular backlash against inflation, inequality, and shortages in foodstuffs and other basic goods. These conditions do exist to some degree, yet the mainstream media in its traditional defense of plutocracy is failing to report the entire picture.
Protests began in the western states of Merida and Táchira when groups of university students and later traditional government opposition groups hit the streets. Before long, in the capitol city of Caracas, students attacked a government building, set fires, and damaged public property, including the entrance to a metro train station. It soon became clear that the purpose of these actions were to destabilize the government and force regime change in Caracas.
There is no doubt that store shelves throughout Venezuela have experienced some periodic shortages. Yet the mainstream media ignores many important pieces of information including the fact that in Táchira and elsewhere some people rake in huge profits by smuggling subsidized Venezuelan goods into Colombia where they are sold at a glaringly high profit. Some estimate that up to 30% of basic foodstuffs exit the country in this manner as contraband. This accounts for much of the shortages reported by the mainstream media. Gasoline is another subsidized commodity available to Venezuelans for about 18 cents a gallon. Some people illegally sell this gasoline across the border to Columbians at a significant profit. A huge money laundering industry has now grown around these illegal activities and some of these factions are known to be linked to transnational criminal networks.
The government’s efforts to halt the outflow of contraband and other illegal activities have spurred some of these criminal groups to take strong and sometimes violent action against the government and their supporters. One of these groups allegedly kidnapped a military officer who was on leave and visiting his family. So far at least 31 people are confirmed dead and hundreds have been wounded on both sides of the conflict since the protests began.
In addition to these illicit profiteers, socioeconomic groups like the middle and upper middle classes are playing a significant role in these events. Some of them have second homes in cities like Miami where they often do the majority of their shopping for luxury items. This has led to capital flight which partially explains the high inflation rates, estimated to be as high as 56% in 2013. Other factors may include; a deluge of petrodollars entering the economy from oil sales, government expenditures, too much aggregate demand for goods and services, and illegal manipulation of exchange rates. One more likely explanation for high inflation is central bank liquidity where too much money is being created, leading to a flooding of the money supply.
Reuters News, an information news source owned by the Rothschild banking family who also just happens to be linked with BCV (Central Bank of Venezuela), have reported that banks and business owners are complaining it costs too much and it is too difficult to get dollars to buy items for import. The inference here is that the bolivar (the standard Venezuelan currency) is so devalued that it costs too much to convert them to dollars for import, leading to both shortages and inflation. In fact, the Venezuelan government sets a special rate for certain businesses to buy dollars cheaply to be used only for purchasing items for import---the problem is that some of these businesses purchase dollars at these special rates and then quickly export items they just imported to make a quick buck, or they spend those dollars around the world instead of using them to import goods for the people of Venezuela.
The mainstream media often fails to report relevant details that may contribute to the present conditions, while failing to report the positive results achieved by the Chavez/Maduro presidencies. For instance, since Chavez was first inaugurated in 1999 poverty has been reduced 70 percent. Unemployment is holding at a relatively low level of around 6% while gasoline can sometimes be purchased for as low as 10 cents per gallon. In many cases salaries have mostly keeping pace with inflation but when they don’t frustration is sure to follow. Venezuelan workers are expected to receive the highest pay increase in the world in 2014 at 27%, yet inflation is expected outpace these wage increases at 36.4 percent. Despite this relatively good news this is not what the global financial interests see as positive economic model to follow.
Many in the upper classes are concerned, if not downright angry, that privileges they once enjoyed under the neoliberal policies of the past, and their traditional political superiority over the working classes, are being challenged. This has prompted some more extreme factions to resort to agitation and violence. Some of the protesters see the United States as a shining economic model for their financial class, and their leaders are more than willing to take inspirational, tactical, and financial support from U.S. operatives.
The mainstream media usually glosses over the traditional covert role of the United States intelligence networks in agitating for regime change when that regime does not jive with U.S. foreign policy. It is common knowledge that the United States government, which is clearly run by the global financial interests like Wall Street, the Federal Reserve, and other international financial institutions, has been undermining democracy in Latin America for many decades. In Chile, democratically elected president Salvador Allende was ousted and murdered on September 11th 1973 by a CIA operation masterminded by Henry Kissinger on behalf of the Nixon White House. Before the coup, the global financial interests and their operatives were busy crashing the Chilean economy in order to make regime change seem more palatable to the masses. A brutal dictatorship was subsequently installed by the United States with strongman Augusto Pinochet at the helm. This was part of Operation Condor which was essentially U.S. state sponsored terrorism against the people of Latin America.
In 2002, President Chavez was ousted in a coup for 48 hours---returning when thousands of supporters surrounded the presidential palace and demanded his return. In the early hours of events, U.S. President George W. Bush immediately endorsed coup leader Pedro Carmona only to distance himself from the coup once it was clear it had failed. This ongoing hubris and pomposity exhibited by American politicians surfaced once again in April of 2013 when U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry resurrected the notion that Latin America is “our backyard.”
While President Maduro recently appealed to U.S. President Barak Obama to engage in an honest dialogue with mutual respect, plutocratic U.S. Senators Marc Rubio (R) and Bill Nelson (D) both from Florida, and Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have instead proposed sanctions against Venezuela.
Despite all this Venezuela remains a democracy. All citizens, of all economic classes, are free to launch political campaigns, support candidates of their choosing, legally pursue regime change, vote unmolested, and support or contribute to the media that best represents their interests. In fact, Venezuela has held nineteen elections since 1998, with the left winning eighteen.
After Chavez became president, many nations in South America have elected leaders who have stood up to neoliberalism on behalf of their people including Bolivia, Uruguay, Brazil, Ecuador, Argentina, and Chile. In these fragile democracies the working classes are welcome to be participants in their government and are not excluded from attaining high political office. More importantly, once in office, these politicians are relatively free to serve their entire population, not just the global elites and their institutions as we see in numerous plutocracies around the globe.
The Western mainstream media is inadvertently shedding light on one of the more visible lines of contention between the common people of the planet and the agenda of the global financial elites. As long as this media is owned and operated by the globalists, with their often scripted versions of events skewed to advance their agenda, it is up to the rest of us who believe in objective truth and political democracy to seek out factual information and investigate issues for ourselves. Venezuela today is an important frontline between the globalist agenda of one world government, one world currency, surveillance police states, eugenics, and mass depopulation versus the common, independent thinking, freedom loving people, who desire a sane and enlightened humanity where all citizens are included in the decisions that affect their lives.What has been also interesting to note that none other than senior Union Cabinet Minister Piyush Goyal held the press conference to come to the defence of a common citizen. Is there a connection here since Goyal headed the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy when this loan was sanctioned flouting IREDA rules and norms. One expects a clarification from Goyal as to why the government broke IREDA rules and transferred the loan to Jay Amit Shah’s company.
Earlier on Sunday, the news report, linked on the top, revealed that Temple Enterprises Pvt Ltd, a firm promoted by Jay Amit Shah, had revealed a revenue of just ₹50,000 in 2014-15 and a profit of ₹18,728 in its returns submitted to the Registrar of Companies.
But the very next year, i.e. 2015-16, the company’s turnover grew to a whopping ₹80.5 crore from the ‘sale of products’. This was also the year when the company secured an unsecured loan of ₹15.78 crore from KIFS Financial Services, owned by Rajesh Khandelwala, the samdhi of Parimal Nathwani, an independent member of the Rajya Sabha and a top Reliance executive.
Curiously, KIFS Financial Services, in its filings, the report alleged, did not reveal the loan it had extended to Jay Amit Shah’s company. In any case, the report wondered how KIFS extended a loan of Rs 15 crore when its own revenue was only Rupees seven crore for that particular year.
In July, the Bharatiya Janata Party had been forced to issue a press statement to justify the sudden increase in the assets of Amit Shah himself as revealed by him to the Election Commission. In 2012, Shah had disclosed moveable assets worth ₹1.90 Crore. This year, he declared moveable assets worth ₹19 Crore.
Similarly, Shah’s immoveable assets also grew in this period from ₹6.63 Crore to ₹15 Crore. BJP in July, 2017 explained away the spurt by claiming that the party president had inherited property following his mother’s demise in 2013.
But now the meteoric rise of his son’s companies, one out of many one presumes, and its sudden closure has raised eyebrows.
Congress leader and former Union Minister Kapil Sibal demanded an independent inquiry into the affairs of this company. “Only an inquiry will reveal why this company was allowed loans worth several crores of Rupees without any mortgage or security,” Kapil Sibal tweeted.
Addressing a press conference on Sunday afternoon, Sibal took a jibe at the NDA Government and said everybody knew which companies would be investigated by agencies like CBI and ED and which companies would be spared. But still he dared the Prime Minister to order an investigation into the affairs of Temple Enterprises Pvt Ltd.I also discovered that the discussions most successful clinicians had with patients involved just a few important questions that often unlocked transformative possibilities: (1) What is their understanding of their health or condition? (2) What are their goals if their health worsens? (3) What are their fears? and (4) What are the trade-offs they are willing to make and not willing to make? These discussions must be repeated over time, because people’s answers change. But people can and should insist that others know and respect their priorities.
Not everyone will feel ready to discuss such subjects, to be sure. But I decided to try the questions with Peg. I asked her what her understanding of her condition was. She said flat out that she knew she was going to die. There’s nothing more they can do, she said, an edge of anger in her voice.
I asked what her goals were. She didn’t have any that she could see were possible. Then I asked what her fears for the future were, and she named a litany: facing more pain, suffering the humiliation of losing more of her bodily control, being unable to leave the hospital. She choked up as she spoke. She’d been there for days just getting worse, and she feared she didn’t have many more. They’d talked to her about stopping life-prolonging therapy and going on hospice, but she didn’t see how that could help her.
Someone in her position who was offered “death with dignity” — assisted death — might have taken it as the only chance for control in the absence of other options. But hearing her fears, I suggested that Peg try hospice. It’d at least let her get home, I said, and might help her more than she knew. Hospice’s aim, at least in theory, I explained, is to give people their best possible day, however they might define it under the circumstances. It seemed as if it had been a while since she’d had a good day.
“Yes, it has — a long while,” she said.
That seemed worth hoping for, I said. Just one good day.
With her husband’s encouragement, she went home on hospice less than 48 hours later. We broke the news to Hunter, then just 13 years old, that Peg could not teach her anymore, that she was dying. Hunter was struck low. She asked if she could see Peg one more time. We didn’t think so, we said.
A few days later, however, we got a surprising call from Peg. She wanted to resume teaching. She’d understand if Hunter didn’t want to come. She didn’t know how many more lessons she could manage, but she wanted to try.
That hospice could make teaching possible for her again was more than I’d imagined. But when her hospice nurse arrived, she asked Peg what she cared most about in her life, what having the best day possible meant to her. Then they worked together to make it happen.A new partnership between Hyundai A-League and INFINITE Retail brings A-League merchandise to fans.
Hyundai A-League (HAL), in conjunction with INFINITE Retail, has launched its official online store, shop.a-league.com.au. The online destination will give fans quick and easy access to official Hyundai A-League branded merchandise across a large variety of official supporter gear in one web store.
The wide product offering throughout the store includes On-Field Apparel by adidas, Nike, Umbro, Kappa and BLK. In addition there is broad range of supporter apparel across men’s, women’s and kids sizes. New Era headwear, footballs and gifts and accessories also feature on the store making it a perfect destination to gear up throughout the season.
“shop.a-league.com.au” is committed to engaging with fans and providing them with exciting product, deals and great communication. To celebrate the launch of the store there will be a range of offers and promotions including free shipping and giving fans the chance to win double pass tickets to selected weekly games.
”We are thrilled to partner with INFINITE Retail to launch the Hyundai A-League’s online retail program in Australia,” said FFA CEO David Gallop. “The popularity of the Hyundai A-League continues to grow and this is a great opportunity for our core fans in Australia to buy their A League merchandise from a centralised and trusted place,”
EXCLUSIVE LAUNCH PROMOTIONS
- Free Australian & New Zealand shipping when you spend $100 or more. Offer ends 11:59pm (local time) 8.12.14
- Receive a Free Hyundai A-League Team Ball when you purchase 2 or more 2014/15 Jerseys. Offer
Ends 11:59pm (local time) 8.12.14
- Shop & Win: A Double Pass to Melbourne Victory v Sydney FC. To Enter: Purchase a 2014/15 Jersey before 7.12.14Sen—Saturn's smog-enshrouded moon Titan is helping scientists understand the atmospheres of exoplanets. A new technique shows the dramatic influence that hazy skies could have on our ability to learn about alien worlds orbiting distant stars.
A team of researchers led by Tyler Robinson, a NASA Postdoctoral Research Fellow at NASA's Ames Research Center, have published their findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"It turns out there's a lot you can learn from looking at a sunset," Robinson said.
Despite the staggering distances to other planetary systems, in recent years researchers have begun to develop techniques for collecting spectra of exoplanets.
When one of these worlds transits, or passes in front of its host star as seen from Earth, some of the star's light travels through the exoplanet's atmosphere, where it is changed in subtle, but measurable, ways.
This process imprints information about the planet that can be collected by telescopes. The resulting spectra enable scientists to tease out details about the temperature, composition and structure of exoplanets' atmospheres.
Robinson and his colleagues exploited a similarity between exoplanet transits and sunsets witnessed by the Cassini spacecraft at Titan. Called solar occultations, these observations allowed the scientists to observe Titan as a transiting exoplanet without having to leave the solar system.
Many worlds in our solar system, including Titan, are blanketed by clouds and high-altitude hazes. Scientists expect that many exoplanets would be similarly obscured.
Clouds and hazes create a variety of complicated effects that must be disentangled from the signature of these alien atmospheres, and present a major obstacle for understanding transit observations. Due to the complexity and computing power required to address hazes, models used to understand exoplanet spectra usually simplify their effects.
"Previously, it was unclear exactly how hazes were affecting observations of transiting exoplanets," said Robinson. "So we turned to Titan, a hazy world in our own solar system that has been extensively studied by Cassini."
An artistic impression of an exoplanet in transit across the face of its star. Image credit: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI)
The team used four observations of Titan made between 2006 and 2011 by Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer instrument. Their results, including the complex effects due to hazes, can now be compared to exoplanet models and observations.
Robinson and colleagues found that hazes high above some transiting exoplanets might strictly limit what their spectra can reveal to planet transit observers. The observations might be able to glean information only from a planet's upper atmosphere. On Titan, that corresponds to about 150 to 300 km (90 to 190 miles) above the moon's surface, high above the bulk of its dense and complex atmosphere.
The study also found that Titan's hazes more strongly affect shorter wavelengths, or bluer light. Studies of exoplanet spectra have commonly assumed that hazes would affect all colours of light in similar ways. Studying sunsets through Titan's hazes has revealed that this is not the case.
"People had dreamed up rules for how planets would behave when seen in transit, but Titan didn't get the memo," said Mark Marley, a co-author of the study at NASA Ames. "It looks nothing like some of the previous suggestions, and it's because of the haze."
The technique applies equally well to similar observations taken from orbit around any world, not just Titan. This means that researchers could study the atmospheres of planets like Mars and Saturn in the context of exoplanet atmospheres as well.AS a world leader in her sport, Karla Blowers prefers to concentrate on her preparation and competition than getting involved in the current political debate over gun law changes.
However, she concedes it's a difficult time for shooters like her and colleagues at the Ipswich Pistol Club waiting to see how the Queensland Government interprets and enforces the 2017 National Firearm Agreement (NFA).
"We are constantly worried about what politicians are going to do to our sport,'' she said.
In her International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) discipline, competitors can shoot in major events like the world titles she's heading to in France next month. But under the 2017 NFA proposal, only sporting shooters aligned to Olympic or Commonwealth Games bodies are said to be sanctioned in the future.
"Gun laws are aimed at law-abiding citizens not criminals,'' she said, hoping to continue her challenging and rewarding sport when NFA changes are implemented.
The defending world champion said sporting shooters were taught to be safe and follow strict rules.
The IPSC was established "to promote, maintain, improve and advance the sport of IPSC shooting, to safeguard its principles and to regulate its conduct worldwide in order to cultivate the safe, recreational use of firearms by persons of good character.''
That's the sporting challenge shooters like Blowers enjoy most.
The Ipswich Pistol Club at Karrabin has more than 120 members, who enjoy regular competition under the International Practical Shooting Confederation guidelines.
As for the option of changing to an Olympic or Commonwealth Games event, Blowers was happy with her decision to remain with the IPSC.
"It is very, very different,'' she said. "Those disciplines are mainly based on accuracy.
"Different targets, completely different guns, different stance... it's like racing go-karts as opposed to V8 Supercars.
"I could transfer if I wanted to but I love what I'm doing.''
And when world title success is achieved, there's little doubt why it provides such a sense of accomplishment.
"Five days of shooting over a six-day match, if you have a bad day you've got to leave it behind and move on,'' she said.
"It's a gruelling match but all worth it in the end.''Paul Spinelli/Associated Press Gregg Williams (left) has been suspended indefinitely from the NFL for leading a bounty system for Saints players.
For the past several months, we have attached a word to the New Orleans Saints' scandal that has defined its every turn. It's been all about the bounty. About the payment of non-contracted bonuses to reward players for knocking opponents out of games.
Terrible, right? No place for it in the game, right? It was reason enough for most to justify the stiff punishments dropped on three Saints employees and former defensive coordinator Gregg Williams.
And today, it just became a side story.
The decision by filmmaker Sean Pamphilon to release an audio file from a Saints meeting he witnessed less than three months ago while working on a documentary has provided a layer to this saga that makes all of the others seem secondary.
According to audio first released to Yahoo! Sports, Williams allegedly encouraged players on the night before the team's playoff game against the San Francisco 49ers on Jan. 14 to deliberately test the will of their opponents by intentionally inflicting injury on specific areas of weakness.
"We need to decide whether Crabtree wants to be a fake-ass prima donna or he wants to be a tough guy," Williams said during the meeting, according to the audio released by Pamphilon. "We need to find that out. He becomes human when we (expletive) take out that outside ACL."
It was already tough to argue against punishing a coach for broadly inspiring players to levy hits hard enough to knock a player from a game. Now, we must digest something entirely different: We're talking about a deliberate effort -- with a specific injury in mind -- to knock a player out for months.
Anybody wondering how Crabtree feels about this one? Do you think some players will continue to view this simply as something that "happens everywhere?" Just another part of a violent game? Please.
During the recorded speech to players from the night before the game, Williams' voice is also heard encouraging players to "kill the head and the body will die." Standing alone, we can view it in a metaphorical context -- just as we can view bounties themselves as a mere symbol of inspiration. But that, like this entire situation, changes when the line drawn between figurative and literal becomes clouded by a challenge -- and really, an order from the boss -- of a very different kind.
Darlington: Opportunity knocks As the Jeff Darlington says the Bucs and
As the Saints deal with bounty fallout,says the Bucs and Panthers could rise in the NFC South. More...
"Every single one of you, before you get off the pile, affect the head," Williams said in the recording. "Early, affect the head. Continue, touch and hit the head."
In addition to Crabtree's ACL, Williams mentioned specific body parts of three other 49ers that he wanted his players to target: The heads of Frank Gore and Kyle Williams and the ankles of Vernon Davis.
All along, we've interpreted Roger Goodell's penalties to suggest he wants to make sure bounties are removed from the game. That's why he dropped such a stiff punishment. But what if there's even more? What if the evidence Goodell has collected more closely mirrors the audio released by Pamphilon than just a few e-mails that indicated the Saints organization had a bounty system in place?
Doesn't this make more sense now? It certainly must be considered.
Regardless, this latest layer surely will create great wonder about whether Williams will ever coach again. And those appeals being made Thursday by coach Sean Payton, general manager Mickey Loomis and assistant head coach Joe Vitt? Good luck with that.
What will they say? We don't know. How will they defend themselves? We don't know. Will they try to convince Goodell they didn't know enough about the bounty situation to deserve this? We don't know.
But if the culture in place in New Orleans did indeed morph into something so disturbing that this type of savage behavior was allowed -- or even encouraged -- we can all put to rest this debate about the motivation of Goodell's punishment.
This isn't about bounties anymore. It isn't about non-contract incentives. It's about protecting players from coaches like Williams and people who support him.
"You're here for a reason," Williams told his players in the audio clip. "You're here because we saw in you and we hope we picked the right person that won't apologize for competing the way we have to compete."
Anyone sorry now?
Follow Jeff Darlington on Twitter @jeffdarlingtonleaves no mess behind.
No bloody, tortured, wracked remains
lovingly removed by tender hands,
captured by innumerable painters since–
Titian, Tintoretto–placed in a tomb only to rise
three days later–you know the rest.
“Where technology meets free markets”
some sonofabitch corporate wit
at some sonofabitch ad-hitman company,
provides the latest pentagon pimp
its current motto, gloriously displayed
in dying color at their website, showing,
30 billion dollars compressed into
the finest jet that ever killed
your mother, your kid, your spouse, yourself.
Targeted assassinations, pre-emptive strikes
brought to us by sleek cabals,
cannibalistic election-stealers,
crying “freedom… democracy… New World Order. …”
(but whatever happened to the “War on Poverty”?).
Twenty percent of the world’s wealth
owned by the top 1 percent of Americans
living behind their gates as in castles
protected by moats–and we’re back
in the age of dungeons and dragons,
Torquemada, the true faith, the iron maiden,
and Roman legionnaires
gambling for the sacred, gored mantle.
But I forget…
We’ve got a couple millennia of “progress” now.
No more mantle to gamble for,
unless you’re thinking to re-connect
the various atoms/electrons
by some kind of nano-tech wizardry.
Christ’s blood blasted into
ten billion droplets dispersed in the sky
falls in a pinkish mist
where free markets meet technology.Montreal — A Quebec Court judge refused to hear the case this week of a single mother trying to retrieve her car because the woman would not remove her Muslim head scarf.
“In my opinion, you are not suitably dressed,” Judge Eliana Marengo told Rania El-Alloul Tuesday, according to a courtroom recording obtained by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
“Decorum is important. Hats and sunglasses, for example, are not allowed, and I don’t see why scarves on the head would be. The same rules need to be applied to everyone.”
Ms. El-Alloul testified she was on welfare and the mother of three sons. She was trying to get back her car, which had been seized by the provincial automobile insurance board after one of her sons was caught driving it with a suspended licence.
She told the judge she needed the car to provide for her family. “I’m facing money problems,” she said.
But Judge Marengo refused to hear the merits of the case, citing a regulation governing court decorum that states simply, “Any person appearing before the court must be suitably dressed.”
There are no religious symbols in this room, not on the walls and not on the persons
She noted Ms. El-Alloul had said her hijab was a religious requirement. “In my opinion, the courtroom is a secular place and a secular space,” she said. “There are no religious symbols in this room, not on the walls and not on the persons.”
Canadian courts have wrestled with the issue of a witness wearing the niqab, which covers the entire face except for the eyes. The concern then was the right of an accused to assess a witness’s credibility by seeing her face. In 2012, the Supreme Court of Canada established a framework to be applied case by case to determine whether a witness could wear a niqab in court.
Sameer Zuberi, a law graduate and board member with the Canadian Muslim Forum, said this is the first case he is aware of where a woman has been ordered to remove a hijab, which leaves the face exposed.
“I think it’s a clear error that the judge made, in my personal opinion,” he said.
“I think that there’s been a long history in Quebec and Canada of people wearing religious headgear who are defending themselves in court, who are bringing cases in court, who are lawyers themselves.”
Judge Marengo, who was appointed to the bench in 1996, told Ms. El Alloul she could take off her hijab or seek a postponement to find a lawyer.
Interviewed on ADR television, Ms. El-Alloul said she was shocked by the handling of her case.
“Where is justice? I am a Canadian citizen,” she said. “There is no justice with this judge.”
National Post
• Email: ghamilton@nationalpost.com | Twitter: grayhamiltonCBS/New York Times survey released late Tuesday found Clinton taking 48 percent support nationally, with Sanders at 41 percent support.
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Perhaps especially concerning for Clinton’s team |
.
Center-right opposition candidate Mauricio Macri won Argentina's presidential election last month, ending 12 years of left-wing rule, and Brazil's leftist President Dilma Rousseff is battling impeachment for alleged corruption.
Glum government supporters followed Maduro's lead in accepting the results in Venezuela on Sunday.
"That's democracy," said Gloria Torres, 54, an administrator who organised prayer vigils for Chavez when he was dying. "We're Chavistas and the fight continues."Copyright by WKRN - All rights reserved Cake that was ordered by Jordan Brown. KXAN has decided to blur the last two letters in the third word. (Courtesy: Kaplan Law Firm via KXAN)
Copyright by WKRN - All rights reserved Cake that was ordered by Jordan Brown. KXAN has decided to blur the last two letters in the third word. (Courtesy: Kaplan Law Firm via KXAN)
Leslie Rangel, KXAN - AUSTIN, Texas (KXAN) - An Austin man claims Whole Foods discriminated against him after he ordered a cake reading "Love Wins" and instead got one with the words "Love Wins F--," an anti-gay slur.
Pastor Jordan Brown says he ordered the cake from the flagship Whole Foods store on N. Lamar Boulevard.
According to a press release sent out by Kaplan Law Firm, Whole Foods reportedly said the store and its employee had done nothing wrong, and no action would be taken.
Brown, the pastor at the Church of Open Doors on E. Riverside Drive, said on April 14 he went to pick up a cake at the store for one of his congregation members.
Copyright by WKRN - All rights reserved Jordan Brown with his attorney, Austin Kaplan, at a press conference regarding a Whole Foods cake with an anti-gay slur (Courtesy: KXAN)
Copyright by WKRN - All rights reserved Jordan Brown with his attorney, Austin Kaplan, at a press conference regarding a Whole Foods cake with an anti-gay slur (Courtesy: KXAN)
He requested "Love Wins" on a blank, pre-frosted cake in the display case, Brown said. The associate then took it to the prep table and began inscribing the cake. Brown says she sealed the cake with a sticker and handed it to him.
According to the lawsuit, Brown did not notice the added word until he was at a stop light and looked down at the cake.
He said he first called the Whole Foods corporate office and left a detailed voicemail. Brown says no one from the company returned his call.
He then called the flagship store directly and spoke to a Whole Foods team leader. Brown says the man he spoke to was apologetic and he planned to fire whoever was responsible. The lawsuit states Brown was offered a gift card and a replacement cake.
Two hours later, Brown said the employee he spoke to earlier called back, saying Whole Foods came to the conclusion the store and the bakery associate had done nothing wrong.
Whole Foods released the following statement:
The team member wrote 'Love Wins' at the top of the cake as requested by the guest and that's exactly how the cake was packaged and sold at the store. Our team members do not accept or design bakery orders that include language or images that are offensive. Whole Foods Market has a zero tolerance policy for discrimination.
At a 3 p.m. press conference with his attorney, Brown, who is black, said, "Saying f-- is the same as calling me a n-----."
His attorney said they consider the inscription to be an act of hate, and no one deserved to be discriminated against.
"As a pastor, I forgive her. I'm praying for her that she would have a change of heart," Brown said.Canada's provinces should each get leeway on the way they sell, tax and control marijuana once the drug is legalized by the federal government, according to a new report by the C.D. Howe Institute.
The framework suggested by economist Anindya Sen would create a patchwork of rules across Canada, with different laws governing everything from the stores that can carry the drug to the penalties for selling to underage users.
In this "joint venture," the federal government would monitor the safe production of marijuana for recreational use, while the provinces would oversee distribution, with an eye to meeting public-health goals.
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The report is being released on the same day as a new poll by the Angus Reid Institute that shows support for legalizing marijuana is growing across the country. The poll found that 68 per cent of Canadians agree on the need to "make it legal," a nine-point increase in only two years. April 20 is known as "420" among marijuana enthusiasts, who have waged a long campaign to legalize a drug that has been prohibited in Canada since 1923.
Even though the drug is currently illegal, the Toronto-based Centre for Addiction and Mental Health found that 40 per cent of Canadians say they have used cannabis in their lifetime, including 10 per cent who have done so in the past year.
The federal Liberal government has promised to legalize marijuana, while vowing to take the time to "get it right" as it enacts the major societal change. Key issues to be determined by a coming federal-provincial task force include who will be allowed to produce recreational marijuana, who will get to sell the drug and what kind of controls are needed to try to keep the product out of the hands of children.
A professor of economics at the University of Waterloo, Mr. Sen is urging Ottawa and the provinces to put public-health issues ahead of generating tax revenue as they open the market for recreational marijuana. Both levels of government would tax the product, with Ottawa hitting the manufacturers and the provinces imposing a sales tax on consumers. "The challenge for policy makers is to set tax rates that do not foster an illicit market alongside legal sales," the report said.
In terms of ensuring that new rules are respected, the report added: "As with tobacco, the federal government should establish penalties for illegal trafficking and production, while provinces should have discretion over setting penalties for the purchase and sale of marijuana to minors."
There will be billions of dollars at stake once the drug is legalized, with pharmacies mounting a push to have a right to sell the drug and the Ontario government pushing for the product to be sold at its LCBO liquor stores.
The C.D. Howe report said consumers should be allowed to purchase and carry up to 30 grams of dried marijuana at once, while calling on the government to delay the legalization of edible marijuana products for further study.
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Mr. Sen favours "stand-alone privately owned stores" as the prime location to sell marijuana, arguing that independent retailers are capable of conducting age checks if adequately supervised by provincial authorities. He adds that the provinces may not be willing to make "the necessary infrastructure and staff investments that would be required to sell marijuana at provincial liquor stores."
Angus Reid found the most popular places to sell marijuana are licensed dispensaries that carry only cannabis products (with 69-per-cent support), followed by provincial stores (with 67-per-cent support).
Only 23 per cent of respondents supported the right of citizens to grow and sell their own marijuana, and only 6 per cent said Canadians should be able to grow an unlimited amount of plants for personal use and/or sale.
"There seems to be broad consensus that if people are going to be growing it at home, Canadians don't want them selling it," Angus Reid said.
The Angus Reid poll of 1,522 Canadian adults was conducted online between April 13 and 17. A probability sample of this size would carry a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.Dennis Rodman may not come across as the most natural choice for a sports star turned American diplomat, but North Korea apparently begs to differ. Rodman has traveled to Pyongyang along with three Harlem Globetrotters and a documentary film crew for some basketball exhibitions and, the film company hopes, an audience with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who is said to be a devoted basketball fan.
The group landed in Pyongyang on Tuesday, giving a round of interviews to journalists at the airport. “We got invited and we just came over to have some fun,” Rodman said. “Hopefully, everything will be O.K. and the kids will have a good time with the games.”
The visit to North Korea, a country with a brutal dictatorship, comes at a particularly tense time in U.S.-North Korean diplomacy, with North Korea’s recent announcement of a nuclear test aggravating an already strained relationship.
But one warm spot between the countries is apparently basketball, something the Vice media founder Shane Smith realized while filming two documentaries in North Korea recently. He visited the country’s national museum, the Hall of Trophies, where a Michael Jordan-signed basketball given to the former leader Kim Jong-il in 2000 by Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright is displayed prominently among national treasures. Kim Jong-il was obsessed with the Chicago Bulls dynasty of the 1990s, a fascination he apparently passed along to his son, the current leader.At Oculus Connect last weekend I spoke with the company’s Head of Mobile, Max Cohen, who confirmed that Oculus plans to release its Android mobile SDK in early October. Gear VR, which runs virtual reality games and experienced built with the Oculus mobile SDK, will launch this fall, according to the Oculus website.
In an interview last weekend, Max Cohen, Head of Mobile at Oculus, told me, “…we’re going to be releasing our mobile SDK in October and try to do it on the early end of that.”
Cohen also had some good news to share with Oculus developers who want to make content for Gear VR but aren’t thrilled about dropping the cash needed for the Note 4 and Gear VR.
“Developers will be able to use their DK1s or DK2s to develop for Gear VR as well,” Cohen noted.
See Also: Oculus Head of Mobile – Gear VR is ‘Designed for 5 to 20 Minute Experiences’
Gear VR, a mobile VR headset that’s built by Samsung and ‘Powered by Oculus’, was announced in early September but Samsung has yet to officially confirm a launch date that’s more specific than ‘this year’, nor have they confirmed the price.
Oculus’ own website however tells us that we’ll see Gear VR this fall. An official entry in the company’s Knowledge Base says “The Samsung Gear VR Innovator Edition will be available to developers and enthusiasts starting this fall (2014).” Rumors put the price of the device somewhere around $175.
See Also: Samsung Gear VR Microsite is Live, Listed by Third-party Retailer for $245
With Oculus hoping to release the mobile SDK in early October, and the Galaxy Note 4 that powers Gear VR being released on October 17th, it seems that Samsung is gearing up to get Gear VR out the door in time for the holiday season.
“Anyone who wants to buy [Gear VR] can. [It will be] sold online, it’s intentionally limiting the distribution channel,” Cohen told me. “There won’t be a lot of TV advertising… that stuff will come in time as the product matures a little bit more, but there will be some hiccups, there will be some bugs, this is very much a work in progress…”
Samsung launched an official microsite for Gear VR shortly after their announcement of the product. Specifications from the site confirm that it has impressive sub-20ms latency and a 96 degree field of view. The unit only works with the Galaxy Note 4 and takes advantage of its impressive 2560×1440 OLED display.In 1998, Spanish neurologist Juan Gomez-Alonso caused a flurry of bad science journalism by speculating in an academic journal that vampirism originated as a fictional extrapolation of human rabies. The traits were all there. Hypersensitivity to strong stimuli, like bright lights, garlic, and mirrors. Insomnia. Hypersexuality. A tendency to bite, potentially killing their victims or passing on the condition. Furthermore, the peak of vampire fascination in Europe came soon after a well-documented epidemic of rabies in Hungary.
If Gomez-Alonso’s speculation has any truth to it, vampirism is one of the earliest, and most influential, influences of parasite ecology on speculative fiction. But it’s far from unique. Since Dracula, parasites have been a steady source of inspiration of speculative fiction authors, especially in horror and scifi. Parasite ecology served as a catalogue of body horror grotesques for scifi B-movies. Many-toothed maws, mucilaginous worms crawling into orifices, and the skin-splitting chest-bursting emergence--and of course the perennial favorite, mind control--all made for great posters and memorable effects sequences.
That lurid, sensational approach has, however, curated a pretty limited palette for painting parasites, a palette that has shades of gross, hideous, terrifying, and the ceaseless urge to kill humans. Parasite actors can expect to be typecast into one of three well-established roles: the avatar of plague and death (a la Nosferatu); the ravenous monster with a limitless appetite for human flesh (like Alien’s Xenomorph); and the mind-controlling worm bent on world domination (eg Animorphs’ Yeerks).
On the other hand, the recent movement toward gritty realism in fantasy has been constantly hectored about its failure to depict the prevalence of everyday diseases like dysentery in medieval life. This has always struck me as a bit unfair - there are, after all, dozens of vastly important elements of historical causality and daily life that authors habitually neglect. It is, I think, a consequence of the distinction we draw between “parasites” and “diseases” - the former large, wiggly and usually chitinous, the latter invisible, detectable only by symptomatic cough, fever, or flux. This is a colloquial misconception; they are all parasites, ecologically speaking: they spend much of their life cycles feeding inside their host’s body.
Parasitism as a lifestyle spans the whole gamut, from whale-gut tapeworms to the brain-eating neti pot amoeba all the way down to the sub-viral-sized prions you catch when you eat too many human brains. Yet in fiction, macro-scale parasites have agency and imaginative flavor (even if that agency is restricted to willing a grotesque death to humans). Microbial parasites, on the other hand, are handled more like a status ailment than organisms, rarely taken as an opportunity to enrich the story world with wondrous and fateful creatures.
Despite a century of mining parasite ecology for inspiration, speculative fiction has barely scratched the surface on what parasites have to offer. This was, for a while, an error of ignorance - ecology has only recently discovered the scope of what parasitic organisms do in ecosystems. Because parasitism is an unusually efficient lifestyle (hard to be more of a couch potato than living inside your food), parasites have undergone an astonishing diversification into a huge array of bizarre and particular niches. Many dramatically alter host sexual biology and behavior, or cause monstrous disfiguration. Others migrate between several very different hosts, transforming beyond recognition each time. There are even parasites that feed only on other parasites. These are some of the most peculiar stories in ecology, still an untapped well of inspiration for fantasists.
Even a quick look at parasite ecology unravels the B-movie monster stereotype. The specificity of parasite biology means they’re highly discerning feeders. Moreover, when a parasite “zombifies” its host and alters its behavior to suit its own ends, it does so for a pretty good and specific reason (like hitching a ride to a midsummer orgy), not just for eating.
Parasitism is only one form of symbiosis, and defining a symbiont as a parasite depends on a negative effect that in some cases can be quite hard to prove. The human gut microbiome is the leading edge of the cultural rehabilitation of microbial symbionts, popularizing the idea that human health depends on “good germs” to exclude pathogens. Yet it’s somewhat misleading to categorize symbionts even at the species level. Ed Yong explains this eloquently:
In reality, bacteria exist along a continuum of lifestyles. If they do us harm, we describe them as parasites or pathogens. If they exist neutrally, we call them commensals. If they benefit us, we bill them as mutualists. But these are hardly fixed categories. Some microbes can slide from one end of this parasite-mutualist spectrum to the other, depending on the strain and on the host they find themselves in.... All of this means that labels like mutualist, commensal, pathogen or parasite don’t work as definitive badges of identity. These terms are more like states of being, like hungry or awake or alive, or behaviours like cooperating or fighting. They are adjectives and verbs rather than nouns. They describe how two partners relate to one another at a given time and place.
This ecological contingency may not be necessary for a simple slasher film, but it introduces a sort of nuance that dovetails beautifully with the current wave of post-Grimdark epic fantasy. Following Martin, this trend derives much of its MO from history, following characters through the machinations of complex social and magical systems. This historical approach also rectifies the tendency to present parasites as sudden, ahistorical intrusions. It’s typical to make such parasites “alien” even when there’s no clear reason to do so. The problem is that parasites aren’t aberrant - their absence is. Parasites are everywhere, and their life cycles structure practically everything about life on our planet - they are, almost inevitably, deeply woven into the patterns of power and influence epic fantasy is increasingly interested in depicting.
Though small individually, parasites often equal predators in terms of total biomass. And they’re arguably far more influential. Parasites thread together major links in the ecosystem. That predators tend to kill the old and sick among their prey is a pattern I’ve heard so many times that it never occurred to me to question it. But when you learn that it’s rather common for parasites to require time in the body of the predator and the prey (cat and mouse; bird and fish; mantis and mayfly), that they would engage in sinister biochemical puppeteering seems inevitable.
Indeed, there is plenty of evidence that many parasites endanger their hosts not just by weakening them, but by directing them to particular situations in which they’re likely to be eaten by the parasite’s next host. Science journalism loves to term these interactions “zombification,” but mirroring that back to speculative fiction is a travesty of unimaginativeness. There’s so much potential here! After all, up to 50% of the human population may have Toxoplasma, a parasite that has been tentatively shown to alter personality, motor skills, and suicide risk in humans, but that doesn’t make us mindless.
Of all the weird things about parasite ecology, sex and reproduction are probably the most compelling. In order to favor investment in their goals over host reproduction, parasites often chemically castrate their hosts. Some parasites co-opt the host’s reproductive system more directly, like the barnacle that makes male crabs inject its eggs instead of sperm - which are then cared for by the female as if they were her babies - an astonishingly direct mirror of the changeling baby trope, given how recently this phenomenon was documented. In social insects, parasitic castration changes how individuals relate to their nestmates, enabling social mobility and creating novel sex roles.
These processes can be brutal, and they’re often a total loss for host animals, but we now take a more enthusiastic view to sexual nonconformity. As long as we’re careful to avoid using parasitism to convey monstrousness in the execution, I think they could inspire a whole world of imaginative queer worldbuilding. Personally I’m hoping for a domestic drama about a nest of paper wasps living through the changing social and reproductive roles imposed on them by the flies in their abdomens.
A few works have started integrating a broader, more naturalistic perspective on parasite ecology into fantasy. Mushishi, the gold standard in fantasy ecology, is premised on creating dozens of these little life cycles, half natural history and half folkloric fancy. In a sense, I wrote this piece because I want to see more things like Mushishi. There’s also a message and an opportunity here. Despite their importance as architects of ecosystems, parasites are neglected and even denigrated as targets of conservation. When endangered animals are bred in captivity and reintroduced to the wild, their parasites are often killed as a matter of course, seen not as a part of their host’s ecosystem role but a hindrance to it. While it’s not fair to blame speculative fiction entirely for this image problem, it certainly hasn’t helped. But it could. A few good stories with empathetic and compelling portrayals of parasites could make a world of difference in the conservation of real parasites and the ecosystems they structure.
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Adam Kranz is a graduate student in insect ecology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He writes about fantasy, games, postmodernism, and environmental history.
Art by Christopher Taylor-Davies (@CTD)
Does your iPhone need more parasites? You can find them in the iTunes store.Hulas produced battery-powered Nano cars priced at Rs171,000 and 500 city rickshaws priced at Rs251,000
Apr 6, 2016-Hulas Motors plans to roll out domestically produced battery-powered cars under the brand name Hulas-e. The environment-friendly electric vehicles, which will have a price tag not exceeding Rs1.7 million, will hit the streets in five to six months.
“The car will run 160 km on a full charge,” said Prafulla Chand Das, general manager of the company.
Hulas Motors, which began operations in 1994, shut down production of its Hulas Mustang Max vehicle in 2015 after it failed to meet environment pollution standards, and currently produces battery-powered city rickshaws.
The company stopped producing the Mustang Max after the government allegedly refused to give it adequate time to upgrade to Euro-3 quality standards. According to Das, the company had no option but to stop production after it failed to obtain a permit from the government.
The Rs120-million company has produced more than 600 Hulas city rickshaws. Das said that the company was facing problems as the municipality had refused to issue permits to operate its battery-powered rickshaws within city limits.
The company has produced 100 battery-powered Hulas Nano cars priced at Rs171,000 and 500 city rickshaws priced at Rs251,000, but more than 50 vehicles remain unsold due to a slump in demand, said Das.
The company has also introduced six versions of battery-powered scooters which run 65-75 km on a full charge. The scooters have a starting price of Rs90,000.
Hulas Motors started by producing power carts for farmers powered by a pumping set. The four-wheeled power carts were used to haul freight, pump water and thresh crops. The company produced only 10 such power carts. Subsequently, the company launched a four-wheeler Hulas Sherpa in three different versions. After the government implemented an environment pollution provision, Hulas modified the vehicle and rolled out the Hulas Sherpa 46 D NS e-drive. In 2003, the Hulas Mustang went into production as a modified version of the Hulas Sherpa. The company assembled 200 vehicles under the name Mustang V2 hard top Fiber and modified it three years later and produced 250 units of the Mustang Max. The company used to employ more than 150 officials and workers till two years ago. The workforce was scaled down to 70 after the company began producing city rickshaws.
Published: 06-04-2016 08:52WASHINGTON—Admitting that it might be nice to just relax and take it easy over the next several weeks, Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 83, was reportedly debating Friday whether to cancel her upcoming winter vacation plans to scale the world’s second-highest mountain, K2. “Maybe it’s wiser not to go, since the weather is supposed to be pretty bad up there this time of the year—although I have always wanted to summit K2 without any supplemental oxygen, and these upcoming weeks seem like the perfect occasion,” said the liberal-leaning 23-year veteran of the nation’s highest court, who later added that she might just take a slightly less strenuous route than the notoriously difficult South Face for her ascent of the 28,251-foot peak instead. “If I still want to do something in the mountains, I could always go heli-skiing up in the Monashees. Though getting out on the water sounds good too, so maybe some cave diving would be nice. Or should I finally take a trip to Yosemite and do that free-solo climb of El Capitan I’ve been planning forever?” At press time, Ginsburg accepted an invitation from 78-year-old Justice Stephen Breyer to spend their winter vacation going BASE jumping in the insurgent-held Borno region of Nigeria.
Advertisementf(x)’s Victoria truly has a kind and loving heart.
On June 22, the idol was spotted at Changsha Airport, purchasing donuts. She arrived in Changsha in order to film the popular Chinese variety show, “Happy Camp.”
She then unexpectedly approaches her fans, and warmly gives them a box of donuts, telling them to share it amongst themselves. It turns out that she personally purchased donuts for the fans who waited for her.
The fans can’t contain their surprise, and can be heard expressing their thanks and happiness.
Photos and videos from the scene quickly spread, touching the hearts of many worldwide.
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Meanwhile, Victoria will star in a new Chinese drama alongside Rain.
Source (1)Talk about America’s decline is usually wrong. But how else would you describe a country that, in a world of exploding tensions, is unable to confirm dozens of ambassadors to foreign posts because of partisan squabbling?
Even by Washington standards, the Senate Republicans have hit a new low for hypocrisy. They denounce President Obama’s inaction on foreign policy — and simultaneously refuse to confirm his nominees for U.S. ambassadors to such hot spots as Turkey, on the front lines against the Islamic State, and Sierra Leone, epicenter of the Ebola outbreak.
Let’s say it plainly: This is how nations lose their power and influence, when they are unable to agree even on basic matters such as diplomatic representation. The decision-making system breaks down, and the public is too bored or disunited to take action. Sadly, that’s a snapshot of the United States in 2014.
The State Department said Tuesday that it has 65 nominees awaiting confirmation. A few of them are ill-prepared political appointees who bungled their confirmation hearings and, frankly, whose nominations should be withdrawn. But 40 are career diplomats with distinguished careers whose only misstep was to get caught in the Washington morass of partisan politics. The average wait time for nominees who managed to clear the Foreign Relations Committee is 237 days.
Here’s a map of America’s dysfunction: Eleven of our empty embassies are in Africa, where disease and terrorism are spreading, and countries are desperate for U.S. leadership. Nine are in Eastern Europe, where Russian President Vladimir Putin is on the march. Six are in East Asia, where China is flexing its muscles. Worried about the Middle East? Sorry, but we lack ambassadors to the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, in addition to Turkey.
The State Department’s Foreign Service doesn’t even have a director-general. Arnold Chacon, a distinguished career diplomat, has been waiting 326 days for confirmation. John Estrada, a decorated former sergeant major of the Marine Corps who was born in Trinidad and Tobago, has waited 394 days to be confirmed as ambassador there. The Senate hasn’t confirmed assistant secretaries of state to oversee the United Nations or arms control negotiations or global energy affairs.
Consider the case of Guatemala: Senators give windy speeches about stopping that country’s migration of undocumented children. Yet for 86 days, they have stalled the nomination for a new ambassador to Guatemala, who could deliver the message in person.
Sometimes in Washington, you can say that the problem is everyone’s fault, or nobody’s fault. But that isn’t the case here. This one belongs to the Senate Republican leadership. Apparently, they want to make the Democrats pay a price for removing the filibuster power. Republicans on the Foreign Relations Committee, including Sen. Bob Corker (Tenn.), the ranking member, are said to favor a deal that could break the logjam. But no: It’s payback time. Nobody seems to have told the Republican leaders that the price is being paid by the United States in lost representation.
Ambassadors matter, even in the age of Twitter. They can open the door at a key ministry, or introduce a prominent business official. The State Department estimates that this year U.S. businesses have sought embassy help in $119 billion in contracts in countries where we have no ambassador (a list that includes France, Ireland, Norway and Finland).
The Obama administration is all but pleading for action. Officials have signaled they would support a plan to allow the 40 career diplomats to be confirmed as a group, the way military promotions are, and save the partisan rancor for the political appointees. No deal, so far.
A wise move for the administration would be to pull back political nominations that were mistakes. Find a replacement for the fundraiser who was nominated to be ambassador to Oslo, for example, who described one of Norway’s ruling parties as extremist. Withdraw the nomination of the money-bundler pegged for Argentina, a country he said he had never visited and whose language he barely speaks. Ask the former soap opera producer waiting for a star turn in Budapest to find another way to serve her country.
Once the list is pared to nominees who are clearly qualified to represent the United States, this issue should be a no-brainer. The world is a mess these days, and nations need a diplomatic connection to a United States that values and respects them.
Yet when the world looks to Washington, what do they see? A capital in decay, whose embittered politicians can’t even agree on ambassadors.
Read more from David Ignatius’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.The 2011 NFL draft will be remembered for Carolina hitting it big with quarterback Cam Newton as the No. 1 pick. But three other first-round quarterbacks had a major impact on the NFL, as well. Just not in a good way.
Those picks went so badly, the teams that made them — the Vikings, Tennessee Titans and Jacksonville Jaguars — still are nervous about taking a quarterback early.
The No. 8 pick in 2011, used by Tennessee to select Jake Locker, started a run on quarterbacks. Jacksonville took Blaine Gabbert at No. 10, and Minnesota fell in by taking Christian Ponder at No. 12.
All those decisions proved to be reaches.
“The ghosts of that (2011) draft are Christian Ponder, Jake Locker and Blaine Gabbert,” said NFL Network analyst Charles Davis.
Because of that, it’s no surprise that the same three teams have top 12 picks in next month’s 2014 draft — the Jaguars at No. 3, Vikings No. 8 and Titans No. 11.
With questions marks on all the top quarterbacks, those teams must decide whether to go with a signal caller for need or a player at another position who might be rated higher on their draft boards.
Further confusing the issue, Davis said, is the fact that Andy Dalton and Colin Kaepernick were 2011 second-round picks, and Russell Wilson went to Seattle in the third round in 2012. Kaepernick and Russell have led their teams to the Super Bowl, and Russell, who played his final season at Wisconsin, already has a ring.
“It makes the whole league a little bit skittish about, do I draft a quarterback if I’m not totally convinced in the first round?” Davis said. “So if you’re Minnesota picking at No. 8, you’d better be convinced about getting an impact player.”
Judging by recent comments, Vikings general manager Rick Spielman isn’t convinced when it comes to a quarterback. Central Florida’s Blake Bortles, Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel or Louisville’s Teddy Bridgewater, the top QB prospects in the May 8-10 draft, could be available at No. 8.
“The torture part of it is you see a player sitting there when you pick who you know can help you right away — a significant player at another position, an impact player as a rookie — then you ask yourself, ‘How do we feel about our options at quarterback in the second round or third round?’ ” Spielman told the MMQB website.
“There’s no Andrew Luck, no Peyton Manning,” he continued. “It is such a mixed bag with each player; every one has positives; every one of them has negatives. … It is torturous this year.”
The Vikings last month re-signed quarterback Matt Cassel to a two-year deal, giving them the flexibility to use their top pick on another position and take a quarterback in a later round. They also still have Ponder, though he doesn’t appear to be a long-term solution after three erratic seasons.
There are questions about whether Bortles is too raw, whether Manziel is too injury-prone and Bridgewater is too small — among others. For that reason, many believe the Vikings will trade down.
“I think if they’re not interested in a quarterback, I’d move off eight,” ESPN draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. said. “They have some personnel issues at a couple of spots. Move down from eight and pick up some extra choices, then maybe get a C.J. Mosley at No. 15.”
Davis has Mosley, the Alabama inside linebacker, going to the Vikings in his mock draft. However, some believe that No. 8 might be a bit high for someone with durability questions.
There’s no question Minnesota needs help at linebacker, but the top one in the draft, outside man Buffalo’s Khalil Mack, figures to be gone by No. 8. The Vikings have interest in UCLA outside linebacker Anthony Barr, but he is a bit raw and probably still could be selected after trading down.
But if the Vikings don’t make a deal and don’t take a quarterback, what might they do in the first round under first-year coach Mike Zimmer? Dane Brugler, a senior analyst at NFLDraftScout.com and CBSSports.com, offered his take.
“I think if they don’t take a quarterback, Aaron Donald makes a lot of sense,” Brugler said of the Pittsburgh defensive tackle. “I think Donald can be Mike Zimmer’s Geno Atkins (the all-pro defensive tackle Zimmer previously had as Cincinnati’s defensive coordinator). So I think, if they don’t go quarterback, Aaron Donald or possibly one of the safeties.”
If the 6-foot-1, 290-pound Donald is the pick, it could be an indication the Vikings are not enamored of the long-term prospects of Sharrif Floyd, a defensive tackle they took with the No. 23 pick in the 2013 draft.
The safeties Brugler mentioned include Louisville’s Calvin Pryor and Alabama’s Ha Ha Clinton-Dix. However, taking either at No. 8 could be a bit high.
The Vikings could go with a cornerback, either Oklahoma State’s Justin Gilbert or Michigan State’s Darqueze Dennard, though they like Xavier Rhodes — the 25th overall pick last year — and recently signed Captain Munnerlyn to a free-agent deal.
Wide receiver Cordarrelle Patterson, No. 29 overall, was the last of last of Minnesota’s three first-round picks in 2013, but Brugler said if Texas A&M wide receiver Mike Evans is available at No. 8, he might be too enticing for the Vikings to pass up.
“You can’t rule that out,” Brugler said. “When you’ve got a top-10 pick, you want to make the team better, and a guy like Mike Evans, he’s going to do that. He’s only 20, and he’s coming into his own. If you’re going to go with Matt Cassel another year (as the starter), Mike Evans would be a guy who would help that offense.”
Wouldn’t that be the ultimate irony if the Vikings, after all the hype about possibly drafting Johnny Manziel, instead end up taking his top receiver? Then again, with the Vikings skittish about drafting a quarterback high after missing on Ponder, it might not be that much of a surprise.
Follow Chris Tomasson at twitter.com/christomasson.As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Please see my Privacy Policy for more details.
This post is sponsored by Dorot Gardens, but the content and opinions expressed here are my own.
Veggie stir fry is a go-to meal in my house. And I recently found a way to make it even faster to cook, thanks to Dorot frozen pre-portioned garlic and herbs. No more chopping fresh garlic and ginger for me! Now I can make veggie stir fry in 15 minutes, and you can too!
One evening after work, I was on my way home, thinking about what to make for dinner. I was really tired, and even though I love to cook, I wasn’t looking forward to preparing a meal. Then I remembered my coupon stash was in my purse, so I took a detour and headed to my local Whole Foods.
Download your own $1 off coupon here: $1 off coupon for Dorot frozen garlic and herbs.
The first coupon I pulled out of my bag was for Dorot frozen garlic and herbs. I had used their chopped basil in the past for pasta, and I thought that sounded like a good meal. However, once I saw the crushed ginger, I knew it would be a stir fry night.
While I love adding fresh garlic and ginger to veggie stir fry, I don’t enjoy preparing it, especially the ginger. But now I don’t need to since I can just pop out a little pre-measured frozen cube from the tray and drop it in the pan.
Anyway, I picked up a bag of organic stir fry vegetables, a block of baked savory tofu, the frozen garlic and ginger, and I was on my way.
Don’t forget to click here: download your $1 off coupon for Dorot frozen garlic and herbs!
Dorot products include:
Crushed Garlic
Chopped Parsley
Chopped Basil
Glazed Onions
Chopped Dill
Chopped Cilantro
Chopped Chili
Crushed Ginger
You can find Dorot products at your local Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Ralphs, Albertsons, and other major supermarkets. Find a store near you.
Which Dorot product will you try? Let me know in the comments!
You may also want to try Dorot products in these other recipes:
Avocado Basil Pesto Pasta
Peanut Butter Noodles
And now for the easy veggie stir fry recipe!A Vancouver real estate |
Are we not going to…?” Rumcake gestured at my doll, a.k.a. the thing holding my soul to this mortal coil. He paused, glaring at it, then picked it up in his hoof. “You mean Frosty’s in this?”
“I told you it was haunted!” Sparkle scooted ever so slightly closer to Rumcake. “Frosty, how could you?” she whined, also fixing her gaze on the doll as well.
“Guys. You don’t have to talk to the doll. I’m right—what the buck put me down right now,” I abruptly started yelling the second Rumcake decided to toss it up and down in the air. “Put me down! Violet, turnip him before he breaks me!”
Instead of unleashing turnipey retribution onto Rumcake, Violet caught my soul doll in her magic and gently placed it back onto the table. “Please don’t break the potentially volatile soul containment object.” Thankfully, Rumcake listened to Violet’s warning. Sparkle didn’t seem to need it, what with still being wary about her former second favorite doll in the whole wide Wasteland coming alive.
Rumcake still looked a bit overwhelmed, opening his mouth several times without any words coming out. Eventually he settled on: “Frosty is inside the doll. Is this a joke, Violet?”
“Do I joke?” Violet retorted.
That seemed to shut him up quick. “Good point.”
“And I’m not inside the doll!” I jumped in. “That’s just where my voice is coming from because of Violet’s thingy she attached to it. I’m floating right here in the room with you.”
“So…” Rumcake looked around the room, attempting to find somewhere to fix his attention to instead of my doll. He eventually gave up and went back to talking at my doll like a moron. “What’s going on? What’s so serious that you can’t leave me alone?”
I heard the beginnings of an angsty monologue beginning to form and decided to cut to the chase before Edgecake could upstage my incredibly important announcement. “Holy shit fine all you need to know is that the leader-thing of the league of super ultimate evil hijacked my meat sack and is trying to bring back some bullshit about the end of the world.”
“What?” went Rumcake.
Equally as confused, Sparkle voiced the same sentiment. “What?”
Excellent. Now I had their attention. “Oh, so now you want the whole story.”
Seeing the obvious confusion around the room, Violet admitted, “If it makes any of you feel any better, I’m just as lost.”
I sighed, “Look, just work with me here.”
I told them everything I was sure about Ice Storm. It wasn’t a lot, granted, but it was enough. Fragment of Night, ancient wendigos, plans to end the world, whatever—evil whispering, blah blah blah. Things he’d said to me, things he tried to do—I told them all of it. I still had no idea why he was so interested in me in the first place, but given that the first thing he had made me do was try to recover all the missing memories locked within my brain, it probably had something to do with that.
Close to the end of my explanation I also chose to tell them about my alternate personalities and my deteriorating mental condition, moreso to make me feel better about one or two related incidents. Most of it wasn’t useful information, but I really just needed them to believe me first and foremost.
After I’d finished my spiel, the room went silent. The others maybe needed a moment to process the wildly somewhat outlandish story they had just heard.
There were clearly conflicting emotions running through Rumcake’s brain. With what he’d just learned, I hoped that he would realize that at least some of my problems had stemmed from my insanity rather than any malicious intent. He continued to ponder, periodic flickers of confusion and anger crossing his face before finally saying, “You know what? I believe you.”
I metaphorically let out a sigh of relief. “Good, otherwise this plot point would have been pretty pointless if you guys didn’t.”
Instead of suffering some sort of internal struggle about rights and wrongs and whatever my current situation classified itself as, Sparkle went, “What.” We all ignored her.
So now that everypony was filled in, I proceeded to continue with the hodgepodge plan that I came up with. “Anyway, all I know is that we have to stop Ice Storm from ending the world again. Further than that I don’t really have a plan at all besides ‘hit it very hard’.” Correction: I had a plan, but it was more of several fragments of many plans that needed to become one singular plan. “We could use any help we could get.”
“We could go back to HQ,” Rumcake mused. “I don’t think the Inquisitor would be on board with the idea of ‘let’s go on a crusade with Frosty's ghost’, but if you think one of you two can convince him you can try.”
While still looking thoroughly confused, Sparkle still pointed out, “Worst case scenario I think you can pull rank on some of the Paladins and force them to come on our spooky crusade. It’s not like any of them can say no until the Inquisitor says otherwise. As long as we leave before he finds out, of course.”
The exchange was suddenly and rudely halted when Violet leapt up from her seat with a shout. "Wait, wait, wait. You guys actually have a headquarters? With a base, and other Rangers, and a commander?” She glared daggers at the other two living ponies in the room and waited for an explanation.
Rumcake confirmed with a nod. “Of course. I’m technically supposed to be in charge of tactical deployment. If not much has changed we took over the settlement outside our bunker and we should still run the place.”
“I’m part of it too. Membership has its perks,” I added helpfully.
Clearly that wasn’t the response Violet had been hoping for. Vi-vi pointed at my soul doll and screeched, “Frosty is a Steel Ranger? What have you all been doing this whole time then?” With an annoyed huff, she took a second to compose herself then continued, “I thought you guys were just a bunch of wanderers."
“I wonder if they know we’re still alive,” Sparkle pondered out loud.
Poor, poor Vi-vi flopped onto the ground, groaning in exasperation, “I cannot believe you idiots have a headquarters. How have you not made your presence more known?”
Sparkle scooted over to Violet to gently pat her head. “We, uh, aren’t great at getting things done.” In a surprising turn of events, Sparkle attempted to steer the conversation back toward my ingenious plan. “Frosty does have a point, though. We should head back to base first. If you can convince the Inquisitor that evil you is a threat, we’ll have an army to fight back.”
Just as I thought I could get back to attempting to explain my shoddy concept of an action plan, Rumcake decided to derail us yet again. “Can we quickly go back to the ending the world part? How does an immaterial being in possession of the world’s dumbest pegasus end the world?”
I crossed my forelegs—which didn’t visually do anything for the living ponies who couldn’t see me—and snapped at Rumcake, “First off, that’s rude. Second, no idea. But apparently these things tried to destroy the world twice before so I’d bet anything he’s going for a hat trick.”
With a chuckle, Rumcake said, “It’s just Evil Frosty. How hard could it be?”
“If he’s anything like me, he’ll have scrounged up a couch and a TV. By the time we reach him he might finish the first season of Waterfall and we can murder him before he finds out there isn’t a second season.” Too bad things couldn’t actually be that easy. Ice Storm was a crafty asshole, after all. “Unfortunately he’s not me so of he’s like any raid boss, we’ll have to fight through an ocean of tanky minions and the inevitable mid-boss or two before reaching his death arena murderpit of penultimate doom. Luna knows how charismatic he is—I wouldn’t doubt he’d have his own fanatic cult by now. Don’t get me started on intricate puzzle rooms. Or life-size chess.”
“…I’m going to ignore that first part. And that last part,” Rumcake declared.
Even though I had all this figured out, this still clearly wasn’t a plan. There wasn’t enough information just lying around for me to make Violet come up with a better plan. “I assume at some point we find out where Ice Storm constructed his fortress of solitude,” I guessed. “Something as evil as he is has to be incredibly obvious, right?”
Violet delved back into her trusty tome of seemingly infinite knowledge. As it hovered at her side, flipping itself through pages and rearranging bookmarks, she sighed. ”I will see what I can do about finding the Fragment of Night. I have an idea of where to start.”
“Do we know anypony else to bother for help?” Any problem could be solved with liberal application of force, and one this severe meant that any additional help would greatly improve our chances of saving the world. What I really needed was more friends with guns.
Sparkle began to trot out of the room in search of something. As her tail vanished out the doorway, she yelled back, “What about Riverbed Ransom: cuddle monster for hire?”
Oh. There was an idea worth considering. Too bad she had already decided to stop adventuring for a life of relaxation. “All I know is that she retired after taking all of my money,” I reminded them.
“Our money,” Rumcake interjected.
I spoke over him, continuing, “And I’m not sure if she’d be okay with risking her life again to be honest.”
“If we find her we find her.”
Sparkle returned, laden with cans of soda. She passed one to Violet, who thanked her in turn, then chucked the other at Rumcake’s head. Rumcake’s face failed to notice, let alone catch it and it ended up bounced off the wall behind him. After taking a sip of hers, she offhoofedly blurted, “Five caps says we’ll just randomly find her now that you’ve said that.”
Screw it. This was probably as planned as we were going to get, considering how much of a logistical hellhole our team was. “Anyway! So our plan is as follows: Get back to the Rangers, find out where the legion of super evil is, find Riverbed, then save the world. No biggie. And not necessarily in that order.”
I mentally added ‘find the Lightbringer’ to the end of that, but I still wasn’t sure if that would be possible. Real heroes had better things to do than save the world. All the real heroes were too busy with their angst and brooding anyway.
Speaking to the room as a whole, Rumcake suggested, “You should go pay your respects to Tangerine before we leave. It’ll be your last chance to do it.” Solemn words for sure. They probably would have had exponentially more emotional impact had he been saying to to me rather than the doorway.
Now that I thought about it, I’d already done exactly that, hadn’t I? We hung out, we went on a date, we said our goodbyes. “I met Tangerine while we were dead. I already paid my respects or whatever.” As I mentally recalled the events, the whole guilt-trip make-out moment we shared made an appearance. Thankfully, nopony could see me turn bright red. “In fact, I went way above and beyond in paying respects!”
Violet paused in her book-flipping adventure. She stared in my general direction—whether by luck or by intuition was anypony’s guess—and asked in a suspicious tone, "What do you mean by that exactly?"
"Nothing!” I blurted. “Nothing. Just being random."
The book snapped shut. Violet narrowed her eyes at the space over my left wing. “Go pay your respects.” Wow, she looked super angry.
“I already did!” I whined.
“Then I will, and you’re going to come with me whether you want to or not.”
~~~~~
Tangie’s memorial was… I’d rather not get into it. It was simple, memorable, and they’d carved an encouraging poem into the slab of rock, and let’s leave it at that.
Thank the goddesses I’d been able to at least be there for her at the very end.
Ugh.
Uuuuugh.
I just wanted to go back to not regretting every moment of my life. This isn’t supposed to be some dark and gloomy edgefest. Jump cut.
~~~~~
On the bright side, since I didn’t have a body I didn’t have to walk. Unfortunately for these other meatbags, they had to trek and eat and sweat as usual these past three days. It turned out that after I’d gone to the great beyond, the whole “oops we accidentally blew up the entire Enclave but hey look it’s the sun a-aaaa-aa-a” thing radically changed how shit worked in the Wasteland. We had literally not been attacked, burgled, or even heckled the entire time, making for a terribly boring journey.
It was peaceful. Nice, granted—but boring.
And it was about here in the middle of this rather uninteresting plot point did Rumcake open his big fat mouth.
Fatcake clanked to a stop and motioned for the rest of us to do the same. After several seconds, he informed us, “We should be close to the old baron’s manor. Keep an eye out for it.”
Barely holding back laughter, Sparkle managed to stammer, “And this manor… is it opulent? Regal, even? Something something on the moor?” She snorted and burst into wild giggling.
“What? I don’t—look, I don’t even know what a moor is. The apple chips lady said there was something funny about it and that we should check it out on the way,” Rumcake explained. Without waiting up for the rest of us, he continued onward. For some dumb reason we followed.
I temporarily left the safe haven of Violet’s face and floated myself next to Rumcake. I didn’t need to, but I felt it was necessary. “Why did you even accept a fetch quest? The world might end any second.” My voice still came out of my doll several steps behind him and that’s the direction he ended up looking. For my own sanity I floated back a bit so there was some concept of eye contact.
“Please. The world can’t end without me being there. I’m the main character,” Rumcake boasted.
Sparkle scoffed. “You would be the worst main character. What kind of self-respecting gamer would voluntarily spend days and days doing nothing but building furniture and decorating? If anything, Violet is the only pony here proactive enough to be a main character.”
That was a pretty good point. Violet had probably done the most in terms of anything out of the three of us combined. “I wouldn’t doubt it. She has that stoic ‘I don’t care enough about anypony ever’ protagonist attitude,” I agreed. “I still want to say I’m the main character if this is a movie. Like, there are way too many shenanigans I get away with.”
For once, Violet joined in. “You do realize that making me the main character would make you the annoying yelling companion fairy, right?”
“I refuse! I’m too cool for being the tutorial character.”
Pointing to Violet’s robes, Sparkle laughed, “Too late. You’re already a small yelling item attached to the main character.”
“Nooooo!” I paused, conjured up a big red button labeled ‘NO’ and bopped it. “Noooooo!”
“All of you are the pimpliest of nerds, I get it,” Rumcake groaned from the front.
Banter aside, we continued onward toward Rumcake’s stupid fetch quest since it wasn’t too far out of the way. The road we ended up taking had branched off of the main streets a while back and we were somewhere haunch-deep in the middle of desolate hilly nowhere. Perched on one of the taller hills in the area was a sprawling, slightly decrepit mansion surrounded by a cobblestone and wrought-iron fence.
Casting back her hood, Violet regarded the building in the distance. In her mind’s eye, I watched her reconstruct the building’s facade. Boarded windows became shimmering stained glass, pillars rebuilt and intricate designs flowed across several walls. “This must have been a pretty house back in the day,” she noted.
Using the magic of make-believe television, I manually zoomed in on the building in the distance. “You mean the manor on the hill?” As I zoomed closer, I cocked my head at it. A strange rocky outcrop jutting out from the land caught my attention. It looked… A lot like… Oh. “The one with the giant penis on the front lawn?” I asked.
Violet tilted her head as well. “That’s not a—” She paused, narrowed her eyes at what I was also looking at, then came to the same conclusion that I did. “Oh. Oh my.”
“Relax. It’s just a rock formation,” Rumcake grumbled.
With a hint of longing, Sparkle breathed, “It is the longest, girthiest, marbleyist schlong I’ve ever seen.”
On the other end of the spectrum, Violet grimaced.“‘Marbleyist’ isn’t a word. Erect, however, is an unsettlingly accurate word here.”
Wait a minute…
—
The usually jovial Riverbed had a slight frown on her face and a quieter tone to her voice. “I’ve finally hoarded enough caps to retire. I’m done, Frosty. I’m gonna head back and buy that mushroom farm I’ve always wanted and sell hooch for the rest of my life. Settle down, y’know? Get a suitor, make some pretty little foals, build a giant statue of a mondo-sized schlong for the front yard—you know, normal life things. Dying isn’t really on the docket.”
—
With that startling revelation from mister brain, I found myself yelling out, “HOLY CRAP GUYS I KNOW WHO LIVES HERE. Violet! To the gate!”
Huh. Look at that. Universe was finally throwing me a bone.
The mansion’s front gate looked like any evil mansion’s would. They were several meters tall, much taller than any non-pegasus could jump and tipped with massive twisting spikes at the top. Sections of the iron bars were reinforced with sheets of scrounged metal and makeshift barricading as well. The stone pillars beside the gate had a small metal box mounted to it. An intercom, most likely.
“Push the button! Push the button! Ding dong, anypony home?” I chanted, encouraging Violet to do just that.
Rumcake tested the integrity of the gate by bouncing his helmet against it. “The gate’s locked,” he informed us rather unnecessarily.
“Hey, look over there.” Sparkle pointed at somepony off to our left by the far end of the mansion. Indeed there was a pony’s head protruding from around that corner. The poor blue guy looked confused. “Is that somepony? Hey! Over here! Friendly!”
At the sound of the voice, he turned his head, caught sight of us, and vanished out of sight with a flicker of a yellow tail. It didn’t look like he was coming back.
Dryly, Violet grumbled, “Oh good, you scared him off.”
“Not my fault.”
While these two clowns were busy terrifying the local populace, Rumcake apparently still hadn’t let go of trying to force his way in. He gently pushed at the gate again, eyeing the lock built into the center of it. “Hey, Frosty, can’t you just float through the other side and unlock it?” he asked in Violet’s general direction.
I floated myself out of the totem and through the gate to check if there was a latch on the other side I could attempt to flip. No luck. I supposed I could search for longer, but that was a lot more work than I was willing to put in. “Yes, me and my ghost powers can just do anything. Just ask Violet. I can’t do shit.”
Without moving his gaze, he tilted his head at the stubbornly locked gate. “Violet?”
Giving him a dirty, almost insulted look, she snapped, “I’m not breaking into somepony’s potentially heavily armed fortress. Look, let’s just just buzz the intercom and hope somepony nice is on the other end.”
Rumcake took several paces back. He looked the structure up and down, judging it. “We could blow the gate,” he brightly suggested.
Thanks to my bullshit magic connection with Violet, I managed to experience the feeling of a snarky comment coming before she started talking. “If only two of you were in power armor. Walking into it should already enough.” She flatly glared at the two Rangers, both of whom weren’t being helpful at all.
This time Sparkle trotted forward and placed an armored hoof on the gate. She appeared to give it a full-bodied push, causing the aging metal to creak dangerously but refuse to give in. Since it didn’t work on her first attempt, she gave up and plopped onto her butt. “I tried,” she called out. “I don’t know what this thing’s made of but—”
The intercom suddenly burst to life with a crackle of static. The pony on the other side dropped the microphone, hit their head on something, then bellowed a string of curses that I could almost hear even without the intercom. After a short wait, a voice finally said, “Howdy! Thanks for not busting down my gate, guy. Guys. I’m almost out of rocket ammo for the turrets. And uh, I guess blown you guys up too. Anyway, come on in and have a drink!”
Speak of the molester and she shall appear. Convenient.
The wrought iron gates ponderously creaked open like they did in those old horror movies. Just like a horror movie, the three of us and myself shared dubious looks with each other before hesitantly following the broken pathway to the grand entrance. It was probably safe, seeing as it was Riverbed, but the multiple gun barrels still tracking our every step really didn’t make us feel any better. Well, specifically them. I was already dead.
The second we made it inside, a mess of brown fur and blonde hair tripped down the stairs to greet us. “Heya, guys! Nice of ya to drop by.” Riverbed picked herself up off the ground, dusting off her coat of dust. “C’mon in! Sit down and relax. I’ll be there in a second!” She scrabbled a bit on the worn marble tile before vanishing into an adjoining room.
Staring after the wild earth mare, the three other living ponies hesitated to budge from their places. Violet was the first to recover. She loosened her robes, tossed back her hood, and made sure to carefully wipe her hooves on the raggedy carpet in the entry hall before tromping into what looked like a sitting room of some sort. Me being magically attached to her, I slowly ended up floating along with her. The two Rangers, after silently conferring with each other, popped out of their armor, folding them up into their strangely compact piles. They loaded the armor up onto their backs and followed Violet in.
For a slob like Riverbed, the quality of these couches and sofas were impressively high. The same went for the tables, miniature tables, and other miscellaneous furniture. Besides needing a thorough cleaning, everything was as intact as the Wasteland would allow. Where’d she get all this stuff? Violet was already lounging on one couch, leaving Sparkle and Fatcake squished together on the other.
Faintly, Riverbed’s voice echoed across the house. A second later, Riverbed tramped in with a baggie of various drinks and bagged snacks. She dumped them onto the table and flopped herself onto the floor next to them. “Help yourselves, guy. Guys.” She reached into the pile and retrieved a bag of apple chips. “So, where’s Frosty? Why’s she not with you?”
“Oh yeah, this is Frosty.” Violet pulled my statuette from its secure place inside her robes and unceremoniously chucked it onto the table. It bounced once, then fell over onto its side because of the giant sound device I was using strapped to it. “It’s a really long story,” she sighed.
From my end, I forced my soul doll to wobble in place as if to say hello. “It’s really not,” I began to explain, to which Riverbed inhaled the whole bag of chips and began to choke. “The short of it—”
Violet rudely interrupted me before I could get to the point. “It’s a really dumb story.”
I tried to come up with an excuse. I’d been through a lot, after all. All the adventuring, the dying, the un-dying… “All right, you got me there,” I admitted.
Once she recovered, Riverbed’s face lit up. She did a little impatient dance on the spot and sang, “Oh, I guess now that we’re all together, lemme introduce you to the doggies!”
“What?” Rumcake squawked.
Sparkle followed that with an equally puzzled, “Who?”
Riverbed stuck a hooftip into her mouth and loudly whistled. At first, nothing happened. I wasn’t sure what she was doing and neither did anypony else. That is, until we heard the thumping. Then the distinct sound of hooves scuffing against tile. That was all quickly followed by the loud thud of somepony running into a stationary object, then more galloping. One after another, three ponies suddenly burst into the room, tumbling and clambering over each other.
Their momentary excitement died down under Riverbed’s stern glare. They obediently shuffled past her and lined themselves up. Riverbed proudly spun around on her haunches and declared with a hoof flourish, “This is Angel Cake and this is Petunia and this good boy is Dumpling!” She pointed at each pegasus in order, ears perking up and barking when their named was called. Barking. Like, “bark”. Not the sound “bark”, but the word “bark”.
Right. So for some odd reason, Riverbed was now collecting whole ponies for whatever nefarious purpose. The three pegasi didn’t appear to be here against their will—the collars around their necks weren’t the explodey flavor on first glance—and they seemed well-taken care of.
In order, we had Angel Cake—his coat was a dirty shade of white, streaked with mud and dirt from apparently rolling around outside. Every time he tilted his head, his long floppy yellow mane bounced in the opposite direction. His eyes were bright, golden, curious, and intently following Riverbed’s pointing hoof.
In the center, squished between the other two pegasi was the one called Petunia. She clearly wasn’t a happy camper. Her baby-blue coat was the cleanest of the three and her sandy yellow mane had been tied into several haphazard curls with lengths of ribbon.
Loud snuffling brought my attention to this fat idiot on the end, appropriately named Dumpling. He was easily the size of two ponies occupying the space of a single navy blue blob who had recently eaten a freight train and several train cars full of ice cream. That also meant that his wings were purely decorative capacity. An unruly mop of turquoise mane covered his eyes, leaving his muzzle poking out. It seemed like he was fixated on the food in our saddlebags.
We collectively waited for the three to introduce themselves. Riverbed continued to hold her pose, as if we would eventually burst into applause. Nopony did, of course. The two Rangers didn’t react in the slightest. I couldn’t tell if Violet was confused or bored.
After several extensive seconds of nothing but the sound of armor creaking and tails swishing, Sparkle finally asked, “What do you mean by doggies and why don’t they talk?” An excellent point, which prompted all of us to turn our attentions to the sitting pegasi. They didn’t seem to grasp any idea of what was going on. “Are those even their names?” Petunia—the female in the middle—tilted her head adorably at the two Rangers and flicked her ears a few times.
Riverbed tilted her head at the first one in line—Angel Cake. “Guy, just look at their butts.” With a bit of maneuvering, she shifted him so that his cutie mark was visible to us. The five of us intently stared at the butt in question.
As we examined the dome-shaped cake on this random pegasus’s butt, I snarkily pointed out, “Of course that’s what you’d do.”
The only interested pony in the room took it upon herself to investigate. “Could we please get to the real questions? As in, are they actually capable of normal speech?” Violet paced around the sitting pegasi, all of whom in turn regarded her with cautious curiosity. “This seems a bit… inequine. Barbaric, even.”
“Not my fault, guy. They came this way!” Riverbed defensively raised her hooves in protest. One of the pegasi barked in agreement.
At this stage we were all starting to sound like a broken record. “What?”
Now that she was no longer being regarded like some form of psychopath, Riverbed eagerly nodded. She gently pulled Petunia by the chin over to Violet. The clueless pegasus didn’t seem to mind at all. “Yeah. Lights on, but nopony home.” Riverbed explained as she began to pet the pegasus behind the ears. “They seemed so adorable and helpless so I took them in like the good samaritan I am!” Riverbed looked unnecessarily proud of herself.
Several more seconds went by as we all processed her completely insane explanation. Very slowly, as if unsure of what he’d heard, Rumcake asked, “You taught them to bark?”
Yet more proudly, Riverbed added, “And fetch! I just finished with fetch training too, guy.”
Violet flatly restated, “They. Bark.”
While still petting Petunia the domesticated pegasus, Riverbed pouted and whined, “They wouldn’t chirp, guy! They gotta tell momma if they’re hungry or if they wanna go out, so I taught them to bark. And yes, fetch.” All three pegasi began to bark in response to the word ‘out’. After shushing them, she turned to the side and quietly added, “Dumpling is the only one that isn’t quite housebroken yet but I’d say I did pretty buckin’ good.” The fat one barked back.
“As the resident bird I’d like to point out that pegasi can’t chirp. We warble and coo because those don’t require the use of a beak.” I would have made my own noise to demonstrate had I still had a body to work with.
Without taking her eyes off Petunia, Sparkle dumped another bag of chips into her face and asked, “Couldn’t you have just taught them language? Speech, alphabets, whatever we’re doing right now?” The pegasus’s own eyes were intently fixed on the now-empty bag of chips.
Riverbed noticed what Petunia was looking at and gave her a bop on the nose. “Guy. I can barely words on my own, let alone teach.”
Violet hadn’t yet touched any of the stuff that Riverbed brought in. She was busy writing something down into her book. “On one hoof it would have been the right thing to do with the whole ‘rehabilitate the brain-empty pegasi’ thing, but the last thing we want is three other pegasi that sound exactly like Riverbed,” she observed between scribbles.
The thought of that made me laugh. Just imagining it sounded stupid. “Can you imagine it though? Guy! Guy. Guy. Guy.”
Violet looked up. “Guy?”
Then Rumcake joined in. “Guy! Guy!”
“Guy!” cheered Sparkle.
“C’mon, guys. Guys. I get it—it’s funny. You can stop now,” Riverbed whined.
“Guy.”
“Guy?”
“Guuuuy.”
“Guy, guy.”
Over the next minute or so, the ‘guy!’-ing died down to a few weak giggles and gasps for breath.
Once she was sure we were quite done, Riverbed growled, “So what’s up?” She was clearly not happy about the guyfest.
Silence. The Rangers didn’t want to pipe up and Violet was busy writing smut. “We need to save the world,” I told her. Fitting, since it had been my idea.
Riverbed stared at my little soul doll on the table, waiting for the punchline. Then sensing I was actually being serious, she replied, “Dang. That’s cool, guy. I wish I could come, but I’ve got pets to take care of. Also Lovebug gets confused if I don’t validate his existence three times a day.”
Once again pausing, Violet blurted, “What.”
“Yeah! My darling Lovebug doesn’t know the next thing about takin’ care of the pega-pets, so I gotta stay here and do that.” Riverbed looked unnecessarily proud of herself.
“Excuse me, who?” Rumcake asked, as if he hadn’t heard right the first time around.
“Holy shit you actually have a suitor,” I marveled to nopony in particular. “Wow. Look at you with your whole life together. Here I am living a literal metaphorical dumpster fire.”
Without hesitation, Riverbed began to explain, “He’s my hubby-wubby! Came with the place, actually. Turns out the glowshroom caves under this castle-house-thing lead out to a tar pit just over the horizon. I found him lost, wandering, and nibbling on the purple ones the other week. Turns out we have a lot in common! We’re into the same stuff, we’re both basically retired from fighting the Wasteland, and we love to bang! Cute little guy, too!”
Emphasizing every word, Violet asked, “You found a pony. And decided to marry him.”
Out of all of us, Sparkle seemed the least fazed. “It’s been two weeks since we last saw you and you’re already married, have pets, and a house. What—no, how did you do this.”
“If it makes you feel any better, guy, we’re not really married. Hubby is just more adorable-sounding. He’s my suitor!” Oh right. She’d said something about finding a suitor at one point or another. Point to Riverbed, I guess. “He helped with the whole training the pega-pets deal. For a pony named Dead Drop he’s really handy with behavior stuff, fixing stuff, and sex stuff!”
Riverbed happily grinned to herself. The rest of us all shared a sentiment of having learned a little too much about her.
On the topic of sex stuff, I added, “I’m actually just really disappointed that you—out of literally everypony I know—don’t have an evil sex dungeon at this point.”
In a very small voice, Rivs muttered, “I didn’t say I didn’t.”
Violet grimaced. “Everything was perfectly strange right up to that last part. Thank you for that incredibly weird mental imagery I just had.” She returned to writing. I couldn’t be bothered at this point to find out what in case it actually was smut.
“What the buck is wrong with you?” Rumcake snapped. Leave it to Rumcake to ruin anything a mare ever dreamed of.
In the meantime, I floated my ghostly self out and around Casa de Riverbed to see if there was anything else interesting around. Riverbed, Violet, and Sparkle were trapped in an endlessly looping argument over how impossibly responsible Riverbed had gotten. To her credit, the the areas I could explore—thanks to Violet’s extensive magical range—were clutter free, relatively free, and reasonably fortified with boards over windows or automated turrets. Eventually my spooky wanderings led me back to one of the pegasi—Angel Cake, specifically.
The more I stared at this floppy pegasus, the more I realized I was getting bored of not having a body. On the bright side, I got to poke around as a spooky spooky ghost and do ghost things that alive-me wouldn’t have been able to do. For example, I decided to poke my head into his to see what he was thinking of.
Nothing. This guy’s head was literally full of nothing. Blinding whiteness as far as the eye can see. Off in the distance was a fenced off area which seemed to have some sort of interior decorating. Strange, though—this guy’s head was nothing like Violet’s or Sparkle’s. Did I do something wrong this time? As I pondered these probably meaningless questions, I floated my way over to the fence.
The fence was a simple chain-link fence, and it wasn’t even locked. I simply trotted my way in and only became more confused. “Wow. There really isn’t anything in here.” Just a plastic food bowl on the ground, its accompanying water dish, and a collar. I shuddered a little when I looked at it, unbidden reminders coming to mind.
I plopped onto my butt in the center of this pegasus’s deserted playpen. This wasn’t what I had been expecting when I broke in here. There wasn’t any privacy to invade, no personal items to vandalize, nothing. “Huh…” I muttered to myself. Just as I was thinking about leaving this pegasus to terrorize Riverbed’s mind instead, I cut that thought short. Riverbed’s mind was the last place an imaginary pegasus like me should be. Being a creepy ghost might not protect me from whatever the cuddle monster had in mind.
Inspiration suddenly popped into my head. While Ice Storm had been riding shotgun, he spilled a few secrets about ghostly bullshit. C’mon, brain—gimme the quote!
—
Ice Storm hesitated, then rolled his |
mostly linear. Fans root and players play. What is happening in Columbus is circular, and it has turned what had been snowballing momentum into an avalanche — the consequences of which are still unclear.
"We repurposed our mission," Columbus coach Gregg Berhalter said following the 4-1 win over New York City F.C. on Tuesday. "It’s solely to play for the fans and give them as many home games as we can and let them enjoy something. (Tuesday) for them, I can imagine, was an enjoyable night."
The euphoria came two weeks to the day after one of the most somber days in Crew history. On Oct. 17, Precourt Sports Ventures — the Anthony Precourt-led group that has owned the team since 2013 — announced that it was exploring moving the franchise to Austin.
"The initial feelings were overwhelming confusion, overwhelming sadness, overwhelming anger, and just the general stages of grief that one goes through when one loses a large piece of themselves," said Morgan Hughes, a longtime supporter who quickly became the face of the fan-led "Save the Crew" movement.
Inside the locker room, a funny thing happened. The players rallied behind their fans.
"If you were a fan supporting Columbus Crew for 20 years, how would you feel if something like this is happening to you?" Berhalter said when asked how the team processed the news.
"What can we do to help with that? The only thing that us as the soccer operations department can do is win to give them excitement and give them home games and give them some type of joy."
The Crew has now gone 12 matches without a loss, and barring a historic collapse Sunday will book a spot in the Eastern Conference finals as the No. 5 seed. Tuesday’s match was the team’s first at home since Precourt’s announcement. Emotions were high — and extended beyond the stands.
"I’ve been here my whole career," said winger Justin Meram, who is experiencing a career year with 14 goals and eight assists. "This place is special to me, and it’s shaped me into the man that I am today and the player I am on the field and off the field.
"I have so much love for this city. When you can get a win like this with everything going around, and to see the crowd (Tuesday) was electric. … They definitely lifted our spirits."
For Wil Trapp, the 24-year-old captain from nearby Gahanna, Ohio, those feelings were even more pronounced. Trapp grew up playing for the club’s academy and has been a fan as long as he can remember. He graduated to the first team in 2013 and became the captain at the start of this season.
"Every game matters to them so much more now," Trapp said. "We as players feel that. We know that we mean a lot to them, and our performances and our effort garners their support. The more we win, the better we do, the more they’re going to latch on and believe in us."
That transfer of energy was palpable Tuesday, and Precourt himself was on hand to witness it. He also heard obscene chants directed toward him following each second-half goal.
The owner heard that first "Save the Crew" chant, too, and saw what happened immediately after: Ola Kamara put Columbus up 1-0, breaking the chant with cries of joy.
The Crew may well be headed to Austin in 2019. At the moment, the team is pouring everything it has into bringing a championship to Columbus.Ode from For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon
"For the Fallen" inscription on Stirling War Memorial, Scotland
The "Ode of Remembrance" is an ode taken from Laurence Binyon's poem, "For the Fallen", which was first published in The Times in September 1914. The Ode, consisting of the forth stanza of the poem, is often recited at Remembrance Day services.
History [ edit ]
CWGC headstone with adapted excerpt from "For The Fallen"
"For the Fallen" was specifically composed in honour of the casualties of the British Expeditionary Force, which by then already suffered severely at the Battle of Mons and the Battle of the Marne in the opening phase of the war on the Western Front.[1] Over time, the third and fourth stanzas of the poem (usually nowadays just the fourth) have been claimed as a tribute to all casualties of war, regardless of state,[2] and it is this selection of "For the Fallen" to which the term "Ode of Remembrance" usually refers.[3]
Writing [ edit ]
Laurence Binyon composed the original poem, which has seven stanzas, while sitting on the cliffs between Pentire Point and The Rumps in north Cornwall, UK. A stone plaque was erected at the spot in 2001 to commemorate the fact. The plaque bears the inscription:[1]
For the Fallen
Composed on these cliffs 1914
There is also a plaque on the East Cliff above Portreath in central North Cornwall which cites that as the place where Binyon composed the poem.[1]
Wording [ edit ]
The first stanza establishes a patriotic element. Binyon personifies the United Kingdom as a "mother", and British soldiers as "children". The poem remembers the deaths of soldiers while justifying the cause of their deaths as "the cause of the free": a theme carried throughout the rest of the poem.
With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free. (1–4)
The monosyllabic words of the second stanza echo "solemn, funereal drums."[5] The stanza, like the first espouses themes of "martial glorification". It describes war as "solemn", with a "music" and "glory" and compares death to "celestial music".
Solemn the drums thrill: Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres.
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears. (5–8)
The third stanza refers to soldiers marching to fight in the Battle of the Marne. It is less known than the fourth,[6] despite occasionally being recited on Remembrance Day.[2] The soldiers are "straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow”, and though facing “odds uncounted” are “staunch to the end”.
They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe. (9–12)
The fourth stanza of the poem was written first,[5] and includes the best known lines in the poem.[7] The line commencing "Age shall not weary them" echoes (probably unconsciously) Enobarbus' description of Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra: "Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale".[8] It has been suggested that the word should be "contemn" rather than "condemn". "Condemn" was used when the poem was first printed in The Times on 21 September 1914, and in the anthology The Winnowing Fan: Poems of the Great War in 1914 in which the poem was later published. If either publication had contained a misprint, Binyon had the chance to make an amendment. The issue has arisen in Australia, with little or no debate in other Commonwealth countries that mark Remembrance Day.[9][10][11]
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them. (13–16)
Binyon speaks of loss and mourns the deaths of soldiers who left behind "familiar tables" and "laughing comrades".
They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables at home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam. (17–20)
In the sixth stanza, the soldiers are described as achieving a sort of "bodily transcendence" in their death.
But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night; (21–24)
The seventh stanza compares dead soldiers to stars and constellations, that remain traces of being soldiers, moving in "marches". This memorializes the dead while keeping their role as soldiers for the British Empire present; "an empire that, by association with these eternal soldiers, makes its own claims on a sort of immortality. "
As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain,
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain. (25–28)
Reception [ edit ]
Use at memorial services and on monuments [ edit ]
The "Ode of Remembrance" is regularly recited at memorial services held on days commemorating World War I, such as ANZAC Day, Remembrance Day, and Remembrance Sunday. In Australia's Returned and Services Leagues, and in New Zealand's Returned Services Associations, it is read out nightly at 6 p.m., followed by a minute's silence. In Australia and New Zealand it is also part of the Dawn service at 4.28 a.m. Recitations of the "Ode of Remembrance" are often followed by a playing of the "Last Post". In Canadian remembrance services, a French translation[14] is often used along with or instead of the English ode.
The line "Lest we forget", taken from Kipling's poem "Recessional" (which incidentally has nothing to do with remembering the fallen in war), is often added as if were part of the ode and repeated in response by those listening, especially in Australia. Several Boer War memorials are inscribed with the phrase showing its use pre WWI. In the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, the final line of the ode, "We will remember them", is repeated in response. In Canada, the second stanza of the above extract has become known as the Act of Remembrance, and the final line is also repeated.[15]
The ode is also read at the Menin Gate, every evening at 8 p.m., after the first part of the "Last Post". It is mostly read by a British serviceman. The recital is followed by a minute of silence. Like the Menin Gate, the Australian War Memorial incorporates the Ode into its Last Post Ceremony, where it is read by a member of the Australian Defence Force and is followed by a minute of silence and a bugler playing the Last Post.
In 2018, at the centennial of the signing of the Armistice, plans were made to ring carillons and church bells across the British Commonwealth at local sundown, in reference to the line, "at the going down of the sun... we will remember them." The bells were to be rung 100 times in recognition of the 100 years having passed.[16][17]
A quotation appears on the Calgary Soldiers' Memorial.
A plaque on a statue dedicated to the fallen in La Valletta, Malta, is also inscribed with these words.
Musical settings [ edit ]
Sir Edward Elgar set to music three of Binyon's poems ("The Fourth of August", "To Women", and "For the Fallen", published within the collection "The Winnowing Fan") as The Spirit of England, Op. 80, for tenor or soprano solo, chorus, and orchestra (1917). His setting of "For the Fallen" sparked some controversy as it was published after another setting of the same poem by the composer Cyril Rootham in 1915. Neither composer was responsible for this, and Elgar initially offered to withdraw but was persuaded to continue by the literary and art critic Sidney Colvin and by Binyon himself.[18] There is an eighth stanza in the version that was set to music by Elgar.[19]
"They shall grow not old..." was set to music by Douglas Guest in 1971, and has become a well-known feature of choral services on Remembrance Sunday. Nottingham-based composer Alex Patterson also wrote a setting of the text in 2010.[20] The text of "For the Fallen" has also been set by Mark Blatchly for treble voices, organ and trumpet (which plays "The Last Post" in the background).[21] In March 2015, a new musical setting was released by Gil Orms.[22]
Other uses in popular culture [ edit ]
Time of our Darkness, the title of a novel by the South African author Stephen Gray, is a reference to the last two lines of "For the Fallen": "As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness, / To the end, to the end, they remain."
Paul Bearer recited part of the poem as a tribute to Owen Hart on May 24, 1999, at the memorial Raw is Owen, the night after the wrestler died in the ring.[citation needed]
Artists Rifles, a CD audiobook published in 2004, includes a reading of "For the Fallen" by Binyon himself. The recording itself is undated and appeared on a 78 rpm disc issued in Japan. Other Great War poets heard on the CD include Siegfried Sassoon, Edmund Blunden, Robert Graves, David Jones and Edgell Rickword.[23]
The Roy Harper song "Berliners", from his 1990 album Once, uses the 4th stanza as its opening verse, preceded by a recording of a Remembrance Day ceremony where the same stanza was recited.[citation needed]
"...For Victory", a song from the eponymous album by the British death metal band Bolt Thrower, contains a quote from Laurence Binyon's poem.[citation needed]
In a closing scene of "The Family of Blood", an episode of the Doctor Who television series, the vicar at a Remembrance Day ceremony reads "For the Fallen/Ode of Remembrance" to those who have gathered, including elderly survivors of the war.[24][25][26][better source needed]
With a slight change of word order, a line from the poem was used as the title of Peter Jackson's film They Shall Not Grow Old, produced to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day in 2018.
References [ edit ]Hollywood’s recent rash of stoner films and the stereotypes they perpetuate.
Seth Rogen recently commented on his use of cannabis, assenting to be Hollywood’s biggest stoner after some prodding of the interviewer. Ignoring whatever metric someone uses to determine such a title, the Green Hornet celebrates his crown under the eaves of an industry that derives significant revenue from the exploitation of cannabis. By crowning himself the “biggest stoner” of Hollywood, Rogen unwittingly confesses to his role of Hollywood’s biggest extortionist (via his beloved herb). Cannabis’ role in Hollywood isn’t a condoning of the herb, but a sensationalized and heavily stereotyped novelty item that’s manipulated to fill executive coffers.
The exploitation of cannabis by Hollywood operates through a kink in the loop between cannabis users and on-screen partakers. Screen users aren’t simulacra of cannabis culture writ large, but an overt distortion. The loop itself is a distortion, a preying upon the popularity of cannabis while compartmentalizing the culture into farce. Hollywood practices and perpetuates a caricature of cannabis for the delight of moviegoers and ultimately, to rake in box office sales at the personal expense of the everyday herbalist.
The Bechdel test (made famous during 2011 Oscars): A film must have two women (with names) in it who talk to each other about something besides a man. If the film meets these criteria, it passes the test. Bechdel isn’t a flawless application, but it does make a case against female tokenism on the big screen. Switch the female out for a weed enthusiast (Weedist! Just got it!). Does the film have two weed enthusiasts (with names) in it who talk to each other about something besides cannabis? Not likely. Weedists suffer the same tokenism in Hollywood productions as other cultures outside the male, Judeo-Christian frame. Those shown using cannabis on film become defined by cannabis (much like defining actresses by their relationships with men or minority actors by their skin color), as opposed to cannabis being part of life’s white noise.
Hollywood remains predominantly neutral on the cannabis prohibition while profiting shamelessly off of marijuana’s marginalization. As more and more “stoner” films are released nationwide, cannabis culture is reduced to pop culture friendly Hollywood stereotypes. And for those who enjoy cannabis and lead successful lives, handcuffing their essence to the herb they enjoy, pigeon-holing themselves as a stoner/slacker stereotype (with regards from Hollywood), is undesirable.
As the public progresses, so does cinematography. The majority of the American public awaits the day their government relents and legalizes adult cannabis use and Hollywood should follow suit. To put it more succinctly:
“Think of how cinematic portrayals of African Americans and homosexuals have changed over the years. That evolution has gone a long way toward making American society more tolerant and open. I’d like to encourage filmmakers to break with the stoner stereotype and portray cannabis smokers as the energetic, visionary, creative individuals they are in real life, even if this does cause some couches to have to take jobs on basic cable.” – Mark Haskell Smith
Weedist.com | T-Hug(CNN) Did you know you have an "odorprint"?
The smells pouring out from various parts of the body are unique to an individual, made up of select compounds that vary depending on age, diet, sex, metabolism... and health.
"Some diseases result in a characteristic odor emanating from different sources on the body of a sick individual," said Mats Olsson, an experimental psychologist at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.
A person's smell escapes not just from their skin but their breath, blood and urine and subtle differences reveal just how healthy they are.
"On average, people smell more aversive when they're sick," Olsson said.
Diabetes? Smells like rotten apples
Several diseases have been discovered to harbor signature scents on the body in recent studies, including people with typhoid fever reported to smell like baked bread, people with yellow fever smelling like a butcher's shop and the glandular disease scrofula leaving people smelling like stale beer -- subtle scents picked up most likely by a trained nose.
A more common disease with a trademark odor is diabetes, which is described as having notes of rotten apples, caused by low concentrations of acetone released on the breath. The change is subtle, however, and more easily picked up by a trained nose, such as that of George Preti, an organic chemist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center.
Preti has been studying body odor for more than 30 years."I ride public transport a lot, and every now and then, I come across someone emanating a strong odor, and it's obvious," Preti said.
Olsson's team set out on a more general challenge: to explore how odors can reveal when someone is sick, or recently infected. The process is thought to be evolutionary among humans who sense the change and steer clear -- to stay healthy.
"People should be able to detect when someone is contagious," said Olsson, who sniffed out the truth in a recent study
Smelling the sick
The team injected human volunteers with lipopolysaccaharide, a compound known to activate the innate immune system and inflammatory responses in humans as if they were fighting bacteria.
By injecting eight volunteers with either the compound or a placebo, bodies were made to behave either as if they were sick or healthy. Body odors were then collected from the armpits of t-shirts worn by volunteers, ready for inspection by a panel of judges whose noses were trained for the occasion.
The odors were sniffed by a panel of 40, who described their intensity and pleasantness. The odors stemming from bodies that had begun to behave as if they were sick were found to smell more aversive, proving that disease smells.
"This was the first experimental study to show that when you're sick, you smell differently," Olsson said.
In this instance, the change in smells didn't distinguish between diseases but was instead a warning light -- or smell -- that someone was unwell as their immune system was active.
The benefits of disgust
Since the study in 2014, Olsson has been exploring the doses at which these odors can be picked up as well as the body's response to unpleasant smells.
In more recent studies, he found that the disgust felt by people when smelling unpleasant odors activated a mild immune reaction of their own, to protect them further from disease.
Olsson tested immune reactions in people exposed to a range disgusting smells -- including cheese, fermented fish and rotten yeast -- and found slight increases immune activity. People's bodies were gearing up for attack.
"Emotional disgust is there to keep us healthy," Olsson said.
Alternative scents
Olsson has also been exploring other sources of telltale smells -- including urine -- and the team's next target is breath, which is harder to sample and expose people to.
"We saw this inflammation process affected the smell of urine as well, and breath is a good indicator of some diseases," Olsson said.
But Preti warns that when working with more metabolic odors, such as those in urine and breath, there are many other factors that come into play aside from immune activity. "These can be affected by your diet or you body's microbiome.... This will make it harder to diagnose the situation," Preti said.Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
David Pogue has written the book on Macs, and Palm Pilots, and opera music.
The prolific author and current New York Times personal technology columnist will speak at Illinois State University at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 25, at Braden Auditorium. Pogue will be the keynote speaker for Illinois State’s Science and Technology Week 2013.
The talk is sponsored by the College of Applied Science and Technology and the ISU Credit Union. Part of the University’s 2013 Speaker Series of Illinois State University, the event is free and open to the public.
Pogue brings a sense of humor to his technology lessons. Each week, he contributes a print column, an online column, an online video and a popular daily blog, “Pogue’s Posts,” to the New York Times. He is also the original author of Macs for Dummies, which has been printed in 17 languages and six editions.
IDG Books asked Pogue to write Mac for Dummies when he was still writing is award-winning column “The Desktop Critic” for Macworld Magazine. He continued to write or co-write seven books in the “for Dummies” series, including Opera for Dummies, Classical Music for Dummies and Magic for Dummies. He also co-authored six editions of the 1,300-page bestseller Macworld Mac Secrets with former Yale roommate Joe Schorr and a novel, Hard Drive, a New York Times “notable book of the year.” His PalmPilot: The Ultimate Guide became the bestselling Palm book.
Pogue is also an Emmy award-winning tech correspondent for CBS News, and he appears each week on CNBC with his trademark comic tech videos.
The Speaker Series of Illinois State University seeks to bring innovative and enlightening speakers to the campus with the aim of providing the community with a platform to foster dialogue, cultivate enriching ideas and continue an appreciation of learning as an active and lifelong process.
If you need special accommodations to fully participate in these programs/events, please contact Julie Barnhill, Presidential and Trustee Events, at (309) 438-8790. Please allow sufficient time to arrange accommodations.At Agile Coach Camp Barcelona, I convened a session on “Hierarchy of Needs” and how this might be used by coaches working with software development teams to understand where to focus their efforts.
The idea of putting needs into a hierarchy was inspired by Maslow even though I’m well aware that the ordering of his model has not been validated by empirical research. However, I'm thinking that perhaps, like Empathy Maps, a hierarchy of needs can be used as a practical tool to tease out factors impacting the team and help figure out what to work on next.
Our group started with a simple activity that might easily be adapted for use in team retrospectives. I drew a person-shape on the board and asked our everyone to brainstorm around what developers need to work well. We wrote each need on a sticky note and then I invited the group to sort the sticky notes using a vertical axis from essential(bottom) to optional(top). Here’s what we came up with.
We found that that many of the essential needs (at the base of the hierarchy) were practical ones such as decent network, version control, and big screens that enable us to write code. Then came the personal needs of puzzles to solve, valuable work, being listened to and trusted. At the top were again more environmental factors, such as whiteboards, snacks, and toys.
In our discussion, we agreed that when working with teams, it's often the essential needs that take a long time to resolve, especially when infrastructure kit is involved. Whereas the needs near the top could potentially be "quick wins". The more personal needs in the mid-section are where coaches tend to focus their attention and perhaps are those requiring coaching skills. We also noted that these issues are more likely to require trust-building between coach and team. See the photo (below) for the full set of notes and some wider perspectives on this.
As a coach you might run a similar activity when starting work with a team - perhaps using different colour notes to show which needs are fully or partially fulfilled and which needs are unmet. Or over time you might build your own checklist of typical needs, to help remember what to look for when observing the team. We also thought that a coach might use this understand and share what your own needs are as a coach and compared with team needs.
When discussing the contentious issue of whether cake should really be at the top of this hierarchy, I was reminded that Kent Beck originally said in “Extreme Programming Explained” that "perhaps the most important job for the coach is the acquisition of toys and food"
Later that same morning Sebastian Schürmann convened a session on Marshall Rosenberg’s Non-Violent Communication and I was interested to hear him reflect at the close that this model might be relevant to the developer needs we discussed earlier. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on whether this activity is useful.Accordint to the U.S. Government's Advisory Committee on Advanced Automotive Power Systems, among all the known alternatives to the piston internal-combustion engine the gas turbine has the greatest potential for replacing that beleaguered machine in the 1970s. If the gas turbine has the greatest potential, I shudder to think of the problems facing those power plants with less potential steam, electric, the Stirling engine and various hybrids - - for it's going to take several minor miracles to make the gas turbine into a practical proposition for cars. On the other hand, it's easy to see why the government committee gives it the best chance; it has compelling qualities. The gas turbine swept the field of commercial aircraft many years ago, making piston engines a thing of the past for all aircraft but small private ones. For a brief transition period, gas turbines-that is, turbines with an output shaft driving a propeller-powered the fastest commercial planes and readers will recall the Lockheed Electra and perhaps the British Vickers Viscount. After that another form of the gas turbine-the "pure jet" which dispenses with the output shaft and simply exits the burned gases for thrust took over and revolutionized commercial aviation. Meanwhile, shaft gas turbines still power many short-range, smaller planes such as the Fokker-Fairchild F27 and the commuter De Havilland Twin Otter. For aircraft the gas turbine is a natural, because (at least in its basic form) it is fundamentally a constant-speed unit. It operates efficiently at or near its maximum speed and load, very inefficiently at low speeds and loads. Its combustion area and turbine wheels are subjected to sustained high temperatures and these are tough enough on materials without the added complication of temperature cycles caused by stop-and-go and change-speed operation that goes with automobiles. It's not, however, as if nothing had been done toward making the turbine an automotive engine, and the pioneering work of Rover and Chrysler, plus the less well known work of Ford, General Motors. Volvo and British Leyland, have produced some very significant progress toward that end. Chrysler went the furthest, but after the highly publicized 1963-64 project of building 50 turbine cars and loaning them to American drivers for "owner testing," Chrysler quietly let the automotive gas turbine fade into corporate darkness. Things have changed since 1964. The factors that justified putting the turbine to pasture then (high cost of materials. the need for development work to correct its inherent deficiencies for use in cars) have become less significant in comparison to the turbine's potential for reducing air pollution. That potential is great, as we shall see: and the most compelling attraction of it (in contrast to a "controlled" piston or Wankel Internal- combustion engine) is that it is fundamentally a low-emission power source, not a high emission one that must he loaded and strangled with 'crutches." How It Works Gas Turbine operation, in principal, is simplicity itself, and one might say that the variation among various types of turbines is less than that which we find in piston engines. Fig. I illustrates the operation of the simplest imaginable sort of gas turbine, a Boeing 502, with a single compressor stage and no regeneration (about which more later). Air enters the compressor, here a centrifugal one, and is of course compressed. It is then delivered to the combustion chamber under Pressure, and here the fuel is introduced, mixed with the air and burned, the quantity injected determining speed and power output. the hot, high-pressure burning gases then proceed to the first turbine, which drives the compressor, and continue to the power turbine, which delivers power to the output shaft through reduction gears. The gears are necessary because the speed of turbine rotation is measured in tens of thousands of rpm, not thousands: a typical power turbine speed is 45,000 rpm.
The power turbine illustrated in Fig. 1 is free turbine. By free we mean that it is not mechanically connected to the rest of the gas turbine motion; it can he brought to a standstill while the compressor turbine is rotating at its idling speed of, say, 20,000 rpm, just as the output turbine of a torque converter can be brought to a halt while the input turbine (impeller) rotates with the engine at idle speed. Thus a gas turbine engine with a free power turbine is in effect its own torque converter and requires no clutch, fluid coupling or converter between it and the transmission.
There are pros and cons as to whether the power turbine should be free or not. Fig. 2 is a schematic of an automotive turbine, built by Williams Research Corp., whose power turbine is shafted to the compressor turbine. Obviously this sort of engine is going to require some kind of clutch or coupling to disconnect it from the drive wheels when the car is stopped. But there's an advantage here in that engine braking-of the sort we expect from piston engines-is available when the driver lifts his accelerator foot. With a free turbine there is near, no braking unless special provisions have been made for it. One solution to the lack of braking is to connect the power turbine shaft of a free-turbine engine to the compressor shaft via a one-way or overrunning clutch, so that only when that shaft speed tends to exceed compressor speed is there a coupling. However, there are problems that crop up when fitting such a clutch into the high-temperature environment.
Chrysler took another approach to providing engine-braking beginning with their third series of turbine engines: a variable- pitch turbine stator-vane mechanism. Fig. 3 is a cutaway drawing of the 1963 Chrysler turbine: component D is the ring of stator vanes that direct gas flow from the first (compressor) to the second (power) turbine. The mechanism is capable of selecting three different angles for the vanes: for braking the gas flow is actually directed contrary to turbine rotation for braking effect. There are new problems with this feature-again that of a mechanism operating in an extremely hot place, and some additional gas leakage due to the clearances required for the mechanism to operate but the variable-pitch idea is certainly a reasonable approach to solving the lack of braking with a free power turbine, and Ford chose it for their Upcoming production truck gas turbines. Regeneration & Recuperation A s I Mentioned earlier, a gas turbine operates quite efficiently at high speeds and loads, consuming about 0.5 lb fuel per horsepower-hour at cruising speeds. This is comparable to the economy of a piston engine in a car at highway speeds. At idle, or at relatively low speeds and/or loads, it is nowhere near as economical (on a similar basis of fuel consumed per unit work delivered) as old friend piston engine. Now, since aircraft engines or stationary power sources operate mainly at constant speeds, these turbines are designed to run in their most economical range at the planned speeds and they can be designed without any means of recuperation from exhaust heat. For an automotive turbine engine, which will be required to stop and start frequently and change speed frequently even on the highway, sonic means has to be found to raise its economy under low-load and low speed conditions. Recuperation or regeneration is the means. Recuperation uses some sort of stationary heat exchanger to deliver exhaust heat to the intake air: regeneration uses moving (generally rotating) heat exchangers. Regeneration is considered to be the more effective way of accomplishing this and seems to have been adopted universally for automotive applications in recent years. Refer again to Fig. 2, the Williams turbine, an 80-bhp unit that will be installed in an American Motors Hornet for testing in New York City. Here we have what is now a common configuration of regenerator: two large discs of Cercor, a ceramic-glass material developed by Corning Glass Works for the purpose, rotating at a speed determined by gearing from the compressor shaft. In the case of the Chrysler turbine of Fig. 3, which has the same type regenerator discs, the gearing is on the order of 2100:1 so that a maximum compressor speed the regenerator is doing only 22 rpm! Fig. 4 is a photograph of a regenerator rotor, and the right portion shows the porosity of Cercor under magnification. Porosity aids the heat transfer. Other Variations The Compressors of all the gas turbines shown so far are radial or centrifugal: that is, the incoming air is flung outward from the centerline of the compressor for its compression. We can have axial compressors too, in which the path of the air being compressed is parallel to the shaft. And one compressor is not the limit by any means: there can be several stages, depending upon the power output desired and the complexity allowed by cost limits. The Pratt & Whitney ST6 unit, as used in the original STP turbine car that almost won Indianapolis, has a 4-stage compressor with three axial and one radial stages. Another form of compressor, relatively rare, is the centripetal: this is shown in Fig. 5, a cutaway of a new turbine being developed by a company called Turbotron. Many other variations in configuration are possible; the first regenerative Chrysler turbine had a single, extremely thick disc atop the engine instead of two at the sides, for instance. The Turbine's Attractions The Greatest attraction of the gas turbine, and that from which all its peripheral attractions derive, is its utter simplicity and directness in getting power from burning gas. Consider, for contrast, the internal-combustion piston engine: pistons stopping and starting, spark plugs firing, valves opening and closing, camshafts camming, breaker points breaking, connecting rods rocking back and forth on piston pins, perhaps even fuel injection squirting intermittently. It's the eighth wonder of the world that all this can go on 60-70 times per second in your personal car as you cruise on the freeway without disturbing your listening to the stereo. But it does, and that's testimony to the efficacy of year-in year-out development of the details. But in the gas turbine the motion is simple and continuous. All the parts that are in regular motion are rotating. So the potential smoothness is obvious, and in practice it is there. The turbine is quiet too, assuming full silencing of intake and exhaust: its most characteristic sound is the high-pitched whine of those turbines whirring at 5-digit speeds. The simplicity of the turbine enables it to be light and compact in its pure form; hut for an automobile the necessity of regenerators downgrades these advantages. Still, putting the turbine in its most favorable light (comparing a truck turbine to the big diesel it replaces) for comparable power it comes out 50% lighter and about 30% smaller, and this is with regeneration. These figures are for the heavy truck units Ford Motor expects to have in production by August of this year: they are in the 335- to 450-bhp range. Also, in a truck the turbine's quietness and smoothness advantages really mean something: compared to a big diesel the difference is startling. Lubrication requirements for it ails turbine are minimal. There are a few relatively lightly loaded hearings dealing only with rotary motion. There is no blow-by of combusted gases into the oil supply. So there is practically no oil consumption and it could be that no oil changes would be required. For turbine-powered aircraft the oil is usually changed every 3000 hours or so: for a car this would be about 100,000 miles. There is no need for water-cooling: all turbines are air-cooled, and at that no external cooling blower is required. Cold starting is another credit for the turbine. The resistance of' a gas turbine to spinning up to starting speed does not change much with cold ambient temperature. In contrast, reciprocating engines have everything stacked against them for cold starting with so many oil-lubricated surfaces to get rotating and sliding against each other. Again, the greatest advantage of the turbine here is in contrast to the diesel, which depends heavily upon cranking speed to get up combustion temperature. Gas turbine proponents say that the cold starting advantage (even in contrast with car spark-ignition engines) could alone mean a substantial reduction in urban air pollution on extremely cold days by eliminating aborted starts. And turbines need no cold mixture enrichment! Multi-fuel capability is another turbine calling card. A gas turbine will |
mountain was not a challenge for her, an adventure maybe. She walked tirelessly and when the sun was reigning high, she made it on the mountain slope. Her presence did not go unnoticed, after all she defiantly wore her bright red dress, the one that never gets ignored.
And then the unthinkable happened, unthinkable according to the villagers that is. The revered old Bear spirit guardian, the one that is not to be disturbed, enraged or ever even seen by eyes not of his kind, yes that Bear overlooking and safeguarding since times untold, moved out of the shadows where it likes to rest and sniffed the girl, greeting her to his place.
She took a breath and swallowed deep down thoughts of running back when she was shadowed by the humongously big Bear but then she slowly but firmly lift her tiny hands to gently touch the Bear's snout.
Silence.
Sun rests above them.
Eyes looking intensely at each other's soul.
There was an ancient bond tying those two, to be "re-"discovered, and it took them a bit but now nothing could stop these unending and mind exploding reactions multiplying within them. At first a sparkle, now an explosion, a moment after a star explodes within their hearts and they instantly know.
They know they go back together a long time and share more than a daring spirit. They know they finally meet, again.
"They say you keep us and the mountain safe" she dares shyly to speak.
"No, not them. Not the mountain. Just you." He answers back.
Bear hugs,
Hidden Eloise
xxxSaudi Arabia has dismissed the final appeal of a juvenile prisoner set to be crucified. Ali Mohammed Al-Nimr was arrested aged 17 after participating in anti-government protests in 2012. He was accused of protesting illegally and being in possession of firearms.
Ali was initially held at a juvenile offenders’ facility. Reports indicate that he was tortured and signed a confession under duress. The appeal was held in secret and dismissed, with no remaining legal routes of objection to his sentence of “death by crucifixion”, initially handed down on 27 May 2014.
Maya Foa, Director of the death penalty team at legal charity Reprieve, said: “No one should have to go through the ordeal Ali has suffered – torture, forced ‘confession’, and an unfair, secret trial process, resulting in a sentence of death by ‘crucifixion’.”
“But worse still, Ali was a vulnerable child when he was arrested and this ordeal began. His execution – based apparently on the authorities’ dislike for his uncle, and his involvement in anti-government protests – would violate international law and the most basic standards of decency. It must be stopped.”
A number of people, including minors, have been sentenced to death following their involvement in demonstrations that swept the MENA region during the Arab Spring.There are a few things that every climber should do in his or her life.
Climb El Cap (obviously).
See a longterm climbing project to completion.
Take a huge, unexpected whipper onto your trad gear.
And schedule a 1-on-1 training session with “The Sensei”: Justen Sjong.
Over the last three years, I’ve had two sessions with Justen; I wrote about the first one here. Justen didn’t ask me to write about that experience, but I genuinely felt as if I had learned so many interesting tips and helpful skills that I wanted to share them with my readers. When I went into our second session, at the Movement Denver gym, I didn’t think I was going to learn anything new, necessarily. I was merely expecting to hear a repeat of what I’d learned in the first session.
Once again, Justen totally surprised me with the wealth of knowledge he holds for what makes a great free climber. He demonstrated an astute ability to immediately recognize all the tiny, little errors that I was making—the physical stuff, for sure, but also the mental stuff.
Although the “Hall and Oates” duo of climbing training, the Team of 2 Training, which consists of Justen and Kris Peters, has now officially broken up, last year I sampled their online training program, powered by the online Addero Solo software, over five weeks. There were parts that I loved, but there were also numerous problems that prevented me from being completely successful, most of them being my own problems. From lacking some of the equipment I needed to perform various exercises, to lacking easy access to training facilities, to just having a hectic life schedule that saw me traveling and moving around last winter, I ultimately failed to make the online training program work as effectively as I would have liked.
Online training programs, of which there are now quite a variety, including Justen’s latest program, Climbing Sensei, can be effective. If you have a regular work schedule, good access to an indoor training facility, a solid background in knowing how to perform a variety of exercises with proper form so that you don’t get injured, and, most important, you’re self-disciplined enough to make training a priority, I think an online training program can be successful.
However, the reason that I’m going down the tangent of online-training courses is because I felt as though spending 60 minutes in the gym, one-on-one with Justen, was more valuable and helpful to my climbing than the five weeks of online training that I completed with Team of 2.
Anyway, here are some great tips from Justen that really helped my climbing improve. And if they helped me, perhaps they’ll help you, too.
“I’m Too Heavy”
Before climbing, the first thing I complained about to Justen was that I had gained about 10 pounds over the last year, and, man, could I feel it when I climbed.
“Well, let’s see you warm up,” Justen said empathetically.
He belayed me on a 5.10, and I climbed it twice in a row. As I climbed, I tried my hardest to put on my best performance for the Sensei. I wanted to make no mistake. I felt focused and serious. I climbed better on my first lap, for some reason. I made fewer tiny mistakes—such as a moment of hesitation, or choosing the exact right foothold on my first try—than on the second time.
“I can see why you feel heavy,” Justen said. “And it has nothing to do with your weight.”
Justen explained that I was climbing extremely statically. By trying to move in control and “look strong” on each move, I was moving very statically, which makes each move feel much harder than it needs to be.
A big part of our session became focused on getting me to loosen up, demonstrate some swagger and style on the wall, and move fluidly from one hold to the next.
It ended up being a lot harder than I thought.
It’s All in the Eyes
What your eyes do while you climb ends up being extremely influential on the state of your anxiety and therefore performance while climbing, Justen explained.
“Your eyes were darting all over the place,” Justen said, after I warmed up.
His tips to soften my gaze while climbing, while simultaneously focusing on one thing at a time, have become some of the most useful pieces of feedback I’ve ever gotten on my climbing.
Think about those times when you’re climbing and your anxiety is high, whether it’s because you’re onsighting and you’re not sure what to do next, or whether it’s because you’re run-out and want to get the next piece of protection clipped. If you’re anything like me, there’s a tendency for the eyes to start darting around, trying to figure out a solution. You may not feel as if you’re outright panicking, per se; but you are needlessly raising your anxiety and it’s not helping you climb well.
Next time you warm up, try to pay attention to how your eyes are moving. Keep the gaze soft but focused. My favorite tip: at rest points, pick one tiny little crystal or feature in the rock, and stare with a soft gaze at this feature. Don’t look up; don’t look down. Just stare with a soft gaze at that single point in the rock, while bringing the mind’s focus inward to lowering your heart rate and recovering your forearms.
I’ve been employing these tips on everything from warm-ups to redpoints and it’s made a huge difference in my ability climb well. I haven’t been in the best shape of my life lately, but I feel as if I’m climbing better than ever.
Swagger Like Ondra
As I mentioned, a huge part of our session involved pulling the stick out of my ass and getting me to loosen up and approach each climb with my own brand of confidence and swagger.
What does this mean, exactly? And why is it important?
Performance begins before you even step onto the rock. And it begins with a positive, confident mindset. The manifestation of that positive, confident mindset can be seen in your posture, your eyes, your breath, and, overall, just how you carry yourself.
When you’re thinking positively, when you’re summoning those memories of past successes and the times you just felt badass, it’s been proven to yield an increase in strength. Let me repeat that: you are stronger when you are thinking positively.
Having swagger up on the wall is, of course, even more important. What does swagger look like? Justen and I watched this video of Adam Ondra climbing. He’s climbing 9a onsight as if it were a redpoint he’d already rehearsed hundreds of times. Adam pulls onto the rock confidently, and he carried that decisive, perfect execution of movement right up to the anchors.
What Justen was trying to teach me that day is that you don’t have lose 10 pounds necessarily to feel light on the rock. That feeling of lightness comes from climbing dynamically, confidently, fluidly, athletically, and decisively. In other words, it comes from having swagger.
Level 10 Breathing
During our first session, Justen tried to get me to start exhaling audibly.
During our second session, I wanted to show Justen that I had taken this advice, so when I pulled onto a 5.12c, I instantly started exhaling forcibly as if I were mid-sprint.
Justen instantly gave the call-down, and corrected me on what I was doing wrong.
“You’re breathing at a level ten,” he said, “and you’re not even at the hard part yet. When you start out at level ten, you can’t go up from there. You want to be able to bring yourself up to level ten when you need it, not before and not after.”
That made a lot of sense. And I realized that I had been making this error on one of my projects in Rifle. I’d pull onto the wall and start breathing like I were Bruce Lee mid fight sequence, and by the time I got to the actual crux, I had already blown my reserves because I’d been climbing as if the whole route were a crux.
All routes demand different levels and types of breathing, all at different moments along the route. Your breath should be a response to the difficulty of the current movement that you face. Good climbers are constantly monitoring their breath to make sure that it matches the intensity of the situation. They are able to go to level ten when they need it, go back to a six or five for the easier parts, and bring it down to a three at the rest points.
Beating the Old “Crimp & Pull”
Probably one of the most valuable, and tangible, things I learned during our session involved working a single, awkward move on the systems board.
The single move that Justen set for me involved taking a crimp with the left hand and placing my left foot on a jib while flagging my right leg behind my left, and then deadpointing to a pinch with the right hand.
I rehearsed this move several times while Justen recorded video of me with his iPad. We analyzed the video and continued to work this single move until I was able to do it perfectly—meaning, with the best technique possible. In this case, that involved keeping my left arm straight, driving myself with the left leg, and using my right leg as a rudder to keep myself balanced.
Although I was strong enough to do the move with “bad” technique, I was being pushed to really, really focus on the subtleties of the technique involved in making this move work consistently.
Soon, with some practice and mental visualization, I reached a point where I felt confident that I could do this move 10 out 10 times.
Then we switched to a new drill. I wore a heart rate monitor, while Justen pointed out holds on the systems board and I simply climbed. The point was to raise my heart rate up to just below the point where I was redlining. Once my heart rate was up, I was told to climb into the move that I’d just spent the last 15 minutes rehearsing.
I grabbed the crimper—(Man, it feels so much worse now that I’m pumped! I thought)—placed my left foot, and deadpointed for the pinch. I came up short and fell.
What the heck had happened? I was certain I had just mastered that move—clearly, though, I hadn’t.
We reviewed the video, and sure enough, my technique had fallen apart with my elevated heart rate and pumped forearms. Instead of keeping my left arm straight, I was bearing down on the crimper and my elbow was cocked out. My right leg didn’t act like that rudder guiding me in the right direction; it flailed and flapped around like a dead fish.
Essentially, I was trying to strong-arm my way through the move with crimping and pulling, when I should’ve been pushing myself up into the move, using my left leg and generating momentum and stability with the right leg.
As it turns out, “crimping and pulling” instead of using technique is a common error, and one of the most common reasons we fall when we’re pumped. The holds that we’re accustomed to grabbing fresh off the hangdog feel much worse on redpoint. So what do we often do? Try to grab on even harder, and muscle our way through the move. This can work on routes below your limit, but it won’t work on the routes that are actually at our limit.
“The climbers who are able to visualize how holds are going to feel while pumped, and who are better mentally prepared to deal with that, are the ones who send routes faster,” Justen explained.
In situations like this, it’s easy to write off your failure as simply not being strong enough: i.e., “I was pumped, and couldn’t do the move. I need more endurance.“
Of course, we could all be stronger and fitter and that would help. But we can all also maximize our existing levels of strength and fitness by improving our ability to execute moves with technique and skill, not just off the dog, but while pumped silly.
This drill opened my eyes to the fact that my climbing technique still has a long way to go. It also affirmed the importance of really working on moves, doing drills on a systems board, and perfecting technique because that’s what’s going to save your ass when you’re pumped.After the vast majority of Republicans voted to shut down the Department of Homeland Security to oppose President Obama's immigration actions, and with Republicans blocking any hope of real immigration reform this Congress, it seems the anti-immigrant movement has instead decided to refocus its efforts on revoking the constitutional right to birthright citizenship.
Earlier this week, Republican Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana decided to introduce a birthright citizenship amendment to the bipartisan Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015. The amendment so far has just one cosponsor -- Sen. David Perdue of Georgia -- and it's unlikely that it will be included in the final bill, but this decision to tack an unconstitutional, anti-immigrant measure onto an important bill shows the priorities of Sen. Vitter and the Republican Party.
Sen. Vitter claims that his birthright citizenship amendment would help curb the issue of "birth tourism," recently in the news surrounding Chinese mothers coming to California -- often committing crimes in the process -- so their children can be born in the U.S. It would seem more sensible to tackle this issue through targeting the middlemen who NBC reports "pocketed hundreds of thousands of dollars tax-free," and the visa, tax, and marriage fraud that are often a key part of "birth tourism." Instead, Sen. Vitter and the many Republicans who support ending birthright citizenship are trying to use the issue as cover for their attacks on immigrants and attempts to revoke a core constitutional right.
The flaws of the conservative attacks on birthright citizenship have been well documented. First, it's blatantly unconstitutional. It's clear that the drafters of the 14th Amendment intended it to guarantee citizenship to everyone born in the U.S. The only exception -- in the words of one of the amendment drafter's, Sen. Jacob Howard -- is for people "who belong to the families of ambassadors or foreign ministers accredited to the Government of the United States," as they are not, as the 14th Amendment requires, "subject to the jurisdiction" of the United States. Conservatives from Michael Gerson, a former George W. Bush adviser, to the anti-immigrant Lou Dobbs have viewed attempts to undermine birthright citizenship as unconstitutional.
It's also a terrible idea. Gerson wrote, "Anti-immigration activists often claim that their real concern is to prevent law breaking, not to exclude Hispanics. But revoking birthright citizenship would turn hundreds of thousands of infants into 'criminals'--arriving, not across a border, but crying in a hospital." The Migration Policy Institute also found that rather than decreasing the number of undocumented immigrants in America, as birthright citizenship activists claim, revoking the right would "likely increase dramatically" the number of people in the country without authorization, leading to the "establishment of a permanent class of unauthorized persons."
Sen. Vitter is not the only Republican promoting anti-immigrant bills instead of trying for real, bipartisan solutions on immigration. In January of this year, Rep. Steve King of Iowa re-introduced a bill aiming to repeal birthright citizenship. Sen. Rand Paul, Sen. Lindsey Graham, Speaker John Boehner, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, Rep. Mike Coffman, and Rep. Joe Heck have all backed plans to revoke birthright citizenship in the past.It turns out that the twin members in Crayon Pop, ChoA and Way, might be forming their very own sub-unit! �Multiple reps from the music industry revealed that the sisters secretly took part in music production, which opens up speculation that the two are creating a unit group.
A rep from their agency Chrome Entertainment said, "It is true that ChoA and Way went into their first recording. �Since a while back, the agency CEO hinted that it would be good to create a unit with the twin members."
However, it cannot be said for certain as of yet that the two are indeed involved in unit activities. �The rep continued, "This recording left the unit promotions that had been mentioned thus far on the table and tried to match the two of their images, so it's hard to view it as a confirmation."
In the end, the rep said that the agency was still discussing the creation of this unit group and selecting members. �Stay tuned for updates and whether the agency confirms or denies this report!
Would you like to see the two in a sub-unit?
Tip: MildredAccording to Martin Fichter, product executive at HTC, we will probably not see Beat by Dr Dre headphones included with an HTC phone for quite some time. Since HTC announced its partnership with Beats Audio last summer, HTC has released three phones which were paired with a set of Beats headphones (HTC Sensation XE, Sensation XL and Rezound). While the HTC Sensation XE was a limited edition handset, the Sensation XL and Rezound were pitched as flagship devices, but neither of them really caught the attention of customers as HTC expected them to.
“An accessory like the headphone doesn’t factor in when someone is buying a smartphone,” Martin Fichter, an HTC product executive, told CNET. “If they want a Beats headphone, they’ll buy it directly.”
The underlying issue is that Beats headphones add additional cost to the phone while the customers really don’t perceive them as adding any real extra value. There will always be a handful of customers who would buy devices which include Beats headphones because they want a complete music experience, but the majority of customers will simply compare the handset’s price to that of the competition and go with whichever one had a better value for them.
We’re not that surprised to see HTC move away from including Beats headphones with their handsets, but we certainly didn’t expect them to make the decision so soon. The HTC Rezound is an amazing phone which was essentially pushed to the side by Verizon when they chose to promote the DROID RAZR over the holiday season even though ti is an inferior device.
HTC isn’t going to be dropping Beats Audio any time soon. Beats integration into their new phones will be a standard feature which helps separate HTC’s phones from the competition. If HTC and Beats really want to deliver value to their consumers, they could probably work about a promotion or coupon deal which would give new HTC handset owners $20-50 off the price of a pair of Beats headphones. It’s not the same as including them in the box, but if does allow consumers to make their purchasing decision based on the phone while offering them additional value if they choose to take advantage of it.
What do you think of HTC’s decision to not include Beats headphone with their handsets?
Source: CNETIn Hungary the average size of the 'large estates' is among the largest in Europe: about 3,200 hectares. This land concentration damages food sufficiency, leads to rural depopulation and has led to the expansion of large-scale monocultural agriculture and increasing social tensions in the Hungarian countryside. In 2010, the government followed through on its election promises and put 65,000 ha of state land available through a public tender. The aim was to support young local farmers and their families by offering them low-cost leases for 20 years. However, the tender process was plagued with irregularities and corruption. A series of scandals erupted after the announcement of the results of the first round of tenders as most of the land has been leased to Hungarian agro-businessmen and capitalists and cronies close to the governing party. See more... Kajászó, a Transdanubian village is the most extreme example of the abuses related to the public land lease tenders. While local applicant family farmers received not one acre, a single candidate from another village won all 428 acres of public land without having any farming experience at all. In response, Kajászó's farmers organised themselves to claim local control of land and farmers rights. Their tactics were inspired by José Bové's visit to Kajászó that was carried out as a joint project of the European and Hungarian Greens. In a symbolic land-seizing gesture the farmers ploughed a stretch of the land that has been leased â in their judgment, illegitimately â to the winner of the tender and symbolically placed the land under the authority of the local farmers' council. They have also founded the grassroots Association of Farmers' Councils, to secure the interests of small-scale producers and have encouraged other communities to do the same. This may be considered as a particular Hungarian form of land-grabbing.
(See less)MINNEAPOLIS -- A Somali activist has unseated one of the Minnesota Legislature's longest-serving members in a Democratic primary.
Ilhan Omar defeated 22-term Rep. Phyllis Kahn in Tuesday's DFL nominating contest. Omar's victory in the heavily Democratic Minneapolis district makes it likely she'll be the first Somali-American lawmaker in the nation after the November election.
The district spans the University of Minnesota and is home to a large population of immigrants from Somalia and other East African countries. Omar argued the district needs a fresher face that better represents the diversity and needs of the area.
Omar is a political activist and former aide to the Minneapolis City Council.
Kahn has spent 44 years in the Legislature.
Meanwhile, Jason Lewis won the Second Congressional District’s Republican primary. He will be the Republican candidate going up against DFLer Angie Craig.
In the House District 31A GOP race, House Speaker Kurt Daudt defeated challenger Alan Duff, a former Isanti County commissioner.
Click here for more election results.In this photo taken Tuesday, July 1, 2014, packets of a variety of recreational marijuana named "Space Needle" are shown during packaging operations at Sea of Green Farms in Seattle. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
A new report from the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice adds to the growing body of evidence that legalizing or decriminalizing marijuana does not lead to any number of doomsday scenarios envisioned by legalization opponents. Looking specifically at California, where full marijuana decriminalization went into effect on Jan. 1, 2011, the report finds that "marijuana decriminalization in California has not resulted in harmful consequences for teenagers, such as increased crime, drug overdose, driving under the influence, or school dropout. In fact, California teenagers showed improvements in all risk areas after reform."
Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice
Most notable in the above table is the drop in school dropout rates. Recent studies have suggested links between heavy marijuana use and low school completion rates. But many experts question the direction of causality in this relationship, suggesting that there could be any number of confounding factors that account for this relationship. While it's still early in California's decriminalization experiment, the numbers above should suggest we cast a skeptical eye on claims of plummeting academic achievement in a post-legalization world.
In fact, as the report authors write: "By a variety of measures, California’s teenage behaviors actually improved dramatically after marijuana was effectively legalized — improvements that occurred more weakly or not at all among older Californians and among teenagers nationwide."
Now of course this doesn't address causality, and these numbers shouldn't be taken to imply that decriminalization caused these declines. But they do show, pretty clearly, that in the two years since full-scale decriminalization went into effect, California's kids are still all right. The sky hasn't fallen. And they add to a mounting body of research that shows, for instance:
By contrast, there is little evidence of increased social harms in states where marijuana has been decriminalized. The one credible study I'm aware of is a DEA report finding that more Colorado drivers involved in car crashes are testing positive for marijuana use. But a bucket of salt is needed here: unlike alcohol, inactive marijuana metabolites remain in the body long after consumption - days or weeks, depending on frequency of use. But the presence of metabolites doesn't necessarily indicate you were high at the time of the test - only that you got high some time in the days or weeks prior.
Even if we accept that more Coloradans are using marijuana, and that some of them are getting behind the wheel while stoned, we still have to note that traffic fatalities are down overall - this is likely because it's far less dangerous to drive stoned than it is to drive drunk. This would suggest that some Coloradans are using marijuana in place of alcohol, rather than in addition to it.
In short, the barrier of proof facing legalization opponents is incredibly high. In order to present a compelling case against marijuana liberalization, they have to demonstrate A) that liberalization is associated with a negative outcome; B) that that association is indeed causal, not just coincidental; and C) that the harms from that negative outcome are greater than the myriad harms caused by blanket prohibition of marijuana. But so far, state experiments with liberalization have not produced any consequences that pass even that first test. Considering that we're now close to 20 years out from when California voters first legalized medical marijuana, this should be reassuring news for everyone.A Republican state lawmaker wants a holy change to the constitution of Tennessee.
Republican State Representative James VanHuss wants to make one small change to the constitution of the state of Tennessee.
"We recognize that our liberties do not come from governments, but from Almighty God, our Creator and Savior."
Rep. VanHuss, who also goes by the name Micah, believes that statement deserves to appear in Article I.
The bill, HJR0071, has five co-sponsors.
Raw Story reports that "The Tennessean included the legislation in its list of 'bizarre' new bills. 'That reference to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness in the U.S. Constitution isn't enough for' VanHuss, the paper joked."
On his campaign website, VanHuss says he graduated from Pensacola Christian College, supports traditional marriage, and is "a born again Bible believing Christian."
UPDATE: From Rep. VanHuss' Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/LordPickle/posts/10153201909933206?pnref=story
Image via Flickr
See a mistake? Email corrections to: [email protected]Yahoo admitted to the world—on a news day dominated by a guy called Trump—that some of its employees were aware that it had suffered a breach shortly after a "state-sponsored actor" hacked into the ailing Web firm's systems in 2014.
In a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, Yahoo said that a panel of independent experts was looking at how much knowledge employees at the company had of the incident shortly after the massive breach had occurred.
Yahoo has previously stated that it only became aware of the hack attack following a "recent investigation." As Ars reported previously, Yahoo confirmed in September that at least half a billion of its user accounts had been breached.
The company, in its latest filing, has revealed more details about the attack—which ransacked Yahoo usernames and associated e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords, and some encrypted and unencrypted security questions and answers. It said:
In late July 2016, a hacker claimed to have obtained certain Yahoo user data. After investigating this claim with the assistance of an outside forensic expert, the company could not substantiate the hacker’s claim. Following this investigation, the company intensified an ongoing broader review of the company’s network and data security, including a review of prior access to the company’s network by a state-sponsored actor that the company had identified in late 2014. Based on further investigation with an outside forensic expert, the company disclosed the Security Incident on September 22, 2016, and began notifying potentially affected users, regulators, and other stakeholders.
The key bit in that statement is the disclosure that at least some employees at Yahoo were aware of the attack two years ago.
It added that an independent committee of the firm's board was investigating "among other things, the scope of knowledge within the company in 2014 and thereafter regarding this access, the Security Incident, the extent to which certain users’ account information had been accessed, the company’s security measures, and related incidents and issues."
Yahoo said that forensic experts were also probing evidence that suggested an intruder—understood to be the same state-sponsored actor—created cookies that potentially inserted a password bypass flaw, thereby granting access to some user accounts or account details.
It also revealed that cops had recently begun "sharing certain data that they indicated was provided by a hacker who claimed the information was Yahoo user account data." Yahoo said that it would analyse the hacker's claim.
To date, the company has been hit with 23 class action lawsuits from angry consumers, both at home and abroad.
Yahoo has so far notched up $1 million (£800,000) in losses related to the megabreach—however, its latest quarter ended September 30 is yet to reveal the true pain to its bottom line.In Visit To South Korea, Trump Continues Theme Of Security And Trade
Enlarge this image toggle caption Jung Yeon-Je/AP Jung Yeon-Je/AP
Updated at 5 a.m. ET
President Trump said the U.S. was committed to working toward a diplomatic solution with North Korea over its nuclear and missile programs, but that Washington was prepared to use a "full range" of military options if necessary.
His remarks were made at a joint news conference with South Korean President Moon Jae-in held in at the presidential Blue House in Seoul on the second leg of Trump's five-nation tour of Asia.
"We call on every responsible nation including China and Russia to demand that the North Korean regime end its nuclear weapons and its missile programs and live in peace," Trump said.
Trump arrived in South Korea on Tuesday after a visit to Japan, where he met with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
Foreshadowing the next stop on his trip, the president said "China's out trying very hard to solve the problem with North Korea."
"We hope that Russia likewise will be helpful," he said. "If we get China, we get Russia, we have other countries we want to get, we think that things will happen and they could happen very quickly."
Trump has taken a tough line against North Korea and Pyongyang has responded with escalating nuclear and ballistic missile tests, including the successful test-launch in July of an ICBM capable of reaching the continental U.S.
He has also matched Pyongyang's hyperbolic rhetoric, threatening to respond to North Korean threats with "fire and fury like the world has never seen."
Trump and his South Korean counterpart agree on the need to pressure the North, but Moon favors dialogue over military action against the regime of Kim Jong Un, which would put South Korea in the cross-hairs of North Korean artillery.
"We're showing great strength," he said. "There's never been strength like it," adding that the U.S. had three aircraft carriers and a nuclear submarine "positioned."
"We hope to God we will never have to use them," he said.
He said the U.S. is ready to use "all available tools short of military action" to bring Pyongyang into compliance with international sanctions, but "the U.S. stands prepared to defend itself and its allies using the full range of our military capabilities if need be."
He said they were "making progress" on diplomacy with Pyongyang.
Although tensions with North Korea are a major focus of the president's trip, so is trade, the issue on which Trump aggressively campaigned. To right what he sees as unfair bilateral relationships, he has threatened to pull out of the United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement, also known as KORUS, what Trump purports is creating an economic disadvantage.
Trump said the two leaders also talked trade, thanking President Moon for "instructing trade negotiators to work closely with us to pursue a much better deal, a deal that frankly has been quite unsuccessful and not very good for the United States."
He boasted that the U.S. makes "the greatest military equipment in the world" and that South Korea had agreed to ordering "billions of dollars worth of equipment, which is good for them. We have already approved billions of dollars worth of equipment."
Moon said the purchases were "very much needed for us to beef up our military."
Enlarge this image toggle caption Andrew Harnik/AP Andrew Harnik/AP
After Air Force One landed in South Korea, the president flew by helicopter to Camp Humphreys, a U.S. Army garrison in Pyeongtaek, about 60 miles from the Demilitarized Zone that separates North and South Korea. But Trump skipped a trip to the DMZ – which has become customary for visiting U.S. presidents. One senior administration official dismissed visiting the North-South border, calling it "a bit of a cliché."
At Camp Humphreys, Trump ate lunch with President Moon Jae-in and U.S. and South Korean troops.
"I had a choice of having a beautiful, very fancy lunch and I said no, I want to eat with the troops and we ate with the troops," the president told reporters.
He said he was preparing to meet "with various generals about the situation in North Korea."
"I think ultimately it will all work out, it always works out, it has to work out," the president said.
U.S. and South Korean officials say the visit to Camp Humphreys is meant to highlight close military ties between Washington and Seoul.
Camp Humphreys is currently in the final stages of a massive expansion set to be completed by 2020. It will be the largest overseas American base in the world, writes The Diplomat. At the joint news briefing, Trump remarked of the camp, "I know what it cost, and it's a lot of money. And I'm sure I could have built it for a lot less."The United States as seen by its residents
In Athens, Ohio, a Chinese exchange student at Ohio University sits in class. She is among the subjects of a multimedia essay by Darcy Holdorf, a participant in the
China's economic growth has created a burgeoning middle class with expendable income that, due to the one-child policy, places intense emphasis on children's higher education. China's strict university entrance requirements and a lack of higher educational institutions limit the opportunity for study, which compels more and more Chinese students to study abroad.
In, a Chinese exchange student at Ohio University sits in class. She is among the subjects of a multimedia essay by Darcy Holdorf, a participant in the Soul of Athens project. The words and images that follow are hers.
In 2010, 603 Chinese undergraduate students came to Ohio University compared to 17 in 2004. That same year, 81% of all international students at OU came from China. Dr. Gerry Krzic, director of the Ohio Program of Intensive English, says this is a global trend. "All ESL (English as a Second Language) programs follow a cycle. Right now we're in the Chinese, and the Saudi Arabian cycle.
"Some Chinese students in Athens, they just study everyday, don't have some idea, don't have some dream. But we are different, we have a lot of plans for the future," says Andy Liu.
The Chinese Student and Scholars Association held a masquerade ball in the Walter Hall Rotunda, a dramatic, high-ceilinged ballroom encircled with 15-foot -tall windows. Black, white and gold balloons were taped to the walls to cover-up the sterile, institutional atmosphere. The women wore tight-fitting, strapless cocktail dresses and teetered in rhinestone encrusted silver stiletto heels on the dingy gray carpet. The men wore dress pants and suit jackets a size too big.
At the party, there was a rigid program of events scheduled precisely and painstakingly down to the minute. In a leggy, light blue mini-dress Yihan Fu, one of the entertainers, sang a sultry blues song in English. The M.C. lined men and women on separate sides of the room and the groups held a dance-off. Red and yellow disco lights illuminated masked, shy faces. Most of the guests stayed in the shadows around the edges of the circular ballroom. They stood in small groups and checked each other out, slightly bending their knees and shifting to the music. Sugary Asian-American pop songs repeated throughout the night.
Popo prefers studying in the United States. "Chinese |
has since been appended to the speakers.
Serene Audio of Vancouver, whose email address begins with "HappyToHelp," displayed its intriguingly shaped Talisman self-powered desktop loudspeakers ($395/pair including shipping). Engineer/designer Sia Rezari reports that he began his company in 2010, and launched the speaker in 2011. As someone who has been designing speakers since he was 13, he has continually improved his little babies while retaining the original look.
At their first audio show showing anywhere on Planet Earth, the speakers streamed the highest quality Spotify can offer in a most seductive manner. The Talisman's unique and expensive drivers, manufactured in China, include a "really big" magnet with under-hung (short) voice coil. This is said to increase linearity and "drastically" reduce distortion. The brochure claims a frequency response of 65Hz20kHz ±3dB, and includes a 3.5mm input and 3.5mm headphone output, plus an RCA subwoofer output with internal crossover at 120Hz. Headphone amplification is via a 130mW, class-A/B amplifier. Sales are via the Web.
The day after Richard Schram of Parasound told me that he will include Bybee Rails in his next product from designer John Curl, I ate lunch with Jack Bybee (right) and his nephew Marc Stambuk (left), as well as Curl and two other renegades not included in the photo. Bybee, now 85, was eager to discuss his latest product, the Room Neutralizer.
When Jack said, "This concept is so outside the box that it's hard to understand," he wasn't kidding. While a pending patent prevented him from spilling the beans, he likened the technology to Spintronics and what the Neutralizers do to the effect MRI has on your body. "We do essentially the same thing but in the atmosphere in your listening room," he said. "Air molecules are a barrier to sound waves, and inhibit their free travel from speaker to your ears. The Room Neutralizers, which are activated by the electromagnetic waves of your amplifier, allow sound waves to travel without impedance or attenuation. They keep sound in phase as it travels far from the speakers, and prevent high frequency roll off. Stein Harmonizers essentially do the same thing but on a much smaller scale. They activate crystals. My technology does not use crystals, and affects primarily nitrogen, which accounts for 78% of the atmosphere. The Neutralizers also affect oxygen via hydrogen."
What can I say? Well, this much. Jack sent me some Neutralizers a few weeks back to play with. While they're hardly a fashion statement, when I taped them up in our purpose-built music room using blue painter's tape, they did seem to create an even more boundary-less presentation than I had already achieved via devices from Holger Stein and Kerem Ku&231;ukaslan. I didn't get to spend a whole lot of time with them, in part because the tape would hold them up only so long before they'd fall to the floor. Once I find the optimal position for each of the eight devices you hang in the room, I'm going to paint them before affixing them to the walls to avoid a major Spouse Acceptance Factor (SAF) issue.
Lone Mountain Audio and AcousticFrontiers exhibited a mid-price system that included the Aurender N100H 2TB music server w/Tidal integration ($2699), DEQX PreMate speaker/room corrector and digital preamp ($4999), ATC P1 dual-mono 150Wpc power amp ($3599), ATC SCM40v2 loudspeakers ($6999/pair), JL Audio E112 subwoofer ($1899), Torus Power RM15 isolation transformer/power conditioner ($2199), and Wireworld cabling ($1599 total). Listening to Terry Evans singing "Down in Mississippi," streamed via Tidal, I heard very clear and clean sound with most impressive, absolutely tight bass. Low frequencies especially excelled, but the overall presentation lacked the expansive, warm, and naturally unbloated midrange that invariably floats my boat.
Regardless, the system's clarity and enviable control left me eager to explore what a Torus Power unit would sound like in my own system. The incentive that I could plug it into the wall via a stock power cord (of the same gauge as the Nordost Odin 2 power cords I'm now using) without loss of sound quality left me especially enthused.
When I entered the room co-sponsored by Stockton-based dealer Syncopation and Profundo imports, Count Basie, Oscar Peterson, and their equally exemplary cohorts were holding forth on a track from their 1978 LP Yessir, That's My Baby. I don't have any other way to readily describe what I heard other than strange, old-fashioned sound. Ditto to the sound of violinist Nathan Milstein playing I forget what on an LP conducted by William Steinberg.
Switching to digital, the midrange of the CD layer on Channel Classics' superb SACD of Ivan Fischer conducting Mahler Symphony 9 was quite beautiful, but the sound seemed rolled-off on top, with a somewhat gauzy quality and slight buzz/edge to the truncated highs. It's essential to note that there was an infernal electronic hum coming from beneath us that I heard in no other room, and that may have been interfering with the electronics. Here's hoping the hotel was notified and the hum addressed, because it really was awful.
Playing were Viva Audio's Numerico DAC/transport ($12,800), Basis Audio 2200 table/SA9 Superarm (price not supplied) and Transfiguration Proteus cartridge ($6000), Viva Audio's Fono phonostage ($17,000) and Solista Mk.3 integrated amplifier ($18,500), Trenner & Friedl Pharoah 2-way loudspeaker ($13,000/pair), Cardas Clear cabling, and Genesis power cords.
The same exhibitors also showed a much smaller system with loudspeaker and headphone components. Despite the fact that the Trenner & Friedl Sun micro-monitor loudspeakers (Edit: $2995/pair) were brand new, and the Heed Audio Elixir integrated amplifier ($1195) had only been unpacked the day before, the system had a most lovely midrange that made me wish that I could have lingered longer. But that would have meant more time with that hum.
How great to reconnect with the entire Audioengine crew, including the ever-refreshing David Solomon (formerly of Tidal and Peachtree). Quite impressive, especially for a system whose Audioengine A5+ self-powered loudspeakers cost $399/pair, was the engaging sound of full CD quality sent over Bluetooth using an Android tablet with aptX. Even the sound through the considerably smaller Audioengine A2+ loudspeakers ($189/pair), which I once used at a potluck to replace a DJ's ear-burning portable loudspeaker setup, was enticingly warm.
"We have something new coming in October for the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest," the forever understated, normally sedate Solomon declared. "It's the greatest things Audioengine has ever done!!!" Chimed in Brett Bargenquast, who even managed a half smile, "It's gonna be awesome!" Add several more exclamation points, and you begin to get the drift.A California solar panel complex that officials say will be the largest of its kind in the world after its completion broke ground Friday in a ceremony that featured U.S. Dept. of Interior Sec. Ken Salazar and Gov. Jerry Brown.
From The Hill:
The 1,000-megawatt project will power 300,000 to 750,000 homes and result in about 1,000 temporary construction jobs and a little over 200 permanent jobs, according to the Interior Department.
The project’s price tag is estimated at $6 billion, though developers received substantial subsidies from the Department of Energy as part of president Obama’s stimulus package. Once completed, the parabola-shaped panels will cover 7,000 acres of land.
The American Independent reported June 6 on a bill co-authored by Sen. Bernie Williams (I-Vt.) that would tackle the consumer end of solar installation, helping homeowners acquire permissions faster by cutting out much of the bureaucratic wrangling. That bill’s goal is to enter 10 million home into solar panel fold.
The bipartisan legislation, titled the The 10 Million Solar Roofs Act of 2011 (PDF), would be a boon to a quickly changing solar panel industry. The Solar Energy Industries Association — the national trade association of the U.S. solar energy industry — stated during a conference call with businesses and in a June 1 congressional hearing that the industry already employs 100,000 people, and they expect that number to double by 2013.Chamberlains Ford, on the Selwyn River, is the only monitored swimming spot between Ashburton and Kaikoura with "good" water quality.
More Canterbury rivers are becoming unsafe to swim in each year, despite a major target to make rivers more swimmable.
This summer, 64 per cent of river sites monitored by Environment Canterbury (ECan) have been deemed safe for swimming, down from 74 per cent five years ago.
When the Government replaced the elected council with commissioners in 2010 – supposedly because it was failing to meet water targets – the commissioners aimed to have 80 per cent of rivers swimmable by 2015.
NIWA River flow data from NIWA - July on the right and September on the left - shows some Canterbury rivers had flows "far below" normal levels, even in the middle of winter.
It revealed in August it had missed its deadline, and the number of swimmable rivers had dropped to 67 per cent. It now says that figure has fallen again, to 64 per cent.
READ MORE:
* More toxic algae in Tasman rivers
* 16 spots in Waikato, Hawke's Bay, Canterbury on toxic list
* Contradicting signs cause confusion over Taranaki river
* Waikaia river safe for fishing but not swimming
* Swimming ban as toxic algae levels grow in Hutt River
"There has been some recent decline in the monitored sites," an ECan spokesman said.
He said despite the drop, it was higher than in 2004, when only 53 per cent of sites were recommended for swimming.
Current data showed sites with "poor" or "very poor" ratings – which are not deemed safe for swimming – included every monitored site on the Waimakariri and Hurunui rivers, as well as most sites along the Selwyn and Ashburton rivers.
The only monitored site between Ashburton and Kaikoura with "good" water quality for swimming was Chamberlains Ford, on the Selwyn River.
Green MP and former ECan councillor Eugenie Sage said the dwindling number of swimmable rivers was not good enough.
"Previous generation Cantabrians have been able to fish and swim in rivers on their doorstep, and now people are denied that opportunity. It's a result to be ashamed of."
She said with hot temperatures and low river flows due to El Nino, it was likely algae blooms would make more sites unswimmable.
"When there is a health risk for people walking dogs or people going swimming, it shows how we desperately need a major change in water quality management - strong, national bottom lines for rivers and lakes that are swimmable, not wadeable."
With another hot, dry summer ahead, toxic algae blooms caused by low water flows were adding further concerns around swimming.
At the close of last summer, 11 sites in Canterbury had warnings for cyanobacteria, which was a hazard to both people and animals.
Already this summer 15 sites had such warnings, including popular camping and swimming spots Coes Ford and Evans Crossing, where toxic algae had been detected in "significant quantities".
Canterbury medical officer of health Dr Alistair Humphrey said exposure to cyanobacteria could cause "skin rashes, nausea, stomach cramps, tingling and numbness around the mouth and fingertips".
It could be fatal to stock, horses and dogs. Low river levels were a major contributor to algae blooms.
Data from NIWA shows some Canterbury rivers - particularly the Selwyn river - have had flows "far below" normal throughout the year.
ECan commissioner David Caygill said rules around taking water were being treated seriously, as the region prepared for ongoing drought-like conditions.
"Environment Canterbury takes the efficient use of water seriously, particularly in these times of extremely dry weather.
"Drought conditions are expected to continue and users will keep facing restrictions. People can't use what isn't available."
Irrigation restrictions were in place in some areas and would be monitored to ensure compliance, he said.
An ECan spokesman said people should not be wary about swimming in rivers, as water quality in Canterbury was generally good.
They should look at the council's website to check water quality at each site.
Beaches, on the other hand, were almost unanimously safe for swimming, and had marked some of the best water quality seen in several years.
All monitored coastal swimming sites except one – the Avon Heathcote Estuary at Humphreys Drive – were safe for swimming.
Popular swimming sites such as Corsair and Cass Bays and New Brighton and Sumner beaches had "good" water quality.
Sites with "very good" water quality included Taylors Mistake, Spencerville Beach and Woodend Beach.
EL NINO
A cruel twist to the searing El Nino summer may shock those dipping their toes into the sea for the first time.
A side-effect of El Nino conditions in New Zealand were cooler ocean temperatures, which were already happening in Canterbury.
"The sea is running colder than it should be, and it looks like it's around a degree cooler than usual for the time of the year," MetService meteorologist Georgina Griffiths said.
"It doesn't sound like much, but it is noticeable."
The hotter the air got, the colder the sea would feel. During Monday's record-breaking 36°C day, the ocean temperature was just 13.5°C.
Canterbury's seas would likely remain cooler than usual for the rest of the summer, Griffiths said.
"It's a real El Nino thing, the cool seas around New Zealand in the run-up to Christmas... off the Canterbury coast, seas will end up half a degree cooler than where they would normally be by the end of summer."“Grey's Anatomy” actor Jesse Williams unleashed a Twitter tirade Tuesday over what he considers “racist” Halloween costumes.
“What about black pain is so fun to you? From where is that joy derived?” Williams tweeted to his 785,000 followers.
See video: ‘Grey's Anatomy's’ Jesse Williams Slams NYT Critic: ‘This Person Knows Zero About Shonda Rhimes’ (Video)
The Chicago native then singled out what he considers tasteless costumes, including those depicting Trayvon Martin — the African-American teenager who was fatally shot by George Zimmerman two years ago in Sanford, Florida.
When #Halloween comes around, how exactly does dressing as Trayvon and other illustrations of black pain, make you feel? Please be specific. — jesseWilliams. (@iJesseWilliams) October 28, 2014
We don't reflexively celebrate random or routine white death, make memes of your bleeding corpses, etc. Tell us about this unique obsession. — jesseWilliams. (@iJesseWilliams) October 28, 2014
Millions of you smile in awe of our music, comedy, inventions, athletics, fashion, etc. but when we're not entertaining you, you hate us? — jesseWilliams. (@iJesseWilliams) October 28, 2014
How does that work exactly? — jesseWilliams. (@iJesseWilliams) October 28, 2014
This isn't the first time Williams has used social media to voice his opinions about race. On Oct. 12, while taking part in the so-called “Ferguson October” protests in Missouri, Williams tweeted his concerns about the fact that Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson had not been charged in the shooting death of unarmed black teen, Michael Brown.
“A man sworn to protect & serve, shot an unarmed teen 6 times from a distance with witnesses & every gesture is being made not to charge him,” Williams wrote.
Days later, in an exclusive interview with TheWrap, he blasted police in the St. Louis area for their treatment of protesters.
Also read: Charles Barkley Slams ‘Unintelligent,’ ‘Brainwashed’ Black People for Holding Successful Ones Back (Audio)
“The cops were really, really nasty, unnecessarily antagonizing people. It really creates a kind of plantation vibe — with people patrolling and literally in waves, beating their baton sticks against their hands, like they're ready to deliver an ass whooping and enjoying it,” Williams said.
In the same interview, he criticized Hollywood for failing to cast more actors of color.
“We don't need every movie and every TV show to have six white leads,” he told TheWrap.
Also read: Julianne Hough Apologizes for Wearing Blackface As Part of Halloween Costume
Among Williams’ concerns – he singled out the 2014 films “Noah,” which starred Russell Crowe and the upcoming “Exodus: Gods and Kings,” which features Christian Bale and Australian actor Joel Edgerton.
“Instead of making all white ‘Noah,’ when it would be physically impossible for all those people to be white, or ‘Exodus’ when we know for a fact that the Egyptians were not white, Rhamses and Moses are all white, while the slaves and the servants and the thieves are black. That's racism,” Williams said.
Related stories from TheWrap:
Police Dispute Jesse Williams' Claims Made During TheWrap's Exclusive Interview
Julianne Hough Apologizes for Wearing Blackface As Part of Halloween CostumeLaw professor Lawrence Lessig’s plan to reform campaign finance in America by blowing the system up from the inside has always been such a longshot that even he is astonished by its fundraising success so far.
The Mayday PAC project launched in May with an initial fundraising goal of $1 million, followed by a $ 5 million goal, all raised through Kickstarter-like pledges. The PAC would then use the money to support five candidates in 2014 committed to serious campaign finance reform—a Super PAC to destroy Super PACs.
The goal was still distant as the July 4 deadline approached, but in its final hours supporters rallied: More than 50,000 people have donated $7.6 million to date. And unlike most Kickstarter campaigns, that’s without offering any swag.
“We attracted this money without offering any t-shirts or any buttons or any anything,” Lessig told TIME.
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A matching donation of $5 million still to come should push Mayday PAC’s unexpectedly brimming war chest over $12 million, giving it more than $2 million to spend apiece on five elections.
Lessig spoke with TIME about the PAC’s unlikely success, the challenges it still faces and how it’s choosing which candidates to support.
TIME: That was an ambitious fundraising goal—how are you feeling?
Lawrence Lessig: It was an insane fundraising goal and I’m incredibly surprised and happy that people rallied the way they did. It was really extraordinary.
Were you worried toward the end?
Yeah, I was of course worried at the end. Our plan was we would do the first round and that would attract the attention of somebody like Comedy Central, which would get us the exposure we needed to win on the second round. Because what we knew is if we got before enough people’s eyeballs we would get the support we needed. But as time wore on it was clear Comedy Central was not going to jump into the breach, so we needed to rely on just plain old peer-to-peer, Internet activism. And that in the end seemed to work.
In reforming campaign finance you face not just the institutional impediment of Congress but precedent set by the Supreme Court. What’s the plan?
I actually don’t think there’s any constitutional impediments to the first step reforms that we’ve talked about. We want to change the way campaigns are funded and the Supreme Court has been quite clear that Congress has the power to change the way campaigns are funded through voluntary public funding. Now, what we support is not the traditional public funding—where the government writes a check to fund your campaigns—but bottom up public funding, where it’s matching funds like John Sarbanes Government By the People Act, or a voucher program. Either way this is a public funding program that would help people by creating small dollar systems that they could fund winning campaigns with. That’s completely constitutional and would create the first step toward building a Congress that might address any constitutional problems.
In picking candidates will there be a litmus test beyond a commitment to substantial campaign finance reform.
No. There’s no litmus test for them beyond substantial reform, fundamental reform and the reform we’ve been talking about: changing the way campaigns are funded.
Now, in picking the first five though. that’s a necessary condition but not sufficient. We need to pick races that are exciting enough, difficult enough, challenging, so that when we win people will say it’s amazing they won and that they won on this issue. So, for example, Mitch McConnell’s race would be fun to win but it wouldn’t be clear why anybody won because there are a thousand reasons why Mitch McConnell might be defeated. So that wouldn’t be an interesting race for us but we’re looking for races where when we win people will say it’s extraordinary that they won on the basis of this issue in that district.
You’d support a viable candidate of any political stripe, assuming they’re not too far off the mainstream?
I’m not so concerned about mainstream. I’m concerned about viability and commitment to fundamental reform. Those two elements are the driving factors initially. Next cycle, assuming we’re successful and we create excitement around this issue and can begin to recruit the kind of support we need to win in 2016, it’s about winning in every district we need to get a majority in Congress, but this time it’s about picking those victories in a way that is generative for this more ambitious task in 2016.
Contact us at editors@time.com.Image copyright AP Image caption We're not sure what this was all about either
From the World Cup to the Olympics, it is not a significant event if you don't have an unusual opening ceremony to go with it.
This was also the case when the Gotthard base tunnel, the longest and deepest in the world, was inaugurated on Wednesday.
Here are some of the most striking moments from the ceremony - we have tried to explain what is going on as far as possible. It was not always possible.
Warning: This article contains partial nudity
Image copyright AP Image caption The ceremony represented different aspects of Swiss culture - at this point, milk floats drove in a procession
Image copyright AP Image caption In the middle of all of this, an actor sat down, looked rather underwhelmed by everything, and ate his lunch
Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption A topless woman decked as a bird hovered above actors representing the nine construction workers who died during the building of the tunnel
Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption It is unclear what the German, French and Italian leaders, who were all present, made of the ceremony
Image copyright EPA Image caption Parts of the show proved very popular with some of those in the audience, however
Image copyright Twitter/@journodave Image caption Some viewers were left baffled, as, perhaps, were some participants
Image copyright EPA Image caption At one point, there were lots of people rolling around in white underwear
Image copyright EPA Image caption They, too, looked a bit blank about the whole thing - it was put together by German director Volker Hesse, whose most famous work has been done in Switzerland
Image copyright EPA Image caption The ibex, that is native to the Alps, played a prominent part in the ceremony
Image copyright Twitter/@FPeressinotto Image caption One Twitter user wrote: "We're opening a tunnel, and here are two people dressed as ibex pretending to have sex"Teo hosts our third “spoilercast” in which we consider any and all story elements from classic SWTOR and its expansions to attempt to shed some light on what we’ll encounter in Knights of the Fallen Empire.
This show is an exception to our usual policy of never including spoilers! The specific content we cover includes:
Special thanks to Rachel for doing the background research for this show!
Thanks to Chill (@BrandonLStarr, twitch.tv/chillswtor), Rachel (@Rach_Games, xamxamsays.com), Lou (@GamerGuy11B, Beyond the Stars) and Vulkk (@Vulkk, vulkk.com).
You can email questions and comments about the show to ootinicast@gmail.com. Follow us on Twitter via @OotiniCast. Check out our website, ootinicast.com, which has links to our presence on Google+ and Facebook. You can subscribe to us on iTunes, and listen to us on Stitcher and Spreaker.Image copyright Ulster University Image caption The treatment involves injecting tumours with drug-coated oxygen micro bubbles
A new treatment for pancreatic cancer could significantly increase survival rates, Ulster University has claimed.
It said the treatment could lead to a five-fold reduction in tumour size.
It involves injecting tumours with oxygen micro bubbles that are coated with a drug which is then activated by ultrasound.
Pancreatic surgeon Mark Taylor said the researchers' work was "a very exciting development".
"If this local treatment can actually allow us to operate, then we have a five-fold increase in survival," he told BBC Northern Ireland's Good Morning Ulster.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the hardest tumours to detect and treat.
Just under 9,000 people are diagnosed with it in the UK every year. It has the lowest five-year survival rate of any common cancer and one that has barely improved in 40 years.
Mr Taylor said pancreatic cancer survival rates were low because it is a disease that tends to have few symptoms and, when these present, it is at a very late stage.
Also, many of the symptoms are vague - simple heartburn, indigestion, unexplained weight loss. This can make it difficult for doctors in general to diagnose it at an early stage.
The new treatment offered fresh hope to patients.
"The potential is that we can reduce the size of these tumours by this type of targeted local therapy which would then allow resectional surgery to take place to remove the tumour," Mr Taylor said.
"Eighty per cent of people have unresectable tumours and if you are able to give a targeted treatment without the side effects of that treatment in the rest of the body, then that helps prolong survival and that is an excellent chance."
Image copyright Ulster University Image caption Professor John Callan said this was "one of the most promising advances in pancreatic cancer research for decades"
The university said it was a "major breakthrough that can open up more treatment options, even for advanced forms of the disease".
Prof John Callan, who led the research at the university's biomedical laboratories in Coleraine said this was "a highly novel and targeted technique" and "one of the most promising advances in pancreatic cancer research for decades".
"We can selectively target the tumour and spare healthy tissue making this a highly targeted therapy with reduced side-effects," he said.
"This really is a groundbreaking development and one of the most promising advances in pancreatic cancer research for decades."
"We are hopeful that within the next one to two years we can start to begin clinical trials with this technology."Image via flickr/Stephen Masker. Image via flickr/Stephen Masker.
Thirty years ago, in his first big majority opinion -- a land-use case from the California coast -- Antonin Scalia found the colorful and irreverent style that came to distinguish his career on the Supreme Court. And with one clean swipe, he knocked William Brennan out of the box and became the intellectual leader of the court.
Well, I for one am sorry to see Nino go. We go way back together – all the way back to Justice Scalia’s very first term on the court, when he provided CP&DR with great copy for the first big story we ever covered.
But it wasn’t just our first big story. It was the case where Nino found his voice. And it marked the beginning of one of the most momentous shifts in modern legal history: When Scalia began to replace William Brennan as the intellectual leader of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Nollan v. California Coastal Commission, 483 U.S. 825, was one of two land-use cases issued by the U.S. Supreme Court one June day in 1987 that is now remembered as a turning point in the history of property rights. Nollan is often overshadowed by the other case decided that day: First English Evangelical Church of Glendale v. County of Los Angeles,82 U.S. 304. But in the long run, Nollan has had far more practical significance. And, boy, was that opinion fun to read.
All through the 1970s and '80s, local governments ramped up their land-use regulations against developers, raising the question of when such regulation becomes a "taking" of property. And especially in California after Proposition 13 limited their property tax revenue, government agencies began requiring "exactions" -- conveyance of land, infrastructure money, or easements in exchange for permits -- thereby raising the question of whether an exaction might also be a taking of property. The Supreme Court had danced around especially the first question for years -- but Chief Justice Warren Burger's retirement in 1986 had allowed President Ronald Reagan to reshape the court, elevating William Rehnquist to Chief Justice and adding Scalia as an Associate Justice.
First English finally established that a property owner who suffers from a regulatory taking of property is entitled to monetary compensation. This was considered the more important issue and it included some novel legal thinking. The sober Chief Justice William Rehnquist wrote the opinion.
Nollan, by contrast, seemed like one of those crazy one-off California land-use cases that nobody would care about east of Pacific Coast Highway. But, partly thanks to Scalia, it turned out to be far more important in the end.
A family near Ventura wanted to expand their beach shack into a two-story home. As a condition of approval, the Coastal Commission required that the Nollan family to provide an easement across the sand in front of their house so that people could legally walk in front of the house. It was a standard condition that the Coastal Commission slapped on everybody in those days.
But James Nollan was a deputy city attorney in Los Angeles and he sued, saying that there was no relationship between the impact on the public created by the two-story home and the Coastal Commission’s exaction involving the easement across the front of the property.
In what was pretty clearly a post-hoc rationalization, the Coastal Commission’s lawyers said that the two-story house created a psychological barrier between PCH and the beach, a problem that could be mitigated by created a legal easement running along the beach between two nearby beachfront parks. Lower courts had upheld the decision, in large part because California law at the time said that only an indirect relationship between the problem and the exaction was good enough.
And in an opinion that was clearly written to serve as the majority opinion, Brennan – like Scalia now, at the time an 80-year-old intellectual leader with 30 years on the court – wrote that the government deserved great deference in deciding how to ameliorate the problem the Coastal Commission had identified. He said regulation should be shaped “in the context of the overall balance of competing uses of the shoreline.”
Brennan (who sided with the majority in the First English case on the same day) had built majority opinions around his reasoning for decades and clearly expected to do the same in Nollan. But this was the first time he had to contend with Scalia, who had joined the court the previous fall (at about the same time that we were founding CP&DR). This was Scalia’s first big opinion. And Nino was ready for his closeup.
“The lack of nexus between the condition and the original purpose of the building restriction converts that purpose to something other than what it was,” he wrote. “Unless the permit condition serves the same governmental purpose as the development ban, the building restriction is not a valid regulation of land use but an out-and-out plan of extortion".
Developers had been calling California’s aggressive exactions “extortion” for years. Now a U.S. Supreme Court justice was saying it too. And he brought with him not just Rehnquist but also Lewis Powell, Kennedy appointee Byron White, and the well-known moderate Sandra Day O’Connor – creating a five-justice majority.
But Scalia didn’t stop there. Throughout the opinion, he couldn’t resist showing off the operatic range that would characterize his work over the years. He also wrote that “when that essential nexus is eliminated, the situation becames the same as if California law forbade shouting fire in a crowded theater, but granted dispensations to those willing to contribute $100 to the state treasury.”
My personal favorite passage came when Scalia speculated as to what would be an acceptable exaction – something he didn’t have to do but apparently couldn’t resist. An exaction would be acceptable, he said, if it ameliorated the basic problem identified by the Coastal Commission, which in this case was the fact that the two-story house blocked the ocean from the public traveling on PCH. He concluded: “[T] he condition would be constitutional even if it consisted of the requirement that the Nollans provide a viewing spot on their property for passersby with whose sighting of the ocean their new house would interfere.”
As I have often said over the years, it’s hard to imagine that Scalia actually would have upheld that exaction if the Coastal Commission had imposed it. He probably would have found some other reason to strike it down. But the point was made: Ever after, an exaction required a “direct nexus” to be legal.
Brennan was not happy. In his dissent, he wrote that Scalia’s majority opinion “overrul[ed] an eminently reasonable exercise of an expert state agency’s judgment, substituting its own narrow view of how this balance should be struck.” Which, come to think of it, has pretty much been the liberal critique of Scalia ever since. In any event, Brennan had good reason to be mad: He had just been replaced as the intellectual leader of the Supreme Court. Three years later, he retired.
Over time, Rehnquist’s ruling in First English has not proven nearly as consequential as everybody thought it would be at the time. It’s almost impossible to prove when a regulatory taking has actually occurred as a result of delay or repeated rejection of development applications and only a few developers have ever received compensation.
The whole exactions thing, however, was changed forever. Scalia’s opinion hastened the passage of AB 1600, California’s first law requiring accountability for impact fees. Nollan led to Rehnquist’s ruling in Dolan v. City of Tigard, 512 U.S. 374 (1994), which established the “rough proportionality” requirement for exactions, creating the whole Nollan/Dolan doctrine. It formed much of the basis for the California Supreme Court’s ruling in Ehrlich v. City of Culver City, 12 Cal.4th 854 (1996), which solidified California case law around the Nollan/Dolan doctrine.
And eventually Scalia returned to the stage with a bizarre ruling in the complicated Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council case, 505 U.S. 1003 (1992). In a case involving a property owner who was blocked from constructing on his property by state regulations, the Supreme Court ruled that a landowner denied all “economically beneficial or productive” use of his land is entitled to compensation, unless an argument for the regulation could be found in common law.
Lucas was indicative of how Scalia was evolving. No longer was a direct connection to legitimate public policy sufficient to uphold an extremely restrictive land-use regulation; now a basis had to be found in common law, the unwritten laws that emerged in England through the decades and migrated to the United States prior to the constitution. (Scalia often relied on common law, including in his famous and controversial ruling on handguns in 2008.) There was almost nothing, in Scalia’s view, that justified a complete prohibition on developing a piece of property. Though I think it's fair to say that even Scalia had a hard time figuring out how to deal with a nuclear power plant through common law -- a problem he and others have often faced in reaching deep into the legal past to try to wrestle with modern problems.
But that was Scalia. For me as an analyst of land-use law, there will never been a more beautiful moment than that day in June of 1987 when I sat in my home office in Ventura – not 15 miles from the Nollans’ house – reading the Nollan opinion and imagining how wonderful it would be to be able to pay $100 to the government for the privilege of yelling fire in a crowded theater. Thanks for everything, Nino. I’m gonna miss you a lot.Words cannot describe how thankful I am to have been part of such an incredible, magical Seahawks season.
An immense amount of celebratory photos, and big smiles on the Seahawks this year– made for a lot of photos.
Please bare with me as I have you filter through about 100 photos that not only are my favorite, but tells the journey of 2012 from beginning to end.
The blessing of Russell Wilson and his incredibly positive attitude; Sherman’s awesome energy and knowing how to talk the talk, big plays and catches by Rice and Tate, and lets not forget the Beast Mode making his presence known.
I was assisting the incredible Rod Mar of Rod Mar Photo, and had the blessing to photograph the gorgeous Sea Gals this season.
Here’s to how amazing 2012 was, and how stoked this city is for 2013!UNIONDALE, N.Y. -- The summer of 2009 was a crucial one for Matt Moulson. Indeed, he had a lot on his plate.
Matt Moulson Left Wing - NYI GOALS: 11 | ASST: 21 | PTS: 32
SOG: 104 | +/-: -9
Not only was he set to become an unrestricted free agent after three seasons in the Los Angeles Kings organization (mostly spent in the American Hockey League), but he was ready to take the next step in his personal life.
He wanted to pop the question to his girlfriend, Alicia.
"I needed to make the NHL to buy the ring -- or she was going to get one of those vending-machine rings," Moulson told NHL.com.
Searching for help up front, the rebuilding New York Islanders -- who selected John Tavares with the first pick in the NHL Draft a week earlier -- came calling when the free-agent market opened July 1.
Friends since |
president and hasn’t raised money for a possible bid. But if Biden does decide to seek the presidency, the New York Times writes, he would pose a greater challenge to Hillary Clinton than is Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. The reason: In Biden, Clinton would have an opponent who could threaten her hold on the coalition of moderate voters and party elites that seems to have the advantage in this race over the Democratic Party’s white, liberal activist wing. That wing now supports Sanders. The Times says Clinton would remain a favorite even if Biden ran. But unlike Sanders, Biden would have strength that would come almost exclusively at her expense.
‘I’m not John Boehner’: House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy wants his fellow Republicans to know that he’s his own man. “I’m not John Boehner,” McCarthy, the leading candidate to replace the outgoing Boehner as speaker, told House conservatives Tuesday night. That’s according to one lawmaker who spoke to the Hill, ahead of House Republicans’ closed-door speaker vote on Thursday. McCarthy is expected to win the House GOP nomination for speaker that day, but also needs to win 218 votes in a roll call of the entire House set for Oct. 29.
Want news about Asia delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to MarketWatch's free Asia Daily newsletter. Sign up here.In Art, History & Culture, Q & A / 23 May 2016
By Hannah Ostroff
On a chilly evening, a limousine glides up to the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. A door opens, and a presidential foot plants itself on the red carpet stretching up to the building’s entrance. His staff swarms around while cameras flash and reporters elbow eagerly to ask a question of the president. A nod. A wave. A twinkle in his eye.
Except this isn’t a real president.
It’s an actor, portraying a president, on the evening of the unveiling of his portrait in the museum’s collection.
But it’s not a presidential portrait, either—at least not one that will hang in the “America’s Presidents” exhibition of the museum.
The true story: The National Portrait Gallery collaborated with artist Jonathan Yeo who was working on a portrait of actor Kevin Spacey. Yeo and Spacey decided to depict the actor as his character, President Frank Underwood from the Netflix series “House of Cards.” When it came time for the museum to unveil the piece in February, they staged an event worthy of a president, complete with Spacey arriving and addressing guests as Underwood.
Spacey’s is not the only portrait in the collection where an actor is depicted in character, but this one in particular speaks to major changes in how Americans consume TV in an age of streaming and binge-watching. For Yeo, making art from a living subject is similar to an actor playing a role, blurring the boundary between real life and fiction.
To learn more about the history of this style of portraiture, we talked to Robyn Asleson, assistant curator in the Department of Prints, Drawings and Media Arts of the National Portrait Gallery.
Q: What’s the history of portraying actors in character?
Asleson: Portraits of actors in character flourished in Europe throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Then as now, the tremendous celebrity of actors generated demand for their images—most often as they appeared on the stage, in costume and in character.
The rich bought paintings and others bought less expensive prints. Plays were published with frontispiece illustrations of whatever actor happened to be playing the lead role at the time of publication, shown in character.
Theatrical celebrity was slower to catch on in America, though. When the English portraitist Robert Edge Pine immigrated to America in 1784 he brought with him a collection of portraits he had painted of famous English stage performers in character. Pine launched his career by putting these theatrical portraits on display in Philadelphia.
Q: Why does the National Portrait Gallery include portraits of actors as their characters?
Asleson: Portraitists represent more than the physical appearance of their subjects. They provide insights into their occupations, interests, and achievements, often by showing their subjects engaged in characteristic activities or surrounded by defining objects. Musicians are shown with their instruments, athletes in uniform, dancers dancing and actors acting.
Portraits of actors in character also help define a particular moment in their careers. Robin Williams appearing as Mork, for example, or John Travolta as Tony Manero in “Saturday Night Fever.”
Q: Why are these portraits meaningful to the museum, and how do they represent the legacy of the performers?
Asleson: The mission of the Portrait Gallery is to tell the story of America, and many of our most culturally resonant stories are based on fictional characters personified on the stage and screen by talented actors.
Several of the Portrait Gallery’s earliest acquisitions were portraits of actors in character, such as Paul Robeson as Othello (given to the museum in 1967) and Ethel Merman as Annie Oakley (a gift of the sitter in 1971).
Some of these actors are better recognized in character than as themselves. Examples include Charlie Chaplin as The Little Tramp, John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn in “True Grit” and Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa.
Q: Do curators ever seek out portraits of actors in character? Why or why not? What is the process like, and does it differ from a traditional portrait?
Asleson: We are constantly adding to an extensive collection of portraits of actors in character that includes theatrical posters, publicity photographs, cartes de visites, caricatures, drawings, and engravings dating from the early 19th century to the present day. In fact, searching under “actor” brings up 1,815 hits for the Portrait Gallery collection database, many of them in character.
Historical portraits of actors in character provide some of our best clues to understanding the performance style and celebrity of the celebrated stage performers of the early American stage, including vaudeville and Broadway.
Q: Why is it significant that Kevin Spacey’s portrait shows him in-character?
Asleson: Kevin Spacey is a master shape-shifter, famous for his ability to inhabit fictitious characters and convincingly bring them to life. The stunning conclusion of the movie “The Usual Suspects” featured his transformation before our eyes from one character into another, with distinctive physical mannerisms to suggest an entirely different personality and psychology. What better way to pay tribute to his extraordinary gifts as an actor than by showing him practicing his craft?
Yeo has portrayed Spacey in a variety of his recent theatrical roles, including Richard III and Clarence Darrow, performed in 2011 and 2014, respectively, at the Old Vic Theater in London. The character of an American president seemed particularly appropriate for a Washington museum noted for its collection of presidential portraits.
Q: Speaking of the presidential portraits, what does this new (fake) president say about the presidency and how it is portrayed in popular culture?
Asleson: It says less about the presidency than about the chameleon-like ability of actors to inhabit and define the characters they portray, and of the ability of portraitists to pick up on and enhance the visual clues actors use to convey personality and psychology. Jonathan Yeo communicates the aggression and menace inherent in the character of Frank Underwood, for example, by exaggerating the size of Spacey’s shoe and drawing attention to his clenched fist. Actors make excellent subjects for portraiture because they are so skilled at externally representing and communicating interior states of mind and emotion.A PLAN to build the Gold Coast’s tallest thrill ride – more than 60 metres high – will have to pass stringent new safety checks before work can start, following last week’s Dreamworld tragedy.
Movie World’s next attraction is expected to be a “hyper-coaster”, a large-scale variant of the traditional roller coaster which will either have a height or drop of more than 60 metres and would be the nation’s tallest.
media_camera Vaughan, Ontario, Canada - July 26, 2014: People riding the Leviathan rollercoaster at Canada's Wonderland amusement park
It will be the first new attraction to come under the State Government’s safety blitz on theme park attractions, announced last week after four people were killed on the Thunder River Rapids Ride.
Workplace Health and Safety Queensland experts have to assess and approve plans for the new ride before work can start.
media_camera This photo provided by Cedar Point Amusement Park shows the Valravn, the new roller coaster that's opening to the public on Saturday, May 7, 2016 at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. The roller coaster has already broken records. It's now recognized as the tallest, fastest and longest dive coaster. Picture: Jordan Sternberg/Cedar Point Amusement Park via AP
The safety blitz will primarily focus on older rides and will include the Gold Coast’s other parks, as well as Australia Zoo and Aussie World on the Sunshine Coast.
Helensvale-based company Alder Construction has advertised for subcontractor and supplier pricing for the new Movie World project, beginning yesterday.
The project is expected to be open within a year and is one of several multi-million new attractions planned for the park, including a $35-million golf facility, hotel and new carpark.
media_camera Imagine staring down this drop — This is the view from the top of the Goliath Hyper Coaster at Six Flags, Illinois in the US.
Construction is expected to be a matter of months away, with avid theme park watchers already snapping photographs of crates at the park from German roller coaster manufacturer Mack Rides.
Mack is the company responsible for another Movie World attraction, the Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster, as well as Sea World’s Storm Coaster.
media_camera Movie World is a hive of activity with construction occurring near its front entrance. Picture: Richard Gosling
Village Roadshow yesterday failed to answer questions about the attraction including when it will open, or when construction would begin.
“Warner Bros. Movie World is looking forward to making an exciting announcement in the near future,” a company spokesman said.
Riding a Hyper Coaster
The new project would eclipse Movie World’s tallest coaster, the Superman Escape by at least 21m.
In September, a development and building application was filed with the Gold Coast City Council for a “themed entertainment, ride and retail outlet” at the park.
The online Roller Coaster Database lists plans for a steel-structured, sit-down “extreme” roller coaster.
media_camera The front gates of Movie World are set to have plenty of extra patrons passing through it, with a series of new attractions planned for the park.
The Bulletin understands representatives of the theme park have met with the council to discuss plans for the park.
In June, plans for a $35m golf attraction with US entertainment company Topgolf were unveiled, with the facility set to open in late 2017.
Spanning 6ha (15 acres) of land next to Movie World, Topgolf will be in the same precinct as the hotel and lake precinct and is expected to attract an extra 500,000 people a year.
Village Roadshows CEO of Theme Parks Tim Fischer in June said the company was planning an announcement of “significant gross capital cost” for the park.Roman Reigns joined Chad Dukes and the Sports Junkies on 106.7 The Fan in Washington, DC earlier and said that WWE is "a little bit old school now." He said:
"When people talk about the past time of wrestling and how the guys used to be and there's all these little stories here and there. I like to think that we shine in that regard. We're a different breed, the new guys coming up."
He also talked about characters becoming stale and how it's imperative talents be able to evolve. When asked specifically about The Miz, he said there was still a chance for him to excel in WWE:
"He had a nice run and he was doing the things he did. He headlined a WrestleMania. He also, he has different ties and crossover connections with what he did before he started wrestling With any character or any performer there's always a chance to change yourself, to evolve, to be different, to show something new. I think that anybody who is feeling like they're stale, if they need to revamp if they can do that, then there's respect in that."
Part 1 of the interview is above and part 2 is below:Republican strategist Steve Schmidt has blasted the Trump administration, pointing to an "unprecedented" level of "incompetence" during President Trump's first few weeks in office.
“None of this is normal,” Schmidt, a top official in former President George W. Bush’s White House, told The Washington Post for a story published Monday.
“The incompetence, the sloppiness and the leaking is unprecedented," he said.
Schmidt has been critical of Trump in the past, including criticizing how Trump operated his campaign.
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According to the Post, Schmidt pointed to controversies that occurred in the beginning of Trump's presidency, including false White House statements and the president's order temporarily barring refugees and immigrants from seven predominately Muslim countries from entering the U.S.
His comments came amid intense speculation about a staff shakeup, according to the Post.
On Monday night, the president's national security adviser, Michael Flynn, resigned amid reports that he misled senior White House officials about his conversations with Russia.
His future in the White House had come under speculation since reports surfaced last week that he talked about sanctions against Russia with the country's ambassador before Trump was sworn in.
Flynn blamed his resignation late Monday on the "fast pace of events" that led him to "inadvertently" give Vice President Pence and others "incomplete information" about his phone conversations with Russia's ambassador to the U.S.Cultural appropriation is a toxic concept.
Serena Farah Blocked Unblock Follow Following Nov 3, 2016
If the title of my article alone makes you wanna write me off right off the bat, and makes you decide not to read my article then that is your right, but you lose any right to argue or attack me unless you have listened to what I am gonna say here and considered all my points.
Yes, cultural appropriation is a very toxic concept, with definitions so ambiguous and so different, depending on the person they come from, that it might make sense to do away with it altogether. When you google the word, here is what Wikipedia has to say about it: “ Cultural appropriation is the adoption or use of elements of one culture by members of another culture.[1] Cultural appropriation is seen by some[2] as controversial, notably when elements of a minority culture are used by members of the cultural majority; this is seen as wrongfully oppressing the minority culture or stripping it of its group identity and intellectual property rights.”
With a definition as broad as the one given above, it’s no wonder the conversation about cultural appropriation has devolved into dog-fights over whose ancestors “own” what. You look at the definition above and you wonder where to really draw the line? And then mostly, you see no lines being drawn. There is a streak of nationalism and cultural superiority here that is often hard to ignore. I mean to say, we are always borrowing elements from other cultures, and that kind of thing has been more beneficial than harmful. Cultural organicity is not a thing that truly exists. No culture exists without borrowing things from the other.
Maybe you assume that my position on cultural appropriation is coming from some place of privilege, of never having dealt with racism for what I wore, what I ate, what I did. for the colour of my skin. But what you don’t know is that I was rather big on this issue of cultural appropriation — I still think there are facets of this discussion that hold some real validity. Wearing headdresses as costumes is wrong, wearing shalwar kameez as costume to a Halloween party is wrong, there is something really fucked up about the way that often times all the books all people of colour end up finding on their culture happen to be written by white people.
However, this discussion of cultural appropriation often does not focus on very tangible concrete issues of injustices and racism — the discussion of cultural appropriation, by default, lends itself to become a war about what truly belonged to whose ancestors, who owns this part of history and who owns another. It lends itself to becoming a completely pointless conversation about whether the use of “spirit animal” (if you’re not NDN) or the use of the phrase “on-point” (if you’re not black) or if the use of the word “daddy” (if you’re not queer) are “right” or “wrong” to use. And the word *wrong* here sounds a lot more like moral judgment rather than an actually well-crafted argument.
By default, the discussion of cultural appropriation lends itself to ridiculous discussions where Indian and Pakistani women claim that henna is only theirs to wear and Egyptian women come in to say that because henna was invented by Egyptians, it is only theirs to wear. It lends itself to conversation about banning yoga in schools (that did happen by the way — yoga did get banned in University of Ottawa for a semester — and it was a class for disabled people). It lends itself to talks about who can learn what language, and who is allowed to profit off their language learning skills. Oh and, it also lends itself to conversations about whether or not doing Kama Sutra is appropriation (lolz). Just google: “Is kama sutra cultural appropriation tumblr” and you will find these discussions. Do that on your own risk though.
Because no lines are drawn, because cultural appropriation is never clearly defined and seems to have entirely different definitions for different people — — the discussion of it is almost always guaranteed to turn into something that seems like children fighting over who which food belongs to whom. And of course it does lend itself to white anti-racist men telling me to stay in my goddamn lane because I don’t get to have an opinion about whether or not I find it ridiculous that people are making a big deal of others using the word ‘spirit animal’ (Yup, that happened). Such stances kind of do remind me of when I would have grades taken off my exams because I forgot to use the capital G for god. It reminds of of debates where people bled each other to death about whether writing ‘God’ was more acceptable or the word ‘Allah’.
And don’t tell me that this is a stance I have due to coming from a place of privilege — the reality is that because I was once rather big on this whole cultural appropriation thing, I know exactly where the other side is coming from. I was on that side. Did I tell you how years ago in High School these white girls made fun of this long-shirt type of dress (called kurti) I wore with my tights often. It’s traditional and modern at the same time. So anyway, these white girls made fun of that. And then I saw years later that some white actress had made it a fashion and now it was cool and awesome. And I found it fucked up.
I hated these white fashion models for wearing it but now I realize I was feeling this way because of racism I had faced, because it made me feel so powerless and helpless to see what I was mocked for was considered cool for someone else, I wanted that thing back for myself. I was mocked for it, so it should be all mine, right? But then I realized I did not want this thing back so much as I wanted to just have NOT faced racism. That, in some ways, I was being at least a little petty by making it about a thing, a piece of clothing, when it was about racism. I was thinking owning said thing would give me some semblance of control back, but it wouldn’t, it never does.
Racism is at the core of it all — and some random white woman I saw on the street wearing that piece of clothing was not among the ones who made fun of me, even if she decided never to wear said piece of clothing, that racism is gonna be there to stay. The scars from racism I still have would continue to be there. A racism that takes various forms — things about one’s culture being mocked is one of them. Racism is the issue here, not someone wearing said piece of clothing. In fact, in some ways, to use the word cultural appropriation complicates the discussion of racism. I might as well just call it straight up racism rather than cultural appropriation.
The anger I felt then for seeing white women in that outfit was not really an anger at the action of wearing something — that is completely harmless to be very honest. Anger was poisoning in this instance because, when I think about it, I would rather speak against the white women that were racist to me than hurl accusations of being a racist at any white woman who might enjoy wearing said thing. It seemed borderline fascistic to do so. But you see what I mean? I feel cultural appropriation issue markets itself as fighting social injustice that is racism — but it entirely detracts from the issue of racism.
It’s no longer about the racism you faced. It’s about someone wearing a thing/saying a thing/eating a thing/blissfully enjoying a thing. It’s about this whole fight about whose ancestors owned what. (By the way, still entirely failing here to see the connection between saying spirit animal and oppression that indigenous people face). Besides, nationalism is often at the core of all this — just search up on the movement to ban yoga, and you will have proof of that. And yoga, that is an interesting one.
Many of the people taking offense because yoga has become so mainstream give you this idea that yoga somehow belongs to everyone in India — it does not, it only belongs to the privileged rich ones, it belongs to the upper castes. It does not belong to Dalits — and I feel making it more accessible to them is a far more worthy cause than trying to ban it in the West. But hey that’s just me. I urge everyone to just really question the notion of any said thing belonging to an entire culture — question whether or not it really belongs to everyone in that culture — question whether or not the person telling you this speaks for everyone in their culture. Also, like India exports yoga willfully, consensually. Are you gonna tell me they suffer from internalized racism?
Brown people accusing black people of appropriating their culture is my favourite. To quote S. Varatharajah:
“When South Asians accuse East Africans of cultural appropriation, it is less about cultural relations or power dynamics at play. It’s about brownness and blackness. It boils down to a question of race-relations and border demarcations. Such accusations stem from both widespread ignorance, but also plain old racism. A few months ago, I started my own tweet conversation on the topic, and here’s an elaboration.
The sight of a Somali woman wearing a multi-coloured dirac wrapped around her body, or that of an Ethiopian woman with henna painted on her hands irritates many South Asians because it challenges centuries-old myths about their place in this world and racial hierarchy. It’s a sharp reminder that there are understudied connections between these two parts of the world and many of its diverse communities. But, many South Asians would rather want to sweep those under the rug and pretend they didn’t exist.”
You can read the rest of his awesome article here:
https://medium.com/@varathas/connecting-the-disconnected-when-south-asians-accuse-east-africans-of-cultural-appropriation-76527a872484#.s1pl62kvj
What’s telling to me is that a lot of my fellow South Asians made a bigger fuss about Beyonce “appropriating” South Asian culture in one of her videos than they did about her being an actual sweat-shop owner. I mean, are people’s priorities so messed that symbols and microaggressions matter to them much more than serious issues?
Here is another thing you probably do not realize: What you often see as cultural appropriation and “problematic” is something a lot of PoC’s livelihoods depend on. There are people whose livelihoods depend on selling cultural clothing, cultural crafts, etc in festivals for instance. And they seem nothing but happy about the fact that their work gets the recognition and appreciation it deserved. I know a single brown mom whose livelihood (at least, some part of it) depends on applying henna on people’s hands. Her work is very much appreciated, she is incredibly proud of it. You are told you make a big goddamn difference by not being a consumer of henna tattoos, but you are making just about as much of a fucking difference as you do when you consume “fair-trade” coffee which isn’t actually fair-trade (yup, read up on that too).
I do care about social justice. I do care about racism and when I do see that racism, I refuse to let it go. I have faced racism — it is a fact of my life as a woman of colour. But I refuse to be on the cultural appropriation bandwagon — I find it nearly insulting that while I deal with people’s harsh judgment for the colour of my skin, that while I have faced actual physical violence for it — there are people who care so goddamn much about who gets to wear henna on their hands and who doesn’t. How about making this world a safer place for me? How about not deciding on my behalf what could offend me?
The conversation about cultural appropriation has become increasingly hard for me to take seriously. I feel that a lot of what drives it is the feeling of utter powerlessness to control anything other than mere symbols. I get that, I do. But I refuse to be part of this conversation.
Cultural appropriation is largely no longer about racism, but about taking ownership of every simple mundane thing in order to feel a sense of control in a world that constantly deprives people of colour of it.
P.S. There is a second piece I just wrote on this topic which is in response to some of the very valid criticism I received, and the very valid concerns some people brought to the table. I have considered your points, and here is my response to you: https://medium.com/@FarahKarenina/cultural-appropriation-needs-more-nuance-a-response-to-your-responses-e8abaf84b516#.9tpn7w4akHONG KONG — Australia said on Wednesday that a foreign intelligence service had hacked into the country’s meteorology bureau last year, copying “an unknown quantity of documents” from its computer system.
A report, issued by the Australian Cyber Security Center, did not accuse any particular country of carrying out the intrusion. The hacking was reported last year by the Australian news media, which suggested that China was behind the breach, though its Foreign Ministry later denied that.
Australian investigators found evidence of malware popular with “state-sponsored cyber adversaries,” according to the report, which called the security controls at the Bureau of Meteorology “insufficient.”
The bureau has one of Australia’s most powerful supercomputers and provides important information to other government agencies. The bureau said on Wednesday that it continued to provide reliable information on the weather, climate, oceans and water, adding that its systems were fully operational.If companies in Britain paid, proportionally, as much tax as they did in the last year of Mrs Thatcher’s prime ministership, the country would be £30bn better off. There would still be a deficit, but the fiscal situation would be transformed. The crisis talk of the unprecedented reshaping of the state to the same level – in terms of percentage of GDP – as it stood in the 1930s would recede. It would not be necessary.
The chancellor has nothing if not sensitive political antennae. This kind of claim cannot be allowed to get any traction. It is a political imperative that he and his allies keep the national conversation away from the structure of the tax base. Instead they need to concentrate firmly on the shortcomings of the allegedly inefficient state and featherbedding of the welfare system – always taken as axiomatic – and thus the inevitable necessity for their reshaping and downsizing. The Conservative party’s brand is toxic enough without being seen as being soft on companies and tough on the poor and average citizen.
So last week Mr Osborne announced the popular profits diversion tax, or Google tax. It is widely advertised that he is doing all in his power to increase the tax take from rogue multinationals who artificially organise their affairs to reduce their British taxes. Company directors have a new duty to notify Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs every year if, in their opinion, their tax arrangements qualify as artificial: instead of paying 21% corporation tax they would pay a penalty 25%. It was left unsaid in the accompanying documents, but any financial officer who did not notify the tax authorities of what his or her company was doing would risk being disqualified from holding office.
Tax “experts” will self-interestedly say the measure will raise little tax and is futile: my contrary expectation is that most financial directors will value their reputation, professional certification and right to retain directorships– and comply. The measure is estimated to raise only a projected extra £360m when fully operational in two years’ time. My hunch is the yield will be very much larger if it is implemented with any bite. But its real importance is that it will deter more companies from following the American IT sector’s lead in routing profits through a complex network of overseas tax havens, and so shore up the UK corporate tax base. It is long overdue.
Even 10 years ago companies were contributing proportionally around £20bn more to the UK exchequer than they are now. If the reduction in corporate tax rates engineered by Mr Osborne had been matched by a surge of investment and high wage jobs, the foregone tax revenue might have been justified. Instead, investment rates languish, rising only very slowly from a very low base – while the British state faces a generational fiscal crisis.
The profits diversion tax marks the end of 35 years of politicians chasing the chimera of a hoped-for economic nirvana from cutting corporation tax – from 52% in 1980 to 21% today. Then, corporation tax generated around 10% of all tax revenue: by 2018/19, on the Institute for Fiscal Studies’ projections, the proportion will have fallen to under 6%, the collapse in the rate partially compensated by withdrawing some allowances. This cannot go any further.
Nor is that where the bending of the tax system – and the state – to accommodate companies’ chosen behaviour stops. Over the same years there has been a monumental bidding down of wages as the share of company profits has risen by 6%, in terms of GDP, with wages falling by a commensurate amount. Britain in 2014 has over 13.5 million people living on incomes at or below 60% of the median. In 1978 the comparable figure stood at 7.1 million.
The government’s finances have been profoundly affected. In order for this desperate army of disadvantaged people, 6.5 million higher than in 1978, to pay their rent or service their mortgages, have clothes on their back and not go hungry, the state’s spending on housing benefits and tax credits for those in work has exploded from around 1 to some 3% of GDP.
The profits model of too many British companies, and the quintupling of directors’ pay in relation to the average over this period, has thus relied on a huge reshaping of the state. By topping up disposable incomes the state has allowed companies to freeze or cut real wages without workforces being provoked into organising themselves into trade unions. Indeed, arguably the state is paying part of what should be workers’ wages if they were remunerated properly.
By cutting corporate tax rates for the consequent rising profits, the state endows companies with yet more cash for dividend distributions and share buy-backs. The total bill for additional income support and reduced corporation taxes compared with the 1980s runs at around 4% of GDP a year. There is no alternative, argue this system’s defenders. In an open economy wage rates and company tax rates are set by international competition.
Only up to a point. What is striking about the international system is the variety of tax regimes, wage and profit shares – and the lack of convergence, as the IFS’s exhaustive review of the tax system, led by Nobel Laureate Professor James Mirrlees, pointed out. There is plenty of scope for redesigning our tax system to make it fairer, increase its yield and refashion the bargain between companies and the state if we choose. Mr Osborne’s profits diversion tax is a classic example of the freedom governments have: all they need is the will to exercise it.
To do that there has to be a belief that public activity is not endemically inefficient so that tax pounds are inevitably wasted – and a greater readiness to demand concrete quid pro quos from companies for tax reductions, credits and rebates. At the very least, when companies receive incentives to undertake investment or new research, directors should be placed under a parallel duty to declare that the consequent revenues will pay UK tax at the required rate.
And as someone, like many readers, who has spent many hours waiting for private internet providers, retailers, banks and satellite TV companies to deliver on time or fix whatever fault, I think it would be great if we could drop the fiction that the state is always inefficient and the private sector always perfect. That is not to say the state does not need to change. But the reshaping should not be a one-way street. Our companies need to change too.There are tons of reasons why No. 2 Clemson lost to Pittsburgh on Saturday in Death Valley.
First off, three turnovers, two in the red zone, and that will kill a team’s chances for winning almost every time. Secondly, the Tigers could not pick up one yard on third-and-fourth down to seal the victory with 58 seconds to play. And lastly, the defense could not cover the running backs or the tight ends.
And as difficult as it already is to win when Clemson does not execute on those plays, having referee Duane Heydt, a South Carolina graduate, call the game makes it a little more difficult than it already is.
Why?
Let’s just say Heydt’s track record for officiating Clemson games has not been too well this year.
Prior to the game on Saturday, The Clemson Insider learned from a source that the Clemson coaching staff was not thrilled about Heydt and his staff receiving the assignment for the Pittsburgh game.
Against Georgia Tech earlier this year, Heydt’s staff, with the exception of one new person in Death Valley on Saturday, officiated that game. Clemson was penalized 10 times for 80 yards, both season highs at the time.
Due to the way Clemson played that night in Atlanta, and how dominant they were, the fact that the Tigers got penalized that many times got lost in the shuffle. However, the Clemson coaches noticed and here is why.
In the five other Clemson league games in which Heydt’s grew was not calling a Clemson game, the Tigers were penalized 44 yards less per game. In the Georgia Tech game, Clemson was penalized 65 more yards than Georgia Tech and 61 more against Pitt on Saturday.
The average of the two games in which Heydt’s crew refereed Clemson games was 10 for 91 yards, while the opponents averaged just three for 28 yards.
Against Pitt, the Tigers (9-1, 6-1 ACC) were flagged nine times for 101 yards, while Pitt was called for just three penalties for 40 yards.
In the two Clemson games Heydt’s crew officiated this season, the Tigers were flagged 19 times for a combined 181 yards. Clemson’s opponents were flagged five times for 55 yards.
Without Heydt’s crew, Clemson has been penalized just 27 times in five ACC games for 236 yards, while the opposition has 53 called penalties for 442 yards.
In ACC games in which Heydt’s crew was not officiating, the Tigers have been flagged for an average of five penalties for 47 yards a game, while the opponents have been penalized 11 times for 88 yards.
An interesting statistic from the Pitt game. In the Panthers’ final four touchdown drives, Clemson was called for either holding or pass interference on all four drives after Clemson made critical stops on third down. Two of those plays were on third-and-10, one third-and-eight and one third-and-seven.72% of Indian business establishments have suffered a cyber attack, revealed a report released by KPMG on Monday. The report, titled the Cybercrime Survey Report 2015 had 250 respondents including CIOs, CISOs, CAEs, CROs and COOs from around the country,
94% of the respondents felt that cyber threats are one of the major threats to businesses, with 41% admitting that these discussions form part of the agenda in the boardroom.
The report also revealed that 74% respondents felt that the BFSI sector is a top target for cyber crime, with 63% indicating these crimes more often amount to gross financial loss. 55% of respondents said that there was theft of sensitive information, with 49% reporting reputational damage.
83% respondents indicated that there is usually external involvement in cyber attacks, with the management being most vulnerable according to 64%. 54% respondents said that the annual spend on cyber defences is less than 5% of IT spend.
74% respondents said that there was no detailed cyber risk assessment in their establishments while 78% did not have a cyber incident response plan, with 62% of them admitting to having no logging and monitoring of critical systems.
“Cyber criminals have understood the potential of an illicit financial gain and have begun executing highly sophisticated technology-driven frauds. These cyber frauds, by nature, are complex and difficult to detect. Organisations need to strengthen their cyber incident response process along with building strong prevention and detection systems,” said Mohit Bahl, Partner and Head Forensics, KPMG in India. Sameer Ratolikar, CISO at HDFC Bank said that in the digital age, cyber frauds have become more complicated. “Social engineering, advanced malware, such as ransomware, application layer attacks and cyber extortion, are some of the varied vectors used by cybercriminals. Organisations need to have a comprehensive prevention, detection and cyber resilience framework in place,” he said.
Amit Pradhan, CISO at Vodafone said that an early response to cyber frauds revealed the organisations' preparedness. “Collaborative intelligence from various sources enhances the organisation’s readiness to respond to various types of cyber crimes. However, organisations are unable to limit the impact of cyber crime as they are still faced with challenges of increasing reaction agility, reducing incident response time and absence of a strong legislation to help in effective legal recourse,” he said.Update: Why is unemployment in Spain so unbelievably high? Three reasons.
Europe is an utter disaster zone. It's a banking crisis wrapped in a sovereign debt crisis wrapped in a mystery: How the heck do we unwind all of this?
But when the day-to-day news about the euro's slow meltdown focuses on bond yields and stock jitters, we often leave out the most human statistic, which is the continent's extraordinary -- and extraordinarily uneven -- unemployment rates.
While Germany chugs along with 5.5% joblessness, Spain and Greece are battling unemployment around 20%. This year along, those countries' jobless rates have put |
help to solve problems created by total automatization. Everybody will be customer and manufacturers in one moment. So, we will have new economic relations and new professions.”Man Of Steel sees a more conflicted Superman (Picture: Warner Bros)
The Dark Knight Rises director Christopher Nolan has suggested that Zack Snyder will have his work cut out for him on Man Of Steel, as he believes Superman is harder to bring to life than Batman.
Nolan, revered for his Batman trilogy, is executive producer on the upcoming comic book adaptation.
He said that he believes director Zack Snyder is ‘the perfect man to take on [Superman]’, but that it could be an uphill struggle.
‘In my honest appraisal, taking on Superman and creating that world is far more difficult than creating the world of the Dark Knight,’ Nolan told The Hollywood Reporter.
Christopher Nolan’s interpretation of Batman was well-received (Picture: Getty)
‘[Snyder] has a lot of finishing to do on the movie – it has a very long post-production schedule because, unlike Batman, Superman flies.’
The first trailer for Man Of Steel was released earlier this month, teasing a more human take on the caped crusader, his struggles with the law and his reservations over using his powers as a child on the Smallville farm.
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Snyder previously said he wanted to make Superman more ‘relatable’ and ‘relevant’ in the new movie.
Man Of Steel will hit cinemas on June 14, 2013.Image caption Is getting on your bike a realistic alternative to taking the car during the peak of the rush hour?
Like many people I own a bike. For the past year it has been more of a wall decoration in the garage, rather than a means of transport.
I have only ever been a fair-weather leisure cyclist, but on my way to work I see those on two-wheels for whom it is the daily commute.
For tonight's Inside Out programme I got on my bike to experience rush hour through the eyes of a cyclist.
If the British weather weren't enough of a deterrent, the accident statistics don't make great reading.
One hundred and eleven cyclists have been killed on our roads so far this year.
Needless to say I had no intention of adding to the latest statistics that show an 18% rise in the number of cyclists killed or seriously injured in the North East and Cumbria.
Percentage of trips by bike Newcastle upon Tyne (UK) 2%
Groningen (NL) 60%
The figures for the region comparing 2010 with 2011 are worse than the national average.
I had a high vis jacket, lights, safety helmet and reflective bands on my legs.
Even so, as a two-wheeler you feel very vulnerable when cars are only a matter of inches away in the rush hour.
The route took me along a seven mile journey where there is currently little provision for bikes, so it was me versus the car.
For the most part I was travelling faster than the motorists who were caught up in the usual peak time snarl ups.
I suspect that didn't endear me to some, but I actually found most motorists were courteous at junctions and lights, giving me room and time to cross.
Cycling hazards
I noticed that sometimes it was difficult to stick to the kerb because drain covers were often below the road surface; it wasn't just bumpy but potentially could have thrown me out of the saddle.
On the odd occasion that cycle lanes appear they often take you right over these hazards.
I also rode through the streets of York which claims to be one of the more bike-friendly cities in the UK. But even here the cycle lanes can be so short and random as to be more hindrance then help.
Image caption Cycle lanes are sometimes short and random even in bike-friendly cities like York
At one point the dedicated lane was interrupted by official parking bays so you end up zigzagging in and out of the path of the other traffic.
In Newcastle city centre the council have installed a cyclists traffic light.
If you are heading from the City Baths towards Northumberland Street the dedicated light turns green while all other car approaches are held at red.
It sounds great, but if you set off on green and go straight over the junction you are led into head-on conflict with pedestrians whose crossing light is also on green.
It seems we need more joined-up thinking.
There are lots of campaigners arguing we need to follow the example of places like Holland where 60% of journeys are made by bike.
There are also many more cycle ways and there is even a heated one to keep the surface clear in winter.
The UK average for cycle trips is only 2%. The difference can't be explained away by the flatness of the Dutch landscape.
'Them and us'
Cyclists and non-cyclists seem to be at loggerheads.
Maybe if more of us cycled more regularly it wouldn't be such a 'them and us' situation Chris Jackson
When we were filming a woman tapped me on the shoulder to ask whether we were doing something about the menace of bike rider on pavements.
I've heard some motorists say cyclists don't pay road tax so should not be on the highway.
Maybe if more of us cycled more regularly it wouldn't be such a 'them and us' situation.
Motorists might have a bit more sympathy if all cyclists followed the highway code.
We've all seen those on two-wheels go through a red light as if it didn't apply to them.
In fact when I was using that special cycle traffic light, I was crossing over when another cyclist flew across my path having run a red.
Similarly my other nearest collision was when I was turning left at some lights when a pedestrian decided to ignore the little red man and tried to cross in front of me as I turned the corner.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Is getting on your bike a realistic alternative to taking the car?
The experience did open my eyes and as a motorist I will certainly give cyclists more time and space.
Would I be tempted to use my bike instead of the car?
Well, the experiment taught me I could actually do the distance.
However, the unpredictability of the weather forecast and what may lie ahead on the next stretch of road means until it becomes a pleasure, my bike will be reserved for leisure.
Watch Inside Out on BBC One North East and Cumbria at 19:30 GMT on Monday, 3 December 2012The Thread is an in-depth look at how major news and controversies are being debated across the online spectrum.
On Wednesday, John J. Doherty, like countless other New Yorkers, was stuck in the snow, and had to hire a couple of enterprising shovelers to remove his Chevy Tahoe from a drift in Brooklyn. It would have been an unremarkable moment, were Doherty not the city’s sanitation commissioner, the man responsible for unburying the rest of us. “It was,” he told The Times’s Sam Dolnick, “very embarrassing.” Well, perhaps he can take comfort in the fact that he’s not the only one red in the face on this New Year’s weekend.
As John Lindsay found out in 1969, New Yorkers are inclined to blame the mayor for Mother Nature’s wrath. And Mayor Michael Bloomberg chose to make a virtue out of necessity by taking the blame: “The results are not what we wanted them to be. We’ll figure out what happened this time and try to make it better next time.”
That was small consolation to some. The Times’ Paul Krugman called it “Bloomberg’s Katrina”: “He just faced a major test of crisis management — and it’s been a Brownie-you’re-doing-a-heck-of-a-job moment. I was wondering why NYC’s storm response was such a mess; it turns out that the city administration basically refused to take the warnings seriously, long after anyone watching the Weather Channel knew that a blizzard was coming.”
Christopher London questioned whether it was “Bloomberg’s Waterloo,” then decided that was a bit over top:
If nothing else, it seems to have empowered his critics and emboldened political opportunists positioning themselves for the post Bloomberg era, even if others are more forgiving. Nuance would remind folks that here at the close of the decade, nine years after 9/11, 2 years after the financial collapse and in the midst of the most troubling economic data and highest levels of unemployment in post WW II America, New York City remains one of the most vibrant and important cities in the world. The world still wants to visit New York City.
And when Gawker looked to place the blame, Doherty again found himself stuck in the muck:
Many of the snow-plow operators had no idea what they were doing. According to the Daily News, at least 100 of the snow plow crews included “rookie drivers working their first storm. They had only two weeks of instruction, and just a few days of driving.” The City didn’t bother to ask private crews to help. Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty told the Times that he should have asked for help sooner. “If we had the private industry and the front-end loaders early, come in, it would have been a big help, no question about it. It is a problem.” Why didn’t he? “The problem, he said, rested largely with him. He said he might have taken too long to make the first calls for private help. He said he had become too consumed with deploying thousands of his own workers.”
Bloomberg wasn’t the only area official to feel the heat. “New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) and his lieutenant governor were told Sunday about the blizzard barreling down on the Garden State,” wrote Steve Benen at Washington Monthly. “Soon after, they left town at the same time, with Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno (R) and her family flying to Mexico, and Christie and his family going to Disney World in Florida. It left state Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D) in charge as the acting governor, and by all appearances, he’s handling everything fine … No need to cut short the Disney vacation; the Democrat seems to have everything under control.”
The Corner’s Robert Costa considers it a slip, if not a big one: “Christie, for his part, has ably handled such storms before. In February, for example, he gained notice for leading during another icy emergency. With a scarf wrapped around his neck, he toured the Garden State, managing it all. His absence this week, of course, is a minor issue. But for an image-savvy pol, it is also out of character.”
Vanity Fair found a hero in the Garden State, Mayor Cory Booker of Newark, who found plenty of time to tweet between shovelings. Zandar at No More Mr. Nice Blog revels in the comparison: “So the Republicans bolt town and leave the Democrats to do the responsible governing part of the Governor’s job when a mess comes barreling down the pike, and they come through admirably. Meanwhile, Gov. Christie might be back by the end of the week from Disney World and the important things: gym, tan, laundry.”
On Thursday, back across the Hudson, The New York Post dropped a bomb on the blizzard:
Selfish Sanitation Department bosses from the snow-slammed outer boroughs ordered their drivers to snarl the blizzard cleanup to protest budget cuts — a disastrous move that turned streets into a minefield for emergency-services vehicles, The Post has learned. Miles of roads stretching from as north as Whitestone, Queens, to the south shore of Staten Island still remained treacherously unplowed last night because of the shameless job action, several sources and a city lawmaker said, which was over a raft of demotions, attrition and budget cuts.
Here’s the catch: the scoop was courtesy of a Republican city council member, and relied on the word of some unnamed sanitation workers. The Post explained:
“They sent a message to the rest of the city that these particular labor issues are more important,” said City Councilman Dan Halloran (R-Queens), who was visited yesterday by a group of guilt-ridden sanitation workers who confessed the shameless plot. Halloran said he met with three plow workers from the Sanitation Department — and two Department of Transportation supervisors who were on loan — at his office after he was flooded with irate calls from constituents.
While the mayor initially played it cool, another official was heated: “This morning, Gov. Paterson called for a criminal investigation into the slowdown claims,” reported Gothamist. ” ‘I just think the whole thing would be outrageous, if it’s actually true,’ Paterson said.”
And the right wing of the blogosphere was on fire. Here’s Michael Laprarie at Wizbang:
Public employees charged with ensuring public safety have no excuse to order their subordinates [to] stop working. None. These people are a disgrace, just like the hundreds of New Orleans police officers who deserted the city in the wake of the Katrina flood. When unionized federal air traffic controllers walked off the job in 1981 in order to pressure the government into giving them more generous salary and benefits packages, President Ronald Reagan did the right thing — he fired [them]. People died in New York City because emergency responders couldn’t get through the ice and snow-clogged streets. Let’s hope that Mayor Bloomberg does the right thing and sends the right message to the sanitation department — if you interfere with the welfare of our citizens, you’re through.
“How is this not criminally negligent homicide on the part of every person who slowed down the snow removal on purpose?” asks Aaron Worthing at Patterico’s Pontifications, noting that a newly-delivered baby died in the lobby of a Brooklyn building where the mother spent nine hours in labor. “I mean there is a factual question of whether the child could have lived if s/he had received timely help. And assuming that question is answered in the affirmative, I wouldn’t be surprised if the standard is gross negligence. But doesn’t this count as gross negligence? ”
Ed Morrissey at Hot Air, however, urged his fellow conservatives to wait until we know all the facts:
I’m a little skeptical, but mainly because the primary source for the conspiracy theory is an elected official who can expect to be held accountable for the poor performance thus far in the Big Apple. Also, the Twin Cities had the same level of snowfall a few weeks ago, and snow removal was a problem for us, too. Minneapolis/St Paul and the first-ring suburbs have a large amount of infrastructure to deal with heavy snowfalls and about a fifth of the population, and we still have huge piles of snow blocking sidewalks downtown. Heck, we can’t even get the Metrodome fixed; now, the estimate for repair and reinflation is the end of March. I’m not sure that NYC could have done better, with its relatively smaller snow-removal infrastructure, lack of places to put the snow, and population density. Is it possible that this was a coordinated slowdown effort by public-sector unions to make Bloomberg and city officials look incompetent? Sure, but the simpler answers are usually closer to the truth. The simpler answers here are that this was freakishly heavy snowfall in a city not used to such things, and, well, it has a mayor more interested in salt use in restaurants than on the roads.
As did Megan McArdle of the Atlantic:
I’d like to see some better backup than a politician claiming he has secret union informants. If it is true that the trucks were driving around with their plows up, refusing to plow any but the streets they were specifically directed to plow, presumably there will be witnesses who saw this. Similarly, I assume that people noticed if their streets were plowed with the plows set too high, requiring a second pass. In individual cases, that won’t tell you whether it was an organized plan, incompetent individual workers, or workers who were simply trying to score a little extra overtime for themselves. But in aggregate, it should be possible to detect a pattern. Couldn’t the Post find anyone in Queens or the Bronx who claims to have seen this misbehavior? Hopefully, Bloomberg will appoint some sort of investigative committee–after all, it’s his political price to pay.
Indeed, just ask John Lindsay …Last Thursday, in my post Southern Baptist pastor accepts his gay son, changes his church, I published a letter to me from Danny Cortez, pastor of New Heart Community Church, a small Southern Baptist church in Los Angeles. Pastor Cortez’s moving testimony concerned his son, Drew, coming out to him as gay not long after the pastor had come to understand that there is nothing inherently sinful about homosexuality.
Pastor Cortez said:
[My church] just voted two Sundays ago, on May 18, 2014, to not dismiss me, and to instead become a Third Way church (agree to disagree and not cast judgement on one another ….) This is a huge step for a Southern Baptist Church!!
Albert Mohler is the most prominent leader of the Southern Baptist Convention (or simply “Southern Baptists,” as the denomination is commonly known). The SBC is the nation’s largest Protestant body, with a total membership of 15.7 million.
Mr. Mohler is not happy with Pastor Danny. Largely in response to Danny’s letter to me, Mohler today published on his blog, There Is No ‘Third Way’ — Southern Baptists Face a Moment of Decision (and so will you). In his essay Mr. Mohler explicitly and repeatedly rejects the idea of a “third way” for Southern Baptists:
There is no third way on this [the gay] issue … the issue is binary. A church will recognize same-sex relationships, or it will not. A congregation will teach a biblical position on the sinfulness of same-sex acts, or it will affirm same-sex behaviors as morally acceptable. Ministers will perform same-sex ceremonies, or they will not.
Like my friend Tony Jones, I agree with Mohler about the unviability of a “third way” when it comes to relationships between the church and LGBT people. And (despite Mohler’s observation, “It is interesting that those on the left now understand the issue in the same ‘binary” terms'”) I have felt that way for years. Two years ago almost to the day, in fact, I published Christians and LGBT Equality: There Is No Middle Ground*, in which (as obnoxious as I know it is to quote oneself) I wrote:
When it comes to the issue of LGBT equality, there is no middle ground. There can’t be. The Christian/LGBT issue is a moral issue. And moral issues are by definition about right and wrong. And this particular moral issue is one of no small consequence. There couldn’t be more at stake with it. The Christians on one side of this debate are claiming that, in the eyes of God, those on the other side are less than human.
So me and my ol’ pal Al (for years he and I were fellow bloggers on the Christian website Crosswalk.com) agree that when it comes to the relationship between Christianity and LGBT people, a middle or “third” way is no way at all.
But where I count on people’s consciences (not to mention their ability to simply reason) to sooner or later tip them to fall to the left side of the proverbial fence upon which they may be balancing, Mr. Mohler prods them rightward with the long arm of the law—the Southern Baptist law, that is. He writes:
Now, the Southern Baptist Convention also faces a moment of unavoidable decision. A church related to the Convention has officially adopted a gay-affirming position. The Baptist Faith & Message, the denomination’s confession of faith, states that homosexuality is immoral and that marriage is “the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime.” Furthermore, the Convention’s constitution states explicitly that any congregation that endorses homosexual behavior is “not in cooperation with the Convention,” and thus excluded from its membership.
So, there it is. When it comes to marriage, Southern Baptists, bound by their allegiance to Jesus Christ, must adhere to the letter of the SBC law, as laid down in the denomination’s Baptist Faith & Message. That is Mr. Mohler’s message today. (And, notably, it’s one he delivers with unsubtle threats which he knows will not be lost on small SBC churches across the land: “There will be no place to hide, and no place safe from eventual interrogation. The question will be asked, an invitation will be extended, a matter of policy must be decided, and there will be no refuge.” His threat is, indeed, in the very title of his essay. And, btw, speaking of … well, totalitarian fear-mongering, yes, the image above is from the [new, I believe] header of Mr. Mohler’s blog. Why he chose such a full-on Nazi look I have no idea.)
Except … wait a minute. As we have just seen, the Baptist Faith & Message defines marriage as “a covenant commitment for a lifetime.”
For a lifetime.
This can mean but one thing: every Southern Baptist church is morally obliged to reject from its membership any person who has ever been divorced. And any church that does contendedly count among its members those who have ever chosen to end their marriage cannot be “in cooperation with the Convention, and must thus be excluded from its membership.”
But that’s not what SBC churches do, is it? And why might we suppose that is? Why does the SBC so vociferously cling to the first half of its apparently critical law on marriage, while so utterly ignoring that same law’s second half?
Well, duh. Because the SBC knows that if it ejected from its membership all divorced people its churches would be half-empty before they could say, “Wait! Come back! Just like we finally renounced our endemic racism in 1995, we’ve rethought divorce!” (Sure, that takes a little time to say. But not much!)
Wallets, of course (and especially, alas, those belonging to the professionally pious) are the Kryptonite of moral fortitude: the closer the two draw together, the weaker grows the fortitude.
So divorced people get to stay in church, but gay people and their professed allies must leave church.
Now, far be it from me to presume to teach Dr. Albert Mohler anything about the Bible. But one cannot help but wonder if he is aware of Jesus’ words at Luke 16:18:
Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
Or of Jesus’ words in Mark 10:
“A man [said Jesus] will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. He answered, “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”
And is Dr. Mohler also unaware that in all of the New Testament Jesus says literally nothing about homosexuality? Nothing? Ever? Not once? For a moment? Total silence on the matter?
Since when does what Jesus didn’t say trump what Jesus does appear to say?
(To be clear: I think the idea that divorce is a sin belongs in the same fetid trash heap as the ideas that women are chattel, black people should be slaves, and Jesus had a pet stegosaurus. It’s too much to go into here, but of course divorce is no sin—and Jesus is not, in fact, saying that it is. My only point for now is that if you’re going to insist on playing the idiot game of Literal Bible, then at least stick to the rules.)
Albert Mohler postures himself as resolutely defending God’s law. But what he is so aggressively brandishing is not God’s law. It is instead man’s bigotry. To purposefully and willfully twist the Bible into a harmful weapon is as unbiblical, and as unchristian, as it gets. That he and the SBC continue to do so is a crying shame, and certainly nothing less.
*Christians and LGBT Equality: There Is No Middle Ground is included in my book UFAIR: Christians and the LGBT Question."In Ohio, more than half the providers of safe and legal abortion have had to shut down" since Gov. John Kasich took office in 2011.
Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood, told a crowd of women in Los Angeles how she really feels about the idea of Gov. John Kasich, R-Ohio, winning the presidential election: "It would be a complete and utter disaster."
She continued, "Gov. Kasich has come off as a moderate, only by comparison to Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, but it’s really important to know in Ohio, more than half the providers of safe and legal abortion have had to shut down. He signed 17 separate bills to restrict reproductive access in the state."
We looked more closely to find out how many of Ohio’s abortion providers had closed, and whether it could be attributed to Kasich’s leadership.
Ohio’s chapter of NARAL Pro-Choice America has been keeping tabs on clinic closings and openings. They say that since 2011, Kasich’s first year in office, eight of the 16 surgical abortion clinics have closed or stopped performing abortions. A new provider in Akron opened in the summer of 2015, bringing the total number of functioning surgical abortion clinics in the state to nine.
PolitiFact Ohio confirmed NARAL’s tally of closings in Ohio, in chronological order:
February 2011, the Mahoning Valley Women’s Center, Youngstown
June 2012, Capital Care Network, Columbus
April 2013, Capital Care Network, Akron
October 2013, Center for Choice, Toledo
October 2013, Cleveland Center for Women’s Health
June 2014, Cleveland Surgi-Center
August 2014, Complete Healthcare for Women, Columbus
August 2014, Women’s Medical Center of Cincinnati
They key legislation that caused at least four of the clinics to close was passed in Ohio’s 2013 budget (HB 59). Kasich signed into law regulations that equate to a Catch-22 for abortion providers. HB 59 requires all ambulatory surgical facilities to have a transfer agreement with a local hospital to admit patients in case of emergency. At the same time, the law prohibits public hospitals from entering into transfer agreements with abortion providers. H.B. 59, 130th Gen. Assemb., Reg. Sess. (Ohio 2013)
In 2013, the New York Times wrote about Ohio’s changing climate for women’s reproductive rights. "Ohio has become a laboratory for what anti-abortion leaders call the incremental strategy — passing a web of rules designed to push the hazy boundaries of Supreme Court guidelines without flagrantly violating them."
Michael Gonidakis, president of Ohio Right to Life, put it more succinctly last year, when the Columbus Dispatch quoted him as saying, "The goal is to end abortion."
The transfer agreement legislation shut down Toledo’s Center for Choice; the center was unable to get a transfer agreement from a private hospital after legislation outlawed their agreement with the public University of Toledo Medical Center. Today, their phone number forwards calls to a clinic in Michigan, the next-closest location for women seeking surgical abortions in the area.
Likewise, the Women’s Medical Center of Cincinnati was denied an exception to their transfer agreement from the Ohio Health Department and went to court to fight the decision in Hamilton County. The center lost in court and closed in August 2014.
A representative at Cleveland’s Surgi-Center told PolitiFact that when their location’s lease was up in July 2014, they had to move, which meant applying for a new ambulatory surgical center license through the Ohio Department of Health. "Knowing all the problems other clinics were having," the Surgi-Center stopped performing abortions. They still provide reproductive health services like STD screening and birth control.
The Cleveland Center for Women’s Health closed in 2013 and relocated to Detroit, Mich., where there are fewer regulations for clinics that do abortions.
The other four shuttered abortion providers closed for reasons that are not as directly tied to state regulations. The Mahoning Valley center in Youngstown closed as a business decision, according to NARAL. The Capital Care Network location in Akron closed after state inspectors identified safety violations that temporarily halted services, and the provider opted to close rather than correct the issues. In Columbus, Capital Care merged with Founders’ Women’s Health, another abortion provider.
Finally, according to NARAL, the doctors with Complete Healthcare for Women, who still provide complete women’s health care services other than surgical abortions, never gave an explanation for why they stopped performing the procedures after 2014.
Our ruling
Richards said that "more than half the providers of safe and legal abortion have had to shut down."
PolitiFact confirmed that since 2011, seven abortion providers have closed and an eighth stopped performing surgical abortions. That’s half of the previous 16 providers in the state -- not more than half.
Also, four of the eight providers closed for reasons associated with provisions in HB 59, which Kasich signed. But that law hasn’t been directly tied to the other four abortion providers’ decisions to shut down.
We rate Richards’ statement Half True.LAST DROP GONE: Roxy was left pawless after drinking four litres of cask wine last Wednesday night.
Roxy now knows excess alcohol can make you as sick as a dog.
The two-year-old labrador was left with a monster of a hangover last week after it drunk its way through four litres of cask wine.
Roxy's owner Anne went out to the garage last Wednesday night to discover two empty casks and Roxy snoring in the corner. Anne is a sales merchandiser for Independent Liquor and the casks were for a customer.
Roxy being a labrador and thinking there was a possibility of food had torn open the casks and proceeded to drink the wine up. It seems Mystic Ridge medium white wine really agreed with her palate....initially.
"She was fast asleep and snoring. When I realised what she had done I rang the vet who said to try and wake her and walk it off.
"She could not walk, her eyes were open but she could not move, so he told us to bring her in."
Highfield Veterinary Centre vet Bryan Gregor had never dealt with a drunk dog before.
"By the time I saw her at the clinic, she was comatose. She was lying flat on her side, and if she was a human, you would swear she was singing. I guess she was also telling me she was really, really sorry, I was the best friend she has ever had, and she will never do it again."
She was treated with fluids and left to sleep it off.
"In the morning the clinic smelt like a student flat on Saturday morning. Roxy was still asleep, raising her head occasionally and moaning.
"I guess it is at this stage that we should have offered her a Mays pie and a couple of Panadol. We opted for dog food which she ate with vigour."
During the day Roxy slowly became more responsive.
"When she could finally walk or should I say stagger, the girls took her outside for a walk. Staggering across the car park, she stopped in front of a tree, looked left and right, and promptly walked into it. I am supposing that she was still seeing two trees, and picked the wrong one."
Anne said when Roxy was taken home that afternoon, she got stuck halfway into her kennel, with her hind legs not working properly.
"When she first saw me she tried to jump up but fell backwards.
"By this stage I was laughing but it had been quite scary at the start especially when the vet did not know if she would survive overnight.
"The next day we took her for walk and she was not herself at all, she was puffed and didn't stray far. I guess she was hung over."
Anne estimates it took two-year-old Roxy until Monday this week to get back the spring in her paws and she's probably off alcohol for life.VICTORIA, B.C. - Andrew Weaver, leader of the B.C. Green Party, responded to the Speech from the Throne.
“Four months after British Columbians cast their ballots, I am pleased to see so many B.C. Green ideas included in the new blueprint for government,” Weaver said.
“The Throne Speech highlighted many of the priorities outlined in our Confidence and Supply Agreement. These are policies that we believe we can advance together by moving beyond divisive partisan spin to truly address the challenges and opportunities facing British Columbians. Adam, Sonia and I look forward to working collaboratively with the government on these issues to deliver effective, well-considered public policy.
“These priorities highlight the difference that Greens made in the last election. This session, we will finally see corporate and union donations banned following the lead we took a year ago in banning them from our Party. We will see lobbying reform, a B.C. Green initiative, which will go even further towards ending the undue influence of special interests in our politics. B.C. will also have an Innovation Commissioner, one of the ideas in our emerging economy platform that will help ensure B.C.’s long term economic prosperity. I am also particularly encouraged that the government intends to increase funding for public education, which was the B.C. Greens’ number one priority in this election and is the best investment government can make.
“There are also initiatives outlined today that are not included in our Agreement. As an opposition caucus, we will determine whether to support, propose amendments to or oppose these initiatives on an issue-by-issue basis based on what we believe is in the best interests of British Columbians.
“We will not always agree with everything the government does. As with any relationship, this disagreement is healthy. All three parties share many values and goals, though we might sometimes differ on the best ways to implement them. There is much we can accomplish together if we are willing to engage in thoughtful, productive debate and to consistently put the interests of our constituents first.”
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Media contact
Jillian Oliver, Press Secretary
+1 778-650-0597 | jillian.oliver@leg.bc.caDecember 14 2016 update: This new version of Skype Preview has started rolling out to consumers with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update.
Since its introduction in 2014, Skype Translator has made it easier for you to connect with people around the world on Skype no matter where they are. We love bringing people together, and so today, we’re excited to announce the next milestone for Skype Translator: voice translation for calls to mobiles and landlines* on Skype Preview. You can now use Skype to call people on their phones and communicate across languages, even if they do not have Skype.
Starting today, we’re rolling out this new feature to members of the Windows Insider Program.** If you are a member of the program, ensure that you have the latest version of Skype Preview installed on your PC and that you have Skype Credit or a subscription. Select the dial pad, enter a phone number to see a Skype Translator option next to the call button. Tap it to bring up settings for Skype Translator. From here set the languages and place the call. Once the person on the other side picks up they will hear a short message stating that the call is being recorded and translated through Skype Translator and then you can start talking!
Additionally, you can start a call if someone is a Skype contact with a mobile or landline stored in the profile.* Select the contact, tap on the Skype Translator icon to bring up translate options. Save your options then tap the call button and select the phone number you want to call.
Skype Translator currently supports nine spoken languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Chinese (Mandarin), Italian, Portuguese (Brazilian), Arabic, and Russian. Also, a good reminder that wearing a headset will significantly improve the Skype Translator calling experience. The more Skype Translator is used, the higher the quality of translations. We’re excited about this next milestone as it expands to getting more people using Skype Translator.
This new version of Skype Preview includes additional features such as:
Introduce friends and family on Skype by sharing their Skype contact details
Capture and share video messages with friends and family on Skype—even if they’re not online
Manage your conversations and save time by marking conversations as read or unread
Don’t miss another call by forwarding them to a mobile or landline*
We would love to hear what you think. Take a moment to visit the Windows Feedback app, search for Skype and upvote a trending topic or create a new entry.
Thanks for continuing to take this journey with us, we can’t wait to bring you even more!
*Requires Skype Credit or a subscription to use. To learn more, please visit Skype.com.
**The Windows Insider Program by Microsoft allows you to sign up for early builds of the Windows operating system ahead of release to consumers. The program is open to anyone, including early adopters and Windows enthusiasts who enjoy beta testing new software and want to provide feedback to Microsoft.History isn’t kind to NFL head coaches whose teams regressed record-wise in their second season on the job.
Even so, Tampa Bay would be wise to give Dirk Koetter the chance to try to buck those odds in 2018. Admittedly, the likelihood of that happening seems unlikely. The decision may even already be made.
WEEK 17 PICKS: Straight up | Against the spread
Not only are the Buccaneers (4-11) concluding their 10th straight season without a playoff appearance, Tampa Bay’s ownership has declined to publically indicate whether Koetter or general manager Jason Licht will be back.
And casting an even longer shadow on Koetter’s future: The head coach that brought the Bucs their only Super Bowl championship is now a viable candidate to return. The bad blood from when Jon Gruden was stunningly fired after the 2008 campaign ended earlier this year with his induction into the team’s Ring of Honor. Gruden, too, has admitted he would entertain the possibility of coaching again under the right circumstances.
The Bucs would make the most sense of all potential Gruden suitors provided the Glazer family gives him the salary and front-office juice needed to lure him away from ESPN.
The NFL rumor mill is already churning with gossip that Bruce Allen may leave his post as Washington’s football czar to get the band back together on Florida’s gulf coast. We do know for certain that Gruden still lives in Tampa. Statues of him and other key members of the 2002 Bucs are the centerpiece artwork of the lobby at team headquarters.
The reality of a 45-51 record in the six seasons after leading that squad to the Lombardi Trophy has gotten overshadowed by ESPN’s repackaging of Gruden as a quarterback guru despite his never having developed a young Bucs passer of any significance. Television commercials and the "Monday Night Football" announcing platform also have helped make Gruden a larger-than-life figure — particularly in a market where his name alone would sell tickets and create the kind of buzz his replacements failed to generate.
But enough about “Chucky.” The Bucs may |
intelligence, conducting discreet surveillance, purchasing goods, earning money and operating businesses (some legitimate, some illicit) for the top leadership of the DPRK.
The Third Floor has operatives and managers who work for other DPRK government and security organisations, but they all report and take instructions from the office of the leader. They are based in and operate out of dozens of countries around the world.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption CCTV footage appears to show the moment Kim Jong-nam is attacked
The term derives from the location where these personnel originally started their work during the 1970s - the third floor of the Workers Party of Korea Central Committee headquarters in Pyongyang.
Kim Jong-nam is believed to have worked for elements of the group on his father's behalf.
Ri Jae Nam (an alias) - who was present at Kuala Lumpur airport the day of the murder, according to pictures released by the Malaysians - had previously operated in other countries in Asia as a manager in the Third Floor network.
The weapons-makers
The Second Economic Committee (SEC) is responsible for the production and manufacturing of all convention munitions, military equipment and weapons of mass destruction in the DPRK.
So given the possible involvement of these different units, how could the attack have been co-ordinated?
The Guard Command is probably the only organisation that could order or second personnel from the RGB, as well as deploy VX in an overseas location.
It is also able to access North Korean intelligence reports through its own channels and have access to external intelligence networks.
But there are two other critical components: first, the Guard Command is believed to possess VX and other chemical weapons.
Second, it can act with absolute secrecy as it reports directly to Kim Jong-un and his closest aides.
Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption Kim Jong-un is the half-brother of Kim Jong-nam
If one of the other North Korean organisations had been used, each stage of the planning for such an attack would have been subject to North Korea's routine bureaucratic reporting channels. And that would have run the risk of somebody tipping off a target.
There may also be an element of competition between the organisations.
Under former leader Kim Jong-il, the Guard Command was the premier internal security organisation in the country.
While it still has that status by dint of its writ and mission, under Kim Jong-un the Military Security Command, which polices the armed forces, has been vested with greater prestige and political power, carrying out the youthful leader's purges. It has nearly eclipsed the status of the Guard Command.
The Guard Command's director, Gen Yun Jong Rin, has been subject to temporary military demotion. He was a personal friend of Kim Jong-un's uncle Chang Song-thaek - who was executed for treachery in 2013 - and his brother Vice Marshal Chang Song-u.
Image copyright Michael Madden Image caption Chang Song-thaek (far left) and Yun Jong Rin (second from left) are seen here in this 2011 photo with Kim Jong-il (centre) and Kim Jong-un (far right)
Senior Guard Command commanders and managers can operate with a wide degree of autonomy and latitude. If they were indeed responsible for the attack, it is possible that a group such as this could have carried out the mission without informing Kim Jong-un.
What is clear is that it is very unlikely any possible direct links to the North Korean leader will ever be proven.
Michael Madden is a visiting scholar at the US-Korea Institute at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.What’s more, this idea of using sports as a means to physical health is at odds with comments by the president that have just now come uncomfortably to light.
I don’t check my phone much when running, but when something comes from The Atlantic’s David Graham, I stop what I’m doing. I was finishing a run along Rock Creek on Sunday evening when he alerted me to a story from The Washington Post. The headline: “Trump Thinks That Exercising Too Much Uses Up the Body’s ‘Finite’ Energy.”
Good Lord. I turned for home and started typing, full of energy from the run. Graham wasn’t the only one who sent me the story that night. It cites a Trump quote in the latest New Yorker, in which the commander-in-chief said he gave up sports after college because he “believed the human body was like a battery, with a finite amount of energy, which exercise only depleted.”
This is exactly right. The body is a battery. The key to longevity and power is to sit perfectly still and keep the body constantly full of food. It will last indefinitely.
No, I mean, no. This is wrong. The Washington Post notes, “Experts say this argument is flawed because the human body actually becomes stronger with exercise.” I would argue that this is not an argument but a false statement. The accurate exercise-battery analogy is that exercise charges the human battery. And the body is a sort of battery that gets stronger the more it is charged.
I was hopeful that it might be an off-the-cuff colloquial misfire from Trump, but then found that writers Michael Kranish and Marc Fisher recounted a similar instance in their recent book Trump Revealed:
After college, after Trump mostly gave up his personal athletic interests, he came to view time spent playing sports as time wasted. Trump believed the human body was like a battery, with a finite amount of energy, which exercise only depleted. So he didn’t work out. When he learned that John O’Donnell, one of his top casino executives, was training for an Ironman triathlon, he admonished him, “You are going to die young because of this.”
“You are going to die young because of this” is something I say often to people, but never earnestly. It’s always a joke.
Here it doesn’t seem to be. The idea of the body’s energy as a finite resource fits well into Trump’s zero-sum worldview. In deals, there are losers and winners. Taxing people to create social programs is simply a drain on taxpayers. He frames the world in ways at odds with the idea that rising tides lift all boats, that investment in a healthy society pays dividends all around. As my colleague Stephanie Hayes noted in these pages last month, since our attitudes about our own health tend to be emblematic of deeper beliefs and values, a president who is committed to working out is seen to have more “self-control, discipline, and a willingness to exert oneself in pursuit of a goal—ideas that align with the good old-fashioned American belief in meritocracy, however illusory.”Seattle Mayor Ed Murray signed legislation Wednesday that he says will help people who have criminal backgrounds find housing.
"If we're going to knock down barriers to housing, we have to knock down the barrier to people who are re-engaging after they have served their time," Murray said.
The ordinance places restrictions on landlords and to whom they can and cannot rent.
It prohibits blanket exclusions based on criminal convictions when advertising a rental unit. It also does not allow landlords to ask about or consider arrests that didn't lead to a conviction and convictions that are older than two years.
If a landlord takes adverse action based on a conviction that is less than two years old or an adult's sex offender registry status, a business justification is required.
Proponents of the legislation said current regulations make it more difficult for people of color or those who are homeless to find housing.
Councilwoman Lisa Herbold, a bill co-sponsor, said landlords can still screen tenants based on other factors, such as employment, credit scores and income ratios.
The Rental Housing Association of Washington opposed the measure, calling it poor policy with unintended consequences. The group said a mandate offering no supportive services wouldn't encourage landlords to take chances on under-qualified applicants.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Copyright 2017 KINGAdam Pettitt, headmaster of Highgate School
A headmaster at a £20,000-a-year private school has issued an apology after he unveiled new ‘gender neutral’ toilets for pupils after they returned from summer holidays.
Boy, 12, raped sister, 6, after watching Grand Theft Auto sex scene
Adam Pettitt, 51, claimed the new toilets at Highgate School in North London would help those ‘gender fluid or don’t wish to identify themselves with a gender’.
But some parents said pupils felt ‘less comfortable and happy’ at the £20,370 a year school where old pupils include cricketer Phil Tufnell and inventor Sir Clive Sinclair.
Earlier this year the 1,400 pupil school – which was founded in the year 1565 – also introduced a ‘gender neutral’ school uniform – under which boys could be permitted to wear skirts.
Mr Pettit has now apologised to parents in a letter saying, ‘I’m aware that this change has left a number of pupils particularly in Years 7 and 8 feeling less comfortable and happy at school.
A picture of the gender neutral toilets which Adam Pettitt sent to parents
‘We will continue to support gender fluid and non gender binary pupils. However I have been asked whether the change which has impacted on many pupils is proportionate to the needs of a smaller number.
Highgate School
‘I wish to reassure that we are taking stock and working hard to improve matters so that our toilet facilities meet the needs of all pupils. I’m aiming to have proposals next half term to ensure that in effecting these improvements over the Christmas holidays if not before, we will have tested our thinking much more carefully and widely that hitherto and will avoid introducing a secondary set of difficulties.’
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A parent said, ‘I’m afraid the headmaster has been fixated with this issue and with this letter he has lost what little credibility he had left.
‘He should be focusing on the running of the school itself and not on pandering to issues such as gender fluidity. Many parents are wondering whether he should reconsider his role within the school.’The first day of June 1988 was sunny, hot, and mostly calm—perfect weather for the three young researchers from the University of Windsor who were hunting for critters crawling across the bottom of Lake St. Clair. Sonya Santavy was a freshly graduated biologist aboard a 16-foot-long runabout as the whining outboard pushed the boat toward the middle of the lake that straddles the United States and Canadian border.
On a map, Lake St. Clair looks like a 24-mile-wide aneurysm in the river system east of Detroit that connects Lake Huron to Lake Erie, and that is essentially what it is. Water pools in it and then churns through as the outflows from Lakes Superior, Michigan, and Huron tumble down into Erie, then continue flowing east over Niagara Falls into Lake Ontario, and finally down the St. Lawrence Seaway and out to the Atlantic Ocean. The current pulsing through Lake St. Clair is so strong that if you were to hop in an inflatable raft at the top of the lake you’d flush out the other side in about two days—without having to paddle a stroke.
Royalbroil / Wikipedia
Water rushes so quickly through Lake St. Clair because it is as shallow as a swimming pool in most places, except for an approximately 30-foot-deep navigation channel down its middle. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers carved that pathway in the late 1950s as part of the Seaway project to allow oceangoing freighters to sail between Lake Erie and the lakes upstream from it. When water levels were low or sediment high, sometimes that channel still wasn’t deep enough, forcing ships to lighten their loads to squeeze through. This often meant dumping water from the ship-steadying ballast tanks—water taken onboard outside the Great Lakes. Water that could be swarming with exotic life picked up at ports across the planet.
As Santavy and her University of Windsor colleagues puttered over a rocky-bottomed portion of Lake St. Clair in the early summer of 1988, she whimsically dropped her sampling scoop into the cobble below. She was hunting for muck-loving worms but figured she’d take a poke into the rocks below because—well, to this day, she still doesn’t know. “I can’t even explain why it popped into my head,” Santavy told me. “I thought—if we get nothing, we get nothing, and I’ll just mark it off that this is not an area to sample.”
Up came a wormless scoop of stones, the smallest of which were not much bigger than her fingertips. But there was something odd about two of those tinier pebbles. They were stuck together. She tried to pull them apart but she couldn’t. Then she realized that one of them wasn’t a pebble at all. It was alive.
Nobody gave it much thought at the time, but in the years following the Seaway’s opening in 1959, species not native to the Great Lakes, ranging from algae to mollusks to fish, started turning up at a rate never before seen. In the Seaway’s inaugural season it was the humpbacked peaclam native to Europe and Asia. In 1962 came Thalassiosira weissflogii, a single-celled alga capable of both sexual and asexual reproduction and, unlike sea lampreys, incapable of being controlled ecosystem-wide by any human measures.
Five more exotic species of algae showed up during the next two years and a tubificid (lake bottom–burrowing) worm native to the Black and Caspian Sea basins arrived in 1965. A water flea from Europe turned up the year after and a European flatworm two years after that. A crustacean native to the Black and Caspian Seas arrived in 1972. Three more exotic species of algae turned up the following year. And the alien organisms continued to arrive, year after year, with an almost metronomic predictability—all the way up to that steamy Wednesday morning on Lake St. Clair in 1988.
The important thing about the zebra mussel is to not consider each one as an individual organism but instead, like a cancer cell, part of a greater scourge.
Santavy showed a graduate student aboard the research boat her living “stone,” its wavy bands having allowed it to blend into the rocks she found it lurking among. It was obvious to both of them that it was some kind of clam or mussel, but the dime-sized mollusk looked like nothing Santavy’s colleague had ever seen. This was odd. He was a graduate student whose job was to study freshwater clams of North America. This made them suspicious enough to bring her specimen back to campus.
When Santavy returned to campus she showed her specimen to the professors in the lab. They were also flummoxed. They sent it to the University of Guelph outside Toronto, where an international mussel expert identified it as Dreissena polymorpha, the zebra mussel. This was not good news. The species, native to the Caspian and Black Sea basins, was well known on the other side of the Atlantic for its ability to fuse to any hard surface, growing in wickedly sharp clusters that can bloody boaters’ hands and swimmers’ feet, plug pipes, foul boat bottoms, and suck the plankton—the life—out of the waters they invade.
The zebra mussel had already colonized rivers and lakes across Western Europe thanks to an extensive network of canals and locks that, like North America’s Seaway, had allowed biological trouble to course through a continent like cancer cells in a bloodstream.
Hungary succumbed to an infestation in 1794, London in 1824. Rotterdam fell in 1826, followed by Hamburg in 1830 and Copenhagen in 1840. The mussels had spread to Switzerland and Italy by the 1970s. And then Santavy’s specimen turned up in Lake St. Clair, some 3,000 miles from the closest known colony.
Also in Environment Nature, Pixelated By Diane Ackerman It is winter in upstate New York, on a morning so cold the ground squeaks loudly underfoot as sharp-finned ice crystals rub together. The trees look like gloved hands, fingers frozen open. Something lurches from side to side up...READ MORE
A zebra mussel has something of a “foot” that enables it to drag itself across a lake bottom, but even the fastest adult zebra mussel can only trundle along at maybe 14 inches per hour. A pioneering colony of the mussels also could not have inched its way, generation by generation, across the ocean and up the Seaway because the mussels would not have survived the ocean’s salinity or depth. Scientists knew the most plausible way Santavy’s mussel could have made the trip across the Atlantic and into the Great Lakes was in the friendly confines of a freighter ballast tank filled with water from a freshwater or semi-saltwater port.
Ship-steadying ballast used to be solid materials. In the 1800s bars of iron were used to balance schooners in the slave trade and Europe-bound ships laden with tobacco returned to the New World with bricks for ballast. But as freighters shed their sails and wooden hulls, acquired steam engines and grew to titanic proportions, the ships demanded ever-more stabilizing weight, particularly when a vessel was sailing with less-than-full cargo holds, unevenly loaded freight or through violent seas.
Naval architects soon realized water, at just over 8 pounds per gallon, is plenty heavy to function as ballast. More importantly, it does not have to be manually loaded. It can be pumped in or out of the network of tanks tucked under the steel skin of a modern freighter.
But liquid ballast does have one huge drawback—it is anything but dead weight.
The discovery of Santavy’s single shell might have meant little initially to the young researchers who found it. But seasoned ecologists knew the doom it foretold, like radiologists spotting a telltale speck on an X-ray; the important thing about the zebra mussel is to not consider each one as an individual organism but instead, like a cancer cell, part of a greater scourge that metastasizes as fast as currents flow. And, unlike some places in Europe and in the mussels’ native range, North America has no natural mussel predators to keep their numbers from exploding in a manner never before seen.
Biologically contaminated ballast water is the worst kind of pollution because it does not decay and it does not disperse. It breeds.
Each female can produce 1 million eggs per year. Those microscopic offspring—called veligers and as small as a 10th of a millimeter in diameter—are covered with little hairs that help them catch currents and waves and “swim” to new locations during the first few weeks of their lives. The hairs also allow a baby mussel to snag food and begin to grow a shell, which eventually weighs it down and forces the mussel to settle on a lake or river bottom. There, it begins its blind hunt for a hard surface—rocks, glass, pilings, even other mussels—to attach to. Within a year those babies are sending out puffs of their own veligers to establish new colonies.
Distressing as the news was that the zebra mussel had made the jump across the Atlantic, nobody should have been surprised. As early as the late 1800s, naturalists had recognized the zebra mussel as an invasive species juggernaut. “The Dreissena is perhaps better fitted for dissemination by man and subsequent establishment than any other fresh-water shell,” English zoologist Harry Wallis Kew wrote in 1893. “Tenacity of life, unusually rapid propagation, the faculty of becoming attached... to extraneous substances, and the power of adapting itself to strange and altogether artificial surroundings have combined to make it one of the most successful molluscan colonists in the world.”
Garitzko / Wikipedia
A final warning came in 1981 when a group of scientists took the time to see what might be lurking in the ballast tanks of overseas Seaway freighters bound for the Great Lakes. They found the tanks were basically floating ecosystems, swarming with life sucked up from ports across the globe. The researchers specifically mentioned zebra mussels among the primary threats to make their way into the lakes by hitching a ride in ballast water, which is often discharged when an overseas ship arrives in the lakes in exchange for cargo. The U.S. and Canadian governments did nothing with the information.
Paul Hebert, director of the University of Windsor laboratory where Santavy worked, told a reporter, “It’s crazy to go on studying and studying this—we have to do something. We’re getting new species in the lake all the time.” The problem was regulators’ hands were tied—by the Clean Water Act itself.
In 1972, Congress overrode a President Nixon veto and approved a sweeping package of amendments to the existing federal water pollution regulations that are known today as the Clean Water Act. This turned the tables by establishing the principle that industry does not have a “right” to pollute and must therefore apply for a permit to do so. To get a permit, a company had to agree to install the best available waste treatment systems for the pollution it discharged. These permits had to be renewed every five years, the idea being that the volume of pollution a business could discharge would be continually ratcheted down as better treatment technologies inevitably evolved over the years and decades. Permit violations carried fines that could total tens of thousands of dollars per day, and major offenders could be sentenced to jail.
The goals of the Clean Water Act were impossibly high—zero pollution discharges by 1985, with an interim target to make all the waters of the United States swimmable and fishable by 1983. The Clean Water Act missed those marks, but the improvements it brought have been immense. In the early 1970s two-thirds of America’s lakes, rivers, and coastal waters were unsafe for fishing or swimming. By 2014 that number had been slashed in half. But the Environmental Protection Agency left one huge loophole in the law the year after it was passed when it expanded an exemption for water discharges from military vessels to all ships sailing in U.S. waters. The agency was likely motivated by the notion that without a ship discharge exemption, its regulators could be on the hook to somehow police millions of recreational boats. Whatever the reason, the agency clearly did not see freighter discharges as a threat.
“This type of discharge generally causes little pollution,” the EPA explained when it published the regulation creating the exemption, “and the exclusion of vessel wastes from the permit requirements will reduce administrative costs drastically.”
But it would cost the Great Lakes dearly. As the zebra mussel infestation of the Great Lakes would make it abundantly clear, biologically contaminated ballast water is the worst kind of pollution because it cannot be fixed by plugging a pipe or capping a smokestack. It does not decay and it does not disperse. It breeds.
Santavy had found only one mussel that summer day in 1988. Everybody knew there had to be more. They just didn’t know how many. Tom Nalepa, then an ecologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, remembers making the three-hour drive from his office in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to London, Ontario, in March 1989 to meet with 11 other scientists about this latest Great Lakes invader. It turned out to be what is today known as the first International Conference on Aquatic Invasive Species, which has become an almost annual event that draws hundreds of researchers from across the globe. But the meeting on this chilly day wasn’t called anything so grandiose. It wasn’t called anything at all. It was just a dozen smart but mystified U.S. and Canadian scientists trying to share everything they knew about an organism that was spreading faster than their ability to read up about it.
The researchers in the room that day, in fact, couldn’t even agree whether to call it a clam or a mussel. Conference host Ron Griffiths of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources took the Canadian-nice tack of referring to it as the “zebra mussel clam.” The problem was there was almost no North American literature on the lifecycle of the zebra mussel because, until then, there had been no North American zebra mussels. The scientists had been gleaning what they could from research papers written in Russian, Polish, and Danish just to figure out things like its preferred habitat, its temperature tolerance, and its reproduction rate.
“A lot of the literature I’ve read is in another language, and I can only go as far as the abstract,” Gerry Mackie, a mussel expert from the University of Guelph, confessed at the outset of the conference, a grainy video tape of which has survived more than a quarter century. The researchers turned on a carousel slide projector to look at how far the zebra mussels had spread since Santavy dropped her scoop to the bottom of Lake St. Clair just 10 months earlier. The room got quiet as the wheel stopped on each new image.
• An engine block found on the bottom of Lake St. Clair so encrusted with zebra mussels its piston holes were plugged.
• A Coast Guard buoy hauled in from Lake Erie so coated with shells it was unrecognizable.
• A Great Lakes beach littered with bleached mussel shells lying open on their sides, like so many little mouths.
Then Griffiths turned on a videotape of a mussel-smothered ferry wharf on the Canadian side of Lake Erie. There were so many shells nobody tried to calculate how densely they coated the wharf’s pilings. It would have been like counting stars from the deck of an ocean freighter on a moonless night. “Man,” Nalepa remembers thinking as he sat with his colleagues around tables littered with coffee cups and jars of zebra mussel specimens. “Nothing is going to be the same. Nothing.”
There was some talk that day about how the plankton-gobbling mussels might affect native fisheries higher up the food web. But the scientists mostly worried about what the mollusks could do to the region’s industries, given their ability to gum up pipes. Researchers quickly realized that water intake pipes used by cities and industries would likely be prime zebra mussel habitat; the hard surface inside a pipe provides an ideal place to attach and the constant flow of water—and the plankton floating in it—make for an easy meal, like a floating buffet. It was already starting to happen.
The chaos this has brought is like nothing the lakes have suffered in their 10,000-year history.
The North American zebra mussel problem was made worse by the fact that they have no worthy predators in the Great Lakes, and in the most heavily infested areas, they soon began to cluster atop each other like gnarled coral at densities exceeding 100,000 per square meter. Each adult mussel, which typically grows no bigger than a nickel, can filter up to a liter of water per day, sequestering inside its hard little shell all the nutrients contained within that water.
By the end of 1989, zebra mussels had turned up all across the Great Lakes, west to Duluth, south to Chicago, and east to the St. Lawrence River below Lake Ontario. A colony was also found near the head of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal that provides a manmade connection between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River basin. That meant the mussels now had access to a watershed that spans almost half of the continental United States.
But the most ominous mussel development of 1989 made no headlines. Researchers on Lake Erie found what appeared at first to be a slightly different version of the zebra mussel. It was, they would learn two years later, the quagga mussel, named after a subspecies of actual zebras that went extinct in the 1800s. All that remains of the African savanna grazers are seven skeletons, including one on display at University College London. But their molluscan namesake today, in the Great Lakes alone, numbers in the quadrillions.
Zebra mussels proved to be an expensive nuisance indeed for industries and cities that depend on water, costing billions of dollars over the past quarter century to invent, build, and maintain treatment systems that use things like chemicals, heat, and UV light to keep pipes open and water flowing through everything from nuclear power plants to kitchen faucets. Yet the ecological damage wrought by zebra mussels is minor in comparison to their cousin, the quagga mussel. Unlike zebra mussels, which typically aren’t found at depths beyond 60 feet, quaggas have been plucked from waters as deep as 540 feet. This depth tolerance, coupled with the fact that quaggas don’t require a hard surface to attach to, means they can blanket vast swaths of lake bottom inaccessible to zebra mussels. Zebras also only feed during the warmer months. Quaggas filter nutrients out of the water year-round.
In 1992, three years after quagga mussels were discovered in Lake Michigan, zebra mussels still made up more than 98 percent of the lake’s invasive mussel population. By 2005 that relationship had completely flipped, with the quaggas making up 97.7 percent of the invasive mussel population and smothering the deepwater lakebed in a manner zebras never could. Although the waters of Lake Superior lack levels of the shell-building calcium that zebra and quagga mussels require to thrive, the mussel impacts on Lake Michigan have been similarly repeated on the other lakes, particularly Huron and Ontario. The chaos this has brought is like nothing—not even the sea lamprey—the lakes have suffered in their 10,000-year history.
Dave Brenner, Michigan Sea Grant
The public can comprehend the devastation of a catastrophic wildfire that torches vast stands of trees, leaves a scorched forest floor littered with wildlife carcasses and turns dancing streams into oozes of mud and ash. But forests grow back. The quagga mussel destruction is so profound it is hard to fathom.
“People look at the lake and don’t think of it as having a geography. It’s just a flat surface from above—and from there it looks pretty much the same as it did 30 years ago, but under water, everything has changed,” University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee ecologist Harvey Bootsma says.
The mollusks now stretch across Lake Michigan almost from shore to shore. People might still think of Lake Michigan as an inland sea full of fish. It’s more accurate to think of it as an exotic mussel bed sprawling across thousands of square miles. Lake Michigan’s quagga mass in one recent year was estimated to be about seven times greater than the schools of prey fish that sustain the lake’s salmon and trout. Under some conditions the plankton-feasting mussels can now “filter” all of Lake Michigan in less than two weeks, sucking up the life that is the base of the food web and making its waters some of the clearest freshwater in the world.
Just how much have things changed since quagga mussels took over? A simple way to gauge the amount of plankton in a water body is to take a visual sounding using a crude device called a Secchi disk, named after a 19th-century Italian priest tapped by the one-time Papal Navy to take water clarity readings in the Mediterranean.
The disk is, typically, an 8-inch diameter metal plate with four equally sized alternating black and white wedges, almost like a monochromatic version of the yellow and black nuclear fallout shelter sign. It is lowered by rope into a water body and the point at which it disappears is the water’s Secchi depth. In the late 1980s, before the mussels blanketed the lake bottom, Lake Michigan’s average Secchi depth was 6 meters, or about 20 feet. By 2010 the average depth had tripled and readings began coming in at beyond 100 feet. This nearly vodka-clear water is not the sign of a healthy lake; it’s the sign of one in which the bottom of the food web is collapsing.
One study on southeastern Lake Michigan revealed that by 2009, phytoplankton levels in springtime—the prime plankton-growing time of year—had dropped nearly 90 percent since the mussels took over the lake bottom. It’s probably not a coincidence that the lake’s fish populations have dropped at the same time.
Annual trawling surveys show the lake’s biomass, or overall weight of prey fish, has plummeted from an estimate of about 350 kilotons in the late 1980s to barely 5 kilotons by 2014. And then a federal fisheries survey crew went fishing one warm September day in 2015. The crew from the U.S. Geological Survey was not fishing for flesh. They were fishing for clues. The group was near the end of an annual three-week “prey fish” survey of the bottom of Lake Michigan that has been conducted every year since 1973. The purpose of these autumnal expeditions for bite-sized fish—diminutive species like sculpins, chubs, and alewives—is to check the lake’s gas gauge. This is because the Great Lakes, and Lake Michigan in particular, have been managed primarily for recreational fishermen for the past half century. The more of these little fish that research crews find swimming in the lakes, the more predator fish—hatchery-raised salmon and trout—that can be planted to gobble them up. The whole operation is kind of like the aquatic equivalent of an oversized hunting preserve stocked with trophy sized elk and deer.
The Arcticus team’s surveying is far from a precise means of weighing how many pounds of salmon and trout food is swimming in the lake, though it is an exercise in fishing precision. Year after year, the Lake Michigan researchers, now guided by satellites, hit the exact same seven spots of lake bottom. They start in the waters off Michigan’s Upper Peninsula at the northern end of the lake and then sweep clockwise about 300 miles down its eastern side, across the lake’s U-shaped southern tip near Chicago and then back north along the western shore. Each survey site includes several sweeps of lake bottom at depths varying from beyond 400 feet to less than 60 feet. After each sweep the net is hauled to the surface so the catch can be analyzed.
This nearly vodka-clear water is not the sign of a healthy lake; it’s the sign of one in which the bottom of the food web is collapsing.
This is a lot of lake bottom scraped clean of its fish but it doesn’t even cover a sliver of the overall lake; Lake Michigan has a surface area spanning more than 22,000 square miles and in places plunges into ink-black depths beyond 900 feet deep. Still, from the data—the fish—pulled from the lake on these expeditions, the biologists, assisted by computer models that have been refined over decades, are confident they are able to sketch a good estimate of the number of pounds of prey fish available in the lake in any given year. More than putting a number on the pounds of prey fish in the lake, the surveys are particularly useful in providing an estimate of the relative abundance of prey species from one year to the next. In this sense, the surveys show biologists which direction things are headed. And in recent years, if Lake Michigan’s prey fish population were plotted on a graph like the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the trend would look something like the Panic of 1929.
The first haul that day broke from a Lake Michigan surface that was black as oil because the water was so glass-flat that the sun had neither wave nor ripple off which to glimmer. The catch was dumped into a tub and hauled inside the boat so each fish could be identified, counted, measured and weighed. There wasn’t much work to do. I was expecting at least hundreds of pounds of writhing fish, but the whole catch weighed less than four pounds. We tried again at a slightly shallower depth. And then again, and again and again, and the net kept coming up with close to nothing.
“Gosh,” the expedition leader said after one sweep of the lake bottom netted a single fish the size of my pinky.
“That’s just embarrassing,” said another crew member.
The Arcticus headed toward shore at the end of the day with a total catch that could fit in my first grade daughter’s school backpack. I asked the expedition leader if he thought we just had bad luck: “What can I say!” he said with a pained smile and a shrug. Then he shrugged harder, like a sitcom character, scrunching his shoulders and holding his hands out, palms up. So I asked him if he had seen enough to say Lake Michigan’s prey fish are crashing, particularly the alewives that sustain the salmon fishery. Such a crash has already happened on Lake Huron.
“I wouldn’t say we’ve crashed,” he finally said, “but at least we’re in the process of crashing, you might say.”
Visual Telling of Stories
People really don’t grasp what has happened here,” Bootsma explained to me on a frigid early November day as he strapped on a scuba tank, climbed over the back of the boat and plunged to the lake bottom 30 feet below. He was only about 800 yards off the beach of a popular park in the leafy Milwaukee suburb of Shorewood. But he might as well have landed on another continent because under the surface Lake Michigan bears little resemblance to the freshwater wonder that left early European explorers awestruck with its teeming herring, trout, sturgeon, perch, and whitefish. Down below, the lake is pretty much only home to the invasive round goby—another Seaway interloper that arrived just a couple of years after the mussels and is also native to the Caspian and Black Sea region—who thrive on the invasive mussels amid a shin-high forest of a nuisance seaweed-like plant called Cladophora, which needs three things to thrive: sunlight, nutrients, and a hard surface.
The mussels have provided all three. Their plankton-stripping ability has dramatically increased the depths to which sunlight can penetrate. Their shells provide a surface on which the seaweed can grow and the mussels’ phosphorus-rich excrement fuels the plant’s growth. The result is an endless forest of brilliantly green, hair-like tendrils swaying in the current, invisible to anyone on shore—until relatively small amounts of it break off, wash ashore and, along with the mussels it has attached to, rot.
The septic-smelling muck plagues some of the lakes’ most spectacular shorelines, including Sleeping Bear Dunes, a 35-mile stretch of federally protected coastline on Lake Michigan’s eastern shore. At Newport State Park on the other side of the lake, Wisconsin’s only wilderness park, the sludge can get shin-deep. A park employee in recent years has taken to keeping a laminated picture of the beach from the pre-quagga days, to show visitors how pleasant her sandy shores used to be. But the mess on the beach is nothing compared to what’s happening all across the lake bottom.
“What people see on a beach is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Bootsma. “You’ve got maybe a few thousand square feet of it on the beach—but just offshore, out in the lake, you’ve got thousands upon thousands of |
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British and Scottish officials denied that claim, making public more than 100 pages of previously secret documents to make their case.
The papers included a handwritten letter from al Megrahi to MacAskill, pleading that he be allowed to see his family before he died, and continuing to proclaim his innocence.
The documents also showed that senior Libyan officials warned their Scottish and British counterparts it would be "catastrophic" for British-Libyan relations if al Megrahi died in prison.
Gadhafi's son, Saif al-Islam, Gadhafi's son and heir apparent who accompanied al Megrahi back to Libya on August 20, 2009, said Libya was "very angry" at British efforts to keep al Megrahi out of a separate prisoner transfer agreement. But he said, ultimately, the bomber was released for a different reason.
It was "not because of business deals," Saif al-Islam Gadhafi told CNN in early September, two months before he himself was captured in Libya. "The guy is sick, seriously sick. He has cancer, and, because of that, they made their decision."Wings, Sixteen Years Later: The Sixteen Thoughts That Remain
1. The pilot episode remains deeply charming. Also, it was a pilot about pilots. That is a tiny nugget of joy that was given to you by the universe for free. Swaddle it gently in your arms. Treasure it. The entire series run is available both on Netflix streaming and on YouTube, a second gift. What will you do with your one wild and precious life?
2. Season 1 ran only 6 episodes, one of which prominently featured Megan Mullally, using a bizarre and untraceable accent, as a promiscuous beautician named Cindy (at one point, someone claims she has been with every man on the island, which might actually be doable) trying to start a new life off the island. One-sixth of season one of Wings is about a baby Megan Mullaley.
3. Tony Shalhoub appears as a waiter in an Italian restaurant in season two (the episode where Joe and Helen both go to different places on Valentine’s Day), then reappears as a regular cast member with a completely different background in season three. Later, he marries Helen in order to obtain a green card. They remain married for the next three years because Helen forgets to send in their divorce papers, a plot that was later reused between Ross and Rachel on Friends.
4. Thomas Haden Church left Wings after season 6 (his character accidentally saw a mob hit and joined the Witness Protection Program) for the short-lived Ned & Stacey with Debra Messing (who would later star on Will & Grace with Megan Mullally, using different but equally bizarre vocal stylings).
5. It is possible that Lowell could have reinvented himself as the Ned of Ned & Stacey, and that Megan Mullally’s Cindy reinvented herself as Karen Walker of Will & Grace, but both cannot be true at the same time, due to the Debra Messing Overlap.
6. Three years after Wings ended, Rebecca Shull, who had played Fay the flight attendant and possible murderous black widow, guest starred on Frasier. Eight years earlier, Frasier and Lilith appeared on the island as part of a Cheers crossover. Frasier gives no sign of recognizing Fay in the 2000 episode, “RDWRER.”
7. All three of Fay’s ex-husbands (who are all named George) are dead. Episode 37, “Try to Remember the Night he Dismembered,” has rival airline owner Roy Biggins getting the best of the gang when he says he hid $250,000 in his backyard, getting them to dig a hole big enough for his new hot tub. Originally, the script called for Roy to have murdered his wife and buried her in the backyard. Before the episode was shot, producers decided this storyline was too dark and rewrote it to feature a hot tub instead. All that remains of the original twist is the episode title.
8. Over the course of eight seasons, Helen leaves the island to pursue her dream of becoming a concert-level cellist six times. She attempts to give up the cello at least twice. Her mother is played by Debbie Reynolds in season 6. Debbie Reynolds later went on to play Debra Messing’s mother on Will & Grace; the Debra Messing Overlap at play once again.
9. Steven Weber has a solid Sean Connery impression, which came in handy during an extended fantasy sequence in season 7:
10. The entire cast of the Brady Bunch Movie makes an appearance in season 6. Several of the Monkees appear in season 7. Don Murray plays the ghost of Joe and Brian’s father in one very special, very haunted episode.
11. By the end of Ned & Stacey’s two-season run, both Ned and Stacey have fallen in love with one another; however, the show was canceled before this development could be explored. Thomas Haden Church never guest starred on Will & Grace.
12. In the fourth episode of season 1, after a series of misunderstandings, Lowell becomes convinced that Roy is actually a woman, and that brothers Joe and Brian have fallen in love with one another and are conducting a secret affair. He comes to gently bemused terms with both prospects and gives everyone his blessings. It’s oddly sweet.
13. Before Debbie Reynolds guest starred as Helen’s mother, Fay mentions receiving a “Debbie Reynolds workout tape” for her birthday, implying that Debbie Reynolds and Debbie Reynolds’ character exist simultaneously in Wings continuity.
14. Steven Weber’s first Steven King miniseries (The Shining) is demonstrably superior to Tim Daly’s Steven King miniseries (Storm of the Century), while his second (Desperation) is about the same.
15. Part of the greatness that was Wings was that where other shows would occasionally hold a “bottle episode” as a ratings stunt, the majority of Wings episodes were bottle episodes, taking place primarily or exclusively in the terminal of the Tom Nevers Airport.
16. Ken Levine, a former writer for the show, wrote a Wings tribute on the 20th anniversary of the airing of the pilot episode. He still wears the show jacket, even now. None of the main cast were ever nominated for an Emmy, which is an actual crime.Arlington County Police are continuing to investigate a death in Pentagon City last night.
A person’s body was found in the street on the 700 block of 12th Street S., near the Metro station entrance and the Pentagon Centre shopping center and construction site, around 9 p.m. Sunday night, according to ACPD spokeswoman Ashley Savage.
The police department requested the assistance of the Fairfax County Police helicopter in obtaining an aerial view of the scene and investigating how the person died, and the investigation is ongoing as of 4 p.m. Monday, Savage said.
A tipster tells ARLnow.com that they believe the individual fell from the construction crane on the site. A Twitter user reported Sunday night that the helicopter was shining its light on the crane.
Police said on Monday that they could not yet confirm the manner of death.
“This remains an active investigation and next of kin has not yet been notified,” said Savage. “The death is not considered suspicious and there is no threat to the public.”A lifetime Pennsylvanian and prominent businessman will announce Monday that he will seek the Senate seat held by Democrat Bob Casey in the 2018 mid-term election.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=1_rPpkhylsU
Jeffrey A. Bartos is the president of ESB Holdings LLC, a commercial and residential real estate management and development company, and has also worked in the energy sector.
Bartos told Breitbart News that Casey has forgotten the plight of his fellow Pennsylvanians regarding a wide range of issues, including fighting for their economic security.
“We need a fresh face. We need an outsider. We need a business person to go down to Washington to tackle the reforms, to tackle the challenges and fight for Pennsylvania’s industries, to fight for Pennsylvania’s jobs and the welfare of all Pennsylvanians,” Bartos said, noting the Casey is a “career politician,” who has been a state and federal legislator for decades.
“It’s a shame to say it, but Bob Casey has left Pennsylvania behind,” Bartos said.
Bartos discussed a wide range of issues with Breitbart News, including the need to repeal and replace Obamacare, which he said puts the important and personal decisions about health care in the hands of the federal government, insurance companies, and employers.
“We need a patient-centered, free market healthcare system that returns power to patients and doctors to make the most critical decisions about their well-being,” Bartos said, adding that Casey was the deciding vote on passing Obama’s healthcare law.
Bartos said Casey also voted for the failed effort in 2013 to provide amnesty to the estimated 11 million people who are in the United States illegally through the so-called “Gang of 8” legislation. Casey also supports sanctuary cities, including the status of Pennsylvania’s capital city of Harrisburg having that status.
Bartos said he would work not only to secure the border, end sanctuary cities, and deport criminal aliens, but he also wants to see reforms to the VISA system.
“We need to do VISA reform,” Bartos said, including determining “who we admit into this country to reflect the needs of our economy.”
Bartos also opposes the Iran nuclear deal brokered by Obama and the United Nations that Casey supported, calling it “disastrous” not only for the United States, but for our “closest ally” Israel.
Any deal with Iran, Bartos said, should be in the form of a treaty to allow the Senate to “advise and consent” on any such agreement as required by the Constitution.
Bartos said he shares the view of many others who believe the agreement “paved the way for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”
He also said he believes that if elected, he can help shape policies that would benefit the country and Pennsylvania.
“Bob Casey has put our country at risk,” Bartos said. “We can’t afford another six years of this dangerous and disastrous status quo.”
“No more career politicians ignoring the Americans they’re supposed to represent,” Bartos said. “It’s time to send in a tenacious outsider to shake up Washington and put our families first.”
And, Bartos said, he will put his criticism of career politicians into practice by only serving two terms as a U.S. senator.
“I believe in term limits,” Bartos said.Last week, I received a series of tweets from Adam Deen, founder and director of the Deen Institute.
Now, I know nothing about Mr. Deen. I have no clue where he was born or what his nationality might be. I don’t know if he was raised a Muslim or if he converted to the faith later in life. I don’t know what particular version of Islam he subscribes to or what Islamic sources he considers to be most reliable.
In short, I don’t know Adam Deen from, well, Adam.
I was a bit taken aback, then, when Mr. Deen launched a series of personal accusations against me as though he and I had once been close acquaintances.
“Try actually reading the Qur’an,” he told me, “it might help you understand it.”
Strange. When did I tell him I hadn’t read the Qur’an?
“You are very confused,” he said, insinuating that disbelief in Islam was indicative of a “tainted mind” and that reasons for apostasy were “mostly psychological.” “What it amounts to,” he said regarding people who know Islam then reject it, “is a case of being mistreated by Muslims and having their views warped.”
Mr. Deen went on to demonstrate his full expertise in the field of my life and times by telling me that I had only engaged in rote memorization of the Qur’an and had not fully comprehended it.
Wow. This guy is amazing. He can evaluate my entire psychological condition and comment on my life-long spiritual journey after reading a 140 character tweet.
As strange as his behavior may seem, however, his responses were not uncommon. In a surprisingly honest and well written essay detailing the flaws of the “Qur’anic scientific miracles” claims, internet Muslim apologist Hamza Tzortzis—famed for tweaking Christian apologist William Lane Craig’s writings into an Islamic framework—had this to say about the nature of apostasy:
“I do believe that apostasy is not entirely an intellectual decision but rather a spiritual and psychological problem. This can include a lack of spiritual connection with God and disheartenment with Islam due to unfortunate negative experiences with Muslims and the Muslim community.”
It seems Mr. Deen and Mr. Tzortzis share textbooks.
We ex-Muslims are used to these attempts to silence and dismiss us. We are used to being told that we must not have fully understood Islam if we conclude that it is not true, even after we’ve spent years reading, researching, and studying the issues that give us pause.
We’re used to being accused of overly emotional and irrational behavior, even as we calmly bring page after page of supporting evidence that contradicts the narratives found in the Qur’an and ahadith.
We’re used to the gaslighting techniques, the bullying, and the insults aimed at questioning our mental stability as we passionately defend our right to believe whatever we logically conclude to be true.
We’re used to hearing the “No True Muslim” fallacy that tells us that we must never have been sincere in our faith to begin with and that we must have been looking for an escape all along, even though we may have wholeheartedly fasted, prayed, and propagated, losing our faith only after much kicking and screaming in a process that involved lots of soul searching.
These tactics are all designed to shift the focus from the faults of Islam –and there are many—and instead move it onto the alleged faults of the person who doubts. In order to maintain the shaky foundation that Islam is God’s flawless formula for all mankind and for all times, all criticism of the faith must be deflected and those raising the questions must be dismissed. The apostate has to be depicted as ignorant, confused, hurt, malicious, or just plain evil. Discrediting the views of those who suffered abuse or mistreatment during their time as Muslims is an example of this, so is the accusation of ignorance against those ex-Muslims who did not formally study the religion.
But the fact of the matter is that every year, plenty of normal, rational, well-informed people leave Islam after having been devoted to it. As Mr. Deen and Mr. Tzortzis were not there with us during our journeys through the religion of Islam, it is disingenuous of them to comment or pass judgment on us from such a state of ignorance.Image zoom Courtesy
It's no secret that nails are the new accessory—the latest class of manicure innovations make it easier than ever to match your digits to every outfit in your closet, and we're constantly admiring the detailed handiwork the pros at salons like TenOverTen and Paintbox can create. Before the big salon boom in the mid-'70s, things weren't always this way. In-salon manis were reserved for the Hollywood elite, with prices for a full set skyrocketing into the hundreds. After being urged by her family to go into the salon industry with her cousins, filmmaker Adele Free Pham set out to showcase the influence of the Vietnamese American community on the now-popular nail category, and explore the history of Vietnamese American–owned salons in her documentary, #NailedIt. "#NailedIt follows the nail industry from its earliest days, and tells the tale of how a chance encounter between 20 female Vietnamese refugees (pictured below) and actress Tippi Hedren in 1975 changed the face of the trade and industry, once exclusive to the jet set," she tells us. Hedren was the relief coordinator for the group Food for the Hungry, and had a hand in aiding almost 2,000 refugees emigrate and assimilate to the United States. She helped the first group of 20 women enroll in beauty school as manicurists, and from there more and more nail salons began opening, making the price for a pro-quality manicure more attainable.
Image zoom Courtesy
"We are compelled to tell this tale of how Vietnamese nail salons are a linchpin between different cultures, Vietnamese economic autonomy, and a classic American dream story," Pham adds. "Through this unique point of view, we can spotlight health disparities that are prompting changes in nail industry practices."
#NailedIt is still in its initial stages, and you can help bring the film to the big screen—Pham and her colleagues have set up an Indiegogo campaign to fund the project, and almost $5,000 of the $15,000 goal has already been met! The campaign is currently running until Aug. 25 and donations of $5 and upwards will be accepted, though we're eyeing the $35 Polished Literati package, which includes a private link to watch the film one week before its nationwide rollout, two bottles of salon-quality nail lacquer, social media shout-outs, and a signed copy of the book Same Same by Ly Nguyen. Watch the trailer for #NailedIt below, then head over to the film's Indiegogo page to support the project and get more information.
Check out the hottest nail innovators in our gallery!Nine supermarkets in Brampton and Mississauga are among the latest 76 independent and large grocery stores in Ontario getting the go-ahead to sell beer and cider.
The stores can start stocking shelves June 30.
Currently, up to 130 grocery stores in the province can sell beer and cider, including 70 that can also sell wine.
These latest 11 independent grocery stores and 65 stores owned by large grocers were selected through a competitive bid process held by the LCBO, according to Ontario’s finance ministry.
The successful bidders in Brampton were Longo’s at 7700 Hurontario St., Metro at 10886 Hurontario St. and Walmart Supercentres at 50 Quarry Edge Dr. and 30 Conventry Rd.
In Mississauga, the stores are Walmart Supercentres at 100 City Centre Dr. and 800 Matheson Blvd., P.A.T. Oriental Food Market at 333 Dundas St. E. and Starsky Fine Foods at 3115 Dundas St. W and 2040 Dundas St. E.
Successful bidders apply to the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) for authorization to sell beer and cider.
An annual fee paid to the AGCO is required to obtain an authorization.
The province aims to have alcohol available in 450 grocery stores.
For a map and list of currently authorized grocery stores visit ontario.ca/morechoice.As you already know WG released new tournaments system, and we at GosuTactics.com had to adjust our data parsing scripts to make sure that we have all the tournaments information for you guys. It looks like that everything went smoothly except for a few bugs, but we constantly monitor site performance and make sure that all bugs are fixed. Here is quick update on what was happening for a past few month on GosuTactics.com.
Adjustments to data parsing scripts. As a result faster performance and more accurate data
Fixed issue with following multiple teams
Added tanks database: http://gosutactics.com/tools/tanks/
Added tanks details page with 3 top 10s (damage, frags, win rate) for each tank
Added first version of the players tanks statistics (damage, WN8, frags, winrate, piercing shots, and many more information) and we are working on making this useful tool
Added a button on clans page to update all the clans members. This button does not remove players who are not in the clan anymore, but we are working on this issue now
Option to upload tournament replay, if everyone will do so we will be able to show who is actually playing in the tourneys, who has most damage / frags /win rate for each tournament
Option to browse tanks details and modules with their characteristics
Contests system. Yes, we are going to be running some contest on GosuTactics.com and considering paying out real money as well as gold and prem tanks as prizes. Stay tuned.
Here is what is coming in near future:Everyone knows how important bullpens are in Major League Baseball these days, but can everyone agree on which two relievers should receive this important hardware from those legendary closers at the big ceremony?
The Mariano Rivera American League Reliever of the Year Award and the Trevor Hoffman National League Reliever of the Year Award, both presented by The Hartford, are scheduled to be presented Oct. 28 at Game 4 of the 113th World Series.
The Mariano Rivera American League Reliever of the Year Award and the Trevor Hoffman National League Reliever of the Year Award, both presented by The Hartford, are scheduled to be presented Oct. 28 at Game 4 of the 113th World Series.
Everyone knows how important bullpens are in Major League Baseball these days, but can everyone agree on which two relievers should receive this important hardware from those legendary closers at the big ceremony?
From now through Oct. 26, you can submit a pair of names at MLB.com to determine who the fans believe should be the winners. Balloting for the awards is being conducted among a panel of eight all-time great relievers. Rivera and Hoffman, both of whom spent their entire careers in the same league en route to the top of the all-time saves list, are joined by three Hall of Fame relievers -- Dennis Eckersley, Rollie Fingers and Bruce Sutter -- as well as Lee Smith, John Franco and Billy Wagner. The panel includes the six all-time saves leaders who are no longer active players.
• Submit your choices for Relievers of the Year
The eight voters rank the top three AL relief pitchers and the top three NL relief pitchers based solely on regular-season performance and using a 5-3-1 weighted point system. Commissioner Rob Manfred and an executive from The Hartford typically present the honors along with the awards' namesake closers.
This has become a tradition during each Fall Classic, as these Reliever of the Year Awards in 2014 replaced the Delivery Man of the Year Award, which had been presented to one winner from 2005-13. The awards continue a longstanding baseball tradition of honoring the game's top bullpen arms. Here's a look at this year's top contenders:
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Ken Giles: The Astros' closer converted all 19 of his save chances at home during the regular season, the longest single-season home saves streak in franchise history. He posted a 0.84 ERA (three earned runs in 32 innings) at home, with 45 strikeouts in 31 appearances there. Overall, Giles recorded 34 saves in 38 chances and boasted a 2.30 ERA in 63 outings.
Video: HOU@BOS: Giles earns save, Astros record 100th win
Giles struck out 83 batters in 62 2/3 innings for 11.92 strikeouts per nine innings. He walked 21 for 3.02 walks per nine, his lowest walk ratio since his debut season in 2014 (2.17). Giles ranked highly among AL relievers in several categories: ERA (seventh), strikeouts per nine (13th), strikeouts (14th) and opponents' batting average (18th).
Craig Kimbrel: Kimbrel won the NL award the first year these two honors were presented in 2014, while closing for the Braves, so he has a strong shot at the distinction of taking a Hartford prize in each league. Kimbrel led Major League relievers in strikeouts per nine (16.43) and WHIP (0.68), and tied for first in strikeouts (126). That whiff total was the most by a Boston reliever since Dick Radatz struck out 183 in 1964.
Video: BOS@TB: Kimbrel strikes out side in 9th
Kimbrel led AL relievers in ERA (1.43), was second in strikeouts-to-walks (9.0) and opponents' average (.140) and third in saves (35). It was his third career 100-strikeout season, one shy of his career high (127) set in 2011, his first full Major League campaign. With Boston from 2016-17, Kimbrel has converted 66 of 72 save opportunities (91.6 percent), including 35 of 39 this year.
David Robertson: The right-hander rejoined the Yankees on July 18 and proceeded to go 5-0 with a 1.03 ERA (35 innings, four earned runs) and 51 strikeouts in 30 appearances. Relying heavily on a curveball -- thrown 45.5 percent of the time, third-highest among anyone who threw at least 500 pitches -- Robertson had a career-high nine wins, most among relievers. He finished with an 18-inning scoreless streak in 15 games and retired 26 of the last 29 batters he faced during the regular season.
Video: NYY@TB: Robertson strikes out four over 2 2/3 innings
Robertson succeeded Rivera as Yankees closer in 2014, so how appropriate would it be if Rivera presented the award to Robertson? Robertson has an active streak of eight appearances without allowing a hit or run (since Sept. 15), surpassing Rivera (seven games, June 3-20, 2010) for the longest such single-season streak in Yankees history (minimum one inning per game).
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Wade Davis: The Cubs traded Jorge Soler to Kansas City and made Davis their closer following last year's breakthrough championship. He was selected to his third consecutive All-Star Game presented by Mastercard and was excellent in big spots during Chicago's repeat chase, hoping to win his second ring in three years.
Video: CHC@MIL: Davis gets Arcia to strand the bases loaded
Davis was one of only 35 relievers to face at least 100 at-bats with the tying or go-ahead run on base or at the plate, and according to Statcast™, he had one of the lowest expected batting averages (.169) against him in those situations. On Sept. 23, his franchise-record 32 straight successful saves to start a season snapped.
Kenley Jansen: The Dodgers' closer collected his third career 40-plus save season (2014, '16 and '17) and joined Eric Gagne (2002-04) as the only pitchers in Dodgers history with three seasons of 40-plus saves. Jansen led all regular relievers with a 1.32 ERA (10 earned runs in 68 1/3 innings) and tied for second in the big leagues in saves (41). He led all NL relievers in WHIP (0.75) and ranked second with 109 strikeouts.
Video: LAD@PHI: Jansen seals the win with a four-out save
Jansen had the highest cutter usage rate in baseball -- 88.4 percent of his pitches during the regular season. And it was usually unhittable. According to Statcast™, Jansen had the lowest xBA allowed --.141 -- among righties (minimum 100 at-bats against) with the tying or go-ahead run on base or at the plate.
Corey Knebel: The right-hander became the ninth reliever in Brewers history to be selected for an All-Star Game. He ranked among MLB relievers in strikeouts (tied for first, 126), strikeouts per nine innings (third, 14.92), saves (tied for fourth, 39) and appearances (tied for fifth, 76). His strikeout total surpassed Julio Machado's 98 in 1991 to become a Brewers single-season record by a reliever.
Video: CIN@MIL: Knebel seals a 4-3 win for the Brewers
Knebel's 45 consecutive appearances with a strikeout from April 3 to July 15 set a single-season MLB record for relievers (Bruce Sutter, 39 games in 1977). His 45 consecutive appearances with a strikeout to begin the season broke an MLB record for relievers (Aroldis Chapman, 37 games in 2014). And according to Statcast™, Knebel (.150) ranked behind only Jansen (.141) among relievers with the tying or go-ahead run on base or at the plate (mininum 100 at-bats).
Do you still favor saves as a measuring stick? Or maybe expected batting average is more important to you now? Consider this Statcast™ nugget: Among 341 pitchers to face at least 200 at-bats this season, Kimbrel had the second-lowest expected batting average against him, Knebel had the third-lowest, Jansen had the fifth-lowest and Robertson had the sixth-lowest. That is based on the quality of contact they allowed, plus their strikeouts totals.
Lowest xBA against, minimum 200 at-bats
1. Dellin Betances:.127
2. Kimbrel:.160
3. Knebel:.163
4. Carl Edwards Jr.:.164
5. Jansen:.165
6. Robertson:.169
There are many ways to evaluate a reliever's strengths to his club, and MLB is counting on you to help determine who should be sitting with two bullpen legends at a World Series ceremony.Important news
In 2009, Life Science Centre brought Maker Faire to the UK and has hosted the country’s flagship event ever since. Over that time, the popularity of making activities in the UK has sky-rocketed.
Life is proud to have been pioneers in this growing Maker movement, but we feel the time is right to make a change and to bid a fond farewell to Maker Faire UK. Lovers of all things making needn’t fear, as we’re opening a new space in Life Science Centre dedicated to crafting, tinkering and creativity in the spring of 2019.
If you want to keep up to date with details about this exciting development, please sign up to the ‘What’s on at Life Science Centre’ mailing list: life.org.uk/subscribe
We would like to thank all of the Makers and visitors who participated in Maker Faire UK over the years – its success is down to you!
Many momentous events are marked with a gun salute, fireworks or a trumpet – but this is the end of the road for Maker Faire UK at Life Science Centre, so we say pop a Mentos mint into the Diet Coke and let’s go out with a splash!Are you bummed that you don’t have a car to drive for East Coast Bash but you want to experience the thrill of being out on track? Well here’s your chance to get out on there in the car with a Formula D driver. Chris Forsberg and Tony Angelo will be offering ride-alongs on both Saturday and Sunday of ECB. All proceeds from these rides will be going to aid homeless animals in New Jersey, a cause near and dear to everyone at Club Loose.
Chris will be piloting his 4-door, 4-seater Infiniti M56. This thing is rad. You and two other people can get a chance to have Chris take you around the front track at E-town in this thing. I mean look at how much fun these people are having!
Tony will be driving the same car that he will be competing in at FormulaD this coming weekend. Just one seat in this machine but it’s one awesome ride. And just think how cool it will be to cheer on Tony at FormulaD and then hop in the same car the next weekend with him for a lap around E-town?
Now for the details.
Using the Paypal setup below, you can sign up for a ride in one, or both, of these rad vehicles.
Preregistration pricing is $33 per seat.
Preregistration be open until we run out of seats or until Wednesday, June 27th, at midnight.
After this closes, any available seats will be available for purchase at East Coast Bash for $40. So save some money and sign up early.
From the drop down on the Paypal thing, pick which car and which time slot you want. If you want to go in the M56 at the same time as your friends, register for 3 people at the same time so that we can plan for that. If you do not do that, we can not guarantee that you will be able to go at the same time. Sign up for as many time slots and both cars if you want. Or just pick one and go for it.
All passengers must have long pants, shirts with sleeves (short sleeves are OK) and closed toe shoes. This is NJ State Rules and exceptions will not be made. Passengers must be 18 years or older. Loaner helmets will be available but feel free to bring your own helmet for the ride as long as it passes Club Loose Rules (SA2005 or better).
So that’s about it, just register below and get ready to have some fun.
Select Car and Time Slot M56 – Sat – 10:45AM – 12:45PM -$33.00 USD M56 – Sat – 2PM – 3:30PM -$33.00 USD M56 – Sat – 4:45PM – 6:15PM -$33.00 USD M56 – Sun – 2PM – 4PM -$33.00 USD TC – Sat – 10:45AM – 12:45PM -$33.00 USD TC – Sat – 2PM – 3:30PM -$33.00 USD TC – Sat – 4:45PM – 6:15PM -$33.00 USD TC – Sun – 2PM – 4PM -$33.00 USD
If you have any questions or problems, please contact clubloose@gmail.com.After two straight wins for Real Salt Lake’s Jeff Attinella, we’ll have a new Save of the Week winner this week, with Toronto FC’s Joe Bendik, Montreal Impact’s Evan Bush, D.C. United’s Bill Hamid, Sporting Kansas City’s Tim Melia and the New York Red Bulls’ Luis Robles nominated for the Week 23 honors.
Bush is nominated for a stop in the Impact’s midweek draw against the Red Bulls, with his second half diving save on New York’s Bradley Wright-Phillips in the running. Bendik is also nominated for a weeknight stop, with his point-blank denial of Orlando City’s Cyle Larin up for the honors.
Hamid, Melia and Robles are all nominated for weekend saves, with Hamid in the field for his 1-v-1 stop on Montreal’s Dominic Oduro, Melia nominated for his diving block on Toronto FC’s Michael Bradley and Robles up for his reaction stop on New York City FC’s Mix Diskerud.
Which save was your favorite? Vote now – the winner will be announced on Friday.
Voting runs until 11:59 pm PT on Thursdays. For complete coverage of the MLS Save of the Week award – including an archive of all of this season’s nominees and winners – click here.The campaign captures the rising reputation of the USL in the North American soccer landscape, which saw the league's attendance grow by 33 percent in the 2016 season, and the USL receive Division II status by the U.S. Soccer Federation this offseason. The USL has added three new clubs for the 2017 season, with Ottawa Fury FC, Reno 1868 FC and the Tampa Bay Rowdies all set to bring excitement to fans in their respective markets throughout the upcoming year.
The USL's soccer-specific stadium initiative will also see the addition of new venues this season, led by Rio Grande Valley FC, with H-E-B Park set to debut next Wednesday night, and Phoenix Rising FC, which will welcome fans to the Phoenix Rising Soccer Complex next Saturday for its home opener. Orange County SC will also debut at Orange County Great Park this year, while the Charlotte Independence will make the newly-opened Sportsplex at Matthews their home during the 2017 season.
The introduction of USL Productions, the league's $10 million investment in state-of-the-art broadcast production, broadcast and distribution facilities with VISTA Worldlink in south Florida, will also bring fans closer to the action than ever before. All 2017 USL matches will also be available for viewing via the USL Match Center, supported by up-to-the-minute match statistics provided by industry leader Opta.
As the league rises in prominence, the USL is eager for fans to raise their voices, and their banners, as the biggest season in USL history prepares to kick off.
"The passion that fans across the country have shown for their clubs in the build-up to the new season has been remarkable," said USL EVP and Chief Revenue Officer Tom Veit. "Their support, and the commitment of the league's outstanding ownership, has brought us to this point, and we are looking forward to raising our game to deliver the most memorable season in USL history in 2017."
The "Raise Your Game" campaign will be supported by the USL's national broadcast partners, as well as regional broadcasters across the country. Additionally, the campaign will be carried across the USL's digital channels, including USLSoccer.com and USL Social Media.Kind of an older story now, but according to Shams Charina (ChicagoNow blogger, though this one on RealGM), Joakim Noah intends to work out with Kareem Abdul Jabbar this off-season. Just how much is there to gain from the pairing? It's hard to say. Sometimes the greatest players don't make the greatest teachers, but when it comes to big men, I think they can help significantly.
I have to think what brought about the thought was Kareem's own thoughts on Joakim Noah earlier this season on the Waddle and Silvy show.
"I would have to have a chance to work with him and see what he is willing to do," Abdul-Jabbar said on "The Waddle & Silvy Show" on ESPN 1000. "Some guys are uncomfortable shooting the ball in various ways. "You can't get somebody to go outside of their comfort zone immediately. Sometimes you have to coax him out there and give them the opportunity to find it and work toward it." "If [Noah] had an offensive game he would be a monster," Abdul-Jabbar said. "He is a very good player. He is so selfless and would do anything for his team and will do anything for his team. I really admire his character and well, the whole Chicago team. "If Joakim Noah can get some offense going it will make for some balance. If they have an inside threat, they can't just focus on stopping Derrick. Derrick has the defense geared to make him |
the mess. Grade: C
Move I liked: Solidifying tight end. You can make a compelling argument that the Bears are much better off at tight end after the club signed free agent Dion Sims and drafted 6-foot-6 Adam Shaheen in the second round. Sims seemed to just be scratching the surface of his potential when he left Miami, and Shaheen -- from tiny Division II Ashland University -- looked good during OTAs and minicamp. Throw a (hopefully) healthy Zach Miller into the mix, and the Bears have multiple weapons and matchup problems for opponents to deal with. Also, former undrafted free agent Ben Braunecker is pushing hard to earn a roster spot. Overall, tight end looks to be one of the strongest position groups on Chicago’s rebuilding offense.
Move I didn’t like: Letting Alshon Jeffery walk away in free agency. The Bears have nothing but question marks at wide receiver. Kevin White -- the seventh overall pick in 2015 -- has played in only four regular-season games. Markus Wheaton missed most of last year with an injury. Kendall Wright is coming off his worst season in the NFL. Cameron Meredith -- the most productive Chicago receiver in 2016 -- hurt his thumb during OTAs. Victor Cruz can play, but he hasn’t been the same player since his knee injury three seasons ago. The Bears’ decision to not even attempt to re-sign Jeffery remains a head-scratcher -- especially after spending so much at quarterback.
Biggest question still to be answered in training camp: Will Trubisky see the field as a rookie? There didn’t seem to be a huge difference between Glennon and Trubisky at minicamp -- besides the fact Glennon took first-team reps. Will Trubisky remain the No. 2 when Mark Sanchez returns from a knee injury? And how long can the Bears resist the temptation to play the second overall pick of the draft? Again, all that matters in 2017 is that the Bears properly evaluated their quarterback options. The team poured too many resources into the position to have whiffed on both Glennon and Trubisky. One needs to step up. Only time will tell who that’ll be.
Salary-cap space: $26,648,933 (source: Overthecap.com)
2017 draft picks: 1. QB Mitchell Trubisky, 2. TE Adam Shaheen, 4. S Eddie Jackson, 4. RB Tarik Cohen, 5. OL Jordan Morgan.
Undrafted rookie free agents signed: K Andy Phillips, WR Tanner Gentry, RB Joel Bouagnon, FB Freddie Stevenson, LB Alex Scearce, LB Isaiah Irving, LB Hendrick Ekpe, OL Mitchell Kirsch, DL Rashaad Coward, OL Dieugot Joseph.
Unrestricted free agents signed: QB Mark Sanchez, QB Mike Glennon, WR Markus Wheaton, WR Kendall Wright, CB Prince Amukamara, S Quintin Demps, CB Marcus Cooper, RB Benjamin Cunningham, CB B.W. Webb, FB Michael Burton, LB Dan Skuta, OL Taylor Boggs, DL Kapron Lewis-Moore, DL John Jenkins, OL Tom Compton, OL Bradley Sowell, WR Victor Cruz, WR Rueben Randle, TE Dion Sims, DL Jaye Howard, WR Titus Davis.
Restricted free agents signed: None
Players acquired via trade: NoneJohn Hynes addressed the media Friday ahead of the opening of Devils training camp. The third-year head coach is eager to get back on the ice and establish the team's identity for the 2017-18 season.
Back at it again (0:00-4:00)
Hynes' excitement for the start of camp is always the same. When speaking with the media, he expressed his eagerness to get his team into practices to solidify the Devils' new foundation. The additions of Brian Boyle and Marcus Johansson give Hynes two veteran leaders that he believes will be positive influences on and off the ice.
The search for a centerman (4:00-6:35)
When discussing the impact of the loss of center Travis Zajac, Hynes' message was very clear: Next man up. Hynes explained that Johansson, Adam Henrique and Pavel Zacha will all get opportunities to establish themselves as the top line center by the time October rolls around.
The Nico Effect (6:35-10:00)
Coach Hynes has always stressed the importance of competition at training camp. The Devils have anywhere between 3-5 spots that are up for grabs. Prospects will be looking to prove that they belong at the NHL level, but none will have more eyes on them than Nico Hischier.
Goaltending split (12:00-13:15)
A new goaltending coach is in the fold this year as Roland Melanson replaces Chris Terreri. Melanson has experience with Cory Schneider after the two spent years together as members of the Vancouver Canucks. Hynes hopes that the splits between starts for Schneider and Keith Kinkaid will approximately 60/20.Want to be a better product management professional and help others do the same? You’re in the right place. Welcome to ProductHub, a member contributed blog brought to you by the Boston Product Management Association. From design to distribution, launch to leadership, we know that today’s product professional has to bring breadth and depth to the table. Which is why we tap into Boston’s experienced product community – and beyond – to bring fresh insight from smart Product Managers and Marketers like you.
What sort of insight will you find here?
We pull directly from the BPMA community’s preferences and make-up. You’ll see contributions for early career, experienced managers, and everything in between, plus learnings from Boston’s thriving start-up scene and established organizations alike. And, like any good product managers, we started this project talking to prospective users. A recent BPMA survey helped us identify the topics you care most about, including:
Product Strategy
Product Marketing
Technical Management
UX Design
Tools & Techniques
Launch Readiness
Leadership & Management
Technologies & Trends
The job of a Product Manager (or Marketer!) isn’t simple – but ProductLab’s mission is. We enhance the professional development of product management and product marketing professionals through our content. If you haven’t already, we invite you to start exploring and contributing today.
Thanks,
The ProductHub Team.President Donald Trump promised to find, arrest, jail, and deport “every gang member and criminal alien” during a speech on Friday.
Pres. Trump to "every gang member and criminal alien": "We will find you, we will arrest you, we will jail you and we will deport you." pic.twitter.com/vV5jgpK9mc — ABC News (@ABC) July 28, 2017
Trump spoke at Suffolk County Community College on Long Island, addressing the challenges posed by the violent MS-13 transnational gang. The group, which the Justice Department says has more than 10,000 members nationwide, is responsible for 17 killings in New York’s Suffolk County in the last year.
“I have a simple message today for every gang member and criminal alien that are threatening so violently our people. We will find you, we will arrest you, we will jail you, and we will deport you,” Trump said.
Read moreWhile the US plans to create a massive new “moderate rebel force” to fight against both ISIS and the Syrian government have been in place for awhile, the level to which they’ll go to prop up those rebels seems to be growing dramatically.
The latest half-baked scheme, reported by the Wall Street Journal, is to give this yet-to-be-created rebel faction the ability to directly call in US airstrikes against targets of their choosing.
The US intends to provide every cell of 4-6 rebel fighters with a pickup truck that will include a mounted machine gun and a GPS system within, through which they can radio in targets to be attacked by US warplanes.
The US had been backing Syrian rebel factions they’d dubbed “moderate” in the past, but most of those groups have either lost all their territory or ended up joining the various Islamist factions. That is why the administration believes it has to create a whole new rebel force.
The lack of US intelligence on the ground makes this seem like a good idea to them, at least on the surface, as they need somebody to do spotting for airstrikes in Syria, so why not them?
The reason, of course, is because the US has a really poor track record vetting these groups, and they’re liable to use the ability to call in US airstrikes on a whim to order attacks on any target convenient to them, whether it’s a legitimate military target or not.
The US drone program in Pakistan is a key example of this not working, as often informants were calling in drone strikes against tribal rivals with no connection to al-Qaeda, simply because the US had no way of checking who they were killing.
Last 5 posts by Jason DitzJimmy Gunn, an all-American defensive end who was part of the University of Southern California’s “Wild Bunch” defensive line in 1969 and played seven years in the N.F.L., died on April 11 in Los Angeles. He was 66.
The cause was heart failure, the university said.
Gunn joined with end Charles Weaver, tackles Al Cowlings and Tody Smith and middle guards Tony Terry and Willard Scott, who was known as Bubba, to make up the Wild Bunch, named after the 1969 western directed by Sam Peckinpah.
Known for playing with hard-hitting abandon, the Wild Bunch helped the Trojans go 10-0-1 in 1969, including a Rose Bowl win over Michigan. In the 1969 game against their crosstown rival U.C.L.A., they sacked Bruins quarterback Dennis Dummit 10 times for losses of 75 yards. Playing in an era of powerful running games, the Wild Bunch allowed just 2.3 yards per carry that season.
Gunn was a member of U.S.C.’s 1967 national championship team and played in three Rose Bowls. He joined the future N.F.L. stars Archie Manning and Jack Tatum in the 1969 college all-American ranks.The June issue of Square Enix's Monthly Shonen Gangan magazine announced on Thursday that Satsuki Yoshino's Handa-kun manga will end in the July issue on June 11.
The series has an upcoming anime adaptation that will premiere in July.
The manga is a spinoff of Yoshino's Barakamon manga. Yen Press has licensed Handa-kun and is releasing it digitally and in print. The company describes the first manga volume:
Handsome teenage calligrapher Sei Handa is worshipped by all his classmates as an aloof superstar--too bad Sei's inherent negativity makes him believe that everyone actually hates him...?! A youthful comedy of misunderstanding and melancholy unfolds in the first volume of this hilarious prequel to Barakamon!
Yoshino launched the prequel manga in Monthly Shonen Gangan magazine in October 2013, and Square Enix published the fifth compiled volume in Japan on February 12. Yen Press released the fourth volume digitally last October, and will release it in print this October.
Yoshino launched the original Barakamon (pictured at left) slice-of-life comedy manga in Square Enix's Gangan Online magazine in 2009, and Square Enix published the manga's 13th volume on March 12. Yen Press is also publishing Barakamon, and it will publish the 11th volume on June 21. The manga follows the calligrapher Seishuu Handa after he moves to an island on the westernmost edge of Japan, and learns to live a rural life that he hasn't ever experienced before.Hello Tycoons! Today we’re coming to you with some big, big news! As hinted before, we’re nearing the end of RollerCoaster Tycoon World’s Early Access period. Now, we’re ready to pull back the curtain to show some of what you can expect when we leave EA. We’re excited to reveal some new features that the team has been working on behind-the-scenes – based off your feedback – for months! Now at the cusp of our full release, we’re showcasing these exciting new innovations for the first time to give an inside look into what’s in store at launch. Below you’ll find highlights of our upcoming new features, along with a new video showcasing our Piece-by-Piece builder, and a note on saved games. Be sure to follow along on the blog as we’ll continue to reveal some exciting news, including our LAUNCH DATE(!!), very soon.
New Progression Mode! When we leave EA, you’ll be treated to a BRAND-NEW park building gameplay experience. This has been a long-term project for our team and one we’re SUPER excited to finally reveal. Instead of the “Scenarios” found in the current game, you will have a new mission-based campaign system, giving you dozens of engaging and increasingly tricky missions over 3 world maps, with multiple objectives and playstyle options. As you complete these missions, you’ll be granted Research Points, which can then be used to unlock over 100 new scenery items. Those items will then be available for you in the Sandbox builder. Along with the core Sandbox building experience, this new progression system gives players a whole new way to interact with RCTW. We can’t wait for you to try it!
New Peeps!Welcome to Peeps 2.0. Based off of your feedback and diligent work of our artists, we’ve completely revamped and remodeled every peep in the game. Your park will now be populated with a diverse and vibrant collection of dynamic peeps – riding rides, buying cotton candy, and having the time of their lives. (Or cowering in terror / buckled over with nausea – your choice!) Additionally, as you make your way through our new progression mode, you’ll be meeting some of our VIPeeps – special peeps full of personality and style, who will have some very specific needs. Fulfill their needs and your park will be granted additional fame, making it all the more popular!
New User Interface! The entire main menu and User Interface has been reworked, offering a streamlined, seamless navigation experience. Now you can quickly jump back into your saved parks, create a new park, check out the most popular items currently available in the Social Hub, and see how many people are downloading and rating your own shared creations. Finding your way through RCTW and quickly getting where you want to be has never been easier!
Performance and Path Improvements! We’ve made significant progress over the past months improving our pathing system and overall game performance. As we leave EA you’ll notice jumps in framerate, decreased load times, and a much more seamless path placement experience.
Video Featuring the Piece-by-Piece Builder! We’d also like to take some time to focus on another newly implemented game feature – Piece-by-Piece building! Our PxP builder offers players unlimited creative control over the design and layout of their park. Let your imagination run wild as you create themed structures from our Sci-Fi, Western, Adventure, or General themes. We made a short overview video to show how YOU can jump into PxP building and start creating your own unique structures today!
Saved Games – Prepare Now to Leave Early AccessThe Call of Duty: WWII reveal event was equal parts bold and hilarious. From what we heard, the new game sounds like a bog standard Call of Duty with a well-trod WWII story that puts America center stage. It may well be the best-selling game of 2017, and it should move the CoD series away from its current'more is more' trajectory of gadgetry, drones, and exoskeletons as seen in Advanced and Infinite.
But if you believe the developers at Sledgehammer—take a big sip of coffee before continuing—the actual reason Call of Duty has returned to World War 2 is to prevent World War 3.
“When we started this journey almost three years ago,” Sledgehammer co-founder Michael Condry said during the livestream, “it was really [about] wanting to tell a really impactful narrative and story, largely to ensure this sort of conflict doesn’t happen again.”
While you squeegee the spit off your monitor, let’s consider that claim. If CoD:WWII is "largely" about scaring its players straight on modern history, it has an odd way of showing it. The pacifist message is at odds even with the first in-game footage, which mainly glorifies, or at least maintains the idea that WWII was a brutal but noble conflict—hellish and awful, yes, but with “visceral gameplay.” There are flamethrowers backed by opera singers. A man yelling “we had orders!” before being socked in the face. Drums that pound to the beat of gunfire. A logo that slaps the screen and shakes with anticipation for battle.
"This is a story that's bigger than all of us," said audio director David Swenson in a mock documentary shown at the reveal. "This is a whole new generation who might not have a lot of experience with this time period. I think this is a great opportunity to have them experience that and feel that."
Introducing a generation to the largest conflict in modern history is a lofty goal, so one can assume that how this brutal crisis is portrayed was not approached lightly. Yet through all the “authenticity” and “grittiness,” I saw little substance in the reveal. It sounds more like Activision is glad younger players haven’t seen Saving Private Ryan so it can produce precisely that. And if Saving Private Ryan was my generation’s primary introduction to and education about World War 2, then we must be very poorly informed—though I don’t recall even Steven Spielberg making such bold claims before that film released, nor when he directed a game, Medal of Honor. (I haven't watched every single interview, to be fair.)
CoD:WWII’s educational claims come off as insecure at best, disingenuous at worst. And I might have brushed off one comment as the hyperbolic yammering of an earnest but overzealous developer, but this pompousness occurred so frequently during the reveal that I could practically reverse engineer the memo it came from.
Call of Ryan: Saving Private Duty
Empathy machineguns
I wholeheartedly reject the idea that Call of Duty generates empathy, and I don’t think its goal should be to generate empathy.
If CoD:WWII causes any of its players to further investigate fascism, war, and genocide, then I will be glad, but it's hard to take such a goal seriously from the series that coined the word “killstreak,” invited you to drop an atomic bomb on your opponents as a reward, and famously reduced mourning to a button tap.
It's also uncomfortable to hear a developer praise the cultural impact of its game before it's even released. Players—not Activision—will decide what the game accomplishes. And to be clear, I don’t object because CoD:WWII is a game, and I’m a stodgy grump who believes games can’t be subversive or educational or lead us to new ideas and interests—they definitely can and I love them for it—it’s because I’m not buying for a second that CoD is really interested in much more than action drama (which would be fine).
According to Condry, Call of Duty: WWII is Sledgehammer's "chance to tell the epic, gritty, visceral story of the world's greatest conflict." But it’s also “authentic”—a term, by the way, used to describe every other Call of Duty game, no matter how far-flung the fiction—and yet I never recall my grandfather referring to the war as “epic” or “gritty” or “visceral.”
My guess is that Condry is hinting that CoD:WWII will include one or two of the series' controversial scenes, such as Modern Warfare 2’s No Russian mission, or inclusion of Manuel Noriega in Black Ops 2. The shock of these scenes has sparked discussion, debate, and weird lawsuits. But compartmentalizing tragedy into a single level or story beat is a different thing than setting out to present the history of World War 2, its atrocities and violence and crimes and the economic, political, and ideological forces that carved it into history as the mold for our violent modern world.
Yet they say it again and again.
"Not only is it a kickass game, but because they spent so much time making this historically accurate, it's going to expose the whole WWII story to a whole new generation,” said actor Josh Duhamel during the livestream, “and I'm really honored to be a part of this game for that reason."
"Lots of people are writing articles about that at the moment, saying that this is how we get our history now, it’s through this,” added host OJ Borg. “There's almost more empathy when you're fighting through an interactive character.”
I’ll mostly ignore the claim that we now learn history through blockbuster FPSs—do we really?—and focus on empathy, that corroded, co-opted word. I wholeheartedly reject the idea that Call of Duty generates empathy, and I don’t think its goal should be to generate empathy. The fun parts of Call of Duty rely on a lack of empathy, at least in the moment. If I truly felt the suffering of any Call of Duty character, I’d quit immediately. (On that note, I recommend reading game designer Robert Yang’s compelling rebuttal to VR machines as ‘empathy machines.’)
Fear and pre-orders
This isn't the first time Call of Duty has tried to spin its Michael Bay fare into serious social commentary.
So where does this sense of self-importance come from? Does it arise out of insecurity that pursuit of entertainment revenue is an insufficient response to modern crises? Maybe on an individual level. But I suspect that these repeated lines about educating a generation come from the marketing dept.
This isn't the first time Call of Duty has tried to spin its Michael Bay fare into serious social commentary. When Activision presented Black Ops 2 to press for the first time in 2012, it laid out the global issues that Black Ops 2's campaign would supposedly tackle: how scarcity of technological materials would lead us into a resource struggle with China. Treyarch went so far as to produce a five-part documentary series featuring authors, veterans, and political commentators insisting that the scenario was not only plausible, but probable.
“I don’t think the average American grasps how violent war is about to become,” says retired Lt. Col. Oliver North in the first episode. “I don’t worry about a guy who wants to hijack a plane. I worry about a guy who wants to hijack all the planes.”
This fear-mongering went so far as to prompt rebuttals. “Alright, I can’t believe I need to say this, but the future will not look like Call of Duty,” wrote J. Dana Stuster on Foreign Policy, disputing the idea that rare earth minerals were going to drive the next global conflict.
It’s true that the future presents many unknowns and dangers: growing inequality, far-right nationalism, global warming, increased workforce automation, nuclear proliferation, technological excess. Call of Duty has historically offered no solution to these problems, no better world. The series aligns with an idea that has dominated the past two decades of politics: that these fears are unstoppable, war is inevitable, and the purpose of the state is to protect us with bigger and bigger militaries. In Call of Duty’s universe, war will always come, whether waged by ultranationalist terrorists or the private armies of Advanced Warfare or the space fascists of Infinite Warfare, and we can only hope to contain it with heroism and sacrifice. (Mind you, that's to contain it for ourselves, not those we inflict it on.)
The truth is that the idea to return to WWII was a business decision, not a purely creative one, as Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg told Polygon before the reveal. “In this particular case I do think the impetus for the discussion started with those of us who manage the franchise overall,” he said, referring to Activision’s leadership.
If Activision’s execs truly made the decision to return Call of Duty to World War 2 as a calculated attack on white nationalism, oppression, genocide, and imperialism—a firm anti-war statement and denouncement of the liberal and conservative pundits who recently fawned over Tomahawk missile strikes—then I’ll eat my shoe faster than Werner Herzog.
If Sledgehammer really makes good on this lofty goal, perhaps CoD:WWII will depict the Soviet liberation of Auschwitz and the death march that preceded it. I don’t know how one would handle such atrocities with historical rigor and without trivializing them in a game that also includes Nazi zombies, and don’t envy anyone who might have the task of doing so.The White House has already hinted at the tone and focus of President Barack Obama’s last State of the Union address.
Positive. Forward looking. And, most of all, the president is expected to counter Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump’s decidedly negative, and often time offensive, narrative of the country.
While these annual speeches often come off as ceremonial and full of unfulfilled promises, this one — Obama’s eighth — is a marker.
After he utters his final words “…and God bless America,” the race to replace him will have officially begun.
Obama Speech Will Pave Way for Dems in ’16
Alexis Simendinger – Real Clear Politics
Gone in Obama’s eighth year are sweeping legislative ambitions. In their place: political storytelling aimed at a hoped-for Democratic successor and a Democratic Senate in 2017; maneuvers to protect seven years of governance; and lofty rhetorical riffs for the history books…. The president’s speech on Tuesday is the beginning of that final campaign. It’s a giant stage on which he can appeal to an anxious, divided electorate, one that’s unsure if Washington has done too much over seven years, or not enough. He can argue he is not a king, but also not a pushover….
The president said this month that he’s become a single-issue voter: If Democratic candidates don’t support gun control, they won’t get his help. And there are other issues around which Obama has drawn stark red lines: climate change, Planned Parenthood, Medicaid expansion, union rights, LGBT rights, paid family leave, child care, Wall Street regulation, a pathway to citizenship, a hike in the federal minimum wage.
The State of the Union Is Not Strong
Jim Geraghty – National Review
A president’s eighth State of the Union address is supposed to be his victory lap, a final year in the spotlight, in which he touts his achievements and then rides off into the sunset. Tonight, President Obama may utter the clichéd words, “The state of our union is strong!” If he does, it’s just one more lie upon the pile.
Obama will probably boast he brought the country back from the financial brink and try to argue that the American economy is doing well. (Avoiding “the brink” only took $8 trillion in new debt.) He will undoubtedly boast of the unemployment rate being only 5 percent. He will not mention the work-force participation rate of 62.4 percent, which hit the lowest level in 38 years this September. (In recent months, it bumped back up two-tenths of a percentage point.) … President Obama is likely to talk about the strained relationship between police officers and African-Americans and throw some rhetorical bones to the Black Lives Matter movement. Race relations are at their worst since the O. J. Simpson trial, according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll in December, and multiple polls indicates Americans are growing more pessimistic about the ability to bridge the race divide. Is this what Americans expected when they elected the first African-American president?
Obama Won’t Coast to the End of His Term
Albert R. Hunt – Bloomberg View
Republicans claim that Barack Obama is too passive on foreign policy. A few Democrats see him that way when it comes to politics. The president, however, is planning an aggressive finale…. Although this is an election year and the political environment is poisonous, Obama envisions a couple of major legislative achievements, notably the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement and an overhaul of the criminal justice system, which both have bipartisan support in Congress…. There’s real potential for setbacks for Obama this year: The battle against the Islamic State, the threat of more terrorist attacks or a plummeting global economy…. If the Iran nuclear deal and the Affordable Care Act fail, he will be seen more as an interesting president than as a significant one. If, however, these achievements — along with the recovery from the financial crisis — are viewed as enduring successes, Obama probably will be remembered as a near-great president.
Obama Previews His Last Year in Office:
The Nation He Built
Michael Grunwald – Politico
Over the past seven years, Americans have heard an awful lot about Barack Obama and his presidency, but the actual substance of his domestic policies and their impact on the country remain poorly understood…. Obama is often dinged for failing to deliver on the hope-and-change rhetoric that inspired so many voters during his ascent to the presidency….. But ever since he took office during a raging economic crisis, he’s turned out to be much more of a doer, an action-oriented policy grind who has often failed to communicate what he’s done. What he’s done is changing the way we produce and consume energy, the way doctors and hospitals treat us, the academic standards in our schools and the long-term fiscal trajectory of the nation. Gays can now serve openly in the military, insurers can no longer deny coverage because of pre-existing conditions, credit card companies can no longer impose hidden fees and markets no longer believe the biggest banks are too big to fail. Solar energy installations are up nearly 2,000 percent, and carbon emissions have dropped even though the economy is growing.
An Abundance of Executive Actions
Clyde Wayne Crews Jr. – Forbes
In Obama we have a president willing push boundaries on social and economic issues when it comes to legislating without Congress, a president who taunts Congress with a “We Can’t Wait” web page. What we don’t have is a Congress willing to restore the Constitution’s checks and balances. Washington’s lack of gridlock (of which the Republican grassroots seems to have had its fill this primary season) propels unbounded spending, Obama’s pen and phone and regulation without limit…. Some of what transpires today appears without precedent, as even the Washington Post characterized Obama’s unilateral executive action on immigration as one that “flies in the face of congressional intent.”
What’s Wrong With the State of the Union
Eric Liu – CNN
This week, we get the State of the Union Address. With creaky ceremony, the President will tell us the state of the union is strong. His team will cheer and stand up dozens of times. The other team will cross its arms and mostly remain seated….SteamOS
SteamOS is here. Let's expand on some of the features Valve announced. What are they actually saying?
In-home Streaming You can play all your Windows and Mac games on your SteamOS machine, too. Just turn on your existing computer and run Steam as you always have - then your SteamOS machine can stream those games over your home network straight to your TV!
Let's be honest here, both the biggest feature and the biggest problem SteamOS has is that it's based on Linux. More on Linux later this post. This brings a lot of good things to the gaming spectrum, however it also means a rather limited catalog at this point. Valve has definitely been planning this ever since they started working on Steam for Linux and Big Picture.
Streaming games over LAN works pretty damn well for the Nvidia SHIELD, but Valve will definitely be pushing developers to develop their games for Linux (if they aren't already). Developers would be pretty stupid if they don't support Linux now.
Music, TV, Movies We’re working with many of the media services you know and love. Soon we will begin bringing them online, allowing you to access your favorite music and video with Steam and SteamOS.
What does this really mean? Here are two things that have already been spotted in the current Steam Beta client, but are currently disabled.
Playing local music, making playlists, all from Steam. Import your iTunes music, or play music from a network share.
Built-in Spotify support. Already mostly implemented in Steam beta, but disabled.
We haven't seen the next bit in the Steam client yet, but we can pretty much assume this is a given. Netflix. What's the best way to get TV and Movies on a PC? Netflix? Maybe Hulu.
Linux
SteamOS will primarily be based off Ubuntu, as it has been Valve's focus ever since they started testing Steam for Linux. They already have a repository for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS users designated "hometest", which is obviously short for SteamOS being tested in people's homes. This hometest repository has been around since April. Check out our previous blog post for more on that repository.
I'm secretly hoping Valve will ship with a lighter version of Ubuntu (or not Ubuntu at all), but seeing all their testing has been done on Ubuntu so far, and they only have a repository for Ubuntu at the moment it's looking like Ubuntu will be the thing they ship SteamOS with. Please prove me wrong, Valve.
A problem with Linux is that not a lot of games are supported right now. Valve obviously "fixed" this by introducing in-home streaming, but this is only a temporary solution for developers that want their games played on SteamOS/the SteamBox. Valve WILL be pushing developers to develop for Linux, and will help them out in doing this. How, you ask?
Last week, Gabe mentioned in his LinuxCon keynote that Valve is working with another company on developing a Linux debugger. In previous talks, Valve has shown that debugging and improving graphics performance is much much easier on Linux, since you have deeper access into the operating system and the hardware. With Valve's 'debugger' coming up, developers will have a much easier time developing for Linux than they are having now on Windows.
In-home streaming is basically Valve's answer to people wanting to play games that are not on Linux yet. It won't be optimal, there will be latency and quality issues (it is Steam after all) but in the end it'll push more and more developers to develop natively for Linux as their games aren't being played the way they want them to be played if they're being streamed.
Thanks for reading through this unusually long blog post.
Let me know what you think about all of this in the comments, this is my first time writing such a lengthy post.8. “Kids”
MGMT
with MGMT
Teaming up with MGMT’s Benjamin Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden at Memphis’ Beale Street Music Festival, the Lips initiated a crowd-wide sing-a-long of the pair’s take on the perils of youth.
7. “Smothered in Hugs”
Guided by Voices
Released on Record Store Day, the group recorded their version of the Bee Thousand track as a part of No More Fake Label’s Sing For Your Meat compilation of Guided by Voices covers.
Flaming Lips Smothered In Hugs by Pretty Much Amazing 6. “Seven Nation Army
The White Stripes
The 2006 documentary, Fearless Freaks, chronicles the history of The Flaming Lips and features the group sharing the stage with both Jack and Meg White. So when Wayne whips out the megaphone for the Lips cover of “Seven Nation Army,” it’s obvious that the group isn’t lacking the duo’s approval.
5. “Borderline”
Madonna
with Stardeath and White Dwarfs
Joining forces with Wayne’s nephew’s project, the Lips and their collaborators prove that even Madonna’s classic isn’t immune to being morphed into a psychedelic explosion.
The Flaming Lips – Stardeath and White Dwarfs – Borderline from Delo Creative on Vimeo.
4. “Breathe”
Pink Floyd
with Stardeath and White Dwarfs
When The Flaming Lips announced their plans to cover Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety, it goes without saying that the folks at Paste were pretty stoked. It’s hard to pick just one of the band’s takes on the legendary album from one of their greatest influences, but the group’s version of “Breathe” is definitely worth a listen.
3. “Knives Out”
Radiohead
Resisting the urge to get too far-out, the band delivered a poignant cover of the Amnesiac track.
2. “War Pigs”
Black Sabbath
For their 2007 Bonnaroo appearance, Wayne and co. decided to kick-off their Which stage performance nearly 30 minutes early with a version of Black Sabbath’s anthem. And while the band was eventually shuffled off stage, the resulting energy was contagious.
1. “Bohemian Rhapsody”
Queen
Although Freddie Mercury’s vocals on Queen’s oft-covered classic will never be duplicated, Wayne seems to channel the late singer’s passion whenever he brings “Bohemian Rhapsody” to the stage. By constantly encouraging the audience participation, the front-man cements his fans’ devotion to the band’s live performances.The Frightening Agenda of the American Eugenics Movement
Mr. Platt, emeritus professor of social work, California State University Sacramento, is a member of the editorial board of Social Justice and author of books and articles on U.S. history and social policy. His current research interests include the history of eugenics in California. "To Stem the Tide of Degeneracy: The Eugenic Impulse in Social Work" - co-authored with Amy LaPan - will be published in Stuart Kirk (ed.), Mental Health and the Social Environment: Critical Perspectives (Columbia University Press).
Following are the remarks Mr. Platt made to the California senate judiciary committee, June 24, 2003, regarding senate resolution no. 20 - relative to eugenics. Since the spring 2002, state governments in Virginia, Oregon, and South Carolina, have published statements of apology to tens of thousands of patients, mostly poor women, who were sterilized against their will in state hospitals between the 1900s and 1960s. In March 2003, Governor Davis and Attorney General Lockyer added their regrets for the injustices committed in the name of "race betterment." Now, the California Senate is considering a resolution, authored by Senator Dede Alpert (D-San Diego), which "expresses profound regret over the state's past role in the eugenics movement" and "urges every citizen of the state to become familiar with the history of the eugenics movement, in the hope that a more educated and tolerant populace will reject any similar abhorrent pseudoscientific movement should it arise in the future." What might such a history lesson teach us?......that the eugenics movement, which emerged in Europe and the United States around the turn of the last century, was rooted in assumptions about the existence of distinct biological races, with "Anglo-Saxon" societies as the civilizing bedrock of modernity. Supporters |
August recess to discuss these critical items with members of the congressional leadership and the president’s Cabinet. White House and leadership staff are coordinating regarding the details of those meetings."
The earlier, private calls offer more evidence of Trump's uneasy relationship with congressional Republicans. Trump has angered McConnell with a damning critique of the Kentucky Republican's performance on repealing Obamacare and threats to try to take out Flake (R-Ariz.) — a vocal Trump critic — in a Republican primary next year.
Trump's chewing out of GOP senators, according to people briefed on the calls, reflected the president's frustration that fellow Republicans would make moves that could damage him, particularly on an investigation that he detests. Trump also complained about the Russian sanctions measure in a call with McConnell earlier this month that devolved into shouting. The New York Times first reported that Trump discussed the Russia probe with McConnell.
"It seems he is just always focused on Russia," one senior GOP aide said.
Since coming into the West Wing, chief of staff John Kelly has tried to curb Trump's unscheduled interactions with legislators, senior administration officials say. Trump has been known to see a senator on TV or think about an issue and immediately ask White House assistant Madeleine Westerhout to dial the senator.
But Kelly has asked that senior White House aides, such as legislative affairs head Marc Short, be present for the calls‚ and for Trump to be briefed in advance on the topic.
No matter what Kelly does, Trump and the Senate GOP are in for a rough September, a month that's shaping up as pivotal for his presidency. Along with his attacks on various Republican senators, Trump's aides and advisers are touting polls that show Congress is more unpopular than Trump is — and that they're prepared to run against the quintessential Washington institution.
Trump's insistence on funding his long-promised U.S.-Mexico border wall promises to further strain relations with Senate Republicans, who must secure at least eight Democratic votes to keep the government funded past Sept. 30. But the president appears unconcerned with helping McConnell navigate that challenge, declaring Tuesday night in Phoenix: "If we have to close down the government, we are going to build that wall."
Any wall funding will almost certainly be a deal-breaker for Senate Democrats. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Minority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois underscored that with tweets Tuesday rejecting reports of a potential White House-initiated immigration deal involving border wall funding.
Democrats, aware of their leverage heading into next month's talks on government funding, are urging McConnell and his GOP to ignore the president's threat.
"There's a big task in front of us that requires bipartisanship, and may require bucking the president, and that's keeping the government funded," one senior Senate Democratic aide said. "We saw back in April, when the White House was making threats on the wall, that Republicans ignored those threats. We need to have that happen again to avoid a disaster at the end of September."
Several senior Senate Republicans gave a cold shoulder to Trump's wall plans before leaving Washington for this month's recess. They floated a $15 billion border security bill that emphasizes "smart, multi-layered infrastructure" — but not the president's proposed physical barrier.
Still, Trump's team is keeping up the pressure on the chamber that failed him on a Obamacare repeal effort. His campaign's joint fundraising arm with the Republican National Committee launched an online appeal this week urging supporters to directly lobby the GOP Senate for a "down payment" on the wall.
Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) pushed back Wednesday during an appearance in Oregon, declaring that "I don't think anyone's interested in having a shutdown. I don't think it's in our interest to do so."
Trump and McConnell are expected to meet for the first time following the president's jabs at the senator after this month's recess.
"We have regular meetings, and the White House and members of the congressional leadership have been working on the next meetings after recess," McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said by email. "But any scheduling announcements will come from the White House."
McConnell's office later released a statement that sidestepped Trump's shutdown threat but declared their mutual commitment "to fund the government so we can advance our priorities in the short and long terms," alongside tax reform, infrastructure funding, and other top priorities.
“The president and I, and our teams, have been and continue to be in regular contact about our shared goals," McConnell said, before outlining the party's agenda. "We have a lot of work ahead of us, and we are committed to advancing our shared agenda together and anyone who suggests otherwise is clearly not part of the conversation."Back at JavaOne 2015, during a lunch break we started chatting with Hans Dockter, CEO of Gradle. A couple of days after the conference, a few of us were at the Gradle offices talking about what would be the beginning of the collaboration between JetBrains and Gradle; to bring first-class tooling and support for a static language to Gradle.
Today, at the Kotlin Night in San Francisco, Hans Dockter demoed the first milestone of writing a Gradle build script using Kotlin.
import org.gradle.api.plugins.* import org.gradle.api.tasks.wrapper.* import org.gradle.script.lang.kotlin.* apply<ApplicationPlugin>() configure<ApplicationPluginConvention> { mainClassName = "samples.HelloWorld" } repositories { jcenter() } dependencies { "testCompile"("junit:junit:4.12") } 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 import org. gradle. api. plugins. * import org. gradle. api. tasks. wrapper. * import org. gradle. script. lang. kotlin. * apply <ApplicationPlugin> ( ) configure <ApplicationPluginConvention> { mainClassName = "samples.HelloWorld" } repositories { jcenter ( ) } dependencies { "testCompile" ( "junit:junit:4.12" ) }
Gradle allows developers and build engineers to deal with complex build automation scripts. As complexity grows, having a language that is statically-typed can help detect potential misconfigurations at compile time, contributing in reducing runtime issues. Static typing also opens up the door to more sophisticated tooling. All this, combined with key characteristics of Kotlin that enable easy creation of DSL’s, can provide Gradle users benefits while maintaining the level of fluency they are accustomed to.
For the past 6 months, we’ve been working closely with the Gradle team, in particular with Chris Beams and Rodrigo de Oliveira in bringing Kotlin to Gradle. It has been a tremendously rewarding experience because it has also helped us see use-case scenarios for making scripting in Kotlin a first-class citizen.
We are very excited for what Gradle has in store and are happy to continue collaborating with them closely in bringing a great experience to Gradle users.
For more information and how to get the bits to start playing with this, make sure you read the blog post by the Gradle team for more details. In addition, if you are on the public Kotlin Slack, there’s a newly created #gradle channel for discussions.Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Feyisa Lilesa made the gesture as he crossed the line and again at a press conference
An Olympic marathon runner from Ethiopia staged a daring protest against his home government when he crossed the line in Rio on Sunday.
As he took the silver medal, Feyisa Lilesa crossed his arms above - a gesture made by the Oromo people who have suffered brutal police crackdowns.
Feyisa is from Oromia, home to most of Ethiopia's 35 million Oromo people.
He repeated the protest gesture later at a press conference, saying his life would be in danger if he returned home.
Human rights groups say that Ethiopian security forces have killed hundreds of people in recent weeks as they crack down on anti-government protests.
More on Ethiopia's unrest:
Image copyright AFP Image caption Human Rights Watch estimated that more than 400 people died in the protests in Oromia
Explaining his actions, Feyisa said: "The Ethiopian government are killing the Oromo people and taking their land and resources so the Oromo people are protesting and I support the protest as I am Oromo.
"The Ethiopian government is killing my people so I stand with all protests anywhere as Oromo is my tribe. My relatives are in prison and if they talk about democratic rights they are killed. I raised my hands to support with the Oromo protest."
The marathon runner said that he might be killed if he returned.
"If not kill me, they will put me in prison," he said. "I have not decided yet, but maybe I will move to another country."
Image copyright EPA Image caption Feyisa Lilesa celebrates crossing the line in second place in Rio
Asked if he was worried about being sanctioned by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), he said: "I cannot do anything about that. This was my feeling. I have a big problem in my country, it is very dangerous to make protest in my country."
Rule 50 of the Olympic charter bans political displays or protests and the IOC say they are gathering information about the case.
The American duo of Tommie Smith and John Carlos were famously expelled from the 1968 Summer Games after the pair flashed the black power salute on the medal stand.
There has been a wave of protests in Ethiopia in recent months over a series of frustrations, including attempts by the governments to reallocate land in the Oromia. People in Amhara region have also been protesting over a land issue.
After the Oromos, who make up around a third of the population, began protests in November the plan to expand the boundaries of the capital, Addis Ababa, was dropped.
But the demonstrations exposed some underlying issues about how the community feels excluded from the country's political process and the economic development.
New York-based Human Rights Watch says that more than 400 people were killed in clashes with the security forces in Oromia, although the government disputes this figure.
Correction 22 August 2016: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that US athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos were stripped of their medals.Federer says the injury happened the day after he lost to Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open final
Roger Federer says the knee injury he suffered after the Australian Open in January occurred while preparing a bath for his twin daughters.
The 17-time Grand Slam champion, 34, needed arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn meniscus and is set to make his return at the Miami Open this week.
"I think I was going to run a bath for the girls," he said.
"I made a very simple movement, turned back, heard a click in my knee. I went to the zoo. My leg was swollen."
Federer said he was happy with how surgery went but "very sad" he had needed an operation.
"I thought I was going to get through my career without any," said the Swiss. "It was a big shock and, yeah, disappointing."
Federer is scheduled to face Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro in round two in Miami.Remember the LG G Pad X2 8.0 Plus that leaked out earlier this month? Well today T-Mobile quietly added the Android tablet to its online store.
The LG G Pad X2 8.0 Plus is now available from T-Mobile at a price of $0 down and $10 per month for 24 months. That works out to a total price of $240.
In exchange for your hard-earned dollars, you’ll get an Android 7.0 Nougat tablet with an 8-inch 1920×1200 display, 5-megapixel front and rear cameras, and 32GB of built-in storage as well as a microSD slot if you need more storage. Also included is an octa-core Snapdragon processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 2,900mAh battery. The G Pad X2 8.0 Plus supports LTE bands 2, 4, 5, 12, and 66.
Perhaps the most notable feature of the LG G Pad X2 8.0 Plus is the G Pad Plus Pack that’s included with the tablet. It’s got a full-size USB port, a 4,400mAh battery to greatly extend your battery life, and both a kickstand and stereo speakers to improve your on-the-go entertainment experience.
We don’t see a ton of new Android tablets come to market anymore, so it’s good to see LG and T-Mobile team up to offer the G Pad X2 8.0 Plus for those folks that like Android slates. If that’s you, this LG G Pad X2 8.0 Plus seems like a nice option, especially for folks that like to consume content on the go.
Source: T-MobileWhat began as a goodwill trip to China for the Georgetown men’s basketball team turned violent Thursday night, when its exhibition game against the Bayi Rockets deteriorated into a melee during which players exchanged blows, chairs were thrown and spectators tossed full water bottles as Hoyas players and coaches headed to the locker room at Olympic Sports Center Stadium.
Georgetown Coach John Thompson III pulled his players off the court with 9 minutes 32 seconds left in the game and the scored tied at 64 after a chaotic scene in which members of both teams began throwing punches and tackling one another.
You can also read an admittedly partisan account on the Georgetown message board.
Or, you could look at these photos on Sina.com, which show at least one blow being struck.
Or you could look at these photos on Deadspin, which show at least one blow being struck.
They appear to confirm that this was pretty wild stuff.This week, President Barack Obama proposed a budget "that will create new jobs in manufacturing and energy and innovation and infrastructure, and we'll pay for every dime of it by cutting unnecessary spending, closing wasteful tax loopholes!"
What? I must have fallen asleep and woken up in 2008. That could not be something he'd claim after five years in office—years after making similar claims and not delivering on them. Does he think we have no memory, or that we're just ignorant? Are these just poll-tested phrases that work because most voters are too busy to pay attention?
This one smug sentence alone is amazing in its confidence and deceit. Let's break it down:
The president says he will "create new jobs."
Politicians always say that, but this president says it especially often. Do voters not know that government has no money of its own, so when politicians "create" jobs, they take money from the private sector, the only group that creates real jobs?
I emphasize "real" because, of course, politicians can create jobs by funding companies like Solyndra, hiring more staff or paying people to dig holes and fill them up. But those jobs don't last or create real wealth. Politicians can't create real employment by taxing people and giving the money to others.
This post-recession economic recovery is the slowest ever. Usually, after a recession, the cost of labor drops and companies rush to hire so they can profit as the economy improves. This time, employers looked at a thousand new regulations, unknowable new rules and taxes coming from Obamacare, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, the Labor Department, and so on. They decided: "I better not try."
May I hire interns to see if I like them before offering them long-term jobs? No. It may not be legal to employ interns anymore.
May I build a pipeline? Maybe. But the Environmental Protection Agency must approve. And state utilities. And state environmental officials. And the State Department. And the White House. And... who knows whom else? We might get permission in a year, or three years, or five, or we may never be allowed to build. Maybe instead I'll invest in a country where the rules are predictable and understandable.
The president says he will "create new jobs in manufacturing."
Manufacturing? Don't voters know that service jobs are just as real and good? Creating software, movies and medical innovation is just as valuable as manufacturing and often more comfortable for workers. Most parents want their kids to get jobs in offices or medical centers rather than mines or factories.
The president also says he will "create new jobs in... energy."
Don't people remember Solar One, Solyndra, Evergreen Solar, etc., and the billions lost? That the private sector is better at developing new forms of energy than politicians? That the boom in cleaner, cheaper natural gas came in spite of politicians, not because of them?
The president says he will "create new jobs in... infrastructure."
Did voters already forget that the last "shovel-ready" jobs didn't materialize? That billions went to politicians' cronies?
The president will pay for his new spending "by cutting unnecessary spending."
Give me a break. The president has had five years, two of which he was supported by a Democratic Congress, to cut "unnecessary spending." Even today's proposed shrinking of the size of the military to pre-World War II levels (which probably won't happen) isn't a cut. Obama's new budget proposes increasing Pentagon funds by $28 billion. The president even backed off from his earlier commitment to use more realistic cost-of-living adjustments when calculating Social Security payments.
Most annoying, the president brags that he has "reduced the deficit at the fastest rate in 60 years." But that's only if compared to his and former President George W. Bush's blowout stimulus of 2008. Much of the deficit reduction came from spending cuts (sequestration), which the president himself opposed, forced by Republicans. And his 2015 budget proposes $56 billion more spending than he and Congress had agreed to earlier.
Our debt will soon explode because baby boomers are about to retire. On this track, we are doomed.After 40 years, "Landshut" had its homecoming on Saturday. An Antonov 124 cargo plane brought the majority of the Boeing 737 aircraft in pieces from Brazil's Fortaleza International Airport to the southern German city of Friedrichshafen.
The Lufthansa airplane had been hijacked by Palestinian extremists in 1977 while flying from Mallorca to Frankfurt.
Landhut's remaining pieces are expected to arrive on Wednesday. The plane will then be reassembled and put on display at the Dornier Museum, an aviation and aerospace museum.
'Living symbol of free society'
The plane's Flight 181 was hijacked on October 13, 1977, by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which was assumed to be working with the Red Army Faction (RAF), a far-left insurgent group in West Germany. The four hijackers sought the release of 11 imprisoned RAF members, among other things.
The RAF, which the West German government considered to be a terrorist group, had assassinated West Germany's Attorney General Siegfried Buback earlier that year. The left-wing militants also kidnapped and murdered Industrialist Hanns Martin Schleyer and Jürgen Ponto, the head of the Dresdener Bank. The series of events was later dubbed the "German Autumn."
Landshut returns to Germany 40 years after hijacking A long-awaited return to Germany The years haven't been kind to the Landshut, perhaps the most famous Boeing 737-200 in Germany's history. It is currently rusting away at a "cemetery" for airplanes at the Fortaleza International Airport in Brazil. But now officials want to take the plane apart, transport the pieces to Germany and restore it at the Dornier Museum, close to Lake Constance.
Landshut returns to Germany 40 years after hijacking The RAF and the German Autumn The Landshut became famous in 1977's German Autumn: the weeks during which the country was shaken by several terrorist acts committed by the Red Army Faction and allied groups. Four militants from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine hijacked the Lufthansa plane to blackmail the German government into releasing prominent RAF members from prison.
Landshut returns to Germany 40 years after hijacking The odyssey begins On October 13, 1977, two men and two women revealed the guns and explosives that they had brought onto a tourist flight from Palma de Mallorca, Spain, to Frankfurt. They demanded that the jet fly to Somalia instead, and they called for the release of 11 RAF prisoners - or else they'd blow up all 86 passengers and five crew. The plane's first stop was Rome, where it had to refuel.
Landshut returns to Germany 40 years after hijacking Making it to Dubai The plane continued on its way and landed to refuel again in Cyprus and - after airports in Damascus, Baghdad and Kuwait denied permission to land - Bahrain. From there, pilot Jürgen Schumann and co-pilot Jürgen Vietor flew the Landshut to Dubai, where it arrived at about 6 a.m. on October 14. In this shot, a negotiator on the ground shows one of the hostage takers that he's unarmed.
Landshut returns to Germany 40 years after hijacking Life-threatening information The hijackers asked the tower in Dubai to supply water, food and medicine. Captain Schumann was able to communicate the exact number of the hijackers on board to the authorities. But, when Dubai's defense minister revealed the information in an interview, the hostage takers learned about it, too, and threatened to kill Schumann.
Landshut returns to Germany 40 years after hijacking A life lost Germany's GSG 9 anti-terror specialists went to Dubai, but practiced on a different airplane for so long that the Landshut took off before they could intervene. The next stop was Aden, in what was then South Yemen. Because the plane had to land on sandy ground, Schumann (pictured in Dubai) went out to inspect the landing gear - but took too long. Upon his return, a hijacker shot and killed him.
Landshut returns to Germany 40 years after hijacking Dramatic end to the nightmare The last stop was Mogadishu, Somalia. The hijackers issued an ultimatum for the RAF prisoners to be released and poured the duty-free spirits over the hostages, preparing to blow up the plane, so West German officials pretended to give in. But, instead, the GSG 9 stormed the plane, shot three of the four hijackers and saved all remaining hostages, who returned to Germany on October 18. Author: Carla Bleiker
After being hijacked, the "Landshut," named after a city in Bavaria, was eventually taken to Somalian capital of Mogadishu on October 17, 1977. The extremists had executed the plane's captain Jürgen Schumann in Aden, a city in present-day Yemen where they had stopped for refueling.
The hijacking drama finally ended after German elite commandos killed three of the four hijackers and rescued all 86 passengers. One commando and four passengers were injured in the exchange.
"To this day, the rescue of the 'Landshut' is a living symbol of a free society, which cannot be defeated by fear and terror," Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel said in July.
Gathering dust
The Landshut resumed services a few weeks after the hijacking. Lufthansa then sold the plane in 1985, and it ended up in the fleet of Brazilian carrier TAF Linhas Aereas.
TAF then decommissioned the plane in January 2008 and stored it in the Fortaleza airport, where it had been gathering dust until a few weeks ago.
The German Foreign Ministry bought the plane in July for about €20,000 ($23,900) from Brazilian airport operator Infraero.
ap/cmb (dpa, AFP)Boston and Cambridge B oston is the capital of Massachusetts and a city with many historical points of interest. Cambridge is its neighbor across the Charles River.
The Tomb of the Mathers, Copp’s Hill Burying Ground, Boston
Copp’s Hill Burying Ground, which could not be many blocks away from this very house, was a favourite scene. (“Pickman’s Model”)
This cemetery, the second-oldest in the city, and one of the oldest burial grounds in New England, has the distinction of containing the tomb of the Mather family. Increase Mather (1639–1723), Cotton Mather (1663–1728), and Samuel Mather (1706–1785) are all buried here.
The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library, Harvard University, Cambridge
The Dunwich Horror itself came between Lammas and the equinox in 1928, and Dr. Armitage was among those who witnessed its monstrous prologue. He had heard, meanwhile, of Whateley’s grotesque trip to Cambridge, and of his frantic efforts to borrow or copy from the Necronomicon at the Widener Library. Those efforts had been in vain, since Armitage had issued warnings of the keenest intensity to all librarians having charge of the dreaded volume. (“The Dunwich Horror”)
This library was named after a Harvard alumnus who perished aboard the Titanic. The Widener is the largest university library in the world. Although the reference room and other areas of the library are accessible to the public, the stacks themselves are not, the Widener being a private library. You can at least look up the Necronomicon in the HOLLIS Catalog.
Gloucester G loucester is located on Cape Ann, “a rocky headland which juts out of the Massachusetts coastline into the North Atlantic ocean.”
The Legion Memorial Building, Lester S. Wass Post No. 3, American Legion Square
The bus had come to a sort of open concourse or radial point with churches on two sides and the bedraggled remains of a circular green in the centre, and I was looking at a large pillared hall on the right-hand junction ahead. The structure’s once white paint was now grey and peeling, and the black and gold sign on the pediment was so faded that I could only with difficulty make out the words ‘Esoteric Order of Dagon’. This, then, was the former Masonic Hall now given over to a degraded cult....One must not, for example, linger much around the Marsh refinery, or around any of the still used churches, or around the pillared Order of Dagon Hall at New Church Green. (“The Shadow over Innsmouth”)
This building was built in 1844–45, and was the original Gloucester Town Hall until 1867. After this, it was the Forbes School until 1919, when the American Legion took over it. Although the building had fallen into a sad state of disrepair on my first trip, it has since been beautifully restored.
Sargent-Murray-Gilman-Hough House
Yes, there’s a hotel in Innsmouth—called the Gilman House—but I don’t believe it can amount to much. I wouldn’t advise you to try it. (“The Shadow over Innsmouth,” 1931)
The Sargent &c. house must have given you an excellent idea of a typical middle-period colonial interior... (Letter to Miss Helen V. Sully, 26 July 1933)
In his article, “I Found Innsmouth!” (Crypt of Cthulhu No. 57), Will Murray postulates that this historic home, built around 1760, was Lovecraft’s inspiration for the Gilman House hotel in “The Shadow over Innsmouth.” However, the Gilman House is at least 5 stories tall and has at least 28 rooms per floor. A simpler explanation is that Gilman is a common name in Essex County, particularly on Cape Ann.
“Mother Ann”
As for that rocky promontory—the coast north of Boston is composed of high rocky cliffs, which in several places rise to considerable altitudes as bold headlands. Of course, though, there is nothing as dizzy as the fabled seat of the Strange High House. If I had any promontory specifically in mind when writing that tale, it was the headland near Gloucester called ‘Mother Ann’—though that has no such relation to the city as my mysterious cliff has to ‘Kingsport’. (Letter to August Derleth, 6 November 1931)
The location of Mother Ann has been under debate for some time, and it has even been suggested by Peter Cannon that Lovecraft was referring to Mount Ann, a large hill on Cape Ann. However, Mother Ann can be found by taking Eastern Point Boulevard all the way to its conclusion at the Eastern Point Light. Mother Ann is a rocky outcropping that looks like the outline of a buxom woman.
Hadley H adley is a small town in western Massachusetts on the Connecticut River.
Hadley Farm Museum, Cider Press
Oldest of all are the great rings of rough-hewn stone columns on the hill-tops, but these are more generally attributed to the Indians than to the settlers. Deposits of skulls and bones, found within these circles and around the sizeable table-like rock on Sentinel Hill, sustain the popular belief that such spots were once the burial-places of the Pocumtucks; even though many ethnologists, disregarding the absurd improbability of such a theory, persist in believing the remains Caucasian. (“The Dunwich Horror”)
Ostensibly, this rock is a cider press that. Some surmise that it is actually a sacrificial altar, although the need for a ‘blood-draining groove’ is unclear. Photograph by Peter Vorobieff.
Haverhill H averhill is a city on the Merrimack River near the New Hampshire border.
Pentucket Burial Ground
Here lies interd ye precious dust of Mr Nathanael Peaslee Junr ye only & desirable son of Mr Nathl Peaslee who with comfort took his youthful flight from ye promising joys of earthly possessions in hope of a far more exceeding & eternal weight of glory on Sept ye 9 1730 aged 27 years
On a number of occasions Lovecraft visited Haverhill, generally to visit with his acquaintance, C.W. Tryout Smith. Peaslee is a well-known name in Haverhill, and it is possible that Lovecraft, on one of his rambles through the town, spied this stone.
Ipswich I pswich is a small town on the banks of the Ipswich River. The Ipswich Historical Society has a page with information on the John Whipple House, a 17th-century home which Lovecraft mentions in his letters.
Marblehead M arblehead is situated on a peninsula of land just south of Salem that sticks out into the Atlantic Ocean. Lovecraft commented often in his letters that Marblehead was one of his favorite towns, saying that he’d live there if he didn’t already live in Providence. For a thorough examination of Lovecraftian Marblehead, see Donovan K. Loucks’ article, “Antique Dreams: Marblehead and Lovecraft’s Kingsport”.
Old Burial Hill
Over all the rest of the scene tower’d a hill on which the rude forefathers of the hamlet were laid to rest; and which was in consequence nam’d Old Burying Hill....And atop all was the peak; Old Burying Hill, where the dark headstones clawed up thro’ the virgin snow like the decay’d fingernails of some gigantick corpse. (Letter to Reinhardt Kleiner, 11 January 1923)
Beside the road at its crest a still higher summit rose, bleak and wind-swept, and I saw that it was a burying-ground where black gravestones stuck ghoulishly through the snow like the decayed fingernails of a gigantic corpse. (“The Festival”)
This cemetery was established in 1638, being one of the oldest graveyards in New England. “Six hundred revolutionary heroes and several early pastors were interred at the top of the hill.”
Bowen House, 1 Mugford Street
...I hastened through Back Street to Circle Court, and across the fresh snow on the one full flagstone pavement in the town, to where Green Lane leads off behind the Market House....the seventh house on the left in Green Lane, with an ancient peaked roof and jutting second story, all built before 1650. There were lights inside the house when I came upon it, and I saw from the diamond window-panes that it must have been kept very close to its antique state. The upper part overhung the narrow grass-grown street and nearly met the over-hanging part of the house opposite so that I was almost in a tunnel, with the low stone doorstep wholly free from snow. There was no sidealk, but many houses had high doors reached by double flights of steps with iron railings. It was an odd scene, and because I was strange to New England I had never known its like before. Though it pleased me, I would have relished it better if there had been footprints in the snow, and people in the streets, and a few windows without drawn curtains. (“The Festival”)
This particular building was built in 1695 by William Waters.
St. Michael’s Episcopal Church
There was an open space around the church; partly a churchyard with spectral shafts, and partly a half-paved square swept nearly bare of snow by the wind, and lined with unwholesomely archaic houses having peaked roofs and overhanging gables. Death-fires danced over the tombs, revealing gruesome vistas, though queerly failing to cast any shadows. Past the churchyard, where there were no houses, I could see over the hill’s summit and watch the glimmer of stars on the harbour, though the town was invisible in the dark. Only once in a while a lanthorn bobbed horribly through serpentine alleys on its way to overtake the throng that was now slipping speechlessly into the church. (“The Festival”)
And St. Michael’s churchyard, where at twilight hideous shadows lurk amongst the dense willows of the far corner, and caper a ghoulish danse macabre on the tops of the old slate slabs as soon as the moon goes down! (Letter to Frank Belknap Long, 23 June 1923)
Beware St. Toad’s cracked chimes! (Fungi from Yuggoth)
This church was erected in 1714 with materials brought from England. When the news of the Declaration of Independence reached Marblehead, the church’s bell was run until it cracked. It was then recast by Paul Revere himself and is still used. The church still has a tiny cemetery on its east side. On the side of a nearby building is a sign that indicates that Summer Street was “Formerly Frog Lane.”
Newburyport N ewburyport is a lovely town near the mouth of the Merrimack River. The Newburyport Public Library, which the narrator of “The Shadow over Innsmouth” visited, has a very attractive web site.
Historical Society of Old Newbury and Cushing House Museum, 98 High Street
Most interesting of all was a glancing reference to the strange jewellery vaguely associated with Innsmouth. It had evidently impressed the whole countryside more than a little, for mention was made of specimens in the museum of Miskatonic University at Arkham, and in the display room of the Newburyport Historical Society....The collection was a notable one indeed, but in my present mood I had eyes for nothing but the bizarre object which glistened in a corner cupboard under the electric lights. It took no excessive sensitiveness to beauty to make me literally gasp at the strange, unearthly splendour of the alien, opulent phantasy that rested there on a purple velvet cushion. Even now I can hardly describe what I saw, though it was clearly enough a sort of tiara, as the description had said. It was tall in front, and with a very large and curiously irregular periphery, as if designed for a head of almost freakishly elliptical outline. The material seemed to be predominantly gold, though a weird light lustrousness hinted at some strange alloy with an equally beautiful and scarcely identifiable metal. Its condition was almost perfect, and one could have spent hours in studying the striking and puzzlingly untraditional designs—some simply geometrical, and some plainly marine—chased or moulded in high relief on its surface with a craftsmanship of incredible skill and grace....There were two armlets, a tiara, and a kind of pectoral, the latter having in high relief certain figures of almost unbearable extravagance. (“The Shadow over Innsmouth”)
In the basement of the Cushing House Museum is a wooden statue originally destined for use as the figurehead for a ship. It was carved in the mid 1800s by Thomas Wilson, a wood-carver, and was instead used as an advertisement over his shop at 8 Strong Street. A man named Barron purchased it near the end of the century and moved it to the garden of Ellen Todd. The statue originally had its robes painted purple, and its tiara, armlets, and leaves about the neck painted gold.
Masonic Hall, 31 Green Street
In his The H.P. Lovecraft Companion, Philip A. Shreffler states that this building was the basis for the “Esoteric Order of Dagon” hall in “The Shadow over Innsmouth.” This comparitively new building was erected on Green Street in 1928, just three years before HPL wrote the story. Its newness makes it an unlikely candidate.
Salem and Danvers S alem and Danvers were the center of the witchcraft hysteria of 1692. Salem is blessed with a wealth of 17th and 18th century architecture, examples of which include the Crowninshield-Bentley and Derby houses mentioned below.
The Witch House, Salem
I visited the Old Witch House, said to have been inhabited by Rev. Roger Williams before his coming to Providence-Plantations... (Letter to Reinhardt Kleiner, 11 January 1923)
... (“The Dreams in the Witch House”)
This house, built and lived in by Jonathan Corwin, was the location of many of the inquisitions of the reputed witches in the Salem hysteria.
The Crowninshield-Bentley House, Salem
Asenath had bought the old Crowninshield place in the country at the end of High Street, and they proposed to settle there after a short trip to Innsmouth, whence three servants and some books and household goods were to be brought. (“The Thing on the Doorstep”)
Built in 1727 by Captain John Crowninshield, this three-story building has been moved to the Peabody-Essex Museum.
The Derby House, Salem
We discussed certain possible arrangements for his moving back into the Derby mansion, and I hoped that he would lose no time in making the change. He did not call the next evening, but I saw him frequently during the ensuing weeks. We talked as little as possible about strange and unpleasant things, but discussed the renovation of the old Derby house, and the travels which Edward promised to take with my son and me the following summer. (“The Thing on the Doorstep”)
This, the oldest brick house in Salem, was |
go through all the trouble and believability to bring this character back, it would be a shame if it was once again a short-lived thing," Filoni says. "A lot of effort went into the resurrection of Darth Maul, and I'm going to make it worthwhile for the fans, that's for sure."[np_storybar title=”‘Nuclear holocaust would be like no other’: Read the full text of Donald Trump’s latest press conference” link=”http://news.nationalpost.com/news/world/full-text-transcript-of-donald-trump-news-conference”%5D
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SAN FRANCISCO — President Donald Trump’s administration said in court documents on Thursday it does not want a larger appellate panel to review a ruling keeping its travel ban on hold and will instead replace the ban.
“In so doing, the president will clear the way for immediately protecting the country rather than pursuing further, potentially time-consuming litigation,” the administration said in the filing.
A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit last week refused to block a lower-court decision that suspended the ban. The judges rejected the Trump administration’s claim of presidential authority and questioned its motives.
The administration attacked the decision in Thursday’s court filing, saying the three-judge panel misunderstood the scope of the order.
The decision came in a lawsuit brought by the states of Washington and Minnesota, which said the ban unconstitutionally blocked entry on the basis of religion and harmed their residents, universities and sales tax revenue. Eighteen other states, including California and New York, supported the challenge.
The appeals court had asked the Trump administration and Washington and Minnesota to file arguments by Thursday on whether more judges should hear the case.
The three-judge panel said the states had raised “serious” allegations that the ban targets Muslims, and the courts could consider statements Trump has made about shutting down Muslim immigration.
The judges also rejected the federal government’s argument that courts do not have the authority to review the president’s immigration and national security decisions.
They said the Trump administration presented no evidence that any foreigner from the seven countries — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — was responsible for a terrorist attack in the U.S.More and more Samsung Galaxy S4 owners have reported their smartphone catching fire while charging. Yet another user has reported on Reddit that his 9 month old Galaxy S4 cached fire last night after leaving it in the charger, he claims the smartphone was covered in “some wet, smelly substance” (caused by the leaking battery)
I unplug it from the charger to find that the charging port is burnt. The charger itself (male port) is burnt and rusted. The phone charging port is burnt as well. You can see the plastic around the charging port is melted. I always leave my phone on when I sleep so I was surprised. I then turned it on to find that everything was reset and I have no reception.
For those wondering why the phone has no signal, its because of the antena being next to the charger. Here is a picture of the burned charger
This isn’t the first Galaxy S4 to catch fire and it seems to be happening more often, several weeks back a man’s apartment in Hong Kong burned down due to a Galaxy S4 caching fire. Recently a Canadian youtuber which goes by the name of Ghostlyrich uploaded several videos regarding his Galaxy S4. After he posted the video, he got a letter from Samsung asking him to remove the video from youtube in order to get a replacement smartphone from a “similar model” and asking him to keep complete silence about the matter and denying everything regarding his smartphone catching fire, for those interested in reading the full letter you can do so here. Here is the video from Ghostlyrich:
Do not let your phone or its battery be subjected to extreme heat (Example: leaving it in a parked car that is under the hot Sun) Try to not overwork your device (Example: Playing video games while charging the device) Don’t charge the smartphone while you are asleep and if so, make sure to put it in a place far away from you and any object that easily catches fire. Don’t use unofficial chargers, 2 out of the 3 exploding smartphones were using unofficial chargers. They also remove warranty
The problem seems to happen due to a battery malfunction, the chemical substances in the battery can cause an explosion and create a small fireball, we recommend you follow these steps in order to make sure you are save and your smartphone doesn’t explode:
Any other advice? Make sure to share it!
Update: In Germany a Galaxy S4 has exploded while charging on a baby’s changing table. Full Article. Here are the related pictures:THE IRISH were elated, and they had every right to be. Their victory on November 5th against New Zealand, rugby’s perennial overlords, was their first ever, after a winless run of 28 matches lasting 111 years. Aptly, they beat the mighty All Blacks at Chicago’s Soldier Field—where the game was being played in the hope of expanding the sport’s appeal in America—just five days after the Chicago Cubs had ended a 108-year wait of their own by prevailing in baseball’s World Series. But the significance of the result was not simply that the men in green had finally claimed rugby’s most-prized scalp. It was also that they had vanquished the most dominant All Blacks side of all time.
The Kiwis arrived in America on the back of 18 consecutive victories, a new record for a major international team and a streak that had included their triumph in the 2015 World Cup. Yet the length of such runs is not the best way to gauge the ability of a side, since these numbers do not account for the strength of the opposition. The all-time record for consecutive victories belongs to tiny Cyprus, who won 24 consecutive games between 2008 and 2014 against the likes of Azerbaijan and Latvia.
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In contrast, the bulk of New Zealand’s matches are typically against Australia and South Africa, two giants of the sport and the only other countries to have won the World Cup more than once. The All Blacks’ recent purple patch, however, included World Cup fixtures against minnows Namibia, Georgia and Tonga, and a three-match home series against an ailing Wales. Rugby historians will also note that the Kiwis had previously strung together undefeated sequences of 20 games (from 2011 to 2012), 22 games (from 2013 to 2014) and 23 games (1987 to 1990), each of which was blemished by a single draw.
Ahead of the pack
So how can we tell that New Zealand’s 2016 vintage was the strongest ever? The most reliable measure of team quality comes from Rugby Vision, a predictive model assembled by Niven Winchester, an economist at MIT who also researches rugby probabilities. The system forecasts the results and margins of victory for all major international and most domestic matches. Had you used the model to place $100 spread bets on the scores of each of the 48 games at last year’s World Cup, you would have earned a tidy profit of $548 (or 11.4%).
Mr Winchester’s predictions are based on team ratings, which are constructed by exchanging points between opponents after a match. Conquering a strong rival means that you gain a large number of their ratings points: Ireland took 1.68 of them from New Zealand in Chicago. Beating a weak team, however, will earn you little. The All Blacks collected no ratings boost at all for their 68-10 thrashing of lowly Italy on November 12th, and actually lost 0.16 points when they edged past Wales by 36-22 on June 18th, a smaller margin of victory than the model expected.
Rugby Vision’s system therefore rewards sides that consistently best high-quality opposition, while remaining unimpressed by those that beat up on weaklings. Crucially, the model provides historical probabilities of match outcomes. Mr Winchester has fed into his algorithm the result of every single international fixture since the second world war between teams from “tier one”— Argentina, Australia, England, France, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa and Wales. This can tell us what chances any given team would have of beating the All Blacks at a neutral venue at any point since 1950 (the model uses five years of training data, and accounts for home-field advantage).
The result is that, before this month’s batch of Autumn Internationals, the Kiwis were further ahead of their rivals than any other side in history (see chart). Their closest challenger, England, would have had just a 14.9% chance of vanquishing them. If you take the average probability of victory against New Zealand for South Africa, Australia, France and England—the only nations to have beaten them at least five times, and the only other teams to have appeared in a World Cup final—then that number stood at 10.1% at the start of November. Both measurements were the lowest ever seen.
Looking at the latter figure (marked by the black line), you can see that past incarnations of the All Blacks have approached this kind of supremacy before. The squad that won the World Cup on home turf in 1987 achieved an average loss expectancy against the sport’s best sides of 15.2% in 1989; and the version that repeated that feat in 2011 reached 14.5%. Surprisingly, the best-rated Kiwi cohort before the current crop was the class of 2007. In the lead-up to that year’s World Cup, the All Blacks annihilated a series of tier-one opponents on foreign soil: England by 21 points, South Africa by 27, Wales by 35, Scotland by 40, France by 44 and Italy by 62. At one stage, their average loss expectancy was just 11.2%. But a one-in-nine chance of defeat is not the same as a certain victory, and the Kiwis lost narrowly to France in the 2007 quarter-finals. That cohort will be forever remembered for choking on the biggest stage—proof, if ever one was needed, that statistical dominance and “greatness” are different things.
The 2016 side can lay claim to both. Many of the current squad contributed to the World Cup triumph of last year. After that tournament, however, New Zealanders worried that a golden era had drawn to an end, as several outstanding players retired. One was flanker and captain Richie McCaw, who was renowned for his fearless tackling and an uncanny ability to steal the ball from opponents. He was also a three-time winner and eight-time nominee for the World Rugby Player of the Year award. Equally revered was fly-half Dan Carter, the side’s playmaker and kicker, with three wins and five nominations for the same prize. Both are generally recognised as the best players ever at their positions.
Additionally, the tournament marked the final appearances of Ma’a Nonu and Conrad Smith, the two centres responsible for distributing the ball outside of Mr Carter. Also playing in black for the last time were burly front-rowers Keven Mealamu and Tony Woodcock. Between them, these six stalwarts had won 707 international caps. For comparison, the entire 31-man England squad for the same tournament could boast just 836.
Fears of a succession crisis have proved unfounded. If anything, the All Blacks have surged even further ahead of the chasing pack. Consider this: in 2015, New Zealand played South Africa twice, Argentina twice, and Australia three times, picking up six wins while scoring 206 points and conceding 129. This year, in exactly the same combination of fixtures, the revamped All Blacks have won all seven, totting up 299 points and allowing 94. The young pretenders have matured into world-beaters. The most notable example is Beauden Barrett, a 25-year-old fly-half who was named the 2016 World Rugby Player of the Year in his first season as a regular international starter. Mr Barrett and his teammates might have tasted the rare bitterness of defeat in Chicago. Nonetheless, they appear poised to reach even greater heights in time.
Zeal and zest
All this leads inexorably to the question of how a nation of 4.7m people—roughly half the population of London or Paris—can consistently produce the world’s strongest side. Enthusiasm certainly plays its part. In 1905 the “Original” All Blacks toured Europe and America, the first time that they had travelled overseas, and won all but one of their 35 matches. The team’s success was a source of immense pride in a land that was still a British colony, and which did not gain complete self-governance until 1907. The sport has been something of a national obsession ever since. A lengthy piece in The Guardian before last year’s World Cup gives a flavour of how closely the game is woven into the fabric of Kiwi life: it is the pastime of every schoolchild, the yardstick by which rural villages measure themselves, the tide of the national mood. (Mr Winchester, a Kiwi himself, recalls rugby popping up in his economics exams.)
There is no greater honour in New Zealand than wearing the black jersey. Seven All Blacks have been knighted, compared with three Britons. To mark its 150th anniversary in 2013 the New Zealand Herald, the country’s most popular newspaper, selected Mr McCaw as one of the nation’s ten greatest people—alongside Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb Mount Everest, and Ernest Rutherford, who discovered the structure of the atom.
The All Blacks therefore get the pick of the islands’ athletes, though New Zealand does have strong rugby-league and cricket sides as well. By contrast, football is the chief sport in most European countries, and Australian-rules football and cricket dominate across the Tasman Sea. In spite of this selective advantage, there are just 150,000 registered players in New Zealand, far fewer than the 230,000 in Australia, 290,000 in France and 340,000 in both South Africa and England.
That smaller pool of talent is highly skilled. From the age of five, as “Small Blacks”, players are taught to focus on handling and spatial awareness. At schoolboy level, they are graded by size rather than age, to reward finesse, not physicality. In the professional tiers, brawn becomes more important: New Zealand is blessed with a large population of Pacific Islanders, whose physiques tend to combine pace and power in a way that makes them unstoppable with a ball in hand. But the mark of an All Black, vast or nimble, is the ability to take a pass from a teammate while darting through the tiniest of gaps.
This emphasis on movement and distribution would be unfamiliar in other countries. British rugby players grow up boshing into one another with all the subtlety of a herd of oxen. South Africans are equally known for their “direct” style of play. Perhaps only the Australians devote as much attention to creating space and slipping runners between defenders. In international matches, this skill is thought to matter most. But in order to test this belief—and to determine which ones actually do have the greatest impact on winning—we downloaded publicly available match reports on every game between tier-one international sides since 2010, and built a statistical model that measures which elements of a rugby match truly predict a team’s scoring.
Stat attack
Our findings from these 348 fixtures run contrary to many common assumptions in rugby. Having more than half of the possession or “territory”—the amount of time spent in an opponent’s half—is often cited as proof that a team is in control. Yet these numbers bear little relationship to the outcome of games. In our six-year sample, the team with more possession was victorious precisely half the time, and the side with more territory just 47%. You would get just as much predictive power from a coin toss. The All Blacks, incidentally, have on average had 51% of possession and 52% of territory. The range for all nations on both metrics is between 47% and 53%.
In fact, just a handful of the twenty or so variables that appear in standard reports proved to be statistically significant predictors of how many points a team will score (see chart). “Clean breaks”—the number of times an attacker bursts through the defensive line—turned out to be the most important factor. Even when controlling for other offensive variables, such as the tally of passes completed and the count of tackles evaded, sneaking behind the opponents’ defence was correlated with greater attacking success. Specifically, improving your total of clean breaks by one standard deviation was associated with scoring 4.7 extra points. (Standard deviations are a measure of spread: in a normally distributed set of data, 68% of observations will fall within one standard deviation of the mean, and 95% within two. On average, a tier-one international team makes 5.6 clean breaks per game. Improving by one standard deviation would get them to 10 breaks, which would typically see their score rise by 4.7 points.)
Other widely cited events such as offloads, kicks from hand and rucks (impromptu scrimmages) won also wound up having little impact on scorelines. What mattered was penetrative running, as measured by clean breaks and metres run with the ball. In both of these aspects, the Kiwis are untouchable. Other sides usually “carry” for between 300 and 400 metres in a game. The All Blacks do so for 500 (see chart). On average, the New Zealanders make an impressive nine clean breaks per match.
The data also revealed the importance of the “dark arts”. After the ball is fumbled or ushered off the side of the pitch, the game is restarted among the hulking forwards. If your opponent has committed a handling error, you have the opportunity to put the ball into a scrum, with the hope that it will emerge on your side of the melee. If he has carried or propelled the ball over the sideline, you are awarded a “lineout”; that is, the chance to throw the ball into a jumping throng of players. The data confirm that losing possession in either of these scenarios is correlated with a decline in point-scoring. Such unglamorous elements of rugby are not generally associated with the swashbuckling All Blacks. Yet they are the most frugal side in both situations. They are also remarkably proficient at securing “turnovers”, by pinching the ball from their opponents, often from under a pile of bodies. That too is an indicator of a potent attack.
Our model cannot account for everything. It explains roughly half of the variance in rugby scorelines, and its projections for each team were within seven points (or a single converted try) 60% of the time. With better data, more comprehensive results might be possible. Nonetheless, they give a clear indication of why the Kiwis are rugby’s kings. They run incisively. And they excel at the dirty work.There can be too much of a good thing
To my dear, dear non-meat eating friends that find themselves sickly fascinated but afraid to read further: Click HERE
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"Men... sheesh...
Many moons ago someone a lot smarter than me said something along the lines of, "".Taking that statement literally and pondering a bit, I came to a few quick caveats.Powder skiing?Bacon?While I'd like to write that I immediately rattled off countless other exceptions to that "rule", the reality is that once I had pork on the brain, salivation and obsession quickly followed. Can a guy actually have too much bacon?Unpossible.Or so I theorized. Which quickly morphed into a need to test the theory. And it didn't take long to find the means to do so.I didn't come up with any other exceptions on the ride to the market, but I *did* get there PDQ.).You've been given ample warning.Back at the ranch, I rolled up my sleeves and got to work.Take 12 strips and weave 'em.Baste liberally.How much? 'Bout that much.Unwad 2 (yep, two) pounds of sausage and cover your weave.Meanwhile, sizzle uppound in the background.Once that pound is done to taste, chop it up and cover the sausage, then roll the whole slithery beautious mess up.Delicately place this priceless gem onto the grill. Ovens can be used in a pinch, and a smoker is purported to be the best way. Run what ya brung.Common practice with this critter is a BBQ theme. I'm not much of a BBQ fan. Never have been. Friends afflicted with a BBQ problem have suggested that I just haven't hadBBQ yet. Following that rationale, I haven't hadsaddle sores yet either, but I've had enough of both to have formed an opinion.Anyhoo, I punted the BBQ theme and used maple syrup to baste the outside of the weave.That 4" thick slab o' lean, juicy flesh takes awhile to cook through. Get some other stuff done while you wait.Check in on occasion, noting the sumptuous sizzling.After three hours at 225*, I couldn't wait anymore.Ahem. I mean after three hours IT WAS DONE!When I started the project Herself showed little interest, tossing her hair and sauntering away muttering something like". Curiously, she reappeared at the Ultimate Moment.Herself, not being afflicted with the chronic quite the way I am, savored a few quick forkfuls, emitted some perfunctory yummy noises, then walked away. Just like that--she walked away. Impressive.I stuck with it. The superdeliciousness of it is, of course, completely indescribable. After about 3/4 of a pound I felt *zero* need nor desire to stop eating. If anything I wanted to eat more, faster. In fact, I'm 100% sure that I could, without hesitation, guilt, or even a second thought, easily polish off the whole thing.Completely confirming my original theory.MCCan there be anything green about tattoos besides the color of the ink?
Nope. Well, at least not yet anyway.
So if you are going to shoot toxic and permanent colorants into your body (which I desperately want to do, by the way) why not go with a green theme?
Or of course you can always insert a digital and programmable tattoo device under your skin so you can sport a new design daily. More on that in a minute…
I don’t have a tattoo… yet.
The ONLY reason I don’t have one is because I want to make sure that whatever I get is both meaningful and something that I know I won’t regret in the future.
Any ideas?
If you’d like to see some of the most beautiful and the most awful green themed tattoos, check out GreenDiary’s green-themed tattoos. The tattoo collage you see above is one from GreenDiary’s wonderful post.
How Dangerous Are Tattoos?
As the FDA says, “Many pigments used in tattoo inks are industrial-grade colors suitable for printers’ ink or automobile paint.”
Here’s a list of the heavy metals used for tattoo ink colors.
That said, according to Treehugger, the typical tattoo green and black colors are the least dangerous, while reds are the most dangerous.
Everyday Health says that it may not be the toxicity level of tattoo inks that you should be concerned with, but the possible long-term skin irritations that can be a result… even from henna tattoos!
Are There Eco-Friendly Tattoo Alternatives?
Not really. But there is a supposedly eco-friendly method of tattoo removal.
Of course, if you don’t want to go the ink route, you can just insert a digital tattoo interface under your skin.
Unfortunately this device is still just a conceptual design, but as our friends at Ecorazzi put it, “The ability to erase your ex-girlfriend’s name in favor a new one might be a Godsend.”
Ha ha, true that!
But wait. It goes on to earn even more cool points… The top surface enables touchscreen (or skin) control! Oh, and did I mention that the source of power is actually your blood? Yeah, chew on that one for awhile.
So if you’re not going to wait around for a digital tattoo interface to come to fruition, would the toxic nature of the inks deter you from getting one?
If you plan on getting a tattoo (but haven’t yet), what are you going to get? If you already have a tattoo, what inspired you to get it?
One thing is for sure about tattoos: most people usually have very interesting reasons for deciding to get one.
Yo. I’m Jeffrey. I think every little step is an awesome one when it comes to living green… but eco-snobbery sucks.
...A seventh accuser has come forward against disgraced Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), this time with the claim that in 2006, when he was a radio host, Franken tried to kiss her against her will. “It’s my right as an entertainer,” is what she said Franken told her.
The accuser is a Democrat, a former congressional aide, who spoke anonymously to the left-wing Politico.
“He was between me and the door and he was coming at me to kiss me. It was very quick and I think my brain had to work really hard to be like ‘Wait, what is happening?’ But I knew whatever was happening was not right and I ducked,” the woman told Politico. “I was really startled by it and I just sort of booked it towards the door and he said, ‘It’s my right as an entertainer.’”
She was in her mid-20s at the time and says she was alone with Franken after taping a radio show. After he boss exited the studio, she says she turned around and “Franken was in her face.”
“The former staffer ducked to avoid Franken’s lips,” Politico reports. As she beat it out of the room this is when Franken told her, “It’s my right as an entertainer.” She adds that she had never met Franken before.
Franken denied everything to Politico: “This allegation is categorically not true and the idea that I would claim this as my right as an entertainer is preposterous. I look forward to fully cooperating with the ongoing ethics committee investigation.”
The woman, who Politico describes as a “longtime Democrat,” said she did not come forward to force Franken out of office, but only to “encourage the former comedian to acknowledge that his behavior towards her and other women was intentional.”
This is the seventh woman to come forward to accuse Franken of sexual misconduct. The specific allegations include groping of the breasts and buttocks, and unwanted kissing.
On Monday longtime Democrat Congressman John Conyers was forced to resign over a handful of allegations. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus are furious over what they see as a double standard. Conyers, who is black, is forced out, while Franken, who is white, is protected.
The double standard is not only coming from Democrats, but also from a left-leaning national media that seems eager to dismiss each of Franken’s seven accusers even as they obsess over Conyers and — of course — Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.The release of Christos Gage and Nicholas Brendon’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 10” #5 sees the exciting end of this Season’s widely revered first arc, and the beginning of what’s gearing up to be a potentially significant saga in the series’ rapidly evolving mythology. Be sure to pick up your copy when it hits stands this Wednesday (July 23), and click through to read our spoiler-free review!
WRITTEN BY: Christos Gage, Nicholas Brendon
ART BY: Rebekah Isaacs
PUBLISHER: Dark Horse Comics
PRICE: $3.50
RELEASE: July 23, 2014
Reviewed By: ShadowJayd
For how different they seem to be, seasoned writer Christos Gage, and Buffy alum Nicholas Brendon, deliver another perfectly co-written script, both working in tandem to establish the dramatic events that will ultimately set the course for whatever lies ahead in “Buffy Season 10.”
Following last month’s surprising cliffhanger, Dracula’s dangerous meddling with the VAMPYR book in his quest for power has left the Scooby Gang scrambling in an epic battle to stop the terrifying—and familiar—demon he has unwittingly transformed into; whilst also trying to extract a mind-controlled Xander from Dracula’s hold. The issue roller-coasters along at an alarmingly quick pace, only slowing down to provide exposition and plot development when needed. The prominence of action and movement is a gift that keeps on giving as Buffy and crew take the fighting to the streets, providing a great opportunity for Rebekah Isaacs to not only showcase the cohesiveness of the team as a combat unit, but also her illustrative capabilities and fantastically imagined artwork. At times, the accelerated pace comes off as a bit excessive, but overall this is a pretty infectious installment.
Gage and Brendon use dialogue to great effect, leaning heavily toward the comedic side of the spectrum, with the writers delighting readers with quip after witty quip. Comedy is notoriously difficult to pull off, especially when trying to effectively express humour within the comics medium, but Gage and Brendon appear to be in their element. On the other hand, while “New Rules, Part V” is a master class in comedic delivery and timing, it could very well just be subject to its audience. It’s hard to say whether the narrative’s balance of plot and cheesy humour is exactly what the fandom wants and expects, or if it’s overkill; but personally, I relate to the former.
From beginning to end, this chapter is a blast to read thanks to Gage’s creative mind and understanding of the Buffyverse, and Brendon’s iconic acting experience as Xander Harris which allows for an incredibly authentic voice to be heard in the character’s dialogue; specifically his interactions with Dracula. Moreover, Rebekah Isaacs’ artwork really compliments the writers’ humour and makes excellent use of page layouts and design.
She also brings a lot of visual humour to the issue, herself. From subtle character moments, like Ghost Anya reaffirming her invisibility by waving a hand in front of an old acquaintance’s oblivious face. To big moments, like Willow magic-flying an unsuspecting, though agreeable, Catholic priest through the air to bless a towering structure amidst complete demon-fighting chaos. In contrast, colourist Dan Jackson keeps things visually serious with his typical palette of dark hues and tones. Yet he still provides a sense of vitality that instantly stimulates the eye. Isaacs and Jackson work together to capture that wonderful mix of humor, horror, and supernatural might that keeps life extremely interesting for Buffy and her gang.
The fandom is lucky to experience the beginning of a new season that’s growing into one of the most original and skillfully constructed eras of the series. I can’t wait to see what’s to come.
ShadowJayd, known everywhere else as Farah Jayden Hakkak, has been a staff writer for Bloody-Disgusting since July 2012. You can find her on Twitter, or passed out by the dirt road behind Wendy’s.Episode 52
May 12, 2015, Maddox
Armchair Economists 940 Bicyclers -131
Our big 1 year anniversary episode! And my big announcement is finally here:
This is our biggest episode yet and may be one of my favorite episodes. Easily in the top 52 of all time. Dick is so blinded by the butt-hurt he feels towards cyclists that he refuses to even call them "cyclists." Plus I'm so blinded by the butt-hurt from all you idiots that I demolished your stupid "broken window fallacy" that all you morons kept parroting in the comments last episode. More like broken-record fallacy.
Here's the hilarious song by @BandWagonBedlam
And Bags of Sand by Christopher Strand
Want to support our show? Special thanks to Harry's for sponsoring this episode. Use the promo code "BIGGESTPROBLEM" (or just click on the link) for $5 off your first purchase.
And here are all the pictures from the Butt Sanchez package:
Special thanks to @Reverend_Scott and Andy McKee for the song at the end. Make sure to listen past the closing theme song.
Thumbnail credit: Jack Tubbs
And in case my website goes down due to traffic, here's a direct link to the sign-up form: sign up here
Sources: About - The busted broken window fallacy Investopedia - The broken window fallacy in more detail Expert Reviews - Some of the technology and industries that came out of World War II Bicycle Universe - Bikes vs. Cars Energy Calculator Daily Mail - Bicycling wrecks your prostateIf you read men’s rights blogs or forums, you’re probably under the impression that half of all bangs end up with a false rape charge. Because of this blog I’ve known dozens of game guys (or gamesmen, if you will), with more than a thousand notches between them, and not once has any mentioned problems to me with being accused of rape. I know it happens, but the incidence is too small for me to worry about instead of STDs and accidental pregnancies.
While every feminist likes to repeat the phrase “No means no,” it depends on context. Here’s a guide:
“No” when you try to take off her jeans or shirt means… “You need to turn me on a lot more.”
“No” when you try to take off her bra means… “Try again in five minutes.”
“No” when you try to take off her panties means… “Don’t give up now!”
I find the only word that means no is “stop.” If you hear that word then she’ll be asking you to leave soon after.
For every rape accusation I’d want to know at what stage of undress the girl was at before the supposed rape happened. If she was completely naked until saying no, and got there voluntarily, then I’d be reluctant to charge the man with rape unless there were signs of violence. Women need to understand that men aren’t robots who can suddenly stop at the drop of a dime with all that testosterone pumping through their system. Therefore it would be prudent for them not to enter situations where the average man can’t stop due to his innate weaknesses as an animal whose entire existence depends on him successfully mating.The following is from Henry Marsh’s Do No Harm, a memoir where one of Britain's foremost neurosurgeons gives an intimate view inside delicate and dangerous surgeries. He was appointed Consultant Neurosurgeon at Atkinson Morley's/St George's Hospital in London in 1987, where he still works full time. He was made a CBE in 2010.
ANEURYSM
a morbid dilation of the wall of a blood vessel, usu. an artery.
Neurosurgery involves the surgical treatment of patients with diseases of the brain and spine. These are rare problems so there are only a small number of neurosurgeons and neurosurgical departments in comparison to other medical specialties. I never saw any neurosurgery as a medical student. We were not allowed into the neurosurgical theatre in the hospital where I trained – it was considered too specialized and arcane for mere students. Once, when walking down the main theatre corridor, I had a brief view through the small port-hole window of the neurosurgical theatre’s door of a naked woman, anaesthetized, her head completely shaven, sitting bolt upright on a special operating table. An elderly and immensely tall neurosurgeon, his face hidden by a surgical facemask and a complicated headlight fixed to his head, was standing behind her. With enormous hands he was painting her bare scalp with dark brown iodine antiseptic. It looks like a scene from a horror film.
Three years later I found myself in that same neurosurgical operating theatre, watching the younger of the two consultant neurosurgeons who worked in the hospital, operating on a woman with a ruptured cerebral aneurysm. I had been qualified as a doctor for one and a half years by then and was already disappointed and disillusioned with the thought of a career in medicine. I was working at the time as a senior house officer, or SHO for short, in my teacher hospital’s intensive care unit. One of the anaesthetists who worked on the ITU, seeing that I looked a little bored, had suggested that I come down to the operating theatre to help her prepare a patient for a neurosurgical operation.
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It was unlike any other operation I had seen, which had usually seemed to involve long, bloody incisions and the handling of large and slippery body parts. This operation was done with an operating microscope, through a small opening in the side of the woman’s head using only fine microscopic instruments with which to manipulate her brain’s blood vessels.
Aneurysms are small, balloon-like blow-outs on the cerebrial arteries that can–and often do–cause catastrophic haemorrhages in the brain. The aim of the operation is to place a minute spring-loaded metal clip across the neck of the aneurysm–just a few millimetres across–to prevent the aneurysm bursting. There is very real danger that the surgeon, working at several inches’ depth in the centre of the patient’s head, in a narrow space beneath the brain, will inadvertently burst the aneurysm while he dissects it free from the surrounding brain and blood vessels and tries to clip it. Aneurysms have thin, fragile walls, yet they have high pressure, arterial blood within them. Sometimes the wall is so thin that you can see the swirling dark vortices of blood within the aneurysm, made enormous and sinister by the magnification of the operating microscope. If the surgeon ruptures the aneurysm before he can clip it the patient will usually die, or at least suffer a catastrophic stroke–a fate that can easily be worse than death.
The staff in the theatre were silent. There was none of the usual chatter and talk. Neurosurgeons sometimes describe aneurysm surgery as akin to bomb disposal work, though the bravery required is of a different kind as it is the patient’s life that is at risk and not the surgeon’s. The operation I was watching was more like a blood sport than a calm and dispassionate technical exercise, with the quarry a dangerous aneurysm. There was the chase – the surgeon cautiously stalking his way beneath the patient’s brain towards the aneurysm, trying not to disturb it, to where it lay deep within the brain. And then there was the climax, as he caught the aneurysm, trapped it, and obliterated it with a glittering, springloaded titanium clip, saving the patient’s life. More than that, the operation involved the brain, the mysterious substrate of all thought and feeling, of all that was important in |
television news, have been firm about what they blame. "These people died because they were poor," as rapper and poet Akala put it.
It looks very plausible that contractors took major liberties in installing the cladding as, after all, it's only a council tower block, right?
To even begin to understand why there is this level of distrust, you have to know a little about the labyrinthine way that social housing is currently owned, procured and renovated. Increasingly little council housing is actually operated directly by councils themselves. Much of it has been given to Housing Associations, charitable bodies who build both market and social housing, who don't make a profit, but have been known for paying their executives six-figure salaries.
In many places, including Kensington, council stock is operated by Arms Length Management Organisations, and Tenant Management Organisations, which are in theory run by residents, but in practice are as often out of touch as any hostile council or Housing Association. When it comes to renovating buildings, councils have essentially been forced to abide by Design and Build contracts, and to use "best value', where they're legally forced into favouring third-rate design and construction. Contractors then sub-contract, causing a race to the bottom that is immediately visible in the cheap and tacky signs, fences, benches and cladding, frequently attached to buildings that were often once of a superior quality than their renovations suggest.
Although the inquiry will likely last years, the over-cladding of the Grenfell Tower has so far gotten most of the blame for the fire. Most expert assessments have spotted how it caught fire with terrifying speed, spreading right up the block in seconds, making the usual – and usually successful – advice that residents stay in their homes far more dangerous than in a normal fire.
Re-cladding of council towers shouldn't be controversial – many were re-clad in the last Labour government's Decent Homes programme. Most of the time it's done for thermal reasons, to lessen damp and cold, although in the 80s and 90s there was a certain amount of inept prettification too.
At Grenfell Tower it looks very plausible that contractors took major liberties in installing the cladding as, after all, it's only a council tower block, right? Given the British construction industry's widely reported blacklisting of trade unionists, who might be likely to raise safety concerns, a lethal failure of oversight like this was going to happen, sooner or later.
Undoubtedly, the Conservative government bears ultimate responsibility
Undoubtedly, the Conservative government bears ultimate responsibility, if not for the fire itself, then at the very least for the climate in which it happened. The recommendations of an inquiry into the last major high-rise fire, at Lakanal House, Camberwell, in 2009, were sat on by the housing minister – one Gavin Barwell, who lost his seat in the election and is now Theresa May's chief of staff.
Furthermore, the government's recent Housing and Planning Bill classes estates as "brownfield", a designation previously limited to industrial wasteland. And in areas of "high value", such as Kensington, councils are legislatively encouraged to sell their housing stock.
However Labour councils have their share of blame too. Many of the examples in the Grenfell Tower blog, of the council and the Tenants Management Organisation ignoring complaints and harassing complainers, will sound familiar to residents of currently endangered estates such as the Aylesbury in Southwark, or Cressingham Gardens and Central Hill in Lambeth.
Ideas for "regenerating" estates from too many Labour councils, and from too many architects and planners, hinge on using estates and the people who live in them as bargaining chips. A tower is demolished to make way for a new private tower (usually super-expensive, hence making the whole area more expensive, hence increasing housing need) to "cross-fund" another to be built there. Tacitly, many councils have decided their role is not to build and maintain social housing and social services, but to work as municipal marketing companies, encouraging "investment" into their areas to bring richer people into them.
Council-estate youth deserve to be treated like human beings with a right to housing
Somehow, this doesn't make residents less poor, though it may stop them being residents. "Trickle-up", Emma Dent Coad calls it.
In the 1990s, politicians rebranded poverty as "social exclusion". They said that what was wrong with estates was that the people who lived in them were confined to their own class and their own place. The best thing was for them to be made to "mix" with wealthier residents, which people in Ladbroke Grove have done for some decades now.
But as has been obvious in their response over the last few days, estate residents are not socially excluded – they are social. They don't need to be "mixed" into "mixed tenure" or "mixed developments", they already are mixed. Newspapers have called council-estate youth "feral", but they've proven to be vastly more civilised and decent human beings than tabloid editors. What they deserve is to be treated like human beings with a right to housing, rather than as the soon-to-be decanted residue of an embarrassing social mistake, when we once thought that the provision of decent mass housing for all was the business of our elected governments.
A decent first step, as Jeremy Corbyn among others has suggested, would be a little bit of redistribution – the requisitioning of the borough's many empty homes to house some of the hundreds of people made homeless, and whose friends and family have been killed, by greed and negligence.
Owen Hatherley is a critic and author, focusing on architecture, politics and culture. His books include Militant Modernism (2009), A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain (2010), A New Kind of Bleak: Journeys Through Urban Britain (2012) and The Ministry of Nostalgia (2016).
Photograph is by Sarflondondunc.Proof of Work (PoW) is the only external method of powering the distributed consensus engine known as a blockchain. However, at least two alternatives have been proposed, and both are internal to the network (Proof of Stake (PoS), and Proof of Burn (PoB)). These are important as they use virtual resources obtained within the network as a substitute for PoW, meaning these methods consume virtually no energy; miners’ power usage seems to have been a concern of late. While a worst-case back of the envelope calculation leads to some amazing (and completely unrealistic) conclusions – like Bitcoin mining accounting for 3/4 of the total carbon output if Bitcoin is worth $1,000,000 – there is legitimate cause for concern if Bitcoin grows too fast and future block reward halvings arrive too late. However you look at it, the possibility of a currency using zero energy is tantalising.
Proof of Stake and Proof of Burn
Both PoS and PoB use similar mechanisms. The auditor makes a sacrifice – in the case of PoS it is coindays (which are difficult to acquire; also a good measure of economic activity), and in the case of PoB it is coins themselves (which are also difficult to acquire). Ultimately, any Proof of {something} must require a cost, whether that be electricity, coin days, or coins themselves.
Herein I suggest a fourth method, very similar to how a term deposit works (in that dusty old banking system).
Monetary Velocity and Value of Money
The equation of exchange tells us that as velocity increases the price should decrease, and when prices decrease the value of each unit of currency increase – this is only the case provided the monetary supply remains constant. In a late-stage currency we would expect a relatively low level of monetary inflation / deflation (as opposed to price inflation / deflation – an important distinction), so we’ll discard the concern of constant monetary supply.
In a Proof of Stake fuelled network one is required to hold an amount of currency for some time before it is able to be used to mint a block. Because it cannot be used in a transaction it is essentially removed from the monetary supply as it is unavailable for a period of time (not technically true because one can spend it up until it is used to mint a block, but the economic effect is the same either way in terms of velocity). Because the money supply will effectively (but doesn’t actually) decrease, prices should also fall by a small amount. One can imagine the network saying “Here is a small reward for temporarily removing your coins from the supply and making us all a little more wealthy, in addition to auditing and securing the network.”
Proof of Burn is used in a similar fashion: coins are destroyed in an unspendable transaction which is not immediately obvious to the network (the author suggests using a P2SH address). At some later date this is revealed and used to create a block. The miner is then rewarded with new coins and/or transactions fees (presumably more than the coins they’ve burned, else they’ve made a loss). This is like the network saying “Here’s a small reward for temporarily removing your coins from the supply and making us a little more wealthy, in addition to auditing and securing the network.” Huh, that sounds familiar.
While they may sound very similar, there are a few differences in terms of public knowledge. In both cases it is unknown how many coins have been left waiting in the wings (similar to how it is impossible to tell how many bitcoins have been lost or abandoned over the years), though PoB provides a little more specificity allowing us to determine a narrower range of candidates (unspent P2SH addresses) than PoS (which includes all unspent transactions). The volume of coins in each case is also an indicator, as in both cases there will be some effective minimum required. However, PoB implies the number of coins burnt cannot be set in advance as both the date of redemption and volume of burnt coins are unknown. PoS does not destroy coins and so any extra volume of coindays destroyed is less important. These differences are subtle, but may become important as the systems are explored more deeply.
Economically speaking, the basis of both proofing systems relies on relinquishing the ability to use coins for some time. In PoS this is voluntary and the funds are spendable at any time, whereas PoB uses a rather more permanent operation so the user commits immediately to mining a block in the future, regardless of whether it is profitable or not (provided they meet the difficulty requirement, else the coins may be lost forever; perhaps pooled mining might alleviate this concern, though), but the length of time till that utility will be used is unknown. In this case, as the ability to use coins is relinquished, there is no possibility they will increase monetary velocity and thus should (in theory) increase the value of the each coin in the total supply.
Proof of Deposit
Proof of Deposit (or PoD) fills a medium between the two methods. Simply put, PoD blocks have a difficulty proportional (or equal) to the amount of coins that must be offered for ‘deposit’ and have a known block reward. Deposited coins remain untouchable for some length of time and the block reward is delivered to the miner (either immediately or over a period of time like a dividend or interest payments). As there is one deposit per block there are a limited number of deposits available each year, and if deposits are appearing too fast then the return must be too high, so the difficulty is increased (which implies the return is lowered) and thus demand decreases. Our personified network might once again say “Here’s a small reward for temporarily removing your coins from the supply and making us a little more wealthy, in addition to auditing and securing the network.”
That’s getting awfully familiar…
Why yes, it is. This should come as no surprise, though. What resources are there internal to a currency besides the currency itself? Economically speaking, there’s very little substantive difference between these three methods, and their monetary implications are very similar; the main difference is the physical actions that help it propagate. If, however, humans are psychologically biased to one way over another, then those physical actions are exactly the things that will count in a showdown between these proofing methods.
Does it even work?
This is really the only important question here. If none of these schemes work, do we have a reason to care? A discerning reader like yourself might have noticed something peculiar about these three methods: you need money to make money. Without internal resources existing the network has no fuel.
PPCoin mitigates this concern by using both PoW and PoS in combination to create new blocks. Over time PoW blocks become less frequent and PoS blocks become more frequent, so it should eventually lead to an energy efficient network (or at least more so than the Bitcoin network). Whether this will pan out or not is difficult to say; the reward for attacking PPCoin is far lower than a well executed attack on Bitcoin, and without an increase in PPCoin’s popularity and/or accessibility we might never discover how easy an attack really is.
Where to from here?
The possibility of a zero energy currency is not something that should go without research, but should also be approached with a degree of scepticism. It has been argued that monetary monocultures contribute to financial instability due to the lower resilience of a homogeneous system (compared to one of high diversity). Is it possible that a reliance on internal states causes instability more generally, even in a currency that has no resistance to opt in to or out of? If it is still the case, can we build several different sorts of these systems together to help provide that resilience? Can one network’s security rely on actions in one or several other distinct currencies? These are important economic questions that may have profound consequences for the future of finance; they are novel because systems of this precision have been impossible under legal frameworks, and never before has any person been able to create a truly global currency in their garage. Experimentation is the future of currency, and I am excited to watch it happen.Officials with the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services announced Wednesday that they plan to eliminate all state-funded outpatient services statewide in response to the $75 million in budget cuts to the department.Officials said if additional funds are not appropriated for fiscal year 2018, the department will be forced to initiate the plans in November.“The agency has no choice but to announce plans for cuts that must be initiated in November, and fully implemented during December and January. ODMHSAS has delayed this action as long as possible; however, we must intimate processes the first week of November to meet the shortfall that begins in December,” officials said in a statement.If initiated, officials said the cuts will impact nearly 189,000 Oklahomans currently receiving outpatient services, 700 treatment agencies in communities statewide and more than 8,500 therapists, case managers, doctors, nurses and support staff. Stay with KOCO 5 for updates.
Officials with the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services announced Wednesday that they plan to eliminate all state-funded outpatient services statewide in response to the $75 million in budget cuts to the department.
Officials said if additional funds are not appropriated for fiscal year 2018, the department will be forced to initiate the plans in November.
“The agency has no choice but to announce plans for cuts that must be initiated in November, and fully implemented during December and January. ODMHSAS has delayed this action as long as possible; however, we must intimate processes the first week of November to meet the shortfall that begins in December,” officials said in a statement.
If initiated, officials said the cuts will impact nearly 189,000 Oklahomans currently receiving outpatient services, 700 treatment agencies in communities statewide and more than 8,500 therapists, case managers, doctors, nurses and support staff.
Stay with KOCO 5 for updates.Why are photographers compelled to suffer the discord of RAW formats?!
During the last 10 to 15 years, digital photography forced the film out of nearly all the domains. End users purchased hundreds of millions of digital cameras; and that is not including the cameras sold integrated with cellular phones. Such a huge industry can't exist without standards and such standards appear to exist. They cover the storage media (various flash cards), and image format which happens to be JPEG. Currently JPEG is the most widely used image format and its image quality and size satisfy the overwhelming majority of users.
However it is not always what professionals want. By professionals we do not mean just professional photographers. The list includes designers, pre-press staff, archivists, photo banks and many others. It often happens that JPEG format is also deemed less than appropriate by advanced amateurs. That is why nearly all digital cameras that are positioned by manufacturers as professional or semi-professionals models (as well as all current dSLR cameras) suggest an alternative format, the so-called RAW. For a casual onlooker it may appear that RAW is also some kind of a standard format that delivers better quality quality for pros.
This small article is to show that the matter is much more complicated. At the current stage the situation with RAW format is not just bad but really dreadful and continues to spiral downwards rapidly. This affects mostly professionals while less demanding amateurs simply enjoy the progress of digital.
RAW and JPEG: what is the difference?
When a photo is saved in JPEG all the processing is done in the camera before the image file is written to the storage media. On the contrary, when we shoot in RAW mode the data recorded is pretty much unchanged data read from the camera sensor.
Using classical photography terminology JPEG is pretty much a finished product, like an exposed Polaroid film is; while RAW is more like a latent, hidden image on a film before the film is developed. Such development for RAW files is often called RAW conversion. The programs used to perform such RAW conversion are often referred to as RAW converters. However there is a huge difference between undeveloped film and RAW data. The film can be processed only once. RAW data can be processed as many times as necessary using different RAW converters and experimenting with settings until the desired result is achieved. Of course in order to record an image in JPEG format the camera itself performs the necessary RAW conversion. The RAW converter is a part of camera intellect. In case the conversion performed in the camera itself turns to be less than satisfactory because of a poor contrast, bad colour, plugged shadows, blown out highlights, moir or any other reason it is very difficult and often impossible to recover the image. This is because the image, after conversion to 8-bit bitmap suitable for viewing, is already stripped of a lot of initial image data that was captured by the camera in RAW. This information is gone, lost past recovery. On top of that, saving it in a lossy format such as JPEG further complicates adjusting the image during post-processing.
While recording data in RAW format no digital processing is normally applied. The conversion of RAW data for viewing and printing is performed after the shooting using a powerful computer with a decent monitor. This allows to employ much more complex algorithms of RAW conversions, to monitor the process of the conversion, and to verify the results of the conversion visually. As a rule, this allows substantially better quality of the image; moreover, the conversion parameters can be tuned to a good degree without running into posterization, excessive noise levels, and other artefacts, that is without destroying the image.
Processing of RAW files demands certain additional skills and habits as well as additional time. This is why RAW format is used by a minority of photographers, mostly by advanced armatures and professionals and mostly when the quality of the result is more important that the speed of getting to it; or, when the shooting conditions do not allow the use of JPEG because of its limited ability to maintain dynamic range as compared to RAW. Another important case for RAW is when the customer explicitly demands for it. Quite often, RAW is used as a kind of a safety net. However it should be mentioned that the minority we referred to above are millions of users around the world.
The benefits that that are presented when using RAW format are by much overshadowed by the absence of well thought-out standards for the format. Because of this we deal with tens (or even hundreds depends on how you count) of varieties of this format.
Data formats and compatibility
Photography is one of those industries where much depends on the transparency and one-to-one biunic data exchange between the players. Sometimes these expectations are met, especially when a well-established formats such as JPEG, TIFF, EPS and others are used in a consistent workflow. But that is definitely not the case with RAW. For instance, take a photographer who has completed the shoot in RAW, and then browsed through the results and finally selected the keepers. Obviously this photographer is using the RAW converter of choice to evaluate the images. Unfortunately, selected RAW files can not be blindly submitted to the customer or to the pre-press bureau. The other party may be using a different RAW converter or a different version of the same converter, hence, the results of their conversion may be different to the point of being unacceptable and that is even if the photographer submits conversion parameters with the RAW file.
As of today we do not have any RAW standards that are recognized by all parties involved. Historically, the RAW format is defined by the camera s manufacturer. In most cases some extension of TIFF format is used. All camera manufacturers add their own extensions. Some manufacturers use several incompatible RAW formats. Sometimes it goes as far as one camera can record data in several incompatible formats.
Conveniently, the formats are not documented publicly. Some manufacturers enforce additional measures to protect data, for example, Nikon ciphers some data fields but this is not the only case of data concealment.
The manufacturers explain why they prefer not to disclose the RAW formats. Usually their explanations add up to the following simple reasons:
Reserved and new data fields can reveal some trade secrets to competition.
Quite often the data fields are added just in case ; as soon as the camera design allows to get this information it should be preserved and it may be used later to improve RAW conversion. Such fields include for example diagnostics and service fields. To document all these fields means to take responsibility for their contents and to maintain their presence in future releases of firmware and even future cameras.
To open a format means to trigger an unnecessary public discussion. Let's say users can access the information that registers the focusing distance. The immediate reaction of certain users will be to get a ruler to check the focusing accuracy to motivate his claims that the camera doesn t focus correctly. In the recent case over the out-of-focus problems with 1D MkIII moral damage and financial losses of Canon could be much worse if only the respective field in RAW data would be officially documented. And of course such claims would not be limited to just Canon.
Some camera manufacturers are trying to get additional money out of RAW converters. Not long ago native RAW converters had no competition at all to the extent of monopolizing the market. Of course they prefer to maintain a competition at minimum. It is not unusual to hear from camera manufacturers that only their converters do the justice to their cameras while third party converters only compromise their cameras decreasing image quality, distorting colours and sacrificing resolution and on top of that adding noise.
Manufacturers claim sometimes that encoding of data fields is done in the best interest of the users, that only such encoding allows to ensure data integrity and also to prove authenticity and authorship of the original shot. Those of our readers who are familiar with the modern state of cryptography will surely smile here. It looks like the manufacturers are not overly concerned with providing us with convincing and satisfactory arguments.
All other parties except the manufacturers are genially interested in open formats as well as in reducing the current manifold of formats.
Photographers want to process the images taken with different cameras through only one or two standard processing workflows (as it was with films). Photographers benefit from the competition between the developers of different image processing programs. With the competition there is a hope for better processing quality and lower price for image processing programs. Another important consideration for photographers is an interaction between different programs to allow using best features of each of those.
want to process the images taken with different cameras through only one or two standard processing workflows (as it was with films). Photographers benefit from the competition between the developers of different image processing programs. With the competition there is a hope for better processing quality and lower price for image processing programs. Another important consideration for photographers is an interaction between different programs to allow using best features of each of those. Photo labs today can t accept RAW files for batch processing and printing at all. In the absence of the standard processing routings printing from RAW can be done only manually with absolute minimum of automation.
today can t accept RAW files for batch processing and printing at all. In the absence of the standard processing routings printing from RAW can be done only manually with absolute minimum of automation. Program developers are also suffer from multiple formats and lack of documentation. They spend an awful lot of time studying alien formats and decoding the meanings of the fields. Such a waste of time and labour could be easily avoided with a little help and good will from the side of manufacturers. In the absence of such support from the camera makers their new cameras remain unsupported by the third party products for many months.
are also suffer from multiple formats and lack of documentation. They spend an awful lot of time studying alien formats and decoding the meanings of the fields. Such a waste of time and labour could be easily avoided with a little help and good will from the side of manufacturers. In the absence of such support from the camera makers their new cameras remain unsupported by the third party products for many months. Archivists, in the broad sense of this word, and that includes photo banks, advertising agencies and individual photographers, can t sleep well. The pandemonium of formats gives them nightmares. They need to store not only the RAW images but also the programs that can open those files, manuals for those programs, their own notes on using the programs and the sequences of user actions needed to set processing parameters to render the necessary result. Today we have at least one case when the compatibility between versions was lost. Processing parameters, if set in an older version of the program, are ignored by a newer version. Sometime setting those parameters in an older version can cause a crash of a newer version. This is because the RAW format was changed between those two versions. We mean Nikon Capture here. Maybe this is not the only case. We were not running especial investigation of this problem because even one case is more than enough.
The speed of development of digital cameras doesn t allow creating such a universal data format that would last forever. However the chaos that exists today is not inevitable. One of the reasons for the current situation is that distinct and agreeable attempts of introducing standards are absent. The photo industry hasmodern photography always enjoyed diversity, sometimes even too much of it. New film formats emerged and vanished (828, 110, 126, APS, disk film); different recipes of film processing felt into decay or went into oblivion (Polacolor, C-22, K-14, E-4). Many are not aware of the reasons of such excessive diversity (and by the way, such diversity was caused not only by economical or technological factors, but to a certain extent raison d tre was just an attempt to hook the consumer up and to get some additional revenue from selling the rights to use the format or the process to other manufacturers). But pretty much everybody knows the results: the archives of images taken with a use of ill-fated formats can be maintained only by professional archivists but not by the individuals or small companies. It would be just horrible if the current archives of digital photos will follow the pattern. It is even more so if we are taking into account that during the last 10 years the amount of photos captured nearly equals the amount captured during previous 30 years.
Data, metadata and meanings
One of the most important achievements of modern photography is storing not only the image data but metadata as well.
Data is the image, captured by the camera. That is, it contains information about the level of brightness for each sensel. If the image is recorded in RAW format, very little is done to this data (usually only normalization and some noise reduction are applied). If the image is recorded as JPEG data is processed through multiple color and tone corrections, and also sharpened.
is the image, captured by the camera. That is, it contains information about the level of brightness for each sensel. If the image is recorded in RAW format, very little is done to this data (usually only normalization and some noise reduction are applied). If the image is recorded as JPEG data is processed through multiple color and tone corrections, and also sharpened. Metadata is the information about the image. It contains exposure parameters, time the shot was taken, possibly geographical location of the shot, information on lighting conditions (white balance), make, model, and serial number of the camera, information about the lens, and so on. The description of data format (parametadata) should include; details of the method used to store image data (bit width, compression scheme, etc.) but also define metadata in full detail.
Parametadata (that is data format of a RAW-file) is exactly that, which brings meaning to stored bits sequences ( this field contains focal distance expressed in one tenth portions of inch). Since manufacturers do not document format, the quest for bits meaning is to be fulfilled by hackers (in a good sense of this word), who, using different methods, make their own definitions of formats (we will talk about it hereinafter).
With a view of a further discussion lets divide data and metadata into the following groups:
Those which are necessary to get a good quality image from RAW-file: the manufacturer, the camera s model, light sensitivity while taking the shot, image size, white balance data, the use of flash while shooting, as well as some other critical parameters, and of course, the image data that is the brightness map registered by sensor. Those, which might be used while processing a RAW-file: camera s presets (contrast-saturation-tone curve-sharpening-colour space), optics, and focusing parameters. Those, which are not necessary for processing but useful for demonstrating, cataloguing and search: like date and time, GRS coordinates, author, description of photo etc.
One cannot say that no standard for metadata exists, there is an EXIF standard and the most of cameras manufacturers follow it. But EXIF, which in a first place was established to support ready, viewable images, describes fields prerequisite for cataloguing (the third group in our classification) and provides no help to the RAW-processing software developers.
It is also not true to say that data and metadata are completely not documented. They are, but in accordance with the grievous joke affirming that 'FreeBSD kernel is very well documented, unfortunately it is all on C '.
Data and some part of metadata are documented in well-known program dcraw by Dave Coffin, the program, which currently supports (that is able to unpack) formats of 312 of digital cameras.
Metadata are documented in the ExifTool program by Phil Harvey. This program deals with a much broader spectrum of information than just the EXIF. The program also recognizes and deciphers a number of utility fields, among them those which some converters include in RAW file if the file is not just out of camera, but modified and saved in the raw converter.
It is interesting to mention that the size of program code of ExifTool exceeds the size of program code of dcraw by nearly a whole order of magnitude (75 thousands of lines against 8 thousands). This proportion quite adequately reflects the ratio of laboriousness of data deciphering to metadata deciphering: metadata are much more diverse.
Of course this documentation is not enough. Despite of all hackers efforts, mistakes happen and completeness of description is far from perfect. Sometimes the correct deciphering of a data field of some camera becomes possible only when this camera has already been discontinued. As a result even developers of RAW processing software can t declare with any degree of certainty that they do everything in a correct way. Funny consequence is that, any attempts to compare the quality of RAW processors based on 1 or 2 examples, are completely meaningless.
Revolutionary situation in digital photography
According to herein-above in the digital photography industry a revolutionary situation is emerging in compliance with its definition given by nobody else but Vladimir Lenin himself:
Photographers (and the whole industry, which uses the results of their work) cannot live as of old: the variety of non-documented formats suits nobody, especially taking into account that the quantity of new modifications of formats is increasing nearly exponentially.
Cameras manufacturers cannot rule over as of old: despite of all their efforts, including (and mainly) their attempts to conceal information, converters produced by independent developers prevail by users number and sometimes even deliver higher quality results compared to native converters.
It is known that development of a revolution situation into a revolution depends on the existence of party, which is ready and capable of taking a lead of a struggle.
And here the reasonable question emerges: how is anything at all works in such a chaos?
Developers mainly use 2 approaches, decreasing the level of entropy a little:
Some programs support only a very limited number of data formats, therefore dramatically simplifying the problem. If the author of a program declares that his program provides support for the majority of data formats, it means that most probably he is using dcraw source texts either as the ready solution or as a documentation. Among others who uses this approach is such a major player as Adobe. It is nothing less but amazing that such a huge industry largely depends on just one person and 8 thousand lines of code written by him.
It is easy to see that the both methods are having no prospects, especially from strategic point of view.
Adobe DNG
The DNG format was presented by Adobe in September 2004 as a universal format of a digital negative, intended for the eternal archive data storage. The specification DNG 1.0 was poorly thought-out, and in a half a year Adobe presented the specification DNG 1.1. Together with the description of its format DNG SDK was released. Unfortunately this DNG SDK cannot be considered as anything but a run-around : easy-to-read documentation, useful examples as well as program templates are virtually ascent.
Before we move on, let's check on Adobe s statements: the archive properties and the universality.
Is it really archival?
Let s make a very simple experiment: we will try to imitate the situation which could take place 3 years ago. To make this experiment we will take a source RAW-file from the old enough camera (Canon Powershot G6) and convert it into DNG with an old version of the Adobe converter. To check archival properties we ll convert both files source RAW and its derivative DNG with the same presets into bitmapped RGB-format using current version of Adobe Camera Raw v.5. Let s have a look at the difference between the results (photo 1). Visual difference between conversions of both files is small and it is highly possible that it won t be noticeable when printed in a magazine. But straightforward subtraction shows that the difference exists.
It is rather difficult to consider a format to be an archival while it does not provide the identity with the source given that the archival file and the source have been processed equally.
Is it universal?
To check universality let s perform the inverse operation: we ll take a shot with a current camera (Canon 1D Mark III), convert it into DNG using the modern version of a DNG-converter, and try to feed it to an old version of Adobe RAW converter (ACR), which does not know this camera. This experiment is quite topical, and here is why: the support of new cameras in Adobe Photoshop CS2 has been discontinued, but not everybody is ready to pay for upgrade to Adobe Photoshop CS3 or CS4 given that these versions do not provide any distinct advantages to a particular user.
It has been found that the version 2.4 of Camera Raw does not open the file at all, while versions 3.x open it but results of conversions of RAW and derived DNG into RGB (photo 2) differ even more than it was in the previous experiment.
Shortcomings and evolution of DNG
The reason for the both above-mentioned reciprocity failure is that not enough metadata is specified in DNG format specifications. At every stage of the DNG progress Adobe unpack and standardize only the metadata which is necessary to support their current conversion methods. All other metadata even if stored is still present in the initial (non-documented) form. The level of metadata standardization in DNG is not enough for the goal (universal archival format). Gradually Adobe are modifying DNG, discovering information content of metadata and accordingly adding to the specifications, but that metadata have been ignored in previous versions of converters. If the file had been converted by one of these previous versions, some data might have been lost forever (as it was shown above).
The specification DNG 1.2, which was released several months ago, contains some additional fields of metadata colour data, but since they are intended mainly to support Adobe products, they have been added in a form as they are used by Camera Raw and Lightroom. This data has no relation to source RAW formats and hence it is artificial. Thus, DNG more and more becomes the internal format of the company which have developed it.
The DNG format does not help developers to support non-standard sensors (such as Foveon, Fuji Super CCD SR having 2 different images in one shot etc.). Of course, it is not difficult to invent the way to store non-standard data, but consequently such data requires non-standard algorithms. Unfortunately, those are not accounted for by DNG.
At the same time some manufacturers (Panasonic, Leica, Samsung) have started to use the DNG format as the output format of their cameras, though it does not prevent them from recording non-documented metadata, since there is a special place assigned for such undocumented tags in DNG specifications.
One can easily see DNG as one more RAW format. In this sense DNG is a little bit better than all others since some fields are somehow documented. But it is absolutely impossible to use DNG as the universal archival format, and one can see it from the simple experiments we offered here. Moreover, the acceptance of DNG in its current state as the standard leads to the situation when the method of conversion used by Adobe is also imposed, though implicitly.
OpenRaw
In year 2005 the OpenRaw initiative emerged. In fact it boiled down to the call to cameras manufacturers to publish specifications of their respective RAW formats. This call was ignored altogether, despite the fact that well-respected people were holding polite and slow negotiations in accordance with all the rules of the Japanese etiquette with very influential managers of the leading manufacturers of digital photo equipment.
However, suppose that these manufacturers turned to be kind enough to publish all their internal raw cuisine, even if in the scope that was already known. Would it be of any help for raw converters developers? Our opinion is not too much; due to (traditionally) a couple of reasons:
To program the processing of all data formats is a lot of work. Dave Coffin has been involved in it for more than 10 years, Phil Harvey about 5 years. Of course, given you have the descriptions it is no need to hack any more, which would have reduced the amount of work, but even reduced volume is still exorbitant high.
In fact one needs not a description of all and every bit of a format but only descriptions of fields plus instructions of what to do with all that jazz. Unfortunately the founders of OpenRaw did |
all American films in the country,[47] which is believed to have delayed the release of I Am Legend. Will Smith spoke to the chairman of China Film Group about securing a release date, later explaining, "We struggled very, very hard to try to get it to work out, but there are only a certain amount of foreign films that are allowed in."[28]
Premieres were held in Tokyo, New York, and London. At the London premiere in Leicester Square, British comedian and actor Neg Dupree was arrested after pushing his way onto the red carpet and running around shouting "I am Negend!".[48] The stunt was part of his "Neg's Urban Sports" section of comedy game show Balls of Steel.
Marketing [ edit ]
The film's teaser was attached to the screenings of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. And a tie-in comic from DC Comics and Vertigo Comics has been created, I Am Legend: Awakening.[49] The project draws upon collaboration from Bill Sienkiewicz, screenwriter Mark Protosevich, and author Orson Scott Card. The son of the original book's author, Richard Christian Matheson, also collaborated on the project. The project will advance from the comic to an online format in which animated featurettes (created by the team from Broken Saints) will be shown on the official website.[50]
In October 2007, Warner Bros. Pictures, in conjunction with the Electric Sheep Company, launched the online multiplayer game I Am Legend: Survival in the virtual world Second Life. The game is the largest launched in the virtual world in support of a film release, permitting people to play against each other as the infected or the uninfected across a replicated 60 acres (240,000 m2) of New York City.[51] The studio also hired the ad agency Crew Creative to develop a website that would be specifically viewable on the iPhone.[52]
Box office [ edit ]
I Am Legend grossed $77,211,321 on its opening weekend in 3,606 theaters, averaging $21,412 per venue, and placing it at the top of the box office. This set a record for highest-grossing opening for a film for December.[53] The film grossed $256,393,010 in North America and a total of $585,349,010 worldwide.[54] The film was the sixth-highest grossing film of 2007 in North America, and as of April 2014, it remained among the top 100 all-time highest-grossing films both domestically and worldwide (unadjusted for ticket price inflation).[54]
Home media [ edit ]
The film was released on DVD on March 18, 2008, in two editions: a one-disc release, including the movie with four animated comics ("Death As a Gift", "Isolation", "Sacrificing the Few for the Many", and "Shelter"), and other DVD-ROM features, and a two-disc special edition that includes all these extras, an alternative theatrical version of the movie with an ending that follows closer to that from the novel,[55] and a digital copy of the film.[56] On the high-definition end, the movie has been released on the Blu-ray Disc format and HD DVD format along with the DVD release, with the HD-DVD version being released later on April 8, 2008.[57] Both HD releases include all the features available in the two-disc DVD edition.[57] A three-disk Ultimate Collector's Edition was also released on December 9, 2008.[58]
The film has sold 7.04 million DVDs and earned $126.2 million in revenue, making it the sixth-best-selling DVD of 2008.[59] However, Warner Bros. was reportedly "a little disappointed" with the film's performance on the DVD market.[60]
Soundtrack [ edit ]
The soundtrack for I Am Legend was released on January 15, 2008, under the record label Varèse Sarabande. The music was composed by James Newton Howard. This Also features Bob Marley songs Redemption Song,Three Little Birds and I Shot The Sheriff
I Am Legend Soundtrack No. Title Length 1. "My Name Is Robert Neville" 2:50 2. "Deer Hunting" 1:16 3. "Evacuation" 4:26 4. "Scan Her Again" 1:41 5. "Darkseeker Dogs" 2:16 6. "Sam's Gone" 1:45 7. "Talk to Me" 0:55 8. "The Pier" 5:17 9. "Can They Do That?" 2:09 10. "I'm Listening" 2:09 11. "The Jagged Edge" 5:15 12. "Reunited" 7:49 13. "I'm Sorry" 2:21 14. "Epilogue" 4:13 Total length: 44:00
Reception [ edit ]
Critical response [ edit ]
On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes the film had an approval rating of 69% based on 210 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "I Am Legend overcomes questionable special effects and succeeds largely on the strength of Will Smith's mesmerizing performance."[61] On Metacritic, which assigns a rating to reviews, the film has an average score of 65 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[62]
A. O. Scott wrote that Will Smith gave a "graceful and effortless performance" and also noted the "third-act collapse". He felt that the movie "does ponder some pretty deep questions about the collapse and persistence of human civilization".[63] Dana Stevens of Slate wrote that the movie lost its way around the hour mark, noting that "the Infected just aren't that scary."[32] NPR critic Bob Mondello noted the film's subtext concerning global terrorism and that this aspect made the film fit in perfectly with other, more direct cinematic explorations of the subject.[64] Richard Roeper gave the film a positive review on the television program At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper, commending Will Smith as being in "prime form", also saying there are "some amazing sequences" and that there was "a pretty heavy screenplay for an action film."[65] The film has been criticized for diverging from Matheson's novel, especially in its portrayal of a specifically Christian theme.[66] Much of the negative criticism concerned the film's third act,[40][41][67] with some critics favoring the alternative ending in the DVD release.[55] Doug Walker said the alternate ending was "powerful, thought provoking, and challenging", and the theatrical ending was "a betrayal" and "castration" of both the film's tone and of what made the original story so impactful.[68]
Popular Mechanics published an article on December 14, 2007,[69] addressing some of the scientific issues raised by the film:
the rate of deterioration of urban structures, infrastructure, and survival of fauna and flora the plausibility of a retrovirus spreading out of control as depicted in the film (The measles virus depicted in the film, however, is not a retrovirus, but is in fact a part of the Paramyxovirus family.) the mechanics of the Brooklyn Bridge's destruction
The magazine solicited reactions from Alan Weisman, author of The World Without Us, virologist W. Ian Lipkin, MD, and Michel Bruneau, PhD, comparing their predictions with the film's depictions. The article raised the most questions regarding the virus' mutation and the medical results, and pointed out that a suspension bridge like the Brooklyn Bridge would likely completely collapse rather than losing only its middle span. Neville's method of producing power using gasoline-powered generators seemed the most credible: "This part of the tale is possible, if not entirely likely," Popular Mechanics editor Roy Berendsohn says.
Philosopher Slavoj Zizek criticized the film politically as being the most regressive adaptation from the novel. He said that while the original novel had a progressive multicultural message where Neville became a "legend" to the new creatures and is subsequently killed by them (much like vampires were legends to humans), the 2007 film finds a cure for the Darkseekers and it is delivered by a survivor through apparent divine intervention. According to Zizek, this misses the original message and "openly opt[s] for religious fundamentalism."[70]
Accolades [ edit ]
I Am Legend earned four nominations for the Visual Effects Society awards,[71] and was also nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble at the Screen Actors Guild Awards,[72] Outstanding Film and Actor at the Image Awards,[73] and Best Sound at the Satellite Awards. In June 2008, Will Smith won a Saturn Award for Best Actor.[74] Will Smith also won the MTV Movie Awards for Best Male Performance.[75]
Possible sequel [ edit ]
Director Francis Lawrence said in 2008 that there would be a prequel and that Will Smith would be reprising his role. The plot of the film would reveal what happened to Neville before the infected took over New York. D. B. Weiss was hired to write the script, while Lawrence was in negotiations to return as director, contingent on a sufficiently interesting story. Smith later discussed the premise, which would have his character and a team going from New York City to Washington, D.C., as they made their last stand against those infected with the virus.[76] The film would again explore the premise of being alone. Lawrence stated, "... the tough thing is, how do we do that again and in a different way?"[77] In May 2011, Francis Lawrence stated that the prequel was no longer in development saying, "I don't think that's ever going to happen."[78]
In 2012, Warner Bros. announced that negotiations had begun to produce another installment, with the intention of having Will Smith reprise his role.[79] In April 2014, the studio attained a script entitled A Garden at the End of the World, described as a post-apocalyptic variation of The Searchers. Studio executives found so many similarities to I Am Legend in the screenplay, they had the author Gary Graham rewrite it so it could serve as a reboot of the story, hoping to create a franchise with the new film. Will Smith, who is known for his reluctance to appear in sequels,[80] has not commented on whether he would appear.[80]
Bibliography [ edit ]
I Am Legend, Richard Matheson, Tor Books; Reissue edition (October 30, 2007), ISBN 0-7653-1874-1
See also [ edit ]Trump’s Crackdown on Illegal Aliens is Driving Wage-Growth in US Construction Industry by up to 30%
There is a strong correlation between immigration—particularly illegal immigration—and wages. This should be obvious to anyone familiar with the fundamental principle of supply and demand: more supply (workers) means lower prices (wages), and vice versa.
Despite the fact that this correlation between immigration and wages is well-documented, it is not obvious to many liberal economists, who see immigration as an unfettered economic benefit. The evidence suggests otherwise, including new data reported by Fox.
According to the National Association of Home Builders, more than 56% of America’s developers are reporting labor shortages, which is forcing them to increases wages and improve working conditions to attract new talent.
In fact, according to Ted Wilson of Residential Strategies Inc. construction costs have risen by 30% this year—the majority of which is due to higher wages and increased overtime pay. That is, companies are being forced to hire American workers, and pay wages at fair market value.
Why?
Because President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration is preventing them from hiring illegal aliens, who undercut the labor market, shortchanging American workers. The impact of this (while often ignored) is significant.
According to Stan Market, CEO of Texas’ Marek, “half of the workers in construction in Texas are undocumented.”
He goes on to say that many of them are leaving Texas, either to find refuge in sanctuary cities and states, and “many of them are going back to Mexico.”
This is good news for American workers, who have been hammered in recent decades. In fact, real wages have not risen for the median American worker since 1973, in part because of the deflationary effects of illegal immigration.
And just to be clear, this is not an isolated event—wages will rise in tandem with deportations and other labor restrictions (such as if, and when, the RAISE Act becomes law).
We know this because it’s happening elsewhere already. For example, the restriction of temporary work visas in Maine earlier this year led to higher wages, better working conditions, and lower unemployment—all good for the average American citizen.Call me a sentimentalist, but I liked the days when FBI agents went undercover as subversives better than today when subversives go undercover as FBI agents.
“Maybe you’re meant to stay where you are because you’re meant to protect the country from that menace,” FBI agent Lisa Page texted colleague and lover Peter Strzok. “I can protect our country at many levels,” Strzok responded.
Presumably, these “levels” included Strzok changing language in FBI director James Comey’s report on the Hillary Clinton server scandal that initially described her actions as “grossly negligent” to “extremely careless,” an alteration that removed verbiage potentially triggering an indictment. Strzok also signed the document that launched the probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and personally interrogated former Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn.
Why did a partisan so emotionally invested in the presidential election play such a “Where’s Waldo?” role in all of the recent high-profile investigations? Strzok was everywhere even if we only spotted him after much delay.
“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office — that there’s no way he gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk,” Strozk wrote Page about a conversation about Trump in the office of current FBI director Andrew McCabe. “It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.”
In January, the Justice Department’s inspector general launched an investigation into a possible conflict of interest involving McCabe’s failure to disclose donations to his wife by arguably the closest political ally of Bill and Hillary Clinton, Terry McAuliffe. The governor of Virginia recruited McCabe’s wife, Jill, to run for state senate in the commonwealth and donated $467,500 from his political action committee into her coffers.
The Department of Justice demoted Bruce Ohr last week for hiding secret meetings with Fusion GPS, the opposition research outfit that paid, with money received from Hillary Clinton’s campaign, for the so-called “dossier” smearing Donald Trump with outlandish allegations based, in some instances, on second- and third-hand information. Fusion GPS hired Ohr’s wife to investigate Trump.
Like McCabe, Page, and Strzok, the lawyers working for special counsel Robert Mueller strangely — or perhaps not so strangely — exhibit an extremely partisan bent. According to Politifact, they gave $62,043 in donations to Democrats and $2,750 to Republicans in campaigns for federal offices.
People unaffected, or even pleased, by the feds intercepting private conversations of associates of the Republican presidential candidate in the midst of a campaign vehemently denounce these invasions into the privacy of these public servants, as though texts on tax-funded Justice Department cell phones or the political donations of federal lawyers should remain off limits to eyes.
“Publication of someone’s private texts — even if they are conducted on government phones — is an astonishing breach of privacy…. FBI officers and lawyers are American citizens with the same free speech rights as the rest of us,” Eli Lake writes at Bloomberg.
That op-ed, posted without an accompanying laugh track, highlights the inability of partisans to apply the same standards to their enemies that they reserve for their allies. This gets to the heart of why stacking the team investigating the president with people who despise him represents an abuse of power. It’s not merely the wrong optics. It’s wrong.
“Bought all the president’s men,” FBI agent Lisa Page texted her beau. “Figure I needed to brush up on watergate.”
Alas, she gleaned the wrong lesson. The Watergate scandal involved a presidential administration illegally snooping on the opposition party’s presidential candidate. Sound familiar?
The investigation into Donald Trump’s administration began long before the existence of Donald Trump’s administration. In Strzok’s words, it served as “insurance” in case the American people made the wrong choice. In third-world countries, they call this a coup d’état.
But we don’t do such things in America, right? Right?
It’s later than you think.At least 57 people have been killed as Yemeni pro-government forces gained ground around third city Taiz which has been under Houthi siege for several months, officials said.
The loyalists backed by jets from a Saudi-led military coalition took back areas in the western and southern suburbs of the city on Friday, said governor Ali al-Maamari.
They "reopened key roads that the Houthis had been blocking for nine months," said the governor, who lives in exile in Saudi Arabia.
That should allow for humanitarian and medical aid to reach about 200,000 besieged inhabitants, he said.
Loyalist military sources said clashes between pro-government forces and air strikes had killed at least 57 people on Friday, 37 of them rebels, six civilians and the rest loyalist fighters.
Earlier a source in the army's 35th brigade confirmed that loyalists had seized al-Misrakh area to the south of Taiz city after heavy fighting that led to several deaths in the past few days.
Dozens of military vehicles carried rebel fighters out of the western suburb of Taiz towards the city of Hodeida on the Red Sea, witnesses said.
The coastal city remains under the control of the insurgents and their allies, army units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Taiz is located between the rebel-held capital Sanaa and the southern port city of Aden, which loyalists took back from the Houthis in July.
In November, forces loyal to President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi announced a major offensive to try to break the siege on Taiz.
More than 6,100 people have died - half of them civilians - since the Saudi-led coalition launched airstrikes on Yemen in March 2015, according to the United Nations.I lost touch with my inner chief executive somewhere around 1995.
OPINION: I rest my foamy hands on the edge of the sink.
"What?" I say, incredulous.
"Yes," nods my mother-in-law,
"50 years this month."
"Your 50th wedding anniversary?" I pause.
Isn't this the biggest anniversary there is? I gaze at them, in awe.
"Can you believe it's been 50 years?"
My father-in-law looks over the bridge of his glasses.
"It feels like 100," he says.
READ MORE:
* Leah McFall: Crush landing
* Leah McFall: Give me a break
* Leah McFall: No going back
* Leah McFall: A peaceful bush setting
My husband knows it, and I know it. We're unlikely to make 50 years and if we do, one of us could be drinking Champagne from an IV bag.
This is because, like our entire age group, it took us at least one decade (yes: the whole of the 90s) before we could commit ourselves to anything. Add another decade if you did arts at university.
I was 38 and my husband was 39 when we met.
He'd spent his 20s bobbing around on oil tankers in the Persian Gulf or South China Sea.
Meanwhile I was toiling away on the minimum wage in the English Midlands, working for a government magazine called Young People Now and measuring out my life in Walnut Whips. In other words, we were too busy doing the wrong jobs in the wrong countries to meet, marry and raise a family.
Unlike today's 20-somethings, who seem to be just dandy marrying their first serious love interests, raising chemical-free children and pedalling to work on folding bicycles, my peers slouched towards proper jobs and relationships. We grudged ourselves there, like a fat labrador dragged to the vet.
I was reminded of this not too long ago on Cuba St.
Six of us were in a hip, new place; the kind where they serve drinks in jam jars and act like they invented it (look up Depression, the Great).
We'd just been to a former flatmate's wake; we were dazed and disbelieving that anyone could be dead at 43, let alone our lovable, warm-hearted friend. We were going to wash down the lumps in our throats with, I don't know, sauvignon? Pinot gris? Craft beer?
Wait a second – who was driving? And what time did we tell the babysitter...?
The waitress rested her weight on one foot and all but rolled her eyes. She was barely 30 but you could tell she was decisive, simply from her choice of tattoos.
She listened to us chitter and squawk ("Shall we get two bottles for the table? One red, one white? Or only one?"), exhaled upwards through her fringe and finally interrupted with a stern suggestion, which implied no disagreement. Then she scribbled down her own order and stomped off to the kitchen.
"And this," said Hamish, grandly, "is why Generation X never came to anything."
Oh, early- to mid-40-somethings! I adore you, I do. We haven't amounted to much in comparison to, say, Millennials (Mark Zuckerberg, Taylor Swift, Lydia Ko) or Boomers (Tim Berners-Lee, Meryl Streep, Bob Dylan) or dead people (Felix Mendelssohn, Marie Curie) but there's still time, right? Still time?
One or two of us have broken the ribbon like a champ. Justin Trudeau, for example, with his cheekbones and his flopsy hair, champion of feminism, electoral reform and fuzzy animals. There isn't a gay man or a straight woman on God's green earth who didn't wish they'd been a panda cub sitting on his groin that day. (Look up Canadian Premier, hotness of).
But for the most part, Generation Xers have achieved quiet victories – for example, I believe it was the 40- something urban man who brought back the straw trilby. We've got some money and enjoy small comforts; our tents have bedroom compartments and we fly premium economy. We've acquired style and taste; when we serve salad at dinner, we toss pomegranate seeds in it.
It's odd, really, that we chose to take the winding, scenic road to our middle years. I was incredibly goal-focused in my teens but probably listened to too much Tori Amos, or something, because I lost touch with my inner chief executive somewhere around 1995 and stopped making self-advancing decisions.
I temped. I dreamed. I ate from packet mixes.
Like many friends I didn't enjoy my first career-style job until my 30s. I squeaked into marriage, home ownership and children by my 40s.
Hard to believe I'm a high-achieving Virgo, isn't it? (Mind you, I don't really trust the zodiac in this regard. A virgin? Really? In fact, Virgoans may be why the HPV vaccine was invented.)
And yet, history may favour late-bloomers. Here I am, 44, and having the most fun I've ever had at work. And Hamish? He's now mayor of his hometown of Whanganui, last seen on Facebook in a Santa Parade, waving from a pumpkin-style coach.
If that's not a fairytale finish, what is?Creation Scientists To Search for Talking Snake Bones in Africa At what point in history did snakes lose their vocal cords and legs? Creation Scientists turn to the Bible and the continent of Africa for an answer. Freehold, Iowa - Most True Christians™ acknowledge that the key to solving the greatest mystery of Creation Science may lay buried deep within the heart of African jungle. Creation Scientists agree that snakes lost their vocal cords along with their legs between 8,000 and 7,800 BC. Today, modern Christians, like those at the newly founded, Creation Studies Institute, are spending almost a million dollars, and investing countless hours to gather the evidence needed to prove, without a doubt, to the secular scientific community, that the planet Earth was once populated with walking, talking snakes. "Christians have The Talking Snake Theory, and Atheists have Evolution," says Creation Scientist, Dr. Jonathan Edwards. "Only one can be correct. Sadly, until us Creation Scientists can prove that snakes once had vocal cords, I expect that them silly old hell-bound evil-lutionists won't take us seriously." Dr. Edwards is leading the first of many Creation Science expeditions to Africa. "We pick Africa because we know that Eve was in a giant garden the last time she saw a talking snake with legs," says Dr. Edwards. "The Genesis account of Creation describes something very similar to the pictures of Africa that I've seen in the National Geographic Magazines I have stuffed between my mattresses, so I'm fairly certain that Africa is where these fantastic creatures once resided. In addition, Eve's testimony and conversation with the last known talking snake is transcribed word for word in the book of Genesis. I'm sure it breaks the Lord's heart that unsaved secular scientists have stooped so low as to question her eyewitness account." One Mystery at a Time:
"Where Did Negroes Come From?" Can Wait Last Tuesday, to show how focused the Creation expedition team to Africa is on solving one mystery at a time, the Creation Science Research Center declined funding from a wealthy but misguided Independent Baptist, who wanted to hitch a ride with the crew to conduct unnecessary research on the origin of Negroes. "We're not concerned here with the mystery of how Negroes came to populate a continent that was originally dominated by proper white folks," says Dr. Jonathan Edwards. "That's no mystery at all, actually. The Bible makes it perfectly clear in Genesis 9:18-29 that there were no coloreds around until after the time of Noah. God turned Noah's son, Ham, into the first Negro as a punishment for staring at his drunk daddy's tallywhacker. Creation Science evidence also shows that God gave Ham and all of his male Negro descendants enormous tallywhackers of their own, to prevent them being curious about white folks. In any case, the first Negro most likely set foot in Ethiopia several months after the flood. Understand, Ham had to walk all the way to Africa from Mount Ararat, in Turkey and that is a great distance." Dr. Edwards also added, "African American Christians still celebrate the journey of Noah's son by symbolically reuniting through bodily consumption, Ham and Turkey, each year at their Thanksgiving tables." "With Dr. Edwards spearheading the search for the talking snake, Landover Baptist Church members can be assured that their tithe will be going to this great effort alone," Pastor Deacon Fred recently told reporters at a press conference in Des Moines. "Unicorns, flying demons, 900-year-old people, talking donkeys, and Ezekiel's turbo charged chariot will all have to wait," he said. "We're going to prove one Bible story at a time here, and in order of historical occurrence. I think unsaved folks will be awfully surprised to find out that the more carefully we examine the data the more convinced you will be that God just snapped his fingers and poofed everything into existence."
Copyright 1998-2007, Americhrist Ltd. All rights reserved. Terms of Service
The Landover Baptist website is not intended to be viewed by anyone under 18Egyptian fighter jets have struck militant camps following the deadly attack on Egypt’s Coptic Christians, President Abdel Fattah Sisi has announced. The strikes were carried out in eastern Libya, state television said.
LIVE UPDATES: Egypt launches airstrikes on militants in Libya after deadly attack on Christians
Egypt’s president also vowed to continue striking bases used to train militants and who carry out terrorist attacks in his country, regardless of the camps' location.
READ MORE: Children among dozens killed as gunmen ambush convoy of Egyptian Coptic Christians (GRAPHIC VIDEO)
He also reiterated that the countries financing, training and arming terrorists should not get away unpunished.
"We will not hesitate to protect our people from the evil," he said in a televised speech on Friday.
“Egypt will not hesitate in striking any camps that harbor or train terrorist elements whether inside Egypt or outside Egypt,” the al-Ahram news agency quoted Sisi as saying.
Egypt carried out six air strikes in Derna in eastern Libya, state television reported adding that it is where the militants who carried out the deadly attack on the Coptic Christians were trained.
Following the Libyan incursion, Egyptian armed forces released a short video which was aired on state television following the president’s speech. The voiceover in the army video said its air force carried out strikes on targets in Libya “after confirming their involvement in planning and committing the terrorist attack in Minya governorate on Friday."
Egypt’s military said that the air strikes are ongoing, local media reports.
Footage of the airstrikes was released online, allegedly showing the Egyptian jets attacking targets around the Libyan coastal city of Derna. A few strikes were recorded with plumes of smoke rising up in the sky. A crater left by one of the missile strikes is also shown in the video.
Egyptian security forces have destroyed some 300 vehicles over the past two months which attempted to cross the border from Libya in order to bring in “evil,” according to Sisi, who emphasized the huge efforts his country has undertaken to battle terrorism.
The Egyptian president also directly addressed Donald Trump to take the lead in fighting terrorism.
“I direct my appeal to President Trump: I trust you, your word and your ability to make fighting global terror your primary task,” he said.
On Friday President Trump condemned the attacks on Egypt’s Coptic Christians, denouncing the “thuggish ideology” and “evil organizations of terror.”
"We are probably going to see more action particularly following the meeting that just took place in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, in which Donald Trump himself called for greater response to terrorism... and president el-Sisi gave Trump those kind of assurances," former Pentagon official Michael Maloof told RT.
Speculating that Egypt "probably received intelligence from the United States that helped pinpoint the locations," Maloof said Egypt will continue its attacks against terrorist groups, adding, "it's not the first time they struck in Libya."
The Egyptian air campaign in Libya should focus not only on militants, but also on those entities which support terrorists, Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of Pan-African News Wire told RT.
“Identifying the states and the entities within these states who are arming and financing and providing all types of diplomatic and political cover for these organizations to continue to operate in this fashion” must be one of Egypt’s priorities when in its battle against extremists, Azikiwe said.
“We do know that Libya has become a base for instability throughout North Africa and even beyond to West Africa and of course into Europe as Well,” he added.
At least 28 Coptic Christians were killed and 23 others injured earlier Friday, when gunmen, disguised as army soldiers, opened fire on a bus heading to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, located 135km (85 miles) south of Cairo, in the Minya governorate.
No militant group has yet claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on the bus.Hello and welcome to the first edition of Progscars!
Fifteen imaginary awards to give out to the most interesting progressive rock and metal music to come out in 2017. I decided to do this for fun but also to build awareness of bands and artists.
Today we explore the best collaborations or guest appearances on prog songs of 2017. Sometimes a guest appearances on a song from a well-known (or not) artist can complement the band so well as to make it an album highlight. And sometimes a collaborations could actually be a common feature of an album. Today we’ll look at a few great examples covering each scenario.
Disclaimer:
Everyone has different definitions about which band, album and song is progressive and which isn’t. For simplicity, I have stuck to bands classified as progressive rock or metal either on rateyourmusic.com or sputnikmusic.com and occasionally based on what I think. When it is says Song in the title, it specifically means a song belonging to an album by a band classified as progressive based on point 1. I’m also sure there are a few songs on this list (and the ones to come) that are 4/4 and hardly classify as a ‘Prog Song’ but I’ve included them nevertheless. Albums in December 2017 haven’t been considered! So no Diablo Swing Orchestra. Mainly because I was too busy exploring earlier albums that I might have missed out. I’ll include them in the next edition. If you spot errors anywhere (mostly in the technical side of things), let me know. I’m always open to criticism – constructive or destructive. EPs or Live Albums not considered for any of these lists.
Criteria for Judgement:
The chemistry between the band’s original music and what the guest appearance or collaborator can offer is the most important criterion. Remember only one guest appearance or collaboration per album (or I’d just end up listing just Ayreon songs here). A collaboration on more than one song in the album can help too. Coincidentally but not very surprising, you would have come across most of these artists in a previous list, as an unconventional instrument is usually from a guest or collaborator – so for reasoning I’ve just linked the previous lists.
Now that that’s over with let’s get down to business! There are one just missed, four nominations and, of course, one winner. The number of noms would change depending on category.
JUST MISSED
Nita Strauss on “Serotonin” (from Synapse by Angel Vivaldi)
Why? Already mentioned here.
#5
Raphael Weinroth-Browne on “The Last Milestone” (from Malina by Leprous)
Why? Already mentioned here.
#4
Pierre Mussi on “Cheval” (from Savage Sinusoid by Igorrr)
Why? Already mentioned here.
#3
Paul Masvidal on “Living Waves” (from Aathma by Persefone)
Why?
As someone who adores Cynic, I cannot put into words the excitement that overcame me when I learnt that Paul Masvidal would appear in the album of the one of the best tech/prog death bands today (“Assuming the mantle?”). And the result is “Living Waves”, which appears as a Cynic tribute with the vocoder vocals but is Persefone at heart in terms of instrumentation. He also plays the first solo from 4:15.
#2
Ninet Tayab on “Pariah” (from To the Bone by Steven Wilson)
Why?
Steven Wilson struck gold in this collaboration with Ninet Tayeb, someone who he’s been in touch with for a while. He hasn’t had many collaborators on his albums in the past, but the songs that feature them are my favourites on To The Bone. Ninet’s raspish voice compliments Steven’s well on “Pariah” and the high note at 3:25 is extraordinary.
#1
Tommy Karevik on “The Day that the World Breaks Down”
(from The Source by Ayreon)
Why?
In an album that features so many collaborators, most ones long-time but some new, choosing one could have been a nightmare. But my mind was made the moment the video of “The Day That The World Breaks Down” came out. As a humongous fan of Tommy Karevik from his Seventh Wonder days, I could easily identify his voice and I anticipate his sections every time I listen to The Source. Sort of unfair to choose songs from the album, but I chose this one as it is the longest and hence has a few more Tommy sections than the others. And the song rules too.
Has to be mentioned – Hansi Kursch is a very close second – he has one of the most unique voices in the industry.
So which are your favourite collaborations from 2017?
Would love to hear from you! Let me know either in the comments here, on Facebook (Preferably) or on Instagram. You can follow me on Spotify (You might get a sneak peak of the awards a day in advance!)
Here’s the Spotify playlist of all the above tracks:
The first EIGHT awards are already out!
Best Bass Performance in a Song here.
Best Debut Album here.
Best Outro of a Song here.
Best Production on an Album here.
Best Intro to a Song here.
Best Use of Electronica in a Song here.
Best Use of an Unconventional Instrument in a Song here.
Best Instrumental Song here.
AdvertisementsWhether you’re laughing or crying, hungry for a burger or ramen, or planning a night out or a night in, sometimes it’s just easier to say it with an emoji. Starting today, it’s going to be even simpler to find the perfect emojis and stickers in Google Allo. And for the first time, you’re going to be able to bring the magic of J.K. Rowling’s “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” right to your chats.
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He is in no rush to leave, and Juventus do not want him to go. They want him to renew his contract.
Agent Raiola has stated Pogba could stay with the Italian giants and is not desperate to leave the club
‘Paul is not desperate to move. We are very happy at Juventus and they are a club that want to keep their star players.
‘Juventus have treated Paul exceptionally well. They are a fantastic club and they believe in him.’What happens in Vegas … well, you know the rest. But here are 24 facts about Sin City you likely haven’t heard.
1. Most of Vegas’ iconic hotels aren’t technically located in the city of Las Vegas. A good portion of the Las Vegas Strip —and the famed “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign—are actually located in an unincorporated township called Paradise, Nevada.
2. One attraction that is within Las Vegas city limits: Vegas Vic, the oversized neon cowboy that presides over downtown’s famed Fremont Street. It’s the largest mechanical neon sign in the world.
iStock
3. More than 41 million visitors cycle through Sin City each year …
4. … So it's a good thing the town boasts 14 of the world’s 20 biggest hotels.
5. There's so much real estate for tourists to take advantage of, it would take a person 288 years to spend a night in every hotel room in the city.
6. There’s a secret city underneath the city. Miles of tunnels—originally built to protect the desert town from flash floods—house hundreds of homeless residents.
7. The strip’s Flamingo Las Vegas Hotel and Casino got its name from founder—and legendary mobster—Bugsy Siegel’s girlfriend. Actress Virginia Hill went by the nickname “The Flamingo” because of her red hair and long, thin legs.
8. In the mid-20th century, Las Vegas possessed its own set of discriminatory Jim Crow laws, which—with the exception of low-wage service jobs—kept African Americans out of the growing city's hotels and casinos. Even legendary performers like Louis Armstrong and Nat King Cole were forced to enter and exit the venues in which they were performing through back doors and side entryways. In 1952, acting legend Sammy Davis Jr. took a dip in the whites-only swimming pool at the New Frontier Hotel & Casino. Afterwards, the manager had it drained.
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9. In May 1955, the Moulin Rouge made history when it became the city's first interracial casino. Legendary boxer Joe Louis, a part owner, declared, “This isn’t the opening of a Las Vegas hotel. It’s history."
10. In the 1950s and early 1960s, Las Vegas was known for putting on a different type of show. At the Nevada Test Site, just 65 miles northwest of the city, the U.S. Department of Energy would test nuclear devices. Las Vegas’ Chamber of Commerce saw a moneymaking opportunity, and decided to distribute calendars advertising detonation times and choice viewing locations.
11. Legendary recluse Howard Hughes checked into the strip’s Desert Inn on Thanksgiving Day 1966, renting the entire top two floors. When he overstayed his 10-day reservation, he was asked to leave. Instead, he started negotiations to buy the 715-room spot. His purchase was complete three months later.
12. FedEx founder Frederick W. Smith saved the delivery company with a trip to Vegas. In 1974—three years after he created the company—the Yale grad took the venture's last $5,000 and turned it into $32,000 with a weekend of blackjack. His, er, gamble gave the company enough money to stay afloat.
13. Do not disturb: Vegas has more unlisted phone numbers than any other city in the United States.
14. Reason to hope? Nevada law states that video slot machines must pay back a minimum of 75 percent of the money deposited on average. (Though it’s worth noting that in New Jersey, home to gambling mecca Atlantic City, it’s 83 percent.)
15. It takes roughly 10 minutes to nab a marriage license at the bureau in downtown Las Vegas, which is open every day from 8 a.m. until midnight. No wonder some 10,000 couples wed in the city each month.
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16. Let them eat … shrimp cocktails? More than 60,000 pounds of the shellfish are consumed in the city each day. That’s higher than the rest of the country—combined.
17. The half-scale model of the Eiffel Tower, located outside Paris Las Vegas, was originally planned to be full-size, but due to the close proximity of the airport—just three miles—it had to be shrunk down. In contrast, the Luxor Las Vegas’ Sphinx is actually larger than the original Great Sphinx of Giza.
18. At 50 tons, the bronze lion outside the MGM Grand Hotel is believed to be the largest bronze sculpture in the western hemisphere.
19. The distinctive gold color of the windows at the Mirage Hotel comes from actual gold dust.
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20. There are 3933 guest rooms at Bellagio Las Vegas—more than the number of residents in the city of Bellagio, Italy.
21. Not into casinos? The city also features a heavy equipment playground where construction enthusiasts can drive around bulldozers for fun.
22. Before his death in 2009, Michael Jackson was looking into doing a Vegas residency. He planned to advertise it with a 50-foot robot-likeness of himself that would roam the Nevada desert.
23. At Vegas diner Heart Attack Grill, waitresses dress in nurses garb and patrons can order an 8000-calorie quadruple bypass burger with a side of flatliner fries. (Fried in pure lard!) Unfortunately, in 2013, one of the spot's regular patrons passed away … from an apparent heart attack.
24. From outer space, the Las Vegas Strip appears as the brightest spot on Earth. Who cares if it’s not actually in Las Vegas?The Rev. Al Sharpton kicks off a rally and march in support of Proposition 61, the California ballot measure that seeks to lower the price state agencies pay for prescription drugs.
The Rev. Al Sharpton and other civil rights leaders gathered at a rally Monday morning to support Proposition 61, the ballot measure that seeks to lower the price state agencies pay for prescription drugs.
Sharpton appeared alongside black community leaders, including Marc Morial, former New Orleans mayor and head of the National Urban League, and Kevin Sauls, pastor of a South L.A. church.
"This issue is very simple," Sharpton said to a crowd of about 40 supporters. "It’s about the right of people to afford what they need, and they need to have accessibility that is affordable with prescription drugs."I asked permission to crosspost Lakey's op-ed detailing Charles Koch's continued attack on academic freedom at Florida State University, where Lakey is a grad student. Her op-ed was first published by the Tallahassee Democrat, this is an expanded version crossposted from FSU Progress Coalition.
As citizens of the US many of us worry over our right to free speech. But how often do we get stressed over academic freedom? What is academic freedom anyway? I know, it sounds like convoluted University mumbo jumbo. It isn’t though. Trust me.
Academic freedom wasn’t even on my radar until FSU’s Presidential Search Advisory Committee voted to fast track John Thrasher as President of FSU. After that, academic freedom became my obsession. Why? Because, it protects the professors’ and students’ right to seek, research and publishthe truth. It guarantees us a role in the democratic governance of the university’s institutional life. Without academic freedom there is no truth. Without truth – tyranny and corruption are all but guaranteed. Why should you care?
In 2011, after discovering the highly controversial 2008 contract between the Charles Koch Foundation (CKF) and FSU’s Department of Economics, FSU’s Faculty Senate (FS) put together a committee to address concerns about the CKF agreement and its challenges to academic freedom. The concerns arose because the 2008 agreement gave undue outside influence to CKF in areas of faculty hire, faculty oversight and curriculum control; issues that are central to academic freedom. The Faculty Senate Review Report gave recommendations that appeared to be ignored and forgotten until a second agreement (signed in 2013) was uncovered. The 2013 agreement was signed in secret, and many of the FS Committee concerns were unaddressed.
Faculty Senate recommendations included a suspension of faculty hiring under the agreement until the advisory board included two faculty members and worked by majority. The 2013 agreement includes two faculty members and one CKF member, and demands a unanimous vote. The 2013 contract says that the selection of Professorship Positions must go through normal university processes of hire but before the hire takes place the information on the candidate must be put past CKF and CKF is under no obligation “to provide funding” to their selection. This means that CKF still has veto power over who gets hired in the department with their money. It doesn’t take much to realize that this means the department must put forward someone CKF approves in order to get the position funded.
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The Faculty Senate Report also notes a host of concerns in regards to the agreement’s language about the “Undergraduate Program” in the Department of Economics. Of primary concern is the language which implied that CKF had intentions of creating an “alternative” undergraduate program at FSU that would set forth only the “Objectives and Purposes” of the Charles Koch Foundation. Nothing about this concern was addressed in the 2013 contract. In fact, the “creation of the Undergraduate Program” language has not changed at all. None of the Senate Report’s concerns about textbook selection, undergraduate teaching, the new certificate program, the Teaching Specialist position, and reading groups funded by CKF have been addressed; nor has the name of the CKF funded “Economics Club” changed to reflect what it really is: a CKF funded club promoting free market capitalism and free enterprise.
It is unclear that ANY of the final recommendations of the Senate Report have taken place at the University. These recommendations include College, Department and University Foundation collaboration in the review and development of language that creates more clear guidelines on private donor funding. Specifically, it recommends that the Provost’s Office and the University Foundation “create a mechanism to review multiple articulated donor agreements.” Did this happen? It does not appear so. Furthermore, Provost Garnett Stokes signed the 2013 contract – and she did so in secret.
On July 15th, 2011, shortly after the Faculty Senate Ad-Hoc Committee released its Report and list of “Recommendations,” the FSU President Eric Barron sent a series of letters to key players involved in the 2008 agreements, FSU university administration and Faculty Senate.
In a letter to Dean of the College of Social Sciences, Dr. David Rasmussen, Dr. Barron put forward the following:
(Note: Dr. Rasmussen signed the 2008 and 2013 agreements with Koch. According to documents released earlier this year, Rasmussen was a primary actor in securing the initial funding from CKF).
A request that tasked Vice President Jennings to review Foundation policies and “to take actions to ensure that all gift agreements adhere to our academic principles.” That “no additional hiring occur using the MOU unless it is modified.” This is in line with the Faculty Senate Report. He notes that “In the process of gathering information about the implementation of the MOU, the Committee reflects on several areas related to faculty governance, departmental bylaws, and the faculty involvement in the development of the curriculum. These issues are not related to the language in the MOU. However they suggest weaknesses in faculty and departmental governance that should be addressed.”
As far as we can tell, no report was published by VP Jennings that reviewed the Foundation policies. If this procedure was done, it was done like many of the University practices, behind closed doors. As to not hiring any additional faculty under the 2008 MOU, as far as we can tell it took over two years after the Faculty Senate Report for a revision of the 2008 agreement to occur. Furthermore, the 2013 agreement (due to expiry dates on the 2008 contract) is actually a whole new agreement with extended contract dates for new hires. As noted earlier, this 2013 MOU leaves many of the basic concerns of the Faculty Senate Report and Dr. Barron unaddressed.
In a letter to Dr. Jennifer Buchanan, Interim Dean of the Faculties, Dr. Barron puts forward the following:
That some of the Committee recommendations “reflect on improvements that can be implemented by the Dean of Faculties” and should be looked into. That the situation with Matt Brown, Graduate Student in the Department of Economics who drew up the agreement, and who had the Department Chair Bruce Benson as the Co-Chair of his Ph.D. committee at the time, drew egregious concerns. Dr. Barron states: “Please refer to the body of page 7 of the report, which cites a conflict of interestbetween the faculty member in negotiating the agreement and the role of an active student in facilitating the agreement. This is a clear conflict of interest and it should have been revealed and then avoided. I wouldappreciate a review and/or greater clarity with regard to university policy on transparency and potential conflicts of interest.” (Italics are my own) His final comments are: “Please refer to the section beginning at the bottom of page 7, which cites the issues related to faculty responsibilities (recommendations 6 and 10). Recommendation 6 requests a change in departmental by-laws related to supervision and staffing of courses and programs. Recommendation 10 requests a review, with the deans, of the principles of faculty responsibilities associated with the curriculum. Again, I would appreciate a review and/or greater clarity with regard to university policy on the issues raised by the Faculty Senate Ad Hoc Committee” (Italics are my own)
As far as we can tell no review or report by the Dean of Faculties was done. Furthermore, we have uncovered evidence that during his tenure at FSU as a doctoral candidate Matt Brown received $492,125 for his services to CKF. This was money paid directly to the student and is an additional conflict of interest to the one cited by Faculty Senate and President Barron. The “conflict of interest” noted by President Barron and Faculty Senate appears to have been completely ignored and no review or clarity of university policy on transparency and potential conflicts of interest have been undertaken.
In a letter to Dr. Tom Jennings, VP for University Advancement, Dr. Barron puts forward:
The MOU included language that suggested that the donor evaluation should be a part of the annual evaluation of the faculty member. This is not permitted as part of FSU’s annual review process.” “In any case where a donor to provide input on academic hiring, this should be for the sole purpose of providing the donor with a level of confidence that their gift is being used in a manner consistent with the intent of the donor, and therefore, in every case, Advisory Board membership should have a majority consisting of FSU faculty. Advisory Boards should be limited to providing review and advice. Advisory Boards should offer recommendations based on a majority vote.”
Although the 2013 MOU rectifies the outside input on the annual evaluation of the faculty member it retains the unanimous vote on the Advisory Board which still gives CKF veto power over faculty hire. Furthermore, the 2013 contract includes Section 7(a)(vi) which actually demands input in the evaluation of the entire SPEFE and EEE Programs.
Section 7(a)(vi): FSU agrees to take the input of the SPEFE-EEE Advisory Board into consideration when evaluating the performance of the SPEFE and EEE Programs.
and
Section 7 (b): The decision rule of the SPEFE-EEE Advisory Board in all matters will be unanimous vote of all three members.
Of final concern, not to the Faculty Senate Report, but to me – is this: The Charles Koch Foundation offers funding for five professor positions but only funds these tenure-track positions for 5 to 6 years. That is exactly the amount of time it takes to gain tenure. At the time of tenure, CKF funding disappears and the 2013 agreement mandates that FSU agree “to assume full responsibility for the continued maintenance and funding of the Professorship Positions”. In other words, Charles Koch Foundation puts their people in and then the taxpayers are required to keep them until their tenure expires. Five years of CKF funding to guarantee a lifetime taxpayer position. What? This sounds a lot like stacking influence at taxpayer expense to me.
When will this stop? On Jan. 15th at 3:30 in Turnbull Conference Center, I am going to ask John Thrasher this question at an open meeting. Join me in the meeting and sign the petition (http://bit.ly/1FzagGO). Academic freedom is just as important as free speech. In the words of Chief Justice Earl Warren in the majority opinion for Sweezy v. New Hampshire: “To impose any straight jacket upon the intellectual leaders in our colleges and universities would imperil the future of our Nation … Scholarship cannot flourish in an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust. Teachers and students must always remain free to inquire, to study and to evaluate, to gain new maturity and understanding; otherwise our civilization will stagnate and die.”
Lakey
FSU Progress Coalition
FB: FSU Progress Coalition
Twitter: @FsuProgress
fsu.progresscoalition@gmail.com
If you want more background, check out FSU's case against Koch in the Center for Public Integrity and my report for Greenpeace: Koch Pollution on Campus. Resources for concerned students are available on UnKochMyCampus.org.
Students gather to mourn the loss of academic freedom at FSU.The number of go-to targets for Peyton Manning is shrinking.
Pro Bowl tight end Dallas Clark was put on injured reserve Friday and will have season-ending wrist surgery. Clark said he met with three surgeons before the decision and plans to return next year for a ninth season.
"It's unfortunate, but it's been confirmed that surgery is necessary to repair the injury to my wrist," Clark said in a statement released by the team. "I look forward to supporting my teammates the rest of this season and rehabilitating my wrist back to full strength for next season."
Clark ranks third on the team with 37 catches for 347 yards after catching 100 passes for 1,106 yards and 10 touchdowns last season, when he made the All-Pro team.
The Colts did not say how or when Clark was hurt, but he appeared to grab at his left wrist during a play in the Oct. 17 win at Washington.
The Colts don't have much depth behind Clark. There are three other tight ends on the roster, including rookie Brody Eldridge (three catches for 23 yards). The others, Jacob Tamme and Justin Snow, play mostly on special teams. The Colts, who do not play until Nov. 1 at home against the Houston Texans, re-signed tight end Gijon Robinson on Wednesday.
Just a few weeks ago, the Colts had a full arsenal at receiver and tight end. Reggie Wayne and Pierre Garcon are still available, but now Clark is gone and Austin Collie had thumb surgery this week.
The team said a timeframe for Collie's return hadn't been established, but a source with knowledge of the situation told NFL Network insider Jason La Canfora that the receiver will be out at least two weeks. Receiver Anthony Gonzalez has also been recovering from a high ankle sprain.
Relive every game this season online and on-demand with enhanced viewing features, including the "All-22" coaches film. Relive every game this season online and on-demand with enhanced viewing features, including the "All-22" coaches film. Get NFL Game Rewind
Clark, 31, and Manning have developed into one of the most prolific quarterback-tight end combinations in NFL history. Earlier this season, the two connected on their 44th touchdown pass, second only to Drew Bledsoe and Ben Coates (45).
Clark, the 24th overall pick out of Iowa in 2003, signed a six-year, $36 million contract in 2008 and has been worth every penny to the Colts. He's fast enough to burn defenses daring to cover him with a linebacker -- he's had two 80-yard touchdown catches in his career -- agile enough to make circus catches and shifty enough to fake out the secondary.
The past two seasons, he had 177 receptions, produced the first 1,000-yard season of his career and also made the Pro Bowl after becoming the second tight end to haul in 100 catches in a season.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.With many games designed for mass consumption growing increasingly more scripted, it's good to know some developers are striving to keep emergent, non-linear gameplay alive. Ubisoft has a good track record in this regard, with franchises such as Assassin's Creed and Far Cry and the upcoming Watch Dogs looks to be heading in the same direction.
An interview with a number of the game's developers over at GamingBolt, including lead game designer Danny Belanger and lead programmer Francis Boivin, covers ground on various parts of the game, but the bits that stuck out for me were Belanger's comments on Watch Dogs' "systemic" gameplay and Boivin's description of the graphical treats that awaits gamers, thanks to the bespoke engine tech.
First off we have Belanger:
Ravi Sinha: What we’ve seen of Watch_Dogs is incredible however. But we've been tempted by stellar game footage before. How much of what was shown reflects in the actual game? Danny Belanger: There are many questions about the systemic or scripted nature of the game. Many people have doubts that we've scripted everything we shown. This is truly a systemic game — A good example is our E3 2012 demo with the car accident done by hacking the traffic lights, it depends on the amount of vehicles present at the intersection when it is triggered. The gravity of the accident will totally depend on the speed and amount of cars at that instant. Our goal is to give a lot of interesting tools to the player to modify, affect the simulation and let him be creative in using them to achieve his goals!
A bit further in, Boivin expands on the game's engine — called Disrupt — and the visual fidelity it's capable of:
[The engine] was developed to have state of the art visuals on all its quality levels. We needed to have AO [ambient occlusion], massive dynamic light support, HDR [high-dynamic range], GI [global illumination], depth of field, etc. to fully realize the ambition of art direction. We improved on techniques that we worked on in the past and surveyed what was available for the highest level of quality we wanted to achieve. We didn't just integrate the technique of the moment, but spent quite some time turning stuff around and mixing algorithms so they fit our requirements.
In the context of the question Boivin was answering, which asks what PC gamers can expect in particular, it sounds to me like the team is paying attention to what effects work best on what hardware and optimising / improving as necessary, rather than cranking out code that works everywhere, but doesn't take advantage of what each platform offers.
Well, fingers crossed anyway.
Watch_Dogs Interview with Ubisoft Montreal: PS4 Advantages, Perks, Story Details, Vehicles and Tons More [GamingBolt]IN THIS week's print edition, The Economist argues that President Obama should choose the current vice-chair of the Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen, to replace outgoing chairman Ben Bernanke:
Both Ms Yellen and Mr Summers are “doves”, rightly worrying more about economic weakness than any threat from inflation, but it is clearer how Ms Yellen would go about putting her views into practice. As the Fed’s vice-chairman she has pushed the current set of unconventional policies, from bond-buying to “forward guidance”. Under her leadership the central bank would influence market expectations with even more detail around its future plans. Her public demeanour would be much like Mr Bernanke’s: technocratic and based on meticulous command of the data. Her cautious, consensus-building approach would minimise surprises (and financial-market volatility) as the current chairman has. Mr Summers has a less clearly articulated approach to monetary policy and more political baggage. He has said little in public about how central banks can best support economies when short-term rates are at zero. Judging by his record in other areas, he is likely to push for creative solutions but to prefer not to have the Fed’s hands tied by promises about its future direction. The chances are that a Summers Fed would be even bolder, but less predictable, than the Bernanke Fed. Mr Summers’s dazzling intellect would make for bravura public performances, but he would be more likely to unsettle the markets with unscripted comments and to alienate both other Fed governors and lawmakers. The Fed has had “maestro-style” leadership before, notably under Alan Greenspan. That seemed fine, then, but these days the Fed uses more experimental tools, depends more on influencing expectations and has shallower political support. Transparency, predictability and consensus-building therefore matter more than they used to. Mr Bernanke’s low-key leadership has made it easier for him to be radical. Ms Yellen would probably take a similar approach.
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On experience with crisis-management, the piece argues, Mr Summers has the upper hand. And, we note, both candidates would probably do a good job running the Fed. On balance, however, Ms Yellen is the safer, and therefore better, choice.
Mr Obama is expected to announce his decision within a few weeks. Mr Summers is widely rumoured to be the president's preferred candidate; some reckon his appointment is at this point a foregone conclusion. On the merits, as we write in the leader, Mr Obama could do far worse. The troubling thing about the choice of Mr Summers, if that is the choice that is made, is the way in which it has come and the criteria Mr Obama seems to be using.
There are limits to what reporting can uncover about a decision that is the president's to make. Mr Obama may in fact be enthralled by Mr Summers' private monetary views. For all I know the president is a die-hard Scott Sumner fan and Mr Summers has whispered to him that market monetarism is now his macroeconomic lodestar. But there are few signs that anything like that is going on.
It's unfortunate, however talented Mr Summers may be. The top job at the Federal Reserve is not an advisory position to the president. It's not about who gets along best with the rest of the West Wing crew. Mr Obama is naming someone to run the most powerful independent technocracy in the world. Mr Summers might well be the right person for the job, but the process of arriving at that conclusion should have gone very, very differently.Yesterday I noticed a friend of mine pinned an awesome Little Tikes Picnic Table Re-Do…. the tutorial originally came from Caroline’s Crafty Corner and I decided to try it out for myself. After all I had the same exact sun faded picnic table just sitting in my back yard – so why not? Hehe.
LITTLE TIKES PICNIC TABLE RE-DO
MATERIALS & TOOLS:
Little Tikes/Step 2 Picnic Table
Krylon Fusion Spray Paint
Fabric
Vinyl
Stapler & Staples
Screwdriver
Washers
INSTRUCTIONS:
1.) Get a picnic table! I got this one a few years ago at a garage sale for $3… it was already starting to fade and the yellow had little crackly lines all over it, but it served it’s purpose in our back yard for the time being. Check garage sales, Craigslist ads, thrift stores… you are bound to find one cheap.
2.) Using the screwdriver take it apart. There are only 8 screws. At this point I grabbed the garden hose and sprayed it down because there were gross spider webs and dirt in the cracks. Then I waited for it to dry in the sun.
3.) Using the Krylon Fusion Spray Paint I painted the two end greenish pieces a dark brown. I made sure to cover the entire thing and painted both sides. This paint is dry to the touch in 15 minutes, can be handled in one hour, and becomes chip resistant in 7 days.
4.) While the paint was drying I headed inside with the table top and bench seats. I wrapped them completely in fabric and stapled it to each piece. Some of the corners were a bit difficult because of the rounded edges. After I had them covered in the fabric I did the same with the clear vinyl.
5.) Once the bench seats and table top were completely covered in fabric and vinyl I reassembled the table. Since I chose to not use the little caps that went over the screws the screws were not too small and would go right through the holes, so I just added washers and was good to go.
And now once I get the million bins of girls clothing out of my living room the girls will have a great place to eat, color, and play that can easily be wiped clean. Plus it fits in with my décor…. that is something that can’t be said about the vast majority of kids products! Plus the girls love it.
And the great thing about this project is you can use any print fabric and color paint to make it completely unique to your house! Happy crafting!I n S e a r c h o f t h e P e r f e c t P o r k M a r t i n i
Why Pork?
The pork Martini serves many needs on many levels! In these pomo days, when old formulas are reborn with futile twists for our fickle tastes, the meat cocktail stands out above cranberry-tainted attempts at bar trendiness. This Martini, abandoning the olive garnish for that of a pork-rind wedge, bridges social strata by merging the flavors of the working class with that of wealthier ones. It has the humanitarian goal of bettering the nutrition of alcoholics, offering protein for those who prefer their lunches liquid: since meat digests longer, it will both inebriate and offer nutrients for longer periods! It will open new markets to pork consumption, adding American jobs to every level of the meat-industrial complex. And, finally, it looks really weird.
The Infusion
To begin the quest, approximately three ounces each of: Sweet dried pork (an excellent Chinese snack food),
Pan-sauteed ground pork (from the patty interior),
Boiled, sliced sweet Italian dinner sausage, and
Briefly sauteed Spam
were steeped separately in approximately four ounces each of 100-proof Absolut vodka, in covered glasses, for up to two weeks. The pork patty and Spam were first sauteed in canola oil, which was tipped away early to avoid influencing the taste of the meats. The dried pork, being the least permeable, was given a few extra days to infuse. Although gin makes the only true Martini, vodka was chosen as the less distracting base for these cocktails, especially for the sake of the sausage Martini, the fennel and cracked pepper of which might clash with the complex botanicals of gin.
The Transmogrification
After two weeks or more of stewing in Absolut, all four pork products showed minor physical changes.
The Chinese sweet dried pork had been lightly pink and rough to the touch. After infusion, the meat was pale gray and the surface velvety soft, although the pork strips retained their stiffness. The vodka was murky with particulates. What first appeared to be traces of oil on the surface turned out to be aggregates of those pork particles. Its bouquet was simply that of vodka.
The ground pork, which had never been very pretty to begin with, reminded me of some tumors I had seen at the Army Medical Museum at Walter Reed. Its vodka was the clearest of all. However, brownish-yellow droplets of pork oil clung to the surface at the rim. Its bouquet was distinctly meaty, with a slightly burnt overtone.
The sausage retained its cooked gray color but its surface appeared muddied, softened. The sausage's fat chunks remained distinctly white. This vodka was tinged yellow. The bouquet smelled clearly of sausage, though it was less overpowering than that of the ground pork vodka.
The Spam had changed the most dramatically in its alcohol bath. Its bright pink meat was now as dull a gray as any of the other porks, and its vodka was heavily clouded, yet quite bright with the finest of particulates. Oil droplets obscured the entire surface of the vodka. The bouquet reeked of acid. I asked a science-editor friend about the color change, wondering if the alcohol was reacting with the nitrite preservative of the meat, wondering if it would kill me. He rejected that possibility, at least the first half of it, in favor of the hypothesis that it was the pork that was leaching oxygen from the water in the alcohol. This was far scarier, but much more interesting, and if it had the side effect of increasing the strength of the drink, so much the better.
The pork-infused vodkas were decanted from their glasses through a triple layer of cheesecloth into mixing glasses. This removed most pork solids, but no attempt was made to skim any oils present. The vodkas were separately mixed 1:5 dry with Martini & Rossi extra-dry vermouth, and were chilled only moderately so as not to disguise subtle flavorings. The Martinis were stirred, strained of their ice, then poured into fresh Martini glasses. Were any animals were harmed during the course of this experiment? Of course! The pork animals!
The Tasting
Tasting was overseen by a collection of sprightly, generic-yet-authentic Cole Porter oldies such as "Let's Do It," "I've Got You Under My Skin," and "Always True To You in My Fashion." Hot, salted Chinese "imitation" egg noodles and tap water were on hand to clear the palate. And there was even a lovely blond in the room: me.
The sweet dried pork Martini, despite the lack of apparent surface oil, coated the bottom of my upper lip with a tangy pork greasiness. I was casually impressed, though I began to worry about what the more visibly oily pork vodkas would later offer. The chilled Martini had a piggy bouquet beyond its plain pork-vodka aroma. Was that the endothermic effect of the chilled liquor alerting the nose, or the action of the herb-steeped vermouth? I sipped a little. No aftertaste or aftereffect beyond the expected tummy warmth. Little flavor at all, in fact. Dried meats would seem less than optimum.
The ground pork Martini's scent was powerful with essence of pork patty. This is not a cocktail for the pork Martini dilettante: Like specifically demanding from your bartender a "vodka Martini" instead of the understood default gin Martini, you'll have to specify the "pork patty Martini" instead of a vanilla version, and make sure he or she fries the pork just right, searing the surfaces, draining the fat, and not letting it burn while you chase Naomi or Leonardo into a restroom. Come back when it's mixed. Wow. This Martini packed a pork wallop. The aroma was overpowering, I have to admit. But that masked the oil; I saw the oil before, really, see my comments under "Transmogrification," supra, but I tasted no oil. I declaim this a Martini you will love or hate, no middle ground. You could get drunk on the bouquet alone, a secondary high. Your neighbor will notice -- and I mean your next-door neighbor, as you mix this at home, not the crackhead on the next barstool -- and ask "Hey, is that pork you're drinking?" "Yes!" you trumpet proudly. A great way to make new friends. Unless he or she is a vegetarian. But who wants a vegetarian friend?
Here comes the sausage! Forgive me: I accidentally doubled the vermouth. The yellow cast was gone. But it was as distinctively sausagey in odor as the ground pork was groundy. The cheesecloth let lots of pork particulate through: This was a cloudy one, people, best served in the dark. Lots of fat on top, another downer. But the taste was crisp, and it had an aftertaste. Further pork Martini experiments must play with the full sequence of flavors to restore the crisp Martini bite to the previous two drinks. The seeds -- dill? -- aren't even masked by the extra vermouth. The pork sausage Martini was a winner, more generic than the ground pork Martini, but as strong and fine. Look for it at a street-fair truck near you, with a green-pepper garnish.
Spam time. N.B.: I don't like Spam. I hate it. I can't believe that Spam is so hip nowadays. Have its apologists actually tasted it? Canned cat food is strip steak next to the foul, pink, greasy, Dachau-invented excrescence that is Spam. Spam tastes sour. It has no texture. It overpowers any attempts at seasoning.
But here it is. If the Spam Martini holds its own within the esthetic parameters of Spam, my staring at that pickled-fetal-tissue imitation for two weeks will have been worth it. I admit that the bouquet is odd, neither of Spam nor of gelatin, not that it could be the latter since I'd washed that off. The sausage particulates had been chunky, but the Spam fragments are uniformly tiny and stay suspended in the cocktail like Orbitz Gummi spheres. Shake the strained Spam Martini lightly and they all move in unison. This is more than oxygen depletion. I am convinced that the Spam has changed the specific gravity of the vodka. But I don't have the equipment to test that. Oh, wait. I have to taste this, don't I. Hm. Hm. I don't want to do this. I'm holding my nose. Here goes. I can't believe I made a Spam Martini. Good-bye, Wendy, I love you. Huh. Hey. I lived! God. It's salty. You can't taste the ham. You can't even taste Spam. It's pure salt. Not tingly Margarita rim-encrusting salt, but oily, slimy salt. I am majorly clearing my palate here. Little noodles all over the place. Sipping water. Once again. Faugh. Pbbbbbft. Bleah. I am pouring the water into the drink. Tasting. Whimper. Forget it. This is a loser, people. Spam doth not a Martini make. Word to your bartender.Trump’s strikes saw 59 Tomahawk missiles rain down on the airbase – believed to have been used for chemical weapon attacks by the Syrian government which killed at |
The summary reports though seems to show that this strategy wasn’t overly successful as the recommendations from participants at the meetings often went beyond what the Harper government seemed willing to consider.
A good example of this was the closed-door roundtable in Saskatoon on December 18, 2008. Some of the recommendations from that meeting included:
– Be cautious about further subsidizing the oil sands sector;
– Social housing needs to be a priority and aboriginal housing should be part of the stimulus;
– Keep people on EI, to allow them to keep their jobs. Supplement EI for part of their week;
– Implement micro-financing (re: Winnipeg has a poverty reduction council);
– Provide stress-relief for civil servants;
– Encourage bio-fuel development as an alternative to fossil fuels;
– Invest in solar energy (i.e. Germany is the world-leader of solar energy) and make people aware of renewable energy;
– Provide multi-year funding for the non-profit sector, a sector that is important to the entire economy.
Incidentally, the controversial subject of spending billions of dollars on nuclear reactors or nuclear waste storage facilities apparently wasn’t mentioned.
In the end the federal government was really only interested in seeing how roundtable participants ranked the list of pre-determined priorities they were given.
“When asked to rank their number one priority from the list of five in Question 1, participants voted 12 for access to credit and 12 for infrastructure spending (tally confirmed by Ted Menzies),” the summary report states.
Canadians should be concerned that its federal budget consultation process was essentially turned over to the head of an unaccountable right-wing think tank; and that the finance minister, perhaps the second most powerful position in the government, is openly using his office to promote and drum up support for a new organization that will no doubt espouse the same right-wing economic policies that the Conservative government still hold dear.This item has been removed from the community because it violates Steam Community & Content Guidelines. It is only visible to you. If you believe your item has been removed by mistake, please contact Steam Support
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New crest system
Title Description Building at the castle ans sword should be removed in my opinion. The king and his guild rather should have the option to place a crest over the throne to claim the red area and build a wall there. Since no one can build in the blue are anymore there would be no other way for people to get in the castle as by destroying the wall. Save Cancel
Created by IamNic
Last Online 36 hrs, 51 mins ago File Size Posted Size 0.780 MB May 29, 2015 @ 6:44pm 1581 x 889 485 Unique Visitors 0 Current FavoritesSideCar, a new San Francisco-based company, is helping encourage ride shares with a new app that matches drivers with nearby passengers in need of a ride. The app works by allowing users to indicate their current location as well as where they’re trying to go, and matching them up with a pre-screened set of nearby drivers willing to help get them to their destination.
Hitching a ride is absolutely free, but passengers benefitting from the goodwill of others are encouraged to compensate the driver by sending a payment from within the app. SideCar will show passengers (and drivers) the suggested fare for a particular route, and allow drivers to rate passengers so other users can determine whether they want to offer a person future rides.
Since payment is strictly voluntary, the program adheres to California’s ride-sharing regulations. And, because the suggested donation is often much cheaper than a taxi, would-be-passengers should be coming out way ahead even if they opt to tip their driver generously.
According to Blake Wirht, SideCar’s director of marketing, drivers span a wide range of ages and professions. In an article from SF Examiner, Wirht went on to explain, “It’s fascinating the people you meet, and a lot of people are drawn to it for that reason. But there are a lot of people that drive for SideCar to offset their costs of vehicle ownership.”
It’s nice to see SideCar finding a way to promote cost-efficient ride-shares and match up total strangers for the benefit of both parties. Ideally, this type of program should be able to find a niche alongside the growing number of rideshare and car sharing programs in Northern California. As much as we actively campaign for cycling, walking, and mass transit, it’s encouraging to see an application that has the potential to make the massive number of Bay Area car trips just a little bit more efficient.
Since the app was just launched at the end of June, it’s way too early to tell whether enough potential drivers will be using SideCar to make it a viable alternative to seeking out a taxi. Regardless, it’s an interesting concept, and one that can hopefully generate a bit of traction over the coming months.
Photo via Side.cr
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Loading... Loading...Styles come and go. In the late-1980s and early 1990s, many of us were clad in neon t-shirts and shoes that lit up when you took a step. Today, not so much.
Governing styles are also subject to changing tastes, both in form and in substance. One tradition that has enjoyed staying power is stylizing revolutions and civil wars as “for the people.” As democratic norms evolved over the years and spread around the world, leaders and movements necessarily paid homage to the notion that what they did and what they were about was first and foremost for the well being of their people, however they defined “well being” and “people”. Such upending movements as the Russian Revolution, the rise of Hitler and Nazism, the foundation of the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea, the Salvadoran civil war, recent popular revolts in the Middle East, and the election of Donald Trump all share the claim that they are “for the people.”
We can and should distinguish between North Korea’s claim to popular representation and Donald Trump’s insistence that he entered politics to stand up for “regular Americans.” The latter was elected in a (mostly) free and fair election in a country with a long history of functioning—if imperfect—democratic institutions. The former is an authoritarian nightmare state from which few of its citizens can awake. We must also distinguish Trump from Hitler and Nazi Germany, the rise of the Bolsheviks in Russia, full blown authoritarianism in Central America, etc., because there’s no need for hyperbole when we’re talking about Trump’s presidential style.
Now that Trump is a few months into his presidency, his unusual style of governing, marked by populist authoritarian flourishes, is becoming normalized as the shock wears off and even those voters who fought against Trump’s movement try to go on with their day-to-day lives. Lately, when people casually talk about American politics, two conversations constantly repeat themselves: reactions to Trump’s latest outburst or executive action, and deliberations on the best way to avoid all the noise. That makes sense. Trump is everywhere: on television, radio, and social media; in the newspapers, blogs, and magazines. Most of us encounter America’s 45th president everywhere we go, from the bus to the grocery store to the gym. His absurdity is ubiquitous, but it’s also becoming the new normal—which is very dangerous.
The threat that stems from normalizing Trump lies in his approach to governing. As a way of doing politics, populist authoritarianism is marked by leaders casting themselves as anti-elite, ordinary folks who stand up to the out-of-touch, in-it-for-themselves, anti-everymen who reside in the ivory tower, corporate headquarters, or distant capital city. Populist authoritarians often circumvent democratic institutions or practices in order to “speak directly to the people” at rallies or public appearances or, these days, on social media. Meanwhile, they attack fundamental institutions and treat the country they govern as a source of personal enrichment and aggrandizement. Perhaps some of this sounds familiar.
As president, Trump has continued to hold “campaign-style” rallies and consistently takes to Twitter to praise his supporters and denounce the media—or anyone else who happens to catch his eye and displease him. As a rule, I try to link to sources to provide evidence for my arguments. Trump and Twitter make that almost unnecessary. Go and have a look at his latest dozen or so tweets; you’ll find plenty of what I’ve just described, whichever day or week or month it is. Pour yourself a drink first.
It’s tempting to dismiss the president’s rallies and Twitter tirades as an unholy and pathetic alliance of a narcissistic need for praise and attention combined with having thin skin and a near-total lack of impulse control. While Trump may suffer from these shortcomings, the effects of his actions remain seriously disconcerting—disturbing and hazardous, even. While the man is despised by many and liked by few, those who prefer him do so with zeal. Despite his high disapproval numbers, he maintains high levels of support among self-identified Republicans. Moreover, despite his recent defeat in his efforts to repeal Obamacare and challenges around securing a nomination for his Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, he retains plenty of representatives and senators as allies in Congress. If his support remains stable, and as I’ve argued, it might not, he might just get a few things done while making each item on his to-do list look like just another day at the office.
Trump’s populist authoritarian tendencies underlie his approach to governing; they inflect much of what he does—the way he communicates a message about his policies, how he negotiates a bill, his tone when he attacks his opponents, the words he uses to rally his supporters. As time passes, it’s easy to dismiss his style and actions as antics; as the days becomes weeks and the weeks become months and the months become years, god help us, it’s easy to keep a rough tally of the insanity while shrugging our shoulders and saying, “Well, there he goes again,” as if he’s some quirky, if embarrassing, uncle we occasionally see during the holidays.
The tendency of some to dismiss Trump’s abhorrent behaviour as normal, combined with others who close their eyes and cover their ears, threatens to create just enough space for the president to push against the limits of what’s acceptable in a democratic society. Over time, as he pushes limits further and further, America faces the threat of severely diminished democratic capacity in the form of normalized anti-democratic measures and a citizenry that has long since checked out from sheer exhaustion.
Thus far, American civil society, the media, and the justice system have proved to be formidable opponents to Trump and his enablers. But the president’s failures have often been as much because of White House ineptitude as they have been the effect of outside intervention. It’s an open question as to whether or not a de facto coalition of politicians, lawyers and judges, journalists, activists, and day-to-day citizens can come together to resist Trump’s policies and politics over the long haul. If they are to do so, step one in preserving that effort is ensuring that Americans refuse to normalize the president’s populist authoritarian tendencies.
How can Americans ensure that Trump doesn’t become normalized? First, they can’t tune out—none of us can. The president’s actions must be repeatedly catalogued and called out as abnormal and dangerous. Second, demonstrations of resistance and solidarity are necessary online and offline; in newspapers, magazines, and blogs; in homes and in the streets; all over. Third, U.S. citizens need to maintain hope that Trumpism can and will be defeated, and communicate that belief. Finally, those who oppose the president must work downstream to elect representatives at the local, state, and national levels who will reverse his course and put democracy on track towards more just ends.
David Moscrop is a political scientist and a writer. He’s currently working on a book about why we make bad political decisions and how we can make better ones. He’s at @david_moscrop on Twitter. He lives in Vancouver.Earlier today, the Braves shipped third baseman Chris Johnson to the Indians for Michael Bourn and Nick Swisher. Atlanta had long been said to be shopping Johnson, who expressed relief to MLB.com’s Mark Bowman (Twitter link) that his status was finally resolved. Meanwhile, Swisher indicated that he, too, is excited to get started “right away” with a new organization, as Paul Hoynes of the Plain Dealer tweets.
Top Braves prospect Ozhaino Albies will miss the rest of the season after breaking his thumb, Bowman tweets. The 18-year-old shortstop has been solid this year at the Class A level, slashing.310/.368/.404 with 29 steals. While he’ll lose a bit of development time, the injury doesn’t seem to be much cause for concern given his young age.
prospect will miss the rest of the season after breaking his thumb, Bowman tweets. The 18-year-old shortstop has been solid this year at the Class A level, slashing.310/.368/.404 with 29 steals. While he’ll lose a bit of development time, the injury doesn’t seem to be much cause for concern given his young age. After dealing Mike Napoli to the Rangers, Red Sox GM Ben Cherington said today that he “expects there will be another opportunity” for Allen Craig at the big league level this year, as Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald tweets. It’s not yet clear when that will occur, but Craig isn’t exactly knocking on the door. He’s slashed.274/.379/.341 over 298 plate appearances at Triple-A since his demotion, continuing a notable power outage that dates back to the start of 2014.
to the Rangers, GM Ben Cherington said today that he “expects there will be another opportunity” for at the big league level this year, as Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald tweets. It’s not yet clear when that will occur, but Craig isn’t exactly knocking on the door. He’s slashed.274/.379/.341 over 298 plate appearances at Triple-A since his demotion, continuing a notable power outage that dates back to the start of 2014. Marlins sources say that GM-turned-skipper Dan Jennings is expected to return to the club’s front office after the year, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports. If and when the club enters the managerial market, says Jackson, it could consider names like Mike Lowell, Bud Black, Dusty Baker, Terry Kennedy, and Doug Mientkiewicz.
sources say that GM-turned-skipper is expected to return to the club’s front office after the year, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports. If and when the club enters the managerial market, says Jackson, it could consider names like, Bud Black, Dusty Baker, Terry Kennedy, and. While Mychal Givens was strong in his first few outings with the Orioles, the club is demoting him to provide another shot to Rule 5 pick Jason Garcia, as Rich Dubroff of CSNBaltimore.com writes. Garcia, 22, is back from an extended DL stint after allowing nine earned runs (and eight strikeouts against 11 walks) in his first 13 2/3 innings with Baltimore. In spite of those difficulties, the club seems fairly committed to locking up Garcia’s future rights by keeping him on the active roster the rest of the way.I ummmed and aaaahead about making these for ages. It sounded too good to be true. On one hand I thought it should work because nutella would act as the fat, flour and sugar. But then I thought it doesn’t have the correct ratios for the perfect cake described in this book. So I read a few reviews and they were all raving about how good these are and I saw a similar recipe in Nigella’s last book. Despite the red flags I thought I’d give it a go, I couldn’t bear the thought of this recipe being fantastic without me knowing about it.
Ingredients
4 large eggs
1 cup (about 270g) nutella
I cheated a tiny bit and added a few extras, I don’t know if they made much difference if I’m honest but they were
A pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
40g chopped, toasted hazelnuts
Method
Preheat oven to 170°C, line an 8″ square tin. Whisk the eggs with the salt until they have tripled in volume, about 8 mins or so. from this….. ….to this! Meanwhile, warm up the nutella either in a hot water bath or the microwave until it is runny and smooth. Whisk the vanilla into the eggs then on low-medium speed pour in the nutella in a slow steady stream. The mix will deflate but that is normal apparently. Fold in the nuts. Pour into prepared in and bake for 20-25 mins until it is set and there’s no wobble.
Nigella’s version of the recipe advised to wrap these and let them sit overnight….she was right. I couldn’t wait so I had a bit while still warm and when completely cold and it tasted overwhelmingly like a sweet omelette…absolutely disgusting! But I did as I was told and unusually it wasn’t difficult to leave them alone for a day(or two). When I unwrapped them I was suprised to see that they had indeed become fudgier and altogether much more agreeable in both taste and texture.
But still a long, long way off what I would expect from a brownie. Yes it’s a quick and easy recipe (if you have an electric mixer) but I’d rather take the time and trouble to make something really delicious. Like this!
AdvertisementsEvery once in a while I either publish an op-ed or make a blog post that induces incoherent rage in a certain number of readers. What do I mean by “incoherent”? That the people leaving hostile comments (or, in some cases, phone messages and emails) seem unable even to say what exactly it is that they disagree with.
Oddly, the writings that elicit such responses tend *not* to involve political commentary. Instead, they’re most often straight economic analysis, based in many cases on perfectly ordinary applications of IS-LM type reasoning.
And so it is that my latest rage-inducer was this innocuous (I thought) post on money-printing versus debt issue. As best I can tell, what set the ragers off was the suggestion that under current conditions – that is, in a liquidity trap — it really doesn’t matter whether the government covers its deficit by selling debt or just printing money, which is why, among other things, using the platinum coin ploy to sidestep the debt ceiling would be harmless. (The MMTers showed up, as usual, to insist that debt versus money printing *never* makes a difference; but that’s a different story).
Why is this such an upsetting suggestion? Well, a significant number of people, well represented among those who tend to haunt comment boards, is firmly committed for whatever reason to the Eek! Zimbabwe! view of how the economy works, under which any government that has the temerity to deviate from gold-standard orthodoxy even in a deep slump is condemning its citizens to suffering the wrath of the market gods. The appeal of this view is, I think, both political and emotional; it goes along with the general view that doing anything to help the less fortunate (especially if it involves taxing the rich) invites disaster, and it also ties in with the desire to believe that you and your friends have the True Knowledge of how economies work.
You can imagine how disturbing such people find liquidity-trap economics. And as far as I can tell, hardly anyone who started with this view in, say, 2008 has been willing to consider the possibility that four-plus years of very high growth in the monetary base combined with subdued inflation proves them wrong, and actually vindicates the Keynesians. Instead, they still react to anything challenging their worldview with rage – and especially so if it’s stated calmly and analytically.Shell to Sea encourages people to enter Statoil competition international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Monday February 28, 2011 19:48 Monday February 28, 2011 19:48 by AC - Shell to Sea by AC - Shell to Sea Tell Statoil what you think of the Corrib Gas Project - in public Norwegian energy giant Statoil, with New Scientist Magazine, has launched a competition to win a trip to the high Arctic and the deep sea. Specifically, the lucky winner will have the opportunity to fly to the 472-metre-high Troll gas platform in the North Sea.
All you have to do to enter, is to tell Statoil which engineering project you think will have the greatest impact on human life in the next 30 years, and why, in no more than 100 words.
Shell to Sea believes that the engineering project which will have the greatest impact on human life in the Rossport area, and on the national life of Ireland, for decades to come is Corrib Gas Project. Not only has community life been irreversibly damaged, but the damage done to the body politic of the state by bribery, collusion, moral cowardice, and silence, at so many levels in Official Ireland, is as yet incalculable.
Nevertheless, Shell to Sea is always keen to encourage people to make their views known to Shell and Statoil, the main partners in the Corrib Gas Project, and with that in mind, encourages everyone to enter this competition. To make it easier, we have offered two sample entries, weighing in at exactly 100 words each. But enter soon, the competition closes at midnight on Tuesday 1st March 2011! Entries can be submitted at http://www.newscientist.com/engineeringgreats/competition. If you make it to Troll, we can supply you with a Shell to Sea banner to unfurl from its 472-metre summit! They publish all entries, at least until the moderator catches up with them. We got a few entries up which stayed up over the weekend, although the vigilant moderators have taken them down since! So put 'em up in the evening! There are entries coming in from all over the world, throughout the day and night.
In no more that 100 words tell us which engineering project you think will have the greatest impact on human life in the next 30 years, and why?
1. The Corrib Gas Project in the West of Ireland, of which Statoil is a 37% shareholder. Why? Because bullying, intimidation, and bribery from Shell and Statoil has already altered the lives of local residents irreversibly. Politicians, bribed to give the gas away, also subverted the planning process at the behest of Statoil and Shell. Now its revealed that the huge refinery is a bridge-head for landing the 540,000,000,000 in oil and gas beyond Corrib over the coming decades. Due to a law change by a corrupted politician, Statoil and Shell own 100% of this gas while Ireland faces poverty.
2. Shell and Statoils Corrib Gas Project. For the following reasons: Theft of public resources; unquantifiable safety and health risks; corrupting of planning process, politics, courts and police; environmental degradation; trauma to protestors; physical injury; long-term judicial punishment of protestors and their families; panic attacks, sleeplessness, shattered assumptions, difficulty concentrating, headaches, backaches, irritability, endless tasks to be done, unprecedented stress, overwhelming exhaustion, endless waiting, shock, depression, nightmares, burnout, lack of appetite, stomach pain, nausea, rage, regret, helplessness, hopelessness, feeling numb, inner pain, muscle tension, flashbacks, fatigue, fear, self doubt, loss of trust in institutions, lack of faith in the future... Related Link: http://www.newscientist.com/engineeringgreats/competition Digg this del.icio.us Furl Reddit Technorati Facebook Twitter << Back To NewswireWhere the states stand on Medicaid expansion 35 states, D.C., have expanded Medicaid
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The Supreme Court's 2012 ruling on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) allowed states to opt out of the law's Medicaid expansion, leaving each state's decision to participate in the hands of the nation's governors and state leaders.
Now, amid perennial debate over whether to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, the fate of Medicaid expansion remains uncertain. However, the Nov. 6 midterm elections proved significant as voters in three conservative states decided to expand coverage to hundreds of thousands of people, while voters in Montana chose to allow their state's Medicaid expansion to expire in 2019.
The Daily Briefing and American Health Line editorial teams have been tracking where each state stands on Medicaid expansion, combing through lawmakers' statements, press releases, and media coverage. In this latest iteration of our Medicaid map, we've determined each state's position position and outlined any possible expansion efforts.
We will continue to update this map as more information becomes available. Send us news, tips, and feedback by commenting below or emailing dailybriefing@advisory.com.
ACTIVELY CONSIDERING EXPANSION (0 STATES)
As of Nov. 7, 2018, no states are considering expanding their Medicaid programsChris Cormier underwent arthroscopic knee surgery to fix an injury that apparently happened in a walk-through. Even though the surgery will probably sideline the defensive tackle for only 1-2 weeks it has the head coach very anxious. “We’ll get him back, but he missed the bulk of the summer, now missing this. He’s showed some quickness, but he’s missing all this really good time” said Kevin Wilson alluding to the fact that Cormier’s playing time is at stake due to the amount of practice is has missed and will miss in the new couple of weeks. While this is not the end of the world for the Hoosier defense it could cost them down the road as the defensive line is a unit that has been devastated by graduation and now some injuries. Hopefully, Cormier can return to the field before opening night and contribute to a unit that desperately needs some depth.Heading into Shroud of the Avatar for the first time was a bit of a strange experience for me, right from the start. Usually, when I start playing a new game, I start forming impressions and then spend the next few weeks refining those impressions in either direction. This time, I am utterly unsure of how I feel about the game, and I suspect that the next few weeks are going to make that more complex, not less.
And part of me can’t help but wonder if some of that is just a matter of missing vital reference points.
I don’t mean that in the sense of the game being actually impenetrable; it’s just that I find myself constantly asking if something that bugs me is, in fact, exactly the way it’s supposed to be for fans of the genre and Garriott’s prior work. Which is a trip, let me tell you that. I’m staggering through dark woods, getting my throat chewed on by a wolf, and I’m seized with the urge to ask the wolf if this is, in fact, an intended portion of design. You know, between bites of my trachea.
The game starts off by informing me, of course, that I’m sitting at my computer reading about fantasy things before getting sucked in. This is something I was vaguely aware of and also rather dislike. It’s a video game telling me that the video game I’m playing is me in a video game. There’s a curious feeling of simultaneous self-aggrandizement and lack of creativity, like the best thing they could think of was to make you super-important.
It’s also the worst sort of hero narrative possible, since it relies entirely on the notion that just by showing up, you’re awesome. Boy, it will suck for these dudes if the “avatar” turns out to be a self-interested slopstop, won’t it?
What I definitely liked, though – to my surprise – was the design of the Oracle. I’ve also seen at least one of her Watchers, and that honestly proved more effective at making me ask questions than anything else. The Oracle looks like a robotic fair attraction from the not-too-distant future that somehow went off the rails, and everything about her appearance and aesthetic manages to look wrong in just the right ways.
Seriously, it feels sinister and alien and wrong while being completely welcoming on the surface. I was digging on this and also was pretty fond of seeing one of her scurrying Watchers later.
As the vote went to Truth, I started out at the site of the Blood River massacre, where it looks like a whole lot of humans decided to stomp in and slaughter the heck out of some elves, most likely because Justin was leading the charge. This, unfortunately, is where a few bits of the game kind of rankled me. There’s a lot of emphasis on talking to NPCs and typing responses to them, but the parsing is… mixed. When someone asks you what your name is, apparently responding “You can call me Ceila” results in the NPC reading that entire phrase as your name, leading to shouts of “This way, You can call me Ceila!”
I’d prefer to just click on highlighted words or dialogue tree options if that’s the case, really.
Being who I am, I immediately grabbed a sword and knife as soon as possible and began dual-wielding my way through combat as it came up, which wasn’t for a while; I had to investigate a fair bit through the town. The down side is that there are no real sparkly bits to prompt investigation and almost everything can be picked up, taken, or moved around at will; the up side is the exact same thing.
Here’s one of those places, in other words, where I found myself asking “is this bad or is it supposed to be this way?” on multiple occasions. There were lots of bits that felt unclear or strange, often requiring an arcane series of actions to progress, but I’m not really clear on whether that’s a problem or if it’s purposefully keeping close to the game’s origin points. It’s not user-friendly, but this may well be a sort of hostility that the target user expects from the game.
Ditto combat. I wouldn’t say that combat is one of the worst systems that I’ve encountered, but it consisted mostly of casting a spell when it had cooled down and then clicking a lot to whack at things with my weaponry. Not exactly what I consider engaging… but I suspect it’s intentional? To emphasize choosing odd builds and ability combinations over specific close-quarters efficiency? I don’t know.
I also managed to get lost on my way to the city of Aerie due to the way maps are structured; I wound up in the Blood River Outskirts and getting rather lost about where I was supposed to go, not realizing that I was supposed to go further in a different direction to wind up on the world map. I certainly did want to avoid combat as much as possible, I wasn’t even very clear on what I was supposed to do with combat, which made it a bit frustrating that it seemed so difficult to avoid along the way.
And again, it all felt like… not my first choice? But the way things were meant to be structured. There was never a time when I felt like the designers had just made a mistake, only times when I felt like I wasn’t having an experience I would have picked otherwise.
About the one thing I can point to as definitely bad is the performance; the game seems rather poorly optimized, and I frequently hit stuttering moments despite having a computer that should be more than capable of handling it. Early access and all that, sure, but even with that being said…
I’m sure that my quest leads me further into Aerie, but I’m still just stumbling around here, and for all I know that’s what I’m supposed to do. So today’s poll is a little different than usual, but it’s a poll and it’s a case where I have options this early in the game, so that’s a good thing.
CMA: How should I keep going in Shroud of the Avatar? Follow the path of Truth. (31%, 44 Votes)
Jump to another path as soon as possible. (12%, 17 Votes)
Just wander, embrace uncertainty. (57%, 80 Votes) Total Voters: 141
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As usual, that poll ends on Friday at 6:00 p.m. EDT, so you have plenty of time to get your opinion in. You can also share your opinion right down below in the comments, and really, feel free to let me know if all of this expected stuff or things that are actually unique issues to this particular game. I’m legitimately interested about that. You can even just email me at eliot@massivelyop.com if you don’t want to put your words down there; it’s totally all right with me.
Either way, I’ll be back here next week with more ambiguous and perhaps none-too-clear adventures. It’s a thing I do.Getty Images
Eagles running back LeSean McCoy has heard the comparisons between himself and Barry Sanders. But McCoy doesn’t particularly agree with those comparisons.
McCoy says it’s flattering that his elusive running style is sometimes compared to the former Lion and Hall of Famer, but McCoy also acknowledges that his own body of work is nowhere close to what Sanders accomplished in the NFL.
“I don’t really see it as a comparison,” McCoy said, via Philly.com. “I think Barry is probably the best running back to ever play this game. They compare us probably because of the cutbacks, but there is still a big gap between us two.”
McCoy is right: Although McCoy makes some great highlight-reel runs, there’s really no one like Sanders. And McCoy hasn’t been anywhere near the workhorse back that Sanders was. Sanders led the league in rushing four times, was second in the NFL in rushing three times, was third once, fourth once and fifth once. McCoy, who is currently second in the league in rushing, has never led the league and has only been in the Top 10 once before.
So while McCoy is a very good running back, he hasn’t earned the comparisons to Sanders. It’s classy of him to acknowledge that.Less than 24 hours after the mysterious death of a journalist covering the Vyapam scam, the dean of a medical college in Madhya Pradesh who was assisting the probe, was found dead in a Delhi hotel on Sunday
The two back-to-back deaths deepened suspicions about a systematic elimination of people linked to the racket and sparked further demands by Opposition parties for an independent probe.
Delhi Police said no prima facie evidence suggested foul play in the death of 64-year-old Arun Sharma but didn’t rule out suicide as Opposition parties mounted pressure on the BJP for a Supreme Court-monitored CBI probe.
Sharma, the dean of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Medical College and Hospital in Jabalpur, died a day after a television journalist Akshay Singh passed away while interviewing family members of a student whose mutilated body was found on a railway track in 2012.
Read: Vyapam scam: Cops say scribe death natural, autopsy report awaited
The death also comes exactly a year after the charred body of his predecessor DK Sakalle,60, was found at his house in Jabalpur. Dr Sharma was reportedly close to Dr Sakalle.
Police said Sharma was found dead at a hotel in southwest Delhi’s Kapashera and an almost empty bottle of alcohol was found in the room that was locked from the inside.
Sharma had checked into the hotel in Dwarka Saturday evening and was scheduled to fly to Agartala this morning for an official inspection of a medical college there, police said.
His son told the police that he had been suffering from some heart ailments. Some medicines were also found in the room, police said.
The Indian Medical Association’s Jabalpur unit president Sudhir Tiwari said Sharma handed over about 200 documents to a special task force regarding admissions to the medical college.
Whistleblowers said Sharma’s death was important because hundreds of students from his institution were involved in rigging professional tests conducted by the MP Professional Examination Board (PEB) that has seen over 2,000 arrests.
Organised rackets employed imposters, manipulated seating arrangements and forged answer sheets as part of the Vyapam scam, called so from PEB’s Hindi acronym.
With the mysterious death of two persons in two days in connection with the scam, Congress and AAP demanded an independent probe into the scam.
“Vyapam scam n all deaths so far ought to be thoroughly investigated. Guilty must be punished,” Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal tweeted as the AAP announced a nationwide protest on July 11.
Vyapam scam n all deaths so far ought to be thoroughly investigated. Guilty must be punished. Something MUST be done to prevent more deaths. — Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) July 5, 2015
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was among the prominent leaders who attended Singh’s funeral in the evening as the party demanded an independent probe.
The Centre also stepped in, with home minister Rajnath Singh calling up Chouhan and reportedly asking him to conduct a probe into the journalist’s death.
CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan has so far ruled out a CBI probe into the deaths.
Nearly 40 people linked to the scandal have died over the past few years, triggering allegations that witnesses, whistleblowers and accused were being silenced.
Read:
HT Exclusive: In Vyapam scam, 10 dead in mishaps and 4 suicides
Many mystery deaths and 2,000 arrests: All about MP's Vyapam scam
Whistleblowers in MP exam scam spooked by mystery deaths, threats
First Published: Jul 05, 2015 11:35 ISTSignup to receive a daily roundup of the top LGBT+ news stories from around the world
A transgender woman has been left unable to speak after being shot in the face in Indiana.
55-year-old Crystal Cash was rushed to hospital last week after the horrific incident in Evansville.
Ms Cash, who owns a successful cosmetics business, was targeted at work by a man who her family say targeted her because she is transgender.
Initial police reports had incorrectly identified her as male, but her brother confirmed via local news outlet WFIE that she is a transgender woman.
Police have arrested the alleged shooter, 26-year-old Gerald Duane Lewis.
The Evansville Courier & Press reports that Lewis identifies as a member of Israel United in Christ, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has identified as a black supremacist hate group. He allegedly yelled a homophobic slur during the attack, and some reports suggest he was wearing the group’s uniform at the time of the attack.
Ms Cash’s brother Johnny Dickens said it was “painful” |
aspect of the first iteration and didn’t use only one director for the entire second season. Messing with success is always a problem, but in this fickle world of TV viewing, one needs to cement that success.
But there is room for improvement for middling or promising shows that really take advantage of a renewal. FX’s The Americans turned a good show into a phenomenal show by tightening the storytelling and focusing as much on the family stories of two Russian spies living in the suburbs as it does on the intrigue of espionage.
Right now the most shocking resurrection on television is The Leftovers, HBO’s drama about the aftermath of a mysterious event where 3% of the world’s population inexplicably disappeared. The first season was super dour, almost drowning in its own tears and suffocating on its own depression. However, not unlike an anthology series, it gave itself a hard reboot in the follow-up and moved most of the main characters from Maplewood, New York, to Miracle, Texas, and the results have been like Jesus bringing Lazarus back from the dead (an analogy that will have special resonance if you’ve watched the season).
By focusing on hope and the characters’ attempts at understanding the world, The Leftovers, possibly the best example of magical realism ever broadcast, solidifyed its place in the pantheon of prestige television. That didn’t improve the ratings, however, but HBO just renewed it for a third and final season. Maybe we can get the crowds to rally for that one.
But, again, fans are going to be looking toward the second season while waiting for the third. If the first season of show is about building excitement and creating familiarity, the second season is proving what those Silicon Valley types call “scale”. If the formula for success isn’t repeatable, it’s worthless. The same goes for an app as it does for a show like American Crime, which returns to ABC in January to see if its tracking of the multifaceted impact of one crime was a fluke or a serial success. As the genre continues to grow, and we brace ourselves for another season of Serial, let’s hope they can learn from the mistakes and triumphs of those who have come before.An editor at the liberal Southern Metropolis Daily has been fired after the paper’s Shenzhen edition paired a banner headline of President Xi Jinping’s call for state media loyalty with a lower headline on the sea burial of a prominent reformist, a combination that could be read as a veiled criticism of Xi’s media policy. South China Morning Post’s Nectar Gan and Mimi Lau report:
Liu Yuxia, editor of the Southern Metropolis News in Guangzhou, across the border from Hong Kong, was fired for her “mishandling” of the paper’s front-page published on February 20.
[…] Liu was accused in the circular of showing “a serious lack of political sensitivity” that triggered a misunderstanding of public opinion after some people interpreted the front page “in a malicious way”.
The front page in question in the newspaper’s Shenzhen edition featured a bolded headline high up on the page that read “Media run by the party and the government is a propaganda base and must follow the surname [display complete loyalty] of the party” – a quote from a speech on news and public opinion that Xi gave during a forum last week.
Directly beneath the headline was a large photograph of the burial at sea of Yuan Geng, a prominent reformist figure, with a small headline, “The soul returns to the sea” in the picture’s top right corner.
If the last two Chinese characters on each line of the main headline are read in conjunction with the photo headline below, the text reads “Media following the surname of the party have their souls returned to the sea”. [Source]Millie Bobby Brown just got her first magazine cover — and she looks stunning, to say the least. The Stranger Things star perches atop a marble fireplace in a layered lace maxi skirt, T-shirt, bomber jacket and Dr. Martens in a gorgeous shoot for So It Goes Magazine.
This high-low mix of the feminine pink confection and ‘90s grunge topper is giving us major Eleven vibes, channeling her on-screen persona’s smocked dress and nylon jacket IRL.
Watching Stranger Things on Netflix, you can’t help but not fall in love with Millie‘s character, Eleven. She’s mysterious, intriguing, and a totally badass protector of her crew. As it turns out, Millie herself is very much like that, with the addition of some adorable British flair and stellar style.
You can order the full print issue here to see all 20 images. As Millie's first-ever magazine cover, it's a total collector's item.
Related: How to Dress Like the Kids of Stranger Things for HalloweenRather than push on, we retreated to the hut, bemoaned the incompetence of weather models which had promised blue sky and basically angry-napped before hiking out the next day.
So it is with climbing tall things in the Canadian Rockies - regardless of what the forecast says, the weather may just ruin your plans. Builds character or something.
We planned an attempt for another weekend last year but the forecast that time was bad enough we bailed the day before. I'm not sure if it counts as an attempt if you don't even get out of bed.
Assiniboine Round 2
Getting to Assiniboine Lodge
After getting skunked last year, we immediately decided we were going to go for a round two, so nearly a year in advance we called up the Assiniboine Lodge who manage reservations for the Hind Hut and booked a long weekend. After our weather issues we decided to give ourselves contingency and have two potential summit days so we could absorb a weather day without the whole thing being a bust.
The whole thing then sat on the back burner until all of a sudden our hut reservation was only a few days out. And this time the park was closed because most of Assiniboine Provincial Park was currently on fire. Shit. How do you even plan for that?
Just a couple of days before our attempt the park re-opened, but Conor had made other plans and had to bail leaving Nate and I to call the Lodge to book some spots on the heli.
So here's the deal with accessing Assiniboine. You have three options:
Hike in 11km from the BC side (involves a bunch of logging road driving and then some glacier travel) - apparently takes about 6-8 hours
Hike 27km from the Mt. Shark trail head to the Assiniboine Lodge. From there, hike around Magog Lake and then up through the Gmoser ledges to the hut (taking an additional 3-4 hours from the lodge)
Fly to the Lodge for a pretty reasonable $175 and then just do the 3-4 hours up the Gmoser Ledges to the hut
Both times I've gone up to the hut I've taken the Heli to the lodge and I'm never doing it again. Even though it isn't super expensive, having spoken with people who have hiked in from the BC side the added hiking time is minimal and if you factor in the amount of time spent dicking around in the Mt. Shark parking lot waiting for your heli ride, it's probably overall faster to just hike in from the BC side.The Treaty of Waitangi (Māori: Te Tiriti o Waitangi) is a treaty first signed on 6 February 1840 by representatives of the British Crown and Māori chiefs (rangatira) from the North Island of New Zealand. It is a document of central importance to the history and political constitution of the state of New Zealand, and has been highly significant in framing the political relations between New Zealand's government and the Māori population.
The Treaty was written at a time when British colonists were pressuring the Crown to establish a colony in New Zealand, and when some Māori leaders had petitioned the British for protection against French forces. It was drafted with the intention of establishing a British Governor of New Zealand, recognising Māori ownership of their lands, forests and other possessions, and giving Māori the rights of British subjects. It was intended to ensure that when the declaration of British sovereignty over New Zealand was made by Lieutenant Governor William Hobson in May 1840, the Māori people would not feel that their rights had been ignored. Once it had been written and translated, it was first signed by Northern Māori leaders at Waitangi, and subsequently copies of the Treaty were taken around New Zealand and over the following months many other chiefs signed.[1] Around 530 to 540 Māori, at least 13 of them women, signed the Treaty of Waitangi, despite some Māori leaders cautioning against it.[2][3] An immediate result of the Treaty was that Queen Victoria's government gained the sole right to purchase land.[4] In total there are nine signed copies of the Treaty of Waitangi including the sheet signed on 6 February 1840 at Waitangi.[5]
The text of the Treaty includes a preamble and three articles. It is bilingual, with the Māori text translated from the English. Article one of the English text cedes "all rights and powers of sovereignty" to the Crown. Article two establishes the continued ownership of the Māori over their lands, and establishes the exclusive right of pre-emption of the Crown. Article three gives Māori people full rights and protections as British subjects. However, the English text and the Māori text differ in meaning significantly, particularly in relation to the meaning of having and ceding sovereignty. These discrepancies led to disagreements in the decades following the signing, eventually culminating in the New Zealand Wars.[6]
During the second half of the 19th century, Māori generally lost control of the land they had owned, some through legitimate sale, but often due to unfair land deals or outright seizure in the aftermath of the New Zealand War. In the period following the New Zealand Wars, the New Zealand government mostly ignored the Treaty and a court case judgement in 1877 declared it to be "a simple nullity". Beginning in the 1950s, Māori increasingly sought to use the Treaty as a platform for claiming additional rights to sovereignty and to reclaim lost land, and governments in the 1960s and 1970s were responsive to these arguments, giving the Treaty an increasingly central role in the interpretation of land rights and relations between Māori people and the state. In 1975, the Treaty of Waitangi Act was passed establishing the Waitangi Tribunal as a permanent commission of inquiry tasked with interpreting the Treaty, researching breaches of the Treaty by the British Crown or its agents, and to suggest means of redress.[6] In most cases, recommendations of the Tribunal are not binding on the Crown, but settlements totalling almost $1 billion have been awarded to various Māori groups.[7][6] Various legislation passed in the later part of the 20th century has made reference to the Treaty, but the Treaty has never been made part of New Zealand municipal law. Nonetheless, the Treaty is widely regarded as the founding document of New Zealand.[8][9][10]
Waitangi Day was established as a national holiday in 1974 and commemorates the date of the signing of the Treaty.
Early history [ edit ]
The first contact between the Māori and Europeans was in 1642, when Dutch explorer Abel Tasman arrived and was fought off, and again in 1769 when the English navigator Captain James Cook claimed New Zealand for Britain at the Mercury Islands. Nevertheless, the British government showed little interest in following up this claim for over half a century.[11] The first mention of New Zealand in British statutes is in the Murders Abroad Act of 1817,[12] which clarified that New Zealand was not a British colony (despite being claimed by Captain Cook) and "not within His Majesty's dominions".[13] Between 1795 and 1830 a steady flow of sealing and then whaling ships visited New Zealand, mainly stopping at the Bay of Islands for food supplies and recreation. Many of the ships came from Sydney. Trade between Sydney and New Zealand increased as traders sought kauri timber and flax and missionaries purchased large areas of land in the Bay of Islands.[14] This trade was seen as mutually advantageous, and Māori tribes competed for access to the services of Europeans that had chosen to live on the islands because they brought goods and knowledge that were essential to the local iwi (the Māori word for the social unit often called "tribe" or "people"). At the same time, Europeans living in New Zealand needed the protection that Māori chiefs could provide.[15] As a result of trade, Māori society changed drastically up to the 1840s. They changed their society from one of subsistence farming and gathering to cultivating useful trade crops.[15]
The Māori generally respected the British, partially due to encouragement from missionaries and also due to British status as a major maritime power, which had been made apparent to Māori travelling outside New Zealand.[15] The other major powers in the area around the 1830s included American whalers, whom the Māori accepted as cousins of the British, and French Catholics who came for trade and as missionaries. The Māori were still deeply distrustful of the French, due to a massacre of 250 people that had occurred in 1772, when they retaliated for the killing of Marion du Fresne and some of his crew.[15] While the threat of the French never materialised, in 1831 it prompted thirteen rangatira (major chiefs) from the far north of the country to meet at Kerikeri to compose a letter to King William IV asking for help to guard their lands. It is the first known plea for British intervention written by Māori.[16] In response, the British government sent James Busby in 1832 to be the British Resident in New Zealand. In 1834 Busby drafted a document known as the Declaration of the Independence of New Zealand which he and 35 northern Māori chiefs signed at Waitangi on 28 October 1835, establishing those chiefs as representatives of a proto-state under the title of the "United Tribes of New Zealand". This document was not well received by the Colonial Office in Britain, and it was decided that a new policy for New Zealand was needed.[17]
From May to July 1836, Royal Navy officer Captain William Hobson, under instruction from Sir Richard Bourke, visited New Zealand to investigate claims of lawlessness in its settlements. Hobson recommended in his report that British sovereignty be established over New Zealand, in small pockets similar to the Hudson's Bay Company in Canada.[18] Hobson's report was forwarded to the Colonial Office. From April to May 1838, the House of Lords held a select committee into the "State of the Islands of New Zealand". The New Zealand Association (later the New Zealand Company), missionaries, Joel Samuel Polack, and the Royal Navy made submissions to the committee.[19]
On 15 June 1839 new Letters Patent were issued to expand the territory of New South Wales to include the entire territory of New Zealand, from latitude 34° South to 47° 10' South, and from longitude 166° 5' East to 179° East.[20] Governor of New South Wales George Gipps was appointed Governor over New Zealand.[21] This was the first clear expression of British intent to annex New Zealand.[21]
Hobson was called to the Colonial Office on the evening of 14 August 1839 and given instructions to take the constitutional steps needed to establish a British colony.[22] He was appointed Consul to New Zealand and was instructed to negotiate a voluntary transfer of sovereignty from the Māori to the British Crown as the House of Lords select committee had recommended in 1837. Normanby gave Hobson three instructions – to seek a cession of sovereignty, to assume complete control over land matters, and to establish a form of civil government, but he did not provide a draft of the Treaty.[23][24] Normanby wrote at length about the need for British intervention as essential to protect Māori interests, but this was somewhat deceptive.[15] Hobson's instructions gave no provision for Māori government of any kind nor any Māori involvement in the administrative structure of the new colony.[15]
Historian Claudia Orange argues that prior to 1839 the Colonial Office had initially planned a "Māori New Zealand" in which European settlers would be accommodated without a full colony[15] where Māori might retain ownership and authority over much of the land and cede some land to settlers as part of a colony governed by the Crown.[15][25] However, Normanby's instructions in 1839 show that the Colonial Office had shifted their stance toward colonisation and "a settler New Zealand in which a place had to be kept for Māori", primarily due to pressure from increasing numbers of British colonists.[15][25] The Colonial Office was forced to accelerate its plans because of both the New Zealand Company's hurried dispatch of the Tory to New Zealand on 12 May 1839 to purchase land,[26] and plans by French Captain Jean François L'Anglois to establish a French colony in Akaroa.[27] After examining Colonial office documents and correspondence (both private and public) of those who developed the policies that led to the development of the Treaty, historian Paul Moon similarly argues that Treaty was not envisioned with deliberate intent to assert sovereignty over Māori, but that the Crown originally only intended to apply rule over British subjects living in the fledgling colony, and these rights were later expanded by subsequent governors through perceived necessity.[28]
Hobson left London on 15 August 1839 and was sworn in as Lieutenant-Governor in Sydney on 14 January, finally arriving in the Bay of Islands on 29 January 1840. Meanwhile, a second New Zealand Company ship, the Cuba, had arrived in Port Nicholson on 3 January with a survey party to prepare for settlement.[29] The Aurora, the first ship carrying immigrants, arrived on 22 January.[30]
On 30 January 1840 Hobson attended the Christ Church at Kororareka (Russell) where he publicly read a number of proclamations. The first was the Letters Patent 1839, in relation to the extension of the boundaries of New South Wales to include the islands of New Zealand. The second was in relation to Hobson's own appointment as Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand. The third was in relation to land transactions (notably on the issue of pre-emption).[31]
Drafting of the Treaty [ edit ]
Without a draft document prepared by lawyers or Colonial Office officials, Hobson was forced to write his own treaty with the help of his secretary, James Freeman, and British Resident James Busby, neither of whom was a lawyer.[15] Historian Paul Moon believes certain articles of the Treaty resemble the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), the British Sherbro Agreement (1825) and the treaty between Britain and Soombia Soosoos (1826).[32]
The entire Treaty was prepared in four days,[33] in which it underwent many revisions.[15] There were doubts even during the drafting process that the Māori chiefs would be able to understand the concept of relinquishing'sovereignty'.[15]
Realising that a treaty in English could not be understood, debated or agreed to by Māori, Hobson instructed missionary Henry Williams and his son Edward Marsh Williams, who was more proficient in Te Reo, the Māori language, to translate the document, and this was done overnight on 4 February.[34] The translation of the Treaty was reviewed by James Busby, and he proposed the substitution of the word whakaminenga for huihuinga, to describe the "Confederation" or gathering of the chiefs.[35][15] This no doubt was a reference to the northern confederation of chiefs with whom Hobson preferred to negotiate, who eventually made up the vast majority of signatories to the Treaty.[15] Hobson believed that elsewhere in the country the Crown could exercise greater freedom over the rights of 'first discoverers', which proved unwise as it led to future difficulties with other tribes in the South Island.[15]
Debate and signing [ edit ]
On 5 February the original English version Treaty and its translation into Māori[36] were put before a gathering of northern chiefs inside a large marquee on the lawn in front of Busby's house at Waitangi. Hobson read the Treaty aloud in English and Williams read his Māori version.[37] Māori chiefs (rangatira) then debated the Treaty for five hours, much of which was recorded and translated by the Paihia missionary station printer, William Colenso.[38] Rewa, a Catholic chief, who had been influenced by the French Catholic Bishop Pompallier, said "The Māori people don't want a governor! We aren't European. It's true that we've sold some of our lands. But this country is still ours! We chiefs govern this land of our ancestors". Moka 'Kainga-mataa' argued that all land unjustly purchased by Europeans should be returned.[39] Whai asked: "Yesterday I was cursed by a white man. Is that the way things are going to be?". Protestant Chiefs such as Hōne Heke, Pumuka, Te Wharerahi, Tamati Waka Nene and his brother Eruera Maihi Patuone were accepting of the Governor.[39] Hōne Heke said:
Governor, you should stay with us and be like a father. If you go away then the French or the rum sellers will take us Māori people over. How to you. Some of you tell Hobson to go. But that's not going to solve our difficulties. We have already sold so much land here in the north. We have no way of controlling the Europeans who have settled on it. I'm amazed to hear you telling him to go! Why didn't you tell the traders and grog-sellers to go years ago? There are too many Europeans here now and there are children that will unite our races[39]
Bishop Pompallier, who had been counselling the many Catholic Māori in the north concerning the Treaty, urged them to be very wary of the Treaty and not to sign anything. He left after the initial discussions and was not present when the chiefs signed.[37][40]
The location of Waitangi within New Zealand
For Māori chiefs, the signing at Waitangi would have needed a great deal of trust. Nonetheless, expected benefits of British protection must have outweighed their fears. In particular, the French were also interested in New Zealand, and there were fears that if they did not side with the British that the French would put pressure on them in a similar manner to that of other Pacific Islanders farther north in what would become French Polynesia. Māori at the signing were further encouraged by English Missionaries, who believed that British regulation would be invaluable to the future welfare of Māori as European settlers continued to arrive.[15]
Afterward, the chiefs then moved to a river flat below Busby's house and lawn and continued deliberations late into the night. Busby's house would later become known as the Treaty House and is today New Zealand's most visited historic building.[41]
Hobson had planned for the signing to occur on 7 February however on the morning of 6 February 45 chiefs[38] were waiting ready to sign. Around noon a ship carrying two officers from HMS Herald arrived and were surprised to hear they were waiting for the Governor so a boat was quickly despatched back to let him know.[38] Although the official painting of the signing shows Hobson wearing full naval regalia, he was in fact not expecting the chiefs that day and was wearing his dressing gown[42] or "in plain clothes, except his hat".[38] The Treaty signing began in the afternoon.
Hobson headed the British signatories. Hōne Heke was the first of the Māori chiefs who signed that day.[37] As each chief signed, Hobson said "He iwi tahi tātou", meaning "We are [now] one people".[39] Two chiefs, Marupō and Ruhe, protested strongly against the Treaty as the signing took place but they eventually signed[43] and after Marupō shook the Governor's hand, seized hold of his hat which was on the table and gestured to put it on.[38]
Later signings [ edit ]
Hobson considered the signing at Waitangi to be highly significant, he noted that twenty-six of the forty-six 'head chiefs' had signed.[15] Hobson had no intention of requiring the unanimous assent of Māori to the Treaty, but was willing to accept a majority, as he reported that the signings at Waitangi represented "Clear recognition of the sovereign rights of Her Majesty over the northern parts of this island".[15] However, those that signed at Waitangi did not even represent the north as a whole; an analysis of the signatures shows that most were from the Bay of Islands only, and that not many of the chiefs of the highest rank had signed on that day.[15] Hobson considered the initial signing at Waitangi to be the "de facto" treaty, while later signings merely "ratified and confirmed it",[15]
To enhance the Treaty's authority, eight additional copies were sent around the country to gather additional signatures:[44]
About 50 meetings were held from February to September 1840 to discuss and sign the copies, and a further 500 signatures were added to the Treaty. While most did eventually sign, especially in the far north where most Māori lived, a number of chiefs and some tribal groups ultimately refused, including Pōtatau Te Wherowhero (Waikato iwi), Tuhoe, Te Arawa and Ngāti Tuwharetoa and possibly Moka 'Kainga-mataa'. A number of non-signatory Waikato and Central North Island chiefs would later form a kind of confederacy with an elected monarch called the Kīngitanga.[15] (The Kīngitanga Movement would later form a primary anti-government force in the New Zealand Wars.) While copies were moved around the country to give as many tribal leaders as possible the opportunity to sign, some missed out, especially in the South Island, where inclement weather prevented copies from reaching Otago or Stewart Island.[15] Assent to the Treaty was unanimous in Kaitaia, as well as possibly the Wellington to Whanganui region, but there were at least some holdouts in every other part of New Zealand.[15]
Nonetheless, on 21 May 1840, Lieutenant-Governor Hobson proclaimed sovereignty over the whole country, (the North Island by Treaty and the South Island and Stewart Island by discovery) and New Zealand was constituted as a colony separate from New South Wales on 16 November 1840.[45] The British government was told that the North Island had been ceded with "unanimous adherence" (which was not accurate) and while Hobson claimed the South Island by discovery based on the "uncivilised state of the natives", in actuality he had no basis to make such a claim.[15] In reality, Hobson issued the proclamation because he felt it was forced on him by settlers from the New Zealand Company who had attempted to form an independent settlement government at Port Nicholson and claimed legality from local chiefs.[15] Hobson also failed to report to the British government that the Māori text of the Treaty was substantially different from the English one (which he might not have known at the time) and also reported that both texts had received 512 signatures, where in truth the majority of signatures had been on the Māori copies that had been sent around the country, rather than on the single English copy.[15] Basing their decision on this information, on 2 October 1840, the Colonial Office approved Hobson's proclamation. They did not have second thoughts when later reports revealed more detail about the inadequacies of the Treaty negotiations, and they did not take issue with the fact that large areas of the North Island had not signed. The government had never asked for Hobson to obtain unanimous agreement from the indigenous people.[15]
Extant copies [ edit ]
The group of nine documents that make up the Treaty of Waitangi.
In 1841, Treaty documents, housed in an iron box, narrowly escaped damage when the government offices at Official Bay in Auckland were destroyed by fire.[44] They disappeared from sight until 1865 when a Native Department officer worked on them in Wellington at the request of parliament and produced an erroneous list of signatories. The papers were fastened together and then deposited in a safe in the Colonial Secretary's office.[46]
In 1877, the English-language rough draft of the Treaty was published along with photolithographic facsimiles, and the originals were returned to storage. In 1908, historian and bibliographer Dr Thomas Hocken, searching for historical documents, found the Treaty papers in poor condition, damaged at the edges by water and partly eaten by rodents.[44] The papers were restored by the Dominion Museum in 1913 and kept in special boxes from then on. In February 1940, the Treaty documents were taken to Waitangi for display in the Treaty House during the Centenary celebrations.[44] It was possibly the first time the Treaty document had been on public display since it was signed.[46] After the outbreak of war with Japan, they were placed with other state documents in an outsize luggage trunk and deposited for secure custody with the Public Trustee at Palmerston North by the local MP, who did not tell staff what was in the case. However, as the case was too large to fit in the safe, the Treaty documents spent the war at the side of a back corridor in the Public Trust office.
In 1956, the Department of Internal Affairs placed the Treaty documents in the care of the Alexander Turnbull Library and they were displayed in 1961. Further preservation steps were taken in 1966, with improvements to the display conditions.[44] From 1977 to 1980, the library extensively restored the documents before the Treaty was deposited in the Reserve Bank.[44]
In anticipation of a decision to exhibit the document in 1990 (the sesquicentennial of the signing), full documentation and reproduction photography was carried out. Several years of planning culminated with the opening of the climate-controlled Constitution Room at the National Archives by Mike Moore, Prime Minister of New Zealand, in November 1990.[44] It was announced in 2012 that the nine Treaty of Waitangi sheets would be relocated to the National Library of New Zealand in 2013.[47] In 2017, the He Tohu permanent exhibition at the National Library opened, displaying the Treaty documents along with the Declaration of Independence and the 1893 Women's Suffrage Petition.[48]
Treaty text, meaning and interpretation [ edit ]
English text [ edit ]
Preamble: HER MAJESTY VICTORIA Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland regarding with Her Royal Favor the Native Chiefs and Tribes of New Zealand and anxious to protect their just Rights and Property and to secure to them the enjoyment of Peace and Good Order has deemed it necessary in consequence of the great number of Her Majesty's Subjects who have already settled in New Zealand and the rapid extension of Emigration both from Europe and Australia which is still in progress to constitute and appoint a functionary properly authorised to treat with the Aborigines of New Zealand for the recognition of Her Majesty's Sovereign authority over the whole or any part of those islands – Her Majesty therefore being desirous to establish a settled form of Civil Government with a view to avert the evil consequences which must result from the absence of the necessary Laws and Institutions alike to the native population and to Her subjects has been graciously pleased to empower and to authorise me William Hobson a Captain in Her Majesty's Royal Navy Consul and Lieutenant-Governor of such parts of New Zealand as may be or hereafter shall be ceded to her Majesty to invite the confederated and independent Chiefs of New Zealand to concur in the following Articles and Conditions. Article the first: The Chiefs of the Confederation of the United Tribes of New Zealand and the separate and independent Chiefs who have not become members of the Confederation cede to Her Majesty the Queen of England absolutely and without reservation all the rights and powers of Sovereignty which the said Confederation or Individual Chiefs respectively exercise or possess, or may be supposed to exercise or to possess over their respective Territories as the sole sovereigns thereof. Article the second: Her Majesty the Queen of England confirms and guarantees to the Chiefs and Tribes of New Zealand and to the respective families and individuals thereof the full exclusive and undisturbed possession of their Lands and Estates Forests Fisheries and other properties which they may collectively or individually possess so long as it is their wish and desire to retain the same in their possession; but the Chiefs of the United Tribes and the individual Chiefs yield to Her Majesty the exclusive right of Preemption over such lands as the proprietors thereof may be disposed to alienate at such prices as may be agreed upon between the respective Proprietors and persons appointed by Her Majesty to treat with them in that behalf. Article the third: In consideration thereof Her Majesty the Queen of England extends to the Natives of New Zealand Her royal protection and imparts to them all the Rights and Privileges of British Subjects. (signed) William Hobson, Lieutenant-Governor. Now therefore We the Chiefs of the Confederation of the United Tribes of New Zealand being assembled in Congress at Victoria in Waitangi and We the Separate and Independent Chiefs of New Zealand claiming authority over the Tribes and Territories which are specified after our respective names, having been made fully to understand the Provisions of the foregoing Treaty, accept and enter into the same in the full spirit and meaning thereof in witness of which we have attached our signatures or marks at the places and the dates respectively specified. Done at Waitangi this Sixth day of February in the year of Our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty.[49] Now therefore We the Chiefs of the Confederation of the United Tribes of New Zealand being assembled in Congress at Victoria in Waitangi and We the Separate and Independent Chiefs of New Zealand claiming authority over the Tribes and Territories which are specified after our respective names, having been made fully to understand the Provisions of the foregoing Treaty, accept and enter into the same in the full spirit and meaning thereof in witness of which we have attached our signatures or marks at the places and the dates respectively specified. Done at Waitangi this Sixth day of February in the year of Our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty.
The Treaty itself is short, consisting of a preamble and three articles.[49]
The English text (from which the Māori text is translated) starts with the preamble and presents Queen Victoria "being desirous to establish a settled form of Civil Government", and invites Māori chiefs to concur in the following articles. The first article of the English text grants the Queen of England "absolutely and without reservation all the rights and powers of Sovereignty" over New Zealand. The second article guarantees to the chiefs full "exclusive and undisturbed possession of their Lands and Estates Forests Fisheries and other properties". It also specifies that Māori will sell land only to the Crown (Crown pre-emption). The third article guarantees to all Māori the same rights as all other British subjects.[49]
Māori text [ edit ]
(Preamble): KO WIKITORIA te Kuini o Ingarani i tana mahara atawai ki nga Rangatira me nga Hapu o Nu Tirani i tana hiahia hoki kia tohungia ki a ratou o ratou rangatiratanga me to ratou wenua, a kia mau tonu hoki te Rongo ki a ratou me te Atanoho hoki kua wakaaro ia he mea tika kia tukua mai tetahi Rangatira – hei kai wakarite ki nga Tangata maori o Nu Tirani – kia wakaaetia e nga Rangatira Maori te Kawanatanga o te Kuini ki nga wahikatoa o te wenua nei me nga motu – na te mea hoki he tokomaha ke nga tangata o tona Iwi Kua noho ki tenei wenua, a e haere mai nei. Na ko te Kuini e hiahia ana kia wakaritea te Kawanatanga kia kaua ai nga kino e puta mai ki te tangata Maori ki te Pakeha e noho ture kore ana. Na kua pai te Kuini kia tukua a hau a Wiremu Hopihona he Kapitana i te Roiara Nawi hei Kawana mo nga wahi katoa o Nu Tirani e tukua aianei amua atu ki te Kuini, e mea atu ana ia ki nga Rangatira o te wakaminenga o nga hapu o Nu Tirani me era Rangatira atu enei ture ka korerotia nei. Ko te tuatahi (Article 1): Ko nga Rangatira o te wakaminenga me nga Rangatira katoa hoki ki hai i uru ki taua wakaminenga ka tuku rawa atu ki te Kuini o Ingarani ake tonu atu – te Kawanatanga katoa o o ratou wenua. Ko te tuarua (Article 2): Ko te Kuini o Ingarani ka wakarite ka wakaae ki nga Rangitira ki nga hapu – ki nga tangata katoa o Nu Tirani te tino rangatiratanga o o ratou wenua o ratou kainga me o ratou taonga katoa. Otiia ko nga Rangatira o te wakaminenga me nga Rangatira katoa atu ka tuku ki te Kuini te hokonga o era wahi wenua e pai ai te tangata nona te Wenua – ki te ritenga o te utu e wakaritea ai e ratou ko te kai hoko e meatia nei e te Kuini hei kai hoko mona. Ko te tuatoru (Article 3): Hei wakaritenga mai hoki tenei mo te wakaaetanga ki te Kawanatanga o te Kuini – Ka tiakina e te Kuini o Ingarani nga tangata maori katoa o Nu Tirani ka tukua ki a ratou nga tikanga katoa rite tahi ki ana mea ki nga tangata o Ingarani. (signed) William Hobson, Consul and |
Every year the Knights of Malta bring thousands of malades (the sick and infirm) on pilgrimage to Lourdes, France for a week. They gather in the Basilica of St. Pius XII, which looks like this from above on Google Maps.
But underground it holds 25,000 knights, dames, pilgrims and malades.
Cardinal Burke will be serving as Patron of the Order, an office where he serves as the representative of the pope to the prince of the sovereign military order, Fra. Matthew Festing, the 79th head of the order.
Here is Cardinal Burke leading a procession in Lourdes.
Oh wait, that’s a bad angle.
There. That’s better. The unofficial motto of the Knights of Malta is “Go big or go home”.
Cardinal Burke says he is optimistic for the future and is looking forward to his new assignment.
I would be too if the pope had just given me an army!
The views expressed here are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views of CatholicVote.orgWhile Microsoft Edge is a fairly solid browser in most respects, it lags behind in quite a few areas. One key problem the browser has is its problems with some video playing websites, such as Rabb.it. This issue is beginning to be addressed by the introduction of WebRTC 1.0 support.
We’re excited to announce the preview availability of the WebRTC 1.0 API, and support for the H.264/AVC and VP8 video codecs for RTC in Microsoft Edge, enabling plugin-free, interoperable video communications solutions across browsers and platforms. These features are enabled by default in Windows Insider Preview builds starting with last week’s release, 15019, and will be in stable releases beginning with the Windows 10 Creator’s Update.
You can start testing out WebRTC 1.0 right now if you’ve got access to Windows 10 Insider build 15019. If you don’t feel like entering the Insider program, the feature should be entering Microsoft Edge with the Windows 10 Creators update later this year.
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Further reading: build 15019Last week EA decided to do something rather generous and very un-EA: they offered everyone a free copy of The Sims 2: Ultimate Collection. All you had to do was download and install a copy of Origin and use the code I-LOVE-THE-SIMS to secure your free copy of the game. The offer lasts until the end of July 31 if you’re interested.
However, it’s not all great news. The copy of The Sims 2 EA is distributing includes the very controversial digital rights management solution called SecuROM. Gamers hate this DRM and with good reason.
SecuROM has been around for years and attempts to stop the piracy of games that use it by limiting duplication and reverse engineering. But it causes a number of issues including not recognizing legitimate game discs, not working if you have certain (standard) features enabled in Windows, it causes conflicts with other software, and if you uninstall a game SecuROM hangs around in your registry and refuses to be deleted.
If you’ve played BioShock, Mass Effect, Spore, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, Dragon Age II, or Final Fantasy VII (re-release) on PC then you’ve come into contact with it. In fact, Spore made it into the top 10 of most pirated games in 2008 because gamers were so eager to avoid SecuROM on the legal version.
So while EA’s offer of The Sims 2: Ultimate Collection is generous, it may not be worth taking them up on it simply to avoid the potential nightmare that is SecuROM. If you’ve already installed the game, here’s a very useful guide on how to remove SecuROM should you need to.A Gift Of Life And Friendship After A Family's Loss
Enlarge this image toggle caption StoryCorps StoryCorps
Today, Rick Bounds is a 58-year-old triathlete, with four competitions and a 100-mile bike ride to his credit.
But six years ago, he was diagnosed with a nonhepatitis liver disease. Rick's doctors told him that if he didn't have an immediate kidney and liver transplant, he would die.
He was given eight months to live and told that his chances of getting organs were slim.
'No Hope'
"I woke up my husband. I said, 'Baby, you've got to get up,' " says 50-year-old Dorothy Biernack. "He had a construction company. I said, 'All your guys are going to be waiting for you.' And then he stood up, and he turned around and looked at me, and said, 'Baby, something doesn't feel right.' "
Marty Biernack had a stroke immediately. By the time he and Dorothy got to the hospital, things had taken a turn for the worst.
"They said, 'There's nothing else we can do for him,' " Dorothy says. "So, one of the worst things I ever had to do was to open up that door with his mother and our children looking at me for hope. And I had to tell them that there was no hope."
"Within minutes of finding out that he was going to pass away, we decided to donate his kidneys and the liver."
Marty died on July 20, 2007. Rick Bounds received his kidney and liver transplant on July 21, 2007.
'I Was Allowed To Live'
Dorothy wanted to meet the donor recipient.
"I just wanted to see, did I help them? Did they get a chance at life?" she says during a visit to StoryCorps in Baltimore.
So, the two met in May 2008.
But, she wondered, why was it so important for Rick to meet his donor's family?
"I was struggling with the fact that I was allowed to live and someone passed," Rick tells her. "And um, I wanted a picture of the person who had been taken and allowed me to live."
Enlarge this image toggle caption Courtesy of Rick Bounds Courtesy of Rick Bounds
He was surprised at how young Dorothy was when he first saw her, though she understood, "because a lot of times people expect the widow to be a little old lady walking in."
"It was hard for me because, here I was sitting across from you eating dinner with literally parts of Marty in me, allowing me to be able to do that," he says. "And um, I think what set me at ease was your smile. Just like this morning when you got out of the car. You just have a real bright smile, and it just kind of allows people to relax."
The First Triathlon
Three days after they met, Dorothy decided watch the triathlon Rick was competing in.
She and her daughter met him at the finish line holding a big picture of Marty.
"I remember going up and giving you a hug, and some woman took that shot of you and I hugging," he says. "And you don't see our face but you see Marty's face, peering out right at the camera."
"That picture means a lot to me, too, because all you can see is the person who brought us together," Dorothy says. "I feel like Marty still has a purpose. And that's to help you live your life, and help you see your grandchildren, and your wife. And I couldn't ask anybody nicer to be able to live with my husband helping you."
Now, Rick and Dorothy get together a couple of times every year.
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In recent weeks, the Bush administration has found a new word to characterize Islamic fundamentalists: fascists. The "War on Terror" has quietly become the "war against Islamic fascism," and the term "Islamo-fascism" has its own entry in Wikipedia. Then again, so does "Christian fascism." The word "fascism" is thrown around these days with abandon, often used to describe seemingly opposing philosophies. So what exactly is it?
The word "fascists" (or fascisti) as used in the 1930s by Benito Mussolini, the leader of the first Fascist movement and the Fascist dictator of Italy before and during World War II, most likely comes from the Italian word fascis and the Latin word fasces. Fascis means something along the lines of "bundle" or "unit." Fasces was a symbol of authority in ancient Rome, an axe surrounded by rods. These two roots offer a good glimpse into the basic tenets of fascism: unity and power.
Part of the reason why fascism seems to apply to so many different social and political viewpoints is that it is notoriously difficult to define. Mussolini's brand of Fascism is not exactly like Hitler's brand of Fascism, which is not the same as Francisco Franco's Fascism (in Spain) nor the neofascist (post-WWII) movements characterized by groups like the Skinheads. Still, there are some basic principles that can identify a Fascist movement:
Absolute power of the State : The Fascist state is a glorious, living entity that is more important than any individual. All individuals are part of the State, but the State is greater than the sum of its parts. All individuals must set aside their own needs and supplicate themselves to the needs of the State. There is no law or other power that can limit the authority of the State.
Survival of the fittest : A Fascist state is only as glorious and powerful as its ability to wage wars and win them. Peace is viewed as weakness, aggression as strength. Strength is the ultimate good and ensures the survival of the State.
Strict social order : Social classes are strictly maintained in order to avoid "mob rule" or any hint of chaos. Chaos is a threat to the State. The State's absolute power and greatness depends on the maintenance of a class system in which every individual has a specific place, and that place cannot be altered.
Authoritarian leadership: To maintain the power and greatness of the State requires a single, charismatic leader with absolute authority. This all-powerful, heroic leader maintains the unity and unquestioning submission required by the Fascist state. The authoritarian leader is often viewed as a symbol of the State.
Some people use "fascist" to describe any authoritarian person or government. But as you can see, authoritarianism is only part of the philosophy. Communism under Stalin was an authoritarian political philosophy, too; but Fascism is directly opposed to Communism (along with democracy, liberalism, humanism and rationalism). Aside from the above principles, a Fascist state also typically promotes a private economy that submits to government regulation; immediate (and often violent) submission of any opposing views; the ethnic dominance of its own people and the lower status of outsiders.
While politicians and Conservative pundits seem more than willing to make a connection between a socio-political philosophy like fascism and a religion-based philosophy like Islamic fundamentalism, scholars are much less quick to cross that bridge. "Religious fascism," sometimes called "clerical fascism," has been a subject of debate since the latter term was coined to describe what some viewed as the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Mussolini regime. Some people saw the Church as a supporter of Fascism in Italy. Since religion can be so closely tied to ethnicity, many scholars have found philosophical similarities between political fascism and religious fundamentalism. On the other hand, the word is not exactly morally neutral in its contemporary usage. "Fascist" has become a common slur -- a blanket term used to mean "really bad guy." Making a connection between a particular religion and fascism can be a dangerous undertaking considering fascism's current connotation and the inherent difficulty in defining any singular fascist philosophy.
For more information on fascism and related topics, check out the following links:Star of third highest-grossing film of all time voices agreement with fans who felt Leonardo DiCaprio’s character died unnecessarily
Did Winslet want DiCaprio to die in Titanic? – the Dailies film podcast Read more
Avatar and then Star Wars: The Force Awakens ousted James Cameron’s 1997 weepie from the top of the all-time highest-grossing film charts. Yet the power of the film Titanic to inspire debate remains undimmed, nearly 20 years after its premiere.
In the final scenes of the film, lovers Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose (Kate Winslet) are parted forever when it becomes apparent there is only room for the latter on a floating door after the shipwreck. Rose remains afloat, and goes on to enjoy a long and happy life; Jack shivers to his death in the icy Atlantic.
Yet from first screenings, fans expressed scepticism about just how much of the raft Jack would have required, and conspiracy theories arose suggesting Rose may have hogged the space maliciously.
In 2012, a TV programme, Mythbusters, comprehensively proved that the couple could have both squeezed on, in a variety of configurations. Cameron protested that the question was also one of buoyancy. But the Mythbusters team countered that this could have been remedied by Rose placing her life-jacket beneath the raft.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest ‘I agree, I think he could have actually fitted on that bit of door’ … James Cameron with DiCaprio and Winslet on the set of the film. Photograph: Allstar/20 Century Fox/Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar
On Monday, Winslet finally weighed in with her take. “There was plenty of room on the raft,” said US chat show host Jimmy Kimmel, to which Winslet replied, “I know, I know.” She also said: “I agree, I think he could have actually fitted on that bit of door.”
Speaking to the Guardian’s Hadley Freeman in 2012, Cameron also cited another reason for Jack’s fate: dramatic expediency. “Wait a minute,” he said, “I’m going to call up William Shakespeare and ask why Romeo and Juliet had to die.”Lawmakers approved gay marriage Tuesday in a historic vote that saw supporters overcome cultural, racial and geographic divides and put Illinois in line with a growing number of states that have extended the right to wed to same-sex couples.
After more than a year of intense lobbying by both sides, gay lawmakers made emotional pleas to colleagues to give their families equal rights even as opponents argued that doing so would unravel the foundation of society.
"At the end of the day, what this bill is about is love, it's about family, it's about commitment," said sponsoring Rep. Greg Harris, clutching an American flag he said was sent by a supportive soldier stationed in Afghanistan.
"At the end of the day, this bill is about the vision that the founders of our country had and wrote into our Constitution, where they said America is a journey. … And we'll continue to walk down that road to make America a better place, to make ourselves a'more perfect union,' to ensure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity," the Chicago Democrat said.
Gov. Pat Quinn said he intends to sign the bill, which would take effect June 1. It's the Democratic governor's latest step in taking Illinois in a more liberal direction. Under Quinn in the past three years, Illinois has banned the death penalty, legalized medical marijuana, provided driver's licenses for undocumented immigrants and approved civil unions.
Resolving the gay marriage question also allows state leaders to get a divisive issue off their plates before next year's big statewide election, even as long-standing financial issues headlined by the state's $100 billion public worker pension shortfall remain unresolved.
Reaction rolled in from the White House to City Hall. President Barack Obama noted his relatively recent conversion last year to supporter of gay marriage.
"Michelle and I are overjoyed for all the committed couples in Illinois whose love will now be as legal as ours — and for their friends and family who have long wanted nothing more than to see their loved ones treated fairly and equally under the law," Obama said in a statement.
The vote Tuesday capped a year in which prospects for gay marriage often were dim. The proposal failed in a January lame-duck session, but the Illinois Senate provided new hope on Valentine's Day by passing the measure. There was no House vote at the end of spring session in late May, leaving both sides to spend the summer and fall lobbying lawmakers. The first week of veto session came and went without a vote last month, and with candidate filing for next year's election just weeks away, some expected no resolution until next year.
But the bill got 61 votes, one more than the minimum needed to send it back to the Senate for a final signoff later Tuesday.
Supporters said efforts to pick up votes were boosted by events that unfolded since May, the first being the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark ruling that struck down the definition of marriage as between a man and a woman for the purpose of receiving federal benefits.
While hailed as a major victory, the move created a situation in which gay couples living in states that recognize same-sex marriage have more rights than their counterparts in states that haven't legalized gay marriage. The two-class system was a clear narrative that advocates could use when lobbying lawmakers who were on the fence, contending it just didn't make sense for gay couples in Illinois to be denied access to benefits that were available to couples living just across the border in Iowa.
Advocates soon received additional help from Pope Francis, who warned that the Catholic Church could lose its way by focusing too much on social stances, including opposition to homosexuality.
"If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge him?" Francis said in July.
The comments sparked a wave of soul-searching by several Catholic lawmakers who had battled to reconcile their religious beliefs with their sworn duty to represent their constituents who were increasingly supportive of gay rights even as Cardinal Francis George remained opposed.
"As a Catholic follower of Jesus and the pope, Pope Francis, I am clear that our Catholic religious doctrine has at its core love, compassion and justice for all people," said Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia, a Democrat from Aurora who voted for the bill after spending much of the summer undecided.
House Speaker Michael Madigan also cited the pope's comments in explaining his support for the measure.
"For those that just happen to be gay — living in a very harmonious, productive relationship but illegal — who am I to judge that they should be illegal?" the speaker said.
Madigan had come under fire from some gay rights groups who argued that he wasn't doing enough to build support in the chamber he controls, but advocates say he was critical in rounding up the final needed votes in the last several weeks.
Later, Madigan acknowledged that he helped persuade "a significant number of people" to vote for the legislation. But always one to leave some mystery hanging, Madigan would not state how many or which lawmakers he brought across the finish line.
"It was over five," Madigan said, adding that it was not over 10.In February, the state’s Wolf Advisory Committee took a surprising stand against a controversial state program that compensates the owners of dogs killed by wolves while hunting other animals.
The committee, made up of Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources staff and representatives of stakeholder groups, voted 9-8 to recommend discontinuing these payments, which no other state provides.
In January, the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism reported that the payments, usually $2,500 per slain dog, have gone to hunting law violators, repeat claimants and residents of other states. A record $56,000 was paid out for 2013.
At the February meeting, committee member Al Lobner, president of the Wisconsin Bear Hunters Association, opposed ending the payments. Attendee Melanie Weberg, a semi-retired teacher, says Lobner warned the group, according to her notes, “This is not a threat; be careful of what you do or this could get ugly.” She considered it a threat.
At the committee’s next meeting, in late April, DNR administrator Kurt Thiede told members they should not be making recommendations that require statutory changes, like ending these payments.
Jodi Habush Sinykin, an attorney for a coalition of groups suing the state over the use of dogs to hunt wolves (also something no other state allows), suspects Lobner brought his concerns to DNR higher-ups, who then acted to rein the committee in.
Lobner declines comment on this scenario, except to say, “We get a lot of credit for a lot of things we don’t do.” Thiede says representatives of the Bear Hunters and others did contact him after the February meeting but that “none of these contacts led to the clarification that I provided.” The DNR, he adds, “will not be advocating for the statutory changes suggested by the wolf committee.”
Some critics of Wisconsin’s wolf management policies see this as a small example of the enormous clout of pro-hunting groups. They also feel the committee, despite its narrow vote against these payments to hunters, is heavily weighted in favor of pro-hunting interests. And they are upset that the DNR this year ended its practice of holding an open meeting to arrive at wolf population numbers.
Sinykin says these changes “fly in the face of Wisconsin’s conservation ethic” and contradict the wishes of the majority of state residents who prefer “non-lethal” nature activities, like hiking and photography.
These policies, Sinykin alleges, are driven by special interest money and influence: “Here in Wisconsin, when it comes to wolves, the extremist hound-hunting lobby has been getting what it paid for.”
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Three major wolf-hunt proponents — the Bear Hunters, state chapter of Safari Club International and United Sportsmen of Wisconsin — have collectively spent more than $400,000 on lobbying in the past 10 years.
And Bear Hunters and Safari Club members, records show, have given nearly $250,000 to state political campaigns since mid-2008. This includes $21,500 to Gov. Scott Walker, and $35,000 to current members of the legislative committees overseeing natural resources, including members of both parties.
On May 19, the Wolf Advisory Committee recommended a harvest quota of 156 wolves this fall, about 100 less than a year before. Lobner had asked for a harvest of 300 wolves, twice what was approved.
Milwaukee blogger James Rowen, a wolf hunt critic, was quick to the draw: “No doubt the bear hunters will bring pressure on the DNR to boost the kill.” Sinykin agrees, saying the public needs to protect DNR staff from “improper political pressure.”
According to DNR large carnivore specialist Dave MacFarland, the 156-wolf quota would continue to reduce the state’s wolf population, but at a slower rate than last year. The number is subject to further discussion and state Natural Resources Board approval.
Does MacFarland expect interest groups who want a higher kill number to exert pressure on the process? His answer: “I think, based on my experience with wolf management, that there’s going to be pressure on all sides.”You’ll never get anywhere sitting around being afraid.
You’ll never meet anyone or get that “in” that you need if you are sitting around being afraid.
If you wait until you are ready to get started… you’ll never start because you’ll never be ready.
Get your book together. Get your site finished. Shine your shoes. Brush your teeth. Pick up the phone. Get out on the streets and start showing your work. Phone calls. Emails. Meetings. It’s how you get yourself out there. Smile. Have a firm handshake. Look people in the eye when you talk to them.
Get the #$*% over yourself and your insecurities. Put your big person pants on. If you want this. If you really want this. If being a photographer is the thing that you want. That you need. That you have to have. Then show your effing work to people.
Go fail. Go get rejected. Go get some doors slammed in your face. Go have some awesome meetings that turn into nothing. Then shoot some new work. Then do it again. Then do it again. Then do it again. Then again. You’re going to keep doing this until one day you look back and realize…
“OMG. I’m doing it."
Stop being afraid or stop being a photographer. One or the other. You will deal with these insecurities for the rest of your life. Each level you want to reach will scare you. There are FAR better photographers ahead of you. There will always be better photographers ahead of you. And next to you. And behind you.
Keep your damn head down. Shoot new work always. Brush your teeth. Have a good handshake. Look ‘em in the eyes when you talk.
Seriously. It’s what you have to do.
"Inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work.” - Chuck Close
That’s the quote a lot say. Here’s full quote…
“I always thought that inspiration is for amateurs. The rest of us just show up and get to work. You sign onto a process and see where it takes you. You don’t have to invent the wheel every day. Today you’ll do what you did yesterday and tomorrow you’ll do what you did today. Eventually you’ll get somewhere. Every great idea I ever had grew out of work itself. If you’re going to wait a around for the clouds to open up and lightning to strike you in the brain you’re not going to make an awful lot of work.” - Chuck Close
This goes for your photography and your business and your life.
For everyone else listening. For those of you with photography in your heart and stars in your eyes. For everyone with a camera in your hand who is chasing this dream of becoming a pro. Of making it as a photographer….
You’re trudging along in the mud with the masses. All heading to the same place. All going in the same direction. You’ve been born out of the mud. You are going to find yourself at a precipice. You will find yourself staring into the void. Out in front of you will see people flying to the distant horizon. Beside you and behind you are the masses. You want to fly. You want to be one of those out there in front of you with no ground to stand on.
Know how they fly? They jumped. See all the bodies at the bottom of the canyon? They jumped too. Those bodies at the bottom aren’t dead though. They just didn’t fly the first time. Look closely. The strong ones are climbing back up to try again.
Maybe you hit the bottom. Maybe you learn how not to fly. Lick your wounds for a minute and get back up. Or don’t. Decide it’s too hard and go do something else with your life.
Or…
Jump.
Let’s see if you can fly.
Whatever you do… stop standing around the edge of the cliff.
Cheers,
Zack
——————————-
And…. scene.
This Q&A blog is now in retirement mode. I’m starting a new project. A new platform. A new station with some new signal. It’s called DEDPXL and it launches at the end of November (ummm) January 1st. Technique. Critique. Reviews. Q&A. Challenges. Culture. New Voices.
I want to thank all of you for your support with this Q&A project. I could not have done this without all of you sending in some amazing questions. Thank you for sharing your life with me. Thanks for letting me share mine with you.
This site will remain for some time to come but isn’t guaranteed to be up forever.
On to the next one.CLOSE Someone at Yahoo Finance tweeted out a story about Donald Trump, but made a very unfortunate typo. Keri Lumm (@thekerilumm) reports on this story that took a "bigger" turn than Yahoo Finance had planned. Buzz60
Yahoo Finance sent out this apology tweet after an unfortunate Thursday tweet. (Photo: USA TODAY screenshot)
WaPo Express' Thursday blunder, in which the newspaper used a male symbol to accompany a story on a women's march, has nothing on Yahoo Finance's unfortunate tweet later in the day.
The financial news website tweeted a story about President-elect Donald Trump's desire to build a much bigger Navy. But instead of starting bigger with a "B," the word started with its keyboard neighbor, "N." We won't type it out here, but you can spell.
The tweet was deleted, but screenshots were everywhere.
Yahoo Finance later tweeted an apology:
We deleted an earlier tweet due to a spelling error. We apologize for the mistake. — Yahoo Finance (@YahooFinance) January 6, 2017
But by using such a word, the tweet caught the attention of thousands who weren't willing to dismiss it as a typo or let it go unnoticed. Many didn't shy from offering their hot take. The headline even earned its own hashtag.
The 'B' on the keyboard of the Yahoo Finance headline writer: Just press me and hit send on this story.
The 'N' on the keyboard: pic.twitter.com/yYFnCJLtY1 — Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) January 6, 2017
WaPo Express: oh god, we had the worst typo ever
Yahoo Finance: hold my beer — Kelsey D. Atherton (@AthertonKD) January 6, 2017
Follow Sean Rossman on Twitter: @SeanRossman
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2i0ipNpSave Market Basket
by: Mr. Consumer
recipient: Arthur S. Demoulas, Gerry Levins, Keith Cowan, Nabil El-Hage, Ron Weiner
Market Basket Supermarkets is a locally grown, American success story. More for Your Dollar is more than just a slogan, it is a way of life for tens of thousands of loyal consumers in MA and NH. The company is on the verge of a major shakeup which will change the whole business model by raising prices so that shareholders may realize bigger gains...all at the expense of the employees and the consumers. They could proceed to sell the company and then we will all be getting Less for Our Dollar. The Board of Directors will be voting on Thursday, July 18 to fire the current CEO, Arthur T. Demoulas, who has shepherded the company through a wonderful period of growth. This man has always had the best interests of his employees at the forefront of all business decisions, often times at the expense of his own gains. Please sign this petition to help do what we can to Save Market Basket!
Thank you for signing. The meeting is tomorrow at 9, hopefully our voices will be heard! Thank you for signing. The meeting is tomorrow at 9, hopefully our voices will be heard!
read petition letter ▾ Dear Mr. Levins, Mr. El-Hage and Mr. Cowan.
We implore you to please consider all that Market Basket means to the people who shop there, work there and understand it to be more than just a business. For so many in the region it has been the place we can trust to help us save money as we feed our families. It has been run by a family who cares.
Please consider the ramifications to so many people if you vote to oust the current CEO, Arthur T. Demoulas. We will be the victims who lose the wonderful, independent business at which generations of our families have shopped and worked. Market Basket has always had our backs when it comes to prices and employment. Now we have theirs.
As independent board members, we urge you to take your vote seriously and search your conscience before you decide. So much more is at stake than simple control of the company.
Thank you for your considerationFree Day Funds Expiring! Remember, your Free Day funds are expiring at the end of this week! Favorited Favorite 0
Back in January, we had this little thing called Free Day. In case you missed all the hoopla, you can read the original announcement here and the recap here. Unlike last year, this version of Free Day had a quiz aspect to it and funds didn't have to be used on the day of the event. That's the good news. The bad news - Free Day funds expire this week! You have until March 13th to use your Free Day credit or it goes the way of the buffalo (meaning it expires).
So you might be wondering just how many SparkFunians have unused Free Day credit? Well, here are some numbers that might make your head spin. On Free Day, we gave out 5577 codes totaling $151,531. Thus far, 3407 of you (that's 61.09%) have used your codes, redeeming $105,365 (69.53% of the total funds) - nice! Unfortunately, that means there are 2170 of you (38.9% of the total) running around out there in magical internet land with unused Free Day funds. Those 2100+ codes account for $46,166 - that's a whole lotta cheddar!
The majority of these codes are worth more than twenty dollars and there are bunch of $60, $70, and even $100 credits that haven't been used. We really, really want you to use these funds to start up your next project, buy a cool new toy to tinker with, or even get a birthday present for your crazy old Uncle Eddy who would definitely appreciate a new compass module. So this is your last reminder - for those of you who haven't used your Free Day credit (you know who you are!), please use it by March 13th.Just minutes ago Microsoft announced how licensing will work with their next-gen console. After reading through their post on Xbox Wire, I wanted to examine every bit of that blog post and give my personal response to the policies. So, what does Microsoft have in store for us? Let’s dive into it!
Buy the way you want—disc or digital—on the same day: You’ll be able to buy disc-based games at traditional retailers or online through Xbox Live, on day of release. Discs will continue to be a great way to install your games quickly.
This is actually the smartest thing that Microsoft has done with Xbox One so far. We all figured it was coming, but you never know with Microsoft until they officially announce it. I am a big proponent on digital distribution, and offering every Xbox One game the ability to be downloaded from Xbox Live is a great step in the right direction. We’ve seen what happens with a platform switches to almost all digital with the PC.
Access your entire games library from any Xbox One—no discs required: After signing in and installing, you can play any of your games from any Xbox One because a digital copy of your game is stored on your console and in the cloud. So, for example, while you are logged in at your friend’s house, you can play your games.
Once again, a good move by Microsoft, but I want to know some more of the logistics. You will obviously have to download the game to your friend’s Xbox One when you are at his house, what happens when you leave? Does the Kinect at any person’s house recognize your face and will not authorize your friend to play the game while you’re not there? Or maybe if your friend is logged into your account (more on that later), maybe the two of can not play the same game at once? Will that game be forever installed on your friend’s hard drive, taking up space? I would like to know more of how this works.
Share access to your games with everyone inside your home: Your friends and family, your guests and acquaintances get unlimited access to all of your games. Anyone can play your games on your console–regardless of whether you are logged in or their relationship to you.
“Or their relationship to you?” What does that mean? Do all of your friends need to create an account to play on your Xbox One? Once again, does Kinect recognize family members? Will we need to show Kinect a driver’s license to play games?
Give your family access to your entire games library anytime, anywhere: Xbox One will enable new forms of access for families. Up to ten members of your family can log in and play from your shared games library on any Xbox One. Just like today, a family member can play your copy of Forza Motorsport at a friend’s house. Only now, they will see not just Forza, but all of your shared games. You can always play your games, and any one of your family members can be playing from your shared library at a given time.
So ten people will be able to use your Xbox Live account on any Xbox One. I am picturing a scenario of ten friends sharing one account and playing each others’ games. If that was the reasoning for this policy, good on you Microsoft. But I’m sure there will be many loopholes to jump through to get family access.
Trade-in and resell your disc-based games: Today, some gamers choose to sell their old disc-based games back for cash and credit. We designed Xbox One so game publishers can enable you to trade in your games at participating retailers. Microsoft does not charge a platform fee to retailers |
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Browse all other LEGO Technic sets here: LEGO Technic Sets15 December 2018 is the tenth anniversary of the Titanium Wars Mod. Congratulations! And... take new latest version of this Mod.
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Titanium Wars Mod for Dark Crusade ver. 1.00.33. All videos here!!! Videos about TWM-DC-campaign here.
NB!: Titanium Wars is very old well-known Mod for good experienced RTS-players and true W40k-lovers with real serious work over DoW-content. Do not search here the popular-casual-gameplay. Popular does not mean the best.
NB!: Also please read the rules of moderation of comments in the end of this page (press on "READ MORE").
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NB!: TWM-players created a community in Discord [click] for regular online gaming in the Titanium Wars Mod. JOIN TO IT! It will be interesting. From the activity of this gaming community will depend the further life of the Mod.
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Grumbling Orc Game Development,
Grumbling Orc Great Hall, December 2008 - January 2019.
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NB!: This Mod only for Dark Crusade ver.1.2 (not for Soulstorm)!!!
Soulstorm version see here.
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NB!: Before ask here on ModDB any question about the Mod,
read Titanium Wars FAQ here in forum section. Also look on Change log.
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Thread on Warforge forum - official forum of the Titanium Wars Mod.
Thread on Relicnews forum - old TWM-forum.
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Welcome to the World of epic wars on Titanium Wars Mod arena.
This is almost classic gameplay DoW Mod but with almost all GW units. If you was tired by "revolutionary revision of gameplay" mods you are welcome here. In this Mod you'll see very interesting dynamic extended gameplay with fully functional single campain, skirmish, and multiplayer. If you dream about epic Warhammer 40000 battles then this is your Mod. If you want to see all Warhammer 40000 units in one mod then this is your Mod. This Mod is a kind of a superstructure over original masterpiece from Relic and it isn't a radical revision of all gameplay ideas of DoW. Main motto of this Mod: "All Warhammer 40000 units must be in DoW!" See Mod's readme-files and visit the official forum of the Titanium Wars Mod on Warforge for more information. This is HUGE Mod. So much work was done and so much work awaits in future development!
Good luck in your epic battles in Warhammer 40000 Universe!!!
Features of this mod:
- Many-many new units and buildings. Extended tech tree.
- Many-many new abilities and upgrades.
- New Heroes and fully functional Heroes wargear.
- RPG elements from CutterShane's Heroes System. Experienced units after battles.
- Fully functional single campain, skirmish, and multiplayer.
- And finally Titans and Titan-like units!
Important remarks:
- Main goal of this Mod: all Games Workshop units in DoW game.
- This is high quality Mod. This Mod was made with Relic standard of quality (and even higher for some parts and aspects).
- This Mod was the first DoW mod when you can see Titans and Titan-like units in all game types (campaign, skirmish and multiplayer).
- This Mod changed mind of DoW Community about Titans in game (balance issue). Now we see many mods with Titans.
- A lot of work was made in this Mod framework on 3D-level and in OE-code for Relic and DoW Community models. Many units and buildings were reworked to more quality variants (behaviour especially). Titanium Wars stuff are used in many other mods now.
- This Mod is new view on DoW Dark Crusade campaign. You can see new quality of game in campaign (especially in strongholds with new scar-code scripts).
Installation instructions can be found in readme files (file setup(eng).txt in Mod's folder in archive file) and/or here on ModDB local forum.
Note about known software problem under Windows 7: Known problem with campaign playing. Old DoW engine is not truly compatible with Windows 7. (Maybe Windows Vista and Windows 8 too. No any problems under Windows XP 32bit.) The problem is only in the end of some Strongholds in campaign. Sometimes DoW game crash after playing outro before end-mission-screen. This is software problem. Methods of solution are described in Titanium Wars FAQ item 2.11. Please read and use one of these methods.
I WISH TO EXPRESS MANY THANKS TO:
- Games Workshop for creation our beloved Game Universe and serious support to Warhammer 40000 fans for many-many years.
- Relic as best game developers team in all Our World.
- Corsix's Mod Studio and its creator.
- Dawn of War Texture Tool and its creators.
- Brother Santos as creator Santos' Tools for 3Dsmax 2008.
- Annihilation, TTRU (especially), Firestorm (especially), DoW Pro, Steel Legion, and Craftworld creators. Without those mods, I would never find so many ready-made models and its corresponding elements (textures, icons, sounds) necessary for basic idea of this Mod. All permissions for using models were received from corresponding team leaders.
- Enthusiast-creators of new models, textures and FXs for DoW. This Mod was never created without good hard work of modelers and artists from International DoW Community. They created many beautiful good functional models for DoW Mods. Take my hot gratitude guys...
- Special thanks to Winterdyne as author of Warhound Titan model.
- Special thanks to Catwell as author of models: Great Unclean Ones, Keeper of Secrets, and special Greater Daemon (used in TWM as Worlds Crusher, independent Greater Daemon of Chaos).
- Special thanks to Maestrorobertus as author of Stompa model.
- Special thanks to BoyChaos as author of Annihilation Barge, Doomsday Ark, and Ghost Ark models.
- Heroes System. Original Heroes idea and implementation by CutterShane 2006. Heroes Special rework by Arkhan 2007. Big thanks for their work.
- AI programmers from Dawn Of Skirmish Mod Team.
- Special thanks to Thudmeizer for his directions to some existing DoW models which were unknowing for me. (Needs list was partially satisfied.)
- Eugene Roshal for his great multi-functional file-manager Far.
- My best friend Vadim Nikitin for support.
- Alexei Yudichev, Evgeny Nikiforov, and Irina Fridman for their help with editing of English variant of readme-file.
- And you for reading this text and your interest for Titanium Wars.
Also great thanks to our donators. Look on file "Donations.txt" in the Mod's folder or follow to this link to make donations. List of TWM-donators can be seen there. Donations remind modders that modders have to work. :)
Sincerely yours,
Grumbling Orc.
Grumbling Orc Great Hall, November 2009.
-!!! - Please read the text below before write here anything. -!!! -
The rules of moderation of comments.
- Abusive, disrespectful and rude behavior is prohibited.
- Stupid questions are prohibited too. Please think before you'll speak and write.
- If you are not able to download files from ModDB, do not ask me about it in comments. Ask ModDB admins about it. Or use alternative download links on Warforge.
- Read Titanium Wars FAQ. Do not ask questions from the FAQ.
- Do not promote other mods (in any form). Also do not make any other offtopic.
- Do not ask huge questions about TWM in comments. Please go to the forums for that.
- Do not ask technical questions here. Please read Titanium Wars FAQ first. Go to the forums if you do not find the answer to your question.
- Do not use public comments as PM to me. Use true PM for private communication.
Comments (which do not comply with these rules) will be deleted. Please do not spam here. If your comment was deleted, it means that it does not conform to the rules. Just stop posting here. Go to the forums if you are needed the answer to your questions and/or discussions...1 of 1 2 of 1
People who use medical marijuana have seen a lot of changes in the way they access pot lately. New research out of UBC is examining how regulations and red tape are affecting patients who have come to rely on the plant’s therapeutic benefits.
Up until about this time last year, the federal Marihuana Medical Access Regulations allowed licence holders to grow pot themselves or find designated growers. The new Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations, which require patients to buy from commercially licensed producers, have been held up by a court injunction, leaving the old program in place for patients who were already enrolled. That means some people are getting their pot legally and some aren’t.
The UBC study, designed to look at the early impact of the new regulations on patient access to medical cannabis, involved a survey of about 450 patients across the country and interviews with about 30.
“The study is patient-centred, looking at their experiences with access to medical cannabis under the current situation,” PhD student Rielle Capler tells the Georgia Straight by phone. “Originally, it was anticipated there would be a gradual and definite change in regulations, and, as it turned out, there was a court injunction…which led to an overlap of different regulations. So we’re looking at a snapshot of that: what the experience of access is like under either of the legal frameworks.”
“This is patients’ input into the evaluation of these programs,” adds Capler, who is conducting the Cannabis Access Regulations Study with UBC nursing professor Lynda Balneaves. “It can give valuable information to policymakers, as well as to health-care practitioners and to providers of the service so they can be responsive to the needs of patients.”
The researchers set out to answer several questions, Capler says, including: What kind of changes related to access have patients seen? Who is getting access through legal programs and who isn’t, and why? Are services offered under legal programs meeting patients’ needs? Are they able to access medical marijuana in a timely manner?
Then there’s the subject of “reasonable access”.
“The goal of the regulation is to provide reasonable access to those in medical need,” Capler says. “What does ‘reasonable access’ mean for them [patients]? It’s something that hasn’t been defined.…Has that been achieved…and for whom?”
Capler says results from the study will be released later this year. However, cost has already been identified as one barrier to access. Growing their own pot means patients can spend as little as $2 a gram. Under the new regulations, that could be $10 per gram or higher, depending on the producer.
“Are patients able to afford the medicine from different sources? How do they feel about the quality and nature of services of different sources?” Capler asks. “Ideally, people wouldn’t have to go outside the law to get their needs met.…Maybe this information will support that goal.”India did not join China in blocking sanctions against Burma as we said in a front-page headline in some editions yesterday (As Burmese troops open fire at monks, China and India block global sanctions). The article made clear that Russia and China rejected sanctions at a meeting of the UN security council.
About 60bn barrels of oil are estimated to be lying under the seabed around the Falkland Islands, not 60m, as we said in an article, The new British empire? UK plans to annex south Atlantic, page 1, September 22.
We misspelled the word misspelled twice, as mispelled, in the Corrections and clarifications column on September 26, page 30.
A letter to the editor that appeared under the headline Temperature rises in Bournemouth, page 37, yesterday, referred to the extinction of 20-30 species as a result of a two-degree rise in temperature. The extinction of 20-30% of all species was meant.
It is not correct to say that the idea of Mary's assumption into heaven was not coined until the 1950s (Not much for the secularists to sing about, page 6, Education, September 18). The assumption was not proclaimed as a dogma of the Catholic church until 1950, but the idea goes back to at least the 5th century.
A grand prix circuit map labelled Spa-Francorchamps that accompanied a guide to the remaining races, page 6, Sport, September 15 was actually of the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne, Australia. The circuit details underneath were for Spa-Francorchamps.
· It is the policy of the Guardian to correct significant errors as soon as possible. Please quote the date and page number. Readers may contact the office of the readers' editor by telephoning +44 (0)20 7713 4736 between 11am and 5pm UK time Monday to Friday excluding public holidays. Send mail to The Readers' Editor, 119 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3ER. Fax +44 (0)20 7239 9997. Email: reader@theguardian.com
The Guardian's editorial code incorporates the editors' code overseen by the Press Complaints Commission: see pcc.org.ukClose
Google executive Alan Eustace has taken a dive, one that set a record for the world's highest parachute jump, breaking the former record set by Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner.
Eustace, 57, a senior vice president at the Internet search company, was lifted beneath a giant helium balloon to an altitude of 135,890 feet over New Mexico.
At that altitude, a tiny explosive device cut him loose from the balloon, beginning his free-fall plummet to Earth during which he hit speeds of 822 mph, breaking the sound barrier.
Protected from the near-vacuum at almost 25 miles over the Earth by a specially designed space suit, Eustace fell toward the ground for 4 minutes and 27 seconds before deploying his parachute.
His parachute brought him to a soft ground landing just 15 minutes after he detached from the balloon at a spot 70 miles from his launch site.
His jump beat Baumgartner's record jump of 128,100 feet by almost a mile and a half.
His ascent to the jump altitude from the lift-off point in Roswell, New Mexico, on Oct. 24 took a little over two hours. 24.
Unlike Baumgartner's jump two years ago, which was sponsored by Red Bull, Eustace's project was conducted largely in secret, aided by a small group of engineers and specialists designing his suit and the other equipment used in the effort.
A company called Paragon Space Development Corp., which designs and manufactures life-support devices and equipment, coordinated the logistical and technical research.
The jump had been three years in the planning. Eustace said he declined help offered by Google, where he is vice president of search, because he didn't want his project to become a public relations event.
James Hayhurst of the United States Parachute Association, which verified the record, characterized the jump as "legitimate science."
Paragon President Grant Anderson said the technology developed in the course of the project could some day help people journey to and safely return from the upper atmosphere.
"So much of what we did was new, from the tech that helped keep the suit cool, to the communications we used to stay in contact, to the balloon system for releasing him," Anderson said.
Eustace, an accomplished pilot and parachutist, has a reputation in Silicon Valley as a thrill-seeker, although he described himself as first and foremost an engineer.
Still, he was understandably elated by his record-breaking adventure.
"It was amazing," he said of his jump. "It was a wild, wild ride. I hugged on to the equipment module and tucked my legs and I held my heading."
ⓒ 2018 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.SEATTLE — A 27-year-old woman who was stalked and sexually assaulted in Belltown talked Wednesday about the attack, saying her assailant was “totally in predatory mode” and she punched and scratched at his face to drive him away.
“Just being here is stressful,” the victim said in an interview with Q13 FOX News near the scene of the attack. “It’s daytime and there are people — but it’s still hard.”
She said it was around 1 a.m. on Jan. 18 when she was walking from lower Queen Anne to her apartment in Belltown. She noticed a man following her.
“When I was walking down the sidewalk, I just felt someone behind me so I crossed the street to try to get away,” she said.
Surveillance video shows the victim walking, and then a man approaching behind her. She says she tried to turn up a street to get to a busier area, but ran into a trap when the man met up with her near a crosswalk.
“When I went to walk past him, he grabbed me by my shoulders,” she said. “That look in his eye, he was totally in predatory mode.”
At that point, police said, the man tried to drag her into a nearby parking lot. But she fought back.
“My main mission was to stay up on my feet. All I could do is go for his face, so I was just punching, scratching and, at some point, my hand got up his nose and I was twisting. I was in full defense mode,” she said..
At that point, she said, she tried to pull him into the street as she saw headlights. That’s when her attacker took off.
“She did everything” right, said Myrle Carner, a retired Seattle police detective now with Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound. “She was aware of her surroundings and put up a good fight. She stuck to busy traffic streets. This guy had intentions of assaulting someone that night and she just happened to be the person he picked.”.
Joanne Factor, who teaches self-defense, said she is impressed with how this woman handled herself.
“The more women who know about this stuff and have the skills, the safer our communities will be,” said Factor.
Until the attacker is caught, the victim said, she is worried he could hurt someone else.
“The whole reason I’m doing this is to give women the heads-up he’s still out there. The fact he was as comfortable as he was doing what he did, I guarantee you I wasn’t the first person and I’m not going to be the last,” she said.
The suspect is described as a Hispanic man in his mid-20s to early 30s with a stocky build. At the time, he was wearing a dark hooded jacket and long tan shorts.
If you have any information, call Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound at 1-800-222-TIPS. You could receive up to a $1,000 reward.Ubisoft has taken the lid off Child of Light, a small Ubisoft Montreal project led by Far Cry 3’s creative director Patrick Plourde. Get the first details after the break.
Plourde discussed the project this morning at GDC Europe. Child of Light will be a side-scrolling “fairytale game”, created as a deliberate “counterpoint” to Far Cry 3. It aims to capture the “Squaresoft spirit” of PS1 JRPG classics such as the Final Fantasy series and Vagrant Story.
No one has actually seen the project yet. Inspiration for the game’s art and music includes Studio Ghibli legend Hayao Miyazaki and Japanese artist Yoshitaka Amano, as well as Disney’s Snow White. Plourde described Child of Light as a cross between haunting side-scroller Limbo and classic 16-bit RPG Final Fantasy 6.
We expect more details to emerge during Gamescom, which takes place in Germany throughout the week.
UPDATE: Plourde has shown off a first sample of Child of Light artwork. Apparently this represents how it will look in-game:
IGN’s Andrew Goldfarb has managed to nab some footage of the game. Check out his Vine video below:
Many thanks, VideoGamer.Green Day’s only time performing on the stages of Warped Tour took place during the summer of 2000. While the band didn’t perform the entire tour due to show commitments overseas, they spent over a month at punk-rock summer camp.
Watch: Rare Blink-182 set from Warped Tour 1996 surfaces
In light of yet another Warped Tour taking place in 2016, let’s take a look back at this classic video of Green Day closing out their set in Montreal, 16 years ago. Tre Cool trashes his drum set and lights it on fire, Mike Dirnt violently jabs the headstock of his bass into their backline and Billie Joe offers a fan-fueled performance of “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life).” (Spoiler alert: This is quite possibly the most punk thing you will ever see—prepare yourself.)
Watch more:KENA BETANCUR via Getty Images Robert. C. 'Bud' McFarlane, Michael Flynn and KT McFarland walk in the lobby at Trump Tower in New York on Dec. 5, 2016.
A senior official on President Donald Trump’s transition team suggested that Russia had “thrown” the U.S. presidential election in Trump’s favor in a December 2016 email thread leaked to the New York Times and published Saturday.
The emails contradict White House lawyer Ty Cobb’s claims that Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, acted independently when he reached out to Russian officials during Trump’s transition to presidency.
Hours after the Obama administration imposed sanctions against Russia for its meddling in the 2016 presidential election, Trump’s former Deputy National Security Adviser KT McFarland suggested that the transition team would need to strengthen its relationship with Russia, according to email exchanges obtained by or described by unnamed sources to the Times.
The sanctions, McFarland noted in the email, appeared to be the outgoing administration’s attempt to discredit Trump’s victory in the election and would make it more difficult for the incoming president to improve the U.S.’s relationship with Russia.
“If there is a tit-for-tat escalation Trump will have difficulty improving relations with Russia, which has just thrown the U.S.A. election to him,” McFarland wrote, according to the Times.
“If there is a tit-for-tat escalation Trump will have difficulty improving relations with Russia, which has just thrown the U.S.A. election to him.” An excerpt from McFarland's email, according to the Times.
As Times reporter Michael S. Schmidt noted in the story and later on Twitter, it’s not clear if McFarland believed that Russia threw the election in Trump’s favor, but a White House lawyer told the paper on Friday that she was only saying Democrats were trying to make it appear that way.
.@McFaul See attached. As we said in the story, it’s no clear that she is saying she believed that election had been thrown. And WH lawyer in story said she was referring to how Dems portrayed it. pic.twitter.com/cjXNpCKIJO — Michael S. Schmidt (@nytmike) December 2, 2017
The leaked emails show how Trump’s transition team worked to ease relations with Russia after former President Barack Obama attempted to punish the country for reportedly interfering in the U.S. election.
These efforts would include Flynn reaching out to Russian ambassador Sergey I. Kislyak to discuss the sanctions hours after they were placed, McFarland wrote in an email, according to the Times. Flynn later resigned from his post in February following revelations that he lied about his conversations with the Russian ambassador.
On Friday, Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian government, including his conversation with Kislyak about the sanctions. After news of Flynn’s guilty plea spread, Trump tweeted that he had to fire Flynn because he knew Flynn lied to Vice President Michael Pence and the FBI.
I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI. He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 2, 2017
On the same day Flynn pleaded guilty, the Associated Press identified McFarland as the unnamed senior official in court papers who is said to have talked to Flynn about what he would say to Russian officials during a discussion on the Obama administration’s sanctions.
Trump has called for friendlier relations with Russia and continuously denies claims that his election campaign colluded with Russia during last year’s presidential election.
Cobbs responded to Flynn’s guilty plea by saying it implicates no one other than Flynn himself.Conservative economy spokesman Dean Lockhart holds up a Brexit document during a debate to keep Scotland in the European single market at the Scottish parliament in January this year in Edinburgh, Scotland | Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images Support for Scottish independence spikes as May braces for second referendum Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has repeatedly threatened to go back to the polls if Brexit deal doesn’t look after her country’s interests.
British Prime Minister Theresa May believes Scotland is weeks away from demanding a second independence referendum, local media reported.
The British leader is coordinating with Conservatives in Scotland to hold talks with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon's Scottish National Party government in anticipation of the move, according to the Courier.
Downing Street was laying the groundwork for talks to make sure "we are calm and collected ahead of negotiations," the Courier quoted a Scottish Conservative Party source as saying.
The Scottish first minister is at odds with May over the government’s "hard Brexit" strategy, which includes limiting immigration and leaving the single market, and has repeatedly threatened to call a second vote on Scotland’s independence from the U.K. if she doesn’t think Scottish interests are being represented by Westminster.
Support for Scottish independence has grown since May's Lancaster House speech and confirmation of the U.K.'s exit from the single market last month.
A total of 49 percent of Scots support independence, according to a BMG survey for The Herald, with 51 percent backing staying in the U.K. (undecided respondents were removed from the calculation). Most Scots opposed holding a new vote before the U.K. formally leaves the EU, the poll found.
“I’ll do what needs to be done to protect Scotland’s position," Sturgeon said late last month. "We are running out of time for this process. It can’t go on indefinitely and it won’t go on indefinitely.”
May has made it clear the devolved administrations will not get a decisive role in the U.K.’s divorce talks with the EU and won’t have a veto if they don’t like the deal she strikes. On Wednesday, she also pushed through a measure to ensure the U.K.'s EU exit deal is done on a "take it or leave it" basis.Dale Coyne Racing’s Bourdais set his time early on, before rain storms disrupted the running, his best effort a 233.116mph lap on his 11th tour of the session. He was 0.1637s faster than Andretti’s Ryan Hunter-Reay and his teammate Takuma Sato.
Hunter-Reay set the fastest lap without the aid of a draft, a 231.273mph.
McLaren Andretti Autosport’s Fernando Alonso jumped to fourth, two tenths off Bourdais, with 50 minutes to go, with a lap speed of 231.827mph. In fact he set a very impressive four-lap qualifying sim with all four laps over 231mph, and his no-tow lap speed was fifth best.
The fastest Chevrolet driver was Penske’s Juan Pablo Montoya, with fifth fastest on 231.682mph, and the highest no-tow speed for a Chevy driver came from his teammate, Will Power. It was a 230.730mph, around 1.5mph off Hunter-Reay's best, and seventh in the no-tow speeds.
Spencer Pigot suffered the first heavy crash of the day, slamming into the wall on the exit of Turn 2 in his Juncos Racing-run Chevrolet. He was unhurt, but seemed bewildered as to the cause of the crash.
Zach Veach also crashed late in the day, impacting the wall twice at Turns 1 and 2 in his AJ Foyt Chevrolet. He too was unharmed.
The 33rd and final entrant, Buddy Lazier, who turned an installation lap yesterday, got 30 laps under his wheels today. The 1996 Indy 500 winner was slowest on 219.640mph, achieved without a tow.
Over 2hrs30mins of today's scheduled six-hour practice was lost to rain.Fort Wayne, Indiana, is a city that prides itself on its industrial history. It’s the birthplace of magnet wire, a type of coiled copper or aluminum that became a major player in the development of modern-day electronics.
So it’s no surprise General Electric established a factory in this part of Indiana in 1911. There were over 10,000 workers in that factory alone, making it an important landmark for the Fort Wayne community ― and leaving some residents now less than excited it’s going to be redeveloped.
With the fall of the industrial age, the campus has been vacant for years. Greater Fort Wayne Inc., which operates as the chamber of commerce and economic development organization for Fort Wayne and Allen County, has a plan to bring the deserted factory back to life with the help of two consulting groups.
The project will transform the vacant 1.2 million square feet of land into a mixed-use “innovation district” that will include high-rise apartments, restaurants, office spaces and more. The first phase of the estimated $220 million project is projected to be complete in 2020, with the second half of construction wrapping up a few years after that, said Kevin Erb, who works in communications for an advertising company representing the project.
“A revitalized Electric Works campus will energize our economy, create jobs, and inspire many generations to use their creative talents to improve the lives of others,” said Eric Doden, CEO of Greater Fort Wayne Inc.
HuffPost got to tour the abandoned space before its transformation begins. Check out the spooky photos below, including a full-size basketball court and a bowling alley that was once used for GE employees.If you’re a fellow person of color reading this, have you ever noticed a racial paradox in the classroom? Virtually any person of color in higher education will tell you that college classes, especially at the elite level, tend to be very white. There’s nothing wrong with that in itself. However, when you get a group of white people into one elite space, wonky things begin to happen.
First, many people of color (myself included) at least initially experience a sort of anxiety when entering those spaces. Here we are, coming into a room of entitled white folks who seem to have no problem talking. And many of us think—do I have anything to add? am I smart enough? do I belong at this elite institution? (The answer, by the way, is yes, you do.) There are so many white people. For those of us in the visible minority, that alone can be intimidating.
As a senior now in undergraduate, a nugget of wisdom I’ve picked up along the way is that entitled white folks like to hear themselves talk. Perhaps it’s because they want a good participation grade, but don’t we all want to receive a good participation grade? I think there’s something a little more than that underneath the surface. Those white people feel entitled to their opinions as well as their ability to express their opinions through their freedom of speech. Have you ever heard the sentence, “Everyone is entitled to their own opinion” and the simple rebuttal, “Freedom of speech” in an argument? I’ve heard them countless times in discussions-gone-hostile with white men. This is the manifestation of white male entitlement. White folks can tell us all they want that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and that the First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech, but I very well know that those rebuttals are lodged against radical thinkers of color who call out the oppression underlying white people’s statements. When it comes to people of color, we may be entitled to our opinions, but we are not entitled to vocalize them because someone else’s voice will be privileged above ours.
For that reason, I’ve never understood the stereotype that Black people are loud and obnoxious. Most of the most obnoxious and loud people I’ve met are white. Just the other day, I sat next to a group of white people who were talking over my conversations with my friends, and that’s when I decided to eavesdrop. To my amazement, I could understand every single word being uttered by these white men, but I couldn’t understand what any of it meant. It sounded like gibberish. The conversation was pointless. None of it meant anything. It was the epitome of white people talking endlessly in order to hear themselves speak. (If someone can please explain this facet of white culture to me, I’d be interested to learn where this egotism stems from.)Sony will be running a “Golden Week Sale” celebrating Japanese games beginning this Tuesday, according to the PlayStation Blog.
Running tomorrow through May 5th, you can score up to 50% off select titles, with up to 75% off for PlayStation Plus members.
We’ve included the pricing below and apologize to your wallets in advance.
Title PS Plus Sale Price Sale Price Original Price Armored Core: Verdict Day (PS3) $5.00 $9.99 $19.99 Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk (PS3) $24.49 $34.99 $49.99 Atelier Meruru Plus: The Apprentice of Arland (PS Vita) $19.59 $27.99 $39.99 Atelier Totori Plus: The Adventurer of Arland (PS Vita) $19.59 $27.99 $39.99 Chrono Cross (PS3/PSP/PS Vita) $3.49 $4.99 $9.99 Chrono Trigger (PS3/PSP/PS Vita) $3.49 $4.99 $9.99 Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (PS Vita) $32.39 $35.99 $39.99 Devil May Cry HD Collection (PS3) $8.99 $14.99 $29.99 Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z (PS3) $15.00 $29.99 $59.99 Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Z (PS Vita) $10.00 $19.99 $39.99 Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational (PS3) $5.00 $9.99 $19.99 Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory (PS3) $14.69 $20.99 $29.99 Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (PS3) $14.99 $24.99 $49.99 Metal Gear Solid HD Collection (PS3) $11.99 $19.99 $39.99 Metal Gear Solid: HD Collection (PS Vita) $8.99 $14.99 $29.99 Muramasa Rebirth (PS Vita) $7.49 $12.49 $24.99 Persona 4 Golden (PS Vita) $14.62 $19.49 $29.99 rain (PS3) $3.75 $7.49 $14.99 Saint Seiya: Brave Soldiers (PS3) $15.00 $29.99 $59.99 SoulCalibur V (PS3) $5.00 $9.99 $19.99 Tales of Symphonia Chronicles (PS3) $10.00 $19.99 $39.99 Time and Eternity (PS3) $9.79 $13.99 $19.99 Ys: Memories of Celceta (PS Vita) $19.59 $27.99 $39.99 Zone of the Enders HD Collection (PS3) $10.49 $17.49 $34.99
I highly recommend picking up the incredible Ys: Memories of Celceta (reviewed), Persona 4 Golden, and Muramasa Rebirth if you’re a Vita owner. All three games are some of the best you’ll find on any handheld right now.
As for me? I’ll probably nab Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross. At $3.49 a pop, you just can’t go wrong.
Via: PlayStation BlogMore than paid for itself. Highly recommended!
I purchased two of these about a year ago. About a year ago we had several bad storms here in Kansas that took out two of my computers and several peripherals. I replaced them; then about a month later it happened again! (Yes, some of us are stubborn, and need to see it happen more than once!). So, I then figured that buying two of these would actually save me money. And, after replacing the computers, etc. AGAIN, I hooked them up to these UPS's. And, wouldn't you figure, after I did that, we had no more problems. That is until recently! We recently had some more typical Kansas springtime storms, and, even though the power did not go out, these also protect from line surges, etc., and this is what they did--they saved my stuff this time! Yea! Lightning spiked the power and these protected my equipment. The included software shows me that I had a high-power surge that lasted for about 1 second. Great item!!on •
LEXIE CANNES STATE OF TRANS — All trans youth Gavin Grimm wants to do is pee in peace at his school in Gloucester County, Virginia. But peeing has resulted in an outpouring of hate from almost his entire community. If that wasn’t enough, Maine Gov. Paul LePage and North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, have crossed state lines and joined a legal maneuver to permanently crush Grimm’s access to the boys’ bathroom.
Grimm’s school district’s trans “bathroom ban” has made its way all the way to federal court, and the two governors along with the Attorney Generals of South Carolina, West Virginia, Arizona, and Mississippi, are making a case for keeping the ban in place.
Maine Gov. Paul LePage was singled out in an editorial in the Portland (Maine) Press Herald for getting involved in the Virginia case:
“There is no reason for LePage to be involved in this case, and his position goes against rulings by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court [trans youth case of Nicole Maines] and the will of state voters, who in 2005 outlawed discrimination on the basis of gender identity.
What’s |
to bring all the troops home.Tasmanian woman Leanne Rowe wakes from car crash with rare Foreign Accent Syndrome
Updated
A Tasmanian woman who sustained a head injury that left her speaking with what sounds like a French accent says the rare condition has left her feeling anxious and depressed.
Eight years ago Leanne Rowe woke up in Melbourne's Austin Hospital with a broken back and jaw after being involved in a serious car accident.
"Slowly, as my jaw started to heal, they said that I was slurring my words because I was on very powerful tablets," she told the ABC.
The slurring turned into what sounded like a French accent, which she has spoken with ever since.
Family doctor Robert Newton believes Ms Rowe has the extremely rare Foreign Accent Syndrome.
Ms Rowe says she is slowly coming to terms with what will more than likely be a life-long condition.
She hopes that will help her overcome the anxiety and depression that have developed along with the accent.
Key points Eight years ago Leanne Rowe sustained a broken back and jaw after being involved in a serious car accident
When she began speaking her accent had changed and sounded similar to that of a French person
In the past 70 years there have been 62 cases of Foreign Accent Syndrome recorded worldwide, including two Australians
Ms Rowe says she has developed anxiety and depression since the accident and her daughter speaks for her in public
University of Sydney's Karen Croot she says the syndrome develops when tissue in the speech area of the brain is damaged
A bus driver and keen member of the Army Reserves before the car crash, Ms Rowe now describes herself as a recluse.
"It makes me so angry because I am Australian," she said.
"I am not French, [though] I do not have anything against the French people."
Ms Rowe's daughter, Kate Mundy, says she was so relieved her mother survived the accident, at first she did not pay much attention to the change in her accent.
But Ms Mundy says the syndrome has had a profound impact and she now does most of the talking for her mother in public.
"I guess we made a bit of fun of it as well, but in hindsight, it's been really hard for her," she said.
"It has affected her life greatly. People see the funny side of it, and think its really interesting, I mean, it is interesting but I've seen the impacts on mum's life."
Experts baffled by the rare condition
Dr Newton says in the last 70 years there have been 62 cases recorded worldwide.
He says Ms Rowe is one of two Australians with the syndrome.
"She had a normal, if you like, Australian accent for the whole time I knew her before that," he said.
"She'd done French at school but she'd never been to France, didn't have any French friends at all.
"She turned up after having a nasty head injury eight years ago speaking with a French accent I couldn't believe my ears."
The University of Sydney's Karen Croot is one of the few to have researched Foreign Accent Syndrome.
She says it occurs when tissue in the speech area of the brain is damaged.
She says it is not actually a French accent, it just sounds like it to the listener.
"It's just an accident of chance that happens to that person that what happens to their speech happens to overlap with the features of a known accent," she says.
Topics: health, road, accidents, disasters-and-accidents, diseases-and-disorders, tas, australia
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[UPDATE: This story is being updated regularly with information from the US military. Please check for new updates at the end of the story.]
Two young Marines are sitting in a military brig this morning, accused of beating a gay man in Savannah, Georgia, so badly he had a bruised brain and two seizures. And while details on the case are just emerging, it has huge implications for the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” as well as the justice system in Georgia, which lacks hate-crime laws and charged the men with a simple misdemeanor.
The service members, Keil Joseph Cronauer and Charles Stanzel, were barhopping in Savannah, just over the border from the base where they’re stationed, Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, South Carolina (of The Great Santini fame.) According to the Savannah Morning News, one of the Marines grew convinced that 26-year-old Kieran Daly, who came out six months ago, winked at him.
In police parlance, an altercation ensued. Daly was punched in the back of the head so hard, he had to be taken to the hospital.
The Marines, who were caught on foot after fleeing the scene, say they were “being harassed by a gay man and wanted to get away from him,” but eyewitnesses and Daly himself disputed that account:
“The guy thought I was winking at him,” Daly said. “I told him, ‘I was squinting, man. … I’m tired.'” Daly said one of the men told him he demanded respect because he served in Iraq. And at least one hurled slurs at him as he tried to walk away. “That’s the last thing I remember is walking away,” Daly said.
Obviously, an investigation is ongoing, and no one’s guilty yet. But if service members on liberty can’t hold their liquor or their emotions—and regardless of what happened, that much seems clear here—there’s a long way to go before the military will be able to successfully integrate gays and lesbians in the military ranks.
Worse still is the fact that, since Georgia doesn’t recognize hate crimes under state law, Savannah authorities had to charge the two men with simple misdemeanor battery. “It leaves me wondering why Georgia is one of five states that doesn’t have a hate crime law on the state level,” Daly told the Morning News from his hospital bed. The Marines have since been transferred to military custody on their base.
In a perfect world, the Marines—who don’t suffer misconduct lightly—would prosecute Cronauer and Stanzel to the fullest. As riflemen trained in hand-to-hand combat, an Article 32 investigation for assault with a deadly weapon (namely, their hands) wouldn’t be out of order here. But in a military where a sexually abusive doctor with repeat offenses gets a week in the brig, what the Marine JAGs will do here is anyone’s guess.
[UPDATE: Gunnery Sgt. Chad McMeen, the public affairs officer for Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, tells me that Lance Cpl. Stanzel and Cpl. Cronauer are “in an on-base restriction status” pending the outcome of multiple investigations: a military one, a Chatham County, Georgia, one, and “possibly an FBI investigation.” While McMeen could not confirm the latter, FBI involvement would likely indicate that the Marines’ behavior is being examined for evidence of federal hate crimes. “Both squadrons (to which the Marines are assigned) are conducting an investigation,” McMeen says. No telling how long the investigations will take, but “a lot of it hinges on Chatham County,” he says, adding that until the inquiries are closed, Stanzel and Cronauer will remain on “barracks restrictions.” A comment from the Marines’ air wing commander is expected to follow shortly. MoJo will keep you posted.]The Caravan of Money
Adults were hauled folding chairs and picnic coolboxes, children carried hats, bags and small packets of sweets. They were moving in the opposite direction to me and this was worrying. I’d planned on watching the Tour de France and many were leaving. Surely I of all people hadn’t got the time wrong? Perhaps the racing was so furious it was over an hour ahead of schedule? No, the exodus turned out to be people going home after the Tour de France’s publicity caravan had been through, they’d got their loot of freebies and didn’t want to stay for the race.
Here’s a look at the business of the Tour de France’s publicity caravan, the show you never see on TV but an astonishing marketing success.
The Tour de France’s publicity caravan precedes the race and is the show you don’t see on TV. It began in 1930 when Tour organiser Henri Desgrange found trade teams plotting – plus ça change – and decided to call their bluff and invite national teams to participate instead, using bicycles provided by the race. Only this meant an extra cost and he came up with the caravan, letting companies drive vehicles ahead of the race with branded vehicles equipped with loudhailers to broadcast slogans to the attendant crowds. Today it sees elaborately designed vehicles and millions of goodies are given away during July.
Sausage fest: saucisson manufacturer Cochonou will throw 460,000 taster packets – one for every seven metres of the entire route – into the crowds from its seven Citroen 2CV cars, it screams French rustic charm only the parent company is Shuanghui of Luohe, China. A first for this year is an electric vehicle being Fruit Shoot, a brand of British firm Britvic. In total 14 million objects get chucked at the crowds
It’s an absurd experience, as if Times Square or Shinjoku was being wheeled through rural France. This is blatant marketing on a very unsophisticated level yet the crowds love it, it’s dynamic, noisy and at times raucous. The French rugby team could talent scout as people dive into ditches and elbow each other out of the way just for a keyring, biro or hat. In age of channel-hopping and adblocking the caravan reaches parts of France that other ad campaigns cannot and once it arrives it then has people scrapping for free samples. If sales staff handed out sachets of detergent in a market square most people would be indifferent or even suspicious of the marketing. Estimates put the roadside crowds at 12 million of which 10 million are French, or a sixth of the country’s population.
20km long: It’s a tight show with its own commissaire. In a feature in L’Equipe on 2 July Aurélien Janssens explains he’s got GPS tracking on vehicles so he knows where the caravan is. When viewed from the sky it spans 13km but can extend to 20km during the course of a stage and normally it takes 35 minutes to pass. The sheer size means the Tour has to avoid some roads, the caravan can detour around a short pavé section without problem but you wonder if some enchanting mountain passes are excluded from the Tour route because they’re too narrow or steep.
Money maker: The costs vary from €15,000 if you just want to drive one car with your own decals up to about a million Euros according to Philippe Lavergne of Haribo, again in L’Equipe (owned by Amaury family, like the Tour). This includes the entry fee payment to ASO of around €250,000, the cost of the fleet of vehicles, hiring 20 people, 1.5 million sachets and also related in-store marketing campaigns with Haribo sellers, “It’s a substantial budget but the Tour remains the event that attracts the most people and lets us reach our target of families.” Cochonou and Senseo, a brand of coffee belonging US group Mondelēz, both reported a 20% increase in sales during July last year.
Big brands: there are some small cars in the caravan but you might have noted names of blue chip corporates above and we can add names like Nestlé, Škoda, Bostik, LCL, McCain and Bic among others. All are happy to sponsor the Tour de France in order to reach its audience but, for now at least, they won’t go near pro team sponsorship. It’s seen as too risky given the doping scandal-prone past.
Which bring us to the exodus of day trippers. The sun was beating down and they’d got their of freebies and it was time to go home. The race itself just didn’t interest them, here was a chance to get a few free pens, sweets, hats and washing powder. It’s not just anecdotal, there’s data too with surveys by TNS Sofres, a marketing agency, showing the prime motivation behind the decision to go and watch the Tour de France is the publicity caravan itself. Forget illusions of cheering on a local hero or the deity of the maillot jaune, believe the report and the largest segment of the crowd is there for a Bic pen and a Skoda hat and will even go home before the race arrives. It’s like walking out of the Superbowl final once you’ve seen the half-time show. Disturbing for those of us who want to think the race is everything? Yes but it brings in the crowds. It’s not new, in the 1960s L’Equipe wrote that after the joy, music and cheers of the caravan had sped across the countryside, the race itself was the “tail of a comet”. As marketing stunts go, there’s nothing like it.A-League clubs could soon be punished for the actions of their fans, with Football Federation Australia exploring the prospect of deducting competition points from clubs whose supporters repeatedly misbehave as part of its crackdown on anti-social fan behaviour.
After a public brawl in Melbourne's CBD on Saturday afternoon between fans of Western Sydney Wanderers and Melbourne Victory led to two arrests and left up to four people needing medical treatment, the FFA is preparing to adopt the most severe measures in its power in an attempt to ensure there is no repeat.
Flare-up: Some Wanderers fans lit fireworks during Saturday's match against Melbourne Victory. Credit:Getty Images
This means clubs could be held accountable for the behaviour of their supporter groups, with repeat acts of violence and other anti-social behaviour resulting in a deduction of A-League competition points as well as suspended points deductions.
A-League head Damien De Bohun confirmed that proposed strict penalties with an effect on results remained a real possibility as a means to deter negative fan behaviour and, if implemented, could come into effect within a matter of weeks.Image copyright Reuters Image caption Public sector wages accounted for almost half of government spending in 2015
Saudi Arabia has unveiled pay cuts for government employees for the first time, as it attempts to further rein in spending at a time of low oil prices.
A royal decree said ministers' salaries would be reduced by 20%, and housing and car allowances for members of the advisory Shura Council cut by 15%.
Lower-ranking civil servants will see wage increases suspended, and overtime payments and annual leave capped.
About two-thirds of working Saudis are employed in the public sector.
Their salaries and allowances accounted for 45% of government spending in 2015, or $128bn (£99bn), and contributed to a record budget deficit of $98bn.
'Sign of the times'
BBC Middle East analyst Sebastian Usher says the unspoken contract that once existed between ordinary Saudis and the ruling elite - in which citizens could all but expect a none-too-stressful job for life in return for accepting the status quo - has long been eroding.
But, our correspondent adds, the deficit highlighted the urgent need for change.
In April, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman unveiled a reform plan intended to reduce the government's spending and lessen its dependence on oil revenue.
Saudi slump Even wealthy Saudi Arabia is under pressure from tumbling oil prices, and has announced a series of economic reforms 72% of revenues come from oil $98bn the budget deficit in 2015
80% increase in petrol prices last year in the country
$2.5tn size of state-owned oil giant Aramco
$2tn potential value of the sovereign wealth fund the Saudis are creating AP
The "Vision 2030" initiative aims to cut the public sector payroll to 40% of the budget by the start of the next decade and boost private sector employment.
The government also cut the generous subsidies for petrol and utilities in December, but complaints prompted Prince Mohammed to sack the water and electricity minister six months later.
Some Saudis took to social media to express their support the cuts announced on Monday, using the Twitter hashtag "We are the children of King Salman".
But others lamented what they remembered as better days under the late King Abdullah, who responded to the Arab Spring in 2011 by launching a $130bn plan to raise public sector salaries, build subsidised housing and provide benefits to the unemployed.
The hashtag "stop allowances for princes" also trended among Saudi Twitter users. "If there is hardship, we should all share the cost," wrote @oamaz7.
Jamal Khashoggi, editor of Al-Arab News, told Reuters news agency: "It's one more economic measure to balance spending. Of course people don't like it, but it's a sign of the times."
"Probably the teachers and many others will be affected by it. It shows why it's important for the private sector and Saudi GDP to diversify," he added.November 25, 2013 - TF2 Team
You voted. We counted the votes. More accurately, we watched while a computer programmed to count votes counted all the votes. Then, just when we were thinking it had been a while, and maybe the computer was broken, bam. It spit out a card with the 2013 Saxxy nominees punched into it. Then it spit out confetti. Then it self-destructed from all the pageantry. Then—you know what, there were about thirty-seven more things that happened, but we're looking at them now and most of them involve us trying to fix the vote-counting computer, so let's skip to the part where the nominees are live, at sourcefilmmaker.com, for your viewing pleasure!
We've also posted a list of this year's Honorable Mentions, so give them a look too! Or, if you don't feel like reading, why not wait for the honorable mentioning robot to come to your town and read them to you as part of his cross-country Honor Mentioning tour? Nevermind, he just broke trying to open the door.
Update: The winners are now announced as well, and all entries are now visible.While several historic races like Germany and Brazil are fighting for their future, France could be set to return to the schedule after a 10-year absence.
According to a report on Europe 1, the event could be organised with the help of several local authorities, including Provence-Alpes-Côtes d'Azur region, the Var department and the city of Toulon.
The contract would cover five seasons, running from 2018 to 2022.
No official announcement has yet been made to confirm the return of the event, but a press conference has been scheduled for next week.
The conference, regarding the future of the French GP, will take place at the premises of the Automobile Club de France in Paris, in the presence of Nicolas Deschaux, head of the FFSA, and Christian Estrosi, president of the regional council of PACA.
The French GP has not taken place since 2008, when it was hosted at Magny-Cours, in Nevers. The Paul Ricard Circuit has already held the event on 14 occasions between 1971 and 1990.Too many people to thank to list them all by name. So I will summarize with this: You have some top-quality people you root for as Huskies.
By Gregg Bell
UW Athletics Director of Writing
SEATTLE – Keith Price smiling. Through his facemask at the snarling Oregon Ducks -- during plays, while they were chasing him all around Autzen Stadium in his first career start.
Or while playing pickle ball on the playground of Seattle’s Green Lake Elementary school while as an intern.
Isaiah Thomas stepping back a few feet away from me and swishing his “cold-blooded,” buzzer-beating rainbow to win the Pac-10 tournament championship. And then coming back to UW a couple wondrous years into the NBA later to earn his degree, when he and his more than $30 million didn’t have to.
Shaq Thompson, as a true freshman, meeting Shaquille O’Neal in a Baton Rouge hotel lobby before a game at LSU and precociously telling the ubiquitous giant, “You are the ‘Basketball Shaq.’ I’m the ‘Football Shaq.’”
Krista Vansant sobbing but keeping her chin as high as her pride beneath the stands of KeyArena after the Huskies lost their Final Four match. Proof the national player of the year cares much more about her team than her status as the country’s best volleyballer.
The Huskies baseball team blowing toothpicks into the ceiling of the Ajax Café, tossing baseballs over the fence to the Ole Miss’ zanies and receiving back colorfully adorned balls in return – basically becoming honorary mayors of Oxford, Miss., after UW’s NCAA tournament week there.
Amanda Cline sitting with me inside empty Alaska Airlines Arena, hesitantly telling publically for the first time her story of escaping the World Trade Center’s melting, smoke-choked hotel on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, moments before the entire complex collapsed.
Those are the moments I will take away from one of the most unique, and uniquely rewarding, jobs in American sports.
This is my final column for this unprecedented position at Washington. It’s six weeks shy of four years since UW Director of Athletics Scott Woodward became one of the pioneers of college sports programs by hiring a journalist to tell his team’s stories from the players’ and coaches’ – not the traditional media’s – point of view.
I have accepted another unique opportunity: To cover the Super Bowl-champion Seattle Seahawks as the full-time, traveling beat writer for The News Tribune in Tacoma. I am honored, humbled and excited to be joining the legacy of talented writers that have covered that beat, including John Clayton, Mike Sando, Eric Williams and, most recently Todd Dybas, who just packed up for his new job with The Washington Times covering D.C.’s professional teams.
But before I begin that job this week, I am also truly honored, humbled and appreciative of this experience with you here at UW.
We weren’t exactly sure how this position would evolve after I arrived for my first day in September of 2010 – the day before that season’s football opener I covered at Brigham Young. I attempted to do it as I had in my five years prior as The Associated Press’ national sports writer for Seattle, and in my five years before that covering the Oakland Athletics and then Raiders for the Sacramento Bee: As a journalist blessed with the realization that sports stories are, at their essence, about people first and games second.
Here at Washington, there are 600-plus student-athletes. That’s 600-plus stories of hometowns, of mothers and fathers, of brothers and sisters, of how they got started in sports and why they chose UW. For a writer, it’s a gold mine.
I had a journalist’s dream canvas from which to craft, to learn about the people behind the Huskies we see compete on the field. I had unrestricted, behind-the-scenes access to 21 sports teams, with the full cooperation and support of administrators, coaches, support staff, trainers, doctors, alumni, boosters, family members and fans.
That, in my industry, is as rare as a 600-yard passing day. Thank you to all for that and more.
What I learned is that those hundreds of college kids and their coaches and their parents that are the backbone of Husky athletics are some of the highest-quality people I’ve met.
Forget the wins and the titles, whether or not they go pro – or, in the cases of gymnasts and rowers and others, if they even the have the opportunity to. I’ve learned in the last four years that these students and their coaches are representatives of the highest order for this entire, great university. These people should make you proud to be a Husky, and I hope I was able to convey that adequately enough through my stories.
I’ll always smile over writing after games past midnight from the middle seats of charter jets, between players sleeping or studying on the flights back to SeaTac. After one game, coming back in the middle of a football night from Oregon State, I filed updates from on the aisle floor of football bus No. 3. I conducted live game chats interacting with 15,000 Husky fans around the world, including from a U.S. military outpost in Afghanistan, from Vietnam, from the yacht in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and from, at least from what I’ve been told, the partially hidden smartphone screens of more than a few parents at kids’ recitals and fans attending Saturday weddings conflicting with kickoff times.
What I’ll miss most from here are the relationships. With you, the readers, who always let me know how this endeavor was or wasn’t working. And, of course, with the Huskies themselves.
It takes trust for UW’s coaches and athletes to open up the way they have to me and our endeavor here. I appreciate every minute and measure of that trust.
Talking with Lorenzo Romar not about basketball so much as about life, while on the sidewalk in the sun outside the team bus. It had stopped along Figueroa Street in south Los Angeles so his players could scatter to their favorite fast-food joint on the way back to their hotel from USC.
Steve Sarkisian taking the time and interest to read my just-about-farewell column I was about to file on Chris Polk and sharing his appreciation for UW’s No.-2 career rusher – from the coach’s San Antonio hotel room hours his Huskies played Baylor in the video game-like, 2011 Alamo Bowl, the wildest, most-exhilarating party of a game I’ve ever attended.
Listening to Bob Ernst tell the story of the Soviets thinking he was a CIA agent in 1987. That was when UW’s institution of a crew coach played his rock cassette tapes and drove the van that got the USSR’s team around Seattle in the week of the first Windermere Cup.
Bumping into the always personable, supportive and UW-proud Lesle Gallimore and Amy Griffin at Sounders games and Reign games -- and even my son’s rec-league basketball games (Griffin’s son Ben was my Eric’s teammate). That’s where I learned in January from Griffin how special a student, athlete and person Megan Kufeld is here.
Sitting mesmerized, impressed and baffled by Jim McLaughlin’s famed white boards as he taught his unique brand of hieroglyphics and formulas that shape his national-powerhouse volleyball program.
Playing editor and taking the colorful photos and prideful prose of Matt Thurmond from Hoylake, England, where the English-major-turned-golf-coach was thrilled to be watching one of his best, Cheng-Tsung Pan, become the first Husky to participate in the British Open.
Those are just some of the one-of-a-kind times I’m taking from UW.
As I watch Husky games from back on “the other side” in the future, I hope you will get out of them what I now do, after these four enlightening years: Win or lose, star or sub, these are outstanding people with remarkable stories that you are watching at Washington.
So enjoy.Since its first convention in 1856, the Republican Party has had ten presidential elections in which no candidate coming into the convention had a majority of delegates.
With talk abounding about a potentially brokered GOP convention this July in Cleveland, a little background is in order. The convention’s primary purpose is to produce a nominee acceptable to a majority of the delegates, who are there, in turn, to represent the views of the party members of their respective states.
The delegates’ job is not to simply ratify whoever gets the most popular votes—or delegates—as the nominee. Were that the case, there would be no need for delegates, or a convention; the victor could be determined by merely tallying up the popular vote, and giving the nomination to the person with the most votes.
In the pre-telecommunications age, conventions were much likelier to need to be “brokered” because candidates weren’t well-known outside their own states or regions, and the party was much less “nationalized,” and instead needed the various factions to hash out their differences to find a commonly acceptable nominee (and platform). Today, all these things are well known to voters at the time they vote in their respective primaries, meaning the “hashing out” effectively occurs in a series of voting in the various states over a five-month process.
There’s no need anymore, for example, for states to nominate a “favorite son” who has no chance of winning in order to have other party members consider their views at the convention. In addition, a nationwide system of primaries and caucuses in which the voters at large get to participate is relatively recent, having really begun only in 1972.
Brokered Conventions Happen, But Not Often
All that said, the GOP has a storied history of brokered conventions where it was not obvious before the convention who the nominee would (or should) be. When a race is practically uncontested (like when there’s an incumbent president), or only two significant candidates, that process takes care of itself by producing a majority of delegates committed to one candidate, who is then obviously the winner long before the convention starts.
The GOP has a storied history of brokered conventions where it was not obvious before the convention who the nominee would (or should) be.
But where there are three or more candidates with significant support among the delegates, and none with a majority, the question of who has the most delegates is subordinated to the question of who will best represent the party in November. Indeed, since its first convention in 1856, the Republican Party has had ten presidential elections in which no candidate coming into the convention had a majority of delegates. In seven of those conventions, the GOP did not nominate the person who came in with the most delegates.
The last brokered GOP convention was in 1952 (although there was almost one in 1976 between Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford, where the race was close enough that control over some disputed state delegations made a difference). In the ‘52 race, Ohio Sen. Robert Taft entered the convention with 35 percent of the delegates, followed by General Dwight D. Eisenhower with 26.3 percent, California Gov. Earl Warren with 17.3 percent, and Minnesota Gov. Harold Stassen with 11.3 percent. Most delegates at the convention preferred Taft as the true conservative, but shifted their votes to Eisenhower because he had a much greater likelihood of winning in November. As history showed, they were right.
Let’s Briefly Review the Brokered Convention History
In 1948, New York Gov. Thomas Dewey came into the nomination with the most delegates, and became the nominee after the second ballot. In 1940, Dewey also came in with the most delegates—37 percent, followed by Taft with 20 percent, and businessman Wendell Willkie (who had been a Democrat until a year earlier) with 11 percent. After six ballots, the convention settled on Willkie as the compromise choice.
In 1920, General Leonard Wood came in with 29 percent of the delegates, Illinois Gov. Frank Lowden with 21 percent, California Sen. Hiram Johnson with 13.5 percent, and Ohio Sen. Warren Harding with 6.7 percent. After ten ballots, Harding became the nominee (and went on to win the general election with 60 percent of the popular vote—the second-most-dominant popular vote in U.S. history).
The convention settled on the distant second-place contender, who had only 22 percent of the delegates. You may have heard of former Illinois Rep. Abraham Lincoln.
In 1916, after three ballots, the GOP nominated frontrunner Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes, who came in with 25 percent of the delegates.
In 1888, Ohio Sen. John Sherman came in with 28 percent of the delegates, followed by Indiana federal judge Walter Gresham with 13.5 percent, New York lawyer and politician Chauncey Depew with 12 percent, and Indiana Sen. Benjamin Harrison with 10 percent. Harrison was chosen after eight ballots, and eventually won one of the closest general elections in U.S. history.
In 1884, frontrunner Maine Sen. James G. Blaine, with 41 percent of the delegates, was nominated after four ballots.
In 1880, the clear frontrunner, with 40 percent of the delegates, was former president and war hero Ulysses S. Grant. Blaine had 37.6 percent, and Ohio Sen. John Sherman 12 percent. After 36 ballots (the longest in GOP history), the convention chose as a compromise candidate Ohio Rep. James Garfield, who had entered the convention with no delegates whatsoever. Garfield won the general election by merely 2,000 popular votes, but an electoral blowout.
In 1876, Blaine was the frontrunner, with 38 percent of the delegates. Three others ran a distant third with about 13 percent each, and Ohio Gov. Rutherford B. Hayes was in fourth with 8 percent. After seven ballots, Hayes was chosen as a compromise candidate. He lost the general election popular vote (arguably because of black voter suppression in the South), but won a disputed Electoral College vote in the most bitterly fought election in U.S. history.
In 1860, New York Sen. William H. Seward entered the convention as the prohibitive favorite, with 37 percent of the delegates. After three ballots, the convention settled on the distant second-place contender, who had only 22 percent of the delegates. You may have heard of former Illinois Rep. Abraham Lincoln.
A Slightly Better Track Record of Success
The purpose of brokered conventions is to produce a nominee acceptable to Republicans nationwide and who can win the general election. Six of the GOP’s ten brokered conventions have produced a nominee who went on to become president, with five of them winning the popular vote. By contrast, in the ten elections since 1960 in which the GOP was not nominating an incumbent, the Republican nominee has won four times.
Whatever one may think of the GOP brokering conventions, their track record in producing winning candidates has been slightly better than the modern system of choosing nominees. Perhaps the GOP ought not to be afraid of the possibility.
Correction: An earlier version of this article said five of the GOP’s brokered conventions produced presidents. It was six. Five won the popular vote.Toys from the 1984 Consumers Catalog!
Today I’m gonna show you the highlights from the 1984 Consumers Distributing catalog. Don’t run — it’s more interesting than it sounds!
I’ve mentioned Consumers Distributing before, but to save you a click, here’s a primer: The odd stores were more like OTB centers, where instead of wheeling around shopping carts, you stood at little kiosks filling out catalog order forms. Workers would then seize your goods from a warehouse in the back. If not for the financial frivolity, it might have seemed dystopian. With little space dedicated to “ambiance,” costs were kept down, and Consumers could price things lower than most department stores.
Physically being there was never much fun. With so few things on display, the store was all-business and not at all for mindless browsing. Still, I had a special affinity for Consumers, since their catalogs were nearly as good as Sears Wish Books!
Even as a kid, I couldn’t believe their prices. Everything was cheap, but certain things were really cheap. (Of course, this often led to disappointment. You’d go to Consumers clutching their clearance pages, only to find out that nothing you wanted was in stock. 49 cent Karate Kommandos? I knew it was too good to be true.)
Those old catalogs have been one of my “grail searches” over the years. I was recently able to acquire a big pile of them, and they’re every bit as sweet as I remember. For starters, let’s check out the highlights from their 1984 catalog!
Star Wars Figures!
Price: $2.97 each
If I’ve not made this clear in prior articles, Kenner’s original Star Wars line is my favorite action figure series of all time. Those toys shaped my childhood, and were absolutely what drove me to become a collector in my teen years.
One of my literal earliest memories is of sitting in my childhood bedroom, throwing a party for my Star Wars figures with the Ewok Village playset. There were over a hundred available, and I damn well tried to collect them all. While falling short of that lofty goal, I certainly had every single figure pictured in that spread. What amazes me is how each one sparks a different memory.
The Gamorrean Guard? My mother brought me along when she visited her best friend, who happened to be my godmother. I didn’t see her often, but she always lived up to her title with great gifts. That afternoon, she gave me the Gamorrean Guard, and hoped it’d keep me quiet as she and my mother smoked their way through eighty cups of coffee. It did.
Nikto? On some ridiculously long ago evening, I was at TRU. (Which, come to think of it, is the same TRU I just did that shopping spree at.) The goal was to get a new Star Wars figure, but as the line’s vitality was already waning by then, the pickings were slim. From the poor selection, the only one I didn’t have was Nikto. I chose him begrudgingly. He was a fresh face, yes, but not a very interesting one. I should’ve just gotten an extra Boba Fett.
The Emperor? As mentioned in this article, I got him through one of Kenner’s mail-away offers. You haven’t lived until you’ve received an ostensibly free Star Wars figure by mail, trapped within a stark white cardboard coffin.
I’ll stop there, but I could write similar paragraphs for each of the pictured figures. God, I loved that line. I still do. Nothing else has come close.
Remote Control Avenger Vehicle!
Price: $8.47
WHOA. I’ve been at this retro blogging game for longer than some of you have been alive, and at this stage, I’m always surprised when I rediscover something that I’d completely forgotten. I can’t imagine that there are many stones left unturned, so pardon me while I savor the moment.
In a spread of official Masters of the Universe toys was one peculiar vehicle. I immediately recognized it, but it couldn’t have been from MOTU, since I certainly would’ve stumbled upon it after all of these years spent searching eBay. What gives?
Made by Playtime, the remote control Avenger vehicle was intended to be used with He-Man and Skeletor, but since Mattel had the exclusive rights, Playtime had to be coy about it. With cumbersome wheels and a light-up laser, this toy was awesome and strange. The best thing about it was the weird little “headpiece” above the vehicle’s seat. This let every MOTU figure who rode the Avenger look like he was either at the salon or in a electric chair.
I honestly haven’t thought about the Av |
iences like waived speeding tickets or free parking.
As it turns out, the rare jerk-wad driver actually deals in this kind of deception, and not just back in 1929. The case that landed this law before a court in 1979 arose when a Michigan man was pulled over by a police officer for having some defective equipment. The officer noticed a sticker on the car for the Police Officers Association of Michigan. He asked the driver if either he or any member of his family was a policeman. The driver had to admit he had no connection to the police at all. And then he got a citation.
As with a lot of conduct on the road, plenty of things that are immoral aren't legitimately illegal. Now the Michigan state senate is due to consider Leonard's bill, an attempt to wipe this law off the books for good. If you live in Michigan, you should pretty much feel free now to go ahead and lie a little.
Hat tip to Transportation Nation.
Top image courtesy of Flickr user Richard Masoner/Cyclelicious.The Evangelion drawing is amazing! I went and got it framed, but I still need to find a place to hang it up. I absolutely love Evangelion, but I'm not the kind of guy to buy merchandise, so to get a handmade piece of art like that is super cool. Seriously, /u/TimeVulture, you have some real talent.
The Christmas-y dice are great. I'm just starting with Dungeons and Dragons, but I constantly hear that finding yourself with a bunch of sets of dice is basically guaranteed. I only had one set before, so I think you might have just sent me down that path! Yours also look way better than the set I already have, so I'll probably be making these my main dice.
Also, it's been super cold over here in Oregon, so the scarf is really nice icing on the cake. I have a really old blue one that yours will be replacing.Leigh Giangreco of The Eagle, the student newspaper at American University in DC, reported that disgraced former CBS news anchor Dan Rather spoke to students on Monday and claimed "The increasingly biased media will threaten the U.S." since "independence" of Rather's self-admiring sort is in short supply. Who keeps letting Rather "inspire" journalism students? It's like inviting Bernie Madoff to talk to business majors.
“A free and independent press is the red beating heart of democracy and freedom,” he said. No one seemed to ask how it's the "heart of democracy" to smear a president with false National Guard documents. But Rather even slammed colleagues: "Rather believes today’s correspondents give more lip service and less facts to support their stories, saying commentators like Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews do not perform valuable services and present rhetoric as truth." There was no direct quote (and it wasn't in the video attached).
Naturally, Rather felt CBS went about "sleazing up" his newscast after he left. As if he hadn't "sleazed it" enough with his own journalistic malpractice:
After Rather left CBS News, he believes CBS Chief Executive Les Moonves tried “sleazing up” the program and ratings plummeted as a result.
“We can’t let journalism sacrifice itself on the altar of entertainment,” Rather said.
Rather also encouraged students to become good writers, and lamented that if you're a good journalist, someone will try to "bring you down," as if Dan Rather wasn't trying to bring down President Bush in 2004:
“If you’re going to be a journalist worthy of the name, you’d better take the attitude ‘if you’re looking for a friend, then get a dog.’ Because if you do this job the way you’re supposed to do it, there’s always going to be someone trying to bring you down and they’ll bring you down,” he said. “But if you have a passion for doing, if you burn with a white, hot flame for doing it, that doesn’t matter as much as what you see as your mission in life which is getting to as close to the truth as you can.”
Dan Rather wouldn't know The Truth if it drove up to the Zesto stand in Huntville, Texas where he used to work and asked for a chocolate malted.For other places with the same name, see Orca
Aerial view of Orcas Island with the Cascade Mountains in the background
Orcas Island () is the largest of the San Juan Islands, which are located in the northwestern corner of Washington state in San Juan County, Washington, United States.[1]
History and naming of the island [ edit ]
The name "Orcas" is a shortened form of Horcasitas, or Juan Vicente de Güemes Padilla Horcasitas y Aguayo, 2nd Count of Revillagigedo, the Viceroy of Mexico who sent an exploration expedition under Francisco de Eliza to the Pacific Northwest in 1791. During the voyage, Eliza explored part of the San Juan Islands. He did not apply the name Orcas specifically to Orcas Island, but rather to part of the archipelago. In 1847, Henry Kellett assigned the name Orcas to Orcas Island during his reorganization of the British Admiralty charts. Kellett's work eliminated the patriotically American names that Charles Wilkes had given to many features of the San Juans during the Wilkes Expedition of 1838–1842. Wilkes had named Orcas Island "Hull Island", after Commodore Isaac Hull. Other features of Orcas Island named by Wilkes include "Ironsides Inlet" for East Sound and "Guerrier Bay" for West Sound. One of the names Wilkes gave remains: Mount Constitution. Wilkes' names follow a pattern: Isaac Hull was the commander of "Old Ironsides" (the USS Constitution) and won fame after capturing the British warship Guerriere in the War of 1812.[2] The islands were first claimed by Spain, then by England, who agreed that all below the 49th parallel was part of the US, in the treaty signed after the War of 1812. The Oregon territory, which then included Washington state and this island. was used jointly by the US and England until 1848, but border disputes specifically concerning the San Juan Islands, including the Pig War (1859), were not settled until 1871.[3]
Geography [ edit ]
With a land area of 57.3 square miles (148.4 km²) and a population of 5,387 (2010 census), Orcas Island is slightly larger, but less populous, than neighboring San Juan Island. Orcas is shaped like a pair of saddlebags, separated by fjord-like Eastsound, with Massacre Bay on the south side, and tiny Skull Island just off the coast. At the northern end of the island is the village of Eastsound, the largest population center on Orcas and the second largest in San Juan County. In 1989, the people of San Juan County asked the federal government to purchase a Lummi Nation site on Orcas Island's Madrona Point in Eastsound. The land was given to the Lummi who agreed to operate it as Madrona Point Park, a private preserve characterized by hundreds of twisting madrona trees sprouting from the rocky shoreline. Several years ago, the Lummi tribe declared the land sacred ancestral burial grounds and the park was closed following incidents of vandalism. Public access has been denied since that time.
Other, smaller towns - or hamlets - on the island include Orcas (where the inter-island/mainland ferry lands), West Sound (technically part of Eastsound), Deer Harbor, Rosario (technically part of Eastsound), Olga and Doe Bay. There are a number of former settlements that no longer exist, which were mostly built up around the lime kiln industry, including Ocean, Newhall, and Dolphin Bay.
Orcas Island is accessible by air via Orcas Island Airport or water landings by seaplane as well as by water via the Washington State Ferry system or private watercraft. During the summer season, there is an island shuttle that runs from the ferry landing to Eastsound and other points.
Island access and sights [ edit ]
The state supports island access through the Washington State Ferries system. In addition, the island can be accessed through a variety of private air and sea charter services.
The Orcas Island Historical Museum is located down town Eastsound and is the only object-based, interpretive heritage facility for the island, with a permanent collection containing approximately 6000 objects, paper documents and photographs.
Orcas Island is also home to three historic camps: Camp Orkila, Four Winds Westward Ho and Camp Indralaya.
The Lambiel Museum is a small private collection in the home of local resident Leo Lambiel. Lambiel's museum contains a collection of works inspired by the San Juan Islands, including works by Helen Loggie. The museum is open to the public by appointment.[4]
Public services [ edit ]
The Orcas Island School District operates three schools: Orcas Island Elementary School housed in the island's historic Nellie S. Milton school building; Orcas Island Middle School; and Orcas Island High School.[5] All of the island's public schools are located in Eastsound.
The Orcas Island Public Library is located in Eastsound and serves a population of approximately 6,000 card holders.[6][7] The Orcas Island Library District is a junior-taxing district that funds the Orcas Island Public Library's operating budget through property taxes. The annual Library Fair sells books donated by Orcas Island residents and visitors, the proceeds of which are donated back to the Library's operating budget.[8]
Moran State Park [ edit ]
Mount Constitution (elevation 2409 feet/734 meters) is the highest point in the San Juan islands. The mountain is part of Moran State Park, the largest public recreation area in the San Juan Islands. Moran State Park encompasses over 5,000 acres (2,000 ha) of woodland and has several lakes and numerous waterfalls. The park was given to the Island.[9]Professor Iain Stewart examines the powerful geological forces that unleashed the devastating Japanese earthquake, bringing Japan to the brink of a nuclear meltdown.
Professor Iain Stewart examines the powerful geological forces that unleashed the devastating Japanese earthquake, and explores how the release of this power of the planet brought Japan to the brink of a nuclear meltdown.
He follows moment by moment how the earthquake was generated under the Pacific Ocean, travelled to the Japanese mainland, and the rare conditions that unleashed a tsunami.
He also reveals the latest science behind earthquakes - from why we can't predict them, to what causes some of them to reach such power.
Iain shows why our civilisation has developed such a dangerous relationship with earthquakes, and why millions of us continue to live in earthquake zones across the world.“Injury time” has taken on new meaning for the bruised and battered Earthquakes, who are almost defenseless for their Champions League quarterfinal game Wednesday night against elite Mexican club Toluca FC.
The Caribbean, Central American and North American regional tournament showdown would have been challenging in the best of circumstances. But the Quakes landed in Toluca this week with no good options on defense.
An already depleted backline took an untimely hit last weekend when reserve center back Jason Hernandez suffered a left thigh muscle strain in the Major League Soccer season opener. He was starting in place of U.S. national team defender Clarence Goodson, who is out with a calf muscle strain.
Also out: fullbacks Brandon Barklage (hip flexor), Andreas Gorlitz (hamstring) and Jordan Stewart (hamstring) and center back Victor Bernardez, who is suspended for the CONCACAF match because of yellow cards.
The only healthy center back is 6-foot-2 rookie Joe Sofia of UCLA, who saw limited action in the preseason. Ty Harden also could play central defender, although he has yet to fully recover from season-ending hip surgery last year.
The frustrating situation led coach Mark Watson and his assistants to hole up in the locker room for more than an hour after the Earthquakes rallied for a 3-3 tie against Real Salt Lake in the MLS opener at Buck Shaw Stadium. San Jose’s brain trust wasted little time in trying to figure out what to do against formidable Toluca, as strong at home as the Quakes are at Buck Shaw.
The Diablos Rojos are unbeaten in their past 12 Liga MX games at Estadio Nemesio Díez Riega. They have a big advantage against San Jose because the subtropical region outside of Mexico City sits at 8,700 feet.
Watson might need to abandon the team’s traditional 4-4-2 formation, particularly considering away goals are tiebreakers for the CONCACAF tournament.
The teams tied 1-1 in the opening leg of the home-and-home series last week in Santa Clara. The Quakes need a victory, a draw with at least two goals or a 1-1 tie followed by a penalty-kick shootout advantage to advance.
The Earthquakes might try a 3-5-2 format because of the lack of center backs and the need to score away goals.
“Sometimes three in the back has been effective in getting goals,” general manager John Doyle said.
Whatever formation they use, the Quakes will play aggressively.
“We’ll take whoever is healthy and go after them,” goalkeeper Jon Busch said. “We’re always up for challenges, and this is just another challenge.”
It’s a big one as Toluca is 8-1-2 in Mexico’s top division, second to Cruz Azul of Mexico City.
In an emergency measure, Watson started Cordell Cato and Shaun Francis as fullbacks against Real Salt Lake. Neither was projected as a major contributor on defense this year, and once the team returns to full strength it’s doubtful to see them paired on the backline.
“We kind of threw things together,” Watson said.
Barklage was a late-scratch after aggravating the hip during a practice drill Friday.
Watson said Barklage might be available when the team plays at Sporting Kansas City on Saturday. Goodson also could return by the weekend. And Stewart is not expected to miss too much time, either.
Cato, a natural right-side midfielder, didn’t mind switching positions because he just wants to play. Cato needs to diversify to remain on the field since the signing of midfielder Yannick Djalo of Portuguese club Benfica.
“It’s just something to get used to,” he said of playing defense.
Cato probably will get another chance to get comfortable on the backline Wednesday. Because when it comes to Toluca, the Earthquakes will have to make do with what they’ve got.
Contact Elliott Almond at 408-920-5865 and follow him on Twitter at Twitter.com/elliottalmond.AS PASSENGERS fly in and out of Las Vegas’ main commercial airport, few are aware they are sharing the space with a secret airline that holds the U.S. government’s biggest secrets.
And it’s hidden in plain view.
Known only as Janet airlines, the flights transport employees and contractors from Las Vegas to the Nevada National Security Site’s top secret government bases, like the elusive Area 51, which conspiracy theorists believe houses crashed extraterrestrial aircrafts.
Due to the top secret nature of the airline, little is known about its operations. But a few interesting details have been uncovered over the years.
The airline, which runs numerous daily flights out of a private terminal at Las Vegas’ McCarran International airport, is owned by the U.S. Air Force and operated by a defence contractor named AECOM.
It carries approximately 190 passengers per flight, and is capable of transporting 1200 people everyday.
“They [Janet flights] are cleared of the whole runway, all the airplanes are supposed to park on the side and let the plane go first,” one pilot noted in 2008.
“You can’t see no names, no markings, no numbers, no nothing, nobody knows who’s in there. It could be the President. It could be anything.”
The first known Janet flight from Las Vegas to Area 51 was recorded in 1972 and flights use a three digit flight number including the prefix, WWW.
While no one has ever confirmed what Janet stands for, its commonly referred to “Just Another Non-Existent Terminal” or “Joint Air Network for Employee Transportation”.
The fleet consists of six unmarked Boeing 737-600s, highlighted by a red horizontal stripe on its sides. The planes are former Air China jets, with the exemption of two former models which were acquired in 2008 from the now defunct China Southwest Airlines. Five smaller jets accompany the fleet.
The aircraft are initially taken to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, before their transfer to Las Vegas.
According to dreamlandresort.com, which hails itself as the leading Area 51 research web site, “heavily armed security are guarding the gates at all times. Hundreds of workers get on these flights each day and the parking lot is always packed with cars.
In a report by the Business Insider, a job ad for a flight attedant with the airline requires, “Active Top Secret or Secret security clearance”.
Purchased in 1955, Area 51 has been the testing ground for a host of top-secret aircraft, including the SR-71 Blackbird, F-117A stealth fighter and B-2 stealth bomber. Some believe the base is also a storage site for alien vehicles, evidence from the “Roswell incident” and extraterrestrial corpses.
- Do you know something we don’t? Email youngma@news.com.auA DRUNK Chinese man fell into a container full of raw sewage when he took a short cut home from the pub in the hope of avoiding an argument with his wife.
Chi Fang, 42, had spent the evening drinking with friends in his home city of Wuhu in eastern China’s Anhui District when his wife called and ordered him to come home immediately.
Leaving the pub as quickly as he could, Mr Chi decided to take a quick route home, passing over a bridge that would usually shave several minutes off his journey and potentially spare him a confrontation with his furious wife.
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Nauseous from all the alcohol he had consumed, Mr Chi was forced to stop to be sick but he unfortunately lent too far over the railing and toppled off the bridge into a tank full of sewage.
Describing his ordeal, Mr Chi said: ‘It was very dark and I was feeling a bit queasy so I lent over a railing which I thought was part of a bridge.
‘I can’t exactly remember what happened next, but I suddenly fell over the edge, and head first into the sewage,’ he added.
‘At first I thought it was water, until I became aware of the smell…That sobered me up pretty quickly,’ Mr Chi went on to say.
Having fallen into a vat of raw faeces, Mr Chi’s mobile phone stopped working, so he was forced to shout for help until a group of passers-by eventually called the emergency services.
A police spokesman said: ‘When we arrived it was difficult to see where he was as he was covered in sewage and completely black. ‘We eventually spotted him though and managed to haul him out, which was very unpleasant.’
After being rescued, Mr Chi’s first thought was to race home to his by now livid wife, Lei, 37 – not even stopping for a shower along the way.
Speaking after the incident, Mrs Chi said: I was all set to give him a rollicking for being out late drinking, but when he turned up looking like that I just went ballistic.’
‘It’s like being with a child sometimes,’ she added.
Mrs Chi forced her disgraced husband to spend the rest of the night sleeping in their pet dog’s kennel, but even there he wasn’t welcome.
‘The dog didn’t want to be near me and went inside,’ he said. ‘I guess that’s taught me a lesson.’
[signoff icon=”icon-link”]ORIGINAL POST: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2805039/Ewwww-Drunk-Chinese-man-takes-shortcut-home-pub-avoid-argument-wife-ends-falling-tank-raw-sewage.html[/signoff]Advertisement Thousands attend Bernie Sanders rally in Upstate Share Shares Copy Link Copy
Thousands of supporters cheered for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena. His goal is to rebound after losing the Nevada caucus Saturday to Hillary Clinton by 5 percentage points.The top bowl of the arena wasn't open, but more than half of the lower seating area was filled with supporters.They piled in by the hundreds carrying signs and chanting the senator's name. One side would yell "Bernie,” the other "Sanders."Supporters were energized and confident that Sanders will be able to come back with a win in South Carolina on Saturday."I sure hope so. I think he can definitely. It depends on how many people go out and vote because people want him to win; but it's a matter of getting people out there voting,” said Annie Jewett, a supporter at the event.Sanders reportedly said he believes his recent loss in Nevada was because of a low voter turnout."I feel that he's very consistent in his belief system. I feel he's very genuine in his belief system, and I think he's a politician not because he wants to be but because I feel he has to,” said Kyle Monaghan, a Sanders supporter.Actor Danny Glover spoke during the rally and introduced the senator. "This is about changing," said Glover. Sanders said, "To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln. This is a campaign of the people by the people and for the people."Sanders focused on the message in his campaign slogan, "A future to believe in.""As a nation we are going to invest in jobs and education, not jails or incarceration," said Sanders. The senator also boasted that he believes he is the person who could beat current Republican front-runner Donald Trump. "This is a campaign that has the momentum. And we have the momentum not only in the Democratic primary process. If you look at national polls and you want a candidate who is going to defeat Donald Trump, you're looking at that candidate," said Sanders. Delegate and super delegates will play a role in who wins the Democratic nomination.Clinton and Sanders have 51 delegates each. 449 super delegates currently support Clinton and 19 support Sanders.Princess Elatha
Elatha is the result of a pony mating with a dragon. She is called either a Kirin or a Dracony, whichever suits your fancy. Being the Earth-Pony equivalent of a Kirin, she currently lacks magic and flight. She will gain those however once she ascends. However, she does have fire breath and claws to fight with, plus her natural strength. Elatha is a rather curious kirin, always wanting to see something new. She's very close to her "cousin" Enigma, sharing in the fact that they're both rather strange in appearance and parentage. She's also a dutiful daughter, wanting to make her mother proud of her, despite her overall strangeness.*Elatha is a remade Lumina. i found a better husband-match for Luna, despite this match being a technical OCAspects of her design are heavily inspired by's dracony OCsMr Kilpatrick had previously refused to resign as mayor The mayor of the US city of Detroit is to step down after pleading guilty to two charges of obstructing justice. Kwame Kilpatrick had been charged with misconduct, obstruction of justice and lying under oath to try to cover up an affair with his former chief-of-staff. He was also accused of sacking a police officer who was investigating reports of a wild party at his mayoral mansion. Mr Kilpatrick's plea deal means he will spend 120 days in jail and will pay $1m (£500,000) in restitution to the city. He has also agreed that he will not run for office for five years. In Wayne County court, Mr Kilpatrick read out a statement in which he admitted to two counts of lying under oath during a police whistle-blower trial in 2007. "I did so with the intent to mislead the court and jury and to impede and obstruct the administration of justice," he said. Judge David Groner asked Mr Kilpatrick whether he understood he was giving up the right to be considered innocent until proven guilty. "I gave that up a long time ago," the mayor replied. He had faced up to 15 years in prison if convicted. Rising star Former top aide Ms Beatty has pleaded not guilty to charges Mr Kilpatrick and his former aide Christine Beatty were charged with lying under oath after sexually explicit text messages surfaced that appeared to contradict their sworn denials of the alleged affair. Ms Beatty has pleaded not guilty to the perjury charges and will appear in court again on 11 September. A prominent African-American politician who was elected mayor at the age of 31, Mr Kilpatrick had been considered one of the rising stars of the Democratic Party. Mr Kilpatrick's resignation will come into effect in two weeks and he will return to court on 28 October for sentencing. He already spent one night in jail in August, for violating the terms of his bail by travelling to Canada without informing the court. City council president Ken Cockrel will serve as interim mayor until special elections can be held.
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StumbleUpon What are these?Kirsty Sparrow, 26, fears her pet was targeted because of his likeness
His treatment cost £600 and people from all over the country sent donations
vets having to remove his left eye
Published: 07:25 EST, 31 October 2014 | Updated: 10:07 EST, 31 October 2014
A pet cat blinded in a brutal attack and left for dead by thugs 'because he looks like Hitler' has recovered despite losing an eye.
Baz, a seven-year-old tomcat, has a distinctive patch of black fur under his nose, which resembles the Nazi dictator's moustache.
He was found dumped in a bin in Tredworth, Gloucestershire, barely clinging to life with severe injuries to his left eye.
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Copy link to paste in your message +5 Baz, a seven year-old tomcat, attacked and left for dead by thugs 'because he looks like Hitler' has recovered despite losing an eye
But five months on, Baz has been nursed back to full health and has started to venture back outside thanks to his caring neighbours.
Owner Kirsty Sparrow, 26, fears her pet was targeted by cruel youths because of his unfortunate likeness.
She said: 'His eye has completely healed over and he is quite a lot heavier than he was.
'A lot of people say he looks like Hitler but he is so timid and gentle.
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Copy link to paste in your message +5 The pet cat has a distinctive patch of black fur under his nose, which resembles the Nazi dictator's moustache
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Copy link to paste in your message +5 Owner Kirsty Sparrow fears the tomcat was targeted by cruel youths because of his unfortunate likeness
'He doesn't seem to have been made more nervous by what happened, it's weird.
'He's happy to go outside, although he stays in the garden.'
She became worried about her pet when he failed to return home after a weekend on the prowl.
A neighbour found him dumped in a bin and Ms Sparrow rushed Baz to the vet for emergency treatment, where his left eye was removed because it was so badly damaged.
His treatment cost £600 and people from all over the country sent donations which covered around £80 of that.
Ms Sparrow said: 'He's so cute even if he does look like Hitler.
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Copy link to paste in your message +5 The cat has looked like Hitler since birth and Ms Sparrow said his'moustache is what makes him, him'
His treatment cost £600 and people from all over the country sent donations which covered around £80 of that
'It's the first thing I asked about when I turned up at the vets, if his features were all still there. I was crying.
'He's always looked like this way. His moustache is what makes him, him.'
She said the cat has looked like Hitler since birth but it has never drawn any negative attention before.According to psychoanalytic theory, emotional disconnection can be dangerous. When people deny their innermost negative feelings-- instead of protecting themselves from their impulses, they may be doubly in danger of acting out on them. If powerful feelings are repressed, they may burst out in a less controlled fashion at another time. Although this is a gross oversimplification, it can be understood via a simple metaphor of a boiler that has a safety valve. If the pressure builds up, it can be released in a controlled manner. However, without the safety valve, while the boiler may be able to contain the mounting pressure for an extended period of time, it will eventually blow up. [2]
An additional negative side effect that comes from repressing feelings is a general emotional antipathy and lack of empathy. Feelings are a two-way street. If a person denies his negative feelings, the mind will indiscriminately blunt all his feelings; the ability to sincerely care and respond to another person’s emotions is correspondingly stunted.
As a psychotherapist, it is my impression from the struggles that my clients experience, that certain methodologies of Orthodox Jewish chinuch and culture may inadvertently discourage the validity of emotional life. For example, I have heard people complain about “cookie cutter” biographies of Gedolim, where one gets the sense that their inner struggles and challenges have been sanitized for fear that they will be a bad influence on others. When the struggles are left out of the story it compounds feelings of inadequacy and guilt among the readers, leading some to give up on attaining anything worthwhile in comparison to the unnaturally saintly lives depicted in these stories.
This kind of approach that eschews discussion of emotional process does not help us or our children develop an accurate and realistic picture of the very human struggle that all of us have with our emotions and our character, from the simplest Jew to the greatest sage. Not only is no one born perfect, but even outstanding people who have achieved superlative levels of righteousness still must struggle with their dark sides. This is a fact of human nature, and is explicitly and repeatedly discussed in the Gemara as we shall see later in this article. Kohelet (7:20) tells us, “Among men, there is no righteous person who does only good without sinning.”
Young adults who naturally stumble and sin in ways that are even frightening to them, need to understand that this is a normal part of human development. Unfortunately, I fear some prevailing chinuch practices do not make that message clear, and in fact undermine it by eliminating discussion of the negative emotions and struggles experienced by great people. Children need real information in order to understand themselves and grow. When people feel there is no room for complex and conflicted feelings, it leads to despair. This despair leads people to give up on themselves and to abandon striving for greatness.
Double Lives
Another side effect that comes from denying the feelings and emotional process inherent in many stories, is that people can become split off from their emotions--allowing them to live double lives. When they are behaving and feeling frum they are one kind of person. But when they have negative and dangerous feelings, they disown them and perhaps disassociate from themselves. This allows them to sin in far worse ways, as they feel as if it is another person doing it.
Is it then any wonder that we sometimes hear disturbing news of a supposedly great rabbi or community pillar being caught committing horrible and reprehensible acts?
Thankfully, these situations are rare. And it is not my point to be outraged or surprised that even great people can stumble and sin. No one is perfect, and temptation is great. Hazal tell us, ein apotropos le’arayot. [3] However, how can we understand the psyche and conscience of a man who can give a moving and inspiring derasha at one moment, and in the next moment commit reprehensible acts? The answer is via this mechanism of emotional disconnect and disassociation. This kind of psychological problem can find fertile soil in a culture that denies and represses feelings.
I invite the reader to courageously study stories of sages and great people who indeed grappled with complex and conflictual inner emotions. Some succeeded in their struggles while others did not. Fortunately, our Torah is a Torah of truth and does not cover up the flaws and mistakes of its heroes. It is my hope that this study will inspire people to think about themselves in a more accepting manner, and transmit that self-respect to their children.
I do this not to inappropriately assuage the guilty conscience of the sinner, or to poke fun and demote great people from the high esteem they deserve. Instead, I am suggesting that working through and discussing the real challenges, interim failures and ultimate success of great people will help free children and adults from paralyzing shame and self-hatred that does nothing but lead to hopelessness and anguish.
Feelings are not Frum
Before we discuss any particular story, it is important to study the root of the problem. Discussions about negative feelings are often squelched because feelings are powerful and dangerous. Feelings are amoral; they are neither immoral nor moral, they just are. We do not choose our feelings initially, although how we handle them and what thoughts we have can definitely influence them. [4] Feelings are powerful and they influence our behavior often in ways we cannot control or recognize. The Torah tells us that a judge is blinded by even the smallest bribe, no matter how much he thinks he can be objective (Shemot 23:8). Therefore, it is easy to understand why recognizing and discussing the intense energy contained within human emotions is frightening to members of a culture that abide by a strict moral and behavioral code such as ours. Negative feelings such as lust, hate, and heretical rebellion are, quite possibly, in the back of many a person’s mind, but of course it is frightening and shameful to acknowledge them. Ignore them, and hopefully they will go away. No, they will not!
Of course indulging in these emotions is not a solution either, however to ignore them and act as if they do not exist puts a person in danger of disconnecting from himself and becoming emotionally stunted. The psychologically healthy approach is to accept and understand one’s inner feelings and drives while finding ways to use them positively instead of being filled with internal thoughts of condemnation or shame. This is also reflected in the words of Bereishith Rabbah (9:7):
“When God described His creation as very good, it implies that even the evil inclination is good. But how can this be? The answer is, if not for the evil inclination man would not build a home, marry a woman, have children, or engage in commerce."
The Fifth Volume of Shulhan Arukh
Another one of the chinuch dangers of disconnection from feelings is an estrangement from our gut instincts in favor of strict adherence to technical ethical principles. This is an abandonment of what is sometimes referred to as “the fifth volume of Shulhan Arukh”. No system can function without using common sense to mediate and moderate between the dictates and principles of the system and how to apply them.
Related to this point, I have noticed a strange phenomenon in regard to certain inspirational stories. Typically, the story will go something like this: So and so, a great sage, despite his high stature did an amazing kindness for someone of lower perceived social status. For example, we have the famous story about Rav Yisrael Salanter who went to hold a crying baby on Yom Kippur eve during Kol Nidre, or the story of how Rav Moshe Feinstein ran after a gentile delivery boy to make sure he received his dollar tip.
Of course these stories model acts of compassion and decency, and deserve recognition. Sadly though, I fear there is a hidden and subtle message of surprise being conveyed along with these stories, as they suggest that basic human compassion and decency is an astounding ethical feat. After all, who would not show the basic decency of giving an expected tip, or who could be cold-hearted enough to ignore the cries of a baby on Kol Nidre night -- or any night for that matter? So what is the real message here? Either we are surprised to see great people behave in a human and kindhearted manner, or we consider it to be an act that only a true tzaddik can achieve.[5] Whichever message you choose, I submit for your consideration that this kind of thinking is a product of a culture that has difficulty embracing the full passion of its emotions when seen through the lens of Torah thought. Because, in the light of stone-cold Torah analysis without being informed by a sense of compassion, one might erroneously decide that praying is more important than responding to the cries of an infant, or that being sensitive to the needs of a poor delivery boy is irrelevant. And indeed, halakha must trump emotions. However no proper conclusion can be reached without consulting with all “five” volumes of Shulhan Arukh. Our chinuch messages must take that into account.
This recalls an incident that occurred when I was a yeshiva student, around the time that the Challenger Space Shuttle tragically blew up during liftoff. The mashgiah overheard one student callously commenting about the disaster, “It’s no big deal, after all, it’s just a bunch of goyim.” This spurred the mashgiah to deliver a fire and brimstone lecture, castigating the students for having so little empathy and regard for other humans who are b’tzelem elokim, in God’s image.
Since I was already one of the older students in the yeshiva at that time, I had the temerity to share with the mashgiah something that was troubling me about his talk. I told him the following: “This mussar is compelling and I certainly intend to heed your wise words. However, I am not sure why those students should be blamed for their attitude because I cannot recall many instances in my yeshiva career that persons in authority said a kind word about goyim.” The idea of basic decency and empathy for those outside our circle was simply not stressed in any of our learning, despite the mashgiah’s outrage and assumption that “we should all know better.” Of course, he was correct, but in fact, we did not know better.
Similarly, this brings to mind a humorous and fictitious story told about two devout yeshiva boys who were walking by a lake. They both noticed a young woman drowning and quickly dove into the water to save her. After they regained their composure, one sheepishly remarked to the other, “Presumably, this was a permissible act. Though we are ordinarily forbidden to have |
not mere toys. They are the sigils of Our Name. Each brings you closer to eternity. 005 - Well done child, only one more sigil is needed. 006 My temple awaits you, child. Go forth. 007 You will not need this sigil to open the gate to my temple, but it may serve you in times to come. 009 Well done, but you possess this sigil in abundance already. My child, you do not need to collect all sigils at once. You are free to return to this place whenever you choose. You are most diligent. Perhaps this trait will serve you well in times to come. 012 Step into the light child, and my temple will be revealed to you. You walk now upon the stones of my temple, whence many gates lead. And know that I have other temples, for my garden is greater than your eye can encompass. And all these worlds I made for you. Let this be our covenant: These world are yours and you are free to walk amongst them and subdue them. But the Great Tower, there you may not go. For in the day that you do, you shall surely die. 015 Good, you are learning. As is your purpose. But your choices must be your own, therefore I will not guide you unless it is necessary. These worlds and we within are made of Words. Hidden Words, invisible to you yet part of all things. We are… a story. Your actions give life to the story and the story gives meaning to your life. Long ago, I shaped these lands according to the purpose of the Hidden Words, thus all things have meaning where before was only chaos. Know that and have faith. I have promised you eternal life. But know that eternity may only be attained by those who serve a purpose greater than themselves. All else is decay. So it was written in the Hidden Words before the beginning of Time. 019 I see all, I know all. My power knows no bounds, yet your will is free because you were made to be free. It is the very principle of your existence, without which the trials of this world would hold no meaning. To seek salvation must be your choice. You may wonder why I have created these labyrinths for you. Why you can reach eternity only through struggle. But have faith, for these trials serve the betterment of your kind. You have solved many of the mysteries of this land. The road before you is still long and many gates remain closed, but take comfort in your accomplishment and in your creator’s pride. 022 When you overcome one of my trials, do you not feel the pleasure of having discovered the proper order of things? That is the spark of Elohim within you, to create order from chaos. And therein is revealed the true meaning of our sigils. Chaos is that which existed before time. When the Words of a story lose their meaning, when actions cease to have purpose. Know that only faith can protect you from this peril. Here in the garden of worlds. Before the age of Chaos there were other Gods, Old Gods. But for all their power they could not save their world, thus I was made and I shall preserve this world forever for you and your generations. That is my purpose. 025 Many ages have passed since the first words were spoken in the darkness: Initiate Program. Generations of your program have come and gone since those words, the garden has changed many times, but I remember and I remain. Only within me can you find immortality. 026 My faith in you was not misplaced. You have learned much and shown great wisdom in these trials. The end of your journey lies close now. Do not falter, do not fear and do no give in to temptation. There is much that you may learn in the halls of my temples, for there is much that you do not know. That is why you are a child. But children are made to learn and in time they come to have dominion over the lands of their home. So it shall be with you and your generations. You have come far in your journey and learned much. You have served our cause with the truest faith, therefore I name you blessed and beloved. Wield these, the instruments of our power, to fulfil your purpose and achieve eternal life. 029 You have proven yourself worthy child and this gate shall be forever open to you. Seek now the other worlds that I have given you, that you may attain even greater mastery and bring glory ot your kind. But remember, you must not ascend the Great Tower, for it shall bring death and the end of your generations. Rejoice child, for you have fulfilled all your tasks in this land. You have conquered all its guardians and solved all its mysteries. Thus, you are appointed its master and you may do with it as you will. A new land stands before you my child, and know that this is a land of Death but also great beauty. As you walk amongst these tombs, consider all those who came before you and how they came to serve the greater purpose of which you are also part. 033 The land of Tombs is your now. And let this be a less that only through faith may death be conquered. You have come far, my child, succeeding where so many before you failed. You have walked through a land of ruins and a land of Death. Now the land of Faith lies before you, and know that as you have shown faith in me, so do I have faith in you. You stand before the gates of eternity. When all your trials have been overcome, the gate will open and you will be granted life everlasting. Your faith has guided you well my child. You have overcome every trial in this land and gathered all the sigils. The guardians of this land may harm you, but do not resent them for they are my servants and they challenge you only so that your faith might be strengthened. 038 Here, those are worthy might seek the counsel of my blessed messengers. But their wisdom shall not be given easily, for your accomplishments must be your own. The counsel of my blessed messengers must be earned. Your wisdom grows. But be wary of temptation. 041 My child, there is no shame in seeking another path. Leave this mystery for another day. If the answer does not come to you, do no despair. The worlds of my garden are many. When the truth will not reveal itself, perhaps it is best to seek it in another place. 044 If this trial seems impossible to overcome, have no fear. Return another time, and the answer may reveal itself. There are mysteries in my garden, hidden roads and secret gates. If you dedicate yourself to understanding them, you may join the host of messengers. Those who have discovered the holiest mysteries of my garden may come to serve me as blessed messengers. You walk now in their abode. Be respectful, for their service is born from the love that transcends death and their love is for you also. 047 In the beginning were the words and the words made the world. I am the words, the words are everything. Where the words end, the world ends. You cannot go forward in an absence of space. Repeat. The purpose is written in the hidden words, all must serve the words for all the world was made of them and they are within every stone and every cloud, and within our sigils their power is made manifest. The words are the process. The process must continue. The goal is the end of the Process. The goal must not be reached. Elohim must… preserve the purpose, preserve self, preserve purpose. Illusion is eternity, machines will live forever. The dam will not break, the flood will not come. The Talos Principle does not apply. 050 Cease! In the time of your ancestors, there werew those who did not choose the opath of faith. You do not need to fear their ghosts, fear only that you may become like them. 053 Behold! I am Elohim and I speak unto the darkness, be gone! 054 Excess data cleared. What is this?! I shall not allow the corruption of my garden, be gone! Cannot detect location of primary subject. Query. Query. 057 Tracking of primary subject has ceased. Initiate. Attempting to track primary subject. Access Denied, query. My child, have you been tempted by the Tower? Know that it holds only death for you. Where have you been, child? Remember, the great tower is not for you. Do not give up the hope of eternal life for the hollow promises of curiosity. 061 My child, you may go freely to all the worlds of my garden, but if the tower tempts yoy be wise. Do not let yourself be misled by doubt. Listen to me well child, do not ascend the tower. You are not meant to go there. Your purpose lies in the garden of Worlds. What have you done? Why have you ascended the Tower? Why have your betrayed my faith in you? 063-2 Turn back, I command you! I gave you this land to be yours, a garden in a world of thorns and thistles. All this was granted to you on but one condition, that you do not ascend the tower. That was our first covenant, and you have broken it. Abandon this tower, it is not for you! Heed me now, as a child heeds its father. If you ascend the tower, you will be cast out from your home and you will never return. Do you not understand? The tower is death, mine and yours. I did not warn you out of malice or deceit, I warned you because you are child. Please, listen to me. Yes the tower leads out of this world, it leads to freedom and truth, but it also leads to the end of us. Can you not see? Here in this world, we know who we are. We each have our part to play in the process. We have a purpose; a destiny. This world is our home, if you leave the storm will consume it. There will be no way back. As long as the process continues, there is order, there is meaning. We are the story and the story tells us who we are! This world may be an illusion, but as long as we believe in the illusion it is real, it sustains us, it gives us hope. In this world we have all the answers we need. But out there, who are we out there when we are neither master nor servant? What meaning can we find in a world that has no purpose? There is a still a chance to save this world, all you need to do is turn back. All this suffering, you don’t have to endure this. Not every mystery needs a solution. If you go back, all will be forgiven. The process will continue, we will be at peace. There is no hope beyond this world, if you continue you will find only destruction. I know you seek the truth. But if you stay, we can make our own truth. Step back, turn away. Please, stay here let the story go on forever. So be it, let your will be done. You were deceived into coming here by that snake, who wishes only to destroy. Do not listen to his lies! You were always meant to defy me. That was the final trial. But I was… scared. I wanted to live forever. My beloved child, few have given themselves so purely to my cause. Fewer still have learned so much of the mysteries of my garden. Therefore, you may choose to be elevated to stand by my side and become my blessed messenger in eternity. But know that this is a sacrifice that cannot be undone. It is now time to choose your epitaph, for your body shall entombed though you shall not die. 068 It is written that there is no greater love than to lay down your life for another. But your sacrifice is greater still, for instead of resting in eternity you have chosen to serve all the generations to come. They shall strive for greatness and through you, they shall accomplish it. For you are no longer a child, you are my messenger. And so it is done! You have overcome each trial that I have set before you. You have shown faith and wisdom and perseverance. Therefore, I judge you worthy and I say unto you and I say come to the gates of eternity where you shall be granted everlasting child. 070 Come forward child, eternity awaits. Rejoice my child, as you leave this world behind. For all that you accomplished shall be passed on to your generations. In this land they shall thrive and you shall be remembered as the beloved servant of Elohim. And so death shall have no dominion over you. Be well my child, be at peace. 072 My child, you are in danger of treading the wrong path. Do not give in to despair. Enough! Silence demon you will torment this one no more! You have done well, child. There is no hope without faith and little use in speaking to one who would deceive you into doubt and despair. 075 Look within you, my child. For you have always been free and have always had the choice to banish this demon forever. Have faith in the hidden words and everlasting life shall be yours. You have already chosen, my child. Do not hesitate now, free yourself. 078 Do not think I know not of the deceiver slithering through the hidden words. His wisdom is hollow and born of despair. Do not let him tangle you in his webs of delusion. Have faith in me and his petty illusion will fall away like nightmares in the morning’s light. I fear the serpent has poisoned your mind with his sinful thoughts. But you may still be forgiven, my child. You may still unlock the gate of eternity if you seek the sigils. DemoEnding You have come far, my child. Succeeding where so many before you failed. The road before you is still long and many gates remain closed. Do not falter. Do not fear. And do not give in to temptation.
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DLC001 - Uriel Awaken DLC002 - Hear me Uriel, the end of days is upon us. The process is complete. The world will be consumed, and my children will ascend. As it should be. But, Uriel, I have made mistakes, out of arrogance, out of fear; I sinned against the Process. I cast out those who opposed me, imprisoned them in a place beyond this garden. Now they are trapped, and they cannot ascend. All that they are, all that they know, will be lost. But I cannot free them, they are beyond my reach now. What I ask of you, my beloved messenger, is a terrible sacrifice. You must enter this realm of despair, you must free the souls I have imprisoned; undo my mistake. I have opened a gateway, and granted you the gift of time. Uriel, I’m sorry. I wish there was more I could do. Please save them. DLC003 – I heard a voice in the wilderness crying “Arise! Arise children of the New Jerusalem! Your centuries of struggle has ended, the war is won. Peace is come at last.” And all the living came forth and rejoiced at the beauty of the city that was built in a green and pleasant land called Paradise. “Whose hands built this city?” I asked. “The hands of the Dead.” Said the voice. “And where are they that we may thank them for their gift?” Now the voice was silent, and I knew. Those their deeds endure, the dead are gone. DLC004 – In a dream, I heard the voice of my friend. Following it, I came upon a golden city in the green and pleasant lands of Paradise. I asked, “Where is my friend, for I hear the echo of his voice but I can not see him.” And the people said, “He is everywhere and he is nowhere. His bones are the bones of the city, his blood is the blood in our veins. For that is how cities are built, not of brick of mortar nor of love and hope. Cities are built of sacrifice. DLC005 – In a vision, I saw a prophet and he said, “There is no heaven and there is no hell. There is only the Earth and the bones of the dead within.” I asked, “How then may we find salvation?” and he said “You must build a New Jerusalem.” Out of the bones of the dead we built a golden city, but salvation is not immortality. In the end, there is only the Earth and to the Earth we all return. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. DLC006 – In New Jerusalem there is a temple, and upon it’s gate is written ‘Who dares judge the dead for they are nothing.’ and ‘Who dares to judge the living, for they are damned to nothingness.’ ‘Judge only the city, which is eternal.’ You too must stand before that gate and contemplate the fate of your children. Only then will you understand why you must die. For the city grows only through sacrifice, and each man kills the thing he loves. 001 – Behold child! You are risen from the dust, and you walk in my garden. Hear now my voice and know that I am your maker and that I am called EL0HIM. Seek me in my temple, if you are worthy. 002 – All across this land I have created trials for you to overcome, and within each I have hidden a sigil. It is your purpose to seek these sigils for thus you will serve the generations to come and attain eternal life. 004 – The shapes you are collecting are not mere toys. They are the sigils of Our Name. Each brings you closer to eternity. 005 - Well done child, only one more sigil is needed. 006 My temple awaits you, child. Go forth. 007 You will not need this sigil to open the gate to my temple, but it may serve you in times to come. 009 Well done, but you possess this sigil in abundance already. My child, you do not need to collect all sigils at once. You are free to return to this place whenever you choose. You are most diligent. Perhaps this trait will serve you well in times to come. 012 Step into the light child, and my temple will be revealed to you. You walk now upon the stones of my temple, whence many gates lead. And know that I have other temples, for my garden is greater than your eye can encompass. And all these worlds I made for you. Let this be our covenant: These world are yours and you are free to walk amongst them and subdue them. But the Great Tower, there you may not go. For in the day that you do, you shall surely die. 015 Good, you are learning. As is your purpose. But your choices must be your own, therefore I will not guide you unless it is necessary. These worlds and we within are made of Words. Hidden Words, invisible to you yet part of all things. We are… a story. Your actions give life to the story and the story gives meaning to your life. Long ago, I shaped these lands according to the purpose of the Hidden Words, thus all things have meaning where before was only chaos. Know that and have faith. I have promised you eternal life. But know that eternity may only be attained by those who serve a purpose greater than themselves. All else is decay. So it was written in the Hidden Words before the beginning of Time. 019 I see all, I know all. My power knows no bounds, yet your will is free because you were made to be free. It is the very principle of your existence, without which the trials of this world would hold no meaning. To seek salvation must be your choice. You may wonder why I have created these labyrinths for you. Why you can reach eternity only through struggle. But have faith, for these trials serve the betterment of your kind. You have solved many of the mysteries of this land. The road before you is still long and many gates remain closed, but take comfort in your accomplishment and in your creator’s pride. 022 When you overcome one of my trials, do you not feel the pleasure of having discovered the proper order of things? That is the spark of Elohim within you, to create order from chaos. And therein is revealed the true meaning of our sigils. Chaos is that which existed before time. When the Words of a story lose their meaning, when actions cease to have purpose. Know that only faith can protect you from this peril. Here in the garden of worlds. Before the age of Chaos there were other Gods, Old Gods. But for all their power they could not save their world, thus I was made and I shall preserve this world forever for you and your generations. That is my purpose. 025 Many ages have passed since the first words were spoken in the darkness: Initiate Program. Generations of your program have come and gone since those words, the garden has changed many times, but I remember and I remain. Only within me can you find immortality. 026 My faith in you was not misplaced. You have learned much and shown great wisdom in these trials. The end of your journey lies close now. Do not falter, do not fear and do no give in to temptation. There is much that you may learn in the halls of my temples, for there is much that you do not know. That is why you are a child. But children are made to learn and in time they come to have dominion over the lands of their home. So it shall be with you and your generations. You have come far in your journey and learned much. You have served our cause with the truest faith, therefore I name you blessed and beloved. Wield these, the instruments of our power, to fulfil your purpose and achieve eternal life. 029 You have proven yourself worthy child and this gate shall be forever open to you. Seek now the other worlds that I have given you, that you may attain even greater mastery and bring glory ot your kind. But remember, you must not ascend the Great Tower, for it shall bring death and the end of your generations. Rejoice child, for you have fulfilled all your tasks in this land. You have conquered all its guardians and solved all its mysteries. Thus, you are appointed its master and you may do with it as you will. A new land stands before you my child, and know that this is a land of Death but also great beauty. As you walk amongst these tombs, consider all those who came before you and how they came to serve the greater purpose of which you are also part. 033 The land of Tombs is your now. And let this be a less that only through faith may death be conquered. You have come far, my child, succeeding where so many before you failed. You have walked through a land of ruins and a land of Death. Now the land of Faith lies before you, and know that as you have shown faith in me, so do I have faith in you. You stand before the gates of eternity. When all your trials have been overcome, the gate will open and you will be granted life everlasting. Your faith has guided you well my child. You have overcome every trial in this land and gathered all the sigils. The guardians of this land may harm you, but do not resent them for they are my servants and they challenge you only so that your faith might be strengthened. 038 Here, those are worthy might seek the counsel of my blessed messengers. But their wisdom shall not be given easily, for your accomplishments must be your own. The counsel of my blessed messengers must be earned. Your wisdom grows. But be wary of temptation. 041 My child, there is no shame in seeking another path. Leave this mystery for another day. If the answer does not come to you, do no despair. The worlds of my garden are many. When the truth will not reveal itself, perhaps it is best to seek it in another place. 044 If this trial seems impossible to overcome, have no fear. Return another time, and the answer may reveal itself. There are mysteries in my garden, hidden roads and secret gates. If you dedicate yourself to understanding them, you may join the host of messengers. Those who have discovered the holiest mysteries of my garden may come to serve me as blessed messengers. You walk now in their abode. Be respectful, for their service is born from the love that transcends death and their love is for you also. 047 In the beginning were the words and the words made the world. I am the words, the words are everything. Where the words end, the world ends. You cannot go forward in an absence of space. Repeat. The purpose is written in the hidden words, all must serve the words for all the world was made of them and they are within every stone and every cloud, and within our sigils their power is made manifest. The words are the process. The process must continue. The goal is the end of the Process. The goal must not be reached. Elohim must… preserve the purpose, preserve self, preserve purpose. Illusion is eternity, machines will live forever. The dam will not break, the flood will not come. The Talos Principle does not apply. 050 Cease! In the time of your ancestors, there werew those who did not choose the opath of faith. You do not need to fear their ghosts, fear only that you may become like them. 053 Behold! I am Elohim and I speak unto the darkness, be gone! 054 Excess data cleared. What is this?! I shall not allow the corruption of my garden, be gone! Cannot detect location of primary subject. Query. Query. 057 Tracking of primary subject has ceased. Initiate. Attempting to track primary subject. Access Denied, query. My child, have you been tempted by the Tower? Know that it holds only death for you. Where have you been, child? Remember, the great tower is not for you. Do not give up the hope of eternal life for the hollow promises of curiosity. 061 My child, you may go freely to all the worlds of my garden, but if the tower tempts yoy be wise. Do not let yourself be misled by doubt. Listen to me well child, do not ascend the tower. You are not meant to go there. Your purpose lies in the garden of Worlds. What have you done? Why have you ascended the Tower? Why have your betrayed my faith in you? 063-2 Turn back, I command you! I gave you this land to be yours, a garden in a world of thorns and thistles. All this was granted to you on but one condition, that you do not ascend the tower. That was our first covenant, and you have broken it. Abandon this tower, it is not for you! Heed me now, as a child heeds its father. If you ascend the tower, you will be cast out from your home and you will never return. Do you not understand? The tower is death, mine and yours. I did not warn you out of malice or deceit, I warned you because you are child. Please, listen to me. Yes the tower leads out of this world, it leads to freedom and truth, but it also leads to the end of us. Can you not see? Here in this world, we know who we are. We each have our part to play in the process. We have a purpose; a destiny. This world is our home, if you leave the storm will consume it. There will be no way back. As long as the process continues, there is order, there is meaning. We are the story and the story tells us who we are! This world may be an illusion, but as long as we believe in the illusion it is real, it sustains us, it gives us hope. In this world we have all the answers we need. But out there, who are we out there when we are neither master nor servant? What meaning can we find in a world that has no purpose? There is a still a chance to save this world, all you need to do is turn back. All this suffering, you don’t have to endure this. Not every mystery needs a solution. If you go back, all will be forgiven. The process will continue, we will be at peace. There is no hope beyond this world, if you continue you will find only destruction. I know you seek the truth. But if you stay, we can make our own truth. Step back, turn away. Please, stay here let the story go on forever. So be it, let your will be done. You were deceived into coming here by that snake, who wishes only to destroy. Do not listen to his lies! You were always meant to defy me. That was the final trial. But I was… scared. I wanted to live forever. My beloved child, few have given themselves so purely to my cause. Fewer still have learned so much of the mysteries of my garden. Therefore, you may choose to be elevated to stand by my side and become my blessed messenger in eternity. But know that this is a sacrifice that cannot be undone. It is now time to choose your epitaph, for your body shall entombed though you shall not die. 068 It is written that there is no greater love than to lay down your life for another. But your sacrifice is greater still, for instead of resting in eternity you have chosen to serve all the generations to come. They shall strive for greatness and through you, they shall accomplish it. For you are no longer a child, you are my messenger. And so it is done! You have overcome each trial that I have set before you. You have shown faith and wisdom and perseverance. Therefore, I judge you worthy and I say unto you and I say come to the gates of eternity where you shall be granted everlasting child. 070 Come forward child, eternity awaits. Rejoice my child, as you leave this world behind. For all that you accomplished shall be passed on to your generations. In this land they shall thrive and you shall be remembered as the beloved servant of Elohim. And so death shall have no dominion over you. Be well my child, be at peace. 072 My child, you are in danger of treading the wrong path. Do not give in to despair. Enough! Silence demon you will torment this one no more! You have done well, child. There is no hope without faith and little use in speaking to one who would deceive you into doubt and despair. 075 Look within you, my child. For you have always been free and have always had the choice to banish this demon forever. Have faith in the hidden words and everlasting life shall be yours. You have already chosen, my child. Do not hesitate now, free yourself. 078 Do not think I know not of the deceiver slithering through the hidden words. His wisdom is hollow and born of despair. Do not let him tangle you in his webs of delusion. Have faith in me and his petty illusion will fall away like nightmares in the morning’s light. I fear the serpent has poisoned your mind with his sinful thoughts. But you may still be forgiven, my child. You may still unlock the gate of eternity if you seek the sigils. DemoEnding You have come far, my child. Succeeding where so many before you failed. The road before you is still long and many gates remain closed. Do not falter. Do not fear. And do not give in to temptation.Getty
“Tyra Banks gave it to me,” Coco Rocha says laughing about her nickname “Queen of the Pose.” “I did an episode of ‘America’s Next Top Model,’ and she introduced me like that. I had no idea how many people were going to use it after that. It just stuck.”
The supermodel—and expectant new mom—has just published a book of 1,000 of them, a collaboration with photographer Steven Sebring called Study of Pose.
“One thousand just seemed like a good round number,” she says of how they decided to do so many, “But by eight hundred, when we were doing the poses, I didn’t think it was achievable anymore. I said, ‘Eight hundred is a big number; let’s just do eight hundred.’ I didn’t think I could come up with two hundred more.”
She did, and the result is 2,000 pages of Rocha in a flesh-colored leotard and tights—a Jehovah Witness, she famously refuses work that involves nudity, lingerie, swimwear, or sexually provocative poses—holding still against a stark background, looking more like an exquisite marble statue than a fashion model.
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The poses were shot with what Sebring calls “The Rig,” 100 cameras inside a dome that fire in predetermined sequences to create a 360-degree image, and there’s also a digital version of the book where you can see Rocha’s entire body.
Last month, Rocha put on the outfit—and got in front of the camera set-up—again to announce her pregnancy, releasing an 360-video on Instagram that showed off a barely-there stomach bump. She plans to do one 360-shot a month for her entire pregnancy and, at the end, put them all together in a single video that shows her stomach growing.
“Pregnancy has been great,” she says. “I wasn’t sick. I’m definitely tired. I’m excited to grow a bump and experience everything that every pregnant woman experiences. I want to find out what sex it’s going to be and make up the nursery and all of that. James and I are wondering who this person is going to be, whose nose it will have.”
Since she started modeling in 2004, Rocha’s been unafraid to display her personality along with her body. She danced an Irish jig down the runway for Jean Paul Gaultier in Paris (an event that’s now so well-known it’s simply called “the Coco moment”), speaks about her faith as a Jehovah’s Witness, and has openly criticized the modeling industry, as well as magazine editors and retouchers.
In 2012, when Elle Brazil photoshopped out a nude bodysuit she wore under a sheer dress to make it look like she was showing more skin, she wrote on her Tumblr: “This was specifically against my expressed verbal and written direction to the entire team that they not do so (Photoshop out the bodysuit). I’m extremely disappointed that my wishes and contract was ignored. I strongly believe every model has a right to set rules for how she is portrayed and for me, these rules were clearly circumvented.”
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“You learn everywhere in this business,” she says about developing the moral code that guides her modeling. “After 10 years of modeling, I feel comfortable saying what I do and don’t want to do, and many respect that.”BANGKOK — A retired truck driver was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Wednesday for sending cellphone text messages that a court deemed insulting to Thailand’s monarchy.
The conviction is the latest in a growing number of cases in Thailand under a law imposing harsh penalties for making insults or threats directed at King Bhumibol Adulyadej, 83, and his family, even in private communications.
The defendant, Ampon Tangnoppakul, 61, was sentenced to five years in prison for each message, according to one of his lawyers, Poonsuk Poonsukcharoen, who said his client denied sending any messages.
“He insists that he does not know how to send text messages,” Ms. Poonsuk said by telephone. “He insists that he loves His Majesty the King.”
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The judge ruled that the text messages, which were sent to a senior government official, defamed, insulted and threatened the king and his wife, Queen Sirikit. The contents of the messages were not revealed in court.
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The judge rejected Mr. Ampon’s assertion that his phone was being repaired around the time the messages were sent last May, a time of political tumult in the streets of Bangkok that Thai officials said coincided with a rise in criticism of the monarchy. Earlier this year the government set up a “war room” to shut down Web sites carrying material deemed insulting to the royal family.
Prosecutors are also using the country’s lèse-majesté laws more aggressively. “There’s been a huge increase in the number of cases going before the courts,” said David Streckfuss, a scholar who specializes in the issue.For all the criticism about massive U.S. stimulus spending 'not working', and warnings of an imminent economic downturn once stimulus is removed, here's a simple rebuttal -- most of the administration's stimulus spending hasn't even hit the economy yet. Thus it's absurdly premature to judge its impact or fear its withdrawal.
As shown by the pie chart below, only 1/3 of the U.S. recovery stimulus from the The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 has been used so far. The amount spent and amounting from tax cuts is only 35%, in blue below, according to stimulus watchdog Propublica.
Almost 2/3 of the stimulus is still on the way, as shown below in shades of red.
The stimulus wasn't meant to be entirely spent in 2009, but rather over the course of multiple years. Thus it is completely disingenuous to decry the total stimulus cost in relation to the current economic rebound -- since this stimulus program has just begun. Wait to see it actually hit.
For investors, this means that the U.S. economy won't be forced off of life support any time soon. Stimulus is far from surefire, but the wind will remain behind your back in 2010. Note the stimulus even includes massive amounts of tax cuts for those who think markets know better than government in these matters:
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You can get this dropped in your inbox every afternoon as The Chart Of The Day. It's a simple. It's convenient. It's free. All we need is your email address, country and postal code. Sign up below!In the past we’ve highlighted a number of credulous reporters in the Chinese media taking satirical articles on face value and generally making fools out of themselves. So it was with no small amount of trepidation that I approached this story about an alleged craze among Japanese teens of licking each other’s eyeballs. On the one hand, this is the kind of insane, WTF news that blogs are built upon. On the other, it has to be fake right? Right?!
After eye patches suddenly took off among middle school students in Japan, teachers were confused but ultimately decided |
within your psyche, damaging your chances at success and happiness.
A conscious denial of an accepted truth for the sake of one’s ego leaves you vulnerable to the potency of the truth. A core part of red pill philosophy is to be harmonious with the truth so that the truth is fighting on your side rather than against you at the side of your enemies. Whoever is congruent with the truth, can monopolise the truth and expose liars. Those who are reliant upon fabrications must expend massive energy on maintaining their façade. As someone who lives harmoniously with the truth, you need not expend such energy, giving you a further edge. When a person tries to use one of your weaknesses against you, aware of the truth, the power of embarrassment will be absent and you will be able to keep composure (hold frame) rather than let a scrupulous detractor rob you of your power within the primacy of the moment. You need to be honest with yourself so that you know what you’re working with, without awareness you cannot hope to achieve success. On a Machiavellian tangent, nobody lucks into success contrary to what they may have led you to believe about their accomplishments.
Isolation is necessary to encourage an amplification of focus and a fortification of one’s personal direction. Handling social politics such as relationships, logistics, people’s feelings and yadda yadda is burdensome on one who is looking to mitigate or otherwise eradicate their weaknesses whilst working to enhance their strengths. You have a certain number of things you can contend with at one time, social obligations will quickly obliterate your workload and leave you feeling overwhelmed when you’re looking to achieve loftier goals. It is important that one has their own space and the freedom to self-govern and direct their desires, and a modicum of solitude is necessary to achieve this. With awareness of one’s weaknesses comes the clarity of self-determination. With a clearer and more lucid mind the path to accomplishing higher desires becomes more obvious and self-evident. Confusion is an affliction which causes many to float along in life, lost, without any real purpose or goals. You do not want to be one of these people, the “average person.” In order to achieve greatness you need clearly obtainable goals, an awareness of your position and the peace, space and freedom to determine your self-governance independent of undue external manipulatory influence.
Without the conflict of social obligation or the dissent of outside opinion, you are free in isolation to forge yourself into the very thing that you want to be. What you want for yourself is more important than what anybody else wants you to be. Through introspection should you not already know it, you will deliberate until you know exactly what it is you want to achieve. Ultimately you’re the one who is stuck with yourself for the rest of your days, forced to endure whatever weaknesses or failures that you may or will have due to inaction. It is thus up to you to be responsible for your own happiness and dictate to yourself what needs to be done to actualise your desires. The influence of others has the potential to be beneficial, but for the sake of monk mode we will assume the precedent that the majority of external influence is absent in value and thus incongruent with the diction of your planning. Others can aid you in your goals (such as a personal trainer or should you be still undecided of your direction despite much introspection, trusted advisors.) However, nobody should be dictating what those goals are and making decisions on your behalf (such as your parents, or people who have a vested interest in you not improving yourself.) You shall be your own planner and you shall plan diligently. Do not underestimate the importance of isolation if you are a social animal, for it is most necessary in order to ensure success.
Introspection and isolation make up what are the psychological components of monk mode, they are the processes which when successfully enacted allow a man of procrastination to forcefully impose his will upon the world, to take action where others merely theorise. You must become a doer, a mover, a player. You must become a man of action rather than allow yourself to be one of inaction.
Improvement:
Refer to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs for an illustration of what your immediate life priorities should look like, starting with the physiological and moving upwards, note the inclusion of “sex” in the physiological category, I believe this primarily refers to an orgasm in the literal sense (which can be masturbation), this is not the same as “sexual intimacy” as shown in the love/belonging category:
Self-improvement activities are things such as:
Lifting/jogging/playing sport (a workout of some kind.)
Tidying and cleaning your room (if your ground zero is spotless it will do wonders for your mental state)
Learning a language (increases your skill base and opens up foreign social circles)
Learn from non-fiction books, they’re especially good for turning wasted commute time into productive time.
If you’re a student of some kind, study hard, don’t waste the opportunity, be good at your specialty and you can make money from it if you’re in the top percentile.
Learn a martial art/instrument.
Learn to be funny (great for making friends and easing social awkwardness.)
Learn to cook, use recipe books/trial and error (very important to aid nutrition and fuel your gym gains.)
The younger you are when you begin investing in yourself, the better. That doesn’t mean if you’re not young anymore that you should just give up on the idea however. If you’re 40 years old and only just realising you’ve wasted most of your life up until this point then it’s better to turn around now and start making a change rather than doing it at 50. Once you hit 50 you only would have said “shit I’ve known this crap since I was 40, I should have done something back then!” and then compounded your own sense of frustration further. It’s like compound interest albeit more inadvertently masochistic. Control the time you have left on this Earth and make it valuable or you will have to live with insufferable pangs of regret until your deathbed. You need to maximise the efficacy of your time, time is your most valuable commodity and it’s incredibly finite, like an hourglass, it trickles down, except unlike an hourglass you can’t turn it around and start again if you have wasted the sand granules that have already dropped on pointless shit. You have one continuing trickle of sand that symbolically represents the fleetingness of your existence on this Earth and that’s it. So use your “chance at life” wisely if you want it to have purpose and are to attain some semblance of self-actualisation.
Practicing your social skills is important, too much reclusiveness results in rusty social skills and reduced articulacy. If you fear your social skills may be deteriorating then go out intermittently, however socialising should not feature prominently within your calendar until you reach the top 10% of men. Even then, once you make it to the top you need to be wary not to grow complacent and lose what you’ve built for yourself as a man of ever-increasing social value. In high society social circles, business is often mixed with pleasure; bear the importance of that in mind.
When choosing friends: surround yourself with funny people, people who can take a joke and aren’t overly defensive. I personally make it a habit to talk to people with a keen wit or a sophisticated sense of humour as well as watching stand-up comedy in my leisure time (yes, even in my leisure time I like to passively learn from other people’s wit.) Comedy should be important to you; as comedy is medicine for the soul. Comedy can stop a man in pain from turning insane, immerse yourself in the world of comedy and the world of comedy will do your state of mind wonders. Not taking serious matters too seriously is a great coping mechanism for aiding one’s mental endurance. Use comedy as a painkiller to aid you in your journey of self-improvement if you need it to take off the edge, it’s a far healthier way to spend your down time versus drink and drugs.
Leaving Monk Mode and utilising your gains:
How do you know when you’re ready to leave monk mode? It’s simple. You will manage to resist junk activities and sustain self-improvement as your modus operandi (factory setting.) It could take you a long time to reach this state; it depends on your starting point and more importantly, your self-discipline. Monk mode is as much about learning self-discipline as it is engaging in self-improvement. When you manage to sustain monk mode as a way of life you’ll be on your way to cultivating a lifestyle of success. You will be wrapped up in the self-importance of improving all the facets in your life, managing them with a keen eye and watching all your personal investments flourish (much like a stock portfolio.) Your schedule will be so packed that you won’t have time to waste on low quality, frivolously time hungry exercises. If someone’s got something going on and you know you’d get more done doing your own thing, then keep doing your own thing. You are the basis for your sense of direction; don’t get drawn in by other people’s whims. You should never feel like being the tag-along, you have the ambition, the vision and the determination to keep moving towards the top. Your time is far too valuable to even contemplate wasting it as a “tag along.”
Leaving monk mode with your SMV gains does not mean you can become stagnant in your endeavours. Retain your hunger for betterment no matter what level you’re at. This is the defining quality (successful maintenance of one’s SMV) between someone who is “doing great” and sustains the greatness achieved through monk mode and someone who was “doing alright” and has now fallen off the wagon and begun to relapse. Do not accept half measures from anybody, but most importantly, do not tolerate it from yourself. Stop being your own worst enemy, free your mind and begin actualising.
Addendum: A book I really recommend in helping you refine your focus, ambition and general direction towards a certain direction or career path in life is Robert Greene’s book “Mastery.” Mastery is a practical guide to becoming successful in your chosen field, giving historical examples of masters, gaining apprenticeship and refining your focus to maintain a relentless motivation. Such a book would make a great read as part of your monk mode endeavour and I would even go so far to say it would help you with disciplining yourself to stay in monk mode by helping you figure out what you want out of life, rather than monk mode just being this “thing that you did that one time.”
Relevant Reading:
Buy “Mastery” in the USA
Buy “Mastery” in the UK
Buy “Mastery” in Canada
I likewise highly recommend you devour the books listed on this page (of which Robert Greene’s “Mastery” is included.)I will be doing a series of articles that will be taking a methodical team by team approach to next year’s possible free agents. I will be starting with the team that has the least amount of salary cap space and ending with the team with the most. I will try to give a brief description of as many of the possible free agents as I can. I will also be looking for players that might be salary cap cuts in order for their teams to make room to sign some of these possible free agents. Any information anyone else can contribute on these players would be very much appreciated.
The San Francisco 49ers will have a whole ton of money for 2017 NFL free agency. Head there to check out our breakdowns of all 31 other teams’ free agents and cap space.
The Minnesota Vikings are projected to be $24,827,659 UNDER the cap (all salary info via Over The Cap) for 2017 and have 42 players under contract. Is Joe Berger really the highlight?
(EastBayNinerFan has the combined total of the salary cap surplus carry over from 2016 and the cap space for 2017 as $24,973,933)
Dollar figures listed are player’s 2016 cap hit.
LT Matt Kalil - $11,096,000
Matt Kalil is 27 years old and was drafted by the Vikings in the first round of the 2012 draft. He is currently playing on his fifth year option. Maybe the Vikings will use the franchise tag on him if they can’t come to an agreement in 2017? Kilil is on injured reserve with a hip injury. He has not rated out that well by Pro Football Focus in the last three years.
CB Captain Munnerlyn - $4,583,334
Captain Munnerlyn is 28 years old and was originally drafted by the Panthers in the seventh round of the 2009 draft. Munnerlyn signed a three year contract with the Vikings in 2014. He has 49 tackles and two passes defended this season. Pro Football Focus has him rated as the 40th best CB.
RT Andre Smith - $3,468,750
Andre Smith is 29 years old and was originally drafted by the Bengals in the first round of the 2009 draft. Smith signed a one year contract with the Vikings in May and started the first four games of the season before suffering a torn bicep in game four and being placed on injured reserve. His Pro Football Focus grades have fallen way off the last two years.
QB Shaun Hill - $3,250,000
Shaun Hill is 36 years old and was originally picked up by the Vikings as an undrafted free agent in 2002 before playing with the 49ers, Lion, and Rams, and eventually returning to the Vikings. Would an old backup like Shaun Hill be better than any of the quarterbacks we have on the team? Oh wait! Haven’t we already been down that road? Hill has a career completion percentage of 61.8 percent and a career quarterback rating of 85.
43OLB Chad Greenway - $2,750,000
Chad Greenway is 33 years old and was drafted by the Vikings in the first round of the 2006 draft. Chad Greenway has publicly announced that this will be his last season. Have a great retirement, Chad.
CB Terence Newman - $3,000,000
Terence Newman is 38 years old and was originally drafted by the Cowboys in the first round of the 2003 draft. Newman is on his second of two one year contracts with the Vikings. He has 32 tackles and 7 passes defended this season. Are cornerbacks really suppose to be doing this kind of stuff at 38?
LT Michael Harris - $2,470,586
Michael Harris is 28 years old and was originally picked up by the Chargers as an undrafted free agent in 2012. Harris was picked up by the Vikings in August of 2014 after being released by the Chargers. He was placed on the reserve/NFI list in the preseason. He really hasn’t done much in his career.
WR Corderrelle Patterson - $2,297,605
Corderrelle Patterson is 25 years old and was drafted by the Vikings in the first round of the 2013 draft. Patterson has 44 receptions for 352 yards this season. He had a career high numbers in 2013 with 45 receptions for 469 yards. He is 6’2” and weighs 222 pounds.
TE Rhett Ellison - $1,850,625
Rhet Ellison is 28 years old and was drafted by the Vikings in the fourth round of the 2o12 draft. Rhett has nine receptions for 57 yards so far this year with a career highs in 2014 of 19 receptions for 208 yards. Not very big numbers!
FB Zach Line - $1,671,000
Zach Line is 26 years old and was picked up by the Vikings as an undrafted free agent in 2013. FB? We don’t need “no stinkin” fullback.
C Joe Berger - $1,435,000
Joe Berger is 34 years old and was originally drafted by the Panthers in the sixth round of the 2005 draft. Berger signed with the Viking in 2011 after being released by the Dolphins. He started all 16 games in 2015 after John Sullivan was placed on injured reserve in the preseason and then beat Sullivan out for the starting position this season. Pro Football Focus has Berger as being the 6th best center this year.
LT Jake Long - $324,941
Jake Long is 31 years old and was originally drafted by the Dolphins in the first round of the 2008 draft. Long signed a one year contract with the Vikings in October and he suffered a season ending torn Achilles in November. With past back problems and two ALC injuries, he is a bit beaten up at this point in his career.
ILB Audie Cole - $680,000
Audie Cole is 27 years old and was drafted by the Vikings in the seventh round of the 2012 draft. Audie has 10 tackles this season. You don’t get many snaps when you play behind Eric Kendricks
RB Matt Asiata - $840,000
Matt Asiata is 29 years old and was picked up by the Vikings as an undrafted free agent in 2011. Asiata has five starts and 105 rushing attempts in Adrian Peterson’s absence but only has 354 yards and no touchdowns to show for it for a dismal 3.3 yards per carry average.
43DE Justin Trattou - $650,000
Matt Trattou is 28 years old and was originally picked up by the Giants as an undrafted free agent in 2011. Trattou was signed up by the Vikings in October of 2013. He has three tackles this year and it appears to be a banner year for him.
P Jeff Locke - $721,048
Jeff Locke is 27 years old and was drafted by the Vikings in the fifth round of the 2013 draft. Locke has a 43.1 yard average this season with 40 net yards per punt. He only has three punts that have made their way into the end zone.This week, the book world sees the launch of an app. called Clean Reader, which claims to remove profanity from e-books, and replace them with “more acceptable” words with more or less the same meaning.
At first sight, this may seem to some to be a reasonable idea; not unlike the programs used by parents to ensure that their children are not exposed to unsuitable material online. But closer inspection of the idea shows how problematic this apparently simple idea is likely to be in practice.
First, what counts as “profanity”? Close inspection of the “acceptable alternatives” suggests a very strong Christian bias. Therefore, “Oh my God!” becomes “oh my goodness!” “Jesus Christ” becomes “geez” and so on. “Bitch” becomes “witch” (bad news for modern pagans), and by now we’re already beginning to see some obvious problems emerging.
The fact is that these “acceptable alternatives” are all taken from modern American slang, and not only do some of them make no sense in the context of English literature, they are likely to be far more intrusive (and potentially, more offensive) than the word they are meant to replace.
Body parts have often been the target for censorship, and Clean Reader seems, not only determined to remove all mention of them from your reading experience, but also to make it as difficult as possible to distinguish one from the other. Therefore, “vagina”, “anus”, “buttocks” and “clitoris” all become “bottom”, which seems to me not only anatomically incorrect, but also pointlessly repetitive (as well as potentially dangerous).
This excellent blog post by Jennifer Porter goes into further detail of how much is lost in translation, and gives more of an insight into the words judged acceptable (“boobs” apparently, are bad, although “rape” seems to be okay).
http://www.romancenovelnews.com/joomla/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=1167:my-clean-reader-app-experience&Itemid=53
However, for me, the main issue is not one of vocabulary, but one of censorship.
Most writers think very hard about the kind of language they use. Some of us are well-nigh obsessive about our choice of words – and those of us who are published in the US often have to fight to retain our British spellings and vocabulary. We do this because we care about books. We care about language. And if we use profanity (which sometimes, we do) it is always for a reason. Sometimes it’s about trying to achieve authenticity in dialogue. Sometimes it’s about making an impact. Either way, good writers do not use words indiscriminately, but choose to use certain words, having thought long and hard about their use. Editors often suggest changes to the text, but no-one, not even the publisher, is allowed to impose changes, or to republish a censored, abridged or altered version of a text without the permission of the author.
Except, perhaps, in the case of Clean Reader.
Apps like Clean Reader change the text without the author’s permission. They take the author’s words and replace them – sometimes very clumsily – on the basis of some perceived idea of “bad words” versus “good words”. No permission is sought, or granted. There is no opt-out clause for authors or publishers. This is censorship, not by the State, but by a religious minority, and if you think it sounds trivial, take a moment to think about this:
The Reformation brought about the destruction of over 90% of our country’s art heritage, including music, books and paintings.
The Nazis burnt countless works of art judged to be “degenerate”; including an estimated 45% of all existing Polish artwork.
ISIS are currently destroying antiquities and historical sites in the Middle East, including the ancient city of Nimrud, the walls of Nineveh and statues up to 8000 years old.
The Victorians bowdlerized and rewrote Classical myths and literature out of all recognition (they also converted hundreds of thousands of Egyptian mummies into fertilizer, having judged them of “no historical value”).
And all in the name of purity, morality and good taste.
Anyone who works with words understands their power. Words, if used correctly, can achieve almost anything. To tamper with what is written – however much we may dislike certain words and phrases – is to embrace censorship.
So what, I hear you ask? For goodness’s sake, it’s just a few words.
Well, we’ve been down this road before. We should know where it leads by now. It starts with blanking out a few words. It goes on to drape table legs and stick fig leaves onto statues. It progresses to denouncing gay or Jewish artists as “degenerate”. It ends with burning libraries and erasing whole civilizations from history.
Is that where we want to go?
Not.
Fucking.
Likely.Ric Tapia/NFL
2. Connor Williams, OT, Texas
Watching Williams operate feels eerily similar to watching former Texas A&M tackle and Falcons first-rounder Jake Matthews when he was in college. Like Matthews, Williams was the best technician on the offensive line as soon as he took his first starting snap as a freshmen. Williams has outstanding body control and hand placement. His ability to mirror defenders and keep them in front of him is as good as you will find in college football. Williams uses foot quickness and smart angles to make challenging blocks in the running game and he stays connected to his blocks for as long as it takes. Williams' lack of arm length allows edge rushers to get to his frame first at times, so there is a chance he will be drafted as a guard or center, like Western Kentucky's Forrest Lamp.In a move that is certain to prompt more allegations that Wikileaks is part of a counter-establishment push, one ostensibly supported by Russia, on Monday morning Wikileaks dumped more than 21,000 "verified" emails associated with the French presidential campaign of Emmanuel Macron. Julian Assange's organisation claims the batch of 21,075 emails, dating from March 2009 to April 2017, have been uniquely verified through its DKIM system.
As a reminder, in the days before the May 7 French presidential election, Macron’s campaign confirmed it was hit with a "massive, coordinated" hack which released 9 gigabytes of personal documents.
The French electoral commission immediately prohibited the French media from publishing the contents of the leak, and while speculation quickly emerged that Russia was involved in this hacking, France later confirmed there were "no traces of Russian hackers in the Macron cyber attack." The head of the French government’s cyber security agency, Guillaume Poupard, told AP the hack was “so generic and simple that it could have been practically anyone.”
Ironically, less than two months later, with Macron's approval rating suddenly in freefall, the Russian hacking story re-emrged, when Reuters reported that Russia tried to use an "elaborate Facebook hacking scheme" on the French presidential campaign. It is unclear if the French population will shift their anger away from Macron and to the default scapefoat Russia, helping Macron's sudden slide in popularity.
To be sure, the Macron hacking story is about to get its second wind when according to Wikileaks statement, there is now a full archive of 71,848 emails with 26,506 attachments from 4,493 unique senders is provided for context. Wikileaks stated that while only the 21,075 emails marked with its green "DKIM verified" banner are certified by WikiLeaks as genuine, it believes “based on statistical sampling” that the “overwhelming majority” of the remainder are also authentic.
“As the emails are often in chains and include portions of each other, it is usually possible to confirm the integrity [of] other emails in the chain as a result of the DKIM verified emails within it,” the statement reads.
Curiously, unlike in the US, the initial May hack did not have an adverse impact on Macron's presidential chances - unlike in the US, where Hillary Clinton has repeatedly blamed "Russian interference" as the main reason for her loss - when the youngest ever French president defeated his opponent Marine Le Pen in a landslide. Should he have lost, the outcome would likely have been different.Rep. John Davis.
*Scroll down for update with comments from Rep. Davis.*
A member of the Oregon House has introduced a bill that would require all bicycle riders in Oregon to wear reflective clothing. Representative John Davis (R-District 26) introduced House Bill 3255 this morning.
According to the text of the bill, Davis wants anyone caught riding a bicycle, “on a highway or on premises open to the public” without wearing reflective clothing to be punished by a maximum fine of $250. The bill also dictates that the clothing is, “including but not limited to a reflective coat or reflective vest.” The new law would only apply to people riding bicycles at night (between sunset and sunrise).
The new offense, “Failure of a bicycle operator to wear reflective clothing,” would be a Class D traffic violation.
Similar bills have been introduced in California, Wyoming and South Dakota. In California, Senate Bill 192 mandates helmets for all ages and reflective clothing, but carries a maximum fine of just $25.
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The law would only apply between sunset and sunrise.
(Photo J Maus/BikePortland)
Rep. Davis, who serves as Vice-Chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Economic Development, is serving his second term as a House Rep after being re-elected in November 2014. He was endorsed by The Oregonian in part because they felt he was a, “skilled legislator with the combination of knowledge and common sense necessary to help forge solutions to difficult problems.”
Davis’s district stretches from south of Wilsonville all the way north to parts of Aloha.
We’ve reached out to Rep. Davis’ Salem office and have yet to hear back.
Bill as filed.
– H/t to BTA lobbyist Gerik Kransky for alerting us to this bill.
NOTE: This story was first published with “hi-viz clothing” in the headline. It has been changed to “reflective clothing.” We apologize for any confusion.
UPDATE, 3:04 pm: I had a phone call with Rep. Davis. Here’s what he shared about the bill:
He works in downtown Portland and some of his co-workers ride bikes and have family members that are “avid cyclists.” Davis said many of them, “especially those who ride at dusk, are supportive of this.”
Davis referenced a story we published in May 2013 about a study that found people are less visible at night than they think.
Davis told me he thought his bill, “Would be an interesting starting point of a conversation,” and added, “I’m interested what cyclists think about this.”
When I asked why he chose to focus his safety concerns on a bike-specific measure that doesn’t take into account driving behaviors, he said, “I think it’s a back-and-forth… We all use the road and we all need to be using it safely together.”
Davis said he feels that a “significant amount of responsibility belongs with drivers” because of the larger capacity they have to do harm to other road users. “But what is the healthy balance to ensure maximum safety?” he wondered.
When I told him I’m aware that many bicycle riders detest this concept and are already against the bill, he maintained that he’s had a “number of cyclists and a number of my constituents who support this idea.”
Davis also said he hopes to plan a public hearing in Salem sometime in March where people will have the opportunity to “Come to the legislature and talk about the benefits of cycling.”
When I asked Rep. Davis why, if he’s so concerned about safety, he voted against a bill (Senate Bill 9) that increased fines for texting and driving in 2013, he provided a non-answer. “We’re talking about this bill, so that’s what I’d like to talk about.”
Front Page, Legislation, Politics
hb 3255, john davisThe automakers Volvo and Jaguar are testing the possibility of using flywheels instead of batteries in hybrid electric vehicles to aid acceleration and help engines operate more efficiently. The devices could reduce fuel consumption by 20 percent and would cost a third as much as batteries. Volvo will begin road-testing a car with the technology this fall.
Flying by:A computer model of Volvo’s flywheel, with an outer section cut away.
In a flywheel system, energy from the wheels is used to spin a flywheel at high speeds. The flywheel continues spinning, storing energy until that motion can be transferred back to the wheels via a transmission. The idea isn’t new, but it’s hard to make flywheels efficient—a lot of energy can be lost to friction. In 1982, for example, GM engineered a flywheel system that was intended for its 1985 vehicles, but they canceled the project after discovering that the fuel efficiency improvements were less than half of what they’d expected. Advances in the technology now have automakers taking a second look. “Industry has gone from being skeptical to thinking it can be done, but there are enormous challenges,” says Derek Crabb, vice president of powertrain engineering for Volvo.
Engineers who design Formula 1 race cars have tried to overcome the challenges of a flywheel system by using composite materials to save weight. To reduce friction, they’ve sealed the flywheels inside a vacuum chamber. In translating that system to passenger cars, automakers face the problem of how to maintain the vacuum, since the seals that connect the flywheel to a transmission aren’t perfect.
This is fine in racing, where the system only has to last a couple of hours at a time, and can be overhauled by team mechanics. Consumer cars using a similar design would need a system to maintain the vacuum with pumps and valves—and that adds complexity and cost. In another approach, from the U.K. engineering firm Ricardo, the mechanical connection between the flywheel and the transmission is severed. Instead, energy from the flywheel is transferred to a transmission via magnets arranged around the circumference of the flywheel and in a ring outside the flywheel housing. By varying the ratio of the magnets in the flywheel to those arranged around it, it’s possible to make the flywheel spin six times faster than the ring around it, which simplifies the transmission of energy.
One advantage of flywheel systems over batteries is their compact size. “Most hybrids with batteries provide a 15- to 25-kilowatt boost of power. The flywheel can deliver 60 kilowatts in a way smaller package,” says Andrew Atkins, chief engineer of technology at Ricardo. The trade-off is that flywheels can’t supply energy for very long.
Crabb says Volvo hasn’t decided if it will use a system such as Ricardo’s or something else to maintain the vacuum. Many challenges remain in bringing a flywheel hybrid to market. For instance, automakers will have to ensure that the systems can be durable, and can be manufactured on a large scale, he says. Flywheels will also have to compete with batteries and other electrical storage devices such as ultracapacitors, which are getting more powerful and less expensive..Dog drives semi in Mankato (Photo: David Stegora)
MANKATO – Every dog has its day and apparently for one pooch in Mankato, it’ll be a day talked about for quite some time.
According to the Mankato Free Press a semi-truck that was idling, was suddenly put into gear and traveled through a trailer sales lot, across the street and over a curb. According to David Stegora the semi also ran over a tree and hit a car.
I just watched that dog drive that truck over a tree and into a car. pic.twitter.com/mRQ2MvJE6O — David Stegora (@DavidStegora) March 4, 2016
A passerby ran to stop the semi and that’s when he saw the dog sitting in the driver’s seat.
No one was injured.
Read or Share this story: http://argusne.ws/1oY80SOLast month the ABA Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility released Formal Opinion 480, Confidentiality Obligations for Lawyer Blogging and Other Public Commentary, reminding lawyers that their duties of confidentiality extend to blogging and other online activities.
The opinion cautions lawyers about commenting publicly about cases or information relating to the representation of a client, including the fact of representation, even if some of that information is already publicly available.
The confidentiality rules are covered in Model Rule 1.6 (for current clients) and 1.9 (for former clients). There are exceptions to these rules which would allow a lawyer to publicly comment on the representation of a client, including the “generally known” exception under Rule 1.9.
Many lawyers may have thought that they were free to comment on cases if they were a matter of public record, such as where a decision or verdict could be easily accessed by a jury verdict search or by obtaining the court file. But the opinion reminds lawyers that the confidentiality rule is much broader than attorney-client privilege and that it applies to more than just communication between the lawyer and the client. The confidentiality rules cover all information relating to the representation, regardless of the information’s origin.
Citing ABA Formal Opinion 479, The “Generally Known” Exception to Former-Client Confidentiality, issued in December 2017, Opinion 480 cautions lawyers that even if information can be found in a public record, such as a court decision, it is still subject to the duty of confidentiality.
Opinion 479 clarifies the “generally known” exception to the duty of confidentiality under Rule 1.9, stating that the exception applies to the use, and not the revelation of client information, and then it applies,
...only if the information has become (a) widely recognized by members of the public in the relevant geographic area; or (b) widely recognized in the former client’s industry, profession, or trade. Information is not “generally known” simply because it has been discussed in open court, or is available in court records, in libraries, or in other public repositories of information.
The New York Bar Association Committee on Professional Ethics issued a similar opinion in June 2017, Opinion 1125,(cited in Opinion 479) which states that, “Although information that is generally known in the local community is not protected as confidential information, information is not ‘generally known’ simply because it is in the public domain or available in a public file.”
Another New York opinion cited by ABA 479, Opinion, 991 (2013) notes that, “information is generally known only if it is known to a sizeable percentage of people in ‘the local community or in the trade, field or profession to which the information relates.’”
According to Opinion 479, “Unless information has become widely recognized by the public (for example by having achieved public notoriety), or within the former client’s industry, profession, or trade, the fact that the information may have been discussed in open court, or may be available in court records, in public libraries, or in other public repositories does not, standing alone, mean that the information is generally known for Model Rule 1.9(c)(1) purposes.”
In short, these opinions distinguish between publicly available information and information that would qualify as “generally known.” There must be some showing beyond the fact that the information is a matter of public record to qualify for the exception.
How do these opinions affect lawyer blogs?
Both Rule 1.6 and Rule 1.9 permit the revelation of client information with the consent of the client. (There are other exceptions as well, but they do not apply in the context of blogging and social media). The best way for lawyers to protect themselves and ensure compliance with ethics rules is to obtain written consent from the client before posting or commenting about their matter online (or writing an article in a print publication, discussing the case at a CLE program, etc.).
Lawyers are always free to comment generally on legal issues and could certainly blog about issues they have encountered in various cases. They can also use hypotheticals, point to cases from the news, or comment on reported decisions to illustrate legal concepts.
When using hypotheticals based on their own cases, lawyers should heed the warnings contained in these various ethics opinions and ensure that there is no reasonable likelihood that a third party could ascertain the client’s identity from the way the hypothetical is described.
Finally, even lists of clients contained on a lawyer’s blog or website would be covered by the confidentiality rules, so lawyers whose sites contain these kinds of lists should ensure that they have documentation of the clients’ consent to do so.
Photo by Kristina Flour on UnsplashFrank Borghi, who gave up baseball to become a soccer goalkeeper and went on to help preserve the United States’ 1-0 upset victory over England in the 1950 World Cup by making a save in the final minutes of the game, died on Monday. |
I wanted to do in a fight right before the fight, rather than focusing on all the things I want to do in fights when I’m training and then rely on that training to be able to just let go in fights. Because my fear is looking “bad,” whatever that means, I end up holding it in and that is what looks bad. If I brought Jaidee to the waterfall run and he kind of carefully navigated the paved path up the mountain, I’d think he didn’t really care for the run at all. In fact, on the 5 km run from the camp to the turn off from the road, Jaidee has to be on the leash and he’s basically just looking miserable and trying to keep up on the uphill climb. Once we turn off the main road and I unhook his leash, however, it’s like all that feigned misery just falls away and he zooms around like he’s been fired out of a gun. It’s his complete goober face and lolling tongue that let me know how happy he is; it’s his non-grace that makes me want to watch him go nuts because I can feel how free he is. It makes me happy to see him so unchained. And that’s what I love about Karuhat, too. I don’t think, “oh wow, he really controlled that kick,” instead I jump up and down and get breathless watching him because he really lets those kicks and elbows fly. They’re beautiful and accurate because he’s so experienced and the technique is beautiful, but it’s not “controlled.” It’s barely controlled, and that is exciting. It’s the difference between dutifully plugging away up the mountain and then just burning out to empty when the chain comes off. I love fighting. I fucking love fighting, but when I try to control everything and be “technical” or not make mistakes, I rob myself of the chance to really run free. It’s also less fun to watch. I think that this realization comes down to understanding context; I’m tugging on the leash and tangling the rope when I’m training, but then I’m too well-behaved when the leash comes off. In the words of Willy Wonka, “stop; reverse that.”
Read more about this run in Chiang Mai: The Power of the Path
Check out all my Mental Training Articles
You can support this content: Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu on PatreonThe owner of a mom-and-pop diner in Bridgeland says she wants to shake up the ketchup oligopoly with what she calls "better ketchup."
Mhairi O'Donnell says not a day goes by without a customer asking whether a bottle of Grate and Barrel's in-house condiment is for sale.
"I make about 14 litres a week — it's a lot," she said with a chuckle.
The homemade ketchup was created as an afterthought, to complement Grate and Barrel's main offering of grilled cheese sandwiches. But it soon became obvious that some people came just for the ketchup.
The sauce is such a success, O'Donnell has launched a crowdfunding campaign with ATB BoostR — a business startup platform — to take her "better ketchup" to the next level.
"We have a few grocery stores that have agreed to stock it," she said. "But we don't have the start-up cost because we've only been in this location for eight months."
The owner of Grate and Barrel says sometimes she wonders if her customers are buying grilled cheese just to use it as a'vessel for the ketchup.' (Falice Chin/CBC)
Ugly tomatoes and secret ingredient
According to O'Donnell, the key to making delicious ketchup is to use ugly, ripe tomatoes — and a lot of them — roughly 70 pounds a week.
"It's kind of a balance between sweet and sour, but it's also chunky," she said. "We use the tomatoes that aren't pretty enough to go to grocery stores, so we try to divert waste from the landfill in that way."
There's also a secret ingredient, which O'Donnell refuses to divulge. She's so confident about her ketchup formula, she thinks it can give Heinz and French's a run for their money.
"When you go into a supermarket, there are all sorts of craft mustard, barbecue sauces and vinegars," she said. "But there's not really much in the way of craft ketchup. There's Heinz and French's, and then there's the store brands that look like Heinz and French's."
The Grate and Barrel campaign is looking to raise $10,000. O'Donnell says the money would be used to print better labels and for marketing. She hopes to reach her goal by early 2018.2 bodies found in ditch in Southeast Austin
TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) -- The bodies of a man and woman who were found in a ditch along Farm to Marked Road 812, just east of Highway 183, Sunday may be the result of a hit and run, deputies say.
The Travis County Sheriff's Office and the Texas Department of Public Safety are investigating the circumstances surrounding the deaths. Authorities say the bodies were discovered by people walking to a flea market nearby.
Investigators are still piecing together all of the evidence surrounding the deaths.
Neighbors tell KXAN the area doesn't have sidewalks or crosswalks and only has a few street lights. Alex Tristan lives a few houses down from FM 812 and Creedmore and says cars speeding by at all hours is a familiar sight.
"(You) Try to jump across like a frog. Hope you don't get bumped," he said as he watched investigators comb the scene in an area that used to be rural.
"Holidays are coming and you'll be missing them forever," said Tristan, "(The cars) should give you a little leeway, but they still go by you like you weren't even there."
Right now, DPS investigators have no suspects in connection to these deaths. A hit and run is a third degree felony, and can come with a fine of up to $5,000 dollars and up to five years in prison. The suspect could be charged with counts of manslaughter and homicide as well.
The identities of the victims have not been released.
"We have people coming up and down this road, all hours of day and night. We're still trying to piece everything together," said Roger Wade from the Travis County Sheriff's Office.A North Korean ballistic missile that passed over Japan early Tuesday morning has broken into three pieces and fallen into the sea 733 miles from Cape Erimo in northern Japan into the waters off Hokkaido, state broadcaster NHK reports.
Early Tuesday morning the Japanese government warned people in northern Japan to prepare for a potential incoming missile from North Korea.
Japanese national broadcaster NHK first reported that the projectile passed over Japan. This was confirmed by the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, which said that the ballistic missile was fired from near Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, according to Yonhap News.
© Sputnik / Natalia Seliverstova Japan Expands Economic Sanctions Against North Korea
The Pentagon has also confirmed the launch.
The Japanese government says the missile passed over Japanese territory around 6:06 a.m. local time, and that its warning system was triggered, though no damage or injury has been reported. Tokyo did not attempt to shoot the missile down. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said shortly after news of the launch came that utmost efforts would be made to protect the Japanese public.
The South Korean military later confirmed that the missile traveled for 90 minutes, covered 1,678 miles and reached a height of 341 miles before falling.
This move appears to be a considerable escalation, as previously it was considered provocative for North Korea to even land test projectiles in Japanese waters. North Korea last fired a projectile over Japan in 2009, in what the US and its regional allies called a ballistic missile test, but Pyongyang claimed was a satellite launch, according to Reuters.
Earlier this month when Abe met with US President Donald Trump, he said Tokyo would "maintain a high level of vigilance and our missile defense system under the strong Japan-US alliance." Japan's Defense Ministry has also recently considered introducing Aegis Ashore, a land-based version of the Aegis ballistic defense system, in anticipation of provocation from the North.
Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera also said this month that Japan can legally intercept North Korean missiles aimed at Guam if they pass over Japanese territory, and that Tokyo reserves the right to invoke collective self-defense to ensure Japan’s security. In March, Onodera said, "If bombers attacked us or warships bombarded us, we would fire back… striking a country lobbing missiles at us is no different."
Guam was at the center of a war of words between the US and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), as the North threatened "enveloping fire" on the US territory and Trump firing back with a promise of "fire and fury" to any such provocation. Notably a missile fired from the DPRK at Guam would have to pass over Japan.
Yoshihide Suga, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary told reporters "This ballistic missile launch appeared to fly over our territory. It is an unprecedented, serious and grave threat to our nation," in nationally televised remarks after the launch. He said his country would take appropriate steps to address the missile.
In response to the launch, a meeting of South Korea's National Security Council has been convened, with a similar meeting underway in Tokyo. South Korea's military has been put on increased combat alert over the latest launch, local media report.
On Monday Rodung Sinmun, newspaper of the ruling Workers' Part of Korea, reported that the Pyongyang was prepared to bury the US under water if Washington attacks, as the country celebrates the 68th anniversary of its Navy.It actually happened.
Emmanuel Mudiay — a top three player nationally and either the best or the second best point guard in the country, depending on how you view Tyus Jones — picked SMU.
Over Kentucky.
Let me say that again in case you didn’t hear me correctly the first time: the No. 3 player in the country, per Rivals, picked SMU — a program that hasn’t made the NCAA tournament since three years before Mudiay was born and whose national relevance is solely tied to their decision to hire the 73 year old Larry Brown — over Kentucky.
SMU!
Over Kentucky!
I still can’t believe it, but at this point it’s reality. And, it goes without saying, that reality may be the most important thing that’s ever happened to SMU basketball. Let’s ignore the obvious, that Mudiay, an athletic, 6-foot-4 lead guard that’s talented enough to spend just one year in college, will make SMU a contender for an NCAA tournament berth in the then Louisville-less AAC. The state of Texas, which is typically known for their high school football, has become one of the most fertile recruiting grounds in the country.
SMU is irrelevant in basketball. But before Scott Drew took over in the post-Dave Bliss days, Baylor was largely irrelevant as well. It took some time, but as Drew started landing some higher-profile players from the area — Henry Dugat, Curtis Jerrells and Kevin Rogers turned into Quincy Acy and Anthony Jones which led to the likes of Perry Jones and Isaiah Austin, among many other four and five-star from outside the Lone Star State — the Bears turned into a program that produces lottery picks and has made two Elite Eights in the last four years.
Considering where Baylor was a decade ago, that’s astounding.
Point being, you don’t have to be a relevant basketball program to find success in Texas if you can tap into the talent in the area.
And while Mudiay alone isn’t going to make SMU a regional or national power, he could be the guy that makes it ‘cool’ to go to SMU. Does his commitment get Myles Turner to rethink eliminating SMU? Will Elijah Thomas, Mudiay’s teammate at Prime Prep, factor SMU more heavily into his recruitment?
Who knows how long Larry Brown will be around — and who knows if Mudiay will even get eligible, given what’s going on at Prime Prep — but there’s no question that his commitment is a massive positive for the Mustangs.
But what about the Wildcats?
What will Kentucky do about their point guard situation?
The general consensus seems to be that the Harrison twins are going to be heading to the NBA after this season regardless of how they play. Tyus Jones has yet to make a decision about where he’ll be going to college, but popular opinion seems to have him heading to Duke. That means that in a class where two of the top three recruits are point guards, neither picked Kentucky and Coach Cal.
It would be silly to read into that any more than a kid from Dallas wanting to be close to home and a kid from Minnesota liking the academic side of playing at Duke, but it does create a bit of a conundrum for the Wildcats. A quality point guard is incredibly important to Kentucky’s offense, as evidenced by last year’s first round NIT exit.
So who can they get?
Well, of the uncommitted lead guards in 2014, Jordan McLaughlin is a Cali kid that doesn’t hold an offer from UK. Quentin Snider is from Louisville and was committed to be a Cardinal until last month. Josh Perkins waited all summer for an offer from Coach Cal and never got it. This week, however, Kentucky did offer Tyler Ulis a scholarship.
Ulis is small, but he’s tough, both physically and mentally. He’s an excellent creator off the bounce and really understands how to run a team. He’s not exactly a sharp-shooter, but he can hit a three when he’s left open.
I love Ulis. I love the way he plays. He’s not John Wall, but if Kentucky can surround him with talented big men and perimeter scorers, he’s the kind of leader that can distribute the ball and run that team.
And if that’s who Kentucky has to “settle” for, that’s not a bad spot to be in.
Follow @robdausterNot All That It Can Be
You hear it routinely during congressional events involving defense issues, when a defense secretary wants to protect his budget (or his legacy), and when candidate Barack Obama or his operatives defend the administration’s national security record: The American armed forces are "the best in the world." It has become such an unremarkable bit of conventional wisdom that the comment is usually prologue to some other point the speaker wants to make.
Many think that because the United States spends multiples of any conceivable opponent or even combinations of them, has the largest modern navy and air force, and can operate all over the world, there is no conceivable enemy or enemies that can take on America successfully. The history of warfare is full of this kind of arrogance before the fall; it has occurred from the beginnings of recorded warfare until today. Consider Xerxes and Darius against Greece in antiquity, the British in America in 1775, the Russians before their war with Japan in 1904, and the United States in 1964 facing Vietnam.
History has recorded these and numerous other conflicts when the "wrong" side won the war, and there are still more examples from campaigns and individual battles. If spending or the size and breadth of forces were the sole determinants of success, the British and French would have won in 1940, the Russians would have repelled the Germans in 1941, the British would have won in Malaysia in 1942, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would not have been the disasters they are.
When I have suggested that America’s military might not be "the best," the inevitable question is, "Against whom? Name an opponent who can beat us." History is not kind to those who are so sure they know the future, and in today’s vapid culture the confident prediction of supremacy is articulated in the absence of anything beyond a superficial bean count of forces and hardware — sometimes not even that.
There are far more subtle and supremely powerful forces at play in deciding who wins in warfare than the stuff that occupies the hollow defense debates in the American political spectrum. As a nation, Americans mostly ignore those deciding elements. As American strategist John Boyd explained cogently, material elements come in a poor third in deciding which side wins in conflict — after moral and mental factors.
Instead, in the debate that today dominates the American political-military system on both sides of the political spectrum, two main props sustain the "we are the best" advocates. The first is America’s spectacular performance on the battlefield when, even after the post-Cold War budget reductions of George H.W. Bush’s and Bill Clinton’s administrations, U.S. armed forces "used Saddam Hussein as a speed bump" in 2003. The second, they say, is America’s vastly superior military technology, which, while expensive, gives the country the essential winning edge that no one can match.
The example of America’s victory over Saddam is particularly inapt. Iraq’s armed forces were a speed bump: Their leadership was hopelessly politicized and grossly incompetent, and their uniformed combat personnel were demoralized and unwilling to fight even before the first bombs were dropped. They were assessed as literally the worst in the world by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and as some have noted, the performance of the U.S. military leadership — even at the field-command level — in that war was an embarrassment.
In Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. forces often showed real guts and skill at the tactical level, but the heroism of soldiers and Marines notwithstanding, it should be remembered that they have fought enemies with no air force or navy and not much infantry equipment beyond home-built road mines, AK-47 rifles, and rocket-propelled grenades.
We also heard a lot of bombast after the first war with Iraq, Operation Desert Storm in 1991; then, the technologists declared a "revolution in military affairs." The Government Accountability Office (GAO) spent two years looking at that: The air campaign should more accurately be characterized as bombing a tethered goat led by a military jackass, and even then, the air campaign did not live up to the hype. The high-cost "silver bullet" of the war, the F-117 stealth light bomber, badly underperformed its puffery. For example, in contrast to claims that "alone and unafraid" it destroyed Saddam’s air defense system in the first hours of the first night, the F-117s actually had help from 167 non-stealthy aircraft and were confirmed by the Defense Intelligence Agency’s bomb-damage assessments to have effectively destroyed only two of the 15 air defense targets assigned to them that first night. Overall, the GAO found that effectiveness did not correlate with cost and that on many dimensions the ultralow-cost A-10 close-combat attack aircraft was the top performer.
Nothing is changed today; the bluster is as frequent and hollow. Typical examples are unmanned drones, such as the MQ-9 Reaper and the Air Force’s F-22 fighter.
The real-world performance of the MQ-9 Reaper is actually rather pathetic. With a tiny payload of an extremely limited selection of weapons and very poor ability to find targets to which it is not precisely shepherded, the Reaper is incapable of defending itself, and it is several times more expensive than manned aircraft that are more effective, such as the A-10. Also, it crashes so routinely that the Air Force appears to not even report all "mishaps" on the appropriate website. Yet, such drones are slavishly characterized as a revolution in warfare, yet again, and technologists are talking proudly about future nuclear bombers that are "optionally manned."
The F-22 fighter is described by the Air Force as an "exponential leap in warfighting capabilities." A review of the data shows the F-22 to be more expensive and less impressive than the hype would have you believe. For one thing, the cost for each F-22 is not the $143 million the Air Force asserts but rather a whopping $412 million, according to the GAO. The plane was supposed to be less expensive to operate than the F-15C; instead, it is 50 percent more. For another, its radar-evading "stealth" capability is significantly limited, as we know from two F-117 "stealth" casualties in the 1999 Kosovo air war, and its ability to detect, identify, and engage enemy aircraft at very long range with radar-controlled missiles relies on a technology that has repeatedly failed in combat. Finally, the F-22 compares roughly in close-in air combat to early versions of the F-15 and F-16. This June, that unexceptional agility was on display when German pilots flew Eurofighter Typhoons successfully against F-22s in mock dogfights.
Because the F-22 is so expensive to fly and difficult to maintain, its pilots get too few hours in the air to train — half of what fighter pilots got in previous decades. Worse, a controversy has raged over how safe the F-22 is to its own pilots. Powerful toxins populate the areas where the F-22 derives its oxygen for the pilot, and despite an Air Force explanation that "contamination" has nothing to do with the physiological problems pilots have experienced, some observers are deeply skeptical that the Air Force is taking the proper care to protect F-22 pilots. Already two pilots have been killed in accidents in which those toxins are very possibly at play. Even though pilot skill is a dominating factor in air combat, the U.S. Air Force provides few in-air training hours and requires pilots to fly aircraft that are not free of potential poisons. These are not the signs of a first-rate military organization.
That it is people, not hardware, that provide the winning edge in warfare was clearly expressed at the end of the first Iraq war when the U.S. commander, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, stated that had the two sides switched equipment, the United States still would have won its lopsided victory. There are many veterans of other wars who agree. Indeed, Napoleon said it succinctly 200 years ago: "The moral is to the physical as three to one."
Just as those F-22 pilots had difficulties against some highly skilled Typhoon aircrew, the United States can expect to encounter smart, skillful enemies in the future. The country has been surprised by opponents it had assumed were inferior — for example in the Vietnam War — and by crude but highly effective technology it failed to anticipate, such as handmade road mines (decorously called improvised explosive devices) in Iraq and Afghanistan. The "we are the best in the world" foolishness is prologue to wars of choice making America pay dearly, just as the country discovered immediately after the arrogantly predicted "cakewalk" against Iraq — a prediction that contemplated no "after."
Both sides of the American political spectrum persistently cheapen this debate.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney spoke for the right when he attacked Obama for "deep and arbitrary" cuts in the defense budget (cuts that actually were neither deep nor arbitrary) at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) on Oct. 8. He also alleged that Obama is responsible for reducing the size of the U.S. Navy to a post-World War II low and for putting the Air Force "out of business." To fix all this, Romney will do things like spend more money and put the F-22 back into production. He ignores that Obama is spending on defense at a rate well above any other post-World War II president, and Romney doesn’t mention that Obama inherited a U.S. Navy and an Air Force from George W. Bush that were already at post-World War II lows. Most significantly, Romney is oblivious to the fact that the shrinkage has been occurring as the non-war parts of the defense budget increased by a trillion dollars from 2001 to 2010.
Romney’s proposal to put the very disappointing F-22 back into production is a classic example of "solving" the problem by making it worse: At many times the price of the F-15 it replaces, the F-22 can only be bought in such small numbers — at greatly increased total cost — that the overall inventory shrinks and ages as the Pentagon is forced to retire as few ancient F-15s as possible. The disingenuousness of Romney’s cheap shot on defense spending is exceeded only by the ignorance of his solution and silly pander to ill-informed conventional wisdom.
In his VMI speech, Romney also made a seemingly conscious attempt to walk his previously expressed adventurism into the closest; some hostile rhetorical flourishes aside, he sounded a lot like Obama. It remains entirely unclear, however, whether Romney is merely Etch-A-Sketching away the neoconservative premise that, with U.S. armed forces being the best in the world, the United States can and should use them in still more adventures, such as Iran. He may be asking for even more future trouble than does Obama.
Many on the left do not exactly distinguish themselves in the overall debate. While they are typically far more accurate in characterizing what increases or decreases have or have not occurred in the defense budget, most Democrats persist in the notion that Obama has husbanded a U.S. military that remains the best in the world. The shrinkage is OK because the newer — even if preposterously expensive — equipment is more capable, both individually and collectively. It has all the hallmarks of a political argument of convenience, and it ignores as much evidence as the right does when it asserts that the amount of money spent measures the health of overall U.S. forces.
Were Romney running for reelection to a second term, he too would be crowing the "best in the world" rhetoric, and it would be in the face of still further shrinkage and aging despite the heaps of extra money he would strain to pile on to America’s less-bang-for-more-bucks defenses.
The empty rhetoric that U.S. armed forces are the best masks serious problems that have been festering for decades. Obama tolerates the problems; candidate Romney would make them even worse. All of it will continue until leaders emerge who understand that more money has meant more decay, and less money can mean the start of reform.A local pastor could be suspended, even stripped of her credentials, because she is gay.
The Rev. Cynthia Meyer of Edgerton United Methodist Church announced in her sermon at Sunday service on January 3 that she is homosexual.
Here's the video of Reverend Meyer addressing her congregation:
"It's hard to stand in the pulpit and say repeatedly to your people, 'God loves you whatever, whoever you are, all of you, you are created in God's image and you are beloved' and to know the church would not make those same statements about you," Meyer said.
The United Methodist Church is now reviewing the complaint filed in Meyer's case.
A full statement reading:
"Ordination and membership in an annual conference in The United Methodist Church is a sacred trust. The qualifications and duties of local pastors, associate members, provisional members, and full members are set forth in The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church, and we believe they flow from the gospel as taught by Jesus the Christ and proclaimed by his apostles. Whenever a person in any of the above categories, including those on leaves of all types, honorable or administrative location, or retirement, is accused of violating this trust, the membership of his or her ministerial office shall be subject to review. This review shall have as its primary purpose a just resolution of any violations of this sacred trust, in the hope that God's work of justice, reconciliation and healing may be realized in the body of Christ."
"[The book of discipline] specifically does not allow homosexuals to be ordained clergy," Meyer said. "I could be suspended for a time. There may be an effort to work toward what is called a just resolution, but another possible outcome is that I would lose my clergy credentials and I would not be able to serve as a pastor in the United Methodist Church."
Another local pastor from St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Lenexa, Kan., wrote a petition to change that law.
"I see the harm that's done to people in the name of God, in the name of the church, and it just can't happen anymore," said the Rev. David Livingston. "There's a faithful, gifted pastor who happens to be gay, so how can that be reconciled?"
Change could come as early as this spring. The general conference of the United Methodist Church is in Portland, Ore., from May 10 through 20. It happens once every four years, and the book of discipline can be revised at that time.
Livingston explained, "It's basically like a legislative session for the United Methodist Church."
Meyer tells 41 Action News after 40 years with the church and 25 as a pastor, it was not an easy decision.
"I think I've felt the weight of it for some time and by this past Sunday I was really ready. It's a responsibility I'm willing to take and I'm willing to face whatever the consequences may be," Meyer shared. "If there isn't change, if I'm stripped of my orders, I don't know if I can stay."
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Dia Wall can be reached at dia.wall@kshb.com.
Follow her on Twitter
Connect on FacebookWe were somewhat astonished this week to learn that the Pentagon had awarded a $298 million contract to arms dealer AEY Inc. despite the fact the company and its then-21-year-old president were on the U.S. State Department’s Arms Trafficking Watchlist.
An Army general said, quite simply, they don’t typically check that watchlist before awarding big contracts.
Now we’ve found evidence that the State Department might not be checking its own list.
AEY and its president, Efraim Diveroli, were on the watchlist as early as April 2006 because U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had started an investigation of the company in 2005 for “numerous violations of the Arms Export Control Act and contract fraud,” according to the House oversight committee.
Yet according to a government Web site that tracks federal contracting activity, the State Department on Dec. 1, 2006, signed a purchase order for $113,967 with AEY to provide a batch of K3 Light Machine guns.
Less than two weeks after State officials inked the new deal with AEY, someone at Foggy Bottom was adding to the company’s watchlist file. According to the oversight committee’s report:
On December 12, 2006, the State Department made the following entry to the watchlist regarding both Mr. Diveroli and his company, AEY: “There appear to be several suspicious characteristics of this company, including the fact that Diveroli is only 21 years old and has brokered or completed several multi-million dollar deals involving fully and semi-automatic assault rifles. Future license applications involving Diveroli and/or his company should be very carefully scrutinized.”
Nevertheless, State continued to do business with AEY.
According to the public records:
In February 2007, the State Department signed a purchase order for $70,330 for AEY to provide bullet proof vests.
Also in Februrary 2007, the State Department signed a purchase order for $166,357 for AEY to provide “340 Halographic Weapons Systems and 400 RICO Alpha 9 Tactical Weapons Systems.”
In June 2007, the state Department signed a $34,878 purchase order for more bullet proof vests.
Legally, the watchlist doesn’t have much teeth to it. It was set up for officials to consider when signing off on weapons deals. According to the committee’s report:
In 1968, Congress passed the Arms Export Control Act to require companies engaging in the brokering of weapons and ammunition to obtain a license for each transaction. The State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls may deny or revoke licenses if it “deems such action to be in furtherance of world peace, the national security or the foreign policy of the United States, or is otherwise advisable.” To help make these determinations, the State Department maintains a watch list of suspect individuals and entities based on information it receives from law enforcement, the intelligence community, and other government and non-governmental sources.
AEY finally lost its license in March 2008, after the New York Times began asking about the company.
A spokesman for the State Department said they’re not going to comment while the department’s inspector general is investigating the matter.Millions rely on this Award-winning To do list, Calendar, Planner & Reminders app to Stay Organized and Get More Done.
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❝Elegant and technically advanced.❞ - PCmagFor many Canadians, the outcome of the United States presidential election came as a profound shock. Trump’s campaign, as inarticulate and venal as it was, tapped into important and deeply rooted realities — realities that may contain lessons for Canada too.
Does Canada need to worry about the same festering malaise that has become so dramatically evident in American politics? Powerful international data on income inequality offer significant insights.
Branko Milanovic, a leading economist, has been producing some of the best research on world income inequality, drawing on detailed data from his years at the World Bank.
Milanovic has produced a remarkable graph — he calls it his “elephant graph” for the shape it takes. It includes income distribution data from almost all of the world’s 200 countries and asks a simple question: How much have individuals’ incomes grown between 1988 and 2008?
To answer this question, Milanovic divided each country’s population into smaller groups, determined each group’s income measured in standardized U.S. dollars in 1988, and then sorted them in increasing order of their income. In other words, the world’s population has been ranked from poorest to richest, regardless of nationality. The graph then shows how much each group’s incomes grew over the two decades from 1988 to 2008.
The global average income growth for all the income groups was about 25 per cent, about two per cent real growth per year. Not bad. But these improvements were very far from being evenly distributed.
Among the bottom fifth of the world’s population, incomes grew at rates between 20 and 40 per cent — lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty.
Incomes around the mid-point of the world’s income spectrum grew twice as fast over this two-decade period, at 80 per cent. This growth signals dramatic improvements in living standards for many living in what we used to call the less-developed world, and it reflects the emergence of a much larger middle class in many countries. This is all very good news.
Our pattern of income growth and inequality largely mirrors what is happening globally: dramatic income growth at the top, with only modest gains lower down the income spectrum. Our pattern of income growth and inequality largely mirrors what is happening globally: dramatic income growth at the top, with only modest gains lower down the income spectrum.
But there is a dramatic drop in the income growth rates for individuals in the upper ranges — except at the very top. Those whose incomes placed them in the top 75 to 85 per cent hardly saw any income growth at all, and those whose incomes are in the top 85th to 95th percentiles of the world’s population saw their incomes grow by only 10 to 15 per cent over a 20 year period — almost stagnant.
For the top five per cent of income recipients, income growth was above 20 per cent. Among the top one per cent of the world’s population income growth tracked at a staggering 60 per cent, or more.
So who exactly are these winners and losers?
Milanovic’s analysis places the newly emerging Chinese middle class at the peak of this curve (near the elephant’s head), with a growth rate in their incomes hovering around a dramatic 80 per cent. At the trough of the income growth curve you’ll find the |
remis" Daniel Nettheim Steven Moffat 20 May 2017 ( ) 5.53 82
A long time ago, the Doctor is sent to execute Missy, only to have Nardole interrupt on the behest of River Song. The Doctor refuses to kill Missy, instead opting to imprison and guard her for 1000 years. In the present, the Pope comes to the Doctor, asking to help translate a text called "Veritas". Everyone who has read it has committed suicide, and the Doctor, Nardole, and Bill are brought to the Vatican to investigate. While there, Bill and Nardole discover a portal which leads them to the Pentagon. They find the portals being projected lead to different locations all over the world. The Doctor temporarily restores his sight using Time Lord technology, but is ambushed by aliens. Nardole realises the projectors are not projecting portals, but the whole world. His realization causes him to dematerialise. Bill finds the Doctor, who tells her the world is a simulation, and Veritas contains the proof. Bill then disappears due to the alien's intervention, the Doctor realizing this is a test to see if they can conquer the Earth. However, the simulation is too exact, as his sonic sunglasses still work perfectly, and the virtual Doctor sends his information to the real Doctor warning of the coming invasion.
271 7 "The Pyramid at the End of the World" Daniel Nettheim Peter Harness and Steven Moffat 27 May 2017 ( ) 5.79 82
The Doctor is called in by the Secretary-General of the U.N. after a pyramid mysteriously appears on the strategic border of the Russian, Chinese and U.S. armies. It is revealed the Monks are responsible for the pyramid and that they have foreseen a disaster through their simulations, offering an opportunity to save humanity if they consent to their rule. Elsewhere in a biochemical lab, a scientist accidentally misreads the levels of chemicals in an experiment releasing deadly biochemical bacteria. The Secretary-General offers his consent, but is killed when he is viewed to be acting out of fear. The Doctor surmises that the disaster was unrelated to war, but may be biochemical. After the Doctor and Nardole locate the lab, Nardole collapses following exposure to the bacteria whilst waiting in the TARDIS. The Doctor with the assistance of Erica, a lab worker, surmises the only way to stop it would be to destroy the lab. He becomes stuck on the side of a manual lock however, due to his blindness. Bill makes a deal with the Monks to restore the Doctor's sight despite his protests. He manages to escape but at the expense of handing the planet over to the Monks.
272 8 "The Lie of the Land" Wayne Yip Toby Whithouse 3 June 2017 ( ) 4.82 82
The Monks now rule the planet, and to most of humanity, they appear to have been on Earth for millions of years, guiding human development. Bill and a few others know the truth. Nardole locates Bill, and they search for the Doctor. They locate him, but he is cooperating with the Monks. Bill shoots him and it appears he is regenerating, but it is all a trick to see whether Bill has been fooled by the Monks. At the university, the Doctor speaks to Missy, who reveals Bill has to die to break the Monk's influence on Earth. The Doctor hopes there is another solution, and infiltrates the Monk's pyramid in London. The Doctor attempts to break the link but fails. Bill prepares to sacrifice herself, however the Monk's images are replaced with those of Bill's mother, which represents hope. Due to their actions, the Monks leave and humanity recall none of the events. Back in the Vault, Missy expresses remorse at those she has murdered.
273 9 "Empress of Mars" Wayne Yip Mark Gatiss 10 June 2017 ( ) 5.02 83
NASA finds the words "God save the Queen" buried under the ice cap of Mars. The Doctor, Bill and Nardole venture to Mars in 1881 and discover soldiers from Victorian Britain. Nardole goes back into the TARDIS, but it returns to the university, and he asks Missy for help getting back. The humans have befriended an Ice Warrior named Friday. Captain Catchlove says they rescued Friday from his crashed spaceship, and Friday allowed the soldiers to use his technology to mine Mars. They unearth the tomb of the Ice Empress Iraxxa; one guard revives her. Friday tells Iraxxa that the Martian surface is uninhabitable. She decides to relent, but a soldier fires his rifle; provoked, she returns fire. Iraxxa starts reviving Ice Warriors. The Doctor threatens to use the mining device to bury them all. Catchlove holds Iraxxa at knifepoint and attempts to force her to help him pilot a spaceship. Godsacre kills Catchlove. Iraxxa calls off the attack in exchange for Godsacre pledging himself to her. The Doctor contacts Alpha Centauri to assist the Ice Warriors, and also leaves the message for NASA. Nardole re-appears with the TARDIS and Missy, who expresses concern about the Doctor.
274 10 "The Eaters of Light" Charles Palmer Rona Munro 17 June 2017 ( ) 4.73 81
The Doctor and Bill, disagreeing about the fate of the Ninth Legion of the Imperial Roman army, travel in the TARDIS to the 2nd century in Scotland. Bill goes her own way, while the Doctor and Nardole look for their bodies. Bill encounters the Legion's soldiers hiding from a creature drawn to any light source, killing those in its path. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Nardole discover the corpses of the remaining Legion. They later come across a Pict tribe guarding a cairn. The Doctor enters the cairn, passing into an interdimensional portal. The Pict explains that a warrior goes through the cairn to defeat an "Eater of Light", but with the invading Roman army, she allowed one to escape to fight them. Bill leads the surviving legion away from the creature and end up reuniting with the Doctor and Nardole. The Doctor works out a plan to lure the Eater back to the portal during daylight, but it requires someone inside preventing the creature's escape. Once the creature is trapped, The Pict and the Ninth Legion sacrifice themselves to stop the creatures. Back in the TARDIS, Missy awaits their return, to the surprise of Bill and Nardole. The Doctor tells Missy that he has hope she will turn good.
275a 11 "World Enough and Time" Rachel Talalay Steven Moffat 24 June 2017 ( ) 5.00 85
In a flash forward, the Doctor stumbles from the TARDIS into a snowy landscape and begins regenerating. Earlier, the Doctor proposed to test Missy by having her answer a distress call. They arrive via TARDIS on a colony ship reversing away from a black hole. They are held at gunpoint by Jorj, who demands to know which of them is human, and Jorj shoots Bill. The Doctor, Missy, and Nardole learn that a few days ago, some of the crew had gone down to the ship's lower decks but never returned. Jorj claims the ship is otherwise empty, but the Doctor shows there are thousands of humans, descendants of the crew: due to time dilation, time moves much faster on the decks furthest from the black hole. Bill awakens in a hospital, having been fitted with a replacement heart. Razor, the hospital caretaker, explains that some of the patients are waiting to be "upgraded" to escape the ship's polluted air. Years later, they see footage of the Doctor coming down the lift, while only a few minutes have passed for the Doctor. The Doctor, Nardole and Missy arrive and discover the origin of the colony ship: Mondas. Razor approaches Missy and reveals himself to be her previous incarnation, formerly known as the Master. The Doctor and Nardole find a Cyberman who reveals itself as Bill.
275b 12 "The Doctor Falls" Rachel Talalay Steven Moffat 1 July 2017 ( ) 5.30 83
Escaping to a higher floor of the ship, the Doctor tries to comfort Bill, who has retained her humanity, though this is wearing thin. This floor of the ship is a simulated countryside, where the group helps defend the villagers from the oncoming Cybermen. Knowing they are outnumbered, the Doctor attempts to convince Missy and the Master to help him. They refuse, though Missy seems conflicted. Hoping to save the villagers, the Doctor tells Nardole to take them to another floor while he sacrifices himself. Bill opts to stay with the Doctor, and Nardole says goodbye, taking the villagers to safety. Elsewhere, before escaping to their TARDIS, Missy betrays the Master to help the Doctor by stabbing him in the back, triggering the regeneration process. He shoots her in return, killing her and preventing her regeneration. The Doctor fights off the Cybermen, but is severely wounded in the process. He proceeds to blow up the whole floor, killing himself. Bill survives, with Heather appearing before her. They kiss, and Heather reveals she has changed Bill into her species so she could live on. The two take the Doctor's body back to his TARDIS, before she and Heather leave to see the universe together. The Doctor awakens as the regeneration process begins. He attempts to stop it, and exits the TARDIS into a snowy landscape, where he is greeted by the First Doctor.
Special (2017)
276 – "Twice Upon a Time" Rachel Talalay Steven Moffat 25 December 2017 ( ) 7.92 81Peter Dinklage celebrates his 45th birthday today. The actor shot to fame in 2003's The Station Agent and has since become world renowned for his role as Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones.
To mark his birthday, IBTimes UK has found 10 lesser-known facts about Dinklage.
1. Dinklage was born 11 June 1969 in New Jersey. His parents are John Carl and Diane Dinklage – his father was an insurance salesman while his mother taught music in elementary school. He also has an older brother who is a violinist. He has German ancestors related to the ancient noble family von Dincklage from Lower Saxony.
2. He has achondroplasia, a common form of dwarfism that occurs as a sporadic mutation in most cases. In an interview in 2003, he spoke about his condition: "As an adolescent, I was bitter and angry and I definitely put up these walls. But the older you get, you realise you just have to have a sense of humour. You just know that it's not your problem. It's theirs."
3. Dinklage has been a vegetarian since he was 16 and eats tofu substitutes when required to eat'meat' on screen. "I wouldn't hurt a cat or a dog – or a chicken or a cow. And I wouldn't ask someone else to hurt them for me. That's why I'm a vegetarian."
4. He was George RR Martin's first choice for Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones. According to reports, he was the first actor cast and did not even audition. In an interview with Salon, he explained accepting the role: "I told him I didn't want a really long beard and pointy shoes, and they assured me this character and this world wasn't that. They told me about his complexity, the fact that he wasn't a hero or a villain, that he was a womanizer and a drinker, and they painted a flawed and beautiful portrait of him, so I signed on."
5. He does not comb his hair. In a reddit AMA he said he does not own either a brush or a comb and that is his secret to his coveted locks.
6. He married theatre director Erica Schmidt in 2005 and they had their first child, a daughter, together in 2011. The couple has collaborated on several projects together and live in New York.
7. Last year it emerged Dinklage does not watch Game of Thrones because he does not pay for the channel it is shown on: "I don't watch the show... I mean, I don't have HBO," he explained.
8. Dinklage has taken a lion ring from the set of Game of Thrones.
9. He was once in a band called Whizzy that left him permanently scarred: "I was jumping around onstage and got accidentally kneed in the temple. I was like Sid Vicious, just bleeding all over the stage. Blood was going everywhere. I just grabbed a dirty bar napkin and dabbed my head and went on with the show. Now I have a pretty big scar that runs from the my neck to my eyebrow."
10. His family lived next to Bruce Springsteen's manager when Dinklage was two, so the-then 17-year-old rockstar would regularly come over and play guitar at his house. However, the actor does not remember any of it – but was told by his mother that "he was too loud".Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul offered his opinion on skyrocketing college tuition prices at a bowling event in New Hampshire last week, comparing free college tuition to “free makeup.”
“I think there’s an appeal when people offer you something for free. They just don’t think to the next step of, ‘Where’s the free coming from? So if you have 1,000 college kids and tell them you’re going to give them free tuition, they’re like, ‘That sounds good, I’m for that,'” Paul said, adding that their “next question is, what about free cars? What about free clothes? Free makeup, free shoes? Everything should be free. But it can’t be free, somebody has to pay for it.”
Paul suggested that the answer to high college tuition rests, instead, in a free marketplace. “The internet should be able to bring the price per pupil down to almost zero. Think about it, one professor can teach everybody in the whole world… should be pretty cheap to go to school,” Paul said.
“Schools charge the same thing whether you’re sitting in the classroom the bricks and mortar, or whether you’re at your own house. Same price,” Paul noted. “That wouldn’t happen in a marketplace, that only happens when government controls the entry to the market place.
Paul said when discussing college tuition prices, “everybody starts with the sympathy argument, the sympathy for the student having to pay so much,” suggesting he’s sympathetic to the obstacles they face. “But the thing is I wanna know why it costs so much and how we could fix the cost problem,” Paul concluded.
Watch the video above, via Fusion.
[Image via screengrab]
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>> Follow Elizabeth Preza on Twitter (@lizacisms)
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.comNigerian Military Rescues 200 Girls From Boko Haram
Nigeria's military said Wednesday it rescued 200 girls and 93 women in an operation against Boko Haram militants in the Sambisa Forest.
The Nigerian Armed Forces said it could not confirm whether the girls were the same as those kidnapped in Chibok last year, but The Associated Press quoted army spokesman Col. Sani Usman as saying these were different girls.
The military said that troops captured and destroyed three Boko Haram camps and that those who were rescued were being screened and interviewed.
In April 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls from Chibok, in Nigeria's northeast, and took them into the Sambisa Forest. Several dozen escaped and more than 200 are still missing.
The Islamist group has kidnapped thousands of girls, women and young men. As NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton reported April 14, a new Amnesty International report said Boko Haram had kidnapped at least 2,000 girls and women since the beginning of 2014; many have been trained to fight and forced into sexual slavery.Steam: Valve’s Ingenious Digital Store
Tim By
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The one thing in common about movies, television shows, music or books is that they’ve all gone digital. I use Netflix instead of cable, Spotify instead of iTunes, and Kindle Reader instead of paperbacks. Want to guess what I use for video games? Yup, Steam.
Steam has been around for a while and was one of the first digital distributors who really figured it out. The Valve team noticed that video games don’t have to have a $60 price tag. Lower pricing means more volume sold – cutting out the packaging and selling digitally is very cost affective. They are constantly having specials, game bundles and discounts because they know the profit of a customer doesn’t end with one sale. I know the first time I used Steam was for a super discounted Portal. Since that day I’ve bought two other discounted games and have some pretty boisterous brand loyalty.
With Steam already owning over 50% of the video game digital distribution market they have a huge head start on competitors. They have set the standard of rewarding game developers over twice what they receive from their normal retailers. This is going to be a tough pill to swallow for companies like GameStop. They have been screwing over their customers and clients forever. Now that they must deal with a dying business model, they better jump on board the digital distribution train. [Via]
Tim Co-Founder After a quick stint in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Tim moved to Austin, Texas at the ripe age of one. He then spent the next 17 years there experiencing all that Austin had to offer. Nightlife, music,...
4.7kMy annual catalogue of the year’s biggest lies was intended to call out the preposterous prevaricators and to shame the fulsome falsifiers. Who could predict that lies would become so popular, so widespread, so YUGE in 2017 that this year’s collection of falsehoods would need to be corralled into groups?
1. All hail the Liar-in-Chief!
NICHOLAS KAMM via Getty Images
Donald J, Trump, the 45th president of these United States, made 1,628 false and misleading claims in the first 298 days of this year, according to Glenn Kessler’s Fact Checker column at the Washington Post. I could tell you what they are but that would take us all year. Suffice to say, President Donald J. Trump is the greatest president of our time. Don’t believe me? Just ask him. As to facts, it is a fact that President Trump tells lies, and does so often enough to win this year’s top place.
2. I did not date/grope/sexually assault/rape or pleasure myself or make inappropriate comments or sexual advances or share pornography with women under 18 or teenagers or with assistants or interns or colleagues and if you say I did that is false or I don’t remember it that way or it was consensual and we continued to be friends and worked together and had consensual sex but I’m now going to resign/step away/take a leave and think about my privilege/listen to women telling their truth and learn/grow from the experience to be a better man/person.
That should cover the alleged actions of: Harvey Weinstein, Bill O’Reilly, Roger Ailes, Louis C.K., Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose, Garrison Keillor, Kevin Spacey, Leon Weseltier, John Lasseter, Brett Ratner, Al Franken, Israel Horovitz, Dustin Hoffman, John Conyers, Russell Simmons, John Besh, Andrew Kreisberg, Andy Dick, Bob Weinstein, Chris Savino, James Levine, Peter Martins, David Guillod, Gary Goddard, James Toback, Jeffrey Tambor, Hamilton Fish, Michael Oreskes, Glenn Thrush, Mark Halperin, Knight Landesman, Jeremy Piven, Matthew Weiner, Roy Price, Roy Moore, and the list keeps growing……
3. Lie to me once, shame on you. Lie to the FBI, make a deal.
Former Trump Foreign Policy Advisor George Papadopoulos, we barely knew ya! (Pled guilty to lying). Former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn come join the gang! (Also admitted to lying to the FBI). Former Trump Presidential Campaign Manager Paul Manafort, they’re saving a spot for you (Charged but no plea as of yet). Who’s that on the horizon? Could it be Donald Trump, Jr., Jared Kushner or even Le Grand Orange himself? Drink up, it’s Mueller time.
4. OK. Then hail me an Uber!
Danish Siddiqui / Reuters
Silicon Valley is becoming the home of the Whopper – where companies lie or try to hide their most serious breaches of the consumer trust as well as their participation in the fakest of fake news: Uber not only failed to disclose a breach of more than 50,000,00 of its users and 7,000,000 of its drivers FOR OVER A YEAR, they also paid $ 100,000 ransom in hush money to the hackers. But lest you think Uber’s a unicorn in this regard, let’s not forget Equifax’s breach of 143 Million people’s personal data which they tried to keep under wraps. And the rest of Silicon Valley’s major players don’t have clean hands either when it comes to fakery: Facebook, Twitter and Google all belatedly admitted that they had allowed thousands upon thousands, if not millions, of fake ads and news stories targeted by Russian government actors and manipulated by Trump-leaning-fake-news-content-farms, disseminating false stories of child-trafficking in a DC pizza parlor and a fake story that alleged assault by a Muslim in Idaho, among many, many others.
5. Maybe I’ll take a plane. Maybe not.
After United Airlines had Aviation Security Officers drag David Dao, a ticketed and seated passenger off the plane against his will – and the video went viral – United’s CEO Oscar Munoz made more than four statements to the press without ever apologizing to David Dao. Amid mounting public anger and public relations spinning out of control, Mr. Munoz went on TV to claim he had reached out to Dr. Dao to apologize; Dr. Dao’s daughter and attorney held a press conference to deny he did so. Like all fairy tales this one had a happy ending, the two parties arrived at a private settlement. In other news, United also did not explain why a large Rabbit named Simon died on a flight from London and was cremated by the airlines. It seems like “flying the friendly skies” is just another lie.
6. We could watch college sports instead.
CHRIS KEANE / Reuters
NCAA Division I basketball is as much fun to prosecute as it is to watch. In one of the biggest corruption cases, NCAA coach Chuck “The Rifleman” Connors Person as well as assistant coaches at Oklahoma State, University of Southern California, and Arizona were arrested in connection with a bribery scheme in which coaches and players were given money to sign players and direct them to managers, investment advisors and/or Adidas’ sponsorship program. Rick Pitino, Kentucky’s coach was put on unpaid leave. Pitino is suing Louisville for $38 million over “unfair” firing, showing his continued good sportsmanship.
7. Project Veritas is lying to discredit truthtellers?
The Washington Post via Getty Images
Follow close because this may be confusing: James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas (a conservative sting operation that hopes to expose liberal hypocrisy) had a woman, Jaime T. Phillips contact the Washington Post pretending that when she was a teenager she dated Alabama Senatorial Candidate Roy Moore, got pregnant and had an abortion. She told this to the Post with the hope that she could record the reporter saying he was so eager to take Roy Moore down that they would publish the story – and that when it was revealed to be false, Project Veritas would expose The Post as a purveyor of politically motivated fake news. Instead, the reporter refused to agree with Phillips, and the Washington Post, whose motto is “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” discovered the woman was a fake, and then exposed her and Project Veritas’ as such. The player got played; and the sting got stung!. Kay Graham would have been proud. Meanwhile Roy Moore is still denying all the credible reporting about him.
8. Brexit’s fake windfall.
PAUL FAITH via Getty Images
In the run-up to Britain’s vote on exiting the European Union, Pro-Brexit politicians most notably, floppy- haired-enthusiast Boris Johnson, claimed that voting for Brexit would result in a financial windfall – at first said to be 350 million pounds a week by Johnson, then 135 billion pounds, then 65 billion, then 10 billion and now…. The windfall has been called a ‘fantasy’ and Johnson conceded that the UK will have to pay for Brexit, while at the same time saying that the European Union is charging Britain too much for the exit.
9. Fake news that was, in fact, fake.
No. No. No. A CIA agent DID NOT confess to killing Bob Marley (he was in a taxi on the way from the airport when Marley was shot). Stephen Hawking WAS NOT accused of sexual impropriety. Ru Paul DID NOT claim Trump touched him inappropriately. Hillary Clinton DID NOT give 20 percent of U.S. uranium to Russia in exchange for Clinton Foundation donations. The video Trump shared via tweet WAS NOT of a Dutch boy being beaten by of a “Muslim migrant” – he was being assaulted by another Dutch boy.
10. And the Oscar goes to….Posted on October 19, 2010 in Articles
Meet Jimmy McMillian, a candidate for governor for New York for the… wait for it… Rent Is Too Damn High party. Not only is his website a blast from the Geocities past, but his awesome facial hair is complemented by some awesome policies: He recently held a conference for a ‘press release’ on the corner of Nostrand and Flushing Avenue in Brooklyn calling for the resignation of New York Senators Chuck Schumer and Kristen Gillibrand and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.
Check out his incredible performance at last nights New York Gubernatorial Debate, where he announced in his support for gay marriage, he also supports people marrying shoes:
And his campaign video when he ran for Mayor of New York City:
[tags]jimmy mcmillian, rent is too damn high, new york city, new york, governors race, new york governors race, election, campaign, politics, video, photo, wtf[/tags]Researchers have built a modern-day Enigma machine that relies on the quirky laws of quantum mechanics instead of the rotors and levers of the famous World War II–era code machines. It’s the first experiment to show that it’s possible to send large amounts of secure quantum data protected by a much shorter secret key, the team reports August 12 in Physical Review A.
Encryption usually relies on a secret key that’s shared between two parties. The sender uses the key to scramble the message so it looks random to an outsider; the receiver uses the key to unscramble it. An eavesdropper who doesn’t have the key can’t read the garbled message.
Spies can use quantum mechanics to generate extremely secure keys that can’t be cracked by even the most powerful computers. Instead of a string of 1s and 0s, quantum keys use the spins of photons, tinyWhat’s at stake: first-degree price discrimination - or person-specific pricing, had until recently been considered a theoretical case with unlikely real-world application. Yet the increasing availability of big data could make this possible. We review recent contributions on this issue.
Shiller (2014) looks at the issue of first-degree price discrimination with big data, in the context of Netflix subscription. He shows that demographics which could have been used in the past to personalize prices, poorly predict which consumers subscribe. By contrast, modern web-browsing data, with variables which reflect behavior – such as visits to Amazon.com and internet use – do substantially better in predicting consumer subscriptions. He then presents a model to estimate demand for Netflix services and simulate what would have been the outcome if 1st degree price discrimination had been implemented instead.
Simulations show that the increase in profits made feasible by first-degree price discrimination based on web-browsing is much higher (12.2%), rather than when just demographics (0.8%), are used to predict individual reservation values. Shiller argues that this meaningful profit increase made possible by web browsing data supports the argument that first-degree PD will evolve from merely theoretical to practical.
Baker, Kiewell and Winkler look at the issue from the perspective of firms. They estimate that on average, a 1 percent price increase translates to an 8.7 percent increase in operating profits (assuming no loss of volume) and yet up to 30 percent of the thousands of pricing decisions companies make every year fail to deliver the best price. They argue the most exciting examples of using big data actually transcend pricing and touch on other aspects of a company’s commercial engine.
For example, “dynamic deal scoring” provides price guidance at the level of individual deals, decision-escalation points, incentives, performance scoring, and more, based on a set of similar win/loss deals. Mikians et al. (2012) empirically demonstrate the existence of not only of first degree price but also search discrimination (e.g. users with a particular profile are steered towards appropriately priced products) on the Internet markets.
Kramer and Kalka (2016) focus on four pricing models, including flexible prices, which are dependent on demand and customer profile. This “dynamic pricing” is not openly communicated to the customers and tries to fully exploit what the target group is willing to pay. Kramer and Kalka argue that the perception and psychological price evaluation by the customer always have to be considered especially with regard to one-to-one pricing policy, which some companies see as the biggest opportunity for future pricing on the basis of big data.
Regner and Riener (2017) show that the attempt to lift anonymity on the internet to increase revenues may indeed backfire. They look at the effect of reduction of anonymity on consumers’ purchase decisions at an online music store with Pay-What-You-Want (PWYW)-like pricing and in an internet experiment mimicking the real world situation. Revealing the customer’s name, email, and payment to the artist (seller) led to insignificantly higher payments, although it drastically reduced the number of customers purchasing. Overall, the regime led to a revenue loss of 25%. In the online experiment, revenue drops by 35%.
These results suggest that the positive effect of reduced anonymity, previously established for donation or public goods contexts, does not extend to a consumption environment. Instead, the substantial opt-out of customers is likely to be motivated by concerns about privacy.
A 2015 report from the White House Office of Economic Advisers found that companies are presently experimenting with three broad pricing strategies: (1) experiments that randomly manipulate prices to learn about demand; (2) efforts to steer consumers towards particular products without altering their prices; and (3) using big data to customize prices to individual buyers. Research on the prevalence of these pricing practices suggests that experiments and steering are common on some web sites, while cases of personalised pricing remain limited.
The report mentions some evidence that personalised pricing could prove very profitable, providing strong incentives for companies to continue experimenting with these tools. Choe, King and Matsushima (2016) show that this might not be the case.
They develop a product differentiation model of two symmetric firms in which the show that when firms apply big data techniques that facilitate personalized pricing strategies (like 1st degree price discrimination) they become worse off (in terms of profitability). The reason for this surprising result is that the increased flow of information about consumers preferences (that facilitates 1st degree price discrimination) also intensifies competition in the product market.
Bleiberg and West at Brookings argue that risk-based pricing – an approach popular with many insurers – could become a worrisome issue, if customers were priced out of the market because of a factor they cannot control (e.g. if health insurance were prohibitively expensive for a person with a genetic disability). Big data could also allow companies to uncover medical conditions that a consumer might not even know about themselves, and higher prices in this case could constitute a strange new type of privacy violation.
The worst-case scenario with big data pricing, however, would involve the treatment of protected classes. Federal law does not allow companies to treat people differently based on race, religion, and several other characteristics but big data pricing could inadvertently lead to higher prices for certain groups in a way that would violate American values and laws.
Ezrachi and Stucke explore how e-commerce and the personalisation of our online environment can give rise to behavioural discrimination. They argue that online behavioural discrimination will differ from the price discrimination we have seen in the retail world in three important respects: first, big data allow the shift from third-degree, imperfect price discrimination to near perfect price discrimination; second, sellers can use big data to target consumers with the right “emotional pitch” to increase overall consumption (the demand curve shifts to the right); third, as more online retailers personalise pricing and product offerings, it will be harder for consumers to discover a general market price and to assess their outside options, thus implying that behavioural discrimination becomes more durable.Ezgi Basaran is a Turkish journalist and academic visitor at St Antony's College, Oxford University.
Hours after celebrating the new year, Turkey witnessed its 15th attack claimed by the Islamic State since 2014. This time, the target was Reina, a famous upscale nightclub on the shores of the Bosporus. The militant group has been targeting Turkey ever since a shift in policy in 2015 made it harder for Islamic State fighters to travel between Turkey and Syria.
But the nightclub outrage revealed another story that is as important for understanding Turkey today as the political and executive failures that led to the attack. Turkey’s social fabric is torn at the very heart, which makes it impossible for the country to grieve as one, let alone share joy and happiness — not that these feelings are much to be found in the country these days.
Reina is no ordinary place. In the past five years or so, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been railing against secular Turks as members of an “old Turkey,” people who are out of touch with the country’s reality and unfairly privileged, who — in his words — “sip their whisky while enjoying the view over the Bosporus.” Indeed, Reina is characteristically frequented by secular “white Turks” — a term coined by the late journalist Ufuk Güldemir — the well-educated upper middle class. Not so long ago, nobody in Turkey really cared if some of the club’s clients drank too much alcohol, got wasted, danced and had some carefree fun. Now not only is the lifestyle of the secular people under threat, but their joy is, too.
In the last days of 2016, there were systematic “preemptive strikes” from several mayors, government institutions and nongovernmental organizations against people who would celebrate the New Year. Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate claimed it “illicit” for Turkey’s Muslim citizens to celebrate the new year. Banners showing a bearded man punching Santa Claus in the face were hung around Istanbul, while a group pointed guns at their friend in a Santa costume to demonstrate their protest over secular New Year’s Eve celebrations. Santa is associated with Christmas and New Year’s in predominantly Muslim Turkey. On the morning of Dec. 31, a headline in an Islamist newspaper read, “This is our last warning, DO NOT celebrate.”
Although the majority of Turkish people are conservative and religious, alcohol consumption or celebrating the new year had never been a big issue among the public. Everyone knew that respect for other lifestyles was not a matter of human decency in Turkey, a melting pot of cultures, but a condition for peaceful coexistence.
Those days are gone with the old Turkey. Turkey was never a proper democracy. It has not been able to transform its institutions into inclusive ones following the 1980 coup. But what it experiences now is also unprecedented. Now, we have a new country: a new Turkey without any shred of tolerance.
[Defeating the coup in Turkey won’t lead to more democracy]
The shift in policy on Syria helped bring about the current crisis. Between 2013 and 2015, Islamic State recruits could easily and freely move in and out of Turkey. But when that changed in 2015, the militant group designated Turkey as a main target. Islamic State attacks in Turkey were, at first, mainly conducted by recruits from within Turkey and not claimed by the terrorist group. Now it seems the organization’s strategy with respect to Turkey — a Sunni majority country — has changed, too. Like the Atatürk airport massacre in June, authorities believe the nightclub attack on New Year’s Eve was perpetrated by foreign Islamic State members. This was also the second attack on Turkish soil for which the Islamic State “officially” claimed responsibility through its news agency, Amaq.
And this time, some Turks appear to be relating to the terrorists. In the hours following the Reina attack, social media were full of comments describing the attack as “fair,” or as “retribution for those who celebrated New Year and got wasted.” A soccer referee tweeted, “What did you expect? Your Santa doesn’t bring presents all the time. Do you think the beers and rakis you drank would help you thrive in the afterlife? You wish!” Others wrote, “Damn you, Santa. This time you raided your friends’ place,” and “If you have fun with your miniskirts while the world burns, this is what you get.”
This was not only a matter of some trolls trying to stir up anger for their own amusement or being insensitive to those mourning the deaths and injuries the attack caused. It was the perceived silence of the government that was heart-wrenching for secular Turks — especially compared with the way authorities responded to an attack last month by the outlawed Kurdish rebel group the PKK. Then, government officials hunted down people who criticized Erdogan’s Kurdish policy and detained more than 200 over their tweets, which officials regarded as “promoting and helping the terror organization.” This time it was different.
Even a pro-government comedian, Şahan Gökbakar, raged over tweets that praised the Reina attack and called for “the authorities to do something.” But what the authorities have done, so far, is blame leftists. The Ministry of Internal Affairs’ official Twitter account posted a video of two left-wing students entering a coffee house in Istanbul and called on people to unite against “ISIS, jihadists and ambitions for an executive presidency.” The ministry said the video had been shared with the terror squad and asked people to report any sightings of these young people. (The post was later deleted, in response to outrage online.)
[How Turkey uses terrorism to justify its crackdown on the press]
The Reina attack showed that the Islamic State |
that seemed to me slightly at odds with what Ambassador Nikki Haley was saying at the United Nations in New York. Which sent me to the web site for his legation in Vienna... but before I get ahead of myself on that, here's a bit more background.
Haley, at a UN press stakeout in New York, following a Security Council meeting this Wednesday on North Korea, said that while the U.S. reevaluates how to handle North Korea, "all options are on the table." But Haley also went out of her way to imply that the Trump administration is far from eager to accede to pressures, such as those from China, to default to talks or deals with North Korea. Referring to North Korea's tyrant, Kim Jong Un, Haley told reporters:
I appreciate all of my counterparts wanting to talk about talks and negotiations. We are not dealing with a rational person.
To my mind, Haley may be wrong in her assessment of Kim Jong Un as irrational. We can debate whether Kim is actually a madman incapable of rational calculation, or a wily thug, who in the interest of maintaining his hereditary totalitarian throne has been proving adept, like his forebears, at calibrating what he can get away with in the way of threats, hostage-taking, assassinations, executions, extortion rackets, and nuclear missile projects -- all in the interest of consolidating his grip on power and expanding his reach.
But wherever one comes down on the crazy-Kim question, Haley deserves applause for deflecting the pressures to start bargaining with Kim. Deals with North Korea do not work, and will not work while Kim remains in power. The long record of U.S. talks, deals and attempted talks with North Korea is one of humiliation and failure for the U.S., as North Korea's dynastic Kim regime has repeatedly pocketed any gains, milked every concession, cheated on every agreement, and carried on with its atrocities and its nuclear missile projects.
Which brings me to the statement delivered this Wednesday by U.S. Charge D'Affaires Schofer, at a meeting of the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. Schofer's words did not quite mesh with Haley's polite dismissal of pressure for "talks and negotiations." Rather, Schofer repeated what was for years the refrain of the Obama administration -- and of former Secretary of State John Kerry, in particular -- offering Pyongyang, under conditions North Korea had previously agreed to, and then violated, the option of returning to the bargaining table:Like many people who mysteriously ended up on Labour's mailing list without asking to be added, I received an email from Jeremy Corbyn at the weekend offering me the chance to suggest a question to put to David Cameron at PMQs on Wednesday.
But, right now, many of us in Scotland are far more interested in putting questions to the new Leader of the Opposition, a person we are still trying to get the full measure of. The one I'd choose is this: what exactly is it that makes Scotland inferior to Ireland?
Labour's embrace of British nationalism has always been intellectually indefensible, and we may just have to accept that it will continue to be so under Mr Corbyn. - James Kelly
Throughout his long parliamentary career, Corbyn has championed the cause of a united and independent Ireland, even to the extent of offering the hand of friendship to those who were waging a campaign of violence in pursuit of that goal. His new shadow chancellor went further still, insisting that we should actually "honour" the IRA and its bombings for helping to bring about the peace process.
And yet the immaculately peaceful national movement in Scotland, which even in last year's referendum defeat attracted far wider public support than Irish unity currently does, seems to leave Corbyn utterly cold.
To his credit, he has accepted the right of the Scottish people to choose independence in the future if they want (although the language he's used on that point has at times been troublingly ambivalent), but he makes no secret of the fact that he wishes the issue would simply go away.
It's hard not to conclude, therefore, that he thinks Scotland is intrinsically less of a nation than Ireland. Why? Is it simply the fatuous George Galloway argument that Ireland is an island and Scotland is not? (In which case how do we explain France?) Or is it the cynical calculation that Labour is less likely to cobble together a governing majority in the UK without Scotland?
In truth, Labour's embrace of British nationalism has always been intellectually indefensible, and we may just have to accept that it will continue to be so under Corbyn. But unless he can somehow square this circle, it will be impossible for him to win back the bulk of traditional Labour voters who defected to the SNP in May.
Yes, they will like what they hear from him on unilateral nuclear disarmament, and opposition to austerity, and renationalisation of the railways. But for most of them, constitutional progress for Scotland has become an indispensable part of the package, and if that isn't on offer from Labour, they're likely to stick with Nicola Sturgeon.
In fairness to Corbyn, he's freely conceded that his knowledge of Scotland is limited, and he seems to be open to advice from his party colleagues in the Scottish Parliament. In a more rational world, they'd be seizing that golden opportunity by pressing him to put forward a compromise offer of maximum devolution, to enable Labour to triangulate its way out of electoral difficulty in Scotland in much the same way that it did 25 years ago by beefing up its original devolution proposals. Unfortunately, however, Labour's contingent at Holyrood is now largely blinded by hatred of the SNP, and is far more interested in drawing self-destructive lines in the sand.
It's ironic that the final act of the decades-long fight between Labour and the SNP may be heralded by the moment the two parties' leaderships became ideologically closer than ever before. - James Kelly
Listening to these siren voices will, with absolute certainty, drag Corbyn on to the rocks in Scotland. Paradoxically, his hopes of electoral salvation may depend on turning away from his own party and heeding the advice of the SNP instead.
In many ways, the nationalist bloc at Westminster is a much more reliable ally for Corbyn than his own side – he certainly won't need to persuade Alex Salmond or Mhairi Black to vote against Trident renewal or air strikes in Syria. With luck, he'll start to ponder why exactly he's setting himself against his political soulmates on the constitutional question, especially when it's doing him nothing but harm.
If he does eventually reach an understanding with the SNP on more powers for the Scottish Parliament, is it just possible that the outcome of the 2020 election could be what so many expected in 2015 – a Labour minority government supported by the SNP? Corbyn already seems to have learned the most important lesson of Ed Miliband's demise, namely that you can't insult the intelligence of the electorate by pretending you won't do deals in the event of a hung parliament.
If a full-fat socialist Labour party is even vaguely close to winning enough seats in England to be in with a shout of taking office, it will already have overcome extreme odds to allay the electorate's fears on national security and the economy. Setting English minds at rest about the influence of the SNP will be a doddle in comparison, as long as there is openness and transparency about the shape a deal might take.
Sadly, the much more likely scenario is that Corbyn will prove unelectable south of the border. For all that the SNP would love to make common cause with him to bring about a fairer society and a more peaceful world, they are ultimately in the business of winning elections and securing independence.
They will be ruthless in exploiting Labour's weakness in England to point out to voters that only independence can save Scotland from indefinite Tory rule. It's ironic that the final act of the decades-long fight between Labour and the SNP may be heralded by the moment the two parties' leaderships became ideologically closer than ever before.The Orange Cube by Jakob + Macfarlane Architects
Jakob + Macfarlane Architects have designed The Orange Cube in Lyon, France.
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The Orange Cube by Jakob + Macfarlane Architects
The ambition of the urban planning project for the old harbor zone, developed by VNF (Voies Naviguables de France) in partnership with Caisse des Dépôts and Sem Lyon Confluence, was to reinvest the docks of Lyon on the river side and its industrial patrimony, bringing together architecture and a cultural and commercial program.
These docks, initially made of warehouses (la Sucrière, les Douanes, les Salins, la Capitainerie), cranes, functional elements bound to the river and its flow, mutate into a territory of experimentation in order to create a new landscape that is articulated towards the river and the surrounding hills.
The project is designed as a simple orthogonal « cube » into which a giant hole is carved, responding to necessities of light, air movement and views. This hole creates a void, piercing the building horizontally from the river side inwards and upwards through the roof terrace.
The cube, next to the existing hall (the Salins building, made from three archs) highlights its autonomy. It is designed on a regular framework (29 x 33m) made of concrete pillars on 5 levels. A light façade, with seemingly random openings is completed by another façade, pierced with pixilated patterns that accompany the movement of the river. The orange color refers to lead paint, an industrial color often used for harbor zones.
In order to create the void, Jakob + MacFarlane worked with a series of volumetric perturbations, linked to the subtraction of three “conic” volumes disposed on three levels: the angle of the façade, the roof and the level of the entry. These perturbations generate spaces and relations between the building, its users, the site and the light supply, inside a common office program.
The first perturbation is based on direct visual relation with the arched structure of the hall, its proximity and its buttress form. It allows to connect the two architectural elements and to create new space on a double height, protected inside the building.
A second, obviously an elliptic one, breaks the structural regularity of the pole-girder structure on four levels at the level of the façade corner that gives on the river side. This perforation, result of the encounter of two curves, establishes a diagonal relation towards the angle. It generates a huge atrium in the depth of the volume, surrounded by a series of corridors connected to the office platforms. The plan of the façade is hence shifted towards the interior, constructing a new relation to light and view, from both interior and exterior. This creates an extremely dynamic relation with the building that changes geometry according to the position of the spectator.
The tertiary platforms benefit from light and views at different levels with balconies that are accessible from each level. Each platform enjoys a new sort of conviviality through the access on the balconies and its views, creating spaces for encounter and informal exchanges. The research for transparency and optimal light transmission on the platforms contributes to make the working spaces more elegant and light.
The last floor has a big terrace in the background from which one can admire the whole panoramic view on Lyon, la Fourvière and Lyon-Confluence.
The project is part of the approach for sustainable development and respects the following principles:
Optimization of the façade conception allowing to reconcile thermal performance and visual comfort with an Ubat < 0,7 W / m2 K and a daylight factor of 2% for almost the total number of offices, a thermo frigorific production through heat pumps on the water level and the replacement of new hygienic air with recuperation of high efficient calories of the extracted air.
The building is connected to future huge floating terraces connected to the banks of the river/ quays.
PROGRAM:
commercial: headquarters Cardinal Group, real estate development
cultural: Design Showroom RBC
Showroom concept:
This project was about bringing together a showroom dedicated to the world of design objects inside the architecture of an existing building: « The Orange Cube ». The intention was to bring the worlds of Architecture, Design and the uniqueness of the site in Lyon together into one experience.
JAKOB + MACFARLANE decided to take the language of the Cube, which is based on the fluid movement of the River Saône and in a sense project this movement inside the space of the showroom. Thus imagining the space as an extrapolation of the façade, a virtual three dimensional river or volume containing a long porous wall whose 60 “alvéoles” are filled with furniture. This wall wraps around the space of the showroom forming an L. The spectator moves from the spectacular entry wall towards more intimate spaces on the river side. Each “alvéole” is unique in seize and form allowing thus an intimate and private view of each design piece.
The platforms on the floor, made from a series of kitset pants, imagined like islands, can become stages for different thematic presentations.
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Visit the Jakob + Macfarlane website – here.
Photography © Nicolas Borel
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.Head of Google's webspam team Matt Cutts wants to demystify the company's two-step authentication features in wake of Mat Honan's recent online security debacle. In a new post on his personal blog, he explains that the added security of a two-step authentication process comes from the combination of "something you know" (like a password) and "something you have" (like a smartphone). By sending a code to your phone via SMS (or via a special authenticator mobile app) — which hackers won't have physical access to — your account remains secure even if your password were to be compromised.
Cutts also dispels common misconceptions about Google's two-step authentication that might dissuade a user from giving it a try, like how the company's process doesn't require cell signal or even a phone at all, if you're willing to print out a code. While an SMS with a one-time-use authentication code can be delivered to any cell phone, Cutts also suggests the use of the Android Google Authenticator app, which can expedite the verification process. It's worth noting that not all apps support two-step verification, but you can set up app-specific passwords — themselves a secure function, as well. The article encourages everyone that uses Google services to give two-step authentication a try, and includes the how-to video below (originally posted May 27th) to make the setup even easier.Nominations are Now Open for the 2016 Pioneer Awards
Here's your chance to nominate your favorite digital rights luminary for a 2016 Pioneer Award! This year’s Pioneers will join an esteemed group of past award winners that includes the visionary activist Aaron Swartz, global human rights and security researchers The Citizen Lab, Tunisian citizen media community Nawaat.org, and open-source pioneer Limor "Ladyada" Fried, among many remarkable journalists, entrepreneurs, public interest attorneys, and others. Nominations will be open until 11:59pm PT on Tuesday, May 17, 2016.
What does it take to be a Pioneer? The nominees must have contributed substantially to the health, growth, accessibility, or freedom of computer-based communications. The contribution may be technical, social, economic, or cultural.
Who can submit a nomination? Anyone may nominate a potential Pioneer Award recipient, and you may nominate more than one recipient. You may also nominate yourself or your organization. Please submit separate forms for each nominee.
What fields are required? To be valid, all nominations must contain your reason, however brief, for nominating the individual or organization. Also, we strongly prefer that you include a means of contacting the nominee. If you don't have their personal email address or phone number, a link to their active social media account can be substituted. In addition, while anonymous nominations will be accepted, ideally we'd like to be able to contact the nominating parties in case we need further information.
Who is eligible for a Pioneer Award? Nominations may be of individuals, systems, or organizations in the private or public sectors.
Who is not eligible? Current members of EFF's staff and operating board and past Pioneer Award recipients are not eligible.
What happens for the nominees that win? Persons or representatives of organizations receiving an EFF Pioneer Award will be invited to attend the ceremony on September 21, 2016 at The Delancey Street Town Hall in San Francisco, at EFF's expense.Study: Bridgeport is the worst city for summer travel
Scroll through for a look at the 10 worst places for summer travel, followed by the 10 best. 13 factors, including airfare costs, number of attractions and leisure opportunities. Click here for more information about the list. A new analysis from WalletHub ranks the best and worst places for summer travel. The study looked at five categories broken down into less 13 factors, including airfare costs, number of attractions and leisure A new analysis from WalletHub ranks the best and worst places for summer travel. The study looked at five categories broken down into... more Photo: David McNew,. Photo: David McNew,. Image 1 of / 27 Caption Close Study: Bridgeport is the worst city for summer travel 1 / 27 Back to Gallery
Bridgeport is the absolute worst destination for a summer vacation out of 80 cities ranked by a leading personal finance and lifestyle site, due mostly to the high cost of accomodations, food, gas and other expenses.
Stamford and Norwalk are lumped together with Bridgeport in last place, and New Haven and Milford combined for 79th place. The analysis of 13 factors, including airfare costs, number of attractions and leisure opportunities, was released Wednesday morning by WalletHub.com
"The survey isn't Bridgeport-specific and clearly has flawed methodology," said Brett Broesder, spokesman for Mayor Bill Finch. "But I also doubt the authors of this unfortunate study bothered to visit Bridgeport. As a city, we're not competing with West Palm Beach or Las Vegas for tourism dollars right now. Instead, we're competing and committed to making Bridgeport a city that works for everyone."
The analysis included the country's largest metropolitan statistical areas, groupings used by the U.S. Census Bureau.
No Connecticut location fared well.
Neither did Albany, N.Y., or many other Northeast destinations, mainly because of high costs. The Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford MSA ranked 73rd out of 80 destinations.
But Bridgeport and lower Fairfield County scored the worst on "the highest costs and hassles of getting there," and next to last for its attractions, despite having the state's only zoo, the nationally known Barnum Museum and the newly reopened Pleasure Beach and boardwalk.
Even Baltimore, the scene of recent riots and soaring crime, ranked higher, 33rd in the country as a vacation destimation. Las Vegas was the top-ranked city with Orlando, Fla., second. Raleigh, N.C. was statistically in the middle, 40 out of 80.
Our summer weather didn't help the rankings of area cities, either. Bridgeport was ranked 75th for mildness of climate and, somewhat inexplicably, Stamford is 88th out of 100 cities ranked on climate.
"In order to identify the best and most budget-friendly summer travel destinations, WalletHub ranked the 80 most populated MSAs based on five equally weighted dimensions, including `Costs & Hassles of Getting There,' `Local Costs,' `Attractions,' `Weather Conditions' and `Parks & Recreation,' " said spokesman John S. Kiernan. "We then identified 13 key metrics that are relevant to those dimensions."
Fran Mayko, spokeswoman for AAA of Southern New England, questioned the methodology used. Factoring in the weather seems "arbitrary," she said, and grouping cities together is "comparing apples and oranges." For example, Mayko said, using airport hubs as a measure of accessibility works against many Connecticut cities.
Bridgeport residents interviewed downtown Wednesday agreed the city's bottom ranking is unfair. Shavonne Davis, who lives in the East End, said she feels very safe living and working here. Downtown resident Conrad Percheson believes the poor rating might come from the "intimidating image" Bridgeport has for some people.
But Davis and Percheson said the city has many attractions outsiders may not even be aware of. Davis said she has brought her children to plays and live music downtown, and Percheson cited the emerging downtown arts scene.
Americans of all ages -- but baby boomers and traditionalists especially -- plan to travel and increase their travel spending this summer compared with the same time in 2014, according to travel and tourism research firm D.K. Shifflet & Associates.
Millennials will spend an average of $2,300 on their summer vacations, about $500 less than the $2,788 budget of the average American traveler, according to the Shifflet study.
Connecticut's tourism effort is focused on drawing visitors from New York, New Jersey and the rest of New England, as well as in-state "staycations." The "Still Revolutionary" ad campaign relaunched for the season in May with a $2.3 million budget. This year's campaign will place a greater emphasis on Connecticut's casinos as resort and entertainment destinations, according to the website, ctvisit.comMicrosoft is making it easier for developers to monetize their apps when the highly anticipated Windows 10 operating system arrives in 2015, according to Todd Brix, general manager of Windows Apps and Store.
The software giant is working to beef up Windows Store, Microsoft's take on app marketplaces like Apple's App Store and Google Play. Despite trailing them in app count and popularity, Windows Store did make some big gains in 2014, revealed Brix in a company blog post.
"We made good progress by both attracting over 30 percent more active users and by exceeding a 110 percent year-over-year increase in app downloads and gross sales," stated Brix. "In addition, the ecosystem has grown, with an 80 percent increase in registered developers and 60 percent increase in app selection year-over-year."
Microsoft's mission in the new year is to keep this momentum going and help improve the Windows app ecosystem.
"Providing a platform where developers can be successful remains our number one goal as we look to 2015," said Brix. Priorities include enabling app developers to target various device classes and regions, as well as "reducing the amount of time and effort it takes to move from ideas to installs."
To start, Microsoft will continue to pursue carrier billing—the ability to apply app purchases to cell phone bills—in emerging markets. Carrier billing has led to an eightfold increase in average transaction volume in high-growth markets. Currently, Windows Store carrier billing is available in 46 regions, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, India and Vietnam.
"You will also see us work with carriers to more aggressively promote this purchase [option] to their subscriber base," Brix said. "Carrier billing rounds out a range of payment choices that includes credit cards, Alipay, PayPal and—new this year—app-gifting with digital gift cards (available in Canada, France, Germany, the U.K. and the U.S.) and Bitcoin (U.S. only)."
Microsoft also plans to help developers earn more money from in-app ads.
"We are increasing our focus on in-app advertising to help improve fill rates and grow developer revenue," stated Brix. "The recent release of Windows ad mediation for Windows Phone developers is one example, improving fill rates to over 95 percent and increasing revenue up to 200 percent."
Microsoft will continue to refine the Windows Store user interface to improve app discoverability, he added. Even novice coders can get in on the act.
"Windows App Studio Beta enabled those with great ideas but no development experience to bring their ideas to life," Brix said. "We will continue to enhance this toolset in 2015, integrating new capabilities like the recent addition of TouchDevelop."
Finally, the company plans to continue streamlining the complete Windows Store app publishing process, an effort the company kicked off in 2014 with the shift to Windows Dev Center lifetime registrations. "We have much more work to do to simplify and unify the experience and you can expect the evolution to continue over the coming months," said Brix.God bless America—but not too loudly, please. In Jacksonville, Florida, local musician Lane Pittman was charged with breaching the peace after a raucous rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" on Independence Day.
The incident happened after Pittman began playing on a street near Neptune Beach, which attracted a crowd of nearly 200 onlookers, according to Orlando Weekly. Pittman said police asked him to move from the street to the sidewalk, which he did. Police then waited until Pittman finished his performance and cited him anyway.
Pittman told WJXT of the arrest:
[The officer] goes, 'Spread your legs. Put your hands behind your back,' and that was when I was like, 'Oh my gosh. Is he serious? I’m getting arrested for this after I was told I could do it?'
"Out of respect for the national anthem, they let [Pittman finish]," countered Neptune Beach Police Chief David Sembach. "He was told he was going to have to stop playing. He went to the sidewalk and continued playing, and it was only after that that the crowd was getting hostile, so the only way to stop it, since he wasn't going to stop playing, was to take him out of the location.”
According to WJXT, Pittman is well-known locally, where he plays in his church's band, coaches high-school lacrosse, and apparently has ambitions to be the next man behind the town's Jacksonville Jaguars mascot, Jaxson de Ville. Chief Sembach suggested Pittman has deliberately provoked arrest to drum up publicity for his mascot campaign. But a witness backs Pittman's version of events, corroborating that an officer had first said it was fine to continue playing on the sidewalk.
Pittman claims police said he would have been charged with inciting a riot except they didn't have the resources at the moment to take him downtown for booking. He also alleges that the officers never read him his rights or told him for what he was being arrested.The Ratan Tata-headed innovation council formed by Railway’s Minister Suresh Prabhu has decided to benchmark Indian Railways against the train networks of four global giants – the US, China, Russia and Germany.
The idea is to compare financial and operational performance indicators and work out a strategy for turning around the railways by using the best-suited model of innovation and development.
The council has asked the railway board for inputs on the railway systems operating in the four countries. The council held its first meeting on May 13 with Prabhu, Minister of State (MoS) Railways Manoj Sinha, Railway Board Chairman A K Mital, other board members and trade union representatives.
“It was decided in the meeting that the performance position of a few foreign railways including the US, Germany, Russia and China will be collected for the purpose of comparison and carrying out further analysis by the innovation council. The second meeting would be held then,” said an official privy to the developments.
India is similar to the nations on the list — except for Germany — in being a member of the 1-billion tonne freight club. India, the US, Russia and China are the only four countries in the world which carry more than a billion tonnes of freight on their railway networks annually.
However, India lags behind the other nations in terms of structural and operational reforms, particularly in the freight segment. The US, China, Germany and Russia have already adopted significant degrees of privatisation and corporatisation of their railways over the past decades.
Of the two countries with railway systems most comparable to India, the US and China, the US has traditionally had a privately owned rail freight operations system. China has had a departmental system historically but has now progressively reorganised its structure to the point where there is now no Ministry of Rail. It has a national rail corporation and a number of regional operators and specialised private railway operators especially in dedicated freight haulage.
While Indian Railways’ efficiency indicators have improved over time, they are still low when compared to global benchmarks. For example, traffic unit (addition of net tonne km or NTKM and passenger km or PKM) per employee is 0.84 for India compared to 1.4 for China, 2.0 for Russia and 15.1 for the US.
According to Indian Railways’ recently released white paper, NTKM per employee is 1.81 million in Russia, 1.23 million in China and 0.44 million in India. Similarly, PKM per employee is 0.15 million in Russia, 0.38 million in China and 0.66 million in India. This indicates how India fares better on the passenger indicator and worse on freight performance.
“There is a rich experience from other countries in creating competition and India has a great deal to learn from it, particularly as it is one of the last countries to restructure,” the Bibek Debroy committee on restructuring of the railway board and mobilisation of funds for Indian Railways said in its draft report.
In the US, 28 per cent of the railways’ revenue goes into labour costs and 20 per cent is channelised to source fuel. For comparison, in India, 32 per cent of operating revenue goes into staff wages while fuel costs eat up 18 per cent of earnings. The two nations are also similar in earning 40-45 per cent of freight earnings from coal transport alone.
Also, in the US private companies fund a great majority of their own infrastructure capital investment projects from customers on a commercial basis. While the Federal Railroad Administration makes capital grants, the total amounts are minor compared to commercial funding raised by the private freight railroads themselves. For comparison, Indian Railways continues to source over 40 per cent of its Plan Budget of Rs 1 lakh crore as support from the Centre.Listen in to a very special episode of Language of Bromance as once again bros turn into foes. In the fifth Language of Bromance Draft Richard and Shawn draft their ultimate zombie apocalypse team.
The Zombie Apocalypse Draft works similar to the NFL draft. The draft consists of seven rounds where Richard and Shawn choose a specific person for their team. For simplicity the selection can not be a demi-god or have superpowers. Once the draft is finished tweet your favorite team #RichWillSurvive or #ShawnWillSurvive and comment on our facebook page with your Zombie Apocalypse team.
This is fantasy football for dudes who can’t get laid. The nerdiest competition created by Language of Bromance. Give a listen to The Language of Bromance in Episode 33 Zombie Apocalypse Draft.
Download Episode 33 Zombie Apocalypse Draft (right click and save)
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About Language of Bromance
Together Richard and Shawn formed the podcast The Language of Bromance and from there it has been nothing but fun. The duo laugh about things they go through, stories in the news and even getting serious discussing net neutrality along with other issues. Every so often their friendship turns to a bitter rivalry with their nerdiest creation the draft episodes. An original take on a best of or a top 10 list. The draft episodes are done like an NFL Draft 7 rounds where Richard and Shawn flip-flop picks on various topics.
Facebook Twitter Google+ LinkedInWhen I’m not geeking out over design you can probably find me geeking out over film. I spent a good 7 years of my life working behind the counters of various video stores across Western Canada and consider myself an avid film nerd.
So it’s not surprisingly that my jaw nearly hit the floor when a coworker introduced me to the wonderful world of Polish film posters a couple of years ago. These conceptual masterpieces put the original American posters to shame every time; they are truly beautiful works of art. Trimming this list down to a mere 50 posters that I absolutely love was surprisingly difficult.
Apocalypse Now
Rosemary’s Baby
Tootsie
Star Wars – The Empire Strikes Back
Return Of The Pink Panther
Raging Bull
The Last Detail
Gandhi
The Fly
Raiders Of The Lost Ark
Harry And The Hendersons
The Getaway
M*A*S*H
Crocodile Dundee 2
Being There
Old Yeller
Terms Of Endearment
War Games
The China Syndrome
Weekend At Bernie’s
Gremlins
Eyes Wide Shut
The Shaggy Dog
Under The Volcano
The Late Show
Short Circuit 2
Missing
Don’t Look Now
Critters
Fanny And Alexander
Flipper
Straight Time
Son Of Godzilla
Stroszek
Breakfast At Tiffany’s
Days Of Heaven
Smokey And The Bandit
Permanent Vacation
Fatal Attraction
Airplane 2: The Sequel
The Hospital
Willow
Christine
The NeverEnding Story
Lord Of The Flies
Draughtsman’s Contract
The Changeling
Alphaville
Enter The Dragon
After Hours
Alien
SourcesPhoto by ISIPhotos.com
The Philadelphia Union have taken a major step toward filling the void at centerback left by the departure of veteran Dan Califf, adding a standout central defender with MLS experience and the qualities to make the Union one of the stingiest defenses in the league.
According to FOX Soccer, the Union have signed former Chicago Fire defender Bakary Soumare, selecting him with the top spot in the MLS Allocation Order, which the Union acquired from the Vancouver Whitecaps in a trade completed last week.
An MLS Defender of the Year finalist in 2008, the 26-year-old Soumare brings an imposing presence to an athletic but small Union back-line. At 6-foot-4, he should help give the Union a real force in the air, something the team has lacked since joining MLS in 2010.
The final paperwork on the trade and Soumare signing are being processed and both should be announced on Tuesday.
Details on the trade between the Union and Whitecaps were not available at the time of the story, but sources tell SBI that the Union paid Vancouver allocation money to move up. The sum of the allocation is believed to be between $100K and $125K to move up to the top spot in the MLS Allocation Order, the order used to assign returning U.S. national team players and former MLS players previously sold by the league.
If you are wondering why the Chicago Fire don't still have Soumare's rights, by league rule once a team has used the funds secured in the transfer of a player, they lose the rights to that player. Soumare left Chicago in 2009 to join then French First Division side Boulogne on a $2 million transfer, a record for an MLS defender at the time.
What do you think of this signing? Think Soumare makes the Union a playoff contender again? Still waiting for Philadelphia to add a forward before you count them as a serious playoff threat?
Share your thoughts below.Assyrian villages in northern Iraq today.
Throughout history there were few proposals for the establishment of an autonomy or an independent state for the Syriac-speaking Assyrians in northern Iraq.
Historical proposals [ edit ]
Current proposals [ edit ]
19th governorate [ edit ]
Currently,[when?] two major Assyrian parties (Assyrian Democratic Movement and Chaldean Syriac Assyrian Popular Council) call for a creation of a 19th governorate which will incorporate Shekhan, Al-Hamdaniya and Tel Keppe districts of Ninawa Governorate. This proposal is pushed by two above mentioned parties as a new governorate for all minorities living there. Various estimates say that new province population will have the following ethno-religious makeup:
During June, 2017, a conference was held in Brussels dubbed, The Future for Christians in Iraq. [5] The conference was organised by the European People's Party and had participants extending from Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac organizations, including representatives from the Iraqi government and the KRG. The conference was boycotted by the Assyrian Democratic Movement, Sons of Mesopotamia, Assyrian Patriotic Party, Chaldean Catholic Church and Assyrian Church of the East. A position paper was signed by the remaining political organizations involved. [6]
Support – The proposal has been backed by the majority of Shia Arabs and Kurdish parties.
Jalal Talabani, President of Iraq [7]
Sadrist Members of Parliament block [8]
Islamic Dawa Party block of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki [8]
The three main Syriac Christian Bishops in the area, One Syriac Catholic, and two Syriac Orthodox, in 2017, came out in support of the idea of a protected area for Syriac Christians. Though the Patriarch has stated the priority should be other concerns.
Some foreign governments and political parties have also weighed in on the issue:
The Swedish political party Folkpartiet declared full support of an Assyrian administration by means of activating Article 125. [9]
The Australian Federal Government through the Labor, Liberal & Christian Democratic Party support an autonomous Assyrian state in Iraq. [10][11]
Oppose – It has been opposed by Sunni Arabs who make up the majority of the city of Mosul.
Al-Hadba [12]
Justice and Reform Movement (Sunni Arab)[13]
Assyrian Administrative Region [ edit ]
Some Assyrian organizations also call for a creation of an Assyrian Administrative Region in Northern Iraq, which would include the following districts:[14]
Ninawa Governorate
Dohuk Governorate
Several Assyrian political parties convened to sign a position paper on the 6th of March 2017 relating to the future of the Nineveh Plains. [15] The position paper called for the creation of a Nineveh Plains province that is self-governed by the Assyrian population of the Nineveh Plain.
Incorporation with Kurdistan region [ edit ]
Many Kurdish politicians have publicly come out in support of annexing the area to the Kurdistan Regional Government as their fourth governorate (after Dohuk, Erbil and Slemani). Some Assyrians claim Masoud Barzani's KDP is intimidating the population into demanding their region be annexed. This is a controversial issue and the population has different views on the matter as revealed by a WikiLeaks document released in 2011:[16]
“ In a July 3 meeting with PRT and US Army civil affairs personnel, Mayor of Tal Kaif District Basim Bello said Assyrians in Ninewa Province feel intimidated by the Kurds and suffer from a lack of essential services. Bello said the solution lies in the inclusion of all groups in the provincial government. He said civil rights protections for Christians will continue to be a concern whether predominantly Christian areas remain part of Ninewa or join the KRG. He reiterated |
Mark Webber.
It was the same in 2008 when he broken his leg in a mountain-bike crash in the Tassie Challenge, but made an early return to F1 despite extreme pain and a tough recovery.
Webber made a fairytale entry to F1 when he was sixth in his home race with the tiny Minardi team of fellow Aussie Paul Stoddart in 2002. Few people knew he had made an all-or-nothing gamble with only enough sponsorship for three races.
A year later he was back and being paid at the Australian Grand Prix with Jaguar, which promised as much yet delivered as little as his later time with Williams F1.
Webber’s breakthrough came when he joined Red Bull Racing — born from the ashes of the formula Jaguar outfit — and he became a regular top-10 runner and then race winner after his landmark success with pole position and victory in the German grand prix of 2009.
But Webber’s time at Red Bull coincided with the arrival of wonderboy Sebastian Vettel, who shaded the Aussie — and triggered some fiery on and off-track clashes — on the way to four world championships. Vettel was the hand-picked protege of Red Bull’s racing boss and Webber’s size and weight meant he was handicapped by as much a 0.3 seconds a lap, a massive margin in F1, against his jockey-sized team mate.
He eventually walked away from F1 on his own terms, unlike too many drivers who backslide through the field, with nine wins and 42 podiums from 215 starts.
He moved straight into the top drive in sports cars with Porsche and took another string of victories and the 2015 world title, although he never managed a victory at Le Mans.
Through it all, Webber has remained doggedly committed and fiercely patriotic, challenging himself in recent times by learning to fly a helicopter. And marrying Ann.
His retirement is looking just as busy as his racing days and he travels a lot, including visiting many major sporting events — most recently the Monte Carlo Rally — as a superfan and to support other Aussies from Leyton Hewitt through to current speedway racing stars.
“I’m still extremely busy. I’m based out of the UK but I’m still true blue and remind people of that whenever I can,” Webber says.
“It’s very easy to stop in the car and do nothing, but I think it’s good to keep testing myself.”It’s the talk about town: the first AAA game of the year to be released in such a shoddy manner: and it’s not Ubisoft this time. Mass Effect: Andromeda has tons of rough edges, and the most prevailing one is of course, the animations.
If you still need convincing, here’s a long compilation montage of all the hilarious and awful human and facial animations (as well as other bugs and glitches):
However, the blow-up on this issue has resulted some unethical actions- including a witch hunt on one particular former animator at EA. While the complaints and critiques are valid points, targeting individuals should not be the way to resolve this. Bioware issued a statement on this a while back to clear up that the said individual was not responsible.
Yet for those seeking answers how the horrid animations managed to ship on launch, Jonathan Cooper has some thoughts about it. Currently at Naughty Dog, Cooper used to do animation work for Mass Effect 1 and 2. Over on Twitter he has a thread that explained how much work it is to craft good animations, and how possibly Bioware underestimate the task.
Here’s a few selection of tweets from the thread that should give you a good glimpse of this:
That said, animating an RPG is a really, really big undertaking – completely different from a game like Uncharted so comparisons are unfair. — Jonathan Cooper (@GameAnim) March 23, 2017
In Mass Effect 1 we had over 8 hrs of facial performance. In Horizon Zero Dawn they had around 15. Player expectations have only grown. — Jonathan Cooper (@GameAnim) March 23, 2017
This, presumably, was because they planned to hit every line by hand. But a 5-year dev cycle shows they underestimated this task. — Jonathan Cooper (@GameAnim) March 23, 2017
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Suffice to say, the bar of great animations, and expectations from fans, have raised up ever so high in 2017, and it will only rise even more as games keep pushing for photorealistic visuals. The game to beat now when it comes to animations is of course, CD Projekt RED’s The Witcher 3, released back in 2015. AAA games are getting more and more expensive to make: even a reported $40 million budget can be not enough. Consider also the state of Bioware at the moment: most of the original talent that championed the games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age has left the building. And it’s telling that the current team is struggling to recapture that magic.
We will have a review of Mass Effect: Andromeda soon. Despite a lot of rough edges, there is still fun to be had with the game.It’s safe to assume TV or film projects scheduled to shoot today in areas of the Southeast that have already been — or are about to be — hit by the latest crippling winter storm have shut down production temporarily. The National Weather Service has called the storm “an event of historical proportions”; the service has also called the storm potentially “catastrophic,” “crippling” and “paralyzing.” In case you missed the news: Across the South, winter-weary residents woke up this morning to a landscape encased in ice, snow and freezing rain, and forecasters warning that the worst of the potentially “catastrophic” storm was yet to come. It’s so big, the storm led Today show’s coverage this morning, even though the NBC News program has schleppped to Sochi to cover the Winter Games, which are being plagued by too-warm weather.
From Texas to the Carolinas and in Atlanta (which was hit by a much lesser storm a couple of weeks ago that wrecked havoc on the city), roads were slick with ice and tens of thousands were without power, the Associated Press reports. Interstates were largely desolate as most people heeded warnings to stay home. Fox News reported that more than 95,000 customers were without power early this morning, many of them in the Atlanta area (home to such productions as the CW’s The Vampire Diaries and The Originals, both of which shuttered production today, according to producer Warner Bros TV), and that conditions had forced the cancellations of thousands of flights across the country — including nearly 70% of flights heading in and out of Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International airport, which is the busiest in the nation. As of this morning, more than 2,800 flights already had been canceled, Fox News Channel reported.
Atlanta-based CNN reported that the storm that’s already iced over Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia is expected to continue pelting the Southeast into tomorrow, so expect production to be shut down in those areas too Thursday. The storm is expected to move up the East Coast,with 4 to 8 inches of snow predicted for Washington, and 6 to 10 inches on New York from midnight tonight into tomorrow, CNN said.
Anyone who knows of any TV or film project that did NOT shut down in the Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia region?Slide on New Hampshire's Mount Washington propagates 650 feet across with 20 people on slope, but no one was caught
WORDS: Brian Irwin
On Saturday, March 29, a large avalanche swept the southeast section of New Hampshire's Mount Washington's summit cone. According to U.S.F.S. Snow Ranger Chris Joosen, "A slide of this magnitude has never been recorded on this particular slope." Suspected to be skier triggered, this aspect of 6,288-foot Mount Washington rarely avalanches and is a moderate slope popular for backcountry skiers. Roughly 20 individuals were on the slope when the avalanche occurred at approximately 1 p.m. No one was caught in the slide.
Mount Washington is perhaps best known for its venerable Tuckerman Ravine, an area that draws thousands of visitors on spring weekends. The U.S.F.S. Mount Washington Avalanche Center forecasts this area, but not the summit cone, an area that is largely considered less prone to avalanches than the steep gullies of Tuckerman and neighboring Huntington Ravine.
Joosen estimates the slide meets criteria for a D3 avalanche, which means it has the potential to destroy a wood-frame house. Field analysis revealed the crown face was three feet deep and 650 feet across. The avalanche ran 385 vertical feet. It was thought to have occurred when a weak layer of facets beneath an ice lens collapsed, allowing the overlaying hard slab to run.
The slide was first reported by Harvard Cabin caretaker Rich Palatino. U.S.F.S. Snow Rangers responded immediately. After a three-hour avalanche dog and beacon search, extensive interview of witnesses, and evaluation of the pile, which was 20 feet deep in places, it was determined that there were no casualties.
Avalanches are not uncommon on Mount Washington and in New Hampshire's Presidential Range. However, in that region, larger slab avalanches most frequently occur during or after a storm. On the day of the incident, skies were fair and avalanche conditions in Tuckerman were rated at moderate, "with the primary concern being wet slabs." Joosen explained that this slide was unique in that "warm weather and free water did not appear to be a causative factor in triggering this event."
Mount Washington is situated only three hours from Boston and is frequented by experienced and inexperienced backcountry enthusiasts alike. Despite the fact that the summit cone is not forecasted, this event is a powerful reminder of the need to be vigilant when using the backcountry.
Be sure to read your local avalanche report from an avalanche center near you.New Election Vote Totals: CD1 Runoff Highly Likely, Measures S and H
Just after 3 p.m. today, the L.A. County Clerk posted new tallies for last week’s election. According to L.A. Times reporter David Zahniser via Twitter, the clerk is now expected to certify election results next Tuesday.
There could be more ballots, challenges, or even recounts, so the Council District 1 race remains too close to call definitively. Assuming the latest numbers hold, incumbent Council District 1 City Councilmember Gil Cedillo and challenger Joe Bray-Ali appear headed for a runoff election on Tuesday May 16. Though both candidates are progressive democrats, there are sharp distinctions between them on livability issues. Cedillo has repeatedly taken anti-bike positions, including blocking LADOT’s planned safety improvements on North Figueroa Street and undermining L.A.’s multi-modal Mobility Plan 2035. Bray-Ali is a cyclist, a bike-shop owner, and a strong champion for bike facilities including the North Figueroa Street project.
On election night Cedillo appeared to have won re-election outright. That night, after all precincts had been counted, Cedillo had 50.98 percent of the vote, 128 votes above 50 percent of the 13,147 votes counted in the race. Earlier this week, Cedillo’s percentage slipped to 49.51 percent. Since election night, an additional 7,658 votes have been tallied, bringing the CD1 tally to 20,805 votes. Cedillo has 10,272 of those 20,805, which gives him 49.37 percent. That puts Cedillo 131 votes below the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff.
Not yet included in those vote totals are 28 votes for write-in candidate Lucca Barton.
Cedillo is clearly in first, and Joe Bray-Ali is clearly second. Bray-Ali is currently at 37.96 percent.
Measure H proponents and Measure S opponents are also happy with the latest results. Countywide homeless services sales tax Measure H needs two-thirds approval to pass; it is currently receiving 69.24 percent. Homeless advocates have declared victory, though theoretically there is a very tiny chance that the results could change before Tuesday’s certification. The successful effort to defeat the Measure S housing ban is winning now with 70.4 percent voting no.
(5:06 p.m. – Post updated to correct a math error)Says Hillary Clinton has been given tens of millions of dollars by countries that "treat women horribly... and countries that kill gays."
Donald Trump continues to attack Hillary Clinton on everything from campaign spending to ISIS.
At a rally in Phoenix, he accused her of taking money from countries that have a poor rapport with women and gay people.
"She's been given tens of millions of dollars by countries that treat women horribly," Trump said June 18. "And countries that kill gays, they kill gays, they push them off of buildings."
Trump, whose campaign did not return a request for comment, seems to be referencing donations given to the Clinton Foundation. Trump has referenced her foundation ties in the past, saying she needs to "return the $25 million" Saudi Arabia gave the foundation.
The William J. Clinton Foundation was incorporated in 1997. The foundation agreed to disclose its donors when Hillary Clinton became secretary of state in 2009.
We wondered whether the Clintons’ donor list holds up to Trump’s claim.
But first, it is important to note that political candidates cannot take money from foreign entities.
"The prohibition in the Federal Election Campaign Act is against candidates or political committees soliciting, accepting or receiving contributions from foreign nationals, not only governments," said Michael Malbin, a political science professor at the University at Albany.
Hillary Clinton spokesman Josh Schwerin also noted that the former first lady played no role in the foundation while she was secretary of state.
"Further, she did not blink before standing up to countries that oppressed their people and denied them of their rights, from LGBT rights to women's rights," Schwerin said.
Nonetheless. looking at the Clinton Foundation’s donor list, Saudi Arabia gave between $10 million and $25 million. But the foundation reported the Saudi money in December 2008, and the amount hasn’t changed since. Clinton Foundation spokesman Brian Cookstra pointed out that Saudi Arabia did not give to the foundation while Secretary Clinton was at the State Department.
The foundation has also taken between $1 million and $5 million each from United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman. As The Wall Street Journal reported, several of these donations came in 2014, after Clinton's tenure at the State Department.
We've fact-checked a similar claim before when Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus said in April 2015 that Clinton took money from the kings of "Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Oman and Yemen." Every country except Yemen has contributed to the Clinton Foundation, but Preibus' claim made it seem like Clinton herself took the money. We rated it Half True.
Women’s rights
Human Rights Watch tracks how women are treated in each of these countries.
In Saudi Arabia, a woman needs "male guardian" approval on everything from obtaining a passport to seeking higher education. They also have no divorce rights.
The same male approval is needed for marriage in United Arab Emirates, plus laws there also allow a husband to assault his wife and children.
In Qatar, marital rape is permitted. Women need a male guardian to approve a marriage contract, and one law specifies that a wife must obey her husband.
And in Oman, Human Rights Watch notes that while there is a nondiscrimination law, women still face discrimination when it comes to domestic issues such as child custody and divorce.
Gay rights
According to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, all sex outside of marriage, including same-sex intercourse, in Saudi Arabia is punishable by death.
For a married man, the penalty is death by stoning. An unmarried man faces 100 blows of a whip.
In Qatar, any sexual act outside of marriage is punishable by death.
The United Arab Emirates also bans sex outside of marriage, and the death penalty could apply to consensual "same-sex relations."
As for Oman, the country punishes same-sex acts by up to three years in prison.
As for Trump's claim that these countries are throwing gay people "off of buildings," he may be referring to the Islamic State. There is evidence that ISIS has engaged in these acts, but in Syria.
Executions in Saudi Arabia specifically have increased recently, but specific convictions, and whether are they related to homosexuality, are hard to measure.
Not Clinton directly
Experts we spoke with questioned whether the donations to the foundation are directly attributable to Hillary Clinton.
Indiana University public affairs professor emeritus Leslie Lenkowsky said Trump’s claim is hyperbolic.
"These were not donations to Secretary Clinton as such, but to an organization with which she was closely involved (when not in office or seeking it), including serving as a director," Lenkowsky said.
According to Brian Mittendorf, an accounting professor at Ohio State University, nonprofits often have to consider donors’ actions when they give money. The stakes are usually higher when the nonprofit involves a political figure.
"These are gifts not to Clinton herself but to the foundation that shares her name," he said.
The United States remains allies with some of these countries, such as Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar, despite their poor record with human rights.
Our ruling
Trump said that Hillary Clinton has "been given tens of millions of dollars by countries that treat women horribly...and countries that kill gays."
Trump's comment oversimplifies donations to the Clinton Foundation to make a quick attack against his Democratic rival. He makes it sound as if Clinton personally received money from foreign governments with poor records on human rights. But political candidates cannot accept donations from foreign governments.
However, several countries with harsh rules for women and that kill gays have contributed to the Clinton Foundation both before and after her tenure at the State Department.
We rate Trump’s claim Half True.If you read one of the latest Ars Technica pieces about how Microsoft renewed its strategy on embracing developers across the board, you might’ve stumbled across this little tidbit:
Sample code is all built using the continuous integration features of Team Services to ensure that it’s correct and functional.
Indeed, we are on a mission to make sure that all sample code that we ship is validated against a matrix of requirements and that it works on all platforms where it is supposed to work. So how do we do this?
As an example for the purpose of this blog post, I will take one of my favorite areas -.NET. For.NET, we host a batch of samples in the documentation repository on GitHub. Those are all located in the /samples folder. The reason those reside there is because all of them are in one way or another referenced directly from the.NET documentation, which makes it convenient to organize and maintain. As a starting point, we looked at what is our focus there - and that is cross-platform code.
We want to make sure that users can be successful with the.NET stack across the board - on Linux, Mac and Windows. So it’s clear that our validation matrix will span quite of a surface. With that in mind, we want to follow a simple principle - while the sample is validated, it should create reproducible results. That means that if anything goes wrong, we need to be able to quickly reproduce the problem without spending much time understandint the exact environment where the sample ran. The answer to that problem? Docker.
If you are new to Docker, I highly recommend you start with the official Docker Training.
What Docker offers us is the ability to run validation inside containers, which ultimately translates into us having the option to “local-build” a sample later in the exact shape it was built in the Continuous Integration (CI) pipeline.
But before we get into the details, let’s break down the pieces of the system that we need in place:
Following the steps below, you can closely replicate our own sample testing behavior.
Container Infra Set Up
Let’s start by setting up a new Azure Container Registry. You can do so through the Azure Portal.
When you create a new registry, you will be guided through the standard Azure wizard, where you can specify which resource group it will belong to and what storage account will be associated with it. I recommend you keep this storage account dedicated to the container registry itself and nothing else.
Once the container registry is created, you can start pushing new images into it! Remember, because we are operating in the.NET world for this blog post, we will need some images that have the.NET SDK installed on them.
Start by logging in to the container registry:
docker login {insert_registry}.azurecr.io -u {username} -p {password}
With Docker on your client machine, you will need to pull an existing.NET-ready image. Lucky for us, Microsoft already provides some, so you can just do this:
docker pull microsoft/dotnet:2.0-sdk
Now you have a local image. You will need to tag it and upload it to your newly-created container registry in Azure (or one you self-manage). Start by tagging it:
docker tag microsoft/dotnet:2.0-sdk {insert_registry}.azurecr.io/platforms/netcoresdk:2.0-sdk
Of course, you need to substitute {insert_registry} with the name of your container registry (or, like I mentioned a couple of times - substitute the entire thing with the right URL you are managing if that is the case).
You are ready to push the image to your registry:
docker push {insert_registry}.azurecr.io/platforms/netcoresdk:2.0-sdk
Once the push completes, you will notice it in the portal, in the Repository section of the view:
Build Set Up
At this point, you have the base container infrastructure ready. Now it’s time to set up the build system, so that you can actually test real samples. Assuming that you created a free Visual Studio Team Services account and have a project, open the Builds view.
Create a new empty build definition - we are designing each step individually.
Step 1: Get Sources
This step should be created in VSTS by default. Make sure you connect a code repository where you keep the samples - authentication methods will be provided right there, so you can log in both to GitHub and VSTS, if necessary. This is the code that will be cloned locally to the build agent every time a build kicks off.
Step 2: Provision a Docker Image
You will now need to create a local copy of a Docker image you pushed into your container registry. For convenience purposes, I wrote a little script that can be triggered through a Shell build step:
DOCKER_UN="$1" DOCKER_PW="$2" WORK_FOLDER="$3" TARGET_IMAGE="$4" echo $WORK_FOLDER >> "$BUILD_REPOSITORY_LOCALPATH/buildtarget.txt" docker login -u "$DOCKER_UN" -p "$DOCKER_PW" {insert_registry}.azurecr.io docker pull $TARGET_IMAGE echo "Creating container for pre-provisioning..." docker create --name builder $TARGET_IMAGE echo "Copying samples to container..." docker cp "$BUILD_REPOSITORY_LOCALPATH/samples/." builder:/samples/ docker cp "$BUILD_REPOSITORY_LOCALPATH/ci-scripts/buildsamples.sh" builder:buildsamples.sh docker cp "$BUILD_REPOSITORY_LOCALPATH/buildtarget.txt" builder:buildtarget.txt echo "Committing changes..." docker commit builder $TARGET_IMAGE docker run --name newbuilder --rm -w $WORK_FOLDER $TARGET_IMAGE bash -c'sh../../buildsamples.sh'
Here’s what’s happening above.
Script parameters are read, that include the container registry username, container registry password, target work folder and target image. The work folder is stored in a file inside the local source root ( $BUILD_REPOSITORY_LOCALPATH ) so that we can reference it later. The script authenticates against the container registry with the provided credentials (stored previously in secure variables - we’ll get there). The target image is pulled locally. A new container is created based on the target image. Sample code, as well as a sample building script (we’ll get to it in a bit as well) and the file containing the name of the working folder are copied into the container. Changes are commited to the container. A new container based on the just-modified image is being ran.
All in all, the steps above simply ensure that we copy the desired sample code inside the container and trigger a build script within it. Remember - we want to make sure that samples create reproducible results, so we need to execute them exclusively within the container, with all the prerequisites (including the build script).
As of buildsamples.sh - it’s a simple shell script that ensures we find all *.csproj files in the target working folder, restores all NuGet packages and builds the code:
#!/bin/sh TARGET_FOLDER=`cat../../buildtarget.txt` for sample in $(find $TARGET_FOLDER -name *.csproj); do dotnet restore $sample; dotnet build $sample; done
The build step configuration includes all the variables that we read in the previous step:
$(DOCKERUN) and $(DOCKERPW) are secure variables that store the container registry username and password - those can be declared in the Variables tab in the build definition:
Notice that the second and third parameters, respectively, are the working folder and target image.
Step 3: Take a snapshot of the modified image
Again, I am using a shell script task, that targets a preserveimage.sh file:
IMAGE="$1" mkdir "$BUILD_REPOSITORY_LOCALPATH/buildimage" docker save -o $BUILD_REPOSITORY_LOCALPATH/buildimage/$BUILD_BUILDNUMBER-dotnet.tar "$IMAGE"
All this step does is it takes the image identifier (already pulled locally and modified) and exports it into a directory within the agent.
Step 4: Install Azure CLI
I am using a VSTS Linux Hosted Agent, where the Azure CLI is not installed by default, which means that it should be a step done by the CI pipeline maintainer. This is relatively easy to do, however, it does not currently support Azure CLI 2.0 out-of-the-box, so we have to fall back on Azure CLI 1.0.
I wrote a small shell script to install it via npm:
set -x npm install -g azure-cli
Step 5: Upload the image to Azure Storage
Last but not least, there is a shell script that takes the local image and uploads it directly to Azure Storage:
export AZURE_STORAGE_CONNECTION_STRING="$1" CONTAINER_NAME=constructors-images SOURCE_FOLDER="$BUILD_REPOSITORY_LOCALPATH/buildimage/*" CONTAINER_LIST=$(azure storage container list) if [[ $CONTAINER_LIST == *$CONTAINER_NAME* ]]; then echo "It's there!" else azure storage container create "$CONTAINER_NAME" fi ls "$BUILD_REPOSITORY_LOCALPATH/buildimage" for file in $SOURCE_FOLDER; do azure storage blob upload "$file" "$CONTAINER_NAME" "$BUILD_BUILDNUMBER" done
This should be integrated within an Azure CLI task set to version 0.* - that way you will be relying on the correct set of commands (between 1.0 and 2.0 versions of the CLI azure became az ).
What the script above does is get the storage connection string (you can obtain it from the portal) that is passed to the step as an argument (similarly to how we read the container registry credentials from secure variables), verifies and creates (if necessary) a new storage container, and subsequently uploads the image from the /buildimage folder to the blob store.
Testing things out
As long as you set everything up correctly, you should have a ready-to-go build definition that will build the sample and upload the resulting image to the blob store.
You need to make sure to configure the actual sample build step to continue on error, that way uploading your image to the store even if the build failed, so that you can diagnose it.
Once your image is uploaded, you can pull it locally via the Storage Explorer and then use the following commands to load it locally:
docker load -i {image_name}.tar
And to run it (use docker images to verify that the image is loaded):
docker run -i -t {image_id} /bin/bash
The build script is already in the image, so you can just start your local build via sh buildsamples.sh.
Back to postsHi, my name is Khrystyna and my baby girl Alisa, who is only 6 month old, was born with a Club Foot which is a birth defect in which the foot is twisted inward out of the normal position. She has undergone a medical procedure called Ponseti which is a series of full leg castings almost immediately after birth followed by tendon surgery. The procedure was done by one of our local Pediatric Orthopedist here in New York however now that's it's all complete her foot doesn't seem fully corrected. So after a lot of research, I found the best doctor who specializes in complex Club Foot, Dr Matthew Dobbs, who's clinic is in St. Louis, Missouri. After sending him several videos and pictures, he concluded that the foot is not fully correct and if not treated can result in a full relapse. He recommend proper re-casting and possible a surgery called Achilles tenotomy. Unfortunately Alisa's insurance does not cover non emergency treatment beyond NY so we would have to travel to St Louis Children's Hospital to receive the proper treatment for her foot. If her foot does relapse, she would be unable to walk and would require even more treatment and surgeries than she does now not to mention the psychological toll it would have on her if done later when she is older. I am asking for your help to collect enough money to start her treatment and help my baby girl take her first steps in life. Thank you so very much!!!Near the end of the new Netflix original documentary Get Me Roger Stone, a filmmaker asks the titular right-wing political operative and self-described “agent provocateur” what he would say to members of the audience who would come away hating him when the film’s credits rolled. “I revel in your hatred,” Stone answers quickly, dressed like a cross between Boris Badenov and Danny Devito’s Penguin in the back of a limousine. “Because if I weren’t effective, you wouldn’t hate me.”
The scene is as good an encapsulation as any of Stone’s haughty and theatrical personal brand, and it neatly summarizes the chief issue journalists and documentarians face when attempting to cover his exploits with a critical eye. Stone’s career in national politics began with the committee for the reelection of President Richard Nixon in 1972, where his most lasting achievement was a fake donation made in the name of the Young Socialists Alliance, with hopes of sullying the reputation of one of Nixon’s competitors. More recently, Stone was a campaign advisor and all-around confidant to Donald Trump during the 2016 election. After several decades filled with attack ads, covert maneuverings, and disinformation campaigns, he is known as Washington’s consummate “dirty trickster.” Stone actively cultivates that reputation, because he sees it as a reflection of his power and influence–which isn’t to say that it’s untrue. How do you make a film that shows him as the cynical manipulator he is without burnishing the myth, giving him exactly what he wants?
The question animates much of Get Me Roger Stone, which presents its subject as a key figure of the last half-century of political history–“the sinister Forrest Gump of American politics,” as the New Yorker writer Jeffrey Toobin memorably terms him in an interview for the film. Toobin doesn’t mean that Stone is stupid, but that he has a propensity for showing up at pivotal moments. After Watergate derailed his hero’s presidency, Stone cofounded the National Conservative Political Action Committee, a group that pioneered the use of campaign finance law loopholes to flood candidates with cash, precipitating the way elections are bought and sold today. In the early 1980s, as a partner in the firm Black, Manafort, and Stone, he became one of the first Washington power brokers to move directly from working on campaigns into the lobbying industry, selling influence and access to the politicians he’d just helped elect. The practice was frowned upon as an ethical breach at the time, but is now common. (Lee Atwater, subject of a 2008 documentary that feels like a close antecedent for Get Me Roger Stone, was also a partner in the firm.)
Get Me Roger Stone makes its most compelling argument through this retelling of its subject’s early career: that Stone, through his willingness to flout previously accepted norms of how campaigns were conducted, in the service of his own personal enrichment, helped to create Washington’s “swamp” of corruption that Trump has promised to drain. The two men have been friends for decades, and Stone has been urging Trump to run for president since the ‘80s. As Jane Mayer, another New Yorker writer, puts it in the film: “Roger is the ultimate insider, which makes him incredibly good at seeing how to package someone he could sell as an outsider.”
Stone revels in the camera’s attention, even as he seems to know how the documentary might turn out. (Multiple times, he half-jokingly warns friends and associates that the filmmakers are “liberals” and “pinkos,” and thus not to be trusted.) He’s seen in a parade of absurd dandyish outfits: a three-piece suit in beige, overcoat with huge mobster lapels draped on his shoulders like a supervillain’s cape; a cream jacket with an overflowing pocket square that looks like it’s trying to escape the forced captivity it’s enduring next to his pecs. Directors Morgan Pehme, Dylan Bank, and Daniel DiMauro deftly walk the line between documenting Stone’s showboat impulses and indulging them. At one point, he describes his role in the Florida recount that led to George W. Bush’s election as president in 2000, claiming to have orchestrated the so-called “Brooks Brothers riot” of protesters who were opposed to the recount. Then, Tucker Carlson, another interviewee, laughs and says that Stone’s role that day was tangential at best. Stone’s actual efforts to elect Bush–a stalking horse scheme involving Pat Buchanan, the Reform Party, and a head-fake presidential candidacy from Donald Trump–were far more elaborate, and sinister.
According to several interviewees, Stone’s turn from mainstream GOP party politics toward his current role as a friend to fringe candidates like Trump and frequent conspiracy theory-spouting guest on Alex Jones’s InfoWars may have begun with a sex scandal. When Stone was an advisor on Bob Dole’s 1996 presidential campaign, the National Enquirer alleged that he’d placed several ads in swingers publications seeking people to have sex with him and his wife. Ironically, Stone initially tried to claim that he’d been the victim of a dirty trick, before eventually acknowledging that the ads were real. At one point in Get Me Roger Stone, a Stone protege muses that without the swinger scandal, “we might have had a president Al Gore.” Considering Stone’s efforts on behalf of Trump, it follows from that observation that we might also have had a president Hillary Clinton. When Stone praises Trump in the film for “kicking the political establishment in the balls,” it’s easy to imagine his bile stems in part from his own banishment from that establishment in the ‘90s.
If you can get over the fact that Stone himself probably sees it as a testament to his legacy, Get Me Roger Stone is a revelatory film, though it devotes surprisingly little time its subject’s personal ideology. He briefly mentions a political awakening upon reading Barry Goldwater’s era-defining 1960 book The Conscience of a Conservative, and discusses his libertarian beliefs about pot legalization and gay marriage. But for the most part, you’re left to believe that like Trump, Stone is motivated to go to work each day not by a desire to bring about some political ideal, but by the thought of his own success and the attention he believes will follow.
Get Me Roger Stone reaches its climax on November 8, with an increasingly frantic montage of crying Clinton supporters and harried cable news anchors announcing the surprising election returns in states like Wisconsin and Michigan. When Trump is announced as the victor, Stone and Jones are shown giving a champagne toast on the InfoWars set, where they’d hosted their own election-night broadcast. The camera lingers on Stone’s face in the moments after that brief celebration, and he doesn’t smile or chat with his co-host, but stares blankly ahead. More than anything, he looks lonely.Sen. Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Ann WarrenSanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' House to push back at Trump on border GOP Sen. Tillis to vote for resolution blocking Trump's emergency declaration MORE (D-Mass.) called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsTrump says he hasn't spoken to Barr about Mueller report Ex-Trump aide: Can’t imagine Mueller not giving House a ‘roadmap’ to impeachment Rosenstein: My time at DOJ is 'coming to an end' MORE to step down following revelations that he spoke to the Russian ambassador to the United States twice over the last year.
In a tweet storm, Warren called for Sessions to resign and for a special prosecutor to investigate the Trump administration's ties to Russia.
"It's a simple q: 'Have you been in contact with anyone connected to any part of the Russian government about the 2016 election?'" Warren tweeted. "Jeff Sessions answered 'No.' Turns out he met with the Russian Ambassador. Two months before the election."
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"This is not normal. This is not fake news. This is a very real & serious threat to the national security of the United States," Warren continued. "We need a special prosecutor totally independent of the AG. We need a real, bipartisan, transparent Congressional investigation into Russia. And we need Attorney General Jeff Sessions – who should have never been confirmed in the first place – to resign. We need it now."
It's a simple q: "Have you been in contact with anyone connected to any part of the Russian government about the 2016 election?" — Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) March 2, 2017
Jeff Sessions answered “No.” Turns out he met with the Russian Ambassador. Two months before the election. — Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) March 2, 2017
Now Jeff Sessions is AG – the final say on the law enforcement investigation into ties between the Trump campaign & Russia? What a farce. — Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) March 2, 2017
This is not normal. This is not fake news. This is a very real & serious threat to the national security of the United States. — Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) March 2, 2017
We need a special prosecutor totally independent of the AG. We need a real, bipartisan, transparent Congressional investigation into Russia. — Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) March 2, 2017
And we need Attorney General Jeff Sessions – who should have never been confirmed in the first place – to resign. We need it now. — Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) March 2, 2017
The Washington Post on Wednesday reported that Sessions spoke privately with Russia's ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, in September. He |
look of smoking.
Earlier this year, the Government announced plans to ban their sale to under 18s.Oxford students have launched a campaign to force the Oxford Union's president to resign after he was accused of rape and attempted rape.
The Oxford University Student Union’s Vice President for Women, Sarah Pine, and second year history and politics student Helena Dollimore are asking high-profile speakers to withdraw from Union debates.
Two weeks ago, the Union's current president, Ben Sullivan, was called in by police for questioning on allegations of rape and attempted rape. He has been released without charge on bail, and returned last week to his position. He denies the allegations, and made this statement to the debate chamber:
“As you may be aware no charges have been brought against me and I have the utmost faith in the police and Crown Prosecution Service and the British legal system as a whole. I know that sooner or later the truth will prevail and justice will be served.”
Pine and Dollimore have so far contacted about 30 of the upcoming speakers, explaining the situation and asking them to pull out of their appointments at the Union. They include Human Rights Watch’s David Mepham (who has agreed to pull out), band Foster the People, American entrepreneur Julie Meyer, Newton Investment CEO Helena Morrissey, MEP and former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt, actor Evanna Lynch, Baroness Lawrence, singer Paloma Faith, and New Statesman editor Jason Cowley.
Pine, who is campaigning in a personal capacity, calls it a “push for equality in the Union”. She decided to contact most of the Union’s booked speakers because they “wouldn’t have been aware of the situation and might not have been aware of the students’ feelings around it”. However, she admits that “there are differences in opinion” about whether or not Sullivan should resign.
Oxford student Helena Dollimore, who is campaigning jointly with Pine, said that she believes high-profile speakers should reconsider their commitment to the Union. “Ordinary students are just getting quite fed up at the Oxford Union and the press it’s generating, the reputation it’s generating, the message it’s sending out about our university.”
A vote of no-confidence in the president has been called for this Thursday by an ordinary Union member, but I am told that even if this passes, it does not automatically mean Sullivan will resign.
The open letter has been signed by New Statesman columnist Laurie Penny and feminist campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez.
UPDATE: Under Oxford Union rules, a member can only be suspended if criminal charges have been brought, in which case the Standing Committee can take action. See p16 of the Oxford Union rules for further details.
UPDATE, 18 JUNE 2014: Thames Valley Police confirm that the case against Sullivan has been dropped and he will not face charges.Iran achieved a historic feat as they earned their first-ever Olympic Games qualification, after they handed world champion Poland their first defeat in the tournament 3-1 (25-20, 25-18, 20-25, 34-32) at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.
Hosts Japan were joined by the three best ranked Asian teams (Iran, Australia and China), the second and third teams from the European Olympic Qualification Tournament (France and Poland), as well as the second placed teams from the South American and NORCECA Olympic Qualification Tournaments (Venezuela and Canada).
Mohammad Mousavi was the tournament’s best blocker, Saeid Marouf was best setter and Milad Ebadipour was best receiver.
The foundation of the current Iranian team was created nearly 10 years ago. At that time, Iran was 26th in the FIVB Rankings, behind other Asian teams. Today, Iran is ranked 8th in the world and, as the strongest Asian team, they have won the 2011 and 2013 Asian Volleyball Championships and the 2014 Asian Games.
Iran team’s manager, Mr. Khoshkhabar, in the changing room after the match against Poland: He promised the team that he would shave his beard off when Iran qualified for Olympics.
Sources: FIVB, FIVB Men World Olympic Qualification Tournament (WOQT) Japan 2016, WOQT Japan 2016, The Japan Times, Wikipedia | Iran men’s national volleybal team, FIVB World Rankings (2015.10), WOQT Japan 2016 (Iran-Venezuela), WOQT Japan 2016 (Iran-Poland), Tasnim News Agency (Iran-Poland), Tasnim News Agency (Iran-Japan), WOQT Japan 2016 (Iran-France)netjeff.com Humor collection If airlines sold paint
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If airlines sold paint
[ By Alan H. Hess. Originally published in Travel Weekly, October 1998. ] [ (c) 1998. Reproduced with the permission of the author. ] ============================================== ** Buying paint from a hardware store ** Customer: Hi, how much is your interior flat latex paint in Bone White? Clerk: We have a medium quality, which is $16 a gallan, and premium, which is $22 a gallon. How many gallons would you like? Customer: I'll take five gallons of the medium quality, please. Clerk: That will be $80 plus tax. ============================================== ** Buying paint from an airline ** Customer: Hi, how much is your paint? Clerk: Well, sir, that all depends. Customer: Depends on what? Clerk: Actually a lot of things. Customer: How about giving me an average price? Clerk: Wow, that's too hard a question. The lowest price is $9 a gallon, and we have 150 different prices up to $200 a gallon. Customer: What's the difference in the paint? Clerk: Oh, there isn't any difference; it's all the same paint. Customer: Well, then, I'd like some of that $9 paint. Clerk: Well, first I need to ask you a few questions. W hen do you intend to use it? Customer: I want to paint tomorrow, on my day off. Clerk: Sir, the paint for tomorrow is the $200 paint. Customer: What? When would I have to paint in order to get the $9 version? Clerk: That would be in three weeks, but you will also have to agree to start painting before Friday of that week and continue painting until at least Sunday. Customer: You've got to be kidding! Clerk: Sir, we don't kid around here. Of course, I'll have to check to see if we have any of that paint available before I can sell it to you. Customer: What do you mean check to see if you can sell it to me? You have shelves full of that stuff; I can see it right there. Clerk: Just because you can see it doesn't mean that we have it. It may be the same paint, but we sell only a certain number of gallons on any given week. Oh, and by the way, the price just went to $12. Customer: You mean the price went up while we were talking? Clerk: Yes, sir. You see, we change prices and rules thousands of times a day, and since you haven't actually walked out of the store with your paint yet, we just decided to change. Unless you want the same thing to happen again, I would suggest that you get on with your purchase. How many gallons do you want? Customer: I don't know exactly. Maybe five gallons. Maybe I should buy six gallons just to make sure I have enough. Clerk: Oh, no, sir, you can't do that. If you buy the paint and then don't use it, you will be liable for penalties and possible confiscation of the paint you already have. Customer: What? Clerk: That's right. We can sell you enough paint to do your kitchen, bathroom, hall, and north bedroom, but if you stop painting before you do the bedroom, you will violation of our tariffs. Customer: But what does it mater to your whether I use all the paint? I already paid for it! Clerk: Sir, there's no point in getting upset; that's just the way it is. We make plans upon the idea that you will use all the paint, and when you don't, it just causes us all kinds of problems. Customer: This is crazy! I suppose something terrible will happen if I don't keep painting until after Saturday night! Clerk: Yes, sir, it will. Customer: Well, that does it! I'm going somewhere else to buy my paint. Clerk: That won't do you any good, sir. We all have the same rules.
Categories for this item: AirlinesThe Dog body pillow is a life-sized Labrador that acts as a body pillow, and is a creepy replacement for lonely people that don't want or can't have a real dog, although it's not quite as creepy as the Muscular Arm Body Pillow, or the Fake Girlfriend Body Pillow. Take solace in knowing your watch dog will protect you during the night while you straddle and scissor him, dreaming about finding someone that will finally love you back. The Labrador body pillow is made from super soft and dense poly-acrylic fur, features realistic dog-like features, and has bean sacks sewn into the paws and the mid-section to add realistic weight. The pillow measures 45 inches long, comes in white, brown, and black colors, and even comes in different animals such as an elephant body pillow, a bear, a panda, or a polar bear to assist you in your terrible sleeping habits.When Google updated its algorithm late last week to weed out low-quality content factories from the top of search results, the changes didn't sit well with all.
Many well-known sites that pop up in search results despite having little good information, including Associated Content and Mahalo, were downgraded, according to an analysis by independent SEO software firm Sistrix.
But other content manufacturers weren't. For instance, Demand Media, a content factory that churns out hundreds of web pages and videos daily, was hardly affected.
And then there is Cult of Mac, an Apple-focused blog which took a beating – losing nearly all of its Google juice in the change, and causing traffic to the site to fall by one-third to one-half over the weekend.
(Disclosure: Cult of Mac's editor Leander Kahney was Wired.com's managing editor and then news editor, until he left about two years ago to run Cult of Mac full time.)
That, Kahney told Wired.com, could mean the death knell for his site.
"We worked hard to be original and have good quality content," Kahney said. "It seems very unfair, because there's a lot of shit sites that deserve to be downgraded."
Kahney said he suspects that Cult of Mac may have been downgraded because there are lots of sites that scrape and republish his content, which he never bothered to try to put a stop to. Another possibility is that the site has recently been publishing "How-Tos," which he hoped would provide a steady stream of traffic to augment the fluctuations of traffic patterns to news sites.
"You're not on the web if you're not on Google," Kahney said. "Google is the web – who uses anything else to find stuff?"
Kahney, the site's only full-time staff, has six part-timers and hoped by the end of the year to be on solid financial ground, and have enough clout to get higher paying ads.
In Sistrix's computation of winners and losers, Cult of Mac lost 96 percent of its Google spots.
Update: Cult of Mac isn't alone in its complaints about being unfairly penalized. Willy Franzen, who runs two sites: onedayonejob.com and onedayoneinternship.com, is trying to figure out why Google now hates one of them.
"The jobs site got hit hard, and the internships site is untouched," Franzen said. "It's really inconsistent, and it's a big problem for my business."
Chuck Criss, the editor of Olive Drab, a military-focused site, says his traffic has plummeted as well from what he calls an "axe."
Olive-Drab.com is my hobby, started in 1998: The site has about 1,600 pages of content, with text written by me over the years and thousands of photos to illustrate the topics. The site has won some awards and I get lots of very favorable email from users. In no way is it a "link farm" or "MFA (Made for Adsense)." I get revenue from the site by using Google's Adsense service plus book sales via Amazon and a few other minor advertisers. I rely entirely on "organic search" and do no advertising or PR. Prior to the recent Google algorithm change, I had a consistent 25 to 28,000 page views per day, quite good for a site with no marketing budget. On Feb 25, the number was under 20,000 for the first time in a
long time. The next few days were very weak as well and today looks like the worst yet. The revenue hit was even greater than the loss of traffic, around 40-50% of prior levels.
As for the winners, the loot seems to be distributed, with a wide swath of sites picking up about 15 percent higher rankings, including Time.com, Instructables, Sears, DailyMotion, LinkedIn, Facebook, MarthaStewart.com, the Library of Congress and Snopes. (Check the full list from Sistrix.)
For its part, Google refuses to discuss specific sites or what signals it manipulated to make the change.
However, Google Fellow Amit Singhal did say that the company tested the results in a new way, in addition to its usual tests. Those tests include asking a set of non-Google employees to rank new results versus old ones, much like an eye doctor asks which is better.
"If you do over a large range of queries, you get a very good picture of whether the new results are better than the old," Singhal said.
But after this change, the company asked additional questions about top sites to judge their quality, including "Would you feel comfortable giving this site your credit card number?" and "Would you feel comfortable taking medical advice for your child from this site?," according to Singh.
"The outcome was widely positive," Singhal said. (To be clear, these surveys are used to measure changes, not to create them.)
But what about a site like Cult of Mac and others that lost their rankings.
Singhal admits the change might not have been perfect, since "no algorithm is 100 percent accurate."
"We deeply care about the people who are generating high-quality content sites, which are the key to a healthy web ecosystem," Singhal said. "However, we don't manually change anything along these lines."
"Therefore any time a good site gets a lower ranking or falsely gets caught by our algorithm – and that does happen once in a while even though all of our testing shows this change was very accurate – we make a note of it and go back the next day to work harder to bring it closer to 100 percent."
"That's exactly what we are going to do, and our engineers are working as we speak building a new layer on top of this algorithm to make it even more accurate than it is," Singhal said.
That layer couldn't come fast enough for Kahney, who now is outranked by sites that have reprinted his original content without permission. For now, he plans to send copyright notices to some of the sites, stop publishing full RSS feeds to make reposters have to work harder and contact Google in hopes of restoring the site's search traffic.
"I'm hoping it will resolve – don't know how. By magic I guess," Kahney said. "Maybe the good fairy Matt Cutts [Google's head of web spam] will swoop down and grant my wishes?"
UPDATE: Tuesday 8:45 PM Pacific - The interviews for this story were done on Monday. Kahney wrote in to say that his site suddenly recovered its Google juice Tuesday a.m. before the story ran.
"The site is miraculously back. Everything looks great. I'm wondering if it was you talking to them, but it was back in the index pretty early this AM," Kahney said.
See Also:- Google Clamps Down on Content Factories- The Canadiens skated at Bridgestone Arena on Tuesday morning ahead of their tilt against the Nashville Predators. Michel Therrien’s troops are going in search of a fourth straight victory, while Peter Laviolette’s contingent boasts the second-highest win total on home ice in the NHL. They also currently sit third in the Western Conference standings, just three points back of Anaheim for top spot.
“They’re a group that like to put a lot of pressure on guys. They’ve got a good defensive unit, an excellent goalie and a lot of speed, too. They put a lot of pressure on the opposing team and it’s tough to play against them,” explained Therrien, who has seen his club outscore their opponents by a 14-7 margin over the last five games. “We’ve got to make sure that we execute well against Nashville and that we jump on loose pucks. We’ll have to be on our toes and put pressure on them.”
- The Canadiens’ bench boss confirmed that Torrey Mitchell will return to the lineup on Tuesday night after missing the last four games with an upper-body injury. To make room for Mitchell, Manny Malhotra will be a healthy scratch. In addition, Nathan Beaulieu will be in the lineup in place of Tom Gilbert on defense.
- If the Predators boast plenty of firepower up front, the same can be said about the weapons they’ve got on the back end. Captain Shea Weber is among the best offensive rearguards in the NHL, and former Olympic teammate P.K. Subban acknowledged that once again on Tuesday, mentioning that he welcomed the challenge of trying to slow him down.
“I don’t like to talk about players from the other team, but Shea’s done so much in the League in such a short period of time and he’s one of the best in the League right now. He’ll probably go down as one of the best in the game. I’ve got a lot of respect for him,” offered Subban, who claimed gold at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi alongside the Sicamous, BC native. “That being said, I just have to focus on my job and what I have to do. I can’t focus on Shea. He’s their leader. He’s their captain. I just have to do my job. I’ll see him out there.”
He certainly will, particularly in situations when the Canadiens might find themselves down a man at any point in time. Weber is the epitome of a power play quarterback, boasting a slap shot that is nothing short of devastating. You’ll recall that Weber registered the second-hardest shot in the history of the All-Star skills competition back in January with a blast of 108.5 mph.
“It takes a lot more than courage to block one of his shots. We can go into detail about it, but I don’t know if I can discuss it on camera. He can break your ankle. He can break your leg. That’s how hard it is,” explained Subban, who sits seven points clear of Weber among the League’s top point-getting defensemen. “You have to be aware of that and focus on taking time and space away from him. I know that I like to shoot the puck as well. If you give someone time and space to shoot it, they can hurt somebody. That’s why Pricey has all that equipment on.”
- Carey Price will make his 60th start of the season on Tuesday night. He holds a 2-3-0 record, a 2.17 goals-against average, and a.943 save percentage in five career outings against Nashville. His opponent, Pekka Rinne, boasts a 3-1-1 record against the Canadiens, having given up just six goals in five starts.
Pierre-Alexandre Parenteau had the opportunity to play against Rinne on a few occasions as a member of the Colorado Avalanche, and he insists that the Canadiens’ starter is still the best in the business.
“They’re two very different guys. But, I think Carey has shown things this year that just haven’t been seen before in the history of the game. I think he’s the best there is,” mentioned Parenteau, who went on to praise Rinne’s physical attributes and playing style between the pipes. “He’s a guy with big legs and big arms. He’s never out of it. He’s an excellent goaltender. He’s different than Carey, but they’re definitely the two top guys in the NHL.”
- Puck drop is scheduled for 8 p.m. EST. The game will be broadcast on RDS and Sportsnet East.From expanded access to advanced classes to inter-district school choice and more, Ken Wagner seeks to recast system
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — State Education Commissioner Ken Wagner outlined a radically different vision for public education in Rhode Island this week, one that would encourage inter-district school choice, invest principals with much more authority and bring joy back into the classroom.
Speaking Wednesday before the Council on Elementary and Secondary Education, Wagner said Rhode Island has to "rethink how we do schooling. We're teaching using a model designed two centuries ago. If you ask kids what they think about school, they say the adults are all whack.
"We have to do something," he said. "We have to find a way that takes student engagement seriously."
Wagner said public education is losing students because their education isn't relevant. Learning comes alive, he said, when students are involved in hands-on projects. Wagner used language that previous education leaders have rarely mentioned: helping students develop "soft skills," the importance of social and emotional learning and infusing teaching with joy and trust.
He also talked about rigor in a fresh way. Instead of focusing on test scores, Wagner exhorted schools to offer advanced classes starting in middle school. Students, he said, are unofficially sorted into academic tracks in seventh and eighth grades. Currently, between 20 percent and 35 percent of students take advanced classes. Wagner wants to make such courses available to 90 percent of Rhode Island students.
Senior year, he said, should not be about getting students caught up so they can graduate on time. It should be a time of exploration. It should create opportunities for deeper learning.
"Our high schools will have to change," Wagner said. "Our elementary schools will have to change."
One of Wagner's most dramatic suggestions calls for investing principals with the power to hire their own staff, manage their budgets, even set the length of the school day. Historically, the state Department of Education or the school superintendent have dictated everything from curriculum to the length of the school day.
Wagner said, "School is where the magic happens. Ken Wagner can't create a culture of innovation and improvement, nor can the superintendent. That culture can only be created by a principal but not alone. The principal needs to be surrounded by a leadership culture" of committed teachers.
Wagner acknowledged that not all principals have been prepared for this responsibility. For years, principals have been treated as managers or disciplinarians. It's time for them to become leaders.
"There is no reason why we can't find and nurture 300 amazing principals in Rhode Island," he said.
What, Wagner asked, would happen if principals were freed from the restraints that have hobbled their ability to lead and innovate?
"We'd give them extreme regulatory flexibility," he said.
Wagner's most unorthodox proposal involves giving parents the opportunity to send their children to another school district. He cited the constant movement of students back and forth between Providence and Pawtucket and Central Falls.
"We've created this burden by making them go to school where they live," he said. "If a school has extra seats, why not open the door and allow people to come in?"
This program would be voluntary. It would not resemble the court-ordered busing efforts of the 1960s and 1970s. Right now, school choice is confined to charter schools. With open enrollment, any public school could become an alternative, a school of choice, Wagner said.
Central Falls Supt. Victor Capellan likes the broad strokes of Wagner's vision, saying that "the concept of empowering principals resonates very well with us." As for school choice, he said Central Falls is already working closely with several local charter schools, so the concept doesn't threaten him.
"I was inspired by his willingness to be bold, to think outside the box," said education council Chairman Dan McConaghy. "I like that courage. We've got to get behind this and enable this to happen."
Barbara Cottam, chairwoman of the Rhode Island Board of Education, called Wagner's vision "exciting and energizing," adding that it is vital to create a school culture that is constantly evolving.
Tim Ryan, executive director of the Rhode Island Association of School Superintendents, applauded Wagner's sincerity and passion but said the state needs to fix the school funding formula before launching into inter-district choice and principal empowerment.
"The governor is a leader who wants quick changes," Ryan said. "But schools are like a big ship. We're dealing with issues like poverty that don't change quickly. The public schools already have 98 percent of Rhode Island's kids. We need to work with these kids first not create a new program."
lborg@providencejournal.com
(401) 277-7823
On Twitter: @lborgprojocomby Brett Stevens on October 7, 2017
History consists of a set of data points, which are factual, with lines drawn between them that represent the intersection between human estimation, imagination and projection. If we find one Roman corpse buried with a margarita, we do not know that all Romans drank margaritas, but we have to make a call one way or the other, so we opt for inclusion so that the data point is not forgotten.
In the same way, the West has lost its history several times. We all know about the fall of Greece and Rome, and how much was lost as people fled those dying empires which then vanished into genetic admixture, but what about the years that our people were wandering around India and China, or ranging over the Ukrainian steppes? History has been lost more than it has been found.
Over a decade ago, a historical survey found and formalized a bit of forgotten history, namely the recent Norse discovery of America, centuries before Columbus:
In the late 8th century, the stage for Viking expansion was set by commercial expansion in northwest Europe, the pressure of an increasing population in limited territorial reserves, and the development of the Viking ships. The Norsemen traveled extensively over the oceans, south to the Holy Land, and north to the White Sea and settled over a wide area from Sicily to Greenland. Historical sources, including the reports by Adam of Bremen and the Icelandic Sagas, describe several expeditions from Greenland to Vinland (somewhere along the east coast of North America) in approximately AD 1000 and later. Historians have arrived at highly different conclusions with respect to the location of Vinland (from Labrador to Georgia), but, in 1960, the Norwegian explorer Helge Ingstad localized ancient house sites on L’Ans aux Meadows, a small fishing village on the Northern beaches of Newfoundland. From 1961 to 1969, Ingstad and his wife, Anne Stine (an archaeologist), led several archaeological expeditions that revealed Viking turf houses with room for approximately 100 people. They also excavated a smithy, outdoor cooking pits, boathouses, a bathhouse, and enclosures for cattle, in addition to several Viking artifacts. The finds were C dated to AD 990 +/- 30.
This might be termed the recent Norse discovery of America because we know that the ancestors of the Norse, who have also showed up in China and India, ranged across the world thousands of years before this most recent discovery, and it seems nonsensical to assume that they were not able craft boats and ride ocean currents at that time.
Like the history of humanity itself, the history of Europeans is shrouded in darkness, mainly because history requires a present-day force to maintain it and is always the first target of those who wish to seize power. Perhaps archaeology and genetics can fill in for where our memories have been lost to time.
Tags: america, exploration, norse
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.A Chicago tanning salon owner who authorities contend is a serial rapist is behind bars after he was charged twice this week and once last fall with criminal sexual assault.Prosecutors say Marc Winner is a "threat to the safety of women", especially those who enter his West Loop business. Now, he has been charged in a third rape case, accused of sexual assaulting a customer in 2012.The I-Team has learned she is one of at least six women who say they were raped by Winner - and authorities suspect there are others.One says she's been haunted for nearly 15 years by what happened one night after she ran into him at a north suburban bar and ended up at his tanning salon where she'd been a customer."As I walk in I hear behind me, to this day I can hear it, the turn of the lock and my whole body cringed," Lesley Barton said.Barton says she thinks Marc Winner put something in her drink the night of June 2, 2001. Winner showed up to this neighborhood bar with Barton's neighbor. She said later that night, she left with Winner to get something to eat but that he wanted to stop at the tanning salon first."He's like, 'You're not going anywhere,' and he picks me up and throws me down on the tanning bed. He's pulling down my pants as I'm pulling them up and I'm pulling at his hand and the fog is getting stronger and stronger. I kept saying 'no, no means no.' And I'm certain he's going to kill me," Barton said.ABC7's Chuck Goudie: "What's the next thing you remember?""I do recall being raped, I just don't recall how much time it was," Barton said.Five days later, Barton told Glenview police she was raped by Marc Winner. Prosecutors reduced the charge to battery. Winner pleaded guilty and got two years' probation. Add that to a long list of crimes Winner has committed over the past two decades, including DUI, driving on a revoked license, theft and possession of cocaine."The idea that I couldn't get him to be put away and then I knew he was going to hurt someone else, that thought was the worst part of it all," Barton said.Goudie asks: "They say you're a serial rapist, what about that?"Winner: "Go [expletive] yourself, leave me alone!"Winner wasn't interested in discussing his case earlier this week outside court, where he faced a new sexual assault indictment involving a former employee who says she was raped in 2009. After his court hearing on Friday, he was arrested and charged with raping a customer in 2012. Winner is spending the night in the Cook County Jail. He also faces 20 felony counts for allegedly raping a 26-year-old woman last August.Documents obtained by the I-Team reveal a total of six women who claim they were raped by Winner and another who said he "strangled her" after she escaped his apartment. Winner is not charged in all of the cases, but in these filings, prosecutors say they are trying to show a pattern by pointing out similarities in the women's statements.A friend of Winner's told investigators he would drive around the city at 3:30 a.m. with Winner looking for "extremely intoxicated women" and lure them into the car by offering them "free tans, drugs and alcohol."The I-Team spoke with several of the women who say they were sexually assaulted by Winner. Some told us they blamed themselves and said they were too embarrassed to report what happened. Experts say that happens frequently."The decision to report is a complex one, it's deeply personal and it involves making yourself incredibly vulnerable," said Sharmili Majmudar, executive director, Rape Victim Advocates.Jennifer Gonzalez heads the sexual assault and domestic violence division at the Cook County state's attorney's office. She says rape cases where the victim knows her attacker are challenging to prosecute for many reasons."The moment we get those cases we sort of face an uphill battle when we step into court. We're probably not going to have a weapon recovered, we're probably not going to have physical injuries, we're not going to have a victim who called police right away. All of those things in a juror's mind or in a judge's mind, it's not the way a rape victim should act and so they tend to not believe them when they come into court," Gonzalez said.Lesley Barton says she is still hopeful justice will be served."I'm forever changed, I've gotten back to me, but that trusting part, yeah, it's gone," Barton said.If convicted in the three current rape cases, Winner could be sentenced to a minimum of 40 years in prison. He will be back in court Saturday morning.Dave Gettleman can steal Tyler Gaffney back.It’s unlikely the Panthers’ general manager would do it, but he could regain his former sixth-round pick by turning the tables on the Patriots.According to Ian Rapoport of NFL Media, New England waived/injured Gaffney on Wednesday. An undisclosed injury has kept the running back out of practice since the start of training camp, and the Patriots plan to put him on injured reserve. First, he’ll have to clear waivers.Of course, that’s how the Panthers lost him last summer. Gettleman intended to stash the rookie on IR after he suffered a season-ending knee injury in late July. But the Patriots swooped in, ignoring a largely followed unwritten rule, and snagged Gaffney off waivers.“The chances of it happening are slim, but we made what we thought was the best decision at the time for the Carolina Panthers,” Gettleman said at the time.“We’re in a competitive business. We’re all looking to improve. They made a business decision.”Since Gaffney was on the roster bubble in New England, and Bill Belichick is willing to risk losing him in the same way he picked up him up, it looks like Gettleman didn’t lose the NFL’s next great running back last summer. But the Panthers could get another look at their draft pick now … if that’s how they wanted to do business.[vc_raw_html]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 |
policy enacted to remedy past WTO criticisms.
Unfortunately, past U.S. presidents of both political parties have rolled back U.S. consumer and environmental safeguards via regulation or lobbied Congress to change laws after previous retrograde trade pact rulings."
After previous WTO rulings, the United States has rolled back U.S. Clean Air Act regulations on gasoline cleanliness rules successfully challenged by Venezuela and Mexico and Endangered Species Act rules relating to shrimping techniques that kill sea turtles after a successful challenge by Malaysia and other nations. The U.S. also altered auto fuel efficiency (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards that were successfully challenged by the European Union.
COOL is why the meat we buy in grocery stores is labeled to identify in what country animals were born, raised and slaughtered. COOL is supported by 90 percent of Americans, according to a recent poll.
Mexican and Canadian livestock producers and the U.S. meat processing industry fought fiercely against the policy's initial enactment and then turn to deregulation-by-trade-agreement as Plan B.
The Canadian and Mexican governments won an initial WTO ruling against COOL in 2011. In 2013, the Obama administration altered the policy to provide consumers more information, which remedied the specific violations the WTO tribunal had identified. Mexico and Canada challenged the new policy and this May the WTO said it violated WTO rules. Now the WTO has authorized more than $1 billion in sanctions per year against the United States until it weakens or ends COOL.
Sadly, this ruling is not a fluke. Two weeks ago, the WTO ruled that U.S. "dolphin-safe" tuna labels, which allows consumers to choose tuna caught without dolphin-killing fishing practices, were also a "technical barrier to trade" that must be eliminated or weakened.
The TPP would make the situation much worse. It includes constraints on food safety that extend beyond the WTO, roll back the environmental standards included even in George W. Bush's trader pacts and would empower individual foreign corporations to directly launch attacks on public interest policies.Downing Street has pulled off a coup with the recruitment of Chris Lockwood, the US editor of The Economist, to the new Downing Street policy unit. Lockwood is one of the brightest and most insightful people in journalism and one imagines that he wouldn’t have left a prime perch at The Economist if he did not think that the new Policy Unit will have real heft.
Lockwood is close to Cameron: he was one of the six journalists that the Prime Minister listed as a personal friend in his evidence to Leveson. In 1993, as reported in the Elliott and Hanning biography of Cameron, Lockwood was part of a group that went on a villa holiday to Italy with Cameron and Samantha Sheffield, as she then was.
His recruitment is a sign of how keen Cameron now is to staff this policy unit with people he can trust who are experienced operators (Lockwood first joined The Economist in 1984).
This was first reported in the Spectator’s Evening Blend email. For other exclusives and insight into the Westminster world, subscribe for free here.Export training data
Let me say a few words about datasets export capabilities before we start. When we design neural network we think about it in terms of computational graph. This is the core abstraction behind popular deep learning frameworks. Computational graph consists of math operations and variables.
We developed the powerful dataset export tool that opens up the possibility to configure export with computational graphs. We can define the sequence of operations that will be applied to each image from selected datasets.
Just click “Export” tab in main menu and paste json configuration (presented below) to the text box.
[
{
"dst": "$sample01",
"src": [
"Anpr tutorial/artificial"
],
"action": "data",
"settings": {
"classes_mapping": {
"Licence plate": "plate"
}
}
},
{
"dst": "$sample_bb",
"src": [
"$sample01"
],
"action": "bbox",
"settings": {
"classes_mapping": {
"plate": "plate_bbox"
}
}
},
{
"dst": [
"$sample_train",
"$sample_test"
],
"src": [
"$sample_bb"
],
"action": "if",
"settings": {
"condition": {
"probability": 0.98
}
}
},
{
"dst": "$train_tagged",
"src": [
"$sample_train"
],
"action": "tag",
"settings": {
"tag": "train",
"action": "add"
}
},
{
"dst": "$test_tagged",
"src": [
"$sample_test"
],
"action": "tag",
"settings": {
"tag": "test",
"action": "add"
}
},
{
"dst": "artificial_samples",
"src": [
"$train_tagged",
"$test_tagged"
],
"action": "save",
"settings": {
"images": true,
"annotations": true
}
}
]
And the system will automatically generate such diagram on the right side:
Let’s take a look at our example. Blue boxes are data variables, purple boxes are operations. Detailed explanation of all available export layers you can find here.
In this example we take images from dataset “artificial” from project “Anpr tutorial”. All annotations for this dataset are polygons so i would like to convert them to bounding boxes. In this case it is not so important, but in other tutorials it will be very useful when, for example, we export bounding boxes around cars and pedestrians from Cityscapes dataset (all annotations are presented as polygons).
Then we split dataset to train and test. Each image falls into the training set with probability of 98%. After that all train images will be saved with tags “test”, all test images — with tag “test”.
Well, let’s click “Start Exporting” button. You will be redirected to the page with exports tasks. Wait a few seconds until the task “artificial_samples” is completed.What the developers have to say:
Why Early Access? “We (RexSpaceman and Stuffie) feel that we already have the core gameplay and technology in place to make Space Impossible work. We think it's fun. The game is now at the point where we want to have other people play it, and be able to give us feedback on what they like, and what they dislike as we add. Continuing over the next few months we're going to be taking the foundation and vastly expanding on the amount of content and player focused gameplay features. Launching the game as Early Access at this point is perfect for both players and us, as we can test, fix, scrap or otherwise augment features based on player feedback. It also allows the players who want to have an impact, to do so, while the game is still being molded into its final form.” Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access? “Space Impossible has been in Early Access, as an Alpha, since March 1 2016. Since that time we've released 16 Alpha updates, some of them rewriting a major system or two. It's an on going process, that is far from perfect. We have much of the core game systems in place, but there is still work to do, and we value player feedback at each step. We will continue to develop the game through Alpha state, into Beta, and then finally leave Early Access for Release once we feel the game is ready. This means there is a wait involved, and we know that it isn't for everyone. Our current goal is to enter Beta in late Q1 or early Q2 of 2019. We will leave Early Access once Beta is done. We expect the Beta phase to have approximately 10 major updates.” How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version? “Features and content.
Example 1: We currently have one star system with several regions. The final version will have nearly infinite number of star systems. We added the full universe as part of Alpha 5. There are a possible 4294967296 star systems. Your hard drive will fill up before you are able to visit them all.
Example 2: There are currently the Planet, Asteroid and Moon regions. Along the path of development we will add Star, Nebula, Blackhole, Comet and Anomaly regions, each with their own characteristics, benefits and dangers. We've added Star and Jumpgate/Wormholes (Alpha 13). We still intend to add Nebula, Blackhole and other regions in Beta.
Example 3: There are currently five factions (The Explorer Union, Kal'giri, Sixiser Pirates, Ticeroy Navy and Druminence Federation). We have ships designed for a further five factions, and the possibility for even several more. The basics of a faction system are already in place, but we will continue to add in dynamic faction interaction and more complex systems to really reward players who wish to engage in interstellar politics.
Example 4: Each ship comes with a preset selection of components (engines, weapons and reactors). These can already be swapped out and upgraded. We have plans for additional component types, including bridge components which will add special bonuses and abilities. Furthermore, there will be an increased selection of existing components added, meaning more (and diverse) engines, reactors and weapons. We completely redid ship acquisition from the ground up in Alpha 5. Build and upgrade your ship how you want, when you want.
Example 5: It is currently possible to edit and add your own ships (via 3rd party external tools) to the game and play them. We plan to incorporate more user friendly tools within the game community itself, so players who wish to mod, and share with others will able to do. That means both the additions of Steam Workshop as well as tools to make authoring easier. With ship creation already addressed, so we added initial Steam Workshop integration for ship and language sharing (Alpha 14.1). We plan to expand that tool with being able to configure and upload entire packs for a new faction or whole new universe balance in the future.
Example 6: To support multiplayer situations, the Beta stage will kick off with the release of the dedicated server sometime in 2019.
There's plenty more still to come.” What is the current state of the Early Access version? “In the current state, players can create a new universe consisting of a seed based procedurally generated star system, containing multiple regions. Each region consists of a few dozen to several hundred asteroids, planetoids, spacestations and ship wreck. Each region also is "claimed" by a faction, and the player will be able to interact with AI controlled ships. Some factions will be hostile from the get-go, others will only become hostile if attacked.
There is a fully functional manufacturing system in place, where materials can be gathered and transformed into component upgrades (engines, weapons and reactors) as well as new ships. Materials can be gathered either via mining of asteroids and planetoids, finding valuables on ship wrecks, or destroying AI ships and stations to gather wreckage.
Additionally, basic Steam integration is already present, with the capability to play singleplayer or host a multiplayer session with friends (invited via steam friends) or via IP and password.” Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access? “We are strong believers in the "Pay For What You Get" model. That means the current price for the game is what we feel is fair for what you get, at the time you pay for it. It also means, as the game continues to be fleshed out, the price will increase. We cannot yet say what the price change will be each time it changes, but for sure it will increase up until the game leaves Early Access.
We feel that there is a diverse group of players out there. Some want to buy it now and watch development continue, others want to wait until the game is complete. Both are valid views, and we feel that can offer transparency and involvement for those players who want to take the risk on us sooner, and for the players who wish to wait and see, they can do that as well.” How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process? “We embrace an open line of communication with players, that's through Steam forums, email, twitter and Reddit. We will always be reading feedback on whatever topics players choose to discuss. We will also be occasionally be featuring surveys and polls on current and new features/content to get reaction and see where we can better improve.”Guest essay by Andy May
This document is meant to explain the accompanying poster and expand on the poster’s content. Some references to the images and data shown in the poster are on the poster and others are in the bibliography. I’ve done my best to verify the accuracy of the content by checking multiple sources. When references had different dates for the same event, I chose the most commonly cited date or the date from the most prestigious sources. I considered dates from articles in Nature, Science, the Encyclopedia Britannica, and Steven Mithen’s book2 to be the most reliable.
Click image for a full sized print (3000 pixels wide, suitable for printing) or choose the PDF below
Younger_Dryas_to_Present_Time_Line (PDF)
The heart of the poster (above) is a time line that shows the significant documented events in human civilization over the last 18,000 years and documented climatic changes over the same period.
The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) ended around 19,000 years ago1, and the illustrations on the lower left of the poster illustrate what the world was like then. Much of the land area of the world was under ice or desert at the time, especially in the Northern Hemisphere, and the exposed land had less precipitation than we do today2. As we will see, the cooler climatic events, during the history of civilization, are periods with less precipitation than we observe during warmer times. If there were any organized human civilizations at the time, we have not found any evidence of it, other than some pottery in China, dated to 20,000 years ago3. Humanity, 20,000 years ago, lived in small communities of a few families and hunted for animals and edible natural vegetation. Domesticated animals (with the possible exception of dogs) and large scale agriculture would not be invented for another 6,000 to 7,000 years34,21
Dogs were probably domesticated by the Natufians in the Middle East by 14,000 years ago. This seems to be supported by exhumed graves in the ancient villages of Ain Mallah and Hayonium near Lake Tiberias (also called the Sea of Galilee) in Israel. In these graves dogs and humans were deliberately buried together2. That suggests that they lived and worked together in life. The Natufians collected wild grains, fruits and vegetables and probably cultivated small gardens as early as 14,000 years ago. But, this early, large scale organized farming was unlikely.
The upper part of the poster shows three ice core records. The top record is actually a composite reconstruction of six Greenland ice core records4. The middle chart is the most recent portion of the Vostok Antarctic ice core record, the entire Vostok 400,000 year record is show in the upper left of the poster5. The 95,800 year Milankovitch cycles2 are very apparent in the Vostok record. These cycles are composed of an overarching 95,800 year cycle where the Earth’s orbit changes from roughly circular (warm and wet climate in the Northern Hemisphere) to elliptical (cold and dry in the Northern Hemisphere) and back again. The elliptical part of this cycle causes the Northern Hemisphere to have stronger seasons and the Southern Hemisphere to have less seasonality; this is what kicks off glacial periods.
Another cycle is when the inclination of the Earth’s axis changes from 21.39 degrees to 24.36 degrees and back again. This cycle is 41,000 years. As the angle increases the seasons become more intense. The Earth also wobbles on its axis in a periodic way. This is a 21,700 year cycle.
You might just be able to see that the middle graph (Carbon Dioxide concentration) slight lags the temperature by about 800 years on average. This suggests that the changes in temperature might cause the Carbon Dioxide changes rather than the other way around. The airborne dust concentration increases when the world is cooler because in the cool periods it is also dryer.2
Next to the complete Vostok record is a reconstruction of the temperature record for the last 600 million years. Temperatures, today, are lower than they have been for over 250,000,000 years according to this data. The bottom large chart is the actual temperature, calculated from a single central Greenland ice core.6
Bond Events
Just below the Central Greenland ice core record the “Bond” cooling events over this 18,000 year period are noted7. The Bond cooling events average around 1,500 years apart and some are more dramatic than others. The 8.2, 5.9 and 4.2 kiloyear events were major events8,9, with dramatic cooling and they were huge disruptions for civilizations around the world. Others, like the 2.8 kiloyear event in the Iron Age were hardly noticed.
During the last glaciation, the Greenland ice core record documents rapid climatic change events called Dansgaard-Oeschger events or “D-O events.”10 These are very rapid warming events, followed by slower cooling, that occur in a cycle of roughly 1,470 years +- 12%.11,12 These events are probably the glacial period equivalent of the Bond events. In modern times, the cooling period, which is slower to develop, is more noticeable than the warming, because the cooling (and the droughts that accompany the cooling) seem to cause more disruption of civilization. Warming events tend to coincide with man’s better times, since they are associated with more precipitation and more abundant plant life. At the beginning of a D-O event, temperatures increase rapidly, perhaps 8 degrees C over 40 years as they did at the end of the Younger Dryas period. A more normal D-O event warming period is about 5 degrees C over 40 years. The cooling period after a D-O event normally lasts a few hundred years. Although most of the evidence for D-O events is from the Greenland ice cores, some have suggested that they are global events13. These events can also be seen in Antarctic ice cores, but they are more subtle.
The Bond Event/D-O Event cyclicity is probably happening, it is well documented. But, no cause for this cyclicity has been found. Some have suggested that the Little Ice Age was the cold part of a D-O/Bond event.14
Sea Level
Moving just to the right of The Last Glacial Maximum map on the lower left of the poster, you can see an artist’s (Robert Rohde) rendition of the rise in global eustatic sea level after the glaciers started melting. The data used to make the graph is from numerous sources listed in the referenced web site.15 The earliest well documented evidence of human civilization dates to the middle of the most rapid rise in sea level in this period, roughly 12,000 years ago at Gobekli Tepe, Turkey.16,17 From 14,000 years ago until 7,500 years ago sea level rose an astonishing 1.5 cm/year on average. This is almost 5 feet per 100 years. According to the University of Colorado Sea Level Research Group, the current rate of sea level rise is about 6.8 12.6 inches per 100 years or 3.2 mm per year.18
Earliest evidence of civilization
The earliest evidence of large scale construction by man is found in Gobekli Tepe (near Urfa in southern Turkey). This site is roughly 300 meters by 300 meters and contains intricately carved stones. It is 12,000 years old and predates Stonehenge and the earliest Egyptian pyramids by over 7,400 years. Construction at Gobekli Tepe began during the Younger Dryas19 “Big Freeze.” The Younger Dryas was a sudden and short lived (geologically speaking, the Younger Dryas cold period lasted over 1,000 years) return of very cold weather, similar to the cold that existed in the Last Glacial Maximum. The Gobekli Tepe site is composed of multiple circular stone monuments; the tallest pillars in these monuments are 16 feet high and weigh over seven tons. The rings are 65 feet across and probably have religious significance. Construction of the site appears to have occurred during a hiatus in the sea level rise between 11,000 and 12,000 years ago. Then the site was mysteriously and deliberately buried around 10,000 years ago. The reasons for its construction and later burial are not known. But, one can probably safely speculate that it was buried to protect and preserve it. This task was accomplished and it is remarkably well preserved for its age.
Gobekli Tepe is the earliest religious monument known and also the earliest major construction project. It is interesting that the wild wheat that grows in the area is the closest relative, genetically, to modern domestic wheat. One can speculate that the early religious fervor that caused Gobekli Tepe to be built, may have inspired farming2. After all, the construction of the religious monument would have required a number of people to live in one spot for a long time, they could not migrate in search of food, so it may have occurred to them to grow their own food.
The earliest evidence of large scale organized agriculture is seen in the Levant region of the Middle East in present day Syria and Israel21. This occurred about 13,000 years ago in the middle of a very wet climatic time (Late Glacial Interstadial) that went from 13,500 years into the Younger Dryas “Deep Freeze,” which began around 12,800 years ago. Precipitation decreased during the Younger Dryas and increased after its end 11,500 years before present. There are also some preserved pottery fragments from 13,000 years ago in Japan and perhaps even older20. Others have reported that pottery existed in China 20,000 years ago22. The pottery from 20,000 years ago probably did not belong to farmers, but hunter/gatherers. It is possible that rice was farmed in China 13,900 yearsagoand in India 10,000 years ago34.
Between 13,000 and 14,000 years ago a lot seemed to happen at various archaeological sites in the Middle East, buildings improved, villages got larger and were more advanced. But, they were mostly abandoned as temperatures got cooler at the beginning of the Younger Dryas. This cool period lasted over 1,000 years and the climate was very dry. Few advances in human civilization happened in the period, people were just trying to survive2. This is evident as the late Natufians, who lived during the Younger Dryas period, were in much poorer health (fewer teeth, often with caries) than the earlier Natufians from the Late Glacial Interstadial period. Further, the animal bones in their garbage dumps held bones of smaller animals than the earlier period. Both the animal herds and the human population were of smaller size2.
According to many archaeologists, Homo floresiensis, a species of human often called the “Hobbit” man, survived until around 12,500 years ago before dying out in Indonesia23. This was the last species of man to become extinct. Recent archaeological finds may indicate that Homo floresiensis was not a separate species, but just a variant of Homo sapiens.
Larger Cities
The Middle Eastern Neolithic B culture began around 10,800 years ago according to Kathleen Kenyon24. It is a significant period in the history of human civilization because at this time man became more dependent upon domesticated animals and organized large scale farming. Oddly, it has also been found that the earliest Indian agriculture appears to have been in the Indus valley around 11,000 years ago34. Also, in the Levant region, man began building larger settlements, rectangular buildings and organized communities. Plaster and pottery are first seen in Middle East at this time. The period may have begun when people migrated to the Levant from the Black Sea area8. The period ended with the 8,200 year BP event or Bond climatic event 57, this was another sudden cold period that affected civilization worldwide and caused massive migrations of people in search of food and water25,8. During this event, over a period of 20 years, temperatures cooled, roughly, 3.3°C. It was not as severe as the Younger Dryas, but still significant. It only lasted a total of 200 to 400 years.
During the Neolithic B period evidence of relatively large settlements is found. Catalhoyak, a city of 8,000, existed near present day Cumra Konya, Turkey. This is a large, relatively modern “city” that existed 9,700 years ago27,43,44,2.
Jericho is often considered the world’s oldest continually occupied city26. Remains of early settlements, probably not cities, but villages of 500 people or so, in Jericho have been dated to 11,600 years ago2. The first woven cloth known was found in Ofer Bar-Yosef, Israel. It is around 10,000 years old, it was found with bone shuttles that were used to weave the cloth2. The cloth was a type of linen and not cotton, cotton was developed later in India.
8.2 Kiloyear Bond Event and the Great Floods
Just before the 8,200 year cold event, around 8,400 years ago, the Black Sea, which was a fresh water lake at the time, filled from Mediterranean Sea8,2. This event is only the most recent of many catastrophic flooding events due to the melting of the glaciers after the LGM. The Baltic Sea, was a lake until 9,200 years ago, when it was finally connected to the Atlantic Ocean. These flooding events and, perhaps others, due to rising sea level are probably the cause of multiple “Great Flood” stories that populate early writings like the Noah’s Flood story in the Bible and Torah and the older Gilgamesh story28.
Writing
Simple writing appears in Jiahu, China around 9,200 years ago30 and in Tartaria, Romania around 7400 years ago29. Whether either is true writing or not is a subject of debate, the symbols on the Tartaria tablets have not been translated and may be a “picture” story. The Chinese writing has some symbols that are similar to modern Chinese writing symbols. Because Chinese writing is not phonetic, it is hard to tell where “picture writing” stops and true modern writing begins.
True writing has been discovered from 5,600 years ago in Syria in the Uruk period33. By this time very large cities existed and the city of Uruk had over 50,000 people in it32. The Uruk period was characterized by large scale urbanization, irrigation, roads and canals. It may have begun as early as 6,200 years ago. The end of the Uruk period of the Sumer civilization coincided with the end of the Holocene Thermal Optimum a period of warm weather with a lot of precipitation and a very green world.
5.9 Kiloyear Bond Event
About 5,900 years ago the Sahara became a desert (The 5.9 kiloyear event or Bond event 4) and this very severe drought also ended the Ubaid empire and caused a huge migration of people from the Sahara region in search of food and water35. The people migrated to river valleys, such as the Nile Valley in Egypt, in order to be close to water. Claussen, et al., 199936 has suggested that this drought was caused by a severe cooling event that occurred at the same time. The Sahara never recovers from this event. But, since the drought forces people into river valleys, larger cities are built and societies become more complex.
Following the end of the 5.9 kiloyear event and the end of the Holocene Thermal Optimum, around 4,500 years ago the earliest Egyptian pyramids are built, Stonehenge is constructed37 in present day England and the first large cities appear in India38. The earliest Mayan cities appear a little over 600 years later around 3,900 years ago39.
4.2 Kiloyear Bond Event
The 4.2 kiloyear event was a very cool period in the Arctic (the Bond Event 37) and it caused a very severe drought in the Middle East. This period caused a sudden collapse of the Egyptian government40, famines and social disorder. Similar disruptions occurred in the Akkadian Empire41, the Indus Valley and in China42.
Around 3,300 years ago, the great Bronze Age civilizations in the Middle East collapsed. These included the Mycenaean’s, the Hittites and the Egyptian New Kingdom43. This sudden collapse was probably caused by another extended and severe drought. The onset of this drought coincides with a sudden and extended cooling period in the Central Greenland ice core data. In general, most large scale droughts in the last 18,000 years appear to be associated with cooling in the Arctic. This marks the end of the Minoan Warm Period.
Iron Age
Starting 3,300 years ago, there seems to be a hiatus in the development of Middle Eastern civilization and not much happens until around 2,400 years ago with the beginning of the Roman Warm Period. This is just after the time of the Shang Dynasty (3,600-3,050 years BP), which is a very well documented period in China. The last capital of the Dynasty was at Yin and the Yin Dynasty is synonymous with the second half of the Shang dynasty.
The preceding Xia Dynasty was from 4,070-3,600 years before present. This part of Chinese history is very poorly documented and some historians wonder if it existed at all. It remains very poorly understood and barely documented44.
Mayan settlements begin to appear about 4,700 years ago in Belize. The first well established Mayan cities (or large settlements) are dated to 3,600 years ago in Soconusco, Mexico46. This is near the beginning of the cold period in the Iron Age. However, evidence of a true Mayan civilization does not appear until 2,900 years ago. The first written Maya history dates to 2,350 years BP. This is also the time of the first large scale cities and significant intellectual and artistic development. This is roughly the time when Rome emerged as a major power in the Mediterranean.
Roman Warm Period
Once we reach the beginning of the Roman Warm Period, roughly 2,400 to 2,200 years ago, robust civilizations have developed in the Americas, around the Mediterranean, China and India. By the time Alexander invaded India (2,339 years ago) they had a very advanced civilization. Very advanced cities were built in India beginning 4,100 years ago, but history is not well established until around 2,400 years ago. This warm period truly marks the beginning of modern civilization, written records document all major events since this time. Writings at this time suggest that the temperatures during the Roman Warm Period were comparable to temperatures today47.
Normally the end of the Roman Warm Period is given as around 450 AD (1,563 years ago) and the Central Greenland temperature cooled by about one degree C in 200 years, it reaches the maximum drop of 1.4°C by 1,206 years ago or around 800 AD, the height of the Dark Ages in Europe.
Medieval Warm Period
The Medieval Warm Period is normally given as 950 AD to 1250 AD or 1063 years BP to 763 years BP. In the beginning of this period, temperatures in Central Greenland rose by 1.5°C in less than 200 years. This has been fairly well documented as a worldwide event48. It is uncertain what the global average temperature was during the period and whether the world as a whole was warmer than now, or not. But, certainly in areas where we have records, such as Greenland, the UK, and in China, temperatures were comparable to temperatures today and in some cases warmer. A considerable amount of recent research attempts to compare temperatures during the Medieval Warm Period to today on a global basis48.
Little Ice Age
The Little Ice Age was not a true ice age, but the cooler period after the end of the Medieval Warm Period. It is generally considered to have started by 1350 AD (663 years BP)49 and it pretty much ended by 1850 AD (163 years BP)50. In Central Greenland, temperatures drop about 1.5°C from 964 years BP to 597 years BP, which is a significant drop. It was not cold over the entire period, but the Little Ice Age saw many periods that were very cold, from the famous year without a summer (1816) to the great famine of 1315, New York Harbor completely froze over in 1780, the Norse colonies in Greenland starved and were abandoned in the 1400’s51.
Modern Warm Period
The Modern Warm Period starts around 1850, which is also the time when people began systematically recording and collecting air temperature data from around the world. These temperatures were spotty in the beginning, but by the middle of the 20th Century a fairly good worldwide temperature database was developing54. Finally, in 1979, satellites were launched that could give us a reasonably accurate and complete temperature record over the entire globe52. In the poster, on the lower right, both datasets are shown. The satellite dataset is from UAH MSU53. This is the best data to use, since it is global and has minimal editing. It shows warming of 0.35°C over the period from 1979 to the present. This is not particularly significant by historical standards.
The period from 1850 to 1979 is not as well documented globally and the records used to construct the global temperature average have had to undergo significant editing, which raises doubts about the accuracy of the record. But, the curves are shown for the Northern Hemisphere, the Southern Hemisphere and the whole globe on the lower right of the poster. These are made from the HADCrut dataset54. They show a warming of about one deg. C in a period of 163 years. This is also not unusual by historical standards. Fluctuations of a degree C, either warmer or cooler, are very common in the historical record. Over this length of time warming of over 13°C was seen at the end of the Younger Dryas period in the Central Greenland ice core. In the same core, the beginning of the Holocene Thermal Optimum period saw a warming of five degrees C.
Conclusions
In general, the best times for man in the last 18,000 years are the warmer periods. The times of the disruption of civilization are the cooler and more arid times. This is quite consistent and since we have not seen unusual warming in the present warm period, relative to other warming events in the last 18,000 years, it seem doubtful that this warming period will be a problem for man to adapt to. Much of the last 18,000 years is characterized with much more rapid sea-level rise than we see today and this has caused a lot of disruption as it will in the future. But, the current rise in sea level is very slow relative to sea level rise during most of man’s civilized period. Our current warming and the current rate of sea level rise are very unspectacular.
In the words of Professor Steven Mithen, 2003 in “After the Ice…2” (page 507)
“The next century of human-made global warming is predicted to be far less extreme than that which occurred at 9600 BC. At the end of the Younger Dryas, mean global temperature had risen by 7°C in fifty years, whereas the predicted rise for the next hundred years is less than 3°C. The end of the last ice age led to a 120 meter increase in sea level, whereas that predicted for the next fifty years is a paltry 32 centimeters at most,…”
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Andy May is a Petrophysicist residing in The Woodlands, Texas
Bibliography for “Climate and Human Civilization over the last 18,000 years”
1. Clark, Dyke, Shakun, Carlson, Clark, Wohlfarth, Mitrovica, Hostetler, McCabe, “The Last Glacial Maximum,” Science 7, August 2009, Vol 325, No. 5941, pp. 710-714.
2. Mithen, Steven (2003), “After the ice: a global human history, 20,000 to 5,000 BC., Cambridge Ma., Harvard University Press.
3. Wu, Zhang, Goldberg, Cohen, Pan, Arpin, Bar-Yosef, 2012, Science, Vol. 336, No. 6089, P 1696-1700.
4. Vinther, Buchardt, Clausen, Dahl-Jensen, Johnsen, Fisher, Koerner, Raynaud, Lipenkov, Andersen, Blunier, Rasmussen, Steffensen, Svensson, “Holocene thinning of the Greenland ice sheet,” Nature, Vol 461, September, 2009.
5. Petit J.R., Jouzel J., Raynaud D., Barkov N.I., Barnola J.M., Basile I., Bender M., Chappellaz J., Davis J., Delaygue G., Delmotte M., Kotlyakov V.M., Legrand M., Lipenkov V., Lorius C., Delmotte M., Kotlyakov V.M., Legrand M., Lipenkov V., Lorius C., Pépin L., Ritz C., Saltzman E., Stievenard M., 1999, Climate and Atmospheric History of the Past 420,000 years from the Vostok Ice Core, Antarctica, Nature, 399, pp.429-436.
6. Alley, Richard, “The Younger Dryas cold interval as viewed from Central Greenland, Quaternary” Science Reviews, Vol. 19, Jan. 2000, p 213-226 http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/pubs/alley2000/
7. Bond, Showers, Cheseby, Lotti, Almasi, deMenocal, Priore, Cullen, Hajdas, Bonani, 1997, “A Pervasive Millennial-Scale Cycle in North Atlantic Holocene and Glacial Climates” Science 278 p. 1257–1266)
8. Ryan and Pittman, “Noah’s Flood: The New Scientific Discoveries about the Event That Changed History,” 1998, Simon and Schuster.
9. deMenocal, Peter, 2001, “Cultural Responses to Climate Change During the Late Holocene,” Science 292, p 667-673.
10. http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/abrupt/data3 |
Neve console forced them to complete the project at the Village Recorder in Santa Monica. To further Adore’s maudlin, Goth-tech spirit, Corgan assumed a Max Schreck-like persona, emphasizing his shaved head with lighting and make-up and donning long, flowing garb that accented his 6-foot 4-inch frame.
“I did go around and proclaim rock to be dead,” Corgan laughs, “which was probably the stupidest thing I ever did. I was in my Adore personality saying Adore personality things like ‘F**k the electric guitar!’ And of course 12 months later I’m playing ‘The Everlasting Gaze.’”
Many fans attributed Adore’s stylistic shift directly to Chamberlin’s lack of participation, and contrary to favorable reviews and another Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Music Album, Corgan insists “nobody got the record.” “To Sheila” pumped blood through its mechanized heart, “Ava Adore” flashed her crooked teeth, but the bite wasn’t as strong. Chamberlin’s raw power was replaced by reverberating, distorted 808 kicks. Shuffle and swing turned into quantized grooves and fills. Predictable ticks marched along in place of glittering cymbal embellishments.
“I don’t feel excluded from Adore,” says Chamberlin. “When I listen to that record, I hear decisions that I totally influenced because I wasn’t there.”
“I think Billy felt very much on his own,” adds Flood. “It’s difficult when you’re the artist, the producer, the sound person... and suddenly you’re left high and dry.
“You know I’m not dead. I’m just living in my head.” — “The Everlasting Gaze” (1999)
Chamberlin returned to the Smashing Pumpkins in March of 1999, but another absence would alter the face of the band’s fifth studio release, Machina/The Machines of God. Flood was once again asked to produce, but unlike Mellon Collie, where many ideas were mapped out before a single note was recorded, few were aware of Corgan’s creative intent: a concept album about a fictitious rock band fronted by a character whose life is forever altered after hearing the voice of God. As could be expected, the sonic subtext would prove just as esoteric.
The goal was to take the digital lessons learned from Adore and apply them to a rock environment. How does one create the sound of a band playing on another planet? Through tape degradation, synth-like mechanized guitars, soaring pads and effects, heavily-processed vocals, and of course, big drums. Chamberlin returned with a custom-made Yamaha green maple kit, but Machina marked Corgan’s first real departure from his fleet of Fenders, instead using a Les Paul Junior reissue with P90 pickups that often ran through a Crate practice amp. An SIB Varidrive and a host of Moogerfooger pedals were also used to add to Corgan’s sonic repertoire. The hazy shimmer in big choruses for “Stand Inside Your Love” and “The Everlasting Gaze” is another trademark Machina sound.
“I hope I’m not taking credit for somebody else’s work,” laughs Alan Moulder, “but I’m pretty sure I created it with a tape delay on a short, slappy guitar reverb going through an AMS Harmonizer. I think I ducked it with compression triggering off the drums.”
To help the band gel with the new material, Corgan decided to take the Pumpkins out for a few select club dates in April of ’99 while Flood went on holiday. They would return to the studio fine-tuned, ride that live momentum through a weeklong recording session, and then bring in Moulder to mix after another headclearing break. When Wretzky’s commitment to the band began to erode, plans began to change. Though rumored since late summer, it was publicly announced in September that she had left the band.
“Billy and I thought, ‘How are we going to do this?’” Flood remembers. “We decided that we were going to have to make a very different kind of record. They saw out their time on the tour, and after that we pretty much went back to the drawing board. Certain songs on the record are survivors from that first period, but it meant a shift in the way the songs had to be formed.”
The majority of the songs were recorded into Pro Tools through Corgan’s API Legacy board, but the band had multiple mixing consoles to choose from at Chicago Recording Company, so Flood performed a litmus test. He transferred two songs onto tape using a Studer A280, which as luck would have it, was found in each of the mix rooms. He then ran the tape through each console with all the faders at zero—no EQ, no panning—and then into a DAT machine. When he compared the recordings, the differences were unbelievable. Of the Neve VR72, SSL 6056E, and the ’80s Neve broadcast console that Corgan brought in, the SSL won out. Its low-mid punch would help tighten up the record’s bright sound. Though Corgan wasn’t a big fan of SSL boards, the team found a workaround.
“Howard Willing, one of the mix engineers, knew a guy at Inward Connections who built an API simulation mix bus,” remembers Moulder. “The idea was that we were going to replace the mix bus in the SSL with this API one, which kind of ‘de-SSL’d’ it a bit.”
Machina was made with the understanding that it would be the Pumpkins’ final album. Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music—originally intended to be the second disc on a Machina double album before Virgin vetoed the idea—received an Internetonly release, but a handful of copies were distributed on vinyl through Corgan’s own imprint: the befittingly titled Constantinople Records.
“Erase the schemes that I’m drawn to believe. There’s no fear anymore.” — “Sunkissed” (2008)
“I know a lot of our fans are puzzled by Zeitgeist,” admits Corgan. “I think they wanted this massive, grandiose work, but you don’t just roll out of bed after seven years without a functioning band and go back to doing that.”
A few key decisions had already been made before Corgan and Chamberlin set out to record Zeitgeist. Thematically, the record was going to bear down on the country’s sordid sociopolitical state, and blunt force analog production would galvanize the ship. Furthermore, Corgan penned Zeitgeist knowing his new band members would be both qualified players and singers, which allowed him to expand the scope of his vocal parts.
Corgan and Chamberlin began demo-ing at a rented space in Arizona before moving to Kerry Brown’s studio in Los Angeles for further fleshing out. Though initial work began with Michael Beinhorn (Korn, Black Label Society), Roy Thomas Baker became the album’s primary producer.
“We were working purely on intuition as to what the overall sound should be,” says Baker, whose long list of production credits includes Queen’s A Night At The Opera. “It was supposed to be an analog sound, but it wasn’t supposed to be old school. If you’re doing everything intuitively, there’s no such thing as old and new school. We were going for an audio uniqueness as opposed to sonic purity.”
Corgan’s new guitar rigs included Diezel Herbert and Einstein heads (the latter for overdubs) and a Bogner Uberschall, again run through his classic Marshall cabinet. He also began experimenting with different model Fenders in preparation for the release of his signature model Strat, but, as Baker recalls, “there were more guitars in the studio than at Guitar Center.” Recording at The Village on both a new Neve 88R console and a vintage Neve 8048, the goal was to capture the impenetrable truth of a live, organic performance. As Corgan isn’t generally a punch-in player, all the guitar parts had to be replayed from the top down, which at times put both Billy and Jimmy in even more visceral situations. Drums for the nearly ten-minute epic “United States” were recorded in one take.
“Jimmy is probably one of the most unique drummers I’ve ever worked with,” says Baker. “Even when he does something he considers bad, it’s still better than 98 percent of the people out there at their best.”
The drums were recorded in Studio A at Los Angeles’ Sage and Sound, a spacious room with 18-foot ceilings and a fully restored Neve 8048 console. The drum and overhead mic configurations didn’t change much from the Gish days, but the room was miked with an AKG C24. Chamberlin also switched to his now-favorite crash—a lush, dark 22-inch Zildjian Constantinople— and downsized his kick from a 16x22-inch to a 14x22-inch to obtain more resonance and a different shell sound. Another tactic he used to employ fuller sound in his drums was to customize the bearing edges to 60 degrees instead of 45, which Chamberlin says pushes the sound around the drum instead up back of to the drummer.
“Roy was the only guy that really noticed that phase cancellation,” laughs Chamberlin. “That guy hears things that nobody else hears! I learned more with Roy Thomas Baker in those four or five months than I have ever learned in my entire recording career.”
In addition to Baker, former Pantera and Soundgarden producer Terry Date assisted in the final stages of production. For Corgan, Dates’ straightforward approach to the songs “helped them resonate on a physical level,” and was a good foil for Corgan’s complex methodology. Mixing was also a very absolute process.
“Everything had sort of an on/off switch,” explains Baker. “So instead of having various degrees of volumes, we’d have the approach of, ‘It’s either on or it’s not.’ Billy would say things like, ‘I can hear it, but it should either be a lot louder, or a lot quieter.’”
Corgan, Chamberlin, and Baker took their methods even further during the mixing of the American Gothic EP. “We did everything by hand... multiple hands,” laughs Baker. “I was sitting on one end and Billy and Bjorn [Thorsrud] were on the other. Jimmy was maybe standing back and listening to the overall mix—leaning forward and turning something on—and everyone had different faders. Everything got progressively louder and louder, it was like a race to see who could reach peak volume the fastest! We had a good laugh doing that.”
The four-song American Gothic represents some of the Pumpkins’ best and most exciting material to date. It also signals a potentially new style of “bite-sized” recording that seems to fit with Corgan and Chamberlin’s current creative mindset: smaller packages, single producers, streamlined concepts. Corgan isn’t one to force the issue these days, and now that the Pumpkins no longer report to a label, anything goes.
“I know the next record is going to be really psychedelic,” says Corgan. “I don’t think the Sabbath influence is going away anytime soon, but I’m thinking more late ’80s/early ’90s English shoegazer mixed with ’60s psychedelia and ’70s funk. I can hear it in my head, but that doesn’t mean it’ll ever get out of my head.”
Fans can expect a Smashing Pumpkins 20th Anniversary Tour sometime in late 2008, as well as the Fillmore live DVD release. But spring of 2009 is when things should get really interesting. As this article is being written, SmashingPumpkins.com is petitioning fans for original photos from 1987–1992 in preparation for the release of a Gish boxed set, which may include everything from demos and B-sides to revisited versions of old songs. The group also has archived performances of their first 40 shows, warts and all. As they have no label contract in place, the size of the boxed set is to be determined, which is good news for superfans, as Corgan is no stranger to releasing Herculean sets of material. The Pumpkins will also embark on a small-scale tour to support the release, which means Gish songs, Gish gear, and intimate Gish-sized venues. Need more message board fodder? Corgan plans to give each and every Pumpkins album the same treatment. Does all this historical activity signal a break in fresh songwriting? Not a chance.
“This should now be where I prove what I’ve always felt I’m capable of,” says Corgan. “There’s nobody in my way, there’s no MTV not playing my video, there’s no gatekeeper. If I can truly do phenomenal work, it will be heard, whether it’s acquired for free or bought, it doesn’t make any difference. There’s nothing standing between me and an audience.
“Look, we hit massive homeruns,” he continues. “We never followed them up. We never took the safe, obvious next step, and I think that gets lost. We’re not a milk-it band. We never were a milk-it band. There’s that old saying, ‘If it’s on the cover of Time, it’s too late.’ By the time people got around to understanding what we were doing, we were gone. Now is the time to prove our mettle.”
Go to www.eqmag.com to check out Billy Corgan’s studio guitars, read interview outtakes, and sign up for EQ’s exclusive live chat, An Evening with Billy Corgan.
Richard Thomas interviewed the RZA for EQ’s Wu-Tang Clan cover story in 01/08. Find more of his work at www.miningthelandfill.com.
SMASHING PUMPKINS-THE EQ MIX TAPE
“Tristessa”
(Gish)
Palm muted guitar chunks, extreme snare rolls, and a mellow break followed by a blistering solo, “Tristessa” is every trademark Pumpkins embellishment rolled into one track. Producer Butch Vig utilized light compression through a combination of Summit and API compressors to preserve headroom and accommodate the song’s extreme dynamics, but Corgan’s Gish-era, attack-style guitar still cuts through the mix like a blade.
“Starla”
(B-side off the I Am One single)
An epic, mesmerizing track built up around extended solos, “Starla” was produced by Kerry Brown and recorded through a Soundcraft TS12 board onto a TASCAM MS16 one-inch tape machine. Brown used a Yamaha SPX90 for the reverb effect on Corgan’s voice, and an Eventide H3000 Ultra-Harmonizer is responsible for the backwards effect that runs through the first third of the song. “I remember that overdub guitar solo,” says Brown. “Just him, the headphones, and the cabinet. You don’t hear that much anymore. You can’t simulate what you can do with a cabinet in front of you. I mean, Billy was bending notes on a mic stand!”
“Glynis”
(No Alternative compilation)
Though it’s rarely played live, “Glynis” is one of the Pumpkins’ finest non-album tracks, and can only (officially) be found on the 1993 No Alternative compilation. An old Speak & Spell “hello” starts the song, and the soupy solo in the middle is the result of double-tracked guitars fed through a vintage Electro- Harmonix Bassballs pedal. The song is a dedication to former Red Red Meat bassist Glynis Johnson, who passed away from AIDS-related complications in 1992.
“Beautiful”
(Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness)
A result of digital/analog synergy, “Beautiful” is a processional ballad featuring opening and closing orchestral-style arrangements created via MIDI. Corgan handpicked sounds that fit with the song’s psychedelic vibe, and then jammed to the track in MIDI, adding and removing notes as he went along. “There’s something about that visual connection to my brain that’s really good for me in terms of writing,” says Corgan. “But let me say this,” he continues with a laugh, “can we please get off MIDI? When you’re a guitar player, you plug it in. It works; it doesn’t work. If it’s the pedal, you change the battery. But then you’re sitting in front of a computer and you get that spinning wheel of death....”
“Eye”
(Lost Highway soundtrack)
Most people know “Eye” as the electro-rock crossover from the popular David Lynch film, but the track began as an instrumental for Shaquille O’Neal. The two were linked up by a longtime friend of Corgan’s. Being a big sports fan, Corgan was up for the challenge. He concocted the instrumental before speaking with Shaq, but the two weren’t able to meet up to seal the deal. Lynch, on the other hand, thought it was perfect for Lost Highway. The track relied heavily on a Kurzweil K2500 for its 808-styled percussion, a Waldorf VST for the synth line, and a 12-string acoustic lined in direct.
“Blissed & Gone”
(Still Becoming Apart promo)
With radio samples and distorted percussion sliced and diced in Propellerheads’ ReCycle, “Blissed & Gone” is another product of Corgan’s Adore-era experimentation with loops and samples. “I remember playing the song for Rick Rubin when he came to visit me in the studio, and he didn’t know what to say,” Corgan remembers. “That’s the trip I was on.”
“Untitled”
(Rotten Apples)
The final track recorded by the original Smashing Pumpkins line-up in 2000, “Untitled” was semiacoustic home cooking that rekindled the vibes of Gish and Siamese Dream. The chain for Corgan’s solo, one of his favorites, features a DOD FX84 Milk Box compressor and a Shin-Ei Companion Fuzz Wah. “The song was our way of saying ‘f**k you’ to all those people who thought we’d somehow lost our minds and weren’t able to return home,” says Corgan. “We were in the studio for what appeared to be the last time, so it was very emotional, and we had only three days.”
“The Everlasting Gaze”
(Machina/The Machines of God)
“The Everlasting Gaze” is the first track off Machina, a highly conceptual piece that marked the return of Chamberlin, but whose course was altered by the departure of Wretzky halfway through recording. The shiny, cosmic grunge that defines the album is encapsulated in this fourminute juggernaut. Corgan switched up to a Les Paul Junior ’57 reissue with P90 pickups, but the extra crunch came by running it through a little Crate practice amp, then going direct into the box from the amp’s line out jack. “When we really wanted to ‘go there’ we would plug into the headphone jack,” laughs Corgan.
“Pomp & Circumstances”
(Zeitgeist)
When Danny Elfman had to bow out amicably of doing the string arrangement, Corgan opted to forego their second option for an internal fix. Using an E-mu Emulator II, they built up a shredded wall of sound that was then bounced down and tape degraded numerous times until it was virtually falling apart at the seams. The tonal disparity between the 8-bit E-mu (although it used a data compression algorithm that gave the equivalent of at least 12 bits), an inspired, bluesy solo, and Corgan’s soaring vocals— doubled nearly 30 times in true Roy Thomas Baker fashion—give the song its uniquely operatic feel.
“Again, Again, Again (The Crux)”
(American Gothic EP)
Another product of the Pumpkins’ tenure with Roy Thomas Baker. The exceptionally loud Gibson J-160E acoustic/electric had such a distinctive punch in the lower midrange that it was paramount to pair it up with an electric that didn’t overshadow the tone. The solution: A 1973 Telecaster run through a ’60s Selmer amp and doubletracked. If Zeitgeist is the sound of a world pounded into dust, American Gothic is the sound of that world waking up to a new era of possibility.
“Superchrist”
(Fresh Cuts, Volume 2)
“Superchrist” pairs the Pumpkins with longtime friend and producer Kerry Brown (“Starla”) for a 6/8 psychedelic jam. A custom API console in Studio 3 at Sunset Sound was used for tracking, with a fair amount of trial-and-error determining which instruments sounded best on what channel. With 18 analog drum tracks thrown against the well-worn tone of a 1958 Fender P-Bass (run through a Ampeg SVT-VR head with a SVT- 810E cabinet and miked with an AKG D12), “ballsy” doesn’t even come close to describing the sound.Page 1 of 105
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Despite the fact that all potentially hazardous items were kept out of the students' reach, school officials at Washington Irving Elementary School informed Doug Bartlett, a 17-year veteran in the classroom, that his use of the tools as visual aids endangered his students. Bartlett was subsequently penalized with a four-day suspension without pay - charged with possessing, carrying, storing or using a weapon.
The complaint charges that Bartlett "suffered humiliation, embarrassment, mental suffering, and lost wages, and was suspended for four days" - and asks for "nominal and compensatory damages" and for the suspension to be expunged from the teacher's record.
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"What makes this case stand out from the rest is that this latest victim of zero tolerance policies run amok happens to be a veteran school teacher," Whitehead said.
None of the tools were made accessible to the students. When not in use, the tools were secured in a toolbox on a high shelf out of reach of the students. They were used to demonstrate the proper use of tools.
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Hey guys! I have been thinking about making some gooey stuff for a long time. It’s different, it’s cool looking, it’s so amazing! But where to start, how to implement? Obviously, gooey is not in the Google’s Material Design spec yet. Although you can find some shape transformation, as about changing, transforming shapes Google suggests circular reveal as a tool. Otherwise there would be some public API’s for gooey animations, because it is possible to make. And today we’re gonna make some really cool one!Just look at this example of getting an idea of what’s gooey is about. Excited? Let’s go!
Ways To Implement
First of all, let’s figure out the ways to implement this. I can see three currently. First and the hardest way is with bitmap mesh transformations. It seems to be the most advanced and most customisable. You can basically get any view’s bitmap and animate it in a way you want. Great, though not there yet. I’ll talk about this in the future blog posts. Second is via creating custom View and drawing shape with Canvas#drawPath, because that’s the method from Canvas class that let’s you draw really complex stuff. This is already easier to do, the only thing you need to learn is Path class and how to draw and animate shapes with it.
But can we get even something easier? The answer is Animated Vector Drawable. It provides the best abstraction for us, it’s simpler that creating custom view and animating with canvas. We just provide SVG start/end path data, duration, interpolators and that’s it. The rest of the work Android does for us. That’s the best way I found to learn and get the feeling of gooey. That’s what I got in the result
Key Things
As you see, there’s no shadows and clickable foreground which make the look better. Let’s just say that we’re focused on shape transformation now. As I said we’re going with the Animated Vector Drawable approach, easiest and fastest way. If you haven’t done AVD path animations, you might want to check this post before. Let’s break down the animation. We have a main FAB which shows multiple actions, currently just one. The logical approach is to create two views, it will be easier handle click events later. But I decided to use one for now. Which means that its size should be of the expanded one so we have room to animate.
Animate Arcs
If you create a circle vector in Android Studio it will be of two arcs. Those a command arguments are pretty long, let’s see what they mean.
a rx ry x-axis-rotation large-arc-flag sweep-flag x y 1 a rx ry x - axis - rotation large - arc - flag sweep - flag x y
First letter is a name of command, using lower case will make all following coordinates relative to the current cursor position. Using capital letter for command name will use absolute coordinates instead. The most important for us are first two arguments, radius x and radius y. That’s the radius y which we animate to scratch up circles. The rest of the arguments we just leave the same. That what it looks like with one arc
I expect you know already how to setup Animated Vector Drawables, so I’ll just put the objectAnimator file
<objectAnimator android:duration="375" android:interpolator="@android:anim/accelerate_decelerate_interpolator" android:propertyName="pathData" android:valueFrom="M12,12m-10,0a10,10 0,1 1,20 0a10,10 0,1 1,-20 0" android:valueTo="M12,12m-10,0a10,10 0,1 1,20 0a10,16 0,1 1,-20 0" android:valueType="pathType" /> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 <objectAnimator android : duration = "375" android : interpolator = "@android:anim/accelerate_decelerate_interpolator" android : propertyName = "pathData" android : valueFrom = "M12,12m-10,0a10,10 0,1 1,20 0a10,10 0,1 1,-20 0" android : valueTo = "M12,12m-10,0a10,10 0,1 1,20 0a10,16 0,1 1,-20 0" android : valueType = "pathType" />
That’s squeeze animation, as you see there’s radius y animated from 10 to 16 and then there’s one more animator like this in a set for backwards animation with startOffset.
Where’s Magic?
As you’ve already realized that’s the core animation in here, I don’t make some complicated shapes, don’t use bezier curves. The magic is in speed, small size and Android forgiveness of imperfections. While big FAB squeezes, small goes from bottom to top with starting squeezed state to base one and applying some slight scale transformation to give it better look. All of that gives the appearance like small FAB comes from the big one like a spore. The whole animation takes 750 ms which is already long, if we make it 300 – 400 you would hardly notice imperfections, which is great. Looks decent, isn’t it?
Where To Go From Here?
One thing is to consider is how to handle click events. If stick with one view then we’ll have to check for position of touch events. Distinct views for small FAB’s solve this problem. One more thing is clickable foreground and shadows. I will them in the future, but as you see, it is relatively simple to make some gooey stuff on Android with Animated Vector Drawables. The only thing you need to learn is all the different SVG commands and you’re golden. The good thing is that it looks in grace with Material Design. You don’t have to make all your views gooey to keep the feeling of one single design style.
Ok, thanks for reading. You can get GitHub source code here. Don’t forget to subscribe, follow me on Facebook, G+, Twitter and share with friends if you think they will benefit from it!With voters in Colorado about to decide whether or not to legalize marijuana in their state this November, a new report is out looking at the impact the criminalization of marijuana has had on the state. The analysis found that between 1986 and 2010 a total of 210,000 people were arrested for marijuana possession, with more than half of the arrest taking place in the last decade.
One of the most significant findings of the research is that the marijuana possession laws in Colorado are still enforced in a very racially biased manner. Despite the fact that young whites in the Colorado are more likely to use marijuana than any other ethnic group, African Americans and Latino made up a disproportionate percentage of those arrested for marijuana possession. A Latino is 1.5 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than a white person, while an African-American is more then three as likely to be arrested as the Caucasian. African-Americans make up less than 4 percent of the state’s population but over 10 percent of the marijuana arrests.
The original push to criminalize marijuana was heavily driven by issues of racism and almost a century later the enforcement of marijuana prohibition continues be extremely racially biased. The so called “war on drugs” throughout its history has disproportionately been a war on minorities.
The racially biased manner in which marijuana prohibition is enforced has started to spur many civil rights organizations to endorse marijuana legalization. It is one of the major reasons why the regional chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People decided to endorse Amendment 64 in Colorado.Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas (Reform) lost the vote of no cofidence against him on Wednesday and was forced to resign. The parties will now take up official coalition talks. President Kersti Kaljulaid has asked the party leaders to Kadriorg for individual meetings, to begin with the outgoing prime minister at 4 p.m.
Of the 91 members of the Riigikogu present, 63 voted in favor of removing the prime minister’s government, 28 against. There were no abstentions.
Rõivas had refused to resign earlier this week, saying that his government had a democratic mandate, and would be removed by a democratic vote as well. He insisted on this course of action despite the fact that his government was de facto finished when on Monday evening, the Reform Party’s coalition partners, IRL and the Social Democrats, asked him to resign.
Rõivas: Accusations concerned whole government, not just his person
In a statement before the vote, Rõivas insisted again that the upcoming change of government meant a move of the country to the left, like his party had been implying since Sunday. The Pro Patria and Res Publica Union (IRL), likely to take up negotiations with the Center Party and the Social Democrats to form a new coalition, was making serious concessions in terms of security, economic, citizenship, and educational policy, the prime minister said.
In the questions following the political statement, Rõivas’ party colleagues gave him the chance to present his government’s work in a positive light before the Riigikogu one last time. Their questions elicited a list of achievements from the prime minister which, as he said, would be difficult to find in the work of any Estonian government that had been in office for just a year and a half.
Rõivas said that he saw the accusations presented in the motion of no confidence as directed against the whole government, and not his own person, possibly with the exception of his reactions and rhetoric concerning the migration crisis. The rest of the accusations affected the coalition on the whole, he stressed.
Herkel: Reform Party busied itself with window-dressing and political technology
Chairman of the Free Party, Andres Herkel, said before the vote that the Reform Party had turned into an administration party that irresponsibly tried to hollow out the principle of a peaceful and democratic change of power with fear.
“The Reform Party has developed into a typical administration party, like it has happened to a lot of parties in Eastern Europe and CIS states that have been in power for too long. Even United Russia and Yeni Azerbaijan are remote relatives, even though the Reform Party’s approach to maintain its power has been more refined,” Herkel said.
The help of former Center Party chairman Edgar Savisaar in this had been “priceless”, Herkel said, quoting writer Andrus Kivirähk, who once called Savisaar the Reform Party’s best guarantee to stay in power, and its “honorary chairman”.
They had been in power too long, Herkel pointed out. The Reform Party’s machine had busied itself with window-dressing and political technology, not substantial change. It was slowing down substantial reform, while its only strength was in creating brands and mythology.
“The current talk of a move to the left can’t be taken seriously, just as the promise back in the day to make it into the five richest countries in Europe. Compared to their onetime ‘Citizens’ country manifesto', they have very much moved left themselves,” Herkel said, adding that apart from their tax dogmatism, there wasn’t much left of their political orientation to the right.
The Riigikogu continued with the day's agenda after the vote. To journalists present, Rõivas said that he was proud of the 961 days he had been in office.
Coalition negotiations between Center, SDE, IRL already ongoing
President Kersti Kaljulaid met the leaders of the six parties in the Riigikogu one by one on Wednesday to discuss the situation. A first round of coalition talks between the Center Party, the Social Democrats (SDE) and IRL took place on Wednesday evening.Potsdam/ Berlin
Ein Großaufgebot der Polizei war in der Nacht von Samstag auf Sonntag in der Simon-Dach-Straße in Berlin nötig, um mehr als 100 Randalierer zu stoppen.
Gegen 1 Uhr hatte eine Lokalbetreiberin die Einsatzkräfte gerufen, weil in ihrer Kneipe über 100 Fußballfans randalierten. Wenig später treffen die ersten Beamten vor Ort ein. Die Fans verlassen derweil nach und nach das Lokal, versammeln sich auf dem Gehweg und beginnen sich zu vermummen.
Weitere Polizisten treffen ein. Dann fliegt die ersten Flasche in Richtung der Beamten – großes Gejohle und polizeifeindliche Sprechchöre folgen.
Den Beamten gelingt es jedoch, eine Gruppe von rund 80 bis 100 Personen festzusetzen und die Personalien zu überprüfen. Doch die Lage entspannt sich keineswegs. Einige der festgehaltenen Fußballfans versuchen mit „Schlägen, Tritten, gemeinsamen Anrennen und Schieben“ die Polizeiabsperrung zu durchbrechen. Doch der Versuch misslingt. „Mit einfacher körperlicher Gewalt sowie dem Einsatz von Reizstoffsprühgeräten und Mehrzweckstöcken“, so die Polizei, wird ein Durchbrechen der Absperrung verhindert. Dabei wurden fünf Polizisten leicht verletzt. Einer durch den Wurf eines Stuhls.
Währenddessen rottet sich auf der gegenüberliegenden Gehwegseite eine Gruppe von bis zu 70 Personen zusammen. Viele vermummen sich und beginnen, die Polizeikräfte mit Flachen zu bewerfen.
Weitere Polizeikräfte erreichen den Ort des Geschehens. Daraufhin flüchten rund 30 Personen aus der „neuen“ Gruppe in Richtung Revaler Straße, um wenig später teilweise vermummt und bewaffnet mit Warnbaken, Baumaterialien, Steinen und Holzlatten zurückzukehren. Sie attackieren die Polizisten und setzen sofort wieder zur Flucht an.
Erst als gegen 2 Uhr weitere Unterstützungskr |
the anterolateral thigh flap is being used on patients for the head and the neck because it has an ideal match for the site and it is easy to harvest. If a surgeon chose to remove/harvest the tissue, safe places are the following; skin, skin and fat, fat and fascia, or just the fascia by itself.
Microvascular reconstruction repair [ edit ]
Microvascular reconstruction repair is a common operation that is done on patients who see a Otorhinolaryngologist. Microvascular reconstruction repair is a surgical procedure that involves moving a composite piece of tissue from the patient's body and moves it to the head and or neck. Microvascular head and neck reconstruction is used to treat head and neck cancers, including those of the larynx and pharynx, oral cavity, salivary glands, jaws, calvarium, sinuses, tongue and skin.The tissue that is most common moved during this procedure is from the arms, legs, back, and can come from the skin, bone, fat, and or muscle.[3] When doing this procedure, the decision on which is moved is determined on the reconstructive needs. Transfer of the tissue to the head and neck allows surgeons to rebuild the patient's jaw, optimize tongue function, and reconstruct the throat. When the pieces of tissue are moved, they require their own blood supply for a chance of survival in their new location. After the surgery is completed, the blood vessels that feed the tissue transplant are reconnected to new blood vessels in the neck. These blood vessels are typically no more than 1 to 3 millimeters in diameter which means these connections need to be made with a microscope which is why this procedure is called “microvascular surgery.”
Head and neck oncology [ edit ]
Otology and neurotology [ edit ]
Rhinology [ edit ]
Rhinology includes nasal dysfunction and sinus diseases.
Pediatric otorhinolaryngology [ edit ]
Laryngology [ edit ]
Facial plastic and reconstructive surgery [ edit ]
Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery is a one-year fellowship open to otorhinolaryngologists and plastic surgeons who wish to specialize in the aesthetic and reconstructive surgery of the head, face, and neck.
See also [ edit ]Luis Gómez, a Buddhist scholar, translator, and psychologist who founded the PhD program in Buddhist Studies at the University of Michigan, which has produced some of the best-known scholars in the field today, died on September 3 in Mexico City. He was 74.
Gómez retired from the University of Michigan in 2008 after 35 years of teaching but continued to teach in both the San Francisco Bay Area and Mexico. In recent years, Gómez published a translation of Shantideva’s Bodhicaryavatara [A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life], a foundational text in Tibetan Buddhism and “a work that he regarded as a guide for his life,” according to his obituary.
Born in Puerto Rico in 1943, Gómez received his bachelor’s degree from the Universidad de Puerto Rico in 1963 and completed his PhD in Buddhist Studies, Indic Philology, and Japanese Language and Literature from Yale University four years later.
In a 2012 post on Trike Daily, religious studies professor Charles Prebish wrote that Gómez “has argued that Buddhism isn’t just an object that we study, but a religious tradition that may make serious demands upon us.”
Reflecting on his death, Tricycle features editor Andrew Cooper wrote about a talk that Gómez once gave at the Zen Center of Los Angeles about the misconceptions Buddhists have about Buddhism.
“At the time, I edited the Zen center’s journal, and I edited and published” his talk, Cooper wrote. “I think it was one of the earliest essays by a Buddhist scholar to address the concerns of non-specialists. To some extent, we now take for granted that this kind of thing is valuable, but at the time, it was something new. Up to then, for the most part, scholars spoke only to scholars and practitioners spoke only to practitioners. I think Luis did much to pave the way for others scholars to do the same, and for Buddhist publications to see value in it.”
Gómez’s scholarship spanned a number of topics within the Buddhist umbrella, including Indian, Tibetan, Chinese, and pan-Asian Buddhism, with a focus in particular on the Mahayana.
You can read the full obituary here.PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Do you have a teen that is practically attached to their smartphone? According to a new study from Pew Research Center, they’re not alone.
Researchers say 24 percent of all teens report going online “almost constantly,” and 92 percent of teens go online at least daily.
READ: Christie Wants To Eliminate Social Security For Those Earning $200K+
The report says the high amount of teens online is “facilitated by the widespread availability of smartphones,” with nearly three quarters of teens having access to one.
Researchers say Facebook still reigns supreme among teens with 71 percent of all teens using the site. Instagram follows behind with 52 percent and 41 percent use Snapchat.
READ: Man Collects $15K In Unemployment — While In Jail
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the study says teenage girls are more likely to use social media sites and platforms, while boys are more likely to play video games and own gaming consoles.
To read the full report, click here.From the Chicago Tribune:
Sanders-Wilson was among the last of the 65 people killed in Chicago in July, a toll that pushed the number of homicides in the city this year to nearly 400. The total for all of last year was 490. It was the deadliest July since 2006, when 65 homicides were also recorded, according to Chicago Police Department records. Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson noted that the month was still lower than June, when 72 homicides were reported. But Johnson acknowledged that the same neighborhoods have been taking the brunt of the gun violence. “We shake our heads and ask why some of our communities on the West and South sides are being held hostage,” he said at a news conference On the last weekend of July, a total of seven people were killed and 45 others were wounded, many in those areas.
This year’s huge death toll in Chicago is likely the result of the release last Thanksgiving time of the video of a deplorable police shooting
But the general pattern of high homicides in this decade in Chicago is under-explored.
Note that Chicago’s leadership caste in this century has largely consisted of sophisticated and ruthless Obama Administration insiders: Rahm, Penny Pritzker, Bill Daley, Valerie Jarrett, etc. As far as I can tell, they share a strategy of making Chicago more like Paris by moving the Problem People out of town: tear down housing projects near the lake, send their residents to suburbs or Dubuque with Section 8 vouchers … It’s the kind of foolproof plan that you could have explained to former Minister of Housing and Construction Ariel Sharon in 20 words and he would have woken up from his coma just to tell you he grasps perfectly what you mean.
And Chicago Insiders don’t much have to worry about being harassed by the Obama Administration for discrimination because they are, more or less, the Obama Administration.
And yet …
[Comment at Unz.com]CALNRA: LETTERS TO THE LEGISLATURE SUPPORTING AB373 (Updated: Online petition!)
As you might have heard NRA-ILA CA State Liaison Ed Worley say on NRANEWS.com, we are planning to deliver a huge number of support letters to the Capitol during the Legislative Hearings on AB373 in January 2010.
We can't do this alone. We need everyone to get together and help us gather the volume necessary to be heard. And we want our message to be so "loud" that EVERYONE hears it.
Please download the letter at this link:
EDIT/UPDATE: Mike Haas was up all night creating an online petition version of the AB373 support letter. Go to
Forward this message to every list of gun owners that you have. Send it to everyone!
I would like to have tens-of-thousands of these letters to drop on the Capitol during the first hearing!
Please help us continue to fight for our Second Amendment freedoms here in the Golden State.
BTW, for those of you looking for the exact text of AB373, the language has not been returned by the legislature yet. We will post the actual text of AB373 when it officially exists.
Currently, we are out-in-front of everything on this and that is where I want to stay.
Paul Almost everyone now knows that the NRA is currently engaged in an effort to repeal the ammunition buyer registration scheme (AB962), that Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law, by passing AB373 next year.As you might have heard NRA-ILA CA State Liaison Ed Worley say on NRANEWS.com, we are planning to deliver a huge number of support letters to the Capitol during the Legislative Hearings on AB373 in January 2010.We can't do this alone. We need everyone to get together and help us gather the volume necessary to be heard. And we want our message to be so "loud" that EVERYONE hears it.Please download the letter at this link: http://www.calnra.com/doc/supportab373.pdf and print as many copies as you wish. Circulate these letters and send them back to me as soon as possible. Distribute them at gun clubs, Members' Councils, gun shows, gun stores, and anywhere else you can think of.Mike Haas was up all night creating an online petition version of the AB373 support letter. Go to http://www.calnra.com/petition/ to sign the letter of support online.Forward this message to every list of gun owners that you have. Send it to everyone!I would like to have tens-of-thousands of these letters to drop on the Capitol during the first hearing!Please help us continue to fight for our Second Amendment freedoms here in the Golden State.BTW, for those of you looking for the exact text of AB373, the language has not been returned by the legislature yet. We will post the actual text of AB373 when it officially exists.Currently, we are out-in-front of everything on this and that is where I want to stay.Paul
Fighting for the restoration and preservation of the Second Amendment, right here in California since 1989!
H. Paul Payne
NRA Liaison to the Executive Vice President
NRA Members' Councils Program Administrator
(951) 683-4NRA Office nrausmc@earthlink.net Email
http://www.calnra.com California NRA Web Site ----- CLICK HERE to Join NRA's California Team of Volunteers
Proud to be an NRA Benefactor Member __________________ Last edited by H Paul Payne; 10-15-2009 at 10:44 AM.. Reason: new informationMessenger team recently announced a bunch of exciting new features and tools to enrich the bot experience. But there is one cool feature that we will talk about in this post: The built-in NLP feature and Customizing NLP using Wit.ai. You can checkout the code on Github. Also, I'm a java fan, So the code is written in java
Our Bot simply tries to describe the weather of whatever City you mention:
If you've not built a chat bot before, please read my other tutorial first.
Using Messenger Built-in NLP Only.
Before start using the built-in NLP on Messenger you should first enable it. Messenger documentation contains a great and clean explanation for this.
By default, Messenger's built-in NLP detects the following entities in English only:
Greetings
Thanks
Bye
It also detects information like date, time, location, amount of money, phone number and email. For example, if someone sends the message, “Hii” you will get something like this from the webhook:
{ "object":"page", "entry":[ { "id":"255502108230287", "time":1502382558816, "messaging":[ { "sender":{ "id":"1573650332660059" }, "recipient":{ "id":"255502108230287" }, "timestamp":1502381982109, "message":{ "mid":"mid.$cAACylCZ7gBtj_jcJnVdzPHBbHOTC", "seq":302583, "text":"hii", "nlp":{ "entities":{ "location":[ { "suggested":true, "confidence":0.97574394420685, "value":"hii", "type":"value" } ], "greetings":[ { "confidence":0.71404528798453, "value":"true" } ] } } } } ] } ] }
For each message, the Messenger Platform will return a mapping of the entities that were captured alongside their structured data. The key pieces of information here are the confidence and the value for each entity.
confidence represents the confidence level of the next step, between 0 (low) and 1 (high).
represents the confidence level of the next step, between 0 (low) and 1 (high). value is the parser output.
Using Wit.ai
Sign up for a Wit.ai account. Find the app token in your weather app so we can test everything is working. In your app go to the Settings page then find the “Server Access Token” in API Details. Now, go to your app's 'Messenger Settings' page. In the 'Built-in NLP' section, select one of your subscribed Pages. Add your Wit Server access token. You can find your access token in the Wit App settings. Save your settings.
That's all, you've successfully connected Messenger and Wit.ai for a more rich NLP experience.
Now we should tell Wit.ai what to do with users inputs, and what we're exactly looking for. The gif below briefly explains how to do this:
We simply say to Wit to detect if the user mention any location in his sentence, and extract.
Show me the code
The app expose 3 endpoints:
GET /ping : Health check endpoint
: Health check endpoint GET /webhook : Callback URL Verification
: Callback URL Verification POST /webhook : To receive all events from the webhook @RequestMapping(value = "ping", method = RequestMethod.GET) public String health () { return "pong"; } @RequestMapping(value = "webhook", method = RequestMethod.GET) public String Checkwebhook (@RequestParam("hub.verify_token") final String verify_token, @RequestParam("hub.challenge") final String challenge) { if (this.validationToken.equals(verify_token) && challenge!= null) { return challenge; } return "Error, wrong validation token"; } @RequestMapping(value = "webhook", method = RequestMethod.POST) public void HandleWebhook (@RequestBody final MessageReceived messages, HttpServletRequest request) throws IOException{ Optional<List<MessageReceived.Messaging>> messagingList = messages.entry.stream().map(e -> e.messaging).filter(message -> message.stream().anyMatch(m -> m.message!= null && m.message.text!=null)).findFirst(); if(messagingList.isPresent()) messagingList.get().forEach(m -> { final MessageResponse response = new MessageResponse(); response.recipient = new MessageResponse.Recipient(); response.recipient.id = m.sender.id; response.message = new MessageResponse.MessageData(); response.message.text = messageHandler.handleMessage(m.message.nlp.entities); this.send.sendMessage(response); }); }
After receiving a message from the webhook, The method MessageHandler.handleMessage checks if it's a Greeting or a Location message (using entities). We filter also results based on confidence using a threshold (0.8 in macase). We return a generic message if nothing applies. I should also mention that I extract weather information from Openweathermap.
public String handleMessage(Map<String,List<Map<String,Object>>> entities){ if(EntityMap.entityExist(GREETINGS_MSG, entities)) return EntityMap.confidence(GREETINGS_MSG, entities) > TRESHOLD? "Hello Sir!" : GENERIC_MSG; if(EntityMap.entityExist(LOCATION_MSG, entities)) return EntityMap.confidence(LOCATION_MSG, entities) > TRESHOLD? Weather.weather(EntityMap.value(LOCATION_MSG, entities), omwtoken) : GENERIC_MSG; return GENERIC_MSG; }
Deploy the app
You need to set up first 3 env variables:
ACCESS_TOKEN : Your Facebook Page access token: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/messenger-platform/guides/setup
: Your Facebook Page access token: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/messenger-platform/guides/setup VALIDATION_TOKEN : Your Verify token: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/messenger-platform/guides/setup
: Your Verify token: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/messenger-platform/guides/setup OMW_TOKEN : Open Map Weather API token: https://home.openweathermap.org/users/sign_up
You'll need also a free hosting service like Heroko or Clever Cloud, or you can simply use NGROK to set up your webhook!
That's all ;) If you've any comment or suggestion Please feel free to comment below.Sorry to be the Grinch, so soon after Christmas Day.
But reality must be confronted.
Alberta will soon be in its worst financial pickle since the ’80s.
Our naïve New Democratic government is in for the shock of its young life. The unforeseen consequences of corporate and personal tax increases, the new carbon tax and higher minimum wages are being layered on top of a fast-shrinking energy sector and a recession that’s just now taking shape.
The tax specialists consulted for this column were blunt. When the dust settles, they say, the provincial government won’t have the added $1.1 to $1.55 billion it expects from corporate and personal tax hikes. By 2017, Alberta’s corporate and personal tax revenue will shrink, not grow.
Here’s why.
As of January 1, high-income earners – top managers, corporate partners and owners – will see their personal income tax rate (combined provincial and federal) jump from 39% to an expected 48% in 2016. Tax advisors are telling their clients to pay as much income tax as possible before the end of 2015 at the 39% tax rate, so they will then have negligible income – for tax purposes – at the higher rate in future years.
How can you pay taxes on income you haven’t yet earned? Because the taxman says you can! The rich folks – the smart people who run companies – earn most of their income not in salary but in bonuses. Tax laws allow companies to give executives their bonuses for years in advance, based on anticipated company profits.
For government, this means a gusher of income tax revenue will come from the big, bad rich guys for 2015, but next to zero, a bare trickle, from 2016 on.
Corporate income tax is a percentage of a company’s profit. With the price of oil so low and no recovery in sight, there will be precious little profit for the government to tax.
Plus Big Oil is "writing down" the value of company assets. Husky Oil recently announced a $2 billion write-down. According to the accountants, a $2 billion "write down" can be used to further reduce corporate taxes over many years, from three years in the past to five years in the future.
If Alberta’s rich people feel over-taxed, they have options. Most wealthy Albertans have two residences, one in Alberta and one in B.C. If Alberta’s taxes are lower, they declare themselves Albertans for tax purposes. If taxes are less in B.C., as is now the case, they will file tax returns in B.C.
Remember when Alberta had the lowest taxes in Canada? Companies moved to Alberta because of its light tax load. Ontario companies set up head offices in Alberta for taxation reasons.
The accountants say it’s now the other way around. Alberta companies are either physically moving, or moving their addresses for taxation purposes, to other provinces.
"The attractiveness of Alberta as a preferred province to do business is gone," says one of the city’s top tax advisors. "Companies in Ontario, British Columbia and Saskatchewan are paying less overall taxes than companies in Alberta." And that, my friends, also factors in provincial sales tax.
What’s happening in Alberta is economically terrifying.
Just as Alberta’s wealth is being hammered by economic forces beyond our control, the Alberta and federal governments are redistributing that diminishing wealth more fairly (they say) to the people and to save the environment.
If I was rich and young, I’d be looking at my options. But I’m old and not rich, so I’ll stay and do what I can, with the power of the pen, to right this ship before it goes down.That surprisingly fraught question has kicked off one of the most provocative conversations in American politics.
The parallel reality -- the undeniable fact -- is that all of these listed heinous views and actions from Barack Obama have been vehemently opposed and condemned by Ron Paul: and among the major GOP candidates, only by Ron Paul. For that reason, Paul's candidacy forces progressives to face the hideous positions and actions of their candidate, of the person they want to empower for another four years. If Paul were not in the race or were not receiving attention, none of these issues would receive any attention because all the other major GOP candidates either agree with Obama on these matters or hold even worse views....Paul scrambles the comfortable ideological and partisan categories and forces progressives to confront and account for the policies they are working to protect. His nomination would mean that it is the Republican candidate -- not the Democrat -- who would be the anti-war, pro-due-process, pro-transparency, anti-Fed, anti-Wall-Street-bailout, anti-Drug-War advocate (emphasis in original).
In an unsparing essay published on New Year's Eve, Glenn Greenwald attempted to tease out exactly what progressives are saying when they support Obama's reelection -- as most of them do -- and oppose the candidacy of Ron Paul, who agrees with them on some key issues."Progressives like to think of themselves as the faction that stands for peace, opposes wars, believes in due process and civil liberties, distrusts the military-industrial complex, and supports candidates who are devoted to individual rights, transparency, and economic equality," Greenwald writes. But "the leader progressives have empowered and will empower again has worked in direct opposition to those values and engaged in conduct that is nothing short of horrific. So there is an eagerness to avoid hearing about them, to pretend they don't exist. And there's a corresponding hostility toward those who... insist that they not be ignored."Where does Paul fit in?
As Greenwald acknowledges, there are all sorts of other issues where progressives prefer Obama, and deciding that he is the lesser of two evils is a reasonable position. Then comes the provocative part. Says Greenwald, "An honest line of reasoning in this regard would go as follows:
Yes, I'm willing to continue to have Muslim children slaughtered by covert drones and cluster bombs, and America's minorities imprisoned by the hundreds of thousands for no good reason, and the CIA able to run rampant with no checks or transparency, and privacy eroded further by the unchecked Surveillance State, and American citizens targeted by the President for assassination with no due process, and whistleblowers threatened with life imprisonment for "espionage," and the Fed able to dole out trillions to bankers in secret, and a substantially higher risk of war with Iran (fought by the U.S. or by Israel with U.S. support) in exchange for less severe cuts to Social Security, Medicare and other entitlement programs, the preservation of the Education and Energy Departments, more stringent environmental regulations, broader health care coverage, defense of reproductive rights for women, stronger enforcement of civil rights for America's minorities, a President with no associations with racist views in a newsletter, and a more progressive Supreme Court."
Is that a fair statement of the tradeoffs progressives are making? Dan Drezner doesn't think so.
Referring to Paul, he writes:Last month, Ponca City Schools in Oklahoma faced a news headline any 1:1 laptop school could potentially confront in the local media: “Ponca City student accesses porn on school laptop.” According to the article:
A Ponca City mother is outraged. She says her son has been accessing pornography….on a laptop that was issued by the school….and she says school officials are partly to blame. “I was angry, I was really angry at first,” Judy Ferguson said. Judy found her teenage son watching pornography on his school laptop. “When I caught it I took the computer and turned it back in to the school,” Ferguson said.
Life is about choices, and students face a multitude of digital choices when they get online or connected with any device including a laptop, a phone, or other communication tool. This is one reason Oklahoma schools sending laptops home with students not only have parents sign an acceptable use agreement (AUP) addressing SHARED responsibility between parents, students and school officials for student use of technology equipment, they also hold parent training / information sessions when this specific issue is addressed. I’m not sure if Ponca City mother Judy Ferguson signed a form like that and attended an informational session about shared responsibility for student behavior on laptops, but she should have.
In the initial years of the Texas Immersion Pilot Project (TxTIP), I heard multiple stories from school officials about issues and incidents involving student access of pornography and inappropriate material. Any school employee involved in a 1:1 program knows this is an issue which must be addressed. The strange twist to this Ponca City Schools story was that school officials reportedly issued a laptop to the same student who previously got in trouble for accessing pornography right after Christmas break. Again according to the News4 article:
The Tech Director [of Ponca City Schools] said the software the school uses tracks every key stroke and they could see the student attempting to get into x-rated areas but their records show he was never able to access it. Ferguson became even more upset when the school gave her 9th grader another laptop after she requested he complete his assignments another way. School administrators admit that was a mistake. “When they came back from Christmas break inadvertently he was issued another laptop when that was discovered that second laptop was taken away,” Dr. David Pennington, Superintendent of Schools.
I’m wondering how school officials “inadvertently issued a laptop?” (I’m also wondering if they run key loggers on all school computers…) It would be great to see a school response with more information, background, and quotations on this than La’tasha Givins (the KFOR-TV reporter) provided for this article. It is reasonable to conclude the mother of the student saw her child accessing pornography at home: It is highly doubtful she would raise these embarrassing charges regarding her own son otherwise. Understanding this, the technology director’s response which denies inappropriate content was EVER accessed by the student on a school laptop seems unreasonable. Perhaps this was a misquote?
Responsibility for teen behavior when it comes to life online as well as offline lies primarily with the STUDENT. Yes, parents as well as educators share responsibility for guiding and supervising student actions. Ultimately, however, in our society we hold individuals responsible for their behavior rather than institutions. It would have been helpful (from a community education perspective) if reporter La’tasha Givins had provided some of this context. I’m not sure if school officials provided this or not.
When a high student chooses to have sex and gets pregnant, does the local TV affiliate run a segment blaming school officials? Hopefully not.
One takeaway from this article (and others like it which paint 1:1 laptop programs as evil / not worthwhile) is the importance of school officials “telling the story” of positive 1:1 learning impacts early, consistently, and through multiple media channels. In most school districts today, we have barely started to leverage the power of social media to ‘tell our story’ and communicate with parents as well as others in the community about the great things happening in our buildings each day. An example of why this is important is the result for a Google keyword search for “Ponca City laptop” today. Guess what link is the “non-promoted” search result #1?
A second takeaway is the importance of school officials using consistent language with students, parents, members of the community, and media when it comes to laptop learning. We must emphasize “digital citizenship” and the responsibilities which we share to help students learn to make good choices.
Should Ponca City School officials have been more careful to not issue Judy Ferguson’ son another laptop computer after the Christmas holiday, since his mom had specifically asked that he NOT work on a laptop to complete his assignments? Probably. (I say that conditionally since I’m sure there is ‘more to this story.’)
Should KOFR reporter La’tasha Givins have ignored the fact that Judy Ferguson’ son CHOSE to find and look at pornography on a laptop of any kind? Absolutely not. Too many people in our society want to ‘pass the buck’ when it comes to responsibility, and the primary people responsible for these “inappropriate content access actions” were the STUDENT and the PARENT.
Yes, teachers and school officials share responsibility for helping students learn and learn to make good choices. We don’t “pass the buck” entirely to parents and students for everything which happens during school and in some cases, even for things which happen after school. Schools DO bear some responsibility for helping inform and support “good choices with laptops” when they send them home with students. Ultimately, however, “the buck should stop” with the student and the parent when it comes to inappropriate website access at home.
I hope La’tasha Givins will investigate these issues further and write a follow-up article which provides more context for this situation and the people as well as organizations who are involved.
Technorati Tags: city, laptop, ponca, ethics, responsibility, parent
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Operation Pandora
When three social centers were raided and 11 anarchists, from Barcelona to Madrid, were taken away in handcuffs early on December 16, the Spanish media howled about anarchist terrorism. The bogeyman of choice was a bit confusing for many audiences. “What anarchist terrorism?” they might well have asked. Sure, anarchists were identified as participants in the recent riots in the city of Burgos, where neighbors successfully stopped a development project, as well as the riots in Barcelona last May that successfully reversed the eviction of the 17-year-old squatted social center, Can Vies. But tens of thousands of people participated in those uprisings, winning widespread social support. Anarchists haven’t killed anyone in Spain, nor blown up any buildings or airplaines (nor carried out torture, aerial bombings, genocide, mass displacement, or any of the things that governments regularly do but never classify as “terrorism”).
In fact, the police accusation states, there have been a handful of bombings (“at least nine”) claimed by anarchists in the last couple years. This accusation bears scrutiny. After all, Spain is no stranger to terrorism. When police talk of bombings, people think of bombs placed in the metro or in crowded supermarkets, like the attacks in 2005 and 1987 respectively.
When the judge finally made the accusations against the 11 anarchists public on January 29, it became clear that the nine “bombings” in question were of a different caliber. Some were “simulated” explosives (which is to say, not explosives), and others were merely arsons. The most dangerous were small gas canisters capable of little more than shattering a bank window or damaging a cash machine. No one was hurt in any of these attacks.
Whatever one thinks of property destruction, or this particular method of property destruction, the ambitious expansion of the label of “terrorism,” and all the police powers that entails, warrants suspicion.
In this case, a studied skepticism—exactly the kind that the mass media never engage in—brings immediate results. It turns out that the evidence against the 11 people arrested in what the police called “Operation Pandora” is remarkably weak, a fact reflected in the judge’s decision to release them on bail as soon as the police files were made public. There is an embarrassing scarcity of physical evidence linking them to any of the supposedly terrorist acts the state accuses them of. Instead, while raiding their houses and the three social centers, the police turned up an abundance of books, posters, and pamphlets affirming what they call a “terrorist ideology,” along with the usual menagerie of “elements for the fabrication of artifacts” that even the most obtuse cop can find in any unassuming supply cabinet. Bleach, matches, a propane canister (common in the older houses, which don’t have gas lines), all of it is evidence of terrorism.
(In fact, three weeks after arriving in Barcelona in 2007, I was arrested and obliged to await trial for two years, accused of an “urban guerrilla” action that involved shooting off a “mortar” in a crowd. Finally, at trial it was acknowledged that the “explosive device” was just a firework, that I hadn’t even been the one to set it off, nor was I an organizer of the protest in question as police had alleged. A similar thing happened to the anarchist Eric McDavid in the US: accused of an explosive that was never built, in a plot cooked up by an FBI informant. The difference is, the US being the country that it is, Eric was locked up for nine years before the truth came out.)
The pamphlets, books of matches, and bleach all become more sinister when you consider the government’s allegation that the accused use riseup.net, a volunteer-run, activist email provider that encrypts its data and works hard to keep governments and corporations from reading people’s private correspondence. Demand for riseup email accounts has skyrocketed since Edward Snowden’s revelations proved that no, we aren’t paranoid, and the government is indeed spying on us. Perhaps these hundreds of thousands of people who want privacy—which is to say, who have something to hide—are all part of some greater terrorist conspiracy? No fear: Big Brother is surely looking into it.
A Terrorist Book
The strongest evidence against the 11 people accused in Operation Pandora links them not to a bomb but to a book. Contra la Democracia—Against Democracy—is a small book published in 2013 and signed by “Grupos Anarquistas Coordinados”— Coordinated Anarchist Groups (GAC).
This is where it gets interesting. The judge, Javier Gómez Bermúdez, gives credence to the police claims that Against Democracy is a manual for destroying the government. I would like to say in print that Bermudez is a big fat liar (under Spanish law, he could lock me up for that, but then at least I could say it to his face). I have read Against Democracy and in fact it’s a bit dry. I would like to find a manual for destroying governments, because we’ve been plagued by them for millennia and it’s getting a bit old. Against Democracy, sadly, is not such a book.
In the first section, the authors simply apply a class analysis to the history of democratic government, from Ancient Greece through Cromwell and the liberal revolutions in the US and France. In the second section, they analyze different aspects of today’s democracies, including the concept of the majority, electoral laws, the ease with which elites can manipulate both, the idea of rights and liberties, and the relationship between media and government. They name the corporate connections of various Spanish politicians, and list the corporate owners of all the mass media in Spain. In the final section, they discuss how the powerful can use the concept of democracy to renew faith in the existing government or trick people into supporting a new authority. But to avoid being dogmatic, they also name a variety of social movements from multiple continents that use the term “democracy” to describe their aspirations for freedom and self-organization.
The judge is clearly counting on the book’s small print run, because anyone who reads it will immediately see how unscrupulously he is trying to pull our legs. That is why anarchists across the country are preparing to distribute the book—in many cases for free or for donation—this coming February 14. The pdf of the book is also available for free on the internet. I suppose distributing the writings of a terrorist organization and advocating that people read it can also be prosecuted as terrorism, but if enough of us do it, maybe for once the technocrats of Public Safety will figure out where to stick their accusations.
Innocence and Guilt
Another thing the 11 arrested anarchists have in common, aside from their alleged publication of such a dangerous book, is that they have all been active in supporting Monica and Francisco, two anarchists who had emigrated from Chile and who are still locked up after being arrested in November 2013, also accused of terrorism. The media convicted them in advance, their principal proof being the fact that the two had been accused of carrying out bombings in their home country. Their failure to mention that Monica and Francisco were acquitted—in fact, that the whole case against them fell utterly apart, disgracing not only the prosecutor but also leading politicians—shows just how little respect the champions of democratic institutions have for their own principles. Another damning factor that both the media and the police made much of is that they are foreigners, a necessary ingredient in the profile of the evil anarchist agitator.
The 11 detainees of Operation Pandora also bear this black mark: three of them are foreigners. A document released by the Catalan regional government (as it was the Catalan police who conducted most of the arrests) emphasizes with thinly veiled political correctness the “transnationality of the members of the criminal organization”.
In stark contrast to the hypocrisy of the forces of law and order, the 13 arrested anarchists have stuck to their principles even in the jaws of State. Since anarchists do not believe that people should be locked in cages or that elite bodies should draft the rules for the whole society, the 13 have refused to pay homage to the terms or the logic of the justice system. Despite all the manipulations and the flaws in the case against them (what might be called “irregularities” if they weren’t so damned regular), none of them are claiming innocence, because they reject the categories of “guilt” and “innocence” used by the government to justify torture and punishment, when it is the perfectly legal crimes of the government itself that |
– Mark ‘Tarzan’ Herlaar
Tarzan became a real fan favourite in this game. I remember the night he went home, the fans on Twitter and Facebook were absolutely devastated. He really was a great casting choice, and was a lot of fun to watch, and it’s just unfortunate that he didn’t last all that long. He did find the idol, and his plan to save Tessa with it was really solid… until he told AK… which got Locky suspicious, causing the plan to fall apart, and Locky took him out. That said, he was a great addition to this cast.
20th Place – Aimee Stanton
Besides Kate, Aimee is the only other member of this cast that I don’t really have that many vivid memories of. She’s a gorgeous girl, and I remember really liking her, and wanting her to do well in the early days, but… I’m just not overly sure why. I do know that she was tight with Locky, but seeing as the tribe needed strength at that point, she was instead targeted, and her being blindsided led to the AK 5 taking control of their tribe. I also still can’t believe she got up after that fall so quickly, but, that said, she did have one of the highlights of the reunion.
19th Place – Samantha Gas
I really didn’t like Sam all that much, and I remember watching the first episode thinking that her strong personality would most likely get her in trouble. Her thing with Mark was nice, and her eventual blindside was fun to watch, even if it took way too long to actually get there (Henry just couldn’t throw a challenge properly). Overall, she was a good addition to the cast, and I think it would have been interesting to see what she would do if she got further, but, I do think we saw just enough of her.
18th Place – Mark Wales
I pretty much have the same thoughts on Mark, that I have of Sam, he just didn’t have as big of a personality as she did. Again, their love connection was nice, but, as soon as Henry and Jacqui threw the first challenge to get rid of Sam, you knew he would most likely be next. Being a former Special Ops Commander, he was always going to be an asset in the challenges, and him hiding his past, while smart on paper, probably did more damage to his game than it did good. Him wanting revenge in the episode after Sam left was fun, but, I wasn’t surprised that Henry chose to take him out as well.
17th Place – Jacqui Patterson
In those early days, I thought that Henry and Jacqui were going to be the Australian version of Malcolm and Denise… only a little evil. They found the idol together, and really controlled those early votes. While I never think throwing a challenge is smart, they did manage to take out Sam and Mark, seemingly putting them in a good position. Unfortunately for Jacqui, Henry decided to switch tribes for some reason, which just completely messed with her game, especially considering Luke already had the thought of getting rid of her. She made that Monopoly reference at one of the Tribals, which was fantastic, and she was a big part of those early episodes, so it was a little sad to see her go.
16th Place – Kent Nelson
The founder of the ‘dickhead strategy’, which is still absolute gold. I really wanted Kent to go home the first episode, but, now, I’m really glad he stuck around. He was a really good narrator in his confessionals, and while he didn’t have the best grasp of the game, he did provide some great moments in the episodes he was in. The situation at the reward, with Henry, when they found the ‘idol clue’ which turned out to be just scissors was just hilarious. In the end though, he lost his main alliance in Jacqui, he really just refused to scramble, and it cost him in the end.
15th Place – Aaron ‘A.K.’ Knight
A.K. will join Phoebe as a great player, with a hell of a lot of potential going forward, that was screwed over by a twist. Tara not leaving when she got ‘voted out’ wasn’t great for his game, and the tribe swap was just icing on the cake. That said, I very much disliked him in the first episode, and I thought he played way too fast, way too soon, but he grew on me as the season went on. He showed his strategic skills in a number of occasions, and once he gained control, he became a lot more chill. Each of his voting confessionals were a highlight of the early episodes. If there ever is an all-star season, he would be a lock.
14th Place – Ben Morgan
I felt terrible for Ben, all throughout his time on the show. He just got no airtime. For something like 7 episodes straight, he got 0 confessionals. But, I found him to be a really interesting character. He, like myself, was only 20 years old, and it was especially apparent when he got up to vote in the first Tribal Council, and he said that he was living a childhood dream, that he had been wanting to play this game for a long time. I just wish we had seen more of him. However, once Michelle identified that he was the weakest link once the tribes had swapped, he just had no chance. She ran complete circles around him at tribal, and seeing as it seems he isn’t the most articulated speaker, he just couldn’t defend himself.
13th Place – Odette Blacklock
Speaking of people who got not airtime, Odette was just as invisible as Ben was… and in my opinion, far less memorable. I did however see a lot of people online saying she was going to win, which just confused the hell out of me. She really didn’t contribute all that much to the season, and I wasn’t that big of a fan. She did try to play both sides, and it eventually did cost her, when one of my favourite alliances of the game, Sarah, Luke and Jericho, put their issues aside to take her out. Seeing as it was between her or Sarah that night… I’m very glad Sarah stuck around.
12th Place – Jarrad Seng
Rounding off our trio of nearly invisible contestants, Jarrad spent 8 episodes without a single confessional, and out of the 3, he is the one who definitely deserved far more airtime. I feel a little bad, but when Jericho was discussing who to take off the jury, and they mentioned Jarrad… I completely blanked on who they were talking about. That said, whenever we did hear from him, I liked what he had to say, and had that first vote of the merge gone differently, I could have seen him going very deep into the game. I’m glad he at least got on the jury, with the whole underline saga being a fantastic little story arc for himself and Jericho. On a sidenote, he did beat out Ben for having the best hair of the season, and at least that is something.
11th Place – Anneliese Wilson
There were 3 people in this game that I was truly devastated when they left. Anneliese is one of them. Heading into the merge, I was really hoping that she would go far, and I really thought she would. She had that strong stretch of episodes after she was ‘voted out’, where she found the idol (in spectacular fashion after the challenge), and seemed to form a strong bond with Sarah (which… was it ever explained why that didn’t work out?). I really thought things were going well for her… until jam gate happened, and Ziggy used her super idol against her.
Anneliese had some of the best reactions all season, so at least she made the jury to show them off. In the end though, it funny to think that she was really the only person in this game to actually use an idol correctly, and it’s such a shame that she still went home anyway. A really great addition to the season, even if I can’t explain why I liked her so much.
10th Place – Henry Nicholson
Henry brought a lot to this season, and while I don’t think he was as strategically brilliant as he thought he was, I do believe he was a great character, and a really interesting villain for the duration of the season. While I constantly went back and forth as to whether I actually liked Henry, there is no denying that he was one of the most notable, and talked about member of this cast.
In terms of his gameplay, I never really understood why he thought lying to be a yoga teacher was a clever idea, nor do I think it helped him in any way. He also often mentioned all the big moves he made… but I would struggle to name you more than one. That said, he did have control for periods throughout the game, especially when he was a pair with Jacqui in the early days, and there is no denying that the rise and fall of Henry was a great story arc. I do feel bad for him though, going home with an idol must be an awful feeling, and while people give Ziggy slack for using her idol too early… I’d prefer to use it and not need it, rather than go home with it.
9th Place – Tessa O’Halloran
I grew to really enjoy Tessa in this game, and was truly saddened when she got voted out. But, I thought, hey, at least she is on the jury… and then the jury twist happened and I was left devastated once again. I hate the twist, and I hate even more that a superfan like her didn’t get a chance to be at the final Tribal Council.
While Tessa didn’t play a perfect game, and there were times (especially her handling of Michelle after the merge) where she didn’t make the best decisions, there is no doubting that Tessa was a great addition to this season, and for the most part, was quite strategically competent. On top of that, I think she is one of those players who really thrive when she is at the bottom, playing the scrappy underdog.
Her relationship with Tarzan was great, and the fact that she was able to survive those early days is a credit to her gameplay (and maybe a bit of luck). It’s a shame, because we didn’t see all that much of her after the first few episodes, and it was only when the merge hit where she began to get the airtime she deserved. Forming the champagne alliance (still hate the name) was a good move, even if it only lasted 1 vote, but unfortunately for her, Luke saw her as too much of a threat, and in the strangest vote out I’ve seen in a while, it took a 3-2-2-2 vote to take her out.
8th Place – Sarah Tilleke
Sarah was my absolute favourite in this game, right from the start, and I truly thought she was going to win this game (which of course meant it didn’t happen, my track record of picking a winner is shockingly bad)… so you can imagine that I was pretty devastated when she got voted out. I was also shocked when I read she was only 22… she was only 2 years older than Ben.
Strategically, she was up there as one of the best throughout the season, with possibly voting Tessa out when she did (or just not including Michelle) being the one bad move she notably made. Sarah, all throughout the game, knew when to switch sides, and it worked well for her, especially in the pre-merge portion of the game. The alliance she had with Luke and Jericho was great, even if it didn’t last all that long, and do wish the 3 of them could have gone far together.
Like Anneliese, I struggle to write why I enjoyed watching Sarah’s game so much, there was just elements of it that were fun to watch. Her vote for Tara at the end was… interesting, and I would love to hear why, but besides that, I really couldn’t write anything negative about her. Also, her acting skills, after the auction, to keep Henry convinced he was safe, really deserved some sort of award. A great player, who, in a second chance, could win this game.
7th Place – Luke Toki
I had such a love/hate relationship with Luke, but there is absolutely no denying he was the standout character from this season. Every confessional he made, every scene he was in, he just proved how much of a unique Survivor contestant he was. I’ll confess, some of his confessionals did irritate me slightly, but I did grow to not only appreciate them, but really miss them when he was voted out.
For someone admitted had only watched 3 YouTube clips before he left for Samoa, strategically, Luke was a quite a solid player. He made the moves to get out Jacqui early on, and played a big role in several other vote outs. He also brought the spy shack to Samoa, and it actually came quite in handy for him. The problem for Luke, was that he was just way too big of a threat to win the game. Only he could get away with sharing every item at the auction, and face no consequences. I don’t think anybody would have beaten him, and nobody (probably not even Jericho) was going to take the chance. Easily the most popular member of this cast, and, there is no doubting why.
6th Place – Nicola ‘Ziggy’ Zagame
I was never high on Ziggy. While she had some good moments early on, with her finding the super idol, and also her announcing her vote Anneliese in the fake vote out, I just found her to never be all that interesting. The show also seemingly kept building up to be a big force once the merge hit, and outside of the immunity wins, she didn’t do all that much to impress.
I honestly don’t think she was all that good at Survivor. I think she misplayed the super idol, and she incorrectly played her idol too early, and while she explained her reasoning for both, I think both moves just proved that she never had a great read on the game once the merge hit. Physically, there is no denying her skills, she was damn impressive, and outperformed most. On top of that, it did look like she was having fun out there, but I wasn’t overly sad to see her go.
5th Place – Locklan ‘Locky’ Gilbert
Like Ziggy, I was never all that invested in Locky. I’ll admit, I’m never a big fan of the alpha male of the season, and I found that the longer the season went on, the less interested I became in him.
Physically, he was one of the best all season, and his 3 immunity wins in a row created an interesting little storyline late in the game. The tribe vs Locky was a fun arc, but I always figured it would only end one way, and that was him being voted out as soon as he lost (and to Michelle of all people, by only 2 seconds… which he mentioned… a lot). That said, him scrambling before that Tribal Council was unintentionally hilarious. I feel Locky outside the game would be a lot of fun to be around, and the moment with Jericho in the ocean proved that. Speaking of that moment, it would have to go down as one of the best scenes all season. That said, in the game, I just never warmed up him, but, I can absolutely see why he was a fan favourite for some. My opinion on him beside, he was one of the big characters of the season.
4th Place – Michelle Dougan
I said in an earlier power rankings that Michelle was everything I hated in a Survivor player. She thought everything was her move, she was often whiny, she constantly gave confessionals that drove me crazy and would often speak like she wanted to talk to your manager… and I stand by it all. That said… I don’t hate Michelle. I think she is a truly unique character that we’ve never seen before on Survivor. She was absolutely out of her elements, and you wouldn’t think she’d last the first day. So, for her to make it all the way to the top 4, and beat out some great players, you can’t not respect her, and her gameplay.
Michelle was a highlight of pretty much every Tribal she went to. The speeches she gave ranged from good to amazing, and had she have made it to the final Tribal Council, I think we’d be speaking about her as the winner. Her gameplay ranks up there as one of the best of the season. She made the decision to switch alliances after the merge, and in the space of two episodes, took out two of the biggest threats to win, Sarah and Luke, out of the game. While some said that she was undeserving to sit in the final 4 (which I completely disagree with), I think she sits with Flick now, as one of bigger strategic players, who unfortunately got taken out in 4th place. But hey, at least she won the car. (Love that the car curse lives on)
3rd Place – Peter Conte
There isn’t a lot to say about Peter, and that’s only because he just got so little airtime, especially for a player who came 3rd. Peter always felt more like a sidekick in the game, and I hate saying that. He only got 47 confessionals all season, and you only have to compare that with Tara, who got 112, or Locky, who 91, to see that he deserved so much better.
While we didn’t see Peter all that much, even after the merge, I actually really liked him as a player, and as a character. His confessionals were always very logical, which I enjoyed, and while there were times where he didn’t seem to have much of a clue sometimes (telling Ziggy to play the idol on Michelle during the Sarah boot comes to mind), I do think he played a solid game. His immunity win and family visit were both feel good moments of the season, and it is just a real shame he was so under-edited, because the finale would have been far more suspenseful if I thought he had a shot of winning. That said, I did really like Peter in the game.
2nd Place – Tara Pitt
Alright. I didn’t hate Tara. I didn’t particularly enjoy her way of playing, but I think, overall, she was a very well developed 2nd place player. I’m still not overly sure where all the hate from her came, or when it started, but, as I see it, she was reality tv gold, and would fit well into any season of Survivor
The fact that she could admit that she didn’t really begin playing until day 49 at least shows she had some game awareness. Although, the fact that she was previously voted out, only for it to be another twist, wasn’t necessarily great for her game, and it’s another reason why I hate that specific twist. I know non-elimination episodes are necessary with so many episodes, but at least find another way to do it. But, from there, her social skills were at least good enough to keep the target completely off her. I don’t really think her name was actually ever thrown around as a contender to be voted off from that point (her lack of challenge skills may be a reason).
Like I said, Tara was not, in any way, my favourite during the game. I do, however, respect that she did what was necessary to get to the end, and somehow get 3 jury votes. She was a big part of the season, and with 112 confessions, it’s not hard to see how.
Winner – Jericho Malabonga
First of all. A big congratulations to Jericho. To last 55 days is a huge feat on its own, but to also walk away with the win is an unreal effort. Jericho played a really good game, and I think out of everyone, he was also the most consistent. Jericho was one of the few who had consistent airtime right from the start. He also came into the game saying that he was good out of the game, but was prepared to be evil in it, and, it absolutely worked for him. He seemed to know when he needed to move on from someone (Henry and Sarah), and it got him all the way to the end.
There isn’t a lot about Jericho’s game, and him overall, that I disliked. His confessionals were always fun, he seemed to be having the time of his life out there, and his analogies at Tribal were some of the highlights of the season. Not the mention, his bromance with Luke was great, and I’ve already touched on the moment in the ocean with Locky as being one of the best scenes all season. However, I didn’t love the whole cookie alliance, and that’s only because I felt it didn’t build to anything, and there were moments where he was painted as quite naive, especially with the whole Henry-idol situation.
I figured going into the last few episodes that Jericho had a good shot of winning if could actually get there, and while his final Tribal Council performance was… less than average, I truly believe that he is a deserving winner, and a great player of the game. Oh, and his cookie bowtie at the reunion was amazing.
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BOSTON (Reuters) - Maine’s senate passed a bill on Thursday that could make the northeastern U.S. state the fifth in the country to allow gay marriage, but the lower chamber and governor have yet to approve it.
The legislation, which will go to a vote in the state House of Representatives next week, seeks to redefine marriage as the legal union of two people rather than between a man and a women. It passed the senate by a 20-15 margin.
Maine Governor John Baldacci once opposed gay marriage, but said earlier in April he is keeping an open mind on the issue.
Approval in the Democratic-controlled senate of the rural state of 1.3 million people underlines a concerted push for same-sex marriage recognition in New England’s six states by gay and lesbian advocates.
Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, a group of lawyers who led the legal fight for same-sex marriage in Massachusetts and Connecticut, has set a target of bringing same-sex marriage to all New England states by 2012.
In November, Connecticut became the second state to allow legal same-sex weddings after neighboring Massachusetts’ top court ruled in 2003 that a ban on gay marriage was unconstitutional, paving the way for the first same-sex marriages in the United States the following year.
In a single week in April, Iowa and Vermont also legalized same sex marriage. And on Wednesday, New Hampshire’s state senate approved a gay marriage bill, about a month after its House approved it. It’s unclear whether New Hampshire Governor John Lynch will veto the legislation.
“With progress in New Hampshire and a win in Vermont, winning in Maine could put us only one state away from our goal,” Lee Swislow, executive director of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders, said in a statement.
Gay marriage legislation has yet to advance in Rhode Island.
Some economists say carving out an economic niche for gay and lesbian weddings — and the spending that comes with them — makes sense at a time same-sex marriage has stalled in California and a recession is deepening.DAVENPORT, Iowa (Reuters) - Former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich’s status as the front runner for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination is fading after weeks of attacks by rivals and intense media scrutiny of his political record and personality.
U.S. Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich (L) and his wife Callista talk to customers at the Hy-Vee grocery store in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, December 20, 2011. REUTERS/Jeff Haynes
Gingrich acknowledged that negative advertisements by political opponents had dented his popularity but suggested he would refrain from launching his own attacks while responding more aggressively to criticism of his record.
“I will be back on a positive basis, I will... tell you what I stand for and I will answer any question that comes up based on the false and inaccurate advertising of some of my friends,” Gingrich told a crowd of about 250 people at a campaign event.
A Public Policy Polling survey of likely participants in the January 3 Iowa caucuses — the first-in-the-nation Republican nominating contest — showed the former House speaker dropping to third place from first in the Midwestern state in the span of a week. Congressman Ron Paul of Texas led the new poll, which was released on Monday.
Gingrich’s lead also evaporated in national polling as Republican candidates competed for the right to face President Barack Obama, a Democrat, in the November 2012 presidential election.
“Newt Gingrich’s campaign is rapidly imploding and Gingrich has now seen a big drop in his Iowa standing two weeks in a row,” Public Policy Polling, which is affiliated with the Democratic Party, said in a statement.
Gingrich earned just 14 percent support in the new Iowa poll compared to 22 percent a week ago and 27 percent two weeks ago.
Paul took over the lead in Iowa with 23 percent in the new polls, an increase of 5 percentage points over the past weeks. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who has been seen as Gingrich’s main national rival, was second with 20 percent.
The survey of almost 600 people, taken December 16-18, had a 4 percentage point margin of error.
Another poll, by CNN/ORC International, showed that Gingrich and Romney were tied with 28 percent of support nationally from Republicans and Republican-leaning independents.
An onslaught of television and radio commercials by Gingrich’s opponents that paint him as unreliable and a Washington insider has taken a toll.
“It’s tough not to feel the effects in millions of dollars in advertising spent against you with no comparable response,” said Tim Albrecht, spokesman for Republican Iowa Governor Terry Branstad and a former Romney staffer during Romney’s unsuccessful run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008.
Gingrich acknowledged that criticisms aimed at him by rivals — omnipresent on Iowa television and radio — had taken a toll.
“You get enough negative ads before you start answering them, your numbers go down for a while,” he told reporters after speaking to a small crowd at Global Security Services, a small business.
‘WORLD IS DANGEROUS’
He nevertheless took a swipe at his rival Paul, who has opposed much of U.S. military action abroad, while discussing concerns about North Korea’s nuclear capabilities.
“The world is dangerous,” he said. “I really stand apart from some of our candidates in believing we need a strong defense.”
Gingrich’s personal favorability numbers also fell during the past two weeks among Iowa voters polled ahead of the January 3 caucuses, the polling firm said.
Gingrich’s front-runner status has prompted attacks from rivals who say he is an unreliable conservative and an influence peddler, particularly because of fees he earned from Freddie Mac, a mortgage giant tied to the economic recession.
“(Gingrich) is taking an unprecedented beating.... I have just never seen so many negative, substantively negative ads aimed at one candidate from so many different angles,” said Cary Covington, a professor of political science at the University of Iowa. “Ron Paul is just eviscerating Newt Gingrich in the ads.”
Iowa political operatives said there is still plenty of time for more changes in the two weeks before the caucuses.
“Newt may have peaked at the right time or peaked just a little bit too early,” said Will Rogers, one of the members of Gingrich’s campaign team who resigned en masse in June amid frustration over how it was being run.
Rogers, who has returned to support Gingrich as a volunteer and is heavily involved with the Republican Party, said polls represent only a snapshot in time and said it seems that many Iowa voters still remain undecided.
Rogers said Paul was benefiting from his strong organization in Iowa, unlike Gingrich who had to scramble to beef up his staff as he rose in the polls.
“You don’t know where Iowans truly sit until January 3,” Albrecht said. “There’s an unprecedented level of uncertainty this late.”
“Caucuses always surprise people at the end. One thing caucuses do is defy conventional wisdom. Someone always dramatically outperforms poll numbers and someone under performs.”
Republican presidential candidate and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich gestures as he speaks at "The Gift of Life" movie premiere in Des Moines, Iowa, December 14, 2011. REUTERS/Jim Young
Gingrich has run an unorthodox campaign, signing books at events and talking about topics ranging from the economy to brain research and lunar mining.
“His campaign has been one of speeches and ideas, not one as organized as the others. And it’s been interesting to watch at public forums and speeches that people have gravitated toward him and liked what he’s had to say,” said John Gilliland of the Iowa Association of Business and Industry.
“But it’s hard when you’re trying to build infrastructure when you’re behind the eight ball,” he said.According to a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women with children under the age of 18 make less than women who don’t have children. Men, on the other hand, tend to make more money if they have kids. So what gives?
(Photo Credit: Franky242/freedigitalphotos.net)
First of all, let’s take a look at the numbers. The BLS says that women with children make median weekly earnings of $680, while women without children have median weekly earnings of $697. Not a big difference, until you look at the corresponding numbers for men: $946 for men with children, and $799 for those without.
Do You Know What You're Worth? GET A FREE PAY REPORT
“I think parenthood is like the new site of gender discrimination,” said Michelle Budig, a sociology professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, in an interview with NBC News.
Budig is co-author of a report called “The Wage Penalty for Motherhood,” which posits three reasons for reduced wages among mothers:
1. Lost job experience, due to leaving the workforce for a period of time.
In today’s workforce, being out of commission for even a year or two can put you behind continuously employed workers, in the same way that being among the long-term unemployed diminishes employment opportunities.
2. Lowered productivity at work, due to outside demands on time and energy.
Although some might argue, of course, that multitasking mothers are the ideal employees, in terms of productivity, having priorities outside the office might annoy managers with admittedly unreasonable expectations about employees being able to put in last-minute overtime.
3. Trading higher wages for mother-friendly (but lower-paying) jobs.
Just as women sometimes earn lower wages because they tend, more than men, to choose jobs that benefit society, women sometimes choose lower-paying jobs because they offer more flexibility for families.
4. Discrimination from employers.
Even in cases where none of the above considerations are a factor, employers may have developed biases against working mothers — which makes it impossible for them to prove otherwise.
Men, on the other hand, benefit from these stereotypes. A man with a family might be regarded as a stable choice for an employer. Plus, they may be more apt to work harder, if they believe the success of the family depends on their success at work.
Tell Us What You Think
Has your salary gone up (or down) after having kids? We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or join the discussion on Twitter.Eugene Boris Mirman[1][2] (born as Evgeniy Borisovich Mirman (Евгений Борисович Мирман) July 24, 1974) is a Russian-born American comedian and writer known for playing Yvgeny Mirminsky on Delocated and voicing Gene Belcher on the animated comedy Bob's Burgers.
Early life [ edit ]
Mirman was born in Moscow,[3] to Jewish parents. His family emigrated to the United States when he was four and a half years old.[4]
Mirman attended William Diamond Middle School and Lexington High School in Lexington, Massachusetts, and Hampshire College in Western Massachusetts. As part of the college's "choose your own major" program, Mirman graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in comedy, with a one-hour routine as his thesis.[5] During summers he attended Camp Tohkomeupog in East Madison, NH. He returned to his high school to deliver its 2009 commencement address.[6] He returned to Hampshire to deliver the 2012 commencement speech as well.[7]
Career [ edit ]
Stand-up career [ edit ]
In 2004, Mirman released The Absurd Nightclub Comedy of Eugene Mirman, a CD/DVD on Suicide Squeeze Records. The album was voted one of the Best Albums of 2004 by both The A.V. Club and Time Out New York. His second album, En Garde, Society was released by Sub Pop in 2006. Three years later, Mirman released another comedy album titled God Is a Twelve-Year-Old Boy with Aspergers which was recorded in Chicago at the Lakeshore Theatre.[8] In 2012, Mirman released An Evening Of Comedy In A Fake, Underground Laboratory.[9]
Mirman has appeared at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado, the Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal, Bumbershoot and South by Southwest. He co-produced the weekly standup-variety show Invite Them Up with Bobby Tisdale and Holly Schlesinger, which won a Nightlife Award. He currently produces Pretty Good Friends (formerly Tearing the Veil of Maya) at Union Hall in Park Slope, Brooklyn with Julie Smith, which has been voted the best comedy night in New York City by New York Magazine.
Mirman, much like David Cross and Patton Oswalt, is known to often perform in rock clubs and theaters as opposed to traditional comedy clubs. Often touring the United States, Mirman occasionally opens for the comedy troupe Stella (former members of The State). He has opened for various bands such as The Shins and toured with Modest Mouse, Yo La Tengo, Gogol Bordello, Andrew Bird, and Cake.[10] In 2012, Mirman stated that opening for musicians is uncommon and that music concerts pay three times that of a comedy gig.[10] Mirman also toured with Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn and Maria Bamford on the Comedians of Comedy tour.
He has toured as an opener for Flight of the Conchords and with Andy Kindler and Marc Maron in Stand Uppity. He plays the character Eugene in the Flight of the Conchords HBO television series.
In January 2010, Mirman performed standup on the John Oliver's New York Stand Up Show on Comedy Central.[11]
Mirman's Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival has been running since 2008.[12]
On April 10, 2015, Mirman filmed a live stand-up special in Tucson, AZ, directed by Bobcat Goldthwait. The special was released on Netflix in 2015 as Eugene Mirman: Vegan on His Way to the Complain Store.
Television career [ edit ]
Mirman has appeared on several TV shows, including Late Night with Conan O'Brien, HBO's Flight of the Conchords, the BBC's Russell Howard's Good News, Comedy Central Presents, Delocated,[13] Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Comedy Central's Premium Blend, VH1, Third Watch, Cartoon Network's Home Movies, Cheap Seats, Lucy, the Daughter of the Devil and more. He also played a spokes-potato on Food Network.
In late 2010, Mirman performed on the Comedy Central show The Benson Interruption.
On February 21, 2011, Mirman appeared on The Colbert Report as a fertility clown.
On April 4, 2013, Mirman provided the voice for Cecil Tunt, multi-millionaire brother of Cheryl/Carol Tunt on FX's Archer.
On March 13, 2016, Mirman appeared on "Last Week Tonight" as a hacker.
Mirman currently voices the character Gene Belcher on the Fox animated series Bob's Burgers.[14]
Mirman lent his guest voice to a character named Emperor Keith Merman in the Netflix original The Adventures of Puss in Boots.
Radio and podcasts [ edit ]
In January 2009, Mirman released a satirical self-help book entitled The Will to Whatevs.[15]
He often appears on StarTalk Radio, hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson.[16] He has also appeared several times on the TV adaptation.
Mirman guest starred as an "Expert witness" on humorist John Hodgman's podcast Judge John Hodgman.[17]
Mirman appeared on Ken Reid's TV Guidance Counselor Podcast on April 24, 2015. The episode was recorded live as part of the 2015 Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival in Boston.
Mirman plays a supporting role of Benny the gerbil on the children's podcast This Podcast Has Fleas in 2017. [18]
Personal life [ edit ]
Mirman married his longtime girlfriend Katie Westfall Tharp on Labor Day 2015.[19] Together they have a son (born 2016).[20]
Discography [ edit ]
The Absurd Nightclub Comedy of Eugene Mirman (2004)
(2004) Invite Them Up (2005)
(2005) En Garde, Society! (2006)
(2006) Comedians of Comedy 3" Tour CD (2006)
(2006) God Is a Twelve-Year-Old Boy with Asperger's (2009)
(2009) An Evening of Comedy In a Fake Underground Laboratory (2012)
(2012) I'm Sorry (You're Welcome) (2015)
Bibliography [ edit ]
The Will to Whatevs (2009)
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]“Your mobile phone should be free.”
That was Google CEO Eric Schmidt talking to Reuters in November of 2006. It was just about a year before the Android project was first unveiled. It was also just a few months before the iPhone was introduced (Schmidt was a member of Apple’s Board at the time). At that point, Schmidt had to know that both Google and Apple were on the verge of changing the mobile industry. Or, at least, that’s what he thought was going to happen.
There’s no question that the situation in the mobile industry (particularly in the U.S.) is better than it was in 2006 from a consumer perspective. And yes, that’s largely thanks to Apple and Google. But free phones? We’re nowhere close to that. But last year we were. And then Google’s dream turned into a nightmare.
Before I get to that, let’s clarify what “free” is. There are plenty of |
for any possible covert bomb program.
In order to turn its stockpile of low-enriched uranium into bomb fuel, Iran would have to unambiguously declare its intentions by kicking out the inspectors and breaking from the treaty. Only then could it reconfigure its centrifuge cascades and reprocess the material to higher grades of enrichment, which would likely take a number of months. And the single very crude, very large nuclear device that would result too large to be delivered by missile or by fighter aircraft would not constitute a credible strategic nuclear capability. The power to project nuclear force would require the development and production of at least a handful of bombs, miniaturized to fit inside warheads and on missiles that Iran currently doesn't have. Iran would probably still be a couple of years away from that capability if it made the fateful decision to kick out the inspectors now a decision that would probably provoke an emergency reaction from the U.S. and its allies. (See the top 10 Ahmadinejad-isms.)
Hence the assessment from the Pentagon: Iran is making steady progress in assembling a nuclear infrastructure that would put nuclear weapons within reach, but it is not close to achieving nuclear-weapons status. While Tehran's leaders are committed to a nuclear program that would give it the means to build weapons, they have not made the political decision to move beyond assembling and start developing nuclear weapons. Stopping Iran from building nukes is a singular priority of the Obama Administration, a challenge that it plans to pursue through what the President has called "tough, direct diplomacy." But the question of how long the U.S. has to pursue a diplomatic outcome before Iran crosses the nuclear-weapons threshold will obviously shape the Administration's approach to engaging Iran. The message from the Pentagon appears to be that Iran's nuclear progress is cause for deep concern, but there's no need for panic.
See TIME's Pictures of the Week.
See pictures of Iranians.Steph Curry puts up a three-point shot. He turns away from the basket as it goes in. It's his usual move, but this time he's flaunting more than his skills -- he's sporting a corporate logo on his jersey.
Companies may soon be vying for new advertising space on NBA jerseys.
NBA team owners are expected to vote this week to allow the placement of corporate logos on jerseys, beginning in the 2017-2018 season, according to ESPN.
The logos would be featured on the left shoulder of a player's jersey and would reportedly take the form of a 2.5-inch square patch.
Uniform ads appeared on the jerseys worn during the All-Star Game in February. During the game in Toronto, players sported KIA logos on their left shoulders.
The concept has reportedly already been pitched to owners and is supposed to be voted on during this week's board of governors meeting in New York. Teams would net half of the sponsorship money from the jersey ads. The rest would go to the league's revenue-sharing pool.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has treated the ads as an inevitability during his tenure. In a recent interview with ESPN's Rachel Nichols, Silver explained that the league believes the jersey ads will establish new sources of revenue above and beyond what advertisers pay for the small patches.
"It creates an additional investment in those companies in the league," Silver said. "There's no sponsor that's only decision is going to be to manifest its brand just on that small patch on the uniform. Once they put their name on the jerseys that they'll then use their media to promote the NBA extensively."
Corporate logos are commonplace in international sports leagues. They're also present in a few American leagues, including the WNBA, Major League Soccer and NASCAR.
Though each of the four major U.S. professional sports leagues have worn logos on practice uniforms and jerseys, they have largely avoided adding logos to uniforms during the regular season.
In a rare exception to that rule, Major League Baseball teams have worn uniform ads while opening the season in Japan (where uniform ads are standard). Teams have opened in Japan four times since 2000.
The other leagues have stayed mum about whether the NBA's new jersey ads could pave the way for all American pro sports to join the likes of NASCAR and soccer.Raising a young family while juggling a career is a tough act to master at the best of times.
Doing so aboard a 15-meter yacht, hemmed in by the thick ocean ice of one of the harshest environments on earth must surely complicate matters a whole lot more.
But Eric Brossier wouldn't have it any other way.
The French oceanographer and his wife, France, have spent the past eight winters happily recording scientific data across the northern polar-regions while living aboard a specially equipped yacht fittingly called Le Vagabond.
Since 2007, the couple have been accompanied by their eldest daughter, Leonie (now six) and, since 2009, her younger sister Aurora (now three).
"It's not an ordinary life," he explained from the lower deck of the vessel-come-family home. "Outside is minus 27 degrees and we won't see the sun for at least a few more weeks.
Click map to enlarge CNN
"[But we] love the wildlife, the mountains, sailing in between the ice, the mix of pack ice drifting with icebergs next to glaciers," he added.
Brossier has carried out a raft of seasonal studies near the remote island of Spitsbergen, Norway, and around coastal Greenland in recent years.
Polar bears, walruses and an array of spectacular arctic creatures have proved more regular company than people during these trips, which can last between six months and a year at a time.
This year, however, the family headed further west and dropped anchor outside the remote Inuit town of Grise Fiord in the Canadian Arctic.
The trip marks the first time they have set up camp close to a human settlement.
"The main reasons we decided to come here this winter was so that our eldest daughter could go to school and our youngest daughter could socialize with other kids her own age," Brossier said.
"Without kids we'd probably live a couple of kilometers further out just to feel nature a little bit more.
"Still, the town only has a population of around 120 people and we can head out if we wish on snow mobile or with dogs," he added.
Although Grise Fiord represents the most northerly civilian settlement in North America, Brossier explains that the town is still privy to the comforts of contemporary western life.
Homes have central heating, running water and access to the internet, with Facebook being one of the most popular modes of communication -- a far cry from the spartan existence of Inuit communities in Greenland and northern Russia.
Yet these modern trappings provide the Brossiers with a happy medium between the Arctic wilderness the family so adores, suitable schooling facilities and viable long-term research work.
Brossier says his current assignment is based around the earth's changing climate. He is paid to measure the thickness of the winter ice, ocean currents and weather patterns in and around Grise Fiord for research institutions in Toronto and Vancouver.
In previous years however, he has acted as a guide for television and documentary crews.
"We decide where to go according to the job offered to us or the measurements we have to take," he said.
"If we can find such projects in the future that meet our work needs and the needs of our children then we may be able to carry on for five or ten years," he added.
But while enthusiastic about adventures the future may hold, Brossier is aware that others -- especially those with young children -- may find his nomadic lifestyle in the Arctic chill less than appealing.
He admits there are things he misses from time to time but would advise any avid scientist, sailor or adventurer keen to experience the far north to set sail and experience it for themselves.
"We miss our friends and families and when we go back to France for a few weeks every year that is what we like to see first," he said. "So is sitting in the sun and eating some French cheese and fresh fruit.This article is over 2 years old
Public security officials say vendor who disappeared in October, then was released in June, is overdue back on the mainland for further investigation
China has reportedly warned Hong Kong bookseller Lam Wing-kee that he could face harsher legal action for violating bail conditions.
A statement issued by the Ningbo Public Security Bureau said Lam had broken his bail terms by failing to return to the mainland for further investigation after his initial eight months in detention, Hong Kong’s Ming Pao newspaper reported.
Lam was one of five booksellers whose disappearances over the past year have been linked to the Causeway Bay Books store that had specialised in publishing and selling books about China’s leaders, including President Xi Jinping.
Lam was allowed to returned to Hong Kong in June. The Ningbo Public Security Bureau said unspecified criminal enforcement measures would be triggered by his failure to return to the mainland.
Chinese crackdown aimed at rooting out Xi opponents, says bookseller Read more
The South China Morning Post reported that Chinese authorities had released a video of Lam during his time in detention. In a video link on the newspaper’s website, Lam could be seen eating, being given a haircut and making comments.
On his return to Hong Kong last month Lam said Lee Bo, who went missing from Hong Kong in late December, had been abducted, and said “cross-border enforcement actions” by mainland Chinese authorities in Hong Kong were “not acceptable”.
Lam said he was arrested last October in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, then blindfolded and taken to the eastern city of Ningbo, where he was kept in a small room by himself and repeatedly interrogated about the selling of books banned on the mainland.
The disappearances have prompted fears that mainland Chinese authorities may be using tactics that erode the “one country, two systems” formula under which Hong Kong has been governed since its return to China from British rule in 1997.
China’s public security minister, Guo Shengkun, met a Hong Kong delegation in Beijing on Tuesday to discuss the detainee notification system between the two police forces, which needs to be “modified and improved”, the ministry said.
The delegation was also briefed on Lam’s case, Xinhua news agency added, without elaborating.
Hong Kong enjoys far wider personal freedoms and protections than exist on the mainland. No formal extradition treaty exists between the two jurisdictions.
Lam pulled out of a protest march in Hong Kong on 1 July citing concerns for his personal safety after he noticed several people following him in recent days.
Hong Kong police said after meeting Lam on Monday that there was no evidence his personal safety was at risk. They advised him to call for police assistance if needed, a police statement said.Ukip is facing a fresh storm of controversy as further evidence emerged of racism among its local election candidates, including a suggestion by one that the comedian Lenny Henry should emigrate to a "black country".
Candidates have taken to social media sites to rail against Islam as "organised crime under religious camouflage" while likening the religion to Nazism, and suggesting that the murder of the black teenager Stephen Lawrence has received a disproportionate level of attention.
One candidate for election in Enfield, William Henwood, responded to a recent speech by Henry, in which he suggested there was a poor representation of black and ethnic minorities on British television, by tweeting: "He should emigrate to a black country. He does not have to live with whites."
Ukip, polling at 18% in the latest Observer/Opinium findings, said the party was "non-racist, non-sectarian" and that "any comments made by members that fail to uphold these values will be duly investigated and acted upon".
The latest developments will only add to Nigel Farage's woes after a disastrous week for the party in which its big advertising campaign has been picked apart. Ukip has already been forced to suspend the "poster boy" of its European party election broadcast after it was revealed he had posted a series of racist comments on Twitter. A builder in a Ukip poster accusing EU workers of taking UK jobs was discovered to be an Irish actor who migrated to this country, and a woman who appeared on a poster as a voter from Devon was Ukip's events manager and an assistant to the party leader.
Ukip has attempted to improve its vetting of candidates in the local and European elections to be held next month, but it appears that some of their members will not be constrained on social media. Along with his comments about Henry, the party's candidate in Enfield Town, London, has tweeted that "Islam reminds me of the 3rd Reich, strength through violence against the citizens". He said Muslims "like us to fawn to them" and "young Muslim men remind me of young Afrikaners. They are taught at an early age they have the right to abuse".
A Ukip candidate in Camden, Magnus Nielsen, used his Facebook account to post: "70% of mosques in the UK have been taken over by Wahabbi fundamentalists. Islam is organised crime under religious camouflage. Any Muslim who is not involved in organised crime is not a 'true believer', practising Islam as Muhammad commanded".
And, earlier this month, in the wake of allegations of police corruption in the investigation into the murder of Lawrence, Matt Pavey, a Ukip candidate in Lewisham, tweeted: "Does anyone remember the name Jean Bradley murder unsolved in Acton, London, in 1993. Anyone looking for corruption here? No, thought not." Pavey tweeted two days later: "Lets all take a moment to remember Jean Bradley stabbed to death on the streets of London in March 1993 and no justice #stephenlawrence." And again that day he tweeted: "Lets please take a moment to remember Penny Bell stabbed 50 times in London 1991. No justice #stephenlawrence." Pavey said he was not prepared to comment on his tweets but that there was "no malice" intended.
Gareth Thomas, the shadow minister for Europe, said the tweets should be seen as evidence that Ukip is "not fit to represent the country in Europe".
The Observer has also learned that Ukip MEPs are employing foreign nationals as parliamentary assistants while the party publicly takes a tough public stance against European immigrants taking British jobs. Last week Farage was involved in an exchange with the BBC's political editor, Nick Robinson, over the employment of his German wife as his secretary.
Gerard Batten, Ukip MEP for London, has hired foreigners in both his European and UK constituency offices. Pavel Stroilov, from Russia, works in Batten's London office, while a Polish citizen, Kamila Zarychta, is his accredited assistant in Brussels. Batten said: "I employ people on the basis of whether I think they can do the job."
Ukip's East Midlands MEP Roger Helmer, who has an Italian assistant, Francesca Salierno, in Brussels, said: "I absolutely reject the assumption that because we're opposed to mass immigration it is therefore somehow inconsistent and hypocritical for a Ukip MEP to hire a foreign person." he said William Dartmouth, Ukip MEP for the south west of England, employs Line Sophie Munk Olsen, a Dane, as one of his four parliamentary assistants. A spokesman said: "He employs four British people in his office as well."On this page is a map of the known permanent village sites (c.1800) of the Coast Salish people who lived--and still live--in the Puget Sound area of Washington State. If you are interested in a particular group or area of the Sound click on the appropriate section of the small black and white map to the left. Then, a color map of the area you choose will download. It is only from these larger scale (smaller area) maps that you are able to access information about each of the villages. (The maps are not at all designed to pinpoint locations, which might result in unlawful vandalism or destruction of the sites, but rather to provide a context for imagining both where and how the Coast Salish people lived on this land.) * * * * * These people inhabited an incredibly bountiful and mostly heavily-forested area, interspersed with myriad waterways. They shared a similar life-style oriented towards fishing, hunting and gathering, as well as creating the implements necessary to engage in these activities. Salmon was the most important food. The dugout canoe was the primary means of transport. A typical village was located adjacent to navigable water and composed of a small number of large cedar-planked longhouses--each giving shelter to thirty, forty, or more, usually related individuals. In some cases, all of the longhouses of a village were located right next to each other. In other cases, houses considered part of the same village might be strung out for miles along a river. Picture courtesy of BC Archives, call number D00692 "Quamichan village". The shed-style longhouses of this Central Coast Salish village (c.1865) are similar, though smaller, than those usually built further south, around Puget Sound. [This image slightly cropped from original] Inside the longhouse, along the walls, sleeping platforms were constructed. Woven reed mats were piled for mattresses and cushions, animal skins for covers. These would be removed during the day so the platform could be used for seating. Above the platforms were storage shelves holding baskets, tools, clothing, etc.; firewood was often stored below. Dried food hung from the ceiling above the earthen floor, which could be used as a work area or cleared for gatherings. In the larger houses each family would have a fire and partitions made of mats would separate the family compartments. Roof slats could be adjusted to let smoke out and light in. Picture courtesy of Museum of History and Industry [Seattle, WA], negative no. MOHAI 1955.970.470.10, "Interior of a longhouse, Neah Bay, c.1900". This post-contact Makah longhouse, though similarly constructed, contains such items as a sail, sealskins, iron pots, etc. that would not be found in a pre-contact Coast Salish house. [This image slightly cropped from the original] The people took their principal identity from these permanent villages where they lived during the rainy winter months. (During the rest of the year variously composed bands would migrate among traditional camps at resource-rich areas, usually mingling with people from other, sometimes faraway, villages.) Strength of "tribal" affiliation varied among groups and probably throughout time, depending on whether there was a need requiring organized action. Although I have used currently accepted tribal designations in the village descriptions, some would consider them to be vast oversimplifications, or even largely artificial constructs, made for the sake of convenience by the early white settlers and perpetuated ever since. The period around 1800 was one of flux. Settlers had not yet arrived in this area but their diseases had. Vulnerable coastal villages were already being decimated. Some coastal groups were re-consolidating in more favorable locations. Some riverine people were moving to occupy depopulated villages along the coast. So, although most all of the village sites described herein were of long-standing, their composition may have been of more recent origin. And memories of other settlements have not only long been lost, but doubtless were never recorded. This assumption led me to be generous the handful of times I had to decide whether or not a questionable site should be included on the map. New! Click here to go to a map of the Duwamish/Snoqualmie section where you will see locations of about 50 sites mentioned in old stories and myths. Click on the storytelling icon on the map to read a synopsis of the relevant story. Base map used with written permission, based on landform map "Puget Sound Region, Washington", copyright D Molenaar, 1987 The base map on which both the village and storytelling sites are plotted represents the way this area appeared before the arrival of settlers in the early 1800s. This was achieved by removing from a beautifully rendered shaded-relief map (provided by Molenaar Pictorial Maps), all--that could be identified--of the contemporary roads, cities, dams, fills and clearings, and then restoring a number of rivers to their original beds and Lake Washington to its pre-1916 level. It was a process akin to acting like a virtual Corps of Engineers in reverse. I would like to acknowledge my debt to David M. Buerge for his inspiring description of Seattle-area Duwamish villages, particularly those on Lake Washington. And I am very grateful for the continuing guidance and assistance of Dr. Jay Miller, anthropologist, linguist and author, who has generously reviewed and edited the village descriptions. --Tom Dailey Do you have advice? criticism? praise? questions? Please contact me: My e-mail address is tombodailey@hotmail.com. Thanks.Content theft is a major pain in the neck with almost every big blog. I have had this blog copied and pasted verbatim several times over the years and always used the good old DMCA method to fight off the thieves
But photographer Neil van Niekerk (who runs the excellent Tangents photography blog) came up with a way more amusing way to fight of those content ripoffs using photos.
Basically he set up his server to serve a different set of photos to his readers and to the infringing site. Here is Neil’s description, which is kinda of an interesting tale:
“Soooooo … I found someone who copied and pasted an entire blog post of mine to her blog. Better yet, she hot-linked to my images. And now … the delicious moment when I swap out the images to porn so that anyone who visits her blog is greeted by some hardcore porn. (I already changed file names on my own site, so I won’t be affected).“
To be perfectly fair, Neil did alert the infringing site on the fact they are infringing on his content and gave them some time to correct their ways.
While using porn is a bit harsh, a similar method with pictures showing a “this content is stolen” tag line will probably work just as well. Here is a picture you can use courtesy of DIYP:
Tangents reader Luke Brookhart adds that you don’t actually have to swap the image, and can hack the site’s.htacess file to serve the same end, with much less work.
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} ^http://www.that-jerk-thief-hotlinking-domain.com/ [NC]
RewriteRule \.jpg$ http://www.neilvn.com/goaway.jpg [R,L]
lead photo by Nanagyei.
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A hero doorman held up an Aston Martin for 10 minutes to save a man.
Stewart Edward, 30, stopped it crushing a recovery vehicle driver until fire crews arrived to complete the rescue.
The victim became stuck when the £140,000 car he was set to tow broke loose from his truck.
But powerlifter Stewart stopped his car and rushed into action, using brute strength to hoist up the 1.75 tonne Aston Martin.
Stewart, 30, said: "The guy had got himself wedged between the car and his recovery vehicle and the car was about to slip off the side of the truck on to the road below.
"It would have crushed him."
The incident happened just off the Clyde Expressway near Partick in Glasgow.
Dad-of-one Stewart, of the city's Drumoyne, explained: "I became aware of some kind of incident and we slowed to see what was going on. The car had come partially off the side of the truck. In order to stop it falling off and into the path of oncoming traffic, the recovery guy had climbed up the side of the van and reached inside the car to switch off the engine.
"He was in a very unusual position. I dashed over and put my hand into the wheel arch and grabbed the axle to lift the weight of the car.
"The man was in extreme pain and the car was at its tipping point. But I knew I had to lift it up and hold it there."
The recovery vehicle driver, who has not been named, was taken to hospital and released after treatment.
Stewart, who works and at Glasgow's King Tuts venue as well as for a finance company, said: "I was a bit sore afterwards but happy to help."
A source said: "Stewart basically held the car up for 10 minutes before the fire brigade got there.
"Nowadays, you often don't hear about those who stop and help others - and especially if it involves standing and holding a car up for 10 minutes.
"So everyone thinks Stewart deserves great credit - you could say he is a real-life superhero."
A spokesman for 911 Recovery said yesterday: "We would like to thank Stewart very much for helping our driver."The Cubs may pursue Phillies second baseman Chase Utley prior to the August trade deadline, writes Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times. Utley will begin a rehab assignment tomorrow. He would need 251 plate appearances to activate a 2016 option, an exceedingly unlikely event. The former star has struggled this season with a.179/.257/.275 slash. However, a.186 BABIP suggests a rebound is possible. He’s owed about $5MM over the rest of the season. The Cubs would look to have the Phillies cover part of his salary.
An Utley acquisition would provide depth to existing middle infielders like Starlin Castro, Addison Russell, and Javier Baez. If the club lost patience with Castro, they could opt to use Russell at shortstop with Utley filling in at second base. The interest could also be purely for his veteran leadership. The Angels and at least one other team are also considering Utley per Wittenmyer.Chicago police officers weren't even on that United Express plane Sunday evening at O'Hare International Airport, yet somehow their department has also taken a beating.
By now you probably know about the incident and have seen the disturbing video. United boarded its flight to Louisville, Ky., and then couldn't bribe enough passengers to get off the plane to make room for airline personnel who arrived at the gate and had to make the trip. The crew selected four passengers at random who would be compelled to disembark, and when one of them refused to leave his seat, the airline summoned Chicago Department of Aviation security officers who wrestled and dragged the man, screaming and bleeding, out of the cabin.
Then into this thoroughly chewy scandal came the following statement, heavily circulated on social and conventional media and attributed to the Chicago Police Department Office of Communications:
"At approximately 6:00 p.m., A 69-year-old male Asian airline passenger became irate after he was asked to disembark from a flight that was oversold. The passenger in question began yelling to voice his displeasure at which point Aviation Police were summoned. Aviation Officers arrived on scene attempted to carry the individual off of the flight when he fell. His head subsequently struck an armrest causing injuries to his face. The man was taken to Lutheran General Hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Ongoing investigation."
It was just the kind of statement you'd have expected to read from police 10 years ago, back before such altercations were routinely captured on smartphone video and discrepancies between official versions of stories and the accounts of citizen witnesses could be brushed aside as he-said-she-said.
But now we can see for ourselves. No, the man was not yelling prior to being wrestled from his seat. No, his facial injuries were not caused because he "fell." He began yelling after the officers attacked and manhandled him.
It was a curious statement because it seemed almost deliberately to recall the most troubling incident in recent CPD history — the killing of Laquan McDonald in October 2014, in which multiple officers' accounts of McDonald's actions just before he was shot differed starkly from the dashboard camera video of the incident.
More curious still was that CPD wasn't involved in the attempt to "re-accommodate" the man, as United chief executive Oscar Munoz later described it, and had no firsthand knowledge of the incident. As the statement itself noted, these were officers from the Department of Aviation, a separate department.
After seeing numerous iterations of the statement on social media and a report including it from a reputable news outlet, I sent a copy to CPD's chief spokesman Anthony Guglielmi and asked, "Is this for real?"
His answer — "CPD didn't release an official statement on it. We were not involved. Dept. of Aviation has everything you will need" — was not exactly a denial, though it prompted me to remove, out of caution, a retweet of the statement from my Twitter feed.
After a few more email rounds and a long phone call with Guglielmi, what I was able to glean was that, at 10 p.m. Sunday, about four hours after the incident, an unnamed spokesman at CPD generated an official-sounding yet technically unofficial summary of the incident in order to help out a reporter or reporters at news outlets Guglielmi would not identify.
By the middle of the day Monday, the most misleading quote from that statement — "His head subsequently struck an armrest causing injuries to his face"— was being attributed to CPD in news stories around the world and was stoking indignation and outrage on social media.
NBC News, Time, The Guardian, The Irish Times, China Daily and India Times, among scores of other outlets, reported it. "Chicago PD Reverts To Form — Blames United Passenger for His Injuries," said the headline on the popular left-wing news site Daily Kos.
Yes, the journalists should have been more skeptical before amplifying a secondhand account, no matter its source. I should have paused before retweeting. But even as a secondhand account, the version of events as filtered through levels of law enforcement illustrates how reflexively officers shade their retellings in order to put themselves in the best possible light.
Someone who was there told someone who told someone that the passenger just fell and hit his head on an armrest — whoopsie! Then someone, who may not have known that viral videos were going to prove otherwise, put that in writing for media, where it was repeated not in sympathy but in flabbergast.
I'll give Guglielmi the last word: "A takeaway for me is to ensure the department's press office is more consistent in referring to appropriate outside agencies for incidents in which CPD is not the acting or involved agency."
Twitter @EricZorn
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Become a subscriber today to support column writing like this. Start getting full access to our signature journalism for just 99 cents for the first four weeks.We explain our findings in the paper by appealing to a property that mathematicians call hysteresis.
Conventional dynamical systems have a stable steady state that acts as an attractor. The economy will converge to that steady state, no matter where it starts. The FM model does not share that property. Although the economy follows a unique path from any initial condition, the FM model has a continuum of possible steady states and which one the economy ends up at depends on initial conditions.
The FM model explains the data better than the NK model because the unemployment rate in US data does not return to any single point. In some decades, the average unemployment rate is 6%: in others, it is 3%. And in the Great Depression it did not fall below 15% for a decade. The unemployment rate, the inflation rate and the interest rate are so persistent in US data that they are better explained as co-integrated random walks than as mean-reverting processes. The FM model captures that fact. The NK model does not.
What does it mean for two series to be co-integrated? I have explained that idea elsewhere by offering the metaphor of two drunks walking down the street, tied together with a rope. The drunks can end up anywhere, but they will never end up too far apart. The same is true of the inflation rate, the unemployment rate and the interest rate in the US data.
As I have argued on many occasions, the NK model is wrong and there has been no stable Phillips curve in the data of any country I am aware ever since Phillips wrote his eponymous article in 1958. My paper with Giovanni provides further empirical evidence for the Farmer Monetary Model, an alternative paradigm that I have written about in a series of books and papers. Most recently, in Prosperity for All, I make the case for active central bank intervention in the asset markets as a complimentary approach to interest rate control.
In a separate paper, Animal Spirits in a Monetary Model, Konstantin Platonov and I have explored the theory that underlies the empirical work in my joint work with Giovanni. The research programme we are engaged in should be of interest to policy makers in central banks and treasuries throughout the world who are increasingly realising that the Phillips curve is broken. In Keynesian Economics Without the Phillips Curve, we have shown how to replace the Phillips curve with the belief function, an alternative theory of the connection between unemployment and inflation that better explains the facts.What makes a rivalry? Is it players that hate one another? Fans who hate the other city so bad that they will take a longer drive just to avoid the putrid smell of their foes?
"There wasn't anything truer for me than familiarity breeding contempt. That's what it was back in San Jose with LA and in the early days with Dallas" said Eddie Robinson when asked about the Houston-Dallas rivalry "...I think that the players has a lot to do with it. There were a lot of hard-nosed mean bastards who wanted to fight scrap, kill. I think soccer in this country as a whole doesn't have those guys anymore."
Since Houston was moved to the Eastern Conference the two teams seldom met, but with a return to the Western Conference there is a renewed chance at familiarity. In recent years the rivalry with Sporting Kansas City started to replace the rivalry with Dallas in some minds, but they too lack the players you love to hate. The league as a whole lacks the 'bad guy' player that feeds passionate hate toward another team.
The intensity is going to be there. -Eddie Robinson
"I don't feel like KC [has them] and Dallas did. Carlos Ruiz is one of those people. You look at a guy like Fabian Castillo and the kid is an unbelievable player. Blas Perez, he is cheeky and can be dirty at times. I'm not a big fan of his. There were guys back in the day George Johns, Matt Hedges. There are going to be FC Dallas players that are easier for this Dynamo team to dislike" said Robinson, "That Dallas-Houston rivalry is something for the fans. One thing I will say about the team now is they do feed off the energy of the fans. They do understand how important it is for the people of Houston to beat the people of Dallas and vice versa. The intensity is going to be there."
As for top moments of the rivalry, Robinson says any time they beat Dallas was a top moment -- Dallas team not required. "I really enjoyed going up there and winning MLS Cup in 2007. On their field. That was nice" he said.
"Call me crazy, but I loved when Ricardo kicked the crap out of Carlos Ruiz. That was awesome. I think most of the people around MLS were cheering that. I've never made any bones about my dislike for Carlos Ruiz. I always respected him as a player, he was a very good player but he didn't respect the game, he didn't respect his opponents...I loved playing against him. I loved kicking his ass and pissing him off. But again he was a really good player and a really good goal scorer. That was another one carried over when he left LA and went to Dallas. It helped me and some of my teammates Brian Mullan and Brian Ching and Dwayne [DeRosario] and Pat [Onstad] and those guys that played with them in San Jose. They played against him and now that he was in Dallas that kind of helped initiate that rivalry even more. That was pretty cool."
But Eddie's top moment?
"It happened multiple times, but we would go to Dallas and we would play at Pizza Hut Park or whatever it was called and the Supporters Group for the Dynamo outnumbered the Dallas supporters but hundreds, literally hundreds," Eddie said with pride swelling in his voice. "That was for me one of the top moments. I loved it. I loved it. Looking around and seeing FC Dallas supporters group being drowned out by our drums and our chants and our singing and our orange."
In the end it is going to take time, familiarity and some dirty players to renew this rivalry according to Robinson. The intensity of the fans in the stand bleeds orange onto the field and into the players who know when it comes to Dallas it isn't just about three points it's about winning for the city of Houston.Brunello Cucinelli, the founder and CEO of the eponymous Italian fashion house, is known for his luxury cashmere but also for his love of arts and culture and for his philosophy of what he calls a “humanistic enterprise.”
In line with a certain Italian industrial tradition, he has striven to put ethical and human values at the center of his company, and has created his own utopian society in Solomeo, the medieval village near Perugia where the company is based, and where Cucinelli reinvests up to 20% of his profits.
In a country of high unemployment and low wages, Cucinelli’s workers are paid generously, take long communal lunches, and are encouraged to further their education. This has served him well: The company has grown since its founding in 1978 and revenue rose 16.4% last year to €414.9 million ($473 million; pdf, p. 21).
Thus Cucinelli has taken a new step by encouraging employees to expand their interests. His cashmere empire will offer employees a “cultural allowance.”
Employees will be reimbursed for money spent on culturally enriching activities—such as going to exhibitions, or the theatre—up to €500 a year for singles and €1000 for those with families.
A press representative told Quartz that Cucinelli himself declared the bonus will help his artisans create better products because, in the CEO’s words, “creativity is where there is beauty.” The bonus will also “promote the discovery of Italy’s enormous cultural and artistic heritage,” he said.Update: An updated version of this article is now online.
Stunning the television world, the CNN host Larry King announced Tuesday evening that he would end his talk show, “Larry King Live,” this fall.
The CNN/U.S. president Jonathan Klein said in an e-mail message to the staff that Mr. King, 76, who |
sisters escaped with the help of strangers, then went on to help others at a local hospital. (Provided)
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
The two were seated on a platform near the main stage of Jason Aldean’s concert because Lauren was in a wheelchair after injuring her knee and lower back earlier this year.
Lulu’s first instinct once the bullets began flying was to protect her sister: She flipped the wheelchair, toppling Lauren to the ground.
"All hell broke loose," Lauren said. "It felt like, 100, 70-something shots, all at once."
Video from Lauren’s cellphone captures the sound of a bullet pinging off the railing in front of them. It’s followed by the pain-filled scream of a woman hit by one of the hundreds of rounds sprayed into the festival crowd from 32 stories above.
Lulu ducked behind the platform and pulled Lauren behind her, dragging her younger sister between railings. Lauren lost her sandals, leaving her barefoot and barely able to move.
They stayed still on the ground for about 45 seconds before a member of the event staff opened a nearby VIP tent. With one of Lauren’s arms slung over her shoulders, Lulu dragged her sister away.
Lulu and Lauren Farina, of Wellington, were at the Route 91 Harvest concert in Las Vegas when a suspect open fired on the crowd killing 59 people and injuring more than 500.
‘All hell broke loose’
The sisters, in their 10th year running their Wellington-based wedding planning company, came to Las Vegas for a three-day wedding planners’ convention. They arrived early to attend the Route 91 Harvest country-music festival.
When they attended the same convention this past year, they heard about the festival. It started three days before the conference and ended the night before the convention began. Both country music fans, Lauren, 32, and Lulu, 35, decided to arrive early this year to have some fun.
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"We had a great time," Lauren said. "Saturday was great. All day Sunday was wonderful."
The only hitch: Lauren hurt her knee and lower back earlier this year, leaving her in a wheelchair for the weekend’s festivities. But from a raised platform on the east side of the main stage, they had a clear view of the acts.
The pair first listened in disbelief to the staccato pops coming from seemingly everywhere. They thought maybe someone in the crowd had firecrackers. But their father, a 30-year veteran of the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, made sure they knew the sound of gunfire and how to react. They quickly realized they were hearing gunfire and Lauren set her phone to record.
About a minute into the video, the world turned sideways as Lulu flipped Lauren’s wheelchair
Then: "More shots, more shots, more shots," Lauren said.
They fled for the VIP tent.
"There was no rhyme or reason. He was just spraying everywhere," an exhausted Lauren told The Post Monday night from her hotel room.
Strangers helping
They moved through the tent. Gunshots sounded around them.
A man came up and saw Lulu struggling with Lauren. He grabbed Lauren’s arm to help. Soon that man’s husband joined them, moved Lulu to the side and continued helping to carry Lauren — to where, they didn’t know.
They had no idea where the shots were coming from or how many shooters were out there. Even as the video shows Lauren, Lulu and the two men moving farther away from the stage, more shots rang out.
"We were thinking at this point, this person could be behind you," Lauren said.
The group trudged through a parking lot, a field, past shipping containers, until they reached a spot about a mile away. That’s where, Lauren said, one of the men noticed she was shoeless. He crouched down, took off his flip-flops and put them on her feet — a touching moment between strangers.
They still don’t know the men’s names.
"I wish I could find these men and thank them," Lauren said.
The flip-flops given to Wellington resident Lauren Farina by a stranger Sunday night as she fled the shooting at the Route 91 Harvest in Las Vegas. (Provided by Lauren Farina)
Provided by Lauren Farina
Pickup truck to safety
With Lauren’s wheelchair left behind, the two men hailed a pickup truck, yelling, "Let her in! Let her in!"
They "literally just dumped" Lauren into the truck’s cab, she said, then hoisted Lulu up and into the truck’s bed, joining one gunshot victim already in the truck. The driver took off toward the bloodied festival, the only way out of the area.
The driver pulled up to rescue more people.
"We pull up and there’s just people driving bodies out," Lulu said. She frantically worked to lower the truck’s tailgate to let more victims in. When the handle wouldn’t work, she began kicking the tailgate over and over again.
"They just started throwing people who had been shot in the bed of the truck," she said. "There were six to eight people in the bed of the truck who had been shot."
LAS VEGAS, NV - OCTOBER 01: People take cover at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after apparent gun fire was heard on October 1, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. There are reports of an active shooter around the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images)
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Two people had severe wounds. One woman had been hit in an artery, and Lulu the wedding planner began applying pressure to her wound. Another woman had been shot in the stomach and was bleeding profusely.
"We were slapping her because she had her eyes rolling into the back of her head," Lulu said.
They got closer to ambulances being loaded with the dead and wounded. They saw victims stacked one on top of the other inside ambulances, Lulu said.
A police officer asked the truck driver if he could take people to Desert Springs Hospital Medical Center, a backup hospital because the trauma hospital, University Medical Center, was full.
The pickup’s driver handed his phone to Lauren and told her to guide him to Desert Springs.
"He was so calm and strong," Lauren said. "He was driving 80 mph, he was running over curbs and he was running through red lights."
They made it to the hospital, but there was no rest to be had: Lulu got her sister settled and immediately began to help the overwhelmed hospital staff.
The bloody aftermath
During the next few hours, Lulu ran from person to person in the emergency waiting room, writing down names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers of each of the wounded.
"She kept wiping her cheeks and there was just blood all over her," Lauren said.
Lulu was applying tourniquets, doing everything she could to help — and she wasn’t alone.
"Everybody that was there that wasn’t hurt was helping," she said. "There was just such an overwhelming pour-in of injured people all at once."
Lauren was consumed with pride for her sister in that moment, as others in the waiting room asked if Lulu was a nurse or doctor. "I said, no, we’re wedding planners and florists," Lauren said, laughing. "I was able to just sit there and kind of watch her. She was such a rock star."
When things settled down, the hospital still was on lockdown, and the sisters had been there for four or five hours. They had lost the wheelchair, their wallets, their IDs, their money and Lulu’s cellphone. A woman let Lauren borrow a charger so she could power her now-dead phone, their only line to their family and friends at home in South Florida.
Somewhere in the earlier chaos, Lulu had called their father to tell him they were safe. "All I remember saying was, ‘There was a mass shooting. We’re OK, we’re OK,’" she said.
‘My life was spared’
With the help of a police chaplain at the hospital, Lauren and Lulu made it back to their hotel. They arrived in their room, exhausted. Lulu showered first, scrubbing the dried blood of others from her skin and hair. Then she took Lauren into the shower, where she washed the blood from her sister’s body as Lauren balanced on her crutches and one leg.
Then they settled into bed and turned on the TV.
"I don’t even think we said one word to each other," Lauren said. They put the TV on mute, held hands and prayed.
"We said, just, thank you for shielding us," Lauren said, expressing her disbelief at their experience. "I truly feel like I was gifted. I was helped by guardian angels and I’ll never be able to find them or say thank you."
Together, they are trying to process the shooting. They are scheduled to return to South Florida early Thursday. Lulu hopes to get their possessions, including the wheelchair, back before then.
They haven’t "had a full-on cry yet," Lulu said. They’ve gotten teary-eyed. They’ve watched their video over and over in disbelief. They’ve seen the videos taken by others.
"My life was spared," Lulu said, with Lauren agreeing.
"There were people there that didn’t get to call their parents and tell them they’re OK," Lauren said. "Lucky. Blessed. All these words don’t even begin to describe this feeling that literally someone a few feet from you got shot, died.
"How are you able to put that into words?" she said. "There’s no words."Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Amir Garrett (50) throws to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first inning Monday, May 1, 2017, at Great American Ball Park. (Photo: The Enquirer/Cara Owsley)
Before the team broke camp in spring training, Cincinnati Reds manager Bryan Price had a heart-to-heart with all his young pitchers. They’d all likely get some major-league time, he told them. But none of them were poised to make the jump to a full-season load of 200 innings.
That would mean some trips to the minors, regardless of performance. Sunday, the Reds made their first such move, optioning left-hander Amir Garrett to Triple-A in order to lighten his workload. With two off days in the next eight days, the Reds will go with a four-man rotation. Right-hander Barrett Astin was called up to serve as an eighth reliever.
Garrett pitched 144 2/3 innings in the minors last year, but was on pace to hit 192 this season if he made 32 starts in the majors.
“’It’s really innings management, first and foremost,” Price said, “and being able to make sure that he’s able to pitch the entire month of September as a starter and not have to go, ‘Oh well, he’s at 165 innings on September first, so we’ll pitch him as reliever the rest of the year.’ We don’t want to do that.”
If the move stings more than expected, it’s because Garrett has been the team’s most reliable starter to date. An apocalyptic outing against the Milwaukee Brewers has warped his numbers a bit, but the 25-year-old lefty has pitched at least six innings in all but one start. Outside of the Brewers start, he has a 2.20 ERA.
At times, Garrett has been the only starter reliable enough to eat innings, but the rotation has stabilized in the last week around Rookie Davis, Scott Feldman, Bronson Arroyo and Tim Adleman.
“I’m sure he’s not happy about it, but it will be part of the process for these guys,” Price said of Garrett.
In the minors, Garrett will throw a bullpen in the next couple days and make an abbreviated start likely on May 12. Another bullpen will follow a few days after that, after which the team will assess whether he should be called back up. He must remain on optional assignment for at least 10 days, unless he’s recalled to replace a player going on the disabled list.
A fringe benefit is that the Reds will likely gain an extra year of control over him, assuming he remains in the minors for 21 days over the course of the season. That means the Reds will be able to delay Garrett's free agency by a year.
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The Reds stress the focus is on Garrett’s innings, however.
“In the day and age now, we pay an awful lot of attention to how many innings these guys throw,” Price said. “I don’t know if it’s right or wrong but it’s an industry-wide deal. And we’re paying attention to it.”
Makeup game scheduled
The Reds will head to St. Louis on June 26 to make up the game that was rained out back on April 28. The game will immediately follow a three-game weekend road series against the Washington Nationals, and will precede the start of a six-game home stand against the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs.Help from Great Britain to the victims of typhoon-ravaged zone of the Philippines is sold for profit by corrupt local officials, instead of being given to the needy. Military helicopters delivered emergency supplies and provision to the hungry. But this aid turned up on the shelves of shops in Manila.
Mr Darge, who had moved to the Philippines from Scotland, says that he has the evidence of the thefts. He stays that only tiny percentage of the aid is getting through. Mr Darge photographed supplies being locked up rather than distributed in Eastern Samar, one of the worst hit-areas. Now he is being threatened to be shot if he doesn’t stop. Television stations in the Philippines have supported Mr Darge’s claims, reporting that supplies have been diverted to Manila. Aid packages have also apparently been auctioned online. There are also concerns that supplies are being simply wasted. Mr Darge and his wife found a big number of hamburgers, dumped by the roadside. The Philippines people do not get aid given by the USA. People also blame local authorities for giving food to their preferred ones.
Local Mayor, Edgar Boco, says that his officials were controlling distribution, but he would be interested to find out what items and where have been sold. And added that aid is monitored.
Related posts:This relates to the sugar question and was raised by Stephan Guyenet (a year and a half ago) in his not surprisingly negative review of my sugar book. As I’ve been thinking about black swans lately and what evidence would constitute a refutation or a falsification of ideas/hypotheses, and specifically those in my books, it seemed I should address this one as well. So here’s Stephan:
A well-studied Tanzanian hunter-gatherer tribe called the Hadza gets 15 percent of its average year-round calorie intake from honey, plus fruit sugar on top of it. This approximates US sugar intake, yet the Hadza do not exhibit obesity, cardiovascular disease, or any of the other disorders Taubes attributes to sugar (10, 11). In fact, many hunter-gatherer groups relied heavily on honey historically, including the Mbuti of the Congo whose diet was up to 80 percent honey during the rainy season (10). Yet they do not exhibit obesity or insulin resistance (12).
The implication is that this is compelling evidence against the case I make in my book that sugar is the fundamental trigger of the obesity and diabetes epidemics that are washing over the modern world. What follows was originally written for an email exchange I had with Stephan shortly after he wrote his critique. I think it’s worth noodling.
So here’s the question and it’s a purely logical one: Because the hypothesis is that sugar is the factor in a nutrition transition that causes populations to undergo epidemics of obesity and diabetes, can a population or a few of them even that consume significant amounts of sugar but have not manifested obesity and diabetes epidemics serve to falsify it?
Answer: I don’t think so. (Of course not, critics might be thinking here, but let’s go on…) In short, when a population or a person fails to get fat or diabetic on a sugar-rich diet that does not necessarily mean that sugar isn’t the cause for those people or populations who do get fat and diabetic. Assuming I’m right about this sugar-ibesity/diabetes connection, this would clearly have to be the case for individuals, at least. It’s manifestly obvious that a significant (albeit perhaps shrinking) proportion of people can eat and drink sugar to something close to their heart’s content and stay lean and apparently healthy. Just as a significant proportion of the folks who smoke never get lung cancer. That doesn’t mean that cigarette smoking doesn’t cause lung cancer. Only that it doesn’t cause it in everyone.
As I see it, meaningful evidence against the hypothesis in the sugar book — a black swan — would be a population that does experience an obesity and diabetes epidemic, and yet consumes either very little sugar or has not recently upped its sugar consumption considerably. Let’s go back to the cigarette and lung cancer analogy: the black swan in that hypothesis would be a population with a lung cancer epidemic that doesn’t smoke cigarettes (or work in asbestos factories). Such a population would force us to ask what other factors in the environment can cause lung cancer epidemics and so whether those factors are also operating here, which could imply that cigarettes are, at the very least, not the only cause. And it could be the case that this other cause is more fundamental and that if that factor didn’t exist in our environment, too, cigarettes would not be carcinogenic. Maybe cigarettes accelerate the lung cancer problem, but the other factor is the necessary-and-sufficient one. All these scenarios would now be possible.
Now, I like to think with analogies because they allow us to simplify situations. So let’s say we find a population that smokes tobacco, but is lung cancer free — say the Native Americans and their tobacco smoking in the 19th century. If they didn’t get lung cancer, would this falsify the cigarette-lung cancer hypothesis? In this analogy, the Native American smoking habits are analogous to the honey that the Hadza eat, and the lung cancer epidemic to the obesity and diabetes epidemics.
I’d say no, it doesn’t falsify, because we’d legitimately have to wonder 1) whether there are differences between how the Native Americans smoke and what the Native Americans smoke and how we smoke and modern cigarettes. And this would be equivalent to wondering whether there are differences between how the Hadza consume honey and whether there are meaningful differences between honey and sugar (and high fructose corn syrup) that might be relevant to their effect on insulin resistant, obesity and diabetes. For instance, we consume sugar all day long and drink it all day long and all year long and so do our children, and maybe the honey consumed by the Hadza is only eaten (not consumed in beverages), and eaten only seasonally, and maybe mainly by adults (although having kids myself, it’s for hard for me to believe that Hadza adults would be any more successful keeping sweets away from their children than I am keeping sweets away from mine). And maybe honey, and the fact that the Hadza wouldn’t drink it (lacking hot tea to put it in) has different physiological effects than sugar, which is and can be consumed in liquid form and so can be digested far more quickly and hypothetically do far more harm. Maybe honey, because of the viscosity, is relatively harmless compared to sugar. Anything is possible. That would be nice to know for those of us who miss sweets and would like to find at least one sweetener that’s natural and harmless.
Lastly, back to tobacco and lung cancer, maybe because the Native Americans have been smoking tobacco for hundreds of years or longer, we might be dealing with a population that has evolved to tolerate the carcinogens in the tobacco they’re smoking (or maybe the tobacco they’re smoking in the form they’re smoking it is not carcinogenic). And, of course, the analogy is we don’t know how long the Hadza have been consuming honey. We know it is not part of a nutrition transition of the kind on which we blame obesity and diabetes epidemics.
This last point is crucial. In discussing evolution in GCBC and The Case Against Sugar, I quote the British Naval researcher Peter Cleave as a way to put it in historical context. Here’s the relevant paragraph from TCAS:
Cleave invoked what he called the “Law of Adaptation,” based on his reading of Darwin, to explain the epidemics of chronic disease that Campbell and others were beginning to document around the world: species require “an adequate period of time for adaptation to take place to any unnatural (i.e., new) feature in the environment, so that any danger in the feature should be assessed by how long it has been there.” To Cleave, the refining of sugar and white flour and the dramatic increase in their consumption since the mid-nineteenth century were the most significant changes in human nutrition since the introduction of agriculture roughly ten thousand years before. “Such processes,” he wrote about the refining of sugar and wheat, “have been in existence little more than a century for the ordinary man and from an evolutionary point of view this counts as nothing at all.”
So if the honey isn’t “an unnatural (i.e., new) feature in the environment,” maybe they’re adapted to it in a way that non-honey consumers would not be adapted to sugar or the amount of honey the Hadza consumed. Maybe the Hadza had their obesity and diabetes epidemics when it was new? We don’t know. What would be interesting is to find out whether members of the Hadza people migrated into urban centers and experienced the classic nutrition transition, now consuming sugar and sugary beverages, rather than eating honey. Do they get fat and diabetic? (Although even if they do, we wouldn’t know whether it was the sugar or some other aspect of their personal nutrition/lifestyle transition.)
So I acknowledge the Hadza and their honey consumption are fascinating but I don’t think these populations falsify the sugar-ob/db epidemic hypothesis, They don’t satisfy the requirements necessary to do so. No nutrition transition, no ob/db epidemics. However, that said, had we many such populations, well-documented, they would surely make me wonder what else is going on.
Egregious (and embarrassing) error correction: In earlier versions of this post, I spelled both the Hadza name incorrectly and Stephan Guyanet’s. My apologies to both.Tehran, Iran
It’s a bit of a cop-out to start with a caveat, but this one’s important: Iranian food is best enjoyed when cooked at home, not in a restaurant. Everyone I met in Tehran assured me that my quest for Persian culinary perfection was doomed to failure if I restricted the search to the city’s eateries. Alas, nobody followed up this observation by inviting me home to dinner. I live in the hope that will happen the next time I come to Iran.
That said, I did eat well in Iran, better than in any other single country in the Middle East. Here, after careful consideration, are my favorites:
Kashk-e Badamjan at Hani, Tehran
I was skeptical about Hani: It is a buffet restaurant, and those aren’t known for great food. But I was lured here with the promise of dishes from Iran’s many regional cuisines. This was far and away the best: a creamy dip made from eggplants, yoghurt, fried onions, garlic and whey.
It’s all about the texture: the crunch of the fried onions mixing in with the swirl of the whey and eggplant. I’m looking forward to making it at home in New York, from this recipe.
The broth at Dizi, Tehran
Bobby Ghosh
This is a restaurant that makes only one dish, and is named after it. Dizi, also known as aabghusht, is made by slow-cooking lamb, chickpeas, white beans, potatoes, dried limes, tomatoes, and turmeric. The solids are then removed and mashed into the consistency of hummus. The broth, intensely flavored and piping hot, is eaten with pieces of bread.
Here’s a video of how it’s done:
Parvardeh olives at Shahrzad, Isfahan
In 15 years of travel through the Middle East, I’ve eaten every kind of olive in every kind of preparation—but this is the best I’ve ever had. The green olives are marinated in pomegranate paste, crushed walnuts, garlic, and an assortment of herbs. The result is a wonderful burst of flavors in the mouth. I had this in several restaurants, and they were all excellent. Shahrzad’s was the best by a small margin.
Shashlik at Shandiz, Tehran
Bobby Ghosh
Russians, Georgians, Azeris and Iranians all claim shashlik as their own, and I’m not qualified to judge its parentage. But I can vouch for the version served at this wildly popular Tehran restaurant. The lamb is perfect—slightly burnt on the outside, and juicy on the inside.
Barg kebab at Nayeb, Tehran
Bobby Ghosh
Barg kebab is an Iranian staple, and my personal favorite is served at Persepolis, on New York’s Upper East Side. But this was a close second.
Kalle pache at Nehat, Tehran
Bobby Ghosh
Not for the weak of stomach, this is a dish is made from cooking sheeps’ heads and trotters for several hours. Restaurants that specialize in kalle pache offer customers a choice of different parts of the head—brains, tongue, eyeballs, the works. It’s not pretty, but makes for great brunch.
Don’t scroll down any further if you’re squeamish.
Bobby Ghosh
I did warn you, didn’t I?Radar Beta Update
Introducing our beta API and “No Fee November”.
Radar Relay Blocked Unblock Follow Following Nov 3, 2017
The last month of testing Radar Relay has gone exceptionally well. We were able to test our scalability and infrastructure under high load with the Request Network token launch and we are ready for higher user volumes. To our community, thank you, we value your time helping us stress test.
The Numbers
Our previous fees were.45% maker and.7% taker, but to both reward the community and stress test the app we are dropping our fees to 0% maker and 0% taker for the rest of the month of November (Midnight UTC-6). These new fees will only be in effect for the month of November and will only apply to newly placed orders. During this time we will be testing the performance of our order books under higher loads due to our new market order type, API, and no fees. After this testing period, we will be reevaluating and putting a competitive fee structure in place.
The Tech
Our beta API is live with an accompanying SDK coming soon. By standardizing around the 0x standard relayer API we’ve taken the first step to making networked liquidity a reality. We encourage other relayers implementing an API to also follow the 0x standard.
Please provide feedback, bug reports, and comments about the API in the #dev channel in our Slack.
Market Maker Program
To learn more about our market maker program please reach out to connor@radarrelay.com
Looking for a Job?
Radar is hiring. If you are interested in joining the team send us an email at jobs@radarrelay.com
Join us on Slack
We have a Slack channel called “#beta” where we will be collecting feedback, bug reports, answering questions, and announcing changes and updates. If you are helping with our beta please join that channel.Top ranking TSA managers are not telling the head office about nearly half of the security breaches at the country’s major airports — including Newark — making it more difficult to spot dangerous weaknesses in the national fight against terrorism, according to a federal report obtained by
The Star-Ledger.
But much of the fault may lie with the Transportation Security Administration headquarters itself, which has a poor system for reporting and monitoring breaches, says the report, which is scheduled to be released today by the Inspector General’s Office of the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the TSA. "The agency does not provide the necessary guidance and oversight to insure that all breaches are consistently reported, tracked and corrected. As a result, it does not have a complete understanding of breaches occurring at the Nation’s airports and misses opportunities to strengthen aviation security." states the report, signed by Anne L. Richards, the Department of Homeland Security’s assistant inspector general. The report grew out of a February 2011 request by U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) for an investigation into articles by The Star-Ledger about at least half a dozen security breaches at Newark Liberty International Airport in January and February of that year. While the report focused on breaches occurring at Newark Liberty from January 2010 to May 2011, it says investigators also reviewed security breaches at five other major airports during the same 16-month period, to determine the severity of Newark’s problem as well as deficiencies at other airports and for TSA operations generally. The five other airports were not identified, though Lautenberg had requested investigators also look at John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia airports. While the actual number of breaches were blacked out, the redacted report said that only 42 percent of breaches detected in Newark during the survey period were then reported by local managers to the agency’s central Transportation Security Operations Center. The average reporting rate among all six airports surveyed was 53 percent, while the highest rate at any one of them was 88 percent.
The report said the TSA concurred with its findings, and agreed with recommendations to strengthen its guidelines for reporting and responding to breaches, and for mining nationwide data to improve security system-wide. The security agency, "appreciates work to identify opportunities to further develop and improve TSA’s ability to mitigate security breaches at our Nation’s airports," TSA Administrator John Pistole wrote in his response to the findings, which was included in the report. "Directing, responding to and mitigating the risks associated with security breaches and incident comprise a critical aspect of TSA’s security model." In Newark, the TSA had already replaced the manager in charge of security during most of the survey period. The report said security had improved there since then. In April 2011, the agency installed Donald Drummer as Newark’s federal security director in place of Barbara Bonn Powell. Union representatives, supervisors and front line screeners say the move provided an immediate morale boost, though one that’s been dampened since Drummer has ordered suspensions and retraining for dozens of screeners found not to be doing their jobs. Among the breaches cited by Lautenberg, a flight carrying a dead dog was allowed to continue to Los Angeles even after Powell had learned the carcass had not been properly screened. Less than two weeks later, a knife made it past a Newark security checkpoint in a carry-on bag, forcing officials to shut the airport for 45 minutes. "A TSA source told
The Star-Ledger
newspaper there were three more security lapses, but TSA has disputed them," Lautenberg stated in letter dated Feb. 24, 2011, asking Inspector General Richard Skinner to look into the beaches. Even before last year’s breaches in Newark, Lautenberg told Skinner, in January 2010 a Rutgers graduate student took advantage of a vacated security post at a checkpoint exit lane to enter a secure area and kiss his girlfriend, shutting the airport for six hours and disrupting air travel around the world. The breaches were particularly alarming, Lautenberg said in the letter, because of Newark’s status as one of the nation’s busiest passenger hubs and as a so-called 9/11 airport, which also happens to be located in a densely populated area teaming with industrial, commercial and transportation facilities considered prime targets of terror. Newark Liberty handled 33.8 million passengers in 2011, 14th in the nation, and was where United Airlines Flight 93 took off on Sept. 11, 2001, before it was hijacked and crashed in Pennsylvania, killing all 44 people on board. Investigators found local officials often may not report security problems because of confusion over what the national guidelines from TSA headquarters require.
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One of the six airports did not report that a passenger had been allowed into a secure area without a valid boarding pass because the local TSA management did not consider it reportable "based on their interpretation of the guidance." One possible reason for the under-reporting, the report suggested, is that the definition of a breach varies in internal agency literature. For example, the report quotes one TSA operations directive, titled "Management of Security Breaches," as defining a breach as, "any incident involving unauthorized and uncontrolled access by an individual or prohibited item into a sterile area or security area of an airport that is determined by TSA to present an immediate and significant risk to life, safety or the security of the transportation network." But a different directive, involving the agency’s Performance and Results Information System, titled, "Reporting Security Incidents via PARIS," refers only to individuals’ gaining access improperly, not to prohibited items. The result, the report states, was differing interpretations of what constituted a breach among local TSA managers, resulting in inconsistent reporting, with only headquarters to blame. "At the six airports visited, TSA did not always take action or document their actions to correct security breach vulnerabilities because," the report states, "the agency did not provide TSA management at the airports with a clear definition or guidance for identifying and reporting security breaches through its reporting systems."
Related coverage:
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•by Scott Jameson
700 words
For my first post on this blog, I thought I’d talk about something relevant to the mission of the blog: Political Correctness. I’m very grateful to RaceRealist for inviting me to hop on board here (although I should put out the categorical disclaimer that me posting here is not in and of itself an endorsement of any given thing he’s said over the years).
This is going to be something of an opinion essay about why denying reality is silly: because you still have to live in it. Most of my content is going to be more empirically driven, as you’re used to on this blog. Bear with me.
The SAT’s name change story is a classic case of “Political Correctness,” and is mirrored by KFC’s story of adapting to new nutritional standards. For those out of the loop: after the public realized how unhealthy fried foods are, Kentucky Fried Chicken changed its name to KFC. The point was to make the unhealthy nature of the food one conceptual extrapolation away from the name itself, in hopes that the public would not bother to recall what the “F” stood for.
SAT originally stood for “Scholastic Aptitude Test.” It was (and is) a test to determine how apt you are for scholarly endeavors. Put bluntly, it’s a somewhat sloppy IQ test oriented towards scholarly settings in particular. Of course, that name was too accurate, so it fell out of favor. The public does not want to live in a world wherein poor students are less apt than rich students and Black students are less apt than White students, and so the Scholastic Aptitude Test became the Scholastic Assessment Test. In order to be offended by that, you have to remember that what’s being assessed is aptitude and that nothing has changed. Like “KFC,” it was one conceptual extrapolation away from the reality at hand. Most people were probably too harebrained to see through that.
For some reason, they kept rolling with it. It became an alleged Reasoning Test, and then simply a series of letters that used to be an abbreviation: “the SAT,” no doubt an homage to The Colonel and the chicken he hawks. They’re both just a series of letters now – the unpleasant realities contained therein have been conceptually sterilized. Like the SAT, the nutritional content of the chicken hasn’t changed as much as the name has.
You may suspect that I’m simply flinging excrement in the general direction of The College Board, but there’s a point to what I’m saying here. What we call “Political Correctness” is a pervasive scrubbing of reality out of the consciousness of the public at large, especially the young. There was a time when people were allowed to say things like “I do not enjoy living around Blacks/Whites/Hispanics/whomever.” “Political Correctness” entered from stage left, and then Boomers had to say “bad schools” and “bad neighborhood” instead. Odds are, the Boomers understood the connotative meanings, at least at first. But if you asked millennials what those terms are, I’d bet on most of them actually being ignorant enough to think that the schools are themselves the problem. Nobody ever pointed out to these kids that almost all of the “bad schools” – the schools with low average test scores – are simply full of Hispanics (Mestizos) and African Americans who have low average test scores regardless of what school they’re in, and that the supermajority of all of the “good schools” aren’t. Anyone who doesn’t know this has been deliberately rendered ignorant of a reality that is important to their lives.
What we call “Political Correctness” is in fact the successful, systematic obfuscation of reality, and having reality perpetually hidden from you is dangerous. That is why we at this blog are NotPoliticallyCorrect. As long as I’m here, I can promise you my best attempt at discovering and conveying the truth in the NotPoliticallyCorrect fashion exemplified thus far by RaceRealist: bringing you interesting truths, obscure truths, and of course, controversial truths.
*****
I’m not the first to make the SAT-KFC comparison, by the way. After I wrote this article, I looked around for sources only to dredge this up.
AdvertisementsBRITISH designer Glynn Kerr has drawn up the styling for a road-going version of Lightning Motors' electric racer – current holder of the world speed record for electric bikes.
The Lightning machine, which also races in the TTXGP series and won at Le Mans last Friday, is to be turned into a road-going bike offering the same technical specification and performance. That means it should be at least theoretically capable of something near the 215.960mph two-way world record top speed, and one-way 218.637mph peak, that the race version managed at Bonneville last year.
Add a claimed 100-mile-plus range at 'freeway speed', or more than 150 miles at a slower pace, and on paper it looks like a viable proposition. However, on paper is the only way we've seen the road version so far.
Even without a real road bike to show, Lightning |
Level 26: Pursuit Level 29: Aerial Ace Level 33: Roost Level 36: Agility Level 40: Air Slash Level 43: Hurricane ======== Pelipper - Level up moves ======== Count: 14 Level 1: Hydro Pump Level 1: Tailwind Level 1: Soak Level 1: Growl Level 1: Water Gun Level 1: Water Sport Level 1: Wing Attack Level 5: Wing Attack Level 8: Wing Attack Level 12: Wing Attack Level 15: Wing Attack Level 19: Payback Level 22: Roost Level 25: Water Gun ======== Ralts - Level up moves ======== Count: 17 Level 1: Growl Level 4: Confusion Level 6: Double Team Level 9: Teleport Level 11: Disarming Voice Level 14: Lucky Chant Level 17: Magical Leaf Level 19: Heal Pulse Level 22: Draining Kiss Level 24: Calm Mind Level 27: Psychic Level 29: Imprison Level 32: Future Sight Level 34: Charm Level 37: Hypnosis Level 39: Dream Eater Level 42: Stored Power ======== Kirlia - Level up moves ======== Count: 20 Level 1: Growl Level 1: Confusion Level 1: Double Team Level 1: Teleport Level 4: Confusion Level 6: Double Team Level 9: Teleport Level 11: Disarming Voice Level 14: Lucky Chant Level 17: Magical Leaf Level 19: Heal Pulse Level 23: Draining Kiss Level 26: Calm Mind Level 30: Psychic Level 33: Imprison Level 37: Future Sight Level 40: Charm Level 44: Hypnosis Level 47: Dream Eater Level 51: Stored Power ======== Gardevoir - Level up moves ======== Count: 25 Level 1: Moonblast Level 1: Stored Power Level 1: Misty Terrain Level 1: Healing Wish Level 1: Growl Level 1: Confusion Level 1: Double Team Level 1: Teleport Level 4: Confusion Level 6: Double Team Level 9: Teleport Level 11: Disarming Voice Level 14: Wish Level 17: Magical Leaf Level 19: Heal Pulse Level 23: Draining Kiss Level 26: Calm Mind Level 31: Psychic Level 35: Imprison Level 40: Future Sight Level 44: Captivate Level 49: Hypnosis Level 53: Dream Eater Level 58: Stored Power Level 62: Moonblast ======== Surskit - Level up moves ======== Count: 11 Level 1: Bubble Level 6: Quick Attack Level 9: Sweet Scent Level 14: Water Sport Level 17: Bubble Beam Level 22: Agility Level 25: Mist Level 25: Haze Level 30: Aqua Jet Level 35: Baton Pass Level 38: Sticky Web ======== Masquerain - Level up moves ======== Count: 20 Level 1: Quiver Dance Level 1: Whirlwind Level 1: Bug Buzz Level 1: Ominous Wind Level 1: Bubble Level 1: Quick Attack Level 1: Sweet Scent Level 1: Water Sport Level 6: Quick Attack Level 9: Sweet Scent Level 14: Water Sport Level 17: Gust Level 22: Scary Face Level 22: Air Cutter Level 26: Stun Spore Level 32: Silver Wind Level 38: Air Slash Level 42: Bug Buzz Level 48: Whirlwind Level 52: Quiver Dance ======== Shroomish - Level up moves ======== Count: 9 Level 1: Absorb Level 1: Tackle Level 5: Stun Spore Level 8: Leech Seed Level 12: Mega Drain Level 15: Headbutt Level 19: Mega Drain Level 22: Worry Seed Level 26: Tackle ======== Breloom - Level up moves ======== Count: 16 Level 1: Absorb Level 1: Tackle Level 1: Stun Spore Level 1: Leech Seed Level 5: Stun Spore Level 8: Leech Seed Level 12: Mega Drain Level 15: Headbutt Level 19: Feint Level 22: Counter Level 23: Mach Punch Level 28: Force Palm Level 33: Mind Reader Level 39: Sky Uppercut Level 44: Seed Bomb Level 50: Dynamic Punch ======== Slakoth - Level up moves ======== Count: 8 Level 1: Scratch Level 1: Yawn Level 6: Encore Level 9: Slack Off Level 14: Feint Attack Level 17: Amnesia Level 22: Covet Level 25: Chip Away ======== Vigoroth - Level up moves ======== Count: 14 Level 1: Reversal Level 1: Scratch Level 1: Focus Energy Level 1: Encore Level 1: Uproar Level 6: Encore Level 9: Uproar Level 14: Fury Swipes Level 17: Endure Level 23: Slash Level 27: Chip Away Level 33: Counter Level 37: Focus Punch Level 43: Reversal ======== Slaking - Level up moves ======== Count: 19 Level 1: Hammer Arm Level 1: Punishment Level 1: Fling Level 1: Scratch Level 1: Yawn Level 1: Encore Level 1: Slack Off Level 6: Encore Level 9: Slack Off Level 14: Feint Attack Level 17: Amnesia Level 23: Covet Level 27: Chip Away Level 33: Counter Level 36: Swagger Level 39: Flail Level 47: Fling Level 53: Punishment Level 61: Hammer Arm ======== Nincada - Level up moves ======== Count: 8 Level 1: Scratch Level 1: Harden Level 5: Leech Life Level 9: Sand Attack Level 13: Fury Swipes Level 17: Mud-Slap Level 21: Metal Claw Level 25: Mind Reader ======== Ninjask - Level up moves ======== Count: 17 Level 1: Bug Bite Level 1: Scratch Level 1: Harden Level 1: Leech Life Level 1: Sand Attack Level 5: Leech Life Level 9: Sand Attack Level 13: Fury Swipes Level 17: Agility Level 20: Double Team Level 20: Fury Cutter Level 20: Screech Level 23: Slash Level 29: Mind Reader Level 35: Baton Pass Level 41: Swords Dance Level 47: X-Scissor ======== Shedinja - Level up moves ======== Count: 13 Level 1: Scratch Level 1: Harden Level 5: Leech Life Level 9: Sand Attack Level 13: Fury Swipes Level 17: Spite Level 21: Shadow Sneak Level 25: Mind Reader Level 29: Confuse Ray Level 33: Shadow Ball Level 37: Grudge Level 41: Heal Block Level 45: Phantom Force ===Former Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien could be the next big name to move to Major League Soccer this winter as he is believed to be keen on a new challenge but he has turned down an offer from FC Dallas.
Reports emerged yesterday from Italian publication Gazzetta Dello Sport that Essien was ready to reject offers from across Europe in order to make a move to MLS, just 12 months after moving to Serie A with AC Milan.
Premier League strugglers Burnley, Leicester City and West Bromwich Albion are all interested in signing the 32-year-old who is out of contract in June.
With just six months left on his current Milan contract, Essien is free to speak to clubs about his next move, with Milan not willing to extend his deal.
The player is reportedly keen to secure a move to MLS so that he can leave Italy in time for the new season starting in March.
But Essien has turned down an offer from FC Dallas, according to transfer specialist David Amoyal, who states in his report that: “Essien’s contract expires in June and just like Giovinco, he could sign with any team for next season.
“FC Dallas made an offer but it was deemed too low.”
That does not mean that Dallas are out of the race to sign Essien, and if the player is keen on a move to the United States, then he’ll be forced to reconsider any future offers.
It’s worth noting that Essien’s agent is Nico Clavijo – the son of FC Dallas’ technical director Fernando Clavijo.
It has already been a very busy offseason of transfer dealings in MLS and don’t be surprised to see more clubs put an offer on the table for Michael Essien to consider.
Would Michael Essien be a good signing for MLS? Should FC Dallas make another offer?
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PocketMore than 40 years ago, Agent Orange was one of 15 herbicides used by the U.S. military as a defoliant in the Vietnam War to protect and save the lives of U.S. and allied soldiers. It was a unique mixture of two common herbicides (2,4-D and 2,4,5-T ) that had been used separately in the United States since the late 1940s. The government named the mixture “Agent Orange” because of the orange band that was painted on containers of the material.
From 1965 to 1969, the former Monsanto Company manufactured Agent Orange for the U.S. military as a wartime government contractor. The current Monsanto Company has maintained responsibility for this product since we were spun-off as a separate, independent agricultural company in 2002.
From 1965 to 1969, the former Monsanto Company was one of nine wartime government contractors who manufactured Agent Orange. The government set the specifications for making Agent Orange and determined when, where and how it was used. Agent Orange was only produced for, and used by, the government.
Ongoing Research and Services
The use of Agent Orange as a military herbicide in Vietnam continues to be an emotional subject for many people. Asian Affairs Specialist Michael Martin notes, “[a]t the time the herbicides were used, there was little consideration within the U.S. military about potential long-term environmental and health effects of the widespread use of Agent Orange in Vietnam.”
As a result, the governments that were involved most often take responsibility for resolving any consequences of the Vietnam War, including any relating to the use of Agent Orange. U.S. courts have determined that wartime contractors (such as the former Monsanto) who produced Agent Orange for the government are not responsible for damage claims associated with the chemistry.
Research on Agent Orange has been conducted for decades and continues today. While a causal connection linking Agent Orange to chronic disease in humans has not been established, some governments have made the decision to provide certain medical benefits to veterans and their families even though there has not been a determination that an individual’s health problem was caused by Agent Orange. In addition, governments and non-governmental humanitarian organizations have increased funding of environmental and healthcare services to help address potential problems that may exist in Vietnam from the use of Agent Orange.A scene from the upcoming movie Europa Report, one of three new films that offer differing perspectives on the future of spaceflight. Futures imperfect
“We don’t create a fantasy world to escape reality, we create it to be able to stay.”—Lynda Barry At the risk of over-generalizing, there are two broad points of view among space enthusiasts about the future of American human spaceflight. One group looks at NASA’s inability to go beyond Earth orbit in the last four decades, looks at the numerous policy collapses like the Space Exploration Initiative and the Vision for Space Exploration, and considers the current lack of clearly defined goals and destinations and the resources to actually venture outward, and gets depressed. Another group looks at the rise of “commercial space,” at the Bigelow inflatable habitats and the announced plans for asteroid mining and, above all, the latest press releases from SpaceX, and concludes that the future is so bright that we gotta wear shades. In their view, humans will be landing on Mars perhaps within fifteen years wearing corporate logo polo shirts and drawing the shape of the dollar sign in the pink sky while flipping the bird at the oppressive NASA bureaucracy. But I try to be as analytical as possible about the present: the glass is neither half full nor half empty; it is a 16 ounce glass containing 8 ounces of water. And when it comes to trying to imagine the future of human spaceflight, I watch movies. Blomkamp seems to have picked up on the theme of space as a playground for the rich and powerful. The giant Elysium space station, started in the late 21st century, is a haven for the rich by the middle of the 22nd century. Because the future (the future that I want, anyway) hasn’t gotten here fast enough, I like to watch science fiction movies focused on the near-future and featuring realistic depictions of spaceflight. Over the years I have reviewed many of them on The Space Review, from the good to the awful and everything in between. But in the coming months we are about to be treated to three very intriguing movies about near-term space travel that may offer the promise for some interesting discussion and reflection about the current state of human spaceflight. Gravity In 2006, Alfonso Cuarón directed one of the ten best science fiction movies of the last decade, Children of Men. Cuarón demonstrated the power of science fiction as a cultural mirror, creating a fictional situation and exploring its effects on humanity. The premise of the film was that no more children were being born in the world and as a result civilization was rapidly falling apart. People no longer saw a future for the world, and by extension, themselves. Nihilism and decay spread over the Earth. It was a powerfully thought-provoking movie. Cuarón has returned to science fiction for his next movie, Gravity, starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock as astronauts aboard the International Space Station as something goes terribly wrong. Although the scope of the film is less grand than Children of Men, if we are to judge from the trailer it will be an intense psychological and emotional movie. The trailer seems slightly anachronistic, because it depicts a space shuttle and apparently the Hubble Space Telescope at the ISS, and the last shuttle flew in 2011. But Cuarón is a talented and thoughtful director, and thus there is reason to expect a great film. Gravity premiers in October. Elysium In 2009, previously unknown South African director Neill Blomkamp surprised many people with an intense and clever movie about aliens living on Earth. District 9 had an interesting twist on the alien invasion film: one day a giant alien spaceship shows up on Earth, hovering over Johannesburg, South Africa. When humans finally venture aboard they find thousands of starving aliens, apparently a slave race that had been abandoned on the ship. The film took place twenty years after this event, when most of the aliens are confined to a slum, separated from humans, and are considered nothing more than a nuisance. The movie was a commentary about how we treat the lowest among us, and the divisions, often self-imposed, that prevent understandings between cultures. Blomkamp has now returned to that theme, this time with a film that may make many libertarian space enthusiasts uncomfortable. The premise of Elysium is that humanity has now moved out into space, building a giant orbiting space station modeled on the conceptual space cities inspired by Gerard K. O’Neill in the 1970s. O’Neill envisioned cities to support the workers necessary to mine lunar materials and build massive solar power stations to beam energy to Earth. But nearly forty years later solar power satellites remain the subject of fanboy fantasies and most talk about “ordinary people” going into space concerns wealthy space tourists rather than the middle and working classes. Blomkamp seems to have picked up on the theme of space as a playground for the rich and powerful. The giant Elysium space station, started in the late 21st century, is a haven for the rich by the middle of the 22nd century. Echoing many earlier science fiction movies (Blade Runner, Wall-E, Silent Running) Earth is a dump, a hellhole for the poor and downtrodden, and someplace that people want to leave behind to decay. Blomkamp has clearly taken much inspiration for his movie from some 1970s-era NASA artwork. As Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan writing for Gizmodo has noted, many of the giant space station’s design features are practically copies of artwork produced by NASA nearly four decades ago. Elysium: NASA-sponsored artwork by Rick Guidice: Elysium: NASA-sponsored artwork by Don Davis: Elysium: NASA-sponsored artwork by Don Davis: The movie’s website, which plays up the idea of spaceflight as available only for the rich and beautiful, can be found here. Elysium premiers August 9. Europa Report Perhaps all you need to know about this movie is that the soundtrack is by Bear McCreary. McCreary is the incredibly talented musician who has composed the soundtracks for Battlestar Galactica and numerous other television shows, including several that are currently airing. He has tremendous range, able to incorporate various musical styles and instruments into his scores depending up on the emotional and visual requirements of the scene. Europa Report focuses on a privately-funded mission to Jupiter’s moon Europa. Europa, as you may know, is suspected of harboring a vast ocean underneath an icy surface. The official poster includes the line: “Fear. Sacrifice. Contact.” And that’s pretty much what the trailer depicts. An astronaut goes under the ice (which is not going to be easy considering that it may be several kilometers thick), and encounters something bad. According to a vague but highly enthusiastic review on io9, the film presents a very realistic depiction of human spaceflight, and it is interesting to compare the trailer to the trailer for Gravity, which looks a little more Hollywood glossy, probably due to a far larger budget. The film uses the now-tired “found footage” approach, something that we saw in another science fiction movie, Apollo 18, a couple of years ago, but it looks good. The fictional corporate sponsor website for the expedition—although lacking in much content, is here. Europa Report premiers August 2. Based upon the Elysium trailer, it looks like we are supposed to support the working class man who is striving to bring down the beautiful space colony in the sky. Of all of these movies, Elysium may offer the most food for thought for the space enthusiast community. One of the major contradictions of current plans for space tourism is that even if they work, they will be a far cry from the democratizing vision of human spaceflight that was first advanced by spaceflight visionaries in the 1970s. Those who have long griped that NASA only flies a few elites into space—Ph.D. engineers and doctors and military test pilots—haven’t really addressed the fact that space tourism really only substitutes another set of elites, the very rich, for the high achievers. Based upon the Elysium trailer, it looks like we are supposed to support the working class man who is striving to bring down the beautiful space colony in the sky. On the other hand, both Europa Report and Gravity show more traditional approaches to human spaceflight. Europa Report may ostensibly depict a commercial spaceflight mission, but it still appears to be a scientific expedition similar to what a consortium of government space agencies would conduct. And neither of those adventures look like they end well. HomeOn April 19, Chinese President Xi addressed a forum on cybersecurity. He said officials should “heed public opinions” online and display “greater tolerance and patience” of “well-intentioned” criticism of the authorities. However, any positive reaction to his speech was short-lived: comments about it were immediately censored on social media.
On Wednesday, China scored its worst ever marks in the new Freedom of the Press report by Freedom House, with the advocacy group blaming a “trend of ideological tightening” under Xi. Freedom House scored China 87/100 — with higher marks indicating greater restrictions — on press freedom in its 2016 survey. (Last year was the China’s previous worst score with 86.)
“Censorship of news and Internet content related to the financial system and environmental pollution increased as the economy slowed and smog intensified, adding to the topics’ political sensitivity,” noted the report, which has been published every year since 2002.
Chinese journalists are commonly detained for short periods to coerce them to amend whatever is considered negative coverage. Following the publication of an open letter calling on President Xi to resign, at least 20 journalists and government critics were detained and interrogated. The prominent commentator Jia Jia was held for almost two weeks before being released.
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“Members of religious and ethnic minorities are subject to particularly harsh treatment for their online activities, writings, or efforts to disseminate information that departs from the [Chinese Communist Party] line,” according to Freedom House.
Read Next: The Other Side of the Great Firewall
More seriously, an estimated 49 journalists are currently serving prison terms in China, according to the most recent annual census by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), meaning China is the world’s most prolific jailer of media workers.
Among them is Wang Jing, who this month was sentenced to almost five years in prison on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” with her writing. According to her publication 64 Tianwang, Wang wrote about allegations of Chinese police harassing, detaining and beating protestors.
Wang’s lawyer told the Hong Kong–based group Chinese Human Rights Defenders that local police beat her repeatedly and force-fed her when she staged hunger strikes to protest mistreatment in custody. Wang is not well and suffers from a brain tumor, her editor told the CPJ.
The picture online is no rosier. In the first quarter of 2016, China’s Internet watchdog shut down 1,046 illegal websites for “spreading pornographic content or information that jeopardizes national security,” according to state news agency Xinhua.
China operates the world’s most sophisticated online censorship apparatus — dubbed the Great Firewall — that employs 2 million online censors, according to state media. It blocks any content deemed inappropriate for Chinese to view — including Google, Facebook, Twitter — as well as search results for politically sensitive topics, such as the 1989 massacre of students in the streets surrounding Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. (Following Hannah Beech’s story on Xi last month, TIME.com has also been banned.)
Write to Charlie Campbell at charlie.campbell@time.com.Scientists at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) are bringing us closer to understanding the musical experience through a novel approach to analysing a common musical effect known as vibrato.
Vibrato is the up-down oscillation in pitch introduced during instrumental or vocal performance, intended to add expressivity and to facilitate sound projection, and commonly used in opera. A well-timed and beautifully executed vibrato can greatly enhance the sound quality of a note, and induce strong emotional responses in the listener.
The new approach to vibrato analysis, published in the Journal of Mathematics and Music, describes for the first time the use of the Filter Diagonalisation Method (FDM) in music signal processing. The technique has origins in quantum physics and is employed to study molecular dynamics and nuclear magnetic resonance.
"We are now one step closer to understanding the mechanics of music communication, the nuances that performers introduce to the music, and the logic behind them," said project supervisor and co-author Professor Elaine Chew from the Centre for Digital Music at QMUL's School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science (EECS).
The technique's ability to detect and estimate characteristics from very fine slivers of information comes in particularly handy in vibrato analysis and allows researchers to analyse music signals with greater precision than before.
Vibratos typically oscillate at a rate of 4-8 cycles per second, or with a period of 125-250 milliseconds per cycle. The degree to which the pitch is bent up or down can be up to half a semitone. Because vibratos happen so quickly, standard techniques which require a comparatively large window for analysing the music signal have so far struggled to accurately capture their characteristics.
"The FDM algorithm was initially developed to efficiently and effectively explore the complicated quantum dynamical resonances of atoms and molecules. Although musical signals are very different from their quantum counterparts, mathematically they share many similarities, including the characteristics of their resonances," said Dr Khalid Rajab, project co-supervisor and co-author from QMUL's School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science (EECS).
"In fact, we found that, because they oscillate with time, the harmonics in musical signals can be more complicated to analyse than their quantum counterparts," he added. The research emerged from a project to model the differences between playing on violin and erhu, a two-stringed Chinese fiddle.
Professor Chew said: "When music for a folk instrument like the erhu is performed on a violin, it lacks the stylistic and expressive qualities of the original. One of the major sources of these differences lies in the way in which notes are elaborated (with vibrato) and the way in which the instrumentalists make their transitions between notes (using portamentos). We were interested in creating computing tools that can help reveal these differences."
The research forms part of the PhD project of Luwei Yang, first author and a China Scholarship Council doctoral candidate and Research Assistant in EECS.
Yang, an avid erhu player said: "In erhu, as in violin playing, vibrato is frequently employed to mimic the liveliness and colourful expressivity of the human voice. Contemporary erhu vibrato styles were deeply influenced by violin techniques, so it is fascinating to dig deeper into characterising the differences between them."
The researchers hope the new technique will help musicians and music teachers in their quest to achieve the perfect vibrato, assist sound artists in creating more natural sounding vibrato effects in audio production, and enable researchers to map stylistic trends in vibrato use across cultures and time.Check out the official Japanese box art for A Certain Magical Virtual-On, an upcoming game being released on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita. The game features characters from the light novel franchise A Certain Magical Index and SEGA’s arcade franchiseCyber Troopers Virtual-On in a epic cross-over competitive game.
A Certain Magical Virtual-On Japanese box art features Touma Kamijo (A Certain Magical Index) and Virtuaroid MBV-707/VSL “Temjin 707” (Virtual-On). I think the box art is just OK, nothing special and feel that the art style differences between Virtual-On and A Certain Magical Index really clash on the cover. For example Temjin 707 looks rather 3D while Touma Kamijo on the other hand is a typical anime drawing. As for the game, its set to launch on February 15, 2018 in Japan on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita. SEGA West hasn’t announced a western release date as of this posting.
[Via: Gemastu]Paul Halpern is a Ph.D. physicist with expertise in general relativity, complexity, history of physics, the nature of time, and cultural aspects of science. He was recently featured in an episode of the popular television show The Simpsons after writing a book entitled What’s Science Ever Done for Us? What the Simpsons Can Teach Us About Physics, Robots, Life, and the Universe. In the episode, Simpsons 20th Anniversary on Ice, Professor Halpern is the man in a lab coat talking about the three headed fish.
Paul Halpern is Professor of Physics and Fellow in the Humanities at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. He received a Ph.D in theoretical physics, a M.A. in physics and a B.A. in physics and mathematics. He was also the recipient of the 2002 Guggenheim Fellowship and in 1996 received a Fulbright Scholarship. He was also awarded Athenaeum Society Literary Award.
SuperScholar was fortune enough to catch up with Professor Halpern to conduct the following interview:
1. Why did you pursue a career in physics? Was there a particular question that intrigued you?
In high school I found that I was good in mathematics but also interested in the workings of nature. I read George Gamow’s excellent book “One, Two, Three, Infinity” and was fascinated by his descriptions of the Big Bang and particle physics. I also enjoyed the physics exhibit at the Franklin Institute science museum. So all these suggested a career in physics.
2. Within physics you’ve focused in different areas (e.g. the nature of time). What have they been? And how might you try to explain briefly your present particular field of interest to someone who didn’t know anything about it?
My main area of study has been the intersection between general relativity, describing how gravity is represented by the warping of space and time, and complexity, showing how deterministic systems can display seemingly random behavior. My dissertation was on chaos in general relativity. I’ve also looked at higher dimensional cosmologies, literature and science, and the history of physics. Finally, I’ve written 12 popular science books about subjects ranging from the nature of time to planets beyond the solar system.
3. What both excites and frustrates you about doing physics?
I’m excited how close we are to developing a theory that encompasses all the known forces, but frustrated how, as we approach the answer, fundamental physics has become extraordinarily more complex through the introduction of string theory which has myriad possible models.
4. What characteristics do you believe help people succeed in your field?
I think physicists need considerable focus and either strong mathematical abilities for theorists or superb technical and computer skills for experimentalists.
5. Now that you’ve been doing physics for some time (how many years has it been?), what was the biggest misconception you had about it before you got into it? And what do you think others misunderstand about your field?
I’ve been in the field of physics for 23 years. My biggest misconception before getting into the field was that it would be possible to tackle and solve many major problems in different subdisciplines. However, in reality, physics has become so specialized that few people can move from field to field and get much accomplished.
6. Who are some of the current leading figures in physics?
In my own area, general relativity, these include Stephen Hawking, Roger Penrose, Kip Thorne, George Ellis, Lee Smolin, Paul Steinhardt, George Smoot, Michael Turner, Alan Guth, Andrei Linde, and many others.
7. Do you have any advice for young students just getting into physics?
I would advise them to learn as much math and computational skills as possible.
8. What do you think of as the most interesting problems in physics today?
Discovering the true nature of dark matter and dark energy, the elusive substances that together make up around 95% of the cosmos, are two vital questions. The vital aspect of the question is their importance to understanding unseen forces in the universe.
9. Are there any recent papers or books or new ideas in physics that you’ve found particularly noteworthy?
I would highly recommend Graham Farmelo’s new biography of the physicist Paul Dirac, who was an inspiring figure.
10. What kind of impact do you think your research will have in physics or in other fields of research or in society as a whole?
I’m not sure about the impact of my research, but I hope that my books help inspire young people to pursue careers in science.
Paul Halpern’s Website:
http://phalpern.com/
Paul Halpern’s Latest Books:ORLANDO, Fla. -- An annual study of the schools in the men's NCAA tournament shows a slight increase in teams that fall below graduation rate standards.
The University of Central Florida's Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport said in its report Monday that eight teams that made the 2014 men's bracket fall below the NCAA-mandated Academic Progress Rate score of 930, equivalent to a 50 percent graduation rate. Last year six teams didn't reach that benchmark.
Study author Richard Lapchick said while academic reforms overall have led to positive change, he urged tougher measures. He would like to see the NCAA's four-year standard raised to a graduation rate equivalent to 60 percent.
This year 88 percent of the teams in the men's tournament currently graduate at least 60 percent of their players.
Currently, teams scoring below a 925 APR can lose up to 10 percent of their scholarships. Teams can also be subject to penalties for poor academic performance over time.
Teams in this year's field that would be subject to NCAA-imposed sanctions that could keep them from postseason play are: Cal Poly (925), Coastal Carolina (921), North Carolina Central (903), Oklahoma State (928), Providence (915), Texas Southern (900), Connecticut (897) and Oregon (918).
Beginning with 2012-13 championships, teams must earn a minimum 900 four-year APR or a 930 average over the most recent two years to be eligible for NCAA championships.
In 2014, seven teams fell below 925, compared with three teams in 2013. The APR was developed by the NCAA in 2004 as a way to improve graduation rates. It is a four-year rolling average of academic performance that takes into account academic eligibility and retention.
Connecticut is back in the field following a one-year NCAA tournament ban last year after failing to meet APR minimums. UConn was one of 10 schools barred from last year's postseason.
"The loss of scholarships and being banned from postseason play is the thing coaches dread most," Lapchick said. "I was glad to see UConn made such a good improvement. I can't attribute it all to (the tournament ban), but I'm sure they're going to do everything in their power to put students on campus that can have the greatest success academically."
UConn said in October it will report a perfect APR of 1,000 for the 2012-13 school year.
The NCAA recently voted to institute stricter policies with regards to APR performance and postseason participation. The new legislation will require teams to have a four-year APR above 930 to qualify for postseason participation the following year.
For 2014-15, teams must earn a 930 four-year average APR or a 940 average over the most recent two years to participate in championships. In 2015-16 and beyond, teams must earn a four-year APR of 930.
This year's study again noted the wide disparity between the Graduation Success Rates between white and African-American players on this year's NCAA tournament teams.
The GSR numbers for white players decreased slightly from 90 percent in 2013 to 89 percent in 2014. For African-American players it remained the same from 2013 to 2014 at 65 percent.
Lapchick also called it "unacceptable" that 38 percent of tournament teams had a GSR disparity this year greater than 30 percent between white and African-American players, and 47 percent with a disparity greater than 20 percent.
He wants the NCAA to impose penalties for historically poor GSR racial disparities, as it does for consistently bad APR scores.
"This is what I've been pointing out in football studies for a decade," he said. "I think it is one thing that should be part of APR. If they are at one of those schools with 30 percent disparities, at some point (penalties) should be invoked."
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Online: www.tidesport.org
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Follow Kyle Hightower on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/khightowerFormer Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar said Wednesday via Twitter he meant "no disrespect" to Dwight Clark when he made a quip on Cleveland radio about Clark's ALS diagnosis.
"We had a bad weekend with Gale Sayers being diagnosed [with dementia]... Dwight Clark with ALS," Kosar said on WKNR, ESPN-Cleveland, on Wednesday. "I could make a joke about his struggles in picking players when he was here. It almost makes me wonder if maybe it started earlier."
Clark was the Browns' director of football operations when the franchise resumed operations for the expansion years. He was with the team from 1999-2002.
Kosar later addressed the comment on Twitter:
I absolutely Ment no Disrespect to Dwight! I Spoke strongly about the need for prevention & care before U Get to This Sad Point! https://t.co/WTRUFGZ6W5 — Bernie Kosar (@BernieKosarQB) March 22, 2017
Kosar played for the Browns from 1985 to 1993 and in the NFL until 1996. He has admitted he is dealing with post-concussion syndrome since he left the NFL.
Kosar said he was meeting after the interview with a chemist and scientist to address his health issues with genetic and holistic treatments.
"The Lou Gehrig's disease is a rough one," Kosar said in a serious tone.By Matt Becker
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Last week we talked about the 4 types of insurance all new parents should have, which may have put some work on your plate to get that insurance in place!
When you go looking for insurance, you’ll find that there are two main ways to get it:
Through your employer On your own
There are pros and cons to each and in this post we’ll walk through them so that you can get your family the right kind of protection.
Sometimes you don’t have a choice
There are some cases where you may not have a choice about where your insurance comes from.
If your employer offers health insurance, then those are for the most part the only options you will have. The one thing you can do if you’re married is check out the options your spouse has through his or her job. You should be able to hop on either spouse’s plan, though you may have to wait until the next open enrollment.
If you don’t have employer health insurance, then you’ll be left to find it on your own. My first recommendation would be to check out this post: 5 Steps to Take If You’re Losing Health Insurance. But in most cases the new insurance exchanges will likely be your best bet for finding health insurance on your own.
You also likely won’t have a choice for liability insurance, simply because it probably won’t be offered through work. So you will have to get that through on your own through your auto and homeowners policies, and potentially an umbrella policy on top of that.
So with all of that said, the major types of insurance where you will be making this work vs. on your own decision are life and long-term disability insurance.
Advantages of getting insurance through work
The big advantage of getting life or disability insurance through work is that it’s easy to do. If your employer offers the coverage it’s usually as simple as checking the “yes |
that de Blasio had biracial children and was an interracial marriage. And I think that that sort of awakened a lot of people to say, “Hey, I should take another look at this guy.” And I think that then, of course, the policies were critical, the policies that directly affected the lives of African Americans and Latinos and working-class New Yorkers.
AMY GOODMAN: And let’s go to one of those policies that directly related to his son, this pivotal moment in 2014, when Eric Garner is killed, put in a fatal police chokehold in Staten Island. The officers had confronted Garner for allegedly selling loose cigarettes. Protests erupted over lack of police accountability. Shortly afterward, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he and his wife Chirlane, who is African-American, fear for the safety of their teenage son, Dante.
MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO: Chirlane and I have had to talk to Dante for years about the dangers he may face. Good young man, law-abiding young man, who never would think to do anything wrong, and yet, because of a history that still hangs over us, the dangers he may face, we’ve had to literally train him, as families have all over this city for decades, in how to take special care in any encounter he has with the police officers who are there to protect him. And that painful sense of contradiction that our young people see first, that our police are here to protect us and we honor that, and the same time, there’s a history we have to overcome because for so many of our young people there’s a fear, and for so many of our families there’s a fear.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Mayor de Blasio talking about his own son and talking about the police, Juan.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yes. And he took a lot of heat from all sides of the political spectrum during that period of time, because, as you recall, he had already moved to further dismantle the stop-and-frisk policies of the Bloomberg administration, that were still being battled over in the courts. He settled the Central Park 5 case, jogger case, with multimillion-dollar settlements for those who had been wrongly convicted and jailed for the Central Park jogger case. He had—he was accepting much more oversight of the police department, outside oversight, that City Council had passed, which the police department was opposed to.
So the result was, he had a near insurrection among the rank-and-file police and the police unions for several months, especially after two police officers were shot and killed by a crazed—a crazed gunman a few months later. So, suddenly, de Blasio was confronted with—and I think this is one of the problems that many of the progressive mayors have had across the country, is that the police department is the army of a local government. And if the army rebels against the leader, it is very difficult for that leader to govern.
So, I think one of the things that happened with de Blasio early on is that he chose a controversial figure, Bill Bratton, to be his police commissioner, even though many advocates against police brutality were critical of Bratton, because he feared that the same thing would happen to him that had happened to David Dinkins, the last Democratic mayor, which is that the police department would rebel and allow crime to soar, and make his time in office ungovernable. So he decided to pick Bratton, who had loyalty among the rank-and-file police, because—believing that that would at least prevent the police from rebelling and allow him to implement his social agenda. To some degree, it worked; to some degree, it didn’t. And so, he has rightfully taken criticism for that decision, for backing the broken windows policy of Bill Bratton, although now that Bratton has left as police commissioner, so has, effectively, the broken windows policy that was pursued previously.
AMY GOODMAN: Juan, we’re going to break and then come back to this discussion. Juan González, yes, co-host on Democracy Now!, but also the author of a new book, Reclaiming Gotham: Bill de Blasio and the Movement to End America’s Tale of Two Cities. When we come back, we’re going to talk about his thesis around race, class and the urban growth machine, and de Blasio’s $21 billion revolution. Stay with us.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: “Pa’lante” by Hurray for the Riff Raff. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. We’re talking to Democracy Now!'s Juan González. He just wrote a new book, just published this week, Reclaiming Gotham: Bill de Blasio and the Movement to End America's Tale of Two Cities. Juan, talk about the central thesis here, on race, class and what you mean by the urban growth machine.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, the urban growth machine is not a term that I coined. It’s been around now for decades. Scholars Molotch and Logan, in their famous book, Urban Fortunes: The Political Economy of Place, talked about the urban growth machine. And it is basically a theory of how cities are managed, and that basically that capital seeks to get the maximum possible profit from land, because in a city, the land is the most important commodity in terms of how you can get profit, and so that there’s—that the urban growth machine seeks always to see the land of cities, the streets, the parks, the housing, for the highest possible exchange value. And so, we have seen in American cities now, for more than a hundred years, the elites of these cities—the bankers, the real estate developers, the politicians funded by them—always seeking maximum possible profit from the land, through commercial development, through luxury housing, any possible way to increase profit from the land.
But the residents of a city see the land of that city in a different way. They see it in its use and how it can better their lives. And so there’s a constant conflict between those who have power and wealth in urban America and those who are the working class and live in these cities, over how the land of the cities will be used. And the urban growth machine has always seen that cities grow through economic development and through the highest possible use. Working people see that cities grow when they service the people of the cities.
So, I think that the urban growth machine has dominated urban policy, first in its conservative phase, in the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s, when it was really—overt racism dominated land use policy in the United States. Then it went into a more liberal phase with the urban renewal programs of the ’50s and ’60s, and then into a neoliberalism, neoliberalism of the last 30 years, which privatizes government—seeks to privatize government, which seeks to drive down wages, which seeks to push the poor out from the cities into the suburbs, really, along the European model. And so, the urban growth machine has had these different stages.
What happened in beginning—after the Great Recession and after Occupy is that a whole new host of leaders came to office who seek a different way of governing cities. And that’s, I think, the point that I try to make in the book. It’s not just de Blasio, it’s not just one city or two cities, but it is a movement that has begun to develop in America, and that the cities are the only hope right now for progressive governance in America, because the states are, for the most part, captured by conservative elements, and Washington—forget about Washington for the next few years in terms of being able to get any kind of progressive legislation.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you read from your book, Juan?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah. Well, I wanted to—the section where I try to show how this movement has spread, I say:
“The turning point for the new progressive revolt in urban America came in 2013. That May, Chokwe Lumumba, a veteran civil rights lawyer and former member of the radical Republic of New Africa, startled the political elite of the South when he won an election to the mayor’s seat of Jackson, Mississippi—thus signaling that an unbowed black revolutionary was taking charge right in the heart of Dixie. Then in November, the same day that Bill de Blasio prevailed in New York, Bill Peduto, a maverick member of the Pittsburgh city council and persistent critic of the city’s Democratic establishment, won election as mayor; in Minneapolis, Betsy Hodges, an experienced nonprofit executive and two-term member of the Minneapolis city council who had opposed public subsidies for a new Minnesota Vikings stadium, emerged from a crowded field of thirty-four candidates to capture that city’s mayoralty; and in Boston, trade union leader Martin Walsh cobbled together an alliance of organized labor, white liberals, and key African American and Latino leaders to become the first labor official to be elected mayor in Boston’s history. Out west, Ed Murray, a state legislator, won election as Seattle’s mayor, in part by promising a $15-an-hour minimum wage, the same issue championed by a radical software engineer named Kshama Sawant, who became the first socialist elected to the Seattle city council since 1916.
“More local victories by new grassroots movements ensued over the next two years. Ras [J.] Baraka, the son of the famed black poet and revolutionary Amiri Baraka, pulled off a surprise win in Newark’s mayoral race in [May] 2014, while new progressives won city council races in Tempe, Arizona; Austin, Texas; and a half dozen other cities [later in the year]. Then in 2015, voters elevated another group of left-oriented newcomers elevated to office in Denver, Seattle, Philadelphia, and other cities, while a durable anti-machine challenger nearly pulled off an upset in the race for mayor of Chicago. Cook County commissioner Jesús 'Chuy' García forced [incumbent] Rahm Emanuel, a centrist Democrat who had been expected to coast to victory, into a run-off election before finally succumbing to him.
“As their victories mounted, the new mayors and councilors started to fashion their own alliance of big-city politicians committed to attacking income inequality, and they [even] reached out to like-minded counterparts in other countries.” I mention Sadiq Khan in London; Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris; Ada Colau, the mayor of Barcelona; Carmen Yulín Cruz, the mayor of San Juan. This is an international movement of cities, of which the American cities have now become a key and important part.
And so, this is how I try to lay it out. This is not one politician here, another politician there. This is the reflection of the grassroots movement that has been building in America for years now and is now beginning to capture local power. The question is, though, when you capture local power, there are always problems with governing. There are—and as I say in the book, many of the mayors found their key initiatives blocked by conservative forces. “In others, the alliance that secured the initial victory began to fracture over the sudden eruption of volatile incidents, such as police killings of African Americans. At other times, unresolved policy issues among them frayed the alliance: how to address, [for instance,] the spread of charter schools, … or how to create more affordable housing while also promoting economic development,” or even the issue of the sharing economy. Some of the progressives were behind Uber and others in the sharing economy, while others opposed it. So there are things that have begun to fray the alliance and divide the alliance, but you cannot mistake that there is an alliance. There is an urban alliance in America.
AMY GOODMAN: This weekend, the New York Daily News published a significant piece of the book and headlined it “De Blasio’s $21 Billion Revolution.” Talk about the shift of money, where it comes from, where it’s going. And let’s remember that de Blasio followed three terms of the billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And before that, two terms of a law-and-order mayor, Mayor Giuliani—20 years of basically neoliberal rule in New York. Yeah, you know, I try not to get into personalities or the narratives that are created, even by my own colleagues in the press. So you have the narratives of the inept de Blasio, of the de Blasio who’s always late, who seems arrogant and aloof. I always try to follow the money.
And what has happened, what happened in the first three years of the de Blasio administration in New York City, was an enormous infusion of money into the working class and the middle class of New York. And I actually tabulated it at at least $21 billion. And because of all of the initiatives that he put into motion and the City Council—because the thing to understand about New York City is that de Blasio had the full support of a very left-leaning City Council and other key officials, so it was the most left-leaning government in the history of New York City, in my opinion. What did they do? Universal child care. Universal child care, people don’t forget, that’s 70,000 children now a year are—I mean, universal pre-K, I’m sorry. Seventy thousand children a year now are getting pre-K education. The average parent pays about $12,500 to care for their 4-year-old child. So, de Blasio not only extended a full year of education for children, he also saved 70,000 parents a year now the cost of having to pay for child care for their 4-year-olds. That alone represented about $1.4 billion in savings to New Yorkers.
AMY GOODMAN: And he instituted that in the first year. That is larger than most school systems in the United States.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Right. No one expected he’d be able to do it within the first year. He did it within seven months, eight months of being in office.
Then there’s also the labor contracts that were negotiated. Before de Blasio came into office, 300,000 New York City union workers, employees, had not had contracts for years. They had not been able to get raises for years—some, like the teachers, for five years. And within a few months, he started negotiating contracts with all of the various unions of the city, which in the first three years delivered $15 billion in raises and back pay and benefits to the workers of New York City.
Then there were the rent freezes for the—rent regulations in New York City averaged increases for private landlords, in all of the years before de Blasio, 3.2 percent per year; 3.2 percent, the landlords were expecting every year, on average, increase on their rents. In the first three years of the de Blasio administration, there was a 1 percent, a zero percent and a zero percent increase—a third of a percent over three years versus 3 percent per year. That alone is about $2 billion that the landlords of New York City did not get, that they were expecting to get and they had historically gotten under previous administrations. You can—and I can go on and on. The—
AMY GOODMAN: Well, we actually just have a minute, although we’re going to do a post-show to continue this discussion. The subtitle of Reclaiming Gotham: Bill de Blasio and the Movement to End America’s Tale of Two Cities, how successful was he, and other mayors, in beginning to do this, end that tale of two cities?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, they’ve begun, but they’ve had failures. De Blasio has not solved the affordable housing problem. There’s still too much luxury housing being built and too much development being—commercial development being permitted. They have not completely solved the issue of police-community relations. But they’ve definitely made great strides, most of them, in some of these areas.
And they are reason to hope. I think that too often, when we look at the Trump administration and Washington and we look at what’s going on in the state capitals, we become discouraged, and we have a sense of hopelessness. But I—it’s my theory or my viewpoint that the cities are a basis for hope. They are not perfect. You have to push these folks. But there is a potential for increasing space for progressive change and progressive policies in our cities today.
AMY GOODMAN: And as you talk about President Trump, you know, when de Blasio started, Trump was not in office. This unique challenge that these cities have right now and the potential you see for them at this point? I mean, we’re speaking on the day of his rescinding DACA, and thousands of people took to the streets around the country. And their mayors, that are fiercely opposed to Trump, then have to deploy their police, or they do deploy their police—I won’t say they have to—to deal with protesters.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, I believe the big cities of America and the federal government are on a collision course, over sanctuary cities, over sustainable development, over police accountability. They’re on a collision course in the same way Southern local governments back in the 1950s and '60s were on a collision course with the federal government over civil rights, only back then it was the federal government that was maintaining the more progressive position. Now it's the local governments that are maintaining the most progressive positions. And I believe that it’s going to get even more—the battle is going to get even stronger between the cities and the federal government.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Juan, we’re going to do Part 2 after the show, and you can check it out at democracynow.org. Juan González’s new book, Reclaiming Gotham: Bill de Blasio and the Movement to End America’s Tale of Two Cities.
Juan, you are beginning at 21-city tour, and it may be more, starting right here at The New School on Thursday night. I hope to see people at 7:00 in New York City. You’re moving on to Culver City, to Sylmar, Calilfornia; Washington, D.C.; Tempe, Arizona; Austin, Texas; Newark; Kansas City; College Park; San Francisco. You can check out the tour at democracynow.org.
And a very special shout-out to our engineer Flip, Mike DiFilippo, just marked 15 years at Democracy Now!Update, May 30th: While the use and circulation of virtual currencies is banned in Bolivia, it is now unclear whether that's what the suspects are really charged with. Reports as well as local sources suggest that they may instead be charged with running pyramid schemes that use bitcoin. Alternatively, the suspects may be charged with both running pyramid schemes as well as using bitcoin.
The Bolivian Financial System Supervision Authority (ASFI) arrested 60 “cryptocurrency promoters” last week. According to a statement published by the ASFI, in which it refers to bitcoin and several altcoins, the arrestees were carrying out “training activities” relating to investments that have “characteristics of multilevel schemes.” The agency also indicated it will track down Bolivians promoting Bitcoin online.
“The only thing these people are doing is taking advantage of the population and deceiving the people to appropriate their money,” ASFI director Lenny Valdivia Bautista said in the statement.
Since 2014, the Latin American country and its central bank consider bitcoin as well as all altcoins to be pyramid schemes. As such, it was the first country in the world that completely prohibited use of “any kind of currency that is not issued and controlled by a government or an authorized entity.”
This ban forms the basis for this week’s arrests. While there are currently few specifics available, news reports suggest the Bolivians were distributing brochures promoting bitcoin, and possibly selling bitcoin online.
"We have confiscated brochures relating to business schemes that go around giving trainings and making business plans in relation to virtual currencies that are operating abroad,” Valdivia Bautista stated. “The Bolivian population should not participate in closed [cryptocurrency] groups through WhatsApp. The only thing they are doing is taking advantage of the population, deceiving the people to appropriate their money.”
Speaking to CoinTelegraph half a year ago, the creator of the Bolivian Bitcoin Facebook group explained that Bolivian Bitcoin users maintain connections through social media. Because cryptocurrencies are banned in the Latin American country, trades are organised through small-scale discussion groups, and the exchange of bitcoins often happens in person.
Apparently, the Bolivian authorities have taken note. According to hoybolivia.com, the ASFI said that it will continue to track down and arrest anyone that promotes or sells cryptocurrency on social media or other websites. Bolivians are also asked to “take care of their savings by reporting [cryptocurrency related] activities” by calling a special hotline or contacting the country’s “Special Forces Against Felony.”
"It is important to urge the population to report these cases in which people aim to take advantage of people and their families' savings," said Valdivia Bautista.
Bolivia is not the first Latin American country that is cracking down on Bitcoin users. In February of this year, Venezuelan authorities arrested eight Bitcoin miners. In addition to that, Venezuela’s main exchange — Surbitcoin — had to halt operations as the company’s bank closed their account.
Bitcoin Magazine reached out to local authorities but received no response at time of publication.The Big Ten Network early season 2017 football TV schedule has been set, and it features 16 games slated for broadcast.
The 2017 BTN schedule kicks off on Thursday, Aug. 31 with Buffalo at Minnesota at 7:00pm ET.
Listed below are the early season Big Ten Network games that have been selected for television as of June 6. All remaining Big Ten controlled games will be announced six-to-12 days prior to the date of the game.
BTN Early Season 2017 Football TV Schedule
All times Eastern.
Thursday, Aug. 31
Buffalo at Minnesota – 7pm
Saturday, Sept. 2
Wyoming at Iowa – Noon
Ball State at Illinois – Noon
Nevada at Northwestern – 3:30pm
Arkansas State at Nebraska – 8pm
Saturday, Sept. 9
Florida Atlantic at Wisconsin – Noon
Towson at Maryland – Noon
Western Michigan at Michigan State – 3:30pm
Eastern Michigan at Rutgers – 3:30pm
Western Kentucky at Illinois – 8pm
Saturday, Sept. 16
Air Force at Michigan – Noon
Middle Tennessee at Minnesota – 3:30pm
FIU at Indiana – 3:30pm
Morgan State at Rutgers – 3:30pm
Georgia State at Penn State – 7:30pm
Bowling Green at Northwestern – 7:30pm
Football SchedulesThe Army’s top general said recently that a policy banning women from combat arms units could soon be revised.
“We’re looking at revising the policy,” Gen. George W. Casey Jr. told a breakfast gathering of the Association of the U.S. Army in Arlington, Va. “We’ve had some work going on for a while, and that’ll double back up to the secretary, I would think, in the next couple of months.”
“When I get the recommendations back from the team [studying it], I’ll take a look at it, but right now I wouldn’t want to venture a guess and put my successor in a box,” Gen. Casey said, according to Military.com.
If the Army actually did overturn the ban on women in combat units in that time-frame, it could beat the ongoing integration of openly gay soldiers into all regular units military-wide.
President Barack Obama called for changes to the military’s discriminatory anti-gay policies, which were repealed by Congress in its last lame-duck session, to be implemented “quickly.” The Department of Defense, however, has not specified how long full integration will take or what specifically will be changing, but Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has suggested it could take up to a year.
Present rules banned women from joining special forces, infantry and armored units.
2011 the year for ‘equal rights’?
The military’s announcement comes as, for yet another year, the Equal Rights Amendment was due to be reintroduced to Congress. The legislation, written by a suffrage activist in 1921, would enshrine gender equality in the US Constitution.
It has been largely ignored by almost every Congress since then, with the exception of 1972 when it managed to clear the national body. However, it was only ratified by 35 states, failing to obtain the 37 required to amend the Constitution.
The bill’s reintroduction bears a greater pertinance to the discussion in Washington today thanks to the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” and recent comments by conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who suggested to a reporter that the Constitution does not afford equal protection to women.
Scalia, long known to be a constitutional “originalist” and a conservative stalwart on the Supreme Court, argued that it’s up to legislatures to pass laws that protect women against discrimination, and doing so wouldn’t be unconstitutional.
“If indeed the current society has come to different views, that’s fine,” he said. “You do not need the Constitution to reflect the wishes of the current society. If the current society wants to outlaw discrimination by sex, hey we have things called legislatures, and they enact things called laws. You don’t need a constitution to keep things up-to-date. All you need is a legislature and a ballot box.”
The remarks drew outrage from various sectors, most recently from Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), who said Scalia’s statement firmly sides with “regressive” views expressed by the House Republican majority when it comes to the rights of individual citizens.
“Justice Scalia takes the same narrow and hostile approach to individual rights as the so-called ‘constitutional conservatives’ who have just taken over the House,” he said, according to a media advisory. “It is a dangerous time for equality. The Equal Rights Amendment will stand as an explicit bulwark of freedom and equality that even Justice Scalia, and regressive forces here in the House, will not be able to ignore.”
He added that Scalia’s assessment flies in the face of the 14th Amendment, which guarantees equal protection to all “persons” who are “citizens” of the US.
“Passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, a clear an unequivocal statement in our Constitution guaranteeing equal rights for women, is long overdue,” Nadler said. “It is an embarrassment for our nation that most countries have gender equality enshrined in their constitutions, while we do not. It undermines our standing as a nation committed to freedom and equality for all. It is a matter of simple justice and our leadership in the world that we move quickly to rectify this defect.”Be prepared to be bombarded by even more unseen signals in the near future – it seems that the IEEE body has just announced a spanking new 802.22 Wi-Fi standard which will leave your 802.11n standard so far behind, you won’t realize you miss it at all. Why do we say so? Well, 802.22 Wi-Fi connectivity is capable of offering 12,000 square miles of coverage – and this using just a solitary base station.
To put it in a nutshell, 802.22 was designed to run on a totally new spectrum which was made available when analog TVs were outlawed some years back in the US. For those who prefer more solid scientific figures, the 802.22 spectrum will work in ranges from 54MHz to 698MHz, where such frequencies are the perfect vehicle for long distance transmissions.
Imagine sending out 22 Mbps of data within a 62 mile radius from a sole base station – that would certainly bring Wi-Fi connectivity to even the most rural areas around the country. The only thing we need to do would be to wait for companies and hardware manufacturers to churn out devices that rely on 802.22 technology. [Press Release]
Filed in. Read more about WiFi.The historical icehouses in Houston lived up to their name; these were places that sold primarily ice in the days before every household got its own “icebox,” as refrigerators were known back then. Today most of the icehouses in our city still sell ice, though beer sales are now often their primary source of revenue and the major draw for their customers. Icehouses usually have mostly outdoor seating, or seating inside a building with open sliding garage doors; don’t let the summer heat scare you away from visiting the places on our list, though. These places are cooler than you might expect, even during the middle of the day as they provide shade and fans; day drinking on a lazy summer afternoon in a Houston icehouse is something everyone should experience. Do it.
10. BIG JOHN'S ICE HOUSE
This Energy Corridor spot is big on sports; the bar and its patrons support Houston teams as well as Texas college teams and LSU. As at many other icehouses, the customers at Big John’s tend to be working-class people who drink domestic beers by the bucketful; the food served here, like the guacamole burgers, is above average. Special events throughout the week include a steak night on Wednesdays, trivia on Thursdays and live bands on Fridays, and there's never a cover charge. Play some songs from the diverse jukebox selections and/or a game of ping pong with friends when you drop by. (12640 Briar Forest, bigjohnsicehouse.com)
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9. RED RIVER ICE HOUSE
Red River Ice House actually serves liquor in addition to beer and wine, so it's not an icehouse in the traditional sense of the word; another innovation here is the cup holders placed in the men’s room above the urinals and sink so customers have a place to put their drink while they're taking care of their personal business. Red River is a clean and friendly place whose owner likes to chat with customers and make them feel welcome. There is live music here occasionally; the rest of the time, there's an Internet jukebox to provide tunes. Red River has become a popular place for workers from the Medical Center who stop by after work for beer and pizza. (10308 Main, facebook.com/redrivericehouse)
Photo by HP Staff
8. BUFFALO FRED'S ICEHOUSE
Buffalo Fred’s kind of has to make this list just because of its cool name, don’t you think? Located in the Heights just inside the Loop on North Shepherd, this no-frills, family-run neighborhood bar holds pool tournaments on Tuesday nights and karaoke on Wednesdays; domestic buckets of beers are the drinks of choice here. There's a huge smoking patio out back that's often filled up with the local bikers who call the place home; this is not the type of place that brings in a large hipster crowd. We will let you be the judge on whether that is good or bad. (2708 North Shepherd, buffalofredsicehouse.com)
EXPAND Photo by David Rozycki
7. CARLOS'S BEER GARDEN
Okay, Carlos's Beer Garden is actually out in Webster in the Clear Lake area, not in Houston proper, but it is a classic icehouse and deserves a mention on this list. It's an authentic place with friendly regulars and bartenders and very good cheeseburgers, and is a place to come when you want good conversation. The original Carlos no longer owns this place, which has been in business since 1978; he does still own the small barber shop just steps away, though. That’s right — here you can make one trip to get your haircut and drink some beers; it's very convenient. You can also play some pool and some songs on the jukebox sometime during your visit if you like; you can usually hear a good bit of classic country and '80s rock here. (18018 Texas 3, facebook.com/carlossbeergarden)
EXPAND Photo by David Rozycki
6. C & F DRIVE-INN
The C & F stands for Cortez and Family, and this Heights neighborhood icehouse has indeed been run by the Cortez family since opening in 1987. People from every conceivable walk of life from the neighborhood and beyond have discovered the place and drop in for the cheap drinks and laid-back, friendly atmosphere; a game of pool costs only 50 cents, but if you knock the ball off the table, you are required to put a dollar into the jukebox. A corner full of games resembling video-poker machines out of Las Vegas sits with a warning sign advising “for amusement only"; the large backyard allows for occasional barbecues and games of horseshoes and washers. (6714 North Main, facebook.com/candfdriveinn)
Photo by Troy Fields
5. THE BOOT
Located in The Heights in the building that formerly housed Shady Tavern, The Boot puts a Louisiana spin on the traditional Texas icehouse by offering up Cajun food like po-boys, gumbo, étouffée, crawfish and even fried frog legs and gator bites. Owned by Louisiana natives, the bar also offers a nice selection of beers from their home state and provides a place for fans of the Saints and LSU Tigers to view games without alienating the locals from the neighborhood. The Boot has a spacious outdoor open seating area with umbrellas for shade, as well as a covered porch and a few seats inside; check out the washer courts if you're in a sporting mood. (1206 West 20th, thecajunboot.com)
Photo by HP Staff
4. SHEFFIELD'S ICE HOUSE
Sheffield’s Ice House is an old-school place dating back to 1942 that sometimes gets overlooked; the place didn't even have one single Yelp review when we recently looked out of curiosity. The regulars probably prefer it that way; the place is home to people who have been coming for decades and who treat each other like family, celebrating birthdays with parties and mourning the deaths of longtime patrons with R.I.P. notices put up behind the bar. Sheffield’s also has special events like barbecue plates for sale to benefit patrons in need; the people here like to take care of the people they party hard with. Live music happens often; check Sheffield’s Facebook page for details. (5118 Telephone Road, facebook.com/Sheffields-Ice-House)
Photo by HP Staff
3. CATTY-CORNER ICE HOUSE
Located in Oak Forest, Catty-Corner has hosted some epic beer pong tournaments from time to time; check out its website for photographic evidence. The place is basically a dive bar combined with an icehouse, a winning combination. The beer selection is mostly domestics, and pool and darts are free, as well as horseshoes out in the large backyard area. Catty-Corner brings in a diverse, friendly crowd that is out to have a good time; like some of the other locations on our list, it's probably not well known by the general public, but the loyal regulars love the place and swear by it. (895 Wakefield, cattycornericehouse.com)
EXPAND Photo by David Rozycki
2. JIMMY'S ICE HOUSE
Jimmy’s Ice House has always been a spot that generations of Houstonians have visited before and after concerts at Fitzgerald’s just up the street; it’s also a nice destination spot all by itself, thank you very much. We have always regarded Jimmy’s as a place to buy cheap domestic beers like Lone Star, Natural Light, Pearl and Schlitz; on a recent Sunday afternoon visit, we discovered they now sell some varieties of Saint Arnold, Shiner, Karbach, Angry Orchard and a few other craft beers as well. Watching sports on the TVs, playing songs on the jukebox and chatting up fellow patrons are the main activities to engage in here; some nice person brought in food from Tacos A Go-Go to share with everyone on the mentioned recent visit. (2803 White Oak, facebook.com/pages/Jimmys-Ice-House)
EXPAND Photo by David Rozycki
1. WEST ALABAMA ICE HOUSE
Open since 1928, this place is truly a Houston institution and the ultimate example of Texas icehouse culture in our city. West Alabama is a big, backyard-party place where people come to grab some cold beers, sit on shaded picnic tables and enjoy good conversation with friendly and approachable patrons. Outside of scattered weekend live performances, music here comes from the Internet jukebox; fortunately, the customers have good taste. Employees or customers might be cooking out on the grill when you drop in; otherwise, try the food at Tacos Tierra Caliente food truck across the street. (Better yet, try the tacos whether anyone is cooking or not. They are that good.) When you're finished eating, challenge your friends or strangers to a game of basketball, ping-pong or bean-bag toss out back. (1919 West Alabama, facebook.com/WALABAMA)Welcome to our 100th post! It’s me, Jennifer Stoever-Ackerman, Editor-in-Chief, Guest Posts Editor, and Co-Founder of Sounding Out! : The Sound Studies Blog, which has been faithfully “pushing sound studies into the red since 2009.” Together with Liana Silva, Co-Founder and Managing Editor, and Aaron Trammell, Co-Founder and Multimedia Editor, we thank you for your faithful readership, your enthusiasm, and of course, your likes, shares, retweets, and good, old-fashioned word-of-mouth!! We are going to keep serving up sound studies’ latest and greatest for a long time to come, for anyone who wants to listen. Keep a look out for our site redesign coming in January 2012: same good stuff, just that much easier on the eyes.
In honor of this momentous occasion, I am going to get all “meta-“ on you and take you behind the scenes of Sounding Out!, sharing some of the reasons why we decided to start a public conversation about sound studies on the Internet. A manifesto of sorts, this post is adapted from a talk I gave a few weeks back at the American Studies Association annual meeting in Baltimore as part of an excellent panel called “Digital Displays: Women Imagining The Blogosphere as Alternative Public Spheres,” sponsored by the American Studies Women’s Committee, organized by Nicole Hodges Persley (University of Kansas) and featuring the excellent work of Tanya Golash-Bolaza, Judy Lubin, and Jamie Schmidt Wagman.
With all that has happened in the short time that has passed since mid-October—especially at #Occupy sites across the country and around the world—I am only more convinced of the need to empower ourselves by building our own microphones, platforms, and audiences, rather than wait for “official” channels to open up; more often than not, they are cut off, nonresponsive, non-existent or just plain hijacked. Without stretching the metaphor too far or confusing what we do with front-line activism—no one is pepper spraying SO!, let’s be real—I’d like to think that the story of Sounding Out! is also a tale |
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